Dak got a thorn in its paw...

From: dak@mama.indstate.edu
Date: Fri Apr 16 1999 - 02:47:35 EDT


Hey all,

  Long time listener, first time caller :-). Got a Dak
story for ya...

  I hail from Austin TX (where the music is live, the
women are tall and blonde, and the beer is home brew).
Anyways, driving north on Mo Pac to get home one
evening, when what do I see - construction garbage
in the road (woo woo, common as dirt in Austin, for
some reason building/housing contractors like to
dump their garbage on the Austin expressways - such
is life). I only see it at the last second, so I just
follow the tire tracks going through it, figure
I'll be ok. So, pedal down, keepin' 70+ over the
flyway onto 183, then onto Duval and home. I get out
of the truck, walk by the left rear tire, and see
something shiny on the tire. Huh. I say to myself,
"Self, that looks suspiciously like a large nail
in the sidewall". Grab a pair of pliers, sure enough,
out comes a nice shiny roofing nail. Sidewall
puncture, tire is nuked, so I say oh well, wanted
to get rid of these ***%&%#@$# Goodyear Inslictas
anyway - now's my chance to get those Firehawk SS10s
I've been wanting.

  It was late, so I decided to sleep on changing the
tire. I figure by morning it'll be flat as a pancake,
so I'll have incentive. Next day, I head outside to
change the tire, but wait... it _held pressure all
night_. Weird, I say. Change the tire, start pushing
the damaged one under the back to winch up, what do
I see? _Another_ nail in the footprint. Amazing. Damn
tire ate two nails and stayed together at 70+ mph
while weaving my lucky ass through Austin rush hour
traffic, then kept pressure overnight to boot!
Guess I shouldn't be so hard on those Inslictas, eh?
I can see the Goodyear advertisement: "Just push the
nail back in and keep on driving!" :-)

  Nah, who am I kidding, the damn things were bald
after two rotations and 18,000 miles. Good riddance.
I'll be getting 235/70R15 Firehawk SS10s all around.
Guess the next 'mod' is finding Bilsteins for replacing
the stock shocks (underdamped, and that's being
generous). Oh ya, the Dak is a '97 SLT CC (3.9 v6,
5 spd, 3.55 LSD 2wd - driftwood with chrome). Not
a bad little truck - comfortable, quick, gets 20 MPG
on my commute. Gotta say, any truck that eats two
nails at speed without blinking is ok in my book :-).

  Next mods will probably be the standard K&N clone/
ignition/plugs/throttle body/S-bolt/cat-back/chip routine.
Maybe I'll get crazy and slap headers and a puffer on
it so I can hunt down unsuspecting Pony Cars and the
ever-annoying Rice Boyz (heh).

Later on,

--
dak



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