Stuff you just bought thread V2

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Because my wife brought home some kittens that when they do something bad and you catch them, they flop onto their back look up at you and play cute.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NW550KU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and some ski goggles should do the trick. Along with some semi muffled weird noises.

 

[NeoNite]

Make sure it doesn't attach itself to your face.

 

[DRT-Maverick]

Something fuzzy.

He's a white german shepard, we named him Yuki!

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

My wife's 09 lancer was dying (transmission going out), she has been trying to trade vehicles for over a year now. She wanted the aggressive lime here because she said it fit the criteria as a family vehicle. (4 doors)
It is in good shape minus how the additions are moronically wired in. Seriously, somebody had wired a CB to the OBD II constant voltage(1st thing I pulled, replacing with a weather radio/police band scanner). The extra lights are wired to the windshield wiper motor. The electric locking differential is wired to the horn. The winch is actually the only properly wired addition. She also wants actual fender flares put back on it doesn't throw things into the air from the tires.

Side note: that is the original soft top on my red Jeep, and a hail storm 2 weeks ago turned it to Swiss cheese (2-3 inch hail). If you look closely you can see that. I also just finished a custom eco-boost modification (if it works long term with no negative impacts I may try to sell it as an after-market item) and had the gear ratio upped. It's MPG is now 28-35. But I sacrificed 20 MPH off my top end. (Who buys a Jeep thinking it's fast anyways.)

 

[meowcat]

Those are some nice looking Jeeps [GU]elmer_fud! I was out wandering on some forest service roads in the Oly mountains here in Washington State last weekend very much wishing I had a Jeep instead of a pickup (I could have actually been able to negotiate the 16" deep water-bars across the roads). With the 20-mph sacrificed off the top end, what is the new top speed? (28-35 MPG sounds great to me if I could still hit highway speeds!)

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Those are some nice looking Jeeps [GU]elmer_fud! I was out wandering on some forest service roads in the Oly mountains here in Washington State last weekend very much wishing I had a Jeep instead of a pickup (I could have actually been able to negotiate the 16" deep water-bars across the roads). With the 20-mph sacrificed off the top end, what is the new top speed? (28-35 MPG sounds great to me if I could still hit highway speeds!)

New top speed is theoretically about 100mph according gear ratio info, it still has tons of torque (original HP was 194, modification upped it to 212 , so not sure on top speed) so high-way speeds are no issue. Affordability wise, the green jeep was 28k the red one was 8k. So not really difficult price wise to have a jeep instead of a truck. Though If you need a truck for work, i.e. you use the bed a lot, a Jeep is not a good substitute.

 

[meowcat]

That seems pretty good then (topping out at 100 mph). Yeah, the truck has been very useful on a day-to-day basis (and gets me around to about 95% of where I want to go), but if I ever get around to buying a home (having the space to collect "more stuff") I might see about springing for a used Jeep, 8k'ish sounds affordable. Being able to handle rough roads, and actually make it through some snowy terrain would be great. The 2wd small truck is "challenging" to use in the snow... I've gotten reasonably good at managing "power slides" though...

 

[NeoNite]

Nice neighbourhood? Lots of open spaces. Wide roads. It's all smashed together where I live. Rows and rows of houses next to eachother, small roads.. meh..it's suffocating.

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

That seems pretty good then (topping out at 100 mph). Yeah, the truck has been very useful on a day-to-day basis (and gets me around to about 95% of where I want to go), but if I ever get around to buying a home (having the space to collect "more stuff") I might see about springing for a used Jeep, 8k'ish sounds affordable. Being able to handle rough roads, and actually make it through some snowy terrain would be great. The 2wd small truck is "challenging" to use in the snow... I've gotten reasonably good at managing "power slides" though...

I can't find any info that my top speed would be affected, so I don't know for a fact that it even is, but only 100mph is no big deal to me. The mechanics shop that I paid to do the job (I lack some of the needed tools) claimed that that was a negative effect of the gear change. While mathematically it is possible because it affects RPMs/wheel revolution the actual result seems that it should be negligible but I couldn't come up with a reliable formula to calculate. The reason I did it was to counter-act the negative effects of putting larger heavier tires on it. Even though I didn't go monster truck. There are Jeep conversions that turn a jeep to a small truck. But they are not cheap. The 8k was before I added 2k for ties/ rims/, 400 for the front bumper, and 1.1k for the gear ratio change and a lift kit they put on at the same time. They did a terrible job on the lift kit. I will be replacing that with one by AEV which is designed by a former jeep engineer and can actually perform better than stock suspension. But it too isn't cheap.

Nice neighbourhood? Lots of open spaces. Wide roads. It's all smashed together where I live. Rows and rows of houses next to eachother, small roads.. meh..it's suffocating.

It's a bit more cramped than I wanted but ultimately I have seen much worse. My wife picked it because it had a koi pond and lots of flowers...
I live 5 minutes from the edge of Cleburne (which is on the edge of the DFW metroplex) and about 15 minutes form Cleburne state park so all in all not terrible.

 

[DRT-Maverick]

Those are some nice looking Jeeps [GU]elmer_fud! I was out wandering on some forest service roads in the Oly mountains here in Washington State last weekend very much wishing I had a Jeep instead of a pickup (I could have actually been able to negotiate the 16" deep water-bars across the roads). With the 20-mph sacrificed off the top end, what is the new top speed? (28-35 MPG sounds great to me if I could still hit highway speeds!)

You offroad in the PNW? I hit up browns camp a lot, usually stick to the moderate and diamonds. I need more aggressive tires before I can hit double diamonds though.

Honestly with the proper suspension and tires my Xterra will go everywhere those jeeps will go, and depending on if it's equipped with locking diffs or not, perhaps more places

You can make your pickup truck an awesome offroad performer (provided it isn't an extended cab, extended bed, dually F350, then offroad improvement is hopeless).

 

[meowcat]

.....
You can make your pickup truck an awesome offroad performer (provided it isn't an extended cab, extended bed, dually F350, then offroad improvement is hopeless).

My truck is a 2wd 4cyl Tacoma with the access cab, I'm guessing there is not much that can done with it to improve it for more rugged travel. It works great for getting to most of the hiking/climbing trail heads that I like to visit (pretty decent gas mileage), but just doesn't have the clearance for any roadways that are even remotely rugged, or have waterbars deeper than maybe 7" max (though this truck was still an improvement over my previous Toyota Pickup that had all of maybe 6" of clearance). While out hiking and wandering the old narrow and rutted Forest Service Roads on the Olympic Peninsula I'd noticed that the relatively short wheel base of the Jeeps seemed to worked really well on them.

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

...
Honestly with the proper suspension and tires my Xterra will go everywhere those jeeps will go, and depending on if it's equipped with locking diffs or not, perhaps more places

You can make your pickup truck an awesome offroad performer (provided it isn't an extended cab, extended bed, dually F350, then offroad improvement is hopeless).

I have found that parts-wise you don't save any money though(while it varies from vehicle to vehicle and part to part it averages out the same), vehicle wise you definitely can, but it can also cost more.

If your looking to mod a vehicle, research vehicle costs+mod costs to know your all-in figure before hand. Also some insurance companies in some locals charge less for certain vehicles. Our monthly e-surance cost went down(-$12.56) as did our deductible (-$110) going from an 09 Mitsubishi lancer to a 2013 jeep.

If fuel economy is a big deal to when considering numbers supposedly the 2018 Jeep can have a 3.0L Eco tubo Diesel engine that should boost mpg well over 35 mpg.

Then again if fuel economy is your biggest concern a jeep probably isn't going to be first on your list.

 

[DRT-Maverick]

Yeah the suspension game isn't cheap. You can either buy prebuilt or customize it if they don't offer what you want. I opted to go with a much higher end setup than the Nismo or Pro-4x line offered from Nissan, have some good prerunner coilovers (RadFlo) up front, longer control arms for more travel, extended travel shocks all around, and much heavier duty leafpacks than Nissan offers. Costs a lot but I'm still under $20,000 in both vehicle and modifications, but it is a 2007, I bought it for around $14,000 a couple years ago. Part of the reason the cost for the suspension was so cheap is I do all my own work/labor, so no additional costs for the install. Thank god because the previous owners of the vehicle were from Wisconsin...

I'm definitely into offroading more than I think people realized, until I took some of my buddies up to Browns camp here in Oregon and hit some diamonds hehe.

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

For me the "offroading" is a means to an end. If I had not had my monetary troubles that got me kicked out of college I would have my doctorate in geology by now. For instance yesterday I went out into the Texas hill country to an area where there is A fossil bed that I have always wanted to look more closely at.
I didn't even try to drive all the way though. Locked up my jeep and hiked the last 1/4 mile.

The top layer there is what I am after...

It is mostly clams, oysters, and snails in a concretion secreted by algae. The entire area is lower Cretaceous, Layers above and below this have various other life forms (all marine and nothing out of epoch that line isn't meant to be conflagratory) Nautaloids, ammonites, and echinoids mostly.

These were taken with the camera I bought last summer.

 

[DRT-Maverick]

Yeah I had some shit happen to me, I should have graduated last year with my B.s in Chemistry but a car accident screwed everything up. Kind of ruined my life in a sense lol


For me offroading is part of the adventure, it's thrilling and fun, and part of that is building the rig.

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Yeah I had some shit happen to me, I should have graduated last year with my B.s in Chemistry but a car accident screwed everything up. Kind of ruined my life in a sense lol


For me offroading is part of the adventure, it's thrilling and fun, and part of that is building the rig.

I know how much that can suck. I didn't get in a wreck though, just had financial issues that got me kicked out of college. I didn't find a way to get back at it and it took me 17 years to get my financial feet back under me properly.

 

[DRT-Maverick]

Just ordered a snorkel for my truck! Will post some pics later.

 

[Balton]

Something fuzzy.

He's a white german shepard, we named him Yuki!

Clearly he ought to be called 'Weiße Übermacht'

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Clearly he ought to be called 'Weiße Übermacht'

Forgive my German, I learned it from a 200 year old bible, but wouldn't that mean white power (Literal translation something like white super power or overpowering white)?

 

[NeoNite]

Poor fella lost his teeth on that piece of meat.