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I've driven 500 cid motors, but they were all on water. :D Heck, I water skied behind once, when I was young and dumb. 24' Baha with a 500 Caddy motor, it got up and went! Not the thing to have towing you, when your stupid buddy is at the wheel and wants to have some fun at your expense.

I used to install circuit board processing automation equipment in factories in my 20's, and had the unfortunate displeasure of having to do install work in several union shops. Aside from taking 3x - 4x longer to complete each of those jobs, because we couldn't touch anything ourselves, I also...

2500 avalanche? I thought that thing was basically a unibody station wagon with a pickup bed? That said, put an 8.1L gasser in it, and I'd be interested. :devilish:

Going vertical is one place where the wedge on the cylinder rod tends to work better. I was doing a lot of huge wood for a few years, it seemed I wasn't bringing home anything under 40" diameter for awhile, all oak and ash. Going vertical was basically the only way to process those mothers...

I would still own my '05 Ram 1500 today, with manual transmission, if the tin worm didn't start attacking it. Mechanically, it was the perfect vehicle, and it only had 70k miles on it at 12 years of age. I started seeing the faint signs of rust inside the corners of the doors just before it's...

Local advice may vary, but here we just time application before a rain forecast, and hope it's not a monsoon that's going to wash everything away. We can get rain rates above 6 inches per hour, but being a lot farther north than Florida, that kind of stuff definitely happens with less frequency...

True, backup cameras definitely make it so much easier. But even before, somehow I always managed to avoid that. I'd back up to within a foot or three, hop out, eyeball the distance, and then sneak up to it with the truck. In a few cases, I smacked the drop portion of my hitch, which I guess...

Yep. All true. And that's a really nice splitter design, Rob. I should have said my comments were mostly applicable to the single-wedge splitters of the store-bought variety. Once you get into custom or commercial stuff, you can definitely design around these limitations. BTW, how is that...

I love talking log splitters, since I've spent so many damn hours standing over one or another, the last 15 years. Whether you're buying or building, speed is everything. I will never understand these guys who buy these stupid-slow 35 ton splitters, with cycle times long enough to take a smoke...

The trouble with that theory is it only works in your favor when you're splitting stuff small enough to be once and done. But when splitting large rounds that have to be split 8 - 20 ways, it's actually much easier to have it on the ram and keep the log halves, quarters, etc. right on the beam...

Good question. I see yours came in at 35, and they call that "medium", but up here they recommend 50 - 70 ppm. More interesting, even though mine is above recommended range at 77 ppm, they're still recommending I apply 0.5 lb./1000 ft2. So the implication is that there must be some seasonal...

A bit overdue, but no doubt worth remembering: Roger Corman.

The ones I never got were the guys with caved in license plates and tailgates. As if backing up to a trailer without smashing into it, or running the right size ball for your coupler, is a bridge to far. It's not that difficult, guys! :D

Same here. The inside of my bed might be a little messed up, albeit not so easy to detect under sprayed-in bed liner, but I try to keep the outside and interior relatively clean. I work my truck more than any 25 other weekend warriors I know, in fact they'll agree on that, but my truck is also...

That's a shame. But we honestly weren't doing anywhere near 20 hours per week either, though. "Many hands make light work," or however it goes. Put 20 kids on a truckload of groceries, and once they're trained on what goes where, it could be a 10-15 minute job at the end of the weekly Scouts...

When I was growing up, we had our Boy Scouts meeting one night per week at our church hall, and then Youth Group two other nights that week. Between that and other associated church dinners, etc., two dozen of us kids were there pretty much 3-4 nights per week. Point being, if I were...

But how do you keep the wife and kids from rolling out, when the dog is riding up front with you?

I had a 1978 Ford with Dana 60's front and rear, wearing 5.38:1 gears, and powered by a little Ford 400 cid thru a C6 tranny. I could lite up the Ø40" x 17" tires on dry pavement, with that gearing, but it did not get great gas mileage. Highway speed was 60 mph... when you were feeling dangerous.

Kids tend to confuse horsepower with torque and traction. His truck may indeed climb a hill the fastest, but when it comes to pulling a dead load, weight and gearing are all that matter.

Yeah, but mad tractor-haulin' men like you weren't my target, there. These guys have no 5th wheel. Most 1984 pickups were standard cab, not as practical for the family man. I remember my father once stating he wished he could own a pickup, but since he needed to haul around kids and clients...

Just to be clear, the resale ban was only for a short period (1 year), and was there to prevent the vehicular equivalent of ticket scalping, since supply was a serious problem. I can't see this affecting many buyers, one way or another, as I don't know a whole lot of people buying new $100k+...

Cool. Yeah, definitely a different world. I only know one local place here that will do less than full yards, and their selection and stock is more limited. Their smallest bucket is 1 yard, but they will "eyeball" a fraction of that, if you ask. Most other places here will only do 1 yard or...

Obviously. Hence my post:

Actually, I personally know several people who do exactly that. One guy I know drives a pickup only because his wife told him he should, because "it looks cool". I asked him which engine and rear diff ratio he bought, and he had no clue on either. Everyday, I see 2500HD and even 3500HD trucks...

Trouble is, claims of hauling crushed stone in a pickup truck are exactly that. Most pickups on the road today are not configured for 3500# payload centered only over the rear axle.

Easy: 1. Trailers with payloads up to and over 8000# are common and cheap. Pickup trucks are 1000 - 2000# payload only. 2. Trailers with capacities of 8 - 10 cubic yards are common and cheap. Pickup trucks are ~1 cubic yard. 3. Trailers can be loaded and left, pickups you usually want to...

I have both, and use them interchangeably. But there are definitely times, particularly when going into tight towns or the city, when I really just don't want to deal with an 84" wide trailer. Same with if I'm making a big loop of several stops in my errands, taking a trailer to each can be a...

I own a truck primarily for towing my trailers (boats & firewood logs), but since my other vehicles are of the sportier variety, the truck is also my "bad weather" vehicle. I do not like driving automatic transmission in snow and ice, because I am quite confident I can feel slippage between the...

Doesn't really change my argument. The folks with an empty gas tank will still be the same people with an empty battery. The real difference in this scenario, is that ICE's can go farther on a single fill, and may be less-depleted from the prior days' usage. Overall, I think ICE has to take...

I don't buy that. The moron who's caught in a storm this big with only 1/4 tank of gas, is exactly the same moron who didn't bother to charge before the storm. Anyone with any sense is going to make sure their tank is full, before choosing to shelter in place through any storm of this size.

Honestly, bed length and carpet bother me way less than the automatic transmission. I switched brands back in 2005, just because the brand I'd been driving until then stopped offering manual transmission. If I could buy a 1/2 ton crew cab today with a ~6 liter v8 and a manual transmission...

Not sure the point of this. Helene wiped out electric utility to 1.4M customers, so those with EV's are likely in even worse shape than those with ICE's. My ICE pickup truck has a range of 650 miles, which I think is beyond any common EV made today. Oh, and the reason for long gas lines...

That's fine, you do you. Maybe your trailers are heavy enough that you need that. I tow all of my trailers with a 1/2 ton truck. These trailers weigh only 1000 - 7000 lb., so well within both the rating and capability of a 1/2 ton truck. If I were towing 10k lb. trailers, especially at...

No, it's some evil conspiracy, that the big 3 only make what no one wants. 😛 They build what sells, end of story. And bed length doesn't have any primary effect on towing capacity, off-road capability, or snow-covered road capability, which are the main reasons I own a truck. I couldn't...

Don't forget McDowells!

Here we harvest trees to heat our homes. But what on earth do you do with them in FL? At least these ones were small, I'm often harvesting 24" - 60" diameter stuff.

There's a good position for that particular ROPS, which keeps it above head height, but still low enough to fit under a standard garage door and most errant tree branches. It's one click up from where you have yours now.

Wow. That one hits home, no pun intended. I remember going to watch him at Veterans Stadium, as his years with the Phillies pretty well aligned with when my parents were taking me to their games.

I strongly suspect that, when the time comes, I'll have no preference or choice in the matter. :ROFLMAO: Do whatever makes the kids happy. If that means burying me in swim trunks and sailing gloves... whatever.

I sleep better at night by telling myself I'd have bought these things, anyway. In all reality, if I didn't heat with wood, I'd still own a tractor, a trailer, and a chainsaw. So it's really just the differential cost of having bought more expensive (and/or multiple) versions of each, for the...

I honestly rarely use the owner's manual for any vehicle, tractor, or mower I've ever owned. I buy a Technical Manual (aka "shop manual") for every vehicle and tractor I own, and use the hell out of some of those, to where I pass them on full of greasy fingerprints, and hand-written parts lists...

I do this too, and it has always worked for me, but I'm debating changing my procedure. A lot of guys prefer to run some canned gas (non-ethanol pre-mix) thru the saw, rather than running it dry, as running 2-stroke engines dry can be pretty hard on them. Basic procedure is to dump out the...

I'm in the process of redoing all of this with my mother and the husband she married late in life. There's my sister, my wife, and I on my mother's side, and a son and wife on her husband's side. We've come to the conclusion that seeking consensus on every medical and small financial decision...

I'm not sure what the purpose was, in closing the other EV thread and starting this one. Seems we ended up back in the same spot. :ROFLMAO:

A flat strap winds straight onto the winch, as one would imagine? If so, it makes your winch a lot weaker when the reach is short, versus when the reach is long. If used for skidding longs, in situations where tire traction is sufficient to keep the vehicle planted, this might mean running out...

That'd vary quite a bit, for me. I split to sometimes vastly different sizes based on the size of the rounds I'm starting with, how much I'm rushing or how tired I am, how straight and easy versus how gnarly the wood is, and sometimes even intentional variation knowing that a range of sizes...

Wow. Losing proposition, in every way. If successful, it'll be good incentive for no one to ever buy property in CA, it'll be far cheaper to just rent! :D Whoever wrote that 60% rule must not understand basic compounding, the gap will only grow with time. If CPI averages around 4% for 10...

Just one side. But you want to put the restrictor on the implement, not the tractor, as different implements will require different size restrictors... and some none at all.

All of these costs will be reflected in rental price increases, from larger property management firms, allowing the independents to also raise their pricing. If lawmakers are going to pass stupid laws to protect deadbeats, it only costs the honest customers more. A rental market that routinely...

Not a Tesla owner, but most of the new vehicles I've purchased in the last 8 years have come with an electronic owner's manual, with an option to request a printed copy. It makes sense, since the electronic copy is cheaper, easier to search, doesn't waste paper, and isn't easily lost. I...

I grew up in a house with a friggin' huge garage, heated with cast iron radiators... spoiled. Then I bought my own house, and it had a carriage barn too small to work on any car, and a gravel (3/4" modified) driveway, and sat way up on a windy hill. That really sucked, especially when all...

If you can still find a steel oil pan. I can't even remember the last time I saw one on a new car, but it's been at least 20 years... maybe 30 years! I'd guess they're still out there, albeit in small numbers, just maybe just not the types of cars and trucks I'm buying.

yikes. Never good to get under an engine on a lift, for any reason. Maybe he deserved the shower, just for that.

I think it's gonna have traction problems... maybe even between rim and tire bead.

I did that once. I remember spinning the new filter on didn't feel right, more than the usual 3/4 turn of o-ring "squish". I had never seen an o-ring not come off with the old can filter, so I didn't even think to check that. Anyway, got the thing filled back up, no immediate leaks, so I...

Okay... that was pretty funny. :ROFLMAO:

Glad you have it working. Sounds like it’s was the drain? Just to close the loop on the capacitor, most single-phase motors (including compressors) have a capacitor which is momentarily switched in to start the motor, and sometimes a second to correct motor power factor. But these capacitors...

Is the gas tank an old beer keg?

You did a really poor job of explaining the problem, and I can't even imagine what you mean by charging a capacitor... on AC power. Is it running indefinitely, and just never reaching the pressure that would cause it to turn off? If so, then it is one of a few things, in rough order of...

If you think they're stuck together with either rust or some dried assembly lube, electrolysis is usually an easy way to loosen everything up. Requires a little bit of setup work, a few days to soak and do it's thing, but I've gotten many antique machines apart by setting them in a RubberMaid...

We call those frayed strands of steel cable "meat hooks" in sailing. We get them on wire halyards and shrouds, and they're usually covered in a bit of dried blood and skin of the crew that preceded you. :D

I broke a rib this summer, pretending I was still a teenager, while being towed way too fast behind a boat in the keys. Slowed me down for a few weeks, but I'll still climb aboard. Someday, someone's going to be viewing my corpse, and thinking "man... that dude lived!"

hmm... depending on the tenant, this could go many ways. I'd be inclined to help, and suspect it's better to have no written agreement, that can later be used for tenants rights. But I'd talk to some friends who are either landlords or lawyers, before deciding on how to proceed. If moving...

I've had some mighty dangerous high-horsepower vehicles in my day, but even I would want a seatback on that stool. :D

Damn! At some point, you'd think they'd just bolt wheels straight onto the engine block, and mount a seat on the thing.

It's really not made of that many different types of material. Spectra and Dyneema pretty much dominate the market. There are many other line types (nylon, polyester, vectran, and single braid vs. double braid), but the only ones really used in winching are spectra and dyneema single braids...

Your argument isn't wrong, but let's face it, new company, new tech, new models... you'd have to be surprised if they didn't have more "issues" than others, no matter how you define the word. I've said it here before, but I have a family member who bought a model 3 in 2017, despite...

You're right, and I agree with you... as an adult. Now, as a teenager, I'd probably be inclined to not disobey the guy who's both my boss and my girlfriend's father. I believe 5030 stated his case as such.

Here it's leaves. They drop all thru September and October, and any rainstorm in October/November turns our roads into a messy slurry of pulverized wet leaf material. I still remember being a young and impatient driver, and sliding thru more than one stop sign due to wet leaves on the road...

I was offered one of these on my 2005 Ram, and it worked out to something like $6 per oil change, cheaper than I could do it myself. The dealers offer these as a loss leader, essentially to ensure you continue bringing the vehicle to them for all service, and the also use it as an opportunity...

Thanks! That looks like exactly what I need, and ironically enough, not terribly far away. Interesting dilemma: all of their higher-end stuff is 3-point only, which makes me doubt my own conclusion that tow-behind is much faster. I went from 84" tow-behind (albeit a crappy one that broke all...

Not specifically about EV’s, but this one is very applicable to the spirit of this thread. A little long, but I promise you it’s a worthy watch.

I’ve driven the P90D, a model 3, and of course my Charger SRT. The P90D was every bit as nice as my Charger, and the Model 3 was a bit cheaper in appointment, but not really any smaller with regard to interior space. But all of that is beside the point, when talking about guard rails. You...

We once got passed by the wheel and tire of our boat trailer, in the Pine Barrens section of Route 72 in NJ, when I was about 10 years old. The cause of the trouble was a tire shop in Burlington NJ, who repaired a bad tire for us en-route, but forgot to tighten the lug nuts. Our problem was a...

That's the model I'm running, or seemingly identical to it. It works well enough in wide-open areas, but the 3-point attachment is just poor in comparison to the articulation available on a tow-behind, when working tighter curves and areas.

You're typing without reading the posts to which you're responding. Note that my Dodge Charger, which is a sedan (not a truck) is already heavier than the Model Y. So how are these EV's making guardrails more ineffective? I suspect the Charger (R/T, Scat Pac, SRT, AWD), Challenger, all...

There is apparently no sound on earth like a piano dropped onto pavement from a sling, dangling from a crane two or three stories up. Yeah, I knew someone who'd done this.

Good post, Grumpy. And I agree with most of the points, but the "let it burn" model doesn't really work when the fire is under an overpass, on a bridge, or anywhere near any infrastructure that could cause safety issues or massive inconvenience. Looking forward to when we have 100M BEV's on...

What's the alternative? Running low voltage that far would cost a fortune in cable, not to mention the challenge of getting the larger spool wagons up there. Are pole transformers more common in these cases? Setting poles up there is probably no easy task, either.

But are you finding that BEV's actually have higher weight than the average Escalade or pickup trucks, that are damn-near ubiquitous on our roads today? It doesn't appear this is the case, at least from the quick numbers I pulled off Google.

I've heard this before, and I don't get it: Tesla Model Y (best seller): 4400 lb. My own Dodge Charger SRT: 4424 lb. with full gas tank My own 1/2 ton pickup: 4820 lb. with full tank Every 1-ton dualy pickup truck on the road: 11,600 lb. with full tank ... and those are just the curb...

Mom was so excited the first time I had her to my house for dinner, 25+ years ago. She felt like she'd "made it", in her words. Now I'm old enough to register for AARP, and I wonder if she's half as excited about that. :D

Or not even envious... but just didn't care whether she had nice eyes or cleavage.

Yeah, getting the ramps out and putting them away is probably my single most time-consuming step, as well. I try to all of our cars that require ramps at the same time, to save the time of fetching the ramps out and putting them away. As to time it takes to drain, I start with a warm engine...

Wind and solar are probably poor choices up there, due to the cost of getting someone up there for maintenance undoing any potential savings, after installation costs. In addition to sun or wind, you need sufficiently high usage and sufficiently low maintenance costs, to make it worth the...

Just did some quick math on this: Recommendation My report (lb/ac) Your Report (lb/ac) Lime 0 365(D) N 176 NA P 22 60 K 110 80 Mg 0 20 Obviously, you want to do that Dolomitic lime first, as all the other nutrients are a waste of time and money, if pH isn't in range. Also, lime...

Oh, definitely. I wasn't disputing it at all. I was just surprised, having only dealt with cool weather turf grasses, myself. Yep. The differences that surprised me were more in terms of targets, than recommendations, and mostly the pH. My numbers are also small because even coming out of...

I wonder which will do more damage to your car... OEM-spec oil in place of AMSOIL, or being a dick to your mechanic? 😛 Short of our members who may be getting too old to crawl around on the ground under a car, or those otherwise injured/disabled, I have a lot of trouble understanding anyone...

Very gassy mountain goats. They keep them on a strict diet of hot dogs and Bush's baked beans for a week prior to deployment.

Interesting how different the recommended targets are. I guess we're growing different crops, but wow... never thought anyone would be recommending pH in the 5's! Here's mine from this spring: So, you see the little table of recommendations at the bottom? Those are seasonal totals, and I...

My wife is a terror on wheels, and despite having been pulled over almost regularly in her 20's, never got a single ticket. Always managed to sweet-talk her way out of it. Then sometime in her early 40's, she got pulled over and actually received a ticket. I got a lot of mileage out of that. :D

I know a few guys who use it for heating shops. I pour what I can back into the gallon or 5 quart jugs that I buy the oil in, and what's left over after that goes into an old 5 gallon gas can marked "used oil", then I give it to one of them. The gallon jugs are easier, since I can just hand...

Trucks stay out of the left lane in my dreams, too!

I'd guess either could go either way. My thinking about steel catastrophically collapsing has to do with the design of the ones I own, which rely on a stringer riveted between the rear riser and the middle of the ramp portion. A rivet failure or damage to that stringer would severely weaken...

If you were closer, I'd give you mine! As to collapsing, I would think stamped steel ramps are much more likely to experience a catastrophic failure with total collapse leading to death, versus foam ramps just partially crushing, if overloaded. But either one kept in good condition should...

A local guy I know had his house burn down from a generator close to the tank, when the tank fitting began to leak during a power outage. Whole rig was located under his deck, which went up first and then took the house with it. Wife and kids made a narrow escape, while he was at work, because...

That would give it a really good N-P-K, but both are high base (pH = 8-12). The manure would probably be better without the ash, speaking strictly of nutrient content and pH, but maybe the ash is used to give it better mechanics for spreading?

Thanks for posting the numbers, that's very useful, but I really wouldn't call that a good profile. Extremely low on N and P, and with way too much Ca. The only thing you can say really good about it is that it might be a decent substitute for calcium (pH adjust) and it has reasonable...

I remember going up to the cockpit on Eastern Airlines in 1980, and getting a free pilots wings pin from one of the pilots. Probably kept that pin until I was a teenager, when girls became more interesting than planes. Speaking of which, my glasses may be colored by the fact that most of my...

lol... I still have the crazy-heavy stamped steel ramps my father bought, probably when he was in high school. Always kept indoors and dry, they look almost new, like right out of a 1950's auto parts catalog. I've tried to sell them on C'list a half dozen times, at basically "give away" prices...

I have a funny story, but the reverse of these. My wife calls me from the shoulder of the PA Turnpike one day about 20 years ago, the "oil light" had come on in her relatively new Audi A3, so she immediately pulled over and shut it down. Good girl! I can't remember how that was resolved...

Sort of like saying, "it's no more red than a stop sign." It's no thinner than a rail. It's no wetter than a fish... 😛

Is the XOne a full-suspension machine? If I were buying a new mower today, I'd be looking hard at machines with suspension, no matter what power plant drives it. My machine is a hard ride, in fact these early-2000's 700/900 series Deere's were known among landscapers to be a uniquely stiff...

Wow. I'm not one of those guys who needs bragging rights on the best mower, it's just a stupid machine that cuts my lawn. :D That said, I hate the thing a little more each time a repair interrupts my use of it. It'll be interesting to see how the commercial BEV units hold up in the hands of...

That's the weird thing. I did go back and select "new machine" and "by serial number", entering my serial number. It still gave me the "Worldwide edition" of my mower, which was never the correct selection in the past, when they had several options. Some of the images are wrong, but if I dig...

Yeah, I can believe it. But I usually do all of my own engine work. If the problem is bigger than my time or patience will allow, I can drop a new crate motor on the thing for $2300 OEM or under $2k aftermarket. I'd hate to put that kind of money into a 18 year old machine, but the reality is...

No. Encapsulation has always been an approved method for dealing with lead paint on buildings not under renovation. Likewise, there is no need to deal with asbestos located in areas of buildings where it is sealed off and not disturbed, my own high school had a wing that was sealed off because...

We'll see what I find when I dig into this. The truth is, re-powering my machine with a new motor is still probably much cheaper than a new battery mower of similar capacity, and I doubt my present issues are even that bad.

I have had several cars at 4" - 5", and there are ramps out there that work for them, they just tend to be very long. My present set of race ramps are 72", but they make even longer than that, if I recall. I also used to have a super-low profile floor jack, which was less than 3" tall at the...

My mower is down this week, possible blown head gasket, and I'm struggling to find time to work on it. My wife is egging me on to just buy a new one. Hmm...

Updated it to the 2020's for you.

I had this happen to a buddy 20+ years ago, and my question for your brother is the same as it was to him: doesn't every vehicle on earth have an oil pressure light that lights up bright red right in the center of your gauge cluster, to tell you there's no oil pressure??? Maybe not everyone...

The standard model had a brutal 33 hp. The hopped-up "Especial" variant had 42 hp! I still remember the first time my employer shipped me over to Germany in my mid-20's, my boss telling me I was going to get to "drive around in cars with less horsepower than your lawnmower." It wasn't far...

There's been a lot of that around here, the last 10 years. The story I keep hearing is that building new is cheaper than retrofitting the old, which I suppose could be true. The need to retrofit the "old" is population growth, and current requirements to remove lead and asbestos really drive...

Thanks. Yep, verified with my dealer that the manual I have is indeed the latest publication date for my serial number. Someone at Deere just screwed up, and forgot to update the breather replacement section to reflect changes in the engine, basically making it invalid. Sounds like a small...

Oh, and if anyone has a Technical Manual newer than 2006 for a 737 or 757 ZTrak, or really anything with the 25hp Kawi V-twin, I need someone to give me the steps for breather removal. My dealer sold me a 2006 manual for a 2007 mower, and the breather cannot be removed per the steps in my...

I just noticed I can no longer find the parts diagrams for my 757 ZTrak mower at partscatalog.deere.com. They only have parts diagrams and lists for the "Worldwide edition" of the mower now, whereas there used to be three (maybe four?) versions listed, with a split by serial number. The...

Welp... ran leak tests on both cylinders, hoping this was "just" a blown head gasket, since that would be a lot easier than dealing with the damn breather. Unfortunately, both cylinders look reasonably good: left: 17% right: 23% This tester shows up to 40% is "good". Not sure why right is...

I usually have a large pile of topsoil, that I'm always adding to or taking from, and my ash gets dumped on this pile. I always try to turn and mix the pile as I'm pulling from it. I don't actually know if this is a good practice, if you really want ash in your topsoil, but it's an easy way to...

so here’s a question: what causes these breathers to fail? Getting to the damn thing is an all-day job, engine removal, always precarious with fragile 20 year old wiring harness connectors, flywjeel removal… damn near half the engine is apart before you can even access the breather. Not...

Every 12 months. Last change was beginning of this season, about 60 hours ago. Maybe you just responded before reading ahead, but issue has already been diagnosed to positive crankcase pressure.

Just thinking, I should probably look up leak-down specs for this motor. The high compression could be due to carbon build-up, and not really a good indicator that there’s no blow-by issue.

Well, fuel pump is good, and still waiting on spark gap tester, so I went to measure crankcase vacuum, and found it’s at positive pressure. Thinking back, I remember replacing the breather maybe 10 years ago, so I guess it ate another one. Trouble is, you have to remove flywheel and front...

Got a spark gap tester on order, for delivery late today 5-10pm. Gonna be rally pissed if this is just a bad batch of fuel. 😀. Of course all my fuel is fresh, but that which is used in the mower really isn’t shared with any other equipment, so not an easy debug without draining and running...

Noticing late yesterday that it would stutter when I'd throttle up, I was thinking this could be the issue, as I remember an old car that would behave exactly this way when it needed a new distributor cap and rotor. I have spark testers that will give me a light that I can eyeball, but nothing...

Thanks, guys! I should have said, this Kawi is on a 2007 Deere 757 ZTrak, so not that new.

The Kawi 25hp V-twin on my ZTR started running rough today, while tooling around the yard harvesting walnuts. This is a low-load chore, but can take a few hours. I had noticed last week when doing the same activity, that the RPM's seemed to be climbing a bit more than normal on the downhills...

I've helped move quite a few pianos, and that's been my experience... you're often lucky if you can give it away. It's not that there's no real value there, in fact some of them have been very nice, it's just that supply always seems higher than demand. When we moved into the current house, I...

Beautiful country, up there. I've been thru Williamsport before, on my way to/from New York. Really liked the area, but at least back when I was traveling that route, very few tech jobs to be had out there.

But I thought government did everything better than private sector... says half our population. 😛

Nyco in Souderton does nice work, but I'm not really sure how far west you are.

Late to the thread, but I have the SRT Charger, with the even lower and longer chin spoiler... it doesn't love ramps, or even most intersections, it's often rubbing the pavement. Anyway, I built wood extensions onto my steel ramps for my wife's R-design car, and those kinda worked for the SRT...

I have a rotary phase converter panel that I no longer use, with a compact 7.5 hp idler. If you need one, send me a PM. I'll probably end up selling it way lower than the cost of the parts alone, just because I want my shop space back.

I remember meeting a German buddy of mine for lunch in Verona Italy, when I was working in Florence (Firenze) one week about ten years ago. I meet him at the train station, and we head on foot to the town center to find a restaurant. At the first major intersection, 2 or 3 lanes in each...

If the holes are not near a fitting, I'd guess this could work better than most methods I've seen. Area of the epoxy directly exposed to fuel is very low when bond line is thin, and any fissures would have to propagate a longer distance to reach the holes, if patch is oversized. My own...

Not an option for most of USA, as half our tractors would be frozen half the year, and most would experience at least some occasional freezing. Some use various antifreeze products, either windshield washer or RV antifreeze, but these have relatively low density. That may be fine for someone...

All of our direct burial has to be a sheathed and vented product, such as TracPipe PS-II. Very expensive stuff. I have 3" conduit from our gas regulator to the house, outside fireplace, and grill, and they used to allow regular poly-coated stainless (eg. TracPipe CounterStrike) in that. But...

You'd do well to learn about how to start a three-phase motor on single phase, with a few start capacitors to the third leg, and then how to switch them out. Also, you can balance the other two phases with that supplied by the utility, using run capacitors. This may give you better success in...

Yeah, I'd believe it. Even my Italian espresso machine has some BSP fittings in it. Why they go British, and not German, I'll never understand... but there it is! Whether it's plumbing, mechanics, or electronics, British engineering is full of unnecessary tedium to be avoided at all costs.

Hey, I'm an EE, and I'm still scared of TV tubes. :D Lit myself up well enough to piss my pants and forget who I was for 20 minutes, around age 4, and I'm still gun-shy 50 years later.

I've tried some of the epoxy repairs on tanks, and they never seem to hold long-term. I wouldn't even risk it again. Just have someone weld or braze a new bottom to the tank, if you don't have the means to do it yourself.

There are 30, 37, and 45 degree variants of flare fittings, between SAE, AN, and JIC. Although I had it all memorized 25 years ago, I honestly can't keep them straight anymore, and usually have to look it up. I think 45 degrees is SAE J512. No familiarity with BSP stuff, I avoid it as much as...

Agreed. Although I'm surprised it was a couple hundred dollars for a new magnetron for your oven. Must be something unusual or special. Most are only $35 - $85.

The difference between the 500 Abarth and the V8 Chevelle is that only the former is affected by how recently you've eaten or gone to the bathroom. 😛 I remember taking my wife's rather quick (for the time) Audi A3 to work one day, and then piling three buddies into it to head to lunch...

If corn biomass is important to you, then by all means... but I came to the conclusion that Harmon is one to consider from spending way more time and years at hearth.com than I've ever spent here, and hearing what the pellet burners there say. That said, I'm a cordwood burner, I don't run...

What LouNY said. On pressure, most are going to run a pressure below that which is stated in the manual, as air space (and thus cushion volume) is much less than on an all-air-filled tire. I think I have mine set right at the minimum of the range specified in the manual for this tire on this...

A friend at work drove a Fiat 500, and the thing had something like 0.9 liters displacement. I used to tease him that my car also had almost 0.9 liters displacement... per cylinder. :D Even his 10-12 year old daughters made fun of him, in fact they're the ones who started calling it the...

Yeah, I guess I should have acknowledged that my comments were unique to the implements I own, not all situations. I had considered the log splitter, but hadn't even thought of post-hole augers. All of my PTO-driven implements (mower, spreader, sprayer, snowblower, etc.) are operated only from...

@ponytug already alluded to this, but the condensation actually is "the direct fault of the heater". Each gallon of kerosene burned produces something like 1.3 gallons of water as a byproduct in its exhaust. Hard to believe, if you're not a chemist, but true. While folks heating their homes...

Why? My prior tractors all either never had one, or had them removed by prior owners. My new 3033R has one, and I find it really frustrating, as it doesn't flip up far enough to really easily access the quick-disconnect collars on some of my PTO shafts. I was actually thinking about removing...

It's always funny seeing those 1/2 ton Ram pickups on the Autobahn. It's been years since I was working in Germany, but I'd usually see a couple per week, looking so out of place driving amongst the Smart cars and Fiat 500 clown cars. 😛

At least around here, skunks are the usual destroyer of these ground hornet nests. It's an endearing quality of theirs, that somewhat makes up for their smell.

No help here on anything M-F specific, but most cylinders for other USA brands are ORB or NPT. Here's a size table for ORB, you probably already know the numbers for NPT:

More likely to heat a drink, then never retrieve it. Then find it an hour later, re-heat the same item again, and repeat three times over the next three hours. :D Opening and re-slamming the door each time, hence the new door switches.

We could debate cause and effect, but I could keep things working a long longer without my wife abusing them, too! :D

That's a terrifying thought. I always wondered why it's allowed to have our safety chains connect to the same hitch assembly as the receiver, especially given we have decades of experience with whole hitch assemblies falling off... even before Tesla.

Tow strap around rider's chest, to 5th wheel in truck? Hope he manages to keep that bike under him. :-)

We're talking about how tow capacities are calculated here, theoretical discussion. Totally separate conversation from the real issue of hitches falling off Teslas. You're quoting my post on subject #2, with an argument on subject #1. But yeah, I've exceeded listed hitch capacity many times...

It's not fair to call Tesla out for this, because this is standard practice across the entire industry. Pull out any Ram or Silverado 1/2-ton manual, and you'll find their towing capacities max out at 10x tongue weight rating for a given configuration. Or stated in reverse, they're calculating...

Seems a likely explanation, but maybe not inaccurate in the end, after what we've seen from these hitches. If they had it originally rated 1100 lb., I suspect they must be lowering that number today, based on those that have cracked or fallen off. It is a serious problem, and I'll be surprised...

I'm still running the same microwave the prior owners of our house installed in the 1995 kitchen remodel. I've replaced the magnetron, replaced door switches, and even the mode stirrer. But each of those were $5 or $15 parts, have helped me avoid redoing the custom cabinetry that holds it, and...

Meh. Risk is low, but so is the impact. Take it for what it's worth. Internet noob translation: You're right, but don't put much value in what anyone is saying online.

So, here's something interesting. I'm not a fan at all of whatever you'd call this music style. I'd call it hip hop, but I'm sure my kids would be able to delineate it from that with a bit more clarity. Anyway, the point is that very talented players can turn up in all styles of music. As a...

We have a lot of those, I often find them hibernating when digging. We also have more cicadas on our property than the rest of the surrounding area, and I've never understood why. When we hit those rare double-brood years (2021?), you can't walk outside or mow the lawn without wearing a few of...

I remember looking into it once, but too long ago to remember now, but didn't Starrett come out of Athol, as well? I think they might have been a spinoff of Athol machine, or some other such association.

Understood, but maybe not a huge problem for me. All of my heavier towing is local, mostly moving firewood within the county in 7000 lb. increments. Maximum mileage is something like 3 round trips per day at 15 miles each. I do use my truck to recharge the winch batteries on the trailer, a...

1/32" works very well on a 3" cylinder. Scale yours accordingly, by r^2 or d^2. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FBOY4YS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Imagine how it'd do if it weren't so f'ugly! :D It's a market ripe to be picked, at least for those pickup truck drivers who aren't fanatical "EV haters". They need to fix the hitch issue, for those of us who keep a truck primarily as a trailer-towing vehicle, but I'm sure they'll get that...

Most of my mechanics tools are made in LA, all 1960-vintage Proto stuff. I think it was a fairly large west-coast manufacturing town. Philadelphia was the biggie in the east, but most of my machinists tools are actually made in Athol Mass, all early-1900’s Brown & Sharpe or Athol Machine stuff.

Keep them out of the sun! Tires in shade or indoors last nearly forever.

Trouble is, that was me as a teen. One ER nurse at our hospital used to joke that they just kept my file out on the counter between visits.

Sure, but a few seconds with a garden hose cleans it out with no trouble.

Am I the only one who likes the mud wasps? We deal with so many nasty yellow jackets and bald-faced hornets, that I find the black mud wasps downright docile and entertaining. I just leave them alone, they don't seem to be a huge problem around here. Yellow jackets are the only ones I...

Best to just remove a hose from your cylinder to check port type, if it's not labeled in the documentation you got when purchasing it. Heck, might be a good idea to double-check anyway. There are three types of fittings used on probably 99% of tractor hydraulics in this country: 1. ORB =...

Was amount for structure only, or structure + contents? Got any nice new tractors stored in said sheds?

Nope. Many are ORB, maybe even most hydraulic top links, but some are NPT. Most cat.1 or cat.2's are probably 1/2" port sizes (1/2" NPT or ORB#8), but even that could vary.

More time to type now. Here's what you want, it's called a "double-piloted check valve", and totally prevents the bleed-down you're seeing, unless the cylinder itself has a leaky seal. Note, this one may not be the size you need, just an example...

It's good they're easier to repair, because they need it much more frequently! I loved the simplicity of my 1963 IH, but using it daily, it seemed like something major was wearing out or breaking every year. I sold each of my last two machines because the cost of parts just became insane, as...

I've already done that for a few of my on-road vehicles. It's called the "gas guzzler tax", and it's applicable to vehicles with fully-compliant emissions systems, but which still fall below certain fuel mileage standards. Mostly very high horsepower cars...

Yeah, that makes a lot more sense. I suspect out-buildings are covered at a higher rate than primary residence, as they're more likely to be a total loss. IOW, I see a lot more barns and garages burn completely to the ground, than occupied houses.

I was thinking this, while posting that prior comment, and it has to be the only valid answer. You want minimal PSI when on sand, your finding lower tire pressure helps is the very proof of that, and duals increase that potential lower range even more than singles, when on sand or snow. It has...

Can't imagine the damage a PTO half shaft could do, whipping around in the air, should the tractor and trailer ever manage to somehow drift apart. :D Best case scenario, they only wreck the PTO shaft, but they're still without power until repaired.

Each of the last three times I've shopped HOI, I've asked for quotes with deductibles at $10k - $15k. Like you, we won't use our HOI for anything less than total catastrophe. But every time we've actually gone through this exercise, the difference in premium for a regular $750 deductible...

Check valve cylinders are much nicer than shutoffs, as there's no extra lever to turn or forget. Totally automatic.

"It always goes back to the garage," is a quote I remember from the mid-90's, uttered by someone I can no longer remember. They were talking at the time about the death of highly-produced hair metal and other crap being pushed in the late-1980's into 1990, and how the whole Seattle grunge scene...

Are we still on Reils' wood stove tangent, or tractors? For stoves, you can still by non-EPA approved stoves, they just have to be labeled as such. They all suck. Look at US Stove, for example. Garbage.

I don't get it. Duals suck in snow, but for the opposite reason. In sand, you want minimal PSI at the contact area, which is exactly what duals would give you. How could they be worse? Snow, you want the opposite, maximum PSI so they cut thru and grip the ground beneath. This is why tall...

I've heated very large homes with wood for most of my 50 years, and you couldn't pay me enough to go back to the crappy stoves of the past. I've run them all, including pre-emissions (2nd worst), early catalytic (worst), non-cat (good), and modern cat (best). I'm presently running two modern...

I'll be impressed if the driver is a Turk who only speaks German, and if the vehicle has automatic AWD. 😛

Only when they tell us in their post, but many or most who've posted their opinion on this thread have stated as such. There also have not been many, "I own a tier 4 machine, but never again" posts, among the 12 pages of this thread (so far).

I guess boating was cancelled for that day?

I dropped a tree on a guy once. Totally his fault, to the point where I really didn't feel too terrible about it. Long story short, when I tell you where I'm going to drop a tree, don't let me find you standing exactly there when I'm in the middle of making the cut. Then, when I stop cutting...

I've been noticing that all or nearly all of those "wouldn't dare" category have never actually owned a tier 4 machine. Looks like fear of the unknown, more than anything else. Most who have actually owned Tier 4 machines seem to be in the "doesn't matter" or even preferred groups.

1. That’s only if you do parked regen, but most regen happens while you’re already operating at higher RPMs. 2. Even worst-case, if you only ever do parked regents, that’s not much fuel. Total run time is 0.25 hours / 60 hours = 1/240 = 0.4%, and burning less fuel per minute under zero load...

From German accents to AWD control issues. Little towing, and no photos.

Good idea. I buy 10-packs of little 1" bubble levels from Amazon, and use double-sided tape or magnetic tape to attach them to all sorts of implements. I have one on my pallet fork frame for loader curl leveling, two on my boom sprayer for both top and tilt, one on the tong of each trailer so...