In an attempt to steer this discussion back to its original theme…
A few days ago, my mechanic found that some type or rodents had invaded my engine’s air intake, and had destroyed the air filter (along with depositing their turds in the air box).
My car is now surrounded with mouse/rat traps, baited with a mixture of peanut butter and oats.
So far, I have eliminated 4 of these nasty little buggers, but in an attempt to provide more insurance for my engine, I have installed steel mesh over the engine’s air intake.
One word of advice; “garage”. Otherwise, snakes, coyotes, cats, I dunno, but a garage helps a lot.
Now this brings to mind that old question of how the cigarette butt got into the air cleaner and started a fire, if you remember that thread way back. Years ago my girl friend cautioned me not to throw my cig butt out the window because birds were attracted to the glow and could pick it up and start a fire. That was like 1967 and I have complied ever since, but I wonder if this is how that butt got to the air cleaner and started the fire?
Congressman Ryan is from Janesville, WI, where GM built vehicles like his Suburban until about 10 years ago. Ryan said his next vehicle would be a Ford. I speculated any loyalty he felt toward GM had been compromised by the economic hit his region took when GM shut the Janesville plant.
I also wondered how Janesville area people who were hurt by that shutdown were doing: are they buying new vehicles from GM, or from someone else, or just keeping the old one going a while longer?
As a Wisconsin native now living in Minnesota, I also wonder how Ford’s closing of their venerable St. Paul truck factory has affected the loyalties and buying behavior of people there.
Same question about any area that’s lost a major automaker.
@shanonia yeah sure you betcha. Your transparency is transparent though. I get through Janesville a few times a year and can’t say I’ve seen much despair anymore than St. Paul. Haven’t been to Maryland in a while though so don’t know how those folks are coping.
Several years ago, at the dealership, I was given a repair order shortly before closing time
I decided to grab the car from the back lot, and move it into my bay before I left for the day
Next morning, when I popped the hood I saw 3 HUGE rats running for cover
I’ve seen one or two at a time, and usually small ones, so I thought maybe one of my colleagues had planted these 3 huge rats as some sort of a joke, but nobody fessed up
Before I did anything else, I carefully removed the plastic splash pans, and 2 of them scurried off into the shop. The last one, I never did find out what happened
I spent a few minutes looking over the wiring and hoses. Couldn’t find any obvious signs of damage. But I instructed the service writer to inform the customer of what I observed. It turned out the owner lived literally right next to the forest.
GM closed Broening Highway so long ago that everyone has moved on, I’m sure. It was probably like the steel mill I worked in just two miles from this GM plant. Almost everyone had enough seniority to retire when the place finally closed, so few people were left without money coming in. The few young folks involve could go to other places, though they would not make as much. Also, GM opened an Allison transmission plant about 20 miles north, and many were offered transfers. The transmission plant employed a lot fewer people than the assembly plant, but better than nothing. I agree with you that any shutdown is sad for the families affected and the local economies.
I’ve never seen a woodchuck in California, but probably exist somewhere here. We had them in spades in Colorado. Some of 'em were pretty big, in the 10-15 pound range. Size of a small dog. Their name was consistent with their habitat, they liked to climb and play on big piles of wood. Colorado woodchucks are much bigger than what we called groundhogs; i.e. ground squirrels, marmonts. Never had a problem with either woodchucks or groundhogs eating my truck fortunately.
Eh. I’m not convinced automakers care about that as much anymore, with the exception of the diesels. The technology to make gas engines meet emissions standards has already been invented and is there for the using. The truck trick was mainly employed when automakers didn’t have it ready to go and didn’t want to have to get it ready to go.
These days, SUVs and trucks are being sold because people want to buy SUVs and trucks.
Mitsubishi withdrew from the compact truck market in 1996 and Ford couldn’t figure out why? The compact truck market had reached it’s peak in the early 1990’s. If Toyota or Nissan wanted to take over that market and leave Ford in the dust they have ignored their opportunity for the last 15 years. Buyers want a vehicle with flash, they want a vehicle that they can be proud to own, they are not going to spend $20,000 for a compact regular cab truck to haul manure or dirt, an old truck can be found for that purpose for little money (as you have demonstrated).
Yes, it does help, but critters that are determined to enter and do damage will still do so if they are persistent enough. Last week, my mechanic discovered that some type of rodent had invaded the air intake of my engine, had essentially destroyed the paper air filter, and had left a cache of turds behind. Obviously, I had my mechanic replace the filter and clean-out the air cleaner box.
As soon as I got home, I installed heavy steel mesh over the engine’s air intake in order to prevent a recurrence. And, I put several traps–baited with a mixture of peanut butter and oatmeal–in the garage and in my nearby vegetable garden. So far, the traps have eliminated two mice inside the garage, and two in my vegetable patch. Hopefully the little buggers won’t take revenge by chewing on the wires.
No it didn’t. It just stopped selling them here, just like all the other import trucks, because of the Chicken Tax. You can easily get small trucks almost everywhere else in the world, but when you add a 25% tariff to something here in the USA, it’s gonna be a lot harder to sell. You can still get the great-great-great grandson of my 1988 Mitsubishi truck elsewhere.
Chipmunks (ground squirrels) chewed the flexible fuel line leading to the mechanical pump on my 1978 Oldsmobile. I got about one block from home and the car quit. I had it towed to my independent shop since I couldn’t stop the trouble immediately. I barely got in the door from walking the block back home when my mechanic called and said the car was fixed. The tow truck had raised the car from the rear end and he saw gasoline dripping from underneath the front of the car while it was still on the wrecker. I also had chipmunks chew the wiring from the thermostat to my heatpump. The chipmunks had gotten under the house. I tried to send my dog under the house to chase out the chipmunks, but he refused to do it because it isn’t in his job description. I shouldn’t have put a blue collar on that dog when he was a puppy.
Automobiles have always been status symbols and it seems they always will. And with easy financing for 7 years we can afford a lot of status, comfort, power and monthly payments.And specifically the CAFE standards shifted the family station wagon over into the truck column making men proud to drive the
doubtful, though that measly income Ryan will give up his $223,500 salary as speaker of the house, and of course retirement and medical, at 48 does not want to be a part time dad but proposes raising the retirement age cutting the safety nets he grew up on, so I do not think his next car will be a yugo. At a net worth of 6 million do you really think he cares. I see range rover. Eagle scout virtues are not for a lifetime I guess.
I would like to have a Chevy Suburban- a 1948-1953. These were the really great Suburbans in my opinion.
If I want to go the SUV route, I would want a 1946 -1951 Willys Overland (Jeep) station wagon.
Until 1949, the only station wagons that didn’t have wood bodies were the Chevrolet and GMC Suburbans and the Jeep station wagons. By the mid 1950s, the wood bodied station wagons were no longer made and the used wood bodied wagons were really cheap. For example, my dad looked at a used wood bodied 1946 Ford wagon in 1954. It ran well and the wood was in good shape. The seller wanted $95. A Jeep station wagon of the same vintage was worth about $500. The status symbol of the wood bodied wagon was gone.
@Triedaq There is a song on youtube about a guy with a similar dog problem. Bryan Lewis. I dare not say more.
Geez though, a guy would have to be a little looney to pay $10,000 for an 81 Suburban, wouldn’t he? I’d offer maybe $800 but I don’t think it would fit in my garage.