New Product Updates, Off Road Expo, Pic (Flop) of the Week & More

Hello Rock-Biting Jeepers!

As usual, there is a lot happening at MetalCloak as we get ready for Off Road Expo in Pomona, California coming October 9 & 10. If you haven't been to Off Road Expo, it truly is the show of shows on the West Coast.

This will be our second venture to Expo since opening the doors in January 2009, and our presence has expanded exponentially. Not only will we be in a bigger booth, but there will be a number of other vendors sporting MetalCloak on their show rigs... and boy do their rigs look amazing!

Our focus, of course, will be the long-awaited release of the MetalCloak Body Armor System for the JK, which we plan on showcasing at the show. Until then, the designs are strictly under wraps.

So come on out and see what all the buzz is about! http://www.offroadexpo.com/

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NEW PRODUCTS...

Obviously, our most anticipated new products are the JK front fenders, rockers and corner guards with flares. But we have lots of hot new products that are moving off the shelves and making our customers incredibly happy...

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CJ 5 & CJ 7 Fenders and Body Armor

CJ Fenders and Body Armor are now in full production and are shipping at the same rate as our other product lines, 5 days for raw metal and no more than two weeks for our Preminum Black Textured Powdercoat.

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Frame-Built(TM) Bumpers for CJ/YJ/TJ/LJ/JK

Take advantage of our on-going 10% Frame-Built Bumper Sale before it ends! Save 10% on all bumpers and bumper accessories for the CJ/YJ/TJ/LJ and JK! No telling when this sale will end, and like our other sales, when its over, its over.

Our bumpers are being tested daily by users across the country and around the world and one-for-one, nothing is strong and more versatile then the MetalCloak Frame-Built system. With over 600 configurations, What's Your Build?

CJ / YJ / TJ / LJ Frame-Built Bumpers

JK / JK Unlimited Frame-Built Bumpers

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Tow Bar Adapter

Occassionally we release small accessories designed to enhance our existing product lines... the tow-bar adapter is a great example of this. Aaron, our esteemed company president, just returned from a 3000 mile journey towing our TJ, Cloak 1, behind our grand RV using these adapters. They slip right onto your existing shackle mounts, and into any adjustable type of tow-bar.

http://www.metalcloak.com/MetalCloak-Tow-Bar-Adapter-p/2196.htm

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WELCOME NEW JOBBERS...

At MetalCloak, part of our growth includes finding quality Jobbers across the country to provide you with the same level of customer service you expect from MetalCloak every day. These Jobbers represent a wide variety of skills experience and we are happy to add them to our growing list of MetalCloak Authorized Installers...

• Brothers 4x4, Montclair, CA http://www.brothers4x4.com
• Pomona Gear, Pomona, CA http://www.pomonagear.com
• Savvy Off Road, Tustin, CA http://www.savvyoffroad.com
• High Country Performance, Englewood, CO http://www.hcp4x4.com
• Jeff Daniel's Jeeps, Harleysville, PA http://www.jeffdanielsjeeps.com
• Doctor Wheels, South Yarmouth, MA http://www.doctorwheels.com

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GARAGE SALE...

Every once and a while we get products that are either overstock, discontinued items, or prototypes we are willing to unload for cheap. Always great products, we simply have fun selling them on eBay. Today we posted a set of Arched Tube Fenders, Powdercoated Black, take a look at http://stores.ebay.com/MetalCloak

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PIC OF THE WEEK...

Here are a few from the Whoops! files... these rigs, each one of them, flopped and then (with a little wrangling) got right back up. The consensus: "If it wasn't for my MetalCloak's I would have had a lot more damage."

Flopped on the Fordyce Trail

No pick of the flop, just the aftermath.

As this customer said: "A lot of the weight of the Jeep
was on the fender, it only left 2 scratches in the powder coat."

See you on the rocks... or not!

Matson "Matsonian" Breakey
MetalCloak.com
916-631-8071

Twitter: twitter.com/metalcloak
Facebook: facebook.com/metalcloak
YouTube: youtube.com/metalcloak

Cantina for the Con, 2010 -- Taco, Nachos & More

We had a great time at Cantina for the Con 2010! Congrats to the organizers for raising over $29,000 for the Rubicon Trail Foundation.

Held annually in the Spillway at Loon Lake (Entrance to the Rubicon Trail), vendors lined the magnificent granite walls while hungry wheelers lined up for some tasty chicken and beef tacos.

MetalCloak worked together with our friends at Rubicon Express to maximize our use of space by combining booths for the day. With Rubicon's awesome canopy and Cloak 2, the MetalCloak YJ, we had a great day meeting hundreds of awesome people and their families.


A birds-eye view of Cantina for the Con (before the crowds...)


The MetalCloak / Rubicon Express Booth...


Lines like this for tacos lasted most of the day...


And some just liked to watch...

Guest Blog Post: The Jeep that Saved The Day

The Jeep That Saved the Day
and our lives

By Del & Stacie Albright

The trucker behind us on I-80 near Truckee, CA, said he figured we were goners when the Jeep made the FIRST 360 at 55 MPH on the freeway with the jeep trailer coming disconnected yet upright, held only by the safety chain. Then when he saw me steer out of that for the SECOND spin with the trailer headed sideways and still flopping on the chain, he knew we were going to be statistics. Yet we survived it; no one got hurt, and after a few repairs, we drove home the Jeep with the trailer. It's a story worth telling.

(Click or larger picture of Jeep trailer on its side after a few spins on the freeway). Photo by Stacie.

"Red" the Jeep stayed upright and we must have had the luck of the Big Four-Wheeler in the sky watching out for my driving. I'm still celebrating life even more today. But this story is also about the right gear; the right buildup on your rig; the right training; and the family we call four-wheelers, or better yet, off-road recreationists.

Stacie and I were returning from Sierra Trek by CA4WDC in freeway traffic on I-80 when we think the trailer ball bolt sheared off and let the trailer fly loose from our Jeep at freeway speed with a semi-truck behind us. Thankfully, the trucker was not tail-gating!

Stacie happened to notice the ball bouncing harmlessly off the freeway into the dirt lane right before I felt the trailer coming around to visit me in my driver's window. All hell broke loose after that.

The stink of rubber burning whiffed by my nose as the sound of metal crunching and banging together filled my ears. We could faintly hear brakes behind and alongside us locking up, but instantly the world started to rotate the wrong way and the only thing I could say was "hang on."

Stacie grabbed the passenger bar and leaned towards the middle as my hands bore down hard on the steering wheel, anticipating the drift and slip of the front tires as the Jeep got tossed by the weight of the speeding trailer. I've been through skid pan and safety clinic type off-road training, so I knew to stay with it; turn into the skid; and use the brakes carefully so as to not slam the trailer into the Jeep too hard thus cancelling my steering efforts.

Turning the Jeep in a drift towards the far right lane and dirt ditches alongside the freeway was my mission. Red was as stable as I could ever imagine, and I could feel the steering respond the way it should. But the weight of the flinging trailer and our freeway speed put us into the first 360 spin on pavement. Then we skidded into the dirt and began our second spin as gravel and dirt flung up from the BFG's, filling the cab with a dust ball that nearly stifled our breathing. Losing visibility I had to rely on feel and instinct to make the last couple turns, fighting the skid and still turning into the drift trying to keep Red upright, rubber side down. It worked!

Thank goodness the Jeep is built right! The MFS custom steering and PSC hydraulic assist is one-ton stuff with CTM U-joints and BFG KM2's clinging to the pavement. The Jeep's suspension is Rubicon Express long arm heavy duty stuff with RE shocks as well. Hanson bumpers provided a lot of rear end strength, in spite of the trailer dragging by the safety chain. And I'm convinced the Raceline Monster Beadlocks kept us from popping a tire off the bead during the pavement burning spin.

The Altop family of wheelers (Gerald Sr. and Jr. and Ron) was coming down the highway, returning from Trek and immediately pulled over to help get the trailer upright. They just happened to have a spare tow bar and proceeded to strip off my hitch bent parts and replaced them with their stuff. They even had a spare ball hitch but it was too small so we broke out the Ready Welder and they put a blob of weld inside the hitch to make it fit and viola we were on our way within about 45 minutes.

The Altop's (who are members of the Sacramento Jeepers of the Calif. Assoc. Of 4Wheel Drive Clubs) even took the time to pull over with us at the next freeway exit to check if everything was working okay with the "trail fix" that they did. I gotta say that the off-road community is really a great network of people that go over and beyond the call of duty to help a friend or acquaintance in need. Thanks again to all that stopped to help and make sure that we were okay.

Here are the lessons that were ingrained in my brain from this event. I don't pass these along lightly.

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Maintenance and Checking Your Gear: Although I had tightened everything with a pipe wrench after coming off the dirt, that didn't prevent an old worn bolt from shearing off. I recommend you always double check gear and anything that can kill you like trailers, brakes, tires, steering parts. And did you know that trailer balls have torque specifications. Check this out: http://www.hitchinfo.com/index.cfm?event=faq&topic=223&question=1752

Training and Driving Skills: I've taken my fair share of driving training, including skid pan driving, as well as off-road Safety Clinics. I can recommend that you consider something like Badlands Off Road Adventures and 4WD training (http://www.4x4training.com/), and the safety clinics put on by state associations like the California Association of 4Wheel Drive Clubs (http://www.cal4wheel.com).

Off-Road Family: Never take it for granted how special off-roaders are to each other. We are a family and I've seen it over and over. This episode was a clear reminder of a lot of things, and makes a person think about things like luck, life, and yea, divine assistance as there were a lot of variables in this incident that could have changed a lot of lives. The tow ball bounced down the freeway, harmlessly landing off to the side rather than becoming a hand-grenade through someone's windshield; the trailer could have busted out into traffic; the jeep could have flipped, rolled and bounced several times; and the trucker could have slammed into us sideways after we quit spinning; etc.

But none of that happened.

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Whew... so cheers everyone! Here's to another day of being a part of the off-road family.

MetalCloak Fender and Bumper Painting

The Red Rubi Build, An Updated Report

Fans of MetalCloak products have been part of an ongoing drum-beat heard around the world since we opened our doors early in 2009.

In fact, as early as Summer, 2009, we started hearing the first taps of what would become a unmistakable call... a call amongst latter day Wrangler owners everywhere... a call for the engineers at MetalCloak to apply the same meticulous design and creativity that is found on our Tube Fenders for the CJ, YJ, TJ, and LJ... to the new master of the trails, the JK.

Deadlines were considered, and deadlines were passed... the days turned into months and... okay enough of the drag out...

Release time is near...

Yes, the engineers have been working diligently these past few months on the MetalCloak Rock-Biting Body Armor system for the JK.

Starting with testing of our Red Rubi, which sits on 37" Good Year MTRs and no lift, to find where the rub points and what we can do to improve articulation...



Next we completely digitized the Red Rubi using a Romer CIM arm. While design is always possible without going to this extent, the precision fitment of MetalCloak products requires knowing most intricate details of the JK Body.



The end result is a detailed model that ensures each MetalCloak product will fit with the perfect precision you have come to expect from our products.



Ahhh... but you ask... "Where are the fenders?"

Not just yet. Release time is coming soon, but the design, for now, is under wraps.

But we promise, if you like our current products, you are going to love the JK Rock-Biting Body Armor.