Table of contents for March 2020 in Four Wheeler

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM FREIGHT LIGHT Harbor Freight Tools introduces Roadshock high‐performance LED lighting. The new LED lights are said to provide the brightest, most dependable light for nighttime off‐roading and other challenging weather conditions. All Roadshock LED lights feature a lightweight die-cast aluminum housing with a high‐impact polycarbonate lens. Each light is IP67-rated, making it dust‐tight and waterproof. Roadshock lightbars are said to provide complete lighting coverage with both wide‐area floods and long‐distance spot beams. All lights feature cooling fins and anti‐vibration mounting points. Roadshock lights are available as a 22-inch combo bar, a 14-inch combo bar, an 8-inch combo bar, and as 3-inch flood and spot lights. A Roadshock wiring kit is also available. INFO: Harbor Freight Tools, 800/444-3353, harborfreight.com PERFORMANCE GREASE Red Line Oil now offers CV-2 grease. CV-2 grease…

jered.korfhage@fourwheeler.com FOUR WHEELER’S WEEK TO WHEELIN’ 2019 BEGAN WITH A GOAL: BUILD A complete early Bronco. However, the deeper we dug and the harder we looked, our hopes of finding one even moderately untouched by the forces of corrosion (and somewhat within our price range) withered. Perhaps it was easier to just build one from scratch—so we did, and it all went down in one week. The project began in Plain City, Ohio, at the Classic Truck Supply headquarters. The bodywork experts used sheetmetal sourced from Golden Star Classic Auto Parts to build our early-Bronco body, sculpted the lines to perfection with 3M body products, and then laid down a stunning two-tone BASF paintjob. When the body arrived at the MotorTrend Tech Center, we were amazed at the devotion to…

jered.korfhage@fourwheeler.com THE SUN WAS STILL WELL BELOW THE HORIzon when the morning alarm blared, tearing our intrepid team of three journalists from whatever semblance of sleep they’d achieved in the cramped tent. What the trio wasn’t prepared for was how they would momentarily be divided—one into a kayak, one onto a bicycle, and the third to the starting line of a 5-kilometer foot race. If you’re just joining us, MotorTrend Group Content Director Sean Holman, 4-Wheel & Off-Road Editor Christian Hazel, and Truck Trend Editor Jason Gonderman traveled to Asheville, North Carolina, where they were reunited with our Land Rover Discovery. The last time they’d seen the Disco, it was receiving its finishing touches at the MotorTrend Group Tech Center in California in preparation for the Land Rover TReK competition.…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM MORE SIX-CYLINDER THROWBACK Loved your article on six-cylinders in trucks, especially the parts that brought back history of our past days working and of your family. Thanks for the memories. TOM VIA EMAIL JEEP LOYALTY I enjoy your editorials. My loyalty is Jeep since I saw my first Jeep CJ-2A in the early 1950s. I’ve loved Jeeps, all models, since that day. I saved my money and bought a new ’71 Jeep Universal V-6. Most don’t know that the passenger seat was an option—$3,500. And my off-roading took off. The Jeep wave was started because back then Jeeps were not as common as they are today and we owners were very proud. At 67 and 20 Jeeps later, that’s all I have owned. When off-roading, you don’t care what…

editor@fourwheeler.com BREAKING NEWS: YOU CAN’T GO OFF THE GRID IF you don’t know where that is. You also can’t go rockcrawling or trail riding if you don’t know where to go. To get you started, we’ve put together more than 10 places to explore—some are on government-run land, while others are private off-road parks. We also tried to find some that you may never have seen before in Four Wheeler. If you’re new to four-wheeling or overlanding, also consider joining a local 4x4 club, as a club can be a great source of information and camaraderie. Texas In Marble Falls, Texas, you’ll find Hidden Falls Adventure Park, a 2,700-acre off-road park. Motorized vehicles of all types can play here. It has mud, rocks, creeks, and waterfalls—all sorts of terrain, with…

editor@fourwheeler.com WE’VE BEEN WORKING ON OUR ’01 CHEVY S-10 Crew Cab for about a year now with our friends at Low Range 4x4 in Wilmington, North Carolina. Over that time, we’ve swapped in a set of 1-ton axles and a four-speed Atlas transfer case, and we repurposed suspension bits originally intended for a Jeep Wrangler. All of this was done to create a sort of do-all wheeler that showcases just how versatile the S-10 platform can be with a bit of creativity. As is the case with many projects, as the main tasks are marked off of the to-do list, a somewhat smaller (but equally important) final punch list begins to build. Of course, for us this included some unexpected challenges and modifications along the way. And that is exactly…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM WE’RE WELL INTO OUR third quarter living with this ’19 Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited powered by the turbocharged 2.0L engine with 268 hp and 295 lb-ft. In addition to some stunning mileage numbers, great suspension performance, and a high level of interior comfort, another compliment we will heap on the winner of our 2019 Four Wheeler SUV of the Year (SUVOTY) is a distinctly short list of gripes. And as you’ll note, most of them will stem from the soft top we’ve chosen to live with in lieu of the optional hardtop. So let’s go. For starters, we’ve been hearing rumors of JL Wrangler top material separating from the bows. Ours is not suffering from this issue and remains solidly attached; however, during instances of high cross- or headwinds while…

JERED.KORFHAGE@FOURWHEELER.COM “It’s loud, fast, and mixes easily with water,” is how the author described this particular swamp buggy back in the June 1985 issue of Four Wheeler, and we couldn’t agree more. For the uninitiated, swamp buggy races are endemic to Florida and feature vehicles purpose-built to navigate deep mud and boggy waters at impressively high rates of speed. Some buggies closely resemble stock vehicles, while others, like Roy Ortega’s big-block–powered machine dubbed “Southern Comfort,” look more like muddy missiles with tractor tires. Roy, a 29-year-old carpenter and mechanic from Florida, used a combination of 0.090- and 0.040-inch-wall aluminum (with T-bar for reinforcement) to craft the body of Southern Comfort, which he anchored to a 5-inch channel-steel frame. The buggy’s boat-like upturned nose, narrow body, and 12-foot wheelbase all helped…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM ’21 Chevy Colorado Here’s your look at the new Chevy Colorado. Stuff you might have/might not have noticed: Chevy is planning to make it easier to spot the differences between the trim levels. Sand Dune Metallic paint is now an option for ZR1 and ZR2. The bow-tie emblems got tweaked. WT, LT, and Z71 have had fascia, skidplate, centerbar, and logo changes. The ZR2 will have unique, flow-through lettering on the fascia and a new front end. That’s Interesting Wonder what happened to that red Jeep Grand Cherokee made famous during Hurricane Dorian in South Carolina for almost drifting out to sea, never to be seen again, but not drifting out to sea after all, and seen again? All’s well, and it even made a celebrity appearance at the…

editor@fourwheeler.com WE STOOD AT THE CREST OF AN IMMENSE DUNE, STRAINING OUR EYES TO GLIMPSE ANY MOVEMENT IN the desert below. To the north, an expansive sea of sand rippled toward the U.S. border like endless sets of waves across an ocean. To the east rose the imposing Sierra Pinacate, high volcanic peaks chiseled over millennia from magma that belched from the earth’s bowels 4 million years ago. This was the Gran Desierto de Altar, home of the pre-Columbian San Dieguito people and one of the planet’s largest collections of maar craters. In the distance, a faint dust trail appeared on the horizon, shadowed by a dozen more. The tip of the spear threaded a path to the base of our dune, ascending it like a shot through a gun…

editor@fourwheeler.com OVERLANDING CONTINUES ITS streak of being a hot way to get off-road and off the grid, and the examples of ingenuity and purpose-building manage to still feel fresh when it comes to outfitting a vehicle. On Four Wheeler’s inaugural 2019 TireRack.com Overland Adventure East, we were joined by these five sponsor and support rigs that were chock-full of ideas that you too might find steal-worthy, whether you’re new or a seasoned overlander. Here’s how experts at living the overlanding life and building for the overlanding life modify their own overlanding vehicles: Support was provided by Overland Experts (OEX) in the form of vehicles and technical expertise, and Dee Zee was one of the sponsors of the event. ’06 Toyota Land Cruiser 100 Owned by: Overland Experts Website: overlandexperts.com About:…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM THIS IS THE MARCH ISSUE, AND MARCH 29 is Vietnam War Veterans Day, so it’s fitting to take some time to honor those veterans. This story remembers soldiers that don’t usually get much attention: truck drivers. Back in the day, they held the MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) of 64A or 64B, and besides having to master the operation of military trucks, at a certain point in the Vietnam War they also had to master solutions to being killed on the job. By 1967, losses being suffered by the U.S. Army Transportation Corps in Vietnam while transporting supplies via road had reached a deadly milestone. A well-coordinated attack on a 40-truck convoy in September of 1967 damaged or destroyed 30 trucks, killing 7 drivers and wounding 17 others. Even in…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM GOING COMMANDO Q I have a ’70 Jeepster Commando with a 225ci V-6 and a TH400 transmission, which I am planning to restore and update all at the same time. My plan is to purchase a ’01 or ’02 V-6 Camaro with a 4L60E automatic transmission, rebuild the motor and transmission and swap them into the Jeep. This would get me an even-fire fuel-injected V-6 with an overdrive automatic. Novak makes the adapter for the transfer case. Since the engine is just another V-6, it should have all the same basic dimensions, making it a relatively easy swap. The axles feature 3.73:1 ratio gears with a Torsen limited slip in the rear. I plan to change the brakes and put four-wheel disc brakes on the Jeep at the same…