alive. What ended up happening is a week after my last post is that I actually got a call and got sworn in for the Canadian Forces than only had 3 weeks to get ready to go, which included totally cleaning up my grandmothers garage like I was never in there (with a small section of parts that I'm keeping, including some Xterra parts) and prep the Mx-3 to go to the wreckers. She's still in there sitting on jack stands, but I told my parents that if my grandmother really wanted it gone, that it's ready to go and they can call it in to get flatbeded away, but she's good with it and said we can deal with it until I get back since she only uses her car and a half garage for her lawnmower anyway.Also in the rush of getting things gone before I left was to fabricate and mount the winch in my truck. The one thing about working with my dad that it's hard to get your own idea across when he had one in his head too, but it came out quite well. He also made some front shackle mounts on it. Those will affect my approach angle just a tad, but once I eventually put on a (modified) brush guard, it'll sit about that distance anyway, so I don't see any problems there, especially since it's about 1/2" off of how an actual winch bumper would sit anyway. It's made with a 1/2" steel for the base plate and 3/8" sides for mounting, so it's strong as hell; the frame with break before this mount does.
I also installed the heated seat pads in the rear seats and wired all that up. I had gotten my second set of Pathfinder switches in from eBay so I figured might as well. They were in great condition and not only were the light bulbs still intact and working, but they worked exactly how they are suppose to with the way I have them wired up to work with aftermarket pads. I put those switches up front of course, and moved my other set to the rear. The only thing is that my rear passenger side pads don't heat up, but I think that just a connector issue; the pins don't like to line up in the connector 100% sometimes, If not it's a dead controller. I just need some time o sort that outAlso before I left, I got some LONG overdue maintenance done on the truck; timing belt, power steering belts, new steering rack (leaking), water pump, tensioner, A/C sealing & recharge, installed my Grassroots4x4 upgraded idler arm, serviced the clutch/brake system and the parking brake was sticking. Also did an oil change and an alignment. We also put on the sending unit for the oil pressure gauge with the adapters I got but I never got around to actually running the wires to the gauge itself yet. Ironically after doing all that, my alternator decided to fail so we ended up putting in a 165amp marine alternator and replaced my trucks original battery with a dual post D35 Optima Yellow Top. She should be good to go for a while now. I'm just happy that it's all done, despite the money spent, some was service that was way overdue that I just couldn't afford to. I was highly recommended by a friend to bring my truck with me (and I'm so glad I did) to BMQ so I wanted my truck to be reliable for the long drive up, but also since I'll be mechanic-less for 3 months.
Anyway, Basic Training (ie: Boot Camp) had been interesting, good but tough, but sets better as time goes on. Currently starting week 9 of 13. The problem is that we only get our electronics on the weekend, and there's no internet access. We're stuck in an indoctrination period for the first 5 weeks, so we weren't even allowed outside the base for that time. On week 5, I went out and picked up a Rogers Rocket Stick, however after a week of work, come the weekends, you just want to GTFO, so it easilly get distracted and just go out and enjoy my freedom as best as I can for 72 hours, especially they will only allow weekend leave if we've performed/behaved well that week. Last week we we're the duty platoon, which means we had extra responsibilities around the base, mostly cleaning, and that week, we weren't allowed out when we're assigned as the duty platoon, so this week, time to enjoy ourselves!
