But after reading this entire discussion, that’s the only conclusion I can come up with
I’ll point out something else, and you guys think about it
I’ve known a LOT of guys in my lifetime who actually prided themselves in being miserable cheapskates, and they wanted EVERYBODY to know it, as well
My brother gave me a pancake air compressor several years ago as a present
i’ve been using it regularly since then. Every weekend, in the morning when it’s cool, I check each car’s tire inflation pressure. And if some of them need air, I fire up the pancake air compressor and inflate the tires to where they need to be.
I didn’t even pay for the compressor, as noted above. But I do pay for the electricity used.
I wonder if @RandomTroll would use a pancake air compressor if somebody gave him a new one as a present
One burns calories to operate a foot pump. The calories one burns comes from food. Food costs money. Think about how much money could be saved with solar powered compressors that would depend on neither electricity nor food. Of course, one could only inflate tires when the sun is out.
To save energy in a car, the radio would be a crystal set. We could have discussions on this board about the proper way to adjust the catwhisker.
Instead of a clock that takes evergy, a sundial could be painted on the hood. Luminous paint containing radium could be used so that one could tell the time when driving at night. An option might even be a digital sundial as opposed to an analogue sundial.
How often is that? My tires usually lose less than a pound in a month.
How generous! Please don’t.
I wouldn’t use one because it would take longer. I’d have to roll an extension cord out a window. For 1 pound a hand pump does it in 15 seconds, no extension cord, no noise.
I eat too much food, and benefit from the exercise.
Of course it’s an expense but an irrelevant one, a non-issue. I pay my water bill to the local utility every month, and flushing the toilet once is technically a water expense, but it’s so miniscule as to be virtually nonexistent. One need not have a money tree to make a sound cost/benefit analysis. Gasoline is cheap and plentiful, so running an engine and using, say, 30 cents worth of fuel is certainly worth the huffing and puffing that this middle aged overweight smoker would endure pumping a tire by hand.
I don’t think he’s miserable at all. I think he revels in his frugality, and rightly so. He’s set standards for himself and does all he can to exceed them. Not that I understand them. I mean, I’ll drive to the store and buy an air compressor before using a foot pump to inflate a low tire. I also think cooking a steak beyond medium-rare is crazy and anyone who adds sugar to coffee is insane. But I encourage you to eat your food any way you see fit.
The damage to an engine running it for 5 minutes, then stopping it, is greater. And you exaggerate the huffing and puffing necessary to use a hand pump. Of course if you’re overweight and smoke you’re running up expenses far greater.
Frugality wasn’t the issue. Dozens of people recommended pumps one powers from the car’s battery. I think it’s faster when putting in a few pounds to use a hand pump, so I recommended it. I raised the issue, not proselytized for my preference.
You guys cook your dead animals? I bet you don’t even kill them yourself.
I blew a left front tire on the interstate. I pulled onto the shoulder and wasn’t about to change the tire. I called AAA and was told it would be about an hour. The wrecker showed up in 10 minutes. The wrecker had an air compressor that I think was run by the truck’s engine. The jack was run by compressed air and the driver used an air powered impact wrench. He had me rolling in less than 10 minutes. In cases like mine, it’s best to get the job done as quickly as possible.
NO!
You should have steadfastly insisted that the AAA guy use equipment powered by hand or by foot.
AAA will go bankrupt if they allow their road service employees to run the truck’s engine for even as few as 10 minutes, and the environment will be destroyed by that very action.
The road service truck had the right equipment for the job, an air pump that takes 20 minutes to top off tires is inferior.
When I switch on my air compressor I can top off my tires in less than 2 minutes with little energy usage and pollution. Imagine the consumption and pollution from 1000 vehicle owners a day idling the engines for 20 minutes to power a tiny air compressor to top off their tires.
@VDCdriver I should have wrestled the spare out from under my 4Runner, used the hand operated jack, used the lug wrench to loosen the lug nuts, pulled off the blown tire, replaced it with the spare, tightened the lug nuts with the lug wrench, hand cranked down the 4Runner and loaded the flat tire into the back of the vehicle while traffic whizzed by at 75-80 mph. I suppose this would have taken half an hour. By the way, the AAA wrecker had big flashing emergency lights which took energy.
It also cost me money beyond the AAA membership. I thanked the driver for being so prompt. He said he had just pulled in to a truck stop for supper when he got the call from the dispatcher, and made the decision to answer my call first. I forced a $20 on him and told him to treat himself to a nice supper.
I believe in saving energy, but I am going to use a push type engine powered rotary mower in place of an engineless reel lawnmower. I and two of my friends had a lawn mowing company when we were in 4th grade. We tied a rope to the front of the mower. Two pushed and one pulled. We got 75¢ for each yard–a quarter apiece. The three of us felt relieved when each of our families got a power mower–so relieved that we dissolved our company and each of us struck out on his own with his family’s power mower and we raised the price to $1 a yard to cover the cost of gasoline…
I’ll use my power drill instead of a hand cranked drill or a bit and brace. I bake a cake for Mrs. Triedaq for her birthday. I use the electric mixer as opposed to an egg beater. I even use an electric toothbrush. I also add air to my tires with an electrically operated Black and Decker “Air Station” portable tire pump.
I don’t know how old I was but we had one of those push reel mowers. I couldn’t hardly move it and thought something was wrong with it. Dad managed to finally buy a used power mower for $10 and my life was changed. I don’t do anything by hand anymore if I can get a power tool or an engine to work for me. By the way, Stihl chain saws rock. Not cheap but that $400 was well spent.
@bing. I think a cheap power mower costs less than a hand propelled reel mower and has for some time. I remember being amazed in the late 1950s that a new rotary power mower could be purchased for $29.95.
I also pushed a hand cultivator up and down the garden rows until my dad bought a roto-tiller.
For me, getting an electric tire inflator for use at home in my garage was more than convenience, it was safety. So many women are being targeted at gas stations here for snatching purses and lately even carjacking that it seemed very worthwhile to spend $50 for a good at home 120V inflator I use in the safety of my home garage.
Not everywhere is safety while pumping air this as much of a concern but the convenience factor is also so very, very nice. I did run by the indie shop that I use for car service to air up tires recently that I bought there last year. I’d fallen mowing grass and bending over to mess with airing tires after a rapid temperature drop was not on my list of happy tasks.
It all gets down to individual preferences, if a car owner has access to plug an electric inflator into an outlet (those living in condos or apartments might not), how easily available are pumps at gas stations, etc.
How often does the average motorist have a flat tire or need to air up a tire at home instead of having the service center do it? A 5 minute start/stop cycle may cause some wear, but doing it once every 30,000 miles may shorten the life of the engine by 10 or 15 minutes I reckon. Hardly an argument for saving the engine in the grand scheme of things.
You’re telling me. Prime rib and Pall Mall non-filters are expensive.
I agree. Any one of our customers is welcome at any time to stop by and we will check and air their tires, top off the oil, etc. Why mess with a foot pump when your local garage will do it for free?
I think everyone else that smoked Pall Mall non-filter is dead already. No matter, you can’t smoke anywhere anymore anyway. We bought a new car last year, it doesn’t have an ash tray.
You want to hear something stupid? Filtered cigarettes make me cough.
Was there a smoker option package, which presumably includes the ash tray and cigarette lighter?
I seem to remember that was an option on some cars, a few years back
Not so stupid . . . I remember many guys actually tearing off the filter, and some of them cited the same reason
Right about now, I’m wondering if Rick . . . Where’s Rick, Who’s Rick, or whatever he’s calling himself nowadays . . . is going to chime in. I seem to remember he thought real men drank beer, smoked, and belched in public
I used to buy them for my mom when she was in assisted living. $75 a carton for unfiltered, $55 for filtered. Seems backwards to me but I don’t smoke. Mom doesn’t either, anymore…
Kind of funny, Dad is in the Alzheimer’s/dementia care center. He’s 88, been smoking since before he could drive. Mom took care of him at home as long as she could, but she made sure to find a care center that had a smoking area outdoors, since she didn’t want to take that away from him as well. But with the dementia setting in he’s forgotten he smokes. 75 years of a bad habit, and he’s accidentally stopped.
