The author of this Letter of the Month is getting a copy of The Wolfman. Academy Award winners Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro star in the stunning re-imagining of the classic thriller. on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on June 1, 2010.
Letter Of The Month
Where's the Rollcages?!
Thanks for putting out a magazine dedicated to prerunner trucks and do-it-yourself fabrication. This is the only truck mag I buy and I look forward to reading it many times each month. The reason I am writing this letter is that I am bummed to see trucks featured with thousands of dollars worth of built engines, long-travel suspensions, bypass shocks, and hydraulic bumpstops...and no rollcage at all. We all know how fast these trucks are and safety should come first-it's like riding a dirt bike without a helmet. Ever since I rolled my first truck, my last four off road vehicles have all had a 'cage done before the suspension mods. The pic is of my current ride. I hope you can encourage your readers to protect themselves and their passengers.
Thanks.
D. Ose
Via email
D. Ose, I couldn't agree with you more, and I feel guilt every time we show an off-road vehicle without a rollcage in it. It is a shame that we enthusiasts build such impressive vehicles but then stop short at the safety aspects.
Unfortunately, we cannot always dictate the way some people build their trucks (for feature vehicles), but we can certainly do our damndest to make sure that we spread the gospel and be good examples by ensuring that every one of our project vehicles has a rollcage in it. We often make the same excuses to ourselves that most 'cageless truck owners do-we drive them on the street all the time, and rollcages make entering and exiting a vehicle a pain in the butt. But that is a poor excuse in lieu of safety.
I am going to make a goal of getting some type of roll protection into every project vehicle that OFF-ROAD actively works on.
Thanks for poking us in the side about the rollcages, D. Ose, and for that I'm going to make yours our Letter of the Month. You'll be receiving a copy of The Wolfman.
TB Efficiency Improvements
Great mag! I have been a subscriber for the last year and like the emphasis you put on desert. I am building a '97 XJ to be Jeepspeed spec in the long run. So far I've put 33s on with a 4.5-inch Currie short-arm lift using Deaver race packs in the rear. I am still using it as a daily driver as I plan the full build and cage to be done in a few years.
Since putting the bigger tires on I have obviously seen a huge loss in power and mpg (I am waiting to re-gear until I have enough saved for a new rear axle.) I read about the Painless throttle body long term update and have some questions. I already have a K&N cold air intake on the 4.0. I noticed about 1 mpg improvement with the intake when stock. I am assuming that your "reputable tester" had a cold-air intake on his jeep w/ the Painless throttle body? Was this 1-2 mpg improvement on top of or combined with the mpg improvement from the cold air intake? Another question: I have seen that there are a few reputable companies that make a throttle body spacer for the Jeep 4.0 with the same bore. Most of them appear to be quality products as I would expect from these companies. So if the bore is the same from one throttle body manufacture to another, shouldn't the performance be the same across brands? Why not? Thanks.
Jeff Logandro
Carlsbad, CA