General vehicle thread

[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.

[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.

[laportecharlie]

Whatever happened to spare tires?

[ray1970]

Whatever happened to spare tires?

They quit putting them in a lot of vehicles. I can't imagine how much it boosts profits for the manufacturers by omitting it.

[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.

[roberth]

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.

That is what I'm running into, my 3rd gen is a terrific truck and parts are generally available via Yota Jims but eventually I'll have to get something newer and sell this one.

[SideShow Bob]

Keep a eye out at Home Depot and similar store, a couple of years ago I found those cheap compressors on clearance for $7 each. Needless to say I got one for each vehicle and a spare.
I?ve burned one up from being lazy and using it several times to fill low tires and a almost completely flat one, that was the one that burned the compressor out.

I never thought of the patch (plug) kit, but it is a great idea to have on hand.

[MrPrena]

I am not a huge fan of forced induction.

I am not going to ever buy Nissan/infinity due to this stupid Saikawa and their govt vs Ghosn crap.

[cstone]

2003 Toyota Sequoia 165,000 miles
2008 Toyota Yaris 120,000 miles
2006 Ford F250 5.4L gas engine 260,000 miles

The Sequoia and F250 combined cost me less than $10k and with regular maintenance and avoiding someone hitting them, I expect they will last me another 5 or more years. The Yaris is the only manual transmission in group and I bought it new as a commuter car. My daughter learned to drive the stick and it is now her car. I will eventually sign it over to her. It is a fun car to drive and should last another 10 years.

I used to work on cars. I never made the transition into electronic cars and eventually lost my ability/interest in fixing cars, although I do my own fluid changes. Some maintenance is easy, and some things are hard. Like most things, I often decide to exchange money for time. The mechanic I normally use is much faster than I could ever be when it comes to most things. I tell myself that I could be faster if I had a lift and $40k in tools, but I am kidding myself. He would still be faster than me: 1. Because he is more competent in this area. 2. He enjoys it more than I do.

I keep reading that by 2030, more than half of the passenger cars on the road will be electric/hybrid. I can't say that I believe this but I can't say that it won't happen either. Since I probably only have another 25 years of regular driving left in my life (after 80, I will probably limit myself to milk runs or leisure cruising) my next vehicle(s) will probably be my last vehicles.

[Jer]

I keep reading that by 2030, more than half of the passenger cars on the road will be electric/hybrid. I can't say that I believe this but I can't say that it won't happen either. Since I probably only have another 25 years of regular driving left in my life (after 80, I will probably limit myself to milk runs or leisure cruising) my next vehicle(s) will probably be my last vehicles.

I don't think it will be that long. I think over half of the passenger vehicles on the road will be EV by 2025. The rate of adoption is going to get steeper as we progress and as people discover how simple they are for all the reasons you mentioned using a mechanic for stuff you know how to do. I used to love wrenching on cars and now I can't tell you how excited I am to not have to deal with maintenance now. Some will say you have to own an EV for a while to recoup the investment but you have to quantify your saved time and headache.