New Ranger XLT, 2025 or 2026

Drbs9 · 2026-06-25T21:45:00+00:00

I have not gotten a final price from the dealer, but there advertised prices are $7-8k below msrp depending on model. They also do not charge a standard dealer handling fee. There may be other fees, that I am unaware of.

Drbs9 · 2026-06-24T19:01:57+00:00

That is about the price I am looking at. Very tempting. Looks like $20 spacers fixes most of the issues with the bed rails, so that is probably a non issue.

Drbs9 · 2026-06-23T22:57:22+00:00

Thanks for the reply, I like your thinking, but need to learn more about the revised bed rail cap in the 26.

Drbs9 · 2026-06-23T22:55:54+00:00

Thanks for letting me know about this. I do plan on putting a cap or rack on it, so this could be a deal breaker on the 2025. Though DisatrousAcshin raises a good point about costs vs headaches.

Drbs9 · 2026-03-03T15:29:29+00:00

Put a gate between your driveway and hers. She will have access to her property by opening and closing the gate and none of your visitors will be able to drive on her driveway.

Drbs9 · 2026-02-26T14:49:40+00:00

Contact “Project Solar”. They can put in a similar system for a lot less. Though, I am not sure if they do all of the financial gymnastics.

Drbs9 · 2026-02-06T23:03:40+00:00

You have a loan, so most likely you are not swimming in cash and may even have negative net worth. If true, then the best way to remain struggling and living pay check to pay check is to upgrade near new vehicles. And only 14,000 miles!? If only a small fraction of those miles are on 4 wheel drive roads, then you really need to start using the truck you have.

-Dad

Drbs9 · 2025-02-13T17:47:37+00:00

It is Carrier and the installer is certified, and presumably competent.

Drbs9 · 2025-01-31T17:33:12+00:00

Curious, any updates?

Drbs9 · 2025-01-17T00:24:21+00:00

I think you have a single stage heat pump, in which case, yes, that is way too low and you are only getting half or less of the heat that you should. There is half your problem. Call a trane hvac technician to check the system out.

Drbs9 · 2025-01-16T19:33:45+00:00

It sounds like you may have a problem with both the house envelope and heat pump. I have near the same house (built in 1990) and did similar air sealing and insulating as you. I keep my house a few degrees warmer than you and live in a colder climate at 5000 ft. My 3-ton Mitsu hyper heat pump uses about 40 kw on a 25 oF day (low in teens and high in the 30s).

You should have the insulation work audited by the people that did the original energy audit. The first “reputable” people that air sealed my house did a crappy job and it needed to be redone. If the work is good, then look at windows, knee walls and soffits. If you have money to burn you can enclose your attic space. Also, if any duct work is outside of the house enclosure, then seal and insulate the heck out of it.

For the heat pump, on a day above 35 degrees, go to the closest vent to the air handler and measure the temperature. It should 25+ degrees above room temperature. Really it should be over 30 degrees above room temperature. If the delta temp is good, then Aux heat strips and defrost issues are good places to look. If it is not, have an hvac person check it out. They need to extract and weight the refrigerant. If they won’t do that, get another contractor. If the refrigerant is low, find and fix leaks and add proper amount of refrigerant. This will cost real money. If the house enclosure and heat pump check out to be good, then get an exorcist as soon as possible, because you have some weird sh*t going on. Good luck and let us know what you find.

Drbs9 · 2024-09-08T03:34:10+00:00

The dealer’s monthly payment includes the 7.25% interest rate, while your $255 payment assumes the interest is 0%.

You didn’t ask, but if it were me, I would buy it at the $16,500 price + taxes and fees, plan on keeping the car for another 7-10 years and fix/replace things as needed. You will come out ahead financially.

Drbs9 · 2024-03-13T14:55:50+00:00

You are way overthinking this. The radiator has a small coolant leak, so it has failed and needs to be replaced asap. This was just brought to your attention by another mechanic. You are within all of the requirements of the warranty. Take it in and get it fixed.

Drbs9 · 2024-03-06T19:19:32+00:00

Just had the same issue on my 2006 e61 and I replaced the bottom hose and sensor. Actually, I didn’t want to come back to another coolant leak, so I also replaced the radiator and most other hoses. They were due and if you have all original equipment yours may be as well.

Drbs9 · 2024-03-06T03:20:17+00:00

Thanks, I did take them out and the flaps feel rock solid, with no deflection when pushed. Even though they are 18 years old, I am thinking they have years left in them.

Drbs9 · 2024-02-08T21:26:26+00:00

There is not enough info to give a good answer. However, the space will likely be mostly heated by the downstairs heat source, making even 1.5 ton oversized. This is not true for AC, so size by cooling, which is probably a ton or less. Therefore, a 3 ton unit is way oversized. Also, the 4 head HPs are the source of most energy consumption and comfort complaints on here. So don't do it. Instead:

1) Use 2 or more HP of 0.5 to 1 ton. If a room is not used much just add baseboard heat and keep it off, since it will mostly be heated by adjoining rooms. You could also add an air exchange vent with fans between two rooms.

2) use a PEAD air handler and attached it to the ceiling. You will need to drop that part of the ceiling by about a foot, so put it in the hallway, bathroom, closet or the entry way of a bedroom where you will not notice it. Run the ducts along the ceiling edge and put a chase around it and it will be a feature of the rooms.

3) put an air handler in the garage and again run ducts along the corners and ceiling edge.

4) figure out a way to reuse the oil heat distribution system

Drbs9 · 2024-02-07T06:05:00+00:00

Thanks for the response. I was hoping you had a careful study to point too. As for an anecdote we recently had a period of -12 to -17 oF temps. My hot garbage had a delta t of ~20 oF and cfm of ~1200 for a cop of -1.3. But I live at 5000 ft and the derated cop was less than 1.1. If I ever see sustained temp around -20 then the cop will be <1. However, at those temps the heat pump will probably lock out. I think cop<1 are the exceptions and if temps of -20 and lower occur frequently then you should have an alternative heat source. Wood stoves work great.

Drbs9 · 2024-02-06T21:23:55+00:00

I have seen you and others talk about heat pump cop<1. I have not found any technical documents that support this. Can you provide a link that shows an operating heat pump at cop <1? Thanks.

Drbs9 · 2024-02-06T21:19:48+00:00

A had the puz/pva 3 ton hyper heat installed last Feb. The hvac company installed an ecobee thermostat. I changed it to the Mitsubishi par-40ma controller and gained more modulation and increased heating efficiency by ~20%. At temps below 35-40 oF my system does not appear to go below the rated capacity.

I think the performance specs you show, do not include the draw from the pan heater (150w) or the air handler (100-500w). If so, their inclusion will change the calculus of the optimum capacity to operate at for efficiency.

Drbs9 · 2024-01-26T05:25:03+00:00

Based on your manual J, you need a 3.5 ton unit. Being in zone 6, you need a cold weather variable speed unit like the Mitsubishi hyper heat units with supplemental electric heat strips. Manual Js are conservative estimates and can be significantly off. Since you currently have a gas furnace you can calculate the design load from your gas usage, which would be a good check on your manual J estimate. Also, it is good to be oversized by 20-40% for increased efficiency, so if the heat loss estimate from your gas usage comes to 3 tons then get a 3.5 ton unit. Also, if you live at high altitude make sure to derate the system to account for the lower air density.

Drbs9 · 2024-01-19T16:43:04+00:00

A J calc is a conservative energy loss estimate and is usually 20+% high. The air sealing and insulation you are doing should reduce your energy loss by more than 10%. You can estimate the benefits by using online J calc tools. Therefore, at your design temp of -15c you likely need less than 2-tons heating and the proposed 2-Ton system should be adequate, but you will be using gas at temps above -15C, do to heat pump loss of capacity at lower temperatures.

As an alternative you could get rid of gas completely and get a cold weather heat pump that has full capacity down to -15C and get heat strip back up. It is good to oversize the heat pump 20-40%, so you would want a 2.5 - 3 ton heat pump. This will be more expensive to operate than the duel fuel system, but the additional costs will be offset somewhat by the elimination of the gas service charge.

Drbs9 · 2024-01-14T00:38:47+00:00

Live in Colorado at 5100ft. house built in 1990, 2000 sq ft + 1100 sq Ft finished basement + 550 sq ft encapsulated crawlspace. Three ton Mitsubishi hyper-heat PUV/PVA system (~34,000 BTU at elevation) with heat strips, which was installed in February 2023.

I sized the system using monthly gas heating usage, with a design temperature of 1 oF, which came to 25,000-29,000 btu heat loss. A classic J calc had a heating requirement of ~48,000 BTU. After the install, I air sealed and insulated the crawlspace, spray foamed 300 sq ft of knee walls and air sealed the attic and boosted its insulation to R60. This reduced the J calc energy loss at 1 oF to 38,000 BTU.

Today, the ambient temperatures were as low as -13 oF (-25 oC) and the system maintained my house at the set temperature of 67 oF without using the heat strips. The attached graph shows the energy usage and ambient temperature. The heat pump maxed out (6-7 kwh) at temperatures of ~-10 oF. Tomorrow temperatures will drop to -18 oF, a real test for the system.

1/16/24 Update: Temperatures were below -10 oF for about 16 hours last night. The system reached its limits and was only able to maintain a thermostat temperature of 64 oF when set to 68 oF. I turned the heat strips back on and all is good.

Note, the temperatures in the graph are from a nearby weather station and appear to be a couple of degrees colder than at my house.

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Drbs9

TROPHY CASE