Fun in Thailand

My larger capacity cards have eventually died, and keep forgetting I have 32 GB cards in the A119, now. I did a last minute trip out of town yesterday when a friend missed the last bus home..... It wasn't supposed to be a trip out of town, only to catch the 'bus', but when we did catch it a few villages ahead, it was full, people standing on the bumper, etc. So I ran her, and her kid the 100 KM to her village, after making sure the teddy bear was belted in.

IMG_20200216_154344.jpg

The 100 K trip takes about an hour and a half, and I would be returning home after dark. The headlights on the trike suck, and my old eyes don't help. I had to make sure I got off the back roads before dark, so I can take my chances on the north/south highway with higher speed big trucks. :)
I also didn't charge my cell phone before I left, expecting a 20 minute trip to the bus stop and back....and didn't have my usual supply of emergency water on board.
I got up there as quickly as possible, parked, ate dinner, and headed back.
While parked 'downtown' two mobile sound monstrosities passed through, collecting money for local temples. The people walking or dancing along with the music will appoach you for donations, hand you a split bamboo skewer thing, you put the bill in the slot, and it's held there by a rubber band and tension.

This is sunday afternoon in what in the US would be the 'county seat' of a rural county, here is is a 'district' seat or not sure what they call it? 8-10000 population, max. The streets are generally empty at night. The building straight ahead with the arched roof is the local open air market.



 
Last edited:
Old eyes.

I don't feel the light of my car have gotten worse / less, but the light on other cars on the other hand i feel have become much more annoying, some newer cars its like they have lasers for headlights.
But you don't really notice it in normal conditions, but if one driving behind you go over a speed bump and its light are "kicked" up, sometime i think " what that a lightning strike"

My friend with the used high end MERC station car, he put aftermarket stronger headlights in it ( not legal ) but i think its cuz he live out in the country now where nights are much darker than in town.

Sadly acebeam have discontinued the W30 LEP flashlight, that one would fry your retina even if its laser are not pointed forwards but rather just at a blob of phosphorus.

You will also still see people living in rural areas having extra lights on their car
 
Most motorcycle lights can be upgraded to a higher-wattage bulb and by now I'm sure there are LED conversions offered. My old ride had a 55W main beam which made riding at night at speed more than a little spooky. Didn't help that a Lucas alternator was attempting to power it :p Plus you've got the cab where other lights can be mounted ;) I was always more worried about my back-side around town where I wasn't always able to get away from the other traffic. I'd have installed a flashing neon sign there if I could have. On open roads nobody was going to approach me from behind :rolleyes: Hide a cheap powerbank, phone cable, and small USB light somewhere on your samlor; no big loss if it gets swiped or lost, just a few baht :cool:

Phil
 
The bulbs in my car are also 55W of the H4 kind as i recall, and for some reason they can still make the plastic in front of them crack, but this time just my L headlight are cracking, and its not even a year old.
If i put in high power LED or HID lights ( which the dealer also assumed i have used when i asked him about the issue ) then i am sure the headlights would simply melt or catch fire.

I hate when unexplainable problems pester me, anything else i can deal with, but this headlight issue just mess with my mind, and it get refreshed every time i see my cracking and already water retaining headlight.
ANd reminded of the 120 or so USD i have to spend for a new headlight assembly again, which i could have used on much more fun stuff.
 
I think the electrical system on this fine piece of machinery is probably taxed as it is. I"m guessing the flooded lead acid battery is not long for this life, so will look to upgrade some electrics when it dies.......add some crap, Maybe some LED lights, but my vision is worse at night. On some of the expat forums you can find the old white geezers here talking about how they have dark film on the windows of their cars to block the sun, and added extra bright lights so they can see at night.

When I get that stupid it will be time for me to move (back) to florida!
(Make it harder for me to see at night, then blind everyone else to compensate)

Here is a little jaunt to the local shopping center for dinner, and I almost felt like I was in florida!



Notice I am becoming more like a local, and called the driver a buffalo as I passed him when he parked. Thais turn in any direction, from any lane, or not even in a lane, or in all lanes, or going all directions......or........


I live near a large commercial driving school which has kind of a large campus on the bigger road, and several fenced practice ranges in the area, one near me. The practices ranges are almost always empty, the name of the company is 'Drive Smart' and I've learned to give the vehicles extra room, even when there is only one person in the vehicle.
 
Vehicles with few, or no lights. Common.

Here is an older skylab/samlor, no lights at all, plowing along on a street that gets busy.....and is narrow, and worse because people stop and park in front of vendors, often there is barely one lane for two way traffic. (but not busy tonight)

In the second section of this clip I am in the straight through lane at an intersection for a busy highway, waiting for the light. The old samlor is passing in the left turn lane.....and continues through the intersection from the left turn lane. If you notice, that is police pickup truck behind it......paddy wagon type.




After I wait a few seconds for the light change, and get across the intersection I catch up to him, again.


 
And a sneak peak of the 'samlor/skylab' factory!
(I've been to Ford, Peterbilt, Toyota, Kenworth, Boeing......Lear Jet, McDonnell Douglass.... can't name every heavy industry/automotive/aviation factory I've been to. Now I can add Apitong to the list.) :)



This is north of town, I have to go there to get major repairs or modifications.....or to replace the radio which never worked.

I avoided going there because I got varying info from people whether I needed an appointment, if they spoke english, if I have to pay with chickens?
:)

I finally had a thai friend chase down the correct info in the phone, and was told 'go there, they speak english, just drive in.'

I have been in thailand for 6 months, so i knew what to expect, and I was not wrong.


When I got there nobody spoke english. The office ladies were very nice and gracious. I think I go back on Monday, and they will install the roof for the back I wanted, or maybe the 5000 baht I handed them was dowry for one of the giggling ladies? (Do I get to choose?) No offense meant, they were nice ladies and spoke more english than I do, Thai. I eventually got the impression the roof will be as I want it, not the off the shelf type that means the side drop doors are disabled. I have no idea why this obsesses me, but as a trucker for too many years, I hate to see some cargo loading capability disabled. If I ever drive down the road and see a piano on the shoulder, I can load it from the side.

Monday will be interesting, and I'll try to get more video. I return for the 2 hour install, and I think to get some other things done....I think.
 
Last edited:
And headed out of town for the weekend in a rented Toyota Fortuner, with 5 adults and one kid as passenger, to the wedding of a son of a friend. Exceptionally nice guy, Corporal in the Thai Army.

Lots of food, alcohol, and happy people.


87794365_1473635286144240_4161644652069388288_o.jpg
 
And the family truckster has a new roof. It sees a little use hauling people, who are mostly worried about sun exposure. I ended up going to the 'factory' to have a roof fabricated and installed. The factory does some scratch fabrication, but mostly assembles parts into trikes.
I wanted a roof that would cover the cargo bed, but leave the side doors usable. I ended up with almost what I wanted, except the some of the horizontal parts at the bottom could have been removed to allow me to load bigger stuff from the side. This is a somewhat custom roof, built over the weekend. $300, installed.

IMG_20200303_171640.jpg

IMG_20200304_075140.jpg



I did notice a slight degradation in handling, mostly tracking, straight line travel. Minor. No wind when I drove it home 10 KM. Storms with hail last night. No holes.
:)

The little bench seat had to have some spacers installed to allow the forward supports to be bolted to the floor. The roof itself is a stock roof for this type of vehicle, manufactured in house. I even have the padded backrest for the passenger benches I don't have.
 
No Uber in `Thailand, but the comparable 'Grab' service. Played trucker yesterday, and hauled a new toilet, sink, and other plumbing stuff to a house in the boondocks for a friend. I did notice a strange whining noise in the back of the trike. It ended when I finally stopped at a gas station to let the lady riding in the back pee.


terlet.jpg


Higher winds today, understandable buffeting. The straight line tracking degradation is a bit puzzling. Not unsafe, just a bit noticeable.
 
Last edited:
The straight line tracking degradation is a bit puzzling. Not unsafe, just a bit noticeable.

You've moved the center of gravity rearward, and aerodynamics have been altered. Does it act the same as times before when you had an equal weight in the back? If so that's the CG change showing up. You can test this by putting some weight in the floor up front; If that fixes it you can just add a rock or something nobody would steal in it's place. If it only happens at speed that would be aerodynamics or both. Aero changes might decrease fuel mileage too, another indicator of what's going on. Might be some help for that but it could get complicated and require experimenting, plus I doubt it could be easily fixed entirely.

Phil
 
Maybe? The roof itself probably only weighs 30 pounds, total, total added weight. I would think aerodynamics would have more of an effect. Will prove this if I ever get the trike up to 200 KPH, and land somewhere in Cambodia when the gas tank runs dry.

It's barely noticeable, and may be to the factory shop inflating the tires to some obscene amount. Afraid to put a gauge on them since I don't have a means to inflate the tires easily at home.....yet.

The viofo hard wire kit died, or the buried fuse is blown. It's a long process to extract it, and check or replace it, so putting it off until newer better bigger stuff arrives to install. I am running the A119 off of a small powerbank, which conveniently sits in a motorcycle cell phone holder.

It's already hot, so not looking forward to doing the install on the concrete, in the sun.

Other projects were to find a bluetooth speaker loud enough to hear music when driving, or google maps. Ended up with a JBL Flip 5, factory renewed. Worked well enough ordered a second one to use as a pair at home, and also for 'turbo annoying music' mode in party/holiday settings. Should be loud enough to piss off most thais, who only like loud DISTORTED music.



Songkran, (Biggest national water fight in world) is maybe cancelled this year in big cities, due to the corona stuff, but guess will still go on in the provinces.

Trying to figure out how many gallons of water and kids I can haul in the trike?

:)
 
D-Day, (when I Dive back under the crappy bodywork and do more serious/redundant power source installation) approaches. (waiting on parts)

Seriously considering a motorcycle dual camera set up, but have some many cams sitting around, and the installation locations are somewhat weather protected, may just start plowing through the old mobiuses as rear cams.....and keep the A119 or B1W in the front.

I did pick up 'new' in box, old stock polaroid cube on amazon for $16, and used it's magnetic mount to play rear cam this morning.



works well enough, afraid to see what night video is like. Somewhat waterproof.
 
I dont think you will find more than a mile worth of concrete road surface in Denmark, aside for in garages ASO i don't think i have ever driven on a concrete road.
 
I almost bought one of those cams simply because it's so darn cute :p But on seeing the specs l came to my senses again. In the vid I noticed movement of the lower sides of the new roof. Kind of hard to tell but I think it was flexing from the roughness more than moving from any aerodynamic force, so if you're still getting instability up front it's probably a balance thing. While far from the best way, I have seen pics and vids which were shot through a baggie and they looked decent. You could protect the face of a cam holding that in place with a rubber band, leaving the back open for cooling. Might work or might toast the cam; just a thought. Or maybe you could mount a Mobius under the roof and back a bit with a "T" bracket like I did with mine, but finding a 14-20 bolt might be an issue over there as I guess everything is metric. There's always some way of getting something done, just sit back and study things while sipping on a beverage of your choice and I'm sure an idea or two will emerge.

They're allowing golf carts on side roads here now; not as much cargo space as your sam-lar but definitely a cheap way to get around in the towns and subdivisions, and I'm beginning to see more of them, maybe 1 or 2 per month. Fewer mopeds since they now need a license plate which requires having a title, and you need a moped-drivers license too. I wonder how long till the drunks will catch on to driving golf carts instead and begin getting smashed in them- literally :rolleyes:

Phil
 
There may be a reason you rarely see these things go over 20-30 KPH, but mine handled well at 60 and above, but I usually cruised at 60, due to engine noise.
The level of workmanship on the roof is good, nice welds, finish pretty good.
I have some body 'bangs' I am trying to figure out. Probably different body parts hitting each other on bumps
You have all sorts of motorized stuff on the road, here, legal and otherwise. Most of the fines/bribes are cheaper to pay than the licensing or registration fees. I had a delivery driver come to a stop in the roadway, a few days ago, as I passed him at a safe distance he swung his door open and jumped out into traffic without looking. I was inches from his open door. He screamed something at me. This is what you deal with here. People who will never know any different, because nobody forces them to learn. This is why I always have a cam running. You also have a majority (?) of vehicles operated by people with no licenses, or some other legal infraction.
There are daily checkpoints where they check for expired vehicle registration, motorbike helmets, not much else.

Here is the cube on 720P :)

The newer version is now $25 on amazon.



The plastic box in the back is there somewhat permanently. The supermarkets in thailand stopped hanging out plastic bags, you are supposed to bring your own reusable bag. I forget, and can bring the cart to the trike and load stuff directly in the bed, but the bottles of beer or cans rolling around in the back gets annoying. :)
 
Last edited:
The polaroid cube is not very stealthy.

Picking up a friend and her daughter at a bus stop.


 
So, what are the hottest looking women you've caught on your dash camera?
 
Back
Top