thirdgenlxi

What's up everyone? Long time no see..... life has been kinda crazy lately (in a good way) and I haven't been on the forums in awhile. Hope everyone is doing well Anyways..... my ever faithful '07 just rolled over 200,000 miles on easter sunday, doing what she's usually doing.... toting my bike around, haha (I was on my way to go ride for a little bit before going into work here). Last year I got into racing harescrambles and enduros, so that's where a chunk of these miles have come from is just driving around to all the different races..... pretty much every weekend. This has definitely been one hell of a reliable vehicle! Literally have not had one single problem other than the little speaker for the parking aid (the beeeepppppper, lol)...... $25 part and not even 5 minutes to put in, not gonna sweat that. Still runs and drives like brand new.... no squeaks or rattles of any kind, heat blows hot, A/C blows ice cold, silky smooth and trans shifts like brand new (I'd hope so, I change the fluid every other oil change! haha). Doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon..... hopefully she can keep it up for another 100k 0401181255_HDR by Jared Penttinen, on Flickr 0401181300_HDR by Jared Penttinen, on Flickr Had to get a few beauty shots along the way too..... this was about 2 miles before. Still completely stock..... I just try and keep her clean and in good shape 0401181246_HDR by Jared Penttinen, on Flickr 0401181246a_HDR by Jared Penttinen, on Flickr 0401181247_HDR by Jared Penttinen, on Flickr 0401181248_HDR by Jared Penttinen, on Flickr 0401181250_HDR by Jared Penttinen, on Flickr I'll also add, that a good chunk of these miles have been spent towing a trailer...... and driving through fields like this for parking. That's my buddy Chris next to me with the brand new super duty..... not gonna lie I was kinda jealous.... super nice truck! And camper, lol 0303180829_HDR by Jared Penttinen, on Flickr

There's some track footage in the video, hahah. It's from I think the 2nd or 3rd trackday though, so I was pretty slow. I've got a new camera now so i'll have to make some new ones. I'm hoping to be going back again in November

Those of you on my FB have probably seen this already, but figured I'd post it up here too. It was actually about a month ago but just got around to finally updating the video, lol (lots going on lately) Anyways..... the old girl is still going strong! She rolled right over 300k without a hiccup on the 17th of last month.... exactly one month to the day before her 11th b-day which was this past saturday Sooo it was getting close..... decided to head up to the Blue Ridge Parkway Almost there! Aaaand there it goes again Pulled over and took a few pics So this past weekend, I figured.... what better way to spend her b-day (Saturday 17th), than with some quality CRACK time!! LOL So we loaded up and headed out to NC BIKE for the weekend with my super awesome TPM family It was a cold start, but warmed up pretty quick and ended up being about as perfect of weather as you could possibly ask for. I barely broke a sweat the entire day, with bright sunny blue skies. It was awesome.... paired with great friends, made for a killer weekend I guess I should also add..... the ol' girl did me real well sunday, and finally got my bump! Video....... it's a little cheezy, lol.... but you get the idea. The first part is the same as the 200k video from a few years ago, I just added onto it on the end Anyways, she's still running like a champ, so I do suppose we'll just keep going and see what happens!

Is your cooling fan working??

It has 106k... 2004...... 4.7's definitely have their issues though..... head gaskets, broken exhaust manifold bolts, engine sludge, lifter tick, etc. She pulled this one out of a shop because the guy was a hack job and a liar

In my spare time I sometimes do some side jobs here at home, like I'm doing right now..... head gaskets on a Dodge Ram 1500 4.7 (i know, imagine that, right? lol) And then pretty much any other time, I'm out playing in the dirt on the 2 smoker And then I usually end the day chasing a sunset.... we have some great ones around here! Sooooo yea, that's my (rough) life in a pictorial nutshell, lol

I do lots of things.... though weekends here now I work as I'm doing just a weekend shift plus 1 day during the week (currently doing tuesdays). So this is what I do on the weekends..... try and keep this line of automated machinery going and fixing it when it breaks. We make HCU (hydraulic control unit) boxes for ABS and stability control systems for a good majority of the auto mfg's. The units for the Ford Fiesta, Dodge Ram, Honda Odyssey, and a whole bunch of GM cars and trucks, as well as VW/Audi are made right here on this line. Along with others too but those are the main ones we run quite often But on my days off I always find something to get into. Usually start by sleeping my happy but in bed a little later and cuddling with the kiddos Then get up and play with the kiddos some (after they remind me that it's time to eat, lol) Then go for a street ride and play in the mountains (first one taken today.... I got out of work early ) Whenever I'm able to I do some trackdays.... SOOOO much fun! Then go and shoot some guns at the range

All the gas engines will cut the compressor off under WOT or high load conditions to try and take as much load off the engine as possible. The diesels don't do this. Totally normal

LOL...... I've gotta buy a house first, and that's about to swallow my whole wallet and bank account whole

That's pretty cool.... I like it! Might have to pick up a set here at some point

Oh yea definitely felt good to get her out at least for a little bit.... But I'm still anxious to get out for a good long ride. I do want to try and ride it as much as I can before heading out into the woods though.... just to be sure everything is good beforehand. And not too many ranges around here..... closest ones are about an hour away. But a guy I used to work with a couple years ago has a farm not too long ago he said i could come over and shoot there. We can set up all kinds of different targets to play with. Should be fun!

And since we're on the subject of new toys..... picked up another one the other day too! S&W M&P Shield 9mm. Now I just need to find a good IWB holster and I'll be all set Gotta go and break it in here soon

Oh yea definitely! Brown Mountain opens April 1st, though it'll probably be a zoo the first week or two. But I'm looking forward to hitting the trails! I did take it around the back yard some..... dogs just barked at it and ran around all spastic, lol And thanks everyone..... I'm really liking it so far! Been doing a few little things....new plug, fuel filter, brake fluid, trans oil, and going through and replacing some of the little bolts that had some surface rust on them all with stainless steel bolts Anyways I have been riding it some in the big field in back of my work, as well as the wooded area beside it (I did get permission from the property owners beforehand..... their son as well as others ride back there too). There's a couple little trails that go a little ways back in the woods there. It was raining.... I had to go play little bit On a side note..... it's...uhhh.... perfectly acceptable to turn your work uniforms in covered in mud....righ??

Nice.... racking them up pretty good!! Hopefully it keeps treating you well My '07 is a couple hundred miles away from turning 140,000 miles. I bought it in Nov 2012 with 97k. So I've only put about 43k on it since then. But it's also not my daily driver... I have my bike and another car as well. Between the 3 I think it was somewhere around 40k a year. Haven't had a lick of trouble out of the Edge in the time I've had it though.... still runs and drives like a top

Ok so maybe it's not "new"..... new to me rather, lol So a couple years ago I started riding dirt with my friend Scott.... he had gotten a newer KX-450 and still had his old KTM 200 EXC that he never rode anymore so he always just let me ride that. He started working a whole lot shortly after and never comes out and plays anymore (and neither could I since I was using his bike). But I've really had the itch here lately to get back out in the dirt..... I've been wanting a dirt bike of my own for quite awhile now, and finally got in a spot I could pick one up So I've been scouring craigslist like a madman the last couple of weeks.... saw lots of bikes come and go that I liked, but this one really caught my eye. It was on there for a couple weeks and it seemed like a good deal, so I finally texted the guy about it. Everything seemed good so my buddy Travis and I drove up to Virginia yesterday (despite the crappy weather.... rain turned sleet/freezing rain turned snow....yuck!!). I really liked the bike though and it was in my budget, and you could tell it had been well cared for not just from looks but from talking to the guy as well. So I brought her home So please welcome the newest member to my moto family.... a 2000 Kawasaki KDX 200 I know I know...it's not Big Red... but I did do a lot of looking around and for what I'm gonna be using it for (woods only), it seems just about everyone agrees these are probably one of the best woods bikes out there, and a reputation for bulletproof reliability similar to that of my F4i, lol A few pics.... not the greatest as it was getting dark both days And a couple after I got it off the trailer today It needs a couple little small things, which I totally expected with a 15 year old bike, but nothing major at all and overall it's a very clean solid bike and runs great. I really like it.... should make for some fun times! Brown Mountain should be opening here at the end of the month... I'm excited!

Anywhere along there would be fine with me...... Richmond or even a little further north as Richmond would be a little further for you. But anywhere along there really

I dunno if I would say it sounds like cards in bicycle spokes..... it wasn't like a distinct clicking or anything like that. I don't know how to really describe it, other than maybe like a varying rubbing sound. At first I almost thought it was an exhaust leak, but those are usually a little more pronounced too, especially when cold. It was coming only from the right side though and down lower, so belt seemed like the most likely culprit EDIT: BTW what part of Maryland you live in?? I used to get up that way every so often for bike meets and whatnot, usually ending up at Skyline Drive. Haven't been up there in a few years though. But I do get out to Garysburg, NC quite a bit for trackdays at NC BIKE.... depending on where you're at, if you'd be down for a 'meet in the middle' somewhere in VA to meet up and grab some lunch or something, I'd be down. I always enjoy meeting up with forum peoples

I put some new belts on tonight.... they were starting to make a little bit of a scratching noise on a cold start... would go away after a few mins running though Seems nobody sells the Gatorbacks anymore (maybe they're not making them anymore?). Had to get these off of Amazon. Nice and quiet now though Those dang stretchy belts are a bit of a pain in the ass I'm not sure if the old belts were original from '07 or not.... they didn't look terribly bad but did have a few little cracks here and there.... figured with 138k on the car I'd rather just replace them and be on the safe side. They both did say Motorcraft, so who knows.....

Fingers crossed..... hoping everything goes smoothly with no problems! Edge is looking great too, BTW!

Regular old 87 for me..... like akirby mentioned, if it's designed for 87, then anything more you're just throwing $$ down the drain. Don't take this in a literal sense, but just for explanation purposes.... think of higher octane fuels as just watered down 87. It's just a higher resistance to burn... like diesel fuel (just not quite to that extent, lol)

It was a good part of a work day.... but I did do a few other things in between there too so I wasn't quite working on it the entire time... plus lunch break and everything. I could have done it a lot faster if I was doing just this, but I wasn't in any big hurry.... just had to have it done before I went home. Plus I'd never done these before so I had to kinda figure it out too.... first time is always a little slower. Really though it wasn't bad.... taking the valve bodies all apart probably took the most time of anything, haha. But I figured while I was in there I might as well. I guess I got everything back together right.... she shifts beautifully, lol

If it's been well maintained and in good shape, I wouldn't worry one bit about the mileage.... I'd see no problems with it lasting to 200k+ miles. Mine has 137k and runs and drives like new.... they're pretty solid vehicles that really don't give much in the way of mechanical troubles. And this is coming from a Ford dealer tech of almost 12 years now

I changed out my TSS and OSS sensors today..... I wasn't having any problems but being that it is fairly common on the earlier trans (which mine does fall into the dates listed in the TSB), and with my new job I will likely lose lift access here in the near future, so I decided to just go ahead and do them now while I have a lift (and a parts discount) which makes the job a whoooolle lot easier.... and not have to worry about having any problems with it in the future Wasn't too bad.... Everything was still nice and clean inside..... that's always a good sign. Going on 138k miles I took the valve body apart too and cleaned everything out..... took all the valve out of the valve body too (one by one) and cleaned everything out. Never saw anything that actually looked dirty, but just wanted to make sure there wasn't any junk trapped in there anywhere. Fun fun fun..... lol

Yup, the entire production area is a clean room.... we have to wear lab coat looking gowns and hair nets. It also has a special floor that conducts electricity and then the floor is grounded, and we have to wear either heel straps on regular shoes (which has a little strap that has to touch your skin), or special ESD shoes. Both will transfer any static discharge electricity in your body down through the shoes to the floor, to dissipate electricity as you walk instead of it building up in your body. With all the electronic modules we handle, we could fry a module without ever even feeling the shock. It's kept at 70 or 72 degrees (I forget which one it was) year round to keep all the computers happy, and all the air is filtered so everything stays nice and clean. Definitely a much MUCH cleaner job all around than what I do now, which is much better for my own health.... definitely happy about that I'm not for sure about the CNC machining just yet..... we do have a machine shop somewhere in the plant, but I haven't been over there yet, so I'm not sure if there's a CNC in there or not. It's a really cool place though...... I'd really hate to think about just how much $$ is under this one roof. Supposedly just the one line that I'm working on is $30 million alone, and that's a pretty small part of the whole plant And yea the bike parking is definitely a huge plus!!

Absolutely! Having him helped out tremendously..... I'm very shy so going into place completely new and now knowing anybody can be a bit overwhelming for me (which is why I usually hate first days) Anyways, quick update.... 4 days in and all is well..... going great! I did the 2 12 hour days on the weekends, and now I'm going in for a couple hours 3 nights a week after I get off the other job (it's right across the street, lol). So I met some new people this week working with the 2nd shift crew. Everybody I've met has been super cool, the one main guy on our line on 2nd shift has been there a loooong long time and is probably one of the most calm, laid back people you could ever meet..... very very good for explaining things (much like my buddy is on the weekends). Everybody I've met there so far has been awesome..... it's a very positive atmosphere and everybody seems happy. I have yet to come across anybody that doesn't seem happy there..... so that's a good sign. I'm really liking it though.... it' definitely a LOT to learn, but I'll get there eventually. They all say it takes a good solid 6 months to really get everything down.... it's not something you learn overnight But yea I'm really liking it so far..... I think it'll work out... at least I hope so Oh and did I mention the best part?? Covered bike only parking right at the main entrance! There' even a metal plate on the pavement the whole way across for kickstands. I like it! Of course I seem to be the only one riding there in January.... oh well