New England B.S. Thread

Hello friends,

This is 100% not a shill post. I believe in shouting out people and companies that I feel have done me right, because too many people only shout out the ones that do them wrong.

I just got back from a day at The 4x4 Center here in VT ( https://the4x4center.com/about-the-driving-school ) and had an absolute blast. As someone who has had the benefit of a hell of a lot of training in many disciplines, I do feel I got my money's worth and am saving my pennies for another trip out.

The instructor cadre was extremely well qualified and professional, and the facilities are absolutely gorgeous. The morning was classroom time which covered quite a lot of excellent technical/mechanical information about offroad vehicle drivetrains, options, and a good block of info about tires. This included some academic discussion with nice props about line finding; how to really use the full suspension of a vehicle when approaching, navigating, and exiting an obstacle; and understanding how the major vehicle systems work together and in some cases opposite each other in order to control the vehicle in offroad conditions. A lot of the academic stuff was basic, but also helpful in context and with the benefit of a live human being who knows what seeds to plant in order to prime a person for the hands-on portion of the class.

After the provided lunch, we spent the rest of the day screaming up and down the mountain through a really nice variety of obstacles with an instructor riding shotgun. We did some pretty good ground guide exercises both as guides and drivers, and tackled stuff of escalating severity up to the ability and comfort level of each individual student. Being able to do this stuff in someone else's truck (actually a bunch of Jeep Rubicons) and with the benefit of an extremely experienced guide was well worth the price of admission. The place is like a dream if you like to offroad, for real.

I heard that starting now they're also allowing folks to bring their own vehicles if you want to give your build a serious shaking-down.

 

Agreed. I'm a fan of simple and reliable. Plus ,, 6mt
But......
I just don't know. Unfortunately, money always wins.
And she has every reason to be happy.
With things being as they are, it is currently more prudent to hang on to the Tacoma, and sell the Frontier.
I'll question myself regardless of thr choice I ultimately make.
Just a matter of making a choice.
But, I haven't even been able to get it off-road, and scrape the sliders. So... I dunno

 

Never an easy choice when deciding what to part with, that's for sure.

 

I know these things can be quite expensive. Do you mind me asking how much was it and how long was it?

 

Is there anyone home?

 

Come on now

 

I hear you're feeling down

 

Ripped out the kings in the rear for inspection. No signs of leaks but the rubber top bushings are fubared, lower spherical bushings seem fine though. Tonight I'll do the same with the front shocks, I know the passengerside needs a new spherical bearing on the bottom so I'll press those in/out. At some point I need to replace the LCA ball joint on the driverside as well but I'll do that when I'm back in the office.

Also swapping driveshafts out tonight with my spare. Going to try to rebuild my original one now that I have bench space.

@mach1man001 HIIII

 

Well I did it. I bought my cousin and I tickets for the Pats game day after Christmas against the Bills at Foxboro. Work offered a really good deal and I couldn't pass it up. Super stoked.

 

Hello Hello Hello...

That's cool! I wish my work did something like that!

 

Morning all

Hi Rob @mach1man001

 

I just finally sold my 14' boat last night, it was bittersweet but I haven't used it since 2019. I paid $1500 about 12 years ago, I sold it for $2800 last night! Not a bad ROI.

So moral of the story, if you have stuff you are looking to part with, I'd list it ASAP, I had 4 or 5 people wanting to buy this boat I just listed this week.

 

I did my driveshaft in the LC last summer on the floor of my garage. What a PITA. It had slight vibes after replacing the u-joints, so I just pony'd up for a brandy new one from Toyota and now have a basically new spare.

 

So rebuilding it made it worse? Damn I hope that's not what happens to me...

 

Well no because one of the old u-joints literally exploded and was hanging on by one out of 4 lobes. Fortunately with the LC you can just remove the rear driveshaft, lock the center diff, and drive in FWD. It had slight vibes at like 67mph after replacing both u-joints, but it was also 22 years old and likely needed to be re-balanced anyways. Also, I wasn't that gentle installing the new u-joints so that may also have something to do with it...

 

oof....

 

I have my gaming PC up and no bites so far..really hope to move it soon

 

Just mark everything, even the diff and tcase flanges so it all goes back the way it came apart