Yesterday, someone mentioned that it's been a nice, slow slide towards winter. That is a great way to describe it. Last year, I posted that I replaced the roof clearance lights on the truck with LED versions. Well, I ended up replacing two of them as they "burned out". I thought LEDs lasted almost forever... Oh well, they were cheap from Amazon so I simply ordered another set of five. Now I have three extra.
On Monday, I went out to Fox for the monthly BMW get together and on the way home I noticed that I had no lights in the speedometer. I rarely need to actually see the speedometer any more due to familiarity with the Ural but being able to see it would be nice. The bulb was one of the original and didn't have any sort of number on it. Simply 12V 3W or 12 volts, 3 watts. The glass bulb is pretty small and the local Napa and Batteries & Bulb place didn't have anything that would fit. I found some LED replacements on Amazon. I guess I'll see how well they work...
Icy roads in Fairbanks is inevitable no matter how nice the weather is. Last year, I opted not to stud the tires since they were brand new and the rubber was softer. This year, I ordered 150 #1200 studs from Gripstuds.com. They are the same price as Aerostitch but the shipping is less. This is the same size that I've been using for years and they seem to work pretty well on ice and packed snow. And I don't use as many studs per tire as the 2-wheel riders so I don't have the clear road problems that they report. (i.e. The studs reduce traction when there is no ice or snow)
Hi Richard,
ReplyDeleteI don't have any experience with automotive LED's but I buy household LED's from China through eBay (at less than half of NZ's price). Most of them do indeed have long lives but I do get perhaps 10% of them that fail quite quickly. Maybe quality assurance is a bit slack but I'm pretty sure they are the same brand that NZ retailers sell. I'm just cutting out the middle man!
I've purchased a number of LEDs both household and automotive. These were the first ones that burned out. Actually a little intermittent as sometimes they worked. It wasn't the wiring and the light enclosures are sealed so it was simpler to just replace them.
DeleteYou stud the K37 tires right? Can't see the Duro 308s being able to be studded.
ReplyDeleteYes, the K37. The Duros can be studded but you need to use a smaller stud. There are some that are commonly used on bicycles that'll probably work fine.
DeleteI'm with Geoff, some of our LED lights for the house don't last like they claim either. Definitely not the 10k hours they claim.
ReplyDeleteWith studs ordered it sounds as though you'll be race ready when the snow falls.
I've only had one of the house ones fail and it was one of the cheaper ones from Sam's Club. All of the older ones from the electrical supply houses seem to be working fine. And they get a lot more use.
DeleteI think the studs may get installed this weekend as they are predicting snow for the first part of next week...