vehicle – A Darker View

The Right Vehicle for the Job

This old Land Cruiser had it’s issues… You had to jiggle the gearshift to get the vehicle into reverse. If you rolled the driver’s window up all the way it would roll itself right back down again. The key would only work one side up in the lock despite it looking exactly the same on both sides. It rattled and clattered alarmingly on rough roads. And I loved it.

That old Toyota Land Cruiser was just the right vehicle for the job.

Through the mud and ruts, up the side of a mountain, through thunderstorms and washed out roads, across an entire country… This green beast got me there. With this vehicle I enjoyed experiences that will become memories treasured for a lifetime.

Dumped

Photographing some of the gulches, waterfalls, streams, and historic bridges on the old Mamalahoa Highway near Onomea I note that these jungle gulches were often used as dumping spots for cars and trucks.

Numerous engine blocks, frames, tires and axles can be seen in several streams. Most of the vehicles appear to be mid-twentieth century, the remains well weathered by the elements. An engine block among the boulders, an axle protruding from the brush.

One or two? More than that… Just below the bridge at Hanawi there is an entire cliff face made of vehicles, the rusting frames making up the whole side of the gulch. The Jeep grill protruding just above the stream made a interesting photo…

A pile of old vehicles dumped in a jungle gulch

Vehicle Maintenance

Given the rather high cost of auto service in the islands I tend to do the basic and easy stuff myself. Oil changes, brake pads, even the occasional wheel bearing.

The vehicle up on axle stands while replacing the sway bar links

When I did that bearing I noted the brakes were just fine and the new brake pads ordered at the same time had remained sitting on the shelf.

There the pads have sat for over two years. So a week ago I inspect the brakes again and find out the brakes are fine.

The sway bar links?

Not so much.

Another Milestone

You do not see milestones on modern highways. In the US they have been replaced by green, metal markers that number the miles you have traveled. Of course modern vehicles have odometers counting away those miles, distance and years put behind us in the many little journeys of life. Back and forth to work, around the island, daily routine and explorations. In a good life those miles represent both the mundane and little adventures.

I put well over 200,000 miles on my last vehicle. The new vehicle? Purchased with 78,000 miles already on the odometer, thus I can only claim the last 22,000 as mine alone. But this was a Keck fleet vehicle, I put a smattering of the previous 78,000 miles on this truck, either driving or riding up and down the mountain.

Odometer at 100,000 — The odometer of the 2006 Ford Explorer at 100,000 miles