April 2010

With the birth of our son (Brenden) a few weeks ago, we realized that in order to properly serve our readers in providing the best FJ Cruiser coverage possible, we would
need some help.

We asked a few great FJ Cruiser enthusiasts to join us and form the FJC Magazine Trail Team. You can expect to see Athena, Bob, and Stacey on the trails this summer snapping photos and covering as many events as possible. Also look for great FJ Cruiser articles from all of these awesome enthuisasts.

So make sure you smile for the camera when you see any of our Trail Team this summer.

For this installment of Off Road 101, we wanted to briefly discuss the technical details of a key aspect of your suspension: Coil Springs (or just springs).

When you lift your FJ Cruiser (unless you’re going with a spacer lift), you’ll be adding aftermarket springs to all four corners of your truck. In the front, you’ll replace the ‘coilover’ with a new spring and possibly new shocks. Depending on the option you choose, your new front suspension may be adjustable, meaning you can adjust the amount of lift by spinning the spring seat up or down. Yes, this is a simplified explanation, but it will do for our purposes.

We've been thinking about adding seat covers to the TRD for quite a while. The nearly 50,000 miles we've put on our FJ have begun to wear the stock seats, and they're getting harder and harder to keep  clean. While there are many options for seat covers available for the FJ Cruiser, the two major players in custom fit covers are Wet Okole and Clazzio (See our Clazzio install & review in the July 2010 issue). Wet Okole is currently the standard aftermarket cover in the FJ Cruiser community, so when we contacted them about our comparison (coming in the July 2010 issue), they were excited to show us their latest covers.

“The Zombies are coming!” someone yells, or maybe it is the heat of a raging wildfire, or even the roar of the flood waters breaking over a dike wall, but whatever the reason you need to hightail it out of town and now. How will you deal with fallen trees, deep water or worse, TEOTWAWKI (The End of The World As We Know It)? I know as an expedition style traveler, I am more than prepared to run the zombies into the ground.
We live an a dangerous world, earthquakes in Haiti, mudslides in California, flooding in the midwest, simple house fires and more. All prove the point that in only minutes you could find yourself leaving behind your home and everything inside it. However, if you are an overlander with an expedition style built 4x4, then you are well setup with extra water, shelter, food, and security.