I enjoy at least one thing in each issue, many times more. I have every issue since sometime in 91. I used to subscribe but my mailman kept mistreating my issues, so I have bought off the newsstand for about 6 years now. Everybody has good ideas here, Fair and balanced coverage is good. Cheap trucks would probably apply to many more people though, I know I like to do everything on my rig myself, I don't buy many "manufactured" parts. I like to build it myself. Keep it simple, keep some of the challenge in it.  Overall I am happy with the publication.

would like to see more events on the eastern half of the country.  Would also like to see more "junkyard builds".  Would rather see more homebuilt vehicles on the Ultimate Adventure rather than shop built vehicles.  Would rather see what someone built in their garage rather than paid a professional to build, that's most of the fun.  

I think ya'll have the best 4 wheeling mag out there . The tech articles , vehicle reviews , event coverage , everything , is spot on . Why don't these folks who want to complain about to much Jeep , Chevy , Ford , or fill in the blank , stop and look around the next time there on the trail , street , or where ever . Everybody doesn't drive the same rigs , so ya'll have to cover everything . I love to look at other folks rigs , regardless of what name is on the fender . You can get ideas from anybody's project . Keep up the good work .  

I just finished the article on winching tips last night.  Check your info on page 51 blocks 4 and 5.  A double line pull as shown in the photo for 4 will indeed give the winch a little mechanical advantage for the reason you stated.  Ignoring that effect, though, a quick free body diagram will prove that a double line pull, as you show it, will double the available force from the winch and half the recovery speed.  It will also double the (possible) stress on the mounting points.  For example, a winch rated at 6000lbs can't pull a certain rig out of a certain problem using a single line pull.  Neglecting the effects of multiple wraps, the winch will pull on the line with 6000lbs of force, the cable will feel 6000 lbs of tension, the anchor point will feel 6000lbs of force, and the winch mount will feel 6000lbs of force.  If you rig the cable as you've shown it with a double line pull, and you are still too stuck to get out, then the winch still applies 6000lbs of force, the cable still feels 6000lbs of tension, however, the winch mount feels 12000lbs of force trying to pull it off your truck (6000 from the winch itself pulling against the cable and 6000 from the other end of the cable pulling against it), and your anchor point will feel 12000lbs of force.  Of course, if 9000lbs of force gets you moving, then the anchor and your winch mount will only feel 9000lbs of force before motion starts (and the cable will feel 4500lbs of tension) and again, once motion starts, recovery speed will be cut in half.  For the same reasons the triple line pull you show in photo 5 will triple the possible stress and recovery pull and cut recovery speed to one third once the load is moving.  Also, remember that every pully costs a little friction, an easy rule of thumb is 10% loss for each pulley, though this may vary quite a bit.  Hope this helps!  

Flypat:

I caught that misinformation, too. I posted on feb 11 and got no reply from Pewe. I noticed that the writing was almost word for word from Warn's basic winching guide available online in pdf. 

http://www.warn.com/corporate/images/90/UserManualSRC.US.readers.pdf

I bought a Ramsey since the Warn guide writer may also be one of the engineers. If Pewe reponds to you, tell him little flat fenders are dorky. 

Ted

Hey man not everybody has Fords either  

I think your magazine is great. I am only 14 and i'm already interested in rock crawling. I like the whoops, and readers rides section. I like to hear about people who got stuck, have broken parts, rolled, or messed up in some other way.  

I appreciate your technical articles more than anything. I've been wrenching for more than 30 years but I now have my first 4wd, and I've just owned it for about a year. I appreciate the tech articles like the glossary of terms for beginners, and the other tech articles in the past year, like the ones that explained the basic terms and the parts on the front axles and the rear axles. I appreciate that because while I've been wrenching and reading car mags for a long time, I'm still not a real mechanic and there are plenty of basic things about 4wd trucks that I don't know. So thanks for the tech articles for the newbies.

I also appreciate the article in the past year about tires, and the size of tires that came out stock on certain vehicles, and your ratings on how quiet or noisy some tires are. Thanks for that too.

I bought my first copy of your mag off the rack over a year ago when you put out the first Indispensible Guide booklet. The booklet is great and I soon subscribed to your mag. Later, when I saw the 2nd and the 3rd editions of those Indispensible booklets packaged with the mags on the magazine rack but they were obviously not included with my subscription copy that I was getting, well, to be honest, I felt like I had been stabbed in the back. I don't agree with the decision that those booklets should not be mailed out along with the subscriber's copies. Yes, it is to your credit that you later sent them out free (except for postage) to subscribers who wrote in to you and sent manila envelopes with stamps on them (after someone wrote in and asked how they could get the booklets), and yeah, I got the 2nd and 3rd booklets that way and thank you, but I still think you should have sent the booklets out to your subscribers in the first place.  Honestly I felt like that situation was a major gaffe. But later, you done pretty good.

As far as the number of articles I've seen on different brands of vehicles, I'm happy with what I've seen. I have an 89 GMC half-ton. I appreciate this series of articles you're doing now on the durability or breakability of IFS...

I like to hear about new products that come out on the market too. Whether it's a tool or some part for a truck, if it's very cool, I like to hear about it, and so thanks for your efforts in that area too. That stuff is very important to me.

Keep the articles coming on little tips and tricks on how to do things more easily when working on your truck, or how to do things more neatly, or a bit faster or with less effort, etc. You might start a thread somewhere around here and ask for more of those tips and see what you get.

Keep the articles coming about how to do things safely, like working in the garage or doing stuff out on the trail. There are lots of people out there who need to see those articles. Keep that up.

I thought the pic of the old orange Dodge on the current issue was very cool.

I think you put out a very fine rag. I save all mine. People write in to you and tell you all the stuff about how and why they don't want your rag anymore... Now they use it to line the bottom of the birdcage, or they cut it up and feed it to the worms in their worm bed or whatever. Don't let any of that stuff get you down. I'm an older guy and I'm tellin' ya, you're doing a very fine job. I appreciate the hard work you all do there. Keep it up!

 I believe you are doing a very good job with this magazine considering the assortment of vehicles avaliable.Everyone knows fuel prices are very unstable right now and will never go under $2 a gallon so lets see some more articles on alternative fuels.Lets see some articles on tuning carburators maybe even those designs for 50 miles to the gallon.thanks for a great magazine . I am also a long time suscriber.  

Im curious as to what these guys who are threatening to discontinue their suscriptions to your mag are going to do to get their fix of cheap truck build-ups and trail/garage tips. Theres no magazine but Petersens offers anything more than pictures of other peoples rigs and articles about new, overpriced products. That is the reason people read your magazine and you need not forget it. Personally, I am most interested in the projects that you guys do where you start with a farm yard piece of junk, and with a little money and a lots of creativity and elboe grease you turn it into a trail jewl. Im sure that you can find trucks besides a jeeps to work on though. The solid axle, leave sprung trucks that you feature are geting really old. Im liking the IFS buildup you started in the May 06 issue. Your doing somthing we havent seen much of before. I personally would love to see you guys take a strong IFS setup like say from a HMMWV, and incorporate in an older solid axle truck. I would also like to see more math equations involving 4-wheeling posted as well. Testing cheaper products would be a fun addition to your magazine. I know Im always wondering if JcWhitney parts would withstand trail abuse. I'll finish by pointing out that you guys have got somthing going for you that no other magazine has. Your editors sound like a tight bunch. You guys get together for trips and such, and accasunally rip on eachothers driving abilities among otherthings. Thats whats most fun about your magazine. You can be very personal and that reminds readers of their little trail possies.

I love the mag.  But here are 3 things I would like to see change:

1.) Solid axles, solid axles, solid axles...that's all we hear or see.  I'm so sick of hearing about solid axles I could throw up.  Manufacturers have been slowly going away from solid axles for the last 15 years, baja trucks don't run solid axles, Hummers don't run solid axles, etc.  There is a reason for this.  IFS is a wonderful invention and IFS trucks can be awesome off road too, and sometimes better.  PLEASE quit bashing IFS and move on up to the year 2006 with the rest of us.

2.) The Jeep Liberty (KJ) has a NV 241 or 242 t-case, mine has a turbo diesel and the 545RFE tranny (used in the 1-ton Dodge Rams), and they have solid rear axles and cast iron A-arms up front.  They are serious trail machines and ARE NOT even in the same category as the Ford Escape or Toyota RAV4.  A Jeep Liberty with a mild lift and MT tires will follow an equally equipped TJ anywhere any day of the week.  I've done it and I've seen it done.  So please do some homework and please QUIT BASHING THE JEEP LIBERTY.  It's not a car.

3.) Rock crawling is getting really old.  It's slow, it's dangerous, and it pretty much guarantees that you'll break something or roll over.  How much fun can that honestly be?  I think most of us east of the Rocky Mountains are getting sick and tired of reading about nothing but sand and rock crawling.  Two-thirds of this country is mud and streams and beautiful trails through the woods.  Yet the only thing I ever see is rock crawling in the west.  PLEASE give us some more coverage of the four-wheeling MOST of us do.

Other than that I love the mag and I look forward to getting my copy in the mailbox each month.  I really do.  Thanks for defending our right to use our 4x4s off-road despite the environmental idiots trying to take our rights away.

I agree, I am getting tired of hearing all the complaining about articles that are not related to that person's particular brand preference.  I personally do not own a jeep but do appreciate the tech articles as there may be some way to incorporate those ideas into my ride.

the right hand pedal is always the best choice?

I am deployed right now so I dont wheel my own rig alot, obviously. I drive a 2002 Expedition XLT 4x4. I do love reading the adventure articles in your sister mags, gives me something to look forward too. But I never hear anything abought my vehicle. Sure, I read everything there was abought project baja expedition. But they didnt even finish the project! How abought an article on the "old" style expedition. Also, I have been looking everywhere for places to wheel in Germany, where I am stationed. I have even e-mailed your magazine asking for help. For all of us who are serving around the world, give us an article on international organizations and places we can go to have some fun. And lay off some of the product reviews. Sometimes I open your magazine and feel like I'm reading a catalog.

SGT Watts

Trebil, Iraq

Sorry I didn't respond sooner, been covered up.  I haven't heard back for Pewe, he's probably busy, or researching what we said.  Are you happy w/ your Ramsay?  I'm suprised to see what Warn had on that link you sent me.  I don't know of any engineer who would make such mistakes.  OKAY, I worked with one, but he was let go.  The most important functions of a double line pull were left out (mechanical advantage doubling force and halving recovery speed).  Superwinch got it right,  see http://www.innovation-engineering.co.uk/theory.htm
Anyway, I've been impressed with the Warn products I've seen, but they are proud of them (lots of $$$$).

Happy winching!

hey i need to see some shizzle on some work on a land rover because i have one and nobody seems to have any real world stuff on it so dont be scared and stretch out and give me some KNOWLEDGE TO CHEW ON ....... DONT BE SCERED...CHICKEN

IE LAND ROVER DISCOVERY SERIES ONE