Good morning!!!!

[daugen]

this is for Buppies
when you get too close to the edge
he almost put grill into back of milling machine
this business must be tough on equipment

question for guys with trucks with tow rings
I have a normal tow hitch in the back, with a ball, and two two hooks up front.
I also have a 20 ft high quality tow rope and a secondary loop strap.
If you pull from the front, you can see what is going on.
but most of us pull from the rear.
doesn't it make sense to use front tow hooks?
and don't some vehicles have more grip backing up?

if I had to tow someone out, unless they were incapable (elderly person), I'd ask them to loop
my short strap to whatever they wanted on their vehicle and then I would tie to that.
I don't want to be responsible for pulling out their steering gear much less their front bumper.
could some of you with towing experience offer some wisdom here please

best thing I guess is to pull out a truck by its tow hitch or tow hooks if it has them.
sometimes those hooks are surrounded by fragile plastic
trucks not too concerned with.
its when the little old lady says she has no idea where the screw in tow hook for her audi is,
wrapping a strap willy nilly on those seriously expensive suspension components could be really bad.
on a modern car with independent front suspension, what is strong enough to hook to?
if it's an expensive car first thing I'd do is tell them to ask for a professional tow.
I pulled three cars out of ditch in NC, always worried I was doing it right.

 

[m7040]

good morning, 35 going to 41

patches of ice here and there from yesterday

Talked to brother yesterday. He likes the place and great view of nature, beach and bay. Family was there visiting
Hope he will be comfortable

 

[Happy in NC]

Good morning TBN!!
50 today and going to low 60s withe sun and clouds.

Pretty easy day yesterday. Puttered around the shop for most of the day.
Contractor stopped by and we have a plan. He has to move some equipment around and load and deliver my tank so I can work on cutting the ends out. I also ordered 3 loads of gravel to be delivered when he has the time. Can't believe how high gravel has gotten. Getting dangerously close to $1000.00 a load.
Anyway He'll deliver that too so I can spread in my spare time. Being retired it's all spare time
So weather permitting I should have a bridge in a couple of weeks!!
Met with him and then homemade sketti sauce for dinner.

Time for a second cup and see what the day has in store

Everyone have a great and safe day!!

 

[scott_vt]

Good Morning,
Punta Cana, 76 to start going to 81, and it looks like another windy day on the beach!

Sun is out and surf is up ! Kathleen is asking me what channel we can watch the Super Bowl on ! Looks like ESPN, but I don’t see it on out TV in our room ! Guess I will have to ask !

We are going to get together with our friends for the game !

Time to get going , get a couple of miles walk in !

Forgot, Amazon delivered cleats at my front door at 3:50 am today.

Ron , you called the time pretty close, I think you said 4 !

Hope all have a good day and enjyythe game tonight!

 

[daugen]

just a big icy glaze out there, everything is frozen
all we got was freezing rain
this is going to take a good bit of ice melt to get rid of
no extra walking around outside til it warms up, just tempting fate
and no need to drive anywhere today

 

[Looking4new]

Good morning, the low is 17 and going to a high of 24°F. Wind SSW 4 mph. Flurries. About .75"

Generally for towing the tow point is on the end of the frame rails, except in the video and my Freightliner there is a piece of frame rail that spans the distance between the lengthwise frame and that is what is tied to the tow point.

I see anyone stuck in my area, I give them a phone number to call. They do all kinds of towing, from big trucks right down to my Kioti tractor. They are a CAA (AAA) towing company and insured. I am not.

Not much going on for today, you tube rabbit hole here I come.

Have a safe day all

 

[Thomas]

19F snowing should hit 10" mark storm departing 10:30am or so,upper 20's for high.
Plans for today...AM start hand shoveling,clean 3 roofs,PM plow snow might need Kubota to get into tight area,like to watch Super bowl.

Enjoy your day all.

 

[daugen]

I wonder how the concept of good Samaritan applies to towing folks around here.
can be different state to state.
put down an entire container of ice melt and threw more bird feed out on the frozen ground.
All the seed already there frozen, so birds came immediately

keeping Ron's adventures in mind, I stopped a ways back and just chucked the seed.
really did not want to face plant out there

 

[ronjhall]

Kyle, prayers that your mother gets the best care. I had good help deciding what care to get for my mother. 2 of my mother’s sisters and my sister helped me make the decisions. We found a home to put her that was very nice. But not fancy. The care she received there was way above what we excepted. We already had a daily caregiver at her house. But she kept having dementia attacks. That could not be controlled at her home. She spent little over 3 years at care center there before she passed. This type of care center is in every community. Sometimes you need help from local social services to find them. The plan you have at her home may be the best for now. Prayers for her, you and others helping with care.

 

[LouNY]

this is for Buppies
when you get too close to the edge
he almost put grill into back of milling machine
this business must be tough on equipment

question for guys with trucks with tow rings
I have a normal tow hitch in the back, with a ball, and two two hooks up front.
I also have a 20 ft high quality tow rope and a secondary loop strap.
If you pull from the front, you can see what is going on.
but most of us pull from the rear.
doesn't it make sense to use front tow hooks?
and don't some vehicles have more grip backing up?

if I had to tow someone out, unless they were incapable (elderly person), I'd ask them to loop
my short strap to whatever they wanted on their vehicle and then I would tie to that.
I don't want to be responsible for pulling out their steering gear much less their front bumper.
could some of you with towing experience offer some wisdom here please

best thing I guess is to pull out a truck by its tow hitch or tow hooks if it has them.
sometimes those hooks are surrounded by fragile plastic
trucks not too concerned with.
its when the little old lady says she has no idea where the screw in tow hook for her audi is,
wrapping a strap willy nilly on those seriously expensive suspension components could be really bad.
on a modern car with independent front suspension, what is strong enough to hook to?
if it's an expensive car first thing I'd do is tell them to ask for a professional tow.
I pulled three cars out of ditch in NC, always worried I was doing it right.

I always try to tow from the rear of my vehicle, hopefully hooking to tow hooks or trailer hitches. I don't crawl around and under anything now days.
My wifes new Equinox has no place to tow from on either end. From what I have seen and heard many are now recommending a strap through the wheels and leaving the towed vehicle in neutral because of the lack of tow points, even the ones with the screw in eyes as they can't take any angular force without snapping off.
I guess I should get a couple of heavy thin straps to put in that car and even in my trucks tow bag. That bag has a couple of soft shackles, a kinetic rope, and a heavy shackle. So far it's been riding in the back for two years and not been used except for one time on a small tractor.

If the busy body NTBS wanted to do something practical they could mandate sturdy accessible tow points on both ends of vehicle,

Our storm is almost over and winding down, looks like in an hour or so I'll be able to get going on the 10-12 inches that we have gotten.


Edited to add; pulling from the front of the tow vehicle tends to be rough on the front axle, as it seems to much more easily get wheel hop going and the front axle is usually the weaker axle.

 

[Buppies]

47 and breezy rain fell sometime last night not much but ground is slop. Never seen that Drew have seen boom hit side of truck and ensuing fight. Had to break it up

Prayers for all our Country

 

[m7040]

Did pull out the tow truck that got stuck dropping a front wheel in the ditch on our property with the tractor.
Hooked the tow strap to top of bucket and used the old trick to pivot the bucket forward , back up and dig in the bucket and pivot back and repeat. Worked

 

[Buppies]

That milling machine is the best brand made German company now owned by John Deere

 

[LouNY]

That milling machine is the best brand made German company now owned by John Deere

So it used to be the best, now who knows. GE made a practice of buying good companies and riding their shirt tails to ruin.

 

[daugen]

good news is heated bird bath working great after somehow the leak mysteriously fixed itself.
bad news is that weather station totally frozen with icicles coming down from wind cups.
don't expect to get any readings other than temp from that until much later today

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 43F @ 7:00AM. Sunny. High 59F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.

Some or you may have heard about a big battery bank at Moss Landing, CA getting burnt to a crisp, forcing the evacuation of 1500 people for a 4 mile radius. Fire department had to let it burn four days because water causes lithium to burn. That sent poisonous smoke into the air, and now they've found unacceptable levels of chemicals and Lithium on properties miles away from the battery bank. Lawsuits have already been filed. Then I find out they've recently installed a battery bank out near the airport, less than a mile from the new place down south. Dug around to try to find out what kind of battery it uses, but so far have found nothing but lithium ion. And that the safety standards for these big banks have rapidly evolved to hopefully address run away heating and train crews with better fire fighting techniques. Also makes me wonder about how safe the battery technology is on the battery bank up here. Hopefully won't have to worry about that much longer.

Finished up with cleaning chores inside the house, but when I went to wash the windows, learned that my squeege was down south. So that'll have to wait for the next trip, which I'll have to make anyway to get the fire truck running. Today I'll finish loading the truck and trailer with almost everything that's left in the house. I'll leave some kitchen tools and food stuffs, some filters and misc. parts for the tractor, a pressure washer, and an old TV, all stuff that can all fit in one last van load so I won't have to tow the trailer back up here.

Caught the mail man on the doorbell camera down south dropping off a package. The mail is supposed to be held until Monday, but I guess somehow he didn't get the message. Hope it isn't anything important, might be a good gauge of the new neighborhood's safety from porch pirates.

Hope you all stay warm and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

 

[kenmbz]

Morning all, 34 going to 41, cloudy, ice
Lots of tree parts fell covered with ice.
Nice and slippery for dog walk earlier.
Did finally get the string lights down from the hooks out front and rolled up and stored the power cords.

Kyle, we had both my MIL and FIL staying at my old house at different times. MIL got too bad for any of us so we had to put her in place. FIL then went on to stay with my BIL and did right up until he went out one day and fell, then to hospital, which he never made it out, was 90 and was glad he could be with us rather than a home, but until the end he had decent mobility.
My dad is too far along to be by himself, he is at his home with help every day.

Waiting for the thaw and then decide if I feel well enough to go to cousins, really want to go.

Be well,

Not a happy tree with so much ice load.

 

[Popgadget]

Drew sorry to hear that Taylor Swift is moving in, I can think of many other Country artists I'd rather have any wheres close by

I’d be hard pressed to consider her a country artist, but by all accounts, she is a genuinely nice person.

 

[sodamo]

It’ Super Sunday.

64°F and 06 inches rain.

A good day mowing yesterday, concentrating on the guinea grass clumps.

Then a trip to town to get my BP prescription refill and diesel.

Will be swapping out the rotary mower for the tiller and attempt to level.

Then relax and encourage the Eagles.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day

 

[Popgadget]

Good Morning
32° and completely glazed over. No snow, just ice. It’s treacherous to walk on any hard surface out there. Even the grass surfaces are tricky.

Yesterday’s major project was to repair the audio system in the RAV4. It has the JBL audio option, which is a bit different from the norm. The equipment in the dash sends a digital signal to a processor/amplifier that performs all of the audio processing, like equalization and volume control. There is no analog output from the head unit for trouble shooting. My issue was that all indications up front were normal, control inputs from the dash or steering wheel were recognized, but no output. Wife said that it also would randomly make loud white noise that couldn’t be turned off or down, until powering off the car.
So I had no way to actually trouble shoot the processor, only eliminate other possibilities. My main concern is that it’s a $1600 part to buy new from Toyota. eBay to the rescue, I found a place that repairs them, and bought a repaired one for $180 with a $25 refund once they receive my core.

Of course, the issue was getting access to swap them. Some disassembly required.

The good news is that it now works just like it used to.

Puttered round a bit in the shop, put some things up in the attic of the old folks home, and then parked in front of the fire and enjoyed music videos in the great room. I am still thinking that I made the right choice by streaming content rather than move and store it all in here.

Not a lot planned for today, I’m guessing another evening in front of the fire, but this time watching football instead of Jerry Jeff Walker, Ray Wylie Hubbard, John Prine, etc.

Watched a batch of YouTube on single point threading on the lathe, learned a few things that I might try out if I can make it over to the shop and stay on my feet.

Kyle,
My mom was very difficult to deal with, our solution was to hire a full time live in care giver, and move her into the apartment here on what is now my oldest son’s property. It worked out well, and she spent her last few years here.