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

If you want proof that single-zone systems in 2-story homes absolutely suck, drive through a neighborhood built in the last 10 to 20 years and see if the houses have one air-conditioner (this is usually located on the side of the house and is easily visible from the street, so you're not breaking any laws). I guarantee that you will at least one house will have a window A/C unit in a 2nd floor window; This is common in both townhouse/twin and single-family developments. This is because the A/C cools the house unevenly and whoever sleeps in that bedroom likes it really cold when they sleep! There is a beautiful 2-story home not far from my house, and it has a high-end Trane XLi system (only single-zone); During the summer, this house conspicuously has an A/C unit sticking out of the same 2nd floor unit...

Most houses in my area built from the late 1960s onward, both single-family and townhouses, have central air; However, the older townhouses are particularly notorious for having inadequate cooling performance! Some of these neighborhoods have oppressive HOAs that won't allow the installation of a second unit; Even if the HOA isn't a problem, the cost of installing a second system will easily exceed $10,000! Most people don't just have ten grand lying around! A lot of people I know who do have the fund to pay for such a retrofit in cash have a "don't fix it if ain't broke" attitude, which is totally understandable...

 

Also, like any household appliance, a central air-conditioner and/or furnace is only as good as the person who installed it...

I've seen some very well-installed Nordyne A/C units and heat pumps; I would never install any Nordyne product in my own house (if I buy a house with a Nordyne unit already installed, that's different), but most units these days use the same internal components. My friend Gwyn had a Gibson (Nordyne) straight-cool A/C unit installed in her circa 1958 rancher in 2005; Fifteen years later, the thing still runs perfectly and has never broken down...

On the flip side, I'm away of Carrier and Trane units that died within a decade or less because they were poorly installed and/or not maintained; The 2004 Goodman 10 SEER heat pump at Grammy's house was not the best install I've ever seen, but far from the worse. It was installed with consideration for techs who'd be servicing it in the future, and I performed regular checkups and preventive maintenance on the thing during my frequent visits to my Grandmother; I even took the unit apart and cleaned it out least once! It is because of these measures that I believe Grammy's Goodman lasted a very healthy (for a cheapo builder-grade heat pump) 11 years! The thing was noisy as hell, due to its flimsy metal construction and the fact that it had an unrefined reciprocating compressor instead of a scroll compressor, but it sure did an excellent job of keeping that house cold! By the way, almost all residential central air-conditioners and air-source heat pumps sold in North America use Copeland branded Scroll compressors, from the cheapest Goodman and Nordyne units all the way up to the most expensive Carrier and Lennox units. Trane and American Standard (both owned by Ingersoll-Rand) are the only manufacturers to use reciprocating compressors that I'm aware of; Not only that, but they also manufacture Climatuff recips in house. Some Trane models use scroll compressors manufactured by Alliance, but most use the legendary Climatuff recips...

Carrier products probably have not used reciprocating compressors in about twenty years, and no units that I'm aware of (with the exception of Trane and AmStan as mentioned above) have used recips since the government-mandated switch to R140a refrigerant about ten years ago...

Some small split-system units (1.5-ton/18,000 BTUs) use rotary compressors, notably York...

True variable-speed units (like the Carrier Infinity GreenSpeed and its mechanically identical but slightly cheaper Bryant Evolution Extreme counterpart, and the Trane XV-series) use inverter compressors like those used in ductless mini-split systems...

 

A/C at my parents’ house (again)...

The unit closest to me (and running) is for the 2nd floor (2-ton/24K BTU) and the united farther from me is for the 1st floor/basement (2.5-ton/30K BTU)...

 

What happened to the blue LEO line through your name?

 

The company I work for made reusable masks for all employees and their families!

 

Less than 75 miles to go until I hit 112K!

 

My new game arrived today! Luckily I thought to check the mailbox before my parents; I have actually gotten into arguments with my mom about intercepting my Amazon packages and “quarantining” them twice in the past few weeks...

 

Life at the detail shop where I used to work...

 

Are those on some kind of pad or are they up on some brackets?

 

Brackets...

No dirt and shit in 'em!

 

Why? Something happen?

 

The Borough of New Hope didn’t like that people were congregating on benches after buying food at local restaurants, so their bright idea was to remove all of the benches and prohibit people from parking in metered curbside spaces for more than fifteen minutes; Looks like they’ve succeeded in stopping people from coming to town, and in the process drove them all to Doylestown!

 

Looks a weekend or the middle of summer at New Hope-Solebury High School, but these pictures were taken on a Tuesday afternoon...

 

Porter wants a cold one!

 

So, these are two reasons why talking on the phone while driving is bad, even if you're using a Bluetooth handsfree device...

I was out for one of my "mental health/sanity" joyrides in the truck today, and I decided to call my Grandma. My cousin just gave birth to her first child last night and I wanted to catch up with Grammy. I was already fairly well distracted by talking on the phone, having already made the wrong turn once and had to turn around...

I was headed South on County Line road, about to turn left onto 202. As you turn onto 202, there is a Lukoil gas station at the intersection of 202 and County Line, on your right. There was a woman in a white Honda Accord in front of me; I was slightly preoccupied with talking to Grammy. All of a sudden, the white Accord just stopped abruptly, and I was forced to slam on the brakes. Seconds later, the Accord's right blinker comes on and I lay on the horn while simultaneously saying some things I'm not proud of; Keep in mind that I've got 81-year old Grandma on Bluetooth...

I stopped several inches shy of hitting the Accord, and the truck behind me would have hit me if the driver wasn't paying attention; My Grandma gave me the usual lecture about not swearing, and also about keeping cool in these incredibly trying times, and I more or less calmed down. I did not flip off the Accord driver, but that actually seems like a better idea than dropping an F-bomb in front of your elderly Grandmother!

The two reasons for avoiding using the phone while driving are...

• It's a distraction!
• You don't know when you'll use colorful language, and don't want certain people hearing it!

 

One time in about the summer of 2012 (not only before I had a backup camera, but before I even had an aftermarket stereo), I took my cousin to Puck. My cousin and I are closer than brother and sister; I talk about all sorts of stuff in front of her, and vice versa; We also swear in front of each other and talk about current events, and I regularly go to her for advice.

So, there I was in a 2½-year old truck, with like 25K miles, that wasn't even paid off yet! I was backing into a parking space with a cinderblock half-wall behind it. I was going slow, and I just did not have a good idea of how close my bumper was getting to the wall (one of the reasons I had the backup camera installed). I backed directly into the wall, and the feeling/sound of the impact made it seem worse than it ended up being; I bellowed "Fuck me!" I then put the Taco in park, got out, and went to look at what I'm pretty sure would be a new bumper...

Amazingly, there was virtually no damage, and I just had to brush off some concrete dust; My cousin and I still laugh about my little outburst to this day!

 

Looks like little Joey wanted you to share, lol.

 

Joey?

 

Just my attempt at a little humor...