Maine Bound!

[[486]]

I’ll shit it off when I am finished out there for the day.

stinky

 

[92 Green YJ]

So confirmed this morning the garage is indeed a bit warmer than ambient outside air temp. Actually parked the truck in there last night. When I went to get in it to take the kid down the driveway for the bus this morning the thermometer in the truck showed outside temp (in the garage) was 46*. My echo and watch both said outside temp this morning was 27*. So the garage is pretty well insulated. I still think adding molding around the doors to seal up the gaps will help as well and maybe give me an extra degree or two. At the least it will keep the cold air from blowing in thru the gals around the doors.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Put another coat of chalkboard paint up this morning. Gonna just let it dry and call it good I think.

now, on to a couple of winter housekeeping questions/points of discussion.

item 1, our rain barrel out off the porch. I should probably drain this down to about half or lower before it freezes yeah? Or with the big open top will it just freeze and expand up out the top? I’ve held off on draining it down because we are still getting rain and I didn’t see the point of draining it multiple times.

second point of discussion. The block heater for the tractor. I know I do t want or need it plugged in and running 24/7 as it’s a waste of electricity and will raise my bill. I bought a couple of programmable Timers at Home Depot a few weeks ago. Figured I’d plug a timer in to an outlet in the pole barn feeding an extension cord to the block heater. The question is how long does it need to run before I fire the tractor up? Half hour? An hour? I’m actually thinking I may go with a smart outlet instead so I could just turn it on via my phone X amount of time before I go out to use it instead of having the timer just turn it on and run for a set time every day. The question still remains of how long it should run prior to start up. Thoughts?

 

[woods]

Cover that rain barrel in the summer time. Any standing water, you're going to get mutilated by mosquitos that breed in there.

 

[woods]

I only run the block heater if I know there's snow coming. I'll plug it in the night before.

 

[budget76]

1. I'd swap out the tape. Why risk them saying "no hookup" using the cloth, the foil backed stuff is definitely more for anything with heat. Only a couple minutes to put the better stuff on there

2. ecobee on the shop heater will be a sweet setup. I've always had the turn on the space heater, go back inside for a while, go out approach. Doing that from the kitchen while drinking a coffee will be nice

3. I'd drain the whole barrel, and cover it if you can. Lost a couple of the wife's planters in the past that only had some dirt that froze, I wouldn't risk it expanding upwards. Intuition says it'll go both up & outways and break your barrel

Still jealous of the time you've got to spend getting stuff done. I was outside cleaning up the leaves after 7 last night with the M18 rocket light, gets dark by the time I'm home from work most days.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Cover that rain barrel in the summer time. Any standing water, you're going to get mutilated by mosquitos that breed in there.

yeah when we got here I put a couple of those mosquito donut things in it.

I only run the block heater if I know there's snow coming. I'll plug it in the night before.

good info

1. I'd swap out the tape. Why risk them saying "no hookup" using the cloth, the foil backed stuff is definitely more for anything with heat. Only a couple minutes to put the better stuff on there

2. ecobee on the shop heater will be a sweet setup. I've always had the turn on the space heater, go back inside for a while, go out approach. Doing that from the kitchen while drinking a coffee will be nice

3. I'd drain the whole barrel, and cover it if you can. Lost a couple of the wife's planters in the past that only had some dirt that froze, I wouldn't risk it expanding upwards. Intuition says it'll go both up & outways and break your barrel

Still jealous of the time you've got to spend getting stuff done. I was outside cleaning up the leaves after 7 last night with the M18 rocket light, gets dark by the time I'm home from work most days.

1. yeah I’ll probably do that tomorrow. It’s easy enough and I have the stuff.

2. yeah I thought so too. Cost a couple of bucks, but being able to turn it on and let it heat up while I’m still cozy in the house will be priceless.

3. sounds good. Maybe cut a piece of plywood or something to cover it with. I can see those chains turning into some pretty badass looking icicles. If they start dropping in chunks anything less would get torn apart.

yeah, I really need to get on with finding a job again. Been thinking about getting a class B CDL to open up some options locally. Planning to look into local classes here later today actually. And I agree, it sucks that it’s pitch black by 4:30 now. Glad I finally got those motion sensor lights up on the garage.

 

[djljeep]

I would drain the barrel completely and cover it or flip it upside down. Otherwise it will just refill with melt water and believe it or not, we do get rain in the winter.

I know excavation companies who have the block heaters on their pit loaders on nightly timers to turn them on at like 2 or 3 am. I would just assume plug it in the night before I know I'll be using it or when it'll be stupid cold and call it good. Its not like it'll not start 95% of the time, it'll just have to warm up a little longer and generally be a little happier. My dad's kubota has never not started other than when it was like -25 to -30, and even then it had a bad/gelled fuel filter that was the majority of the problem. The case 580e in my yard or his 7.3 dump truck.... not so much....

 

[[486]]

700w or better block/tank heater gets plugged in a half hour before startup and if it ain't real windy you've generally even got a little bit of heat from the heater core if so equipped

100w glue on oil pan heater gets plugged in when the engine's still hot and it'll still be dead cold when you go to start it (so why bother)

 

[Bowe]

In my area no tape is used on a flue pipe connection, the flue on an 80% like you have is running at a slightly negative pressure once it fires anyway so leakage is not a concern unless fitment is terrible.

As far as I know unless you have some sort of shielding with an air gap you'll need 6" clearance on that single wall to combustible material.

 

[Slander]

92 Green YJ , my wife's making the first batch of the year tonight! Can't wait!!

 

[92 Green YJ]

92 Green YJ , my wife's making the first batch of the year tonight! Can't wait!!

I made another when the in laws were here. Probably knock out another tomorow as I have been doing a half batch in the bread machine so I still have half a can of pumpkin purée left.

 

[MoparMoe]

Put another coat of chalkboard paint up this morning. Gonna just let it dry and call it good I think.

now, on to a couple of winter housekeeping questions/points of discussion.

item 1, our rain barrel out off the porch. I should probably drain this down to about half or lower before it freezes yeah? Or with the big open top will it just freeze and expand up out the top? I’ve held off on draining it down because we are still getting rain and I didn’t see the point of draining it multiple times.

second point of discussion. The block heater for the tractor. I know I do t want or need it plugged in and running 24/7 as it’s a waste of electricity and will raise my bill. I bought a couple of programmable Timers at Home Depot a few weeks ago. Figured I’d plug a timer in to an outlet in the pole barn feeding an extension cord to the block heater. The question is how long does it need to run before I fire the tractor up? Half hour? An hour? I’m actually thinking I may go with a smart outlet instead so I could just turn it on via my phone X amount of time before I go out to use it instead of having the timer just turn it on and run for a set time every day. The question still remains of how long it should run prior to start up. Thoughts?

Drain the Barrel it will split with 2" of water in it. Not sure why you'd save rain water anyway. Maine is the exhaust pipe of the nation (jet stream)

You wont need the block heater till we get down to 10F and even then that fluffy new tractor should start.
Timer will work fine , depends on the wattage of the heater but id say 1.5 hours will help.

Better get some power service fuel additive in it now , white bottle , not the red 911, it will get super cold and fuel can get sticky.
drain your fuel /water separator on the tractor now as well. Irving fuel works best for us , its out of Canada and they have a very good winter blend.

If you have the hours for a fuel filter change do it before it gets cold.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Well today I took another trip into town to the old Home Depot. Wife wanted a couple of things and I wanted to pick up some garage door edging to seal off the huge gaps around the doors.

when I drove by friend And friend in Ellsworth I happened to glance over and saw that it looked like they had at least 1 kids ATV sitting in the showroom. So after my HD run I swung in to take a look. My daughter has been bugging for a quad for Xmas and I’ve been watching marketplace for a good deal on one in good shape. But like everything else lately, people want new prices for 10 year old machines that are beat to hell. So i Figured what the hell, let’s go look at a new one. They had two blue Polaris Sportsman 110s in the showroom.

now, my daughter is only 7, but she’s a tall 7 with long legs. I also want something that will last for a few years. So I thought a 110 would be perfect. She will fit on it nicely now, she can ride it for a few years at least before she’s ready to go bigger, and by then my son will be about the right size for it so we should easily get 8 to 10 years of use out of it before they both outgrow it. Only issue is apparently Polaris doesn’t want the liability and neither does the dealer, they won’t sell a 110 unless the kid who will be riding it is at least 10 years old. Their height and physical size makes no difference apparently. For my daughter they wouldn’t sell me anything bigger than a 50cc which they don’t even have any of anyway. Guess it’s back to watching marketplace for a decent used 110 to crop up.


Anyway, came home and set to work on the garage door molding. Unfortunately Home Depot only had it in white, tan,or brown. I wound up going with brown as I thought it would be the least conspicuous with the dark green doors and red barn color. Here you can see how big the gaps are at the tops of the doors. The sides were decent as well.

Took me all of maybe 45 minutes to get it all up. I now have a pair of nicely sealed garage doors which should help keep the heat in and the cold out.

 

[Eric]

Only issue is apparently Polaris doesn’t want the liability and neither does the dealer, they won’t sell a 110 unless the kid who will be riding it is at least 10 years old.

Since when is this a thing? How ridiculous. By it for yourself.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Since when is this a thing? How ridiculous. By it for yourself.

Right?! That’s what I said? How the fuck is that any of their concern anyway? I’m the customer and the parent. It’s on me to decide what my kid can and can’t handle. The thing has a throttle governor on it. It’s not like I’m gonna let my kid get on it and just go full throttle right out of the gate. I was fucking floored. They said Polaris asks for the kids DOB with the paperwork and they really don’t want them to sell quads above a certain engine size for a given age range. Fucking ridiculous.

 

[Roc Doc]

Right?! That’s what I said? How the fuck is that any of their concern anyway? I’m the customer and the parent. It’s on me to decide what my kid can and can’t handle. The thing has a throttle governor on it. It’s not like I’m gonna let my kid get on it and just go full throttle right out of the gate. I was fucking floored. They said Polaris asks for the kids DOB with the paperwork and they really don’t want them to sell quads above a certain engine size for a given age range. Fucking ridiculous.

Lawsuit culture.

 

[woods]

shit, I would have give you a deal on a XR50. new tires, seat, bars, training wheels, and starts on the first kick.

 

[gunracer1]

my six year old grand son has been riding my trx 250 for a year or so, she will be fine. i just leave it in 1st.

 

[92 Green YJ]

my six year old grand son has been riding my trx 250 for a year or so, she will be fine. i just leave it in 1st.

Yeah, I started on an old 80s era Honda 250 myself when I was like 8 or 9.

 

[budget76]

Fawk that. Send the wife, she's buying it for herself to putz around the property, and done

Ridiculous. If they're worried, sign a "no liability for its use" and be done. Restricting purchases based on kids age is insane

 

[flexy flatty]

If they don’t require a birth certificate how do they know how old the kid is? Say it’s for your 10 year old nephew

 

[92 Green YJ]

Fawk that. Send the wife, she's buying it for herself to putz around the property, and done

Ridiculous. If they're worried, sign a "no liability for its use" and be done. Restricting purchases based on kids age is insane

I would, but I’m kind of soured on them as a business at the moment. It’s truly insane. Like, shut the fuck up, take my money, and give me the fucking quad. I didn’t ask for your advice, input, or opinion on whether this particular machine is appropriate for my kid who you don’t even fucking know and haven’t seen.

 

[92 Green YJ]

If they don’t require a birth certificate how do they know how old the kid is? Say it’s for your 10 year old nephew

That’s almost not even the point now. I’m more irritated by the fact that frankly, it’s none of their fucking business. It’s my money, my decision to let my kid ride it on my private property. Why is this even a point of discussion at all?

 

[flexy flatty]

That’s almost not even the point now. I’m more irritated by the fact that frankly, it’s none of their fucking business. It’s my money, my decision to let my kid ride it on my private property. Why is this even a point of discussion at all?

I get it and would feel the same way

 

[[486]]

Fawk that. Send the wife, she's buying it for herself to putz around the property, and done

Ridiculous. If they're worried, sign a "no liability for its use" and be done. Restricting purchases based on kids age is insane

fuck that
don't support lawyer bullshit, don't buy anything from them

 

[Pocahontas]

If you can't find one and its a decent deal just buy it. It will make your daughters Christmas. Dealers make the majority of their money on service and parts so don't support them. Realistically with inflation if you can finance it for less than 5% your getting free money.

 

[MoparMoe]

Old fire hose works good for garage door gaskets, tough as pig snout too

 

[woods]

Old fire hose works good for garage door gaskets, tough as pig snout too

man, I use that shit for everything. Dad's got a bunch of it in the shed.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Old fire hose works good for garage door gaskets, tough as pig snout too

man, I use that shit for everything. Dad's got a bunch of it in the shed.

well with any luck next time we retire some at the firehouse I’ll be able to get ahold of some.