Never seems to fail: A windfall comes at just the right time to fill a need.
There’s another, “glass half empty” way of looking at that, but whatever. The Jeep had a problem, it highlighted a couple of glaring weaknesses in my preps I knew about but had ignored, and now those weaknesses are addressed. And also I’m broke again.
Also also: Ever notice how you run out of favorite ‘nice to have’ groceries all at the same time? But also somewhere in that pile of bags is 15 new lug nuts, which when they (hopefully without giving me a big hassle) replace the inadequate nuts currently on the Jeep will help me with tire problems in the boondocks – which are rare but not theoretical: They used to be a fairly regular occurrence when the Jeep’s tires were paper-thin and scrounged.
For the first time in close to 10 years the Jeep even has an official spare tire. There’s no good way to load it in the Jeep, unfortunately: The Jeep does have a tire rack but it’s an amazing pain in the ass and I took it off many years ago. That meant I needed a place to store a brand-new tire and recycled hub out of the weather and out of the way…
A few seconds with a hammer and wrecking bar provided just the place in what used to be the chicken coop, which is still in what is now my propane bottle corral.
And look what I got from Big Brother!
He says the volt and ammeters on that thing don’t work but the temperature gauge still works great. And that’s going to be a big boon to this summer’s water heater project. As are the used hose-to-pipe fittings he included. Some black hoses are coming for that heat exchanger, but have been held up at my mail drop for a couple of weeks.
Check for internal fuses that may be blown. Slim chance, but worth a look.
So if you’re out in the boondocks and have a flat you’ll have a spare waiting for you back at the lair…? That should provide peace of mind.
I also have a tire inflating compressor in the Jeep, and a puncture plug kit if it comes to that. But I agree it’s not ideal. Just better than before.