'She's Gonna Kill Me' - Build and Existential/Financial Crisis Thread

I’ll get you learned one day.

 

Pulled the rear diff to send back to ECGS for inspection/repair. The whine never cleared up despite many oil changes so hopefully they will figure it out.

In the meantime got Newman’s front end rebuilt with lcas, tie rods and re-sealed the rear diff that had a leak. Swapped in rebuilt Camburg ucas a little while back so she is sitting pretty now. Plan on selling Newman soon, but driving her with a fresh front end has me loving the FJ all over again.

 

This thread sucks. Where’s the entertainment

 

Kiss my ass

 

Sun Powered. Need to run the cables for inverter and blue sea distribution but battery is charging

 

Day 3 into a 10 day down to southern tip of Texas and west up and back to Tennessee via Oklahoma and Arkansas. Just hit South Padre Island. Been a grind to get here as had a few minor issues with a CV axle that had us leaving late Friday.

Spent night 1 in Mississippi and had camp from hell as geese were noisy as hell all night and Cayenne was having fits. Didn't help we arrived well after dark due to delayed start.
https://i.imgur.com/sIbzP36.jpg

Night 2 stayed at a beautiful campground at Lake Texana. Still arrived after dark. Had a gnarly thunderstorm roll through in the middle of the night. Thought we might die in a fiery inferno of pure energy but we didn’t so that was good. Didnt take a camp pic because I suck.

Tonight finally found heaven at South Padre Island. Now it feels like a vacation.
https://imgur.com/a/URbczfb
https://imgur.com/a/CEt5184
https://i.imgur.com/evn7isp.jpg
https://imgur.com/a/3E1qRY9

will fix pic links later

 

Left South Padre Island and immediately busted the new Cv axle. I knew it was a crappy axle when I put it in but I was out of time. I didn't expect to do anything too heavy so wasn't worried. Well I left the beach in 4 high, and without thinking tried to cut a tight uturn on asphalt and felt it bind and pop before I could get my foot off the gas. Oh well. Bought another crappy axle as replacement and had a local shade tree guy replace it with my guidance and retorqued things myself. The rest of the trip was pretty good. It was hot and humid but not unbearably so. Had a few miserable nights with thunderstorms, and Cayenne the Sheppard puppy kept us up a few times barking at stuff but all in all can't complain too much. Busted the windshield on the last day home leaving Arkansas.

Stayed at the beach on South Padre Island, several state parks, 2 private campgrounds, and two Hipcamps. The Hipcamps were by far the best way to go despite no bathrooms or showers. I have my own facilities so it wasn't an imposition, and the solitude the Hipcamp sites gave us allowed the dogs to be free to roam and us to truly relax.

Texas was on my short list as you can see some birds there from Mexico that you will not see anywhere else in the country, so that was cool. Otherwise I probably wont go back any time soon.

3500 Miles round trip. Will calculate everything else later. I think we figured it to about $.40 per mile for this trip. Highest gas was around $4.29, cheapest in Arkansas was $3.94 a gallon I believe.

 

Maybe I can milk an mpg out now that my roof is clearish..

 

This Texas sized wolf spider mugged me for $100...

 

Texas Trip Pic dump:























the end of a trip, filthy animal...

 

The Math on the Texas trip:

22 fuel stops
Total Fuel cost: $1261.80
Total Gallons: 304.967
Average cost per gallon: $4.137
Average MPG: 11.453 miles per gallon

I didn't weight for this trip, which I kind of regret, but it was significantly less than the Montana-Wyoming-Idaho trip last fall I believe. Just needed and brought quite a bit less crap.

 

This thread is for shit. Havent posted updates in months... Not that I havent been busy, just to f-in lazy to add to this I guess?

Whats new? Well here's a catch up..

 

June - Truck related, not too much. Rebuilt my OEM UCAs with whiteline bushings and TTX Ball joints. Added the @WarFab Armor tie rod sleeves.




Shit






Also got my shit together for a little trip planned for July..

 

July - Did a trip to the Outer Banks.. Gut blasted by sand and beers with @Newlife and the girls for a short week. Sand in every fucking thing, but it was fun.

 

Had a good time getting cold in NC..

 

Oops!

 

Love this pic

 

South East Overland Camping Event was a good time.

 

Got a set of BFG KM3s coming in 285/75R17.. Currently on backorder but should be here in June hopefully..

 

Now September..