In early September, I stopped at a metering light on the onramp. When the light turned green and I released the clutch, the tranny sang like a soprano. It still worked, but it made a lot of noise doing it. I drove home at reduced speed, listening to it whine, and fully expecting uglier and louder sounds to accompany a scattering of metal parts onto the roadway. Thankfully that didn't happen, but when I got home, I knew it wasn't going anywhere soon. But I still needed to taxi kids around, and we had an art installation on the weekend.
So we went shopping that night, and the next night I bought a 2002 Nissan Frontier.
After a month I'm still happy with it, which is a good sign. It gets terrible mileage, but I'm optimistic that tuning and refinement will address that. I don't like the way the automatic shifts, but that just might be the way it goes with automatics. There's a suspicious sound or two that echoes back when I drive next to a wall, but I'll address that as well. Those are my three complaints. By and large it seems pretty solid, and in just a month, it's hauled a lot of stuff.
Today I had a trailer hitch installed (a receiver by Draw-Tite). Once the trailer has been emptied of its combo of housecleaning waste and big-art supplies and moved out of the way, I'm going to revamp the strip next to the driveway and put my Jeep there for hibernation. Sometime in the Spring, one hopes, I'll take a few days off and replace the Jeep's transmission. Sadly, I've displayed a tendency to do a lot less than planned, and that's not getting better as I get older. But, whatever. That Jeep is to be retained.
2 comments:
We both have things to work on! Thank goodness you don't have to rely on the Jeep. I, too, have a couple of fond memories of that elderly vehicle and I'm glad you are keeping hold of it. When looking at tow vehicles I looked long and hard at the Rubicon Wranglers. So expensive, but so adorable.
When it comes to my own projects, I have E who tends to push himself to help me out while he pushes himself to help himself out far less. And won't let me help him, silly man. But I "win" because I get my stuff done when it comes to things where I have no knowledge or skillz or proper toolz. He showed me how to do the wiring for outlets and switches so as I've been replacing those things in my house to modernize them (Internet of Things) it's been fun to do it myself.
My truck has the hitch already, but I need to get the right size ball mount, a sway bar and to install a brake controller (the trailer is under 3000 lb by itself, but fully loaded would go over).
I also want to put some fancy stuffs in it like a new head unit because the one that was put into it by one of its three previous owners lacks Bluetooth™ and Nav. So I ordered a fancier one. I will prolly put a backup cam in, too. I was told it makes backing a trailer a snap because you can watch the ball joint via the cam.
As for the Casita, it has A/C and everything in it works beautifully, but it has only a heat strip for warmth and I figure if I take it somewhere cold I'll really want a furnace. It has battery and LP Gas, but maybe I'll want a generator for those times I don't have a hookup.
Then I'll plan how to tart it up. Not Wonder Bread™, cuz that's been done. Something lizardy. With lights.
So excited!
I also want to do something artful for BMan (I think I blahged about that already, tho).
Idk anything about cars, but in 1983 my dad bought me a Renault Alliance ("Car of the Year") and it was such a piece of crap. Cute, but needed stuff alla time and eventually there were no more peeps who worked on 'em. The radiator/cooling system sucked especially, even after replacement.
I'm hoping I can go a few more years on my 2005 Camry until my credit's better for a loan.
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