Official Gramps' Memorial Eternal OT Thread

#84,626
#84,626
NorthDallas40 said:
He does when he isn’t towing I’m sure. Towing is the great equalizer. A local dealership had a rig to sell people on the ecoboost. A 6000 lb load on an XLT with eco boost. Just going down the road at 70 mph it kept going into boost because it needed the power. Aerodynamic losses are linear they are at least squared. Cubed on power I think the drag is squared. I got a lecture on this the other day from one of our fluid mechanics specialists related to an aerodynamic loss estimate we were working on.
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Yeah, towing is a different beast.
 
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#84,628
#84,628
NorthDallas40 said:
That makes a lot of sense. I’d expect a diesel to be much more reliable. The only engine I’d ever want a turbo on in a truck would be a diesel
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With all of the pollution control on diesels these days they're not that reliable anymore. But I agree on the turbo, you're just asking for problems with turbos on gas engines.
 
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#84,629
#84,629
hog88 said:
With all of the pollution control on diesels these days they're not that reliable anymore. But I agree on the turbo, you're just asking for problems with turbos on gas engines.
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Yep all that crap on diesel trucks is your friendly government assisting you in making a choice they want you to make. Complete BS.
 
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#84,634
#84,634
hog88 said:
What's the speed rating on those trailer tires?
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😬

I do have real tires and wheels on it, 14 inch rims. But yeah I’m guessing I was a tad aggressive. That is one of reasons we rednecks use double axle trailers on our bass boats, to greatly lighten the load. A single axle trailer can carry that weight just fine. The other reason is they look cool.
 
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#84,635
#84,635
NorthDallas40 said:
😬

I do have real tires and wheels on it, 14 inch rims. But yeah I’m guessing I was a tad aggressive. That is one of reasons we rednecks use double axle trailers on our bass boats, to greatly lighten the load. A single axle trailer can carry that weight just fine. The other reason is they look cool.
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When we travel my wife pulls the boat and I pull the camper, I keep it between 65 and 70 which drives her nuts. I have to remind her every year tires have a speed rating.
 
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#84,636
#84,636
hog88 said:
When we travel my wife pulls the boat and I pull the camper, I keep it between 65 and 70 which drives her nuts. I have to remind her every year tires have a speed rating.
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come on, every one knows those are more like a suggestion. until something goes wrong, and then its your fault.
 
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#84,638
#84,638
hog88 said:
When we travel my wife pulls the boat and I pull the camper, I keep it between 65 and 70 which drives her nuts. I have to remind her every year tires have a speed rating.
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You’re right they absolutely do. And for your big boat or 5th wheel I’d absolutely hold to it. But, true story, the mfgr of my trailer admitted that is why you see so many tandem axle trailers on bass boats. They are totally not needed they just A) look cool and B) enable you to haul ass more safely due to the light load. I wouldn’t do that with a single axle trailer.

But since you asked I went and looked at my Carlisle 205/75R14s are rated for 81 mph.
 
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#84,639
#84,639
NorthDallas40 said:
You’re right they absolutely do. And for your big boat or 5th wheel I’d absolutely hold to it. But, true story, the mfgr of my trailer admitted that is why you see so many tandem axle trailers on bass boats. They are totally not needed they just A) look cool and B) enable you to haul ass more safely due to the light load. I wouldn’t do that with a single axle trailer.

But since you asked I went and looked at my Carlisle 205/75R14s are rated for 81 mph.
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Carlisle is a good trailer tire.

And yes, just like on the water you bass boat guys think if you're not going hair on fire fast you ain't doing it right.
 
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#84,650
#84,650
hog88 said:
I'm at the office, of course I've got an hour.
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Well, I bought this boat. Same boat that's in my avi. It had been stolen and I bought it at auction. It was totally stripped of everything, which was perfect because I wanted to make it like I wanted it. My son and I totally refit it with everything, new 250 Honda with fly-by-wire, electric steering, autopilot, radar, two big garmin screen, etc..

I had to go to Miami to pick it up. It had a two axle trailer. I expected to have tire issues so I went prepared with a floor jack, and air compressor, and an electric impact wrench. I went to get it with my motorhome so we'd have a place to sleep.

Having seen only pictures of the boat/trailer the tires looked decent and it had a spare too. When we picked it up the tires on the trailer looked good. The spare however had the cord showing.

We made it all the way to Valdosta GA when I heard a bang. I wasn't sure if we were getting shot at or a tire blew. Smoke in the rear vuew mirror confirmed the tire. We were lucky that we were in sight of an exit.

This was right in the middle of Covid so everyone was closing up early. It was 4:30 so we werent sure what to do. We quickle threw on the ragged old spare. I goggle and there was a Firestone store about 5 miles away. I called and they said they closed at 5:00. I told them I was desperate and I'd start their way. I told them we would do the changing if they'd just mount the tries for us. They said to come on.

We got there and I gave them the blown tire and we jacked the trailer up and took the ratty old spare off. I didn't want to push my luck with them so I decided just to do the two.

We put the new tire on and mounted the new spare on the trailer and went on. Made it the rest of the way with no problems.

Fast forward one year and we've got the boat all ready for a trip to the gulf. We were leaving on Saturday and in perfect timing, my change oil indicator came on. The F250 deisels don't give a % oil left so I had no warning. It was too late to get it changed at service place so I pulled it into the shop and went to Advance Auto for the stuff. My son recommended that I do fuel filters too so I got those.

Everything went Smooth until I got to the fuel filter/water separator. It has a drain plug that turns a quarter turn. I put the new one in and twisted the drain to close and broke this little plastic nib that keeps it from turning too far. Yep, dealer only item. Our Ford parts department is open Saturday morning so I went over 1st thing and got it.

(Patience I'm getting to the rest of the tire story)

So we got a late start Saturday leaving about 12. In my haste to get the truck ready, I almost didn't check the trailer but I remembered at the last minute. We greased the bearings and checked the air pressure on the tires. We looked at the recommended pressure and filled appropriately.

Headed down 75 and bang, another tire. Remember I had one new tire on the trailer and a new spare. We were at the Cleveland exit and a quick Google search showed a Walmart at the exit we stopped at. I messed up and didn't take the floor jack or the impact so we had to use the truck's jack and lug wrench (fortunately it fit). I didn't feel comfortable heading the rest of thecway with no spare and my confidence in the remaining 2 tires was gone. Drove to Walmart and they had two tires so I told them to do it.

They had me back up to a bay and we're waiting. It's about 4:00 now. I wait about 15 min and finally ask when they'll get to it and if it's going to be a while, we'd get dinner. He said it was going to be at least a couple of hours. I told him to forget it and left.

I googled and found a Northern the next exit and picked up a complete tire and rim. Bought it and headed out. Drove all the way to a little south of Columbus, GA. It was about 11:00 pm when I noticed a vibration. We pulled over and sure enough one of the last two old tires was just about gone. We jacked it up and threw on the spare and got back on the road. While changing that tire I glanced over and noticed a bulge about the size of softball so I knew we were in trouble with no spares left.

Sure enough, another 1/2 hour down the road, the vibration returned. We happened to be close to a very small town and we're approaching midnight. Google had routed us through this little town. We found a small parking lot in this little strip mall where we pulled over. I noticed when we pulled in there was a small flatbed trailer that had a donut spare laying on it. We started evaluating what to do and we noticed the fender on the right side was awfully close to the tires. It was obvious that the tires we rubbing with even the slightest bump. We had tools and there was adjustment so we started on this.

After the fender adjustment we moved to the left side of the trailer and removed the last remaining old tire. I looked at my son and said, go get that donut off that trailer. He said no way. Now keep in mind we're in what appeared to be the "not so good" part of town. Several slow drive bys had been going on. It was intimidating enough that both my son and son in law insisted that I have my handgun on me. I asked him again to get it and he finally agreed.

The sucker bolted right up and was about the same diameter. One concern was that the rim offset would rub the trailer. My alternate plan was to put it on backwards but we had plenty of clearance. We again set off and made it to Cape San Blas about 6:00AM.

We used the boat with that spare a couple of times that week. I drove over to Panama City and bought two new tires so now we had 4 new ones and two new spares.

My son asked me if we were just going to steal that donut. I said absolutely not. I had snapped a picture of the business' sign with the number on it. I called them while down there and the number was disconnected. So we drove by that business and left the tire exactly where we found it.

We later figured out why we were blowing tires. When we put air in before we left, we looked at one tire and filled them all to that level. The one tire had a 10psi higher recommended tire pressure than the others.
 
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