S-10 Lift Kit
We’ve been pleasantly surprised at the durability of our BDS S-10 suspension. It’s not a suspension that’s in high demand as many ’Dime enthusiasts go custom these days, but we wanted to try out this kit on our S-10 Blazer before getting crazy with our own. Honestly, the kit has worked well enough to set our timeline back over a year now. We figured we’d have this suspension on the truck for a few months, then move on to some type of long-travel or solid-axle-swap suspension for more hardcore use. But this S-10, adorned with a BDS lift kit and 33-inch Hankooks, has really been great as a commuter and weekend warrior. The 33-inch tires rubbed the heck out of the fenders with the 6.5-inch lift kit so we had to go with fiberglass fenders, but it gives our S-10 a cool look and we can stuff these 33s where only a 31-inch tire was supposed to fit.
Bronco Torque Converter
Before meeting the gang over at Continental, we didn’t put all that much thought into torque converters. We figured choosing a torque converter was a simple matter of matching an appropriately-sized unit to a transmission. That kind of thinking might work for vehicles that don’t see much strain, but our vehicles get flogged pretty hard. Continental has been producing performance-oriented torque converters for more than 40 years, and they take note of almost every aspect of a vehicle when they build a custom converter, from tire size to engine idle speed. The result: an almost bulletproof converter that can last the life of your truck. Check out www.off-roadweb.com for a step-by-step creation of a Continental Torque Converter for our project Bronco. Believe us, the thing is solid.
Terra Trac A/T
As you might guess, we’ve got a number of things in the works as we gear up for future stories. One of these happens to be a giant all-terrain tire test that we’ve been putting together for the better part of a year. We’ve had prior experience with most tires in the test, but one tire in particular—the Hercules Terra Trac A/T—is completely new to us and has been a pleasant surprise from a company we don’t cover enough. The Terra Trac is one of the least expensive tires in our test, yet it’s been great at freeway cruising, around-town driving, and mild off-roading and trail cruising. In the rain, the tire has performed remarkably well on a test Suburban (versus other all-terrains we’ve had on this truck in the past) and we’re looking forward to the first snow (this entry was written in October—no snow yet).