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Mountin a Camcorder in Little Devil

I've been talking about doing this for years, but keep not-getting around to it.. and the first Ebay camcorder I bought was junk, so that didn't help.



I had to upgrade my rollcage for the 2005 season, so I spent some time over the weekend in the shop with the welder, grinder, BFH, and torch..



Once I finished adding the "X" to the B-hoop, I remembered that video camera I bought last year.. and since the MIG was still full of CO2 and wire...

3 rigs DO fit in the shop

Whaddya know.. I never thought I'd see the day, but.. after some cleaning and re-arranging and more putting-stuff-away..



..last night I parked THREE vehicles in my shop.



Pictures







Near the man door, in her spot, Michelle's '85 Toyota pickup, then the new green '73 Scout II. Both can use the automatic opener for the double-wide door. Then I backed Little Devil into the "work-bay" with the tow-bar to melt the snow off and get prepared for race season.







Once I finish cleaning and putting more stuff away, and dismantle that junk 345 on the stand and get it out of the way, there should be a good amount of work space with the three rigs parked inside.



Woo-hoo.

I've bought another one..

..this is my 17th vehicle.. 19 between Michelle n' me.



Pictures





I've been struggling lately to keep my fleet afloat.. finally getting Tigger back on the road in late November. While functional, Tigger still isn't a very comforrtable vehicle for every day use, nor am I excited to try pulling a trailer with it.



My Travelette runs fine, but I really do want to tear it apart to convert it to 4x4 and put some fresh sheetmetal on it. That would leave me without a tow rig.



The 345 from the Midas turned out to be junk, so I don't have an engine to put in the '74 single cab pickup, and I still suspect the rear end in the '72 Travelall is toast, though the engine is good. Just swapping the engine into the '74 is questionable, since I don't really know if the rest of the truck is any good..



Thus, I was considering resurrecting the Travelall and swapping some running gear around to make a useable 4x4 and part-time tow rig for the winter.



Instead, my friend Todd acquired a few too many Scouts and decided he needed to trim a few from his collection.. thus this nice and pretty rust-free 1973 came up for sale.



It looks to have 115k on the odometer, but the odometer was changed out at some point, and Todd changed out the engine for a 47k mile 304 from a Loadstar. The 304 is backed up by a 727, and it sports 3.73 geared Dana 30/D44 combo with drums all around. He did upgrade to power drums, and power steering. Todd also installed the 4" Triangle lift n' shocks, and the 33x10.50 BFG ATs.



The end result is a Scout with doors that open and close nicely, weather stripping that seals the doors, a hardtop that fits, a tailgate that opens, and the dings and dimples are minimal with only one seriously damaged end-cap.



The driver's side rocker has a few pin holes, and the passenger door and front fender are an off color, but they're at least straight.



Sounds like a pretty decent daily driver that's been getting about 11mpg the last two weeks.



I'm looking for a receiver hitch for it, so I could press it into tow duty if the need should arise.



Eventually I'd like to cut out any rust in that rocker, and then repaint the Scout.



It's definitely nice to have a presentable Scout II I can just get in and drive again.



No need to air up the tires before going anywhere (the TSLs lose air on their own), the tires don't bounce the first 2 miles until they get round again.. I can see out of the quarter glass of the hardtop, vs. the scratched soft-top windows.. the top doesn't flap in the wind and try to pull off at speed.. the doors close, the tailgate opens.. doors don't get pinched by the body tub flexing..



..still some carb issues to work out, and a fluctuating alternator to deal with, but primarily minor things.

Christmas Tree Run

With less than a week of back n' forth to work on the new R&P in Tigger, we piled into the poor old Scout and headed south to Basin, MT and over 9,000 to the top of Jack Mountain to fetch Christmas Trees with the Frontier 4-Wheelers club.



Photo Album



There wasn't a lot of serious fourwheeling that needed to take place, but was fun.







Michelle found us a great tree.







She also did some of the driving chores..







There are some nice views to be had..







We brought along the tripod and put the timer to use.. Michelle took a spill while racing through the deep snow to get to me for the picture.. :D







And we DID get to pull a stuck Blazer out..



WagonMaster Spotted

A few years back, I had a chance to buy a WagonMaster.. it was "thinking about selling" on Friday, and "Already Sold" by Tuesday when I told the guy I'd take it..



I've seen the wood-grained WM with bashed C-pillars (from a 5th wheel horsetrailer) around town a few times. David Nuenke, owner of a WM, was with me one day when we saw it around town.



I saw a WM again a few weeks ago near my niece's elementary school. I stopped by this past week for a Christmas Pageant, and spotted the WM parked "at home" and took some pictures.







Pictures



I don't think this is the WM I was going to buy. If it IS, someone has taken the time to fix the crunched C-pillars (behind the cab) and cleaned it up a bunch. I suspect this is a second WM prowling the streets of Helena.. another '73 1210..



Tigger has some R&P issues

So just what kind of noises would you expect from a shot R&P?



While in Moab in July, about 30 miles out into the desert, I started hearing what sounded like a U-joint about to let go - but they were all tight. Concluded the t'case was out of oil and I'd smoked some bearings, and limped back to town with a rythmic sorta rattling sound.. more prominent when on the throttle and in gear with a load on the drivetrain, went away when coasting down a hill in neutral. Got worse the closer to Moab we got, but made it back and onto the trailer.



So, tonight, I pulled the Dana 20 out and after some grinding on the new one, swapped in a replacement.



Finally climbed Mount Helena - 10/9/2004

The weather cooperated and we didn't have any pressing engagements, so on 10/9 we finally climbed Mount Helena, the city park / mountain that overlooks Helena and is a relatively short climb from down town.



This was my first time up the mountain, while Michelle had been up once or twice.



We hiked up the old 1906 trail - quite steep - in probably an hour n' a half to two hours. It took 45 minutes or so to get back down.



From the top, the entire city of Helena is visible..



Mount Helena Pictures