They are skyjacker 2.5s. Although it brought the front up a lot more than 2.5 inches. I must say it made a huge difference in the handling of the truck. For once a part I installed on a 4 wheeled vehicle was more than worth the effort. Normally bike parts make a major difference, and car stuff does not. Not the case this time. The truck turns better, stops more normal, drives straighter, tracks better, death wobbles less, and even vibrates a bit less over stutter bumps. Its amazing what a little suspension will do!
So I took the truck to Mexico the other day. There isn't any pictures from that yet as I used my old film camera, but it was only a little hop across the border to show a friend around Nogales. Then she invited me with her to LA and it sounded like fun so away I went.
One of the things I have been trying to do since I bought a nicer camera is to take more pictures of people and to branch out into other areas of photography. So this trip was a lot more artistic shots than scenery. It is LA afterall.
We spent a bunch of time hanging out at a tattoo shop as my friend was visiting another friend to get some work done. I wanted to get a tattoo as well, but unfortunately I didn't have the extra money. On the last day I realized I had more than enough afterall, oh well.
We spent a day wandering around Hollywood, and I realized quickly that I am much more comfortable in the middle of nowhere Mexico than I am in a LA shop. Its funny, as I was less freaked out when I was lost in the mountains of mexico than when I was lost on Venice beach!
Ye olde redneck pig didn't exactly blend in either. It was one of the largest non commercial vehicle I saw in the inner city. Parking was a challenge as most of it was parallel and pretty tight. My mountain man roots came out a couple times as I ran over curbs and ran into a couple concrete barriers with the tires to get the truck turned. I have had a few ideas in my head of building something bigger, or cutting this truck down to shortbed size. This trip convinced me that I would prefer a short bed truck.
At one point we tried to park in a parking garage, and it was a bit tight. I drove under a door that was angled with no room to spare, the cap scraped a bit. After going down the slope I found out the roof got much lower and we couldn't go that way, but when I went to back out we couldn't get out either. I had to take the cap off in the garage to get out. The cab cleared with a 1/4" to spare. Not my brightest moment, but entertaining none the less. It was about 1 am when I got the truck stuck, and about 2am by the time I got it out, and 3 am by the time I found other parking. There are pictures on my friends camera I will post later. I had to laugh at the fact I've gotten my truck stuck in the snow, the sand, the mud, and now in a parking garage!
We slept on a bunch of people's couches throughout the week. I really thought I would be sleeping in the truck most days as we never knew where we were going until late at night. One night we hung out at a bar until 2am only to find a place to sleep at 3am. Showing up with a case of beer does wonders sometimes. I ended up only sleeping in the truck once on the way back at a rest stop at the Cali/Az border. It was just for a quick power nap.
One of the days we went out to Malibu. We stumbled upon the pacific coast highway and I can't really explain how pretty it was. I really enjoyed that day on the beach. There was a lot of driving in traffic to get there and back, which made me a bit cranky but the girls cheered me up quickly and good times were had by all.
I was not in a grand hurry to leave that beach! I was sitting on a rock sipping on a hot pacifico, and loving life. This was not exactly my normal type of trip, but that is the entire point. I was out of my element a bunch of times but hey I wouldn't trade it for the world.
