This is something that has not only crossed my mind, but others as well. It seems that most people that post here with equipment issues know very little about their machines and how they work. Naturally, those of us that are here to help with troubleshooting their issues and repair advise do so freely and it is usually greatly appreciated. What I am getting at is...……. when someone lacks the understanding of what is going on during the troubleshooting process and the accidents that can happen with heavy equipment...……..do you continue to attempt to GET them to understand it? …..or do you side with safety concerns and tell them to find qualified help near them? I'm positive no one here wants to see anyone get hurt, or killed, by advise they have given. I recently did this myself in a skid loader thread...…….a sticky boom control spool. What I was explaining made perfect since and I have experience in doing what I was trying to explain ( raise the boom, boom stop it, take the linkage off and push/pull the control spool to see if that is the problem, or the linkage itself.) That night after really thinking about it I felt pretty stupid telling someone things I assumed were easy, but yet dangerous. That is a situation that could be deadly if not done correctly......and I second guessed my advise by wondering if I had explained it well enough...….while not going into the details of the dangers. I believe it is a good thing for people to learn how to take care of their equipment, but in this day and age of costs being so high in this industry, more people with NO experience are attempting to do major repairs and troubleshooting on their own. So, what about you? Is there a balance of knowledge and safety to be achieved here? I would like to here from the new posters as well, to gain knowledge of what they may expect when posting equipment issues.
Very interesting comments Vetech. I myself have wondered about those same scenarios. Especially when some inexperienced person is starting a machine by jumping a starter and we are trying to help them. Could a forum member be sued if something went terribly wrong in those situations ???
That's a horrible 4 letter word Tinkerer.. 1 that shouldn't be spoken OUTloud.. Its getting worse & worse fellas.. I hate it when the thread starts> I'm a total Newb.. I have a tendency to skip over those threads.. & 99% of the people writing in, don't have a shop manual.. so your stuck writing step by step by step.. when all they have to do is open the friggin BOOK.. {VE pump thread} BUT WHY spend 75.00 on a manual when theres abunch of bored retired mechanics that'll tell u for free.?? Its gotten to the point where I somehow turned into peoples "personal mechanic" on call 24/7.. I get calls on the weekends & after 6pm.. hey what abut this, what about that, can u look this up for me.. how about giving me the part #.?? How do I do this.. what if that doesnt work.?? THEN the REAL kicker is> all that stuff u told me didn't work.. HOW MANY TIMES do u have o be told, U HAVE A PUMP PROBLEM.. There IS NO magic switch u can flip to make it run.. There is no information available for diesel fuel injection, for a reason.. U either "try it" yourself.. pay someone to do it.. or take the risk of blowing up your engine. That's pretty cut & dry.. I know what u mean about the starter thing.. its the same w/ hanging an injector outside the engine.. I do put a CAUTION in my threads tho.. probably wouldn't hold up in court.. {sad}
Yeah, some people need to stay away from attempting even the simplest of tasks on a machine. I'll usually tell people to get someone with experience if they don't know what they are doing. There are also times when you just have to say NO because it is very dangerous and shouldn't be attempted by anyone. I remember a post on another forum from several years ago. Not a repair question but similar. A guy and his friend "apparently" found an IH 175B track loader "abandoned" in a building on an old farm. Took some pictures that clearly showed a no trespassing sign on the wall. Hopped on the machine, turned the key and it started right up. He said he couldn't get it to move and was asking for help in that regard. I COULD NOT believe that about half a dozen people freely offered advice on what could be the problem before someone else made note of the no trespassing sign on the wall. I mentioned the picture of the guy on the machine would be good evidence to take to the police. Don't you wish you could find an old abandoned machine that you could just turn the key and it starts right up.
I have done that as noted when get the I am not sure or I don't Understand comments from a recommendation post. Just refer them to find a close wrench and call it a day.
We all take it for granted that others have common sense. Or at least the sense God gave a flea. All to often we see or hear about someone who thought that they could get by , "just doing this or that." And then ending in tragedy. Until someone shows competency or at least talks the talk, we're all taking a risk. Really a bummer when you think about it.
having grown up on a farm around all kinds of potentially dangerous equipment, I sometimes forget that people without the same kind of background may not have the same kind of evolved common sense. that is to say, people make mistakes and learn from them. with old age comes wisdom(to a point) lol. every job has to begin by assessing the risk and safety factors, no matter what you do. most people automatically do this without thinking-its called experience. i'm often guilty of assuming someone has common sense and finding out otherwise. the best advice I can give inexperienced equipment operators and owners is-PERSONAL SAFETY FIRST!!!! whether operating or repairing as well as any helpers and bystanders
I have had the same thought running through my mind for years. I even asked the same sort of question several years ago. I learned a long time ago that you have to be careful what you say, people take your word as gospel sometimes. Others will ignore everything that you tell them. I had an apprentice weld a guard onto a hydraulic cylinder once because I jokingly said that we would weld it on. In jest, it was a joke. Nobody in their right mind would weld onto the barrel of a hyd cylinder. He did. I was the mechanic, he was the apprentice, he did what I told him. And he was no dummy, not by a long shot. Pretty smart kid. I don't say much anymore. Watch the thread and see how it is going. After watching some of the train wrecks that have shown up, its the easiest way. That said, there are certain people on here that if they asked a question and I had some knowledge, I would not hesitate for a second to throw in my 2 cents worth knowing that when you say to do "X", they have the skill and knowledge to get themselves there in the proper way.
Somebody (not sure if on a forum or not) said to flush his engine with water. https://mustangforums.com/forum/5-0l-general-discussion/368307-i-m-done-with-this-car.html
OMG That can't be real. I mean......lost for words, it just can't be real. So funny
I cannot feel sorry for him!! Have two neighbors change oil when consider it due, not to miles hours or just time but opinion. One lost a perfectly good 7.3 dsl as did NOT change for three YEARS, did not put many miles on so took for granted was good to go, the other has changed the engine in his Gleaner F series FOUR times as "only runs it around ten hours so Oil is good for YEARS" until is not, only oil changes are when drops a replacement in. Both end up rotating cars and keeping dealers happy every three years. And NO, I will NOT work on their machines and only offered recommends to each ONCE got the blow off so not ever again.
Yeah ... they have a $20-30,000 machine but won't buy a manual or heaven forbid pay someone! Even worse are the ones who throw parts at something .. not talking filters.... but pumps, valves, etc... And then they have the audacity to critisize or question you when you tell them what IS wrong
I used to contribute to a couple of RV forums, motor home specific. Tried helping people out with some of their problems, the air systems being a big one. I pretty much had to quit because I got sick of being called out for not knowing anything about their motor home because I didn't own one. So I poke my nose in now and then just to get a laugh. Was reading one the other day. Guy lost air. Shut the unit off and the next time he started he could not build air. He could hear it but it would not show on gauge. So off he went swapping parts. Started with a new D2, that didn't fix so he swapped the compressor out. That didn't fix so now he was stumped. Meanwhile, people are giving him good advice on what to look for but he just ignored it all. I just wish I had the money to start throwing it away on useless part like that.
How many times have you seen people walk under something very heavy that is being suspended by a hydraulic machine of some sort? I have had to tell every single person that has helped me at some time: DON'T EVER GET UNDERNEATH SOMETHING LIFTED. And, when you get close, pay careful attention at all times.
Another good one is people pushing around trees/logs with equipment. I ask: Do you know what may happen when you build tension on that and then it releases STRAIGHT AT YOU?
I glance at most posts if its already been answered appropriatly i move on especially after coming back to the forum after after a to busy at work to bother breack. And seeing a particular post about a engine that went stupid and caused people to leave .If a new poster asks for help with something very very basic i move on as its obvious they shouldnt be touching it . Mack and some Ih trucks and engines are my thing mostly, i would personally never help with hydrualics unless it was one of yall senior mechanics that are already very aware of the hidden dangers of stored energy. I was changing a hydrualic hose on a cat excavator the other day i suspected had some pressure on it had to shoo people away from me , had a rag wrapped around it but when i wiggled it and it popped free it blew said rag and oil into the air . So i tend to watch what i answer to on here if they dont listen ,once again i move on.
Free information is worth what was paid for it. If it helps, fine. If it doesn't help, you have to take that in context with what you spent for it. I think all of us would like to help someone not have to jump into an expensive to fix problem without missing something real easy first. On the other hand look at how many times people looking for something simple haven't bothered to even check things like fuel level in the tank, engine oil and coolant levels, screens and water separators in the fuel systems or even the basics of knowing how the machine is supposed to operate in the first place. How many times does an answer contain "give us the make, model, serial number and how many hours are on the clock?" Having to be told to provide that kind of information for the most part tells me where they are coming from and their level of expertise. As far as someone getting hurt goes, I try to explain how something is supposed to work and list the possible problems and leave it to the questioner what and how it should be taken care of. There are problems that I know what is wrong but because of what I see in their questions I don't answer or I just flat out say to find a knowledgeable wrench to work with you. There are also those that want to argue and I just drop off the thread at that point. As far as liability goes, this is a national and international forum. An ambulance chaser would have to find you, find out if their state, federal or international laws apply, establish that you were an expert that recommended something that intended to hurt someone or was out of the realm of normal procedures, and finally, got paid for your advise under a contract. If something stated on a social media platform constituted a criminal offense or a civil liability, then we would have a million years of criminal and civil court cases to work through.
What's the absolute worst is someone who doesn't really know offering advice on how to do something that experienced mechanics either know is very dangerous or won't work. Person asking follows the bad advice without knowing any better or thinks it makes the job easier. Totally disregards what happens if something goes wrong. Dumbest (for lack of a better word) thing I ever saw was when I worked at a tank shop as an apprentice. They asked a new guy to cut the temporary "D" rings off a 400 barrel tank they use for moving the tanks around the shop before they are completed with proper lifting hooks. He cut the D rings off alright but instead of cutting the D rings off so the welds could be ground flat he saved the complete D rings by cutting 4 holes in the tank! Guys in the shop were like... holy crap how could somebody be that inept.
I have a website with all kinds of motorhome upgrades I’ve done to ours over the years, some of which are rather technically complicated. I have disclaimers all over the place but the bottom line is anybody can be sued for anything. Businesses that post a sign “not responsible for accidents” have basically wasted money on a useless sign. If they are negligent, they will lose in court with or without a sign. My pet peeve is when I give advice or answer questions in email I usually never get a thanks, people are so rude.
It's the Same way when it's someone posting I am not an operator but I spent a half years wage on so.e equipment that looked cool and the guy selling it said it was the perfect lawn mower to move a mountain with People get hurt operating equipment because they dont have the depth to understand what's going on On another note I like a lot of the post on simple things cause it usually re.inds me that most problems can be solved with a minute of thought
I'm not a professional HE mech. but, I've some professional experience with machinery. My first post on this forum was about a Deere 310C that wouldn't stay running. That first post had a list of things, I've checked and a request for other avenues to explore. Thanks to HEF, I narrowed the problem to the IP. When a new poster says "my xx won't start" with no information that's an indication of lazy or ignorance. Pass them by. Or at most tell them to look at the manual. Even tell them what manual to look at. Then they have a common basis to discuss the issue with you... And the manual has safety cautions. (at least Deere's do) The most aggravating are those that don't know yet persist in ignoring instructions. I enjoy particularly enjoy watching thepumpguysc beating the bush about the Roosamaster check valve with some people.
Ain't that the truth. There are certain people on here that when they talk, I tend to sit up and listen. Guys like thepumpguysc. I was in the trade for 40 plus years and am still learning from him.
I’m a complete newb.... Interesting question that I was just thinking about as I was reading the thread on JD310C weak hydros that resulted in an oil bath. I’m a former acft electronics maintainer, but now working support logistics. Believe it or not, there used to be hydraulically tuned transmitters on B-52s. Anyhow, the machines are not exactly mysterious to me, but I’m decidedly ignorant of the finer points. So what’s my point? Please continue to share judiciously. The questions I have asked here have been helpfully answered, and I’m grateful for that.
I got called out on a Detroit 3-53 today that someone had been screwing with for 2 weeks and couldn’t get to run. It was terribly misrepresented to me and when I got there it was a huge mess. After 30+ years of experience and several runaways over that time span, I broke some of my own precautions with these type engines and it almost cost me BIG. I will start a thread with pics in the morning......
I worry, a little, bein started on the farm, we always had a lot more mechanical experience, than others, all have seen unexpected accidents happen, and have seen ingenius ways of preventing them, too. Take the stump or stuck vehicle pullin scenario, for instance. If you thread the chain through an old tire, the chain drops, if it snaps. A coat, hung over the chain, will serve the same purpose. Its stuff, that we know, almost innately. When I take a wrench to a part, the first thing I'm lookin fer, is what can hurt me! most injuries, I have caused myself, is when I'm in a hurry, on a friday, in the worst weather, etc!. I always try to tell myself to slow down... Another thing from bein farm raised, is we didn't have no OSHA man lookin over our shoulders, so if I recommend hot wirin a safety switch, fer instance, to see if you can diagnose if the switch is bad, remember, to lock out the machine if others walk in, unknowing whats goin on... Proper shop procedure, for me, myself and I is to try to remember what I just did, bein a 1 man show...
Nothing wrong with flushing your engine with water when needed. Starting it up with water, that's your call. The funny part is thinking changing the oil will make it idle better, or the light came on so it's time to add oil, or my favorite, the engine is locked up because it's out of oil, so add some and try it again.
Ever read the one about the two guys trying to extrusion hone the intake and exhaust manifolds on a running car with a bag of blast media?
Cool!!! I'll bet you could lap the valves too
Words fail me. Just. Wow.
Not water but... I was just starting my apprenticeship, all young and full of **** and vinegar, greener then green. But still had a bit of a brain. I was heading out of the shop to go get a truck out of the line up to bring in. The Tire guy had his 70 something ford van with a 300 six on the pad doing an oil change. He had the oil drained out and had refilled it with, are you ready for it, varsol. Flashed it up and let it run for a min or two. My eyeballs just about popped out of my head. Oh no problem he says, do it all the time, cleans all of the junk out. You just have to be ready to shut it off if it starts to knock or make any noise. Wonder what those bearings looked like. Okay, says I. Walked away, shaking my head, thinking that he has been sniffing tire glue again.
Well at least they were nice and clean, and not all oily like a normal engine.
I have also thought about this many times and often do not comment on some posts. I do feel bad though because I often feel like I'm asking more questions/advise than I am help others with.
Don't stop asking questions. That's not what we are getting at here. My take on the subject is if you do ask a question, and you get some decent answers from qualified people, don't ignore it. If your unsure, ask for clarification. If you don't know where the check valve is, or for that matter what a check valve is, ask. And don't try to brush the experts off. I don't mean the self proclaimed experts, I mean the real guys. We have lost so many good guys because of that one reason right there. tctractors, scrubpuller just off the top of my head. Lots more. I still remember the thread that got Tony. Such a train wreck. This is an online forum. As with all online forums, I take everything with a grain of salt until I figure out who is who.
I remember that one too. The OP was getting good advice from so many people who were all pretty much singing from the same hymn sheet - then he went completely the opposite way to all the advice and kept coming back and asking "why is this not working?". With hindsight it might have been better if the first time he refused to take advice he'd been told to rotate, then we'd have a couple (if not more) of our more experienced members still with us and posting on a regular basis.
I don't quite understand why they left over that sort of thing though. If somebody won't listen then just stop posting in that thread. Like in local customer relations if they don't like my way of doing things then we just agree to disagree. Seems like they usually call back in a month or so anyway.
If you go back and read through the famous D6C thread it got kinda personal between two members from different sides of the Pond and was nothing to do with the OP other than he was the one who wouldn't take advice from Tony and others who were all saying the same thing. One member then called out TCT because of perceived safety concerns over the way he works (guess what, things are often done differently in other countries) and it all got pretty heated.
I can understand why they left. I have left 6 other forums and have 2 more in the gun sights. Reasons for leaving. 3 were RV forums where much like HEF I was offering up advice. Suffered personal attacks due to my "Lack of knowledge". True, I don't own brand X but I do know a bit about heavy trucks. So took my "lack of knowledge" and left. 2 bicycle forums were left due to the HATE because I ride an ebike. And I do mean hate, you could almost taste it. 1 automotive forum due to politics. I'm not political, my view is they are all lying bastards so elect 1 and put up with them for the 4 years. Politicians, bah! But when the simplest of posts got corrupted because the one of the posters had different views from the rest, well I don't need it. The two that are in the gun sights right now 1 is another bicycle forum. Waiting to see how they are with ebikes. The hate started to raise its ugly head the other day. I put post up and basically said that if they thought that I was an Ahole for riding an ebike, they should just tell me now so I quit wasting my time with them. Got a bit of a back paddle there. Will see how it works out. The last one is yet another automotive forum. Have been with them for years so really don't want to pull the pin, but the politics are crazy and with the US election coming up, it is getting very polarized again. If they even think that you are leaning one way or the other they will be all over you, and any past political views, no matter how old, will suddenly be brought up. So like I said, in my sights for divorce. The gun is loaded, the safety is off the cross hairs are on the target, I just need to take a breath and slowly release until the the bulls eye is centered. So yeah, when you freely offer up advice and get criticized, ignored or ridiculed, why bother offering it up anymore.
I left a sailing forum. These folks made AOC seem centrist.
Here's my thing. If I see pictures I check out the thread. To many word gets me confused. I'm simple like that. :beerchug:
I am staff on two forums, one is a Jeep forum and one is a very large RV forum. We do not tolerate any kind attitude from member to member, criticize ideas and not people. Once it gets to flaming we lock the thread, this is the difference between a well moderated forum and one with little oversight.
At the risk of being called terminally insane one time I did remove the valve cover from a Chevy six in an old pickup only used around the quarry at work to replace a very leaky gasket. When I pulled the valve cover the build up of sludge was so bad you could hardly see the valve springs. But the old engine did run! At that time we had a hot water pressure washer set up a couple hundred feet from the shop so I drove the truck down to the washer and proceeded to flush all the crap off the top of the head. Hard to believe but after a spray with some WD-40 type oil on the cap and wires it started up and ran back to the shop. Drained the oil and installed a new filter and installed valve cover with new gasket. Believe we ran it a short time with fresh oil and then did another oil and filter change. That old engine kept working till something else killed the truck!
I must confess I don't think I ever read that whole thread because it went so incredibly long. And the way I read I think I sometimes fail to register offense in people's writing, so maybe I missed that or skipped over it. It is too bad, I did enjoy his posts.
100 % agree with you there John. The ones that I have had the most problems with have always been brand specific, and I should know better. You don't ask a guy the just spent $100K what he thinks of his latest purchase. Of course it is the best. I joined the brand specific form to learn about that brand, I had thoughts that I might like one, so who better to ask then the owners. These were older used units so I wanted to know as much as I could My thinking was I want information, I don't have anything to trade other than a bit of knowledge that I gathered up from years as a mechanic. So thinking that if I were to be an active participating member and try to help out where I could, then I would be rewarded in kind. So feel free to ask about what is so good about brand X and why should I buy it over brand Z. The flood gates open and its like trying to drink from a fire hose. Ask what is bad and it is just like you farted in church. The overwhelming silence is deafening. And then it started. Little questions about how would I know for sure if I never worked on one before. And then I did the fatal error of calling out one of the moderators on an issue. I was right and proved him wrong which apparently was a bad thing. So then came the big blow up. Was explaining to a guy who had a Silver 6V92 for power,that there can be an intercooler under the blower and with age and such, they can get plugged up and it can cause power issues and smoke. Well, this guy comes at me. " I was in the USMC for 20 years, I worked on detroits and I never, EVER saw a aftercooler. You are nuts" No idea what the Marines had to do with it, you guys would have to fill me in. The 20 years of working on detroits I understood. But they can have intercoolers, as anyone who has had to remove them to clean will know. I don't know if they all have or not, but whatever. So this guy was being a complete tool towards me. I asked the Mod if he was going to allow it and basically got told that he saw nothing wrong. The other guy was an owner and had been on the group for years. Okay then!!! Lord did they need some help too. They were all running off and getting the new improved D2 governors because they were set to 130 PSI and it made their brakes so much better??? One old guy wanted to know how to shut off that annoying buzzer and light on his dash because it was bothering his wife, ah, that is your low pressure air alarm. Yeah, and I was the idiot. Said goodbye to that group. HEF is well run. Every once in a long while, there is a thread that goes sideways. It might take the Mods a bit of time to get on to it, hey they are not omnipresent, but they will control it. So I'll just quickly sum up my thoughts on this thread. Welcome to HEF. We are a great online community with a common love of heavy equipment. We have people from around the world with all levels of knowledge We do expect you to have a bit of common sense and mechanical aptitude We are not responsible for anything that happens due to advice given, it is still up to you to decide how you want to use the knowledge that we will give you. You are responsible for your own safety When you ask for help, be prepared to provide the required back ground information, it may be something as simple as a serial number or it could be quite complicated. When you receive your answer, review it and if you have any questions ask them. Be advised that this is an online forum. While we have some extremely talented people there will also be some advice that is given that might be wrong. Don't keep asking the same question over and over and over. Be polite and be ready to have some fun, we are a fun bunch. I know there is more, and it can be phrased better but it is what it is. I think I have babbled on enough for one day. Can you tell it was raining today?
I have heard of people using diesel (old #2) to do a quick flush at no load without issues. wornout wrench; One thing I am always quick to do when given sage advice is to show appreciation to those who have been willing to think deep, take time, and share their knowledge and experience with me and don't have to. Many times the older wrenches that knew the outdated machines I keep running are long retired or on the wrong side of the grass.
Chevy 235 or 250 in line 6 in the pickup ? Tough engines.
I always figured that it was part of my job to help train up the younger guys. I learned it from the old guys, now I are one of the old guys. Circle of life LOL
tough motors is right: I have a 54 GMC 1ton dump straight 6 can't remember the CI but it's an industrial... So decided I needed to use it one day it had been sitting outside for quite a while so I popped the hood hooked up the jumpers and stepped on the starter... fired right up so it's sitting there running for a few minutes and I notice there seems to be a lot of moisture coming from the breather??? that's weird??? hmmm, so I pull the dipstick and it starts spraying water all over the place!!! Oh shoot!!!! got it shut off and checked the oil like I should have in the first place.... nothing but water on the stick sucker was completely full of water!!! at first I thought maybe someone filled it up on purpose... but later discovered that the cap on the valve cover was bad and sits directly beneath the hood/cowling seam which filled it like a funnel anyways long story short I drained all the water out put new oil in and ran it a few minutes then changed it again ran fine after that... dumb luck I didn't hurt it Note to self: always check the oil!!!
There's a large truck forum I've been on for a few years. Been debating about pulling the plug on it a lot lately. HEF is the only other online forum that I participate in and I like it a lot better. It is much better organized and there are a ton of great and knowledgable folks on here. Most all of the screen names I see in this particular thread I consider to be pretty dang knowledgable. I've gotten some good advice from a lot of them, either directly or just from me browsing random threads.
Do the members think there is any relationship between the fact that recreational/hobby vehicles (e.g. RV, Jeep, bicycles) are by definition for recreational use and bought & operated/maintained out of the owner's disposable income, and where heavy equipment on the other hand is generally used in one of two scenarios: - 1. As a money-maker/profit generator for a machine owner or for a company. 2. As a money-saver for a private individual or organization by enabling him/them to do work that would otherwise require hiring in a contractor or equipment to carry out a particular task. Either of the above yellow iron scenarios will focus the mind wonderfully if a machine is down and needs to be got back up again, an IMHO make the owner more open to receiving advice & suggestions from others with experience in the same field. Also FWIW - Wornout Wrench's explanation of what HEF is (starting from "Welcome to HEF" - I'm not going to quote it all) should be WRIT LARGE right at the top of the main page of the forum IMHO.
I used to post on a few 'Other Sites' where when Mansplained to me I would drop the conversation and let the Loser run with what he had usually to his own demise. Have a Harley, 2012 RGU, it has a good self learn capability in the ECM where was told by a local Tech he could flash it for a upgrade but by the time I would get home with it would have educated itself to better specs against sensor inputs. Tried to relay that in a HD site, got shot down by the Motor heads INTENT on keeping the engine system in a Open Loop configuration trying to snitch more power. Explained the actions of Closed Loop Optimized control, got turds thrown back so sat back and ignored awhile. Next up the whining and blaming Motor Co for burnt valves, cooked cylinders, high fuel consumption and TADA Bad power curves. Cannot teach those that will NOT listen or educate.
As I have stated often times over the years - "I have my own opinion. Don't confuse me with the facts."
I think I recognize that forum.... I haven’t kept up with what HD’s been doing, but they must have substantially improved the adaptability of their engine management controls since the first closed loop ones hit in ‘07. The last new bike I had was an ‘06 w/out O2 sensors, so it was open loop regardless. The complete tune on my current bike, a ‘79 FXS, included tweaking the pilot jet a bit when I took off the 2” drags the PO installed and put on a 2:1.
Would have been a 250 in line six that and the old Ford 300 six have to be two of the best engines for taking abuse ever built! Company had many of the F-150's with the 300 Six and can't recall one engine that ever was the cause of a truck being junked! Recall the truck driven by company computer guy, he brought it in with the oil pressure light on. Norm, my partner in crime in the shop, checked the oil and it showed on the stick. Then hooked up a mechanical gauge and sure enough almost no pressure. Figured the pump was bad dropped the oil pan to find the suction screen to be coated with tar like substance. Norm asked him the last time the oil was changed only to get the "I'm not sure shrug!" Believe Norm just cleaned the pump and screen in the parts washer and cleaned the pan and spun on a new filter and it was good as new!
My '12 is quite a good runner, decatted the Head pipe swapped to a more open Air Cleaner and left the rest stock, mileage initially (Up to 10K) was around 40mpg, that is now closer to 46 average. Rode to CO to see brother, never a ping or knock even on KS Corn gas as could still feel the loss of power on it, back on CO gas and all was great again even at altitude. Averaged 50mpg above 4500ft mark. Over 25K on it now, sweet bike to ride and LOST the Cat heat that cooked my right Butt Cheek.
I dumped a lot of $$ into the ‘06. 95”, TW37 cams, ported heads, air cleaner and pipes. Had it dyno’d by Doc in Leesburg, FL and then rode it 41K miles. I typically got about 38 mpg out of it, but i was younger then.
Mine is Factory 103, bud has a 2008 Anniv Ed RK with a 96 factory and cannot match performance on mine either. Some has to do with Fairing over W/S as well. On first ride long distance went thru CO on the two, his would eventually struggle at altitude, was like mine never left MO. Newer Brain with O2 and other sensors hard to beat.
It really doesn’t matter what the forum is about, it’s people - they are the same regardless of hobby, recreation or making money. Good moderation keeps conversions polite and eventually the members understand the boundaries. The entire point of forums like this are all about people helping people.
fwiw i don`t think twice about dumping the oil from an engine that has not been run for some time, pouring a quart or so of the drain out back in it fill it to the full mark with diesel and let it idle for 20-30 minutes. never had any thing go wrong
I agree with you that the whole point is helping people, however ......... look at ww's experience on the RV forum. He's thinking about buying a used model "X" so joins the dedicated forum find out more about them. Ask what's good, the answer is everything. Ask what's bad, the answer is "like you farted in church". That is not the mindset of folks with equipment, everyone knows that whatever they run has good points and bad points and are more than willing to swap war stories about them. Effectively it's the blind versus the seeing ........ I am still of the opinion that the different usage of something recreational versus something that has to work for a living is at the bottom of it, or at least is one of the reasons. Think of it as professionals versus amateurs if you like, which is why maintenance professionals generally sooner or later come into conflict on forums that are full of enthusiastic amateurs....
I'm on another forum devoted to the old XS650 Yamahas. That has to be one of the best forums around. The people there don't have any problems talking about weak points of the various versions of the bike and they have workarounds for just about every one. What I think may be the problem with a forum like ww's RV forum is too many of the ones there just dumped a tone or two of money on their new toy and just don't want to admit it is not perfect. Where someone owning a 40 year old XS650 they found in a barn has no trouble admitting it needs help. And some of those 40+ year Yamahas now look and run better than when they left the factory. Same can be said for some of the old yellow machines guys on this site have! Can't help but think what one of those RV's will look like in 40 years!
My first ALL street bike was a '76 XS650 Special.
I joined an MG car forum. I put a motorcycle engine in one. You would laugh at all the negative feedback I got for 'ruining' an old 'classic'. https://www.mgexp.com/forum/mg-midget-forum.3/1973-midget-build.1645751/
You nailed it right on the head Ken. These were not new RV's by a long shot, primo in the day but getting on in age. I really felt sorry for one of the new guys. He found a unit and bought it. Never even made it back home and he was on the side of the road waiting for a tow. The key pad for the Allison had crapped. He got it towed to a shop closer to his home town and made it home from there. While it was in the shop, they found a cracked exhaust manifold so of course he had them change it out. Man was he PI$$ED, not even home and dumping thousands into it. His wife was not a happy camper at all. So he is back on the forum and posting his issues and the collective turned on him. Well, it is a 20 year old unit, what do you expect... When we bought ours we put $40K into it... Mine cost me another $20K to get home ... They were all laughing at him. That didn't go over well at all and he told them. Next thing you know, all of his posts are being monitored, they all had to be approved by a mod and posted by the mod. That went over even worse. That was about the time I bailed. Tell a guy how great they are, all the best components, never break, run for years. Oh, it broke. Well what do you expect. At least you didn't buy brand z, they are so much worse. Vomit
Crazy, maybe Fun, OH HELL YES! Did you have that posted on HEF before or did I find it somewhere else. Have watched a few of the Youtubes. Looks like fun.
My first bike was a 1966 Bridgestone, yea the tire company, all of a wild 60 cc's of two-stroke power! But it would do 60 mph on the flat! I'd like to see any other bike even come close to half the MPH of their displacement!
May have posted it before. I don't have that much going on in my life, sometimes I repeat myself After I posted that above, I went and reread all 66 pages of the thread. Wow, what a journey. I still have it in my shop, worked on reassembly yesterday until I got side tracked byt fitting out a trailer to hold all my MTL attachments.
My first street bike was a1980 XS650 Special II. I always thought is was a little short on power. I put about 23,000 miles on it and tore it down to the cylinders. Honed the cylinders a bit, installed new rings and found out the cam was timed wrong from the factory. It was running a tooth or two retarded for all those miles. Anyway when I fired it up the performance was eye opening. It was pretty tame before but it had a lot better response and a few more ponies. I taught my son in law how to ride it and sold it to him. It went back to Spokane and the daughter and son in law had a great time with it. They let it go when they were doing college and the first kid came along. They were nice simple bikes that just ran on and on.
I ran Kawasaki 175 endure street/trail dirt primarily bikes a few years after initiating my riding love on the old Honda 90 in the sixties. Moved on to bigger better badder with Yamaha Street Bikes the last being a 81 XS 1100 which tended to scared the crap out of anyone else that rode it. Been on old FL Harleys a few times, hard tails have a LOT of drawbacks, built a couple of basket cases around a Pan and Shovel and lost a lot of money doing so. More into soft ride HD now, 2012 Road Glide Ultra and is what I will have until my back says no more.
Dontcha just love it when you've got pages of "trying" to help someone out & they come back & start "yelling" at u about how THAT didn't work.??
Especially when they screwed it up in entirety.
U wouldn't believe the pumps I get AFTER the customer shot the engine full of ether, "trying to get it to run"..
How does ether screw up an injection pump?
Sorry, I somehow erased the rest of the tale.. & when they get the pump back & the engine still doesn't start, its somehow "my fault" their engine doesnt have any compression & pistons are broken.??!! 99% of the time when I get a pump in, its FULL of crud, mud, water, rust & internal parts are broken or completely worn out.. but "somehow" I was supposed to use my xray vision & see they destroyed the engine before THEY diagnosed it as a pump problem..
Pains me to say I was ignorant. I used to be a regular user of ether to start. Thought it to be a normal procedure since the machine had a built-in ether injector. After replacing the block heater, starter and batteries, I haven't used ether on the BH in several years. Not once... Even removed the ether injector system.
If they can't spell responsibility, I tend to look at the post with one eye closed until I see who's posting. Sorry vtech 63- I can't help myself sometimes....
I was thinkin the same thing CO.. Lol HOSS, U COULD SELL THAT ETHER INJ. SYSTEM..
Too late … Dumped in the scrap barrel, long gone. Reminds me of the time I scrapped an old rusty farm fertilizer sign. As I was leaving, guy picked it up, saying "city folk will pay good money for this" How many of us look around the "Cracker Barrel" restaurant and think... "I have one of those..." or worse … "I just threw one of those away "
The thing is if everyone had saved all those old signs or parts the market would be saturated and they would have no real value! What about all the metal toy trucks and cars so many of us old guys destroyed out in the sand box? And then there are all the old balloon tired bicycles my father would bring home when he was cleaning out houses for people, those things bring big money these days and when we got done with them they went to the scrap yard for a few pennies scrap prices.
LOL...…...I swear I just noticed that! Spell check failed me again!!!!!
Spelling was never one of my good points, can't count how many times I can screw up a word so bad my spell-checker can't even figure it out! There have even been a couple time I had to resort to an old paper dictionary to find how to spell a word! Then again there are times I can be maybe one letter off, like use an "e" where it should have an "i", and the spell-checker gets stuck!
Well I'm down to just HEF now. I'm calling it quits on the truck one I was on. Some good folks there but a lot just want to contradict you. Wears on a guy after a while.
You left out an 's' after the second instance of 'time'.... should be plural... just sayin'
In my experience spell checkers are nowhere near as smart as the organizations who market them would have you believe.
I can type out a retarded drunkenly poorly spelled sentence and autocorrect will do a marvelous job. Try to spell one word correctly, get it 95% there and autocorrect stillacts like it has never heard of it.
Well glad some one noticed that, I did that on purpose just to see if anyone was paying attention! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
This is a cool thread. I'm one of the ignorant new guys to HE owning. Basically, I bought 6 acres of land a few years back, with a lot of trees, and a pond. I rented a backhoe, found it terribly useful and labor saving. Some sad circumstances happened and suddenly I could afford to own a backhoe for the yard. Oh wait, I don't know anything about HE maintenance... I feel like I do have some brains, and a little mechanical abilities (thanks dad, for both that and the ability to afford the backhoe). Thus when I started looking into buying my own piece of machinery I also started looking for loads of information. I've been a member of forums almost since the internet (for the general public, at least) has been around. All in all, forums are maybe the greatest part of the internet. I've been a member of roller coaster simulation building forums, bonsai, gardening, ponds, Honda VTXs, and probably several more I’m forgetting. Currently I frequent this one and civicx.com. I’ve gotten very lucky and found none of the forums to be terrible but it may help that I like to think I’m polite and appreciative of any advice, and I try not to be a smartass. HEF is an interesting experience for me because there is a LOT of foreign info to me here, but y’all give me some good advice (though luckily minimal, so far). I’m learning a lot from other people’s posts and while sometimes I feel a bit dense you guys are great at giving me some good starting off points. I hope that forum contributors don’t stop posting or trying to help, at least with us who really seem to want to know and understand more. Thanks to the mods and admin who started and maintain this site and all the users that try to help as much as they can. It’s great!