bigdisneydaddy

Ah.  that would have been funny if it was you.

Rules at Disney ?   ha ha ..... thats funny. Every year there are more and more "special" people who dont think the rules apply to them. After 15 days at the Fort I am convinced that its getting worse. Disney posts rules but wont/cant enforce them.

We saw:

dogs in tents and pop ups

dogs off leash (often)

dogs that bark constantly (thankfully far enough away from us)

2 and 3 cars parked on sites, most often on the grass.

14 people on one site (next to us for a week)

children driving golf carts (Disney and private)

Tent cities in the 1700 loop

people trying to get on the bus before we have exited

I dont think any of this is exclusive to Disney. I think it has more to do with a general breakdown of social skills in America.

Mike, are those 2 boston terriers in your avatar ?  if so we may have met while you were there. I ran across someone walking two bostons near the 1600 comfort station, one of the bostons didnt care for my boxer.

A lot of companies chose to limit the actions that their employees take for a variety of reasons. Training is expensive, they may opt to use the rangers as spotters or observers and not allow them to act due to the danger and the exposure to injury. Although vehicle fires are not atom splitting events, the potential for injury for someone with no safety equipment and little or no training is very high. Disney IIRC is self insured on a lot of things. Even though there are some very real hazards, vehicle fires are generally not what you see portrayed on TV (I know its shocking that TV is inaccurate) and explosions are rare other than tires.

The truck was away from any structures and the conditions of the vegetation was supposedly not dry due to recent rain so theres really little hazards with exposures, it looked a lot worse than what it really was.

As an example of companies shielding themselves from liability, the municipality I just retired from has several elder care facilities with varying degrees of care that would call the Fire dept for public assists so that we could come and pick people up off the floor and help them back into bed or their chairs. These were businesses with sufficient staff on duty that should have been capable of the task but due to their insurance did not allow employees to lift residents. Its a crazy world we live in.

You would think the "Rangers" would carry fire extinguishers with them.

My bet would be that for liability reasons they are not allowed to intervene in most circumstances.

Also, the pickup truck was likely a command vehicle.

There are also stations behind the Magic kingdom and one behind the McDonalds near The All stars resort. The engine could have come from anywhere on property. The staff van parking in front of the hydrant was classic. I recall hearing that when the new station opened up over near Saratoga that there were not any additional apparatus or personell added, just some shuffling of resources.

At some point I would imagine a decent fix coming along. I know with the GM stuff that the common failures usually get a cost effective repair designed by an individual. Over time the poor engineering reveals itself on every vehicle. My running joke is that engineers think techs have hands the size of an 8 year old girl with the strength of Popeye. I see stuff all the time that could have been so easily done better but totally misses the mark. Unfortunately I only see it getting worse as the Manufacturers farm more work out to subs, they are given design paparmeters and a space to put it in with no regard for the other systems around it.

1. Sadly we wont be there for Christmas. Have fun and do lots of looping.

Guns arent allowed at the Fort, even Mickey had to give up his musket.

Book early.... very early, and have a frugal wife who knows she wants to go on another cruise.

I never got the whole "cruise" thing until we took one, now I am hooked. We have another sailing for a 7 day on the books. Just so I didnt have to waste time getting used to the layout, we got exactly the same room on the Fantasy as we did on the Dream......

My guess would be that if they werent supposed to be lubricated then Reese wouldnt sell the grease to put on them. http://www.reeseprod.com/content/products.aspx?lvl=3&parentid=1200&catID=1240∂=58117

http://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Accessories_and_Parts-sf-Weight_Distribution-pc-Lubricant.aspx

If I didnt grease mine the whole thing would chew itself up. My trailer weighs over 10k and the hitch weight is around 1400#

Can anyone confirm that the results are based on data that includes "2007 and later diesel emissions" engines?  David 

I dont see anywhere that it names a specific vehicle. I do know that GM's oil life monitor uses an algorhythm that assigns a numerical value to a period of run time based on the conditions the engine is running under (at speed or at idle, at operating temp or cold start) then when the values add up to a threshold the light will come on.

Personally I think the story paints kind of a simplistic picture of a very complicated issue. I would never reccomend extending change intervals over the manufacturers reccomended miles/hrs unless there was an analysis program in place. Realistically, most people dont want the hassle.

we catch a lot of bad injectors using analysis. The Ford 6.0 almost always has at least 2% contamination. detroit says anything under 3% is okay but I have never been able to pin Ford down on a threshold amount.

Lubrication is not to be made light of.

I put a latex free glove over my ball so as to not contaminate the grease or get it on my pants when not in use.

A lot can dpeend on the vehicle also. As an example my Chevy Duramax can easily go 10,000 miles and still return a good analysis. The Ford 6.0 diesels we have at work struggle to achieve 5000 mile change intervals. Some of it is the way they are driven but MOST of it is the difference in the design of the engines. On our big trucks (series 60 and series 40 Detroit diesels) we go as much by hours as we do by miles.

The long and the short of what I tell folks is to follow the oil change monitor on your modern car and use the weight of oil that they recommend. GM in particular extended their intervals by creating their "Dexos" spec, essentially just a spec for a more robust oil with properties typically found in full or high quality blend sythetics.

You cannot tell the servicability of a fluid by sight. Dont fall for the service center trick where they take a small sample of your fluids and compare them to a supposedly fresh fluid. This is most often a ploy to get you to pay for an unneccesary "flush" that is typically not even called for in your service manual. Save you money and follow the manual and you will protect your investment.

I use white lithium paste on the ball and the pivot points of the WD bars. For the ball latch I usually use silicone. Although the red and tacky is a superior product I like the white lithium because I can buy it in a smaller squeeze tube. I also keep a tube of general purpose EP lube in the trailer just in case I need to repack a bearing on the road.

_{You ALWAYS run tires at the pressure indicated on the tag in the drivers door jam. The pressure on the tire is the maximum only. Every vehicle including chassis that are upfitted with RV bodies are required to calculate the correct tire pressure based on loading and tire size and load rating. This is done by engineers that use a "load inflation table" after all the vehicle/finished chassis informtaion is known.}

Haven't seen you post in a long time. Good to hear from you. We bought our camper new in 08 and I haven't touched ours that's why I know I need to check them we have put about 12,000 miles on it.

Other than the bearing nut preload I will bet that the bearings dont look that bad. Make sure you have a new set of seals and a chunk of wood to install them before you pull it apart. I always buy an extra seal "just in case"

Use a small chisel and hammer or a big pair of channel pliers.

I usually use a small flat blade screwdriver and hold it at an angle where the cap flange and the hub meet, a few taps usually drives it in and then you can twist it to start the cap removal, work it around the cap twisting it and you should be able to pry it off. Check Dexter axle website for maintenance manuals.

I always use a torque wrench when reinstalling the wheels. I bought a 19.2 v Craftsman impact and it usually at 90lb but I always double check. The axles on my trailer are Dexter "EZ lube" they are supposed to not need to be taken apart to repack, supposedly the spindle is designed to direct the old grease back out through the end near the grease fitting. Its a great concept but fails in practice. An over greased bearing will also run hotter than a properly packed unit. So too much grease is almost as bad as not enough. If you need a manual for your axles, Dexter has every model on their website available for download. It always pays to have the model written down somewhere just in case of a breakdown, then you can look for parts or repair facility and shorten your down time.

I checked the bearing preload on my 16 mo old trailer and ended up pulling the brakes to check them and the bearings. I found the seals blown out and grease all over the brakes rendering them just about useless. I think its been that way from the start since the brakes on the trailer have never been all that good, I just figured it was due to the 10,000# weight.  6 hrs worth of labor and 6 cans of brake clean and some time spent using the parts washer in the shop and my brakes are back to functioning. The trailer has been to FW twice (2200 mile round trip) and a couple times up north and to the factory in Indiana. It did need the bearing load adjusted but the bearings did not need a repack. I removed quite a bit of the excessive grease that was in the hubs. It appears someone power greased the axles before delivery and blew the seals out in the back. Other than that I only do mine every other year after the inital bearing adjustment. these types of bearings have been used for a very long time on cars and light trucks. Most bearings only get repacked at a brake change, we have a shop truck that is 17 yrs old with 80k on it and I have only packed the bearings once since new. I think that once the initial adjustement is made that every couple - 3 yrs is more than adequate. Of course if it make you sleep better then every year is the way to go.

Happy travels

I but I don't want some lazy ass parent benefiting from my hard earned money. I'll be calling tomorrow to complain for sure.

I immediately thought of the school breakfast program.