Offroad Xtreme

Back in 1995, Robert Warke bought a clapped-out ’69 Bronco that he could build into a fun, reliable rig to take his wife and baby daughter four-wheeling. He also wanted to feed his need for speed and get a little adrenaline flowing by participating in local sand drags and mud-bog competitions. “When we bought the truck,” Warke recalls, “it was basically a total. It had a bunch of crappy stuff on it, and dents and digs all over the place. The only good part is it had a pretty nasty little 302 in it.

Few vehicles make a better test bed for an aggressive off-road tire than a Ford F-150 Raptor. Built from the factory to run hard in the dirt, soak up rough terrain and still behave like a civilized pickup on pavement, the Raptor demands a tire with a similarly broad range of abilities. With that in mind, we recently fitted our 2013 Ford F-150 Raptor with a fresh set of Yokohama GEOLANDAR X-AT G016 tires. We didn’t take the conservative route, either.

GME’s expansion into the United States continues with the arrival of the XRS-660-U, an Australian-made handheld GMRS radio aimed squarely at overlanders and off-road enthusiasts who need reliable communications well beyond the reach of cellular service. The XRS-660-U builds on GME’s XRS Connect platform while packing a surprising amount of technology into a portable package. Most notably, GME says it is the first handheld GMRS radio equipped with a full-color TFT LCD screen.

Jeep’s ongoing Twelve 4 Twelve Wrangler series has reached its 10th installment, and this time the brand is heading into the mountains. Unveiled at the 14th annual Smoky Mountain Invasion in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, the new 2027 Jeep Wrangler Smoky Mountain special edition combines the trail-ready hardware of the Wrangler Willys with a long list of exclusive touches inspired by the Great Smoky Mountains.

For serious overland travelers, off-road enthusiasts, and anyone accustomed to carrying a vehicle’s worth of adventure gear on the roof, a rack is more than a place to strap down cargo. It becomes part of the vehicle itself. Dometic is taking that idea a step further with the launch of the all-new Slimline 3 Roof Rack, the first of several new products planned for the Dometic Front Runner Series.

For off-roaders, overlanders, side-by-side owners, and anyone who spends time beyond dependable cell coverage, a vehicle-mounted GMRS radio can be one of the most useful communication tools in the cab. Midland’s new MXT295 PRO MicroMobile takes that idea a step further by addressing one of the biggest drawbacks of traditional mobile radios: installation clutter. The MXT295 PRO is a compact 15-watt GMRS mobile radio built around a fully integrated wireless Bluetooth control microphone.

The Polaris Slingshot has always blurred the line between sports car and powersports machine, but Sparks Motors decided to push that formula completely off the pavement. Starting with a 2017 Slingshot SLR manual, the Diesel Brothers transformed Polaris’ three-wheeler into a 10-foot-wide off-road monster riding on RZR Pro R suspension, 37-inch front tires and a massive 38-inch rear.

Concept vehicles are at their best when they do more than preview a new grille, color package, or accessory catalog. They should ask questions, stretch the limits of an existing platform, and give designers room to chase ideas that would never survive the realities of a production meeting. Can-Am’s latest pair of side-by-side concepts does exactly that. The Can-Am Defender Prerunner and Can-Am Maverick R XRay take two familiar Can-Am nameplates in dramatically different directions.

When Charles Lorenzo of Bensalem, Pennsylvania, first spotted this 1958 Lyn Airvan, it was rotting away in a junkyard, serving as a storage shed for Harley-Davidson motorcycle parts. Most people would have seen an obscure, non-running relic buried in vines and mold. Charles saw the foundation for something extraordinary. He didn’t just restore the van. He transformed it with four-wheel drive and a turbodiesel powerplant, creating a one-of-a-kind machine.

Some 4×4 builders think outside the box. Others launch the box into another zip code. Kevin Samson falls squarely into the latter category. His wild creation combines parts from a 1957 Chevy Bel Air with a 2003 Chevy S10 Blazer. Why did the Oswego, New York, resident mash together two wildly different Chevys, and how did he pull it off? Let’s dig in. Kevin is a longtime wheeler that has been fabricating for over 30 years, and this isn’t his first rodeo when it comes to creating unconventional 4x4s.