Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2015 i Four Wheeler

KLAW CATCH Drake Off-Road has a solution to that annoying hood flutter your JK gets after you level out the stance. The new RocKlaw Hood Catch System replaces the factory plastic and rubber hood latches with solid cast aluminum parts that not only look good but keep your hood latched securely to the body, no matter your speed. The RocKlaw comes with stainless steel installation hardware, and you can install the optional aluminum inserts for a stylized look. INFO: Drake Off-Road, 855/372-5367, drakeoffroad.com REAR GUARD Whether you’re a hardcore wheeler who needs to cover up previous damage or are just making sure you never put a wrinkle in your JK’s rear sheetmetal, the GenRight Off Road full rear corner guards are what you’re after. Built from ⅛-inch-thick steel, the corners…

THE CARBURETOR WAS INVENTED WELL OVER a century ago and served the internal combustion engine well. Later, electronic control was married to carburetors with so-so results. Okay, the results were actually horrible. Then, when electrically actuated fuel injectors took the place of the traditional venturi carb, performance improved immensely. The ability to more precisely control fuel mixture over temperature, atmospheric pressure, and rough terrain was a huge boon to four wheelers. These days, new vehicles come from the factory with some form of electronic fuel injection (EFI). Luckily, if you drive an older carbureted rig or are building up your own engine, you have a wide array of aftermarket choices of EFI. The majority of systems listed here are targeted towards V-8 engines, with some fourand six-cylinder options for a…

THE OFF-ROAD HOBBY IS TREMENDOUSLY GREENER THAN PEOPLE GIVE it credit for. Need an example of this? Just check out your local Craigslist. Without a doubt, the pages will be full of used vehicles and parts, many for a fraction of what they originally cost new. The creativity and cost savings that the preowned market creates is something that is truly exceptional. Take Jody Treadway’s ’99 Ford Ranger for example. After years of building an assortment of 4x4s, he was ready for his next project. Looking for a good deal, he did like most of us do and scoured the classifieds around the web. He landed on what looked like a very weathered, but overall well-built, Ford Ranger. Spending so many years building his own vehicles, he wasn’t sure how…

October 2015 marks 10 years since we published the first installment of our long-term test of the ’05 Dodge Power Wagon. Little did we know at the time, our 2005 Four Wheeler Pickup Truck of the Year-winning vehicle would become a permanent part of our Four Wheeler fleet of vehicles and remain there to this day. When the Ram 2500-based Power Wagon was introduced, there was nothing like it in the fullsize truck world. Some of its factorystandard features included electronic locking front and rear differentials, larger diameter rear axleshafts in the 10½-inch AAM axlehousing, electronic disconnecting front antiroll bar, revised springs that created more lift but were softer to enhance axle articulation, longer and higher pressure Bilstein shocks, Alcoa forged aluminum wheels with special modified bead seats, 33-inch tires,…

IF YOU’VE BEEN EYEBALLING AND COMPARING the ½-ton off-road trim packages, you can now add the ‘15 Ram 1500 Rebel to the list of currently offered 4x4-centric pickup trucks, which includes the Chevy Sil verado Z71, Ford F-150 FX4, GMC Sierra All-Terrain, Nissan Titan PRO-4X, and Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. Each of these trucks has admirable 4x4 qualities. For several years, the most off-roady package offered by Ram was the Outdoorsman, so we were excited to see an even more dirt-worthy trim come down the pipeline when Ram introduced the Rebel in January of this year. Obviously, we jumped at the chance to take a closer look at and get behind the wheel of a pre-production Ram Rebel both on- and off-road in sand, gravel, mud, and snow to see…

WE USED TO SIMPLY CALL IT CAMPING. THEN SOMEONE INVENTED THE titanium coffee cup, $500,000 4x4 expedition motorhomes, and shirts and pants with more pockets than you have stuff to put in them and Overlanding was born. It wasn’t long before Overland Expo West found a home base at Mormon Lake, Arizona, just south of Flagstaff. Companies and Overlanders from all over the world gather to show, sell, and ogle the latest in equipment offerings. There are always cool, and unconventional 4x4s at Overland Expo so we had to stop by and take a look. The last few years at the event have been fairly warm. This year, cold winds, rain, snow, and hail hit the lakebed. So much for global warming. Fortunately, the weather didn’t seem to dampen the…

THAT’S INTERESTING Your pet peeve while driving? Number one is probably texters, if you’re anything like those surveyed for the Expedia 2015 Road Rage Report. The yearly review of what annoys driving people showed texting in the top spot, followed by tailgaters and also those hogging the left lane. Incar buzzkills included backseat drivers and shoe-taker-offers. Autotrader named the ’15 Jeep Renegade one of the best vehicles for recent college grads—affordability and fuel efficiency meets tech and style. An iPhone app that fights parking tickets for you? That would be WinIt (through Apple Store or visit appwinit.com). Apparently you take a pic of your ticket and the app runners will contest on your behalf. Submitting the ticket is free. So far, it’s for NYC only. Chevy will have a bifuel…

GM LS V-8 ENGINE SWAPS SEEM TO BE ALL THE rage, and for good reason. They deliver a lot of power and efficiency with little effort. However, that doesn’t mean you should toss out your perfectly running castiron Vortec 5.7L like old bathwater. The ’96-’00 350ci Vortec 5700 engines enjoy lots of aftermarket support to help improve the 255 hp and 330 lb-ft of torque they’re rated for at the crank. An engine swap can be quite costly, so putting even a quarter of those funds into your Vortec 350 engine could get you where you want to be. When it comes to making cheap and easy power with almost any V-8, it’s hard to beat a camshaft swap. So, that’s what we set about doing with our 65,000-mile ’96…

WHEN THE ’74 MODEL YEAR INTERNAtional Light Trucks debuted, only a few outside the International Harvester (IH) boardroom knew the light trucks were on the chopping block; the blade poised for a decapitation. The perennial problem was per-unit profitability. International simply didn’t build enough trucks to be able to match the prices of other mass-produced trucks on the market. As a result, their IH trucks were somewhat overpriced for the market and there was little choice in the matter. It was that or sell at a loss. Furthermore, the dealers were nowhere near “Main Street” where the general public easily could see the great line of trucks IH offered. International dealers were found at the outskirts of town or in the industrial sections, sold alongside tractors, agriculture equipment, and big…