What was your prep for today?

[Poppy]

My front door is 150-200 feet from where I park my GC Jeep in the driveway. I bought one of those large golf umbrellas at the Home Depot for about $8 and I keep it at the front door. I wanted to get a Jeep logo'd compact umbrella to keep in the car, but they were 3x the cost of a similar un-logo'd one, so I scratched that idea. I bought one of these instead.

Amazon.com

Well... my prep paid off in spades yesterday.
We had torrential rain yesterday for a half an hour at a time, interspersed with heavy rain. Flash floods abounded.

The compact umbrella, is small enough to store in a pocket in the door. It opens with a push of the button and is not unwieldy in size as I'm trying to get out of the car while grabbing my brief case. It is large enough to offer protection for short distances, even in heavy rain.

 

[Poppy]

A couple of weeks ago I bought a pair of front tow hooks for my Jeep Grand Cherokee. I finally got under the truck to unclip the front bumper cover and bolt them in place. With my recent move, I gave away most of my tools, including my floor jack. As a result, when I got under the truck the lip of the bumper cover was only about 4 inches from the tip of my nose.

I gathered up the tools that I brought out, and put them away.

I took it to a local mechanic, and fortunately one of his bays was empty, and he could take it in right away.

Now I have a pair of tow hooks installed. Now, if I put something on the roof rack, I am prepared with front tie off's. I find it amazing that the Jeep doesn't have good tie off locations.

 

[bykfixer]

Good idea @Poppy.
Trailer hitch on the rear?

 

[Monocrom]

This is going to seem very minor, but the little things matter.
Bought a 10-piece Husky file (variety) pack last week. Actually, eight pieces with two red plastic file handles. According to the literature on the back, you're supposed to remove the handles and re-attach them on the small or larger files as needed. One, that makes zero sense because whose going to constantly swap out file handles back-and-forth as needed? No one. Two, with anything that is friction-fit, the more times you remove and fit the item, the less secure and more loose it becomes. Ideally for the tightest fit, you want to fit it once, and leave it alone.

So, eight files. But two are needle files that have stubby handles attached. Picked one large file for the large handle, and one for the smaller one. Pounded both in for a tight friction fit that won't be going anywhere. One is a 4-way file, so literally no place for a handle. That left me with three. One large file, two smaller ones. Went on eBay, bought a couple of Nicholson plastic file handles with inserts. Each handle comes with four hard plastic inserts. Giving you a universal fit regardless of what shaped tang your particular file has. Put the tang in the right insert. Then the insert into the handle itself. Pound it in! Wow, that's a tight fit!

Thing is, I realized that once the large file was taken care of, two of the other three black inserts were ideal for the two smaller files. One of them fit the round file, the other one fit the chainsaw sharpening file. Unintended, but I ended up using just the inserts with the two remaining files. Worked out perfectly! Wrapped the chainsaw sharpening file insert in woodland camo duct-tape. Left the other one alone. One handle with four different inserts took care of the three (for lack of a better term) "naked" files. And, I still have another handle with four more inserts left over. This worked out great. My prep. was basically making sure all of my files in my toolbox had handles. Yeah, minor thing. But who wants to use a tool that is going to stab them in their palm during use?

 

[The Hawk]

A couple of weeks ago I bought a pair of front tow hooks for my Jeep Grand Cherokee. I finally got under the truck to unclip the front bumper cover and bolt them in place. With my recent move, I gave away most of my tools, including my floor jack. As a result, when I got under the truck the lip of the bumper cover was only about 4 inches from the tip of my nose.

I gathered up the tools that I brought out, and put them away.

I took it to a local mechanic, and fortunately one of his bays was empty, and he could take it in right away.

Now I have a pair of tow hooks installed. Now, if I put something on the roof rack, I am prepared with front tie off's. I find it amazing that the Jeep doesn't have good tie off locations.

View attachment 66989

Jeep looks sharp!

 

[Poppy]

Good idea @Poppy.
Trailer hitch on the rear?

You mean like this?

That little blue connector wire is to power the trailer lights module. Instead of getting under the truck to snake a wire all the way up front to the battery, I put a quick connect connector onto the feed wire, and a connector on the positive wire to a cigar lighter plug. When I use a trailer, I'll connect the two quick connect plugs, and plug it into a 12V power outlet that is in the right side cargo area.

Jeep looks sharp!

Thanks @The Hawk
I'd like to put pin stripes on her, but both of my kids said NO! Dad, that's too 70's.

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

Just got a 60 watt Rich Solar panel with Anderson connectors in the mail. Was only $45. Panel fits nicely in the trunk of my car. Got an Anderson to 12 volt cigarette lighter connector to plug it directly into 12 volt stuff ($12). Had recently purchased an off brand Milwaukee 18 volt battery car charger ($20). Add in my Milwaukee Top Off, Milwaukee 18 volt batteries, and 700 lumen lantern and I should now have off grid solar power up to 175 watts A/C with options for car and home charging (have 120 volt charger too).

Small battery stations limit use by making you have to keep plugged into the solar panel. This usually limits battery capacity, often requires disposing of the whole unit when the battery dies, makes you choose between an undersized unit that charges quickly or a heavy unit that costs a fortune, and doesn't allow you to use the power somewhere else while charging another battery.

Hopefully the system I got will be much more resilient for different situations. I can charge one battery with the solar panel while using another with the inverter somewhere else. If there's no sun, I can charge with my car or a generator. If a battery dies, I can slide it off the inverter and use a different one. One part of the system fails and I'm not spending hundreds to replace it (other than the batteries, if all of mine fail). Now if I only had the money for a 12 amp Milwaukee 18 volt Forge battery or 2 I'd be set. My batteries are 7-9 years old (but still working). I'm grateful I invested as much as I did in power tools when I was an electrical apprentice.

 

[bykfixer]

You mean like this?

View attachment 67035

That little blue connector wire is to power the trailer lights module. Instead of getting under the truck to snake a wire all the way up front to the battery, I put a quick connect connector onto the feed wire, and a connector on the positive wire to a cigar lighter plug. When I use a trailer, I'll connect the two quick connect plugs, and plug it into a 12V power outlet that is in the right side cargo area.


Thanks @The Hawk
I'd like to put pin stripes on her, but both of my kids said NO! Dad, that's too 70's.

Tasteful black pin stripes look sharp on a white vehicle.

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

Went to the San Marcos, CA Walmart. Got an Ozark Trail Multipurpose Tarp Shelter on clearance for $13. This is 144 square feet (12 x 12 feet) with two seven foot poles and 6 stakes. Original price was $45. Saw they now carry Mora knives. Got a Morakniv Basic 511 C in orange for $11.32. Was tempted to get the larger one for around $20, probably a Companion. I passed. Money is too tight.

 

[Monocrom]

I know what you mean about money. My prep. was basically unboxing and examining my two Baofeng UV-5R radios.

Fully aware of the controversy behind that model.
Not stupid enough to screw around with them while switched on.
But yeah, easiest and cheapest way to get into HAM radios.
Get the gear first, then do a massive amount of research into using it.

 

[MyUsernameTX]

UV-5R's serve their purpose

I'm not loaning out a $300 handheld to some random person, a UV-5R? Sure.

Once you get more into it and get better radios, now you've got some spares

 

[orbital]

I know what you mean about money. My prep. was basically unboxing and examining my two Baofeng UV-5R radios.

Fully aware of the controversy behind that model.
Not stupid enough to screw around with them while switched on.
But yeah, easiest and cheapest way to get into HAM radios.
Get the gear first, then do a massive amount of research into using it.

+

Picked up some of these about a year ago for my two UV-5R
..the Type C charging is easier

Amazon.com

 

[Monocrom]

Thank you, I'll likely pick those up.
Also ordered two 16-inch antennas for each UV-5R when I ordered the radios. Still waiting on those. Nearly ordered the antennas with the wrong connector. Good thing I double-checked.

 

[Monocrom]

Yesterday, I bought an Oupes Exodus 600 portable Power Station.
Along with 100watt. solar panel and 20ft. extension cord from the Oupes company official website at a sweet discounted price. All thanks to a heads-up by fellow member Hooked on Fenix whom I greatly respect. Saved $128.oo (plenty of money to spend on other preps., gear, or flashlights.)

Didn't plan on spending $300.oo yesterday on a Power Station. However, I do need another one as my Westinghouse iGen 160s is the least powerful Power Station currently being sold on the market.

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

Got my 1 foot Anderson to 8mm solar connector in the mail today for my new Oupes Exodus 600 power station. Got a Harbor Freight Thunderbolt 7 piece solar power connection cable kit. I had already purchased a 60 watt Rich solar panel and got an Anderson to 12 volt cigarette lighter adapter cord. I've been playing with the Oupes, my old 45 watt Harbor Freight Solar kit with 100 watt charge controller, 400 watt universal solar connector, old Costco deep cycle battery, and 400 watt Wagan true sine wave inverter.

The Oupes needs more voltage than the 12 volt battery to charge by itself (12 to 24 volt dc converter can fix that), but I was able to charge it by A/C through the inverter and add on the power of the solar (needs 15 volts minimum) with the 8mm jack from the Harbor Freight kit. Panels were old (1 of three is broken) and only giving 14 watts (but they're dirty, it was partly cloudy, and it's almost winter). Cord for Rich solar panel didn't come until after dark so I didn't add on that panel. I was getting 300-310 watts of power into the Oupes until my old battery went low.

With the Anderson to cigarette lighter adapter, I should be able to connect that to the male c.l.a. and 10 foot cord into the universal solar controller. Then connect the 45 watt kit into that controller with the short 8mm jack cord as the output. Plug that into the Oupes solar input. Hook the inverter up to the battery and plug it into the Oupes A/C outlet. Should give me a nice hybrid and somewhat expandable setup.

I can leave the old setup charging the old battery when not using the Oupes to build up a charge. Drain the lead acid battery quickly and top off Oupes with solar to speed up charge times. Charge with both panel sets and battery to make charging faster. For on the road when stopped, I can charge a bit with car battery (with inverter hooked directly to battery, not outlet in car) and the rest with solar at same time. Limitation is my charge controller and Harbor Freight kit are only good for about 100 watts. So I can charge at about 400 watts, but realistically probably closer to 380 watts with old panels and probably for 15-30 minutes before it drops to 80 watts. Do not want to try plugging into cigarette lighter with this setup. Wire will get maxed out as well as the outlet.

 

[Monocrom]

Okay, technically not my prep.
At my 3rd Shift job, the compactor room is outdoors in a fenced in area. It looks hideous. So the fence and door are covered in fake plastic green grass. They are in panels, and completely falling apart this year. Let's just say a certain someone took zip-ties and managed to fix most of the issue.

 

[MyUsernameTX]

A while since I posted here, but I've been up to a lot

I have a cheap WEN GN400iM Inverter generator which is pull start. I think I paid something like $250 for it, and it runs great. After much back and forth on oil forums, I decided to keep 15W-40 oil in it, as it can be had cheap at Costco and won't sheer too thin like 5W-30 in the hot Houston weather (I'm no oil expert, blast me if you must)

I had some concern that if I needed to loan it to a neighbor during a winter freeze like we sometimes get, it may be too think to properly lube the engine. Also, I wanted something to play with...

So, I bought a cheap 50w stick on block heater from Amazon for $12 for a 2 pack and tested it. It was only 52 during the day, not freezing, but I just wanted to see if it would work. I will for sure test again in the freezing

Some notes

* Stick well, may use some high temp glue/epoxy if I'm happy with the install just to make sure
* It cycles on and off, so it seems the thermal transfer is not super great. Of course the front of the pad gets hot too, so a bit of wasted heat. I think anything more than 50w would be overkill for this size engine.
* Do I trust it powered on in my garage? Unsure. I may put in a small 2a inline fuse

On my cheap WEN GN400iM there is a nice smooth area right near the dipstick, and it just happens to be a perfect size. I cleaned the area with soap and water, and then some alcohol, and slapped it on there, and it seemed to stick really really well.

Starting temp, 54.8. This generator lives in my garage, so I was surprised to see how close to ambient it was. I thought it would be warmer! It did get much lower at night, so possibly its still recovering. Note that after reading temp, I put the dipstick back in

Plugged into my Ecoflow River 2 Pro

As you can see, it draws more than 50w, its actually 77w

After 10 mins, the oil is reading 70.8 degrees. The dip stick was now warm to the touch, and the entire side and the bottom of the generator was warm.

Of course the reading is right near the heat pad, however I did move the engine around a bit and even pull the cord a little just to try and move the oil in the pan, and it stayed the same. This is a very small engine, so I think the oil is probably a fairly even temp. You can see its quite narrow

After another 10 mins, so 20 min total, its at 82!

Did some cable management

And fired it up (Started first pull) and charged the Ecoflow back up.
I let the generator run for around 30 mins and it seemed to stay stuck on just fine

 

[MyUsernameTX]

Here is a MASSIVE hurricane prep, I should have done years ago. When Hurricane Beryl hit, the wind was blowing sideways and we got water into our big Gable vent

You can also see that the siding looks like junk, its very wavy. There is about 10 2x4's with the wide side facing out, so the worst way for strength, which the junk siding is attached to. The siding itself is junk, it was this horrible almost cardboard type substance, it has zero strength. Honestly, I'm shocked we even made it through the hurricane

So, I had it all ripped out, brand new 16 inch on center framing, OSB, House wrap, and then Cement board siding. And NO VENT. Try leak now!

This wall is now about 10,000x stronger!

Just gotta caulk and paint it now

 

[MyUsernameTX]

Next big prep, if you read the above post, you see my new siding

Well, there was a casualty... my AC lineset got a nail right through the center

I took this opportunity to pour a concrete slab for it, instead of the at-grade stupid foam pad. Here are some progression pics.

I also got a brand new lineset

And finally the AC on the slab, with the dirt now graded properly

How the AC looked when it was new

Now

The old pad was actually packing foam under the fake concrete surface

New lineset now goes up and over, instead of along the floor of the attic

 

[MyUsernameTX]

And ANOTHER prep, that goes along with the above. Now its on a 6+ inch concrete slab, I can anchor it to the pad

This thing aint going ANYWHERE