A bit of an update…
Its been awhile since I’ve posted an update on the state of things around here so here goes nothing.
Myself – This past year or so has really sucked as it was the first time I’ve had any major medical issues in my life (Yes I’ve been very blessed in that regard). I’m not going to go into details, but things are taken care of at this point and I’m nearly back to having the same energy levels that I had prior to becoming ill. Thanks to those who kept me in their thoughts and prayers, it was appreciated.
The Zook – The Suzuki wound up going back to where it came from. In the end, it had some title issues that were not resolved in the two months I ‘owned’ it, and the wife didn’t really care for it all that much (she preferred the Ranger). It is probably for the better as the way it was going to progress meant that it probably would have wound up being a near trailer queen. Which is not something that I want to own at this current point in my life.
The Ranger – The truck has been removed from the various classified Ad’s that I put up. In the end, it is just better to hang onto it and keep on wheeling it while fixing whatever quirks pop up.
One of the most recent quirks was that the doubler setup unbolted itself from the transmission recently. I’m not sure if the bolts loosened up and allowed the locating pin to come out, or if the locating pin worked its way out allowing the bolts to loosen up. Either way, the front plate wound up being trashed and I had to cobbled another setup together prior to an upcoming wheeling trip. Currently I am running the 4 planetary set (1350) with the 6 planetary range collar (1354). I lost the ability to use Neutral with this combination, but since its the crawl box, I don't really need it. So far so good in that regard.
When I had everything apart, I noticed that the stock bolts I had been using weren’t utilizing as much of the thread that was available on the front plate. So I swapped those bolts out for some that were 1.5” long to see if that makes a difference.
Its too early to call it, but the drive line ‘feels’ tighter than it ever has. I’ll report back on that after I have more time on it. I will say that the fix of using shorter bolts to hold the two halves of the doubler together is working fantastically.
A quick thanks goes out to Bray for letting me bounce my 'doubler problems' off him. Its nice to get a fresh set of eyes on something.
So that just about wraps everything up that’s going on now. Hopefully all the major quirks have been ironed out on the truck at this point and I’ll be able to wheel it more in 2013. Heck, I’m still hoping to make the trip down to TB at some point in the future since it didn’t work out for us this year.