Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2020 i Four Wheeler

The tire industry has been hard at work over the last decade or so when it comes to supplying a wide range of high-performance off-road tires for our needs. Improved molding processes have resulted in smoother-rolling tires. Better rubber compounds have increased both traction and wear lifetimes. Furthermore, better-engineered tread designs have added to traction gains while also decreasing road noise. With the percentage decline in car sales in North America and the continuing rise in light-truck sales, tire demand in the off-road segment has risen dramatically. Manufacturers have graced us with a plethora of both all-terrain and mud-terrain tread choices in the light-truck tire category. All-terrain tires offer us better highway manners, but mud-terrains will take you farther down the trail in most cases. Enter the Federal Xplora R/T,…

jered.korfhage@fourwheeler.com Some came to unplug from their everyday lives, others sought to explore an environment far removed from the one they called home. Either way, the 2019 TireRack.com Overland Adventure East was most importantly about the memories formed along the way. We know many 4x4 enthusiasts enjoy camping while wheeling, and some of us choose to extend those trips over multiple days while covering great distances, relying only on what has been packed into, on top of, or behind our rigs. Whether you call it a sport, your hobby, or way of life, overlanding can be described as self-reliant vehicle-based travel where the journey is the purpose—and from that was born Four Wheeler’s Overland Adventure. From the stacks of applications submitted through fourwheeler.com, we selected 20 overland vehicles of various…

jered.korfhage@fourwheeler.com Overland Expo East 2019 was one for the books with a record-breaking 12,500 attendees, 1,000 adventure vehicles, 188 exhibitors, and 55 media outlets. The event found a new home for 2019 at Infinity Downs in Arrington, Virginia, a change from its usual locale some 300 miles to the south. With its rolling hills, beginnings of fall color in the trees, and expansive acreage, Infinity Downs was an admirable location for the Expo. Overland Expo East could be enjoyed via a day pass for folks choosing to explore the show for the day, a weekend pass including two days at the show with vehicle-based camping, or the penultimate Overland Experience, which added access to specialized classes and programs, an attendee gift bag, complimentary beverages, and much more. For those who…

jered.korfhage@fourwheeler.com We saw the Nissan Destination Frontier at Overland Expo West in Flagstaff, Arizona, and needed to get a closer look at the company’s budget overlander. Instead of simply walking around the impressive rig parked at Nissan’s booth, we decided to take it on a whirlwind three-day backcountry trip of our own and see how the automaker did at outfitting its midsize truck for off-grid exploration. Testing the Budget Overlander Nissan’s goal in building the Destination Frontier was to begin with a budget of $40,000, put roughly $30,000 of that toward an SV Midnight Edition 4x4 crew cab Frontier, and with the remaining funds, deck out the rig with appropriate accessories to make it fit for backcountry travel. In short, building an overland vehicle doesn’t have to put you in…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM C-CLIP SEALING Q What is the best way to replace axle seals on a Dana 35 at home with handtools? @SENNLLOYD VIA INSTAGRAM @CAPPAWORKS A There are a few versions of the Dana 35 axle and changing the axle seals on each is slightly different. I’ll go ahead and assume you have the most common version, which is the C-clip Dana 35 rear axle. The good news is that the C-clip Dana 35 is one of the easier axles to replace the axle seals on. Because it’s a C-clip axle, the bearings and seals are pressed into the housing and not on the axleshafts like on a typical semi-floating rear axle. The repair can totally be done in a garage or driveway at home with common handtools. The first…

A TALE OF OWNERSHIP Ever since I recognized myself, as a young adolescent boy stepping out into life’s playground, I have had an unrelenting, inquiring fondness for anything wheels and motor—you would probably be surprised at my personal repertoire’s variety and breadth. I remember about 20 years ago walking out front of my newly bought property and parked across the road was (unbeknown to me then) a new 38A, sitting high (in my eyes; actually sitting low in air-suspension access mode). Instant attraction, as I walked up and peered into its darkened windows and stood back again, the exquisite thought that one day I would have this “golden deer” urban creature. Ten years later, the dream was realized and I have owned the pictured one for 15 years. The history…

Dick Cepek is a household name in the off-road community; it’s also a name that’s synonymous with adventure. The company joined us on Four Wheeler’s 2019 Overland Adventure, where we journeyed with a group of participants across the Arizona backcountry from Wickenburg to Flagstaff, driving almost exclusively off-road and camping each night. We outfitted a ’17 Wrangler for the adventure with suspension, lights, and armor, but the story here is what handled contact with the ground beneath—Dick Cepek’s Trail Country EXP tires. In advance of the adventure, we visited the headquarters of VTX Wheels, where our Dick Cepek rubbers were fit around a set of 17x9 Terra wheels. The aluminum wheels satisfied our need for a respectably sporty look, and the hue matched that of a weathered American one-cent piece.…

FROM THE LOG BOOK Highest elevation (ft.): 1,913 Righthand drive rigs: 2 Lowest elevation (ft.): 440 Number of tires: 196 Adventurers: 53 Miles driven: 302 #overlandadven​​ture19 Instagram tags: 611 Total miles driven by participants to get there: 13,139 Vehicle recoveries: 2 Patches displayed: 251 States represented: 12 Inches of rainfall: 3.6 Trailers in tow: 8 Canadian provinces represented: 1…

TRAIL-RATED TRANS You might recognize the Tremec TR-4050 as what the editors of Petersen’s 4-Wheel & Off-Road dropped into the ’64 International Scout 80 for the 2019 Ultimate Adventure in Alaska. With a 6.16:1 First gear and 0.76:1 Fifth gear, the gearbox mixes low-range capability with highway cruising. For more, check out shiftsst.com. IFS REINFORCEMENT Looking to beef up the independent front suspension on your ’95-’19 Tacoma, 4Runner, FJ Cruiser; ’07-’19 Tundra; or ’07-’19 Sequoia? RCV has CV shafts that are said to be twice as strong as the factory components and withstand increased operating angles, while still directly replacing OEM gear. Head over to rcvperformance.com for more. PORTABLE SOLAR The wizards at 4thD Solar have dreamed up a line of portable solar panels designed for the rigors of backcountry…

While Nissan did a darn good job outfitting the Destination Frontier for backcountry travel, we think that by rearranging the buildsheet in a few places we could wring a bit more off-road capability out of the platform and save a few more dollars. Here’s the plan: Lights For an estimated $56, we could walk out of Harbor Freight with a pair of 3-inch LED cubes and a 22-inch LED lightbar, which would shave $400 from the truck’s off-road lighting budget while still delivering reliable lumens. Winch We’d also snatch a Badland winch with 12,000 pounds of pulling power for one quarter of the cost of the Frontier’s current winch, saving us an estimated $1,200 and gaining some pulling power. Refrigeration We are quite familiar with the benefits of electric cooling…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM THAT’S INTERESTING The 2019 SEMA Show may be over, but its awards will linger for a full year, including the Vehicles of the Year: the Chevy Silverado, truck; the Jeep Wrangler, 4x4/SUV; and the Polaris RZR, powersports. The ’21 Chevy Silverado HD Carhartt Special Edition may be a name too long to even abbreviate on a personalized license plate, but it’s a personalized vehicle, nevertheless. It’s a 2500 LTZ Crew Cab at its soul, outfitted with the Z71 Off-Road package, 20-inch wheels, soft tonneau, and more, along with other durability-themed odds and ends inside that are designed to speak to your demand for a work truck that was inspired by an apparel company. Maybe the other way around. It probably doesn’t matter. China got its new Jeep Commander PHEV.…

jered.korfhage@fourwheeler.com WHEN THE TIRE HAS “MUD-TERRAIN” PLASTERED across the sidewall, our first question for the General Grabber X3 was “but what else can it do?” We installed a set of 35x12.50R17 X3s on our two-door ’17 Wrangler and went through our typical weekend routine—driving far and near in search of wild terrain. Whether it was a high-altitude dumping of snow, beach cruises, grinding over boulders, or slick muddy ruts, we made sure to put the tires through every abusive environment we could get our tread blocks into. After nearly 8,000 miles of torture, we had a logbook filled with notes and a tire repair kit that remained unzipped. Did the General Grabber X3 mud-terrains prove useful in more than just mud? Read on for what we found. SPECIFICATIONS (AS TESTED)…

editor@fourwheeler.com If you’ve been reading Four Wheeler over the last year, you will recognize this ’01 Chevy S-10 Crew Cab. Over the past several months, freelance contributor Ali Mansour has documented the transformation of the truck from bone stock to the incredible off-road–ready machine you see here. While a Crew Cab S-10 may not seem like an obvious pick for a major build, once you look at the low cost of entry and standard features, the S-10 begins to make sense in many respects. The S-10 doesn’t have the major aftermarket support like a Toyota Tacoma. However, it doesn’t have the price premium that even high-mileage, used versions of the Japanese pickups boast either. Given that the S-10 has a body-on-frame construction, reliable 4.3L engine, and limited electronic nannies, it…

Matt Patterson and Samantha Wilson are a case study on how to build a vehicle. That’s because they turned a stock ’01 Jeep Cherokee into a trail monster that can also overland with ease, and they did so without any idea how to go about doing it. On top of it all, they sliced and diced a donor Cherokee to be the trailer. But let’s start somewhere in the middle of this story: Matt and Samantha used to go drive up one of the highest points in Missouri called Bald Knob. It had no easy route. “After every trip that you made it to the top, you felt like you had achieved something and you knew what to mod next,” explains Samantha. Among the Jeep’s earliest upgrades were ones inspired…

editor@fourwheeler.com The way Patrick James signed off on one of his emails evoked a variety of feelings, with jealousy being pretty much at the top of the list. OK, the only thing on the list. He wrote, “Text me. I am traveling and enjoying life.” There was a hard start to that sign-off, though. In January 2018, Patrick lost his wife of 41 years to cancer. He bought this ’18 Ram Power Wagon brand new the following month. Then, Patrick put more than 34,000 miles on the truck in just 19 months. One could say that the outer strength of the truck assisted with inner strength for the human. “Overlanding has given me adventure and helped me move on and meet new people.” We met Patrick and his Power Wagon…

editor@fourwheeler.com Every November, more than 160,000 attendees—representing automotive aftermarket parts retailers, customizers, builders, suppliers, and vehicle manufacturers from around the globe—gather in Las Vegas at the Specialty Equipment Market Association show, better known to most of you as the SEMA show. It’s the granddaddy of automotive shows, taking up more than 2.6 million square feet of display area! SEMA isn’t open to the general public, but if you are connected to the automotive industry, it’s the one event of the year that’s a must. We rolled into the 2019 SEMA Show with cameras at the ready, and one of our goals was to show you some of the most creative, innovative, and capable 4x4s among the 1,500 or more vehicles on display inside and outside the expansive Las Vegas Convention…

JERED.KORFHAGE@FOURWHEELER.COM Think back to the last time you saw a Chevy Vega in the mud bogs. We are willing to bet you have not, at least until your eyes landed on Bernard Eastburn’s creation, that we visited in the January 1986 issue of Four Wheeler. Bernard spent his weekdays tugging a triple trailer to and fro across the Oregon mountains so that on the weekends he could play in the mud. However, he wanted a machine that was a little something different than the rest. He spent enough time glancing between the junked Chevy ¾-ton pickup withering in his backyard and the sagging and impotent grocery-toting ’73 Vega GT in the driveway that he began to have thoughts of “what if …?” Sure enough, Bernard dove into the project of…