It was nice riding in today to work on my mountain bike. Light dusting of snow, flurries. The evening though I got pelted by some sleet riding in the wind and dark but it was fine, the local bus got me home. Saved a buck thirty bus fare by only riding one way, plus enjoyed the beauty of the rail trail.
With the holidays, 🎅 my office is closed through Monday. I’ll go in next week on Monday, but I’ll probably leave early on New Years Eve to take Big Red out for one last spin, visit Walmart and then park him in his final resting spot at my parents house until spring, when I can pull off and unpack and camping equipment and see if I can sell or scrap him.
But in the meantime, tomorrow morning I want to run to Walmart 🛒, get supplies for camping and continue to stock up so I have as much supplies as possible before Red is done and going there will only by bike. Then I am driving out to Mom and Dad to join them for Christmas Eve Dinner. 🤶 First time we’ve been together for Christmas in two years as last year I had COVID and the previous year Mom had the flu and I spent Christmas at the State Horse Camp. 🐴
Plan to head out camping early on Christmas Day, get a good fire going up in woods, 🔥 and enjoy the beauty of Christmas in the wilderness. Looks like we might have a decent amount of snow on Friday, and while I would like to stay until Sunday in the woods, it might turn to ice on Sunday, so it be best to come home on Saturday. I don’t want to camp too far from plowed roads, just in case we get a lot of snow, so I’m digging through the deep snow. Not going to worry about idling and wearing down the engine, or burning too much fuel up, ⛽ as Big Red’s final day is less then a week away.
Internet advertisers have discovered I’m interested in underbody coating methods and sprays. 🖌️ Basically the only thing really worth it is regular lamoline coatings, sheep oil from the advice of my friends and what the internet suggests, but rust is a big problem around here, and there are certainly coatings out there, some better then others. But a lot of scams too, really the factory zinc application is what matters in practice. GM doesn’t do a good job at it, but a few years earlier Toyota was really bad, and Dodges and Ford used to famously bad. Man I can remember how rusty at least the rocker panels and rear quarter panels used to get on the old Dodges. I think they’re a lot better now. Fords use a lot of aluminum body panels, which don’t have the rust through holes, and frames are decently well dipped, but it’s tough here in New York for at least pickups, though it seems like Toyota’s and Honda’s little cars don’t show much visible rot even if they are bad on the underside. Honestly, I don’t think I would object that much to my truck smelling like Fluid Film.
Well I’m going to head under my covers in my bed and heated blanket to get warm. ♨️ Soon enough I’ll be doing my only chance ot winter camp, before that’s done for the year with Red going into retirement much too soon. 🛻 He’s been a good truck, but yeah, let’s be honest, that Red F-250 regular cab long bed 4×4 has my name written all over it. While not the most popular Ford, a number of dealers have them, and if I have to order one or get a ride to some hick town 50 miles away to take delivery in April, so it will be. I was looking at my neighbor’s little Toyota Tacoma, and it’s not for me. Maybe if I was a little guy, made less money, or didn’t spend many weekends each year camping out the back of my truck, I’d think differently.
Lanolin comes from the skin glands of sheep to condition their wool. When sheep are sheared the wool is washed in hot water and detergent, a solvent is then used in the process to extract the Lanolin. Typically used in the cosmetics industry this makes up the largest share of Lanolin use, however in recent years more and more manufactures are understanding that Lanolin has a fantastic rustproofing capabilities.
How does it work?
The high penetration potential of lanolin-based anti-corrosive products makes them perfect for rust treatment and prevention on automobiles, especially for cherished classics vehicles . Due to high capillary activity, the low-viscous substances can penetrate into the splices and even micro-fissures that are especially vulnerable to corrosion due to electrochemical processes.
Containing long chain Esters which are able to resist water penetration in all conditions on land or sea. It is an ideal barrier against corrosion and rust.
Hermetically sealing the surface preventing air and moisture reaching the underlying steel.
Should you put a suspension lift your truck ask all the bros?
The answer, like everything, is it’s complicated. There are costs and benefits and it’s a kind of fun to ride up high and have that great view of the road. Lift kits are expensive, although not that expensive when you capitalize it over a decade. Maybe $500-$700 a year, for something that can give you a lot of enjoyment but also potentially a lot of heartache too.
Lift kits do several things:
Give you a much better view of the road and the scenery around you, especially on rural roads through farm country and mountains.
Give you more ground clearance which makes it easier to get over rocks and debris without bottoming out.
They allow you to put bigger and nicer looking wheels.
They ruin the quality of the ride, making bumps more pronounced and ride more wallowly especially as suspension wears.
They decrease the effectiveness of the brakes, make them run hot and wear quicker especially on long-down hills. Downshift early to avoid riding the brakes if you lift your truck.
They make your truck accelerate worse, as heavy wheels take a lot more power to move them.
The cause wheel bearings, ball joints and control arms to wear quicker, though most of them were going to fail eventually even if you didn’t lift your truck.
Do it while you’re young if you have the money and it want to have to fun.
But also consider why are you are lifting the truck in the first place?
If you want a bigger truck and be higher off the road, it’s better to buy a 3/4 ton rather then lift a 1/2 ton truck. The heavier axles and wheel bearings of 3/4 ton are far better suited for running 35s or 37s. Doing it all over again, if I do decide on 35s on my 3/4 ton pickup when the factory tires wear out, I won’t need a full lift kit, but merely a leveling kit – if even that – and it will be closer to factory ride.
Also, I found that I never really needed the ground clearance that much, as most dirt and gravel forest roads are fairly low clearance. Moreover, I worried about the additional stress on suspension components from the big tires and wheels, so I rarely did much real off-roading, and a big jacked up truck is really a pig on the trails, unless the trails are super wide. Who wants to break an expensive big jacked up truck, or smash it up on the trail?
Just a reminder …
You will trash your wheel bearings on a 1/2 ton truck with a lift kit at the worse time possible, but then again they probably were about to go regardless. And wear out your brakes prematurely, which will stop like shit until you get high quality brake pads installed.
35s are expensive but those big tires are fun. Replacing the tires when they wear out will be $2,000-$3,000 for all four tires these days, but at least they last longer then most passenger tires – but do keep an eye out for suspension alignment issues and get them repaired promptly.
And everything you read on the Internet about lift kits is pretty much true.
It’s totally going to snow today, but I think I can handle the evening commute in the snow and dark, as I only have to ride downtown and catch the bus home. Probably be dusting of snow on the ride in but I’ll go easy on the “gas” on my bike today.
After today, I have off from Christmas Eve through next Sunday, 🏕️ and the plan is to head out camp on Christmas Day and come back either Saturday or Sunday. Don’t want to camp too far from the plowed roads, as they are expecting around a half foot of snow on Christmas Day through Boxing Day. 🎁 I guess it’s good and safe for all the country boys to burn up their boxes and swapping paper on Boxing Day. I won’t tell the liberals if you toss the Styrofoam that all the toys come in the fire too. You can’t see the smoke after dark and the flames are fun to watch against snow while passing around the pipe and drinking the ice cold beer. 🍻
One last trip with Big Red. 🛻 Then I won’t have a vehicle until spring time when I park him at my parents house on New Years Eve. Probably three nights in wilderness 🌃 but it depends on how truly cold it is and it might be better to head up home Saturday rather then Sunday which might be icy. ❄️ I don’t want to loose all my camping gear in a wreck, and I have a feeling that at this point if I slid the truck off the road, the bed, fuel tank and rear wheels would likely snap off the frame. To say nothing about the original Taka passenger airbag full of rust and fragments exploding in my face. 💥 That sounds kind of fiery and bad.
Singing along with Arlo Guthrie’s Coming Into Los Angeles, 🎸 as I chomp down on the cornmeal pancakes with all those onion and carrots. Waiting for the sun to come a bit higher, showering and then for slog through the snow to work. 🌨️ I mean I could bus and shuttle it in, 🚀 but I like the ride. I mean if I wasn’t so damn mentally ill, I could buy one of those plastic Woke Houses in suburbs and Honda SUVs and drive to work, but I like my cold mold encrusted apartment and riding my bike to work. 🚲 And yeah, I am so going to buy that big-assed, Red F-250 Superduty long bed reg cab 4×4 come the spring but not before then with all those corrosive deicers on the road. It’s just so much fucking money, 💰 forever gone, but it will mean many nights in coming decade in the wilderness by the fire 🔥 smoking grass and seeing little hick towns that smell like cow shit! 🐮
And that new truck will definately be smelling like Fluid Film, lamoline and sheep farm after I spray the hell out of it come next autumn to fight the war on rust. 🐑 I always knew that dealer-added rust coat is scam, so I didn’t get that, and I had heard good things about Fluid Film and/or using motor oil to coat your undercarriage, but I never took the time or got the equipment. But I understand the importance now and will be getting the equipment come autumn.
Phone wasn’t charging well yesterday, 📱 and I was bummed out about that, but it turns out it wasn’t plugged in well either at home or into the office. It was fine once I got it home and charging. 🔌 So I don’t know. I watched some videos about pickup trucks, and kept dreaming about that day in February when I order and take delivery in April. Won’t be long, nor will my trip out to Michigan. I read a little bit more from the book I had from the library I’ve been poking through on homesteading, 🐐 and I need to figure out what books 📚 to get out on Hoopla before heading out on Christmas Day 🎅 to camp. That said, I probably will camp where I have cell service but I want to download my reading material in advance should the signal 📶 be weak as it often is in wilderness.
