I bought a Tracker

[OaklandStrom]

Unless you have really short friends, you can take out the back seat. It weighs way more than it should, and is somewhat useless. I bolted a small (18" x 20" x 12") metal box in the back of mine, so I had a place to lock a few things.

Since I didn't care about the interior, I took it to the lumber yard & steel yard to pick up materials. A 10 footer will stick out the back winder just a few feet, as long as the front is in the passenger foot well. For a run around town shitbox, it was fine. It sucked for road trips.

Its best day was when a friend in a lifted Burb, with $10,000 of offroad chingaderas tried to follow me in Death Valley. He broke the front diff on a large rock, because he couldn't keep up with my shitbox off road.

[RLK]

My advisors convinced me to take it to a shop to have the clutch looked at. I checked the Car Talk radio show's Mechanic's Files and Al De Mark seemed like the best fit. I expected to pay $600+ for all the hardware and labor including a pedal and cable. Of course I wanted to be a cheapskate and use AutoZone parts or somesuch because i'm that guy. I admit it, I have KLR envy. That's how bad it gets. It turns out to just be a linkage problem. PO installed good parts wrong. Bo (Beau?) installed the existing parts correctly and I owe him ~$160. How many shops in town would have charged me for the whole clutch job like I asked for? Almost all of them, i'd imagine.

Thumbs UP to Al De Mark in downtown Colorado Springs.

[WVhillbilly]

Good to hear you got the clutch fixed, and cheaper than you figured.

Get them 4x4 parts yet?

[bayoulubejim]

Sweet,

I always wanted one of them. Looked around a bit a bit for one for the wife and 16 yo this year. Every one wanted 2 grand up for a 2 wheel drive.

[Goggles Paisano]

This is you, isn't it;

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lbxBFb3A5ak

[El Guero]

Originally Posted by RLK

Serenety prayer works for that too. There's fear in life. What are you going to do about it? It has two airbags and ABS. I never cared about that stuff.

ABS would be handy. My dad had originally bought mine for the 4x4 in the Nebraska winters. Problem was, it didn't have ABS, and anytime you tapped the brakes it would start fishtailing like a motherfucker. That eventually put me in the median of I-80 when I was using it to get moved and the weather turned to freezing rain.

[WVhillbilly]

Iowa City?
How's things in the flat land?
Charlie's bar still open?

[Oh2RideMore]

That is the most air I have ever seen a car do on youtube. Hats off to the crazy rednecks. Wonder if he drove it home. Shocks busted?

[WVhillbilly]

I'm sure he bent and broke some stuff.
But they are a damn tough vehicle.

[El Guero]

Originally Posted by WVhillbilly

Iowa City?
How's things in the flat land?
Charlie's bar still open?

I'm not aware of a Charlie's in Iowa City anymore... Everything else is swell though!

[WVhillbilly]

http://www.iowabeat.com/bar/charlies-bar-grill.htm

And back on topic

[RLK]

By now you probably have figured out that i'm not the smartest person you'll never meet. I'm a never ending-daydreamer. I daydream about a custom plug-in hybrid front drive system. In this dream I put 4x4 front end parts in from manual hubs to the pumpkin and drive it w/electrons. Re-gen brakes, electric only mode or electric start and only use gas power to the rear for 3rd gear+ needs. Unlock the hubs and shut it all off and drive it normally gas RWD mode for long highway stretches. There's room for batts under the seats.

I don't think they teach this kind of stuff at the community college...

...also in this daydream the roof doesn't leak. If you find a good used hardtop laying around please holler. Thanks

[WVhillbilly]

Hardtops are expensive, new soft tops are under $200 and shouldn't leak.
You need to get over here, join up and look around. http://www.zukikrawlers.com
There is a good used parts section, and plenty of knowledge about what you are driving.

I didn't know a thing about my Zuk when I got it, but learned a lot on ZK.

[El Guero]

Mine had a Besttop hardtop on it. I think it worked well for a few years but it started leaking all over the place eventually. Also, when windows would get knocked out of it, replacements were almost impossible to find. I always wanted another ragtop but my dad claimed it would be too noisy.

[RLK]

Recent developments have allowed me to get this thing somewhat squared away. Its got new Dunlops in 185 65R 15. The spec size 195 75R no longer exists. I still have KLR envy so Rather than the more expensive 205 70Rs I went smaller/cheaper. By my best guesstimate these are 8% smaller than OEM. 65mph indicated is only 60 actual mph. I took a trip to ere109's xmx party by the exact route Goog maps gives at 69.0 miles. The odo measured 153.6 directly to and back. Off by a factor of .898 or whatever. On the trip I was aiming for 75 indicated. I can describe it as feeling like driving a flying windshield, quite an aerodynamic disaster scraping along through the air, half fast, 3800 rpm. The short base magnifies steering inputs. A little wiggle of the wheel can turn into an ugly swerve. The wall of air that dumps off the sides of bigger vehicles at speed wants to push the little buggy around a lot. That's exciting to deal with, between that and the spedo corrections its a lot to...er... keep Track of.