Return to Start Page

Ok this past winter we went out to Oracle for a visit. This visit happened to be right after a snow had fallen. As we journeyed out there, the snow accumulation increased and increased until the point when we arrived. Once we had reached our destination, we found that somewhere around 6 inches was still on the ground from the earlier storm. During the course of the visit we ventured out a time or two, and on one of the times coming back to the house, the bronco struggled a bit to go up the hill. It was in 4 wheel drive when I made the attempt, but it didn't seem to matter much. One of the front tires were spinning as was one of the back tires. This put it in a predicament that it couldn't over come. So we backed it down and tried again. On the third attempt it made it up. After some investigating, I determined that it had "open differentials". What this means is that the engine will only one tire will turn at a time. This configuration is common on most vehicles but there are alternatives offered that utilize a concept called "limited-slip differentials" and "locked differentials". The difference is that in a limited slip configuration, when one tire spins the differential should automatically lock the other wheel and they both spin to get you out of where you are stuck.

A locked differential is when both wheels spin all the time. This sounds great but when you go around a corner the inside wheel needs to turn slower than the outside wheel, and you can get into problems. After some investigating, and many different peoples opinions I decided to install a different set of gears in the differential such that I would have a locked affect. The product that I selected for installation locks the back tires under most conditions, but has a spring loaded gear mesh that allows a wheel to slip when cornering and it can turn slower than the wheel under power. Other than cornering, both tires remain locked. This should fix the problem of loss of traction (which I experienced in the snow) and give the car better control. I have tested it and it seems to have lots more traction in the back end, and drives a little different now that it is installed properly. I put it in once, and left out the thrust washers (shims) on either side of the axel splined gear teeth and the result was that the differential would not "unlock" the tires and would slide the tires around corners. After two miles of driving like this, I took it out and re-installed the thrust washers and now it works like a champ. I know that many people have different opinions on how they work or last, but time will tell if I am satisfied with it.

I took it out and tested it in the San Pedro River bed a few times, and am rather impressed with how it handles. It seems to be able to go up hills much easier than before, which I am fairly pleased with. Again time will tell whether or not I like it or how it lasts long term, but so far I am very happy with it. Of course the day I installed it the wind was blowing like there was no tomorrow, so I had to pull the vehicle into the garage and shut the door, but after that it worked very nicely. I will have to wait until Oracle gets bombarded with a large amount of snowfall and my schedule is such that I can go out there and test it again on that hill, but for now it works great.

As we were there, the snow started to melt off of the hill. We took the opportunity to go down there with some metal disks and see if we couldn't sled down the road. This exercise wasn't entirely successful, nor was it unsuccessful. We were able to go down when pulled (notice the rope) and could slide under the influence of gravity but the speeds that we reached were less than desirable. When sledding faster is always better. Ethen managed to have the misfortune of falling off of the sled and scrapping his back on the snow and ice and dirt. This made him a little upset and he wouldn't try it again. Mylinda went with us and she seemed to have a good time as did the rest of the kids. Here AJ is pulling the cord down the hill. He even tried it a few times before giving it up to a bad sled day.

If we had come out the day before when the snow was still falling and the skies were overcast (and the temperatures were much lower) I suspect that it would have been a lot faster of a sledding attempt. Of course had we pounded out the dents in the sleds and put some wax on the bottom of them it may have also accomplished the same purpose. It is hard to justify putting that much work in to maintaining something that you only plan on using once every third year or so. I suspect that is why people boats always need a little tune up prior to going to the lake (no matter how often you go to the lake).

Ever since I have built and installed a gate on my trailer, I have wished that I mounted it just a little differently and had the gate level with the trailer bed when fully extended in the horizontal orientation. So with some free time on my hands, I proceeded to cut the gate off, clean it up and then put it back on again. I have the vision in my head of making the gate such that it will stay in the horizontal position allowing the operator the ability to carry bulky loads greater than 10 feet in length. I would of course put some lights on the back of it so that when it were up or straight back the back of the gate would be illuminated and therefore legal. I still haven't completed that part of the project yet, but someday I will...

After I put the gate back on the trailer, I loaded up the piano and took it up to Symantha's house. She has wanted it ever since she managed to get her own place. Since it was in Arkansas, I had a legitimate excuse to leave it where it sat. But ever since we have moved a few thousand miles closer, I have run out of excuses and so we delivered it. It managed to ride just fine in the trailer on the way there, and thanks to a come-a-long and a piano mover, the loading it was really painless. The unloading it however was a very different story. Symantha's new place has too many stairs so this method was never deployed due to bad geometry.

Ahhh yes, our cat. For those of you how have visited out home in the last 6 months or so know that we managed to procure a pet. This is a very unique animal because it lasted at our house longer than a few weeks. (Animals in our possession seem to have a short tenure with us). This cat although seemingly exempt from this rule or trend was not so lucky, it just had a prolonged visit with us. Then it became either coyote food or bobcat food. It liked to go out at night and one night it never came back in. There are those who maintain that a neighbor claimed it (maybe) or it could have been ran over (again somewhat likely), but many people who live in our area have mentioned that if you have cats and you leave them outside at night, you wont have them very long. So Pharaoh is no more. And the bets are being taken as to how long it will be until another animal is allowed to grace our residence with its presence.

For those of you that don't know, at the end of January I visited the state of Maine. I was up there on business inspecting a piece of equipment that Arizona Electric Power Cooperative had ordered to be installed at the Apache generating station in Cochise, Arizona. This is one of the projects that I managed to inherit when I started so off I went to witness the factory acceptance testing. While I was there, I managed to drive down to Fort Williams State Park. It is the sight of a light house. This is the first lighthouse that I have ever visited. If the wind wasn't blowing at 30 miles an hour and the temperature was above freezing it may have been a more enjoyable time. As it was I was hiding out by the side of the building taking shelter from the wind - just standing there to say that I had been there. When I made it back to the car, my ears were numb. I learned however that lighthouses have horns that blow at a given interval for a given length in addition to the light beacon that flashes at the top. It is a low frequency, high amplitude directional sound and there were fences restricting visitor access and had warning sounds for the noise. Due to the weather conditions (winter) there were no tours offered while I was there. But nonetheless it was neat.

Return to Start Page