Just need to vent...

I think my yard may harbor soil microorganisms that metabolize aluminum raingutter spikes.

My gutters managed to eject three spikes into the yard, of which I can only find one.

 

toyota is missing the boat by not offering one as an option

 

Lack of a spare tire is one of several reasons I didn't trade up to a Prius Prime five years ago.

But the original RAV4 Prime had a spare tire as an option, and became standard equipment before I bought one earlier this year. While not quite as gasoline-efficient as my old Gen3 Prius, functionally it is replacing both that Prius and my 2014 stick-shift Forester. Even if used as a gas-only car, its fuel savings from the Forester use would far exceed the bit of extra fuel over the Prius use.

That doesn't account for the additional gasoline saved by the plug-in function. This is turning out to be considerable. Now I just need to add more modules to my rooftop PV system to get the house back up to energy net-zero.

 

Think I posted more in the past 24 hours than in the past several months.
Have two wild 100-pound dogs that got roughhousing seven days ago and slammed into me at full speed, cutting me down at the knees along a graveled path.

Ended up with severe "road rash" on my right side, extremely bruised and painful knees. My already compromised right hip rebelled for about eight hours to the point that it was agonizing to sit. The hip is still not happy with any pressure.

The plus is I had an excuse to be lazy this past week. But, all good scams come to an end. I actually took the furry culprits for a half-mile walk this evening and tomorrow it is back to "real life"...sorta.

After the political news out of D.C. earlier today, I think that old saying about living in interesting times applies.
kris xxoo

 

Just venting... I'm rather tired of seeing posts complaining that the gen 5 Prius does not have a spare tire. It's not as if it's impossible to obtain a spare tire and install in yourself.

I have not used a spare tire in the last 400,000 miles of driving. The one time that I TRIED to use a spare it was on my 2002 Gen 1 Prius and the effort was fruitless. The lug nuts were frozen by the air hammer used when the the tires were rotated. After the AAA guy broke them free the spare was found to be too old for use after nearly 2 decades in the trunk.

On the other hand, my wife and I spent hours looking for the bad bearing or brake shoe that was making a loud clunk under certain circumstances. It turned out that the spare jack handle was not secured properly and it bounced around, hitting the top of the spare wheel very predictably.

But I'm not going to bust anyone's chops. I have my own list of things to complain about.

 

I'll look into replacement batteries.

The power glitches and outages that get us are during our travels, so no backup genny will be started. Even up until near when the CPU marked the battery as completely dead, it still had enough capacity to come out of hibernation and record an evening's worth of spouse's programs during a full outage. With cover closed and display turned off, the load was less than its old in-person browsing days. Its USB tuner is connected directly to an outdoor antenna, with no unpowered cable box or amplifier or switch box to interfere with the signal. During our travels, no outages ever reached a half day, so it could fully recharge before the next evening's recording schedule and be good to go again. During outages when we were home, I could also turn it on to check up on local storm news, for limited time.

But with the battery internal marked as completely dead, even a momentary glitch shuts it fully off, not waking back in any form when power is restored, thus ceasing all recording for the remainder of our absence.

 

How....where.....you drive has some influence on incidences of flat tires, as well as the tires you buy. I can't say for certain, but I know I have changed flats at least ten times in my life...not counting the couple I changed for women stranded along the road.

Really like having a spare. As for your frozen lug nuts. Are you sure that's what it was. The Prius is infamous for the wheel welding itself to -- what is it called, the hub? That "weld" can happen in just a few months.

 

Both my second Prius, and my Forester, used their spare tires twice each, for road debris punctures. The previous vehicles also had their shares of such punctures.

... and we still travel through plenty of zones where calling from the road for roadside service is not an option. We'd need to hitchhike to the nearest landline or mobile coverage zone in order to call. Though for the most recent case we were involved with, it was someone else who was disabled (though not a tire), we were the ones driving out to find service while another good samaritan stayed with the disabled party until assistance arrived. Got a very appreciative text message from the helpee after he arrived home that night.

 

Why an extender bar is a good think. I carry a 2 foot one for leverage. And make sure you know where the locking nut socket is stored. Dealers are notorious for pocketing them during a tire rotation..

 

You guys ever had damage from a pothole?

I was driving at about 70 mph and hit a small pothole on an interstate, the pothole was unavoidable- you couldn't see it until you were right on it.

The tires all held air okay but after close inspection when I got home the drivers side front tire had a crack in the rubber and a small swelled spot on the side wall. This set of tires didn't have 10,000 miles on them yet. I ended up having to replace the tire at a cost of $120 - an expensive pothole - I wonder how many other tires it damaged- I did report it to the state for pot hole repair.

I bought the tires on Amazon and had them locally installed so no road hazard warranty.

 

That's about how it was for me, though I ended up replacing the wheel too as soon as I found a nice used one; round ones seem less noisy.

Whether coincidence or not, that wheel bearing was also the first one on the car to go, later the same year.

 

Worse I had from a pot hole was knocking out the alignment.

 

2 year old IPhone completely dead after just having used it. service appointment at apple store tomorrow.
i tried all the recory things and chatted with them, but it's completely unresponsive.
it had a full charge when i last used it.

 

That voltage drop is usually because people tighten the screws around the wire improperly. To do it to code You have to tighten the screw, then loosen it a quarter turn and tighten it again.

 

Came across this product - it is odd, humorous - and apparently effective all at the same time

 

A spare tire for most people is non-optional.
My latest company car is a 2020 Jeep Compass - which I picked up with a pre-installed nail in the LF tyre.
Not wanting to deal with the paperwork of getting the car repaired, I opted for a $2.97 'Hyper Tough' kit and DIY'd it using the onboard jack and tools and a pre-Bidenomics $35 Harbour Freight pancake compressor.
I also verified that the onboard now-four-year-old tyre was inflated and accessible.
Nails happen - especially in a post hurricane environment.

@ Welding:

+1 on the extender bar.
I do not use locking nutz because they ridiculously easy to over-ride by criminals but not as much by the owners who do not know in advance that they will be required to remover the bolt without a poorly cast adapter.
I use a Harbour Freight breaker bar with a 1/2" deep well socket pre-installed which also makes tyre rotation a snap since my torque wrench is also a .50-cal.

I will not gladly let a dealer near my car or truck, so even if I retained the locking bolts or the adapter they would not have easy access to them.

 

Each of my cars also carries an HF breaker bar and appropriate socket.

My smallest niece was otherwise competent to change a flat tire on her family hand-me-down Explorer, but lacked the body weight to break loose the lug nuts with the factory wrench, so needed assistance from a passer-by. My spouse has better weight for the task, but lacks the youthful strength. But even for me, a breaker bar ensures that it isn't overly strenuous.

 

Not sure what it signifies...but 40 years ago I did not obsess about a tire store correctly doing correct torque, putting in correct air or getting rotation correct. Nor any of the other many different services I contracted out.

Now I do. Old age? Some sort of whole cultural shift where people no longer take pride in their work and cannot be trusted?