Toyota Arusha 21 June 2021

So this all started in Serengeti day 3 – the tail gate of our Faithful Bru’ster stopped functioning
I tried to fix it – to no avail – then gave up

Some local Tanzania safari workers tried to help – to no avail – hope the video works – these guys seemed to have resolved this kind of challenge before

We survived using water from our spare water canister and eating at different food outlets that we could find

We arrived in Arusha on the Sunday so on the Monday morning I managed to jump the queue and get the car attended to at Toyota Arusha

Eventually the workshop foreman a mechanic and I were trying to get the back panel off the tailgate

It didn’t help that we had put a stainless plate on the tailgate which served as a neat table.
My arms and the foreman’s arms were smaller than the mechanic so we squeezed arms and hands in and got all the bolts out.

We found the causes of the problem – 1. The main cause was a plastic swivel fitting that had broken – this is similar to the hilux handle assembly- one of the little plastic pieces (in red in this pic) had broken

2. Second – the next problem was the retractor spring arms had lost their spring due to overstretching  – so they had to be straightened

The service manager and foreman and mechanic and an in- uniformed gent then met with me and said the solution to bend the retractor arms was no problem but thr plastic piece had to be shipped in from South Africa or I could get the gent to make a pirate piece from aluminum for TZS40 000 (R250) which is what happened

So we went for lunch at Kitamu restaurant up the road and returned after two hours

This is the gent fitting the part

The job was done and the labor charge from Toyota Arusha only cost the equivalent of R600

All in all this was a great and amazing experience

Our next adventure after a few days of catching up and washing clothes was Arusha National Park