Wisconsin Tacomas and bad financial advice

I have a spare battery that I carry with me that charges via USB, and with my AC plug in the cab, I can charge a regular battery while driving (or overnight off the camp power). Anyone with a Baofeng UV-9G can benefit!

 

I'd give it a couple years for them to add USB-C charging like they did on this one.

$48 BAOFENG GM-15 Pro GMRS Handheld Radio 8W Long Range Walkie Talkie NOAA Weather Receiver and Scan Rechargeable GMRS Repeater Capable Two Way Radio with USB-C Charger Full Kit,2Pack

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3DRG9GC


I only got it for that reason and the price. It doesn't boast being waterproof like the UV-9G but I did accidentally test that feature out when I left it out in the rain one night. Still worked!

 

Bad Financial Advice Indeed!

Postman just dropped off a Baofeng UV-9G, Nagoya NA-771G and Nagoya UT-72G.

My thanks to all the Wisconsin financial advisors here that helped me.

 

I (almost) ordered a handheld that you could rechage using USB-C. I like that since I have a ton of those cables.

 

Sorry for being an enabler, but this was more like a snowball scheme.

More power is more betterer. (right?)

 

Programing. Might also run power, depending on model.

This.

My UV9s all have USB charging. Like an old phone charger. Cylindrical plug. It's slow, but effective.

 

Really? I thought maybe I’d be the one coming in loud since mine is hardwired with an external antenna and I run it on high. I should probably double check it is on high though.

I might need to do some radio troubleshooting with you next time were out, because now I’m curious

 

I made the mistake of throwing away my stock wipers frames. But I bit the bullet and bought another set a while back so I could just use the toyota blade refills. I completely gave up on aftermarket wipers. They’re soooo damn expensive, and even the most expensive are shit compared to the toyota refills.

 

And frankly, the OEM wiper refills are pretty good. If you have stock blades keep them.

The so-called Factor replacements that get sent to dealers now are different than what actually come on the vehicles and it's annoying because the quality is much lower.

 

Fixed it for ya

 

I thought that looked familiar. I’ve only seen it from the river on paddling trips from a lifetime ago.
So, do they still do the tick races in Oxbo?

 

True there are cell phones and such for communication, but they all rely on infrastructure you have no control over. For that reason I think amateur radio and GMRS have a place. When hurricane maria went through PR a while back, there were very widespread outages that lasted days maybe weeks. A pair of GMRS radios and some good antennas could come in pretty handy for local coordination of efforts. A local ham nerd could also become a very popular person for longer range comms.

 

They seem like they are recognizing themselves in a mirror, but it’s not true….in reality they’re just shocked at the size of the mirror and they’re trying to figure out where someone can possibly get a mirror that big!

 

So the last week or so, my drivers front tire has been making noises. At first I thought I might have a nail in it because it had that one (1) rpm tick going on, so I checked. Nope. Over the past week it’s gotten progressively worse. So naturally I Grokked it and the AI whiz kid came up with several possibilities to check, one being a loose caliber. I thought I’d check that first since I did the brakes myself. There’s a reason I never built a home built aircraft. I have a tendency to occasionally forget things. Important things. Which explains why I’d check the brakes first.
So I go to my workshop and assemble all the tools I thought I’d need and took the three trips to bring them all out to the garage.
Since I needed a cold beer after all that effort, I popped one open. Besides, you should always have an open beer nearby when doing important work on you vehicle.. So beer in one hand, lug wrench in the other hand I walk out to my trusty steed to try and diagnose this highly concerning issue.
I set down my lug wrench and just for kicks, try the lug nut by fingertip.

That’s when I recalled a string of posts by a member that shall remain unnamed so as not to bring up any bad or traumatic memories to him.
He posted about having a tire (still mounted on the wheel) go flying off his 4Runner, and no, it was not the spare. After much time and expense, it was determined the Alf had lost its lug nuts! At the time I’d thought damn! That NEVER happens, I’ve sure never seen or experienced it myself.

Anyways, as I placed my formerly nicotine stained fingertips on the first lug nut and applied a slight twisting pressure, lo and behold! That motherfucker turned! I tried another, it turned too, and yet another!

Fully half of them were loose!

After getting out my trusty new Milwaukee M12 Stubby and the right socket (no, I’m not being sponsored by Milwaukee Tools yet…) I tightened them fuckers back on tight, gave each three (3) extra ugga-duggas and double checked each and every one, on every wheel, with my torque wrench. After that strenuous workout, I took it for a quick test run.
Lo and behold, problem solved!

The moral of the story is, keep you nuts tight and your beer handy!

 

You would think so, but if you hadn’t noticed, those guy are pretty out there. And it’s damned near impossible to get them out of their basement, well, except for my friend in Tulsa, he has no basement. He lives in tornado alley and has no basement. Go figure.

 

I def had more than half loose on my driver front tire on the way to Tennessee recently...

 

You have no idea!