Fifty150

For a 2011, I would simply source a good off-road light, fog light, flood light, or spot beam, and bolt it onto the plastics along the bumper/grill area. Set up one of those LED light bars with a remote control switch, so that you don't have to do much wiring, or drill into your firewall to run the switch wires. Most of the LED light bars on the market today will produce adequate illumination. I was able to find LED light bars on Amazon which lit in yellow/amber for fog, and white/daylight for offroad use.

Some friends of mine are touring musicians. One of them wanted to trade his E-Series van for my Transit Connect. Only problem is he thinks I am not as smart as him. Who would want a used Econoline with close to 200,00 miles, for an across the board trade?

With 20/20 hindsight, I would buy the unit with the most power. The GB 150. It is expensive. But, a small price to pay for security. What would you pay when you're stuck in the middle of the night, on the freeway where other motorists are passing @ 70 MPH, with poor visibility, in the middle of a winter storm? Most road service calls are for lock-outs, jump starts, and flats. I want to cover those basics in every car I operate. I try to keep a key for every car with the ring that has my house keys and work keys, then drive with a key which is only attached to the vehicle's alarm remote. That way, if I lock the door with the key in the ignition, there is another key on a ring in my pocket. This is also why I keep a jump start device and tire plug kit in every car where the spare tire or jack set is. I try to keep it minimal, compact, and basic. Sort of like carrying Leatherman tool instead of a tool kit. Just as surely as I don't want a dead battery, I also don't want a flat tire. In every little car, and when I'm on my Harley, I try to keep some sort of tire repair kit handy. In the Transit Connect, in that cubby hole where the jack is, I've got a tire plug kit, a pair of Irwin Vise Grips multi-tool, and a compact tire inflator. Slime is better known for that junk that you are never suppose to put in your tires. Slime & Fix-A-Flat are both frowned upon by tire techs. A tire tech got furious with me this one time that I brought my ex-girlfriend's car in for a tire repair. She had a can of Fix-A-Flat, and she used it. This stuff was all over the inside of the rim and tire. Guy was yelling and cursing because he had to clean the stuff out. Then he turned on me, and demanded to know why I let her put that stuff inside the tire, since he knew me, and knew that I knew better. My answer? "You, with all your tools, supplies, and knowledge, weren't out there with her on the side of the road, in the middle of the night, on a dark & stormy night. Neither was I." Forget about the tire tech who has to clean up your mess later. That is what he gets paid for. And if he doesn't want your business, you will spend your next $1,000 on a set of tires somewhere else. I was just glad that she had the can of Fix-A-Flat, it worked, and she got home safe. You don't want to have to carry a full set of tools in every car. But that little Vise Grip tool does everything that I need to plug a tire, change a battery, and hopefully I will never need to find out how more more it can do. I can only imagine how it could come in handy with things like hose clamps, and other odd sized bolts that I can lock the teeth onto.

I bought my NOCO from my local battery distributor. I wanted something that could work on light duty & medium duty trucks. It had to hold a charge, even it it wasn't used for months on end. And I wanted to be able to return it ifitI didn't work. My distributor promised that he would honor the warranty if the product failed within a year. Of course, I also had to be honest about it if I didn't charge the device, and it did not have enough electricity to work. On a Friday night, my boss & I left all the headlights on, on every vehicle in our fleet. Then plugged in the charger to allow an overnight charge. On Saturday morning, we came in and jump started every truck in our yard. I was a believer. The boss ordered a NOCO for every car & truck in the fleet. At the time, the small lithium battery jump starters were still new to the marketplace. Only a few roadside assistance companies were willing to try them as an alternative to the old fashion jump packs. The battery distributor started out with about a half dozen brands, since all the reps were at his door trying to push their product. The distributor said that he would only carry the NOCO, because all the other brands he tried kept getting returned. Number 1 complaint was that they didn't work. I suppose if you have a tow truck, you need a device that works, 100%, all the time, and on big & small cars. A private person isn't jump starting 25 cars a day, with some of those cars being big trucks. But you should still expect it to work, 100% of the time, all the time.

You ordered an XL? Why didn't you simply buy whatever was in inventory, and negotiate the pricing?

Even with yesterday's technology, the auto manufacturers leave a lot on the table. That is why we have a large aftermarket for cars and trucks. If every vehicle came with better lighting, then there would be no need to add lighting. If every vehicle was sold with all of the performance parts, then nobody would have to make their car go faster. If every Honda came with stickers, then I wouldn't have to put all of those Fast N Furious stickers on my Honda.

Okay, forget about price. After having tried a few of the smaller lithium battery style, and sent them back, and with experience from friends who did the same, there is only one that I like. A friend of mine likes Booster Pac TCB-ES580, which to me, is probably the same as Jump-N-Carry JNC318 I used to use those really big ones, about the size of a car battery, that weighed about as much. I had some pretty bad ones that looked good, but couldn't get a truck or boat started. But I also had some pretty good ones, and they did not have to cost a lot. What I learned was that while some of the more expensive ones worked well, some of the better ones were not that expensive. So you can't buy these based on price. With the old style jump starters, Clore made some of the best. Which reminds me, that I still have a Clore Jump-N-Carry in the toolbox of my pickup truck, that I should probably bring inside for a charge. In the old days, I carried a little unit in my Jeep that was about the size of a motorcycle battery, and it started everything I tried: sub-compact cars, large diesel trucks, boat that was sitting in storage, Obviously, some units are not practical for carrying around. Sure, you can get a decent price on Amazon. But the reviews are questionable. A lot of paid reviewers to make the product sound good. And even online, with a Google search, you get a lot of paid reviews. After trying a bunch of "Lightning Deal", "Deal of the Day", "Gold Box", and discounted products on Amazon, I sent back every unit that was sold by a seller in China & Fulfilled By Amazon. Why? They all failed when trying to jump start a larger displacement gasoline engine, or diesel engine, on light and medium duty trucks. If I can't jump start an F-150 or E-150 with a V8, or a little box truck, it is a waste of money. Windguy mentioned the DBPower brand. I had one that was advertised as 1200 amp from DB Power. I forget now, but I think that they claimed that it would start up to a 7 liter engine. Well, the typical small car has a battery that is about 500 or 600 Cold Cranking Amp. If your jump starter says 1200, you should be good, right? The DB Power 1200 couldn't start a little Honda 3.5 liter, 6 cylinder. From personal experience, I prefer buying a Jump Starter that does only that. If I need a tire inflator, I will buy that separately, and get an inflator which works well. I don't want a multi-use item, that doesn't do either task effectively. You are not buying a jump starter for the flash light. Get a good flash light. I like Streamlight. Old school flashlight that you can assault somebody with. If you are charging up a lithium battery jump starter, just to have something to plug your phone into, then you are wasting your time and money. Charge your phone at home!

Seat belt laws are applicable on public roads. I am not always on a public road. Sometimes I drive on private property. If I am slowly cruising through a field, and getting in & out to check on things every 50 feet, I am not wearing a seat belt. No way I can collide with another car where there isn't one around. I never wear a seat belt when I'm cruising around a large factory or plant, or driving from the warehouse to the hangarr, and when I'm driving on the tarmac of the airport with all lights flashing. I guess farmers probably drive through their crop zones in much the same manner. Last time I glanced at the local vehicle code, there was still an exception for workers to ride in the bed of pickup trucks and flatbed trucks, on a public road, if they are being transported a short distance from one work are to the next. Don't get me wrong. I am not driving 70 mph down the freeway without a seat belt. Yet, I do just that when I'm on the Harley.

The owners manual also has a section on disabling the seat belt chime so that you can drive without your seat belt and not get that annoying noise. Not everyone will need to do that. But some of us are old school, and will want to drive without a seat belt.

Try driving really fast, and swerving in an evasive maneuver, then press the button to see if you have a smoke screen or oil slick release.

Press it, and see what happens. That is where my USB power ports are located.

Alright. You got my attention. Since I am too lazy to look it up; what is a Taxi Package? Do you get a bulletproof divider? Or is that only for NYC taxi?

I have cables like that. Used them with my old Jeep. Left them on the Jeep when I sold it. 20/20 hindsight tells me I should have removed them and kept them for myself. Although I don't recall those cables being that expensive. I guess pricing and availability depends on where you source them from, and at what level of the food chain. I also used to carry a big jumpstart pack. Those worked real well. Now, I use a small lithium battery version which is just slightly bigger than a phone, and smaller than a tablet computer.

If you are willing to fabricate your own bench seat, and you have 3 very skinny passengers, then yes. You can even go so far as to fabricate your own seat belts. But as far as being able to purchase a ready made bench seat, or 3 separate mini-seats, with seat belts, then no.

What are you suppose to do if you need to jump start the vehicle?

Most people who buy minivans get Dodge, Honda, & Toyota.

From my experience, fix-it tickets are usually only given out to vehicles registered in that state. For instance, California does not allow window tint on the front windows. But the Highway Patrol, or any other local cop, will usually only give you a warning. Especially if in your state, it's legal. They know that you're not going to correct the violation (remove the tint), or stay in California long enough to go to court to contest it. And it's very questionable as to whether such a citation would even be valid, since the peace officer in California technically isn't responsible for vehicles in compliance with the vehicle code in the state which said vehicle is registered in. That is why so many rental vehicles in California have license plates from states like Arizona & Montana. The large rental companies (Hertz, U-Haul, Avis, Penske) have cleverly skirted around California's strict vehicle code and emissions standards by registering those vehicles in other states. The window tint law also allows them to ticket for a GPS stuck in the middle of the windshield and those fuzzy dice that people like to hang from their rearview mirrors.......since it all obstructs the clear view of the driver. VEHICLE CODE - VEH DIVISION 12. EQUIPMENT OF VEHICLES [24000 - 28150] ( Division 12 enacted by Stats. 1959, Ch. 3. ) CHAPTER 4. Windshields and Mirrors [26700 - 26712] ( Chapter 4 enacted by Stats. 1959, Ch. 3. ) 26708. (a) (1) A person shall not drive any motor vehicle with any object or material placed, displayed, installed, affixed, or applied upon the windshield or side or rear windows. (2) A person shall not drive any motor vehicle with any object or material placed, displayed, installed, affixed, or applied in or upon the vehicle that obstructs or reduces the driver’s clear view through the windshield or side windows.

I suppose that since the meters work, there is very little reason to spend more money to phase them out. Why spend all that money to upgrade to a pay station system, when you don't have to? It was another foggy day today. Those yellow lights are pretty nice to have. Not that fog lights do much in the fog during day hours. But it does increase your profile, and make you more visible to oncoming vehicles. At night though, the yellow lights do illuminate the area immediately in front of the vehicle very well, and allows me to see the lane markers better in the fog.

They don't make earthquake tire.

You can now pay by phone, and the meter accepts credit cards.

I am so lucky to live in a snow free zone.

Life in a band? Or life on the run from the law?

Here is how it looks in the day time. This was today, Christmas morning, on Polk Street.

Amber side marker on plastic trim forward of the door, and red eagle eye LED on plastic trim above tail lamps. Both are triggered to strobe and flash as needed.