After class on Saturday I finally broke down and bought new tires.  I've been reluctant because I want to switch to 16" rims and a certain tire size (255/85r16) but between the higher cost of those tires and the additional cost of new rims, couple with the fact that it is difficult to find the rims that I want and also difficult to find the tires that I want in this area, I gave up.   Sounds dramatic.   I always fret too much over tire purchases because I figure I'll be using those tires for the next 3-5 years and prefer to do it "right" in the first place.

But the old tires were wearing very fast.  There was still plenty of tread- at least 30%- but the steel belts had burst through the outer layer on one tire last month, and another this week.  I swapped the first into the spare position, but had to drive on the second for a few days and was very nervous about it.   Driving around unsafe is dumb.

So I bit the bullet and bought some new tires in Santa Cruz.  Ended up with 33x12.50r15 Yokohama Geolander MTs.   I would have been happy to have put an all terrain on- saves a little bit of fuel consumption/noise, but there weren't any to be found in that size.  The slightly larger (I did have 31's) tires look great on the truck and it drives much better with new, balanced tires.

Since I now had tires (and had fixed some other stuff earlier in the week) I immediately drove the hour south to the vehicle inspection station to get my annual revision completed.   Dropping in without an appointment on Saturday was a bad idea.  I spent over an hour waiting to get into line, then about half an hour in line (faster than normal), then another half hour driving through the whole station, just so that a tech could look at my new bushings (10 seconds) and say "ok!".

One plus to being stuck in the station chit-chatting with the tech was that he was happy to help me weigh the truck-- they have a big suspension machine onto which you can drive front or rear tires, then it displays the weight at each wheel.

Mine were:

	driver's	passenger's
front	642 kg (1412 lbs)	552 kg (1214 lbs)
rear	664 kg (1460 lbs)	640 kg (1408 lbs)

Just in case you were wondering.  Not sure why the front driver's side is heavier, I certainly don't weigh 100kg (200lbs).  Not sure I care too much.

One the way home there was a transit police officer sitting under a shade tree, casually gunning people on the highway.   I passed and waved (I always wave in the hopes that over time they'll recognize me and be nicer should I be caught speeding- there are only 10 or so officers in this area in the transit division).  Then it ocurred to me that I could check the new tires effect on my speedometer against the cop's radar gun.  In the end, I'm more interested that my speedometer match the cop's gun than that it be accurate.  They're not ticketing based on reality but rather based on what the radar says.

So I turned around and drove back, pulling over at his truck.  I think it made him a little nervous to have someone pull themselves over.  But I slowly got out and chatted him up.  Once I explained what I wanted, he was happy to help out.

So I did another pass, he recorded my speed, and it looks like the taller tires have put my speedometer bang-on.  I was doing "just shy of 80 kph" on my speedometer and he showed me driving 77kph.  Good enough for me.   Chatting with him the second time, he was much nicer and asked me some questions about the truck.  I'm always amazed at the bad rap that police are given.  I've had some bad experiences, sure, but whenever I talk to them for a bit, they almost always turn out to be friendly.

Sunday was a lot of work for little progress.  As Jocelyn points out, I may have set a new record for installing my rear sway bar.  I started around 7am, planning to be done in about an hour.  I finished around 1:45pm.  Short version:  I sheared a bolt head.  Lesson learned:  a few minutes chasing out old, rusty holes with a tap before installing old rusty bolts is time well spent in prevention.

Lesson #2:  "Easy Out" isn't a good description for the tool it describes.   A better name would be:  drill-in-awkward-position, struggle to set not sharp tool into bolt, crank until passing through bolt, then have to weld rebar to shank to pull out before finally giving up and drilling out old nut to re-tap with larger diameter and use different bolt.   But that would be a lot of words to fit on a small package.  So I'll just have to remember that "Easy Out" isn't.  Lesson learned.

At least the sway bar is installed.

But I can't drive the truck to test it because my driver's window motor seems to have failed.  I'll be working on that this morning (Monday) so that I can actually close said window.  I don't like electric windows.

Sure is a pretty morning-  coolish, light breezes, time to shut computer and open car door to fix window.

Labels: land cruiser, repair, tamarindo, weather

I had a very nice birthday party last night.  Thanks to all who attended.
For whatever reason, I got into my head that it would be a delicious appetizer spread.  Jocelyn and I spent a few hours prepping on Wednesday, then some more hours baking Thursday morning, then finishing on Thursday night.    It was a blast.  I don't plan to make so many apps any time soon.
The menu included:

• Pan Seared Oven Roasted Pork Loin with an onion/soy glaze, sliced thin and served on lettuce leaves with red bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, and some shredded white onion.
• Basil leaves topped with sardine and a guava reduction
• Turrialba cheese with red bell pepper and basil, drizzled with balsamic reduction, on picks
• Fried Chicken Wings plated on celery leaves
  
• Basil, Oregano, Parsley & Garlic bread topped with a black olive and sour cream tapenade garnished with parsley and red bell pepper
• French bread with same tapenade, etc.
• Whole wheat baguette with same tapenade, etc.
• Turrialba cheese cubes, plated with chopped parsley
• Six fresh-baked loaves, sliced, with olive oil for drizzling
• Carrot stick
• Celery slices/sticks

There may have been something else, I don't recall exactly.
Some friends (Judd and Jacqueline) were nice enough to bring over two whole additional platters of appetizers- including some puff pastry, fried zucchini, ham-wrapped plantains (yum!), and more.

Many brought wine or other libations, one of the standouts is a Costa Rican produced passion-fruit wine that is a "demi-sec" and very interesting.  I'd like to try it ice-cold on a hot afternoon.  I think it would also make for an excellent mimosa-style beverage, or a dessert wine.   But sipping it mostly-cold after eating a lot of spicy/salty food was not the best pairing.

Of course, the people present are what really makes any party, and I always enjoy the company of good friends.  We are very lucky in that regard.

We finished off the evening with some chocolate cupcakes smothered in spicy chocolate frosting.  Yummy!

A nice change from a 'normal' party for us was that we made everything finger-edible, so instead of doing a bunch of dishes and silver, we just threw some napkins in the washing machine, and had glasses and serving plates to clean.  More prepping, but less cleaning.  Prepping is more fun.

Labels: birthday, bread, food, photo, tamarindo

"Bad Bushing in Rear Suspension Bar" is a rough translation for why the Cruiser didn't pass the road safety test this month. Rats. Fortunately someone was headed down to Costa Rica and I managed to order some new bushings for them to bring. Sure, bushings are available here, but they are either cheap junk or original equipment ($$).

Got the new bushings installed on Tuesday. That was an experience in and of itself. Faithful followers of the Sandcruiser story (at least those with excellent memories) might remember many moons ago Soop, Teddy and I took Teddy's van to Santa Cruz to get his springs re-arched. That involved much sweat, a lot of patience, some chicken sandwiches, some inappropriate welding, and ended in three people sharing 1 bathroom for a long night of intense bowel distress. Ahhh, the memories. If you don't remember the story (and we won't fault you) you can re-live it here in an excerpt from Soop's excellent journal.

But I digress.

So I went back to the very same spring shop in Santa Cruz because I knew that they have a hydraulic press. A press is really awfully handy for getting 2" diameter bushings out of steel control arms. The other way involved all manner of burning, hacksawing, probably ruining a finger or two and almost certainly doing a half-assed job in the end. I opted for the press.

What I had not fully recalled was the squallor that characterized the press shop. Wow. I watched as two "professionals" spent the better part of on hour pressing out the old bushings and installing new. They found the right combination of random bits of what looked like old oil pipe to act as punches and supports for the bushings. Then put them down in the midst of the mess and had to re-invent the wheel for the next bushing. They did this four times. As they finished installing number three, I suggested "hey, maybe you should keep those pieces handy- you know, for installing number four?" They looked at me like I had just escaped the insane asylum and was drooling on my shirt while begging for candy or perhaps dried toads. Why on earth would we keep the parts when we are going to use them again in 10 minutes? Crazy Gringo.

It would be pointless to wonder about why they didn't just press out all four, then install all four, so as not to have to change any of the bits and parts. I imagine it would be easier to simply build my own press from scraps than to convince them to change their ways.

It is a little tough to complain too bitterly... while the project could have taken 1 hour instead of 3.5, it did only cost me $40 to have them remove/replace the arms and press out then press in four bushings.

And the old bushings were totally wiped out. Destroyed. So this was a past-due repair that has made a world of difference in the handling and comfort of the truck.  So the trip was a success.

And this time I didn't have the chicken, which was the best decision of all.

Labels: Costa Rica, land cruiser, repair

Steve turned 36 yesterday, and in leiu of a long blog post about all the cool things we did to celebrate: coffee in bed, breakfast at Las Palmas, a mid-afternoon swim, work, a good bottle of petit syrah (thanks to Ben!), pie at Nogui's and a toe-dip in the Pacific under the stars; i'm posting a little portrait gallery of the boy on his day.

Labels: birthday