I want to start a new thread about nothing, and let it run...

[MTHook]

They'd be great to lay on while under the coach, but I have a piece of cardboard that's a lot cheaper and if some one steal it so what

[ducksface]

Rats nest in my bigblock 8.1 liter 500hp avalanche aircleaner. I'm not sure a lesser engine would have even started.
Check your systems.
This was checked 8,000 miles ago.

[MTHook]

Have you been driving in dust storms? That looks bad

[mcr1010]

Tom Cat works good. Had no trouble with the critters since using it once a month. Available at most hardware and lumber places. About $10 can.

[Big-Foot]

Originally Posted by ducksface

Rats nest in my bigblock 8.1 liter 500hp avalanche aircleaner. I'm not sure a lesser engine would have even started.
Check your systems.
This was checked 8,000 miles ago.

Been following this thread a short while and I hope it’s okay to chime in.
The best bumper-towing truck I ever owned was my 2002 Avalanche 2500. Max was a thirsty boy though... That air cleaner is pretty bad alright...

(I have no idea why my photo is inverted and can’t figure out how to flip it)

[ducksface]

The 2500's are unknown jewels.
This thread was made exactly for chiming in without the normal 'hijack' worries.
It's was made as a tangent attractor.

So, in my normal fashion, there's a story:

In 2003 we had never owned a 4x4 except our bravada, or a truck before and lifestyle changes said it was stupid to not have one. Avalanches were new and odd at the time.
We looked at everythjng from Subaru little truck to Ford sports to Mercedes amg gwagens
We thought the avalanche too odd so never looked. We're on a Chevy lot, got near one up close, decided we would never haul an 8ft pallet of chicken crap, so the fold down wall would indeed work, so we bought a 5.3 under the President Bush 'buy a 6000lb gvw truck and write it a off the same year' tax plan. Free truck if you need to think of it that way.

So, the wife's Chrysler convertible is getting way old and we're looking for a fun replacement.
We go to Vegas to buy a jaguar(or a Kaiser Darrin if one fell in our lap, we didn't know what we wanted.) . Within a block of driving the jag, I hate it. First year of the electronic shocks, I can feel them buzz like some people see fluorescent lights flicker, and it seems to steer from under your butt like a miata does.
So we're off on a search.
We drive them all.
Lexus to biggest bimmer(couldn't find an xlrv or a vw phaeton in Vegas), everything that looks fun.

Wife is saying every drive.
'anothe avalanche would be perfect.'
I'm saying I want something a bit different and two avalanches limit usability as suited to need.
She's saying
'there's only a Chevy and Ford dealer within 150 miles of town and they won't even do Olds warranty work'
I say
'look. If we find find a loaded white 2500 used avalanche in the next hour I'll buy it, but otherwise I'm buying that used v12 BMW.

I turn around in a Buick lot to head to the BMW lot to buy that WAAAAY back of book L, I turn too broadly at the dead end of a car mall, I clip the rear bumper of something not parked right, just a tap.

I had hit a white 2500 avalanche with 14,000 miles on it, less than 6 months old, somehow on a damn Buick lot. I call my secretary, she books it at 32,000, I'm out the door with it at $19,000. So get this: the Iowa farmer who had it changed the exhaust. It has straight through Purple Horny's(glass packs like cherry bombs but throatier) on it. The dealer was afraid of smog mods on such a new vehicle so wanted it the hell off the lot. He couldn't sell it to anyone in Nevada or California or most of Arizona. It was traded in that night and they found the exhaust in the morning. Scared. Straight. Shitless.
No smog in my county, hell, no windshield is required in my county. It still has the hornies on it.

Frickin universe.
Frickin Karma.
There wasn't a buyer in the world for a bigblock gashog with a huge licensing problem but me. There wasn't another white bigblock within 400 miles, let alone a used one.

I'll own it forever.
70,000 miles on it now, a bigbear tune puts it at about 500hp(and he added a trans kick down like the Ford 6sp now has AND it gets almost 14mpg on the freeway. Still gets 5mpg in town) 35psi in the 10 ply tires, rides like a dream. (I have an extra complete factory leather interior in a box. A take off from some silly southern comfort conversion, so I never have to worry about the interior leather doing the Chevy thing.)

We were a land mark for years.
Do you know the house with the matching white avalanches? We're three streets up from that....

[Big-Foot]

Great story on the Avalanche....
The 4L85 transmission was the most HD trans GM ever offered outside of the Allison. My truck towed our 10k racecar trailer with never a whimper. I’d still have it if I could have figured out a way to drag a 5th wheel with it. I ended up letting a friend talk me out of the truck..

[MLP]

Originally Posted by Big-Foot

(I have no idea why my photo is inverted and can’t figure out how to flip it)

I thought you were doing the "Man In Black" thing!

[ducksface]

Six of potentially twelve 6v batteries are headed for the greenhouse.
A remnant factor of prior golf carts and my decision to not bother with wet cell additional batteries in the 24.1.
I built spots for eight (plus two in the stock under steps spot)6v in the 24.1, then changed my mind.
There never was a need, just a want to salvage these batteries to some sort of use.
The greenhouse doesn't need them either, but I'll practice on the greenhouse before moving the batteries and solar to some remote location to do some remote thing.

[The_Breeze]

Originally Posted by MJC62

So I’m sitting out here watching the game on the outside TV my fav team is getting whooped and there is a fumble by the bad guys. I can’t understand why my guys haven’t jumped on the darn ball it’s laying right in front of them!!! Get the xrzxng ball! The refs unpile the players and I still see the ball! Finally realize it’s a bug on my screen....... must be time for another adult beverage..... ��

You're sure you meant beverage - right?

[ducksface]

Well, 4,100 pounds of floor tile for the garage didn't show up today.
No call from them even though a promised delivery by noon.
I called at 12:30, it's still at the warehouse.
Thankfully I didn't have a crew here to lay the floor. That would have been a disaster.

A re-promise of a tomorrow delivery.
We're pretty rural and I understand them wanting to fill a truck before taking on the 120mile round trip, but damn, I'm a big boy, hit me, don't lie to me.

[MLP]

What is worse, a missed promised delivery, or a delivered notice without a delivery? Just got another one of those two days ago! Not stolen just two packages scanned and only one put on the porch. Second one never showed up and have the delivery recorded.


On a different note, I decided to chase down all the racket made while going down the road in my diesel pusher. Should be quiet, but man my old Class C was a lot quieter by long long long shot. Did I say the Class C was quieter? Well one by one found and fixed. Now it is quiet and was worth the effort. Great to go down the road without the rattles and bangs even over uneven roads and pot holes. Now we are ready for our next trip, but now I have got to do something about the lousy speakers from the dash radio.

[ducksface]

Oh, I got the delivery notice this morning when I called.
I'm picturing three pallets worth of 4100 lbs of pvc tile sitting on some poor condo guys front stoop.
Computer and clerk both said it was delivered.
Two clerks worth of interrogation later, and its delivered all right, but to a cottage carrier/relay warehouse .
Supposedly tomorrow between 11 and 3pm is the delivery.

The good news is it's coming on a box truck with a tailgate lift and not a tractor/trailer rig.
A $20 tip should get it put right where I want instead of in the road a third of a mile away.

[ducksface]

The squirrels seem to be bigger and bolder this year.
This one came up and looked in the windows as I was typing.


My floor tile made it here today.
A full size tractor trailer, exactly the opposite of what was promised.
Unloaded in the road and I had to split the three pallets into six loads and load three half pallets and drive the six loads a third mile each. My tractor forks couldn't lift a full pallet.
Tiring.
Tomorrow is count and calculate ratio of black to gray to light gray I have, plan a pattern, pressure wash the raw concrete floor and lay the first row so I can get exact measurements and snap a line.

[MLP]

A local radio station started call them large antlered rat when one was hit along the highway. A mom called in very upset because her young daughter was crying that a female dear, she called Bambi's mom, was killed on the highway. Solve the public relations problem!

[Big-Foot]

Originally Posted by ducksface

Six of potentially twelve 6v batteries are headed for the greenhouse.
A remnant factor of prior golf carts and my decision to not bother with wet cell additional batteries in the 24.1.
I built spots for eight (plus two in the stock under steps spot)6v in the 24.1, then changed my mind.
There never was a need, just a want to salvage these batteries to some sort of use.
The greenhouse doesn't need them either, but I'll practice on the greenhouse before moving the batteries and solar to some remote location to do some remote thing.

Have you ever looked at the YT videos where they revive totally sulfated and deader than a door-nail batteries with Epsom salt flushes??
I have a bunch of batteries that I may try this on...

[ducksface]

Originally Posted by Big-Foot

Have you ever looked at the YT videos where they revive totally sulfated and deader than a door-nail batteries with Epsom salt flushes??
I have a bunch of batteries that I may try this on...

Yes, I've seen them. These are servicable batteries and a work just fine.

I do have a dead battery that isn't AGM and I'd like to try the Epson thing, but I've been told by others it let's a surface charge, not a usable charge.

There's line 110v at the greenhouse.
With the new underground cooling/heating tubes going in and the auto timers and pumps I might just go with the land electric and use the solar as backup.
I don't have any interest in the solar stuff... I just have the batteries so I'm ki d of a financial captive, the kind who has to spend more to salvage the current(ha!)
I'd be better off in the long run to give them away.

[Big-Foot]

I’ll let you know how it turns out. I have a Carbon-Pile load unit and a Cold Cranking Amp tester.. We’ll see!

[ducksface]

See that tiny little greenhouse way back there?
It needed 300 feet of corrugated plastic pipe buried 4ft deep(it's on bedrock) to heat and cool the greenhouse. I put 50ft of soaker hose in each run so it's a giant well insulated and precooled swamp box in the summer and a 55°ish permatemp in the winter.
This is how you get $4,000 a pound tomatoes.
Black beauty, Cherokee purple, steakhouse are the tomatoes, bib and romaine and rocket are the greens.

The good news is I can amortize them hamaters next year down to $2,000 a pound.

A favorite story of mine:
The dairy farmer won $1,000,000 cash on the lottery and was interviewed by the local TV station.
'what will you do with the $1,000,000?'
'well, I figgered I'd just keep milking those cows until it's all gone'

Same with a greenhouse.

[Big-Foot]

Originally Posted by ducksface

See that tiny little greenhouse way back there?
It needed 300 feet of corrugated plastic pipe buried 4ft deep(it's on bedrock) to heat and cool the greenhouse. I put 50ft of soaker hose in each run so it's a giant well insulated and precooled swamp box in the summer and a 55°ish permatemp in the winter.
This is how you get $4,000 a pound tomatoes.
Black beauty, Cherokee purple, steakhouse are the tomatoes, bib and romaine and rocket are the greens.

The good news is I can amortize them hamaters next year down to $2,000 a pound.

A favorite story of mine:
The dairy farmer won $1,000,000 cash on the lottery and was interviewed by the local TV station.
'what will you do with the $1,000,000?'
'well, I figgered I'd just keep milking those cows until it's all gone'

Same with a greenhouse.

Duck (I can call you Duck can’t I?),

You are not only a glutton for punishment, but you must live in a different part of AZ from me... I would need a jackhammer to bust up the ground under my place...
We tried, for years, to grow ‘Maters and spent a small fortune on all the special magic fairy dust and watering etc.... Only to have some friggen squirrels take bites out of them. We finally threw in the towel and she buys them at either a farmers market or supermarket... Yep, not nearly as good, but a heckuva lot cheaper!