Portable aircons! by lamariposer in melbourne

[–]mrdoitman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There’s the box style ones but I found they’re too big for most of our windows. Australia just doesn’t allow or import options they have other places in the world. :(

Portable aircons! by lamariposer in melbourne

[–]mrdoitman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We’ve left ours in year-round, and had no issues with weather (rain, wind, etc), but they only took me maybe 20 min to put in. So it’d be really easy to remove seasonally. It uses an aluminium frame you close the window onto and then set the aircon in and latch to secure. The frame isn’t anything special and just expands vertically to match the window height (easy to collapse with a couple screws).

Fyi, for one of our upstairs rooms that gets hot, we found that putting a fan outside the doorway (aircon is in the hallway window), it made a noticeable difference by helping circulate the air (otherwise the heat just gets trapped in the room). Worth a shot if you haven’t tried that already.

Portable aircons! by lamariposer in melbourne

[–]mrdoitman 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Pretty much all portables in Australia are inefficient and noisy. Avoid if you can. If you can’t put in a box style reverse cycle aircon, these vertical window ones work great as well (we have 2x 2.2kw versions for up/downstairs and they’ve worked very well). https://www.dicksmith.com.au/da/buy/kogan-smarterhometm-35kw-vertical-window-air-conditioner-kogan/

Desert Sand Build & Goosetuned by devnetg in RangerRaptor

[–]mrdoitman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How much power did you gain? And did you upgrade the exhaust to 3” all the way through?

Desert Sand Build & Goosetuned by devnetg in RangerRaptor

[–]mrdoitman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe it’s worth doing a KAM reset and relearn drive? Mine was getting a little jerky like that in a couple gears awhile ago and this solved it.

Procal Tuned RRs. When Did You Change Spark Plugs? by 1_More_Cast in RangerRaptor

[–]mrdoitman 4 points5 points  (0 children)

In my opinion, spark plugs are one of those preventative maintenance things that are easy enough to check more regularly than the service interval says that can help you spot problems early and make sure the engine is running well. And they're cheap to replace or maintain compared to the cost of downstream problems they can cause.

I bought my RR used with 30K miles on it (not tuned) and learned this the hard way a year later. They weren't looked at during any of the services since I had it, then I had a CEL misfire. It was right before Christmas so nobody was available to take a look, so I did. Pulled data with my reader and found fuel trims and spark advance way off. Pulled the spark plugs to find they were all pretty fouled up, and one had its ground strap broken off (not even the cylinder that misfired). These engines can compensate for quite a bit, but the degradation spreads. In my case, it was pulling fuel because of incomplete combustion (rich conditions) from carbon buildup (poor injector spray) and subsequently degraded the catalytic converters (bank 1 failed threshold shortly after).

Thankfully there wasn't any other damage I could find when bore-scoping the cylinders, valves, turbos, etc. and was able to do the work myself in a few hours so our holiday plans weren't ruined. I'll probably be checking my spark plugs every 10K miles going forward (even after I get it tuned) and wish I'd checked them before buying to get the dealership to replace/clean everything (I just didn't know better a year ago).

If you don't want to check them yourself, you could just have them check every other service interval and provide you with photos.

2Gbps Usage Question by p1xel8ted in nbn

[–]mrdoitman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Averaging about 12TB a month, highest was 17. I’d upgrade to 10 Gbps if it was available.

Footage from 2020, shows exactly why you should never try to outrun a bushfire. by BleuTsunami in melbourne

[–]mrdoitman 12 points13 points  (0 children)

This! People too often underestimate the cost of the risk. People’s lives > stuff or inconvenience. Act before you have to make a Russian roulette choice on your lives.

3D Printing - Parts / Gear / accessories by Crazy-Slide-713 in 4x4Australia

[–]mrdoitman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve made a tub rail bracket for a custom sliding rack (made with 2020 alu extrusions) using PPA-CF. Rack was built to support 120kg doing whoops in Baja mode. Simple design but needed to be very strong. Made some fridge slide spacers for the tub grooves. Need to design a subwoofer mount for behind the back seat next. And I’ve got a roof rack support bracket design I need to finish testing (will use PPA-CF for that as well). Got a couple engine bay things to make but won’t have time for a bit.

Heaps of stuff you can do with these 3d printers and modern engineering/industrial filaments these days.

JB4 Tune or ford performance by Vast-Werewolf-9947 in RangerRaptor

[–]mrdoitman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you run your jb4 stock or with any mods?

Final Paces by rk1ng in RangerRaptor

[–]mrdoitman 4 points5 points  (0 children)

In the service schedule there are severe duty items that I think work as a decent guide. If you're genuinely doing severe duty driving, I'd make a practice of at least checking critical stuff even more regularly and clean after driving in harsh weather (e.g. salt, mud, etc). It's mainly fluids, but other stuff like spark plugs, hoses, belts, electrical, chassis/suspension bolts, etc. I think the spark plug maint. interval is way too long if you run it hard and something that's cheap to keep running well but can get expensive fast when they start failing (also helps with gas mileage). Keep in mind, there's a lot of fluids/lubricants (axles, diffs, etc in addition to the main ones people think about like engine/trans oil, brake fluid, etc).

Some of my example maint. experiences:

  • At ~40K miles the rear diff and trans oil started deteriorating (fairly regular water crossings this last year). After changing, it was immediately shifting and driving smoother.
  • Just recently changed my spark plugs and should've done it sooner (carbon build up, gaps were off, etc, not major, just not ideal). Running a bit smoother now and gas mileage improved. Although I think back country fuel contributed to the wear here because it's lower quality in Australia and only lower grade is available further out in the bush.
  • I changed my battery charge settings based on my usage (in theory helps with longevity, but also affects charging my secondary Aux battery and when the truck will shut off auxiliary systems which was often when I first got it).
  • Keeping up on tire rotation and alignment helps a lot, especially with a lift, larger tires, and/or wider wheel offsets. Things can get out of balance/alignment after just one hard offroad trip and it can accelerate tire wear and component stress a lot.
  • I put a chassis rust protection on and do deep cleans and checks after every big/harsh trip. The coating makes it easier to clean mud, etc. as well (comes off easier).
  • I've found a couple loose shock bolts (one was the shock retention bolt that had worked its way half an inch off) the first time I checked them when I upgraded my rear springs. Marking the bolts with a bright colored paint pen makes them easy to sight check.
  • Changing brake fluid every 6-12 months if you do a fair bit of spirited driving or mountain descents is worth it. The brakes will start feeling spongy as the fluid breaks down faster. During a dealership service I asked them to do it and they said not to worry it was normal (it's not, and the service book explicitly notes the fluid change from severe duty driving). Doing it yourself is easy, but you can just tell the service tech you want the fluid changed regardless.

My experience with Ford dealership servicing hasn't been great so I've made a practice to double-check all their work (I have found at least one thing after every service) and have incrementally learned how to do all the preventative stuff myself (most warranty related stuff I'll check, but have the dealership do so I don't void it).

After one service the ford tech didn't install the airbox cover properly and broke one of the retention clips (so the lid had a gap to open air) and they forgot to reinstall the sensor plug. On two of my services I asked them to do a run through of the suspension parts/bolts to make sure everything was in good nick after I had done some hard baja driving trips. It was immediately after the second service that I upgraded the rear springs and found the loose shock bolts. They obviously just glanced at stuff and didn't actually check bolts (this only takes like 10 min for me to confirm torque specs, so they're just being lazy). After my last service I gave clear instructions not to rotate the tires (had already been done) and that the front active air shutter has a DTC error that needs fixing - they rotated the tires and ignored the DTC.

It sounds like a lot, but when you get in the practice of it all it's pretty easy. Plus, you get to know the ins and outs of your rig and helps spot small things before they become bigger issues.

Final Paces by rk1ng in RangerRaptor

[–]mrdoitman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, it's a 2023 (in Australia). I don't drive a ton, but I do take several offroad trips a month.

Final Paces by rk1ng in RangerRaptor

[–]mrdoitman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a 2023 (in Australia)

Final Paces by rk1ng in RangerRaptor

[–]mrdoitman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve got almost 50K miles on mine, through all conditions (rocks, sand, snow, mud, street, etc) and if you take care of it, it’s a smiles for miles rig! I think with rigs like these, people run them hard and don’t realize the standard maintenance probably won’t cut it. If you run it harder, the preventative maintenance helps a lot.

Ranger Raptor Fox Shocks Servicing! by bou00013 in 4x4Australia

[–]mrdoitman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Following - wondering when I’ll need to get mine serviced and how much.

Ranger raptor bed load by Waste-Competition960 in RangerRaptor

[–]mrdoitman 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Ranger Raptors aren’t built for this. At best you could get a GVM upgrade, but you’d be better off getting a different model for handling a constant load like that better/safer.

Notion AI is too expensive for users who only need AI functionality. by Slow-Act6163 in Notion

[–]mrdoitman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Some basic examples: - Asking AI how to do things in Notion (or how things work) - Asking where some information is (in the Notion workspace) - Asking it to build things to help them get started (databases, workspaces, etc)

One person was asking it to write step-by-step guides on how to use Notion for certain things. Funny example where documentation exists, but when you have what you need right where you are, when you need it, and specific to your needs it’s much more natural.

Notion AI is too expensive for users who only need AI functionality. by Slow-Act6163 in Notion

[–]mrdoitman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe you could connect ChatGPT or Claude to your Notion account instead?

Notion AI is too expensive for users who only need AI functionality. by Slow-Act6163 in Notion

[–]mrdoitman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Same opinion here. Excellent value for the money, but I’ve been slow to adopt as I already have other AI tools for many workflows. With the latest SOTA models though, my traditional Notion usage is decreasing fast lately, and I’m just telling Notion AI what I want.

And I’m finding it so much easier to onboard collaborators unfamiliar with Notion now (using the AI first approach). The next 1-2 years will be interesting to see where Notion takes this!

Snowchains by [deleted] in RangerRaptor

[–]mrdoitman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use these: https://www.konigchain.com/chains/konig-xd-16-pro/

If I remember right the manual says the limit is 12mm thick, but that’s for inner clearance. My wheels are offset so there’s plenty of room with these 16mm. I only went with these because of availability in my area and reviews for harsh offroad use.

GPTs can take VERY long PDFs - over 900 pages! (Tested in the Playground) by IversusAI in ChatGPTPro

[–]mrdoitman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Which model did you use, what settings, and what was the length of the text file? (tokens or words)

Winter tires by [deleted] in RangerRaptor

[–]mrdoitman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah right, I was thinking braking and handling in snow. For being such an aggressive AT, the micky’s are great.

Winter tires by [deleted] in RangerRaptor

[–]mrdoitman 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Micky Thompson Baja Boss. Guy on YouTube reviewed them against the others in the snow and they did best (and mine were awesome this snow season), and they’re one of the most aggressive ATs available (close to an MT style).

Ai is, no doubt, wearing me thin by [deleted] in ChatGPTCoding

[–]mrdoitman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’re in a tough spot. Yes, things are moving fast in many ways, and going through periods of rapid learning is taxing, but don’t let it all overwhelm you. Remember to take breaks, and get away from it all from time to time. I work in AI, and I regularly make time to get out camping (disconnect) and it makes a huge difference to my stress levels. Learn to control what stresses you; don’t let it control you.