1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

Huh. I didn’t even think about that. Kinda makes me wonder if I should’ve left the old oil in for the job. Driven around for 5 or 10 miles to loosen any junk that fell in, drain it, and refill. Now I’m gonna be driving 5000 miles with whatever falls in. I guess I could redrain again, but I hate wasting that new oil. In the end, only $30, but still.

 

Happy Fathers Day to all the pops out there.

 

Yeah, you don't need to drain anything to do the valve covers. Oil flows downhill when not actively being picked up out of the pan, by the pickup tube. 5-10 minutes wait after shutting down is ample.

 

Not sure how your idea would apply here. Keep in mind pictures don't do a good job showing how steep something is.

 

Might be too steep for a boom lift. They can be picky.

 

Don't think I mentioned it here but I exceeded most 2.5 genner's payload the other day.

So glad I got my Best Gen back. This is a hair under 1500lbs.

 

https://www.tundras.com/threads/tacoed-tundra-project.130491/page-5#post-3346692

 

The slope on your side yard looks exactly like mine. The house looks pretty much looks the same as well. Over the years i’ve painted our house a few times, replaced all the siding, and installed new windows. I’ve used 4wd boom lifts before on at other remodel houses that i’ve worked on, but both yours and my side yard would probably be too steep. What worked excellent for me, is that i have an old 71 ford 4x4 F250 flatbed that has a hydraulic dump bed. I parked the truck parallel with the house (with the front of the truck nosed downhill), then raised up the dump bed just high enough to make it plumb level to the flat earth. Then put a tall extension ladder in the bed of the truck. Since the bed has tall sideboards, i could wedge the feet of the ladder against it so that the ladder’s feet couldn’t kick out from underneath me. It looked a Rube Goldberg contraption that was waiting for failure, but it was rock solid safe. I can’t seem to find any pics of the setup though.

 

I don't think yours is near as steep as mine, with previous pics. Maybe half the grade?

Here's a picture from the street from ~2004 after we bought the house - the window you see in my last picture is at the peak of the cryptomeria tree. And the 2nd picture at the ground level, both of those A/C compressors (there's one ore 5ft to the right of the one shown) are almost directly below that window.

You could easily achieve this with three extension ladders and two scaffold platforms to cover the entire length of that side wall.

 

Can I tell you how much I really f'n hate the MF'ers? I dunno why, but no amount of tick repellent, repellent clothing, lotions, clothing choices, or tucking seems to keep them off my son or I. My wife and daughter have zero issues. If there are any ticks, anywhere, even on the trail we hit today that had virtually nothing sticking up from the ground, they'll get on us. We each had three or four ticks each today. I'm the only one that had one latch on, on my chest, weirdly. But dog tick, and attached less than an hour or two, so NBD.

 

Whatcha using to repel them? Deer? Permethrin is the way.

 

They've been really thick here this year I guess, it's our first year out rural and I've had 5-6 on me so far. Wife about 7-8. They have all been dog ticks so far.
I've come to the conclusion I'm not going to let it keep me from doing anything. I don't/won't wear spray, at least any that would work.
There are home brew natural repellants, but I haven't tried any.
We've just started doing checks on each other when we've been out doing stuff all day.

 

Maybe;
Seems a ladder would be fine by the AC condenser and for the other side build a small platform to stand on. Should cost more than a $100 worth of wood to make something sturdy. For areas you can’t reach…

$120 5-30 ft Long Telescopic Extension Pole // Multi-purpose Extendable Pole with Universal Twist-on Metal Tip // Lightweight and Sturdy // Best Telescoping Pole for Painting, Dusting and Window Cleaning

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094NHSTJW

 

I've rotated through a lot of stuff over the years, currently using REPEL MAX, it's 40% DEET.

I don't remember ever having this problem as a kid. There was one time when we camped at Rodman Reservoir in FL and I ended up with about a dozen of the fuckers on my sac. But shy of that, all the hunting, all the fishing, all the camping I've done in my life, I've never seen ticks the way I've found them in NorCal and I guess potentially up here in Maine. They were far worse in NorCal than here.

Today is the first day, out of all the Maine hikes we've done between Freeport and Bar Harbor (all midcoast), where we've seen ticks. It was at Ducktrap Preserve. In NorCal, we managed to pick at least one or two up on every hike we took between Fort Ross and Fort Bragg minus our traipse through Amstrong redwood forest. Only one managed to latch on any of us - me - in my friggin goatee.

 

I’ve found eating a couple slices of pizza with roasted garlic an hour before you head out keeps ticks at bay (people too)

Granted, the tick problem here isn’t as bad unless you hit the tall grassy bog areas. I generally wear jeans or sweats if I need to traverse these areas.

 

A lift or scaffolding is going to be the safest way. Look into companies that specifically rent and setup masonry scaffolding for you. Combine this with tall enough Little Giant a-frame ladders and planks and you. If you only get a limited amount of scaffolding, you can put it at the highest point of the roof and then you can run planks off the ends of the scaffolding to Little Giant style a-frame ladders and the lower section of the roof.

Masonry scaffolding can usually be made taller on one side for working on a slope.




Or you can get one tall enough little giant for just the highest section, then get down and lower it as you go to the lower sections of the roof. Or run two little giants with a plank to do a stretch at a time.

As long as you think it through and have solid footing for the ladders or scaffolding, either way is doable and safe. Full scaffolding would be the safest, scaffolding with ladders second safest, single a-frame third safest, and a-frames/planks are fourth safest.

 

Paint it with a paintball gun. No climbing necessary.

 

That's what I'm accustomed to. That was the beef in NorCal. Tons of hip-high grass along the sides of the trails, and that was where we generally ended up picking up ticks. Even walking through the yard at the place we were staying, which was just between Machester and Elk CA, and only had 6" tall grass, you'd pick those fuckers up on your shoes. But all my hiking gear is coated in repellent, all permethrin/pyrethroid based. Contact, even tiny contact with any of that stuff, or DEET, is supposed to kill the bastards.

 

Lightweight cotton sweats are good for these areas plus a long sleeve t-shirt.

 

Brings back memories when T and I were living in Ozarks when 1st married….those were the days, young and vibrant

 

https://staging.outdoors.org/resources/amc-outdoors/outdoor-resources/tick-off-most-effective-tick-repellents/

 

I got annoyed today.
Changing the differential oil in wife’s 4 runner.
Noticed it was time for oil change, she usually takes it to local oil change shop, but I decided I’d go ahead and do it.

Pulled the plug, and oil was coal black at only 3500 miles..?..?..?..?
I don’t know if they put some kind of cheap non-detergent in it, instead of what is on our records, or just changed the oil filter, and not the oil.
She took a trip about 6 months ago, and had it changed out of town, and shop guy was telling wife he couldn’t believe how clean the oil was, so oil being so black and broke down sure has me questioning that shop.
Guess time to start making time to change it myself.

 

Or just check how clean it should be on the dipstick. Note both before and after to see if it changes (which it should).

 

I would check the other fluids in the area. Wonder what that guy drained out.

 

I would always watch them through the window, or stand just outside bay door watching to Make Sure they were doing it right.
I trusted old owners, but it has new management and owners, and I Never thought to tell her to watch them close.

I just know at 3500 miles….synthetic shouldn’t break down that fast.
From carbon I can see down in it looks like it doesn’t get changed often (I know it does), or oil is cheap stuff.

 

Everything else looks good.
I checked the transmission drain, and fill
Plugs. They haven’t been touched.

I knew quality of service had gone down when I looked it over couple weeks ago, and noticed she had a loose radiator clamp causing a coolant seep, and was a little low on coolant, and reservoir was completely empty so they not doing what is supposed to be on our file to check all fluids.

 

It’s not uncommon for shops to cheap out and use recycled oil. My previous owner used one of those shops. The new owner megathread shows what I found under my valve covers with ~70k original miles, and it was frankly very fugly.