1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

Actually yes. We ordered a pitcher of Cava sangria at at a restaurant and it was awesome. My wife wants to try and recreate it here but I'm skeptical she can pull it off.

 

I like this idea, and I like cake, but there are so, so many

 

I'l post in ask the mechanic next. But I always start here.
I have new everything suspension up front. Recently, at slower speeds, usually on a turn, I get a clunk. It seems to be from the driver's side - I'm pretty sure about that.
It's pretty firm feeling - comes through the frame feeling.
I disconnected the sway bar, which actually may have cleared up some other little noises.
I used a pry bar test on the ball joints. Driver's side outer control arm/steering link ball was fine. Should be, it's new. But taping/torquing on it gave me a noise up at the steering rack.
Fast forward to today, I just disconnected my tie rods from the LBJs. Bounced them around and the right is so firm from a play perspective.
The driver's side, however, makes a clunk if I slam the tie rod up and rear. And, there is visible play, very small. No leaks.
The driver's side is the gear side, and also has a couple of extra big bolts/set screw things. Big.
Can the gear part of the steering rack be tightened up with these mysterious big bolts? Am I experiencing normal play? Or, does this sound like a new steering rack or something else?
I'm in the process of ruling out anything else I can.

 

In my search I have seen that @empty_lord has addressed this exact question. Basically, that If you need to adjust that stupid gear star, you are probably leaking like a sive already. I have no leaks and the reports of the noise sound exactly like mine. Some dude claims to adjust that thing a lot. Standing by.

 

Uploading....vid.

https://youtu.be/Z-EGM-WPWDQ

 

I gave it a like - but damn - that looks like heaven.

 

Didn't know where else to post this so here it is. Found it while shopping for a b'day gift for my 4yo. I did add this to his Legos he wanted.

 

My kid loved monster trucks as a "kid". I should find the birthday track I made him.

 

Well, I can't repeat the noise after greasing everything and some unbolting/bolting. But it was intermittent, and I haven't driven much at all today. Hmm.

 

Just Trucks Archives | Jada Toys, Inc.
"archives", guess it was a random & lucky find.

 

Found it. 2009

 

I’ve got one, too.

 

That is awesome. Nice work

 

Grass going dormant, Fescue?

Have you noticed a weird uptick in exterior spiderwebs in the corner the last year or two? I've been in the same place 20 yrs now, and out of nowhere they just went berzerk these last couple years. Not just me, my neighbors also.

Nice garage work area setup, btw. Would love something like that, hoping I can make it happen in the next couple of years, but would be in a room attached to the garage. Saving up now.

 

Yes, Fescue. Jpink and his friend helped me completely redo my yard last fall. When we bought the house it was all weeds. I didn't even have to mow because it wasn't really grass. We killed it and then reseeded. Then we built a redneck sprinkler system. It was looking great this spring until I left for Spain and we got record temps and no rain. It finally rained last night.

After killing it in September


By November



May

We've only been here ~1 year so I can't say but I noticed it getting really nasty recently. I wish I could reach up there to pressure wash.

Thanks. These garage cabinets are such a great value. I'll snap some better pics. The company is called New Age Products. Looks like prices have increased a lot since I bought my set last year.

 

I'm pissed about my Fescue. Long story.

Been in the same place 2 decades. Our Fescue sod the builder installed was amazing, I'd always kept up with it myself, going on 7 years, hand-pulled all weeds before seed so it stayed clear, weed and feed, the whole 9. Rented aerator every fall, did mine and my neighbors' yards, then overseeded.

On our 7th or 8th year, one of the neighbors was using TruGreen to manage theirs, and they offered a deal on aeration+overseed. So we did it. They brought armyworms in with the aeration, and the armyworms killed all of our yards. Trugreen gave us a free service call, but all five homes have never been able to get the yard back to what it was - I had the most luck, but it was only half the health as before and would thin out to 50% in summer.

Fast-forward to Fall 2018. I paid someone $1k to re-sod what little grass we have left up front. Every year, same routine, grass looking amazing. Wife says, "We should think about getting someone to fertilize and cut you some slack", and we have another neighbor a block over whose husband works for them and assures me they've had a seachange in staff and things are better now.

1st treatment, seems to go off w/o a hitch. 2nd treatment, I notice some of the blades of my grass are golden-yellow a few days later - strange, but it passes 7-10 days later. Here's a pic.

​

On this last treatment, the guy came out the day after we got back from Portugal, as heat is ramping up, to which I added evening water cycles to help with. 3-4 days later entire sections of my grass are dying off. Actual pics here:

​

​

I'm livid. 4 years I've been keepign this Fescue lawn looking green and healthy, within three treatments, TruGreen has killed entire patches of my yard.

So I emailed their Customer Care line, since they give you no good way to figure out who to call and bitch to about stuff like this. 5 days later they email back, "A technician will be out within 3 days to assess". That was 6 days ago. No technician, no word back.

I'm calling today to cancel, but I'm absolutely pissed because I'll get zero recompense for them killing sections of my $1000 in grass. I think I'm just going to gut the yard and start over with Bee Lawn Mix or something.

But bottom line: NEVER USE TRUGREEN!! They've screwed me twice now (shame on me).

 

The guy that helped me does this for a living and he has nothing nice to say about them. He used to work for them. My parents used them for years and their yard always looked horrible. For some reason my step dad refused to fire them. One time I was at home when the employee came to treat the yard and I watched him. He spent no more than 90 seconds there and just ran around like a mad man. I'd say he sprayed maybe 15% of the yard. It's a scam.

 

For the record, this was my yard last fall, before they started servicing it. Never again. Literally same experience. Guy walked around the yard with a mystery granular. In/out within 2 minutes for all 3 treatments. Never took soil samples. Have no idea why the hell I didn't cancel sooner.

 

I'm not sure about the noise, but Timmy the toolman has a video where he removes that big star nut and replaces the busing (or whatever that piece is). I have loose steering, but have replaced everything up front other than the steering rack. I'm eventually going to replace the bushing this to see if it helps.

 

This may be tough news to hear but you may have to kill it and start over. It really wasn't that hard and unless the pics are deceiving, your yard doesn't look huge. The most time intensive part was building the sprinkler system but you might be able to work around that. Deal with brown grass for a bit knowing the end result will look great. If TruScam ever steps foot on your yard again just shoot em.

 

And here I am trying to decide if I just want to buy 100#s of clover seed and do the whole yard so I don't have to mow as much.

 

Based on where we are in the season, you may be right. I'm going to try and nurse it back, patch the dead spots. I just wish I knew what that asshole put on my yard but they don't tell you anything during the visits. The 1st visit they gave their computer printout assessment of the yard condition, it's the only time I recevied anything. I suspect he mistook my Fescue for Zoysia and was treating with the wrong stuff.

I've continued doing aeration and overseed with the guy who sodded us, I'll have him check it out in October. He's a wizard with fill-ins based on what I've seen him do at my neighbor's house. I'm pretty sure I can salvage about 75%-80% of this, the rest, like that one huge swath missing, I think it's a lost cause. Fortunately, I've been systemically getting rid of as much grass as possible, adn this is roughly all that's left.

This is the company a few of the other people who've converted near me used: https://www.opnseed.com/products/bee-lawn-mix

Given the amount of Fescue in the list along with the various clovers, it should do really well up north in PA.

 

I grew up with the plushest and greenest of lawns. Dad had free labor, so it got mowed about every 4 days.

when I moved here, with about 3 mowable acres, I’d do it. Dusk & dawn little bits at a time every other day or so. For the last couple years, I’ve just been letting it do it’s thing. We haven’t gotten rain in over a month, so it’s kinda a fire hazard right now, but not much worse looking than when I kept it mowed.

gotta jack the mower all the way up, because i live on top of a pile of rocks.

 

It may have to do with what area one is on regarding Trugreen. In our Podunk county, I’ve had great success with TruGreen for last 8 years treating my 3/4 acre of zoysia. I’ve had same tech for last 3 years. Have had to remind him a few times about drastic turns, which zoysia don’t like. Overall very pleased but it sure likes watering with these god awful temps….yuck

 

Our yard. All 100 sq feet of it.

 

From what I heard, if you already have a decent yard, they might be able to keep it looking good. If you have a terrible yard and are hoping they will get it looking good, you will be disappointed. That was the case for my parents. They didn't have nice grass and despite years of treatment it never got better. Unless you're @shifty` and they just come in and kill your healthy grass.

Bubba, was your zoysia already pretty nice when they started?

 

Short answer, no.
Longer answer....When we bought, the house was on a lot with too many trees for proper grass due to shade and bought the next 2 lots also. Those 2 lots were covered with trees. The first few years I spent removing trees, tilling yard, bringing in good bed of top soil, laid irrigation system, 11 zones and wayyyyy too many pallets of sod. That was 12 years ago when I was 55 and still able. Now I get the joy of cutting it every week but would do it again in a New York minute. Don't have to cut my back yard but enjoy losing a ball or two

 

I'm assuming locale plays a big part. I'm guessing we're getting screwed because we're in a higher-density city, and the customer base is huge, so they've fewer techs per yard, a different cost of living, relatively lower wages with higher turnover. I think our current tech, "Lee", is either a short-timer, or can't afford to spend time on our lawn because he has 500 other customers to do during the 5-day week. Probably just loads up his spreader and hopes he gets it right.

Either way, sucks for me.

I started to say, "not the size of the yard that counts ..." and instantly remembered this gem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz82fjXqFQ4

 

It's HUGE compared to mine.

Nah, I got the same but 1/3 of mine is taken up by shrubs and trees.

 

My deck is only about 6.5’x16’. And it’s due for a work over. I’m not ready to give up on it, but it’s only got a few hoorahs left.