Farley cursed and sputtered as a jet of black, stinking steam shot into his face. He quickly shoved the cap back on and screwed it tight, wiping his face off with a a now filthy rag. He had narrowed the leak down to a six-yard section if piping, but it would have to wait till he got back to base. Dusk was already setting in, and the others might need him.
The Apoc half-steam engine did a wonderful job of using both gasoline and steam power efficiently, but the downside was that the steam part of it had to be "purged" of the wasteland water's many impurities and toxins much more often than usual. Typically he would simply pull a lever and a giant cloud of noxious black steam would spout out of a tube near the back of his truck, but for some reason it wasn't working, and the system signaled a leak. Without the purge, all the steam parts of the engine would quickly get blocked up with residue and impurities, and the gasoline would probably get ruined. Luckily the emergency blocking system had been undamaged, so he'd been able to quarantine those parts. He'd have to settle for half his main engine and both backups till he got back.
Muttering to himself and cursing his bad luck, he ambled around to the driver's side of the truck, which was a few feet higher than normal due to being propped up on carjacks, and opened the door, jumping up into the seat. The impromptu radio receiver he had rigged still didn't appear to be picking anything up. He sighed, then turned and rummaged around in the backspace, searching for a certain tool. Everything had gotten thrown around a lot during the RPGs, so it was a mess, but he eventually found what he was looking for.
Farley emerged from the cab with what looked like a modified four-sided tire iron. It an extension on one end and a large lump of metal soldered to the other. He crouched next to one of the tires, shoved the business onto the peg, and then grabbed the extended end and threw it forward. He stepped back with a smile as the tool spun, gradually pulling the tire off the axle. It stopped just before the hulking circle of rubber fell off, and Farley reached up and removed it, then shoved the ruined tire off. Then he jumped back up into the cab and pushed a series of buttons. There was a loud grinding noise, like gears moving, and a new tires lowered itself from the bottom of the truck and slid onto the axle, then moved out to the edge and locked itself into place. Farley grinned in satisfaction.
The automatic spare tire system was something he had been working on installing on his truck for several years, and had just recently implemented. It was originally designed to simply push the damaged tires off the axle and replace them, all automatically, but the first part had hit a snag, so at the moment he was having to take them off by hand. He was nearing a solution though, he hoped.
After repeating the same process on the other two damaged tires, Farley lowered the carjacks and threw them in the back. Starting up the engine, he was pleased when after a few sputters, spurts, and a puff of black smoke, only one warning light came on, the one for the minigun. He quickly shut that one off, then pulled away, rumbling along the gully till it evened out and he could get up the side. Presently he found the main road back to base, and took off along it at full speed, as darkness fell.