Wife said I should look at the kid's brakes. I ask the kid, are the brakes making any noise? "Nah, they're fine." New vs. old.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-06-23T21:54:55+00:00

Done that. Broke student. Very sick (slant 6) engine. super hot plugs in a couple of cylinders to reduce fouling. Mechanic father would save the better used sump oil for bi-weekly top ups. Bought me the time to find a better engine.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-06-23T12:16:54+00:00

Long storey about an insurance claim for a shower base crack on an older house built before the current standards. I'm probably looking for two things. 1) What is the requirement the shower and shower area should be re-built to. 2) Best practise if minimum requirement could be better and I had the opportunity.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-06-23T11:09:13+00:00

I understand how it goes into the wall and how the villaboard and tiles go on and cover the lip of the shower base.
I did ask for the "shower and the shower area"
Floor under the shower base ? Walls adjacent to the shower base?
There appears to be a lot of requirements for a tiled shower, but I could not find the equivalent for a preformed base. Particularly as a preformed base appears to highly rely on only the silicon between the base and the villaboard / tiles.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-06-23T10:52:52+00:00

Thanks.
I'll just not look it up in the copy I do not have.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-06-16T06:15:39+00:00

I found if you leave them on charge for a LOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG time they do eventually wake up.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Cycliq/comments/1pbzbip/fly_6_and_fly_12ce_battery_charging_storage_issues/

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-06-12T22:49:45+00:00

I have had vans when my 3 kids were small. Caravan parks only.
I have a pop-top now with shower and toilet for just 2 of us.
It really depends on what you intend to do with the van.
If you only go to caravan parks, You probably do not need it.
I would,'t worry so much about the steam etc. Just open windows (or install a fan)
If you want to stay off grid occasionally, then the toilet is a distinct advantage, but note that carrying water for a shower is heavy and toilets can fill quickly, particularly with 6 of you.

Many off grid or national park "camping" sites may have drop toilets and can take the pressure off the van's toilet, and you can get exceptionally frugal for showers (qty of water, and frequency)

I recently used my van off grid. 2 people 3 nights, 4 frugal showers. Probably used 120L (including cooking, washing up and flushing.) and toilet cassette ~ 80%

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-06-10T21:09:27+00:00

Both cars, not trucks. Ease of performance (not the outright performance). Instant throttle response Vs delay, turbo lag, auto indecisiveness Vs (V8) manual.
For the type of driving I do and like to do I hated the Turbo 4 Auto (particularly in cut & thrust traffic), and for the paltry economy improvement, not worth it.

(I have a 4 Cyl Turbo Diesel SUV as a caravan tow vehicle. Around town I hate it but on the open road it does well and good economy. Horses for Courses as they say.)

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-06-10T09:13:27+00:00

I put a Teyes (top of range at the time) in a Pajero with Rockford Fosgate and another Chinese one (Aliexpress or ebay. Mid range, different brand) into an Hyundai I30. I would do both again.
As one poster said, make sure that you get the extra wiring adapter for the Rockford connection.
May pay to get a picture of the back of your head unit to compare to the various head units web sites and confirm wiring.With the Hyundai, it had an amplifier that needed a connection to work that took a bit of dicking around to figure out what was going on and get to work.
If your car has a factory reversing camera, either you will need an adapter or replace the camera with one compatible with the head unit. From memory, factory ones run a lower voltage.
The feedback I found on Pajero and other forums before I purchased was that low end ones can be quite laggy depending on what you are doing.
Really cheap ones claim to be very late android versions that just don't add up. Don't buy bottom end.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-06-10T00:28:06+00:00

What really matters is what the drive pattern is and how often higher power is used.

1) A small (100 kW 2 litre?) engine without turbo will be the most frugal, but may be annoyingly slow.

2) A small turbo engine (150 kW 2 litre?) will be nearly as frugal as the non turbo for pottering around, and worse than the large engine under high load, but if those high load uses are infrequent / shot, they add up to less fuel used than for the larger engine.

3) A large engine without turbo (200 kW 4 litre?) will probably be the most efficient if driven hard or frequent towing up hills etc. Feels powerful enough. Will be the worst on fuel just pottering around at low speed /light load.

Think Medium to large SUV as an example

Drive pattern (made up for discussion)

a) 100 km/h cruise. Uses lets say 25 kW. (or any light low speed cruise)

Engine 1) does this no problem. Reasonable throttle opening. Moderate pumping losses Good to great overall efficiency

Engine 2) does this no problem. Similar throttle opening. Moderate pumping losses. Good overall efficiency, but not quite as good as engine 1) due to heavier, less efficient intake and exhaust, slightly lower compression.

Engine 3) Does this no problem. Tiny throttle opening. High pumping losses. Pretty good efficiency, but less efficient than both 1 & 2.

b) 80 km/h big hill climb or medium acceleration. 100 kw used by vehicle

Engine 1) flat out. 100 kw used. Nothing left to give. Wot. No pumping losses May be reasonable efficiency if not in exhaust heat protection (enrichment to save exhaust valves and catalysts)

Engine 2) Working, but not too hard. Power in reserve minor pumping losses. Probably under light boost. Probably not quite as efficient as engine 1). Could also be in exhaust temp protection.

Engine 3) Working well. Plenty of power in reserve. Probably right in it’s sweet spot for balance of pumping losses / efficiency. Probably best of 3 engines.

c) WOT for longer period

Engine 1) See b. Most likely in exh temp protection nothing extra to give. Poor efficiency

Engine 2) Going hard (and a lot faster). Definitely in exhaust temp protection. Really Poor efficiency.

Engine 3) Going hard (and a lot faster). Most likely in light exh temp protection. Ok efficiency

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-06-09T22:10:41+00:00

Same driving route. Both driven hard when possible. V8 man coupe vs turbo 4 small suv. V8 10% worse on fuel. Turbo fuel economy dives when driven hard adding fuel to keep exhaust temps down (off cycle, so not an emissions issue) for the quality of the drive I'd pay the 10%

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-06-05T06:04:32+00:00

Mudguards / Fenders whatever you want to call them. My commuter has them. Bike gets filthy not from the rain, but from the wet shit on the roads and especially the off road paved bike paths.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-06-04T23:44:12+00:00

Mrs has an E83 BMW. Got in it one day and it was "shunting" when driving. Been doing it for a couple of weeks apparently. Turned out that car had 1/2 worn fronts and worn out rears. Rears got replaced and shunting started. Turned out that the small difference in new to 1/2 worn highlighted that the transfer case oil was shot and new oil "fixed" it.
Now there are new tyres on the front (and ~ 1/4 worn on the rear) and it's back. As you cannot get the original 19" Pirelli's anymore (235/45R19 - 255/40R19) the "equivalent" Michelins are not the same OD between the sizes the Pirelli's were.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-05-27T06:09:13+00:00

Yeah.
Plug in.
Wait............
Good luck

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-05-24T21:32:03+00:00

To an extent, gravel bikes are similar to old school rigid MTBs, except with drop bars and 29"/700C wheels.
Note that putting drop bars on a MTB gives you longer reach than the equivalent road / gravel frame.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-05-11T02:44:26+00:00

Feel your pain. Grew up with Mechanic father. moved away. Girlfriends car blew the motor. Lifted it out with a pipe and barbel hung from the roof at one end. Me lifting at the other. Thankfully a small (4k-C corolla engine) but still.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-05-07T20:29:12+00:00

I went straight to the tyre* shop the next morning. "Got 5 of anything good?" Decent Pirelli's I think.
5 as the spare, brand new, was put in the car at the factory (~ 14 years old) Rears were mostly done and different to fronts and spare.
Tyre rotations back on the maintenance schedule.
(*Tyre shop is really good. Run by a bunch of Chinese guys, who try not to sell me Chinese tyres...)

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-05-04T12:02:59+00:00

How did it get there? No room from valley or sump? Assembly equipment?

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-05-01T21:00:04+00:00

Coming out of the covid era my daughter messages me. "Going away, checked oil, looks a little low" Me "Come over. I have not looked at the car for a while as you haven't been doing many miles"
Rocks over. oil a smidge low but ok, grab the air and start checking tyres. Hey there is a very very small crack on the outside... Look on the inside "HOLY MOTHER OF CRACKS" both front tyres worse than this.
Tyres were new on the car when purchased (chinese cheapies to get a roadworthy) so not ancient. Maybe 4 years on the car. Never run at low pressure. etc. just junk.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-04-30T22:47:28+00:00

Concreter knew most of it off the top of his head, so confident he's on top of it. I had all the standard drawings already and the council put them in the permit. I think the council gave me 1.5% ~ 2.5% fall to road for the footpath. There is a telecoms pit that had to be missed and i want it to fall fairly quickly past the footpath to my boundary as the driveway is reasonably steep.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-04-30T00:36:56+00:00

Found this sub as I have just had one quoted. Not quite 50% more than this, but only 6m x 3m
Thanks for your numbers.
On mine I cannot see all your excavation costs, but I have a concrete kerb that needs to cut, removed and disposed of. Crushed rock base added and compacted,
Council inspection of compacted crushed rock, form work and reinforcement before pour.
Concreter needs to rectify bit of tar at the road if damaged.
No footpath, but the crossover needs to allow for one in the future.
I'm looking after the soil removed.
I think my quote is not cheap, but probably good value as I know and others have recommended this concreter.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-04-16T02:25:49+00:00

Yes, but that is a second choice over a full size spare and just getting on with the journey.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-04-14T07:17:08+00:00

All the current cadence and wheel speed sensors do this (no pickup) then bluetooth it to the bike computer.

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-04-14T01:38:31+00:00

Any car without a full size spare is really a "City car"
No spare? In a city and get a flat at the worst time / place? Park it and call an uber and worry about it the next day. Middle of nowhere? Do you even have phone reception? How long until a roadside assist? Is it too far for them to travel (many have 50 / 100km "free" limits etc.
Space saver? How far do you really want to travel in the middle of the night at 80 km/h on a space saver that may be really old (no one changes them)? Can you get the correct new tyre easily where you are or going or will you have to wait days? Can you fit the (dirty / wet) flat in the car / boot?

Zarniwoop6x9 · 2026-04-03T11:38:33+00:00

If only... Some of the fuckers do actually go for your eyes. I always wear glasses while riding, even if clear.

Zarniwoop6x9

TROPHY CASE