It's official: I've turned 50 years old, and I'm still kicking. I didn't really think it was that big a deal until after it happened, just another birthday in the long string of them. Lucky for me a bunch of my friends surprised mewith a shindig, and brought photos and memorabilia that we all could share. But what really set me back was that I once had brown hair, and my jeep had monster 31-inch tires. It's true, back in the day those were some hot tires for any 4x4, as running around on the street with 33s was considered to be something for Big Foot or other monster trucks.
Just like me, the industry changes and we have to be able to change with it. That goes for a person, or in our case a magazine called Petersen's 4-Wheel & Off-Road. Now I've been a reader since the first issue back in 1977, when the mag was an offshoot of Hot Rod magazine. Since then, many different companies have owned the mag, and Mr. Petersen hasn't had anything to do with it since about 1997. But since he started it and everyone knows the mag by "Petersen's," we only feel it's right to keep it in our title.
Now don't think this was a little segue into how the mag will change and be different (i.e., we'll ruin it) or we'll cover nothing but monster trucks or nothing but tube buggies. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is, almost 98 percent of our readers like what we are doing here, and look forward to more of the same stuff. We kind of like what we're doing too, but we just want to do more of it. The problem is we just don't have that much room in the mag for the wide variety or 4x4 topics we have to cover, from basic tech to hard-core and trail riding to all-out competition. The mix is what makes us successful, so we'll keep it that way.
So I now have gray hair and run nothing less than 37s on my jeep. That small a tire gets me over most of the stuff I encounter, except for the deep mud and goo. And yes, I enjoy change, regardless of what some people think. But I still feel that the basics are what are important, as you can build anything if you have a sound foundation. That's one reason why we have simple basic tech in our mag; we all started somewhere, and as we progress, more information is needed to get us to that ultimate goal of finishing our project rigs.
Now that I have another 50 years of wheeling left in me, I figure I'll actually finish some projects, and maybe start on some new ones so I can keep on wheeling. Got any good ideas? I only have 50 years, remember, and if they fly by as fast as the last 50, I have to be a bit selective and still have time to travel the globe to show you the hot new wheeling spots. It's a lot to do and little time to do it, but hey, someone has to!