Hey lets have some fun here... We all know about the build threads, and follow/update them religiously. What we also need here is a thread where we can show off our trucks even when we're not wrenching or modding.

Maybe you've just given her a bath and snapped a few photos, or got a new set of shoes... post pics!

Just crawled all over a Kia at the local mall, are frame deep in mud, or just hitched up the trailer and are heading out with your RV for vacation?? Yep you got it... pics!

Don't be shy... we all like trucks (among other things)... so let's see what you've got!

Welcome friend!

nice looking truck kyle.

thanks Nate! I'm totally pumped right now... went to the store and wife stayed in the truck... when i got in the truck she was like "you really like it huh"... i just grinned... she said "you were smiling the whole walk back to the truck"

it runs great, body and paint are flawless, interior is great (minus normal seat wear). only thing is there's a little bit more surface rust under the bed than i hoped, but nothing a little wire brush and Don's favorite rust converter can't fix. I was going to attack it with some black paint/coating anyway, just a couple extra hours of work now is all

Well guys, here goes! My new-to-me truck arrived yesterday! This thread will capture all the things I do to the truck.

For those that haven't followed in the other thread, I had an LMM and decided to sell in and get an LBZ. Basically the same truck in terms of color and trim, but I wanted an OBS with the pre-DPF powertrain. Found this truck in Wisconsin, and made a deal and got in out here.

Here it is arriving via a great Transporter, Bob Wilson. He's a Christian, and we had a nice chat about doing God's work as he unloaded the truck. Was really cool, and I'm happy I was able to do business with him.



With my ugly mug...


Got it washed up (actually wife did, I was busy rebuilding a shower enclosure getting ready for tile) before attacking the front brush guard. I said it'd be the first thing to go, and I am a man of my word!




Here's how she sits right now...


And to cap off the day, i removed the gaudy dealer sticker off the tailgate

I've been itchin' to fire up the ole girl to cook some pork... where are you???  ;D

Hey guys, wanted to share a great BBQ rub recipe... Full disclosure, I can't take credit for it, but have been using it for a long time. Somebody shared it with me along the way, and I love it. I make big batches around Christmas too and take to my guys at work and other friends and family. I suppose since it doesn't have a name, i'll let you call it what you want  ;D

It is fantastic on pork and chicken.

______ BBQ RUB

1 cup paprika
1 cup kosher salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup granulated garlic
3/4 cup granulated onion
1/2 cup chili powder
2 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Apply liberally, and spritz/mop with Apple Cider if desired depending on what you're smoking.

Enjoy!

Keep us updated. While adding a brake controller is pretty standard to have to do (not so much i new vehicles i gather), the kicker is really the tongue weight and inability to use a weight distribution hitch. Just really poor form on VW's part.

This one hits home too... My brother and sister in law traded in their F150 and their Subaru and consolidated down to the diesel Toureg, partly because of it's "towing ability" despite being a small SUV... I became aware of this information, and was dreading the conversation with them too. However, before they bought anything substantial to tow with it above their small utility trailer, life threw them a curve in the form of a 3rd kiddo and they had to get a mini-van.

Hope this works out for you Don. I've been very anti-VW for a long time... This is just further fuel for me.

Honestly, i wish i knew what the answer to your question was: "What's it going to take?"

Best case, it will happen organically. Another swing of the pendulum towards conservatism, both with societal values and governmental leadership.

Worst case, something catastrophic, with one against the other, and one prevails.

One of the biggest problems in my relatively young opinion, is people are naive and uninformed, especially in my generation. People just don't care, and are happy bee-bopping along without consideration for these issues of incredible significance. 17 trillion in debt, and i bet you 80+% of the population couldn't tell you that, or how big that is relative to GDP (or what GDP is!). Lack of knowledge/understanding of basic incentive driven economics, lack of strong will and personal accountability, and weak reliance on one's self for one's self. If people people paid as much attention to things that matter (personal privacy, tax burdens, trade policy, national debt and unmitigated spending) to things that don't (sports fanaticism, material consumption, celebrity infatuation), you'd probably see more concerned citizens.

My whole family is UW alum... I did Pacific Lutheran undergrad, but am just a couple quarters away from finishing my masters from UW.

My Honda has giant UW Husky decals on it... Just sayin!

Two words... Eco-throttle.

Look at the EU3000 watt Honda if you need more juice for A/C and microwave, if you think you really need those things when boondocking.

Yeah spendy, buy once cry onceI say.

I'm obviously biased, so take it for what it is. But choosing Honda was the best decision I ever made for our RV'ing. So efficient and quiet.

Edit: I see the NT has similar functionality... That changes things a bit :)

Man i really hate to hear that Don. Really sorry that it's not what you thought.

I feel bad bringing it up... but, since it's more or less a safety issue, i'm glad you got the info.

The Chev square body looks pretty straight and clean

(CNSNews.com) - We hear a lot about the United States' Judeo-Christian heritage, but according to President Obama, "Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding."

That's what the president told a White House conference on "countering violent extremism" on Wednesday.

Obama has said similar things in the past:

"I also know that Islam has always been a part of America’s story,” Obama said in a June 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt. "Islam has always been part of America," he said in a 2010 statement marking the start of Ramadan. And in a 2014 statement marking Eid, Obama said the holiday "also reminds us of the many achievements and contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy."

In his speech on Wednesday, Obama was making the point that Western nations must show that they "welcome people of all faiths," at a time when "extremists" are saying that Western nations are "hostile to Muslims."
"Here in America, Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding. Generations -- (applause) -- Generations of Muslim immigrants came here and went to work as farmers and merchants and factory workers, helped to lay railroads and to build up America.

"The first Islamic center in New York City was founded in the 1890s. America's first mosque, this was an interesting fact, was in North Dakota." (It was established in 1929).

Both of those milestones happened well after America's founding, however. In fact, the new nation's first dealings with Islam were tense and unpleasant.

According to a Heritage Foundation paper, shortly after America's founding, the United States "was dragged into the affairs of the Islamic world by an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on Americans by Muslim pirates, the terrorists of the era," who looted American ships and captured American sailors, holding them for ransom or selling them as slaves.

The paper notes that America's struggle with Muslim pirates from the Barbary States (modern-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya) began soon after the 13 colonies declared their independence from Britain in 1776 and continued for roughly four decades.

In his remarks on Wednesday, President Obama said Muslim Americans now serve as police officers, firefighters, soldiers, "and in our intelligence communities and in homeland security."

He said Muslim American heroes are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, "having given their lives in defense of all of us."

"And, of course, that's the story extremists and terrorists don't want the world to know -- Muslims succeeding and thriving in America. Because when that truth is known, it exposes their propaganda as the lie that it is.

"It's also a story that every American must never forget, because it reminds us all that hatred and bigotry and prejudice have no place in our country. It is not just counterproductive. It doesn't just aid terrorists. It's wrong. It's contrary to who we are."

So-called hate crimes against Muslims escalated in this country after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 -- attacks perpetrated by Islamic radicals -- but they have never reached the level of hate crimes against Jews, according to the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Reporting statistics.

In 2013, for example, 62.4 percent of hate crime victims were attacked because of anti-Jewish bias, while 11.6 percent were victims of anti-Islamic bias.

Compare that with the year before the 2001 terror attacks: In 2000, of the 1,699 victims of anti-religious hate crime, 74.6 percent were victims of an offender's anti-Jewish bias; and only 2.1 percent were victims of an offender's anti-Islamic bias.

President Obama on Wednesday stressed that U.S. is not at war with Islam:"We are at war with people who have perverted Islam,"  he said. 

He also said the West and Islam are not in conflict; and that Islam is not incompatible with modern life, although in the same speech he urged other countries to invest in the education of both males and females -- "because countries will not be truly successful if half their populations, if their girls and their women, are denied opportunity."

In a speech to the same summit on Thursday, Obama noted that many Americans don't personally know a single Muslim, and they form a distorted impression about Islam by what they hear on the news.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/obama-islam-has-been-woven-fabric-our-country-its-founding

Hey have you seen the Quad-Pods??? You mentioned wanting to throw the bike on... Might not be what you're goin for but saw this so thought I'd share

I've been leaning on this one a lot lately:

James 1:5 "But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him."

5 hrs... You must be gettin close!

Congrats! Better throw pics up of those ribs too!

Look up the 3-2-1 method (or 2-2-1 for baby backs), unless you've got it down to a science already.

Enjoy your new toy!  ;D

I've got a Traeger and love it. Spendy, but it's efficient and easy. Wood pellet fuel. I've also used a Weber Smokey Mountain and those are nice too. Also efficient, but coal burners.

I've cooked with a friends friend type of thing for 300 ppl on a commercial wood burning rotisserie smoker, and while it was cool, it's a pain to babysit, especially for long smokes. Something I'd only want to run for big cooks, not at great frequency personally.

That's what I love about my "cheater" pellet burner. Can put a butt on or a brisket and let it go while I get some shut eye. Also super easy to crank up (and down!) for quick things like chicken quarters, wings, pork loin, etc. I find that because it's easy, I use it all the time. And the pellets are 100% wood, the wood of your choice, and fairly reasonably priced. About 1.25/hr to run at 225 I think I calculated out once.
 
Propane fueled would probably be just as easy, and a little cheaper. My Traeger was 700 bucks, and if I were to do it again I'd get the next biggest one. But the pellet rigs are expensive, which is the main drawback.

Hope that helps!

DOOO ITTTT!! Totally in on this.

Honda EU2000 no question. We have one, zero regrets.

I absolutely love those r-pods with the slides. Such a great design. I don't think you can go wrong. They seem to hold their value much better than your average small RV trailer too. Diesel toureg should have enough grunt to handle it without issue too.

Awe man that was a nice lookin truck. Nice burb though too, and as they say... happy wife, happy life!

Hey guys... another a freebie here. I just ask is that you make a donation to the RMTWS fund for helping out those in need. I'll let you determine an appropriate amount based on what you can afford, as it's truly a donation for the folks. I'll cover shipping in USPS flat rate.

Rock River flattop riser base, can't remember exactly how tall it is but here's a link to RRA's site:
http://www.rockriverarms.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=437

Hey guys... have a freebie here. All I ask is that you make a donation to the RMTWS fund for helping out those in need. I'll let you determine an appropriate amount, as it's truly a donation for the folks in need. I'll cover shipping in USPS flat rate.

ATI pistol grip/collapsible stock and fore grip for Mossberg 500/590. Pretty good shape, just a couple holes drilled in the stock for a side saddle. Has an extra thick recoil pad on it too.

EDIT: I'll throw the heat shield too, what the heck, why not. Feed the peeps!

Sweet. This sounds like an awesome build!