I was navigator on a road trip with a friend this weekend and he used his wife's dually for the trip because its a gas burner and his burns diesel and they both get about the same mileage but gas is less expensive.
The trip went fine until the last 300 mile leg after we stopped to eat and the truck started sputtering.
We pulled over and he gave it a quick visual and found a electrical short and vacuum leak and something else caused by manifold heat melting or such .
Of course being his wife's ride and her having a husband with mechanical skills, the closest thing to any tools he found in the truck were a nail file and the lug wrench and he admitted to forgetting to pack a tool box because he is used to driving his truck.
First thing he said was if he had a #2 phillips head screwdriver or pair of pliers he could rob some hose from another connection to repair the critical line and use the broke piece to seal the leaks on the non critical connection.
He then asked me if I had my multitools in my pocket that I have handed him on occasion to save him looking for a tool.
I opened up my leatherman to the #2 driver, my miniature tool to the flashlight and laid the hammer and wrench multitool I bought at a flea market a couple weeks ago on the grill and offered to go to the edge of the woods coming to the interstate fence for some twigs to fashion plugs for the broke pieces of vacuum hose.
He looked at my collection of multi tools and said that was good but without a few inches of electrical tape for the burned sensor wires and some mechanic wire to hold everything clear of the heat shield he doubted we would make it all the way home and he might as well call home for someone to trailer his truck to us and pick up his wife's truck.
I then asked him if he could use a few 1 by 4 inch band aids as tape and pulled out the ones I keep in my wallet.
Then he reminded me we still needed about 8 inches mechanic's wire and I asked him if a 10 inch long 3/8 diameter spring would work and when he said yes, I rolled up my pant leg and pulled one of the support springs out of my knee brace and told him to feel free to stretch the spring out to make mechanics wire if he had to because I had already decided to replace my knee brace because the slots that held the springs in place had started to wear out from the springs flexing over the last 10 years of wear.
He looked at the collection of pieces I laid out and said for me to walk to the access restriction fence and look for some
twig plugs.
As I three pointed my way through the shoulder siding I yelled back that if I fell since I only had half the springs in my knee brace he better be willing to pick me up , he told me that he always picks up his emergency tool box if it tips over while rigging his broke ride for the trip back to civilization.
4Likes
