Hey Ford – why don’t we get the Courier?

November 24, 2010

I’ve been contemplating vehicles to replace my Ranger when the time comes.  I figure it is a 2000 and I have another 8 or so years I should get out of it.  That said, since I normally purchase vehicles that are 5+ years old that means I will be looking at stuff that is new now, or will be coming out in the next couple years.  As it turns out, the perfect vehicle does exist, it just so happens to be in Mexico and not here.

Enter, the Ford Courier:

It is based off of the Ford Fiesta – vintage 1998 and gets in the mid to upper 30’s for mpg and can haul 1,500lbs in the bed.  Perfect for what I need.  Oh yeah, also the cost for a 2010 model is all of $11,200 USD right now.  Ford, if you are listening, please bring these here!  We could use them.  I think many, many Americans would purchase these rigs.  I want one with a manual transmission.  And since this won’t ever happen, I may as well dream, and I want it to have either 4 wheel drive or AWD as an option (they are currently FWD only).

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Guitar dreams

November 22, 2010

I’ve been playing my guitar a little bit recently, getting ready for a collaboration with my brother for our annual Raymond Brothers Christmas recording.  As I have been playing, I have been realizing something.  I really need my guitar stuff to be more simple.  Over the years I have trimmed all my gear down to 2 amps (Dean Markley K-20X combo amp and a pocket amp I built) and a cab.  I’m selling the cab.  I am also down to one electric and one acoustic guitar.  With time I would like to get a better acoustic and maybe eventually get rid of my 1965 Harmony Bobkat for a Fender Jaguar Blacktop – we’ll see though, I do love my Harmony.

Also, I want one of these guys:

It is a 5w all tube amp made by Fender, dubbed the Champion 600.   It rivals the Epiphone Valve Jr, but I like this much better.  I really wouldn’t mind getting rid of my 6 knob, 2 switch solid state amp for a 1 knob 1 switch all tube rig.

**edit**
Also, I really need to learn Johnny B Good.  I’ve wanted to play that ever since I saw Michael J Fox play it in Back To The Future.

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Mazda B3 I4 cruiser

November 18, 2010

I don’t know what it is about the B3 engine, but ever since my sister had her Ford Aspire I loved that little guy.  Not the Aspire, didn’t care for that car, just the engine.  It puts out 63hp @ 5,000 rpm and 74tq @ 3,000 rpm with later versions putting out as much as 73hp @ 5,500 rpm and 80tq @ 4,000 rpm.  It really is suited to a lighter vehicle than the 2,000lb Aspire.  What better than a motorcycle?

I figure if I built a custom cruiser and used that little engine, I’d image it would weight in at a quite heavy 800+ lbs.  But, with a few modifications like a cam, head work and a larger throttle body, I think we could see 90hp and 100+tq.  That would move that bike around with no problem, and should still get 40+ mpg.

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Making the Crown Victoria the car it should have been

November 16, 2010

I want to own a late 90s Ford Crown Victoria.  I planning to throw out the stock 220hp 4.6 liter V8 and swap in it’s larger brother, the 300hp 5.4 liter V8.  It should have been an option from the factory anyway.  Ford always use to offer the 351w when the 302 was the base engine, but for some reason they don’t do that with the 4.6/5.4 series.  Then I’m up in the air as to whether the car would get a Tremec T-5 6speed manual tranny or keep the automatic transmission and beef it up.  Regardless, the rear end would be seeing a set of 3.73 gears and a limited slip carrier.  Drop the car 1″ in the front, raise it 1″ in the rear, keep the stock tire size on front and run some 245 wide rubber in the rear and I’d be a happy boy.  Once I got bored of the 5.4, I could always build it up.  It’s pretty easy to get 400+hp naturally aspirated or 500+ with a blower.

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The right wood stove

November 15, 2010

I’ve done lots of research on wood stoves and have finally decided on one for us.  We have a unique situation in that we need a stove that fits in a 43″ wide 27″ deep alcove with an 84″ ceiling height.  We wanted a stove with between 25,000 and 50,000 btu output so that we could comfortably heat our downstairs but also be able to heat the whole home for a day or two in case of power outage.  The contenders for us were the Jotul F602CB, Jotul F100 Nordic QT, Jotul F3CB or the Englander 17-VL.  I love the look of cast iron stoves and really like the Jotul 602.   Unfortunately, it requires a taller ceiling height than we have.  The Jotul 100 failed the safety test for me (I read of several folks having issues with burning logs coming out while reloading), and the F3CB is $1,627 for matte black and $2,100 for an enamel finish (out of our price range).  Luckily for us, the stove I originally had thought about, is just right.

The Englander 17-VL was designed and built right here in the USA.  It is a plate steel stove that weighs in at 230 lbs and produces 40,000 btu with over 75% efficiency.  No catalytic converter is used, rather it uses “secondary burn” tubes that ignite the wood gas coming off the logs instead of sending that potential energy up the flue.  Even though it is plate steel, it uses some European design cues including under the firebox wood storage that make it look quite nice.  It has the option for a blower that blows air from behind the stove up around the firebox and through the front out the vents at the top of the stove.  This is perfect for us because the living room wall will be right behind the stove and I can pipe the air intake through that wall, then the living room’s cold air will be running through the stove and vented into the kitchen.  Due to the slight pressure difference in each room caused by the fan pulling from one room and depositing into the other we should have no problem heating our downstairs with relative evenness.   All of this at a cost of only $549 if we decide to order through overstockstoves.com, Englander’s factory direct sales avenue.

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