Family Snow Trip 1-16-16

As things came into alignment, pay day, day off & good weather the family made quick plans to make a snow trip. It turns out the 4x4Him group was also doing a snow run to lower Bald Mountain area. So we met up with them & made a day out of it.

We where able to get to the grean gate entrance (I'm guesing 5 miles) which was way more further than reports from other groups weeks back. By then it was 1pm, time to turn around & head back out. That took several hours as some groups behind us wanted to push forward as we were wanting to go back out creating a traffic jam. As we had to blaze another lane of travel back out. I didn’t count, but guessing about 40 rigs with 8 groups of people wanting to do different things. Crazy at best.
I was promising the kids all that day we would go sledding & tubing. As the sun was getting closer to the horizon I was getting a bit worried about it.  (OK, I was getting frustrated with the traffic jam.)
We arrive safley back to Dinky Creek Road with just enough day light left to air up & allow the kids some sled & tubing runs.
The Lord is Good to us. We all had a great time, the kids got to get out & exspend their pined up energy. I can only imagine being a kid sitting a rig most of the day basically parked hoping to go sledding the whole time. That being said they did great!
Below is some pics & even video of the day.

New OME 862 rear dual rate springs

I have been looking for a more versatile spring that will perform the ability to have a plush ride while empty, but have firm stability when loaded down on family trips. The OME 860 coils I had gave a big stinkbug while DDing around town empty then when loaded with only kids, Ice chest & misc. items it would start to squat.

After doing a lot of research I learned of springs that have two spring ratings rather than one, they call them dual rate. It turns out Old Man Emu has two to that will fit the 80 series. The 866 would be way to firm for my needs having a rating of 240/300 lbs. The other is the 862 with a rating of 170/260. 170lb. is the factory spec for the 80 series & 250lb. rate is what OME uses for the heavy 863 spring.

What does this mean?
A 170/260 lb. rating means plush/firm.
Now that I have broke them in a bit loaded & empty, they are just what I wanted. They have helped Lexi450 have even better turning manners. I can feel the plush 170lb. rate while empty, they feel very nice. When I make fast hard turns I can feel them set into the firmer 260lb. rate & it turns like it's on rails. I can't be happer.

To note: these are considered to be stock height replacement springs that gives approximately 1" lift over stock. To achieve a 2" lift I added 40mm to them giving a final center hub to bottom of flare of 22" after minus of 1" for my body lift (Stock is approx. 20"). 

If only OME would only add one more turn & .5mm thicker wire to the 862 it would increase lift by 1" like they do to the 850 & 850J. They could call it an 862J.... Hmmmm, just having fun.

Intermittent Random Inconsistent Starting

I have been have starting issues for a awhile, it started out as delayed starting then random starting, but it would start eventually. No clicking or chatering, just silence, but a click when releasing the key. Then it became bothersome & had no consistency to be able to trouble shoot. I looked to the IH8MUD.com Forum for help found some good info. Here is the thread that helped me.

http://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/turn-the-key-no-start-intermittent.899497/

It pointed to three items to look at & some people mentioned it could be several worn items at same time which I believe is to be my current problem. The three items are battery having low cold cranking amps, worn starter contacts & posibly a worn ignition switch.  I did a quick & dirty sanding job on my old contacts to get me by for now & have over 30 successfull starts to date. A new starter rebuild kit with plunger is on the way & I will be testing my ignition system ASAP.

Here is the not so bad contacts & plunger.

Here is after very quickly sanding, they cleaned up pretty good.

It's back in & has started up every time since. I went to the nearest auto store & had them run a system check & all systems are good. I will definitely be checking for a worn ignition switch ASAP. Hope this helps.