bigbuck

Happy BDay from another Christmas baby!!! I think you have a couple years on me though!

An 18ftr rigged with trailer is probably north of 2500lbs. That means a real tow vehicle. So, what Lew said!

If you plan on doing ANY significant amount of towing, get a proper vehicle to do it with. This question always pops up in the silly season. A minivan can do the job BUT it takes a beating and you can forget about a panic stop. That's an overlooked issue. My minivan can tow 3500lbs. My boat gear and trailer come in around 3300 lbs. I can cruise at a hundred kph but stopping is another issue. That's why the only time I pull my boat is either really early in the morning or really late at night. A real tow vehicle won't be great on gas but will be useful. Besides, a fwd minivan sucks on unimproved or gravel boatlaunches. Good luck selling it to the wife. I presented the boat as a fait accompli. I went and bought it right after we bought our travel trailer and said 'Surprise'!!!

Cherokees are kinda nice too but I've had a bad experience with JEEP and would never go back. Ford is staking a lot on the new motor and I think it will be a good one. I haven't heard anything really bad about them.

Good one Jer!!! For all the guys who are in their 40s and up, the last time people were really happy was in the early 80s and earlier. They didn't have much but they sure appreciated what they had. These days, people are too caught up in materialistic Bull. Gotta have the biggest and baddest of whatever.

New F150 with the EcoBoost engine will do all you ask of it and more. The fuel economy will be on par or a bit better than your current truck with more usefulness. And besides, its a real truck.

I think the main point is that Dana now has broken glass all over his property and is wondering if the cleanup has to be done solely on his dime. Contact your insurance broker, he/she should be able to help you. I'd work on cleaning up the big stuff as best as possible to start, put it all in a box and don't throw it out. As for what is on the lawn and is covered with snow, you may have to wait until spring. You aren't trying to profit from your neighbours misfortune, you are trying to restore your property to the state it was in prior to the fire. That is what everyone's insurance is for. Take pics and document what you do, don't give the insurance company an out. Also, as Lew mentioned, see if there is anything you can do to help them out. Their lives blew up along with the house. Good luck with this.

IN GOD I TRUST, ALL OTHERS PAY C A S H! ! ! Or C.O.B. = Cash on the Barrelhead

I hate to tell you this but you really should have checked EVERYTHING before you even left. That way you could have pointed out the deficiencies (damaged boat cover especially). As for the work they did, they will have to make due on it because that is definitely their fault, they can't argue that it happened after the fact. You can try to fight them to repair your boat cover but your chances are pretty slim, BUT still give it a shot. Good luck!! It burns my biscuit when I hear stuff like this happening, people don't take any pride in their work any more but still expect a bigger paycheque. I'm just ranting and don't want to start anything with that comment.

Let's see, 4am departure, 8am brekkie outside of Sudbury, 2pm lunch in White River or Wawa, Dinner in Thunder Bay around 6ish and arrival sometime after midnight. I've done the route to Kenora a few times so I know the drill and can recommend where to stop. I'd be in but I can't commit to something that far out. Keep us all posted.

Irish, it's just being frugal, that's all. Why buy gifts at Christmas time +a ring later, just buy it at this time of year and you are off the hook.........

Lew, keep Jim in your heart and his memory goes on. His legacy is there for all to see in all the buildings he helped erect. Take care of your wife, daughter and yourself my friend.

Cdn Tire is fine for oil changes and very basic maintenance as well as E Tests. Beyond that, I'd take it to an independant shop. Unfortunately, the mechanics seem to be paid by piece work so the more they generate the more they make so they go looking for and create problems. Brakes are easy picking, tell someone their brakes are shot and most times they will get them done on the spot. Brakes take less time than the book calls for so the mechanic has more time to hose other folks. Just have your normal mechanic take a good look at the front end and have him check the brakes just to make sure.

It is an incredible body of water. I've fished a small part of it and its worth it if you have the chance. I'd go back up in a heartbeat.

I'd think about going up hwy 11up to Cochrane and go around the top side to get to TBay. It is longer but is a fairly straight road that isn't quite as treacherous as 17. Truckers go that way and avoid 17 north of the Soo.

It is simply not acceptable for this to go on in Canada!! Period!! We spend millions upon millions of dollars helping other countries and places when this goes on in our own backyard. Utter nonsense. We need to FIX THE PROBLEM, not just throw money at it. Where does every penny go?? The Auditor General needs to take a very close look using a microscope where every single dollar goes before it reaches the band level. I think there is definitely a bloated bureaucracy at work here. The bands have to do something at their level as well. There are social problems that are well known, alcohol and substance abuse need to be dealt with. We have a lot of problems here at home, can we not make them the focus of our efforts for a couple of years?? The media needs to pay attention to our domestic problems and not sensationalizing the problems abroad.

Gas line antifreeze is usually used when there is fuel frozen somewhere in the fuel system. Its the water that can accumulate that freezes, not the gas. You ran Stabil so you will be fine. Don't worry. You've done what you should. In the spring you will need to clean her up charge the batteries and fire her up and go.

Don't forget the control arm bushings. As for the tire wear, has the car ever been in an accident?? If it wasn't straightened properly, it could account for weird things happening ie noises and premature tire wear.

Even though they lost the element of surprise, the American response wouldn't have amounted to much, most of the aircraft at Hickham field and the Navy airfields were either damaged or on fire. Anti aircraft batteries at that time early in the war were more of an afterthought than a real defensive force (besides, try hitting a moving target going at 300mph). Huge tactical error that shortened the war in a big way, all of the battleships (besides the Arizona) were refloated and refitted and saw action in the war. Had they searched for and sank the 2 carrier groups and left the battleships alone would have been far more successful. It was a watershed moment for the world and galvanized the US people into accepting the idea of going to war again which up until that point, they considered it a European problem.

The only thing you can do is see if there is a lien using the resources listed above. The system is kinda screwy but it is the system we have and need to work around. Don't ever trust a private seller unless he has all his paperwork and never buy without seeing it run and better yet, a test flight on the water to make sure everything that is supposed to work does.

I'd look elsewhere. Pisces pulled a fast one on a buddy of mine. After taking out his lower unit on his Merc, he went up the street to Pisces to have it repaired. After agreeing to pay out of pocket as opposed to putting through an insurance claim, he had his Merc repaired and paid for it when he picked it up. A week later he gets a call from his insurance company to confirm the details of his insurance claim, WHICH HE NEVER INITIATED. They tried to double dip. That's dirty business. I went in there 2 years ago and spoke to the fellow that runs it and I left with a bad feeling in my gut. Then I hear of Daves trials and tribulations and my suspicions were confirmed. They'd never ever see a penny from me.

Nothing like a beautiful sunrise!! We saw beautiful sunsets every night in Vallarta, but I still prefer a nice sunrise to start the day.

Fang, book an 8 hour trip for the big stuff, for tuna, a 4 hour would be fine (we went with Captain Pachis on the Marsol out of La Cruz). I booked the trip thru Scott's Tours (transplanted Canadian) in Bucerias. www.vallartatraveladvisor.com 329-298-1312 Let him know that Bruce from Oakville sent you. He's a no nonsense guy and absolutely hates all the Timeshare guys that are there. A lot of the tour operators are timeshare companies in disguise. They will all tell you that it is a 1 - 1 and a half hours, it's more like 3-4 hours of your time if they hook you into going to a meeting. One guy offered us a free tour up to the Predator Film site (remember Arnie's flick), only problem, he never mentioned that it has been closed for almost a year now and is dismantled. They offer lots of freebies but losing half a day of your trip to save $50 isn't worth it. Once you get off the plane, you have to run the gauntlet of timeshare reps to get to your bus that will take you to your hotel. They will try to delay you until you miss the bus and then you have to listen to their shpiel. PM me if you need more info. Bucerias is a real Mexican town and will give you a good idea of what Mex is really like. There is a whole whack of vendors when you first walk into the town and then you get into the town proper, lots of little restaurants and bars to have a nice ice cold Cerveza.

Good for you!! Be an honest tech, fix things right the first time, don't take shortcuts, hire a good bookeeper so you can focus on what you do, and find a good apprentice to do the joe jobs. Have fun at your new shop. Best of luck bud!!

We got back from Puerto Vallarta on Friday. Great trip, great place. I'd recommend a trip to anyone who wants a nice vacation spot, whether you want to relax, sightsee, party, have kids etc... The weather was to die for, high 20's every day, sunshine and no rain. We got out deep sea fishing for a 4 hour trip for yellow tail tuna. We saw around a 100 or so dolphins playing on the surface, schools of tuna (too many to count) 3 Manta Rays, and a calm sea in Banderas Bay (2-3000 ft deep). I wanted to go for marlin and sailfish but nobody wanted to go for an 8hr minimum trip so I took a hit for the team. We ended up catching 2 yellowfin, mine was around 25 lbs and my buddies was around 22. Great fight!!! We trolled a lot pulling live bait, plastic squids, Rapalas but what produced was chasing down a school and tossing a baited hook in front of them. The tough part was getting close enough but not spooking them. We ended up being on the water for over 6 hours and the captain had no problem with that. We gave him a $50 US tip and he was thrilled. A trip to a Tequila factory was educational and fun, it's the first time I was able to do a shot of Tequila without vomiting. What you buy here (Jose Cuervo) isn't for sale anywhere there. It's all small producers up in the mountains and their stuff is great. We brought back a couple of bottles of flavored Tequila that make for nice liquers. My wife and I went on an adventure on the local transit system, a rickety old bus with tassels inside, Mexican music playing (right out of a movie scene) into Puerto Vallarta (our resort was 40 mins north near Bucerias - a quaint little town). A cab ride would have run us over $30 each way, the bus ran us about $5for the both of us. We had fun bartering for some tourist trinkets and trash and had a great lunch before we headed back to the resort. There is lots to see and lots to do. We barely scratched the surface and will go back.