Oops, I did it again! Bought another cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage. Mods in progress...

[Cd]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Ha!

[/SIZE]
Police stop tiny Toyota Echo pulling huge pontoon boat






A tear just rolled down Colin Chapman's cheek.

From the article ;
"Indeed, that is a Toyota Echo – a vehicle discontinued nearly 20 years ago because it was too small to be a useful sedan in North America "

Wait ...whaaaa 20 years ago ? But that car is from like 2001 !
That's a fairly new car ! Only like five years old or so.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by redneck

What’s interesting about that photo is that Echo doesn’t look like it’s squatting at all from the weight...
Which means it hasn’t even reached full capacity yet.

Remember most subcompacts which eventually make their way into the U.S. are often the only vehicle in a household in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where they also have to cope with harsh riding conditions and some overloads.

[MetroMPG]

Well, I soaked the threads & nuts for 4 days with penetrating oil and tried again with my breaker bar - couldn't budge them.

My mechanic said bring it by and he'd put the air impact wrench on them.

Which I did. But that only freed 2 / 5 remaining nuts. The rest only spun, which means the tabs on the bolt heads inside the frame rail bent or broke.

I'm going to bring it by today and he's going to torch them off.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by redneck

What’s interesting about that photo is that Echo doesn’t look like it’s squatting at all from the weight...
Which means it hasn’t even reached full capacity yet.

I guess you could hook up the Titanic to that Echo if you balanced it on its trailer and kept the tongue weight light.

[Piotrsko]

Umm, no. Tongue weight should be some percentage of the load which could flatten the car to pancake conditions.

[MetroMPG]

SHOULD be, but doesn't have to be!

I doubt the Echo has 10% tongue weight on it.

(In case it's not clear: joking. If you want to tow the Titanic with an Echo, you're gonna have to adjust tongue weight.)

[Piotrsko]

Well, ONE COULD make a trailer that is self supporting like a triple with a pintle hitch then you would only have to support the hitch, but I bet that's still more than the capacity of the car.

Cute little car gets a cute little trailer unless you're oilpan4

[MetroMPG]

In non-trailering related news:

Filled up on the weekend, and got 65 MPG US = 3.6 L/100 km.




This was the first tank with taller gearing via oversize wheels/tires & 2nd best tank for the car since I got it. Also, the weather has started warming up. Temps varied between about 5 - 20 C (41 - 68 F).

---

New mod this tank!

I lucked into a surplus big deep cycle battery (traded a buddy for some beer), so I've been trying out some alternator-less motoring.

The MPG improvement is clear based on recent trips.

When I tested this in my Firefly, disconnecting the alternator was good for a 10% gain at 70 km/h.

[redneck]

.

Found another for you...

• Less than 39,500 original miles

https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/f...rtible/1074299

Read the description...

Lol




>

.

[MetroMPG]

Ha - that Metro sold for $4400.


NO WAY is it winning Concours de Lemons though: wrong tire size, wrong hubcaps.


Also, autotragic.