Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with pickup

drain on Ford F150's new battery?

Elsa — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:27:29 -0800

Help us diagnose our Ford F150: what could be draining down the (new) battery overnight? We're suddenly seeing apparent battery drainage in our pickup truck, a 1994 Ford F150. Though the truck starts up fine, the dashboard battery gauge reads low immediately upon ignition, the windshield wipers are sluggish, and the dashboard lights are dim. We thought the old battery was likely dying, so we had it replaced with a new battery... but that hasn't solved the problem. (I'm posting this for my husband, who drives the truck. Here is the problem in his words.)

It's a 1994 Ford F150 pickup. Two days ago, the battery light came on and the battery gauge on the dash was at the low end of the meter when I started the truck after work (it had been sitting for about 9 hours). I assumed it was a bad battery, so I had the battery replaced at a chain auto place.

Everything seemed fine until I got out of work that night (after the truck had been sitting for about 9 hours) and the problem was exactly the same. The alternator seems to be working, as the battery gauge goes up to where it belongs if I let the truck run for about 20 minutes. There are no lights left on (glovebox, dome light, etc). It seems that, when the truck is off, something is drawing power from the battery.

When the gauge is low, the dash lights dim, and the windshield wipers are slow and sluggish. When it's charged back up, everything is normal again.

While I'm letting the truck idle to charge up the battery, the gauge will go up slightly if I rev the engine, but goes back down when I take my foot off the gas. Once it's fully charged again, revving the engine has no effect.

Both before and after getting the battery replaced, the truck started up just fine (no problem at all), even though the battery light came on and the battery gauge was low.

Once the battery is charged up again, turning the truck off for ten minutes-a half hour has no effect; the battery is still charged normally after that length of time.

We'll be taking it in to the mechanic on Monday, but with holiday errands and visits pressing, we'd love to get a headstart on the diagnostics over the weekend.

Some specific questions

1. Aside from the things we've checked (dome light, glovebox light, ashtray light, radio), what could be draining down the battery while the truck is off? Especially, do you know of any idiosyncratic drainage problems with the Ford F150? (We're also checking the forums on a Ford-specific board, but any hints would be helpful.)

2. Are there any simple home diagnostic tests we could make? Again, anything specific to the Ford F150 would be useful, but not necessary.

The fact that the truck starts normally (that is, readily and vigorously) seems to make this a different question than previous AskMe questions (which all seem to include a car that won't turn over) about a drained battery or dying alternator... or am I wrong? If the alternator is faulty, would the car be starting normally?

Where to get a list of guitar pick-up electrical characteristics?

mhjb — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:25:22 -0800

Where can I find a reference chart of the electrical characteristics of common electric guitar pick-ups? Guitar pick-ups have an inherent resistance, capacitance, and inductance. For simulation purposes I need a reference chart listing these values for common pick-up types. Data for individual pick-ups is fairly easy to come by, but I'm looking for a single resource with many different types.

For anyone interested, this question was inspired by the first schematic on this excellent webpage: Rangemaster.de

Who in San Francisco will pick up my wheelchair donation?

mrgrimm — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:47:26 -0800

Will anyone in San Francisco pick up medical equipment donations? I have a wheelchair, bedside commode, walker, and some other significant hardware that I'd like to donate, but I don't have a car. Does anyone know any org that will pick up?

What's the shift pattern on a 1980 Toyota pickup?

attercoppe — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:14:11 -0800

What's the shift pattern on a 1980 Toyota pickup? The 4-speed shifter, not the 4WD.

Help me break the ice with strangers!

Chrysalis — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:33:58 -0800

I want to be more extroverted and confident and practice starting conversations with strangers... what are some good conversation openers? Tips? I'm female if that makes a difference. Would like to talk to random cute guys with view to potentially picking up but also just generally be confident enough to strike up a brief conversation with a random person while I'm out and about and rack up some practice. Looking for good conversation openers and tips in general.

I'm handsome, excellent flirt, and women willingly give me their numbers...Now what?

Anonymous — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:29:28 -0800

I'm handsome, excellent flirt, and women willingly give me their numbers...Now what? I suck at picking up women...

I'm an excellent flirt, have enough courage (when I'm liquored up) to approach women, and they usually give me their numbers without asking.

The thing is at the end of the night I ALWAYS freeze in my tracks... I usually get a lot of cues that they are quite interested in me, but I really don't know what to do next...

I won't mind getting some, but I honestly don't know how to proceed from that point.

So few questions:

What to do with numbers: When to contact them and what to say?

Also I'm like a deer in the headlights, I can see that the women becomes more flirty, restless, and frustrated...I am not sure what to do at this point, should I just grab her and go home?

If so, how do I do this delicately, because I've had some women get pissed off at me when I just ask them in an upfront manner.

Also I'm not looking for a relationship, but won't mind some sex now and then.

I really don't understand this mating dance sometimes.

Succeeding on the dating scene - where does a woman get advice?

Anonymous — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:08:28 -0800

Succeeding on the dating scene - where does a woman get advice? I haven't been single since my teens, now mid-20s, don't know how to go about meeting men, getting dates etc! Total n00b to the dating scene, where can I learn what to do? All the PUA etc sites seem to be aimed at men, the women's "advice" I've seen seems to be for people who are already dating and wanting to turn something into a relationship...

Any advice you can share or point to appreciated.

How is pickup formed?

flabdablet's sock puppet — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:37:19 -0800

Since I fitted a new 5-way switch to Young Flabdablet's Squier Strat, it produces no signal and the output appears to be shorted to ground. To fix this, I need to understand the cables that come from the pickups. Each pickup has a foil-shielded cable. Inside the foil are a bare wire that connects to the foil itself, and three insulated wires: a green one, a white one and a black one.

Before I messed with it, this guitar featured a horrible snarl of badly soldered connections protected at random with bits of weepy old masking tape. The black wires from all three pickups were connected together and grounded, all the bare shield wires were floating, and the green and white wires from each pickup were connected together at the selector switch.

I thought the missing shield connections were probably contributing to the thing's sensitivity to electrical noise, so I tidied up the wiring as well as replacing the selector. The black wires and shield wires are now all grounded, and the greens and whites connect together at the selector switch as before.

But now there's no output, and when I measure the resistance between a green/white pair and the black/shield pair on an unselected switch terminal, I see a short circuit.

All the pickup wiring diagrams I've found online that refer to shielded cables seem to refer to cables with four insulated conductors inside the shield. I only have three.

I can't see any manufacturer ID on the pickups themselves, which appear to be of quite shoddy construction (no metal threads for the mounting screws, magnets that fall off with evidence of past superglue repairs, threaded pole pieces pushed into unthreaded holes, and a Patent Pending sticker on one of them). The pickup bodies are a yellowish cream color.

Can anybody identify these pickups based on these wire colors, and tell me whether I've just melted all the cable insulation while soldering the shield wires, or whether there is in fact some reasonable way to design a pickup with three wires that shorts out when you connect the shield to the cold side?

Ship it or leave it

indyz — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:11:45 -0800

Can I ship some camping gear ahead of my travels and pick it up from the post office or UPS Store when I arrive? I'm flying to Florida and can save a bunch on a second checked bag by shipping my sleeping bag, tent, and some other stuff. The problem is, there is nobody at my destination to receive the package. I've heard of cross-country cyclists picking up packages as the reach post offices along their route, but I have no idea how to arrange something like that.

Does anybody have experience with something like this? USPS or UPS/Mailboxes Etc would be best. I have an aversion to FedEx.

Do pick-up techniques work ?

Oneirokritikos — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:19:19 -0800

Has any member of the hivemind had any success using the many techniques and/or attitudes featured on shows like "The Pick up Artist" or books like Neil Strauss' "the Game" and "Rules of the Game"? In the past I relied a lot on a "psychoanalytical" approach to life to get me through; ie I'd absorb theory, then get an insight, then try to act on this to change my life....It didn't quite work out. Reading "Rules of the Game" with its 30-day challenge ( a daily mission to learn to attract and seduce) taught me that the reverse could work better, ie a constructivist approach: act, then change, then have insight, then maybe later learn the theory (interestingly, the same approach is featured in the musculation technique I'm using) .. Judging from all the testimonies on seduction forums, this doesnt seem like baloney to me, only re-framed social psych theories. I'd ask at those forums, but I thought I'd ask my favorite hivemind first.
I have read the books (both Strauss', and Mystery's method), seen the videos, and though bits seem fictitious and/or staged to me, I think this could at worst be a cure for my social phobia...and getting dates would be a nice bonus. I have many social/self image/psych issues that I'm working on (depressed since 1991, reformed Borderline personality, shy, jobless, slightly overweight but not a virgin - actually quite successful in the past at getting dates but unable to find any these years). The time frame seems right as all of the most prioritary issues are being dealt with with a modicum of success (medication, therapy, workout, job hunt); now it's time to turn back to seducing the ladies, for I've reached a point where my loneliness is compromising my climb back from hell.

In a nutshell, I'd like testimonies from the Metafilter crowd before diving in on the streets of beautiful downtown Montpellier, France. Did you try it? What did and didn't work for you? What do you think of those techniques? What would you advise, based on the above information? I'm specifically NOT interested in the moral POV, since this stuff can be used both morally and immorally. It's just human relations advice.
Thank you !
(I hope this question is not too boyzone-ish, women are encouraged to participate !)

What's the best way to transport motorcycles?

electroboy — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:46:53 -0800

I'm taking two motorcycles on vacation. Should I use a trailer or put them in the bed of my pickup? So here's the stats:

Truck
1997 Toyota Tacoma 2WD
automatic
towing capacity - approximately 3500 lbs
payload capacity - undetermined, but probably around 1000lbs

Bikes - 1993 BMW K75 (~500 lbs), 2003 Ninja 250R (~300lbs)

Here are some of the complications:

1. I've never towed anything with this truck. It's got a bumper hitch and hookup for the lights, but I'm unsure of the bumper hitch capacity.

2. I've put both bikes in individually with no problem, but not both together, which I'll try tomorrow.

3. I'll be in the Adirondacks, which means hills. Not terribly steep, but hills nonetheless.

4. It definitely rides lower with the K75 in the bed, but nothing too serious. Shocks/springs are generally good.

5. The K75 is significantly heavier than the Ninja. Approximately 1 fat guy heavier.

6. Cargo space is not really an issue. We should be able to fit our stuff in the bed even if the bikes are there.

7. Riding the bikes there isn't an option, since the wife is still learning to ride and it's ~600 miles.

So the questions:

1. Truck or trailer?
2. Will the weight difference cause any issues? Any way to mitigate this?
3. Is it safe to use the bumper hitch for ~1000 lbs (bikes + trailer)?

I wanna be louder, but still sound like me.

lauranesson — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:14:34 -0800

Can you offer any advice on a violin pickup? I play in a jug band with miked guitars and a few other instruments and just can't compete using the vocal mics we've got. And I'm also pretty hazy on what kind of pickup might be best, so any ideas would be super useful.

Relevancies:
- My violin is pretty normal. Slightly above average, the kind played by the pretty-good concert master of a decent high school orchestra.
- I won't have a separate amp, but just plug into the band's general system. I'm confused as to how this all works.
- The saxophony sound of some of the amplified violins I've heard drives me a little crazy. I'm not really looking for any additional effects, just a louder version of what I'm already doing.

Right now, I'm leaning toward an L.R. Baggs, since people I trust have recommended it and it's at the lower end of the price range I'm looking for.

I know there must be more relevant information, but I'm not really sure what it is, so let me know what else you need. And thank you!

Help me Fat my Strat!

stenseng — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 20:08:12 -0800

Mefi guitar tech-heads: Help me figure out how to wire this humbucker into the bridge position of my strat. Humbucker, two wires, Strat single coil, three wires. Buh? As a lazy sunday project, I decided to stick this Seymour Duncan 57 humbucker I've had laying about into the bridge position of my trusty lefty mexican Strat. I've got the thing apart, the hole cut in the pickguard, and am essentially ready to rock, except, having removed the bridge single coil pickup, and clipped the wire, I find a red wire, a black wire, and a silver braided wire, what I assume to be ground... My SD humbucker however, simply has a black wire, and braided ground around it. How I do dis?

Fastest way to pick someone up from New York?

excitementMD — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:38:44 -0800

I'm heading up to Boston from Philadelphia tonight, and I need to pick up someone who lives in Brooklyn. How can I get them to a rest stop or exit? Can they take public transportation to somewhere that I could easily grab them without having to go that far out of my way, and definitely without going into New York?

how to pick up guys?

yeara — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:53:42 -0800

help me understand guys - what do i have to do to pick them up? what do guys want from a relationship/ girlfriend? is sex, food and a cleaning service the only thing guys want from their girlfriends? because that's what the "normal" guys i know are excited about. more inside. i've been looking all over the internet for a female version of The Pick Up Guide. i've found two really good pick up resources for guys - speed seduction and Maniac High's Pick Up Girls Guide. i could not find any resources addressed towards girls trying to pick up guys.

what i really liked about those guides is the insightful look into girl's pick up psychology. i want to understand guys. from those guides, i understood "emotions" and "feelings" are not big things for guys. they want just want sex. is sex really that important for guys? what have i got to provoke to pick them up? have i got to be good looking? is it that easy that there are no in depth guides? do i just have to invite them to a date / get together? how can i make them pick me up?

also, what do guys want from a girlfriend? do they want someone to talk and support them? do they want a girl who makes them laugh and they can spend "quality" time with, doing activities together, or are they looking for a cook, a maid and sex?

How should I have picked up my denist's receptionist?

tomw — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 09:22:40 -0800

Just went to my dentist. The receptionist (f) was hot. It didn't seem right saying anything. How should I have handled this and can it be retrieved? ps - i'm shy! I guess I'm especially aiming this at any female metafilterees. She probably had a boyfriend blah blah and I didn't want to make the situation difficult given that it was her professional environment, but I won't be going back for a year. How's this situation best aproached in general?

UPS pickup charges

chef_boyardee — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:35:22 -0800

What does UPS Ground charge for a one-time pickup at my house if I don't have an account? And is it a per-pickup or per-package charge? I have wasted an hour trying to figure this out on their website, and their cost calculator isn't clear either. I seem to remember about 5 years ago pickups were free but you had to get on the next day's schedule.

Portland, OR charities that pick up?

pdb — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 08:59:04 -0800

Are there charities in Portland, OR that will come pick stuff up? I have a couple heavy (300-ish pounds) items (an old TV and various accessories) that I want to give to a charity, and I have no easy way to get them out of my house. Are there charities in the Portland metro area that will come get things?

Ford Pickups

dearleader — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:46:37 -0800

I was just reading about how those massive, gas-hogging Ford F-350 etc pickup trucks are the bestselling "cars" in the United States, by a huge margin. While this seems absurd during $3 a gallon gas, I wonder when this started becoming the case that pickup trucks were the top sellers. This is just anecdotal, but it seems to me that in the 1970s the only people who drove the then quite smaller pickup trucks were people who used them for work. I can't quite believe there are that many independent contractors in the US who need to buy these outsized vehicles. As they suffer (most seemingly quite rightfully) at the pump, does anyone know where to find historical car sales data -- i.e., when did Ford pickups become the most popular car in America?

Help me find the pickup truck of our dreams...

anastasiav — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:18:00 -0800

Please suggest a make and model for our next vehicle, based on the following criteria: We are looking to buy a slightly-used pickup truck in the next few months, to replace my sweetie's current vehicle, which is dying the death of a thousand cuts.

Said pickup truck must meet the following standards:

-- must have an 8 foot bed
-- must have a larger cab than normal -- specifically, needs a rear seat (bench seat is fine) that will accomodate an infant/child car seat.
-- 4WD is nice, but not strictly necessary. If truck has 4WD, it needs to be 'on demand' and not the thing where you need to get out and adjust the hubs.
-- Must get decent gas mileage (I understand these things are relative).
-- We would prefer a US brand (Chevy, Ford, etc) over an import

A few other notes: We live in Maine. We don't plan to plow with it. It will be often be driven 100 - 500 miles fully loaded with heavy gear and sometimes furniture. We currently use an Astro van, but we need to preserve our current cargo capacity while adding space for the baby seat. Cost is big factor -- but also we're having a lot of trouble even locating any trucks with 8' beds to look at/test drive. They seem to be few and far between in the used market. (I presume this is because people drive them into the ground.)

I've been doing a lot of reading (consumer reports, etc), but I'm interested in more personal anecdotal experiences.

In particular, I'm looking for specific recommendations as to make and model of trucks.

How to introduce myself unawkwardly?

awesomebrad — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 19:31:20 -0800

DelicateSituationFilter: Help me introduce myself and get to date #1. I hope this doesn't get too complex. There's a guy I'm interested in and know of from afar, it's a fair assumption that he's aware of my existence simply because the gay community at my college is close-knit and talky. I have a perfect opportunity to introduce myself to him tomorrow: I've recently begun training to be a campus tour guide and must shadow several tours, he's a current guide. It's my plan to go shadow his tour tomorrow morning, and in the process introduce myself.

The ultimate goal would be to get to a first date. I'm concerned about a combination of awkwardness and forwardness - I'm not convinced that it's the best way of doing things to just ask him to coffee some time after the tour, which is the best thing I can think of. Any advice to make this go more smoothly or less awkwardly?

New truck, old truck, big truck, small car?

Kickstart70 — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 17:06:08 -0800

We need a new (used) vehicle, but can't decide what we're seeking...I'd like to hear some more opinions from disinterested parties. We currently have a pickup truck with a two-person bench seat (1996 Mazda B3000). We bought the pickup because A) the 1994 Ford Aspire we had was reaching its 'things need fixing' era and wasn't terribly useful, B) we hope, but no guarantees, to move to the rural 5 acres we own in the next two years.

But In June we have a baby coming, and the pickup will not (safely) handle a baby seat. We still want the utility of a pickup for our rural needs, but we're going to either need a replacement for it or an additional vehicle. We own the pickup outright, and could store it for $15/month. We don't really want to pay monthly insurance on two vehicles (around $100 each per month).

So...a baby-seat-friendly pickup truck replacement, or parking the pickup and buying an additional car...which makes more sense, or is there something else I need to consider?

Electric violins and amps

i_am_joe's_spleen — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 20:19:07 -0800

Your experiences with amplifiers for electric violin performance, please. I have been using two instruments, one old violin with a Fishman pickup + external pre-amp, and one solid-bodied Skyinbow with builtin preamp. Up until now, I have simply put them through the PA when playing with a group. I've decided that I want an amp of my own for various reasons - solo performance, better monitoring on stage, and ease of experimentation with effects.

I think I'm more interested in using effects than recreating a pure authentic violin sound. However, I'm not sure whether a guitar amp is the right choice.

What have you used successfully for playing with amplified bands?

What is that weird thing?

russmail — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 14:56:37 -0800

WhatIsThatWeirdThingFilter: every now and then I spot a car or pickup with this weird attachment to the rear wheel on the driver side. It's like a spindle attached to the center of the wheel and, fixed to the end of the spindle (which sticks about 6 inches out from the wheel), is an attachment from which a 1/4 inch diameter cable runs. Oftentimes also attached to the spindle is something which looks a bicycle disc brake.

I've mostly seen them on large pickups, but I saw one recently on a car, and the cable went into the rear passenger area - weird!

So: what is that weird thing, and what's it for?

(If my description's rubbish, press feel free to fire questions at me.)

Preamp

ludwig_van — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 11:14:01 -0800

Guitar Modification: I have a Taylor 214 acoustic with a Martin Thinline Acoustic pickup, but no preamp. What sort of preamp should I get installed? The guitar didn't come with any electronics to begin with. I got the pickup installed, but didn't have the money to spring for the preamp. The guitar sounds great unplugged, but plugged into a PA it sounds very harsh, metallic, and unnatural. I'm not a gear/electronics expert, but I was led to believe that installing a decent preamp in the guitar will remedy this situation. What kind should I get? I'd like to spend as little as possible, but I really love the unplugged sound of the guitar and want to be able to preserve it when plugging into a PA.