The Annual "Griping" About Start Times Thread

IanMcVittie said:
I get what you are saying as there was a time where Nascar took precedence over all but football. As the series watered itself down I became more selective in what races I watched as some are not even worth recording to me. I see most of them though even if it is an abbreviated viewing
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Jeff Gordon retiring was the catalyst for my shift in my level of engagement in all things NASCAR. Ironically, I have more fun watching the races than I used to because I don't really care much about who wins. I am in it purely for the racing, drama and chaos. My mood is no longer dictated by the fate of a single driver.
 
Matthew2470 said:
Jeff Gordon retiring was the catalyst for my shift in my level of engagement in all things NASCAR. Ironically, I have more fun watching the races than I used to because I don't really care much about who wins. I am in it purely for the racing, drama and chaos. My mood is no longer dictated by the fate of a single driver.
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yeah I like quite a few drivers in all the series and some I don't. Works pretty good that way.
 
IanMcVittie said:
I agree that Nascar is over saturated and they have more product and series than meets demand. I
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That's an interesting point. Would you care to speculate further regarding which series or product may be 'right sized'? I could easily see either of the two main feeder series going away at the end of the current contracts. Hopefully some of that will be offset by increased attention to the regional series.
 
Matthew2470 said:
Jeff Gordon retiring was the catalyst for my shift in my level of engagement in all things NASCAR. Ironically, I have more fun watching the races than I used to because I don't really care much about who wins. I am in it purely for the racing, drama and chaos. My mood is no longer dictated by the fate of a single driver.
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My mood was rarely affected negatively by Matt Kenseth's performance, but I understand entirely where you're coming from regarding it being more fun by being in it now purely for the racing.
 
StandOnIt said:
same ol dog and pony show. I guess if you buy into the more more more mentality people have been fed since birth in the U.S. that's supposed to mean something. It's business, I have lived all my life around boom or bust oil men, had a boom or bust business myself. Ya make changes for ups and downs.
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Unlike a commodity like oil, in show bidness it's usually best to leave them wanting more.
 
StandOnIt said:
missed that one. Guys around here aren't selling until the price goes up. ;) Economics. BTW USGS just found a huge field on the New Mexico/Arizona border, and I mean huge.
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Great. Anything that reduces the case supporting off-shore drilling off the hurricane-threatened southeastern coast.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
That's an interesting point. Would you care to speculate further regarding which series or product may be 'right sized'? I could easily see either of the two main feeder series going away at the end of the current contracts. Hopefully some of that will be offset by increased attention to the regional series.
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My guess would be that the X series would be the one to go given the dislike the American public has developed for sedans. I think developing a feeder series with cars or trucks that mimicked cup cars would be smart. It would give young drivers a true taste of what they would be driving. Of course with the lack of overall support the lower series receive they may end up in peddle cars.

I think Nascar needs to embrace becoming smaller and use the right sizing to its advantage
 
Matthew2470 said:
Jeff Gordon retiring was the catalyst for my shift in my level of engagement in all things NASCAR. Ironically, I have more fun watching the races than I used to because I don't really care much about who wins. I am in it purely for the racing, drama and chaos. My mood is no longer dictated by the fate of a single driver.
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I'm pretty much the opposite. I HAVE to have somebody (preferably two) to root for, or if all else fails, somebody to root against. That's why from very early on I developed a feeder system of driver fandom in lower series so if I need a new face to replace an old one, I have options. Jimmie Johnson fell into my lap because at the start of the 1998 season I needed a second driver in ASA to support besides Scott Hansen. I latched onto Chase Elliott early on, because it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if he was half way decent he would become the heir apparent to Jeff Gordon. I got Jeff Gordon when Penske defected to Ford in 1994. I had already been following his career, and once he signed with HMS, he became option #2. A year later, he inherited my #1 slot. My wife has NEVER let me forget that sometime in 1994, I told her I thought he would probably have a solid but unspectacular career, maybe 20 wins and a title. I totally whiffed on JJ. Until he won his first Cup race, I wasn't sure he was even capable of doing so, and it wasn't until he won for about the fourth time that I started to think he could be something REALLY special. Racing just wouldn't be the same for me if I didn't care who or what won. That doesn't mean I can't enjoy a race where my guys are out of contention, but I couldn't do that week after week. Some of the races this year were so God awful boring that having a vested interest was the ONLY thing that kept me watching.
 
I wonder how long it will take for the manufacturers to figure out how long a battery lasts before it is out of warranty? Right now they are trying to convince consumers how long the battery lasts. Does anybody think after we are mandated to get one that won't change?
 
StandOnIt said:
I wonder how long it will take for the manufacturers to figure out how long a battery lasts before it is out of warranty? Right now they are trying to convince consumers how long the battery lasts. Does anybody think after we are mandated to get one that won't change?
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Electric cars are good news bad news for me. The good news is I will likely be long gone before they are mandated. The bad news is I will likely be long gone before they are mandated.:D
 
Charlie Spencer said:
If I were motivated in that environmental direction, I'd be putting in solar panels instead.
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panels are down to less than a buck a watt, that is the cheap part. But it is a joke if a person thinks they will run an A/C or power a full house during a sunny day, much less at night. A single 12V lithium batt costs around a thousand for a decent one and you need tons of them and they wear out after a number of cycles, charge controllers, and then inverters to go from DC to A/C and those don't come cheap for pure sine wave ones.
 
StandOnIt said:
panels are down to less than a buck a watt, that is the cheap part. But it is a joke if a person thinks they will run an A/C or power a full house during a sunny day, much less at night. A single 12V lithium batt costs around a thousand for a decent one and you need tons of them and they wear out after a number of cycles, charge controllers, and then inverters to go from DC to A/C and those don't come cheap for pure sine wave ones.
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Your old school because most of the problems came about because the systems were an add-on to older homes. As an electrician, I have designed the electrical system for new homes that have been designed completely for "Off Grid Homes" The system has two panels, one is DC only for lighting (LED) so you don't use the converter at all. Also natural gas/propane is the source for most appliances such as furnace, HW, Dryer, and kitchen range.
Because of this system batteries don't recycle nearly as often.
 
Team Penske said:
Your old school because most of the problems came about because the systems were an add-on to older homes. As an electrician, I have designed the electrical system for new homes that have been designed completely for "Off Grid Homes" The system has two panels, one is DC only for lighting (LED) so you don't use the converter at all. Also natural gas/propane is the source for most appliances such as furnace, HW, Dryer, and kitchen range.
Because of this system batteries don't recycle nearly as often.
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sorry bud I am not old school, you don't need A/C and I will leave it at that.
 
eh, I am no expert on solar, but I have been looking at totally powering a camper for off grid boondocking using solar. It's interesting and there is a lot of info available.
 
StandOnIt said:
sorry bud I am not old school, you don't need A/C and I will leave it at that.
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You have a point there. :D
A/C isn't used much where I live and when it is (all 10 days a year)
it is run off the generator. It may get up to 34 F today so today won't be one of those days.
Maybe come August.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I'm sorry I brought it up.
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Don't be, it is a good subject. I have learned the changes are coming fast these days.
As was said, the companies aren't really doing anything with deep cycle batteries so that becomes a real expense. There is a new one for $3000 and would be OK for a new home.
 
StandOnIt said:
eh, I am no expert on solar, but I have been looking at totally powering a camper for off grid boondocking using solar. It's interesting and there is a lot of info available.
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More and more people are doing that. Camp grounds don't want generators after a certain time.
 
Matthew2470 said:
Jeff Gordon retiring was the catalyst for my shift in my level of engagement in all things NASCAR. Ironically, I have more fun watching the races than I used to because I don't really care much about who wins. I am in it purely for the racing, drama and chaos. My mood is no longer dictated by the fate of a single driver.
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Well said...Jeff was my guy too. I still watch every race but it’s not the same. In some ways it’s actually more enjoyable because my race day mood isn’t dependent on how the 24 team ended up. But in a way I miss that roller coaster....but don’t miss the heartbreak of failed playoff runs that he had in his career, I always thought he’d win that 5th Cup. Not really having a favorite driver allows me to take a step back and enjoy watching others in the field race and develop into the next JG or the next Guy.
 
IanMcVittie said:
At least today’s generators are not nearly as obnoxious as the ones in the past.
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Not if you're willing to spend the money they aren't. I've got a Honda EU3000is that I use occasionally while camping. Two people can easily carry on a conversation when the generator is running under a full load. There are only a couple of other brands of portable generators that are close to the low db level of a Honda.

I've also got a 6500w generator that I use for powering my home in the event of power failure. That thing sounds like an old push mower running under load. Not possible to carry on a normal conversation around that thing. Much cheaper than a Honda but again, you get what you pay for. Unfortunately, this type of generator is the one that I see most used when dry camping at the track. Completely understandable, again, because of the price.

The RV that I just replaced had a 5500w Onan Generator. Because of it's enclosure and extended exhaust above the RV roof height, it wasn't too intrusive on the neighboring camper.

My current RV is pre-wired for solar. I'll be looking to take advantage of that in the future. There's plenty of room on the top of that 40' 5er to place many solar panels. Same goes for the battery compartment. It's been modified to carry up to 6 deep cycle batteries with room to spare.
 
Team Penske said:
I have been using generators on construction for 40 yrs and all it takes is a long
exhaust pipe to make them quiet.
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About 7 years or so ago, I got a call from the lady that handled camping for Bristol Motor Speedway just a week or so before the fall race that year. She told me that there might be a problem with the sites that I reserved each year at their Landing Campground. The Landing did not have power available for RVing for the race. They used construction lighting which was basically those big ass generator trailers with a light pole erected on it. They were used to light up the campground at night. Loud as heck. They were located at the edge of each tier of the campground. Over the years, we slowly migrated our site to an area as far away from those things as possible.

Back to the call. I was told that they were eliminating those construction generators as Musco Lighting had installed light towers directly in the middle of each of the tiers of the campground. In other words, they erected this tall tower of lights on the edge of one of the sites that I reserved each year. She told me that because they didn't have power running to these lights yet, they'd have to park a construction generator trailer on either my site or my neighbors next to me. They said they'd give me the site for free as well as another additional site for the inconvenience. I really had no choice as they were probably the best sites in the campground. The whole time leading up to our arrival I was pretty pi$$ed off that I was going to have to deal with all that noise for a week.

The day came when we arrived at the campground. I could see our site location up on the hill from the entrance of the campground. I could not believe how big that damn thing was even looking at it from that far away. When we finally got up to our site and backed in next to it, the thing was more than half the size of my 38' Raptor Toy Hauler. We were prepared to be miserable for the entire week. Later in the afternoon we waited for the thing to fire up as the sun was setting. I had assumed that it was either on a timer or activated by a light sensor or something. Finally, just before dark so guy pulls into our site in a pickup truck. He told us he was there to start this thing up. Much to our surprise this thing was only about as loud as our Honda generator. I could not believe how quiet that thing was for its enormous size. The technology associated with those things have come a long way. The Musco Lighting however, that was a different story. That tower of lights turned night into day. Dang those things are bright!
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Not if you're willing to spend the money they aren't. I've got a Honda EU3000is that I use occasionally while camping. Two people can easily carry on a conversation when the generator is running under a full load. There are only a couple of other brands of portable generators that are close to the low db level of a Honda.

I've also got a 6500w generator that I use for powering my home in the event of power failure. That thing sounds like an old push mower running under load. Not possible to carry on a normal conversation around that thing. Much cheaper than a Honda but again, you get what you pay for. Unfortunately, this type of generator is the one that I see most used when dry camping at the track. Completely understandable, again, because of the price.

The RV that I just replaced had a 5500w Onan Generator. Because of it's enclosure and extended exhaust above the RV roof height, it wasn't too intrusive on the neighboring camper.

My current RV is pre-wired for solar. I'll be looking to take advantage of that in the future. There's plenty of room on the top of that 40' 5er to place many solar panels. Same goes for the battery compartment. It's been modified to carry up to 6 deep cycle batteries with room to spare.
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Very interesting as I had no idea about RV’s being pre-wired for solar. Your point about Honda generators rings true as a friend of mine had one and we could sit under the awning and talk with no problems. I think some of the old generators were powered by Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engines.

RV’ing is a great pastime and a way to see different things and meet good people, IMO
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I've got a Honda EU3000is that I use occasionally while camping.
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Yep. I love mine. Other manufacturer's have comparable ones now at about a third of the price. If I ever need another one I just might give one of them a try.
 
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