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 Project XJ gets kitted out with rock sliders and quarter panel armour to protect its disarmingly good looks while hob-knobbing with western Canadian trees.
 Project XJ gets it second bit of OR Fab goodness. A heavy duty tube bumper perfect for recovery missions and providing protection to the XJ's nether regions.
 Ford has expanded its recall of F150's to cover approximately 1.3 million trucks. The affected model years are from 2004 to 2006. Ford will begin notifying affected owners but if the airbag warning light comes on, owners should bring their vehicles to their Ford dealer immediately. Building junk is a blast when you're twenty, but as you get older, all those times you moved that front axle by yourself will catch up to you. If you want to stay in the game for the long haul, do your back a favour and check out this cool shop crane. It features a 1000-lb live load capacity, and is designed to fit in a typical single-car garage. Townhouse dwellers can become the envy of their strata! Project XJ received a key upgrade in the form of the OR Fab Rock Slider Front Bumper. The bumper was an easy install and provides the strength needed when using it as a feeler for turning around on tight trails. But more importantly, we now have two recovery points on the front, a winch mount, and a bumper that our Hi-Lift jaw can lift from. It looks great, too, but I swear that wasn't one of my considerations when shopping for a bumper!
 When it came time to widen the track width on Project Toyota, we installed a set of high quality wheel spacers from Wheelspacers.ca. Oh, sure, we could have built a pair of full-size, custom, 1-ton axles, but for some reason, the idea of saving several days of work and thousands of dollars appealed to us.
 It's difficult to get excited about valve stem caps, but Extreme Outback Products is doing their best to fuel a fetish. Quality brass construction, o-rings to seal the tire even if you lose the valve core, and a cap retainer. Nice. Before you get caught up with lifting your 4x4 and slapping on big mud tires, make sure you and your vehicle are properly prepared for backwoods travel. Equip yourself with the essentials, spend a few months four-wheeling in the woods, and then decide on your vehicle upgrades.
 
Vision X Off Road just released another new LED light product: a 21-watt, 4" work light available in round or square formats. What is so impressive about this light is that it delivers 1596 lumens while drawing a mere 1.7 amps at 12v. This would be a great light for on-site jobs and campsite illumination. You could leave it on for a couple of days without killing your battery. 
 In their heyday, CB radios used to be the communications tool of choice for truckers and fourwheelers alike. That was also when bell-bottom jeans were at the peak of their popularity. But bell-bottoms are long gone and truckers have moved on to VHF radios. It's time we fourwheelers did, too.
 If this design concept ever turns into a real product, your next 4x4 fabrication project may involve a lot of finger gestures. The biggest hurdle, though will be trying to understand the Engrish instructions:
"If the measurement is possible at time unconsciously expressing with hands, the much more intuitive measurement and accurate delivery would be possible."
The HitchSafe provides an much beefier and secure alternative to hiding your spare keys somewhere on the outside of your vehicle. It utilizes the thick wall construction of a standard receiver hitch to provide a safe-like armoured recepticle, secured by a four-tumbler combination lock. Team Zuchinni gives us another entertaining, behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to go desert racing...in a rock crawling buggy. Did they finish or sustain another DNF? Find out after the break.
 If your middle name is "Captain Air Time" then there's a good chance that you'll be interested in Poly Performance's new JK coilover kit. The kit includes Fox coilovers or air shocks, as well as optional air bumps for when you're collecting those frequent flier air miles.
Ever suffer the embarassment of smashing your differential cover into a rock and watching your precious gear oil spill out and poison Gaia? Yeah, me neither. But like me, I'm sure you've seen it happen to other people. You can avoid this shameful fate by installing Superlift's differential cover guards and pretty up the nether regions of your 4x4 at the same time. |
Recent Feature Articles
Cruiser Days 2010This was my first time to a Cruiser Days event and I'm glad it happened after I bought my Cherokee. Otherwise I might've been seduced by all the beautiful expedition-ready FJ80's and taken out a bank loan to finance a 'Cruiser. But now I'm safely ensconced in another 4x4, so I'm limited to day dreaming about owning one of these great 4x4's.>> More >>KORRBC - Race 2There's nothing quite as tiring or rewarding as thrashing to put a race car back together for a competition on an unrealistic deadline. This was the scenario I was facing after I lent my buggy to a friend to "take a girl for a cruise," a midnight cruise two weeks before the next KORRBC event. The friend failed to see an 8' cross ditch as he was bombing down a gravel road resulting in a horrendous crash and a 10 km walk back to camp with the now unimpressed girl.>> More >>Stave Lake Clean-Up - 2010This year's clean-up event was a great success, with a total haul of over 20 tons of garbage and scrap metal. Thanks very much to the Four Wheel Drive Association of BC putting on this even, as well as the individual and business volunteers who gave up their time, money, and services.>> More >>Kamloops Off Road Racing SeriesThe Flying Zucchini Bros. and their rock buggy went head-to-head with 500+ hp Pro Trucks. Not exactly what you'd call a fair match-up but then again, with Curtis at the wheel, you never know what'll happen. Click on the link to find out what DID happen.>> More >>Renting a 4x4The next time you're on vacation, consider renting a 4x4. It'll cost more but it could make your vacation a lot more memorable. And if you're bi-curious about owning a convertible...or a Jeep...you can scratch that itch while you're at it.>> More >>
Recent Product Review Articles
Napier Precision Heavy Duty Jeep Cherokee Fender FlaresWhen we first started considering a Jeep Cherokee (XJ) for our new project vehicle, we knew that one of the first required modifications would be fender flares. By opening up the fenderwells, we could minimize how much suspension lift we'd need to run 35" tires. Keeping the lift as low as possible would also let us maximize the vehicle's stability on side hills, steep climbs and descents. Around the same time, we were also lucky enough to discover that Napier Precision Products was releasing their first XJ fender flares, specifically designed for '97 and newer Cherokees.>> More >>Drift X170 Action CameraWe test the Drift X170 action camera. Besides using easily available AA batteries and sporting a nifty remote control feature, this baby has an even bigger trick up its sleeve: a real-time LCD screen. That's right, you can actually see what it's aiming at...and you can see what you've recorded. What did we think of it? Find out after the break.>> More >>Backroads GPS MapsIt's been a long time coming but the folks at Backroads Mapbooks have finally released their maps in Garmin's proprietary map format. Was it worth the wait? Are they worth the cost? Read on to find out.>> More >>Goodyear MTR Kevlar Radial Tire TestA multi-purpose 40" tall tire? Hard to believe, right? That's what we thought, but we became believers after a few months of running these tires on a variety of different terrain.>> More >>iPhone Topographic Maps: Fugawi's iMap Topo for the USA and CanadaFugawi's new iPhone app sounds promising. Topographic maps for all of the USA and Canada in the palm of your hand...for $4.99! Could this marriage of GPS, 3G network, and touch pad technology produce a navigational wunderkind? Read on to find out.>> More >>
Recent Trip Report Articles
The Elaho GiantDriving a convertible 4x4 is a ton of fun, but when it comes to long, hot, dusty roads, it's about as far as you can get from "a ton of fun." So when I sold my Jeep YJ and bought a Jeep Cherokee, the first thing I wanted to do was make the long drive out to see the Elaho Giant. The Giant is a well known Douglas fir and its circumference is the 3rd largest in North America. Getting to it requires a 85-90 km journey along dusty dirt roads, which is why I avoided doing it in my YJ.>> More >>Exploring the Britannia Mines - Part 2A week after my first exploration trip to the Britannia mines, someone posted some intriguing photos of a tram tower and building located elsewhere on the mountain. So 3 weeks later, I was back again, and the return trip was well worth it. We also were able to explore one of the mine shafts and underneath the power plant's foundation.>> More >>Exploring BeaverdellOne of the things I love about our message board is when users post photos of trails or old mines that I've never heard of before. Thanks to some intriguing photos posted by a user named GVN_erd, my most recent "discovery" was the mines surrounding Beaverdell.>> More >>Exploring the Britannia Mine and Mt. Sheer Town SiteMost tourists travelling along the Sea to Sky Highway between Vancouver, BC, and the Whistler ski resort are unaware that their route is taking them past one of the worst polluted mine sites in North America. Seventy years of mining activity has exposed the ore to air and water, resulting in chemical reactions that create concentrated acidic, metal-contaminated water. From the mine, this water, or acid rock drainage, made its way down to Howe Sound, killing marine life in the immediate vicinity. But just like the tragic shipwrecks that provide divers with interesting dive sites, the historic and infamous Britannia mine operation has left a wealth of mining remnants for four wheelers and other back country explorers to find.>> More >>Sylvester Snow WheelingOk, here's our promise: this will be the last snow wheeling report until next winter. We realize it's June now and most of you (except for our friends in Chile) have long ago left the snow wheeling mindset. But as we mentioned in our other trip reports, we had an unusually late snow season this year, so we enjoy it while we can, even though it showed up remarkably late. Besides, we needed an excuse to post a pic of Wil almost flopping his Toyota.>> More >>
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