As I’m packing my gear to head to the East Coast Large Cars.Com truck show in New Jersey this weekend it struck me to remind all of you about our GearWrench Tool giveaway contest.

We’ll be choosing four winners this coming Monday for inclusion in our August (Summer) issue and sending out the tool sets. We’ll do the same for our Winter and Spring (2011) issues.

So if you haven’t uploaded a photo of your rig to the Reader’s Rigs Gallery along with sending us a little note as to why you could use some cool new tools from GearWrench, better get on the stick. We’ve had good response so far–but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be in the mix.

We’re looking for both good-looking trucks–and creative writing skills. Spin us a tale about why you could use one of the GearWrench tool sets. Be creative if you want. After all, this is a magazine and we’re used to making topics fun to read. So now it’s your turn. Make us laugh. Make us cry. Make us pull up the BS chest waders.

If you entered your truck into the Reader Gallery before the contest began, send us your tool tale and send us another photo of your truck–or tell us the name of it so we can go into the gallery and locate the photo. Hey! We want every reader to have a chance to win tools….

Now I’ve got to figure out what to put in my suitcase and head to the airport. See you at the Jersey state fairgrounds?

I thought giving about $1,500 worth of handtools away would be easy with a lot of you wanting some freebies just for sending in a photo of your truck and a tale about why YOU need to win.

But so far there’s not been much in the way of entries.  So, those of you who have entered the contest have very good odds of winning–unless some of your trucking friends get on the proverbial bandwagon.

We’re about two weeks away from our first Reader’s Rigs tool giveaway and it’s easy to enter:

Just submit a picture of your truck into our Truck gallery AND a short essay why you could use some new GearWrench handtools. It couldn’t be easier.

The  four August issue winners will have their truck shown in the Readers Rigs section of the magazine along with receiving tools. The questions is, will I see your truck and read the tall tale about your tool needs–or will it be someone else?

I’m working hard to keep a fresh supply of tech questions for use in the magazine and need your help to get those questions. So, I’ve decided to add a little incentive to the mix.

What I’m going to do for the rest of the year is send out a half-dozen Pride & Polish T-shirts to those of you who send me the best tech questions each month.

The questions can be about anything in your truck from engine related to audio systems, suspension to interior, custom or stock. If you’ve got a tech question,  send it to me along with your name, shipping address, and T-shirt size. If the question is picked for use in the magazine, or the Insider (our digital only supplement) I’ll send you a shirt.

Now how’s that for editorial bribery?!

I have been a magazine journalist for nearly three decades, which is a long time. But the years I’ve spent working in the magazine business have flown by so fast it makes my head swim thinking of how many cool things my job over the years has allowed me to do.  I’ve travelled around the world and have had the opportunity to participate in a  long, long list of adventures most people just dream about.

In fact, when people ask me what I do, my typical reply is “I’m a magazine writer/photographer; I get paid to do my hobbies.”

But one of the most exciting things for me as a magazine guy is when the opportunity arises to help start a new magazine, much like happened here with Custom Rigs. Few things get my creative juices flowing more than being part of a team that formulate and designs the content and look of a new magazine. What you are doing is literally breathing life into a new medium for people like yourselves to read and enjoy.

Such is is with the “birth” of ProPickup, the sister publication of Custom Rigs.

Although it’s a Randall-Reilly magazine, it hails from our Construction Media division, which occupies the lower floors of the building I work in. Custom Rigs, on the other hand, is part of the Trucking Media group.

So in a way, I’m now working for two completely different divisions under the same roof.I love it!

The common denominator is customizing and making whatever we drive better for the work we do and for our personal enjoyment. Custom Rig readers take pride in their ride–and so do those who drive pickups every day in their jobs at the very job istes many of you frequent with your big rigs.

So, if you get a chance, check out the ProPickup web site–and let us proud “parents” know what you think of our new kid!

Being in the magazine biz is just like the trucking biz: If you slack off even for a moment the bills don’t get paid and your competitors get the upper hand. Not going to happen around here. Its pedal to the metal!

As we roll into 2010, leaving ‘09 in our mirrors, the editorial road ahead looks really good.

I’m sitting here working on the final version of our March issue, which is the first of the year for us. You’re going to find some great articles and some really cool custom rigs in the pages, plus coverage of several  events that closed out last season’s truck show circuit.  Of course, we’ve got how-to articles and a lot of new products for 2010 mentioned as well. Be on the lookout for the new issue–or subscribe so you don’t miss it.

While you’re waiting for the printed version of Custom Rigs, did you know we’re continually updating the content on the web site? New features, news, how-to, videos, and other items most of you will find entertaining or helpful are being added every week.

Always check out the “Community” section as that’s where our tech forums and and news pages are located. New Products is updated several times a week as well.

You’ll find it helpful to take a few extra minutes once a week to browse through the menu tabs across the top of the Home page–then check out the drop-down sections; oft times we’ll have new articles in there that may not be mentioned on the Home page!

The constant updating of our web site  is part of our quest to keep Custom Rigs the go-to website (and magazine) when it comes to anything related to truckers who take pride in their ride!

Rolling Into 2010

It seems the older I get the faster a year goes by. I’m sitting here in my office looking at a 2010 Custom Rigs wall calendar (right) and wonder where in the world 2009 went. I’m glad it did, though; the economy the way it was and the jobs lost across the country made the year pretty depressing as I’m sure it was, and may still be, for a lot of you.

But as Mike Reilly, the president of our company says, “God put our eyes in front of our heads so we wouldn’t be looking behind us and constantly dwelling on the past. What’s in the past is past. Learn from it. But focus on looking ahead and moving forward. That’s what makes winners.” Good advice to start 2010.

Speaking of 2010 and looking ahead, here’re just a few things to be looking forward to in Custom Rigs’ pages: More feature working-class rigs; expanded coverage of our Pride & Polish events; and more how-to articles.Your input says to keep the magazine as is, so we are.

Custom Rigs web site is going to be expanded with a lot more content as well as we strive to make it chock full of great articles and information.

Our goal is to have coverage of every truck show across the country. To do so requires you guys to supply us with photos and the information from events our staff can’t attend. So snap away and send us a little story about the events you attend!

Another change is the addition of monthly “buyer’s guides.” These articles will be aimed at specific type of products of interest to owners and builders of custom big rigs from bumpers and visors to seats and sound systems to paint and chrome products. We’ll tell you what to look for when buying and provide a showcase of what’s new. We hope you like the information and the way it’s presented.

We’re also going to be calling select truckers who submit their rigs into our Reader’s Rigs gallery. Those calls will result in short feature stories about the truck and it’s owner.

We hope you enjoy these added articles. 2010 is going to be a great year!

In our Fall ‘09 issue Lucinda Coulter, managing editor of our sister magazine, Overdrive,  did a nice article on a Frenchman who builds replica scale models of all types of big-rigs as a hobby. His favorite trucks are American custom rigs.

The twist is Christian Chapson is literally an ocean away from our custom rigs. You see, he lives in Vierzon, France–and builds the models from scratch out of a tiny shop at his home.  His replicas are not plastic kits, but rather hand-carved, sculpted, cut, fabricated and painted much like the rigs themselves.

Well, Christian gets our magazine and has started building some of the custom rigs he sees in our pages.  As he said in his latest e-mail, “I search some pictures near the name of the owner which are marked on the battery tray has trucks Kanady Matt and Dale Blevins for her realize my model,” says Christian. “I have other models in preparation as black Pete at SRS and Vinie Diovio of the ACW and Kenworth.”

Christian has told us he plans on coming stateside in 2010 to attend a truck show here and see his models in real life.

I thought you’d like to see what custom rigs have rolled out of this avid fan’s work bench in the past year. You’ll be amazed–and if your truck is one he’s done, feel very, very honored.

Check these beauties out:

Get your copy while they last!

If you are a subscriber to Custom Rigs, then you’ve probably already read our Winter issue from cover to cover. My copy arrived yesterday.

Those of you who aren’t subscribers better hoof it down to your local Petros or one of our Preferred Partner chrome shops who carry Custom Rigs because we only print a limited number of issues and those go really fast.

Here is a sampling of articles you’ll find in this issue to wet your reading appetite:

Drop Air-Suspension upgrade installation to make you custom rig’s front slam setup respond faster, give your truck a better-than-factory ride, and improve its overall handling; shots of 30 different interiors to get your mind buzzing with ideas to make your truck’s cab special; how-to articles on installing diamond plate floor,a sick no-bolt front bumper, and strapless air tanks; stories on both Dallas and Las Vegas Pride & Polish.

Oh, we’ve also included the usual round of articles on custom rigs from around the country, tech Q&A  gleaned from e-mails and our  Pro Tips forum,  and a close look at some of the best custom rigs in the country.

Let me know what you think of the issue. Your feedback, be it good or bad, is what helps us make it better.

Cheers!

Bruce Smith

Editor

bsmith@rrpub.com

Aim high, shoot big

Larger images better your chance of getting in the magazine pages

We get a number of truck owners submitting their rig’s photos into our Reader Gallery every week. At the end of each month we look at each entry so we can choose a few to show in the pages of our parent magazine,  Overdrive,  and Custom Rigs.

Now, here’s a little secret to making the first cut on the road to fame and glory: Picture quality.Just about any photo looks fine when it’s put on the web. But, unfortunately, when a picture is shown in a magazine it has to be of a minimum size and “quality” to be reproduced on the printed page.

Most of our cell phone  cameras are designed just for capturing images for web use. So when readers submit a cool photo of their truck taken with a cell phone, it’d be about the size of a postage stamp (literally) when converted for magazine use.

Most of the digital cameras are also set from the factory for making perfect web-size images. The good news is most also have a way to select a higher quality image, which allows the camera to save a whole lot more information and, thus, allow the picture to be enlarged to a much greater degree and stay sharp.

If your digital camera has a picture-quality setting, move it to the highest available. That’s the setting you want anytime you are going to submit photos to a magazine, newspaper, or just to make enlargements for your own use.

Making just that one little change in your camera makes a huge difference in overall picture quality in a magazine or printed out at a Wal-Mart kiosk.

The image file size is going to be about four times bigger than a web-sized one because of a thing called pixels-per-inch, or PPI.  Web images are typically 72ppi while print images are 300ppi.

The  upside is when you submit the bigger image to our Reader Gallery  it’s going to  immediately catch the eyes of those on the other end  who pick and choose which rigs make the first cut to get into the pages of Overdrive and Custom Rigs.

So get out there and start shooting big. I want to see your rigs–and I really want to see them in the magazine!

Custom Rigs’ Summer (May) issue was a stellar success! It disappeared off chrome shop and truck stop racks in nothing flat.  There may be a few left if you hunt around.

The issue is loaded from cover-to-cover with custom rigs from the Louisville Pride & Polish, how-to articles, a special seat buyer’s guide, and a lot more.

If you want to see a digital version, click HERE>>>

(By the way, our last issue sold out in nothing flat. So don’t delay tracking down this one. Of course, subscribers get them first!)