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Today was a long day down town, left the house at 05:00, was on station at 06:30 got off at 17:30 and home by 19:00, I'm just a little pooped... My lower back has been killing me today, I may end up sleeping in a recliner with a heating pad. I did get my final performance appraisal of the year, exceeds expectations across the board, which should mean a good bonus at the end of the year... :)
 
FarmOR said:
IMO high mileage auto transmission can grow devoid of friction material.

There's two schools of thought on this. One crowd says to never replace the fluid in a high mileage transmission. I'm Of of the second school of thought:
Click to expand...
If it's a Ford, I would think twice about it.
We ran the heck out of our service trucks and had 2 transmissions that were working great, fail within a month of having the fluid changed after the 100,000 mile mark. One was mine :(.
Here's what happens: as the seal rings on a clutch pack piston wears, centrifugal force coats the backside of it with sludge, allowing it to keep sealing.
The new fluid flushes out the sludge and the clutch fails.
My next truck was still working fine when I swapped it in with over 200,000 miles on it, by not changing the trans oil after 100K miles.
(BTW, I have always hated Fords)
 
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FarmOR said:
IMO high mileage auto transmission can grow devoid of friction material.

There's two schools of thought on this. One crowd says to never replace the fluid in a high mileage transmission. I'm Of of the second school of thought:

To gain all the advantages of fresh fluid and a new clean filter, plus removing that excess metal filings from the catch magnet, I change it. If there's slipping or shuddering, I've had success using Thompson trans fix to supplement. It effectively replaces lost friction material in the fluid. The real trick is figuring out how much you need. So I start by adding a minimal amount, test drive, add little more and so on until symptoms disappear?
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Thank you. I am of the same train of thought as you. There is a noticeable improvement today as opposed to last night prior to the draining and replacing 6 of the 9.5 quarts. Next week I will have 12 more quarts arrive so I will drain and fill again and if needed a few days later I will drain and fill a third time. I can't find a partial bottle of what I used last year so I am not sure if it had the anti-shudder additive and I am guessing it probably did not. Although it is better it is not 100% so I will get at it, but the interesting part is it does not do it on the way to town (25 miles and 10* warmer) but it is noticeable on the way home after everything had a chance to get heat soaked and the elevation increases on the way home.

Do you have a link for the Thompson trans fix, I did a search and the closest I got was Thompsons transmission repair shop in Illinois. Last month I used some Lucas transmission fix and did notice a slight improvement but that 6 ounces was minimal compared to 9 quarts of fluid.

I am looking for a transmission cooler to add on to the system. It gets darn hot here in the desert so even though the car is rarely used to tow anything it will help keep the transmission and engine cooler.
 
Supervisor42 said:
If it's a Ford, I would think twice about it.
We ran the heck out of our service trucks and had 2 transmissions that were working great, fail within a month of having the fluid changed after the 100,000 mile mark. One was mine :(.
Here's what happens: as the seal rings on a clutch pack piston wears, centrifugal force coats the backside of it with sludge, allowing it to keep sealing.
The new fluid flushes out the sludge and the clutch fails.
My next truck was still working fine when I swapped it in with over 200,000 miles on it, by not changing the trans oil after 100K miles.
(BTW, I have always hated Fords)
Click to expand...
The train of thought is to change the fluid regularly to prevent the build up and prevent the problems, but I appreciate your input. I am hoping we can avoid catastrophe for 6 months or more.
 
Got home from the farm supply store about an hour ago. When we got to our gate I noticed a cow was out. Just opened the gate and drove her down the fence line and through the gate. She was glad to find her calf.
On the way home I got pulled over by a cop. I just crossed over a bridge. On one side of the bridge the speed limit was 35 and the other it was 25. I was doing 31. I told him I wasn't going to ride my brakes coming down off the bridge. No ticket. I told the cop that this was the first time I've been pulled over since 1996. The smart ass cop said that was the year he was born. Anyway, we're sitting out on the back deck now enjoying the last of the warm weather. It's still in the upper 40's here.
 
GF was considering buying a new vehicle so she had something reliable to get her to and from work, 2.5 hours each way once a week. Although there were some decent deals on the 2023's she opted to wait until next June and buy her moms Buick when the lease ends for about $20k. Seeing how that Buick only has about 600 miles on it so far I think that is a pretty good plan. She now plans to buy her mom's vehicle every 2 years, basically getting an almost new 2 year old vehicle for half price of new. Win/Win in my book.

Day 2 of Chiropractor this week, slept great last night and hoping for more of the same tonight. I get to skip tomorrow and go back on Thursday so hopefully this week 2 round of improvements gets me though the weekend with good sleep.
 
Bacpacker said:
Back to work today. Upon starting the puter up I found 500+ emails. Took until after lunch to sort thru them. Still have some to answer. got some stuff started up and other stuff moving along.
Got home and the wife had got some stuff for a nice birthday supper.
Just relaxing before bed
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That’s a lot of emails. You sure are popular!
 
Bacpacker said:
Back to work today. Upon starting the puter up I found 500+ emails. Took until after lunch to sort thru them. Still have some to answer. got some stuff started up and other stuff moving along.
Got home and the wife had got some stuff for a nice birthday supper.
Just relaxing before bed
Click to expand...
How long were you off?

I was off a week or so and had that many but that was rare.

I don't miss company e-mail at all.

Thank God!

Ben
 
INresponse said:
The train of thought is to change the fluid regularly to prevent the build up and prevent the problems, but I appreciate your input. I am hoping we can avoid catastrophe for 6 months or more.
Click to expand...
That's probably best. My anecdote may only apply to one model, of one make, of transmission.
 
Rested some more, did some light cleaning. Kitties woke me up thinking it was the endtimes because the pump in their water fountain was clogged & the water wasn't moving. They alerted me to the problem so I had to unplug it, take it apart, change the filter, and clean it all out-- scrubbed the pump clean. Put it all back together wish fresh water and the were satisfied.

Been talking to my uncle in e-mail. He's stressed out trying to handle the obituary and arrange the funeral for his wife.

Amazon finally shipped my power supply but when they did they billed me another $50 (took the gift card I got from Mistplay). Not sure if they charged the credit card after sending or if they double-billed me and stole $50. Tried to cc page but it won't list transactions for this month yet. I had to help Mom login to her account because she couldn't figure out how. She kept clicking the wrong things.

Cooked for her and got her some fruit. My tummy is yelling at me so I'm about to get some food.
 
Got out to the bin store and found some good deals on underwear. Lots of it. Four packs of ladies underwear (Hanes brand) for 99 cents each. So bought lots. I like to keep extra stock of underthings and socks and jackets just in case. Went to little granddaughter's parent teacher conference. Her grades were great except for the glaring D in math. She hates math. This is a challenge, but I told her that it needs to be a C next report period. She can do it, her test scores show she can, she just doesn't like it. Went to the amish grocery afterwards and stocked up on grits. They store well.
 
from todays hike

P1000111.JPG
 
Today was "take down that dead tree in the front yard" day. the thing was almost three stories tall and maybe 14" diameter trunk? So the wife got out her newly purchased medium sized chainsaw and put it together. Then it was like, crap, we don't have any bar/chain oil. Wouldn't want to run a brand new saw without the required oil. Off to the Home Depot to buy that. The tree was leaning a bit, and it would want to fall in a direction that we didn't really want it to fall. Not a totally unworkable direction, but just not the best direction. So then I though we could lasso a branch about 20 feet up on the thing, and with a long rope - longer than the tree is tall - tie it to the trailer hitch on our truck to pull it and help direct the fall. Where's my rope? Dang it! Back to Home Depot to buy another rope. I got back home and here's the wife pushing on the tree. Timber! It fell over. No need to cut it down. I guess we should have tried that first. It did fall in that sub-optimal direction, but it was OK. We just left it there for the day (starting to get late) and figure we'll saw it up tomorrow. THEN we can use the new chainsaw. And the new oil. Don't need the new rope now though.

I did find that Home Depot ropes suck. Their working loads are terrible. Only a few hundred pounds. Most were under 250lbs! I dug around and found one that boasted 500lbs. Not great at all, but better. But it was only 15 friggin' feet long. The tow strap in the truck is longer than that. I'm thinking back to my rock climbing ropes when I was younger, and IIRC, those things were like 5000 lbs rated. I ended up buying a Home Depot 100 foot rope that was rated 315 lbs. Pitiful, but maybe good enough to simply guide a tree in which direction to fall. Maybe. But now I don't need it for the already-fallen tree, so it will just be used for lashing stuff down in the truck I guess. 100 feet ought to cut it for that - I'll be able to lash for hours on end!
 
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zannej said:
Rested some more, did some light cleaning. Kitties woke me up thinking it was the endtimes because the pump in their water fountain was clogged & the water wasn't moving. They alerted me to the problem so I had to unplug it, take it apart, change the filter, and clean it all out-- scrubbed the pump clean. Put it all back together wish fresh water and the were satisfied.

Been talking to my uncle in e-mail. He's stressed out trying to handle the obituary and arrange the funeral for his wife.

Amazon finally shipped my power supply but when they did they billed me another $50 (took the gift card I got from Mistplay). Not sure if they charged the credit card after sending or if they double-billed me and stole $50. Tried to cc page but it won't list transactions for this month yet. I had to help Mom login to her account because she couldn't figure out how. She kept clicking the wrong things.

Cooked for her and got her some fruit. My tummy is yelling at me so I'm about to get some food.
Click to expand...
It's panic time here if the fountains get clogged or get drank dry!!😮😃
 
Supervisor42 said:
That's probably best. My anecdote may only apply to one model, of one make, of transmission.
Click to expand...
Folks on the Tundra forum discussed transmission fluid changes on high mileage vehicles that had never been done. Consensus was to not do a flush. Just a drain and fill. Leave some of the debris in it for the gripabability factor. I did not see any mention of the Lucas additive. That sounds like a decent option. Ill be looking into that myself.
 
Taking wife to Dr. Getting results for her wearing heart monitor for a month. Will see if Dr stills wants to do procedure. Then going by Academy and picking up 500 rounds of 223 and then out eat. I took the day off and employees have already texted,called, or emailed 10 times. Ignoring all communication.
 
Got up early this morning and made up a batch of my version of Tabasco sauce. The only similaritie is it's thinner than my usual hot sauce, may have something to do with the amount of tequila I added.
Also made a marinade for some jerky I plan on making tomorrow. It's going to be a sweet jerky coated in my special mix of dried hot pepper flakes. I'm planing on making a road trip this weekend so it'll come in handy.
Got an appointment on Monday with a physical therapist to try working on my back. I'll do anything to avoid surgery on my back.
Just finished putting the last of the shingles on the pig barn. I really don't like roofing. It's really hard on my knees.
Next I'll clean the chimney on my fur shed and put up a brace on the roof. I've got a freezer full of critters that I need to skin and stretch soon.
 
Have a sick goat, one of the does we are about to breed. She was sitting there not eating and had diareah really bad ,but no pale eyelids ( not worms) . I gave her some coccidia medicine and a shot of antibiotic . It could be pneumonia since the weather changed.
We were going to get hay and that couldn't be moved so I didn't have a lot of time dealing with the sick goat this morning , so I gave her both just in case. She was up complaining loudly about being in a stall when we got back from getting the hay. So she is definitely no worse than when we left.
Got a trailer full of nice square bales. We probably didnt really need it but you can never have enough hay
 
sonya123 said:
Have a sick goat, one of the does we are about to breed. She was sitting there not eating and had diareah really bad ,but no pale eyelids ( not worms) . I gave her some coccidia medicine and a shot of antibiotic . It could be pneumonia since the weather changed.
We were going to get hay and that couldn't be moved so I didn't have a lot of time dealing with the sick goat this morning , so I gave her both just in case. She was up complaining loudly about being in a stall when we got back from getting the hay. So she is definitely no worse than when we left.
Got a trailer full of nice square bales. We probably didnt really need it but you can never have enough hay
Click to expand...
Get a baby bottle and put 1 cup of milk to 3 cups of unflavored pedialite. she needs to be hydrated. then give her a jar of peanut butter.
 
I completed the transfer switch install today.

20231018_153747.jpg


20231018_154131.jpg


All of the available wire pairs are ty-wrapped up. As I work through critical circuits the black wire goes to the load and the red connects to the breaker. I may have to run some more circuits since some of the loads are fed from one or more sub panel.

Ben
 
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