DirtyComanche

The announcement was made at work today; the owners are basically uninterested in continuing to run the company, and can't find a suitable buyer... So, it's being 'parted out' :rotf: This is with all of our aircraft being booked for the entire upcoming season, and half of them being out making money right now, and following one of the busiest winters we have seen in several years. We know who the one major buyer is, and what they're taking (so far)... Another has presented contracts to buy a large portion of the remainder, but we don't know what is included in that, or what they will agree on. Is this good? Bad? I really don't know. I'd just hope they get this over with, so I know if I'm either actively looking for another job, or just being absorbed by one of the buyers. Unfortunately, both buyers are not exactly local, and no hard offers have been made to acquire the facilities. At the same time, the old owners were not interested, and we knew it, and it showed, so it will be a positive change to work for people that are actually interested in making money :dunno: Anyways, the first 12 aircraft will be handed over on the 16th. I would be surprised if I have the same employer (if any) by the end of the month :ack: Never been fired or laid off in my life, I've always left on my own terms. I guess there's a first time for everything.

Ive pulled a 6000 pound truck and a 2000 pound trailer w/o any brakes. Just drive smart. :yes: There's a heavy downgrade into town, then a heavy upgrade out of town. At two points on the downgrade are traffic lights. I'd be scared of being pushed through them, or into someone, by my trailer. And doing 30km/h downhill without lights is a bit of a cop magnet. It doesn't matter now though. :( Threw a wanted ad on kijiji (in Canada it isn't egay), maybe someone else will want to sell one.

And they sold it on me. To someone else. After they said call back tomorrow to get it (which would be today and tonight). So sad. I even borrowed a work truck to trailer it back. :(

I plan to. Sounds like it was a driving truck that ate a ditch and messed the fender/grille. They have a title, but hopefully they can actually find it. If I'm lucky I might not need my trailer, just somebody to drive me out there and give me a lift the rest of the way home when it breaks down on me :rotf:

And the brake controller on my truck has 2" of wires sticking out the back of it, then they're cut off. No signs of the rest of the wiring. :fs1: I'm not sure if it's smart to put a 3000lb truck on my 1400lb trailer and then tow it without brakes.

http://princegeorge.kijiji.ca/c-cars-ve ... Z375411205 DAMNIT. Going to look tomorrow. Gotta check to see if the brake controller works, so I can just take the trailer out there.

Actually, it's an auto :( Total bummer :(

Another route... Mercedes OM617.95X, use the tranny with it, and divorced Nissan truck tcase... I'm going to go look at the 'Luxury Sedan'... It's more than I want to spend, but it looks nice :rotf:

I didn't know Richmond had that deal... I stay there often enough, but can't recall if I've ever actually bought fuel in Richmond... I hit up a Husky in Delta last time, it was the worst gas station I'd ever been to. The diesel pump (which I was hoping was a commercial speed pump) did about 5L/minute, so I gave up after 50L. It leaked all over the place at the same time, and they had thrown spill absorbent all over the ground to try to slow the environmental travesty, all within sight of the river. They also had to take my word on how much fuel I bought, since they didn't seem to have any system to tell what the pumps had dispensed. Or maybe that's what the 10yo girl was supposed to be doing, but they just figured I was honest :dunno: At least they didn't have an issue holding my credit card.

"I just found out how rare these are and the price went (WAY) up." WOW No kiddin'! That was just at $3500 even this morning! :shake: Update: $6500 I should call and offer 1500. Get a couple people to call and offer $500-1500, all from different numbers, every couple of days. Eventually he'll get the hint.

On the topic... I needed gas on my way home tonight. Normally I buy fuel only during the day, since the 24hr station near me is kinda :nuts: But, I had an unexpected trip back into town, and had no choice. In BC you have to prepay for fuel... So I put my card in the pump, it accepted, but then I sat there and waited for the pump to be authorized for a couple minutes... So, I got annoyed and cancelled it and went inside to pay. After standing in front of the till for a minute before the cashier realized I was there, I explained that I needed some fuel: "Can't you just use your card at the pump?" Me "I tired, the pump didn't authorize, so I came in. So here's my card." (Most places will just hold a credit card and run it after you pump the fuel) "I have to charge you for the fuel before you pump it. How much do you need?" (Slightly annoyed) "Oh, say, $135 or $140ish. Something like that." "You know I can't refund you if you don't take all of it?" (Annoyed) "Umm, no, I did not know that since everywhere else would either just hold my card, or would pre-authorize it but not charge it until the final amount was known. And if not, I'm sure they could give me a refund. So you mean to tell me that I have to guess the exact amount of fuel that my truck is going to take?" "I can't give you a refund. Why didn't you just use your card at the pump?" :doh: Not going back there.

Copper prices are sky-high... There's a reason people steal live wires and plumbing for scrap.

I didn't know the 1.6 was an IDI engine... I need to do more reading on the appropriate forums... A 1.9L will be a lot more spendy, but I would definitely prefer a DI engine. Is there any computerized gizmos on the 1.9L? Also trying to avoid that, not that I fear wiring.

The T12s are considered to be obsolete, and eventually will be phased out of production (which will drive the lamp costs up, if nothing else, and ballasts may be hard to find). I don't know what the intended time frame for this is. T8s are now considered to be the low-end lamp. The T5s are new technology and will be around for a long time, they've only really been on the home consumer market for under a year. Light output per watt is miles better on a T5 than an old T12 (or even a newer T8), and this is worth something in energy savings and wire size savings. They're also a physically smaller lamp, making it easier to hang fixtures and replace bulbs. Also, I hate the old magnetic ballasts that are commonly seen with T12s, since the humming from them drives me nuts. There isn't any of those for T5s. If I had a bunch of T12 fixtures, or got them for a really good deal (like Hornbrod), I would use them... But if I was buying new, I'd buy the T5s and be done with it.

T5 or T5HO. T8s are junk in comparison, and T12s are obsolete junk. Check the lighting section at homodepot, you will be amazed.

Been off them for a few years now. :nuts:

Not bad here. It does log me out every day or so, it's the only forum that the 'Log me in automatically' or 'Keep me logged in' thing doesn't work on. Also, if you visit the homepage in IE, it takes you to the what-ever-it-is group thingy instead of allowing you to either visit the forum or the group thingy. Does not do it in any of the real browsers, but I visited from a work computer a couple times and struggled to make it work (had to google the forum to get a direct link).

And found this sweet 1990... Sadly I can't pay that. http://bc.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-car ... Z374711264

So; I'm thinking an older diesel Volkswagen engine... Almost 70HP :rotf: Apparently if I find a Passat or other larger car, it will be a regular RWD configuration. Which I think would allow one to easily go from the stock matching tranny to a divorced suzuki tcase; since it would still be short enough to not be an issue either way. The light duty components would probably compliment each other well. Or, Acme makes an adapter (http://acmeadapters.com/store_engine.php) that allows one to go to a Toyota R151? transmission, which I think is an AX-15 with a different bellhousing. So, Volkswagen, acme adapter, R151 bell, AX-15 trans, jeep tcase. More research will be done.

Curious how it will look on July 4th, 2012.

I'll agree that you should go get things documented... But, I'd not claim for monetary compensation unless it was actually legitimately affecting your life in a negative way. The reason insurance rates are so high is so many people figure that a fender bender equals 6 months of paid leave and some extra spending cash. I destroyed a Ford Focus, and wrote off the truck I was driving in the process (don't worry, it wasn't a MJ), and all of the cops/ems were saying "Oh, you're going to be so sore tomorrow." I got up the next day and felt fine.

I'd just get one of them, but they are simply not around. The last diesel I saw listed at all local to me, was an XJ, $5000 and not budging. It was NOT mint. However, I think I should be better able to find something in the 80HP range. I was looking for something more along the lines of 120-150HP, and there just isn't anything that I can source, or it is mad $$$.

Can you maintain speed on decent grades? There's a 6%er in town, traffic speed is normally 70-80km/h or 40-50mph on it (not saying anything about the actual limit, that's much lower :rotf: ). Is your truck capable of holding that speed on that type of grade, reasonably unloaded? I don't care if you have to drop gears or if it's foot to the floor (I don't understand people that cry about having to gear down, that's what gears are for :nuts: ). What sort of fuel economy do you get out of the 2.1L Renault? My daily drive is mostly rural roads, a short stretch of not very busy highway, some in town, and only a couple steep hills. If a 80HP diesel is plenty livable in those conditions, it will make my life a lot easier for finding a suitable candidate to swap. I'll agree that matching the final drive and gear ratios is probably far more important than just having gobs of power on tap, but it really only goes so far.

I imagine those cars were super light weight? 38HP at 12000rpm :rotf: Did they have oil injection or did you have to mix the gas? The air cooled diesels have a small fan for cooling, so it should probably not overheat at idle. That said, still I don't think it would be suitable. If it was more like 50HP, perhaps, but being air cooled probably isn't the best thing in general, the lack of safe heater options kinda kills it for me.

I had two blue tops die last year. They were on my service trailer, and I guess they couldn't handle being deep-cycled once :fs2: Ran them down and they wouldn't take a charge after that, got them tested, both came back bad. And the red top I had did the sudden death thing. I thought it was a great battery, then one day it did nothing. Wouldn't charge again. So, not taking an Optima for $125 even.