Product Reviews

Anyone who travels into the backcountry knows the importance of safely securing his or her gear for the trip. Unfortunately few companies have addressed this problem. We mount all types of hooks, footman loops, eyelets and brackets to try to secure our camping and off-road necessities. The folks at the Bloomfield Manufacturing Company, the makers of the famous Hi-Lift jack, …

Who knew? Ten years ago, if you had told someone that you were buying parts to hot-rod your diesel truck, they would have thought you were insane. Fast-forward to the present, and we now have diesel trucks doing sub 12-second passes at the drag strip like it’s routine! It’s not uncommon to see a soccer mom dropping off the kids …

Owning an older, more unique vehicle can be one of the most appealing and self-satisfying things in life. Although owning a rarity is exceedingly appealing, it is however, less charming to the pocket book when repairs are needed. In fact, I was so appalled at spending $180 for an alternator and almost $150 for a water pump that I decided …

Cheap, fun, and easy – yup it’s what I shopped for in a prom date, unfortunately I never got all three. In the case of the Miller Spectrum 375 X-treme plasma cutter you get exactly that. While cheap is a relative term, the cost of owning a plasma cutter has dropped by about 50% in the last few years. As …

   Idiot lights, what a concept. This is what the vehicle manufacturers want us all to feel safe with to monitor the vital functions of our vehicles. But, when the light comes on, it is basically saying “Oh, by the way, you just cooked your motor or your charging system just failed you”. Well, to avoid this, there are better …

Do-It-Yourself Bed Liners – Durabak vs. Lava-Liner By: Jody Campbell and Rick Webster The one place that four-wheelers tend to neglect in their vehicles is the inside. We protect the outside with diamond plate, build extreme bumpers, use nerf bars, Rock slider rocker panels, and anything else we can think of, but we rarely protect the inside. Carpet is great …

For those of us that either can’t afford, or don’t have space for large metal machinery, we will often find ourselves using small, cost-effective, modular tools to take their place. One such project came up, where I needed to build several aluminum templates for a recent steel project I was working on, which required that I drill about 20 or …

I got a call from one of my buddies the other day. His statement was simple enough, “I need a lift kit for my rig… desperately”. I started with my standard array questions of “are you trying to clear larger tires, and if so, how big?…” but before I could finish he cut me off mid sentence. “It’s already lifted, …

As I’m writing this article, I’m warm and toasty inside my home – its 70 degrees F. But ol’ man winter is setting in and the warmer temperatures headed south with the migratory birds. Snot freezing weather is right around the corner. A few weeks ago, I was working on an electrical wiring project and the dexterity in my fingers …

My old man was a real stickler when it came time to tackle a project. His mantra was always the same… “Use the right tool for the job”. Heard thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of times, it’s the one thing I now find myself saying to my son whenever we tackle a project. I recently found myself doing some …