Popular Mechanics 2010-04

POPULARMECHANICS.
COM
APRIL 2010
2010
PM FEATURES
VOLUME 187 NO. 4
58 Survival Chronicles
Overcoming disaer is a
matter of preparation, per-
severance, courage and,
sometimes, luck. If calamity
rikes, you can boo your
odds for success with these
lessons drawn from real-life
survival ories.
BY JOHN GALVIN
68 Family Tree
ese days, kids oen opt
for video games over the out-
doors. But one father found
a way to elevate fresh-air fun
high above eleronics: Build
a backyard treehouse.
BY LOGAN WARD
74 Four-Door Faceoff
Midsize sedans are the be-
selling cars in America, so
auto manufaurers keep
pushing more models to mar-
ket. In a PM road te, we pit
the segments three mo
popular vehicles again ve
newcomers in the dogght
for the consumers dollar.
BY LARRY WEBSTER
82 Six Weeks to
a Perfect Lawn
Turning weedy grass into
velvety sod may sound
impossiblebut not if you
For writer Logan Ward, the r ep in building a treehouse (Family Tree, page 68) was making this follow the PM aion plan for
scale model out of cardboard. It also amped up his kids enthusiasm for the new backyard addition. growing the perfe lawn.
BY JIM GORMAN
ON THE
COVER
Key elements of our cover photo illuration were shot by Joe Pugliese.
Prop yling by Still Sets. Final composition with additional elements by
PM digital imaging speciali Anthony Verducci.
PHOTOGRAPH BY J MUCKLE POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | A PRIL 2010 1

qq
q
q
M
P M D E PA R T M E N T S
26
pm do-it-yourself
qq
91 The Chips Fall

Where They May
We te six jigsaws on eel for
our slice-and-slash challenge.
96 Homeowners Clinic
How to build simple oating
shelves. Plus: Lower energy bills
with foil-faced radiant barriers.
98 How Your House

Works: Electric Panel
We translate the circuit-breaker
panel to explain the basics of
wattage, voltage and all the
amperage in between.
qq
105 Saturday Mechanic

How to make old car doors
shut like new.
110 Car Clinic

Prevent ball-joint failure with
this aordable DIY x. Plus:
Repair HVAC uck on defro.
qq
117 Fighting
Cable Chaos
qq
Transform a mess of unruly
wires and plugs into an orderly,
21 Auto Insurance color-coded routing syem.
qq qq
e Energizer All-in-One
11 A Deeper Dip jump-arts your carno good 39 Mainstreamer 122 Digital Clinic
Samaritan needed. Plus: Sizing Why Microso is waging war
Aronomers discover new e Hyundai Tucson is small,
up the Apple iPad; Bluetooth again modied Xbox 360s.
ars in the Big Dipper ylish and capable. Plus:
headsets get Lab Te abuse. Plus: Leveling uuating song
conellation. Plus: e late Driving Audis lithium-ion
volume on iTunes.
magnetic eld radios save supercar; the be from a
viims trapped underground. dynamic Detroit Auto Show.
LISTED ON
THE COVER
q
PHOTOGRAPH BY GETTY IMAGES
82 Perfect Lawn
52 How It Works: 54 America Grounded 58 How I Survived
Hurricane Wavemaker Former shuttle aronaut omas D. Jones says 74 Car Test
To engineer better buildings, researchers bu walls NASAs new budget means the demise of 68 Treehouse
with waves generated by this high-tech machine. American leadership in space. 24 Win is Mower
q!q How to Reach Us 4 / Letters 6 / This Is My Job 134
2 A PRIL 2010 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM

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PM LETTERS
Coal Fired
I agree with your hypothesis
Robotic Aection these objes have no experi- from e Myth of Clean Coal.
I truly enjoyed Erik Sofges ence of empathy? Its simply an oxymoron; by its
February ory, Can Robots e creation of conscious- very nature coal is dirty. e
Be Trued? e author, ness is so dicult that some government also creates
however, seemed a little articial-intelligence research- monrous wae by requiring
surprised by the idea that ers seem to take the attitude, ethanol addition to gasoline and
people would rea positively If I can create a machine that by subsidizing other alterna-
to a robots uttering eyes and appears to love me, does it tives that make no nancial
I S S U E
other social features. I would matter whether it aually sense. e vocal and irrational
point out that sociology, does? We mu consider the drive to do these things has a
anthropology and psychology
vpZ implications of robots without negative economic impa.
all reveal that humans do this true consciousness, and More of us need to obje to
quite regularly with animals Readers prepare to adju our culture these impositions. anks for
people consider them friends responded to a and moral codes accordingly. the attention to such matters.
ory on robots
and attribute anthropomor- and the debate J I M CL E AV E L A N D R O B E R T G A L L O WAY
phic qualities to them. So if over clean coal. LOS ANGELES, CA CHARLESTON, WV
humans fall in love with
animals, why not fall in love qqq
q7
with robots?
JE RRY ROSONK E e Lunatic Express: Discovering the
MANSFIELD, SD World ... Via Its Mo Dangerous Buses,
Boats, Trains, and Planes, by PM
contributing editor Carl Homan. On a
I enjoyed your ory on robots 50,000-mile global trek, Homan
and agree we should be chronicles the perils of travel by the
concerned about machines that mo hazardous methods of transporta-
P H O T O G R A P H B Y F I L I P K W I AT K O W S K I
give the outward appearance of tionthrough the Amazon on washed-

out roads, across the waterways of
feeling and thought, but do not Bangladesh on overcrowded ferries and
aually feel or think. Morality through Mongolias Gobi Desert in
derives from the assumption of 20-ton propane trucks.
mutuality of experience: If I hurt
another person, he feels pain as
I would; if I am kind to him, he
feels pleasure as I would. Is it Write to Us Include your full name, address and phone number, even if
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dire our aeions when

AUTOMOTIVE SCIENCE
TECHNOLOGY HOME
HOW-TO CENTRAL VIDEO

Robot Revolution
ROBOTS IN
OUR LIVES
eyre not ju
the bad guys in
science-ion
movies. Robots
already help the
world runfrom
autonomous
agricultural
machines that
help feed us, to
UAVs that keep
enemies at bay
in Afghanian
and Iraq, to
Roombas that can clean the oors we dont have
time to vacuum ourselves, to underwater rovers
that help plane-crash forensics teams make ying
safer. PMs experts report on cutting-edge
robotics from around the world.
DEUS EX MACHINA Will we know the moment

that weve achieved articial intelligence? Is there
really an uncanny valley making lifelike robots
untenable? What will a beer tae like aer the
singularity? When it comes to the theory and
future of robotics, we talk to the bigge thinkers
and innovators in the eld to paint a broad view of
emerging ethical and theoretical issues.
FIRST ROBOTICS In an eort to inspire a

generation to become scientis, researchers and
technology leaders, Dean Kamen created FIRST
Robotics, a competition where high school
udents design and build robots that duke it out
in what is, essentially, a varsity sports event. PM
covers FIRST throughout the season.
popularmechanics.com/science
"
NEWS + TRENDS + BREAKTHROUGHS
"qqq
vqqqAntiquity #ssR?q
Ancient sky watchers use the deteion YDqsL?qq
of Mizar and Alcor as an eye te. In RY4Q,wks?jkqq
2008, an ophthalmologis paper nds
that these results correlate to the
modern Snellen visual accuracy tes.
tqqq1617
Benedetto Caelli nds the binary ar
Mizar B with a telescope owned by his
Human beings have been aring at the conel- mentor, Galileo Galilei. THE PROCEEDS
lation Ursa Major, which contains the ar group Fqqq1890 FROM AVATAR, THE
commonly called the Big Dipper, for thousands of Aronomers udying shis in the BIGGEST MOVIE OF
ALL TIME, ARE
years, but it ill holds a few secrets for arono- wavelength of arlight nd that Mizar A SIMILAR TO THOSE
mers. With the naked eye, ancient sky watchers in is also a binary ar. FROM MODERN
WARFARE 2, THE
Arabia could see that one of the Dippers seven Eqqq1908
BIGGEST VIDEO
ars, Mizar, has a companion called Alcor. Over Another binary ar is found orbiting GAME OF ALL TIME,
Mizar B, making the cluer the
the centuries, improving telescopes revealed r-known quintuple ar syem.
SHOWING THE
GLOBAL POWER OF
more ars in the cluer. Late la year, two THE VIDEO-GAME
oqqq2009
independent teams of aronomers deteed a Planet hunters nd a ar, Alcor B, using
MARKET.
sixth ar near Mizar in the middle of the conel- a telescope with a mirror that exes to
lations handle, bringing the total number of ars compensate for the ees of Earths
in the Big Dipper to 12. J O E P A P P A L A R D O atmosphere.
Global Sales
What Boils
Below
Yellowstone
+ A seismic udy begun over a decade ago has nally
settled a long-anding debate about the source of
Yellowones geothermal heat, and sugges theres much
5 Days

more magma lurking in the subterranean supervolcano than

previously thought. Geophysicis funded by the National
Science Foundation used data from 200 seismic sensors that
measured the waves from 800 earthquakes between 1999
and 2005 to trace the magma. Since seismic waves travel
more slowly through hot rock than cold, the researchers were
able to outline the shape of a magma pit, located 400 miles
Global Sales
below the surface, that curls about 150 miles northwe of the park. e nding 1 Month
contradis claims that a shallow pool of churning rock fuels Yellowones
volcanism, and means any future eruption will be more severe. ALEX HUTCHINSON
PHOTOGRAPH BY GETTY IMAGES (YELLOWSTONE)
qqq element that monazite, a mineral qq silver nanowires.

q q manufaurers use that has unusually q qq ese nanomateri-
qq
q to provide vivid red high concentrations + Scientis at als are great conduc-
+ Panning in the color in television of the element. e Stanford University tors because their
reams of Alaska, screens, computer discovery could recently developed a one-dimensional
scientis with the monitors and LEDs. augment europium method to ore ruures move
United States Working the Taylor mining in southea energy in ordinary elericity eciently.
Geological Survey Mountains area, the California, which paper by coating it e result:
have identied a government has recently been with ink infused lightweight, exible
potential source of researchers found overshadowed by with carbon batteries and
europium, a rare grains of dark Chinese produion. nanotubes and capacitors. A.H.
POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | A PRIL 2010 11

pop-y
T E C H W A T C H
pursuit
range
A que to redene
the nature of the
universe is baseline
underway in a mine eciency
quotient
sha in Soudan,
Minn., where
physicis with the
Cryogenic Dark
Matter Search have
been looking since arm
accuracy
2003 for particles rating
produced by the big
bang. Some
theories sugge
that dark matter
makes up as much

average Numbers Game
ground ball D I G I TA L T E C H N O L O G Y T R A C K S B A S E B A L L
as 90 percent of response
the matter in the time P L A Y E R S P E R F O R M A N C E S A N D G E N E R AT E S
universe, but they R E A M S O F N E W S TAT S . BY COLIN KEARNS
have never been
proven because the
weakly interaing
massive particles,
or WIMPs, believed e two mo observant scouts and each player 15 times per second. is
to be dark matter for the San Francisco Giants watch information can later be analyzed to shed
are nearly every home game from their reserved light on aspes of a players performance
impossible to
dete. La year, seatshigh up on the r and third that have been largely subjeive, such as
cryalline baselines. ey measure how far and fa arm rength and eciency in running
deteors deep the center elder travels to snag a bases. is technology opens up the
inside the mine,
shielded from
shallow looper and record the exa possibility of quantifying even more
cosmic rays by half diance of every hit ball, fair or foul. And, atiics that people never would have
a mile of rock, since they are completely eleronic, known, says Bill Schlough, the Giants
regiered two these scouts never need to get up for the chief information ocer. e numbers
events that might
have been WIMPs. seventh-inning retch. La season, San wont be found on the backs of baseball
But because theres Franciscos AT&T Park was the teing cardsthe Giants treat the new ats as
a 25 percent ground for a prototype of Field f/x, a trade secrets. ey want to use them to
chance that the
signals were camera and so ware syem developed guide trades, individualize coaching and
background noise, by Bay Area company Sportvision. Using optimize game-day player matchups.
the team is adding images from the syems twin 5-mega- e company says the ats could be
more sensitive
pixel cameras, Field f/xs so ware used on TV broadcas and fantasy-
deteors in
2010hoping to automatically tags the location of the ball league websites.
beat the Large
Hadron Collider
near Geneva, q
q8qqq catchers throwing make a speedy play?
Switzerland, to a Measurable atiics like batting average or on-base arm, from home Such metrics can
denitive dark percentage make it easy to grade the oensive skills plate to the base inuence training.
matter discovery. of players. Now, with Field f/x, talent scouts are being olen.
A.H. applying quantitative analysis to the harder-to-track VDN?R:?jkq
PHOTOGRAPH BY GETTY IMAGES
areas of a players ability. q

wsDN?R:?jkq One of the greate
If a center elder advantages of Field
makes a diving f/x is its ability to
q
#k?qwVV?jkq q determine if he could catch, analysis can track the response
Field f/x charts the have le later in the determine why he time of inelders.
base paths to reveal pitchers windup. dovewas it a slow Scouts can dete
which players run reaion to a routine which shortops
the mo ecient #s4L?jq shot or did the batter rea quicke to
routes. Aer a Cameras measure hit the ball outside grounders, attaching
runner eals a the rength and the players elding data to a players
base, Field f/x can accuracy of the range, forcing him to elding range.

Big Booms for e civilian mechanics at Annis-
ton Army Depot in Alabama
donated excess tank parts from its
inventory to create the ABV.
Safer Roads usually only x vehicles for the Army, A er about two years of trials and
MARINE CORPS ENGINEERS IN not design them for the Marine Corps. training, the Marine Corps delivered
A F G H A N I S TA N H A V E A N E W B E A S T But as Marines push into conteed the r ABVs late la year to
T E C H W A T C H
O F A V E H I C L E T O D E F E AT areas of Afghanian, their engineers southern Afghanian, where they

EXPLOSIVE BOOBY TRAPS. face a persient threat from roadside quickly saw aion clearing improvised
BY JOE PAPPALARDO
bombs. e mechanics at Annion explosive devices (IEDs) from the
saw they could build a safe ride for roads leading to the Taliban rong-
these military engineers by adding hold of Now Zad in Helmand province.
o-the-shelf equipment to an M1A1 e Breacher crews preferred
Abrams battle tank. e result, called method of clearing the roads involves
the Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV), shooting an MK155 linear chargea
maximizes the depot as experi- nylon rope beaded with 1750 pounds
ence at xing the M1A1 and their of explosive C4so that it lies across
ability to mount heavy engineering the unpaved roadway, and then
equipment, including a 12-foot detonating the line to create a safe
plough, onto its hull. e Army path more than 300 feet long and 50
feet wide. e syem was designed
qqq
in the 1960s to defeat pressure-
: q
j?zq Two Marine Corps engineers fused mines, but is nding a new use
: qjU#U?Vsq q .50-cal. machine gun in clearing IED-infeed roads.
: qjUYjqq Reaive plates explode to mitigate damage from rocket- Intercepted enemy radio transmis-
propelled grenades or hull-penetrating explosive devices. sions, quoted in a Marine Corps
: qNV?qq A 5000-pound, sharp-toothed plough digs up to 7 inches into release, indicate that the enemy ed
RYwGLq the ground at 10 mph to dislodge explosives. Now Zad as the explosive rings
erupted, saying, Get out, the big
boom is coming!
1 2 3
qqZEEq
qqZEEq A rocket trailing a e rocket burns Aer a 5-second
q
q nylon ring of C4 out aer 6 seconds, countdown, 1750
q

q
explosives is and the charges fall pounds of C4
q
q launched at a to the ground in a detonate to deroy
45-degree angle raight line. e enemy explosive
from the vehicle. C4s fuse shear pin devices with
is broken at the end overpressure.
of the ight.

Smart bicycle wheels have regenerative braking,
which can charge a battery when the rider brakes,
providing power to an eleric motor. But a brilliant bike
wheel, like the one created by MIT researchers, can also
report data about the world it rides through. e
Copenhagen Wheel, named for its initial teing ground,
T E C H W A T C H
communicates wirelessly with an iPhone mounted on

the handlebars to measure speed, diance and
pollution. And if a thief tries to eal it, the wheel locks
and sends a text message to its owner. A.H.
qq 1. A radio converts the eleronic signals of a rescuers voice into magnetic waves.
2. Magnetic waves pass easily through hundreds of yards of solid material.
3. e receiver of a trapped miner converts the magnetic waves into elerical signals,
which he hears as a voice, and he responds with his position. qq
NRNs#j|q
is year, Ferro
Solutions will dem-
onrate a radio
syem U.S. troops
can use to clear
cave complexes
or bunkers. During
rescue operations
3 at mass casualty
events, such as the
Haitian earth-
quake, military en-
gineers equipped
2 with these radios
could ay in con-
ta as they dig to
save viims.
4?#Vkq
Divers could speak
1
via a magnetic
communicator
without interfer-
ence from rough
seas, underwater
terrain and dead
zones caused
by temperature
Typical radios send signals on
A Voice in the Darkness
A N E W M A G N E T I C C O M M U N I C AT O R A L L O W S F I R S T
eleromagnetic waves that oscillate at
gradients.
?jkYV#Rq
specic frequencies. Engineers at Ferro R?4sjYVN4k
R E S P O N D E R S T O C O N TA C T V I C T I M S O F U N D E R G R O U N D
developed a portable communicator A magnetic
D I S A S T E R S . BY DAVID HAMBLING
resonance syem
that translates these undulating waves could allow
When r responders arrive at into signals carried by magnetic elds conta-free
a mine disaer or a building with resonant frequencies that rechargingfor
example, a
collapse, communicating with viims or compatible radios can pick up through cellphone battery
other rescuers is usually impossible hundreds of yards of obruions. e could be booed
because radio waves can be blocked by digital voice signal r passes through a from anywhere in a
room.
metal, earth and one. Even sites with transducer made of a composite that
low-frequency emergency radio syems melds piezoeleric material (which
suer from slow data transfer that generates a voltage when it deforms)
reris use to simple text messages. with a magnetoriive metal (which
But a novel syem being developed by changes shape when its exposed to a
Ferro Solutions of Woburn, Mass., magnetic eld). e transducer converts
transmits voice signals with magnetic the radio signals into magnetic ones;
waves that travel through solid matter another reverses this process when the
more easily than do radio signals. signals reach the other radio.
16 A PRIL 2010 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y C H R I S T I A N M A R R A

e 7.0 magnitude earthquake series of warnings his team issued since
e Men Who that hammered Haiti in 2010 was 2005. Weve told the Haitian govern-
Saw It Coming so intenseand the nation so poorthat
it is hard to imagine anything could have
ment exaly where the fault is, and that
it could produce a 7.2 magnitude event
SCIENTISTS PREDICTED THE
E A R T H Q U A K E T H AT R A V A G E D been done to prevent the tragedy. But or larger, Calais says. Unfortunately our
T E C H W A T C H
HAITI. COULD ANYTHING HAVE geophysici Eric Calais from Purdue number is fairly close to what happened.
BEEN DONE TO PREPARE? University in Indiana warned the Earthquakes cant be prevented, but
BY CASSIE RODENBERG Caribbean nation of the risk, and says even impoverished nations can prepare
that the information could have been for them. For the mo part, Haiti failed
used to better prepare the island for an to take aion. You can identify the few
emergency response. At a conference in buildings that are criticalthat have to
the neighboring Dominican Republic in and up in the face of a large earth-
2008, Calais and his team presented a quake, like hospitals and schools, from
paper that calculated that the Enriquillo which rescue operations can be
fault, which produced the January quake, organized. is hasnt been done, Calais
had the potential to generate a lethal says. One of the r buildings in
tremor. at paper was the late in a Port-au-Prince that collapsed was a
hospital. at is unacceptable.
q
qqHaiti sits on the boundary between the North Haiti is not alone in its lack of
American and Caribbean teonic plates. e movement of seis- preparations for calamity. Other local
mologis sensors shows that the Caribbean plate moves about a
quarter inch per year in relation to the atic North America plate. and national governments ignore
e north Espaola block, between the plates, is marked by moun- earthquake warnings by allowing
tains and a fault line (not shown); another fault lies south of it. subandard conruion and failing to
cra emergency planspossibly
dooming their populations to similarly
heartbreaking a ermaths.
YjsLqk\#VYR#qRY4Q
North America Plate
qYjsM#wMjNV4?q
VjNbwNRRYq #wRs
Caribbean Plate
q qStress from the passing continental plates builds
along fraure lines, like the Enriquillo fault that runs through southern
Haiti. Quakes result when the pressure is suddenly released.
3 ates, has a 90 prepared for 4. Delhi, India: 5. Kathmandu,

1 percent chance of earthquakes, and in e city of over 12 Nepal: e
4 5
producing a major particular concern million is located in population of
2 quake within the that schools wont the foothills of the Kathmandu has
next 50 years. survive tremors. Himalayas, where been increasing
Millions of people in earthquakes are eadily for decades,
the region live in 3. Istanbul, caused by the but the attendant
homes that wouldnt Turkey: Nearly slow collision of conruion was
likely survive an 20,000 people died continental plates. not regulated and
earthquake. in Turkeys 1999 Delhis hospitals building codes are
q
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q q
q Scientis predi Quito sits on an ill lacking. A main inadequate for the management
that the New Madrid aive seismic zone. fault line lies less population, a fa agencies are
fault zone, located But as its population than 13 miles from that bodes poorly underaed and
over ve Midwe- rises, so do fears Ianbul, represent- for emergency not geared for
ern and Southern that the city is not ing an extreme risk. response. rescue.
18 A PRIL 2010 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y S U P E R F U T U R E

e 2009 te launch of NASAs
Ares 1 may be its only ight.
Grim Viory for

Rocket Rebels
Ending months of speculation,
President Barack Obama in Feb-
ruary released his plan for NASAs
futurea plan without a return to
the moon. e budget kills all
spending on the Conellation
program, a Bush adminiration plan
to build a cra called the Ares I to
deliver supplies and a to the
International Space Station.
According to the axed plan, a second
heavy-launch syem called Ares V
would be used for longer trips to the
moon, aeroids or Mars. NASA critic
Ross Tierney should have been
overjoyed to hear the news of
Conellations demise. Tierney
teamed with moonlighting NASA
engineers to create
an alternative they
called Jupiter Dire.
(PM covered the
debate in February
2009.) e rival
design reuses space
shuttle parts to save
development time and cos.
Tierneys hopes that the adminira-
tion would embrace the Dire plan
were bolered when he was invited
to a meeting at NASA to present the
scheme to agency ocials. But when
the adminiration released its
budgettwo weeks aer the
January meetingDire was also
seemingly rejeed. e budget slates
$3.1 billion of research funds to
inveigate a new heavy-li rocket, so
unless Congress or a big contraor
adopts the Dire plans design, it will
be as dead as the Ares vehicles it was
meant to replace. DAVE NOLAND
GEAR + TOOLS + TOYS
Murphys Law as it applies to cars: e times you mo need a

Auto good Samaritan to jump-art your vehicle are the times you are
lea likely to nd one. Which is why more drivers are opting to carry
Insurance a portable, battery-powered jump-arter. e Energizer All-in-One
($150) is one of the mo versatile and user-friendly versions weve
seen. Its loaded with both a power inverter (for charging gadgets and accessories) and
a 250-psi air compressor (capable of fully inating a tire in 10 minutes). You wont
need to pore over a manual by reetlight to nd the right clips and knobsthe
ergonomic, color-coded design is inantly underandable. ink of the All-in-One
as a $150 insurance plan again everyday automobile adversity. SETH PORGES
STUDIO D
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARKO METZINGER POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | A PRIL 2010 21

Bluetooth
qq
the
headsets claim to tests How well could others
use advanced hear us over car-, party-
algorithms and and wind-caused dins?
noise-canceling 7 A third-place nish.
techniques to pull When we spoke in music-lled
U P G R A D E
a speakers voice rooms, our friends on the other

out from the end could only pick up the
sounds of a occasional word.
highway, a noisy 7 In a noisy room,
room or a windy sidewalk. We put lieners got the gi of what
three to the te, and then saw how we were saying, if not each
well they handled one of the mo individual word.
7 e winner (by
likely potential causes of headset a hair) is ill a long way from
death: being le in washing-machine- perfealthough lieners on
P M
bound pockets. BY SETH PORGES the other end could hear

enough to grasp what we were
saying, background blas of
sound ill deroyed our ability
to have a normal conversation.
7 Plantronics
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q
Oops! Looks like we left
our headsets in our pants
pocket through a full
cycle in a detergent-filled
washer. Post-wash, we
let them air-dry overnight
before turning them on.
7 A soapy cycle was no
match for this headsetgiven
a chance to dry, the Jabra was
soon ready to take calls again.
7 e Jawbone
emerged from the wash
cleaner and seemingly no
worse for the wear.
7 Yep, it
survived the wash.
7 ree-way tie
!
Sometimes you dont
catch your just-washed
headset before it makes
it into the dryer. After the
wash, we put the
headsets through a
heated dryer cycle.
7 e dryer seemed to
spell death for the Jabrauntil
it lit up as usual a day later.
7 Ready to go right
out of the dryer, and with no
noticeable damage or
the degradation in sound quality.
sets
7 No lights, no
power, no luck. e dryer
transformed the Plantronics
into a useless piece of plaic.
7 Jawbone
STUDIO D
Jabra Extreme: $80 Jawbone Prime: $130 Plantronics Discovery 975: $130 q
e Plantronics provided the be audio performance, but if youre accident-prone or particularly forgetful,
the durably built Jawbone and Jabra have the be shot of surviving a trip to the laundromat.
22 A PRIL 2010 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM PHOTOGRAPHS BY J MUCKLE

Click to Test Drive
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U P G R A D E
No purchase
necessary to
enter or win.
Cub Cadet
Z-Force S
Giveaway.
Sponsored by
Hear Com-
munications,
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Inc. Beginning
March 2, 2010,
at 12:01 AM
(ET) through
April 15, 2010,
at 11:59 PM
(ET), go to
?{sj?U?qDj??,N?C
www.popular
mechanics
.com/cubcadet
sweeps and
complete and
submit the
entry form
pursuant to the
online inruc-
tions. Odds
of winning
will depend
upon the total
number of
eligible entries
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time of entry.
machine easier to dire, Void in Puerto
while the three overlap- Rico, the prov-
ping blades cut a ince of Quebec,
60-inch swath through and where
overgrown grass. prohibited by
Further obliterating the law. Sweep-
learning curve: e akes subje
mower is controlled by a to complete
ocial rules
familiar eering wheel available at
inead of lap bars. And www.popular
then theres the air- mechanics
friendly propane .com/cub
enginea 726-cc cadetsweeps.
Kawasaki that, accord-
ing to the company,
exhaus 97 percent
fewer particulates than
a comparable gas
engine. Were giving one
of these machines away.
Enter at popular
mechanics.com/
cubcadetsweeps.
ROY BERENDSOHN

h

U P G R A D E

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Considering all the hype and specula- more capable than a smartphone.
tion that preceded the launch of the Remarkably for Apple, the iPads
Apple iPad, its easy to be let down by its hardware design is somewhat conserva-
shortcomings: No webcam? No Flash tiveessentially a large-format iPod
support? No SD card slot, no multitask- Touch. Yet the 9.7-inch 1024 x 768 pix-
ing? Another deal with AT&T? el, multitouch screen makes reading
But to focus on the quibbles ignores e-books, watching movies and viewing Ceiling lighting can) come
the larger significance of the machine. photos a far more satisfying experience Sound with a 20-watt
Inalling in-wall speaker built right
The iPad succeeds mightily at carving on the iPad than on its smaller cousin.
speakers usually in. e speaker
out a niche in personal computing where The iPad may not seem so revolu- requires snaking units are
there was none beforea light-duty tionary for long, however. Unlike the wires, cutting completely
media and reading device with all-day iPhone, which was two generations drywall and contained: ey
mounting require no wiring,
usability (Apple claims 10-hour battery ahead of other smartphones when it brackets. e receiving their
life) that is far more portable than a lap- was launched, the iPad is simply the r Klipsch Light- signal from the
top (1.5 pounds, 0.5 inches thick), yet big player in what is bound to be a Speaker ($600 for base ation over
two speakers and a 2.4-GHz
crowded category by the end of the year. a base ation) is radio-frequency
The multitouch user interface on the a high-tech, conneion. Volume
iPad is slick, but there are other touch- labor-saving and lighting are
friendly operating systems out there solution. e LED controlled via a
lighting xtures small remote
(Android, Windows 7), and Apples not (which t into a that can handle
the only company with tablet dreams. normal ceiling- two zones.
Hot-Spotter
Mobile hotspots work by taking
an over-the-air cellular signal and
pumping it out as a Wi-Fi connec-
tion that any PC can use to get
online. But are separate devices
really necessary? A er all, smart-
phones have broadband access
too, so why cant they serve as
hotspots? e Palm Pre Plus
($150 with two-year contra)
can do exaly that, conneing up
to ve devices at a time, ju like a
and-alone mobile hotspot. And
look out, Verizon cuomersits
the networks r phone that runs
on Palms webOS platform.

Finer
Grinder
Between
grinding down
welds, knocking
ru o salvaged
ironwork and
shearing o bolt
shas, the 6-inch
angle grinder sees
its share of grit.
e engineers at
Fein discovered
that when the
tools power
switch is exposed
to this damaging
detritus, it can
eventually seize up
and cease to
funion. For the
Fein WSG
Counter 14-150T ($250),
Viewer they solved the
A gloried problem with an
alarm clock? unusual switch
Sorta. An that aivates via a
app-capable pinch to the tools
tablet? Kinda. A opposite sides.
kitchen-ready
digital recipe
viewer? Perhaps. A
touchscreen
piure frame? At
times. Enter the
curious case of the
Sony Dash
($200)a 7-inch,
Wi-Fi-enabled
touchscreen device
designed to ream
information (such
as news, weather
and recipes) and
handle lightweight
apps and games.
Sure, theres little
this thing can do
that cant be done
on countless other
gadgets, but
between the
bedside table,
kitchen counter
and living room
coee table, were
going to bet that
not even Sony
knows all the uses
people will come
up with for it.
TECH TODAY:
Special Advertising Section
Special Advertising Section
GREAT PRODUCTS FROM THE 2010 CES SHOW

THE KEYS TO LOWERING CONSUMPTION
LIE IN A HOUSES SYSTEMS. THESE 11
NEW TECHNOLOGIES, SELECTED AS
POPULAR MECHANICS GREEN DESIGN
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BUILDINGS AND MORE EDUCATED
INHABITANTS. BY HARRY SAWYERS
THE
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ON THE SYRINGE
U P G R A D E
GRAYWATER
e Deep Drip
Mo graywater 1-inch-diameter
draining from a ake delivers
sink or shower can water and fertilizer
be reused, with a where theyre
little scrubbing, as needed: to tree
THE
garden irrigation. roots, via a
REEL DEAL
Few syems perforated hollow
accomplish this Dual gears ore spike hammered
P M
task as simply as energy the way a 2 feet into the soil

the one from US ywheel does in the surface. A udy
HydroTech, which blades of Fiskars by Cal State
pumps graywater new Momentum Fresnos Center
through layers of mower, which for Irrigation
ltration media to devours debris that Technology found
clear the water of would jam a typical the ake to be
soap and debris reel. e blades also more eeive
without chemical ay sharper than surface
treatments. revolving and water at
Developer Ed ationary blades saturating the
Bertain claims the oen collide on root zone while
POPULAR MECHANICS syem can handle each turn, but these reducing runo
GREEN DESIGN AWARDS up to 69.3 gallons work like scissors, and soil erosion.
per person, per passing each other
day. Combine it at 0.003 inches.
with a colleion Clever blade-spool
tank, which can design lets the
also be set up to mower ush-cut
catch rainwater. edges typically
trampled beneath
the wheels.
P H O T O G R A P H S B Y K A R L J U E N G E L / S T U D I O D ; I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y A N D R E W R A E
GREENER CLEANER
Made using nontoxic ingredients
in a secret Manhattan lab, Green
Depots home-brewed cleaners
reduce ecological impact as well
as elbow grease. The recipe for
the window cleaner eschews
ammonia and alcohol in favor of
completely biodegradable surfac-
tants, and the tub and tile cleaner
works its fume-free magic through
the power of a low-pH organic salt.

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SUPER CAULK
This spray-foam latex seals gaps too big for caulk to ll. Installers
use a gun rigged to a mixing machine to blast Energy Complete
into framing transitions, such as where plates and joists meet. And
while caulk loses its hold under pressure changes, latex permits a
bit of building movementenabling it to withstand the big bad wolf COOL,
of blower-door tests. Plus, it installs faster than a guy with just a DARK ROOF
little tube, Owens Cornings Karel Czanderna says.
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Choosing a classic, previously
loved watch saves the energy
equivalent of 39 days of refrigerator
use. And it keeps better time than
a refrigerator, too.
CLEVER WAYS TO CATCH THE SUN EMERGE AT THE
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COLLEGE STUDENTS DESIGN AND BUILD A
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SOLAR
LOUVERS
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*8.8 million Popular Mechanics readers, MRI Fall 2009
CROSSOVER + SPORTS CAR +
MINIVAN + MOTORCYCLE
qvZq
Mainreamer
Its no longer a surprise when a new Hyundai is fully competitive with other vehicles
7
>ZW8nW in its class. Hyundai certainly builds solid vehicles, and the all-new Tucson rolls in the
crowded and competitive crossover pack. Riding on a 103.9-inch wheelbase and
retching 173.2 inches long overall, the new Tucson ts right in with other players
such as the Honda CR-V. Every Tucson gets a 176-hp 2.4-liter Four, and mo will be
paired to a six-speed automatic. e engine is relatively smooth and delivers its power
seamlessly. e rear-seat legroom is generous for the class. Its comfortable and
rened, but a little unexcitingin sum, its normal. Hey, weve been spoiled by some
really brilliant Hyundais lately, including the Genesis Coupe. JOHN PEARLEY HUFFMAN
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essentially how the e-Tron is built. Audi
trimmed down an R8 chassis for this
concept, swapping out the V8 engine for
100 lithium-ion cells acked ju behind 2.
the cockpit. Press the art button and WINTER
the information screen rises in front of WAGON
P M
the driver. No sound. No indication that e fourth-generation

4Matic all-wheel-drive
the car is ready to move. No nothing. But syem arrived ju in
snick the shi wand into gear and time for the winter
lightly touch the accelerator, and the months, and we traveled
e-Tron really movesthe four motors to snowy Hochgurgl atop
combine to produce 313 hp. At speed the Aurian Alps to te
s?ksq:jNy?k
you hear a pronounced whoosh and whir Mercedes-Benzs

foul-weather-friendly
as those motors spool up. It turns out $55,500 wagon. e
the audio-ees engineers in every limited-slip center
aa
Hollywood sci- movie were right about dierential varies the
the sound eleric cars would make in fore and a torque split
the future. Expe to see a produion between 30 and 70
percent. In snow and
version by 2012. J.P.H. pm test
driven slush, the E-Class
accelerates eortlessly
without drama, thanks in
part to the Continental
winter tires. On the
private Timmelsjoch
Passa gently
undulating series of
high-speed turns
surrounded by eep
Audi e-Tron snowbankswe pushed
Concept the E350s abilities. e
aa Benz tracked benignly,
upset only by the mo
dramatic ruts and
grooves. With the
right-side wheels on
snow and the le on
pavement, the 4Matic
pulled away easily,
diverting torque to the
side with greater
traion. BASEM
WASEF
aa
2011
Mercedes-Benz E350
4Matic Wagon

2.
Bad Boy
Armed with cold-weather gear and a
!qq.qqqqq.

Mq Mq!q.qq"Zq.
M"qtEqFq
q.qM"q
!qq.qq?Mqq.qq
full tank of gas, we attacked some of
3.
central Californias mo challenging
retches to see if Kawasakis new All in the Family
N E W C A R S
136-hp Z1000s overseas-reetghter Much of the new Siennas

avor hits a sweet spot on our soil. subancemajor ampings like the
Dew-dampened leaves littered the oor pan and the basic suspension
roughly paved coil of road. And without design, and components like the V6
the luxury of adjuing the suspension, enginecarries over from the second-
the Z1000 initially felt too tightly wound. generation Sienna that was introduced
Turn-in was abrupt, and the chassis felt as a 2004 model. eres no real
unsettled midcorner, leading us to tread downside to that, since that van has a
P M
cautiously on these unfamiliar twiies. well-earned reputation for toughness

Fine-tuning the suspension, however, and comfort. e uncannily smooth
1. tamed much of the bikes edginess, 266-hp 3.5-liter V6 is now paired to a
FUTURE enabling us to push the $10,499 Z1000 six-speed automatic. But penny pinchers
FUELER hard over some of SoCals be will appreciate the base $24,260
e indury might be mountain roads. At higher speeds and on four-cylinder, which helps this van hit 22
s?ksq:jNy?k
focused on EVs, but less technical retches, the chassis felt mpg on the highway. At the other end of
Mercedes-Benz remains
well-suited to the engine. Short gear the range, the new Sienna Limited oers
bullish on hydrogen. e
fuel-cell ack in the new ratios oered enthusiaic pull at second-row lounge seating with rising
B-Class is more powerful aa midrange, but the bur of power in the ottomans for leg support when the two
and compa than the upper regier packs a serious punch. A seats are reclined. Toyota should have
previous one, with 136 brilliant intake howl never hurts the ruck a co-branding deal with La-Z-Boy.
hp and a range of 250 experience, either. B.W. Yes, its that comfy. J.P.H.
miles. Crucially, it can pm test
driven
handle temperatures as
low as minus 13 F, too.
Behind the wheel, it
feels solid, with relatively
lively acceleration and
impressive sound
deadening. You can hear
the compressor sound
o as it diverts air
toward the ack, but 2010
its barely audible. Kawasaki
Mercedes plans to lease aa Z1000
200 fuel-cell vehicles
worldwide in the second
half of 2010. B.W.
2010
Mercedes-Benz
B-Class F-Cell
Prototype
aa
aa
2011
Toyota Sienna

q

N E W C A R S
Deant optimism lled the air

q8
at Detroits Auto Show, a !qvZ
marked dierence from la
year, when pundits wondered if
P M
GM and Chrysler would even survive. Po-bankruptcy, GM

showed renewed vigor with several alluring concepts. Chrysler
was more subdued, but it displayed a Ferrari, a not-so-subtle
reminder of its Fiat partnership. Small and alternative-powered
concepts and produion cars dominated the show in prepara-
tion for tougher fuel-economy regulations. Clearly, the transition
has coaxed renewed creativity. Here are our favorites. For more,
check out www.popularmechanics.com. LARRY WEBSTER
Mo
automakers 1q!qq 2qvZZqq 3qqq 4q!qq 5qvZvqq
went big with q Mqq qqq qq!qq qMqq q qq
small cars ...
qq qM"q q q q q
On the rength of e CR-Z Hybrid is a e next-generation e Blue-Will shows Fords onslaught of

its glowing image, 21-century CRX Jetta is due later Hyundais future enticing small cars,
the Prius will soon with a powertrain this year and will yling and points to which arts soon
join Scion and Lexus similar to the likely include a an upcoming plug-in with the Fiea, will
as another Toyota Insights. A 13-hp model very similar hybrid. It packs continue with next
brand. Naturally, eleric motor to this concept. e eciency-enhancing years larger Focus.
Prius will spawn a resides between the powertrain utilizes a tech like roof- It looks simply
lineup of dedicated four-cylinder engine 27-hp eleric motor mounted solar fantaictaeful
hybrids, and the and either a sandwiched panels and a but ill a head
FT-CH hatchback six-speed manual or between a small thermal generator turner. A 2.0-liter
could be the r. CVT transmission. turbocharged that turns exhau dire-injeion
Its billed as an is front driver is engine and a heat into elericity. four-banger provides
entry-level model, under 14 feet seven-speed A 134-hp eleric 155 hp. Options
with Prius-topping longwe hope its a dual-clutch gearbox. motor turns the include a dual-
fuel economy but frisky handler. With VW claims this front wheels and a clutch six-speed
less interior space. 122 total hp, it wont hybrid can scoot to 152-hp gas engine gearbox and a full
be especially quick, 60 mph in 8.1 res when needed. roer of luxury
and its fuel-economy seconds yet ill With lithium- features. Mo of all,
gures36 city, 38 return 45 mpg. polymer batteries, it Ford promises
highway, with the can travel 40 miles driving dynamics
CVTare oddly on a single charge, that rival top
lower than the Hyundai says. sport sedans.
heavier Insights.
48 A PRIL 2010
Intense intere greeted the new Ford Focus, the mo promising domeic small car since the r ver-
sion debuted in 1999. Initially, this ve-door and a sedan will be the only available body yles.
But Cadillac
6 qq revealed the
qqqq full-size-and-
proud-of-it XTS.
qq
e Chevy Aveo
desperately needs a
reboot, and this
hooligan RS show
car could be ju the
ticket. Under the
hood, a turbocharged
dire-injeion
1.4-liter four-cylinder
belts out 138
hpplenty for this
pint-size ve-door.
Better ill, under the
19-inch wheels, the 7
fender ares and
brake dus lies the
next Aveos basic
shape. So even if the 7qq
q If this 17-foot-long, ecient plug-in suspension and and STS replace-
RS remains a q q
q rikingly handsome hybrid syem with touch-based interior ment. And its
showpiece, Chevys qq
q full-size sedan a V6 engine and controls are also another notch in
cheape car will qq bucked the shows 350 total hp. part of the package. Cadillacsand
soon come with small-car trend, at Four-wheel drive, e XTS previews GMsyling
some swagger. lea it packed an adjuable the upcoming DTS renaissance.
POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM
Anatomy of an Articial Tsunami
Scientis generate waves in a 342-foot-long, 15-foot-deep ume lled with 300,000

gallons of fresh water. e bottom of the tank is at, then slopes up and ends in a
plateau. e prole, varied by experiment, simulates the ee of a beach, making
waves break when they hit shallower depths. e machine allows scientis to udy
regular waves, which consi of a series of troughs and cres, and tsunamis, which
are generated as solitary waves; heres how a tsunami is created.
H O W I T W O R K S
H U R R I C A N E WAV E M A K E R
> BY ERIN MCCARTHY
> ILLUSTRATION BY SINELAB
ore than half of the U.S. population lives

within 50 miles of the coast, where it is
vulnerable to hurricanes, tsunamis and
other severe weather. Researchers at Oregon
State Universitys O.H. Hinsdale Wave
Research Laboratory believe that engineering A
solutions could prevent the loss of life and
property along Americas seaboardsand
theyre using a giant wavemaker to prove it. A
hydraulically driven piston at one end of a
342-foot-long tank lled with 300,000 gallons
of water is used to replicate waves generated
by nature. The waves roll down the length of
the tank and crash into nearly life-size walls
and levees. You cant scale down a telephone
pole hitting an object and expect it to behave B. Hydraulics
as it would in real life, says Dan Cox, who
directs the lab. Ultimately, the data could be Once researchers have indicated to the computer
what type of waves they want, the machines two
used to design new types of buildings, levees
servo valves kick into aion. To generate random
and other structures. A research lab like this waves, one servo valve regulates ow into and out of
is trying to create an accurate wave that two pion-type cylindersone that extends and one
replicates what youd see in nature, says that retraswhich move the waveboard back and
John Bushey of MTS Systems, which designed forth; a third cylinder as as a counterbalance to the
pressure on the board from the water in the ume.
the wavemaker. Those waves are a lot more Researchers use both valveswith a total capacity
complicated than what you see in a typical of 750 gallons per minuteto create the energy
amusement park wave pool. FC needed to generate a tsunami.
A. Servo Computers Scientis control the

wave machine with a
movement. is allows
them to generate not
valves on the wave
machine, which regulate
servo computer, which ju sine waves, but the how much hydraulic uid
they use to adju the nonlinear waves seen in ows into or out of the
amplitude and frequency nature. e computer is pions that move the
of the waveboards conneed to two servo waveboard. For regular
52 APRIL 2010 | POPULARMECHANICS.COM

A eel waveboard at-bottomed ume a ramp on the ume oor, tank that as like a sand- hits te ruures with
extends forward at meant to replicate the the wave leans forward barthe wave breaks, 8000 pounds of force and
13 feet per second, deep oceanat 15 feet and grows to a height generating a wall of water can generate a 20-foot-
generating a 4.5-foot-tall, per second. When the of 5 feet. In water depth sometimes known as a high splash. e waves
bell-curve-shaped wave mini-tsunami encounters roughly equal to its hydraulic bore. e bore journey down the ume
that moves down the heightat a plateau in the las 10 seconds.
C. Waveboard OSUs previous waveboard was hinged at the

bottom, and pions moved the top back and forth
to replicate waves created by wind in the middle
of the ocean. To move the massive amount of water
required to simulate a 5-foot-high tsunami,
researchers inalled the current waveboard
a single piece of welded and bolted eel, 15 feet
high and 12 feet wide.
e wavemaker at
OSUs lab (above) can
C generate both regular
and random waves.
waves, the board is extended. It peaks at a

placed at its center of velocity of 4 meters per
travel and moved back second and ops at
and forth. For a tsunami, 4 meters of roke,
the board is fully creating a bell-curve-
retraed, then fully shaped solitary wave.
M E M O T O W H I T E H O U S E
AMERICA GROUNDED
> B Y TO M J O N E S
P
resident Obama released his scal year 2011
budget on Feb. 1, and his policy for NASAs human P M S RE S I D E N T AS T RON AU T
spaceight program puts the nation on a course to S AYS D RAS T I C B U D G E T
second-class status in space. Instead of setting our C U T S L E AVE N AS A ON A
national sights on the moon, nearby asteroids or P AT H T O N OW H E RE .
more distant destinations such as Mars, the presi- Tom Jones (foreground), International
dent is declaring that human spaceight is unim- Space Station, 2001.
portant to U.S. interests.
Hes not saying so directly. But his budget
actions speak loudly. He has canceled NASAs and build the International Space Sta-
next-generation Constellation program, including tion (ISS). But it lacked a long-term
the Orion spacecraft and the two rockets that were goal in space. That lack of direction
designed to return American explorers to deep and the failure to replace the vulnera-
space (see Mission: Moon, March 2007). ble shuttle led in part to the Columbia
A little history: In the past 20 years, under three accident in 2003 that killed seven of
different administrations, NASA has lost more my colleagues.
than 25 percent of its buying power. Despite those Now, seven years later, the budget
cuts, the agency managed to operate the shuttle shows that the president has already

alternative spacecraft for ve years or Augustine Committee last May to
HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT/// more. Instead, the president will farm review the nations human spaceight
AMERICA GROUNDED
out the nations access to low Earth plans. Of their recommendations, he
orbit to commercial rms. None of the accepted the move to put our human
forgotten the lessons of Columbia. industry rockets NASA has ordered to access to space on a commercial foot-
Without a goal worthy of the serious deliver cargo to the ISS has yet own, ing, with great uncertainty as to safety,
risks of human spaceight, we will and betting our nations sole access to schedule and cost. If this effort fails,
be putting our astronauts in danger space on industrys ability to replicate the nation has no backup plan.
to do nothing more than crew a 50 years of NASA experience on the y But the president rejected the most
research outpost. Even though I is unwise. The agency should eld its important of the Augustine observa-
helped build the space station, it is new crewed spacecraft as quickly as tionsthat a great nation must fund
not an ultimate destination. The ISS possible, then move to commercial an exploration program worthy of its
is merely a steppingstone to more rms once they have a proven record vision. In fact, the committee recom-
ambitious exploration. of reliable cargo services. mended an extra $3 billion per year to
It is true that President Obama While NASA hopes its commercial renew NASAs human exploration
inherited a Constellation program effort will produce a ship that can efforts. The presidents team, how-
a return to the moon and deep service the ISS, the end of Constella- ever, chose to add only a billion dol-
spacethat the Bush administration tion defers indenitely the building lars annually, missing a chance to
had underfunded by more than 35 of a heavy-lift rocket. Without such a remedy past underfunding and take
percent since its inception in 2004.
Because of that lack of support, Con-
stellation is badly behind schedule.
THE ABRUPT CANCELLATION OF THE
Those delays also raised costs for the
development of the Ares I booster. Yet CONSTELLATION PROGRAM MEANS THE U.S.
in October NASA successfully ew an NO LONGER WISHES TO SEND ITS EXPLORERS TO
early version of Ares I. While not a THE FRONTIERS OF KNOWLEDGE ... WE ARE
long-term successor to the shuttle, DELIBERATELY CHOOSING TO HAVE NO BETTER
this rocket, with adequate funding, SPACE CAPABILITY THAN RUSSIA, CHINA OR INDIA.
could be in service to the ISS by 2015,
restoring our own access to space.
The new budget seems merely an

attempt to disguise the demise of U.S.
leadership in space. The president Saturn Vclass launcher, Americans the U.S. forward in space. Although
does away with the Orion spacecraft will never get out of low Earth orbit the administration borrowed $787 bil-
and its Ares I and Ares V rocket boost- (where we have been marooned for lion last year for stimulus spending,
ers. The abrupt cancellation of the nearly 40 years). Instead, the Ares V nding $3 billion this year to stimu-
Constellation program means the heavy lifter has been replaced with late our high-tech economy and talent
U.S. no longer wishes to send its research and development on pool proved impossible.
explorers to the frontiers of knowl- building such a vehiclesomeday. By proposing a budget for NASA
edge and the heights of space-faring With no ability to launch humans that barely exceeds ination, and fail-
skill. We are deliberately choosing to past the ISS, we will watch, helpless ing to renew a commitment to send
have no better space capability than to follow, as China pursues its deter- the U.S. beyond low Earth orbit, the
Russia, China or India. mination to be the next nation to administration is turning away from
During the peak of the shuttle pro- send its explorers into deep space. the dominance in space technology
gram in the 1990s, we launched six or The presidents rejection of a clear America has enjoyed since Apollo.
seven shuttles and about 40 astro- goal to send humans into deep space This nation once put its confident
nauts per year into orbit for scientic by a date certain eliminates a future footprints on the moon. Following
and defense purposes. Starting next in space for the brightest of our young the presidents misguided course, we
year, and for the foreseeable future, scientists and engineers. The space- will trudge in retreat from the fron-
just four Americans will make it into talent pool began emptying this win- tiers and promise of space. FC
space annuallyas passengers on ter, as promising innovators turned
foreign rockets. Is this a bold new to careers in other industries. What Tom Jones, a member of the PM Editorial
course for the nation? student would pursue a career in Board of Advisers, is a scientist, speaker
After the shuttle orbiters retire, by space science or astronautics with the and four-time NASA shuttle astronaut.
early 2011, American astronauts will knowledge that the country deems His latest book, with co-author Ellen
rent seats on Russian rockets headed leadership in space unimportant? Stofan, is Planetology: Unlocking the
to the space station. We wont eld an The president appointed his Secrets of the Solar System.

By John Galvin
An engineer, a contractor, a repairman, a pilotordinary guys who overcame

to preparation, courage and tenacity. Their stories yield lessons that can help
AVALANCHE
L O C AT I O N MO U NT NEMES I S , MO NT.
N A M E S AM K AVANAG H
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.&cf^m_j^_d+i[YedZi$
POPULARMECHANICS.COM | APRIL 2010 59
life-threatening accidents, thanks

you survive if disaster strikes.
It was New Years Day, 2005. Sam Kavanagh, Matt Schuyler, Blake
Morstad, Jason Thompson and Chris Maki had snowmobiled 20 miles,
then climbed an additional 5 miles with gear to ski the remote slopes of
Montanas 9334-foot Mount Nemesis. The group had skied the same
route the previous day, and spent the night in a remote, backcountry
E X P E R T
A D V I C E
yurt. Equipped with shovels and locator If youre in an

beacons, Kavanagh and his friends were avalanche, theres a 50
experienced backcountry skiersin fact, two percent chance youll
die. If you survive
were certied EMTs. They knew to ski within without major injuries
the trees and to avoid steep slopes. but are buried, your
The tragic irony of the day was that it was chances of surviving go
24-year-old Morstad who triggered an up to 90 percent, but
only if youre dug out
avalanche. Morstad had a masters in ava-
within 15 minutes. After
lanche studies. He was also an incredible that, it gets deadly
athlete who pushed his physical limits, and at quickly. Skiing solo?
the end of the day he had wanted to try one Chances are youll die.
more run a little higher on the open slope. So you need at least
?d(&&+IWc one partner, a locator
When I saw the powder cloud coming, AWlWdW]^beij^_i
beacon, a shovel and a
b[]j^hek]^WlW#
Kavanagh recalls, I grabbed the biggest tree I bWdY^[_d`kh_[i$Dem probe. The No. 1
P H O T O G R A P H B Y T I M L A M A N ( A V A L A N C H E ) , S TA C Y B E N G S ( B R I D G E C O L L A P S E ) ; I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y S H I N G O
could nd and held on. The violent rush of WFWhWbocf_YjhWYa survival tip: If youre in an
YoYb_ij"^[ihWda[Z
snow blasted him off the tree. He heard a snap, \j^_dj^[mehbZ$
area that has recently had
avalanches, youre in
and then began cartwheeling 60 yards down the mountain
dangerous terrain. Get out.
before coming to rest on a rock outcropping. I looked down People become
and my boot was turned 180 degrees, and 4 inches of bone was sticking through euphoric in the
my ski pants, he says. The break had created a 17-inch rip through Kavanaghs backcountry, says
lower leg, and he was bleeding heavily. Mark Staples, an
avalanche specialist at
Despite his injuries, Kavanagh set his locator beacon to search, turned his leg Gallatin National Forest
around to the normal position, then slid down the mountain to help locate Avalanche Center.
Morstad. Schuyler, Thompson and Maki, who were unharmed, worked quickly to They lose sight of
dig Morstad out, but it was too late: He was dead from blunt-force trauma. danger. Snowpack
changes daily, and a
I didnt really notice the pain until I saw Blake, Kavanagh says. Then I
span of just 10 feet can
heard this voice in my head telling me that if I closed my eyes, that would be me have different
dying. Keeping my eyes open was me deciding to stay alive. conditions. We see
It took 2 hours to drag Kavanagh 400 yards through armpit-deep snow from people skiing on slopes
the avalanche site to the yurt. His friends attempted to reset Kavanaghs leg, but right next to avalanche
slides all the time.
the swelling was too great, so they created a makeshift compression pack using a
Therm-a-Rest pad and duct tape.
The next morning, Maki and Schuyler skied out to get help while Thompson
took care of Kavanagh. Losing blood and in shock, he desperately needed evacua-
tion. Rescue helicopters attempted to land that afternoon, but bad weather
turned them backforcing Kavanagh to spend a second night in the yurt.
To get through the night, Kavanagh relied on sheer willpower. Once youve
made the decision to live, you have to embrace it, he says. I visualized going
home and being with my wife. And I never once doubted I could make it.
The next day a helicopter crew from Malmstrom Air Force Base nally
reached the site and picked up Kavanagh by hovering above the deep snow. By
the time he reached the hospital, it had been 48 hours since the accident. I had
lost more than half my blood and my kidneys were shutting down, he recalls.
Kavanagh lived, but his lower leg had to be amputated. Yet he remains a
world-class athlete. In 2008, he won the U.S. Paralympic National Champion-
ships in track cycling, and he is currently ranked fth in the world.
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Xbk[9^[lof_YakfWXel[mWid[Whbo
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BRIDGE COLLAPSE
L O C AT I O N MI NNEAP O L I S , MI NN.
N A M E G ARY BABI NEAU
It was hot on the first day of August 200790 degrees,
even at six in the evening. Gary Babineau, then a 24-year-
old terrazzo worker, had just finished his day hauling
100-pound bags of rock in a windowless building, so he
took his shirt off and rolled down the windows as he
drove home in his blue Chevy pickup. Minneapolis rush-hour trafc was heavy.
Babineau drove northbound onto the eight-lane I-35W bridge just as several
sections broke off and fell onto the banks of the Mississippi River, killing 13
people and sending 145 other casualties to area hospitals.
It didnt even make a noise before it collapsed, Babineau recalls. It just
fell away. Part of the bridge split in two right under his truck, sending it into a
35-foot nose-dive as it chased the road deck straight to the ground. Babineaus
J^[8bWYa:_WcedZ7lWBkd]??')&
b[jioekXh[Wj^[m^_b[Xkh_[Z_didem$
?jfkbbi_dW_hj^hek]^j^[idemWdZ
Z_iY^Wh][i9E(ekjj^[XWYa$
7del[hd_]^j
i^_d]jh_f
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d_]^jcWh[\eh
face slammed into the steering wheel before the airbags deployed. His truck Jh[ii[bb>Wma#
_di"9khj_i>Wbb
landed on the edge of the fractured roadway, bending its frame at a 20-degree WdZ@Wc[i
angle like a fortune cookie and breaking the drive shaft. I thought my back F^_bb_fim^[d
j^[_hXeWj
had snapped in two, Babineau says. So I started to wiggle my toes to make YWfi_p[ZWdZ
sure I wasnt paralyzed. i[jj^[cWZh_\j
_dj^[=kb\e\
As Babineau reached for his door handle, he could hear the wild screeching C[n_Ye$
PHOTOGRAPH BY PETER TURNER/GETTY IMAGES
of tires right above him where what was left of the bridge now hung precipitous-
ly. Then one car skidded over the edge and crashed next to Babineaus pickup.
He balled himself up and stayed as low as possible in his cab. Then came
another screech and another crash, then a third. Then silence. He opened his
door and looked up to see a white sedan that had managed to stop before
landing on him. It had been 10, maybe 15 seconds since the collapse.
Babineau approached a woman who was in a car in front of him. They were
both stuck on the collapsed section of bridge and wanted to get off. Nobody
knew what had happened, or if it was going to get worse. Would the rest of the
bridge collapse? Had it been a bomb? Babineau and the woman made it to the
E X P E R T
A D V I C E
After the I-35W bridge side of the bridge and were climbing off when Babineau heard children scream-
collapse, Gary Babineau ing and crying. He looked over to the southbound lanes and saw a school bus
acted courageously and that appeared to be teetering on the edge. He ran under the bridge and climbed
helped save more than
50 children. He also up to the bus, working with a few other survivors to help more than 50 children
avoided a classic many of whom were injuredget off the bus, off the bridge and onto safe
mistake by staying in his ground. It took just 3 minutes to evacuate the children.
truck until the crashing Babineau returned to help others, but by that time, emergency crews were
around him stopped.
ordering civilians to stand back. As Babineau made his way to the top of the
Its instinctual to get
out of your car, says bridge, the rush of adrenaline began to wear off. He sat down, and the pain set in.
Sgt. Doug Sheets, an It hasnt really left him since. He has a partially compressed spine and several
accident investigator crushed disks. Some mornings it hurts just to put on his socks.
with the California It all happened so fast, but when Babineau thinks about that day, the
Highway Patrol. But
thats how people get reasons for his actions are clear: I had my rst child on the way, he says. And
killed. You can take a pretty what made me want to get off that bridge was that I wanted to live. But what
big hit in a car if youre made me go back was knowing that if my child was on that bus, I would want
wearing a seatbelt, but you someone else to do the same for them.
dont want to be outside
unprotected if a Freightliner
is coming at you.
Sheets suggests rolling
down your window
before making any
LOST AT SEA
L O C AT I O N G U L F O F MEXI C O
moves. You can hear
accidents unfolding, he N A M E T RES S EL L HAW K I NS
says. All quiet? Then Last August, Tressell Hawkins, Curtis Hall and James
make a break. Even if Phillips set off from Matagorda Bay, Texas, on Phillipss
your car has four at 23-foot catamaran, a Carolina Skiff Sea Chaser, for an
tires, drive out of the
way, Sheets says. Its overnight sport-fishing trip among the Gulf of Mexicos
easier for investigators offshore oil rigs. After dark, the group fell asleep drifting
if you dont, but within sight of the Tequila rig some 80 miles offshore. As they slept, a bilge
nobodys going to blame pump failure caused seawater to ood into the catamarans port sponson. I
you if it saves your life. woke up and put my foot down into knee-deep water, Hawkins says. I was
yelling, Were in the water!
Phillips dove for the VHF radio to make a distress call, while Hall reached
for the ignition, hoping to gun the engine and force water out the back of the
boat. But before they could do anything, the catamaran ipped and tossed
them into the ocean. The three men scrambled atop the hull and spent the next
dark hours in a state of stunned silence, steadily drifting south.
When the trio didnt return home the next day as sched-
uled, Phillipss wife Shane called the Coast Guard to report
them missing. The Coast Guard scrambled cutters, a Falcon
jet, helicopters and a C-130 Hercules out of Clearwater, Fla.,
running a methodical search-and-rescue grid over some
86,000 square milesan area larger than Utah. We found
nothingnot a life jacket, not a cooler, not a seat cushion,
recalls Capt. Marcus Woodring, commander of the Coast
Guards Sector Houston-Galveston.
On day three, the castaway shermen saw a helicopter, but
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they had already shot off all the boats ares and couldnt send a signal. The men By the fourth day, life aboard the
had set up the boats blue Bimini top on the hull of the boat as cover from the capsized boat had become a blur.
sun, a move that, in retrospect, they realize may have rendered them invisible to Minutes melted into hours; the group
planes in the vast blue ocean. Over the next few days its estimated the boat hit a psychological bottomand
drifted another 100 miles south. the men started hallucinating. Id
The August sun was blistering lips, arms and legs. Their skin began to crack ip open my hand like a cellphone
and tear apart. To escape the heat the men spent hours bobbing in the water and start talking, Hawkins recalls.
alongside the boat. This undoubtedly delayed the extreme dehydration that could At one point, Phillips stood up and
otherwise have killed them. But it also came with a price. The men were stung by said he was going to the store, then
jellysh, and the saltwater began eating away at their open wounds. During the walked right off the boat. We all had
cold nights, the three stayed in the 80-degree water, oating there to keep warm. our moments of weakness, Hawkins
I dont think any of us slept for more than 15 minutes at a time, Hawkins says. says. One day I would completely
For food and water, the crew had salvaged two bags of chips, a pack of Double- freak out about not being found, but
mint gum, a box of crackers and 2 gallons of drinking water that was contami- then James and Curtis would help me
nated with gasoline when the boat ipped. They exhausted the food supply calm down. Another time they would
within three days, and the tainted water was making them ill. be freaking out. We helped each
other work through it. Thats how we
survived out there.
On day ve, Phillips noticed a
hose oating on the ocean surface. It
led to the boats submerged 30-
Tressell Hawkins and his guys didnt have that gallon wash-down tank, which is
shing buddies were lost would have really helped used to hose off sh slime. When the
E X P E R T at sea for eight days, but us nd them is an men sucked water from the tank and
they could have been EPIRB, says Coast
A D V I C E rescued in a hurry with Guard search-and-rescue found that it was uncontaminated,
the right technology. coordinator Denny they knew their lives had been saved.
The one thing these Ernsterusing the That water felt like molasses on a
acronym for Emergency cold day, Hawkins says. I could feel
Position-Indicating
it going through my body.
Radiobeacon. With the
automatic beacons, The Coast Guard suspended its
when your boat tips search on day seven. But the trios
over, the unit second lucky break came when their
dislodges itself, floats boat caught a current that sent it
to the surface and
sends out a signal. slowly northwest back toward the
Then we know exactly Texas coast.
where you are, and Finally, after eight days, Hawkins
theres no range and his friends saw a boat. Curtis
limitation on them.
and James were yelling and acting
The internationally
recognized frequency for crazy, but I thought we were just
both boat and airplane hallucinating, Hawkins says. One of
beacons is 406 MHz. them set off a re extinguisher theyd
Older models use a been saving. The signal worked.
different frequency, and
the satellite system that Eddie Yaklin, a car dealer from
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beYWj_edije[c[h][dYoh[ifedZ[hi$ to upgrade.
S AT E LLI T E 408
58-foot Riviera alongside the turtled
hull and helped the men aboard. En
route to a rendezvous with a Coast
Guard vessel, Yaklin cooked the
survivors a steak dinner.
DIY
Emergency s HYPOTHERMIA
Tactics Rule No. 1: Exercise if youre freezing cold. It will warm you up.
Rule No. 2: Disregard rule No. 1 if youre in the water. With
hypothermia, blood vessels constrict, reducing the supply of
warm blood to the skin. That keeps internal organs warmwhich
is what you want. But forcing those vessels open by exercising in
the water pushes the warm blood to the surface, where it quickly
gets chilled. If youre immersed in water, stay still.
s
Some 600 people are struck every year; about 60 are killed.
s LIGHTNING First, the common-sense rules: Dont beor be nearthe tallest
object around, and get rid of metal objects that are in contact
with your skin. As a last resort, experts suggest squatting with
just the balls of your feet on the ground. Cover your ears, close
your mouth and eyes, and hope the bolt rolls over you.
s DROWNING
Drown-proong is a technique developed in the 1940s by
legendary Georgia Tech swim coach Fred Lanoue. It enables you
to stay alive for hours without exhausting yourself. Heres how it
works: Most humans are naturally buoyantwe float, but just
below the surface. So rest by oating facedown in the water with
arms out, scarecrow-style. Every 15 seconds, raise your arms to
the surface, then push down. The motion causes your head to
rise above the surface long enough for you to take a breath.
s POISONOUS SNAKES
Every year, 8000 people are bitten by snakesdrunken men are
statistically over-representedbut few bites are fatal. To check if
youve been bitten by a poisonous snake, look for a pair of deep
puncture marks. Swelling will be quick, so remove constricting
items such as jewelry. Now, try to stay calm and keep the bite
below heart level as you head to the nearest hospital. What about
slicing the bite and sucking out the venom? It doesnt work, and
you might slice into something that cant be easily repaired.
s
Wild-animal attacks will get you on the Discovery Channel, but
s DOG ATTACK theyre extremely rare. Dog bites send 885,000 people to the
doctor every year. Never run from an aggressive dog, says
Jeremy Talamantes of K-9 Behavior Services. If you do, youre
just bait. Conventional wisdom cautions people to freeze, but
Talamantes takes it further. You want to stand your ground, puff
yourself up and yell, Get back! Thats going to hurt the dogs
condence, and most times itll stay back.
s
PHOTOGRAPH BY LUIGI MASELLA
s MAJOR WOUND
Apply direct pressure by clamping your hand on the wound, then
elevate the injury above the heart to slow blood ow. If bleeding
continues for 30 minutes, use clothes to wrap the site in a
pressure dressing. Dont keep checking to see if its working,
even if its bloody says Dr. Jeff Gutterman, a fellow of the
American College of Emergency Physicians. Thats a classic
mistake. If the bleeding doesnt stop after another 30 minutes,
tie off the wound a few inches above the site. If you get emer-
gency help within several hours you probably wont lose the limb.
PLANE CRASH was black and charred. He had a

annel shirt on and a T-shirt
L O C AT I O N D ENA LI NATIONA L PAR K , AL AS K A underneath, but they were mostly
N A M E D AN M CGREGOR burned away. He was in bad shape.
It was around seven in the evening last October, and Hoagland and Rodrick gave
backpackers Jesse Hoagland and Nick Rodrick were McGregor some bananas, a granola
preparing to spend their first night in the Denali bar and Gatorade. After apologizing
backcountry. The two had driven all the way from New for eating all their food, McGregor
Hampshire on a cross-country road trip, and were told the campers he was a pilot for
enjoying the solitude of the parks Igloo Creek campsiteat least until Dan Denali Air and then explained what
McGregor stumbled toward their campre. It was like something out of a had happened the day before. He had
horror movie, Hoagland recalls. He was totally burned up. His whole body been ying famed wolf biologist
Gordon Haber around the park,
tracking the Toklat wolf pack via
radio telemetry. As McGregor and
Haber buzzed over the Wyoming
Hills, the single-engine Cessna 185
was buffeted by a severe downdraft.
McGregor struggled with the
controls, but he was unable to pull
the plane out of its dive before it
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E X P E R T
A D V I C E
Peter Kummerfeldt, crashed against a steep slope near the East Fork of the
former director of Toklat River.
survival training at the According to a National Transportation Safety Board
U.S. Air Force
Academy, sees Dan report on the incident, when McGregor regained
McGregors miracu- consciousness, the planes cabin was lling with
lous post-plane-crash smoke. As the pilot tried to ght his way out of the
hike to survival as the plane, he called out to Haber but heard no response.
exception to the rule.
Once clear of the wreckage, McGregor tried to work his
You hear a lot about
tenacity in survival way back into the cabin through the baggage door to
situations like these, save Haber, but by then the re was too intense.
Kummerfeldt says. The two men had known each other well and had
This guy had it, but own together often, and Habers death was a crushing J^[mh[YaW][\hec
you dont know who :WdCY=h[]ehi
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the survival equation. Your j^Wj^[^WZZ_[Z$
from head to toe. He spent the night at the crash site,
best bet is always staying
using the aming wreckage to fend off hypothermia.
with the plane. Its just easier
to find a plane than The next morning, McGregor weighed his options. He was convinced his
a person. locator beacon had been destroyed by the crash. In fact, McGregors plane was
Plus, that plane, if it equipped with an outdated beacon. Even if the device had survived the impact, it
isnt too badly wouldnt have been able to communicate with the current emergency rescue
damaged, has
resources: shelter, satellite system. The C-130 search-and-rescue plane sent from Anchorage didnt
fuel for res and foam pick up its signal either. A low-lying fog that morning obscured the crash site,
rubber for insulation. complicating the search.
And you dont need to Given those factors, McGregor decided to hike out over terrain he knew well.
spend thousands on
He slogged 7 miles south, following the East Fork until he reached a primitive
gear, he says. Case
in point: a 50-gallon park road. He followed it 8 miles east to the Igloo Creek campsite. Ironically,
trash bag. Its around 3 pm, a Civil Air Patrol pilot had sighted the downed Cessna and radioed
windproof and the Alaska State Troopers. A trooper then landed a plane nearby and hiked to the
waterproof. In the crash site. He reported back that he had found human remains. Word quickly
bottom corner, cut a
hole big enough to slip spread that both Haber and McGregor were dead.
your head through, Finally, McGregor trudged into camp, crying out for help. He was cold,
then place the bag Hoagland remembers. He practically stood in the re he was
over your body. so cold. After feeding the pilot, the two campers packed up
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALASKA STOCK
their gear and walked him 5 miles to their van, which was
parked at the Teklanika River campground. He kind of
shufed because his ankles hurt so much, Hoagland says,
and his shoes were practically melted away.
McGregor was own to Harborview Medical Center in
Seattle, Wash., where Hoagland and Rodrick visited him.
McGregor has not commented publicly about the crash, but
he told PM that his skin grafts have been successful and his
other injuries are healing. He is still coming to grips with
the loss of his friend and neighbor. But he hopes that
someday lessons learned from his experience may save
someone elses life. FC
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OUT ON A LIMB WITH A MOUTH FULL OF NAILS, ONE DAD SUSPENDS A SHACK
b y LOGAN WARD
ph o t o gr a p hs by LA JO S GEENEN
common-sense rule of treehouse construc-

tion: Make it lightweight. So I felt some stirrings of anxiety
when the stocky, bearded sawmill owner pulled up to the house
with a atbed trailer stacked with oak timbers. Full of water,
densely grained and smelling like bourbon, the rough-cut fram-
ing lumber Id ordered spanned 18 feet and looked like bridge
supports. As we ofoaded the rst 2 x 8, each of us taking an end
in hand, I smiled doggedly to mask the strain I felt. He peered
over the garden fence past the lilac bushes, and politely asked,
What kind of treehouse are you building?
One thing was certain: It wouldnt look much like the rickety A chain hoi helped raise a heavy pile of green oak, barn siding and pine
7 FEET ABOVE HIS BACKYARD.
aeries of my childhood, hammered together out of whatever ooring up into this formerly unoccupied Kentucky coee tree.
qq
construction scraps and packing

crates we neighborhood kids could
scrounge up. (The most ambitious of
these was a three-story fort spanning
a creek and topped by a crows-nest
made from an old kitchen chair
nailed to the trunk.) This time, Id
enjoy the advantages of milled lum-
ber and a carpenters square and
level, not to mention power tools. Yet
I hoped to match the spirit of those
earlier tree forts with a rustic struc-
ture where my children could waste
their afternoons dreaming up rules
to games Id never understand or
even hear about.
As kids, my friends and I never
bothered with plans. We had an abun- e scrap-wood citadels of my childhood (above, le) lacked a certain
dance of trees and were eager to start sophiication that comes with aual planning. Aer ruggling to
draw my new design on graph paper, I built a model out of cardboard
hammering. Today, there are exactly (above), specifying details like a Dutch door, lap siding and an
four mature trees in our backyard. I observation deck on one side. I used a chain hoi and ropes (right) to
consider them all irreplaceableat help position the green oak framing before bolting it into position.
least in my lifetimeso after decid-
ing to build a treehouse, I thought long and hard about
where to put it. The ideal host was a 70-foot-tall Kentucky
coffee tree standing alone in a corner of our small lot. It rises
15 feet before its trunk sprouts into a balanced, oval-shaped
crown that filters sunlight through its leaves like flour atop itgingerbread Victorian, open-sided play hut or, in
through a sifter. my case, rustic cabindoesnt attach to the trunk. That
As an adult and a conscientious neighbor, I also thought minimizes damage to the tree and keeps the swaying on a
hard about what the treehouse would look like. I wanted windy day from prying apart the structure. It also, frankly,
something that would not seem out of place in the historic is a mark of craftsmanshipthe difference between bang-
Virginia downtown where we live. No cheap-looking ply- ing together boards as a kid and doing it right, with a mea-
wood box or precious playhouse on stilts would do. The sure of adult skill and judgment.
structure would be modest in size, and the materials would If youre building high off the ground across several
have an outsize effect on how it looked. I asked my friend trees, even your platform needs to allow for tree movement.
John Foster, a capable craftsman who built the log cabin You can either install an expensive system of treehouse
where he lives, for advice. cables and bolts or rig your own free-oating beam. If the
Id use green oak, John said, gazing up at the tree. The tree is mature and sturdy and your platform rests in the bot-
timbers would be strong and rot-resistant, and theyd age tom eighth of the tree, you can use a xed platform. I modi-
beautifully, he explained. As proof, he pointed me to the bed ed a classic design, sketching plans for an 8-foot-square
of his pickup truck, which held a 4 x 6inch oak beam that platform that would surround my tree at a height of 7 feet.
he uses for skidding landscaping boulders. See that old That was plenty high for my son, Luther, and daughter,
timber? Thats been bouncing around back there since I Eliot, ages 10 and 7, respectively. During the planning
built my house, he said. Fresh from the sawmill 20 years phase, I let them climb a ladder to the mark on the trunk
ago, the green oak had grown silvery gray with a rough, where the oor would go. When I held up the 3D cardboard
raised graina handsome piece of wood, I had to agree. It model I had made, their eyes lit up. But to be honest, I had
didnt occur to me to ask how much green oak weighs. no idea how they would respond once it was built. Society
has changed since the freewheeling 1970s, when my boy-
hood friends and I roamed the neighborhood, scavenging
construction sites for scrap lumber and nails like cul-de-
sac Robinson Crusoes. Would my kids take to the tree-
house, or would they prefer to stay inside playing video
is a lot like any games and snapping together Legos?
other construction project, with one main difference: Seven feet may not sound very high, but working overhead
Instead of a foundation, a treehouse rests on a platform. made bolting my platform beams to the tree a major chal-
The platform should be sturdy enough so that whatever sits lenge. My anxiety over handling all that heavy lumber eased a

qq
rubber mallet and then nailing it

home. Soon I had enough floor in
place to form a stable perch. I worked
around the tree, leaving a 2- to 3-inch
gap between it and the oor to allow
for growth. I top-nailed the floor
using square-headed cut nails. It was
easier than nailing through the
tongues. Plus, the old-fashioned
technique added charactera touch
that pleased me, though it would
probably be lost on the kids.
My daughter Eliot (le) performed a supervisory role during between my tree-

the conruion. When conruing the roof, I ashed the gap climbing childhood and late adoles-
between the cedar shakes and the tree using a truck tires inner tube,
secured with a bungee cord (above, le). A ruic ladder made of
cence, I briefly developed a fear of
-inch nylon rope and 1-inch dowels provides accessor, when heights. During a clandestine ascent
hoied up, thwarts invaders from terra rma (above, right). of a water tower during my senior
year in high school, I froze 10 rungs
up, palms clammy, ground spinning below. Three weeks
later, I followed friends up the same ladder, forcing myself
not to look down. But then, after a few more climbs, once to
the top of the domed reservoir (kids, dont try this at home),
bit after I cut the beams down to 8-foot lengths with my cir- my fear seemed to evaporate in the warm midnight airI
cular saw. Still, each one weighed probably 100 pounds. had simply been out of practice.
What saved me was a chain hoist, a gadget most often used When I began building my kids treehouse, I felt out of
by shade-tree mechanics to lift engine blocks out of cars. I practice again. Though my extension ladder hardly com-
borrowed one from John, who uses it to lift stone for his pared to the water tower, scaling it one-handed while lug-
landscaping jobs. The mechanical advantage of the gear dif- ging the chain hoist or a 2 x 4 made my knees wobbly. I
ferentials made raising my beams as easy as tugging on the eventually grew comfortable. Still, I decided to adhere to
chain with two ngers. And the ratcheted brake prevented another basic rule of treehouse construction: Build on the
the load from slipping backward. The hoist did the work of ground. Youre faster and more efcient in close proximity
two men, never faltering and never once complaining. to your tools, lumber and sawhorses. And face it, no matter
That was fortunate, since I mostly worked alone. This how fearless you are working perched at precarious
was too big a job for Luther and Eliot. They helped in small heights, the fewer trips up and down a ladder, the safer
wayshanding me tools, picking up dropped nails with a youll be. Real treehouse pros (and today, there are more of
magnetic sweeperbut they preferred to stay on the ground, these than ever) trim out entire wall sections, including
hammering scrap wood into sailboats and slingshots. It was framing, siding, molding and glass windows, before hoist-
refreshing to know that their prepackaged, adult-designed ing them up to the platform.
games were sitting untouched inside. Not knowing exactly how my walls would meet up, I
To minimize my impact on the tree, I anchored each of didnt go that far. I did frame three of my four walls on the
my four crossbeams with a single 34 -inch lag screw. To those ground, then raised them with the chain hoist. Once every-
beams, I attached rim joists and oor joists. Using green thing was aligned, I nailed the plates to the oor. Connect-
oak meant that I had to predrill everything. Otherwise, I ing the rear butt wall between the pair of side walls made
would never have been able to drive my nails home in that me momentarily curse my decision to use green oak. I was
dense wood. Or Id have split the grain trying. Even the big- just able to t my drill and 6-inch bit between the studs.
gest deck screws I could nd seemed too thin and brittle for Face-nailing the 20d nails was even more awkward.
such formidable lumber, so instead I bought a couple of The job got frustrating once I started working up high,
5-pound boxes of zinc-dipped 20d nails. The going was slow, building the fourth wall and roof rafters. Like some kind of
but I soon found my rhythm with drill and hammer. Newtonian poltergeist, gravity spilled nails, tipped boards
Once my platform frame was complete, I began install- over the edge and tugged my power cord to the ground, forc-
ing 2 x 6inch tongue-and-groove yellow-pine oorboards. I
knelt on loose boards, tapping each plank into place with a C ON T I N U E D ON P AG E 1 26

F A M I LY S E D A N T E S T
BY LARRY WEBSTER
P H O T O G R A P H S B Y C H R I S T O P H E R W R AY- M C C A N N

Midsize sedans blend so seamlessly into the American automotive landscape that you may
never really notice them. Theyre pragmatic transportation vessels that competently and
anonymously troll freeways and mall parking lots. These high-quality sedans provide
roominess, comfort, efciency and plenty of luxury featuresall at an affordable price.
So its no surprise that in 2009, midsize sedans were the single largest volume segment,
with nearly 20 percent of the market. Accordingly, this segment is a critical battleground,
with many new sedans hustling to catch our attention. We knew it was time to see if the
R AT I N G S I C O N S
TESTING PROCEDURE
To produce an accurate pic-
! q
! q

a

q
q

ture of performance, the PM

automotive team brings out

the te gear. Acceleration

and braking are measured
with either a Stalker radar
gun or GPS-based Racelogic
Vbox. Handling tes require
optical timers. Ben Stewart
(opposite) and Larry Web-
er run down the prete
checkli, ensuring proper
uid levels and setting every
cars tires to the faory-
recommended pressure.
newcomers could match the perennial top sellers.
We started with the segments three most popular cars NISSAN TOYOTA
the Nissan Altima, Toyota Camry and Honda Accordand
drove them alongside ve challengers: the Mazda6, Ford
Fusion, Suzuki Kizashi, Chevy Malibu and Subaru Legacy.
The Altima was a little reluctant to change
We ran them through our tests, a day of hard driving in the
direction, with excess body roll and slower
hills near Los Angeles and a 360-mile fuel-economy loop. steering than, say, the Mazda. It doesnt want
Since four-cylinder engines and automatic transmissions to hustle. But around town, outside the
make up the majority of the sales in this class, we ordered connes of our test course, we found the
each car that way. Instead of ranking these very similar Altima to be very rened and comfortable.
vehicles in a nishing order, we decided to call out the
combination of each cars strengths and represent them as
icons. So, here are eight of the top four-door sedans in
Americaand what they do best.
ToyotaCamry
Since the beginning of this century, the Camry
has been the countrys best-selling car more
years than not. Its sensible, roomy and
well-built. But driving the Camry is a slightly
NissanAltima Inching up in
sales volume for the past half-decade, the Altima has become a
less exciting activity than toasting a piece of Wonder bread.
Frankly, we need more ber.
Its not that the Camry doesnt do its job effectively. It was
thorn in the side of Honda and Toyota. Restyled for 2010, the one of the quicker sedans, yet still delivered an above-average
Nissan is the lightest car here by 100 pounds. And engineering 31.5 mpg. Its also exceptionally quiet and serene inside. Only
out the excess weight in a design is the gift that keeps giving. the Honda Accord has a roomier back seat.
The Altima was the quickest to 60 mph (7.72 seconds) and The interior that was once lauded for its quality feel now
returned the best fuel economy (32.4 mpg). seems cheaply made, with poor panel tment and low-rent
While the scales suggest a imsy structure, the Altima feels materials. To be fair, the Camry is value-priced, but its also the
solid and well-built. The interior layout is refreshingly simple, only one riding on 16-inch wheels with hubcaps.
with high-quality materials used throughout. The Altimas We could forgive those sins, but the rest of the car is a big
continuously variable transmission (CVT), the only available slice of ho-hum. If you push the Camry hard, the connection
transmission, was not our favorite. The engine has plenty of between man and machine feels as though its separated by a
torque, but it drones in the upper rev range, an unpleasant layer of molasses. Its pillowy body motions reminded us of
aspect that the CVT intensies. But at least there is a manual yesteryears land yachts. If theres a payoff to this performance,
mode, and we tended to use it during spirited driving. its the extremely plush ride and hushed interior.
!

The Countrys
Fuel-Economy
Best-Selling
Champ
Car

MAZDA FORD
The Camry sealed its reputation some two decades ago with
a reliable and competent sedan in a market lled with
lackluster cars. The world has caught up, and Toyota has
"
PMs faltered. The Camry was recalled in January and its production
Top Pick halted to x a sticky throttle. Its time for Toyota engineers to
remind us why the Camry deserves its top-selling status.
FordFusion Sheet metal can be

deceiving. The Ford Fusion, recently refreshed for 2010,
shares its platform and engine with the Mazda6. Perhaps
thats why the two cars went through the slalom and lane-
change tests at the same speed. Yet the Ford is the smoother
operator in the real world. The Ford has 85 percent of the
Mazdas poise, but with better ride quality, one tester said.
Another critical difference: fuel economy. The Fords
six-speed automatic (Mazda offers ve speeds) helped it to top
Mazda6 the Mazda by more than 3 mpg in our testing. However,

shifting that six-speed manually is akin to operating a
three-speed automatic from the 1970s. Your only choice is a D
Its rare when exceptional or L position on the shifter. Does the L stand for Lame?
cars remain largely undiscov- Fords updated look is handsome. But inside, the dash is
ered. But thats the case with plain and uninspired. Still, the interior has plenty of handy
the Mazda. And its aonish-
ing considering that this may storage nooks. On a twisty road you notice the lack of support
be the be all-around sedan. from the park-bench-at front buckets. Upside? They are
is is a sporty machine, with mounted high, leaving room for back-seat passengers feet.
light, dire eering and a The new Fusion is a tremendous value. Yet theres
chassis that always feels
blandness to this car. Its almost like a generic version of the
planted. e responses are
uid, and the Mazda is eager
to y through curves. Its clear
this sedan spent many
development miles clipping
apexes. But unlike some,
theres no price to pay for its
lively, fun-to-drive spirit. e
Mazda has a resilient ride that
absorbs bumps with muted
thumps. Mazda got the
details right: e shi er glides
through its detents, ju like
one on a Mercedes-Benz. And
when revved hard, the engine
sounds expensive. e only
downside to this powertrain
was the unimpressive fuel
economy. e interior is one
of the quiete here, and
only NBA-size passengers
would need more legroom.
is car is a good deal too.
A loaded Grand Touring

model can be had for about
$27,000. e Mazda6 proves Smooth and
that midsize sedans dont Efcient
have to be the automotive
equivalent of Ambien.
SUZUKI HONDA
Mazda. The Fusion lineup, however, includes a hybrid version

that Mazda doesnt offer. While hybrids are not in the scope of
this test, the gaselectric Fusion is noteworthy among its peers
and deserves a mention. It transparently delivers nearly
The
40 mpg in everyday driving and, like the rest of the lineup,
Benchmark
favors comfort, ride quality and efciency.
Suzuki Kizashi Unlike all the

other players in this test, Suzuki has never had a credible entry
in the midsize sedan segment. Yet this is not a clone of an
established model. Nope. Suzuki went its own way and built
an incredibly sporty sedan at an eye-popping low price.
Theres no mistaking this cars sporting character, thanks
to the aggressive bodywork and the dual exhaust. Its eager for
actionlike a frothy-mouthed pit bull at the end of a leash.
The Kizashi is the only car here with big 18-inch wheels,
and it cut a precise curve, clawing the pavement with 0.87 gs
worth of grip. It was over 10 mph faster through the lane
Honda Accord
change than the Toyota Camry. Thats astonishing. The Since the r Accord arrived
here in 1976, it has slowly
steering is quick and sensitivethe perfect conduit to the
and eadily eamrolled over
front tires. Our tester costs just $22,489the lowest here the competition to become a
and did not feel stripped down. The cloth seats felt two rungs benchmark. is late
higher in quality than the Toyotas. It also came with dual- versionthe eighth
zone climate control, rear air vents and iPod integration. generationis the only car
here thats ocially classied
But the Kizashi isnt exactly the teachers pet. This sedan by the EPA as a large car. But
offers plenty of uplevel features, but they are delivered in a big is okay when hauling the
package that somehow feels less expensive. More importantly, family is the objeive. e
Accords rear seat trumps the
re. Two six-footers could
spend hours back there. e
2.4-liter hums smoothly, and
" though the gearbox lacks a
The Wild sixth gear, it ill hit 32 mpg.
Child e suspension is rm in all
the right ways, communicat-
ing the road surface up into
your hands but ltering out
the rough edges. e Accord
doesnt have an overtly
sporty feel, but it can run a
canyon road without
shouting about its capability
through the bullhorn of a i
ride. Inside, the Accord is a
little, yes, boring. But the t
and nish top the class, and
the front seats occupy the
pole position for comfort.
Our $25,340 teer lacked
some features, like heated
seats, that others oer at a
similar price. But theres a
reason so many buyers
choose the Honda Accord: It
handles every chore with
solid competence.
CHEVY SUBARU
the Suzuki is smaller. The rear seat is comparatively tight, and

theres less room in the trunk. Still, the Kizashi is an entertain-
ing sedan at a rock-bottom price.
SubaruLegacy In dismal
2009, when the countrys auto sales tumbled by about a third,
Subaru was the success story, notching a 15 percent gain,
Chevrolet Malibu
GM might be ghting to rebuild itself after a tumultuous year,
thanks in no small part to the new Legacy.
Subaru, like Mazda, has long been in the hunt for a midsize
sedan with mass appeal. But in the past, both cars were just a
but the Malibu is a key example of the companys design and bit too small. No more. The Subaru has grown up.
engineering chops. The exterior has tight proportions with The 170-hp boxer engine is inherently smooth and barks a
just the right amount of dazzle, and was chosen as best- throaty tune, but it could use some extra low-end torque. A
looking by our younger voters. Inside, theres an upscale vibe. six-speed manual is the standard gearbox, but ours had the
The smooth motor is exceedingly quiet and employs optional CVT. This transmission takes its time to switch ratios
fuel-saving direct injection. Chevy channels the 169 hp and helped make the Subaru the slowest here, but the decit
through a six-speed automatic, which helps the Malibu hit is negligible in this class of vehicle.
33 mpg on the EPA highway cycle. (It was only a midpack Yes, the all-wheel-drive Legacy is a bit heavy compared to
30.3 mpg in our testing.) The Malibu weighs nearly as much as some, and the driveline has more inherent drag. But it still
the Subaru, but from behind the wheel it feels relatively light. returned 31 mpg on our route, about average for this group. It
Its surprisingly agile, belying the unspectacular handling-test also feels very solid, not unlike a German sedan. The suspen-
results. The Malibus ride was as plush as the Camrys, but sion tuning mimics the Hondasinitially supple yet
without syrupy responses. The Chevy always feels engaged and buttoned down once the twisties get tight.
ready to frolic, and the electric power assist dials up the right The interior is inviting and feels richer than that of most
amount of effort. The wheel also has handy switches to cars here. The steering wheel wears a pair of paddles for
manually control the transmission. manual shifting, and the ignition switch has a lighted ring for
That stylish, gently sloping rear glass leaves a small, nighttime viewinga nice touch. The front seats were tops in
mailbox-like trunk opening. So this sedan wouldnt be our all-day comfortthe rear ones just short of the Accords.
rst choice for a trip to Home Depot. Still, the Malibu was one The Legacy is large enough and comfortable enough to
of the best-balanced cars here, blending handling, quietness steal sales from the mainstream players. But it hasnt lost the
and comfort into one very sleek and affordable package. personality that makes Subarus such interesting cars.
!
Handsome
& Well Surefooted &
Mannered Rened

Conclusion
are matched when it
up in the majority of
surprise standout in
the heaviest and the
one car that showed

than 4 mpg, and the
economy on our PM
was the car we most

our test. The Mazda
interior made it the
well-crafted, roomy
difference between
our testers scoring

sedan segment has
mance. In terms of
and test-data chart
how important the
can be. Though we

only how competi-
spirited handling,
mere 220 pounds.
acceleration to 60
sedans, there was

subtleties of each
second separated
The specication
closely these cars
test loop was less
didnt rank these
Mazdas blend of
become, but also
lightest car was a
own garages. FC
cars personality
mph, less than 1
comes to perfor-
That reects not
notebooksthe
tive the midsize
shows just how
these cars. The
slick style and
wanted in our
spread in fuel
Mazda6. The
full-throttle
SPEC CHEVY FORD HONDA MAZDA NISSAN SUBARU SUZUKI TOYOTA

CHART MALIBU FUSION ACCORD 6 ALTIMA LEGACY KIZASHI CAMRY
q $22,325 $20,345 $21,765 $19,200 $20,620 $20,690 $19,734 $20,115
q $25,995 $24,700 $25,340 $30,765 $30,530 $29,511 $22,489 $23,629
169-hp/158 lb-ft 175-hp/172 lb-ft 190-hp/162 lb-ft 170-hp/167 lb-ft 170-hp/175 lb-ft 170-hp/170 lb-ft 180-hp/170 lb-ft 169-hp/179 lb-ft
2.4-liter I4, 6A 2.5-liter I4, 6A 2.4-liter I4, 5A 2.5-liter I4, 5A 2.5-liter I4, CVT 2.5-liter at-4, CVT 2.4-liter I4, CVT 2.5-liter I4, 6A
q] p^ strut, coil springs/ control arms, coil control arms, coil control arms, coil strut, coil springs/ strut, coil springs/ strut, coil springs/ strut, coil springs/
multilink, coil springs/multilink, springs/multilink, springs/multilink, multilink, coil multilink, coil multilink, coil multilink, coil
springs coil springs coil springs coil springs springs springs springs springs
q]`^ 112.3 107.4 110.2 109.8 109.3 108.3 106.3 109.3

q]`^ 191.8 190.6 194.1 193.7 190.7 186.4 183.1 189.2
q]`^ 70.3 72.2 72.7 72.4 70.7 71.7 71.7 71.7
q] p^ 59.6/60.0 61.7/61.3 62.2/62.2 62.8/62.8 61.0/61.0 61.6/61.8 61.6/61.6 62.0/61.6
11.7-inch 11.8-inch 11.8-inch 11.8-inch 11.7-inch 11.6-inch 11.8-inch 11.6-inch
disc/11.0-inch disc/11.3-inch disc/11.0-inch
POPULARMECHANICS.COM
disc/10.9-inch disc/11.0-inch disc/11.1-inch disc/11.5-inch disc/10.9-inch
disc, ABS, ESC disc, ABS, ESC disc, ABS, ESC disc, ABS, ESC disc, ABS, ESC disc, ABS, ESC disc, ABS, ESC disc, ABS, ESC
q
3460 3400 3380 3400 3260 3480 3360 3340
q] p^ P215/55R-17 P225/50R-17 P225/50R-17 P215/55R-17 P215/60R-16 P215/50R-17 P235/45R-18 P215/60R-16
q]^
Mtq 2.95 3.06 3.13 2.89 3.06 3.40 3.55 2.88
Moq 8.29 8.22 8.31 8.24 7.72 8.68 8.57 7.94
FMnq 6.54 6.15 6.08 6.54 5.47 6.47 6.06 6.10
Mq
q
]p^ 16.14 @ 85.97 16.04 @ 86.97 16.06 @ 87.40 16.14 @ 86.58 15.75 @ 89.48 16.53 @ 84.72 16.33 @ 87.09 15.89 @ 87.49

q] ^
tMq 32.39 31.58 30.95 30.87 30.71 31.11 29.95 30.91
oMq 129.77 125.17 128.22 127.03 126.15 125.96 123.26 127.65
++ PM TEST DRIVEN
qq]^q
60.2 60.7 61.7 60.7 60.2 60.8 60.5 60.8
q 76.7 74.7 76.2 75.0 77.0 74.6 74.7 73.5
|
oq 73.0 74.2 76.1 73.7 73.7 73.5 73.9 71.4
APRIL 2010
q]^ 47.04 46.19 46.91 46.19 47.04 45.89 48.9 44.52
q
q]^ 68.64 69.34 71.52 69.34 69.57 69.81 78.07 67.96
q]
^ 0.78 0.82 0.82 0.82 0.81 0.82 0.87 0.80
q q!q
]!p!^ 22/33 22/31 21/31 21/30 23/32 23/31 23/30 22/32
q q! 30.34 32.30 31.71 29.19 32.38 30.96 28.87 31.52
80
Once its arted on
improved soil, grass
needs very little care
to look crisp, green,
cool and inviting.
ometimes you have to destroy your lawn in order to save it. If
years of weeding, fertilizing and fussing have failed to prod your
patch of turf to perfection, its time to change tactics. PM con-
tributing editor Jim Gorman advises a brutal but effective strat-
egy: Kill off the insipid sod entirely, then start fresh. The result
will be a lush, healthy lawn that knows whos boss.
FACE REALITY
THE FIRST STEP IS ADMITTING YOUR LAWN HAS A
PROBLEM. LOTS OF THEM, ACTUALLY: WEEDS,
BARE SPOTS, THATCH. PEOPLE ARE TALKING. BUT
ARE YOU READY TO EMBRACE THE TREATMENT?
Im one of those grass guys. You probably know
the type. House surrounded by a shag carpet so
deeply green it verges on blue. Not a weed in sight.
Theres a grass guy or two in every neighborhood.
In mine, they call me the grass whisperer.
Looking at my lawn, youd think I toil relent- BROADLEAF PLANTAIN
lessly from April clear through to Thanksgiving, Weeds invade when the
or pay a small fortune to a lawn service. The truth lawn itself isnt healthy.
is, I dont do either. Killing the weeds without
healing the lawn means
youre only treating the
P H OTO G R A P HS B Y FI L IP KW IATKO W S KI symptoms.

ROLL OUT THE PLASTIC
Except for a weekly mowing, a few squirts of

weed killer now and then and a well-timed hit of
fertilizer every autumn, I do little more than
accept compliments from passersby. I dont con-
stantly water, overfeed, aerate, douse with 2,4-D,
degrub, defungus or dethatch. If I do have a prob-
lem with my turf, its that mowing is sometimes
difcult because of how dense the grass grows. I
know, I know: Shut up.
To own a good-looking lawn thats
practically on autopilot is a dream
e old lawn wont go quietly. widely held. The reality is that getting
You have to kill it. We scalped it to that point requires hefty machin-
low and hard using a lawnmower, ery, callus-inducing labor and an
soaked it with a sprinkler to a
depth of several inches and then enhanced understanding of your
suocated it under rows of plas- lawn as a miniature ecosystem.
tic sheet. Gruesome but eeive.
Take it from me, its worth it.
Four years ago the front yard of
my new home was an unsightly
mess. Aboveground there was an
assortment of aggressive weeds. Below
ground, the soil was compacted by heavy
construction equipment and depleted of vital
nutrients. Rather than launch a multiyear cam-
paign to coax life out of the few remaining blades
of grass, I instead hit the restart button and
killed my old lawn.
For reasons mostly practical and somewhat
philosophical, I wanted my new turf to fend for
itself against pest and weed invaders. I am not a
Kool-Aid drinking member of the organic lawn-
care movement, with its earnest advice to make
peace with weeds. But if I am going to resort to
pesticides or herbicides, I want it to be in
response to a particular emergency, not as a
matter of routine.
Healthy lawns need a lot less human interven-
tion than we lavish on them. Set a new lawn on
the right path at the outset with plenty of organic
goodness and busy microorganisms in the soil,
then feed it regularly with mulched clippings and
I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y D O G O
SEAL IT TIGHT
autumn leaves, and it will do ne.
Solarization is hard Dig a trench around the
work. e plaic mu lawn and use the soil to A total yard renovation isnt something entered
be sealed tight to weigh down the plaic. into lightly. But in a variety of situations it makes
prevent heat and water Also use bricks and sense, according to Peter Landschoot, a turfgrass
vapor from escaping. landscape fabric pegs.
scientist at Penn State University. If your lawn
keeps dying or deteriorating, if your grass is very
coarse-textured and clumpy or it continuously

develops leaf diseases, then its probably time to are nothing like your fathers. Todays varieties
start a new lawn, he says. And to that do-over list are more disease-resistant, they have better tex-
Id add a lawn thats more weeds than grass. ture, density, color and uniformity, and they tol-
The front yard of my neighbors Kevin and erate drought, cold and wear better than those of
Karlyn Aires was a prime example of a lawn gone 30 years ago, Landschoot says.
past the tipping point. From the street it looked
respectable, especially after being mowed. Up
close, however, the picture wasnt so pretty.
Much of the grass was a wide-leaf, clumpy fes-
cue variety called Kentucky 31, commercially
available decades ago and now deemed worthy
only of highway medians. Broad-leafed weeds LAWN FORENSICS
like plantain, dandelion and white clover had YOU KNOW SOMETHING IS KILLING YOUR LAWN.
established major beachheads. And undesirable BUT WHAT? SCIENCE HAS THE ANSWER, AND THE
and impossible-to-eradicate grassy weeds like ODDS ARE GOOD THAT THE CULPRIT IS DEPLETED
nimblewill and orchardgrass were on the loose. AND UNHEALTHY SOIL.
Im tired of mowing weeds, Kevin told me On a cool morning in early August, in the midst
one day. With barely any bribing, he and Karlyn of one of the wettest summers in memory, our
agreed to submit their lawn to a total renovation lawn redo project got underway. Not with the clat-
by Popular Mechanics. And why not? They had ter of machinery or clank of garden rakes hitting
nothing to lose. pay dirtplenty of both would follow soon
Starting over would allow the Aires to rectify enoughbut with me lifting small scoops of soil
their lawns soil structure and soil health and from the Aires front lawn. These I sent off for
trade in their Dodge Dartera grass for the Lexus
GS 460level performance churned out by busy
grass breeders. Indeed, modern grass varieties
analysis at the agricultural extension service at
Penn State University.
Before planting a new lawn, its vital to under-
SOLARIZATION, STAGE ONE stand why the old one failed. A modestly priced
e r age of hand. If a shrink- soil analysis (pay extra to test levels of organic
solarization kills wrapped lawn isnt matter) is your best forensic clue. Was the soil
everything but a for you, two applica-
few hardy survivors tions of a herbicide low in nutrients, too acidic, did tree limbs over-
here and there. like Roundup spaced grow and create too much shade, was there too
Yank these weeds two weeks apart
or grass sprigs by will also work.
much foot compaction? asks Dennis Martin, a
turfgrass specialist at Oklahoma State University.
Without modifying those conditions, a lawn
renovation doesnt solve your problems.
Just as in painting a house, almost all the
hard work in replanting a lawn lies in the prepa-
ration. But it is also crucial to schedule the job
properly. The process begins by pinpointing
the sweet spot on the calendar for seeding in
your area, then working backward. In the cool-
season grass zone, which I inhabit (generally
north of a line drawn between San Francisco and
Philadelphia), seed should be in the ground
between the last week of August and the rst two
weeks of September. In the transition zone (the
area between a line drawn from San Diego to
Myrtle Beach, S.C., and south of the boundary
described above), seed should be sown in mid- to
late September. Warm-season grasses are
another beast altogether. In the arc from south
Texas to Florida, seed or plugs go down in late
spring to early summer.
Why plant cool-season grass types like blue-
grass and fescue late in the growing season? Turf
scientists advise it because competition from
weeds will be nil, you wont have to spend as
much time watering, and grass naturally devotes
SOLARIZATION, STAGE TWO its energy at that time of year toward building
all-important root structure. For warm-season
grasses like zoysia and Bermuda grass, seeding
needs to happen when the grasses are in their
active growth phase, which comes before the
summer heat arrives in full.
Figuring that the active phase of our lawn
renovationfrom killing off the old lawn
to putting seed in the groundwould
gobble up at least four weeks time, I
Roll up plaic and set it aside. Till
the lawn under, adding amendments knew we had to have all of our sup-
if necessary, then rake and roll the plies and equipment on hand and
lawn to smooth and gently compa be ready to go by early August.
it. Complete the kill by putting the
plaic down for a second time. A key decision in the planning
process is selecting the right type
of grass to grow. In this, your state
cooperative extension services web-
site is an excellent resource. There
youll nd the results of eld trials of
specic cultivars under growing condi-
tions that closely approximate yours. For
instance, Penn State Universitys cooperative
extension details the performance of Tomahawk

RT and 67 other tall fescues and 103 bluegrasses.
For even more timely results on the very latest
seed varieties, go to the National Turfgrass Eval-
uation Programs website (ntep.org) and scan
the results of turf trials from 30 locations around
the country.
For the Aires lawn, same as mine, we chose a DIE, LAWN, DIE
mix of turf-type tall fescues. Deep-rooted, heat- NOW ITS TIME TO GET MEDIEVAL ON YOUR SORRY
tolerant and slow-growing up top, tall fescues EXCUSE FOR A LAWN. A NICE DOUSING OF
require less watering and mowing than Kentucky ROUNDUP WILL DO THE TRICK. SO WILL PLASTIC
bluegrass. They also demand less fertilizer and SHEET AND LIBERAL APPLICATIONS OF SUNLIGHT.
arent prone to thatch buildup. Perfect, in other If you ever want to get a rise out of the neighbors,
words, for a low-maintenance lawn in southeast wrap your front yard in plastic. Thats what we
Pennsylvania. Fescues falter the farther north you did when it came time to kill off the Aires old
live, where Kentucky bluegrass thrives. lawn. As I unrolled plastic sheeting under a blaz-
To purchase elite performance seed varieties ing summer sun, dog walkers paused and land-
suited to your particular climate and soil type, scape contractors drove by at a crawl. Normally,
youll probably need to look beyond local nurser- Id terminate a lawn with two sprayings of a
ies and big-box home centers, where one-size- broad-spectrum weed and grass killer such as
ts-all mixtures are the rule. Web-based Seed- Roundup, spaced two weeks apart. The first
SuperStore and Seedland offer many of the best spraying kills most of the lawn. The followup
varieties singly and in blends. Turf experts like application catches any survivors. Then you wait
Landschoot and Martin advise planting no fewer at least 10 days from that last shot of Roundup
than four or ve varieties of a particular type of
grass (e.g. Kentucky bluegrass) to avoid mass die-
off caused by disease or weather extremes.
before planting seed.
Kevin and Karlyn Aires, being organic gar-
deners, werent having any part of Roundup. (I
AT LAST, GRASS SEED did my best to explain that Roundup is actually
quite environmentally friendly, but they didnt
see it that way.) Without that chemical cudgel,
our best weapon was solarization, by which the
lawn and any weed seeds lurking in the soil are
steam-heated into oblivion after one month
beneath a layer of clear plastic. Done correctly,
solarization sterilizes the top 6 inches of soil by
raising temperatures above 140 degrees Fahr-
enheit. We werent so lucky.
It took 17 man-hours of labor to
cover the 1500-square-foot lawn
in plastic and seal it tight at
Aer enduring comments and the edges with excavated soil.
queions from neighbors, it feels Then the rains returned and
good to spread seed. Do less vis-
ible areas r to perfe an even the clouds lingered. The
spread pattern. Twenty seeds per maximum temperature we
square inch is ideal coverage.
achieved was 105 degrees,
just enough to kill the exist-
ing grass, but not hot enough
to force dormant weed seeds
to germinate and die off. Our
plan was also hampered by the
fact that the 3-mm plastic we pur-
chaseddescribed as clear on the
labelwas actually closer to white. And that
meant that even when the sun did shine, those
rays tended to reflect off the sheet rather than
baking the soil underneath. Final analysis: Solar-
ization is not worth the effort unless youre a die-
hard environmentalist, or you like attention. It
was great fun giving passing neighbors something
new to talk about, Kevin says in retrospect.
How you go about handling the next stage of
a lawn renovationpreparing the soil for
seedingwill depend on the results of your soil
test. If the test shows your soil is in good shape
and needs no amendments, then consider your-
self lucky. You can quickly prepare a seedbed
employing the same method used at Penn States
turf research farm. Chew the lawn up by making
eight to 10 passes with a rented core aerator.
Apply seed-starter fertilizer as necessary. Then
break up the plugs and furrow the lawn with a
vertical mower, also known as a dethatcher. Make
two to four passes in a crisscross pattern to kick
up more dirt for better seed contact.
COVER UP Better-quality dethatchers also function as slit
Cover the seeded be certied from a for the r three seeders, laying down seed in a narrow furrow. If
area with hay (dried ate agricultural weeks, applying your machine has that capability, nows the time
grass) or raw department or other extra water if condi- to make use of it. Otherwise, broadcast seed
(dried grain alks). organization to be tions are especially
Either works as free of weed seed. hot or windy. Avoid using a lawn spreader.
mulch but mu Keep the lawn moi forming puddles. On my neighbors lawn, because of dips and
bumps that needed leveling, we instead rented a
6-hp rototiller to loosen the soil. A rototiller has

the advantage of thoroughly mixing lime, fertil- The rest of the operation involves daily to
izer and any other amendment into the top 6 twice-daily watering to keep the topmost layer of
inches of soil. The disadvantage is it leaves plenty soil moist. We experienced every grass guys worst
of rake work in its wake. Ideally, one should use a nightmare the night after planting: an unex-
sod cutter to remove the layer of dead grass and pected torrential rainfall. In the deluge, seed
weeds before tilling. Clumps of dead vegetation migrated into clumps, leaving some areas bare.
made raking and grading much more difcult. But after the seeds germinated, we simply
Its necessary to pack down a lawn thats been reseeded the bald spots.
rototilled. Rake it smooth, then use a lawn roller. By late fall the lawn was thick, green and uni-
You want to be able to step on the soil when its form. Come summer, it will be ready for heavy
dry and not sink in. In our case, we put the plastic trafc. And then the Aires will learn that, with the
down a second time and seeded after we removed hard work over, they can best appreciate their
the plastic. If youre not solarizing, spread seed, new lawn the way I do mine: watching it grow
then drag a metal leaf rake across the lawn in sev- from the comfort of a lawn chair. FC
eral passes at right angles to mix dirt and seed.
Spread by hand a mulching layer of straw thats
certied to contain no weed seeds. Dont put on
too much. You want to see a little of the soil
through the mulch, Landschoot says. We used
salt hay, a weed- and seed-free mulch available in
the Northeast. Mulch prevents seed from wash-
ing away in a heavy rain, retains soil moisture and
shields seedlings from blazing sun. Now, pass
over the lawn with the lawn roller lled partially
with water to establish good contact between
seeds and soil.
diy
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W E B ATTL E TH R O UG H A J I G S A W S H O W DO W N . B Y R O Y B E R E N D S O H N
Few things are as useful around

the house and shop as a jigsaw. Its a
hacksaw, a fine woodworking tool q
?ksYYRq
and a rough-cutting conruion saw
rolled into one. It makes straight,
curved and beveled cuts, and does
work that would be dicult to accom-
plish by handsuch as cutting square
holes in a panel.
We gathered six of the bigge and
Yjs?jq#,R?q toughe jigsaws we could nd. en
we teed them using a fresh bimetal
Lenox blade in each. At the end of the
day, we had a clear winner and some
close contenders. Heres our report.
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY DOUG ADESKO POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | A PRIL 2010 91

P M D I Y H O M E /// J I G S A W T E S T
Festool PSB 300 EQ
1111
Likes: Solid. is is a carpen- PRICE: $310
Bosch 1590EVS DeWalt DW331 ters jigsaw designed to AMP: 6
survive conruion-site
1 1 1 11 111 MAX SPM AND CONTROL:
punishment. e nose, shoe 2900, dial adjust
PRICE: $155 PRICE: $150 and a large part of the sides
CROSSCUT 3 16 X 4 IN. STEEL:
AMP: 6.4 AMP: 6.5 are proteed with thick 42.3 seconds
MAX SPM AND CONTROL: MAX SPM AND CONTROL: metal caings. e blade
CROSSCUT 2 X 8: 5.7 seconds
2800, dial adjust 3100, dial adjust guard and eje lever are
bent eel rod. RIP 2 X 8 X 12: 8.8 seconds
CROSSCUT 3 16 X 4 IN. STEEL: CROSSCUT 3 16 X 4 IN. STEEL:
24.5 seconds 47.4 seconds Dislikes: e blade clamp SHOE ADJUSTMENT:
did not work as reliably as it Allen wrench
CROSSCUT 2 X 8: 6.0 seconds CROSSCUT 2 X 8: 7.2 seconds
should. Teers had to check
RIP 2 X 8 X 12: 9.6 seconds RIP 2 X 8 X 12: 13.5 seconds
that the blade was rmly Likes: Almo everything.
SHOE ADJUSTMENT: Tool-free SHOE ADJUSTMENT: Tool-free clamped by pulling on it. is is a compa, quiet,
smooth-cutting saw
Likes: Everything. Its rare in designed for professional
our tes that one tool woodworkers. For example,
commands the eld as you can equip it with a
convincingly as the Bosch typical fence but also a track
does in this one. Its heavy, that the saw rides in for the
smooth and powerful, a ultimate in smooth and
veritable locomotive of raight cutting. It was the
jigsaws. e ultimate arbiter only saw with an easily
was the eel crosscut te. removable cord.
Only the Bosch sailed Dislikes: e performance is
through, leaving a pile of excellent, but not the price.
smoking hot eel chips in its
wake. It ejes spent blades
like shotgun shells, and its
adjuable shoe is designed
for ease and accuracy.
Dislikes: Nothing noted.
qq
qq

P M D I Y H O M E /// J I G S A W T E S T
Porter Cable PC600JS
1
Likes: is is a saw for the PRICE: $90
Makita 4350FCT Milwaukee 6268-21 re of us. If you dont use a AMP: 6
jigsaw every day, then youll
111 1111 MAX SPM AND CONTROL:
appreciate the little chart on 3200, dial adjust
PRICE: $170 PRICE: $170 the side that matches
CROSSCUT 316 X 4 IN. STEEL:
AMP: 6.3 AMP: 6.5 cutting speed/orbital aion 58.4 seconds
MAX SPM AND CONTROL: MAX SPM AND CONTROL: to the material. Need to
CROSSCUT 2 X 8: 15.5 seconds
2800, dial adjust 3000, dial adjust pivot the shoe? Ju swing
the large lever beneath the RIP 2 X 8 X 12: 21.0 seconds
CROSSCUT 316 X 4 IN. STEEL: CROSSCUT 316 X 4 IN. STEEL:
44.5 seconds 39.6 seconds motor. And no need to guess SHOE ADJUSTMENT: Tool-free
CROSSCUT 2 X 8: 7.4 seconds CROSSCUT 2 X 8: 6.9 seconds about the shoe angle. Its
clearly indicated on the Likes: Comfortable. A large
RIP 2 X 8 X 12: 9.0 seconds RIP 2 X 8 X 12: 11.3 seconds
shoes arch-shaped top. trigger and sensibly shaped
SHOE ADJUSTMENT: SHOE ADJUSTMENT: Tool-free Dislikes: Nothing noted. surfaces plus good weight
Allen wrench
diribution make this saw
an easy handler.
Likes: Big saw, small Dislikes: We were hoping
package. e Makita packs a this tool represented a good
fair amount of cutting power ratio of price and perfor-
in a compa size. It also mance. Inead, it opped.
packs a fair amount of e tradeo isnt worth it.
common sensethe blade Its ne for light-duty cuts,
orbit is controlled with a but its brutally slow for
lever on the side of the saw more demanding work. We
marked 0 to 3, and to didnt te the companys
release the blade, you simply contraor-grade Model
pivot the blade guard 9543; now we wish we had.
forward. eres not a at $165 tool appears far
myerious symbol, lever or more out than this
button to be found on it. budget-priced saw.
Dislikes: e saw lacks
tool-free shoe adjument.

by Roy Berendsohn
21"
2"
138 "
Floating a 2"
Shelf Idea
Im fascinated with
Q oating shelves. Ive built
oneit looked okay, but a 1978"
6"
little rough. Whats the right
way to do this? qq mqqq
A
A oating shelf is nothing more than a hollow box
A Floating shelves are making a

comeback. Im not sure when they
rst came into being, but PM was cov-
built out of plywood and pine. e boxs top and
bottom panels re in rabbets cut into the sides
and front, which are mitered at the front corners.
e wall cleat is a piece of 2 x 4 sawed to width.
ering them as early as the 1950s. Like
many old ideas, theyve received a
boost as new homeowners have dis- A
covered their clean and simple look.
One basic execution is to bore a pair
of holes into wall uds, insert metal
bars or wood dowels into the framing
and slip a solid wood shelf over the sup-
ports. e problem with this design is
that the holes in the framing and the
shelf have to be very carefully bored so
they are parallel to one another and in
the same plane. Otherwise the shelf
wont easily slip over the supports.
Our design (shown at right) has more
parts, but its still easy to build and
inall. Its forgiving of small inaccura-
cies in construction and installation.
Build the shelf, which is nothing more
S T U D I O D ; I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y G A B R I E L S I LV E I R A
than a small hollow box, and test
t the wall cleat in it. en simply attach
the wall cleat to the uds, slip the shelf
over it and screw the shelf to the cleat.
Although its ideal to mount the cleat to
two uds, you can also attach it to a
ud on one end and use a hollow wall
anchor at the other end.
Pulling Up a Seat
I need to remove the toilet seat and lid
on all three toilets in our house, but
the nuts holding them in place are very
dicult to get at. I have some access
96 A PRIL 2010 | POPUL A RMECH A NIC S.COM PHOTOGRAPH BY J MUCKLE

P M D I Y H O M E /// H O M E O W N E R S C L I N I C Q + A qq!qq7q
R?4sjN4q#V?R
on one side and almo none on the

other. How can I get the old ones o?
e plumber probably attached the seat
wondering about the choice between
shellac and varnish. Which is be?
eres no single right answer here
Breaker,
and lid before installing the toilet.
Removing them someday was going to
there are dozens of dierent ways to
nish even a simple proje. So, Ill out-
Breaker
be somebody elses problem. You can line the three mo basic approaches. W H AT Y O U N E E D T O K N O W
ABOUT THE POINT OF
do the same thing in reverse, but thats Stain and clear coat This will ENTRY FOR A HOMES
the hard way to go about it. require that you apply a ain (or wood E L E C T R I C I T Y.
My fa and painless method is to dye) and at lea three coats of nish, BY HARRY SAWYERS
remove the lid, then saw the head o each carefully abraded to smooth out
the seat bolt using a reciprocating saw irregularities and du specks. e ain
and an 8-inch, 18-tpi (teeth per inch) or dye can be a gel or a liquid. As to its
metal-cutting blade. Flex the blade so chemistry, it can be formulated with
that it cuts the head of the bolt ju a alcohol, petroleum solvents or water. Churning with voltage
and resembling an
hair above the porcelain surface. is e same holds true with the topcoat,
explosion at the wire
requires a few things: a eady hand, a applied over the ain or dye. It can be a faory, the breaker panel
good saw (one with plenty of power and gel, or a liquid formulated with alcohol, exudes myique. But its
very little vibration) and a flexible petroleum solvents or water. ju a big switch, lled with
bimetal blade. Dont skimp on the saw My favorite method is to wipe on a other smaller switches,
or the bladeyou can easily snap the gel ain and then wipe on several coats which lead to the switches
blade when its halfway through the of gel varnish. Its easy, it highlights the that any homeowner can
bolt, or get it uck. I use a Lenox blade woodgrain and theres minimal mess. fearlessly ip. Doing so
chucked in a Milwaukee Super Sawzall. Tinted clear nish is is simply conjures a current of
elerons that runs along
Works like a charm and takes about 20 a clear nish with a dye or ain added.
copper wires, energizing
to 30 seconds per bolt. One other tip: You brush it on, let it dry, abrade it per
our appliances, lights and
Ive seen plumbers pull this o without the directions and apply subsequent modern lives. Breaker-
leaving the tinie scu on the porcelain. coats. e more coats you apply, the panel literacy isnt only for
But when I do it, I prote the top of the more you obscure the woodgrain. voltage veterans who recite
bowl with a rip of elerical tape. Still, Clear nish is is the simple the National Elerical
if you scu the bowl slightly, dont worry. route. You brush on or wipe on multiple Code. Even if all you wonder
e marks come o with a damp cloth coats of a gel or a liquid clear nish, is whether your humble
and a gentle abrasive cleanser like Bon abrading carefully between coats. hot tub dreams are
Ami or Bar Keepers Friend. Although this nish doesnt highlight the elerically attainable, or
why the toaer oven kills
If you dont own a top-quality saw, woodgrain the same way a ain does,
the kitchen lightsthe
try using a deep-well socket tted on a it can be very attraive.
panel has a thing or two
socket wrench to turn the nut o the You ask a good queion about the to tell you.
bolt. Using an articulating universal dierence between varnish and shellac,

joint or an extension on the socket may a conant source of confusion. A var- q

help you get at the troublesome nut nish is any clear or slightly amber coat-
more easily. ing. Chemically, it can be one of a num-
Finally, if all else fails, hose the bolt ber of different compounds in which
threads down with a spray lubricant like globules of resin are suspended in a sol-
Liquid Wrench or WD-40, then patiently ventwater, alcohol or a petroleum-
turn the nut o the bolt, one tiny twi based liquid. When you spread the
at a time. Do that once, though, and a material on a proje, you dramatically
reciprocating saw will suddenly seem increase the exposure of its resin and
like a bargain. solvents relative to the surrounding
. atmosphere. is causes the solvent to
e Varnish Truth evaporate (or volatize) into the air. e
Im buying my son an unnished pine resin globules coalesce and harden,
bed. Im debating whether I should use forming a plaic lm. (To reduce air pol-
a ain r and then apply a nish on lution from volatile organic compounds
top of that, or whether I should ju qq
apply a clear coating. Also, Im Continued on page 102 ELECTRIC PANEL BREAKDOWN
OHM'S LAW SOLAR AND
TURBINE CONNECTIONS BACKUP
GENERATORS THE SMART GRID
NEUTRAL AND WIRE
HOT WIRES GAUGE
Current ows from qZvMG#wG?q zNj?q

the panel toward the Common for
load along the hot low-demand
wires and returns conneions to light
along the neutral. switches and
Each hot wires outlets, attached to
copper tip ultimately either 15- or
connes to its 20-amp breakers.
control switch at the
circuit breaker, and q
ZFMG#wG?q zNj?q
each neutral Too thin for anything
connes to a other than 15-amp
common terminal breakers under
called a bus bar. small loads.
ZMG#wG?qzNj?q
BREAKER Appropriate for
SIZES
a two-pole 20-amp
q
#NVq breaker or a
q
,j?#Q?jq single-pole
is is the on/o 30-amp breaker.
switch to the entire
breaker panel. A q@MG#wG?qYjq
200-amp breaker is qoMG#wG?qzNj?q
appropriate for a Used for 40-, 50-
home upwards of and 60-amp
2000 square feet. two-pole breakers;
Smaller buildings large appliances.
can use 150-amp or Also used to serve
100-amp; small subpanels.
homes and
subpanels can use
GROUND
as little as 50-amp. WIRES
qYw,R?M\YR?q Grounding prevents

q,j?#Q?jq q a conduor not
Uses the entire 240 meant to carry
volts available to the current (such as the
panel. e 15-amp metal side of a
and 20-amp qq clothes dryer) from
breakers oen qq causing injury if its
handle baseboard qq energized by a
vM#U\q
heaters, 30-amp frayed hot wire. In a
tM,j?#Q?jq
serve water heaters vFMyYRsq properly grounded
and eleric dryers, k?jyN4? syem, appliances
40- and 50-amp are and metal boxes
for eleric ranges, conne back to the
and the 70-amp grounding bus of
could serve a large the breaker panel.
air conditioner or a From there, the
subpanel. syem is grounded
to the earth via
NVGR?M\YR?q buried ground rods.
,j?#Q?jq
e 15-amp and
20-amp are
all-purpose
breakers, running Ventricular brillation, the erratic, lethal spasm that occurs as
everything from HOW electric current passes through the heart, happens when both of a
lights and outlets to ELECTROCUTION persons hands touch hot and neutral conductors, causing the
garage-door HAPPENS current to complete its circuit through the chest. In a ground fault,
openers. current can ow into a single hand, zapping the heart as it passes
through the body on its way to the ground. When changing live
ZEM#U\q q fuses in the old days, electricians worked with one hand while
q,j?#Q?jq keeping the other in their back pocketthis spared the heart by
Arc-fault-circuit- isolating the current to the nerves of the one hand in the fuse box.
interrupter breakers
can prevent res
caused by accidental
elerical discharge. PHOTOGRAPH BY J MUCKLE
Found in electrical reference books everywhere, the Ohms law
wheel simplies conversions between watts, volts, ohms and amps.
WHAT IS The most important calculation for a consumer is voltage times
THE WATT? amperage, which equals wattagean appliances power require-
mentsand the basis of the unit in which electricity is sold.
Watts (W) = voltage (E) x amps (I).
Example: A 240-volt eleric water heater, drawing 18.75 amps

current, consumes 4500 watts. (Used for an hour, it consumes 4.5
kilowatt-hours, or kwh.) At a U.S. average of 11 cents/kwh, about 50
cents buys an hour of full-tilt water heating.
THE SMART
GRID IN YOUR
As home-brewed electricity gets BASEMENT
more sophisticated, expect to see
JUICE items now sold as separate
ROUTES hardwaresuch as solar panel Some benets
inverters and AC/DC disconnects, consumers could
or generator subpanels and see upon
transfer switchesmerge into completion of a
single, standard parts, which are national smart
Power from wind easier to install and understand. grid are already
turbine or solar available in
products like
S T U D I O D ; I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y G A B R I E L S I LV E I R A ; T H A N K S T O B R E E N E L E C T R I C A L , B R O O K LY N , N . Y.
Computerized
Electric Systems
Smart Panel.
DC disconne
Computer
hardware hacked
Power onto a standard
to the breaker panel
Inverter house allows this tool to

monitor individual
circuits, transfer
AC disconne and balance loads
between power
Power from sources, or
the grid Meter manage power
remotely. Simply
having more
information about
each breakers
power consump-
Main panel Automatic Subpanel tion can be the
Power from transfer start of a more
generator switch electrically
efcient lifestyle
leave the
refrigerators door
open, witness the
Vks#RRNVGq In a power outage, a backup generator provides elericity to designated real-time
#q#4Qw\q circuit breakers. Natural gas or propane fuels the generators engine, which consumption

?V?j#sYjq spins an alternator to create a magnetic eld that sends current to the home. spike, and get
Its critical that no elericity from the generator back-feeds to the gridlines- motivated.
men working to reore power could be elerocuted. An automatic transfer
switch isolates the generators elericity to keep it o the grid until power is
reored. en the generator shuts down and the transfer switch reverses.
NjNVGqNV: Solar panels and wind turbines feed DC power into an inverter, which
qwj,NV?kq converts it to AC for home use. AC and DC disconne switches allow parts
qYjqYR#jq to be isolated for service. ese syems conantly back-feed to the grid,
qLYsYyYRs#N4kq but during a blackoutto some grid-tied cuomers surprisetheir power
cant be used. One solution: Store power in a battery backup syem.
Inverters like Outback Powers Flexpower One cut equipment cos with
prewired battery conneions and circuit breakers. New micro-inverters
convert DC to AC at the panel, eliminating DC wiring runs.

P M D I Y H O M E /// H O M E O W N E R S C L I N I C Q + A dation drain syem or a lawn surface.
For example, you cant discharge wash-
ing machines or dishwashers into them
to reduce the load on a septic syem.
Continued from page 98 us problems. Weve replaced that, By the way, if youre like me, you
but its had no ee. probably wonder if there isnt a better
when using a varnish, look for prod- My r guess was that the appliance name for these ruures. Maybe yard
us labeled Low VOC or No VOC.) has a bad heating element, but that drain or some other descriptor is more
Shellac is a natural or slightly wouldnt explain why its noisy, so I apt, since all a drywell does is a as a
amber clear coating formed from the called Chris Hall, president of repair subsurface basin that holds water until
dried secretion of the lac bug. Some- clinic.com, a Web-based provider of it can percolate into the ground.
times its called shellac varnish. e repair information and replacement In general, its best to keep dry-
material is dried, cleaned, ground up parts. Washers that dont get enough wells as far from the foundation as
and thinned with alcohol. Durable and water have the symptoms you possible to prevent water from migrat-
fa-drying, its among the olde of describe, Hall says. eyre noisy and ing into the basement or crawlspace.
wood nishes. It can be easily dam- have poor wash performance. The A 10-foot minimum is a good rule of
aged by water, however, including the solution may be to replace the water thumb. Also, its a good idea to line
condensation that comes o a damp inlet valve. at o en solves a ho of the well with geotextile lter fabric to
glass. Many other types of varnish dishwasher problems, he says. prevent ne soil particles from clog-
(including those formulated with poly- e valve is aivated by a solenoid, ging it. Once clogged, it won't dis-
urethane resins) are far more mois- a simple eleromagnetic gate. When charge water into the soil. Finally,
ture-resiant than shellac. the coil in the solenoid is energized, check with your municipality whether
the valve is open and it admits water. its necessary to pull a permit for this.
Washer Woes But if theres a break in the solenoid
We have a two-year-old dishwasher coil or if the valve is plugged with min- Radiant Barriers
that up until recently performed eral deposits, the dishwasher will per- Worth It?
very well. Now this $800 appliance form erratically. Food will be only par- What is your opinion of foil-faced
is noisy and the dishes come out tially removed from the dishes, and the radiant barriers? I wonder if its
damp. ats bad, but whats worse food particles that are washed off worth inalling one in my attic. I live
is that the dishwasher also gives o wont be suspended in enough water in Texas, and you would think that it
a dank odor. We thought the to be ushed out of the appliance makes sense in a hot and sunny
problem might have something to hence the nay odor. Finally, low water climate like this one.
do with our inantaneous gas volume inhibits detergent aion, and Yes, a radiant barrier can reduce heat
water heater, which was also giving this can cause water to cling to the transfer from the attic to the room
dishes rather than sheet o, so below if the attic is poorly insulated. It
q
the dishes come out damp. may cut energy cos from 5 to 12
percent by bouncing as much as
Drywell, Good Well? 95 percent of the heat out of the attic
My yard gets ooded from and into the atmosphere outside. A
runo owing out of my number of udies, including some per-
gutter downspouts. I was formed by the Florida Solar Energy
thinking of inalling two Center, have shown the benefit of
drywells, one at each these barriers when the attic is insu-
downspout. A neighbor told lated to a level of R-19 or less. eir

q me they are illegal. Is a benet declines the more the attic is

drywell a bad idea? Why insulated and is essentially nonexis-
would it be illegal? tent when the attic is insulated to
A drywell can be as simple as a R-30 or above. FC
gravel-lled pit or it can be as
q
]q^ q]q^ complex as a perforated con-
Got a home-maintenance or
crete vault with dimensions repair problem? Ask Roy about it.
qqq
specied by the municipality. In Send your questions to
mo cases, drywells are legal, pmhomeclinic@hearst.com or to
To remove the valve, cut power to the
washer, slide o the spade conneors Homeowners Clinic, Popular Mechan-
but many municipalities do ics, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY
attached to its elerical terminals, and undo
the plumbing conneions. Finally, remove have rules that govern their 10019-5899. While we cannot
the screws holding the mounting bracket. design and use. Typically, wells answer questions individually,
problems of general interest will
cant receive water from any- be discussed in the column.
thing other than a roof, a foun- ?

diy
degree of difficulty
Saggy-Door Blues Sagging door hinges

can oen be rebushed in
REPLACING WORN-OUT DOOR-HINGE BUSHINGS IS QUICK, INEXPENSIVE less than 10 minutes for
A ND WI L L M A K E Y O U R D O O R SH U T L IKE N E W. B Y M I K E A L L E N under 10 bucks.
Late, late, late for work. The that your drivers door is open. Rats.
clock is ticking, so you sprint from the You double-time to the car and slam
parking lot to the oce building at top the doorwhich simply bounces back
speedand hope you dont lose your open. A second attempt, mightier
shoes. You take one la glance across than the r, only bounces it back fur-
the lot to check on your car, and see ther, right into your knee. Ouch. You
INSIDE
qaq"q
qaqq
PHOTOGRAPH BY DENNIS KLEIMAN POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | A PRIL 2010 105

P M D I Y A U T O /// D O O R - H I N G E R E P A I R that Jeep didnt make the parts any-
more. Used hinges were ordered from a
salvage yard, and the bill was eimated
to come in at $400 to $500.
try a kinder, gentler slam, and realize hip to click it shut. What a pain. Guess Well give the mechanic some credit
the end of the door has sagged a good what? Your door hinges are worn out. (his expertise is in engines, brakes and
inch from its original position. e only suspensions, not bodywork) for being
way to close the door is to use both How Much? hone in his eimate. But we knew bet-
hands on the handle (chipping a nger- A mechanic, supposedly a good, ter. Cutting out the old hinges and weld-
nail) and li the 75-pound door up until hone one, had told the driver of this ing in new ones would probably cost
the latch matches the height of the 90s Jeep Grand Cherokee that the about that much, but it wasnt neces-
door riker, and then bump it with your door hinges needed to be replaced, and sary. Why spend a couple of days replac-
ing the hinge when all thats worn
out are some simple bushings? A
trip to the NAPA auto parts ore
and a few minutes of browsing
q
q
the catalogs turned up a Dorman
1. Got the Dremel tool to cut part number specic to our Jeep.
door-hinge repair the pin in half, as And plenty of other vehicles were
kit in hand, and a well. Wear eye lied, all the domeics and Asian
jack or a faithful proteion.
and European cars as well.
minion to support
the door for a few 2. en we simply In fa, the dimensionsthe
1
minutes? The only tapped the pin inside and outside diameter of
real hard part of out with a punch, the bushings, the pin diameter
this procedure is although here we
removing the old show you how to and the overall lengthare lied
pin, which has do it on a hinge in the catalog. If there isnt a kit, a
probably been removed from clever Saturday Mechanic could
peened over to a wrecked car.
keep it from
probably mix and match enough
2
coming out. 3. Once the pin is parts to x darned near any door.
We tried a grinder, loose you can A minutes worth of detective
a cold chisel and a unbolt the inner work proved that the pin on our
le on the hinge half from
hardened pin, and the cars A-pillar Jeep was 0.372 inches, nomi-
ultimately used a and remove it to nally 38 of an inch. And the outer
carbide burr on a the workbench. diameter of the bushings was
die grinder to
remove the pins 0.503 inches, a nice press-t for
lip. You could use a a half-inch hole. Yours will be sim-
cuto wheel on a ilar but probably not the same.
106 APRIL 2010 | POPULARMECHANICS.COM I L LU S T R AT I O N S BY G A B R I E L S I LV E I R A

P M D I Y A U T O /// D O O R - H I N G E R E P A I R requiring us to grind the head of the old
pin down. If you plan on rebushing a lot
of doors, there are special tools to press
the pins out. Regardless, youll need to
Lipped Oilite bronze bushings are shop, and lifted the open door up remove the pin somehow.
available at indurial supply houses in a slightly with a oor jack to unweight With the pins tapped out, its a sim-
dizzying array of sizes. A pair of these the hinge. No oor jack? A ack of 2 x ple task to remove the inner hinge by
and a length of bar ock would let you 4 scraps or a scissors jack will do. Even unscrewing the bolts that hold it to the
make almo any car door t. a patient assiant who doesnt mind A-pillar. Press or tap the new bushings
We didnt need to go to those reverse-curling a car door for 10 min- into the removed hinge half. Inalla-
lengths. We found a $6.95 kit for this utes or so will do. Dont let the door tion is the reverse of this procedure.
truck at the auto parts orealthough hang by only one hinge, le the remain- With a friend or a jack holding the door
we did have to order it. We walked into ing hinge bend. so all the holes line up, tap the pin into
the ore at 8:45 am and had the part in Some OEM door-hinge pins are place. Odds are the pin is tapered
our hand right a er lunch. Nice. retained by E-rings or cotter pins, mak- slightly to help get it arted. Lightly
ing their removal trivial. Ju pop out tighten the hinge bolts.
Li and Separate the cotter or E-ring, and push the hinge Our Jeeps pin had to be tapped in
We pulled the truck into the pin out. Ours was swaged into place, from the bottom, to clear the door
sheet metal. Although the
head of the pin was knurled
to hold it into its gravity-
defying place, we elected
for a more positive reten-
tion syem; we ju tacked
4 it with a MIG welder.
Now close the door. It
should line up properly with
the fender or door, front and
rear. If not, loosen the bolts
slightly, and reposition the
inner hinge half to make it t
properly. Tighten the bolts.
6 Belt and
5 Suspenders
To repair that top hinge,
we inveed a total of about
10 minutes. Surprisingly,
the lower hinge bushings
were very lightly worn, so
we le them alone. If you
need to tighten up the
4. Pry the 5. e replacement lots of door-opening back to the
worn-out bushings bushings are made aivity. We simply A-pillar with the lower hinge, nish the top
from the hinge of oil-impregnated tapped the new bolts nger-tight. hinge first, and align the
half. e worn bronze, and bushings into place With a little help, door. en tackle the lower
OEM bushings promise to outla lightly with a line up the holes
were made of brass the originals hammer. e lip on and tap the hinge. There are two rea-
cloth wrapped with although we cant the new bushings new hinge pin sons for this: Fir o, there
some sort of ber, really complain goes where the lip into place. e are probably a bunch of
and had worn until about the service on the old bushings pin on our Jeep
there was life of door-hinge was, at the top and had to come in
wires that run into the door
metal-to-metal bushings that have bottom of the from the bottom to run power windows and
conta, allowing seen 145,000 miles hinge arms. because the door locks, and you dont want
the door to droop of service in heavy 6. Now you can sheet metal to have to hold the door ill
nearly an inch. urban driving with inall the hinge was in the way.
enough to keep from tear-
ing them free as both
q
q
hinges are disconnected.
Secondly, realigning the
door will be much simpler
one hinge at a time. FC

Many OEM tie-rod ends and
ball joints can
be drilled and
tapped to inall
a grease tting,
which should
double their
life span.
by Mike Allen
Sealed
for Life
Q toI read in one of your old columns that its possible
add a grease tting to the destined-for-failure
sealed ball joints
on new cars.
A This is one of my favorite com-
How can I do this?
plaints about new cars. Specifi-
cally, that manufacturers exclude a
10 cent zerk fitting on the ball joints
and steering tie-rod ends of their vehi-
cles. That way, when the grease dries
out in a couple of years, the joint quickly
wears out, and you have to replace the
part. Pumping in a nickels worth of
grease twice a year would save hun-
dreds of dollars of parts and labor when
they fail prematurely.
So, I ju thumb my nose at planned
obsolescence and add the ttings. (Sur-
prisingly, virtually all replacement fit-
tingseven the ones made by the OEM
suppliers as exa replacementshave
the proper grease fitting in the box
when you buy them at the parts ore.
Go gure.) Its easy to do:
Start by drilling a 316-inch hole in
the sheet-metal cap on the bottom of Now you can ju thread in the t- Fore!
the joint. Odds are you can do this with- ting. Be aware there are several yles I have a 48-volt eleric golf cart with
out removing the part from the car, of zerk ttings. You may need a raight, dead batteries. Can I replace the eight
although for some tie-rod ends, you 45- or 90-degree zerk to allow the 6-volt batteries with four 12-volt
might need to unhook them to get grease gun to hook onto the end of the deep-cycle marine batteries?
clearance for the drill to run in raight. tting. Dont forget the little rubber cap Short answer: Yes. As youve probably
Coat the drill with grease and go slowly to keep the end of the tting clean. Now gured, itll be a lot cheaper. Long
at the end to capture mo of the chips. all you have to do is pump some grease answer: You might not want to.
Now use a small pipe tap that matches into the tting every 6 months or so. Okay, you might need to make some
your tting to thread the hole. Again, Add grease until the boot is turgid, and minor changes to the wiring harness. And
pack the utes on the tap with grease grease is leaking out of the seams. Your dont forget to tie the new batteries down
to catch mo of the chips. front suspension will thank you. so they cant bounce, both as a matter of
110 A PRIL 2010 | POPUL A RMECH A NIC S.COM P H OTO G R A P H B Y J A S O N H A M I LT O N

To advertise in the PM Marketplace
contact Beth Boyle at (914) 461-3269
or beth@specialaditions.com
P M D I Y A U T O /// C A R C L I N I C Q + A
safety and to keep the vibrations from more rapidly as well, because youll be
cracking the batteries internal plates. asking them to deliver more than theyre
ose four marine batteries you want comfortable with.
to use have substantially less energy A better alternative would be six
capacity than the eight 6-volters youre 8-volt oor-polisher batteries. Unfortu-
replacing, unless the 6-volters are pretty nately, that swap wont be cheap either.
small. While batteries vary, overall weight Look around for used or even refur-
is a pretty good predior of the energy- bished floor-polisher batteriesyou
orage capacity of a ooded-cell deep- might get lucky.
cycle battery. If the capacity of the new
battery pack is less, youll be drawing a Drinking Games
lot more current, relatively speaking. And e gasoline I use contains approxi-
the battery discharge rate isnt linear. mately 10 percent methanol. Is it
Drawing 50 percent more current could necessary to add isopropyl-alcohol
reduce the battery capacity by an fuel-line drier to the fuel to remove
amount subantially more than 50 per- condensed water from the fuel tank?
cent. Halving the size of the battery pack Fir o, I sincerely doubt your gasoline
could reduce your range to only a quar- contains any methanol. And virtually all
ter of the original packs range. The of the car manufaurers prohibit the use
smaller battery pack will sulfate and fail of more than 5 percent methanol in their
q!qq Tighten Your Belt
q
q
qq
Poly-V belts seem to la hang a new belt. faures mo of the
a lot longer than the ose are cata- replacement belts in the
old-fashioned V-belt ever rophic failures. Normal U.S. market. eyve got
did. Its not unusual for a wear is more insidious. a clever gauge that will
belt that uses a spring- e failure mode here is tell you when a belt has
loaded automatic that the rubber lining the exceeded its wear limit.
tensioner to la 100,000 grooves is wearing out, a Slide the gauge into a
miles or longer. But like bigger problem for groove in the belt and run
any moving part, these vehicles that run in duy your nger over the
belts eventually wear out or sandy environments. groove. If you can feel the
too. Its easy to see some A belt can be so worn gauge anding proud in
of the signs of imminent that it arts to slip, ju the ribs, ne. If not, time
failure, like weather- a little, before the for replacement. You can
checked rubber or the reinforcing cord shows or get a gauge from Gates
dangling rings of the the rubber arts to look for free at gatesrubber
reinforcing fabric like alligator shoes. But .com. And do I need to
whipping around. ese how worn is worn out? remind you to do this
both mean its time to Gates Rubber manu- with the engine o?
vehicles. Its highly corrosive, and the
fuel system needs to be specially
hardened to use it successfully. Sure,
there were a bunch of M85-capable
ex-fuel vehicles on the market back
in the 90s, but I doubt many of them
are still on the road. And Im not
aware of any methanol-blended gaso-
line currently available in the U.S.
So you are probably mistaken:
Much of the commercially available
pump gas in the U.S. has ethanol
blended in as an oxygenate, to lower
emissions. Regionally and seasonally,
it can be as much as 10 percent, and
mo cars run ne on it.
Consequently, the need for fuel-
line driers like isopropyl alcohol is
much reduced. Alcohol, whether its
ethanol, isopropanol or methanol will
absorb a certain amount of water
and hold it in solution. A few percent
of water will then simply be carried
into the engine, where it ashes into
eam harmlessly in the combuion
chamber. However, theres a point
where even 10 percent ethanol cant
trap all the water. Add a few drops
more to a mixture of water, alcohol
and gasoline thats near its satura-
tion point, and a phenomenon called
phase separation occurs. All of the
water and alcohol drop out of solu-
tion, leaving a cloudy layer under the
gasoline. Neither the gasoline nor the
wateralcohol mix underneath it will
burn, so your only recourse is to drain
the tank and art over.
Trailing Along
I read your answer in the December
issue about asher relays with
much intere. Ive been able to
make trailer-light loads a nonissue
by replacing the trailers tungen
lament bulbs with LED light bulbs.
e load is so negligible that
tow-vehicle elerical syems
dont even know they are there.
at said, these bulbs are all axial:
ey shine only raight out of the
tip of the bulb. ey work well
when they point raight back-
wards, and can hardly be seen at all
if the bulb is mounted sideways like
they are in some taillights. As a
benet, the trailer brake lights
come on a tenth of a second faer
P M D I Y A U T O /// C A R C L I N I C Q + A I dont know where youre sourcing
your LED bulbs, but Ive found some
that have a dierent light pattern. You
can get them designed to shine raight
than the andard bulbs. Some of us dierent cars or trucks and dont want back from the socket, or at right angles
have replaced brake lights with LEDs to swap out ashers all the time, using for light fixtures that have vertically
for ju this reason. LED bulbs makes things a lot less com- mounted sockets. ere are even omni-
Point well taken about LED trailer plicated. Switching to LEDs is even direional bulbs that work great in trail-
bulbsthese bulbs draw so little cur- more compelling when you have a vehi- ers or motorcycles that need to be seen
rent compared to conventional incan- cle that uses an integrated asher mod- from the side as well as from behind.
descent bulbs that the asher doesnt ule that controls a lot of other funions Also, the time dierence between an
care, and ash rate is unaeed inead and that isnt amenable to a simple LED and an incandescent bulbs illumi-
of looking like a Vegas marquee. When replacement with a 10-dollar heavy- nation is more like 400 to 500 millisec-
youre towing a trailer with a bunch of duty asher relay. onds, not just a tenth. Do the math:
When you slam on your brakes at 60
mph, thats 35 to 44 feet more warning
for the driver behind you.
Not So Fa
Was your advice on recharging a dead
battery in the December issue
completely wrong? Aer mulling it
over for a while, it sure seems so. Let
me count the ways:
1. A special-purpose charger is
unnecessary since the alternators
primary funion is to charge the
battery. e car runs o the battery so
the alternator is not necessary. Ive
driven home without one.
Bosch and ACDelco both sugge its
better to charge a dead battery oine.
e alternators primary funion is not
to charge the battery, its to provide
elerical energy to run all of the vehi-
cles syems. Battery charging occurs
when there is excess power a er run-
ning all the accessories.
2. I would never hook up a dead
battery to a donor car without the
engine running. You risk having two
dead batteries.
e elerical surge when you hook up
two cars for jump-arting can damage
things like ereos and onboard com-
puters. Better to keep both cars shut
off to isolate the electrical systems,
then art the donor car a er a few min-
utes. It would take hours to deplete the
donor cars battery enough to keep it
from starting, unless the donor cars
battery is almo dead already.
3. I looked at an alternator, and I
dont see where there is room for a
cooling fan. Why would a spinning
device need one? And I dont see why
driving at freeway speeds would be
superior to idling.
e fan is internal, blowing cool air over Struttin what the dealer is proposing?
the regulator and diodes. An alternator I have a 2003 Honda Element and I Yeah, that lower bolt on almost any
will generate only a small portion of its want to replace the rear ruts. e shock can be tough. Ive resorted to
rated output at idle. e regulator and lower mounting bolt has rued itself using everything from a Sawzall to an
diodes aually run much cooler at high to the sleeve that goes through the acetylene torch to get these things
rpm and high current output (like driving rubber bushing. I tried using penetrat- apart. But Ive never needed to cut the
at freeway speeds) than at idle rpm and ing oil, but theres no way any type of mount o the control arm. My usual pro-
low current output (like attempting to oil is going to soak all the way through cedure is to grind o the head (assuming
charge a dead battery by idling a car in that whole sleeve. I took the vehicle to youve got the nut o) and the part of
the driveway). my local dealer and they couldnt get the bolt icking out. en, if you bend
4. I agree with you Mike, car batteries the bolt out either. ey said the the lower U-shaped mount apart ju a
are not designed for deep discharging. procedure would require cutting out little, you can pry the whole mess out.
But a one-time discharge will mo the shocks. So my queion is this, is e mount will bend right back when
likely have negligible ee. Aer all, there any reasonable alternative to you tighten down the new shock. FC
there are lead-acid batteries designed
for deep dischargingthey simply
have thicker plates.
Its well-documented in the battery
indury that even a single inance of
deep discharging (below 6 to 7 volts
open-circuit) will art the process of
sulfating, reducing the batterys crank-
ing amps, energy-orage capacity and
life span. The differences between a
conventional arter battery and a deep-
cycle are far more profound than the
thickness of the plates. e lead alloy is
dierent, for one thing.
Hot Windshield
I have a 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 with
a 5.9-liter V8. No matter where I put
the seleor switch to dire heat or
cool air, it only comes out of the
defroer vents. Is this vacuum-driven
or is there an elerical switch gone
bad that controls where the air goes?
Your pickup, unlike many vehicles, uses
elerical auators rather than vacuum
motors to control the mode doors in
the HVAC plenum. You may have a prob-
lem as simple as an elerical conneor
thats dislodged or a rod thats fallen o
a bellcrank on the mode door. If the re
of the HVAC controls are working, that
limits your problem to one small area,
so it should be easy to weasel out.
Got a car problem?

Ask Mike about it. Send your ques-
tions to pmautoclinic@hearst.com or
to Car Clinic, Popular Mechanics, 300
W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019-
5899. While we cannot answer ques-
tions individually, problems of general
interest will be discussed in
the column.
diy
Fighting
Cable Chaos
IT IS ONE OF THE NATURAL LAWS OF TECHNOLOGYCABLES TEND TOWARD A STATE OF DISORDER.
HERES HOW TO GET YOUR WIRES TO BEHAVE. B Y A N T H O N Y V E R D U C C I
The completely wireless com-

puter, like the paperless society, is a
utopian fiction of the technological
world. Look behind any desk and youll
likely see a rats ne of power and
data cables for USB-conneed drives,
printers, multiple screens, keyboards,
webcams, mice, digital cameras, cam-
corders, iPods, cellular phones and
oh, the ironywireless routers. And
the mess of connections is by no
means limited to computing devices.
Audiovisual gear is ju as bad, if not
worse. A TV, receiver, disc player, gam-
ing syem and conellation of speak-
ers can require such a spaghetti bowl
Braided Sleeving of wires that ju determining what is
$14 to $30 (depending on length) conneed to what can take 20 min-
is retchy mesh can expand its diameter by 150
percent. e more expensive u wraps around utes of troubleshooting.
wires, no threading required. So whats wrong with messy
INSIDE qqaqNq"qaqq"

STUDIO D
PHOTOGRAPHS BY J MUCKLE POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | A PRIL 2010 117

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P M D I Y T E C H /// C A B L E M A N A G E M E N T will make your setup look better and
save time when swapping equipment
in and out.
wiring? If youre asking that queion, bother you, then embrace your inner Get Organized
then maybe the answer for you is entropi and let your wires intermingle Bundling wires together and get-
nothing. If the aesthetics, trapped freely. But we here at PM believe that a ting them out of the way is easy, but
dust bunnies and confusion dont little invement in cable management doing so with no advance planning can
q
Velcro Ties Foam Twi Ties WireMate Cable Turtle Cord Clips Dotz Cable
$5 for 10 $10 for six $20 $5 (small) $10 for six Identiers
Also known as hook- ese so ties is plaic enclo- $6 (medium) To keep cords from $10 for 10
and-loop ties, these treat cables gently, sure mounts to the $9 (large) slipping o your ese clip-on mark-
raps secure your but tend to be backside of a desk, Another way to desk when not in ers are color-coded
wires like zip ties, expensive. Want allowing you to wrap manage cable use, attach icky- and have graphic
but tear free for to save money? up slack on hooks slack, the Turtle backed clips such tags inside that
easy access. Buy in Check garden inside, then close it pops open its rub- as CableDrops can clue you in to
a variety of colors centers, where up to hide away the ber shell to wrap (shown below) what device is at
to help keep things foam-covered wire mess where no one up extra wire, then or 3M Command the other end. For a
organized. sells for 30 cents can see it. snaps closed to cord clips to your cheaper alterna-
a foot. hold it in place. desktop. tive, use colored
tape ags.
cause more problems than it solves. Wrap It Up as the Cable Turtle, or use a cable-
Youll ju be consolidating the tangled If you are a frequent tinkerer, regu- organizing enclosure such as the Wire-
mess that you already have. Instead, lar twi and zip ties may be a bit too Mate (see opposite).
art fresh and unplug everything, then permanent for you, so it might be And if masking-tape labels arent
group your cables by application (e.g., worth a step up to more functional pretty enough for you, try pre-printed
wires that conne your PC and screen). cabling solutions. Velcro ties and foam Kableags or color-coded, clip-on Dotz
If you are setting up your system twi ties allow for some quick-release Cable Identiers (see opposite).
from scratch, think about ordering col- access and are kinder to your cables. e nal opportunity for organiza-
ored wires from a bulk supplier such as Wires that you change less frequently tional elegance comes in your choice of
monoprice.com. Color-coding wires for (such as speaker wire), can be gathered power rip. Pick a model with color-
each component provides quick visual together using a mesh sleeving kit coded outlets and plenty of space for
reference for your conneions. or split loom (both are also available bulky adapters. And get it o the ground
Now is also a good time to reorga- in colors). Got slack le over? Wind by screwing or zip-tying it to the back of
nize your work area. For inance, if you it around a spool-like device known your desk or rack. FC
have a few external USB peripherals
conneed direly to your PC, a pow-
ered USB hub will let you move these
devices to a less crowded seion of
desk a foot or two away. en you can
either tie up the cords for your devices,
or replace them with shorter ones. And
if youre ill using a corded keyboard
and mouse, consider ditching them for
wireless equipment.
Break Out the Power Ties

You dont need fancy supplies for
cable management (although, as youll
see, such things can be useful). You
can tidy things up by simply using twi
ties or zip ties, magic markers and a
roll of masking tape.
Separate wires into bundles with
between three and six cablestoo
many in one group increases the chance
that youll have to cut everything loose
next time you want to make a change.
Separate power cables from signal
cables such as USB and RCA audio.
Mo cables are shielded, but its be
not to expose signal cables to excessive
eleromagnetic interference.
Start by using the ties to take up any
slack in the wire lengthbut be sure to
leave a few inches of play for compo-
nents that need to move around on
your desk. When using zip or twi ties,
dont overtighten, as too much tension
damages softer cable jackets. Also,
overtightening twi ties can make it
dicult to cut the cables free later. If
you can, use the ties to secure wires to
a leg or the frame of your desk or table;
letting cables dangle freely puts
unwanted weight and stress on the
jacks they plug into. Laly, use masking
tape and a marker to label wires (at
both ends) and power bricks.
Modded Machines
Q Ive heard reports that Microso has
banned modded Xbox 360s from its
Xbox Live online gaming service.
Whats the deal with this?
by Seth Porges
A Like other video-game consoles,

Microso s Xbox 360 comes with
built-in guards that prevent it from play-
taken to modding their machines so
that they can play bootleg games by sol-
dering in a chip or installing unauthor-
Warfare 2), the company dropped the
biggest bomb of all, banning a huge
number of modied consoles in one fell
ing bootleg copies of games. e moti- ized firmwarewarranty-voiding acts swoop. Some reports peg the total
vation for this is obviousMicrosoft that may even be illegal under the Digi- number of newly banned consoles as
wants to block piratingbut it is tal Millennium Copyright A. high as a million, although Microso
matched by the desire of some gamers Well, the empire has struck back. denies that gure and has not released
to skirt all barriers. Many users have Over the pa few years, Microso has an ocial number (nor will the com-
taken to banning some pany discuss exactly how it detects
modified machines which consoles have been modded).
from its Xbox Live And if a console has been banned, its
tech term MIRASOL online multiplayer banned for goodnot even ripping
gaming service, citing out the mod chip will get it back online.
E Ink displays give e-readers epic battery life and are a violation of the con- is ban is no small deal for Xbox
easy on the eyes, but they are hampered by slow soles Terms of Service 360 users. e syem may lack the
refresh times and currently come only in black-and-
white. ats why future devices could feature
agreement. And in Wiis motion-sensing controller or the
Qualcomms new Mirasol display tech, which matches November 2009 (a PlayStation 3s ability to play Blu-ray
E Inks long battery life and readability with an LCDs date likely picked to movies, but when it comes to online
ability to show vibrant color and video. Like E Ink, it coincide with the multiplayer gaming, it is the undisputed
rees ambient light, dispensing with a power-draining
and eye-raining backlight. e company says we release of mega-selling leader. In fa, the Xbox Live experience
should see it built into e-readers as soon as this year. Call of Duty: Modern is so solid that millions of users willingly
122 A PRIL 2010 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM I L LU S T R AT I O N BY M I K E H I L L

fork over $8 per month (or $50 per
year) to access the service, despite
the fa that online gaming is com-
plimentary on the rival Nintendo Wii
and PS3 consoles. And Xbox Live
has expanded into more than ju a
venue for die-hard Halo and Modern
Warfare players to duke it out
recent updates have given it the
ability to ream movies from Net-
ix and to access sites such as Twit-
ter and Facebook.
The ban means that anyone
shopping for a used Xbox 360 faces
an added measure of risk. Remem-
ber, its the machine that gets
blocked from Xbox Live, not a user
or account. Today, there is no way of
knowing if a second-hand console
even one purchased from a legiti-
mate brick-and-mortar retailer such
as GameStopwill be able to
access Xbox Live. Almo immedi-
ately a er the late ban was imple-
mented, a torrent of cheap used
Xbox 360 machines ooded Craigs-
list and eBay, and its likely that
many of them wont be able to go
online. My advice: Never purchase a
used Xbox 360 console unless you
have personally seen it successfully
log on to Xbox Live. A er all, even if
you have no intere in online gam-
ing, you may still want to watch
some Netix movies.
Sonic Steadiness
When Im liening to music in
iTunes, some songs will come out
noticeably louder than others,
requiring me to conantly ddle
with the volume control. Is there
any way to x this?
If youre anything like me, your digi-
tal music library is full of songs from
all sorts of different sources. And
between all these ripped CDs, vari-
ous online music stores and free
downloads, theres really nothing to
ensure that they all come in at a
steady volume level. The result: A
simple song shuffle can quickly
transform your quiet evening of
music into an ear-blaing race for
the volume dial.
But theres an easy x (assuming
the volume dierence isnt too huge).
Go to your iTunes Preferences menu
P M D I Y T E C H /// D I G I T A L C L I N I C Q + A Online backup services have another
potential problem as well: eres the
possibility that they will suer their own
crashes or data lossesor simply go
and sele the Playback tab. From there, takes time, and problems can arise if out of business. And if that happens,
check the box labeled Sound Checkit the photos dont align perfely. My pre- youll denitely wish you had a physical
will automatically adju the song vol- ferred method: the unique panoramic backup as well.
umes so they all come out at a relatively feature built into some new Sony point- So while I encourage you to take
conant level. and-shoots, such as the Cyber-shot advantage of online data backup ser-
DSC-HX5V. When you hold the shutter vices (as long as you are willing to
Opening Windows button down and sweep the camera pay the $55 to $60 per year that they
I currently use Apples Boot Camp from side to side or up and down, it co), they should be viewed only as one
program to run Windows on my quickly takes a series of shots using its part of your data backup conellation,
MacBook, but it requires me to reart burst mode and automatically fuses and not as a replacement for external
my computer to switch between them together into a panoramic pic- hard drives.
operating syems. Is there a way I ture. e camera allows you to capture
can run both at the same time? panoramic shots that stretch 270 Padded Content
Apples free Boot Camp program makes degreesa range that far exceeds the I heard that the new Apple iPad tablet
it easy for users of Intel-based Macs to capabilities of mo cameras. can run regular iPhone apps. Wont
also run Windows on their machines. they look really weird on a big screen?
But because Boot Camp requires users Cloud Storage e Apple iPad aually has two dier-
to reboot the computer in order to Ive read about online data orage ent modes that iPhone apps can run in.
switch between Windows and Mac OS, services like Mozy. Are these good One plays them at their normal size
you will need a third-party program to enough to let me ditch my external within a window, while the other simply
run both at the same time. ere are hard drive? doubles the number of pixels in order to
numerous such programs on the mar- Online data backup and orage services, articially force them to ll the iPads
ket, and mo of them work well enough, such as Carbonite and Mozy, have drawn 9.7-inch screen (which is, of course,
but I personally like Parallels Desktop a lot of attention latelyand with good much larger than the iPhones 3.5-inch
for its seamless integration of Windows reason. For the mo part, they are very screen). A double-pixeled piure wont
and Mac interfaces. good at their primary purposethat is, look quite as sharp as an app running in
If youve already inalled Windows backing up les on the cloud, so they can a smaller window, but whats the point
on a Mac using Boot Camp, you wont be accessed from any Internet-enabled of having such a large touchscreen if you
need to reinall it to run other dual-OS PC or retrieved in the event your com- dont use it? FC
solutionsbut getting this set up can puter goes kaput. But an external hard
take a little bit of work. drive is about more than ju data
ere are basically two approaches: backupits about media orage and
One allows you to keep booting through sharing. And when it comes to this, no Got a technology problem?
Ask Seth about it.
Boot Camp. e third-party companies online service can yet match the plug- Send your questions to
behind dual-OS programs supply detailed and-play ease of a USB hard drive. eres pmdigitalclinic@hearst.com or
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sethporges. While we cannot
e other option moves the entire quickly pull a le o the cloud is limited by answer questions individually,
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new program. To do this, youll need to if you are dealing with large movie les.
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Family Tree
( C ON T I N U E D FROM P AG E 73)
ing me down and up my ladder

over and over. Back on the plat-
form, Id reach for my measuring
tape or pencil and see it lying in
the grass by my sawhorses. I now
marched up the 45-degree ladder
as if up a ight of stairs. Neverthe-
less, I learned to always stow my
tools in my tool belt and to loop
the extension cord around a limb.
Things got cramped up there.
One by one, I nailed the rafters
atop the stud walls while standing
inside the 5 x 8foot house, along-
side the mature tree trunk. The
more rafters I attached, the less
space I had for swinging my big
California framing hammer. I felt
a bit like the storybook Alice after
she had grown so large her arm
poked out the cottage window.
Since the shed roof sloped from 7
feet down to 5 feet, I kept bumping
the 6-foot 3-inch high crown of my
head on the oak rafters. Recoiling
in pain, Id scrape my back or arms
on the scaly tree bark.
Once the framing was com-
plete, I drove a borrowed pickup
truck 30 minutes to Dayton, Va., a
rural Shenandoah Valley commu-
nity with a large Old Order Menno-
nite population. I passed men in
straw hats pedaling bicycles and
driving horse-drawn buggies on
my way to Martins Native Lumber.
The warehouse was surrounded by
what felt like an acre of siding,
sawn and stacked high overhead,
open to the sky and surrounded by
pastureland. Martins had just
what I was looking formilled
white-pine barn siding with a
rough-sawn face. Most of it had
been sitting in the yard long
enough to turn a soft gray. When I
told them I needed something thin
and light for a treehouse, they
offered to plane the 34-inch stock
down to 916 of an inch for a couple
of pennies more per foot, bringing
the total price per lineal foot to 50
cents, one-third the cost of the fan-
cier pine siding from my local lum-
beryard. I ordered the same rustic
qq
pine in a thicker prole to trim the and nylon rope. To keep the heavy
windows, door and corners. hatch from slamming shut on young
The lap siding went up quickly ngers, I strung a counterweight (an
and smoothly. The same was true for old railroad hammerhead I found at a
the roof. I laid cedar shakes over skip junk shop) through a small pulley
sheathing1 x 4inch boards nailed above. As the hatch slowly closes, the
5 inches on center across the roof raf- weight rises inside a section of PVC
ters to allow the cedar to breathe. pipe. I built a Dutch door and installed
Snapping chalk lines, I crabbed it between house and porch. Not long
myself from one side of the roof to after I had put my tools away, I found a
the other, tacking down the fragrant scrawled note on the kitchen counter.
shakes. Having to custom cut each Dere Dad, it read, I have gon
shingle to match the contour of the awt to the tree haws, Eliot. She and
curves slowed my progress. But I her friends Grace and Gillian were
didnt mind. That one-of-a-kind look hauling blankets and books and
is part of a treehouses charm. As snacks up by rope and bucket.
with the oor, I left a gap around the I love this transportation! Grace
tree trunk to allow for growth, as well yelled as she hauled up another load.
as movement in strong winds. I smiled, realizing this was probably
One afternoon in early August, as the rst treehouse any of them had
thunderheads boiled up over the val- ever seen. A different era. Soon, they
ley, John and I drove to some wooded raised the ladder and battened down
property belonging to his wifes fam- the hatch, and Luther red holly ber-
ily. He had a chain saw and loppers. I ries at them from below with a home-
brought along gloves and a curved made slingshot as shrieks echoed
pruning saw. We felled half a dozen through the neighbors backyards.
young red maples, with trunks as big During the kids rst week back in
around as my forearm. I limbed and school, a late- summer wind blus-
cut them just as warm, nickel-size tered up. I raced out back, wobbling
raindrops began drumming the hood up the rope ladder and through the
of his Ford F-150. Back at the house, I hatch under the guise of conducting
cut the poles down to 28 inches and a wind-worthiness test. The oak
nailed them between pairs of 2 x 3s framing felt solid underfoot, and I
to create railing sections. I fastened smiled, glad to have built with it,
those between 4 x 4inch oak corner more glad the construction was done.
posts for a rustic railing sturdy I wedged myself in a corner and rode
enough to withstand anything my out the gusts. The sky was a crisp
kids could dish out. blue, and sunlight ashed through
By then, much to my delight, the windows as branches swished
Luther and Eliot were raring to goto and whipped. As the timbers creaked,
climb, explore and inadvertently test I felt both snug and exhilarated to be
the structural soundness of things the sailing in the wind. For a moment, I
way only kids can do. I quickly fash- was untethered, freelike a kid in a
ioned a ladder out of wooden dowels treehouse. FC

For advertising rates call Angela Hronopoulos (212) 649-2930, fax: (646) 280-2930.
Buy a subscription to
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for your friend!
Visit
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for more information
q qq
Name: q
Location: 8q
``
Age: tEq
Years on Job: ZF
1. q!
Owens balloons have up to
four burners that are capable
of producing 20 million Btu
at 100 psi. e burners heat
the air inside the balloon to
between 150 and 250 F, giving
it the li to y.
1
2. q
ree to four 20-gallon eel
propane tanks supply the burn-
ers with fuel. e vapor pres-
4
sure in the tanks forces the fuel
through a valve to the burners;
in cold conditions, Owen adds
nitrogen to boo the pressure.
3. ! qq
q
e top of the balloon is made
of silicone-coated nylon. Closer
6 to the burners, it is composed
of Nomex, a durable heat- and
ame-resiant material.
e envelope holds 120,000
2 cubic feet of air, allowing the
3
balloon to li approximately
2100 pounds.
4.
qq
Owens Flytec syem
measures interior envelope
temperature and includes
5 an altimeter, a rate of climb
indicator and a barometer.
He uses a Garmin GPS unit to
determine his groundspeed
and direion of travel.
5. q
For landings in high wind,
When hot-air-balloon pilot Brooke Owen goes to a party, he cant escape work Owen uses these lines to open
everyone wants to know what a balloon pilot aually does. Its an odd job, admits a 30-foot-wide valve in the top
of the balloon, deating it.
the 35-year-old, who got his private pilots certication at age 21. In the years since, hes
own balloons shaped like a tire, the space shuttle and the Canadian maple leaf. Now, hes 6.
q!
a chief pilot for Rainbow Ryders, which carries 11,000 passengers each year 2000 feet is basket is made of exible
above the Rio Grande and the Albuquerque area, where they spot mesas, desert foliage rattana wicker used for its
durability, exibility and light
and coyotes. But what Owen enjoys mo are the tranquility and unprediability of the weightthats woven over a
journey. Wherever the wind blows, thats where youre going, he says. EMILY HAILE ainless-eel frame.
134 A PRIL 2010 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM P H O T O G R A P H B Y L A R S E N & TA L B E R T

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PHOTOGRAPH BY J MUCKLE POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | A PRIL 2010 1

91 The Chips Fall

98 How Your House

105 Saturday Mechanic

110 Car Clinic

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CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Surgeon and author of

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give the outward appearance of tionthrough the Amazon on washed-

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DEUS EX MACHINA Will we know the moment

FIRST ROBOTICS In an eort to inspire a

more magma lurking in the subterranean supervolcano than

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communicates wirelessly with an iPhone mounted on

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3 ates, has a 90 prepared for 4. Delhi, India: 5. Kathmandu,

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Grim Viory for

Murphys Law as it applies to cars: e times you mo need a

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARKO METZINGER POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | A PRIL 2010 21

 a speakers voice rooms, our friends on the other

bound pockets. BY SETH PORGES the other end could hear

22 A PRIL 2010 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM PHOTOGRAPHS BY J MUCKLE

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GREAT PRODUCTS FROM THE 2010 CES SHOW

task as simply as energy the way a 2 feet into the soil

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If every Popular Mechanics reader*

Heres how to take The Challenge and WIN.

Calculations powered by Cooler, Inc.

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cautiously on these unfamiliar twiies. well-earned reputation for toughness

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Deant optimism lled the air  

GM and Chrysler would even survive. Po-bankruptcy, GM

On the rength of e CR-Z Hybrid is a e next-generation e Blue-Will shows Fords onslaught of

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ore than half of the U.S. population lives

A. Servo Computers Scientis control the

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C. Waveboard OSUs previous waveboard was hinged at the

waves, the board is extended. It peaks at a

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The new budget seems merely an

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An engineer, a contractor, a repairman, a pilotordinary guys who overcame

q!q How to Reach Us 4 / Letters 6 / This Is My Job 134

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