Four Wheeler February 2021

long-lost scout photos

During some overdue office rearranging, I recently unearthed a long-lost photo album that I had forgotten about. The contents of the album included a collection of International Scout photos I took over 30 years ago. The year was 1989, and I was an Illinois farm-dwelling Scout and general 4x4 junkie. To my surprise, the 4-Wheel & Off-Road Jamboree Spring Nationals came to the Winnebago County Fairgrounds in Pecatonica, Illinois, which was only seven miles from my house. To say I was stoked was an understatement. I was there in my ’77 Scout every day of the three-day show, Canon AE-1 blazing, burning through rolls of film, swapping those rolls of film out of the camera every 36 exposures. Even though International had pulled the plug on the Scout nine years earlier, there…

off-road rabbit hole: what’s outside your internet box?

Terriers are incredible little dogs that are synonymous with tenacity. When they latch on to something they feistily hang on for dear life, never backing down and never letting go. But it’s that same trait that often gets terriers into trouble, especially when they get a long-eared, cotton-tailed rodent in their sights. A terrier will chase a rabbit all over creation: through underbrush, across open field, into thorny thicket, and down into its burrow. But as the rabbit escapes deeper and deeper into its underground lair, the terrier doesn’t know enough to back off. It claws ever forward into the depths as the walls constrict around it, ultimately pinning it motionless and unable to escape. And that’s exactly what often happens to me when I visit the Internet. I’m old enough…

inbox

THIS IS BETTY Well, here we are with our ’46 Willys-Overland CJ-2A in Moab. We have been to Moab twice and once to the Flatfender Fall Colors event in Colorado. I thought I would drop you a line. We have two ’46 CJ-2As. One I have had since 1972, Old Red, my beater. The one in the photo is Betty, that is what my wife named it. Got it four years ago. The wife found it. She dragged me out to look at it, just had to have it. So we bought it and became personal friends with Kaiser Willys. You know the story. Everything is manual, comfort is one step above a covered wagon. It’s fun to drive. Don’t have to worry much about anyone stealing it … they wouldn’t know…

rpm

36,000-POUND CROWN! If you haven’t been paying attention to the towing capability wars, we’ll give you a recap. Chevrolet has dethroned the Ford F-350 Super Duty and its 35,750-pound towing capacity. Here’s how you can put the power to pull 18 tons in your driveway: order a two-wheel-drive, regular cab, dual rear wheel Silverado 3500HD equipped with the Duramax diesel engine and Allison 10-speed automatic transmission. It will also need to be a Work Truck trim and equipped with the NHT max trailering package. What kind of dark magic did the engineers wield to pull off this feat? The recipe included swapping aluminum wheels where steel ones once lived, retuning the front shocks, tweaking the spring rate on the front torsion bar, and a few other tidbits. Pikes Peak in a Plant-Based…

parts rack

EASY BREATHING Get the air flowing into your ’18-up JL Wrangler and ’20-up Jeep Gladiator with Mishimoto’s Performance Intake. The precision-engineered and rotational-molded design is said to increase the airflow into your engine by up to 36 percent with dyno-tested gains of 10.8 hp and 11.4 lb-ft of torque. Your stock lower airbox is retained, the filter can be cleaned and reused, and the system is said to install in about an hour. INFO: Mishimoto, 877/466-4744, mishimoto.com RUGGED RUBBER Need rugged new rubber for your truck or SUV? Your local 4 Wheel Parts has the Factory Xtreme R/T tire that is sure to satisfy all your on- and off-road needs. With aggressive looks, a three-ply sidewall, and a robust tread pattern, the tire is designed to excel in sand, rocks, mud, and snow…

ultimate adventure

We left Ultimate Adventure last month snoozing at camp after climbing to the top of a mountain to visit the incredible McKelvey Lake outside McAllister, Montana. And while unique museums, ghost towns, and abandoned train tunnels were in the event’s rearview mirror, that’s not to say our bag of surprises was empty. On the contrary, Ultimate Adventure had just been warming up to this point, with visits to several of America’s bucket-list destinations in store, as well as some truly world-class wheeling. DAY 5: Gold Mine Ghosts, Old Faithful, and Road Day Carnage We awoke on Day 5 to another chilly early fall Montana morning and wasted no daylight packing up camp. Our site for the night had been down toward the end of the unpaved North Meadow Creek Road, but it…