Cost of nylon ties — priceless
Published Friday, April 4, 2008
Jeffrey Hage
A ride to the office with Rides on Call: $9.
The cost of a tow: $35
Two vinyl ties: About 30 cents.
Cost of determining I needed two 30 cent ties? $111.
The value of turning my key in the ignition and hearing my engine start? Priceless.
That sums up my first winter in Fergus Falls. With the snow clear and temperatures now consist-antly above minus-20, I’d like to think I survived my first winter in Fergus Falls.
But I didn’t. Not really.
I had fits with my van all winter long that resulted in major inconveniences that affected not only me, but many of those around me.
There is nothing more disheartening than when you wander out to you vehicle in the dark before 6 a.m. in minus 20 to minus 40 degree temperatures, sit in that frozen seat, turn the key in the ignition and hear no sound at all.
That happened to me no less that eight times this winter. It started in November and continued as recently as this past Monday when the ol’ green van sat silent for what I hope was the last time this winter season.
How do you know when it’s gotten bad? When you know cab driver Vicki’s name by heart and you can get most of her phone number right without looking it up.
Those days in December spending the noon hour with our press foreman Jeff Schreiber and a pair of jumper cables were brutal. I did it a few times with photographer Zak Holtan and reporter Tom Hintgen, too.
When reporter Lauren Radomski’s car went dead earlier this winter the “Journal Guys” looked like pros getting her car running from all the experience we gained with the cables over on West Cedar Avenue.
I got to meet a new person in town — Wayne the tow truck driver. I will never forget the afternoon we slaved away in 20-below temperatures and a minus 45 degree windchill biting us in the butts. When Wayne hooked his cables up to my battery it drained all the power out of his wrecker, rendering it deader than a door knob. For a minute we had two dead vehicles on ol’ West Cedar for a while. When Wayne got his truck restarted we tried again. We killed his truck again.
Now Wayne is a real nice man, but he’s also a smart man. He was cut his ties with me while he still had a truck to drive!
Thank goodness for warranties. As of mid March I was on my fourth battery from Fleet Farm. When the van would die, the battery would never again pass it’s load test.
On Tuesday Adam and Dale Formo and the rest of the crew out at Pebble Lake Auto may have solved the mystery of my dying van for good. It wasn’t easy. It maybe even happened by accident.
Something was drawing the battery power down. It wasn’t the starter. It wasn’t the alternator. Both were in great working shape.
The Pebble Lake crew spent a full day testing various electronic components one-by-one, searching for the voltage-drawing culprit —- but to no avail.
We had decided we might install a switch that would force me to manually engage the battery each time I wanted to drive by opening the hood and moving a lever. But Adam Formo knew that would be a pain in the butt.
So in a last-ditch effort to find a solution a mechanic sat outside the van watching a voltage meter while Adam took a seat in the vehicle.
When he closed the door, the voltage meter spiked.
It appears that when my door would close it would hit the electronic controls that adjust the various aspects of my seat.
I must fess up that it’s casing had cracked years ago and leaned a bit towards the door.
So, with two 30-cent nylon ties, Adam pulled that casing together and away from the door.
I now look at those ties and smile because even though you can buy a couple of dozen of the for a buck at any dollar store, to me they really are priceless.
Jeff Hage is the managing editor of the Daily Journal. He can be reached at jeff.hage@fergusfallsjournal.com.