Little Things You Do To Make Things Last.

My grandpa told me when backing up, always come to a complete stop before shifting into drive. Don't cheat, not even a little.

 

White lithium spray grease all things that have a hinge. Doors, hood, gas cap, wipers, seat backs.....

 

I guess I’ll be the black sheep here.
I don’t do anything other than regular maintenance. There was a time when I’d go out of my way to do extra stuff.
They all break if you use them enough.

I do try to make it a habit to have the blower speed switch locked in its notch.
With the failure rate of the resistors and burnt harness connection, I figure it can hurt?

So far mine has hung in there.
I don’t even like talking about it.

 

I'm sure you mean like the hinges, but I just had this vision of someone absolutely soaking the back of their seats with white lithium grease.

 

Regular oil changes and maintenance using quality filters. Krown (or fluid film etc) to keep rust at bay. Keeping the interior clean (amazing how much crud can accumulate and can prematurely age a vehicle). Use it, but treat it with respect.

Cheers.

 

The first job I had was detailing cars at a used car dealership. You’d be surprised at the things people do. Definitely not one of the jobs I enjoyed.

 

Same. I like to spray the grease onto my gloved fingers and just manually work it into the hinges. That stuff shoots out and splashes chaotically sometimes.

 

Turn off the stereo and listen to the truck, note any unusual vibrations and determine if they are driving surface or vehicle related...then hunt them down and fix them!
Drive intelligently, smooth everything...shifting/steering/braking. Avoid potholes, especially at speed.
And as mentioned, Fluids, Tire Rotation, Rust treatment. Good thread.

 

Not modifying my truck lol. Saves money and headache

 

Repainting my KB Voodoo rack every six months! HA

 

... as someone who used to have a KB Voodoo rack.

 

Don't know whether to be more impressed with the spreadsheet or the likely prospect that you actually do all of this! Got one important thing: "Italian tuneup." One practice I can definitely follow through with!

 

Lots of good points in here. People who slam doors drive me up a wall haha

Same. AC & defroster off, blower motor on low, headlights / radio / other accessories off etc.

On a similar note I always try to turn the AC / defroster off a few minutes before I park in an effort to eliminate that nasty smell the next time I drive.

 

undercarriage rinse after off-roading and interior vacuum after every camping trip. Dust kills.

 

I thought the maintenance tracker I created would result in my every weekend being dedicated to maintenance. Turns out that isn't the case at all. With as much as I drive, a new 1500 mile interval occurs every 4-6 weeks, meaning I have plenty of heads-up to schedule maintenance time. Most of the frequent tasks are dead easy, just checking tire pressure and operating the truck in 4WD.

 

It is smart and responsible. With a bit of foresight, it sounds like it actually makes things easier. But then... human nature.

 

Modern cars do a lot of this stuff for you (turning the AC off to start)

I do:
On time/frequent fluid changes with quality products
Keep everything clean
Keep hidden from sunlight (garaged, windshield sunshade, wax)
drive carefully till warm
listen for noises and investigate/repair
regular maintenance

 

Honestly, I'm a lazy dude when it comes to vehicles. When I got the truck back in February of this year, I knew damn well I'd only obsess over it for 12 months tops. I figured if I was gonna do anything extra to help it last a long time, I had a 12 month window to pull it off. So I immediately set to planning out maintenance and tasteful mods while it's still my latest, greatest shiny thing. It's a lot easier to glance at a pre-set maintenance schedule than to try and remember what needs doing and when.

Link to my actual maintenance schedule below. I dumped over 100 hours into developing it, which is a perfectly acceptable up-front time expenditure considering no one gets 500k miles on their odometer by accident.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O1FSmqq8A4d6KiA-Cu0pbEdtY9qbhPzd/view?usp=sharing

 

Your shitboxes had ac? Jealous

 

Ha, yeah, it would be like baby oil on the air mattress, fun but messy.