Hose Cart

I spent a lot of the day messing around with the new hose cart.  In the morning, I went to Lowes looking for a hose cart, that wasn't made by Suncast.  I've had several of the Suncast reel products over the last few years, and I always haul them away broken.

This year was no exception, as Loyce took the reel box we purchased three years ago to the dumpster last night.  It was broken in a zillion pieces down in the reel mechanism.  I could barely unreel the hose, in order to toss it out.  But then we have had a nasty winter and I suppose the freezing of the snow around and in the reel box did it in.  I should take it in, but never do, so it is my fault.

Lowes had just the ticket.

This one is listed at $200 on their web site, but the one I bought was only $89, and is somewhat smaller.  It holds 250 ft of hose, and this one holds 300 ft.

I thought of Al up in Bayfield as I selected the box that was not assembled.  My thinking was that this way I could tighten all the bolts and see to it that all the pieces went where they belonged.

That kind of bit me in the posterior, as when I was sorting stuff out, I found that I was missing a bolt.  A metric carriage bolt.  But I went ahead and put together what I had.

Later in the day, I went back over to Lowes, and inquired about the bolt.  They didn't have one like I needed, but did find a pack of metric number 6 bolts.  Regular bolts, not carraige.  That was as good as they could do.  Otherwise bring it back and exchange it.

Also on that trip, I stopped at Wal Mart with my truck, and told them it was leaking oil all over my drive.  They finished the car they were working on and backed my truck into the bay from the finished side of the garage.  I suggested that the filter might have two gaskets on it.  The old one and the new one that came on the new filter.

They removed the filter and no there was only one gasket.  They put it back on and it still leaked.  Even worse now.  They were perplexed, and talked among themselves.  After a while, they went in and asked the supervisor if they could put on another filter.  These things cost about $4,  but they had to have his OK.  Then I had lost about 2 quarts of oil, so they had to add that back.  They never asked permission on that one.

I guess that Fram has changed the rubber gaskets on their oil filters to a new orange plastic material, from the old black rubber that we are familiar with.  The new gaskets are giving them trouble.  So much for buying Fram Filters!!

Tonight, the truck is still dripping oil all over the driveway, as it is covered in oil on the underside.  I crawled under and checked the filter, and it seems to be dry for now.  The truck will have to drip until it quits.

When I got back from the oil change lane, I pulled up and parked and got out to notice that there was a bolt laying in the driveway.  Now I had looked all over for that bolt before going back to Lowes, but there it was just laying there.  It must have fallen from the package, or gremlins took it, or who knows.

So the hose reel is now together with the chinese bolts that came with it.  And it has 200 feet of hose on it.  Its metal! Now, if I will convince myself to take it in next winter......