Bumpy Leichhardt Highway Takes It's Toll!

We took the Leichhardt highway north from Goondiwindi and bounced along the road.  It was very uneven although $3.5 million had been spent on the road in 2012.  Only half and hour or so into the journey we got a message over the two-way that smoke was coming from the rig!!!!  Yes, the brand new tyre that had just been put on the day before, now had an extra groove in the centre imprints as the back left springs had snapped from the uneven road.

Wayne had a spare spring in the truck so he tried to jack the rig up on the side of the road.  Not successful with the slope off the highway so he put a block of wood on top of the broken spring allowing us to keep going!!(He remembered this would work from when he was a young man about 20 years old).  Slowly at first until we reached Moonie about 30 kilometres north where we stopped and put air in the tyre, refuelled the truck and ourselves.  Deciding to proceed on to Miles where we could get help if needed.  Limping along only going at 60 klms/ph and stopping each 10 - 20 kilometres to check all was still OK.  Slow going but we finally made it to Miles on the Warrego Highway but no help there.  Advised to continue on to Chinchilla so we keep going another 46 klms to the showgrounds for the night.

Spent the following day working on the spring!?!?  Finally finishing the job half an hour after sunset under torchlight.
Thanks to the caretaker here who helped push out the bolt off the hanger then lend us another jack to get the job finished.

A big day but at least we got the job done.  Bodies very weary tonight.