Got a Cheap Trick?
Four Wheeler pays $35 for every tip used. Tips must be original and unpublished. Send your idea along with a simple drawing or snapshot, your name, address, and Social Security number to Four Wheeler Cheap Tricks, 6420 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048-5515, or go to the Four Wheeler Web site at www.fourwheeler.com and e-mail us your tip. Payment is upon publication. Published submissions become the exclusive property of Four Wheeler. Unused material cannot be returned.
Wheelin' With Dualies
This trick is for readers who own dualie pickups. Have you ever experienced getting rocks caught between your duals when driving your truck off-pavement? As Wayne Neitzke of La Mirada, California, points out, these pesky hitchhikers can have a shattering effect on your fiberglass fenders once they become dislodged while you're flying down the highway. That is, if they don't tear up your tires' sidewalls first. Wayne has devised a clever way to remove these unwanted guests before you hit the road. First wrap one end of your tow strap around the rock and run the other end under your front tire. Now simply back up and the rock will pop right out. Thanks for throwing this one our way, Wayne.
Auto Parts Library
Kenneth Frey of Dalmatia, Pennsylvania, suggests you hit up your local auto parts stores for their old, out-dated parts catalogs. These catalogs are updated quite regularly, with the old ones usually winding up in the dumpster. As Kenneth points out, these catalogs contain a wealth of information for the backyard mechanic/fabricator like pictures or drawings of various parts such as sensors, relays, hoses, emissions-control devices, switches, filters, and so on. These drawings might help you identify a part you are trying to locate, or to find something that will work for that custom project you are creating. Many catalogs contain information on how to troubleshoot electrical and computer-related problems, as well as describing the differences between one model year's part and the next. Chassis hard-part catalogs contain many drawings of axle, suspension, and brake components, which just might give you ideas for that next rock buggy, or whatever, you are contemplating building. All in all, we think Kenneth has come up with a great cheap source of information. Thanks for the library card, Kenneth