Road Trip!

xwesx · October 2022

Should be home tomorrow.

explorerx4 · October 2022

Sorry to hear about your moonroof but have been enjoying the other pics.

Sandman6472 · October 2022

Stuff like that always seems to happen when one least expects it. Not as bad as that but my check engine icon came on this morning on the way to work. Annoying & now another trip to the mechanic scheduled for Monday. Just wonder how much this little excursion is gonna cost me? Figure while he has it, might have him replace the front hood strut so it'll stay open when worked on or adding wiper fluid. Right now, takes two of us to do anything under the hood.

xwesx · October 2022

Made it home. About 13,000 miles added to the car since we left on 8/5. Well, my car anyway. I’m sure we added similar numbers to the Crosstrek.

No more adventures on the road, but I did discover that my torpedo case was severely damaged due to poor packing and shifting after it was loaded into the trailer. Hopefully I can fix it at some point.

xwesx · October 2022

Alaska ✊

fintail · October 2022

Saw this on the road in Spokane yesterday evening, not sure if the control arm on this Alberta-plated Palisade is within spec:

xwesx · October 2022

Judging by the wear, I'd say that's been like that for a minute. Amazing to me that they keep driving it. Jeez, even if repair is a hassle due to travel, at least tie it up!

fintail · October 2022

xwesx said:
Judging by the wear, I'd say that's been like that for a minute. Amazing to me that they keep driving it. Jeez, even if repair is a hassle due to travel, at least tie it up!

I was thinking that - looks worn down a little. It must make an irritating noise, and maybe even sparks. I thought of leaving a note, but there's no way someone could miss that, and it's not like Spokane doesn't have a dealership and a dozen tire/suspension shops that could likely do an emergency repair.

andres3 · October 2022

fintail said:

xwesx said:
Judging by the wear, I'd say that's been like that for a minute. Amazing to me that they keep driving it. Jeez, even if repair is a hassle due to travel, at least tie it up!
I was thinking that - looks worn down a little. It must make an irritating noise, and maybe even sparks. I thought of leaving a note, but there's no way someone could miss that, and it's not like Spokane doesn't have a dealership and a dozen tire/suspension shops that could likely do an emergency repair.

I see marketing potential. Sound insulation and suspension so supple, you can't even notice a control arm laying on the road at 65 MPH! Like those old let's drive a Lexus on a railroad track with the full champagne glasses not spilling.

explorerx4 · November 2022

Heading to Florida on Saturday for Thanksgiving.
It will be the Explorer's 11th road trip in less that 2 years.
I define road trip as at least 500 miles one way.
This trip should pretty much the the longest one way trip, just over 900 miles.

Michaell · November 2022

explorerx4 said:
Heading to Florida on Saturday for Thanksgiving.
It will be the Explorer's 11th road trip in less that 2 years.
I define road trip as at least 500 miles one way.
This trip should pretty much the the longest one way trip, just over 900 miles.

Planning 1 or 2 days for the drive?

explorerx4 · November 2022

@michaell,
We will be convoying with the grandkids(3 year old and 9 month old) and their parents in another Explorer, so we are staying overnight, then finishing the trip the next day.
If it was just my wife and myself, probably do it one shot.
We've done Hartford CT to South Bend IN or back in one day many times.

fintail · November 2022

Snow wheels are on:

Have been for a week, but didn't get a chance to clean the car until the other day. We had a nice early season snow event almost 2 weeks ago, snow has stuck around, roads are a terrible mess of grit and de-icer - car gets filthy even without precip. Winter driving time is here.

On the road lately with the time change, plenty of derps out with no headlights long before dawn or after dusk, and awful studded tires are everywhere, helping keep our roads in a non-first world condition.

fintail · December 2022

@xwesx - maybe relevant here - you run a Blackvue dashcam right? Ever have issues when it is really cold out? When I go into the office, I park outside as barely any businesses have garage parking here (due to ample and cheap land for surface lots no doubt), and it's cold this time of the year. When I get to work and it's 12F, and leave work and it is 23F, the car gets cold inside. I notice when it is really cold, the dashcam doesn't start working immediately, maybe not til 10 mins or so of driving, when the car warms up inside. Maybe not a coincidence. Never happens when the car is at home, even though my garage isn't heated - insulation seems to keep it just above freezing no matter how cold out.

xwesx · December 2022

Interesting that you'd mention this... Today! My son got a tasty clip on his camera this morning (I'll have to share it at some point).

Yes, I actually have three Blackvues in the collection now: The original 750S and now two 900S. During the winter months, they take a little longer to start up when it is extremely cold (certainly much colder than temps you're talking about), but the "Blackvue for your safe driving" statement always occurs within a minute or so of starting the car (the 900s are faster than the 750, without a doubt).

What I do notice is that the parking mode feature, particularly on the 900s which did not require the magic box stuff that the 750 has, they tend to shut down much faster due to "low voltage." Again, not surprising given the extra demand on batteries (and reduced capacity) in cold temperatures, but I do find that annoying. During the summer months, the units are typically still running in parking mode when I start the car, so they just say "parking mode off" when I turn the ignition on (no startup needed).

Ten minutes definitely sounds out of character. I wonder if the capacitor in the unit itself is just getting tired.

fintail · December 2022

xwesx said:
Interesting that you'd mention this... Today! My son got a tasty clip on his camera this morning (I'll have to share it at some point).

Yes, I actually have three Blackvues in the collection now: The original 750S and now two 900S. During the winter months, they take a little longer to start up when it is extremely cold (certainly much colder than temps you're talking about), but the "Blackvue for your safe driving" statement always occurs within a minute or so of starting the car (the 900s are faster than the 750, without a doubt).

What I do notice is that the parking mode feature, particularly on the 900s which did not require the magic box stuff that the 750 has, they tend to shut down much faster due to "low voltage." Again, not surprising given the extra demand on batteries (and reduced capacity) in cold temperatures, but I do find that annoying. During the summer months, the units are typically still running in parking mode when I start the car, so they just say "parking mode off" when I turn the ignition on (no startup needed).

Ten minutes definitely sounds out of character. I wonder if the capacitor in the unit itself is just getting tired.

Thanks. My current unit is a 900S, installed April of 19, soon after I got the car. I have the secondary battery unit hidden in a panel under the dash. I didn't do the install myself.

It was warmer today (around maybe 32F when I left the office, unknown temp inside) - camera started right up when I started the car. It only seems to have the quirk on really cold days when the car is parked outside (more cold days appear to be coming). I don't want to miss a fun crazy clip or something much worse. Nothing interesting as of late even with the snowiest November in many years. Roads have been adequately cleared most of the time, my only aggravation is kind of the Carlin standard - timid people going too slow (many warm climate transplants here) or riding my rear end (trucks and misguided confidence).

I hope the unit isn't failing, although if it does, should be an easy swap as I assume the cables are all still the same.

xwesx · December 2022

Cables are the same, yes.

That second battery box... I assume it is to assist with parking mode. Have you noticed any changes where the camera says "shutting down" quickly after you turn off the car? An added box, if wired correctly, should let it run a good long time when the car is off. If it isn't charged or charging correctly, that might be causing your unit issues.

I don't even have the second box (just wired directly into the car through a 5A fuse on a constant power and an "accessory" circuit), and it usually won't turn off at all during the summer months, even when I only use the car once in a day. I think my son installed our 750S in August of 2018 (shortly after the "canoe incident"), and it still seems to work fine with it's "PowerMagic" box (I don't think that uses the extra battery, just provides the functionality that's now built into the 900S), but you have to set the accessory up for the parking mode power, and it works on a timer basis (like 2 hours, 4 hours, etc) in addition to the battery voltage monitoring).

I agree with your concern about missing the fun stuff. It would just figure to have whatever happens, particularly something you really *need* it to record, to happen when the device is either not recording, or thinking it's recording and not actually recording (such as a bad SD card).

fintail · December 2022

Yes, as far as I know, the second battery is for parking mode. When I turn the car off, the camera doesn't shut down (or doesn't announce this) - it keeps recording, and maybe 5 mins (?) later, it goes into "parking mode" (and announces this). I am not sure the specifics beyond that as I have never changed the defaults, but I assume there's a motion and impact sensor working - sometimes when out shopping, I will get the "an impact was detected" message upon starting the car (it detected me loading stuff into the car). I was thinking maybe it kind of went to sleep as it isn't the busiest parking lot, but when it wasn't responsive, I unplugged the main power cable and plugged it back in - nothing. However, once the car was warm inside, it started as if the car had been parked.

I try to reformat the SD cards every several weeks, and I keep an eye on the camera, knowing luck and odds etc. I seldom had any error messages on 100F+ days when the camera was sitting in the heat, but it might be sensitive to cold.

xwesx said:
Cables are the same, yes.

That second battery box... I assume it is to assist with parking mode. Have you noticed any changes where the camera says "shutting down" quickly after you turn off the car? An added box, if wired correctly, should let it run a good long time when the car is off. If it isn't charged or charging correctly, that might be causing your unit issues.

I don't even have the second box (just wired directly into the car through a 5A fuse on a constant power and an "accessory" circuit), and it usually won't turn off at all during the summer months, even when I only use the car once in a day. I think my son installed our 750S in August of 2018 (shortly after the "canoe incident"), and it still seems to work fine with it's "PowerMagic" box (I don't think that uses the extra battery, just provides the functionality that's now built into the 900S), but you have to set the accessory up for the parking mode power, and it works on a timer basis (like 2 hours, 4 hours, etc) in addition to the battery voltage monitoring).

I agree with your concern about missing the fun stuff. It would just figure to have whatever happens, particularly something you really *need* it to record, to happen when the device is either not recording, or thinking it's recording and not actually recording (such as a bad SD card).

xwesx · December 2022

That's very strange. Almost sounds like maybe a bad connection - either knocked loose (power cord) or somehow otherwise sensitive to cold/warm (metal contraction and expansion).

fintail · December 2022

That would be most logical, something contracting in the cold, apparently below freezing (as it doesn't seem to happen in my unheated but insulated garage that doesn't appear to get much below 32F even on 0F days). Not sure if I want to spend $400 to maybe or maybe not fix it, just dealing with it sounds more attractive - replace it if it really craps out, which it shows no signs of doing.

xwesx said:
That's very strange. Almost sounds like maybe a bad connection - either knocked loose (power cord) or somehow otherwise sensitive to cold/warm (metal contraction and expansion).

xwesx · December 2022

Following up on that collision last week....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waoMRI7mB4E

I cannot quite tell what type of pickup caused the crash; I think it is a pre-discontinued Ford Ranger.

fintail · December 2022

Wow, that's a good catch, your video?

Headlight shape does look like a Ranger. I wish our snowy roads were that uniform. Here it is either a thick coating of de-icer to the point of resembling recent rain, or slushy mounds so high cars bottom out on them. Maybe a dry patch here and there.

xwesx · December 2022

My son was driving to the university with my daughter. I, personally, missed it; I went through here about fifteen minutes earlier.

andres3 · December 2022

xwesx said:
My son was driving to the university with my daughter. I, personally, missed it; I went through here about fifteen minutes earlier.

That's a salaciously negligent left turn causing a wreck.

fintail · December 2022

xwesx said:
My son was driving to the university with my daughter. I, personally, missed it; I went through here about fifteen minutes earlier.

I see some dashcam channels have already asked him to use it. I've only had one such request, and it was a relatively pointless thing (IIRC someone throwing a bottle from a car).

xwesx · December 2022

yeah, I haven't replied yet. I get busy and forget about these things....

fintail · December 2022

You can be Youtube famous!

It cooled off a little here again. Maybe 23F when I left work, car sitting outside all day. Camera started up after the the car warmed up inside. However, of course, in the garage this morning, no issues. I think the cold is a thing.

andres3 · December 2022

I've had a couple doozies on dash cam but been too lazy to upload them and/or post them here.

I have forgiven these bad driver's their trespasses even before finding closure through ridicule on YouTube.

fintail · December 2022

Yeah, it takes a lot for me to want to upload something to YT - it would need to be like an insane close call or worse. The overall skill level isn't high in this part of the world, and in a city that has little enforcement, dumb stuff is a normal part of life, especially running lights.

xwesx · December 2022

Yes, I see stuff almost daily. It's just too common to worry about 99% of the time.

fintail · January 2023

Went into the office today - a trip in a way as I haven't driven the car since last Wednesday. I didn't bother to save the clip, but right before I got to my turn off, I noticed a traffic back up, apparently a truck went the wrong way or spun out and was facing the wrong way on I90, and tangled with a small car. No casualties that I know of, but a jam - ice this morning. Seems to be a year for accumulating ice in this region. The third tier arterial near my house was slick, but I noticed nothing else on the drive.

It was 32F per the car when I left the office, car was cold as it sat outside for 8 hours - camera started right up. I wonder if there's some kind of water driven processor in it that freezes

fintail · January 2023

Looks like I will be taking a little road trip in March - work conference has us in Louisville, and I will have a couple free days. Not sure where I will go yet - maybe up to Indy to see the speedway, and/or check out Cincinnati. Was thinking about St. Louis, but would have little time to do much once I was there.

Michaell · January 2023

fintail said:
Looks like I will be taking a little road trip in March - work conference has us in Louisville, and I will have a couple free days. Not sure where I will go yet - maybe up to Indy to see the speedway, and/or check out Cincinnati. Was thinking about St. Louis, but would have little time to do much once I was there.

Sounds like a CCBA meet up is possible!

fintail · January 2023

Michaell said:

fintail said:
Looks like I will be taking a little road trip in March - work conference has us in Louisville, and I will have a couple free days. Not sure where I will go yet - maybe up to Indy to see the speedway, and/or check out Cincinnati. Was thinking about St. Louis, but would have little time to do much once I was there.
Sounds like a CCBA meet up is possible!

I think at least a couple people here are around Cincinnati. Not sure about points west.

Michaell · January 2023

fintail said:

Michaell said:

fintail said:
Looks like I will be taking a little road trip in March - work conference has us in Louisville, and I will have a couple free days. Not sure where I will go yet - maybe up to Indy to see the speedway, and/or check out Cincinnati. Was thinking about St. Louis, but would have little time to do much once I was there.
Sounds like a CCBA meet up is possible!
I think at least a couple people here are around Cincinnati. Not sure about points west.

A couple in the Louisville area, too

fintail · March 2023

On a little roadtrip now, scoped out a couple filming locations - here's one - maybe the Camry is Darlene's:

Sandman6472 · March 2023

Like the house, looks like a Craftsman. Doubt it gots central air from the window box on the top floor. That's one thing I have to have, central air. Had a couple of box units in our apartment in New Orleans during our senior year, and it sucked! We rented the top floor apartment, a 2/1, of a shot gun house in the Garden District, on Seventh Street and Archie Manning lived a few houses down from us. Hated the stairs first off and was hard to regulate the a/c units in the hot spring & summer. One was in the bigger bedroom which I took and the other was in the bathroom which my roommate got. Needless to say, she had to keep her door to the bathroom open when using the a/c which was a pain when I had to use it but luckily, our hours were different & she was at her s o's place a lot of the time.

tjc78 · March 2023

@fintail said:
On a little roadtrip now, scoped out a couple filming locations - here's one - maybe the Camry is Darlene's:

Very cool. It’s in Indiana, correct?

Grab a loose meat sandwich at the Lanford lunch box?

Michaell · March 2023

tjc78 said:

Grab a loose meat sandwich at the Lanford lunch box?

Loose meat is not a phrase I want to read at 7 in the morning.

Of course, I'm fighting a cold and cough, so my appetite is not all there...

tjc78 · March 2023

@Michaell said:
Loose meat is not a phrase I want to read at 7 in the morning.

Of course, I'm fighting a cold and cough, so my appetite is not all there...

Ha ha. It never sounded good to me either!

fintail · March 2023

tjc78 said:

@fintail said:

On a little roadtrip now, scoped out a couple filming locations - here's one - maybe the Camry is Darlene's:

Very cool. It’s in Indiana, correct?

Grab a loose meat sandwich at the Lanford lunch box?

Yep, Evansville. I was headed up to Indy and there's another filming location in Bloomington, so I made the trip - who knows if I will ever be in that area again (I can't imagine). In Cincinnati now, which has a lot of locations, most memorable to me for Rain Man.

Lanford is much larger than I imagined, I think I might have spotted Rodbell's and the site of Lanford Custom Cycle, too.

fintail · March 2023

Sandman6472 said:
Like the house, looks like a Craftsman. Doubt it gots central air from the window box on the top floor. That's one thing I have to have, central air. Had a couple of box units in our apartment in New Orleans during our senior year, and it sucked! We rented the top floor apartment, a 2/1, of a shot gun house in the Garden District, on Seventh Street and Archie Manning lived a few houses down from us. Hated the stairs first off and was hard to regulate the a/c units in the hot spring & summer. One was in the bigger bedroom which I took and the other was in the bathroom which my roommate got. Needless to say, she had to keep her door to the bathroom open when using the a/c which was a pain when I had to use it but luckily, our hours were different & she was at her s o's place a lot of the time.

I bet the summers in southern Indiana are brutal, in an old house like that, central AC might not even be sufficient (no chance it had such a luxury when built).

kyfdx · March 2023

@fintail Are you checking out any of the Rain Man sites?

fintail · March 2023

kyfdx said:
@fintail Are you checking out any of the Rain Man sites?

A few, but many were either minor shots or changed a lot in the past 35 years. The old bridge looks about the same today though. I wanted to get a shot of the family home, which apparently is on a private/gated road in a posh area, so no access.

kyfdx · March 2023

fintail said:

kyfdx said:
@fintail Are you checking out any of the Rain Man sites?
A few, but many were either minor shots or changed a lot in the past 35 years. The old bridge looks about the same today though. I wanted to get a shot of the family home, which apparently is on a private/gated road in a posh area, so no access.

The institution (actually a convent) lost all those big trees that flanked the drive. Pompilios, where they filmed the toothpick scene is pretty cool.

fintail · March 2023

kyfdx said:

fintail said:

kyfdx said:
@fintail Are you checking out any of the Rain Man sites?
A few, but many were either minor shots or changed a lot in the past 35 years. The old bridge looks about the same today though. I wanted to get a shot of the family home, which apparently is on a private/gated road in a posh area, so no access.

The institution (actually a convent) lost all those big trees that flanked the drive. Pompilios, where they filmed the toothpick scene is pretty cool.

I didn't make it to the convent but read about it. I spent a little time in DT Cincinnati, which seemed cool overall. Over The Rhine is hipsterish and reminds me of some PNW areas.

Something about a road trip around here, some roads/highways are pretty rough! Reminds me of Chicago or Detroit. I wasn't expecting it.

kyfdx · March 2023

@fintail

Upkeep of local surface streets have really deteriorated over the last 5-10 years.

fintail · March 2023

kyfdx said:
@fintail

Upkeep of local surface streets have really deteriorated over the last 5-10 years.

I drove on highway 71 to Louisville today, really rough too - I was weaving a bit now and then trying not to hurt the car.

kyfdx · March 2023

fintail said:

kyfdx said:
@fintail

Upkeep of local surface streets have really deteriorated over the last 5-10 years.
I drove on highway 71 to Louisville today, really rough too - I was weaving a bit now and then trying not to hurt the car.

Yeah, 75 to Lexington is a lot better. I'm surprised that SDF was your best choice considering price and connections.

fintail · March 2023

kyfdx said:

fintail said:

kyfdx said:
@fintail

Upkeep of local surface streets have really deteriorated over the last 5-10 years.
I drove on highway 71 to Louisville today, really rough too - I was weaving a bit now and then trying not to hurt the car.
Yeah, 75 to Lexington is a lot better. I'm surprised that SDF was your best choice considering price and connections.

Workplace is paying for it

Flights weren't too bad, just one stop. Only so many directs to eastern locations out of Spokane.

Road Trip!

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