Poll asked what you do when you have a car problem, and I saw no responses to that. I fix it if I can. 1992 Toyota XCab with almost 150K miles. (It’s a Toyota, barely broken in). Unless it’s AC issue, I don’t have equipment for that. As an RN, I can’t say that Vehicle Maintenance was in my Core Curriculum but as a Woman, I find satisfaction in doing the work and save a lot of $$$. Replaced my Fan Blower Motor after finding the connectors toast. Had to make my own new connectors, part wasn’t available. Can’t say I enjoyed being a Circus Contortionist, but it sure was GREAT to have that success. Youtube FTW.
@macromeh It was… But changing the resistor out first w/o removing the blower was a real challenge… That one made me sore for 3 days. And evidently, if I had done the motor first instead of believing all I read, I would have saved some $$$. If I had a lift to put it up on,it wouldn’t have been so hard. Literally had to bring an ottoman out to the truck, lay butt on it, and lower upper body onto floorboard… It Worked. Got intimate with Glovebox removal and re-install…
@macromeh@Mandamm It’s probably no worse that the one on the 2003-07 Caravan, where one of the screws is buried where you have to chop out a chunk of the padding under the carpet just to get a driver bit close to it.
Do not ask me for my opinion of the task of replacing a heater core.
@macromeh@werehatrack There is a screw that is hidden in the back. Hard to get to, but not impossible. I hate to admit that that screw did not go back in… One day it will. That experience lasted more than a day. Changed Resistor, relay and it turned out to be Toasted Connectors… All good. It Works!!! Yippee! And I didn’t pay $105.00 an hour for labor.
Zero chance I’m having something as important as road visibility during an emergency dependent on batteries in any way. I’ve also heard of flares refusing to start and have personally seen them get blown/washed off a road.
I keep these in my vehicle. Tall/large enough to be useful in even a few inches of standing water, heavy bases, simple design, reusable, nothing to degrade or lose charge while being left alone for years.
@Kabn You have just hit on the reason why those triangles are pretty much standard equipment for the emergency kit for over the road trucks. In some states, it is a requirement that the trucks must have them aboard.
@Kabn We also have those in sets of 3 in each vehicle, which I use to make an extended hazard warning zone as far as I am able to easily walk back behind the stopped vehicle [or whatever distance feels like it is enough depending on weather conditions and the lay of the terrain].
I make it a point to do this after setting up the puck lights on the flat[ter] prominences on the back of the vehicle, so I can tell that everything works together to make it impossible to not see it [and hopefully steer away from it, and not be drawn towards it by the flashy lighting schema.]
I have seen too many youtube videos of cars hitting police cruisers with all their lights going to be sanguine about this point- thus I also have safety belts in my vehicles which have scotch-lite panels on them to hopefully ad even more visibility. In winter months I keep my [and SWMBO’s] safety yellow parka with scotch-lite panels in our respective vehicles with our winter emergency kits.
SWMBO calls me her boy scout [even though I was never actually in the BSA] because I have a tendency to [over- per her]-prepare for emergencies and unexpected difficulties.
@PhysAssist Nice, good on ya. My visibility vests are right next to my tool kit, fire extinguisher, and snow chains. The only thing I have that is dependent on batteries is a MagLite XL200 (I’ve had to flag traffic with it a couple times), and I have a reminder to put its AAAs on a charger every three months.
Fun story: my ex’s battery had a short, so the vehicle literally died while sitting at a stop light. Thankfully, it was midday on a low-speed, multi-lane urban road, so everyone just went around, but it’s a good example to give people who say “Oh, I’ll just turn on my hazards.”
@ciabelle@CraigDanger Exactly. Either you have flares or you don’t. With these, you think you have flares but actually have flares that don’t work because your didn’t charge them.
@xterraguy I JUST saw that infomercial, with a warning that they were limited because they were stopping production. I assumed it we because nobody wanted them.
@raive@xterraguy That “warning” is on every product sold on one of those infomercials. It’s just a bs sales scare tactic designed to make you feel like you have to buy NOW! Don’t fall for it.
@detailer@yakkoTDI Trunk light? Your car has a trunk light? Must be nice. My cars never had a trunk light, some of them didn’t even have a trunk. We just tied stuff to the roof and hoped it was still there when we got where we were going. Except when it was the neighbor’s kids.
@werehatrack Every car I’ve owned (none expensive) had a trunk light. Both of my pickup trunks had bed lights activated from the “push/pull” headlight switch. Remember those? First pull was parking lights, second was headlights,rotate for interior/cluster brightness. That’s when high beams were on the dead pedal. How I miss that feature.
Store the batteries inside the lights, and they will leak before you need them. Store a larger quantity of them separately, and you won’t have time to assemble all of them when you need them, even if the batteries are still fresh.
@werehatrack assemble? How long does it normally take you to put 3 AAA batteries in something? I think i could get all 6 of these up and running in under a minute. Wait a minute… this looks like one of those things that needs a screwdriver to access the battery compartment… make that 3 hours.
@warpedrotors You have to remove two screws and fight with the tight-fitting clamshell halves to get them open before you can install the batteries. This is not a flick-open-and-stuff task.
@dwschwartz@rpiotro I have a different set, which includes two (of six) that are rechargeable. Four months after a full charge, their runtime is down to about 15 minutes. Lacking any kind of a charge indicator, that was the only way I could assess their state. When fully charged, they’d run for well over an hour, which was how long I let one go before deciding it was enough for a quick check.
A set of 6 for a fraction of the cost of one real Powerflare. Price isn’t always a good signal for quality, but given the life-safety implications of this product’s intended use, I don’t think I’d trust these to be ready to go in an emergency.
Might be fun, might even work when needed, but seem likely to be toys compared with the actual public-safety-grade product which they’re knocking off.
@Comedian Gee if only my town would pay for “actual public-safety-grade” product for me to carry in my car when I’m responding to scene as a volunteer. What increase taxes?, NOPE
@Comedian I bought several 3-pc sets of these several years ago, and they have been very serviceable. We keep them in the cars 24/7 and they have yet to fail us in our hours of need.
Done with the link button below, after highlighting the description, then pasting the URL. (You’ve probably done the like before, so excuse the potential mansplainin’…)
@Kyeh@phendrick Yeah, when you just hand the bot a naked link, it goes all helpy and tries to imageify it if it gets one that’s on the list of what it understands. Local links back in Meh or SideDeal require explicit “No, just do what I tell you” handling to get it not to.
@phendrick No, I didn’t know how to do that - thanks.
Yeah, the /showmes do bog down the threads quite a bit; I’m not sure I love helping AI get better at what it’s taking over everywhere.
18 AAA batteries, in devices that will be forgotten in a vehicle’s trunk for long periods. That’s just got no possible way to fail. /sarcasm
@werehatrack I guess if the batteries are dead you could always dip them in gasoline and set them on fire.
@werehatrack This is clearly a ploy to drum up business for AAA.
@werehatrack seriously-- why does so much of this junk take 3 AAA batteries; they’re completely useless
@werehatrack - Fill them with Energizer lithium AAA’s with a 10-year shelf life, and no worries. Expensive, yes, but reliable.
@ashemo Assuming there’s no soft-switch circuitry doing a slow-drain on them, anyway. (Not the best assumption.)
Glowing pucks. Night time hockey is a go.
@hchavers Impact resistance was not mentioned in the item’s specs.
@hchavers @phendrick That’s why there’s 6 in a pack.
@hchavers @phendrick I the commercial on TV they claim a semi can drive over em and they won’t break but one knuckle puck shot would
@hchavers @xobzoo @ThyProphet
Maybe they’re made of that same near-indestructable (bakelite?) plastic that Ma Bell made her desktop phones from.
@hchavers @phendrick @ThyProphet @xobzoo Nope. Not even made from fisherpricium, the plastic that a three-year-old can’t break.
@hchavers @phendrick So, what part of:
did you miss?
@hchavers @phendrick @rpstrong The part that wasn’t advertising, i. e. lies.
@rpstrong I didn’t miss any of that – which talks about the lenses and the bumpers but not the enclosing case – and apparently YOU missed that fact.
'Cuz when they burn out their lifetime is over?
@rpstrong Shhh! No, yours is.
Poll asked what you do when you have a car problem, and I saw no responses to that. I fix it if I can. 1992 Toyota XCab with almost 150K miles. (It’s a Toyota, barely broken in). Unless it’s AC issue, I don’t have equipment for that. As an RN, I can’t say that Vehicle Maintenance was in my Core Curriculum but as a Woman, I find satisfaction in doing the work and save a lot of $$$. Replaced my Fan Blower Motor after finding the connectors toast. Had to make my own new connectors, part wasn’t available. Can’t say I enjoyed being a Circus Contortionist, but it sure was GREAT to have that success. Youtube FTW.
@Mandamm If the blower motor is anything like those on a Corolla, even a Circus Contortionist would be challenged.
@macromeh It was… But changing the resistor out first w/o removing the blower was a real challenge… That one made me sore for 3 days. And evidently, if I had done the motor first instead of believing all I read, I would have saved some $$$. If I had a lift to put it up on,it wouldn’t have been so hard. Literally had to bring an ottoman out to the truck, lay butt on it, and lower upper body onto floorboard… It Worked. Got intimate with Glovebox removal and re-install…
@macromeh @Mandamm It’s probably no worse that the one on the 2003-07 Caravan, where one of the screws is buried where you have to chop out a chunk of the padding under the carpet just to get a driver bit close to it.
Do not ask me for my opinion of the task of replacing a heater core.
@macromeh @werehatrack There is a screw that is hidden in the back. Hard to get to, but not impossible. I hate to admit that that screw did not go back in… One day it will. That experience lasted more than a day. Changed Resistor, relay and it turned out to be Toasted Connectors… All good. It Works!!! Yippee! And I didn’t pay $105.00 an hour for labor.
Zero chance I’m having something as important as road visibility during an emergency dependent on batteries in any way. I’ve also heard of flares refusing to start and have personally seen them get blown/washed off a road.
I keep these in my vehicle. Tall/large enough to be useful in even a few inches of standing water, heavy bases, simple design, reusable, nothing to degrade or lose charge while being left alone for years.
@Kabn You have just hit on the reason why those triangles are pretty much standard equipment for the emergency kit for over the road trucks. In some states, it is a requirement that the trucks must have them aboard.
@Kabn We also have those in sets of 3 in each vehicle, which I use to make an extended hazard warning zone as far as I am able to easily walk back behind the stopped vehicle [or whatever distance feels like it is enough depending on weather conditions and the lay of the terrain].
I make it a point to do this after setting up the puck lights on the flat[ter] prominences on the back of the vehicle, so I can tell that everything works together to make it impossible to not see it [and hopefully steer away from it, and not be drawn towards it by the flashy lighting schema.]
I have seen too many youtube videos of cars hitting police cruisers with all their lights going to be sanguine about this point- thus I also have safety belts in my vehicles which have scotch-lite panels on them to hopefully ad even more visibility. In winter months I keep my [and SWMBO’s] safety yellow parka with scotch-lite panels in our respective vehicles with our winter emergency kits.
SWMBO calls me her boy scout [even though I was never actually in the BSA] because I have a tendency to [over- per her]-prepare for emergencies and unexpected difficulties.
@PhysAssist Nice, good on ya. My visibility vests are right next to my tool kit, fire extinguisher, and snow chains. The only thing I have that is dependent on batteries is a MagLite XL200 (I’ve had to flag traffic with it a couple times), and I have a reminder to put its AAAs on a charger every three months.
Fun story: my ex’s battery had a short, so the vehicle literally died while sitting at a stop light. Thankfully, it was midday on a low-speed, multi-lane urban road, so everyone just went around, but it’s a good example to give people who say “Oh, I’ll just turn on my hazards.”
Real flares are 6 for $18 at The Walmarts
@CraigDanger Not as reusable as these are though.
@ciabelle @CraigDanger Exactly. Either you have flares or you don’t. With these, you think you have flares but actually have flares that don’t work because your didn’t charge them.
No charging… these take AAAs which aren’t included.
@finalremix Ah, thanks. So dead batteries.
@ciabelle @CraigDanger Not as usable either - they burn out in about 15 minutes.
As seen on TV. https://www.bulbhead.com/products/lizard-flare-light
@xterraguy I JUST saw that infomercial, with a warning that they were limited because they were stopping production. I assumed it we because nobody wanted them.
@raive @xterraguy That “warning” is on every product sold on one of those infomercials. It’s just a bs sales scare tactic designed to make you feel like you have to buy NOW! Don’t fall for it.
These are hot!
@yakkoTDI almost as hot as yesterday’s nut bars
@yakkoTDI And double as trunk lights if yours is out.
@detailer @yakkoTDI Trunk light? Your car has a trunk light? Must be nice. My cars never had a trunk light, some of them didn’t even have a trunk. We just tied stuff to the roof and hoped it was still there when we got where we were going. Except when it was the neighbor’s kids.
@werehatrack Every car I’ve owned (none expensive) had a trunk light. Both of my pickup trunks had bed lights activated from the “push/pull” headlight switch. Remember those? First pull was parking lights, second was headlights,rotate for interior/cluster brightness. That’s when high beams were on the dead pedal. How I miss that feature.
Now this would have been a great item to come with a zippered bag to hold everything – unlike that power strip from a couple weeks or so ago.
@ciabelle you could get these and put them in that handy travel bag?
Hahaha Lizard Flares
Another loser BulbHead product
Tomorrow’s deal “betterie” be AAA batteries.
A return of the ever-optimistic and charmingly dense Miranda Prillchisky!
Store the batteries inside the lights, and they will leak before you need them. Store a larger quantity of them separately, and you won’t have time to assemble all of them when you need them, even if the batteries are still fresh.
@werehatrack Not to mention that it’s a bad idea to store batteries in a hot car, installed or loose.
@Trinityscrew Clearly, this is a job for @shahnm’s portable self-powering emergency battery fridge. (He does have one of those, right?)
@werehatrack Lithium batteries should be used for applications like this. No leakage, 10-year shelf life.
@werehatrack assemble? How long does it normally take you to put 3 AAA batteries in something? I think i could get all 6 of these up and running in under a minute. Wait a minute… this looks like one of those things that needs a screwdriver to access the battery compartment… make that 3 hours.
@warpedrotors You have to remove two screws and fight with the tight-fitting clamshell halves to get them open before you can install the batteries. This is not a flick-open-and-stuff task.
Too many damn AAA batteries. I’d rather spend more for rechargeables.
@dwschwartz That are always dead.
@dwschwartz @rpiotro I have a different set, which includes two (of six) that are rechargeable. Four months after a full charge, their runtime is down to about 15 minutes. Lacking any kind of a charge indicator, that was the only way I could assess their state. When fully charged, they’d run for well over an hour, which was how long I let one go before deciding it was enough for a quick check.
Anyone want to venture a guess on Lumens, maybe 100 with AAA batteries and spread around 360 degrees? LOL.
@caffeineguy Based on direct observation of the ones I have, which are similar, that’s probably close.
@caffeineguy I found a couple listings where it says they’re 85 lumens.
Specs
Product: 6-Pack: Emergency Road Flares ASOTV
Model: 16314
Condition: New
What’s Included?
Price Comparison
$60.05 at Amazon
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Mar 27 - Wednesday, Mar 29
A set of 6 for a fraction of the cost of one real Powerflare. Price isn’t always a good signal for quality, but given the life-safety implications of this product’s intended use, I don’t think I’d trust these to be ready to go in an emergency.
Might be fun, might even work when needed, but seem likely to be toys compared with the actual public-safety-grade product which they’re knocking off.
@Comedian Gee if only my town would pay for “actual public-safety-grade” product for me to carry in my car when I’m responding to scene as a volunteer. What increase taxes?, NOPE
@Comedian @oldmantick you want to pay higher taxes so your town can give you better equipment for your job as a volunteer?
@Comedian I bought several 3-pc sets of these several years ago, and they have been very serviceable. We keep them in the cars 24/7 and they have yet to fail us in our hours of need.
Safety YoYo
/showme Hazard Switch
@mediocrebot Smash the button to turn on the emergency hazard for this location.
@werehatrack Yeah, Pretty sure my hazard lights are brighter and more useful than these blinkey lights more suitable for a kids bedroom.
@caffeineguy @werehatrack But you can put these far enough down the road to act as early warnings (or to be stolen).
@caffeineguy @rpstrong Put them far enough back, and the distracted driver looking at them in their rear-view will become a bigger hazard.
For eight bucks more, SideDeal has orange ones.
Excellent creepy write up - thank you.
I look forward to installations this story.
I’m worried for her parents.
@edsa This is but one of many write-ups in the “The Dread Inn at Death Rock” series.
@edsa @Trinityscrew
Here are some more episodes:
(I don’t know how to add the links without them turning into pictures.)
@edsa @Kyeh @Trinityscrew But, the pictures above are the links.
@edsa @phendrick @Trinityscrew
Yes. Just didn’t want to take up so much space …
@Kyeh
[doesn’t stop other people
e.g., all the "/showme"s ]
Ahh, I misunderstood your point – you wanted links without pictures?
You mean like this?:
Best Choice Products 2-Person Hammock w/Stand and Carry Bag
Done with the link button below, after highlighting the description, then pasting the URL. (You’ve probably done the like before, so excuse the potential mansplainin’…)
@Kyeh @phendrick Yeah, when you just hand the bot a naked link, it goes all helpy and tries to imageify it if it gets one that’s on the list of what it understands. Local links back in Meh or SideDeal require explicit “No, just do what I tell you” handling to get it not to.
@phendrick No, I didn’t know how to do that - thanks.
Yeah, the /showmes do bog down the threads quite a bit; I’m not sure I love helping AI get better at what it’s taking over everywhere.
Same back atcha!
The Lizard flares I received from Meh don’t have the flashlight function.
@OutbackJon Bait & Switch is not cool, Meh.