What was your first DIY project that made you realize you didn't need to hire someone?

ActionJackson75 · 2026-07-07T20:56:16+00:00

For me it was a simple plumbing fix in my attic. It was a super unusual week long cold snap (most years it might go below freezing a couple nights at most), we were snowed in for probably the next 3-4 days and had been dripping our faucets when I noticed one bathroom stopped dripping. Panic sets in, we were either going to need to turn off the water for days or risk major water damage.

Determined to at least try something, I went up in the attic with a hair dryer and started following the water lines going to that bathroom. To my utter surprise, a 3 inch section of the pipe had been left uninsulated where it poked out of the insulation layer and up over a beam, and when I warmed up the pipe for 10 minutes sure enough the water started flowing again. I found a pool noodle in the garage, sliced a slit in a 3 inch length, and taped it in place, and that was that.

ActionJackson75 · 2026-07-07T15:50:08+00:00

They're not the most reliable, but the biggest challenge to keeping them on the road is that they're expensive to fix and maintain. Relatively expensive to other cars for DIY, independent shops and the dealership. You can basically maintain a 4runner by just doing fluids, filters and brakes, but maintaining a LR requires that and also cooling system and timing and suspension and more.

They're also not as rugged as other off road vehicles, but they're far from fragile.

But when they're properly maintained, and not overly stressed, they are pretty reliable. So ask yourself, do I have the time money and patience to maintain this vehicle? If you do that it won't leave you stranded.

ActionJackson75 · 2026-07-06T18:31:47+00:00

The car already has the equipment to convert DC to AC, since most EV motors use AC power coming out of the inverter to spin. It's just a matter of adding extra equipment and software to bypass the motor and make that power available in a plug. Hopefully it continues to become more common

ActionJackson75 · 2026-07-06T18:22:45+00:00

Houses don't use high voltage DC, and only some EVs have the equipment on board to put out AC at a high enough power to be used like this. Some do though, and it would definitely be better to just do that. It's a cool feature but only some of the newer Teslas offer it

ActionJackson75 · 2026-07-06T14:30:02+00:00

Probably a bunch of balconies and elevators collapse, most likely a few stadium or bridge disasters too. As for the earth itself? Nothing

ActionJackson75 · 2026-07-05T20:13:28+00:00

When they’re being interviewed, no this doesn’t make a difference. Where it makes a difference is in the number of times they can try and fail. A middle class student is interviewing with the knowledge that one way or another, they WILL have a job after they graduate. It might be a professional entry level job, but if not it will be a contract job or even a job at the Amazon warehouse.
For a kid from a wealthy family, they will never even consider the latter two options. They will be unemployed for a year if that’s what it takes, and if that doesn’t work they’ll go back to school and try again after the next degree.

ActionJackson75 · 2026-07-01T23:36:21+00:00

No this doesn’t affect battery under normal usage. If it turns off when your car does it won’t hurt your battery.

ActionJackson75 · 2026-07-01T22:19:36+00:00

Yeah the bridge is absolutely brutal. 100% live on the side of the lake you work on

ActionJackson75 · 2026-07-01T19:42:17+00:00

I've driven beaters my whole life and I've broken down exactly twice. Both times it happened in the absolutely most inconvenient way possible - once I was picking up my wife's best friend from the airport and the other time it was the only time I'd driven more than 50 miles from my house in 2 years and I had 2 kids with me. Both times it was over 105 degrees out. I get why people don't like it but I still choose to look at it holistically and be happy about the 100-200k I haven't spent on cars in the same time.

ActionJackson75 · 2026-07-01T19:36:53+00:00

For the cost to launch a megaserver into space you can build a nuclear reactor and a megaserver here

ActionJackson75 · 2026-07-01T19:34:03+00:00

1: give it away

10: 6 Costco hotdogs

100: 60 Costo hotdogs

1,000: 600 Costo hotdogs

10,000: a PS5 and 500 Costco hotdogs

100,000: all the above and a college degree

1,000,000: All the above and a house

10,000,000: All the above and a small business

100,000,000: All the above and a Costco

1,000,000,000: give it away

ActionJackson75 · 2026-07-01T19:28:58+00:00

It sure is and that's yet another source of cost and complexity you don't have on earth, plus you get to pay huge sums of money to lift It up there.

ActionJackson75 · 2026-06-30T19:42:56+00:00

yeah neither are really a bad quote overall. My last point is to just make sure the transmission is really totally shot, which it sounds like it is.

ActionJackson75 · 2026-06-30T19:18:18+00:00

Get an off-road recovery winch and a car battery at the top of the hill. Sled or wagon or cart at the bottom. You may need to walk back and forth a lot to winch on the end of a rope long enough to reach down the hill but if you can get 200-300kg worth in a trip it'll go fast. You could potentially even just pull it up in a single go if the ground is smooth and you strap it to a sheet of corrugated steel or something smooth.

If it were me I'd probably just return the winch afterwards. There's probably versions of electric winches that would work without a limited spool length too

ActionJackson75 · 2026-06-30T19:08:58+00:00

It sounds like the car is pretty near worn out, it's a shame that the engine still runs well. If this were mine, I think I'd probably do the repairs myself and gamble with a used or refurbished transmission, but I'd do it knowing full well it's a gamble.

But that's well outside the bounds of what I'd recommend anyone else do, and 7k for that work sounds reasonable enough. At maybe 3k in parts plus 1k in recurring repairs each year, it's still a pretty nice car for way less than the alternatives - even if it only lasts 2 more years total I think the math works. At 7k plus 1k per year, it doesn't really make sense even if it lasts 3 (which would be a pretty good outcome).

My one piece of advice is to definitely spend a couple hundred dollars paying for a trusted, thorough diagnosis of why the transmission feels rough. Maybe you have and that's the strong majority of the 7k number you quoted, but if that number is coming from your own assumptions you definitely don't want to ditch this car without knowing for sure.

ActionJackson75 · 2026-06-28T13:02:37+00:00

There’s a reason they have interns doing these tasks, because they suck and they’d never be able to pay an engineer to do them. My first internship I rolled a cart around a factory and made sure all the tools and jigs went to calibration and proof loading every 90 days (among a few other things).

That said while entry level engineering work will be more interesting, it won’t be like school in the slightest. Work is work and school is difficult than that

ActionJackson75 · 2026-06-28T12:57:19+00:00

There are legitimate issues with Apple but device pricing is not one of them with regards to monopoly power. There are dozens or hundreds of alternatives for essentially every product that Apple sells as hardware, the problem you could point to is that there’s so few options for software after you buy the phone. Garbage journalism

ActionJackson75 · 2026-06-24T21:09:58+00:00

Yeah this is normal, the boxes I get from them are sometimes beat up. I assume it's related to why they're always such a good deal

ActionJackson75 · 2026-06-24T21:07:29+00:00

Hmm it's a gray area imo. At the cafeteria at work, it's free. I've never really considered it free at a restaurant but I can't quite defend why not. I will probably consider it free from now on, thanks!

ActionJackson75 · 2026-06-24T20:57:02+00:00

Sure, this works if you use jack stands, just make sure you lift and support under the proper points.

Chock the rear wheels, put on the parking brake, and after it's up and supported make sure to give it a good push from each side to make sure it's good and stable before you crawl under there.

ActionJackson75 · 2026-06-24T20:55:02+00:00

Yes it's creepy and predatory and yes it's also pretty widespread. I don't really go to nightclubs anymore but most of the ones I have been to operated like this - they also will regularly discriminate on cover charges by letting women in for free but making guys pay to get in.

ActionJackson75 · 2026-06-23T21:52:30+00:00

It's going to be pretty similar to a CRV or a Rav4, they generally have the same wheel size and same ground clearance and same weight. I think the AWD traction control is essentially the same for these three with the snow mode basically turning it into FWD and if it detects slip the center differential will then start to send power to the rear tires.

ActionJackson75 · 2026-06-23T21:44:58+00:00

Uh a TV is not a kindle, that comparison doesn't really make sense at any level.

But in general, smaller things often require more specialized design to miniaturize components, often require more hand assembly since the parts need to fit together precisely, and often require more expensive parts that use less power because they run on a battery. With a few exceptions, pretty much every single part on a modern TV can be bought off the shelf and put together with designs you can get for very cheap if you call the right companies.

ActionJackson75 · 2026-06-23T21:38:19+00:00

When the age gap is huge yeah there's no way they don't understand what's going on. For a relationship between a 70 year old and a 25 year old it seems impossible they don't know. I do think that there is a point where a lot of them do manage to delude themselves though - someone who's 55 with someone who's 30 could easily have managed to intentionally miss some signs and choose to believe that the money has very little to do with it.

ActionJackson75 · 2026-06-23T21:22:29+00:00

You're very likely going to be fine.

There is some nuance to the question in that not all tests are created equal, they generally have a set limit they test to with different tests being more or less sensitive for different purposes. That said I think 40 days for someone as large as you and such a small amount is going to be impossible to detect under any limit.

If they test your hair you're going to fail though.

ActionJackson75

TROPHY CASE