The heavens opened and after 3 days of searching, I've finally found you all on this great site:
I'm Ira, and I promise to not be too much of a pain in the a** in the months ahead. I'm gonna be a littile long-winded here, just so you can get my thoughts and I can learn from your insights.
My story:
I've lived in South Florida for the past 14 years, where off-roading is basically non-existent. (It's not one of my hobbies anyway, so that's a good match.) I've always driven and leased big trucks because I'm a shrimp and they made me feel more like a man. However, those leasing costs have killed me, and with the price of gas nowadays (I commute from Coral Springs to Boca), I said enough is enough:
I turned in my truck in and bought a '95 2-door Tracker (2wd, auto) from a friend of a friend for $2,000. 95k, new transmission, and she's basically spotless inside and out.
The goal is to keep her running perfectly, pimp her out a little, and still be driving this thing in 10 years--even if it's gonna mean eventually swapping out the engine. Finally owning something outright and no more car payments, I'm motivated to spend the money.
So far, I replaced the speakers, and I was so PROUD of myself. What an accomplishment! (Only took 3 hours. HAH!) However, mechanically, I'm about as clueless as they come.
I built a small teardrop travel trailer for local camping trips in the Keys, and I'm going to be ordering the Putnam Class I hitch for it. This hitch will also be used for one of those open cargo carriers that HF sells, possibly with some kind of a storage box built onto it. I want the carrier not just for extra storage, but also to put some distance between my rear and some idiot who decides to rear-end me. (This is South Florida.) I found a guy with an eBay store who sells the hitch, with shipping, for just a hundred bucks.
Yes, I promise to review past threads for info, but since there are so MANY threads here, for now, can you guys take a look at a few of my immediate concerns? I know you've discussed these issues before and have decided on the best upgrade decisions already:
1) I'll be ready for new tires soon, so besides the pimping factor of going with larger wheels, can I rationalize any SAFETY reasons for doing this as far as the Tracker's propensity to roll-over goes? Of course, I would love the look of larger tires, but if it would negatively affect safety, no thanks. Remember--no off-roading.
2) Would the above mandate the need for any suspension work? (I have a great mechanic who can take your great direction.)
3) The top ain't bad at all (see below), a little dirty, but a new black one is going to be under the tree for me this Christmas. I've done the eBay thing and my head is spinning. There seems to be two price levels for these things, and some of them look like total crap. Who do you recommend?
4) The Tracker decals and some decals on the rear have to go. I was told patience, elbow grease, and lighter fluid to get them off.
5) I'm not going to wait for the battery to die and get stuck somewhere, so I'm putting a new one in next week. (South Florida plus August equals dead batteries in no time at all.) Just go to WM and find a comparable battery?
Well, I guess that's enough for now. Sorry for the rambling, so now I'll go and look at all of these previous posts to learn more. But any hints you wanna give me on what to look out for, what to check, would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for listening!
--Ira
P.S. By the way--how do I get the photo below to post in-post? Do I have to have it hosted elsewhere? I just attached it with this post and thoughtit would appear.
