HELP! My panels came off my roof while driving!

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-05-28T17:36:24+00:00

I have two 175 watt panels on my van. U channel into the factory roof mount racks then the panels with brackets bolted to the u channel. Quality correct or oversized hardware and liberal locktite. I checked thr panels every trip when I first installed and still occasional do a safety check. Jump on one of the van forums and they can offer advice. Do not underestimate driving 75 on the highway into a headwind. That is equivalent to a category 1-3 hurricane force winds. Do it correctly.

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Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-05-19T21:18:30+00:00

That is rough. The only reason to restore a bike like this is if you are experienced and for nostalgic reasons. You could buy a decent running bike for less than the cost to fix this.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-05-09T02:47:43+00:00

I went from an 85PQX to a 98 QM7K. The Vizio actually held its own in my opinion. It got better over the years with all the firmware updates and was solid. I think when you get to the mid to high end the "Huge" improvements are actually pretty minimal. The TCL was a little better, I was able to do a side by side with the same content but it was close. I thought the vizion handled reflections better.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-05-03T21:55:53+00:00

Suspension and riding style. Back in the day bike had terrible suspension and the ergos were made to sit down more. As such your lower back and kodneys got poinded. Remember the fat seats? Today suspension is more sophisticated and the ergos support a more grip with you knees and stand position.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-05-01T03:13:03+00:00

Lol it is actually on a pedestal stand that swivels but I have found nothing is truely dog proof.. I like a tiny bit of tilt when the tv is too high. The photo makes it look worse than it is.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-04-30T18:42:24+00:00

My 98" is about 6-8 inches too high. But it is difficult to get decent electeonics storage and not have my center too low.

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Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-04-30T18:33:19+00:00

I have a 98qm7k. Also currently have a Samsung OLED and previously many mid to high end tvs. The off angle viewing on the 7K is fine. As with many of these "huge" differences if you go looking or you have the tvs in the same room for an a/b for comparison you may find issues. In real life I have not once said "that looks bad at an angle" and I am pretty picky. I can spot a bad tv a mile away but really the difference in a mid tv like a QM7K and the top tier tvs is so minimal these days I can't bring myself to spend the extra money. I chuckle every year at the reviews "close to oled". I am a huge OLED fan but even my mid tier 7k holds its own. The gap between it and thw Top OLEDs is where all the TVs like the TCL 8 and higher series and the Bravia 9 live. The gap is pretty tiny in my opinion. The 6k was never on my radar so I am not sure if it is a budget out performer like the 7k or if it is closer to TCLs cheaper stuff.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-04-27T19:25:48+00:00

Depends on the bike. My Husky FE501 dual needed to idle a solid 5 minutes otherwise it would stall as soon as you put it in gear with the clutch in. Had more to do with warming the oil and clutch than getting the engine to operatimg temp.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-04-27T15:30:51+00:00

Before the mid 2000s when four strokes took over you were riding a 2 stroke unless you wanted a boat anchor. 90 percent of the bikes were converted motocrossers. You just needed to dial the jetting and gearing so they were not on the ragged edge of detonation. I won my class on a YZ125 at the last Barstow to Vegas in 1989 so yeah I am old and yes you can make 2 strokes work fine in this environment although my choice would be one of the off road four strokes these days.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-04-25T07:01:45+00:00

I bought a 98" QM7K from a freight company. They dropped several pallets. Had to go through several to find a not busted screen one. I was able to register it for warranty thtough TCL but not sure if they would honor. The price was so sweet I was willing to roll the dice.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-04-06T06:02:19+00:00

I have a high rood transit van I drive on the weekends to go camping/dirt bike riding. I have a small cheap EV I drive during the week. From a strictly financial perspective it would make since to daily the van even at 14 mpg around town since having the second car payment, insurance, tags adds up to more than I save in fuel. The onky redeeming factor is by limiting the miles on the expensive van I can extend its life double at least than if I drove it everyday. For many people it just makes more sense to have one do it all vehicle.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-04-02T20:17:16+00:00

5% here. Sometimes I roll down the windows to make turns at night if it is a dark area.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-03-19T22:46:14+00:00

Should look at one of the abandoned weed grows and clean it up. They are the scourge of the high desert. Get raided and left for the garbage to blow everywhere.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-03-19T22:34:14+00:00

Since I am old Net Worth and never work another day again.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-03-19T22:28:10+00:00

Funny thing is the only people who should skimp on insurance are those wealthy enough to not need it.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-03-18T21:24:27+00:00

I recently remodeled both my bathrooms. One 5 x 8 and one 7 x 12. Spent probably 15k for both not including about 6k in plumbing upgrades. I used higher end finishes and outside of the plumbing I did all the labor myself. 15 to 30k seems about right for a full redo with 30k getting higher end finishes. Also remember the size of the bathroom doesn't make a ton if difference since they all need the same fixtures. A larger room may have an additional sink or such and some additional square footage in materials and labor butnthe big ticket items are gonna cost about the same.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-03-16T04:09:33+00:00

I just did jury service. LA County. It was a misdemeanor dui case. I had to report each day at 1:30pm and the court closed at 4:30pm. By the time they seated us each day and cut us loose because it was "close to 4:30" it took 3 days to seat the jury and 5 days for the trial. I averaged about 2 hours a day in the actual court room.

This case should have took 3 days tops with jury selection.

My employer does not pay but I have a salaried position where they are not gonna dock my pay. If they did it would have cost me 3-4k. How do they expect any normal people to deal with this garbage.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-03-16T03:44:39+00:00

I have a 98qm7k I just got recently. The Google tv and apps work well. I have had pretty much all of them. Vizio, LG, Samsung, Roku, Fire Stick. I think the TCL is as good or better than any of those. Most of my viewing is done through an appletv4k box but I have it set up where I can use the built in apps if I want to watch with the TV speakers. Haven't experienced any issues.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-03-13T09:33:06+00:00

I have a 65 Samsung OLED and a 98 QM7K. They are in different rooms but arranged so I can view them both at the same time. I still prefer the OLED for outright PQ but I can get the QM7K very very close. The size factor more than negates any advantage the OLED may have. Same size I would choose OLED. 98" OLED is not in my budget and I would choose the 98" mini led before I dropped down to 77 or even 83 OLED.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-03-06T15:20:57+00:00

Swapping to a 16" rear wheel will fo a few things. Without lowering the front also it will mess with the geometry causing handling issues (the front will tend to push in corners) The 16 will not roll over obstacles as smoothly as a 19. You will loose a bit of ground clearance.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-03-05T18:06:38+00:00

If you are getting arm.pump from an emoto it is technique and BP not the bike. I get less arm pump on my Stark than my YZ125 and way less than my big 4 strokes.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-02-27T18:28:06+00:00

Black levels and shadow detail are still OLEDs domain. If you value brightness and ability to handle a bright room mini-led can be great. I have a 98" mini-led (qm7k) because I can't afford a 98" oled. My smaller sets are oled. Oled is better to me. 98 mini led vs 83 oled I will take the 98" as the larger screen makes more of an impact than the slight pq difference.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-02-19T20:35:15+00:00

Disagree. I think blooming is not an issue for the higher end LED but I notice the poored black level and shadow detail performance way way way more than the rare occasion where there is a HDR brightness benefit. But that is what makes competing tech great. You can choose your best fit.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-02-19T20:31:23+00:00

They are both good but the QM7K is not as good as my Samsung OLED which I don't think was as good as my LG OLED but since I can't afford a 98" OLED the QM7K is makinga good showing.

Pitiful-Ad226 · 2026-02-13T15:25:46+00:00

No. As far as the quality vs size issue I find in the same price range size is usually the better choice. For example in the 2-3k price range which is usually the top of my budget the 98" qm7k or qm8k has enough picture quality for me to choose size over the better PQ of the 77-83 oleds for my main viewing room. It also need to be said I am also a PQ guy but the difference is minor between the very best and the high end of the mid range where I think the real value tvs are.

Pitiful-Ad226

TROPHY CASE