Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Welding
It’s been an awfully long time since I blogged anything. I just didn’t feel I had time while finishing my thesis. That is now behind me. I’ve graduated and gone back into the work force. This also means I have money and can once again be buying things for the Land Cruiser.
I received as a very generous Christmas gift a welder, and this has been my companion since then. I have welded a nice solid 2′x4′ welding table. This has made an excellent platform and I’m very glad I went with 4′ rather than my original 3′ size. I have welded legs onto the kitchen box for the land cruiser, and that has also been stained and mostly finished. (There will be lots of pictures over the next few weeks of all this I hope).
I’ve also taken on some bigger projects, namely sliders and a rear bumper. I just finished the passenger side slider, which, due to the catalytic converter, is the more difficult side. All that is left for that side is to grind various welds smooth, clean off the rust and paint it. I picked up a paint sprayer as it will be cost effective over spray paint cans. I thought about paying someone to apply a more durable surface (like powder coating, but a) that is expensive and b) non-reparable). Since I know my sliders will get used to slide along the ground, even the powder coating will be worn through. It will be nice to be able to touch it up at home with some paint.
The driver’s side slider is mostly done. Probably another evening or so of cutting and welding. The slider and outriggers from the frame are done, and the step is cut. I have cardboard forms for the attachments for the step so it is just a matter of cutting those and welding them up, and then cutting small bits to fill in all the holes and make a closed shape.
I think I am going to be quite pleased with the outcome. I really like the look of the parts I’ve ground smooth on the passengers side so far.
I’ve also built a rear bumper from a 4×4 labs kit. I’ve test painted a few parts on the tire carrier, but I must grind smooth the rest of it before I finish painting. I want to at least get the passenger slider finished first though, because it is occupying my welding table and is a real pain to take on and off the car. Thankfully once painted and re-installed there will be no more on-and off for test fitting.
Friday, July 3, 2009
New Lightbulbs
One of my headlights in the Land Cruiser went out recently, so I figured it was time to do some research on Mud and buy some new bulbs. A little reading later, and I place a call with the local John Deere place to get some extra bright HIR (halogen infrared) bulbs. These are a tad more expensive than the regular auto store bulbs, but the cheapest place to source the HIR style bulbs. They require trimming of a tab, but with a paper towel over the bulb to protect it, a dremel made short work of the tab.
I’ve never had a problem with the Land Cruiser lighting while driving, but I figured the increase from 1000 lumens to 1875 lumens in the low-beams was not a bad idea. I got them installed and then discovered that my driveway is exactly the right width to use the side of my house to aim the lights. So some fiddling around with tape last night and my lights are now aimed so as not to blind other drivers. My driver’s side was aimed correctly but the passenger’s side was quite high. The high beams are still the regular bulbs, but for now they work well. Sourcing the high-beam HIR bulbs is significantly more expensive.
In other news, the interior of the Scirocco is starting to go back together. I did a bunch of wiring work yesterday while Robin was around washing her car.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Land Cruiser
I added a static page about my Land Cruiser build-up. It’s now linked from my menu and located here
Monday, May 11, 2009
Christmas Valley
This weekend, Whitney and I left Corvallis after 6:00 with the intention of meeting up with a group of people from the Northwest Overland Society and driving around off-road in Christmas Valley, in the Oregon desert. Although we made it to Christmas Valley just fine, we did not have good enough directions to make it to their campsite. We spent an hour driving around in the dark on some of the dirt roads out of town. We had what we thought were correct GPS coordinates and slowly narrowed in on them. Many bumps and shallow puddles later, the car now covered with white mud, we made it to the coordinates. A very nice cultivated field, no sign of the group. So we headed back to town and then headed off on another guess of where to go. Another hour of driving, it was no midnight and we had no idea if we were any closer or not. So we set up camp. It was quite cold so we carried the dogs up to the roof top tent so everyone could be close for warmth.
At this point we decided to sleep in and give up on meeting the group. Pictured is our camp the next morning. We set off, continuing down the dirt track we had come in on, overland about 30 miles to Hwy 20. Lots of rocks, potholes, and a few steep and rocky descents. Nothing technical but quite enjoyable, and I got to use 4-low a number of times. We went through the Lost Forest, this odd several thousand acres of evergreens miles from any other forest. According to posted signs, apparently something in the soil allows the water to quickly get below the surface avoiding evaporation in the desert heat. The water is then absorbed by the trees. They live on less than 1/3 the rainfall of their usual habitat.
We drove back along Hwy 20 towards, and through Bend and then up into the Cascades. Operating off of a BLM map and the gps, we tried several dirt roads that looked like they would loop around and end up near Green Peter Lake. Unfortunately, we hit snow just shy of most of the passes we were hoping to go over. There would be no snow on the surrounding hillside, but 1.5-2′ of snow on the road surface itself. Not having chains or winch equipment with us, and having no experience driving through deep snow, we turned around at each point. Lots of pretty vistas of the mountains but no way over. We stopped trying routes while it was still light, and set up camp in the forest. We made a poor attempt to light a fire, but wet wood meant it didn’t last long. Thankfully, it was significantly warmer the second night. The dogs stayed in the car and were quite good being there all night.
We set out the next day, after changing a tire that was a little low. I think I found the piece of metal that is causing the slow leak in it. But I didn’t have a compressor to add air, so just changed it instead. The spare tire is still under the rear, so was throughly covered in dried desert mud from the day and night before. I should paid more attention to this mud at the time and cleaned it. I didn’t however, and a few miles down the road, could not identify a strange noise from the rear. It sounded like a stick was hitting the wheel on each revolution, but I couldn’t see anything when I got out to look. It also made no noise when I had Whitney drive it at slow speed while I walked along and listened. After driving a little more, I realized that the noise stopped when I went around a turn, but it was not preferential to one side or the other. I had a hunch as to what was causing it, and when I got out and checked I was right. The wheel was loose on the studs. The mud had prevented the nuts from tightening properly and so they had come loose and the wheel was sliding around as I drove. Thankfully no apparent damage to the underlying hub, the only loose was one of the nuts. Each wheel has a special security nut on it and that one had come off. I have thought about replacing those with regular nuts, now I have to. Thankfully the remaining nuts keep the wheel securely on for the rest of the trip.
As to our progress that day, we made a few more attempts to find a way up and over Moose Ridge, but to no avail. We finally found a route that skirted the west side of Moose Ridge and made it into the Green Peter Lake area. Our way in was rough, and at times a very steep and rutty descent. We also had one puddle to go through that turned deeper then expected, creating a bow wave that came over the hood. Quite a nerve-racking experience. Probably not something that should have been attempted without a winch to pull us out if needed. In a pinch the Hi-Lift can be used as a hand-winch, but I’ve yet to try that, so I’m not sure I have all the parts I need.
Once we got over the hills though, we found a very beautiful area and lake. We took a road to within a few hundred meters of the lake, and were able to walk down and enjoy it with the dogs for a bit. The road around the lake was a well developed dirt road, so we decided to take it to the dam, join pavement there and head back. We got to within sight of a parking lot at the start of pavement to discover that we were on the wrong side of a locked no unauthorized access gate. There had been no prior signs on our way in to indicate we should be there. Although we could see the paved road at that point, there was no route forward so we headed back to find another way over to Hwy 20. The first two routes went for a couple miles then petered out into the forest, but we did then find a route that went up and over dropping us off at the Short Bridge and onto Hwy 20 and the road home. (Photo by Jerri Graff)
All in all, it was an enjoyable trip, and no disastrous mishaps (though two that came close). It served my needs as a shake-down test of my camping setup. I’m mostly happy with things like my tent, fridge, and newly constructed kitchen box. I was not happy with some cheap reverse lights I installed. I installed them on the wind deflector thinking they would help me see behind me wen backing up. Instead they just made for awful glare of any dirt on the rear window.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Brakes
After hearing squealing coming from the rear of the Land Cruiser for a little while and suspecting it was the brake pad wear indicator, I have finally got around to replacing the brakes. Due to a few factors, I have broken with my fashion and gone non-OEM. And not for something better, just something cheaper. I need brakes that aren’t about gone, I can’t afford local dealer prices, and don’t want to wait for a CruiserDan order. So for now, and until our cash flow is stabilized, I’ll be running a cheap NAPA set of pads. They seem to stop the Land Cruiser, and the awful noise I was hearing is gone, so I’m happy for now.
It was actually a very easy job doing the rears. When I did the fronts before (the only brakes I’ve replaced so far), I did not have the right tool to compress the cylinder(s) and get them far enough to slide over the fresh pads. On the rear caliper, there is only one cylinder, so there is no need to fight pushing one in as the other goes out. I also now have a big C-clamp, so I put an old pad against the cylinder, and just kept clamping it down until it was in all the way. After that it slide right on over the old pads.
When checking for the noises that I’ve been hearing, I went out and found a neighborhood street with no cars parked along it. It was a straight road, with a slight up-hill. I put the Land Cruiser in low 4 (due to a modification this no longer engages the center differential lock automatically, so no reason not to use low-4 on pavement). Put the transmission in drive, made sure it was crawling forward straight and then hopped out and walked around the car some listening for any rear end noises. After a 100m or so of the car driving along at a snails pace and hearing nothing unusual, I got back in it, spun it around and did the same in reverse. I have no idea what those neighbors though, a car driving slowly down the street while the driver got out and walked around it.
Anyway, new brakes and I did what I could to set them without burning up the fronts.