Gibby

The last of the project it done! Well, it's never done, but you know what I mean...

For those of you curious, there are a few reasons for the bumper/winch change. 1. The bumper was not designed for a body lift, so I had to move it up 2" to look right. That required that I try to weld 1/4" steel to a very thin radiator support. To get the heat up enough for the 1/4" plate, I kept melting away the other bracket. I did finally get it glued together, but it didn't hold and when a strong pull was needed, it would break the 1/4" bracket off the thin metal support. 2. The bumper mounts pretty high and when I pulled, it mostly just pulled down on the suspension and dug the front tires into whatever I was trying to get over or through - not very effective - rather than pulling straight forward or even up. Yes, I tried to attach the strap as high up on a tree as I could, but it still wasn't enough. The original plan was to just lower the winch and get a more solid frame mount that would pull at more optimal angles. 3. When a a 350 equipped, dual locked rig that ramps 1200 and rides on 40s get stuck, it's freakin' STUCK! the 8000# winch wasn't going to pull me out of those situations. The last time that Markus buried my rig, the winch simply would not pull me out of that situation. The only option for a double pull with a snatch block was also a sharp sideways pull. The only tree that was in the right direction was too far for a double pull. None of the other rigs that were with us could have gotten around to get in front or behind to help. They had just spent 2-3 hours getting themselves out - in fact, I had to come rescue them and drag them along on a strap. Thankfully, we had an excavator at hand and Markus used the bucket to lift the entire front end out and then we drug it to a better position. A stronger winch with a better mount would probably have been enough to get me out. This winch also holds an extra 50' of cable which would have been enough for a snatch block pull. 4. The last part of the modification was to accomodate my offroad and driving lights. The Hella 6x9s needed to mount right on top of the bumper inside the headlights, but the winch solenoid was in the way and I had to remove the lights. The PIAA driving/fog lights kept getting knocked off so Mike's going to find a way to build in some protection for the lights. 5. I had always wanted a rear mounted winch for a couple of reasons. First, it sometimes makes sense to pull yourself OUT of a situations, rather than farther in... second, in our club we have several capable vehicles, that simply haven't got a winch yet. We try to intersperse those rigs with vehicles that have rear winch capabilities in case it's needed. Many trails do not offer a snatch pull option with a strap due to very tight corners or poor traction for the other vehicle, and turning around to use the front winch of another vehicle is not an option either. The only options for for a vehicle from behind to go past the stuck rig and then back to the stuck rig, or for the rig in front to go forward to a tree, then back to the stuck rig. We did this a few times at it actually worked pretty good. Third, when crossing difficult side hills where roll over meant roll DOWN, having a winch pulling and winch letting out would provide for a lot more safety. Lastly, this would give me the option of using a winch for braking going down very steep hills.

I'm waiting for the rest of the pics, but this is from my first trip out - between stage 1 and 2.

I think I'd commit Harry Carry (sp?) if I ever tried to figure out how much time or money is invested...

Stage II has begun... http://207.202.208.243/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=3&t=2

I'm driving it now! A few little bugs to work out but otherwise it's V8 power away!

There are some fresh pics up!

More updates for ya! http://207.202.208.243/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=3&t=2

That's my baby This is it now. Driving it out of the shop to get it over to the exhaust shop.

I thought I'd put this in here since I don't have a Pathfinder. I thought I'd share with you my current project... Get out the popcorn! http://207.202.208.243/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=3&t=2

We got some good news today. The quote for insurance is only a ball park estimate, but it was $2500/year. I was thinking that much per month! It looks like we can overcome this obstacle. I still have to be able to purchase the property where the building sits, but the opportunity to run a rental shop will help make the property more cost efficient. Keep the ideas coming, and we'll keep in touch with how the process is going. Gibby

Those are the kinds of things we'd be looking at, club discounts, group buys, etc. I'll have a quote tomorrow hopefully on insurance. That will be the #1 barrier to this working.

Good points, and here's how I deal with them. Say you need those gold plated studs. The reverse cut, off set ones... The proposed location has enough space (26 acres in all ) that the vehicle could be moved out of the shop while you wait for parts. Or if there's enought space, this is what the place that I used to use would do. They charge you full rate for the space while you work on it. If you left it for the day, or to go find parts, etc, it was $5 an hour for storage, UNLESS you were using the sandblasting or paint booth, or hoist. This will be marketing towards the offroad crowd. Who couldn't figure out a way to move a rig without a suspension??? I realized that they are extreme situations where you start a project, can't find the parts, and can't find a friend, but they can happen. There would be a lot of consideration being put into policy to handle those situations. To tell you how I deal with these things in business... I treat a customer how I would like to be treated in his shoes. I may lose a couple of bucks stopping the clock while he searches for a ride, but he'll come back and bring his buddies. On the other hand, if the guy's an idiot, the clock will keep ticking and ticking and ticking... I don't pretend for a second to know the answers to every question that will posed, but trying to answer them is exactly what we have to do. How we answer them will determine whether or not the business will be a success. One of the things I do in our club garage now (mine) is that all spare parts, nuts, bolts, washers, brackets, hoses, brakelines, etc, get stored there. We have Bronco parts, to Willys part, Toyota, Izuzu, Jeep, etc (no Pathfinders yet) in my garage. If we encouraged eveyone to leave their extra parts (I know, you guys never have nuts and bolts left over ) then we'd eventually get a good supply of different size "stuff" that can do in a pinch. My garage is really a co-op and I think that it we go ahead with this project, we'll see the same kind of co-op behavior so that everyone can benefit. Find your missing parts in the free bin, but don't forget to leave your extras for the next guy.

The location we have is just off Meridian between Milton and Puyallup, on Valley Ave. It's less than a mile from River Road where just about every dealership is located. We'd have a supply of the common stuff, nuts, bolts, washers, etc on site. There would be a lot of working the kinks out as time went on. I really like our proposed location. Good point of course, and I appreciate the input.

Here's what we have in the planning stages, or more correctly, in the idea stage. I'm looking at buying some property which has a barn and is zoned commercial. We thought of setting this up as a do-it-yourself garage, geared toward those that don't have the tools or location to work on their rig. Lot's of us don't have garages, or like me, don't fit in the garage anymore :o) We looking at trying to provide a well stocked shop with a lift, jacks, tools, shop supplies, etc. We'd charge an hourly rate plus a separate charge for supplies - i.e. metal, welding rod, grinding wheels, etc. I'm not sure how big the shop could be, but somewhere between 3 and 5 bays seems right. I'll know more when I look at it later this week. We are currently after input from people like you to get a feel for the level of interest and what we could charge. There is absolutely noone around to compare with. I used these kinds of shops when I was living back in London, ON. They were a huge hit, especially after hours! Please feel free to respond with comments, suggestions and ideas as well as voting in the poll. We want to gear this towards the off-road community if we can, rather than the general public -after all, that's our interest too. We also are considering starting smaller and opening it up just to clubs. i.e the NPORA would rent a bay for $XX/month and it's members could use it for projects, but they'd be required to provide their own tools, and it'd be available 24/7/365. We have lots of ways we could go, if we go. We need your thoughts and comments. Thanks Gibby . I don't know how to change the poll. It should say between $20-30/HOUR