Pimp your ride thread

[Uuaww]

I hear the term God's Country so much that I just assume that's the part of America within 20 miles of an Arby's or Waffle House.

[GeorgesGoons]

I hear the term God's Country so much that I just assume that's the part of America within 20 miles of an Arby's or Waffle House.

You have a lot of Colorado friends? But no Arby's or Waffle House where I'd take you to, you have to pack what you want to eat.

[Uuaww]

I hear God's Country in the south a lot.

[GeorgesGoons]

I hear God's Country in the south a lot.

Most of those people have never been out of the south so they just don't know Same with Texans

[Cnasty]

Now I see why Texans talk about Colorado as the annoying little brother along with Oklahoma

[DRWebs]

Wasn't sure whether to put it here or the random discussions thread, but...The ole ball and chain has a '12 Jeep Wrangler that experiences the death wobble or significant instability around 60 mph. About a year or so ago we changed out the stabilizer bar and she just got an alignment. The stabilizer bar helped at the time, the alignment just the other day did not. How often would you expect to change out something like a stabilizer bar or any other suggestions for what could need fixing / further investigation?

A couple of things first. Make sure all tires have the same psi.
Has she been mudding? If so make sure there isn't any caked on mud on the inside of her wheel.
Did a wheel balance weight fall off?
Tighten everything down up front.

A steering stabilizer will only cover up the symptoms for so long

I made sure to check the tire pressure and then gave it a thorough wash before we took it to get the alignment recently. The front left rim maybe has the appearance of a weight missing but I don't know too much about them. The front right and back left tires still have one medium to large size weight on them and the front right and back left have a small weight on them. Every time you get a balance could that change? I'll start watching and reading more about the death wobble and thanks for getting the thought process going

[GeorgesGoons]

Wasn't sure whether to put it here or the random discussions thread, but...The ole ball and chain has a '12 Jeep Wrangler that experiences the death wobble or significant instability around 60 mph. About a year or so ago we changed out the stabilizer bar and she just got an alignment. The stabilizer bar helped at the time, the alignment just the other day did not. How often would you expect to change out something like a stabilizer bar or any other suggestions for what could need fixing / further investigation?

A couple of things first. Make sure all tires have the same psi.
Has she been mudding? If so make sure there isn't any caked on mud on the inside of her wheel.
Did a wheel balance weight fall off?
Tighten everything down up front.

A steering stabilizer will only cover up the symptoms for so long

I made sure to check the tire pressure and then gave it a thorough wash before we took it to get the alignment recently. The front left rim maybe has the appearance of a weight missing but I don't know too much about them. The front right and back left tires still have one medium to large size weight on them and the front right and back left have a small weight on them. Every time you get a balance could that change? I'll start watching and reading more about the death wobble and thanks for getting the thought process going

Definitely check your track bar to ensure it is tightened, usually the first thing to start death wobble. Has the jeep been lifted at all?

[texasfan4444]

Now I see why Texans talk about Colorado as the annoying little brother along with Oklahoma

Word!

[texasfan4444]

Everything else was a go for me but not my wife. She thought it was too manly and not "nice" enough.

Look Coug! You have a friend!

I believe I said the wife didn't dig the cluster and console.

[Weasel]

Question that someone here might be able to answer:

Wife currently drives a FWD Fusion with all season tires. Being in Michigan, I started looking into whether to try and get something with AWD. However, I also read somewhere that getting winter tires could offer more benefit that just going to an AWD. Obviously AWD + winter tires would be the best option, but would just getting winter tires be sufficient enough to keep me from having to buy an AWD?

[ReignOnU]

My answer... just get the winter tires for the FWD car.

Technical answer... AWD with winter tires will perform slightly better than FWD with winter tires when it comes to any form of acceleration. FWD with winter tires will typically perform equal to or better than AWD with all-season tires in both acceleration and stopping. From a stability standpoint, with today's tech, she shouldn't be doing something so stupid that she'd need to worry about it. 10-15yrs ago, that's a different story.

Using a set of winter tires in snow provides worthwhile advantages over all-season tires. In Michigan, it's worth that investment. One thing I highly recommend to people is to make friends with a local Tire Discounters shop (or similar). If you consistently buy your tires in 1 location, you are more likely to get better deals when you negotiate with them and they'll take care of you when it comes time to flip your seasonal tires around.

[Weasel]

Good info, thanks for the reply.

Another follow up question: If I go the winter tire route, is it something where I just store the unused tires year-round, getting them swapped 2x/yr? Would getting tires + wheels make that much of a difference with regard to convenience?

[OracleHCR]

Having a second set of wheels would be more convenient. Way more expensive but much more convenient. You could swap out the wheels yourself instead of having them mounted twice a year.
Reign is right about the winter tires. The rubber used is much more pliable at lower temperatures and you'll have better grip and traction in a fwd vehicle with winter tires than an awd vehicle with all season tires.

[The_Niddler]

As was stated, have a second set of tires on rims for winter time.
Makes it 100 times easier.

A buddy of mine, in Cleveland, has a Nissan 350Z and put a pair of Bridgestone Blizzak tires on his car and they gripped so good, it a snowy parking lot, he struggled to do donuts and that car is rear wheel drive.
Ice is a different story, but on just snow, they were fantastic tires and again, that was a rear wheel drive car.

On a FWD, they would be downright amazing.


On a different note, my wife just bought a 2013 Subaru Outback with 48,000 miles on it.
I could not be happier for her. I like the look, love the ride, great space, they are known to run forever and have incredible safety ratings.

In the showroom of the Chevy dealership next door, (both owned by same owner, Subaru and Chevy) They had a 2016 Corvette Z06 Supercharged. $104k.
It was fucking bad ass!
I tried to get the salesman to let me take a test drive with him in the car since we were buying a car from them. He said he couldn't. That car is not allowed to leave the showroom unless it is a serious buyer and they pre-qualify them financially.

It was this car:

[OracleHCR]

Bad ass ride. I'd like to drive it too.

[The_Niddler]

Here is the pic I took of it


Couldn't get a good one as their showroom was not big at all.
I could not back up enough to get a good shot.

[GeorgesGoons]

Here is the pic I took of it


Couldn't get a good one as their showroom was not big at all.
I could not back up enough to get a good shot.

An extra year in Iraq and I could have one of those. Guess I'll wait for the new Jeep Truck, especially if it looks like this:

[OracleHCR]

[Cnasty]

Deciding on a color when the time is right is gonna be a bitch. Good thing I have 2 years to think about it.

Sorry for the monstrous pics.

[GeorgesGoons]

The first one