Innehållsförteckning för January 2017 från Four Wheeler

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM FULL-FLOW EFI Edelbrock is now shipping the latest generation in Pro-Flo electronic fuel injection, the Pro-Flo 3 EFI. The new sequential-port EFI systems are available for small- and big-block Chevy engines. All base calibrations have been developed on the Edelbrock dyno. Each self-learning system is completely tunable via Edelbrock’s Bluetooth wireless E-Tuner application. The ETuner app gives you complete control of the air-fuel ratios, ignition curve, idle speed, acceleration fuel, cooling fans, rev limiter, and more. The app also includes multiple dash displays to allow you to monitor engine vitals and performance from your Android smartphone or tablet while you’re driving. Each system includes a fully assembled intake manifold with throttle body installed, ECU, distributor, gaskets, and all of the necessary hardware for installation. INFO: Edelbrock, 310/781-2222, edelbrock.com RAM…

editor@fourwheeler.com DO YOU LIKE SNOW WHEELING BUT CAN’T FIND ANYONE TO GO WITH YOU or any place to go? If this year’s Farmer’s Almanac is even half accurate, it may not be an issue. Allegedly, much of the U.S. is in for a brutal winter. Snow wheeling could be as close as your own driveway in same cases. Even though many 4x4 enthusiasts spend the snow season either curled up in front of the fireplace with a hot cup of coffee or in the garage repairing the damage done during the summer months, the true diehard wheelers won’t let the white stuff go to waste. If you and your 4x4 are up for snow wheeling adventure, we got a list of great winter events in cool locations you won’t want…

OVER UNDER Q Which is better: a spring-over suspension or a spring-under suspension? GREG MARTINEK VIA FACEBOOK.COM/JOHNCAPPA4X4 A Let me ask you which is better: a baseball bat or a Wiffle ball bat? What I mean by that question is that it totally depends on your situation. You generally wouldn’t try and play close quarters indoor ball swinging a real bat around kids’ heads, and you certainly aren’t going to hit any 90 mph fastballs with a plastic hollow bat, right? The same is true of your 4x4. The type of suspension you choose should depend on where you use your 4x4 and how you expect it to perform. Most leaf-sprung Jeeps came from the factory with spring-under suspensions. A springunder suspension is often incorrectly associated with being stiff and…

THE FOUR-WHEELING HOBBY IS AS FAMILY ORIENTED AS THEY COME. Thanks to his stepdad, Mitch Kleinstein grew up reading Four Wheeler magazine. With that love for wheeling and a want to build his own trail machine, Kleinstein purchased his first Toyota pickup in 1994. It happens to be the ’93 Toyota you see here today. However, the road to its current setup has been a long one. While he started out small with a 4-inch suspension lift, rear ARB Air Locker, and 32-inch-tall tires, he would eventually transition from a simple solid-axle upgrade to the full rebuild you see here today. Its current build took about 10 months of nights and weekends, but the end result was a truck capable of everything he wanted. While items such as his camo-wrapped…

“MY MAMA ALWAYS SAID LIFE IS like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Forrest Gump’s philosophical words were on our mind the moment Mobile Diesel Service tech Matt Johnson removed the last bolt holding the dirt-and-rust-coated cover on our 26-year-old Ford Bronco’s rear 8.8-inch dif- ferential. When the gear lube first poured out, we were elated to see it was clean and free from any obvious signs of heavy gear wear or broken bits. Then one of those chocolates that taste bad popped up as Johnson set aside the cover. The ring gear looked OK, but the spider and side gears were discolored and had a bad case of “crow’s foot.” The damaged gears would have broken under the first good shock load on the…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM THAT’S INTERESTING Great news: The most stolen vehicle in 2015 was the ’96 Honda Accord! Less great news: Also in the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s Hot Wheels list of Top 10 most stolen vehicles in 2015 were fullsizes: ’06 Ford pickup, ’04 Chevy pickup, and ’01 Dodge pickup. -> Nissan has a new warranty it’s calling “America’s Best Truck Warranty,” based on it being the winningest warranty available to trucks to date: 5 years/100,000 miles. For the ’17 Titan and Titan XD, it’s bumper-to-bumper basic and powertrain coverage. -> There’s an STX Appearance Package for the ’17 F-series. Depending on which truck, this will include things like 20-inch machined-aluminum wheels, body-colored bumpers and fascia, and billet grille. Pricing will start at $35,615 for the F-150 STX and $34,910 for…

IF YOU ARE LIKE US, THEN YOU PROBABLY LOVE your 4x4 because of its versatility. No one can deny that 4x4s are the multitool of the vehicular world. Most 4x4s can hit the trail, or head to the grocery store, push a plow, tow a boat, haul a load, or commute to work in rain, shine, sleet, or snow. There is probably no better time of year to enjoy the versatility of your 4x4 than during the winter months. Facing the elements is no big deal to a properly equipped 4x4, and the fact that these rigs can be used to get us to work or home safely and then used for play on the weekend is akin to grabbing your multitool, unfolding that sawblade or screwdriver to make something…

WHEN RAM TRUCK STARTED CONVERTING ITS HEAVY DUTY PICKUPS to a three-link tapered-coil front suspension with the ’14 Ram 2500 Heavy Duty, the ride and handling took a significant step forward without compromising load and towing capabilities. However, some owners still dislike the truck’s nose-low attitude. An easy fix for that is moving the front coils down 2 inches with a leveling kit, which gives a more eye-pleasing symmetry to the tires in the wheel arches. The downside is the stock shocks don’t have enough travel to compensate for the longer suspension travel under full droop. An Epiq Fox Combo Epiq Suspension takes that into consideration with its ’14-current Ram 2500/3500 Heavy Duty 2-inch leveling kit that incorporates custom-tuned Fox 2.0 Performance Series IFP (internal floating piston) shocks, which are…

FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE GOES BACK A LOT FARTHER than many realize, but most of the earliest designs were one-offs or in very low production. The 1910-1920 period is when engineers began perfecting the technology and a number of 4x4s went into largescale production. Some makes would be short-lived; others would have an era and fade away. Only a very few of those founding fathers of four-wheel drive would last into modern times. FWD Seagrave is one that lasted. One of the earliest and most successful production 4x4s was the FWD Model B, a 3-ton truck that was in production from 1912 to well into the ’20s, but it was sold refurbished up to at least 1939. Not only did it become a benchmark and cornerstone product for the FWD Corporation, it…

This ’77 Ford F-250, which we featured in the Nov. ’91 issue of Four Wheeler, looks dated by today’s build standards, but if you overlook ’90s-era stuff like the triple-tube rear bumper, abundance of chrome, and red windshield wipers, it’s still a fascinating rig with some unique ideas almost three decades later. The story behind the truck was interesting as well. When we photographed the truck, it was owned by John Small of Cohasset, Massachusetts. Prior to that, John’s grandfather owned it. When John acquired the truck it had been a “rusted lawn ornament” for years. The truck had “no rear body, doors, or much else.” Even though John was a lobster fisherman by day and a police officer by night, he found time to rebuild the truck using new…