Stuff We Use: Power Inverters

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we have actually used or purchased with our own meagre income. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.

Despite all the boomer bleatings that everyone needs to unplug and pretend they’re in the Stone Age during road trips or camping journeys, there remains a real need to stay connected and use a few electronic devices during such adventures. Addressing electricity requirements can be tricky, which is why power inverters exist.


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TTAC Video of the Week: Looking Back on NASCAR Invading LeMans

Here's the transaxle breaking, courtesy of friend of TTAC Bozi Tatarevic. This was repaired and the car did finish.

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Here’s How To Get the Best Deal on Winter Tires Right Now

Autumn is here in full swing and temperatures are starting to drop. That means it’s time to start thinking about winter tires. The good news is that eBay has some incredible deals on winter tires, so you can save money while also making your vehicle safer to drive this winter.

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Best Power Inverters for Your Car: Plugging Away

To address the demand for electrons, carmakers have been busy stuffing their machines with USB ports and 120V “household” outlets. Not every car gets it right, with some offering up only a single USB port to placate the yowling masses or placing the outlet in a wholly inconvenient location.

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Best Sunshades for the Car: Where the Sun Don't Shine

You’ve seen plenty of vehicles with completely nuked dashboards in Murilee’s Junkyard Find series. After a lifetime of baking in the sun, these cars end up with cratered and cracked interiors that resemble the moon’s surface. It’s not pretty.

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Best Car Polishes: Shine Factory

Yes, yes – we’ve talked about this subject and the related topic of ceramic coatings in the past. We promise we’re not repeating ourselves, at least not until we’re safely ensconced in the Old Age Home for Recovering Gearheads. We’ll be in the wing where they keep folks who had an odd affinity for terrible ’90s GM cars, like the Oldsmobile Toronado Troféo.

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Best Windshield Wipers: Clearly a Good Idea

Wiper blades are the Rodney Dangerfield of automotive parts. Generally ignored and routinely forgotten, they’re a rarely thought of component … until they wear out or fall apart. Then they’re the subject of foul language and rude epithets as they give up the ghost, reduced to tattered strips of rubber serving only to smear bugs across the windshield.

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Best Bug and Tar Removers: Don't Bug Me

There’s a marked difference between having to wash a car and wanting to wash a car. The former is a chore that is assigned to sullen teens in the wash bays of countless car dealers across the nation. The latter is a task enjoyed by gearheads on a Sunday afternoon.

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Best Steam Cleaners for Car Detailing: Full Steam Ahead

Every single gearhead reading this enjoys a clean car. Whether we take the time to actually remove life’s various and sundry detritus, well, that’s a different story. We all know people whose engine compartments are tidier than their passenger compartments.

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Best Garage Work Lights: Bright Stuff

It’s a safe bet that most DIYers are grateful to the wrenching deities for the democratization of LED illumination – especially when talking about work lights. Your author used to toil under cars and in tight spaces with incandescent work lights that heated themselves to approximately the surface of the sun, as I’m sure you all did as well.

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Best Car Paint Protection Films: Film at 11

Far beyond the reaches of old-school car bras and hood protectors are these clear paint protection films. Targeted at drivers who give a damn about their car’s paintwork, these options are dandy ways to keep a vehicle’s finish in good shape while not hiding anything under a leather protector.

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Best Socket Sets: Sock It To Ya

We’ve covered mechanic’s sets in the past but, in this updated post, we are going to focus on dedicated socket sets. That means no sets with piece-count padders like Allen keys in an obscure size or that one tool that only serves to remove the Färhfvingenator on your clapped-out Volkswagen.

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Best Torque Wrenches: Crank That

If you’re doing any sort of DIY work that requires the removal and installation of nuts and bolts, a torque wrench is a great tool to have on hand. This is doubly true if you have a propensity for swapping the wheels and tires of your vehicle. Properly torquing those lug nuts is critical to avoid a potentially calamitous situation.

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Best Car Organizers: Everything In Its Place

Hey, you. Yeah, you with the landfill masquerading as a car. It’s time to clean it up and get organized. Having a spot in which to store all the detritus of daily life is important. It’s even more important to keep it in reach of the ankle biters unless you really like stopping every five minutes to find the juice boxes. Heck, even those of us who travel solo can use a bit of help keeping things in the car at bay.

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Best Rooftop Cargo Boxes: Storage Wars

Installing a rooftop cargo box is the vehicular equivalent of donning a backpack before heading into the woods. Its extra space either frees up other areas of the car for humans or permits the purchase of every Elvis bust you find between here and Graceland.

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  • ToolGuy Tim said climate change is real, so I don't think this will ever apply to me.
  • Arthur Dailey Always liked these. One of Nissan's last 'extra base hit' vehicles? Can't remember ever seeing a shifter worn as much as the one on this vehicle.
  • Arthur Dailey Agree with above that it is amazing how the seat seems to be in such good condition. Wonder if it is a replacement? The phot of the GM horizontal 'clacking' speedo brings back lots of memories. After a certain amount of wear and tear, at low speeds the needle would 'clack' back and forth. Seems that the odometer has probably been around twice based on the location of the digit on the far left. Personally I am not a big fan of the GM 305 engine, as it seemed to be a compromise between durability and performance and therefore wasn't 'great' at either.
  • Alejandro I had one, in forest green back in 2000. First brand new car. Wheel bearings issues aside, the truck was relatively bullet proof. Plus it had that super handy first aid kit, that was always ready to be used in the wilderness of Dallas traffic. I miss that truck.
  • Jeff I remember these I haven't seen one in decades. Ford is rumored to be coming out with a new Ranchero but I doubt it will be like the old ones. Probably be a 4 door crew cab with a short bed.