Brubaker must be salivating over this puppy. What else could a true son of the Midwest do after seeing Ron Clothier's '66 IH 1300A? The rumble of the Borla'd and Holleyfied 502 Chevy resting between homebuilt tuberails would be music to anyone's ears, and the Eaton/Fuller 7206A six-speed (with 9:1 granny gear) and Fabco TC-38 transfer case turning 49-inch IROKs on a Rockwell 1311/42-inch front and Spicer N175 rear axle-both Detroit-Locked-make us think that this Reader Rig would be right at home at Top Truck Challenge. Other good stuff found on this monster includes dual Ramsey winches, a 70-gallon (!) Fuel Safe fuel cell, two Be Cool radiators (one tucked under the bed with electric fan), and dual batteries and alternators that are manually bridgeable should one or the other expire. With these kinds of tech tricks onboard, it should come as no surprise that this Vestal, New York-based rig was built by a mechanical engineer.
Here's another Patrol, no doubt a design more familiar to longtime readers. This trick '67, which sits upon a bobbed '76 Chevy 31/44-ton frame, has been festooned with myriad goodies, including an Edelbrocked and four-cored Chevy 402, an SM465 four-speed, an NP205 and Detroit-Locked Dana 44 and GM 14-bolt axles. Rancho 9000s dampen the ride, and 36x12.50 Swampers provide the grip. A Warn 9500 is also in the works now that the homebuilt bumper and grille have been installed. The Datsun's proud owner, Lamonte Horvath, rides in comfort atop BMW seats, and a Buick tilt steering wheel and Dodge master cylinder help to facilitate go and whoa, respectively, in the mud (and silt?) around Silt, Colorado.
This '00 Kia comes courtesy of Jon and Shelly. (Hint: Send us your full name when submitting Readers' Rigs.) Jon liked the little 'ute for its Jeeplike 93-inch wheelbase and its low price, so he "gutted it, built a back wall, and did a lot of fender trimming." The result is a one-of-a-kind Sportage SUT with dual Warn winches, Warn locking hubs, and equally unique Sigma Wild Spirit RVT radials resting in what's left of the wheelwells. The 2.0L four-banger, five-speed trans and 4.72:1-geared axles remain untouched for now, but with all that surplus sheetmetal discarded, the Kia's power-to-weight should be sufficient to keep it motorvating over the trails near Meridian, Idaho.
A couple of years ago, some unfortunate soul-who shall remain anonymous since we lost his contact info-sent us a Jpeg of this nice-looking Chevy. We normally wouldn't run a photo like this in Four Wheeler-since anyone who can't get his rig out of a mini-mall parking lot without getting high-centered ain't exactly Treading Lightly-but we should give credit where it's due, since the vehicle is off the pavement (well, one wheel, at least), and our intrepid-if-unlucky mall-crawler did prove an important point: a stock Silverado is sadly not a Rubicon runner. Has anyone informed the management of 4-Wheel & Off-Road yet?
Hailing from the Middle East, Jean-Michel Ritter sends us this pic of some Nissan Patrols prowling the deserts near his home in Abu Dhabi. Take it from us, the non-U.S.-spec Patrol is a formidable 'wheeler right out of the box, with either a 260hp 4.8L gas V-6 or a 3.0L turbodiesel six available, not to mention a genuine lever-operated transfer case, pushbutton diff-locks, and link/coil suspension all around. And thanks to the vagaries of geography (and the migration habits of dinosaurs), Jean-Michel and his buddies in the UAE can fill their rigs for about $1.50 a gallon. Some guys have all the luck.
Once the property of the Warsaw Pact, this Soviet UAZ 469 now resides in Iraq, where it performs transport duties for the officers of the new Iraqi Transportation Corps. The successor to the GAZ, the 469 was in production for 24 years (1972-'96), and the '85 version here featured a 2.5L diesel four-banger good for 74 hp, a legendarily weak four-speed grindbox (we can almost hear the housing cracking on impact), and solid axles with front coilover and rear leaf suspension. Tennessee resident Sgt. Lester Hartley sent us this pic, which was taken by his buddy Sgt. Doughdrill. And in case you're wondering how a diehard Volunteer ended up with Crimson Tide magnets on the doors of his ride ... well, the photographer hails from 'Bama. Roll Tide.
A sparkling example of a Wheeler That Works, this '06 F-350 Super Duty is the pride and joy of the Lowell, Indiana, Volunteer Fire Department. The V-10-powered SD has been treated to a 3-inch lift and a set of 33-inch Mickey Thompson 'Claws, and a portable winch ensures forward (or backward) motion in the rough stuff. We like the remote-control front hose and nozzle, and that custom aluminum bed-with dual platforms capable of holding two firefighters apiece-would put our Baja Bomber's chase-truck bed to shame. Also on board-but not visible, of course-are 250 gallons of H20, which would likely explain the airbag assist on the rear suspension.