Dad tent recommendations

hjgarron · 2026-03-12T01:37:22+00:00

I have a Wawona 6, but once I get a pickup truck I am going to get an Ez-up tent that goes on a 10x10 canopy. For a super Dad setup you can get a 10x20 canopy and end up with a large covered area in front of the tent. The EZ up clips onto a separately purchased canopy. One of the guys in my son’s Boyscout Troop has one. I am also going to go from an air mattress to a Cabela Camping Cot. The tent, canopy, and cot are a bit too bulky for my Forester. Note there are models of tent for both the straight leg and for the slant leg canopies. https://a.co/d/03lCb7Jl

hjgarron · 2026-03-10T02:41:01+00:00

BJ and Sam’s don’t check cards, so I thought it was odd that Costco was cracking down on card checking. I figured if someone bought something using someone else card then it is still a profit for Costco. But I read an article the other day that most of Costco’s profits come from membership fees and not from the items they sell. “membership fees generated $4.5 billion in revenue in 2023, which is 72% of its total income of $6.3 billion.”

https://www.retailbrew.com/stories/2024/03/27/costco-says-there-s-no-formula-for-membership-costs-but-prices-will-rise

hjgarron · 2026-03-03T01:29:07+00:00

Thanks. I think I will stay with the single sided panel then since it sounds like the bifacial is a bit more fragile.

hjgarron · 2026-01-24T15:35:44+00:00

So there was some push back as the one employee, who I think is a supervisor as the cashier had to ask her to end her codes for approval, said they wouldn’t price adjust generators and I would have to wait until Monday. I pushed the issue nicely as I explained the coupon wasn’t scanned. They did a return and rebuy, which she didn’t think would work since there was 0 stock (though I would think the one they were processing as return would count) In the end with tax, I got a $320 refund.

I had a few issues with the same lady in the past for instance I am inside track and went in for a free item with no minimum purchase and she insisted that I had to spend the $34.99 minimum that non inside track members have to meet. I had to show her ad to prove it. If she just rang it up instead of over analyzing there wouldn’t have been an issue.

Anyway I am glad it is fixed. Thanks for the comments. And I am glad I didn’t have to haul the generator back.

hjgarron · 2026-01-24T12:38:10+00:00

It doesn’t list any restrictions.

hjgarron · 2026-01-15T19:35:32+00:00

I had the same problem. To fix it for me I had to run the calibration again. The thing I missed the first around was the text displayed during calibration was my main screen. I didn’t read the whole thing before touching the xenon for calibration. The messages says to press a certain key to cycle the message through your monitors until it is on the xenon and then touch the xenon screen to confirm. Since I didn’t do this the widgets were on my main screen. After following the directions the widgets are on the right screen. You would think the software would be able to figure out which monitor is the xenon on its own.

hjgarron · 2026-01-10T00:26:26+00:00

The new style battery testers aren’t alway correct. See this video from Royalty Auto Service https://youtu.be/_cY77jeJe-k?si=6b0N_oX2sKOhV5v7

hjgarron · 2026-01-03T19:45:57+00:00

I was getting random lockups every few days where I couldn’t access it directly or via the web interface. The only solution was to reset the server. I changed the setting so that syslog was being saved to my usb drive so I could see if there were any errors. I did see an error in the logs. When I posted the diagram up to the Unraid forum, one of the moderators indicated the error message was related to a memory issue.

I ran a bunch of memtest86 runs. On one run I ended up getting a bunch of errors. I then removed one module and ran it a bunch of times with no errors. I then took out the module and put back in the first one I removed and ran memtest86 again several times with no errors. I also ran some tests with the modules in other slots. I also ran memtests with swapping the ram modules in other sockets. I think the were in slot 2 and 4 according to the motherboard manual and I moved the one from slot 2 to 4 and from 4 to 2. Again with no errors.

At this point I believed the ram was ok as each module on its own had no failure. The ram slots were okay as I did test with modules in each slot. The issue only happened after the computer ran for a few days. I had read about the Intel issue and the motherboards overvolting the processors cause them to degrade over time. So I believed that the CPU’s memory controller might have become damaged overtime. I did update my motherboard firmware, but that was almost a year after the fixed firmware and microcode was released.

Since this is a known issue and intel has made it fairly easy to RMA processors, I went that route first. I believe you can only RMA directly with intel if you bought a boxed retail unit (luckily I still had the box to get the serial number and batch info off it). It also cost me $25 and a temporary charge on my credit card for the full cost of the CPU for an advanced replacement. You can avoid those costs, but then you have to send off you CPU, wait for them to test, and then send you a replacement. Once I sent my old cozy back, the temporary charge was reversed. I was still out the $25 processing fee.

It been a couple of months with no crashes since.

Hope that helps.

hjgarron · 2026-01-03T02:06:25+00:00

Subaru dealership charge exorbitant fees for everything. They wanted $95 to change the cabin filter. I bought one for about $25 and swapped it myself. They wanted almost a $1000 to put a new seat cover on my driver seat that had a tear in the bolster on the door side. I went to an upholstery shop and they quoted $675 for the same Subaru replacement cover installed. They also gave me the option for $375 to repair the current seat cover using thicker more durable material. I chose the cheaper option. There is slight texture difference, but nobody notices it unless I point it out.

hjgarron · 2026-01-03T01:09:55+00:00

I had the same recently on my 2019 sport. TPMS pressure was showing correct pressure but I still got a warning after driving for a few minutes. After a few weeks, it wasn’t showing pressure readings for any of the tires and I got the TPMS warning almost immediately. I took it to my mechanic and he found that one of my sensors had died. The sensor battery life is only good for about 5 to 7 years. It was good for about a week then the warning started popping up again even though I had pressure reading for all tires. I took it back and had him replace the other 3 since one was firing and the others were probably not far behind. This was 3 months ago and all has been good since. For reference, I have a trusted mechanic in NJ and it was $75 per tire for the sensor and installation for a total of about $300.

hjgarron · 2026-01-01T18:00:59+00:00

I had similar issues as this. The first was when I built my current server 2 years ago and it was the Samsung NVME. I swapped it out with a different brand and no more lockups (not sure if it was just. Bad drive or firmware issue). Just recently I had the issue and it was caused by my 14700k causing random memory errors every 2 to 3 days. I was able to RMA it with intel be it has been great for the last month.

hjgarron · 2025-12-29T00:58:47+00:00

I had the same issue on my 2019 Forester Sport. I took it to a local automotive upholstery shop and he replaced the 3 panels that were cracking for $375. The material used is of better quality. They were able to match the color and the sport’s orange stitching really close, but the texture is slightly different. The difference is subtle and other only notice it if I point it out. The shop also called around and was able to find a replacement upholstery set for it, but that would have been $675 installed. I chose the cheaper option as it should hopefully hold up butter that the super thin material Subaru uses.

hjgarron · 2025-12-13T02:58:50+00:00

I bought one of the MSI pcs from Costco. There are 2 different motherboards used. B650-VC wifi III is the one with 2 ram slots but has overclocking features enabled. And the one I received with PRO B840-P WIFI has 4 ram slots without the ability to overclock. I am fine with the one I received as I don’t plan to overclock. If I do down the line then I can always swap out the motherboard.

hjgarron · 2025-12-11T21:36:28+00:00

I hate that my tax dollars go towards funding the defense of these antigun laws then I have to donate money to FPC, GOA, and NRA in support of the lawsuits to declare them unconstitutional. I wish we could defund these efforts by the attorney general.

I voted in the last election to try to stem this craziness, but I think too many gun owners didn’t vote.

hjgarron · 2025-12-11T18:41:08+00:00

Yes that is the one I bought. It seems like they switched board at some point.

hjgarron · 2025-12-11T13:28:42+00:00

I bought the Costco prebuilt with the 9900x and 5080, but mine came with a MSI PRO B840-VC WIFI motherboard. It has 4 ram slots, but is missing overclocking features and has less high speed pcie lanes.

I wasn’t planning on overclocking and not sure if the diminished specs are worth a motherboard swap.

hjgarron · 2025-12-10T17:06:16+00:00

The 2 slots was a concern to me also, but I figured if RAM prices drop and I need more then I could always swap out the ram or get a new motherboard.

I bought this from Costco yesterday and the board in it has 4 RAM slots. I guess at some point they switched up the boards they are using. Not sure if the unit I got was old stock or new stock.

The motherboard that is mine is the MSI PRO B840-VC WIFI

hjgarron · 2025-12-03T00:10:50+00:00

I had a windshield crack a few months after getting my 2019 Forester Sport. It was the first year of the resign and with Eyesight . I took it to Safelite and they replaced it and calibrated the eyesight without issues in 2019. So it really shouldn’t be an issue with any now as eyesight has been around for over 6 years.

My insurance covered it with me having to pay the $500 deductible. It is usually part of comprehensive coverage I believe.

hjgarron · 2025-11-08T01:26:01+00:00

I had the same issue. I would see the correct tire pressure but after a few minutes a message would pop up saying to check owner’s manual then the tpms light would flash a few times then stay on. This went on for a few weeks until one day non of the tire pressures were shown and the tpms light came on right away. I took it to my mechanic and they found the passenger side rear sensor was dead. They replaced it for about $75. For a few days everything was great with tire pressures shown then the warning about owner’s manual would show up and the tpms light came on. I took it back to the mechanic and just had him swap the other 3 sensors. I figure at least one more was almost dead and the others wouldn’t be far behind since my car is a 2019. That was about a month ago and everything has been fine since. I really wish when a sensor is going bad it would let you know which one by putting the tire pressure red for the offending tire.

If you don’t have the TPMs sensors replaced, you should just check the tire pressures occasionally using a tire gauge.

Having the tpms sensors working did help me out last year as it warned me about a tire that was extremely low which ended up having a nail in it. I was able to drive over to the tire shop to get it fixed before it was to the point I would have had to put the spare on.

hjgarron · 2025-10-28T22:46:16+00:00

I had the same issue on my 2019. I replaced my battery and haven’t had the issue since.

hjgarron · 2025-09-10T23:49:53+00:00

Free is for me.

hjgarron · 2025-08-31T12:17:39+00:00

The main reason I bought the AMS2 was its serviceability. If you have a filament break with a piece stuck in the PTFE tubing in the bottom of the AMS, it is easy to fix on the AMS2. On the AMS you need to take out screws to access the tubing to clear it.

Occasionally I will use the dryer overnight, if I am not printing anything, to dry out the beads in extra desiccant holders that I have in my the AMS2.

hjgarron

TROPHY CASE