spooner

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Looks great Pete so i guess we will see even better pics from you ?!? we have a older but very reliable FinePix S4 Pro.... i just checked the counter; she made just over 13000 pics already ... and never had a single issue...

Jake smart answer! sounds like you know what your doing

LOL found this avatar at a other site ...maybe me think of you guys

lol ... the dark side i made a all-purpose steel bed for the Pete that fits behind my extended sleeper (7'x8' deck with 30klbs goose, 45k pintle and 2"hitch .....my plan was to build a tricked-out gooseneck from the ground up .....but i realized that i simply dont have the time to do that. so i`m back to plan "B"; right now i'm looking for a used 40'-48' frameless aluminum dry-van trailer (the crazy thing is you can buy them way cheaper then what you would pay for the building material ) so last week i actually re-installed the commercial "Holland" trailer hitch plate to the bed. we plan to move in the spring (that big dry-van will be very handy for that ) after we are settled i plan to convert the trailer into a pimp toybox

... so Doug, you have only 11000 lbs left for tongue weight ? man, i love real trucks the door sticker on our Pete reads 50000lbs GVW (12000lbs front axle 2x 19000lbs rears). i removed one axle... (funny thing is that Dana/Eaton actually bumps the rating to 20000 on a single screw)....so now the new GVW is 32000 lbs. plenty of safety left in load capacity and (more important) brake capacity. maybe some peeps call this overkill ..... but i call it peace of mind... and it is actually a lot cheaper then a pickup truck

same here i like the "look" of that buggy (if it would be at least 6" lower).... BUT IMHO to be a serious duner ("duner" as in going over razorbacks and carving turns) you need a lot more than just a good looking ride ...in fact there is a lot of things on it that don`t impress me at all for me it kinda missed the boat: oversized, underpowered , undersized tubing, too much glamis "must have" stuff on it....IMHO if i would go "Mini" i would go with something like Pete`s ride: the bare bone essential.... and just a look at the front spindle geometry tells me already that it was designed by a guy who likes turns btw this is not intended as a "bashing" .....and i dont claim to be any better; in fact i got sucked into that dual street legal must have every gadget kinda crap as well ..... just my 2 cents....

yeah; eff them foreigners!! actually Chris has a good point; i was not clear in my description....

hell no ! i actually grew up in the swiss mountains with roads that hardly ever went in a straight line for more that a couple yards i love "Rally Racing" and my idea of a perfect "sports car" is still a Cosworth 4x4 with limiting "visco" differentials in the front, middle and rear (fastest car i ever drove on the rough and twisty roads back in switzerland )

in the dune buggies i would never ever use anything else then a automatic based trans a automatic (planetary gear) trans shifts virtually "seamless"; it changes ratio by holding or releasing ring gears to change ratio. there is always thrust on the tires, even during a shift in ratio. on a manual trans you have to interrupt the "transfer of power" to physically change the gears. add to that the high rolling resistance of sand and you actually loose a lot of momentum during a manual shift. i personally would go auto (with a very large cooler on it)....

Chris i dont know what your problem is ...i dont read sales brochures and all i need from a sales guy is that he shuts up and gives me the keys naturally there is no SUV that can match the handling of a lets say BMW .... but there is simply no use for a "real" sportscar in my lifestyle. im actually a very technical guy and i think i know a thing or two about handling (after all i build 4 wheel A-arm cars from scratch that seem to handle fairly well on sand ,desert and the road ) i owned many SUVs and know how bad they usually handle some "spirited" driving. but when i made a 4 day/3700 mile roadtrip with a rented late model Explorer i was actually very impressed with the "sure footed" handling and "road feel" of the redesigned Explorer suspension. i really liked the wider track, the crisp and responsive (for a SUV ) rack and pinion steering and the 4-corner upper and lower A-Arm suspension.......i was so impressed that a week later i went to the dealership and got one add to that the class III hitch, 7000 lbs tow rating, fairly good mileage, front and rear AC, plenty of room for the dog and grocery and the smooth V8 ....thats all i need

Eddy check this out: tracker $1850 ....gay rims and color but nice interior and straight body

ok....let me say it this way: "sportscar-like" compared to other SUV`s

sounds like a good idea to me i never liked them narrow, grossly underpowered and top-heavy Rhinos.... i have seen/talked to a guy with a Tracker at buttercup some years back: he had a set of round shouldered high performance tires on it ( floated excellent ) ....was fun to watch him dune that little car street legal, decent power, low center of gravity, good floating tires and (best of all) a lot cheaper then a Rhino

yeah, jackasses are everywhere .....like that guy that had a truck for sale in the Vegas list; he gave me directions to where the truck was parked ....i waited a couple hours with cash in my hand (watching airplanes and drinking ....the parking lot was right under the final approach) ..... but that frigging crackhead never showed up ebay used to have great deals on used stuff but now it seems like everybody wants to get rich selling his overpriced junk who would pay $1000 for a set of 18" factory take-off rims and tires ?!??! i guess some guys are a couple cans short of a sixpack i actually spend only $700 for the set of them nice 20 inchers

we just traded our "grocery wagon" Focus (great mileage .....but everything else on it sucked ) for a Explorer (with the aluminum V8 .....fu@k the mileage! :beer_bang: ) i absolutely love the sportscar like handling of the new Explorer with its rack and pinion steering and independent A-arm suspension on all 4 corners .....the only thing that spoiled the fun was the stock (and ugly as hell ) 16" cast aluminum rims we didnt want to spend too much money for bling so i started looking for some used 17" or 18"ers at ebay....all i can say is some guys need a reality-check :no_no: :beer_bang: ....after that i started looking in the "craigslist"......... long story short : after only a short time of lurking i found a really nice set of barely used 275/45ers on a set of spotless American racing 20"ers for a killer price . bigger then what i wanted ......but damn: i really like how the car looks like now

Daniel, Murphy Family it is awesome to hear that the recovery is 100% we are looking forward to hopefully camp with the "Murphy gang" soon again sounds like a great idea to build something for Daniel ....i personally dont like any of the little cheap china buggies that you can buy everywhere (IMHO almost all have massive design flaws in safety ) Danny, let me know if you need any help; i have some (easy to build) ideas for a safe, reliable "rhino" sized buggy that maybe would work for you (and Daniel) ... just tell me if you need to borrow a tube bender, welder or whatever... stephan

Kyler i agree with cmyfirepole right now there are many great used (American) cars on the market. i would rather buy something used then a brand new china car .....

Gino the nice thing on D is that you can camp at a lot of different spots (including very remote and quiet areas) we never had any problem with our heavy truck conversion; just keep up the momentum, use common sense, avoid soft spots, dont turn too tight and you will be fine. i hope you and your family have a great weekend with a lot of fun!!! stephan

here are some venomous upgrade pics ; the brass colored cylinders are "Clecos" ; they are a "temporary Rivet" to hold and align the parts during the buildup here is one of the 10 bolt-on points for the rearend sub-frame. a 1/8" steel plate that will be sandwiched in between and bonded to the aluminum. the key to working with aluminum is to "spread" the load over a large area/multible parts and fasteners . the strength of this structure is in the "sum of all parts" ; each sheet by itself would be weak but boxed together they triangulate each other. the most important thing is the bonding and the fasteners; the vibration resistant 3/16" aircraft "Lockbolt" rivets i use have a very high installed nominal grip value of 1750lbs shear, 1650lbs tensile and 1025lbs clamp each....and there will be a lot of them . the 3M "scotchweld" aluminum bonding adhesive adds another 3500psi to each connection. the final strength of this "cold welded" connection will be a lot higher then it would be with regular welding. the heat of welding would significant weaken the T6 tempered aluminum. hot welding aluminum would also lead to bowing and waves in the sheets.

exactly thats also why i dont like the charlyn (sp?) forklift torque assist . IMHO a circle track power rack and pinion like a Sweet or a Appleton is still the best for sensitivity and feedback.

:whacky101: poor guy, i bet he thinks that "high roller" (-risk) looks cool :flatbiller:

LAMO thats some funny stuff :no_no: :fro_smokin:

sandassassin thanks for the compliment hmmmm.... sounds interesting . i never looked into hydraulic steering . my concern would be that i think there is not much "feedback" that lets you "feel" how the front tires are reacting ? the late model 505 cid Viper engine will be left fairly stock (she is out of a wrecked `07 SRT-10 truck with only 700 miles). we will reuse the stock transmission (its a very stout 48RE 4-speed; the same as in the diesel trucks) but modify it to "manual shift" (so that it shift quicker and also so that it "holds" gears for downshifting/ engine braking) and add a "slap-stick" (sequencial ratchet shifter) the rearend will be our standard Speedway Engineering Quick Change . there are no plans for crazy engine modifications so we dont need to go with the stronger (but more expensive) rearend as in Ryans "V-Rex". the rest is just the usual 935 CVs and 300M axles feeding into GN full floater hubs. nothing too fancy but it will be very reliable

wow, im glad Raymond is ok.... it didnt sound good at first i hope he is recovering fully and quickly