1953 Dodgecornet Red Ram Hemi on 2040-cars

Auto blog

How to turn a Dodge airport tug into a trail slayer

Sometimes, having a ton of fun requires takes a ton of work. Just nine days before the so-called Ultimate Adventure 2014, the folks behind 4-Wheel & Off-Road had 40 tasks to complete in order to turn the ratty truck pictured above into a machine that could excel on treacherous off-road trails while still being able to handle highway jaunts. Much of process behind the build was chronicled on the latest episode of Dirt Every Day.
The team's vehicle started life as a 1990 Dodge tug truck that spent part of its life hauling around airplanes. The builders hung on to the Cummins six-cylinder diesel, but they tossed out practically everything else for the project, with some seriously heavy-duty replacement parts for the transmission, transfer case, axles and a whole lot more. The process was certainly a ton of work, but the end result looks like a fantastic crawler.
Sure, it might have been easier to bring a truck that was already prepared, but where would the fun in that have been? Stay tuned until the end of the video for a few glimpses of the completed Dodge and peek at some of the punishment it goes through.

FCA issues recall for 300k Dodge Chargers over airbag sensor

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has issued another recall, this time for the Dodge Charger. The issue stems from an overly sensitive control module that could deploy the side-curtain airbag and seatbelt pretensioner if the door is kicked or slammed too hard. The recall affects certain Charger sedans from the 2011-2014 model years, specifically those manufactured between May 6, 2010, and June 5, 2014. All told, that amounts to an estimated 322,078 units, including 284,153 in the United States, another 13,169 in Canada, 2,484 in Mexico, and 22,272 overseas. Owners of those vehicles will be asked to bring their vehicles in to their local dealers to have the Occupant Restraint Control module recalibrated, and are being advised in the meantime to "exercise caution when closing doors." If this issue sounds familiar, that's because the automaker issued a similar recall for Ram trucks just last week, affecting over 667,000 four-door pickups in the United States alone. Following a further investigation into its passenger cars, FCA found a similar problem with the Charger, whose door design mandated specific calibration of the module in question for that model. The company says it is aware of three minor injuries potentially related to the issue, but no accidents. This campaign is just the latest in a string of recall-related issues to have emerged from Auburn Hills recently. The Ram truck recall was issued in tandem with another airbag-related recall for a further million pickups. Prior to that it called in another 1.4 million vehicles to update their infotainment system software due to a security issue. Another 350,000 Dodge Journeys were called in before that to have their engine covers secured. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is expected to issue the company a massive hundred-million-dollar fine for failing to follow proper procedures related to safety and recall issues. Meanwhile, another NHTSA investigation that could have affected 4.7 million units was closed with no further action deemed necessary. And an appeal court judge in Georgia reduced the damages the company will be ordered to pay the family of a child who died in a fire in a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Statement: Occupant Restraint Control Module August 1, 2015 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - FCA US LLC is conducting a voluntary safety recall to recalibrate control modules on approximately 284,153 U.S.-market sedans to prevent inadvertent side-curtain air-bag and seatbelt pre-tensioner deployment.

Autoblog Podcast #391

Episode #391 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Mike Harley and Brandon Turkus talk about the appointment of Kumar Galhotra to run Lincoln, changes coming for Scion, the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, and which cars won't live into 2015. We also take a quick detour to talk about the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge prototype, which Mike Harley just came back from driving. We start with what's in the garage and finish up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the new rundown below with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #391: Topics: 2015 Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge Prototype New boss at Lincoln Scion xB, iQ ending soon Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Cars that won't live to 2015 In the Autoblog Garage: McLaren 650S Hyundai Genesis Hosts: Dan Roth, Michael Harley, Brandon Turkus Runtime: 01:42:06 Rundown: Intro and Garage - 00:00 Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge - 30:05 Kumar Galhotra to Lincoln - 34:32 Scion Changes - 43:58 Dodge Charger Hellcat - 54:25 Discontinued Cars - 01:06:24 Q&A - 01:22:59 Get the podcast: [UStream] Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream [iTunes] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes [RSS] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Feedback: Email: Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Podcasts Dodge Hyundai Infiniti Lincoln McLaren Scion Supercars mclaren 650s