Mechanic! Tell us about your TX relocation!

[precisionxt]

How much do you know about Texas? Austin is a great town to line in, if you can afford it. Dallas and Houston are cheaper but also have really bad traffic and bad crime compared to Austin. The best towns though IMO, is San Antonio, Fort Worth, or Galveston.

Can confirm, Dallas sucks. Stick with the southern counties.

[Mark]

Rich - Are you out there?????

I suspect Rich doesn't use a smart phone. We usually hear from him when he is home & not on the road. He may not have WiFi set up at his new location yet?

Hopefully all is well with Rich, & we all hear from him soon!

[7milesout]

All I know is, I love Texas. I love their attitudes. I have an aunt that lives just south of Houston in Friendsville. I had to travel to Houston a few times for bidness a few years back, and loved it every friggin time. I'm sure Austin is nice too. Probably was better 10+ years ago. All I know is what I hear, that Austin is seeing huge influx of Kalifornians (and their "ideas") due to how bad it sucks in Kalifornia. Lots of tech and auto companies going to Austin (area) from Kalifornia, and bringing their personalities with them.

Same thing is happening in GA. Lots of Hollywood movie studios all around me. Lots of celebrities (at least) visiting. I've seen a few around here in my town too. Don't know their names but recognize a face or two. I'm sure I could be friends with them one-on-one. But let them start flocking together and they'll start pushing their politics, ugggggg. Talked to one celebrity one time for a looooong time one night at a sushi bar. I didn't know who he was, still don't. An older guy. Told me at the end of our long conversation that he was an actor on some movies as some kind of wizard, on one of these Lord of the Ring movies or something similar. Not Gandalf, this guy was more round maybe a bit older too. I still don't know who he was. But he was pleasant enough, we had a good conversation. All the Walking Dead people all around, see them occasionally. Zack Brown, see him too, he's got a pickup truck a lot like mine. Except his has every possible accessory ever created, that's how you know it's him. All the Avenger people hang out here in town too. Our state just voted Democrat for president for the first time that I've even known. They're moving in.

[7milesout]

This is what I'm talking about.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics...-copycat-crime

[Dirk Diggler]

All I know is, I love Texas. I love their attitudes. I have an aunt that lives just south of Houston in Friendsville. I had to travel to Houston a few times for bidness a few years back, and loved it every friggin time. I'm sure Austin is nice too. Probably was better 10+ years ago. All I know is what I hear, that Austin is seeing huge influx of Kalifornians (and their "ideas") due to how bad it sucks in Kalifornia. Lots of tech and auto companies going to Austin (area) from Kalifornia, and bringing their personalities with them.

Same thing is happening in GA. Lots of Hollywood movie studios all around me. Lots of celebrities (at least) visiting. I've seen a few around here in my town too. Don't know their names but recognize a face or two. I'm sure I could be friends with them one-on-one. But let them start flocking together and they'll start pushing their politics, ugggggg. Talked to one celebrity one time for a looooong time one night at a sushi bar. I didn't know who he was, still don't. An older guy. Told me at the end of our long conversation that he was an actor on some movies as some kind of wizard, on one of these Lord of the Ring movies or something similar. Not Gandalf, this guy was more round maybe a bit older too. I still don't know who he was. But he was pleasant enough, we had a good conversation. All the Walking Dead people all around, see them occasionally. Zack Brown, see him too, he's got a pickup truck a lot like mine. Except his has every possible accessory ever created, that's how you know it's him. All the Avenger people hang out here in town too. Our state just voted Democrat for president for the first time that I've even known. They're moving in.

Who did you talk to from LOTR? Ian Holmes? Christopher Lee? Ian McKellan?

[Basic]

Who did you talk to from LOTR? Ian Holmes? Christopher Lee? Ian McKellan?

I bet it was Sylvester McCoy

[7milesout]

I had to google all 3 of them. I don't believe it was any of those 3. From memory, the guy I spoke with was slightly bigger around. Not huge or even big, just bigger than those guys.

Richard Griffiths maybe. He looks more like it. Don't know him, just saw his name on the above google searches.

[Dirk Diggler]

I had to google all 3 of them. I don't believe it was any of those 3. From memory, the guy I spoke with was slightly bigger around. Not huge or even big, just bigger than those guys.

Richard Griffiths maybe. He looks more like it. Don't know him, just saw his name on the above google searches.

Christopher Lee is a legend. SAS officer during the North African campaign, best Dracula ever, The Man with the Golden Gun!

[7milesout]

I bet it was Sylvester McCoy

I googled him. It might have been. He was a bit older than most of the pictures I saw, but it's possible it was the guy. I should have asked him his name. But didn't. This guy was talking about having a child or two (older like my age maybe or older) living in the Chattanooga area and was going to go up to visit them. I'm from the Chattanooga area so we talked about that a good bit.

[Mechanic]

Hello all,
. . . . Yes, I have completed my move to TX. I live in Columbus which is about 70 miles West of Houston. I am still unpacking things. My computer didn't like the move. I lost several hard drives and a controller card. I am trying to find a job. This is very difficult since I don't have any work history for the last 20 years. I went back to school in 2000 and then I came down with flu which turned into Fibromyalgia and damaged my metabolism. I didn't have a car payment and the cost of living in WI is low enough that my SS would cover everything. I now have that car payment and TX is about 10-15% higher. Still I am glad to be back in TX. I didn't know about this thread until just a few minutes ago. My cats are back to being happy but they spend a lot more time curled up with dad.
. . . . Now about the actual drive. I rented the middle size covered trailer from U-haul. It was $20 per day for a local move. One way would have been $3,600. So I had to dead head it back and pay for the extra fuel to do so but that was a lot less money than the one way charge. I figure that I was towing between 1600 and 1700 pounds on each loaded trip. It would take me 5 days to do a round trip. Two up or down and one day to load or unload. I had the trailer for 11 days. Most of the time I ran 55 to 60 mph. I had to make 4 trips with it. Two trips loaded from WI to TX and two trips empty from TX to WI. I kept a fuel log. I averaged 18 mpg loaded and 22 mpg empty. On two occasions I tried an experiment. I wanted to see what the maximum speed would be. On the flat with no wind loaded or unloaded it would do 85MPH.
. . . . On my first trip down I ran into the hurricane that came a shore at Houston. As I got to 610 I ran into torrential rain and 35 mph head winds. It was still a tropical storm at that point. I was running flat out in 4th gear at 60 mph and I was going 16 mpg. When I got on Westbound I-10 I picked up a tailwind. I was then running 60 in 5th and I was showing 28 mpg. I unloaded that evening. Early the next morning I headed back. The storm was now a Cat 1 hurricane. When I left Columbus I had a 25 mph tail wind. I was running 5th and showing 28mpg. As I came into Katy I hit a 50 mph head wind. I was running 3rd gear at 55 mph, flat out, and showing 11 mpg. That was as fast as it would go. When I turned North on 610 I picked up a tail wind and was back to 5th gear and 25 mpg.
. . . . Running loaded I had to almost continuously shift the trans. When I started uphill I would have to downshift. As the grade flattened out I would up shift. Stir and repeat thousands of times. On a 9 or 10 percent grade I had to run in 2nd gear. Thankfully there were only two of those. On 7-8 percent grades I could run in 3rd gear. There were a lot of those. Anything over 3 percent required me to use 4th or lower.
. . . . On my second loaded trip I almost stuff it. I was on US-75 about 20 miles North of TX in OK. You know how the tail and brake lights on semi tractors are mounted low and between the rear duals? I saw the right turn signal come on or what I thought was the right turn signal. This section of US-75 is divided highway with cross traffic. So I moved over in to the left lane to go past the slowing truck driver. I was about 2 seconds behind the guy in front of me. This was too close for the load that I was towing and the left lane came to a screeching halt. My reaction time is very low and I instantly got down on the brakes extremely hard. The fronts are in full ABS mode but the rears aren't and I am catching the guy in front of me. So I practically stood on the brake pedal. I now have 140 to 150 pounds of pressure on the brake pedal. I managed to put the rears into full ABS. I am still catching the guy in front of me. 100 feet, 90 feet, 80 feet, 70 feet, 60 feet, 50 feet, 40 feet, 30 feet, 20 feet, 10 feet, oh oh, there is no more. At 9 feet the guy in front of me started pulling away. Too close.
. . . . The guy in the truck had turned his 4 ways on but I could only see the right hand light. When I realized what was going on I had turned my 4 ways on. A guy in a Ford Ranger had hit the center divider and spun out. He was facing the wrong direction and half blocking the left lane. If others had turned on their 4 ways I would have stayed in the right lane and just slowed way down. Close, way too close. At the first QT I came to I stopped and took a break. I changed the oil twice in WI during the move.
. . . . Coolant temperature was a concern. After my trip to TX at the end of July I installed a second cooling fan. It has a separate power connection through a dedicated relay that is wired to come on when the factory fan comes on. This helped the coolant temperatures and the under hood temperature. When I made the move at the end of September the outside temperature was getting to 95 during the day. I was running 205 coolant temperature on the flat. I saw 225 several times when pulling 7 to 9 percent grades. I figure that it would have been 10 or even 20 degrees warmer without the second fan and that would have been too hot. I also noticed that in slow traffic or stop and go traffic the A/C continued to cool where in July it wouldn't do so unless the car was moving at least 20 mph!
. . . . Any thoughts, questions, ideas????????????? Can anyone out there give me a job. PT, FT, I don't care. I just need some one to trust me and give me a chance. Yes, I will drive 70 miles one way to work. I do have some limitations. I am highly skilled and a very quick study! Master Auto Tech, Electronics Tech, and Computer Tech!
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!