Magazine Feedback

i think you guys do a good job but you should give tips on finding good old 4X4 trucks.i am in the market but it is hard to find a old truck with only $3000 i live in western washington and i am having troubles finding one though i want the ones with above 400ci big blocks. so do you have any tips or what?

Yeah, this rock crawling thing is getting old, the next thing they will be doing is having somebody climb a tree to attach a winch cable to the highest branch and to see who can get to the top the quickest. YEE HAW!!  

Wow, that sucks. i live in eastern kansas over burlington and we have enough mud to resemble the sahara. and thats coming from some one who lives on 80 acres of land and 2 ponds. makes me jealous.  

To say rock crawling is slow and boring is akin to saying that driving off road is slow and boring....or through mud is slow and boring.  Hell, I can drive faster on a track than I can through a mud hole, or a rock garden, or pretty much any off road area except maybe something like the Bonneville Salt Flats, etc...and then I can say that those areas are flat and boring.

Good off road driving can require finesse and skill...winching up a tree is not exactly rock crawling, or similar to rock crawling anymore than driving on a race track is similar to getting gas.

I love rock crawling.  Its a slow motion roller coaster with an Oh SHiITT! factor that you can't get from Disney.  If you do it right, its NEVER boring.

If you drive over some rocks, go bumpity bump, huh, that's IT?  Sure, it was nothing.

If all rock crawling means to you is driving really slow, and racing just means driving really fast, etc...then the finesse end of this type of thing will be lost on you.

That's OK, that's why we have Professional Wrestling and so forth, for those with a need for that type of less cranial stimulation...

Some people watch basketball or football, etc..., and say, its boring, a bunch of people running back and forth, big deal, nothing's happening.  The same with Soccer, Baseball, Hockey, etc...if you don't see the finess or appreciate the skill involved, its boring to you...

Its human nature.

I have been an avid reader of your magazine for 5years and a subscriber for just over 1 year and I think you guys put out a great mag! I have followed various buildups as well as purchased the last 2 UA DVDs. I look forward to each and every issue. You guys do a good job representing all manufacturers in the pages of your mag. A lot of tech is interchangeable between vehicles so I take what I can from the various articles (I drive a 98 ram).

The one thing I will say (because I am a resident of Canada) is this..

You should take advantage of your relationship with your Canadian wheeling friends and offer some Canadian trail coverage (or even better, come wheel with the UA in Canada). I realize that everyone wants something from your mag, but I can say with confidence that you have a ton of readers to the north that really appreciate your publication and would love to see thier home mountain or valley rocks in the pages of your mag.

Thanks for giving me a voice and keep up the great work!

Matt

Guys the mag is great  but i've also got a few requests. I beleive you guys are based in cali  but there is alot more to off-roading than than jumping sand dunes and crawling over rocks in an expensive buggy.

The average readers are guys like me with mid-grade job and limited funds.  There should definitly be more home-grown rigs and daily drivers.  Thats the essence of off-roading in my book.  Taking my truck to the hole then being able to drive it back, not on trailer.  Mods for the frugal man realy hit the spot, lets see more.  Mud articles and Whoops and the readers rides are well worth the cover price.

My requests are:

-more Ford, Chevy, Mopar,and Nissan a little less Jeep and buggies

-maybe some VS. articles putting vehicles of the same design style against each other, like the 4x4 of the year  but with all years and makes and models competing

-more trails and boggs and mud pits

- more readers rides in depth      if possible

-help start a mud bog  revolution

Thanks guys the time you put into the mag gathering the info so we dont have to.  Keep it up and  safe wheeling.

I don't think I ever said rock crawling is slow and boring. Where I live ( Harford Co. Md.) there is no rocks to climb here. I've watched rock crawling on TV. and it's fun to watch. I myself have no interest in rock crawling in my vehicle or someone elses. I know I wrote something about winching up trees, just to get a laugh out of the readers. That night while I was on the computer I was drinking beer, sometimes I get a little goofy while slamming down some cold ones. In Md. there is not many places to go wheeling ( legally) and this sucks! There is one place where I do go wheeling often, it is in Chesapeake City Md. on both sides of the C & D Canal. There is plenty of hills, mud, sand and trails. Like you said before, we all have our likes and dislikes and I respect that. Will talk to you another time.       HAVE FUN WHEELING!!!!!!  

Rock crawling,mud running,tree climbing,fast prerunning,snow
wheeling, hmmm sounds like a regular sunday drive for us.
up here in northern Canada we do all of those all in one trip.
I just realized that we have it pretty good .I always used to think man they have all the cool wheeling down there"moab,rubicon,dessert,dunes" but it wasn't till i read
this forum that it dawned on me, duh we have all that right here.
with in about 2-3 hours drive we can go to nearly all these
places that resemble the above.
thanks for opening my eyes to what's in my own back yard.
gota go now, I feel a wheel coming on!

i love the mag and the humor you put into it!

i do, howerver, wish that you would put a little more of the technical stuff in there (full articles). in one of your "4x4 shop guides" you guys touched on 'cage designs, do some more of those kinds of articles but go into a little more depth. because alot of the stuff that i know about wheeling mods and custom built equipment has been learned from reading mags like yours and Four Wheeler. i'm pretty sure that alot of the people trying to do things themselves (like me) instead of buying bolt-ons would be able to learnalot of helpful things from the large amounts of collective info you guys have aquired.

good illustrations are usually worth hours and/or hundreds of words worth of explaining. pics can seem to have way too much going on in them to be able to explain a small part that is mostly hidden by the other stuff in the photo. in illustrations you can show only the things that need to be seen to understand what you are trying to explain. i read (and completely uderstood) your online article on desgining a four-link suspension; if i hadn't have been able to look at the illustrations as i read, i would've been lost. speaking of; maybe as one of the tech articles you could do that one. justmake it a little easier to understand and maybe add how the dynamics would change if it was a front suspension.

by the way, i almost wish you had a little more rock crawling in there. but i know that's pretty much the opposite of what everyone else is saying. Oh Well, life goes on.

P.S.   Rick, how do you pronounce your last name? is it peewee as in Herman, payway, or what?

what malberg said...

"I think a beginner 101 article would be in order.  After reading some of the general and Tech questions in this forum alot of these guys/gals need alittle help with where to start.  Items like kind of mechanical classes to take and how design a truck for the purpose they intend to use it for."

...but with depth

you spoke the truth when you were talking about people not seeing the finness of rock crawling and saying it's boring. i'm currently in the process if designing a three-seat, rear-engine buggy. (finances are keeping it in the design stage for now)

"less cranial stimulation"   hahaha, that's great!

I agree with some mechanics 101 artical.People are posting alot of rediculous questions.I mean its commen sense most of the time.I understand that this forum is for that,but take the time to think before you write.  

i think that alot of us who reag your mag are regular guy with home brewed rigs who just love to wheel. I like the rock crawling stuff and the mega built vehicles, but those are just dreaming to me. I am looking for how to for my mild mudder '78 Cj not a high buck monster crawler. I guess some more of the down to earth stuff would be great.

live your mag!!

This is exactly why there are so many Jeeps in the magazine.  Cheap vehicle availability, upgrade availability, tech. info, etc.  Not everyone likes Jeeps but up here in Michigan a fullsize rig just doesn't fit on our trails, only on the powerlines.  Some of my guys built huge rigs (even Jeeps) and after one season, returned to trail size rigs.  I'm originally from Arizona, fullsize works there, just not in the woods here. 

I also agree that the best articles are the homegrown how to's, as I built my Jeep myself (on a budget).  Great feedback for Rick and the staff of the rag! 

Tony in Michigan

16 of the 24 vehicles I've owned were Fords, and I had to constantly wrench on all but one (new).  I'm glad to hear that you have had better luck them.  The best vehicle I've ever owned was my Toyota, but in Michigan, you better own American in the tool and die trade.  Now I'm wheeling with Jeeps, and yes, I'm constantly wrenching on them too.  The popular upgrade is a Chevy drivetrain on Jeeps, I'm still running the AMC.  Great feedback, keep offering it up! 

Tony L. (Michigan)