Subaru Crew Cafe

ateixeira

A bunch of trucks and rebodied Fiats, sounds like.

Can't be worse than the Caliber.

lucien2

Abarth? Pretty please?

xwesx

That sounds like a pretty sweet ride, Frank; the Mercedes version of a Forester!

Congrats.

p0926

Thanks Wes. Although the GLK’s looks are somewhat polarizing, personally I like its boxy shape and then found out why when I read Edmunds’ review where they compared it to the last generation Forester (of which I’ve had two)

-Frank

xwesx

I'll just say that it looks nothing like any other MB I have seen, but I do like the looks of it - it almost reminds me of a Jeep.

I have never seen one in person.

robr2

According to this:

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/28/report-fiat-500-to-launch-in-the-u-s-with-aba- rth-performance-m/

The Abarth will the first out of the gate.

robr2

That's been out a couple of days - we've been discussing it on another forum.

Of course you'll see more reliance on Fiat platforms - Chrysler has been product starved for years. Ram was announced as it's own brand a couple of weeks ago and I could see it adding Fiat work vans to replace the current Sprinter.

Most interesting is that Viper may come back with some Ferrari bits hidden inside.

p0926

it almost reminds me of a Jeep

Funny you should mention that. I like the GLK because I think it resembles a last gen Forester and my wife likes it because she thinks it looks like a small Jeep (she used to own a Grand Cherokee).

-Frank

rsholland

Frank, I see the the GLK can tow 3500 pounds (max Class II), which is good for this class of vehicle. See link below.

http://www.netcarshow.com/mercedes-benz/2010-glk_350_4matic/

I'm curious as to what the unbraked towing is. Some (most?) European vehicles can tow ~ 1600 pounds without trailer brakes. If you feel up to it, check your owner's manual.

...And you just knew I'd be asking you thiat question! BTW, I've got our Forester hooked up to my 5 x 8 trailer—loaded with leaves—and ready to head to the county landfill in the morning. Probably 4 or 5 trips tomorrow, with load 1 ready to go...

Bob

tsy

Congrats on the new ride Frank! It's kinda cute for a MB. Although, not as cute as your SLK!

tom

p0926

Yeah Bob, I shoulda known you'd ask

Interesting... the operator's manual only lists the 3,500 lb GTW rating. The GLK is pre-wired to accept a 7-wire harness but the manual directs you to check state and local laws for their trailer brake requirements.

Good luck hauling those leaves. Speaking of which, I better head outside myself and get started on the yard.

-Frank

rsholland

No unbraked tow rating? That is odd!

6 trailer loads of leaves to the landfill today. I'm beat...

Bob

ateixeira

You gotta build a compost pile like I did.

Over time (lots of time), you end up with rich, dark soil. I made an herb garden for the wife, which we'll start planting in next year. I'll show you next time you come over.

I have yet to tackle the leaves this year. We had TONS of acorns, the most ever. Wonder why? :confuse:

rsholland

You gotta build a compost pile like I did.

Got one. Besides, hauling all those leave to the back woods, from the front yard, is even more work.

Bob

p0926

Well after a weekend of raking, our yard is leaf free for the moment. However, I figure only about half the leaves have fallen so I can plan on another weekend of leaf raking in the not too distant future.

I read that this was a banner year for acorns. Certainly all the neighborhood squirrels are having a good time gorging themselves.

-Frank

ateixeira

So long as they're not gorging on my cars' wiring harnesses, I'm happy!

robr2

I put some into a compost pile, but the rest I have to put in kraft paper bags and the town picks them up and hauls them to a central composting pile. I typically put out about 80 bags over 4 weeks in the fall.

I got a new attachment for my lawn tractor - the monster leaf bag. It lets me pick up about 4 times what my bagger can. It's a time saver - I mulch the leaves first and then vacuum them up with the tractor.

www.mosterleafbag.com

xwesx

Just wait a year or two.... with all the food this year, you know their population is on the rise. When food is in short supply, all those extra mouths will be hungry for a little electrical buffet! :P

xwesx

I have a hand rake. I could get a second one if anyone wants to help! :shades:

But, the leaves here left long ago. I hauled some lumber home on top of the Forester yesterday, which was the first time I used the rack on this car. It was fun being able to look up through the moonroof to check on the load!

After I arrived home, I drove the car through the yard and parked next to the entryway to unload. I figured, just for kicks, I would try driving the car up the slope I traversed a month ago (before the snow fell). It was a little trickier this time, due to the ~6" of snow and slick conditions, but wouldn't you know it.... that car managed to make it through that ditch and up the hill!

hammerhead

Waste Managenment has a yard waste pickup program here (green bins) that are picked up once a week March thru November, so I've got about 3 weeks left (IF it doesn't snow!) Using the bin vs. driving to the transfer station is a time bonus as well as a financial wash, and the yard waste ends up in the same place. Takes me about 2 hours to rake, fill & stomp-compact the bin. What doesn't make it into the bin blows into the neighbor's yards

Cheers!
Paul

p0926

Hmmm, I'm going to have to try the mulch then vacuum method. This past weekend the lawn needed mowing and I was able to pick up a fair amount of leaves that way but only for those sections of the yard that didn't have a lot of leaves. For other areas, I raked then mowed, otherwise the mower bag would've filled up in a matter of seconds (push mower). Had I mulched first, I could've gone further between emptying the bag, but then I'd have to go over each area multiple times....

-Frank

xwesx

The leaves that fall on my yard are undoubtedly less and smaller than in areas further south, but I use my little push mower, sans bag, and mulch everything. In the spring, I rake the whole thing with my hand rake and then put what I pick up that way (about two wheelbarrows full) into my compost pile. Other than that, I do not take anything off the lawn - it is all mulched weekly and fed back to the lawn. Of course, this far north with our thin soils, my lawn needs all the organic matter it can get.

grahampeters

G'day

I am fascinated. Think of all that soil nutrients that you are exporting from your property, only to have to buy in replacements as fertiliser.

The problem of building a compost heap, is that it only degrades very slowly, possibly over years for leaves. If you concentrate the leaves into a tighter stack, and give it some other material to decompose, the leaves break down quicker. Here you can buy a compost activator that accelerates the decomposition process.

If you look on the net, you will be able to find plans for making compost bins, Typically, you make two or three, each about a yard cubed. You can build them up with removable boards on one side so that they are easier to load and unload. Most folk in Australia who compost their leaves, use the soil from one bin as they load another.

Cheers

Graham

lucien2

we have 2 large bins made out of worn out shipping pallets. We also have 2 decent-sized PET composters for kitchen refuse. They recommend adding a layer of leaves every once and a while to that as well. (oh, and 2 rain barrels )

As for the fall foliage, we have a blower that goes in reverse....sucks them up and mulches them into a bag. Then we dump those all over the garden beds for a winter blanket

lucien2

not that we grow much, but we are gardening organically so we won't use petro-chemical based fertilizers. Despite the composting (which is going very slowly in the big yard-waste bins), we may bring in some organic horse manure right before winter, as the tomato beds weren't healthy this year. This was our 3rd year of serious veggie gardening, so we're on a steep learning curve. We figure this fall is time for some serious soil amendment and probably crop rotation next spring.

ateixeira

Mulching them first does help accelerate the composting, though usually I'm not turning it often enough, so only the top few inches become useable compost. I think I also need to mix in more green (they say half brown, half green is best).

I can't just leave them on the ground - I get WAAAAY too many leaves, big oak leaves that kill any grass underneath. So I have to rake 'em up.

I actually set up a 2nd compost pile for new leaves. The old one is now good compost, so I'll keep using it until the pile is gone. Eventually I'll rotate back again.

I'm hoping that compost makes for good herbs. I'll plant that around March, with a plastic greenhouse built around it. I will share pics later, if it works out.

kyfdx

... vacuums up from the curb on a schedule.. They hit each street three times during the fall...

So.. most people use leafblowers..

A lot of older housing with lots and lots of trees... It's a nice use of our tax dollars..

subearu

They do that here too. The village picks them up and brings them to their composting facility which is then available free to residents.

-Brian

volkov

Growing up in the UK, every gardener had a compost "tip" as we used to call it, but any serious gardener had 3 : one you were adding all your organic waste to, one that was maturing and one who's soil you were using. Carrying kitchen scraps out to the compost tip was one of my jobs as a child.

ateixeira

I guess I need to add a 3rd to my current 2 piles, then.

ateixeira

We had leaf pickup at my previous house (trash was included, too), which also had much lower property taxes, but here in Potomac we pay much more tax and get far fewer services. Lame.

At least the public schools are good.

rsholland

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/nov2009/gb20091111_789023.htm

robr2

I figured out that the 80 or so 30 gallon bags of mulched leaves I put out every year is equal to about 12 cubic yards. IIRC from my summer working for a landscaper, that is a bit bigger than a 10 wheel dump truck. A man only needs so much compost!!

Luckily, it's not going into a landfill. My town is part of a consortium that contracts with one hauler to send them all to a giant compost pile that the towns can draw from. The hauler also gets to sell quite a bit of it.

Over the summer, I mulch most of the grass clippings with some going in the compost pile to mix with leaves.

rsholland

Our county landfill also composts leaves and brush. They then sell the mulch by the yard. So if you're local and have a pickup, it's a good deal.

Bob

tsy

Hi all

My son just got his learner's permit and has started driving. I don't think I'm going to have him learn on the STi, so I need to get something for him.

I was thinking of the following as parameters:
Front or AWD, 5 star crash ratings, Lots of airbags, and stability control. Oh yeah, less than 200hp. And preferably reliable.

Can you guys think of anything that fits the bill for $15k?

The only car I can think of that fits is a used Hyundai Sonata.
I've been looking for Subies with VDC but they're over my budget and hard to find.

tom

rsholland

When my son turned 16, we got him a then-new '96 Outback Sport automatic, which he had for 10 years. He's now on his second Outback Sport, an '06 model.

So I'd say a non-turbo Impreza of some sort, a year or so old. AWD, reliability and safety are the obvious draws.

Bob

rsholland

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2009/nov/12/top-gear-bbc-j- eremy-clarkson

xwesx

Well, these don't fit the 200hp criterion, though I don't think they really behave all that differently than the 2.5L, but an '04 VDC Outback (sedan or wagon) should come in within your budget. If not, the seller(s) must be overly optimistic about the car's value! What about an "older" Ford Fusion or Five Hundred / Freestyle? I think you can get those in AWD trims (again, not sure about the HP ratings) and they should be pretty cheap for first/second year models.

robr2

New series starts this weekend. I still plowing through the last series' episodes.

rsholland

The answers may surprise you.

http://www.autoobserver.com/2009/11/trying-to-figure-out-what-the-honda-crosstou- - - r-is.html

Bob

robr2

I'm not suprised people are cross shopping the ACT against the traditional Accord. But notice how the percentage has dropped in that comparison over the 3 months.

But comparison against the Venza, Outback and CTS have all risen over the same period.

rsholland

A 15-section tire! Yikes!!

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/13/sema-scraps-15-series-tire-from-nexen-barely-- - holds-air/

Just the thing for that 70s-era Caddy blingmobile sitting in your garage.

Can you imagine how hard the ride must be—not to mention trying to mount this tire on a rim!

Bob

robr2

Why not just skip the need for inflation and just make it from solid rubber - like back in the beginning of the automobile.

kurtamaxxxguy

So someone has finally made the tire all the car designers depict in their drawings.

Hopefully somebody will actually drive a car equipped with these and share the experience? My guess is go cart ride and on-rails handling (latter only if road is absolutely smooth).

Any bets how soon Audi or a German manufacturer puts these on their option list, as they have been going to lower and lower profile tires for years now?

xwesx

Like fins of old, wheels will go to an extreme (are we there yet?!) before the fad fades.

ladywclass

OK, so probably not a big deal to you .. but ...

In July of 2008, I moved my car out of the garage for what I "thought" would be about 2 weeks. We were moving some furniture around in the house, and husband's oldest son was moving away to college. Of course, we had some pieces he was going to take with him - so it seemed expedient to just put the stuff out there, and go ahead and move things around in the house when we had the time to do it.

Couple of weeks later, he DID come pick up the stuff - or at least most of it ... there were a couple small things left .. no biggie ... figured we'd get those moved out ... weather was still fine ...

in the meantime, things seemed to "spill over" into the side of the garage where I park(ed). A couple more things seemed to find a "temporary" home on that side of the garage. My daughter and grandsons who live here have some things in the garage in "storage", and as they went looking through for something, a few more things didn't get shoved back over and put up.

So - all last winter, my car was outside ... scraping windows, etc because I couldn't get it into the garage ... Also our driveway has some "problems". Some of the sections were obviously not prepared correctly to begin with and there is more than a little 'settling' in some sections ... the section directly behind my car is several inches lower than the one my car rests on in the driveway ... you can imagine the fun during the "slushy" seasons when I'd go out to put something in or get something out of the hatchback and not realize that it was melted underneath the top "crust" ....

On through summer ... still no move to get things in order to get the car back into the garage .. by this time, husband was insisting that there was too much stuff in the garage, and the car wouldn't fit ... I was pretty sure there was more than enough room, but would get pretty overwhelmed just looking at the stuff - not mine ...

So - I've had to scrape frost a few times already this year .. usually when I was running late and didn't really think about there being frost on the car ... This morning I'd had it ... went out and started shoving things around, restacking, shoving the bushels (or it seemed that way) of leaves that have blown into the garage when the door was up, and after about 2 hours,

THE CAR IS IN THE GARAGE with room to spare ...

I was surprised at how much "trash" I found in the garage ... mainly boxes that didn't get taken out with the recycling. Mostly I just restacked things, and it appears (to me at least) that it will be easier to get to the things we need now than it was before ...

so I am very proud to have my car back in the garage ... and couldn't wait to share it with you all .. I'm sure you have found this the most interesting story you've read in forever ... (HAH!) ... but thanks for reading it ...

volkov

Just the big wheel /small tire fad being taken to its inevitable and illogical conclusion. Can't wait till it's over myself.

volkov

Cleaned up my workshop last two weeks, and made a point that when I found some part or tool I'd bought for a job (simply to drop it in the workshop), that I simply did that job. I finished re-plumbing the built in vacuum last night - the last undone project cluttering up space. I know how you feel.

ladywclass

if you need some more projects, you're welcome to come stay here for awhile ...

rsholland

Brenda, what will it take for you to come out here and clean out the left side of our garage. It looks like Dagwood's closet.

Warning: You'll have to beat down the wife, as she suffers from terminal "old shoe disease," meaning she refuses to throw away anything that might have some value; well, "value" as she defines it.

Bob