Toyota Tacoma

[giant_mtb]

You mean 30mph   

5 x 20 = 30

Got it.

[Cookie Monster]

[giant_mtb]

His little Subaru wouldn't be able to do that at the speed you went without damage, and those don't look especially technical.

Yeah, pretty easy area.  Ground clearance and four driven wheels are all you really need there to get over the whoops and climb the sand.

[Rupert]

Four driven wheels or momentum and lots of clearance, you mean.

[AutobahnSHO]

Four driven wheels or momentum and lots of clearance, you mean.

nah, four driven wheels, no clearance, lots of momentum

I'm so surprised my old Subie didn't break in half. And that no one got hurt.....................

[giant_mtb]

Finally scheduled to get the ball joints and tie rod ends done. And alignment. And they're gonna take the front sway bar off for me.  I wanna try running without it. If I don't like it, I'll put it back on...I just can't get it off myself.  Some of those bolts are stuck as fuuuuck and I don't have air tools.  My appointment is a week from today!

[giant_mtb]

I'm thinking I wanna disassemble most everything they do when I get it back so I can Loctite and torque everything properly so if I wanna do some work later on, I'll have a better chance at tackling it with hand tools.  A good disassembly and reassembly would give me some practice, too.

[Soup DeVille]

Finally scheduled to get the ball joints and tie rod ends done. And alignment. And they're gonna take the front sway bar off for me.  I wanna try running without it. If I don't like it, I'll put it back on...I just can't get it off myself.  Some of those bolts are stuck as fuuuuck and I don't have air tools.  My appointment is a week from today!

You can just undo one of the links if you want to see how it drives without it.

[Soup DeVille]

I'm thinking I wanna disassemble most everything they do when I get it back so I can Loctite and torque everything properly so if I wanna do some work later on, I'll have a better chance at tackling it with hand tools.  A good disassembly and reassembly would give me some practice, too.

But, you'll undo the alignment?

[giant_mtb]

You can just undo one of the links if you want to see how it drives without it.

Fasteners are seized beyond my hand tool strength.

[giant_mtb]

But, you'll undo the alignment?

I don't mean like taking out the ball joints or undoing the tie rod ends or camber bolt stuff. Just some of the bolts that hold it all together.  I guess there isn't really much in that regard.

[Soup DeVille]

Fasteners are seized beyond my hand tool strength.

Meet your new cologne.

[giant_mtb]

Trust me, man.  I tried to get the sway bar off.  I penetrated and torched fasteners to no effect. 

[Laconian]

I didn't know Dr. Bronner made industrial lubricants!

MORAL ABC'S OF CAR MAINTENANCE! ONE GOD ONE LUBRICANT ALL ONE OIL FAITH!

[Soup DeVille]

I didn't know Dr. Bronner made industrial lubricants!

MORAL ABC'S OF CAR MAINTENANCE! ONE GOD ONE LUBRICANT ALL ONE OIL FAITH!

No, but the label guy is cousin to them both.

[giant_mtb]

Miles smoother now with fresh bj's, tie rod ends, and sway bar delete. No more clunk and way less side-to-side chatter off-road.  There's still side to side rocking, but it settles down super quick now that there's no real tie between the front wheels.

Definitely feels like the Bilsteins are liking it, too, now that they're fully independent and get to do what they're supposed to do. 

[giant_mtb]

Detailed a Honda Pilot for a guy and his wife the other day. He's got a 2nd gen Tacoma as well. His headlights are all caked and faded, so I told him he could have ($0) the stock ones that my truck came with...the PO had installed aftermarkets with black bezels, so I've no use for the stock ones and they're at least in better shape than his. He may want to buy my wheels, too, if he decides to run two sets of tires.  He just bought his Taco this spring so he's been all over the Tacoma forums looking for cool shit to do.

[giant_mtb]

One of the things I've grown to love about this truck is the capability to select gears. I can "manually" select L (1st), 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, and then D.  Granted, putting it in 3rd means it'll run gears 1-3 from a standstill. But being able to select 1st is most advantageous. In D, the truck will shift into 2nd pretty quickly where sometimes that's not ideal. It's great to be able to leave it in first for upcoming ascents or trickier sections, after which I'll usually just push it up to 2.  Also nice for descents. The trails I run only need a 3rd gear occasionally, so I'm selecting between 1st and 2nd fairly frequently just because going from 1st to D a bunch of times is unnecessary. Leave it in 2 for cruising along, drop it to L/1st for climbs or where the on-tap oomph is nice to have.

[/rambling]

[Rupert]

That is a basic function of every automatic ever, except some of the newer generations. People that never shift lower than D are doing it wrong or never leave the city.

[RomanChariot]

That is a basic function of every automatic ever, except some of the newer generations. People that never shift lower than D are doing it wrong or never leave the city.

A lot of automatics only have/had PRNDL. That only gives you 2 forward gears to select from. It is nice when they allow you select every gear individually.

[Soup DeVille]

A lot of automatics only have/had PRNDL. That only gives you 2 forward gears to select from. It is nice when they allow you select every gear individually.

Fords did that. They also had a push button to turn off overdrive, and from a start L was first. To shift second, you put it in D, let it shift, then return to L.

[giant_mtb]

Fords did that. They also had a push button to turn off overdrive, and from a start L was first. To shift second, you put it in D, let it shift, then return to L.

I didn't know you could shift a Ford auto into second like that. For some reason I thought L was 1-2 by default (which would be annoying, IMO), so that's actually cool.

[Soup DeVille]

I didn't know you could shift a Ford auto into second like that. For some reason I thought L was 1-2 by default (which would be annoying, IMO), so that's actually cool.

I don't know why they did it that way, but they did.

[RomanChariot]

I don't know why they did it that way, but they did.

They probably knew that people would destroy their transmissions by shifting from D to L while at speed so they made sure it would only drop to 2nd.

[BimmerM3]

Explorer has 1-2-3-D, with an Overdrive button. It's a six speed auto, so I can make any gear other than 5th the max gear that it'll shift into. (D w/ O/D off = 4th)

[Rupert]

Cars are a bit different, though it's still best to have all gears available, but my new work truck (Dodge 1/2 ton) has a very silly dial-shift eight-speed, and there are buttons on the steering wheel to limit the high gear to any of the eight. I guess it makes sense since it's a V6, but the engine seems like it has lots of power at low RPMs. I don't see the need for more than 5-6 gears in a truck, honestly.

AFAIK, being able to set any gear as the max gear was the norm in cars and trucks until like 15 years ago...

[Rupert]

Explorer has 1-2-3-D, with an Overdrive button. It's a six speed auto, so I can make any gear other than 5th the max gear that it'll shift into. (D w/ O/D off = 4th)

Same with the XTerra, except I only have five gears, so I get all five.

[CaminoRacer]

Most car autos in the last five years have the ability to shift "manually"

[Rupert]

I haven't driven many cars made in the last five years, just trucks, mostly at work.

[giant_mtb]

Guys, it's not like I didn't know about these functions...I was just saying that I like utilizing it.  Jesus.