Oh Wait, More Dodge Stuff
I have been a very faithful reader of your magazine for about 10 years. I have had small complaints about your magazine over the years, but not any worth vocalizing until now. I received the Feb. ’12 issue, and all I can say is I am very disappointed. Your Readers’ Rides contest was appalling to me! Jeep, Ford, Chevy, Toyota, and a ”what the heck” section? Where is the Dodge section? When the magazine had this contest in past years, I noticed the Dodge part of it was dwindling, but eliminating it completely? That’s too much, in my opinion.
Your magazine has been declining in value over the past couple of years and you have been forgetting not only the avid Dodge readers but also the low-budget older truck owners. These are two categories that I fall into. With the lack of funds that I and most of your readers have due to hard economic times, I would think that this magazine would write more articles on building our trucks on tighter budgets. The magazine seems to be writing more articles on building new trucks while I and many others can’t even think about buying newer models. Then building up a more modern vehicle? That is out of the question.
Your magazine used to be a helpful aid for me and the longevity of my trucks, but now I guess I have no use for your writings anymore. Unless I win the lottery and use my winnings to buy a new Ford F-150 or Toyota Tacoma, I will not be renewing my subscription to your magazine due to your lack of referencing the lower class yet avid truck owners like me.
Matthew Studebaker
Lemont, IL
Hang in there, Matthew. We will continue to do plenty of old tech and will be doing more Dodge stuff soon. In fact, we have our Cheap Truck Challenge (working title) coming back in an issue or two, so hold on and don’t lose that 12-buck subscription just yet.
First Mud Wheeling
I just wanted to share with you guys my first off-roading experience in my 30 years on this earth. No, it was not in a 4x4, but a 27-foot box van. I work as a delivery driver for a certain home improvement store, and had to traverse through nearly foot-thick red clay mud uphill to deliver some appliances to my customer. Luckily, even though I’ve never been off-roading in my life, I’ve read and seen enough to know how to do it. I got up to speed before the mud got bad, shoved her into Third gear, and floored it. With the back end of the truck fishtailing a foot or so left to right the entire way up, I never took my foot out of it, knowing that if I slowed or stopped, I was going to need a wrecker. A quarter of a mile and probably 200 pounds of mud later, I made it up the hill without a problem. It absolutely made my day. Just thought I’d share this with y’all. Thanks for the awesome mag!
Robby Thompson
Tyler, TX
I guess reading our mag has saved the day for whomever you were delivering to. Thanks for letting us know, and go get yourself a 4x4 to start having more fun!
Reader Rant
The Truth Is the Truth
I’m just writing to make sure we don’t sacrifice our journalistic integrity for the sake of advertising dollars. In the Sept. ’11 issue, you feature Harbor Freight Tools in “How Do They Do It?” (Drivelines, page 19), accept advertising dollars for a full-page ad (page 37), and tout your “Harbor Freight hookup” in “Scratch-Built Scrambler, Part 12” (page 64). While I have made a few purchases at Harbor Freight, I have been disappointed about 50 percent of the time with the quality and longevity of the tool.
Your Drivelines caption tells of a discussion about Harbor’s Badland 9,000-pound winch that took place between Harbor personnel and Source Interlink Media editors. Did the Four Wheeler editor mention that the winch “failed to operate right out of the box,” as was written in the July 2011 issue?
Hopefully, you are having much better luck with their products than I had. I hope at least that you got a nice lunch out of the meeting. Still love your magazine.
Tom Armstrong
Chino, CA
Thanks for the concern, Tom. We understand your concern, as journalistic integrity is the foundation of our magazine. If you don’t believe what we write, then we lose all credibility.
The facts of the Harbor Freight mentions are pretty straightforward. Yes, they have some products that won’t hold up to certain uses, but that’s true about all manufacturers. It is the consumer’s job to understand that you get what you pay for, like when choosing between a Snap-on wrench and a Harbor one. I can’t afford Snap-on quality, but I can afford the Harbor model. Considering the price, it is actually a better value for most people.
As for the winch you mentioned, we feel any product could have a problem out of the box. However, that magazine decided to do their product testing differently than we would have, and yes, we will be testing the Harbor winch against others soon, so stay tuned.
By the way, we were impressed with how the Harbor facility tested and improved their products, and yes, it was an excellent lunch!
Submission Information
4-Wheel & Off-Road welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must include an address or a telephone number so the sender can be verified. Once verified, your name may be withheld at your request. Letters published in this magazine reflect the opinions of the writers, and we reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, brevity, or other purposes. Due to the large volume of mail we receive, we regret that we cannot reply to unpublished letters or return photos. Digital photos must measure no less than 1600 x 1200 pixels (or two megapixels) and be saved as a TIFF, an EPS, or a maximum-quality JPEG file. Write to: Editor, 4-Wheel & Off-Road, 831 S. Douglas St., El Segundo, CA 90245; fax 310.531.9368 Email to: 4wheeloffroad@sorc.com