Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

Aren't the references to dolphins nearer to magic realism than surrealism?

No idea. The only people in this house who might know have banished me to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

On a very real note, I successfully cleared loads of dust and bigger detritus surrounding my model railway. I had the bright idea of using our leaf blower. Worked nicely.

Tony

[trisonic]

It's $2.85 for a US gallon here at the moment - slightly less than regular gasoline. That's around $0.70 (46p) per litre!

 

You're being seriously stiffed! 

We’re paying $2.49US per gallon for regular (At Costco $2.29).

 

I see VW have a TDI Passat that supposedly gets 540 miles per tank.... Diesel is about the same as for you.

 

Jersey is cheap because we have a huge refinery “in our backyard” (on the opposite bank to Staten Island on the Kill Van Kull) and I think the tax is something like $0.25US per gallon - the other plus is that customers are not allowed to pump their own gas  - so hands stay clean.

 

Best, Pete.

Edited July 15, 2015 by trisonic

[Tony_S]

 ...

I see VW have a TDI Passat that supposedly gets 540 miles per tank.... Diesel is about the same as for you...

 

Best, Pete.

If my Land Rover actually did the claimed mpg it would go a lot further than that. However the real mpg would give about 540 miles. Probably has a bigger fuel tank than the Audi though!

[AndyID]

I see VW have a TDI Passat that supposedly gets 540 miles per tank.... 

 

I'm willing to bet it will go a lot further than that. We have a Jetta TDi that regularly does 50 mpg. It would probably do here to Tacoma and back on one tank, but I usually chicken-out and fill it when the gauge gets down to 1/8th.

 

AFAIK, the Jetta and the Passat get similar mpg. Unfortunately, VW is stuck with the EPA rating method which favors gasoline engines more than diesels, so they cannot advertise the numbers most users actually get.

 

I had a V6 GTi (gas) and I don't think it was any faster than the Jetta. If you get a chance, test drive a TDi. The six-speed automated dual clutch transmission is really entertaining. MInd you, the TDi has so much torque, it hardly ever changes down.

 

I should confess I have a soft spot for VWs. I think the Jetta is number eleven.

[trisonic]

That’s interesting Andy because I’m looking for a runabout to downsize from a Pathfinder...... I do like the interior room of the Passat (I had a rental whilst in Italy).

 

Any suggestions will be followed up.

 

Best, Pete.

[trisonic]

If my Land Rover actually did the claimed mpg it would go a lot further than that. However the real mpg would give about 540 miles. Probably has a bigger fuel tank than the Audi though!

 The problem with the LR may have more to do with the  big tall frontal area, perhaps? I get an average of 11mpg with the Pathfinder.....................

 

Best, Pete.

[AndyID]

Only real problem was when Julie was driving and we came upon a car in our lane - we were doing a legal 130kph - which had almost stopped to read a road sign... English. Feck knows what they thought they were doing, at 30kph gazing upwards. We were being overtaken, so Julie couldn't go round them and it looked for a moment that, like on a bearhunt, we were going to go through them. It was some sort of microcar, we would have creamed it, but Julie managed to avoid it somehow. Phew.

 

 

Les @#$%^&* Gee Bees!

 

[Tony_S]

The problem with the LR may have more to do with the  big tall frontal area, perhaps? I get an average of 11mpg with the Pathfinder.....................

 

Best, Pete.

The quoted mpg for my car is 40mpg. However realistically it is doing 33.5 according to the computer. It is a 2.2 litre turbo diesel 190bhp. It isn't fast!

[Ian Abel]

I'd hate to start a fight amongst us ex-pats, but I'd actually prefer to pay a little MORE for gas provided the increase - let's say a nominal 10cents a gallon - went EXCLUSIVELY to mass transit/transportation infrastructure, but that'll never happen.

Seems everyone, whilst always moaning about it somewhat, accepts the roller-coaster but really CHEAP, relative to worldwide prices, gas we have here so long as it is applied by the gas companies to maintain their consistent quadrillion-billion dollar profits, but soon as there's a suggestion of having an increase to actually benefit "folks" instead of the miserly 1% you'd think you'd suggested starting WW 3!!! <sigh>

 

We've legacy/older car(s), a 2002 Chrysler Concorde that is exceptionally comfortable and still gets me about 30mpg on the freeway, and an aging Chrysler Minivan originating from the kids-were-kids days, that is down around 22mpg now as it's old - still a good workhorse for getting "stuff" from Home Depot, this weekend I need four sheets of 3/4" plywood so it will earn its keep.

I'd love a new high(er) mileage vehicle, but the basic economics of spending 25-45,000+ on a new car simply to get the relatively moderate increases in mpg doesn't make economic sense all the time gas is under $3 a gallon - do the maths and I'd need to drive it a zillion miles! One or the other of them will be un-repairable soon enough anyway   then I'll look for something improved.

 

Raining like buggery here now, and the temp has dropped about 3C with the heavy and cooler rain pouring down.

Edited July 15, 2015 by Ian Abel

[New Haven Neil]

Evening, a log in at last!  Last night's venue was useless, from a camping point of view and internet.  No wardens on site (or anywhere for them to live, so not a one off) - totally unmanned, very odd.  Maybe they don't want to listen about the useless interweb! 

 

Nice site tonight in Northwich, big but clean and excellent facilities.  Yesterdays weather was awful, so no decent SVR photos, not that there's enough bandwidth to upload them anyway.

 

Best wishes to all, esp Jock's SIL.  worrying.

[emt_911]

Ready for a proper ER tomorrow.

 

Night all

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. On the subject of left and right handedness my dad was left handed but at school he was forced to use his right hand and he became ambidextrous. My brother is also left handed and when he started junior school they tried to make him use his right hand, my dad went down to the school and complained to the head voraciously, and he extracted a promise that my brother would not be forced to use his right hand. I have been able to get 46 mpg out of my car on a run, not great for an 1100 cc city car but Hyundai i10's are rather low geared and also heavier than many similar cars. I have driven a Transit 17 seater with the 'lion' V6 diesel and 6 speed gear box. The performance was as good as many petrol engined cars but it was extremely frugal as well, I'm not sure of the mpg figures but probably similar to my car. An aid to this was the speed limiter (100 kph/ 63 mph) by resting one's foot on the accelerator it could be used as a crude cruise control.

[trisonic]

Of course it depends on where you are, Ian. We have an extensive commuter rail/mainline (Boston - Washington) tram/light rail system (up and down the Jersey side of the Hudson), Buses (everywhere). It’s reasonable, though NJT are raising train tickets by about 9.5%.

 

Take on the TEA’s in the Mid-West they don’t want to spend money on anything at all!

 

Best, Pete.

[Barry O]

Evening all!  

 

My honda civic with its 2.2l tubby diesel can do 55mpg to the gallon on the motorway which gives it a range of about 600 miles or so - the new one has a 1.6 tubby diesel which is claimed to do 79+mpg. but isn't as quick off the  mark.

 

I did have a passat estate and it was great but boy the seats were hard!

 

Have a nice sleep everyone!

 

baz

[trisonic]

Sign of the Times:

 

My Sister is a Marine.

 

Sticker seen today on the trunk of a Honda Accord.

 

Best, Pete.

[Barry O]

My sister was a WAAF......

[andyram]

Evening all. I hope to hear good news about those with ailments soon. Here in Derby things have been warm and muggy. It has made the day very hard work, especially after the sleepless night last night. I definitely needed a few mugs of coffee to get me through the day. It ended with a tricky staff meeting. I definitely managed to upset a couple of staff by pointing out they had been doing something the right way. I am sure they did not want to hear that!

 

7 days to go. Hopefully the aches and pains will ease before then.

[Jock67B]

Evening all,

Brief visit before going back over the days posts in an attempt to catch up. Meanwhile, generic commiserations/congratulations as deserved!

Thank you all for the tremendous support for my son in law - my daughter tells me that he was visibly moved when she told him of your interest. He is still in isolation whilst they try to discover exactly what attacked him, but he has been stabilised and hopefully no lasting damage has affected his brain or major organs. Warning to all not to 'pee' while swimming/diving in a river in such countries as the specialist at the hospital is convinced that this is likely to be how the microbes entered his system! He was enjoying high diving into the river - a regular tourist attraction in that area! The company organising the adventure activity might not know how many people get ill, as the symptoms don't show for some days, typically after the tourist has long since gone home. Samples are with the tropical disease specialists at the relevant London hospital, but they seem happy that any remedial actions can be carried out at Colchester, under their guidance. I will post any updates as and when.

I'm off to look at several pages of ER wisdom now and hope to be back posting in the morning!

Kind regards,

Jock.

G'night all!

[AndyID]

My honda civic with its 2.2l tubby diesel can do 55mpg to the gallon on the motorway which gives it a range of about 600 miles or so - the new one has a 1.6 tubby diesel which is claimed to do 79+mpg. but isn't as quick off the  mark.

 

 

Just a reminder that US gallons are smaller than UK (Imperial) gallons, although why the UK is still using gallons at all is an interesting question

 

The Imperial pint is 20 fluid ounces, but the US pint is only 16 fluid ounces. To compare US MPG numbers with UK MPG numbers, multiply the US number by 1.25 (or add 25%). So 50 MPG (US) is equivalent to 62.5 MPG in the UK.

 

In the other direction, subtract 20% to get the US equivalent of the UK number, so 55 MPG (UK) is equivalent to 44 MPG US.

 

(Trixy things percentages.)

[Two_sugars]

Goodnight all . . . .  Pleasant dreams.

 

John

[newbryford]

Just a reminder that US gallons are smaller than UK (Imperial) gallons, although why the UK is still using gallons at all is an interesting question

 

The Imperial pint is 20 fluid ounces, but the US pint is only 16 fluid ounces. To compare US MPG numbers with UK MPG numbers, multiply the US number by 1.25 (or add 25%). So 50 MPG (US) is equivalent to 62.5 MPG in the UK.

 

In the other direction, subtract 20% to get the US equivalent of the UK number, so 55 MPG (UK) is equivalent to 44 MPG US.

 

(Trixy things percentages.)

 

Our hydraulic engineers used to have fun when we started exporting stuff to the US. ( I used to work in the paper machinery industry). The manuals stated the capacity of the oil tanks in imperial gallons/litres and it took them awhile to figure out why the US customers were having trouble with repeated low oil level warnings.

 

The UK still uses mpg as a fuel consumption figure as we generally haven't fathomed out the alternate litres/100km, mostly because we still use miles as a distance measurement, but fuel is sold in litres (not liters). Although the motorway network has (mostly) regular 0.5km signs and the marker posts at the side are in 100m increments.

 

I still buy loose sweets in 1/4lb quantities, although there was a general push towards 200 grammes a few years ago until a legal challenge.

 

I'm one of the generation that grew up with decimalisation and metrication and still mentally convert 300mm to approximately 1 foot, before visualising it with my hands in the "one that got away fisherman style" with my hands spaced at the relevant distance.

 

Heck - I even go to the local woodyard to order wood for baseboard building with "I'd like a piece of 9mm ply, cut to 4' x 2' " and the even more complicated, "I'd like a strip of 9mm plywood, 4" wide and 2' long, minus 18mm" (It's an end section for a 4'x2' made from 9mm ply......)

 

As for playing golf in mainland Europe and using metres (not meters) instead of yards, for distance, then I'm confused.

 

Cheers,

Mick

Edited July 15, 2015 by newbryford

[AndyID]

Our hydraulic engineers used to have fun when we started exporting stuff to the US. ( I used to work in the paper machinery industry). The manuals stated the capacity of the oil tanks in imperial gallons/litres and it took them awhile to figure out why the US customers were having trouble with repeated low oil level warnings.

 

The UK still uses mpg as a fuel consumption figure as we generally haven't fathomed out the alternate litres/100km, mostly because we still use miles as a distance measurement, but fuel is sold in litres (not liters). Although the motorway network has (mostly) regular 0.5km signs and the marker posts at the side are in 100m increments.

 

I still buy loose sweets in 1/4lb quantities, although there was a general push towards 200 grammes a few years ago until a legal challenge.

 

I'm one of the generation that grew up with decimalisation and metrication and still mentally convert 300mm to approximately 1 foot, before visualising it with my hands in the "one that got away fisherman style" with my hands spaced at the relevant distance.

 

Heck - I even go to the local woodyard to order wood for baseboard building with "I'd like a piece of 9mm ply, cut to 4' x 2' " and the even more complicated, "I'd like a strip of 9mm plywood, 4" wide and 2' long, minus 18mm" (It's an end section for a 4'x2' made from 9mm ply......)

 

As for playing golf in mainland Europe and using metres (not meters) instead of yards, for distance, then I'm confused.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

I was initially taught in the Imperial system at school in Scotland, then we were taught the MKS system and eventually switched to the SI system. At uni, they were still using a lot of Imperial units, so I had to work in both. Then I moved to the US and nobody had a clue what I was talking about (partly, no doubt, on account of my accent)

 

When the UK was converting to the metric system there was an ad in the paper explaining how the transition would not be a problem. The example they used was how model railway enthusiasts in the UK had being doing this for years without any problems by using 4 mm to the foot !!!

 

(Does anyone have a copy of that? I think it came out around 1972.)

Edited July 15, 2015 by AndyID

[roundhouse]

Andy - Quite often when in the craft brew pubs in the States we get asked if we want a 16 oz or a 20 oz pint

 

Mick - I do exactly the same when ordering timber for layouts despite being in construction where we measure everything in metric.

[AndyID]

Quite often when in the craft brew pubs in the States we get asked if we want a 16 oz or a 20 oz pint

 

I'll tell them that at the gas station

[trisonic]

It is odd, is it not that the UK still commonly refer to mpg whilst buying gas by the litre? I use to pity the poor Canadians who drove Chevy, Ford and Dodge pick up trucks yet paid Euro style taxes on gas. When I was young the UK had the cheapest gas in Europe.

 

Best, Pete.