A Blog About Land Rovers in Oklahoma
Here is my second attempt at a video blog. Its probably a tad long at 7:20. And I haven’t figured out how to close yet. I did make notes so I wouldn’t ramble. Let’s go with 88% non-rambling.
I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks for reading, watching, and Happy Rovering.
I worked on a new video today. I swapped a CV joint and some seals. I’ll get it up as soon as I have it done.
Here’s a teaser.
Otherwise not much is going on. I have the gas mileage up to 13.5 mpg on average. I did learn today from the manager of the AutoZone store that Castrol 20w50 is being discontinued. I’m not sure if this is true or not true, but he had the 5 quart jugs on sale for 8$(US). That’s really cheap. I bought a jug in addition to some new 80w90 for my differentials.
If it is indeed true I’ll have to swap back to 10w40. No harm in that. I wonder if it will affect my gas mileage?
Well that’s all for now. Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
With my new job providing a minor amount disposable income once again, I was able to do a small landscaping project this weekend. I took Mr. Fisher with me on Saturday to Lowe’s to pick up some pavers, gravel, and a flower requested by Mrs. Okierover.
We got to Lowe’s and loaded up two push carts. I got it all paid for and then we took it out to load. Mr. Fisher thought that if we loaded it all in the back that the front tires might not be touching the ground when we were done. I didn’t think it would be quite that bad, but why risk it.
So we loaded it all up. We put the gravel in the floor board between the seats. We put all the pavers in the back. My before and after pics of the load change on the springs don’t really show the inch it dropped. As I said to Mr. Fisher, Bill Burke said this is a 3/4 ton truck so we should be good.
I have medium duty springs and once you add a few hundred pounds the BWB really rides nice. We got home and we both shared stories about over loading pickup trucks we owned back in the day. His a Chevy S-10 with way too much gravel in the bed and my Ford Ranger with way too much lumber loaded in her. In both cases driving home at a crawl because every bump caused the front tires to leave the ground. Stupid is as stupid does.
We got the BWB home and began the project. The first task was to clear the material from the area. With this I uncovered one of the biggest “wolf spiders” I’ve ever seen. The website says up to 1.38 inches in body size. We were all of that if not more. That is a standard size spade shovel.
A storm front was bearing down on us and we worked quickly to get the rock down and the border. I decided the western most portion of the bed had to be tiered. The water is carrying off the dirt at a high rate.
I didn’t take the recommended before picture but you can see the after…
Another great use of a luxury SUV. I often see Jeff Aronson load up his Series II with firewood and people with dirty boots. You have all seen the pictures of Land Rovers “working”. Just because I have carpet and leather does that make it any less of a workhorse? Who knows.
To me my Range Rover is a “truck”. I’ve said this many times,
“I’ve never owned a car I was afraid to drive through a barbed wire fence.”
I mean that. Scratches, eh, dents, eh, what ever, it ain’t a beauty contest. Well it’s not with me anyway.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
Sorry for the post drought lately. I finally have a new job and haven’t had much time to do much of anything Land Rover. I ordered a CV joint and some other bits to sort out the axle problem that I referred to in Front Half Shaft Oil-Seal Failure. I thought they’d be in this weekend. Rovers North told me the CV joint was on a container ship last week. I thought for sure I’d have it by this week. By Saturday morning it had not arrived.
So Saturday I took the long drive up to Jones, Oklahoma to help the Evil German Dude. The sunroof was open and the windows down and I had a Mexi-Coke. Life is good. EGD has had some trouble with his swimming pool of late. The original liner failed after a few years and a new liner that was installed a couple of weeks ago required yet another new liner. Many hands make light work. Porsche Mike and his sweet wife Mel came out to help as well. Mel is keen to do some “off-roading” with us and very much enjoyed the comfort of the Big White Bus when trying out the seats. I hope to see more of Porsche Mike in the future…like maybe at a Garage Day, hint, hint.
We were thinking of Paparazzi Ford who was unable to attend due to the loss of his father this past week. My buddy Mr. Fisher lost his sister this weekend too. She succumbed to a long battle with cancer. Our thoughts are with both of their families in this difficult time.
We finished everything we could do and all that was left was to watch the water fill the pool at 6-8 gallons a minute. I drove home and stopped on the way home for some petrol and the BWB’s odometer was sitting on 209,000. The now twenty-one year old Range Rover has shown us some great miles. I managed to get 15 miles per gallon out of this last tank full. That really surprises me because my new commute has a lot more stop and go traffic due to the new hours I have at my new employment. I am stuck in “five o’clock traffic” on the way home and that is usually terrible for gas mileage ratings.
I guess I’ll schedule next Saturday for an axle tear down. I’m almost reluctant to swap the CV joint. The sound I’m hearing is not there very often. The noise could also be explained by the wrong fluid being in the reservoir. If I do swap it, the old CV would be an excellent shelf spare if it should ever be needed.
That’s all I have for now. I’ll be videoing the axle tear down and will post it all up when I have the time.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
I saw a thumbnail of my article that will be in Land Rovers Owners International. I’d post it up here but they are kinda funny about that sorta thing. The good folks over at LRO took my words (4500+) and Mr. Fisher’s pictures (50+) for the SCARR 2014 Event and paired them down for a short article (300 words and three pictures). Its on page 252.
It looks pretty good. The Big White Bus gets a good picture and I even managed to be in a picture with Bill Burke! I’ll say more when it actually comes out. I believe it is on the shelf already in England and will be on the shelves and mailboxes on our continent (North America) next month (June).
I can’t wait to have it in my hands and subsequently hanging on my wall.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
I had another episode with the starter today. I had just walked out of the dentist’s office and got into the Range Rover turned the key and got, click. Turned it again, click. And again, click.
I called the wife (at work), son (at the Y), nephew (at the Y), Fireman Jason (at the station 8), and finally Mrs. Fisher (at work but leaving) for help. Mrs. Fisher offered her Pontiac for a jump. No go. So she gave me a ride home where Mr. Fisher picked me up and we took the battery for testing.
After a short (5 minute) charge and test, the battery registered good. So we took the battery back to the Range Rover, installed it, and turned the key. Of course, it started. Continue reading “Click, Click, Click (Post #494) 5/12/2014”