Innehållsförteckning för August 2015 från Four Wheeler

EDELHEAD Edelbrock is excited to announce the release of its new cylinder head designed for ’87-’06 Jeeps with a 4.0L inline six-cylinder engine. The new Performer head is a bolt-on performance upgrade featuring better flowing intake and exhaust ports, a modern combustion chamber design with back-cut and swirl polished valves, and reinforced rocker bosses for strength. It retains stock valve angles, pushrod lengths, and valve cover bolt rail height for use with factory components. It’s machined to accept either distributor or coil pack ignition. Several applications are available to cover the various engine differences, but 50-state emission legality is pending for 4.0L engines when used with factory fuel injection components, as well as AMC 4.2L engines when used with a Mopar Fuel Injection Conversion Kit (E.O. Number D-265-21). INFO: Edelbrock,…

WHEN OUR NEWEST ’14 WRANGLER Unlimited Rubicon project entered the Four Wheeler family wearing Anvil Grey paint, we weren’t about to name it “Pinky.” Anvils are big, heavy, and basically unbreakable. They’re meant to take a beating—literally. They’re the type of thing that gets passed down from father to son after years of being pounded against and never really destroyed. They might acquire some nicks and dings over time,but nothing that will keep them from doing their job. The plan behind the Anvil is to outfit it with the most durable, proven parts we can, while keeping all the luxury that comes in a new Rubicon Wrangler and only improving the comfort and ability of this do-all family go-getter. All anvils need a big, steady foot to make sure they…

HAVE YOU EVER SOLD A VEHICLE AND THEN INSTANTLY realized you made a big mistake? Chris Russell did, so he eventually tracked “his” rig down and bought it back. But there’s a lot more to the story. Chris says, “Minty was purchased for $2,700 in May 2009. It was 100 percent bone-stock, with 120,000 miles, from its second owner. At the time, it was purchased as a daily driver, which would double as a work truck, being that I spend a lot of time working at tower sites on many Southern California mountaintops. The night we brought her home, we took the mother-in-law out to dinner. The moment she saw the truck, she blurted out, “Look! It’s minty fresh!” due to the Broncos mint green color. The name has stuck…

IT DOESN’T MATTER IF YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR HIGH-END BOLT-ON SHOCKS THAT FIT YOUR STOCK 4X4, or if you are building a one-off creation with custom shock mounts, the top-tier aftermarket shock industry is blossoming bigger and brighter than it ever has. We’ve compiled the companies that offer high-performance off-road shocks that fit or can be fit to your 4x4. Most of these companies offer many different shock models, so if you don’t see what you like here, don’t be shy—head on over to the company’s website. ARB ARB recently jumped into the high-end shock market with the Old Man Emu BP-51 externally adjustable internal bypass shock. The shocks are designed to utilize existing mounting locations on Jeep and Toyota 4x4s to allow bolt-on installation without the need for additional…

THE HALLOWEEN MUD BASH IS AN OCTOBER tradition at Barnyard All Terrain, which is located near Livermore, Maine. Saunter into the 120-acre facility during the Bash and you’ll see scores of 4x4s of all sizes and modification levels intermingled with a number of people in costume. What is Barnyard All Terrain? Well, it’s a mud-oriented facility nestled in the rolling countryside of rural Maine and is surrounded by farmland and woods. As a matter of fact, the property used to be farm, hence the name. Barnyard materialized in 2007 due to the popularity of mud racing in the area. Barnyard All Terrain President Dave Lovewell says that racing used to be held in the farm’s cornfield on Sunday afternoons. Incidentally, the farm has been in the Lovewell family since the…

IF YOU HAVE A LIFTED ’99-’06 GM 4x4, you’ve had to futz with torsion bars. In a stock application, the torsion bars work OK, but they add a lot of complexity and weight to your suspension system. When you add a lift kit, the required drop brackets generally hang down far below the frame, VLJQLÀFDQWO\ GHFUHDVLQJ JURXQG clearance. JD Fabrication in Escondido, California, went to work on the GM IFS to come up with an affordable mid-travel steering and suspension solution. The company developed a simple weld-on coilover kit that replaces the clunky torsion bars and related crossmember bracketry. JD Fabrication specializes in go-fast long-travel suspensions for 2x4s and 4x4s. The company already offers a complete highend long-travel IFS kit for the ’99-’06 GM 4x4 that provides up to 15…

FORD’S NEW ’15 F-150 IS SURE TO BE A POPULAR VEHICLE WITH ENTHUSIASTS EVERYWHERE. That’s why BDS made quick work of producing a 21/2, 4, and 6-inch suspension lift, even before the new ’15 F-150s hit the showroom floor. BDS offers several options of its suspensions, with both strut spacers or replacement Fox coilovers to meet your height and performance needs. For this install, we went with the standard 6-inch lift system with rear Fox 2.0 shocks since BDS claims this setup is its most popular offering. Along with the high-clearance design and straightforward install, this suspension has gone through all the government-mandated FMVSS No. 126 electronic stability control system compliance testing and was independently certified to not affect the on-road traction control systems. With so many of these new…

Does being married affect your vehicle insurance? You betcha. Insurancequotes.com did a study and learned that based on age, your marital situation, and gender, rates can vary more than 50 percent. For example, comparing a married and a single 20-yearold woman, the single pays 28 percent more, while the same scenario with males equates to 25 percent more for the spinsterman. Ralph Gilles has been named head of design for Fiat Chrysler and member of the FCA Group Executive Council. His previous work included president and CEO of SRT and CEO of Dodge. Ram 1500 Texas Ranger concept—a partnership between Ram Truck, Texas Rangers, and the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum. A nod to this venture can be found via the Lone Star Ranger badge, as well as…

WHENEVER WE THINK “LEAF SPRING,” we can’t help but picture a crustyold cowboy with wrinkled, leathery skin grinning out of the side of his mouth like he knows something everyone else doesn’t, while at the same time symbolically giving a one-fingered salute aimed at today’s technology. In fact, if we ever decide to get a tattoo, this guy is on the short list to get inked on the arm. Within the scope of dated, but still very relevant automotive technology, we don’t think we’re too far out of line drawing comparisons between the leaf spring and one of John Moses Browning’s most shining achievements— the 1911 model .45-ACP semi-auto pistol. The latter was, undoubtedly, a more-challenging engineering feat, but mechanical dissimilarities aside, the current mindset on each product has clear…

Many of the stories we publish are timeless and are as applicable today as they were when we wrote them years ago. Seventeen years ago, in the Dec. ’98 issue, we wrote a story about respooling winch cable, and the story is as relevant today as it was then. What’s the big deal about respooling winch cable? Well, improperly spooled winch cable can cause all kinds of problems. Binding and fraying are the two most common problems that could be remedied by winding the cable properly on the drum. We’re guilty of ignoring proper winch respooling. If you sauntered out to our Dodge Power Wagon and took a gander at the winch, you’d see that the cable resembles a road map of Vermont. There’s cable going every which way. We…