In September of 2025, my work is generating the most income it ever has in my career. Yet, I'm being forced to shut down my successul operation, against my will, due to one cause alone: 95% of that revenue is being stolen by piracy and copyright infringement. I've lost more than $1 million to copyright infringement in the last 15 years, and it's finally brought an end to my professional storm chasing operation. Do not be misled by the lies of infringers, anti-copyright activists and organized piracy cartels. This page is a detailed, evidenced account of my battle I had to undertake to just barely stay in business, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem faced by all of my colleagues and most other creators in the field.
This video clip from the dashcam shows my final minute of driving the Ford Freestyle, pulling it into the service bay at Bert Wolfe Ford yesterday. The deep, steady grinding noise you hear (under the loud rattling of the dashcam) is the reason for the shop visit. I got the call today that the noise is from a failing bearing in the transmission, in this case a CVT that came standard with first-generation Freestyles. The repair involves a full replacement of the entire transmission, to the tune of $5,400. Yes, that's five thousand four hundred dollars.
I've had a love-hate relationship with this car (an SUV/wagon 'crossover') over the past 4 years. I chose it strictly because of its spacious, storm chasing-friendly interior and good fuel economy, and for those purposes, it has been an excellent vehicle. But it has had serious reliability and repair issues since the first major breakdown during our 2006 Plains storm chase expedition in Bismarck, North Dakota (that stranded us there for 4 days). If I were to go ahead with the transmission replacement this week, it would put the Freestyle's total repair bills at over $9,000. For a 4-year old car with 154,000 miles on it (95% of those are highway miles), that's far beyond an acceptable repair record.
Facing a repair bill that is more than I owe on the car (and possibly more than it's worth period), it's safe to say that the Freestyle's days are over. So tomorrow will feature a serious talk with Ford over what to do next. For a purchase price of $27,000, I definitely didn't get my money's worth out of the car, by any stretch. By tomorrow night, I'll have either a very positive or very negative review of Ford depending on whether they make good on working out a fair deal. Namely, covering the remaining amount of the loan (which would have been paid off this October) in exchange for me purchasing a new Ford vehicle. So, stay tuned.
Here is the last photo of the Freestyle in action at Statesville, NC during the snowstorm on Sunday:
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From Dan: Please Read
To my regular readers, I offer my apologies for this heavy-handed notice. Unfortunately it has become necessary, so please bear with me!
Please don't copy/upload this site's content to social media or other web sites. Those copies have been a critical problem for me, seriously harming this site and my photography/storm chasing operation by diverting traffic, viewers, engagement and income. "Credit" and "exposure" does not benefit this site or my operation, rather they threaten my ability to cover my operating expenses. Please read my full explanation for this notice here.
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