Vorpal - Horse N Buggys BS Badlands Build

[Horse n Buggy]

Can you tell us why you are concerned with cell reception in the mountains?

So, both during this trip to Georgia and a lot of the places I visit in Virginia have spotty to terrible cell reception and it makes communication challenging.

For example, two of the three cars went to get groceries the first night in Georgia, the only place that could run credit cards was a Walmart. The people at the house were sending us the grocery list which we received in transit, but once we were there, none of us had strong enough service to call back to the house to clarify certain things

Additionally my last trip to Virginia, we spent time visiting towns and ports my In-Laws grew up in around the Potomac, pretty much the whole time we had at most maybe one bar, enough that your phone was trying real hard to Google things but really wasn't making progress. My Mother in law was trying to find the name and location of a restaurant that she had heard about for us to have lunch at, and we couldn't look it up on our phones due to signal. so she went around asking random people in the towns only general store till she had rough directions of how to get to it. We eventually found it but alas, they only open for dinner

Similarly, when visiting Anna Ruby falls, we were trying to coordinate between the two cars at the falls and the one at the house where in Helen to meet for lunch, the cars could communicate with the GMRS handhelds I provided, but we couldn't look up places in Helen not contact the third car at home till we were basically already in town

This is my primary use case for a cell booster. Increase or maintain signal for communication or finding restaurants

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[BHShaman]

this lift is not compatible with the Steeda Strut Tower brace. I will need to figure out some soliton to that or i will be selling the Strut Tower Brace.

if you plan to plan to off road, which I am guessing by the lifts, solar, etc...

The strut brace limits flex some for off roading. It is why the FSB version has a disconnect. Or so I read.

 

[Horse n Buggy]

if you plan to plan to off road, which I am guessing by the lifts, solar, etc...

The strut brace limits flex some for off roading. It is why the FSB version has a disconnect. Or so I read.

From what I’ve read, there is speculation that Strut Tower braces might reduce articulation, but that is exclusively from reducing body roll not suspension articulation. For the most part it seems that there is a lot of confusion between strut tower braces and sway bars. On body on frame vehicles (where most offroading information comes from) strut tower braces are basically useless because tower to tower is already rigid, it seems the common offroad upgrade for these are sway bar disconnects, which is a connection point at the A-arms of the suspension and drastically increase articulation when disconnected.



But more importantly to me, my car still spends most of its time on pavement, and while offroad upgrades are what I’m pursuing, I still like spirited driving and road manners enough that I’m gladly willing to sacrifice a fringe offroad articulation improvement for reduced body roll and cornering behavior.

 

[Quashish]

good thread! and you're getting great MPG's i have the yakima HD crossbar set up and a generic basket on, with 245 toyos and the basket and trunk loaded carrying 3 people and got 20- 22 MPG on a 2.5 hour road trip averaging 70 - 80 mph.

are the letters on the grille black because you ordered it that way?

 

[Horse n Buggy]

Kind of an odd build update, as it's not technically a direct modification to the car, but my wife and I were invited to join in a camping trip around the Ichetucknee State Park and it gave me resolve a project ID been considering for a while.

More Exterior Dry Storage

See, with the summer months rolling in, it starts to rain a lot in Florida, and with the hobbies my wife and friends and I have of hiking, disc golf and camping, getting even more gear into the car (especially with the temperatures rising) became a focus of mine.

For a while I had the idea finding some long of dry box that would fit my hitch rack as perfectly as I could, just to turn it into one big easy storage box, but finding stuff the precise size you want is kinda hard, and it looked like I was going to end up with two separate boxes and a lot of wasted space. Then I saw a new item listing from Eylar with no reviews of a box basically the perfect size for my rack. The two big concerns being 1. No reviews, anywhere, on any site nothing and 2. No listed IP ratings.

Now, issue two I can technically solve myself and I'm still waiting for rain to test it out, but concern 1 I didn't have any solution for, so I sent it anyways figuring I have buyers protection on Amazon.

It's big, and it fits perfectly on my rack with limited space. Now I'll be the first to admit I'm probably challenging the tongue rating for payload, but this car has such a bafflingly low payload rating that when you have 4 grown adults in the car you are already getting close to your limit. So, I'm going based off of car feel and safe driving practices. I strapped it down with two retracting cargo straps running under the rack to tie downs on the body of the case, and for theft deterrent, steel braided safety cable wrapped around the handles and the hitch rack, combi locked to the case. Sits secure, you can open and access the trunk with the box on the rack, and you can open and access the whole contents of the case without unstrapping it.

Test the box with the camping trip, fit our not compact tent, two foam / air sleeping pads, my sleeping bag, two "ultra lite" style camp chairs, bug sprays, sunscreen, battery fans and more in the box, rest of the car had two coolers, another two sleeping bags, camera boxes, pillows, clothes for three people, three people, my hiking pack and more. Packed full and couldn't see out the rear window (or reverse camera) but we got everything there securely and safely.

I'm currently very happy with this expandable storage, I packed the tools to drop the hitch rack and case right at the campsite if we needed to adventure in my car, and with the locks I think it would deter the casual thief from trying it. Can't make any promises about stock water proofing but if I have issues I'll let you know.

Also the camping trip was amazing. Bonus pics below

Free roaming pigs at the campsite btw. Big ol fat bois

 

[Jmuns]

Just hose it down and see if it leaks.

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