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Principles of Overlanding: Intentional Vehicle Modifications · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overlain Journal podcast. I'm your
0:07
Speaker 1: host Matt Scott and I'm here today with my co host,
0:10
Speaker 1: Scott Brady.
0:11
Speaker 2: What's up, Matt?
0:12
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm just hanging out with my buddy and
0:13
Speaker 1: talking about checks.
0:15
Speaker 2: I also wanted to take a brief moment to thank
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Speaker 2: all of you for listening to the Overalan Journal podcast.
0:21
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1:01
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1:12
Speaker 1: So today we'll continuing with the Principles of Overlanding series.
1:15
Speaker 1: So that's our series where we break down the foundational
1:18
Speaker 1: elements of thoughtful, real world vehicle supported adventure. And today's
1:23
Speaker 1: topic is modifying your Vehicle with intention.
1:27
Speaker 2: Topic And thanks for spending so much time prepping this, Matt. Yeah,
1:31
Speaker 2: we're both really trying to We're now all part of
1:34
Speaker 2: the Overland Collective and we're trying to raise the quality
1:37
Speaker 2: of what we're doing while maintaining our values, which is
1:40
Speaker 2: to talk about real travel where you don't have to
1:43
Speaker 2: spend a bunch of money. We want you to go
1:45
Speaker 2: see the world, or as much of it as you
1:47
Speaker 2: want to see, even if it's just a state over
1:49
Speaker 2: We want to increase the quality of what we're doing,
1:51
Speaker 2: be a little more intentional, even about the podcast.
1:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the only thing that I was really
1:56
Speaker 1: told is that we just want to The goal is
1:59
Speaker 1: to get more people out to explore. Doesn't not to
2:02
Speaker 1: inspire people, And I think that's where it makes so
2:04
Speaker 1: much sense that these brands are coming together. I'm stoked
2:07
Speaker 1: about it. I've been here from pretty much the beginning.
2:09
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, it was an Expedition's West employee. When we're
2:12
Speaker 1: starting that's right, and yeah, I'm actually just genuinely really
2:15
Speaker 1: excited about where the overlad collective is going.
2:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is such a great topic because a
2:20
Speaker 2: lot of vehicles just get built because they need to
2:22
Speaker 2: look a certain way, not because there was a lot
2:24
Speaker 2: of intention behind the process.
2:27
Speaker 1: It's just we live in an age where it's relatively
2:31
Speaker 1: easy to design products. We have fusion through sixty solid works,
2:34
Speaker 1: autocat all of these things. We've got SENC machines up
2:37
Speaker 1: the wazoo. We've got all these products. And not only that,
2:41
Speaker 1: we have all of these adapters and brackets and modularity
2:44
Speaker 1: to the design of these overland items.
2:47
Speaker 2: Right.
2:48
Speaker 1: The roof rack is a great thing, but it has
2:50
Speaker 1: also greatly increased the square inches of space for people
2:55
Speaker 1: to mount things from eBay and Amazon and.
2:58
Speaker 2: In the worst possible location on the car.
3:01
Speaker 1: I think what we're trying to do is we're trying
3:03
Speaker 1: to be like, hey, we've been there, We've made the mistakes.
3:05
Speaker 1: Scott has had the topo wrapped t COMA. If you
3:08
Speaker 1: saw the jeep that I drove when I started an
3:12
Speaker 1: over in journal like fifteen years ago.
3:14
Speaker 2: Oh boy, was leg that was legit. It was legit.
3:17
Speaker 2: So we've been here.
3:18
Speaker 1: We've done it, and we've also had the privilege of
3:20
Speaker 1: building a lot of vehicles, either working with some OEMs
3:23
Speaker 1: or having vehicles given to us by OEMs for this purpose,
3:27
Speaker 1: or also just our personal vehicles. We've done it a lot,
3:31
Speaker 1: so we've been able to make the mistakes over and
3:34
Speaker 1: over again, and I think I'm finally learning.
3:39
Speaker 2: And I think also it helps that you really like
3:41
Speaker 2: this truck. So in this podcast, I think it's important
3:44
Speaker 2: to qualify. Matt and I are going to talk a
3:46
Speaker 2: little bit about the Grenadier and the Quartermaster. But we
3:50
Speaker 2: aren't being paid by any of us to do this.
3:52
Speaker 2: It just happens to be the vehicles that we're currently
3:55
Speaker 2: working with. They're not an advertiser. It's just a truck
3:58
Speaker 2: we really like. It applies to any other vehicle. This
4:02
Speaker 2: is ANYO specifics. I did not get a discount on mine.
4:05
Speaker 1: I went to the dealer and I got a twenty
4:06
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars rebate that anyone could get on the
4:09
Speaker 1: MSRP of my car, and then I wrote a check
4:12
Speaker 1: and I bought it. And there has been I've been
4:15
Speaker 1: to anos press trip recently and done some stuff, but
4:18
Speaker 1: there's no anything I just.
4:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no conflict of interest.
4:22
Speaker 1: I like this talking and we're just using it as
4:24
Speaker 1: the guide because it is just really built for what
4:27
Speaker 1: we do. It's interesting, it's the same footprint as like
4:32
Speaker 1: a Wrangler or a Bronco, but the vehicle itself is
4:35
Speaker 1: so intentional for what we do.
4:36
Speaker 2: They make it easy to do that cut and a
4:39
Speaker 2: Wrangler is the same way. So an equivalent would be
4:42
Speaker 2: a Wrangler, an equivalent would be a land cruiser. Would
4:45
Speaker 2: be a great example.
4:46
Speaker 1: Honestly, anything right, you can just build what you want.
4:49
Speaker 1: It's just being intentional with what you do with the Grenadier,
4:54
Speaker 1: And I guess most of this podcast it's about reducing
4:58
Speaker 1: the amount of modification that have major compromises. Right, the
5:02
Speaker 1: way you build a vehicle for rock crawling, or for
5:07
Speaker 1: desert running or for overlanding is different.
5:11
Speaker 2: They're all great.
5:11
Speaker 1: We're not saying anything with that, but I'm trying to
5:14
Speaker 1: reduce the compromises with this truck. Like it's very utilitarian
5:17
Speaker 1: and very useful. I can put a palette in the
5:19
Speaker 1: back now because of some modifications that I made. I
5:22
Speaker 1: don't want it to drive like crap anymore. I've had
5:26
Speaker 1: so many vehicles where I've done a suspension system that
5:30
Speaker 1: I didn't really need, and all of a sudden the
5:32
Speaker 1: heim joint is wearing out or.
5:33
Speaker 2: This or whatever.
5:34
Speaker 1: Like the goal for this car is really simple. If
5:37
Speaker 1: I want to get in it and drive it to
5:39
Speaker 1: South America, I can do that.
5:41
Speaker 2: And you said that, Matt, I want to build a
5:43
Speaker 2: vehicle that any point of time I could drive it
5:46
Speaker 2: anywhere in the world. Yeah, it's life's weird.
5:48
Speaker 1: With this very sweet elderly rescue greyhound. Please consider adopting one.
5:52
Speaker 1: But when he goes, we're gonna have this huge hole
5:55
Speaker 1: in our lives and then I'm just going to go
5:56
Speaker 1: and feral. And right now I'm over analyzed in the
6:00
Speaker 1: vehicle and that kind of stuff. I think the important
6:02
Speaker 1: thing and where we want to start for the for
6:05
Speaker 1: this podcast is the use case first, right, Like, you
6:09
Speaker 1: have to figure out what you're actually doing with your vehicle.
6:13
Speaker 2: If you're crossing Greenland, it's a different requirement than drive
6:17
Speaker 2: into ushwaya totally.
6:18
Speaker 1: So before you touch a tool, before you spend any money,
6:21
Speaker 1: you need to consider what you're doing. There's a lot
6:24
Speaker 1: of different use cases, right, Like we're obviously like an
6:27
Speaker 1: overland podcast. Are you building a vehicle for international oberlaind travel.
6:33
Speaker 1: There's a way you do that. Are you building a
6:35
Speaker 1: truck for domestic overlanding where you're doing multi day trips
6:38
Speaker 1: and maybe you're driving down the highway for an.
6:41
Speaker 2: Entire day, or it's your daily driver too.
6:44
Speaker 1: And maybe it's your daily driver. Are you building something
6:47
Speaker 1: that is your four wheel drive that's like a recreational
6:49
Speaker 1: four wheel drive thing. Maybe I'm gonna build something that
6:53
Speaker 1: I'm gonna camp out of, but I'm gonna go do
6:56
Speaker 1: Doozy Ersham or the Rubicon or it has like a
6:59
Speaker 1: very singular purpose. Identify what that is and whatever you
7:04
Speaker 1: decide what it is like, that's fine. But the mistake
7:09
Speaker 1: that I see, and I will say it gets really
7:12
Speaker 1: glorified on an Instagram, is that we end up with
7:14
Speaker 1: rock Crawler pre runner overlanders.
7:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like they don't do anything.
7:18
Speaker 1: They don't do anything well, like to go fast. If
7:22
Speaker 1: you're thinking motorsport, let's break these down individually, like the
7:26
Speaker 1: desert running pre running that kind of thing. You don't
7:29
Speaker 1: want a high center of gravity vehicle with a roof
7:32
Speaker 1: tent and a roof rack and all of this stuff.
7:33
Speaker 1: That's why you see so many of those vehicles. They're
7:36
Speaker 1: on Instagram for six months and then oh what happened?
7:38
Speaker 2: Oh I rolled it?
7:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, like you're trying to you're trying to
7:41
Speaker 1: pick a tire up around a turn to get the
7:43
Speaker 1: video shot and you rolled it.
7:46
Speaker 2: Okay, cool.
7:46
Speaker 1: But then they also try and make it a rock crawler,
7:48
Speaker 1: which then they're in these like slow speed things where
7:51
Speaker 1: center gravity becomes even more important and weight becomes an issue.
7:54
Speaker 2: So you have to add more fuel. Yeah, more fuel.
7:57
Speaker 2: It just doesn't work. It stops and you don't have
7:59
Speaker 2: enough payload because you've added all this armor, super heavy tires,
8:03
Speaker 2: too much lift.
8:05
Speaker 1: The people that I know that have been in this
8:07
Speaker 1: community for a long time, they almost there's an arc
8:11
Speaker 1: where they overbuild and then they almost underbuild in a way,
8:15
Speaker 1: like they learn they don't need as much. And I
8:18
Speaker 1: think that's something that I'm learning. Like for me, I'm
8:22
Speaker 1: trying to build a vehicle that is capable of international
8:25
Speaker 1: overland travel, and that's really my main motivation because what
8:30
Speaker 1: that also gets me is a car that's very driveable.
8:33
Speaker 1: That's something that I by nature, you're gonna be driving
8:35
Speaker 1: a very long distance. You don't want a super aggressive
8:38
Speaker 1: tire you don't want suspension that has to be rebuilt.
8:42
Speaker 2: Some of the things that you and I have talked
8:43
Speaker 2: about on your truck, which is so cool. It should
8:45
Speaker 2: fit in a standard container, which yours does. And then
8:49
Speaker 2: we're riffing back and forth like what's the max height
8:52
Speaker 2: that you want where you can still use local accommodation
8:54
Speaker 2: And for me, it comes down to one point nine
8:56
Speaker 2: meters or two point two meters, So if you get
8:58
Speaker 2: under two point two then you're gonna fit in just
9:01
Speaker 2: about every parking stall.
9:03
Speaker 1: And I'm like, just at with I just put like
9:06
Speaker 1: a tall skinny thirty three on there and we measured it.
9:10
Speaker 1: It's gotten measured it two point one meters. It's like,
9:13
Speaker 1: you have this concept of international travel. You're like, oh,
9:16
Speaker 1: I'm going to be in this glorious campsite every night. No,
9:19
Speaker 1: there's gonna be times when you're just like, dear God,
9:22
Speaker 1: please give me a hotel.
9:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's okay too.
9:25
Speaker 1: I also want to be able to leave the car
9:26
Speaker 1: at an airport and fly home yep, or something like.
9:29
Speaker 1: I guess what I'm saying is I've identified my use case.
9:32
Speaker 1: I really encourage everyone listening to this if they're building
9:36
Speaker 1: a vehicle they have already built. You can take things
9:39
Speaker 1: off and just sell them on marketplace right through.
9:42
Speaker 2: And you'll probably be glad you did. Yeah.
9:44
Speaker 1: Every choice that you make flows or should flow from
9:48
Speaker 1: this decision. And when you don't identify your use case,
9:54
Speaker 1: you end up with a mismatched rig. Maybe you underbuild
9:58
Speaker 1: it too, right, let's not even just say building. Maybe
10:01
Speaker 1: you underbuild it for what you're trying to do. Identify
10:04
Speaker 1: the use case. It's going to save you so much money.
10:07
Speaker 2: One thing that just came to mind to me is
10:09
Speaker 2: if you don't develop a plan for building the vehicle,
10:13
Speaker 2: if you don't build with intention, you're going to build
10:17
Speaker 2: under influence, which means you're going to be influenced by
10:19
Speaker 2: the influencers on social media to build the vehicle in
10:23
Speaker 2: a way that it looks the part as opposed to
10:26
Speaker 2: being the vehicle that you need it to be. One
10:28
Speaker 2: of the other things that you said, Scott, I want
10:30
Speaker 2: to make sure that I have a thousand kilometer range,
10:33
Speaker 2: which is something that I believe is for international travel.
10:37
Speaker 2: It's a standard that you want to aim for, so
10:39
Speaker 2: that way you have some optionality around where you refuel
10:42
Speaker 2: or if you get into countries like Bolivia and South
10:44
Speaker 2: America where it's very difficult to get fuel or even
10:46
Speaker 2: have to do some bribing to get fuel. Having a
10:49
Speaker 2: thousand kilometer range solves a whole bunch of problems. So
10:51
Speaker 2: if you were to make the thing tall with a
10:53
Speaker 2: big rooftan on the top, or super tall tires and
10:56
Speaker 2: aggressive tires, and your fuel economy goes to hell, that's
10:59
Speaker 2: going to get more more difficult to achieve. Yep.
11:01
Speaker 1: To do that, I'm gonna have to do an auxiliary tank. Yeah,
11:05
Speaker 1: will be what it'll be. But I'm just I'm excited
11:08
Speaker 1: to do less. But it's also because I've I know
11:12
Speaker 1: my use case, right, if I wanted, like honestly, like
11:16
Speaker 1: for I really like the Grenadier, you like the Quartermaster,
11:21
Speaker 1: the American pickup for me that or like, I would
11:24
Speaker 1: just go to the dealer and I would buy an
11:26
Speaker 1: av JL through seventy as it's just it's gonna walk
11:30
Speaker 1: through everything. A stock Jeep Rubicon with a moderate driver
11:35
Speaker 1: and a spotter can easily do.
11:37
Speaker 2: The Rubicon oh yeah, all day long.
11:39
Speaker 1: Al three seventy with a three and a half inch
11:41
Speaker 1: lift and thirty seven yeah, other thirty seven good, and
11:44
Speaker 1: you can drive it to work and you can do everything.
11:46
Speaker 1: So there's also like choosing the right platform. I think
11:49
Speaker 1: as well, like if you're looking at more recreational four
11:52
Speaker 1: wheel driving weekend trips where you're gonna be out with
11:54
Speaker 1: your buddies and you want to drive fast and do
11:56
Speaker 1: this or whatever, choose the right choose the right car.
12:00
Speaker 2: And I wonder, Matt, maybe we riff on this for
12:02
Speaker 2: a second too. I wonder if part of that intention
12:04
Speaker 2: is making sure that the vehicle is well suited to
12:06
Speaker 2: where you're sending it. So for example, if you get
12:10
Speaker 2: like a two to fifty land Cruiser, it's impressive how
12:14
Speaker 2: many countries that vehicle is sold in. It may not
12:16
Speaker 2: have a gas drive train, but a lot of them
12:19
Speaker 2: are hybrid, even internationally. But almost every country has got
12:23
Speaker 2: a two fifty land Cruiser being sold in it, So
12:26
Speaker 2: that's going to give you a ton of options surprisingly
12:29
Speaker 2: any US, even fifty countries. Yeah, this vehicle is sold.
12:34
Speaker 2: There's a diesel in some markets, but the same axle,
12:38
Speaker 2: same transmission.
12:39
Speaker 1: Even if I could get a diesel on the Grenadier,
12:41
Speaker 1: I don't think I would have gotten the diesel. I
12:43
Speaker 1: didn't use it for Africa because you have to run
12:45
Speaker 1: ultra low sulfur. Yeah, the US is like under five,
12:49
Speaker 1: it's fifty. It could be very low fifty number, where
12:52
Speaker 1: some countries are like five thousand, yeah, five hundred and Bolivia's.
12:56
Speaker 1: It affects your exhaust gas recirculation in, it affects your
13:01
Speaker 1: diesel particulate filter.
13:03
Speaker 2: And the pump, all of it.
13:04
Speaker 1: Everything is just you. Basically, you're going to pump loves it.
13:07
Speaker 1: Pump loves to break your car. Pretty yeah, let's move
13:09
Speaker 1: on to research. Okay, I'm calling the next part research
13:13
Speaker 1: and relevance.
13:14
Speaker 2: Once you know your.
13:16
Speaker 1: Use case, start researching the components that make sense. I
13:20
Speaker 1: think the really fun thing for me with the Grenadier
13:23
Speaker 1: was that I did not rush to do anything with
13:25
Speaker 1: it up until last week. I've had it for six
13:29
Speaker 1: months at least six months.
13:31
Speaker 2: Yeah.
13:31
Speaker 1: I took a lot of joy in figuring out, okay,
13:34
Speaker 1: what tire was I going to do a lot of
13:36
Speaker 1: people do it two eighty five seventy five seventeen, which
13:39
Speaker 1: is like a thirty three thirty four pretty wide. I
13:42
Speaker 1: want to be a little different. I found this BF
13:45
Speaker 1: Goodrich HD terrain tire, not sponsored it. I just bought them.
13:50
Speaker 2: It looks so good.
13:51
Speaker 1: They look like modern Michel and xCl.
13:53
Speaker 2: It's like it's it's the perfect tire, super bomber. The
13:57
Speaker 2: likelihood of actually puncturing that thing is super It's meant
14:00
Speaker 2: for full size strucks, that's right, it's meant for heavy
14:02
Speaker 2: duty application research. Right.
14:04
Speaker 1: You don't have to make a spreadsheet on these things,
14:06
Speaker 1: but just be intentional. That's the whole thing in this podcast.
14:10
Speaker 1: Be intentional with what you're doing. There's a lot of
14:12
Speaker 1: things you have to consider.
14:14
Speaker 2: You didn't need to lift it.
14:15
Speaker 1: I didn't need to lift it, but I don't know
14:18
Speaker 1: if I really need to.
14:19
Speaker 2: You're over your two point one. Yeah, see the problem,
14:21
Speaker 2: and like it looks so good. It looks so good
14:24
Speaker 2: the way it is. I want to be able to
14:26
Speaker 2: like I want to.
14:27
Speaker 1: Be able to stay in the hostel and hang out, yeah,
14:29
Speaker 1: and I want to be able to camp and then
14:32
Speaker 1: like when I have a bad week, I want to
14:34
Speaker 1: be able to say to sotel, yeah, for sure, I
14:36
Speaker 1: need to bargat it in a garage. There's just a
14:38
Speaker 1: lot to consider when you build a vehicle. It's not
14:40
Speaker 1: necessarily simple. Again, Like that's where the av is so yeah.
14:44
Speaker 1: Simple is literally a team of engineers that make it
14:46
Speaker 1: all perfect. Dave Hareton has thought about this, and Dave
14:49
Speaker 1: will listen to this podcast and pick.
14:50
Speaker 2: Twenty seven holes on the things that I say.
14:52
Speaker 1: Even you just have to solve like the specific problems
14:55
Speaker 1: that you have with purpose, right, you just don't have
14:57
Speaker 1: to go and solve things that you don't have issues with.
15:01
Speaker 1: Suspension is a really good example. Identify what doesn't work
15:05
Speaker 1: on your factory suspension. Like my Grenadier has it's a
15:09
Speaker 1: pretty base model it has it's like sixteen hundred and
15:11
Speaker 1: eighty sixteen hundred yeah something, it's over sixteen hundred pounds
15:15
Speaker 1: of payload, that's right, that's more than a twenty five
15:19
Speaker 1: hundred RAM Diesel pickup truck.
15:22
Speaker 2: Yeah.
15:23
Speaker 1: I put goose gear drawers with a Dometic drawer fridge,
15:27
Speaker 1: I did a roof rack, I did a GP factory
15:29
Speaker 1: table on the back, and I did this really sweet
15:33
Speaker 1: custom dual battery auxiliary battery lithium thing behind the fridge.
15:37
Speaker 1: But it's like a totally geeks But I haven't even
15:40
Speaker 1: you pointed out the rake of the vehicle is still
15:42
Speaker 1: hasn't even changed because I didn't need to do suspension,
15:46
Speaker 1: Like maybe it could have better shocks. So that's one
15:49
Speaker 1: problem that I can solve on that suspension. I don't
15:52
Speaker 1: need more ground clearance.
15:54
Speaker 2: It's got eyebox on there, like the factory springs or eyebox.
15:56
Speaker 2: It's good.
15:57
Speaker 1: But so many people just go out and I think
15:59
Speaker 1: they're in luanced by whatever the amount of quote unquote
16:05
Speaker 1: overland trucks that I see that have like triple bypass
16:08
Speaker 1: kings or long travel or.
16:10
Speaker 2: They've modified their floor and their frame and stuff to
16:13
Speaker 2: make them fit.
16:13
Speaker 1: Upper control arms that have uniballs on there that like,
16:17
Speaker 1: you replace the uniball and five minutes later it starts squeaking,
16:20
Speaker 1: and that's going to drive you like corrugated road and
16:23
Speaker 1: it is just it would drive you mad.
16:25
Speaker 2: That stuff is designed to optimize performance for a single race.
16:31
Speaker 2: So those suspensions, those really long travel, super expensive bypass
16:37
Speaker 2: or remote reservoir shocks, all that stuff, heavy duty jounces,
16:41
Speaker 2: all that stuff is designed to operate on a lightweight
16:45
Speaker 2: vehicle at high speeds for call it up to two
16:49
Speaker 2: thousand miles. That's the service life. That's the service life
16:53
Speaker 2: of the HIM joint or a Johnny joint. So that
16:56
Speaker 2: stuff all rattles and squeaks and it sounds, it becomes
17:00
Speaker 2: it adds to driver fatigue.
17:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a compromise, like to every That's one of
17:04
Speaker 1: the things is like there's a compromise to most modifications.
17:07
Speaker 2: Yeah.
17:07
Speaker 1: Sure, trying to find the modifications that have the minimal
17:10
Speaker 1: compromise is really where you get that kind of considered
17:15
Speaker 1: approach intentionally with Toyota. For let's just use a Toyota.
17:21
Speaker 1: You may be able to get all of your alignments
17:23
Speaker 1: back if you do an inch and a half lift,
17:25
Speaker 1: but at two inches.
17:26
Speaker 2: Maybe you don't.
17:26
Speaker 1: So do the inch and a half if you've identified
17:29
Speaker 1: that's what your use case is. But if you're trying
17:31
Speaker 1: to make a Toyota Tacoma.
17:33
Speaker 2: A rock crawler, you make the wrong car.
17:36
Speaker 1: And I get that. Sometimes you just have to work
17:37
Speaker 1: with what you have to work with, but you can
17:40
Speaker 1: oftentimes end up spending more money trying to take something
17:44
Speaker 1: that is not destined for that use case and trying
17:48
Speaker 1: to get a desired outcome. Then again, just buying the jeep,
17:55
Speaker 1: buying the Bronco meant to do it. I know, buying
17:58
Speaker 1: my Grenadier that I did not buy a rock roller.
18:02
Speaker 1: With that being said, that vehicle stock will do Hell's revenge.
18:05
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and pretty much anything in Moab that personally
18:08
Speaker 1: that I want to do seven ol rim or whatever
18:11
Speaker 1: like these kind of iconic iconic It's cool, it's great,
18:14
Speaker 1: like most of the places that you're going to go
18:15
Speaker 1: that you're going to go explore. It's fine that we
18:17
Speaker 1: forget how capable a lot of these vehicles are these days.
18:20
Speaker 2: And I think it's actually more fun. The problem is,
18:23
Speaker 2: the more capable you make the vehicle, the harder trail
18:25
Speaker 2: you go to look for to drive, Whereas if you
18:28
Speaker 2: just started with moderate trails with stock vehicles, it's just
18:32
Speaker 2: as hard. It's actually a little more interesting because you
18:35
Speaker 2: made it through the moderate trail with the stock vehicle
18:38
Speaker 2: as opposed to you got forty's on there and some
18:41
Speaker 2: crazy suspension and everything else like that, and of course
18:44
Speaker 2: it's super capable, but now you've got to go look
18:46
Speaker 2: for this or you got to trailer it and you
18:48
Speaker 2: can't drive it every day anymore.
18:50
Speaker 1: Vehicle like oftentimes remember when old man EMU shocks were
18:54
Speaker 1: like they were like the big deal. This is maybe
18:56
Speaker 1: fifteen years ago. But now it's like people because they're
19:01
Speaker 1: maybe because they're like not expensive enough and they don't
19:03
Speaker 1: have remote reservoirs or they don't have adjustability. They're just
19:07
Speaker 1: not really considered.
19:09
Speaker 2: I love old shocks.
19:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're actually like tuned pretty well for the Apple totally.
19:13
Speaker 1: They're totally nitrogen shock right now. You have a stock
19:16
Speaker 1: suspension stock shocks, yeah super if you want adjustability, like
19:21
Speaker 1: I've been really big on these Cony raid shocks, Okay.
19:23
Speaker 2: They are adjustable.
19:24
Speaker 1: You can press the shock all the way down and
19:27
Speaker 1: then you can actually click oh into adjustability. It's just
19:30
Speaker 1: a simpler mechanism. Does have Anny mix show. It doesn't
19:33
Speaker 1: have any knobs on the outside because the problem isn't
19:36
Speaker 1: like breakoff. Like I grew up and outside of Chicago
19:38
Speaker 1: and they salted the roads like a season or two
19:41
Speaker 1: of just like driving a vehicle on that. I could
19:43
Speaker 1: only imagine if I had like adjustable kings or something
19:47
Speaker 1: like it, it would just get.
19:49
Speaker 2: It wouldn't look pretty anyways.
19:51
Speaker 1: But there are like affordable solid options, like I had
19:55
Speaker 1: a set of Cony raids on my old manual diesel
19:59
Speaker 1: g wagon did have ac It's pretty fun. Michael Potterker
20:02
Speaker 1: has that from Myers Max consider serviceability. It's not we're
20:06
Speaker 1: using the suspension as the example because it just seems
20:09
Speaker 1: to be maybe the greatest offender. But if your entire
20:12
Speaker 1: suspension system hinges around aftermarket parts and you are maybe
20:17
Speaker 1: that's not a big deal. If you're doing trips in
20:20
Speaker 1: the United States, right, there's four wheel drive shops everywhere.
20:23
Speaker 2: That's great.
20:24
Speaker 1: Maybe you do want the performance if you're doing more
20:27
Speaker 1: domestic stuff. Frankly, like we have more rock crawling, more
20:31
Speaker 1: technical terrain in the US than like even in Australia.
20:35
Speaker 2: Because they have limitations regulations on how lifted the vehicles
20:39
Speaker 2: can get.
20:40
Speaker 1: I never thought, I'm like, wow, there's campsites you go
20:43
Speaker 1: to in America that have larger obstacles than that. It's
20:46
Speaker 1: not the discredit because you're in these beautiful environments and
20:48
Speaker 1: they're longer and whatever. But I go to k you are, yes, Oh,
20:54
Speaker 1: I'm so interested to see how it is these days.
20:56
Speaker 2: I've never been there.
20:57
Speaker 1: The first time I went, there was like one track
20:59
Speaker 1: for the time alegraph track. The second time I went,
21:01
Speaker 1: each crossing had four or five options, and I've heard
21:04
Speaker 1: that they permitted it. Now, Oh got it, which is
21:07
Speaker 1: a good thing.
21:07
Speaker 2: Makes sense. I'm going to try not to get eaten
21:09
Speaker 2: by a crocodile. Yeah, you'll be fine.
21:11
Speaker 1: You'll be great. I look like a tasty treat to
21:13
Speaker 1: a crocodile. Yeah, they love white meat. That is like
21:16
Speaker 1: a genuinely amazing trip. I haven't done canning stock, but
21:19
Speaker 1: I've done Kpe York twice and that is my favorite.
21:22
Speaker 2: Anyways.
21:23
Speaker 1: Also, I think that budget really matters, especially when you're
21:26
Speaker 1: a traveler. Not everybody has unlimited funds, and to be
21:30
Speaker 1: more intentional with the modifications that you make just saves
21:35
Speaker 1: you money that you can use to travel, whether that's
21:37
Speaker 1: going to Yellowstone or Eshwaia or driving the Road of
21:40
Speaker 1: Bones or whatever.
21:41
Speaker 2: It is.
21:41
Speaker 1: Right, Like, the less money you have sunk in the
21:44
Speaker 1: thing gives you more money for the activity.
21:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, And we talk about that a lot
21:49
Speaker 2: in the podcast. Is your budget should always have more
21:53
Speaker 2: of the budget allocated to travel than to the vehicle
21:56
Speaker 2: or the equipment.
21:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, just research and consider. I think that it's important
22:02
Speaker 1: to stop being so impulsive with a lot.
22:07
Speaker 2: Of these decisions. It's just so easy to buy stuff
22:09
Speaker 2: these days. Yeah, it is instantly.
22:13
Speaker 1: But I'm going to move on to the dangers of
22:15
Speaker 1: over complication. So this is going to come from personal experience.
22:20
Speaker 2: With I think we get to talk my mini failures too.
22:25
Speaker 2: You're perfect, Scott. No part of the thing from that.
22:29
Speaker 1: Like most people get tripped up on these vehicles with complexity,
22:32
Speaker 1: I think is really where it all comes down to.
22:35
Speaker 1: It's the rock Crawler doesert Runner, Overlander. It's complexity right
22:39
Speaker 1: for sure, But that can apply to each one of
22:42
Speaker 1: those segments individually. You're trying to get too much performance
22:45
Speaker 1: out of your jeep and you're trying to make it
22:48
Speaker 1: perform on you want it to run Chocolate Thunder at
22:51
Speaker 1: King of the Hammers and then drive down the road,
22:53
Speaker 1: but eighty mile an hour perfectly, It's probably never going
22:57
Speaker 1: to happen, but people make an attempt to do it,
23:00
Speaker 1: and they just overcomplicate things. They have fix I see
23:04
Speaker 1: it at four wheel drive shops a lot where they're
23:06
Speaker 1: fixing the fix for the fix. This is masking this,
23:11
Speaker 1: which is masking another problem. Consider the root of the problem.
23:16
Speaker 1: Like my Gladiator would be one of my examples I
23:20
Speaker 1: was trying to build. I think whenever you put thirty
23:25
Speaker 1: sevens out a car, it almost becomes rock crawlery.
23:28
Speaker 2: But thirty sevens in that.
23:29
Speaker 1: Gladiator somehow it was geared properly for it. But then
23:33
Speaker 1: I had a camper on it. I really should have
23:35
Speaker 1: bought like a four wheel camper or something that was
23:37
Speaker 1: a little bit bigger. It's not that I wasn't happy
23:40
Speaker 1: with what I had had an at Overland Summit camper.
23:42
Speaker 1: It was really well built, it was color matched. It
23:45
Speaker 1: was not great, it looked great. That vehicle is still
23:48
Speaker 1: out with the current owner performing fantastic. To my knowledge,
23:51
Speaker 1: I have no problems with it. I think the gladiators
23:53
Speaker 1: like they're very good, great value. Yeah, but I put
23:57
Speaker 1: a red Arc Manager thirty in it. Products great, wrong application,
24:02
Speaker 1: like this is something that really belongs in an expedition vehicle,
24:07
Speaker 1: a camper trailer, a larger pop up, someplace that has
24:12
Speaker 1: space for it where maybe it's integrated in an OEM application.
24:16
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to fit like a bunch of lithium
24:19
Speaker 1: battery in it. I'm trying to have all this control,
24:21
Speaker 1: I'm trying to have the diesel heater, I'm trying to
24:24
Speaker 1: have big sail boat living in very small sale beat.
24:27
Speaker 1: And it wasn't like it wasn't the fault of the
24:32
Speaker 1: red Arc, but it kept failing because it was just
24:35
Speaker 1: so complicated, because in this tiny little space I'm trying
24:38
Speaker 1: to connect all of these components into this, into that
24:41
Speaker 1: and whatever. Now, like I contrast that with my grenadier.
24:45
Speaker 1: I went with a red Arc Alpha fifty DC charger.
24:50
Speaker 1: For people that don't know, when you add a lithium battery,
24:53
Speaker 1: which are lighter, they're more energy dense. One hundred amp
24:56
Speaker 1: hours of lithium is like two hundred amp hours of
24:59
Speaker 1: lead acid because you get one hundred percent depth of discharge,
25:02
Speaker 1: where most manufacturers of lead acid AGM batteries recommended fifty
25:08
Speaker 1: percent depth of discharge. They also last a lot longer,
25:10
Speaker 1: but you have to have a device that takes the
25:13
Speaker 1: voltage from the car, ups it, and controls it for
25:16
Speaker 1: the lithium battery. So this Alpha fifty that I put
25:20
Speaker 1: in super small GP Factor made this.
25:22
Speaker 2: I was impressed with how small it was.
25:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, this GP factor bracket's really cool.
25:26
Speaker 2: It goes under the seat.
25:27
Speaker 1: Where the factory dual battery controller would have went, and
25:30
Speaker 1: then I fitted a really small battery. I don't have
25:34
Speaker 1: all of the monitoring and control, and I have a
25:37
Speaker 1: button depressed for my lights that's integrated to my app
25:39
Speaker 1: or whatever. It's a lot simpler, but there's like very
25:44
Speaker 1: few things that can fail on it, and I think
25:46
Speaker 1: that was really powerful for me to learn. Was like,
25:49
Speaker 1: I don't have to have everything all the time. This
25:54
Speaker 1: is still a really nice setup. It offers some two
25:58
Speaker 1: week charges, so it'll charge the starting battery if the
26:03
Speaker 1: auxiliary battery dies.
26:05
Speaker 2: Yeah.
26:06
Speaker 1: So it's choosing quality products, still like the red Arc stuff,
26:09
Speaker 1: but choosing like the appropriate stuff and not over complicating it.
26:14
Speaker 2: That was a really big lesson.
26:15
Speaker 1: That I learned.
26:16
Speaker 2: My entire first gen Tacoma was a lesson I had.
26:20
Speaker 2: I built it to go fast in Baja and it
26:24
Speaker 2: didn't because it was too heavy. Because I also built
26:26
Speaker 2: it to drive around the world, which meant that it
26:29
Speaker 2: was filled with a lot of weight. And then I
26:32
Speaker 2: put like a racing light package. That's really cool. It
26:37
Speaker 2: did no it. Yeah, it looked good, but I actually
26:41
Speaker 2: other than somewhere up in near tuk tuk Tuk, which
26:44
Speaker 2: is because I felt compelled to turn them on, like
26:48
Speaker 2: I never used them once in the entire time, and
26:51
Speaker 2: like the amount of days that it took me to
26:53
Speaker 2: do that, So that poor truck was it. I'm so
26:57
Speaker 2: embarrassed to say this, but the listener needs to know
27:00
Speaker 2: of the depth of my failure. That little truck weighs
27:03
Speaker 2: seven two hundred pounds with me in it, which doesn't
27:08
Speaker 2: really help. But I do have an I do impact
27:11
Speaker 2: the weight by two hundred and forty pounds or so.
27:14
Speaker 2: So yeah, seven two hundred pounds, which is insane. Yeah, well,
27:19
Speaker 2: the gross vehicle weight would have been like, I don't know,
27:22
Speaker 2: like sixty two hundred or something like that, sixty six
27:24
Speaker 2: hundred something. It wasn't cool, but I just didn't know
27:27
Speaker 2: a lot of that. Hundreds of pounds later, there was
27:30
Speaker 2: plenty of room underneath the vehicle for the spare, but
27:32
Speaker 2: I put the super heavy rear bumper on there. Yeah,
27:35
Speaker 2: those kinds of things that those things that I thought
27:38
Speaker 2: was going to look a certain way and they weren't necessarily.
27:40
Speaker 1: They're a really interesting one because everybody thinks, oh, I'm
27:43
Speaker 1: going off road, I have to have a bumper. Yeah,
27:45
Speaker 1: it depends what you're doing. Yeah, if you're an international
27:49
Speaker 1: overland dude or lady, Yeah, you really don't even need
27:53
Speaker 1: to think about that.
27:54
Speaker 2: It's just weight that is.
27:55
Speaker 1: More fuel economy and worse feel economy. Sorry, yeah, more
28:00
Speaker 1: fuel used. You know, even these days, like I'm going
28:04
Speaker 1: to say, like most domestics suck stuff if you're just running, like,
28:08
Speaker 1: you don't need a you don't need a bumper if
28:10
Speaker 1: you're gonna do Hell's Revenge with the right.
28:12
Speaker 2: Car, like, no, you need good receiver hitch.
28:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can dragon and switter up on that, but
28:17
Speaker 1: there's a lot of weight and complexity it comes with that,
28:19
Speaker 1: like putting too big of a tire on. Let's say
28:23
Speaker 1: a four Runner. Four Runners are great. I like I
28:26
Speaker 1: That's the car I had when I first started my business.
28:29
Speaker 1: It was like a fifth gen fore Runner.
28:30
Speaker 2: It was awesome.
28:31
Speaker 1: I put thirty eight thousand miles on it, and I
28:33
Speaker 1: traded it in for three thousand dollars less than I.
28:35
Speaker 2: Paid for it.
28:35
Speaker 1: It was the cheapest car you can own. It was
28:37
Speaker 1: like mind blowing. Yeah, But even putting it was pretty modest.
28:40
Speaker 1: I put like an inch larger tire on it, a
28:44
Speaker 1: very modest billsteam lift, and a roof rack with a
28:48
Speaker 1: roof tent. And it also got eleven miles to the gallon.
28:51
Speaker 1: So I traded it for a super Duty that got
28:53
Speaker 1: eighteen tool for the job. It was a better tool
28:55
Speaker 1: for what I was trying to do. But then I
28:57
Speaker 1: saw people that would that friends that had forerunners, then
29:01
Speaker 1: they started to go into thirty threes, and all of
29:03
Speaker 1: a sudden, then the tire doesn't fit or you couldn't
29:05
Speaker 1: get away with running a factory spare that was a
29:07
Speaker 1: little smaller, sure, which I think is all I did.
29:10
Speaker 1: Then you had to do the rear bumper. The car
29:12
Speaker 1: wasn't designed for it. So now you've just put two
29:15
Speaker 1: hundred three hundred pounds of steel and tire and wheel
29:21
Speaker 1: behind the axle and the worst possible.
29:23
Speaker 2: Place for it, and where are you supposed to fit that?
29:26
Speaker 1: But then it's like you go to the grocery store
29:28
Speaker 1: with the thing and you're like, it's like this performative
29:31
Speaker 1: art of unhitching this and swinging this out and moving
29:34
Speaker 1: this out to.
29:35
Speaker 2: Get your and the rattles, oh my god, they all
29:38
Speaker 2: they're all flawed.
29:39
Speaker 1: And then anyways, just don't overcomplicate and that's going to
29:44
Speaker 1: go into just modifications that you don't need. So weight,
29:49
Speaker 1: complexity and cost are the hidden taxes of overlanding.
29:53
Speaker 2: I like this. Yeah, So winches.
29:55
Speaker 1: Are I think a really good example. Everybody assumes that
29:58
Speaker 1: you need a winch. Again, go to your use case.
30:01
Speaker 1: It's a winch useful when you need it, Yeah, for sure.
30:06
Speaker 1: Like when you need a winch, very little will suffice
30:10
Speaker 1: other than a winch. But now you have things like
30:14
Speaker 1: Max tracks. If you're an international overlander, you're going out
30:18
Speaker 1: on a weekend trips, you're doing forest service roads, you're
30:21
Speaker 1: not really recreationally four wheel driving things like that these days.
30:27
Speaker 1: I don't think on the grannade here, I'm going to
30:29
Speaker 1: put a winch on it. It's one hundred and fifty pounds
30:32
Speaker 1: on the front. Maybe it's a little bit less, but
30:34
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say that as an even number.
30:36
Speaker 2: Do I need it?
30:37
Speaker 1: Because I'm trying to get the fuel economy, I'm trying
30:40
Speaker 1: to make it drive nice, and then the front's going
30:42
Speaker 1: to sit lower, which means I'm going to have to
30:44
Speaker 1: do a lift spring on the front, and then that
30:46
Speaker 1: brings other things with it.
30:48
Speaker 2: So if you're traveling around in the desert Southwest, you're
30:50
Speaker 2: never gonna need a winch. If you have a shovel
30:52
Speaker 2: and some traction boards and get a little recovery training.
30:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you're building a vehicle to go camp and
30:58
Speaker 1: run the Rubicon, just as the example, everybody knows, Yeah,
31:01
Speaker 1: maybe a which is a good idea for you but
31:03
Speaker 1: again consider that use case and be intentional with what
31:06
Speaker 1: you do. And some of the other weird modifications. Lighting
31:09
Speaker 1: has been like a like you're just talking about with
31:11
Speaker 1: your truck. That's been like a thing that I've noticed,
31:13
Speaker 1: definitely some fetishizing of lighting. Yeah, people will always talk
31:17
Speaker 1: to me about travel or you go to an event
31:20
Speaker 1: or whatever, Like I am who I am people talking
31:22
Speaker 1: about travel? I wish I had the money to do that.
31:24
Speaker 1: And I look on their truck and they have four
31:26
Speaker 1: grand in Baja designs lights. It's like they have five
31:30
Speaker 1: LP nines on their roof, They've got two on the bumper,
31:34
Speaker 1: They've got LP fours here, they have this back bumper
31:37
Speaker 1: Like they're really good lights.
31:38
Speaker 2: This isn't digging the product, No, No, it's great product, good product.
31:41
Speaker 2: But yeah, they've made a different choice.
31:43
Speaker 1: So if you are actually trying to travel, you have
31:48
Speaker 1: to be intentional with the things that you're doing. Yeah,
31:51
Speaker 1: Like lights are only useful at night.
31:54
Speaker 2: I will tell you.
31:56
Speaker 1: In the numerous countries I've been through and a lot
31:58
Speaker 1: of everything that I've.
31:59
Speaker 2: Done, not a good idea to drive at night to
32:02
Speaker 2: begin with.
32:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, Africa, don't drive at night, Mexico, don't drive at
32:05
Speaker 1: night most countries, and it's not like there's bandidos out
32:08
Speaker 1: to get you. There's drunks, there's drunks, there's cows there,
32:11
Speaker 1: there's life donkeys in the antelope other things. I actually
32:18
Speaker 1: took the LP nines off of my earth romwork because
32:21
Speaker 1: I never used them. I have LPE six is in
32:24
Speaker 1: the bumper, and then I have factory fog light and
32:27
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is all I need. It's perfect, Like
32:29
Speaker 1: these lights have gotten so bright, but then the esthetic
32:33
Speaker 1: of the Tacoma that you had with the lights on
32:36
Speaker 1: top is still an aesthetic choice, which is fine.
32:39
Speaker 2: I just know what you're like, you said there's a tax,
32:41
Speaker 2: Like every decision like this has a tax, and does
32:45
Speaker 2: it keep you that much further away from realizing your dream?
32:49
Speaker 2: Possibly maybe it's someone's dream to build a cool vehicle,
32:52
Speaker 2: that's totally cool, But if your dream is to travel,
32:55
Speaker 2: then pretty much like any stock for drive even do
33:00
Speaker 2: even like headlights are so good these days. Yeah, the
33:02
Speaker 2: new headlights on like even like the jeep, I'm like
33:06
Speaker 2: pretty good.
33:07
Speaker 1: Like I had like TJ's and when I had TJ's
33:09
Speaker 1: they were like, okay, cool, Yeah I want some lights.
33:12
Speaker 1: But now Wow, things are pretty good. Like armor is
33:17
Speaker 1: another big thing. It just adds weight really important if
33:21
Speaker 1: you're building a vehicle for recreational four wheel driving, maybe
33:24
Speaker 1: you're doing some domestic overlinding where there are more challenging
33:28
Speaker 1: obstacles and things like that. But I talked to a
33:31
Speaker 1: lot of people like, oh, yeah, you got to armor
33:33
Speaker 1: your truck up. What armor are you putting in your gladiator?
33:35
Speaker 1: I'm like, what doesn't need to be three hundred pounds heavier.
33:39
Speaker 1: I don't need it. I really just don't need it
33:41
Speaker 1: for my use case. But that's something that people like,
33:44
Speaker 1: particularly with like Forerunners to combas or whatever, like they're
33:46
Speaker 1: very easy to bolt on.
33:49
Speaker 2: And there's this.
33:51
Speaker 1: Mentality when it comes back to maybe fourum days before,
33:54
Speaker 1: Oh you don't have armor in your truck.
33:56
Speaker 2: What's your use case? Yeah? Sure.
33:58
Speaker 1: And then my last thing before we start to wrap
34:01
Speaker 1: up is drawer systems. Keep it simple, stupid, man.
34:05
Speaker 2: You get to talk about your drawer because that whatever
34:07
Speaker 2: that goose giar thing is magic so good. And the
34:10
Speaker 2: fact that you got the fridge down at the same
34:12
Speaker 2: level so you don't have a fridge sitting on top
34:13
Speaker 2: of the drawer system, Yeah, please break it. Down because
34:16
Speaker 2: it's okay.
34:16
Speaker 1: So I did this goose giar drawer system. It has
34:20
Speaker 1: on the left side, it has a drawer. It's I
34:23
Speaker 1: think it's a thirty one inches deep. On the right
34:25
Speaker 1: side is a demetic c D thirty drawer.
34:29
Speaker 2: Fridge so sick.
34:31
Speaker 1: So what this does for me is this gives me
34:33
Speaker 1: a and that fits between the wheel arches, and then
34:36
Speaker 1: I have a platform on the top that goes all
34:39
Speaker 1: the way above it, so I actually end up with
34:41
Speaker 1: a larger usable storage space. And then it sits slightly
34:44
Speaker 1: above the seats when they're folded down, So now I
34:47
Speaker 1: can put something.
34:49
Speaker 2: Long in there, or even sleep in there if you
34:52
Speaker 2: needed to.
34:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, if I needed to, wouldn't be super comfortable, but
34:54
Speaker 1: I probably stuffed something in that. But it's lightweight, it's functional,
34:58
Speaker 1: and it doesn't have much of a compromise. I did
35:01
Speaker 1: this this lithium battery system with the red Ark. I
35:05
Speaker 1: actually was able to find a reenergy one hundred ampowery.
35:09
Speaker 2: Thing was insanely small battery.
35:10
Speaker 1: It's twenty one pounds so with wiring the red Ark
35:15
Speaker 1: Alpha is like two pounds. I'm going to say a
35:20
Speaker 1: pound for the wiring. Like the brackets made out of
35:23
Speaker 1: aluminum from GP factor. It's super light. I'm like, well
35:27
Speaker 1: under thirty pounds probably twenty five pounds for one hundred.
35:31
Speaker 2: Amp or to a battery system. Insane the factory What
35:34
Speaker 2: would the factory system have been, Yeah, it would have
35:37
Speaker 2: to weigh probably forty five pounds fifty pounds just in
35:42
Speaker 2: the battery a lot.
35:43
Speaker 1: But then the drawer system is also fairly light. But
35:46
Speaker 1: I see these jeeps are seem to be the worst
35:49
Speaker 1: offenders where I'm looking at it and I'm like, I
35:52
Speaker 1: could not fit a subway foot long sandwich in the
35:55
Speaker 1: back of your jeep. They've got the fridge here drops down,
35:59
Speaker 1: and then they've got this straw, but they only have
36:01
Speaker 1: thirty inches of width to work.
36:03
Speaker 2: It's a small space in the back of a ring.
36:05
Speaker 1: And they compromise it like you don't need to have
36:07
Speaker 1: a home for every little thing, and then the wrangler
36:09
Speaker 1: doesn't really the payload for it, right, So you ended
36:11
Speaker 1: with this three hundred pound big heavy drawer system with
36:14
Speaker 1: all this stuff, and you just asked do you need it?
36:16
Speaker 1: I love this Intentional modification starts with restraint, know your goals,
36:22
Speaker 1: research your components, and then choose upgrades. That serve your
36:27
Speaker 1: use case, not your ego a big thing, and above all,
36:31
Speaker 1: keep it simple. The best overland vehicles aren't the ones
36:34
Speaker 1: with the most gear. They're the ones that get used reliably.
36:38
Speaker 2: In the real world. Like Stupery had a quote where
36:41
Speaker 2: he talked about when some art isn't its best when
36:44
Speaker 2: you've added the last thing to it, but when you've
36:46
Speaker 2: taken the last thing away. And I believe that applies
36:49
Speaker 2: equally to vehicles. I don't think that the overland vehicle
36:52
Speaker 2: is in its ultimate form for you when you've added
36:55
Speaker 2: the last piece of gear to it. It's actually when
36:57
Speaker 2: you removed the last thing that you didn't need. So
37:01
Speaker 2: it's okay to add things and then take them off
37:04
Speaker 2: and sell them used. It's okay to, as you gain
37:06
Speaker 2: skills and experience, to remove the things that maybe gave
37:09
Speaker 2: you some comfort early on, so that way you end
37:12
Speaker 2: up with only what you need, which is going to
37:14
Speaker 2: give you a better performing, a more reliable, and a
37:18
Speaker 2: much less expensive vehicle. Yeah. Wise words from the dude himself.
37:22
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. Well, this was great, Matt. Good job, buddy.
37:24
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time for another episode of Principles
37:27
Speaker 1: of Overlanding. Thanks for listening to the Overlain Journal podcast.
37:30
Speaker 2: Hey're welcome. And if you want to reach out to
37:31
Speaker 2: Matt and tell him what he should do different on
37:34
Speaker 2: his builds or me.
37:38
Speaker 1: Let's don't do that after I've had a couple of yeers,
37:40
Speaker 1: Matt explore on that Instagram floor at Instagram, and.
37:42
Speaker 2: I'm Scott Brady and we look forward to seeing you
37:45
Speaker 2: in the field on the trail. See you