zero Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 I mention this thinking about something that happened to me in Canada. Note that I am not Canadian, nor is my family. We live in NY. We were travelling on a very hot day in August in our Ford truck with a loaded camper on back. Wife, me, little kid and very old dog. Trans sprung a huge leak just after crossing the border from Michigan into Canada. I stopped at an auto parts store and bought 5 gallons of trans fluid and continued on -leaving a trail of oil behind us. We were hoping to make it to NY but no good. Got as far as London, Ontario. Found a Best Western for my wife and kid but no good for the dog and it was supposedly the hottest day of the year. I had not tools to rebuild the trans myself. I called every trans shop in the area and none were willing to work on it right away. This is where the rude awakeing came into play that Canada really is a different country. Before this - never regarded the border as a big hurdle for anything. I've worked in Canada, my wife graduated college there, etc. I was in a panic with the truck and decided to junk it and buy another used truck. A car was not good since I had a loaded camper I had to get home. After going to several used car dealers I found out that buying a Canadian truck and driving it out of Canada was near impossible. So next plan was to just sell the truck to a junkyard and rent a truck. NOPE. Not allowed. I could rent a truck from a US company in Canada but was not allowed to cross the border with it. I was amazed at how difficult this all was. Luckily I found a small trans shop with two real nice guys. One agreed to drop all his scheduled work and let me work with him in his shop on my truck. He even set up a big fan for my old hot and sick dog. We worked on the truck for 10 hours and go it done. If I hadn't found that small shop and those two nice Canadians, I don't know what we would of done. I never would of guessed that a truck cannot be rented and driven across the border. Thank heavens for the two man Transmission Man shop in London, Ontario. Two great guys. And yeah, this story is not Toyota specific but certainly related to having a lot of stuff in an RV with a break-down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek up North Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Can't comment on your case but I do know that my son rented a pickup and car trailer from Budget (I think) and drove down to NY and brought back a Dodge Ram 50. This was probably 10-12 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WME Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 I broke down (alternator) in Ca once, does that count as a foreign country?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linda s Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Breaking down anywhere far from home can be pretty scary. Your at the mercy of strange mechanics who might be good or might be a nightmare. A toyota camper member, a female, had her transmission go out not too far from me and she paid 4 grand to have it repaired. If I had known I could have had it towed to my shop about 50 miles away and fixed for 1500 but by the time she posted it was too late for me to help. I called the same shop where she had the work done with my Man voice and said my name was Sam and they quoted me 2000 so women are even in more trouble. I have gotten very lucky sometimes too. Dodge camper broke down in Custer SD and the shop there worked for 6 hours to get it running and only charged me 165 bucks including the tow. There are good guys out there. Just hope your lucky enough to find them like you did JD in Ontario Linda S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aptruncata Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 If there was one state i would prefer NOT to look for a mechanic in is in New Jersey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted January 19, 2013 Author Share Posted January 19, 2013 Can't comment on your case but I do know that my son rented a pickup and car trailer from Budget (I think) and drove down to NY and brought back a Dodge Ram 50. This was probably 10-12 years ago. I suspect I could of crossed the border if I didn't tell the rental place and brought it back to Canada. Who would know? I doubt the border-crossing people care -but can't say for sure. Maybe they would of arrested me and accused me of stealing it. I was trying to rent one-way and they told me the only way we could do it was to rent two trucks. One in Canada and only to the Canada/NY border. Then get a 2nd rental truck in NY, transfer campers and move on. That sounded near impossible to me. I called every auto rental place in the phone book and was told by all that it could not be done. We also had Triple A which was no help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted January 19, 2013 Author Share Posted January 19, 2013 If there was one state i would prefer NOT to look for a mechanic in is in New Jersey. Oh-oh, that's where I got my start turning wrenches ca. 1968. Imperial Tractor and BMW, Route 17, Ramsey, NJ. Near the old Ford plant before they closed down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek up North Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 Might have had to do with the 1-way rental across the border. You might get the same reply if you tried to rent from the same companies in the US and wanted to leave their truck in Canada. Just a guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riverman77 Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 My major breakdown wasn't a foreign country but, I was in a different state far, far from home and in a very small town. My 1988 Dolphin with a 22RE had a harmonic balancer begining to separate. The balancer has a rubber hub ring glued to it from the factory. Over time/miles, the rubber separates and can cause the pully to walk right off and into the radiator. I noticed this just in time but unfortunatley, I was in the small town of St. Regis MT. The only repair facility was a small towing company with kind of generalized mechanic (like in Maybery). Also, no auto parts stores for 50-100 miles. Long story short: The lone mechanic UPS'd all of the right parts from Missoula, MT (100 miles away) from Toyota and got them there next day. He tore my Dolphin engine all down and back together, all day long during the next day. And, had me back on the road 36 hours after my pulley started to fail. When I first got into this little town and my harmonic balancer was starting to fall off, I was very concerned. And then, when I could only find someone like "Goober" from Mayberry who looked like he may or may not be able to help me, I was begining to get very worried. All In all, you can't always judge your small, rural surroundings by their "first impressions". I was so impressed with the country mechanic (learning on my rig, though), I even slipped him an extra $20.00. He too was very happy! By the way, if you're ever stuck near St. Regis MT., the place is called Stroeber's Towing. -Riverman77 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted January 19, 2013 Author Share Posted January 19, 2013 My major breakdown wasn't a foreign country but, I was in a different state far, far from home and in a very small town. My 1988 Dolphin with a 22RE had a harmonic balancer begining to separate. The balancer has a rubber hub ring glued to it from the factory. Over time/miles, the rubber separates and can cause the pully to walk right off and into the radiator. I noticed this just in time but unfortunatley, I was in the small town of St. Regis MT. The only repair facility was a small towing company with kind of generalized mechanic (like in Maybery). Also, no auto parts stores for 50-100 miles. Long story short: The lone mechanic UPS'd all of the right parts from Missoula, MT (100 miles away) from Toyota and got them there next day. He tore my Dolphin engine all down and back together, all day long during the next day. And, had me back on the road 36 hours after my pulley started to fail. When I first got into this little town and my harmonic balancer was starting to fall off, I was very concerned. And then, when I could only find someone like "Goober" from Mayberry who looked like he may or may not be able to help me, I was begining to get very worried. All In all, you can't always judge your small, rural surroundings by their "first impressions". I was so impressed with the country mechanic (learning on my rig, though), I even slipped him an extra $20.00. He too was very happy! By the way, if you're ever stuck near St. Regis MT., the place is called Stroeber's Towing. -Riverman77 It's nice when that happens and yes for sure - you cannot tell who is a good mechanic just by appearance. You were lucky to find a good guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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