41 The Business of Prairie Agriculture Better Farming | January 2024 Tractors, Trucks & Growing Grain cooling system. Use caution with this tool. I suspect too much vacuum could wreck something. Costs about $100 to $250. Trailer plug tester This is a nice little helper for your shop. Plug it into your trailer plug and the LED lights up when each circuit is powered. No need to have the trailer plugged in. There is one for the 4-pin trailer plug and one for the 7-pin plug. The cost is $10 to $25. Scanner These are fairly common now. When you plug this in under the dash, it tells you if you have any error codes on your vehicle and what the codes are. They can also check antilock brakes and give you the wheel speeds as you drive. Plus, they can do hundreds, if not thousands, of more tests. You can get a basic scanner for $200 or less and it can give you loads of information. However, you must decode that information and decide what needs to be repaired. Be careful how you make your diagnosis. We had one customer get us to install a component that his friend had said he needed when he scanned his truck. The customer bought the part and wanted us to install it, but the part was for a gas-powered truck and his was diesel. Free information can be wrong at times. To keep our shop accreditation up-to-date, we had to get an expensive scanner that required a monthly subscription to keep it updated. It gives us tons of information and possible solutions. We can also operate many electronic controlled systems in the vehicle with the scanner. Most common scanners are designed for light-duty vehicles. There are also models for medium and heavy-duty trucks and buses. The cost is $200 to $10,000 and up. Air gun Here’s something we got for free. My cousin ordered it but figured she likely wouldn’t use it and passed it on to us. It’s a battery-powered air compressor that I’ve used a couple of times. It will fill up one 16-inch tire in about five to 10 minutes and then needs a charge. Not great, but enough to use in a pinch. There are more powerful units out there that work with your portable drill batteries. This one is good because you can leave it in your vehicle for use whenever you need it. The cost is $70 and up. Online repair information Yes, all the answers to the world’s problems are available free on the Internet, but do you trust the answers? Often you can get lost in numerous posts and comments that suggest this or that. Is it really okay to pour vodka in your oil to quiet that noisy lifter? How do you know what is right? How do you sift the wheat from the chaff? One thing we’ve used for years is the Mitchell 1 DIY online repair manuals. (I’m sure there are other companies that offer this service, but this is the one we used.) For a fee you can get a professional and complete online repair manual for a specific vehicle. Last time I checked, it Jodie Aldred photo Scanner Air gun Online repair information
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