Sometimes we need a helping hand, someone to hold the light or hand us a wrench at the right moment. Measuring just 1-9/16″ in diameter and 3-3/4″ high, Magswitch’s Power Hook can hold up to 25 lbs safely as long as it’s stuck to at least 1/4″ thick steel. It won’t replace a helper in all situations — but it doesn’t need coffee breaks either.
If you charged your A/C system not too long ago and it’s still anemic, you might want to look at this UV leak detector. In addition to the A/C it’ll find leaks in any of your car’s fluid systems, including hydraulics, and it can really save you some headaches. If you’ve ever chased a leak you couldn’t find, you’ll immediately see the value.
Street pricing for the TP1121 universal kit starts at $50, a reasonable price considering the time you’ll save.
LeakFinder Kit [Tracerline]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]
A fender roller is your last, best hope for fitting over-sized wheels and tires. Why? It flattens out the bit of sheet metal sticking out horizontally from the wheel-well lip, giving you another few millimeters of space inside the fender.
Best of all, Eastwood is offering their quite sturdy and functional-looking model for $200 today. Sure, that’s not pocket change (for we poor bloggers at least), but it’s chump change compared to what the body shop’ll charge you to straighten and repaint your fender after you jack it up with a hammer.
PS: If you’re wondering how this thing works, there’s a video on the page linked below.
Fender Roller [Eastwood]
Next time you’re changing your duallies, you might find that a wrench-support stand comes in handy. It helps you apply more torque and keeps the tool squarely on the lug nuts when removing or replacing a tire — especially when using a longer tool like a double-end truck wrench, a four-way lug wrench, or a torque wrench with an extension.
This commercial-duty wrench-support stand from Ken-Tool adjusts from 14-1/2″ to 22-1/2″ high and runs about $40.
Wrench-Support Stand [Ken-Tool]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon(B000TXVMX2) [What’s This?] [What's This?]
When I think of tire-inflation testing, my mind boggles with scenes of massive blowouts — breaking S#!$ is so much fun! I’m sure the tire-retreading industry keeps spectacular failures to a minimum, but the shielding on the machine tells me they’re not impossible.
Here you’re looking at the car-tire-inflation tester — the truck-tire version is a bit *heftier*. Despite my love of destruction, I find it reassuring to think that retread tires might actually be tested before they get reused on the highway, driving alongside my car.
Tire-Inflation Tester [Matteuzzi]
My beloved Honda Civic was stolen earlier this week from my driveway — the picture above shows what was left of it when the cops found it. I’ll forever wonder: If I had invested in some kind of anti-theft tool for my car, would it be the stripped-down wreck it is now? So, for those of you without an anti-theft device for your car, Summit Racing is selling this Gorilla Grip 3 steering wheel lock for $53.
Made from cut-proof hardened steel, the lock fits on any steering wheel and locks in place in seconds. It also features a built-in 130-dB siren and flashing LED lights to attract attention. You deactivate and remove the lock with a key.
I hope you never experience having your car stolen — it SUCKS!
Gorilla Grip 3 [Summit Racing]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]
The recent spike in fuel costs is hitting tradesmen right in the bottom line. Plumbers, masons, drywall installers — and all the other professionals who require a full-size truck to bring home the bacon — are feeling the pinch. All is not lost, though; these three simple changes in driving style and vehicle maintenance can yield appreciable gains in fuel economy.
Automotive engineers are updating car security every year — and every year locksmiths figure out how to defeat those same security measures, because some of us are prone to locking our keys in our cars. High Tech Tools has compiled a catalog of security defeat instructions for every make and model of car, and they also design tools to help locksmiths collect their emergency lockout fees. Of all the interesting specialized tools in their catalog, I thought this one was especially fun: the glow-in-the-dark long-reach tool.
Sure, DIY truck-bed liners can protect your truck-bed interior, but they can also protect lots of other stuff, from industrial machinery to that functional but ugly toolbox you picked up at the flea market. You can also apply bed liner to surfaces that need to be non-slip, like helipads. Regardless of which brand you go with, you’re getting the same basic product: a polyurethane base, usually color-tinted, with recycled tire chunks suspended within. It sticks to nearly anything, even itself, making for easy repairs.
So have any of you found extraordinary uses for this stuff? How has it held up in your truck bed? Tell us about it in the comments.
Durabak [Official Site]
Herculiner [Official Site]
Lava-Liner [Official Site]
I’m sure you’ve all noticed that the price of gasoline here in America hasn’t just risen — it’s skyrocketed. But I wonder if you’ve thought about how much this affects the working people of America — and the working people of the South even more. If you live in the Northeast, you can commute. You can take public transportation. If you’re a contractor or handyman in Texas, you’re just plain screwed. You drive a truck — not because you think it’s cool, but because you damn well need one to haul your s#!$. And even the most carefully-designed trucks get downright s#!tty mileage. Even more noticeably, if you work in an area like the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, you likely drive your ass off to span the huge work area you’ve got to cover.
The bottom line is that while other people can trade in their stupidly-excessive Hummers and Escalades for Hondas, working people who actually need a truck are taking a hit in the wallet that’s extreme, ugly, and not fair.
And God forbid you own a diesel, you poor sucker.
While we see dozens of new alternatives coming down the road in the next few years for people-hauling commuters, what’s in store for working people who still need to tow and haul? Don’t the automotive designers realize that if they expect to have a damn toilet installed for under $1,000 they’re going to have to figure out a way for the freakin’ workman to get to their house for less than $100?
Let’s get with it, folks. We need some trucks that get decent mileage — and still work for a living!
(Thanks, David Hudson, for the kick-ass photo.)
Dust/grease caps aren’t always easy to remove, and if you damage one and don’t replace it, you’re in for a world of hurt, because water will find its way into your hub and destroy your bearings. Next time you service your bearings, don’t grab a screwdriver — grab a tool designed for the job, like the Oldforge grease cap remover.
Like any of you who’ve already discovered the usefulness of AllData’s auto manual service for DIYers, we got an email today indicating that they’re upping their fees. The new fees: $27/year for your first vehicle, $17 for additional vehicles, and $17 for all renewals. That’s a $2 price increase.
But even with the price jump, I’m planning on keeping my subscription. AllData’s manuals have proven extremely helpful in troubleshooting electrical issues and taking on major repair tasks, often offering information above and beyond factory or other aftermarket manuals.
If you’re planning on keeping a car a long time — or if you know you’ll be working on a single make/model a lot — you can always try their three-year pricing: $45 first vehicle, $30 additional vehicles and renewals. That’s pretty low-buck.
ALLDATAdiy.com [Corporate Site]
Greasing the front end of your vehicle can be so frustrating sometimes, you just want to give up and bring it to your mechanic. Automakers obviously weren’t thinking about serviceability when they designed some of these vehicles. Thexton feels your pain, so they designed the Lube Tube to help you reach those impossible-to-reach fittings.
Most of us dutifully change our vehicle’s oil more or less at the recommended interval — your car might even throw a dummy light if it thinks it needs a change. But for the true maintenance fanatic, the IntelliStick will tell you the chemical state of your engine lubricant at any given time, via your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone, PDA, or computer.
There’s so much crap stuffed into a modern engine compartment, sometimes you have to take things apart just to reach the frickin’ battery — and then there’s not enough room to get your hands around the battery to pull it out. In this situation, a battery lifter can save the day. We’ve posted about EZ Red’s Top Post Battery Lifter, but how do you handle a battery with side terminals? You grab their side battery lifter.
If time isn’t an issue with your flat tire, and if you already own an air compressor with a standard air chuck, then this $5 kit will let you repair six tires. In addition to being cheap-ass, these kits won’t send your tires out of balance enough to notice, and they provide a permanent fix.
While the Dash-Surfer might look like the unholy union of an ironing board and a piece of exercise equipment, you’ll immediately appreciate the utility of the thing if you’ve ever spent any length of time working under a dashboard. Without any support, the kneeling and twisting can turn into a real pain in the neck, back, shoulders, etc. The Dash-Surfer provides a level and stable surface to lie down on while working under the dash, eliminating the stress and strain of the more conventional method.
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