Category: Vehicles

Building on the 2nd gen TorqueLink, the final iteration of the ultimate leaf-spring pickup truck traction bar is finally here, once again eliminating that annoying clutch chatter. Solid axle trucks are mostly gone now because let’s face it: The massive hunks of cast iron were just too heavy, inefficient and difficult to manage from a suspension perspective. But they’re nearly indestructible and will last forever with an occasional oil change, so pick ur poison.

They don’t do well on lifted trucks with lots of power due to a phenomenon called axle wrap, where torque literally twists the leaf springs causing wheel hop and other un-desirable effects. Combined with an early hydraulic clutch and balky Getrag stick inspiring songs like Gear Jammer, pulling out through 1st and 2nd gear could be tricky. Anything less than precise engagement going into 2nd would hop the back wheels clear off the ground under power and chatter like a mariachi dancer at anything less if you weren’t real careful with it.

TorqueLink-I & II solved the forward axle wrap problem nicely, but it was a regression back into clutch chatter on the 2nd go. 3klb die springs solved that. More than a few grease monkeys like me made the mistake of bolting something like this more-or-less hard into the frame, not taking into account fore/aft suspension flex of a half inch or more. Die-hards claimed the longer you made them the less of a problem it was. Scary creaking and crunching noises were common and cracked frames not unheard of.

That ’07 got a set of custom Caltracs and was quite happy with them. But it’s an automatic – whole different animal. I only just recently found out you can get lifted trucks as dealer installed options these days. Oh well, it was fun anyway.

The truck was originally built as a road warrior – PACbrake, Gear Vendor overdrive, sway bars. The 1st set of tires I bought for it were road treads. It performs well in that capacity, sipping fuel going down the highway at sane throttle openings. It always got around 20MPG used mostly as an urban commuter until I retired. I imagine it would drop to 15 hauling a full load, but I never checked it and only ever made a very few trips with the car trailer.

It’s got way more pulling power up front now, as the name suggests. These 1st gen Dodge Cummins trucks are notorious for how stupid front-heavy they are. I normally carry around 800lbs of fuel, water, tools, whatever in the back just so it handles somewhat safely. The bad conditions traction coefficient just doubled. Here’s the Google review I left for the guys down at Country Truck.

If I cannot be absolutely confident in the vehicle’s capacity to run all day long anywhere in the country, then I don’t want it. Sorry, but it just doesn’t meet my needs. Not too long ago I saw a uToob vid of somebody with a hitch-mounted gasoline generator driving around in one of the national parks in a Tesla somewhere. Those small utility and lawn mower-types are the worst polluters.

Her advance team realized there weren’t going to be enough plugs to go around. One of the station’s four chargers was broken, and others were occupied.

Somebody got shot fighting over one right here in Denver just last May. I’m sure they’re great for commuters and localized transportation of all kinds. I encourage all those type drivers to get an EV ASAP.

It’s almost time to buy my last old man car. This guy’s on the short list. I just can’t get used to how they look.

At close to 150k miles, Bimmer went in the shop Monday for all the long term stuff needed to hopefully get at least another 100k out of it by the time it reaches true unicorn status. I scaled back attempting much more than the light-duty car stuff myself in 2019.

Interesting twist on the story – they didn’t remember me from the coilover job a few years ago, so I got the “new customer” treatment. As expected, after getting it opened up and evaluating the box of parts I provided, they were terrified. There’s any number of factory parts missing with custom stuff they’ve never seen before added. Some of what they were going to be doing involved significant tear-down to replace most of the vacuum system, so they’re rightfully skeptical. I get that. Took three phone calls with the service manager to get through it.

This most recent maintenance episode stands in stark contrast to when I drove down to Atlanta for the exhaust update. There’s a little small business performance shop in the Dallas suburb, not unlike Bimmerhaus here in CO. Drove around back and parked on a lift, popped the hood for Andrew while he looked it over and started pointing at things asking “what’s that?” Numerous times. I’m just standing there thinking “crap, he’s not gonna want to work on it.” After about a half minute he said “Cool. You’re gettin’ the new 2.8 rev. This car’s gonna be fast.”

Nothing against Bimmerhaus. To be fair, Andrew had a little better idea what he was getting into. This is just an example of how the same type engagement can work very differently with different people. Bill ‘n the Bimmerhaus gang seem like a great bunch, and they have my respect for doing things right. I’m sure we’ll be seeing them again sometime. Just not for quite awhile – but I bet they remember me next time. 😉

Go ahead and send the EPA. I need a new M-Car anyway.

My shyt’s jacked – literally. Took me two hours to get the Bimmer on jackstands yesterday. It popped a fuel leak the other day, so I need to get under it. In the middle of winter with Red Betsy on the lift makes it difficult. She can’t be trusted to start even warm until the carb is sorted, so I’ll be repairing the little grey monster the old fashioned way: On my back on the floor. Might even be easier with the new creeper.

I already know what’s wrong. The cobbed-up water separator plumbing suffered some loosening with the deep freeze over Christmas. Should be interesting to see how that’s doing, under the circumstances. This was the first time I ever had any diesel winterization issues. I forgot to put ClearDiesel and Howes treatment in last fall, so apparently the line froze at least twice in these low temps we’ve had. It’s pretty obvious what’s going on when it fails to start with zero fuel pressure showing post-filter.

It took me a few tries to remember how the jack points work on this car. It won’t go up very far at any one corner, and headroom is limited under the lift. Too cold for my fingers next few days, so we’ll see how it goes later in the week. It’s a chore just getting the bottom covers off.

D/A (digital-to-analog) conversion talk typically revolves around getting the 1’s and 0’s from a playback device to your old-fashioned eardrums in one, continuous analog stream of music or whatever. I’ve reached a juxtaposed epiphany about the D/A issue WRT enclosed chairs on wheels: It’s backwards, or upside-down.

ICE (internal combustion engine) cars are digital, and the new stuff is analog. This observation has little to do with the electronics.

Four, six, eight or more distinct power pulses slamming into a crankshaft starts alot of moving parts and noise that are soon to be things of the past, in terms of mainstream transportation. That D/A conversion from the old-school ICE cars is what they are all about, to me. It happens in the seat of your pants and the brain parts connected to your ears during that first test run after washing the black grime off your hands that never seems to disappear from underneath your fingernails.

OTOH, it’s all analog in terms of driving impressions when the rheostats flow the juice. I suppose an argument for electrons bouncing around somewhere could be made. That’s been quite the quandary over the networks since forever. Digital-to-analog conversion is proceeding apace in the automotive industry. Not too sure what to think about it yet, except to say that I’m gonna need a new M-car.

I had no idea. Looks like a real monster. Wonder if I’ll ever be able to get one in a pickup someday?

I was saying this myself after we leased that F30 328i Michelle had for a few years. It was a really nice car, but not a driver like the D. I remember the 1st time driving the 328, thinking to myself “this can’t be a BMW 3’er.” It wasn’t bad, just not the same. It’s an important nuance only true car enthusiast drivers notice.

BMW’s tone-setter is the 3 Series. It’s the car that BMW built its reputation on. So when the 3 Series goes soft, the rest of BMW goes soft too and the F30 seems to be the point when it all changed for BMW, when it began chasing mainstream success and widespread consumer popularity. There’s no question, the F30 had a broader customer appeal than the E90 and it probably made BMW more money. But the E90 was a better BMW and there hasn’t been a better 3 Series since.

Probably need to wait for the M2 version next year. Fastest Bimmer to ever lap The Ring. – and arguably faster than many cars costing more than twice as much. The 335D is a weapon of a car with the Ohlins coilovers, but it grows long in the tooth, and I can’t find anybody besides me to work on it around here anymore.

“And it sure seems like there’s more speed on deck before the Bimmer runs out of steam. Acceleration slows above 300 km/h (186 mph), but it remains steady up to the top speed. Provided the limiter doesn’t kick in, could the M4 reach 200 mph given enough room to run?”