Having done everything we could we retired to our campsite to wait out the weekend. We decided to make the most of the time by getting as much school work done as possible. It was also a chance for Cameron to let loose and enjoy the use of the swimming pool and playground equipment. A good way to bribe him to get through his school work as quickly as possible.
I took the opportunity to familiarise myself with our new toy. After carefully reading all the instructions, I took it out of the box and went through the ‘Procedure before starting’. Having followed that to the letter I then pulled the starter rope. Nothing. Pull the starter rope again. Nothing. Check that every switch is in its correct position and pull again. Nothing. Pick up the Instruction book and reread it. I had done everything right. Being encouraged by the words in the manual, ‘having followed the procedure before starting instructions, pull the starter rope and the engine will start’, I pulled the rope again. Nothing. Check that the Instruction Book is the correct one for our generator. Pull the rope again. Maybe it needs half a dozen quick pulls. Nothing.
Time for a rethink. Perhaps some bastard has removed the sparkplug or something. Read the Manual on how to find and remove the sparkplug. It was definitely there, I could just see it buried within the depths of the casing. Obviously not meant to be removed very often, however as it may hold the secret to why the jolly thing wouldn’t start, I would have to take it out and have a look at it. Fitting the spark plug spanner to the plug and then slipping the lever supplied, which also doubled as a screw driver, through the hole in the spanner, I heaved. I heaved again. Once more. Really put some effort into it this time. Bang. Broke the bloody lever. I had very neatly converted their screwdriver come spark plug lever into a spark plug lever only.
Time for another rethink. Maybe a gentle tap with a hammer will loosen things up a bit. At last - success. Out comes the plug. Looks a bit dirty. Maybe a cleanup and a quick squirt with CRC will help. Spark plug back in, time to reread the ‘Procedure before start part of the manual again.’ Then fingers crossed back on the start rope and pull. Was that a flicker of interest from that confounded engine? Another pull. Another flicker. Yes, at last we are getting somewhere. Another pull, and another, and another, and suddenly eureka, it starts. Great, we now have a generator that goes. The whole camp comes out to admire my victory dance, or was it that the roaring engine had disturbed their afternoon’s siesta.
Despite the verbal threats and occasional empty beer can being thrown at me, I let the bastard run for a couple of minutes to make sure it worked okay, then retreated into the caravan for a well earned beer.
Next day, just to put my mind at rest, I decided I should fire her up again just to make sure she started okay, now that I had sorted out all the problems. I won’t bore you with a repeat of yesterday’s efforts, but guess what. After half an hour it was put back in its box with a firm resolve that it was going back to the Super Caravan Centre, broken screwdriver and all.
Tuesday morning we travelled back to Creative Caravans, dropped the caravan off, shot down to the Caravan Super Centre, told them where to put their Hyundai Generator, and offered to help them put it there, picked up our generator box, which amazingly enough they hadn’t managed to sell to someone else, collected our refund on the generator, and returned to Creative.
The Guy from Creative said he could fit the box while we were having lunch. He also told us about a shop where we might find another generator. Unfortunately they didn’t have any, but the shop assistant, who just happened to be from Invercargill, was more than helpful, and after hearing that we were heading towards BALLARAT, rang a shop there and confirmed they had what we wanted and would hold one for us.
Back at Creative our caravan was waiting with the box nicely fitted to the tow bar. At last we were ready to hit the road again, and have time to reflect on our interesting Labour Day Weekend in Melbourne. Lookout BALLARAT, here we come.
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