Hybrid_From_Hell Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 Had to stay away for work, so bought some of the off road mags to read in the hotel. LRO proved to take about 10 mins, dross dross advert and dross, thrown in bin. Picked up LRW, looked slightly more promising : Front Page had a white 90 with the text : "Home Built Challenger - Winch Event preparation on a budget", ...............ah I thought, something maybe worth reading. So, when I got to page 7 I got midly interested when I read "Gary Stuart travels to a wet Wales to see this tough home-built Defender 90 3/4 cab in action" I settled down and read on,: Jamie Wytons 90 is a purposfull looking truck that attracts attention wherever it goes. Design to be an extreme challenge contender, it is a work in progress with a way to go before James is satisfied.. This is not a shopping list truck put together by a "Loads of money" character, but a stage by stage development funded by scrimping and saving a family mans wage. This could be good I thought, ...............then the next para or 2 saw the magazine join the 'LRO Yellow Pages' in the hotel room bin : While many men his age spend their money out clubbing and drinking, Jamie will more likley be found poring over the Scorpian Racing brochures before heading off to work....blah blah blah, and not forgetting this classic : The largest chunk of his budget has been spent at Scorpian racing where Colin and Roz have helped and advised him through the project. FFS I have no issue with anyone who buys stuff for their truck becuase they can't be ars&d, or can't fabricate etc, or want to use stuff off the shelf, but this is a complete F joke, it IS a cheque book motor, just his chequebook is small and needs emptying over a longer time. He has all the 'extreme kit' yet no cage or lockers, its the sort of drivel that is std within UK Mags, Front page and 2Something special" ? this is nothing special, ....nothing differenet, ....nothing worth the copy,.... its another SR Bolt on truck, .........of which there are loads. Picked up TOR, saw Saleys truck, nicish article, but talk about it was shall we say a "thin on Tech". That truck is FILLED with tech, but seems to me those who typed it don't know there PTO from their B*ttPlug 3 mags, 3x in the bin, what a complete waste of money, still I had 1 USA Mag which did an article on axles, spent 2 hours reading that. Shame And they wonder why the circulation is so dire ? And just why are our magazine so **** ? Nige Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mo Murphy Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 I thought similarly about the LRW article. There wasn't much in the way of home built, more Scorpion bolt on Mo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill van snorkle Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 I'm going out to buy some popcorn. this thread could get interesting once the mob has tuned in. Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dollythelw Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 Same tired old solutions to the same list of problems with the same tired advertising agendas vive la mundanity.......... this carp must appeal to someone - its still selling toffee or salted Bill? B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill van snorkle Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 toffee or salted Bill? B) I like the honey coated variety. Shall I picksome upfor you Jez. Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilwilson Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 The only one I now get on sub is http://www.overlandjournal.com/ although it is USA based and hence has Jeeps etc as well, they do have some good articles, the production quality is very good and it is refreshingly free from hundreds of pages of adverts. Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest diesel_jim Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 I like the honey coated variety. Shall I picksome upfor you Jez. Bill. bill, grab me a coke and a hotdog whilst you're there will ya? I agree, all of the mags seem to have very similar articles, and most of it seems to gloss over the oily bits, just concentrating on how orange one can make ones truck, or how they got their laptop to work their Mp3 player and 6" TFT displays. Is "Petersons 4 wheeler" still going? thats a great mag that one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gruntus Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 I completely agree Nige. I see a niche market here, has anyone thought of doing a forums.lr4x4.com monthly? Just sell a cardboard sheet in a nice wrapper for £3.50 with a scratchcard on the front that reveals "http://forums.lr4x4.com" And give readers 10% off for yearly subscription! Nige, I bet you didn't throw the other "gentlemans literature" in the bin! Cheers G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiWhite Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 I gave up on UK mags a while ago. I don't even flick through them in the newsagents anymore I subscribe to Petersens 4 Wheel Drive - it's cheaper to subscribe and have it sent from the US than pick up a load of adverts and drivel from the newsagents, and it's genuinely good - great tech, interesting articles - I really look forward to it coming! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 I am subscribed to Petersen's 4-wheel & Off-road. Still waiting to see if Mr Kidd comes good on his promise to bring TOR up to scratch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jules Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 I've started to subscribe to Dirtcomp mag It sounds dodgy but the inside cover is an advert for the best bar bender for your space frame build It has lots on the Baja type racing but also loads on challenging its devoted more to drivers and builders then just the intrested Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacr2man Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 Its been years now that the ''landrover mags'' have been a vehicle for advertising goods , you only have to look at the numbers of contributors that have a ''conflict of interest'' eg a certain B*%$yer . I quit trialling years ago for the similar ''cheque book'' reason . Unfortunately all though obviously proved landrover owners have long been seen as a source of making a lot of money without a lot of effort . The situation has been accelerated by the number of ''cosmetic tuning'' items that a lot of landrovers sport now , eg chequerplate all over the place why? The above are not just my opinion ? I hope ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michele Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 My subscription to 4Wheeler expired last month. I read Crawl Mag and Dirt Sports now... No chance to ever afford something shown in these mags even in a million years,but I always enjoy the reading and the tech... (as far as I can understand ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jules Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 We all need to remember the run of the mill mags are for the masses and for the most of us on this forum we just don't fit that criteria anymore, as knowledge increases you overtake what the mags do which is not their fault and its not ours…. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 We all need to remember the run of the mill mags are for the masses and for the most of us on this forum we just don't fit that criteria anymore, as knowledge increases you overtake what the mags do which is not their fault and its not ours…. No excuse to peddle the same old b*ll*cks to the masses, rather than educate them they are just keeping them ill-informed thinking that bolt-on is the pinncale of modification and that Scrapiron are gods amongst men. The mags should be educating people to grow the popularity of off-roading, not keeping them as dumb sheep buying the same old carp and going nowhere with an empty wallet and feeling inferior to Her Royal Highness Ed Cobley for not having the entire contents of Scrapiron's shop attached to their car. As a parallel, Practical Performance Car is for the masses but contains guides to engine swaps, welding, suspension design, DIY tuning (as in build your own flow-bench, ECU, port your own heads, etc.) and all manner of stuff. Yes they tell you where you can buy bling off-the-shelf, and where that's a better option than DIY, but they also tell you how to have a go yourself on a budget if you want to. Often, until someone shows you how to do a job you have no idea how easy it could be. But of course, far better to pay an advertiser to do it than teach people how to do it for themselves Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBMUD Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 I think that Jules has hit the nail 100% on the head. We all mostly grew out of Janet and John books and now we have outgrown the LR comics. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missingsid Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 Out of interest did Moglite make in to any magazines or HFH’s motor? I’d be surprised if Moglite would be shown as it does not look like a L-R and therefore has no advertising ability for L-R stealers or bolt on bodger suppliers. As for HFH (gosh that looks like he’s from a special family!!) I guess his motor has it’s special bits (ooh err) too hidden for a magazine. I stopped buying when they were all about how a Police RR is different to any other, sorry a few lamps and radios don’t do it for me. When the challenge scene became marketable it looked like the articles might perk up but the fact is the only “extreme” item is how extremely standard the extreme landies are! Or how extremely expensive it would be to build a copy of a companies latest advertising vehicle! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 I think that Jules has hit the nail 100% on the head. We all mostly grew out of Janet and John books and now we have outgrown the LR comics.Chris I guess there's some truth in that - but as Jon says, the mags are happy to just serve up the same old bolt-on-the-bling articles month after month, and never tell their readers that there's more that can be done if they fancy stretching themselves a bit. I guess it boils down to two factors (well, one - money): It's much easier to sell advertising space if your articles are also basically adverts not telling readers how to avoid spending £££s at the bolt-on bling-o-rama Taking a few photos of accessories provided (and probably fitted) by a sponsor, then pretty much printing their provided marketing copy verbatim requires virtually no effort. Writing an article yourself about work you actually did on your truck requires quite a lot more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jules Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 No excuse to peddle the same old b*ll*cks to the masses, rather than educate them they are just keeping them ill-informed thinking that bolt-on is the pinncale of modification and that Scrapiron are gods amongst men. The mags should be educating people to grow the popularity of off-roading, not keeping them as dumb sheep buying the same old carp and going nowhere with an empty wallet and feeling inferior to Her Royal Highness Ed Cobley for not having the entire contents of Scrapiron's shop attached to their car.As a parallel, Practical Performance Car is for the masses but contains guides to engine swaps, welding, suspension design, DIY tuning (as in build your own flow-bench, ECU, port your own heads, etc.) and all manner of stuff. Yes they tell you where you can buy bling off-the-shelf, and where that's a better option than DIY, but they also tell you how to have a go yourself on a budget if you want to. Often, until someone shows you how to do a job you have no idea how easy it could be. But of course, far better to pay an advertiser to do it than teach people how to do it for themselves Fair play John that is a very valid piont. I wouldn't say its as simple as that more that the skill isn't there themselves. I could write articals on how to drive, control pitching at speed, why the balance and COG is so important, and snow, sand, rock techniecs but would become completely stumped to write about what welding wires should be used on a chassie repair and tuneing I wouldn't even understand somones elses artical Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon White Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 As for HFH (gosh that looks like he’s from a special family!!) I guess his motor has it’s special bits (ooh err) too hidden for a magazine. Nah - no-one will feature his truck cos he still hasnt painted it!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybrid_From_Hell Posted November 23, 2007 Author Share Posted November 23, 2007 Nah - no-one will feature his truck cos he still hasnt painted it!!! Oi I'll hasve you know thats 'LR Polished Grey Primer' that is Nige Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Henson Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 Probably the reason why the mags don't have any interest in what is posted/done on here is because of the potentially dangerous short cuts we all make (undoing a crank bolt, for example). 'Proper' challenge trucks as there are on this website are not generally buildable with just bolt-on bits, and there would be a very limited interest in what a lot of us do. How many readers would be genuinely interested in how to fit portals/drive through water that comes above the wheels/making your own ignition system/altering a chassis to take a different engine or transmission? The list of what readers would not do is almost endless I would have thought. Safer and easier to buy some supposed 'extreme' tat that an advertiser is selling - no come back if things go wrong I suppose. Les. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 Les - you have a point about the legal situation, but the US mags (where litigation is king) seem to get away with writing all sorts of tech, so I can't believe it's a real issue. As for "joe public isn't interested", sorry but I think that's wrong, Joe Public probably would be interested in all sorts of daft stuff if only the mags would ever print any of it. We get more extreme stuff at play days than the average copy of LRO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honitonhobbit Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 In defence of the mags: The number of satisfied readers vastly outweighs the tiny few forumeers or a few select forums A huge range of tastes/intellects/abilities have to be catered for No writer is infallable and no writer can be totally techy (some come close) 'Bolt On' emporiums like Scorpion and Devon 4x4 pay the bills with regular advertising so it would be suicidal to tell the truth and not 'Big them up' Photogenic Vehicals sell mags - crappy matty colours (like my own baby cack coloured motor) are not photogenic Too much tech bewilders what has becoming a less than practical nation - the Good Old US maybe be dumber but they are more practical... blah blah blah I only read the mags to keep up with what they print. For enjoyment I read books or better mags. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest otchie1 Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 In defence of the LROI..... The LROI that I have to hand has an article on sticking a 200tdi in a Series 11a; a piece on a fabrication engineer rebuilding a Series III mostly from sheet metal and the start of a series on re-building a series 1 gearbox. They also have the usual random green lane and tales from more exotic adventures that most of us aren't gong to do, ever. Hardly earth shattering stuff but it passes the time Okay between that there is a load of guff from advertisers but I've neevr noticed advertising embedded in an article just for the sake of it. BTW not that I've ever bought anything from them but aren't Scorpion just re-badging resellers anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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