Technical
High-Beam Upgrade
- April 05, 2010
Maximizing nighttime visibility with retro-style clear headlights fitted with high-output bulbs is a win-win situation; the brighter beams enhance safety, allowing you more time to react to what lie ahead, while the retro-style crystal headlights enhance the overall look of your truck. But don't forget to put in the right relay or all you'll see is blackness...
DIY: Custom Speaker Box
- March 01, 2010
Do- It-Yourself WOOFER POWER Fabricating a ported subwoofer enclosure for maximum bass with minimum cost By Cesar Alvarez (Photos by Bruce W. Smith) One of the attributes of a pro-level sound system is its ability to produce crisp, clean notes with the power to seemingly shake the earth. Such acoustic energy is a product not of the speakers or the amps powering them, but rather the speaker enclosures and how they are tuned for the vehicle in which they are mounted. This is especially true of a ...
KW Door Window Visor How-To
- November 09, 2009
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Do-It-Yourself Custom KW Door Window Trim Give your Kenworth’s cab the chopped look by adding upper window trim panels A popular customizing trend among KW owners is adding a painted trim piece to the top of the door window frame to give the cab a chopped look. The trim fits along the door lip at the top of window without interrupting the window operation and there are a number of aftermarket stainless offerings available. (Prices range from $90-$120 pair.) But if you are ...
Pro Tip: Chasing down audio noise
- July 09, 2009
Killing off the sounds you don't want to hear coming from your custom rig's stereo system By Grizz Archer Hums, whines, buzzes, crackles, pops and other unexpected noises blasting out your rig's speakers not only ruins tunes, they are really frustrating when you can't figure out how they happen in the first place. Anyone who has a good audio system wants clean, vibrant sound. Unexplained background noises ruin the day. So, let's go noise hunting and kill off the little culprits responsible for ...
Fine-Tuning Stereos
- July 07, 2009
GETTING A GRIP ON GAIN The secret to adjusting any sound system's performance is in the fine-tuning By Grizz Archer You've just dropped a couple Gs on a new sound system for your custom rig and want to show off. But it's not quite loud enough. Easy fix. Crank up the gain. Wrong. Contrary to popular belief, the gain (input sensitivity) adjuster on the amp is not a volume control, even though you may think it works like one. Don't feel alone: Very few ...
Upholstery Cleaning Tips
- July 07, 2009
By John Baxter Let's face facts: An older tractor that's clean and sharp on the interior always seems a lot newer and more inviting than one that's dirty and ragged. That look and feel is magnified in a customized rig where one's eyes tend to focus on the seats before anything else in the cab. While full-on Limited Mileage show trucks may have the luxury of low annual miles and owners who think nothing of re-working the interior before every major show, ...
INSIDE AUDIO AMPS
- June 04, 2009
POWER AMP ANATOMY Dissecting the Modern Audio Power Amplifier and Power Supply By Robert Zeff With the proliferation of different audio amp types it’s become difficult to figure out which one is best for your application. In the past audiopholes had essentially two types of amplifiers to choose from: Class "AB" and class "A". Today we have AB, A, D, G, H, & T, in addition to some that do not have a class name. New technology brought down the size and ...
BANK ON BETTER MPG
- May 22, 2009
One aftermarket diesel-engine performance-parts manufacturer is blazing a new road toward more reliable big-rig fuel-economy testing standards. Read how they plan on providing accurate mpg numbers...
HOW-TO: Diamond-Plate Floor
- May 06, 2009
Installing aluminum diamond-plate flooring brightens up the cab of any custom rig By Bruce W. Smith Ten years and a million miles do a wear-and-tear number on just about anything in a working rig. Just look down by your feet. The floor covering, which was once pristine, probably looks as if half those miles were driven over it. Even if you're diligent keeping the cab floor clean, years of exposure to extreme temperatures and climate conditions take their toll, as does moisture from ...
Technical / Technology Customized Trucks Stories
Sometimes we’re able to focus the coverage on a technical topic, or a specific concept that’s related to the technology of a customized truck. Check out the articles we’ve posted here for you to review, and if you really want to full scoop on some awesome tech articles you might give some thought to a subscription to Custom Rigs Magazine where for only $19.95 for a 1 year subscription you get 4 full issues. If you want to get 2 years at a deal, it’s only $29.95 for 8 full issues AND a FREE CustomRigs t-shirt!