Recent content by Claff

Bittersweet day, we traded our 2011 4Runner in. We used ours for three years of towing our autocross car all over the place and it did so trouble-free. The wagon showed 37K miles and I'd say that at least 25K of that was done with the trailer hooked to its back. But we needed to go bigger. I...

Panic averted, we found the key today.

We're still looking high and low but it certainly looks like we've misplaced one of the keys to our '11 4Runner. I dread going to the Toyota store and having a replacement made/programmed. Has anyone done this and lived? What is the going rate for new keys with all the electronics inside?

OK jacked the tank up and checked everything out, nothing seems out of the ordinary. Had a senior moment as I'm staring at the front calipers trying to figure out how to make the thing swing up and pull off so I can grease the sliders before it dawns on me that four-piston calipers don't...

The wife says that the brakes feel "funny" after a near-panic stop yesterday and suggests I check them out. I figure after two years and 25K miles hauling our little race car all over creation, I should probably at least look at the calipers and lube the sliders. I'm assuming these aren't any...

We have a similar bike rack to that and it works great. Compared to the kind of rack you usually see it's a piece of cake to load and unload. The wife's sister was having a heck of a time loading up three bikes on her carrier, even having to take the seats off the bikes. No worries for me with...

We hooked up the trailer and race car last week and hauled everything halfway across the country and back. The wagon handled everything just fine, even the mountains of western Maryland. We averaged abour 14 MPG for the whole trip

A little late to the party

More towing goodness. Looks like I might have to keep the car a little more back on the trailer to get some weight off the tongue.

Prodigy brake controller. Not sure about any details you might be after, as I had the trailer shop do the install when we bought the trailer last year. They used the OEM harness that came in the glove box and I'm pretty sure it was a simple job.

Doing what it does best

Found out that a hardtop for my MGB fits inside rather than needing to go up on the roof rack. What a pleasant surprise.

We're on a fitness kick and the wife wanted a treadmill. The one we wanted wasn't in stock locally so we took a 90-minute ride to Fredericksburg VA to get one (bonus: I got to have Steak n Shake for dinner). It turns out that the treadmill box just barely fits in the 4Runner with the back seats...

Grease monkey Wannabe race car driver

I'm a cheapskate so I got a basic Sears 7" orbital polisher that's served me well for the last three years. We've got quite a few carsin the fleet including two black Miatas and this thing doesn't disappoint me. The on/off switch is getting flaky but that's my only gripe. Once you use a buffer...