I’m trying to understand why you’re ripping so hard on him….did he rub you the wrong way somehow….he still had knowledge that was useful no matter how he got it
Look, I’m not trying to rip on him. But when this topic comes up, it is hard to ignore because I and others dealt with bullshit for years. On a plethora of occasions I had very irritating run-ins with him, and every single one exhibited the classic phrase “knowledge does not equal understanding.” The most recent times that come to mind:
1) argued back and forth that LEDs in the side markers can’t work because LEDs are diodes and current only flows one way, blah blah blah. While he knows about the theory of an LED, he doesn’t care to understand the solution I suggested which 100% works. He argued with me back and forth for hours telling me my own solution that works wouldn’t work, and when I really challenged him he resorted to red herrings such as “why do you even need LEDs?!?!” Well - that’s not the point of the thread. The point of the thread is a guy wanted to know how to make LEDs work and I was assisting with that. Meanwhile he derailed the entire thread to pick an argument on my input while also being completely in the wrong.
2) a lady here had 3.73 gears and 31” tires with a 5MT and didn’t like the gears. She asked if she should go to 4.56. I and a few others recommended doing so and Jerry came along suggesting 4.10 and only 4.10 because 4.56 is too much. Even though she had 3.73 and going to 4.10 would only achieve a minor 9% change. Nope, still recommended it, even though in the past he would never recommend going one gear step because it was too minimal difference to be worth the money. He has talked people out of going from 4.10 to 4.56 because it’s too minimal even though that’s an 11.2% change. In other words, contradicted himself hard. The lady reported back a few weeks later that she went with 4.56 and loved it and was so glad she did it. Crickets from the other side of the argument.
3) my most recent interaction and the one he blocked me over was a thread where a kid had swapped from NV3550 to 32RH and needed help getting it to start. He hadn’t done the wiring portion of it yet and Jerry insisted there was no wiring to be done because it’s all plug and play. When challenged I was grilled about how many swaps I had done. None, I don’t need to do swaps to understand how things work. I looked in the FSM and posted exactly where the problem was, the kid needed a jumper harness for the automatic trans. Jerry kept telling him to make sure his shift cable was adjusted. I kept not being listened to by the way, because I’m not JB. I was finally blocked and so our bickering ended and the kid still had a Jeep that wouldn’t start. I pointed out that I had already told him exactly what to do and he needed to quit listening to input from only one person and go fix what he needed to fix. He did that and reported back with success. Go figure, Jerry liked the success post even though he didn’t contribute anything to the success of that problem.
There were plenty of other times too. Recommending an improper way to determine toe and when people used the FSM to prove him wrong, more straw man and red herring arguments came out. Gearing - recommended 4.56 for 33’s with both 5 speed and 6 speed but wouldn’t recommend 4.88 for the 5 speed (due to too high of rpm - even though 4.88 on the 5 speed is a numerically lower final drive than 4.56 with the 6 speed). Told people not to drive in 4wd in the winter after years of telling people not to put a lunchbox locker in the front axle in case they needed to use 4wd in the winter. He always lived and breathed by his own motto he created - “whenever you have a choice, buy American made”…which he wholly ignored when it came to the subject of cheap LED knockoff headlights that were junk and copies of the real thing (Truck Lite). So basically tell everyone else to buy American made, but he wasn’t going to actually buy American made unless it was convenient or cheap. Lots of illogical and inconsistent crap like that over the years. Most products he reviewed and “recommended” were given to him so he often had no investment in anything he actually pushed.
I’m really not here to rip on him but the forum is a nicer place to be without constant boilerplate parroted responses and ending up in bullshit arguments like those I listed above. When I see likeminded individuals saying things I resonate with, I can’t help but chime in. It is really irritating when you know you have helpful info to share here but can’t get it out because you keep getting picked at by someone who is only respected due to their high post count with little actual substance. Makes you not want to come to the forum.
That is all I will say.
