So what did you do with your truck today?

[DrCharles]

Have you seen the clip of the fire truck doing a 270 and ending up parked in someone's driveway? It was on the national news yesterday

 

[DrCharles]

I waited a couple more hours of 44F temps, and when I saw the mail lady flying by in her small pickup, I walked over for one more try. Pulled into the middle of the road - and backed straight up the rise to the next driveway without even spinning a tire. 3 pt. turn and drove the few hundred yards home. Tomorrow it's supposed to hit 53F after it rains all night, so that ought to wash away the ice. Hope I don't get stuck in the MUD

 

[Old Goat]

This morning freezing fog was predicted. Had spritzles of rain off and on last night, Car was wet. but windshield of truck was wet and frozen in spots till I turned on the wipers , then speared it with all across the glass. had the engine running to get enough heat so we could see.

We are at 5260ft, but coming down the hill, the whole valley was socked in. some areas about 2 car lengths visability. Stayed off 395 and idiots and stayed on the county road up on the hill for about 12 miles, the 5 miles down another Rd to 395 at the traffic lights.
There was a Mini Cooper that tried to push a F-350 Flat bed and a guy helping the Cooper to push the truck through the intersection. It was about 4ft shorter. Traffic going south was just coming into the Fog.
We headed north and it cleared up towards north end of Carson.

The day finally cleared up into the 50, blue sky.
Looks like this week is going to be good,
50 - 48 - 54 - 56 - 50 - 60 Monday. The way it is here, looks like Spring is just around the corner.

We heat with wood, never had to buy it the 40 years I lived in Santa Cruz, working for the State on the High Ways, we always had trees coming down some where, So had Oak and Madrone mostly. Acacia is a good hard wood, and a lot grows in the area, this time of year it blooms bright yellow flowers that get heavy with water, and down they come. A tree from AZ land down under, and is summer there.

We have an old Fisher Baby Bear for the stove and will drive us out. Some evenings had to open the doors to cool things down.

So far here is is a very dry winter. Watching the weather come down from Canada into Wa./Or., it splits east and into Ca. and bypasses us.
I like to watch "POW PONDER" on YT, he gives a great weather overview.
Sure glad we live in this part of Nevada when I see what is going on in the rest of the country.

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Goat

 

[DrCharles]

Drove to town today for some oil and filter for one of my cars... the mud on the dirt road was nearly as treacherous as yesterday morning's glare ice! It rained a lot, and temp up to 50F, so there's a goopy layer on top of hard-frozen dirt. Anyway it was ok in 2WD.
But now I notice that the turn signals aren't working AND the ABS light is on... got to check the fuses first i guess! It never ends with 30 year old vehicles.

Edit: brake lights off too - then I figured out I had turned on the four-way flashers and forgot to push the button again (except they aren't working). Fuse is intact so it has to be the hazard flasher. ABS light still on though.

 

[tbowker]

I attempted to change the front and rear shocks today. It was a 10 hour fiasco and I only have three done. I changed the front first and removal was easy. Installation, however, was a different story. The 1/2" bolts would not go through the spacers in the shocks and the spacers were too long to fit inside the shock mounts. Trying to drill out the spacers to fit the bolts only made the spacers spin inside the rubber bushings so I used a dremel with a stone attachment to open up the I.D. and a small grinding attachment to narrow the spacers enough to fit the shock mounts. That was the first 5 hours.
The rear shocks were another treat. The lower bolts for them turned out to be 12mm, slid right through the shock spacers. Ugh. Had I done the rear first I would have changed out those 1/2" bolts in the front shocks for metric and saved myself a lot of grief. The lower shock mount for the passenger side rear shock has been bent and is noticeably different than the driver side. I wondered why there were the narrow front shocks mounted on the rear and I found out tonight. The fatter shock won't mount on the passenger side without putting a torch to the lower mount and bending it back to a somewhat stock shape. 38 years and an untold number of previous owners made for a challenging day. I'll be buying that oxy/ acetylene kit I've been kicking the tires on.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

I didn't do anything too exciting. All I did was go see if I'd been a good boy. Read some letters, didn't smile at the camera, paid some money , and now I can drive for another 6 years. 20 minutes from when I pulled up outside and I was driving away. Living in a rural area certainly does have it's advantages!

 

[DrCharles]

Bought a replacement hazard flasher, reached behind the fusebox and plugged it in (I think. Hard to tell exactly where the socket terminals are!)
Still no flashers. Fuse is good. Hope it's not the combination switch, that looks like fun to get to... raining all day, won't be today.

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

That would have been fun to watch. Slow motion chaos. lol

If you didn't catch it 20 years ago, America's Funniest Videos had a little run of "Garbage Trucks on Ice!". Turns out you can find it on YouTube.

I didn't do it today, but last week we had a few inches of snow, then freezing rain over night, and at some point another 1/2" of snow on top. The trees were beautiful all covered in ice...but dangerous, too. Missed a day of work and came in late the day after since we drive class B trucks into every little parking lot in the area and even if the roads are ok, you can wreck in an un-salted parking lot pretty easily around here.
Anywho, got to fire up the F-250 and drive into town. It's so beautiful with these big chunky tires and low PSI. I just coast over all the nasty ice bumps in the road from chains and uneven melting...compared to something like my S40 it's a real treat. Plus the truck handles very predictably in the snow and slush, so that's fun to drive in as well.

Much worse was coming home, as I had to get off the freeway 5 miles early(two days in a row!) to drive around the traffic backed up at my normal off-ramps because they closed Snoqualmie pass at exit 34, I live off 32, and even back at 31 it's a parking lot. One of the few good things about Facebook is that my wife saw all that and could warn me!
The chunky nasty ice-roads are way worse in town because we have some ridiculous Mayor that doesn't allow plows to operate closer than 2" off the road and no sand or salt.
That said, my pickup rode over it all just fine and dandy! Now if only the Subaru driver with LED high-beams on in front of me could be bothered to go over 15mph and stop blinding everyone around that would be a treat...

 

[Old Goat]

If you put the plow blade all the way down onto the road, you will wear it out.
Maybe the Dingbat thinks it will wear out the road.
I ran Plows on Hwy 9 in the Santa Cruz mountains for 29 years. it gets up to 2650ft elevation at the top where it crosse`s Hwy 35.
2 mules down each side on 9 is where the problems were with ice/snow. plus the 12 miles of 35 that ran down the ridge.

Even with the trucks Chained up, at times you could feel the back end start to go.

Commiefornia uses the reflective buttons on the road, and they tell us to stay off them with the Plows, it chips them up. The dummies wouldn`t recess them in the road, like I-80 50 etc... cost too much. Then you leave a 2ft or so in the center of the road.
One time they tried a rubber blade, that failed then a 1 ft on the end of the blade to save the buttons, that too failed.
In the end, a lot of buttons got damaged or missing, then people called in they couldn`t see the road at night, and we were out there in the dry weather replacing them. They ain`t cheap.

Ca., Or., and Wa. are all blue states, whadaya expect?

Our daughter lives near Portland, told us how it was.


Goat

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

Maybe the Dingbat thinks it will wear out the road.

Yep, that's exactly the problem! We actually live in unincorporated King County, so when the plows come through our area they aren't messing around and the roads get clean. No so down in the city proper.

Commiefornia uses the reflective buttons on the road, and they tell us to stay off them with the Plows, it chips them up. The dummies wouldn`t recess them in the road, like I-80 50 etc... cost too much.

Yeah cause they can't do the basic math of recessing them ONCE, vs fixing them every year... people without wisdom drive me crazy. Short-term thinking.

 

[Nero]

Our daughter lives near Portland, told us how it was.

The snow and ice was the best thing that happened to this city, kept all the weirdos off the road.

 

[ttman4]

The snow and ice was the best thing that happened to this city, kept all the weirdos off the road.

on Round here we got 3 kind of drivers in/on snow & ice.

1. Old timers been here for a while & know how to drive on snow & ice.
2. Scardy-Cats.....those imports that never saw snow & ice cept on TV. They drive scared & drive 5-10 mph & screw up while others driving 20 & OK
3. Idiots that think they got be first one there. Driving a new all wheel drive car with new paper plates in the window, driving at 60-70 while everyone driving 20-30

 

[Nero]

I can attest I definitely did not like driving my audi in the ice, as it has limited slip front and rear. Plus, ya know, automatic.
Driving my samurai in the ice was like driving any other day. Definitely prefer a manual for highly slick conditions.
Also helps I had just installed my calibrated seasonal radiator cardboard.

 

[Jesus Freak]

Now if only the Subaru driver with LED high-beams on in front of me could be bothered to go over 15mph and stop blinding everyone around that would be a treat...

These undomesticated Subarus are getting out of hand on the forum lately!

 

[Jesus Freak]

The snow and ice was the best thing that happened to this city, kept all the weirdos off the road.

If I saw snow and ice I'd definitely stay off the road....... and not just because I'm a weirdo!