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June 12, 2014May 16, 2023

Working Out the Springs (Post #499) 6/12/2014

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.

15 Pavers, 1 Geranium, 15 bags of gravel

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.

garden2 — Mr. Fisher loads the Big White Bus.

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…

Looks a lot better than the trench that was there before.

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.

May 31, 2014May 16, 2023

Slow Days of Summer (Post #497) 5/31/2014

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.

May 22, 2014May 16, 2023

Okierover Logo Refresh (Post #496) 5/22/2014

Wow! Doesn’t that look great? I am chuffed to bits over it. It may surprise you but photoshop is not one of the things I’m good at. I put together the old Okierover logo more than ten years ago using Paintshop Pro.

My good friend Richard Mullins did it for me. Rich and I’s friendship goes way back. He is one of those friends that you knew were cool just being around him. We went to high school and the same university and worked together at T.G.&Y. Back in the day he was a pretty good racketball player too. One of my most cherished memories is of Rich and I hanging around at my house. We were trying to take “cool pictures”. So Rich grabs the phone and says, “Take a picture of me talking on the phone.” I still have the picture.

As you can tell the 1980’s were in full bloom in this picture. Rick Ocasek (The Cars) haircut, check. Racing check sleeve-less shirt with graphic, check. That might even be a “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” shirt. Phone attached to wall, check.

Rich always had the latest music videos on VHS. We lived in rural Oklahoma and music videos were only shown on a late night show. This was back when MTV actually showed music videos all day, everyday. If you wanted to watch videos and you didn’t have cable TV you had to record them. He was always a fixture at our parties. He was the first person I knew that knew what he wanted to do with his life that wasn’t trying to be a doctor of some sort or other.

There are two future doctors in this photo and three more inside the apartment.
Yes, those are umbrella’s in our beer cups.

Rich wanted to be an artist and that’s what he became. He’s doing it professionally and has a very unique expressionist style.

He was the first person I thought of when I thought of redesigning my website and getting my logo refreshed. The results are, as you have seen above, stunning. Way more than I expected.

Go over to Rich’s site RICHARDMULLINS.COM and check out his paintings. you might even see something you like.

Thanks again Rich, you are totally awesome for sure.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

April 24, 2014May 16, 2023

Diagnostics, Not Just for Breakfast Anymore (Post #490) 4/24/2014

Florida Orange Juice Growers Association had a slogan in the 1970’s, “Orange juice, it’s not just for breakfast anymore.” It was used to encourage people to drink orange juice during the day, not just at breakfast time. It’s clever and a lesson for us. Diagnosing a problem should not stop with only one solution, keep diagnosing through the problem.

Diagnostics is the root of what we do to fix our Land Rovers. If you can’t diagnose the problem you can’t fix it. This was made ~~painfully~~ financially clear to me last night. Continue reading “Diagnostics, Not Just for Breakfast Anymore (Post #490) 4/24/2014”

February 24, 2014May 15, 2023

An Unexpected Gift (Post #454) 2/24/2014

One of my best friends Facebook messaged me the other day. He was cleaning out boxes and organizing his life and found a pair of fog lamps off his Range Rover Classic and he wanted to give them to me. Eric K. is the reason I was called “Biff” by that circle of friends when I went to college. In that circle of friends there happened to be three “Eric’s”. Arric, Eric K., and Me. I did not like the impersonal manner of being called “Stephens”. I was called that by everyone in my unit in the Marine Corps and much preferred a more personal name. So one day I started a rant and asked my friends to call me anything but “Stephens”. I rattled off half a dozen names, some rude, some absurd. One of the absurd was “Biff”. The only Biff’s we had ever known were members of fraternities and we mostly made fun of them. So “Biff” stuck. Only a few friends still call me Biff. And I’m affectionately known as Uncle Biff by one set of my friend’s kids still to this day.

Eric did not have a good experience with his Range Rover…. Continue reading “An Unexpected Gift (Post #454) 2/24/2014”

February 7, 2014May 15, 2023

Vacation Planning Time (Post #446) 2/7/2014

It’s time to start your vacation planning. I know it’s only February, but if you plan to see any of our great national parks, you need to start now. Reservations are necessary if you plan to stay in any of the park’s resorts. A budget for your trip is necessary. Dude, there is a serious lot to do, get started!

Mrs. Okierover and I went on a 3900 miles trek to Glacier National Park with another couple back in August of 2012. It was amazing. I can’t believe I didn’t post a story about it. If I did, I can’t seem to find it. I will have to recreate the posts and get it up on this page. It was an epic trip and a very good time for all.

In any event we went to one of the most gorgeous places on earth, Glacier National Park. Today Roadtrippers.com ran a time-lapse video of the Going to the Sun Road. I stumbled upon a video someone posted on Roadtrippers.com website for Glacier National Park. There are a great many links to click in there. Here is a short video (01:18) about the park by Joe Nugent.

Mrs. Okierover and I have talked about going back as have our friends. Their schedules did not align well last year or they would have gone again in 2013. We have a few trips ahead of this one. We have talked about going out to California again. We have talked about going to Massachusetts. We have talked about going out to Washington, DC again. And Mrs. Okierover has always wanted to visit a beach with clear water. I’m thinking this will be The Keys in Florida. Hawaii, Guam, Australia, Brasil,…etc…

The list of places we want to go is almost endless. Most of these trips will need to wait until we retire. The time and funding is just not there right now. Such is the fate of a middle class drone in America.

Start planning, thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.