Forums

Yup.

I guess I’m a slow one. I thought this forum dead and gone. I mourned the loss. I just did an internet search and the forum came up in the results. I thought “dead link,” but Wu who, here it is. I’m glad it’s back.    Who runs this forum? There are ads, so I guess somebody is getting paid something. Who is it?   how did people learn it was back? Just kept trying to hit the URL? 

It all depends on lifestyle.  Some people don't own any boots.  One of my cousins only wears sneakers.  Even in a suit.  I "get it".  Sneakers are made for comfort.  Why wear shoes that hurt your feet?  I only have 1 pair of athletic type shoes.  I wear them for riding my bicycle, and when I go to the gym.           Years ago, I made the "executive decision" that I was no longer wearing "shoes".  Dress shoes.  They didn't provide any ankle support.  Leather bottom soles are useless for me, because I want traction.  I added rubber bottoms to the leather soles, then eventually phased out my "shoes".                              

Tl;dr this alternative mod is working really great so far. The visors snap all the way up.   Hi! My 2019 van’s visors have been floppy since I began using it (6k miles at that point, 40k now). They’ve gotten progressively worse to the point that, if I were to lurch forward in a crash, they could scalp me. I’m very tall. 🤷‍♂️   I studied these magnet- related posts - thanks! - but in the end decided the spring mechanism itself is maybe ok (it’s still very torquey, tough to actuate by hand once you disassemble the thing from the car) it’s just the structure that was trying to hold it in place that was inadequate. I think it’s some kind of sandwich attempting to squeeze on either side of the mechanism, but which is easily popped apart by typical road conditions. I decided to try to squeeze that sandwich back together and see how it worked.   It’s very easy to take the assembly off the car, T20 is the size bit or wrench needed. This would be annoying to try to do in place.   Here’s the hardware I used. I have it on hand because of a product my little company makes. Half of it is a binding bolt, female end, the other is an off the shelf button head screw and washer. There’s room for improvisation here. There’s adequate space above the closed visor for a nut (or lock nut if you want to be vibration wary). You’ll want it to be about 5/8” when cinched up but it’s best if you can get the parts to engage at 3/4”. I’m sorry I didn’t take measurements while I was doing it.   Another important note: I did find a _wrong_ place to put these fasteners. I thought I was going to put two sets up there, you can see the marks on the blue masking tape. But the holes I tried to drill that were 9 inches from the mounting end wouldn’t go through easily. I think there were steel components there (Spring steel for the mechanism?), while in the other location I was just drilling aluminum & plastic. It seems to be working great with just the one set though.   Also, possibly helpful: I started with a 1/16” bit and drilled through with masking tape on both sides in order to know where my holes were going to meet up. But then I used a razor knife to cut the vinyl on both sides before drilling with the larger diameter drillbit (0.206 for my fasteners, YMMV). I was worried about the vinyl twisting and making a mess. And then on a subsequent hole, I decided I was being overcautious. I tried drilling the vinyl, and it twisted and made a mess! Another random note: if you can have a strong shop vac pulling right where you’re drilling it might help reduce debris. It gets trapped under the vinyl. I didn’t use vacuum and there is debris sort of showing lumps from inside the vinyl. But it’s not bad and it’s not as disfiguring as the droopy visors. It really does seem to be working well, feels solid and they snap right up quite firmly. I need to go back and put some Loctite on my fasteners.   Let me know if you have questions. I’ll keep you all posted if it stops behaving well.     

Have not. But then again, I shop at a supermarket or sports outlets, not specialty shoe stores.    

When they first came on my radar, I was attracted to the stitch down construction and the single piece of leather used for the vamp.     Most of the quality shoes use what is called a Goodyear welt to build the shoe.  The upper part of the shoe, is stitched to a welt, which is stitched to the sole.  In my small corner of the globe, Pacific NorthWest shoemakers use a process where the upper part of the shoe is directly stitched down to the sole.   When The US military needed "rugged all terrain" footwear, the military boots were engineered using a stitch down construction.   Most shoes are built from sewing together different pieces of leather for the vamp, toes, heels, shaft, etc.  A single piece of leather is stronger.  No worry of the shoe breaking stitches and bursting open at the seams.  No chance of water leaking in through the stitches.  A lot more expensive to cut big pieces of leather and trim, than to cut out a lot of small pieces and scraps.   The double layer of leather construction, with a full leather lining, makes the shoe twice as thick.  The double lasting process uses 2 layers of leather under the foot.         Pacific NorthWest shoes such as Frank's, Nick's, and Wesco are literally a small fortune.  I've always admired from afar.  I just couldn't spend 2 weeks' wages.  If you've never heard of Pacific NorthWest boots from The USA, don't look into them.  You will wonder why every shoe isn't as well built.  Then you will plot on selling blood plasma to raise money for a pair of shoes.         The backstory is that I have South African relatives.  That was how I heard of the brand.  A relative was wearing a pair.  But I never wanted to call long distance over the phone, to place an order at the factory, and then pay for shipping across the world.  If I simply asked my cousins to pick up a pair, it would have been simpler.  But I didn't want to burden my relatives with spending the equivalent of 2 weeks' wages, then paying for the shipping.  As my relatives are generous to a fault, they would have declared it a gift, and would refuse my money.             When the company got their world wide web commerce sites, I looked at them again.  When they started stocking via Amazon, it became more viable.  When Amazon had Prime Day and Black Friday....... I bought.      

Never even heard of the brand before. Have had just a few pairs of hiking boots (for winter mostly) and these have been hi-tech, not traditional (Columbia, Halti and such).

The first was acquired last year.  Black Friday.  I liked them enough that I bought a second pair in July.  I now have 3 pairs.            The leather is thick, heavy, and stiff.  They take a lot of breaking in.  Not for those with delicate feet.    Not for the "woke" crowd.  Especially if you care about things like race relations, politics, sustainability of shipping consumer goods across the globe, etc.   Due to the exchange rate of the Rand versus the Dollar, the sale price is on the low end for the quality of the product.  Comparable quality could cost twice as much from other shoe companies.         The most interesting thing is that they have a custom boot builder on the website.  You can pick your own last, leather, sole, color, etc.  They will custom build your boots to order.             https://jimgreenfootwear.co.za/   https://jimgreenfootwear.com.au/   https://jimgreenfootwear.com/   https://jimgreenfootwear.co.uk/