.png.3b3332cc2256ad0edbc2fe9404feeef0.png)
cheshiremusicman
-
Posts
816 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Downloads
Posts posted by cheshiremusicman
-
-
Idle for four hours, you bet. In the US many truck drivers have what they call a sleeper cab. In the winter the truck idles all night for two main reasons. The driver wants to keep warm and if he does shut it off, the diesel may not not start on a very cold morning. In Ohio years ago when I was farming, my John Deere diesel tractor would not start in the winter without the block heater and the crankcase heater turned on for several hours.
Ok sorry, I wasn't thinking in terms of the big commercial trucks and don't come from a country where these temperatures are experienced. So how do they overcome the 'glazing' problem - or do they just live with it and accept the consequences?
-
If you are going on safari, are you intending to take landscape or animal pics - or both. I assume that you will be trying to take both! Unfortunately, you need both wide angle and telephoto focal lengths to do these, which means that you will have to try and find a pocket camera with the biggest zoom lense that you can find. Wide angle equates to 28mm in 'old' 35 mm terms and about 6.2mm in digital format - telephoto would be 300mm or about 66mm in digital. The old standard 50mm lense on 35mm cameras would equate to about 12mm on digital.
I am not sure where you found these figures, but they are wrong........
The conversion factor for film/digital on an SLR is 1.6.
A 50mm lens is effectively an 80mm when used on a digital SLR
Yes, sorry! We are both correct, it depends on the size of the 'sensor' and I quoted the focal lengths as stated on the 10.7x zoom lense on the Fuji S9500, so it must have a smaller sensor fitted, but gives excellent pics. Like all technology, be it computers, cameras etc everything changes minute by minute, which usually means getting more in the pint pot ,but thanks for pointing out my error.
-
If turbo timers really were going to give you much better longevity I'm sure manufacturers would make then standard and not options.
Did you know that if you allow your diesel powered vehicle to idle or run at low RPM without a load for too long, it will cause 'glazing' of the cylinders? It takes about 4 hours plus to cause such a problem & the repair cost is much greater than replacing a turbo. Does the manufacturer install an "I've been idling/running at low load/low RPM for too long" timer? Of course not. But I'll bet if you read the owners/operaters manual, it will be mentioned.
Ceramic bearings may be a great improvement over steel and other materials but I wonder why haven't magnetic bearings been used ? Very simple and absolutely no wear and tear. The turbo would probably last longer than the engine.
This would be all well & good except that magnets are destroyed by excessive heat & vibration, both of which a turbo generates.
Can I ask, who in their right mind is going to "let an engine idle for about 4 hours"? Albeit I take your point about the "glazing" but does this not occur to some extent on the cylinder walls as a consequence of 'normal' running? I seem to recollect that years ago, when I used to do my own engine repairs, that the cylinder walls (petrol engines granted) had what I would have described as "glazing" or was I seeing some other effect?
Interesting about the 'magnetic bearings', but why the comment about vibration? If the turbo is running normally, there should not be vibration; otherwise it would wreck itself in no time.
-
What truck is it? 1KD-FTV sounds like Toyota series.
Sorry , didn't mention buying a 'truck'. Said that I had bought the 'Fortuner' and was relating what the manual said about the size/HP of the engine.
-
In Chiangmai at least, vitamins are cheaper at Makro than at pharmacies. Even the pharmacies admit this and say Makro is selling at wholesale prices. Another strange thing is that you can always bargain the price down on all products at chemist shops, sometimes by quite a large amount.
Thanks 'Boksida' I will try and bargain at a few of the pharmacies here in Hua-Hin, but maybe not having a Makro here will put a block on that! It's worth a try though. It would be interesting to know what you would have to pay at Makro if you are in there sometime - the Vit E that I bought were Australian import.
-
I bought 60 vitamin E (500mg) capsules a month or two ago and they cost me the staggering amount of 932B.
Can anybody explain why they should be so expensive here in Thailand and are there any alternative ways of buying it cheaper? The only way I can think of is to import them, but how much duty will they charge?
-
Does anyone know where I can get a copy of the Thai version of the Highway Code handbook, printed in Thai? There's an English version here but am looking for a copy for my Thai wife.
Thanks
I would suggest that your wife writes her own 'Highway Code handbook' as it seems that everybody else has their own views on 'How to drive' especially the motorcyclists - anything goes for them! plus the crazy pickup drivers. The only directions that I've not seen them approaching from have been out of the ground and falling from the sky.
Having read the English version, does any of it make any sense to you and did you glean anything that might help whilst driving here in Thailand? That was not a flippant question either!
Point taken but for some one who is learning how to drive from scratch I reckon they should try to get as much information as possible - not bothering to try to understand how things should work is no excuse for failure. Stopping distance charts are useful to understand for newbies as are the intended definitions of road markings.
Exactly, we can all learn something every day no matter where we are driving and I will now go out and buy the English version of the Highway code handbook to see what it contains. I trust that your wife has many happy and safe years of driving. Not a bad idea, to take her out somewhere nice and quiet and let her 'feel' the stopping distances for herself - nothing like experience at the end of the day and emergency stopping is not the kind of thing that you want to find out about for the first time when it's for real - frightening for anybody - no matter how experienced you are.
Again safe driving for all TV people.
-
hi cheshire, ( by the way i,m from congleton ,cheshire )
my nissan is a navara 2.5 diesel 4 door ,only 2 wheel drive , in the book it says 144 BHP. i bought it 3 months ago 1st June .i payed 649,000bt cash with the extras added plus insurance, at the time i did,nt know you could get a 3.0lt nissan in thailand . all the other makes seem to be coming down to 2.5lt also on diesels ....
Hi martynsnowman, glad to hook-up with someone from Cheshire - we used to live in Sale, so I suppose strictly speaking we were really not in C but post office told us that it was classified as C.
Your Navara sounds like a good buy at the price you quoted and I trust that it will give you good service. We had an Isuzu 2 door pickup on hire for some 3 months prior to deciding to buy the Fortuner. The Isuzu was 2.5l and I thought that it was a cracking engine with good fuel consumption. The biggest factor in the end came down to what we would feel happy with overall and we had some very bad floods on the road to our house which tipped the balance. We don't need 4 wheel drive and don't have any intentions of doing off road stuff, but heck that is what you get,permanent 4 wheel drive and we are very happy with the vehicle. Just had a look at the manual and as far as I can tell the 1KD-FTV engine 2982cc is rated at 182 HP, so more than enough power for us. I've heard of people getting these diesels re-chipped to up the HP to about 210HP - but don't know how heavier a burden that would put on the fuel consumption. Used to have a 540i Schnitzered BMW back in the UK so got used to going for a bank loan when I needed to fill up! so it's nice to be able to fill the tank for 1550B over here.
Happy motoring.
-
I switched to FS at the 10k service on my Vigo. Using toyota oil of course as it's still under warranty. I also read that engines should be run in on mineral before switching but these new engines don't need a lot of running in like older ones. I like it as I store my car for 2 months at a time and it only gets started every two weeks to charge the battery.
I remember years ago reading a article about a test that had been conducted in Hungary on the local taxis. One group had the oil and filters changed regularly according to the manufacturers spec and the other group only had the 'oil filter' changed every 5,000 miles and the oil in the sump just 'topped - up'. At the end, after some 100,00 miles of 'average' taxi mileage they examined the engines and found that the engines with the least wear were the ones that had only had the filters changed. Seem to remember that the explanation given was " the oil molecules had stabilised with wear".
Certainly, it pays to change the oil filter regularly and use the best one that you can lay your hands on and as previously mentioned, I certainly think that the oil companies want us to beleive that we should change the oil more regularly than is necessary,particularly with the very high quality of lubrication and long life that modern oils now have - not to mention the synthetic oils. I will put FS in my 'Fortuner' when it comes to the 10,000km service, or I might even take it in and have it done when I've clocked up 5,000km as I intend to keep the vehicle for years to come - hopefully!
-
I can confirm that fitting magnets to your car does give you more miles per litre.
First you must buy one of those huge scrapyard magnets and strap it to the front of your car/pick up.
Wait for another vehicle to pass and switch on the magnet, hey presto you get a free ride.
Totally buggers your brake pads though.
Mike.
Don't think that his will 'catch on' Mike!
-
Gel batteries are not designed for hot weather at all. Generally, they are designed to operate at between 20 & 25 degrees Celsius. Anything above 25 degrees will greatly reduce the discharge capacity, charge rate & capacity as well as reduce its' life.
I think most batteries operate in engine bays that are over 25C whatever the ambient temperature.
Cheers
Years ago I bought a 'Saab Turbo ( 8 valve APC)' and owned the car from new for 20 years before selling it on - still going strong. The point is that the battery in the car was changed 3 times in the 20 years and if any battery was ever sitting in a very hot enviroment then these baby's were, as they were located right beside the 'Turbo' - with only an asbestos heat shield between them - and that 'turbo' would glow orange; so I leave you to estimate what kind of temp was prevelant. I hate to think what temps the batteries had to contend with - but hey they must have liked it! Have to say that the batteies were big capacity ones - but for the life of me I can't recollect what the amperhour ratings were. As previous contributer has said, it is false economy to buy 'cheap batteries' always buy the best you can lay your hands on.
-
[Amazingly enough, the car's computer is quite accurate as far as fuel usage.
Bought a 'Fortuner' 3 litre diesel some 3 months ago and have been doing the fuel comsumption figures tank full to tank full and found that the car's computer was very accurate. I'm getting about 9km/l at the moment on short runs ( less than 12kms) and suppose that it will improve as the engine settles in and would expect to get 12/13km per L on a decent run in the future - don't know if that is about the right figure - and NO I'm not a heavy footed driver, far from it!
-
Ceramic bearings may be a great improvement over steel and other materials but I wonder why haven't magnetic bearings been used ? Very simple and absolutely no wear and tear. The turbo would probably last longer than the engine.
Hi 'sibeymai'. I've not come across 'magnetic bearings ' before, but the idea sounds great. What have you seen them used on upto now, just as a matter of interest.
-
Maybe the answer is for the POSTER of words is to include a English word or saying and UNDERLINE the section to indicate the pronounced word they have given.
Ie
fun = teeth or tooth
(I had FUN at the fair today)
Khaw-Thort = sorry / excuse me
(The rook makes a CAW sound, this is what I was TAUGHT at school)Pronounce as one word
Chock-Dee = good luck
(The last CHOCK was taken away by CynDEE so the vehicle could move)
See-Far = the color blue
(I can't SEE to FAR in the mist of the night)
Ling - monkey (generic name)
(Today on a fishing trip I caught a LING fish)
Gin-Jock = geko
(I drink GIN and tonic, but my scottish friend JOCK drinks beer)Pronounce as one word
tor-a-sap = telephone
(i TORE some bark from A tree and I could see the SAP dripping down) Pronounce as one word
Any one any thoughts on this idea, but for sure WE do need to use one format here, the problem is many Thai words have no English equivalent, but we should be able to get many many basic words on this thread.
Cheers
CF
As a complete beginner I think that this is a brilliant way of guiding us into speaking Thai; albeit at the basic level - but you've got to start somewhere!. I've bought numerous books, but find the explanations of how to pronunciate the words to be almost meanigless and the above is (for me) very helpful. I take the point that we (English speakers) all have our own different pronunciations ( dialects) but surely the same will apply to any language and if we get it 90% correct at least we stand a chance of having it corrected by a fluent Thai speaker. Let's have more of the above please and thank you 'Cheeky Farang' for your valued input to this forum.
-
Thanks for that info.........................
I just watched the whole special, North Pole Arctic Challenge.............. ( 1 Hour on You Tube ). Top Gear presenters are ace, The Vigo 4 Door Looks great and even Jeremy Clarkson could not believe that it never missed a beat.
I wonder why they didn't take a Ford ?
Does anybody know if Jeremy C has still got that Ford monster that would'nt run a single day without breaking down?
Bet he was sorry that he ever got the ###### thing, because he certainly didn't get much driving plesure out of it as far as I can recollect.
Can you buy DVD's of TG here in Thailand? miss the prog very much - ace program and presenters as previous person has said.
-
if the turbo is oil and water cooled it is totally unnecessary. for a fortuner, even more unecessary, as it's not in the class of cars that would need a turbo timer.
Forgive me for asking, but are you saying that the 'turbo' on the Fortuner / Vigo etc Toyota's are water cooled?
I don't see what difference it makes, as to what kind of vehicle the 'turbo' is fitted to, as surely it is still doing the same job irrespective of the performance of the vehicle. I know that a lot of newer vehicles have got ' Low pressure turbo's',
but they still 'spin' at a heck of lick and won't that mean that they still need time for the oil to circulate around the turbo bearings to stop the oil 'carbonising' or causing a deterioration in the oil feed pipes to the turbo.
I had a Saab turbo many years back and when you had been driving it at a fair lick for some distance you could see the turbo body glowing orange - pretty frightening the first time you witness this with the bonnet up, but Saab engineers told me it was par for the course. I used to allow the engine to tick over for some minute or two before switching off the engine as a previous person has stated ( and as advised by Saab) and this I beleive is probably still the best thing to do. I got 120,000 miles out of the Saab turbo before it expired one day without any warning - wondered what the h-ll was going on behind me when I took off from a set of traffic lights and saw this enormous cloud of smoke in the mirror - it was pretty frightening with the smoke pouring out from under the bonnet within the space of a minute or two and I could barely see where I was going. I was told that nearly all the turbo's that are used today have 'ceramic bearings' and these will last considerably longer than the previous bearings. Another thing that will probably help extend the life of a modern tubo will no doubt be the improved qualities of the oils used for lubrication in this day an age.
The only problem I have, is remembering to do what I've just said I should do when I come to switch the engine off - getting old and the memory is not what it used to be, so maybe an electronic device would be a great help.
-
Does anyone know where I can get a copy of the Thai version of the Highway Code handbook, printed in Thai? There's an English version here but am looking for a copy for my Thai wife.
Thanks
I would suggest that your wife writes her own 'Highway Code handbook' as it seems that everybody else has their own views on 'How to drive' especially the motorcyclists - anything goes for them! plus the crazy pickup drivers. The only directions that I've not seen them approaching from have been out of the ground and falling from the sky.
Having read the English version, does any of it make any sense to you and did you glean anything that might help whilst driving here in Thailand? That was not a flippant question either!
-
You might look at the camera menu and choose "fill flash".
Try that and see if your shots improve.
Yes, good point. Forgot to mention that one when I replied earlier. Many of the lower priced 'compacts' don't seem to have that facility, which is a pity. I think that it stops a lot of people experimenting and lets face it; with a digital camera, you can take all the shots in the world - until you fill up the memory card and it doesn't cost a penny to experiment, not like in the old days, when you could rack up a small fortune in film costs never mind the horrendous costs involved in using the old 'bulb' flash - you can tell how old I am from that comment. Many a burnt hand changing those old PF5 bulbs
. No excuses today for NOT trying anything - no matter how bizarre. -
We used 7 seas from the UK, they are all over the world, no problem at all, included electronics, power tools, bone china etc etc
A number of posters report satisfactory shipment, but don't say if that means they paid no customs duty or didn't mind paying what they were billed. Secondly they don't give the date of their shipment - rules can change over time.
I have argued the point a couple of days ago with AGS - and they are as experienced as any company in Thailand, and they insist that there is no exemption for a foreigner without a work permit. The best you can hope for is that the shipper will negotiate an acceptable sum with customs.
Hi everybody. Just got back to this thread and see that people want know when my shipment was - it was receved here in Hua-Hin 14th April 07 and to answer a previous question NO we did not pay ANY customs duty whatsoever to anybody. The total cost of our Door to Door shipment fro the UK was approx £1400 via Coles and Asian Tigers.
We also were given information by the Consul in Hull, that in his opinion we should NOT have to pay import duty once we had obtained our retirement visas and provided we imported within the 6 month timeframe.
-
Does anybody know of a Chiropodist in the HH or Cha Am area?. Not talking of foot massage, but a real chiropodist.
-
If you use San Paulo, you'll pay an extra 200B. Try one of the 'clinics', like the one opposite the main temple, near 'The Mall'. You ask for what you want, sit & wait for about 20-30 minutes & then they give you the certificate, for which you pay 60B or so. "Painful tests'? You quaint old fashioned thing -- the doctor won't even see you! I've used this method 3 times without problem.
Good luck!
Thanks for this tip.The wife and I need medical certs for driving licences this coming week and sounds just the place as we shop at the Mall quite regularly.
-
No its the one over the railway heading towards pala au road.
But never mind thay have gone now.
Mike.
Ok Mike, but many thanks for the info. I will keep an eye out for some more turning up.
-
I've been using the TT&T Maxnet 256/128kbps package since March of this year and it has been ok. Total cost per month was 1163B, but recently I paid for 12 months in advance and got 15% discount - hope that I don't live to regret this.
I have had one 'outage' that lasted 2 days and the cause was given as 'problems outside'; very enlightning!
Overall am happy with the package - no phone as such, as they say that we are still awaiting allocation of phone numbers here in HH, don't know how true this statement is - maybe someone can fill me in on this. We use 'Skype' and this has proved a godsend. Ideally I would like a faster download speed ( not bothered about upload as I don't play games online ) and will call into the TT&T office to see what, if anything, they have to offer at a reasonable price.
Using the http://myspeed.streamguys.com/myspeed test I get an average download speed of about 180kbps ad upload of about 70.
-
There is a stall outside G supermarket this week selling second-hand computers, I did see yesterday that they had a couple of laptops.
Worth asking.
Mike.
Thanks Mike. Is G the old supermarket, near the traffic lights nearly opposite where the police station is located?
Car Battery
in Thailand Motor Discussion
Posted
Certainly agree to match battery capacity to the alternator spec for the reasons that you gave and also the earthing remark.
Have come across a lot of weird problems associated with 'Bad earthing'
I can't understand why putting the battery down on concrete should affect the discharge? Surely the battery case will insulate the 'working components of the battery' from any external effects?