2002 Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear L400 (Garage entry)

[Fummins]

187,400km I put about 4000kms on this thing so far. It runs great, drives pretty well for an almost 7' tall, narrow van.

There is a clunk in the front end that I suspect is either sway bar bushings or end links. Hopefully not the upper control arm bushings I replaced. I'll probably buy an entire control arm next time but they're around $400/side if you can find them.

The Mirage hasn't seen many miles since September. I may dig it out of the snowbank and start driving it again to save a few bucks. It'll be hard to go back to sitting on the ground again and having the signal switch and wiper switch on the other side.

[Mark]

Vysla maybe how it's spelled. Satan's Hellhound, should be what the breed is called.

The Hungarian Vizsla is a beautiful dog in my opinion. I never owned one, but I have a friend who had one. They remind me of a Labrador Retriever on steroids. I hope your wife takes it hunting often, because it's a very versatile hunting breed. The Vizsla loves human companionship & are nicknamed "velcro dogs" for a reason.

I've been researching dogs for quite some time now. There are differences within various breeds, too. If a non-hunting household wants a Lab, they will be much happier with an English Lab. The American Lab is much more driven and bred more for hunting.

I haven't been following this thread much lately. I'm sorry that I missed the dog discussion. Young dogs do grow up.

I've been considering another dog. I still miss my last English Setter, but I have been exploring other breeds like the Small Munsterlander. I don't bird hunt all that much any more, however.

Lately I've been exploring dog breeds known for tracking wounded deer. Many breeds may pull off the task, but some are better than others. I've never been much of a hound guy, but I am considering a Bavarian Mountain Scent Hound. I know of someone in Wisconsin, & he uses Bavarian Mountain Hounds to track wounded deer. His older dog has over 330 recoveries, and his 2nd oldest dog is at about 230 recoveries. I'm not sure I want to be that gung ho about tracking deer for others, however. I would gladly do it for friends & relatives if I had the right dog!

Dogs are a big responsibility. I must admit that not being responsible for one is something I am considering, too.

I hope Satan's Hellhound grows up to be a nice dog, but s/he is probably not in his/her element in a city setting.

[7milesout]

Satan's Hellhound seems to be trained to "punch scrotums." It's a female. My 3 sons and I get hit in the scrotum daily. I'd rather try to make a honey badger a lap dog than to deal with this hellhound.

[Mark]

Satan's Hellhound seems to be trained to "punch scrotums." It's a female. My 3 sons and I get hit in the scrotum daily. I'd rather try to make a honey badger a lap dog than to deal with this hellhound.

When it jumps at your scrotum, grab its front legs & tap its front chest with your knee. Do it quick & catch them off guard when you do it. They won't like it any more than you like getting your scrotum hit. I think dogs jumping on people cause more injuries than dog bites each year. I would make jumping on people become an unpleasant experience for the dog, because it's unpleasant for the human they are jumping on.

[Fummins]

Our younger puppy bit through my finger a few weeks ago while giving it a treat. Maybe it was payback for calling her "pissy" up until recently when she finally started pissing outside.

[7milesout]

Mark - I agree with you. I know you're right. And I respect your suggestion(s). However, the Warden has demonstrated that she doesn't care 1 bit of any opinion or desire / request that I have when it comes to the Hellhound. Not one tiny bit.

For example, I have requested that she NOT let the Hellhound up on ANY furniture. Because even being allowed upon any singular furniture gives the dog some sense that getting on any other furniture might be OK. But the Warden wouldn't listen, nor did she seem to care. At this point, the dog gets up on every single thing in the house. I'm going to be cooking one day and the dog is going to set its face on fire putting its paws and face up on the stove trying to eat everything it can get its face on. It annoys me beyond explanation. So, I gave up having any input as to what the dog can and cannot do.

Now, the dog gets on the couch (and any and all other furniture), climbs all over me, licks my face and ears, sticks its ass in my face, is all over any drink cup or plate I may have set down on the side table, all while The Warden watches and does nothing. I just let it do whatever. It's not my dog, not my call, doesn't seem to be any of my business. The Warden doesn't give one chit what I say about it, I'm worn on fighting one battle after another so I say nothing. Every single interaction with The Warden, she makes it a battle.

But just wait. Her mother is getting old, and that dog is getting bigger. Just wait til the Warden-in-law is sitting on the couch and that dog pounds the chit out of her, and hurts her mother. Then maybe the Warden will understand. Until then, the Hellhound can set the house on fire and I'm not going to say a word about it.

[Fummins]

I had a look at the front end yesterday. I have a clunk coming from the rh side of the steering rack. The innter tie rod is faily new and feels tight. Seems like a bushing inside the rack must be worn or the rack itself. It clunks when you wiggle the steering wheel. I'm not up for rebuilding a rack and pinion and don't want to buy a chinisium $750 one from amazon quite yet. I'll just park it until I forget all about it. Problem solved...
I had to add 1/2 qt of oil as well. I haven't noticed any leaks but didn't look for any either. It doesn't burn your eyes when coming to a stop anymore so I assume it's not leaking anymore. I have no idea if it smokes at all cause all the back windows have black limo tint over top the factory tinted windows.

[Fummins]

I filled up 4 times between Jan 31 and Feb 29 costing $276. A lot of that was in awd and it was cold out. I figure I'll save $200/month driving the car so van is parked until next month. I'm hoping to get a quick trip in early April if most of the snow melts by then.
Might buy new tires before then. I'd like 30x9.5's but can get 235's for half the price so I'm leaning that way. I don't think the extra 1/2" of ground clearance is gonna make or break this thing. It's a still a minivan.

I thought about trimming 6-8" off the bottom of the front bumper to get a better approach angle but it's too nice to chop up. It's kinda easy to remove so I might just pull it off and strap it to the roof or stash it in the bush if going down some Mirage trails.

[Fummins]

188241km This thing is a pig on fuel. The last two fill ups worked out to 17.6 and 17.3mpg...Was driving like an old lady 95% of the time.
Heading out on Saturday to camp somewhere in the bush. Check out an old ghost town from the 40's in the coal branch for a day. If we can get there.
Then plan to head an hour or away and try to get to a cabin that me and my other buddy tried to find last spring but couldn't, until I got home and watched the drone video's on the confuser and there was a 1 second shot of it that I didn't notice when we were there! Someone buddy knows discovered it hidden in the bush while logging the area years ago. Gave a really vague idea where it was. They left a big patch of forest around it so it's still hard to find if you didn't know it's there. They said it looked like an old forestry cabin that was still stocked with old cans and stuff from many moons ago. We were looking on the wrong side of the road...

While looking on google maps I found another cabin on a little lake not far from the other one. Would be cool to check both out.
There's basically no cell coverage in those area's. If you're on top a hill where you can see for miles you might get a good enough signal to send or recieve a text if everyone else nearby puts their phone in airplane mode so using sat maps doesn't work unless you downloaded offline maps. Even then they often don't show up properly cause I is computer dumb.

And....It's supposed to snow out there for the next two days possibly up to 12". Buddy was gonna take his caravan but I'm about 95.7% confident I won't have a problem taking just my party bus. What could go wrong?

[Eggman]

188241km This thing is a pig on fuel. The last two fill ups worked out to 17.6 and 17.3mpg...Was driving like an old lady 95% of the time.
Heading out on Saturday to camp somewhere in the bush. Check out an old ghost town from the 40's in the coal branch for a day. If we can get there.
Then plan to head an hour or away and try to get to a cabin that me and my other buddy tried to find last spring but couldn't, until I got home and watched the drone video's on the confuser and there was a 1 second shot of it that I didn't notice when we were there! Someone buddy knows discovered it hidden in the bush while logging the area years ago. Gave a really vague idea where it was. They left a big patch of forest around it so it's still hard to find if you didn't know it's there. They said it looked like an old forestry cabin that was still stocked with old cans and stuff from many moons ago. We were looking on the wrong side of the road...

While looking on google maps I found another cabin on a little lake not far from the other one. Would be cool to check both out.
There's basically no cell coverage in those area's. If you're on top a hill where you can see for miles you might get a good enough signal to send or recieve a text if everyone else nearby puts their phone in airplane mode so using sat maps doesn't work unless you downloaded offline maps. Even then they often don't show up properly cause I is computer dumb.

And....It's supposed to snow out there for the next two days possibly up to 12". Buddy was gonna take his caravan but I'm about 95.7% confident I won't have a problem taking just my party bus. What could go wrong?

Sounds like a fun adventure.

Since cellular coverage is so sparse, does anyone bring two-way radios?