cowpuc

Heyyy,, IMHO,, not bad:happy34:!! Not bad at all for the 1st time out of chute 9 riding a bull that you aint never rid before ya lop eared varmint!! !!! Looks like if you took the coupon and tipped it over and smacked it on the work bench the bead wouldn't fall off = A+ IMHO:banana:!! It's been a longggg time since I even touched a tig torch and my advice would be some real old school stuff from a real tired memory but,, would you like to hear it anyway Rich?? I kinda thought you would:680:.. 1st,, the "flame" coming off the tungsten is an invert of the angle of the grind you put on it.. The wider the angle, the wider the flame.. For real quick, small puddle welding a real sharp angle with a fine point always worked best for me.. For bigger puddle, slower speed welding,, try opening the grind angle some.. See that dot at the end of the weld? In the old days we called that a "Fish Eye".. Again,, this is just an opinion at best cause its been a long time but I believe you will find out that that fish eye is caused from the long arc that happens when your pulling out of the weld. Fish Eyes were HUGELY important to us trades welders years ago cause the pocket they create are the weakest part of the weld.. In fabricating,, if an otherwise good weld is going to fail it is going to fail by tearing starting with that point.. I personally know of several otherwise good welders who were ran off a job just because they did not know how to handle/avoid fish eyes.. I was taught,, and used daily, the art of instead of just pulling out of the weld when Tiggin,, to make a quick trip off to the side of the weld and pulling out in an area out of the weld path,, a "tail" so to speak.. In an xray,, it was not unusual for the xray techs to approve welds with tails as acceptable without the tradesman even having to clean the tail up BUT,, they see the remains of a fish eye inside of a capped weld,, couple of those and you brass out for your final time.. You speaking of forgetting to turn on your flow meter made me smile,, isn't that a pretty fireworks display when welding with no cover gas:Laugh:.. I am sure this is definitely old school stuff but years ago,, up on the steel tiggin steam pipe (only us Boilermakers had to call em Tubes) we always had issues with disappearing cover gas.. Could be welding along,, minding your own business,, focused on tieing in a puddle and running a wedding band weld and POOFFF,, just like that it would lite up.. Come to find out,, the natural flow (even on a calm day) of air flowing thru steam pipes would be enough to suck away the cover gas,, tiggin was that fragile.. We ended up having to stuff rice paper (approved on most job sites) into the tubes to get decent welds.. I only mention this cause in a shop it is very common to run fans for cooling down,, fans can easily move cover gas away when tiggin too.. In Tig,, you have filler rod.. It appears that you were trying to add filler rod into an area that was already filled.. Thusly the large hump of puddled filler rod.. Try moving around a puddle of the existing coupon steel without adding filler.. See if you can just moved a straight line while maintaining the puddle size at you go.. Maybe get the feel and sight of the puddle as it forms and as quickly as it forms move forward so you are seeing the edge of the puddle eat at its forward edge and moving forward as quickly as the edge disappears.. Now I may have this backwards but I will take a shot at this just cause I love you like a brother Rich,, anyone who really knows this stuff PLEASE feel free to jump in and correct me here.. If you want to play with filler,, take a coupon, grind a 45 degree beveled edge on it.. For Tigging I would always leave a feathered edge on the coupon to run my Tig root pass with.. . Then I would place a piece of rod at the ends of the coupon and tack the ends so the coupon would have its feathered edges just touching each other. Now when you are adding filler rod you lay the filler rod in the V ontop of the mating feathered edges and make passes of the top of it rod with your puddle breaking down the feathered edge on each side of the filler rod and tieing it all together in the v, tieing in the sides as you progress from one tack to the next.. This will make a really nice, almost flat surface to begin the the capping process from. A really good trick that I used a LOT in maintaining xrayable and fairly pretty welds when tiggin roots like this was to "walk" the ceramic cup around the pipe.. Doing so adds amazing stability for all day long welding as the cup itself is supported by the steel instead depending on your hand not to shake (it is amazing how even the smallest amount of hand movement can be seen in the puddle,, Tig is all about control IMHO.. To accomplish this trick its just a matter of resting the cup at an angel against the walls of the "V" and rocking it back and forth in a movement that gives it a small forward movement as you rock,, a walking movement.. Once you determine what angle you want the cup to walk in, you set the depth of your tungsten to match the angle and not create a long arc or a flame out.. Once you have that depth figured,, I always would place the tungsten set to depth against my thumb nail and make a mark on my thumb nail with the freshely ground tungsten so when I lost my tungsten edge and did a change out with one of the fresh ground tungstens I carried all I had to do was drop the dull one out, put a new one in and measure its depth against the mark on my thumbnail and BINGO,, perfectly adjusted!! Wowzy wow wow wow @luvmy40!! THANK YOU for grabbing that Tigger and starting this thread!! This sure is bringing back some bits and pieces of wonderful memories of days long gone by for me ... Those were some xtra special days filled with great times!! Have fun with it all Rich!! Enjoy my friend and thank you for sharing with us!! And,, for putting up with me!! Puc

Shoulda took that 1st Gen up to Pah-hoe-nix to ride those mountains Vaz,, aint no virus known to man (maybe Murph but he is no virus) can run with a 1st Gen brother!! We been riding Tweeks and I been running Maggie in between my shovels full of rocks and dirt in my finishing our home and prepping for next years 500 year flood just for a break in all the work and guess what? Tip and I have found riding mask free while outrunning the virus is a wonderful way to enjoy the summer !!

Roller you are more than welcome on the pic assist,, my pleasure brother! :scared:WOWZY WOW WOW WOW,, you bandit Chuck,, that R1 is gorgeous!! So are all the others (that Ruger a Red Hawk? - NICE!!) but, as you know,, the 1911 has a super special place in my heart and that Remington is right there = beautiful!!! Thanks for the follow up Roller,, I greatly appreciate it!!

!!!! Now its just a matter of ridin er like you stole er BP!!!

:sign yeah that::sign yeah that: You and me both @bpate4home,, you and me both!! As a matter of fact,, pure simple flat out fact,, I love them so much that when Freebird put out the call years ago for us club members to come up with our wish list for the new Venture (found here - https://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?102280-Let-the-discussion-begin&highlight=1700cc+v-max ) way back while the new model of the Venture was still on the drawing board,, those bars of which you and I speak were on my wish list of what I thought would add to the possibility of the new Venture actually turning the touring bike world upside down (as Mom Yam said its final product was going to).. Funny thing is,, if you read thru my list below copy/pasted from the actual thread above, you will probably come to the same conclusion that I did when I first saw the new bike at the world release of it out at Lake George, NY.. That being that Mom Yam actually did read our input and did everything in her power to come out with a bike with everything opposite of that which our clubbers had wished for .. At any rate,, here is my list from a time long ago: 1700cc V-4 "V-Max" motor.. Detune it if you must (just like before) but please,, dont do another V-Twin - got enough of em.. You guys can do it,, I KNOW YOU CAN!! Shaft drive! EFI with a tunable tuner - even if its an add on - please provide one so we can tune it!! LED lighting. Engine guarding and saddle bag guarding. Adjustable bars like on the first gen. Factory tank and windshield bags. Fixed Fairing. Get the same Doctors who advised you on constructing the seat of the 1st Gens (cant remember what you call those guys) to advise you on this one - my kids, wife and I LOVE what they did!! Keep the seat height difference between the rider and passenger no more than 3 inches (2 is great) - raising the passenger higher causes weight imbalance and makes slow speed riding harder. Ease of removal of the trunk(s) for changing rear tire. Center stand. Forward boards with normal foot pegs located rearward so standing up while riding is still possible, shift and brake levers at both locations (no heal toe please). Hand warmers. Key removable rear trunk and bags. Grease zerks on all main pivot points. High output stator even though it has LED's. Double check the gear sets in the tranny and make sure they ramp up solidly. Oversized clutch to insure NO slippage in high gears with xtra weight. 42 millimeter front fork tubes with progressive springs. Imbed reflective tape (or use reflective paint) in paint lines (like pin striping) so all profiles of bike light up when grazed by car lights. Add a large foot onto side stand - tired of bending over to pick up stand plate after parking on loose ground. Explore which tire sizes are the most common and build around those standards so tire choices and finding them are easy. Remember those long grips you used on the first gens? Use those, I love bending them back onto my knees. Enclose the motor well to keep ANY objectional heat off both riders BUT - use lots of venting with plenums to act as heaters when needed. Windshield it so the rear rider remains in the protective air pocket - functional vents in shield and fairing to adjust air movement if needed (hey,, could be asking for servo operated shield but I dont care for more things to go wrong). 6 speed Over drive tranny. Use GOOD solder, especially with ECU pins. QC the daylights out of it! DONT go cheap and trust the Chinese!! Dont short us on wire harness leads so wiring is tight - xtra 1/4 inch really helps!! Make fairing panels easy to remove but not so they fall off. Supply printable shop manual disc and printed well written owners manual. Supply GOOD factory tire pressure guage. Chrome is out for me, I LOVE dull stainless (like the pipes on the "New" V-Max),, matter of fact,, build mine with no rustable chrome and all dull stainless!! Intercom, CB and radio would be nice.. Keep the tape deck.

WOWZY WOW WOW WOW!! What an amazing testiment to the fact that God does indeed answer prayers Poppa!! JUST AMAZING!!:thumbsup: My hat of due respect and love goes out to all those volunteers there who are still standing by their brother in arms.. Also a HUGE thank you to each one of them for the consistant and unappologetic love for our way of life demonstrated by their (and yours) willingness to put it all on the line for our way of life.. My goodness brother,, you done been blessed big time!! YOU DESERVE THIS AND SO MUCH MORE POPPA!! and THANK YOU for sharing!! Puc P.S. - as always,, looking forward to your next installment of how God uses to everyday people to do extraordinary things!!

:biker::no-no-no::no-no-no:

As always,, you are more than welcome VentureFar,, you know me,, I only tell it like it is,,, Truth Matters!! IMHO, you are truly a blessing to the motorcycle world and double that for our club!! I remember not to long ago when you did a review on the new Venture and gave warning to the readers about left side heat,, something I tried to explore out in Sturgis at the release demo's with an infrared temp gun but was refused access.. I also remember you getting roasted by several people for reporting such misinformation.. I now have read many reports of owners who are experiencing your reports findings first hand with some actually being burned/cooked by such to the point of needing medical care, what a shame.. Every time I read of such I just shake my head and get that gut feeling of a question of why,, why people don't seek honest, truthful reporting from people such as yourself when it is offered and offered freely. Your honesty and truthfullness in doing what you do is greatly appreciated by myself and many others brother,, keep it up and enjoy your retirement to the MAX!! Ohhh,, by the way,, I,, like many others await your continued reporting like waiting for a beam of sunshine on a warm summer mountain pass morning...

:clap2::dancefool::thumbsup2: The extreme mixture of endlessly highly skilled tradesmen and women of our club is nothing short of amazing!! Adds up to some awesome adVentures filled with Murphy being defeated by everyday people doing extraordinary things while surviving extraordinary cercumstances!! Making lemonaide while they can!! GOOD ON YA UNC!!!

You are more than welcome @Ipleedthe5th,, it is always a pleasure to share info and opinion.. Here is another quick shot of Tweeks (our bike) hauling Tip and I on another off road adVenture in the extremely sandy conditions of Michigans State Lands.. Loose sand is also totally doable on a Venture but, IMHO,, riding technique in sand is best practiced on a dirt bike first IMHP. This is over one of Michigans snowmobile trails,, minus the sleds of course, often over looked for their summertime exploration fun.. Enjoy!!

Another excellent review conducted and written by my brother Neil!! IMHO,, Alpinestars are the best of the best! I actually wore out several sets of their MX boots back in the day,, there is nothing like the superb feel of a good set of Alpinestars when landing a jump on an MX track or snagging a toe on a tree root when flogging your KX500 thru the woods of Michigan while trying to stay out front o the pack.. Alpine's are a serious piece of equipment IMHO,, at least they were back when I was in the need. I whole heartedly agree 100% with @VentureFar 's findings in this one! THANKS AGAIN FOR YET ANOTHER AWESOME REVIEW BROTHER!!! Keep on keeping on!! Puc

Indeed!! Prayers Up for all my brothers and sisters in the path of this monster!!

These are heavy honkin great big touring bikes with zero aptitude for woods riding.. If they land on you they can snap a leg or ankle and mouse trap you and your passager without even thinking twice about it.. To some of us,, myself included,, that challenge is what makes it so worthy of such nonsense You got any woods riding experience Zach? If so,, read on,, if not,,, dont do it.. If you still want to do it but have no woods riding experience,, my advice is grab yourself a decent dirt bike and spend some time in the woods learning woods riding skills on a bike that wont eat you alive when (not if,, when) the two of you go down.. This is extremely important advice if your gonna be doing it two up.. Personally,, I have found the MK1 1st Gens to be extremely capabile woods bike of the touring bike means.. My wife/kids and I have spent many many enjoyable off road adVentures together aboard ours many miles in the outback of the western states.. Have snake trailed many times thru the forest surrounding the Grand Canyon and tented miles from anything on the edge.. Utah has endless mountain opportunity of the same type.. One time I short legged my 1st Gen on a mountainside when following a goat trail and ended up with the bike on its side with the handlebars facing down hill and there was no way we could lift it.. I ended up rolling over 1 flip to get it uprighted.. This pretty much destroyed a saddlebag, a set of mirrors and a windshield - it does happen.. Below is a vid of a repair of a repair on that saddlebag years later.. Ye be warned,, its gonna happen.. On another trip we road across the Black Hills of South Dakota from the water falls down in Spear Fish Canyon on two tracks and snake trails over to Sundance Wyoming.. Tossing the tent in the Black Hills on a deer run and listening to ELk bugle at night and riding that single track out to an opening that looked just like something out of really good Tom Selleck cowboy movie was unforgettable so yeah,, I get your thirst for quest.. I would not trade my off roading years on these 1st Gens for anything!! The memories are endlessly priceless.. I will say this though,, IMHO, if my bikes were not prepped for such and had already not taken my fair share of lumps getting beat up on MX tracks and racing the back woods on dirt bikes,, I highly doubt this would be the case.. In that vein of thought,, please allow me to suggest that you, at a minimum make sure your scoot is in good repair suspention wise.. A good set of Progressive springs up front with 3/4 to 1 inch of preload is a must.. Running the rear fully inflated to 70 pounds and set the dampner to 4 is another must.. I am sure you get what I am talking about,, no need for advice in all this.. Here are a couple short vids of some of our experiences doing exactly what you asked about.. Definite proof that it is doable.. As far as whether you should or not,, that answer is yours and yours alone.. Puc

As in all things associated with my world,, this is coming from an old school world of back yard mechanickan dating all the way back to the late 60's so I am sure a lot has changed in the welding world but here is how it happened to me: 4 years of High School "Hard Materials" (without those classes I would have never graduated high school cause those are basically the only glasses I consistently went to and actually got good grades in = straight A's ) with a good part of those years/classes involving welding in one form or another.. I was working in a shop as a Machinist (got that job right out of high school because of those shop classes ) for 5 years when our power company decided to build another huge coal fired power plant on Lake Michigan about 40 minutes south of my home and the Trades were instantly all looking for help.. I drove over to Detroit and applied with Boilermakers Local 169.. Few weeks later and I increased my weekly income x4 of what I was making in the shop and was well on my way into one of the most fantastic adventures of employment a man could have - IMHO.. About 6 months in while I was riggin,, the Push came up to me and said he had heard I had some welding skills,, asked if I would be interested in going to welding school on 169/Consumers dime,, in the evenings after work. I looked at him and told him from my prospective that would be like someone giving me FREE tools for my tool box - I said ohhhh heck YES right then and there.. A pipe fitter from Midland Mi named Terry Bishop taught the welding classes for Consumers.. It was a marvelous experience with no expense spared on Consumers part as it was held at their Service Center in my home town of Muskegon.. Terry and I hit it off big time.. He was not only an extremely skilled welder and wonderful teacher,, he was also a biker:bowdown:.. We ended up best friends... One day in school I was doing some uphill stick with some 7018.. For as far back as I can remember I could make steel fuse,, it never really looked that good but I could weld,, matter of fact I actually thought I was a good welder.. Anyway,, here I am welding these coupons together and was looking forward to how they x-rayed when Terry spoke into my hood and said "Scott,, you know what your problem is? You are not seeing the puddle.." I stopped,, flipped my hood up (was a time long ago before instant darkening hoods ) and said what do you mean??.. Terry set out on an adventure to teach me to really weld and the key to that was teaching me to see the puddle.. It took a few nights,, it did not instantly hit me,, in my case it was almost supernatural when it happened... My welds went for ok into a world of zero failed xrays on the job.. Being able to see the puddle also led me into the wonderful world of Tig under Terry's leadership where I learned things like walking the cup,, how to grind a tungsten at the correct angle for what ever weld type I was doing and how to consistently set my tungsten length.. What a good weld looks like when its being applied and what perosity looks like when its happening.. WOW that was fun!! I earned my certification and welded with the Boilermakers for years and then,, when I started raising my family and no longer wanted to travel I landed a job with a company as a Supervisor which required both my skills as welder and machinist (lot of Stainless = food processing equipment).. All because a Pipe Fitter turned welding teacher took the time to teach me to see the puddle.. So,, from all that,, here is my advice.. If you really want to learn to weld, IMHO,, the best way to begin is get a good set of Oxy/Acetylene torches with Cutting tips but also get brazing tips.. Take the brazing tips, get a good "cone" shape of flame going,, take hunk of steel and just start pushing the puddle around.. Hold the cone tip on the steel and watch carefully what takes place.. Watch as you see a small puddle develop.. When the puddle gets to 1/4 inch in diameter move the cone tip slowly and let the puddle increase in size to match its original size.. Controlling your movement forward speed is what will keep the puddle one consistant size.. When you get to where you can write your name and maintain the puddle size enough that when you lift your hood what you see will look like someone wrote it with an ink pen with no bulges or changing in the line that forms your name your getting the hang of it.. Now graduate to brazing.. Now learn to cut steel with your torch set.. In the end,, you will have purchased one of the best tools a backyard mechanic can own (Torch set) and will not only know how to use it,, you will have learned to weld and will be ready to progress into arc/Tig?Mig fairly easily.. Yes,, prep and cleanliness and of course a steady hand are the basis for good welds but I gotta tell ya,, IMHO,, actually seeing that little puddle is a game changer IMHO.. Also,, if you really want to learn it and you are young with good eyes,, get started and do it now!! Getting old and loosing eyesight,, even having to use reading glasses, is a huge handicap IMHO.. Rich,, I think that is an AWESOME deal my brother!! Just awesome!! ENJOY!! Puc

I may be wrong about this but I think the Boss may have put em on his,, lets find out,, what say you @Freebird ?

As I am sure you already know my brother,,, you are ALWAYS more than welcome !! Hey ya lop eared brother by a different mother of mine varmint,, you wanna hear something that should make you (it did me )? :banana:1967 is exactly the year that I bought my little hand impact driver from Boston Motors in Muskegon Mi.. As you know,, back in the day it was almost impossible to do any form of serious work on our motorcycles without this basic tool as EVERYTHING was phillip screwed down and it was standard practice to not be able to get the screws out without one of those little jewels.. Sincerily Neil,, it was my very first actual tool of my very own cause it was one tool that was not in Dads tool box.. Here's mine (See Pic).. Glad it all worked out @VentureFar,, now get back to work writing another one of those awesome reviews for Ultimate (but ulimately for us!!!) and forget about that new one,,, your bike now has a brand new bolt in it that has got to be good for at least 200,000 more miles!! Rock n Roll Puc

If you can lay that jaw set against the washer,, grab the largest set of good vise grips you have,, place the top jaw on top so when you are turning the bolt to loosen it you are pulling against the bottom jaw and pushing the top jaw.. Dont be afraid to get a real good bite on the bolt head, adjust the jaws so you can barely close them and snap it on.. Now break it loose.. If the above is not possible because the bolt head is in a tight spot I would take your dremel and cut a hex head on the round surface of the bolt head.. Do you have a set of verniers? If so take a socket that is close in size to the OD of the bolt head but slightly smaller,, measure the distance between the hex flat surfaces on the socket,, take a marker and paint the bolt head black so you have a surface to scribe into.. Now take the vernier tips and lightly scribe the socket measurement into the marked surface,, repeat until you have a hex head scribed.. Now take your dremel and using a cutoff blade remove the material to form a hex head.. While you are grinding, take the socket and occasionally check it to see how close you are. If it feels like it only has a few more thousandths to go,, put the socket on the head and smack it in place with a hammer,, drive it on there brother!! Now take a hand impact driver and use it to loosen the bolt.. Put it on and smack it good.. Make sense?

Sure sounds suspsiously like either a Regulator or Stator issue to me.. The running until the battery is dead and then having the bike die at the end is a dead give away in my experience.. If my bike did not have a volt meter built in so I could watch it I would grab a cheapo HF meter (the type that HF was giving away free on a regular basis in thier coupon book) like I always carry in my bikes maintenance dept (right saddlebag) and wire it up to the battery terminals and duct tape it to my handlebars or something so I could have a constant monitoring of the charging system if having issues like you are having and it seemed to happen inconsistently.. Now this is just an opinion from a backyard mechanic who has swapped out his share of Stators,, here is how this works,, again - IMHO (best you get till the real guru's show up .. What I have experienced is when a Stator gets hot and the protection around the wires in its coils (I call it thier lamination) gets cooked the coils loss their ability to resist current flow between those wires,, or,, put in another way,, they lose effeciency.. It always amazed me on the 1st Gens of mine how a failed stator would clearly show its cooked status in areas that was not getting proper oil bath cooling. When the bikes engine is cool,, say at start up,,, those windings can,, and often do perform adequately but when they get hot from operating those same coils now will have a completely different attitude.. That is why I always check mine both cold and hot if I dont have a dash mounted volt meter and the bike is acting up as you describe.. On my first gens I can usually detect a failed stator/regulator coming just by change in my dash meters attitude.. If it gets slow to respond when I cross 1500 rpm or so this is an indicator.. If I turn on a blinker or touch the brake light and the meter starts dropping to low voltage that is a good indicator.. If we are out on a couple hour ride (or a 2 month trip,, Murphy LOVES this!!) and I notice my bike suddenly backfiring strangely or dropping fire on a cylinder I immeditely glance my volt gauge cause a low output from the stator is not friendly to the ignition system.. I would also check for AC Voltage at the battery too,, an indicator the rectifier is toast if present.. IMHO,, it is always important to not just look for output but also look at how cleanly and sharply the regulator input is coming in.. Is it lazy? Does it not consistently snap right to 14.5 volts when it crossed a low rpm increase?? Sure signs that something at right.. Hate to be the bearer of bad new and definitely hope it is just a bad battery or loose/dirty connection at the battery but the above is what it sounds like to me.. Truth Matters Puc

Neil can you lay the jaws of a pair of vice grips flat against the washer that is behind the head of the bolt?? So the jaw of the vice grip is perpendicular with the shaft/head of the bolt?

@Skid ,,, : [h=5]Waldo Whitfield Nivens Johnson[/h]14h I've got a '99 RSV trike with 58k miles for sale. It's a Tri-wing and has reverse. A few minor issues, but runs like a dream...all day and all night. How much should I ask? [h=5]Waldo Whitfield Nivens Johnson[/h]14h I've got a '99 RSV trike with 58k miles for sale. It's a Tri-wing and has reverse. A few minor issues, but runs like a dream...all day and all night. How much should I ask? Waldo Whitfield Nivens JohnsonAuthor That's what I was asking. I was thinking, between $7-10,000. That would leave space to do little things to make it their own. found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/21338336667/

If you are a liking to be able to spoon on your own tires kinda lop eared varmint,, Shinko all the way.. If you are an I will trust the tow truck for my roadside assistance and let the dealership do my tire work kinda of lop eared varmint,, Dunny E-4 dual compound all the way...

Actually Casey,, IMHO,, bee's dont know squat... Like a hammer falling from it's owners work bench and landing exactly on the owners big toe at just the exact moment when he flips his welding hood down to strike an arc on a priceless piece of historic art worth billions of dollars,,, it is ALL on Murphies shoulders!! Murphy plans and executes all injuries and crisis's like this,, not bee's IMHO.. Sure am glad Murph is no friend of mine!!

Got that right Patch,, since reading thru all these replies and seeing your fellow countrymen affirm that what I had found was indeed,, factual and accurate as I had told you I thought it probably was, I took Liberty and figured out how to play that song anytime I need to: :usa::witch_brew:

Sheesh Don,, just cause we are all thinkin it dont mean ya gotta say it There's an old saying around here in Michigan on this side of the border,, it goes something like this... If you dont insist that the used car salesman approve of putting the car on a lift so you can shake it down BEFORE you hand them the cash you have no room for complaints afterward the sale. Of course,, I gotta confess here,, that is an American thing,, IMHO - many U.S. used car dealerships tend to be ruthless employing sales people who may,, or may not be right out of one of our Correctional Facilities Of Higher Sales Profitability schools but I actually assumed from reading Carls detailed account that this hiring practice ended at our Northern Border Seriously though @Marcarl,, hoping its all straightend around now and that your new truck provides you with endless joy for the rest of the time you have left dealing with life down here below!!