BFGoodrich Tires: Presenter & Official Tire
After eight years sponsoring the Ultimate Adventure, it's obvious the guys at BFGoodrich Tires relish dirt, rocks, mud, sand, heat, and highways just as we do. The team joined up with us again to not only support UA, but seek valuable feedback on the abuse of their products as well. This year five rigs sported the new monster 40-inch Mud-Terrain T/A KM2 and four traveled in 37-inch KM2 shoes. And a set of LT285/70-R17 KM2s from UA 2007 are still holding tough under our Jeep Commander support rig, which just crested 28,000 miles. BFGoodrich Krawlers, parent of the KM2, rounded out the BFG-shod rigs, and a set of Baja T/As spun on the Geo Tracker. The most important 40-inch KM2s found their way underneath our beloved lead rig, the Ultimate Z71, where they'll see brutal use at the hands of the staff for the coming seasons of wheeling.
www.bfgoodrichtires.com
Hobart Welders: Official Welder
A rolling welding shop parked at camp every night is a great excuse for more skinny pedal during the day and that means broken parts. Hobart products were busy until the wee hours most every night rejoining metal and amputating dead rig appendages. In addition, Hobart equipment was used to construct the Ultimate Z71. An Ironman 250 model served steel and aluminum welding duty, while removal duties were picked up by the Airforce 625 plasma cutter.
www.hobartwelders.com
Warn: Official Winch
It's not "ultimate" if the cable isn't out often, and this year was no different from previous UAs. While UA drivers may never put the "conventional versus upright" winch argument to rest, they do predominantly agree on Warn as their winch. Models ranged from the Powerplant combination winch and air compressor to our Z71's M15000 and everyone's favorite pair of blue jeans, the upright and speedy 8274.
www.warn.com
Rough Country Suspension: Official Suspension
Due to the time crunch, Rough Country sent a modified Samurai for battle on UA that performed absolutely stellar. However, due to its custom nature, it could not showcase many of the great products that the company offers to the public. Rough Country offers a variety of popular applications and specializes in kits for the same genre of Z71 that we crafted ourselves, the '99-'06 GM/Chevy 1500.
www.roughcountry.com
Flowmaster Mufflers: Official Mufflers
Another campfire debate held during UA is whether Flowmaster mufflers are great because of sound, power, or durability. Some would run Flowmasters for the sweet sound alone. Others say it's the power, and for the rest it's the durability. Truth be told, it was a collection of all three attributes that resulted in our mounting the kit on our Z71.
www.flowmastermufflers.com
K&N Filters: Official Air Filter
We've been pestering K&N Filters to come get dirty with us for years and the company finally did for 2008. K&N's air filters served duty on a variety of rigs in both generic applications and cold-air kits. It's no secret that filtering ability is key and the power gain a must, but the extraordinary list of applications nearly guarantees that K&N has a filter for even the most oddball requirements.
www.knfilters.com
The Ultimate Z71 Project
The Ultimate Z71 didn't construct itself or survive the week of wheeling by Ali Mansour's good looks alone. Serious kudos go out to the talent and products of our other sponsors who helped make the rig the star it is. Off Road Evolution tasked its staff and skills to the ultimate degree to create our impressive GMC on schedule. PSC Motorsports supplied the heavy-duty steering components and was on site for repair when our factory steering box pink-slipped itself. Finally, Off Road Design's transfer case/doubler set metered out all the power to the drivetrain just as promised. Once again, an amazing feat of engineering in record time.
www.offroadevolution.com
www.pscmotorsports.com
www.offroaddesign.com