One of the things we've learned working at 4-Wheel & Off-Road is that you can break in the rocks, but to get truly stuck you need mud and water. It's really an amazing thing to watch. A capable rockcrawler who wheels his way into a tricky section can often jus
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We're going to let you in on the secret on how not to get stuck in the mud. The key is not to let any part of your rig-besides the tires-come in contact with the mud. As far as we're concerned, when you are in mud, you never want to dig down into it. You want
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Take a look at how we rewired a '72 Bronco, and turned a fire hazard into a trail-ready machine...
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Everyone who has wheeled an open diff vehicle at one time or another knows the feeling. You’re halfway up a rutted hill or off-camber ledge. You’ve got the transfer case in low range and you can feel the torque of the engine through your seat. The su
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Well, there’s no going back now. If you’re like us, and you probably are, there’s only so far you’re willing to travel in the stuffy confines of your trail vehicle. For the most part, a true trail vehicle is an open-top vehicle. You can com
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You don’t have to run a 3-inch body lift and 12-inch springs to run really big tires. In fact, not running a really tall lift with big tires makes for a more stable, better-wheeling vehicle. And if we can squeeze a set of 42s under a Dodge with only 6-i
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Well, there's no going back now. If you're like us, and you probably are, there's only so far you're willing to travel in the stuffy confines of your trail vehicle. For the most part, a true trail vehicle is an open-top vehicle. You can commune better with nat
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Use it or lose it. If ever that axiom holds true it’s when winching. Sure, lots of times you only pull the cable to hoist your nimrod friend’s rig out of a ditch after he unsuccessfully tried to show off for the girlies by driving with his feet. But
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In this line of work we get called a lot of creative names for a lot of reasons. Most of the really choice ones, however, stem from why we didn’t run a Readers’ Rides photo someone sent in or why we didn’t shoot a full blown feature on a given v
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Whackity-pop, zizzz, zizzz, and a whole bunch of expletives are what’s heard on the trail when a rear axleshaft lets loose. In the case of many 4x4s, too much right foot or too large a tire are the main culprits, rather than a poor axle design or weak mat
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How many times have you sat on a trail and waited for a guy with a carbureted engine in front of you to climb that steep or rough section up ahead, only to watch him stall out over and over because his carb keeps flooding out? You know the drill. The guy has
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Hail Mary Trail Repairs That'll Save Your Tail
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Sam Bellamy of Los Angeles got the ball rolling on our reader-submitted request for video, scoring a real life 4-Wheel & Off-Road license plate for his dramatic turn as rear-seat passenger in a Jeep that went over at Tierra del Sol. With steady hand and some k
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That’s right, it’s a whole new animal—no pun intended. Ox Trax has developed a cable-operated locker that’s simple, well designed, and looks bombproof. Our sister magazine Jpmore
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You filmed the gnarliest rollover ever recorded; we have a sick-and-twisted need to view it. In fact, our desires don’t just end with Swamper-up action--we yearn to stare at mid-flight trucks on sand, the worst sticks in mud-bog history, the entire saga o
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Ever make fun of the dude in the brand-new, just-been-ironed, indigo Levis riding down the street on his way-too-clean Shovelhead? You just know he’s never turned a wrench in his life. He’s just some banker trying to live the Harley lifestyle. Don
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It’s got a beefy cast-iron case, an all-gear design, and twin shift rails just like an NP205. But it’s got a little weenie output shaft just like a Kia Sportage. Well, maybe it’s not that bad, but compared to the rest of it, the 11/8-inch, 2
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A Suburban is a lot of truck to take out onto the trail, but that doesn’t mean you have to settle for rolling around on stock tires. Most of the places we like to go on the weekends were tearing at our front air dam and reaching for our running boards. Th
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Kapoww! You might have heard that heart-sinking noise before on the trail, the metallic snap of an axle U-joint letting loose. If you’re lucky, it was somebody else’s rig that’s now immobilized, blocking the trail, and creating unrest. If you
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The times they are a-changin’. With apologies to Mr. Dylan, the ignition timing of your 4x4s engine is pretty well set. Ignition timing is what is used to make sure that the distributor fires the spark plug at the right time. This right time depends on ma
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In 1999, Michael Jordan retired from basketball, Wayne Gretzky from hockey, and Ford introduced the 2000 Excursion. While all the comings and goings of people and products were being noted, several companies were working, thankfully, on designing a lift for th
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Some of you may think that extracting any real power from an assembly line–remanufactured short-block would be like squeezing blood from a stone. For all the ink we’ve given to spot-on custom machine work, triple-checked tolerances, and high-zoot ult
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If you are an Early Bronco fan then you know one thing—in stock form, your suspension sucks. Short shocks and radius arms seriously hamper efforts to get articulation. Older coil designs give a tank-like ride and zero flex. To make things even worse, no o
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If you have spent some time on the trail, then you have probably heard some of the comments about ARB Air Lockers. Some say ARBs leak a lot, while others say that they are too complicated. The rumors and gossip continue, and discussions of the pros and cons of
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A bolt-on part that provides lift, extra wheel travel, and a better ride sounds like something out of a fairy tale. Well, you can pinch yourself—this isn’t a dream. Unlike the intricately fabricated buggy-spring suspensions commonly found on vehicles
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