Things better improve

[Chris Chesley]

Sounds like you're going with the Lexus. I've never been one for all the hi tech gadgets and extras. (too cheap, too poor) However, rain sensing wipers (who knew?), smart cruise control, lane sensing/alerting, heated AND cooled seats, blind spot monitoring mirrors are all really quite easy to live with. Interestingly, my little Kia Niro has all but the cooled seats and rain sensing wipers. I DO like Kia's cruise controls better, their dash info is better than the Toyota and I think their 'logic' on the adaptive cruise control is better than the Toyota. Bummer too, that Toyota doesn't support either CarPlay or Pandora. (Kia does). The little Niro is a Prius killer, better looking, better riding AND better mileage but it isn't what you're looking for. Maybe one of their larger versions could work. Don't under estimate the Kia... I did for years but I've become willing to reconsider in the future.

[LarryHoward]

Chris,

Haven’t made up my mind. Going to look at the Subaru Ascent, the Acura MDX, Honda Pilot, Cayenne, Macan in Annapolis tomorrow if we get our butts in gear early.

I express my Dutch heritage by buying off lease to avoid the initial depreciation and driving them for a lot of years so I understand “cheap.” My concern with the “lesser brands” is more of a worry about long term maintenance issues and if it can reasonable expect to see 175-200K miles before I need to do it again.

[Rob McAlpine]

The MDX is so much nicer than the Pilot.

[LarryHoward]

The MDX is so much nicer than the Pilot.

Looking at an MDX and a Pilot (touring trim level) tomorrow.

[LarryHoward]

Busy day. Chris and I headed up to Annapolis for some shopping and test driving.

2019 Subaru Ascent. Surprised me. Decent interface. Nicely laid out. Plenty of power from the 2.4 Tutbo and the CVT was fine. Touring only available with brown seats. It could work.

2018 Acura MDX. Drove nicely. Interface for the “infotainment” a bit clunky. 9 speed hunted a bit in slow speed traffic. Class III hitch a $1687.00 upcharge.

Looked at but didn’t drive a Highlander platinum. No Apple CarPlay (coming in 2020 MY). Pricey for a Toyota.

2019 Honda Pilot EX-L. Was almost ready to buy this. A lot of car for $40k out the door (as opposed to $58 for the MDX with Tech package. Better interface than the 2018 MDX. Had some annoying wind noise at 35+ MPH on the driver and passenger side. Salesman offered it was the same in the other 2019 Pilots on the lot. Honda lost a sale over this.

2015 Lexus RX CPO. Familiar to drive. No CarPlay (sometime in 2019). Joystick interface to infotainment/climate difficult to use at a stop. Probably harder in motion.

Then Chris probably got me in trouble and talked me into stopping at the Porsche dealer. Drove a CPO 2017 Macan S and a CPO Cayenne diesel. With PDK, the Macan was true to its legacy and felt very Porsche like. The Cayenne was more hauler than sports car but really nice in its own way. Back seat cramped in the Macan but..... despite myself, I will have to think hard.

Good day and some decent choices. All had pros and cons but I think the Subie is somewhat better than the MDX. Shame about the wind noise in the Honda. Lexus RX CPO would be a familiar solution. Hard to pick between the fun factor of the Macan or the greater utility of the Cayenne but both are clearly Porsche’s and on the list despite any misgivings about longer term reliability.

Didn’t stop and look at the Nissan, Infinity, BMW or Merc options.

[Jamie]

All had pros and cons but I think the Subie is somewhat better than the MDX.

ORLY! And it's got 19 cup holders. CPO Cayenne is very tempting. Does the diesel need the horse piss, I mean blue tech fluid?

[kimbottles]

All had pros and cons but I think the Subie is somewhat better than the MDX.

ORLY! And it's got 19 cup holders. CPO Cayenne is very tempting. Does the diesel need the horse piss, I mean blue tech fluid?

Yes, all V6 VW/Audi/Porsche TDI’s need it.

[Anomaly]

All had pros and cons but I think the Subie is somewhat better than the MDX.

ORLY! And it's got 19 cup holders. CPO Cayenne is very tempting. Does the diesel need the horse piss, I mean blue tech fluid?

Yes, all V6 VW/Audi/Porsche TDI’s need it.

Huh? Pllease explain for those of us who are uninformed. Pray tell what is this horse piss biz all about?

[LarryHoward]

All had pros and cons but I think the Subie is somewhat better than the MDX.

ORLY! And it's got 19 cup holders. CPO Cayenne is very tempting. Does the diesel need the horse piss, I mean blue tech fluid?

Yes, all V6 VW/Audi/Porsche TDI’s need it.

Dealer told me it has to be replenished at 5,000 mile intervals.

[Ajax]

All had pros and cons but I think the Subie is somewhat better than the MDX.

ORLY! And it's got 19 cup holders. CPO Cayenne is very tempting. Does the diesel need the horse piss, I mean blue tech fluid?

Yes, all V6 VW/Audi/Porsche TDI’s need it.

Huh? Pllease explain for those of us who are uninformed. Pray tell what is this horse piss biz all about?

It is a blue, urea solution used to control diesel emissions. It's injected into the exhaust stream. You just add it to a resevoir. IIRC, it's not a frequent maintenance item.

[Olaf Hart]

It’s a better option than having to cash out $4k to replace a blocked diesel particulate filter in a 2007 VW diesel.

[kimbottles]

All had pros and cons but I think the Subie is somewhat better than the MDX.

ORLY! And it's got 19 cup holders. CPO Cayenne is very tempting. Does the diesel need the horse piss, I mean blue tech fluid?

Yes, all V6 VW/Audi/Porsche TDI’s need it.

Dealer told me it has to be replenished at 5,000 mile intervals.

Part of the emission fix on my V6 TDI Touareg is that VW supplies free ”AdBlue” refills.

They are good to their word as I pulled into the dealer several months ago and there was no issues, they just refilled it at my request and sent me on my way.

[BeauV]

All had pros and cons but I think the Subie is somewhat better than the MDX.

ORLY! And it's got 19 cup holders. CPO Cayenne is very tempting. Does the diesel need the horse piss, I mean blue tech fluid?

Yes, all V6 VW/Audi/Porsche TDI’s need it.

Dealer told me it has to be replenished at 5,000 mile intervals.

Part of the emission fix on my V6 TDI Touareg is that VW supplies free ”AdBlue” refills.

They are good to their word as I pulled into the dealer several months ago and there was no issues, they just refilled it at my request and sent me on my way.

I read someplace that the "normal" customer didn't bother adding the goat piss (I think they actually do use urea from goats, at least I heard that in a bar someplace ). One of the initial arguments about the emissions was: "It's the customer's fault for not properly maintaining their car." Then all the other shit hit the fan.

I think we have a one gallon bottle in our garage left over from when we had a Porsche Diesel. Free refills at the Vrolyk house.

[Orestes Munn]

Urea doesn’t do anything to maintain the engine. It just lowers NOx emissions by forming ammonia, which reacts with NOx in the exhaust stream, reducing it to water and nitrogen gas.

Urea is a major component of fertilizer and is a common industrial chemical. It’s a simple molecule and cheap to synthesize. They don’t get it from goats.

[BeauV]

Urea doesn’t do anything to maintain the engine. It just lowers NOx emissions by forming ammonia, which reacts with NOx in the exhaust stream, reducing it to water and nitrogen gas.

Urea is a major component of fertilizer and is a common industrial chemical. It’s a simple molecule and cheap to synthesize. They don’t get it from goats.

Good to hear!

[JoeP]

In order to meet Tier 4 emission requirements vessels with the new Tier 4 compliant engines must carry urea. For tugs that equates to 5-6% of fuel capacity. That sometimes makes it hard to refit a vessel with new engines because tugs are nearly all fuel tank. There are one or two engine manufacturers who meet the requirements without urea. GE engines do it with non-Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) catalytic converters.

[Jamie]

Urea doesn’t do anything to maintain the engine. It just lowers NOx emissions by forming ammonia, which reacts with NOx in the exhaust stream, reducing it to water and nitrogen gas.

Urea is a major component of fertilizer and is a common industrial chemical. It’s a simple molecule and cheap to synthesize. They don’t get it from goats.

It does change the tuning of the engine. You run a diesel lean and hot to get rid of the particulates and get power and efficiency, but that creates the NoX problem which is solved with the urea. It was wonder to everyone that VW figured out how to solve that trifecta of power, low NoX and no urea injection until it turned out they did it by cheating. Now they run with less power and run blue goo.

In order to meet Tier 4 emission requirements vessels with the new Tier 4 compliant engines must carry urea. For tugs that equates to 5-6% of fuel capacity. That sometimes makes it hard to refit a vessel with new engines because tugs are nearly all fuel tank. There are one or two engine manufacturers who meet the requirements without urea. GE engines do it with non-Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) catalytic converters.

That's really interesting.

[BeauV]

In order to meet Tier 4 emission requirements vessels with the new Tier 4 compliant engines must carry urea. For tugs that equates to 5-6% of fuel capacity. That sometimes makes it hard to refit a vessel with new engines because tugs are nearly all fuel tank. There are one or two engine manufacturers who meet the requirements without urea. GE engines do it with non-Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) catalytic converters.

Joe, I have read that GE builds Turbine engines that are used for Navy ships to make electrical power that is then transferred to the prop shaft via an electric motor. They are basically jet engines and burn jet fuel. Do any commercial vessels use these sorts of power plants or are they just for the big $pender$ in the military?

[JoeP]

Beau, GE does of course build marinized versions of their gas turbine engines. The LM 2500 is the one I am most familiar with. Back in the early '80s I worked at a company which built some 245 ft fast patrol boats for the Saudi navy. They were CODAG (COmbined Diesel And Gas turbine) and with all engines running had a top speed of over 40 knots. The gearboxes were something to behold with a massive bull gear to reduce the turbine's high rpm to something usable plus combine the output of the two large MTU diesels. There have been several gas turbine commercial ships built but I think they were not economical to operate.

The GE engines used for tugs and workboats are marinized locomotive diesels.

[BeauV]

Joe, thanks for all that. I am amazed that anyone would gear a turbine the drive shaft rather than just make electricity. I've clearly not done all the engineering studies needed. I can only imagine the sort of friction loss with a small pinion pushing a big bull gear! Eeek!!

The LA Harbor uses diesel/electric railroad engines for short haul and I know they are looking at putting wires over all the tracks in the harbor so they can eliminate the diesel engines entirely. They've just installed an other BIG natural gas generation station so that the ships can "plug in" when they are in port. The air is actually getting noticeably cleaner, the water is amazing!

[LarryHoward]

The Navy gas turbine Arleigh Burke class ships run 4 LM 2500s for propulsion for top speed and maneuverability. They get power from SSTG (ships service turbine generators) that use a variant of the T-700. That way power is available without propulsion.

Fuel burn from the 2500 is a concern and even during “peacekeeping operations” they have a fuel budget. Not unusual for them to conduct “drift ops” where they have a geographic box to stay in and will idle the main propulsion engines or shut them down based on operational issues.

[Ajax]

Speaking of military power, I am uh...(cough) thinking of getting a toy/dump hauler:

http://surplusmilitarydepot.com/1970-mi ... rgo-truck/

I'm looking at several vehicles, with a preference for the M35 2.5t over the 5t. I also have a lead on 4 HMMWV's with legal, clear, on-road titles.
I've driven and done some maintenance on all of these vehicles. I'm aware of what I'm getting into.

I'll bet Larry is glad we're not neighbors.

[Jamie]

Speaking of military power, I am uh...(cough) thinking of getting a toy/dump hauler:

http://surplusmilitarydepot.com/1970-mi ... rgo-truck/

I'm looking at several vehicles, with a preference for the M35 2.5t over the 5t. I also have a lead on 4 HMMWV's with legal, clear, on-road titles.
I've driven and done some maintenance on all of these vehicles. I'm aware of what I'm getting into.

I'll bet Larry is glad we're not neighbors.

Have you seen this? Here's what it takes to get it properly road-worthy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hofveQ8884k

[YouTube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hofveQ8884k[/YouTube]

Can't get these to post right anymore

[Ajax]

Yes, I've seen it. All the ones I'm looking at are road legal.

[SemiSalt]

Yes, I've seen it. All the ones I'm looking at are road legal.

The Army trucks that I had a touch of experience with (RVN, 1970) had multi-fuel engines. Gas, diesel, vodka, whatever you got. Also, the air intake and exhaust were quite high so they could power through water maybe 4ft high or higher. We took one for a bath in a stream one day which was rather fun.

The ones i rode in had the cargo bed covered with sandbags. I'd guess you don't need to do that, even in Maryland. Riding in the back of the deuce-and-a-halfs was fine, but the five-ton trucks were much more stiffly sprung and would through you around on a bumpy road.

[Jamie]

Yes, I've seen it. All the ones I'm looking at are road legal.

Wasn't implying you hadn't done your research - merely to point out it looks like fun to have truck that needs a crane for it's spare. The original single circuit brake system seemed a bit scary.

[Ajax]

Yes, I've seen it. All the ones I'm looking at are road legal.

Wasn't implying you hadn't done your research - merely to point out it looks like fun to have truck that needs a crane for it's spare. The original single circuit brake system seemed a bit scary.

No offense taken. Yeah, splitting the brake circuits seems like a necessary and simple enough project.

[BeauV]

Ajax, I was showing my Marine Corp son the pictures you sent of your new truck. He loved it, but thought you might want to entertain getting one of these to really drive the neighbors crazy. Happy Thanksgiving!

[TheOffice]

Beau,
What no launcher?

[BeauV]

Beau,
What no launcher?

LOL! No, and I did suggest that the tracked tank wrecker might be pretty unpopular with the guys who maintain the roads.