The automotive industry has lots of great shows for manufactures to display their newest products, but if you?re in the world of rock crawling and Jeeps, this is the top show in the country. This show is going gangbusters as quickly as the sport of rock crawling. This year, there were even more vendors, and more people attending. So the folks that run the show decided to really set it off by bringing in loads and loads of rock and dropping it outside the buildings of the expo. Where there?s rock, there is always crawlers, and so it was not a surprise to see custom tube buggies showing off for the crowd! This is one of the first parts of the show you can see as you?re driven in by tram to the expo buildings from the parking lot.

Here you can see a portion of the rock pile outside the expo halls, complete with several buggies and jeeps that tackled the boulders 4 times a day!

Here you can see future crawlin? phenom Dave Cole in his nearly completed tube creation that uses a 100% Toyota drivetrain.

A personal favorite of mine, an Avalanche Karnivor was on hand to tackle the boulders.

Another highlight of the show was the booth Toyota displayed with their new FJ Cruiser! The booth had the new FJ cruiser and a classic weekend warrior FJ-40 on display. The new FJ will officially be released at the SEMA show, but the lucky folks of the Off Road Expo got a sneak peek! The new FJ will reportedly run, ?In the mid twenties.? Making it competitive with Jeep?s Commander, and Hummer?s H3. The motor is a 4.0 litter, 6 cylinder. The FJ looked to have IFS front and two real doors complimented by two suicide type door.

Will the new FJ be a backcountry cruiser like the FJ-40? Time will tell.

The new products for the jeeps and rock crawlers were absolutely everywhere. There were displays of bumpers, lifts, shocks, welders, air tanks, compressors, tires, wheels and so much more. Practically every booth had some new and hot product to show off. The expo was loaded with vendors and clubs selling tickets to their ?opportunity chance? or as I?d call it, a raffle. Everywhere you turned you could win anything from a winch over at the Quadratec booth to a full blown and tricked out Unlimited from Cal 4 Wheel.

This show keeps getting better each year, and I can?t wait till the 2006 Off Road Expo. I?ll give a sample of the most innovative new products my camera spotted, but realize, you need to check out the gallery to see them all!

How much would you pay for a Jeep TJ Unlimited fully tricked out? You could win it for a little as two bucks! The California Association of 4 Wheel Drive Clubs is going to give this beast away on February 11th 2006.

King shocks was showing these direct replacement shocks for Jeeps!

Alloy USA is going to produce these stylish steering stabilizers for Wranglers and Cherokees with the factory steering and I was told they plan to release new 5.13:1 ratio gears for Rubicon models with the factory lockers.

Matt Carricaburu and the highly skilled owner of Tube Works stand by their latest project truck. Tube Works creates some of the highest quality fully custom axle housings in the business for any off road application.

Hanson Enterprise, makers of high quality bumpers and rockers for Wranglers has ventured into the Cherokee world with a nice functional bumper and rocker guard.

The new Warn Tabor 9k has the Warn reliability and a low cost for the 4 wheeler that may only need a winch a few times a year.

The new Maxxis Trepador tire. Shown is the bias-ply model, but a radial is to be released shortly!

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