Author Archive for Benjamin
Benjamin Hunting is a freelance automotive writer who has been involved in racing, restoring and writing about cars and trucks for more than a decade. In his spare time he enjoys keeping the shiny side up on track days. You can find out more about Benjamin’s writing at his website, http://www.benjaminhunting.com.
Amatoya: Futuristic Firefighting Vehicle
Most of us grew up with fire trucks that were big, red, and noisy, designed to carry as much water, supplies and men as possible to the scene of a blaze while clearing a path along crowded city streets or twisting rural roads. The future of firefighting equipment, however, might look quite different if Liam Ferguson has his way. The designer has put together an entirely new type of firefighting vehicle called the Amatoya that is more adaptable to a wider range of situations than traditional truck-based apparatus.
The inspiration for the Amatoya came from the “Black Saturday” wild fires that swept across Victoria, Australia in 2009.
TCI Universal Illuminated Burnout Kit
V8-powered pickup trucks are the perfect burnout machines thanks to the combination of a light rear matched with gobs of low-end torque. Almost everyone has at one time or another at least spun the tires on their truck, and some take things even further by staging full-on brake-assisted burnouts, whether in a high school parking lot, at the drag strip just before a run or in front of their own house in a fit of adolescent nostalgia.
TCI has come up with perhaps the ultimate burnout accessory, suitable for installation in any rear-wheel drive automobile – including pickup trucks. As though burnouts didn’t already attract enough attention
Three Reasons to Install Satellite Radio In Your Pickup
Satellite radio has emerged from its troubled financial status of just a few years ago to finally post solid quarterly gains in both revenue and subscribers. The high cost of acquiring subscribers combined with actually launching and maintaining a network of satellites broadcasting digital music from space took their toll on America’s only two satellite radio players – XM and Sirius – forcing them to merge in 2008 into the entity known as Sirius XM radio. The company broadcasts over 150 channels of music, news, talk and sports to subscribers who have added the service to their homes or vehicles.
Full disclosure: I am a former long-time XM subscriber who had multiple accounts with the service. I ended my subscription after the merger due to the fact that the Sirius XM channel list was largely homogenized and removed many of the stations that I had enjoyed listening to, particularly those that focused on non-mainstream genres such as electronic music.
That being said – satellite radio does have a lot to offer listeners who don’t mind the fact that some of its more eclectic content is missing in action. Let’s take a look at three reasons to install satellite radio in your Toyota Tundra:
Roll-N-Lock Retractable Tonneau Cover
A lot of Toyota Tundra owners opt for a hard-shell bed cover for one simple reason: security. If you’ve got cargo to protect, then a soft top cover just isn’t going to cut it, and neither will many of the rollback tonneau covers that aren’t able to stand up to a determined attack from a tool-wielding thief.
Roll-N-Lock has been building truck accessories for close to 20 years, and their latest and greatest product is the Roll-N-Lock retractable tonneau cover. This special unit combines an aluminum structure with a vinyl laminate in order to provide the best balance between looks and protection for all of the gear that is stowed in your truck bed. Its special construction allows it to offer the versatility of a rollable cover that is stronger than most typical fiberglass options.
The Roll-N-Lock tonneau cover in action
The Roll-N-Lock cover comes in two flavors – M-Series and E-Series. Both feature the same retractable cover that automatically rolls up into a housing mounted at the front of the bed, and both feature a key lock that integrates with the tailgate to keep both the cover and the cargo bed’s rear opening secure. The housing itself is claimed to be the smallest in the industry, taking up a maximum of eight and a quarter inches of cargo bed depth on long box pickups (seven and a quarter on short beds).
MGP Brake Caliper Covers
The aftermarket industry provides almost infinite options for you to dress up your Toyota Tundra, and in some cases even seems to answer questions about your vehicle’s exterior appearance that you might never have thought to ask. A perfect example are caliper covers, which are designed to slide over existing stock calipers and hide them from the eyes of would-be brake component style critics.
Caliper covers are an interesting alternative to brake caliper paint
While high end sports cars often feature attractive caliper designs that are painted so as to draw attention rather than deflect it, truck calipers fall squarely into the function-over-form category. Fortunately, for those bothered by this state of affairs there is now a caliper cover option available for pickups.
