gogmorgo

Not my photo, this car was posted for sale a couple hours away from here. For those of you looking for moose.

Interesting that it looks more like a ZJ than an XJ in the photo. The resolution is too low to make out the text that goes with it, at least on my phone.

Not near. In. It’s alright here, but I’m definitely a flatlander through and through and all the blocked out sky can get pretty claustrophobic at times. It’s also not at all a cheap place to live.

If you know, you know.

Is there a way to get a copy without contributing to the Bezos gold hoard?

It’s a brake warning light?

Nowhere close. Currently on the east slope of the Rockies, where the rivers flow north to the Arctic, a few hundred miles north of Spokane, WA. I started out north of North Dakota and slowly worked my way further west over the last bunch of years.

Haven’t had much snow for a while. It was a gorgeous day up at the hill on Friday, even though the snow conditions weren’t great. Pretty wind scoured and hard packed, good for straight line speed but not great for control at all. It’s all blown out of the trees, and the bare beetle-killed trees in the valley aren’t super attractive. Still have to wait for the sun to get higher in the sky for good photography looking south. But here’s a teaser from after the sun dropped below the peak, and an evening pano in the valley while standing on a lake. Also, this is what most views looking south are like in photos right now. This was early in the morning while the sun was still relatively low, but it really doesn’t climb much higher than that this time of year.

The XJ driver space is definitely at an advantage because the seat doesn’t smash into the cab wall before you can get it all the way back. I’ve folded down the seats on a two-door and got an entire brush guard in and still shut the hatch. Without the seats folded cargo space isn’t ideal, but it’s still better than my housemate’s Juke... not saying much there though, the juke is tiny. I’ve sat in the back of a two-door for a couple hours with two other adults. I also once road a few miles home from the bar with five adults in the back seat. Getting in and out is a bit awkward but only an issue while you’re doing it. As far as ride goes, the springs are softer than an MJ so it’s not super noticeable that there’s a difference in wheelbase, especially against a short bed MJ, until you climb a significant obstacle. Or hammer the gas, because the front end feels like it lifts a lot more with the rear dropping further and less of a torque arm fighting the lift. Like most vehicles from the ‘90’s the springs will likely be shagged out when you first pick it up, and blown rear shocks will make it seem extra tippy front/back. Good news though is there are a LOT more rear spring and shock options for an XJ.

I totally just saw someone doing this this weekend. Boggles the mind, really. 3/4 ton Ford with a 1/2 ton chev behind. I wasn’t quick enough on my phone draw when I realized what it was, and oncoming on a divided highway means no chasing it down for photos. There was not a lot of clearance between the brakes and the road.

Used to store riding mowers like this one:

Some from on top of the mountain. The best views unfortunately are looking south, straight into the sun. Impossible to capture on my phone. As was said, it depends on the area. Canada’s a very big country with varying terrain, climate, and policy. Out east where the climate is more mild it’s common practice to have a “bare dry road” maintenance strategy, which means lots of salt. They get a bunch of snow, and temperatures not that far below freezing, it almost makes sense – they’d just end up a slushy disaster – but in my opinion it promotes failure to learn to drive in winter conditions. On the prairies where I grew up, we don’t get so much snow but it’s much colder (-40 is the lower end of usual) and salt doesn’t do much, it gets kicked off the roads before it can dissolve into snow or ice, so policy is just to push snow into the ditches instead of melting it. There’s enough sun to warm the road surfaces and burn off what remains, even on a cold day, and we just get used to driving on compact snow and ice around town. Here in the mountains the policy would be about the same as on the prairies, except for the fact that a lot of the roads don’t see sun due to said mountains. So they salt the crap out of the roads, which short-term mostly just gets kicked off and doesn’t do a ton, but eventually it might work. Mostly though it’s a grit mix with some salt added in which destroys paint and windshields. Just over the divide into BC they like to use a brine mix, which works better at coating the road and clearing ice buildup, but also has an effect of triggering frost accumulation when the road surface is below about 0°F, which makes things pretty slick until the air starts warming back up again. ...can you tell I work in road maintenance 😂

Yeah, I’ve seen them near the bridge I took that first pic from occasionally. Not long ago this was in the local paper. Apparently there was one moose that got mad if you tried to move away once it started licking your car, and actually stomped a few vehicles, prompting the warning. They’re along the road there year-round. I might even have my own photos... somewhere.

Here’s a two-fer for ya, from the Canadian Rockies. We just had a huge (for us) dump of almost a foot at valley bottom this morning. It’s one of those days that makes me wish I had an actual camera. Also kinda wishing I called in sick and went skiing. It’s been real quiet around the shop because every single piece of equipment is out working so I wouldn’t have been missed. But I did get the opportunity to lay some fresh tracks down the highway coming back north after a field trip so that was alright I guess. This is the view out the shop window just now. I’ll try to get you some from up at the hill tomorrow.

Can’t say I’ve ever seen a half-track that wasn’t.

A traditional winter recipe I enjoy and a staple at any sort of holiday feast is tourtière. It’s a very French-Canadian meat pie sort of dish, and recipes vary considerably depending on what’s available regionally. For me growing up it’s typically a combination of ground pork and beef, or pork mixed with deer, elk, or moose, whatever’s at hand really. Apparently out on the coast it’s even common to use fish, but I’m not too sure how I feel about that. And it needs savory to taste right, some recipes substitute sage, but a combination is definitely best. My mémère isn’t French so I don’t have a family recipe like everyone else, but this is pretty close to the best recipe I’ve found: https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-manitoba-tourtiere/ I’m throwing a couple together tonight with pork and bison to bake tomorrow. Sortilège whiskey instead of the brandy. Can’t wait.

Stumbled across some footage from a show I was at a couple years back. It was a good show. The Raygun Cowboys were touring with the Real McKenzies. It’ll be nice when we can go back to behaving irresponsibly once again.

Is it squeaking internally to the switch, or is it possibly just rubbing the faceplate? Follow up question being whether the switch or the faceplate could get adjusted so as not to rub?

Definitely don’t see it too often, even online. I think I’ve only ever seen one in person, but then I’ve only been in the ZJ game a couple years and don’t get to junkyards too often anymore. I don’t think I’ve seen too many people in the ZJ groups looking for red interior pieces, and that one looks a bit trashed. No one really seems to care much at all about “rarities”... But then I’m not on an actual ZJ forum, just the facepage bull crap where it seems like no one cares about anything other than “v8 go vroom” or how fast they can spin their bald 37’s.

And yet there are people who think this guy’s got vaccines chipped to track people.

I change control arms on the ground at ride height, no jacks involved, if you’re only dealing with stock length. I’m also running WJ arms and they went in just fine, after trimming the internal bush sleeves of course. The WJ arms are good for ride comfort as well as tire clearance. If you’re planning on ever lifting much beyond 2” though you’ll want something longer than stock length. Good suggestions above.