I’m back with an Esky this time

[HiHoeSilver]

Last Thursday I went to the DMV to renew my license. I walk in and get in the line that clearly says “License” which is right next to the line that says “Vehicles”. This lady who apparently is the greeter, because that’s the desk she was standing at, comes over to me and asks me to step out of line so she can make sure I’m in the correct line with the proper documentation. I’m there for license renewal and I want to get the “real ID”, which is the government background ID to allow me to board airplanes without having a passport. For those that have been living under a rock, anyone flying after October 1,2020 needs a “real ID” or passport to fly domestically. So I have my SS card, birth certificate, old ID and 2 pieces of mail in the form of a bill or utility with my current address on them. So this greeter tells me, ok go ahead and stand in the line under “License”, exactly where I was!! But now 2 more people have come in and I lost my spot. She didn’t pull them out of line and ask them for their documents. So I wait 40 minutes, get up to the lady that looks and acts like she just hates people and her job. I get my picture taken, do the eye exam and present my documentation and she’s lookin thru it to make sure I have everything even though robo-***** already checked my stuff. She starts typing on the keyboard of her computer and then stops and says, “I can’t renew your license at this time.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Let’s see....” she says with her resting ***** face while staring at the computer screen. “Seems you have an outstanding ticket that needs to be dealt with before I can issue you a new license.”
“What? ********! Lady, I’ve had like 3 tickets in the past 10 years and I know I’ve either paid them or went to court and gotten supervision.”
“Says here it’s from 2001, and it’s an unpaid fine.”
“Are you serious? I might be going out on a limb here but I’m pretty sure I’ve renewed my license in the last 19 years.”
“Yeah, this just got entered into the system in 2015. I can give you the ticket number and you’ll have to contact the Will county courthouse to take care of it before I can continue with your renewal.”
So I walk out of the DMV knowing I’ll never get my hour and twenty minutes back, get into the truck and call the court house. I think this *****’s sister answers the phone. She can’t tell me anything over the phone, and this is after she asks for my ticket number. Sounds like a trap. Yeah, I don’t have time to go get locked up for some stupid old traffic ticket. I’m heading to Indianapolis without a license!

So I head out about 12:45pm, they are an hour ahead of me. I tell the guy selling the trailer I’m on my way and I’m about 3 hrs 14 minutes away according to GPS, but I look at that as just the time to beat, after all, I drive like I’m sponsored!

3:56 I pull into the bank where we agreed to meet at 4pm. He’s not there. Get a text, running behind, be there soon. Ok no problem. 4:28- I’m on my way, bout 8 minutes. Ok, take your time, I’m enjoying just sitting and relaxing. 4:32- I forgot the title, gotta turn around and go get it. I’ll hurry. 4:52- on my way. Eight minutes. 4:58 stuck in traffic, I’m only 3/4 mile away. 5:01- finally shows up. Trailer looks good, I low ball him, he don’t bite but I can tell he feels bad for making me wait and counters with a price a few hundred lower than what he was asking because “you drove all this way”. I throw out a number 2 bills lower than his. He meets me in the middle and I take it. While disconnecting from his truck he tells me that the trailer had an electric jack on it but his Ford didn’t power it so he put the hand crank one on. I said, is the electric jack in the trailer cabinets? No, it’s at home. Do you want it. Hell yeah! He leaves ti go get it while I hook up my truck and set the brake controller. He’s back in 20 minutes and I hit the road. I got home at 8:45pm. I hauled ass pulling this 26’ trailer. Packed my bag for Wisconsin, loaded sled and parts into trailer and called it a day.

Next day, Friday, get truck loaded check fluids and tires and wait to hear from guy with sled in Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin. The sled is at the dealer where the seller is having them go through it and they found the rear air shock needed to be rebuilt and a bushing replaced. The shock didn’t come back yet from being rebuilt. Talk to my brother and he says just go get it, we’ll have them mail us the shock and he will find something on his way up. Throw the dog and boys into truck and we are on the road by 11:45am. I’m haulin ass thru Milwaukee putting this truck and trailer in places that it shouldn’t fit trying to get around these slow poke people. I have to make it to the top of the little finger that sticks off the side of Wisconsin into Lake Michigan before this dealer closes. For some reason I can’t break into 15MPG. I wonder why?

So we make it to dealer at 4:25. I check out the sled, looks good minus the shock. The air shock is $2000 dealer price. Holy crap!! The standard shock and spring is $550 so I told my brother to try and find one of them. Leave dealer and it starts snowing and blowing so hard we are at 45MPH and only have 2 tracks for a lane.

I call my brother to see where he’s at and he said they left about an hour ago from his work near Chicago and they are doing 40MPH. Still hasn’t located a shock. I’ll still beat him.

I made it to the house at 8:40pm and had to snowblow the driveway and I unloaded my sled and left my dads in there.

To be continued...... just getting to the good part.


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Sounding good so far, other than the license crap. Fyi, people are saying that the West Chicago and Plano locations are worth the drive with polite employees and really short lines.

 

[Snowbound]

I have some catching up to do here. I can’t believe this much time has past. Let’s see where I’m at, I have to look at my pics to find out.
I saw this on my travels and thought it was cool.

So that night when my brother, nephew and dad finally made it up, I helped them get their bags and stuff and asked my dad what he thought about the trailer. He said it was nice. Thought it was gonna be great not having to load a sled in the back of the truck. So then I said let me grab a light and I’ll show you the inside.
I dropped the rear door and he he didn’t even notice the Apex sitting there. He’s pointing out the cabinets and the roof vent and I said you didn’t even notice it. He said what. The sled right next to you. He said yeah, I’ve seen your sled. Did you do something different to it? No dad, I have a black Viper, that’s a blue Apex. He said, oh you got another one? Did it come with the trailer? Nope. That’s your Apex! No way he says. Get outta here! Yeah dad, Randy and I decided you needed a newer sled so you can still enjoy the sport. This one has electronic power steering along with electric start and reverse. He just kept saying no way, your kidding me.
Then we had to tell him that the shock didn’t come in and we couldn’t find one but they’re gonna ship the shock when it’s done. He was still happy but we could tell, it’s like buying your 16 year old a new car but telling them that they can’t drive it. So I woke up early Saturday morning and called about 20 places looking for a shock. I found one 130 miles away and they closed at 1pm but damn if I wasn’t gonna make it happen. Jumped in truck and got there in time and we got a standard shock and spring used for $350. Came home and put it on and we were riding. My dad posted this after the weekend and I think it says it all.

We had a great weekend riding.

His new sled and his old. My son Jack ride his because I still had a few things to finish up on his old Arctic Cat.

I had an issue. The damn quick disconnect sway bar link broke off. The ball mount snapped.

I still had the factory link so I scrounged up some 8mm bolts, washers and nuts and put it on to finish out the weekend.

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[Snowbound]

Now that my dad had his new sled, he actually wasn’t holding us back. He drove like it wasn’t beating him up and also with the track being picked, it wasn’t squirrley around the corners. So the next weekend just him, my brother and myself went back up for just a guys weekend. The shock came in and Carl, the guy we bought the sled from was heading to Wausau on Saturday morning so he we met him in Merrill and grabbed the shock from him. Of course he had to show us his new Turbo Sidewinder. Bastard!
So we put the air shock on the Apex and told dad he’s gonna like it even better now that it’s back to air ride.

We drove all day and into the night on Saturday. Put on some miles! We stopped in Lake Tomahawk at the end of the day to hit the meat market before they closed for some deer jerky and beef sticks. Good stuff!!
Dad wasn’t sore, he didn’t walk like he just got off a horse and was ready to ride at any time. It’s like a different old man, for the better.

Half way thru the day on Sunday, we stopped along the trail to get our bearings and see where we wanted to head next and I noticed my dads sled was low in the back. Checked the air in shock and it was at 80PSI! Started at 190! So my brother and I took turns with the hand pump to get it back up to 190. When we got home that night, we pulled shock back off, installed the spring shock and tested air shock in bucket of water. It bubbled from the main seal. SOAB!! Sent that back out and they had to rebuild it again. If it wasn’t gonna be covered under warranty, we would have used our shock guy but they covered it.

So we spent a good 3 days riding that weekend, I had another issue with my sway bar link. The bolt I found to attach the link didn’t hold up. It snapped the bottom mounting bolt and I didn’t notice it. The link hanging there just beat the crap out of the lower mount I made. Busted the link and the mounting tab.

I ended up taking both lower mounts off the arms and cut the tabs off to make some beefier tabs. You can see, one is good and the other is all that was left.

So I made the next ones from 3/16” plate. The 1/8” plate didn’t do it for me, this should work!

This is on my brothers, his ball mount broke too but he never put one back on. Says he likes it better without the link. But you can see how the factory mounts link on lower arm. Their mounting tab isn’t that thick either.

Time to up my game a little to put this sway bar link crap behind me. Bought some rod ends and new hardware. I also used a big washer on the outside in the event the rod end fails, it can’t pop off the mount.

Had to get Jack’s sled ready before we headed back up. His skis were shot but they wanted $140/each for new or $260 for aftermarket. No thanks, I’ll fix these. I only paid $100 for the sled.

Did you really think I wouldn’t blast and POR15 these things?

Then I did all bushings and bearings in his rear skid. Same thing, cleaned, blasted and painted.

So now I have my sway bar parts and his parts ready for the next trip up.




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[Snowbound]

So before we went back up the following weekend, guy at work comes into the shop and asks me if I’m still interested in buying another bike. I said, Dave, I just bought a trailer, half a sled and I’ve been hemorrhaging money running back and forth up north and buying parts not to mention I just got done putting a trans in the Esky.

I wanted to buy his Ultra Classic but he owes too much so I had to tell him no. But he says, no, not mine, my brothers bike. Dave and his brother are OCD and freaks when it comes to their shit. Everything has to be perfect. He tells me Gerald is moving and is selling everything and it’s too good of a deal to pass up. Oh boy, here we go. Long story short, I bought a 2013 Ultra Classic Limited. Just what I needed, another bike I don’t ride! But I couldn’t pass it up. It’s perfect.

But it’s still winter and sled season so back to that. Sway bar links installed.

Had a great long weekend again.

My 2 boys in this picture. Jack posing with my swamp water. Not til your 21 dude.

I beat the crap out of my sled trying to break the links. Held up without issue. Sweet!!

Everything going so good, decided to head up again the next weekend, which was last weekend. Just my wife and I but my brother ended up heading up after work on Friday. Weather has been getting warmer so we had to get that weekend in just incase it all melts.

Saturday Jess went to town to do some shopping while Randy and I hit the logging trails for some deep powder runs. He buried his sled.

Had to grab my collapsible shovel out of my sled.

Finally, Jess and I outside our local watering hole, Nutz-Zees.

I stayed home this weekend because I had to work, this coming weekend I have to officiate a wedding for my sister in law so I can’t go but the weekend of the 13th, 14th and 15th is the last weekend so I’m heading up. Not sure if the snow will be there but we can always trailer to the U.P. if needed.


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[Tonyrodz]

Awesome!! I LOVE father/son outings! Just the bonding. Looks like you guys had a great time.

 

[Snowbound]

What a wild ride this year has been. 2020 reminds me of my first marriage, that started off great but became a shit show too.
Luckily I fall in the category of essential workers. Unluckily, my work decided to do a voluntary lock-in. Of course I signed up for it, it was a 8 week lock down where we stayed at work. 12 hr shifts, Monday thru Saturday and Sunday just relaxed but couldn’t leave. For those that volunteered but didn’t make the cut, they got paid 48 hours/wk from the company. 5 of them were put on standby incase someone had to leave work or for hazmat response and they got paid 65 hrs a week but had to stay quarantined. Ended up staying for just shy of 10 weeks. It sucked to be honest but after it was done, I’d do it again.

My dad got sick, no COVID, just really sick and that was an ordeal during this whole quarantine ********, trying to see a doctor was a nightmare. My mom wants to get into a single level house. I guess my dad had an issue with the stairs while he was sick. He’s better now but my mom was still set on moving because they’re getting older and steps are getting harder. My dad doesn’t want to let go of the house because his dad built it. He grew up there, so did I because he got it from grandpa when grandma died in ‘75. Anyway, I offered to buy it so it stays in the family. So now I guess I’m moving into my childhood house this August. I’m gonna wait to list mine when it’s empty and we are totally settled in over there. The wife is happy but I’m losing garage space. But I’ll build a bigger one there.

But back to the vehicles. I changed out the door handles for black ones.

They needed a little fine tuning to fit correctly. The plastic hit the inside the opening not allowing the handle to slide back enough to really sit flush and line up the bolts. I could have bolted it but it wouldn’t have sat perfectly in place.

The fix was easy, just a simple slice with a box cutter or airplane hijacker tool as I call it, a little relief cut is all it needed right where I circled. Pic was before I notched it. You can see the small crease in the plastic from me trying to push the handle back against the door.

Then I bought some covers for the mirrors. I don’t like them. First of all, I’ll still need to wrap the mirror pivot that’s chrome and not covered by the covers. And the insides of the covers weren’t painted so it looks like they were set face down and painted which makes sense but the out side edge didn’t get paint. You’ll see what I mean in pics. I’ve already sanded and repainted them but I don’t have pics. Not sure if I’ll use them anyway.

Next piece of the puzzle that arrived were the rims. I ended up going with the KMC slides.

I also put 2 more Duelers on. I only did 2 before winter but since it was going back in, get the tires on there and be done. What the hell. Having new tires is like getting new pu$$y, nothing feels better.

So now she has her new wheels, blacked out door handles she’s bugging me about the grille I showed her.

But the one that’s glossy black is out of stock and I’ve been waiting over 4 months for it to come back in stock. But she’s gotta have her new grille! Just that last thing and she’ll leave me alone for a while. Yeah right!
So I ordered the one that’s the matte finish. I couldn’t put it on there like that. Sent it over to my buddy’s shop and had him paint it for me. What’s another $100 to paint it instead of waiting? To her, nothing. She didn’t pay it.

So I get that back and fought that original bastard off. A lot of videos and people said, you have to pull the entire bumper off to get the bottom clips. Screw that, I don’t like the skin on my hands anyway so i did it without removing it. What a pain in the butt!

The best part, I shit you not, 2 days after it’s on, notification, glossy black grille back in stock. SOAB!!

Then just the other day I got a new defroster panel. The other one was cracked and it drove me crazy. Just never got around to ordering it. So I finally did. And then I had to paint it with some interior vinyl plastic paint.

Original busted up pretty bad removing it. They really get brittle from the sun.

Didn’t get a picture of the finished project yet. I have to fix loose fabric on the A-pillars so I’ll get that done soon and get a finished picture.

So as you can see, I spent a lot of money while I was locked in at work. I also bought some other stuff that I’ll share here in a minute. Gonna start a new post.


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[swathdiver]

Look into chair lifts for your folks. They're not permanent so the next generation to live in y'alls ancestral home won't have to look at them until they get old.

 

[Sam Harris]

What a wild ride this year has been. 2020 reminds me of my first marriage, that started off great but became a shit show too.
Luckily I fall in the category of essential workers. Unluckily, my work decided to do a voluntary lock-in. Of course I signed up for it, it was a 8 week lock down where we stayed at work. 12 hr shifts, Monday thru Saturday and Sunday just relaxed but couldn’t leave. For those that volunteered but didn’t make the cut, they got paid 48 hours/wk from the company. 5 of them were put on standby incase someone had to leave work or for hazmat response and they got paid 65 hrs a week but had to stay quarantined. Ended up staying for just shy of 10 weeks. It sucked to be honest but after it was done, I’d do it again.

My dad got sick, no COVID, just really sick and that was an ordeal during this whole quarantine ********, trying to see a doctor was a nightmare. My mom wants to get into a single level house. I guess my dad had an issue with the stairs while he was sick. He’s better now but my mom was still set on moving because they’re getting older and steps are getting harder. My dad doesn’t want to let go of the house because his dad built it. He grew up there, so did I because he got it from grandpa when grandma died in ‘75. Anyway, I offered to buy it so it stays in the family. So now I guess I’m moving into my childhood house this August. I’m gonna wait to list mine when it’s empty and we are totally settled in over there. The wife is happy but I’m losing garage space. But I’ll build a bigger one there.

But back to the vehicles. I changed out the door handles for black ones.

They needed a little fine tuning to fit correctly. The plastic hit the inside the opening not allowing the handle to slide back enough to really sit flush and line up the bolts. I could have bolted it but it wouldn’t have sat perfectly in place.

The fix was easy, just a simple slice with a box cutter or airplane hijacker tool as I call it, a little relief cut is all it needed right where I circled. Pic was before I notched it. You can see the small crease in the plastic from me trying to push the handle back against the door.

Then I bought some covers for the mirrors. I don’t like them. First of all, I’ll still need to wrap the mirror pivot that’s chrome and not covered by the covers. And the insides of the covers weren’t painted so it looks like they were set face down and painted which makes sense but the out side edge didn’t get paint. You’ll see what I mean in pics. I’ve already sanded and repainted them but I don’t have pics. Not sure if I’ll use them anyway.

Next piece of the puzzle that arrived were the rims. I ended up going with the KMC slides.

I also put 2 more Duelers on. I only did 2 before winter but since it was going back in, get the tires on there and be done. What the hell. Having new tires is like getting new pu$$y, nothing feels better.

So now she has her new wheels, blacked out door handles she’s bugging me about the grille I showed her.

But the one that’s glossy black is out of stock and I’ve been waiting over 4 months for it to come back in stock. But she’s gotta have her new grille! Just that last thing and she’ll leave me alone for a while. Yeah right!
So I ordered the one that’s the matte finish. I couldn’t put it on there like that. Sent it over to my buddy’s shop and had him paint it for me. What’s another $100 to paint it instead of waiting? To her, nothing. She didn’t pay it.

So I get that back and fought that original bastard off. A lot of videos and people said, you have to pull the entire bumper off to get the bottom clips. Screw that, I don’t like the skin on my hands anyway so i did it without removing it. What a pain in the butt!

The best part, I shit you not, 2 days after it’s on, notification, glossy black grille back in stock. SOAB!!

Then just the other day I got a new defroster panel. The other one was cracked and it drove me crazy. Just never got around to ordering it. So I finally did. And then I had to paint it with some interior vinyl plastic paint.

Original busted up pretty bad removing it. They really get brittle from the sun.

Didn’t get a picture of the finished project yet. I have to fix loose fabric on the A-pillars so I’ll get that done soon and get a finished picture.

So as you can see, I spent a lot of money while I was locked in at work. I also bought some other stuff that I’ll share here in a minute. Gonna start a new post.


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Looking great brother!! Nice to have you back![emoji106][emoji16]

 

[Snowbound]

The next thing I got was the stretched bags for the bike.

Then I got a black luggage rack on the tour pack, black highway bar and highway pegs, and also black crash bars that go in front of the side bags. I’m sending in the crash bars and highway bar for powder coating. They came painted and I don’t like it. Next upgrade is audio system. I have a new system in my shopping cart, just haven’t hit the button yet.

Day or so after I got out of the lock down at work I was driving the formula. It had just got done raining and this &$@^*+<>%#£€¥|.....lady decided to slam on her brakes for a yellow light 50 feet from intersection while doing 55MPH. I’m on drag radials and no abs so I started sliding. I ended up aiming for the ditch instead of slamming into her. I hit the curb pretty damn hard and actually landed on top of it barely missing a light pole. I got out of my car which was next to the lady in her explorer and started screaming at her. “You stupid C” “what the hell were you thinking” by that time she punches it and takes off through the intersection blowing the red light. What the hell? After all that!? I was able to back the car into the road and get across the intersection into a gas station. The car was fighting me trying to steer it. This is what I initially saw.


It’s hard to see but the right tire is toed out. And this.

So I’m thinking, bent tie rod and probably a bent wheel. Sucks but not bad. Even if it’s a bent a-arm, it’s better than hitting the *****. So I called Jess to come get me and then called for a tow. Car showed up at the house about 2 hrs later and I drove it in. The driver asked what happened and I told him. He said hope you can fix it, it’s a nice car. I said, wanna buy it? Lol. I didn’t mess with it right away but a few days later I got it in the air and checked it out. Tie rod looked good. A-arm wasn’t bent. Hub and spindle were good too. I bent the damn subframe!! It’s twisted up at the rear on the passenger side. I’m not sure how bad the body got damaged, I don’t have time to pull subframe, engine and trans because we’re moving in August. I can’t have this thing apart. Shit! This was my back up car that I had plans for. Now what?

So I started looking for another vehicle. I wanted a Tahoe or Yukon. Something I can give to my son next year when he gets his license. I looked at a few that were crap. 03-06 with 150-180k miles and they still wanted $3-4K. Maybe I can find myself another Yukon Denali. Started looking for 00-02 Denali. Couldn’t find shit. Then I came across this 02 Esky 6.0 AWD with 130k miles.

Talked to the seller, he just did brakes, battery, hub bearing, coolant flush and thermostat, plugs and wires and an air filter. Tires have about 2500 miles and he details it every weekend. The bad- passenger window doesn’t work, it surges at idle while in gear, the center console lid has a broken button so it doesn’t stay shut, the ac has a slow leak and the left front tire has a very slow leak.

I went and looked at it. The guy was looking to buy a Duramax truck so he was selling this and another truck. I BS’d with him for a while but then asked how much will he take for this $3800 vehicle. He said he wanted $5 but would come down some. Long story short, I drove it home after putting $4200 cash on the hood.

Window motor cost me $42 with the tracks and all of 20 minutes to change. I also retinted both front windows with 5% ceramic tint. The surge was a dirty throttle body which I already figured. Cleaned throttle body and MAF sensor, runs great. AC leak was high side service port. Replaced that for $3, vacuumed the system down and refilled with freon and pag oil. Cost- maybe $40 total. Tire leak is the valve stem. I’m having the wheels powder coated but they are backed up so I’ll probably throw a valve stem at it while I wait for appointment for wheels. I bought a used console lid button off eBay for $12. Swapped out the release button and that’s all good now too. It has a broken exhaust bolt and slight leak when cold. I have new gaskets, bolts and donuts ready to fix that here soon.
Edit: few other things I forgot I did. Put in LED 6000K headlights, replaced fog lights because the lenses were crappy looking. Ordering a Borla cat back and deleting cats when I add an O2 sensor bung for wideband sensor. I need it for WOT tuning. I already have it mostly tuned in just need to do WOT and dial in the MAF.

One thing I had to do just to piss off the wife.

The grille!! Hahaha


One other thing i wanted to share. While I was at work, this bad boy showed up. 125’. I had to play around with it.

The biggest they make is a 185’. Another 60’ would be awesome.

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[Snowbound]

Look into chair lifts for your folks. They're not permanent so the next generation to live in y'alls ancestral home won't have to look at them until they get old.

Laundry in basement and bedroom upstairs, my mom was just ready to go to single story. And my dad would never get in a chair. He’d fall and die before sitting in one of those things. But I get what your saying. Just a little late now, I bought it.


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