Dorsai Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 Nice car! I believe that’s the model my son has. He loves it! Your son has excellent taste! I am enjoying mine as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted June 18, 2022 Author Share Posted June 18, 2022 So as I've been easing back into working on my truck again I've been catching up on old threads here, and saw the discussion above about new cars. I also told myself I'd never buy a new car again, but... That's my 2022 Lexus NX350. I was getting by just fine with my old '04 RX330 but it's past 200K miles now, and with the new job I am commuting to the office regularly so I figured it was time to give it a rest. Plus my son is 16, so the RX will make a good starter car for him and should get him through college, with reasonable care and maintenance. I have to admit, I am enjoying the safety/nanny features so far...not because I want to drive with them all the time, but because they work so impressively well. The rush hour commute to the office is a snap with the adaptive cruise, and if it wasn't for the hands-on-wheel sensor demanding my attention it would be fully capable of driving the highway portion of the commute by itself. I've only had it a month, but so far there have been no cases where the nannies screwed anything up. Nice car, Matthew! Hard to beat the new features. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted June 20, 2022 Share Posted June 20, 2022 Nice car! I believe that’s the model my son has. He loves it! We bought a couple of "beach kayaks" for paddling around the lake at my folks cabin, so now we needed a rack to store them on. Something close to the lake and easy to use, but that would keep the kayaks off the ground and out of the way. After looking at some ready-made options I decided to make one myself. I bought some 10' lengths of 1 1/2" conduit. I was hoping to use 1 1/4" water pipe (thicker wall) but Menards didn't have any, so I went up to 1 1/2" on the conduit (about 1/16" wall). I drove a couple of the pipes about 5' into the sand. That was no picnic! Swinging a 12 lb sledge while on a step ladder is a lot of Work Maynard! Once I had the two verticals I notched 4 pipes to weld them on at a 20* angle. I need about 75' of extension cord to get down to the shore, and my welder was only seeing 116V, so it would just shut down. Fortunately it was happy to run off my $400 generator. (I bought this thing when a storm hit us about 7 years ago and our power was out for a few days. I used it again about 3 years ago when a storm hit the cabin and power was out for a while. Other than that it's probably been started about 5 times in the seven years. It started on the first pull. I wish the $3700 Onan generator in my motorhome (that I've had about $2000 worth of service done on) started that well!) Anyway, I notched the pipes by hand with a cutoff wheel and a flap disk in my angle grinder. And welding by generator power worked great (I did take the galvanized coating off with a flap disk where I was going to weld). A little silver paint on the welded joints and some pipe insulation to protect the kayaks and we have a kayak rack! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted June 20, 2022 Author Share Posted June 20, 2022 We bought a couple of "beach kayaks" for paddling around the lake at my folks cabin, so now we needed a rack to store them on. Something close to the lake and easy to use, but that would keep the kayaks off the ground and out of the way. After looking at some ready-made options I decided to make one myself. I bought some 10' lengths of 1 1/2" conduit. I was hoping to use 1 1/4" water pipe (thicker wall) but Menards didn't have any, so I went up to 1 1/2" on the conduit (about 1/16" wall). I drove a couple of the pipes about 5' into the sand. That was no picnic! Swinging a 12 lb sledge while on a step ladder is a lot of Work Maynard! Once I had the two verticals I notched 4 pipes to weld them on at a 20* angle. I need about 75' of extension cord to get down to the shore, and my welder was only seeing 116V, so it would just shut down. Fortunately it was happy to run off my $400 generator. (I bought this thing when a storm hit us about 7 years ago and our power was out for a few days. I used it again about 3 years ago when a storm hit the cabin and power was out for a while. Other than that it's probably been started about 5 times in the seven years. It started on the first pull. I wish the $3700 Onan generator in my motorhome (that I've had about $2000 worth of service done on) started that well!) Anyway, I notched the pipes by hand with a cutoff wheel and a flap disk in my angle grinder. And welding by generator power worked great (I did take the galvanized coating off with a flap disk where I was going to weld). A little silver paint on the welded joints and some pipe insulation to protect the kayaks and we have a kayak rack! Looks great, Bob! Do you get much wind there? Is there any need to tie them on to the racks? As for the welder, I don't think mine would have like all the extension cords and low voltage either. But I haven't tried it on the inverter on Big Blue. In theory the current is enough, but the square wave might not work. I need to try that as it would be a slick way to weld in the field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted June 20, 2022 Share Posted June 20, 2022 Looks great, Bob! Do you get much wind there? Is there any need to tie them on to the racks? As for the welder, I don't think mine would have like all the extension cords and low voltage either. But I haven't tried it on the inverter on Big Blue. In theory the current is enough, but the square wave might not work. I need to try that as it would be a slick way to weld in the field. Do we get much wind? Here are a couple pics I posted a few years ago: https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n69185/DSC_8652.jpg https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n69185/DSC_8701.jpg Seriously, that's the only storm like that one that there's been in my life time. And I don't know that there's any way to prepare for another like it. As to whether the kayaks should be tied down, yes, they probably should. They are well protected from the typical south and west winds we get there, but a strong north wind will definitely flip the top boat off the rack. I'll get around to that eventually! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted June 20, 2022 Author Share Posted June 20, 2022 Do we get much wind? Here are a couple pics I posted a few years ago: https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n69185/DSC_8652.jpg https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n69185/DSC_8701.jpg Seriously, that's the only storm like that one that there's been in my life time. And I don't know that there's any way to prepare for another like it. As to whether the kayaks should be tied down, yes, they probably should. They are well protected from the typical south and west winds we get there, but a strong north wind will definitely flip the top boat off the rack. I'll get around to that eventually! Yes, that was WIND! Around here that’s not too unusual. In fact, in western OK they use a log chain on a pole instead of a wind sock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salans7 Posted June 23, 2022 Share Posted June 23, 2022 Yes, that was WIND! Around here that’s not too unusual. In fact, in western OK they use a log chain on a pole instead of a wind sock. Just had a NASTY microburst pass through over my town. I was on my way home and saw nothing but black skies ahead of me and knew we were in for a bad one. I made it home safe (lots of really bad drivers out there) and found my house in good shape with no noticeable damage. Unfortunately I found that both my F350 and my red Ranger were hammered by tree limbs. Both trucks now have a few more dents that weren't there before, but luckily no glass broken. I'm a little bummed, but it could have been worse and I'm thankful it wasn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted June 23, 2022 Author Share Posted June 23, 2022 Just had a NASTY microburst pass through over my town. I was on my way home and saw nothing but black skies ahead of me and knew we were in for a bad one. I made it home safe (lots of really bad drivers out there) and found my house in good shape with no noticeable damage. Unfortunately I found that both my F350 and my red Ranger were hammered by tree limbs. Both trucks now have a few more dents that weren't there before, but luckily no glass broken. I'm a little bummed, but it could have been worse and I'm thankful it wasn't. Bummer! Sorry. But, as you said, it could have been worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salans7 Posted June 23, 2022 Share Posted June 23, 2022 Bummer! Sorry. But, as you said, it could have been worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted June 23, 2022 Author Share Posted June 23, 2022 Yikes! It looks like the little guy took the brunt of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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