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

The new owners replaced the original air-conditioner with a larger and more efficient Trane unit at some point in 2010-2012, and that unit remains today...

 

I saw a Hummer in a driveway in my friend’s neighborhood...

 

My parents’ old house in Montgomery Township; We lived here from 1990 to 1996...

The backyard fence is gone, the windows and light fixtures have been replaced, and the air-conditioner has been replaced; Other than that, the house doesn’t look much different than it did 25 years ago...

As I’ve said before, this house is pretty ordinary for a house of the era, at least to someone who doesn’t know it’s history; The house does not have the extra-cost 9-foot first floor ceilings (8-foot was standard), and it lacks many features that a house of the same size and same basic floor plan being built today would have, like dual-zone A/C for example...



However, David Cutler Group brought in Amish workers to build this neighborhood, so they were quite well-built by today’s standards!

One annoying thing about this house was the delicate vinyl tile in the kitchen; The original buyers of the house backed out of the deal when it was almost complete, even though Cutler pocketed twenty grand from them. As a result, Cutler sold it to my parents for $20K below the original price; The one drawback was that the interior decor had been picked out by the original buyers, and my parents did not like it. However, it was a brand spanking new house at a $20K discount, with 4 bedrooms including a master bedroom suite, a study on the first floor, upgraded hardwood floors, and central air!

The builder provided some spare tiles, and whenever they would crack, my dad would pry up the broken tile and replace it, then use my mom’s hairdryer to dry the glue...

The microwave and range/stove were one unit if I remember correctly, a big Caloric gas stove; In the early 1990s the microwave broke. Since it was one unit, replacing the microwave meant replacing the whole stove; The stove and oven still worked fine. I don’t know if the repair was paid for by the builder or the appliance manufacturer, or if my parents had to pay out of pocket, but I remember coming downstairs one day and seeing the microwave with it’s guts hanging out...

I talked to the guy who bought the house from my parents back in 1996, and the kitchen has long since been renovated with new appliances and cabinets, and granite countertops...

 

Also, note that the shutters are blue; They were beige at first, but my parents didn’t like the way that looked, plus the house next door was the same model (Dunhill) and had beige shutters as well (still does). Cutler replaced the beige shutters with blue ones for free; In our current neighborhood, the builder went out of its way to make sure no houses next door to each other had the same exterior colors!

 

This is the house in my old neighborhood I was talking about the other day; The one that was heavily renovated with large additions (not visible in the picture) and upgraded to dual-zone A/C...

The Carrier heat pumps (presumably with gas backup since these houses all have public gas), can be seen in this picture...



The house is the same floor plan as ours, but reversed...

 

That's awful

 

That looks like the original Hummer in that pic, think they were called H1 if I remember correctly

 

Garage wall is really coming along.

 

And we had pretty much all winter without snow, LOL!

 

Yup! Real Hummer, based on the military Humvee...

I used to think H2s we’re cool, but now I think they’re cheaply made and rather stupid looking...

 

I say again; My truck was purchased new at Peruzzi Toyota in Hatfield...

I bring it to Thompson for recall work and PA state inspection because Thompson is much closer to my house than Peruzzi; I forget exactly what the issue was, but not long after we bought truck and with less than 600 miles on the clock, it started having issues with the transmission! I seem to remember that it was something with the brake/shift interlock; So, my dad brought the truck to Peruzzi (I only had my learner's permit at the time) and though it was obviously covered under warranty, they couldn't "replicate the problem"...

My dad was so pissed that he removed the "PERUZZI" logo from the tailgate and brought it to Thompson, where they found the problem right away and fixed it (again, under warranty because the truck was barely two months old with like 600 miles).

On the flipside; When we put aftermarket 16" wheels on the truck and had to get the TPMS sensors programmed, both my dad's mechanic who installed the new wheels and tires and Thompson Toyota, were unable to program them! I took it to Peruzzi for the first time in about four years, and they had it ready to go in less than an hour! I even got to reunite with salesman who sold my dad the truck!

 

I’ve read some of your HVAC posts and enjoy them. Also like the historical knowledge you have about them. Just curious what spurred your interest in the topic? Your knowledge depth is amazing.

 

I honestly have no idea...

It's a total Aspergers thing; Just about everyone with autism has some sort of random interest...

I've seen trains, elevators, escalators; Mine's HVAC. I consider cars and trucks to be my more mainstream interest, because I know guys (and girls) both with and without autism spectrum disorder, who are either obsessed with cars like or just see them as "transportation".

My significant interest in HVAC began in like 2007, when the central A/C and heat in my parents' rented house started having serious problems; The oil furnace broke twice in the winter of 2006-2007, and the A/C had to be recharged at least once every summer when we lived there, but the owner of the house refused to buy a new unit!



I started asking my friends and relatives what kind of A/C and heating systems their houses had; And most people I knew had either gas or oil heat. At the time, my aunt and uncle had this beautiful brick colonial in Northern Virginia; I casually asked my aunt what kind of heat the house had, and she told me it had a heat pump...

I had no idea what a heat pump was at the time; My Grandma had just bought a house in 2006, and every house in the neighborhood had a heat pump with propane backup. One time I happened to be out for a walk and I heard the neighbor's A/C running even though it was in the 40s or 50s; I could not fathom why someone had their A/C on when it was that cold; Looking back on it, I now realize it was a heat pump...

 

@NMTrailRider

I have a whole collection of HVAC videos on YouTube (My username is Stamped Octagon Productions); The air-conditioners and heat pumps I have filmed range from a 1964 Trane I filmed in 2012 (the oldest operational unit I've filmed) and dual 1968 York units, all the way up to brand new 2010s units!

 

Yeah they are a bit odd, also vaguely remember one with a pickup bed maybe an H3?

 

They made an H1 pickup, but that was a regular cab; The H3 was available as a crew cab pickup, but those are incredibly rare! You could get it with a 5-speed stick, but only with the 5-cylinder engine and not the 5.3L V8...

 

That must have been on the Colorado/Canyon platform

 

More or less, but much more durable and a much better performer off-road...

 

Come to think of it, when I was searching for Canyon parts on a JY system for the ex gf's son I do recall seeing H3 stuff on that list.

 

Did the Canyon have a salvage title?