Robert Hall

An 80s track w/ a video with a nuclear meltdown theme I like is Ultravox's 'Dancing With Tears in My Eyes'...

Manufacturing and delivering a product as complex as a motor vehicle to market with quality in quantity in a reasonable schedule is not an easy task or set of tasks. Maybe a BE powertrain simplifies to some degree compared to an ICE powertrain, but there are still many systems to integrate to produce a finished, complete vehicle...many of those systems and components are probably outsourced to suppliers, but there is a lot of work to be done to make it so. Obviously, big established companies like GM, Ford, VWAG, Daimler, Toyota, etc have decades of experience successfully bringing new models to market and should have an advantage--ICE or BE, compared to startups trying to do it all from scratch..

Beautiful sunny day today, out on I-77 south of Canton saw a couple strange sights...I saw a big rollback wrecker loading a presumably broken-down black current style Chevy Silverado HD 4dr that had been towing a large fifth-wheel travel trailer (like 35 foot or so)...was on a uphill section of I-77. Later saw two new (w/ temporary tags) Volvo three rear axle semi-truck cabs (googled the model--the 'VHD'), one red, one white, lots of chrome driving together...the odd detail was the red was flat-towing an older Honda CRV.. Saw a solid third gen Camaro IROC-Z in bright red, t-tops off rumbling along in traffic through Akron...paint was a bit faded in places, but it looked straight and solid. Had some Bon Jovi blasting.. Saw a new Land Rover Defender for the first time yesterday..wow, they are seriously ugly in person..esp. the rear with the weird taillights..they look tall and narrow... I was rolling along in my grubby JGC w/ the sunroof open blasting '90s U2. 4th trip to the farm in the last week, driven 800 miles over those 4 trips..fun, fun.. I washed it a couple weeks ago, but the automated car wash didn't get the caked mud out of the wheel wells..going to have to power wash it. Averaging 22-23mpg mostly highway.

I've put together a spreadsheet w/ all the info I've found...have all the VINs and license plate numbers and some registrations. Interesting how the pre-1981 cars and bikes have shorter VINs and less info available from the BMV. Definitely going to need a locksmith eventually. Will be working w/ my lawyer to transfer everything legally considering my brother had no will. My sister and I get along great. Her Trax wouldn't be very good in the mud and is very tiny inside, so we have to use the Jeep. Really wish I had a pickup for hauling dirty stuff. After owning and driving SUVs for almost 30 years, I love 'em, esp. JGCs. Comfortable and practical.

Mud mud mud and more mud. The driveway runs parallel to a creek with a few crossings of other creeks for 3/4 mile from the barn out to a county road. This photo doesn’t show how steep the hill is down to the barn. The photos flatten things out, but where the Jeep is parked is about 1/2 way up a steep hill from the barn to the house and upper garage. Can't go up the old driveway to there as it's a muddy, marshy mess and the '69 Mustang is blocking the driveway. Barn hadn’t been painted in at least 25 years. Jeep parked on the hill, house is up and to the left. There is an Explorer in the red garage up the hill. Was out attacking trees with my chainsaw today. The trees haven’t been trimmed since my Dad passed in 1999.

It’s a lot of work. Been down there three times this week, @180 miles+ per trip. The mud setting, 4 wheel low and hill descent control in the JGC have been invaluable for getting in and out. Once the mud dries up later in the Spring, I’m going to get the neighbor with the old International Loadstar dump truck to put down fresh gravel on the 3/4 mile driveway (as he has done for the last 45 years). He was a close friend and good neighbor to my folks. The biggest problem with my brother’s vehicles is finding keys to any of them. I found the keys to the ‘82 Mustang GT. Alas, I can’t get either it or my ‘87 GT out as they are blocked in by vehicles that are locked or unlocked and without keys. It was a mistake of my shopping my Mustang back there 20 years ago, but at the time I was living in a condo in Denver with one covered parking space. I last drove it in 2013 when visiting when my Mom was still alive, the farm was still in pretty good shape. Alas, it all went downhill after that… I don’t know anything about the Ford tractor, IIRC my brother bought that about 15 years ago. My Dad had a bigger John Deere tractor he bought around 1969 after he bought the farm. My Mom sold it in the early ‘00s after my Dad passed in 1999. I’m about the same age now that my Dad was when he bought the farm in 1968. He lived there over 30 years and it was a labor of love fixing up the old buildings, working on cars and wood projects, tending orchards, growing grapes and making wine, beekeeping, fishing in the two large ponds. Alas, it’s fallen into disrepair the last 20 years as my brother was a lazy sponger.

In time, yes. Through my efforts with the Ohio BMV website I now have the VINs for everything except two Cougars that were probably in my Mom’s name and not registered in years. I have a spreadsheet I’m filling out, a project plan and a set of tasks….per the BMV, the red BMW is a 1999 1100RS. There is also a 2004 BMW R1150RT. The BMW sedan is a black 2000 740iL like in the movie ‘The Transporter’.. The newest bike is a 2015 Triumph Scrambler.

Next trip I want to take more pics and figure out *what* is there…took a few pics yesterday. I know at least one is a Kawasaki XS1100, he was always talking about it. Doing queries on the Ohio BMW website to get more info.

Thanks, I had posted in the thread below with a rather cryptic title..my sister and I have a lot of work ahead of us. The farm is 90 miles south of where I live outside Cleveland, it's been neglected for a long time and he tried his darnedest to destroy our parents' 1859 home. The property has been in the family since 1968. Knowing we would have to deal with him and the property sooner or later is part of why I moved from Arizona back to Ohio in 2017. Alas, I was only able to visit once after our Mom died in 2016, and one of his feral dogs bit me and he chased me off...being that he had 45 guns and was mentally ill, I didn't feel safe visiting my own family property while he was alive. My sister and I had restraining orders against him the last 4 years, he spent time in and out of jail and a mental hospital, didn't do any good. Too. Much. Drama. You can't choose your family, unfortunately. We've been working on the weekends at cleaning up the house, trimming tree branches, looking for family heirlooms, etc. I've made a spreadsheet of his 12 cars and 8 motorcycles, been trying to find keys and any paperwork...because he was schitzophrenic, nothing was particularly organized. 2 Ford Ranger pickups, 2 Ford Explorers, a Bronco II, 2 Fox body Mustangs ('79 Indy Pace Car, '82 GT), 2 '68 Mercury Cougars, a '69 Ford Fairlane, an '01 BMW 740iL, a couple BMW motorcycles, a couple Honda motorcycles, a couple Yamahas, a couple Kawasakis. It was in the barn until a few years ago, when my idiot brother dragged it out w/ the tractor and parked it blocking the driveway. The left side is in mud almost up to the rockers. I put a new car cover on it yesterday. My Dad bought that car new, 351 Windsor 4bbl, automatic. My sister learned to drive in it. She wants to restore it, has a lot of family sentimental value. I last drove it maybe 30 years ago. In the 80s, my Dad and I restored it--replaced the rusted out floorpans, rockers, doors, rear quarters, had the shock towers rebuilt and welded up (a common rust out area in Mustangs). It has a little over 100k miles. In contrast, the photo below is how the property looked 32 years ago. The white '69 Mustang is now sitting to the left of where the '87 is in this photo.

Not all in one frame, but all on the mud farm this afternoon. The Jeep, my Dad's '69 Mustang I inherited and my '87 Mustang GT. Hope to get the Mustangs back on the road later this year after sitting for a long time. I have a lot of work ahead of me in this mess I've inherited... also an old Ford tractor outside the barn. I have a dozen cars/trucks/SUVs and 8 motorcycles that belonged to my brother that I need get titled, registered and sold eventually. Have to find keys for them first...

F Seibel 1859 M B A MAURER carved into the sandstone over the door...

The future doesn't look good for the desert void...hotter and dryer, less water available...4.5 million people in the middle of the Sonoran Desert isn't sustainable... glad I'm gone from that hellhole...

Isn't your GMC like 6500lbs??

It will be interesting to see how GM's competitor weighs...the Blazer BEV or Equinox BEV or whatever...I can't imagine it will weigh less. I don't think they will be as obese as the Hummer or Silverado EVs, but I don't think they will be as light as the ICE versions...

It is quite a busy design...but it is pretty light weight as far as BEV CUVs go. the 4 target values make for some interesting marketing-speak.

My family farmhouse was built in 1859, has the names of the builders or original owners carved in the sandstone over the front door...will have to take a pic of some of the details.

I only have a 36 inch inseam w/ 38 waist, 6'0"...in most vehicles, I find I have to have the seat all the way back, reclined a bit, and raised up off the floor because I like to see over the dash..but not so high my head hits the ceiling. Old cars without seat height or backrest adjustment and lack of steering column tilt/telescope can be a pain to get comfortable in.

For car-style EVs, yes, I could see the battery pack resulting in less footroom/floorspace than an ICE car of similar size...but for truckular BOF EVs like the Lightning, Hummer, and Silverado EV, the body sits on top of the frame like on a real truck and the battery pack is within the frame under the floor? So in theory, truckular EVs could have a pretty flat floor w/ no center hump...

Yeah, great role...I liked him in 'Accidental Tourist' and 'Broadcast News' also. A recent small part in the show 'Goliath' was very good also. Another good small role in a movie was in 'A History of Violence'.

^Yeah, I've never had a reason to have my legs in the center..not sitting cross-legged on the floor doing yoga. Without a trans/exhaust tunnel maybe more room in the center for storage. Can always use more cubbies.. Like a BOF truck or SUV..the cab sits on top of the frame..I assume the Ford Lightning is like this..

Yeah, always wondered how people parallel parked some of the cars in the ancient world...tiny rear window at a angle, no passenger side mirror, tiny driver's side mirror..I guess they parked by feel...stop when you bump into another car..

After about 9 hrs of driving yesterday (went to an Aunt's funeral in KY), I'm exhausted...slept in until 9-ish, got up, cold, snowing... yay....looking forward to Spring.

Not looking forward to the weather this weekend. Got around 200 miles roundtrip planned for this afternoon and 500+ roundtrip tomorrow. And it's supposed to snow all along the route. Just tired...looking forward to Spring..

Looks interesting..certainly has taken a long time...hasn't VW teased a modern retro styled bus for a couple decades now, even before announcing it being an EV? I seem to remember one or more concepts quite a while ago...(the EV concept version of this was 5 years ago!). Anyway, it should have the market to itself..no one else is doing a retro styled BEV van. (imagine GM building a new Dustbuster BEV van or Ford a new Aerostar BEV...could be fun!)

Yeah, that's just an MCE for the Ice version.