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Vile Gossip | Adventures in tire testing

Jean Jennings has been writing about cars for more than 30 years, after stints as a taxicab driver and as a mechanic in the Chrysler Proving Grounds Impact Lab. She was a staff writer at Car and Driver magazine, the first executive editor and former president and editor-in-chief of Automobile Magazine , the founder of the blog Jean Knows Cars and former automotive correspondent for Good Morning America . She has lifetime awards from both the Motor Press Guild and the New England Motor Press Association. This is her first column for Autoblog — look for more Vile Gossip in the future. I began writing at Car and Driver magazine back in its golden age in the 1970s, before I'd actually read it. I knew very little about cars. The only magazine I read religiously was Four Wheeler because I owned big trucks and liked to go off-roading with my Chrysler Proving Grounds friends. My vast 10 years of driving experience up to that point (high-speed dirt-road idiot, taxicab driver, Chrysler Proving Grounds test driver) had less bearing on my being hired at Car and Driver than the fact that the editor just wanted to rile up the all-male staff. He didn't need me for that. They were already in full dudgeon when I arrived. They'd just spent a chunk of time testing a stack of tires for their big tire-test issue, and the editor-in-chief was toe-to-toe with the technical editor over the rankings of the top 10 tires. It was loud, and it was angry. I had no idea that car magazines tested tires. Cab driving had led me to believe that airing up a tire and changing a flat was all you needed to know. I changed so many flats on that cab, I eventually wound up in front of a live audience on the " Oprah Winfrey Show" demonstrating my brilliance with a jack and a tire iron. My point, of course, is that tires are more controversial, and also more essential, than you'd think. My other point is that it's good to get worked up about the subject, but not quite so good to let yourself be seen, as I did, on my hands and knees with my ass up in the air on national TV. This is how I prefer to test a tire: First, pick a top brand. Then accept their invitation to try and beat the crap out of their tire. I chose Yokohama, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The big news for them was the GEOLANDER M/T G003!

Jeep Wrangler pickup's rear suspension is inspired by Ram

Although we've learned about all there is to know about the new Jeep Wrangler, there is still more to discover about its upcoming truck sibling, such as the rear suspension. We knew it would be coil-sprung, but these new spy shots also indicate that the suspension is more similar to what's under a Ram 1500 than the Wrangler SUV. In the gallery above, the first two images compare the rear suspension of a new-generation 2018 Wrangler (left) and the Wrangler pickup (right). Immediately obvious is that the shocks on the Wrangler SUV are mounted at the back of the axle, while the truck's shocks are mounted at the front. It's also possible to see that the anti-roll bar on the SUV is mounted quite high up, while the truck's bar sits much lower, near the base of the rear axle. The third image shows a Ram 1500 on the left and the Wrangler pickup on the right. Here we can see that the Ram shares the same sort of low-mounted anti-roll bars and forward-mounted shocks, along with a Panhard rod. The two aren't quite the same, though. For one thing, the Wrangler pickup's rear axle looks more like the Wrangler SUV's than the one on the Ram. It's possible that these suspension changes were made in an effort to boost the Wrangler truck's payload capabilities. It's also possible that there are some handling quirks to the long truck body style for which a Ram-style suspension was better suited. We'll look forward to learning more about the differences when the truck is revealed, likely in early 2019. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

FCA delays Grand Wagoneer and next-generation heavy-duty Ram trucks

The upcoming Jeep Grand Wagoneer has had a tumultuous gestation thus far. At one point it was essentially confirmed, but later it was rumored to have been cancelled. In that context, the latest report from Automotive News is something of a mixed blessing. According to the publication, the Grand Wagoneer has simply been delayed, as has the next-generation Ram heavy duty truck line. This does not seem to affect the fully redesigned Ram 1500, which was previously reported to have been pushed back slightly to 2019. Automotive News says the information came from unnamed sources at the company. Nothing was said about how long the vehicles would be delayed. The publication also conjectures that FCA is delaying the models to save some money to help cover the company's $7 billion of debt , since re-tooling both the heavy-duty truck plant and eventual Grand Wagoneer plant will be expensive. View 6 Photos We reached out to Chrysler for more information on the subject, but the company wouldn't comment on the report. Even so, we wouldn't be too surprised if FCA is indeed delaying these products. The company has delayed a number of vehicles in recent years. In fact nearly every major FCA truck and SUV, including the Grand Wagoneer and Ram line, were delayed about a year and a half ago. We certainly hope the company doesn't delay the Grand Wagoneer for too long, since it's possible it will have a price tag of over $130,000. The profit margins on an SUV with that kind of MSRP would go a long way to helping to pay down the company's debt. Related Video: