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

With this old furnace I usually have to set it at 74 or 75 just to get it to keep the house at 70, in the summer I set it around 72 but it struggles because it leaks refrigerant, had it charged twice this past summer.

 

I have said many times that I refuse to work retail...

Black Friday is the biggest reason for this! My cousin worked at Target during college and a few years after college before finally getting his dream job as a park ranger. One Thanksgiving, we were at his parents’ house in Northern Virginia, and his boss at Target tried to make him come in on Thanksgiving. Not even during the day either! He was expected to come in on Thursday night and work until the wee hours of Friday morning if I remember correctly. Luckily, my cousin was a good enough employee that he had some leverage and was able to come in on Black Friday instead.

When I detailed cars at a dealership for ten months, I learned just what my limits were in terms of what I was willing to put up with to earn a paycheck. At least the detail shop didn’t make me work on Thanksgiving! However, I’ve almost always had most of Thanksgiving week off. When I was working at Puck, I’d work Thanksgiving Eve, which is an absolute goldmine in the bar business. In 2017, I stayed out until five in the morning socializing with my coworkers (no, I didn’t drink)!

My boss at Puck, that amazing Asian woman I’ve talked about in this thread numerous times before, was and still is a very family-oriented individual. If any employee needed to take a few days off for anything family-related, whether it be a reunion, a funeral, or whatever, it was no questions asked; You got your time off.

I occasionally worked the Friday after Thanksgiving, which was often just as busy as Thanksgiving Eve, and I always did this willingly, because again it was not uncommon for me to clear $400 for maybe 24 hours of work total (some of it in cash)!

 

That said, for at least the last decade I’ve always had two Thanksgivings. The first one is always on Thanksgiving, either at home with my parents, or in Virginia with my mom’s sister and her family. The second one is always on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, at my step-Grandma’s house in New Jersey, with whoever on my dad’s side of the family can make it...

 

When I was working the detail shop, it was like pulling teeth getting that Saturday after Thanksgiving off, but I did it...

One of the things I absolutely loathed about the detail shop was working pretty much every holiday except for Christmas and Thanksgiving; I had to work Labor Day, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, and Memorial Day; I want to be an HVAC technician, and I am 99% sure that HVAC techs generally do not work those days! I was night shift at the detail shop, which means I even had to miss handing out candy to trick-or-treaters on Halloween!

I absolutely loved my coworkers, and the money I made detailing cars was pretty good, but it was was a poster child for poor work/life balance!

 

So both the A/C and the furnace are on their way out?

How old is your system? Could you take pictures and post?!?! You said it was a Rheem, right?

 

Im guessing 25 or 30 years old, will have to check the brand to see what it is, Rheem is what the furnace guy wants to install.

 

What brand is the outgoing system? Pictures please?

 

I had to go check, Lennox Whisper Quiet. That makes me laugh because it is noisy, relay's buzz and click frequently, lol.

 

@El Duderino

Remember the twatwaffle who’s improperly secured bed almost caused an accident?

I shared the dashcam footage on a Facebook for the town I live in, and apparently this guy is either friends with the driver of the green Toyota and/or the owner of the bed that fell out (names blacked out because I’m not that much of an asshole)...

 

Those old Lennox units are good! My friend’s parents have a house that was built in 1961 and did not originally have central air. They bought it in 1995 and installed central air when the ORIGINAL gas furnace died in 2003. The replacement system was a Dave Lennox Signature Series with a 2.5-ton air-conditioner and 80% efficiency gas furnace.

The difference between 80% furnaces and 90% furnaces is that a 90% is a condensing furnace. The most obvious difference between 80 percenters and 90 percenters is that the 80s have a metal flue pipe and the 90s have a PVC flue pipe. All new construction in my area must have furnaces of 90% AFUE or more, but older houses are grandfathered in. For people who don’t feel spending extra time and money switching the flue pipe, it is legal to install an 80% furnace as a replacement.

 

My aunt’s townhouse in Lehigh County was built in 2009 but strangely has an 80% gas furnace.

 

I had to replace a little electric module box on the furnace twice over the years, no one sells that piece new any longer but I managed to find them on E-Bay. I think it's a good unit even though it struggles to keep warm and cool and expect it to last till I'm ready to get it swapped out.

 

@shakerhood

The 2003 Lennox furnace at my friend’s parents’ house gave up the ghost a couple years ago and was replaced with a Carrier furnace. However, the Lennox A/C is still going strong. In 2003, most new air-conditioners and heat pumps still used R-22 (except for top-line models). My parents’ last house was built in 2007 and stage A/C had R-22. The friend’s Lennox uses R410a, which first saw use in Carrier products under the name Puron in 1996 or so. In most cases when an air-conditioner dies, it is older and uses R-22. Obviously, R-22 and R410a are not compatible with each other, so either the the line set must be replaced or the system must be completely evacuated to prevent cross-contamination and damage to the system. My friend’s ‘03 Lennox uses R410a, so the system will have to be evacuated but not completely purged if and when it dies.

 

Prior to 1992, there was no minimum efficiency rating for air-conditioners and heat pumps. As such, most standard efficiency units were no higher than 8 SEER. Higher-end models could be 9, 10, and even as high as 12 SEER prior to 1992. Sometime in 1992, the government mandated that all air-conditioners be a minimum of 10 SEER.

In January 2006, the mandatory minimum was increased to 13 SEER. In either late 2009 or early 2010, the government mandated that new construction homes must have R410a HVAC systems. My parents’ townhouse in Furlong, Pennsylvania was built in 2007, roughly a year and a half after the increase to 13 SEER, but about 2 years before the mandated switch to R410a.

Construction began on that neighborhood in 2004, with the first houses being completed in either late 2004 or early 2005. The last of the houses in that 386–home development were finished in early 2010 if I remember correctly. A lot happened in 5 years with regards to HVAC regulation, and I would say that roughly half of the the homes in that neighborhood were built prior to 2006 and thus have 10 SEER units. Quite a few also went up between 2006 and 2009, like my parents’, and those houses have 13 SEER units that use R-22. A dozen or so houses built in 2009-2010 got R410a HVAC systems.

 

I sent you a pic of the AC Unit about a year ago and I think you dated it around 1994-1996, not sure if it was installed at the same time as the furnace or if it came later. I am hoping the new unit won't have to work quite as hard, will be great if it saves a few bucks on the electric and propane too.

 

Also, construction began on the old neighborhood in Furlong before the bubble burst and houses were selling faster than new Tacomas. Granite countertops were an extra-cost option when construction started, Corian/solid surface counters were the middle option, and Formica/laminate counters were standard. I went in a few pre-2008 Financial Crisis houses in that neighborhood, and most people chose granite countertops. There were a few with laminated countertops. The market was hot, and Toll Brothers could actually charge a small fortune for townhouses and condos with un-upgraded kitchens.

By April 2007, when my parents signed the contract on their house (the foundation had been poured but the framing hadn’t started), granite kitchen countertops were standard. The bubble hadn’t burst yet, but the market was slowing down and Toll Brothers could no longer demand top dollar for a house with laminate counters and linoleum floors in the kitchen.

My parents got a substantially upgraded gourmet kitchen, hardwood floors on the entire first floor except in the laundry room (which had ceramic tile), and even a free finished basement!

 

I vaguely remember that...

Please send a refresher pic?

 

Yeah next time i get out to the back side of the house i will again.

 

One of the many things I love about my dad is that he is a master negotiator, and absolutely refuses to pay asking price for things like houses and vehicles!

MSRP on my Tacoma was a little over $17K if I remember correctly. After trading in his old Pathfinder and negotiating a bit, he paid less than $15K. As recently as 2016-2017, my truck was still worth about $12K even with all the fender benders it’s had! It was when I hit about 75K-80K miles that the value started to dwindle significantly. As of right now, with almost 107K on the clock, my Taco’s resale value is somewhere in the range of $9K-$10K.

 

My dad is a master of waiting patiently...

When he bought the Yukon last November, the dealer where I worked refused to go below the asking price and said they’d consider going below that after Thanksgiving. At the dealership where I worked, the employee discount got employees and immediate family members $1,500 above invoice on new vehicles, provided they weren’t in high demand like the Jeep Gladiator. Used cars were the sales manager’s discretion. My dad made them an offer considerably lower than the asking price, and was initially refused. Right after Thanksgiving, they called him back and told him they’d take his offer. By the way, the sticker price on the Yukon new about $66K. My dad bought it certified pre-owned with like 8,200 miles and paid nowhere near that!