Murphy says they will always occur when you don’t need it or when you are unprepared.
Unprepared is an understatement. It’s been over 5 years since I have had a flat tyre on my TOJO. In over 140,000km 106,000km of which with the BT on the back, & almost every dirt road in the country, the tyre God has been kind to me!
I run Mickey Thompson, Dick Cepic FC2 tyres, which are getting down near the wear markers after about 65,000km
Heading out to Glen Davis & Hill End in central west NSW for a short run after 4 months in WA, much travelling gear was left behind, including common sense & the need to let tyres down on dirt roads. Hey! I’m close to civilisation & there’s not much dirt, so why worry.
There’s a bit of road reconstruction going on between Sofala & Hill End & a section of the road is being built up with crushed aggregate. So it was not really a surprise to see the rim of one of the back wheels sitting on the ground when we woke up next morning in the camping ground at Hill End.
No problem, like most Boggers we have three spares, so just jack it up & swap wheels.
Now as I have said, I haven’t had to jack TOJO up for 5 years, & having a ‘senior moment’ I neglected to chock the wheels. The handbrake is next to useless on the TOJO, so this wasn’t on either.
Being on a slight slope, as soon as the wheel came off, Mr Differential decided to let the other back wheel obey the laws of gravity & rotate downhill & off the jack, trapping the wheel in the wheel arch..
This resulted in the axle being about 3” off the ground. I always carry (except on this trip) a Bushranger 4-tonne exhaust jack, in case of being bogged or for soft sand needs, or in situations such as this. How to jack it up? There are no roadhouse facilities in Hill End, & the nearest civilisation is Mudgee, about 70km away, so borrowing a trolley jack is out of the question. (The camping ground at this time of morning is empty)
First of all I put chocks under all of the remaining wheels (a bit late now, but needed). I figured I needed a lever & fulcrum. No trees were available to cut down, & I was considering borrowing a plank off the picnic table, but figured it too short.
Then a Eureka moment! This may be of help to others in this predicament.
Use the jack in the
bushtracker under the tow bar (could have also used the TOJO jack at a pinch). However the tow bar needs to go up a long way. Fortunately, I carry a pair of axle stands in the BT. So, jack it up high enough to get the axle stand under the tow bar. Get some blocks under the jack, up again, adjust the axle stand, & keep going until the TOJO jack will fit under the rear axle.
Once this was achieved, simply a matter of removing the flat & replacing it with a good one. After this, I was about to remove the chock from the other rear wheel & noticed a rather large nail head sitting proud of the tread, but the tyre was still holding normal 40psi pressure. With all of my now experience of changing wheels, this one was a breeze!
Back home again & time for some new rubber!
Neil
