anoldbiker

I did see somewhat of an advantage in it. But couldn't see more than a gimmick in the average daily driver, and a few extra bucks for the dealerships. (But don't forget the funny little green caps on the tires) I had to ask, seems I could have missed something that I wasn't seeing. Looks like a person would be better with a water separator off the compressor if any investment was warranted. Thanks for your thoughts.

I’d like to through this out for general thoughts. I just bought the wife a new pickup and they made such a big deal out of nitrogen in the tires instead of air. I have heard they have been doing this for a while and it’s supposed to benefit the vehicle owner. Now from what I’ve read, it keeps the tires cooler and helps lengthens the life of the tire since there is no moisture in the pressured vessel as with filling atmospheric air as over the many decades. Also helps prevent rust or corrosion on the inner wheel material not covered by the tire. Formula One drivers really benefit from this during a race. And the places where they fill or cap your tires off charge between $5 to $20 per tires because it suppose to be that good per the auto industry. All good and well. But from the material I’ve read, the extra life given to the tires for the normal consumer would be about 100 to 300 miles, if any. The cooler temperatures in the moving tires really doesn’t benefit normal driving conditions, with or without a load. Personal experience, the corrosion / rust found with the inner tires were limited on any of my of my wheels, if any. I never heard of anyway it helps increase miles per gallons. I usually check my tires at home when cold, and found ‘no’ moisture in the tires when they were changed out for new ones. I see no real benefits and at this time and plan on doing what I have been doing these decades. Anyone’s thoughts on this is appreciated. Pro’s ? Con’s ? Info I might have missed ? Am I that far off and thinking to much like a very old timer ?

I know this is a preference that varies from person to person. But I worked in a refinery before I retired and over the years they had mechanical & electronics gauges. If installed and maintained right, both were good. But as time went by I noticed the electronics were better with: (a) less maintenance, (b) long term cost, © availability and (d) longer term service. So I prefer the electronics. They have proven, (at least to me and a multibillion industry), cost effective.

Not sure if you want to do this, since it's finally done and over. If there wasn't an agreement, mention the shop name, city and state so others might consider this if in that area ? I noticed on another site, on a nissan forum of all things, they had a section strictly for members rating of service companies and dealerships. You could rate them high to low and put in comments. Might consider this for the site ?

Never much gave credit to the old wives tales, but the wife told me a bit back she has been seeing white woolly worms, which mean early snow. But we're sort of far from where you live. Now before I moved here, I was in California and all we had was the weatherman on the local news channel. ************* Old wives tails ..... verses ..... modern state of the art computer ultra high technnology ? Same difference ?

Good advice.

I guess I'm very old fashion, I use gasket material only and will always torque, plus a drop of the soft lock tight in the threads. Never had an issue or a second thought when done.

Thanks Tom, When I tried the 1st one, it sent off all the belles and whistles with my virus program on my Mac, never seen that before, Might try it on an old windows computer I have downstairs for safety. The second one looks promising, but when reading through the information, it doesn't list the 3.7 engine. Got an email going to them to verify it covers it. I like the truck, but I now see that this color is going to bother me like when I owned a black 'stang years ago.

When I married my wife, I had the honor of meeting her Uncle and from day one, (actually within the first three hours) we had argument. Got to the point over the years we argued over almost everything. Not really arguments, but deep down discussions that would drive our wives crazy. Fact is, over the years they got to enjoy them sometimes and joined in. Became a game with us. The gentleman recently passed (age 90) and a special part of my life ended. His wife said the last time we visited that towards his end, he told her that he will miss 3 things, her, the kids and our 'discussions’. It spurred his circulatory system up to no end knowing I will always go with the opposite side just to get the heart rate up, even though I might agree with him at the beginning. I do miss him … AND our so call discussions. But one last thing he did was give me, special to him, a truck. It’s nothing special, except he loved it. It’s a 2004 Dodge Dakota Extended Cab SXT 3.7 5 speed (55,280 actual miles on the clock). As I said nothing special, totally stock, no real extras. The only thing he had added to it in after market items was a Rhino Bed Liner. I really don’t need it and not sure what to do with it, but I intend to keep it no matter what. Now my problem. I found Haynes and Chilton Manuals so far, but don’t really like them. Seeing it’s 10 years old, I am having problems finding the Dodge shop manual. Can find most every year Ram shop manuals for free out there, but not the Dakota. A guy was going to sell me a Dakota manual on CD, but before I paid him, we took a cruise through it and found it was a 04 Ram manual. Not such a good fit. I’m cautious of buying through eBay and such, with this past issue. Heck, I have the 04 Ram manual already. I have yet to check with Dodge, I know it will be less than 200, but it will be right. The dealer is always the last ditch effort for me. Does anyone know where I can get an actual shop manual for it in a PDF version ? Checked on the internet for the last 5 days and going cross eyed from doing that. Any help is appreciated. Thanks. (forgot to put a picture of her in here. This is how she looked when I got her)

Shouldn't Frantz know of the manufactures you could buy from ? Or are they tight lip on that. I thought I saw where you could buy replacements from them if needed. I thought of using them, but this seemed like an issue since companies are changing size, quantities and such. Plus, don't you have to buy a certain type, the non soft rolls or something like that ?

My friend had to install a T where the oil line goes into the bypass filter head and capped it. When he takes a sample, he removes the cap, installs a valve, runs the engine and draws a sample. Then kills the engine, removes the valve and replaces the cap. Takes a few minutes and still has minimal weight on the line. And no mess. Just a thought.

About 4 or 6 months back, wasn't there a young kid, like in the 3rd or 4th grade who made the news because he drew a picture of a gun and kicked out of school ?

Welcome to the community. But I'd like to mention, is the truck enough to relieve the stress you have ? I couldn't handle that many high school kids at one time. I know what I was like back then and feel sorry now for the instructors I had.

As a snot nose kid I ran what ever was on sale and could pay for. But about 40 years ago I started using Castrol in all the gassers I had, without any problems. But from watching the mega buck equipment at work running on any brand name oil that met the required specs, I noticed they would run 24/7, those that were put together right, for up to 2 years when they did a turn-a-round and replaced / repaired the unit as needed and ramped it up again. (I will mentioned we had to switch each pump for one hour each week to verify the spare was ready and on standby.) Not sure if it really matters what brand name oil you use, but more towards if the oil meets specs. I use full synthetic in everything now, and it meets specs, and still no issues.

Small bottle of window cleaner a towel in each door glow sticks in drivers door tissues in passenger door sometimes maps gloves in each door odds and ends for basic personal needs in the center console Now if were talking in the truck bed, I have a cab high shell and two milk crates with most of the stuff the others mention. I did like joecool911 comment and might consider them to.

I have often wonder over the years if the vehicles engineers design the parts ... and have no real idea where it goes in the truck.

A bit of over kill, but here is what's in the 99 manual. 1999 Dodge Ram Battery Tray.pdf

Connor as a kid or young adult ? There were several movies on this. My kids had to watched everyone of them. (and the mechanical hayham ended up as governor of California for a while)

What I have read was on some aftermarket covers, they had the fill hole higher that the stock covers. When these guys filled, they had the oil level when at rest above the bottom of the axle tubes and always had oil contact on the outer seals. Then in time their seals leaked, they suggested saturation issues. The first time I was dropping the stock cover, I pulled the plug and seen where the original level was at rest. Then, when the cover was off, ran a level to the bottom of the axle tube to see where it laid. It was at the bottom of the tube. I put the new cover on and filled to that level. But as for fluids, the manual for my truck states full synthetic 75w - 90 gear old. Sorry for not responding earlier, seems when I subscribe to a thread and someone answers, I don't get an email to notify me. I need to check into this. I have @mopar1973man.com in my white papers, so it must be something else.

I'd like to know that myself. I researched for four months a while back. Took and old pre filter I had to all the material shop in the area, 100 miles away and when I went to see the kids in Nevada and California. One heck of a lot of suppliers. All I could find was the material is a specifically wolven man made material that has been treated with something like Soctch Guard. If you look at it under a high powered magnifying glass, the holes in the material are somewhat uniform. So if you could get some tight wolven material, that allows a constant flow and Scotch Guard it, it might work. If anyone finds what the actual material is made of, please post it so we all know. I still look at material supply stores each trip I take.

I know on my 06 I have a choice of paper gasket or silicone sealant. I believe it's the black sealant you can get from NAPA or AutoZone. Just make sure you torque properly and to specs. As for oil, I use Valvoline 75w-90 full synthetic oil. Also check you don't go over the proper oil level. I've read a bunch of guy in many forums have and they had seal problems. So I maintain level at the bottom of the axle tubes.

I looked at the esri site and noticed there are plenty fires where I use to live at. Actually, this time of year, it's considered normal. Even though, I was always amazed that an area around a highway in California, Highway 15, and a pass called the Cajon Pass had burnt for a couple of day with up to 80 to 100 foot flames will burn again at 1/2 as high of the 1st fire a week later. Those that been through there know the brush and such isn't high at all, and is sparse, the 1st yearly burn will leave the land charred and basically extremely level. There is more desert than vegetation. Yet it can produce enough heat the 2nd and 3rd burn to fry the paint on your vehicle. The entire pass can be on fire. How can a burnt out area burn that long and that hot ... again and again. ? No rain in-between burns, and not enough time for plant growth. You'd think there wasn't that much material left from the 1st burn. But they are amazingly high & hot fires every year. And one heck of a high water bill for the state to dump water on the blazes that is having one heck of a long drought.

For the downloading issues, go to your APPLE symbol in the upper left hand corner, select system preference, select the general tab. In the lower portion of this selection you can tell it where the download should go. I selected to the download folder, then it is always centralized and I can move it wherever I want later. There are several freeware programs out there that cleans your memory AND will let you correct your 'permissions'. when your new to a mac, you tend to load and unload many new programs and such, and in doing this can offset / rewrite your permissions. My wife was having problems and this corrected hers, plus sped it up again. Onyx or CCleaner are free and will do it. As for viruses, they tend not to screw with the mac for now, but the reports are sooner or later, they may try. There are freeware protections out there for the macs and I recommend looking into them. You might not need now, but if you have a good one, you will be ready incase. I use Sophos. http://www.sophos.com/en-us.aspx Check out their free programs, they have one for non commercial home use and their ratings are high from the companies that test programs. Worth the look see. As for using this forum, I have a mac desktop, a laptop and iPhone and have never had an issue using this sight. Well, I did when Mike changed the site to this new sight, but that was corrected when I found out where everything was. Hope this helps. By the way, I will never go back to a windows again. I'm to happy now.

Last time anyone worked on my brakes was 1978. Was healing from an operation and had the wife run the car to the dealers. When it was done, pulled out of their drive and turned right. Going to stop at the intersection and no brakes. Used the emergency brakes to stop. Had them get the car since it was about 25 feet from their shop. Found when they put the front caliper driver side on, they twisted the hoes. No one has touched my brakes since. Would rather rent a car until I can fix mine. Never had a problem since. You can make it go as fast as you want, but I demand it to stop when I need it to ... (and as with the famous last words of obama) ... PERIOD ! I am glad you caught that in time.

Good to hear from another oilman. I was on the west coast and hired into ARCO, but before I could retire, BP bought us out. Just a comment if I can. Over the years I read a lot about oils, from the oil companies and oil sellers, and naturally the manufactures always said theirs were the best. So while I was trying to find a good analysis company for when I retired and couldn't get it done for free, I ended up with BlackStone. Their results were the same as what my plants sample reports were. Heck, I had to go by them for over 3 decades and they always kept my on specs for Federal and States product standards. I will say BlackStone has a report this month about the difference of the full sync oils. Might be worth the time to look it up. The cost from analysis companies vary, but are not to far apart. Who are you willing to trust ? Also, if your getting an analysis AND changing oil each time, why get a TBN and waste the extra money ? Good oil, good filter and on time maintenance is the best you can do for getting your money out of your vehicle investment.