Moab has some of the best wheeling in the world, but it's also the venue to see new parts. Each year at Easter Jeep Safari, the Red Rock 4-Wheelers put on the vendors showcase on Thursday and Friday, culminating in the giveaway of a Jeep Friday evening. Since we have quite a few Jeeps, we decided to skip the giveaway and concentrate on all the cool new products the vendors bring to show. This is sort of like the grand unveiling, as the manufacturers have worked all winter on new goodies and reveal them at the Moab show. Here's some neat, new, cool, and even revolutionary stuff we saw this spring in Moab.
Darpa Dare
No, you can't buy this Scorpion as it's part of the U.S. Government's DARPA program. Contact: Preferred Chassis Fabrication Inc., 520.975.6498, www.scorpion4x4.com
Tie down Individuals
Tying stuff down in a Jeep or other 4x4 can be a pain. Mac's Custom Tie-Downs showed us this nifty gizmo with a quick-release feature. These can be placed anywhere instead of the standard rack style, so we ordered us up a set for lashing stuff down. Contact: Mac's Custom Tie-Downs, 208.265.1940, www.macscustomtiedowns.com
Hook Holder
No, this isn't the new cool blue Warn winch. But it is the cool red Daystar winch-hook nesting device, known as a winch isolator. The idea is the polyurethane black or red bumper makes the hook store flat and keeps your fingers out of the rollers. It also acts as a winch weight in case the line should ever break. Contact: Daystar, 623.907.0081, www.daystarweb.com
Y for a JK
Among all of the new Jeep JK Wrangler suspensions available, this has to be the oddest. However, we even took the new Rancho long-arm suspension system out for a drive on 37s to prove that it works extremely well. Notice the forward-facing Y-link so the fuel tank isn't altered. Contact: Rancho, www.gorancho.com
Nice Stems
So you're off road and rip a valve stem off your wheel. Now what? If you have this handy little kit with a valve-stem installer and a couple of stems, you can air up, check pressure, and get back to the trail. Contact: Off Road Evolution, 562.787.0215, www.offroadevolution.com
Ramsey Unveiled
Ramsey debuted the Patriot 9500 UT with the semiautomatic winch control. This allows for freewheeling out, and then a simple click of the remote control engages the clutch mechanism. Ramsey also unveiled the way-cool Ramsey hat in a used configuration, for that well-used trail look. Contact: Ramsey Inc., 918.438.2760, www.ramsey.com
Lunatic Fringe
The folks at Jeep couldn't fit all their vehicles at the arena, so like Poison Spyder Custom and AEV, they staked out empty lots around Moab to show their wares. This lineup from the secret Skunkwerks crew consisted of the Diesel Grand Cherokee, $50K four-door JK, Awesome Orange Hemi JK, Hearing-aid Beige Jeep pickup, the Liberty Liberator, and two more JKs you can't really see. You can't buy them, but tell Jeep you want the pickup available for sale by next fall. Contact: Jeep, 800.925.JEEP, www.jeep.com
Portal around
On the hi-zoot end of the spectrum are portal axles for whatever you want to build. Portal-Tek is on generation 3 of its high-clearance stuff, so the Gen III stuff is ready to rock. Look forward to a full tech story in another month. Simple and strong, man are these axles cool! Contact: Portal-Tek, 801.358.2951, www.portal-tek.com