Destruction Time
Looking for some fun when you're not driving your truck? ODD Games' new Monster Truck Destruction game app features the Rislone Defender monster truck and allows you to crush obstacles, race competitors, and hear the roar of the crowd. Available from Apple's App store.

Five-Cylinder Diesel
Ford’s all-new Transit fullsize van, which goes on sale late this year, will be offered with a new, clean-running 3.2L Power Stroke five-cylinder diesel, further bolstering Ford’s lineup of fuel-efficient cars, trucks, and SUVs.

Rancher Body
Are you thinking it might be time to step up to a utility body on your HD pickup? Well, the Rugby Wildcat Rancher Body has heavy-duty construction designed to stand up to tough jobsites and difficult working conditions. Equipped with convenient, timesaving features, the Wildcat Rancher is well suited for the oilfield or other demanding construction applications.
Rugby Mfg.
701-776-5722 • www.rugbymfg.com

Venchurs Bi-Fuel Truck on Top Gear

Top Gear (which airs on the History channel Tuesday nights at 9/8 p.m. Central) showcased the Venchurs bi-fuel truck, which boasts a range of more than 650 miles in a segment during which the hosts drove from Portland to San Francisco on one tank of gas. The Venchurs Vehicle Systems CNG F-350 battled two unlikely candidates for fuel economy supremacy on Top Gear—a VW Passat TDI and a BMW 5-Series—and the results might surprise some. The show, which is produced by BBC Worldwide Productions, featured the Venchurs converted bi-fuel Ford pickup in a challenge that required hosts Tanner Foust, Rutledge Wood, and Adam Ferrara to drive from Portland to San Francisco (two of the greenest cities in America) without stopping for fuel—hence the episode name, “One Tank.”

“We’re very proud that one of our CNG trucks was featured on Top Gear, which is known internationally as the top source for automotive entertainment on television,” said Jeff Wyatt, CEO of Venchurs. “We take a leadership role in promoting both the compressed natural gas industry as well as Ford trucks, and I’d say landing a prime time segment on Top Gear, in which our CNG F-350 competed against highly efficient German gasoline and diesel cars, proves CNG is viable.”

For additional information, please visit http://www.venchurscng.com or call 855-264-4300.

Biofuel Continues to Evolve

A new biofuel production process created by Michigan State University researchers claims to produce energy more than 20 times higher than existing methods. The results, published in Environmental Science and Technology, showcase a novel way to use microbes to produce biofuel and hydrogen, all while consuming agricultural wastes.

Gemma Reguera, MSU microbiologist, has developed bioelectrochemical systems known as microbial electrolysis cells, or MECs, using bacteria to break down and ferment agricultural waste into ethanol. Reguera’s platform is unique because it employs a second bacterium, which, when added to the mix, removes all the waste fermentation byproducts or nonethanol materials while generating electricity.

Similar microbial fuel cells have been investigated before. However, maximum energy recoveries from corn stover, a common feedstock for biofuels, hovers around 3.5 percent. Reguera’s platform, despite the energy invested in chemical pretreatment of the corn stover, averaged 35 to 40 percent energy recovery just from the fermentation process, said Reguera, an AgBioResearch scientist who co-authored the paper with Allison Spears, MSU graduate student.

“This is because the fermentative bacterium was carefully selected to degrade and ferment agricultural wastes into ethanol efficiently and to produce byproducts that could be metabolized by the electricity-producing bacterium,” Reguera said. “By removing the waste products of fermentation, the growth and metabolism of the fermentative bacterium was also stimulated. Basically, each step we take is custom-designed to be optimal.”

The second bacterium, Geobacter sulfurreducens, generates electricity. The electricity, however, isn’t harvested as an output. It is used to generate hydrogen in the MEC to increase the energy recovery process even more.

“When the MEC generates hydrogen, it actually doubles the energy recoveries,” Reguera said. “We increased energy recovery to 73 percent. So the potential is definitely there to make this platform attractive for processing agricultural wastes.”

Reguera’s fuel cells use corn stover treated by the ammonia fiber expansion process, an advanced pretreatment technology pioneered at MSU. AFEX is an already proven method that was developed by Bruce Dale, MSU professor of chemical engineering and materials science. Dale is currently working to make AFEX viable on a commercial scale.

In a similar vein, Reguera is continuing to optimize her MECs so they too can be scaled up on a commercial basis. Her goal is to develop decentralized systems that can help process agricultural wastes. Decentralized systems could be customized at small to medium scales (scales such as compost bins and small silages, for example) to provide an attractive method to recycle the wastes while generating fuel for farms.

Winner, Winner, Winner!!!

The 2012 Outdoor Adventure Dream Giveaway came to a spectacular conclusion in May as retired U.S. Marine Corps Brigadier General W.T. Adams from Ormond Beach, Florida, was named the grand prize winner. General Adams and his wife, Shirley, attended the awards ceremony on July 13, 2012 at Alternative Automotive in Troy, Michigan. He was awarded a new Ram 2500 Outdoorsman Mega Cab 4x4 diesel truck with a pop-up rooftop camper, 21-foot Ranger Reata boat with a 225hp Evinrude motor, a custom trailer, and a Can-Am Commander off-road vehicle.

The 2012 Outdoor Adventure Dream Giveaway was a nationwide drawing sponsored by WorldCause Foundation. In addition to the fabulous prizes, General Adams received $30,000 to help pay the prize taxes, plus $10,000 for gas.

Employee Parking

Editor Bob Carpenter likes to travel and attend truck events, shoot features of readers’ pickups, and tour interesting facilities. While in Idaho for a couple of good reasons, he decided to swing up to Rexburg to check out Premier Performance. The article will appear in a future issue of 8-Lug, but we thought you’d be intrigued by this group shot of the employees’ trucks. Yep, practically everyone at Premier drives a truck!

Truck Nats

Every year, the first weekend in August at the Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Fairgrounds, the Carlisle Truck Nationals gets bigger and better than the last. This year, the event will feature the Carlisle return of an iconic monster truck (Big Foot), industry guests, a spectacular van display, a large selection of on- and off-road accessories for sale, and more. You can see 2,000-plus trucks and more than two dozen vans at a special display. Carlisle also showcases a great selection of parts and accessories as part of the swap meet and a manufacturers’ midway. Throughout the weekend, visitors can shop from nearly 450 vendors, including Ford Motor Company, Skyjacker Suspensions, Borla Performance Exhaust, Meguiar’s Car Care Products, Mickey Thompson Tires, as well as big rig parts and accessories. Details on this and other events at Carlisle are available online at: www.carlisleevents.com.

Sled Head

Dan Adams uses his HD truck to pull a trailer full of sleds for his Next Level Riding Clinics, and he’s gussied up the truck and trailer so much we thought you’d enjoy seeing it.

Big Rig

Sergio Jimenez runs his company, ATS Motorsports, like a well-oiled machine. Maybe that’s why he’s able to come up with some crazy ideas for diesel pickup trucks. This rendering represents a truck Sergio is building for this year’s SEMA show. The front bodywork is from an actual, legitimate, 18-wheeler.

Subscribe to 8-Lug!

We have been suffering for many years now at 8-Lug HD Truck magazine with a lack of subscriptions. Our most loyal readers want to get the magazine every month, and some of our rural friends have the most difficult time finding it. We’ve heard plenty of stories about driving for half an hour to go to the Walmart only to find out every copy of 8-Lug sold out before our readers could get one. Well, we’ve found a partial solution. 8-Lug is now available digitally on Zinio. You upload the magazine onto your computer, iPad, iPhone, or whatever digital device you have, and then you read it just like a regular magazine. The pages turn, the layouts look exactly the same, and the text is easy to read—and it’s cheaper than buying a year’s worth of magazines if you subscribe for a full year. Give it a try!

Downloadable Wallpaper

Fans of Robby Gordon, high-kicking UFC Lightweight Anthony “Showtime” Pettis, and the beautiful Toyo models can download free wallpapers for their enjoyment. A total of six wallpapers are available for download at http://toyotires.com/tire-motorsports/downloads and www.facebook.com/toyotires—and we have to say: the HD truck is the best!

Oh, Canada!

When Justin Tulk sent an email and photo to Editor Bob Carpenter, he didn’t get a response for about a week and a half. In the ensuing time, he determined the non-response must have been because he was from Canada. When Bob did answer Justin and said he was going to run the photo, Justin was overjoyed. Why do we hear this sort of thing from Canadians fairly often? Why do they think we even notice they are from Canada? We get an email with a nice looking truck, we want to run it. End of story. Now…why Bob is behind on responding to emails is a whole other story. The truck has a Sun Coast hood, Fab Fours bumpers front and back, a 16,500-pound Warn winch, 10-inch FT suspension, King coilover shocks, Interco 40-inch rubber with 22-inch KMC Monsters, RBP RX grille, Anzo headlights, Recon taillights and third brake light, FiberwerX Prerunner front fenders, Pro Comp LED lightbars, Amp Research steps, Airaid intake, Edge tuner, black MBRP dual exhaust, and more.

Colored Smoke!

Brian Woitas was so stoked about getting into the January ’12 issue of 8-Lug magazine that he went out and burned up $1,000 worth of red tires in celebration! Well, not really. He was already planning to smoke the tires…but it sounds good (and looks good).

Team Spotlight

M/C Forsten Racing is a diesel drag truck racing team that competes on the National Hot Rod Diesel Association (NHRDA) circuit. Racing out of Warrenton, Virginia, the low-budget father-and-son operation has quickly hit the big time, with three NHRDA series race wins and a a runner-up finish in a season points championship.

M/C Forsten Racing runs a street-legal ’99 Dodge Ram single cab with an 8-foot bed. A 24-valve Cummins engine equipped with a VP44 fuel pump powers the truck. Mike (the father and chief mechanic) and Cole Forsten (who, at age 21 is one of the youngest drivers on the circuit) converted the truck from street use to race configuration and continue to make improvements in their quest for an NHRDA Division 5 championship.

Mike and Cole began entering select events when Cole was still in high school. In 2007, the team increased its schedule, adding several NHRDA events and recording a Third Place finish in the Super Diesel Class at Maryland International Raceway’s Big Rig Truck Nationals.

In 2008, M/C Forsten Racing captured its first NHRDA victory at Maryland International Raceway. That season, the team logged a Second Place finish in the NHRDA season championship points standings. In 2009, the team had a pair of top-three finishes in NHRDA events, but the season’s highlights were the two VP44-record-setting runs at Maryland International Raceway in November: 10.64 seconds at 126.00 mph and a fuel-only 10.77 seconds at 124.55 mph.

The team also set a single-pass Super Diesel Class record at Maryland International Raceway’s Big Rig Nationals event. The 2010 racing season was great with a strong win at MIR’s Big Rig Nationals and two more NHRDA wins—both at Maple Grove, and both on the same day. The team also set a new NHRDA Super Street record (10.56 seconds) during its double-victory day at Maple Grove. The 2011 season is now underway, and the team has shown some real potential. At Maryland International Raceway’s Big Rig Truck National event, the team went out and crushed its previous VP44 record and MIR’s track record with an incredible 10.44 seconds at 128 mph. Mike and Cole have their eyes set on a 9-second pass and will not stop until they get it!

Buds for Life!

We’ve been running more and more photos of truck owners with their trucks because readers really like to see what the guy or gal looks like. Now we’re seeing a trend of truck owners sending us photos with their whole crew of friends who helped work on the truck posing in front of it. Bring it on! We love it. This is Mark Vanadia and his buds. Watch for a feature real soon on this truck.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Chris Kendall of Rock Springs, Utah, came to the Weekend on the Edge event and won both the ET Bracket Class (14.99 seconds against a 15.0 Index Class truck at 91 mph) at the drag races and the Work Stock Class in the sled pulls with a 286.4-foot pull. What a weekend!

Two-For-One Special
We visited Sergio Jimenez’s shop, ATF Motorsports in Chula Vista, for an article we’re working on, and he mentioned his uncle’s truck was pretty nice…pretty darn nice. So we asked to see it. Wow! Sergio built the truck (of course!) and now we’re going to feature it in 8-Lug—and the truck was invited to the SEMA show! Good things happen to good people.

Towing for a Cure

In February 2006, Traci McAughty was diagnosed with breast cancer. After seven surgeries—including a bilateral mastectomy and a reconstruction—and a year and a half of chemotherapy, she was able to celebrate her five-year anniversary of being cancer-free on February 16, 2011.

Her husband, Dave, built a Nissan Hardbody to honor her fight, and the couple ended up getting to know close to 200 women who have been affected by the disease. These women’s names (survivors and non-survivors) were added to ribbons on the truck’s paint. The Nissan took a long time to build, but it made its debut at the SEMA show in 2010 and was very well received. During all this time, an ’01 Excursion was the family daily driver. Dave wants to put the Nissan on tour, and we think the diesel Excursion would make a perfect matching tow vehicle. Dave and Traci are looking for sponsorships. Look for 8-Lug to run a full feature on the truck soon.

The three-piece combo (Excursion, Nissan, and trailer) will attend a variety of events, including the regular show season circuit where the Excursion will show and compete in its class. It will also attend various diesel events such as show ’n’ shines, drag races, sled pulls, and dyno events. The McAughtys will also support the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and the Susan G. Komen For The Cure walk.

Mighty Marine
Mike Dunlap has done two tours overseas in the Marine Corps— recently returning from Afghanistan—and he’s been dreaming about building a truck for the SEMA show for a while now. After contacting Truck Covers USA, the ball really got rolling. Kim Tremelling of Truck Covers USA met with Mike and decided she would take him under her wing. The list of companies involved is long, and we will be sharing it with you when we run a full feature on the completed truck.

Tow Duty
We asked on our website (www.8-Lug.com) for readers to show us what they tow, and Frank Mayer was one of the first to respond. And boy, were we happy to see his setup. The truck is an ’06 Ford F-250 Super Duty Lariat with a 6-inch lift, 37.5-inch Mickey Thompson tires, and 18-inch XD wheels. The boat is a 28-foot Sunsation Performance edition 496Mag HO with its own 5-inch exhaust from CMI headers and an IMCO full-hydraulic steering and extension box setup.

Minnesota Fast Life
Sammy James leads the fast life in Minneapolis where his Minnesota Fast Life studio renders some of the finest custom car and truck designs. The studio specializes in realism, gallery-style, and accurate concepts using many mediums and a variety of formats, without the use of computer-aided design programs. If you’re looking for an artist to help develop a blueprint for an absolute dream ride, Sammy James is definitely a prime candidate. Sammy has promised to send more renderings for 8-Lug to run. Get your own rendering by contacting Sammy at www.mnfastlife.com.

All Terrain HD
Maybe the runaway success of the Ford Raptor got the attention of GM, but the GMC Sierra All Terrain HD concept truck that’s been making its way around the country via the auto show circuit sure looks like a home run. Designed with greater off-road capabilities and a bold exterior design, the truck uses a modified, production-based, four-wheel-drive chassis.

Get Forged
The new Spyder SS wheel from American Force is the company's latest design for 3/4- and 1-ton single-rear-wheel trucks. To ensure the strongest possible wheel, this custom CNC-built/forged-aluminum wheel is made from T6061 aluminum. All wheels are direct bolt-on and feature hub-centric fitments for a perfect fit. Appealing to the masses is a must, so all American Force SS-series wheels are offered in a mirror finish and multiple powdercoated colors. American Force, www.americanforcewheels.com, 800/620-6259.

Engine Update
Oftentimes when we shoot a feature, the owner does some more modifications to the truck soon after and wishes he or she could get photos of the new work into the magazine in time to make it to the printer. Usually, it's too late. John Crandall wasn't even expecting a photo shoot when we had him pull his '96 Ford F-350 out of the parking lot of the TS Performance event last summer, so he didn't think his engine compartment looked "good enough." It was fine, of course, but he sent us this photo to illustrate some of the nice upgrades the truck has gone through since our photo shoot. John added a new turbo, intercooler, and custom intercooler pipes. Nice work, John!