slomove

Me too. I had hydraulic surge brakes on my trailer for several years. They do work quite well when they work and I used to prefer them for simplicity reasons. No cabling, controller etc. However...they were a bit finicky. I rebuilt the brakes a few times because the master or slave cylinders got stuck. Not exactly sure why but maybe just cheap junk. After I changed to electric brakes, so far no problem for a couple of years. For the surge brakes in Europe I remember that my dad's boat trailer had mechanical surge brakes. A draw rod linkage on the coupler activated the drums. Worked pretty good and reliable. But that was 40 years ago and I have no idea what they use nowadays in Germany. I guess electric brakes as well but not sure.

I have been towing my enclosed 7s trailer (about 3000 lbs) for many years now with a Hyundai Santa Fe. Originally the 2.7 V6, now the newer 3.8l V6. We bought that model mainly because it was about the cheapest car on the market with 3500 lbs tow rating. About the size of the Touareg and with 270 hp ample power. We got the 2012 model last year for $24k shortly before launch of the 2013 model. Never had trouble with our old Santa Fe in 8 years and did not need to invoke the 100k mile warranty. I would also not tow without brakes. The rig is normally very stable but when running at speeds of 60 or above on a serious down hill it can start fishtailing. A quick push on the brake controller override will stop that immediately (and remind me of slowing down).

Not sure if that link was already posted here somewhere: http://californiacaterhamclub.com/chat/showthread.php?2141-Superlight-R

The Odyssey625 that came with my car is now 12 years old. I replaced it a while ago for unrelated reasons but it is still doing trailer duty for interior light, winch and brakes. Deeply discharged a few times and rarely used, I hook up a charger every half year or so but so far still alive. I suppose lifetime is a bit random and 7 years is pretty good, after all.

For what it is worth, Birkin has been selling rollers and kits for many years. I am not sure if they still do the kits at all but it was way more rollers anyway and somebody found that his kit was actually a disassembled roller. I do see an advantage of making sure that all the parts actually fit together and as Morgan mentioned that everything is included. This is not trivial in the environment of a small manufacturer who probably does not have a sophisticated engineering document and revision control system linked with incoming and outgoing materials like the big guys. The prudent builder will probably anyway partly disassemble and reassemble certain parts to make the build easier and to assure proper bolt torque, lubrication and the like.

The whole thing has become a political token and both sides make it a matter of principle to be right and ridicule the other side. And on both sides many people are weighing in who are completely clueless and just regurgitating stuff they see on their favorite channel or the preferred blogs. And also on both sides special interest are fanning the flames. Personally, I believe that the current freak weather pattern is indeed mostly a random thing and has not much to do with climate change. After all, I don't know how warm it is in Kenya, Laos or Siberia right now. And, while I tend to believe that the actual long term (global average) warming trend is at least accelerated by human activity, I am quite fatalistic about it. We can not solve much smaller problems so why would one think we can do something about this issue. But then, I really don't have a clue, either...

For Lake Cachuma that was 83 F for the first week of January. The previous record was 81 degrees for that time of the year in 2002, but no mention of a previous record or since when they started measuring. I happened to look that up on Weather Underground because I was wondering how hot when I drove through.

I know, it is chilly on the East Coast. This was our 12/30 drive (Santa Barbara/Ventura back country). Somewhat nice at 75 degrees. This weekend I was out there again and the temperature was 83 degrees at lake Cachuma, breaking the all time record by 2 degrees. I know, it is just a weather coincidence but still weird.

Besides the mud, what is the difference for a Seven chassis between "flooded" and "driving a few hours in heavy rain"? Waters get everywhere in both cases but it is supposed to handle the latter.

No, it just gets very viscous.

O.K., the Polar Bear thing is a done deal (I hope...). What is next? The Ice Road Blat to Nunavut in January?

I miss the weather. After 20 years the (almost) permanent sun starts to suck.

some 8 years ago I bought a different set of Kent cams with required springs, retainers and other junk from Burton and it was about as painless and fast as from a domestic vendor. No problem, very helpful on the phone and by email to get the matching pieces together.

There used to be a "Fahrzeugbrief" which is technically only a paper of responsibility for the vehicle not an indication of ownership. But practically it functions as a title paper for insurance and ownership change purpose and if you leave it in the car that gets stolen you are screwed. There have been some changes to comply with EU law in 2005 but I am not completely familiar with that.

I think there is more similarity. Bush/Cheney and their merry band REALLY WANTED this information to be true. I would not be surprised if they had some hints or evidence to the contrary and wiped it away. Most everybody who publicly doubted it was painted as unpatriotic (yay, convert French Fries to Freedom Fries). I remember exactly sitting in the cafeteria with my boss and discussing the pressure to go to war back then and what an embarrassment it would be if the WMD story was a fluke. Guess what, it was a fluke and nobody was embarrassed. After all, they killed the big bad guy and "liberated" the Iraquis. Now Obama REALLY WANTED his signature law to get through and while technically correct he just wiped away the fact that insurance companies can pretty much cancel at will, especially if rules change and that the promise of keeping policies that were around in 2010 was kind of useless and misleading. So, he is at least publicly embarrassed, not sure if he means it. But I appreciate he did not kill 4000 service personnel and I don't know how many civilians in the process. Old German saying: If you use the planer you will get shavings (doesn't sound as well in English, though). As for disappointment about Obama...I still want to like him but mainly because I find the alternatives extremely despicable. The whole expansion of the Patriot Act and the aggressive government snooping as well as the really broken promise of government transparency makes my hair stand up. I guess I have to run for President myself. :hurray: There is nobody out there who represents my views (kind of libservative). Oh well, I was not born here so forget it.

Part of that is maybe that many active participants actually know each other, be it personally or by direct email. People are just more reasonable when you know you are going to meet potential flaming targets at the next track day. The few trolling cases we had in the past did not find much resonance and went away after a while.

You can retrofit electric brakes at moderate cost (e.g. etrailer.com)

I was used the the German way of trailering. In the old days (i.r. 80's) we towed a 16 ft catamaran on a light weight trailer behind a tiny 205 Peugeot Diesel with something like 59 hp 1100 miles across several Alps passes to southern Croatia for vacation. Offical allowed towing speed was and still is 80 kmh or 50 mph but it went easily 70 mph and still got better than 30 mpg towing. No-frills small car but it had heating and a radio and kind of fun to drive. Back then you could tow up to half of the GVW without and full GVW with trailer brakes. I believe nowadays it is more car specific. On the other hand....a beefier tow car has definite advantages. My niece and family towed a large camping trailer last year behind an Opel Omega. They had an exemption tag (which does not seem to be difficult to get) allowing them to go 100kmh. Nevertheless, on a rainy night drive they ended up fishtailing with a 180-degree spin on the Autobahn facing oncoming traffic. It ended up without real accident but could have been a disaster. Not sure though if they maybe even went beyond the 100kmh.

I did not say that. I know there are many factors at play. But I think it is fair to say the ton of money that is spent in the US does apparently not help us live longer or be healthier. The waste in the current "system" is quite obvious and its growth rate is unsustainable. Unfortunately the ACA does not do much to reduce it (at least in the short term) but IMO better than doing nothing and watch the industry suck up more and more of people's wealth or go uninsured.

I think I will get one of those...might improve the aerodynamics, too. http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120918171555/fantendo/images/f/fc/Cowcatcher.jpg

Well, I can not resist an invitation for a quick blat. I'll watch how this develops.

Well, the $20 million cancer cure was just an example of what would make the situation obvious. I am not aware that exists or affected people would ransack the pharmacies at gunpoint to get it. My point was that healthcare is already rationed here, one way or the other. Your health insurance (assuming you have one), even if gold plated won't pay for everything you like or need or may have life time and other limits. Given the exorbitant amount of money that flows into the system, the expense limits in the US are obviously quite generous but the question is if we really need to spend that money and be just as healthy. For my part, I could use some of the $12,000 that my employer spends annually on the company part of my health plan for something else. For the whole country we spend way more per capita than anybody else (example $8600 in the US vs. $5600 in Canada) are less healthy and many people don't have any regular coverage. That is just insane.

ANY system must ration healthcare somehow. There is only so much money to go around. If there would be a $20 million cure for cancer available, we surely would "ration" it or go broke. And as mentioned above, a bunch of people have to pay for the zillion MRI machines in NYC, another bunch won't be able to benefit without insurance and another smaller bunch is going to become rich with it. The Canadians may not be able to get their regular hemorrhoid MRI but since their life expectancy is 3 years longer than here in the US they are probably O.K. Honestly, I would rather have it rationed by a government bureaucrat than an insurance claims manager whose bonus depends on claims rejected.

O.K., I can climb onto the hood of a Ferrari. Not that difficult. What is the point?