Mobile In Maine

Visual and creative artwork.

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CCoburn
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Re: Mobile In Maine

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Well that's the last of the photos on the upload server although I have these miscellaneous and a few repeats that were re-uploaded for some reason or another.

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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A few repeats of the orb phenomenon.

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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Sleeping Venus
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Last edited by CCoburn on Wed Nov 18, 2020 2:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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Kitty
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Re: Mobile In Maine

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The upgraded Charger also displaying some sort of anomaly at the rear right tire.

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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The Mega Therion
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Re: Mobile In Maine

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Isis
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Re: Mobile In Maine

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The new mode of transport - 325 HP 354 lbs of torque Volvo S60 T6 Turbo.
Same ballpark as the V8 Charger; just newer and more up to date:

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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I didn't realize that picture was scaled down so much. Must of did it for one of the other forums.

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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What does a road scribe do? They write, and drive - a lot.

They also perform the maintenance on their vehicles whenever possible because they don't trust anyone else to do it. Today it's SE with a south deviation. Iterations around the compass are done in alternating fashion of CW or CCW. Trips usually average sixty miles or so, but it can be a lot farther, depending.

It's best to have a high-performance vehicle with manual mode for maximum enjoyment(among other things), but those are just a couple of my preferences.

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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Just heard it's supposed to hit 90F today, and also today it's going to be south with a SW deviation and a return of north and NE. The thing that I don't like about this route is that if I go SW far enough it takes me right through a congested major city, and we usually make adjustments on the fly to avoid that sort of thing.

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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So I was driving on some isolated country road the other night(no markings or yellow center lines) in the middle of fucking nowhere going around 60MPH or so when I nailed some piece of junk in the road - tire went instantly flat. I even got it on video. No flat tires for over two decades and now two in two months.

With some tire and rim combos you can drive pretty far on a flat if you take it easy(maybe 10MPH give or take), so I said fuck it and drove in lieu of calling AAA; got home about four hours later. I'll still replace with a cheap tire, and hopefully won't have to buy two.

I suppose the more you drive, and especially in remote and precarious areas, the more you increase the odds of shit like this happening.

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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The Flat Tire Paradox and Circular Reasoning


I need a new tire; can't drive because I have a flat. I need a new tire...the worst part about this is jacking the car; removing the wheel and setting something up with the only person I know really that can take me to the tire place and wait around with me for a half hour or so. There are other options, but they're more of a pain in the ass and more costly - maybe tomorrow will be the day.

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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I can get a used tire at Town Fair for 53 bucks, but I'm having doubts about whether it's a good idea to mix tire brands on the same axle of an AWD. I could get two for a buck and a quarter if I balance them myself; that's fun and I've gotten really good at doing it.

Bad timing though. A hurricane is pending and it looks like I won't be doing any storm chasing. My friend thinks I'm crazy, but to me, flying, skydiving, or bungee jumping seems a lot crazier.

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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Tomorrow is new tire day. I've decided to try just one new(used) tire on the FR and see how that goes, since I'm not really sensing the urgency of(or too keen on) discarding a perfectly good brand-new tire on the FL, plus I was just finishing fine-tuning the balancing of that FL tire.

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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So it rained relentlessly on the day that I had set up for a new tire. I had to get all my tools and trolley jack out in the rain and get the job done anyway. I told the tire place not to balance it and that I would do it myself; since it was raining I opted to do it in the kitchen - big mistake. Not sure if it was because of the floor being at a slight tilt and/or a combination of other factors, but I was getting some bogus readings for whatever reason. I did feel like I had to start over but it was getting late and I was getting tired so I decided to leave the car jacked overnight and resume later at some point.

I woke up at around 2:00 AM and figured I would get back to it. I peeled a section of carpet back in the basement revealing the solid concrete foundation; cleaned and greased the balancer and recalibrated. Cleaned the tire where it mounts the balancer and then remounted the tire. It didn't take long to notice that the improvement was paramount, and I got zero bogus readings. Every single reading indicated that the weights needed placement at the SW position relative to the valve stem being at the north. I did dynamic balancing this time meaning that most of the weights go on the outside of the rim with some on the inside. It took 1 3/4 oz on the former and 1/2 oz on the latter.

I took it for a test drive yesterday and it was fucking perfect.

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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I think I'm going to do an oil change on the car today while we still have some warmer days left. I'll probably take a couple periodic breaks once I get going on that and come in here for the usual and maybe add something to some of the newer stuff.

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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Fix-A-Flat


So after I balanced the replacement tire I notice a few days later it's losing air - maybe one or two PSI every couple days, so I start topping it off with a hand pump. I was thinking that when the tire was mounted it didn't seal completely around the rim and that it might settle in after a while.

It got to a point where it was losing anywhere between two and ten pounds every couple days, but I continued driving on it and topping it off as needed thinking it might stabilize, and after a few more days it actually did.

There was maybe two or three days at the end when it didn't lose any air at all - UNTIL - I was driving on a dirt road and hit a couple good bumps. I kept looking for the TPMS monitor to light up but it never did until I was almost home.

The next day the tire was completely flat, and for the next two days or so I completely reinflated accordingly - about five minutes or sixty or so pumps. Things weren't looking too good at this point so I called the tire shop to schedule an appt., but they were only doing drop-offs - I scheduled anyway.

Then I thought about using the fix-a-flat; picked up a can and went back home to give it a go. The tire seemed to be holding air after so I canceled my appt. It's been three days now and the tire hasn't lost any air - even after hitting more bumps.

So far so good; now I just need two new rear tires at some point.

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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They say that Fix-A-Flat is only intended as a temporary fix, but if it's a brand new tire, and if possible, I say wait till the threads are worn down to the point of needing replacement first, after all, tires are expensive, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The tire that I fixed is still holding up and I think it's going to be good for the remainder of the tread life.

So I got four brand new tires now and balanced them all myself and an appt. for a new sticker from the dealer in a couple days, and if they try and tell me it needs any work to pass(aside from wiper blades et cetera) then I'll just take it somewhere else, but we usually try the place where we buy the car first since shops don't get much for doing a sticker.

Been doing all the work myself and up to around 133,000 miles and no error codes or any other issues. I've been driving it hard too, but hey, it's a Volvo, so...

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Re: Mobile In Maine

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The Sketchy Dealership


So I go for my appt. to get a new sticker, and after about a half hour the guy comes out and says it didn't pass because of a bad break light in the rear window. He says it would cost 108.00 for a replacement LED totaling around 270.00 for parts, labor, plus the state inspection. I said I would get back to him on that thinking I would just replace the bulb myself and then go back for the sticker.

I stopped to get some gas after that and asked an attendant to help me check the light. I pressed on the brake and he said it did light up and was working; I even saw for myself that it was working. So I went right back to the dealer and told them that the light that they said was bad was in fact actually working. A few minutes later after I verified this with the technician I saw him come out with a can of gunk remover and figured he was going to remove and apply a new sticker, which he did.

The technician did say that the light was a bit weak; I suppose to cover his ass, and I'm thinking these types of LEDs probably don't show up as good in a well lit area as they would at night anyway.

It was a bit of an odd and possibly "sketchy" experience, but in the end I got my sticker for around 15 bucks as opposed to the 270.00 that I was initially quoted.

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