The bar Spacing is both uneven and intentional for a roof top carrier I plan to install.
There it is getting a paint job. It’s a small yakima one and it’s OLD but it’s good enough for the trooper.
There it is getting a paint job. It’s a small yakima one and it’s OLD but it’s good enough for the trooper.
Finally got the roof rack done-ish. I needed to make room in the garage for some other stuff so this had to get a rush job on the brackets. Not ideal but it’ll do. I think that was $50 in steel, $35 dollars for the carrier used on offerup, plus another $50 in parts and paint. Not too bad!
Offset is intentional to accommodate my ezup alongside the carrier and leave room at the front for anything else I want to carry up there.
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Love it! Looking really good, Rob!
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Not bad at all, dude! Looks great! I was just thinking this weekend how much I want a good roof rack. Maybe then I’d use it?
Wanna go camping. Wanna be comfortable.
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Current plan is to get a tent that I don’t hate setting up as much as my current family one. If they made a slightly bigger gazelle tent that truly fit 8 instead of the weird way the t4 plus works, then that’s what I’d be doing. As it is I might get a gazelle t3 for when my brother and I go, or me and my son when he gets a little older. Anyways, bigger family tent and packing system that doesn’t have everything buried and piled and I’ll be good to go. Not sure exactly what I’ll stick up in the carrier. Probably take 3 or 4 trips for that to get worked out for sure.
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Well I found that somehow my front diff mounting bolts had gotten loose and I’m pretty sure that was the noise I thought was driveshaft related. Got that fixed as well as reindexed my front torsion bars to raise the nose for a level ride. Not bad for 2 hours on a Saturday.
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So this means things aren’t as bad as you thought? Still got the AC issues? Feeling better about the Trooper?
Well it means the only choice I have is to soldier on, at any rate.
Haven’t figured out the AC. I’m gonna take it to that guy you recommended soon.
It still has a host of issues, but basically the wife and I decided we’re gonna get her van paid off, I can drive the van most days even after things are back to normal, and then we will start saving for a sub 100k tacoma or 4runner for me.
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Nah, spend a little on the Trooper, vs 20k plus on a Toyota. Older and simpler is better. I will never encourage a finance purchase on an anywhere near 100k vehicle. A monthly payment AND no warranty? Never. Just my .02 of course, plus, the individuality and personality of an old Isuzu is way higher than a newer Yota.
Truck looks good leveled out. Hopefully by fall I have a trail vehicle to join you with!
No we would be paying cash, we’d save up until we had the cash set aside. If I can help it i’m never getting another car loan again.
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Car payments. No thank you. At least, not until everything but the house is paid off imo.
Curious: How does 100k Taco money compare to having professionals fix/install everything on the Trooper?
I mean, if a Taco is $15k and you’ll need 2 years to salt that away, but having a shop fix the Trooper would only be $10k–and you could get things done incrementally over time while driving the van, it might be a better idea. An option, anyway.
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Well I dropped the trooper off at auto air and electric today, we will see what he says. Thanks for the tip @Brian, seems like a good shop.
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Got it back the same afternoon, they found two leaks, fixed them, and tested the system under both vacuum and pressure. I put refrigerant in at home and it’s blowing cold, so we will see how it does.
$184 out the door for the diagnosis and two repairs. I’m super pleased with that.
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Awesome! Thats great news! It will be much more pleasurable with the upcoming ‘warm’ season for sure!
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Awesome sauce! Mike’s a hell of a guy. Enjoy that AC!
Backstory: When I bought my 92 GVR, it was missing an AC hardline across the firewall. I found the line, bought o-rings, oil, and one of those cheap-o, Propane recharge kits, and put it all together myself. I thought I’d be clever, taking the car to the shop and having them pull vacuum on it to test it, then drive home and recharge on that vacuum. Mike called me a couple hours later and told me I did a great job. They’d pressurized the system and it didn’t leak a bit. I just paid them to fill it with R134. 464/1000 blew 45°F from the center vents after that.
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HOW DID THEY GET MY CAR FOR THIS VIDEO?!
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So stormy has been slow starting lately. My first thought was I had killed a cell in the battery because I got lazy and didn’t pull the ground when I was doing the tack welds for the roof rack brackets. After leaving stormy at my parents house for a few days ago I could borrow my dad’s pickup, it wouldn’t start, wouldn’t even crank over at all. I pulled the battery and went to the FLAPS (friendly local auto parts store). They tested it and said it was good. So I took it home, and the voltage measured mid 12.9 it on the charger for a few hours and got it up to 13.3. Took it back to the trooper, and still no start. Banged the starter with a hammer a few times and it still started slow. Driving home, the voltmeter on the dash read 11ish when the alternator was not on, 13ish when it was. I know dash volt meters aren’t the Pinnacle of accuracy and precision, but it was corroborated by an also imprecise cigarette lighter volt meter that had nearly identical readings.
So I’m thinking the starter has a problem, and I have a known good spare so that’s no issue, but what about the weird running and charging voltages? It seems like alternator, but still kinda weird for an alternator… Any other thoughts where I should start trouble shooting?
Pretty sure you should be seeing north of 14v with a healthy alternator…13.8 at the minimum (looking at you Toyota). Battery is gonna take ages to charge at 13.3v, and probably hasn’t seen a full charge in a good while, which unfortunately means there’s gonna be some permanent damage if it’s a lead-acid battery. They do not like to not be fully charged. Irreversible chemical reactions happen the longer you leave them discharged.
I’d put the crosshairs on the alternator.
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Agreed. Might be a good time to ask how the battery terminals are looking too? Pristine terminals, really good grounds wherever they should be, and then go from there. I always start with free. Although it never usually ends there. 
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Terminals are in perfect shape. Battery and terminals are only about 7 months old.
I can’t remember, but I think the alternator was a FLAPS unit with lifetime warranty. Not too hard to pull, so I’ll just pull it and get it tested. The starter is a total pain to pull, but I have a known good one so I’ll probably swap that as well.
As for bad grounds, that’s totally possible. I have had the intake off so many times I’ve lost count and there are at least 4 ground connections that get pulled when doing that. I’ll have to double check them all.