TheTruckSpot.com

Thanks for checking us out. TheTruckSpot.com is a division of Truckxpressions.com, the leader in aftermarket styling and performance for Trucks and SUVs.  

The purpose of this blog is to update you on automotive news related to trucks and SUVs, to let you know about the newest and hottest products available, and to showcase some of this countries hottest trucks.  We will also be discussing truck builds, install tips, install instructions, and anything else we can think of thats related to trucks or truck performance. Everything from Ford, Chevy, Dodge, GMC, Toyota, and many more will be discussed here. 

Have a question? or a suggestion?  Is there an topic you want to see discussed here? If so, let us know and we will be glad to get you the information you need as quickly as possible. 

Just hit us up at News@thetruckspot.com with ideas, suggestions, news tips and pics of your tricked out truck.

I finally got one of these GTech Meters the other day, and I have to say i am quite impressed with it so far.  This thing is supposed to use some accellerometers and some crazy math to tell you some things about your vehicle- Such as, Horsepower, Torque, 1/4 mile times, Handling G Force, 0-60 times and a few other goodies.  It also has some features great for all of you all that race.  if you drag race, it tells you your 60ft times and has a built in tach with shiftlights that brighten as you get closer to redline.  If you road race, the Gtech Pro RR can record your run to be later uploaded to a laptop to look at the forces acting upon your car.  The Gtech will record up to 2 hours of data.

The only complaint i have with the Pro RR is in calibrating it.  It is a pain in the neck to calibrate.  Once done though, let the fun begin. 

I’ve never taken my Denali to the drag strip, and certainly have never autocrossed it, but i threw the Gtech in it anyways because all our project cars are in some state of work.  I know what kind of power my truck is supposed to make, and i know within 2/10s what i should run in the 1/4.  The Gtech was 1hp shy of what i think it should be and 4 ft lbs heavy on what i thought.  Quarter mile times as told by my Gtech Pro were within a tenth of what i should run if i go to the strip.   While these numbers may not be exact, i believe that they are close enough for a good idea of what your mods may or may not gain you.  For the cost, I dont think it can be beat, sure, you could spend the money on a few trips to your local dyno, but why not have something that tells you what you want to know when you want it?

Thats my thoughts, if anyone else has any on it, id love to hear them, leave me a comment.

 Justin

After waiting for months to get these things in quanity instead of 2 at a time, they are finally off backorder.  The AEM UEGO is a wideband air/fuel ratio gauge that includes a Bosch Oxygen Sensor. If you are running high amounts of boost or are using a fuel controller, you will want to install this part.  The gauge is 52mm and easily fits in most gauge holders.  If you care about the life span of your engine, this is one of the most cost efficient monitoring tools available today. 

I bought a GMC Yukon Denali a few weeks back to drive daily while my project car was being built and told myself that i was going to leave it alone.  Yeah Right!!  Ive already made several lists of parts for it so that im covered no matter what direction I take the truck.  Do I want performance?  Do I want a show vehicle? Or do i simply want a nice looking SUV to pull our trailer to the shows and relax in?  Whichever direction I choose, when i look at my list, i noticed that some parts carried across all of them.  One of these was the PIAA 40 Series Driving Lamps.  The factory fog lights just werent cutting it, and to be honest, we just dont get much fog here.  I wanted to upgrade to a high performance driving light that would compliment my headlights, but would also serve a purpose.  Over the weekend I pulled out the factory fogs and After a few hours of making the PIAA Lamps fit in the factory cut outs, i had the look i was going for.  Ironically, It got dark on me before i could wire them, so i had to wait until Sunday to knock that out.  So, Sunday night I jumped in the truck and took her out for a midnight cruise.  The difference was incredible.  I spent some time aiming them and when I was done, i had a light beam the started about 4 feet in front of the truck and went almost as far as my low beams.  I have to say that this was one of my favorite functional mods Ive ever performed.  If I can motivate myself one weekend, ill put a factory one back in and take pics of the difference.

Here’s a little more info about them

Add-up dependability, all-out performance and total value to shed some light on your driving lamp choice. The PIAA 40 Round Driving Lights Kit provides traditional round light looks, along with the world-class illumination trusted by off-road pros and freeway drivers worldwide.

PIAA 40 Round Driving Lights feature detailed crafting that’s unmatched in their class. A prism-cut glass lens for optimum clarity. Stamped steel corrosion-resistant housings. And a powerful, 55w quartz halogen bulb. All of these team to provide outstanding nighttime visibility and a long life of durable use on your vehicle.

You’ll find the detailed mounting instructions make for straightforward installation, with less time under the hood and more time testing your new lights out. PIAA includes 2 lamps with bulbs, a pre-assembled wiring harness with relay, an in-cab switch and two white lamp covers. Plus, they back your 40 Round Driving Lights Kit with a Lifetime Warranty

• The PIAA 40 Round Driving Lights Kit sports a universal design perfect for mounting to any vehicle—ideal for grille guards
• Outstanding performance, reliability and durability make 40 Round Driving Lights an excellent value
• Powered by a 55w quartz halogen bulb that teams well with stock hi-beams
• The PIAA 40 Round Driving Light boasts a black stamped steel housing for corrosion-resistance and long life
• Prism-cut glass lens provides optimum beam clarity
• PIAA 40 Round Lamps measure 5-11/16” in diameter x 2-11/16” deep
• Kit includes 2 lamps with bulbs, a pre-assembled wiring harness with relay, an in-cab control switch and 2 PIAA white lamp covers with black lettering
• Your PIAA 40 Round Driving Lights Kit is backed by a Lifetime Warranty

In this business, one of the most common misconceptions i hear, concerns fuel efficiency.  Most people assume that Fuel Efficiency equals better gas mileage, and lets face it, thats an easy assumption to talk yourself into with todays high gas prices.  For most people, when they buy a performance part that promises better fuel efficiency, the placebo effect kicks in and they might believe they are getting that extra mpg, but in reality, its just not true. 

Let’s use a Green Drop-In Air Filter for example. The common sales point is better gas mileage and more power.  While you can expect to see a small hp gain, your gas mileage will not increase, but you get your increase in power through fuel efficiency.  If you stop to think about this, it makes perfect sense.  You are adding more air to your motor, which in return, tells the ECU to supply a little more fuel.  Due to the increase in air within the cylinder, more of the fuel going into the motor is burned, thus creating a more complete combustion cycle.  It explains the power side of things, but more fuel will never equal better gas mileage. 

With that said, Fuel Efficiency is nothing more than the % of combustion that occurs within each cylinder on the firing stroke.  As tuners striving to squeeze every bit of power out of our engines that we can, fuel efficiency is something that we need to consider when bolting on parts to our car.  We can throw parts at it all day long and we might see some more power. But what if we add those same parts, and then add a few more that promote fuel efficiency.  We will see the total hp gain of each part increase, due to the more complete burn of the fuel in the chamber.  For instance, we recently added a SUN Auto Hyper Force Voltage System to a customers Mitsubishi Evo 8, and saw gains of almost 17hp.  Why, because it burned almost every droplet of fuel sprayed into the engine. 

 Pretty simple isnt it.  Unfortunately, it is one of the most overlooked areas among new tuners and enthusiasts.  I hope this helps explain what fuel efficiency really means when a company tells you that a particular product offers that, and just maybe, you can tell them what it really means.  You guys are going to mod your cars, you already expect a small decrease in gas mileage, so, you may as well make it count.

Lets hear your opinion on this article- Leave us a comment please.

Caught testing in weather hotter than Hades, not even Chrysler engineers with the temperament of Cerberus (sur-ber-uhs) could stop at least a few photos of 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 mules from escaping. 

These pictures show current Dodge Ram half-ton pickups running through the desert with the next-gen Ram’s front clip and improved HEMI V8. Also along for the ride, a 2007 Toyota Tundra.

Even under the heavy camouflage it’s clear that Dodge is moving away from the Ram’s trademark big rig looks in favor of better aerodynamics to help boost fuel economy. The prominent crosshair grille remains – with stronger horizontal and vertical bars and slant forward styling shared with the Dodge Charger sedan.

The sleuths at Autoblog have picked up on an interesting story from Forbes Magazine.

Forbes looked at data from the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), which monitors theft losses per vehicle and scores these losses in relative terms, to compile its list of the most stolen luxury cars in America. An average theft loss score is 100.

In first place amongst all luxury vehicles is the Cadillac Escalade EXT pickup. It scored a 1,728 with theft losses some 16 times higher than the average car or truck. At $55K a copy, that’s a tough loss.

The EXT is in good company though. BMW’s 7 Series sedan falls in behind it at #2.

Jeep is not only going to display its JT Concept at the 2007 SEMA Show, but also this vehicle, the Wrangler Ultimate. Not that the new four-door Wrangler Limited needs any more exposure (demand is currently outsripping supply for the popular configuration), but the Wrangler Limited takes that vehicle and adds some urban flair to make it more eye-catching to the valet crowd.

The Wrangler Ultimate gets the same rock-crawling hardware showcased on the JT Concept, which includes a 3-inch lift kit and 35-inch BF Goodrich Mud Terrain tires, but also gets a set of handsome forged 18-inch aluminum wheels from Alcoa. The Jeep design team decided to dump the entire Mopar catalogue of accessories on the Wrangler Ultimate’s exterior, which gets some fancy sparkle and shine from ts chrome fuel filler door, taillamp guards, tubular side steps, exterior mirrors, tow hooks, door handles, hood hinges, and overlays for the front fascia. The Liquid Charcoal Pearl Coat exterior paint color is not available from the factory, either.

The Wrangler Ultimate’s interior also gets the show car treatment with seats upholstered in a mesh fabric and trimmed in dark slate gary Nappa/Province leather bound with a heavy black leather baseball stitch. There are additional orange trim pieces on the steering wheel, shift knob and passenger handlebar, while the floor shifter appears to have a wooden trim piece, as well. Again, don’t expect the Wrangler Ultimate to be an option package anytime soon, but at least Jeep has proven that you can dress up its weekend warrior.

[Source: Jeep]

The Jeep JT Concept is set to “officially” debut at the 2007 SEMA Show, but unlike a lot of the hardware that will be on display in Las Vegas later this year, Jeep’s compact pickup is a capable rock crawling machine. Check out the pics in our gallery of the JT Concept descending into and out of a bathtub at the Hell’s Revenge trail in Moab, Utah. We thought it would need an airlift to get out, but the JT climbed right up the opposite wall.

We’ve learned that the JT Concept is built right off of the Wrangler Unlimited’s platform and shares its 116-inch wheelbase, though adding a 5-foot-long bed and removable hard top over the cab. Its rock-crawling cred is bolstered by a 3-inch suspension lift from Superlift, 35-inch BF Goodrich Mud Terrain tires, a Ramsey 9500 UT winch and a Mopar rear bumper and rock rails.

We’ve said it before that the compact pickup market is ripe to grow if only an automaker would offer a decent competitor to the aged Ford Ranger. Perhaps a Jeep JT could fit that bill and sell like Twinkies, though the brand isn’t saying whether or not the concept was built for fun or to test the public’s reaction (again) to a Jeep pickup.

[Source: Jeep]

Autoblog.com has a great gallery for high-res pics of the Jeep JT Concept. 

Porsche recently held a 3-day training session for the drivers who’ll be taking the automaker’s 26 factory-prepared Cayenne S Transsyberias out rallying later this summer. The roster is sprinkled with drivers from various rally disciplines like Rod Millen, Armin Schwartz, René Metge, and Marc Coma, who will be among the other enthusiasts taking part in the 4,100-mile adventure.

The session, held at Porsche’s off-road test area at Leipzig, let the drivers get acclimated to the cars, see how they handled various conditions, and brush up on their navigation and field repair skills. They’ll need it, as the Transsyberia Rally course from Moscow to Mongolia is sure to bring its share of unexpected surprises along the way.

[Source: Porsche]