Table of contents for September 2020 in Four Wheeler

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR KEY AUTOMOTIVE EXPERTS As we went to press with this edition of RPM, the world was still dealing with the pandemic called Covid-19, aka coronavirus. Like you, we at Four Wheeler had to modify our norm in many ways. We had severe disappointment over the cancellation of the annual Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, and found ourselves doing this thing called “squats” to avoid the Freshman 15 from working at home with 40 loaves of banana bread as our rotating cubicle mate. Automakers were also affected by the lockdown, switching from mass production of vehicles to producing life-saving equipment, like ventilators and PPE equipment. Since life became different, RPM is also temporarily different for the next few issues. Rather than report on the industry’s happenings since there…

When Jeep launched the Gladiator for 2020, it hit the market with all the standard Jeep offerings: Sport, Overland (analogous to Sahara on Wrangler), and the Rubicon. However, there was a hole in the lineup, and we knew it wouldn’t be long before Jeep jumped into the field of performance midsize pickups with a variant aimed to run tire to tire with the likes of the Chevy Colorado ZR2 and Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro. Enter Mojave; a go-fast version of the Gladiator made for mobbing down desert washes and whooped-out two tracks common to the desert landscape. Although the Rubicon is geared more toward the crawling crowd, the Mojave enjoys a list of upgrades to make it withstand running high speeds in the harsh and abusive terrain of the desert.…

Tundra isn’t just the name of the Toyota pickup captained by Jonathan Girard, it’s where he often works, and where he discovered his dream truck. “My first truck was a ’13 Ram,” he told us. “I bought it new from the dealership at a good price. It was a basic 4x4 and didn’t have too much so I put in a CB radio and better tires.” Jonathan’s job in the mining industry took him deep into northern Canada, often for two-week-long shifts, and during his free time the Ram was his tool for exploring backroads and playing in the sand pits. A brief reminder about the climate of northern Canada—it gets cold. “One morning it was -45 degrees F outside and the Ram’s engine just kept cranking and wouldn’t start.…

Everyone is talking about the new Jeep JT Gladiator, and with good reason. Not only is it new, it’s really cool on many different levels. It’s the first Jeep pickup truck to roll off the assembly line in more than 25 years, it has solid axles front and rear (unlike its midsize truck competitors), and it has the equipment for serious off-road work. Whether you love or hate the JT, there are some styling cues that many would say left it looking a bit unfinished. Quite a few Jeep concepts hinted that the truck would take on the styling cues of the past-generation Gladiator trucks, but we now know it’s nearly identical to the JL Wrangler. If we were in charge of Jeep design, we would have gone with something…

The 1970s were not kind to International Harvester. In 1975, after nearly 70 years of building light trucks, production of the vaunted International Light Line ended. That included trucks from ½- to 1-ton and the Travelall SUV, but not the Scout. Sales of the 100-inch-wheelbase International Scout was doing pretty well overall so it survived the cut. It had become increasingly expensive for International to compete in the growing light truck market and with the agricultural side of the massive IH organization also in financial distress, one of the triage moves was to kill the light truck lines. The Scout product planners had tried to keep abreast of the trends, and that included addressing customer requests for a long-wheelbase Scout. It had been in development since 1971 and when it…

Hemi-Powered Wagon Lee A. Sturtevant’s Town Wagon packed a dragster powerplant under the hood We took a trip through the Four Wheeler archives to July of 1966 where Lee A. Sturtevant convinced us why it was necessary for his Dodge Power Wagon to run around with a ’57 blown 392 Hemi. To many at the time, it seemed like overkill for the tool vendor to use dragstrip-worthy amounts of horsepower for city driving and highway commutes. Others simply wondered how Lee even kept the engine cool. He began by explaining that “he just wanted a high-power truck that would go anywhere he wished with little or no trouble.” Lee’s wanting turned right into having as soon as he dropped the big engine between the Power Wagon’s framerails, and he used…

HELPING SPRING Combat unwanted handling characteristics while adding 2,000 pounds of load-leveling capacity to your ’19-’20 Ford Ranger with the single-leaf, bolt-on helper spring kit from Hellwig Products. The springs are powdercoated and the kit includes all hardware necessary for installation. Adjustable U-bolts allow users to fine-tune the spring rate for specific load applications. INFO: Hellwig Products, 559/734-7451, hellwigproducts.com 40-INCH CARRIER Are you overtaxing the factory tailgate on your JL Wrangler? Smittybilt’s HD Pivot Tire Carrier is said to boost the load capacity of your tailgate to 135 pounds of tire. The tire carrier features an adjustable tilt to keep the spare tire flush against vertical, slanted, open, or closed Jeep tops. The HD Pivot’s monoblock design triangulates the hinge points into a single, reinforced hinge plate distributing the load…

“I didn’t want to be part of the herd,” Paul Cameron told us. “I wanted to prove other cars could do these sorts of things.” And these things, to Paul, mean getting way out into the expansive New Mexico backcountry. But that’s not the beginning of his off-road journey. “I was with Land Rover for 15 years and I was the Service Advisor at the company’s store in Austin, Texas,” said Paul. In addition to his Service Advisor duties at Land Rover, he worked on the company’s “wheels events.” Here, he spent time on a 3,500-acre ranch designing, cutting, and maintaining trails for Land Rover owners to experience their vehicles. “We laid the trails, cut back the brush to where we wouldn’t scratch up the paint, and we’d even camp…

FLAT-TOWING CJ-5 Q I am buying a ’74 Jeep CJ-5 from a buddy of mine. It’s in pretty good shape, but I’m going to be flat-towing it about 500 miles to my home. What gear should I put it in to flat-tow it safely? Transmission in neutral? Transfer case? Is there anything else I should be concerned about? C. ROY VIA EMAIL A Considering the distance, the safest thing to do is unlock the front hubs and disconnect the rear driveshaft at the axle. You can technically flat-tow a Dana 20 with the transmission in Park or First gear and the transfer case in Neutral, but for long distances we feel it’s safe insurance to just disconnect the rear driveshaft. It’s just four nuts, after all. We’ll usually pop the…

SAN JUAN STORIES I know we’ve met on a trail—likely in Moab somewhere—and I really enjoyed Jp Magazine’s 2017 Dirt ’N Drive, hanging out with lots of good people and awesome scenery and such. Anyways, I have to tell you that my favorite place to wheel is the San Juan Mountains! When I first discovered the area in 1974, on a (two-wheeled) Suzuki 550 heading north on 550 during a road trip from Chicago to Los Angeles, I was so awestruck that when I ended up in Ridgway and realized what I had just seen I was compelled to turn around and head south over the same road. After many trips north and south over the seven miles from Ouray to the avalanche shed—about 100 miles of that north/south run—I…

“I found the ’84 Blazer on Craigslist, traded a quad for it, and drug it home.” Eddie Loomis then dug into the K5 and what the seller described as a “blown transmission.” But this wasn’t his first Chevy. “I got my first Square Body when I was 17—a rusted-out ’74 GMC Jimmy. I started fixing it up until I realized the body was toast. I found a ’73 K5 with no rust and combined them to make one good one. When I started to wheel it in the local canyons, I decided the body and frame had way too much flex. The tailgate would fall open and the doors would bind up. I turned my attention to trucks and swapped all my drivetrain into a shortbed K10 chassis.” Eddie then…

Over the years we have upgraded our ’77 F-150 with a 460ci engine from LA Speed, an Offroad Design Doubler, and Super Duty axles with Eaton Detroit Lockers and Sierra Gear & Axle gears. All of that combined to make a truck that is reliable on the street and capable on the trail, but limited to low-speed crawling. While we had plenty of engine to go fast, the single 2-inch shock at each corner took issue with having to control the 6,900-pound truck during spirited driving off-road. To resolve this issue, we installed some used 3-inch bypass shocks that we were able to pick up at a fraction of their retail price. We should note that this is not the correct sequence of events if you want to maximize wheel…

When we received an email inviting us to get behind the wheels of American Expedition Vehicles’ (AEV) new Prospector XL and Colorado ZR2 Bison, we jumped at the chance. Soon, we found ourselves piloting AEV’s newest creations on the trail and street and forming opinions on these two unique trucks. AEV, which was started by owner Dave Harriton while he was in college in Missoula, Montana, has made quite a name for itself over the last couple of decades with quality, droolworthy, U.S.-made parts and complete turnkey vehicles. So, what makes the Prospector XL and Colorado ZR2 Bison unique? What did we learn during our test drives? Read on. ■ Prospector XL The first thing you think of when you see AEV’s Prospector XL is that it is a life-sized…

Structural steel tube is a great compromise between strength and weight. Tube is built to be used in structural applications and to contain pressure. Pipe is built to transport fluids and gases. Don’t confuse the two. We don’t want to use pipe unless we are building plumbing or exhaust on our 4x4s. We want to use structural tubing for 4x4 hard parts. Welded seam, drawn over mandrel (DOM), and chromoly tube are all great options to make bumpers, rollcages, shock hoops, frame crossmembers, roof racks, tire carriers, and more. By adding bends to said tubing, it becomes much more versatile. Heck, you can almost build an entire 4x4 rig out of tube if you know what you’re doing. None of us were born skilled metal fabricators. We have to learn.…