I also carry a good nylon tow rope. No food though. Food is everywhere.=
Sometimes I take along a charger & extension cord but only if the elec sy= stem is acting up. My company threw out a bunch of APC battery backups and I bro= ught several home. Hook heavy wires and clamps to them and they make good 115= v invertors that can run lights, drills, laptops, etc. Comes in handy for = the type of work I sometimes do. IMO, most of the stuff at HarborFreight is junk (although I have stuff fr= om there). Pawn shops will sell like new Craftsman, Mac, SnapOn, etc. socke= ts and wrenches for $1 each. Depends on the pawn shop probably.
I either call the wife to bring the truck - which has a tow chain, or my buddy with the Nova, who can bring me parts and tools - or my truck.
And that's the thing - last time I was caught by surprise by a dead car on the side of the road was 10 years ago, not including dead batteries in winter. And that time was the timing gear in my Fiero 3000 miles from home. I have driven 200 miles with parts to help my buddy's Nova though when the ignition coil packed it in on the side of I29.
I've just started to conclude that dead cars need parts, and I don't have them with me, so if I gotta go home to get parts, I can get the tools at the same time. I've changed my share of starters in -30 downtown in the dark, which is why I'd rather have two winter cars... one to tow the other home to a nice warm garage.
Oh no, his Nova is no Pinto. Maybe originally. It's his toy car now. Was originally a 6cyl/powerglide in yellow with a green interior. Now it's a 350/TH350 in purple with a grey interior. His regular car/winter car is a PT Cruiser, but the Nova is always "under construction" - new shifter, electric fan, A/C install, etc... it keeps him busy when he's not helping me with the race car. ;)
I remember your post about that anvil ;-\ Must have been a poor casting. I just bought a humongous ball joint removal/installation tool from Harbor Freight
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Let's just say I want to use the C-Clamp as a press for knocking out broken wheel studs. It's a monster, weighing in at 13 pounds ( yes, I weighed it ). Most of the people I've talked to about this say just to whack on the broken stud with a light-weight sledge hammer. Eh...what is that doing to the wheel bearing? I would rather press it out thanks. Now if THIS breaks, knocking out a lousy wheel lug, I dunno. That may be my last visit to Harbor Freight.
In summary, here's what I know for a fact:
Keeping tools in the garage ( detached and unheated ) is inviting RUST. I know this, as I've already ruined a pneumatic impact wrench and hammer by leaving them in the garage. So...storing my tools in the garage is out of the question. They _will_ rust.
Then, I don't know about keeping them in the trunk. Will they rust in there? =maybe=. Which means, in the house they go, where they won't be available probably when I most need them.
serpentine belt spare serpentine belt changing tool extra bulbs and fuses tire repair kit
If I take the stuff in the house, the tools will be OK ( won't rust or be stolen ) and my gas mileage goes UP. This stuff altogether weighs a lot, and there is always the possibility of having it stolen ( happened to my dad...they clean out the trunk and left the rest of the car alone ).
I'm at a loss here. That's why I started this thread to begin with. To see what motorheads do. Some tools in the car, the rest at home. I may just go that route myself, unless I'm headed cross-country or something ( highly unlikely ).
Well the pawn shops around my house are crooks. They sell mostly junk, so they're no better than Harbor Freight in that respect, and they want too damn much money for what they have to offer IMO.
(Although it can be an "adventure" having somebody answer the door with a .38 leveled at you and "Who the f*ck are you and what the hell do you want at this hour?" when you go looking for a phone in a cell "dead zone"...)
Aye to the scissor jack... Damned things aren't worth the tin they're seemingly pressed out of. Which is why I've got a 3.5 ton rated, $28-on-sale-at-Kragen's, complete with fold-up chocks (junk...) and a pair of 4-ton rated jackstands "trolley-jack kit" in the trunk. It's good to be able to "get it up", and even better to be able to *KEEP* it up when you gotta crawl under, doncha know!
Tow truck guy got there and the first thing he did was split a half-inch drive socket on that particular lug. Then he "got serious" - broke out a
3/4 drive socket, with a 4 foot breaker bar. When THAT didn't break it loose, he added a 10 foot cheater pipe. That *FINALLY* got it. I was
*WAY* less embarrassed about having to call a tow truck for a flat tire after his first socket broke, and by the time he was bouncing on the end of the cheater-bar with his full weight, my embarrassment went away completely - I consider it something of a humiliation to have to call "the pros" for something as "trivial" as a flat, but even he said "This one really *DID* need a tow" before it was all said and done! (Was the first time I'd needed to try to pull that wheel off since buying the car as a $300 beater-mobile, so I had no clue how badly frozen the bolt was
- It was *REALLY* bad!)
Yep, no point in toting a compressor that needs a plug, or air-tools that need a compressor that big.
No question: they're not meant for anything but emergeny use. That said, when you need one, you *NEED ONE*. I do newspaper delivery, on a route that takes me 60 miles from the nearest "anything useful", in the middle of the night. And let me tell ya, the one I've got has saved me having to do an actual tire change (or worse, needing to call somebody) several times, and has survived well beyond expectations.
Yep. I've heard stories of guys getting turned into mashed potatoes when their vehicle supports failed for one reason or another. There is probably even something on the WWW about that.
I wouldn't trust anything on asphalt, as I've had bicycle stands sink into the stuff and tip the bike over ( when heated by the summer sun ). You want a solid surface, preferably concrete, to provide a rock solid footing for your support equipment.
Let me do the math:
200 lb guy hanging at the end of a 10 foot piece of pipe provides
2,000 pound feet of torque! One TON. I'm surprised the bolt didn't snap off. That's an amazing testimonial to the materials vehicles USED to be built out of. Today it is mostly plastics and lightweight alloys, to cut down on fuel consumption.
For something like that, I use impact sockets. I think they are less likely to self-destruct.
I've heard the same from other people about trying to get lugs out of some front wheel drive vehicles. Some folks use a torch to heat around the lug to break the corrosion free. I'm more inclined to use the mechanical advantage of a tool, special or otherwise. Less chance of warping something that way, IMO.
Yes. I have a nut cracker for such cases, and special lug nuts for my deep alloy wheels. They those special and expensive lug nuts have an extra large conical surface for extra gripping power. And when one of those freezes up, you know why I use big wrenches and torque multipliers ( 30 rotations of torque multiplier = 1 rotation of wheel lug nut ).
I've seen CONTRACTORS and subcontractors carry them around in their cargo areas, but hey, they're getting PAID to carry that stuff...I'm not.
At least you can just re-inflate the tire at periodic intervals until you can get back to the car barn to take the wheel off and do it right. BTDT.
Indeed so. The pawn shop on the way to Gary Indiana has some enormous industrial power tools, that dwarf what most people's imaginations can conjure up. Evidently these tools were used in the steel mills at one time or another, and they are huge, heavy, and power hungry. But the local shops...are full of useless junkola.
The problem is, you don't have the right sized air compressor to run some of these industrial tools. The air compressors used on these things run about $20,000 New in the Box. You see them hanging on crane hooks off the ground at night so thieves can't steal them. All of that stuff is major overkill for working on a car like mine, which is made out of thin sheet metal and plastic. The only solid part of my car is the engine block, which is cast iron. Everything else is
Wanna know the funny part? This thing is an '82 Mazda 626 - Classic "Jap crap" car. "Crap" indeed... NOT! DAMN tough little cars. I've had two of the exact same ride, only in different colors - Both have been tough as nails. Took getting creamed by a PT Cruiser to kill the first one, and even that didn't "kill" it - I had to turn off the key to kill the engine after finally coming to rest against a tree - Just turned it into an undrivable parts-donor (Trashed the fender and front end, and pushed the driver's side strut-pylon in about 8 inches, and back a foot or more
- Good luck fixing THAT and getting anything that even remotely resembles a decent alignment on it afterwards on a unibody-type vehicle like this!) The engine out of the wrecked one is now powering the current one, and going strong. Likewise, the tranny from the wrecked one is now in the current one. That $50 (what I paid to "buy it back" from the insurance company after the wreck) was a real good investment, I'd say! :)
And yes, I'm impressed at the bolt holding as hard as it did. I fully expected it to twist off and leave me needing to either drill it out or buy a new hub assembly. (This car uses lug BOLTS, not NUTS - on the rear they're pushed through the slightly-oversized, unthreaded hole in the drum and thread into the (one-piece) axle/hub assembly. Ditto on the front, except directly into the rotors)
Well, like I said above, this one uses lug bolts rather than the more usual lug nuts on studs, so a nutcracker would have been *ALMOST* (but not quite) as useful as a screen door on a submarine. :)
I've been pondering the feasibility of something I've seen a couple of times - The Les Schwab (major tire dealer out here on the left coast) service trucks around here are equipped with a little two-stage compressor driven off a fan-belt on the engine, using a clutch much the same as you usually see on an AC compressor. I'm thinking I could do something similar (maybe even adapting an actual AC compressor?) on my rig - Would likely be a LOT quicker than dealing with that little 12 volt unit I've got. Don't get me wrong... I love the little thing, and it's pulled me out of more than a few jams, but in all honesty, it takes
*FOREVER* to blow up a tire from "dead flat", even with the itty-bitty
13 inch tires on my Mazda.
That's why I've got a plugging kit in the door pocket. Plug it, blow it up once, and finish the route. Simpler that way :)
I guess my cars are maintainted to the point that I don't worry about being stranded. It would be pointless to carry around 200 pounds of tools in the trunk.
Right. I brought almost everything in the house, and am looking at an enormous mess of tools for this and that.
Left the tire changing equipment in the trunk. And the flares, etc. Might just need my cheapo socket/torx/driver/wrench kit for changing bulbs, and the fuses. Other than that...the rest can stay here inside safe and dry.
Serpentine belt is newish ( this Spring ), everything else is ship shape. I don't know why I've had this organizational problem lately. Maybe that fall from the tree that left me unconscious for 12 hours has something to do with it. ;-\
So...just tire changing stuff, emergency air pump, serpentine belt tool and old (spare) belt, plus fuses and a bulb or two should do it.
I keep a very small toolkit in the car, jumper cables and some paper towels. Of the bunch the two most commonly used are the jumper cables and paper towels.
I used to carry everything but the kitchen sink including oil, PS fluid, extra jacks, shovel, all kinds of tools, flares, etc and never needed any of it.
Yes, I've come aboard the ship. I hauled in over 100 pounds of tools and brought them in my room ( I have one room that is my inner sanctum sanctorum...family can have rest of the house ). Enormous pile of this and that, but really don't need this stuff "On the Road."
So I brought the vital "On the Road" stuff back out to the car in one smallish carry bag, and have the rest of the stuff in =here= to use when the occasion arises.
I guess we're all singing from the same sheet of music now ( figure of speech ). I got my mind right. I think.
Same thing happened to my Father. During broad daylight in a YMCA parking lot. Trunk locks are easy to pop, and if somebody SEES what is in there when you open it, chances are they might even follow you home to see where you live, and then steal it at their convenience.
My expensive stuff is now in the house, to be taken out and used as needed.
AAA is cheap backup. I've had them come in real handy at 2am in Montreal (was up for the Jazz Festival) when my clutch mater cylinder crapped out. Could have been a real pain in the butt, but with AAA they got me towed to a good local garage and I was able to get it replaced very reasonably and without any hassles. For the few dollars a month AAA costs it's certainly worthwhile and that's not counting the other services they offer.
I certainly never carry *all* my tools in the trunk. What I carry depends on where I'm going and what I'll be doing. For everyday driving, I have a basic driver-and-wrench toolkit in the trunk. I've rarely ever needed it for my own car, but its come in real handy helping folks who've had a breakdown. For long trips I carry a fairly complete set in a small chest and a few key spares (ignition module, ballast resistor- little stuff like that.) Plus duct tape, hose clamps, wire, and a tire plug kit (even though I don't like plugged tires, its a good 'beside the road' kind of fix). Can't strand me as long as I've got those! :-)
Yeah, I'm sure someone says "I carry an AAA card." Well, I've seen how much time you can spend waiting the hours it takes AAA to respond, so no thanks. :-p
Ah yes. I do carry that too, and when I plan a trip I print out roadside assistance numbers for all the states I'll be running through and toss that in as well. Never had to use the cellphone yet (knock wood...)
Another reason I'm a firm believer in self-repair capability rather than JUST a cell phone an AAA card is that all the places I ever want to actually *go* for pleasure in a car are pretty remote. My idea of hell on earth would be taking a vacation (especially driving) to a city or most of the east third of the US. Cell coverage is still spotty in many of the places we like to go.
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