PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

One super annoying thing is that I can’t dictate a text without switching head unit to phone audio mode (and then having to switch back to radio mode afterward for music). Not seamless at all.

 

And then here is one of the A/C units at the former bank. Obviously a place this big will require at least three. I talked to one of the workers last week and found out that there are a couple of units up on the roof, which also features a patio! Also of note is that this base Lennox unit is a heat pump; I could tell it was specifically a 14 SEER heat pump just by looking at the model number on the data sheet. This place obviously gas heat, and people generally don't use cheaper units like this in dual-fuel systems, so I'm guessing this particular one is for the basement or a guest area...

 

I don’t want to give up the settings that can be adjusted through head unit. Also, it’s a pretty good chunk of change that won’t affect my ownsership experience much.

 

Also, all sound systems in 2nd Gen Tacos genuinely suck except for the top JBL system; An AUX input wasn't added until the 2009 model year, a USB port and Bluetooth didn't become an option across the board until 2012-2013, and backup cameras didn't become standard until the 3rd Gen!

 

There are exceptions to every rule, but I've noticed the following around here; Owners of larger, nicer, and/or more expensive houses (not including new construction, which always uses builder-grade equipment) tend to "cheap out" on HVAC equipment. On the other hand, owners of smaller, more modest, and/or otherwise less-expensive homes tend to get nicer A/C units.

As I said, there are exceptions to every rule; My friend Ryan and his dad (Ryan is the middle child; the oldest child is grown up, married with kids, and lives outside the state; the youngest is in college; Ryan's mom died of cancer last year) live in a massive 4-bedroom brick colonial, built in 1996 and currently valued at a million dollars at the very least. The house originally had two York Stellar Series A/C units matched with York 90% efficiency gas furnaces. Apparently, one of the original Yorks failed (probably a bad compressor or a massive freon leak). My friend's dad is a successful pharmaceutical executive, has a lot of money that he works very hard for, and decided to replace both York units since the other unit would inevitably end up failing. My friend's dad spared no expensive, getting a top-of-the-line Trane XV20i air-conditioner and (I'm assuming) the Trane XC95m gas furnace for the main level and basement. The 2nd floor got a less-expensive, but still pretty damn nice, Trane XL16i A/C unit and appropriately matched gas furnace.

My friend Gwyn bought a 3-bedroom raised ranch in 2003 and still lives there. The house was built in 1958 and had oil baseboard heat, but no central air. As a young married mother with two young kids, and now a mortgage among other things, the budget was tight. She bought a bottom-of-the-barrel Gibson (NORDYNE) straight-cool unit and air handler, and her friend who's an HVAC tech not only retrofitted the house with ductwork but installed the system for about $5,000 (having seen the install quality myself, relative to what Gwyn paid, Gwyn actually got a damn good deal)!

Also, the Gibson (now about 13 years old) has absolutely surprised and amazed me with how long it has lasted. The Gibson was only about 3-4 years old when I first met Gwyn, and I wasn't shy about telling her that I thought NORDYNE products were junk and she'd be lucky to get a decade out of it. Almost a decade later, the Gibson is still going strong! Not only that, it runs incredibly quiet for a 13-year old builder-grade unit! The unit has some surface rust, but that's to be expected after sitting outside for more than a decade. The Gibson has never broken down, and I think the one saving grace is that it has a scroll compressor. Many cheaper units in the early 2000s were still using reciprocating compressors, which were not only noisier than scroll compressors but not as durable. Rheem and Ruud (identical products by the same company) were the first manufacturers to use scroll compressors across the board in their residential A/C units and heat pumps (even the least expensive ones) in the early 1990s I believe.

 

I say again that I am not counting new-construction homes built by nationwide builders like Toll Brothers, Pulte, D.R. Horton, and KB Homes, etc. Unless the customer pays a substantial premium for top-of-the-line shit, the more entry-level builders use the cheapest units they can get in condos and townhouses all the way up to massive McMansions. In my area, builder grade units from the following brands seem to be the most popular among builders; Carrer (and ICP, which is owned by the same company), Goodman, Lennox, and York. Bryant (which is owned by United Technologies, the same company that owns Carrier, ICP, and Payne) is not common in new builds around here, but seems to be quite popular in existing homes that are either getting the A/C unit replaced or didn't have central air to begin with. I'm 90% sure I've never seen a new construction home around here, built after the year 2000, that had Bryant products installed at the time it was built.

A brand new home recently went up in Doylestown (the blue place, pictured of which can be seen in this thread) that has dual Bryant Evolution heat pumps matched with gas furnaces fueled by an onsite propane tank, but this is a custom-built home and not in a subdivision.

In 2010 or 2011, my parents and I looked at a new subdivision, consisting of both single-family homes and condos. I forget the name of the builder, but it was a smaller local/regional builder and not a nationwide megabuilder like Pulte or Toll Brothers. All of the homes in this enclave had Trane XB-Series air-conditioners matched with gas furnaces. The condos had single units with multiple zones, but the single-family homes had two separate units. XB is Trane's builder-grade/budget line, and that development was the only large subdivision I've seen in this area with Trane products (at least recently). It is common for smaller subdivided neighborhoods by independent builders, and individual custom homes, to have Trane and American Standard (both owned by Ingersoll-Rand and virtually identical) products, however...

 

I took a second job as a pizza delivery driver in the summer of 2015 to make some extra money. One thing I noticed was that people in more modest houses and even apartments tended to tip quite generously, while people living in McMansions and other large houses tipped well below what they should have (or not at all). My dad and I like to joke that the reason for both lousy (or nonexistent) tips and cheap air-conditioners are probably the reason they can afford such a large and expensive house!

 

It’s kind of true that part of the reason they can afford such stuff is that they are not generous. My tennis team captain with a $3m home asks us to chip in $10 pizza money when he throws the annual holiday party for the team.

 

Also, most people do not devote anywhere near the amount of time and energy to choosing a HVAC system that I would. They may or may not do their research on specific brands and models, and most probably use a contractor recommended to them by a friend or neighbor. People often go with the contractor who has the best ratings on Angie's List or Yelp instead of which specific A/C unit got the highest ratings from Consumer Reports.

While I would never install a Nordyne product in my home, I believe that an air-conditioner or heat pump is only as good as the person who installed it!

 

A perfect example of a system being only as good as the installer would be a case in Phoenix, Arizona in about 2005-2006.

A veteran HVAC journeyman technician, who goes by the username of "hackfreehvac" on YouTube, posted a video of two brand new Trane XL19i heat pumps at a large house, which he actually worked on. Obviously, this was not a brand new home that had Trane XL19i units installed at the time of construction; if this were the case, it would be even more of an abomination. The house was built sometime in the 1990s and the homeowners decided to replace both units for whatever reason. Again, this was in Arizona, which is a very tough environment for an air-conditioners. The original units had a smaller footprint than the new Trane units, and were located in an enclosure on the side of the house.

A competent installer would have simply demolished and rebuilt the enclosure, or relocated one or both of the units to a better location. However, relocating the line set for an A/C unit in existing structure is no simple task, and this is f***ing Arizona we're talking about so the homeowners understandably probably wanted the A/C to be up and running ASAP!

Understandably irate homeowners combined with lazy-ass technicians/installers in one of the hottest places on the continent of North America equaled inevitable disaster!

For starters, a Trane XL19i 2-stage heat pump and a matched variable-speed air handler cost about $10,000 including parts, labor, and sales tax. So, these people spent twenty grand since they had two systems.

The installing company shoehorned these two massive heat pumps into an enclosure built for smaller units, and they were practically touching.

In my opinion, multiple units should be installed at least 6 to 8 inches apart. These damn things were practically touching!

Within weeks, both systems were failing, and "hackfree" I believe was the tech called in to fix them.

The heat pumps were so close together that they couldn't get enough airflow, they ran too hot, and the compressors automatically shut down.

Trane XLi units have a unique composite fan grill that discharges air out the sides. Instead of relocating the units, the company took traditional-styled fan grills from lower end Tranes and installed them on the XL19i units!

The units ran a little bit better, but at nowhere near their advertised efficiency!

 

We serve shrimp salad and bacon-wrapped shrimp at the bar where I work. Our cook referred to the shrimp we got this week as "like lobsters"...

Seriously, look how big they are!

 

This waterproof TV cost more than my Tacoma! However, the Tacoma at least starts on the first try...

For the first time in the two or three years we've had this thing, it turned on the first time I hit the "POWER" button on the remote!

 

Saw a Raptor parked on East State Street earlier today!

 

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We get shrimp called tiger prawns they are huge

 

People of TW, I give you bacon-wrapped shrimp!

 

Effing tornado watch!

 

@Plain Jane Taco

Haven't seen you in a while, Bill!

 

Been stupid busy the last couple of weeks