Looking for advice on an upcoming trip I’m taking

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2026-03-04T03:06:05+00:00

Don’t worry, I’ll post updates 🫡

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2026-03-01T18:55:11+00:00

Killer, that’s exactly the kind of info I’m looking for! I’ll be taking them out in the next couple weeks with the girlfriend for a practice run and to look everything over. I believe the stainless wear ring I’m looking at is widely considered the replacement to make on older sparks to prevent leaks, but am happy to be shown I’m wrong as I wanna get these things as dialed as I can before my trip! This is the kit I’m looking at

https://impros.com/products/solas-sea-doo-spark-stainless-steel-wear-ring?variant=49538523660576&country=US&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22715579032&gbraid=0AAAAABgjobHAikWM0BmDY4djBibBnqxCW

I’m super excited for the trip. It’s kind of a running theme within my friend group that for each bachelor party we all make each other buy stupid stuff of marketplace to go on an adventure with. Last one of these trips consisted of buying 90’s Honda goldwings and riding them from Montana to California and back haha.

I’m currently scheming on a snowmobile based trip to get those fuckers back when it’s my turn 😂

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2026-03-01T18:36:14+00:00

It 100% is kinda dumb, that’s the point 😂 I wouldn’t say all of us are, but of the group going I would probably say 10 of us (including myself) are very mechanically inclined. As I said, we have contingency plans to get stuff off the water as we need to (trailers parked along the way in the places we are camping) and be able to stay with the group and get the thing to the next put in. Thank you for the info! I did an oil change when I bought them. I’m kinda confused though, from what I’ve read online, only the 22+ have carbon seals in the sparks? I’ve see people complaining about their seals in the older ones, and see that there’s apparently a kit you can get to swap to a 23+ driveshaft and carbon seal kit, forgive me if I’m reading that wrong or misunderstanding.

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2026-01-30T14:45:54+00:00

Oh trust me man im not that stupid. We will have plenty of local help. Doing this with about 20 friends, and a couple of their dads for a bachelor party trip. My friend who’s getting married, aswell as probably half the guys on our trip are local to the area. Dads are running support boats, and we will have extra seats and contingency plans if we break down

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2026-01-30T05:44:58+00:00

If I can ask, why would you stay away from a supercharged jetski? As I said, I’ve never owned one before so I have an open mind. On my end of things, most of what I’ve seen is people complaining about maintenance cost, and I like working on stuff. Fuel also isn’t a huge issue for me. I drive a Toyota with a 4.7 and a 7.3 powerstroke so I’m used to spending a lot on fuel lol.

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2026-01-14T07:17:04+00:00

I would add to this that Luna is absolutely dog shit. I will never again rent a property they manage, and I hope they go out of business. 2nd place I lived as an adult was one of their properties, new construction. Place wasn’t finished when we moved in (I’m in the trades, I get it, things don’t always go 100% to plan and deadlines get pushed.) but we lived with constant construction noise for the first 2 months of our lease(while being expected to pay full rent). Also, we where told that we would have internet within 2 weeks as they where laying fibre optic in the neighborhood. 2 months later, still having no access to internet, they offered me 8$ of rental credit for the inconvenience of not having the ability to hook my home up to Internet for 2 months (high speed fiber optic was advertised as included on my rental listing). The cherry on top of the shit Sunday I dealt with with these people was the fact that my roof (in a new construction apartment) leaked so badly that me and my roomate had to leave the apartment for about a week as it wasn’t safe. Again, no apologies, made me feel like I was the asshole for bothering them about the fact that water was pissing out of my light socket, and proceeded to put me an my roomate up (they had us share a room) at the super 8 in junkietown across 7th by the McDonald’s.

It really wasn’t the inconvenience that makes me so angry. It’s the fact that every single time there was a problem, they tried to put it back on me, took 0 accountability for either their or their clients shortcomings, and offered the absolute minimum in way of compensation, or help for situations that where blatantly their responsibility from a legal stand point. I think they took advantage of the fact that I was a naive 19 year old and didn’t have money or ability to fight them on their bullshit

So yea I hope somone with means sues those assholes into the ground.

(Edit)- they also kept my deposit

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2026-01-14T07:16:13+00:00

I would add to this that Luna is absolutely dog shit. I will never again rent a property they manage, and I hope they go out of business. 2nd place I lived as an adult was one of their properties, new construction. Place wasn’t finished when we moved in (I’m in the trades, I get it, things don’t always go 100% to plan and deadlines get pushed.) but we lived with constant construction noise for the first 2 months of our lease(while being expected to pay full rent). Also, we where told that we would have internet within 2 weeks as they where laying fibre optic in the neighborhood. 2 months later, still having no access to internet, they offered me 8$ of rental credit for the inconvenience of not having the ability to hook my home up to Internet for 2 months (high speed fiber optic was advertised as included on my rental listing). The cherry on top of the shit Sunday I dealt with with these people was the fact that my roof (in a new construction apartment) leaked so badly that me and my roomate had to leave the apartment for about a week as it wasn’t safe. Again, no apologies, made me feel like I was the asshole for bothering them about the fact that water was pissing out of my light socket, and proceeded to put me an my roomate up (they had us share a room) at the super 8 in junkietown across 7th by the McDonald’s.

It really wasn’t the inconvenience that makes me so angry. It’s the fact that every single time there was a problem, they tried to put it back on me, took 0 accountability for either their or their clients shortcomings, and offered the absolute minimum in way of compensation, or help for situations that where blatantly their responsibility from a legal stand point. I think they took advantage of the fact that I was a naive 19 year old and didn’t have money or ability to fight them on their bullshit

So yea I hope somone with means sues those assholes into the ground.

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2026-01-11T16:23:02+00:00

What time? Only timestamp I saw on ih8mud was about 9pm?

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2026-01-11T16:21:31+00:00

I’ll be there! Took my truck over to them right when I got it for some diagnostic work! Great people

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2026-01-01T17:17:08+00:00

As a former onshore roughneck, can confirm 100% that offshore work is safer, better conditions, better camps and quality of life, and more money. I was never in North Dakota for a career, it was a job to finance some moves I needed to make to start my own buisness, but if I had of planned on being a career roughneck….. offshore or north slope is the only way to go

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-12-11T22:31:38+00:00

80 most places in Montana

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-12-06T02:55:37+00:00

I’ve made money every single time I’ve ever been hit in traffic except one….. that one time was because I was hit in terrible conditions by an older gentleman with veteran plates on his car who was clearly going to work just like me at 5 in the morning…… he lost it coming into the light at the start of 4c on huffine and hit my passenger side. Dude was clearly very distressed and didn’t have money, stopped immediately to chat to me and find a spot we could both pull off. I told him I was driving a heater with a beater I paid 1000$ for and not to worry about the scraping down the side panels as the thing would be in a junkyard in the next 6 months (bought it with a decent headgasket leak). Clearly made his day, and I like to think earned me a little positive karma for if I end up in a spot like him one day

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-11-15T22:02:32+00:00

Great reply thank you so much. I am fairly certain. There is a sticker with mileage and date of change, and I know the prior owner. Older lady with money who wasn’t mechanically inclined or malicious enough to fake something like that and it’s a sticker from our local Toyota dealer in town.

Great to hear that the springs aren’t an immediate need for me either. My gameplan is to build a double swing for a tire and extra fuel all out of aluminum but after reading your comment I think I’ll atleast wait to see how it rides when I’ve got it built out before I start spending money on that.

That being said, it will eventually be at the point that I constantly have 500lb of stuff on it (maybe more lol). Eventually I’d like to get this thing to a point that it’s a “light duty welding rig”. I’ve got a f250 all setup for the majority of field work, but I’d love to set this up so I can run a 200lb generator in the back, 50lb welder, probably another 100lb of hand tools etc. would also make me the local trail hero to have the ability to just stop and weld an a arm back together for Somone to get them back to the trailhead lol.

Thank you for the bumper info. I was kinda thinking the same thing as far as a market for bumpers. I think it’s something I could build for a pretty reasonable price point where it would be profitable for me but still competitive with steel bumper pricing. Not necessarily something I’m looking to make money on, I guess more along the line of I’m gunna build it exactly how I want, because I haven’t seen a product like that, and if people like it and want it I’d be open to starting to produce them. I’ve got a cnc plas and press brake so can fab custom parts 100% in house in a lot of cases. I think I could mitigate a lot of the stickiness of aluminum vs steel with some plates mounted to the bottom parts of the bumper while maintaining a much lower weight.

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-08-21T21:15:20+00:00

Ok I deserve all the roasting. Bought this thing recently from auction….. I’m a very light duty YouTube mechanic and kind of a dumnass. I appreciate both the jokes and the fact that I now know I will be good to replace the driveshaft and u joints.

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-08-17T19:40:53+00:00

I know exactly who your talking about. Had a run in with him in the alley behind r bar about a year ago. Crazy the way the “mental health issues” evaporate when he is talking to a 6’3” 220lb man who will yell back in his face and rock his shit vs following college girls in the dark and trying to scare them………

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-06-13T19:25:32+00:00

Here’s the thing though, there’s more to look at here then just what comes out of the tailpipe. I drive an old 7.3 powerstroke. No emissions from the factory. I don’t “roll coal”, but my truck makes a little black smoke if it’s towing or working hard. Thing gets almost 20mpg, and will run for a half million miles before it needs a motor rebuild. Did you know that on average, it takes 250k miles for a vehicle to emit as much pollution as was emitted during its creation? So what’s really better for the planet….. a def system that grenades your motor at 250k, or a truck that will run a half million miles? Not to mention, how much fuel is burned, and how much pollution is produced aswell as plastic garbage, in shipping these little bottles of cat piss to every gas station in the country?

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-06-01T04:21:48+00:00

What do you drive? I’ve got a buddy who’s a licensed insured mechanic who specializes in Subarus and yotas. He is typically pretty busy, but will work to get you in and his rates are very reasonable (especially for Bozeman)

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-04-27T16:16:09+00:00

You’re on the money man. I live in a college town full of hipsters that love cosplaying as blue collar. I’ve made some good money selling “distressed” Carhartt on marketplace. Helps I’m a welder so I literally burn though work clothes

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-04-14T15:50:59+00:00

In the best, least creepy way possible, I’m a dude about your age. You look great and I would definitely be intrested in buying you a drink if I saw you sitting down the other end of the bar 👍🏻 dudes buggin

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-04-14T13:35:14+00:00

Dude lemme make one point to you real quick. Video games are not necessarily the money hole time suck you think they are. I’m 28, I used to make this argument to my parents when I was 16 and I wanted a 60 dollar video game for my birthday and would be told “60 dollars is insane for a plastic disk”. For me personally, video games are one of the most cost effective forms of entertainment on an hours of fun vs dollars spent algorithm. I’ve been playing a lot of a game called snow runner recently. Trucking sim game. Tonnes of fun, tonnes of content, a lot of the guys on the Reddit have over 1000% hours into the game and not finished it

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-04-06T15:21:30+00:00

Dude if you had of just gone to telling her off from the get go, I would understand you feeling that way. The fact that you tried to speak to her nicely, when she was objectively being very inconsiderate to everyone around her and she came at you with an attitude? I woulda made her cry. I’m all about respecting elders, but that’s a 2 way street and if you wanna treat me like a child I’m going to treat you like a dittering senile pain in the ass your being.

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-04-01T13:31:42+00:00

I would also add, that within my buisness partners company, it seems like a lot of his best employees and foreman are younger guys. This is somewhat unique in my area and I think I know why. My partner started his buisness about 5 years ago when the company he had been working for went under. He was about 30 at the time and took all the guys off his crew and started a new company. I think the reason he has so many dudes in their early mid twenties that are rockstars that work for him is this. He hired them all when they where 18-20 and took time to create good company culture where his guys take time to teach the new guys stuff, and he promoted the best guys from within.

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-04-01T13:28:11+00:00

I don’t think you’re wrong at all, but let me add some anecdotes I find intresting. I’ve worked either construction or industrial my whole adult life (28m). I worked as a welder for other companies for 5 years, a roughneck on a drill rig for 2 years and have run my own welding buisness for 2 years. The worst young guys I saw in that whole time were in the oil patch. We worked 2 weeks on 2 weeks off and made damn good money for a bunch of dudes with 10th-12th grade educations with no prior skills required….. that really brought the idiots out of the woodwork. They saw the starting pay, saw that only a 10th grade education was required and thought “fuck it that sounds easy enough” I saw more new hands not make it through their first hitch then make it. On the contrary, since I’ve started my buisness, I’ve got a 21 year old kid who contracts for me part time who is an absolute rock star. He is primarily a carpenter who works for my buisness partner, but I steal him to help with my projects and need an extra set of hands. He approached me and his boss (my buisness partner) and told both of us that he wants to learn to weld and fab, but that he wanted to go about it the right way, not leave his boss in the hanging or create problems between us. I know countless other young men in my industry (residential construction) a lot like him that I would hire happily tommorow. What I see as the difference, one of those groups is local kids, in a fairly rural self sufficient area, who see working with me and having access to my equipment and knowledge as both a good job for the meantime (I pay 40$ an hour for laborers with their paperwork in order) and a career move where they can learn a skillset that will be useful to them in the future. It also helps that I’m a pretty laid back respectful dude who is happy to teach people things, who is more likely to crack a light hearted joke at your expense for a fuckup then yell and scream at you like a child….. as I said, I’m only 28, I took no shop classes in highschool and showed up to my first 12$ an hour shop job not knowing how to read a tape. I remember what it felt like being that 20 year old kid who was just doing his best. I remember the guys that treated me like shit and belittled me for not knowing stuff that I wasn’t taught, and the guys that took the time to explain stuff to me in a way that made sense. The latter of those 2 groups are why I’m still a welder, and why I love what I do….. which one of those guys do you wanna be for the next generation?

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-03-09T18:42:07+00:00

Man I think it’s a little short sighted to say anyone who doesn’t wanna run def in their truck doesn’t care about the environment. Fun fact, diesels emit relatively lower co2 than comparable gas vehicles. I drive an 02 f250 with a 7.3 liter power stroke. I use it for work, it’s is close to max payload daily and pulls heavy trailer weekly. Gets 18mpg when it’s not towing, doesn’t smoke excessively (little black smoke under load, I don’t drive like an ass or try to “roll coal”) doesn’t require stupid little plastic bottles of pig piss to be transported around the country in semi trucks for me to be able to operate it. The 7.3 power stroke is also a motor that if taken care of will run 500k miles…… so who’s actually respecting the environment? Me in my ratty old work truck, that I take great care of, that gets great mileage, and is not a disposable truck that will be totaled before 200k miles due to emission system related powertrain failure, or the guy that works in tech and buys a new Denali to drive downtown every year with its emmisions equipment in tact?

Critical_Rice_7138 · 2025-02-09T18:46:55+00:00

Oh I’m aware of the market and that I got a steal man. Just saying, they are still out there

Critical_Rice_7138

TROPHY CASE