Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / April Overland News: The Lexus GX, Ford Ranger, Ducati DesertX Rally, and More
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your
- 0:03Speaker 1: host Scott Brady, and I'm joined today by my co
- 0:06Speaker 1: host Brian mcvicars. Now for our April Overland News, we
- 0:11Speaker 1: go into some detail on the new Lexus GX five
- 0:16Speaker 1: point fifty, which is an incredibly exciting new model. We
- 0:20Speaker 1: also talk about the Forward Ranger in the XLT variant
- 0:25Speaker 1: with the FX four package, and also the new Ranger Raptor.
- 0:30Speaker 1: We also spend some time talking about a new motorcycle
- 0:33Speaker 1: from Dukati.
- 0:35Speaker 2: It is the.
- 0:36Speaker 1: Dukati Desert X Rally, which is one of the most
- 0:39Speaker 1: incredible adventure motorcycles I've ever tested, and we spent some
- 0:43Speaker 1: quality time with that in the Atlas Mountains and deserts
- 0:47Speaker 1: of Morocco. Some additional conversation goes into new product from
- 0:52Speaker 1: easy On and some other new product coming on to
- 0:54Speaker 1: the marketplace. So please enjoy our April Overland News with
- 0:59Speaker 1: Brian mcvickers and a special thanks to kuat Racks for
- 1:03Speaker 1: their support of this week's podcast. Their new ibex has landed.
- 1:08Speaker 1: In fact, it's overlanded. This groundbreaking bedrack effortlessly handles substantial
- 1:12Speaker 1: loads both on and off the grid. It's constructed from
- 1:16Speaker 1: lightweight yet durable aluminum, and it boasts a ballistic black
- 1:20Speaker 1: powder coating that's made for all the nature you can
- 1:23Speaker 1: throw at it. It's available in seven different frame sizes,
- 1:27Speaker 1: including the Gladiator now to accommodate most truck models, and
- 1:30Speaker 1: it's equipped with telescoping crossbars, numerous t channels, and a
- 1:35Speaker 1: versatile full and half height configuration. It's the Ibex from Kuwat,
- 1:40Speaker 1: which they now have available the new Ibex Panel kit.
- 1:44Speaker 1: These panels easily mount to your existing IBEX frame and
- 1:47Speaker 1: they help to protect your gear from the elements. Plus
- 1:51Speaker 1: they're fully locking, offering security while still allowing quick access
- 1:55Speaker 1: to the bed when you need it. It's going to
- 1:57Speaker 1: be available later this summer, so visit kuwat dot com
- 2:02Speaker 1: for more information. Thanks again, Kuwat. All right, Brian Scott Brady,
- 2:06Speaker 1: what's going on man? It is good to be back,
- 2:09Speaker 1: and Prescott, it's good to be sitting across from my buddy.
- 2:13Speaker 2: You needly got lost in Africa.
- 2:16Speaker 1: I got lost a few times. So there's so many stories.
- 2:19Speaker 1: Yes there is, there is. And this is actually my
- 2:22Speaker 1: first podcast since returning to the US a little bit ago,
- 2:28Speaker 1: and we were able to successfully complete the crossing of
- 2:32Speaker 1: Africa and we ended at the Gulf of Aiden, about
- 2:35Speaker 1: thirty kilometers away from the shores of Yemen.
- 2:39Speaker 2: What was the total distance of the trip.
- 2:43Speaker 1: I would say probably drove around twenty one to twenty
- 2:48Speaker 1: two thousand kilometers.
- 2:49Speaker 2: Okay, I was going to ask what was a total
- 2:52Speaker 2: duration of the trip, but that's a little hard to
- 2:56Speaker 2: answer because there were so many ups and downs and
- 2:58Speaker 2: so many there were a lot of challenges. Yeah, a
- 3:02Speaker 2: lot of.
- 3:02Speaker 1: Just bureaucratic challenges, particularly getting into Ethiopia that took some time,
- 3:08Speaker 1: and then you know, the last border didn't want to
- 3:11Speaker 1: quite let us go, so we were actually detained detained
- 3:14Speaker 1: at the Ethiopia Djibouti border for three days. And we'll
- 3:17Speaker 1: talk about that on a future podcast. But it was
- 3:20Speaker 1: an incredible journey. I'm just I'm so humbled by the
- 3:24Speaker 1: experience and by the incredible people of Africa and the
- 3:28Speaker 1: people that I was able to travel with, from Joe
- 3:30Speaker 1: in the first segment, to Tavia in the second segment,
- 3:34Speaker 1: and then Brian Bass for this last segment. And what
- 3:38Speaker 1: was interesting to me was when Brian Bass and I
- 3:42Speaker 1: drove up to the ocean and completed the crossing. There
- 3:47Speaker 1: wasn't a single light on the dash. The Grenadier had
- 3:52Speaker 1: never had a failure in the entire trip, which given
- 3:57Speaker 1: the fact that it's production unit number three hundred and
- 4:00Speaker 1: seventy two.
- 4:01Speaker 2: I was about to ask if it was I couldn't remember.
- 4:03Speaker 2: It was a pre production.
- 4:04Speaker 1: It's not pre production, it's not well, there's probably a
- 4:07Speaker 1: little bit of both, but it's considered production. It's a
- 4:11Speaker 1: production vehicle, but it would have been essentially very very
- 4:17Speaker 1: early on in that process. So it was actually one
- 4:21Speaker 1: of the media vehicles from the media launch. So this
- 4:23Speaker 1: is a very very early car.
- 4:25Speaker 2: It's been through a lot already.
- 4:27Speaker 1: It has and actually towards the end, I'm normally very
- 4:32Speaker 1: very careful with vehicles because i'm but in this case,
- 4:35Speaker 1: we were really trying to test this thing. So I started.
- 4:38Speaker 1: I was never abusive to it, but I stopped saying
- 4:42Speaker 1: no to a route or or I just went I
- 4:45Speaker 1: just like, let's go check this out and let's go
- 4:48Speaker 1: drive this thousand kilometers of corrugation just to see because
- 4:53Speaker 1: it just kept not having an issue, and I was
- 4:56Speaker 1: expecting so early that there would be something that would
- 4:58Speaker 1: come up, and to actually after six months of travel
- 5:03Speaker 1: and you know, I don't know how many countries, but
- 5:07Speaker 1: I'm have to calculate that out. But you know, a
- 5:09Speaker 1: lot of countries, a lot of a lot of miles
- 5:12Speaker 1: of dirt, a lot of miles of really really bad roads.
- 5:16Speaker 1: To end up at the other end of it without
- 5:19Speaker 1: a single failure, I think is really promising. I'm certainly
- 5:22Speaker 1: excited by the prospects of the brand.
- 5:25Speaker 2: So so I know we're going to hear at a
- 5:27Speaker 2: later date, we're going to hear more about Yeah, we'll
- 5:29Speaker 2: do the full tirety of the trip, but out of
- 5:32Speaker 2: all the big expeditions that you've led and been a
- 5:36Speaker 2: part of, not necessarily from the driving standpoint, I know
- 5:40Speaker 2: that there's a few expeditions and trips that you've done
- 5:43Speaker 2: that you know you're building roads onto max tracks that
- 5:46Speaker 2: type of thing, right, But from a from an overall
- 5:49Speaker 2: difficulty standpoint, not difficulty like maybe from the adventurous side
- 5:56Speaker 2: of difficulty, Where would this Africa trip rank in everything
- 6:02Speaker 2: that you did with Expedition seven, all the other continentsy
- 6:05Speaker 2: you've crossed.
- 6:06Speaker 1: Yeah, it was curious because the bureaucracy that we encountered
- 6:11Speaker 1: around getting the vehicle into certain countries was certainly the
- 6:17Speaker 1: most challenging that we've ever encountered, and some of it
- 6:20Speaker 1: is the fact that this car has never been to
- 6:22Speaker 1: these countries before, so it's not even in this sim system.
- 6:25Speaker 1: So it causes this moment of the official going what's
- 6:30Speaker 1: going on here? It's like gets out of the norm,
- 6:33Speaker 1: which is what I primarily believe happened in Djibouti.
- 6:37Speaker 2: So when they look in their book and they see
- 6:39Speaker 2: Lankers or seventy series, but they don't see Anyos Grenady.
- 6:42Speaker 1: There is no anious Grenadier. In fact, when I was
- 6:45Speaker 1: in when I went into Mozambique, they had to like
- 6:48Speaker 1: input it into the system, so they had never been
- 6:52Speaker 1: in the system before. Now Mozambique was very accommodating because
- 6:56Speaker 1: they're used to tourists, but a country like Djibouti is
- 6:59Speaker 1: not used to getting tourists arriving overland. So it just
- 7:04Speaker 1: it just made the official.
- 7:07Speaker 2: Do you think that was because the Ineos Grenadier is
- 7:10Speaker 2: so new to the market, or do you think it
- 7:12Speaker 2: could happen if you showed up in a four and
- 7:15Speaker 2: two fifty or an earth Cruiser.
- 7:18Speaker 1: Yeah, something like that potentially. I mean the advantage of
- 7:21Speaker 1: the earth Cruiser would be that most of them are
- 7:23Speaker 1: built on a Fuso chassis, which would be in their systems.
- 7:28Speaker 1: But if you were to arrive in something obscure like
- 7:33Speaker 1: an Alfa Romeo Stelvio or whatever like something like that,
- 7:37Speaker 1: where it's just not even in the system, and not
- 7:40Speaker 1: only was the model not in the system, the manufacturer
- 7:43Speaker 1: isn't even in the system, so and.
- 7:46Speaker 2: It raises a lot of red flags.
- 7:48Speaker 1: Correct, but that will get resolved with time, so they'll
- 7:52Speaker 1: be eventually there'll be a second Grenadier, and Ethiopia there'll
- 7:55Speaker 1: be a second Grenadier in Djibouti, and it'll already be
- 7:59Speaker 1: in the system, and I'm I think a lot of
- 8:00Speaker 1: it will have been resolved. But that was also part
- 8:04Speaker 1: of the fund for me, was the challenge of getting
- 8:07Speaker 1: this brand new vehicle through a continent.
- 8:11Speaker 2: So it was less of a test of equipment but
- 8:13Speaker 2: more of a test of patients.
- 8:16Speaker 1: Although the vehicle tests were because again I started to
- 8:21Speaker 1: really push the vehicle more so than I would normally
- 8:24Speaker 1: do on a trip where I was looking for the
- 8:27Speaker 1: most difficult routes and gaining confidence correct, and I really
- 8:31Speaker 1: wanted to push it. So I wanted our conclusions to
- 8:34Speaker 1: reflect a lot of really abusive conditions, so like the
- 8:39Speaker 1: deep mud, we were in the thousands and thousands of
- 8:42Speaker 1: kilometers of corrugations. All of those things are very trying
- 8:47Speaker 1: on a vehicle, particularly on a new vehicle. So it
- 8:49Speaker 1: does show that kind of well of experience that is
- 8:54Speaker 1: available in Graz, who they not only designed the g Wagon,
- 8:58Speaker 1: but they also design the Grenadier, so a deep well
- 9:02Speaker 1: of knowledge around making durable vehicles, because it's very hard
- 9:07Speaker 1: to get that right right out of the gate like
- 9:09Speaker 1: they did. So, I mean, we'll do a full podcast
- 9:13Speaker 1: on our experience with the Grenadier, the pros and the
- 9:15Speaker 1: cons the things that we encountered that were great and
- 9:17Speaker 1: things that weren't so great. But it was just impressive
- 9:20Speaker 1: to arrive, you know, six months later, twenty something thousand
- 9:25Speaker 1: kilometers just in Africa, twenty five and some change total
- 9:29Speaker 1: on the vehicle twenty six maybe even thousand kilometers on
- 9:31Speaker 1: the vehicle, and then we're now shipping it from Djibouti.
- 9:37Speaker 1: It's got to go completely around the Horn of Africa
- 9:40Speaker 1: back up to the to the Atlantic.
- 9:43Speaker 2: Because thanks to the pirates and terrorists.
- 9:45Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, So there the houthy rebels that are
- 9:47Speaker 1: just right across the way, are actively firing missiles and
- 9:52Speaker 1: drones at chips depending on how they're flagged. But they're
- 9:56Speaker 1: even getting that wrong sometimes, so they're they're choosing to
- 10:01Speaker 1: send most of the freight all the way.
- 10:03Speaker 2: Around, which is going to add it adds nearly thirty
- 10:06Speaker 2: days to shipping.
- 10:07Speaker 1: Probably about twenty five twenty six days, so a lot
- 10:10Speaker 1: of time to shipping. So it's got to go all
- 10:12Speaker 1: the way around, then back into the Mediterranean and then
- 10:15Speaker 1: arrive in Greece, and then we're going to drive it
- 10:19Speaker 1: through Greece the eastern side of the Adriatic, so Macedonia
- 10:24Speaker 1: Albania trip.
- 10:26Speaker 2: If you could have ridden along on the ship.
- 10:28Speaker 1: Yeah, that would have been that would have been That
- 10:29Speaker 1: would have been amazing for sure.
- 10:33Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 10:33Speaker 1: So we're excited about the next segment. But well, we've
- 10:36Speaker 1: got a series of videos and we've also got a
- 10:39Speaker 1: series of podcasts coming out on the trip itself. And
- 10:43Speaker 1: for those that are listening, we also want to apologize
- 10:45Speaker 1: we missed a podcast in there due to some challenges
- 10:49Speaker 1: with just connectivity in Africa. So we thank you all
- 10:53Speaker 1: for your patients. As we try not to miss more
- 10:56Speaker 1: than about one or two podcasts a year, so we're
- 10:58Speaker 1: still on that on that track, but we don't like
- 11:00Speaker 1: to miss any at all, but we did miss one,
- 11:03Speaker 1: So thank you all for sticking with us as we
- 11:06Speaker 1: had some challenges getting those things into production. But we're
- 11:09Speaker 1: back in the swing. So it's not a reflection on
- 11:12Speaker 1: Paula at all. It's entirely a reflection on me for
- 11:16Speaker 1: not getting that stuff up.
- 11:17Speaker 2: So quick question on connectivity during the trip. During your
- 11:21Speaker 2: route through Africa is was the starlink that you had
- 11:26Speaker 2: with you ever? Were you ever in a place where
- 11:29Speaker 2: you couldn't use it due to laws or yes?
- 11:34Speaker 1: Yes, and I didn't And for that reason, I didn't
- 11:37Speaker 1: bring it into Ethiopia or into JR Booty where they
- 11:40Speaker 1: are not.
- 11:40Speaker 2: Well, you didn't even have it with you.
- 11:41Speaker 1: I did not, okay, And I also didn't bring and
- 11:45Speaker 1: I had it with me, and at the last minute
- 11:47Speaker 1: I chose to not bring in the iridium that I
- 11:51Speaker 1: had as well, which is an Iridium Go Executive, which
- 11:54Speaker 1: is a very suitable connectivity tool for this kind of travel.
- 11:59Speaker 1: It's much smaller than a starlink and it doesn't have
- 12:05Speaker 1: it doesn't have a lot of the vulnerabilities that starlink does.
- 12:09Speaker 1: At the moment because Starlink is being used in so
- 12:12Speaker 1: many different theaters of operation that it's under constant attack,
- 12:17Speaker 1: whereas the Iridium network is very lockdown. It is very
- 12:21Speaker 1: commercial in nature. It's also very like NGEO government in nature,
- 12:28Speaker 1: so it's very robust around uptime.
- 12:31Speaker 2: And is that the same with drones? Did you have
- 12:34Speaker 2: any drones?
- 12:34Speaker 1: Yeah, I could not bring You cannot bring a drone
- 12:37Speaker 1: into Ethiopia. I did not even look to see if
- 12:40Speaker 1: you could bring a drone into Djibouti because.
- 12:42Speaker 2: It's all regarded even the communications tools are regarded as
- 12:45Speaker 2: military equipment.
- 12:46Speaker 1: That's correct, They're generally viewed as military equipment. But then
- 12:50Speaker 1: the secondary issue is that you know, I was traveling
- 12:55Speaker 1: through these places as a traveler.
- 12:58Speaker 2: I'm not a.
- 13:01Speaker 1: Like a traditional news style journalist, sure, but you'd never
- 13:06Speaker 1: want to give them the impression that you are there
- 13:09Speaker 1: to document some of the conflicts that are happening in
- 13:13Speaker 1: northern Ethiopia or in certain areas of Djibouti. You're not
- 13:19Speaker 1: allowed to be there as a journalist under those auspices.
- 13:24Speaker 1: So it was just really important to me that I
- 13:28Speaker 1: didn't even give the impression that I was there under
- 13:30Speaker 1: those conditions. I was there as a tourist and certainly
- 13:33Speaker 1: will be covering it in content as a tourist, but
- 13:36Speaker 1: which is permitted. But you don't want to give them
- 13:38Speaker 1: any reason to believe that you're there too, because you
- 13:43Speaker 1: want you have some political agenda.
- 13:45Speaker 2: Well, it's just it's going to be really interesting how
- 13:48Speaker 2: the advancement of this technology in use by overlanders who
- 13:54Speaker 2: are out exploring the world, and they're not going to
- 13:58Speaker 2: have the luxury of saying, well, we're gonna we're gonna
- 14:01Speaker 2: stash it at this one country and then get it
- 14:03Speaker 2: pick it up the next country. It's just kind of
- 14:05Speaker 2: it's in the vehicle. How do you deal with that?
- 14:07Speaker 2: And it's just going to get more and more.
- 14:09Speaker 1: Most of them are well, most of them are lucky
- 14:12Speaker 1: at the moment because they people don't really know what
- 14:14Speaker 1: it is. So like we were never asked about the
- 14:18Speaker 1: starlink when we had it on the vehicle for Tanzania
- 14:22Speaker 1: and for Kenya, okay, And I mean they didn't even
- 14:26Speaker 1: know that it was there because it was up on
- 14:28Speaker 1: the top of the vehicle and it it didn't look
- 14:31Speaker 1: it doesn't look like an antenna up on like a yeah, raw,
- 14:34Speaker 1: it's flat mounted to the vehicle because of that unique
- 14:38Speaker 1: componentry conversion, so it's totally under the radar and most
- 14:43Speaker 1: people are just traveling with the starlink. Now, there are
- 14:49Speaker 1: countries where you can just get in a whole bunch
- 14:50Speaker 1: of trouble for that if you get caught. So I
- 14:54Speaker 1: chose to go with limited communication as opposed to the
- 14:59Speaker 1: possibility of not achieving the objective of crossing the continent.
- 15:02Speaker 1: So I think most travelers will probably be like, oh, sorry,
- 15:06Speaker 1: we didn't know, and then the thing gets confiscated and
- 15:09Speaker 1: maybe you've got to pay a fine or whatever, Whereas
- 15:12Speaker 1: I just wasn't willing. I wasn't willing, and I felt
- 15:15Speaker 1: comfortable with the tools that I had in place to
- 15:18Speaker 1: be able to resolve those things. I did have a
- 15:22Speaker 1: garment in reach with me for the entire trip, which
- 15:27Speaker 1: would have allowed for us to have remote communications if
- 15:30Speaker 1: the vehicle had had a significant issue.
- 15:32Speaker 2: We've done that before quite a bit.
- 15:34Speaker 1: That's correct, but certain countries, even like India, and garment
- 15:39Speaker 1: in reach is a controlled item, So you've got to
- 15:42Speaker 1: really understand what you're up against on those things and
- 15:47Speaker 1: understand that there's there are shades of gray around some
- 15:51Speaker 1: of these things. I just on this trip chose to
- 15:54Speaker 1: not engage with any of those shades of gray.
- 15:56Speaker 2: Sounds like a whole other podcast.
- 15:59Speaker 1: Yeah for sure, absolutely, but no, the starlink is a
- 16:02Speaker 1: game changer because you're going down the road in the
- 16:06Speaker 1: middle of Africa, like in the Serengetti at ten megabits
- 16:09Speaker 1: a second while you're driving crazy. So it's just it's
- 16:12Speaker 1: just it's an incredible tool and it gives you a
- 16:15Speaker 1: lot of confidence with these new or more complicated vehicles
- 16:18Speaker 1: because you can plug in a workbook into it and
- 16:21Speaker 1: you can you can do you can clear codes, you
- 16:23Speaker 1: can download updates, you can do all of those things
- 16:26Speaker 1: if you had to, which is why we had that
- 16:28Speaker 1: stuff along with us, but fortunately we didn't need to
- 16:30Speaker 1: do it.
- 16:31Speaker 2: Sure that makes sense.
- 16:32Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So Africa was amazing. We're excited to share
- 16:35Speaker 1: more about that in the future. But oh, and then
- 16:38Speaker 1: I also was able to interview Kingsley Holgate while I
- 16:42Speaker 1: was in South Africa, and he's just an incredible individual.
- 16:47Speaker 1: So for those that are listening, please look for the
- 16:50Speaker 1: Kingsley Holgate interview coming out in the next couple weeks,
- 16:54Speaker 1: which is it's one of the most incredible interviews I've
- 16:57Speaker 1: ever done in twenty years being in this business, so
- 17:01Speaker 1: he's an absolute gem saint. So that was very very cool.
- 17:06Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to that. And then when I was
- 17:08Speaker 1: in South Africa, I was able to spend some time
- 17:12Speaker 1: testing some new easy On products. So they have they
- 17:17Speaker 1: have a new Galaxy tent. They've got some really interesting
- 17:21Speaker 1: new products that they've brought on to the market recently
- 17:24Speaker 1: that I think are going to appeal to a wider audience.
- 17:28Speaker 1: Easy On products have always just been very like expedition,
- 17:31Speaker 1: long term, overlanding focused kinds of products, things that you
- 17:37Speaker 1: will to your net to the next generation.
- 17:38Speaker 2: Right the last a long time was that when you're
- 17:40Speaker 2: in Johannesburg, that's right. Yeah.
- 17:42Speaker 1: So I was able to drive a three hundred series
- 17:45Speaker 1: land cruiser with a diesel. I've driven the three hundred before,
- 17:49Speaker 1: but in the gas variant, so it was nice to
- 17:51Speaker 1: spend time with the three hundred and a diesel and
- 17:53Speaker 1: you know, days behind the wheel of you know, in
- 17:55Speaker 1: the back country and everything else like that. And I
- 17:58Speaker 1: really liked this new Galaxy tent. They also have one
- 18:03Speaker 1: I believe it's called the Saber or something along those lines.
- 18:08Speaker 1: It's it's a smaller tent for like a four door
- 18:14Speaker 1: pickup with a short bed. So I had it on
- 18:16Speaker 1: a high Lux and it fits on that small beds
- 18:22Speaker 1: and it so it pops up one direction and then
- 18:25Speaker 1: it folds out with a ladder and everything, like more
- 18:28Speaker 1: of a traditional soft sided tent, but it's a hard
- 18:30Speaker 1: shell aluminum tent that actually really works. No, that would
- 18:38Speaker 1: be good, but no. I rented a vehicle from a
- 18:41Speaker 1: company called Overlanding with Bruce, and he has a small
- 18:47Speaker 1: fleet of high Lux they are ready to go, including
- 18:51Speaker 1: some campers and stuff like that that are really sweet,
- 18:53Speaker 1: like Alu cab stuff. But then they also have easy
- 18:57Speaker 1: On roof tents and I really like that small format
- 19:02Speaker 1: rioften it was very cool, but so was the Galaxy.
- 19:04Speaker 2: The Galaxy was.
- 19:05Speaker 1: Roomy, tons of headroom, huge open door. But then we
- 19:10Speaker 1: got caught in a storm and it did fine, nice
- 19:12Speaker 1: like I was in it while it was raining and
- 19:14Speaker 1: blowing and everything else, and it has a lot of
- 19:16Speaker 1: surface area, but it did fine. So that was cool.
- 19:19Speaker 1: So some nice new stuff from easy On that are
- 19:22Speaker 1: worth checking out. Nice to see such a long standing
- 19:26Speaker 1: company continuing to innovate.
- 19:27Speaker 2: So they've got to be forty fifty years now.
- 19:30Speaker 1: Yeah, I think they're over forty years yeah. Yeah, pretty cool. Yeah,
- 19:34Speaker 1: pretty cool. So you right before or right as I
- 19:39Speaker 1: was leaving, or maybe even a week or a couple
- 19:41Speaker 1: of days after.
- 19:41Speaker 2: I left early January, Yeah, you.
- 19:44Speaker 1: Went and participated in the launch of the new Lexus
- 19:49Speaker 1: GX five point fifty.
- 19:51Speaker 2: They did a first drive event down in Tucson, Arizona.
- 19:55Speaker 2: That was convenient, really convenient. I we just drove down,
- 19:57Speaker 2: which is cool. I was at shot Show for a
- 19:59Speaker 2: few days, did Shot Show I think for Monday Tuesday,
- 20:04Speaker 2: and then drove over to Tucson and then drove the
- 20:08Speaker 2: Lexus for Wednesday through Friday. It was neat. They had
- 20:12Speaker 2: all the different trim levels there. We were really more
- 20:16Speaker 2: focused on the overtrail man. It is just they have
- 20:20Speaker 2: six different versions of that vehicle. It's so cool.
- 20:23Speaker 1: Because Lexus has always made, or almost always had available
- 20:28Speaker 1: a pinnacle vehicle for overland travel, they just never really
- 20:34Speaker 1: knew what they had. I mean they did, but they
- 20:36Speaker 1: didn't really market it in that way.
- 20:38Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 20:38Speaker 1: And that goes all the way back to the original
- 20:40Speaker 1: eighty series that was rebranded as a as an LX,
- 20:44Speaker 1: and then of course.
- 20:45Speaker 2: The original eighty series was rebranded.
- 20:47Speaker 1: It was for the last couple of years you could
- 20:49Speaker 1: get a lex I believe it was a four fifty
- 20:52Speaker 1: mice sincere apologies, so they're listening that if I get
- 20:55Speaker 1: that wrong, But.
- 20:56Speaker 2: The guys who are like twitchy.
- 21:00Speaker 1: So I think, I think I got that right. And
- 21:02Speaker 1: it had a straight six. It was just like the
- 21:03Speaker 1: eighty series, but it had some, you know, a little
- 21:07Speaker 1: bit more luxurious trimmings, and it had the Lexus badge
- 21:10Speaker 1: on the front. So they started all the way back
- 21:13Speaker 1: then with a solid ear.
- 21:16Speaker 2: That version looks a lot more like an.
- 21:18Speaker 1: Eighty series, that's right. And then they had one hundred
- 21:21Speaker 1: series based LX, and then they had a two hundred
- 21:24Speaker 1: series based LX, and then they even have the new
- 21:27Speaker 1: lex six hundred, which is based on the three hundred series.
- 21:31Speaker 1: So it's the only variant of the three hundred series
- 21:33Speaker 1: land cruiser that we get is the current Lexus model,
- 21:36Speaker 1: at least for the time being. So to see them
- 21:40Speaker 1: come out with this GX five point fifty overtrail is
- 21:45Speaker 1: no question. And from what I've heard from the folks
- 21:47Speaker 1: at Lexus, they see the opportunity of the overland audience
- 21:52Speaker 1: because they buy new vehicles. They're adventure minded, they do
- 21:56Speaker 1: like some comfort because of the road trip nature of
- 21:59Speaker 1: travel by VA. So Lexus is a perfect fit.
- 22:03Speaker 2: And you can see the lack, say, look at the
- 22:06Speaker 2: last three years, right, so two seamas ago, so it
- 22:10Speaker 2: would have been twenty twenty two they had they had
- 22:15Speaker 2: all their new Lexus vehicles. But when you when you
- 22:18Speaker 2: listen to their team talk about the new vehicles they
- 22:23Speaker 2: were they talked a lot about overlanding. They talked a
- 22:25Speaker 2: lot about adventure, luxurious adventure. It was part of their vocabulary.
- 22:31Speaker 2: Fast forward to twenty twenty three, Sema. That's a big booth.
- 22:36Speaker 2: If your it's got to be two hundred by fifty
- 22:40Speaker 2: or something, you know, it's a big booth for Sema.
- 22:43Speaker 2: And they had a good well, they had three vehicle
- 22:47Speaker 2: positions that were dedicated to user builds. So they brought
- 22:52Speaker 2: in three general consumers who had older model Lexuses and
- 22:58Speaker 2: had built them into over a Lexi Alexi. Yeah, Lexus,
- 23:06Speaker 2: and there were I can't remember all the models, but
- 23:08Speaker 2: there are different years and different models. But there was
- 23:11Speaker 2: one that was you know, completely lifted. I think it
- 23:14Speaker 2: was on thirty seven inch mud tires. Sweet and then
- 23:17Speaker 2: there was another one that was owned by or probably
- 23:22Speaker 2: you know, just a couple who was out traveling. And
- 23:24Speaker 2: then there was one that was owned by a single
- 23:27Speaker 2: individual guy who was out traveling. But it showed me
- 23:32Speaker 2: that they were really embracing the end user, yeah, of
- 23:35Speaker 2: how people were using these vehicles for adventure.
- 23:41Speaker 1: Yeah, so you see it at the overland expos with
- 23:44Speaker 1: the Lexus vehicles there, you see it at at SIMA
- 23:48Speaker 1: with the Lexus vehicles that are very much intended for
- 23:51Speaker 1: overlanding and for travel. They've got Kurt Williams involved, which he.
- 23:56Speaker 2: Does train a lot of training for the TV. Yeah.
- 23:58Speaker 1: So like if Kurt Williams is involved the corporate level
- 24:01Speaker 1: with Lexus around overlanding, I mean, they're clearly committed because
- 24:05Speaker 1: Kurt is one of the best folks that I can
- 24:07Speaker 1: think of to do that.
- 24:09Speaker 2: And the interesting thing is the training that Kurt's been
- 24:11Speaker 2: doing as far as what I understand is he has
- 24:14Speaker 2: been training the staff at a lot of different levels
- 24:19Speaker 2: from engineering to vehicle design and marketing and pr about
- 24:26Speaker 2: what adventures travel with the vehicle entails. And he's even
- 24:31Speaker 2: had him out driving the vehicles. And I was talking
- 24:33Speaker 2: with him one about one event, and he had people
- 24:36Speaker 2: who had never driven the vehicles off road, sure, and
- 24:39Speaker 2: he was there, you know, engaging little range and they're
- 24:42Speaker 2: going through these obstacles and people had no idea what
- 24:46Speaker 2: these vehicles could do. But they work on them every
- 24:48Speaker 2: day in some capacity. So it was really valuable for
- 24:51Speaker 2: that team.
- 24:51Speaker 1: It's very clear, and I hope that the Lex six
- 24:55Speaker 1: hundred receives the same kind of treatments at some point,
- 24:59Speaker 1: but it is very clear that the five point fifty
- 25:01Speaker 1: overtrail is them going all in, which we heard from
- 25:05Speaker 1: Toyota Marketing years ago they were going all in on overlanding,
- 25:08Speaker 1: and you can see that they built a vehicle that
- 25:12Speaker 1: is going to be incredibly popular.
- 25:14Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, you know. So we we got the
- 25:17Speaker 2: chance to drive it really for two days. The first
- 25:20Speaker 2: day we drove it primarily on the road, and how
- 25:26Speaker 2: did how did that go? Did it?
- 25:27Speaker 1: Because it's it's got a lot of off road hardware,
- 25:30Speaker 1: including some fairly aggressive all terrain tires. It does pretty
- 25:33Speaker 1: upright wind screen, It.
- 25:35Speaker 2: Was very stable. Yeah, it has a really confident footprint. Yeah,
- 25:40Speaker 2: so when you're you know, it was it was quick
- 25:43Speaker 2: off the line, it was easy to stop. It didn't
- 25:47Speaker 2: have any I didn't notice any wallow. Yeah, which a
- 25:51Speaker 2: you know, a large it's a big, heavy truck. Sure
- 25:53Speaker 2: and and maybe that's part of the advancement in you know,
- 25:59Speaker 2: you know, electronic and valving suspension and kind of the
- 26:04Speaker 2: new advancements. But yeah, you get into an older Alexis
- 26:07Speaker 2: or an older land Cruiser and you you know, you
- 26:10Speaker 2: flick the wheel around and you kind of feel this
- 26:13Speaker 2: wallow from side to side, even of the stock suspension.
- 26:16Speaker 2: Sure and this didn't have any of that, So it
- 26:19Speaker 2: was very surefooted. Yeah.
- 26:22Speaker 1: Yeah, and it you know, the fact that it's it
- 26:24Speaker 1: has now a rear locking differential, which is a first
- 26:28Speaker 1: for Alexis product other than it may have been the
- 26:32Speaker 1: uh the the first Lex and the second Lex had
- 26:38Speaker 1: at least a rear locker available. The first Lex could
- 26:40Speaker 1: have gotten the front and rear locker. But the fact
- 26:43Speaker 1: that it has a rear locking differential, center locking differential,
- 26:48Speaker 1: advanced traction control, which is going to be even better
- 26:52Speaker 1: than the a track that we know from a couple
- 26:53Speaker 1: of years ago. I mean, this thing's going to be
- 26:56Speaker 1: very capable on the trail. And it looks like it
- 26:58Speaker 1: just has good angles and clearance. Overall.
- 27:01Speaker 2: Yeah, so you can see all the corners very easily.
- 27:04Speaker 2: You can see over the hood quite well.
- 27:07Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 27:08Speaker 2: One of the things I liked about the hood was
- 27:09Speaker 2: that it's a it's a pretty sheer ninety degree angle
- 27:13Speaker 2: at the front, so you know the what I've never
- 27:17Speaker 2: really liked some of the older Lexus models that had
- 27:21Speaker 2: kind of that that pointy hood with the grill. The
- 27:25Speaker 2: grill that like looked like it went on forever, right,
- 27:28Speaker 2: And with this new just hard angled grill and front end,
- 27:33Speaker 2: you can go right up to something and feel like
- 27:35Speaker 2: you know where the bumper is sure, and the bumper
- 27:39Speaker 2: doesn't stick out, so the front of the vehicle's flat.
- 27:42Speaker 1: And it looks like it's just ready for the aftermarket.
- 27:45Speaker 1: It is like they really set it up to be
- 27:47Speaker 1: supported by the aftermarket.
- 27:48Speaker 2: They did, and I asked them about that because it's
- 27:50Speaker 2: it doesn't come it's not going to come with a winch.
- 27:53Speaker 2: They don't have a provision from the factory for a winch.
- 27:56Speaker 2: But when you look at the front grill, when you
- 27:58Speaker 2: look at the front area, there's a skid plate at
- 28:01Speaker 2: least on the overtrail plus and the overtrail as well,
- 28:05Speaker 2: there's a skid plate that is incorporated up into the
- 28:09Speaker 2: grill area, and so you can remove that skid plate
- 28:12Speaker 2: and then from the looks of it, because there's a
- 28:14Speaker 2: seam that runs just below all the sensors, it looks
- 28:20Speaker 2: like you can remove the lower portion of the bumper facia. Yeah,
- 28:25Speaker 2: it's not even really a bumper, right, So you can
- 28:28Speaker 2: remove that lower portion and then you should be able
- 28:31Speaker 2: to bolt on some sort of an aftermarket bumper solution
- 28:35Speaker 2: that winch that could accommodate a winch. Wow.
- 28:39Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's I have no doubt that they're
- 28:42Speaker 1: going to crush it with this vehicle, because it's going
- 28:45Speaker 1: to be They sell so many Toyta sell so many Forerunners,
- 28:49Speaker 1: but they never really had like the luxurious version of
- 28:53Speaker 1: the TRD or the TRD Pro.
- 28:55Speaker 2: This thing is nothing but luxury, Yeah, exactly.
- 28:57Speaker 1: So you get like this very comfortable via drive back
- 29:01Speaker 1: and forth to work every day.
- 29:03Speaker 2: It is.
- 29:04Speaker 1: You're going to have the experience of buying the vehicle
- 29:06Speaker 1: from a Lexus dealership, which has the highest customer satisfaction
- 29:11Speaker 1: of any dealerships. So you just have this overall luxurious
- 29:15Speaker 1: engagement with the manufacturer. But you can still go do
- 29:18Speaker 1: Hell's Revenge and mo.
- 29:20Speaker 2: So you get into the vehicle and it's all leather,
- 29:24Speaker 2: it's volumeless on the inside. It's really big, but it
- 29:28Speaker 2: doesn't feel you know, sometimes a big truck is going
- 29:31Speaker 2: to feel oversized.
- 29:33Speaker 1: Yeah, or maybe boldous, whereas this just seems taller, like
- 29:36Speaker 1: it's got more headroom and more overall height.
- 29:39Speaker 2: But you can lean over from the driver's seat and
- 29:41Speaker 2: get the other door, yeah, right, Whereas you know, some
- 29:45Speaker 2: vehicles you think of like a big, you know, a
- 29:49Speaker 2: big full sized pickup truck. You got to undo your
- 29:51Speaker 2: seatbelt and crawl over to get the door right, right.
- 29:54Speaker 2: But then besides that, it's really big user interface screens,
- 29:59Speaker 2: very comfortable seating position, heated and cooled seats, and massaging seats.
- 30:05Speaker 2: I think a find different massage modes on both front seats.
- 30:09Speaker 2: So that was amazing and everything about it was comfortable.
- 30:16Speaker 2: And when you over the past couple of years, you
- 30:19Speaker 2: drive a lot of these vehicles, and it's a lot
- 30:21Speaker 2: of these things are better or for worse, they they're
- 30:24Speaker 2: they're to be expected, right, And so some of these
- 30:27Speaker 2: vehicles you get in and you're like you're trying to
- 30:30Speaker 2: be impressed because a lot of the things are well, yeah,
- 30:35Speaker 2: of course we have that technology. Of course this vehicle
- 30:38Speaker 2: should be able to do that. This one felt it
- 30:43Speaker 2: kind of had this I mean, I don't want to
- 30:45Speaker 2: overuse the word luxury, but it had this really nice
- 30:49Speaker 2: feeling to.
- 30:50Speaker 1: It quality, probably more even than luxury.
- 30:52Speaker 2: You know where you got in it and you were
- 30:54Speaker 2: proud to be driving it. You kind of had this
- 30:56Speaker 2: smile on your face and then knowing that you could,
- 31:01Speaker 2: you know, get off of the get off the pavement,
- 31:03Speaker 2: go explore the desert all day, or the mountains or
- 31:05Speaker 2: whatever it might be. It has this extra level of
- 31:08Speaker 2: confidence for such a vehicle.
- 31:10Speaker 1: Yeah, huge breadth of capability. I'm super excited about the
- 31:15Speaker 1: the Lexus, the GX. I think they're going to crush
- 31:18Speaker 1: it with that. I can't wait to see what the
- 31:20Speaker 1: aftermarket does with it. It's fairly priced given modern vehicle pricing,
- 31:25Speaker 1: so it's just going to be really cool to see
- 31:27Speaker 1: how it comes together.
- 31:28Speaker 2: I think personally as a as a buyer, i'd be
- 31:31Speaker 2: cautious with the aftermarket. It didn't feel like it needed
- 31:34Speaker 2: a lot. Yeah, you know it has it's It would
- 31:39Speaker 2: be easy to put a roof rack on it. It
- 31:42Speaker 2: would be nice to have a winch for, you know,
- 31:46Speaker 2: just for that extra safety factor.
- 31:47Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. But people that travel so long.
- 31:50Speaker 2: You know, I wouldn't mess with the suspension. I wouldn't
- 31:52Speaker 2: try to stick a bigger tire on it, you know,
- 31:54Speaker 2: within within means, I think you could probably put maybe
- 31:59Speaker 2: one size up easily. Yeah, but I wouldn't just start
- 32:02Speaker 2: chopping on them. I mean that the amount of technology
- 32:06Speaker 2: and the amount of engineering that's that's gone into this
- 32:10Speaker 2: this vehicle is so impressive that I just use it
- 32:14Speaker 2: as long as you can buy it, buy it and go. Yeah,
- 32:16Speaker 2: because you're not the truck's going to outdrive you. You're
- 32:20Speaker 2: not going to find its limitations on a regular basis. Sure, right,
- 32:24Speaker 2: If you're finding the limitations of that vehicle on a
- 32:26Speaker 2: regular basis, it might not be the vehicle you need.
- 32:29Speaker 1: Yeah, or you know, for for vehicle based travel.
- 32:32Speaker 2: It's gonna do.
- 32:33Speaker 1: It's going to do everything you wanted to.
- 32:34Speaker 2: The cargo areas is huge. Cool. Yeah, that's going to
- 32:37Speaker 2: be fun to see. And we just we opened it
- 32:39Speaker 2: up and we just started throwing gear in it just
- 32:41Speaker 2: to see how it would I would kind of kind
- 32:45Speaker 2: and we had two backpacks and Pelican case and tripods,
- 32:49Speaker 2: and it just kind of kept on taking gear and
- 32:51Speaker 2: then you could we step back and look at it. It
- 32:54Speaker 2: was only half full. Yeah, that's great, you know, So
- 32:56Speaker 2: it was. It was nice.
- 32:57Speaker 1: Yeah, very exciting new vehicle. Nice job exos on that.
- 33:01Speaker 1: When I left about the same time as you did,
- 33:05Speaker 1: I was going to Morocco to ride the new Dukati
- 33:09Speaker 1: Desert X rally.
- 33:11Speaker 2: That looks like a nice bike. It is.
- 33:16Speaker 1: The biggest problem that everyone who's tested this bike has
- 33:20Speaker 1: is not coming across as a total fanboy or fan girl,
- 33:25Speaker 1: right because it's that good. Dukati clearly spent a lot
- 33:30Speaker 1: of energy making this bike exceptional, and I think that
- 33:33Speaker 1: they weren't afraid to try some new things that we
- 33:36Speaker 1: haven't seen in that class of motorcycle up until this point.
- 33:41Speaker 1: That kind of midweight motorcycle has always they've always been
- 33:45Speaker 1: intentionally constrained because they had bigger bikes on their menu.
- 33:50Speaker 1: So like the BMW eight hundred gs or eight fifty
- 33:55Speaker 1: was kind of it was always okay, but they because
- 33:58Speaker 1: they put so much energy in emphasis on the twelve to.
- 34:01Speaker 2: Fifty eight and fifty were kind of a stop gap.
- 34:05Speaker 1: It was a filler yeah, it just filled in the lineup,
- 34:08Speaker 1: but it never they It's like they intentionally held them
- 34:12Speaker 1: back so that someone would have a reason to buy the.
- 34:15Speaker 2: Oh, so they're not cannibalizing them.
- 34:17Speaker 1: The twelve hundred or the twelve fifty right, Whereas it
- 34:20Speaker 1: looks to me like Ducati didn't even think about the
- 34:25Speaker 1: fact that they have the multi Strata, which they do
- 34:29Speaker 1: have it in some variants that can go off road,
- 34:31Speaker 1: but it's never been an off road bike. It's always
- 34:34Speaker 1: been a touring bike that can do some dirt. So
- 34:38Speaker 1: they just unshackled the engineers and the marketing team around
- 34:42Speaker 1: the Desert X and they built I think one of
- 34:45Speaker 1: the best adventure bikes that I've ever ridden.
- 34:48Speaker 2: Does it have all the functionality that they added to
- 34:52Speaker 2: the bike? Is it? Are they things that you are
- 34:55Speaker 2: happy that they brought to the bike or did they
- 34:58Speaker 2: just kind of fill it with a bunch of random
- 35:00Speaker 2: functionality and farcles.
- 35:02Speaker 1: That it doesn't feel like that at all. It doesn't
- 35:05Speaker 1: feel like that at all. Whereas, like on the Multi Strata,
- 35:08Speaker 1: it has radar cruise control, which it's somewhat interesting. It
- 35:12Speaker 1: would probably help you on really long trips, but like, no,
- 35:16Speaker 1: the Desert x rally doesn't have anything that you don't need.
- 35:19Speaker 1: In fact that they took the time to engineer an
- 35:21Speaker 1: auxiliary fuel tank for it that goes underneath the rear
- 35:25Speaker 1: seat and it adds another one point eight gallons of
- 35:28Speaker 1: fuel to the five point five or.
- 35:30Speaker 2: Five point Really they built it for the rider.
- 35:32Speaker 1: They built it for yeah, for doing big trips. I
- 35:36Speaker 1: mean really, they really did. And it has one hundred
- 35:39Speaker 1: and ten horse power, which, if you think about it,
- 35:43Speaker 1: not that long ago a BMW twelve hundred had less
- 35:47Speaker 1: horsepower than that. So this is a bike that weighs
- 35:51Speaker 1: four hundred and sixty five pounds, so over one hundred
- 35:54Speaker 1: pounds lighter than a GS twelve hundred, has the same
- 35:57Speaker 1: horsepower as a GS from a few years ago. And
- 36:00Speaker 1: the reality is is that off road most bikes, when
- 36:04Speaker 1: you go into an off road mode, they pull back
- 36:06Speaker 1: the horsepower to about one hundred anyways, And like if
- 36:09Speaker 1: you look at the KTM nine to fifty that you
- 36:12Speaker 1: and I ride, that is a hundred horsepowered dirt bike.
- 36:15Speaker 1: So a hundred horsepower in an adventure bike is about
- 36:18Speaker 1: perfect for the dirt. Anything more than that and you're
- 36:20Speaker 1: just asking for it, and it's and it's also just
- 36:24Speaker 1: it's hard to control it because riding on the dirt
- 36:28Speaker 1: does require a lot of modulation and a lot of control.
- 36:32Speaker 1: So the Desert X rally, it's got one hundred and
- 36:35Speaker 1: ten horsepower, it does throttle it back and some of
- 36:37Speaker 1: the off road modes.
- 36:38Speaker 2: You can also open it up.
- 36:40Speaker 1: Oh yes, And that's the thing about it, because the
- 36:43Speaker 1: Italians don't care, so you can you can shut off
- 36:45Speaker 1: every safety feature that you choose on the bike. Really
- 36:48Speaker 1: you can just go into full like buzz bugs bladder mode,
- 36:53Speaker 1: you know, and yeah, you can do that, and it's
- 36:56Speaker 1: incredible off road it it's incredibly forgive. It has some
- 37:01Speaker 1: of the best turning stability and grip that we've experienced
- 37:04Speaker 1: on any of the bigger bikes, and a lot of
- 37:06Speaker 1: that is because of the way that it's built around
- 37:09Speaker 1: weight distribution and also that it's very lightweight.
- 37:12Speaker 2: So the only images that I've seen of that bike
- 37:16Speaker 2: test of you riding that bike, you're either sideways or
- 37:20Speaker 2: you're in the air.
- 37:21Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and you kind of it kind of wanted
- 37:23Speaker 1: you to do that, like it the bike felt very
- 37:25Speaker 1: very confident inspiring around that and you know, literally the
- 37:30Speaker 1: only thing that was the limitation on that test for
- 37:33Speaker 1: me is I brought the wrong helmet. It was very,
- 37:36Speaker 1: very dusty, so I just needed to give a lot
- 37:40Speaker 1: of space around the dust because I didn't have an
- 37:44Speaker 1: off road helmet with goggles. That was my mistake. And
- 37:48Speaker 1: then interestingly, I mean we were riding so hard. I
- 37:51Speaker 1: had not been riding that much before that, so I
- 37:53Speaker 1: was hitting the limits of my fitness, my cardiovascular fitness, okay,
- 37:58Speaker 1: around that much riding at those speeds for that length
- 38:02Speaker 1: of time. So like, fortunately, I never I didn't drop
- 38:05Speaker 1: the bike, I didn't have I didn't get stuck, I
- 38:07Speaker 1: didn't have any issues. But I was very much cognizant
- 38:10Speaker 1: of the fact that I'm not I wasn't in writing shape.
- 38:13Speaker 2: But that that's something that I think not a lot
- 38:15Speaker 2: of people think about. Yeah, and you see a lot
- 38:18Speaker 2: of these, you know, adventure bikes are totally overloaded. You
- 38:23Speaker 2: know that when they're out they're not pushing it that hard.
- 38:25Speaker 2: But the fact that you can push these bikes that
- 38:28Speaker 2: hard and that it does become a physical it's a
- 38:31Speaker 2: physical workout, it's big time.
- 38:33Speaker 1: And the terrain that we were riding was technical enough
- 38:35Speaker 1: that you were in it like you were really pushing You're.
- 38:39Speaker 2: Sally saying motocross racing is one of the most physically
- 38:42Speaker 2: demanding sports.
- 38:43Speaker 1: Yeah, so now you make it a four hundred and
- 38:45Speaker 1: sixty five pound bike and you really start to press yourself,
- 38:51Speaker 1: which was great. It was good for me to be
- 38:53Speaker 1: reminded of that.
- 38:54Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 38:55Speaker 1: I hadn't been riding in a little while because of
- 38:57Speaker 1: things that were going on, but it inspired me to
- 39:00Speaker 1: get back on the bike and make sure that I'm
- 39:02Speaker 1: always in writing.
- 39:03Speaker 2: Shape well, and you know, not to push your limits
- 39:04Speaker 2: and you find your limits.
- 39:05Speaker 1: Well in this case, if you don't push, you don't
- 39:08Speaker 1: keep up. So I was I was pinging like my
- 39:12Speaker 1: my Garmin watch was like, try not to kill yourself
- 39:17Speaker 1: like I was. I was sitting at like one hundred
- 39:19Speaker 1: and fifty to one hundred and sixty five beats per
- 39:21Speaker 1: minute for like hours at a time.
- 39:24Speaker 2: Mine told me the other day that I was overtraining.
- 39:26Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. It gets very judgmental at times, yeah, exactly.
- 39:30Speaker 1: So the bike is incredible. Ducati should be really proud
- 39:34Speaker 1: of the motorcycle. I think that for most travelers the
- 39:39Speaker 1: rally is going to be more than what they need,
- 39:41Speaker 1: and they should consider the standard Desert X. It's a
- 39:44Speaker 1: lower seat height, it's quite a bit less expensive. One
- 39:49Speaker 1: of the things that I found interesting was that they
- 39:51Speaker 1: included everything for heated grips, including the button. They just
- 39:56Speaker 1: didn't have the heating elements in the grips, okay, and
- 39:59Speaker 1: that I I think that that's a mistake when manufacturers
- 40:01Speaker 1: do that because it's such an expensive motorcycle for what
- 40:05Speaker 1: it is. I mean, there's a lot of content, but
- 40:09Speaker 1: I think that you're better off just providing the customer
- 40:14Speaker 1: with the heated grips because it's a rounding error in
- 40:18Speaker 1: the motorcycle and.
- 40:19Speaker 2: Then you know it's done right. You know, people try
- 40:21Speaker 2: to do it themselves. You're taken into the shop and
- 40:23Speaker 2: pay a couple hundred bucks to have it done.
- 40:25Speaker 1: Yeah, especially when there's the button right there. That's going
- 40:28Speaker 1: to make people be like seriously, So that was one
- 40:31Speaker 1: of the things. The seat height is actually quite high.
- 40:33Speaker 1: So I'm six' one and the bike felt comfortable to.
- 40:37Speaker 1: Me it's kind of about the same height as the
- 40:40Speaker 1: nine point FIFTY, ktm but that can be.
- 40:42Speaker 2: A very tall.
- 40:43Speaker 1: Byte so you're talking about a thirty six inch ish seat,
- 40:46Speaker 1: height so it's a tall, motorcycle so it's gonna inherently
- 40:50Speaker 1: restrict some people from being able to ride it unless
- 40:53Speaker 1: they're very.
- 40:53Speaker 2: Experienced does that base model come With will it accept
- 40:57Speaker 2: the auxiliary?
- 40:57Speaker 1: Tank it, Will and it has a low, fender it
- 41:01Speaker 1: has a little less suspension, travel and it's a lower
- 41:04Speaker 1: motorcycle as, well so there are some advantages to. That
- 41:09Speaker 1: it uses An olan, suspension whereas the rally uses A
- 41:13Speaker 1: kyb suspension, system which is just like it's over the.
- 41:18Speaker 1: TOP i mean it's nine point eight inches of suspension
- 41:20Speaker 1: in the front and nine point four in the, rear
- 41:23Speaker 1: so like your your rallying the, thing and it's just it.
- 41:27Speaker 1: Is it is an awesome, motorcycle AND i would say
- 41:30Speaker 1: that it is most likely the MOTORCYCLE i would buy
- 41:34Speaker 1: for my own, use although The triumph twelve Hundred SCRAMBLER
- 41:40Speaker 1: xe would be a close.
- 41:42Speaker 2: Section different bike though different reasons.
- 41:45Speaker 1: Maybe but that was those would be the two THAT
- 41:47Speaker 1: i would be deciding. Between SO i think either One
- 41:50Speaker 1: i'd be super happy, with BUT i think for long
- 41:52Speaker 1: distance travel The dukati would be a better choice because
- 41:55Speaker 1: of the fuel tank.
- 41:56Speaker 2: Size do they have factory luggage?
- 42:00Speaker 1: Everything, okay they literally have everything for this bike to
- 42:05Speaker 1: ride it around the, world.
- 42:06Speaker 2: And what what is the price point?
- 42:08Speaker 1: Range, yeah so they you, know they they are going
- 42:11Speaker 1: to range into the low. Twenties so it's a fairly
- 42:13Speaker 1: expensive motorcycle by the time you get it all all,
- 42:17Speaker 1: upfitted so really really.
- 42:19Speaker 2: Competing with the.
- 42:20Speaker 1: BMWs, yeah and it's going to just run circles around. It,
- 42:25Speaker 1: LOOK i mean not to take anything away from a
- 42:28Speaker 1: twelve fifty or. Anything just, yeah, anyways it's an awesome.
- 42:33Speaker 2: Bike, yeah awesome.
- 42:34Speaker 1: Bike we also started a new project vehicle based upon
- 42:40Speaker 1: The wrangler four BY e and we worked With Real
- 42:43Speaker 1: truck on, that and this is my first time working
- 42:48Speaker 1: with them and just kind of. ORDERING i was just
- 42:51Speaker 1: really impressed with the degree of communication that we. RECEIVE
- 42:56Speaker 1: i have always just kind of been, like IF i
- 42:58Speaker 1: have a, Jeep i'm gonna put a on it and
- 43:00Speaker 1: be done with. It but in this, CASE i went
- 43:03Speaker 1: with a different kind of lift BECAUSE i wanted to
- 43:05Speaker 1: try something. New so with a super, lift it's Got fox.
- 43:09Speaker 1: Shocks the ride quality is. EXCELLENT i did end up,
- 43:14Speaker 1: though still going WITH aev brackets BECAUSE aev just does
- 43:19Speaker 1: one of the best jobs in the industry of making.
- 43:21Speaker 2: Sure that the geometry figured, out.
- 43:23Speaker 1: Making sure that the geometry is figured out so and
- 43:26Speaker 1: it also lowers the role center with the rear drag
- 43:30Speaker 1: link and a rear pan hard, rod so it makes
- 43:34Speaker 1: a huge difference on role center with the realignment.
- 43:38Speaker 2: Bracket with Those, bolton well They're.
- 43:41Speaker 1: Bolton they're all bolt. On the whole kit Is. Bolton
- 43:45Speaker 1: But i'm a real fan of the whole four BY
- 43:48Speaker 1: e program FROM gep BECAUSE i can plug the thing
- 43:51Speaker 1: in and every possible errand you could do And, prescott
- 43:55Speaker 1: you can do it all on electric. Mode, okay but
- 43:58Speaker 1: you got thirty five inch and.
- 44:00Speaker 2: It's got twenty six twenty seven miles range.
- 44:03Speaker 1: From much less than that now because of the larger,
- 44:06Speaker 1: tires so probably twenty one twenty.
- 44:09Speaker 2: Two it's still great for around.
- 44:10Speaker 1: Town it's enough for around, town but then you can
- 44:14Speaker 1: keep the fuel tank full and if you're LIKE i
- 44:16Speaker 1: got to run down The phoenix real, quick you can
- 44:18Speaker 1: just go do a long road. Trip So i'm really
- 44:22Speaker 1: impressed with the. Jail you've had yours for a long,
- 44:25Speaker 1: time but this is my first time really being able
- 44:28Speaker 1: to spend time in the, jail AND i like that
- 44:31Speaker 1: four BY e program that they got going.
- 44:34Speaker 2: On So i've got the twenty, eighteen AND i had
- 44:38Speaker 2: to grow into it a little. BIT i think WHEN
- 44:41Speaker 2: i first got, it we, had you, know with with
- 44:45Speaker 2: having two, teenagers who are you, know size of adults are.
- 44:50Speaker 2: Tall when they were both in, house it was it was. Tight,
- 44:55Speaker 2: yeah you're really like finding every little nook and granny for.
- 44:58Speaker 2: Storage now that they're you, know one's out of the
- 45:01Speaker 2: house in college and one's driving on his own most
- 45:05Speaker 2: of the, part it's kind of, like at the most
- 45:06Speaker 2: we have three people in, it it's a little bit
- 45:08Speaker 2: easier to. Manage we also we put a box up
- 45:11Speaker 2: on top that we use quite a bit for two.
- 45:14Speaker 2: People it's. Great, yeah but they. Do they've always been
- 45:18Speaker 2: a little bit smaller on the inside THAN i was originally.
- 45:20Speaker 2: Expecting BUT i spent quite a bit of time in
- 45:24Speaker 2: the four ye last.
- 45:25Speaker 1: Summer that's, right you've spent some time driving, them, both
- 45:27Speaker 1: The Grand cherokee and The.
- 45:29Speaker 2: Wrangler you've Driven Grand cherokee was probably my favorite four
- 45:33Speaker 2: ye That i've driven so.
- 45:34Speaker 1: Far, yeah IF i didn't do this stuff for a,
- 45:36Speaker 1: living AND i just needed a super cool car to
- 45:39Speaker 1: drive back and forth to work and go hiking and
- 45:41Speaker 1: go into a trailer and everything, Else like it's it's,
- 45:44Speaker 1: unbelievable how good That Grand.
- 45:46Speaker 2: Cheroche The wrangler was really nice in when you're out
- 45:50Speaker 2: on the trail to be able to go over to electric,
- 45:52Speaker 2: model totally super, quiet roll all the windows, down and
- 45:56Speaker 2: it was a different experience out in the. Forest it
- 45:59Speaker 2: was really.
- 45:59Speaker 1: Neat, Yeah so here's a hack around. That so when
- 46:02Speaker 1: you know you're going to go drive off, highway take
- 46:06Speaker 1: it out of hybrid mode and put it into what's
- 46:08Speaker 1: CALLED e SAVE E dash save mode and then that
- 46:13Speaker 1: other than if you have a really heavy acceleration event or,
- 46:17Speaker 1: whatever it is constantly topping off the battery and not
- 46:20Speaker 1: using electric to improve miles per gallon that, way when
- 46:24Speaker 1: you get to the, trail you now have twenty miles.
- 46:26Speaker 2: Approximately but you've got a full.
- 46:28Speaker 1: Battery you've got a full battery for and it's so
- 46:31Speaker 1: nice to drive off highway in AN EV i say
- 46:36Speaker 1: it's it's it's much. Better, Yeah LIKE i don't need
- 46:39Speaker 1: to announce. That i'm, like you, know have open pipes or,
- 46:43Speaker 1: whatever like LIKE i like.
- 46:45Speaker 2: IT i like the car to be super. Quiet, well
- 46:47Speaker 2: were we, WERE i had it on a trail and
- 46:50Speaker 2: the guy in front of me had A Porsche cayenne
- 46:53Speaker 2: yeah that he, had you, know kind of off roaded, right,
- 46:57Speaker 2: oh completely modified and it was all, brappy and we were.
- 47:01Speaker 2: Passed it was a multi use trail with hikers on, It,
- 47:04Speaker 2: yeah and they would all like scramble to the side
- 47:07Speaker 2: of the trail and move over as they heard this
- 47:09Speaker 2: guy coming right and then they'd get back on the
- 47:12Speaker 2: trail and then they didn't even hear me coming and
- 47:14Speaker 2: they were surprised to see the jeep come around the
- 47:17Speaker 2: corner and so and then they were really. Friendly it
- 47:19Speaker 2: was a nice interaction with. Folks.
- 47:21Speaker 1: YEAH i mean the reason Why i'm out there in
- 47:23Speaker 1: nature is to experience nature and also have more interactions with.
- 47:27Speaker 1: Animals because the vehicle is so, quiet you see a
- 47:30Speaker 1: lot more. Animals they're not scared off by. It so
- 47:33Speaker 1: the four by e's a win for me and it's
- 47:36Speaker 1: been fun to work on that. Project we put The
- 47:39Speaker 1: nitto tires onto The grappler tires and they're very very
- 47:43Speaker 1: quiet on the, road but they have a really aggressive
- 47:46Speaker 1: kind of outer lug segment and a lug that wraps
- 47:49Speaker 1: around the, sidewall so they're quiet on the. Road they
- 47:54Speaker 1: do fairly well in the, wet but then they also
- 47:57Speaker 1: have a more aggressive side lug for or climbing up
- 48:01Speaker 1: rocks for that mechanical, king or for clearance of mud
- 48:05Speaker 1: and snow if you need some if you're getting your tread.
- 48:08Speaker 1: Packed so it's really kind of a nice hybrid between
- 48:12Speaker 1: an All it's like a mild all terrain in the
- 48:14Speaker 1: center of, it but then a little more aggressive all
- 48:16Speaker 1: terrain on the.
- 48:17Speaker 2: Shoulders and it's nice to see another manufacturer coming out
- 48:20Speaker 2: with really thoughtful tire.
- 48:21Speaker 1: Design, yeah And nittto's node known for making really bomber,
- 48:25Speaker 1: tires so they're known to be super. Durable they've always
- 48:27Speaker 1: been known to be. Durable now they've got some more
- 48:30Speaker 1: advanced tread, patterns so they're really coming into their. Own
- 48:34Speaker 1: so that's been cool to mount those tires up and
- 48:36Speaker 1: really test those. Out we'll have a full report on those.
- 48:38Speaker 2: Soon and that wasn't a knock on Those Porsche. Cayennes
- 48:42Speaker 2: they're pretty. Cool oh, yeah when they're off. ROADED i actually.
- 48:45Speaker 1: People have GOTTEN i actually so excited about it after.
- 48:50Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 48:50Speaker 1: Yeah the challenge that people have with The cayennes is
- 48:53Speaker 1: that they, see, like, oh this car is eighteen thousand,
- 48:55Speaker 1: dollars but you're Buying you're actually buying one hundred and
- 48:58Speaker 1: twenty thousand dollars, Car so you're going to have the
- 49:01Speaker 1: maintenance and service of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
- 49:04Speaker 2: Vehicle it's not, free it's it is the furthest thing from.
- 49:07Speaker 1: Free and a special thanks to Three outdoors for their
- 49:14Speaker 1: support of this week's. Podcast the world Is. Messy that's
- 49:18Speaker 1: the price every outdoorsman pays for. Adventure so when we
- 49:21Speaker 1: need to keep things, fresh, well we AT oh Three
- 49:24Speaker 1: outdoors don't just do things. Halfway we turn to the
- 49:27Speaker 1: same TECHNOLOGY nasa uses to clean The space station and
- 49:31Speaker 1: we bring it down to our own. Frontier you know the,
- 49:35Speaker 1: smells the, sweat, smoke and, fuel the smells of a proper,
- 49:39Speaker 1: adventure the stuff of a true outdoorsman knows. Firsthand our
- 49:44Speaker 1: technology here AT o Three outdoors eliminates bacteria and odors
- 49:48Speaker 1: on gear or in your homes and on your. Vehicles
- 49:51Speaker 1: Our trekker bags allow you to, pack, store and carry your,
- 49:55Speaker 1: gear cleaning it the entire. Time our Portable overlander units
- 49:59Speaker 1: fit in any, vehicle home OR. Rv it's the highest
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- 50:07Speaker 1: gear fresh from one frontier to. Another for more, information
- 50:12Speaker 1: visit oh dash three outdoors dot com oh Three, outdoors go. Explore,
- 50:20Speaker 1: well so tell me about your experience with the New,
- 50:23Speaker 1: ranger Because i'm super, ridiculous super interested in. That it
- 50:27Speaker 1: was pretty. Awesome, yeah and that was The ranger wrapped
- 50:31Speaker 1: or part of.
- 50:32Speaker 2: It so isn't it.
- 50:33Speaker 3: Like The assault or something Like Assault. SCHOOL i don't
- 50:37Speaker 3: like the. NAME i think it's a horrible name for the,
- 50:39Speaker 3: school but it's a cool. School, yeah, Right, so you,
- 50:43Speaker 3: know to back up real, QUICK i spent two days
- 50:45Speaker 3: with With ford and The ranger, program and the first.
- 50:49Speaker 2: Day was the THE, exl THE xlt and The lariat
- 50:56Speaker 2: and that was all on road and it was good
- 50:59Speaker 2: To what made it interesting is we were up in
- 51:02Speaker 2: the mountains Of utah and we got hit by a
- 51:03Speaker 2: snowstorm on the same. Day so it just added a
- 51:06Speaker 2: lot to the experience OF i, mean we've all been
- 51:09Speaker 2: on these drives and you go drive around in the
- 51:10Speaker 2: mountains on the pavement and it's. Okay but now when
- 51:14Speaker 2: you've got it became an. Adventure it was one hundred
- 51:16Speaker 2: feet of visibility and Ultimately i'm driving in twelve inches
- 51:19Speaker 2: of snow.
- 51:19Speaker 1: And that's happened to you twice now In utah when
- 51:23Speaker 1: you went on a vehicle.
- 51:24Speaker 2: Launch utah is terribly.
- 51:25Speaker 1: Unpredictable, yeah because you were on a range over launch
- 51:28Speaker 1: and like you had one hundred Foot oh my, god we.
- 51:30Speaker 2: Had twenty eight inches of snow in twelve. Hours, yeah.
- 51:33Speaker 2: Exactly that was pretty. Cool so.
- 51:36Speaker 1: The one package THAT i think is, interesting the one
- 51:40Speaker 1: PACKAGE i think that's the most interesting IS fx.
- 51:43Speaker 2: Four so THE xlt with THE fx four, PACKAGE i would,
- 51:47Speaker 2: Say i'd say that's the most for overlanding and vehicle
- 51:54Speaker 2: travel where you've got a really good vehicle that you
- 51:59Speaker 2: can use on the.
- 51:59Speaker 1: Day rear locking, differential upgraded, shocks larger diameter, tires some skid,
- 52:04Speaker 1: plates but you can still get it into that sixteen
- 52:08Speaker 1: hundred pounds of, payload which is.
- 52:10Speaker 2: Awesome everyday vehicle you can go adventure. In you, know
- 52:14Speaker 2: you might even be able to get away with a very,
- 52:16Speaker 2: small lightweight camper type situation on the. Back oh for.
- 52:19Speaker 1: SURE i mean it's it's got the. BEST i, mean
- 52:22Speaker 1: it's on par with A gladiator for, payload and it
- 52:26Speaker 1: can be The ranger and The gladiator can sometimes be
- 52:31Speaker 1: thirty or forty percent higher payload than the, competition and
- 52:35Speaker 1: no one else is really that. Close so to get
- 52:38Speaker 1: THE fx four package where you've got rear, locker you
- 52:42Speaker 1: got some off road chops with, it but then you
- 52:45Speaker 1: can still get into that sixteen hundred or so pounds of.
- 52:48Speaker 1: PAYLOAD i mean that's a real win because that's not
- 52:50Speaker 1: just a go fast. Camper you could put a four
- 52:53Speaker 1: wheel camper in the back of that.
- 52:54Speaker 2: Thing and they're. Tiny, yeah you, know for the most,
- 52:56Speaker 2: part the dimensions are, tiny so.
- 52:59Speaker 1: They're not an over over bloated mid size for.
- 53:02Speaker 2: Sure you, know the funder you, know the sides are
- 53:05Speaker 2: fairly sheer, again you, know like we were talking about
- 53:09Speaker 2: with The lexus on the on the on the, angles
- 53:12Speaker 2: it's it's fairly sheer on all four, sides so it
- 53:15Speaker 2: was easy to identify your corners and your you, know
- 53:18Speaker 2: the front and back.
- 53:19Speaker 1: Limits AND i think it's because it's for an international,
- 53:22Speaker 1: market you. GO i, mean it's one of the most
- 53:24Speaker 1: popular trucks now In. Australia it's that finally outbeat the
- 53:28Speaker 1: the Highlex.
- 53:29Speaker 2: SO i was talking TO arb a couple of weeks
- 53:31Speaker 2: ago and they said that in The australian, market The
- 53:34Speaker 2: ranger is out has outsold The. Highls, yeah which is. Unbelievable,
- 53:39Speaker 2: now granted it's last, year it outsold them by like
- 53:42Speaker 2: three hundred and fifty four. Units, well, still they'll take.
- 53:44Speaker 1: It, Still i'm sure they. Work i'm sure they worked
- 53:48Speaker 1: really hard to make sure that.
- 53:49Speaker 2: Happen.
- 53:49Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah SO i can imagine if they were like
- 53:52Speaker 1: under by three or something like. That but, NO i,
- 53:56Speaker 1: mean it's The. Ranger it's a very legitimate. Vehicle the
- 53:59Speaker 1: other thing THAT i like about The ranger is it's
- 54:01Speaker 1: it's a very honest. Truck it's not trying to be
- 54:03Speaker 1: something that it's.
- 54:04Speaker 2: Not, yeah you can.
- 54:06Speaker 1: Get in a couple of different cab, configurations which is
- 54:09Speaker 1: hard to. Find SO i Just i'm Really i'm really
- 54:13Speaker 1: excited to see the updates that they've. Had and now The,
- 54:16Speaker 1: raptor The Ranger.
- 54:17Speaker 2: Raptor so The raptor is a totally different. VEHICLE i,
- 54:20Speaker 2: mean it's a it's a different, chassis it's you, know
- 54:23Speaker 2: it's a wider it's a you, know the wider footprint
- 54:27Speaker 2: by i think three and a half, inches different, suspension different,
- 54:31Speaker 2: engine DIFFERENT i mean everything about it is. Different you, know.
- 54:36Speaker 1: Four hundred, horsepower, right something like four and. Five SO
- 54:40Speaker 1: i think it's the same five same engine that's in
- 54:42Speaker 1: the in The Bronco.
- 54:44Speaker 2: Raptor it is it's a three liter or three.
- 54:47Speaker 1: Point five or some point, yeah either, one, yeah.
- 54:50Speaker 2: But it is it's the same one as The broncos
- 54:52Speaker 2: be it. Automatic so that thing is it's fast and it's.
- 54:57Speaker 2: Quick and then and when you combine that with the
- 55:02Speaker 2: footprint it was when we did so we took that
- 55:06Speaker 2: for a full day of just nothing but you, know
- 55:09Speaker 2: four wheel, drive and we were we went out to
- 55:13Speaker 2: so they take you To so if you buy A
- 55:18Speaker 2: Ranger raptor or any of The, raptors if you buy
- 55:22Speaker 2: A Bronco raptor or AN f one Fifty, raptor is
- 55:25Speaker 2: part of the price of the, truck you get a
- 55:28Speaker 2: day at A Raptor Assault. School and so if you
- 55:32Speaker 2: buy The Ranger, raptor you you have to get yourself.
- 55:36Speaker 2: There but once you're, there you get treated to The
- 55:39Speaker 2: Ford Performance Racing school and The raptor part of that
- 55:45Speaker 2: is The Assault. School so it's just outside Of Salt Lake,
- 55:48Speaker 2: city a, big nice new facility connected to a warehouse
- 55:52Speaker 2: full of trucks and. Vehicles you get in the vehicles,
- 55:56Speaker 2: there you drive about thirty minutes on the, pavement which
- 55:59Speaker 2: is nice because now you get to get the feel
- 56:01Speaker 2: for the, Vehicle you get to go through all the drive,
- 56:03Speaker 2: modes and then they take you to this piece of
- 56:06Speaker 2: private property that has three different driving courses and then
- 56:11Speaker 2: probably four or five kind of dedicated skill development demonstrations
- 56:17Speaker 2: right and then across the road from that there's a
- 56:21Speaker 2: big piece of blm land that they have access to
- 56:24Speaker 2: use For, basically it's a steep, climb sharp rock, crawling
- 56:31Speaker 2: and then a really steep, descent and so you really
- 56:35Speaker 2: get to go through all the drive modes and you
- 56:37Speaker 2: get to see what this vehicle can. Do and SO
- 56:42Speaker 2: i would say that The Ranger raptor is enough of
- 56:45Speaker 2: a different vehicle that if you do buy, it you
- 56:49Speaker 2: go to this, school they teach you about all the
- 56:52Speaker 2: functionality and, capability and then they've got really enthusiastic. Instructors
- 56:57Speaker 2: they want you to drive these. Vehicles they want you
- 56:59Speaker 2: to learn how to drive, them and so you get
- 57:02Speaker 2: to push the vehicle in a different in it, well
- 57:05Speaker 2: it's in a controlled, environment which.
- 57:07Speaker 1: And that's the, key that's the key BECAUSE i think
- 57:10Speaker 1: one of the reasons that prompted that was the number
- 57:13Speaker 1: of raptors that were getting wrapped around a pole or
- 57:16Speaker 1: wrapped around a tree because people start writing checks that
- 57:20Speaker 1: their experience has no business trying to.
- 57:23Speaker 2: Cash, yeah, yeah it's easy to it's so there was
- 57:28Speaker 2: one course that it's it's Their baja course AS i
- 57:32Speaker 2: don't know the. DISTANCE i don't know how long the
- 57:34Speaker 2: track is distance, wise but it was thirteen turns AND i,
- 57:39Speaker 2: found at least on my WHAT i found is that
- 57:43Speaker 2: you get you're going from one turn to the next
- 57:46Speaker 2: and the, next and you kind of forget that there's another.
- 57:49Speaker 2: Turn you Forget you're just into. It, yeah and there's
- 57:54Speaker 2: just so much going on and the vehicle is doing
- 57:57Speaker 2: everything that you want it to, sure so you're really
- 58:00Speaker 2: keeping up with the. Vehicle the vehicle's not trying to
- 58:03Speaker 2: keep up with, you, Right which was a lot of
- 58:06Speaker 2: fun and it was neat because, yeah you get to
- 58:08Speaker 2: throw the truck sideways and.
- 58:09Speaker 1: You got to even jump it a little.
- 58:11Speaker 2: Bit, yeah we got to jump. It and there were
- 58:13Speaker 2: there were two. Jumps there was one that was a
- 58:16Speaker 2: dedicated jump and you you get set up and you
- 58:19Speaker 2: put it into manual mode and second gear in low
- 58:22Speaker 2: range and you floor it and you started a, cone
- 58:25Speaker 2: you floor it and then you just stay on it
- 58:28Speaker 2: until you're airborne and then you let off the throttle
- 58:30Speaker 2: and then it lands and you. Break so it was
- 58:32Speaker 2: a very controlled. Jump the other one was on The baja.
- 58:36Speaker 2: Course it's actually a, dip so it's a big suspension
- 58:39Speaker 2: dip where you would YOU i don't know if you
- 58:43Speaker 2: bottom out or, not but if you do bottom, out
- 58:46Speaker 2: it you don't. Know it absorbs it so. Well but
- 58:50Speaker 2: we had a couple of RUNS i. Had it was
- 58:52Speaker 2: me and two other people in the car and we
- 58:54Speaker 2: would go you Can they just say go as fast
- 58:56Speaker 2: as you. Want so it's that the very last runout
- 58:59Speaker 2: after you're done with all the, turns and you would kind,
- 59:02Speaker 2: of you, know errate off of it and then you'd squish.
- 59:06Speaker 2: Right but then my last RUN i was all by,
- 59:08Speaker 2: myself and so you get a little bit lighter, vehicle you,
- 59:11Speaker 2: know take a couple hundred pounds out AND i and
- 59:16Speaker 2: it's also like the last. Run you, know you can
- 59:18Speaker 2: go a little bit, faster and it's always the last
- 59:20Speaker 2: run that gets. You i'm pretty. Sure i'm pretty SURE
- 59:23Speaker 2: i aired that thing. Out it was it went up
- 59:25Speaker 2: in the air and it landed and you wouldn't even
- 59:28Speaker 2: know the. Difference there was No the suspension modulation is
- 59:32Speaker 2: so good that when it did land it kept tracking
- 59:36Speaker 2: without any additional. EFFORT, Yea so is just really. Excellent,
- 59:41Speaker 2: yeah it's it's an active valve. System it's got five
- 59:44Speaker 2: or six different drive. Modes, cool so it really makes
- 59:48Speaker 2: a difference and you can feel. It sometimes you get
- 59:50Speaker 2: in a vehicle and you go through all the different
- 59:52Speaker 2: modes and you're kind of, LIKE i DON'T i don't
- 59:54Speaker 2: understand what the difference. Is this one is pretty.
- 59:56Speaker 1: Nosey i'm pretty excited about the addition of this Veh,
- 1:00:00Speaker 1: obviously the payloads down a little bit because of all
- 1:00:02Speaker 1: the other hardware and kind of how they set it.
- 1:00:05Speaker 1: Up it's set up where the spring rates are set
- 1:00:08Speaker 1: up to be optimized for high performance as opposed to
- 1:00:11Speaker 1: load capacity like you would have in an, Xlteam.
- 1:00:14Speaker 2: So the towing capacity is a little bit, lower that's. Right.
- 1:00:16Speaker 1: Yeah but in twenty, twenty actually drove A Ford Ranger
- 1:00:22Speaker 1: raptor In South africa and it was so impressive AND i, thought,
- 1:00:27Speaker 1: OH i sure hope that they bring that to The United.
- 1:00:29Speaker 1: States so it's very cool to see it become. Available
- 1:00:33Speaker 1: and WHAT i remember about that vehicle was how capable
- 1:00:36Speaker 1: it was even in low speed technical terrain because the
- 1:00:39Speaker 1: size of the, tires the locking, differential the suspension travel
- 1:00:43Speaker 1: is so, long.
- 1:00:44Speaker 2: And you can put it wherever you. WANT i mean
- 1:00:46Speaker 2: you can really hunt around the, track, yeah to hunt
- 1:00:50Speaker 2: around the track to find your. Line, yeah, sure, Right
- 1:00:52Speaker 2: whereas if you're in a, big full sized, truck you're
- 1:00:55Speaker 2: just kind of there and you just you, know there's
- 1:00:57Speaker 2: alose only one path to, take whereas this, thing you,
- 1:01:01Speaker 2: know you could probably fit two of them side by
- 1:01:03Speaker 2: side on a lot of. Trails how. Fun so you
- 1:01:05Speaker 2: can really pick around rocks and pick your. Line it
- 1:01:08Speaker 2: was a nice driving. Vehicle that, SAID i think it's
- 1:01:13Speaker 2: become a really competitive. Category you, know if you look
- 1:01:16Speaker 2: at the past year LIKE i, Would.
- 1:01:19Speaker 1: Yeah the new stuff From, CHEVROLET.
- 1:01:22Speaker 2: I mean you look at, that you, know The, colorado.
- 1:01:25Speaker 1: The canyon eight FOUR x, yeah.
- 1:01:29Speaker 2: Yeah and all that stuff FROM aev and the and
- 1:01:33Speaker 2: the thirty five from the. Factory that's. Insane LIKE i
- 1:01:37Speaker 2: think for a lot of the like if you're not
- 1:01:40Speaker 2: out there kind of just trying to go fast all the.
- 1:01:42Speaker 2: TIME i think that that that would be the.
- 1:01:45Speaker 1: Solution, yeah because then you know it with just a massive, tire, Right,
- 1:01:48Speaker 1: like you literally don't have to modify it.
- 1:01:50Speaker 2: Anymore you don't touch.
- 1:01:51Speaker 1: It, yeah you don't have you have to touch.
- 1:01:53Speaker 2: It.
- 1:01:53Speaker 1: Yeah what an exciting time in our. Industry you, know
- 1:01:57Speaker 1: to have the New, OVERTRADE, lexusgx to have the New,
- 1:02:02Speaker 1: ranger you, know to have The, grenadier to have all
- 1:02:07Speaker 1: of these vehicles coming, out the new the new Land,
- 1:02:09Speaker 1: cruiser New forerunners, imminent you, know the new the new,
- 1:02:14Speaker 1: uh the New toyota that we've, GOT i mean just
- 1:02:18Speaker 1: all of all of the new stuff that's coming. Out
- 1:02:21Speaker 1: if you look at the New tacoma for, example the
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: New tacoma Trail. HUNTER i, mean there's just a lot
- 1:02:26Speaker 1: of new stuff coming out into the market THAT i
- 1:02:29Speaker 1: think is really exciting and from every, manufacturer like we
- 1:02:33Speaker 1: just talked about WITH gmc and With, chevrolet so across the,
- 1:02:36Speaker 1: board everybody's really doing a good job of building these overland.
- 1:02:40Speaker 1: Vehicles so it's never been a better time if you're
- 1:02:43Speaker 1: in the in the market for a new vehicle than.
- 1:02:45Speaker 2: Now, yeah there's a lot of choices and you, know
- 1:02:48Speaker 2: go gone as many test drives as you. Can, yeah
- 1:02:51Speaker 2: go check them.
- 1:02:51Speaker 1: Out, yeah, absolutely because it.
- 1:02:53Speaker 2: DOES i found that after driving all these different, vehicles
- 1:02:56Speaker 2: it does come down to a lot of personal. Preference oh,
- 1:03:00Speaker 2: yeah for. Sure they can all do what you. Want
- 1:03:03Speaker 2: they can all do more than you. Want mm. Hmm
- 1:03:05Speaker 2: so it's you, know trim packages and what you, need
- 1:03:08Speaker 2: what you don't.
- 1:03:08Speaker 1: Need, yeah and if you like how it looks or,
- 1:03:10Speaker 1: whatever or you know where it's got the aftermarket support
- 1:03:13Speaker 1: that you. Want you, know like if you look at
- 1:03:16Speaker 1: like A gladiator, rubicon it's going to have a totally
- 1:03:20Speaker 1: different degree of capability then you would get in an arranger.
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: Wrapper so it's pretty exciting to see the breadth of
- 1:03:27Speaker 1: options on the market right.
- 1:03:29Speaker 2: Now.
- 1:03:29Speaker 1: Yeah, Cool, well we'll get back together soon because there's
- 1:03:34Speaker 1: still lots and lots to talk.
- 1:03:36Speaker 2: About we've got.
- 1:03:37Speaker 1: We got lots of new things coming onto the. Market
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: we'll try to make sure we're doing these once every
- 1:03:41Speaker 1: month or so so we can keep abreast of all
- 1:03:44Speaker 1: of the new product coming onto the. Market but coming events,
- 1:03:47Speaker 1: seasons that's, Right, Yeah Overland expo will be coming up and.
- 1:03:50Speaker 1: Everything he a lot of new events this year that's.
- 1:03:52Speaker 2: Right, yeah it's pretty.
- 1:03:53Speaker 1: Exciting, Excellent, Brian, well thanks for The, times and we
- 1:03:57Speaker 1: thank you all for listening and we'll talk to you next.
- 1:03:59Speaker 2: Time