HuskerJ - 8/24/2024 05:37

OK, to start off, this is NOT a rant against technology, I like technology for the most part. I really enjoy heat in the winter, air conditioning in the summer, a monitor on my planter that tells me how everything is going, etc, etc, etc. What I do not like is technology used in such a way that it makes life more difficult, or seems to be added just because it can, not because it solves a problem.



Well, the latest thing that gets on my nerves is the electronic (or electric) parking brake on my wife's Jeep. Instead of pulling a lever or stepping on a pedal, it has a button you press. At least it isn't in a position that it gets hit accidentally like some farm equipment I hear of (a friend of mine almost went through the windshield of a tractor when the park brake turned itself on when he was going down the road. He has no idea if he somehow bumped it accidentally, or if it just turned itself on). Anyway, my wife's Jeep has some sort of safety thing in which if you try to drive with the driver's door open, the parking brake will engage. OK, I suppose it is a safety thing, but pressing the button to dis-engage it does not release the brake if the door is still open. OK, maybe still a safety thing. However, what also happens is if the little sensor that detects if the door is ajar goes bad, it engages the brake as well, even if the door is shut. To get the brake to disengage requires shutting off the engine, turning the switch off and on a couple times and pressing the brake release button a couple times as well (can't remember the sequence, but it's fairly complex). So, when the little door sensor develops a quirk, it takes 15 minutes of reading through the owner's manual just to be able to drive it off the grocery store parking lot. Also, after my friend's near accident, and reading about other people who have had the park brake engage when they didn't want it to, I wonder if those things aren't more of a hazard than a help. We have been getting by for years pulling a lever, stepping on a pedal, or whatever to engage the park brake/lock with nary an issue, so why is this necessary?

Also, while I am on the subject, who's idea was it to redesign the way a PTO coupler holds onto the shaft. I have a pile of old PTO equipment that has the little button you depress so you know the latch is disengaged, and when you install the shaft properly, the little button pops out, confirming it is locked in place. I got a used auger that uses a kind of sleeve you pull back and can't get the coupler on the PTO shaft because the little balls that lock it in place are rusted in the groove they ride in. So you spend a while breaking them loose, get it mounted on the shaft, and when you give the shaft a little tug to verify it locks in (because you can't see the button pop out) the shaft pulls right off. After 3-4 tries, I got out the penetrating oil, and re-lubed the entire locking mechanism again before it actually worked. Again, how is this better than the little button? It took 10 times a long to properly attach the shaft, plus required me to get my hands and clothes soaked in penetrating oil before it would work. With the little button, the most I ever had to do in over 20 years of messing with PTO shafts was squirt a dab inside the coupler, where the button slides.


OK, rant over, but I can still smell the B'Laster on my pants even after going through the wash.