Not to awful long ago I sat in the cab of a brand new Toyota Tundra. Nice truck but I wasn't feeling 40K worth of happy. I was like "really?"

So I keep driving my old Tundra which was brand new, that is over a decade and 280,000 miles ago. No problems mechanically however and only a year ago I put a new timing belt on (talk about driving on borrowed time). But still thats starting to get a heap of miles.

So when I put in at Leano EP in Woodland Caribou I had a slight pause. An EP which is not much used and a solid 2 hour drive from blacktop. What could possibly go wrong?

I was in for about 2 weeks and got back in the late afternoon and wanted a real bed and a shower. Only one problem, when I turned the key I got zip, as in nada, nothing. Was I concerned......only very slightly. I thought ahead and had brought along a spare 12 volt battery fully charged. While I was removing one of the cables I noticed it wasn't as tight as it should be and tightened it and fired her up.

Just something to consider. I like those portable power packs as well and have had to use them once when I left the lights on in a place where I wasn't going to get a jump. They do work but need some monitoring to make sure they stay up.

In the "old days", I remember more than once being sure to park my vehicle with a manual transmission on a hill so I could "push-start" it if needed.

"Just something to consider. I like those portable power packs as well and have had to use them once when I left the lights on in a place where I wasn't going to get a jump. They do work but need some monitoring to make sure they stay up." 

I only bother to recharge mine maybe once a year, before a trip or before hunting season.  It is S.O.P. to have that in the truck, even in my F-150 which is standard trans.  before I got the jump starter, I have had to manually winch my truck backwards up a small hill 30 yards, to get enough
elevation for a starting run (which was a lot of work - lucky it started on the first try) - since I've had the jump starter, I've never needed to use it though.

My  F-150 (my main hunting truck) has 190K on it; my Dodge has 250K.  one reason I have not upgraded is that its really hard to find a newer used truck that is standard trans, not extended cab and full 8' box - they don't seem to make a plain jane pu anymore.  my best rruck ever was my '82 F-150, 4 on the floor with granny gear, straight six, no accessories - had over 308K on the original clutch and engine, and driving slow, I could get 20mpg - sure wished I had that back.  Damn, now I'm going to cry!

I bought a fixer-upper house and have a renter living in it. Got a call last week, he said around 10pm all the lights flickered, bulbs popped, and circuit breakers tripped.  I went over the next morning and we turned on one breaker, current flickers, and a light bulb popped. I suspected somehow the 120V circuits were getting 220.

Called an electrician and the problem was just that one of the wires coming out of the meter box had a bad connection.  So I learned a bad connection can do more than just cut power, it can do all kinds of weird things.