Oh man, you're singing my song with this one. I actually read a pretty interesting article in one of the trade magazines a few months back that talked about how manufacturers are switching to a different rubber compound to meet new environmental rules. The thing is, these new belts might be more eco-friendly to produce, but they just don't hold up the same way. I heard the same thing from a retired engineer who used to work for a belt company, he said they're basically using recycled rubber filler now instead of the virgin stuff they used in the older Gates belts. The chipped teeth you're seeing on the shelf is a dead giveaway, that never used to happen. It's frustrating because you're right, it used to be a part you'd install and never worry about, but now it's just another thing that can leave you stranded.

Respectfully disagree with you Joel. In my experience that clatter is usually metal on metal inside the cowling. Bolts don't bounce off fabric bellows and land clean. They wedge themselves in between the engine mount and a hose. And the apron is greasy and dirty. If it was on the ground you'd see it before you even started looking. A clean dropped bolt stands out like a sore thumb on stained concrete. I've come around to the side that if you hear the drop and don't see it on the ground right away, it's down in the bay 9 times out of 10.

@dylan_rodriguez nailed it with that Half Dome lasting eight seasons... that's the kind of reliability you want. For my Tahoe trip last year I had the same thing happen with a cheap Coleman tent, zipper split right down the middle during a freak hailstorm. Ended up using zip ties through the zipper teeth and a folded up rain jacket stuffed in the gap to slow the water down. Not pretty but it got me through the night. After that I grabbed a Big Agnes tent and so far the zippers feel way heavier duty... the whole thing just seems built to take a beating. Sometimes you gotta pay a bit more to avoid spending the night hugging your backpack in a wet corner.

Same thing with appliances - I've got a washer that's barely 4 years old and the control board died, cost almost half what I paid for the whole machine to replace it. They know most people will just buy a new one rather than deal with that nonsense.

8 years ago I planted six silver maples along my fence line in Portland. Last summer I found a root had pushed a two foot crack through my neighbor's driveway slab and I had to pay for half the repair. Oaks and maples are both notorious for this. My buddy calls them "concrete finders" because they always seem to grow right toward any hard surface. If I could go back I would have stuck with smaller ornamental trees or just built a trellis for shade instead.