More Cowdog updates.
Life changes have made it so the truck really doesn't get used much at all. I built the thing as a daily driver for our 10 mile round trip commute, trailer puller and camp trip command vehicle. I finished it 2 years ago. It took about a year to sort out all the "I will get that later" issues. Mostly the very well documented engine cooling system issues. Colton went off to college 3 months after I got the truck done which really cut down on the camping and family road trips to the wild.
Then, Jennifer went and got an infected cut on her right foot. It just wouldn't heal so they put her in an isolation cast. The cast was made like the old ones with plaster. The 35's on the Cowdog make it just a hair too tall for her to get into easily. I carry a foot stool that she uses to get in with. The problem is that she isn't patient enough normally for me to stop the vehicle, get out, walk around, get the stool out of the back and then get to her door so she can step out. Nope, she just slides off the seat and CRACK! goes the cast. After several cast over 4 months were broken his way. I just made excuses about why we should drive the Accord to work instead of the Cowdog.
The Accord is a perfect appliance. But comfortable and fun to drive are not on the list of things I like about it. I went looking for a fun, comfortable and cheap car to take up the daily driving duty. I settled on a broken BMW E46 330 in San Antonio last fall. The Cowdog is a great long distance vehicle recovery platform. Everything I hoped for during the build it has turned out to be. Comfort, highway speeds, pulling power and long legs with the 40 gallon fuel tank and around 15 mpg with the trailer empty. 13 loaded. Unfortunately, the BMW had more things wrong with it than I knew about and didn't know enough to find on my own. It went away for about what I had in it.
Jennifer spent about 2 months out of the cast before she broke her left foot. Back in a cast and back in the Honda for us starting last October. She is now in a fitted plastic boot/cast because she keeps re breaking the foot. The Cowdog got used to go recover a broken BMW E39 525 Touring 5 speed and a parts car to repair it over the winter. While I was making a working car out of the pair. Jennifer went and got her cast stuck under the brake pedal of the Accord in the pharmacy line and she totaled the Honda. The Cowdog got to haul it to it final resting place in March. This was her 4th totaled vehicle since we have met for those of you who know us and are keeping count.
While hauling the Honda to College Station the Cowdog just didn't feel "tight." Maybe it was because I had been driving rack and pinion steering vehicles just about all the time the previous few months. I really didn't worry about it. When we dropped off the car we had a few errands to run and I dropped the trailer at the body shop. I took a wrong turn leaving and varied from my normal turn around technique of backing in. There was traffic and I nosed into a concrete drive way and turned the wheel lock to lock with the brakes on. A very loud thunk came from the front of the truck. I backed out and got headed the proper direction. That was when I noticed the steering wheel was turned 90°! AAAHHHH! I very slowly and carefully slowed down and eased into a parking lot.
I got out and could find nothing loose, wrong or weird. I turned the wheel a few times with the brakes on lock to lock and got another thunk. I got out again and could not figure out the source of the noise or steering wheel difference. Whatever it was, it was popped back into normal position. I drove a little and checked again. It felt normal and looked ok. Being 70 miles from home, we grabbed the trailer and taking back low speed roads made our way home without incident or it happening again.
I put a wrench on every part that moves in the steering and suspension system. Everything was tight. It is very difficult to hear things standing next to a running 6.5 and reaching in to turn the wheel. I could not duplicate the noise or "steering system jump" without the engine running and brakes on while sitting on concrete. I finally noticed when I turned the wheel with the engine off the tire was rolling. It was rolling a lot. I went and did the same thing on a M1009 which has the exact same system and the tire didn't really roll. Progress. I needed Jennifer to move the steering wheel while I was laying under the front end to figure out the drivers side leaf spring U-Bolt were loose and the axle was shifting back when turning left and shifting forward when turning right.
The nuts were loose. Not falling off loose, but all 4 required many turns to tighten back down after I made sure the axle was back in the centering pin slot. The passenger side nuts were not as loose, but they weren't all the way tight either. I don't have a memory of using a torque wrench on them during the build. I do remember tightening them up. I don't remember torqueing the wheels on the last time I had them off either, but I know I did. So, I don't know if this has been loose the entire 8,000 miles I have driven the truck or just something that worked its way loose. Either way, they are tight now and part of my checklist of things to look at when under the truck.
It drives really, really great now by the way. So great I was going to drive it 1,500 miles next week starting Saturday taking my Trail Life kids out to west Texas for mountain climbing and such. Except, several of the boys earned their way into summer school and have to be there I just found out a few days ago. No trip.
Even though she has proven to be a person that should not be allowed out of the driveway in a vehicle. Jennifer does need to drive herself and since everything I have besides the Cowdog and M1009 trucks are manuals. We had to replace the Honda. We ended up finding a high mile Outback owned by a guy with OCD. Which is the perfect kind of person to buy a used vehicle from. Everything that wears has been replaced in the past 30,000 miles. She likes it and I haven't decided yet. However, when we got invited by her sister to come stay at their place in Colorado for a week next month. I thought "Finally, a Cowdog trip." But, it makes more sense for just the two of us to take her car. We will see.