Letter Re: Vehicle Maintenance is an Important Part of Preparedness

Mr. Rawles,
As i am very new to your blog,(although it is now a morning ritual), I haven’t had time to read all of the back posts.

I was wondering if you had ever done one on vehicle readiness. One of my concerns over TEOTWAWKI is that my loved ones will go to their vehicle to get back to our retreat, and have it disabled in some way, dead battery, flat tire, et cetera.
As I am an automotive technician(with some engineering background) by trade, I have some advantages that others may not have.
Our vehicles are always serviced at the “severe” intervals in he books, and I mean serviced as in the factory recommended flushes, belts, and so forth. Some of it is very expensive, but well worth it IMO.
We have taken the precautions of have all small leaks fixed, storing extra tires (think about [the danger and difficulty of] having to stop and change a faulty tire on the run back to the retreat, whew!), we purchased a manual tire changer from harbor freight that is fairly robust, and have a few cans of ether for seating the beads. Extra batteries are a must, set on trickle chargers and rotated in stock (we have six vehicles including our scout motorcycles). Extra oil and filters also, if people think fuel is going to be hard to come by, oil will be just as bad. I think, plus you can burn the used oil in a pinch. Sorry for rambling. I just haven’t met too many people with your insight into the world situation. Thank you for your time in reading this, maybe it will be of some use to someone.
Peace to you and yours, – NiK on the Mississippi.