Four years ago when I moved onto the boat I was seriously interested in buying a shell for the bed of my truck. It would have solved a lot of storage problems at the time but back then I couldn't justify spending $1,500-$2,000 on a new one. I browsed Craigslist as often as possible for a long time and gave up after a few months The toughest part was realizing that the cab setup of my truck required a very specific shell shape to match the line of the back of my truck so not just any shell would work. I would occasionally look over the past four years and kept my fingers crossed that someone with a 2005-2015 white, regular cab Tacoma would be selling a camper shell with windows in good condition. Finally, two weeks ago, that post was found. For $800 I got exactly what I was looking for.

On the drive back home my immediate priority was to get the rear center brake light wired up. I went to Discount Campershell in Long Beach and for $20 they hooked up my new brake light and then we collectively discovered some burns on the wiring going to the left brake light, which hasn't operated correctly for awhile. Some Wd40 and wiggling got that light working too. I was so happy with it. The truck looks great, in my opinion, and everyone diving behind me can know when I'm hitting the brakes.

I am still happy with the shell, but less so with the transmission. Oddly, the exact moment I pulled away from putting a $800 new-to-me accessory on the truck, the gears were acting up. Neutral crunch first gear crunch second gear silence third gear crunch fourth gear. I've sort of had a semi broken and sensitive transmission for couple years and every mechanic blamed it on whoever put my clutch in (around 120,000 miles) saying it was shoddy workmanship (Lexology in Redondo Beach-stay away). Anyway I was warned that the synchros were wearing out. I drove carefully and had work-arounds to get into certain gears smoothly and kept on getting from point a to b just fine. But now, accelerating away with my awesome new campershell, it just got worse - a lot worse. Finally I felt like I was on the brink of hearing a crunch and then seeing sparks of metal transmission bits bouncing off he ground behind me. Obviously I'm going to keep this truck for awhile, I thought, I just invested more in it. I should get that transmission checked out.

They said these two parts had no oil between them and rubbed metal to metal.

I took it to a reputable shop near my work and they did $1,700 of work which they were 90% sure would fix it. It unfortunately did not. They kept it another day and found out the synchros are all blown out. Replacing it piece by piece is more money and time than just getting a new transmission, so the less expensive but still good plan is to put a slightly used transmission in for over $2,000 on top of what I paid already. They kept the truck a few more days and put in a different transmission. I immediately could tell something was whirring in idle that shouldn't have been, they agreed, and it took another week to get another transmission in. At least I got to drive my vehicle with the crud transmission in it to get around. Finally after the second replacement transmission things seem good for the one mile I drove it back to my office. I'm driving up to San Francisco tonight so I guess that will be a good test drive.

If I had known all of this before I took my truck in, would I have evaluated the worth of my truck versus the cost of repair? I don't know.

That truck is the most dependable of any machine I think I've ever relied on. And I just made it look more to my taste and more functional to my daily routine. 11 years old and 185,000 miles and I feel like I just bought it a second life.

I did learn that the regular cab tacomas are discontinued and therefore their value as a used tuck is sky rocketing in the niche market of people who want them. The truck that was carrying the shell I just bought was sold, used for 8 years, for $14,000. This high resale value was Something for me to weigh against letting it go over a transmission repair. But, ouch, my wallet hurts. Also, this matter of being discontinued could be why the shop was looking for used transmissions. They worked with a company that picks up collision-wrecked vehicles and parts out the good things, like 5-speed Tacoma transmissions.

On another note, last week I was getting socks out for my day and say a lizard hanging on to my storage bag. How did it get there? Where did it come from? I was confused. I actually thought for a moment about letting it stay, grow its tail back and chase any other bugs away, but I don't want it crawling around my tiny home. Out it went

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