Feeling snubbed 😤

After doing some testing, I think I discovered I burned up the internals of yet another voltage gauge. Both the nice matching voltage-amperage gauge to the one on the solar, I was only using the voltage side of and a replacement voltage gauge have failed now. I thought it was a bad connection especially on the ground side of things, but after testing both gauges on the bench power supply, only after re-wiring the gauge, I discovered the gauges are fried.

I was like fuck. This sucks. Then I proceeded to try to figure out what is killing my gauges. At first I thought it was fly-back, but I already have a reverse diode protecting the LED on coil side of the gauge. But I came to realization most likely it’s a transient voltage spike when the relay closes that is frying the gauges. One gauge could be defective and have failed after sitting in storage for a while, but not both. I ended up ordering a 10-box of Resistive-Capacitive Suppressors and two more cheap volt gauges. I had wanted to order a second volt-amp meter like I have the solar/accessory batteries but I couldn’t find one, and figure it’s better to install a cheap voltage in case I burn that one out too. But transients are the only think I can think of killing the gauges. 🤪 Maybe it’s just for the sanity side of things, but I want to be able to look up and have a number associated with the state of charge on the starting battery while camping, in case that is getting low. I know this gauge is not essential but it for my sanity, knowing the truck has good charge on the starting battery, and as soon as I turn the key, it will spring to life.

Still thinking about dash cameras. 📹 I think I want to get one before summer vacation, but I want something that is good quality without the lens haze 🌫 the dash cam one on Big Red got sometime in late 2020 after 3 summers of use. I kind of like being able to document my trips and werid things I pass along on the roads, and I don’t want a super cheap one that is shit but also $230 by the time you figure in a high-quality SD card (they recommend an even higher speed 128-gb one for the wiz-bang new models) and add in tax. Lot of money, when your credit card bill is already over $1.1k, plus vacation expenses ahead. The tank is full of fuel in SuperDuty ⛽ but I’ll burn a lot of that when camping over the weekend, but the plan is top it off in Rotterdam on the way out to the Finger Lakes and hopefully only need one more tank before vacation is done if even that. And then just food, 🌭 some ice cream, 🍦 and supplies though hopefully not a lot. And it will go onto the mid-September due credit card bill 💳 which certainly helps. Maybe I’ll have to touch the rainy day fun to make my bills through August though I’m hoping not. 

I wanted to ride into work today, 🚌 but I saw the radar with the front approaching with heavy rain and thunderstorms, 🌩 so I hurried off to the bus. And caught the bus and shuttle to work. Hoping my luck streak continues and I can make it to the earlier local bus home again tonight, it seems like it runs persistently late, and despite the schedule, I still have managed to catch that earlier bus the past three times I’ve tried with no issues. Figure just keep an eye on the real-time bus tracking. Tomorrow, driving to work, and then heading to camp after work. 🏕 Going to head out to Schoharie for the weekend, Friday hike Vromans Nose, do some floating on the Schoharie Creek at Towpath Mountain, get veggies at Shauls, then in afternoon swim at Mine Kill after wandering around the fields and trails around there. Saturday, I want to hike Bramley Mountain Fire Tower and ride some of the Catskill Scenic Trail, north of Bloomfield, and maybe get ice cream in Stamford. Sunday, back down to Mine Kill and maybe some fishing in Looking Glass Pond. 🎣 See how the SuperDuty handles on those rough roads and hills up that way. Looking forward to going down the hills without having to pray I have enough braking capacity left at the bottom of the hills.

I guess after stop engaging and blocking the scammer on AutoTrader 🚘 the amount of replies I got for my truck slowed down. Or maybe then the algorithm started blocking them after I started flagging the obvious scams, but also didn’t want to block legitimate leads. Now I am getting them on cars.com. But no serious offers on the truck. I guess I knew it would take time, and maybe after vacation I’ll have to rethink the price, though I think $4,500 with the cap and lift kit is more then fair, though I get that the welding repair isn’t cheap, and there are a lot of old Silverados around. 

A week from Thursday is summer vacation. 🥓 That is once I get the bacon, I tell myself. And gas it up, for god knows how much, as Trump blows up the Middle East. ⛽ The way I look at it, is vacation is a little over a week away, and gas prices can only go up so much in the next two weeks. I don’t think fuel shortages are likely, and it’s best to enjoy summer vacation 🏖 especially if things look more uncertain for the second half of the summer, though I still think I will do some traveling the SuperDuty, because I’ve spent all this money on the truck, best not just leave it parked.