Hey guys--

Here's a chance for everyone to play Armchair Publisher and give us your praises, critiques, suggestions and gripes. In terms of editorial content:

(1) What, in your opinion, are Four Wheeler's strengths? What attracts you most to the magazine each month? (Tech, tests, travel stories, how-tos, event coverage, projects, etc.)

(2) What, in your in opinion, are Four Wheeler's weaknesses? What turns you off to the mag, if anything? (See above list for examples.)

(3) What kinds of articles/stories would you like to see MORE of in the magazine? What kinds of stories would you like to see LESS of?

(4) Projects: What kind of buildups do you enjoy reading about? What kinds of buildups should we attempt in the future?

Don't hesitate to be specific here when referring to articles, series, projects, photos, departments and so forth. If there's something in particular we've done recently that you thought was awesome, let us know. If we did something that you thought was lame, let us know too. And please don't hesitate to suggest improvements! Thanks for your feedback ahead of time, and for visiting the message boards.

Douglas McColloch

Editorial Director 

you guys keep building street trucks make a trailered beast

take an s10-blazer or pickup

military axles (rockwells would be great)

full blown hydro steering front (back if you got 2 fronts)

4.3 or 350 powered

pick a body that is cheap an s10 blazer would be the cheapest (85-93)

use the boxed or "C" style frame with coilover fronts

atlas II case or better ... maybe double transfercases

the new irocs 49s or 44inch super swamper Tsls

full outside cage

and make it worthy guys make it a truck that is cheap where it needs to be dont paint it

make a truck big power full strong and most of all cheap

this sport is not for people with thousands to spend and blow you guys need to take this into consideration and build a cheap wheeler that can go anywhere and look ugly doing it

also what about this?

the other day i was thinking about the new hummers (the h2) and the jeep liberty

if i had the money i would look for an h2 hummer 

a dana 60 with 35spline axles

hydro steering

try for coilover fronts to move the wheels up farther

would be a start

maybe a new design of rollcage

44+inch tires

i thought of this wile reading your mag... i think it was the first liberty with a sold axle... i thought yeah thats great (not a jeep fan but hey its a cool idea) i think the liberty looks great offroad thats why a hummer h2 would be as good if not better the H2 has had some dirty looks and i think its mostly from us wheelers

this project would take some real money to do right figure a new hummer used what ever is running for 30+ (i assume) then the parts to make it a true hard core rig

and if not this a true budget truck

build the best hard core rig you can set a low amount of money 5grand total cost would catch your readers attention

lets keep it simple upgradeable and CHEAP start with an s10 or ranger.... s10s are much cheaper for parts and things like doors and windows... im talking near free or free cheap.

s10 for about 1000

a set or 38s for 500-800

a dana 60 front and a 60 back 1000

some upgrades ... i could do it with money to spare

email me i got lots more ideas on all sorts of stuff lots of cheap tricks and im going to be building an s10 blazer very soon looking for 38+ maybe 44s i dono yet

I enjoy the amount of different events all across the country and world you cover.  I always enjoy Jon Thompson's Limited Articulation and am glad that you have such good writers.  I also enjoy the different tech articles like Jan 04's "How to Build for Power AND Torque".  Your coverage of TTC and your testing of the Four Wheeler of the year is also good. 

My one gripe is that all to often in seems that the cover of Four Wheeler has a show n' shine rig that's hardly practical.  Now I realize that you want to appeal to "all" types of four wheelers, but just because someone drives a vehicle with 4wd doesn't make them a four wheeler.  I realize that the photo's are offroad, but I don't see these lifted, chromed out rigs hitting the Rubicon or the infamous Hollister Hills OHV area for a shot through the mud pit or the tank trap.  Chromed out shocks and undercarraige parts aren't practical.  It'ld be nice to see a policy of Function over Form adopted with the rigs you cover.

Being a Scout II owner, it would be nice to see a little more coverage of the orphaned 4x4.  The last good Scout article I read in a 4x4 mag. was 4x4 Power's Scout II blueprinting. 

As far as buildups go, again a Scout Traveler would be cool =)  Lose the top, SOA, bob 9"of the rear, already have good Dana 44's, some warn shafts and CTM u-joints, lockers f/r, comes with a torquey V8, and if you're lucky you could get it with the T-19a tranny with a Dana 300 t-case.  Just a thought.  Another cool build up would be to go on the light side and build a Zuki or Sidekick.  Aluminum 4 banger or V6, aluminum tranny and t-case to some toyota axles.  Randy Ellis did a great job with his R.E.D. Racer.  Just a thought

Keep up the good work though

Scoutnut

Ill state my main gripe.  You guys do too many trailer queens that have never seen the dirt a day in their life.  Like huge F350 quad cabs with chrome shocks and 10,000 dollar paint jobs and 8 inch lift blocks under the springs which is ok because it doesnt get wheeled.  but you need to focus on some real trucks a little more.  The last few issues were pretty good.  but dont make it into a show truck mag.

one thing i look forward to is the top truck issues.

another thing that would be good is to show the readers tips and builups that they can actually do.  Not dynatrac dana 60 rears with 4 wheel steering.  thats cool and all but who is gonna go out and spend that kind of cash on our wheeling trucks that get beat to hell? i put a dana 60 in my truck but its nothing crazy, and thats what we want to see.  Normal stuff that we can do in our garage.  feature the off the wall super expensive crap but less of it and more driveway buildups.

i like to keep my fourwheeler magazines around after i get the new issue so that i can go back and use it for references if i see a cool rig i want to go back and get ideas from it but it seems like in no time the magazine is falling apart and pages are missing all im saying is it would be nice if the magazine was put together a little better.

                                                                keep up the good work

Love the magazine.  What ever happend to the superburb you all were fixing up.  You talked about it a couple of issues then it went away.  

i love the magazine, but have to agree with most of the posters by saying that you all need to do more stuff on daily drivers and not show trucks.  and do less stuff on jeeps.  do more on full size ford and chevys, maybe even scouts.  love top truck, it's the best.  do more things on a budget.  do a buildup of a small block with gobs of power. i'm a college student with a 72 blazer with a pretty tight budget, but any money that i get goes straight to my beauty.  how about an article on getting 1 ton axles into a 1/2 ton?  or even better, what to look for specifically in a 1 ton d60, 14 bolt, or a 9 in. when shopping around, whether it be a junk yard or a neighbor?  some more tech articles.  but all in all, love the magazine.  i'm from south texas, so i really enjoyed your feb 04 issue that had a feature on South Padre Island...how about some more features from down here.  keep up the great work.

DR

ps  how about letting readers know how to get a pic into readers rigs and how to get into techline through the internet?