Fifty150

Those Explorers are really good vehicles for what they do. I had one until about a year ago, It was one of the packages with the 5.0 engine & AWD. I didn't want to part with it either. It was mechanically perfect, and modded for power. But when a car has rust all over, leaks, and the entire interior is so trashed......it would have cost me so much to restore it that a new car made more sense. Not to mention that the old Explorers were only 5 passenger vehicles, and that the fuel mileage was so bad that my fuel savings alone paid for the Transit Connect.

Interesting viewpoints from the unions and volunteers perspectives. I guess it's not like the police unions. Sure, volunteer all you want. Become an auxiliary officer. Become a reserve officer. There is absolutely no threat to police officers losing their jobs to volunteers. And the fact that more volunteers are actually riding in the car with a full time officer, it only points to the fact that there are not enough officers, and hiring needs to be increased. Firefighter unions can't see that? All of the volunteers justify why the fire department needs to increase the payroll. In order to recruit and retain good people, doing exemplary work, the volunteers need to be converted to full time paid firefighters. That is the only way to keep them. It's in the interest of everyone's safety, to keep you doing what you're doing, and compensate you for it. I wonder if inmate firefighters are compensated in any way for their service. I know. They're criminals and serving time. But the fact that they're willing to put their lives on the line in our time of need, there should be compensation of some form. I've always thought that inmates should be allowed to pay their debt to society via public or military support service. If a guy gets a 10 year sentence for a nonviolent offense, and he is willing to go to Afghanistan, let him. Even if you don't give him a gun, there is plenty of need over there for logistics support, mechanics, labor, service, et cetera. They should bring volunteer inmate crews to forward operating bases. We need barbers, cooks, laundry, warehousing, truck drivers operating room techs.......there must be 25 soldiers doing other things, to every 1 soldier with a gun fighting. Inmates could constructively learn job skills and repay their debt to society. What is the chance of escape? What would an inmate do? Run away into the hills of Afghanistan? About the same risk as an inmate firefighter running away into the hills that are on fire.

Some PVC pipe and tarps could be duct taped together if you really need to.

That would make it awfully hard for you to drive while your wife sleeps.

None of that will work while he is driving and his wife is trying to sleep. He gets up to freeway speeds, and she'll go flying out the back.

Firemen need a better lobbyist. You're lacking political clout. It seems so simple to justify full time, paid, fire fighters in the interest of national security. You're first responders. America needs it's heroes. Somebody needs to lobby congress for Federal Dollars to fund local departments. If the military can hand out surplus vehicles, guns, ammo, body armor, rocket launchers, tear gas, uniforms, and whatever to every police department across the country. They should be able to provide surplus fire fighting apparatus to you. Your department should get military surplus engines, turnout gear, et cetera. And, the military should provide your training so that you guys can be called upon to respond to terrorist attacks, natural disasters, weather incidents, chemical warfare, and be incorporated into some sort of role in defense preparedness. It's the same way that the military provides tactical training to police departments. Imagine those little 3 man sheriff departments in the backwoods where people still make moonshine. They don't have the budget for dental benefits, but now they have rocket launchers, flame throwers, and armored personnel carriers. When Canada invades the USA, are we going to be helpless victims of oppression and tyranny from our French speaking neighbors to The North? You need to get the attention of your local Congressional Representative. Have him argue that when President Trump builds his wall, the weakest link in our national defense will be unpaid, untrained, under equipped first responders. Then set fire to his house, stand by and let it burn to the ground, in order to reiterate your point that you are unpaid, untrained, under equipped: and his family could have lived if you were paid, trained, and properly equipped. I'd like to watch Nancy Pelosi's house burn, and be right there to tell her, "Hell No! I'm not running into a burning building to save anything. Especially your burning building. I don't get paid enough to do that. Matter of fact, I'm not getting paid at all. I won't even save your cat stuck in a tree!"

It's just business. Nobody cares if they can make a buck. The owner of my local dealership drives a Corvette. And why not? He can afford it, and it's a nice car. A lot of companies that make aftermarket performance parts will ask for customers to volunteer their vehicles for testing. In most cases, the customer gets nothing in fiscal compensation. And at the end of testing, their vehicle is typically returned to stock, unless the manufacturer allows the customer to buy the product. Perhaps in a few rare cases, the customer is allowed to keep the product free of charge as compensation. But that would all depend on the item. If you were the guinea pig for performance parts, which may make your car better, you also take the chance of the performance part failing and doing damage to your car. And typically, at the end of the testing, they cannot by law allow you to keep the item, because it is not street legal yet. Once the manufacturer is done testing with your vehicle, they still have to obtain government approval to make and sell the item.....sometimes it's safety, other times it involves clean air regulations....but no, you cannot keep that exhaust system, super charger, underdrive pulley, intake, turbo, et cetera. Good luck with the marketing. I don't know how well you'll do with direct to end user sales, since a lot of people don't even want to change their own oil or paint their own house. Very few people will want to do that kind of an install on their own. You may have better luck with custom upfitters, showing it at car shows like SEMA, and looking for a nationwide distributor to do the selling for you, so that you can focus on producing the product.

That being said, and with all things being equal, there are more hot Asian girls in Asia.

Now let's get back to the good stuff. The part where we debate US to metric measurements, and conversions. Funny thing is that most Americans don't know that the American Gallon is different from the Imperial Gallon, so when we talk about gas prices per gallon, it could mean two entirely different units of measure. And of course, people in the US don't even know what the metric system is....... I measure anatomy with metric. Gives a bigger number to help boost my ego. 15 CM is better than 6".

The best part has to be the cold beer in that fridge.

Doc, I had a crab soup recently which wasn't even crab soup. Chicken consomme, garnished with cilantro. What made it crab soup was that it was served with steamed white asparagus, a saucer with salmon roe, and a whole garlic roasted, dungeness crab. You are suppose to crack the crab, and add the asparagus, salmon roe, crab butter, and crab meat to the soup yourself. You don't want to know what the restaurant charged for that. 5150

Glad to hear it's held up for about a week.

Doc, I guess it's life in The Big City, as they say. Larger metropolitan areas like NY, LA, SF, et cetera......people have a different idea of what is in their budget for disposable income, and are much more open to spending more on entertainment. The demand is here for luxury items. Part of your roe shortage could be due to a higher demand elsewhere. If only X amount of roe is produced and in existence, then it goes to the highest bidder. I was just talking to a friend of mine in the produce industry. He told me about how he is making a killing importing South American produce from Chile, Peru, Argentina, et cetera......and selling the produce in Japan & China where the super rich will pay a huge retail markup for imported, and sometimes smuggled, luxury items. Even a pack of American cigarettes, authentic by an American Tax Stamp, in the shirt pocket of a visiting American, can be sold for up to $20 US Dollars. Imagine how much of our soft shell crab is exported to Japan. In Asia, US chicken & eggs are coveted.....why? Bird Flu. Do you think the King of Thailand will take a chance on eating domestic fowl that may or may not be contaminated?

This sounds like a MythBusters episode.

In The US, we like everything bigger.

That is madness. 9600. Then 19200. Then 28800. Then 38400. I'm losing count. I'm losing my mind. I need a beer! Might as well let a shop with coupons change it, and put a little sticker on the windshield. That's like going on a date, and taking a girl to a restaurant that you clipped a coupon for.

Have you considered adding a filter? Roll over image to zoom in B&M B&M 80277 Universal Remote Transmission Filter Kit 3.9 out of 5 stars 49 customer reviews | 18 answered questions List Price: $56.92 Price: $49.27 Free Shipping for Prime Members You Save: $7.65 (13%)

You've met my ugly girlfriend?

That fold flat seat is one of my favorite features. I love driving around with the front seat and second row folded. Anyone who wants a ride has to climb all the way back into the 3rd row.

Are you guys doing this at home? Or using a shop with a machine? I haven't played with my tranny yet In the old cars that I own, my pickup & my Honda, I used a "homebrew" technique. Drain pan from drain plug. Fill from dipstick tube or fill port. Disconnect cooling line and allow fluid to run into a bucket.. Turn on engine and run a few quarts out, turn off engine, add a few quarts to top off Repeat process until clean fluid flows through the cooling line, which lets me know that all dirty fluid has been pumped out. Reconnect cooling line. Check dipstick. Fill to proper level. Now I'm waiting for the heated automotive fluid debate to start on this forum. Every car forum has guys who love to argue conventional vs synthetic, brand vs brand, and even guys who will argue in favor of using something other than OEM oil weight. 0W20 vs factory fill of 5W20. RedLine vs Royal Purple vs Mobil1 vs Wal*Mart. Then we will have to cut open oil filters, and do oil analysis to compare shear metals. And don't forget to weigh in on oil change intervals. Do you wait for the light? Do you do it every 3 months? How about 5,000 miles?

In the days of yore and yesteryear, private fire companies were allowed to exist. Why? Out of necessity. Essentially, fire fighting was privatized. If you didn't pay your bill, they would stand by and watch your house burn down. On that note, police services were also privatized. To this day, in The City and County of San Francisco, we still have private police, who wear police department uniforms, carry police radios, drive police cars, and carry guns. But they only protect those who subscribe to their service. So if your store is getting robbed, and you are not a subscriber, don't expect that cop to do anything for you. We do have a municipal police force, who are responsible for protecting everybody. But the private police is allowed to exist, and carry on with the business of providing security for the privileged. So anybody who is wealthy enough to carry an extra $150,000+ per officer a year on payroll, can have a cop in uniform standing in front of his store. Banks subscribe. Construction companies have to have it. Nightclubs always pay for cops in a cruiser to sit in front of their club. Large retail stores and grocery chains will have a uniformed cop right at their front door. Not so unique. Even on the East Coast, you see "special police" officers in places like District of Columbia. Railroads are private, and you see railroad cops like Southern Pacific Police & Amtrak Police. During the industrial revolution, when we had large scale production, there were "factory police". Look around, and you'll see that ambulance crews are private. Large cities like NY, LA, & SF all have fire departments with ambulances and paramedics. In SF, medics used to be part of something called Department of Public Health. Maybe we should take a step back in time. Allow volunteer fire companies to incorporate, and charge a fee. Maybe if it isn't a subscription fee, where someone has to pay in order to receive service; there could be a service fee. Every time you fight a fire, send a bill, and make the homeowners insurance policy pay the bill. It makes sense to me. I had to pay The City $5,000 for an ambulance ride.....not out of my pocket, since insurance paid for most of it after I paid the deductible. But you guys should be allowed to set a fee schedule to offset cost. I guess it's only in large metropolitan areas where the citizenry accepts that their property is taxed for protective services. We're also taxed for education dollars, but that's another story. Or not. Every homeowner pays a property tax to fund the local school district, even the ones who do not have kids in school. Think you're not paying? You are. You pay rent, your landlord pays the tax with your rent.

Safelite wanted $225 to fill a rock chip. They suggested that I pay out of pocket, and file a claim for reimbursement from my insurance company. I found a local shop that did the job for about what you paid to have your chip filled. I've always heard that the shop materials were not the same as what you buy over the counter. Those $25 kits for windshield repair are simply not as good, in comparison to whatever they use in the glass shop. I don't know. Just what I have heard. What I do know, is that you end up making a big mess with those kits if you do not know what you're doing. One of my friends wound up with that compound all over the place, and no way to clean it off.

It makes you wonder. When you go to an auto parts store, you see on every wall, tons of product that is sold at a lower price when compared to OEM. Why would anyone want less than OEM quality parts? I can't imagine downgrading my brakes.......let me save $4, and installed brakes that don't stop as well. My dad always taught me to upgrade, and never downgrade. If you can get something that worked better, you do it. It's worth every extra penny to have better brakes. Do you save a few dollars on dating, and have the ugly girlfriend?

For what fire fighters are called upon to do, every fire fighter should be paid. And paid well. And provided with every state of the art piece of equipment needed. Fire fighters. Cops. Military. Medics. These people are our front line. They are the deciding factor in us being able to live in society. You simply can't have an unsupported volunteer force. For me, it would not be acceptable when my home burns down, and my family perishes in flames, because it would cost an extra $60 a year ($5 a month) on my property tax to have a paid fire department. Imagine if we had an all volunteer military. The Canadians would invade from the north, and we would be a Canadian territory. What if the volunteer ambulance crew had no training or equipment, and the best way to get you to a hospital was by 2 bicycles towing a wheelbarrow? Free OJ!

If cost is a concern, then you really need to do the math. What is the actual cost per mile? If you're saving any money, how much, and how long will it take to recuperate the initial investment into the conversion. I'm partial to the idea of less pollution. But it all comes with a cost. What is the environmental footprint of production and distribution of E85? Nobody with an electric car ever thinks about the pollution caused by producing all of those batteries, and how their electricity is produced. If an electric car or hybrid has the equivalent of 12 or more batteries, which eventually all become replaced after XXX years or miles of service, does that balance it out? Where does electricity come from? How is it made and delivered to your house?