alexrex20

it'd probably cost just as much to SAS with (Detroit) locked D60s front/rear, as it would to install ARB lockers front/rear on the stock axles.

here's my 2yr lab/Weim mix. her name is Day-Z. getting ready for a camping trip: she carries her own supplies, and sometimes some of mine: at the dog park: at the beach: ok, last one, i promise!!

for us poor folk, would you recommend (even the slightest bit) swapping in a LSD 3rd member from a junkyard Pathy? if i can get a 3rd member for dirt cheap, is it worth the labor to add some clutches and swap it in? ARB is the only option for the H233B in the R50, and at $950 for just the locker, it ain't cheap. you still need to have an air supply, and then pay for labor, if you're not willing to tackle it yourself.

yes, the lights recessed into my bumper are aircraft landing lights, for which i need to thank orangetang again for the idea! i got the bulbs for $15/ea from an aircraft supply website, and the housings were $8/ea from a big rig supply store. the bulbs are a specific universal size so it's easy to get housings for them; you can get the cheap rubber ones i got, or chrome, or all steel, etc. compared to the $350 set that ARB sells, these are obviously a lot cheaper, and i think these are probably brighter. they're so bright that you can't turn them on when there are others on the road. maybe the ARB/IPF lights are designed purely as a fog light, so they may not be very bright anyway. here are a few shots of just how bright these lights are. first are just the low beams. low beams with all four aux lights. the Hella 500FF are floods and are pointed left and right, because the landing lights are spots and pointed straight out. on the highway, when i flick on the landing lights, it lights up every street sign for as far as you can see - sometimes several miles.

haha, i don't care how in-depth his analyses were. he is an amateur with no background in this field so what he decides means nothing to me. and fwiw, i use ACDelco.

And don't take this the wrong way, but your info is crap. That site you linked to is NINE YEARS OLD and is an amateur subjective review of what oil filters that person likes and dislikes. You can't possibly be using that as your main criterion for oil filter quality? And a larger oil filter does not only provide larger capacity. A monkey could have deduced that much. A larger filter means a larger... internal filter which means more surface area which means more flow (and less pressure). Durr. Do you also have a Tornado in your intake because your buddy told you it will help better atomize your air/fuel mixture?

$1000 for headlights. riiight... my $20 XtraVision headlights are more than enough, and if anything, i can always flick these on (altogether <$150). the lower lights are 100W GE Q4509 aircraft landing lights (per orangetang's recommendation), which are so obnoxiously bright that it makes the 55W Hella 500FF ($65 from Wal-Mart) look like daytime running lights.

actually nissan uses automatic transmission fluid (ATF) in their power steering

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oh well excuuuse me!

01silvapathy, where in texas are you located?

since your SAS is just about done, i'll trade you my Pathy so you can mock up the subframe drop, while i drive yours.

ya, it's always a bit scary on that first yank. i've pulled out a minivan buried in sand, by the rear axle, but only because pulling from the front was not an option (it was the ocean), there was no rear tow point, and it was 3am in the middle of nowhere. we found him trying to dig himself out with his cutting board and a Rubbermaid bin lid. the only place to strap to was his rear axle, and who knew when someone else would drive by. anyway, they would have to do it the same way as well... we were just amazed that he made it that far down the beach. there's a great fishing spot at the 65mi marker, but from the 5mi marker onward it's very clearly marked as "4WD REQUIRED FROM THIS POINT." i was aired down to 15psi and i still had a difficult time!

exterior, on the housing

a shackle is rated for a far greater load than a metal hook on some off-the-shelf tow strap, so its breaking limit will thus be much, much higher. regardless, a shackle is securely attached to the stuck vehicle, and the only chance for error is that you rip off the recovery point - unlikely. it is, however, far more likely that the open hook will wiggle itself out of the recovery point, in between the many pulls. as you reverse and pull, then reverse and pull again, the hook may become loose and on the next pull, the hook can slingshot away. it's really not that difficult to comprehend, how a securely fixed shackle is safer (and less likely to fail) than an open hook which relies on gravity and tension to remain in place. if a closed end strap fails, the shackle remains on the car, and you have a big slingshot. if the hooked strap fails, and the hook just happens to still be on the strap, do you want that metal hook to be on the end of the slingshot?

ya, that's the big disadvantage with closed-end straps. i use shackles to attach to trucks/suvs' anchor points, but the shackles don't always fit in the tow hooks of most cars, so sometimes you're forced to wrap around an axle or frame. the methods of connecting are endless, especially when you consider you'll be pulling from their front or rear bumper. sometimes i'll even use my hooked tow strap, if i'll be pulling out a lightweight civic from some wet grass. in such a scenario, a dead pull will be all it takes to unstuck them, so you don't really have to worry about busting a strap and sending a hook at someone's head at high speed.

nylon straps inherently store a lot of potential energy (in the elasticity of the material), so if anything were to let go, the metal hooks on the end would very quickly become extremely dangerous projectile; whether the anchor point fails, the strap snaps, or the hook was not properly secured. for hard stucks where you'll be yanking or tugging or snatching, i strongly recommend using a strap with closed ends and shackles. for small slips, a hooked strap may be ok, but use it within your judgment, knowing the potential for injury with those metal hooks.

that's all the more reason for me to hook up myself. first of all, i don't want them &^%*ing up my expensive strap, and secondly i don't want to put them worse off than when they started, by causing even more damage. we don't have snow, but we have retarded drivers that spin out into ditches when it rains, or 2WDs that try 'Texas exits' by crossing the grass median from the highway to the frontage road. they usually require a bit of a tug, so i don't use hooked straps. i only ever recover with a closed-end recovery strap. a rice burner with a damaged bumper is nothing compared to a rice burner with a metal hook stuck in his chest. and if you're charging anyone, it is illegal because you are not licensed or equipped to do so. at the very least, it should be called a free recovery plus a $__ tip - a good way around that loophole.

trade me your engine

ok first of all, we need to stop referring to ball joints as BJs. i can't read the thread and keep a straight face!

nice truck thunderbolt. is your Pathy lifted?

indeed, it would be nice to get a free or heavily discounted shrockworks rear bumper... and maybe some sliders thrown in for good measure.

i thought the CDN dollar was worth more than the US dollar?

that's not a bad idea for a rear bumper w/tire carrier, but i suspect you were referring to the front bumper. i already got the ARB and am more than happy with it so i can't justify the extra cost/time of a Shrockworks, no matter how badass they are. but i'm sure if enough people express interest in R50 front bumpers, and they decide to include the R50 in their lineup, i'd be glad to lend them my Pathy for prototype fitment.

for the price and wait time for a KenMtn or ARB bumper, i'd recommend just going full custom. find a reputable shop, and drop off the Pathy for a week or two to let them do their thing. if i had known it would take 4mo to get my ARB when i purchased it, i would've just dropped my Pathy off at Shrockworks (about 10min from me) and let them build me a custom one-off bumper. it would've been faster and roughly the same price!