gogmorgo

Saw something yesterday that made me think about tiny homes on wheels: Pretty sure it’s just a home built enclosed trailer for ATVs or sleds or whatnot, but still a concern for some of the ones I’ve seen... it gets real windy sometimes. I took a drive by that place as well. It was a pretty nice drive, apart from the bit that goes through an active coal mine, but still not something I think I’d want to be doing twice daily, especially given it doesn’t seem like a winter maintenance priority. Not the end of the world either but it’s also not paved the whole way. And I’m still not convinced about living full-time in a century-old log home, as quaint as it might be.

X2 on “what button”. As wired from the factory, the high and low beams get the same power supplied by the switch. Splitting between the two is done at the “dimmer” (high/low beam) switch, in the column as others have said. If the high beams work and the low beams don’t, I’d start by checking if you’ve got power coming out of the dimmer switch, then further diagnosing the low beam circuit. In the case of the marker and turn signal lights, the easiest thing to do would be adding them into the respective circuits, which will be easiest to pick up at the marker lamp under the headlight. If you want the marking lights to function like daytime running lights, then I’d grab a switched 12V from somewhere and run them off that so they’re on whenever the key is on. If you want to get fancy you could even put a relay in that shuts them off when the headlights come on. Remember that the LEDs aren’t necessarily going to point in the exact direction the sealed beams did, so be sure to aim them after they’re installed.

My 2wd 2.5 shortbed sits about the same empty. It’s to be expected from a 3000lb truck that’s rated to carry 1400lbs payload. Personally I like the way it sits, as it means I can load the bed right up without it looking like a dog dropping a $#!&. This is how it sits with ~1100lbs of firewood. Shocks don’t affect ride height unless they’ve got helper springs on them, and you don’t want those up front. I doubt your front springs are that badly sagged, but you’ll gain some lift out of 4x4 springs, more from 4.0 springs at the cost of ride comfort, assuming you’re also 2.5/2wd. Whatever you do, always aim your headlights after changes in ride height.

I put new batteries in the tv remote last night, put the empty battery packaging in the trash, and then spent the better part of an hour hunting for the remote with the new batteries in it. Dug through the trash three times before noticing it on the kitchen counter above the garbage can. At least the stuff I can’t find that I haven’t used in months is a little more excusable.

An apartment is essentially a tiny home, just in the same building as a bunch of other tiny homes, and billions of people around the world make that work. Lots of apartments have their own laundry. When it comes down to it, the actual space I use for living really doesn’t need to be very big at all. It would be different if I had kids around I’m sure, but really all I do in my house is eat, poop, sleep, and browse the internet. Most of the things I do with my hands aren’t things I necessarily want happening in the same space as where I eat. All that happens outside the house. As nice as it might be, I can’t exactly swap an engine in my living room, no matter how big it is. But yes, I can’t quite imagine a tiny home without outbuildings. Shed and garage space. Unless you live somewhere it’s feasible (and affordable) to rent out such space as necessary. Storage units, DIY garage, that sort of thing. And sure, it’s possible to have that sort of thing built into your house, but attached garages come with their own set of building code requirements compared to a detached one, and a shed is almost always a free-for-all. Surmountable obstacles, sure. But it’s much easier to build and expand your garage when it’s not snuggled up to your house. You guys may be a bad influence. Got me looking at stuff again. 900 square feet dripping with frontier vibe on a half-acre lot tucked away in the foothills. There’s a 12x15 shed, a 15x24 garage, an additional “bunkhouse” on the lot (no interior photos of it, it just looks like a narrow shed), all much newer than the house. Also an included 28’ RV that I suspect indicates the current livability of the house. As cool as this piece of history is, it’s still a piece of history and will come with the associated problems. Even though it’s on this side of the Divide, it’s still slightly further from work than reasonable commuting distanceand it needs a new windbreak planted. Not quite the dream cabin in the woods given previous occupants have seen fit to remove the woods, but might not make for the worst start to a humble empire of dirt. Maybe if it’s still for sale come summer it might warrant a closer look. 100-year-old log home can’t be much worse than a 30-year-old truck, can it?

I’ve had mild reactions to some hand sanitizers recently, the ones with some kind of lotion or moisturizer added. Usually with an allergic reaction the doctors will ask about new things you’ve been exposed to. It’s possible to suddenly develop an allergy to something you’ve had around you all your life, but I don’t think it’s too common. The only person I know it’s happened to got it as a side effect to chemotherapy... as if getting cancer at 29 wasn’t bad enough for her. She also didn’t just develop one or two allergies, suddenly she was allergic to basically everything.

It’s been pretty warm here too, if I’m honest. Above freezing on the regular... it’s not been great.

Can’t imagine there’s a ton of flex in those leafs.

It’s been a lonely day in the shop today. We got an inch of snow a valley bottom, but significantly more over the pass. The highway’s shut down and everyone’s down south bombing and picking up after avalanches.

There’s some truth to the high pinion being stronger, mostly in that it pushes the “correct” direction on the gear teeth. The other advantage is that it lifts your driveshaft a bit further off the ground. But that’s not to say there’s anything wrong with a low-pinion axle, they’re not blowing apart left right and centre. It’s just less desirable for the above reasons. That axle looks to me like an hp30. Calliper brackets integral to the knuckles tell me it’s ‘91+. Like you said, the wheel blocks telling if it’s CAD or not, and given it’s 1/8” in the difference between ujoint caps, it’s not something I can call at this resolution, and probably not at all from a photo. 1.188” (~1-3/16”) vs 1.063” (~1-1/16”).

I’ve got a non-cad D30 that ostensibly was original to an ‘86 MJ, although the only evidence I have to that fact is the seller’s word, and I suppose the fact it came as a matched set with the AMC20 rear axle from the same truck. But that’s not the first evidence I’ve seen that the CAD was only introduced for ‘87. The only real weakness of the CAD axle is that plastic vacuum lines operating it aren’t the most reliable if you like driving through stuff that could catch them and rip them out. The smaller ujoints are fine to run so long as you’re not a ton larger than stock diameter and don’t have a destructive driving style. And if you do blow one apart, it’s just an excuse to upgrade to the later shafts. The driver’s side is a direct replacement, but you’ll need to put an axle seal into the diff to run the passenger side, otherwise it slides right in... provided you can get everything apart. The ZJ shafts for sure will. I’m not 100% on WJ shafts. Most will have CV axles, which will still go in just the same as any other d30 shaft. One of my ‘91 MJs is running parts-store ZJ CV’s because it was what I could get in a hurry when I needed them. They’ve got the ABS tone rings on them still, although I’ve seen people say you need to knock off the tone rings off to fit a -‘90 hub. My base ‘93 ZJ does ujoint shafts with the bigger ujoints, but even though they look it I can’t know for sure if they’re original to it or not.

Home is where I park my Jeep.

I go back and forth on this. I know a couple who quite happily were living with their baby in a 15’x15‘ shed with a loft on about five acres, with no running water until he hand dug his own well. It wasn’t out of necessity, just what they wanted to do. They had a big garden, a small storage shed, outhouse, and a fenced-in run for the dogs, and the only real yard maintenance they needed to do to was collecting deadfall (they burnt it all in the fire pit), keeping driveway and paths clear of snow, and preventing the aspen grove and hazel undergrowth from encroaching too much. No need for perfectly manicured suburban lawns or anything of that nature. It was nice. They’re on kid #2 now and out of necessity built a “real” house but it’s still on the smaller side. They also have sheltered parking now, which is definitely a plus. That’s the sort of place I can see myself living someday, just with a “shed” big enough for a few vehicles and a hoist. I went out and looked at a chunk of land this summer. 14 acres of mixed forest, not a lot of it cleared, with a creek running across it. It’s long and thin, with the narrow end right off the highway and a decent hill going up the other end. A house built up there would have a great view up a mountain valley, but without external access to the rear of the lot it would be a pretty hectic driveway... 300’ of elevation gain in about 1500’ of property. There’s an old overgrown logging road running up and back, but the realtor didn’t have a ton of time for me to walk around and explore (or apparently much interest in pushing through the bush with me in her high heels) and the landowners didn’t want me there without her around, and there were multiple trail cams up. I didn’t really get the impression they were super keen on selling, or even in showing anyone too much of the property. It’s also about 70 miles away from work and on the wrong side of the continental divide, which won’t make for a great winter commute. Unfortunately though the town I live in is the sort of place where mobile homes go for a half-million. Anything that’s semi-affordable has no parking or storage space. Half the reason my projects progress as slowly as they do is because I don’t have reasonable sheltered space to work on anything, which effectively means a two-car garage which isn’t easy to come by in the sub-half-million range it would seem, and finding a chunk of land that I’d want to built on isn’t any easier. Living in a national park has its perks, but there are some serious drawbacks as well.

Welcome to buying parts online in Canada. A lift shackle will affect the rear pinion angle, because it only changes geometry at one end of the leaf spring. 1” isn’t going to be a huge deal but much beyond that and you’ll start encountering driveshaft vibrations. This is corrected easily enough with leaf spring perch shims, but given where this thread started it’s safe to assume pulling your rear suspension apart to install is going to be a very destructive process.

Yeah me too. Got some comments on a couple things on your list though, not necessarily for you but for someone else who might not be as familiar.

I figure a tire review is in order after having put a few hundred km on these. A bunch around town, and three trips up to the ski hill. As a direct comparison to the ATX, some interesting things come out. On all but polished surfaces, stiction seems not hugely different. The Nokians do have an edge in linear traction (accel and braking) and more of an edge in lateral traction (cornering) but they both will start sliding at around the same point. The ATX may even have a slight edge in deeper snow. The big difference though is once the ATX loses traction, it’s done. You start to spin, you’ll just sit and spin. Start to slide, you’ll keep sliding in the same direction you were going. But the Hakkas don’t lose grip when they break lose. They still give you roughly the same traction and control even as you slide or spin, which makes it so much easier to keep everything moving in the direction you planned. The other major advantage the Hakkas have is ice traction. I imagine the compound and tread pattern has something to do with that but the studs are the clear advantage there. If I spun the ATX backing out of an icy skating rink of a parking spot, I’d usually have to grab 4x4 and still leave two long very polished tracks as I struggle to get moving. The studs bite into the hard ice, and I’ll move away in 2wd, still spinning, but they’ll bite while spinning, leaving the ice thoroughly shredded. Superpowers? I don’t think I’d go quite that far. But yes, it was definitely worth the money. The road up to the ski hill isn’t that bad at an average 6% grade, but it’s narrow and twisty and it’s always pretty nasty with polished out ruts and lose crap in between them. And when it snows it’s not the biggest priority over the highways, so it’s frequently a bit before the plows hit it... and this is Alberta so no one has any idea what a safe following distance is supposed to be on a clear dry road, let alone one with less than optimal traction. And it’s nice to be able to put the torque down to get you up the hill without going sailing sideways every time you start to spin.

We’ve had a bit. But we could still use quite a bit more... nothing quite like nailing a rock sitting three inches under the surface. Bottom of the valley has had snow since early October, although we’ve had a couple warm spells so there’s only about 4” on the ground now.

Kinda felt like I was spamming the thread so here’s not quite a week’s worth. The 10th is Banff Ave’s Ride or Dry. It’s interesting in that it’s essentially a light IPA. 4.something % ABV, not much body, etc. It might actually be appropriate for after a big day on single track, at least it seemed more hydrating than most beers. Day 11 was “Razzycat”. Another Alley Kat product, a raspberry sour. I’ve never been that excited about sours, more of the not-tasting-like-beer thing, and this one wasn’t helped by having been at the ski hill all day. It’s definitely not a cold-weather sort of beer. But it was very raspberry in flavour, and not as artificial as the “blue raspberry” sour candy flavour. I imagine it would be well liked by someone who likes this sort of thing. Day 12 is a Pilsner Urquell. The original Pilsner. I wouldn’t really consider it a craft beer, but it’s not really a mass-market either. It’s good though. Like the Hooligan from earlier it demonstrates why most mass-markets are pilsners. This was better after a day of skiing. Day 13 is from another ski town, Fernie (BC) Brewing Co’s Lone Wolf IPA. Generic overly hoppy craft IPA that I don’t want to rant about any more. Day 14 was a bit disappointing. Spectrum Milk Chocolate Ale. Similar to the Granville Island Winter, it tastes very artificially flavoured. Between that and sweetening it with lactose, it was a bit like drinking a stale low-grade chocolate bunny. Although the can’s interesting. Today’s is another from Alley Kat, pumpkin spice something or other. This was my roommate’s contribution to the calendar. I’m not sure how I feel about it. It tastes like a grocery store pumpkin pie, but the aftertaste is like a decent ale. The head is quite creamy, and reminiscent of whipped cream on top of the pie. It wasn’t bad, but not necessarily my prefered combination of flavours.