So, I'm at work (I work 4p - 2:30a), and I get a call around 6:30, from the wife (who's currently 5 mos pregnant) that she's on the highway on the way home from work (she recently got a job as a preschool teacher, and my 9-month-old son goes to daycare at the same preschool), and got a rapid loss in tire pressure on the left rear tire. Luckily she was able to get off the highway and to a gas station, but the tire completely deflated.
No big deal, we have a year of free roadside assistance. I tell her to call roadside assistance and we'll play it by ear. A short time later she texts me to let me know that the guy called and said he'd be there in about 30 min. Cool. We were worried that she'd have to wait a long time.
Well, a little while later, I get a call from the wife that the dude doesn't seem like he knows what he's doing, and has somehow got the 4Runner at a precarious, unstable angle, and is afraid it's going to fall off the jack. I ask to talk to him, and he has trouble describing exactly what the issue is. I ask him if he can get someone else out there who can help, at which point he tells me that the only option is to have his dispatcher call a tow truck company and ask them to bring the right jack for the job, but he has no idea how long that'll take. Meanwhile, I know that the 4Runner has a bottle jack that's perfectly appropriate for the job.
Not knowing how long it'll take someone else who knows what the heck they're doing to get there, I go ahead and leave work and head up there.
When I get there, I find that he's got it jacked up with a crappy Harbor Freight floor jack (1.5 ton, looked very cheap and unsteady) with 2 wood planks under the control arm mount. Wrong jacking point, and not very stable. Not high enough to get the spare on, and too unstable to lift any higher. No chocks, either. All he has is this cheap floor jack and a cheap emergency scissor jack like what comes with a car. Not a jack stand in sight.
I grab the truck's bottle jack, stick it under the axle where it's supposed to go, and done. Spare is mounted in a few minutes, wife and son on way home!
Shoot, I'm glad I was able to run over there real quick! He claimed he'd been doing this for 10 years! How do you not know how to properly jack an SUV?
When the wife said someone was on the way, I had all the confidence in the world that whoever showed up would be competent, professional, and would have them safely on their way within a few minutes. I was mistaken! This was my first-ever experience with a roadside assistance service.
I think Toyota needs to do something to ensure that the "organizations" they're contracting with to provide roadside assistance services know how to change tires on Toyota models, and are at least generally familiar with their vehicles!
Before he left (he said he had 6 other stranded motorists waiting), I suggested that he at least get a better, heavier-duty floor jack!
No big deal, we have a year of free roadside assistance. I tell her to call roadside assistance and we'll play it by ear. A short time later she texts me to let me know that the guy called and said he'd be there in about 30 min. Cool. We were worried that she'd have to wait a long time.
Well, a little while later, I get a call from the wife that the dude doesn't seem like he knows what he's doing, and has somehow got the 4Runner at a precarious, unstable angle, and is afraid it's going to fall off the jack. I ask to talk to him, and he has trouble describing exactly what the issue is. I ask him if he can get someone else out there who can help, at which point he tells me that the only option is to have his dispatcher call a tow truck company and ask them to bring the right jack for the job, but he has no idea how long that'll take. Meanwhile, I know that the 4Runner has a bottle jack that's perfectly appropriate for the job.
Not knowing how long it'll take someone else who knows what the heck they're doing to get there, I go ahead and leave work and head up there.
When I get there, I find that he's got it jacked up with a crappy Harbor Freight floor jack (1.5 ton, looked very cheap and unsteady) with 2 wood planks under the control arm mount. Wrong jacking point, and not very stable. Not high enough to get the spare on, and too unstable to lift any higher. No chocks, either. All he has is this cheap floor jack and a cheap emergency scissor jack like what comes with a car. Not a jack stand in sight.
I grab the truck's bottle jack, stick it under the axle where it's supposed to go, and done. Spare is mounted in a few minutes, wife and son on way home!
Shoot, I'm glad I was able to run over there real quick! He claimed he'd been doing this for 10 years! How do you not know how to properly jack an SUV?
When the wife said someone was on the way, I had all the confidence in the world that whoever showed up would be competent, professional, and would have them safely on their way within a few minutes. I was mistaken! This was my first-ever experience with a roadside assistance service.
I think Toyota needs to do something to ensure that the "organizations" they're contracting with to provide roadside assistance services know how to change tires on Toyota models, and are at least generally familiar with their vehicles!
Before he left (he said he had 6 other stranded motorists waiting), I suggested that he at least get a better, heavier-duty floor jack!
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