Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2017 i Four Wheeler

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM ↑ALUMINUM ARMOR Trail Products now offers a full line of aluminum body armor products for Jeeps. CJ, YJ, and TJ models are the first to receive the lightweight corner guard offerings. As with all Trail Products, each corner guard is engineered and manufactured right here in the USA. They are laser cut from 3⁄16-inch-thick aluminum plate using OEM data for proper fitment. The corner guards are said to be designed for an easy installation and provide protection for the vulnerable corners of your Jeep. The company also offers discounts to all current/former service members, as well as first responders and their families. INFO: Trail Products Inc., 805/416-4929, trail-products.com →TRANNY CAPACITY PPE introduces the new DEEP Transmission Pan for ’03-’07 Ford 5R110 transmissions. It increases oil capacity by 6 quarts,…

editor@fourwheeler.com EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE WHEN WE ARE out wheeling, there’s something about a rig that catches our eye. It’s usually because it has a custom part on it that gets our attention because it serves a specific function and looks good doing its job. When such a part brings a sense of affordability into the picture, it’s even more attractive. Such is the case of the winch bumper we recently saw on the fullsize Bronco of Jon Barricklow, owner of JB Custom Fabrication in Salem, Oregon. He couldn’t find any bumpers he liked, so he built a simple, yet cleanly designed, no-nonsense, low-profile heavy-duty unit made from 3⁄16-inch steel. The bumper re ceived so many thumbs-up from other ’86-’96 Ford F-150/Bronco owners that Barricklow began offering it as…

editor@fourwheeler.com WHEN THE JEEP WRANGLER JK ARRIVED IN 2007, NO ONE COULD predict just how profound of an impact it would have on the off-road hobby. While the four-door Wrangler Unlimited was a bit controversial to Wrangler purists at first, with almost 10 years under its belt, it has proven to be the most capable fourdoor Jeep ever produced. One of the most exciting things to develop from the JK platform has been the explosion of events dedicated to the late-model Wrangler platform. Events such as Nitto’s JK Experience Alaska 2016 presented by Discount Tire have redefined what many consider a conventional wheeling vacation. Originally started by EVO Manufacturing owner Mel Wade to showcase the on- and off-road versatility of the JK platform, JK Experience (commonly known as JKX) has…

editor@fourwheeler.com WHEN IT COMES TO BUILDING A VEHICLE, YEARS OF EXPERIENCE HAS taught us you have to go in with a game plan. Failure to plan out your build in advance is a surefire way to end up with more work and money spent. Justin Griggs’ ’05 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon is an excellent example of executing a well-laid plan. Justin knew exactly how he wanted to build his LJ, and he went all-in over three months’ time and did just that. While he’s actually a full-time dealership technician on a certain type of British 4x4 that we won’t mention here, his passion for wheeling and Jeeps drew him to the long-wheelbase Wrangler platform. Since he wanted something capable of hardcore trails and taking his family to the beach, the…

editor@fourwheeler.com THE BEST STORY OF THE 2016 RALLYE AICHA des Gazelles? After nine grueling days of competition in what is arguably one of the world’s toughest all-women’s sporting events, the eight participating American teams took two podium spots in the hotly contested 4x4 class; four placed in the top 10; and all finished the international endurance rally that challenged a number of the U.S. teams to persevere through mechanical breakage, intense dust storms, and trials with navigating and motoring over diverse, tough, and unforgiving off-road terrain in the Sahara Desert. Competitors are required to travel over varied landscape using only a compass, plotter, ruler, and black and white maps that date from the ’40s to ’60s to find a series of checkpoints each day—days that typically range from 14 to…

editor@fourwheeler.com A WINCH MAY BE ONE OF THE MOST USEFUL VEHICULAR-BASED TOOLS YOU can own, adding utility that is difficult to compensate for with other tools. The most obvious task a winch can handle is vehicle recovery—assuming you have some sort of solid land anchor to winch to, be it another vehicle, a sturdy tree, large rock, or some mechanical anchor nearby. We’ve used winches for landscaping, moving rocks, logs, and dirt, and to uproot small trees and bushes out of the ground or impart a falling direction to a larger tree that’s getting cut down. Winches come in handy for some trail repairs, like straightening bent tie rods, or acting as a stabilizer when a vehicle is in a precarious position and a wheel has to come off. Truly,…

editor@fourwheeler.com LOOKING DOWN A STEEP DROP WITH A TIGHT TURN INTO A TALL INCLINE then over some logs, field of rocks and through a foot of water, the off-road course would be a fun day for typical rigs like a Jeep Wrangler, Toyota 4Runner, or an old International Scout. We weren’t in any of them. Instead, we were in the new ’17 Ford Super Duty, and it was holding its own. This is the first time the Super Duty has seen a complete revamp, and it is more than a work truck these days. With an improved suspension, new tighter steering, upgraded 6.7L Power Stroke turbodiesel, and a variety of new cameras, plus features like adaptive cruise control even when trailering, this new truck is much better. Compared to the…

By Michael Photos: Michael Rudd editor@fourwheeler.com AS WE CRAWLED UP THE STEEP ROCKY TRAIL IN OUR WELL-BUILT JEEPS ON the approach to the 12,800-foot summit of Red Cone Peak, we saw an American flag shrouded in the dense fog. We snapped a few photos of our Rubicon next to “Old Glory” and highfived Gary Allen, trail leader for the Mile-Hi Jeep Club of Colorado (MHJC). Usually, the vistas at this elevation span for miles and this 4x4 trail is reputed to be one of the most scenic in the world. Surprisingly, the view was nonexistent—nothing more than a soupy, ominous mist to navigate our rigs through. In fact, we were a bit nervous as we descended the 30-degree slope, hoping not to slip off of the trail and plummet 1,000…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM THE ’78-’79 BRONCOS WERE FORD’S FIRST ride on the fullsize SUV bandwagon. That market had become very big after the Blazer arrived in 1969 because it met the “three bears” just-right-size benchmark. Built for two years, these first big Broncos were very popular and nearly 182,000 of them rolled off the line. More importantly, they laid the foundation for another 16 years of fullsize Bronco production. Work on a truck-based Bronco began in 1972, with an anticipated debut in 1975 or 1976. The 1973 oil crisis and a general financial downturn in the U.S. hit American carmakers hard and caused a shift in outlook and long-term goals. Among other things, it made Ford hesitant to spend money developing a new Bronco. It didn’t help that what had looked to…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM  That’s Interesting -> Official Truck of the National Football League? The Ford Fseries. You’ll want to check out nfl.com/ford because that’s the spot for a sweepstakes for Super Bowl tickets and also a custom ’17 Super Duty. -> Hey, drivers, you hit 1.58 trillion miles driven in the first six months of 2016, which beat the previous record of 1.54 trillion in 2015. The most mile-y month of all in that six-month period of 2016 was June, with 282.3 billion. -> Hey, Texas: You’re up to bat again. Nissan’s got the ’17 Texas Titan package, with a special chrome grille, logo’d floor mats, chrome exhaust finishers, and other unique stuff -> Truck Legends is a new program from Chevy, a special club of sorts for owners of trucks with…

ken.brubaker@fourwheeler.com IT’S MASSIVE, BUILT LIKE A TANK, LOADED WITH CUSTOM FEATURES, AND incredibly functional. This ’74 Dodge belongs to Sam Ayars of Falcon, Colorado, and he calls it “Bud.” Why? We’ll get to that in a moment. Sam is retired from the United States Air Force and is currently a government contractor. When it came time to build a truck, he had a plan. “I had my own ideas on what I wanted to build, and thanks to all of the shared knowledge out there on the forums, I was able to make very well-educated decisions when it came time to pull the trigger and purchase the hardware,” Sam says. He also thanks his “wife and best friend” Tracy for all of her help throughout the build, as well as…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM OFFSET 60 QI have J-truck question for you. I found a rough J3000 with 6-lug axles. I searched the web but found conflicting information. What years had the desirable offset Dana 60 rear axle? It was a semi-float, correct? Will standard Dana 60 gearsets fit? Would it be worth swapping into a lightweight wheeler? I want to eventually put lower axle gears in my Suzuki Samurai. I’m just brainstorming on the cheapest way to keep it 6-lug and get 6.16 or 7.17 axle gears. JOSH BEALL VIA FACEBOOK.COM/JOHNCAPPA4X4 AIt’s an uncommon J-truck, but not the one you are looking for. If they are the factory axles, it should have an undesirable closed-knuckle Dana 44 up front with drum brakes. Out back is likely a Dana 60, although a book…

KEN.BRUBAKER@FOURWHEELER.COM “TWO FOUR WHEELER STAPLES OF THE ’80S WERE THE TURTLE EXPEDITION AND GRANVILLE KING. IN THE JAN. ’89 ISSUE THEIR PATHS CROSSED IN ONE COOL STORY.” Two Four Wheeler staples of the ’80s were The Turtle Expedition and Granville King. In the Jan. ’89 issue, their paths crossed in one cool story. Globe-trotting Gary and Monika Wescott, the brains behind The Turtle Expedition, were planning a trip to South America in their new Turtle III turbodiesel Ford F-350. Granville King, who lived off the grid in Baja with his dog and a collection of 4x4s, was a Four Wheeler correspondent who regaled readers each month with his off-road adventures. The Wescotts penned the story that began with, “Granville King is an ornery cuss. What makes him likable is that…