Diesel Ranger Goes In The Garage

Its only taken how many years? Today the Ranger got winched rite into the garage, under my custom made engine lift. The motor is all unbolted, just a few minor things left to disconnect. I had hopped to have the extraction video done by now. The Ranger will get minor work, new head, timing belt, water pump, pan gasket, extra block heaters and machined oil filter base (machined to fit more common filters that don't cost $80 each). Everything will get washed, painted and put back together. The ol dodge will turn 300,000 around April, and might retire for good.

I figure I shouldn't have more than 3 trucks. I have just about finished the 57 that will replace the dodge, be more fun, capable and maybe cost more to run. Then the Ranger will be done in the Summer, with extra block heaters for Winter. If all goes as planned I will pick up a free minivan and the old crashed diesel Jetta in Victoria, and make my diesel minivan. Then I want a Diesel out of a 3 ton, to put into the 57, but I won't even think about that yet.

Clients have been real entertaining. I moved a couple that couldn't be more than 20, with 3 kids, moving from one dump into the next. The woman didn't want to haul the stuff in the back of their pick up truck, but their stuff was all the crap you could get for free. I wondered if I would get paid but I did.

Then my electrical job I "estimated" at $100 an hour, if things would have went well. But it took me twice as long, materials were 50% more than I anticipated, and I hadn't included any time for picking the materials up, nor driving to the job, so I made less than $40 an hour for that. I find it really entertaining to see the renovations that home owners do. I should be an inspector.

The Improved Crayfish Video

The most boring picture yet! This is a view from my $7 web cam bolted to the back of my truck tool box. It is specifically for hooking the trailer up solo, but now I know it works, and works well, I am going to get another one for the back of the trailer. It was not only 7% of the cost of a "back up camera" and there is none of the wireless issues, since it is just run on USB extensions.


For all those not into the trucks, lawn tractors, and snowmobiles, I made another crayfish video. This was 2 hours of crap, edited down to 2 min. The first bit was mostly for the audio, of Michelle, so fascinated by the bubbles and pinches, and then just some crayfish scenarios. I can't sit at the kitchen table and work any more, I find them too distracting, and entertaining.

I get a surprising number of calls, for both moving and electrical work, just from simple free Kijiji adds. I haven't explored "craig;s list", or anything else yet. Unfortunately a lot of calls have a one hour job, and they want it done rite now. I can often put them off till the next time I plan to be in Edmonton, but if they can't wait, I can't help them, being a 4 hour return trip to the southern and western ends of Edmonton.

I am really disappointed in my ol Dodge automatic transmission. I know they have addressed this on new trucks by putting a tow switch on the dash, which tells the transmission to shift later and all. I just got a tachometer in my truck, cause I am forced to drive it like a standard when I tow the trailer, it never takes the rpm above 1500. It has to have something like an economy shift kit in it or something.

I love my work trailer, which I have now cleaned out and is more of a moving trailer. Except it has no brakes, which is absurd, it has a 6000 lb axle. Down snowy roads its somewhat terrifying, I won't even take it out. But I found company that sells kits to put brakes on brake less axles, so I am on it. I posted a video on youtube called "My 14' moving trailer" that is on my pacificcloud channel, if anybody wants to see it. That video was only for marketing to show people how big the trailer is, so it won't be posted on the blog. Its just like a sprinter van without the $1000 monthly payments, nor the good gas mileage. It helps me if people subscribe to my youtube channel, rate my videos with 5 stars, and post positive comments on them too, if anybody feels so inclined. http://www.youtube.com/user/pacificcloud

Back to work

The school replaced their kitchen stoves, and the old ones were going to the dump. I can't stand to see good stuff thrown out, and I need some stove burners to make myself a killer 4000 watt heater with an old furnace blower that I also collected from garbage. Until then it makes good wheel weights on the back of the tractor ha ha. Doesn't steer very well like that though, I need to find a happy medium. I have lawn tractor skid steer, front end loader plans in my head, that may materialize by the end of the winter, depending on what kind of parts I find at the dump.

I think I have pushed the limit of staying home and playing w lawn tractors, sleds, and trucks. At least remaining happily married doing that. Saturday night I put an add up on Kijiji for electrical work. I am also pretty much out of money, so I also put an add up to potentially move people w my new trailer, that I haven't used once. I got a lot of calls the next day. With all the driving I just got 2, 3 hour jobs in, and picked up a period correct radiator for the 57 in another town. I only charged $50 an hour, for the electrical job, and the moving job I did. At the end of it I think i should charge more for both jobs, but moving people is so much easier.

I have asked 3 contractors now what they charge, both electricians and plumbers, and its been $65, $75, and $80 an hour, plus $0.85 per km traveled, or $65-$75 just for showing up w a truck. I will take the average of those prices I think, and up my $50 hourly rate. Then moving people, I don't know what to charge there yet, its so easy $50 is acceptable w $100 min. That gets me into Edmonton, and I can go door to door looking for electrical work after I move someone.

The clients have been amusing. Buddy skipping on his rent, moving all his stuff to storage, has to stop at money mart to pay me. Then I put some 3 way switches in for a different guy in a finished duplex. I had to cut holes in the finished painted walls, make a mess, come across unexpected obstacles in the walls, its really easier moving boxes. Anyway he decided to change a light fixture after I left, by himself, and he screwed it all up, so it didn't work, then he phoned me and I had to walk him through it on the phone. But he is a commercial real estate agent, so I can follow up with him and potentially get more work. "Hey did you get that light working in the end? Know anybody that needs commercial real estate wired?" I gave him a stack of cards, and a great deal.

We missed a crayfish Moulting, I think she did it wile we slept. She was the small one, but now with her exoskeleton removed she is the big one. The other guy is ready to moult any day, hope to get it on camera. The after math is really creepy cause the little buggers are always hiding, and here is the "big guy" standing over an empty shell with legs and pinchers and all, nobody else in sight. I just assumed the "big guy" killed and ate the other one at some point. But the "big guy" was really the little girl now out of her shell.

The Ford Gets New Signals

I dealt w my front signal issue. One problem at a time.

Snowmobile and Lawn/Garden Tractor Repairs

Today was great. The sun was melting the snow, and it was much warmer out than it has been. I replaced the needle and seat in Michelle's snowmobile, and installed a kill switch on it. Video:


I also completed part 2 of the lawn tractor repairs. I failed at making a block heater, but it was warm enough to start it today without hitting it with the tiger torch. If I don't figure out a block heater soon it will get a decompression valve from an old motorbike. The starter won't turn the 650cc single cylinder when its otherwise when its cold.

Cray Fish Video

A quick video update on the crayfish. We have bought a 10 gallon tank for them now, so we can have more plants and fish at the same time. We will likely need the fish bowl again to separate the two crayfish when one moults, or to separate the babies, if we did get a male and female as we suspect. Anyone want crayfish babies.

Lawn Tractor, Plow, Trouble Shooting

So starting the lawn tractor with the drill has its disadvantages. I would have thought turning the crank shaft nut would be easier on the key than cranking the motor from the flywheel. I have sheered a second key now, and the way the flywheel is marked, it looks like it might have been sheered in the past. I still haven't finished part 2 of the video, but I think it will include a new lawn tractor block heater.

Michelle messed up her rib cage some how. I am here waiting for her at the chiropractor, I think I pulled the recorder out too late. I can hear him using some clicky gun type thing on her back. The audio goes something like "click, ouch, click, ouch, click, oh, click, ouch".

New Fish

Months ago we got a large fish bowl. For Valentines day we went out and came home w two Crayfish. Now our, almost two gallon, fish bowl needs upgrading already. The crayfish are much more exciting than fish, and we can get some gold fish to live with them when we get more water real estate. A hungry crayfish could catch and eat small feeder fish, but its not that likely. Just adds another level of excitement. Hopefully the new video cam, thats not here yet, can focus in on the little bastards.

Our Hot tub failed. Its now cold. Should be an easy fix, only the access is poor. In hind sight it would have been better to put the hot around the other way, so the controls were not against the wall. So far I am working w mirrors to see stuff.

Renewed Electric Vehicle Interest

My 57 Ford body is in terible shape. It isn't very rusty, but it has dents everywhere. I started picking at cracking bondo, and now it is full of dents. I am just painting it, and when the weather warms up I will sand blast the dents in the driveway to bondo them. Bondo sticks best to rough sand blasted metal. Other than that I am rite on track w getting the 57 road worthy for spring.

Kim got 2 36v electric golf carts for Parker Island, which has renewed my excitement for my Ebike. I found some interesting stuff online about overvoltaging electric carts, which I will also aply to my ebike. Expect some videos on that in the near future.

A video of one of the many repairs I have to do to the 57. I am not doing too much for exciting things these days, so I am going to make a video journal of the truck repairs. It is not a restoration, but I am trying to keep most stuff somewhat period correct. The truck has all new brakes, brought up to the 1969 standards, so it stops good. It will probably get HID headlights, and LED tail lights, but the generator will stay in until it fails. For cold weather it has the electric radiator fans, and it will get a new stereo. But I am going out of my way to keep the dash looking original and get the old looking switches. I have even glued switch labels on from the 2953 I had hauled away. I will make a video a day from here on.

Test drove the Sprinter van, liked everything but the price tag. I had a good conversation w Terry, presumably the owner of Aldon Auto. He is interested in an Electrical quote of wiring a small medical center he is building. He is hoping to have the electrical plans this week, and would like a quote from me. A bit over my head as an estimator, but I have to go for it.

Terry figured the Sprinter van is only good for 20mpg, being a one ton and all. That really wouldn't be worth my wile if thats the case. But if the VWs get 60mpg w their little diesels, couldn't I get 40 mpg in a VW powered mini van? I have a free minivan lined up, and a rebuilt VW engine and trans in Victoria, any time I want to start that project.

As I get into my 57 I really can't wait to drive it. I am also shifting my thoughts towards rebuilding the Ranger, as opposed to rebuilding the old Dodge. It is really causing me no problems now, since the whole lot of work after Mexico, being Universal joints, front brakes, and drive shaft bearing. I notice one air bag is rubbing again, but I have 5 spares, so I can't be bothered to replace it in the cold.

I found oversize pistons for the the 110 buggy on Ebay. I was really excited about boring the cylinder a half mm oversize myself. It doesn't really matter if I screw it up, a new piston and cylinder is only $80 w shipping. And if it works out I can do my truck myself, and save $40 per cylinder for boring. But then I found out the piston pin is the wrong size and I don't feel confident enough to re-bore my connecting rod strait 3mm larger. Good thing I ask questions first. I will hope my Dodge doesn't need re-boring, because I won't attempt it without some practice. Plus it will save me a lot of money to stay with stock size.

Efficient Diesel Van

Trying to get sled parts at the local stores I found Aldon wreckers has 2 sprinter vans. One they bought as a "theft recovery" 2008, 17,000 km on it. They are asking $38k for that one. The other is crashed, but I briefly had thoughts of putting the diesel sprinter motor n trans into my truck, until I heard they want $10k for the motor, and $5k for the trans. I will test drive their "recovered" van today, but I don't really trust this place. They have sold lots of cars with blown head gaskets and such to local people.

Every time I am on youtube, I find I gravitate to Davesfarm videos. Not intentionally, I just search "how to put the timing chain in a honda" and I get his videos. How to fix an automotive air conditioner, motorbike powered dune buggy, blah, blah, blah. Then I am distracted by the entertainment videos, "school bus vs loader, tug a war". And ultimately "my check from google (youtube)" catches my eye. So Dave is doing what I want to do, and making money off it. He does other stuff too, cause he only makes about $4000 a month from his cheesy youtube videos, and a lot of his videos are repairing other peoples cars and machines for cash. I couldn't find the detailed minivan conversion vid from 2001, but here is a recent repair of Dave's diesel minivan. Dave is my idol in respect to this van, this is what I wanted and I didn't even know it, until today.

Dune Buggies

I thought I should get on the 110 buggy if we are going to have 2 dune buggies for spring. I went through Dave's yard looking at potential motor transplants. He has a nice new rebuilt 250 for $400, but then I have to buy the carb, clutch and ignition and it would be $600. Then I looked on line, and found the company doesn't sell rings for the 110, but a whole new 110 motor for $300. But then if I spend another $300 I can get a brand new 250cc for $600, but same no carb, ignition apply. Then I finally found on Ebay, new rings for $9, or new rings, piston and jug for $40. No serious design time required, and I have a running, new, machine in hours. I also found the much needed oil cooler, but they don't have the adapter kit for my engine yet, they said next week. Hopefully they are telling the truth.

My break in procedure was the cause of 110 demise I know. I had read some articles on race car break in, and they said to drive it like you stole it. Somehow that stuck in my mind but the "only for short periods of time" was left out of my memory. The extra friction of new rings and cylinder create extra heat and need more cooling than usual. Meanwhile we drove the thing flat out for hours on end until the motor was so hot it wouldn't even run until it cooled. I can't wait to take the jug off and see what it looks like.

A total disappointment. Just slightly scored, I could not see nor feel the scoring until I honed the cylinder with the solid stones, then it showed up, clear as day. I guess the really bad ones are always catastrophic failures anyway. It is not going to be that fun putting these overhead valves and timing chain all back together. Perhaps a good video for youtube when I figure it out.

I am going to change the way I post videos from now on. I have gotten a lot of views of my lame airbag video on youtube, 1300 viewsto be exact, in about 2 months. That is inspiring because I can make way better videos and easily get way more views. Once I have an audience, I not only become a celebrity to people interested in what I do, have a lot of fun making videos, but I also get paid by youtube. I think I need a good million views and a better video camera before I get paid.

So publishing my videos through youtube gets me at least 3 extra views for each video, because I know Anita, Joe, and Kim watch the vidoes on the blog. It also gives me a youtube channel, so people just introduced to our blog, don't need to read through all my gibberish, they have the option of just watching my videos on you tube if they want.

Today I pulled the drive shafts from the ol dodge, and changed the bearing and universals. That was all a pain, took a good 4 hours. But then Dave came over on his sled, and we went for a ride, which was fun but freezing. -12 celcius is too cold to go rip around when you are all ready sort of cold from putting drive shafts back in. I put the helmet cam on, but it spun around on me early on and I didn't get any good video on our ride.

The new 340 was flooded badly, so we took it apart before we took off. Found it needs a new float valve. I'll get one of those tomorrow. Had to drive the ol 250 sled today.

The new Sled

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I got a green air cooled 340cc short track for the second sled. It is easily 50% more powerful than the orange 250cc, which makes it 50% more fun I think. This was just a short slow test drive. Dave also has some cool stuff to put a new motor in the 110cc buggy. He has some 70's sleds with forward and reverse gears, they will be perfect. That buggy project might start before spring.

The VW dune buggy guy hasn't got back to me on the trade we were going to do in Dec, so he probably had second thoughts about it. I don't think it was a great deal either way, was just a change. Kinda like the motorbike for the sled.

We are talking about putting a Master Bedroom addition on the back of the house. That should double the resale value of the house along with thermal windows, some hard foam insulation, and vinyl siding over the rest of the house. Plus it would be nice to have a bedroom that fits more than just our king size bed, until we can sell the house

More Sledding Fun

This always makes me smile, going to get the mail on the sled. The helmet cam should work a lot better with other sleds going next week, it doesn't mean much seeing the white stuff speed by. But it made me laugh watching this video, the first helmet cam trial, so its getting posted.

I started working on the 57 ford in the back yard it only took 2 years. it was -9 today, so with some starting fluid, and block heater I got it to start. It didn't move very far in the snow before it was stuck, so I took the dualies off made up chains for 2 wheels and just put one wheel back on each side with chains. That got it out of the back yard and into the garage, where I started ripping the flat deck apart.

It actually took me several hours with a huge 3/4" breaker bar, 4' steel pipe, and the 1 1/16" socket, trying to get the back wheels off the truck. I even pulled the air compressor, air line, and 3/4" impact gun into the back yard. Despite the 500lb the impact was supposed to put on the nuts, I could only get them to move about half a turn. I concentrated on just one lug nut, with the 5' pipe/breaker bar, and all my weight jumping on the bar, propane torch and penatrating oil. Then I noticed that one was tighter than the rest after a lot of effort, and probably 3-4 full turns. The Rear lug nuts, are reverse thread, but only the rear lug nuts, not the front ones. I damaged that one lug, and doubt I can replace it, but there is 6 per wheel and it does still tighten.

I have been preparing for this "warm", -9, day for a week now. I pulled the 57 battery and put it on charge in the garage, which isn't heated. After a day of charging I opened the caps to check the water level. at -20ish celcius it looked like a block of ice in the battery. I shorted the battery out and clearly got a healthy spark, so it must have just been surface ice. I put a battery warmer on it and added some water in an hour when the level became clear.

I was checking Ebay and found there is actually a potential market for the 57 if I make a new bed for it and fix it up somewhat. Not that I am fixing it to sell it, but it makes me feel better about the whole thing. The plan is to just drive it for 2 months, wile I get the parts and rebuild the Dodge motor, but work is feast or famine for me. If I get work wile I am driving the 57, the dodge could easily take a lot longer than 2 months.

It is no wonder the 57 dump body always overwhelmed me. Just the flat deck has thick tongue and grove boards, maybe original, but all rotten around at the ends. Then there are sheets of rotten 3/4" plywood, and another not so rotten 3/4" plywood layer. And finally 1/4" plexy glass sheets from the hockey rink. All the layers are nailed screwed and bolted in random places to heavy 2x6s which are bolted to the frame. The bolts need to be cut, cause they are too rusty, the heads come off the nails they are so stuck in the wood, and half the screws have stripped heads, if they aren't sunk in where I can't even see them. I am feeling much better about the truck with the deck half ripped off. I don't know if I will make a steel or wood deck to replace this one. Although there is no reusable timbers, it would be amazing if they were 50 years old, and only rotten on the ends.

Sledding

This is the crappiest video I've made yet. I haven't yet returned my overpriced cam corder, that doesn't work, but I did order a new one on Ebay that is more than twice the megapixels, and less than half the price. No flash for pictures though :-(.

The sled vibration was amplified in my camera mast/tripod, hence the terrible video. I had great difficulty w the camera turning off, dropping its battery out, and never saving the videos. This mast is obviously no good, I will make a helmet cam mount instead. Just prepping for next week when it is supposed to be warmer, and we will have a second sled this Friday. I successfully dragged the flat deck trailer to the front yard w the sled, so I can pick up another.

Opened my mig welder from Harbor Freight in the US. Thats what I welded my camera mast with. They are totally inconsistent. I can't really complain, I have a welder that kinda works, but its funny, Joe's welder didn't come w a welding mask, wile mine did. Joe's welder came w the wrong size spare tip for the wire it came with. My welder came with the rite size tips for Joe's wire, but not for the wire that came with my machine. But I don't want to talk poorly about China's quality control. I know that just the transformer contained in these welding machines costs double the whole welding machine price in Canada. I should be thankful the machines come with wire and tips in the first place.

$50 quonset

This Quonset only cost me $50 to construct because I got the heavy duty tarp, and I got it twice as long as I actually needed. So there is room to expand. I only felt comfortable spacing my tent poles 36" apart. Even with three foot spacing I know it will colapse if we get a week of snow that I don't bang off.

I love the hour long highway drive to Edmonton. It is like meditating, which I have never really been able to do successfully otherwise. I get great ideas, and moments of clarity about otherwise overwhelming subjects.

I know now that I will rebuild my Dodge 360 by myself in the spring, it really shouldn't be that hard. Wile I do that I will just drive the 57. Every time I look at or start the 57 the list is too overwhelming to deal with. But I decided if I just remove the rotten flat deck, put one tool box in the back, do the brake cylinders tail lights, and add some simple gauges I can drive it for a month.

It seems like nothing has changed over the six weeks that I have been gone. With Larry the 4 plex is still on the table, and the Vegreville house is still not finished.

Dave still has a bunch of the same sleds, that he wants to trade for the old 650 special. I just have to go over there w my trailer and the bike, and we got another bigger faster sled, which is crazy cause the 250 is fast enough. 440cc sleds seem to be a lot more common though.

I got an HP camcorder which I just love. It doesn't have the 35 x digital zoom, but it was also less than $200. I love that it doesn't have a shutter, but a large lens cap instead. No external moving parts. But even better than that it has a flash, to take pictures. My first day today with it charged, and it won't work! It says "file error" every time I try to record a lame video of the dogs. So crappola videos for another week until I return this HP.

Drill Starter Motor

There is something wrong w the starter motor on this lawn tractor. Its only -5 celcius but I have the clothes iron warming the engine, had it jumped to the running pickup, and a battery charger on it for this video and it just won't turn over very fast if at all.

I desperately needed to plow the driveway, so I hit it with the drill to start it. It worked out in the end. I only used a 1/4" socket and extension for two reasons. For one the 3/8 extension wouldn't fit in the drill, and secondly its somewhat safer with the sheer factor. A 1/4" extension would break before my wrists. I feel I wasted my money on the new tractor battery, because even in warm weather the starter won't crank the 650cc single cylinder engine over. My biggest drill had no problem with it.

This crappy video sealed the deal. I am buying a real cam corder next time I am in town, maybe tomorrow. I can make some quality vids then. I hope the drill starter motor inspires someone else to do the same, its a pretty sweet trick, works for pull start or electric start machines.

Van Hunting

The truck drama goes on. I spent lots of time looking at vans online, when I should have been fixing my truck brakes. A decade ago I wanted one of these Astro vans, even 4 years ago I had looked in AB, and they still wanted $10k for miled out used ones. This one is for sale for $1800, is nicely customized, never driven in winter, and already has air bag suspension. Hopefully I can get to see it tonight or tomorrow morning. Otherwise I am kinda interested in a 2000 dodge work van for $5k, but then I can get a 2005 Sprinter from the states for $14k. In the spring when I can ride the bike to the states, test drive a sprinter, put the bike in the back and drive the van home. New brakes will get me by in the truck till then if the Astro falls through. The Astro van is old but its fun, and it has no side windows, which is what I want, so shelves can go against the wall.

If the Astro works out I could sell the work trailer, come out $1000 ahead in the end, and just leave the camper in Mexico as a permanent fixture, pay import duty on the camper in a decade. Then have one of my 3 trucks for firewood and heavy building materials, even hauling trailers if I want.

Life is far less exciting back in AB, hence the coppied picture of the Astro van for sale.

Really happy w my new computer. Windows 7 is about the same as Vista in my opinion, but everybody says its better so I will try and believe them. I did find in my computer manual you can get a SIM card slot. Rite now I use a USB cellular card for my mobile internet, an internal card would be sweet but I didn't get that one. That will have to wait.

Going to trade the 650 special motorbike for a sled I think. We might only use the second sled twice a year, but I don't see ever using the 650, its not really what I want. Sledding at any speed on my narrow machine requires extreme leaning and it never works out w 2 people on the sled, so this way we will have 2 sleds, and maybe we can keep them upright.

Back To The Cold

A picture of the awsome destructive power of ICE. It cracked the other side of this presure tank, but this side looks cooler the way it was streached. The filter was also cracked and actually broke rite in half. The well case heaters must have come unplugged or something, thankfully the most expensive part, the pump, didn't crack.

That didn't take very long, my favorate computer store had the Asus computer I wanted, in stock, and I bought it. Acording to the new computers estimate, I will get 11 hours of the 12 hour advertised battery life. Lenovo didn't even try to pretend, the most battery it ever said it had was 2 hours, when it was supposed to have 6 hours. The computer guys said my Lenovo probably has hardware unplugged or a bad solder joint. I can fix eather myself, recover all my data, and have a spair working computer eventually.

I got home Monday night and to my surprise, the mother inlaw was here. Again reminded how small the world is, she came over to keep Michelle company wile I was in Mexico. Yesterday, Tuesday, I had the job of entertaining the mother inlaw all day wile Michelle went to work. It didn't work out to be that challenging. I dressed her up in a beliclava gloves and a jacket, then took her out on the sled. The sled tipped us off once down an embankment, and I lost controll somewhat driving us into a tree once. We never hit the base of the tree just hit the thick branches covered in cold snow, and had to pull the sled out from under the tree. You forget the machine has brakes when it stops so quickly with the throdel off, but still not quick enough sometimes. I will make a sled camera mount for next time, pointing at the driver/passenger, that should be good entertainment.

Then we took her to the air port, I bought my new computer, and we saw the Avatar movie in 3D. I also stopped by VW to see if I could buy the VW Transporter, which I have now seen in deisel, left hand drive and in both Canada and Mexico. Ironic VW and Ford both use the same name for their utility "vans". Only available in Mexico and the US they tell me. I will be doing some searches for the VW Transporter this week and see if it might get 30mpg and have an affordable price tag. It is undecided wether the ol Dodge will get more than the brakes fixed. I can limp it around AB as needed as long as it stops.

Home Safe

I made it home safe, a day early. My computer completely died, maybe a bump knocked out another hard drive, I don't know. I should put a shock absorber on the truck computer mount.

I am usually pretty positive about my truck but the truck didn't fair that well. It does consume antifreeze. The drive shaft vibrates badly now, prolly the bearing on the first shaft. The windshield has a vertical crack, The brakes are burned up, prolly need new rotors. Need new fan switches for the heater and radiator fans. The motor has 290k on it now, so I won't be doing the head gasket w/o a complete rebuild.

I test drove a Ford "transporter" in the states, what a piece of junk, a minivan would be better. It did look cool though, kind of a European lookhttp://images.myride.com/images/vehicle/2010/Ford/Transit%20Connect/oem/2010_Ford_Transit_Connect_02_(768x576).jpg

We will talk now about putting a few thou into my old truck or buy a new sprinter van.

I have most likely lost all my videos on my lap top, which is too bad I was working on a neet tour of the Villa we have in Mexico. Don't expect many posts until I get a new computer, but I will build up a few gigs of exciting video footage.