jumpinjoe

Got to agree with you about the seatbelt recall and the fix provided by GM. I took mine in back sometime last year and not thinking about anything like the hack mess they did to my truck seat trim, I was furious when I saw it. I was told that was GM's fix and all they could do. My dealer seemed sympathetic so I left with the truck. About half way home I couldn't stand it anymore so I called back to the dealer and told him to be ready for a fight over this hack job. I told who ever it was I was talking to it looked a lot like the tech had it out with a butcher knife as I recall and it simply wasn't acceptable. I was consoled to a certain extent and promised a new seat trim panel if I would bring it back in. So, when they were done with my truck this time I took a good look. I in fact had a 'different' trim panel as promised, but it was hacked almost as bad as the original. He told me there was no later revision of the part and that all GM dealers had been given instruction as to how/where to "trim" the rubber out of the trim panel. So, rather than going to jail that afternoon, I elected to go home and do some research. Well, after a lot of searching and reading, and even much discussion on a couple other forums, I accepted it was in fact GM's recommended fix. Now these are simple plastic trim panels that cover the space between the seat bottom and the floor, and it's not even the entire panel involved. It's a stupid little rubber insert about the size of a dollar bill maybe. That little rubber insert probably doesn't cost GM $0.50 to mold. But they can be sure they've lost way more than $0.50 worth of good will to every truck owner whose truck they butchered up instead of replacing that little rubber insert. And the hell of it is that little insert is right inside the driver's door and he's almost forced to see it every time he gets in his truck. I know I do and I resent it more each time I open my driver's side door. Knowing there was nothing more to gain that day at the dealer's from arguing, I elected to call and write to GM Corp and tell them just what a 'chit' job that was to people who had spent many thousands of dollars on a truck. I also told them that in my nearly 60 years of driving and owning vehicles, I had only owned maybe three vehicles other than Chevy. I was a hard core Chevy man for all those years, both in my daily driver, my work trucks, my circle track cars, and my wife's cars over the years. I had even recommended Chevy cars and trucks to every body I knew. Over a lot of years and recommendations I had sold a lot of vehicles for GM. But this had sorely sickened my loyalty to GM and especially Chevy. That was over a year ago I think, and the pictures of my seat trim panel and how it was destroyed can be seen over on several other forums, along with pictures and complaints of other owners. My anger has subsided a little, but I'm still of an opinion I'm likely to go to something else when it's time to trade if I live long enough to trade. Though at my age this just might be my last truck ....... in which case GM wins! .......... dammit! Regards, jumpinjoe

Most any hydraulic type line and/or fittings can usually be fabricated on site by most local AC repair or hydraulic repair shops. Just take the old, original line to them and they'll duplicate it for you. Regards, jumpinjoe

Son, I can't say for sure that's the case, but from everything I've read and heard, that pretty much sums it up. And once it starts making any noise, it's already on it's way out. The sooner you can get it replaced, the better. As I understand it, when it starts to go it's bypassing oil and metal debris into the vacuum booster and potentially on in to the engine on your truck which you don't want. If you're hearing that pump, you ought to get it down to your dealer or favorite 'fix-it' shop asap. The dealer will provide you with appropriate forms and help you complete them if there is any compensation due you. As a matter of fact, I just got a set of forms today in the mail from "Chevrolet". I don't qualify for any repay though, as I'm way away from the 10 yr or 150K mile extended guarantee now offered. Hopefully won't ever need it either. I just had the recall done where they reprogram the ECM to the new parameters for the vacuum pump about a month ago. I probably would prefer the new pump, but they won't consider it at this point. I've got only about 21K miles on my truck so the pump hasn't seen a whole lot of wear. I just cringe at the idea of anything major going wrong with either one of my vehicles now that I'm no longer able to work on it myself. I've never felt that nobody else could do any work needed on my vehicles as well as I could, but I've always known that I could never be certain exactly what somebody else has done as when I did it myself. Those days are gone now at my age and health, but I still hate the idea of it. Fortunately I have a couple close friends whom I trust like family to get me through whatever I might need and can't do it myself. In your case if the pump is noisy, I'd sure recommend taking it to somebody you know/trust to be straight with you and get their opinion. Regards, jumpinjoe

Yeh, I also used to use a 9vdc battery (the little rectangle ones) with an adapter, but the last truck of mine that worked in was a '98 Silverado 4X4. Then I tried it in my '06 Silverado and it kept indicating low battery somehow. That's funny, I don't even remember how I determined it was indicating 'low battery' in the '06. Actually I had an '06 Silverado and an '06 Sierra at the same time, and for the life of me can't remember which one this involved. Doesn't really matter, somehow I got the message the 9 volts just wasn't going to cut it. It might even have been that I lost all those pre-sets and realized it just wasn't going to cut it with any newer trucks.That's when I started using the 12vdc jump box (or a small equipment battery if there was one laying around not doing anything). It may be that while I had those two trucks I ended up replacing batteries in both of them ............. I dunno for sure'. Short story, I was driving a 2006 Silverado when my dad passed away and left me his 2006 Sierra. So, for a period of time I had them both. That was in 2014 I think. I ultimately sold the Sierra and a couple months later found the 2014 Silverado I'm driving now. Traded my '06 Silverado for the '14 and so far love it. But then a few days ago I had to put a battery in it. The one I replaced was OEM I'm pretty sure so that would mean it lasted about 5 years. I think both the '06's had been replaced once before I got them. All I know for sure is to make sure you clean off any used battery you're going to be putting back into the wife's ATV before she sees it or figure you'll be sleeping on the sofa. LOL!

All this in the last several posts is why for several years I've always made up a 'jumper' of sorts to prevent losing all the pre-sets in my trucks when I have to disconnect something or especially when replacing a battery. Once you pull that negative cable off the post, all the voltage is lost to the ecm and most everywhere else. It's just like any other reset of the ecm and you're apt to lose radio station pre-sets, seat positioning, mirror repositioning, and anything else that you've set to your liking. I think there is a few learned settings that will hold up, but since I'm never quite sure which will survive and which won't, I just try to protect them all. What I do is this ............. get a male 12VDC plug; you know the ones that will fit into what used to be a cigarette lighter. Then add a couple feet of reasonably sized wire (maybe 12 ga) for the plug, and positively mark the hot (center probe) and the negative (metal tang on the side) wires. Then get your 'jump box' or another 12vdc battery, like out of your lawn mower or maybe an ATV just sittin' around the house doin' absolutely nobody any good at the moment. When it comes time to actually replace the truck battery, just put the 'jump box' or other battery on the front floor. Plug the 12vdc male plug into any 12vdc receptacle that is not switched with the ignition key. Next, connect the positive side of your 'jump box' to the wire identified as the positive/hot on the plug, then the negative side to the negative/ground wire from the plug. Once you've done this, you can go outside and disconnect the truck battery for replacement and not have to worry about anything losing it's pre-set or learned setting. We all know this safety tip, but just a reminder to ALWAYS, always disconnect the battery's negative/ground cable first, then disconnect the battery's positive/hot cable last. Once you've replaced the truck battery, ALWAYS, always reconnect the positive/hot cable first, then connect the negative/ground cable last. Now, go back inside the truck and unplug the 12vdc plug, disconnect the jump box from the wires coming out of the 12vdc plug, and you're done. That is of course if you didn't take a smaller 12vdc battery out of your wife's ATV that was just sittin' around the house not doin' absolutely any good for anybody, and in hopes she wouldn't notice before you get it put back in. Well, take it from one who didn't get it back into her ATV before she returned from the store, that ain't a good situation. She was all grins and giggles telling me about all the stuff she found on sale when she realized I had her ATV kinda torn apart and her battery setting on the driveway. Let's just say the grins and giggles stopped and she said I'd better damned well have that ATV running with the battery in it by the time she came back outside after putting her shopping bags down. But then when she came back out and I explained to her the only reason her ATV battery was out was because right after she left to go shopping I tried to crank her ATV to take around back and wash it for her as a surprise, but found the battery dead. So, being the ever thoughtful husband I am I rushed right down to the parts house and bought her a new battery. I was rushing as hard as I could to get it back in before she returned from shopping, but my truck had started acting up and I just simply ran out of time. She bought the story thankfully, but then she's the kind of wife who will buy two items on sale at 50% off each, and swear up and down she got those two items for nothing. All's well that ends well though I guess. I got the battery replaced in my truck without losing any pre-sets, convinced the wife I was doing everything I could to get her ATV washed before she returned, oh yeh, as a 'surprise' for her, (don't ever forget the 'surprise' part), wives just love surprises. In fact she surprised me later that night. After dinner, she smiled at me coyly and said she had a surprise for me when it came time to go to bed. Naturally all excited (I thought to myself I had pulled off the biggest one yet) when she threw a blanket and a pillow at me and told me to sleep on the damned sofa until I could learn to tell a new battery from a used one. Totally off balance I asked what she meant ........... she said "well if you couldn't see that the battery they gave you down at the parts house for my ATV was a used one, you certainly don't deserve to have your batteries recharged tonight." Wives, I'll never understand them. Fact is you can't live with them ............ and you can't kill them! LOL, LOL! Regards, jumpinjoe

Just noticed swathdiver, you're from parts hereabouts, the treasure coast. I'm not too far north of you. Somewhere between Cocoa and Cape Canaveral. I'm also a diver, but not familiar with the term "swathdiver". Damn, I really am getting old! Care to elaborate? And as for the compression ratio of any of my vehicles, I took a quick look and I think it said my wife's Equinox is about 11:1 or >. Way higher than I would have thought and never thought to look. And I still have a hard time remembering some of these things are basically a rolling computer that works real miracles with engine changes automatically that we used to have to work for hours to make similar changes. But it seems since I can no longer work on my own stuff due to health issues, I just don't keep up on the technology like I should. I just replaced the battery in my 2014 Silverado last week is about the most detailed work I've done on one in years. Back in the day I have built complete engines for my daily drivers as well as my roundy-round cars. Even did much of my own machine work before CNC was ever heard of. It was all lathe and vertical mill work back then. LOL! Regards, jumpinjoe

Cowpie wrote "............................. for instance, I am currently getting E85 at roughly $1.90 a gallon. Premium is going for $2.94. My 2500 averages about 11 MPG for all miles on E85. 14 MPG on road trips. Just to break even, on Premium I would have to average 17 MPG and on road trips get at least 21 MPG. Will never happen. I compared E85 to Premium because they are equivalent fuels. E85 is 100 octane and Premium is 93. The same equivalencies can be made comparing E10, or better yet E15, to non ethanol regular. Regular E10 is $2.39 in my area, E15 is $2.34, and non ethanol regular is $2.75." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hey Cowpie, before we let this topic completely die, I've got to ask one more question. In the short quote above you've mentioned using E85 @ 100 octane and Premium @ 93. OK, I can buy those numbers but what in the world are you driving that requires 100 octane? Maybe the Cadillac, but aren't the other two vehicles relatively low compression engines? I can see you using the stuff for that much difference in price ($1.04 gal). Considerably more difference than the E15 and non-ethanol regular. I don't check it around here enough to know what the difference in price is, but I know (at least I think I know) for sure I don't drive anything I need 100 octane fuel in. At least I don't think so. I drive a 2014 5.3 Ecotec Silverado (typically 87 or 89 octane) and the wife drives a 2015 Equinox (same as my truck). And coincidentally my sister drives a 2006 CTX or CTS I think. I've never asked her but don't think she needs any high octane fuel either. I'm going to get out my owner's manuals tomorrow and verify for sure I don't need any high octane, and I'll call her too just out of curiosity. In the meantime, thanks much. Regards, jumpinjoe

OK, you got me. I know they're used on/in areas other than farming and hunting. I just thought I had you figured out to one of those two things. Oh well, turns out you're considerably older than I had you pegged for too. I don't know exactly how old or young I had you figured for, but surely not old enough to have gone in the Army 50 yrs ago. I think I remember seeing somewhere you wrote that. Assuming you were 18-20 when you enlisted, that would make you probably 4-6 yrs younger than me. I joined at 17 in early 1965. Got out in '69 and married the same year. Have just celebrated our 50th anniversary. In case you're wondering how I made it to 50th .... I learned early on there has to be two sides to every argument ............... her's and her mother's! LOL! Naw seriously, it's not been a real bad road, a few ups and downs. But we made it. Anyhow, back to the Gator and hunting. It makes perfect sense why you would have one and how you would use it, being out in the country and all. Until a few years ago we still lived in the country and could do a lot of things that simply are not acceptable where we are now. He11, I could set up a 100 yd range in my back yard and shoot till dark if I wanted. Most of my neighbors would come over and join in sometimes. Now, if I want to shoot I have to load everything all up in my truck and drive about 8-10 miles to the nearest range. It's all OK I guess, just not nearly as convenient. I'm gonna have to cut it short tonight. I'm pretty tired .... he11 I was up at the crack of noon today. I'm worn out. It's been fun but I gotta tell you I haven't changed my mind even one little bit about ethanol. I'll still give it's pretty good with a Jack Daniel's label, but just don't want it in my truck. Pretty sure TXGREEK hasn't been swayed either. He seems about as convinced as I am. Oh well, we can pick it up again on the other side. And one last thing about making it to that magic 50th year. I remembered way back when young and first married, everybody always said the same ol' thing .... "Love is Grand!" Then I figured divorce would be probably 100 grand, so I just did the math! LOL! Regards, and look forward to another good discussion, jumpinjoe

Alrighty then, changing the subject .............. I think you said back in an earlier post you were from a farm family but were no longer farming since you were now OTR trucking. I can see that happening as a natural progression. But now I'm going to make a guess about you and you've not mentioned it ............................ but I'm guessing you're also a deer hunter and just about to begin getting ready to go hunting. And I don't even know when hunting season starts in Iowa. Reason I say that is because you mentioned having a "John Deere" Gator. Now the only two kinds of people who own JD Gators are farmers and hunters, so? How'd I do? And then you mentioned something about a 30 gal drum of ethanol free gas. I couldn't get away with keeping a 30 gal drum of ethanol-gas on hand down here since by the time I used it up it'd have about a 1/2 gal of H2o. Unless I put it in my air boat. That thing uses about 25-30 gals over a good weekend. Might get away with ethanol free in 30 gals, but I'd have to be real careful even with that. I run the air boat a lot down on the St John's river headwaters. There's a lot of wide open wet grass fields much like the Everglades, then there's also a lot of hard core swamp much like the Okefenokee with lots of deep, dark waters and cypress trees. Lot's of alligators, lot's of snakes, lots of bob-cats, lots of coyotes, and lots of spiders. GREAT BIG spiders!!! LOL! Oh yeh, and mosquitoes so big they can stand 'flat footed' and fist fight with turkeys. But I enjoy getting out there when I can to hunt, camp, fish and even swim in certain areas. Regards, jumpinjoe

Oh yeh, and the last thing I remember reading on the subject suggested that the mpg of ethanol was about 11% less than gasoline. That 11% multiplied by the number of vehicles on the road in the country and using alcohol by the total miles driven at an 11% loss in mpg would also have to be brought into any comparison. So that 11% would have to be added (in theory) to the cost of a gallon of ethanol, or to the associated costs and/or energy requirements to make it. I don't know how that would breakout since it would depend largely on locale and the common price of the alcohol in that locale. I dunno, just something else to think about, huh? Regards, jumpinjoe

Cowpie, I really don't want to be argumentative about this, but I do have a few questions and or comments. And know that I'm enjoying the conversation. Who knows, you might make a convert out of me at my old age. Not likely, but maybe. First, I don't think anyone really has the 'right' answer simply because there's too much at stake on both sides for either side to bend or weaken in the discussion. For example, if you simply ask to see proof that a gallon of ethanol returns the same or more energy than it takes to produce that gallon, I don't remember ever actually seeing that proof primarily because nobody can agree on just what are all the actual energy requirements to make that gallon. We know some of them are involved from the very start in that it costs energy to run all the farm equipment used to prepare the ground, to plant the corn, to fertilize, to treat with insecticides, the energy required to run the pumps for irrigation, then all the equipment energy requirements to harvest the corn, and to transport it to market. And the actual energy needed to process it, squeeze it, distill/cook it, pump it, load it for transport, transport it, store it, and finally pump it at the retail level. Now granted some/most of that actual processing is electrical, but that takes more fossil fuel energy to produce the electricity to begin with. And each example of energy needed here also has a cost associated with it with one of the greatest costs being simple storage and transport of it. Being alcohol and being of such a corrosive nature, ethanol cannot be stored and/or transported nearly as economically as gasoline. Just the tanks and pipes used to store alcohol have to be built to far more resistant standards, all of which requires energy (and associated costs) to manufacture. It's really hard to compare simply the energy required to produce a gallon of ethanol without also comparing the costs associated with that energy. So, with that in mind let's take a quick look at the costs. Back when this ethanol craze first appeared on the general public market, we were importing most of our fossil fuel requirements. I don't know right off what the percentages was, but since that time we know for certain our import requirements have dropped considerably if not totally. So we can assume the actual cost to produce a galln of ethanol has dropped pretty significantly in the past decade. With discoveries such as the Balkin field and others, our dependence on imported oil is almost nil, and our costs of fossil fuels has dropped considerably everywhere except on the open retain market. But, the requirements in energy requirements for the manufacture of ethanol has not changed, even though costs might have. So, going full circle here and getting back to the actual energy required to produce a gallon of ethanol being <> the energy returned by that gallon is speculative at best. Whereas the associated energy based on costs (which is still the most logical and likely the most accurate way to calculate the comparison) still seems to be > than the energy returned by that gallon of ethanol and especially when considering that corn is way down the list of the best vegetable product to use for conversion to ethanol anyway. It's well known that sugar cane and/or sugar beets are a far better choice for conversion, but far more costly and likely more detrimental to the food supplies. And that brings to mind another actual cost of using corn and that is that the reduction of corn will sometimes, with the decrease in availability of quantity cause an increase in cost of various other products we don't ordinarily connect with corn. (The old 'law of supply and demand' we all know). A quick example of that would be so many products we love and use everyday costs more with limited availability of corn. Like how many everyday products contain 'corn syrup'? Just about everything we eat, and most cosmetics, etc. Now, I didn't mean to get this long winded about this again, but even aside the fact I have never had a good experience with ethanol, and some of my bad experiences with it have been relatively costly, I just can't find any good use for it in my daily activities. The E10, with a heavy add of "Lead Substitute" does help my air boat engine to run a tad cooler down here in the hot weather, but with the additional care to watch out for the water absorption that is going to happen, it's probably a wash as to any benefit. So, I'll let it go here. Like I said I really don't want to get into a real debate since I don't think either of us could ever agree on the rules of such a debate, much less the facts. Like I said when I started this post, I've never seen any 2 articles on the subject use the same criteria to compare, and I don't think it could ever be so. Lastly I'll offer this as a concession to our conversation. Bio fuels in the form of a diesel substitute seem a far more feasible product than alcohol. I don't know the cost comparisons or energy comparisons of the bio diesel to refined diesel any better than I do for ethanol, but I do know I've never had the bad experiences with it that I've had with the alcohol. I don't foresee a time when all OTR trucks, or buses, or trains will ever convert to alcohol, but the conversion to bio diesel is not too much of a stretch. Who knows???? Regards, jumpinjoe

Well, I doubt he started the very first ethanol manufacturing facility, but as I remember some of the stories told by the old folks, he sure must have made some of the finest !!! LOL! Regards, jumpinjoe

Cowpie, it appears you have a real window into the ethanol conversation, so I won't be the one to argue with you about it. However I will say this ..... somewhere in the past I read a pretty informative article written by somebody who maybe had just spent a night at a Holiday Inn, and he said that as long as it requires more actual energy in the form of fossil fuels to produce a gallon of ethanol than the amount of energy found in that gallon of ethanol, the scales will never be balanced. Can you verify or contradict that comparison? Now I don't know exactly how they mass produce the ethanol used to contaminate the gasoline supply in the country, but I do know for a fact it used to take a lot more than a gallon of fuel source to produce a gallon of ethanol the old fashioned way when my grandpa was makin' it. Know what I mean? ? Regards, jumpinjoe

Can't argue with a single word you've said. Did I tell you 'I HATE IT, I HATE IT, I HATE IT'!!!!!! Regards, jumpinjoe

Well, there ya go!!! Thanx TXGREEK, and to think it was "Sent from Above" too ....................... ? Regards all, jumpinjoe