Nearly five years ago I began my stint here as feature editor. Like many of you I was a longtime reader and never could imagine that I would actually land what I truly considered to be my dream job. It wasn’t long after getting my position at the magazine that I got the opportunity to transform my completely stock ’97 Ford Ranger 4x4 into a truck capable of surviving our Ultimate Adventure. With little money and limited time I managed to convert my TTB (twin traction beam) Ranger into a solid-axle crawler in just five weeks.

Old trucks can hide surprises. Rewiring wasn’t originally on the menu for our Ultimate K10. At our project headquarters, GM Truck Center redid the fuel system (Dec. ’11) then connected the existing wiring to the new fuel pump. The truck cranked but wouldn’t fire. Troubleshooting uncovered multiple issues: wires to nowhere, snipped leads at the electric fans, an intake manifold and EFI harness that were in the early stages of removal, missing and broken gauges, rodent droppings, and more. After half a day of detective work, the unexpected upshot concluded that sorting out the existing wiring would be more time-consuming and less reliable than starting from scratch.

My first 4x4 was a Jeep CJ-5, but it is long gone. At some point last year I realized that I wanted another CJ-5. I’m not sure why since the CJ-5 isn’t everyone’s favorite Jeep. Flatfender guys hate it for its round fenders, CJ-7 guys hate it for its annoying door hump you have to climb over, YJ and TJ guys dislike the short wheelbase and less-than-plush ride, and JK guys just think it’s old. But I wanted one again, so I found the perfect CJ-5 for me.

Our Ultimate Adventure F-150 is a project to push boundaries from our other projects over the years. We started with an ’11 Ford F-150 with the new EcoBoost V-6, a groundbreaking twin-turbo, direct-injection engine designed for power and mileage. The truck was taken to Randy Ellis Design, where the body was armored and the suspension overhauled to better control the 40-inch Nitto Mud Grapplers over whatever extreme trails our Ultimate Adventure troop may encounter. Our biggest challenge was to build an independent front suspension (IFS) that would be strong enough to withstand the rocks, ruts, and roads of the UA while leading the 20-some 4x4s filled with readers, sponsors, and cronies for a week.

Our Ultimate K10 is mobile again now that fire is back in the proverbial hole. In its previous life, the truck relied on a custom in-bed aluminum fuel tank, a quick-fix way to get the K10 to the 2005 Ultimate Adventure. This 8-gallon cell served its purpose back then.

Ultimate Adventure is over. Our truck survived and made it home in one piece, but we can’t say it was easy. There was carnage, things broke, but we fixed them and kept going. In the end that is all that matters: Can you keep going?

Our Ultimate K10 is getting close to exceptional again. To bring first-time readers up-to-date, we built this ’75 Chevy for the 2005 Ultimate Adventure. It tackled some of the country’s toughest trails on 39-inch BFGs. Then the truck was parked and pillaged. Even its license plates and insurance fell to the wayside. To get this popular truck back in circulation, we are doing a budget-conscious street/trail buildup. It will ride on 37-inch Mickey Thompsons and will be able to hold its own on the trail and also spend time as a Jeep-tower .

The Ultimate Adventure is a weeklong wheeling road trip where we head to a small segment of the United States (different each year) and explore the trails and tarmac. The trip is made up of around 20 vehicles, including selected readers, sponsors, old cronies, and staff. The lead truck is our official Ultimate Adventure vehicle. For 2011 we are building a new Ford F-150 to lead our expedition of off-roading.

This story goes to press about eight weeks before Ultimate Adventure begins, but for some reason this year feels different. No, the truck isn’t finished, but maybe the reason we’re not losing sleep is because the crew at Randy Ellis Design is doing such a topnotch job. (Or maybe we just sleep less.)

All of our off-road machines are probably running more electrical gizmos, widgets, and junk than we really need. We think it has something to do with the fact that we are becoming too reliant on the fine appointments and creature comforts of the late-model vehicles we run around town in. Whatever happened to the Jeeps that only had a gas gauge, a speedometer, taillights, and headlights?

We have been teasing you with the finish of the Scrambler project for what seems like years—because it has been years! The reality of the build is that we might be a little picky. We also have a bad habit of changing things around.

Six years ago we bought, built, and thrashed a ’75 Chevy K-10 for our Ultimate Adventure in the Midwest. After years of neglect and parts pilfering, we are bringing it back to life, and a better future.

The new Ford F-150 we are building for Ultimate Adventure 2011 is in Phoenix undergoing more modifications than a Hollywood starlet past her prime. We’re giving this brand-new EcoBoost F-150 a nip, tuck, trim, wack, grind, cut, shape, slim, and chop to make it fit down whatever trail Editor Péwé takes us on this summer.

Our Ultimate K10’s worst feature is its body, which resembles an oversized, recycling-ready, crushed aluminum can. First glances often provoke gag reflexes. But this beast’s beauty is beneath the skin. (Many might argue that the rock-sculpted body panels are more aesthetically pleasing than the stock bodylines.)

It takes a lot of work to build our official Ultimate Adventure vehicle every year. We have to add big tires, recovery gear, body armor, a rollcage, and all the various and sundry tools, food, storage, and navigational equipment to lead our charge. Plus, we usually do this buildup in a matter of months (roughly three).

Last month we introduced our latest challenge, rehabbing the Ultimate K10. The truck attracted substantial attention in 2005 and 2006 then fell on hard times. Many of its premium parts were cherry-picked for other projects. In high-on-the-hog times, we might have put Old Yeller out of its misery. After all, its high-end, high-pinion Dynatrac Dana 60 frontend, Off Road Unlimited disc-braked Chevy 14-bolt rearend, and NP205 with Off-Road Design Doubler were long gone. So were the winch, Optima batteries, seats, steering column, steering box, bumpers, and more. A saner, higher-heeled approach might be to pull the RamJet 350 and TCI TH350 and put them in a truck that’s more together.

Our project white truck, a ’10 Ram 3500, is quickly earning its stripes as the go-to tool for tow and go. Six months ago we took delivery of this basic brute loaded with the 6.7L Cummins diesel and the six-speed manual transmission, a combo unmatched by other OEMs (Mar. ’11). The truck is as basic as can bevinyl seats and floors, steel wheels, painted bumpersand because of that we like it even more.

Two and a half years ago I drug home this '65 Dodge M37 military truck. It was just a shell of a truck, no engine or transmission, broken axles, and tired suspension. None of that mattered as I saw potential for a retro wheeler with a late-model drivetrain. I realized that many of you readers may have that same type of vision, so I proceeded to showcase not just how to build my M37, but how to stuff a new drivetrain into just about any old 4x4. Over the past year we've dropped in an '04 GMC 6.0L V-8 engine, late-model Dodge and Chevy axles, a steering box, shocks, and radiator designed for a Ford, and various other used parts we had lying around. The truck was called the Dumpster for all the used parts we threw in it.

Last month we took our '10 Ram 3500 to a local Dodge dealership to get some Mopar upgrades. This truck is our base-model bruiser that is earning monthly upgrades to make it more useful and off-roadable. It started as a basic ST package Ram with vinyl seats, floor mats, a Cummins diesel, and manual transmission. Last month this no-frills killer grew up a little with a Mopar leveling kit and 35-inch BFG's on the stock steel wheels.

If you're surprised you don't see the Scratch-Built Scrambler out on the trail with every new issue of Petersen's 4-Wheel & Off-Road, then we have to assume you never built a rig from the ground up. With every new part that gets fitted to the vehicle, there is another fancy gizmo contraption that has to be unbolted, refitted, and then reinstalled. It doesn't help much that we have a bad habit of changing our mind and that our shop time is cut in half by office work-which really sucks!

The Ultimate K10may be our most popular project truck of all-time (Aug.-Nov. '05, Jan. '06). Built in 2005 for the Ultimate Adventure, the '75 Stepside commanded attention with its bright yellow paint and demanded respect with its 39-inch BFG Krawlers and hardcore off-road capability. Five years after its last public appearance, we still get voluminous emails asking what happened to it.

In the fast-paced world of automotive journalism it's easy to become wrapped up heavily in one project and then no sooner than it's complete move onto the next. Over the past few years we've been fortunate enough to build some incredible vehicles alongside some of the country's most talented fabricators. As editors for 4-Wheel & Off- Road we often get asked, "What do you do with all of those old projects rigs once they disappear from the magazine?"

The Dumpster is my '65 Dodge M37. It has been packed full of the leftover parts I had lying around (hence the name Dumpster), but this month it is all new stuff. No matter how hard you try, it's almost impossible to build a capable 4x4 without having to buy something, and little stuff like wiring and cooling systems can add up quickly. This month I sent my business to a few companies that have been in the business for a while ( Be Cool, Summit Racing Equipment, and Truck-Lite) and was rewarded with topnotch service.

For $50,000 you can buy you a desert-romping, rockcrawling, stump-jumping Ford Raptor, but many of us don't have that type of capital just lying around. So we found this low-buck Blue Oval truck and dragged it home to build our own farm-style tough truck out of (for far fewer ducats than Ford's latest and greatest).

Last month we introduced the '10 Dodge 3500 as our current trailer towing tractor/backcountry cabin on wheels and dubbed it Project White Truck. This month it rolled into the local Dodge Ram dealership for some factory-backed upgrades.