I was in denial for a long while – but I have to admit now that I am a clear sufferer of what is commonly known as CRS – or “Can’t Remember Stuff” (that is the G-rated title, feel free to substitute your own “S” word :). It has also become abundantly clear that this condition worsens with both age and the addition of assets that must be cared for – family members, homes, property and of course… cars.
For those of you like me who truly enjoy working on your own vehicles, you know that the associated challenges increase exponentially once you own or manage multiple vehicles. For me, once my 2 children became drivers, the job of organizing and managing all of the required tasks quickly became difficult to manage. At that point I had 4 daily drivers to manage plus 2 active “project” vehicles plus my mother’s vehicle in remote Colorado. Just keeping up with which vehicle had a current registration, which needed tires, which had a 5+ year old battery that could fail anytime, etc – would have been pretty overwhelming without a solid tool or system to help. Fortunately, I had a nifty piece of software that would eventually evolve to become RideCache that made it all manageable (and even enjoyable).
If you are a true car enthusiast and you own multiple vehicles that are not under the manufacturer’s care and warranty, you likely have a pretty good “to do list” built up for each vehicle. These lists include items that range from simple maintenance or needed repairs to significant modifications and upgrades. Some of these tasks are urgent or high priority while others might fall into the “wish list” category and are less urgent – to be tackled somewhere down the road when you have both the time and money to complete them.
Keeping up with these lists can be daunting to say the least – and frustrating when you know there is that one really urgent task you need to take care of – but when you finally have a few hours to spend with the vehicle you just can’t remember what it is you needed to do. To try and manage this challenge, I have seen (or have used myself) a combination of post it notes, garage grease boards/chalk boards, computer-based tools (I often build lists in Evernote or Excel) and the CRS impaired “just keep it all in my head” approach.
Enter RideCache – the best software tool for car enthusiasts and collectors – purpose built to help you easily organize and manage all of the to do and wish lists associated with your vehicles – from basic vehicle maintenance to those modifications and upgrades on your wish lists. RideCache offers a robust tool to create and manage each task according to:
- Task Type – Maintenance, Repair, Modification, Upgrade or Other
- Task Priority – Low, Medium, High
- Task Status – To Do, Wish, In Progress, Completed
RideCache also helps you track the date and mileage for each task – both on task creation and task completion – helping you to build a complete digital record of your vehicle’s history. In addition to documenting the task itself, RideCache allows you to upload an unlimited number of Images and to associate other RideCache defined Parts, Providers and Papers with any task. You can also add helpful notes regarding the task to complete the record.
While you organize and manage these to do and wish lists within each specific vehicle, you can also view the master list of tasks at any time from the left hand menu. This allows you to view, filter or search all of your tasks across all vehicles at one time. For instance, when you have a few hours on a Saturday afternoon, it can be very handy to pull up this master list and see all of your “high priority” to do items.
By creating, tracking and completing your tasks with RideCache, you not only mitigate the effects of CRS and actually get things done with your vehicles, you also create a valuable digital record of your vehicle’s history. This record provides value and enjoyment for you today, but will also be highly valued by future owners of the vehicle.
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