Profile For Plot Twist!

Ah, yeah, I've never had to worry about that with mine since the body is so solid, and I check the engine bay for any critters before starting it if it's been sitting. (And the wheel wells for any cats, especially in the winter.)

I am my car's primary mechanic. It's gas, and OBD-I. Most of the important things on it are purely mechanical in nature.

Rule of thumb I use is I try to start my car at least once a month even when it's not in use, idle it for a while, let it warm up, move it around in the driveway even if it's not street legal at the time for whatever reason (my insurance lapsed for a few months, for example). Back it in if it was parked straight, or vice versa, etc. (That last bit's just a trick to let the landlords know that yes, the car is operational.)

The whole idea is to get the fluids cycling and move the axles around a bit. Beyond that, cars really don't care unless they have something wrong with them. And I've let it go two months before without any problems, though it doesn't make me happy.

I think once I get into trucking properly I'll either start using storage treatment on my gas or I'll keep the tank low and drain it every six months or so and put fresh in. Gas slowly turns into varnish as it ages, and the results are not pretty. Probably give it an oil change every six months as well even with all that sitting, because oil also degrades even when not in use, and my car is my baby. I take good care of it. I'm its second owner, it still has most of its original factory parts, and I slapped the 200,000 mile marker on the butt a while back with no signs of any troubles on the horizon.

I can't make recommendations on what car to get though, as I've only ever owned this one car and it's definitely a niche vehicle.

I actually take it as a good sign that I'm equal parts terrified... and equal parts dying to know the trick to it.

I guess terrified's the wrong word. "I have a healthy respect for the problem at hand" just isn't as succinct!

Yeah, I noticed all that! Looks pre-tty terrifying to me.

I can use my phone as a hot spot for nothing extra. It just uses my data. When I had Boost they charged $10/mo for hot spot. I don't know all the plans Boost has now.

I'm on AT&T and can turn on a secured wifi network hotspot via my phone. Tried it to see if it worked and yep, it even claimed it was checking my plan and then it just... worked. Verified it by connecting to it briefly from a tablet.

This was on a rooted android, though. A 2013 Moto X to be specific. Dunno if that makes a difference or if I'd be able to enable it even on a phone I bought directly from them and never rooted. (Perish the thought! I don't know if I could stand to use an un-rooted phone for anything besides spare parts...)

Maybe it's my lack of a CDL (let alone experience with backing into docks) talking, but man, that looks like such a mess...

Lurking furiously to see what solutions folks have.

Here's a weird question... if you have to un-learn your habits as a manual driver to drive truck, how badly do you mess up your car on home time?

My Little Jack is a 5-speed manual transmission, I hope decades of driving it will keep it second nature! lmao

Saw someone mention Red Viking Trucker could quit trucking and go into motivational speech? So true, lmao. Also, his smile is just infectious (in a good way, lol).

For better or for worse, these are the trucking channels I currently have subscribed to:

(In the order my subscriptions list has them in.)

The First Crew (American Truck Simulation videos, but he's using the game to try to teach backing)

jimmy cox (Also someone focused on backing maneuvers, though with paper and a model most of the time.)

Allie Knight

Junior Honduras

TheRightBrotha

PinkBabyDoll

trucker Brown

Smart-Trucking.com

sberger6604

J Canell

Mr.Sinnizter DaTrucker

Randee Lewis

Red Viking Trucker (He of the infectious smile.)

B Smoove Make Money

Red Head Trucker

Possibly lost a few in cutting out the not-related ones.

I admit some of them are more for entertainment value than information value, but whatever right? I may even make my own if I make it out there.

I come here for most of my serious research.

I favorited Daniel B's video when it was posted before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1A2A8edXrA

Yeah. Seems like that's what the bounce issue is going to boil down to.

But, the only way to know if there was a more definitive answer was to either wait and see, by which time it might be too late, or to ask.

So, I asked. XD Thanks everyone who replied!