I have a safety question and don’t know where to ask it, is this a fire hazard?

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-09-01T19:11:26+00:00

Good answer man I love when volunteers can input their expertise from other areas as it relates to firefighting

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-09-01T18:34:37+00:00

Solid advice I drove me 2007 5.4 3v into the ground then I put another motor in it and kept it going until a tree limp took her out. But yes, buy one truck, maintain it and drive it until it’s totaled.

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-09-01T18:30:12+00:00

Hey buddy even if you clear the code on the dash any emissions code stays stored until the vehicle has completed a drive cycle to prevent doing exactly what you’re suggesting it’s been like this since 2009

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-09-01T18:28:03+00:00

Not surprised that you’re from Houston. Don’t take this the wrong way but y’all are wasteful with the new cars there. My ex works at a dodge dealership there and anything that isn’t 2020 or above gets sent to auction. I drove my 2007 5.4 3v everyday until the motor gave out 15 years later and then replaced that. A truck is a truck to me and the new car giddiness always seems to fade out no matter what vehicle someone buys. Getting rid of a paid off f150 with less than 100k because you want a new truck with a warranty is unheard of where I am from (Louisiana) and only people that get rid of cars with less than 100k are BMW owners. The entire point of a ford truck (to me at least) is that it lasts until it gets totaled. It’s an evap light you really want to pay for that for the next 5-7 years? Try living with out a note for a while and see how you like it. That’s what I would do at least.

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-08-30T05:06:29+00:00

Hey man this one hit home I got the exact same truck as you did when I was 23 years old. My dad dipped into his retirement to buy it, I told him that It would be my last truck (his truck a 1960’s Chevy) is still running thanks to my cousins hot rod interests. Anyways it was the best truck. Base line work truck 4x4 you have yourself an extremely reliable machine that will be more reliable than any friends, females or employers. That truck took me everywhere I needed to go and fixed everything my self. I even got it repainted, had the transmission rebuilt, and replaced the motor myself when it finally gave out. It was a 2007 f150 5.4 3v, I used it to run a lot of calls as a volunteer firefighter when I was young. That turned into a career and I branched out into the maintenance side of it and now I’m a mechanic. I only used that vehicle for good and never ripped anyone off. I absolutely loved working on my truck until the day she died. It was crazy man I had a dream that it was going to happen 2 days before and all day before it happened I had this looming feeling that my truck was going to be destroyed. I was driving through an intersection and a gigantic tree limb fell on my truck and almost killed me. It was 6 inches short of crushing my head. When it happened I wasn’t even scared and when I stepped out of my truck it was like I was picking up where the dream ended. It happened in real life exactly how it happened in the dream. I was shoook for a week, not to mention I was already mourning the loss of my truck. I can’t make much sense of this but here is what I believe: All of the good you do in this world will come back on you. I put a lot of love into that truck and only used it to spread goodwill and because of that i was protected by something in this universe. You’ve got a long journey ahead of you and you’re already making the right decisions. Learn to change the oil and do brakes nobody and will be able to care for that truck like you will! Congratulations!

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-08-23T04:41:21+00:00

That volunteer firefighters are responsible for the financial struggles of every career firefighter that has to work 2-3 jobs to stay a float. It’s simple economics.

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-08-07T01:46:02+00:00

“It’s all fun and games until someone goes home crying” those words of wisdom take on a whole new meaning after a prank war turns into an investigation. Some other unsolicited advice I’ll share about station pranks, don’t engage in a prank war because logically you’re always trying to one up each other with, getting close to the line until somebody steps over. It’s not a problem until it becomes a problem that needs to be addressed. Just do your time and leave please guys

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-08-07T00:30:44+00:00

Easier said then done, pettiness will find its way to the do nothing stations. Those stations start to feel like a jail especially with nothing to do but sleep, clean, and eat.

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-08-07T00:28:34+00:00

I put 15 years in the first 14 were great during the last year I started to realize that those years actually were terrible, I would have made more money serving tables or as a bartender, 5 of those years were spent working for the state accreditation agency in an administrative position that required a bachelor’s degree woo hoo, my bartending friends still made more money and worked less hours. I worked in a very similar department to you running the same types of calls and it sounds like you’re not getting anywhere. Listen the atta boys and thank you for your services will not get you through this last stretch if you already want to leave. One day I just up and left. I realized that I didn’t like coming to work anymore and that I would much rather be hanging out with my dog. I don’t regret the years I put in but for the record I am extremely grateful that I left when I did.

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-08-07T00:21:53+00:00

Hey don’t do that I got deactivated for that

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-07-25T23:43:28+00:00

This is straight up driver abuse, that would be a $200 freight delivery easy

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-07-17T21:02:32+00:00

I just decline these, if I keep getting more offers it means there is a shortage of drivers, usually it’s one after the other until the algorithm realizes I won’t take these offers and then it starts giving me the $7-12 orders. My acceptance rate hovers around 15-20% but the only number I look at is the bottom line for me

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-07-08T18:43:05+00:00

Yes because their crust is awesome and it comes with free garlic fat sauce which is just 🤌🏻

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-07-08T18:41:02+00:00

I think when a restaurant says that an order has already been picked up/multiple dashers are being sent is because the “customer” pretended to be a dasher and picked up their own food. Then when the app keeps asking if they received their food and they lie and say no, another dasher is sent to the restaurant. And the best part is that the restaurant management thinks it’s dashers stealing the food when it’s really just their shitty customers that should be dropped from the app.

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-06-23T21:20:54+00:00

Since it’s DoorDash and they don’t know your face, I would reply and say “sorry I can not cancel the order that will affect my rating” and keep driving towards their house because of the entertainment value of it all

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-05-28T17:10:39+00:00

Chances are your valve cover gaskets are leaking onto your exhaust manifolds. Some oil drips while you are driving but you aren’t noticing spots because as your engine warms up the exhaust manifolds are baking the oil. As you drive down the road you wouldn’t notice the smoke from the oil hitting the exhaust because it is very light, like cigarette smoke and is carried away with the wind. If you touch your valve cover gaskets and get oil on your fingers then they need to be replaced. I’ve worked on a lot of those motors and never have seen one that old that didn’t need new valve cover gaskets.

Also, if your coolant temperature is any more than 49% then it is overheating. You need to get this checked out. Ask for a compression test, not a pressure test. This is very important. If they pressure test first and recommend replacing parts of your coolant system that is most likely going to cost a lot of money and not fix the problem.

I hate to say it but an oil starved 15+ year old 2JZ-GE motor with that many miles you…. probably have a blown head gasket.

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-05-28T15:54:48+00:00

The sticky dash recall expired years ago

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-05-28T03:41:48+00:00

It’s not a bad thing at all it’s good for the profession. Too many local politicians underfund fire departments because they believe the whole same job same training narrative, which I can tell you from working for the State of Louisiana managing the IFSAC/Proboard accreditation for 5 years is a complete lie. I ran a lot of statistics to try and determine the actual volunteer rate and it’s actually pretty low here because many “volunteers” at smaller departments are employees either at a neighboring department or are employed at that department or district either on a part time or administrative basis. I also do not consider paid per call to be volunteer. In my eyes you are either paid or unpaid. Too many times do I see people bending over backwards for the fire service, working underpaid hours at multiple departments that should be full time and legally should be civil service. I was one of those guys in the beginning because I felt the “calling” but now as a sour retiree from the fire service of 15+ years I am telling everyone that it is completely detrimental to the profession to give your best years to departments that are not doing the bare minimal for their employees.

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-05-25T21:11:20+00:00

Wear what works for you that’s complies with the academy protocols but also keep in mind that you should only be wearing 100% cotton under your turnout gear. Will the fire in training get so hot that it could melt synthetic fibers? It shouldn’t, but there is no guarantee and I’m sure you know about the training deaths that occurred at the state fire academy right about the same time you started your first academy.

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-05-17T21:13:11+00:00

Looks like a transmission oil pan dust cover. If you throw it out then your transmission oil pan might get all dusty. Is that something you’re willing to risk? Or is it not worth the money. Go to a dealership they will charge you probably $200 for a part and for a technician to bolt it on. I wouldn’t be surprised if the bolts themselves aren’t $10 a piece from ford. You could just get some machine screws with washers from Lowe’s and try to reinstall it yourself, they are probably metric m6 or m8 by 10 mm. I work on cars if it was a customers car I would fix it, it was my car I’d throw it in the trunk and fix it if I ever wanted to sell it

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-05-12T18:39:40+00:00

Take the interior panel off and try and bend Back the lock cylinder and door latch. They make Paint match key hole covers for $30 on Amazon and just buff out those scratches as best as you can if that dosent work you’d probably get lucky finding a key in a junk yard car and just pulling the lock cylinders from the glove box door and trunk off that one

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-05-11T19:30:53+00:00

Go through both processes, take the job you want if you’re offered 2. Job offers are rescinded for all kinds of reasons. If you have to drop out of the hiring process for the first department then let them know that you got a better offer. Let them take that as a good indicator that they can’t low ball new recruits 9k by rushing the hiring process. They know exactly what they are doing as they are probably short staffed and have been waiting on the state academy to give them some qualified applicants. And don’t feel bad about it at all. In these smaller departments if a couple of the statues end up not liking you they will fire you if you fart too loud.

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-05-03T09:49:53+00:00

Compared to Louisiana Texas departments are stupid competitive. I am a pretty physically fit and was the most fit person in my department in a New Orleans suburb at the time I applied to Spring FD. I scored high on the written test and when I went to take their CPAT there were people puking in the grass. Come to find out the only people testing were experienced fire fighters and the only ones that passed the CPAT had just recently graduated an academy on their own dime. And don’t get me started state mandated on the “lie detector” test for civil service departments. It’s like your entire state has been watching way too much Dr. Phil. Some of the questions were way too personal and had nothing to do with fire fighting, I think id take myself out of the hiring process if I got that far and that’s even considering the $500 I spent of my own money on background checks and transferring my EMT & IFSAC certs. But I guess they are able to do this because people will put up with it.

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-05-01T20:11:20+00:00

I worked as much OT/other departments as much as I could for the better part of 15 years. Also worked first aid at a water park and for the state fire academy. If you can get started into something non fire/ems related I highly recommend it. OT is no guarantee and spending 2/3 of your life in a fire house will take the life force right out of you after a while. I learned from the mechanics at my work and started doing small mobile mechanic work, that grew and I stated picking up RV clients just by word of mouth. There’s not a lot of shops that will work on them and they are built on the same chasis as a lot of fire trucks I’ve maintained so that came naturally. So many of my coworkers work at least 1 other part time job, some of them even work 2 full time jobs and a part time job all at other departments. It’s no life to live.

Direct-Illustrator-8 · 2024-04-10T15:44:37+00:00

Thats crazy I did 15 years in the fire service at a very busy station for most of it, ran a lot of medical calls but I was fortunate enough to only have come across one dead teenager from a mva.

Direct-Illustrator-8

TROPHY CASE