bobmuley said:
If you have a hi lift and some chain already, why would you need another hand-held pulling item?
I was considering the Black Rat before I bought the Hi-Lift. In my quest for high-quality, low-dollar upgrades, I couldn't justify spending almost $400 on a hand winch when I could spend $150 for a Hi-Lift with all the necessary accoutrements to use it as a winch. Sure it takes longer, but that's worth the savings.
As an aside, I've also done a couple other minor mods to the Taco, nothing that warranted any pictures, but I'd just like to document them here.
- Trimmed the exhaust after the hanger
- Unbolted the 7 pin wiring harness from the rear receiver and zip-tied it up under the truck where it won't get smashed. I'm going to do the relocation mod soon, I've just got to find some time (and snug my sack up enough to use a hole saw on my bumper)
- Did the "fog light mod", as you can see in some of the above pictures. Allows you to have your fog lights on independently of the headlights.
- Organized tie downs and tool kit into bags that fit in the driver's side bed compartment and under the rear seat on the driver's side, respectively.
- Removed the splitting axe from my bed and replaced it with the Hi-Lift, mounted with the same quick fist clamps. Also moved the fire extinguisher closer to the tailgate on the driver's side and relocated the shovel to the front rail of the bed.
After the less-than-great performance of my Talkabouts on this trip, my next mod is going to be a CB, which brings me to the inevitable question(s):
What kind of CB setup are you using? Where do you have your antenna mounted? What kind of antenna do you have? What do I need to know to get into this kind of thing?
I'm leaning towards the Cobra 75 WX ST, but I'm open to suggestions. Something compact, cheap and non-Smokey and the Bandit inspired would be preferable.