Man, times are tough aren’t they? Here comes summer, just begging you to come out and play, and gas prices are through the roof! So what is a poor soul to do, give up wheeling and take up knitting? Now that’s a pretty scary thought.

Well fear not my fellow rockaholics. Thanks to the twisted imagination of SCORE Class 10 desert racer and Toy Zone, Inc COO/VP toy guru Jeff Cepielik, now you can get your wheeling fix pretty much anywhere for less than ten bucks. And when we say anywhere, we really do mean anywhere. In fact, as I sit here writing this article one of Jeff’s Xtreme Rock Machines is busy rearranging pretty much everything on my desk.

We first ogled the Xtreme Rock Machines while perusing our local 4Wheel Parts showroom. When the guy behind the counter told us that they cost less than 10 bucks, we were all over one like a free CJ-6.

We chose the rockbuggy style body since it’s probably the only buggy we’ll ever own, but Toy Zone, Inc.’s pocket crawlers are also available in several body styles, including Jeep and Hummer look-a-likes to boot.

The chassis and body of each Xtreme Rock Machine is constructed of 100% die cast metal suspended by working coilover shocks. Long control arms direct the die cast axle housings and a pair of belts sends keyboard crawling torque from the twin ‘AAA’ battery powered motor through a main gear to pinion gears housed in each axle. Soft and sticky B.F.Goodrich Krawler T/A’s mounted on ‘beadlock’ wheels provide ample rock grabbing traction.

Jeff borrowed styling queues like the front and rear stinger bumpers straight from the rigs he saw at a Cougar Butte rock comp and then added a set of roof mounted lights and even a spare (cuz he’s a desert racer and couldn’t help himself.)

Just to make sure that you had a place to wheel the rig out of the box, Jeff threw in a very cool rubberized rock garden. Of course wheeling (even on rubber rocks) means stuck and broke, so you’ll find a snatch strap, extra belts and even a wrench/screwdriver tool to take everything apart included too.

Of course it didn’t take very long for us to start dreaming of ways to improve on Jeff’s design, so off we go! Stay tuned to the next issue of C4x4 when we show you all of the trick mods we’ve come up with so far.

Xtreme Rock Machines are available at:
4 Wheel Parts Wholesalers
Wal-Mart
K-Mart
Toy stores and off-road shops everywhere.

Want to get started on your own modifications? Check out this forum: www. xtremerockmachines.com