To celebrate "65 years of go anywhere/do anything capability," Jeep is releasing special 65th Anniversary Edition models of the '06 Commander, Grand Cherokee, Liberty, and Wrangler. Each will come with an equipment group that includes unique wheels, interior trim, badging, and certain equipment upgrades. For example, the Anniversary Edition Wrangler will be outfitted with 30-inch Goodyear Wranglers on Alcoa aluminum wheels, a Dana 44 rear axle, gas-charged shocks, body-colored fender flares, and a Sirius satellite radio linked to a seven-speaker sound system. The 65th Anniversary Edition vehicles will be offered in a new color, Jeep Green, in addition to Light Khaki, Dark Khaki, Bright Silver, and Black.
Volkswagen and Google, working with graphics chip maker nVidia, recently demonstrated a three-dimensional vehicle map and navigation system. By using satellite images from Google Earth, overlaid with 3D maps and real-time traffic information, users should be able to "instinctively recognize where they are in relation to the surrounding topography, especially in urban areas that are depicted with depth and accurate size relationships between buildings and roads," said VW. This sort of system could also be a tremendous benefit to GPS-using off-roaders, from fishermen plotting their favorite streams to desert racers tracking obstacles and pit stops. No firm release date for the system was mentioned by VW, though the maker did say the prototype would be available in showrooms "in the near future."
Dodge has recently approved the use of B20 biodiesel for use in '07 Ram pickups powered by the Cummins turbodiesel. At this point, the approval covers only trucks used by the military, government, and commercial fleets, but DaimlerChrysler is working with "the government, automotive suppliers, energy providers, universities, and independent agencies on a national fuel standard that would make B20 an option for all owners of Dodge Ram diesels," said the company.
The last weekend in January, the staff of 4-Wheel & Off-Road joined forces with our Primedia 4xbrethren and primary sponsor Randy's Ring & Pinion for a giant cleanup at the Stoddard Wells OHV area near Barstow, California. As far as we can tell, it was a huge success: We had fun, everyone who came out to join in seemed to have fun, the weather wasn't too bad, and we moved so much trash off the desert in just three hours that we had to get two extra Dumpsters after the event was over! (The official tally was 36 tons of trash collected by over 500 volunteers and placed in six Dumpsters.)
We're glad that so many of you were willing to lend a hand to clean up after those careless few who are no friends of ours. Saying you don't like littering and doing something about it are two very different things, and we were stoked to see so many taking action. And, just for the record, we didn't see the Sierra Club or Earth First out there picking up any trash with us. I guess it's enough for their members to write a $10 check and feel righteous in doing so.-Jerrod Jones
The Legendary Civilian Jeepers club of Wisconsin is raffling an '05 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, with the proceeds going to the Wolf River Protection Fund. The Fund assists the Mole Lake Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians secure ownership of their newly acquired Crandon Mine Site, which features some 5,600 acres of prime OHV recreational land in northern Wisconsin's Southern Forest County. Raffle tickets are just $10 and are available by logging on to www.lcjs.org or by mail to LCJ's, Raffle Tickets, N8163 Rolling Hills Drive, Fond du Lac, WI, 54935-9544. The drawing will be held June 17 at the second annual Wisconsin Off-Highway Vehicle Association Convention and Membership Meeting at the Indian Springs Lodge and Conference Center in Wabeno, Wisconsin.
Our buddy (and Four Wheeler staffer-but we won't hold that against him) Ken Brubaker recently attended the grand opening of Toyo Tire's first-ever North American tire manufacturing and warehousing facility. Located in White, Georgia, this new, $180 million, 150-acre facility will start up with the capacity to produce more than 2 million tires annually, and have an eventual manufacturing capacity of more than 6 million tires per year. Why should you care? Simple. Many of those tires will be Toyo Open Country A/Ts and M/Ts, as well as Nitto Terra Grapplers and Mud Grapplers.