Featured Technical Getting Stranded

I've been there. I am sure most of you have been there. we like antiquated technology its going to happen. The unfortunate part for me is that I live in a modern world with these wonderful modern "conveniences" and as much as my 26 year old self would enjoy living my life like its the age before the internet and smartphone that is no longer really doable. I've had AAA in the past, they have let me down multiple times prior. Believe it or not I cannot say I have enjoyed being stuck in a parking lot for 8 hours straight while being told the tow is "in dispatch" and will arrive in 15 minutes. Its not exactly like that has a been a one time experience for me either. being told that a tow is too "long distance" as they put it, for a Sunday because I am over 20 miles from my house is also what I would call suboptimal. AAA isn't going to pay me back for the fact that i then had to wait a week and rent a trailer myself to retrieve my car too.

Maybe its just bad luck. Maybe I just need to not drive my car more than 10 minutes from my home on Sundays and be mentally prepared to fork it over for tow bills when its a different day of the week.

Last incident I have had I lucked out and was about 2 minutes from a friend's house and flat towed it back to there... but I like driving my ****, I feel locked up right about now with how my luck has been in the past. what is your opinions out there? I am sure many of you are much wiser and more experienced with such occasions.
Thanks much!

 

I have been stranded surprisingly few times, considering the **** I've been driving for decades.

And I've lucked out many times, having a car **** out in a place where I can manage to fix it, or get a ride, or whatever.

maintenance is under rated, btw.

 

maintenance is a very important part of ownership for sure, hoping with the current project I really have the bugs worked out of finally since the car sat for a solid 15 years before I bought it... I still question if i should trust it or not though lol

 

Triple A has been 20 minutes away a couple times, and has left me on the side of the road for over 4 hours a couple times. I finally called an independent, but Triple A did reimburse.

 

A lot of tow road side plains are back up when tow companies have No work ,
Tow make more $$ on regular tows vs what plain pay .
Even if the tow on the way to pick you up , they get a more paying tow you get bumped .

 

I also carry a spare, jack, & tire tools now. Also carry $12 harbor freight tow strap.

 

This isn't the 1st time I have heard this. I can't say I blame the tow companies. They gotta make their money at the end of the day... still its quite frustrating to say the least when the thing I paid annually for fails at the thing I really had them for.

I'm definitely more in the habit of bringing tools with me... I really need to invest in one of those little harbor freight aluminum jacks or something similar honestly. lugging my steel 3.5 tonner in and out of my car is a m***ive pain in the ***.

 

I have pictures of all my cars on rollbacks. Kinda our family album as it were.

 

When you get the hot rod out, travel with family or friends. Makes breaking down much more fun when they can tell the story later. My wife has a framed photo of me adding gas on my car’s first long trip. I found out the gauge wasn’t so accurate.

 

It pays to have friends with car hauling trailers. Do you have a car club local to you?
Try to make sure everything is in good shape - not a guarantee, even brand new stuff quits occasionally- repair anything that is questionable or have a plan.
Dan

 

It's the other way round ........ Everybody with a car hauling trailer seems to have friends

 

For me, When a problem happened I would call a local tow service, explain what I needed, including 1x a flat bed that could tow my box trailer behind it. I can say, never a problem, always good service and met good people to get me back on the road at a fair price, good/great service. I have heard and read many horror stories about travel problems. I chased racing 21 years, 200 K guessing, as a kid with my parents, maybe 40 K and at least another 250 K just traveling with my family, 500 mile round trip to our seasonal home, 15/20x year, 18 years, now our residence, 6 years seasonal home in Az. 4K round trip plus chasing car shows, cruises, etc. Soooo, my point is I've spent Many miles up/down the road and **** happens, trailer problems, tow vehicle, DD, SUVs PU trucks Etc.. Surprisingly my new/newer vehicles were the ones on the flatbeds, To this day I have not had one bad experience, my HAMB cars never let me down. 2 weeks ago I took my winter OT to the dump and it died, $170 to get it home, a 10 mile flatbed ride, I've got part of a electrical problem fixed, looking/testing for rest of the problem, this time not lucky enough to be simple fix, have a real mechanic friend coming over to help out as electrical is my weakness. NSRA or GoodGuys gave you a travel help book with phone numbers if you broke down, you volunteered your number. I was called a few times and sent them to somebody that could help, myself never had to call. I do not know if this is still available. Back in the day, no cell phone, Today When I travel, cell phone, Miss Garmin, cash and a credit card, all is good, our new vehicles have built in GPS systems.

 

Good advice.
I've belonged to the Triple Cities Street Rod club for over 50 years and can't tell you how many times a fellow club member has "rescued" me...or how many times I've rescued a fellow club member.
JOIN A CLUB.

 

You need to have a couple tow truck company phone numbers in your phone or wallet. 20 miles from home is basically a local tow.

 

Been there.

 

I’ve driven hot rods all my life as daily drivers and 9 times out of 10 if they break down it’s because of something stupid that I did. And when they do break I have a group of friends that if they were not with me they were close by to help if I needed them.

Now last month my wife’s GMC that is only 4 years old and less than 16,000 miles let me down about a mile from my house. WTF!?!? It was a fuel pump control module that gave up the ghost and was under warranty but I still had to call my neighbor with a flatbed to come get my monkey ****. According to the service advisor at the dealership it’s time for the electronics to start going bad and I might need to buy a new one.

Case in point being that out of all my cars it’s the hot rods that are the most reliable and I can always depend on them.

 

The way I look at it is even new 2020 something’s are seen everyday on a flatbed or stranded.
We drive our cars wherever we want and have had a few issues some remote and had to push one car 1/2 miles down the road to be within the tow radius.
Also been there doing some roadside repairs to get another rodders car to safe area or on the road.

 

Oh yeah another thing is that when you’re on the road and far away from home you can always rely on the HAMB to come help you out. With all the members we have there’s usually one close by that has a garage and tools that can get you back on the road again.

 

You are far better off being on good terms with a local tow driver. Mine came through a buddy who owns a shop. He's moved cars for me, hauled away junk cars. He will work outside of his normal hours for good customers.

 

I really need to, I don't know why I haven't yet... Maybe its time to find out how to join the Ty Rods.

 

It really does pay to have a friend with a car hauler.
Especially when I paid for the two new tires on the front of his truck, and they wound up being for free because COSTCO never charged me for them and I have the exact paper work that said the new tires were returned, and that has been over a year and a half ago.
Sometimes the Universe gets it right!
Your results may vary greatly!

​

 

Happens,too any car at some point!
My Bobtailed 28Ar w Thunderbird Y,my storage is small behind seat****=, Some tools*,extra nuts n bolts,rope{tow],small X jack, Fix-a-Flat,plug kit,zip bag of carb parts{ 4x2],zip bag points con,fuses,bulbs.tarp w bungee.car sign for shows an Rod story info sheet,e**tra hat*,cleaner ,polish an clean rags. small 12V air pump,Fire X,Flashlight . ; other small odds n ends.
Most of the time I'm driving along with one other or more rods,more often then not,some of the **** behind my seat,helps them too. !

 

I love me some Costco but never had any deals like that!! They do have unreal prices on their batteries almost a 1/3 of what the parts stores charge

 

You know what’s funny is that I don’t carry any spares, tools or anything like that in my hot rods. Truth be known that half the time there’s no room because of roll cages, fuel cells, and nitrous bottles but the one time I had tools the alternator went out on it when I was driving to Ohio

 

Fix it
Drive it

 

When it happens, I can usually make a field expedient repair to limp home. I had to be towed twice in 45 years, the first was a timing chain failure and the second was ignition related. Minnesota winters are pretty long which allows plenty of time for proactive maintenance.

 

Don't bother with AAA. Just call a local tow company and pay up when needed. Stay up on maintenance so that those times are limited.

 

The first thing I will say is to drive your HAMB friendly cars as much as possible, don’t worry too much about the slight chance of ending up on a wrecker.

I always carry a few extra parts and tools, and that has saved me on multiple occasions. Spare V-belts, fuel pump, ignition coil, always. On longer trips I carry a spare alternator and a complete distributor/ ignition system. And af course enough tools to change these things.

My high school auto teacher told me to never leave the house without a test light. Great advice. In addition, I always carry a four foot long jumper wire. That has saved me and others multiple times.

 

Occasional break down on the road are very much traditional.

 

Guess i'll never understand folks that build these things and then have to have 'em towed or otherwise brought home. That's part of the "build" process, you learn by failure. No? I worked at NASA for over 10 years--think everything went perfect there? The great feeling is the day you take it, go where you want and everything goes perfect---except you'll find something to "fix" later--every time!!