And Happy 2017 To All! And a few updates to be had. Some truck, some life, some car and some trailer, but all automotive related
.
.
.
While it is trailer related in a sence, for the haunted house that I work on, we had decided to enter the local Christmas parade using the theme that we (my girlfriend and I) had used which fits both events, and it would be Krampus, so we made up a Krampus float, my girlfriend reprising her role as the punisher of bad kids, and me towing the float, and powering half of it off the truck and the 1500w inverter, the other half being powered by a 1000w generator.
The Xterra towed it wonderfully. I put it in 4-Low and she pulled herself on idle, but the alternator had a hard time keeping up at such low revs/speeds for the amount of power they were pulling. I wanted them to go LED, but they went for all incandescent bulbs for the "look" and cause they were free. We off-loaded some off the inverter to the generator, but even that was running full-out. I think we did look awesome and the people loved us, but we didn't place in the top 3 for the prizes and got beat even by Care Bears....oh well...twas fun anyway! It was great fun and exposure, and we want to do it again next year, make us known as THE Krampus float for that parade!
.
.
.
On a more serious note, only a few days before heading home to Ontario for the holidays, I see on Facebook shared by a few people, about a blue Civic pushed into a store by a drunk driver. I look for pictures of my parents car on Facebook and Google Maps to try to find the plate number before calling my mom for her not to panic, to find out from her that it was my dad. Not the best thing to see since I've already lost my sister in an accident after Xmas 9 years ago...He was ok, only a bit of whiplash, but the car was scrapped of course. Sad that this was a drunk driver a 9am on a Wednesday....who even tried to flee on foot, but was stopped by one of the gym owners across the street who witnessed the accident.
http://www.niagarathisweek.com/news-story/7008162-impaired-driver-wreaks-havoc-in-port-colborne/
http://www.chch.com/port-colborne-m...ng-charges-multi-vehicle-crash-caught-camera/
So it means that when I came back down to Niagara, it was car shopping time. Although a first he wanted a fuel efficient crossover, with the 2002 Escape (V6 AWD) still being in great shape, and even 4cyl CUVs being a tad too fuel inefficient for his likes and needs (being partially retired), we started to look a mid sized cars; Honda Accord (too expensive), Toyota Camry (wanted an SE), Nissan Altima (POS and/or bad dealership experience) and Mazda6 (steering too heavy). While after renewing the rental car and to have me covered on it to drive up to Toronto the next day to look at more cars (my dad isn't a fan of the T-Dot drivers, and knows I know the city well) we ventured across the street to another Toyota dealership to look for more Camrys, and a red Corolla S struck my dad's eye. After a test drive, my dad was quite interested, but I knew the motor and suspension are basically a decade old technology, so I insist before OK'ing the Corolla, that we test drive a Mazda3 first. Yes indeed I am biased towards Mazda, but I have good reason I'd like to say, and they also had very good experience with their old 1991 626, which is why I got my 1992 Mx-3 GS (KLZE Swapped), which was subsequently replaced with my 2004 Rx-8 GT. Regardless of my bias, this is my parents car, and want them in the end to be very happy with their new car in all it's aspects, but also want them to make a good and educated experience, and it's them making the decision; I'm just pointing to choices/options that suite them, while also making sure it's not a POS. In the drive, my dad fell in love with the 3, but another plus that I didn't think of was the hatchback, which gives him some CUV-like functionality that he initially wanted.
And 2 days later, I hacked the system to give them free navigation. If you're familiar with Telnet, FTP and Linux systems, it's quite easy, but needs a USB NIC.
Coming back from picking up the car, my dad wanted to stop by the new Princess Auto in St Catharines. It opened up since I've last been down, and it's very much closer then the one in Hamilton. The main reason for stopping there will be talked about further below, but going through the aisles, I saw the military water jugs that I always wanted for the trailer, and then I notice the price and think, they're normally way more expensive then this...so I tell my dad, and pick 2 up. At the cash, they came up their "regular" price and we told her it was incorrect, so the cashier asks me to go take a picture of the tag on the shelf with my phone, and indeed, we got them at the marked price of $18.99 as opposed to their $44.99 (or was it $49.99), and man was I happy and to of had the 2 in my cart!
.
.
But the main reason why stopped by is that I had asked my dad, being a retired Millwright, was to piece me out an emergency car battery stick welding kit for Christmas, which in the end he considers it my birthday present since I'm not around in February
.
.
For those that have been following the build, part of the plan and design of the trailer is to have it equipped with a total of 3 batteries. Most of the reason is to have plenty of reserve power and not need to be regularly charged by the tow vehicle, and while it is equipped with a charger, shore power is usually not available, and I'm not yet equipped with solar panels. The other major reason for specifically having 3 batteries is for emergency welding for repairs. While I have heard and seen videos of it being done with 2 batteries, when I seen it done in person at a friend's place for the first time, it wasn't all that effective, and we actually took a battery from my Xterra to bump the voltage up to 36 volts with much improvement.
.
.
When he was at school was specifically told to never do this, had never seen it done before, so was curious to give this a shot before I left back to Quebec with it.
The sticks we picked up some 6011 3/32 rods and my dad wanted to try it at first at 24 volts. This proved to not be very effective and was only good for small quick tacks, however bumping up to 3 batteries at 36 volts, it would actually burn holes straight through the metal. I actually watched on a few occasions the rod having a flame on it for it's entire length. Changing the polarity didn't see to make much of a difference, and despite the box of the rods saying otherwise, we found it worked better with negative ground connection. The picture showing the results of these welds is the one where they're not very pretty.
My dad at this point was very impressed at the power behind this setup, but realised the 3/32 rods were too small for the job. He by chance had an old stainless steel 1/8 welding rod in his old work toolbox. Despite its age, it worked astonishingly well and confirmed that 1/8" rods were the way to go. He also suggested to go to a 7011 rod, but wasn't opposed to carrying some 1/8 stainless rods for a slag-free weld.
.
.
While I do have my Lincoln 220v MIG, and access to an actual stick welder, this kit was put together for the main and really, sole purpose, for trail and trip fixes. While there are welders specifically for this purpose, like the known Ready Welder, this is pieced together for a fraction of the price. While the trailer is still missing 1 battery, I could easily grab one from the Xterra, and also that the batteries in the trailer aren't easily accessible, but details to be worked on in time.
.
.
.
So there's my massive update for the last 2 months. At the moment, we're actually searching for a house, and that house HAS to have a garage, detached, and decent sized one so I can work on my projects, repairs, and any other stuff me and my girlfriend's mind can come up with. I'm sick of being in an apartment, and I think it's time.
