Sad TireRack Story

 This directed to TireRack which has resisted honoring a tire guarantee.

 https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipNq04s2iffTzo2lJbcV2TE_6aotEPIvM7kIR6fQ

I've been mostly buying Tesla tires from TireRack since my first, a 2013 S.  A year of so after I bought my last Model 3, a 2018, I bought six tires.  Mostly to keep in stock.  About six months ago, I was running low on stock so I ordered two more of the same.  Just after that, on a Colorado trip, one tire on the car started thumping.  In the middle of the night, in the middle of the panhandle.  I drove slowly through the night and found a small town tire shop open early the next morning.  I tasked the tire shop with identifying the bad tire and putting the spare, which I was carrying, on the car to replace the bad one.  It turned out to be a semi-common problem.  Cord or tread separation which makes the tire not round and causes the thumping.  Onward, through the fog.  Within a couple of months, I had the same problem on a newer tire on the car.  I had decided not to fool with a claim on the first failure but the second failure swayed me to attempt a claim.  TireRack does not have a local presence.  Many other area Tesla drivers favor Discount Tire because of hassle free service and warranty claims.  Anyway, the TireRack people wanted to put me through the wringer.  "Give us photos, the miles on each failed tire, measure the tread depth".  Of course, since I was replacing single tires as needed, I have no idea of each tire's mileage.  But here are the photos requested.  I'll report here success or failure of my warranty claim.

Short story, out of 8 tires of that type from TireRack, 2 have had cord separations.  I think I have a total of four not yet failed tires of that type.  I think, three or four on the ground and one spare.  I fear I have more such failures in my future.

Since my 2nd failure, I have bought two Goodyears from TireRack which have given me no such trouble over the years.  It seems likely, I will be buying tires locally in the future.

The best I can do on mileage is that I started replacing OEM tires, one by one, after about 30k miles.  The car now has a total of 79k miles.  My WAG is that the failed tires had 15k-30k miles at the times of failure.   Several of the OEMs went 50K+ miles.

2nd PowerWall Battery - Life is GOOD!

It seems I got my single battery PowerWall in January 2019.

 https://wmckemie.blogspot.com/2019/01/powerwall-install.html

After two very painful years of having uninstalled spare PW batteries in stock but unused, I FINALLY succeeded!  

Since shortly after the original install, I realized I need at least two batteries to semi-gracefully get through longer term power failures.  I asked several installers to do the upgrade, including the one that did the install.  All declined or offered exorbitant pricing.  I used an installer (instead of Tesla) because Tesla seemed snowed under with demand.  Later, I had a pretty significant failure:

https://wmckemie.blogspot.com/2021/02/powerwall-failure.html 

https://wmckemie.blogspot.com/2021/05/powerwall-lives.html

Several installers as well as Tesla refused to make a service call.  As detailed in the above, I ended up fixing it myself.   That's as I finally had to do to get a second battery installed.    My PW ended up out of service for several months.

I first ordered a PowerWall when they were first offered,  Was that about 2015?  When the PWs finally became available years later, Tesla refused to install as well as refused to service.  I still have that PW on order from Tesla.  I ended up buying a package of three batteries plus the gateway from a Tesla driver that earned the PW as an incentive for selling a bunch of cars.  The guy I bought from was unable to get Tesla to do an install or get installers to install stuff not purchased from the installers.  

Recognizing that the batteries likely had a limited shelf life, I was semi-frantic to get them working and charging before they became depleted.  I found installation instructions and became familiar with what was necessary.  I eventually got one installed but it failed to work.  A chance encounter with a Tesla Energy service person offered a clue:

https://wmckemie.blogspot.com/2022/01/supercharger-service-in-columbus.html

I first did not realize that each battery on a multiple battery system should be wired so that the two split phase wires needed to go to the same AC power connections on the battery.   For most 240vac wiring, that is not a concern.  Each battery must be on it's own breaker so there is opportunity to make that mistake.

11/20/22

I just got my 3rd PW battery installed and working a couple of weeks ago.  Quite a comfort!  With the three, a low use night leaves me with about 85% of the charge about the time the sun comes up.  Heating (and likely cooling) will bring the morning state of charge down to about 70%.  I might conclude that I can last about three days of grid-down AND minimal sunlight.  Twice that long if I can forego heating and cooling.  When we have decent sun, the batteries get fully charged well before the end of the day.   That is, I can get through LONG periods of grid-down as long as we have a decent sun day every couple of days.

I have a 4th battery that I apparently have killed.  I hope to dig into it and decide if it has a future.

Marcia Jean Mason McKemie May 15, 1954 - August 21, 2012

 

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/statesman/name/marcia-mckemie-obituary?id=9979031

https://obits.dallasnews.com/us/obituaries/dallasmorningnews/name/suzanne-mason-obituary?pid=161291850

One More Hog!

 My hog trappers had a ~200 pound boar in a trap this morning.  The first catch in months.  The trappers were on the verge of taking a break in trapping on my place.  And wait for better pickings.

They have taken more than 200 hogs/pigs off my place in the about two years that they have been trapping here.  I think that they have been trapping the Menke place for near a year.  Maybe 20-30 there.

But, the hogs have left their marks!  All the hazardous rooted up areas are now grown over.  That offers surprises to mower and tractor drivers.  The rootings are hazardous enough that it is conceivable they could result in a tractor rollover if hit at a poor angle and too high a speed.  More likely, I guess, that a tractor driver could be thrown off the tractor.

Some clarification for readers lucky enough not to live in a hog infested area. 

Feral hogs are mostly escaped domestic hogs and have been with us for centuries.  I'm not sure why but the population seems to have increased in the past ~30 years.  The joke is that female hogs are born pregnant.  They CAN produce an astonishing number of offspring in 12 months.  Hundreds.

About 10 years ago, Texas completed the last segment of the toll road, SH130, that is meant as an eastern alternative to IH35 between Seguin and Georgetown.  To attact traffic, the last segment, from Sequin to Lockhart, had the speed limit set to 85mph; the highest in the state.  Right through hog habitat.  Millions of dollars worth of vehicle damage have been incurred on that section.  As far as I know, no human fatalities

The threat to farm property is well known and the state has explored many options for hog control.  There is no limit on how, how many, season, or time of day as to when the hogs may be killed.  Something like squirrels and coyotes.  Other than "open season", the most persistent control measure has been the state making grants to counties in order to offer $5 bounties on hog tails.  So, if someone gets a hog, the tail is cut off and placed in the freeze for future redemption.  The $5 is insufficient to stimulate inefficient harvesting methods such as trapping.  I imagine it might take $100/tail to really get the hogs cleaned up.  I am fortunate enough to have found trappers that do it for recreation rather than profit.  The $5 bounties are sporadic.  A grant may last a few months, then will not be funded for a few months.

Personally, I have gotten only around 10 hogs over ~5 years.  Mostly with snares set on hog paths that cross fences but also a few in traps.  The traps being cages with trap doors.  So, generally no injury to hogs in the traps.  Few snared hogs survive to being found.  Live snared hogs can not be handled; they must be shot.

Possum Trap

https://photos.app.goo.gl/abrUHitEWX8MSRYs8

 Perhaps 10+ years ago, I set up a compost container near my front walk through gate.  A ~4' length of 24" corrugated steel culvert pipe standing on end.  I carry my kitchen rotable debris to the container.  These days, coffee grounds, avocado seed and shells, banana peels, food that has gone bad in the kitchen, caught mouse bodies.  Most meat products, such as chicken carcasses, go in the yard and get taken care of by wandering nocturnal wildlife.  The idea was that I would add another compost culvert when the first one was filled.  I was surprised that I was unable to fill the container; it rots down faster than I add to it.  In the 10+ years it has been in use, depth is 12" or less.

Yesterday morning, I noticed a possum trapped in the compost culvert.  Apparently unable to scale the ~3 vertical feet of culvert.  I placed a hoe in the the culvert which allowed the possum to climb the handle and escape.  Then, later in the day, I removed the hoe.  This morning, I was surprised to find the possum again trapped.  I regretted not taking some photos of his first trapping.  I will not let that opportunity get away from me again.  See here soon, the photos.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Rvt86BTCFJDdaC4s8

Soon after the above photos, the possum had freed himself.  I will again remove the hoe and give him opportunity to trap himself again.

The shorter culvert sections are planters.  And serve other purposes.  Recently, I have been planting pineapple tops in those planters.  Out of ~8 for this season, one (pictured) has survived.  I've been peeing on it; the only moisture it has gotten.  Correction:  I have TWO surviving pineapple tops.  One in each of two planters.  One surviving with no supplemental moisture.

Until the hard freezes of the past two years, the planters had been overflowing with two varieties of spineless cactus.  The freezes killed all cactus in the planters, but the parts spilling to the ground had rooted and survived.  I have been moving leaves from the survivors back to the planters. 

"Back to the Earth" homeowners tend to buy or build compost bins that are short lived and are a maintenance problem.  Not to mention very expensive.  Much in contrast to my scheme.  The mind boggles at the cost of such compost.

8/13/22

After an absence of several days, this morning I found the possum sleeping in the compost bin.  I dumped some kitchen junk on top of him.  I'll get prepared to take a photo before I put the hoe back in.

A bit later:  Added two photos to the above album.  He climbed the hoe handle, stuck his head above the rim, then went back down.  I waited about 15 minutes to get that photo.  I pulled the hoe back out and may try again later.

8/19/22

I found the dead possum in the compost bin.  Since I released him at least twice, I can work up no guilt.  I did find another, apparent possum, skull in the compost bin.  So, that one apparently is not the first possum to find his end trapped in the culvert.

TSLA recommended viewing

 https://insideevs.com/news/602684/tesla-stockholders-meeting-cyber-roundup-takeaways/

I'm viewing mainly to see what so many investors found so alarming in the share holder meeting of last night. (8/4/2022).  I failed utterly.

OTOH, there are MANY tidbits that the poorly educated might benefit from.  These are the anti Tesla/Musk topics so often mentioned in the main stream media.  That is, the media that is supported by oil company and major car company advertising.