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What did you do to your Avalanche today?

Hey everybody I wanted share what me and the Avalanche have been up to with a before and after of the 'green house'

The Avy helped me carry all the parts and stuff and I did the rest or tried to anyway.

This was the first time I have done anything like this, i think it turned out not too bad.

Have a good weekend everyone.Green House Before and After.png
 
I gave the 2003 Avalanche it's 295K oil change today.

Mobil 1 5W-30 and a NAPA Platinum oil filter at an even 5K on the odometer, as always.

Inching towards that 300K mark.

:) (y)
 
Hauled my tools and some stuff to house I am fixing up.

Driven my truck a lot this year versus last....

I have to start thinking about tires.... and since I do not drive much thinking CHEAPEST I find aka CHINA but auro part Tariff might kill that idea.
 
ygmn said:
I have to start thinking about tires.... and since I do not drive much thinking CHEAPEST I find aka CHINA but auro part Tariff might kill that idea.
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I would try looking at local online classifieds for a good used set. usually get a nice deal.
I now have 3 sets mounted for the Avalanche. I drive her daily.
1 set winter studded, 1 summer about 50% left, 1 all weather 70% left.
My wife's Toyota Venza only gets the brand new tires. Really hard to find another set of 20" wheels anywhere so its a pain getting them remounted twice a year. At least they get re balanced.
 
ygmn said:
Hauled my tools and some stuff to house I am fixing up.

Driven my truck a lot this year versus last....

I have to start thinking about tires.... and since I do not drive much thinking CHEAPEST I find aka CHINA but auro part Tariff might kill that idea.
Click to expand...
I hear the thump thumps coming from underneath. o_O
 
Went and drained the mini swimming pool the boat cover collected, again. Really need a better support solution on that. Happy to report that despite the gully washer we received the last few days, there were only a few drops inside the bed since reworking the seals. I'll take that as a win.
 
son borrowed yesterday to haul is BBQ grill to his house.

Now I have ash all over the back....argggggggggg
Dayum charcoal GRills

But we agreed this would be the last move for is grill as she is not aging well....
RIckity, wobbly old thing it is.
 
Another rainy day, and today we have a gaping hole in the front of the house as we have the front door replaced. As time allows will head down to the advancedoriellyauto zone and borrow a scanner that can read chassis codes and finally pinpoint whether we have a bad sensor or ESC module. <fingers crossed> Tonight it will haul us off to 2.1's piano recital as part of celebrating Mama tomorrow.

Have a good weekend folks!
 
I was having a good Sunday cleaning up the yard. Loaded my little trailer with some lumber i was hoarding too long and went to the dump. (Or landfill they call it) The last half mile is a steep climb and the Avy didn't like it. I didn't notice anything till i was leaving. I got a strong smell of coolant and saw the temperature climb. Pulled over and the radiator had just blown. I didn't overheat, had to pull over a few times but I made it home. Stupid plastic sides on these rads are a piss poor design. This is the rad i swapped from my parts truck two months ago, after the same issue.
1000001910.jpg
I'm ordering a NEW one tonight. 😣
She's grounded for a couple weeks. Have to borrow a toyota yaris from my Dad. He's 91 and still a good driver. Good time for me to give his yaris an oil change and check everything
 
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Well, it would appear water leaks was the theme of the day for some of us.

Mother's Day 2025 started off pretty normal with my daughter, wife and me spending the day visiting with my mother, then placing fresh flower arrangements out at the cemetery on my wife's mother's and grandmother's headstones.

Then it was back home for some pizza and cupcakes while enjoying some baseball on TV.

The fun didn't really get started until a couple of hours after my daughter got back to her home.

At some point, she went out into the garage to get the dog some after dinner treats when she noticed the garage floor was now flooded.

I was called and when I arrived I found the water heater bottom had rusted out and was leaking a good amount of water.

So, everything was turned off and the water was drained all the way out and the failed water heater was removed.

To make this Avalanche related, we then ran over to our local Home Depot and purchased a new gas water heater and supplies and hauled the load back to her house for installation.

I have installed water heaters several times over the years with the last one being at my own house back in early 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic.

What I am being reminded of is I think I am getting too old for this crap.

Anyway, with the good help from both my wife and daughter, we managed to get the new water heater installed and checked out.

I'll follow up today with checking out our work and verifying the proper operation and water temperature.

While the work was as arduous as you would expect, I did enjoy the time spent with my daughter and wife and used the task as a learning opportunity that does not come around too often, thank goodness.

I hope everyone else had a good day.
 
EXT4ME said:
I found the water heater bottom had rusted out and was leaking a good amount of water.
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Man I had that happen once. Absolutely sucked. Like you headed to the “Depot” bought a new one and hooked it up. Still a crappy feeling heading to the basement with morning coffee and feel the carpet squish 🤣. Next house we’re having built the HWH will be banished to the garage 😁
 
The first replacement (there have been three now) in our current house was 1 1/2 years after moving into this new house and 1/2 a year out of the builder's warranty.

This was when we learned of the problem in this town of the water eating up water heaters and plumbing in general.

That has gotten better over the years, but it is still something to be aware of.

The water heater in this house is in the garage storage closet, but is located on the other side of the wall of our master bedroom.

First sign of trouble was stepping out of bed into a soaked carpet.

When I installed the first replacement water heater, I also installed a catch pan under the heater and ran a drain hose out into the garage.

Later failures showed up as water on the garage floor that was much easier to clean up.

Lessons learned.
 
There's one saving grace for having an electric water heater. I can use the Marathon water heater from Rheem. I've had the same water heater online for 38 years. Two years ago one of the elements shorted out so I opened it up and found 36 years worth of lime scale inside. It had covered the lower element. It took all day and some improvised pulling devices to break loose and drag all the scale out of the little element hole but I got er cleaned out (1-1/2 five gallon buckets worth) and got it nice looking inside, installed two new elements and a controller (less than $100 total) and she's good for another 36 years.

What I should have done and didn't was extend the drain cock out from under it to make it easier to flush the tank occasionally.

Hard well water is going to do that because although we have a good old Kinetico water softener/conditioner but it's not used anymore. Salt got to expensive and now it needs new beads.

The house plumbing is 99%+ CPVC or other non-metallic tubing (underground ABS) from the pump-house and throughout the house although I'm slowly switching to PEX B.
 
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In our previous house, the electric water heater was no telling how old since it was there when we moved in.

That house was a good 20+ years old when we bought it.

That one also had extensive build up to the point the lower element was covered up and burned up.

I too was able to chip out a ton of lime or calcium and install new elements.

It was still working when we moved out 4 years later.

Here we are 30 years down the road and I wonder if that old tank is still working.
 
I hauled my daughter's dead water heater back to my house today and called our local metal scrapper to come pick it up.

At least the Avalanche got to do something useful today.

:) (y)
 
Well I have a new seat cushion and cover, but.. I have attached a PDF someone asked me to document it, so I did the best I could, before and after shown. The short, got it done, but seam pulled apart in odd spot, so seeing if I can have it sewn. Oddly enough looked like it wasn't sewn properly and back stitched. Material had odd smell, almost like musty when it came out the plastic, so wondering if material was deteriorated could been the plastic bag odor. Waiting to see if i can be sewn, contacted vendor they asked for order number and pictures. Not sure if that will go anywhere as I bought then had to wait to afford cushion and truck was getting seal fixed so needless to say its been a couple months and finally got time to put it on.
 

Attachments

  • Seat-But.pdf
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  • 2 After but.JPG
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2SmokinBarrels said:
I was having a good Sunday cleaning up the yard. Loaded my little trailer with some lumber i was hoarding too long and went to the dump. (Or landfill they call it) The last half mile is a steep climb and the Avy didn't like it. I didn't notice anything till i was leaving. I got a strong smell of coolant and saw the temperature climb. Pulled over and the radiator had just blown. I didn't overheat, had to pull over a few times but I made it home. Stupid plastic sides on these rads are a piss poor design. This is the rad i swapped from my parts truck two months ago, after the same issue.
View attachment 238636
I'm ordering a NEW one tonight. 😣
She's grounded for a couple weeks. Have to borrow a toyota yaris from my Dad. He's 91 and still a good driver. Good time for me to give his yaris an oil change and check everything
Click to expand...
Is there an aluminum one others have used? I wondered about this as well with these plastic tanks.
 
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