Where are my f******n pliers?

trikebubble

Senior Member
Joined
May 25, 2017
Messages
273
Last month on our way north to the Arctic I had a (recently serviced/replaced) cv boot clamp break on my truck. We were about 100km from Whitehorse when we heard a strange noise and noticed the grease flying about under the truck. I pulled into a coffee shop parking lot (in the middle of the Alaska Highway nowhere-ville it seemed) and figured I could at least temporarily remove the boot, re-pack the grease, and limp into Whitehorse to get it "professionally" looked at and dealt with.

Much to my surprise, when I started looking through the 100 pounds of tools I had brought along on our great northern adventure, I quickly realized I had no pliers at all. None, nada, not a one-pair. I must have neglected to put them back in my tool pack after a final pre-trip check-over before we left on our journey (My pre-trip check over apparently did not include a pre-trip tool check over). I did have pretty much everything else I could have needed in my tool pack. I very probably could have Magyver'd up a rocket ship with all the tools and accoutrements that I carried (so long as pliers weren't required).

Anyhoo, I strolled anxiously into this little coffee shop and inquired as to where the closest service station was. A local overheard me, popped his head out of his booth and offered to help a guy out. He agreed to drive the1/2 hour required back to his house and bring me some pliers so I could get myself sorted out and we could get on with getting on.
Upon his return, He presented 3 pairs of pliers and handed them over. I was able to remove the one other good clamp (with the pliers you see), re-pack the boot, then use the gear clamps from my shock reservoirs, zip-ties, bailing wire, and electrical tape to temporarily secure the cv boot back in place. Meanwhile, our good Samaritan had to get moving along, so he simply said "keep the pliers I have lots at home". (Funny I thought, as so did I).

We limped successfully into Whitehorse, located and went to the Toyota dealer and had them check everything over for the possibility of a dreaded mechanical failure. After four nail-biting hours, they checked it all over and under, re-packed the grease, re-installed the cv boot with the proper clamps, and agreed all was OK in the land of cv axles. We then went on our merry way, stopping immediately in at Canadian Tire where I purchased 4 shiny new pairs of differing pliers for my (now hopefully complete) tool kit. As our good Samaritan had mentioned he was heading Dawson City, I figured I'd be easily be able to find him and return the 3 pairs pliers to their rightful owner at that time.

So now we were traveling North on our adventure with 7 pairs of pliers. I am quite sure that at this point any pliers requiring issue we could happen upon would have been easily and successfully dispatched with.
Later that afternoon we found and pulled into a most excellent wooded campsite for the evening, where we got ourselves settled in. As always, one of the first priorities is to take the dogs for their required and mandatory walk in the forest so they can stretch their legs and check their pee-mail.
As we were strolling up a random nondescript overgrown deer/human pathway on this rocky ledge I noticed something laying in the shrubbery beside the trail. I bent over, took a much closer look and to my surprise Murphy had left a special gift for me........Yes, a pair of perfectly good operational (albeit a little rusty) pliers were laying there half hidden, smirking up at me.

The moral of my tale is this; go check your tool kit and make sure you have the adequate number of pliers for whatever adventure you next depart on. And oh yes, we never did locate our Pliers Saviour, and Good Samaritan in Dawson City so we traveled the remaining 6000km of our journey with 8 pairs of pliers along for the ride.
 

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T B

You were blessed to have encountered the wandering plier man....a human willing and able to help another.

I have heard of him and once saw his shadow.

David Graves

"It is far easier to fix anothers' flat tire than ones own" Hipocratees
 
Something like....
"Loan a man a tool and he'll be back tomorrow to borrow it again,
GIVE the man that tool and he'll hopefully let you sleep in tomorrow and leave you alone"

I hope I got that right....

Anyhoo….the WWII jeeps were rolled out with a basic tool kit that included:
Jack & lug wrench/jack handle
Engine crank
Five open end wrenches (10 sizes)
Pliers
Screwdriver
Hammer
Grease gun

...and a spares kit with:
Fan belt
Tail lamps
Dash light bulbs
Old-school cloth electricians tape
Roll of 20-gauge "bailing" wire
Pkg, Valve Stems and Caps
One spare spark plug

I think we all have a modern version of that in the truck at all times plus flares and a tow strap. From there only your imagination and your pocketbook and weight/storage space will limit your "McGyver" gear on board.

Your story brought to mind this one..."For want of a horse, a crown was lost"...or was it a kingdom?
 
Very good idea to see whats missing. With me its usually a wrench. I have sixteen different wrenches but somehow not the one I need (thats usually the one you use a lot and leave sitting on the bumper).
 
For the last 20 years or so every vehicle gets its own tool set, and every vehicle that goes off-road gets one of these, some HF safety wire pliers, & 1 lb spool of safety wire in that tool set: http://clamptool.com/
I can't tell you how many times I've made both temporary clamps (radiator hoses & CV boots usually) and permanent clamps (garden hose end repairs usually) not mention other 'rescues' using them.
 
ntsqd said:
For the last 20 years or so every vehicle gets its own tool set, and every vehicle that goes off-road gets one of these, some HF safety wire pliers, & 1 lb spool of safety wire in that tool set: http://clamptool.com/
I can't tell you how many times I've made both temporary clamps (radiator hoses & CV boots usually) and permanent clamps (garden hose end repairs usually) not mention other 'rescues' using them.
That tool is pretty cool if you can remember how to use it. I'm sure with a bit of practice it wouldn't be too difficult, but best to bring along a set of instructions as well.

Cool.
 
Oh yeah...almost forgot....after screwdriver, pliers and hammer....the single most important item in your tool kit is a roll of duct tape. Not that plastic junk from HF, you need Permacell or an equivalent. It has a cloth-like backing with adhesive on the face. You know when you got the good stuff if you fold it over and can't peel it apart. It also probably costs $10-$12 a roll or so which is another criteria I believe.

Apollo 13 would still be circling the moon or have crashed into Earth without it. Even then the engineers who decided what to take along realized that duct tape was a necessity and the space/weight was well worth it.
 

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