Just playing around!

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Stop paying for animal enslavement, cruelty, and slaughter. Save your health and the planet. Go vegan! I did 18 years ago. https://challenge22.com/

DON'T MESS WITH MY MERCEDES!


1967 W110 Universal Wagon, Euro, Turbo Diesel, Tail Fins, 4 Speed Manual Column Shift, A/C
1980 W116 300SD Turbo Diesel, DB479 Walnut Brown, Sunroof, Highly Optioned, 350,000+ Miles

Wind resistance goes up with the square of the speed. I'm trying to stick to 60 more and more. Imagine our ancestors who saw traveling 60 miles in one day as a major feat listening to us whine about some guy only going 60 miles per hour just ahead of us on a two lane road.

I rise in praise of the MB cruise control. Dunno how or why but the '84 300D I just bought with 132k on the clock has a perfectly working cruise control. Really nice to give the foot a rest, I just need to remember to keep it close enough for normal reflexive emergency braking. The decel and set feature is cool. You can slow down when there's a bind you cannot get around right away, slow down to the speed of the vehicle in front of you w/o hitting the brakes, requiring you to reset and burning fuel needlessly. I just keep tapping it down, or hold it down for a few seconds at a time.

It's working perfectly ... except on this last trip, about once every 20 minutes it would suddenly bail out completely, just like taking one's foot all the way off the gas . I would quickly put my foot on the pedal and reset it before too much momentum was lost and it would then work fine for another half hour or more. As I'm having weak vaccum issues elsewhere, my hope is it's a leak elsewhere and not in the CC actuator as just the rebuilt unit from Pelican is $210.

I think it must be elsewhere as the CC works without a hitch most of the time.

Now I need to get my SDL CC up and going, I think I still have the amplifier, I tried several from boneyard gasses with no luck before learning that for the SDL one needed an '86 or after diesel unit, I think I have that right. I hope I kept the original to send in for restoration.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Let me explain why those of us who follow the speed limit complain about you folks piddling along at 55-60mph on the 2-lane roads:

Thanksgiving Eve. Trip time is normally 4 hours and 40 minutes, give or take. The place you're going has no highway or interstate route from your house, but mostly 2-lane roads. Because the state believes in normal speed limits, the posted speed limit is 75 on every one of these roads, occasionally dipping to 55 or 35 when going through a town.

Park some slow-ass driver up there putting along at 55-60mph with 35 cars stacked up behind them. Won't pull over and let them by, won't speed up to get out of the way, just plods along like the jerk he is. Slowing for every corner, slowing on every hill (and there's a lot of them). Every time you get to a passing area in a town (speed limit 35) everyone else tries to pass too, but there's just not enough room, too many traffic lights, or too many other cars that now get stuck behind Mr. Jerkoff Slowass as well.

Things to think about:
1: What is every one of those 35+ cars thinking about Slowpoke up front that won't pull over or GTFO the way?
2: What's that doing to everyone else's fuel economy with having to feather the throttle and pussyfoot it around everywhere because you can't just CRUISE on the road instead?
3: What does that do to travel time on an already long journey? (Clue: 15 miles per hour over 5 hours...)

If you want to hold up traffic on an interstate or a road with a passing lane, go for it. Just don't get upset when people blow by honking or flipping you the bird. If you want to hold up traffic on a 2-lane road, especially one with no passing areas, just stay home or plan an alternate route. Other drivers will thank you. If you're driving a newer car that can actually do the posted speed limit without breaking a sweat (I'm not talking a 240D here), ask yourself: Does that 1-2mpg REALLY matter? Does it? Are you breaking the bank? If the answer is yes to any of the above, sell your car and call an Uber or go rent a car for trips because you have bigger issues at hand.

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Current stable:
1995 E320 157K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 125K (SLoL)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Gone and wanting to forget:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™) [Definitely NOT a Benz]

Just so ! .

i'm one of those faster drivers when I'm in a vehicle that actually will go 70 + MPH without beating it up and yes, I always remain to the right when I can .

I also keep an eye on my mirror and use pullouts when available or simply ease to the right and wave faster traffic past when on two lane roads .

It's not difficult and used to be normal to have and display, manners & road courtesy , not so much these days .

As far as $210 for a peach Parts rebuilt part, I paid less.....

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Well, I wasn't referring to that sort of thing. If I'm in a slow rig, I pull over if there are 2 or 3 cars behind me. I don't like the tension of knowing that people are cursing me. But I do think it a bit curious the way we are always in a hurry in our world, myself included. The day before I blew my radiator is the SDL I be-bopped through the Siskiyous (mountains/hills in Nor cal tween Redding and Ashland OR) at 75 to 80. Was sort of pushing my car hard. And I did it because I wanted to get to my Airbnb room before it got extremely late, as in after 2 am. The next day the radiator blew. Probably not connected but I did ask myself if it was really that important to push my car that hard.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I have no problem with people going 60mph on highways.

I DO have problems with people going 60mph on the left lane who then refuse to move over.

The left lane is for passing. If you drive like a slug in the left lane, don't be surprised when I come up and flash my highbeams repeatedly for 10 minutes and then pass on the right with my middle finger extended.

I computed my hourly and even minute rate as a business owner and yeah, a 1-2mpg fuel savings is nothing compared to the savings I get in terms of a few extra minutes gained.

An accident at 60mph is just as bad as an accident at 85.

Speed of traffic > posted speed limit. If you want to drive like it's the 70s with a 55mph speed limit then pull over and let others pass.

Frankly, cops need to be enforcing tickets for left lane laggards more and posted speed limits need to be moved higher. HOV lanes on principle should be faster than regular traffic and toll roads shouldn't have any posted speed limits other than ,"safe for conditions".

My car has an automatic 12 speed transmission. The days of 4 speed bangers being ideally driven at 60mph are long over.

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-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.

I'm with you on the left lane banditry .

When prius was a new car the holier than thou idiots in California (and elsewhere I assume) would deliberately clog up the left (passing) lane and screw up traffic for miles .

I occasionally ask cops why the hell they don't ticket or at least pull over and talk to traffic impeders, they never give a satisfactory answer .

FWIW, collisions are much, much worse as speed increases, basic physics teaches this as does working with wrecked vehicles for any length of time .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

FYI: 75-80 is a gentle cruise in the SDL, they'll happily sit at 80 for hours at a time. Mine routinely did 90+ on I-10 in the desert and never batted an eye. Also interesting, the fuel economy was virtually the same as doing 70.

The radiator blowing was either due to a neglected cooling system that was full of garbage and corrosion or just dumb luck when the plastic fatigued and finally let go.

__________________
Current stable:
1995 E320 157K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 125K (SLoL)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Gone and wanting to forget:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™) [Definitely NOT a Benz]

Elevated speeds increase the severity of many risk factors. To think otherwise is flawed. Holding up traffic also presents risks primarily for those that are held up as well. They often get impatient and take risks.

Currently we as a couple live in a region of low traffic density. Coming from an area of the country that was otherwise was and remains enjoyable.

Over the years since we left. Any visit back clearly shows it has just gotten worse and worse over time back there.

I know it probably sounds unusual to be driving down the equivalent of an interstate fairly often with no other vehicle within a mile or two at least.

Or using a two lane road to get around a toll road section where many times there are no other cars at all. I originally though they would let that road surface deteriorate to encourage people to use the privately owned toll road.


To our surprise the road surface is always well maintained. No trucks other than for local business are allowed on the bypass either. The bypass road is actually a section of what was the original main road going to Halifax.