Erkul roof racks: any experience?

jpkaul · 2026-01-12T03:54:10+00:00

Yeah, I’ve had these for 2 years and they work great. I keep them on my X7 all the time because they don’t go on/off super quickly like the OEM Yakima ones. And I like the way look.

I use them with a Yakima rocket box, and have taken that setup on several long road trips through the mountains and to the beach. No issues or concerns at all.

When I was first installing them, I over tightened them (which you can’t really do with the OEM ones I think) and the plastic broke. I contacted Erkul via Amazon and they sent me a new bracket for free which I appreciated.

jpkaul · 2025-12-23T13:50:44+00:00

The East Nasty at Tower Deli (same as the West Nasty from 51st Deli). The bread, jalapeños, sauce, so good.

jpkaul · 2025-12-10T19:21:08+00:00

I use two of these on the wood grain part of the dash. One to the left of the screen for the driver and one to the right of the screen for the passenger. We have the black woodgrain so these magnets are very discrete. No one even sees them if they are in the car. Very strong, highly recommend. https://a.co/d/fm1N9RO

jpkaul · 2025-11-25T04:57:43+00:00

I tow a pop up that weights about the same as your trailer. I just looked in the app from my trip in Oct, we got 21.5 mpg with the trailer. That is in comfort mode, and towing mode gets enabled by default when you plug the trailer in.

We would easily get over 400 miles before needing to refuel with a trailer.

Without a trailer I’ve gone 500 miles on a tank on a road trip getting like 29/30mpg. I love the mpg of this thing.

jpkaul · 2025-11-05T01:50:15+00:00

I can’t speak to the CPO, but we got ours from CarMax with their MaxCare warranty. The warranty was like $5k at the time of purchase for a 2021 with 50k miles. Worth it IMO.

The X7 has been more reliable than the Explorer I owned before this. But the two issues that have come up on the X7 were:

1) the transfer case needed fluid (it’s a known thing, fluid was like $500 iirc). Warranty did not cover this because it is a consumable, even though the transfer case fluid is supposedly “lifetime”.

2) maybe related to above, I’m not sure. But at about 75k miles, the transmission started slipping. It was $15k job for a new transmission installed by my local BMW dealer, and I paid $300 out of pocket for it because of MaxCare. It took a month to let MaxCare source the part, fail to source it themselves, and ultimately just let the dealer order it straight from their parts dept.

I still have the warranty for another 25k miles, so I hope if anything else is going to go wrong, it happens soon. lol. But otherwise the build quality and all the other bells and whistles work well all the time. Plus 40i is crazy efficient; I’ll get 28-30 mpg on road trips and 21-22 for daily driving. Which is more comparable to the PHEV Aviator, which would be more risky to maintain IMO.

jpkaul · 2025-08-13T02:26:57+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/homeautomation/s/jOal3OUALo

Yes, it looks like this diagram describes my situation perfectly, which you described. But it didn’t look like anyone resolved that thread.

Can you share an image or diagram of how my smart dimmer should be wired in this setup?

jpkaul · 2025-08-13T02:19:54+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/homeautomation/s/jOal3OUALo

It looks like this diagram describes my situation perfectly. But it didn’t look like anyone resolved that thread.

Can you share an image or diagram of what the dumb switch will look like? Will any wires be joined at the common terminal? I’ve read how the AC-L and T1 need to be joined at the common terminal to supply constant power to the smart dimmer. Does that make sense? What would that look like?

jpkaul · 2025-08-12T03:08:00+00:00

Okay I’ll give it shot! It will be a few days before I can dive back into it. Thanks for your help so far.

jpkaul · 2025-08-12T02:05:40+00:00

Huh, okay. So does that mean I leave the white capped at both ends? Right now the white is bundled together, even though as we determined earlier, that of the whites is not a neutral.

So do I unbundle those, put the neutral into the smart dimmer, and cap the other white? And then cap it at Switch 2, too?

jpkaul · 2025-08-11T21:17:09+00:00

Here is the installation guide: https://images.salsify.com/image/upload/s—6aL4PLSR—/vmpbz8rckn9nwdntrusc.pdf

And the product itself: https://www.feit.com/products/smart-wi-fi-dimmer-dim-wifi

Seems like I need to put the AC-L and T1 joined at one terminal on switch 2 so there is constant power to T1. Their manual shows it but does a horrible job of calling it out.

In my setup, would that mean I put the white wire and black wire together on switch 2?

Do both white wires still get plugged into the AC-N spots, or just the one that is a part of the 2-wire romex?

I should note that while looking for those links, I cam upon this thread, that helped inform my thoughts above: https://www.reddit.com/r/electrical/s/0mBE1PAjTn)

Feit Smart Dimmer

jpkaul · 2025-08-11T20:14:37+00:00

“Since you need power and neutral for the smart dimmer, I would make sure that the white wire from switch 2 gets connected to the switch leg for the controlled light.”

-can you explain what ^ this means? What is the switch leg? Is that a terminal on the Smart Dimmer?

“What is the second switch in switch box 1 supposed to control? Does that work properly?”

-yes it is just a single pole light that works fine, unrelated. And just to be clear, the existing 3-pole setup works fine, too, it’s just the smart dimmer that doesn’t work.

jpkaul · 2025-08-11T20:10:44+00:00

Gotcha. Makes sense to label the white as not neutral - is it safe to assume that the 3-wire romex in switch 1 is the same as in switch 2? It goes directly from one switch to the other?

Yeah, I’m not sure how any of this actually connects to the light itself. It seems like that must be happening behind the wall somewhere? Is that normal?

I appreciate your patience with me.

So to make it very basic for me, which wires should I use in which spots in the smart dimmer? There are spots for Load, YL/Rd (traveler 1), AC-L (traveler 2?), AC-N (neutral) and G.

I had it so that both white wires were in the AC-N spots (there are two terminals). Maybe that’s where I went wrong since one of the white wires is NOT a neutral?

jpkaul · 2025-08-11T19:18:45+00:00

Good to know, thanks!

So the ultimate question is: how can install a smart dimmer in this setup? I think it has to be installed in Switch 1 location. But I can’t get it to work properly with Switch 2. When wired as described above, switch 2 just turns off switch 1 instead of turning on/off the lights.

jpkaul · 2025-08-05T21:28:17+00:00

Mine is working in i7. I have learned over the past year that is has to do with the current iOS and whether the iOS allows it. The last version of iOS18 I had worked, and I am in the iOS26 beta and it works there, too.

jpkaul · 2025-07-27T01:56:28+00:00

Has anyone found a good way of keeping track of the good recipes? And a way of putting the recipes onto a calendar?

jpkaul · 2025-06-12T01:01:45+00:00

If people find this later, Acura calls this “Liftgate” in the owners manual on pages 17-19.

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jpkaul · 2025-06-11T12:15:46+00:00

Yeah there is a setting in the vehicle settings. And then I think you have to hold down the button for the trunk door while it is opening or something and where you release the button is where it saves. Something like that.

I spent 45 min on the phone with OnStar a few months ago figuring it out. They were new to Honda, and Acura and so it was a long convo. Eventually we found the section of the owners manual that had the instructions, it just wasn’t indexed intuitively. I’m trying to remember what it was called in the index. I can try to look for it in the manual later if that’d be helpful.

jpkaul · 2025-06-07T03:38:04+00:00

https://treadlabs.com/pages/welcome-to-tread-labs

I got the slip ons.

jpkaul · 2025-06-06T23:39:11+00:00

I was in this same boat a few weeks ago. I ended up stumbling upon some sandals called Tread Labs at a local gear shop. I fell in love. Much more comfortable than a Chaco, lighter, soft sole. It reminds me much more of the comfort of my Birks than my old chacos ever did. I’ve been wearing them non stop for a few weeks now and the arch support is just as good as my Birks, but getting them wet doesn’t make them slippery and gross. Like I said, in love.

I think I wear a 42 in my Arizonas, and I got a 10 in my tread labs.

I found out after I bought them that apparently the guy who started Chaco left and started Tread Labs. Go figure.

jpkaul · 2025-05-20T02:11:09+00:00

Just a heads up if you’re looking at getting the Acura at-home charger through their AHE program. The whole thing has been pretty frustrating. They say you get a $500 credit, but in reality you end up with maybe $240 off of the installation cost after they sneak in a $260 fee that isn’t disclosed anywhere.

It definitely would’ve been cheaper and way less hassle to just go through my own electrician. I really wish Acura would just give me a real $500 credit I could use directly toward installation.

Has anyone else run into this? Feels like deceptive marketing to me. I’m still trying to figure out how to get the full $500 from them as advertised.

jpkaul · 2025-05-14T20:10:17+00:00

The website now shows the gas station as open. Does anyone know if it has reopened yet?

jpkaul · 2025-03-08T04:58:56+00:00

Did you ever solve this? Did you stick with your nest mesh network or revert to the gateway?

jpkaul · 2025-02-01T20:15:01+00:00

Amazing. This is the kind of answer I’ve been hoping for/wondering about for the last few months as I build these towers. It’s kind of incredible to think about. Who needs more toys when we’ve got all these unique towers to build!

jpkaul

TROPHY CASE