New Rig

$4700 later, I am now the owner of a 1998 4Runner SR5 5 Speed with 148k miles. Go Go gas prices, getting people who never use SUVs out of them, and into the hands of people like me who drive 4,000 miles a year, most of them with some purpose other than commuting.

 

Pics to come. Now I have to go pay my fatty excise tax to keep puget sound slightly less stuck in gridlock.

 

 

El rusto is gone

It is with a heavy heart that I must announce the departure of el rusto from the chinoandfriends family.  He went off to a new home tonight where his days will be full of fun times hauling manure and landscaping. At least his new home will be one where his mechanical needs can be taken care of.  While I am happy to not have to deal with all the mechanical pains of getting him ready to pass emissions, it is also hard to sell something for so little that you have put so much sweat and blood (literally at times) into. 

Feel free to share your own memories of vehicles departed in the comments below. I can think of many friends of mine who sold vehicles full of character; including betsy, queen of the 4x2's, as well as the sable of lust.

Now, the search must begin for a new ride, I leave you with a final quote from rusty's new owner: "Now I feel like a real American"

Don't we all.

That's right!

Exactly what I was thinking.  Whatever happened to corporate accountability?

 

What shall replace el rusto?

Well, el rusto is up for sale, has been for a while in fact, but obviously the truck market is a bit soft right now (as is the market for anything except a hybrid or a honda civic). Regardless, we are proceding with this post as if the truck will be sold for more than a dollar.  What vehicle can possibly replace el rusto?  In an effort to answer this question, I have laid out several important factors to consider.

 

-Value - something the Toyota market seems to lack, I have a hard time paying $5000 for a truck with 240,000 miles. I want to get something that is only 10 to 15 years old with less than 150k miles for under $4000 (at absolute most).

-Size of aftermarket following (internet forums and parts) - This might seem like an odd one to have up here, but generally the better a car, the larger aftermarket following it has in the form of forums and aftermarket parts.  This is important, because forums are a great source of walkthroughs and general tips and tricks relevant to a certain model.  Its hard to find this sort of content elsewhere. So I give bonus points to the 4Runner and Jeep Cherokee, the two cars I would consider that have the best aftermarket following.

-Room - I need to fit wife, dog and possibly guinea pig in the vehicle, something el rusto cannot accomplish. Heck, even the guinea pig and I can't fit in el rusto at the same time. This basically means a minimum of an extended cab compact pickup all the way up to something as large as a Suburban.

-Fuel Economy - This is an extremely minor consideration, when you drive 4000 miles a year, it doesn't really matter what kind of mileage you get, as long as its above 15 or so. I've been getting 16.5 in the truck.  My acceptable range is 15 and up, but if I get 15 I had better be able to tow something huge.

-Towing Capacity - Not the highest priority, but as mentioned above, if I get horrible gas mileage, I had better be able to tow the hell out of something. Slightly important because I might get a larger boat in the future that needs to be towed. Also useful to tow beater cars on car trailers for future projects.

-Reliability - Does it break down all the time?  More importantly, are these breakdowns catastrophic - i.e. Do they keep you from getting where you need to go or are they minor, quality of life issues (power window gets stuck, finicky heater fan, etc) I would rather deal with niggling quality of life stuff rather than know I am due for spectacular engine failure at any moment due to a known rod bearing issue or an undercooled automatic transmission (I'm looking at you Nissan Pathfinder).

-Cargo Capacity - Can I fit lumber in the back or on top or in a trailer?  Can I put my boat somewhere, can I load it up and go camping for a week.

 

So, here is a list of finalists I have considered so far and their plusses and minuses

 

Chevrolet Tahoe/GMC Yukon

+You can probably tow a mobile home

+Value is at its apex currently, with high gas prices and perception as a gas guzzler

-Is the size of a mobile home

-15mpg if you drive with a light foot

-probably has the shortest lifespan of any vehicle listed because of the popularity as a tow rig.

-Everyone will look at you like you just dumped a gallon of oil on a seal

 

Nissan Pathfinder

+Good used value due to the fact Nissan used the same body style for 11 years, making a 1995 model look like a 1984 model.

+Good cargo room, underrated offroad ability

-AT Issues

-Small aftermarket

 

Toyota 4Runner

+Good cargo room

-Offroad ability not as good

-Most come with 3.0 V6, one of the worst toyota engines still around

-Not much more tow capacity than a Subaru

-Bad gas mileage (15mpg from a 3.0 V6?)

-Expensive for a rig with high miles

 

Nissan Hardbody Ext Cab Pickup

+Lower cost than Toyota PU

-Fewer selections available

-Interior room is tight

 

Toyota Ext Cab Pickup

+Extremely reliable

+Great offroad capability

+Huge aftermarket

-Waaay overpriced

-Really hard to find extended cab version

 

Ford Ranger Ext Cab Pickup

+Lower cost than Toyota PU

-Fewer selections available

-Interior room is tight

 

Subaru Legacy Wagon

+Fuel Economy

-Towing Capacity

-Automatic transmission issues (potentially)

-High parts/repair cost

 

Jeep Cherokee

+4.0 Inline 6 is bullet proof

-Low ground clearance

+Huge aftermarket

-Unibody frame

-Relatively low cargo capacity

 

 

 

 

 

 

In today's news...

Official US Policy: Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.  To hell with the deficit, we must have short term growth.

 

Not my quote, but I damn well agree with it. I feel like we are all getting screwed bigtime in this government bailout plan.

 

 

Tale of the Tape - Subway Footlong BMT vs McDonalds Double Quarter Pounder w/Cheese

Maybe this will be the first in an educational series, or maybe not, but I think I could spend quite a few articles just writing about dietary misconceptions that people have. In this inaugural episode we will take on the myth of Subway's healthy offerings. Many think that by association with Subway, a sandwich must be relatively healthy. This is false! As a former Subway employee who spent many hours computing sandwich calorie combinations, I can tell you that anything with lots of processed meat on it isn't going to the be healthiest thing around. Plus, a foot long sub is pretty darn big. Their nutritional website lists a foot long BMT as weighing almost a pound! Alright, enough of my incessant rambling, let's get to the main event!

	Footlong BMT w/Cheese, no mayo	Double Quarter Pounder w/Cheese
Calories	900	770
Calories from fat	380	430
Total Fat (g)	42	47
Saturated Fat (g)	16	20
Trans Fat (g)	0	?????
Cholestorol	110	165
Sodium (g)	3540	1440
Carbs (g)	94	39
Dietery Fiber	10	11
Sugars	16	10
Protein	46	46

As you can see, we are about neck in neck here. The BMT has more calories, but less fat and slightly less saturated fat. Also of note, the BMT has a shitton more sodium. Good god, that is a lot of sodium. (mostly thanks to pickles and pepperoncinis inclusion in the data, which is somewhat admirable, because one could claim those as optional sides and not include them in the nutritional analysis). Final Call - avoid both! Either will nearly max out your daily recommended saturated fat intake, instead go with a foot long turkey or a regular quarter pounder w/cheese (only 440 calories). Oh, and if you get the Quarter Pounder - lay off the fries, nothing but empty calories!

- As you can notice, my table is all jacked up, I will work on fixing this another time.

Shout out

To Beater Review, man, as an aficionado of crappy cars and automotive humor, it doesn't get a lot better than this site. If you're a guy like me, a realist and someone who enjoys cars, but can't justify spending money on a depreciating asset. You're someone who appreciates cars that have done 90% of their depreciating already. These are the cars you'll see on Beater Review.  It's not updated as frequently as it used to be, but the archives are still quite useful and will keep a man entertained for a work day, or at least until lunch.

 

I don't have to look up 10 year old issues of Car and Driver or Road & Track in the library anymore when I'm contemplating my next car purchase, nope, not since I've found Beater Review

 

 

 

 

 

Amidst the despair, comes a light

Sure things are looking dark in the US of A, especially around my beloved puget sound.  House prices are down, unemployment is up, our sports teams can't win a g-d game to save their lives, (I an instituting a cooling off period before I actually discuss any game events in a permanent format that could be used against me later).

 

But my friends - YOU can buy I <3 Jake Locker boxer shorts.  I don't even get a cut of these things, but they brightened my day so much I had to link to them anyway. Poor Jake goes out there and takes a licking every single Saturday, never questioning (I hope) his wisdom in coming to the U of W, "Why does he do it?" many might ask, perhaps its the knowledge that somewhere, some devoted man is wearing his I Love Jake Locker boxer shorts.

Fun with scammers

One of the joys of selling a vehicle on craigslist is getting inundated with emails from scammers.  They all follow the same general formula - they email you to see if the vehicle is still available. If so, they then reply about how glad they are to hear that and that they are ready to arrange payment and shipping. Because I'm sure 1987 Toyota Pickups are such a rarity that one has to go thousands of miles away to get one in as rusty of a condition as mine.   See below emails for comic relief.

 

 Okay,

I am happy to read your email concerning the sale of  your item,i'm highly intresting in  purchasing it as soon as possible.I will handle the shipment myself via my private shipping company,They will come for pick up when you must have gotten your cash at hand from the bank.They will prepare all shipment papers and also bill of sales.it will also be insured by my company shippers.

 

This is due to the fact that my mode of payment will be Via Bank Certified Check which i will wait for your bank to verify and clear the check before we proceed with the shipping am not in rush,Once you are satisfied with my mode of payment you can proceed to delete the advert,because i don't want any interruption.,So email me your name and address not a P.O box and also with your phone number to recieved the check. The check will be mailed via UPS or Fedex air so 2nd day delivery.then you will proceed to have the check deposited at your bank so get back to me asap!....

Thanks .

Barb Roman

Rock Springs, WY

 

I emailed her back letting her know that my sales are locals only.  I don't deal with people from Wyoming.

 

Here's another

 hello, i got all your information about the item and am satisfied with it, i will be making your payment today, i need your full name and address and your valid phone number to make the  payment today via certified check i will handle the shipment myself. The check will get to you in 2-5 days time and when you recived the check you can then get the check deposited at your Bank i will wait for you to confirm and clear the check.The payment will be in excess as i will want you to contact my shipper with the excess fund for him to pickup the item after you must have confirmed and cashed the check .i will wait for your bank to clear the Check so you can deduct your own funds and send the excess fund to my shipper via Money gram Money Transfer cos he needs the excess to pick up the item. You can IM on this ID or call me on 206-888-0471 for more information.Thanks and God Bless,you can get the posting deleted from craiglist get back to me asap!

 If anyone wants to give that guy a call, feel free. He's very interested in rusty trucks and apparently needs them shipped, even though he has a local phone number.

 

These people are the scum of the earth.

 

late night entry on this one

Just got back a bit ago from an unproductive (though enjoyable) after work trip to fish for some tasty salmon. It was nice to get out on the river and enjoy the natural scenery of the PNW, even if we had to go hungry (so to speak). UW - Oklahoma tomorrow...yikes, that's about all that I have to say. Let's hope for the best, or at least for UW to cover. I estimate chance of an upset at 10%, but that might even be generous. On the agenda for the weekend, try to sell truck, watch UW-Oklahoma, going away BBQ. Hopefully I'll find some time in this strenuous schedule to write something of substance. Food for thought: What is it that makes some people so much more motivated by money than others? It isn't to say that I would turn down legit money if it was handed to me, but I just don't have that desire to work my ass off for paper. I guess I just enjoy my life too much without spending lots of money. I never thought of myself as that sort of person, but maybe I am? In a way I never envisioned being successful, always planning for the worst, I'm pleasantly surprised with my current situation as it is, even if things basically stayed as they are for a long time. Maybe I'm just easy to please

Meet Bob

Meet Bob*. This is a guy who has been my companion in various exploits from the time I was 15. The great thing about Bob is that he's always up for whatever comes along, as long as it isn't overly illegal and doesn't involve doing lines of blow or killing hookers. Other than that, he's a pretty down guy. The one thing you have to keep in mind about Bob though, is that, while he is not lacking in enthusiasm, he is definitely lacking in street experience. If I had been raised in the suburbs, I suppose I would call Bob a typical suburban white kid, I'm not sure what you call someone like that from a small town 50 miles or more from any medium sized towns. Well, we just call him Bob I guess.

The great thing about Bob (besides his enthusiasm) was that if he had any free time, it was pretty much yours for the taking. Since I had a lot of free time on my hands as a 15 year old, mostly due to a disdain for homework and lack of participation in anything related to school. Looking back, I think this is what led to Bob and I's initial friendship.

Bob was the kind of guy who didn't mind coming with me as I cruised a neighboring town for a guy to buy me beer (in a particularly memorable instance, a mexican man with 3 thumbs came to my aid) or a convenience store that wouldn't card me (plenty of these to be found). But regardless of all his accompaniment, he would never participate in the vice at hand (until he was of age), so we had to wait until he was 18 for his first cigar, but he got plenty of secondhand smoke in the intervening 3 years.

Hopefully this helps flesh out Bob, who might be a recurring character, depending on what stories I type up next. To finish out our intro, I'll share a story about Bob and his truck.

Bob had been given a truck, basically on loan from his parents when he turned 16. I think this was mostly so he could drive around his sister and pick up stuff from the store. Normally, in our town, driving a truck around was pretty normal, and kind of cool, being a farm town and all. Well, Bob had probably the dorkiest truck in the history of trucks. Imagine if you will, an '86 nissan hardbody, extended cab, with a bubble canopy (the kind that rise up in the back). With a "Life is Short, Pray Hard" sticker on the back. 2 wheel drive of course. This is the kind of truck you would expect your grandfather to have around for yardwork. This is what Bob drove to school everyday for 3 years. Let's just say that there was never any action going on in the back of this truck.

A friend of ours, Jeff*, worked at a car dealership and would get deals on stereos they pulled out of trade ins. One day he got a particularly crappy CD player for free, of course, the first thing that popped into our heads was that we HAD to put it into Bob's truck. This was a CD player from the first round of CD players that was available to purchase, probably circa 1991, it skipped over any speed bump, didn't show how much time was left on the CD, and could barely pick up radio stations. Pretty awesome stuff, and you wonder why it was free?  We ghetto-rigged that thing in there like any small town kids would, and of course, Bob has got to bump that shit all the way through his housing development. Bob, in all his geeky glory, cruising his old man truck, bumping (if you could call it that with two 4.5" speakers) Nelly's "Country Grammer" (hot song at the time). Then turning it down at certain houses so no neighbors called his dad. Yep, that's our Bob. We remain friends to this day.

*Bob is not really Bob's name

*Jeff is not really Jeff's name

"I live in Sunnyside, yeah, I know, it smells"

Here's a lovely story from the valley. Nothing like the seemingly weekly ritual of a shootout in Sunnyside. Only this time it's noteworthy because the shooting was done with a police officer's stolen gun.  Maybe this will be the event that spurs some more police action down there.

 

When I was working at the winery (see previous posts) my "boss" during the second time I worked there (after my initial firing) was from Sunnyside. I say "boss" because he actual wasn't really in charge of anyone, but he was the only person in my crew who was directly employed by the winery and not a temp agency.  In our first discussion about where we lived, his line was "I live in Sunnyside, yeah, I know, it smells". Seemed like he had been told that a few times before. 

 

My other fun encounter was when 3 guys from S-side had just entered my initial crew, a crew whose tasks were devoted to fixing mistakes that machines made, but were too expensive to fix with machines. These guys were looking for steady employment as their main job as COKE DEALERS wasn't paying as much as they would like. First, how shitty do you have to be at selling coke to have to carpool 120 miles round trip in a Ford Contour?  Second, if you are really going for that big time $8.75 an hour job, don't drink on the goddamn job, they got fired, blamed it on my friend and I, and then word got back to me via the grapevine they were going to put a hit out on us. Riight. I'll just be on the lookout for any Ford Contours. (Note, to date, no hit has been made on me).

 

Anyway, back to Sunnyside, at least now the city has shut down the feedlot that was really stinking up the place, now they just have to shut down the OK corral shootout atmosphere and maybe things will start to perk up (but I wouldn't hold my breath).

 

 

The future of WaMu

Looks like more and more are piling on the WaMu going bankrupt bandwagon - Calculated Risk for one. $53 billion in adjustable rate mortgages isn't anything to sneeze at, especially when your whole banking model is predicated on making the bulk of your profits off of mortgages rather than traditional banking services like checking accounts and credit cards.

 

Quite a few have pointed out the high CD and money market account rates WM is offering as a sign they are desperate for liquid cash as well. All I can say is that I'm glad I sold my stock in WM when it was at $43. We have a pretty good amount of money in their bank because of the good savings account apr, and I'm not too worried about not being able to access my money for a weekend, we have plenty of backup sources and accounts.  Banks always go under on Fridays, so by Monday most stuff is pretty well sorted out.

 

 

 

What I did this Saturday

Channeled my anger at the husky loss to build bunks for the boat to ride in the truck bed.

Total Cost $15, plus I have 45 deck screws and 6' of 2"x4" left over.

Then on Sunday took the boat out and went for a 3 mile row.

Woop Woop

Alright, t-minus 20 minutes to kickoff of UW - BYU. Let's all hope together for an improved game 2 out of the huskies. Hopefully Tim Lappano will open up the playbook to include runs to the outside and screen passes and the O-line will restrain the 25 year olds on the D-line. I would like for Jake Locker to look back and not regret his decision to be a Husky. Go Dawgs!!! In other news, I am $395 away from the commencement of project build a boat. Also, taking the head off the Toyota on Sunday so I can take it in for a valve job. That one won't be too cheap. Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures so I can post some up here. I need to take some anyway so I can get that thing back together when the head comes back. Alright, game time, happy Saturday.

Potential Boats

FL 12 ($480 to build, not including tools and trailer)

Sissy Do

Nutshell Pram

Drift Pram

Fast Skiff 14

One Sheet Skiff

August/September Update

whew! done with 3 months of travelling all over the place. 9 states (not counting my good ol' home state that is) and 1700 miles of driving had left yours truly pretty exhausted. Thankfully all of our travels are over the time being, as much as I enjoy seeing new places, it sure is nice to be home and enjoy the weekends. 

 

This is especially true with the start of college football season (go dawgs!), however, with the excitement of every impending saturday, comes the knowledge that sunday will be very sad thanks to brilliant scheduling from the UW athletic department.

 

In other news, I'm contemplating the construction of a wooden boat. I have been collecting designs from all over the internet (free and pay) and will soon start posting a directory of them for my own personal use.

 

In truck news, did a valve adjustment over the weekend, went okay as far as the adjustment itself, but I think I have a vacuum leak somewhere now, I'm going to hit schucks today to get a bunch of hose and just start replacing anything that looks old or cracked.

 

Peace out for now