Project Trailboss Gets Attitude

Today on trucks project Trail boss gets a healthy dose of attitude and function with some fully integrated bumpers, front and rear as well as a trail grabbing wheel and tire combination.

After that, the guys will take you to Johnson Valley California to watch the dirty dozen fight it out for the right to be crowned king of the Rocks.

And if that's not enough, we'll also have some budget upgrades for you.

That's all today on trucks.

Welcome to this week's show everybody

a few weeks ago, we introduced you to project Trail boss and even though it's gonna spend most of its time off road, we still want it to look good.

So Stace pulled out his spray gun and covered up that performance beige

with a yellow that needless to say really pops.

Now, one area that most people neglect after they've done some paint work is the detail and clean up work. So what we're gonna do is finish up the wheel wells with some of this duplicate color truck bed coating, which makes a great undercoat.

Also, since our CJ seven came with a four inch lift, we went ahead and checked all the bolts and make sure everything was greased up right

up here on the front end. You can see somebody already put some aftermarket lamps on the stock bumper, but all this stuff's gotta go because we've got something to replace it with. That's definitely gonna blow your mind.

Once you've removed the lights in the bumper, you can go ahead and clean up the front frame rails and paint those too.

Well, Mel's finishing up the front end, I'm gonna go ahead and show you how we're gonna protect it. Now, we couldn't just put any old bumper on the trail boss.

So we went to road armor to get something a little more stout.

Now, what they've got is a complete bar assembly made out of thick wall tubing

that completely covers the front end of the vehicle. Now, you're probably wondering how you get under your hood. Well, once everything's mounted,

the whole bar assembly rotates forward so you can get to the hood.

Yeah. And one of the neatest things about this setup is you don't have to do any major modifications outside of drilling a couple of holes because it bolts right up to the frame rails.

Also,

it only adds about 100 pounds at the front of the vehicle, which is definitely a consideration, but a whole lot less than you think. Another thing that's really cool about this piece is that it's completely functional. It's not only gonna protect the front of the trail boss, but we can strap cargo or game to it. Not to mention you got enough winch points here to get just about anything out of trouble. Speaking of winch points, our road armor is already drilled and set up for a winch.

That's where this Ramsey 9500 electric winch will drop right in place. Now, the good thing about this winch is it's plenty strong for this application

and it also comes with a roller fair lead remote and all the hardware you're gonna need to bolt it in place.

Now, if you're really into off road, you already know what a blast, nighttime trail rides can be. But one thing you gotta have are good lamps. And since we want to be able to throw a beam up to a mile away, we went to IP F and picked up the super rally competition lamps that'll be flanked by these monster driving lights as well.

Now, at first glance, you wouldn't think there'd be any place to mount those lights on these bars. Well, that's what these little knobbs are for.

You come in here and drill a hole in the center of them and you have a perfect place to mount those fancy lights.

Now, the space has all the holes drilled out. We can go ahead and mount these bad boys up.

All you have to do is pop them in place, come around the backside and bolt them down and the only thing you really have to watch on this is that you run your wires out of the way. So they don't get pinched or tangled up in your winch.

Now that we have the winch and lights mounted, we can go ahead and hook them up. But before we do that,

we need to get rid of this stock battery because

we're gonna need a heck of a lot more power than that.

So we're gonna put on one of these optima yellow top deep cycles so we can light those lights anytime we want. And

also keep in mind anytime you put on a high draw accessory, like a winch need to upgrade your alternator too.

Now, wiring up the lights is pretty easy. All the harnesses and relays come with the kit. Now on these relays, you're gonna want to mount them inside the engine compartment here somewhere where they're up out of the way.

Now, the switch runs through the firewall and mounts inside the vehicle somewhere where it's most convenient for you.

Now that we have things button up in the front, we can turn our attention to the rear and since the rear can benefit from the same function and attitude we got up front,

it's gonna be road armor in the back as well. It's not only got bars for protection that wrap all the way around the jeep, but it also has a spare tire mount that swings open for easy access to the rear hatch. And if you want to tow something, you got a receiver for a hitch built right into it

to make room for the new bumper. We had to take off the stock bumper

at things.

Then we cleaned up and painted the frame. Now, the new bumper

slides right on and bolts on to the factory holes.

All right. How you looking over there? We're good here.

The only modification that you will have to make is come up here and drill a hole in the side of the body.

That way you can run a bolt all the way through the body tub and that supports the sides of the bumper. Let's just put it this way. If you're really into a one of a kind set up with a healthy dose of attitude,

can't go wrong with these bumpers. Stay with us. We got more trucks for you right after this.

Later in the show. Some of the best off Roaders in the country take their cuts at the

Mojave Desert in search of the ultimate title on the rocks.

But up first, we got to finish getting our CJ seven ready for the trail.

Welcome back to trucks. Now, we've almost got our Jeep ready for the trail with a winch and lights and plenty of body protection. Now, we're gonna show you what kind of wheels and tires we're gonna use. Now, obviously, you can tell by these bars that

our Jeep has gotten considerably wider.

So to fill things out a bit, we're gonna go with these brand new Wrangler GTs from Goodyear. Now, this rubber strikes a really nice balance because they're aggressive enough for some serious off road and whether that's rocks or mud. But at the same time, the road manners for a tire, this aggressive are awesome.

Now, the rims we're wrapping those skins around are these polished aluminum side winders that we got from. Well, racing.

Now, the way these things are designed and built, they're incredibly strong, but they still have a really cool look to them.

Now, the rim size is 10 by 15

and the tire size is 33 by 1250.

Don't think for a second, you're gonna tuck this much rubber under a stock Jeep. Like we told you before, our Jeep has a four inch lift and we've already got lower gears in the axles to take care of the tire height.

Now, to keep ourselves within the limits of the law, we're gonna use the Xenon fender flares we got from Tennessee off road. Cool. Thing about these is they're made of a durable plastic that can handle a ton of abuse off road.

And while Mel's keeping us legal, I'm gonna go ahead and deal with the sides of this Jeep

as you probably know, this is one of the most vulnerable areas on a jeep rocks just seem to be attracted to them.

Well, we're gonna take care of that problem with these sidebars, that bolt right to the frame and not only protect the sides of the Jeep, but give us a step so we can get up in there.

I'll tell you what stays trail boss. Perfect name for this project. You can say that again, but we're not done yet. What do you mean? Well, you know, we gotta have something to cover ourselves with when it's raining or snow.

We got a top for this stuff.

Not just any old top.

The last thing we got from road armor is their version of a hard top. It's made of fiberglass and has these huge plexiglass panels to eliminate blind spots and give you great visibility.

Not to mention it has a really unique design. And for you sporty guys, they even threw in a wing for you.

Now, the installation of this top is like any standard hard top

just basically drops into place. And the cool thing about this top though is all these plexiglass panels pop right out.

Now, that's really cool because you don't have to take off a whole hard top if you wanna get some sun, but

the weather does turn bad on you. Heck, all you do is pop them back in.

Yeah,

the last thing we need to do is mount our spare tire. You also have a place to mount a high lift jack and plenty of room in this area over here to mount gas cans or whatever else you might need while you're out on the trail.

Well, as you can see what we started out with was pretty rough. A matter

of fact, what we ended up with seems almost impossible.

That just goes to show you what a little elbow grease, the aftermarket and a vivid imagination can get you.

Now, today's tip has to do with safety when you're working on a battery. Now, most people would think that the danger would be getting shocked. Well,

the real danger is getting burned by your wrist watches or your rings. Now, let me show you how this can happen.

You're in here messing around with the electrical. You haven't disconnected the ground because you forgot.

All right, you have a wrench in your hand and it's touching your ring,

you crank on the wrench

and the ring touches the body and grounds out against the wrench.

Now, it only takes a few seconds for that ring to turn red hot like the filament of a light bulb

and that'll end up in the third degree burn because you can't get that piece off until it cools down.

The only way to prevent this is to lose the watches and the jewelry. When you're working on a battery

up next on trucks, we're gonna find out who walked away with the bragging rights as the best of the best at the Horned rock Crawling championships.

Thanks for staying with us. Everybody. Now you guys know Stacey and I can't wait to get the trail boss off road. But until it's really ready, we thought the next best thing would be to go to the Warren Rock crawling championships. Now, last year, some of the most impressive four wheel drive vehicles, their drivers and their spotters swarmed all over the Mojave desert in California.

They wanted to see if they could crawl off with the title of the Best of the Best on the rocks.

Yeah.

For

two consecutive days, 58 vehicles launched themselves at some of the nastiest terrain on the planet.

For some just finishing the claw and wrecking ball courses would have been more than enough, but for a dirty dozen conquering some of the best Johnson Valley had to offer would earn them the right to compete against Mother Nature's angriest work in the valley on Sunday.

Now, keep in mind the prize at the end of this event wasn't a big bag of money or any commercial deals. No, these guys were after a title that can never be taken away

the Warren rock crawling champion.

But before we crown the new king of the rocks, let's explain the rules. Each team that includes a vehicle driver and spotter started each stage of the course with 20 points

and was forced to finish under a preset amount of time backing up is just one point.

Excuse

me, two points

stop is one point if you run over a pole or six points, you use a tool

is 14. If you go out of bounds or time out, it's 20 points to lose.

Now, a tool is any kind of a winch or jack or anything,

anything that's not natural,

including your spotter. You can't use him for a ramp

and march

with that.

Go,

of course, the strategy for each team varied

but the goal for all 58 that started, the event were identical survived the carnage on Friday and Saturday

to get the nod is one of the dirty dozen that would take their cuts at the rock pile on Sunday.

You're only as good as the guys you run with. And I'm telling you these guys, they make you good, they make you work and uh,

I'm privileged, I really feel good.

We got too serious at first and made mistakes and, and we just said, hey, Sunday, Jeep and,

and that's what we did and we ended up coming in the top 12. It looks real hairy. You're gonna have to pick the right line. Um

It's gonna be a tough day and going number one makes it even tougher because you're, you're the guinea pig when people get to follow you that you

learn from your mistakes. It's another day off road.

Very high.

It,

yeah.

Got it, John,

ok.

Go

on

after spending the better part of the day beating and banging their way through the event's final course. It was a sniper driven by Troy Myers with the help of spotter Neil Trudeau to claim the top spot, defeating the Rock Pile and 11 other teams to earn the title

king of the Rocks. Talk to us a little bit about the teamwork and how it took both of you to get this done.

You can't do anything out here without a spotter and you can't do too much without a good machine. So

I had both

eventually. If the, if the sport keeps growing, you're gonna have to see some division,

they're gonna have to put a limit on the tire size of something and have some division. But then you also have to look at it if this is the world championships and everybody should be able to compete in whatever they want to compete

in. So I think they're gonna have to get different kind of classes eventually.

Um,

you know, maybe the door slammer class and the tube frame class or maybe tire size class, I'm not sure. But,

uh, it doesn't bother me if like a sniper beats me, that's for sure. Doesn't hurt my feelings.

I look at it. It's a different, uh,

plateau. It's, it's bringing the whole sport to a different level and

I, I, maybe down the road they'll, they'll separate the two into two different classes.

Well, until they have those classes at the annual rock crawling championships,

anyone who wants to be the next king of the rocks will have to take dead aim at a sniper

coming up. The guys have some budget upgrades for you that can be done in your own driveway and are street legal

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

Thanks for staying with us. Everybody. Now, one of the biggest questions that people are always asking us is what kind of modifications can I do

to give me more horsepower? But don't take special skills or special tools and it's still street legal. Now, with that question in mind, we're gonna show you some parts, tell you what they do

and give you some ballpark estimates as to what kind of horsepower you can expect to pick up. And the first thing we're gonna deal with is the exhaust system. Now, a cat back system bolts on at the catalytic converter and replaces a stock restrictive muffler and tail pipe with some really nice high flowing pieces. By the way, this really is something you can do in your driveway.

The benefits of course are a good sound and you're looking at picking up around 5 to 10 horsepower

and I know that doesn't sound like much, but keep in mind this is just correcting one part of a real restrictive system.

Now, as we've told you before, for your motor to run at peak performance, it's got to be able to breathe in and out. The easiest way to make that happen is to replace your stock filter system as well as the air intake with a good high flowing aftermarket set up. That'll give your power plant a big breath of fresh air and give you an extra 3 to 7 horse. Also, for what it's worth, this would definitely fall into the category of a simple bolton

without a doubt, one of the most restrictive areas to the performance of your engine is the stock exhaust manifold.

That's why putting on a set of headers and the corresponding Y pipe is a must.

Now putting these things on can be kind of a challenge depending on the style that you get. Sometimes they slide right on. Sometimes you have to grind and drill a little bit

and sometimes you have to unbolt one side of the engine and jack it up so you get some more clearance. So be prepared.

The good part to all this is you can pick up a good 20 to 25 horsepower.

One of the realities of a fuel injected vehicle is that it's controlled by a computer which controls everything from the ignition timing

to shift points in the rev limiter. Just to name a few. Now on older vehicles, you have a replaceable chip that just pops right in newer vehicles. On the other hand, have sealed systems that have to be reprogrammed externally, which is exactly where after market goodies like the power programmer come in,

installation is pretty straightforward, just plug it in and follow the props. If you go this way, you can expect 15 to 20 extra horse.

Of course, we've only scratched the surface of performance bolt ons and in the weeks to come we'll show you some more. Now, these numbers we've given you are based on our own results on the dino. But keep in mind there's a lot of variables when it comes to getting horsepower and each application and product is different.

These numbers will give you a good guideline

and now truck gear, parts, tools and equipment for pickups and sport utilities.

Now, everybody should know one of the worst things you can do when you're off. Roading is grab for the roll bar, especially when the ride gets rough. Mostly because it's a really good way to lose a few fingers if you happen to roll over. Problem is what do you grab for? Well, that's where performance products can really help you out. They've designed these really slick handles that wrap around the bar where

you want them providing secure handholds for you and your passengers get the ultimate in safety with the ultimate sports handle for about 30 bucks.

Now, how cool would it be to be sitting at the breakfast table on a cold morning? Drinking a cup of coffee,

reach over, hit a button and hear your truck start out in the driveway? That sounds pretty cool, doesn't it?

Now add to that a state of the art alarm system? And you have what audio vox calls the prestige platinum. Now, on top of the alarm system, you have remote keyless entry,

power, window control, and the best part is you can use this on more than one vehicle. So now you have security and convenience for about 250 bucks.

That's gonna do it for truck gear. Here's a look at next week's show.

If you drive a diesel truck, you won't want to miss next week's show because we're gonna bolt on one of the hottest diesel upgrades the aftermarket has to offer.

After that, we've got one Hummer of a vehicle to show you before the moment everyone's been waiting for. That's right. The Wicked Willies makes a return appearance in the truck shop. That's all next week on trucks.

That's gonna do it for this week's show. We appreciate you hanging out with us and we got more trucks for you next week. Let's go see what this thing will do.

Mhm.

Trucks is an RT M production.