I thought the Auburn ECTED locker in my '73 J-truck had been acting kinda funny. After a somewhat abusive trip to the TDS Desert Safari it didn't appear to be unlocking. At first I figured "what's the big deal, I'll just run it like a spool, bring another locker along just in case it fails completely and see what happens". Well, my better judgment got the best of me four days before I planned to leave for a week-long trip to the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah.

 I pulled the diff cover and found the real culprit, a couple teeth are missing off of my Dana 44's ring gear with a third tooth that's well on it's way to ejecting. It looks like the fragments got all jammed into the locker. I'll have to tear it down further to find out for sure.

At this point I could easily go into thrash mode and come up with the common Dana 44 4.10 ring and pinion and an install kit, and then ram-rod it all together in time. But I don't feel like turning my trip into a thrash fest. And, I really don't see much point in putting time or money into this axle if it's not going to hold up anyway. I mean for the price of a new ring and pinion, the bearings and install kit, possibly a locker, and my time to put it all in I could probably have a junkyard Ford 9-inch in there. I'll hit the wrecking yards when I get home from Utah. Looks like the Jp magazine project JK is going to Moab this year and not the J-truck as planned.   

 Why two power wagon blogs in about a week? Well as long as Chrysler refuses to badge a truck with the Jeep name, we live vicariously through Dodge. Oh wait, RAM.

These pictures are spy shots of what might become the next-generation Power Wagon (Ram? Dodge?- I dunno).

Anyway, I thought I'd throw up a few more pictures and if that isn't enough for you, you can see even more pictures here.

 Working here I get to see and crawl around under a lot of Jeeps. But very few stick in my memory. Some of my favorites have rolled out of the Campbell Enterprises shop over the years including the latest Walker Evans Jeep. But of these Jeeps that I remember, even fewer land on the mental list of Jeeps I want to own and drive.

Spendy custom Jeeps are great and all, but not for me. I absolutely love looking at them, admire the craftsmanship, and try to find ideas that I can apply in my own garage. I just don't see myself thrashing a $60,000-plus Jeep off-road. For me it would be like driving a Ferrari to Wal-Mart. I'd be so worried about door dings and runaway shopping carts that the experience would simply suck.

Anyway, perhaps my favorite Jeep ever would be Soni Honegger's flatfender. I don't remember if it was an MB or a GPW. I love that it has all of the military accessories and trinkets like a shovel, ax, D-rings, grab handles and so on that would make restoration freaks pull their hair out when they see how modified the resto-like Jeep is. I wouldn't mind adding my very own dents and I really like that I could pretty much drive it around on the streets near my house without worrying about getting a ticket. It's a Jeep I would actually buy if given the chance and the right price. Over the years it featured many different tires and wheels but my favorite were the Marsh Racing carbon fiber wheels with cut 33-inch Super Swamper SX tires (pictured). Soni, you out there? Wanna sell your Jeep?

I'm literally buried under an avalanche of parts awaiting install but one or two little things are hanging up each project. The result? Parts are sitting in my garage with nowhere to go.

I really needed some storage space. I've got XJ parts for my '99 Cherokee, stuff for my '73 Commando, components for my Cummins diesel, a tranny and swap stuff for my '89 Wrangler, new seat fabrics for my '68 M-715, parts for my boat, mountain bike gear, motorcycle crap, guitar amps and equipment, 3 welders, plate steel, tubing, a few various transmissions, a couple T-cases, tubing bender, my BMX bike, and so much other crap. Oh yeah, there's my flattie and '48 Pre-Rodder buildup as well.

I sort of hit a wall today and decided I needed to at least get the engine and tranny into my '48 pickup, Project Murderous Overkill. I don't have enough room to swing my engine hoist around to position the engine where it needs to go deep in the chassis under the firewall. So I measured the final installed height I wanted the engine and built a stand with casters that will let me roll the engine where it needs to go.

It's pretty much where it needs to be, although I'd like to drop the rear a bit. It's gonna be easier to raise the front of the truck and then adjust the angle of the engine afterwards, so that's what I'll wind up doing. Regardless, it's taken me a long time to get this far on this project, but I'm sick of tripping over that big 455 on my garage floor.

I need to buy some rectangular steel to build the crossmember and then I can hang the motor mounts for good. Once that's done, I'll finish boxing in the framerails (only have the middle of the frame to do) and then I can install the tranny and build my tranny crossmember.

Hopefully I'll be railing it in Glamis next fall........but don't hold your breath. At least now with the engine between the frame rails I can stack some of the other stuff that's awaiting installation in the spot the engine used to occupy.

 "Never toss anything of any value." I can't live by it because I hate clutter in my garage and workspace, but this phrase seems to be ringing true lately. I put together my entire flatrod Jeep with old cheap and free hand-me-down parts. And I think I'm perfecting my skill. I've been compiling parts for my next project (my 2:1 flatfender) and stuff has just been literally falling from the sky.

 I needed a tranny and I was kind of kicking around the idea of a T-18 with a 6.32 First gear since I like the way it shifts. But I still love the SM420. Although the 420s are getting a bit old and harder to find. But while out at the TDS Desert Safari I met up with a buddy who I hadn't seen since the last Safari a year ago. I found out he had an SM420 he was planning to sell. I also found out he needed a locker for a 31-spline Ford 9-inch, and I just so happen to have one! So it looks like my Jeep will be running an SM420 for the price of a locker rotting in my garage. All I have to do is pick it up. Now all I really need is an engine for my project. Anybody got a running Mazda Rotory motor or GM 4.3L V-6 they don't want? I'll wait, I sure hope someone will want to trade me the engine for some vintage CJ-7 Renegade wheels. 

 What do you think of a smaller Jeep? Fiat already offers the Panda 4x4 overseas. So how long till we see Panda 4x4 guts in a Jeep skin here in the U.S.? I'm thinking not much longer...

 On the upside, it's said the Panda 4x4 is pretty capable (maybe if you floor it everywhere) although I don't see how, and I wonder who made such statements. But it's only 62 inches wide and weighs just 2,150 pounds so maybe you can simply go around everything. With only a 1.2L or optional 1.3L engine I don't see how it can conquer much of anything.

 It has finally hit me that I head out for EJS next week. So I am now downloading maps for my Delorme PN-40. I'm hoping to be able to get a bunch of usable GPX files of the trails of Moab for future reference.

 Over the last year, the locations of several of the Moab trails has come up, and getting to go there every year, people expect me to be able to tell them where trails start and whatnot. The problem is, it is all visual memory for me. "Well you turn down the street by the McDonald's, go past the waterfall, past where the pavement ends, go about another 5 miles then turn left, cross the stream, etc etc etc."

Needless to say, unless I'm there with them, I'm not too helpful as a tour guide. I've saved some GPS coords for trail heads, but with the DeLorme PN-40 I got for Christmas, I can save entire trails and export them later. No more having to Google where a trail starts. I'm even hoping to be able to save coords of the more famous obstacles

Anyway, we'll see how that goes. I'm just tired of spending all this time going to all these cool wheeling spots and only finding my way back half the time. Or, worse, finding my way back to the trail head and not being able to follow the trail or missing out on some of the cooler obsticles because you forget where exactly they are.

Check out Columbia River Knife & Tool's slick little workhorse. Stubby, isn't it?

It's been a while since I've done a Blog  Blade Review, but that just means I've had more time to live with the knives I'm reviewing. This time around CRKT sent me one if its chunky little Stubby Folding Razel. I like it because I view pocket knives as more of a tool and not a weapon. And this little folder is all about the tool aspect.

First, the shape of the stainless steel blade is hard to ignore. Its flat, sharpened nose and squared-off edges resemble a woodworker's chisel and not a pocket knife. And its for woodworkers this knife was primarily designed. I don't do woodworking, but I found the corner of the lower edge perfect for quickly slicing open boxes and making quick cuts. And the flat, sharpened nose came in handy when I had to cut a zip-tie up in a somewhat inaccessible spot on one of my Jeeps. Just shove it up and into the tie and it's done. Way easier than trying to cut it with a regular pointed-tip knife.

It's not a svelte, thin knife. The Ram's Horn handle feels great and is chunky even in my large hands. Unlike some longer-handled CRKT knives I've had, the pocket clip which attaches to the pivot side of the handle (I'm used to knives with clips mounted to the opposite end) doesn't seem to interfere with the grip. The handle is removable but I can't see why you'd want to on this little worker. Despite its short size, the handle is surprisingly stable and secure in the hand. There's no assisted-opening, but the thumb knob is knurled and well-sized. The action is a bit stiff, but one-handed opening is not hard.

Built on a shortened frame, I was a little surprised at how much thumb pressure was required to release the lock to close the knife. The locking tang doesn't protrude very much and it takes a bit more thumb pressure than I was expecting. It's still managable for one-handed operation, but if you've got little girly hands you may need to two-hand the closing on this one.

In all, for a list price on CRKT's web site of $49.99 the Stubby Razel should prove a very welcome addition to your pocket if a true work and utility knife is what you seek. The blade is thick and solid, not thin and flexy. There's no feeling that you'll harm it with heavy and borderline abusive use. It's a tool, plain and simple.

Columbia River Knife and Tool, 900/891-3100, www.crkt.com

Take a cherry picker, a hand truck, and a new TJ axle, and have them all on a driveway with an incline... and even with wood blocks and custom welder stop, what do you get? A hand truck hitting a 715 40 feet away and a cherry picker and axle on its side in the dirt.

 Yep, you learn something new every day.

I'm still gimping around with the leg in the cast, but the install of the new rear axle for red is on the runsheet, so I dragged it out of the garage today, and needed the hand truck and cherry picker to get it to a place where I could paint it. I used a combination of wood blocks and an inverted T-shaped piece of steel, but it all still got away from me.

So, using a combination of come-alongs and the hand truck, I got everything back up on the driveway, and then anchored the stuff to the Jeepster, the YJ on 40's and the front porch. All just to paint a new axle. That's with a lot of cane-whipping stuff and hobbling, and trying to catch stuff from rolling down the driveway. Heck, even the new axle, resting on the drums made it about 3 feet before the housing turned over and the track-bar mount stopped it.

All told something that should have taken like 3 hours start to finish took about 7. But the axle is painted, and should be cured enough for install tomorrow or Sun. That should be entertainment.

 Every year at Moab Easter Jeep Safari the Jeep/Mopar Underground guys introduce some cool functional one-off vehicles. In the past we've seen Jeep pickups, V-8 and diesel powered Wranglers, stock height JKs with 40-inch tires and so on. Last year we showed you a sneak peak of the Lower 40, this year we got a sneak peak and some pilfered images of several vehicles that will be in Moab. Are they show cars or a look into the future?

Now I'm not saying you'll see a factory Jeep on 40s or a V-8 Wrangler in the future, but you may see these concepts come to life in other ways. Say, a more-powerful Wrangler or maybe a lower stance with slightly bigger tires for example. It's all in how you interpret the modifications. Remember the Gladiator truck? Not only was Jeep testing the waters for a Jeep pickup, but the grille was pretty much a JK grille. Only we didn't know it yet since no one had actually seen the new Wrangler JK.

First up is the J7. It's built off a four-door Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and designed to have the basic appeal of military-issued vehicles. This one will need a closer look.

Next is a sketch that shows the Jeep Wrangler Trail Boss: a two-door Jeep Wrangler Rubicon that is built for off-road. Hard to say what may find it's way into production Jeeps without a closer look.

Next shows the Jeep Patriot Extreme, A Sunburst Orange Jeep Patriot model equipped with the Trail-Rated off-road package and added a 2-inch Rocky Road Outfitters suspension lift, TJ  ‘Moab’ 16-inch wheels, and BF Goodrich KM2 tires. Additional protection is added to the front and rear fascias with custom rock rails. Mopar added heavy-duty slush mats, Kicker audio and a roof-mounted snowboard carrier. Kinda cool in a Shawn White sorta way but not likely a production Jeep. Maybe we'll see a production Patriot Renegade.

Last but not least is the Power Wagon: The full-size pickup truck of choice in a range of off-road situations. Why is this one important? Simple. It's a short bed step side. What that says to me is that Ram just may be eyballing a premier 1/2-ton off-road package similar to Ford's Raptor. Think go-fast off-road with plenty of horsepower. And if Ram can have it, so can Jeep.

But perhaps what's most important is what you don't see here. And that's a couple more Jeeps that we won't get to see till Moab. Stay tuned. 

 I've been putting some miles in recently and I've noticed something. Prius drivers are not only oblivious to the world outside their car, but they apparently have never heard of the concept of "passing lane".

 When I learned to drive "keep right, pass left" was taught as common courtesy for sharing the road. Somehow in the last week of driving, I've gone about 600 miles and noticed about 10 Toyota Priusi in the left lane, not only not passing and not going with the flow of the traffic in the two lanes to the right of them, but in about half of those cases not even doing the posted speed limit while sitting in the left-hand (passing) lane.

Now I wasn't going to say anything about it, figuring it was just my hatred of Priuses (or is their owners who really think they are saving the world - Get a TDI VW!!!!) that was clouding my judgment. And, when this rocket scientist popped up, confirming my derogatory view of Prius owners (um, ever hear of Neutral?) I managed to hold my tongue.

Bu t then I stumbled across this (don't click link if at work, Not Work Safe for language) video. Simply put, it has an enraged Prius owner showing how to stop one, if it did actually have an "uncontrolled acceleration event". And the guy actually helps my view on Prius owners by owning one to save money. Not the environment or dolphins, or anything like that. And then, he goes on about other Prius owners doing 45 in the left hand lane which shows me not only am I not the only one to notice this phenomena, but he offers an explanation for it, and suggests they move to the right.

Don't get me wrong, I like the environment, dolphins, and so forth, but I'm far from sold that the Prius is the way to do it, and if you like that Kool-Aid, fine. Heck, I'd like to build re-power

an older Jeep with a hybrid or electric powertrain, but stop trying to shove the Prius' wonderfulness down everyone's throat and stay out of the passing lane with it unless you are passing.

http://www.vincelewis.net/bigengine.html

Think your small-block makes crazy power? Check this thing out!

The Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel engine is the most powerful and most efficient prime-mover in the world today. The Aioi Works of Japan 's Diesel United, Ltd built the first engines and is where some of these pictures were taken. It is available in 6 through 14 cylinder versions, all are inline engines. These engines were designed primarily for very large container ships. Ship owners like a single engine/single propeller design and the new generation of larger container ships needed a bigger engine to propel them. The cylinder bore is just under 38" and the stroke is just over 98". Each cylinder displaces 111,143 cubic inches (1820 liters) and produces 7780 horsepower. Total displacement comes out to 1,556,002 cubic inches (25,480 liters) for the fourteen cylinder version.

CLICK HERE for more images and info.

It's a pretty ballsy warranty. If you're looking for a locker this might be for you. Applications include Dana 35, Dana 44, GM 14-bolt, 28-, 31-, and 35-spline Ford 9-inch, 2.5-ton Rockwell and a few others. Dana 60 Supposedly coming soon. Is it crazy marketing hype or a true hardcore product? Only time will tell. This is what just passed my desk:

Yukon Gear & Axle now offering Special Warranty on Grizzly Lockers!

From now through October 31, 2010 all Yukon Grizzly Lockers purchased come with an unconditional warranty for the first year.

 This warranty covers the replacement of the Grizzly unit AND any associated parts that may be damaged including associated labor, up to $2,000! Yukon feels so confident this product will get you through anything you encounter that they are willing to put their money where their mouth is! Call your authorized Yukon distributor today for more info!

In the late 1990's I had swapped and traded to get my hands on a new pair of PRP Premier low-back bucket suspension seats. The company was kind of a new-comer back then but offered high-quality race seats at an affordable price. I put them in my old flatfender and loved them. They were some of the most comfortable seats I had ever sat in. Tilting the mounting brackets back  2-4 inches made them even better.

 I eventually beat my Jeep to death, parted it out, and sold the seats. My buddy still uses them to this day in his FJ-40 Landcruiser. So when it came time to replace the uncomfortable hack-job Wagoneer seats that had been swapped-in my '73 J-truck, I jumped at the chance to put in some PRP Premier low-back buckets. The low-backs are awesome for standard cab trucks because the headrest doesn't get in the way when you tilt them back for comfort. Bummer is this can put your head close to the back window. After some careful measuring and bracket building I found the optimum location for my new seats. And after the TDS Desert Safari over the weekend I can confirm these seats are still just as comfortable to me today as they were over 10 years and 20-pounds ago. I'm ready for Moab!

 One of my neighbors is restoring a Jeepster with his son to be the son's first vehicle and they came by to borrow my pressure washer. I got curious as to why and went to see what progress was like.

 Apparently the easiest way to clean the underside of a Jeep also happens to be the easiest way to drag a flat fender home with no tow rig: the boom truck. When I saw it, I was worried that the cowl/firewall area might get tweaked, but they measured before and after with no change.

It rained at TDS this year and Cappa, Verne Simons, and I hit the taffy-like mud for some wheelin!

The soil out in the Truckhaven hills surrounding the Salton Sea where the annual TDS Desert Safari is held is loose, silty, sandy stuff. But when you add a little water it turns into a muck like you don't find many places off-road. It's extremely sticky, slippery stuff. Jump out of your Jeep and take a few steps. The mud sticks to your feet, the next step more mud sticks to that, and so on until your shoes are the size of beach balls.

I've been running this same set of 35x13.50R15 BFG Krawler T/As on my '53 flattie since I built it back in '02. Coincidentally, that was about the last time I had this Jeep out in some really gnarly mud like this. Back then the tread was brand-new with crisp edges around the tread blocks. The tread packed up quick and didn't really self-clean redily. It caused me to think for years the Krawler wasn't a very good mud tire. But in the 8 or so years since I've been wheeling these tires, the tread blocks have developed a rounded, worn shape from hudreds of hours of abuse in the rocks.

So here we were hitting the washes, gullies, and ravines in a downpour with super-sticky mud clinging to our tires for all its worth. And you know what? The Krawlers did pretty damn good. They're still no Super Swamper, but the self-cleaning performance of my worn tread blocks was improved over the brand-new crisp tread blocks. Sure, the tires still packed tight with mud, but a blip of the throttle cleared most of it away. And when clawing and chewing up into gullies and banks, the treads seemed to find enough purchase to grab hold and move me forward, albeit with some sliding.

So bottom line? In my opinion the Krawler is still one of the very best tires you can use in the rocks bar none. And a Swamper TSL, LTB, SX or  Bogger are still the best mud tires. But if you're a rock crawler who occasionally needs to hit the mud, your Krawlers won't completely dissappoint you once you wear 'em in a bit.

http://www.fourwheeler.com/eventcoverage/129_1004_top_truck_challenge_2010_challengers/index.html

 Oh man, there sure are a lot of ugly TTC entries this year. And I don't mean ugly by abuse, I mean ugly and wrong by design of the owner. There are way to many trucks with no beds and even one exo-cage is too many. And haven't we all learned to not build overly-tall circus wagons yet? Well, enough of that. Here are my picks and why. I like to see a wide range of vehicles and I have a soft spot for full-bodied fullsizes and big motors with EFI. So if I were the one picking who gets to go to TTC, here would be your competitors:

23-'Cause every year at TTC you have to have some nut job in a big mud truck.

13-A Jeep with a diesel, Rockwells, 47-inch tires and a manual tranny. 'Nuff said. And we featured his diesel M-715 a few years back.

11-Yeah, it's a buggy, but it's Jeeplike and it's the kind of rig that could win...and he's from Kentucky. Gotta support my roots.

9-I like to see fullsizes enter. It's a cool narrowed Blazer. I'm in!

10-You know I love junky when it's capable and nothing is better than a guy that ain't afraid to beat on his rig, even if it is a Suburban.

4-It's a pretty sweet-looking kinda lightweight Bronco with a GM engine. Gotta love that.

16-It's a JK!!! But he ain't no typical JK guy. I personally know Mel will beat the crap out of his Jeep. He will surely keep driving until it is upsidedown and on fire. Roll video please!

20-I hate buggies but I've seen a video of this one wheelie up a hill. Sick 502 power.

44- I like heavy-duty axles on Jeeps with relatively stock powertrains. It's overbuilt cool with a manual tranny. I hope he keeps the 4.0L though just to be different.

43-'Cause I gotta have my high-revving dumb mud truck with a huge stumbling carb that should be good for comic relief in most of the events.

http://www.fourwheeler.com/eventcoverage/129_1004_top_truck_challenge_2010_challengers/index.html

Every year I like to look at the rigs that are entered into Four Wheeler's Top Truck Challenge. The mag runs 50-60 rigs and lets the readers vote who should make the top 10 that get to destroy their rigs in some of the nastiest terrain the FW guys can come up with. It is by far my all-time favorite competition to watch and be a part of. 

 The voting has begun. Who are your 10 picks?

CLICK HERE for direct link.

 Ok, so micro-brew isn't really a change of pace. But a breakfast pizza and a salad are definately outside my normal purview.

 The breakfast pizza (that I was eating at about 2pm) was from Wolf Creek Brewery and features homemade sourdough pizza dough topped with eggs, bacon, sauteed mushrooms, onion, tomato, cilantro, mozzarella & parmesan cheese. I deleted the mushrooms, and it was quite good. The breakfast pizza is only available at Sunday brunch though so that's kind of a bummer.

The salad came around cause I'm burned out on processed food from the freezer section. It has baby spinach, rotisserie chicken, blue cheese crumbles, and a vidialia onion vinaigrette. The problem is, it is hard to cook for one person and not have a lot of leftovers or stuff you don't use. But then, I've had like 5 of these salads so far, probably have another 4 days before the spinach wilts and I run out of chicken, and I'm only out like 20 bucks. I like to think its healthy, but I like the way it tastes, so its probably just as bad for me as anything else I eat. Nonetheless its a nice change.

Finally got the June '10 issue of Jp out the door and am happily back where I'd rather be: in the garage spinning wrenches. Parts are finally rolling in and now I'm backlogged on my installs.

Finally got some time to assemble the new front axle for the XJ. Before most of it was in the boxes behind the nitrous cylinders in the photo, but now it's all in one piece on the workbench so awaiting a trip up to Poly Performance where I'll install it in my '99 along with some new front coils and other odds-and-ends. I even freed up my shed of some Warn Premium hubs that've been rattling around with me for nearly 10 years. It's nice to put some of these parts I've had hanging around to good use.

Advance Adapters finally got its AX-15-to-2.5L conversion parts finished and they arrived a few days ago. I've got everything I need to swap out my AX-5 with the exception of a new 6-pinion planetary for the NP231. I could just install the 23-spline input into my existing 3-pinion planetary with no worries, but I eventually want to install a fire-breathing 500hp LS3 into this Jeep. Granted I'll rarely if ever hit full-throttle in Low range, but it would be good peace of mind to know the T-case is as strong as it can be. And there's that Nitrous system I took off my '99 XJ. Maybe I'll just install that on the 2.5L to have some fun! Wonder how much juice it'll take to make the 4-banger go boom.

Also have the Dana 20 from the Comman D'oh sitting on the bench awaiting teardown and rebuild. I'll get to that eventually, but the parts I ordered from B&M for the TH400 almost two months ago STILL haven't shown, so I may wind up scrapping that plan. Now I'm considering skipping the interim step of running the Dana 20 behind the AMC TH400 and just looking for a GM TH400 from a junkyard pickup or car. I'll install it behind the AMC 304 with an adapter kit from Advance Adapters. I've already got a 32-spline Dana 300 adapter for a GM TH400 that will allow me to run my Stak 3-speed Monster Box. I think the Monster Box may be too wide for the Commando frame rails, but I can get creative. Dunno - I'll see.

At least now I'm happy to have some of the boxes of parts cleared off my work bench. Couple more installs and I'll be able to see countertop again!

 I never thought this would be one of my favorite tools, but the Mastercool hydraulic tubing flare tool has become one of them. In the past I would simply bend and route universal-length steel brake lines to match what I needed. I got pretty good at it and once did a whole Jeep in two hours. The result was sometimes strange loops that looked a little hokey but were needed to take up the extra length. This was typically only noticeable on the rear axle. It wasn't difficult or anything, it just took a lot of thought to figure out how long of a universal brake line I needed and where to put the bends.  

 Today I typically buy the longest steel lines I can get my hands on, knowing that I can cut them down and flare them with the Mastercool flaring tool. I've also used it to put beads on tubes to better hold hose-clamped fuel lines and transmission cooler lines in place. The Mastercool hydraulic flaring tool isn't cheap but comes in several versions. To save money I opted for the basic standard 45-degree single and double flare kit but there are kits with push-to-connect flare, GM fuel line flare, and metric bubble flare fittings. Several places sell them, I shopped around and found the best price on eBay. Make sure you get the kit with the flares you use most. 

I was more shocked that the guy at the gas station said he was working on Fast & Furious 5 than by the two HEMTT military truck cabs he had on the bed of his truck and trailer. I thought that kind of movie had long since gone the way of Beanie Babies.

There is a lot of movie industry near my house, not the stars and glitz mind you, I'm talking about the blue collar guys and equipment behind the scenes. Up the road from me is a guy that rents military vehicles for movies. Several indoor and outdoor studios are within a couple miles of me as well.

Anyway, I went to the gas station to fill my Recycled J-truck and I saw the two gutted HEMTT cabs so I asked him what he was doing with them. Apparently he builds movie cars. These were going on some contraption-of-a-vehicle for Fast & Furious 5. He said the vehicles will be able to drive up next to a moving train and pick up cars being transported right off the cargo trailer. Sounds kinda cool. Now I at least have to rent the DVD to see what this guy comes up with.

Sounds like a cool job.

Yep, apparently JK hard tops are in short supply and will be for the next several months. The answer? Dealers are being asked to order their Wranglers with soft tops!

As of Feb. 1, Jeep had 16,653 Wranglers in its U.S. inventories, a 69- day supply, according to the Automotive News data center. But the figures do not show how much of that inventory is hardtops.

The hardtops for the Jeep Wranglers were built by Meridian Automotive Systems Inc., which filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in early August last year. After Meridian ceased operations, the job was taken over by Continental Structural Plastics Inc., of suburban Detroit.

So if you're eyeballing that hardtop Jeep at the dealer ya better not wait, or you could be waiting longer than you thought.

http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/us/en/continental/automobile/general/promotions/promo/go_anywhere_gps_promotion_en.html

Continental Tire has a pretty sweet deal going on for anyone who's looking to purchase some tires between March 1st and April 10th 2010. If you purchase four Continental-brand tires valued at $499 or more you'll receive a free TomTom EASE GPS system!

CLICK HERE for direct link.

Too bad the sister company, General Tire, which has some more aggressive treads doesn't seem to be included in the deal. Ehh, maybe your daily-driver or trailer needs some tires? And speaking of General, when is that new General mud-terrain tire going to be available? I've seen it on race trucks for almost two years now! It's gonna be outdated-looking by the time it's finally introduced to the public!

 The picture itself is fuuny. What made it funnier to me was that a friend in Iowa sent the email.

 Apparently that's a 90 or 91 Buick LeSabre. Which would mean the 231ci V-6 front wheel drive car was putting out a whopping 150 or 165 hp. The car weighs about 3,200 lbs. That trailer has to weigh 1,500-2,000 lbs, and look at how the front-drive car is squatting down at the rear, lifting the front tires off the ground.

The other funny part about this is that I got the picture in an email from Iowa.

Maybe I can tow with the XJ after all.