New England B.S. Thread

I think they did when I had my F150 but, to be fair, I was also running a 'Standard Load' tires. So, when I went from 18's to 20's, same overall tire height but less sidewall, it felt less 'squishy' when towing. I likely could have accomplished the same thing by just running an LT tire on the 18" wheels.

Generally, the manufacturers would give you the option of wheels from sometimes as low as 17" up to 20" but the overall tire diameter remains the same or really close. There was always an exception, usually the 'off road' package trucks would have a little taller tire package. Now, I'm starting to see that no longer being the case. The F-250 4x4 XLT could come with 275/65R18 or 275/70R18's but the higher trim level trucks came with 275/65R20. I went from 275/65R18 to 275/65R20's, overall diameter difference of 2" so I got a cheap 1" lift out of the swap.

That's sort of a mixed bag... The heavy payload package F150 with the max tow comes with 18's.

 

I think your right, no one or almost no one was buying them, either manual or auto.

 

I think I have one with my SWR meter, I can go check

 

Meh, I ordered one it'll be here Tuesday or so. No big deal, hopefully my real mount comes in by then too and I just have to tune it once.

Thank you though!

 

Not a problem, let me know if you do end of needing it before Tuesday for some instant gratification.

 

Cheers! If I end up going up that way before Tuesday for some reason I'll touch base.

My antenna mount was given shipping info but not shipped yet. I'm guessing cali raised does a 1/week shipment or something. They're ALSO in DFW where there's a slight roadblock sooooo

But, on the drive to work this morning, I have confidence enough in my antenna mount until it gets here. So, I'll just tune it Tuesday and then tune it again when I get the mount in probably sometime next week.

 

WHAT??? When did FoMoCo trucks move away from 16.5" wheels?

 

Before my time! My first Ford had 14” wheels, it was an old Ranger.

 

I got my 8 inch primelux LED spots installed this afternoon. This took much longer than I anticipated but I was able to make these trick little aluminum brackets and was able to do a half decent wiring job with the switch location and a convenient spot
An automotive wiring job is never complete without some bloodied up knuckles

 

I spent some time this evening screwing around with my first modified 1/18 scale model. I collect them as a hobby off and on and although I've greatly pared down my fleet, I still have probably about 35 of them. I started when I was probably 8-9 and had a very long stretch of not buying anything, but I've bought a few as of late. On of the models I bought was of my Corvette. It's by Bburago, so the quality is really meh compared to say, an AutoART like the model I have of my STi, but it's the only one that matches the color of my car. I could always paint an old UT, but I'm not so sure I'd be any good at that.

I later learned that there are companies that make replacement wheels for 1/18 models incluidng the same BBS LM wheels I have on my car, so I ordered up a set as well as bought a spare navy blue Bburago Corvette. I got to playing tonight for a bit. I swapped the Bburago tires as the tires that came with the wheels were stance style rubber bands and I wanted something a bit meatier. Unfortnuately the wheels and axles dont' play well together, so my setup is just resting on those wheels. There are people who spend a ton of time at this and built bearings, etc to make them work. I also painted the front turn signals to match the black housed / clear lens ones I have.

Unfortunately the replacement wheels are way more aggressive in size and offset than what I've got on my actual car, but it's pretty neat to see how close I got. All things being equal, I'd actually prefer my LMs look like these rather than what they look like, but that's not happening. There's an AutoART RX-7 with BBS LMs that look perfect compared to my set, but I wasn't about to buy a $300+ model only to cut it up to put the pieces on a $20 model. So this the end result posed with what I started with:

IMG_3034 by Mike M, on Flickr
IMG_3038 by Mike M, on Flickr
IMG_3043 by Mike M, on Flickr

Then just a pair of reference shots.
IMG_1813 - Copy by Mike M, on Flickr
IMG_1815 - Copy copy by Mike M, on Flickr

 

Still interested?

 

Yep

 

Wow that is pretty sweet! Nice job!

 

Thanks! I wish they'd do a Tacoma in 1/18 or even an old Toyota Pickup. They've done NOTHING in diecast for us, which is a shame. I know there's a 1/43 Toyota Hilux double cab, but it's just too small for me. I also know you can get the 89-95 truck in 1/20 scale from Lindberg, but it's a build it yourself kit and i'm lousy at those.

I collect the pre-built stuff, this was my first time messing around with actually altering one and it came out about as good as I could have hoped. I could prpobably get further into this if I wanted to, but at this point I need a connection with any new model, and my list that I have that with is short.

 

FML there is nothing worse than banging your knuckles against metal in sub freezing temps. But either way, the lights look good!

 

Nice man! Yeah that would be sweet to see a Tacoma. I would be surprised if no one made one.

 

Outside of Matchbox, no one has gone near them. AutoART made an FJ a few years back which was amazing and I have come across a larger scale Tundra but absolutely nothing on the Tacoma front.

 

So weird for such a popular vehicle on the road...

 

I have a couple of the AutoART FJ Cruisers, but companies are just now getting into building 4x4 trucks (1st gen Bronco and late 60s full size Blazer), but no one seems to be interested in newer trucks. I would also love to see AutoART or GMP make a 1/18 scale wagon of classic cars, but I don't think that is going to happen either .

 

Greenlight is doing some 70s/80s cars these days. I saw they did a Crown Vic / LTD wagon. Granted, it’s because they did the Wagon Queen Family Truckster first, but they’re doing some less common older cars.

I want someone to built Marty’s truck. I’d spend all the cash for that. I just bought Max’s yellow Interceptor from Greenlight to match their Pursuit Special. Not the fanciest, but plenty awesome.