Well it happens to us all at some point! Ever wondered what you do if you happen to get your motorhome bogged by the side of the road and you are on your own, at least 30 minutes from the nearest town?
Well wonder no more. I’d turned off the Pacific Highway onto a small side road to get some photos of my Paradise motorhome in amongst the sugar cane fields.
Got the photos all right but then needed to turn around. Being a little impatient I decided on a quick turn on the widest part of the road but fumbled the gear change from reverse to drive and you can see what happened…
All the time I was stuck there, only one local passed me and he did stop to help but really couldn’t do much except drive me to the nearest farm to borrow a tractor. Unfortunately there was no one home and I ended up calling a towing service.
Which was probably the only thing to do since the Iveco Daily base vehicle does not have any towing attachment points at the front. A problem that the tilt tray tow person also had difficulties with.
In the end he attached a chain harness with large hooks to the steering arms and used his winch very carefully whilst I supplied driving traction from the rear wheels – the motorhome actually came out very easily once I had help from the front.
The end result was no damage to the motorhome but dented pride and a dented credit card ($150.00 plus GST in case you are wondering).
There are several morals to this story:
1. Impatience is not a virtue – just 500m down the road was a T intersection where once I was unbogged, I could’ve turned the motorhome around very easily.
2. This would not have happened with the much maligned front wheel drive Fiat Ducato – the traction wheels would have been on the tarmac the whole time.
3. Sometimes chucking money at a problem is the easiest and most stress-free way of dealing with a problem!