Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[tractorshopper]

Looks like fun to me. Never tried it, but I hear it's addictive. That's a pretty cool sluice box you have.

 

[Gem99ultra]

When I was a kid, I was fooled in some measurements I was doing by using a decimal-foot surveyors tape of my father's. Later in life, I also owned a 1-ft. ruler with decimal inches, which I used a lot when laying out dimensions in model geodesic domes. Scaling the measurements was a lot easier using the decimal units.

Other than the convenience of using base 10, my biggest complaint with the English system is the indefinite meaning of the measures. Zing mentioned the volume vs. weight issue with ounces, but gallons, pints, etc are not the same number of milliliters, depending on where you live (or lived).

In my work life, a number of years ago, we wanted to measure bushel-weights of grain samples. You guessed it, there are different size bushels. These kinds of differences don't usually matter to most Americans, since, within the boundaries of the US, the measures ARE standardized (in the sense that a gallon is a specified and invariant fraction of a liter and a pound is a specified and invariant fraction of a kilogram, etc.). In my bushel-weight example, we were buying US-made instruments, so felt confident that the bushels were US bushels.
Since I grew up in the US, I am comfortable with US weights and measures; indeed, I think more easily in pounds and inches than kg & m. I am content that the supermarket still lists things sold by weight in price per pound (as well as $/kg), but wouldn't be too put out if they stopped using the English measures entirely.

One final example of the measurement confusion is the way RAM advertised their trucks in Canada. A few years ago, when shopping for a replacement truck, I was surprised to see what I thought were ridiculously-high advertised gas mileage claims in the RAM ads. When fuel efficiency is stated as liters/100km (the standard approach here), there is no ambiguity about what you mean. However, RAM was cleverly using IMPERIAL gallons as their divisor (without specifying the "Imperial" part), which boosted the apparent gas mileage of the trucks by 20% relative to the same truck sold in the US!

I have to say that, when travelling in the States, my rate of progress seems slower because the distances are listed in miles...which seem to roll by a lot slower than do kilometers!

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The measurements that tick me off are those that measure distances in "football field" increments. Do they think we don't know a normal football field is 300' long?
or how about heights measured in "stories", like 'he fell 10 stories'. All stories are no 10' tall if that's what they're thinking.
Just give me the facts - I can translate them if I need to - but I sure don't need to!

 

[Raspy]

Saw, or rather, heard, one. We were driving over the Sierras, 2-lane Hwy 88, with snow on the pavement and high walls of snow on either side. A fool in a BMW passed us too fast crowding us to the wall as he skidded and slewed into a blind corner, then minutes later we heard a boom. We expected to see him smashed on a granite wall. Instead we saw the BMW backward way down the slope with the occupants out waving at us. Since obviously no injuries we just waved back. Hey I just avoided an accident with you, you figure out this one.

Then we saw a couch in a parking area along the road. A yard sale in the dead of winter, or maybe a 'Free' tag on it ???

Later back home we read that an unoccupied cabin there exploded from a propane leak. That couch had been thrown 100 ft from the cabin. The boom wasn't the BMW, it was the cabin vanishing. We had heard it from at least a couple of miles away.

That's a great story.

I use hwy 88 and 89 once or twice a week in the winter, on my way to Gardnerville, and it is always interesting. I've seen as many as twelve wrecks in one trip. The hay trucks that don't chain up until they get stuck and block the road are always a hit too. Spring is especially treacherous as just when you think everything is fine, an ice patch shows up on a shaded curve. Late night trips can also be interesting with black ice and deer. It never pays to hurry up there, but it is always spectacularly beautiful.

One trip I had a broken hub and lost 4WD. Got sideways and blocked the road. Cars coming down the hill couldn't stop on the ice and were squeezing by at speed. I think it aged me a couple of years!

I love that road, but I have a lot of respect for it too.

 

[Raspy]

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The measurements that tick me off are those that measure distances in "football field" increments. Do they think we don't know a normal football field is 300' long?
or how about heights measured in "stories", like 'he fell 10 stories'. All stories are no 10' tall if that's what they're thinking.
Just give me the facts - I can translate them if I need to - but I sure don't need to!

I agree 100%. How about the weight comparisons of "that's as heavy as 3 jumbo jets!" Huh? How heavy are jumbo jets and how is that intuitive? They actually fly! The football ones are bad, as though nobody can understand a measurement unless it is presented as a sports metaphor. Or money ones: "That is enough money that if you stacked up dollar bills they'd reach 1/2 way to the moon" Oh, now I see how much it is, but I couldn't possibly understand what a billion was in any other way. Sheesh.

 

[BigBlue1]

Found this on-line which relates to one of the prior posts about two-trailer towing. Apparently this was legal, though I wonder how it didn't exceed the towing capacity of the towing truck? Maybe drag trucks are pretty light.

Rob

 

[BigBlue1]

Never exceed the capacity of your goat...

 

[California]

Looks like fun to me. Never tried it, but I hear it's addictive. That's a pretty cool sluice box you have.

We've enjoyed this hobby over the years. Thanks.

Now the sluice is for sale. Hobby dredging recently ended in California - new Fish&Game regulations.

 

[Raspy]

As far as weights go, there is a town in the Bay Area that won't allow " trucks over 1 1/2 tons" on their streets unless doing a specific delivery. What does 1 1/2 ton mean? Most cars weight more than that. A ton and a half truck can carry way more than 1 1/2 tons of weight. My one ton Ram is rated for nearly two tons of cargo. Empty it weighs almost 4 tons. Does the limit apply to the actual weight of the empty truck, or it's rated GVW, or the cargo? Do they allow cars that weigh over 1 1/2 tons?

 

[IslandTractor]

I once heard that wasn't a memory aid, but was the price of beer.

???

Bruce

Man do I wish that was still the cost of a good pint of best bitter!

 

[Diamondpilot]

Found this on-line which relates to one of the prior posts about two-trailer towing. Apparently this was legal, though I wonder how it didn't exceed the towing capacity of the towing truck? Maybe drag trucks are pretty light.

Rob

Unless its a 3/4 or 1 ton hes over weight. Trailers each are 2200 to 2500# and those trucks are around 3000# each.