Top Truck Challenge

Welcome to trucks. We have got a special show for you today

because we are going to take you four wheeling at one of the wildest craziest off road events in the country. Now, if you've been around four wheeling very much,

you know, there's a lot of aspects to it. You got your rock crawl and then you got your mud pits and your hill climbs

and the whole purpose of these events is to see who has the top vehicle

on that obstacle.

Well, the guys at Four Wheeler magazine decided to go one step further with that

and they came out with what they call the top truck challenge.

Now, this is 10 vehicles, a driver and a spotter.

And the whole purpose is to see who has the top vehicle in all aspects of four wheeling.

Sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? Well, it is so strap on because here we go,

the top truck challenge starts easy enough with all the rigs being judged in areas like turning radius,

ground clearance,

rap, travel

and overall design and engineering. Believe me, there is no junk here.

100 and 60 m, 60 mile an

hour.

Then the competition quickly heats up with tests of acceleration

breaking.

Ok.

And how well the truck rides and drives. Remember this is a contest to see who has the top overall truck. So if your rig doesn't drive or stop, well,

you lose points

tomorrow.

Get said

he

the first real flexing of muscle is in the towing event.

This is basically hooking the trucks up to a loaded dump truck weighing about 35,000 pounds

and seeing who can pull it the furthest up the hill,

they had their engines roaring, the wheels were spinning and each rig clawed for every extra inch

and a truck that used to be a Jeep Wrangler and is now called the Frogs made the best

pull

since a lot of four wheeling is about climbing hills.

The hill climb is next

and this is where a long steep hill loaded with ruts and firms and rocks

is conquered by a combination of throttle

and driver finesse.

Yep. This competition puts the drivers to the test too.

The top rig in the hill climb was this sweet little flat fender willies.

About this time when everybody's feeling happy and confident

along comes the frame twister,

right?

This is a nasty combination of logs, mud water, strategically located by the sick judges

to wreak as much havoc and damage on your vehicle as possible

penalties.

There are penalties if you leave the course,

take out a cone

or have the winch,

of course, you win this event by finishing in the quickest time with the fewest amount of penalty points.

Bonus points can be earned if you use some finesse in tackling the brain twister.

But

some drivers just scream bonzai

and hit the loud pedal.

Also, this event is where the driver relies heavily on his spotter

and the spotter starts to wonder

just what the heck he's gotten himself into,

please.

One thing is for sure though, good communication and a strong rig with some big old tires as a must. But even then,

well, they don't call it the frame twister for nothing.

Yeah.

Well, that should give you just a taste of what the top truck challenge is all about,

but don't go far because after the break, the rigs go in the mud pit and then

we go rock crawling.

Welcome back to trucks where today we are doing some four wheeling at the top truck challenge. Now, the whole purpose of this event is to see who's got the top overall truck in about 15 different categories. Now, you've already seen a lot. But man, it's just starting to get good now because next up is the mud pit.

First off, this is a pit filled with the nastiest gooey, slickest mud that the evil judges could find.

Of course, whoever goes the farthest

or makes a complete run in the fastest time wins.

As with most situations in mud, bogs,

wheel spin, tire size and horsepower, all play a major role in making it through. But

driver strategy also helps

by staying close to the side where the mud is shallower and attraction better.

Six rigs were not only able to conquer the mud pit

but also able to shower the onlookers with gooey mud. Right on.

The only real mechanical failure was when the big land cruiser

decided to mock its driver and refuse to enter the mud.

The thing to remember here is that all these obstacles are different enough that the strengths and the weaknesses of each rig were starting to come through

the flat fender willies that won. The frame twister

was second from last in the mud pit.

But

the big Toyota that had problems in the frame twister won the mud pit.

So it's still anybody's ball game

next. It was time to go rock crawling on the mini Rubicon

and that was when things started to break

and this is where the spotters really start to earn their keep.

If you don't think rock crawling is tough on men and machines

check this out and breathe normal.

The next event was the obstacle course and although it's fairly straightforward,

there was one nasty shelf at the end that did its share of damage.

Oh, man,

when we come back, we go to the ultimate obstacle. The tank trap

just can't get enough of trucks. Check us out online at trucks, tv.com.

Welcome back to trucks

and our coverage of four Wheeler magazine's Top truck challenge.

Now, we've shown you some pretty hardcore wheeling up to now. But this last event

is the toughest, the big boy, the big queen mama, they call it the tank trap. And it's basically a little bit of everything we've seen so far. Rolled into one incredible course. Now, the rules are very simple. If you break it, you fix it. If you stick it,

you winch it, you got 30 minutes to make it.

And no whining is allowed.

First up was a modified Wrangler called the Frog and it was doing ok. But

being the first rig through is tough

since nobody knows the best line to take yet.

Unfortunately,

the clock ran out before the frog made it all the way.

The flatty was next and it's not only a great rig and driver,

but it was also packed in a really good spotter. Unfortunately,

accidentally wrapping the winch cable around the front axle cost him some time,

but he still finished before time ran out.

The big Toyota was next and confident after its victory in the mud pit. But the tank trap, even the score in the first mud hole,

I went into the first hole there and

mud and sticks got jammed up in the clutch and

pretty much have nothing.

Now, taking a large body truck like a blazer down a tight trail is spectacular enough. But if you add a driver that's not afraid to flog, it or damage it.

Well, you've got what top truck is all about?

Only winching, slow this thing down.

Speaking of big trucks, Corey Dean amazed everybody all week with his K 30 Chevy.

Not only because it looked good,

but because of his willingness to torture it with a heavy right foot,

he attacked the tank trap, wore out his spotter and finished before time ran out.

What more do you want?

Everyone agreed that the raptor was the vehicle to watch and they were right and tell

he broke his link on as a bolt that ties the arm to the rear end. It's a 2.5 inch long, half inch bolt. He popped it

however quick repair work. Not only got the raptor going again,

but still allowed him to finish with the quickest time so far.

Another truck that everybody was watching closely was John Reynolds. Amazing Bronco. This awesome rig was used to its fullest potential by John's precision driving

and the use of the four wheel steering.

Add to that a spotter that'll give everything he's got.

You've got a rig that did the tank trap in 7.5 minutes. Start to finish. I'm tired.

Things didn't go so well for the next truck though as the already battered and damaged land, cruiser lost power after the first hole and only on the sheer guts of the driver and spotter was it able to idle its way to the end before time ran out, both of us

collapsed in the dirt at the top with the truck. So it was everything, everything we had,

the willies with its front wheel drive destroyed, tried

but it never had a chance.

Two wheel drive cannot do this.

The last rig to jump into the tank trap was the big scout

and it had a good run going with a solid team of driver and spotter.

Unfortunately, the rear axle broke loose, rotated

and seriously hobbled the scout.

However, the team continued to fight the mountain until time ran out

and that takes care of top truck challenge. See, I told you it was crazy. Now, the winner, John Reynolds and his awesome Bronco.

Now, if you think you have a rig worthy of top truck challenge,

well, pick up a copy of four Wheeler magazine or check them out four wheeler.com.

Who knows we may catch you on tape next year. We'll be back after this

for more on the Top truck challenge. Check them out on the web

question. What do you think of when I say the word supercharger and turbo charger?

Well, for a super charger, you probably think of this turbo, you probably think import. But did you know that all new diesel trucks come with a turbo charger standard? Why?

Well, you'll understand why when we show you how it works.

Oh, it works,

brought to you by Wyotech.

All right, Dan, let's talk to viewers through the basics of a turbo charger. All

this

flange, what we call our turbo

lange is bolted directly to the exhaust manifold, making all of our exhaust gasses come through this. All right.

When they come through here, what it does is it begins to spin this impeller

around around doesn't have any place else to go. So it has to,

again, both of these impellers are connected to one main shaft in here. So as this impeller begins to spin,

we have intake air coming in which begins to compress this air through this housing. When it comes up through this housing has compressed air, it comes out boost boost.

Now a super charger, on the other hand, similar principle, it's just not turned by exhaust gasses, it's turned by the crank with a pulley. Now this is a root style supercharger bolted on top of the engine.

Now, question for you, how many think it spins this way

makes sense, doesn't it? Everything go right down through the center, blow it into the engine. Uh uh doesn't work that way. It doesn't compress air that way

you've got to go this direction,

compresses air down the sides, blows everything into the engine. Now, as efficient as a super charger is

a turbo is better on a diesel. Now, why is that? Dan,

the reason it is because we don't have to take any power away from this engine to be able to produce that boost because you're using exhaust Exactly right. Ok.

Now, what kind of boost do you need in an engine like this? We are talking a, a bunch and the reason is probably up to 32 to 35 pounds. The reason is because of how much fuel we're putting in on top of this piston to produce the kind of power that we want to in a diesel engine.

And so we're gonna have to, it cannot draw as this piston begins to move down, its intake stroke cannot draw enough air in to produce the power that we need without that turbo boost coming in here. Ok. Now, how about the black smoke? You see out of a diesel? What's the deal with that? We've all seen it out.

Yeah, I mean, you're going down the road and here's a truck just blowing black smoke

at

least for

short period of time. Anyway. Now that's, you know, in an automobile with a gasoline engine that would mean he's rich. Ok. So what's going on with the diesel? We're the same way here. We're putting in way too much fuel. We're not having enough air and that's the reason for our turbo as we begin to put that air to it, you'll see the smoke begin to go away. We'll start clearing up when we start matching this becomes very efficient, very powerful, good. Hopefully that it gives you an idea what's going on with superchargers and turbos, their similarities, their differences.

Now, at least, you know how it works. All right. What do you prefer on gasoline

turbo supercharger super charger?

I have to,

I have to agree.

Absolutely.

There it is. But a diesel definitely a turbo, right. Not waiting for that one

turbo chargers

on the diesel.

This first truck gear is for you. Four wheeler guys that don't have a winch, but still would like to get out of a sticky situation.

This is called the Black Rat Recovery hoist

and it's from extreme outback products.

Now, this has the pulling power of a winch by taking this cable sticking it in here, running it through the ratcheting mechanism

and pulling the handles. It's that simple.

This is also extremely portable. You can pick it up, take it out of your rig, take it places where you couldn't take a normal winch.

Now you can get this in various different sizes, something small like this is great for Jeeps or smaller rigs

or you can move up to this big boy, you can pull out some serious weight.

So if you're serious about your off road adventures and wanna make sure you get back home, extreme outback and help make that happen

if you're building a hot street truck. One of the final things to finishing it off is accessories. Nobody understands that better than billet specialties. Now, obviously, they make some killer billet aluminum valve covers and matching breathers, matching air cleaners, but they also

smaller stuff like overflow tanks and distributor, hold downs line, clamps,

radiator caps mirrors,

you name it.

So if you're looking for a really cool accessory and you just don't think it exists, you need to check out billets specialties. They've probably got it.

If you're into classic trucks. One body style that almost everybody likes is the late forties, early fifties, Chevys

so much so that they're getting harder and harder to find every year.

Well, nostalgia will decided to help everybody out and came out with this 52 conversion kit.

Now, this is a fiberglass nose and hood that bolts right to an 88 through 98 GM truck. As you can see the nose bolts to the stock fenders

and the hood bolts to the stock hood hinges. So, installation is very simple. So if you've always wanted a classic truck, don't have the time or the money to build one new styles, you will had you in mind when they designed the 52 conversion.

Now, that's gonna do it for today. We will be back with more trucks next week.

I need to chop this top.