Thirty Years of Ads
Reader: Thanks for the time trip, your Mar. '08 article about the first advertisements in the magazine. They took me back to when I was about 13 and was a subscriber in '78-'79. I remember all those ads. I even still have the 4WOR sticker I got when you had the 50 freebies around the same time. I think it influenced my adult life as I currently wheel a '95 Explorer XLT and a '95 Suburban LT. Thanks for a great 30 years, and I look forward to many more.
Tim Hunter
via 4wheeloffroad.com
Editor: Thanks. Heck, I still have tires from back then, but not the ads for them!
Too many Jeeps
Reader: I need to get something off my chest. I love your magazine (most of the time), but I am writing this because I am displeased with the content of the last few years. First of all, I must say I love Jeeps and I am a Jeep owner (although my current one, a '75 CJ-5, is sitting in 9 million pieces right now). I have had a '76 CJ-7 (now my son has it) with 10 inches of lift and 38s (I did a spring-over conversion), and I had a '69 CJ-5 with 33s. But my complaint is with all the Jeep coverage in your magazine. I realize that the Jeep is the most trail-friendly rig out there, but do I have to see one on every other page?
Bear in mind I love these vehicles but I would love to see some articles on my other passion in my life (besides my daughters and Hayabusa)-my F-150 and other fullsize trucks. I have a '91 F-150 with 35s, a 351HO, and a five-speed. I am not asking to see articles on this truck in particular but fullsize trucks in general. Don't give me the B.S. that you show fullsize trucks, because I will say; "Yeah, for every 45 Jeeps." I ask you, what is the best-selling vehicle? It is the truck! It was the F-150 and Silverado in 2006). It is not the Jeep (and thank God you stopped putting that god-forsaken Toyota insert in the mag before I wrote). But you continue to grace your pages with jeeps, jeeps, jeeps. Gets old, doesn't it? I want to see some trucks, any truck.
Well, I digress. I wrote to tell you I would not be renewing my subscription. I will continue to thumb through it in the check-out line at the grocery store. Maybe one day if I see a change I will be a subscriber again, but our relationship has to end now because you seem to be going in a different direction to that of your readers' desires.
All said, you guys do a great job.
Tim Taylor
Editor: What can we say? If you do an actual page count of editorial items you'll see it's not all Jeep, but with advertisers who sell Jeep parts it may look that way. Regardless, we're glad you think we do a great job and we'll miss your subscription.
Bad Advice?
Reader: Thanks a lot! I have subscribed to your magazine for years and have never gotten bad advice until now. In Nuts & Bolts ("Ol' Stinky," Apr. '08), I thought the monkey shop companion would be a great idea so I bought one. I also thought the alligator seat covers would be a great idea. The monkey and I had a lot of fun wrenching on my '66 Chevy 4x4, my '68 Kaiser M715, and my '56 Jeep CJ-5 for a while. After I found the alligator for the front seats of the Jeep, I went out looking for one for the back seat. While I was gone, all heck broke loose. The alligator bit both thumbs off the monkey so there goes your big advantage of the monkey as a shop pet. The alligator also bit holes in all four Pro Comp Xterrains on the Chevy and left teeth marks in the tires on the M715. Nothing can bite through those things. It also knocked the Jeep on its side with one swipe of its tail. The alligator finally broke through the garage door, ate the neighbor's cat, and headed into the creek.
I still have my buddy, Bosco the Monkey, but he can't open my beer anymore and definitely can't use the new set of monkey wrenches I bought him. He also can't turn the carburetor crank that I installed to match the one pictured in the carb tech article from the same issue.
I have never laughed as much from your magazine as I did last night when reading the monkey suggestion and alligator seat cover idea. Thanks for the great magazine. I am a Chevy and Jeep guy but I read the articles on Fords, Dodges, Toyotas, and everything else. There is always something to learn.
I have one suggestion. Send all the Readers' Rides submissions to the guy who picked out the two duplicates you have shown in the past. He has a heck of a memory and should be able to weed out the duplicates.
Jeff LAndreth
Bunker Hill, IL
Editor: As a matter of fact, maybe we will hire you to write our next April issue, as some other people couldn't figure out the April Fools jokes throughout the mag!
Point Taken
Equal Access Advocates
Reader: I recently came to a realization about our hobby after a trip to my local desert. During my younger and more rebellious years I considered all forms of authority equally undesirable. That was very naive. My point of view has shifted. I now know that certain governmental entities are helping to defend our rights of access and they deserve to be acknowledged for that. In Anza-Borrego State Park (California), the park itself has resisted considerable outside pressure to ban backcountry camping and off-roading, and has worked to protect our rights to do so. In the Mojave Desert, the BLM has protected the rights of off-roaders by opposing expansion of designated wilderness areas that threaten popular trails. Both of these organizations have faced severe budget cuts, and it would be easier for them to throw up their hands and just close everything. I don't think enough people appreciate this.
It has been said before, but I would like to encourage everyone to be respectful of our overworked Rangers. Rangers are not the enemy. Many of them like to wheel. If you see where some hooligan has abused the environment, don't wait for a Ranger to clean it up. Lend a hand and clean up the mess before the authorities have to! When you see Rangers, be polite to them, so they continue to see us as good responsible people. Most people are responsible, but every trip I see jerks that leave their trash behind or drive right over plants for no reason, and it drives me crazy!
Edward A. Laag
via 4wheeloffroad.com
Editor: Right you are. The vast majority of Rangers and the vast majority of us are the right kind of people. It's the 2 percenters that generally cause the problem. Make it a habit to teach the ignorant, or we'll have no one to blame but ourselves.