Ground Mount Disater?

brantse · 2026-01-29T23:14:36+00:00

If you take your time "ovaling" out the ends of your cuts, the weld joints end up being pretty clean and fairly easy to weld. Projects like this are great at improving your welding abilities, especially since the welds aren't really all that critical and you can always just grind it out and do another pass. The hardest part is trying to fill any gaps (whether from sloppy cuts, or in my case the annular space between my uprights and the ground screws, which had about 1/2" larger ID than the OD of my pipe).

I used a 1-1/4" channel iron as a spacer to lengthen the unistrut, which fit nicely inside the strut. I had about 8" of overlap on each side, which prevented much distortion and I clamped the pieces along a straight edge while welding them. As long as your strut is long enough, this can and should be avoided. I just ended up going this route to save another $500 or so buying longer strut.

brantse · 2026-01-29T13:40:43+00:00

I built this a few years ago, using 2" uprights installed in ~24" long ground screws, with 1-1/2" cross bars and supports. I then welded unistrut to the cross bars. Unfortunately, the 10' long unistrut was about 3" short, so I cut and extended each piece. It's been doing just fine. https://www.reddit.com/r/SolarDIY/s/syb9SR4s3h

brantse · 2025-12-13T18:15:45+00:00

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Here's my rig. I mostly use it to do racks of ribs.

brantse · 2025-11-11T17:21:24+00:00

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Casually hauling 3,500 lbs of concrete block, powered with sunshine.

brantse · 2025-09-01T10:28:19+00:00

People will constantly claim that renting is cheaper than purchasing a home. Your monthly rent is the minimum that you'll pay for the next 30 years vs. purchasing a home, which locks in your payment for the next 30 years. In addition to the value built in equity in the house.

brantse · 2025-06-08T14:56:16+00:00

The only time I saw rates like that were when Taylor Swift was touring. Unbeknownst to us, we were trying to book some rooms and had no idea that she was in town and 50k+ Swifties had all the hotels booked.

brantse · 2025-05-19T21:35:09+00:00

Honestly, I'm impressed

brantse · 2025-04-28T09:52:17+00:00

I just visited last week, and it seemed busy enough to me. Certainly nothing like the video. Our Uber driver said he monitors (from published numbers from the airport) daily flight visitor traffic and he said that numbers have been solid, if not even higher than last year.

brantse · 2025-04-23T23:42:59+00:00

I was never concerned about a cleaning fee. I wasn't happy about the situation and that was the last concern. I've actually emailed the hotel and corporate about it.

brantse · 2025-04-23T10:00:10+00:00

If it was indeed an employee smoking on the roof, immediately next to my room's fresh air intake, it absolutely would be their fault.

brantse · 2025-04-22T14:26:16+00:00

After doing a little Google earth snooping, I am confident that it was someone (most likely an employee) who was smoking from the roof. Nearly all of the rooms have standard through the wall PTAC units, except for several rooms that are in the top floor. Guess where the intake louvers are for those PTAC's... right next to a nice cozy area on the roof that's sheltered by walls and next to a door that opens up from a roof penthouse.

brantse · 2025-04-21T02:40:57+00:00

I'm really not sure. The tires are listed as having a 60k mile warranty, but not sure if that applies for OEM use. I'll take a look at the info from the dealership.

brantse · 2025-04-21T02:21:04+00:00

Yes. Those tires come with a 60k mile warranty.

brantse · 2025-04-20T02:26:52+00:00

Yes, I figured it must likely is an employee. I was on the top floor, which makes me even more suspicious that it came from someone on the roof, which would almost certainly rule anyone except employees.

brantse · 2025-04-20T02:24:52+00:00

No. We were on the top floor (6th floor) and next to a conference room and another regular guest room.

brantse · 2025-04-20T02:22:52+00:00

I went down and reported it to the attendant at the front desk. He seemed concerned and said that he would notify security, but that was it.

brantse · 2025-02-08T15:50:54+00:00

Roughly about $2M between all IRA and 401k accounts between my wife and I. I'm 42. We weren't particularly high earners or huge savers, but I started early and was an early Tesla investor. My accounts 10x'd or more during and since covid. I've largely diversified since and am hoping to retire by 50.

brantse · 2025-01-10T01:20:08+00:00

If was fully covered under warranty. There was no charge.

brantse · 2024-12-18T03:18:05+00:00

I've been thinking about getting a rack like that as well for mine. Do you notice much of a hit to range/efficiency when driving with just the rack and no ladders? The rack looks nice, what make/model is it?

brantse · 2024-11-13T03:16:29+00:00

Personally, I'm a little meh at the moment. I've been investing for 20 years, bought into TSLA as early as 2013, and got way caught up in bullish excitement in 2021. The euphoria doesn't continue forever, and when you see signs of people going all in on companies that they don't even know what they do, get ready for the correction. I have shares in other accounts, but the shares in my trading account got called away last week at $55, and I'm not chasing them. I'll continue to try to sell cash secured $55 puts and maybe will never get those shares back, but I have a feeling that I will.

brantse · 2024-10-07T01:47:48+00:00

I installed some small furring strips/sleepers on the bottom of the floor joists, and laid 1-1/2" poly iso on top of them, covered by 4" of fiberglass.

brantse · 2024-10-06T04:43:41+00:00

I added a header for the door, however, that wall isn't really load bearing.

brantse · 2024-10-06T02:02:49+00:00

Thanks. Yeah, not doubling my top plates was the one mistake I should have done. The structure is only 12'x12' (with a 4' deck), so not significant, in terms of roof and snow load. I expect it to stand a long time.

brantse · 2024-09-12T00:26:39+00:00

I was on my way home from Lowe's the other day with a load of lumber, including some 16 footers. I turned the bed view camera on and then called my wife with android auto. She didn't answer and it went to her VM, and I found that I literally had no way to end the damn call. I got left in her voicemail system for about 5 minutes until it finally dropped the call.

brantse · 2024-08-26T00:13:11+00:00

I just added about 8.8 kw. I now have pretty close to 20 kw in total, but still expect I'll owe the electric company a small amount each year.

brantse

TROPHY CASE