I've read your magazine since 1984 and Have been a subscriber since 1988.  I Love you magazine and have a few recommendations for you.

FEATURE TRUCKS:  A mix of 40% new and 60% old (4 yrs and older) is good.

I'd like to see more "mild" build ups.  A lot of people use their rigs as daily driver cross trainers.  Show more of them.  A 40/60 Mild to wild ratio should satisfy everyone.

I think that unusual rigs are the spice of the truck meal and shoud constitute 20% of feature rigs.   Same thing with restoration rigs.  It's good to see a well done Bronco of FJ-40.

TRAVEL & ADVENTURE:  Here's how I'd round it out.

30% Trail/Club rides,  15% Racing, 30% North American Travel,  15% International Travel, and 10% Shows

With all the trail rides and travels, put in a little map of where they are.  I'd also like to see more eastcoast-southern-midwest trails.

Also show more LIGHT trails so those that have new/stock rigs can go somewhere without worrying about thrashing them.

TECH:  I'd love to see more features where you don't need to know how to weld done.  Keep the Heavyduty articles, but show more stuff for inexperienced people.  I loved your "Mechanics 101" articles

Buy a 36 peice Sears socket set and some basic tools and ask, "What can we do if we just had these to work with?"

TESTS:  I would love to see more comparos!   Test the Ranger,Colorado,Frontier,Tacoma with the same engine, tranny, price range, ect.  FWOTY and PUOTY mix apples and oranges too much.

I'd like to also see unique comparos like the Dodge Powerwagon vs Project Baja Bomber.  Or a new Jeep vs a restored one.

How about showing what each class is capable of?  Take a CRV, a Wrangler, a X-Terra, A Grand Cherokee, A Land Cruiser, A Expedition, and a Hummer  and show which is better where that way readers can choose the style that fits their needs best.  It's also great for your buyers guide too, which is very important.

How about taking a tire company like BF Goodrich and test their different tires against each other on the same vehicle.  Is a mud terrain better than an all terrain for average use? Show the benefits and drawback of each.

MAGAZINE DESIGN:  The basic design is great!  I'd add more elements from across the country.  With the advancement of the internet, there's no reason why you can't have "Editors at large"  aound the country.

I'd love to see a monthly article dealing with land usage and treading lightly.  I love the Low Rage articles.  Keep them up.

You do a great job of producing a mature magazine.  Let Peterson's show all the juvenile crash fest mangled metal stories.  I like a magazine that tries to keep the shiney side up.

YOUR COMPETITION:  I read Truck Trends for their travel and tests (even thought I don't trust their numbers).  I just started to read 4 Wheel Drive and Sport Utility again for their travel and mild build ups.  I used to read Austrailian 4WD monthly for their balance of features, travel, and tests.  If I could afford the rates, I'd probably subscribe.

BIGGEST SUGGESTION:  How about a series of articles showing how to wheel correctly!  Eveyone is a novice at one point.

I hope this helps.  So you know, I decided to not renew my subscription to Car and Driver because of the almost predictable outcome of teats and overall dullness.  If you enjoy what you do and don't become jaded, Four Wheeler will always be a great magazine!

like everyone else is saying, most of us arent wheeling or lexus suv's ...and i think would be kool is give yourslef a price range that us average joes would have, and do the best modding you can to a variety of older and newer vehicles, and like the guy before me, i like how you provide us with a more mature magizine, yall arent out to destroy everything but just like to go wheeling...a very respectable magazine

another thing is not everyone has a welder or know's how to use one, it would be kool to show mods using only some handtools that everyone has

thats really it...this is the best off road magazine in my opinion                

keep doin hat you guys do

I enjoy reading about restorations when you do them, especially when it's old iron being brought back.
I also like when you feature trail rides with good photos here in No. America.
I like Reader's Rigs,but don't really care about the show trucks.
I've been a faithful Four Wheeler subscriber since Granville King came on board from PV4 in the late 70's, I think, sure do miss his articles.  

More engine swaps say a 302 in a Ford ranger.Id like to see a feature from start to finish.  

It would be good to see some in depth before and after gear swap tests on MPG and performance times since lots of people install big rubber and engine mods without regearing properly.

more dodge and more mud  

Feature trucks - have one issue that does ALL the new trucks once a year - you could use this issue to feature NOTHING but new feature trucks - while I would love to have the bucks to buy a new rig, even if I won the lotto tomorrow, I would still probably just keep buying 'da old stuff', as that's what I like to ride in, work on and own.

Travel & Adventure - if well written, an ongoing adventure is a good thing, especially if it could be here in the US.  I'd love to see a series on something like the 'Turtle expedition' where they go all over the US, Alaska, the Northeast, the Northwest, the Florida swamps, the Badlands, etc.  Include GPS or other directions so that if I wanted to visit 'where ever' this person or group of writers went, I could visit the area myself one day.

Tech - more specific things I could do in my garage with the tools at hand, as not everyone has the $$ or the money for all those kewl tools.

Tests -  I would LOVE to see what it takes to truly BREAK something (axle, tranny, diff, wheel, engine, etc).  You could even then include how to fix whatever broke.   Like replacing a broken axle, from finding a suitable replacement in the salvage yard, removing the old one, refurbing the salvaged piece, etc.  BUT keep it one broken part per issue - DON'T spread it over two or three issues.

Buyers guide - could be in the once a year special edition that features ONLY new trucks and new FEATURE trucks (new trucks that were built up)

Design of the magazine - on this one, I give you guys an 'A+'.  It used to frustrate me no end to start an article and then 'chase' it through the magazine as it was 'continued' in three different sections.

Competition - I would be interested in exactly who your competition would be.  This is one thing that irks me mildly.  PRIMEDIA owns everybody!  Yes, even Peterson's.  That has to effect editorial content.  Yes, each magazine has a different 'path' they follow but over all the publications world has 'suffered' with all the magazines being owned by one huge media outlet.  Having said that, more BIG IRON type stuff and more ex-military vehicles.

Given my rant against all the magazines being owned by a huge media giant,  I think Primedia is missing a HUGE opportunity to get all your 4x4 and off road magazines together (under the Primedia banner) and have a GIANT get together (like the Tough Truck Challenge) somewhere in the middle of the country for a full week that anyone could attend, if they had the time.  Like in Kansas or S. Dakota, or you guys pick the location but make it the same place every year.  Think either 'Sturgis' or 'Daytona Beach' for the motorcycle crowd or the yearly 'Power Cruise' for the hot rod crowd.  A place where all us off road/4x4 people could gather every year at the same time and the same place and tell lies uh bench race, get reaquainted with old friends, do all the things like hill climbs or drag strips or vehicle shows, etc, etc, etc.  Get all the vendors in one spot at least once a year so we could see and compare company products first hand.  This would be a huge deal that if you missed it, all your friends would constantly rag you until next year. 

Now that would be monster.

I do like your magazine.  Over the years, it has just gotten better and better.  Perhaps an 'Old Phart' section written by someone over the age of forty, working on the old iron (Ford, Chevy, Dodge).  And a 'Young guns' section written by someone under the age of twenty, looking for the 'newest, latest, greatest' type of rigs (like the new FJ 40).

I would LOVE to see you run a long term test on all the oil products, especially synthetic oils.  Owners impressions of what they gained after they changed over from dino to syn, dyno runs proving OR disproving claims, and do this with a wide variety of truck owners (Ford, Chevy, Dodge, whatever) again for at least one year or longer.  I realize that just to write a story like this is considered long term, but hey, once a year you could give us 'updates' on how the test trucks are doing on there specific type of oil products.

Hope that helps.

I love the northdakota ramblings article. I can`t wait for the next installment. I like the lewis and clark trail info. It was cool to see the author is from my home state of Kansas. Keep it coming!  

Agreed,enough said  

I would like to see less Jeeps. They are great on the trail but you cant take the wife, kids, and family dog, and still have room for gear. Big SUV's and trucks are more common in the real world. Not all of us live in the dessert and drive up mountains all day. I use my full-size Bronco for hunting, fishing, camping, and family travel. I drive through mudholes that would swallow a Jeep whole (pulled enough of them out to prove it). The whole buy a new truck and sink $15k into it is crazy. I see these trucks everyday and they drive around every obstacle they come to heaven forbid they get it dirty or a dent. I tapped a tree with my Bronco, big deal went to salvage yard paid $25 got a good fender and voila, good as used. Less Jeeps and more old trucks/suv's and I think you will see a greater loyalty from current and new readers alike. Of course, these are just my opinions but from reading this thread, I think alot of people agree. Thanks.  

i would like to see mopre older ford rangers in your magazine. there is some good and some bad rangers out there but i would like to see them, or just a few.
sincerely, Terry Nelson.  

I quit reading when Granville passed on.

Occasionally a foreign adventure trip will spur my interest.  

I hate all the interest in "monster trucks", 20 inch wheels, anything chrome, and for God's sake, flush the tube frame sand rails away.  

Read some old issues.  31 inch tires were the biggest needed.  Travel stories took you around the world.

Start reprinting all Granville's columns, or at least compile them into a book.

R.I.P. Superdawg  

There is some merit to this. I have been for wheeling for well over 30 years now long before there was 20 inch fancy wheels that can damaged easier because there is less rubber between road and rim. I can remember 4 wheeling in 70's with stock type 32 inch 10 ply traction type truck tires on 16 inch split rims on a stock 72 GMC 3/4 ton truck with a 350 carbed 350 and SM465 tranny and going thru some really nasty places that you bog down a lot of fancy modern stock trucks. It never suffered from any lack of power either I can also remember using tire chains in some extreme conditions in snow and mud to go places not even possible otherwise.  With modern trucks with big stock tires and limited wheel well clearance, chains are not even a option. I have seen articles on snow treks but none of them use chains which would have opened up a whole new realm of offroad snow performance. Sure it is a hassle to put them on but the rewards are great and seperates the real hard core offroader in snow from the ones that just want to try to look good. The point of all this is like what poster said above, some have kinda lost sight of what 4x4 was realy like and what it could do and do better without 1000+ dollar rims and tires and expensive lifts. Newer is not always better and you need to do more old time tales when 4x4 trucks where still trucks. Remember when Chevy set a world record towing a 747 for a few hours with a stock 175 HP 3/4 ton 4x4 pickup?(it actually broke the towing speed limit a few times too) It did that without a Allison, 350 HP Dmax, or fancy wheels and tires too. Time to get back to basics. Most 4x4's made today are more car than truck. After 5 to 10 years of hard life you will be lucky if a new fancy one still runs and you will likely have spent a fortune keeping it running too.  

Amen brother Snoman, I'm only 31 years old but I remember the old trucks very well. My first intro to 4 wheelin was when I was 8. My dad bought a '79 GMC 3/4 ton 4x4 with 350, a 5 speed, and 38" buckshot mudders. I remember running down a fence row through 36"+ snow drifts with alot of mud beneath. The mix of mud and snow was beautiful. Then several years later after the GMC was sold due to living in the Reagan era, I was mudding his pure stock '88 Toyota 4x4 in the St. Francis River flood plain. Getting it high centered in an area that only a farm-all tractor could get to to pull me out. I thought I was gonna get a beating for that one but thanks to the long gone $.25 carwashes I got away with it. Then my buddy's dad had a '79 Ford Ranger XLT with 33" trail climber MTs and a blown 460BB and 1 ton axles. He said if he got it running he could have it. Of course we worked night and day for weeks, spent all the money we earned pitchin watermelons for the summer to get the machine work done. When it was finished we tore up every dirt road, fence row, backwoods trail, and even a few fields (we were young and had never heard the words tread lightly, vandalism, or trespassing), but we learned them real quickly. Then by the time I turned 18 my interest had changed to fast cars and girls. But by my mid 20's I was behind the wheel of my own 4wd. An '87 Jeep Cherokee Pioneer with the brand new 4.0L and that old feeling came running back to me. Of course by this time I had 2 kids and was working for less than a lower class income so when it started breaking down every other week I was forced to trade it for something newer and not 4wd. On the brighter side I have worked my way up the income brackets some and now have 2 4wd's well 3 if you count my wifes. But I can afford to fix and modify them however I see fit or is required.Dont get me wrong I love my Cherokee but my old rusted Bronco holds a special place in my heart that no other truck or suv will ever be able to fill.  

Hey I agree with snowman, Todays 4x4's have completely lost focus and your tesing of them is not always fair or objective.

I dont ever plan on buying a KIA, JEEP or a SUZIKI..who cares about them..why test them.
I like to read the mag to give me ideas for my older 4x4 solid axle trucks.  I would never dream of modifying anything else LESS BULLETPROOF!  These old trucks are tough! I never cracked the diff jumping my 1974 chev!

I dont mind seeing the high ZOOT 4x4's  as it gives me something to dream about..so keep up that aspect! But dont forget about the older trucks..  FIX UP AN OLD SUBURBAN and show people how it goes everywhere a HUMMER CAN GO...at least mine can..and at 1/10 the COST! now thats COOL!!