Fifty150

There was a generation previous to me, who put their identification markings on everything. I knew a guy, whose dad, hand etched or engraved his surname, rank, & serial no. on everything from a pair of scissors, to a television set. Maybe this guy is worrying about losing his motor, and marked it for later identification.

I was @ Sears getting tires installed on The 5150 Mobile. A tow truck brought in a car with a blowout. Nothing special......except that the tire was so new, you could still see the Tire Tread Markings. It looked like the car just had the tire installed, drove out of the shop, then blew out.

I totally agree. The guy who did that, did not know what he was doing. And the shop supervisor is even worse, because he allowed that to happen. Responsibility for good or bad product is top-down. The people at the top are not training and supervising the employees properly. It's like not having a chef to expedite orders and inspect each plate before it goes out. Not that I know anything about fine dining, or how to run a tire shop. But I've seen enough FoodTV and Gas Monkey Garage, to know that the technology on CSI is imaginary, and that real life homicides are not solved like they do it on television.

Didn't we go through this Trade War with Europe during the Johnson Administration? Isn't that why we have a Chicken Tax? The Chicken Tax that Ford avoids by bringing in the Transit Connect as a wagon, then stripping the vehicle into a cargo van?

We are a nation divided. For some of us, $100,000 a year is low income. In some parts of the country, $100,000 qualifies you for subsidies, below market rate housing, your kids get free school lunch, and even participation in entitlement programs. I'm sure that rankles the rest of the nation, that with 6 figures, I have to apply for government housing & food stamps. i can barely afford to drive a Transit Connect. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44725026 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/30/us/bay-area-housing-market.html A new report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development says that a San Francisco metro area family of four bringing in $117,400 a year qualifies as “low income." Last year, the cut off was $105,350. An annual salary of $82,000 now puts single adults in the “low income” bracket as well.Jun 28, 2018 San Francisco families earning $117,000 qualify as 'low income' https://www.cnbc.com/.../families-earning-117000-qualify-as-low-income-in-san-francis...

https://nyti.ms/2mI511S

Brad, Sorry about your thread. This is how quickly things spiral. Threads are fluid, dynamic, and organic. They take on a life of their own.

Sounds like a lot of people would like for government to take over private services, and offer it like an entitlement. I feel the same about utilities. We should all have clean water and running water. Nobody should freeze in the winter because they can't afford heat. In this country there's no excuse for hunger. Every American should have access to education; be it higher learning, trade skills, or just certificate programs for employment. Why can't we send kids off to barber college so that they can make a living? Oops....makes me sound like a socialist! Un-American!

The freeway around here has an average MPH of 15.

Part of the problem is that healthcare is "for profit". Taxpayers cannot and should not, contribute to the exorbitant profit margin of private healthcare. If healthcare were socialized, operated by government for the people, the cost would decrease dramatically and everyone would have access. Once upon a time, public safety was private and for profit. Don't pay the fire service, and they will stand there to watch your house burn because you're not a subscriber. Don't pay the patrol cop, and the cop will stand there as you are being victimized because you're not a subscriber. Even today, in SF, people can still pay for, and recieve, private police service. The rich can, and still do, buy the police. That is where we are now. The cardiologist will watch me die of heart disease, because I can't afford to pay for treatment. The nephrologist will do nothing for my failing kidney if I don't pay. I am not a subscriber. It's a fair market economy. For profit healthcare should be allowed to exist. But that doesn't mean that the government cannot operate a nonprofit healthcare system, like Medi-Care, and make it available to all. Wait, wasn't that what Clinton tried to do?

As far as the dealership is concerned, the manuals don't exist because they do not have any to sell to you. I went back to my dealer's service department, and only the techs working in the back knew that there was more than one fuse block diagram for trucks in the same model year. Only the tech knew to use the VIN to find the correct information. Not the salesman. Not the service writers. It turns out that for the same year, make, and model truck, there were a lot of differences.....and the only way to find the right part was the VIN.

I have a cooler with a fan on my truck. Your main consideration will be how much space you have, and where you will install it.

The big kid on my block is http://www.lkqcorp.com/en-us/ I see their truck making deliveries at all the local body shops, and at dealerships. A lot guys I know like to buy from http://www.levangroupinc.com/Catalog/QuickCatalog.aspx?yearcode=2013&makecode=56&modelcode=14&enginecode=56&yeartext=2013&maketext=FORD TRUCK&modeltext=TRANSIT CONNECT&enginetext=4-121 2.0L DOHC Vehicle: 2013 > FORD TRUCK > TRANSIT CONNECT > 4-121 2.0L DOHC Main Category Accessories Ignition & Engine Filters Belts & Cooling Fuel & Emission Electrical Heating & Air Conditioning Brakes & Wheel Bearings Chassis & Steering Exhaust & Clutch Engine Drive Train Vision, Manuals, & Misc. Tire & Wheel

That is one car, that does not need a paint job to sell the car. Makes me think of all those Honda motorcycles with a Repsol paint job. The paint sells the bike. Even a little 250cc or that 150cc sold overseas. You know it isn't a fast bike. But you are buying the paint job.

The math says that it is not too much weight. But common sense, and perhaps my supervisor, would have made me remove 11 weights on each side.. Again, I don't know $#*t about balancing tires. My skill level only allows for me to change a tire when needed. It could very well be that he gave the tire a spin, the machine told him to add weights, gave it another spin, then machine wanted more weight, and 5 spins later..........

diversity and tolerance. Can't we all just get along? Some people have to travel to Thailand to get a hooker NOT of the opposite sex. When hookers are right outside of your house, we call that "front door service". Don't look down upon me for how I make my living. At least I am proud of my work. I do it with pride, and practice my craft well. That is what is wrong with kids today. They don't care about how they do their jobs. Nobody takes pride in their work anymore. Just look at how the goofball balanced my tire. Make America Great Again!

So of course, out of curiosity, I crawled under the truck to inspect my other tires. Being lazy, I only looked under the driver's side. The girl that installed those used a stick on weights, the same way, placing them along the center line. On 1 wheel she used 2.75 oz. On another, she used 1.75 oz. No crazy pile of weights, placed opposite 180 degrees. After seeing that 1 side looked okay, I didn't feel like climbing under the passenger's side. 24 lbs for the wheel. 67 lbs for the tire. 91 lbs total. 16 ounces per pound. 1,456 ounces total. As per tirerack.com : https://blog.tirerack.com/blog/make-driving-fun-2/how-many-wheel-weights-are-too-many- While there is no industry standard, the general consensus of what is too much weight is when it takes more than 1% of the assembly weight to bring it into balance. In theory, my wheel should not require more than 14.5 ounces to balance. In total, the guy used 7 ounces. Except for the fact that it looks crazy, the math does not seem so bad. It is only half of the acceptable amount of weight. I wonder if it made any difference that the tire has seen about 60,000 miles of hard use, and not a brand new tire. Here is what the other two tires, on the driver's side, look like. Different combination of wheel & tire brands, but similar specs. !7X9 wheel. 35X12.5R17 tire. The car has Dick Cepek DC-2 wheels with GreenBall Kanati Mud Hog tires. The spare is an Pro Comp Series 69, with Hankook DynaPro ATM.

I've never mounted & balanced a tire in my life. But any idiot could see that there is something wrong with that picture. I have heard that with aftermarket alloy wheels like that, they use stick on wheel weights on the inside of the wheel along the center 0 degree offset line; no lip on aftermarket wheels to hammer on traditional weights, hide the weights from view to make it look better, because of various offset configurations the best balance is from the center line........ But that could just be misinformation spread by people who don't really know any better. Nope. Not going to take it back to that same shop. Obviously, the shop tech is an idiot, and the supervisor is not doing a good enough job of overseeing that kind of work. Why give them a chance to argue, try to defend what they did, and screw things up more? I'll just take that somewhere else, where they could first laugh at me, then fix it. No big deal at the moment. It is only a spare tire. And they didn't charge me for it........which is probably why they let some apprentice use it for practice.

People in cities are there for a reason. They want to be there. That's almost the same reason why people aren't in the city. They don't want to be there. Not often, but every once in awhile, you will get someone who is willing to switch. I grew up living in The City, but spent a lot of time outdoors. As a kid, we often left The City for hunting, fishing, snow sports. Interesting dynamic growing up next to an ocean, was that we got to go into the ocean. That is completely different from boating and fishing on a lake. For me, Big City life offers culture, diversity, entertainment.......but the best part is.....are you ready for it? Public Transportation. Living in a city with reliable transportation, means that I can actually take buses & trains, and get anywhere I want 24 hours a day. I love having 1st class SWAT team ready to serve a warrant by kicking in my door, Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA, NHL, casinos, strip clubs, Best of Broadway, Opera, Symphony, Michelin Star dining, happy ending massages, a race track, night clubs, museums, zoos, and an international airport all right outside my door. We have neighborhoods. You can literally walk out your front door, take a walk around your block, and find groceries, a butcher, a fish monger, a produce stand, a bar, a marijuana dispensary, a rub & tug, a synagogue......everything that other people have to get into their cars and drive to a mall to access. But I get it. People also want peace, quiet, personal space, safety, and a less frenetic pace in life. The only thing that I would not trade, is immediate access to medical technology. Certain life saving procedures are only available in medical facilities in large cities. I hope none of you ever find yourself in a position where the local doctor says, "we don't do that here, the nearest hospital that could do that is XXX hours away". Same reason why I will never retire to a 3rd world country to live like Dennis Hoff in a brothel. You can get a sex change in Thailand, but not open heart surgery. Or at least you wouldn't want the breast implant doctor to do your heart surgery.

May or may not be relevant. There were 2 owners manuals for my F-150. Both have different fuse box diagrams. Maybe there's another manual with different information. I had to use the VIN to get the right version of the manual from Ford. The dealer gave me the wrong owners manual.

3's Company was the greatest show of all time. I watch Oprah with the sound turned off. I don't want to hear what she has to say. Just the poor man's version of softcore adult entertainment.

I have a TV that I have to adjust the picture, depending on what channel I'm watching. I don't need to watch a spaghetti western version of 3's Company. Nor do I need for Oprah to look any bigger. You would think that all modern electronics can detect and adjust for proper aspect ratio. And with the Google Chrome browser, I can't view certain videos. You would think that a modern browser would have the necessary plug-ins installed and updated.

Interesting observations. To me, the most interesting part of all, is that the tire was brand new. Went back there again today. The girl who installed my new tires yesterday insisted on holding onto the best condition tire, so that I can come back with a wheel for her to mount it on. She was right. It is always safer to have a spare tire. I've been driving that truck for over 10 years without a spare tire. She was out of the shop, so one of the guys mounted it for me. When I got home and looked at it, I started laughing at the ridiculous amount of wheel weights it took for him to balance the tire. I've never seen anything like it. I've seen a few wheel weights here & there. But never that many. Not being a tire tech, I don't know. Is that normal?

Life in The Big City is different. I can't imagine doing that. Why didn't you ask for a delivery? If they wanted to make $$$XXX, they would have brought it to your front door.