DDTH Soft

Archive for the ‘Autos’ Category

Some countries steal cars, chop them up and put the parts in the market at reduced prices. Even body kits are no exception. If particular body kits are not available by legal means there is always the illegal option. Just visit the local area for seconds or chop-chop car dealers for inquiries, be told to come back in so-so days and presto the body kits specified will be there on sale for the buying and the taking. Of course these type are high risks sales that have no assurances of a money back guarantee or how long the replacement body kits will last.

Car owners now have no need to fear or go to volatile markets for their particular body kits. There is a supplier online who can give the body kits for virtually all the cars make, type and model. They even have online support who are not only customer friendly but can satisfactorily answer queries, offer suggestions and viable solutions. Prices of these body kits are reasonable and definitely will not put a hole in the wallet. Delivery is as soon as the order is confirmed and paid for. All these process can be made on online.

I should know, I have had experience working with this supplier and have thumbs up for this body kits supplier.

In 2000, estimates in the US of the cost of motor vehicle collisions is US$230 Billion. Considering that the population of the US then was only 281 Million, this produces an average cost of close to US$820 per person. This is not a small amount for the average person. This is almost a month’s wages for the minimum wage earner of US$5 per hour on a 40 hour work week. Note also that the highest percentage of car ownership is only 55.7% or about 56 in every 100 people in New York City. Thus, the US$820 should only apply to these people. This increases the average cost to US$820 / 55.7% or about US$1,500 per car owner.

Thus, with these costs so prohibitively high, people without car insurance, in any form, should consider having one regardless of how safe a driver the person is. After all, accidents can happen. Thus, even a cheap car insurance can at least help shoulder the cost of repair.

The current demand for smaller, more aerodynamic lights (a partial result of the smaller frontal area of modern 4×4s) has sparked a revolution in reflector design and bulb technology, allowing manufacturers to build smaller, lighter and, most important, brighter lights. Even so, not all lights are alike. Like so much else in life, you get what you pay for. Given what is at stake, don’t go cheap. Buy the best lights you can afford. Here are some points to keep in mind when shopping for lights:
• The best light systems come with all components in one package, fully assembled for installation. Make sure your choice includes the wiring harness, all connectors, switch, and relay in addition to the lights.
• The wiring harness should be fully assembled with high-quality connectors; it should also feature a snap-together weatherproof design that minimizes the chance of corrosion.
• The relays should be high-quality sealed units that resist corrosion.
• Fasteners, including the rivets used in the housing construction, also should be corrosion resistant. Ideally, the fasteners should be made of stainless steel.

Finally, let’s dispel a couple of long-standing myths about auxiliary lights. First, it is often said that higher wattage produces brighter lights. “Not so!” says King. “Wattage is a measure of energy over time. It has absolutely nothing to do with illumination. A well-engineered light assembly with a quality 55-wan bulb will provide a more desirable light pattern than an assembly that uses cheap 100-watt bulbs.
Second, some people also believe that lights will overpower a truck’s electrical system. “The bigger problem is making sure the installer makes all the connections properly  King says. This reinforces the desirably of a pre-assembled wiring harness. Poor connections and faulty splices are what draw down the battery.
“Wattage relates to current draw, measured in amperes.To figure the draw on the battery, add the bulb wattage together and divide by the voltage of the vehicle. Here’s an example with 55-watt fog lamps. Multiply 55 by 2 to get 110 watts. Now divide 110 watts by 12 volts. The answer is 9 amps—a small load on any alternator?’

The majority of fog and driving lights are mounted to the bumper or to a brush guard. Aithough some owners prefer to mount lights on a roof light bar, truck cap, or tubular roll bars, King advises against this.
“Low-hanging branches will decapitate your high-mounted lights,” he says. “In addition, a roof-mounted fog lamp can’t do its job. Remember, it’s been designed to work low and shoot light under the fog. If it sits up high, you get no benefit.
“High-mounted driving lamps generally cause problems. First, no matter how well designed the lamp is, in this high position it will direct the light onto the hood. And that light gets reflected back to you. Second, the light creates a huge glare problem for oncoming traffic. Lights mounted on the truck cap or a bed-mounted roll bar are even worse; the light comes in through the back window and bounces off the windshield or rear-view mirror
“However, in certain offroad cases—low-speed trail work or in cornering situations forward tracing roof-mounted lamps can be very usefull’
The closer you can place the auxiliary lights to the headlights, the better. “Automakers always take the prime location to install headlights,” Icing says. “So, placing driving lamps near their headlights is best. That way, the auxiliary lights wifi deliver better performance. In addition, they will be better protected from hazards, especially if they’re mounted in a grille or brush guard.
“Fog lights should be mounted low, preferably just beneath the humper. Here they will provide the best illumination and the least glare.”

Is the truck of today too soft? Many hunters and fishermen think so. Let’s look at the situation a Mend of mine encountered with his late-model Suburban. Doug is an avid waterfowler, big-game hunter, and fisherman who tends to push his truck to the limit. He’s been bogged down in a South Dakota cornfield while goose hunting, buried in a Nebraska mudhole while deer hunting, and high-centered on a remote Missouri trail while trout fishing.Though most of his towing is done with a small boat, he occasionally tows bigger loads. He is also a gear freak of the first order—which means he tends to overload the truck with all manner of hunting and fishing equipment.
“My frustration is that I picked a 3/4-ton Suburban so I would have extra load-carrying capability,” Doug told me. “But the rear of the truck sags noticeably when it’s fully loaded. And under heavy braking, the nose really dives.What’s going on?”
Welcome to the world of the modern truck. There was a time (back when television cowboys Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Hop- along Cassidy ruled the range) when the sport utility was viewed primarily as a work vehicle. It had a Spartan interior, three-speed transmission, and stiff leaf springs fore and aft designed to handle massive loads. The ride wasn’t pretty, but that was the nature of the beast.
These days we ask SUVs and pickups to do much more.The new breed of SUV/pickup owner expects passenger car comforts—that’s why SUVs come with plush interiors, comfy seats, and a ride like grandfather’s Fleetwood. Fine. But that trend leaves hunters and fishermen who drive offmad or tow heavy loads stuck in the middle. By “softening” the modem truck suspension to meet the requirements of new owners, manufacturers have compromised load-carrying capability for those of us who really need it.
Given the kind of performance Doug required of his Suburban, I recommended a suspension upgrade. First, he replaced the original equipment shocks with premium shocks, which utilized a sophisticated design that improved the shocks’ ability to respond quickly and efficiently to widely differing driving conditions.
“Though shocks are often considered solely in the context of ride quality; they have an equally important role in traction and steering control,” says Snyder of Trailmaster. “By helping to maintain proper tire-to-road contact, a shock helps improve traction, steering response, and braking effectiveness.
We opted for a quality shock to get that performance and to ensure it would mate well with the second part of the installation— auxiliary air springs.
Air springs are primarily load-leveling tools. This is a key role; a vehicle that is not level will not handle properly. By restoring the vehicle to level ride height, air springs also help ensure that the stock steel springs and the shocks work in optimum conditions.
Air springs, available for leaf and coil-spring applications, use compressed air to inflate and deflate an air bladder to achieve the desired ride height. The controls are mounted in the cab for easy operation.
On the coil-spring application, a polyurethane cylinder is inserted into the spring and a feeder hose for the air is inserted into the top of the bladder. The springs can deliver 1,000 pounds of leveling capacity per pair.
There are two types of leaf-spring applications, sleeve and bellows, each of which is constructed of fabric-reinforced rubber, much like a tire. The sleeve type delivers up to 2,500 pounds of leveling capacity per pair. The bellows unit is heavy-duty: It can handle up to 5,000 pounds of leveling capacity per pair. (Air springs are not available for trucks equipped with torsion bars.) Never exceed the manufacturer’s Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR), which can be found in the owner’s manual. GVWR is the combined weight of the vehicle, passengers, and payload (your gear).
“Air springs help deliver the versatility that today’s truck owner demands. The system gives you the capability to fine-tune the ride under widely differing road and load characteristics, and it also makes for a more comfortable ride and better handling, says Snyder.
Doug has had the system in his Suburban for a year now, and he remains impressed with how his truck handles, both on and off the road, loaded and unloaded. “What a difference,” he said. “Sway and nose dive? Gone.They simply disappeared once I had this system in place. Last summer I drove to Canada to fish with four buddies. We filled the back of the Suburban to the headliner with camping and fishing gear. We even maxed out the roof rack. But the truck handled fine during the whole trip. “With this setup, I feel like I can have my cake and eat it, too.” And that says it all.