Breakdown at the Assembly Hall Front Door

[TrueTomHarley]

Great. Just great. My car breaks down exactly at the door of the Assembly Hall as I am dropping someone off!

 

The downside? It’s embarrassing!

 

The upside? (which almost became a downside; it was so frequent) For the next 2 hours, until the tow truck arrived, (trust me on this—it needed a tow) brothers kept coming out to see if I needed help. They are all so nice and I am reminded of my non believing dad 40 years ago at my wedding saying to his own brother, ‘C’mon Joe, let’s go out in the parking lot for a smoke. These people are so nice I can’t stand it.’

 

Being brothers, many of them assumed they could get me going right them and there. I had to explain it to each one to assure them they couldn’t.

 

Among brothers, there are always some who really are mechanical. One of them diagnosed the issue. No, it probably wasn’t the slave cylinder, he said, but the master cylinder, since the clutch pedal wouldn’t rise on its own. At 194K the car has a right to misbehave. But the tow truck took so long in coming that I sent someone in to the chairman’s office to say if they needed an afternoon interview for the ‘Exercise Patience’ theme, I was available. The Assembly Hall was then being used for the Regional.

 

No, it wasn’t all the fault of the towing company. Some of it was the roadside assistance app that couldn’t fathom how Tom Harley could possibly be the same as Thomas Harley and so kept issuing denials of service without comment. With a person, you could straighten in out in 2 seconds, but in the AI world it is not that way. It is, instead, like when your wife, though she has always been friendly, one day locks you out of the house without the hint of a reason.

 

And no, I hadn’t waited till the last minute to address the issue. I had been nursing it for a week or two. Sometimes problems go away on their own. Besides, when I looked at the new models, the asking price was over $2500 more than what their own website says. ‘Yeah, well, there’s extra doo-dads that come with it,’ the salesperson says. Well, since I can order one—he’s already told me that—I’ll just order one without the extra doo-dads. You know how I am with a car. I check for cruise control. Everything else it has or doesn’t have, I get used to it.

 

‘So even though it says I can order a car, I really can’t,’ I tell the man after he says no. ‘Yes and no,’ he says. I can order if it’s something like color I want to change. But if I’m ordering because I think it’s going to be a penny cheaper—what hallucinogen am I taking?

 

Edited July 4, 2023 by TrueTomHarley

[JudyO]

Wow! How great are you to have an actual experience that illustrates the theme of the convention you are attending??? 

Kudos, my brother!

 

(Oh, and I hope you get the car thing straightened out. Would be happy to start a gofundme page for you!)

[Pabo]

One year going to a convention, my wife's car (2008 Tiida) had weird sensation where one of the wheels felt it had a lump on the tyre, so we turned back for home and took my stepson's car for a run ('64 Fairlane Compact). We only lost about 5 minutes in travel time by going back hame and transfer our stuff into the ol' girl.

 

What had happened is that the tyre on the Tiida was delaminating itself. In fact, we had found that there were actually two tyres that were doing this on the vehicle, as all 4 tyres on the car where of the same batch when we replaced them at once. So the next day we took the car to the tyre shop and the owner which sold the tyres was originally surprised that this happened, as the tyres still had about 55% tread left. Looking at his records, those tyres were replaced about 6 1/2 years ago, and they had travelled over 55,000km (35,000miles) since them being installed. Most customers he knows are replacing tyres within 2-3 years, but we were doubled that and still had more than half of the tread left. The average kilometre range for a tyre is about 32,000km to 40,000km (20,000 to 25,000 miles), but we seem to easily double the distance of kilometres. So for us, it is not how much distance that we travel, it is more about the age of the tyre before we start having issues. So he replaced all 4 tyres with new ones, but only charged us for the tyres themselves, but not for the fitting, new valves, balancing and wheel alignment.

 

Apparently since the 2000's, car tyres have only a 5 year shelf life in the store, but then 5 years after them being installed. But if you had purchased the more expensive branded or specialised tyres, you may have a longer period of shelf life, as these are made to a higher standard. Light truck tyres usually do not have this problem (depending on their manufacturing process), nor do other types of vehicle tyres (such as expensive excessive grip 4x4 tyres), but generally it is mostly on normal road use tyres.

 

However, the interesting issue is that my stepson's car has tyres that were purchased before 2000 and they are still about 80% tread (the car is only a "Sunday" car) and doesn't have that many miles, but the tyres still look relatively new. But because these are of the older manufacturing process before 2000, there is no manufacture stamp date on them, and we most probably not experience any delaminating with them, as they were made differently back then. But we just make sure that the rubber isn't showing any dryness or cracking.

 

As my Ford Courier, it has light truck tyres, I don't have to worry about the age of them, and I tend to get about double the life of what the average consumer gets.

 

 

[TrueTomHarley]

15 hours ago, JudyO said:

Would be happy to start a gofundme page for you!)

No need for one of those just yet

[carlos]

One day I must have left my lights on or something at the assembly hall parking and when I came back the battery had died. There is not a better place to have a dead battery than the assembly hall parking during an assembly in Romanian. All Romanians take pride in being experts in mechanics. I had at least 20 brothers who quickly came with their jumper cables.

[Tsheppar]

If you would read your bible a little more these things wouldn't happen to you. 

 

( And for any who dont know brother Harleys sense of humor....that is totally" a joke." ) 😋

Edited July 5, 2023 by Tsheppar