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Maybe. I had two replaced, and they required defacing of both. They were purchased 1970's and 1990's, but both replaced sometime 2010 - 2020. If I'm being totally honest, I know for sure that they required defacing the first, sending me specific instructions on how to do it. But the second I...

I'm far from an expert on this, but I have watched paint flake off of metal having a zinc undercoat, and I guess that makes sense if you think about how zinc and other anodes work. Zinc moves across the surface of the metal, toward any scratch which is beginning to oxidize, so that the zinc can...

Good info. But in my case, I was in USA with VPN turned off, when I experienced the trouble.

Hah... "what we have here is a failure to communicate!" When we talk about getting rid of our trucks after 10-12 years due to salt and rust, it's not that they're going into the crusher, but that the guy who is buying a new truck is typically not the same owner driving it after the body is full...

OP already bought the truck, more than two weeks and 20 pages ago, so that request was satisfied. OP was talking about rust proofing by page 21, post #213. So now you're telling him what he can discuss, on his own thread? :rolleyes: Perfect timing on posting about rust proofing again just...

??? Not off the rails at all, when you follow the thread. Most here are replacing their trucks due to rust, caused by road salt, more than any other cause. I can almost guarantee you that when I'm forced to replace my 5.7L Hemi with a Hurricane, it will be because road salt rusted thru my...

Same. My wife buys that all-natural peanut butter for the kids, but the preservative-laden JIF and Skippy work better in mouse traps that may be sitting many months between reloading. I also catch many mice, hazard of having a big and extremely old house, and have tried many types of traps...

Our rock salt trucks have a bad habit of leaving piles of the stuff at intersections, where they stop and raise the dump truck bed to shift the stuff to the spreader in the rear. Each pile might be 200 - 400 pounds, just left sitting there, 4" - 6" deep and covering an area half the size of a...

Hey, I get it. Peace of mind is worth something. But just out of curiosity, what's the sum-total cost on those 4 unused extended warranties?

I never extend warranties. Unless you're expecting some repair you just absolutely cannot afford, you're better playing the odds on your own dime. Extended warranty costs are very carefully analyzed to make money for the seller, in the aggregate, not the buyer.

I guess I should consider it, but I'd have to resolve the icing on the driveway issue, as our driveway already gets dangerously icy and we have a lot of delivery vehicles in-out of the area adjacent to our garage. I do have one spigot of softened water plumbed under our garage sink, which I can...

I've seen a few make this claim, and honestly, I'm not buying it. Brine is simply salt in water, which is exactly what you have after rock salt has been pulverized by tires and mixed with snow. The beauty of brine is that they can cover the road surface with a small fraction of the amount of...

This belongs in the "You know you're old when..." thread. I also hate the tiny print, but have to admit, it was never a problem before roughly age 40.

That’s a shame. I remember when there was a months-long queue waiting for Hellcats, 2015-16. In fact, that was one of the major factors in my decision to order the SRT 392, as the quoted wait time was many months shorter. Going from that to cars sitting on the lot many months, stinks of bad...

Late to this thread, and I understand your argument, but think it's wrong on two levels. First, Toyota indeed has very good quality, no arguing that, but "quality" in it's proper definition is not what the end user sees. After all, a design that fails early, but very predictably so, meets the...

Agreed. And it's worse if you have a vehicle that's almost exclusively driven in bad weather, such that it never has a chance to get blown dry on the nicer days. Back when I was driving my trucks everyday, snow or sun, they didn't rust quite so quickly. But now I drive the truck only in bad...

Years ago, one of the streaming services (Netflix?) had MASH. Despite having seen probably almost every episode several times as re-runs, I decided I was going to watch the whole series in its proper order, for the first time. I think I was in season 3 when they dropped it from their lineup...

yes, I've noticed this. We find the same relative comfort at 70F with the baseboards going, as 76F when heating solely with wood stoves. I think it has to do with the fact that hydronic baseboard is typically routed along all exterior walls, creating a warm blanket of air that somewhat...

Damn... now that's going to annoy me. I never noticed before!

As one of the hold-outs with an oil-fired boiler in our basement, people ask why I don't convert to heat pump... until there's a power outage. :D I think it takes all of 3-4 amps at 120V, to run the boiler, circulator pump, and zone valves.

There have been some great ideas posted here, for 20 and 40 foot spans. But I think everyone is forgetting that the OP's crossings are just 3 to 7 feet. I could've had the culvert pipes delivered, installed and buried, in half the time this thread has played out! :ROFLMAO: Go concrete, if...

All over Arizona, TBN'ers are wondering what the hell you're talking about. :D I remember a friend from Buffalo NY, where the road salt is so prevalent, that they replaced all their vehicles every 2-4 years back in the 1980/90's. I think the coatings have gotten a bit better since then, but...

I figured this would be the response from an electrician, and for good reason. They're doing this stuff all day, everyday. With repetition, comes many more chances for stuff to happen. As an engineer, I'm looking at this stuff from my desk most days, and then working hardware in a controlled...

I've actually been toying with the idea of a tankless water heater for our 3rd floor (4th, if you count basement) bathroom. The prior owners installed a 40 or 50 gallon traditional electric water heater in the unheated attic space adjacent to that bathroom, and it works fine, but will...

I mentioned this in another thread recently, so apologies to those who already know this one. England has a bad reputation for electrical and plumbing systems, and it's well-deserved, they really love holding onto old hardware and conventions. When staying in a 1000 year old hotel in Stratford...

As long as the system is properly grounded, there is zero danger in touching the neutral. As you already noted, at least in the mains panel coming into the house, it's screwed right into the panel, so it's as safe as touching the door of the panel. That said, especially when considering...

I work with high voltage, and so there are some numbers we always keep in our heads. Those of us who drink coffee all day, and then a cocktail after work, usually have very dry skin. If I grab an ohmmeter between my two hands right now, it's going to measure several hundred k-ohms. Those who...

Place I used to work had the bathroom lights on motion detectors, and they'd turn off like 3 minutes after detecting no motion. You learned to crap quickly there, lest you find yourself stuck in a stall in pitch darkness.

Yeah, I'm not germaphobe, but that one always kind of got me, after watching the guy whose ass was just exploding in the stall next to the urinals walk out and handle all those doorknobs, without even washing his hands. Then I have to touch the same knobs, before going back to my table and...

I never did better than 8 mpg average, on any of my pre-emissions vehicles. Granted, most had 5.7L or 7.0L motors, but the peak of efficiency, they were not.

I think the idea behind the recirc is to schedule it to have things pre-heated prior to your windows of highest usage. So, energy loss may not be as high as you expect. Besides... you bought the big house! You can afford the fuel. :p When we bought the current place, I asked the prior...

Bookmark this post, if you want to come back and tell me if I'm wrong or right, but I predict used pricing on 5.7L Hemi Rams is going to go thru the roof over the next 2-3 years. There are just too many people who consider it the best option, for the time-being.

How about any bathroom with stupid electric hand driers in place of paper towels? The few that actually get hot actually work okay, but probably 9 out of every 10 just uselessly blow cold air.

Did a bit of hunting on these pumps. Lots of no-name crap out there, but the major brands all seem to include a timer I wouldn’t want or need. Any recommendations for a pump with thermostat only, and no timer? I’d rather manage timing by my home automation system, than have another...

Most likely, a lot of steel. Either rebar grid in 3 dimensions, or even I-beams. Concrete is impressively weak, in this configuration, but it does a good job at protecting the steel and providing a drivable surface.

I like that setup. I had been considering running one on my own, but was looking at doing a return line from the hot supply side back to the water heater, all in sweated copper. This makes much more sense. But searching, most of what I'm finding is 3/4" NPT and capable of up to 10 bars...

Okay, I could see this working, with a thermostat having a side differential on the pump itself. I was imagining a pump running all the time, and the tighter-differential thermostat in the heater itself working against this. So then you have to be selective in where you install the pump, I...

Good point, on the runtime. But how are you sensing the temperature in the loop? Are you teeing it back into the inlet side of the tankless system, and just counting on the pressure differential created by the recirc pump to minimize mixing? I still see this as creating more short-cycling...

The only type I've ever seen deployed is this second type, and I predict problems, namely because the power output of the tankless heater is way too large to be an efficient maintainer of the relatively small but constant load that is this recirc loop. Think of it as starting a semi truck to...

When looking at any risk, engineers are trained to grade them on two axes: 1. Probability of occurrence 2. Impact of occurrence We obviously treat aircraft, because the impact of not doing so is very high, no matter what the probability of occurrence is. I'd argue that with trucks, if due...

Instead of a circulation pump, I wonder if anyone has ever looked at just mounting one of those very small hot water heaters downstream of one of these, as a maintainer. Energy usage in the tank would be very low, as the initial heating is done by the tankless, and it's only maintaining a small...

I think the mod's here do a pretty good job. But often one trigger-happy member clicking "Report" on a post has the mod's deleting it, just because it's easier than dealing with the person doing the reporting. I don't remember posting anything political in this thread, in fact I can't even...

Sportsman beat me to it, but I'd be using large culvert pipe for all or most of your 3 - 5 ft. crossings. Easy, quick, strong, and long-lasting... almost everything any bridge is not. If you use concrete culvert pipe, it's commonly available up to 108" (9 feet) diameter. I think plastic...

I have an old friend who installed a Rinnai tankless, when we were living next door to one another, and always helping each other with renovations. He loves it, but... 1. He will be the first to tell you that the wait for hot water is noticeably longer. 2. BTU requirement usually means the...

I wish I could see which of my posts on this thread was just deleted, due to politics! Didn't know I was ever interesting enough to warrant that. :p Anyone know how to view your deleted posts, to learn from your mistakes?

We live in an old farm house, which is not a working farm anymore, unless you count owning chickens. :D I seriously toyed with the idea of buying the adjacent lot, and turning it into a Christmas tree farm, but neither time or spousal support were on my side, in that endeavor So, now I...

Yeah, it'd be a tough thing to pull on existing OTR drivers, who may already be late in their career. But it is a legit problem that needs solving, even if imposing it on new drivers first. Of course, there are always these, which I know are installed at some truck stops: They don't work on...

I had the same experience. Single worst vehicle I have ever owned was my Chevy Silverado K1500. Damn thing spent more days in the shop than possibly every other vehicle I've owned in 35 years of driving, combined. I sold it before it was even 10 years old, with only 60k'ish miles on it...

That is an awesome story! And I was so hoping it was true! I did some digging on this, since it's exactly the kind of weird factoid I love, and unfortunately it appears this etymology is misappropriated:

I'm not sure I would count on a bail-out, this time around. Times and attitudes change. Our government has done a lot of things over the years, which were accepted in their time, but would not be today. I think snobdds makes a good point about confidence in a continued parts and support chain...

Yep. Just guessing at his intention, as it's what makes the argument reason out.

I'm not following the argument, but it sounds like you're letting semantics get it the way of real-world advantage. To produce more horsepower, you must use more fuel. After all, horsepower is nothing but the conversion of chemical potential energy to mechanical kinetic energy. We all get...

I'm on my third classic Stanely thermos. You know, the ones that run around 1 liter, with the green wrinkle finish. They're not dishwasher safe, the chlorine in dishwasher detergent attacks their welds, but I used to wash them with dishwasher detergent anyway. I carried one to work every day...

Okay, yes... his statement has a flaw, if you let the grammar police have at it. But I think we can assume he's talking about the old displacement versus turbo debate, and the cold hard fact that, over the full range of driving requirements, a turbo on a smaller displacement can achieve similar...

I'm a big fan of the SRT products from Dodge, IMO some of the best vehicles on the road in the last 10 years, and most definitely the best at their price point. I've owned a few, and in fact still have one 6.4L SRT 392 Charger, which is just sublimely fun to drive. But I've been watching them...

I'm a member at the MikeHolt.com forum, but unless you're an electrician or electrical engineer, your posts will be removed and your account will be blocked. It is a forum for industry professionals only, not homeowners, and they enforce that quite rigorously these days. There has been a lot...

Maybe! I guess you're talking about stoves that load with the wood sitting east-west, but then you'd be giving up 3" of total length? Might vary from one stove model to the next. My stoves are deep, and load with the wood facing north-south. The fresh air is introduced above the front...

Pretty standard practice. Hell, even Stanley Thermos makes you send in photos of your destroyed thermos, before they'll send you a new one under warranty. It's a way to prevent people from reselling bad product on ebay, thus damaging the brand name, or from scamming the manufacturer to get...

It's possible the voltage you were feeling was induced via the antenna sticking up in the air, and not from the receiver on the television itself. TV receivers, unless miswired or malfunctioning, should not output any high voltage. But a metal stick standing 50 feet in the air probably could...

Probably not uncommon, in any major city, at the time. Philly was built at the confluence of the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers, just as most confluences are populated by old cities, water being the primary forms of transportation and power at one time. I used to water ski in the Delaware...

I can't remember which year it was, probably 1994, as that was the year of the worst ice storms the greater northeast has ever seen. In any case, as the news tends to cycle and all glom onto one new emergency or another each season, that year discussion of sheets of ice and snow flying off the...

The reason is to avoid a parallel current path, and ensure primary current never flows on the ground wire. Simple Kirchoff's theory, if you bond two conductors at both ends, they're effectively one conductor, and current will divide onto the two according to their proportional conductance. But...

I try to keep all of my bucking to within ±1/2", but on larger diameter stuff, it's more often ±1" or more. My stove works very well with 18" lengths. I can squeeze up to 20" lengths in the top row, above the firebrick, but it interferes with airflow, whereas 18" is the longest that can be...

Yes, very recent, when considering the age of many houses. Separation of ground and neutral was first specified in the 1999 edition of the NEC. More changes and specificity were added in 2008. That is part of it. The other is ensuring the hots are only 120V relative to ground, and that...

I have no experience with building small tractor engines, but having done several car engines, there's a lot of hours and dollars in involved in any engine build. I'd hate to put all that into an iffy block. How much are you really saving by using this block, versus buying another core from a...

Sorry. I found it interesting, but maybe too much thread drift.

I understand they've gotten better over the generations. "Competent" is a low bar, and at a certain speed, I'd even debate if they qualify as that. I actually drove a Wrangler on the highway everyday when I was too poor to afford a second vehicle. A great highway experience, they are not...

Cool. Probably works well enough for casual burners, not trying to pack maximum BTU's into each stove or furnace load.

I don't think it is. There have been a few prior posts in this thread, describing this engine has been used in Jeeps for at least two years prior. So, it sounds like this is probably the third year for this engine.

I guess I had forgotten to come back to this, until 3930dave reminded me. A female coworker at a prior job (Lucent/Agere) started noticing maybe 25-30 years ago, that all the male RF engineers only had daughters. The numbers were admittedly noticeable, like damn near 100% daughters, for the...

You might want to check your state law on that. Most states have laws against sale by face cord, as it's a unit of area, being 8 x 4 feet x whatever the hell you want. In PA, the law states you can only sell by stacked volume, such as cord or fractions of a cord (e.g. 1/2 cord)... but never...

That's how I've felt about every CJ/Wrangler/Sahara we've ever owned. Great off-road vehicles, but embarrassingly bad for highway use.

I suppose some will say I should be more tolerant of mental illness or addiction, but I am almost 100% certain that I would have punched that guy straight in the mouth. Requiring dental work you can’t afford has a way of changing one’s behavior, in subsequent encounters. I have personally...

My wife had a Grand Cherokee Laredo, bought new ca.2000. It was a terrible vehicle to drive, crazy dangerous, due to its high COG and too-soft suspension. Swerve to avoid a deer at 50 mph, and there was a good chance you’d lose control. I really hated driving that thing at any speed above...

I like that. And it extends to those idiots who don’t accept their posted or legal right-of-way. Few things piss me off more than some idiot, usually older men, who stop traffic and wave someone thru, against the legal right of way. It most often happens when they’re turning off the main...

Before I had sheds, and was doing most of my wood drying out in the open, I'd just cover a given year's requirement in August or September of the year it was to be burned. The equilibrium moisture content of all firewood in the open bottoms out in summer, and then increases again in autumn, and...

Oh man, did you ever open a can of worms! Why not ask "Deere vs. Kubota"? :ROFLMAO: I think personal circumstances and local conditions will sway opinions in a big way, but of the things I get frequently enough to have any real opinion, white oak has to be the top contender. In choosing...

Funny enough, testicles seem to be the most susceptible. More on that later, running out the door, now!

I wouldn't let one bad apple spoil the whole operation. There are a$$holes in every demographic.

I may be in the minority on this, but I treat other drivers according to what they and I are driving. If I’m in my pickup, and some guy in a Hellcat or a 911 wants to get ahead of me, I just smile and let him, I don’t want to hold him up. But if someone tries to pull the same in a Wrangler or...

Maybe I should look at a method for de-barking before I stack the logs. The bark usually falls off when I’m splitting and stacking the stuff, as my backlog is such that the logs are usually sitting 12-18 months before I split them. That’s why I have them up on sleepers. I suspect the...

That is a problem here, too. Probably always was, even before climate change, as we’re a good bit south of you. I try to do my winter processing before lunch, while the ground is frozen hard, since the sun starts softening the surface when air temp hits about 28-30F. On cloudy days, I can...

It was very difficult, at first. But like anything you have to do frequently enough, your mind adapts, and it eventually becomes second-nature. If you’re used to backing up regular landscape or boat trailers, you know everything it reversed from backing up a vehicle. The front axle on this...

I'm trying to remember to grab some photos when out playing with firewood, but it's honestly hard to remember. We keep two woodstoves going 24/7 thru the winter, one load atop the next from now thru March, and then overnights only October into May. So, moving firewood is just part of every...

Yep. I have stories! And those guys working on big TWT amplifiers have both the high power RF and high-voltage supplies and exploding water jackets, all in one chassis. One guy I knew ended up getting himself across a 40 kV supply, when he was startled by a water-cooled load exploded in the...

Agreed. I hear veteran truckers talk about how bad the industry has become, with low pay forcing high turnover, and less experienced drivers. When you combine that with a profession where every small error can have huge consequences, it seems bad things are bound to happen. Maybe instead of...

I will give to just about every hand I see out there, with really only two exceptions: 1. I won't put cash in the hand of a junkie, but I have handed them food or other items, when it's practical. This used to be frequent thing, when I went to school in the city, and a lot of the homeless...

That's the case on any of the expressways going into Philly, and I'm sure we're not unique in that here. It is simply impossible to use a safe following distance, lest you stay in a perpetual loop of having to back off further for each new car that leap-frogs in front of you. Driving a truck...

I hear what you're saying, but I'm not sure I'd take the reasoning that far. I must see 100 or more semi trailers for every 20k trailer, on the road. Replacement brake parts for 20k trailers might be sold relatively low volumes, because those trailers just see a lot less mileage. Looking at...

Same, but mine's integrated into my iPad case. Definitely easier setting that on the breakfast table to watch the news and surf the forum while scarfing down my Honey Bunches of Oats and yogurt, than fiddling with a tiny phone screen keyboard.

Sales volume is everything when it comes to component pricing, although I'm honestly surprised there's not enough volume in any pickup truck design, to level that field.

I guess I should have extended the theory above, to include three phase. Three phase would normally require six wires, except that one end of each transformer winding is tied to the next, so that only three wires are brought to the outside world. This works because the phases are at 120°...

That's actually single-phase. Two-phase is an odd old system most will never see in their lifetime, which typically has 4 hot wires. Think of it like this: A phase is a transformer winding. The transformer feeding power to your home has just one secondary winding, with three wires tapped...

If the road is operating near capacity upstream of the merge, there will always be a slow-down at the merge, as folks adjust to maintain safe travel distance. Whether you use the 1 car length per 10 mph rule or 5 second rule, or just blindly follow your gut, the distance between you and the car...

They've been phasing it out (pun?) for decades, so probably either used or custom. I just checked, and while I was right on Philadelphia (of course), Chicago was not the second city still using it. That honor goes to Hartford CT. "Active two-phase distribution systems remain in Center City...

All correct, and a good explanation. But careful with confusing the word "phases" for "legs". Residential panels, with rare notable exceptions, are all single-phase. But we use two legs to make a phase, with a center tap (neutral) to split the phase. Single phase = 2 legs = residential Three...

Sub-panels can be ground-bonded, at least back when I learned NEC, and I would be surprised if that has changed. They are usually not, especially if within the same structure as the primary, but don't confuse convention with rules. There are two ways to feed a sub-panel: 1. Bring ground +...

Fixed your sentence. "Green" is just a new popular avenue. New boss, same as the old boss. "Going green" could be a good thing, at least in some ways, if not absconded and bastardized by those looking to make money off every new popular movement.

Drill the old plug out, and install an auto drain, or at least a decent thumb-screw drain. I generally use left-hand twist drills, when drilling out old buggered plugs or rusted fasteners. Probably 80% of the time, the fastener or plug will spin out of the threaded hole before I'm even...

My stationary compressor has an automatic (time-based) auto drain, that I picked up on Amazon or eBay. It opens the drain for 2 seconds every 50 minutes, all day every day. Works great, other than it seems to always fire off precisely when I get a phone call. :ROFLMAO: It also scares the...

I haven't looked into the details on this one, at all. But speaking generally, congress must approve a budget, but the administration typically has some discretion on how they redirect already-budgeted funds. That said, $6.6B is an awful big redirect, so it'd be interesting to see the details...

Not only that, but at least below a few MHz, it will hurt the entire time it's doing it. :ROFLMAO:

I think he already said? I'm not sure why our government is in the loan business, or how that gets justified, no matter the company. That is pure socialism, and unlike former bail-outs of GM or Chrysler, this one doesn't even come with the justification of affecting hundreds of thousands of...

You made it much farther than me! I posted that one before watching it, and only later realized it was junk. But figured someone might get upset if I deleted the post. :D Sorry about that!

Our local grocery store carries it, but you can also get it at Amazon. About $5/box when you buy in lots of 4 or more, but you can buy a single to try under $10...

Lucky kids! I may have to try that one. I remember my father would make our pancakes into different shapes, upon request. Some of our requests came out better than others, but he did his best. We switched over to Lund's Swedish pancakes about the time my son was born, and now the whole...

Glad someone said this. I don’t have a PTO generator, but I’ve been reading the last several posts thinking, “what about the damn tractor noise?” :ROFLMAO:

True. But I do think there should be some home economics class, even if just one semester at some point, so everyone has at least a basic understanding of things like mortgages, car loans, state and fed taxes, CD’s, 401k’s, IRA’s, and brokerage accounts. Damn… that’s a lot, now that I type it...

If you're talking about upgrading my personal truck today, then agreed. But as a fleet decision, they've upped the HP by more than 5% while simultaneously lowering fuel consumption 5%. It might have been just that final small nudge required to meet their fleet targets for mileage.

I'm with Runner. Some quotes from the movie: "Now I have a machine gun. Ho Ho Ho." -- McClane "Not a creature was stirring, except the four a$$holes coming in the rear." -- Theo "This is Christmas music!" -- Argyle "It's Christmas, Theo. It's the time of miracles. So be of good cheer."...

The problem here, is that your definition of "correctly" is based on only one criteria, that the initial buyer really couldn't care less about. Ease of repair surely is the definition of "correctly", for the guy buying older cars that will need repair. But manufacturers are not designing for...

If it's a proximity sensor with no moving parts, it's assuredly more accurate and reliable than 99.99% of the driving public, remembering to check their dipsticks with any regularity. They have to play to the odds, when trying to improve their reliability ratings, as that's an important...

I've always bought anti-seize in small tubes for home use, like a travel-size toothpaste tube, and they last a few years each. That's the perfect size, unless you're continuously using fasteners over 3/4" diameter. But at my last job, other people were in charge of procuring whatever I needed...

I paid less than that for my first house, in the late 1990's. But I wasn't driving a Mercedes. Priorities.

I also had a 78 Ford. Spritz a little water near them, and they start to rust. :ROFLMAO: Must have been the mostly quickly-rusting vehicles on the road, maybe only rivaled by Datsun. I always heard that Ford changed their steel supply around 77-78, to comply with new environmental...

I enjoy them, when they're in addition to, rather than in place of, the religious songs. How can you not like Johnny Mathis's "Winter Wonderland", or Bing's "White Christmas"? Heck, I like Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas", too. I absolutely loathe Paul McCartney's stupid "Simply...

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the Japanese built some differences into the cars produced for their own market, versus those built for export, based on documented differences in majority maintenance practices between various markets. They build these vehicles in such huge numbers, and...

Good thing! Because they need it... frequently! I never owned a '74, but I did own other Ford trucks of the era. While I could fix anything on them, I never considered any of them a "joy" to work on.

Most always try to make things as serviceable as possible, but sometimes serviceability must be sacrificed for performance, size, or even cost. Just as often, an engineer or designer will spot a serviceability issue way in advance of production, and want to correct it, only to be told by some...

I've spent my career floating back and forth between R&D and design engineering, in fact my last corporate job was as head of R&D, but with my own technical role being mostly design in the last 7 years I was there. I've spent the last 30 years toggling back and forth between Euro and USA...

Probably mostly due to liability of collapse due to things like snow and wind load. When I did the expansion and 2nd floor addition on my carriage barn, I actually started with the structural engineer before even going to the township, just assuming this would be the first thing the township...

Very cool vid, Renze. I always forget how quiet your vehicle are, versus ours, in the gaps between trips to Europe. You can hear the dirt crunching under that guy's tires, louder than the engine noise. Heck, even his air brakes are quiet. I always notice this most when going into the city...

I used to be a vintage Cub Cadet owner, but only ever had their hydrostatics, most recently a 1963 model 123. I hate to send you to another forum, but onlycubcadets.net used to be where all the CC restoration guys used to hang out. If still active, you might get more focused advice over there.

Surge brakes on that trailer? In most states, any trailer grossing over 3000 or 3500# requires brakes. I did the surge brake thing awhile, back when I wasn't towing anything over 3000 lb. frequently enough to make installing a brake controller worth the effort. They work, although adjusting...

That's pretty cool! Never thought of that, but should be doable by someone who really needs it. Just a note, the ethanol and water will settle to the bottom, so you'd do well to either let the fuel can sit and settle inverted, or put a drain valve in the bottom. That way you can drain off the...

Same. And their integrated brake controller is a really nice one, both in location and operation. If you're ordering a new truck and own a trailer with brakes, you definitely owe it to yourself to choose this option, versus the aftermarket controllers.

I agree with everything you say here, Hay Dude... except that lest statement. I want to go back. Yeah, I know some (not most) auto's are far better than manual, in almost every way. We can disagree on the bad weather thing, that probably comes down to driver personality as much as anything...

I think it’s going both directions, following our ever-widening gap between the upper and lower classes, and destruction of our middle class. Self-serve gas may not be a good example, as it has existed so long as to span both of the conflicting eras I cited in my example, and I personally find...

Hey wolc, Looks like the old plank split along the grain, with the grain on top under tension, treating the bottom edge as a fulcrum. If you could bore thru the plank and insert some fasteners going fore/aft, it’d increase the strength of the replacement dramatically. If that’s too difficult...

Probably true. But I’m just driving, not plowing. You already know our conditions around here are that half-plowed and rutted crap where your tires spend 60% of their time on bare pavement and 40% of their time on drifted snow or compacted ice. So, leaving it in 4wd is usually not an option...

In the same vein, women who are somehow surprised when we reach our destination, and only then start gathering their piles of crap to get out of the car. Listen, if I’m the one driving, unable to gather my stuff to get out of the car in advance, then why am I standing next to the car several...

You make good points. But I prefer a stick shift mostly due to using the truck as my “bad weather” driver. I can respond more quickly and knowingly to a loss of traction with manual transmission on snowy and icy roads, than with an automatic. But yes, I will admit the auto’s are stronger and...

Really? On all I’ve built, oil seal bonnets sit atop the guides, and no guides I’ve ever installed have oiler holes. How’s oil getting to the guides? I suppose the seals could leak a bit, although that would be a huge surprise, given how snugly they fit, and their construction of spring over...

Like leaded fuel! Great for preventing knock (lead raises octane), and has the side benefit of lubing valve guides, as I understand it… but bad in every other way.

Engines go in trucks! Inseparable discussions. In fact, I think your OP was mostly asking about the engine. I missed the politics? I tend to always fall into this sort of thinking, as well. Dread of the new. But then I actually get the new car or truck, and every damn time, I end up...

I think a bigger fraction of the population is willing to accept this today, for better products or services, than when we were young. In the days of the sole provider, at least someone in the household had the time to focus on saving cost, and there was more incentive to do it. But with so...

Here's the thing. The old slant-6's made about 0.6 hp/cid, or 145 hp out of the 225 cid variant. The Hurricane you're all griping about makes 2.2 to 2.8 hp/cid, literally 4x more power. With that sort of difference, to me anyway, looks and longevity become almost completely irrelevant... not...

Some of our grocery stores make their living on being over-staffed, despite the higher cost. You won't save ten cents on a loaf of bread, by shopping there, but you'll also almost never wait in a line. Seems to be popular enough, in these days of dual-career households, where no one has a...

Nice! Definitely post back, if you remember. I'm interested in this for an upcoming project, as well.

I've seen guys post about throwing down a plastic or foam moisture barrier, and then back-filling over that with sand then crushed stone, when building these. I've never tried it myself, seems like there's lots of potential for the barrier to get damaged, but maybe still better than bare earth...

That was a really dickish response, Dave. Of course I wasn't implying that he could sell a used 48" mower for more than new. Let's not be stupid. My point was that used 48" brush hogs are comparatively rare, compared to the ubiquitous 60" and even 72" variants. So, when the shopper who's...

Yeah, Volvo has long been a brand with a few higher horsepower options. The trouble with the wagons, ours included, was their rollover safety requirements. They beefed up the roof and pillars enough that, even with the expensive sport suspension, it had some body roll in the corners. When...

Somewhere, some mid-level manager was telling his co-worker, "this guy sure does want his speedy checkout... but he keeps coming back!" :p

Old isn't bad! My tractors are kept in an old carriage barn, that was already coming up on 200 years old, when yours was built. Dirt floor = damp interior and rust, once enclosed. How do you plan to ventilate, if you're closing in the ends? I understand wanting to keep rain and snow out, but...

I rinse off my tractor after each time I fertilize, since fertilizer is so corrosive. That works out to 6 times between March and late November. I don't bother with soap and sponge, just a real thorough rinsing with the garden hose. Unless we have an exceptionally muddy spring, I usually wash...

6320 is a modern tractor. Check dash display for "operator out of seat" indicator. Maybe a broken seat interlock switch issue.

But the HO motor would give you even more stuff to fix! I know I'm in the minority, but I always focus much more on the vehicle trim level than brand or model. Whatever vehicle I buy, no matter the brand or model, it's almost always the trim level with the highest horsepower engine. Cracks me...

God bless you if you have the disposable cash to upgrade on a nearly-new truck, just because you feel like it. But then why the aversion to premium fuel? No judgement, good for you if you can swing it. It just seems like a weird line to draw in the sand, at a slightly more expensive fuel.

That's cool, and probably explains why I see so many new grades and variants popping up, at Wawa in particular. When I worked at a gas station in HS, we had five underground tanks, for "Regular", "Plus" and "Premium", as well as diesel and kero. Eliminating the Plus product, and achieving it...

Yes, mine has a hiccup. As to precisely when it happens or what causes it, I haven't nailed that down, yet. It doesn't happen often, maybe a half dozen to a dozen times in the 7 years I've owned it, but it is weird. If you say "mild" acceleration is when it happens, that might explain why...

Careful there. There are a wide range of ZF8's out there, and they are far from equal. I have a ZF 8HP-70 in my Ram 5.7L Hemi, but the 8HP-90 in my SRT 392. Both 8-speed transmissions made by ZF, but as alike as comparing an F150 to an F350.

Not a surprise. With compression (or boost), always comes a requirement for higher octane, to avoid pre-detonation. But even the old 5.7L "recommends" mid-grade. I don't remember the cutoff, whether it's 89 or 91, as most of our stations just have one or the other, so I always just select the...

It looks like even the standard Hurricane engine has more torque and hp than the 5.7L Hemi, as configured for the Ram 1500. Not by enough to make it worth swapping trucks, IMO, but at least it's not worse. It would be interesting to lay their dyno curves side-by-side, and see if this new...

This forum is social media.

Your parents grew up in the same house? Hopefully adopted! :p j/k... I know you said houses

The link trad posted will only have a login popup when you first click on it, but you can just click cancel, and it won't pester you again. Video was only 3 or 4 minutes long, IIRC.

Yeah, had a standing desk at my last office, and it definitely helped. But my present office is pure 18th century built-in library, all mahogany-stained walnut, as per the style of the 1770’s. Beautiful office, with a tufted leather sofa and walk-in fireplace, but not conducive to long hours...

Same. Now that Jeep has gone into selling Wranglers with compliant OEM offroad lighting, it seems to be more the idiots with jacked up diesel 2500's that never actually do any work, wearing all the blinding LED lighting in the grilles and hood scoops. There is one local guy that I pass so...

I'm always looking for ways to reduce my setup and cleanup time when processing wood, such that it need not be an "all day" activity, but instead can be something I run out to do an hour or two on random evenings. My back hates sitting at a desk all week, and then spending 8 hours straight...

Not a big deal, Mike. You don't need to log in to watch trad's video. But on the subject of FB, I never signed up, but did find myself at one point needing to access a link there for some activity. I just created a bogus account with a bogus name, pointing to a bogus email. Wasn't a problem...

Passing Jeeps wearing these as a young kid in the 1970's, I thought they were just smiley faces on offroad lights, until one day I realized it was actually writing. :D

Details? I harvest and store my logs in 15 ft. lengths, mostly mid-size to large red oak and hickory, although tons of ash in the last two years. My process is to park the splitter right next to where I'm stacking, then use the tractor to haul a log off the pile and lay it on the ground for...

I liked that, back when you brought it home and first posted it! It has a certain panache. :D

Love the homegrown tail lights, on that rig. Everything about it screams time capsule, you can tell it was owned by someone who lived through and was affected by the depression, and that's a very cool thing.

The guy who proceeded me through my career, my mentor so to speak, had to hire live-in nursing for his MIL, late in life. One of the nurses found the MIL's check book, and stole a few checks from the middle of the book. If she'd taken a few off the top, they'd have noticed right away due to...

It's likely the rubber bits in a sprayer are made out materials more solvent resistant than the gasketing on swimming pool lights, which might explain why I had trouble with the stuff, but you guys haven't.

I've never done this, maybe I should, but I do go to extreme lengths to ensure my boom sprayer is totally drained after use. Even installed a few extra drain cocks, using fuel shutoff valves on tees in each line, to be sure each line was as dry as possible. RV antifreeze not only gets real...

In my case, I was buying it to make and then maintain rough trails through the woods. It worked well behind that little Deere 855 (approximate predecessor to modern JD 2025R), where a 60" would been too large for that machine to safely handle on hills.

I don't see this happening. At least around here, there are so many damn 5 foot brush hogs for sale on a routine basis, I don't see anyone ever even considering a much less common 48" in its stead. Because there are so many 5 footers out there, you can almost always find better options in that...

I just sold a 48" Woods M4 brush hog this past summer. It's an interesting size, being so much less common than 60" or 72" cutters. For the guy with a small compact or larger sub-compact, it's the perfect size, and they've been hunting for one on the used market forever without luck. When...

Keeps the millennial riff-raff out, lest they go into anaphylactic shock. :ROFLMAO:

Yep, I definitely carved my initials (or my gf's) into a few things. But under the desk? We used to put all carvings on top of the desk, or on the edge, where someone might actually see them, and where we didn't have to write blind and backwards. One of my teen haunts, I've been back to in my...

There might be some truth in what you're saying, but I think there's something beyond that, as well. We left our boat's battery sitting on concrete in a heated garage one winter, ca.1989, and it was dead to the world by spring. Would never take a charge again, had to be replaced. I can say...

I understand the gum, but who carved their initials under a desk?!? :unsure:

Colin "Smiley" Peterson of the Bee Gees, dead at 78: https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/bee-gees-star-dead-at-78/ar-AA1ujSSY#:~:text=Bee%20Gees%20legend%20Colin%20%E2%80%9CSmiley%E2%80%9D%20Petersen%20died%20on,announcement%20from%20the%20Best%20of%20Bee%20Gees%20read.

Not a wheel weight. Wheel weights are generally "as-cast" designs, with zero or minimal machining work. This part has a lot of expensive and unnecessary machining ops on it, no way would someone put that sort of time and money into a wheel weight design. Looks like something designed to...

Whatever changes you made seem to have resolved the issue, Muhammad.

My first house, age 23, was surrounded by beautiful stone-walled gardens. The prior owner was a married couple, and the wife was seriously into gardening. I moved in mid-summer, and by fall the gardens were a mess of neglected flowers and weeds. So I start pulling stuff, not really knowing...

Banks? You're not using a debit card for online purchases, are you?!? That would be very risky. I don't use a debit card for anything ever, I'm pretty sure the two in my wallet have never been used even once, they're only there in case I need ATM access in a pinch. Your liability is limited...

I run a business, we take credit card payments. The service I use has no per-transaction fees, or minimum charge fees, just 2.99% straight rate on every transaction. Point is, vendors have more than one choice, when selecting their CC processing system. In this case, it would appear the...

You're a saint for putting up with that. I'd have probably moved to some place better, long ago! There are hospitals and similar jobs in locations without such problems.

Credit cards are costing all of us, in that they charge around 3% per transaction to the seller. So, sellers with a high number of card transactions need to build that cost into their pricing, thus we all end up paying higher prices to cover this cost. As to giving away coffee because it costs...

Pet peeve: Folks who drive behind you on dark country roads with their highbeams on. I'm not talking about the person who forgets they're on, and kills them the next time an oncoming vehicle passes, but the a--holes who turn back to brights after each oncoming car passes. It's not only rude...

I assume the old wives' tale about concrete discharging car batteries wouldn't apply, different tech. But did anyone ever settle that decades-old debate, whether there was even any truth in it? Smells like Mythbusters must've hit this one, but I don't remember ever seeing it.

I initially thought the same, but you'd probably have to break those down by trim package, to really highlight that effect. Using the Challenger as an example, they made 30,000 SXT's every year, but only 3,000 Hellcats. You're more likely to kill yourself falling off the toilet, than by excess...

It's been years and 3 tractors ago, since I had a JD 750, so I don't remember what type of bar it had for hanging suitcase weights... if any. But I do recall it had independent rear brakes, so there should be no issues with steering. Heck, even my 3033r is steered almost entirely by rear...

Damn! I'd like to think mad skills kept that rig upright, but I suspect some luck was involved.

Yeah, I think the claim is dubious, WRT Boston. However, just to be clear, it wasn't about record high/low. I think the claim was specifically the summer high temp minus the winter low temp, averaged over many years. IOW, what is the max and min temps you see in a typical year? Even so, I'd...

Never bad advice, I've used malwarebytes several times, in the distant past. But in this case, I'm already running Norton AV with browser extensions, and also occasionally check with the built in MS tools. Also, the issue is unique to this forum, doesn't appear anywhere else in my daily...

That makes sense. They certainly see more daily swing. At some point of long time constants, the effect of water trends toward zero, but I don't think the few cold weeks of either summer or winter are long enough to see that on the scale of an ocean. Maybe not even against a Great Lake, per...

We don't have any WiFi connected kitchen appliances (yet), but I usually tie anything that doesn't need local server access to a guest WiFi. Most routers from services like Verizon come with a pre-configured guest WiFi, separate from primary WiFi SSID, which keeps them segregated from the rest...

Cool. Thanks! It's not consistent, so I'll watch 24 hours, and report back here.

There's actually a station not far from my house that carries and sells off road diesel. They're often out of stock, they don't seem to do a good job of actually monitoring who's using all of it, since I routinely see contractors filling their trucks from the "offroad only" pump. But I'll buy...

And now, this, while responding to a post on this forum:

Oh, I guess I should have said, Edge in Win11.