I'm magazine famous!

[Nothing Special]

A while back Four Wheeler magazine had an editorial titled "Old 4x4s For The Win!"  I wrote in response, and today in the mail I got the November 2021 issue that printed my letter a well as 4 pictures I included!

I couldn't find it on their web site, but if anyone subscribes to Four Wheeler, check out page 8!

The gist of the original editorial was that he likes driving old 4x4s, even if they don't have all of the modern amenities and are more likely to strand him.  The gist of my response was that I daily drive a '97 F-250 and a '71 Bronco, and don't think they are any more likely to strand me on an interstate road trip than most newr vehicles.

Anyway, it was fun to see myself in print, and I thought I'd share.

[ctubutis]

Congratulations, Bob!

If there were a Like button, I'd push it.

[Gsmblue]

Oh, you got to get pics and post here so we can read it!

[grumpin]

That’s great!

[Nothing Special]

I don't know about posting a picture of a copyrighted magazine.  But I can certainly post a copy of what I sent them.  They cropped the pictures a bit, but otherwise published what I sent:

I’m a bit behind in my magazine reading so I just read your “Firing Order” column in the November 2020 issue of Fourwheeler.  In that column you asked for reader’s stories about old 4x4s.

Like you, I like old vehicles.  I’ll even go farther and say that I don’t like new vehicles.  I don’t like how my dad’s 2020 Honda Pilot aims the rearview mirrors at the ground when you shift into reverse.  I don’t like how my wife’s 2018 Jeep Renegade won’t shut the engine off unless you are in “Park”, and how it automatically applied the parking brake when you open a door.

Not liking new vehicles means that I drive old ones, and plan to for as long as I possibly can.  My current daily driver is a 1997 F-250HD crew cab.  It’s rusty and the 460 sucks gas.  But before we bought a motorhome for vacations a couple years ago I was never concerned about putting the slide-in camper in the pickup, hooking my Bronco behind and driving anywhere across the country on a family vacation.  Yeah, it doesn’t have a nav system or a way to warn me if there’s something in the lane next to me.  But maps and rearview mirrors have been meeting those needs for decades and they still work just fine.

My other old 4x4 is the 1971 Bronco I just mentioned.  It has a lot of modifications, and I do like the additions of more modern power front disk brakes, power steering and electronic ignition.  But it’s still running a manual transmission and a carb.  And while I don’t drive it in the salt of Minnesota winters, I do daily-drive it through the summer.  And last year I even hopped into it with just my dog, on Friday drove 600 miles to southern Missouri, ‘wheeled all day Saturday and Sunday morning, and then Sunday afternoon/evening drove the 600 miles back home.  I wasn’t worried about it stranding me.  Sure, it could’ve.  But a new vehicle can strand you too, and my Bronco isn’t really any riskier in that sense.

(By the way, when I drove to Missouri last year I met up with a group of other people.  Out of the 12 vehicles in the group my ~50 year old Bronco was the third newest!  Most of the others were flatfender Jeeps from the ‘40s!)

[Gary Lewis]

Bob - That's a cool story and well deserves to be written up in the magazine!  Congratulations!  

[Gsmblue]

A great read and great pics. Thank you for sharing.

[Machspeed]

Great Read! And man, I love that Bronco! Afraid I'm gonna have to settle for a new one, though....LOL!