Great Idea Of The Month: Hockey-Rink Tire Test
I just finished your Massive Mud Tire Shootout (April ’11) and loved the information, but you always leave out a necessary test for a lot of us. We drive on ice and snow up to six months of the year, and no one ever includes this in their testing. The tire might be great for mud and on-road, but could be useless in the snow or on ice. Why would it be so hard to hit an indoor ice house and do some short acceleration or stopping test, or drive to a northern climate with the same tires and do the test again?
Melvin Spencer
Linden, MI
Good ideas. A test like this would be hard for us to execute because (1) we don’t know any ice houses in the southern California area that would be willing to shut down for the better part of a week to let us leave tire tracks all over their rink; and (2) schlepping our test rig and a trailerful of tires to an accessible snowy area up north (remember, a lot of the Sierra trails that are reasonably close to us are closed in winter) would add a great deal of cost. But as we said, your ideas are good ones, and it’s possible that one of our northern-based correspondents could put something together in the future.
Okay, What Did We Do Wrong?
Oh yeah! Your magazine just went from cool toas the March ’11 issue saysLocked and Loaded. Not to forget it says right at the top: Diesel Tech: 1,000 Miles Between Fill-Ups is astonishing. No gas truck could do that with the same amount of gas.
You guys made some heroic changes in one month’s time, and to me, it has helped develop a more fun-to-read and interesting magazine. Here are just a few things: The editor columns, Parts Rack, Jeep: The First 70 Years, Pickup Truck of the Year, Wheelin’ in the Years with the ’83 S-10, the page borders, coloring, organization, and picture angles. There is always room for improvement, but you guys are narrowing that gap. The only other change I can think of is to have epic music playing when I open the magazine.
Now for the April ’11 issue. I would say the Bronco on the cover sums up everything: awesome, wild, and colorful. I noticed there are a fewer tube-frame shop trucks in the choice list for Top Truck Challenge. Which means you can discard my remarks about you guys having to bring Real Truck Challenge back. This year’s selection is great, and your outstanding tech articles, along with pretty much the whole magazine, now makes RTC a fading memory.
Thanks also for the in-depth tire test and all of the details included about each one. As for the biggest shocker, I can’t believe how far Jeep went to resolve the transfer case problem. You guys got a new Cherokee to test amazingly quick, and you got Jeep to change torque specs on the production line. Talk about instant feedback! Now if only GMC will allow you to test their All-Terrain concept. That truck should be able to give the Raptor a run for its money. Not to mention...it’s a diesel.
Tim Joyce
Brewster, NY
P.S. I like how in the March Table of Contents you only see the F-250 and the Chevy 2500HD driving towards a dust trail in front of them. I guess the Raptor was too fast for you to get all three of them in the same picture.
The minute that GM has a Sierra All-Terrain available for testing, we’ll be all over it like a cheap suit. And believe it or not, we are still discussing the possibility of bringing back Real Truck. We have the desire and any number of potential venues to run it-we just need to figure out a way to make some money from it, and if we do, it’ll be back. We’ll keep you posted.