Forgive the length of this answer folks but this hunt was one disaster after another
Last November on a hunt 800km west of Brisbane, bloody hell it was hot , forecast was for thunder , showers and 45 Celsius / 113 Fahrenheit. When a property owner reckons it's hot out their way - be fair warned ! We simply could not keep the water up , we where drinking 12 to 15 litres of water a day and where still dehydrated
I stuffed up a number of easy shots and the odd stalk on game and kept my hunting mate Dave highly amused throughout the weekend with some pretty inept displays. But there another story
We where blessed enough to stake a Tyre while trying to find an overgrown track across to the swamp . 45 Celsius is not Tyre changing weather and a ruined Tyre is just as hot for the wallet as well . A few minutes later at the next gate along I noticed a slight hissing sound coming from the front of the Hilux 4 x 4 - we bolted back to camp urgently hoping to get back before another Tyre went flat as we only had one spare as on previous hunts we had left several spares in the stations shed
After inspecting the second flat we found minor sidewall damage and we hoped a small hole in the tube , if we could break the bead of the Tyre . We scrounged through the tool shed. no spare wheels as the Cocky had used them and found just enough vulcanizing paste for one repair and a few patches . Have any of you folks tried to break the bead on a alloy 15" 4 x 4 rim rim - Tyre levers don't work , crow bars don't work , driving over it does not work etc etc , many unprintable words later we give it away for the day .
We decided it was no good sitting around camp come late afternoon so imagine a 6 foot 3" 120 kilo man steering and a 5 foot 11 too heavy to admit man on the back of a 200cc agriculture bike riding 5 kilometers over rough bush tracks to the nearest pig hot spot - uncomfortable not to mention foolhardy.
Next morning while Dave scooted off on the Bike after phoning a neighbor 24 km away to ask if we could borrow a spare rim I jacked the Hilux up and placed it on blocks , little did we know how lucky I was to get it done . Imagine Dave's humor when he got back from picking the rim and Tyre up and struggling back with it on the back of the Ag bike to discover it was a 5 stud pattern and not a 6 stud pattern. I did not help , all I could do was laugh .
I came up with the idea of trying to break the bead buy sitting the wheel in the frame of an old 3 foot square tank stand and with judicious placement of timber and a jack attempt to break the bead . It would have worked too ? but buy this stage the mercury had really climbed that fair dinkum the hydraulic oil in both jacks lost it's viscosity and leaked - no pressure for lift or push.
Dave then had a brilliant idea. Lets use the blade of the Grader to break the tyres bead on the alloy rim so we could patch it . After a few minutes getting the feel of the hydraulics , checking the huge blade was not too sharp to damage the Tyre and where exactly to position the wheel we got the bead broken real easy.
Can you picture how blue the air turned when Dave put the vulcanizing paste off centre of the hole. I sanded the old glue off - big contribution. We got the very last of the glue out of the tube and there was barely enough to cover the area of the patch . Thankfully the patch held and wide 4 x 4 tyres go on a lot easier than off . Used a rubber mallet as well - no Tyre levers anywhere near this we would have been right up the proverbial if we had pinched the tube !
How do you get a vehicle off blocks with no jacks - easy engage 4 wheel drive and drive it off . So no worries back on the road , we can get out hunting again - then a dust storm blows through that lasted for the rest of the hunt At least it cooled it down to under 45 Celsius.
regards Jacko