That’s pretty cool!  I was at the NorCal Rock Races this past weekend and one of the funnest parts of the day is to watch the kids race.  They race most of the track and just go all out, with the parents coaching from inside the track.

I’ve had decent results with the stick on ones, meaning that I’ve only had 1 fall off due to trail use between 3 sets of tires.  Even with the crimp on ones, I managed to knock those off on the trail and that’s not fun to find out on the way home on a solid axle rig

All good info. Only other things I can add is while you unpack your vehicle, leave all the doors and windows open to get rid of any “funk” that you may have brought in or if you were using your rig to sleep in during the race (air that bad boy out!).

ok, kind of cool. Question, what happens to the battery pack/supply/or whatever if it gets punctured by a rock?  Is it like a regular battery, does it leak or is it self sealing?  Depending on range, it’d be nice to see something like that tackle Fordyce or Johnson Valley (during King of the Hammers).

I’ll take rocks over mud any day

X2!  There’s nothing like driving fast over a dry lake bed or on a desert road at high speed.

Yep, this. Suspension is the first thing I always fix/look into if there’s something wrong. Ball joints, TRE’s, bent linkage tends to cause more instances of Death Wobble for a lifted vehicle with a solid front axle (for me at least).

At least for my Jeep it does drive better after being hosed down, but then again, all that mud and grime probably weighs 50 pounds

Great article! Like you said, knowing your limits is key but also being familiar with the area weather prior to your trip is very important, even though it can change from year to year. Perfect example, Johnson Valley for King of the Hammers; past few years it was perfect/warm desert weather during the race but…

Interesting, didn’t know that Richie Rich sang that song.  I only know him since he owns the house right next to mine and is a pretty cool dude.

Exactly, this.  That’s why over the years I’ve never gotten excited about any concept rigs as 9 times out of 10, they never make them.

I did have to sell some of my silver age comic books rather quickly to pay for my tires and lift on my JK a few years ago. We had just purchased a house, spent all of the extra cash on renovation (plus the cash set aside for my rig, which I decided would be a great time to have work done) and as you can guess, both…

Meh, I’ll just wait for people to start selling their built JKU’s (2nd gen) or JL’s and buy one of those rather than spending that much money on a Gladiator plus all of the extras that would need to go on it to make it fun.

Lots of good ideas in the article. The only thing I just can’t get into is the roof mounted tent. I already hate off-camber situations when rock crawling and the idea of added weight on the top of my JK makes me more nervous (yeah, I know it’s irrational). Also, the idea of rubbing against a tree or rock and damaging…

It’d be nice if it did (it’d provide many more options for lifting the suspension) but something tells me that it’ll be an IFS like the Colorado

Saw a ton of those at Autorama last weekend.  I have no idea why they are there and it must be investigated.

I have a technical job within the medical industry and work beside some union folks and you’re right; the union label is no longer a mark of quality. People move up as a result of seniority rather than by talent or drive. Adding to that, how difficult it is to fire a completely incompetent union employee, unless they…

X2!  My parents had one, the same color as the one listed and man was that thing fun.  I could fit 8-9 of my closest high school friends in it and still have extra room. 

Not sure if I missed it, but it seems like the individual didn’t really do any research to see if anyone had done something similar that he could learn from. For every mod I have on my vehicles, big or small, I research every step to see what issues others may have run into and if it’s really feasible to do in the…

Interesting. Granted it’s on the dirt but one thing we teach at the 4x4 safety clinic of the club I belong to, is the positioning of your thumbs: the thumbs aren’t on the inside of the wheel but rather “wrapped” around the outside of the steering wheel. The reason being is that we have seen instances where some folks…