Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Minto, North Dakota

Minto, ND Car Consumer Discussions

Re: Another disaster of a Toyota transmission [borrert]

by donaldoz on Fri Sep 16 18:57:27 PDT 2005

Hi people. I'm in Sydney and I have the 2004 Kluger/Highlander CVX. I should have known better - the transmission delay - because I read about the problem back in 2003 on this site for people with Lexus and the same 5 speed adaptive transmission. I just resort to slamming the shift back to second then count to 3 - Is that the problem you are on about? How about the sloppy handling? you cant fix the transmission problem but I did fix the handling. Whiteline in Minto Sydney manufacture front and rear anti sway bars especially for Highlander/Kluger that make the car handle nearly as well as a BMW X5 - add the caster/camber kit and change the nothing Toyota factory set 2 degrees caster to 3+ then fix the poor wheel alignment and zero everything and you can actually feel the road again through the steering wheel. I also hate the "slingshot"- I call it the "runnaway" effect when the car sets off down a slight slope and changes up. I found that by switching off the overdrive it limits that. Oh for a manual version! Also my car won't do better than 11 liters/100 Klm - 27mpg - on the Albury-Melbourne flat section of the Hume: no matter how I nurse it. I'm replacing the 225/70/16" wheel tyre match with 255/55/17 Lexus wheels. The only reason the Ford Territory handles so well is the low profile tyres.

Airbags

by mledtje on Thu May 01 06:58:08 PDT 2003

The camper is fairly light, but with water, food, clothes, pots and pans, it is 16-1800#. The airbags allow the truck to be leveled side to side (the side with the refrig, stove, hot water heater, furnace weighs more than the side with the dinette and closet). I also use the airbags to level at a campsite. I can get 3-4" easier with the airbags than I can with 2"x6"s. Do you have a route picked for Alaska? Or places to visit in Alaska? How much time do you have? We took 7 days to get to Alaska - 3500 miles. I would recommend the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. It is well paved gravel and less traveled than the Alaska Highway - its also about 3-400 miles shorter and quite scenic. If you are on the Alaska Highway, either way, stop at the Liard River Hot Springs and soak in the natural hot water for awhile. Enter the water more downstream and work your way up. I would suggest you enter Alaska via the Top Of The World Highway. Takes you through Dawson City. We found the campground at Minto (on the Yukon River) quite nice. They open the campground about Jun 1, you can check in Whitehorse at the visitor center for information. It is a glorious drive up and over the pass entering Alaska. In Alaska - If you can, take the drive up the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay. Take the tour of the oilfields and Artic Ocean for $25. We were the only ones on the early morning tour and it was well worth it. If you go up the Dalton, there is a campground in Fox (just north of Fairbanks) and they have a sweet water spring just outside the campground. Fill your water tank with that wonderful water. Denali National Park is a must see. Sometimes the easiest way to get into the park is to agree to camp for 3 days at the furthest in campground. Otherwise, you may have to wait a day or two to get a campsite. Seward was just too crowded for our tastes. Spend some time in Homer - camp at the end of the spit, on the water. We took a ferry ride from Whittier to Valdez. You have to get reservations for the train ride (with camper) to Whittier and for the ferry to Valdez. One phone call got both reservations. We found gas and supplies easy to come by. If there is something special, a certain brand you want, you may want to stock of on that - otherwise, it is available as you go. We found the portions served in restaurants to be huge! More so in less populated areas. And the costs were about the same as here. Seward was as close as we came to a 'bad' time. And it was worth seeing the Aquarium (or whatever it is called). Just the miles of RV's parked along the water was depressing. We stayed out of town at a small campground. A lot of the roads are gravel. And the gravel roads have soft spots from melting ice and snow. Watch for 'wet' spots or holes and slow way down and go around them. On any gravel road, slow down and pull over when approaching traffic. The traffic throws up rocks, and you hit them at the speed you are traveling. By slowing down and pulling over, you can save your windshield. Good, fairly new tires are advised. As is a good spare. We didn't have any flats (on new LT tires) while others did. Take your time and take lots of pictures - you will have a great time! You can send me an email if you want to come down to Santa Clara and see our Alaska trip photo album. But, I'm out of town from the 6th to the 21st. Mike L

Good experience with dealer

by dmarzo1 on Mon Jan 07 19:42:17 PST 2002

Hi, I bought a 2001 Elantra GT and had a good experience with the dealer, Farrish of Manassas, VA. Salesman was Trey Minto. I got a great deal on the car. They did not screw around with me on the price. In fact, I probably low-balled them a bit and they accepted and did not try any tricks with me--I was quite pleased. Trey answered all my questions, was straight about everything and treated me well. Good experience overall! Dave

More Alaska

by mledtje on Fri Oct 01 15:22:00 PDT 1999

Grizzly and Vince, We drove about 65 up the Dalton highway. The road is pretty smooth, well graded and maintained. Keep your eyes open for soft spots. They can be 6-8' ft wide and a foot deep. Just the thing to send you upside down. As long as you pull over and slow down (we stopped) for all traffic you meet, you won't have rock damage. We talked to a lot of people with broken windsheilds and they were all moving when hit. It seems the rocks are thrown up by traffic and then you drive into them. When stopped, they don't seem to hit you. We also noticed that if you don't slow down, the trucks don't slow down. If you slow down, the trucks also slow down. We got a few rock chips, probably from rocks we threw. The bottom of the truck took a much bigger beating. The shocks are pretty well blasted clean of paint on the leading edges. My wife kept a logbook of all the places we stayed. The one that was most memorable was in Minto, Yukon Territory. We stopped in Whitehorse at the visitor center to ask about and the guy said they just got word the week before that they were open for the season. And he said it was a wonderful place and we would really like it. Just outside Whitehorse, the forest had been burned. And the forests were burned out for the next 200 miles. We were overwhelmed by the devastation. And when we reached the turn off for the campground, the campground sign was charcoal on the back and side. And all around was burned. The guy at the visitor center said they were open, so we drove in. About 1/2 mile back the forest turned green. The place was beautiful! Right alongside the Yukon River. An absolutely gorgeous place, and we were the only campers! And we would not have stopped except we heard they were open for the season. The owners had stayed there through the fire. The fire had come roaring up the canyon, the wind shifted at the last minute and the fire went around them. Then the wind shifted back. These people must live right! The certainly live in a wonderful place. Another place that stands out was the Liard Hot Springs in far northern BC. When we stopped it was a cold (mid 50's) rainy day. Walk back about 3/4 mile on a boardwalk to the hot springs. Change to your bthing suit in the changing rooms and head for the hot springs. Walk in up to your knees, stop, get out, walk to the cooler section and get in. Slowly work your way up to the warmer section. Observe that no one gets to the hot section. Man, does that water feel good on a cold, rainy day. It is so warm there that tropical ferns grow year round. Must be something to see in the snow. We have a Phoenix popup camper. We haven't yet seen mold, bet we live in a dry climate and we like to leave the camper 1/2 open when stored. The flexible part on ours is 3 parts, a nylon sealed canvas, 3/16" foam insulation, more nylon sealed canvas. So we stay quite warm. The camper seals up quite well. It should, I spent 3 weekends making sure it was sealed so mosquitos couldn't get in. I found about 25-30 openings and sealed them all. We did not have a single mosquito get in except through the door. Our camper is not self contained. We have 11 gallons of fresh water storage and no holding tanks. Overall, the one thing that really stood out was the Dalton Highway. The other highlight would have to be camping out on the Homer spit, at the far end of it, right on the water. If you go, I hope you like seafood. There is plenty of it and it is fresh! I found the halibut particularly good. I'm not fond of salmon. My wife enjoyed the crabs. Off to work. Later, Mike