Curious what beach you were at? If you make it down to the Northern Oregon Coast, let me know, we can meet up at the beach for some great photos and some fun in the sand!

 

Ocean Shores, WA. Thanks for the invite, we'll have to keep that in mind. Still need to get our "papers" in order before we can see that side of Oregon, unfortunately.

Thanx. These are Spec-D I think, something off of Amazon. I'm pretty sure whatever the brand they're all made in the same factory in China tho.

Yeah, the install was kind of obnoxious. You have to remove the plasticy header panel that the factory lights are attached to, and to remove THAT you need to remove a bunch of other stuff, plus a helper and liberal application of swear words and bumper scratches to actually get the darn thing OUT once it's loose. Mine needed a little trimming, but only because the LED h1 retrofits are ridiculously long. That's the hard part, getting the new lights in is easy, and afterwords they come out with only a couple of clips and two screws. The adjuster screws are loose/stripped in the housing on mine too, NBD but I need to epoxy them in place when I pull the lights again to finish the wiring. The "extra" lights aren't hooked up yet, so no pix of those right now.

Definitely worth the hassle. Cosmetics aside, the light pattern is much much better, especially if you go LED or HID or some other lighting upgrade. And with a couple of diodes you can get the low beams to stay on with the high beams.

 

Got the mud flaps in. Used a extra Chevy cargo mat I had laying around from buying the wife's Tahoe earlier this year







All a part of the "Lets get it legal" game. Also fixed the tires rubbing the leafs cause apparently that'll make you fail inspection as well

 

Tylus, what's that liquid inside your wheel?

 

Rain and/or hose water

Did the brakes while it was raining and washed a bunch of dust out

 

When I see this, it reaffirms to me that my Ex will be staying on the mainland IF the CG gives me orders out there to that a$$ backwards state. Fingers crossed, prayers being said, shoot I may even stoop to burnt offerings, in order to keep from getting stationed out there once again. One time was enough.

Good luck with the inspection!

 

What's this inspection stuff you guys keep talking about??










I love my state

 

Most states don't have inspection, and those that do have widely varying standards.

Connecticut is an emissions test only. They don't care about safety violations, just that you're not polluting. New Hamshire has about the strictest standards I've ever seen. Old cars are outlawed up there because ANY kind of body or structural rust will cause a car to fail. A little rust inside the fender of my car failed it recently. My Excursion failed because a couple of manifold studs were broken off, even though there were no exhaust leaks.

Mass and New York have more reasonable standards. None of the other states I've lived in have inspections.

 

Texas has them, but they aren't that bad. Basically just horn, emergency brake, lights, and wipers. Here in Virginia it's a scam... They only seem to have it so that the shops can repair your ailing vehicle and keep it on the road. When the wife's highlander failed for a third brakelight and wiperblader (all 3) the total was $73 to get it "roadworthy". I walked to vatozone acrosss the street, spent $20 and told them to blow me and run it again. When they tried to charge me for a second inspection I pulled out the receipt from the purchase of the previous wiper blades... 2 months earlier! I told him I would cause a huge **** storm for them (Goodyear) if they didn't test it again without charging me the $12 or whatever and they instead pulled the car around and it "magically" already had the "pass" sticker on it. I guess they didn't expect that and just assumed I would roll over like 99% of people.

 

Much like Texas, Hawaii has a basic vehicle inspection.

Lights, Horn, Tire tread, brakes work, ebrake works, mirrors installed (actually a big problem weirdly), tint that is lighter than 35% and exhaust looks/sounds legalish.

they're pretty reasonable most days. only the old rattle-traps that shouldn't be on the road really have issues as long as you keep the car roadworthy. all to the tune of $14 a year. This year they started taking pictures of cars and uploading them to a Hawaii DMV site. Cops can pull up the picture and see if you modified your car after getting it inspected.

but

there is Reconstruction. back in 2011 I spent $1000 to get my 2006 F-250 past this bull-crap. I've been getting my Excursion safety checked with zero issues. But...Guy at the shop said he'd lose his permit if he passed me again due to the photo thing. I've deliberately kept the X low-key to prevent Recon. Guess I failed

Anyways, to pass Recon I have to prove the lift is safe, cover the tires if they stick outside the wheelwell (flares), install mud flaps that extend down to minimum center of hub, get a $120 wheel alignment, ensure the tires don't rub anywhere, all lights DOT approved. Then go visit a place that is literally UNDER A FREAKIN' OVERPASS in a bad area of town so some dude can inspect your truck using rules that were legalized in 1983...and after paying $15 for the priveledge to get robbed (literally and figuratively)!

To say it's a PITA is an understatement. My truck has been out of Safety since October because I haven't had daylight time to get anything done. My wife refuses to help because the guys who run the show are quite literally dicks.

So that's my story

 

Come to mn where you can drive **** buckets and pollute as much as you want!

Just pay for your tabs and that is it.

Sent from my Telegraph using IB AutoGroup

 

Nod. I'm in one of the few places in western WA with no emissions checks. Which is good cuz nothing I own would pass. Anyone want a used 6.0 cat??

 

That's one thing I did like about Whidbey Island while I was stationed there. No inspection of any kind, no emissions.

It did mean cops would have a hay day on equipment violations though.

 

Spent a few hours on my throttle body

 

Oh, really? Do tell more. :-P