MUST-SEE MACHINES

4x4s! You build 'em, and we love pointing our cameras at 'em to document your work so it can be shared with four-wheelers around the world. These six rigs caught our attention on the trail with exciting engine transplants, unique suspension configurations, sleek trail appeal, vintage charm, and general zaniness. Read on for a look into the stories and tech behind each of these six incredible builds.

- Jered Korfhage

Just. Everyone. Else's. Parts.

Wyatt McAllister describes his YJ Wrangler as "just everyone else's parts," beginning with the 6.2L Detroit diesel. He's on his second one of them and with the addition of a marine injection pump and injectors, heads from the 6.5L Detroit diesel, and the turbo out of a Cummins (and a handful of other modifications). The Wrangler clatters its way up and over rocks, through deep snow, and leaves onlookers bewildered as slices across sand dunes. Wyatt's NP435 came from a '78 Bronco, and he used the Top Loader shifter from a 2-ton Ford for a shorter throw. Wyatt found the steering box from a Nissan Xterra to be the hard-core solution (kudos to its beefy sector shaft) to aiming his tires, and he mounted it as far forward as he could on the bumper to keep the unit from contacting his harmonic balancer. At each corner of the Jeep there's a hydraulic system repurposed from a garbage truck that Wyatt uses to manually level (or tilt) the rig on side slopes or to help avoid obstacles. Each lower control arm is excessively overbuilt, and Wyatt will confidently smash any one of them against a rock with the weight of the nearly 7,000-pound Jeep. Out back, his 14-bolt rear diff is not shaved, instead, Wyatt welded 1/4-inch steel teeth to its bottom half to protect places where the pumpkin might encounter a rock. There's much more to Wyatt's YJ and to fully appreciate the details, you gotta see it in action. Look out for it on the Rubicon, where he can sometimes be found sans 40s, wheeling for charity with 31-inch dualies at each corner.

"IF THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE WAY, I CUT IT OFF, AND BUILD WHAT I WANT." -WYATT MCALLISTER

White Whale