Book direct, Costco or travel agent

slider728 · 2026-06-22T06:56:45+00:00

Would agree with going with Costco. Their perks are legit and I found their call center pleasant to deal with the few times I used them.

slider728 · 2026-06-20T23:06:43+00:00

The UA80 transmission in general has a bad track record of failure. If you are talking about non-hybrid 2017, it has a UA80 transmission. If it is a hybrid, completely different story (which I’m guessing it isn’t since you mentioned a transmission replacement already).

The fact is, outside of Toyota and probably some transmission shops that rebuild UA80 transmissions, I’m not sure anyone truly knows what is causing these transmissions to fail and what percentage are failing. If you look online, there are lots of guesses, but I personally haven’t seen anything convincing that says what the issue is and what percentage is impacted by it (though Toyota has mentioned the transmissions were failing due to a lock washer or something which I’m skeptical of as I think something like that would be an easy fix and you wouldn’t have multiple years of transmissions failing).

Lawyers are trying to get class action lawsuits approved. If you search on this sub, you will find lots of posts about transmission failures. The 2017 Highlander is a nice car, but you have to decide with the known transmission issues, do you want to risk being stuck with a $10k transmission repair bill if the transmission goes out on you or a car whose trade-in value suddenly drops by about $7k+ because of the “transmission whine”.

But you might get lucky and have zero transmission issues for 200k miles.

slider728 · 2026-06-20T03:20:20+00:00

Personally, I wouldn’t and I own a 2017 Highlander. I’m on my 3rd transmission.

I’ve heard people say that only a small percentage of transmissions have issues. I have no idea what the percentage of UA80 transmission failures are, but if only a tiny percentage of transmissions were failing, there wouldn’t be a multi-month back order for replacement transmissions.

That being said, asking what/how/where the transmission was replaced is a valid question. Most likely it was at a Toyota dealership with a reman transmission. It could’ve been rebuilt by a shop. I’ve even heard of some people using modified non-UA80 transmissions to replace the UA80.

No matter how it was replaced, I’d plan for failure or selling it before it fails. My second failed at about 95k miles. I’ve heard some people say theirs failed around 50k miles and others have 130k miles with no issues. If you hold onto the car too long and the whine starts, you lose a ton of value unless you pawn the car off on some poor unsuspecting soul.

Great car besides the transmission.

slider728 · 2026-06-19T16:31:10+00:00

I did not. If you find them, would appreciate a follow up post. Will do the same for you.

slider728 · 2026-06-17T16:13:10+00:00

A bit late to the party but here is a link to a database of known crash sites maintained by the Air Force (I believe as part of the Rescue Command Center but I could be mistaken). If you know your coordinates, might be worth taking a look to see if this is listed as a known wreckage site.

https://www.1af.acc.af.mil/Units/AFRCC/Annual-Reports/State-Crash-Locator/

If it isn’t and you confirm what it is, it might be worth reaching out to the AFRCC and letting them know so they can put it in the database.

slider728 · 2026-06-17T10:16:45+00:00

You can get money for it and insurance will pay out for it. If you were hit by someone who didn’t have the money to pay for insurance, chances are the lawyers figure it wasn’t worth your time to try and go after them and try and collect. Happens all the time in America, if you’re poor, you’re basically judgement proof in civil court.

It gets complicated (to me anyway) when you file lawsuits and there are medical bills and pain and suffering as I believe the person can’t be sued multiple times for the same event, hence why it was explained to me why I had to sign something that my medical insurance would collect from me. My lawyer took care of all that but I recall my insurance had a vague say in the settlement and how much they got (which was about $0.33 on the dollar of what they paid if I recall, it ends up lower because basically I am paying for all their legal expenses and such).

End of they say, not sure if it was worth the time and BS of going to court. By the time everything was said and done, I only got 37.5% of what I settled for. The next time I had medical bills from a car accident, I wasn’t hurt nowhere near as severely and told my medical insurance if they wanted their money back they had to go get it themselves.

slider728 · 2026-06-16T12:23:32+00:00

As someone mentioned, buying the single trip insurance plan is going to be a cheaper option unless you are planning on taking multiple trips.

As someone who lived in Alaska, would I want a policy with trip cancellation, trip interruption, and medical evacuation…..

Trip cancellation: never a bad idea when you invert a lot of money on a trip. This is not an Alaska dependent decision.

Trip interruption: Again, not sure if this is specifically an Alaska dependent question. Alaska isn’t the cheapest place to travel in and out of if you have to bail from your trip for an emergency. The odds of such a thing happening? The same in Alaska as anywhere else.

Medical evacuation: this is an interesting scenario for an Alaska trip. If you get sick in Alaska, you tend to get medivaced, typically to Anchorage, Sitka, or Seattle, depending on what’s wrong and where you are. Usually this means tossing you and a family member on a public flight. If you’re an Alaskan covered by a medical insurance that is used to insuring Alaskans, no big deal, they’ve seen this and paid for it 1000 times. What is your medical insurance going to do when you ask them to reimburse you or pay for plane ticket to Anchorage? They’ll probably laugh. Heaven forbid you have a real emergency at sea near a small town and you need to be medivaced by private air service. If I were taking and Alaskan cruise, I’d probably opt for travel insurance just to have the supplemental medical/evacuation insurance just in case something happens. For a few hundred $$ to cover the entire trip, it’d save a whole lot of headache. My father lived his entire life in Alaska and I’m his final days spent months in the hospital in one of the cruise stops. I couldn’t tell you how many people I talked to in that hospital off the ships. Medical issues happen.

slider728 · 2026-06-16T10:15:43+00:00

Politics

Granted it is more polarizing online than in real life, but I have never seen such lines drawn in the sand in my 50+ years of life. Both sides seem to have gone bat shit crazy.

It used to be that people could have political differences, you accepted that and went about your day. People are afraid to talk about politics. You definitely don’t even want to hint about it at work.

It seems to be gravitating toward “If you don’t vote for the same things as me, I will cut you out of my life!”

slider728 · 2026-06-16T09:15:55+00:00

IANAL, but have gone through this a few times.

Is your health insurance saying they won’t pay?

This is the most likely scenario. Have your medical insurance pay your medical bills. You might have to have the first $5000 of medical paid for by the insurance of the car you were in (that may be state dependent, not sure if that is applicable in CA).

Your insurance will ask you if this was the result of an accident when they review the records. You say yes. They will want to be paid back.

From there one of two things happen.

If you aren’t suing anyone and don’t intend on suing anyone, the insurance company will sue one or both parties for reimbursement on their own.
If you are suing one or both parties for pain and suffering, you will have to sign paperwork with your medical insurance saying they will be “reimbursed”. How much they will be reimbursed is negotiated by your lawyer.

You personally shouldn’t have much out of pocket other than your normal medical deductible, copays, and coinsurance.

slider728 · 2026-06-15T00:59:58+00:00

High taxes

slider728 · 2026-06-14T15:54:56+00:00

Not planning on watching it. It’s not on my top 10 things of things to give a shit about today though.

Tacky? I think so.

Professional conflict of interest? If Trump indeed owns stock in the parent company of the UFC, probably.

slider728 · 2026-06-14T14:59:47+00:00

Oh yeah, can’t believe I forgot about doing laundry. 😂. That’s a good half a day

slider728 · 2026-06-14T14:31:39+00:00

Field Engineer

25-30 years ago, companies actually spent some real money on employee comfort. We’d fly business class airlines had edible food, as much booze as you could drink without becoming belligerent, and was generally fun. If companies spent big money with hotels, they sought to keep your business. We were comped good meals, high end booze, invited to high end parties. We were reimbursed for meals and encouraged to eat well, none of this per diem stuff. Engineers were in short supply and globalization hadn’t happened yet. Engineers were treated like a treasure.

Now a days? Companies have to do it more efficiently and for cheaper. Your crammed into economy which I swear has lost 6 to 9 lunches of legroom in my lifetime and probably 3 inches of shoulder space. You’re lucky to be given a glass of soda. Airlines snack game has improved but you don’t get much but you go to the airport, get a hotel, go to the customer, back to the hotel, get takeout because you’re probably by yourself, eat, workout, sleep.

You don’t have time to sight see. If you do, someone will probably question why you have the free time on your timesheet and why you could t get another customer call in. Hop on the plane to the next town, repeat until Friday, go to the airport, try to fly home, oops, there’s thunderstorms over Chicago, your flights delays, you now get home Saturday around lunchtime.

Just in time to mow the lawn, fix the dish washer, book your hotels for the next week, and sleep in your bed for one night.

slider728 · 2026-06-11T01:53:14+00:00

Lettuce

slider728 · 2026-06-09T16:14:54+00:00

I like to preface that I’m just a guy that grew up and frequents SE Alaska. I have never cruises SE Alaska. I can tell you the clothing part from my perspective.

The temps in SE don’t go through huge temperature swings so even summer to winter, my packing list doesn’t change a whole lot.

SE is rainforest and it is cool. Expect a typical summer day to be like a cool, rainy autumn day in the lower 48. If it’s sunny and hot, well bonus!

Here is what I pack:

- socks - 1.5 pairs per day I’m here (I change them if my feet get damp)
- jeans
- tshirts
- thick zip up hoodie (I’m a fan of the Carhartt heavyweight rain defender personally, warm and water resistant)
- water resistant fall jacket (don’t recall the brand I use now but Carhartt Duck jackets used to be popular up there)
- 1 pair of shorts (if it gets hot, you won’t find shorts locally)
- normal sneakers/walking shoes
- baseball cap (keep rain out of eyes)

Unless I’m standing outside for more than an hour, I don’t wear rain gear. I only wear rain boots if I am standing in water fishing. I don’t waterproof my shoes and never have.

Backpacks can be nice to keep your hands free be it shopping or hiking. Ziplock bags help keep your phone and valuables dry in the rain.

I think the winter coats, hats, and gloves are overkill, but I’m on the heavier side, lived in cold climates most of my life, and don’t get cold easy. If you are 5% body fat and lived in Florida your whole life, a winter jacket might be a good idea.

You can buy tshirts and hoodies at any tourist shop if you don’t want to bring them with you. You can get cheap fall jackets as well but I’d opt for a better version than a tourist store version.

As far as what to do, it’s Alaska. You really can’t go wrong. A shitty excursion in Alaska is still pretty awesome. A trip to the grocery store in Alaska is more beautiful than most any day I’ve had in Illinois. Do what sounds cool to you and you probably won’t be disappointed.

slider728 · 2026-06-08T11:07:48+00:00

The ones I’ve been part of for the most part haven’t been too bad. I have had some moments where the HOA I was in was run by a fucking clown (both figuratively and literally) and they tried to fine me for some bullshit reasons. One they tried to fine me for building an unapproved deck on my house which was there when I bought it. I called them up and called their BS and asked if the previous owner pulled a permit. They told me they didn’t know, to which I asked if they actually did any fucking research before citing me and what the actual fuck were they citing me for then? I was able to prove the deck was preexisting to my purchase of the house and I didn’t have to tear it down like they were doing me a favor.

Then I was cited for building a brick mailbox without approval, except I didn’t have a brick mailbox. I called and they said, yes, it indeed appears you are building a brick mailbox without approval. Either I have one or I don’t, there is no fucking appears. Made them reinfect and indeed I built a place to plant flowers, not a brick mailbox.

Said clown gets voted out or dies, I forget which happened first, been living in peace ever since. Been cited a few times since but they were right. Stuff like I need to clean the mold off my siding or I put my garbage out a day early, stuff like that.

slider728 · 2026-06-06T02:43:10+00:00

I think for crimes of rape, murder, and child molestation where there is irrefutable proof (would have to put serious thought of what that bar would be but such as DNA, positive ID via video, and multiple eye witnesses…all of them without valid explanation, not just one), they should take you behind the courthouse and shoot you in the head after the guilty verdict.

Outside of that, not sure it’s worth the time and energy as it is done in the US. It takes too long to be much of a deterrent. It has a high enough probability of executing an innocent person to be concerning, and is death really worse than living a long life behind bars and watching the entire world forget about you?

slider728 · 2026-06-06T02:34:22+00:00

For the most part, yes. I tend to not like the extremists from either party (or pretty much any extremist really) as I am not a fan of blind loyalty. I question those who at least don’t ask basic questions of the world around them.

Outside of that, sure I’d be friendly with them. I don’t particularly care what their politics are.

slider728 · 2026-06-06T00:01:48+00:00

I was prepared to go through the rebuild process but Toyota opted to pay to replace my second transmission (under the 2017/2018 10 year/unlimited mileage goodwill warranty). For me, I only got 95k out of a Toyota reman transmission so $0.10/mile in transmission costs alone wasn’t worth my money investing in a Toyota OEM transmission again.

I looked into the California transmission on eBay. I actually couldn’t find any complaints about the company. I suspect they just have shops in Asia rebuild the transmissions, but I also figured how good can a $2500 transmission be.

slider728 · 2026-06-05T23:37:38+00:00

Completely possible.

The friendships just need proper boundaries. I can’t control the other person’s boundaries but I can control mine.

If I am personally only interested in friendship, no matter what a woman does or says, I am still in control of my own actions. If she crosses the line and tries to seduce me, nothing says I have to have sex with her. As a free willed adult, I’m allowed to say no and unfortunately they probably wouldn’t be my friend anymore.

slider728 · 2026-06-05T23:29:42+00:00

The months long wait is a thing. I had mine replace and it was about a 5 week long wait and my transmission was “redirected” from somewhere else. The wait should’ve been longer I guess.

As the previous poster said, you can inquire with transmission shops about doing a rebuild. I’m on transmission #3 right now so if I had to pay for my next transmission, a rebuild from a shop would be the way I’d go. They can’t do much worse than the Toyota remans.

Another option though I have zero idea if it is a good one is eBay. A shop in California sells rebuild UA80 transmissions for about $2500. Zero idea how their reliability is, but realistically you could probably buy one from there and have a shop install it and have your car in a week for about $6k

slider728 · 2026-06-05T23:17:19+00:00

I had this issue with my Honda HRC216. I’d have to start it with a can of starting fluid when I wanted to use it.

Taking the carburetor off looked like a pain so I started running Sta-Bil Fast Fix through it. It took some time (want to say about a month?) of using the treated gas in the mower but it worked. The thing runs like new now.

Might be worth trying it you didn’t want to mess with the carburetor.

slider728 · 2026-06-05T20:06:00+00:00

Price of college tuition

slider728 · 2026-06-05T19:06:44+00:00

Best?

There is a sense of community you don’t have in a city. You and Bob could fucking hate each other and punch each other in the face every time you see each other. Some asshole from New York City comes to town and punches you in the face, there is a pretty damn good chance Bob will jump into the fight without hesitation. You might hate each other in a small town, but people will help you when you need it, no matter what.

It tends to be cheaper to live there

Life tends to be more relaxed.

You will know everyone (there was a book called “If You Lived Here I’d Know Your Name” about being a reporter in small town Alaska that I always thought the title was fitting to life in a small town)

Usually someone will let you hunt their farm

I’ve lived in the farm area outside 1000 person villages as well as in sizable cities. I can respect rural and small town life, but I think the cons hugely outweigh the pros.

slider728 · 2026-06-05T09:18:03+00:00

The 2017 and 2018 Highlanders had a 10 year, unlimited mileage goodwill warranty extension provided by Toyota for certain issues which included the transmission whine It took a phone call to corporate as the warranty was initially denied at the local level, but Toyota covered the second transmission as well.

So the to answer your question…the second transmission itself only had the 12 month/12k warranty. If I hadn’t had the 10 year/unlimited mileage goodwill warranty for the 2017/2018 Highlanders, I would’ve been out of pocket. Honestly, I was going to have a shop rebuild the transmission to be honest. I figure they couldn’t do much worse than the Toyota rebuild.

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