Tractor

I don't figure its too hard to do yourself. I've done several toyota and chevy ones now and there not hard. Just don't set anything to loose or to tight and your good. Evan

I stick pretty much to the star trek games and real world flight simulators. I run flight sim 2004 now with a mostly home built cockpit including a powered seat from a MKIII Supra. I have throttle, rudder and flight stick controls and will probably add some switch panels someday. Evan

I'm usually replying to messages quite late at night and my mind has turned to mush so sorry if I offend you by not spelling shit right. I'd say STFU about it anyway. This is a car forum not a spelling bee forum. Evan

I agree that they did alot of research in the past. Now very distant past. I feel they don't bother pushing the envelope anymore. Kinda strange that they don't take many risks up front but when it comes down to looking bad or taking a chance that the shuttle will come back safely they take the chance and destroy expensive equipment. The shuttle program is old junk now. Did anyone see the press release from NASA president after the release of the resaults of the Discovery accident? It basically went like this. "Yeah it sucks we lost a shuttle and 7 people died, but we learned our lesson and from now on every shuttle that makes it into orbit will be examined by military satelites for damage. If damage is found we will simply launch another shuttle to help repair the damage and in a worse case situation we will rescue the crew and remote pilot the shuttle in an unmanned reentry attempt." When I heard that statement I went about stupid and was cussing at the damned egotistical assholes and my wife was looking at me like WTF? If I were the guys giving money to NASA that press release would have me giving my check to the chinese or someone else ready to take real risks when real risks are necessary, IMO. And this shit is comming from a guy that loves the idea of space travel more than 99% of the people of this earth. Notice I didn't say alot about wasting lives? I believe if your going to ride on a rocket of this type your asking for it anyway so you know the risks. I'd just hate to think I had these dicks calling the shots that are going to kill me. Evan

On of the guys in my 4x4 club works as an engineer for an independent vehicle performance and safety consulting company and he says that all vehicles have performance guidelines that they test for. Including starting, stopping, and manuvering at there Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. That is a stock truck with only the factory bumper mounted ball hitch. That load can be in the bed of the truck or on a trailer, but they do handle well enough that an experienced driver should be able to handle it without trailer brakes. Of course its totally better if you have trailer brakes and is require by law to have brake away chains and brakes. Think about it. If your truck is rated to 7500lbs like my GMC truck. 3829lbs is my trucks weight and Its rated to haul another 2275 in the bed. Thats a <> 6100lb total weight. It handles that extra weight because the rear braking system under normal conditions isn't used the same as a car uses it. The truck once loaded down has a proportioning valve that allowed greater pressure to be applied to the rear brakes making the truck stop as good as if it had no weight in the bed at all. When towing its the trailers tongue weight that applies the downward force to the truck and opens the valve. I agree a ford explore isn't a tow vehicle its a damned death trap. Look at the rollover stats on it.

610 and 820 AM, but your all right to many ads even on those stations. Evan

Yes the engine will still run if the distributor is 1 tooth off in either direction. If you need the distributor all the way to one side to get it to start at all then rotate the gear one tooth and put the dist back. It should start and run fine that way. Your right timing is almost not important to get it to run. I always get the engine to start run and idle good and then I dial in the timing by trying it and then driving and readjusting until I get a good pull all the way through the engines RPM range. I've found a timing light to be completely useless for everything except checking the fuel spray in my TBI model GMC. My toyota pickup has a nice carbed 350 in it so its easy. Evan

How is the IT market doing in columbus now? I gave up on computers and got back into field servicing copier, printers, and some networking. It seems UNIX experience has been in demand even through the recession though. I know very little about it myself. Evan

Yes all 4+ lane roads seem to be getting really heavy. They are also working in groups. Watch out.

I've been flat towing my toyota with a tow bar attached to my GMC fullsize. I just want a trailer for a few reasons. One of the main ones being if/when I do serious damage to the toyota I will be able to haul it back easily. The tow bar works just fine, but of course you have it trying to walk around alot. I've hauled jeeps on trailers with my truck a few times also. It has worked very good and I didn't have trailer brakes. I'd have to say if you can't feel the trailer behind you your either not paying attention or its not back there. I've been around trailers from wagons to 20 ton heavy equipment haulers all my life so I know all about how to do it safely. Just looking for help with where to buy one from. I'm pretty sure I don't want a used one. Has anyone had any experience with tegtmeyers down along I-71 south? I've been to there website and I think its full of cheesy sales pitches, but there the only large dealer in Ohio. You can find lots of them in Michigan, but I don't really want to drive 4 hours one way. Evan

Your right that is very impressive to do it for only a little more than $20M. I'm not sure how much of NASA's budget is actually put into the shuttle program, but initially the program was sold to congress in the 1960 and 70's to cost only $10M per launch, but we all know it probably exceeds 15 times that in reality. I've read papers where congress states that they are pretty pissed about that one still. If these guys or some private company finds a way to get adverage people into space cheaply and also say satelites I'm willing to bet there will be competition and a true space age will begin. Look at our beloved automobiles in the early 1900's. Don't know about you all, but I'd love to be going for a lisense to pilot a space craft. I'm pretty damn close to going for a pilots lisense anyway. Evan

I'm getting an open trailer for sure. Its a `92 4x4 toyota. stock weight is 3,200. Mines probably more like 3,500. probably on the plus side. If the truck ain't to big to fit into an enclosed trailer it could be someday so open it is. Some of my 4x4 buds said the Tegtmeyers would be a good place to go, but if I'm going to drive that far I might as well go anywere else. Any place local? One guy suggested a place out on Main St by Jegs? You know I read the exact opposite about extended tongues in some FAQ's on towing. It talked like the longer the tongue the more leverage the trailer will have against the tow rig to walk around. Hey Mike call me sometime. Evan

I'm going to buy a car hauler to haul my toyota truck on soon and just thought I'd see if any of you have any input. Any good places to buy one from? Any brand better than other ones? Anything to look for or not get? Evan

Anyone else notice that the truckers seem to be driving faster lately? I guess the cops are stopping them right now or something. I don't like going 65 to 70 on 270 and being passed by 50 ton rigs. Didn't say they pass by quickly there going anywhere from 65 to 75 anyway I think if the highway patrol wants to protect us they should probably be stopping more trucks. Evan

Clean up. When your at a job your being paid by an employer for your time. They tell you what to do how to do it and most of the time how to look while your doing it. While your at work your probably interacting with customers and they are looking at you and sizing up the company by how you look, and act towards them and your company. I've been in Nationwides call center and they have a few people in there that look like they got problems. Maybe you can work there. Evan

If the cost ain't much different the moving van would work just as good or better actually. Evan

thats pretty much what I was thinking about the electric pumps and no I'd say the electrical system is pretty tasked already since it does run at idle 99% of the time on a 10 hour trail ride. Yeah the radiator, cheap electric fan from a 90's model chevy car, and stock water pump make the truck run at < 160 degrees on the trail. People have always asked me if I had to upgrade the water pump and I was curious if maybe I should. I guess you don't need it especially once the system is pressurized by heat it must flow pretty easily. Evan

to help make you feel better about all ford fullsize cars and trucks from at least the 80's are capable of catching on fire for no good reason. Evan

did you check the brake fluid level? It could be a warning that the brake fluid is low. My wifes `94 corolla does that, but the battery light doesn't come on. It could be that toyota decided to make a double idiot light out of it. It could also be low brake fluid and when the sensor is tripped it shorts the alternator charge signal to ground. When her light comes on its totally intermittent to so don't think low fluid means the light is always on. Evan

I finally got tired of hearing a metallic knocking noise comming from my trail rigs engine today and did some troubleshooting. Its the water pump going out. I have a question about replacing it with something diferent. If anyone on here has seen my rig I have a toyota truck with a chevy 350 that is being cooled by a hugh ass radiator in the bed of the truck. the stock `78 chevy water pump has worked for a few years and has either died because of the extra water that its trying to move or from just being a `78 water pump. The truck holds around 6 gallons of water in my setup and the water travels about 20 feet round trip from the radiator to the engine + all the regular going through the radiator and engine internal ducts. The top tank on the radiator is about 3 to 4 feet above the top of the engine also. Question is is there a better pump to use? I looked at the electric ones in the jegs and summit catalogs, but its just a bunch of sales BS and I can't find real numbers on both types of pumps. I'm guessing since my current setup works I shouldn't go messing with it, but I'm always looking for something better. Any ideas would be cool. Evan

Have you checked the fuses? doesn't say in the post anywere? Also if its like most cars I know of it won't start without the MAF sensor and who knows how many others working. the MAF will definately keep it from starting. Does it even try to start like turn over ignite some fuel, kick over and then stop or what? Evan

Ohio has probably hundreds of ghost towns. the web searches only come up with a few really dumb ones. When the Wayne national forest was laid out many many of them were lost and the roads abandoned. I only know of them because my 4x4 club rides on those types of roads. there abandoned, but still public right of ways. If ghost towns aren't your thing are you into mine shafts? go to the goverments website on surface mining and mine land reclaimation and you will find a map of over 4700 mine shafts in ohio and a warning that there are probably at least that many that are totally unknown. Evan

I emailed the people who run that site about a year ago to see if I could do some knowledge trading with them. They told me the site is just a place to talk stupid shit about bigfoot in ohio and that its all just for fun. It is fun, but I myself have explored 90% of ohio's forests that are south of I-70 and there is no way there could be a bigfoot even in the wayne national forest of the Ohio Power owned land. Ohio is to small and dotted with homes and towns so people would be seeing or hitting them with there cars alot more often than never. You want to hear something that will send you running about as fast as you can for shelter go for a walk in southeastern ohio in the middle of the night and eventually this animal will let out a scream that sounds alot like a women screaming while being torned apart. I can't remember what animal it is exactly I'm thinking its one of the wild cats that lives in Ohio. We had a bobcat that lived around are farm near Marietta. Evan

the V8 guys can by a underhood generator kit. that would get you 110v or 220v power supplies. I have no clue how much HP is lost in turning this type of generator, but for the size of it it must be pretty good. Oh and if that won't work you can install a second alternator and set its regulator to put out alot higher voltage. some of my 4x4 truck buddies have stock alternators putting out around 100volts and using them as welders out on the trails. Evan

I was thinking about it some more and thought maybe you could have a oil leak that soaked the clutch. Maybe you just need to run it a little longer to clean it up. Evan