Four Wheeler May 2015

I’ve gotten soft. Not around the middle. Well, a little around the middle. If you only read the title and saw the photo of our long-term 2014 Range Rover Sport, you’re probably expecting me to start talking about how the Sport’s 510hp supercharged 5.0L V-8 is like a much-needed infusion of vigor and vitality. Nope. It’s actually quite the opposite. The Sport is the reason I’ve gone limp. Just a wet noodle behind the wheel. A real meat bag. It’s turned my driving skills flaccid and made me a whiney, pathetic excuse of an iron-fisted 4x4 ramrod. I used to be a hardcore off-road stud. My daily driver was a Ramcharger with no roof and 42-inch TSLs. It was my only vehicle and shuttled me to the office, grocery store, or…

CHRISTIAN.HAZEL@FOURWHEELER.COM SUPPORT GROUP Christian, I just got done reading your Firing Order editorial about having vehicular Tourette’s, and I loved it. I am sure that I also have this disease. Not five minutes before I read your article I was just thinking about how cool it would be to buy and build a Land Rover Discovery Series II. I had even gone as far as looking on Craigslist. I also was looking at K5 Blazers and CJ-7s. Damn it all. I still have to finish my K10 and my four-wheeler, plus a full-time job as a mechanic and owning my own gun shop. Anyway, thought you would like to know you aren’t alone. If you decide to start a support group I want in. MATTHEW GARDNER THE BAT CAVE You own a gun shop? That’s…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM THAT’S INTERESTING The winner in the Full Stock class at the 47th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 was a ’15 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro Series truck. The coach of the winning desert team was the Ironman himself, Ivan Stewart. While we’re talking Toyota, it’s expanding its southeast Michigan R&D facility, making it a total of $126 million going toward expanding Toy’s powertrain/vehicle development in the Michigan area. History made: The first time the military auctioned off surplus Humvees was through govplanet. Com, an online marketplace for buying and selling government assets. Thank the Department of Defense. The 25 available Humvees were going for as much as $41,000. The Tweel lives. It’s an airless radial tire from Michelin. The company has opened a plant in North America to produce the nonpneumatic tire for commercial apps. The…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM DANAFORD After 60ish years since its development, Dana has finally entered Ford 9-inch market for real with its Spicer third member drop-out housings. The new Spicer third members are available in either nodular iron or premium-grade aluminum. The Spicer third members come with a built-in fill plug, billet adjuster nuts, an anti-stick reusable gasket, and can be had with a carrier bore of either a 3.25 inches for 35/40 spline ’shafts or 3.062 inches for 28/31 spline ’shafts. INFO: Dana, 800/621-8084, danaunleashed.com. LIGHT MIGHT Trail Products has added to its recently launched line of UTV parts its Trail and Rock Series Front Bumper and Rocker Guards for Jeeps. Designed and manufactured in the USA, Trail Products offers top-quality parts at affordable prices. All Trail Series parts are manufactured out of 1⁄8-inch steel to…

FEATURE 2015 PICKUP TRUCK OF THE YEAR editor@fourwheeler.com EACH MODEL YEAR, PICKUP TRUCK MANUFACTURERS integrate new features onto the trucks they create and every few years manufacturers introduce significantly changed or all-new trucks. This perpetually changing truck landscape means that to keep up requires a lot of research. For those who are in the market for a new truck, it translates to a lot of visits to dealerships to inspect and drive these rigs. Dealerships can be accommodating, but they’re probably not going to let you have each truck for a week so you can pile 900 miles on them in a variety of terrain both on- and off-road. And even if they did, you probably don’t have time for that because you need to work to earn a living. This is where…

Scoring gets thrown out the window here. We asked the judges which vehicle they’d most like to own, and why, based on their own personal wheeling style and preference. Here’s what they chose. Ken Brubaker, Four Wheeler Senior Editor The Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro was a hoot to drive, and it’s the truck I’d like to own out of this group. I dig how well all of the TRD Pro-specific upgrades work together to make the truck capable and fun both on- and off-road. As a bonus, it’s rated at 21-mpg highway, and it’s one of the least expensive trucks in this group. I think the truck is a great value. I really like the truck’s stance, too. Ali Mansour,JpTechnical Editor This is a tough one. All of the trucks this year had extreme…