What Did You Do with Your 80 This Weekend? (105 Viewers)

[cody c]

I didn’t think it snowed in Texas.

Do all the iguanas and alligators and weird spiders all die off when that happens?

They say a cold snap up here for a week is good (-40). It kills the ticks on the animals (moose, deer, elk) and maybe some of the pine beetles

 

[on the rocks]

LOL, it's funny seeing regions come to a complete crawl when it snows a few inches. Emergency or not you have to get out in the 80 and play!!! Maybe pull a few people out of a ditch or two. BS the wifey into having to pick something important up and go play.
BTW, push brooms work good on the sidewalk and driveway. I don't even use a shovel personally, at least 6" or under. Just don't walk on it first...

 

[TexasJack]

Hoo man, been a rough week. So my previous battery issue reared it's head this week. I was all looking forward to the snow here in Texas to go play in, despite that we wouldn't have any snow banks to flex on, since no plows. However, night before the big snow I went out and found the battery dead again. I pulled it into the garage and charged it up then let it sit overnight in the garage. Came out the next day and the voltage level had dropped. Well, not good.

Then we had to deal with 26 hours of no power and rolling power outages. All the fun of getting snow went out the window when you have to move to survival mode not knowing how long things are going to last. After getting power back in the house I did some MUD searching to find out what battery would be best, considering how much it's going to cost for a battery, and the consensus seems to be Interstate Batteries, which is good because they are a local company as I used to drive past their HQ on the way to work. Called Firestone and they are closed due to power issues, had phone forwarded to managers cell phone. I called NTB and they answered the phone but were closed and waiting on a plumber to come fix the burst pipe that was flooding the shop. So no battery till this weekend which means playing in the snow is not going to happen.

Still, having camping equipment sure did help with the power outage. I used the jet boil to make my coffee, and our sleeping bags helped keep us warm as we slept on mattresses on the living room floor by the fireplace. My non-camping neighbors had it worse for sure. So, yea, Texas snowmageddon was a bust.

I did play over the weekend trying to make a rig to vacuum wrap with vinyl my new front emblem. The rig worked great but it's too much stretching and kept tearing the vinyl so I gave up and mounted the bare chrome on the front in place of my old TEQ emblem. No pics of that though, but you know what they look like.

Also bad/good news. I'd planned on taking my son for our first adventure trip with the 80 over spring break, but my parents got the COVID vaccine and announced they are coming out here. No 80 adventure but my son getting to see his grandparents (and me my parents) for the first time in over a year will be well worth it. There will be other opportunities for adventure.

Ditto across the board. Strange living in a house with no heating or lighting. We had to time our meals so we could get them cooked before we lost power again. As soon as the power came on, we rushed to the kitchen and fixed a meal, knowing it would likely go out again before we finished eating. Glad to see it coming to an end. I too am thankful for our hiking / camping gear!

 

[leonard_nemoy]

They say a cold snap up here for a week is good (-40). It kills the ticks on the animals (moose, deer, elk) and maybe some of the pine beetles

They say a cold snap in the southern USA kills people......

 

[gixxerjasen]

LOL, it's funny seeing regions come to a complete crawl when it snows a few inches. Emergency or not you have to get out in the 80 and play!!! Maybe pull a few people out of a ditch or two. BS the wifey into having to pick something important up and go play.
BTW, push brooms work good on the sidewalk and driveway. I don't even use a shovel personally, at least 6" or under. Just don't walk on it first...

Yea, not having plows doesn't help. I still drove the wife's Accord pictured above and it did fine though. Our problem usually isn't snow though, it's ice. We get ice storms more often than snow storms around here. I was sad that the battery was dead though, we even had a call out in our community facebook page for someone with a 4X4 to help someone get from a house at a nearby dirt road over to their family's house so they could be somewhere that had electricity. I had to let someone else do it since the LC was stranded at home. Very sad.

By the way, I do recall when I lived in Cleveland, the rolling power outages in the summer when the temps got above 90F because they couldn't handle all the A/C's running at once. I guess it just depends on what the 99% of the weather you get is what you are prepared for, costs too much for us to maintain plows for one snowfall every couple of years.

We did have reports of pet iguanas dying in people's homes who lost power for an extended time though. And yes, push broom got my driveway clear, while I laughed at my neighbors trying to shovel with garden shovels

 

[Dirt Ferguson]

Why? Did I miss something?

Over time the VC can seize and stop functioning as a limited slip differential. As I understand it, when that happens the symptoms are wheels chirping on tight corners because the rear inside wheel was locked up and dragging. Not good. The rig had a herky-jerky feeling pulling into a parking spot or any other tight radius turn.

Good info on that here:

Tutorial: removing the viscous coupler (photos)

What pushed me to do the viscous coupler removal? First of all when I made turns, for example, in a parking lot, I heard my tires scrub against concrete and one of the wheel stopped turning intermittently to relieve the stress on the drivetrain. Please note that my tires weren't squeaking but...

forum.ih8mud.com

Here's what @Tools R Us had to say about it in another thread, which sums things up nicely:

"A dead VC that is locked, will act just like a locked CDL, so no need to lock it to run with one drive shaft. The VC is a pretty much useless/very weak limited slip, it was only installed on ABS equipped FZJ80, the FJ80 and 100 series have the same transfer without it. When on low traction surfaces simply lock the CDL, if truly low traction, that is what you would be doing anyway. When doing related work, like installing crawler gears, we take them out, good or bad, and toss in the recycle bin."

 

[BILT4ME]

Yea, not having plows doesn't help. I still drove the wife's Accord pictured above and it did fine though. Our problem usually isn't snow though, it's ice. We get ice storms more often than snow storms around here. I was sad that the battery was dead though, we even had a call out in our community facebook page for someone with a 4X4 to help someone get from a house at a nearby dirt road over to their family's house so they could be somewhere that had electricity. I had to let someone else do it since the LC was stranded at home. Very sad.

By the way, I do recall when I lived in Cleveland, the rolling power outages in the summer when the temps got above 90F because they couldn't handle all the A/C's running at once. I guess it just depends on what the 99% of the weather you get is what you are prepared for, costs too much for us to maintain plows for one snowfall every couple of years.

We did have reports of pet iguanas dying in people's homes who lost power for an extended time though. And yes, push broom got my driveway clear, while I laughed at my neighbors trying to shovel with garden shovels

Why didn't you try a NAPA or O'Reilly's to get a battery and get it going? They sell batteries also.

In my personal opinion, Interstates are good, but their warranty is s*** and they really don't last any more than all the other batteries.

 

[SoTexCruiserDoc]

I didn’t think it snowed in Texas.

Do all the iguanas and alligators and weird spiders all die off when that happens?

They say a cold snap up here for a week is good (-40). It kills the ticks on the animals (moose, deer, elk) and maybe some of the pine beetles

Oh no...it all comes back to life eventually (weird spiders=scorpions? ). And the snakes, and cactus, and stickers....

and Nemoy is right...most of these folks (and the infrastructure) don’t handle this well. Had to extract my near frozen old mother out of her heatless powerless Hill Country home yesterday. It’s a mess. The strong will survive and hopefully learn...

 

[gixxerjasen]

Why didn't you try a NAPA or O'Reilly's to get a battery and get it going? They sell batteries also.

In my personal opinion, Interstates are good, but their warranty is s*** and they really don't last any more than all the other batteries.

While waiting for power to come back up me and my phone were by the window trying to get service on our now one overloaded cell tower researching here for batteries. Consensus seemed to go the way of Interstate. O'Reilly's and AutoZone can be hit or miss with what they carry. I've found lots of times Napa won't have stuff in stock but can get it there in a day (wife's grandfather was a runner for them for years) but I only wanted to go out once. Ended up being not a necessity and other things were priority so I haven't done it yet. I'll take care of it this weekend, not really going anywhere anyway.

 

[leonard_nemoy]

Consensus seemed to go the way of Interstate.

I have been using interstate batteries in multiple vehicles for 15+ years. I always buy them direct from interstate. But the last 3 I have had to replace hardly made it to 4 years. I used to consistently get 5 - 6 years from them. This is across multiple vehicles so I think something changed in their manufacturing process.

I have decided to try something else for my next battery. When I was at my local toyota dealership for some parts I saw an OEM toyota battery on the counter. It had an 84 month warranty!!!! I asked the parts guy about the quality and he said they were the best.

I wonder if Toyota still sells an OEM battery for our rigs? Anybody ever try one?

 

[cruiserdan]

I have been using interstate batteries in multiple vehicles for 15+ years. I always buy them direct from interstate. But the last 3 I have had to replace hardly made it to 4 years. I used to consistently get 5 - 6 years from them. This is across multiple vehicles so I think something changed in their manufacturing process.

I have decided to try something else for my next battery. When I was at my local toyota dealership for some parts I saw an OEM toyota battery on the counter. It had an 84 month warranty!!!! I asked the parts guy about the quality and he said they were the best.

I wonder if Toyota still sells an OEM battery for our rigs? Anybody ever try one?

I hate to pop your bubble.

Interstate is Toyota's replacement parts battery vendor.

 

[leonard_nemoy]

I hate to pop your bubble.

Interstate is Toyota's replacement parts battery vendor.

I am glad you popped my bubble lol. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to pay the upcharge for a re-labeles interstate. Thanks for the info

 

[sogafarm]

While waiting for power to come back up me and my phone were by the window trying to get service on our now one overloaded cell tower researching here for batteries. Consensus seemed to go the way of Interstate. O'Reilly's and AutoZone can be hit or miss with what they carry. I've found lots of times Napa won't have stuff in stock but can get it there in a day (wife's grandfather was a runner for them for years) but I only wanted to go out once. Ended up being not a necessity and other things were priority so I haven't done it yet. I'll take care of it this weekend, not really going anywhere anyway.

NAPA Gold series batteries are the best IMHO. I used to work for NAPA way back as a runner and stock clerk and did the battery exchanges and warranty's of all parts. The Gold series batteries hardly ever came back, but the lower series were sh%t. You can't beat the NAPA warranty. They will take back just about anything.

 

[Heckraiser]

Just throw the accord battery in there for the week. Strap it down with duct tape.

 

[BILT4ME]

Just so you all know, there are about (4) battery manufacturers (each manufacturer has multiple locations) inside the USA that ALL batteries (USA made) come from. Each plant has slightly different specifications for how the battery is made for a given company, but they are all very much the same. It's in the marketing when they change.

I have been working in the dust collection and pneumatic conveying industry for 35+ years and we have many systems in many different battery plants, so I have seen most of the internals of many of these batteries up close and personal. It is important to me because of my lifetime of automotive hobby. I have spoken with the engineers at the plants as well as folks on the floor and asked all of them: Which one is "best". No one has a real answer for that.

Some batteries use thicker plates inside with more holes, others are thinner with larger holes, some alternate plate types with each layer, some don't.

I have found that whatever battery fits my application and has the CCA to operate in my conditions, coupled with the seller that will give me the customer service I'm looking for, then that's who I go with.

I am currently going with O'Reilly Super Start because my son works there and I get a good discount. I went with Walmart for a while, until they changed their warranty policies and then changed brands and would no longer warrant the batteries I had.

I have had a couple batteries that lasted only 18 months before they would fail, then I would warranty it. I got tired of not being able to reply on my battery.

Now, as any battery I have approaches 4 years old, I start evaluating how well it does on a daily basis. I recently had to change my battery due to the cold weather and I stressed it hard the week before by discharging it unknowingly, but it still had enough to go then. I had actually suspected it was getting weak for the last 8 months because I had days that it took longer cranking to start, or it seemed just a little weaker than usual. However, since it's a DD, I rarely have issues because it is fully charged each time. Since it sat for 10 days, then got cold, it was too much.

Go with whatever battery suits your fancy or application and go from there. Just buying the "most expensive" one does not always mean you're getting anything different than the next one.

 

[on the rocks]

If you don’t mind the wait and the huge cost the Odyssey 31 group I have now is by far the best battery I have had. I think the have a group that better fits the 80, The 31 is big but well worth it IMO.

 

[thatcabledude]

I hate to pop your bubble.

Interstate is Toyota's replacement parts battery vendor.

What’s your opinion on the OEM Panasonic batteries? The one that came in my FJC lasted 8years. Not that it matters. Don’t think consumers can even get them.

 

[cruiserdan]

What’s your opinion on the OEM Panasonic batteries? The one that came in my FJC lasted 8years. Not that it matters. Don’t think consumers can even get them.

The Japanese batteries are awesome. They are not imported as replacement parts however because the cost, considering the weight and hazardous nature, would be over the moon. I bet they would be 500 bucks or more once they landed. Maybe even much higher.

 

[thatcabledude]

The Japanese batteries are awesome. They are not imported as replacement parts however because the cost, considering the weight and hazardous nature, would be over the moon. I bet they would be 500 bucks or more once they landed. Maybe even much higher.

I was very close to opening that thing up to see it’s construction. I didn’t know if it was a fluke it lasted that long, or if they were just really awesome. I was leaning toward awesome.

 

[cruiserdan]

I was very close to opening that thing up to see it’s construction. I didn’t know if it was a fluke it lasted that long, or if they were just really awesome. I was leaning toward awesome.

Correct. Very high-quality batteries.