Hey shifty, you were the one who wrote about their mini coopers a/c not performing well in hot weather, correct? With this recent outbreak of extremely warm weather, I'm finding my 2012 Civic not cooling as well as I'd like. Takes a bit longer to cool than I'd like, doesn't get as cool as I like. I recall reading how Honda has made the glass thicker on the new 2013 model. Does anyone think the heat conduction thru glass may be a factor, or maybe other insulation issues with smaller cars being a possible cause? Lightweight and thin materials conduct heat better, correct? Or, do you think your problem is isolated to being a mechanical problem with the a/c system?
I have to say if "the car doc" was the only qualified mechanic on the face of the earth, I would seriously consider going back to the horse and buggy. I ain't doing business with anyone who has that bad of an attitude problem.
I think doc is trying to teach us laboratory rats another life's lesson on what it's like to be attacked without provocation. :P
I don't think doc responds to his customers like he responds to us. These forums are great because they let you safely vent and blow off a little steam. Don't kick your dog after a hard day at work... log onto the mechanics discussion.
Docs cool because he usually doesn't take any grudges past a week or so. He and roadburner have kissed and made up. You ask him a question and he'll answer. He's helped a lot of guys here with auto problems. So rock on doc!
I'll have to ask on the Honda Civic discussion if it's normal for the a/c to perform the way it does. Or, the dealership could run whatever test they would run. Just a small issue, no big deal, but 4 or 5 degrees cooler would be nice.
Does anyone think the heat conduction thru glass may be a factor, or maybe other insulation issues with smaller cars being a possible cause?
I don't think so. My guess is that most of the heat gain is radiative. Simplistically, - sunlight passing through the glass and being absorbed by the materials in the car, heating them up. That's why interiors of closed up vehicles can get much hotter than the outside temperature.
Thinner insulation (if that is the case) may have a secondary affect.
Lightweight and thin materials conduct heat better, correct?
Thin - yes, assuming everything else is the same (identical materials, etc). Lightweight - depends on the material.
Or, do you think your problem is isolated to being a mechanical problem with the a/c system?
That would be my guess.
Although, one thing you didn't mention was the color of your Civic. Is it a light color, or dark? What about the interior?
That's pretty funny. Very few people realize just how much work goes into taking care of horses, and how expensive they are to have just walking around and eating some grass out of a field.
When I was a kid, the world was held together with baling wire. But technology marches onward, waiting for no man. Today it's duct tape and zip ties.
About 9-10 years ago, my '79 5th Ave started running really badly. I looked at the carburetor, and noticed that something had come loose on the passenger side. I forget now what, exactly. I tied it back up with a twist tie, and it ran normally again. And, it's still holding after all these years! :shades:
My Mom has two horses, and she used to say that they were pretty cheap...about $100 per month. That is, until the price of feed went up, and one of them got sick. And, I think she tends to overlook the cost of the barn they live in, and the fenced-in pasture. Her house came with a barn and fenced-in pasture when she bought it, but she's had to do maintenance on it over the years...new roof, replacing a lot of the fencing, and so on.
And, I'm sure a buggy would need maintenance and repairs, as well. I've seen enough episodes of "Little House on the Prairie", "Gunsmoke", "Bonanza", etc, to know that buggies and wagons break down, have catastrophic brake failure, break loose from the team and go careening over a cliff, etc...
Docs cool because he usually doesn't take any grudges past a week or so. He and roadburner have kissed and made up. You ask him a question and he'll answer. He's helped a lot of guys here with auto problems. So rock on doc!
These grudges here aren't real, although they do make for a nice canvas to paint what its been like fixing cars for almost forty years. There has been an endless stream of know it alls, and people who lie to us and even steal from us when all we are trying to do is make a living by fixing what-ever problem their car has who turn around and blame us for any problems. I've watched a lot of good people walk run away from this trade because of abuse that had no reason to ever be there. It's bad enough that most of the techs work without appropriate wages and benefits, let alone reasonable levels of creature comforts. (Like AC in the shop)
If people got enough of a look into this trade and saw the complaints that shop owners have about not being able to find the techs that they need, maybe, just maybe they'd start to get a little concerned. Gimme has one thing incorrect, I don't teach kids I do adult classes. I help those guys that will come to training try to improve themselves for their customers. As of now I would still discourage any kids from coming into the trade until the overall climate changes. The tough part is that won't happen until consumers make it happen and its easy to make this forum show that nobody is ready for that change to happen yet. In short the trade nees to continue to collapse until there really isn't enough techs to go around and that day is now coming sooner than later.
For those who only think this is only a big joke, I'm glad you've been having fun. Looking back I've now drug out interactions that represent many of the real challenges that anyone coming into the trade has to face on top of dealing with the ever greater complexity of those robots that sit in everyone's driveways.
Does your career allow for the same level of inconsistency that the last response demonstrates? Mine sure doesn't.
I have absolutely no idea what you're getting at.
How would you react to someone trying to rig around some saftey measure that you had to design into one of your creations? Especially if they could then still hold you or the company you work for liable should an accident or injury occur? (Hypothetical since we don't actually know what you design or have designed)
How would you react to someone trying to rig around some saftey measure that you had to design into one of your creations? Especially if they could then still hold you or the company you work for liable should an accident or injury occur? (Hypothetical since we don't actually know what you design or have designed)
OK, I see what you were poking at.
Yes, we do design protection/safety features into a lot of our products. Our radars put out many kilo-watts, or tens of kilo-watts of power. That can harm people, so we design in features to prevent inadvertent radiation.
Even if human safety isn't a factor, a lot of our systems, because of power levels involved, can be damaged if they are commanded incorrectly. So again, we put in features to prevent those kinds of commands from taking affect.
But, those features can be bypassed. So if the user chooses to bypass them, then yes, personnel may be harmed or equipment may be damaged. If they do, then they are responsible for the consequences, not me or my company. They cannot hold us responsible for their decision (or stupidity, as the case may be).
Here's a concrete example - this really happened. We were contacted to provide a piece of equipment to another company. Usually when we build things like this, we provide both the equipment and the power system that powers it. In this case our customer wanted to provide the power system. We recommended against that, partly because the unit we were providing had certain power sequencing requirements, meaning that the various voltages had to come up in a particular sequence. Well, during one of the tests the customer applied power to our unit in the wrong sequence. Bingo - a multi-million dollar asset just became a boat anchor. The program ended on that note, but we were not held accountable, either financially or legally for what happened.
Like I've said before, ours is a different business model than yours.
A vehicle was involved in a side impact that resulted in a severe brain injury to a young driver. The side airbags did not deploy. The reason for the airbags not deploying was the collision sensor measures the air pressure inside the door during the accident and it looks for an increase in that pressure inside the door which is directly proportional to the severity of an impact. The side collision warning system was compromised by the installation of an aftermarket speaker into the door. The manufacturer has still been held liable even though there are sufficient warnings printed on the plastic seal for the door panel and in service information, and in the owners manual.
It was also discovered that the driver wasn't wearing the seatbelt, it was buckled behind him. To the system, it had the appearance of a minor collision during which the occupant was correctly restrained. The reality however was much different and the outcome is now a series of "IF ONLYs" that someone else is now being held responsible for.
The tendency to downplay and even make jokes out of bypassing portions of safety systems plays a direct role in cases like that. That won't change until everyone see's a consistent message.
The manufacturer has still been held liable even though there are sufficient warnings printed on the plastic seal for the door panel and in service information, and in the owners manual.
A lot of those kind of cases and awards end up being overturned on appeal. Whether or not the defendant chooses to pursue an appeal I guess depends on the dollar amounts involved.
That won't change until everyone see's a consistent message.
The consistent message I would like to see delivered is that "you are responsible for your own behavior and outcomes. Not me, or the g'ment".
RB seemed happy that his mower blades don't disengage when reversing. Do you think this father feels the same?
While my heart goes out to the little girl, this was no way the fault of the mower manufacturer. The father was negligent in at least two ways. He did not look carefully enough before backing up the lawn tractor. And maybe he should never have had his daughter out in the yard playing while he was running the tractor.
The problem is, even if you win the case, is that you spend a lot of money on lawyer fees.
If I take my car to a sound shop and they replace a blown door speaker and mess up the airbags, you bet my heirs will sue them. And the manufacturer will likely get sued to for allowing the system to be "bypassed".
According to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, Jeremiah Nugent, 47, could not hear his wife's warning screams, but he saw her waving at him, so he put the riding mower in reverse.
BINGO! Right there the father is an [non-permissible content removed]. He couldn't hear her screams, but he saw her waving at him, so he PUT THE FRIG THING IN REVERSE? As if going a direction your body and head and eyes are NOT facing is the better option?? Gimme a break..I am sick and tired of people NOT taking responsibility for their the idiotic, stupid, brain-dead, clueless actions.
A NORMAL person in that situation would have either a) turned the mower off to see what it was she wanted, (this being the most prudent thing to do) or at least b) stopped the mower from moving any direction. At least THEN, the only hazard is the little girl running and slipping and sliding into the turning blades. If 'b' was the scene, then at least those odds are much reduced from the idiot MOVING in reverse...need I point out a direction that his wife was not waving from!!!
Sensationalized news tabloid stories about dim bulbed people with tragic results and propagated by those that can't or won't see the bigger picture.. ppfffffttttttt..
The father was negligent in at least two ways. He did not look carefully enough before backing up the lawn tractor. And maybe he should never have had his daughter out in the yard playing while he was running the tractor.
For 10 years, I mowed 1.5 acres with a big (52 inch) ZTR riding mower. Countless times I was approached by other people while engaged in mowing. I always
a) stopped the mower from moving
b) slowed the engine to an idle and disengaged the blade
Then, if I were going to engage in a lengthy conversation I would kill the engine.
RB seemed happy that his mower blades don't disengage when reversing. Do you think this father feels the same?
Seem happy? No- I was ecstatic- I have over 2.5 acres to mow(using a 54" ZTR mower and a 42" ZTR mower) and being able to mow in reverse with both units is a tremendous advantage. I also have the ability to look over my shoulder when reversing- some folks apparently lack that ability(or are unaware that it even exists). No young children at my house either, but when my son was a toddler my wife kept him in the house when I was mowing. I too feel sorry for that family, but it was laziness and/or negligent operation that caused the tragedy. And it would be an even greater tragedy if the mower manufacturer was held responsible for the incident...
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Well, you can't fix stupid, and you can only do so much to mitigate it. Ultimately, the responsible parties have to hold themselves responsible. If they blame others, and society supports that, then we'll just continue to travel further and further down this doomed path.
Tragic, yes, because they were so preventable, but both of those examples fall under the "sh** happens" category.
My sister was nearly killed when she was knocked off a tractor by a branch. She fell between the tractor and the disc implement my father was pulling (that's the machine that turns the soil). He, being alert, managed to stop the tractor about a hair's breadth away from her being turned into confetti. That was the last time we were allowed to ride on the tractor while he was working it.
2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
>And maybe he should never have had his daughter out in the yard playing while he was running the tractor.
Amen.
I've seen parents having little kids riding on mowers in their father's laps. I've seen little kids driving, with and without their parent perched on the seat next to them.
>She fell between the tractor and the disc implement my father was pulling
For the non-farm folks, the disk is a set up vertical rolling blades--a smaller version of the implement in this picture. A very painful way to get cut up as it rolls over someone.
My engine miss with the spark plugs that showed an uneven buildup on one side of the nose of the porcelain has been cured.
I switched the injector from cylinder #6 to #4. In the process the gunk that was on top of the intake for the injector was cleared away. My shadetree neighbor, who works on Mercedes and BMWs, said it was really bad. Clearing that off apparently has the injector back working. No more missing in engine.
I don't understand where the gunk came from on the injector. From my fuel? I use Shell gas, Kroger gas which is Shell, and rarely fill up at UDF convenience stores where the fuel comes from what I believe is a Marathon tank farm.
Not sure what the deposits on the spark plugs mean.
No young children at my house either, but when my son was a toddler my wife kept him in the house when I was mowing.
My family started letting me cut the grass when I was around 9 or 10, and the tractor was a c1969 Montgomery Ward "Landlord", or something like that. It cuts both forward and backward, and there are no guards, so you could easily stick a body part in where the blades are and lose something. It also has a muffler that sticks out and you could easily touch it and burn yourself. It also has a shaft that sticks out through the grille, from the flywheel, for various attachments, and some exposed belts and pulleys in back, for other attachments, that are in an easy spot for curious fingers to reach, and subsequently be lost.
That old beast is dangerous as hell. But, Granddad taught me a healthy respect for it, where not to put body parts, and so on. A lot of it really is just common sense. But, as the story above portrays, I guess common sense ain't so common anymore. We still have it, but don't use it for cutting grass anymore. The mower deck isn't very wide, and that sucker is a bit of a guzzler. It's great for towing, though. I looked through an old sales brochure, and that little sucker has a tow rating of something like 8,000 lb! If you can get the traction, that is...
I've heard tinting your glass helps an A/C's ability to cool the interior. Doesn't make sense to me...you would think the dark tint would attract heat, but 'apparently' it works in opposite. No one has been able to explain why to me yet.
If you go that route, keep in mind most/all jurisdictions have max tint code rules to fend off tickets. They have to be able to see you wearing a seat belt, identify your face...that sorta thing..
Can't believe the number of completely blacked out glass you see driving around tho. You would think the cops would have a constant hayday...yet they'd rather do speeding tickets...go figure.. My theory is, they like the chase...they hope you make a run for it so they can get a bit of adrenaline pumping..oh..wait...thought I was on a bike forum there for a second.. :sick:
I see the silver window tinting from time to time. Seems that would reflect much of the sunlight, and keep interior cooler, than the dark tinting. I guess the darker tinting is something like "sunglasses" for your car. :confuse:
I've seen parents having little kids riding on mowers in their father's laps. I've seen little kids driving, with and without their parent perched on the seat next to them.
Up until a couple of years ago my driveway was a 1/2 mile long one lane gravel road, and I feel compelled to admit that I let my son sit on my lap and steer when he was a little kid. Of course, the top speed was @10 mph and there was literally nothing to hit; even my risk-averse wife thought it was OK. He first started driving the ZTRs when he was abou 10, but I didn't let him cut grass unsupervised until he was almost 15.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
I let my son sit on my lap and steer when he was a little kid.
Heck, before I was old enough to drive the thing myself, one of my fondest childhood memories was sitting on Granddad's lap when he cut the grass with the tractor! Nobody thought anything of it at the time.
He also had a big old farm tractor, a 1948 Ferguson or something like that, and it had a disc plow attached. He used to let me sit on his lap when he'd use that thing to plow up the garden. If I had fallen off of that, I'm sure I would've been ground into worm chow!
I don't think any of the lawn tractors we've had over the years would go much quicker than 5-6 mph. That old Ferguson could be pretty quick, though. At least, it seemed it to my childhood mind.
Yep, that's it! Ours was essentially the same as the one in the photo, but only one section of it (rather than 3). For an object the size of an eight-year-old girl, though, one is more than sufficient.
2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
RE: AC problem -- make sure the low stage cooling fan is working. If it isn't, you'll build up unacceptable pressures in your AC system and it will exhibit very marginal cooling properties. I've traced my MINI problem to the resistor that controls the low stage fan.
The father was negligent in at least two ways. He did not look carefully enough before backing up the lawn tractor. And maybe he should never have had his daughter out in the yard playing while he was running the tractor.
Regardless if it is a mower, skill saw, cotton gin stand (those can do a lot of damage very quickly to the human body) or automobile, the sad fact is that as long as any of them are in use, someone, somewhere is going to get injured.
It's been that way since the first machine was created, and it will most likely be that way until machines are no longer in use.
And, there's only so many safety features that can be implemented before they start compromising the functionality and, yes, even the safety aspects of the machines themselves.
I'm all for safety, but at the end of the day, the most effective safety feature is the product operator. Of course, that very same operator can be the most dangerous aspect of the machine, too!
I'm all for safety, but at the end of the day, the most effective safety feature is the product operator. Of course, that very same operator can be the most dangerous aspect of the machine, too!
This discussion reminds me of two quotes from the great Douglas Adams:
“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”
“Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.”
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
I've heard tinting your glass helps an A/C's ability to cool the interior. Doesn't make sense to me...you would think the dark tint would attract heat, but 'apparently' it works in opposite. No one has been able to explain why to me yet.
The dark tint really doesn't attract heat, but rather it captures some of the sun's radiation and keeps it from getting into the interior of the car, where the radiation would be absorbed by the seats and dashboard and re-radiated inside the car as heat. At least this is the theory, I guess. Though, since the after-market tint is applied to the inside of the window, if the tint gets hot from the sun's radiation, that would have to warm up the interior to some extent.
I think a more reflective coating would do a better job at keeping the interior cool, by reflecting some of the sun's energy rather than just absorbing it.
There are coatings that can applied to glass to reduce the amount of the sun's radiation that gets through. Just google "low E glass" for some references.
I looked up Douglas Adams, and I was right, that was an old quote. The biggest threat to programs today is people intentionally trying to break them to gain access to data. He made that quote before most computer networks became visible to the internet.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
I grew up in the rural south, in the days where the term "safety feature" really meant "you'd better be constantly alert, because these machines will kill you!"
I can only imagine someone from OSHA seeing me as a 8-9 year old astride a 1940's era hay baler, slinging bales from the baler to the piece of truck along-side us, looking like we were in the middle of an Oklahoma dust-bowl storm. It wasn't unusual for machines like that to simply fly apart and self destruct at times, too.
There's no way I'd let any of my kids do anything like that today, even though they're adults now.
I grew up in the rural south, in the days where the term "safety feature" really meant "you'd better be constantly alert, because these machines will kill you!"
Exactly; as I mentioned earlier, I got pretty banged up by a road grader working for the county road department when I was 17- 100% my fault. When I turned 18 I was "promoted" to the state highway department for my summer job. Technically I wasn't supposed to drive anything but a pickup truck, but I drove dump trucks, water trucks, oil distributors, graders, rollers, and tractors. As an aside, the movie Stripes was filmed in my county and there is a scene when a Russian tank explodes on a one lane bridge. I almost destroyed that bridge several years earlier; I was driving a water truck and caught the side of the bridge pretty hard. A bit further over and I would have brought the whole thing down...
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
My dad, while not a formally trained engineer due to his "volunteering service for the federal work force " as a result of Pearl Harbor, was still one of the most safety conscious men I have ever know, either at home or the workplace. Had he known the kind of things my brother and I were actually doing while working for nearby farmers in our youth he would have exploded. Of course, both of us were young, so we really didn't have any idea what was dangerous and what wasn't....at least, from a workplace perspective. And, it was a paying job, so we didn't want to say too much about it, else he would have forced us to quit.
Not many non-agricultural related jobs in south GA in the early 1960's, as I recall...
The first car I remember my dad having was a 1956 Ford station wagon...with seat belts. In fact, I don't remember a single car he owned without them, and we wore them religiously. I remember my mom telling me about me screaming and being so jealous of other kids that got to ride standing up in the front seat (2-3 years old).
I also was fortunate to learn early-on the value of safety protection items from my dad, such as safety goggles and the like. I'm quite sure I would have lost an eye long ago without using them.
Back then, I thought I was pretty good at it, but I'm sure I would have a different opinion now. Generally, there were two of us riding the baler ( which, even in those days, was a worn-out piece of junk that spent as much time being repaired as it did running), and we would each grab an end and toss the bale into the piece of truck running beside us. But, yes, i was a pretty big boy, even then.
There were exposed belts, pulleys, etc. all spinning at what then appeared to be light speed, so it definitely paid big dividends to be attentive to your surroundings.
As bad as it was, is still beat picking cotton.... By miles and miles!
All this talk just makes me realize how lucky I was growing up in So. California when the most dangerous thing I operated was a power lawnmower!
Back in the early '60s my dad had a Gravely walk-behind mower:
They really could be dangerous. He was running it in reverse and he slipped and fell; the mower kept right on going. No dead-man switch. He tried to get up and by sheer luck he knocked the transmission lever into neutral and it stopped.
As "luck" would have it, I ended up running an almost identical unit for a few days when I was on the highway department- they were still man-killers, but boy, they would mow anything. Another college kid and I were sent to mow around the service areas on the old Kentucky Turnpike toll road(now I-65) and we would have contests to see how big an object one of the mowers would devour.
We also used to drag-race the pickup trucks(sixes with 3-on-the-tree) at lunch breaks.
Then there was the time I rear-ended the truck my friend was driving because he stopped to watch some comely cheerleaders practicing at the local band camp- I was watching them too, which is why I never saw his brake lights. Fortunately they only gave the summer help the old rusted-out trucks- so a few minutes with a pry bar restored the old heaps to their former dilapidated condition and our foreman was none the wiser...
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
I had the wiper gearbox die on my 1973 Bavaria; the blades would give one wipe if you moved them off the park position, so I tied an athletic shoelace to the tip of the drivers side wiper and ran it through the window- it got me home.
As for temporary seating, one of my friends bought a 1961 Chevy Bel Air door slammer drag car. He put a "mild" 472 ci big block Chevy under the hood, wired up the lights, a horn and Voilà: A "Pro Street" car was born! Of course, the interior only had a bucket seat for the driver and a six-point roll cage. If you wanted to ride shotgun you sat on a beanbag chair and hung on to the roll cage for dear life. This is a near identical twin to my friend's car:
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Can you imagine what that AC will do to someone in a crash? Not to mention the fact that the driver now has a huge blind spot to deal with. I think I'm glad most of the pics didn't want to load.
That reminds me of the guy who was using a propane fueled radiant heater inside his mini van for heat.
Comments
There is only one possible result with this approach.
I have absolutely no idea what you're getting at.
I don't think doc responds to his customers like he responds to us. These forums are great because they let you safely vent and blow off a little steam. Don't kick your dog after a hard day at work... log onto the mechanics discussion.
Docs cool because he usually doesn't take any grudges past a week or so. He and roadburner have kissed and made up. You ask him a question and he'll answer. He's helped a lot of guys here with auto problems. So rock on doc!
I don't think so. My guess is that most of the heat gain is radiative. Simplistically, - sunlight passing through the glass and being absorbed by the materials in the car, heating them up. That's why interiors of closed up vehicles can get much hotter than the outside temperature.
Thinner insulation (if that is the case) may have a secondary affect.
Lightweight and thin materials conduct heat better, correct?
Thin - yes, assuming everything else is the same (identical materials, etc).
Lightweight - depends on the material.
Or, do you think your problem is isolated to being a mechanical problem with the a/c system?
That would be my guess.
Although, one thing you didn't mention was the color of your Civic. Is it a light color, or dark? What about the interior?
About 9-10 years ago, my '79 5th Ave started running really badly. I looked at the carburetor, and noticed that something had come loose on the passenger side. I forget now what, exactly. I tied it back up with a twist tie, and it ran normally again. And, it's still holding after all these years! :shades:
And, I'm sure a buggy would need maintenance and repairs, as well. I've seen enough episodes of "Little House on the Prairie", "Gunsmoke", "Bonanza", etc, to know that buggies and wagons break down, have catastrophic brake failure, break loose from the team and go careening over a cliff, etc...
These grudges here aren't real, although they do make for a nice canvas to paint what its been like fixing cars for almost forty years. There has been an endless stream of know it alls, and people who lie to us and even steal from us when all we are trying to do is make a living by fixing what-ever problem their car has who turn around and blame us for any problems. I've watched a lot of good people
walkrun away from this trade because of abuse that had no reason to ever be there. It's bad enough that most of the techs work without appropriate wages and benefits, let alone reasonable levels of creature comforts. (Like AC in the shop)If people got enough of a look into this trade and saw the complaints that shop owners have about not being able to find the techs that they need, maybe, just maybe they'd start to get a little concerned. Gimme has one thing incorrect, I don't teach kids I do adult classes. I help those guys that will come to training try to improve themselves for their customers. As of now I would still discourage any kids from coming into the trade until the overall climate changes. The tough part is that won't happen until consumers make it happen and its easy to make this forum show that nobody is ready for that change to happen yet. In short the trade nees to continue to collapse until there really isn't enough techs to go around and that day is now coming sooner than later.
For those who only think this is only a big joke, I'm glad you've been having fun. Looking back I've now drug out interactions that represent many of the real challenges that anyone coming into the trade has to face on top of dealing with the ever greater complexity of those robots that sit in everyone's driveways.
I have absolutely no idea what you're getting at.
How would you react to someone trying to rig around some saftey measure that you had to design into one of your creations? Especially if they could then still hold you or the company you work for liable should an accident or injury occur? (Hypothetical since we don't actually know what you design or have designed)
OK, I see what you were poking at.
Yes, we do design protection/safety features into a lot of our products. Our radars put out many kilo-watts, or tens of kilo-watts of power. That can harm people, so we design in features to prevent inadvertent radiation.
Even if human safety isn't a factor, a lot of our systems, because of power levels involved, can be damaged if they are commanded incorrectly. So again, we put in features to prevent those kinds of commands from taking affect.
But, those features can be bypassed. So if the user chooses to bypass them, then yes, personnel may be harmed or equipment may be damaged. If they do, then they are responsible for the consequences, not me or my company. They cannot hold us responsible for their decision (or stupidity, as the case may be).
Here's a concrete example - this really happened. We were contacted to provide a piece of equipment to another company. Usually when we build things like this, we provide both the equipment and the power system that powers it. In this case our customer wanted to provide the power system. We recommended against that, partly because the unit we were providing had certain power sequencing requirements, meaning that the various voltages had to come up in a particular sequence. Well, during one of the tests the customer applied power to our unit in the wrong sequence. Bingo - a multi-million dollar asset just became a boat anchor. The program ended on that note, but we were not held accountable, either financially or legally for what happened.
Like I've said before, ours is a different business model than yours.
A vehicle was involved in a side impact that resulted in a severe brain injury to a young driver. The side airbags did not deploy. The reason for the airbags not deploying was the collision sensor measures the air pressure inside the door during the accident and it looks for an increase in that pressure inside the door which is directly proportional to the severity of an impact. The side collision warning system was compromised by the installation of an aftermarket speaker into the door. The manufacturer has still been held liable even though there are sufficient warnings printed on the plastic seal for the door panel and in service information, and in the owners manual.
It was also discovered that the driver wasn't wearing the seatbelt, it was buckled behind him. To the system, it had the appearance of a minor collision during which the occupant was correctly restrained. The reality however was much different and the outcome is now a series of "IF ONLYs" that someone else is now being held responsible for.
The tendency to downplay and even make jokes out of bypassing portions of safety systems plays a direct role in cases like that. That won't change until everyone see's a consistent message.
RB seemed happy that his mower blades don't disengage when reversing. Do you think this father feels the same? http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/girl-lost-feet-walk-mom-article-1.13151- 38
A lot of those kind of cases and awards end up being overturned on appeal. Whether or not the defendant chooses to pursue an appeal I guess depends on the dollar amounts involved.
That won't change until everyone see's a consistent message.
The consistent message I would like to see delivered is that "you are responsible for your own behavior and outcomes. Not me, or the g'ment".
RB seemed happy that his mower blades don't disengage when reversing. Do you think this father feels the same?
While my heart goes out to the little girl, this was no way the fault of the mower manufacturer. The father was negligent in at least two ways. He did not look carefully enough before backing up the lawn tractor. And maybe he should never have had his daughter out in the yard playing while he was running the tractor.
If I take my car to a sound shop and they replace a blown door speaker and mess up the airbags, you bet my heirs will sue them. And the manufacturer will likely get sued to for allowing the system to be "bypassed".
BINGO! Right there the father is an [non-permissible content removed]. He couldn't hear her screams, but he saw her waving at him, so he PUT THE FRIG THING IN REVERSE? As if going a direction your body and head and eyes are NOT facing is the better option?? Gimme a break..I am sick and tired of people NOT taking responsibility for their the idiotic, stupid, brain-dead, clueless actions.
A NORMAL person in that situation would have either a) turned the mower off to see what it was she wanted, (this being the most prudent thing to do) or at least b) stopped the mower from moving any direction. At least THEN, the only hazard is the little girl running and slipping and sliding into the turning blades. If 'b' was the scene, then at least those odds are much reduced from the idiot MOVING in reverse...need I point out a direction that his wife was not waving from!!!
Sensationalized
newstabloid stories about dim bulbed people with tragic results and propagated by those that can't or won't see the bigger picture.. ppfffffttttttt..Exactly!
And certainly not rocket science..
a) stopped the mower from moving
b) slowed the engine to an idle and disengaged the blade
Then, if I were going to engage in a lengthy conversation I would kill the engine.
This ain't exactly rocket science.
Seem happy? No- I was ecstatic- I have over 2.5 acres to mow(using a 54" ZTR mower and a 42" ZTR mower) and being able to mow in reverse with both units is a tremendous advantage. I also have the ability to look over my shoulder when reversing- some folks apparently lack that ability(or are unaware that it even exists). No young children at my house either, but when my son was a toddler my wife kept him in the house when I was mowing.
I too feel sorry for that family, but it was laziness and/or negligent operation that caused the tragedy. And it would be an even greater tragedy if the mower manufacturer was held responsible for the incident...
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Exactly.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Tragic, yes, because they were so preventable, but both of those examples fall under the "sh** happens" category.
My sister was nearly killed when she was knocked off a tractor by a branch. She fell between the tractor and the disc implement my father was pulling (that's the machine that turns the soil). He, being alert, managed to stop the tractor about a hair's breadth away from her being turned into confetti. That was the last time we were allowed to ride on the tractor while he was working it.
Amen.
I've seen parents having little kids riding on mowers in their father's laps. I've seen little kids driving, with and without their parent perched on the seat next to them.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
For the non-farm folks, the disk is a set up vertical rolling blades--a smaller version of the implement in this picture. A very painful way to get cut up as it rolls over someone.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I switched the injector from cylinder #6 to #4. In the process the gunk that was on top of the intake for the injector was cleared away. My shadetree neighbor, who works on Mercedes and BMWs, said it was really bad. Clearing that off apparently has the injector back working. No more missing in engine.
I don't understand where the gunk came from on the injector. From my fuel? I use Shell gas, Kroger gas which is Shell, and rarely fill up at UDF convenience stores where the fuel comes from what I believe is a Marathon tank farm.
Not sure what the deposits on the spark plugs mean.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
My family started letting me cut the grass when I was around 9 or 10, and the tractor was a c1969 Montgomery Ward "Landlord", or something like that. It cuts both forward and backward, and there are no guards, so you could easily stick a body part in where the blades are and lose something. It also has a muffler that sticks out and you could easily touch it and burn yourself. It also has a shaft that sticks out through the grille, from the flywheel, for various attachments, and some exposed belts and pulleys in back, for other attachments, that are in an easy spot for curious fingers to reach, and subsequently be lost.
That old beast is dangerous as hell. But, Granddad taught me a healthy respect for it, where not to put body parts, and so on. A lot of it really is just common sense. But, as the story above portrays, I guess common sense ain't so common anymore. We still have it, but don't use it for cutting grass anymore. The mower deck isn't very wide, and that sucker is a bit of a guzzler. It's great for towing, though. I looked through an old sales brochure, and that little sucker has a tow rating of something like 8,000 lb! If you can get the traction, that is...
The interior is tan, which should reflect sunlight and be cooler than a dark interior. The exterior is a dark red.
If you go that route, keep in mind most/all jurisdictions have max tint code rules to fend off tickets. They have to be able to see you wearing a seat belt, identify your face...that sorta thing..
Can't believe the number of completely blacked out glass you see driving around tho. You would think the cops would have a constant hayday...yet they'd rather do speeding tickets...go figure..
My theory is, they like the chase...they hope you make a run for it so they can get a bit of adrenaline pumping..oh..wait...thought I was on a bike forum there for a second.. :sick:
Up until a couple of years ago my driveway was a 1/2 mile long one lane gravel road, and I feel compelled to admit that I let my son sit on my lap and steer when he was a little kid. Of course, the top speed was @10 mph and there was literally nothing to hit; even my risk-averse wife thought it was OK. He first started driving the ZTRs when he was abou 10, but I didn't let him cut grass unsupervised until he was almost 15.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Heck, before I was old enough to drive the thing myself, one of my fondest childhood memories was sitting on Granddad's lap when he cut the grass with the tractor! Nobody thought anything of it at the time.
He also had a big old farm tractor, a 1948 Ferguson or something like that, and it had a disc plow attached. He used to let me sit on his lap when he'd use that thing to plow up the garden. If I had fallen off of that, I'm sure I would've been ground into worm chow!
I don't think any of the lawn tractors we've had over the years would go much quicker than 5-6 mph. That old Ferguson could be pretty quick, though. At least, it seemed it to my childhood mind.
Regardless if it is a mower, skill saw, cotton gin stand (those can do a lot of damage very quickly to the human body) or automobile, the sad fact is that as long as any of them are in use, someone, somewhere is going to get injured.
It's been that way since the first machine was created, and it will most likely be that way until machines are no longer in use.
And, there's only so many safety features that can be implemented before they start compromising the functionality and, yes, even the safety aspects of the machines themselves.
I'm all for safety, but at the end of the day, the most effective safety feature is the product operator. Of course, that very same operator can be the most dangerous aspect of the machine, too!
This discussion reminds me of two quotes from the great Douglas Adams:
“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”
“Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.”
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
The dark tint really doesn't attract heat, but rather it captures some of the sun's radiation and keeps it from getting into the interior of the car, where the radiation would be absorbed by the seats and dashboard and re-radiated inside the car as heat. At least this is the theory, I guess. Though, since the after-market tint is applied to the inside of the window, if the tint gets hot from the sun's radiation, that would have to warm up the interior to some extent.
I think a more reflective coating would do a better job at keeping the interior cool, by reflecting some of the sun's energy rather than just absorbing it.
There are coatings that can applied to glass to reduce the amount of the sun's radiation that gets through. Just google "low E glass" for some references.
The biggest threat to programs today is people intentionally trying to break them to gain access to data. He made that quote before most computer networks became visible to the internet.
I can only imagine someone from OSHA seeing me as a 8-9 year old astride a 1940's era hay baler, slinging bales from the baler to the piece of truck along-side us, looking like we were in the middle of an Oklahoma dust-bowl storm. It wasn't unusual for machines like that to simply fly apart and self destruct at times, too.
There's no way I'd let any of my kids do anything like that today, even though they're adults now.
Exactly; as I mentioned earlier, I got pretty banged up by a road grader working for the county road department when I was 17- 100% my fault.
When I turned 18 I was "promoted" to the state highway department for my summer job. Technically I wasn't supposed to drive anything but a pickup truck, but I drove dump trucks, water trucks, oil distributors, graders, rollers, and tractors.
As an aside, the movie Stripes was filmed in my county and there is a scene when a Russian tank explodes on a one lane bridge. I almost destroyed that bridge several years earlier; I was driving a water truck and caught the side of the bridge pretty hard. A bit further over and I would have brought the whole thing down...
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Not many non-agricultural related jobs in south GA in the early 1960's, as I recall...
The first car I remember my dad having was a 1956 Ford station wagon...with seat belts. In fact, I don't remember a single car he owned without them, and we wore them religiously. I remember my mom telling me about me screaming and being so jealous of other kids that got to ride standing up in the front seat (2-3 years old).
I also was fortunate to learn early-on the value of safety protection items from my dad, such as safety goggles and the like. I'm quite sure I would have lost an eye long ago without using them.
You were slinging hay bales when you were 8 years old? I wasn't big enough / strong enough for that until I was 11 or 12, and I was a pretty big kid.
There were exposed belts, pulleys, etc. all spinning at what then appeared to be light speed, so it definitely paid big dividends to be attentive to your surroundings.
As bad as it was, is still beat picking cotton.... By miles and miles!
Back in the early '60s my dad had a Gravely walk-behind mower:
They really could be dangerous. He was running it in reverse and he slipped and fell; the mower kept right on going. No dead-man switch. He tried to get up and by sheer luck he knocked the transmission lever into neutral and it stopped.
As "luck" would have it, I ended up running an almost identical unit for a few days when I was on the highway department- they were still man-killers, but boy, they would mow anything. Another college kid and I were sent to mow around the service areas on the old Kentucky Turnpike toll road(now I-65) and we would have contests to see how big an object one of the mowers would devour.
We also used to drag-race the pickup trucks(sixes with 3-on-the-tree) at lunch breaks.
Then there was the time I rear-ended the truck my friend was driving because he stopped to watch some comely cheerleaders practicing at the local band camp- I was watching them too, which is why I never saw his brake lights. Fortunately they only gave the summer help the old rusted-out trucks- so a few minutes with a pry bar restored the old heaps to their former dilapidated condition and our foreman was none the wiser...
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
As for temporary seating, one of my friends bought a 1961 Chevy Bel Air door slammer drag car. He put a "mild" 472 ci big block Chevy under the hood, wired up the lights, a horn and Voilà: A "Pro Street" car was born! Of course, the interior only had a bucket seat for the driver and a six-point roll cage. If you wanted to ride shotgun you sat on a beanbag chair and hung on to the roll cage for dear life. This is a near identical twin to my friend's car:
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
That reminds me of the guy who was using a propane fueled radiant heater inside his mini van for heat.