What I see points that way as well. When the light comes on, millennials will find rentals at their BOL (if they figure out they need one) something of a problem.
you are presuming there will be an end. I don't necessarily agree with that. I prepare the best I can because in a long life there will be hard times. However I never live in the fear, nor spread the fear that there is going to be an apocalypse. I think TV/movies/news does a good job of that. When I look to the future and future trends I don't see the world collapsing. I watch trends to see where the world is flowing. I don't try to bend it to my will I just try to be ahead of the tidal wave of the trend. Money and security are in those trends. Most people make the mistake of assuming that because the world isn't the way they like it or the way they want it to be that, that means collapse is inevitable. It's a very narrow and depressing view of life to my way of thinking. There are very very innovative trends, ideas and new ways of doing things that are just as good as the old ways. A new world with over 6 billion people and growing has to have new and innovative ways of thinking about life and living.
The boys share an old Jeep Cherokee. This weekend they bought a lift kit and have been working hard. It is a 1991 and things are not going smoothly but the youngest has determination. Currently the track bar?? is stuck.
Ah, the enthusiasm of the young. I've always enjoyed driving down trails to my hunting area and finding big jacked up trucks stuck in the wallows made by tracked vehicles, and trying to pull each other out. They rarely notice me as I back away from them in my very stock Grand Wagoneer on street tires, picking a new path around them. The Jeep will fit between trees on dry ground where their full size trucks could never hope to fit. Off-roading at my age is all about getting there and back without breaking anything. The ability to avoid things with low end torque and over-assisted power steering win over big tires and splashing around in the mud. After they get done with the changes, encourage them to test drive the Jeep thoroughly in a safe place. Ugly steering characteristics and terrifying suspension surprises are not something you want to experience in traffic.
The whole thing makes me very uneasy. I will make sure it stays in the neighborhood until deemed safe, even then I really was not thrilled with the lift idea. I encouraged restoring a Brnco or something but they looked at cost and decided otherwise. I am so envious. Nothing better than a Grand Wagoneer. PS @hot diggity I had the boy read your post. He nodded and agreed. He will follow your advice
What height lift? I'm not against a 2-3" lift on the Cherokee due to the stock suspension travel ability, but it should be combined with coil over shocks if they're not already on there and for gosh sakes don't get into the mindset of "monster" tires. Accident waiting to happen not to mention the drive train can't handle them. And what HD said about a thorough supervised test drive.
And as soon as you figure it is safe, enlist a real dirt crawler to guide them thru some woods and bogs. Until there is off road time in controlled situations, it's a completely new experience and rollovers are not uncommon. (Well, some desert crawling in Wyoming taught me a few tricks and techniques. Like, for example, dismount and go stomp on that dry spot, find out if it really is dry and not wind dried surface over a frame swallower.)
My first 3 or 4 cars, had my state had a safety inspection would have been taken directly from my possession to the scrap yard. gotta love rust and what it can do to suspension endpoints. One of them had the trunk welded shut so it could support the 6x6 that was used to prevent the rear spring perch from blowing through the top of the rear quarter. Drove that sucker for nearly half a year after that. Granted, it was seriously squirrely in the corners and the freeway it had a bit of a strange wiggle hitting the expansion joints.
My buddy had an old Cutlass supreme , 70 model I think. The frame was rusted out at the steering box , so to make a right hand turn , it took about 2 whole turns of the steering wheel before the car would start turning. Hard to believe we would take that thing on a 300 mile road trip numerous times. But she sure ran good. @Motomom34 ,,have your sons show us their finished product when they're done.
Tough week in the Andy household for vehicles....ended up "needing" to buy a couple of replacement vehicles (one most definitely needed one mostly a practical decision- age/value/needing to spend $s that will never be recovered- but with a little inner boy "want" as well)....spending just shy of $100K in a week was however not in my plans..!! Pics of my new one to follow over the weekend..
1995 Ford Bronco, 351W, Auto, power everything. Has points distributor and intake with a new Holley 600 on standby. Second is a 2004 Isuzu Rodeo with 193,000 and 3.5 Liter.
What does that mean? Is the Land Cruiser gone? I am/was very envious of your LC, that is a beautiful vehicle. Gosh, since starting this thread I have swapped cars twice. I got rid of the Rogue, bought a Honda CRV with every electronic known but that was too much for me. They said you could turn off the electronics but it kept flashing, beeping and shaking. After a few close calls of the car distracting me, it had to go. They say all that stuff is to keep you safe but to me it was a danger. Even the blind spot monitoring had blind spots. I ended up with something that sits up, has lots of windows and very little electronics. I can now back out of parking spaces without beeping, flashing and having my view obstructed. All those new cross-over, electronic bubble cars are very dangerous IMO.
....for the moment it is still in the garage I love that old girl, literally it feel like part of me (had it almost 1/2 my life !!) but it was time. I have of course replaced it with ANOTHER white diesel Landcruiser... When I sell the old one the proceeds will go to getting the new(er) one up to the same (actually better with what I am starting with) fitout the old one has.