General vehicle thread

[Irving]

What, nothing about ladder mounts?

I started that thread, then took a hiatus from the site and never finished it.

[ray1970]

I used to be super picky about keeping my vehicles clean and well maintained. Not sure what?s happened over the last ten years or so but now as long as they start and run and have decent tires I pretty much don?t care about anything else.

I?ve had a belt for my wife?s vehicle sitting on my toolbox for probably six or eight months and still haven?t gotten around to changing it.

My truck needs shocks and struts (why they put struts on a full size truck I?ll never know) but the whole strut thing has really sapped my motivation. Besides the fact that shocks and struts will likely set me back $500 I haven?t been terribly motivated to do the work.

Oh, and I don?t think any of my vehicles have seen a car wash in probably three months.

F**k me for being cheap and lazy I guess.

[ChickNorris]

Well, maybe. Priorities devolve too.

[roberth]

I did shocks and struts on my 2000 4Runner recently, I bought the parts online and my mechanic installed them. Now we're sorta looking for a 5th gen 4Runner. All the electronics are annoying, I see them as a result of "disposable" cars and the "put in gas and drive" mentality of so many people today.

[StagLefty]

I have a 2001 Ranger with 84K on it and keep my fingers crossed that it will last as long as me now. Thanks to always having company trucks mine stayed in the driveway except for weekends. I've learned how to do most of my own repairs in the last few years thanks to you tube haha.

[Erni]

I used to be super picky about keeping my vehicles clean and well maintained. Not sure what?s happened over the last ten years or so but now as long as they start and run and have decent tires I pretty much don?t care about anything else.

I?ve had a belt for my wife?s vehicle sitting on my toolbox for probably six or eight months and still haven?t gotten around to changing it.

My truck needs shocks and struts (why they put struts on a full size truck I?ll never know) but the whole strut thing has really sapped my motivation. Besides the fact that shocks and struts will likely set me back $500 I haven?t been terribly motivated to do the work.

Oh, and I don?t think any of my vehicles have seen a car wash in probably three months.

F**k me for being cheap and lazy I guess.

I feel you. I had to do some car work about a month ago and it was the first time ever I did not enjoy it. Still did it but was no fun. No idea why. Ironically my son is getting the car bug now that he can drive, so will have to keep at it.

[Erni]

General comment on rhe new cars though.
I don't hate them, they are are awsome especially if you need to commute 45min+ each way.
The wife got an older xc60 and I love that thing. Comfort and a turbo, in a car that emphasises safety. My wife is actually driving in snow again after being white knuckle scared when driving her van. The city safe sensors saved the front bumper once already when my kid misjudged when to stop while parking. Brakes went full, car stopped a few inches short of the next car. Thus saving a bumper and him from hetting a "beating".
Some of the features are excessive, but a lot of them are well thought out.
Now, am I looking forward to working on it if something goes wrong? Hell no. I hope to add 100k to it and sell it so I dont have to deal with getting software subscriptions to volvos diagnostic tools. 3 days are about $80 bucks, plus you need a laptop and a new type interface cable. As for the regular work, I can do the servicing and maintnance fairly ok.

[GilpinGuy]

Might as well combine a little prepper stuff with general vehicle stuff.

IMHO every vehicle should have one of these in the glove box or tool box: Victor 22-5-00106-8 Heavy Duty Tubeless Tire Repair Kit

Plug a flat tire on the side of the road, pump it up enough with an emergency compressor and get home.

You get a "slow leak", it eventually turns into a flat. Fix it at home in 20 minutes for $1.50 and a little effort (check your brakes while the wheel is off). Or go to to the tire shop, wait an hour and have them tell you that you can't just plug a tire - it's dangerous (all of the sudden) and you need a new tire. Oh no, you can't just get one tire, you need all four because your car is all wheel drive, blah blah blah. People have been plugging tires since they've been invented and plugs work just fine. I've plugged hundreds of tires and have never once been sued. Don't get me started on that bullshit.

Anyway, I've used up 3 or 4 of these plug kits over the years, they worked awesome and it saved me hundreds of dollars. Good insurance for $8.

[ray1970]

When people poo-poo on the quality of newer vehicles I like to point out something simple to think about.

Just about any vehicle made in the last twenty years or so will still be road worthy with 250,000 miles on the odometer. Could you imagine driving a vehicle from the 1960?s or 70?s much beyond 100,000 before it was pretty much useless and in need of major repairs or a serious overhaul?

Embrace the technology.

The people that stick to their ?they don?t make them like they used to? philosophy are only kidding themselves.

[Jer]

Might as well combine a little prepper stuff with general vehicle stuff.

IMHO every vehicle should have one of these in the glove box or tool box: Victor 22-5-00106-8 Heavy Duty Tubeless Tire Repair Kit

Plug a flat tire on the side of the road, pump it up enough with an emergency compressor and get home.

You get a "slow leak", it eventually turns into a flat. Fix it at home in 20 minutes for $1.50 and a little effort (check your brakes while the wheel is off). Or go to to the tire shop, wait an hour and have them tell you that you can't just plug a tire - it's dangerous (all of the sudden) and you need a new tire. Oh no, you can't just get one tire, you need all four because your car is all wheel drive, blah blah blah. People have been plugging tires since they've been invented and plugs work just fine. I've plugged hundreds of tires and have never once been sued. Don't get me started on that bullshit.

Anyway, I've used up 3 or 4 of these plug kits over the years, they worked awesome and it saved me hundreds of dollars. Good insurance for $8.

Excellent advice and I couldn't agree more. I can also add a real-world example of why this is important. I was up in the mountains camping with some buddies and picked up a nail/screw at some point or it had been there for a while (likely) and threw it while I was going up through the trails. Tire was flat and (after years of carrying this sort of thing but never needing it) I didn't have a repair kit or compressor. Luckily a buddy we were with had a compressor (we didn't know about the hole at first) so we set out to fill the tire. After a few minutes the ominous sound of a tire hissing could be heard and we quickly found the culprit. An easily fixable nail-size-hole was letting all of the precious air out. A quick check revealed that he had used the last plug from his kit years back and forgot to replace it. We then had to go camp to camp looking for a plug kit to borrow. Fortunately, about an hour later, we finally found someone that had a plug kit with plugs. Once we had this it was less than 5min to fix and fill with the lion's share of that time being the slow emergency compressor filling the tire up. I returned the kit to the gentleman with a $20 stuffed in with the remaining plugs and thanked him for saving the day.

Now all of my vehicles have a plug kit similar to this and a decent but cheap emergency compressor stashed away just in case this happens again.