Once again, thanks so much to all of you who have taken the time to write . . . I so appreciate it !!! Seeking, thanks for your sympathy and idea of searching the make with +problems . . . I did plug that in, and amazingly enough, came up with OTHER problems we've already had with this dang truck !!! On some other sights, I also did find some similar things . . . And, on another entirely different note . . . . I hope your little puppy continues to recover nicely . . .poor little thing .. I was so sorry to hear that . . just an awful thing to have to go through . . . my good thoughts to puppy and you !!! dktrahan, thanks for the Dodge websites . . . I got quite a lot of useful stuff from them . . . I was on the computer last evening . . . late . . so much so, that my poor eyes are tired tired tired today . . . but I am so determined to get to the root of all of this . . . Sue, not to worry . . . but the husband factor in all of this is really trying . . . too much to go into, but basically it's not helping this situation . . .at all !! He's blaming me and DS for even buying a Dodge product to begin with . . . So, wanted to make it clear that my son is being a total champ through all of this . . . Nina, I think that will be the next step . . . to take it back to the original dealer and tell them to just keep it until they get it figured out . . . and IF they can't figure it out, then somehow, I'm going to try to make them responsible for selling us this truck to begin with !! Someone has to take responsibility for this, and to "eat" the loss . . . Don't think it should be us . . . Supposedly the truck was certified, and I'm thinking that's worthless !!! I feel that we're kind of between a rock and a hard place . . . I'm too honest to not disclose problems with the truck if it comes to trading it in . . I certainly don't want anyone else to have to go through this . . . but we just can't afford to have 18K go down the drain, either . . . We don't want another Dodge product, but I'm wondering if we would have more leverage with the selling dealership if we did go with a new Dodge, then get rid of it at another time . . . Oh heck . .. I have such neck strain, headaches and eyes aches through all of this . . . . . Oh, and re: the computer reprogramming . . . I talked with our friend yesterday who originally diagnosed the problem as needing to reprogram the computer . . . He COULD NOT believe that Dodge wouldn't do that . . . could not believe that Dodge said they wouldn't take responsibliy for anything that might go wrong because of the re-programming . . . I asked if he would mind if I had the Dodge guy call him and they could hash it over . . (they are acquaintances, having worked together years ago) He he didn't mind at all . . . called the Dodge guy, he told me WHY he didn't want to re-program it, saying he had to answer to Dodge as to why it was re-programmed when they couldn't get the problem to duplicate . . . said that even if they did re-program it, that that might not be the problem, which I can understand. I told him plain and simple though, that the truck, to us, is not safe to drive. Oh, and another thing . . .in an e-mail from our service adviser yesterday, he said that assuming there is a problem, that it WILL get worse, to the point of engine failure, and THEN we can bring it back and they'll know what to do !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, so digressing a bit . . . back to the main service guy . . . he suggested that they could just keep it and he'd have his techs drive it home at night to try to duplicate the situation . . also saying that his techs were more experienced drivers than my son, and if anything should go wrong on the freeway, that they'd know more how to handle it . . . Now, all of this just does not leave me with warm fuzzy feelings !!!!!!!!!!!! Bill, thanks for the clogged catalytic converter tip. I e-mailed that suggestion, along with a list of other things that I gleaned from some of the Dodge forums. The catalytic problem sounds so much like what's going on with the truck . . . I'm so wondering just exactly what they've done to check into all of this . . . whether it's just driving the truck to try to duplicate the situation, or really getting into it. My friend that has his own shop told me that dealers really don't like working on warranty work . . . at all !! and sometimes do just what they have to to get it out the door. He did highly recommend this dealership, but for the life of me, and maybe I'm just naive . .. but I can't figure out why THEY can't figure out what's going on !!!!! Well, that's the update for today . . . so far anyway . . . Again, I so appreciate all of your posts, suggestions, and sympathy !!!!! Chris

We pretty much prefer to ride alone but occasionally will ride with a few friends who've we've ridden with for years. We occasionally go on large organized rides, but not too often, and it's usually for some charity event. The largest organized ride we've ever been on was just a few weekends ago. It was a ride for the Make A Wish Foundation out of the Elk Grove Harley Shop (CA). There were in excess of 4500 bikes on the freeway at one time. Man-oh-man, the sound of all those bikes (Harleys, BMW's, rice rockets, Hondas, they were all represented) starting up at one time is unbelievable!!! It was a fully escorted ride and all entrances were blocked off by CHP before the first bikes passed. As cars started catching up with the last quarter of the bikes it got a little dicey but most of the riders said back there said it wasn't too bad...except for all the cars who had drivers on cell phones. :(( Gazania, the Pacific Coast route is awesome on a good day. We've done it several times when heading down to SoCal to visit relatives. I'll ride in rain and hail, but not fog. Jenna

The OP asked why I would spend so much money on a place where I spend so little time. First, if it hadn't fallen apart, I would not have considered it. The kitchen is fifty years old, the bathroom leaked into the ceiling, the cupboards have various damage, and the scratched linoleum has chrome edges that take too long to clean. The clutter on the counter is a fire hazard (mail next to toaster oven)which can be improved by layout and more counter space (nagging is ineffectual). So the old kitchen is worn, cramped and dirty. Second, we had a rise in income, and a decline in health. Looking out twenty years, we will be staying home more. I honestly would have preferred to buy myself a porsche, but I'd rather sit in a pretty new kitchen than shift in DC traffic. I had thought about law school, but I need to be home. I now commute with DH, and it turns out that's all the upgrade the car needed to become enjoyable. So no BMW. I dream about buying a horse or two, but that's not compatible with my job, and they don't respond well to health swings (can't ignore them for a month). So given a preference for staying home, and the question of what can I improve to enjoy it more, a better kitchen is a natural. I wonder if the national demographic shift to elderly living affected the USDA results. My new kitchen will be better for old eyes, backs, and knees. And there's the speed oven too. I love (will pay for) the idea of flexible cooking - that supports full holiday dinners, scratch stir fry, or frozen pizza, as needed. There is a trophy aspect, especially to the appliances. I want my kitchen to say I am a successful professional. I want to impress my mother. I also want the new kitchen to last fifty years. So even if I only really cook a few times a month, and DH twice that (for now), I want to make it easy for us to cook whenever we want/can, and have a beautiful room that makes us feel good. Thanks for making me review my reasoning and choices.

Test it right away. If it is out of balance, you'll need to know this before too much time passes. The tire shop might be reluctant to redo the job if you bring it in a month later. I think I know the type of weights you are referring to. These are special weights that go on rims for high performance, wide profile tires. These rims are wide and have a rather large, wide surface in the inside diameter. The weights are small square coupons that are glued on the inside diameter or the rim. (I looked at a set yesterday on my Buddy's Mustang.) The main reason these come off is a poor glue job and the wheel not rotating very fast when going over really jamming bumps like a railroad crossing in poor condition. They rarely come off at high speed because the centrifugal force presses them against the rim. Good adhesion requires that the surface be chemically clean. To test, get your car up to at least 60 to 65 miles per hour. The wheels should run smooth at 65 mph before accepting the balance job. Another factor that can cause a wheel to be in balance at zero speed,but go out of balance at speed is a tire with a stretched belt. The belt may have been damaged with too much air pressure during mounting. (The pressure cast in on the sidewall of a tire is the maximum pressure the tire should ever see for any condition. This IS NOT the max. allowable running pressure. The max. running pressure is less.) At low speed, a ruined tie can be round, but goes out of round at speed. Typically, this shows up as the speed approaches 55 MPH. It can happen at other speeds.