In February Sandra and I traded in our tired Suzuki Grand Vitara on a new 2012 Suzuki Kizashi. It's a 4 cylinder, all wheel drive, midsize sedan loaded with all the creature comforts and leather seats. It's a great vehicle that looks amazing in its sparkly pearl white paint, is great in snow, and just sips fuel.

Also in February Maffer picked up his new wheels and tires for his Can Am Outlander from Honda One. The stock 26" Carlisle's weren't cutting it so he upgraded to 27x10x12 Front, 27x12x12 Rear Maxxis Mudzillas on STI wheel with built in offset for wider tires. 

They are a gigantic improvement over the stock rubber!

Later in the month I came home to a burning smell in the house, the fire department arrived and could not find a fire, but our landlord's electrician finally found the problem in the main disconnect to the basement apartment. Thankfully there was no damage or injuries due to the faulty fuse.

In march the factory HID kit arrived for Sandra's Kizashi and I found out just how hard it is to change a headlight on this vehicle!

The entire bumper cover has to be removed (as per factory instructions from Suzuki), then there are no less than 5 bolts holding the headlight to the body!

In any case the headlight upgrade was well worth the effort.

Winter mode: Even though we purchased the car mid-winter we still managed to track down a set of new steel wheels and Firestone winter tires at a local shop.

April saw the next shed project commence, a bunch of repairs on Project Foreman. Work commenced with the replacement of the rear engine output shaft oil seal.

Then continued by replacing the OEM gutted muffler with an EBay sourced OEM replacement,

I finished up by swapping out the Standard Shift foot pegs for the Electric Shift model full floor boards. The full story can be found on the 2013 Repairs page on Project Foreman.

My poor ol' 2007 Chev Colorado was starting to show its age having recently replaced the transmission and the rear end, these light duty trucks really don't hold up well to constant commercial use over the long term. I hadn't been actively looking for a truck, but one caught my eye in a car lot on Topsail Road so I made a few inquiries.

With the deal finalized I de-lettered the Colorado and made it ready to trade-in against my new work truck.

A beautiful 2 year old 2011 Chev Silverado 2500HD. It has a 6.0L gas engine paired with a 6-speed 6L90 transmission, the Z71 Off Road package, 20" polished aluminum wheels and is nicely optioned out with most power options. This truck is beautiful to drive and once fully outfitted suit my needs for work and hold up better in the long term than our previous mid-size & half ton pickups.

Because the 2500HD is so high, I needed a drop hitch to level my trailer while towing, I opted for this Heavy Duty adjustable hitch from Ashford Sales to work with multiple trailers.

French also picked up his new work truck this month replacing his well worn, underpowered 2007 half ton Silverado with a brand new 2013 Silverado 2500HD also with the 6.0L gas engine, 6-speed transmission, Z71 Off Road package and factory polished 18" aluminum wheels. Mark outfitted his new truck with a Space Cap which is an outstanding commercial work cap.

With the new truck in stock Mark and I set about installing HID headlights in the High Beams (as not to blind other drivers) and then installed a stainless steel Westin light bar & four Ridgid Dually D2 driving lights to make night-time highway driving safe.

The following month skid plates arrived for Maffer's Can Am Outlander so he set about installing them in our backyard. Unfortunately the bike wouldn't fit through the gate with the new Mudzilla tires installed so he swapped over to his stock wheels and tires to get the job done!

The OEM plastic skid plates were already in hard shape, these Ricochet Aluminum skid plates are a great upgrade over stock and provide full protection. They are very well built with all hardware lining up well and all edges folded and welded so the skid plates don't hook on trail obstacles.

Later in July I flew to Alberta to spend a couple weeks with Steve, we had a couple days in his Area51 facility finishing repairs to his Honda Rincon 650 by installing a new oil temp sensor and finishing the installation of his Ricochet skid plates.

Just after I left to fly home Steve made a deal and traded his well worn Subaru Impreza on a new 2013 Toyota Tacoma Crew Cab pickup with the TRD off road package. It's a beautiful truck that will suit him very well up north for years to come.

When I arrived home my new 20" EBay light bar arrived and I got to work installing it in the bumper opening of my new Silverado.

The relay harness that comes with the lights is OK and is designed to be hooked directly to a battery and turn on & off with the included switch.

I re-wired the harness and wired the trigger for the relay to the high beam headlights of the truck by tapping into the high beam harness in my HID high beam kit. (I only install HID headlights in my High Beams as not to blind other drivers) This way I did not need an interior switch and the light bar would automatically go out when I dim my headlights as not to blind other drivers on the highway.

Steve also added some aftermarket lighting to his Tacoma with a single row Ridgid Industries Light bar and their custom Tacoma grill mount which makes for a very tidy installation.

For a switch, he ordered a factory Toyota fog lamp switch and installed it in a blank place in the dash next to the actual fog lamp switch.

French finally knocked down his first Coyote, although to be fair he didn't call it out as it ran out in front of his new 2500HD Pickup and lost.

With winter approaching I sourced a set of steel wheels for the truck on which to mount winter tires. The stock 20" Aluminum Rims were terribly corroded when I bought the truck, Hickman Motors replaced all four without hassle under warranty so I did not want to subject them to the harsh elements of winter driving. The new wheels were originally silver, I painted them black for a sleeker look.

After nearly freezing to death on an ATV run with French & his new Yamaha Grizzly I went out the following day and picked up this Heat Demon heated grip & thumb warmer kit for Project Foreman at Honda One. It's a fantastic kit and was easy to install.

With the Canadian Tire Christmas Flyer in full swing I came across a crazy good deal on a new tool box at 60% off! I jumped at the opportunity to have a sensible tool box to organise all my tools, I picked up four sections.

Also in December my Adarac ladder rack arrived so I quickly installed it. Two bed rails are bolted permanently to the truck, the front and rear hoops can be installed and removed in minutes. This is a great option as I do not use the ten foot or extension ladder very often these days.

Earlier this past summer I installed this bed slide I purchased from Don French, it continues to work perfectly for my application. I can load all my parts bins and tools on the slide and pull it out when I need to access them as opposed to climbing in and rolling up the tonneau cover every time. I can even carry my ATV on the slide as it's rated for 1500lbs.

One of my last projects in the old shed was replacing the bumper on Project Powertek REV that I broke last year running over a tree.

There was nothing else damaged but it was still a PITA to get everything lined up properly eventually having to widen some of the bolt holes to get it to fit properly.

The following spring (2014) we said goodbye to Mount Pearl rental home and moved into our new house in Torbay. The new house has a 12x20" detached garage with nice concrete floor that's finished outside and nothing inside (yet).

This old 12x16' shed served me well working on a bunch of projects the past seven years, I truly look forward to our new location and new adventures!

Cheers, MIKE