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

Let’s rewind more than eighteen years, shall we...?

In about June or July of 2002, we had just moved out of our rented rancher in Oak Harbor, Washington and into one of the really nice single-wide trailers at the Whidbey Navy Lodge; When I say the trailers were nice, I mean they were NICE!

They were only a few years old, and they had one thing our 2,300 square foot rancher did not; Central air!

Anyway, we’d been keeping our Labrador in a kennel for several days because pets were not allowed in the Navy Lodge single-wides; Molly would have been about seven and a half at the time.

We had to be gone first thing the following morning, and the kennel opened way too late for us to stay on schedule, so my dad picked up Molly a day early and snuck her into the single-wide...

Nobody ever found out that we smuggled a large Black Lab into the trailer, but my Uncle Craig though it would be funny after going for a walk to bang on the front door, disguise his voice, and demand to know if we were keeping a dog in the trailer...

While petting Molly, I discovered that one of her ears was really swollen; She had been acting rather weird and downright lethargic since we brought her back from the kennel...

We were leaving on a cross-country trip to Virginia in less than twelve hours, and Molly’s vet was not open; Somehow, my dad got ahold of the vet. The vet agreed to meet us at the office and see Molly for a hundred bucks; My dad said no problem...

My parents’ 2000 GMC Safari conversion van was loaded up with our stuff and had a UHAUL trailer with my dad’s Harley inside hitched to the back; Unhitching the trailer would have been a pain in the ass, but Uncle Craig came to the rescue and gave my dad the keys to his 1994 Dodge Grand Caravan; That van was nearing the end of its service life by then...

It ran good and the A/C worked, but it had at least 150K miles on it and was falling apart; Three of the four original wheel covers had fallen off, so my aunt and uncle had removed the remaining OEM unit and put on four El Cheapo Plastico aftermarket ones. My dad drove, I rode shotgun, and my cousin rode in the back with Molly.

We got to the vet and he got there a short time later to let us in...

Molly had some sort of infection, obviously picked up at the kennel; My dad was pissed because if his 13-year old kid could spot the issue with Molly’s ear then the people at the kennel obviously knew...

Unfortunately, there was precisely jack shit he could do in terms of legal recourse; The vet prescribed this stuff that ended up making the infection go away, and we left for Virginia in our own van at the crack of dawn the next day..

Molly healed to the point that she was never in any pain, and lived another seven years to the amazing age of fifteen, but her ear was permanently deformed by that infection...

 

Oh, the infamous ‘94 Grand Caravan...

My aunt and uncle bought the silver 1994 Dodge Grand Caravan LE brand new, and not only that, but they special ordered it instead of buying off the lot; I miss the days when you really pick and choose what options your vehicle got...

I’ll have to consult my 1994 Caravan brochure (yes, I have one now) again, but I do believe that LE was the top trim on the 1994 Caravan...

Since it was the top model, air-conditioning was among the many standard features, but only in the front; All Grand Caravan models were available with rear A/C, but it was not a cheap option, and my aunt and uncle figured they would not need it since they lived in Northern California. I rode in the van so many times between 1996 and 2004 that I lost count, and I never had any complaints about the efficiency of the front-only A/C...

 

So, my aunt and uncle did not pay the extra money for rear A/C and heat; The biggest deal for them when it came to optioning out their new van was the 2nd row captain’s chairs. Their daughters were 10 and about 13-14 at the time they bought the van; They were known for getting into fights on long drives, so the solution was to give each girl her own seat, and it worked wonders!

The LE came standard with A/C, cruise control, tilt steering, power locks, unique-to-that-model cloth upholstery, and I believe a 4-speaker AM/FM cassette stereo; An AM/FM stereo with no cassette may have been standard, but their definitely had a cassette player...

In the last couple years they owned that van, during which time I started really noticing car stereo quality (2002-2004), I remember thinking it was pretty good for a factory system with stock speakers in an old minivan...

 

Power windows were an extra-cost option across the board in 1994, even on the higher-end trims and including the top LE trim that my aunt and uncle’s van had...

My uncle opted to stick with manual crank windows not because he couldn’t afford the option, but because he’d owned vehicles with power windows in the past and had nothing but trouble...

In 1996-1997, the last vehicle my dad had owned with manual windows was a 1992 Dodge Dakota, which he’d traded for a new S-10 Blazer in 1993 due to the lack of 4WD. I was only four when my dad got rid of the Dakota and have absolutely no recollection of what windows it had, but my dad saved the window sticker, which proves that it did not have power windows...

My mom had a 1990 Toyota Camry and my dad a 1996 Nissan Pathfinder, both of which had power windows; The 1993 Blazer also had power windows, and at the age of 7, manual windows were a very foreign concept to me...

I actually remember asking my aunt at one point while out with her running errands why her van didn’t have power windows, and expressing my annoyance at having to roll the window myself; This is rather ironic since my Tacoma doesn’t have power windows and it doesn’t particularly bother me...

 

The standard engine on the base short wheelbase Caravan in 1994 (but not the SE and LE models) was the underpowered 2.5L four; The SE and LE came standard with a Mitsubishi-sourced 3.0L V6, which was mated with a 3-speed automatic transmission on base models (a 4-speed was standard on the LE). The 3.0L was also standard on the basic Grand Caravan, and the 3-speed auto was the only choice; With only 150hp on tap, acceleration must have been leisurely at best!

My aunt and uncle’s van had the 3.3L V6, which made a decent-for-the-time 162hp, and Mitsubishi 4-speed auto; The tranny in that van never failed, but there was a recall in 1995 or 1996 and it was replaced free of charge when the van wasn’t even two years old and not even paid off yet! The new transmission never had a problem...

 

My aunt and uncle bought that van new in 1994 and owned it for ten years; By the time they got rid of it in 2004, it had about 180K miles on it! Keep in mind that they live in California, which has obnoxiously strict smog testing; My uncle says the van NEVER failed a smog test!

 

In 1997, the van developed weird electrical problems; Whenever my aunt hit a bump or even the slightest imperfection in the road, the door chime would go nuts, the dome light would flicker on and off, and the digital clock on the radio would fade in an out, among other things...

The van did not stall or even give the slightest hint of losing power, and I quickly dubbed it “The Haunted Caravan”; My aunt and I had a good laugh...

I forget what ended up being the problem, but my aunt and uncle got the issue resolved; I’m guessing something came loose and would touch off the impromptu electrical show whenever my aunt hit a bump...

 

My aunt and uncle live in California but regularly drove it out to Texas in family trips, and also out East; They drove it to Washington at least once (see above)...

The odometer reading in 2004 was something like 180K, which was high for a 10-year old vehicle; I’m guessing that van had a 100K by the time the new millennium rolled around. The van was obviously long since paid for by then and still had no trouble passing smog, so my aunt and uncle decided to keep it...

My only complaint about the van in later years was that it did not have a CD player; In 1999, my uncle bought a new Dodge Ram pickup and his 1987 Isuzu Trooper was relegated to third car status...

The Caravan continued to chug along even after the younger of my two cousins went to college...

 

In 2003 or 2004, the A/C quit working for good; They’d had to recharge it a couple times over the yearS, but this time the compressor seized if I remember correctly...

Dodge Caravans are not known for their strong retail values, even in perfect condition with low miles; Ten years old with about 180K on the clock? Forget about it! The cost of putting a new compressor in that van would have probably been more than a third of the cash value at the time (I’m guessing maybe $2,500?) So, my aunt and uncle sold it to someone on Texas (despite the A/C being shot), and bought a new 2004 Honda Element that they held onto for at least a decade before selling it to make room for the two VW buses...

 

sup Charlie
given all the recent posts about the towers and 9/11
and your intense research of the towers hvac system...

a bit off topic perhaps, but in the event you have never seen this film... I wanted to recommend a film called The Walk

it is the story of Philippe Petit, a french high wire walker, pretty good film IMHO

as a New yorker who grew up in Manhattan and was witness to what went down... I find films like this worth the time, a glimpse into how spectacular these buildings where before they became infamous.

 

I will take a look!

These days, I’d imagine it’d be hard taking pictures or videos of anything in NYC that isn’t an obvious tourist attraction without attracting unwanted attention from the police and/or FBI!

 

My neighbor owns a company that designs ductwork and stuff for commercial HVAC applications, and he was an encyclopedia of information about the heating and cooling systems in the original World Trade Center.

Chillers are in fact cool-only; The system at my Grandma's apartment was a water-source heat pump and thus part of a totally different system than what the twin towers had. The heating and cooling systems in the World Trade Center were totally separate, but may have used the same ductwork; The refrigeration plant at the World Trade Center consisted of seven York refrigeration machines, each the size of a locomotive (CLICK HERE). I got most of the info I posted from that thread on HVAC Talk; I talked to my neighbor maybe an hour and a half ago, the one who owns his own HVAC company, and he told me that the Trade Center used a steam heating system...

I was like, "So, it was gas?"...

He's like "No, steam."; Apparently a different setup than a traditional hot water baseboard system...?

Also, the cooling system from the original World Trade Center used water from the Hudson River to cool the refrigeration machines; This type of setup was outlawed sometime in the 1990s, but because the Trade Center was built between roughly 1969 and 1973 when it was legal, it was grandfathered in. So, when the original refrigeration system was severely damaged in the February 1993 bombing, they were allowed to keep that system; However, I do believe that the damage from the 1993 bombing led to the system being converted from R-12 to R134a...

After reading the HVAC Talk thread, I thought this was a typo, but my neighbor confirmed that these huge commercial refrigeration systems used R-12 and then later R134a. The one thing I kept noticing in every article I read about the World Trade Center was that the system was referred to as "refrigeration" and not "air-conditioning"; The actual units were referred to in the HVAC Talk thread as "refrigeration machines", not "air-conditioners" and/or "chillers"...

While the HVAC system in the World Trade Center achieved the same effect as a residential or light commercial central air-conditioning system (keeping an indoor space cool when it is hot outside), and did utilize compressors and refrigerant as well, the process by which one of these "refrigerating machines" is different than a typical air-conditioner or heat pump...

As the name implies, it is basically a giant refrigerator; On a side note, a heat pump operates in a manner similar to a domestic refrigerator when in HEAT mode.

 

My neighbor's response my question about whether or not the A/C and heat in the World Trade Center used the same vents/ductwork...

"They probably had constant volume or variable air volume air handlers on each floor or multiple floors were served by a single air handling unit. The AHU had a chilled water coil in it and a hot water heating coil. They also had heating coils in the VAV boxes or in the ductwork. The latter is called a constant volume reheat system."

 

1992 ford probe, mint green. Chick magnet it was not. Reliable it was not. Fun to drive it was not. But it had pop up headlights (one worked)

 

1998 kia sportage my girl had, think it was made of tin cans and super glue

 

Plymouth Whoreizon, how that thing got to 199k miles is a wonder.

 

Pop-up head-LIGHT

 

I’ve been lucky with all my vehicles. My mom on the other hand, her first car was a Geo Metro WITH a salvage title

 

Kind of a toss up for me.

First car was a 91 Geo storm. Bought it for $100. It didn’t move. sat in my driveway and ended up towed it to my brothers friends house who got it to move (neutral safety switch). Barely made the drive back home. Ended up junking it and bought a brand new 02 Toyota Celica. Can’t really fault that as I didn’t know anything about cars then and only paid $100 for it.

Then there was a 2009 Jeep Liberty. Traded me first gen Taco for it (mistake) was an ex rental and needed some new heads. Got one done under warranty and traded it in before the other was done. Ended up trading it for a Frontier.

Guess you could add the 1st gen Taco (03) to this list. Died on me a couple times. No one could figure it out. Guessing it was the fuel pump. But every time I had someone look at it, it was fine. Loved the truck, but didn’t love being stranded with my daughter on the side of the road who was only around 3 at the time.

Then probably my 3rd gen. Hasn’t left me stranded, but have had the evaporator replaced, door sill bubbled up, blower cage replaced, ECU reflashed for shifting issues/cruise. Diff weeping, Some dash rattles, broken center console latch. Underside of the truck is starting to look inferno as well. Even undercoated the shit out of the frame as soon as I got it. Worst I’ve ever had. Live around the salt belt but I wash the undercarriage often in the winter. Nothing that I would say is major (Yet), but I have concerns about the longevity of this truck.

I’d say the toss up is between the Jeep and my current 3rd Gen. considering the 3rd gen was twice what I paid for the Jeep I’d probably have to go with it


The best I’ve owned:

02 Toyota Celica
2013 F150
2011 Nissan Frontier