(Daniel) When I woke up this morning Fie was already underneath the Wolf, I had a quick shower and joined him we worked fast to manufacture the remaining parts, a lever with various holes drilled for adjustment, and a mounting for the system, then smaller parts, each of which had to be carefully cut and then shaped to work smoothly.

We toiled for hours into the night, overcoming many issues and manufacturing challenges until the brakes were ready.  Exhausted, Fie and I hooked up the trailer to the Wolf and drove out to test it’s capabilities. The photos below were taken two months after the work was finished, and they are still holding strong!

As we drove down the steep hills the trailer never once bumped into the back as it had done under extreme braking or on steep downhill slopes with the cable system.  On the road the brakes were superb too, with the new bearings the hubs didn’t squeal or grind, and even under the hardest of braking the trailer stopped sharply enough to pull it into line and take any pressure off the Wolf.  The new hydraulic system worked far better than the old cable one, and I felt completely confident in the strength of this new axle.  I have to admit that even I was surprised by our success, the system did not require any adjustment, and worked perfectly first time.  We turned around and drove back to the workshop where I used low range to climb up the 45% concrete slope to the narrow parking area. 

Now that the work was finished, I asked Fie to take some money for his time, effort and parts.  He flat refused, but after a lot of arguing and several small scuffles to put the money in his pockets, I managed to make him accept an amount which I thought was fair for the work.  To think that he has worked for days and given me all this help, and he refused to take any money at all!  A real gentleman!

Fie told me that he would not allow me to drive anywhere tonight, and that his mother had prepared a meal for the whole family to say goodbye to me at his house. After which I would stay the night as their guest and leave in the morning.  Of course I accepted, and with a sense of achievement fighting fatigue, climbed back into the Wolf to back down the drive way.  Fie stopped me and said that it would be better for him to drive down the steep hill, and started to back down the entrance way.  About half way he stopped, as the edge of the Wolf had left the road, and was now hanging over the bank.  I jumped in and tried to rescue the situation, but to no avail.  In the end we spent 40 minutes and used both winches simultaneously to get the Wolf back up the drive and then turn around up there before driving to Fie’s house.

At the house the whole family were assembled, and I sat down to a meal with them, some of the food I recognised as Malay, but most of it was Chinese, as before my place had a knife and fork laid out instead of chopsticks, these I swapped for the correct eating implements, and sat and had a strange meal, tying to make conversation, but not make it too complicated for my translators to understand!   After dinner I went straight to bed, and slept like a log!

PREVIOUS |  NEXT