Corona Virus, Costco & CRD Urban Off Roading.

mrhemi · **Joined:** Tue Dec 08, 2015 10:46 am **Posts:** 182

After delaying our inevitable trip to Costco (120 mile round trip) my wife and I finally broke down, to brave the crowds today. No, we did not need toilet paper. Kirkland dog food was the necessity to keep beasts happy. As we approached one Costco the traffic was backed up two blocks just to get in the parking lot. We chose to drive on to the other location. That was met with more traffic but we noticed the parking lot had quite a few empty spaces but no one could get to them due to the gridlock in the parking lot aisles and the driveway leading in. As we waited in the turn lane I spied an empty spot just across the curb, side walk and boulevard. We looked at each other, the lever went into 4 wheel full time, a little diesel grunt and up and over we went to park perfectly :JEEPIN:

. To a round of applause from those stuck in the grid lock. I thought we would have easy out egress by reversing our path when we left. After enduring the crowd inside we found our easy egress blocked by vehicles now parking on the boulevard. When the gridlock didn't move for 15 minutes, I got out and moved a few shopping carts, then managed to get the CRD turned around within two parking spots, picked our way through obstacles on the boulevard, up and over and back on to the roadway. When we got turned around in the traffic and headed home we saw a line of SUV's and 4X4's following our lead :JEEPIN:

.

And Costco was out of toilet paper.

casm · **Joined:** Sun Jan 29, 2006 5:05 pm **Posts:** 694

mrhemi wrote:

After delaying our inevitable trip to Costco (120 mile round trip) my wife and I finally broke down, to brave the crowds today. No, we did not need toilet paper. Kirkland dog food was the necessity to keep beasts happy. As we approached one Costco the traffic was backed up two blocks just to get in the parking lot. We chose to drive on to the other location. That was met with more traffic but we noticed the parking lot had quite a few empty spaces but no one could get to them due to the gridlock in the parking lot aisles and the driveway leading in. As we waited in the turn lane I spied an empty spot just across the curb, side walk and boulevard. We looked at each other, the lever went into 4 wheel full time, a little diesel grunt and up and over we went to park perfectly :JEEPIN:

. To a round of applause from those stuck in the grid lock. I thought we would have easy out egress by reversing our path when we left. After enduring the crowd inside we found our easy egress blocked by vehicles now parking on the boulevard. When the gridlock didn't move for 15 minutes, I got out and moved a few shopping carts, then managed to get the CRD turned around within two parking spots, picked our way through obstacles on the boulevard, up and over and back on to the roadway. When we got turned around in the traffic and headed home we saw a line of SUV's and 4X4's following our lead :JEEPIN:

.

And Costco was out of toilet paper.

Sweet

Here's one of my own:

Many, many moons ago, I owned an XJ. It was one of four that I've had, and this one happened to be entirely stock. Also, at the time that this story took place, I was living in Los Angeles, where traffic coming to a standstill on the freeway was just part of daily life.

Anyway, one day I was on I-5 Southbound in the Northern part of the San Fernando Valley when traffic came to a complete and total halt for <insert reason here>. Courtesy of the flow of traffic, my unexpected stop ended up taking place about 200 feet past an exit, and the exit was separated from the freeway by about a 6" angled kerb.

After going nowhere for about 10 minutes, I formulated a plan: drive over the kerb, get onto the exit, and leave the freeway in favour of surface streets. This was executed without any real issue on the Jeep's behalf; frankly, it just didn't care.

As I did this, however, I noticed that the Volvo 850 behind me thought that copying this move was a good idea. Which is fine, but given its lack of ground clearance (and therefore breakover angle), it ended up high-centred on the asphalt between the kerb and exit.

My seal of approval to you, sir, for successfully finding a non-traditional route from traffic imprisonment to driving freedom :SOMBRERO:

WWDiesel · **Posted:** Fri Mar 13, 2020 9:07 pm

Travel the road (route) less traveled!
Jeep owners can be some very innovative drivers.
We tend to see obstacles as challenges to overcome! :ROTFL:

My66dodge · **Posted:** Sat Mar 14, 2020 7:38 am

Every body has it all wrong... forget the TP... do like me and stock up on bullets cause with them you can get whatever you want lmfao

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TKB4 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2020 1:42 pm

My plan for routine shopping has evidently been foiled before it started. I have always tended to shop early or late at 24 hour Kroger or Walmart as well as other daytime stores as well as near end of day or about7am at lowes or home depot (tail end of contractors and before retail crowd) or of course the inevitable online purchases. I panned on continuing this (but not for TP and other panic items) but walmart and krogers just announce new hours for all their 24 hour locations. Well maybe I can still get in and out fairly quick an hour before close or after open.

PS: I always have plenty of shotgun rounds many Tungsten and several hundred pistol and rifle rounds ! :BANANA:

Mountainman · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2020 2:56 pm

I'm calmly enjoying my elk and canned (and frozen) salmon (kokanee). Plenty of ammo for more elk, or looters, if the poop really hits the fan...

I love the stuck Volvo, lmao!

WWDiesel · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2020 3:20 pm

Mountainman wrote:

I'm calmly enjoying my elk and canned (and frozen) salmon (kokanee). Plenty of ammo for more elk, or looters, if the poop really hits the fan...
I love the stuck Volvo, lmao!

We stocked up this week, plenty of propane, gas, diesel, food, TP, can goods, dog food, and yes of course plenty of ammo.
Got cases of once fired brass ready to reload if needed given to me from a local Law Enforcement range.
Ready to hunker down for the long haul if necessary. :rockon:

geordi · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2020 4:40 pm

Good for everyone being safe.

Just an FYI: The NP242J transfer case DOES NOT LIKE to be shifted while you are not rolling. The gears need to be moving to mesh properly, and if they aren't turning they can bind or potentially cause damage when they only engage part-way under power. Try to avoid doing that where possible.

TURBO-DIESEL-FREAK · **Joined:** Sat Apr 17, 2010 3:29 pm **Posts:** 1167

WWDiesel wrote:

Mountainman wrote:

I'm calmly enjoying my elk and canned (and frozen) salmon (kokanee). Plenty of ammo for more elk, or looters, if the poop really hits the fan...
I love the stuck Volvo, lmao!

We stocked up this week, plenty of propane, gas, diesel, food, TP, can goods, dog food, and yes of course plenty of ammo.
Got cases of once fired brass ready to reload if needed given to me from a local Law Enforcement range.
Ready to hunker down for the long haul if necessary. :rockon:

We should talk about reloading sometime, WWDiesel and Mountainman. I am just getting into it myself.

TKB4 · **Posted:** Mon Mar 16, 2020 10:01 am

I bought 150 gallons of diesel this weekend not so much to stock up but to replenish at low prices I happened to be going to Memphis anyway so filled up F350 and 108 gallon bed tank there at $1.98 a gallon cheapest I have paid in at least 6 years for non off road. Added 100 of it to my 800 gallon home storage tank.

I used to reload thousands of shotgun shells but never shot enough centerfire bullets to justify the setup cost.

TURBO-DIESEL-FREAK · **Joined:** Sat Apr 17, 2010 3:29 pm **Posts:** 1167

TKB4 wrote:

I bought 150 gallons of diesel this weekend not so much to stock up but to replenish at low prices I happened to be going to Memphis anyway so filled up F350 and 108 gallon bed tank there at $1.98 a gallon cheapest I have paid in at least 6 years for non off road. Added 100 of it to my 800 gallon home storage tank.

I used to reload thousands of shotgun shells but never shot enough centerfire bullets to justify the setup cost.

I think for a lot of people the trick would be to purchase used reloading equipment, (presses, at least), and share the equipment with another shooter... that is what I am doing. It also helps when an entire sporting goods chain goes out of business like Wholesale Sports did here in Western Canada.... I picked some stuff for as much as 70% - 80% off retail price.

casm · **Joined:** Sun Jan 29, 2006 5:05 pm **Posts:** 694

WWDiesel wrote:

Mountainman wrote:

I'm calmly enjoying my elk and canned (and frozen) salmon (kokanee). Plenty of ammo for more elk, or looters, if the poop really hits the fan...
I love the stuck Volvo, lmao!

We stocked up this week, plenty of propane, gas, diesel, food, TP, can goods, dog food, and yes of course plenty of ammo.
Got cases of once fired brass ready to reload if needed given to me from a local Law Enforcement range.
Ready to hunker down for the long haul if necessary. :rockon:

We're good on everything except 12ga. There's no ammo to be had around here in useful calibres, but we're well-enough stocked on everything else that I'm not too terribly worried.

Oh, and our local diesel stations are really screwing around on pricing. One Shell has diesel at $2.43, which is $0.25 more than it was a week ago when I filled up there. Their price for regular gasoline has dropped from around $1.85 at the same time to $1.49, though. This annoys me, because I typically fill up at Shell since their diesel is usually of fairly uniform quality and devoid of bio.

If I drive a couple of miles over from there to the 7-Eleven, diesel's $1.95. That particular Shell is gouging.

geordi · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2020 12:20 am

Biodiesel is NOT a problem in diesel fuel... And here's a fact you probably won't like much: You've been buying diesel with between 5 and 15% bio in it for about 4 years now.

There is only ONE grade of diesel fuel in this country, no matter who you buy it from it is the same stuff coming from the same rack terminals into the trucks and from the same refineries into the pipes and tanks at the racks. Every truck for every brand fills up from the same spout and they have a federal mandate to have bio as part of the process at the refiner level b/c removing the sulfur ALSO removed something that reduced the lubricity of the fuel when it came out. Putting bio in it makes that protect the pumps again.

casm · **Joined:** Sun Jan 29, 2006 5:05 pm **Posts:** 694

geordi wrote:

Biodiesel is NOT a problem in diesel fuel...

In some vehicles, yes. 1978 Peugeot 504? It doesn't really seem to care. 2012 VW Jetta TDi? Not as happy when blends above B10 start going into it. YMMV.

Quote:

And here's a fact you probably won't like much: You've been buying diesel with between 5 and 15% bio in it for about 4 years now.

Only at certain pumps. Legal requirement here is to label any fuel containing biodiesel with the percentage. If that's not happening, that's a different issue, but as I said, some of our vehicles don't seem to care for higher-bio blends.

Quote:

There is only ONE grade of diesel fuel in this country, no matter who you buy it from it is the same stuff coming from the same rack terminals into the trucks and from the same refineries into the pipes and tanks at the racks.

Yes, but there are differences in transportation, storage, and contamination. Cetane levels also vary significantly; California specifies a minimum of 53, while here it's 40 or above. We're an oil-producing and -refining state, so typically have relatively clean diesel, but I can notice differences in running when filling up in states that bring pretty much all of their fuel in from elsewhere.

Quote:

Every truck for every brand fills up from the same spout and they have a federal mandate to have bio as part of the process at the refiner level b/c removing the sulfur ALSO removed something that reduced the lubricity of the fuel when it came out. Putting bio in it makes that protect the pumps again.

But it can also cause seal and line leakage on older vehicles. I've seen this happen on conversions to some vehicles where concentrations above B20 have been used.

I have no issue with biodiesel as a fuel. But given the opportunity to only have to fill three vehicles at one convenient station vs. different locations depending on what sort of fuel each one wants, I'll go with one source that makes them all happy. If that happens to be the one that isn't proclaiming their biodiesel content, fine. If it's a placebo effect then I'll keep deluding myself, but how the vehicles run does appear to be dependent on where the fuel is sourced.

flash7210 · **Posted:** Fri Mar 20, 2020 4:17 pm

It’s easy to become scared and depressed these days.
Especially if you have the news on 10 hours a day.

This morning I went into work for a few hours to work on a few things that can’t be done from home. Afterwards, I drove into town where everything was business as usual with the normal amount of traffic for a Friday afternoon.
Went through the Walgreens drive through to pickup a prescription.
Picked up a few things from Home Depot.
And went through the McDonalds drive through for a quick bite to eat.

It was clear and sunny. And upbeat music on the radio.
A good day

Yesterday I went into the grocery store and saw they actually had some toilet paper and paper towels.
Grabbed a small pack of each.

layback40 · **Posted:** Fri Mar 20, 2020 6:24 pm

Its interesting that here in Australia we to have TP issues. There are groups of Chinese arranging bus trips from capital cities to country town to raid supermarkets. Most are cleaned out within an hour of opening. There are now restrictions on purchases. We also are starting to see shortages of frozen veggies & some can food.
The roads/highways are much quieter, most are staying home.
Schools are still open.
Currently the death toll is under 1% in Australia & most of them contracted it overseas or from someone who recently arrived in Australia.
Most have been elderly & now nursing homes are in lock down.
There are no fuel shortages but the price has only just started to come down. The $A has fallen & that doesnt help.
There is a long waiting list for new Korean cars, probably Chinese ones to.
Our boarders are now closed, being an island helps.
One state, Tasmainia, has now locked itself off from our mainland.
Social distancing laws are now in place, most are staying ~6' away. Many games, like football are being played in empty stadiums.
I know of many that are planning on hitching up their caravan & heading bush to ride it out away from other people.
QANTAS, the Australian airline has layed off 2/3 of its staff & stopped international flights.
The weather here is cooling down as we head towards winter. The virus appears to like the cooler climate. Most think its going to be a terrible winter.

Stay safe over on your side of the big pond!!

geordi · **Posted:** Fri Mar 20, 2020 6:34 pm

Florida is already having spring-into-summer temperatures of 85 degrees and humid, and there are more than plenty of cases in this state (and in the south end of the state too) so I'm a bit dubious about how much the virus will be damaged by warm weather.

Just because things are "business as usual" isn't necessarily a good thing, the whole idea is that people need to isolate to slow the spread of this so as to not overwhelm the medical infrastructure. The same total number of people are likely to get sick, but it is a LOT worse if that happens in the next week, versus over the next 4+ weeks.

It will likely be through May, possibly even June before things start truly getting back to normal.

weeks101 · **Joined:** Mon Jul 30, 2012 3:29 pm **Posts:** 747

geordi wrote:

It will likely be through May, possibly even June before things start truly getting back to normal.

Corona Virus, Costco & CRD Urban Off Roading.

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