The Official February "whats this thing bolted to my frame thread?"

[TheFuzz]

I was just thinking "Dang, Far must be pretty old". And then I did the math and realized that I was 14 in 1985.

But then I got happy again when I realized my wife was only 5.

I wasnt even born in 1985...am I the youngest one on these forums?lol

This is getting dangerously close to the fender trimming/facebook thread! I refuse to play your silly games!

And yes LJ, not sure who's younger between you and Nick but you've gotta be close.

To keep this (sort of) on point with the tech, has anyone else seen one attached to the driver's side? I thought that they were all bolted up to the passenger side...not that it makes a difference from a functionality standpoint.

 

[ntsaint]

This is getting dangerously close to the fender trimming/facebook thread! I refuse to play your silly games!

And yes LJ, not sure who's younger between you and Nick but you've gotta be close.

To keep this (sort of) on point with the tech, has anyone else seen one attached to the driver's side? I thought that they were all bolted up to the passenger side...not that it makes a difference from a functionality standpoint.

Mine is on the driver's side...

 

[rusty_tlc]

Toyota did a dynamo test on every truck built to determine which side to locate the damper on.





















That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

 

[jonharis]

Best answer yet!!

I was watching war games that night. Wonder how long this page wold take to load at 1985 connection speeds?

Agree!!!! Jon I owe you a beer in Moab!

Just help me pull off my rear bumper and we'll call it even.

 

[LCHardriver_02]

WAR GAMES... my thought exactly... was 16 in '85 and in HS. Back when external drives included cassette tape.

 

[nomembername]

Is this a "chunk of steel dampener" thing? My car has one of these also..

What does it dampen? Does freezing negatively or positively affect this moistened metal?

 

[jonharis]

What does it dampen? Does freezing negatively or positively affect this moistened metal?

The definition of "dampen" states.

1. To make damp.
Dude, keep that sh!t dry!

2. To deaden, restrain, or depress: "trade moves . . . aimed at dampening protectionist pressures in Congress" (Christian Science Monitor).
Keep the freekin politics out of the tech!

3. To soundproof.
Don't know about you guys, but my TLC is silky smooth.....and I don't have the damn MODEM intalled!!

 

[SupraTuRD]

Does anyone want to give me one of these doohickeys? I want to install one on the drivers side so that my vibrations can be dampened in stereo. =]

 

[nomembername]

The definition of "dampen" states.

1. To make damp.
Dude, keep that sh!t dry!

2. To deaden, restrain, or depress: "trade moves . . . aimed at dampening protectionist pressures in Congress" (Christian Science Monitor).
Keep the freekin politics out of the tech!

3. To soundproof.
Don't know about you guys, but my TLC is silky smooth.....and I don't have the damn MODEM intalled!!

Does having (or not having) the modem make you depressed?

damping, in physics, restraining of vibratory motion, such as mechanical oscillations, noise, and alternating electric currents, by dissipation of energy. Unless a child keeps pumping a swing, its motion dies down because of damping. Shock absorbers in automobiles and carpet pads are examples of damping devices.
A system may be so damped that it cannot vibrate. Critical damping just prevents vibration or is just sufficient to allow the object to return to its rest position in the shortest period of time. The automobile shock absorber is an example of a critically damped device. Additional damping causes the system to be overdamped, which may be desirable, as in some door closers. The vibrations of an underdamped system gradually taper off to zero.


damping (physics) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia

It is a damper, not a dampener. And you can probably loose[sic] it to no ill effect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce-PQqkIXe0

 

[rusty_tlc]

As it happens I'm reading Tesla: Man Out of Time (ISBN 0743215362).
He had a great analogy of harmonic vibration.

A 250 man on a swing can be moved by a 70 pound boy that can only exert 1 pound of force. If the boy pushes at the correct time the small pushes add up and if he continues eventually the man would be thrown out of the swing.

Now consider a standing wave;


The string will only form a standing wave at it's harmonic frequency.

The same affect can be seen with a flexible metal ruler (analogous to the 100 frame). If you maintain the correct frequency and add just a small amount of force to each wave eventually the ruler will break.

However, a relatively small amount of weight placed correctly on the ruler will "damp" the standing wave.

All of this is fine in theory but in the Real World® it seems to make no difference if you have the damper or not.



Did I max out the geek scale yet?

 

[bamachem]

Where the propeller-hat smiley?

 

[rusty_tlc]

Where the propeller-hat smiley?

They made a special smiley for me on another site

 

[NMuzj100]

Pretty sure it's a ground penetrating radar array for the all-wheel drive to evaluate traction potential.

 

[r2m]

My best guess is that it was added to increass gvw to bump it into some gas guzzler/comercial/something tax. And the U.S. government made Japan put it on.

Or it was required for the U.S. market so as to draw natural resources out of Japan (read cast iron).