racing to rescue

Archive for June, 2010

Most modern cars are now fitted with a low maintenance battery and these either require little electrolyte topping up and in some cases, none at all. This is a result of advances in automotive technology where alternators ensure that the battery is not subjected to an abnormal voltage charge.

The battery charger that you use in your workshop needs to be as versatile as your vehicle’s charging system to ensure that your battery’s life if not cut short by a defective process.

The big problem encountered with maintenance-free or sealed batteries is gassing, this is where electrolyte is lost as a result of too high a charge. Battery chargers designed to deal with these maintenance-free batteries are referred to as automatic and they cut off the voltage between around 13.8v and 14.5v to prevent gassing taking place. Some of these automatic chargers allow the battery to be permanently connected, topping up the charge when necessary. This float charge is very useful when you have a motor caravan or a car that is laid up for a length of time. CTEK and some of the Gunsons range of chargers are designed with this function. These chargers also have reverse-polarity protection with a built in cut-out feature and are supplied with a decent length of cable and obviously, a decent pair of clips. CTEK produce a lead where the charger can be fitted to the engine compartment of a vehicle and plugged into the mains when required.

The Calcium/Calcium battery began being fitted to vehicles with SMART charging systems from 1997. Failure to fit the correct type of replacement battery could result in damage being caused to your vehicle’s electronic control unit; so it is absolutely vital that you fit the correct battery to your vehicle and invest in the correct charger to maintain it.

When spring fever hits, it’s hard to restrain the excitement and urge to get outside and enjoy the outdoors, especially for bikers who have been able to enjoy their favorite pastime during winter. Although you may be anxious to hug the open road on your motorcycle right away, if you take the proper precautions when removing your bike from winter storage, it can save you time and money, as well as increase your safety. Use these helpful hints when preparing your motorcycle for your summer adventures:

Inspect your fuel tank – Basem Wasef, an expert author on motorcycle topics for About.com, provides some great insight into preparing your motorcycle for summer riding. Wasef recommends that you inspect your fuel tank by opening the cap and determining whether the fuel is clean or not. If you notice any decay or buildup of residue, drain the tank, and then clean the carburetor and fuel lines before running the engine.

Kevin Crockett, an expert author for Ezine.com and motorcycle enthusiast confirms the inherent risk that old fuel can cause by claiming, “old fuel can cause your fuel lines and carburetor to clog from gum.” He also recommends checking the tank for rust. “If the tank has rusted, you will need to clean and seal it to prevent flakes of rust from clogging the carburetor jets.”

Finish this step by adding a fresh tank of fuel before you ride your motorcycle.

Change your fluids – Drain old engine oil, replace the filter, and then replenish the engine with new oil before you ride your motorcycle this summer. Other fluids you need to check include transmission fluid, brake fluid and coolant.

Lubricate cylinders – Wasef claims that by removing the spark plugs and pouring two tablespoons of oil into the spark plug ports, you can lubricate the top portion of the cylinder walls. This can be useful if you failed to spray fogging oil on the top of the cylinder when you prepared your motorcycle for winter storage. Examine the chain and lubricate it, if necessary.

Charge your battery – Inspect the battery leads for corrosion. Wasef advises topping off each battery cell with distilled water before charging. Make certain the battery is fully charged before going on your first motorcycle ride. Otherwise, you run the risk of becoming stranded because of a depleted battery.

Inflate your tires and shocks – Inspect the tires for hairline cracks, bubbles, weak spots or stress marks and address each issue separately. Inflate each tire to the specified quantity of air pressure. Continue by inspecting the shocks. Give the kickstand a few trial kicks, and lubricate it if uncooperative.

Wash and wax your motorcycle – Thoroughly clean the exterior of your motorcycle using a gentle cloth, and then protect it with a thin coat of wax.

Use a safety checklist – The Motorcycle Safety Foundation offers a free safety checklist that you should use every time you ride. The T-CLOCS checklist, which stands for tires and wheels, controls, lights, oil, chassis and stands, covers every critical safety aspect on your motorcycle.

Finally, don’t get caught in the rain without your rain gear! Protect yourself and your motorcycle against theft, damage from collision, vandalism and more with affordable motorcycle insurance. Nationwide can tailor a motorcycle insurance policy to fit your unique needs, even if you have a custom bike. Contact an expert Nationwide agent today for your free quote, and ask how you can qualify for an auto insurance discount when you choose to insure your motorcycle with Nationwide, too.

Transport stream (TS, TP, MPEG-TS, or M2T) is a communications protocol for audio, video, and data. It is a type of digital container format that encapsulates packetized elementary streams and other data. TS is specified in MPEG-2 Part 1, Systems (ISO/IEC standard 13818-1). It is also known as ITU-T Rec. H.222.0. Its design goal is to allow multiplexing of digital video and audio and to synchronize the output. Transport stream offers features for error correction for transportation over unreliable media, and is used in broadcast applications such as DVB and ATSC. It is contrasted with MPEG program stream, designed for more reliable media such as DVDs. JVC Everio GZ-HD40 Camcorder and other HD camcorders supports MPEG-2 TS recording with superior video quality. When you want to edit these TS files with iMovie, you need an TS to iMovie converter to convert TS to iMovie compatible video format.

Mac Video Converter is the best TS to iMovie converter that have the ability to convert TS to almost all popular video formats: Quick Time file(MOV), 3GP, 3G2, FLV(flash video), RM, RMVB, AVI, DV, MKV, WMV. You even can play TS files on many portable devices, such as iPod(iPod nano, iPod shuffle, iPod Classic, iPod touch), iPhone, PSP, Zune, GPhone, Mobile phone, Creative Zen, Blackberry after optimizing TS files with TS to iMovie converter.

How to step by step import video ts to imovie with ts to imovie converter?

Step 1: Load TS video files to TS to iMovie Converter
Free download, install and run Mac Video Converter, then click the “Add files” button to import your ts video files. After one or several video files like AVI, WMV, 3GP, etc are imported successfully, you can see all of them listed in the program.

Step 2: Select output format
Choose a format like “MPEG-4 Movie (*mp4)” which is compatible with iMovie from the profile drop-down menu.

Step 3: Convert
Click “Start” button, it begins to convert your HD files to imovie mp4 format.

Step 4: Importing convertion mp4 files to imovie
Launch iMovie, go to “file > import movies”. Select the converted MP4 video then click “import”.

Although 4 wheeler atvs are some of the most dangerous vehicles known to man, people are more than ever buying 4 wheelers for kids. Not only do these four wheelers tear up the natural habitat, but they make tremendous noise, disturbing the native wildlife while causing their terrible erosion. Back in the days, young people eroded the soil and basically wrecked things for everyone else trying to enjoy the wilderness. But worst of all, is the danger of the 4 wheelers.

Going four-wheeling in one of those big trucks is a lot safer and it’s both fun and popular to do. Nevertheless, whenever you take something off road and go through the brush and the hills, you’re going to end up with someone getting hurt. Many people go four-wheeling during or after a drinking binge. That means there are a lot of people out there, too drunk to drive, tearing down back roads at breakneck speed. A safer way to go 4 wheeling is using 4×4 trucks, and this is also popular. Still, anything that involves driving trucks around off road for recreation, people will find a way to make dangerous, especially if they are young and stupid. Instead of having to worry about their 4 wheelers rolling over on them, we now have the problem of drunken drivers going in their older brother’s, or father’s pickup trucks at high speeds on the back roads. And more than once, this has had tragic results.

No matter how much fun they seem, people who are aware of how dangerous four-wheel ATVs are still buying them for their children. It seems like they are just asking for trouble by doing that. There are things like movie theaters and great movies to watch, soda shops for a nice afternoon treat, and even music venues that people of all ages can go to. How about enjoying nature by taking a great hike in the woods? There are acres and acres of beautiful wilderness to explore that don’t need to be spoiled by the grumbling whine of an ATV. On an ATV, the nature flashes by so fast you can’t see anything, you can’t hear any birds singing, and you’ve practically scared away all of the fantastic wildlife out there. There need to be some laws protecting kids and the environment from the dangers of ATVs. While they may be of use to someone out there, they aren’t toys and they’re definitely not for kids.

Why, with all of this tragedy, parents would even think of buying their kids 4 wheelers? It just does not make any sense. It is not like there is absolutely nothing to do in town. There are movie theaters, coffee shops, the soda shop, the main drag. There is even an all ages venue that provides rock music for the kids. And that does not even touch on all of the beautiful wilderness that surrounds us. But instead of enjoying that wilderness for its quiet and mystery, the kids just use it to drive their 4 wheelers, making enough noise to wake the devil himself and completely trampling on nature. That is a shame when you realize how much they miss out on hearing over the rumble of their 250cc 4 wheelers engines. There is a whole world passing them by. Parents should save their money and buy their children something safer — like a bicycle or scooter.

It is easy to see why motorcycles are appealing to a large number of people, old and young alike. These vehicles are great for heavy daily commutes because they are small and maneuverable, making it possible to weave in and out of traffic and split lanes to get ahead of the crush of cars that are otherwise stalled. This practice is not only legal, it is encouraged as a method of relieving congestion and getting at least a few motorists off of the roads faster, hopefully cutting down of pollution as well.

Motorcycles are also much more economical than a car, so if you are commuting alone, then you are spending far less gas in addition to being able to spend less time in traffic. Motorcycles are highly customizable, and just about anyone can get a motorcycle that fits their tastes and personality from something great for cruising the roads on a sunny day to a speed machine that is up for anything.

Unfortunately, motorcycles are also incredibly dangerous. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 4008 motorcyclists were killed in 2004, and over 76,000 were injured that same year. The NHTSA tells us that about half of all motorcycles involved in deadly accidents collided with another vehicle, and one third of motorcyclists died while speeding. This twice the fatality rate for drivers of passenger vehicles or light trucks.

Many motorcyclists choose not to wear helmets, further increasing the risk of fatality when it comes to a collision, and things like alcohol impairment or improper training can lead to even more crashes and more fatalities. Injuries sustained because of a motorcycle accident are almost always severe in the case of the motorcycle driver, with many injuries resulting in a severe drop in quality of life.

While many motorcycle accidents could have been prevented by adherence to traffic laws on the part of the cyclist, many other accidents are caused by other drivers who were not aware of their surroundings or who were otherwise impaired or negligent in their driving. A motorcycle accident attorney can help you to sort out the details of your collision if you have been involved in a motorcycle accident.

If you do not fight for your rights under the law, the insurance companies involved in the handling of your motorcycle accident may try to get out of paying you what they owe you for your injuries sustained as well as for the damage to your vehicle and personal property during the crash.

A motorcycle accident attorney can help you fight back for yourself, even while you are injured and recovering from the accident. Your motorcycle accident attorney will fight beside you against the insurance companies or other drivers involved in order to make sure that you are treated fairly and given the compensation that you deserve.

An attorney who is experienced in handling motorcycle accident cases will also be able to help you to make your case despite the potential severity of injuries sustained during the accident. An experienced attorney is the key to making sure that your case is handled properly, since laws can be complex and can apply differently based on other factors.

Many people might assume that if you were in a motorcycle accident, that it was your fault. Many attorneys will not even fight for you if you have been involved in a motorcycle accident for this very reason. A motorcycle accident attorney will know the real facts. In many cases, motorcycle accidents are the result of an inattentive driver who does not see the motorcycle or otherwise mistakes the capabilities of the bike and causes an accident.

Your motorcycle accident attorney will evaluate the facts of the case and help you determine if you have a motorcycle injury base before leading you through the filing process and helping you to get the money that you deserve for your injuries and damage sustained. Most motorcycle accident attorneys will even evaluate your case for free to help you determine how best to proceed.

A personal injury attorney can help you to make your case if he or she is willing to work with you, but your chances are best when working with an experienced motorcycle accident attorney at your side.

The experience in the specific field makes all the difference in ensuring that your case is handled in exactly the right manner, and a motorcycle accident attorney will be used to dealing with cyclists like you and injuries like yours. He or she will be able to help you win your case and get on with your life.