Shooting the Breeze- general chit chat

[nortac]

After last month's hurricane, I ordered a 2000-watt power inverter on Prime Day. Now, I believe, I can run my fridge off the 12volt battery bank. At least my neighbor does with his 2000-watt inverter.

We can't get natural gas here, and I hate storing gasoline. I prefer to solve our modest power issues with marine/AGM batteries and solar panels.

Cause we got another storm coming ... that makes about five this year. But hey, we're grateful; only one direct hit.


AA

I really need to install a whole house generator. Lived off of a portable gasoline generator for 6 weeks after Katrina, that really sucked. Last storm our power went out for 12 hrs. Hopefully tomorrows storm won't be any worse, if so, I'll have to buy another portable gas generator. At least they are more affordable than the one I bought after Katrina.
I don't really want another gas generator sitting around that only gets used once every several years.

 

[trentr]

View attachment 1171777View attachment 1171778View attachment 1171779View attachment 1171780
At least it happened in a pretty place folks!

At least the ball joints look to be bolted on. No hammering, cussing, and smashing of fingers, dented fenders LOL

 

[trentr]

As a child big time vacation events often included a weekend drive and of course as the eldest son I helped dad prep for the trips. Common things that were added even for day trips would include a fan belt, a second spare tire, a puncture kit and hand pump, distributor cap & rotor with plug wires and plugs, two bottles of recycled oil and a headlamp. And I can also remember when we actually needed to use some of those items on most every trip.

Each of us kids had to show we could handle most common road-side repair issues before we were allowed to drive on our own. Even the girls learned to change tires on their own, replace plugs, plug wires, distributor cap & rotor, tighten a loose fan belt and replace a broken fan belt, replace a headlamp or tail light bulb, wipers or even a wiper arm.

By the way, we also learned to drive backwards. Dad made us learn to drive all around the neighborhood in reverse, stopping, starting, making turns, dealing with hills and always with a manual transmission three on the column. Only when we showed we could maintain lane position and start/stop control we we allowed to turn around in the seat and drive forwards. Man, going forward so much easier.

Do not forget the breaker points. Always keep a spare set of points in the glove box.

Side note, do you use that avatar on another forum? I was looking somewhere at something on a forum, cannot recall what, but I saw that same avatar, I am almost certain.

 

[trentr]

I've only put 10,000 miles on it in 9 years. My neighbor just gave me a real truck about a month ago. I'm just glad God let it happen before I sold it. Lol, now someone is going to have a "Tonka" truck with a brand new front end.
I'm hoping to get what I paid for it. It's really clean for Michigan.

Edit: good on you for stopping to help. My Dad used to stop WHENEVER and WHEREVER he saw a motorist in distress. All of us kids were shown a good example.

We often think today "oh, everybody's got a cell phone." But that's not always the case.

You done a good deed there @ColtRevolver ! Good lesson for all of us.

I almost always stop unless I do not feel the "unction" or what ever in my gut. But most always stop. Wife wants to help everyone she sees walking, broke down, just anything. I tell her please be careful. Being a small attractive woman driving a pretty nice vehicle.....people are CRAZY these days. A guy broke into a house and tried to rob it wielding a knife. The elderly lady home owner shot him. He fled the scene to the highway and ended up passing out on the side of the road. Someone called for help. When he was settled in the hospital he went on facebook live or what ever and went on a big rant about how no one would stop and help him on the highway. Middle of the night, knife in hand, shot, just tried to rob a house...... no I do not want my wife stopping for that. Shot or not, I pray she passes that one by. I am not a "cop caller" but these days I think it sometimes best to notify authorities and not get involved personally.

 

[ScottChapin]

I had to keep a ballast resistor in my Dodge Dart glove box. A mechanic said it was 80% of his roadside assistance calls for Chrysler.

Dad had a Charger and didn’t listen to me. He was driving home from work and just about to pull into the driveway when it died. I ran off for a ballast resistor and problem solved...LOL.


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[BigFoot]

My wife has had a series ofCorollas since 1990. My Tundra is 7 years and 135,000 miles old. Loved them all.

I made my kids change tires before allowing them to drive. Engines are so computerized now, you cannot do much else.

I had a Datsun that I had to keep a distributor cap and rotor for under the front seat. She’d buck like crazy and I’d pull over and change them. Then I drove to a parts store. Carbon tracking to cylinder one was always the issue.


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My Tacoma is 4 months old and has 7200 miles on it. I hope that doesn't happen to me for a while.

 

[shoelessjoe]

I had to keep a ballast resistor in my Dodge Dart glove box. A mechanic said it was 80% of his roadside assistance calls for Chrysler.

Many a healthy Mopar ingition switch got replaced due to faulty ballast resistors

And only after spending an hour-plus swapping out a pricey ignition switch, did folks ultimately discover that the actual problem was a $15, rectangular ceramic component screwed to the firewall.

 

[jar_]

Do not forget the breaker points. Always keep a spare set of points in the glove box.

Side note, do you use that avatar on another forum? I was looking somewhere at something on a forum, cannot recall what, but I saw that same avatar, I am almost certain.

Yup. That's Abbey Road.

I'm hiding
I'm hiding
where nobody knows
'cause all they can see
is my nose and my toes.

 

[trentr]

Many a healthy Mopar ingition switch got replaced due to faulty ballast resistors

And only after spending an hour-plus swapping out a pricey ignition switch, did folks ultimately discover that the actual problem was a $15, rectangular ceramic component screwed to the firewall.

This is how I "fix" mopar ignition. anyone else done this? If I remember right I ask for a 74 impala module

 

[OkieStubble]

My Tacoma is 4 months old and has 7200 miles on it. I hope that doesn't happen to me for a while.

Wow, lotta miles for 4 months.

 

[Acmemfg]

Petroglyphs from ancient Indian ruins in the Southwest....yes???

 

[BigFoot]

Wow, lotta miles for 4 months.

It was a demo so it had a few on it.

 

[OkieStubble]

It was a demo so it had a few on it.

Bet that was a good deal.

I used to have a 2015 Tacoma TSS 4x4. I loved that truck except for the high floor board. When driving, my knees would be in such a high place, it would make for a not so natural seating position. Made my sciatica act up. But with the big 31" knobby BFG's it had, I could literally take it anywhere.

 

[trentr]

Petroglyphs from ancient Indian ruins in the Southwest....yes???
View attachment 1174432

Does that translate to pour country kids hot rodding grocery getters?

 

[BigFoot]

Bet that was a good deal.

I used to have a 2015 Tacoma TSS 4x4. I loved that truck except for the high floor board. When driving, my knees would be in such a high place, it would make for a not so natural seating position. Made my sciatica act up. But with the big 31" knobby BFG's it had, I could literally take it anywhere.

The high floor board is something to get used to.

 

[nikonNUT]

Man I am jonesing for a Tacoma! Thinking TRD off-road (long bed so the rifles will fit ) with 33s or 35s!

 

[nortac]

I really need to install a whole house generator. Lived off of a portable gasoline generator for 6 weeks after Katrina, that really sucked. Last storm our power went out for 12 hrs. Hopefully tomorrows storm won't be any worse, if so, I'll have to buy another portable gas generator. At least they are more affordable than the one I bought after Katrina.
I don't really want another gas generator sitting around that only gets used once every several years.

So the house is intact but no electricity. No electricity means no running water as we are on a well. SWMBO forbade me to buy another portable generator. We'll see how long she can hold out in the dark and no running water. It's kinda like camping. We have a fair amount of bottled water and I filled up a 55 gal. drum with well water before the storm. Good thing the weather is cool, don't really need the AC. She's cold natured so hopefully it won't be too cool at night. We have a fireplace and at least several nights worth of firewood. A country boy can survive.

 

[dojpros]

Blessings to you and yours Nortac.

Outside of my lane re generators but I see a ton of generac branded ones here in the midwest given spring/summer thunderstorms etc and winter snow/ice storms.

Let us know what you do.

 

[BigFoot]

Baby tires, 31”.

 

[Hachet]

Public ranges? PUBLIC RANGES? We don't need no stinkin' public ranges.

If you want to slide by here I have target frames and targets.

View attachment 1101969

Beautiful...