Posted on by vrummer

Wedge and Rollback Tow Trucks: What Is Carrying Your Car When Things Run Downhill?

The rollback tow truck has saved thousands, if not millions of people’s days (and sometimes lives…). When your car breaks down you have a few options 1. Just walk away and leave it there. 2. Repair the vehicle where it sits. 3. Get it towed (it is usually a rollback that saves you here). When the rollback comes, the operator will back the truck up in line with your vehicle’s tires. Next, he will use hydraulics under the bed to slide the bed back and tip it to the ground.

They’ll find 1 or 2 secure points on the vehicle’s frame with which he will pull the car up the bed, using the winch that is present on almost all of today’s rollbacks. Once the vehicle is placed well on the bed, he will use tie-downs attached to the vehicle’s frame, wheels, or tires to makes sure it stays secure in that position on the bed.

Next, they will use the same under-bed hydraulics to raise your car back up and slide it forward.

Towing isn’t the only way rollbacks can save the day. Often, they may bring what your car needs to you. Be it a new battery, gas, or a spare tire service, your local tow company can probably help you out of a jam. Additionally, they may use that strong winch to pull your car out of the mud or snow.

No matter how they help, at the end, they’ll ask for payment, be it cash, credit, or AAA card.

Posted on by vrummer

My Cheap Daily Driver: a 2005 Chevrolet Malibu Maxx

This quality unit is my winter beater, and I am awful proud of it, for a car that cost a mere $1,000. Aside from the cheap price, it was also the newest Chevy Wagon I could find. You may think, “I bet it needed a ton of work though”. Quite the contrary! It was due for an oil change and new rear rotors and pads, but that’s about it. I did get new winter tires, as front wheel drive cars do’t tend to do well on unplowed, snow-covered roads without them. If it wasn’t for the obvious rust throughout the car’s body, the Malibu would be worth much more.

So far, the Malibu has served me very well, even though I ask a lot of it at times. I’ve already got it stuck twice. The first was in an overflow parking lot at a ski resort that turned out to be an old field. The second was off of a section of road in a blizzard. There was heavy snow in the parking lot of a former gas station that was, like the roads, unplowed. There was tracks from a large truck that almost got through, so I figured I’d make it, seeing as my vehicle weighed probably half of what his weighed.

via GIPHY

I got myself quite stuck. A passerby offered to pull me out with the tow chains I always kept in the trunk, but realized he didn’t want to be responsible for anything that broke on the vehicle when he did so. Nobody else stopped to help, so I got out the shovel I keep in the trunk and started digging. Before long, I had myself a path that would get my trusty steed out of there. I hopped in, backed up as far as I could, and hit the throttle. Sure as Surfers in California, I got out of there and headed home.

My clapped-out, rusty Chevy Wagon has served me loyally, and I intend to drive it until it catastrophically fails (or I can get my hands an a cheap 4×4 Chevy truck!).

Posted on by vrummer · 2 Comments

The Top 3 Cheap EVs you should go test drive NOW

Many in the automotive industry agree, EVs will be most or all of our transportation future. While the cars I suggest in this article may not be fast, they are very environmentally friendly and practical. They are also, as the title suggests, cheaper than you may expect.

#1: The Chevrolet Bolt- Pictured above is, in essence, a Spark with batteries and electric motors slapped under it in place of a motor. That said, It is a decent value. While It is on the expensive side, starting at $37k, it has an impressive range of about 259 miles. The Bolt could be an even better deal at the dealer, since the model will soon be refreshed, meaning that dealers will have a bit of stock left over that they’ll be eager to get off their lot.

Embed from Getty Images

#2: The Tesla Model 3- Tesla’s budget-oriented sedan keeps a profile similar in appearance to that of the Model S, its upmarket cousin. It, too, is a good value if you believe the Model S is priced well. While the 3 is about half the price, starting at $40k, it suffers only a 50 mile range decrease, with a range of 322 miles. It also would be a go-to on this list if you like touchscreens, as there is a massive slab in place of a traditional center stack that controls a large number of the car’s functions like A/C, audio playback, and others.

Embed from Getty Images

#3: The Nissan LEAF- One of the all-time best-selling EVs, the LEAF is very popular. It starts at around $32k with a maximum range of 226 miles. The only foreign automobile on this list, the LEAF comes hails from the Land of the Rising Sun.

My personal pick would be the Bolt because, as you’ve probably figured out if you read my other posts, I’m a Chevy guy. I welcome your arguments in the comment section.

Posted on by vrummer

Lotus Cars: England’s Featherweight Sports Car Champion

An Elite, pictured in a shade close to British Racing Green.

In 1952, Colin Chapman founded Lotus Cars in Hethel, England. Chapman was an aerospace engineer by day and a designer of sports cars by night. His mentality was that instead of focusing on adding power, which affects only acceleration and top speed, the automotive industry should remove weight, which improves almost all aspects of performance. This is shown in every one of his automobiles, beginning with the Lotus Elite. The Elite was incredibly light, with a fiberglass body and chassis (a steel subframe was present for the engine); it weighed a mere 1,110 pounds, proving just how dedicated Colin Chapman was to the idea that the lightest car almost always the quickest.

Cars, even the lightest among them, have become heavier over time. The Elise, pictured above, weighs almost 900 lbs more than its spiritual predecessor. Even though it weighs more than a ton, the Elise is still a lightweight car floating in a sea of lumbering, pudgy crossovers. Light cars, such as these two, perform marvelously and are more well-rounded than many others. For example, it will beat a muscle car at its own game. With a 0-60 times as low as 3.8 seconds, the Elise beats an EcoBoost 4-cyl Mustang’s (with performance package!) 0-60 time of 5.1 seconds. Light cars also do very well in turns. Some have said the Elise is so light that the suspension doesn’t even compress through a light turn, regardless of speed. Lotus has made and makes some of the lightest, fastest cars around.

Posted on by vrummer

My Story with the Chevrolet El Camino

Me as a wee lad with the maroon-on-maroon Elco (left) and Juke (right). Shockamagooder is in rear.

As a kid, my Father always had a Chevrolet El Camino, sometimes more than one at a time. Although his name was on the titles, I always called them ours. I believe that it was the years as a small child that I spent near El Caminos that formed my love for American Muscle that I still retain. One of the main things that leads me to believe this is my being told that I was using an electric sander on Bondo rust repairs at age 3 with my Father and Uncle. El Caminos came and went. One time we were driving in our Nissan Xterra, Shockamagooder, and I saw, sitting outside a doctor’s office, Maroon-on-Maroon El Camino for sale. I screamed so loud, my dad thought that I had been injured. It had aftermarket rims and the odor of an ashtray, two factors of my dad never being too crazily fond of it. We pulled over and waited two hours for its owner. He came out and the El Camino was ours within a few days, although it never received a name that I can recall. It was sold a few years later.
One El Camino always remained, Juke. Juke was a 1986 model (they were all of the fifth and final generation, years 1978-1987). It had the stock 350 C.I. engine with a Holley carburetor, which I will forever remember from the “Holley Equipped” sticker in the engine bay. Then, in June 2016, my stories with Juke ended. The engine caught fire and the block was melted, as we would find out later. The slightly rusty Holley air cleaner was off, which I still have today. Juke sat in our lawn for a while, and it was later towed to Scotty, our mechanic of many years. He had always loved Elcos as well, especially ours. He informed us of the melted block. It was sold for $1000, and he has since swapped in a 383 CI small block.
To replace Juke, we bought a 1987 Elco, which we christened Screamin’ Jay, after the blues legend. Another of my father’s passions was music, as he owned a room full of vinyl of various sizes, stereo equipment, and turntables. We have a Victrola in the living room and a jukebox in the dining room, although their functionality is touch-and-go. As clean and beautiful as Screamin’ Jay was, it can still just never fill the hole in my heart left by the car that I grew up with. When I turned 16 years old, my father gave me Screamin’ Jay. It is my secondary car; my daily driver is a manual, V6, 1999 Firebird.

Posted on by vrummer

About The Author and Why This Car Blog Exists

Hi! My name is Vincent Swinnich and I’m a life-long car enthusiast. Above is a photo from a year or two ago of me with my 1987 Chevrolet El Camino. I am a senior in high school and I attend our local BOCES for automotive technology. I am a member of both National Honor Society and National Technical Honor Society. It is my belief that I caught both the wrenching and automotive genes from my Grandpa. He wrenched on all kinds of things his whole life, although he usually only worked on cars to save his money. He taught these skills to my Uncle Bob, but my Father was rarely interested enough. My father liked cars, specifically the Chevrolet El Camino (more about Elcos in the next post…), more than them. I seem to have inherited both the wrenching and car genes from my Grandpa. It really seems to be in my blood.

I’m writing this blog for a couple of reasons. One is that I’d like to save my current opinions in an indestructible format. I would also like the literate public to know as much as possible about cars. The more the world knows about cars, the better the decisions they will make in relation to cars. They might pick a car that suits their life better, or they may buy a second car. Maybe they will find their new favorite car. Perhaps a reader will find out that their dream car can be more attainable than they expected it to be. I hope that you, the readers, will learn in this manner.