Changing the differential oil—it’s one of the most-overlooked maintenance tasks on non-FWD light trucks, SUVs, and passenger cars. Because the differential is at the rear and under the car, it gets none of the star treatment that the engine up front does. However, if lubrication in the differential fails, you won’t be getting very far for very long. Fortunately, you only need to change this oil every 30,000 to 50,000 miles (as always, check your owner’s manual).
The differential is a component in all cars and is designed to compensate for the difference in distance the inner wheels and outer wheels travel as the car goes around a corner. In a rear-wheel-drive car, the differential has its own housing and lubrication, a thick, dark oil usually heavier than 80 weight. Front-drivers typically integrate the differential in the transmission housing and share the same fluid. The differential oil lubricates the ring and pinion gears that transfer power from the driveshaft to the wheel axles. If your car is fitted with a limited-slip differential, it also keeps all the moving parts in that assembly healthy. Changing this oil is just as important as changing your engine’s oil, and for the same reason. Metal-to-metal contact wears down surfaces and creates heat from friction, which inevitably weakens the gears and leads to failure. Checking and changing the differential oil in a light truck is actually pretty easy, and it’s only a bit more difficult in a car. In either case, this small procedure can save you a big headache down the road.
Shelby American has definitely proven itself when it comes to tuning the Ford Mustang – look no further than its new 1,200-horsepower Shelby 1000 – but now the Las Vegas tuner has turned to the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor.
The big change for this already high-performance off-road pickup is the addition of a supercharger atop Ford’s 6.2-liter V8, with spent gasses exiting through a Borla exhaust system. This improves the horsepower rating from a stock rating of 411 up to a shenanigan-ready 575. For a Shelby, the styling of this F-150 is very toned down, with only the company’s name etched into the Raptor’s digital mud to go along with custom wheels wrapped in 35-inch tires.
Ever since I got Big Red, I’ve wanted to get a lift kit to jack it up a few inches. Not super high, but something with a few more inches ground clearance, better road views, and just a higher ride.
Not super high, but a few inches above where it is now. Simply said it rides much too low, and I think it would be fun to be a few degrees higher in the air.
Okay, maybe not that high. But I think it would be fun to jack up my truck. I work hard for a living, and should be able to get the toys I want. And it would be fun to e up high.
The reality is, I am probably not going back to college net year. If can I save up my pennies for the 6 months or so, I can pay for the lift kit, installation, rims, tires, and possibly “real” bumpers for the truck, to replace those awful tissue paper ones. That would be fun in my book.
I was wondering about how expensive it is to generate electricity with my pickup truck to power my accessories in the evening compared to the 16 cents a killowatt hour electricity I have at home from National Grid (including the 1.8 cent a killowatt hour surcharge for wind-hydro power).
Figuring…
The inverter and wiring has a maximum output of 800 watts. In an hour, it can produce up to 0.8 a kilowatt hours of electricty.
The truck battery has a reserve capacity of 120 minutes at 50 amps draw at 12 volts.
Gas is $2.75 a gallon. A Ford Ranger uses approximently 1/2 oz of gasoline per minute idle, and it takes 256 minutes or 4 hours, sixteen minutes idling per gallon.
Idle the truck 20 minutes an hour to keep the battery charged. That means each hour it uses 10 oz of gasoline, or 1/12 a gallon of gasoline.
Adds up to…
About $1.50 a kWh for electricity. While it takes more then hour to produce that killowatt hour energy, that’s what the net cost is. It’s 10 times the cost of utility plant, but that’s to be expected.
A pickup truck’s engine and alternator is not designed as a dynamo to efficently generate electricity. The primary goal of the alternator is keep the battery charged up, and the battery is designed mostly to provide a high amperage output to the starter, to quickly spin a cold engine with significant resistance from congealed oil in the winter.
Alternators are at best 50-60% efficent at converting engine power to electricity, and that’s on top of an engine that is probably about 20% efficent at putting power to drive line. That means the entire system is about 10% efficent, far below the 30-40% that most utilities can create electricity at.
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