Quick bits

[Panhead5496]

I don't think I have known someone yet who worked at dealership and liked it. The guy I work with now worked at car dealerships and powersport dealers (motorcycles, ATVs, jet skis, etc) and hated them all. They just jerk people around for no reason. Pretty sad. If you could find an independent shop you'd be way better off I think.

Also, you say you weld...have you thought about going to a local trade school and taking some welding classes to get certified? I knew some people who went to a school to weld and one got a job out west making almost 6 figures welding on some big sites!

[Kartorbust]

Originally Posted by Panhead5496

I don't think I have known someone yet who worked at dealership and liked it. The guy I work with now worked at car dealerships and powersport dealers (motorcycles, ATVs, jet skis, etc) and hated them all. They just jerk people around for no reason. Pretty sad. If you could find an independent shop you'd be way better off I think.



Also, you say you weld...have you thought about going to a local trade school and taking some welding classes to get certified? I knew some people who went to a school to weld and one got a job out west making almost 6 figures welding on some big sites!

It hasn't crossed my mind in quite a few years to be honest. As of now, I can be certified because I have a welding certificate. However, there's many different types of certification that I could get. But I would have to work for either a company or what have you to know what they would require. My original plan was to weld for a year or two then go back to my original college and take the 2nd year advanced welding classes. However, that all fell through between 2012 and 2013.

[Kartorbust]

So I'm pretty sure my boss is going to hate me even more now today. Working on a new car inspection right now, yet another brand new Jeep Cherokee has tire damage, but I hit the lottery with this one, both passenger side tires are damaged. First one of the day, chalk it up to 5 tires so far. All of them have been the same tire, Continental ProContact TX, similar DOT number, just the manufacturing date is a couple weeks difference. Feels like I'm hitting the lottery lol.

[mckutzy]

Looks like theyve got a recall on a certain amount of tires now.... you have found a bunch in succession... crikey....

[Kartorbust]

I probably have the best luck. I mean, just 20 minutes ago I found yet another tire, same story, and I'll probably have 1 or 2 more tomorrow like that. I'm almost at 10 tires so far, I better be getting a freakin prize for this lol, unless they want to be real Richards and make me have to find 100 tires for that prize.

[ezcome-ezgo]

Is the tire damage always on the inside?

[Kartorbust]

Originally Posted by ezcome-ezgo

Is the tire damage always on the inside?

Always inside edge of the tread. Almost like it rubs up against something sharp for about 6 inches or more and then stops. Or a disgruntled employee has been cutting them.

This is the stack so far as of 7:15am.

[mckutzy]

Im assuming they come off a rail car from the factory????
Is it perhaps the chock system they used for transport securement? ...

[Kartorbust]

Far as I know, they are shipped from Illinios by rail car to Des Moines and are taken by truck to our dealership. It could be the railroad binders, it could be a burr on the rail car or ramp. We have no information on why it happened. Though it appears that we do not have anymore vehicles left with damaged tires. I pulled in the other 5 Cherokees today to get a look while they were in the air. Nothing. I was and still am disappointed. But I feel like we can at least eliminate the trucking company at this point.

[ezcome-ezgo]

Really? Eliminate the trucking company? Having been in the car haul business for 20+ years, I am stunned anyone at a dealer would ever NOT assume it's the trucking company's fault. The trucker always gets blamed first, it's like a rule or something. Now having said that, there are not surfaces in most in-service railcars that will gouge a tire. It is remotely possible that there is something, somewhere on the ground in the marshalling yard, or that one truck has a ramp broken just so that it presents a sharp, jagged edge or point. But the solution will not be discovered via speculation.

[Kartorbust]

For now, yes. However I still have my doubts. There's way too many spots where it could have happened and no one is saying anything on if it's more widespread. I'm not worried about it anymore. As long as I catch this, it shouldn't be a problem.

Anywho, still need to get the internet transferred to the new apartment, probably do that tomorrow. My dad and brother should be here later today to help us move across town. Then just have to clean the old place up a bit. So cannot wait to have a house. Kind of tired of not being able to work on my own stuff or build anything.

[Kartorbust]

So it's been a day now since my wife and I moved into our new apartment. Hopefully this will be the last apartment we ever live in and hopefully by this time next year we'll be in a house, and I can build the go kart or buggy that I've been wanting to for years now.

Not even close to having everything unpacked and still have a few items from the old place to bring over. Fortunately we have a week until our old lease is up, so we have time to clean it up and get stuff situated there. The upside to this new place is, we have our own washer and dryer for clothes, and not have a community laundry room to share with others. Yes, in a way we did downgrade from a 2 bedroom 1.5 bath to a 1 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment, but it was cheaper and it's closer to both of our places of work. Packing, moving, unpacking, and loading up cupboards is stressful.

Got new internet equipment. One is because Spectrum (Time Warner Cable and Charter) gives you new equipment when you move, and two, they doubled our speeds again. So now we have 400mbps down and 20mbps up. When we first got internet out here, it was 100 down 10 up, then about 3 weeks ago, they doubled the download to 200. The justification is do to a lot of people stream games, movies, on top of having an Alexa, as well as being on their phone at the same time. That use to slow everyone down...not anymore.

[landuse]

Originally Posted by Kartorbust

Got new internet equipment. One is because Spectrum (Time Warner Cable and Charter) gives you new equipment when you move, and two, they doubled our speeds again. So now we have 400mbps down and 20mbps up. When we first got internet out here, it was 100 down 10 up, then about 3 weeks ago, they doubled the download to 200. The justification is do to a lot of people stream games, movies, on top of having an Alexa, as well as being on their phone at the same time. That use to slow everyone down...not anymore.

Those are just stupid fast speeds compared to what we get here. A 4-10mbps line is the average here that most people have. If you go wireless LTE you can get about 40mbps

[Kartorbust]

Originally Posted by landuse

Those are just stupid fast speeds compared to what we get here. A 4-10mbps line is the average here that most people have. If you go wireless LTE you can get about 40mbps

It does make it easier to watch 1080p videos on YouTube and Netflix a lot nicer and easier. Now if I was streaming games on twitch or YouTube, then yeah the faster upload speed is nice. But, since I do not do that yet, it's just a nice upgrade. On the plus side, when they did this, my internet bill went from $39.99 a month, to $29.99 a month, and it's fixed at that price for the next 3 years. Then it'll probably go to about $60 a month.

[landuse]

Originally Posted by Kartorbust

On the plus side, when they did this, my internet bill went from $39.99 a month, to $29.99 a month, and it's fixed at that price for the next 3 years. Then it'll probably go to about $60 a month.

Companies always seem to do this. They give you the taste of the good life until you cannot live without it.....and then they double the price!!!!!

[JTSpeedDemon]

This past week I went to Big Bend National Park with a bunch of Scouts.
One of the leaders had rigged up a Nintendo Switch to the TVs in the Ford Transit passenger van, so we played Super Smash Bros. for ~20 hrs. total on the trip!
In a very short summary:
We suffered out in the 100 degree+ temperatures the Chihuahuan Desert has to offer.
We were ~7,000 ft. up, astonishing because I was kinda thinking Texas mountains were a myth! (You fellow North Texans will know what I'm talking about, but to everyone else, North Texas is very flat)
We went to the McDonald Observatory for their Star Party program, they showed us and explained lots of the constellations, and we got to see lots of cool stuff through their high power telescopes.
We almost got stranded on the way to the observatory.
We almost didn't have enough water on a backpacking trip.
We were HIKING in the 100 degree+ weather!
We also got hailed on twice in the first two days. That was actually my first time running trough open hail. While everyone else was going Owowowowowow from the hail pelting them, it actually did not bother me.
I can give more details if wanted.

[landuse]

Originally Posted by JTSpeedDemon

I can give more details if wanted.

More details please

[Kartorbust]

Well now you know for next time, if its triple digits, pack twice or more water for hiking. I've seen different recommendations for drinking water like, 8 glasses a day, or another one is, 1oz of water for every pound you weigh (so 150oz for a 150lb person). Glad no one got heat stroke or collapsed.

[JTSpeedDemon]

More details:
Day one was almost entirely driving. While we were unpacking the trailer to set up camp in the Chisos Basin, a gust of wind smacked the trailer door into my face, stunning me for a bit. not fun.
We also got hailed on, and my glasses got chipped.
Great first day!
Day two:
We tried to do the Santa Elena Canyon Trail. The Santa Elena Canyon was cut by the Rio Grande, so one side of the canyon is Mexico, and the other side is the U,S, and A.
There was a river crossing along the trail where you have to wade through the Rio Grande(not to Mexico, it was to the US side of the canyon, since the crossing was at a Y in the river).
Although, since it had rained so much, the river was flooded, fast moving, and strong.
We tried to see if we could cross with out trekking poles and whatnot, but it was too strong to risk it, so we turned back.
The Rio Grande is enormously muddy, and because of the color and consistency we called it "chocolate milk".
I also made the mistake of wearing jeans for that hike, so they got filthy with mud. About 25 feet of the river bank was "peanut butter mud", that was very slick and extremely sticky.
So we tried another trail, called something like the Mule Ears Peaks Trail. They're called that since the peaks look remarkably like mule ears from a certain angle.
We hiked along that trail for a while, partially to dry of our clothes, but eventually turned back early since one one of us was getting very heat exhausted, and there was almost no shade.

---------- Post added at 09:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 AM ----------

Further details:
Day 3 we did the Lost Mine Trail. Legend is that the Spanish discovered gold and silver, and enslaved the local Chizos tribe to mine it for them.
We couldn't find the mine. I was hopin' to strike it rich!
It was a brutal 5 mile round trip hike, with the entire hike there almost completely uphill, and partially because we were packed in simulation for our backpacking trip the next day, with just about all the needed gear, except not as much food and water.
It was grueling.

---------- Post added at 09:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:44 AM ----------

Day 4 We left ~9ish for the backpacking trip, which was ~5 mi. ONE WAY!
What can I say? It was kinda miserable, that's what.
We guzzled more water than expected on the trip there, so we ended up at camp with enough water for the return trip, but not enough to cook our dehydrated meals. Thankfully the leaders took our empty water bottles and found a spring nearby. They filled them up, and then we used iodine tablets to purify the drinking water. The cooking water would be boiled anyway.
We also saw a deer that evening, and we named it Jordan.
Then on Day 5 we saw a BUNCH of deer hangin' around our campsite. The deer weren't even very scared of us! We took a different route back, that was ~1 mi. shorter, but with the first mile mostly uphill. We got going about when the sun was coming up, so it was nice and cool most of the way. The last part of the trail was infuriating because every once in a while we could actually SEE our van, but the trail kept wandering all over the place.
Then we got back to Base Camp and basically just relaxed by drinking Gatorade, eating snacks, and enjoying the shade. Later that afternoon we drove a little ways and we all took showers, which felt SOOOO GOOD!!
And we also did some prepacking for the trip home.
Day 6 was almost entirely driving home, playing Super Smash Bros.

---------- Post added at 09:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 AM ----------

Is that enough details for y'all?
I would post pictures, but I didn't have a camera with me out there.

[JTSpeedDemon]

I got OneDrive access to the pics the leaders took, or at least most of the pics.
FEAST YOUR EYES!!
Us ready to go with the van and trailer(I'm next to the guy in the red shirt), trying to do the Rio Grande crossing(I'm wearing the green day pack), us on the Mule Ears Trail(I'm farthest back, it's the really deserty pic), and us at the end area of the Lost Mine Trail(Us on the rocks, I'm in the middle).
Fun times, immense heat, great views.