Truck Tricks

Truck Tricks

It’s always something. I got my truck back from the garage over the weekend. The mechanic did a fine job fixing the brakes. Monday, it worked well to tow the sailboat to Lake Umbagog. Leaving the lake, the truck started a bit sluggishly. The next day it wouldn’t start at all.

After charging up the batteries, the truck fired right up. However, the alternator wasn’t generating any power. I certainly wasn’t going to take the truck back to the garage. An alternator isn’t that hard to change, and doesn’t require special tools. The local junk yard had a replacement for $45. I could afford the price of junk yard part, but not a dealership part, especially after paying for brake work.

Some people really get into working on cars. I’ve never been one of them. All I want from my vehicles is for them to work. They don’t have to impress people, confer status or look nice. Recently a lot of vehicles around here suffered hail damage. My truck might have too, but it’s too hard to tell with all the old nicks and dings. Let’s just say I don’t waste any money on car wax.

Today was a pretty decent day to be a shady tree mechanic. Beats the last time a friend and I changed the alternator. Temperatures were not too far about zero. Tools kept falling from frozen fingers into the snow. Even working alone, this job went much faster.

It is a real satisfying feeling to do a repair job, fire up the engine, and have everything work the first time.

Now all I have to do is figure out where to tow the sailboat to next.

-Sixbears