Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

imidazol97

Global cooling here. It's been cooler than usual. I have been having trouble keeping warm so I'm going to graduate from flannel shirts to hoodie for my outer layer. Welcome to winter.

PF_Flyer

driver100 said:

I believe it saves the tires too....not the best being put on and taken off the rims each time.

Haven't had any issues with bead damage so far. Just checked the three sets (mine, the wife's and my one daughter's) that I have in the basement. Beads show no sign of distress. I think all the tires down there have been off and on rims at least 2 times. I think I'm on a last winter season for my Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2's. If so, I'll likely run them until they are done done in late spring/early summer to save a little wear on the summer shoes

venture

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

If you turn on the bum warmer, the center console in the E400 gets very warm...not sure about the arm rest as I seldom use it. The other day the console was really hot and my bum warmer wasn't on...I thought maybe my phone caught on fire, but just Mrs D turned her warmer on....full speed for a long time - surprised she doesn't get 3rd degree burns.

On a cold day, it is kind of nice to have that....everything helps, especially a heated steering wheel.

On those cold winter mornings driving the bus I wished for heated steering wheels as the ones we had were nothing more than a plastic coated metal ring. Sucked the heat out of your hands right through the gloves.

In cold weather heated seats are nice but even in hot weather cooled seats feel wet and slimy to me.

You're not the only one.

driver100

PF_Flyer said:

driver100 said:

I believe it saves the tires too....not the best being put on and taken off the rims each time.

Haven't had any issues with bead damage so far. Just checked the three sets (mine, the wife's and my one daughter's) that I have in the basement. Beads show no sign of distress. I think all the tires down there have been off and on rims at least 2 times. I think I'm on a last winter season for my Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2's. If so, I'll likely run them until they are done done in late spring/early summer to save a little wear on the summer shoes

It doesn't happen often, but it can as this article for installers notes:

. Mounting mistake: Inserting the bead breaker the wrong way.

If you don't insert the bead breaker closely enough, you run the risk of damaging sidewall plies. Wheels also can be damaged by an incorrectly inserted bead breaker.

Mounting mistake: Holding the bead in the drop center by using hand-held bars.

"If the bar slips and the tire comes up, you're going to rip the tire bead," says Fred Ison, a McCourt trainer. You also may damage the rim.

"You may get away with (using bars) 100 times in a row, but that 101st time when you damage a $2,000 wheel negates all of that."

Techs also can be hurt if a bar suddenly breaks loose. Use a mechanical or pneumatic assist to hold the tire into the drop center while mounting the upper bead,

"With most changers, you can place the bottom bead on the rim without difficulty. But you must get the upper bead into the drop center of the wheel without damaging the tire and rim.

"As we get into 30- and 40-series tires, sidewalls are fairly stiff, so it's difficult -- if not impossible -- for a tech to drop that bead using only hand pressure.
FULL ARTICLE

carnaught

@driver100 now in the Tampa Bay area...

driver100 said:

This was the view in front of our house this morning.

driver, they do not look like Canadian geese.

driver100

No Carnaught......Sandhill Cranes. They come by mostly because our neighbors feed them. You aren't supposed to do that. One day another neighbor who fed them was away for the day and they pecked out her lanai screens.
The wild life is great....probably little gators in that pond behind them too.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

snakeweasel said:

houdini2 said:

abacomike said:

Here it is, almost Halloween, and it was 90 degrees again today. That's the 15th day this month it's hit 90 or above. Hottest October in history (since they started recording temps in the late 1800's). There has to be some truth to the climate warming especially down here. Add the humidity and it's summer-like.

What's just as bad is our low temps - 81+ degrees was our low 13 days so far this month. Forecast is for 90+ degrees for the next 4 days. Yuck!

Wow, we had a little snow last night. 3 in. forecast for Wednesday.

woke up this morning to this,



Somewhere out there is a white dog.

Sorry to see all that white stuff. This was the view in front of our house this morning.

Those are awfully ugly chickens.

oldfarmer50

imidazol97 said:

Global cooling here. It's been cooler than usual. I have been having trouble keeping warm so I'm going to graduate from flannel shirts to hoodie for my outer layer. Welcome to winter.

It was 65 today so I went for a final cruise in the Sebring. Heat was on a little but all windows were down. Not the best day (cloudy) but it was glorious. Went to the mall and bought my wife’s birthday present so it was an expensive last drive. It’s going to be 70 tomorrow but torrential rain so the car went into the barn until May.

Now I’m down to one fun car.

abacomike

When I was up to Ponte Vedra visiting my brother for our birthdays 2 weeks ago, he mentioned to me that he switched from ATT mobile to Xfinity Mobile and it only costs him $12.00 a month plus tax, or about $14.00 a month for unlimited texting, unlimited calling, and 1 gigabyte of data. If he uses more than a gigabyte of data, it goes up another $12.00. Since he rarely uses LTE data, he opted for the 1 gig plan for $12.00. According to the prerequisites, you have to have an Xfinity (Comcast) internet/cable account. So, to me, it soiunded great since after checking with T-Mobile (the phone service I have), I use between 300 and 700 megabytes of phone data per month, which would work well if I went with 1 gig per month. If I go over every so often, it's another $12.00 dollars.

I was having lunch out iwth friends this afternoon and the Greek Restaurant was right next door to an Xfinity Store. So went in and checked out their plans. My brother was correct - 1 gig for $12.00 a month + tax, or about $14.00 total for their Mobile Phone Service. That would be a significant savings each month over my T-Mobile service. So I went ahead and transferred my service to Xfinity. I pay $12.00 a month for 1 gig of data with unlimited calling and texting. Xfinity uses Verizon's towers throughout the US.

For people like me who rarely use LTE data (under 1 gig), it sure is a cheap wasy to have mobile service. It's called Mobile Phone by the Gig. 2 gigs would be $24.00, 3 gigs would be $36.00, etc. Even if I useed 4 gigs a month, it's still less than T-Mobile's unlimited, which I really don't need. 95% of the time, I am using WiFi.

We'll see how things work out - no contract and no minimums. I can cancel at any time.

stickguy

your phone was open so they could just transfer the number over for you?

explorerx4

We have 4 phones on a Verizon 12 gig plan. Sometimes go over 1 or 2 due to the kids.
Still cheaper to pay occasional overage than unlimited on 2 phones.

imidazol97

The local cable monopoly has been advertising their cellphone access which uses their wifi hotspots for part of the phone service from what I can tell to save costs for them, advertises that their phone service with 2 phones at the per gig rate of $14 IIRC and 2 phones at $45 IIRC for unlimited data is cheaper than the "other" company. The key also is that there aren't a bunch of added on fees like there is on our landline from Frontier. Almost as much is added on as the phone line itself costs. same for the internet DSL that I still have.

tjc78

Ha ha. I guess we wouldn’t be such a great candidate for Xfinity.

stickguy

what do you do, stream netflix 24x7 on both phones?

we have the 8 gig plan for me, the wife, and our daughter we still have on it. a couple times a year go 1-2 over and pay the penalty, and I yell at the princess (who normally uses 2/3 of the data) about using wifi whenever possible.

snakeweasel

explorerx4 said:

We have 4 phones on a Verizon 12 gig plan. Sometimes go over 1 or 2 due to the kids.
Still cheaper to pay occasional overage than unlimited on 2 phones.

We have 2 phones and 2 tablets on Verizon all with unlimited data. I tend to stream music at work so unlimited data works for us.

dino001

abacomike said:

When I was up to Ponte Vedra visiting my brother for our birthdays 2 weeks ago, he mentioned to me that he switched from ATT mobile to Xfinity Mobile and it only costs him $12.00 a month plus tax, or about $14.00 a month for unlimited texting, unlimited calling, and 1 gigabyte of data. If he uses more than a gigabyte of data, it goes up another $12.00. Since he rarely uses LTE data, he opted for the 1 gig plan for $12.00. According to the prerequisites, you have to have an Xfinity (Comcast) internet/cable account. So, to me, it soiunded great since after checking with T-Mobile (the phone service I have), I use between 300 and 700 megabytes of phone data per month, which would work well if I went with 1 gig per month. If I go over every so often, it's another $12.00 dollars.

I was having lunch out iwth friends this afternoon and the Greek Restaurant was right next door to an Xfinity Store. So went in and checked out their plans. My brother was correct - 1 gig for $12.00 a month + tax, or about $14.00 total for their Mobile Phone Service. That would be a significant savings each month over my T-Mobile service. So I went ahead and transferred my service to Xfinity. I pay $12.00 a month for 1 gig of data with unlimited calling and texting. Xfinity uses Verizon's towers throughout the US.

For people like me who rarely use LTE data (under 1 gig), it sure is a cheap wasy to have mobile service. It's called Mobile Phone by the Gig. 2 gigs would be $24.00, 3 gigs would be $36.00, etc. Even if I useed 4 gigs a month, it's still less than T-Mobile's unlimited, which I really don't need. 95% of the time, I am using WiFi.

We'll see how things work out - no contract and no minimums. I can cancel at any time.

I have a “by the gig“ from Spectrum, cable provider, 14 bucks each gig, 30 days, including texts and domestic calls. As I use data mostly through wifi at home and work, the remainder is just car trips between and occasional web/app usage while shopping or when on vacation. So far 1 GB was enough each month. Tax included. Oh, BTW they also have unlimited plan for 45 dollars per line with throttling after something like 20 GB. Basically best offer for singles. Best if all, it uses Verizon’s network plus wifi networks in some locations. So it’s Verizon for fraction of the price.

ab348

Last year when I needed to replace my old iPhone I shopped around for a better value. Ended up going with my cable/internet provider who were offering a 3 gig plan for $50/mo., the cheapest I could find. They now offer 5 gigs to new customers for that same price. Cell plans in Canada are ridiculously expensive.

abacomike

stickguy said:

your phone was open so they could just transfer the number over for you?

Yes. Just swapped out SIM cards and waited about 15 minutes to complete the transfer. My phone is an iPhone 8+ which I bought at the Apple Store - unblocked. Phone is less than a year old and since I paid cash for it, it was not under any contract.

tjc78

It’s 3 phones and we use a lot of hotspot at the shore rather than paying for another internet service.

Michaell

This was the view from my garage on Monday. We got another 6” since then.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

snakeweasel said:

houdini2 said:

abacomike said:

Here it is, almost Halloween, and it was 90 degrees again today. That's the 15th day this month it's hit 90 or above. Hottest October in history (since they started recording temps in the late 1800's). There has to be some truth to the climate warming especially down here. Add the humidity and it's summer-like.

What's just as bad is our low temps - 81+ degrees was our low 13 days so far this month. Forecast is for 90+ degrees for the next 4 days. Yuck!

Wow, we had a little snow last night. 3 in. forecast for Wednesday.

woke up this morning to this,



Somewhere out there is a white dog.

Sorry to see all that white stuff. This was the view in front of our house this morning.

Those are awfully ugly chickens.

Except they are about 5' tall.

qbrozen

Just signed my son up for the cable provider service they have been advertising. $20/mo for unlimited everything. And they piggyback on AT&T and Sprint networks, so coverage shouldn’t be an issue. We’ll see how it works out for him before switching our phones over. I bought him a used 6s for $130.

stickguy

I hate snow. If I never had to touch it again, I would not mind at all.

cdnpinhead

So long as you're measuring it in inches,it's not so bad, assuming you know how to drive and have good tires. When it gets into feet, it's time to hole up and wait for things to get better -- usually takes until January or so, but one never knows.

stickguy

even if I don't have to drive in it, it serves no good purpose. Plus, even worse, it is always cold when you get it!

snakeweasel

Congratulations to the Nationals on their first ever World Series championship. The interesting thing about this series was that every game was won by the visiting team.

stickguy

first time in any of the major sports that had a 7 game series.

driver100

stickguy said:

I hate snow. If I never had to touch it again, I would not mind at all.

+1

dino001

qbrozen said:

Just signed my son up for the cable provider service they have been advertising. $20/mo for unlimited everything. And they piggyback on AT&T and Sprint networks, so coverage shouldn’t be an issue. We’ll see how it works out for him before switching our phones over. I bought him a used 6s for $130.

Twenty bucks for unlimited is really best price I’ve seen. One small caveat with all of these, you have to have cable service with them, so it’s an add on for their other services.

qbrozen

dino001 said:

qbrozen said:

Just signed my son up for the cable provider service they have been advertising. $20/mo for unlimited everything. And they piggyback on AT&T and Sprint networks, so coverage shouldn’t be an issue. We’ll see how it works out for him before switching our phones over. I bought him a used 6s for $130.

Twenty bucks for unlimited is really best price I’ve seen. One small caveat with all of these, you have to have cable service with them, so it’s an add on for their other services.

Correct. $30/mo for non-members.

PF_Flyer

Michaell said:

This was the view from my garage on Monday. We got another 6” since then.

Raining hard here. I much prefer snow. I can move snow out of my way or even build things with it. Rain just goes where IT wants to go

tjc78

driver100 said:

stickguy said:

I hate snow. If I never had to touch it again, I would not mind at all.

+1

+2

I love the cold, but hate snow. Unfortunately usually they go hand in hand.

snakeweasel

Ok yesterday it was snowing bad, very wet heavy snow that took down a tree of mine. Well I left for work at 6:45 and got there at 8:15. Today the same thing only the snow started later, left for work at 6:45 got in at 7:15.

as for the non content permissible tree, I cut off the main branches and dragged them into the back yard last night. This weekend I'll be busy making firewood.

ab348

PF_Flyer said:

Raining hard here. I much prefer snow. I can move snow out of my way or even build things with it. Rain just goes where IT wants to go

You have it backwards. Snow is just rain that hasn't warmed up yet and is far more hazardous and difficult to deal with, plus you still have to handle the aftermath of it like rain once it melts. Nothing good about snow.

stickguy

When rain stops at least you can just go out and on with life!

I hate being cold even more than snow.

tjc78

My house was 72 and humid this morning. With the rainy weather today and warm temps, I told my mom if it gets above 74 to turn the air on. My SIL's are coming with the kids to trick and treat and have dinner after.

Not in the mood to be hot!

snakeweasel

imidazol97

Looks like Halloweenie here is going to be cold and getting colder and gusty wind!
It's an unusually brutal cooling end to the summer season. I saw lots of local classic cars
out being driven during the last two weeks. And it's depressing to know that most of
those have now been put to be--up on blocks to prevent flat spotting tires, preservative in the gasoline in the
tank, fresh oil in the sump, winter air in the tires. etc.. I'm going through a depression
because car show and cruise season has ended. A couple of last gasps: a Hollow Ween trunk
and treat by a tough old man's group that hosts a local cruise through end of
October into November IIRC and a Saturday truck or treat postponed from last
Saturday because of rain for a group that appears to have a lot of customized (ruined)
old cars that show up. But many cars are already in their cocoons. They won't be showing up.
Please send condolences.

jipster

Happy Halloween everyone! Cold and windy here in the Villle. Looking at 36 degrees during prime time trick or treating. Hope these kids show up...instead of staying indoors to play x-box. I have 10 bags of.candy to get rid of.

jmonroe1

tjc78 said:

driver100 said:

stickguy said:

I hate snow. If I never had to touch it again, I would not mind at all.

+1

+2

I love the cold, but hate snow. Unfortunately usually they go hand in hand.

I don't like either one now. There was a time when I didn't care. I've noticed the older I get the less tolerant I've become. I can tell you this, when I'm 100, it's gonna be a b-tch. :@ :@

jmonroe

jmonroe1

snakeweasel said:

Could also be, hole-in-weenie.

jmonroe

Michaell

stickguy said:

When rain stops at least you can just go out and on with life!

I hate being cold even more than snow.

At least with snow, you can practice your drifting technique at low speeds.

I've learned that the Outback has just enough RWD bias in their system to coax a small drift out of it when turning corners on packed snow. Wheeee!

28firefighter

I am not a huge halloween fan - don't have the creativity or motivation to deal with making a costume and inevitably I forget to buy one until 2 days before, at which point there is nothing interesting left. I'll go out tonight with S, but I'm not dressing up.

Maybe I'll go out as a chronic car buyer.

stickguy

they sell Breld costumes on Amazon?

tjc78

28firefighter said:

I am not a huge halloween fan - don't have the creativity or motivation to deal with making a costume and inevitably I forget to buy one until 2 days before, at which point there is nothing interesting left. I'll go out tonight with S, but I'm not dressing up.

Maybe I'll go out as a chronic car buyer.

I wore an orange polo to work today... that's as far as it goes.

driver100

I could show you all my Superman costume again.
Mrs D went as Wonder Woman.

stickguy

Found a picture of it!

abacomike

imidazol97 said:

Looks like Halloweenie here is going to be cold and getting colder and gusty wind!
It's an unusually brutal cooling end to the summer season. I saw lots of local classic cars
out being driven during the last two weeks. And it's depressing to know that most of
those have now been put to be--up on blocks to prevent flat spotting tires, preservative in the gasoline in the
tank, fresh oil in the sump, winter air in the tires. etc.. I'm going through a depression
because car show and cruise season has ended. A couple of last gasps: a Hollow Ween trunk
and treat by a tough old man's group that hosts a local cruise through end of
October into November IIRC and a Saturday truck or treat postponed from last
Saturday because of rain for a group that appears to have a lot of customized (ruined)
old cars that show up. But many cars are already in their cocoons. They won't be showing up.
Please send condolences.

It's 90 degrees right now and tonight's low is going to be 80 degrees with humidity. This is not fun at all!

driver100

stickguy said:

Found a picture of it!

That is great....too bad we couldn't take them to the party.
Did you get them after I told you what we were wearing?

stickguy

By coincidence one of my adopting families from the lab rescue sent me that picture this morning. I placed Wonder Woman with them last year.