Driving home from McDonald's I was out of overdrive, cruising at 68mph in a 70 zone. My wife was following me and she starts waving wildly and flashing her lights and screaming. So when we got home I back into my spot and she comes over smacking me all over the place. My indicated 68mph is more like 80 according to her Durango's speedometer. She doesn't like driving fast. Oops.
In the Electra? My 88 Electra Wagon was right on the money. Do you have different rims/tires on there? Hey....tell your wife HER speedo is wrong.
Sounds like the start of a fun fun fun weekend.....just hope yur all healed up fer the new week coming and see what mischief ya kin get's inta fer next weekend......
Wow, that's surprising that your speedo is that far off. Pinning the needle does that often, hint hint!
Was driving the Taurus in the Eureks/Arcata area of Northern California,a few weeks back.They had a bunch of those machines on the side of the road,that tell you how fast you're going...I had the speedo to the speed limit,the first few times I drove past them,and was told I was averaging three mph over the speed limit,every time.So I started slowing down to three mph less than the speed limit,every where I went...Maybe that was the big idea up there.
She tells me on the way TO McDonald's (she had all the girls, I had all the boys, we didn't feel like emptying the Suburban out and she and my 14 year old REFUSE to ride in the wagon) she was driving at 74mph with the cruise on and my speedometer was at about 64. That's about a 15-18% difference and doesn't seem right. The tire pressure sticker says P225/75R15 and the tires on the rear (the ones that matter) are LT235/75R15. Would truck tires (Wrangler RT/S in this case) be larger than passenger tires of the same size? I wouldn't think so, they have the same numbers, and being off 235 to 225 should only be a 5% difference at most. I'm confoozled.
According to an online tire calculator here are the results. Original tire Sidewall: 6.64 in Radius: 14.14 in Diameter: 28.29 in Circumf: 88.87 in Revs/mile: 712.97 New Tire Sidewall: 6.94 in Radius: 14.44 in Diameter: 28.88 in Circumf: 90.72 in Revs/mile: 698.39 Speedometer reading with new tire is 2.09% too slow. When your speedometer is reading 60mph you are actually traveling 61.23mph. Now according to my Satalite calculated GPS, which are more accurate then a Police Radar BTW, with the stock 225/75R15s on the rear of my Roadie, my speedo was 5-6 MPH fast, with the new tires or 255/70R15 the speedo is right on the money with my GPS. Not to mention I get a better ride, looks and handles alot better and the 350 doesnt wanna turn them as easy when I get after it from a stop. As for the wife and daughter, they feel more "cool" riding in a SUV? Ill never get it, SUVs are hideous looking wastes of Coke cans, one of the most impracticle confounded pieces of machiery since the automated jar opener.
Well with 235/75/15, I'm going 80 when my speedo says 68. So I'm 18% off or so. 235/50/15 gets me 16% closer. So I e-mailed the previous owner and found his son was running 18" rims he has since sold and he doesn't remember what size tires they had but they were thin. If they were 225/35/18 (some random size I saw on CL for a box Caprice) and he had changed the speedo gear to match, that gives a 16.2% difference. 200-4R speedo gears are part of the governor and would require dropping the pan. That explains the clean transmission fluid, too. Yikes. I'll just have to pay attention to my driving (awful wretched idea, eh?)
Gotta love when people put them discusting looking DORK er... DONK wheels on their cars, even worse when they make the speedo accomodate those stupid lookin wheels and then keep them when they sell the car, but never fix what they screwed up to make it all work together. Sorry, about the little rant about the ugly 26" wheels and rubberband tires.
Three cheers for Blackfoot!! I hate that look with a passion. It's the operative way to screw up a beautiful old car. Some people like it, though. I guess I just have to curb my gag reflex when I see them around. Again...to each his own.
stationwagons??? I remember when minivans first showed up(was it Chrysler that invented the minivan,or VW?)a car critic called them "the stationwagon for the Eighties". Now,I knew there were people who didn't like stationwagons,before then,but I'd been thinking "to each his own".After that,I started noticing an active campaign afoot,to rid society of stationwagons,like they were heroin or AIDS,or something.And I didn't think the description fit.Minivans,after all,are NOT stationwagons,they're mini vans...And,within a few years,full size V8 wagons were getting pretty much the same mpg's as these minvans that were supposed to be so much better.---In the late Eighties,SUV's showed up.A car critic(probably the same one)called them "the stationwagon for the Nineties". (1)SUV's,if you think about it,had actually been around a long time.it was just the designation SUV that was new.(Ford claims to have invented the SUV,I think it may have been the Stutz Bearcat or Mercer Runabout that did that)And the description still didn't fit.Not for me...Pick-up truck stationwagon?Yes!..But "they" couldn't call them that,because pick-up trucks were on the trendy's list of vehicles to get rid of,too. (2) Not only did the two replacements for the stationwagon become pariahs as well,they weren't really any better.Their mpgs are just now getting minutely better than the ones my 23 year old Colony Park still gets.And IT has to pass smog tests,here in California.And when was the last time the news scandal was about all those Country Squires flipping over and killing people,or getting t-boned and the tailgate flies open and the back-backseat flies out?..Personally,I think the people that have been working so hard to rid society of the stationwagon menace,were the kids who sat in the back-backseat,because that was the "punishment seat".To rid themselves of their personal demons,they think they have to rid the world of the stationwagon.They want to avoid their fears rather than face them.
As I understood it,and this was like thirty years ago,before those kinds of rims became "bling"---the bigger rims and thinner tires were supposed to be for better performance handling.You put them on your Corvette,Mustang,Camaro or Cuda,so you could go around corners better at higher speeds...I don't think that's what those roms are all about anymore.And that some of them are bigger than the original wheel's dimensions is proof of that.More of that "compenstaing for something" stuff.And as Big Daddy Don Garlitz once said,"If it don't go,chrome it!"
Quite a few posters here i would like to see again...... I used to bump into Alan (Occupant) on another forum, but I haven't been there in a while....
