Nuke-E

If you polish, you have to replace the UV coating that you've stripped off, otherwise you will be right back doing it again. When the housings were several hundred dollars a piece, I thought it was worth the effort, but with reasonably good aftermarket housings available for ~$300/set, you're probably better off just replacing them. I'm a fan of the replacement housings from Depo--they're a good enough housing for the money. They have a slightly different contour over the top which would make polishing a bit easier if you ever wanted to in the future, and the rest of the components are similar to stock, including the ability to upgrade the projectors. But be VERY careful ordering online--it's not uncommon to see listings with either the original equipment part numbers or Depo part numbers where the actual parts are a no-name variety with inferior components. I'd recommend either buying from Amazon here, or ordering from Advantage Truck Parts in NC (website is currently down, otherwise I'd post a link). I've run across people that have bought lights at truck dealers where the dealer has used a Volvo box (presumably left over from installing a set for one of their customers) and sold them with cheap housings instead. Make sure that the Volvo logo is present on the lens if you're buying OE, or that the Depo logo is present if you're buying those--open the boxes before you walk out the door! Don't get the cheap lights at the premium price. I've not seen any restyled replacements with LED turn signals, halos, etc., where the quality matches the basic housings--especially when you consider that they're more expensive, less reliable, and can't be serviced.

That's the term used by the EV crowd, usually in a derogatory manner, to refer to vehicles with internal combustion engines. Somebody being iced usually refers to a gas/diesel vehicle blocking a charging spot.

I didn't think I was an ole coot, but if scars, pain meds, and sitting at home bored of daytime TV is the bar, I'm guilty. Patience likely isn't any better as a sophomore in high school, and back then, between a dial-up internet connection and soap operas, afternoons got real old in a hurry. Glad the surgeries went well, and we'll be sure to see you back at 100% real soon.

You just have to drive it with the same attitude as you do one of those electric go-karts. But if you show a Tesla group a picture of one of their beloved cars attached to an ICE, about half of them will go nuts.

I've never noticed that. Are we talking about on the sides of the trailer? That would be a big no-no. Phil, have a look at the diagnostics menu (scroll down below vehicle messages). You should be able to get fault codes for the LCM. My first guess is that you either have a short circuit fault on the reverse circuit, or more likely low enough voltage getting to the LCM that can only think like it's drinking caffeine-free Dr. Pepper. Feel free to post or send me the codes, or give me a call this afternoon and I'd be glad to help you figure it out.

Quite a few states do this, and not just for radio operators. Tennessee regularly issues the same standard plate number for multiple vehicles, though they avoid doing so for multiple vehicles of the same body type (e.g a sedan and pickup get the same number, but two sedans should not). It frequently exposes the sloppy work of photo enforcement contractors and police officers that review notices before they go in the mail. It doesn't look too credible when you take the stand and read from the citation that the dump truck in the photo did violate the speed limit as shown in the photo when the photo is of a red Corvette.

Sounds like you need a bigger truck! Doesn't the Tesla have more torque anyways? 🤣

I had the same thought. Two or three years ago, I saw a tandem axle car trailer behind a pickup with a wheel that didn't look right--some smoke and obviously not positioned right. Traffic was fairly heavy, and I was stuck behind a few cars probably about 100 yards back. It was clear he was going to lose that tire, and it was driving me nuts that I couldn't get to where I could try to flag him down (approaching the scale house on the west side of Knoxville, so there would have been a safe place to stop). I started slowing, and trying to catch the attention of the cars around me, pointing to the trailer as I was being passed. There was still a clump of cars preventing me from getting up along side of the truck, but at least there was a decent gap between the cars that caused the log jam and a much larger number now a little ways behind. It came loose from the right lane, rolling kind of like what was in the video (but smaller tire), and somehow managed to roll and bounce across the three westbound lanes, across the center divider, and my passenger watched it make it across all three eastbound lanes before hitting--and destroying--a tree on the far shoulder, without hitting any other cars. The truck made it safely to the shoulder, and the few flames at the axle were quickly put out. It could have turned out a LOT worse than it actually did.

I'd say that looks pretty good! Especially on a red truck, where fading can be hard to hide.

Mine is going to need the same thing, along with some paint work along the top where it looks like someone didn't properly prep the aluminum trim. It started peeling last year, and has gotten pretty bad. Interestingly, it has a unique, symmetrical pattern, almost like it had some decals or a wrap at some point. Almost looks like it had flames like Jim & Allie's truck.

It's certainly possible you don't get charged, especially with unmanned toll roads that use plate-by-mail tolling. Even something as simple as leaving the tailgate down on a pickup means no read of the tag, and with no toll booths or transponders required, there's no way to assess a toll. It's kind of like freeway speed cameras in a lot of places--they're often set up to photograph only the rear of the vehicle (mainly so the cameras can be hidden behind things), and a vehicle with front-only tags gets through without a ticket.

Just remember that strategy hurts a little more than ego if you try it getting out of the truck.

Yeah, the chance of ruining brand new housings would probably have me steering clear for that reason alone. The picture I linked was a customer that was initially pretty happy with them, until the bulbs basically fell out. We both know that you're not likely to get caught for using them (extremely low odds of being stopped, longer odds of any sort of inspection, and virtually impossible odds of someone going to the trouble of looking inside headlights). Even among pro truckers, there are guys that get ticketed for having LED bulbs, but the odds of getting caught are still really low.

True. If everyone merges smoothly in advance of the closure, and the closed lane is emptied early with traffic flowing, there's nothing lost. The problem is that one driver who forces in at the wrong place or with a large speed differential and causes braking, and brings the thing to a halt. Zippering makes the most sense in areas where you know the remaining open lanes can't handle the flow, with the alternate merging happening at low speeds. City streets are another appropriate place, though it's a double-edged sword--the purpose of using both lanes is to reduce the physical length of the backup, but in using all lanes you also prevent people from getting to other intersections that are before the closure. It could very well be that you get more cars through the closure, but have more cars stuck in traffic too.

There are also quite a few states where you can register without retitling. It sounds weird, but there are some circumstances where it could be necessary or convenient. Years ago, I moved and registered a vehicle that was financed. The only way I learned that it hadn't been retitled in the process was the bill for property tax in the old state. When I showed that it was registered elsewhere, the tax clerk (old state) was surprised that it could be done. But I guess when registration is $50+ a year, and titling is a $1 fee, someone in the (new state) local treasurers office said don't lose $50 every year trying to get one dollar.

The fog light mounting bolts can definitely be a pain, but I would have thought you were far enough south to avoid the corrosion from salt spray. Or did you get your truck from GATS in Minnesota? When I first started dealing with this stuff, a few of the Canadians enlightened me to the idea that corrosion tends to be worse on the driver's side of these trucks--they spend a lot of time either in the right lane or on 2-lane roads, and passing traffic is almost always to their left. For some reason, when I got my rig, the computer was programmed to have fog lights, but they weren't installed. I bought new lights, but they didn't come with bolts. In addition to being a pain to get off, if you use too long of a bolt or get it crossthreaded just a bit, those same nuts break loose on the new housing. Don't ask how I know. You shouldn't have any trouble with anti-seize on the bolts, as long as you got the housings in the right spot before snugging them up. As far as the LED "bulbs", it's a loaded question. First of all, quality is all over the map, even within a particular brand (most "brands", of course, don't actually identify a manufacturer). Part of that results from the fact that they're illegal to sell in the US, having a bulb base for a regulated bulb type, but not matching the other specifications for the type. It's the wild west if there's a problem, and the list of companies selling on Amazon or other outlets today is very different each year, and the brand shown is getting some NHTSA scrutiny on this issue--it might still be a year away, but you'll probably see their name in the Federal Register before too long. But set the legal stuff aside for a minute. In general, these LEDs in a projector assembly tend to give you a lot more light over a broader area. The problem with the typical distribution that results is that puts most of the light in the immediate foreground (i.e. on the ground in front of the truck and in the trees above the truck) relative to the amount of light shining straight ahead. So your (young and newly retired, right?) pupils don't dilate as much, and your ability to discern objects in the distance is actually reduced, even if the cast light off in the distance stayed the same or improved slightly. The effect is similar to trying to drive at night with a bright laptop screen or a dome light on. Your headlights don't get dimmer, but your ability to see is degraded. In terms of the lights themselves, an LED dissipates its power in the form of heat and light over a very small area. It's what makes them an attractive and efficient technology, and lets us jam 500,000 gigalumens into a tactical flashlight. But the chips themselves have temperature limits, much lower than in glass bulb types, and most of the design work on these things goes into keeping the chip cool enough that it doesn't fail. The ones with active cooling (i.e. fans) tend to be the most problematic, but even ones with passive cooling can conduct enough heat to cause damage to the headlight. If the proposed application were one where the bulb holder was made of a glass-filled material like the back of a lot of older headlights (92-93 F-series trucks would be a good example), there would be less risk of damage. But the projectors in the Depo lights, just like the originals, are plastic. The heat around the bulb base trying to make its way to the heatsink will cause the reflective surface on the projector to start to degrade, and once that starts the temperatures get hotter, accelerating the degradation. The end result can be this: https://deepspacelighting.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/image1-1.jpg

We can blame government and media for a lot of that. Promotion of the "zipper merge" has lots of people thinking that they're supposed to cut in line at the last minute passing cars that have already merged to make things flow better. For them, I suppose they're right, but not for everyone else. Some of them seem to decide to merge with all of the surprise of having their number called in Chinese Bingo, and take a spot from someone else regardless of how many times the gift has already been stolen... It dawned on me driving last night that people seem to understand the concept of the zipper merge a lot better when it comes to emergency vehicles. People seem to use all lanes, but manage to merge while still moving, instead of passing the slowed traffic. At least some of the time... Interestingly, I've recently learned that a few states (IA, IL, CT) now include disabled vehicles in their move over laws. Nobody wants to be a sitting duck at the side of the road hunted by an inattentive driver, but maybe they'll be a little easier to spot before trying to run us over. And not that another reminder is really necessary, but this one just happened recently: https://fox59.com/2019/07/14/mother-twins-killed-after-semi-slammed-into-their-car-on-i-465-7-others-injured/ I fail to see how someone cutting you off causes you to slam into stopped traffic. If anything, if you believe the driver's account at all, that car that cut him off might be the only thing that caused him to touch the brakes before impact at all.

I can relate to that. On the bright side, the further you are from the closest Menard's, the longer car parts last. Henry--Just saw your post, and Menard's is about 10 minutes away and closed 11 minutes ago. I'll probably be over there tomorrow and can take a look and see if they have them in stock. Fingers crossed they extend the 11% rebate for another week.

The Tesla shouldn't have any loads yet, just testing. If you look closely, you'll see that there's no front side marker light or reflex reflector, among other things.

Sounds like you had someone on your side helping you work through it. Rare as it might be, it's always good to see it turn out the way it should. You might consider sending Mark info on who you dealt with for inclusion in the resource guide. Presumably, if another Georgian showed up with an HDT, she would be the person to make it easy.

Thanks!

Duh. I should have thought of that. Another 75 gallons of grey would let me go almost to the end of my fresh water supply. I guess that all depends on the criteria--if you end up running the generator for power, probably not. If you're just talking about dealing with the waste itself, I could see that.

I suppose I'm curious as to why you'd look at an incinerating toilet as part of the remodel. I certainly see it if you don't already have a holding tank, or don't have any space below the floor (like a lot of tiny homes), but I guess I'm missing the appeal otherwise. It's bigger, more expensive, and you're still going to have grey water to need to get rid of. But certainly, if you go that route, it would be interesting to see what you think.

It's still a work in progress, but feel free to check out what's been going on in my rig--mainly in the kitchen. I'm slowly getting the content caught up to where I am now. This link will take you directly to the posts on the kitchen remodel, while the link in my signature will take you to the main site. Newest stuff first, so if you want to follow along from the beginning head to the bottom of the last page.

Here's summary (with citations) for some of the SD laws for registration: You do not need to be a resident to register a vehicle (from Sherri Miller at the SD DMV): If you are a non-resident, you do not need to register a vehicle kept/operated in SD with SD, provided you comply with the registration requirements of your home state (SDCL 32-5-46). A non-resident may register a vehicle with any county in the state (SDCL 32-5-2). If you are a resident, you are not required to register all of your vehicles in SD, only vehicles operated in SD (SDCL 32-5-2). You may designate an agent for the purposes of registration/titling (SDCL 32-5-2). You can have a vehicle registered in SD, but retain title in another state (SDCL 32-5-4.1). This often happens by default if you change registration to SD while the title is held by a finance company; you'll want to retitle it though if you're moving from a state with an ad valorum tax. Anyone possessing the title or renewal certificate is authorized to renew the registration (SDCL 32-5-151). Registration month is based on your last name (SDCL 32-5-2.2), so all vehicles you register in SD will need renewed at the same time. SD previously had an inspection requirement (SDCL 32-21-1), but it was repealed in 1979. (The state also previously had an income tax, repealed in 1943). There is a limitation on the reciprocity for vehicles operated in SD by nonresidents contained in SDCL 32-5-48, and they'll consider you a resident for registration purposes after 90 days (SDCL 32-5-47). But again, that still only affects vehicles operated in SD. The excise tax on the sale of a vehicle is 3%, with a credit for tax paid to another state. (SDCL 32-5B-1) Every other driver's license renewal can be done by mail (SD 32-12-43.1).