Wisconsin Tacomas and bad financial advice

He wuz. IIRC, his boss talked him into finding a more profitable future.

 

I'm late but if it ain't clogged from the cabin filter, build-up in the cowl, or the cowl plastic itself being mis-aligned or warped, then it might be the AC drain. Toyota makes a cleaning kit you spray in from the drain hose, part number

$43 00289-ACRKT Toyota AC Refresher KIT

00289-ACRKT.

Daaaaaaang lookin fancy there. Very nice.

I'll regurgitate what others have said. I'm Team Red with Milwaukee but used to be with DeWalt. Not ashamed to use either, they are definitely the top two dawgs in the game but rest are catching up quick. Craftsman is owned by DeWalt and more or less has same guts inside. Rigid is no slouch, and for home gamers Ryobi shouldn't be overlooked, they may give the best value dollar per dollar out there. Hazard Fraught is surprisingly catching up in this arena too. Makita is not bad by any means but they aren't the Makita of the olden days (sadly because I liked them before too). You probably can't go wrong just don't buy Kobalt because they tend to kill off product lines.

YouTube channel Torque Test does tons of comparisons and science-y things, mostly on impacts but also drills and drivers. Their ratings tend to align with what we have all said. But again if you aren't beating on them every day you probably can't go wrong. Light years ahead of that existing drill you have (I used to have same one, what a difference the new stuff makes).

 

Little Fat Gretchen’s in Waupaca is the BOMB. Highly recomended

 

Not a typical diner with watered down coffee and dirty forks?
(also the bomb, btw. )

Now I want biscuits and gravy.

 

Boss unloaded 5 of us by surprise on March 1.

Since then, 7 others have quit due to his Winnie the Pooh style of running things, and with the CDK system hack that started Wednesday, the whole place can't run and is in shambles.

My certs are still good, and I still do Toyota work. It's just ... On the side now.

 

Mobile Shop.
All the people that don't want to bring their vehicle to the shop to find out what that clank, clunk, gurgle or burp is.
You can bring the shop to them.
At home diagnostics and repair.
$$$$$.
(or a fittingly bad decision, either way...)

 

I'm about 50/50 on people willing to pay a half decent rate for at home work (way cheaper than a shop, but everyone wants stuff for free)

 

I think we're always going to have that.

 

Come to our outings and we’ll keep you very busy!

 

Trust me, I'd love to. Gotta get finances back in on track.

Getting promoted to customer came at the same time as

Rent hike
Property tax settlement (state deleted my account, still said I owed and charged late fees, even though I had no way to pay. Took about 3 months of back and forth to get it ironed out. Then the bills came )
Unemployment claim denied, so zero income in March. Started new job April 1st, first check didn't hit until the 24th.

Plus.... Single dad life.

On the bright side, I get 6 weeks PTO and 13 holidays a year, so I'll plenty of time to go on adventures.... Just no money for gas/food/broken parts lmao

I am still doing ATR at Windrock this Labor Day weekend. Y'all want wheeling.... That is some serious wheeling. And mild wheeling. And funny wheeling. And full stomach wheeling. And good time wheeling. And massive raffle wheeling. And.....

 

Damn.
Life threw you the people's elbow.

 

I tried doing the mobile mechanic thing for awhile in Maryland after I left being a Nissan tech and everyone wants you to do it on the cheap. I charged $65/hr labor rate when every other shop was over $100/hr and they still bitched. Mobile work isn't worth it. They either bring it to you or take it to the shop

 

Plus hauling tools and stuff around. I told a customer two weeks ago that I add $15 to the ticket if I have to drive to them (less than 20 miles) and you'd have thought I just banged the guys wife. Dude clears $120k, his wife clears nearly $80k, but oh boy I add $15 because I'm traveling to them and it's the end of the world.

 

Nice! Looks like a good all around tire.

 

Right?! I charged a $30 call out fee for gas and 1hr diag fee if they buy the fix and they would lose their minds

 

Also does anyone know where I can get those horn relocation brackets that you can mount the ARB manifold on?

 

No one liked my parts matrix either.

10% over (rounded up to nearest dollar) if I get it

No parts charge if you get it and it's correct

20% over if you get it and I have to go swap it out for the correct one.

People kept saying they could get it cheaper and I said by all means.... Good luck.

 

Sounds fair to me.

Try finding a shop to put on parts that you already bought...
In my experience they don't like to.

One that stands out in my head.
I bought the parts. Realized I didn't have the proper tools in hand. (they were out of town) and needed someone to put them on.
After calling around to several places that wouldn't.
The last shop I called put it on but still didn't want to and they get their parts from the exact same place I did.

 

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