Club Spotligh
Bangin' Bones
The Bangin' Bones 4x4 Club of Elko, Nevada, will celebrate its 10-year anniversary over Memorial Day Weekend, which has been dubbed the annual Wild Weekend. Bangin' Bones is a club of families and individuals who enjoy the outdoors of northern Nevada. They strive to keep the public aware of the enjoyment to be had in the outdoors, while emphasizing the Tread Lightly! code. Nearby trails offer a bit of everything from dusty back roads to some very hard-core wheeling and a lot in between. Community oriented, they have an annual Christmas Drive in which they donate to various charities, including the seeing-eye-dog program, local senior citizen centers, the domestic violence center, and the terminally ill children's ward of the local hospital. For more info, visit www.banginbones.com. -Ken Weight
This Just In
* Warn Industries has announced that its axle business, including heavy-duty front axles, hub conversion kits, and replacement parts, has been sold to Randy's Ring & Pinion. The product line will be renamed, but the designs will remain "basically the same," says Warn. Contact Randy's for more info: 800.292.1031.
* Both the '09 F-150 and Dodge Ram 1500 earned five-star crashworthiness ratings in the government's latest front-impact crash tests. The Ford also won a Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
* It was a tough year for new vehicle sales, but Ford can boast that its F-Series pickup was the best-selling vehicle, car or truck, in the U.S. in 2008. This marks the 32nd consecutive year the F-Series is the best-selling truck, and the 27th consecutive year as best selling vehicle. However, the 515,513 F-Series units sold in '08 represented a 25 percent decline over the previous year's volume, says Motor Trend.
* Mitsubishi announced it will stop offering the Raider-basically a rebadged Dakota-after the 2010 model year. The Raider was never a big seller for Mitsubishi, and in 2008 sales dropped a whopping 64 percent, according to Automotive News. Mitsu has no plans to replace the Raider with another pickup.
* Nissan's Titan fullsize pickup could be another casualty of the country's economic woes. Remember that Nissan and Chrysler entered into an agreement by which Chrysler will build the next generation Titans, based on the Ram, starting in 2010. Should Chrysler go under, however, Nissan has no plans to resurrect the truck.
Earth Watch
* Tread Lightly! is working with the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) to educate outdoorsmen on the ethical use of off-highway vehicles. "A major goal for Tread Lightly! is to further incorporate our important message of responsible OHV use into the hunting, fishing, and shooting sports communities," said Tread Lightly!'s executive director Lori McCullough. "With its extensive membership and in-depth educational programs, NWTF is a perfect partner for Tread Lightly!" The NWTF will help distribute information through its 2,350 chapters in North America to educate members on ethical OHV use.
* Yamaha Motor Corp., U.S.A., via the company's new OHV Access Initiative, donated more than $700,000 in cash and equipment in 2008 for projects supporting safe, responsible riding and sustainable, open riding areas. Yamaha provided GRANTs (Guaranteeing Responsible Access to our Nation's Trails) to more than 65 local, regional, and national organizations. "By directly funding public and private land management and enthusiast-initiated projects, the Yamaha OHV Access Initiative is leading the grassroots effort in creating and sustaining safe and responsible riding opportunities," said Mike Martinez, Yamaha's general manager of ATV and Side-by-Side Operations. "These GRANTs have become an important asset to the OHV community, and we are pleased to continue this support into 2009."