Feeling Miffed

'Don't count your chickens before they hatch,' is a saying that seems appropriate to us at the moment. 
At the end of 2015 we set a time frame to be living on the road by January/February 2017. That gave us over a year to save, sort the house out, have a shed made for the truck and to get to know the rig and sort out any teething problems should they occur before we were living in it.

It turns out we needed that year. There were teething problems with the rig, and we sorted them. The truck now has an amazing shed on the back, that provides extra storage. We also got two water tanks made which sit behind the truck's shed.

Thinking we were leaving early 2017, I resigned from teaching at the end of 2016. Bernie decided to stay a bit longer at his job before handing in his notice to be sure nothing else popped up. 
Did he sense something that I didn't? It turns out it was an excellent decision that Bernie didn't resign. 
Now...I'm hunting for a full time job and our departure date has been put back at least six months. 

Here's what happened!

Bernie noticed a sensor light flashing in the truck when we were in Marlborough so he took it a truck stop in the area. A mechanic used a diagnostic machine which revealed a cranking issue. When we got back to Nelson, we took it to a garage. We were told the flashing light was a sensor by one of the mechanics. He couldn't find the sensor so gave us the truck back reassuring us it was okay to drive. 

In the following months we used the truck to tow the rig several times. However coming back from Golden Bay the light flashed on and off again. Bernie decided not to take it back to Heslops just to be told that it was okay - although Bernie isn't a professional he believed a flashing light shouldn't be ignored. So he took it to another garage for a second opinion.

The second garage quickly picked up that there was low oil pressure. This resulted in having to replace the big end bearing. On further inspection more damage was noticed. Now, the whole motor has to come out and have a complete overhaul.

If the first garage had of picked up the problem when we first took the truck in for a flashing light we wouldn't have traveled extra kilometres on a motor that had low oil pressure. Because we were assured it was okay to use the truck we probably did more damage, resulting in a complete overhaul and costing us $11,000.

We will email the first garage to explain our predicament. We'd like to think they will accept responsibility for giving us the wrong advice and help with the $11,000 we now owe. We'll keep you posted on their response. 

So, life on the road will have to wait. It has definitely thrown a spanner in the works!