Four Wheeler February 2022

The summer day was cool and overcast when Aileen Maxwell climbed out of the late-’50s Jeep Station Wagon on Black Bear Road in Colorado. She pointed her Zeiss Ikon medium-format camera at the line of 4x4s slowly descending toward Telluride, framed the image in her camera’s viewfinder, and then released the camera’s shutter. The timeless, awe-inspiring image Aileen captured would soon become legendary in the 4WD world because it would be selected as the cover photo of the inaugural February 1962 issue of Four Wheeler. Over 60 years have passed since Aileen snapped that timeless image and it has spawned emails from Four Wheeler readers, staff discussions, and re-creations of that image. But who is Aileen Maxwell? How did the photo get submitted to Four Wheeler, when Four Wheeler didn’t exist?…

Before we begin, let me go ahead and cut you off at the pass. Yes, I’m a dumbass. I tried to cram a square peg in a round hole. I zigged when I shoulda zagged. I put the beans above the frank. In short, I used the wrong tool for the job. But that’s not really my point. I’m not bummed I broke my 20-year-old pair of Craftsman Professional needle nose pliers. I’m bummed because nowadays I can’t just stroll into my local Sears store, grab a new pair off the wall, and toss my broken ones to the register jockey, and walk nonchalantly out the door on my way to misuse and potentially break another tool in my arsenal. Sigh … personal accountability has fully arrived. But it got…

SUPER WAGONEER BARN FIND Here is my survivor ’67 Jeep Super Wagoneer. It was in a barn for 40 years. The only modification from factory original is the hoodscoop from a ’69 Ford that was added by the original owner and repainted at that time. Other than that, it is untouched and considered the benchmark for Super Wagoneers. It even has the original, dated-coded plug wires and all original hoses. Inside is near perfect. Here are pictures of it dragged out of the barn in southern Illinois and where it is today. Nothing was refinished, just cleaned and polished. GREG VIA EMAIL AGED FONDLY When you’ve made a few laps around the track called life, the vehicles you drove early on are now classics. I was lucky enough to grow up with a dad who…

HITCH SLIDER Protect your rig’s hitch from damaging off-road obstacles with the Hitch Slider. The slider’s one-piece design is made from 6061-T6 billet aluminum and features a ramped underside to help it slide over obstacles without hanging up. The integrated shackle recovery point ring accepts most hard and soft shackles. The compact and universal design fits most 2-inch receivers if the receiver is the lowest point on the vehicle. Available in red, black, grey, orange, blue, and raw machined aluminum finishes. INFO: 41.22 Inc, 41twentytwo.com TRANSMISSION FILTER UPGRADE Upgrade from the standard transmission filter on your 68RFE to the PPE High-Efficiency Fluid Filter. This filter features an extended filter cup that contains 178 square inches of 10-micron filter media. The factory plastic adapter has been replaced with a steel adapter and the anti-drainback…

SPONSORED BY They say everything is bigger in Texas, and even though this year’s event technically began in Oklahoma, Ultimate Adventure 2021 (UA2021) Presented by Rugged Ridge was most definitely bigger this year. With more sponsors, more vehicles, and more participants since Ultimate Adventure began in 1999, UA2021 certainly seems one for the record books. But let’s back up and recap a little of what this event is, how it works, and what makes it so special. Ultimate Adventure is the original hard-core off-road experiential event that, since its inception in 1999, has often been copied but never duplicated. Every year the event takes a group of off-road addicts on a weeklong adventure pitting highly built vehicles against the hardest off-road terrain, brutal pavement pounding, and the ravages of attrition. We run…

SPONSORED BY There are many reasons why we get to do Ultimate Adventure every year, but without one very important group the event just wouldn’t happen. That’s not to minimize everybody who makes the event what it is. Readers are pivotal to the existence of the event because without them we would not have a magazine. Also, we could not do this event without staff working hard to get things organized and plan the trip or capture the adventure so we can share it. We also have a group of folks known as the Ultimate Adventure Cronies who are a dedicated bunch of high-level off-roaders who volunteer their time, knowledge, and experience, and lend a hand no matter what the participants need. But with our event sponsors, the UA train just…