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Thread: The plan

  1. #241
    fabiodriven's Avatar
    fabiodriven is offline Aspiring romance novel cover model, and the Official 3WW slayer of thieves and swindlers. Catch me if you can
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    The plan

    Thank you for the information ps2fixer! And thanks very much for the invite Bill! I'll let you know when I'm around!

    This week I removed the exhaust manifolds from the old 7.3 to install gaskets and some upgraded up pipes. The 7.3 didn't have exhaust manifold gaskets from the factory, it was just metal on metal. I had a couple ports starting to weep a little, and the factory up pipes are a joke. They're supposed to seal with donut gaskets, which absolutely does not work. The 6.0 had the same setup. The cure is to order a set of "bellowed" up pipes which replace the leaky donuts with flat flanges and gaskets. Ford should have built it that way in the first place, even if International didn't. I don't have an engineering degree, but it was obvious to me the factory setup would always be susceptible to the issues created by thermal expansion and the contraction of cooling.

    If you've ever worked on exhaust manifolds, you know it's a difficult job. Mine were not in bad enough shape to be really difficult, just mildly difficult. While everything was apart I painted the manifolds, turbine housing, and Banks turbo outlet with Eastwood exhaust paint, and I also wrapped the new up pipes with exhaust wrap.

    One thing that made this job much easier was the 3" of body lift my truck has. I couldn't imagine doing this job without the body lift.

    This truck is an early 99, so the very first rendition of the Super Duty. I still remember when they first came out. It has some idiosyncrasies which make it an odd ball, it was only produced like this for six months. 99.5-2003 Super Duties have quite a few differences from my truck. That makes parts more expensive and some parts unavailable. It's 20 years old now and will tick it's mechanical (not digital) odometer over 300,000 miles in less than 500 miles from now. I see so many Super Duties every day, and the older mine gets the cooler it is, haha. It's been here since the beginning of an era.

    Today I drove it after two and a half days worth of work addressing the manifolds and upgrades, and it sounds fantastic now and makes far better power than it used to, bottom to top. It seems like at least every few years I end up with a set of manifolds to work on. At this point they're like mile markers on the road of life to me. They're tough but it's very satisfying when they're done.

    Thanks for reading. :-)
    Last edited by fabiodriven; 12-12-2019 at 12:16 AM.
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  2. #242
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    Interesting read, didn't know the up pipes were prone to leaking. My dad has a 1996 Power stroke with the 7.3L, about 100k miles and had trans shifting problems. I'm not sure if the 99's had the same trans or not, but you experience any of the "common" transmission issues? I guess glow plugs and controllers are another weak point, his 96 had bad glow plugs, while a friend's 99 had a bad controller. Besides a couple alternator and battery set replacements on the 99 they seem quite reliable. My dad and I have like a saying, if you need a small truck, get Toyota, if you need to haul a big load, get a Ford. Preference is diesel of course and I've heard to stay away from the next gen 6.0L diesels but can't remember the details why. The 6.9L (lower power with no turbo) and the 7.3L were the most reliable that I'm aware of. Don't know about anything after the 6.0L though.

    My dad had an 85 with the 6.9L with 500k miles, it had a rusty body and was a bit hard starting in winter, but it did pretty well. Just 2wd single tire rear axle too light duty for my dad's needs so he tried for a 1 ton and ended up with the 96 4x4. Sadly the 96 has been sitting for atleast 10 years now because of the transmission issue, I think my dad got discussed with it having issues fairly quickly after buying it and he ended up paying like $14k. Kind of funny he's a mechanic though. The common transmission connector isn't bad, so we are thinking solenoid packs are bad. I've learned electrical "okish" since then, but never had a chance to hit it with a multimeter to test it. It had issues before searching google was a common thing lol.

    I guess this is all null and void if your truck is a stick. He asked a transmission builder friend which transmission is better to buy and he said automatic, if he would have bought a stick, it probably wouldn't have had any transmission problems.

    I should probably mention the actual issue lol. One of the few times I got to drive the truck I drove it out in 2wd in some sand and it did some wheel hopping and I just kept it steady rpm and went through just fine, unloaded whatever it was and drove it back. Since then the overdrive light flashes and the trans only shifts in 1st and 2nd, no 3rd or overdrive. After taking it off the road we had a bulldozer to move in the yard to scrap so my dad drove it and did some jerking with it (two chains and a tire does some amazing work, he ripped almost two tires in half though lol). I made a joking comment that he should take it around the block and check the trans problem, watch it will shift just fine (the over drive light wasn't flashing). He did and shifted just normal. He ran it like 5 miles or so really trying to get it to mess up, no problems at all. Got new plate and such, put the bulldozer on the back of it and half way to the scrap yard it lost all gears and my uncle's the Oldsmobile 350 rocket powered F150 had to tow the F250 + the dozer load plus his load which was a S-10 Blazer that's stuffed with junk metal + misc stuff in the back of the truck. Side note, the F150's transmission lines (350 turbo) got so hot the rubber coating burnt off! My dad gave him a trans for the help and helped swap it out.

    After sitting for a while again, every time you turn the key on one of the fuses blew, diag'ed to glow plugs or something related (it's been a while for my memory) and to this day it refuses to shift any gear. Trans never slipped, fluid smells great, it's been changed like 3 times since it first started having issues, new filter etc when changed. The only issue seems to be related to shift solenoids or the trans isn't getting signal which gear to be in from the ECU. Just remembered before my trip with it and it messing up it did die once going around a corner and one of the fuses blew, I think it was the same fuse when the glow plug related thing failed. I haven't searched too deep to try to find a good wire diagram for the whole truck, but for American made stuff that seems to be kind of hard to find. I don't get why tech and service data isn't public for free for anyone to use provided by the people that designed the machines.


    Anyway, wasn't trying to get side tracked from your topic, figured it wouldn't hurt to see what people know about the situation =). My guess is the shift solenoids need to be replaced or repaired with a new solenoid or two.

  3. #243
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    Hope all is well with you..
    R.I.P. Sandpuppie, you are greatly missed!
    May you rest in peace Jeswinehart, deeply missed, never forgotten....
    Feedback thread http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthr...ight=tapper190

  4. #244
    fabiodriven's Avatar
    fabiodriven is offline Aspiring romance novel cover model, and the Official 3WW slayer of thieves and swindlers. Catch me if you can
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    The plan

    Thank you Tapper! I'm updating the trailer and bike at the same time, very busy right now. Old trailer is an 06 Dutchmen Winner's Circle and I'm moving into a 16 Jayco Seismic 355W. My 99 Honda Superhawk is for sale and I'm buying a street legal 02 Honda XR650R (not 650L). I saw the bike for sale in the neighborhood here the same day I signed on the trailer, and walked away from the bike. I couldn't sleep that night thinking about the bike and I called the owner first thing in the morning to go see it again. He said OK, then he called me back a little while later and said the carburetor had a headache and he was going to rebuild it. He's almost done with it now but I gotta handle the trailer stuff first then take care of the bike. I've put just as many miles on gravel as I have asphalt with the Superhawk. It's just not the right bike for what I'm doing. Plus I can run the Dakar now if I want.

    I'm going to write out a longer post when things slow down a bit.

    Thanks for posting!

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  5. #245
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    Good to hear, I saw that you were upgrading your trailer, please post up pictures when life slows down a bit. I enjoyed reading your blog when you were writing about your life experiences.
    R.I.P. Sandpuppie, you are greatly missed!
    May you rest in peace Jeswinehart, deeply missed, never forgotten....
    Feedback thread http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthr...ight=tapper190

  6. #246
    fabiodriven's Avatar
    fabiodriven is offline Aspiring romance novel cover model, and the Official 3WW slayer of thieves and swindlers. Catch me if you can
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    The plan

    I've been in Ocala FL since the beginning of November and it's worked out really well. My buddy whose place I'm parked at opened an automotive repair shop right after I got here so I've kept busy helping him out at the shop, and I also take care of his yard and pool at the house. I watch the puppy as well. They don't want me to leave, haha. Everyone's animals fall in love with me. Poor Daisy in Indiana still goes looking for my trailer when they let her out. This little guy here in Ocala has known me since he was little little. We have spent a lot of time together. He's spent countless hours in the yard with me while I work with the pool, it's been a good balance. I only have so many good hours per day, but I also have to be active whenever I can. Hanging out at the shop, being a gopher, working on the pool... It gives meaning to the day and gives you something to hang your hat on at night. I can go out of my way most times to help random people as well because the chances are pretty good I have time to spare. I have no shortage of time.

    OK so busy busy busy, haha. The move into the new trailer has been a lot of work (for me). I just do things in dribs and drabs here and there until it's done. I have time so, it works. I'm in the process now of trying to get all my tools and garage items sorted. Living space is sorted halfway decent for now, but there's more to do. All my tools (which is a lot) need new homes because I had to ditch the tool boxes I bought for my truck when I was leaving Massachusetts. The other trailer contacted them once already, but that trailer was pretty banged up so no biggie. The new trailer may have actually had more clearance between the toolboxes and the body of the trailer, but the length of the hitch would have severely limited my turning radius as it would have contacted the insides of the boxes as opposed to the tops of the boxes, if that makes any sense. I didn't want any worries in any direction, so I decided the boxes had to go. I paid yuuuge money for them because they are a very uncommon height, and probably not a commonly ordered box size. They are only 12" tall. They're for sale now for a lot less than I paid, but here in Ocala nobody has any money. I hope I don't have to haul them with me when I leave here.

    The new trailer is luscious though. I didn't realize how out of date the old one was getting. This one is much more up to date and comfortable. I was going to spend like 20-25k, but I about doubled that after I started looking. If there ever were a time to have a nice trailer, that would be now. The transaction and the move have been a bit of a headache, but not unbearable. I'm super glad I did it so far.

    The XR650R is still being worked on, I just talked to the owner today. He hit some sort of hiccup working on the carb and he had to take the bike somewhere. I wish he'd have let my buddy and myself work on it, but that's OK. I'll be seeing it soon I'm sure. I've got a guy coming to look at the Superhawk tomorrow. -Update on that, the guy liked the bike and wants to buy it. Unfortunately I discovered that Massachusetts never sent me the new title for that bike and I had never realized it until one hour before I was going to meet the buyer. The new title is on the way and should be here in two weeks. The buyer is willing to wait.

    So Florida is crazy, in case anyone wasn't aware. That "Florida man" stuff? That's no joke. These people are out of their minds here. Appointments mean nothing. If someone says they'll be there on a certain day, it's likely they won't make it that day and you'll be lucky if they let you know they're not going to make it. If they give you a time they'll be there, it's going to be a couple hours later usually. William is excluded from this by the way, as he made every appointment we had right on time, lol. They just don't seem to care though, I guess because everyone does it to everybody already or something? They might all be used to it.

    Another funny thing, we've seen some absolutely atrocious mechanical "repairs" come in the shop here. Ocala is huge, it's a big place, but from what I can see it's really tough to find a good mechanic here. I wish I had taken notes. It's late right now or else I'd ask my buddy to remind me. One car I remember. It was a 2013 Ford Taurus or something, came in on the hook after it sat at another shop for months. Oh that's a thing too. In Florida, it's somehow normal to have your car in the shop for months. That's just something they do here, I don't understand. They've really made it easy for my buddy to make a name for himself really fast! So the car comes in with a fuel issue. It had been to two separate shops and out of commission for months. "Nobody could fix it", one of those cars. Everyone was baffled. They replaced the pump (in tank) and the module (under rear seat). Car comes in, we put it on the lift to look at a fuel leak. Looked like it was leaking from the top of the tank at one time, but wasn't leaking currently. We put the car down on the ground and my buddy gets his power probe. No power to the module, so you already know there's no power to the pump. So we move forward to the fuse panel. Fuse looks good. My buddy looks at the fuse diagram, pulls the fuse out of the wrong location, puts it back in where it's supposed to be, and the car is running 15 minutes after it got to the shop. Amazing. Then we saw the fuel leak, and they hadn't seated one of the lines correctly on the sending unit. That's all it was. Car was down for months.

    So then they come to get their car and it was about $200 or something. The woman counts out some money and hands it over and it's like $140. My buddy says oh I think you forgot some money. She's like oh I'm sorry, and then gives him $40 more. He's says it's $200. Oops again right! It was ridiculous, lol. Then my buddy notices his $300 sunglasses are missing from his desk. He didn't want to go off and just start pointing fingers, he wasn't positive they weren't in his truck or something. He did think he had left them on the desk though. So he goes out to the customer's car before they left and opens the center console, and imagine what he found, lol! They were trying to boost his sunglasses! These people were probably in their mid 60's.

    There's a truck we took in three weeks ago for an engine/tranny swap. The guy who brought it in said it's not his truck, but he's taking care of everything. Said there would be a brand new OEM engine/tranny delivered the next day. Well long story short it wasn't there, and it's three weeks later and it's still not there. I'm not going to go into too much detail with this guy, because it would be way too much to type out right now, lol. This is a big story. So we got the inclination a couple days in this guy was full of beans. He had a lot of tall tales, and a lot of stuff wasn't adding up. So we google him. He did a stint for conning people for "between 20 and 50 thousand dollars" or something. He's a conman. So we start checking more stuff out, he gave us a fake address and the owner of the truck he dropped off is a felon as well. It's likely they served time together. So every single day it's a different excuse and a different story. I won't go down the whole list, but one was him getting divorced out of the blue, he got cancer, he got chemo, his mom died, then there's the funeral... Bear in mind we've known this guy for three weeks. That's a big three weeks. You know he cares though because he called 4 times the day his mom passed. I mean, who wouldn't call their mechanic who has a vehicle that doesn't even belong to you four times the day your mom passed? Makes perfect sense to me... -Update on this as well. My buddy is out of town right now and he called me and asked me to swing by the shop, as this guy had supposedly dropped off a trailer with the new drive train in it finally. I was going to the shop anyways, but imagine my surprise when I got to the shop and there was no trailer left there! Hahaha!! It's always entertaining! I have a theory on this guy. As I said, he's a con artist by trade. I think he just needed someplace to park that pickup, and I think he is truly driven to lie. To spin stories and have people listen to him talk, to make him feel like he's doing something? Or in charge of something? I don't know. I think if I ever see him again, I'd have to feel it out, but I think I might call him out. I don't want him leaving without me letting him know that I know he's a complete shite bag. I won't name call him like that, but I'd just like to let him know that we were laughing at him the entire time, but with a heavy twist of pity.

    Lol, they rented my buddy a big double bay garage with double offices and literally 90% of the lighting in the place did not work. That is not an exaggeration. Office lights, hallways, bathrooms, the garage itself, exterior lights... Almost none of them worked, and the property manager fought us over replacing them! It was a shite ton of bulbs and ballasts! So they send the guy out to fix it, and what a character this guy was. Not a bad guy, just odd. He drove a fairly new Toyota 4-Runner or whatever those things are, and he never shut his hood all the way. We went to shut it for him and he said to leave it. More on that later. He also would leave it running the entire time he was at the shop. He came in multiple days, and he'd leave his truck outside running for six hours.

    So then he tows in an electric man lift trailer to fix the lights in the garage. Well the batteries are shot on the trailer, so he has to nose his four runner up to it and he runs the lift with jumper cables going to his truck. That's why he doesn't latch his hood, lol. This is all just everyday stuff here in Ocala, lol. This is the most stark contrast from Massachusetts that I've seen I think.

    They have some very noticeable driving habits here that you just cannot miss. Now, the following situations are not one-offs. These are things that I see every single day multiple times daily. I must say, I thought Massachusetts had the worst drivers, and they are terrible but in an overly-defensive way, which is just as dangerous as an aggressive driver in my opinion. New York has some awful drivers as well, but Florida drivers are super consistent.

    The right turn lane- So there are a lot of big roads here, usually two lanes of travel in each direction, which turns into 3 or 4 lanes each direction at intersections. Two straight lanes, and either one or two left turn lanes. Sometimes there will be a right turn only lane, but not often. Usually right turns are made from a lane which is for right turns as well as going straight through the intersection. Even though it's perfectly legal to go straight in that lane, the locals here do not use that lane to go straight. They will go out of their way to all pile into the left straight lane, even if there are 10 cars in that lane and none in the right straight lane. They get mad if you go straight in the right lane, which I do every day everywhere I go. I have no idea why they do that, but they do. I saw a guy towing a mini excavator on a trailer swing that whole thing over 15 cars back from the intersection to get out of the right straight lane. I don't understand, lol.

    The green light snooze- This happens at almost every red light I'm at. Almost always it's the first car in the line for that lane, but if the first cars don't do it you're almost guaranteed to see one of the next three behind them do it. Light turns green, nobody goes. Nobody honks, everyone sits there looking at their phones. Honestly I don't understand how people go through the daily driving experience without an air horn here, or anywhere for that matter really. These people will sit through entire lights, I've seen it when they were in the turning lane next to me and I was going straight. They weren't holding me up so I didn't honk, and I've sat there and watched them never even realize the light was green.

    The bob and weave- When they fast and furious through traffic in their little ricers, squeezing in too close for comfort and cutting people off, only to end up right next to you at the next set of lights. I make sure they realize the mistake they've made when they do that to me. In those cases I let the horn rest, then put my 500 lb steel bumper 6 inches from their spoiler. It's a circumstance where they have no choice but to realize a brake job is not an option for them, then they try to get away.

    School zones- They take school zones super serious here. Everyone does 20 and not a tick over. It's not like that in Massachusetts. Funny story, I was on the Superhawk going through a school zone when I saw a woman in a jeep come hauling up behind me fast, and she got too close. Just as I was about to swing around to face her, she switched lanes really fast. I think that's when she realized she was in a school zone, so she slowed down and was going the same speed as me. We crept towards the "end school zone" sign and as soon as we reached it she dropped the . So I eased over close to her, her window was down, and I clutched the bike and picked it up right next to her, lol. I carried a really good wheelie, then I noticed a motorcycle on it's kick stand in the middle of the road about a quarter mile up, and a rider sitting on it. I thought to myself, self, that looks like it just may be a flatfoot. Well flatfoot it was, and I figured that was it for me. Well as I got closer he just made a big "no" sign shaking his head and waving his arms back and forth. I nodded and rode right by, haha.

    They don't use turn signals here, period. Ever. Self explanatory.

    Most trailers have no lights on them, no cops care.

    Probably more than 95% of the lifted trucks here have roller skate wheels and the Carolina squat. Now, for those who don't know what the Carolina squat is, it's when your truck is lifted higher in the front than it is in the rear. It's the worst looking trend I have ever seen. A flat brim hat and white shoes are required to drive these trucks. They paint their undercarriages and add underglow lighting. It looks like when a dog has an itchy arse and it drags it's bum around on the carpet, and as awful as these things look, they are everywhere. I can count on one hand how many regular lifted trucks I've seen with swampers and regular wheels.

    A while back William and I spent some time together and he showed me some properties. I saw a couple I really liked, but one was just out of reach and the other ended up not panning out the way we'd hoped it would. Still it was really cool to see the areas of Florida William showed me, and I'd surely buy a small piece down here. It wouldn't be my main spot, but I wouldn't mind having a retreat from the winter. A couple weeks ago I went and met the Swatlands over at the Ocala dirt track, and William was able to head down as well. It was much more of a jaunt for him, so I was glad he did it. It's always fun getting together with people from the forum.

    I know ol Shep wanted to hear about the wimminfolk, lol. 2019 was a record breaker for me. I had a lot of good interactions with a lot of women and their desire for more is always good ammunition for my self confidence. The last girl I spent time with in NY went ahead and flew down here to Florida in December to spend a couple days here, and it went well. After she left though, I was relieved, lol. And that's in no way a jab at her, she's a real peach. I used to fight the thought of getting used to being alone. I liked being co-dependent in some way for some reason. Now that I am no longer that way, I am much happier overall and co-dependence is an unhealthy behavior. After she left that day, I was happy just spending some time by myself, haha. This is the first time in my life that I have ever felt the urge to take a breather from females, which is a huge milestone for me. I didn't think I would ever get to a point where I'd had enough.

    But it didn't last long. I still approach women and toss lines out here and there, but I've not been putting in a huge effort. I stay in touch with the NY girl, and as a matter of fact she's flying out again this coming weekend for another four days. She's been keeping me “appeased” I guess we could say. Not enough to stop me if someone irresistible crosses my path, but there haven't been a ton of those here in Ocala, far less than I would have imagined. I was just about to start ramping up my efforts in the female department, then all of a sudden she decided she'd like to fly down again, haha. It was a spur of the moment thing.

    She's cool though, and we talked about dating a couple times, but neither of us is really looking to commit to anyone at this moment. I tend to think that if I were interested in a commitment with her she'd certainly go along, but I don't know that for certain. Most of my adult life has been a battle, and I never felt successful in the dating department. My long term relationships went well, but I felt like kind of a failure outside of those. That has changed, and I would like to take advantage of my edge, especially after being on the wrong side of that edge for so long. Nothing would make me happier than to find a special one who can slow my roll, but she hasn't come along yet. This NY girl, there's a lot to be said for her. She's close.. But I still feel the urge for others so.. Onward I go.

    She understands though, and in fact, I feel like they've all understood. Every one of them I was up front with and told them my lifestyle ahead of time, which was a draw to them. They want to hear about it. Part of that lifestyle is the level of freedom I have, and each of them figured out on their own it wouldn't be right to try and slow my roll. I fought this path tooth and nail, this was my nightmare, so I looked it in the face and got a collar on it. It works for me now I guess. My heart's been broken enough, time to break some others, haha.

    So for 2020, new trailer, new bike, and I'm fairly confident there will be new women. I know posts with no pics can be a bit of a bore, so I apologize for that. I haven't taken a ton of pictures lately. I'm figuring on rolling on outta here about midway through March. Thanks to all who are reading!
    Last edited by fabiodriven; 02-25-2020 at 12:10 PM.
    85 Tri-Zinger 60
    85 ATC250SX
    86 ATC250SX
    87 ATC250SX
    02 XR650L conversion
    84 ATC 480R

  7. #247
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    Apr 2012
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    USA
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    I bet if you kept a good detailed log of the weird driving habbits in each state/area you could compile them into a book and sell it lol. Never seen the avoid the turn lane that is also a straight through thing, what do they do after the intersection, do they merge back over where they were?

    I've heard people down south are slow, but I think Florida might take the cake on that saying based on what you're saying. Not saying everyone, just the average Joe I guess lol. The late thing happens a little around my area, but not that bad, normally it's like 10-30 mins late. I do know one guy that's always 1-3 hours late though if he even makes it, maybe he has family down south xD.

  8. #248
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    May 2006
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    That whole section on Florida is a little disconcerting for me

    Wife and I are looking to relocate to Florida or the gulf coast probably by the end of the year. I have two out of three brothers and a couple uncle's, an aunt, some cousins who live there now in various parts of the state.

    We would probably end up in Pensacola or near my older brother in Ormond Beach. I have a younger brother in St.Pete but I didn't care for that area when I lived there before.



    Sent from my Z958 using Tapatalk

  9. #249
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    Aug 2016
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    East of Worcester ma
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    I hear you about Florida chop, in my case if it were up to the wife we’d of moved there before my first son was born. Jaime (my wifes) moms side of the fam theres like 10 of em’ that live in the Tampa area. Jaime works in daycare so she could move there tomorrow and have work easy. Me it’d be like starting over from scratch w/no customer base (scary).
    There’s good money in daycare. Chop you may want to think about well I’ve thought about it many times is working for a daycare chain (major one) they are always looking for maintenance guys.(good $ too) I personally know a couple guys that do it, there in charge of like 5-10 centers and they enjoy it. It entails a little of each trade but a smart guy would fit right in. Jaime has tried to convince me a few times to try it, I actually went on a working interview once but I decided against it after all.
    Every other yr we spend a couple wks in Florida and spend atleast two of those days looking at properties.
    No Disney or touristy areas for me but there’s many smaller towns that looked like great places to live. We’re stuck here in MA atleast untill the kids get out of college, stopping here before I start rambling on and on. Gotta go to work anyway I guess.

    Shep
    Fabio were driving down March 27th- ya we’ll probably miss u by 2-weeks- I’ll text you around then (just in case)

  10. #250
    Join Date
    Nov 2019
    Location
    Florida
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    yep, Florida is crazy, I moved here back in 88, from Tennessee, I miss good honest county folk.
    South Georgia is some pretty country, not far from Florida, only issue there is State Taxes.

    MrC- Tallahassee area

  11. #251
    fabiodriven's Avatar
    fabiodriven is offline Aspiring romance novel cover model, and the Official 3WW slayer of thieves and swindlers. Catch me if you can
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    The plan

    Quote Originally Posted by ps2fixer View Post
    Never seen the avoid the turn lane that is also a straight through thing, what do they do after the intersection, do they merge back over where they were?
    Yes, glad you asked. I forgot one key detail. The intersections where this happens, although the other side of the intersection is two lanes as well, it merges to one. Their feeling when you do that is that you're cutting in line or something like that. Funny story on that subject, this just happened today. I was approaching one of those intersections and I decided to be nice and stay in the left straight lane. There were about 5 cars in line, all in the left straight lane, and not one car in the right straight lane. As I was slowing down and approaching the last vehicle in the line a Camaro bombed past me on the right, then they cut in front of me to get in the left straight lane. I thought "You cack sucker." So I said phuck yas all and took the right straight lane. Frig off. Haha.

    Quote Originally Posted by Shep1970 View Post
    Me it’d be like starting over from scratch w/no customer base (scary).
    Sheply I understand why you would be nervous, but I'd be willing to bet you'd make something happen if you moved. Some guys got it, some don't, and if you're getting by in Massachusetts you can get by anywhere. It's your life, but I believe you could do it. I was a little nervous when I decided to change my life up a bit, but I knew it was going to work. You were more nervous than I was, lol! My buddy here was really nervous as well coming from Massachusetts to Florida armed with only his own talent and nobody here he knew, but he went to work at the local Volvo dealer (He's a certified Volvo tech) and immediately was able to get a crap ton of money out of the Volvo dealer here because first of all Volvo techs are few and far between, but secondly this ain't Massachusetts. He'd have a head gasket job done before lunch and that same job would take his co-workers the better part of a week to do, assuming they could even take the job. They had to turn away work before he started working there because they simply couldn't find a mechanic who knew how to work on anything. Once he started doing multiple jobs in one day, he could literally match the productivity of the entire rest of the shop's week combined in one shift. That is how these people work here. Once he stopped working at the dealer and opened his own shop, all the customers were amazed that they could have their car back many times on the same day. Sometimes we'll do road calls to people's houses or whatever, and they're all so impressed.

    What I'm getting at is, if you take your Massachusetts robot work ethic and all that experience and skill with you, you're going to shine in most other places. It's easy to soar with the eagles when you're surrounded by turkeys. I've been witnessing it first hand here for a while now.

    Quote Originally Posted by MrConcdid View Post
    South Georgia is some pretty country, not far from Florida,
    Yes I like it out that way also. The areas I was looking at real estate in were a while north of Ocala, much more country like. Ocala is way too busy for me.
    Last edited by fabiodriven; 02-29-2020 at 03:25 AM.
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  12. #252
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    That style of road isn't too common here, I think most road designers in the area make lanes end at intersections. There one spot I can think of that's somewhat similar. It's a 3 lane road that dumps into the express way. At the 13 corner, it's 3 lanes, all can go stright and the two edge ones are for turning. The right lane goes like a 1/4 mile then ends. 99% of people just merge into the left lane ahead of time to try to avoid the bottle neck. Basically slow down a little now so you don't cause a traffic jam (cutting people off, people slamming on brakes, wrecks etc). Anyone that stays in the right lane generally has a lot of friction to merge back into the left lane. It's a weird design, not sure if I'd prefer it not being there though because there's a few places to turn right into and the corner is a gas station, if it wasn't for the right turns right there, I'd say it's a stupid design and it should have the right turn lane turn only and make it turn into a 2 lane right at the corner.

    Anyway, I don't got mad at the people in the right lane in that spot, I tried to leave them a gap to get in, but most of the time they just drive up till they run out of road and force their way over. We don't get too many traffic jams on the express way out here, but when we do, it's in the area's were traffic has to merge. Around the bigger cities it seems like it's more the exits get backed up so bad you have to get over like a 1/2 mile early, else you have to force your way over. So few people use blinkers any more, if someone signals, I make room, if not, I just drive.



    Same area has a lot of the entrance and exit ramps as one, closer to home they are independent and spread out more, seems like a lot less friction etc. Like most are long enough a semi truck can get up to 55-60mph easily.

    Is that anything like what's down there except two lanes into one?

  13. #253
    fabiodriven's Avatar
    fabiodriven is offline Aspiring romance novel cover model, and the Official 3WW slayer of thieves and swindlers. Catch me if you can
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    So here is one of the intersections. You'd be traveling from the bottom of the picture to the top. You can see the two straight lanes and then where it merges on the other side of the intersection.

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    Weird, don't understand why the road is even made that way.

    There's a main road in one of the cities near me, two lane, then once it gets past a couple businesses, it goes to one lane. Most traffic going straight gets in the left lane super early. No one really seems to care if you stay in the right lane as long as you find a gap to get in (not that much traffic normally). I think the logic is the path of least resistance.

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    As you've found and witnessed first hand John, Ocala and South is basically a whole other state. Orlando and South, especially. Wouldn't hurt my feelings if they split the state even lol.

    I'm glad I got to hang out with you Joe and Angela at the race that night. I hadn't done that in a long, long time.

    And yes, the straight-turn lanes are kind of a pain in the ass. As are the turn only lanes that give you no warning that they're turn only until you're 4 cars from the intersection and you have to start figuring out how to change lanes.

    Your observations about the condition of the vehicles down here despite not having any salt and rot because we don't have annual inspections were quite funny to me, because they're pretty true. The more rural/small town you get the worse it is too

    When you get the XR and it is sorted, we need to plan a long weekend and I'll get you in some real country side West of here and up into South GA around and over into the Thomasville area over around through there. It's gorgeous.

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