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 Due to the large volume of mail we receive, we regret that we cannot reply to unpublished letters or return photos.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.
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Editor
4-Wheel & Off-Road
420 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90048-5515
fax 323.782.2704
E-mail to:
4wheeloffroad@primedia.com
Save a Trail
I was wondering how I could get involved in a trail cleaning day or help bring an off-road event to Alabama. I will gladly do whatever it takes. There are trails down here that are littered with decades of garbage. This is the main reason some people look down on four-wheelers in this area. I believe that if wheelers could claim just one trail in the name of clean wheeling, more people would follow suit. Not many people care to be kind to our mother earth, but without her there's no wheeling anyway. I would be most appreciative if you could let me know what I can do to help.
Cory Vinson
via 4wheeloffroad.com
We're proud of you for your forethought and understanding of the wheeling situation. Contact Central Alabama Offroad Society (www.caos4x4.com) or the Southern Four Wheel Drive Association (www.sfwda.org) for information in your area. If they aren't currently working on the trails in your neck of the woods, you might be the right person to help them get started.
Touareg Syndrome
I own a V-6 Touareg (yes, it's underpowered), which I love to take to the desert to go wheeling. I've managed to tackle some pretty good trails and successfully navigated a couple of Black Diamonds in the nearby Hollister OHV area. I don't get away enough, but we have another trip planned for April. Steel Pass in Death Valley is the goal (Mengel Pass and some trails in Anza Borrego were no problem). In "Fahrvergwheelin' Finale" (May '06, page 88) you said "35-inch mud-terrains, which we would have considered an option if we could have fit them." I run Bridgestone Duelers usually, but just recently I put on a set of Destination MTs. Thanks to you, I knew that they came in 265/70R17 since there was a story about them in a back issue, and when I saw that I had to get them. I'm a regular poster on the VWvortex and ClubTouareg Touareg forums, and here's a thread that shows my Touareg with the destinations: http://forums.clubtouareg.com/ftopic6576.html&highlight=destination. Think I should submit for a reader's ride?
Arend Sidow
via 4wheeloffroad.com
We don't get a lot of reader's feedback on this type of rig, so it was great to see these Vdubs in action sporting some much better looking tires. Send in your best trail shot for Readers' Rides!
Free Jeep
I read your 4xForward about a free Jeep (Apr. '06). Just because it's free doesn't necessarily mean it's a good deal. A "friend" called and said to get this early Bronco out of his yard or it's going to the scrapyard. It runs, but I had no idea rust would hold together well enough to get it on a trailer and travel 100 miles. Keep up the good work for the average guy.
Ron Crumpler
Panama City Beach, FL
As of that writing, we hadn't picked up the free Jeep. We now have it securely ensconced in the backyard with three flat tires and no idea whatsoever what to do with it. It turns out the bodywork is phenomenal, with rust under Bondo, covered by a patch plate, and then more Bondo. From the looks of your photo we would have made a better bet if we had your free Bronco, so good luck!