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This tangent will peter out soon enough. I've already got them onto USPS vs. UPS. :p

Things change with time, but I do remember seeing a documentary on the USPS maybe 10 years ago, and this was actually one of the big points being made in the documentary. The USPS must deliver to every US address, no matter how remote, whereas many or most other couriers have exclusion areas to...

That is exactly the same thing that got them into trouble 50 years ago! Closest the brand ever came to disappearing, if I understand it correctly. The new folks would do well to know their history, or at least not pretend it couldn't happen again, under their watch.

Power plant cooling systems have been a big problem in Texas, with these rare freezes the last 20 years. Just a year or two ago, they had massive outages and a big kerfuffle that it had happened again, because after the last big outage there was apparently new legislation passed that should...

In my first house, which I bought when I was still single, my office was built into the biggest bedroom on the second floor. Wall-to-wall industrial shelving, filled with old manuals, IEEE Proceedings, Transactions, and Letters, IC and processor data sheet books (remember those?), catalogs...

Okay... but I din't mean you, specifically. :ROFLMAO:

There have been a few mentions on this forum of shuttering the USPS, but this is really where they have made themselves indispensable. Not specifically Amazon deliveries, but in being the "last mile" delivery service for so many areas that those operating for-profit just can't touch.

I'm not sure what one has to do with the other. Yeah, most tractors only require engine oil and filter every 200 hours, plus a few dollars-worth of grease. But 400 hour service is usually oil + filter plus transmission oil and suction filter, primary fuel filter, final fuel filter, and...

Never heard of them, but wow... ugly vehicles. It looks like they were aiming more at small commercial transport, than personal vehicles. Interesting quote at the top of the article, "Despite its financial struggles, CEO Tony Aquila has faced criticism for receiving an exceptionally high...

Same here. I'm an hour north of center city Philadelphia, and really only 20 minutes north of the northern sprawl of dense 'burbs. The main shipping center for much of the greater area is maybe only 40 minutes north of me, and those trucks almost have to pass my house on their way south to the...

I think 15W40 is pretty common in zero turn HST systems. It's what my Deere ZTrak 757 runs. Speaking of filling from breather holes, I remember now we used to fill the outdrive on our Mercruiser by pumping gear oil in thru a lower plug hole, until it spilled out of an upper plug hole. It was...

Wow, that's terrible. Much better here. I see more and more items with available "early AM Tomorrow" delivery options, like order at 10pm and it's on your doorstep at 5am, but they often want $2.99 for that service. The free shipping items included with Prime are never more than 2 days here...

Yep. Two primary reasons for that: 1. A single-story house requires twice the total roof area per square foot of floor space, and heat loss thru a roof is about 15% higher per unit area than heat loss thru walls, on average. 2. A cube is the most efficient shape, providing the most interior...

I always wondered how they delivered Amazon trucks. Think they got free next day shipping, on that?

I see LouNY already mentioned Edison Motors, easily the most entertaining corner of the EV development world, but there's also the new Dodge RamCharger. I believe you, when you say that achieving efficiency in a series hybrid is going to be a matter of scale. But I'll also argue that changes...

The irony is that it never looked good, when it became the latest rage in the 1990's. And now it's gone from looking "not good" to just "dated". It's rare to see a newer house that really looks good, but when you do, they're almost invariably built as a traditional center hall 2 story colonial...

Try Philadelphia in July. I just dare you. :ROFLMAO: Our summer humidity here can be oppressive. It’s rare we see above 100F dry bulb, but our heat indexes accounting for humidity are eye-watering.

My primary simulation software still had instructions to manually disable hyper threading in the BIOS, as late as 2022. Just in the last few years, it has started automatically handling hyper threading, toggling it in/off automatically, depending on problem type and size. I think hyper...

I think there must have been a difference in the way early NT (e.g. 3.1 - 3.5) handled multi-tasking, versus later NT (e.g. 4.0 - 2000), as I clearly remember processes halting or going at a very clipped rate when you'd toggle away from them in early NT. I suppose it could have been just...

Until you fall down them! Oh, I see you covered that scenario.

Yep... until you remember novocain and air conditioning. :ROFLMAO:

I like that, and will need to remember it. Our home is on 4 levels, and there is no pass-thru between the second floor part of the house containing my music studio and the rest of our second floor. My shop is also on 2 levels, with an extremely steep staircase having a turn at the bottom 4...

Agreed. I've always gravitated away from tech in my personal pursuits, probably in part because I work in technical profession all week: 1. My house was built in the early 1700's, and although we have indoor plumbing and a modern kitchen, it's kept relatively original. 2. I heat my home...

Excellent post, Don. In addition to this, I suspect an ICE configured and tuned to run a narrow range of RPM for the sole purpose of charging batteries, can probably run at a much higher average efficiency, than one which needs to spool a wide range of RPM's thru the gears during acceleration...

I don't think that's correct. Yes, NT 3.1 came out in 1993, but it was not true multitasking, it was an early form of re-entrant multitasking. Essentially, you could switch between applications, but the one you switched away from had to stop running, it would not continue solving a large...

If you're going to name software, I'd put Netscape at the top of most "where'd they go?" lists, but also it's predecessor, NCSA Mosaic. Heck, we could put the whole Gopher Space protocol up there, as the predecessor of the WWW. Then there's the long list of popular search engines that came and...

All cars suffer infant mortality, both ICE and EV.

After 40 years of recycling being pretty standard, and all-in-one bins being the norm for at least the last 30 years, I'm amazed that there are people out there who don't understand how recycling gets sorted. You can argue about the merit of recycling, in fact I think there's a good argument to...

Measurement is easy, diagnosis is hard. If you're able to measure compression and leakdown, that might be good information to feed forward to a mechanic, before deciding to haul it in. Then again, if you don't have the gauges and fittings, it might be easier to just start with the mechanic...

yep. Cooked myself a few times. I spent most of my career designing high power RF and microwave amplifiers, but more for testing applications than for broadcast. Similar power levels, since the military customers in particular wanted to test high field strengths over large areas (e.g. an...

Step 1: Drain oil, watch for water/coolant in first seconds, as its heavier than oil and will be the first thing coming from the bottom of the oil pan if it's there. You may want to phone a friend or set up a video recording, just to be sure you don't somehow miss seeing the first seconds of...

Even with auto headlights, I still end up using the manual switch regularly: 1. When sitting in any parking lot waiting on a kid at an activity, I don't like to leave my headlights shining in the eyes of the other parents waiting on their kids. 2. Anytime I tow my widest trailer, I like to...

I lit my 3-year old ass up pretty good, with a TV tube tester at our local Woolworth's department store. It may be my earliest memory, either that or the one of by mom telling me to be quiet when the "Breaking News" of Elvis's death popped onto the TV. :ROFLMAO: In any case, there I am at...

Would that be equivalent to enhancement mode versus depletion mode? Or n-channel versus p-channel? In my world, there are tube guys and FET guys, and I was always a FET guy. The microprocessor guys still use MOSFETs, I assume with shorter and shorter gate lengths, but the high frequency stuff...

One for the moms out there in tractor land.

I believe UNISYS came out of UNIVAC? I remember a lot of my parents friends, and a lot of my friends parents, working for UNISYS in the 1980's into 1990's. I hadn't realized Cray was bought by HP in 2019, but I guess they still produce product out of the same group, now under the HPE name...

I think I've mentioned him here before, but one of my primary undergraduate computer engineering professors was one of the engineers who designed and built ENIAC at U of Penn. The ENIAC was the world's first general purpose electronic computer, both Adam and Eve to every computer you've ever...

I'll have to admit to skipping a few of the 7 pages of posts, but say it ain't so??? When I bought mine, standard gears were 3.23, 3.55, and 3.92. Of course I ordered the 3.92. Even with the ZF 8HP trans, the 3.23's and 3.55's feel almost like a CVT, like driving a sack of wet rice. As...

Drive a carbureted car with points ignition for ten years, then come back and let's have that discussion again. The product is vastly improved, but things not breaking as often, is usually not noticed. It's hard to notice things not happening. Explain to a kid of today, that in the 1970's...

All of this computerization is supposed to give us more reliable machines, the system is there to provide better efficiency and reliability than without, but as we all know... failures of the many sensors themselves often cause service calls. Overall, I think we have to acknowledge that cars...

At least in PA, as far as I know, there is never any requirement to be licensed to work on any voltage. However, there are contractor licensing requirements if you call yourself an electrician or charge for services. And because only licensed contractors get to work on utility systems, that...

You think the parts counter at an LS dealer isn't going to sell you parts, just because you didn't buy a tractor from them? I've only bought one of my four Deere's from our local Deere dealer, the other three were obtained second-hand, but I never noticed any difference in how the parts counter...

Our local Tractor Supply stores used to refuse to sell anything they hadn't assembled. I even offered a cashier an extra $100 to not have my log splitter assembled before pickup... no dice. Yet, I have never bought anything there that wasn't incorrectly assembled, with various degrees of...

It probably depends on who is doing the classification. In the controls industry, it is possible some companies or societies may define 48VDC as "high voltage", but in the utility industry anything under 1000 volts is typically termed "low voltage".

Timing is everything. If new, I'm not sure how much metal will gain you in sale price, versus asphalt. Likely never enough to have made the extra cost worth it. But if done 20+ years prior to sale, the metal roof will still look new at time of sale, whereas the asphalt will be looking tired...

I guess I'd take it a step farther, and say I don't really even care about max lift at max height. I'll never use it. I use max height all the time, so I'm interested to know how high a loader can go, but never with the heaviest loads. When lifting maximum loads, I'm never going higher than 60".

Mixed feelings, there. The presidential predictions are a bit of a separate matter, especially when we inject a controversial candidate, and flawed polling systems. But when it comes to data-based predictions on things like emissions, the source of error is almost always a failure to predict...

Google can be a misleading little devil, as searches of deer weight in Germany keep turning up 300 lb. numbers for mature stag. But every deer I ever saw in Germany was tiny, like the size of our fawns at full maturity, probably under 80 lb. Across PA bucks average around 120 - 130 lb. field...

I'm just remembering now, the time my brother hit an elk in his Jeep Wrangler. Telluride Colorado, he comes over the crest of a hill in the snow, and there's an elk standing in the middle of the road. He hit the brakes, and did a slow slide into the elk, and hit it probably doing 10 mph. The...

I guess is brake pull-away was not functional. This is why we have to get our trailers inspected each year, and also why PA requires brakes on ALL axles, not just one. I had this happen to me once, but in a car. Sugan Road, Solebury... I was a passenger, a buddy was driving. Jumped over a...

Stay safe, man! Hope you got some sprinklers and garden hose.

Excellent review 5030. One thing I wonder is, if the vehicle has the ability to increase lift in off-road mode, why it doesn't just automatically squat for easy exit when parking and shut down? Heck, city busses have been doing that for 40 years. Maybe it's selectable option?

I've only had one deer collision in 35 years of driving, and it was a case where the deer bounced off the front tire of my pickup truck, apparently zero sheetmetal contact. My wife has hit them in her Audi (x2), Jaguar, and Volvo. One of the two Audi hits was the one I mentioned previously, 70...

25 ft isn’t a “fire break”, its A “spark gap”. 😀 I grew up “in town”, cordoned blocks of 3/4 or 1 acre, block after block after block. It allowed a reasonable 200 feet on-center spacing of houses, so more than 100 feet between nearest walls. Didn’t seem unreasonable, it was still relatively...

We live in heavy deer country. Although I’ve never had a real serious collision with one, my wife has had a few. She even hit one at 70 mph once, damn near liquifying the thing. Yet every time she is a passenger in my car, she screams “watch out” every time she sees any deer anywhere off the...

This is the most interesting summary and argument on the state of current and near-term FSD that I’ve seen. Or maybe I’m biased, I’ve always had a crush on this host. :D

It must be some universal quirk of human nature, that we're all more comfortable with our own local disasters, than those we see others suffer through on TV. Tornados terrify the mid-Atlantic folk, and Hurricanes terrify those living in earthquake zones. :D Fire is the one that bothers me...

Oh yes, totally agreed, and that's what I meant when I said "I wish we tested for this". I have almost no involuntary reflex, no real "jump scare" response. I somehow remain calm and calculating in the face of almost certain disaster. I'm more apt to get the "slow motion" response than...

One never knows. But taking this tangent and running with it, this is one thing I wish we tested for, how drivers react to adverse conditions. It's something they're really testing AI and FSD for quite heavily, scenarios in which wasting one person might save the car from the alternative of...

You can't really make that statement. Conditions varied by neighborhood, one having access to power and water while another did not. Others found the line of fire approaching their home at a time of day or week when winds were at their worst, versus another facing that condition at a more...

That could work if you're sticking around to manage water usage and keep the thing fueled. I had envisioned the case of someone setting up the rig and then evacuating, in which case they'd empty a 15,000 gallon pool in just 25 hours with five 2 GPM sprinklers. Of course, a gasoline or diesel...

Agreed in principle, but I'm not sure how applicable that statement is to this case. I'd be surprised if water and electric service remained functional long enough for this to be a viable solution, in this disaster. If on a private well, I'd guess your best bet is a portable generator back fed...

Thanks! Yes, we do save a good bit of money by burning so much wood. Our house is very old, and relatively big, so a bit of an energy hog. Every little bit helps. I'm noticing we're going through more fuel this year, the first year we've kept the door to the third floor open, as my daughter...

I know your neighborhood better than most, my family once owned the majority of it, and it's a very unique little corner of the world. I can't imagine too many places replicate the uniqueness that is the central thru east-central Bucks County. Extremely desirable, with prices easily double...

Agreed. If the AI capable of matching the output of 1000 office workers uses less energy than the daily lives of those 1000 office workers, then it's an efficiency win. I haven't run the numbers, but I would be absolutely astounded if people use less energy than an eventually-matured AI...

I did them on one outdoor circuit, as well. The circuit was damaged by a dig, and I wasn't going to re-pull the 300 feet of wire just for a few outdoor receptacles I almost never use. I used well pump wiring splices, essentially a crimp barrel with a shrink wrap sleeve that contains a glue...

Those boxes shown in the first attachment / two images are solid, but the green one is for irrigation only. You might want to check code requirements on these direct burial boxes, first to see if they're only for pass-thru and service loops, and second to see what type of splicing hardware is...

Emptied another 1-cord bay this morning, so started refilling it with red oak, to be used likely 2028.

I learned one thing many years ago, and that is a small price charged for an item you'd be fine giving away for free, always fetches a buyer sooner than "free". Put an ad in FB Marketplace for $40 per pickup load, and you'll usually get more responses than "free". I suppose it may play on the...

I'm sure you're right. But they've also gotten very good at building drivetrains that go 200 - 300,000 miles! :p

I love this. It is the only system I have seen that I think is better than mine. If I were to start over, with the tractor I have today, I would probably use this system. My system was better for me at the time, I had a Deere 855 that had a pinned bucket and was probably too light to safely...

I was thinking about this post, and wondering what's the point of towing your motorcycle with the front wheel on the ground? Seems a small utility trailer would be infinitely easier to back up, and also more visible through the rear window, as the current configuration has the bike so low they...

Responding to my own post, but it's interesting how quickly nearly every independent business owner starts to sound like the same grumpy old man. When I was very young, working my first jobs at similarly-small manufacturing companies, I thought the older owners were just cranks. But as I've...

I was going to jump up and say that I don't understand the point of electric conversions, as here in the northeast, the drivetrain of any vehicle always outlasts the body. But I guess for those in the south, or especially the southwest, that might not be the case. Maybe your cars last long...

That's right. They knew how to tow 'em back in the day.

My best friend hit a deer on a snowmobile when we were in high school, running way too fast along the edge of a hedgerow, when the deer jumped out right into his path. Just about totaled the sled, and knocked my buddy out cold. He woke up to find the deer stumbling back onto its feet and...

In the case of my 3033r, the hood is high and long, but also wide compared to older tractors of similar size. It's at least partly driven by the DPF, making space for and around that big hot metal can. Maybe they need all that height for the 3046r configuration, but I don't know. Yeah, it...

Yes, if only in scale. Starting ca.2007/08, we started building more and more very high CW power systems for testing aircraft, tanks, bombs, missiles, etc. Because the high-power EMC industry had grown up mostly around automotive electronics and avionics, the companies building systems for...

I agree with your point, we are not a free market economy, the government has long held sway over the winners and losers... nothing new. But your first sentence seems to disagree with the one right behind it?

Yes... I sure do! But many such write-offs are crafted to specifically favor those operating in the oil industry. I'm not complaining, I've benefitted from it as well, but if we're going to keep both sides of the debate honest...

It's hard to find historic data on exactly how much Tesla and its buyers have received in federal and state tax credits and incentives, but the number is massive... I saw one source name it at close to $5 billion total, although I personally have my doubts it's that high. Whatever the number...

We had the same happen in our neighborhood, the buried 15 kV line that loops around to all of the transformers lost its neutral a few years back. They strung a temporary on the surface, that we had to mow and drive around for a few months, then spent the better part of September that year...

Boats use this method, a fiberglass plank that is bowed and jammed between fittings on the gunwhales, before stretching the cover over the boat. But they don't usually have to support snow loads!

That is true. If we want to be accurate, we should call it "subsidies and tax loopholes". I stuck with the former term only, because it was the phrasing used in the post to which I was responding. That said, I'm always more apt to buy into the winning team than complain about them. I own...

Sure! Let me know if you start one. My area of work is more the design of the test equipment than the applications side, so I'm not really an expert in EMP classification, but I focused on electromagnetics in school and have lived in that world my whole life. My customers are the real EMP...

It's funny you mention this, as building small roofs to set on some of my equipment (aerator, brush hog, etc.) has indeed been one of my solutions for storage, over the years. I've found you can build a roof that is extremely light using cedar rafters, purlins, and shakes. And if the rafters...

All true. But you lost me with the next paragraph: It's not uncommon for any new tech, even if better for many reasons, to fail to launch due to what's often called "cost of entry" or "inertia". Take the absolutely stupid design of our stationary nuclear power plants, known since at least the...

Neil Peart, drummer for the Canadian prog rock trio Rush, has traveled most of the world on 2-wheels, and written a few interesting travel books from that perspective. My favorite was "The Masked Rider", about a 6 week bicycle ride around Africa, but they've all been interesting to different...

What do you mean, exactly? I design equipment for the EMC industry, and hardening consumer, industrial, and military electronics against EMP pulses, either natural or weaponized, is very big business.

The inexcusable thing about this trend is that the mechanical designers today have tools that allow them to see the operator's view in full 3D CAD, before ever molding their first bit of plastic. If the guys working these designs on drafting boards had made these errors 50 years ago, you could...

psst... see my wagon. Great solution, if you have a place to park it at the house. I've posted about it a few times: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/threads/tractors-and-wood-show-your-pics.303328/page-2419#post-6966940...

I get too much exercise already. Some nights, I can barely lift a rocks glass to my lips! :p I keep and move all wood in log form, until I'm ready to split and stack it. Once there, my "handling" steps are reasonable: 1. Rolling bucked rounds into loader bucket, which lifts them to park...

I’ve probably read 50-100 books in the year or two since reading those, but yeah… I seem to remember thinking the same. I enjoyed them enough to at least recommend the first to a few friends and family, tho.

If I recall, there were two sequels, both also good. I think the second book was "one year after", but I can't remember the name of the third, right now. I'm not sure if he planned them as a true "trilogy", or if the idea to write the sequels came later.

It sounds like we should consider a trade, @arrow! Warning though, my wife's a yeller.

As a kid who spent every summer at the Jersey shore, I only feel at home when there’s salt on my skin and the smell of the bay in my nostrils. I am not a fan of the beach so much, but I spent my childhood boating in Barnegat Bay and Little Egg Harbor. I enjoy my time in the woods harvesting...

You also won’t get them from most old CJ guys. They look at Wrangler owners as pretty boys with pretty toys. :p

lol... I don't actually live in Philadelphia, it's just our closest city. No one here would know the name of the rural Philly suburb in which I actually live, and I like the anonymity of not naming it. But yeah, I grew up along the Delaware river, northeast of the city. Now I live an hour...

Oh wah! :ROFLMAO: I'd trade this wood burning habit for living at the beach, any day! You know how it is... I wanted to move east, and my wife wanted to move west. So we "compromised", and moved west. :p

That's a supercharged 6.2L Hemi, the "Hellcat motor". They ain't so quiet! :ROFLMAO:

Wow... that was so poorly-written, I almost wonder if they even proof-read what the AI provided. The facts given were all 100% true, no knocks there. But they did zero to tie to the facts through to the conclusion. Are fossil fuels burned in the process of making EV batteries? Yes, true...

This crowd would probably really enjoy Forstchen's "One Second After", which is mostly about the breakdown of society following catastrophic damage to the power grid. I can vouch for the audiobook version of this on Audible, very well-done...

My first car was a 1939 Cadillac Lasalle. Older than me, but it was dad's "fun" car before us kids came along, and put into long-term dry storage when we did.

Yeah, that's why I asked, as I notice the same. I would believe that the Dodge badge probably sells more to men, excepting maybe the Durango, behind the wheel of which I easily see 3x-4x more women than men. But once you throw in Jeep, at least based on my own un-scientific observations, that...

meh. 101% of VW Cabriolets and 98% of all minivans were driven by women. Why do you think a car favored mostly by men is a problem, for a company that has a varied base of models appealing to different demographics?

How’s that counted? My wife’s Durango R/T is bought and registered in my name, as are all of her vehicles, but I would never buy that for myself.

I think it also depends on what you count as a “Charger” or “Challenger”. If it doesn’t have a V8, I don’t even see it, and even the R/T only gets half-credit. :p They make something called an SXT, but other than some body panels, it has little in common with the big boys.

Gordon has a good memory! But different neighbor, this time. Basically all of my neighbors call me whenever there's a tree down. I live in an old farm house, that was on 150 acres, and was allowed to gradually turn back into woods in a few stages 1920's - 1960's. It's now broken into 5-10...

Just make sure it's not as simple as sway bar bushings, before diving into struts. They've fooled more than one driver!

Sweet spot for the neo-muscle cars of the last ten years, "Chargers and the such", was 45 - 65 years of age. That group is squarely in the middle of our "Gen.X". Same. Crossovers and small SUV's have been very popular with those born 1945 - 1950, over the last ten years. Of course, that...

Also not "kids today"! Jeff Spicoli would be roughly 65 years old, today. :D

$54k ain't bad for an R/T with tow, no matter how it's configured. Even paying only a few dollars over dealer invoice on our 2020 model, it was around $65k out the door, pre-COVID. We ordered December 2019 and picked up around February 1st. RT with tow, all leather seating, tech group...

Just hopped off the phone with one of my oldest friends, who is German and works for Audi/VW in Bavaria (Germany), and their subsidiary Ducati in Verona (Italy). He's in accounting, fraud prevention and auditing. He didn't mention anything about VW being on the ropes, but he did mention they...

A neighbor had some trees dropped last week, mostly hickory. So I went over and harvested the logs today, hauling them back to my processing area. As always, I forget to take pictures until it was all done. Yeah, that's a bucket on my pallet forks. I usually load a few saws, toolbox, chains...

I'm not sure that's new, though. I remember the same phenomenon when I was in school, in the 1980's! The one that's new is "feel" or "feel like". We didn't "feel like" someone was an a-hole in the 80's, we knew they were. :D

lol… I like Gale, even if we have two very different perspectives on the world. :D Heck, anyone here who can have a conversation or debate from opposing views, without resorting to yelling and name calling, is good in my book!

I wasn't debating "why", or exactly how profitable each were, only that both of these brands make EV's.

"ICE makers?" The article is mostly focused on Honda and Nissan, both of whom were EV pioneers, and both of whom currently make many EV's. Heck, Honda made the first ever production hybrid, 25 years ago with that silly Insight, before companies like Tesla were even a dream. Nissan was one of...

I suspect crankcase volume is listed at max capacity, so if you're filling to mid-line on dipstick, that might explain part of the 3 gallon discrepancy. Beyond that, there may be a big stuck in all of the lines downstream of any SCV's, which on a tractor with 4-5 SCV channels, could be a good...

It may have been Caltech, as they described a roughly similar scenario in the article I had posted above... namely a Model T in the basement of one of the dormitory halls.

On black corrugated, yes the 4" stuff does collapse pretty easily, if you're driving a tractor around on it. But the 6" and larger diameters are much, much heavier. I'd challenge anyone to collapse 8" black corrugated... ever. When working in 4" or 6", I really prefer SDR-35 over anything...

New Peeve: The homogenization of cultures. World travel was infinitely more interesting, before the Internet, Hollywood, Television... which have all contributed to a cultural "white bread" homogenization. Even comparing the 1990's to today, which wasn't all that long ago, other countries and...

Beat me to it, but I was going to suggest swinging by your local marine store, to pick up a fuel treatment and biocide. Boaters deal with this all the time on their small diesels, as the environment (esp. those who cruise warmer waters) constantly promotes growth in the fuel tanks, and the...

Building a boat in one's back yard, and then having to crane it out over the house, seems to be one that comes up over and over. I know of a few, myself. But the Caltech link I posted above might be the earliest or best known example of someone assembling cars indoors, which has been copied in...

Assuming it has drive-out access, and not a "Porsche in the apartment" scenario? https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-may-25-me-a2anniversary25-story.html

Britt Allcroft is a name most of you with children probably know, but can't quite place in your memory. She's the creator of the Thomas the Tank Engine television series, it always said "Created by Britt Allcroft" in the opening credits of each episode. She has died at 81. The show is based...

Always weird, that last time in the house in which you grew up. I still remember when mom sold my childhood home, I was the last one out the door, retrieving the last few items left after everyone else had already moved out. Over the last several years, we have sold off houses that have been...

lol... on what planet have you been living?!? :ROFLMAO: When you care very little about human life, you can make what appears to be very fast progress. "Move fast and break things," when the "things" are your cosmonauts? @ruffdog is right, we should probably start a new thread, if anyone...

Cats have six to eight nipples, but I only see two peeking thru, there!

Seen it. And you're right, "captive" does imply too much. But the point is he was not a subscriber to **** belief. He wanted to play with rockets, above all else, and apparently decided at some point that working under them was his best option for continuing that work at that time.

Yes, German engineers gave an enormous boost (pun?) to our rocketry program in the 1940's, their contribution cannot be over-estimated. These were indeed scientists previously held captive by the ****'s, and who escaped thanks to intervention from American soldiers, facilitated by the brother...

I'd guess that was probably an empty threat made out of frustration. I can't believe that'd be legal, even in Kanuckistan.

Of course that's true... but that's half the appeal! Who wants "refined" in a muscle car? That said, my modern 6.4L is a heck of a lot more refined than any of my older big block engines. There's an American prop comic from the 1970's, who used to show a picture of the Saturn V rocket about...

I'll believe that. But the trouble here is that we have a group of people operating from south Texas up thru Fairbanks Alaska, looking for common advice and solutions. What works for the OP in Ohio is likely going to be very different from anyone in SC or NH.

In this state, racing on the street is immediate 6 months suspension of license, extra coursework to get it back, and some pretty insane insurance rate penalties. I got caught doing that about 25 years ago, which cured me of that desire, real quick.

All these years later, I can mostly remember two things about that 78 Bronco: 1. The steel in those 78 Ford bodies rusted so fast you could almost hear it. 2. The whole dashboard was made out relatively thick steel, with no plastic, rubber, or anything soft about it. You definitely wanted...

That may be true. But I do believe the 6.2L is even more a gas hog than the 6.4L, as the cars shipping with that engine had a higher "gas guzzler" tax than the 6.4L's. The 6.2L is the 700 hp supercharged variant of the 500 hp 6.4L.

You just reminded me of a funny story. The guy who owned the Ramcharger also bought a 53 Willies Jeep, and he and I were doing a full frame-up restoration. We needed a place to store the body out of the weather, so we stuck it in an old shed attached to one of my mother's carriage barns. The...

They don't. They generally prefer "cellar temperature", say 55F. That said, some brew pubs do store their beer in traditional leather bags, upstairs in the tap room. Most complain if it's warmer than 60F, though. I'll admit, most of the brews they prefer over there do taste good around 55F...

Same. I spent much of my 20's working on and off-roading in a late-1970's Ramcharger. Big vehicle for trail use, so we also carried chainsaws, to widen paths as needed. The Jeep CJ guys used to get a real kick out of that.

Wow... that's dry. It's so easy to lump a whole state together, when looking at it from 3000 miles away. We get about 50 inches per year, which ideally happens at a rate of 1" per week. But more often we see much more than 1" per week in April and November, with relatively dry mid-summer and...

I was just confused by your assertion that sales of Challenger and Charger were "down". We all know the trouble with Dodge, but it has nothing to do with their customers not wanting what they had been offering. It has everything to do with failing to prepare themselves for the latest emissions...

Amber, WA. I was going to make a joke about you probably knowing rainfall management better than the rest of us, based on widespread assumption that WA gets more rain than just about anywhere. But it turns out we get like 30% more rain than you, per year!

I'm confused. Sales were never "down" on Charger and Challenger. These models were discontinued / unavailable as of 2024, due to emissions and/or efficiency restrictions, but were enjoying very good sales prior to discontinuation.

Which is the one people don’t want? The EV Hellcat?

The Charger and Challenger have long shared all of the same mechanicals, basically identical cars built on two different bodies. But it is a little weird the article keeps stating "Charger", while all the photos show a Challenger. :D

I suspect the same thing happens here, but never to any degree that has actually caused a problem with blockage or flow. We get long winter stretches of 15 - 20F overnight lows with 30 - 35F daytime highs. So, average is below freezing, and ground stays relatively frozen, other than the top...

My downspouts all empty into underground piping, mostly 6" SDR-35. Never had an issue with any of them backing up due to freezing, despite some areas being relatively shallow due to changes in terrain. They've been that way for more than 30 years, now. I suspect there is very little water...

Cool. I do believe it would be possible to link two generators, heck this is what my FIL spent his career on, as GM of a few power plants. It requires synchronization before switching them together, and probably careful management arrangement of which of the pair controls the system speed, as...

"You may reasonably expect a man to walk a tightrope safely for ten minutes; it would be unreasonable to do so without accident for two hundred years." -- Bertrand Russel I believe he was talking about the mutually-assured destruction (MAD) era of the cold war, in this quote, but I always felt...

I don't know about "best", but a 12" bucket on a mini-excavator makes awful quick work of it. I had what seemed like miles of trench dug in a few hours, when we had to run electric and drainage for a recent pool project.

Tangent: For those of you guys running multiple gensets, how do you syncronize them before switching both online? I imagine that just letting the two run side by side with a voltmeter between them might leave the opportunity for differential voltage to drop to zero every once in awhile, due to...

You said "almost", but I don't know if you mean by model count or sales numbers. Toyota has sold over 3 million Prius cars, only 35% of which came to North America (that includes USA, Canada, Mexico, etc.). It was introduced prior to EV incentives, and most of their sales are outside of the...

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I assume the range is infinite, as long as we don’t run out of gas stations? Range is a useful concept when discussing BEV’s that can take awhile to charge, or heading out in the Australian outback, where there aren’t gas stations every few miles. But very few of...

I assume your car also has the active exhaust? Can't remember which years and configurations got that. My Charger has it, and it barks like a race car when those exhaust valves open wide. Always fun on a cold morning, as that's about the only time you get to hear them opened to max dilation...

That is exactly my pickup truck. It has a 36 gallon tank, and I average 14.6 mpg. Bone-stock 2015 RAM Outdoorsman with the 3.92 posi rear option and 5.7L Hemi.

True. But there are two possible work-arounds: 1. Just use whatever closest "shoulder height" number is provided, whether that be 1.5 meters or 60 inches. 2. Do a simple linear fit between whatever numbers are provided. I can help with this, if you have data. The table you have is already...

Depending on which vehicle I'm driving, I will occasionally leap two cars in a single pass, in these situations. Not a move to pull in a pickup truck, or really anything else without overwhelmingly-dominant horsepower. I've never had a problem doing this, but given the offender is often...

Amen to that. My stock Big Tex TV70 trailer axles are way back, like at the 60%/40% position. It is a problem, which doesn't allow me to just load evenly with logs or loose material, without seeing excessive hitch weight.

It would not be a primary factor in my decision. I have driven more than one 8 mpg vehicle, and I'm presently averaging 12 mpg in my sedan. My current pickup truck shows 14 mpg on the trip computer. That said, I doubt it's anywhere near that bad. Lots of market research goes into any...

I doubt RAM is putting fuel efficiency anywhere near the top of their priority list, having built a customer base almost solely on large-displacement engines. All else equal, of course I'd choose the vehicle with better efficiency. But "all else" is never equal, and so I drive vehicles that...

A good life, and a good death. If I recall, his wife only passed one year ago, they were together for 77 years. Hard to wish for more than that, in your later years. Obviously not our most successful presidential administration, but one heck of a life outside of that.

Electric motors are awful torquey. What do you see as the advantage of a direct connection to the ICE? I'm thinking what has worked well for diesel locomotives and submarines the last 90 years must work well enough for towing any trailer I own. Standard PHEV model? All the performance...

Assuming you mean pickup trucks and the like, I think they will be among the last to make the switch, which is probably why Dodge's approach with the Ramcharger makes sense. Total HEV, no range or charging issues, and 500 hp to boot.

Can you post more info or photos on this? My 3033r has terrible forward visibility due to the shape of the hood and loader, easily the worst tractor I've ever owned, when comparing only on visibility for loader operations. I should probably consider some type of camera system myself, since I...

I already posted this in the EV thread, but maybe it should have gone here. The guy talking owns a small business building custom hybrid semi tractors, and converting things like cranes and fire trucks to hybrid, just so you understand the perspective from which he’s speaking about the Ramcharger.

Dodge with a kickass HEV?

It's for weighing ducks and witches!

Same. Just like old refrigerators, old spray cans work fine. It's only the new ones that fail.

Is the ".7" your force/pressure multiplier? :D Not sure if they'd be willing to make one-offs, but: Custom Dials & Private Labeling - Kodiak Controls

I think there are a lot of cars today, in which the engine mounts need to be undone to lean the engine one way or t'other far enough to change spark plugs. Of course plug change intervals today are 5x longer than they used to be. I jammed a 7 liter Ford 429 into a little Mustang LX body in my...

I never have trouble with the traditional white cans, either. This was the Farm and Implement product, though. I don't think they make a good "JD Green" in the traditional product line. Yep, done that. But these weren't clogged in the nozzle, it was clogged down inside the can. I always do...

That might be worth a try, but my shop is heated and air-conditioned, so it wasn't real cold to begin with. I keep it set at 55F/85F when I'm not out there, so it was probably 55-57F when I first went out this morning, but I had already turned the heat up to 63F hours before spraying. So, the...

The worst part of it is the clog always seems to be in the feed tube, down inside the can. So no amount of nozzle cleaning will resurrect a clogged assembly.

I know it's been said already in this thread, but... modern spray paint cans. I pulled the battery out of my zero turn this morning, and of course the tray rusting. No worries, the metal is thick, just a few minutes with a wire brush and needle scaler to clean it up. I grab a can of Rustoleum...

It would be a challenge with the loader, unless you always checked pressure at the same height, since the force to lift ratio changes with height. It’s usually highest near the ground, and drops as height increases, the way most loader cylinders are arranged on the frame.

lol... no, you're not going to see that! It's a good method for checking something at home, but it probably takes a good 10 minutes to set it up, do the measurement, and then tear it down. I have used this to check a trailer when setting it up with new equipment, or to see how a new truck sags...

Do they allow conjugal visits?

Thanks, arrow! Sounds like I'm good to keep running 'em dry, it has certainly worked well enough for me, so far. I empty the bowls on my generator and walk-behind leaf blower carburetors, Honda and Subaru, respectively. Easy enough with a drain screw on each, and a shot glass or old yogurt...

Ning already described the procedure, which is why I mentioned "a piece of timber" in my original post. My trailer's tongue weight usually runs under 1000 lb., so a simple 4:1 on the beam puts weight on the scale at a manageable 250 lb. or less. It's not complicated, but it is slow enough that...

The issue is that it puts me across the threshold for requiring a WDH. At 700 lb., the truck runs fine without, which is nice considering the terrain and tight spaces I'm often turning. At 1000 lb., I most definitely need a WDH. I'm always floating right around this territory, with that trailer.

The shell is 100% identical, as is the molding of the seat. But the finish on the vinyl, or whatever that material is, seems to be different. The one that came off the tractor was a more shiny glazed vinyl, and this new one seems to be more matte finish. I haven't been able to decide if they...

Thanks, guys. Logs are generally cut to 15' lengths, and the trailer box is 16' long, so I don't have much leeway in how they're loaded. I'm usually pulling them as close to the front wall of the trailer as possible, just to ensure nothing interferes with closing the gate at the end of the...

I'd be interested to know your thoughts on 2-stroke storage. I use my chainsaws pretty consistently during fall/winter/spring, but they sit mostly unused all summer. Each spring, I dump all remaining fuel out of their tanks, fire them up, and run them dry. Everyone from mechanics to amateurs...

Damn new seat is almost too bright and clean for the tractor it’s on! Credit to @DarkBlack for the screen shot method. I think I’ll find an OEM cover to go on this one. Just gotta figure out how to get the right cover for this seat, since it’s a higher back than the common garden tractor seat.

This comes down to design. A bad design with the dipstick in the corner of the pan, will be badly affected by measuring on an un-leveled surface. But if dipstick is aimed toward middle of the pan, then small errors in machine leveling won’t have as much effect on measured oil level.

I have a system that works great for my boat trailers, since they’re both lighter, and also relatively un-changing loads. But I am still looking for better solutions for my landscape trailer, which is used for hauling logs, yard debris, and occasionally my tractor with implements. This Weigh...

I'll admit that's pretty cool. But my God... $300 - $500 for a hitch that can't even take WDH?!? That's awful high. I'll have to dig into this, since if they had a WDH variant at similar pricing, that'd actually be something I might use. But as it stands there, I can do the same with a $15...

@steve tym already nailed it. The fact that you're never returning to at least min switch pressure indicates pump is unable to deliver what's being asked of it. There could be three reasons for that: 1. Most likely there's a damaged line or soaker ring in your irrigation system. I've...

I was wondering about that, so I'm glad you posted this. I guess I should look up the spec's at some point, but it never mattered so much, it seems to take really good photos at all zoom levels 0.5x up to about 6x. Even at 10x, it's not that terrible, I assume the 48 MP sensor must yield close...

Great chart! That should be a site sticky, if ever there were one. As to what to add... I've always used loader lift capacity at 60" for comparison, instead of lift capacity at max height. My reasoning is that, when an object is very heavy, near max capacity, I'm never lifting it to max...

Damn. Sorry to hear that, Jake. And so close to the holidays doesn't make that any easier. God bless, buddy. Enjoy the memories you have.

I’m no chemist, so forgive me if I have missed the whole point of this, but are you ignoring why ethanol is the problem? It seems that those who know much more about this subject are implying that ethanol gas is hydrophilic, and that is the very problem. If you put ethanol in the gas, it will...

Agreed, and I wasn't complaining, just stating some facts. Yes, it would be nice if the server just resized the images, but I've been getting by fine with resizing them on my PC. It has cut down the number of photos I post, since I more often than not forget to come back to it next time I'm at...

Thanks! That’s a great idea. Will do.

Interesting. I find about 1/3 of my photos upload fine, but 2/3 get rejected as too large. It’s related to the size of jpg conversion from native HEIC, and how the number and distribution of colors affects the file size. I’m running an iPhone 15 Pro which I think has a 48 MP camera. On my...

it’s hard to like good posts with valid points, when every one comes with a snarky comment or insult.