I'm going to have to agree on the too much rock crawling stuff in the mags. Hey I love it too but I think like most of your actual hard core readers, not many of us can actually afford (MARCH 2006)"what a $170,000 gets you" in a  new rock buggy. I love this magazine and I can hardly ever wait to get the next issue because I have the cover torn plum off the last from looking it over a billion times. But I personally, and I think many others, would rather see a lot more of the good ole' fashion what we call "Ozark Enginuity" or "Jerry Rigging" on our trucks that come from the 70's, 80's, and early 90's for the most part. I found myself talking to a buddy while we was reading back issues about tooo much rock, but I thought maybe it was just me Bi**hing about it. After reading thru these forums I see I'm not the only one. I begg of you PLEASE get back to the good old roots of banged up 4X4's and  let those $100,000 rock crawlers get their own dang magazine! I will admit the last two issues tho have been a lot better and seem to be heading toward the right direction. Thanks!

I agree. The last 2 issues have had much less rock crawling. I am pleased to see the good folks at 4WAR are listing to what the readers are saying.

Also I really like the "Wheeling an IFS" article. Here in Minnesota 10 and 15 year old Chevy trucks are very common. Rusty, but common. I am interested to see just how good (or poorly) the project truck does.

I just love the magazine that you guys put together each month. I really found the article on 14 bolt rebuild quit stimulating. Back in 97 my father and I converted a 1965 chev. shortbed stepside into a wheelin rig, well it made it through 1 winter in northeastern washington and the 283 got toasted and it has set ever since. we got the runnin gear from a suburban that had full time 4 wheel drive, after making a few trips down the pavement to town my dad suggested getting a conversion kit for the t-case and putting locking hubs in, well i did it and was wondering your take on the conversion situation? the case is a 203 ( cheesy chain) sure 205 is best but also worth gold. I'm kicking around engine sizes so i wont get into that yet and i've been thinking about making it a rear mount engine, I don't know have you heard of anything like this before or i'm I just being silly?

                   Thanks 4 the hard work you guys are awsome!!!!!!!

                            muddawg94

hey i just want to start by saying that you guys have an awesome mag, but i would like to see some more features on grand cherokees.  I would also like to know more about IFS wheeling, trail rides around pennsylvania, and where to get good quaity axles and parts for axles for not much money.

thanks for all you great work and keep it up.

I"ll second that . amen brother. i thought JEEP had it's own mag . jeeps,rocks jeeps,rocks,enough is enough.everybody knows what JEEP stands for right .Just Everybody Elses Parts. 

in my area,n.c., there is a mudbogging revolution.we race every weekend almost.the magizine needs more bogging coverage,especially  competition events.i"d even like to see some monster truck coverage .ya''ll can"t say you give the monster trucks fair time in the mag.  

can somebody please help me.Ican't seem to be able to get any of my mags even though i havepaid my subscription up for two yaers and they have already cashed the check.  

As far as my two cents go, I'd like to hear about more daily driver 4x4s. I believe the magazine is fairly balanced between the different types of vehicles shown and the different types of wheeling, but the cheap aspect is sometimes overlooked. Junk is more of my taste, not nice, pretty smelling trucks or parts. I love the budget 4x4 and I hope it will continue, and I also like the reader's rides section.

P.S. -since my first issue featuring the Flourescent Camo K5, the magazine has intrigued me more and more not only to go wheeling, but improve my vehicle. Join an Off-Road club everyone!

G'Day from the land down under. just letting you know that when i pick up my copy from the mag shop i dont get to read it for the first day cause all boys from work are fighting over it to sea wat cool 4wd's are in the states. Now we dont get all the cool cars that you take for granted over there (example : a H2 hummer over here costs A$140,000), but Holden( australian arm of GM maybe thinking of bringing us the H3 fingers crossed. anyway we do get sum great standard 4wd's over here with beefy rigid axles front and rear good coil suspension etc, but here is the bad news with the government being who they are ( fun killers) we are very limited on legal mods made on them for instance in the state of Queensland where i live, biggest tyres i can legally fit are 33in biggest body lift is 49mm/2in and suspension is about 2in as well other states do allow slightly bigger tyres (35in). panel and door removal is a BIG no no. long story short i get to dream when i do get to flick though the pages of 4wheel. i like all 4wd's but love my yotas i have an '87 hilux dual cab diesel( same shape as clampy but twin cab styleside rigid front diffs stayed  until '97. its stock apart from body lift and in need of a motors that goes but hey you always need a project to start somewhere. one question though why not make the mag bigger and full colour? i end up paying 8 dollars by the time is shipped here the same price as the mags over here, with at least two hundred pages more, full colour, hard binded spine, and half of it aint ads, just asking i aint going to stop buying it like i said i love to dream and maybe one day my ute(its not a truck) will turn into clampy somehow.  

Hi Rick,I'm an old fart so I like to see trucks built the old fashoned way,useing your brains and not a bottomless wallet.That said I love the magazine but I think the articles need to be more in depth.I realize there are space limits and all that,but details,details.Now the IFS buildup is going to be very cool,but,man that is the exactly wrong truck to build.Too big with a blown engine to start,needed to be a shortbed Z71 because there are so many of them out there.At least a single cab.And whats up with buying new engines?We can't afford to do this!At least most of us,and we can't afford new dana 60's and all that high dollar gear.Hell,I wish I could.But ,as I said the mag is great,
you have to please such a diverse bunch and you do a good job at it.I hope someday to join you guys on the UA,but time will tell,keep up the good work...........kerry  

In reply to not getting the mags once paid for... I too had the same problem. I simply called their 800 number on the website 1-800-777-0555 and gave them all my info and let them know the mags were not showing up and they responded promtly. Now no problems.

How about a h1 that has been converted to a 800 hp duramax with level 5 armor, road spike drops, electrified door handles, 40mm gernade slots. 6 piaa hids ,night vision , incab adjustable dual shocks , very custom interior, ceramic run flats, exterior cameras and more. This and other H1 and H2 HUMMERS out thier that have been converted to the duramax/ allision most likely came from a kid in his garage .He is thier best kept secret.  This kid not only has shared his technoligy with others., HE also developed a 4 wheel steer., full offroad airride 6 passenger seating.  His diesel H2 conversions avg 500 hp with 20 mpg.... pretty cool old school stuff. I would love to see a article on this stuff    

Well, now that I know this is here, I'll give my input. 

First off, I think that the mag is pretty well balanced for the most part.  Yeah, I like Jeeps, but they're not the only thing out there, nor are they the only thing on trails.  Seems like everybody and their brother has a Jeep, and alot of them never see off pavement time other than parking it in the yard to wash.  Around my hometown, most are just another pimped-out 4x4 with big tires and big stereos.  I'm not getting sick of Jeeps, I just think that they're way overrated.  The Rubicon is one badass rig right out of the box, and it begs to be built.  But hey...not everyone drives one, or wants one.  Now you mentioned before that Jeeps are good for guinea pigs as far as hardware goes.  By all means, that's very true.  Alot of the stuff I've seen in the mag being done to Jeeps I plan to incorporate on my own rigs.  ALso, everyone has to realize, that at every off road event, there's gonna be alot of Jeeps.  THey can't just say "Sorry guys, but we can't photograph your Jeep because we've reached our Jeep picture quota for the month."  They're out there, they're on the trails, but so are all the other rigs.

Having said that, I like the mag's coverage of full-size rigs on trails.  I like the ideas of having full-size trucks going through the same wringer that Jeeps go through, and coming out smelling like a rose.  However...I don't like seeing pre-fabbed tube-rigs that belong to some rich kid being drooled over because he has umpteen inches of travel, and he never got his hands dirty wrenching on it...because he didn't.  Good trucks are built, not bought.  Seeing a deisel-powered rig is nice, but seeing one that's built to punish rocks for being in the way is awesome.   Show rig, schmo rig.  Rigs that work are rigs that are worth looking at.  Those extended length shocks are a waste if the biggest bump you drive over is a speed bump, so why feature it in a mag?  I remember when every 4x4 mag out there featured nothing but over-chromed pavement pounders, and dirty trucks were something saved for the back pages.  4WOR has come a long way.  In my opinion, having a shop work on your rig is fine...you can't do everything in the driveway, and everyone has their limits on what they can do.   But buying a $40K truck and taking it straight to a 4x4 shop, only to drive it around town and show off your money?  Do you really need 44's just to go fishing at Cape Hatteras?

I have two trucks: a '94 Bronco, and a '70 Blazer.  Full-size rigs, one is for street/trail, the other is for trail/street.  Alot of blood, sweat, and tears have gone into both trucks, and alot more is on the way when I get back to the states.  I do most of the heavy work myself: I put an engine in the Bronco using the wrecker I drove, and had it done in a weekend.  I replaced the cab on my Blazer in a weekend...all by myself (something I strongly recommend NOT doing alone).  But, I no longer have access to the tools I used to get those jobs done.  Therefore, when I'm back stateside, the Bronco's going to get a lift kit installed, and the Blazer's getting a roll cage.'  I said all that to say this:  a truck who's owner has spent night after night, weekend after weekend to get it the way he wants is easy to spot a mile away.  Trucks that are built right are easy to spot a mile away.  But, someone who just has a truck jacked up just so he looks cool, well...you can spot them in a crowd, and just by looking at the paint.

Rock Crawling is misrepresented.

I rock crawl in a Nissan Xterra.  :O

Its hardly a mega-buck rock buggy - AND it has IFS ferchrissakes.  

Its my daily driver, and I drive an average of 35-60 K miles /year.

I LOVE rock crawling...if you learn how to to do it, its not dangerous, and you don't roll over.

I took normal precautions, like a set of skid plates for the undercarriage, rock rails, and eventually, front and rear bumpers and a winch...I added AAL's and longer shackles in back...and cranked up the T-Bars up front for a mild 3" suspension lift...and then did a mild 2" BL to fit 33's.

I rock crawled it stock, and the modifications were made over time as I could afford it, and upgraded the trail ratings as I went.

The Xterra is a pretty damn good offroader, and I haven't had any trail damage to speak of (Pine Stripes).  

So - Rock Crawling is not slow and boring, or dangerous.  OK, its slow...but so is good luvin.

I think of it as a slow motion roller coaster...Way up, and then WAY down, leaning WAY over, and back, etc...picking your lines through the boulders, etc...its challenging and technical, but you can start on easier trails and work yourway up.

As for Jeeps and rock buggies, sure, 2 live axles and so forth make it easier...but its about fun...you can drive through a mud bog w/o Big Foot too....same for rocks.

In fact, It can be MORE fun in a less built-rig, as its easier to find trails that challenge your abilities...just like you would not have much fun taking a stock F-150 through a 6' deep bog, but a 2' deep bog would be a blast.

As far as articles go...maybe show a more approachable view of rock crawling, instead of the "Only Crazy People Would Do THis" view that seems pervasive here?

Also - Maybe the answer to the "Too many of the other guy's rig" complaints is GENERAL offroad articles...

Like comparing Pizza Cutter 33 x 9.5's to Fatter 33 x 12.5's on various terrain, etc...

?

Coverage of more offroad events would be cool too...Like ECXC at the end of June and the Nor' Easter at the end of May every year....at Paragon and Rousch Creek in the Poconos...ECXC is ALL Xterra, Hundreds! ..And the Nor' Easter is a unification event...with offroaders of ALL makes coming from Mexico, Canada, and even acrossthe USA.  (Hundreds!)

www.ecxc.com

www.ne4wd.org

Rick, I hear all the dirogatory comments about rock crawlin and new vehicles all the time.  I hope your hearing it, but don't stop what your doing because as you know, that's what is read by all those not complaining.  I do think that maybe those articles could be a little more condensed allowing room for the muddin, snow, and sand runs we all do on a regular basis and love to see familiar photo's of (so we can pretend it's us in the mag).

Also, I drive dodge, another vehicle that gets little love in the magizine seen due to limited number vs. jeep, ford, chevy, ect...Understood!

That being said, there are no cutout fender flares available on the market for my body style ( 01 Ram 1500).  How about an article on the importance of staying low and an example of a clean fender cutout job.

I will offer up my rig for the article.

Love the mag, Keep up the good work.

Buddy