Have any of you noticed ...

... How manufacturers are quietly ripping us off on a routine basis?

My most recent experience down this road was trying to set up carbs to measure float levels. Using my calipers, the diameter of the drain holes on the carbs came out fairly precisely to .25 inches - at least to within a few hundredths of that ... close enough.

So imagine my dismay when I inserted .25 inch vinyl tubing into the hole and finding that it was too small. Didn't come close to touching the sides. So out comes the caliper to remeasure. Sure enough the ID of the drain hole is .25 in. The problem is the .25 in vinyl tubing. It isn't .25 inches ... it is .21 inches!

Carp!! Damned cheap-ass illegitamate offspring of a kahoogra!!

So off the the hardware store I go, caliper in hand. Let's try a different place and see what they have. They have 3-4 different rolls of vinyl tubing, all labeled .25 inches ... would you believe it? None of them is close enough for a decent/acceptable fit. When I buy something that is supposed to be .25 inches, 40 inches, or 2 bloody miles, it danged well better be that or you are cheating me.

Have y'all noticed how the ice cream manufacturers have all quietly raised their prices by 25% in the past year or so? The standard size ice cream carton, for the nearly 5 decades i have been alive, has always been 1/2 gallon. But about a year or so ago, mfgs quietly reduced their sizes. First they reduced them to 1.75 qts, and when no one seemed to notice that, they quickly dropped to 1.5 qts. Go check it out in your local stores. All the "1/2 gallon" sizes are now 25% smaller - 1.5 qts - and yet the prices are exactly the same price (perhaps even a little more where there has been inflation) as they were when you were getting a full 1/2 gallon.

People of America, cry out to injustice and organized theft. Write your congressmen. Get them to put pressure on the Bureau of Weights and Standards to make certain that products meet the advertised standards.

You know who a large amount of the blame for this is, don't you ... It is the lumber industry. Decades ago, they stopped making 2x4s (for example) Instead, a 2x4 is *really* 1.75 X 3.5. And no one complained, no one did anything about it. Life just went on. Now every industry knows that they can cut corners and cheat their customers and we like sheep will baaaahhhhh quietly along to the fleecing.

 

Whew... for a minute I thought you were going to blame the spotted owl....hehe....poor thing...having to live in nice warm KFC signs.

 

LOL x 2

Wow, you must have had a bad day Tumbleweed.

Well if that wasn't enouugh, it is now standard to get 15% ethanol per gallon of gasoline that you buy in the good US of A. When I go out to fill my tank I want Gasoline not 85% gasoline 15% ethanol. Did you notice that this new gas smells horrible? It smells like paint striper, after only one month. it gos totally bad in less than 6 months. It's not even yellow anymore, it's almost clear with a greeen tint to it in some stations. What the heck am I buying? No wonder cars don't get the same fuel efficiency as adverticed.

 

Plus the fact that ethanol is murder on gaskets, seals, rubber of any kind, and most types of liquid weld and putty (jb weld, etc.)

 

Excellent writeup on Ethanol in fuel:

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/c ... 058678.htm

 

A two-by-four isn't even three and a half inches wide any more; they're three and three-eighths.

Go look at the bottom of a jar of peanut butter. Notice the big "dome" in the bottom? It's so they can give you less product yet keep the same size jar.

I don't even want to talk about gasoline.

 

Another example is seafoam. I spent US$8.49 at Walmart here in MI, then found it for 6.99 at another store. Went to yet another store and found it for 5.49! (Menards) What kind of pricing disparity is that?!? A $3 difference? What the heck?

 

My 1/4" clear vinyl tubing fits just fine. Wouldn't you know, I got it at Menards!

 

There is a station near me (I won't tell where) that still sells 100% gasoline.

That's all I buy, unless I am far from home and have no other choice.

 

Those d*mned spotted owls! No thoughts or feelings about those crippled or out of work lumberjacks because of all those spiked trees ...

Mad Maxim ... the seafoam thing really isn't the same thing. People will charge what they think others will pay. If they can sell it for $8, more power to them. You are getting the product and quantity at the price you agreed to pay. Now, if the can had less than the stated 16 fl oz ...

The nearest Menards to here is nearly 30 miles away ... not a place we typically go ...

Xulf13 - yeah it was rough. Now, today, I am trying to install a hitch on my wife's Pacifica. To do this you have to drop the muffler and the spare tire. I tried previously to accomplish this task and had been unsuccessful. It seems one of the two bolts holding the muffler up didn't want to come loose. My impact wrench with 90 psi pushing it couldn't get the think of. So a friend loaned me his professional grade impact wrench and said to try that instead. Sure enough, that thing goes to town, spinning like a wild man.

One problem: the hardened steel bolt? It had sheered off!


For the next *3* hours, I am lying on my back trying to drill through that damned bolt. So the whole time I am holding up the drill and having to push at the same time to get pressure on the bolt. I start with a 1/16th bit and move up from there. I have gotten the 3/8 bit through. 1/4" is what I need and then I can tap the threads for a replacement bolt. Well, wife needs the car and so I call it quits for the day - it is 7:15 now anyways and my arms feel like lead. Putting the muffler up with the one bolt - should be fine for the short term. Can't get the holes to line up! It seems that the "custom fit" hitch for this danged thing goes about an inch or soo to far out s that the muffler can quite hang the way it used to. There is an additional hole in the hanger mount I can get lined up with the threaded hole in the body which takes the hanger totally out of line with the original hole I spent all that time trying to clear ....

So, some people think I am a bit paranoid, but I say I'm only paranoid *IF I"M WRONG*! So far no one has been able to prove me wrong ...

So, how does one go about finding a gas station that still serves up the pure thing?

 

Awesome write up. I wonder if thats why my cars fuel pump died on me! Or, is dying anyway. She'll only perform better with higher grade gas in it.
So what does this mean for OUR engines?? What can we do??
-SLK

 

The ethenhol in the gas seems to attract moisture/water. Thats why our tanks are rusting and the carbs plug up after a few months of sitting. I'm not going to leave any gas in my bikes unless 'I plan on useing it. The goverment with the crazy EPA laws are ruining our gas engines that sit for periods of time.

MN

 

Hey tumbleweed! re you having a bad day or what? As far as 2 by 4's go the measurement is taken from rough cut lumber. Then it's run through a planer to smooth off the rough edges. 2 by 4 to start off 1.75 by 3.5 to finish. Kind of a bummer but there it is. Now that whole ethonol thing is somthing else. Up here in the great white north I've been running ethonol blended gas in all my engines for years. So far no problem. my seals and gaskets have all been holding up fine. This blended gas is handy because it is a great gas line anti freeze. Trust me, at 40 below this is what you want in your tank.Winter is somthig I know, up here we have 9 months of winter and 3 months of bad ice.

 

Biff, I agree totally, I was trying to be ironic.....by the way, they are trying to shutdown the dams along the Columbia River now because fish get caught in the turbine flow, and get chopped up.

Oh, and the Folgers 'can' of coffee I just bought (the 3 lb can ha) is 32.5 oz. But it DOES have that nifty handle in it now......

 

What about the fact that Whoppers used to be 99 cents and now the JR Whopper is 99 cents and the big one is like $3.50. Or a soda at fast food places is $2. $2 for a 25 cent to make drink. WTF?

 

That really doesn't bother me that much. Inflation happens. You used to be able to get a hamburger of a nickle (before my time) now ... at something other than a fast food joint you are looking at at least $5. But along with that 100 times price increase is the fact that most of us earn more than 100 times what we earned back when that burger was a nickle.

Naw, what gets me is when they raise prices by silently reducing what were once standard sizes. Those jars of spaghetti sauce at the grocery store were once 32 oz, but now they are 28 oz, maybe 26. Raise the price when you need to, don't try to hide it when you have to. But most importantly, *DELIVER ON WHAT YOU PROMISED" I buy your 1/4 OD vinyl tubing it had dmaned well better be 1/4 " ...

 

maybe thats 1/4 inch tubing because it fits a 1/4 O.D. tube....?
a 1/4 inch straight pipe tap takes a 29/64 drill...figure that one out

 

Do you ever get the feeling that the world is a big mine field and your stuck right smack in the middle of it!

 

I feel the same way about my marriage ;-P

 

To add to this....

I just ordered something on ebay. 4 signal lights to be exact...

Ebay Auction

So I just got them in the mail....Uhhh... I know it didn't say size on the auction - and its my fault for not checking (was a spur 2am purchase) but...... seriously?!




It isn't often I am at a loss for words....

--josh

 

<Chuckle> That's exactly what are on my Maxim X.

 

really? You have pics?
I don't even see how you would be able to see those ;-P

 

They were installed by a PO. I'll see if I can take a pic tomorrow. My wife has hidden my digital camera after she went on a trip ...

I don't suppose you have facilities to process Kodachrome? <g>

 

;-) damn, I just sold my stuff for that on ebay, lol

How do they look/work? I know....ummm...size doesn't matter.... but... that's awfully small ;-P

 

I am still trying to straighten out a title issue so I haven't had it on the road. Tuff to say what they would look like. I am concerned about their lack of separation from each other - How does the guy behind me know which way I am going? They don't even clear the side of the seat?

 

I bought the same ones and had the exact same reaction. I went ahead and installed them - can always replace, but this will get me past inspection. I can post some pics after I get home from work.

 

http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bobber.jpg
this is on a work in progress
but the front ones should look like yours would be