A welcome reminder that The Universe is as aware of me as I am one of my blood cells.
Inside Amy Schumer: The Universe
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Monthly Archives: March 2018
Fire extinguisher for your vehicle
As The Great Truck Project draws to a close it’s time to think about what sort of tools and equipment gets to ride along (see previous post). I recently asked Mr. Wolf about fire extinguishers:
Dry chemical makes a huge mess. “Huge mess” actually doesn’t do it justice. If you discharge a dry chemical extinguisher inside a vehicle, it is a disaster. You will never get the grit and sticky junk out of the nooks and crannies. Worse yet, most (all?) dry chemical compositions are corrosive, so when it gets into the dashboard electrical bits, it ruins things. Not immediately, but over time. Is it better than just watching it burn? Sure. But most times undoing the damage done by the extinguisher takes more effort than repairing the damage done by the fire. Oh, also the powder that comes out is sort of sandy, I don’t know if it has silica in it or what, but if you spray the engine bay with it and the engine inhales the powder, major engine damage will follow.
So that leaves us with Halotron (the replacement for Halon 1211) and CO2. Both have risks (Halotron discharged in the cabin of a vehicle will suffocate you, CO2 will give you frostbite if you point it at yourself. Both scenarios seem avoidable…) CO2 is a bit cheaper to refill, and does a great job, so that’s the direction I would head.
The breadth and depth of Mr. Wolf’s knowledge continues to amaze.
Antigravity XP-10 Microstart
The Land Rover is nearly done. I know this because everything has been fixed and checked. Twice. Now it’s time to think about what goes in the truck besides me and the dogs. Things like jack, tools, tow rope, extra fuel container, etc. This is something of a challenge because the Series III is a small truck with space at a premium. When I asked Mr. Wolf if I really needed jumper cables, he suggested the Antigravity XP-10 Microstart as an alternative. I think the AAA tow truck guy had one of these but I’ve never used one. And I’ve always hated using cables.
This gizmo is about the size of a hardcover book (12x10x3) and weighs just 3.5 pounds. According to their website and a bunch of videos (almost 5,000 on YouTube), this thing will jump-start an 8 liter diesel truck (not to mention your iPhone). The built in overcharge and over-discharge protection helps avoid harming your battery.
Why does it take so long to recover from pneumonia?
This article appeared on the Washington Post website in January of this year. It’s far and away the best (most useful) thing I’ve read about pneumonia. Couple of excerpts:
One reason is that the detritus from an infection of the lung is hard to clear. Antibiotics kill the bacteria, but all the weaponry your body produced to fight the bacteria — mucus, essentially, or sputum, as it’s called once you cough it up — is left behind. […] Cough is a primary way to clear the gunk. That’s why doctors advise pneumonia patients not to take cough suppressants. You want to get that stuff out.
The energy drain (your body fighting the infection) burns calories and proteins. When illness dampens appetite, that can exacerbate fatigue and weakness. He advises: “Eat good protein and take plenty of calories.”
The flu has been wicked bad this year. Neither Barb nor I have gotten it (so far). We both got flu shots. But my recollection of the flu was you felt like hell for a week (or two) and that was it. I’m here to tell you the aftereffects of pneumonia can drag on for months.
Yuval Noah Harari: Will the Future Be Human?
Historian Yuval Harari at the World Economic Forum earlier this year. He covers so many big ideas in half an hour. (“Algorithms will understand us better than we understand ourselves.”)
Go Ahead, Millennials, Destroy Us
From an op-ed piece by Tim Kreider in the NYT:
(Young people) “remember everything, and forgive nothing.”
“…they will have a thousand times more energy for that fight than you and a bottomless reservoir of moral rage that you burned out long ago.”
“I for one can’t wait till we’re gone. I just wish I could live to see the world without us.”
I hope he’s right but have my doubts. I remember how quickly my sixties era passion faded as I aged. I’m still waiting to see a million young people in the streets again.
Roxor
“The resemblance between the new Roxor and the classic Jeep is no accident, mind. Indeed, the company began its automotive work seven decades ago, with a license to build Willys vehicles for sale in Asia. […] Unfortunately for those swayed by the Roxor’s pleasingly-retro looks – and its $15.5k starting price – you shouldn’t expect to see it on public roads. That’s because it’s not actually road-legal: instead, it’s intended to compete in the Side x Side category (“a small 2- to 6-person four-wheel drive off-road vehicle”) and be put to work on ranches and other off-road situations.” [Slashgear]
When a tree falls in the forest…
I fired up the chainsaw yesterday and cut up a couple of dead trees that have been on the ground for a couple of years.
I’d normally just leave these but I plan to drive the Land Rover down into the woods from time to time and these would be in the way.
I only have one power tool: the chainsaw. And I love cutting up downed trees. We’ve got more firewood than we’ll ever be able to burn and I can’t give it away. But getting it up to the house is hard work. So the plan is to spit logs as needed, toss ‘em into the back of the Land Rover and haul them up to the house.
Final tweaks
Mr. Wolf clearly knows his way around vintage vehicles but his buddy, Philippe, is apparently something of an expert on Land Rovers. Based on the photo (above) it looks like Philippe has a garage rather than a dealership. That’s where the truck is this week, getting final tweaks.
I told him to start with a valve adjustment, reset cam timing and injection pump timing, set timing chain tension, replace the thermostat, and see if he can find a way to adjust the free play in the steering relay box.
Regular readers will remember last week’s Mystery Patch, which leaked.
Good news from the drive up in the rain: the Mystery Patch in the roof does not leak! The bad news: everything else does leak. A bit more grey goop and we’ll be watertight.
And a bit less drafty…
Looking at a Series 2 Santana at Philippe’s, I realized that your truck is missing seals on the slider windows front and rear. I’ll track them down, that’ll make the cabin much less drafty.
Once Philippe is done, the truck is done. Everything has been checked and fixed. Sometimes twice. I’ll fly out to meet Mr. Wolf, play with the truck and celebrate, then it’s time to ship the truck to Jefferson City.
Here’s a bit of background on Phillippe from the Euroland website:
Originally from the beautiful South of France, The Provence, was originally a Rolls Royce, Bentley technician. He added Land Rover to his knowledge and specialty and is very fortunate to be one of the technicians to be certified at Land Rover in Solihull, England.
This project has taken twice as long as expected and cost a lot more, but I’m probably going to get close to the “better than the day it rolled off the assembly line” promise.