Products Product Tests

Photo Credit: Mike Schlee and Thinkware

Portable tire compressors have become near-invaluable tools for car owners to keep in their vehicles. With countless options on the market, it can be extremely difficult to choose which to go with. Budgets, capacities, sizes, and more all impact the attractiveness of a compressor. Having owned and tested many other compressors in the past, we decided it was time to try one of the highest-rated compressors on Amazon, the EPAuto 12V DC Portable Air Compressor Pump with Digital Tire Inflator.

Technology has made an extreme improvement in the accessibility of diagnosing vehicular issues. Long gone are the days of timing lights and tearing apart carburetors (at least in the instance of modern vehicles), and now we live in the time of plugging a piece of metal and plastic into another piece of metal and plastic to learn everything happening with a vehicle. OBD2 scanners are a dime a dozen, and we recently tested the Carista EVO to see how it does. Can it stand out?

The home EV charger market has changed significantly since I took delivery of my first EV (Tesla Model 3) in 2018. Back then, buying a Tesla made it simple and straightforward when it came time to choosing a home EV charger because of its (at the time) proprietary plug. I did, however, shop around for J1772 chargers in the chance that in the future I decided I no longer wanted a Tesla. Back then, there weren't too many options to choose from, which is why I ended up getting a Tesla Wall Connector since I really didn't want to use an adapter.

For over 20 years, I've managed to wash and detail my own cars, whether for weekly maintenance or getting them ready for a show. In my early years, I bought any and all car care products I could afford from my local Pep Boys, which made me familiar with the different brands available on the market. This trend continued into my 20s and 30s, where I began to develop brand loyalty and learned what to look for when choosing a product. Initially, it was always exciting when something new hit the market, but over time, it became clear that many products were similar in performance and price.

The dark of winter brings with it inevitable boredom for spring-through-fall outdoors enthusiasts, and that includes anyone from off-roaders to radio-controlled hobbyists. And so, those of us who loathe the bitter cold find ourselves turning to indoor activities to stay entertained, in particular seeking out new ways to enjoy the automotive and radio-controlled (RC) hobbies from the comfort of a couch. Team Associated’s 1/28 scale SC28 and MT28 RC vehicles are our latest foray into finding the perfect indoor toy, but we’ve come away thoroughly unsatisfied.

WLtoys has seemingly come out of nowhere in the space of radio-controlled (RC) vehicles that the hobbyist community is excited about, and the company’s 1/28 scale 284131 Drift Truck is another example of one such genuinely interesting machine. This $69.99 proposition comes with four-wheel-drive (4WD), a claimed top speed of 30 KM/H (~19 MPH), and full LED lighting. Surely it has to be somewhat good for the money, right?

It’s been an unusually mild winter. We’re past halfway and in our region, there’s been hardly any snow to speak of. Although great for summer sunshine aficionados, it’s not so great when trying to accomplish a year-long, four season, all-weather tire test.

Radio-controlled vehicles come in all shapes and sizes, and the mini and micro class of rock crawler is one of the fastest-growing segments inside the hobby. Everything from 1/18 to 1/32 machines fit this class, with varying degrees of realism and performance. The FMS FCX24 Power Wagon might not be the most realistic machine, but some special goodies like a 2-speed gearbox and portal axles help it stand out. How does it fare in the real (scale) world?

Off-roading brings together vehicular and outdoor enthusiasts in a meshing of worlds perhaps unlike any other. And that scope is enormous: From races like the Baja 1000 to weekend warriors out with their friends and family, four-wheeling is absolute to those who partake. And so it extends to smaller scale hobbies, and radio-controlled rock crawling in particular. The scene isn’t new, but RC4WD’s C2X is a relative newcomer. Is it any good?

Fantastic Hardware, Promising App

When it comes to washing my car, I prefer using a pressure washer, but I'm well aware that isn't feasible for everybody. One of the main reasons why I enjoy using a pressure washer is because of the foam cannon, which blankets my car with a nice layer of soapy car wash. But if you aren't able to use a pressure washer with a foam cannon, the Foam Blaster 6 from Chemical Guys is a great alternative.

Keep Cool This Summer

The Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus 3 UHP is the Italian tire company’s latest entrant in the Ultra High Performance all-season tire category.

The latest entry in Pirelli’s Scorpion line of crossover and SUV tires is the Pirelli Scorpion All Season Plus 3.

A Value Tire for the Budget Enthusiast

In the world of portable power stations, the EcoFlow Delta Pro stands at the edge of where “portable” and “big” meet. It’s only portable because it comes with wheels and a telescoping handle like a piece of carry-on luggage, because even with two wrapped handles, you’re not slinging this nearly 100-pound box around casually. We have moved ours quite a bit, including bringing it to a Level 2 charger and literally out into a field, but unlike the smaller Jackery we recently reviewed (and EcoFlow’s own Delta 2, which we have in testing right now), tailgating isn’t what the Delta Pro is aimed at.

Over the past few years, our northern editors have tested tires from all the major brands, but it’s been quite a while since we ran a set of Michelin X-Ice snow tires (“X-Ice Snow” is the tire name). Industry-wide shortages meant Michelin wasn’t able to get them into our hands until mid-November, which is later than we like to put them on; but because of  a very mild fall in the East we didn’t have any early winter weather to contend with.

From bewildering new technology embraced by tech lovers and early adopters, electric vehicles are quickly entering the mainstream with nearly every auto manufacturer offering at least one – if not an entire range of EVs.  But the biggest limiting factor in EV acceptance is the lack of public charging infrastructure. Fortunately, unlike gas-propelled vehicle owners, EV folks have the ability to install their own home “refuelling” or charge stations. Though we refer to these devices as chargers, they’re more properly known as Electrical Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE), passing AC current to the vehicle where it’s then converted to DC by the onboard charger.

Jackey pioneered the modern lithium-ion portable battery power station back in 2015, launching an entire category of portable power that just didn’t exist before then. Now they’re everywhere, in sizes from convenient jump starters that double as high-powered phone chargers, up to 6.0kWh home backups that cost used car money.

We’ve been covering dash cams for several years, and we still find the market confusing. There are familiar name brands like Nextbase alongside fly-by-night companies that might disappear at any time; and nearly identical rebranded commodity products with just enough good reviews to make a brief appearance in searches. In fact, from updating our Buyer’s Guide for the last four years, we’d say that about 40% of the brands-you-never-heard-of last less than a year, which is not good news for anyone making a warranty claim or looking for customer service.

Unless you have some of those fancy and increasingly rare glass headlights, you will need a headlight restoration kit one day. As far as we know, 1997 was the last year any passenger vehicle in North America was sold with glass or sealed beam headlights, and plastic lenses have been mandated by both US and Canadian transportation agencies for decades. Plastic lenses have a lot of advantages besides the obvious one of not shattering on impact (or when a stone hits them): They let you replace ( or upgrade) just the bulb, and they’ve allowed designers to create complex shapes that not only look interesting (good or bad is in the eye of the beholder), but spread light better. And of course, they’re much lighter and less expensive, not that the cost savings gets reflected in an MSRP.

You’re feeling pumped as you drive to work, you’ve just finished a killer workout, and you beat your personal record for the bench press. Simultaneously you conceived the perfect close for the big presentation you’re making that morning. Life looks good.