TireSmoke.org

I think the overheating problem is fixed. The dealer confirmed my suspicion that the fan was not running. Their explanation was that the factory missed a fuse and that they have seen this before. I haven’t yet verified that the problem is solved, but at least they found something simple. This ...

We took a great cruise yesterday. We drove north through the fun winding roads of Wind Cave NP and Custer SP to the park office to get our window sticker for the Honda. While we were there, we hiked our favorite trail in Custer SP. Then we headed north on the Needles Highway, one of the most famous ...

I had my first real trail run in the Honda yesterday. It was far less jarring than the Nissan used to be on that trail. Nothing on that trail is particularly challenging so it wasn’t much of a test, but certainly typical of the types of things I need a rugged vehicle for. The Honda did start to get ...

We got our paperwork in the mail, so we were able to apply for title, register, and pay the sales tax (dealers in SD don’t provide any of that). Since we were at the Treasurer’s office, we renewed all our plates, so then we spent half an hour replacing stickers (Jag, VW, and trailer) and installing ...

Today I changed back to the summer tires. Current mileage is 45,639. The snow tires now have about 9K on them, which means the summer (OE all-season) tires are at 36K. The snows still look good. The summer tires are looking old. We probably drove them way too much last year without a rotation, but ...

This is a new generation of Passport, a significant redesign. I suspect that they couldn’t get it ready to roll it out as a 25 last year and so they kept the previous generation as the 25 and then rolled this out as soon as they were ready. The rollout has been remarkable. They did a press event ...

As I mentioned in the Passport thread, my focus has been on home improvement projects. I haven’t done much with the Jaguar, but I did add another layer of 2X4 to the dead pedal I created. The initial pass at it had my leg just a little too extended. Before attaching the 2X4, I pried open an old can ...

Today’s experiment was RTI measurement, the standard metric of suspension articulation for offroad vehicles. Ramp travel index is merely one metric of offroad vehicles. It is an overly complicated metric based on how far up a 20-degree ramp a vehicle can travel while still keeping all four wheels on ...

I hadn't really thought about the April Fool's angle. I'll try to remember that next year. Here is what the truck looks like now.

https://take4digital.com/honda04.jpg

It did great on its first easy loop that was nothing more difficult than dirt roads. It did give me a chance to try some things ...

Added the Passport to my list.

https://take4digital.com/honda01.jpg
I traded in the Xterra on the first 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport out the door at the Rapid City dealership. This new generation of Passport is Honda’s most offroad capable SUV ever, which really doesn’t mean much.

For me, this is a downgrade in offroad ...

A week and a half ago, we hit negative 20. We had highs in the 60s for most of the last week, but that slab in the garage was still pretty cold and the moisture dragged in by the VW had the humidity in the garage very high. It has been damp and cold out there, but today I finally opened a garage ...

Your fog lights look great. When are you getting a
Leaper?

GM


Thanks for sending me down that rabbit hole. I wasted an hour or so reading about hood ornaments on Jaguars which is a surprisingly divisive issue. Jaguar never put a leaper on the XJ-S. Many dealers did. One cosmetic issue with ...

https://take4digital.com/jag24.jpg

Another problem resolved. Installation was pretty easy. I replaced one connector on each side but was able to reuse the existing wiring. The brackets were very similar, but I used the new ones as they were cupped for the plastic housing. The old housings were ...

I decided to tackle the fog lights. In preparation yesterday, I pulled out the wiring diagram for the fog lights to make sure I fully understood the circuitry and where I might be able to test it. Before going out to the garage today, I took one more look at the wiring diagram and realized something ...