Hi Everyone

Over the years there aren't too many situations I’ve seen or personally put a Trackabout through that raises my eyebrows…Until Now!

This one takes the cake…

...Back in early January 2011 when the floods raged through Toowoomba, we heard many stories of utter devastation and a few good ones that renewed our faith in humanity. One of the stories we heard about was both good and not so good. I was at work one morning clearing emails when I came across this one dated 17th Jan 2011

QUOTE (Edited to streamline):

“…G'day, my name is Ross McM****, I live in Toowoomba. First off I'd like to say that I hope you and your staff are safe and OK considering the recent floods. I would like to tell you the saga of a Trackabout trailer. This trailer belongs to my nephew Tim whose home was washed away from its slab at Postmans Ridge, just down the range from Toowoomba…”

Timeline:

Saturday and Sunday before the inland tsunami hit – House Flooding due to heavy rain – Wife and 3 girls moved out due to too much mud etc. (luckily).

Monday Jan 10^th – Tim and his mate return – In short – No House, No Tinnie and No Trackabout

Everything gone, nothing left.

“…Well, it's now Monday the 17th 6:45pm and I just rang Tim to see if I could do anything to help. "Guess what I'm towing?” he said.

Yes, you guessed it, the camper trailer…”

Apparently a mate of his had seen an ad in the pub telling of a camper trailer on a property a couple of kilometres downstream jammed in a tree. Tim rang the number, described the trailer, got it out of the tree with a tractor and front loader and now it's home.

The toolbox is missing, the batteries and gas bottles are still there and there is no damage to the canvas as far as he can see. The Tailgate is banged up a bit but I'll get that fixed and the trailer will be as good as new. Unfortunately his tinnie is still wrapped around that tree, a write off. It just shows the toughness of the Trackabout. Cheers Ross…”

END QUOTE

I contacted Ross and asked for young Tim's details and soon made contact with him and said "we would like to offer our services and fix your camper FOC" (free of charge). Young Tim was quite ecstatic with our offer and we soon met up to discuss the project.

Here is Tim's story as featured on myswag.org camper trailer website.

Hey guys I am new to this forum, but I just wanted to share about a good story that came out of the QLD floods on the 10/1/2011.
My brother in-law and I were down fixing my house up near Withcott on Monday the 10/1/2011 from about an inch of water that went through my house and shed on the 7/11/2011. We pretty much had everything cleaned up and ready to go for the new carpets to go down. The morning that we were down there it was raining like I have never seen before. I knew that the creek would come up again and possibly come through the house again. We managed to put a few things up but nothing could prepare us for what was about to happen. As we watched the creek rise and inundate my house and shed again which housed my 2003 Trackabout camper trailer (my pride and joy) we started trying to shift the numerous cars that I had on my property, to no avail. We virtually had to sit back and watch Mother Nature take its course, I watched 7 cars wash away and then had to watch as my house and shed were torn off their foundations and washed in a million pieces down the raging torrent of water (see pics). Thankfully I still have my life and my heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones. As I am a mechanic I had a lot of tools that I lost in the flood, 2 days after the flood we went down to see if we could salvage anything. We found a few odds and ends but as you can see by the pictures everything was pretty much lost. Even though we only managed to find a small amount it felt like I found my whole shed, we found all the cars except 1 that were washed away from my property. The house was fully covered by insurance and so were all the cars except 2. After the water had receded and in the next few days I wondered and searched for where my Trackabout might have ended up. It was about the only thing that we did not have separately insured, as whenever it is being towed behind our Patrol at is covered by our car insurance. We searched up and down the creek for it but had no luck, and after seeing what the water had done to the cars on my place I didn’t hold much hope for finding it in one piece (see pics). About 1 week after it happened I had a phone call from a friend that was volunteering down there and she rang us to say that a guy had put up a sign in the tavern saying that he had found a camper trailer on his property. As it was about 10 o’clock at night when she told us this info, so I had to wait until the morning to ring this guy and see if it was my trailer, as you can imagine I didn’t get much sleep that night. First thing the next morning I rang this guy and asked him where he lived and what brand and colour the camper was, holding my breath he told me what I wanted to hear. It was a Trackabout with a green cover on the top with a boat rack on it. I went down fully expecting the worst after seeing what all the cars were like from my place and realising that my camper was inside my shed that pretty much collapsed on top of the trailer before it even made it out of my shed and then ended up 2 km’s away from my place. As I drove into the guys driveway and up the paddock I could see the green top of my camper sticking up near the top of the creek bank and thought to myself at least it is upright. As I got closer I could see that it would need a tractor to pull it out from where it was stuck, but upon closer inspection it sort of looked ok. The spare wheel on the tailgate was bent, no toolbox was left on the drawbar (no more annexe walls), the tent and cover on top had no tears in them (a miracle just in itself) the only other damage that I could see was the bash plate under the water tank had a pretty big hit and also when the toolbox was torn of the front it had ripped a hole in the front box section of the trailer. I went down to my neighbours place who had a tractor and we pulled the trailer up the bank and I hooked the trailer behind the Patrol and towed it 20kms to the house that we are staying in, I even hooked up the lights and they all still worked!
The next day I folded out the tent and started cleaning, the mud was unbelievable; I spent 2 days cleaning the mud out of everything. All our camping gear in the trailer itself was full of mud and we just had to throw some stuff out. But all in all I think it was about the best find I could ever have made (apart from the missis of course). That night I rang my Uncle and told him the story and he just couldn’t believe it what a miracle he said! The next morning my uncle rang me and said that he had phoned Trackabout to tell them the story about how tough their campers are and that Johnny from Trackabout wanted to give me a call. Johnny called and I told him the story again and said to him that I was amazed at the little amount of damage that it actually had. The next words that came out of Johnny’s mouth left me speechless. He said that if I bought the trailer down he would fix it free of charge for me, Johnny I have to say that your generosity has been so much appreciated and has helped our recovery in this tough situation.

Thanks Mate.

And thanks Trackabout for making their campers so TOUGH

As the water rose