Latest / Jeep Talk Show / Tackform Jeep Phone Mounts That Actually Stay Put | Full Interview

Transcript

Tackform Jeep Phone Mounts That Actually Stay Put | Full Interview · Jeep Talk Show

0:03
I hope boys and girls it's time for
0:05
another Jeep talk show interview.
0:07
We're going to be talking with
0:08
Nick, Nick with tack form.com.
0:11
I know you've heard of it before your
0:12
eyeball and stuff so that you can mount
0:14
your phone and other things. So anyway,
0:16
Nick has been designing and producing
0:18
phone and device mounts since 2012.
0:22
He started in 2012. Wasn't that supposed
0:24
to be the end of the world? Wasn't that,
0:27
yeah, you were still here though. That
0:28
was the beginning of our world. So,
0:30
well no it's CERN, CERN
0:31
turned on their thing and we,
0:33
we jumped into another universe. Uh, so
0:36
we jumped into one. Yeah.
0:37
So I see this stuff on tape. We jumped
0:40
into another universe.
0:41
So that old intro universe ended like it
0:43
was supposed to. Anyway,
0:46
he started in the consumer space and
0:48
later moved into device mounting for
0:50
motorcycles and commercial trucks.
0:52
Then from there pivoted into pickup
0:54
trucks and SUVs. I'm
0:55
assuming that would be
0:56
the, the, the Jeeps, uh, that,
0:58
that part would be the Jeeps.
1:00
Yeah. So you can go
1:02
over to tack form.com.
1:04
That's T a C K form.com
1:07
and see all the goodies, uh,
1:09
that, uh, that Nick and his team have
1:11
over there. Nick,
1:12
thanks a lot for joining
1:13
us. Cool, man. Thanks for having me.
1:16
Sure. Thanks for having me.
1:17
So I would think, I think the space is
1:20
probably pretty crowded now,
1:21
but I would think that
1:22
that's an easy thing to, um,
1:26
if you're going to be making something,
1:28
phone holders is an easy thing. No
1:31
brainer. As far as this should be a good
1:33
selling product. Everybody,
1:35
nobody wants to have their phone in their
1:36
lap or in the cup holder and get stuff
1:39
spilled on or it's
1:40
cracked or something like that.
1:42
And you want to have
1:42
it up in front of you,
1:43
especially if you're using
1:45
a Google maps to navigate
1:48
places. You got to have it up there in or
1:50
in front of you, right?
1:51
Oh yeah. 100%. And you know, it's a, it's
1:53
a good market. I mean,
1:55
there's everyone with a
1:56
vehicle wants to mount their phone,
1:58
even with the new car plays.
2:00
Sometimes people, you know,
2:01
just don't want to have their device in
2:02
their pocket. And, um, you know,
2:05
of course what makes like the Jeep
2:06
community and
2:07
off-road community different
2:09
is they're mounting
2:10
switch panels, radios, um,
2:14
you know, GoPro cameras, phones, tablets,
2:16
for on X and just, just
2:18
about everything. So, so,
2:21
and I think they're a little
2:22
bit more abusive, you know,
2:24
on, on the parts where like, if you were
2:26
driving a, you know, a Camry,
2:28
you could just use a suction cup mountain
2:30
in the windshield. But when you're, uh,
2:31
and no offense if you do this too, but
2:33
those vents for the AC vents,
2:35
the little holders for the AC vents, I
2:37
think that's a horrible idea on a Jeep.
2:39
That's bouncing around.
2:40
Yeah. No, they're no good,
2:42
especially with the Jeep.
2:42
Like a lot of the way those vent blades
2:44
are configured, they just, you know,
2:46
they swivel and twist. It just doesn't
2:48
work good for anybody. Right. Yeah.
2:51
So, um, the, um, yeah, the car play, man,
2:55
don't even get me started on that.
2:56
I guess you've been hearing about the
2:58
subscriptions that all the car,
3:01
car manufacturers were
3:02
talking about coming out with.
3:03
And yeah, I haven't had to deal with it
3:05
yet. I just use my phone, you know, but
3:07
they want to charge for the
3:10
car play or the Android play.
3:12
They want to charge for using that. It's
3:14
not, I think the GM,
3:15
it doesn't come in there anymore unless
3:17
you pay for it. And I never,
3:20
I never use it because in the gladiator,
3:22
I have a 2021 gladiator
3:23
and it's not wireless.
3:25
I have to run a USB cord
3:27
and the hell with that.
3:28
I don't have a cord all moved, moved
3:31
around and stuff. Oh,
3:31
that was what I was going to ask you.
3:33
So I could not find whenever I was
3:36
setting my gladiator up in 2021,
3:38
when we got it, I wanted to set it up for
3:40
two phone holders. Uh,
3:42
and I wanted to be able to, uh, put the
3:44
phone up to the thing and it grab it,
3:47
you know, it senses it and it grabs it.
3:49
And I didn't want to have to plug a cable
3:51
into it because you know, those,
3:52
those USB C's or any of the USB is the
3:55
wear out over time, uh,
3:56
especially if you're plugging in and
3:58
plugging it, plugging in, plug it.
3:59
So, uh, I, uh, made mine wireless. So
4:03
it's an inductive charger,
4:04
both of them are. So it grabs it and
4:06
charges it. And I could not find that.
4:08
I had to piece it
4:09
together, uh, from stuff on Amazon.
4:13
Do you have something that does inductive
4:15
charging and grabs the phone
4:16
automatically? Yeah. That's a little
4:17
thing. And, um, and cause if that was,
4:20
that was a, apparently the year 3000
4:23
engineering that I was doing,
4:24
cause it wasn't available anywhere.
4:26
Yeah. Yeah. No, we have it. It exists.
4:29
It's like, uh, what's, uh,
4:30
what's interesting about like our website
4:33
or building these kinds of dash kits
4:35
is for instance, we have, you have a
4:38
certain year, make, and model Jeep.
4:40
So you need to select
4:40
a dashboard bracket.
4:43
Then we have two different types. We have
4:46
like a slim track, we call it,
4:47
which is just a minimalist track. And
4:49
then we have our assault track,
4:50
which is like a picatinny rail. And then
4:53
you can select arm type carbon or black,
4:55
and then you could select your color.
4:57
And then there's a whole array of
4:58
holders. So it could be,
5:00
some people just want a spring cradle.
5:01
You might want wireless charging.
5:03
Some people want mag safe or magnetic or
5:05
tech. So when you're,
5:07
when you're trying to find these parts,
5:09
like it's hard to just hit,
5:10
add to cart and have a kit that has
5:13
everything you need. Really.
5:14
There's like some, there's like a
5:16
builder. So you have to go through and,
5:17
you know, select what you want and
5:19
continue to add on your accessories.
5:20
So sometimes like for us at a glance, you
5:24
might look and be like, Oh,
5:24
I don't think they
5:25
have this specific thing,
5:27
but if you go and
5:27
build the kit from scratch,
5:29
we have just about everything covered,
5:31
but I think you were way ahead of your
5:32
time back then, you know,
5:34
I just wanted what I want. And also too,
5:36
I didn't run any of the power stuff
5:37
outside the, outside the dash.
5:39
Pulled the dash out and ran it down to
5:41
the cigarette lighter and got the 12,
5:43
got the 12 volt off of that and then put
5:45
it into the, uh, what is it?
5:47
Five volt that for the
5:48
USB, whatever the, uh,
5:49
the adapter is from 12 to five or 12 to
5:52
three or whatever it is and put that on
5:53
there. So it's all hidden. It all looks
5:56
great. I do not have, uh,
5:58
the tack form mounting set up.
6:00
I have another manufacturers that was
6:02
popular at that time. Uh,
6:04
but I understand what you're talking
6:06
about with a little carbon tubes.
6:08
Sure.
6:09
It's a thing out there where you want to
6:10
adjust it. It's
6:11
wonderful. And if, if, uh,
6:14
if you take the time to run the wiring
6:15
where it's out of
6:16
sight, it looks factory.
6:19
Uh, and, uh, I mean, not everybody cares
6:21
about their Jeep doing that,
6:22
but this is the first new Jeep I've had
6:24
in 25 years. So, uh,
6:26
and I did it rough in the, the XJ. I
6:29
didn't want to do it
6:29
rough in the Gladiator.
6:31
It looks really nice. And that's the nice
6:33
thing about products.
6:33
Like what you guys have is you can make
6:36
it look professional.
6:38
Yeah, it's nice. One thing I'd like to
6:40
see with, I mean, with your, uh,
6:42
Gladiator 2021, you're able to mount
6:45
without drilling any holes,
6:46
just tapping into some of the OEM
6:48
mounting holes. And then in 2024,
6:51
they had like actual
6:52
mounting provisions in the dash.
6:54
That's nice.
6:56
Yeah. So there's already like mounting
6:57
holes up there ready to go.
6:59
But what I'd like to see is power up top,
7:01
you know, like it's,
7:03
it's running the powers is fine,
7:05
but it'd be nice if they had like high
7:06
powered type C charging ports.
7:09
Cause a lot of times in the dash they'll
7:11
put, you know, a USB plug,
7:13
but it's typically to plug into CarPlay.
7:15
It doesn't put out enough power to,
7:16
you know, properly power a wireless
7:18
charger. Right. But, um,
7:20
but that's cool that you
7:21
want out of the way to get,
7:22
get it wired up and dialed in, you know?
7:25
Well, and also too, it's nice for, for
7:27
folks like you at Tacform,
7:28
you come up with a solution where people
7:31
don't have to understand, uh,
7:33
basic electricity,
7:34
basic electronics and
7:36
having relays and, uh, having it,
7:39
uh, having it protected
7:40
with fuses and all the,
7:42
and even the size of the wire, uh, can
7:45
play into it. I mean,
7:46
they're in the dash, it's all really
7:47
close. So it's not that, that,
7:49
not that important, but a
7:50
lot of people don't understand.
7:52
You can't take a 16 gauge wire and run it
7:54
30 feet and actually get 12 volts at
7:57
it at the end. Because they're going to
8:00
get there and the amperage certainly
8:01
isn't going to get there.
8:02
So, um, but, uh, yeah, I mean,
8:04
when you put a kit
8:05
together, uh, for people,
8:06
it really makes a big
8:07
difference and you're right.
8:09
If there was power up top there, it'd
8:11
make it even, even easier for the end.
8:13
Yeah. Yeah. I love it. It's been,
8:15
it's a cool market too because over the
8:17
past few years there's so much
8:19
competition in the space. It actually
8:22
makes it better, you know,
8:23
because there's more, there's more
8:25
innovation, you know,
8:26
you get a lot of like replication too
8:28
that exists, you know, um,
8:30
which is fine. Um, but yeah, there's just
8:33
so much innovation. So many,
8:34
you know, especially in the Jeep, like if
8:36
you have, um, I don't know,
8:38
we'll say like a Ford F 150,
8:40
sometimes there's a couple options like
8:42
you'll mount your phone or tablet off
8:43
the dash, but with Jeep guys are putting
8:46
devices everywhere. You know,
8:47
they're mounting on grab handles on the
8:49
sound bar, uh, you know,
8:51
off the dash off the center console. So
8:53
it's cool. And, and people,
8:55
and there's like enough different devices
8:57
and comms and things that people want
8:59
where you can, you know, it actually
9:01
makes sense. You know,
9:02
they're not just like
9:03
accessorizing their truck. Like,
9:04
well, I think some of that stuff is
9:06
they're bored and this is a lot cheaper
9:08
than buying a bigger tires and a new axle
9:11
and gears and all that stuff.
9:12
But hey, I can put another mountain on
9:14
the dash. That'll be cool.
9:16
So you get into the modification of fever
9:19
of modifying the, uh,
9:20
modifying Jeep speaking amounts.
9:22
Are y'all doing anything for Starlink
9:24
mounts? Cause I mean,
9:26
Jeep is great for that
9:27
with the fiberglass tops or
9:29
Yeah, we do. Well, so we, we, uh,
9:32
we basically have the parts and
9:34
components to build the kit.
9:37
So what we've seen a lot of people doing
9:39
on our website is grabbing,
9:42
um, like a 20 millimeter ball and arm and
9:45
then a Starlink kit and
9:46
mounting it, you know, in the rear, uh,
9:49
right up through the fiberglass top.
9:51
Yeah. And it seems to be
9:53
pretty bolt on and plug and play.
9:56
Um, but nothing on the dash. I mean, we
9:58
have guys that ask, you know, like,
9:59
Hey, can you, yeah, can you, can we mount
10:01
the Starlink up there?
10:02
I'm like, it doesn't
10:03
really work, but people try it.
10:05
I think they're thinking the glass,
10:07
getting the signal back and forth through
10:08
the glass and they don't know about the
10:10
fiberglass portion,
10:11
which the fiberglass is,
10:13
is probably better than class as far as
10:14
getting the radio signal back and forth.
10:17
Oh yeah. And on the dash, like it's hard
10:20
to angle the, you know,
10:22
the Starlink the way
10:23
you need it, you know,
10:24
it says you should have it on like, I
10:25
think a 15 degree angle or something,
10:27
but I don't know. I
10:28
don't think it's necessary.
10:29
We have guys that just pin
10:30
it up to the top and it works.
10:31
You gotta have, I mean, especially
10:32
mobile, you have to
10:33
have some leverage there.
10:35
I mean, especially if
10:36
you're going off road,
10:37
I think it'd be so much fun and I'm sure
10:39
people have already done it,
10:40
but have the, uh, the Starlink set up and
10:42
you're out there at Moab or, uh,
10:45
uh, on the other root con trail and
10:47
you're just like, uh,
10:48
doing streaming live on
10:50
YouTube and the, you know,
10:52
I'm doing the Rubicon trail.
10:53
I'm going to be filming for the next 45
10:54
hours and then watch the trip for sure.
10:59
Yeah. I love it. It's a game changer.
11:01
Yeah. Internet. Um, so, um,
11:04
I don't know. I mean, you know, the, you
11:06
know your market better than I do,
11:07
but I would think that a ready made kit
11:09
for installing Starlinks would probably
11:12
increase the amount of Starlinks that go
11:14
out there. Everybody likes it easy.
11:17
You know, we were talking about power up
11:19
on the, on the, on the dash.
11:20
Everybody likes it easy.
11:21
And then when you just have to really
11:22
start thinking about it,
11:23
it's not as interesting.
11:25
So--
11:25
Yeah, yeah.
11:27
They need like just an add
11:28
to cart option, you know?
11:29
Like, oh, this will work
11:30
for my Jeep right here.
11:31
Yeah, this is--
11:32
Well, you know, most,
11:33
oh, I'm sorry, go ahead.
11:34
That's all right, I was gonna go,
11:35
yeah, this has already
11:36
been thought through.
11:37
All I have to do is install it.
11:39
And I think it's more likely to happen.
11:42
Yeah, with a lot of our parts,
11:45
most of what we have for
11:46
phone and Jeep or tablet
11:48
or CB radio, it revolves
11:51
around a 20 millimeter ball
11:52
and socket.
11:54
And certain ball sizes
11:56
have like load capacities
11:58
or thresholds that
12:00
you don't wanna go over.
12:01
Because if you, you know,
12:02
like a 20 millimeter ball,
12:04
we say you can put an
12:05
arm up to seven inches long
12:07
with a device up to two
12:09
pounds in a mobile environment.
12:11
But when it starts getting like more
12:13
aggressive than that,
12:14
or there's heavier loads,
12:15
the ball and socket can slip.
12:17
It's like designed to have
12:18
a breakaway point, you know?
12:21
So for the Starlink, it's
12:23
really better to go up to like,
12:26
the 20, what we have
12:27
is called a 26 series,
12:29
which is a little bit bigger of a ball.
12:31
And you can put a
12:33
much heavier load on it.
12:34
And if you're like
12:35
hammering it through trails,
12:36
even with a longer arm,
12:38
it's not gonna slip or move,
12:39
you know, so yeah, but the
12:42
hard part is once people,
12:44
you know, you buy a
12:45
dash kit for your vehicle,
12:46
you're mounting your
12:47
phone, your CB, this, that,
12:49
you wanna stay within
12:50
that 20 millimeter ecosystem
12:51
because you're like, you know,
12:53
collecting parts like Lego.
12:55
So you have them, you
12:56
know, for down the road.
12:56
So I don't know.
12:58
Yeah, it's like buying a
12:59
one DeWalt drill or something.
13:01
And now you're married to the batteries.
13:04
I don't wanna get Milwaukee.
13:06
Yeah, so for us, like
13:07
with commercial trucking,
13:09
we have a bigger ball system
13:11
because it just takes so
13:13
much more abuse over time.
13:14
Even though the ball and socket is metal,
13:17
if it slips, like if
13:19
you're repositioning the mount
13:21
without loosening the ball and socket,
13:24
and it starts to wear, you
13:26
know, you just don't want that.
13:27
You want the ball and
13:28
socket to be locked out.
13:29
So like in commercial
13:30
trucking, we have a bigger ball.
13:32
But in vehicles, mostly 20 millimeter,
13:34
but with the Starlink,
13:35
really 26 is kind of like
13:37
the way to go.
13:39
Interesting, I didn't realize that.
13:40
I mean, you can get
13:40
away with 20, it's fine.
13:41
You just have to like
13:42
torque the heck out of the ball
13:44
and socket joint and it works,
13:46
but it's kind of at the
13:48
max of what we would say like
13:50
is the recommended load on the 20
13:52
millimeter, you know.
13:53
Now you mentioned CBs.
13:55
I think that the big thing now,
13:58
at least in the Jeep community is GMRS.
14:02
Especially when you
14:02
just look at antenna size
14:04
and a lot less noise.
14:07
So that was the other
14:08
thing I put on my mount was
14:10
I put a place where I could put the face
14:12
because I had a
14:12
removable face for the GMRS.
14:16
So I had another mount
14:18
where I've got the face
14:19
in between the two phone holders.
14:22
And so I've got the thing, you know,
14:23
pointing towards me and
14:24
then I can move it around
14:25
and so on and so forth.
14:27
Do you guys have
14:28
anything for like GMRS or,
14:31
I guess with the CB,
14:32
I don't know of any CB
14:33
that has a removable face.
14:35
And I just don't
14:35
think there's enough room
14:36
for a full size CB on the dash.
14:38
Well, even just like the GMRS handhelds
14:41
or like a Midland, you
14:42
know, like one of the MXTs
14:43
or the GME radio or whatever.
14:46
But they, so a lot of those
14:49
come with like a U bracket.
14:53
So in the kit to hold like
14:55
the radio portion itself.
14:57
So that can be mounted
14:59
to any of our dash tracks
15:01
like pretty easily.
15:03
But what's cool that we've been doing
15:05
is we launched a new
15:06
line of magnetic attachments
15:08
for like the handheld.
15:10
So if you have a walkie
15:11
talkie or the microphone
15:12
and it typically has either
15:13
a clip or that hanger button
15:15
where you have to go and hang it up.
15:16
Right.
15:17
You can remove that
15:18
button and install a magnet
15:20
or remove the clip and install a magnet.
15:24
So we just launched
15:25
that family of product
15:26
like a month ago and it's been great.
15:30
We've been doing it for Midland,
15:31
like for the MXT 275 and 575,
15:33
we've had a magnetic
15:34
option for, you know,
15:36
a couple of years now.
15:38
But now that we're
15:38
rolling it out to everything,
15:39
it's nice because we have a whole,
15:41
we're like starting to
15:42
build the ecosystem out.
15:43
So yeah, I don't know.
15:45
That's kind of, it's
15:46
one of our cooler projects
15:48
that we've been wrapped up lately.
15:50
Where do you come up with your ideas?
15:51
Is it just by use and
15:52
you think of things,
15:53
you get feedback from people and say,
15:55
it would be nice that if we
15:56
could do so on and so forth.
15:58
Because you have to plan ahead.
16:00
You can't just say, okay, and build it.
16:02
You know, like you said,
16:03
you're coming up with
16:04
a full line of things.
16:05
So that requires some
16:07
planning the whole nine yards.
16:09
Yeah, definitely customers are big.
16:12
Competition, you know,
16:14
you look to see what
16:14
other people are doing.
16:15
But really the bigger part of it is just,
16:17
I think when you're in the mindset of
16:21
developing products every day,
16:23
you're just what, like,
16:24
that's all you think about.
16:25
You know, so every day you're,
16:26
we're coming in and sitting with
16:27
engineering and design
16:28
saying like, what can we
16:29
do that's new and different?
16:30
Like it's good to,
16:32
if a new vehicle comes out,
16:34
you have to make a solution for it.
16:36
Like you have to have a amount, right?
16:38
And there's always like that race,
16:40
like who's first to market, you know,
16:42
and you're like playing that game.
16:43
But for like holders and, you know,
16:47
phone holders and CB radio holders and
16:49
switch panel mounts,
16:50
like a lot of that stuff,
16:52
we try to take a new approach.
16:55
You know, we just, we
16:55
look at everything and say,
16:56
how can we make it, we make it better.
16:59
And there's definitely
16:59
not a shortage of ideas.
17:02
Like if we had more
17:03
engineers and more time,
17:05
like we would probably be
17:06
pumping out way more than we have,
17:08
but there's like, there's
17:09
like a laundry list of new ideas
17:11
and new things we want to tackle.
17:13
And then it's just, you know,
17:14
you put the hammer down every day,
17:16
try to get it, try to get
17:17
everything done, you know?
17:18
So, but yeah, like
17:19
customers are great, you know,
17:20
customer feedback is huge.
17:23
But yeah, I think it's just
17:24
when you're in the mindset
17:25
of innovating and
17:27
developing and improving,
17:29
it just kind of, it's like you haven't,
17:31
I don't know, the ideas
17:32
just keep flowing to be honest.
17:33
So this has to be, you
17:36
must get a lot of suggestions
17:38
and you have to have a dumb one.
17:41
What is the dumbest idea
17:43
that you've ever heard?
17:45
And of course you didn't make it,
17:46
but what's the dumbest
17:48
idea that you've heard?
17:49
Oh man.
17:51
I don't know, we have funny ones.
17:53
I don't know if they're dumb
17:54
ones, but they're funny ones.
17:54
Funny is fine, I don't
17:55
know what you call it.
17:56
So like we had a guy
17:57
today, a buddy of mine,
17:58
he went through like the drive-through
18:01
and wanted to mount his dipping sauce.
18:03
So he's like, you need
18:03
to make a billet aluminum,
18:05
little holder for my dipping sauce.
18:08
I don't know, we had a guy that took,
18:13
he had a can of peanuts and
18:14
he bought our MagSafe charger
18:16
and he threw the can of peanuts up there.
18:20
So yeah, it's funny, we
18:21
get all types of goofy stuff.
18:23
A lot of it is where you see like,
18:26
I don't wanna say bad ideas,
18:28
but where things start to get crazy
18:31
is we have a ball and socket
18:32
system, we have connectors.
18:34
So you can make the arms like longer.
18:36
And it's like where it starts to stretch
18:38
is where people wanna mount like cameras,
18:40
like feet off of- Oh like adapters,
18:41
what you're talking about
18:42
where you can put an adapter.
18:43
Yeah, I got you.
18:44
Yeah, they want a daisy chain parts,
18:45
but like- Of course.
18:47
Because you have like a load capacity,
18:48
you have to like be careful.
18:50
And then there's airbag
18:51
deployment zones and things
18:52
like you have to like keep out zones,
18:53
you have to make sure people are not,
18:54
or they know better to
18:55
like not put things there.
18:59
Yeah, like little rhinestones and stuff
19:02
that the women will put on the air.
19:04
Ma'am, that's a
19:05
claymore that you're building.
19:06
Yeah, that's a good example.
19:08
Like we have guys like, oh, it'd be cool
19:09
if we had an adhesive thing you could put
19:11
on the steering wheel.
19:11
So my phone is right in front of me,
19:13
like, I don't know about that.
19:16
So yeah, we get some crazy ideas, but-
19:20
So you mentioned when vehicles come out,
19:23
I can imagine that
19:25
that's a pivotal moment
19:27
because there may be people that don't
19:29
have any phone holders
19:30
or they've got those vent holder ones
19:32
or something slacky type stuff.
19:35
But if they get like a brand new F250
19:38
and you got them out ready to go,
19:43
generally speaking,
19:44
when people get a product
19:45
that they like, they're
19:46
gonna stick with that company.
19:48
So like you said, to be the first on it.
19:51
So my question to you is,
19:53
what do you do with all
19:54
the vehicles that you buy
19:55
so that you can build product for?
19:58
Oh man, stockpile them.
20:00
No, we use a bag and bump for vehicles.
20:03
That's the hardest part.
20:05
Sometimes we get like OEM CAD files,
20:08
which is super nice.
20:09
Oh, that's nice, yeah.
20:10
You can build things perfect.
20:14
Sometimes, like for
20:16
Bronco, Tacoma, Sprinter,
20:18
like they're vehicles we needed anyway,
20:20
so like we bought them.
20:23
But usually it's like,
20:26
you build a
20:27
relationship with a dealership
20:29
and they, but you come in
20:30
and scan, but it's still hard.
20:32
Like a brand new Sierra comes out, right?
20:35
They change the dash style.
20:36
Of course.
20:37
And it's a real expensive truck.
20:40
And then you find a guy that has one
20:42
and invite him over to the office.
20:44
Even if you pay, like you
20:45
could pay him or whatever.
20:46
You cook him a big turkey dinner
20:48
so he falls asleep and then
20:49
you can go molest his truck.
20:51
Yeah, that's what I should do.
20:52
But their eyes of like
20:53
when you walk out there
20:54
with the pry tool and the
20:56
scanner, you know, they're like,
20:57
you know, they don't
20:59
like that, you know, so.
21:00
Buy me dinner first, yeah.
21:01
Yeah, it's hard because you have to know
21:03
what's under the dash too
21:05
and what you're mounting to.
21:06
Like some guys build dash brackets
21:08
and they'll just bolt it to pla,
21:10
like here's a plastic
21:11
tray, let's bolt it to it.
21:14
But you really have to know
21:15
what's under there, you know?
21:16
And what you're mounting it to
21:17
and how thick the material is.
21:19
And if that vehicle
21:20
has different trim levels
21:21
with different size monitors,
21:24
the available space behind
21:26
the tray could be more or less.
21:28
So really, it's rough, you know?
21:31
Like we'll get a car here,
21:33
we'll scan it, inspect it.
21:35
If they let us pop
21:35
off panels, we do that.
21:37
And then we go through the design process
21:39
which can take a week
21:40
or two or a few days.
21:42
It just depends with some iterations.
21:43
But then we have to get the vehicle back
21:45
to test like a 3D
21:47
printed or prototype part.
21:49
So we might not get the
21:50
vehicle back for another month,
21:51
month and a half.
21:52
You know, finally it
21:54
comes in, it might fit,
21:55
it might not fit.
21:57
If it doesn't fit, you make some changes
21:59
and like that can
22:00
drag on for a long time.
22:02
Sometimes it could take six months to
22:03
knock something out.
22:04
You know, it's really
22:05
short stints of work,
22:06
but over a long period of time.
22:09
And then there's other times
22:10
where you just hit the mark,
22:11
like on the first
22:12
shot, you, I don't know,
22:15
it's just obvious like
22:17
how to attach, you know.
22:20
And because our system's all metal,
22:22
like we wanna make sure
22:23
that we're maintaining
22:26
the integrity of the ball and socket,
22:27
like the load capacity
22:29
and integrity of the ball
22:30
and socket system from
22:31
the base to the holder.
22:32
Like we would never, in
22:33
certain scenarios we do it,
22:35
but we try to stay away from mounting
22:36
like a heavy metal plate onto plastic
22:39
with all these metal parts.
22:40
Because then what good is it?
22:42
Like you're only, it's
22:43
only as stable as like,
22:45
it's only as good as the
22:46
weakest link, you know.
22:47
So if you're mounting
22:49
a heavy solid platform
22:50
on a piece of plastic that just flexes
22:52
and the whole arms moving, it's like
22:54
we've failed, you know.
22:55
I bet you guys have a lot,
22:57
you have to go through a lot
22:58
to make sure things don't vibrate.
23:00
Because I would think
23:01
that objects vibrating
23:03
can get really irritating,
23:05
especially if it's like a tablet
23:07
and you're trying to look at it.
23:09
Now, you know, your drive train may need,
23:12
and your tires may need to
23:13
be balanced and so forth,
23:14
but in a pristine
23:16
vehicle, it shouldn't vibrate.
23:18
Do you find that difficult
23:20
to keep things stationary,
23:21
especially whenever you have a long arm?
23:24
Yeah, it's super like
23:26
dependent on the vehicle, you know.
23:30
And we do stuff like in the Jeep,
23:32
in like your
23:32
Gladiator, we have a test where,
23:35
so there's different types of,
23:36
different ways to
23:37
approach building a mount.
23:39
So a lot of the
23:39
Gladiator mounts that you see,
23:41
they sit in the tray.
23:42
I imagine yours sits
23:43
inside the plastic tray, right?
23:46
Yeah.
23:47
So when you put a long arm on it
23:49
and pull the cradle down,
23:53
there's a little bit of deflection,
23:55
like it'll flex a little bit,
23:56
because the tray itself is flexing.
23:59
Right, because I mean, the
24:00
plastic that it's attached to
24:01
isn't rigid like a
24:03
metal or something, right?
24:05
Yeah, so what we did is like,
24:07
instead of having ours sit in the tray,
24:09
it sits on top of the tray
24:10
and around the perimeter of it.
24:11
So it basically like
24:14
spreads out the load.
24:16
So, and then what we'll do
24:17
is we'll take a suction cup
24:18
and stick it to the windshield.
24:21
And you could measure like you just pull,
24:24
like, you know, pull
24:26
with five pounds of load
24:27
to see how much deflection
24:28
there is on a seven inch arm.
24:30
So we can compare to see, you know,
24:34
you can kind of see it in advance.
24:35
Like you can just grab it and pull,
24:37
you don't need to do all that,
24:38
but it's like, that's what
24:38
the engineers like to do.
24:39
You don't really see it after.
24:41
Yeah, no, having specifics
24:41
so that you can engineer
24:42
specifically what you need.
24:44
Don't over engineer it.
24:46
Yeah, and you want to
24:47
stay away from long arms.
24:48
Like we, in certain
24:50
scenarios like Bronco,
24:51
put their accessory ready mounting hole.
24:53
I shouldn't say that
24:53
on the Jeep talk show,
24:54
but they put the
24:55
accessory ready mounting hole
24:56
very far back.
24:57
So if you want to mount devices
24:59
and you build a bracket in the back,
25:01
you have to have long arms.
25:03
And when you do that,
25:04
you just want to come up
25:05
with a way to try to rest them,
25:07
you know, so they're sitting on the dash.
25:09
Like you can make them float,
25:11
but you get like, it's
25:12
not huge vibration you get,
25:14
but when you're driving down the street
25:15
and there's just a
25:16
little bit of vibration.
25:17
Well, it depends on the individual.
25:19
You know, some people won't care,
25:21
other people will care.
25:22
And then, you know,
25:24
it's hard when they call in
25:26
or text you, it's hard
25:27
to say, live with it.
25:29
No, you can't.
25:30
Right. Yeah, you can't say that.
25:32
Well, I think a lot of
25:33
people don't consider this.
25:34
She's like, I got a great idea.
25:36
I can make this, I got a 3D printer.
25:38
I can just make this.
25:39
And then it's like, yeah,
25:41
there's so much more to it
25:42
because there's, you
25:44
want a lot of customers
25:45
and a lot of customers are going to have
25:46
a lot of different opinions.
25:49
Yeah, yeah, it's true.
25:50
It's true.
25:51
I mean, you have to,
25:52
for us, it's about being patient.
25:54
Like we're not trying
25:54
to rush into the market,
25:56
like with the new
25:58
solution for every vehicle.
25:59
We really try to take our time
26:01
to make sure it's fleshed out.
26:02
And what's cool too, because we're small,
26:04
we iterate on every shipment.
26:07
So like our Jeep, JL or Gladiator mount,
26:12
we're probably on our
26:13
fourth iteration, you know?
26:15
Like the first one we
26:16
did was sheet metal.
26:18
And then it went from
26:18
sheet metal to billet.
26:20
And then we changed the way that it
26:21
attached to the dash
26:23
to just make the installation
26:25
a little bit easier on the customer.
26:27
And then like on the last shipment,
26:29
we moved the slot where
26:31
our track ball goes in
26:32
because the location where
26:34
you could drop the track ball in
26:36
was in a location that a lot of people
26:38
wanted to mount their device.
26:39
So like, yeah, we're
26:40
constantly iterating.
26:42
And when you make parts out of billet,
26:45
instead of like
26:46
injection molded composite parts,
26:49
those changes are easier.
26:50
Like we're not married to tooling,
26:53
like where we have a
26:54
big tooling investment
26:55
and we don't want to make a change.
26:57
So for certain things we
26:59
have tooling, of course,
27:00
but for certain parts,
27:02
we'll just continue to iterate for the
27:04
life of the product.
27:05
I mean, hopefully we hit
27:05
the mark on the first time
27:06
and don't have to, but you always,
27:08
like a new vehicle launches,
27:10
we have to build a part based on
27:13
what we think the customer wants.
27:15
But then when they start using it
27:17
and give you real world feedback,
27:20
you wanna try to
27:21
accommodate or make it better.
27:22
Right.
27:23
Well, it's just that fewer
27:24
amount of customer requests
27:27
or customer complaints.
27:29
So when you say billet,
27:30
I mean, I understand what billet is,
27:32
but I don't know that I initially
27:33
understand how it's made.
27:34
Is that all CNC?
27:36
So you literally take a big hunk of metal
27:38
and CNC it into the
27:40
shape that you want it?
27:41
Yeah, so they'll take a block
27:43
and then they'll, yeah,
27:44
just take a milling bit
27:45
and kind of mill out the parts,
27:47
you know, put the track versus like
27:51
if it's cast or injection
27:52
molded, like you'll have a mold
27:54
or a tooling or a mold.
27:55
I got a buddy of mine
27:56
that makes door pockets
27:58
for the JL and the JT.
28:01
And he spent 120 grand
28:03
on having the mold made
28:07
so they could inject it, mold it.
28:08
They're really, really nice,
28:10
but I couldn't
28:10
believe that that, you know,
28:12
that cost that much,
28:14
because it's a huge hunk of metal
28:16
that they're injecting stuff into.
28:18
And makes changes very difficult,
28:21
but I just, the CNC,
28:24
I would think that that would be slower
28:26
and more expensive in the long run.
28:28
It's not.
28:30
It depends on volume.
28:31
So like if you have high volume parts,
28:35
if you invest in tooling,
28:37
the unit cost could be much lower,
28:40
but you have to produce a higher volume
28:42
to amortize the tooling costs.
28:44
Sure, sure.
28:45
If you have-
28:45
You've got to pay for the tool.
28:47
Yeah, when you have a CNC machined,
28:50
like say we make a dash
28:51
bracket out of a billet slab,
28:54
you don't need to make a lot of them.
28:55
We can make a couple hundred,
28:56
see how it works out, you know?
28:58
And when you're making changes,
29:00
you're not changing
29:01
the, you know, the tool,
29:03
you're just changing the
29:04
programming and the drill bit.
29:06
Well, I can certainly
29:07
understand 3D printing something
29:09
and you test it,
29:10
you have an actual physical item
29:12
that you can, you know,
29:13
move around and touch,
29:14
put it up there, is it
29:15
gonna fit like it's supposed to?
29:17
And then maybe doing
29:18
the CNC for some runs.
29:20
But I would think, I guess, like you say,
29:21
it just really depends on
29:22
how many you're selling.
29:23
And I don't know how
29:24
far it goes before you go,
29:26
should have done a tool for that.
29:29
We should have done an
29:29
injected molding for that.
29:31
I like the idea of the billet.
29:32
The billet looks cool.
29:33
I mean, it looks high
29:35
quality, which it is, you know?
29:37
But-
29:37
Yeah, it is cool.
29:40
You know, like I like that.
29:41
I mean, it's not,
29:42
for me, it's not just about function.
29:43
Like function is super important,
29:46
but even in our like arms or couplers,
29:49
we call them the knobs,
29:50
like we put a lot of
29:51
design intent into it
29:52
to make it look good.
29:53
Not just function.
29:56
It needs to function, but I don't know.
29:58
I just, I like,
30:01
really every vehicle
30:02
is different, you know?
30:03
And if a new, say Jeep
30:05
changes their interior for 2027,
30:10
and we want to make a grab handle mount,
30:13
like something unique
30:14
that's kind of oddly shaped,
30:16
and it would cost a lot to machine,
30:19
then tooling it up would be great.
30:22
Because we might have
30:24
four or five or six years
30:26
of that vehicle in production where we
30:28
can continue to sell.
30:30
But sometimes, like we got a lot of
30:33
requests for a TJ mount,
30:36
you know, which is an older vehicle,
30:37
but there's still a
30:38
lot of them on the road,
30:39
and there's like a cult
30:40
following around the TJ,
30:41
and people love it.
30:42
Yeah, we got two in the driveway.
30:44
Yeah, so it,
30:47
something like that,
30:48
it's like we question,
30:49
do we do bill it or do we, you know,
30:52
it just depends on the part.
30:53
You know, like what's the
30:53
shape of the parts flat?
30:54
I would think that
30:54
they've been out of production
30:56
for so long that, you know,
30:57
you really don't want
30:59
to make a bunch of them.
31:00
As I would imagine,
31:01
there's not a lot of
31:02
people gonna buy them.
31:03
And that was the only
31:04
thing I was gonna ask you,
31:06
is I'm glad you mentioned TJ.
31:09
So I'm sure you do, you
31:11
handle the JLs and the JTs,
31:13
and I'm talking about
31:14
specific fitting parts.
31:17
I'm sure you have like a universal kit
31:20
that you can make work.
31:22
But what do you have
31:23
that specifically fits
31:25
the various Jeeps, like
31:27
the TJ, the YJ, the XJ?
31:29
Do you have anything
31:29
for those specific Jeeps?
31:32
No, we're working our way backwards.
31:34
We have like the, you know,
31:35
obviously the new gladiators and JLs,
31:39
the previous version where the dash
31:41
was a little bit different.
31:42
And then JK we have.
31:47
And then like the earlier JK, like the,
31:50
I don't wanna call them newer JKs,
31:51
but there's JKs with
31:53
two different interiors.
31:54
You know, some have
31:55
like a pocket at the top,
31:56
some are flat.
31:58
So the one with the pocket,
32:00
we have a good solution for.
32:01
And then behind that, we did the TJ.
32:03
So we're kind of like
32:04
working our way backwards.
32:05
It's just, it's based on what vehicle we
32:08
can get our hands on
32:09
and how much bandwidth we have.
32:11
Like any vehicle
32:12
that'll pull up into our shop
32:14
and let us scan it, we'll try to make
32:17
something, you know?
32:19
But just getting your hand on the vehicle
32:21
is sometimes the harder part.
32:25
Right, and how long do
32:26
you need the vehicle?
32:27
Because I would imagine it's not just a,
32:29
let me take a quick couple of snaps
32:31
and you can go on your way.
32:32
You need it for like a day or something?
32:34
Yeah, I mean, a scan takes
32:35
a couple hours, you know?
32:38
So like someone pulls in, you can,
32:42
if it's a part that we
32:43
can remove from the dash
32:45
and bring inside, we'll
32:46
bring it in, spray it,
32:48
apply stickers, scan it.
32:51
Sometimes we don't have
32:51
that luxury of doing that,
32:54
so we have to do it all in the car.
32:55
And then it's like
32:56
weather dependent, you know?
32:57
You can't do that in the winter.
32:58
You don't wanna do it
32:59
when it's 100 degrees out.
33:00
If the sun's beating down,
33:02
it makes getting a scan a
33:04
little bit more difficult.
33:05
So, yeah, but really-
33:08
I'm anticipating
33:08
people going, hey, I got it.
33:10
You wanna scan this from me
33:12
and give me a little discount,
33:13
a little something, something?
33:14
But they need to understand
33:16
it's not gonna be in there a
33:17
snap, snap, and they're done.
33:19
It's a commitment.
33:20
And like, if you start
33:21
taking the thing apart,
33:22
that's an even deeper commitment.
33:24
Yeah, but it's cool.
33:25
We have a bar here and a
33:26
pool table in the front office
33:28
so we can keep everybody occupied.
33:31
Yeah, we like to hang out.
33:33
If somebody would like to do that,
33:35
I mean, I don't wanna
33:36
inundate you with requests,
33:38
but do they just go to your website,
33:40
call the support
33:40
number, get told a polite,
33:43
oh no, we have the JL, we
33:45
have the JT, we have the Bronco.
33:48
Oh yeah.
33:49
They could always request it.
33:51
In fact, people just do.
33:52
The hard part is just proximity.
33:54
Like, how do you find
33:55
the guy that's local enough
33:57
to wear, because again, it's a few trips.
34:01
It's not one trip.
34:01
It's like the first time we could scan
34:03
and look at some
34:04
maybe critical dimensions
34:06
or like what's under
34:06
what we're working with.
34:08
But then that vehicle's
34:10
gotta come back in a month
34:11
or two weeks and then again and again.
34:14
So you wanna find some--
34:15
I think it'd be fun to
34:16
actually be part of the process.
34:17
And it's not even like
34:19
you're having a work.
34:20
You're part of the process,
34:21
but just by letting people scan stuff
34:25
and make stuff to fit it.
34:27
I just think it'd be really cool.
34:28
Yeah, they like it.
34:29
And it's cool, you
34:30
build a lot of friends.
34:31
Actually, a lot of our,
34:33
we'll call them our ambassadors
34:34
or friends or people that
34:35
are just super supportive.
34:38
They, I don't know, they
34:40
come in all the time now.
34:41
Anytime someone's brought
34:42
a vehicle in here to scan,
34:43
they're like--
34:43
Well, what do you mean
34:44
they come in anytime?
34:45
You got a bar, you got a pool table.
34:47
Of course. Yeah, we got a bar.
34:48
(laughing)
34:48
Yeah, I love it.
34:50
It's cool.
34:50
That's kinda like the best part.
34:53
It's easier on vehicles where people are,
34:55
I worry, again, if it's a new vehicle
34:57
and you have to pop
34:58
off a piece of paneling,
35:01
I don't really like that.
35:02
Cause you never, clips break.
35:04
Yeah.
35:05
Once you do it a lot, you
35:06
kinda have it figured out
35:08
where you're not, but you never know.
35:10
And you don't never want to,
35:12
usually the people that
35:13
opt in, they're okay with it.
35:15
They're people that are
35:15
upfitting their truck anyway.
35:18
So they don't mind that.
35:19
And there's a rattle starts
35:20
and it's in the rear bumper,
35:23
10 feet from where you
35:24
were doing something,
35:25
but it didn't start doing it
35:26
until you took this
35:27
panel off in the dash area.
35:29
And you go, they're not connected.
35:32
It's just rattling for another reason.
35:33
People don't understand that
35:34
problems occur all the time.
35:37
And sometimes they're
35:38
occurring in close proximity.
35:40
Many years in IT, you
35:42
can't install an update
35:43
without that being the problem
35:45
because they can't
35:46
remember their password.
35:47
Yeah.
35:50
So, but you have to treat it like they,
35:53
they have an honest response there.
35:56
All right, so I'm sorry,
35:57
I get all excited about
35:58
asking these questions.
35:59
And there was some other
36:00
stuff that I needed to talk
36:02
to you about because I'm
36:03
not covering the products
36:04
that you have, which is the thing we want
36:06
people here to know.
36:07
They want to know why
36:08
they should go over there.
36:09
Of course you can just go to tackform.com
36:11
and have a look for yourself.
36:12
What would you say is
36:14
the biggest selling product
36:16
that you have?
36:17
Because that's what people are gonna go
36:20
to your site first for.
36:22
Well, so in short,
36:26
it's phone holders, right?
36:27
And it's very vehicle specific.
36:29
So like with Jeep in particular,
36:32
it's just the dashboard brackets.
36:34
Like a dash mount with a phone holder,
36:37
like a spring loaded cradle or mag safe
36:39
is gonna be the most reliable.
36:42
And then a lot of guys are
36:44
going with CB radio or not CB,
36:47
I call them CB, but
36:47
just like the, you know,
36:49
mics or GMRS handheld mounts.
36:51
Yeah.
36:52
That's like the best combo.
36:54
Cause it's most common.
36:55
People are mounting one to two phones
36:57
and then they're mounting their handheld,
36:58
sometimes a tablet, but tablets can be a
37:01
little bit invasive.
37:02
Like the idea of a tablet is great.
37:05
And so you have it
37:05
mounted up and you're like, man,
37:07
it's just, it's big and
37:08
it's kind of in the way.
37:09
So some people, you know,
37:12
like you see a lot of tablets
37:13
mounted in trucks and vehicles for,
37:18
but they're not, they're not common.
37:20
There's not always a tablet in them.
37:21
You know what I mean?
37:23
So with our parts,
37:24
what's nice is because we have
37:25
the integrated track, you
37:26
can pretty easily like remove
37:28
the whole tablet assembly.
37:29
And when you need it,
37:30
you're going, you know,
37:31
you can hook it back up.
37:31
Well, you may need to do
37:32
that simply so it doesn't get,
37:33
your vehicle doesn't get broken into.
37:36
Because that's a large
37:37
item and easy to see.
37:40
Yeah, GPS like garments, you know, GoPro,
37:42
like all the action cameras are pretty,
37:45
pretty common to have
37:46
a solution up there.
37:47
But yeah, those are,
37:48
those are pretty, you know,
37:49
I'd say the most, the
37:50
most common is just phone.
37:51
And a lot of people like
37:52
wireless charging is great.
37:54
So a lot of people
37:55
want wireless charging,
37:57
but it just doesn't last.
37:59
I mean, even if you have really nice,
38:01
a really nice product,
38:02
the technology moves quick.
38:03
Like we just launched a
38:04
new wireless charging cradle.
38:06
It's 25 watt.
38:08
It has what's called
38:09
a Peltier plate in it.
38:10
So it actually cools the face of the,
38:14
Yeah.
38:15
Crazy.
38:15
That's a great idea.
38:16
Cause those inductive
38:17
chargers get quite hot.
38:18
The phone gets quite hot.
38:21
Yeah, they get hot.
38:22
But so then the front
38:23
of the Peltier plate,
38:24
you know, it gets cold.
38:25
It'll be 50 to 60
38:26
degrees, but then the back cooks,
38:28
you know, cause it has to
38:29
separate that hot and cold.
38:31
So the fan blowing out
38:32
of the back of the cradle
38:34
is blowing out like hot, hot air.
38:35
Right.
38:36
So it's cool technology,
38:38
but when people buy it,
38:39
they'll, you know, they
38:41
don't know that you have to use
38:42
our included plug in cable,
38:44
because when you plug into the USB-C port
38:48
in the dashboard of your Jeep,
38:50
it doesn't put out enough
38:51
power to power the device.
38:53
So the power requirements are high.
38:55
And then if your case is too thick,
38:58
it doesn't charge as fast.
39:00
That's right.
39:00
When they go to grab the phone,
39:02
their fingers are hot
39:03
because it's blowing hot air
39:04
out the back, but they don't
39:05
realize that the front face
39:06
is cooling the back of the device.
39:08
So with, I like all the new technology
39:12
but I just feel like it's not there yet.
39:15
Like just plugging in
39:16
is so fast, you know,
39:18
with like a high powered,
39:19
you know, USB or a PD charger,
39:21
like, you know, in 20
39:23
minutes you get so much, you know,
39:27
I don't know.
39:27
I can't believe you guys
39:29
are doing the Peltier cooler.
39:30
That's pretty cool.
39:31
I mean, pardon the pun, but
39:33
to actually go to that level
39:34
and put a fan on it to remove the heat.
39:37
So I often give Jeep talk
39:39
show million dollar ideas.
39:41
They're never worth a dollar,
39:42
but anyway, Jeep talk
39:43
show million dollar idea
39:44
that I thought about, I haven't done it
39:46
because on our way to and from EJS,
39:51
19 hour trip for down
39:52
here in Southeast Texas,
39:54
certainly during the day, the phone,
39:56
which is inductive
39:57
charging, the phone gets quite hot
40:00
and it's a combination
40:01
of the inductive charging
40:02
and the sunlight coming
40:03
through the windshield.
40:04
So I thought it would
40:07
be nice to build a shade,
40:09
just a cover.
40:10
Cool.
40:10
So that the sun doesn't
40:12
go directly onto the phone
40:14
and you have a little air gap in there.
40:15
It wouldn't be touching
40:16
straight onto the cover.
40:19
So that's your Jeep talk
40:20
show million dollar idea.
40:22
Make little other covers
40:23
or maybe you could get one
40:25
of those little umbrellas.
40:27
Oh, are you writing it down?
40:28
I thought you already had one.
40:29
No, no, come on.
40:30
I'm writing this one down though.
40:32
It's going right to the end here.
40:33
Okay, here's a secondary.
40:34
You can get one of those little,
40:35
get a bunch of those little umbrellas
40:37
that they put in drinks
40:38
and this mounted over the thing.
40:40
That would be, it'd look
40:42
good next to the ducks.
40:44
Yeah, I love that.
40:45
I love that.
40:46
Get a little sun shade
40:47
for the duck in your phone.
40:49
And the combination
40:50
of the Peltier cooler,
40:51
actually the cover
40:52
would be a lot cheaper,
40:53
but I bet you that would work very well
40:55
because I get the feeling that it's the,
40:58
especially if you had the,
40:59
I actually adjusted one of my vents
41:02
to kind of go up underneath the phone
41:05
so that it actually is
41:06
blowing AC on the phone,
41:08
keeping it cool, which you can do,
41:10
but I'd much rather
41:11
have it pointing at me.
41:13
Yeah, and the only problem with that
41:14
is if you're on a call
41:15
and it's not connected to
41:16
your vehicle's like Bluetooth,
41:18
then whoever's on the other end,
41:20
it sounds like you're a wind tunnel
41:21
because there's air
41:21
blowing over the microphone.
41:23
Yeah, very true.
41:25
Yeah, that's cool though.
41:26
You got to keep the phone cool.
41:28
They cook, they overheat,
41:29
but in wireless charging,
41:31
I think most people don't know.
41:32
It just generates heat.
41:35
It's like, there's no way around it.
41:37
If you're, I don't know,
41:39
it's just the nature
41:40
of wireless charging.
41:41
Your phones get hot.
41:43
So when you're driving,
41:45
wirelessly charging your phone,
41:47
running GPS or maps,
41:49
your phone's cooking.
41:52
You remember the old cell phones,
41:54
the first cell phones that came out?
41:56
And back when we actually
41:57
used to use the cell phones
41:59
for making phone calls
42:00
and you have it up in your head,
42:02
and after a 15, 20 minute call,
42:04
your head started to get hot
42:06
because the phone's getting hot
42:08
and that RF energy coming
42:09
in and out of the phone,
42:10
even though it's low wattage,
42:11
it's heating up.
42:12
So it's heating up your head.
42:14
That was the whole thing about
42:15
you're gonna get
42:15
cancer by the cell phones.
42:18
So that is akin to
42:20
the inductive charging.
42:22
It's not RF energy,
42:23
but it is electromagnetic energy
42:25
moving back and forth.
42:27
Unrelated to this
42:28
conversation pretty much,
42:30
but do you know that
42:31
the new Tesla robotaxis
42:33
are gonna use inductive charging?
42:36
No, to charge them?
42:38
Yeah, they purchased a
42:39
company out of Germany
42:40
that had this,
42:41
basically it's a big plate in the ground.
42:44
And then you roll over the,
42:46
I mean, the batteries are already there,
42:47
so you just need a way to
42:49
be able to receive the power.
42:52
So the robotaxis that
42:53
they're coming out with,
42:54
they don't have to have
42:55
somebody plug them in.
42:56
All they have to have
42:57
is the car drive over
42:59
the inductive charger
43:00
and it'll charge them.
43:01
And then it can go forward or back out
43:03
and then go on.
43:04
So we're gonna see
43:05
more wireless technology
43:07
and people are not gonna understand
43:09
how that thing could just
43:10
sit there and nothing happened.
43:11
You don't have to plug it in.
43:14
Yeah, no, that's crazy.
43:15
I hope it's more efficient
43:16
than the phone ones though.
43:18
I think it is.
43:18
I mean, that was my other concern
43:20
and not to go too far
43:21
down the Tesla train here,
43:23
but it was in the 90s.
43:26
90s is like 92, 93% efficient,
43:29
which I was very surprised by.
43:31
Yeah, that's great.
43:32
The inductive is not very efficient.
43:34
And I'm thinking
43:35
they're gonna have to have
43:36
a pacemaker warning.
43:37
You know, do not be in
43:38
this car while charging.
43:43
Yeah, how about that?
43:46
Technology's moving fast, it's crazy.
43:48
Yeah.
43:49
I worry about the
43:50
future of vehicle mounts
43:53
and with all the technology
43:55
that they're putting in dashboards.
43:57
I guess like for off-road and stuff,
43:59
that's not gonna change.
44:01
Right.
44:01
But, yeah, who knows?
44:04
I'm worried that GM's
44:05
gonna require you to come in
44:06
and have a dealer installed phone mount
44:09
and pay a subscription for it.
44:11
That was a bad idea.
44:12
Yeah, they should just get rid of
44:13
everything altogether.
44:15
Just get rid of the whole display,
44:16
just put it on your phone.
44:17
Well, you probably don't remember this,
44:20
but I remember when PCs first came out
44:22
and they were $10,000 for
44:24
a 10 megabyte hard drive.
44:27
And then they started coming out with,
44:29
there was IBM stuff,
44:31
and then they started
44:31
coming out with the pieces
44:33
so that you could make, you know,
44:34
you get the motherboard,
44:35
you get the hard drive,
44:36
you get all that stuff,
44:36
you just buy it in pieces
44:38
and put it together yourself.
44:39
I think that's what's
44:40
gonna happen to automobiles.
44:41
(laughs)
44:42
Yeah.
44:43
Only when you're gonna
44:44
be able to afford one,
44:45
not have all the subscriptions.
44:46
And I blame Adobe for
44:49
everybody doing subscriptions.
44:51
They ruined it.
44:52
They ruined it.
44:53
They ruined it for all of us.
44:54
All right, so I asked
44:57
you about your most,
44:59
I was just telling one,
45:00
give me a rundown on what you sell,
45:02
because it's not just phone mounts,
45:04
you got a bunch of other stuff.
45:05
You mentioned grab handles earlier,
45:07
so it's not like you're
45:08
just holding the phones.
45:10
No, well, so for grab handle,
45:14
what I was referring
45:15
to is kind of a mount
45:16
that attaches to the grab handle.
45:19
So then from there, you can
45:21
put maybe a switch panel or,
45:22
you know, but in terms of holders.
45:24
Oh yeah, absolutely.
45:25
Yeah, yeah.
45:26
Now I thought you actually
45:27
were making grab handles,
45:28
like what we call the O'Shi handles.
45:30
Yeah, yeah, I'd love to.
45:33
We have products like that that we make
45:36
that we don't sell,
45:38
that we just make for us.
45:39
Oh yeah, you got a CNC machine.
45:40
Of course you got all kinds of crap.
45:42
Yeah, yeah.
45:44
Well, here it's very light prototype.
45:45
So we have a CNC lathe, a CNC mill,
45:49
just a small, like small one.
45:51
And then we have a few 3D printers.
45:52
All of our
45:53
manufacturing, I say unfortunately,
45:55
but I don't know if it's
45:56
unfortunately or fortunately
45:57
is happening overseas.
45:58
It's hard for us to make these parts here
46:00
because there's so many processes we use.
46:04
You know, we do
46:04
injection molding, extrusion,
46:06
CNC machining, like metal
46:09
forming, you know, laser.
46:10
You're not working, you're playing.
46:12
I mean, I know it's hard,
46:13
but you're playing with stuff
46:15
because that's what I'd be doing.
46:16
No, I love it.
46:17
Yeah.
46:17
Yeah, and I don't want to be
46:18
constrained with equipment.
46:19
Like some, I like, I
46:20
love and really respect
46:23
US manufacturing.
46:24
I think it's amazing.
46:26
But what it became is 3D printed parts
46:30
or sheet metal fabrication,
46:32
which I'm also in supportive.
46:34
Like I love that.
46:35
But I just want to make
46:36
things the way I want to make.
46:38
I don't want to be
46:38
constrained to certain ideas
46:41
based on the equipment
46:42
that I have in the back room.
46:43
We just want to make
46:44
whatever we want to make
46:46
and we go wherever we
46:47
have to go to make it
46:48
in order to get it at a
46:49
price where someone's willing
46:51
to buy it so we can continue to like
46:53
operate and innovate.
46:54
Oh yeah, you can make
46:55
everything in the United States
46:56
if you want to.
46:57
You may not be able to
46:58
sell it for a profit.
47:01
Absolutely.
47:01
You have to do what allows
47:03
you to continue doing it.
47:05
Sure.
47:05
The only thing that, and I've
47:07
never dealt with this before,
47:08
but I would imagine it's interesting
47:10
having to deal with people overseas,
47:13
especially whenever
47:14
it's a different language
47:15
and how you deal with quality issues.
47:18
And it's like, this is like the
47:20
(beep)
47:20
I told you this, I sent you the specs.
47:22
You got the drawing.
47:23
It's like, why?
47:26
Yeah, that's a whole nother like,
47:30
the reality is if you have good suppliers
47:34
with good processes.
47:36
But you got to find them.
47:37
And then there's that's the hard part.
47:39
It's like, when you talk to people
47:41
and if they're a competitor,
47:42
they may not be telling you good stuff.
47:45
So it's a lot of trial
47:46
and error to find them.
47:47
So yeah, I can, people
47:49
don't understand this.
47:50
They think, oh, it's, you
47:51
just send it off to China
47:52
and they do it.
47:54
And just because you sent it off to China
47:55
doesn't mean they're not gonna give it
47:57
to a bunch of other
47:57
people that's gonna copy it.
48:00
Yeah, and they're
48:01
pretty, for the most part,
48:03
our factories, we vet them pretty well.
48:07
We make sure that they're just factories
48:10
and not competitors
48:11
selling products on Amazon
48:13
because or else you're, I don't know,
48:16
then you worry about competing with them.
48:18
But when you have good factories,
48:21
there's, like, how do I put this?
48:23
We make a ball, it's
48:24
called an AMPS mount.
48:25
So it's a metal plate with four holes
48:27
and then there's a ball connected to it.
48:29
And it's probably what you
48:30
use to attach your devices
48:31
to your mount and your Jeep.
48:33
It's like an AMPS base.
48:36
So to make that part, to design it is
48:38
super simple, right?
48:41
But when, because of
48:42
the volume that we buy,
48:43
like our factory
48:44
produced a machine just to,
48:48
like, place the plates,
48:52
add thread lock to the screws and use,
48:56
so they basically
48:56
built automation equipment
48:57
for our basic part.
48:59
So sometimes, like, the part,
49:02
you might have a simple part,
49:04
but the machine that's being used,
49:06
there's like a custom piece of equipment
49:07
being used to produce
49:08
that part in high volume
49:10
that's more innovative
49:11
than the part itself.
49:12
That's kind of the cool part.
49:14
So in the US, like that type of
49:16
automation equipment
49:18
costs a fortune.
49:20
So we're going to
49:21
shops and then relying on,
49:23
maybe like hand labor
49:26
where mistakes can happen.
49:28
They can apply too much
49:29
glue, not enough glue.
49:30
And I'm not saying there isn't like
49:32
awesome manufacturing
49:34
and automation equipment in the US,
49:35
but a lot of the people
49:36
that are like manufacturing
49:38
in the US, they have their own equipment.
49:42
Like I went to see
49:42
Diode Dynamics last week.
49:44
Have you heard of Diode?
49:45
They're a LED, like, lighting company.
49:49
They're awesome.
49:50
They're in, I think it's
49:52
in St. Charles, Missouri.
49:54
They had a car show.
49:55
They have an awesome facility.
49:57
They make everything in
49:58
the US, like lighting.
50:01
And it's all state of the art stuff.
50:04
I would love to do, I
50:05
mean, I'd love to do that.
50:06
It's just a, it's a major,
50:08
I wouldn't even know where to begin,
50:09
to be honest with you.
50:11
When you're coming up with things to do,
50:13
because I can tell
50:14
you're kind of like me,
50:15
just like, oh, this would be neat.
50:16
This would be neat.
50:16
This is being neat.
50:18
But at some point you have to say,
50:20
that's not really my business.
50:23
There's no good tie-in to this,
50:25
other than I think it'd be fun to have.
50:28
Do you have to not do things?
50:30
All the time.
50:30
Yeah.
50:31
Yeah, all the time.
50:33
When you have the tools,
50:34
you can imagine things,
50:36
other things that you
50:36
can make with those tools.
50:38
Well, if I can do
50:38
this, then I can do this.
50:41
And this would be really cool.
50:42
So yeah, I would go nuts.
50:45
Yeah, you'd go nuts.
50:46
You gotta come by
50:47
sometime and check it out here.
50:48
It's really cool.
50:49
Love to.
50:50
Yeah, it's a fun shot.
50:52
We're a small team.
50:53
We have like, I think 18 people now.
50:57
Lot of talent, you
50:59
know, and everyone's cool.
51:00
Like it's just a good place to be.
51:02
Do you have an HR person?
51:05
No, no.
51:07
We probably need one,
51:08
but no, we all get along.
51:09
You know, we all get along.
51:10
There's no drama in the build.
51:12
HR is just really rough.
51:14
You never know why
51:14
they wanna talk to you.
51:15
You're not sure.
51:16
You're never sure.
51:17
All right, well, I
51:19
screwed this one up again.
51:20
I talked too much about stuff
51:21
that I find really interesting
51:23
and we didn't get to cover the products.
51:24
But the good news is that you
51:26
can go over to tackform.com,
51:29
T-A-C-K, form.com and look for yourself.
51:32
But you did get to
51:33
know Nick a little better.
51:35
And to me, that's an important thing
51:37
because everybody can make something,
51:39
but who's the
51:40
individual that's building it?
51:43
How do they care about the product
51:45
and how do they care
51:46
about you being a customer?
51:47
And Nick, I think that you care a lot
51:49
and you certainly
51:50
enjoy making this stuff.
51:52
And I don't want somebody
51:55
that's just stamping stuff out
51:56
and going buy it, shut up, you know?
51:59
So you're not like that at all.
52:01
So I really appreciate that.
52:03
And as I warned you,
52:04
you know how the kids love
52:06
the social media.
52:07
They like looking at the pictures
52:08
and making rash comments
52:10
because they're not within
52:12
(beep)
52:13
distance.
52:15
(laughs)
52:16
Say it to my face, you know?
52:17
I'm not gonna hit you, but I mean,
52:19
just being an upfront
52:21
person that, you know,
52:22
you're willing to take
52:23
that chance, you know?
52:24
Cause I think close proximity often
52:27
softens the criticism.
52:30
Anyway, where can we find
52:31
out that you would do that?
52:32
Of course, I'm just talking over myself.
52:34
But where do people find
52:36
you on the social media?
52:37
Yeah, you can find us on Facebook.
52:39
We're on Instagram, techform.systems.
52:42
You can connect with
52:43
us through, you know,
52:44
that's probably the
52:44
best place, Instagram.
52:46
Yeah, I think.
52:47
Oh, I can see.
52:49
Yeah, we do a little bit of
52:49
TikTok, but it's, you know,
52:51
it's like the redheaded
52:51
stepchild of our content.
52:54
But yeah, Instagram is really where we
52:55
network in Facebook.
52:57
Good pictures.
52:57
You said you had a
52:58
YouTube channel as well, right?
53:00
Yeah, it's sort of, the
53:02
YouTube channel isn't much of a,
53:04
it's more of a place where
53:05
we're dropping instruction videos,
53:07
you know, or if we-
53:07
And then linking them
53:08
from your site or something.
53:09
So it's more of a, that type of deal.
53:12
Yeah, it's informational.
53:13
We don't, we don't really,
53:15
it's just for instructions.
53:16
Like we'll post an Instagram,
53:18
we'll do like an
53:18
Instagram reel or something.
53:20
And then we post it to
53:21
YouTube Shorts, you know,
53:23
as another social platform,
53:24
but we don't, we don't do enough.
53:25
I, it would be cool to do some videos
53:27
just on behind the scenes,
53:28
like how everything works,
53:29
like how we operate.
53:32
Just to have people see what, you know,
53:33
what kind of goes on and
53:35
what the development process
53:36
looks like, but I'm sure we'll,
53:38
I'm sure we'll get to it sometime.
53:39
Well, actually I've,
53:40
I've spoken with several
53:42
past interviewees,
53:44
companies about doing that.
53:45
Cause we have the ability
53:46
where you could walk around
53:48
with your phone and
53:49
we're doing the interview
53:51
between the phone and
53:52
then you just show the phone
53:53
on the various things and you discuss it.
53:55
So it's more, much more
53:57
of a, an action interview
53:59
than it is a talking heads interview,
54:01
which I always think would
54:02
be a lot more interesting,
54:03
especially when you
54:04
can go behind the scenes.
54:05
I did have one other idea for you though,
54:08
on that, for that YouTube thing,
54:10
it might be fun to put the, not
54:13
necessarily the what ifs,
54:15
but what's Nick messing with today?
54:18
And, and showing some of
54:19
those things that you create
54:21
that aren't for sale.
54:23
And I think it would
54:23
be really interesting
54:24
to like people going, oh
54:25
man, I gotta have one of those.
54:27
(laughs)
54:28
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
54:29
It'll be cool.
54:29
I'll do a walkthrough of my,
54:31
my truck one, one day soon.
54:33
And you'll see a lot of our,
54:35
you know, crazy, crazy ideas
54:36
that that never made
54:38
it, but are, you know,
54:39
bolted on my vehicle.
54:40
I bet you they're interesting.
54:41
All right, Nick, I really
54:42
appreciate you being here today.
54:44
Sorry, we ran a little long,
54:45
but it's an interesting conversation.
54:47
If you want to be on
54:49
again, anytime you like,
54:50
please just reach out,
54:52
especially if you've got
54:53
new products coming out.
54:54
So again, thank you very
54:56
much and have a great day.
54:59
I appreciate it.
54:59
Thank you again.