The Miata experience: his and hers.

After a couple of weeks of not being able to work on the car, the right front is done.   Discovered the sway bar mount braces were in the way of the 'long bolt' for the upper control arms, so the splitter and airdam ended up coming off.  Also, the front sway bar was just as tight as the rear, so I guess I need to add cleaning the sway bar mounts to the off-season maintenance schedule...

Hope to get to the left side over the next couple of days, so I can get the ride height set and then get it to the alignment shop.

No pics today, but I did finally finish the control arm/ spring swap.  Hope to fiddle with the ride height in the morning, and get it aligned next week, if I can get an appointment...

Made the initial ride height adjustment.  Xida coilovers have torrington bearings at the adjustment collars, and they're designed to use a 5mm allen key as a spanner, so adjustments are pretty painless.

Also greased the control arm bushings.  The grease isn't really intended to lubricate, as much as it's to help seal out dirt, which will cause accelerated wear on the delrin bushings.  I bought a Bauer power grease gun from HF, which made the job quick and easy.

I had been planning to buy one of these for a while, as it will make greasing the wheel bearings on our trailer a much easier task.  Pretty impressed so far.  And it uses the same battery system as several other tools I have already.

Interesting.  For one of the first times in my life I have a vehicle that has stuff I need to grease.  The land cruiser's driveshafts are greasable and I doubt they've been done at all, so I'm going to do them at my next oil change.  I was just going to buy a "regular" grease gun, do you think the powered one is worth it?  I don't have any other Bauer tools, mostly I have Ryobi and Milwaukee, do either of those batteries work?

Absolutely worth it.  I've wanted one since my neighbor (retired mechanic) was showing off his.  Just waited for Bauer to make one since I'm already invested in their battery system.

Both Ryobi and Milwaukee make power grease guns, so that's what I'd go with if you already have the batteries.  I have read here that there are battery adapters that can be found on eBay and other sources to switch things up, but I have no personal experience with them.

Last night, when I got home from work I discovered our patio screen door lying on the patio.  We had some pretty severe thunderstorms through last night, so I figured that was this issue.  This morning, my wife confirmed it.  Then I went out front, and discovered the 10x20 HF canopy we have covering our side yard was now in the neighbor's yard... 

Fortunately, nothing was damaged other than a few fence pickets, and the canopy itself.  After I cleaned it up, I 'wrapped' the Capri.

I guess it's time I finally build the permanent structure I've been putting off for three years...  should have done it when the price of steel wasn't nuts.

I guess I forgot to update last week.  Got the car aligned with the new suspension, so it's ready to go back on track.  The price of an alignment at the shop I use doubled since the last alignment on the NA!  I actually thought they were basically giving it away before, so it's still pretty darn reasonable, but just one more indicator of how screwed up things are.

Since our first planned event for the fall won't be until October, it's back in the trailer for now.  Maybe I can actually get the Capri in the garage and do a little work on it...

Been a little while without an update, and honestly, not much car stuff going on.  But something big might be happening this week.

In the meantime, we were off on our usual September vacation.  This year it was a drive to Wisconsin for my nephew's wedding, returning on the Northern route to visit Teddy Roosevelt NP in North Dakota, and Yellowstone NP in Wyoming.  A good bit of August and early September was spent prepping for the trip.

We departed at our usual zero:darkthirty, and got to see the sunrise somewhere near Winslow on I40.

Fuel prices in AZ, NM, and TX were the highest of the trip... this was outside Amarillo...

We were only taking two days for the drive to Winsconsin, so we caught the sunset in our mirrors just over the state line into Oklahoma, and stayed in Weatherford, just West of OK City.

Kona has developed some anxiety issues over the last couple of years, and isn't really as happy about traveling as she used to be, but still does well on the long days.

Day two was another long slog North on 35 all the way into the Twin Cities where we hit traffic on I94, just a few miles from our destination... frustrating after a long day in the saddle...

The dog 'cousins' are BFF's and played to exhaustion every day we were there.

After a week of wedding related celebration and visiting, we were off again, this time West on I94, to our first destination on the return leg:  Medora, ND.

Surrounding Medora is the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  It's not on many folks radar, being a smaller park, but it is absolutely beautiful.

We saw creatures large and small, from Prairie Dogs, to Deer, Elk and Bison.

Next we drove on to Cody, WY, where we were staying with friends who recently retired there.  They graciously let us park our rig on their property for a few days.

It had been almost 20 years since we've been to Yellowstone, and though the park hadn't changed much (still incredible!), there was more traffic, and lots of construction.  There were also still some closures related to the flooding earlier in the summer.  We still had a nice visit, and were able to see some things in the park we hadn't had time for on our last visit.

Entering the park from the East, you cross the Fishing Bridge.  My uncle, who is 93, lived in the Park as a child because his father was an engineer who worked on building the Fishing Bridge.

Yellowstone River

Tower Falls

There were Bison everywhere, but this newborn stood out from the crowd.  Sorry for the picture quality, it was taken through my spotting scope at a distance of around 1/2 mile, and I'm still trying to get the camera and scope to play well together.

I could post Yellowstone pics for days, there's so much to see.  If you haven't visited, you really should try to get there once in your life.  It's an amazing place!

Finally, it was time for the long ride home.  We took two days coming home from Cody, overnighting in Blanding, UT.  We made a pit stop in the Glen Canyon Recreational area on the way there.  Another staggeringly beautiful area that is rarely traveled.

Another great trip in the books, and the truck, camper and Jeep performed perfectly.  Not sure why the display is showing a 0mpg average, maybe I inadvertently reset it.  Calculated average for the trip was 9.6mpg.  I haven't added up the cost of fuel for this trip, and I don't think I will... 

Now it's time to get the NA ready for some fall events, though there might be something happening first....

Excellent trip. Back in '09 I went on walkabout and visited many places out West. When I drove by Yellowstone, I cursed myself for not budgeting the time for a visit. 

Baby Bison is adorable.

I hinted that something big was happening, and it did.  42ft big, to be exact.  

Long day today, more info tomorrow... 

Thats a BIG big! Awesome!

As we approach retirement, we knew we wanted to do a lot of traveling, with our goal being to drag our NA around the country to racetracks we've never been to.   It was obvious we were going to have to upgrade from our truck camper to something with enough space to live in for extended periods.  We don't really intend to 'full-time', but we could easily be on the road for a few months at a time.  So it had to be comfortable.  It also needed enough chassis and motor to pull a trailer.  The ultimate goal is to pull a small stacker with the race car and a street car for getting around.

I did loads of research, and ended up looking at lots of Super Cs and Toters.  5th wheel Toters were available in our budget, but didn't have the living space we were looking for.  The Super Cs that had enough motor/chassis are still very expensive compared to Class As.  There are lots of cheaper "Super C"s out there that basically have the same 6.7 Cummins that's in my truck in a bigger chassis, but that wasn't going to cut it.  

The other issue we were coming across is that RVs that aren't super high end (especially newer ones), are built like crap, and the materials are super cheap.  So I started looking at older, higher end class As.  I really liked some of the older Prevost conversions and Bluebirds.  Big motors, million mile chassis, and quality builds.  It's possible to buy a late 1990s Prevost that was $750000 new for well under $150000.   

In the course of looking, we came across our 2004 Holiday Rambler Navigator.  Very well kept and maintained, and only 66,000 miles, so it hadn't sat around, but it didn't get run to death, either.  500hp Cummins ISM, and Allison 4000 trans.  Rated to tow 10k, and reportedly upgradeable to 15k with just some hitch upgrades.  This thing was over $400000 new in 2004.  We paid about 1/4 of that, which is still a LOT of $$$$, but these days you can option a pickup to those prices, so in the grand scheme of things, I guess it's not too crazy.

The build quality is excellent.  Everything inside is hardwood, solid surface, real tile, etc.  Honestly, I could live with something less fancy, but it just doesn't happen with this build quality.  People who are going to spend 1/2 mil on a new one want fancy! 

This has been my first experience driving something this big, and where the driver sits in front of the front wheels!  The drive home was 100 miles, much of it in busy traffic.  The good news is it was easier than I thought it would be.  Still a little nerve wracking.... driving a 20 ton vehicle down the road when you haven't memorized all the switches yet...   It's definitely got some balls, though... pulled the I17 grade up from Phoenix at 65mph with no issues.

This is both very exciting for us, and a little terrifying.  I put $370.23 worth of diesel in it this morning.  That was a little over 1/2 a tank.  

I don't even want to think about what tires cost, though I should be good for at least another year.  It's also the most complex thing that I've ever owned.  It's going to take a while just to learn all of the systems.  I'll take it for an overnight somewhere close in the next couple of weeks for a test run.  Our first track weekend is a little ways out.  We actually missed running this weekend to deal with the purchase and picking it up.

BTW, our Lance truck camper is up for sale.  Look for it in the classifieds if you're interested.  

Wow, some of those cost $750,000!  I had no idea....

In reply to docwyte :

And that was back in the 90s.  Today, I'm pretty sure some (most?) of the Prevost conversions are over a million new.   

Whenever anybody mentions Cody, Wyoming I think of my trip through there in 1980.  

You spent a lot of money but what would a nice dually and camper cost? 66,000 miles?  Start breaking it in.

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

Both times we've been to Cody have been after the daily Rodeo was shut down for the season...  One of these days we'll make it while the Rodeo is going.

Our local rodeo is a pretty big deal, but it's only once a year...

Yesterday we took a maiden voyage in the Navigator.  Sort of... just a quick overnight at a park that's less than 5 miles from home.  We wanted to do a night in it just to start learning everything, and verify that everything functions properly.  When we picked it up, a tech at the dealer went through the whole coach with us, but it was so fast there was no way we were going to remember much, even taking notes.  So I spent the afternoon going through everything with the manual out, and then we had some friends come by for dinner.

Kona is still getting used to it...

But, when you get right down to it, a couch is a couch, and she's good with that.

Today it was back to storage, dump tanks and winterize.  It's going to be sitting for a bit, and we often get a freeze by this time of year, so I wanted to get out in front of it.  Ran out of RV antifreeze, and it's raining, so I'll need to finish up in the morning.

Sorry for the radio silence... lots of life happened over the last month and a half...

Getting back to business, the NA is back in the garage for pre-event prep.  It's taken us a long time to get going this fall... but we're planning to be back on track in December.

Also brought home another stray last weekend... another Mk1 Capri, this time a '71 track car that runs and drives.  And has a Cosworth 2.0 YBM...

Lots more in my Capri thread:  MK1 Capri thread

For now they're cohabitating peacefully, though the NB is unhappy about being out in the cold... 

New seat arrived for the NA today.  I've been wanting to go to a halo seat for a while, but there's nowhere nearby to try out seats.  Since the seats that fit in a Miata are limited to begin with, I decided to take a chance on an OMP HTE-R.  Known to fit Miatas, not known if I would fit...

Good news is that I fit.  I have my fingers crossed that my wife doesn't hate it... 

I like Momo Mod 88 steering wheels, and wanted the Capri to have one to replace the derpy Pep Boys racer wheel.  So the NA got a brand new Mod 88, and the old Mod 88 will go to the Capri.

Hope to start on seat fitment later this afternoon or tomorrow...

OMP seat is in.  I may try to adjust the angle a bit... feels like it's more upright than the Corbeau seat when installed in the same bracket holes.  

In reply to Rodan :

We have that seat in three lemons cars, it manages to be comfortable enough for 3+hour shifts, is wearing well, and fits our range of drivers from 5'8" 150lb to 6'2" 240lb.