So many of the questions about lowered and lifted trucks here are from newer members and that, to me, means that there mechanical aptitude could be suspect and training/tools could be lacking. Then the lift/lower gets rushed and cobbled. Not all the time but a good portion of the time and then the damage can occur. A lot of thought and investigation goes in to a design by the manufacturer to make the parts on a truck last. IMO, when that geometry gets altered, the stress factor is increased. Again, IMO only.
I have read here and at my other Tahoe/Yukon Forum about members cutting holes for fuel pump access. That makes me cringe. The structural integrity of the vehicle is altered and then can be unsafe. If the owner does that, it is on them but their passengers could be effected by that, just like a lifted/lowered vehicle, and that to me is suspect. As I have gotten older, 71 now, and having seen in the shops I ran, vehicles with very unsafe alterations, I cringe on the road when they are close around, especially at speed. Worrying too much, maybe, but as I age, I think about those things. It should not be a law thing at all. I want the government to keep their minds and d*i*c*k skinners away from you and me. I also want repairs and maintenance and alterations done right.
I agree that new members mechanical skills may be suspect.
But they are here asking the questions in order to better their mechanical skills.
And that makes them kindred souls my friend.
We dont need to lead them to knuckle busting.
They are here already. They are at the door.
We just need to welcome them in.
Back in 80s our we knew to stay away from the ratty old 60s car with the skyjackers and 47 different part stickers on the windows.
Rolling wrecks in search of trees.
But not even remotely as dangerious as somebody texting while driving.
I had some really sketchy cars when I was young.
So sketchy that I paid a lot more attention to my driving than the people around me did.
Street racing is as old as the automobile.
The entire history of Nascar, NHRA, Rally racing has the same human origen and is the same today.
Back in the mid 1960s a lot of forward thinking municipalities figured out that if you let young people run on the track they would still street race, but they would have better prepped cars and be a little less willing to wreck them.
High school drags a Seattle International Raceway was 25 bucks, a short tech inspection, mainly tires and brakes. and a helmet.
A 1/4 mile anywhere in the 13s took a lot of money and work for a high school kid.
Those days are gone and young peoples access to those tracks are gone.
But any kid with a job can go buy a used Mustang that would absolutely smoke my high school 1969 440 Roadrunner.
It wouldnt even be close.
The car culture is still the same.
But old guys and lawyers wont let them on the track.
And bicycle riding granola sniffing communists who think that kale is edible want you to think that we will all friggen get killed because young people want to party and hang out with girls and race cars when they should be locked up in some 3 thousand dollar a month hamster cage apartment and taking the bus and posting online about how they are lonely and cant meet women.
Anybody anywhere in any way who is reaching out to try to do it themselves?
Those are our people.
They are our kindred souls and our mechanical hope for the future.
You really cant justify being all ******* twisted over nobody giving a **** about your knowledge if you try to beat them down for asking.
The other a bit odd and a bit hard thing to wrap your mind around is that a lot of your knowledge comes from other people.
They passed it on to you.
And it would be very selfish to keep that to yourself.
You know things that nobody else knows.
I know things that nobody else knows.
If you die without passing that to someone else all that you know and all you ever learned from the folks who taught you your trade dies with you.
Just like if I dont try to pass the things that I learned from those who taught me.
When I was younger, I held that knowledge as a secret in order to be the guy that everybody had to talk to.
My knowledge was my meal ticket for decades.
And I passed that on to poeple who had met the bullshit initiation process.
So they could hold it like a gem that nobody was allowed to touch.
When you retire, you should give back all of your bullets.
You dont need to play the game anymore.
Now you have vast and deep knowledge that you can give away for free.
And you do that just for the people before you and the people after you
You become a public library
And no ******* anybody can stop you and no ******* anybody can tell you that you are wrong.
They can try.
But they dont know **** all about your life.
Tell everybody. Everybody needs some knowledge and everybody needs to see a different view.
