Escape From the Prison Planet

[DRIVEN]

Hey, look! Another project.



I'm gonna use this a lot.

[wayno]

Looks like my flatbed on my work truck, I have hauled a lot over the years.
Do trailers need plates and tags there?

[DRIVEN]

Above a certain size/weight they do. Not sure if this one technically does or not, haven't looked into it yet. Even if I was required to, I could probably get by without it in my area.

[DRIVEN]

Looking ahead to riding season. The mailman really delivered today.
Heavy duty skid plates for the TWs (Marc is coming to visit in a couple months).
The mount brackets and chrome eyebrows showed up to mount the saddlebags (set #2).

[wayno]

So is the trailer for hauling bikes?

[DRIVEN]

Among other things. It's a tilt so it should be easier to load the BroHauler than lifting it into the back of the El Camino. It also has pretty decent ground clearance and stake pockets so I can use it around the yard. The first mission will be to haul a motorcycle and misc parts down to the swap meet in April. After that I'll do a little restoration work. It's a solid foundation but I'll be adding some tweaks for my personal uses.

[Taterhead]

It looks small enough that the bro-hauler can pull it too.

[DRIVEN]

That's exactly the plan. I've got the tow dolly and the car hauler. This is the useful tool that falls in the middle.

[wayno]

What are you going to build on that pad where the trailers are parked?

[DRIVEN]

Nothing in the near future. I wouldn't mind a 25x25 slab of concrete with a 1 car garage sizes storage shed to the downhill side. No electricity or anything. That way I could keep the TWs on the new trailer and the BroHauler parked inside but get them out of the garage. The car hauler and tow dolly could rest on concrete to the uphill side of it.

I have a 12x12 shed at the bottom of the hill that houses my well tanks where I had been storing the BroHauler. There was a roughly 16x8 lean-to tin roof at the end of the old house that I saved. Planning to attach it to the back of the well shed to park the old tractor under.

I have this place pretty well planned out in my head. Just gonna take a few years to make it all happen. Not sure when the actual shop will happen. Got lots of fencing and irrigation to take care of too.

[DRIVEN]

Finally got the front door squared away. Installer had to make two trips but it's done correctly this time. The opening wasn't square because the hinge side wasn't properly shimmed.





Instead of correcting the actual problem, everyone seemed to want to carve the door to fit. I finally convinced this installer to pull shims from the upper hinge.



Popped the casing, tossed the shims, ran some long screws, and viola, perfect reveals.




And who would have guessed, it latches and locks like it should too.

[jtinluvr]

Don’t you love it when contractors look at you cross eyed when you suggest they fix things the proper way?

[DRIVEN]

Eh, WTF do I know? I was only in the door business for 8 years.

[Laecaon]

So much better.

I had to shim the lower hinge (I used some card board), and then ran longer screws to pull the door back up. Swings effortlessly now and latches way better. Of course Im dealing with a settled house, not a brand new construction house.

[DRIVEN]

Been busy with work the last couple weeks but decided to spend some time on the trailer today. Gave it a good thorough inspection, repacked the wheel bearings, replaced the wheels/tires, painted a spare to match, added some eye bolts for tiedowns, greased and sealed the jack mechanism, and figured out how I think I want to build new sides for it. Also decided on a new spare tire mount too.






I'll need to get the welder out later. It looks like it's been overloaded enough to crack the crossmember at the rear of the tongue. Also, one of the fender mounts is cracked. Easy fixes, just wasn't expecting to find those problems.


After I ran out of steam on the trailer I installed a wiring kit on the Vibe. The hitch was on my daughter's car when I bought it so I snagged it for myself. Obviously I won't be doing any heavy hauling but it'll be handy for short trips across town.

[DRIVEN]

Yamaha service night.

TWs got oil changes and new skid plates installed.



The only other mechanical thing I may do before riding season is put a better front tire on the white one. It's still got decent tread for the street but no corner grip offroad. The tire on the blue bike is 5X better.
Marc is flying over in May for some riding so I may put the bark busters back on the blue bike. He's always good for testing the limits of my equipment.


BroHauler finally got the new A-arm bushings installed. They're in there...somewhere.


That pretty much eliminated the ridiculous negative camber and toe out that it had. Drives sooo much better now. That should be about the last planned mechanical stuff on it. Now it just needs cosmetics. So much cosmetics.

[Laecaon]

That skid plate looks to be of much better quality.

[DRIVEN]

Looks like 1/4 thick. Original isn't much thicker than a beer can. There are plenty of big pointy rocks around here. I figured skid plates are cheaper than engine cases.

[DRIVEN]

Picked up branches and trimmed a few trees today down where the old house was. Only remembered to get a before shot of the last (worst) one.

Same one after...

Another apple...

And my Asian pear...


Planning to add a couple more fruit trees later in the spring. Lots more work to do down there.


After I burned out on work I put the windshield on the Indian an took it for a short test ride. Its still really cold out there.

[DRIVEN]

Messed around on the hill some more this morning. When the wind blows out of the south I can break the tumbleweeds loose and let them blow against my north fence. I've been chipping away at this project when conditions are right for the last couple weeks.

I got almost all of it done today. The driveway was lined 6-8' wide on both sides and the hill just below the house was completely covered. The driveway is probably about 400' long. That's a lot of tumbleweeds.



When that was done I went down to the old yard and ran the mower around. Mainly just to mulch up the leaves and small sticks that drop off the willows.


There was a dead owl in the yard. He'll receive a warrior's funeral.




I finally got around to installing my tank bib. Two reasons for that. First, my dash has a pretty poorly done paint finish on it. Paint on everything else looks good. Second, the little pocket gives me a place to stash registration and insurance card. I've got a little storage pouch to attach to the inside of the windshield but not sure I like it or not.
I also decided to remove the rear seat. I've been kind of shopping for an old style spring seat but I think I'll just rock this for a while.