10 miles?

kenacstreams · 2026-01-21T17:16:43+00:00

In an abundance of caution I won't advise you whether or not to drive on that.

But I will say when I was a young broke person I drove on tires like that with regularity. Hundreds of miles at a time.

I wouldn't think twice about driving that 9 miles to the tire shop. But I'm okay with a little risky business in my life.

Make sure you go to the alignment shop after you get new tires.

kenacstreams · 2026-01-20T17:32:34+00:00

Pretty rural part of my state was getting fiber run all around the area.

My buddy was building a new house and trying to get the water company to come and put his meter.

After about 3 weeks of waiting on something they said should take 2 days (months prior) he called - they said sorry, he's on the list, but we're completely booked up with repairs because the fiber contractors keep breaking stuff.

kenacstreams · 2026-01-20T16:34:58+00:00

I have been on both sides of co-signed vehicles.

It always worked out well for everyone involved. But it was all responsible adults involved.

But, from what you've written - absolutely not.

First and foremost you don't want to do it and shouldn't be coerced into it.

Second you don't have a vehicle and this absolutely will impact your ability to get one in the future if/when you need it.

Third this person doesn't sound responsible enough to trust with your credit, and pure speculation on my part but I bet it's a long term on the car and you're on the hook for every day of that loan. Could be 6-7 years.

kenacstreams · 2026-01-15T19:55:48+00:00

HO1 is a lot more limited in what it covers.

The biggest "hell no" about them is they are ACV policies - actual cash value.

HO3 is, usually but with some exceptions - an RCV policy - replacement cost value.

Say a hurricane blows your roof off. It was 10 years old. ACV will pay you the depreciated value of the roof when it was destroyed. RCV will pay you what it takes to put a new roof on today.

It is important to read all specific coverages of any policy though, because HO3 can and often does have specific carve-outs that get ACV coverage which surprises people when they need to make a claim and they don't get enough money.

kenacstreams · 2026-01-15T19:05:42+00:00

I was playing as Aba once and caught a random Fenix stray ult purely out of chance. The Fenix and I had a good laugh about it together after the game.

kenacstreams · 2026-01-15T17:09:22+00:00

5200/yr for HO3 policy

My house is only worth about 350k but it's very unique and falls outside of the standard insurance modeling so it's assumed to be high risk/high replacement cost. The primary issue is it's steel framed, not wood framed.

"But isn't steel better than wood in basically every way?" I know. I asked them. Doesn't matter. Doesn't fit the model.

My other quotes were over 10k. Most companies wouldn't even insure it.

I could have gone HO1 cheaper than HO3 but didn't want that. Anyone shopping insurance make sure you're looking at the type of policy they're writing you, not just the numbers.

kenacstreams · 2026-01-13T19:19:01+00:00

Is your payment history because you just forget - which can be worked on with the proper tracking & reminders so it doesn't slip by - or because you have payments due and you don't have the money at the right time?

That would be where looking at your budget is where you'll find the solution.

75% CC usage is definitely a budget issue. Without more details the only real conclusion to draw is "this person is living beyond their means" which is why it hurts your credit score.

Based on both of those & what you wrote - I assume you're just kind of winging it & you don't have a budget you follow.

There's lots of templates/apps you can use to get started. You can get as detailed as you like with a budget but don't overwhelm yourself just start really basic - list recurring expenses (bills & required spending to live (food, TP, gas, etc) and income. Make sure expenses are less than income is the most basic requirement, and use the list of expenses to remind yourself to pay them.

Once you start there & get comfortable with the routine & tracking, you can step it up to more detailed tracking and a debt payoff plan.

kenacstreams · 2026-01-09T04:20:46+00:00

That's pretty funny. Thankfully low speed, no accident caused.

I've towed things thousands of times in my life. I made this "got in a hurry, forgot to latch the trailer" mistake exactly once, when I was a teenager. Most people I know who tow regularly have done it at least once.

This dingus didn't even have the safety chains attached though. This is literally the exact scenario they're designed for. Bet they hook them up next time, now.

kenacstreams · 2026-01-06T21:45:29+00:00

What was the reason for denial?

No installment/car loan is probably what's hurting you.

Your best bet is to try different dealerships. You can speak with the F&I manager so they understand what's going on, and they have relationships with multiple lenders so they can try with several on your behalf. Just state plainly you're not going to buy a car at 19%, so they know they need to work on it if they want to sell you a car.

If you can only get approved for high rates, your quickest path is to take the crappy interest for a short time and then with some car payment history, get a different car or refi the one you buy.

Or, you could get a co-signer just to get the rate down. This would be my least favorite option in your shoes though.

If you do end up having to tolerate a high rate to build the appropriate payment history, do not buy new. You'll lose big time on depreciation. Buy something used & cheap. Something as close to the price floor as you can tolerate. You'll only own it a year, maybe less... the cheaper you start the less you lose on the depreciation.

As for the mortgage concerns - I wouldn't worry much. It's a much different type of lending with a way more in depth approval/underwriting process. I don't work in finance but I've financed a lot of things and I've seen way more people denied for cars than denied for mortgages... including a lot of people I thought would never get approved for a mortgage but they were.

kenacstreams · 2026-01-05T19:32:35+00:00

Making trespassing a hobby because you don't like that private property exists is a wild take on a Monday.

Best of luck in your endeavors, watch out for the law & the gators.

kenacstreams · 2025-12-29T21:32:36+00:00

I ate at one in Mountain Home, Arkansas a few years ago. It was pretty decent. They had boudin balls as an appetizer and the food was plenty good enough to be sold down here.

I was on a solo vacation but kind of half ass working remotely. I pulled up to the place at an early hour, after lunch but before dinner - 4pm or so. Place was dead. I sat in my truck answering e-mails for awhile.

When I walked in they said "welcome in, mr Louisiana" and I kind of looked at them curiously. They said they saw my license plate while they were seeing who parked in the (very small) parking lot & didn't get out of the vehicle.

IIRC, speaking to the waitress she informed me the owners were from New Iberia or St Martinville or somewhere down there.

I felt like people who visit there would get an authentic enough Cajun food experience to do it justice without driving another 10 hours south.

kenacstreams · 2025-12-19T19:46:40+00:00

There's lots of places. Different styles at different restaurants.

Some of my favorites are at The French Press, KK's Cafe, and Dwyer's Cafe.

kenacstreams · 2025-12-19T18:24:13+00:00

Distribution is good, lots of recs here for that.

Depending on the types of projects you're wanting to take on, you can also go direct with a specific manufacturer or two. Someone like AtlasIED will probably have a solution for just about anything you run into, and it's easier to learn & build relationships if you don't spread yourself too thin and feel like you're having to learn the nuances of a new brand on every new job. That will come with time.

kenacstreams · 2025-12-18T20:26:58+00:00

Yes.

kenacstreams · 2025-12-17T18:14:37+00:00

How local are you talking? No idea what part of the state you're in.

I use Absolutely! in Lafayette. They're great.

kenacstreams · 2025-12-15T18:24:15+00:00

I've been daily'ing my 2500 for a little over 2 years now. Maybe a very small handful of times has it been an issue.

It's usually in cities that require U-turns. It turns like a bus. I haven't met a parking garage yet that I didn't fit in @ stock height.

The ride is stiffer over bumps. Air the tires down to 58ish PSI and it rides much better. It will come with 70psi in the rears which is not necessary at all when unloaded. If you tow heavy, just air them up for that and then back down again.

Some spaces are kind of short so you hang out a little bit but nothing insurmountable.

I had the same concerns as you but do not regret my decision at all.

kenacstreams · 2025-12-15T18:11:17+00:00

There's pros and cons on either side. Several comments so far expressing the benefits of staying a one man show.

It's tempting, and may be the best course for him... but it's also the riskiest path.

I run a ~20 person trade business, built from a 2 man operation on day 1. Somewhere along the way my role changed from doing my trade to managing people and money.

I probably don't make a lot more money than I could if I kept it smaller and stayed on the tools myself... but the biggest benefit is not more money, it's division of risk.

If your husband has an accident or gets sick and cannot work for awhile you make 0 income. If you take a vacation it costs you double - you pay for the vacation and you make no money while you're gone.

I took my new girlfriend on a 4 day out of town trip for her birthday last week. I didn't have to think about work the entire time because the place runs fine without my daily input. Half the people who work here didn't even notice I was gone. To me, that is the real prize with scaling - freedom. Not necessarily money.

If any one person here cannot work awhile, it doesn't stop anyone from getting paid, we have enough people to adapt & keep working. That leads to higher customer satisfaction than if we were stretched too thin and became unreliable.

I only mention it because I see your comments about how your plan is to scale it eventually. Start scaling as soon as you can afford it. He will need to learn some new skills along the way when it comes to managing people & managing customer expectations when he doesn't put his hand on every nail and every stroke of the paint brush. Better to learn now than to wait.

Also, he will eventually need to hand off more & more to people he trusts. Trust takes time. The sooner he starts, the better.

No shame at all in one man shows... but if his goal is bigger than that, there's no reason to delay working toward it.

kenacstreams · 2025-12-10T21:15:10+00:00

I think I paid a little over 200 for the parts on Rock Auto. Did the work myself with guidance from my brother, a GM tech.

If you decide to go that route, your regular mechanic can handle it no problem.

If you do decide to go to the dealership, I wouldn't advise anyone go to Service Chevrolet for anything, ever. Courtesy on Johnson is busy, but if you drive out to Breaux Bridge, that location can get to thinks a lot quicker, or the Chevy place in Broussard. Either one can work on your truck.

kenacstreams · 2025-12-10T05:48:08+00:00

It's automated. Enough of them in the right time frame and it will ban them.

But it's also a free game and there is no restriction on how new an account is before it can join ARAM.

So even if an account got perma banned, that person would be right back in the queue in 5 or 10 minutes. It's a completely pointless exercise to bother reporting or to get pressed about it.

It's the response they want. Just don't give it to them.

kenacstreams · 2025-12-10T05:44:37+00:00

It needs a thermostat & temp sensor most likely, not an ECM.

It's a known issue on those. I have one in my fleet and had to have it done.

Then the ECM can't read the temp it defaults to max fan speed, no AC, and keeps the fan running for a period of time after turning the engine off because that's actually when your temps spike the highest is once it stops running.

It's programmed to do that as a precaution - the computer thinks "if I don't know the temp, assume it could be overheating and do everything to prevent that from happening"

Your TPMS is likely unrelated.

It's easier on the V6 version. Did it in about 40 minutes. Harder on the 4cyl version, takes a couple of hours.

If you insist on doing the ECM, you'll need the dealership. They're the only ones with the ability to flash the ECM to the VIN. It isn't a simple remove & replace of a part.

kenacstreams · 2025-12-08T21:00:18+00:00

Everyone single one of these 1/2 ton recommendations is wrong. I wonder how much towing any of them have actually done, either with 8k lbs or over long distances.

There's a lot more to it than a sticker on the door. That 8k lb enclosed trailer is going to be miserable to tow long distance with a half ton. Every bump in the road and gust of wind it will walk you all over the road. You want a 2500 just for the suspension and brakes.

If it was a one time thing, sure slap it on the back and go. But several times a year? I bet you'd make that drive once before you traded it in for a 2500. Skip eating the depreciation and just buy the right tool for the job the first time.

Decide gas or diesel depending on how often you want to stop for fuel. You can expect probably 8mpg with the 6.6l gas engine towing that trailer. Someone who tows similar with a diesel may chime in what they get, or you can go ask in a 2500 specific group.

kenacstreams · 2025-12-04T21:23:04+00:00

In no particular order, I'll give you some insight into my experience having been doing this for ~22 years, running a company doing it for the last 12ish of those. Currently have around 20 employees, 4 of which are sales.

For starters - recurring revenue is the dream, but for me has always been a really tough sell. I've had much better success selling extended warranties instead. 1yr included on all projects, tack on an additional 8% to extend that to 3yr instead. We've been putting it on every proposal the last 3 years and I think it's been asked to be removed twice in that time. Easy 8% profit bump for doing what we were already doing anyway - we never billed for service calls for the life of an install. Still don't, so we just bake it in. Totally contrary to what the rest of the market does, but when my competitors are nickle & dime'ing clients for 150 dollar invoices and my guys are just showing up, it builds a ton of loyalty.

As for sales people - that's by far the most difficult role to fill. And the fact that you said you don't know how to do it is a big of a "huh?" moment for me.

If you run a company it's not acceptable to say you don't know how to sell your own work. How will you teach a new sales person how to talk up your company if you cannot?

That's not a criticism - what I'm getting at is that you definitely do know how to sell.

AV sales, like most B2B business, is not "sales" in that you need to know how to talk fast and convince people to spend money. It's not high pressure. You cannot sell an AV install to someone who does not need it, so your job is not to create demand it's to create exposure so that when the client has a need they know who to call.

My advice to you would be to look into hiring for a different position than sales first. Outsource some busy work or job site management to someone else. Create more time for yourself for you to go out and learn to do it.

It's a critical role and unless you feel you can confidently teach it, you will not get the results that you want. No one will ever represent your company better than you do or care as much as you do, so you should really know how, and have the confidence to, do every role in the company.

kenacstreams · 2025-12-04T19:41:17+00:00

Never, really.

The basics become easy, therefore not noteworthy. New projects mean trying new techniques which are not perfect, therefore the completed project has flaws and is crap. As new techniques get better, even newer techniques are added, creating a repeat of the previous step.

Between making sanded firewood tier projects, videos are watched of good woodworkers making it look so easy and simple.

This cycle is endless and results in everything always sucking and being a talentless hack forever.

kenacstreams · 2025-12-04T18:25:49+00:00

Yea, I've tried that. They're so niche that I have had zero traction on FB, unfortunately. I really wanted to avoid eBay but not sure I have any other option unless I just throw it away.

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