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My pickup / ute needed some TLC today. That included a flat tyre. When you live way off the grids, it’s a good idea to attend to a ute’s aches and pains as soon as they notify you of them. For me, that meant waking up to a low *thunk*. The wheel had settled with a final oomph overnight.
Thankfully, the hole is a very slight and tangential one, for which that nasty fix-a-flat goo should do. It does well to learn the relevant lesson with some gratitude: Do not ride the sides of dirt track ruts if there be pokey plants nigh. Also, slow down!
Chuggachuggachugga, said the nice tyre inflator. Hims was plugged into my ute’s power jack. I then checked and puffed up the other tyres to a touch under maximum. It was also a good time to turn the engine on and listen for any (new, unavoidable) wheezes, coughs, and moans. Mr. Ute sounded jake, or jake enough. But I also reminded myself to someday fetch a much longer extension cord for the camper. I was parked some distance away, and the two 12 volt extension cords I do have would not do for the distance.
Lesson: little logistical errors can become big bothers for the unprepared.
I had the tail end of a bottle of juice. I remembered to fill it up with water and consummately hydrate. One doesn’t enjoy dehydration, does one? I daresay not. Therefore, before dong DIY chores on a warm day, remember your juicy and snackies. If you only have a little bit, water it down. Juice in the USA and CA is practically syrup. It can go 1 to 3 parts to water without suffering flavour.
Mr. Ute is thirsty too! Now is a great time to top off hims coolant. Keep track of how much it goes down. A super thirsty pickup is a pickup with serious issues. Thankfully, my truck was doing alright, only needed a ginger top off.
Serendipitously, I had set the morning aside to deal with Mr. Ute’s broken tail light. (I, emmm, went up the wrong road and had to do a 10 point turn between two annoyed trees.) After dealing with his hurt tyre, I went to.
Now, the needful replacement was only one wee broken plastic refractor. But naturally, the asinine car manufacturers do not sell the refractors individually. In fact, there is no way to install them individually. The entire light harness must be purchased, including wires down to a square pin jack and light bulbs. Said harness, refractors, and kit are of course made of *truly quality* plastic. /s So thankfully they are not too dear.
I point out the foregoing as this sort of production idiocy is precisely antithetical to the solarpunk ethos. But here we are in this epoch, where a postcard size plastic refractor might do, yet instead we must purchase huge modular petrochemical gewgaws to replace notoriously breakable tail lights. Bravo, humans.
For all that, I didn’t grumble, but was happy to do some maintenance. The new tail light assembly was shiny and clean. Mr. Ute enjoyed it, despite the very awkward installation.
But one hitch (so to speak). Apparently some earlier ute carer had bypassed one of the cable wires with a shamefully patched wire to the other light. I say shamefully! It was merely twisted around the exposed copper and taped. We can do better. So I ran a very long 110 volt AC cord, of which I have several, to my camper’s inverter. This I used to power the less demanding of my two soldering irons. It took a while to heat, but it did yeoman’s service.
This is why it’s a good idea to do maintenance in the morning, solar puppies. I’ve no immediate notion exactly how many watts even my cheapo iron draws. But I’d rather that come off the midday sunlight than slurping eagerly at the batteries.
Automotive goop is a godly product. Truly, it is a glue nonpareil. Get some. Use it to fix everything. Use it to make tiny glitter art animals. Love the goop.
One of my sunshades had a loose armature, the bit what swings out to block sunlight from the sides. I got the goop ready. This was of course discovered to be yet another broken plastic piece, criminally lacking in palpable durability. No doubt someone somewhere has said bit online for sale. But we are off grid! I decided to fix the plastic myself using…
Mushy epoxy comes in a tiny tube. It looks like a Vienna sausage mixed with one of those prepackaged cookie dough rolls with the fun holiday design squoozed down the middle. As it comes out of its tube, it is quite mushy. Take a knife you don’t mind ruining and cut off just enough to use for a repair. Mush it up betwixt fingers. The magic of chemistry will kick in. As the dark grey and light grey mix to become a nondescript grey gunge, the epoxy will heat up and smell a tad wonky.
Now just have fun building whatever you need to repair a shoddy plastic bit, just like fun with playdoh. Let it sit overnight. Tada, a fixed plastic bit for a solar shade armature. Mushy epoxy is marvellous stuff. If you don’t have some mushy epoxy keeping your auto goop company, whatever is the matter with you.
I have some old canned heat. It’s a noxious methanol gelatin in a wee aluminium can. You’ve seen them at Hilton buffets, keeping pancakes and eggs warm. That gel gets rough with age! They are cheap and last a spell, but I don’t fancy them. Their heat is not very hot, really. I worry about getting the gel on my hands and having a fit, for some reason. So I seldom use them, in favour of propane or twigs. Moreover, I have a proper little alcohol burner now, the super light weight kind, good for a backup. So I decided to consider my propane burner valve breaking as an opportunity. Time to clean out my little plastic case of army surplus canned heat.
It did dinner, although taking much longer than propane, natch. A hearty stew. I couldn’t find the can top pan holder…. So I rigged up a stove of sorts using old food cans at the corners around the heater.
Lesson: When in doubt, kludge.
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