Awesome Truck, Sir

I was picking up my truck from the local Toyota Service Department. As I walked out to get into my truck the first young man who had talked to me about my truck when I came in said, "Awesome Truck, Sir!" I said, "Yeah. It's neat. Thanks!" and went and got into my truck.

However, for me the day was a little embarrassing. The reason for this is that something very unusual was going on with my truck. Let's go back a month or two now. I was going to visit my daughter in Portland which is about a 2 day drive from where I live. I usually stop in Mt. Shasta which is 6 or 7 hours from where I live by car or truck. I noticed my tires were wearing down early and also I noticed that likely my daughter had knocked my truck out of alignment when  she had borrowed my truck when I flew her down to drive up with me to Portland. So, I wanted to change my tires and I wanted to get my truck's front end aligned properly. So, I really didn't want to leave for Portland until I did both these things. However, there were just too many things going on with my family (we live near the SF Bay Area) so I didn't have time to do either before I left. So, unhappily I was convinced by my 24 year old daughter who I flew down from Portland to travel north with me not to change my tires and not to get my front end aligned because she needed to leave right then to arrive on the right day for a job interview in Portland. So, I finally agreed but wasn't happy about it. So, we took off and the trip was a good one. We even stopped on a warm day and drove up to Bunny Flats and saw all the climbers about to climb Mt. Shasta. Then we drove down to lower Sand Flats Road which is a dirt road I sometimes ski down to from Bunny Flats with my friends on metal edged mountaineering skis ( a type of cross country ski). But, I realized quickly I had only brought my Crocs instead of hiking boots for snowshoeing or hiking and only dress shoes which I didn't want to ruin walking through the snow. Since Crocs are basically rubber sandals, ocean water, river water or snow isn't going to hurt them at all. But I could get frostbite from all the snow that will come in the sandal holes. But, I made it to Sand Flats by every 50 feet or so kicking off my sandals full of snow and clearing them out without getting frostbite from the snow in them.

Anyway, one of the convincing points was that in Oregon there isn't any sales tax so I would save 7% to 10% of the total price of whatever tires I bought theoretically. However, when I got up there to Les Schwab tires in Portland they didn't carry Michelin tires that I tend to put on all my cars and trucks because they tend to last longer and tend to be safer than any other tire I have found. So, I had to special order them and they went and got them for me. But, you do have to pay more for them and many people aren't willing to pay extra for tires and so do with less safe and less high mileage tires as a result. The Michelin's I bought guaranteed me 55,000 miles which is pretty good for ANY pickup truck tire. But I had to pay 1400 dollars for them installed which also seemed like a lot. But it was a special order.

However, a few days after I had new tires put on I realized that I wasn't sure if my wheels were the same ones I got when I bought the truck because my wheel covers were gone and replaced now with a little plastic cap where the lug bolts were. It looked almost like I had new wheels or something. Also, the front end of the truck didn't feel right. I thought it might have been that my daughter had hit a curb with the back tire or something. So, when I returned home to California I eventually, (yesterday) took it in to try to see if the wheels were stock or standard and if one of them was bent or something. Trying to explain it to one of the service ladies they had working there seemed kind of difficult for me. I'm more used to talking to men all my life about these sorts of problems because women usually process information much different than men do. So, basically I felt sort of embarrassed with this problem because I didn't feel I was getting through to this woman what the problem actually was.

However, in the end I found out that whoever had balanced my new Michelin's had balanced them all 20% off. So, the Toyota dealership all they had to do was to rebalance all four tires and wheels again and finally the truck felt like it always had before. So, Awesome truck! And I don't have to worry now about screwing the front end up by leaving it with the problem it had too long for the damper gear to survive in the front end.

By the way these were stock Stainless steel wheels which actually are quite pretty to look at after all.

So, a huge 4 wheel drive Toyota Tundra 2011 that gets 20 miles per gallon because it has a 6 speed potentially manually shifted automatic transmission with three ranges 2wd, 4wd hi range, and 4 wheel drive low range, with all sorts of other stuff including satellite radio a folded bed cover etc. Yes! for me this truck is awesome! I love the 55,000 guaranteed miles on my new Michelin tires too.