Tractor

Well I definately don't agree with you here. In my club we routinely have our vehicles high centered (part of the frame/axles planted firmly into dirt) to the point that 1 or more tires is in the air (meaning there are inches or feet between the tire and ground) and if the vehicle has one or more locker in one of the axles this situation is no problem at all. I'm pretty sure that an AWD system can not handle that. The system (unless they are programmed somehow to figure out whats going on) will assume that the tire that is free spinning in the air has all sorts of traction and will apply power to that tire not realizing the vehicle isn't moving. Now if the newest AWD systems do in fact have programming since I"m sure they have sensors all over them and monitor whats going on then it would be a matter of writing a program to apply a lot of breaks to that free spinning tire until the others start to receive power. Now that would definitely be cool. Anyone wanna test it out? My club has one vehicle limitation and that is that you cannot show up to our events with an AWD vehicle because AWD WILL NOT WORK OFF ROAD. Evan

Well 3 LSD's still won't do crap if one tire is lifted. Though they help a lot in slick conditions. I want snow measured in feet. I'm tired of this 3" shuts down the city crap. Besides I got a 1700 ft driveway I wanna clear with my tractor:-) On a side note with 3 LSD's using your break pedel or parking brake while pressing the gas is a great way to get unstuck from snow. Evan

Hehe even my wifes daily driver `05 Taco dbl cab 4x4 has the electric locker option. That was fun. I got to use it last winter when I drove off the side of the road to see if a dude that just wrecked in front of me needed help. I ended up driving right into what looked like a nice flat spot, but this was on SR 61 in morrow county so it turned out to be a 3 foot drift. The locker saved my ego that day for sure:-) Evan

I'd be interested to see it in action. Even the newer jeep SUV's that were AWD were completely unable to drive on the beach. I even got in one of them and looked around for buttons/levers to engage the center diff and found nothing. They would spin only one tire and that was all. I thought that was very odd for a jeep. Evan

The Monopoly guy rocks. Thats like something I would have been back in the day. hehe always the capitalist:-) Evan

With an AWD vehicle nothing is 100% locked so if you have 1 or more tires off the ground all power goes to the tire that is not on the ground. Of course I'm not sure how the smarter systems using ABS and other neat traction aiding tricks would work. Even the power transfer between front and rear is not locked. It also uses a differential system to put power were its needed and mechanically it will think its needed on the floating tire on the floating end of the vehicle. In a 4x4 system having one tire off the ground is not an issue and is actually fun in what I do:-) In this situation the power is supplied to the tire off the ground on that end of the vehicle, but at the same time power is applied to the opposite end of the vehicle and one or both of the tires on that axle can spin to get you free. In a fully locked vehicle like you'll find in the offroad world 100% of the power goes to all 4 tires 100% of the time. Its tricky on slick roads, but you are as unstoppable as a 4 tired vehicle can be. I'd be curious to see if a really smart AWD would work as I described. Any takers? I know all brand new AWD vehicles I saw down at the outer banks, NC where completely useless on the sand. They were all getting towed back to pavement by anyone who would help them or having to pay the tow guy 50 bucks:-) Evan

All wheel drive blah blah. I can't wait till someone posts a pic of there awd when they get stuck in a drift with a tire off the ground. 4wd ftw:-) Oh and 38" tars don't hurt either. Evan

I didn't even go to school and people don't point out my mistakes often. I know I'm incorrect a lot, but I listen to Mozilla when it underlines things in red and fix them. I do also agree though that people that correct simple mistakes are totally annoying and should stfu. Evan

I lived in Huber Ridge area for the last 5 years and saw it comming so I sold my house and moved to the country while I could still could. Evan

Great post Maro. Now I know she's the type you gotta bitch slap to get anywhere:-) Just like my wife. SWEET Evan

Lol I doubt Rolla would do anything on purpose. Maybe we would need to hear more of the story and then ban your account:-) Evan

Theres alot of bad things I could do to make her stop talking, but I'll keep quiet. Evan

IMO through my 10x50 binoculars it really gives your imagination something to play with. Surprisingly even though the big scope even at a very low power can see the dust cloud, the coma (central mass), and the shiny rock in the middle all in one view its just not as fun as the binos. The sky is clear tonight, but not very transparent yet. That will probably change in a couple of hours so someone that isn't very familiar with star maps and the night sky would have difficulty finding it until then. And yes it will be around for awhile as it loops around the sun and heads back out of the solar system. Unless of course it melts. Evan

I'm pretty sure that metal transfers vibrations pretty well. Thats the only reason I'd fill it with concrete. Maybe filling it with rubber or something similar would be better. Hehe I could just spray a crap load of cans of sound deadener into it. As for alignment. I got that covered. It will be polar aligned and I'll probably do the site survey in the way the ancients would have using the sun and shadows to get some neat angles. It doesn't really need to be that exact since any scopes mount usually has several degrees of adjustment, but I think it will provide some neat insight into the history of the hobby and maybe I'll come up with something interesting for a dedication plate or at least more stuff to add to the picture gallery. Call my backyard "little stonehinge" when I"m done with it:-) Evan

I'm planning to build an amature observatory in my back yard at some point. Trouble is I want to make the telescopes mounting pier as stable as possible. What is the best way to do this? A 10" or so diameter concrete pier with an adapter plate installed on top of it? Or something like a concrete footer with a large dia heavy steel pipe filled with concrete? I'm thinking the solid concrete would be better myself, but I'm not even close to an expert. It will need to be stable enough to shoot 1.5 to 2 hour exposer photographs (yes the cameras shutter will be open for 1 to 2 hours at a time gathering light.) I'll probably be using CCD, but its the same basic principle though in CCD I'll be cooling the imaging chip to -40/-20 degrees to make it as sensitive to light as possible. So yeah I'll need it stable enough that bumping it won't hurt as long as no one bumps the optical assembly. The floor of the observatory will definately be separated by rubber (or other vibration damping material) from the main scope pier. Any clues? Evan

If anyone wants they can come up to my place near Marengo and watch it. In my back yard its about as dark as it gets anywhere in Ohio. Especially in the direction of that comet. Bring scopes and kids if you got'em. Its alot of fun and learning. Funny how much amature astronomers like showing off the night sky. Its gonna be naked eye visable for a couple of weeks at least and I'm sure I can keep it in my scope until its past mars if anyone wants to look at a tiny dot:-) Evan

That right there just shows how dumb girls are as to how men think. Evan

I need to get a wheel bearing pressed. I got the hub assembly off so anyone wanna help me out? Be nice if I could have it done before the weekends over. If not then I can get it done at a place near my wifes bank after that. Evan

Well she could obtain a california license I think I heard that they are giving them to illegals. Probably wouldn't work though since she's not comming from Mexico:-) Evan

No shit what the hell where you doing stealing anything. If it ain't yours its wrong and to a business it shows that you can't be trusted. Maybe you can be in a real situation, but don't blame anyone but you for that one. I'd totally agree to random drug tests a few times a year. It would help and reward all of us who are clean with lots more work to do:-) Evan

Wow you guys. He went through a water puddle with a car. Not a mud hole. Sounds exactly like a wet ignition. If you had hydro locked it you would have had an air intake box completely full of water and you would have had to go through at least 1 foot of water to fill that up in a typical car or hit a really big water puddle way to fast with a crappy designed intake point. If you really want to make sure everything electrical is dry spray it down real good with "Wire Dryer" you can buy a can at Advance Auto Parts. We run into this type of problem constantly out on the trails and I go through 4+ foot mud holes routinely. Evan

Just a note. If your camping out of the area make sure you understand that you may be going into a quarantined county and you may be fined for transporting firewood. Ash bores have been moving into Ohio and they are trying to slow them down long enough to find a cure. If its just your backyard then disregard my BS. Evan

If its in there secure area that you can't get it from and something happens to it it would definaly be there responablility no matter how many (we aren't responsable) signs they have posted if you really press the matter. Logically and legally that can't hold up in court and especially since you didn't agree to it and they are "effectively" guarding the cars from outside intrusion. Evan

Nice. I just had a house built up in Morrow County over the summer. I'm about 2 miles southeast of Marengo. Evan

Did I run into you guys out there at the waterfall? I was in the blue tracker with my dad to hang out and watch everyone try it. To bad it hadn't rained in months down there, but at least that is the first time I've seen everyone make it up that obsticle without any real damage. If you guys really want to run down there I'll lead a group about any weekend. Marietta is IMO not worth running when its dry, but when its rained the night before those trails turn to poop and are not even doable without good sized (relative to vehicle) tires and at least one locker makes life much easier, but everything except the waterfall is doable with open diffs (I have seen it done and I've also seen guys end up laying on there sides after trying it.) You guys should see TWP 442 (mud bogg) in the rainy season. Most of the mud holes completely cover my 38" boggers. BTW why the hell do people roll down spider gear when its dry? Wow were was he at the bottom? Because anywhere else and you guys would probably have good pics of the lifeflight chopper. Evan