88 4X4 Longbed Pioneer - 4.0 5 spd

[DesertRat1991]

On 7/15/2019 at 8:24 AM, 88towmanche said:

Got out after some fish this weekend - shake down run for the boat & the MJ - kilt more beers than salmon, but nothing broke and weather was above par.

 

Revised weight calc on the boat & trailer - closer to 3500 than 2500 - and that truck knows it is back there, think it will be fine for local lakes and close in access points for Puget Sound - but don't think I'll be dragging it to the coast just not enough grunt and hauling it over the pass to Eastern Wash is out of the question - at least for now.

 

Thinking if I get the air lift suspension kit on there, upgrade the brakes and wring a little more power out of the mill (Throttle body upgrade) might re-evaluate.

 

 

 

Yah, the truck is nice but...   is that a 4 port garage with a lift bay and a man cave on top??  #garage_envy  

[88towmanche]

42 minutes ago, DesertRat1991 said:

 

Yah, the truck is nice but...   is that a 4 port garage with a lift bay and a man cave on top??  #garage_envy  

5 Port - the 5th one is hidden behind the bushes on the left - no roll up door, used as an office.

 

Upstairs is a 600sqft studio apartment - got one of the kids living up there, some day I'll get it back and make it a man cave.

 

Searched for that place for 12 years - lived poor, made some good investments, got lucky and bought it during the real estate crash in 2009.

 

Garage is bigger than the house (by about 200 sq ft) - upstairs was unfinished when we got it, but it did have a gas furnace and gas water heater installed and lots of power - added a 4 post lift last year - interior of garage is finished with full heat.  Took about 8 years to finish the apartment (broke as hell after we bought the place - had to do it one bit at a time) - scavenged a lot of materials - managed to gather up enough granite to do the counters, friend in the flooring business hooked us up with just enough pre-finished wood flooring to do the place, that sort of thing.

 

Got an 80 gallon Ingersol Rand compressor and have air plumbed through out.  Full bathroom upstairs, but only a mop sink in the garage (kind of an issue - wifey doesn't like my buddies tromping in the house to use the head - and I won't have them pissing in the bushes - or the mop sink)  space issues would make it difficult to put a bathroom in the garage, but there is room for one of those stainless prison urinals that have the sink on top - problem is every time I find one of those they want major $$$ for them.

 

Biggest problem with a garage like that is family wants to store all there shxt in there - Pops collects old cars, really old rattle bang Model T's - they aren't worth much, but can't leave them outside.  Had a 1925 coupe, 1913 runabout and a 1921 speedster all stuffed in there along with a bunch of my brothers crap ('69 Olds 442 W30 option basket case that will never see the road),  couple of boats (2000 Trophy W/A & 99 Seadoo Speedster) - finally evicted most of the rolling stock but still have a lot of junk to get rid of.  

 

Goal is to have 3 vehicles - DD (currently an 04 Chrysler Crossfire), the MJ, and side hustle work rig (2000 Astro van) as the only vehicles in there - leaves the lift bay open for projects.

 

Always thought it would be cool to have this set up - property taxes and power bills are brutal though.

 

 

[Pete M]

yup, that's my perfect house right there.  big garage with a tiny apartment upstairs.  

[88towmanche]

Tires rubbing on the LCA's finally got annoying enough to do something about - not undriveable but maneuvering a trailer around was a hassle.

 

Had bought a set of WJ LCA's from Rockauto, was trying to decide how to cut down the ends finally went with a 7-1/4 abrasive cut-off wheel mounted on a compound miter saw - buzzed a 1/4" off all sides pretty quick - just got to make sure the bushing doesn't get cooked.

 

Install was fairly simple - the WJ LCA's have a big oval bushing at one end but seem to be able to mount either way - I rolled the dice and put the oval bushing on the axle side (if it is wrong or a problem, will swap ends)

 

Did it on a lift with the tires on - driver side no problem, chocked all the wheels, pulled the old LCA nothing moved, found that for me, had to mount the axle side first - could not get the holes to line up mounting the frame side first no idea why but axle side first worked.  Passenger side was more of a hassle, soon as the bolt was pulled the axle shifted back a few inches - pushed the wheel chocks.  Had to mess around with a ratchet strap to pull the axle back in place and line up the holes - but got it done.

 

Happy with the result - no rubbing at full crank either side - woohooo!