12/9/23 Yet another twist…
The delayed shipment came today, rather that the expected 12th, however a small light package was on my doorstep, my neighbors package, so I take it over, find my chain package at her doorstep! Nobody home. so I swapped them, all is well…
Heavier than I expected, but came in a plastic case, room for the extra tighteners maybe gloves, tools inside… All set! Hopefully never needed…
Well, we made a trip from Sonoma County in NorCal to Carson City over the weekend, spent a couple nights there, returning today… 541 miles for the round trip, but that include a trip to Reno as well… The trip up dry, uneventful, cool up top, but not a lot of snow, none on the roadway at all, so concerns about chains were unfounded… I topped up on the way home after 322 miles it took 9.028 gallons, so mileage was 35.7, running from seal level to the pass and down the other side, so some recovery on the downhills… But I was also driving a lot of 70+, some 80+ as well as a bit of slower traffic, but that day and again on our way home today… In fact I was surprised how the whole of traffic was running, not just 70, but a lot of 80s, and it crept int the 90s at times… And even then I was getting passed by even faster drivers that had to be hitting 95 or more… A few highway patrol but it sure didn’t slow down the traffic… Trucks, too running right up there,. In NV, a lot of 395 is 70 mph, but that only meant folks were running at 80+…
Liked how to handled, the lane monitor was sometimes annoying if I forgot to signal a lane change with nobody around…
Didn’t like the road noise, on I80 over the Sierras, trucks have worn very obvious channels in the concrete & blacktop pavements, trying to drive on the outer areas of them wasn’t all that helpful, Fat lane was better, but it had it’s share of wear, so road noise, too,. 36psi tires add to the noise, I’m sure, maybe a sofer rubber could help, but off the mountains, it’s not so bad, but noticeable on some roads…
Overall a good trip, be interesting to see the overall mileage next fill… My spreadsheet for the entire 2049 miles so far is 38 mpg, decent, indeed… As I wasn’t cautious, economical minded, no problem… Beat the old F159’s 15 or so…
A question on jump starting Hybrids came up today… Interesting, and definitely different that ICE’s… Not sure of other brands, but worth looking up… RAV4’s 12V system is really only for all the electronics, which controls the 140V motors, and starting the little 4 banger… There is no 12v starter motor like ICEs…
Still finding, learning more of the details in our new '23 RAV4, I had used the rear wiper, but no idea it also had a washer… Same with the heated wiper area in the 2nd video… Likely vital in further Northern areas, but we have hit the teens in the past, hopefully it’s garaged then…
weco
Continuing to learn more as we wander along. In light of all the recent rains out here, DW, and even I are/were a bit confused on the wipers, while driving, its not the time to try to read the graphics to explain what options are available, when a downpour hits, in particular! Manuals are fine, but a decent video is even better!
This one is rather generic, maybe an earlier year than our '23 Limited, but also helps understand the procedures…
And, yet another thing I didn’t know, that the mirrors are included with the seat settings, and that they can be set to move to your position with just a little more button pushing! With both of us driving it, this looks handy!
And here’s a few more tricky ‘Easter Eggs’… Bigger trick is to remember the when wandering…
A slight turn, after buying the RAV4, my F150 has had little, or no use, so its battery died! Charger brought it back, but there are things that drain it, from the OEM alarm, to door lock receivers, to trailer brake controllers, maybe other stuff… So the fix is a Negative post cutoff switch, with our old WeCo standard No-Ox on everyone batter related… Will see if I can keep a trickle charger on it, too…
Tomorrow’s project!
My dad disconnects his battery whenever my parents go away for a few weeks. Then a day or two before they return, he sends me a text asking me to reconnect the battery and connect it to the trickle charger. It’s worked most of the time without issues. Well, except for the issue that the darn car has an alarm that always goes off when the battery is low, so I hear the shriek for 10 seconds in the garage until I can disable it by turning the car to accessory mode (it’s an older model that still has a key with 3 positions).
I didn’t realize how little I was driving my '06 F150 after we got the RAV4, I guess the cobwebs should have warned me… As it happens, we’re trying to gift our '07 Civic to one of the grandkids, but he’s slow to get his license, so the normal parking spot in the driveway is occupied, where the 4x4 F150 can climb the curb to the side yard driveway easier, so a bit out of sight… Doggone kids, just aren’t as motivated to drive as we were!
I couldn’t find my Sperry clamp-on DC ammeter, but did find my Fluke setup, a 23 multimeter and an i410 clampon:
And it doesn’t show any leakage, measurable at least, an amp or so if I lock or unlock the doors, using my fob… Voltage is still holding at 12.3V, so apparently it was either a one time thing, or something left on, didn’t notice any at the time… So I’ll take a drive out to the coast, wander, charge things up again…
So I didn’t add the cutoff switch today, after all, but I’m ready!
Just a little update, took the RAV4 in for its 12 month Service a couple weeks ag, time base as we didn’t hit the 10K mile marker, just about 7,700 miles in the year. NTF, No Trouble Found… No issues other than the silly Toyota App, after the year they want me to subscribe, and since all I ever used it for was to lock the doors remotely, after it bugged me about it, I don’t need the remote start… I think it’s $80 a year, but for nothing useful, it still shows the miles, tire pressure, unclear what they think they’re selling…
But as of the last fillup, it was 52.0 mpg, average since new is 38.7, so no complaints there at all…
The F150, doing fine as I drive it a time or two a week, haven’t filled it in ages… Killed its Sirius radio no need as I’ve a dongle, ties it to my iPhone which is now linked to the Toyota account… CarPlay in the Alpine head unit… But its so dusty, dirty, spiderwebs all over… Need some rain!
weco…
