KC's are good quality, no doubt about that. But I cannot justify their very high price. If they were maybe twice as expensive as Amazon/eBay brand no names, I'd get them. But their LED lights are easily 10x more expensive.

But with the cheapo ones, you do need to go through them with silicone to seal them up.

I used to live further out. I've moved in a ways, but still need to travel to friends and such and it does get dark in these backroads around Houston. After my incident a few years ago, I'm really paranoid now so I appreciate an extra lighting.

They're called "daylighters" and I love them. I want to put them on the Jeep but the wife says they look tacky and childish...which is exactly what I'm going for so I didn't see the problem.

Now with tires
 

I installed the tires yesterday. I went to my local Toyota dealership to get them mounted and balanced. The price per tire was competitive to NTB and Discount Tire and the service was much better. My relationship with local tire shops has soured so much that these days I really don't even bring them a car. Instead I'll remove the tires and just drop them off. I've had misplaced wheel locks, cross threaded studs, broken studs, etc. Pretty much anything that a tire shop can do to your vehicle short of dropping off a lift has happened to me. I never thought of trying the dealership before, but I wanted my TPMS to be programed as well.

Anyway, the Chonk is running on 245/60/R18 Falken Wildpeak AT Trail, an all terrain tire "developed for CUVs." Haven't tested them out on anything except rainy streets but I have no complaints so far. The extra sidewall has restored some cushy-ness to the ride after the harsh H&R lifting springs were installed.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/1294/GdccEj.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/5438/efxcSV.jpg

I also installed a trailer hitch that I bought refurbished from Amazon Warehouse. I don't intend to tow anything, but a hitch makes a great recovery point and also for carrying bike racks or cargo carriers. The larger tire fits the rear perfectly.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/389/qQr1pX.jpg

The car is pretty decently lifted now. Here's a camera angle that might show it. The problem is there is still a bunch of vulnerable stuff hanging underneath, but for a soft-roader this will be fine.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/7153/pQfCpS.jpg

Also, bless the thriving 4Runner, Land Cruiser community. I found switchgear for the LED lights that are a perfect fit for my dash. It looks factory. I even got compliments from the Toyota techs.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/7156/vmH9yO.jpg


My next planned mods are a Magnaflow muffler, tint and some kind of roof basket if I can find one that works.

I've found that the most use I get out of the trailer hitch is this little beauty I picked up:
https://smile.amazon.com/HitchSafe-H...1337432&sr=8-2

It's perfect for throwing a spare key into before going to the beach to prevent any unfortunate lockouts.

Nice spare tire cover solution!

Pimp shit, man...
I bought the harbor freight basket for the Volvo when they ran a deal for $69...
looks very cool on top.

I did not know this cheap gear basket from harbor freight existed. Gonna need to stop by my local store this weekend.

That actually looks pretty awesome for the price.

Everybody I know with wildpeaks loves them. Supposed to be great all around.

Looks aggressive, without being ridiculous. Bonus that the spare still fits in the rear. :thumbsup:

Damn that all looks good! And man I know the pain about tire shops. They've seized two lug nuts two different times on the wife's RAV4.

don't let them torque them!

Doesn't matter if you tell them not to, they'll do it anyway.

they go that extra mile, I guess

@wackjum have you had a chance to take the RAV4 out in the snow? We got about 3" here with a thin layer of ice on the bottom and on the top. We've ventured out a few times and my wife's RAV4 is just a beast in it. No issues whatsoever, just point and shoot and she goes where you want. I tried turning the traction control off to do some donuts for the kids but for some reason even holding it down didn't seem to shut it completely off so it would just beep and cut power trying to do them. I must find a way to bypass that.

Our FWD Flex did surprisingly well in Houston's Snowpocalypse. The AS3+ Michelins aren't meant for snow/ice, but did reasonably well, just had to remember to manually shift to 2nd from a stop to keep from spinning the tires.

Subaru Outback on blizzaks = tank in the snow. We're getting like 2in here today.

I've been trying to stay off the road since it is more ice/sleet than snow here. It rained almost non-stop Sunday, then promptly froze Sunday evening causing a 1/2" thick layer of ice on the roads.

I did make an attempted run yesterday to find some propane for my generator, but the car would stall at idle. Luckily I had not left the neighborhood yet when it started doing this. I limped the car back home and took the Infiniti instead (which did alright). Looks like a failed mass air flow sensor. I'll have to fix it when I get power back. Hopefully that's it and not something more serious, but I can't imagine what.

Here's a few pics of the last few days around here.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/9nQc79.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/922/efkTc0.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/FZHYX3.jpg

How long will a generator run on a tank of propane, I've never seen that.
I had a severe misfire due to a failed coilpack on my S2000. Must have been
a day for the reliable cars to revolt!
Stay safe and warm, man.

It's a dual fuel generator. If you are planning for emergency preparedness, I cannot recommend a dual fuel enough. I used to have a gasoline generator (for hurricanes mostly) and I had so much problems with gummed up carbs etc that I ended up getting a second gas generator as a backup. Finally I discovered these dual fuel ones and I made the switch. Propane stores almost indefinitely (apparently decades as long as you keep the container rust free) and burns cleaner so less maintenance for your generator. A dual fuel can even run on natural gas with a hookup adapter, but my natural gas is on the other side of the house.

I have a 7,500 watt generator, although it puts out 6,800 on propane. It connects to a transfer switch next to our load center. It runs almost every circuit in my house except for the central air. I guess technically it could run our furnace since it is gas fired, but I originally did not wire the furnace/AC because I know this generator can't run our central A/C. It would have been nice to have central heating during this time, but we had two small space heaters.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/922/MJUyKe.jpg

At the loads we were using it at, which was between 35% - 65%, a BBQ sized propane tank was lasting us about 6-10 hours. "Fun" fact, those propane exchange places underfill your tank. Instead of 20 lbs that a BBQ tank can hold, they're putting in around 15 lbs. My propane exchange tanks all lasted around 6 hours, but the tanks I pumped at U-Haul were getting me 10 hours. I didn't know about the underfill till I looked it up on youtube and found a bunch of people weighing their tanks. And of course, those exchange places charge you at 20 lb prices.

^ Good to know. Never looked into just refilling & have always just done the exchange at HEB.
I think there is a refill place a few miles from the house, will look into that (for the grill). Never though about getting a generator that could run on NG, though I don't have an exterior hookup currently ,apart from the pool heater.

Excellent information, thanks, man.
During hurricanes I'm never home so I never bother with water and electric.

That propane shit makes total sense though, it feels lighter even, I bet it is 15 pounds.

The problem I am having with the Rav4 is that it stalls after starting. If I step on the gas, the car will rev, but as soon as it drops back to idle it dies. My engine codes are P0171 (bank 1 lean), P0174 (bank 2 lean), P0101 (mass air flow sensor related).

This morning I tried spraying the MAF with some cleaner I had on hand. That didn't make a difference. My next guess is a vacuum leak. A rubber hose might have cracked from the extreme cold.

spray that brake clean around the maf and see if the idle changes.
egr? pcv system?

no codes?

Thanks for the suggestions. I had P0171, P0174, and P0101. But before I had to do a deep dive, I found a small crack in the intake hose along one of the accordion ridge things. Got it taped up with electrical tape and went for a test drive and the car seemed ok. Wil have to order a new intake tube thing. Hopefully that was it, but so far seems like it.

Sad that I wasn't able to use the Rav4 during the ice-storm. Wanted to test out its prowess.

Sure thing, man...
glad it was something simple.
Those are my favorite fixes.

Dang now you'll have to wait another 5-10 years to try it out in the snow. :tomato: Glad you figured it out though. The 3.5s Mass Airflow Sensors are overly sensitive. We had a CEL and ran the code and it was a MAF error. Bought a can of $7 MAF cleaner and it fixed it.

Come on up, we're supposed to get a pretty big snow storm next week.

Just a quick little update on my chonky ute.

I've been slowly replacing the entire suspension, trying to fix an annoying vibration coming from the rear end. The problem starts at 45 mph, gets worse by around 55, and then diminishes by 65. After doing all 4 control arms, wheel hubs, tie rods, etc (all of which were worn anyway), I still had the problem.

Exasperated, I searched Google for the tenth time but somehow my combination of search terms finally came up with a TSB (taken from Rav4 world, the only place I can find reference to this TSB):

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazi...8fa23bb173.jpg
Obviously I am way out of warranty now, and the dealer wanted $1200 to fix ($950 for the part alone).

But apparently there's zero re-programming. You just need to buy the updated 4WD module and swap them out. I have my module from a 2008 Rav4 V6 AWD coming in the mail. Hopefully that fixes this irritating problem once and for all. :wish: I bought the used module for $69 on ebay.

Aside from this vibration issue, I love the vehicle. It's pretty fun to drive and so useful. Just this past weekend, I went out to get some sod. Later in the day, I happened to come across a deal on a Kawasaki Z125. So of course I packed that into the Rav4 and took it home (you can see the tarp I used for sod earlier in the day).

What a fantastic daily vehicle.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/bRnvp9.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/gCa0nz.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/HqjRtm.jpg

I test drove a Rav4 V6 about 5 years ago.i did too notice it had a loose rear end, albeit, a little different than what you described.

Weird TSB but I hope the fix works.

Nice Rav once again. Gotta love the versatility.

:rofl:
I have a pic of my old shadow 750 in my buddy's element.
I love versatile vehicles.

:what:

I... Would not have thought that would fit... Nice!

The Z125 is a pretty diminutive bike, but I too wouldn't have thought it would fit in a Rav4.

hope you have a big trunk, cause I wanna put my bike in it

Hey-oh!

Well I did have to unscrew the mirrors and compress the forks to squeeze it in past the opening. But then it was fine.

I got the hankering for a small throw around bike. (I ran out of space in my garage for cars but I can still fit motorcycles into every nook and cranny.)

The class leader is the Honda Grom, so I stopped by the local Honda Powersports dealer to take a look. From the get-go, the experience was already negative. We were completely ignored by a number of people. We walked up to the front desk and the lady working there asked if she could help us, then promptly turned to talk to another employee for a minute or so before turning back to ask me again if she could help us. I asked about Groms and she said they had one she could show us.

We went outside to look at it, and I asked her for a total out the door price, which she said she'd have to get. As we were continuing to evaluate the bike, she came back and the conversation went like this:

The MSRP on a Honda Grom is $3,299.00. So I asked her how it came out to $4,785.00

She couldn't give me any more. So while staring at me blankly, a manager came out and asked what was going on. That's when he said my tax was wrong because I had to calculate tax off of the $800 dealer prep fee, $200 destination fee, and $200 doc fee.

I gave the manager my best "WTF" stare. Then she asked me, well what would be your budget?

I told her I would get it for $3800 drive out. I'd put it on a credit card and buy it today.

Her response was

So pissed at that, I was driving home when I saw a Yamaha/Kawasaki dealership. I stopped by since I currently own both a Yamaha and a Kawasaki. The sales manager was very pleasant and showed me a "used" Z125 with 116 miles they were selling for $3,200 out the door that had just come in.

I bought on the spot but did not have my riding gear, so I decided I would either fit it into the Rav4 and take it home, or come back with riding gear the next day. And as you know, the Rav4 was able to come through.

I'll shove your bike into anywhere I have room.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/d1MeMT.jpg

Not a bad shot at all.
911, AMG, NSX, Ninja, Z, V Star?

That 911 looks pretty dusty...