Four Wheeler April 2017

To say I was strapped for cash was an understatement. It was the early ’80s, my job at a factory didn’t pay much, and I liked to wheel—a lot. The perpetual wheeling translated to a lot of broken and worn out stuff on my daily-driven ’77 IH Scout. This had a way of sucking up vast amounts of cash, even though I completed most repairs in my father-in-law’s farm shop. One time, my wife and I had vacation time from our jobs all set up, but no real plan what to do with it. A few days prior to our vaca, I announced to my wife that I thought it would be a great idea if we loaded up our old, rusty-whereyou-can’t-see-it, halfrestored Scout and travel from our home in Illinois to…

KEN.BRUBAKER@FOURWHEELER.COM WE ASKED, YOU ANSWERED I’ve owned this ’79 Ram since 1980, 37 years of dependable reliability. I will probably put it in my will. I’ve pulled other stuck 4x4s out, hauled a 2,000-pound Caveman camper, pulled an 18-foot boat, took it camping, moving, and it was my daily driver at one time. She’s a gem, and as long as I have a place, she’s got a parking spot. OSCAR MEYER VIA EMAIL This was my grandfather’s old rig and now he passed it down to me. Been in the family for 28 years. It’s an ’88 Toyota pickup 4x4! SAMUEL VIA EMAIL This is my ’97 GMC truck. I bought it new in 1996. It has a 350ci engine and a five-speed manual transmission just like it came from the factory. It only has 35,000 miles on…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM New and Returning Ram Packages There’s a new Ram package for the ’17 1500: Rebel Mojave Sand. It’s a color available only to the Rebel, and the first time for any Ram. It starts at $45,590, and for those bucks you get a black interior and special hood, plus that one-of-a-kind skin. And the Ignition Orange Sport is back for the 1500, with a performance hood, black badging, body-colored grille, a monochrome appearance, and an MSRP of $45,140. It’s for crew cab V-8s. IS IT TRUE? The current Ram light-duty will continue to be built even after the redesigned ’18 comes? Atlas is the new SUV from VW? And will seat seven? And will have a diesel? And there’s an eight-part video series about this vehicle called Origins on YouTube? Ford and Blackberry are going…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM SECONDARY SUSPENSION ICON Vehicle Dynamics introduces the S2 Secondary Shock System for the ’16-current Toyota Tacoma. The system allows the installation of a secondary shock to an existing ICON coilover setup. The additional shock can be a 2.5 Series remote-reservoir shock, 2.5 Series CDC Valve shock, or 2.5 Omega Series bypass shock. The ICON S2 System is a bolt-on upgrade with a modular design that gives Tacoma owners the ability to upgrade in steps or all at once. These secondary shocks are said to not only double the damping ability of the vehicle’s front suspension but the remote-reservoir shock configuration and increased oil volume allow the vehicle to be used harder for longer durations of time without experiencing shock fade that could lead to degraded performance. INFO: ICON Vehicle Dynamics, 951/689-4266,…

editor@fourwheeler.com OFTEN, THE FIRST MODIFICATION any off-road fan makes to his or her 4x4 is to add tires and wheels. This is for good reason. New tires and wheels can totally change the look and feel of a rig making it more of a reflection of the owner all while honing the utility of the 4x4 to suit the owner’s needs. Tires on a 4x4 perform many unenviable jobs, and while differences in construction tread design, shape, air pressure, and more, and their effect on performance are usually subject to opinion, you can trust us to help you learn about what tires are right for you. We here at Four Wheeler have years of experience using tires in a wide variety of environments, and while we, like all humans, have opinions about…

editor@fourwheeler.com WORN OUT TIRES PLAY HEAVily on a driver’s mind when inclement weather enters the picture. We’ve been there more than a few times driving rigs with tires that should have been reduced to rubberized playground material years ago. Our most recent adventure was when a well-used fullsize Bronco entered our stable running worn-out allseason tires. Driving it to work early one morning in a heavy rain quickly made it clear they needed to be changed. We didn’t need noisy, heavy-lug mud tires for our intended use as a commuter/backcountry exploration rig in the Pacific Northwest. Instead, we wanted a tire that was quieter and better suited for year-round use and over a wide variety of on- and off-road driving conditions. An E-rated tire was also important because, like many who own…