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The 10 Commandments of Modifying Your Overland Vehicle · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I am
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: your host, Scott Brady, and I am here with my
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: co host Matt Scott. What are we going to talk
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: about today, Matt.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: So, today we're talking about something really important, maybe some
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: stuff that you guys are going to disagree with. We're
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: talking about the ten Commandments of modifying your overland vehicle. Now,
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: the key thing there is overland. We're talking about vehicles
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: that are being modified for travel as their you know,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: as their main purpose, right, I mean exactly. Yeah, people
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  Speaker 2: oftentimes think that overlanding is recreational four wheeling. There's certainly
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: some fun you can have while overlanding doing recreational four
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: wheeling things. But overlanding is vehicle based travel, whereas four
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: wheeling is recreational sport. It's just important to understand the
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: distinction and that we're not really building vehicles across Rubicon.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: If that's what you want to do, that's great, But
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: the Rubicon tends to not be a destination for travel,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: tends to be a destination for recreational sport. Yeah, just
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: just rent a jeep if you want to do the Rubicon.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: You know, I guess the you know, the old quote
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  Speaker 2: that a uh what the jack of all trades is
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  Speaker 2: a master of none, right, totally. You know, we're we're
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: specific going to be talking about vehicles for travel, lightly
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: modified vehicles that you know, are essentially built to be
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: durable and a little bit more refined because you're going
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: to be spending a lot of time in these things, and.
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  Speaker 1: We want them to be simple because we don't want
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  Speaker 1: the vehicle to be a distraction from the experience. We
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: also don't want to spend a bunch of money on
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the vehicle either. We talked about this in a previous podcast,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: but we always want to make sure that we're spending
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  Speaker 1: less money on the vehicle than we are on the
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: travel itself. So when you go down through your expenses
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: at the end of the year, if you spent four
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  Speaker 1: times more on the truck than you did on any
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: of your travels, it might be worth reconsidering. Well, maybe
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  Speaker 1: I'm just into building vehicles and that's my hobby, and
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: that's okay. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: But if your if your goal is to really be
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a traveler, if your goal is to really be an overlander,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: make sure that that that delta is different where you're
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: spending more money on fuel and going interesting places and
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: and you know, getting access to that one remote museum
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: or or paying that border crossing fee. Make sure that
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  Speaker 1: you're spending money on travel more so than you're.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Spending and invest into yourself, right and that and that
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  Speaker 2: can manifest itself in a bunch of our ways. Let's
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: say you only have a week of vacation, Well, spend
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: the two thousand dollars that you were gonna you know,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: put into a lift kit or or or whatever it
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: may be, and take unpaid leave, find a new career,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: teach yourself skills, whatever, whatever, whatever it is, right. You know,
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  Speaker 2: if the goal is travel, I think that makes the
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: maintainty that has to maintain priorities and you can.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: This article that we're talking about has been on Expedition
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Portal for years and we recently updated it, and that's
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: what Matt and I are talking about today. It's called
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  Speaker 1: the Ten Commandments of Modifying your Overland Vehicle, and it's
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  Speaker 1: it's really important to know that the title is intentionally.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Aggress of it.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like we're trying to tell you how to
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  Speaker 1: do things, and that's not the case. It's more of
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  Speaker 1: a way of gaining people's attention to be mindful about
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  Speaker 1: how they modify their vehicles. So these aren't commandments. You
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: can do whatever you want, obviously with your own truck.
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  Speaker 1: These are the things that Matt and I have learned
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  Speaker 1: many of them the hard way by doing things.
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  Speaker 2: You remember my first jeep when I started working for
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Overlain Journal.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: I remember my first jeep which was totally overloaded and problematic.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I remember, yeah, I put a two eighty nine V
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: eight into a nineteen fifty three and thirty eight Ay one,
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  Speaker 1: no wonder it ended up being a total total.
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  Speaker 2: Ten years ago, I thought the measure of a good
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: vehicle is how much stuff was bolted onto it. And
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: I quickly learned that the measure of a good vehicle
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: is kind of almost how stock it is. Right, look
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: where it's been, where it's been right. You know, I'm
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: more concerned with properly aligned geometry on my suspension than
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I am that the height of it. You know, I
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  Speaker 2: look at like AV, for example, I think AV does
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  Speaker 2: a really good, a really good job of of kind
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  Speaker 2: of getting to this first this first commandment, as we're
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  Speaker 2: calling them, is that complexity as the enemy, right, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the the original manufacturer of your vehicle put a lot
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  Speaker 2: of work into it. And I think people you know,
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  Speaker 2: and I know a lot of these head engineers of
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  Speaker 2: these car companies, and the testing, the the the hundreds
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  Speaker 2: of thousands of miles that these vehicles are proven, you
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: are you are never going to be able to recreate
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  Speaker 2: that a a you know, an aftermarket company.
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  Speaker 1: They're designed for a specific task exactly. And and maybe
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: that's the first question that we ask is why are
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: you buying the vehicle that you're buying. If you want
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  Speaker 1: something that has a good payload, that's designed to go
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: around the world, you're going to be looking at a
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: very small group of vehicles. It doesn't mean that you
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: can't drive around the world in the super ru but
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: if you want to cross the Canning Stock Route, or
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: you want to do or you want to cross glaciers
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  Speaker 1: in Iceland, that's not the right vehicle. It would require
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  Speaker 1: so much modification to make that possible. Yes, with the
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: right PLATF start with that, it's going to reduce complexity.
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  Speaker 1: It will Let's say you wanted to have a four
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: wheel camper, great option, you know everything's on one you
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: can you can ditch it, have your truck back during
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the week. Should you start with it Tacoma. It's not
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  Speaker 1: the right vehicle.
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  Speaker 2: It's probably not the right vehicle because then to add complexity,
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  Speaker 2: you're going to have to add some fancy trick rear
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  Speaker 2: spring that to support the weight, maybe some air bags,
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  Speaker 2: maybe some shocks you know that have insane compression rates
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: on them so you're not bottoming out all the time.
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  Speaker 2: Or you could just throw it in the back of
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  Speaker 2: enough one fifty and be done.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, or a twenty five hundred or whatever that's designed
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  Speaker 1: to carry that kind of payload. So I think it
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  Speaker 1: just comes back to us being honest with ourselves of like,
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  Speaker 1: what do we actually want to accomplish, what are we
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  Speaker 1: trying to where are we trying to go, where are
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: we trying to travel, and then buying the right vehicle
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  Speaker 1: to start off with. If the goal is to cross
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  Speaker 1: the sand dunes in the Altar Desert, then that twenty
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  Speaker 1: five hundred dodge with a foural camper'sbably not the best
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  Speaker 1: choice for that either. So thinking about where you want
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: to go and what you want to experience along the way.
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  Speaker 1: Some people love staying in cities, small villages and they
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: need to have a small vehicle. They intend to they
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: don't want to camp out every night and buy the
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: right vehicle for that. And maybe that is the super
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: rue that you choose that type of travel, but it's
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: really important to start off with the right vehicle. And
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  Speaker 1: when Matt talks about complexity, let's remind ourselves that whatever
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: we add to the vehicle is going to be a distraction.
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  Speaker 1: It's going to take away money that we could use
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  Speaker 1: for travel, It's going to take away time because we
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  Speaker 1: have to install it or modify it, do that modification ourselves,
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  Speaker 1: or we have to pay for someone else to do it,
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  Speaker 1: and then now we don't know how to fix it ourselves.
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  Speaker 1: So there's a lot of consequences for anything that we
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  Speaker 1: add to the car.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, Scott, I think you de agree airing
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  Speaker 2: on the side of being oe. Not making modifications that
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: can't be fixed wherever you may be going. Not adding
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  Speaker 2: a very obscure tire size that means you're going to
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: be waiting for tires for two weeks in Ecuador, just
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: just thinking of the entire picture, right, I mean, when
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  Speaker 2: you when you add a larger tire size to your vehicle,
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  Speaker 2: people don't necessarily know all of that all which it affects, right.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you're going to be changing your breaking distance,
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  Speaker 2: right because if your land cruiser came with a thirty
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  Speaker 2: one inch tire, well, you're breaking your stopping distances based
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  Speaker 2: around that. You're gonna be putting more straining into your
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: you joints, You're gonna be putting more straining in your
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: transmission because it's not gonna be in the right cooling capacity.
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  Speaker 2: Like there's every action has a reaction, right, I mean
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  Speaker 2: that is as a law of the universe, I guess, right,
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  Speaker 2: So it also applies to vehicles. So so so keep
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  Speaker 2: that in mind. You know, for me, weight is just
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  Speaker 2: is the biggest thing right on an overland vehicle, and
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  Speaker 2: this is this is I guess our second point point
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  Speaker 2: number two. Weight is the enemy. Yeah, yeah, I mean
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  Speaker 2: when when we talk about cargo capacity, and I do
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  Speaker 2: think that is almost misleading that that's actually the vehicle's capacity. Right.
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  Speaker 2: That means if you're fore runner, which I want to
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  Speaker 2: say is around fifteen hundred pounds, as fifteen hundred pounds
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  Speaker 2: of cargo capacity, that doesn't mean the stuff that goes
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  Speaker 2: in the back. That means the stuff that goes in
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  Speaker 2: the front seat and the passenger seat. It means the
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: stuff that goes in the fuel tank. All of those
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  Speaker 2: things they're not included, right, So big, you're two American
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  Speaker 2: males two hundred pounds each. There's four hundred pounds. Now
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  Speaker 2: you're down to eleven hundred pounds. Let's say you have
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  Speaker 2: ten gallons of water. Gallon of waters eight page point
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  Speaker 2: three three. Yeah, okay, so we're just going to call
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  Speaker 2: that a you know, we'll call that one hundred pounds.
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  Speaker 2: Then you start talking fuel that's seven pounds, and you
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  Speaker 2: have a twenty five gallon gas tank. I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: stop doing math here, but it adds up really really cool. Right,
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  Speaker 2: And then you start talking about your two hundred pounds
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  Speaker 2: sliders and you put bigger tires on it, which means
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: you have nowhere to carry your spare so you have
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: to put this two hundred and fifty pounds rear bumper on. Well,
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: then you did a rear bump percent to do the
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: front one, and all of a sudden, your payload capacity
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: is that of a very very petite ham sandwich. So
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: keep that stuff in mind. I mean, I don't know
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  Speaker 2: as a traveler, I guess I would rather fill that
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: with I don't know, rose or something, you know, stuff
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  Speaker 2: that you're going to enjoy in camp.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: You know, I like for the ability to pick up
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: some hitchhikers as you're going along. I remember stopping and
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: picking up these Tarajamara and Indians in Copper Canyon, and
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  Speaker 1: like I was driving a sportsmobile van that was a
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: one ton capacity. It had plenty of payload to carry
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: additional people, plenty of space. So starting off with with
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: making that decision of I'm not going to overload my
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: vehicle past ninety percent of the gross vehicle weight, which
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: means that you've got to have a little bit extra.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: What if your vehicle that you're traveling with, your your
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: travel partners that have another vehicle, What if they break
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: down in the middle of the desert and you need
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: to move them over to your vehicle. Do you have
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: the room for that? You have an unl loaded open
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: roof rack to take their equipment. Those are all consequences
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: of us overdoing the vehicles. And we have to remember
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  Speaker 1: that so much of this comes from a place of insecurity.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: And I don't mean just like that. People are insecure,
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  Speaker 1: so they're overbuilding their vehicles to compensate, which I think
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: that that's probably true in some cases. It's actually this
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  Speaker 1: insecurity of if I break down, I want to have
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: everything that I could possibly have, or if I run
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: into this really obscure situation in Africa, I want to
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: be able to overcome it with this one widget that
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: I brought along. The reality is is that those things
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: don't typically happen. There's normally locals driving around in their
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: own land cruiser that can pull you out, or a
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: village will you know, the whole village will come over
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: to help push you out. They'll hook up OX into
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: the front of your car. I mean, that's part of
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: the adventure is getting stuck, and part of the adventure
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: is having issues that you may not be able to
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: solve everything all at once. So making sure that you
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: don't overplan and over build the vehicle is a key
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: to it.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: You don't need to carry the you know, the portable
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: welder to fix your frame when it fails. If you
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: don't overload your vehicle and your frame doesn't fail. Yeah right.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: It's that self deprecating cycle of you know, yeah.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: The only time I needed a welder, I mean needed
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: a welder was in the middle of Antarctica, and that's
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: because there was no other way to fix it. If
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: you're in the middle of Africa, I guarantee you that
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: the next village has a welder. And and it doesn't
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: mean that you should. No one should ever bring a welder.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: We're not saying that. We're not saying no one should
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: ever put thirty fives on their vehicle. Do what works
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: for you, but just make sure that everything is with intention,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: that you're doing only the modifications that you really need
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: to accomplish.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: A lighter vehicle is always going to be better to drive.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: It's going to stop better, it's going to get better
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: fuel economy, it's going to handle better. Just be considered
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: of where you are investing that weight, right, And I think.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I think Matt and I one of the things that
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: we've benefited most from is the fact that we've traveled
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: off of motorcycles. Yeah, I didn't change my whole outlook
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: on vehicle weight and payload and what I actually needed
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: to bring along with me until I had a motorcycle.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Until I traveled across South America on a motorcycle. I
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: didn't have a wench with me. Yeah, I didn't. I
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: didn't have a recovery kid. I didn't have I had
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: a very small tool kit. I had essentially all of
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the stuff on my motorcycle could fit in the front
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: passenger seat of the vehicle that I drive every day.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I had nothing with me, And you know what, I
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: was able to go through Peru and Colombia and Ecuador
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and all these other all these other countries without a problem.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: You just don't need that much stuff. And I think
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: for those that maybe are dealing with this stuff addiction
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: or this too many modification addiction, take a trip in
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: a stock vehicle or take a trip on a motorcycle
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: and a car and fly somewhere, yeah, exactly, and see
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: how it is to travel with nothing or almost nothing.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: I think you'll find it pretty liberating. Yeah, I mean,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I don't know, stuff stuff kind of weighs you down,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: it does literally and figure, you know, I think comfort
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: has a lot to do with it, right, I mean,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: I I know.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: And and our Jeep claudiator build. Oh wow, we could
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: have a we could have hot water. Okay, well that's
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: gonna be that's gonna be two under pounds between the
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: heat exchangers the water pumps, the custom tanks you're gonna
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: have to mate or or you just stay in the
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: hotel every once in a while, you know, where you
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: bring along a little solar, yeah, or one of those
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Nemo helio things. You know, there's always there's always a
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: different way of looking at it. Again, we're we're we're
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: assuming that this is for a vehicle based on travel, right.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: I think one of the biggest you know, kind of
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: hit or miss things people people get is is suspension,
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: for sure. So that's that's our that's our next commandment
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: is it is very complex and it is so easy
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: to mess up. Again, we we we kind of previously
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: talked about complexity and how you know manufacturers spent all
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: this time on durability testing. Well, you know a lot
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: of that testing is I mean, it's related to the
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: to the suspension. A vehicle is bad if it doesn't
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: handle good, you know. So again, taking some of that
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: that that oe knowledge and being mindful and respectful of it,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: you know, I guess, and understanding that there's a tolerance.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: So a great example for this, and it's probably the
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: best one to lead off with, is an independent front suspension.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: The the the amount of total travel is cannot be changed,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: typically without significant modifications. So there's a total amount of
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: uptravel and there's a total amount of down travel. When
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: people lift an IFS truck, what they're doing is they're
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: robbing down travel to gain up travel or and also
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: to gain additional ground clearance. So it's really important to
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: recognize that you're not actually improving the total suspension stroke
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: of the vehicle. You're just robbing Peter to pay Paul,
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: and that comes with real consequences. It comes with the
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: ability if you if you lift it too much, you
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: can't bring it back into alignment, and then you have
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: to issues, and you have highwar issues and you have
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: camber issues as a result of that. So understanding the
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: vehicle that you buy and what is the tolerance that
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: it has for a suspension lift. Even the Arctic trucks
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: that we used across Greenland, Antarctica, they only add a
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: couple inches of suspension lift. The rest was accomplished by
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: a lot of body trimming because even the Arctic truck
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: guys recognize that once you get those CV axles at
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: a specific angle, they fail, especially with a forty four
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: inch tire. So understand what the limits are of your
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: particular vehicle, And typically I have found if I keep
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: the lift between thirty and fifty millimeters, maybe with a
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: jeep wrangler you can get away with a little more.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Maybe with a full sized truck, you can get away
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: with a little bit more if you're on a solid
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: axle vehicle. But I typically like around fifty millimeters of
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: total increased lift. That allows for a slightly larger tire,
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: It allows for a little more ground clearance, that makes
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: clearing technical obstacles easier. That's what I've got on my
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Mercedes G Class fifty millimeters. Everything's all within factory spect anymore.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: It drives great down the road. Yeah, you know, I man,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: it's it's it's a complicated thing. I mean long travel
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: and overlanding. Right now, whatever overlanding has become, long travel
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: is really popular. I love a good go fast truck.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: I like going fast. It's very fun. But it has
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: such a small place, I guess, you know when it
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: comes to actually traveling, I don't want to service him joints,
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: you know. And also what's the rush? What's the rush? Yeah, vacation,
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: that's rush. We're not saying that these things are bad,
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: saying that they're bad products or anything, but just like,
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: do you actually need it? I mean if if, if,
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: what you're trying to do is you're trying to camp
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: and tackle really technical trails. I mean, that's that's four wheeling.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: I guess we're we're gonna we're gonna make that call.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: Do you need the uh triple bypass king shocks? Now?
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: I mean if you, hey, listen, need verse once? I
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: want those. I have them on my truck. But you know,
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: I also recognize that when I eventually drive this thing
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: to South America, we're actually talking about driving across Russia.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: That means I have to find a place in Mongolia
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: to rebuild my shocks. If I would have put a
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Billsteine fifty one hundred or some kind of OE quality
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: shock in there, I could invest that time into experiences.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: And yeah, for sure, that's honestly what I would rather do.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: You know, suspension is important, and it is the one
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: thing that I do tend to modify most often on
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: my vehicles. I want to have enough fluid capacity in
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: the shock absorber to be able to handle long distances
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: of corrugation. So that is something to be mindful of.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that you need triple bypass. It doesn't
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: need that you need long travel, but you should be
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: aware of the diameter of the shock itself. How much
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: fluid capacity does it have, what's the quality of the seals,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: what's the diameter of the shaft? How is the valving
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: constructed is it is it constructed in a way that
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: favors a heavier load or is it constructed in a
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: way that which means that the rebound and compression valving?
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Is that for comfort? If it is adjustable, what's the
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: service life of that adjustable feature. A lot of the
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: adjustable features on shock absorbers get gummed up and corroded
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: over time.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: And then they don't work. Yeah, Like if you live
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: in the Northeast, a big adjustable suspension would be it's
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: a real problem.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: The fine I do like to have a little bit
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: more fluid volume in the vehicle that can typically be I.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: Mean, what did you have on the exhibition seven trucks?
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: We just did old And did you have a single failure?
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Not a single fire? You have to service it. We
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: didn't at all.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was nearly one hundred thousand kilometers in the
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: vehicle that I drove, and the other vehicles had upwards
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: of seventy thousand kilometers as well. This is canning Stock
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: route crossing Australia, crossing Africa, driving the length of Ruta
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Quarenta in Argentina. These are heavily corrugated and oftentimes technical
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: terrain and we never had a single suspension failure. But again,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: fifty millimeters was the suspension lift that we installed.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: And I think I think one of the biggest things
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: people overlooks they overlook spring rate. If you're going to
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: have a very heavy vehicle, you need a spring that
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: can handle that, so you're not just compensating with a
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: big shock, right. I see a lot of people do that,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: you know these days. They they I mean, a big
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: king shock is a beautiful thing and it can mask
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: a lot of you know, other shortcomings. But yeah, make
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: sure that you're actually getting the right the right spring rate, right.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think that's something that old man Emily
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: does does really well. Is they do a good job.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: I have to give options. I mean on my lancres er,
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: I had six or seven different different options. I don't
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: know if I necessarily see people considering that these days,
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: maybe they just don't have the options because there's really,
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: I guess nothing legally in the US it says you
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: have to accommodate. There isn't, but I think it is.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: I think it is important.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: And then recognizing that as we lift the vehicle it
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: changes so many other things. That changes the role center,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: it changes the center of gravity, it changes the way
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: that the vehicle dynamics work on the whole because you've
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: now changed the angles of the drag links, You've changed
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: the angles of the radius arms, and all of that
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: can start adding additional issues like vibrant especially on an
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: eighty series you can get front front drive shaft vibrations yep,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: that start to become a factor as well. So just
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: being aware of the fact that there's a very small
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: tolerance actually that you can lift or modify a vehicle
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: before it starts to have a bunch of other negative effects.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: So consider a lift if you need it for the
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: terrain that you travel. I do like to travel on
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: technical routes and about a one and a half inch
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: lift is all I've really needed for anything I've ever done.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean again, guys, invest and invest in
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: yourself right, get trained by a qualified certified for wheels, trainer.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: You would be amazed at the place that you can
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: take a completely stock truck. I mean, that's one of
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: my favorite things to do is to go to Moab,
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: you know, get a manufacturer to give me some kind
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: of completely stocked vehicle and yeah, it's great. You drive
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: a range Rover, you know, up the waterfall and poison
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Spider next to a guy that just spent like twenty
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: grand modifying as JK, so you could walk up it easier.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: And it's just that that very smug smile that you
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: can give.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Totally quite nice. Or even the Rubicon Trail. I remember
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: it was probably two thousand and seven and I was
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: working for Jeep and I was testing the new Liberty
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: of the square more square shape Liberty, and they wanted
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: me to take the Liberty across the Rubicon. I'm like
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: all right, and they're like stock, sure, is there any
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: way that we could put some like factory sliders on
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: the thing, And they're like, yeah, we'll send those. And
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: of course they didn't send the sliders, but I still
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: remember driving into Rubicon Springs in a bone stock Jeep
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Liberty that it just it's done the same trail as
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: everybody else, and it's not because I'm some wor will
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: drive guru. That's not the point. The point is is
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: that the vehicle. It's these vehicles are extremely capable, and
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: if you drive slowly and you get a spotter and
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: you gain some skills to additional training, it's amazing where
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: a stock vehicle would go. And there's a lot of
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: fun in driving stock vehicles.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: A chess game. That's one of the things you taught
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: me a long time ago. And you're talking about a spotter.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: If you have a partner that you travel with, I
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: mean whomever is driving or spotting or vice versa. I mean,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: I know, with Laura and I you know, half of
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: the gnarly photos I have of my trucks, she's the
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: one driving. Right. Make sure that everybody in the vehicle
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: knows how to spot, that everybody knows how to drive,
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: because I will take a stock or poorly modified vehicle
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: and a great spotter over a bad spotter and a
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: you know, a JK on forties or something, right. I mean, now,
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: we were just on the Rubicon and Stock Gladiators with
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: the Jeep team maybe a month or two ago now,
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: and yeah, it's it's an interesting perspective to do a
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: trail in a stock vehicle and then to get off
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: the trail and you have keyboard warriors telling you that
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: your thirty sevens aren't enough, Like, yeah, you guys are
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: going down like the Mojave Road. It's like you're you're
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: you're going to Alabama hills and posing for photos like
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: you don't need any of this stuff. You don't again,
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: tell me you want it, and I'm not going to
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: say anything, but tell me you need something, And then
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: there's probably a reason you don't. Yeah. Oh, there's always
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: going to be a reason you don't.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because there's always someone who's done it in a
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: way less capable vehicle.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know that that that gets me off
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: more than the check writing does.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: So yeah, And I mean, how many times have we
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: been in some remote place in Africa where you think
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: you're totally hardcore, you're in low range in your g
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: wagon and then here comes a bunch of locals pushing
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: a Toyota Urceell up there, up there.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: I drove of the Perry Dacar course in Morocco in
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: a rented Dacia Logan. There you go, that's like a
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: check designed Moroccan built Toyota Corolla. It wasn't that good,
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: but it did it. And I had the experience. And
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: if I spent the entire time, you know, trying to
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: modify trucks or save up enough money to have this,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: have this this item, to go do this thing, just
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: just go do it. Yeah, but I just go do it. Yeah.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: Keeping the engine stock all right.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So we're at number four on the list, and
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: this one tends to be the most contentious because people
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: love horsepower. In fact, there's a couple things that we've
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: recognized through the years that people love.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: People love power. They love things that transform, like a
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: roof tent. They love that.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: They because it's also like a tree Ford at the
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: same time. Oh yeah, it's pretty amazing. The things that
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: are like harken right back to our childhood. Like what
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I really want is a tree Ford on my vehicle.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: It's pretty funny. But thee the problem, Yeah, keeping the
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: vehicle stock is really is really key. It doesn't mean
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: don't change anything like So for example, famous motorcycle Kawasaki
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: KLR six point fifty, probably one of the most commonly
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: used motorcycles to ride around the world, and there is
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: an issue with the engine that needs to be addressed.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: It's called the dew Hickey mod. You go in there,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: you remove this factory plastic chain tensioner and you replace
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: it with something more robust, and then you never need
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: to replace it again. So it doesn't mean that there
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: aren't things that need to be modified on your motor potentially,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: but it's really important that you do it and only
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: when absolutely necessary. If someone says on my vehicle's underpowered,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: it usually means your vehicle is overloaded. Or if you
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: say your vehicle geared, your vehicle is underpowered. It may
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: need to have a gearing change, or you just bought
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: the wrong car for the application that you need. If
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: you live in Leadville, Colorado, you need a specific kind
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: of vehicle.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: You want something with forced induction.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: That's right, you want trust me. Yeah, you want a supercharger,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: you want a turbo charger, you want something that addresses
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: an environmental consideration. But for the most part, keeping the
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: engine stock is critical because if you need to get
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: at service somewhere, the only chance you've got if you
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: got that triple bypass super ECU with the double turbocharger. Like,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: how in the world do you get that fixed in
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: the middle of nowhere.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: The answer is you don't.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, now, you've done a couple of things to
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: your eighty, tell me about what. Yeah, so, you know,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I wanted to do some things, right, So land Cruiser
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: one HDT engine that's in my my eighty factory fitted.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: I want to say from the factory it ran six
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: to eight pounds of boost, very very modest. Now that
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: motor would run forever and ever on that. But the
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: same block, the same head and now there's probably a
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: few small changes in a yeah, mark marine diesel engine
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: for example, that same engine runs at twenty four psi constant, right,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: like marine engines run at a certain rpm. That's what
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: they're designed for. That's great.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: So I ended up, you know, looking to Australia where
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: they've you know, they have data of you know, thousands
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: of these things being sold, and I put an aftermarket
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: turbo charger on it. Now it's the same style of turbo,
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: the same size of turbo that that it came with.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: I want to say, it's a c T twenty six
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Toyota turbo. But when that engine was designed in the
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: late eighties as something that came out and you know,
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: very very early nineties. The technologies available to them are
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: drastically different than the ones that were available today. So
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: we're talking it has a different you know, it's a
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: bill at spinny fidget wheel in the middle that supposedly
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: creates more boost. And we ended up doing a top
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: mount intercooler from a company called HPD as well. You know,
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: it was actually wasn't just made in a factory in
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: China or something that was made in Australia. It's very good,
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: very good intercooler, and that turbo is from g Tabo
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: and that that transformed the vehicle. Now I walked into
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: that knowing this is probably going not probably, this is
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: going to you know, decrease the longevity of this engine.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: But I went through things like bottom end bearings. I
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: made sure that the valves were in spec. I made
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: sure to replace all the seals. I've replaced all of
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: the all the associated seals on the intake because I
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: knew I'd be running a higher boost. You know, if
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: you have a you have a balloon that's only used
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: to being blown up so much over time, and then
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: you put an extra ten pounds of pressure in it,
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: maybe it pops so you know, keep it stock, make
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: sure it's serviceable. I guess is the big I think.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: That's the key really, because that if you did have
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: that turbo go out on you in South Africa, you
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: could go to a Toyota dealership and order a.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: Replace, get stocked. It could just drop right in, right
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: and you could drop My inner cooler had no modifications
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: of the vehicle. I took over the cross, took off
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: the crossover pipe thing on. I have the part sitting
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: at home. You know, it's it's easy.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: It's mean intercooler is it's not a mechanical device. I mean,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: it's just yeah, it was a holistic thing.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, I could have not put the intercooler on
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: that particular vehicle, but then my intake temperatures would be higher,
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: my exhaust gas temperatures were sure. You just have to
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: know what you're doing, you know. I mean, and there's
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: exceptions the rule. Five ten years ago, if somebody said
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: I'm going to do a cold air intake, I'm like, well,
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: why you're going to have this obscure filter that you
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: can't service. And while I do not have colder intakes
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: in any of my stuff, there's some interesting companies coming
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: out with stuff now, like I want to say S
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: and b intakes. There's a few others that do a
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: fully sealed you know holes from the factory location, but
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: maybe is increasing the filtration element. I think some of
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: those things are okay. Yeah, I think I think they
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: can be fine.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: You just want to be able to service them in
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: the middle of nowhere when you're when you're in Inner
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Mongolia and you need to order a part. That it
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: isn't that the turbo companies like oh Man, we don't
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: have any of these on the on the shelf, or
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: they send you the wrong one because they use a
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: different one the next year. I think the key is
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: serviceability and reliability. If the modification is not likely to
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: affect reliability, it's probably worth considering. Can you service it
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: in the field, can you do you know which parts
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: to order, or can you use factory parts in its stead?
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Then I think that that's fine. Again, none of these
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: things are hard and fast rules, but in general, we
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: want to be really careful modifying the motor.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, like I would be very hesitant on
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: an international vehicle to say, but aftermarket supercharger or an
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: aftermarket turbo charger on there if the vehicle wasn't designed
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: for it, like on my Gladiator. I struggle with that
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: one because the car needs another fifty or sixty horse
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: power after it's been built. But I also realized that
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: maybe that all of a sudden becomes more of a
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: four wheel or railing vehicle, right.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Or you decide to keep it in North America where
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: you've got cell coverage and you can get things fixed. Yeah, exactly.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: You did change the gearing though. Did that fix most
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: of the problem.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just came from a four draftor and want
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: more power. Let's be honest here.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: No, the gearing. And the cool thing with the gearing
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: is that I was able to use factor well as
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: close to factors you can get. So Dana Spicer, who
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: obviously makes the data axles that are underneath it, they
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: had four eighty eights off the shelf, I mean quite literally,
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: same gear, different ratio, same testing process, the same manufacturing,
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: same line. I try to look for that kind of stuff.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: I think that's a good idea.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: You know, companies that have good warranties, companies that have
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: a strong reputation, do some research on the products that
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: you're looking to purchase.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: What are other people talking about.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: There's plenty of groups on Facebook and hop on the
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: forums on various soums.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Huge resource. I mean obviously exhibition portal, but you know
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: then the the vehicle specific forums and groups are.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes that makes a huge difference in making
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: sure that you're not diving into an issue. What do
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: we got for number five here, Matt? We got isolate
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: and minimize all electrical modifications.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think the things that actually scare me most
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: on when I'm shooting a custom vehicle feature or just
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: shooting the breeze with somebody at a trade show is
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: the inevitable bird's nest of wiring that takes place. There's
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: like zero excuse for bad wiring in what over twenty nineteen. Right,
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: we have s pod, we have switch pro, We have
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: companies like Ford and Jeep that are building in you know,
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: device switch management at a factory level. Again, on my Gladiator,
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: I can choose from four switches, and I can go
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: into the screen and say do I want to do
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: a momentary switch? Do I want them to be a
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: latching switch? Do I want it to be you know,
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: selectable even at the vehicles off? Right, This is this
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: is easy, right, this is this is the easy thing.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: And and and in today's world, watch that wiring. I mean, yeah,
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: and the biggest How many vehicles have you seen burned down?
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean we've seen videos on YouTube recently
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: of vehicles catching on fire because of improper wiring. One
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: of the things that people make, the most common mistake
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: of is that they don't fuse the right end of
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: a wire. Yeah, So they'll be they'll connect it to
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: the battery and then it'll run ten feet along the
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: frame and then it'll have a fuse by the compressor.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: That's too late, man, it's there's no fuse. You want
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: the fuse at the power source. So that way, if
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: that wiring, if the insulation gets chafed through and it
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: starts to arc against the frame, that it doesn't catch
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: on fire, melt and catch the whole vehicle on fire.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: That the fuse blows at the power source, which is
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: the battery. So it's and it's also important to isolate
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: the house system. Now, when I say house systems, that's
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: anything that you've added.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: After the vehicle at stock.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: So that's going to be solar panel, dual battery systems,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: it's going to be GPS units, it's going to be subwoofers.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Any of the stuff that you add after the fact,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: water pumps, all of that should be isolated to the
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: house systems, so that the way the stock vehicle wiring
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: and the stock battery the starting power is completely isolated
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: and not affected by those other sources. And you need
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: to be able to disconnect the two. So if you
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: have problems with the house systems, you can just either
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: with a mechanical switch or with a dual battery system
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: with a disconnectable switch. You need to be able to
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: isolate those two so you can always preserve starting power.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: So I think using is really critical. Making sure that
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: you isolate the house systems are really critical. And I
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: think the last thing that's often overlooked is plan this
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: stuff out from the beginning. It doesn't mean that you
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: need to buy everything right off the bat, but plan
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: it out from the beginning. Sit down with somebody who's
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: knowledgeable about vehicle wiring and think about all of the
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: systems that you want to might want to put on
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: the vehicle, and plan from that from the very start,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: so that way you have the right number of positions
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: on a fuse block yep. So that way you have
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: when you run wiring through the firewall, that you do
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: it all at the same time, even if that wire
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: is not connected to the fuse block, it's terminated in
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: some type of insulation. But run all of that wiring
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: at the at the start, so that way you're not
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: putting wiring on top of wiring on top of wiring.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: It's all loomed properly, it's all protected, properly, isolated from
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: hot sources like the exhaust or a turbo in the
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: engine department. It's shocking the amount of wires that I
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: see just laying on top of an engine in people's
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: aftermarket installations. So plan that stuff from the very beginning.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: So that way, when you when your systems grow and
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: they become slightly more complex, that you've already considered that
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: from the start.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Again. On on our most recent build, for example,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: and I was lucky with the land Cruise, you actually
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: came with a factory dual battery system, so all I
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: had to do was at a you know, at a
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: solnoid that disconnected those two at at a at a
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: certain voltage. With the Gladiator, I ran one single I
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: want to say it was a four about a four
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: gauge or eight gauge wire and then all the way
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: back to the at summit that's on the back. It
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: immediately got a I ended up not fusing it. I
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: ended up going with a high amperage circuit breaker. Now
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: what I really like about that? And I want to
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: say that's from Blue Sea Systems, who also made the
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: fuse block. If the vehicles sitting for a while, right,
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: I know that all my factory wiring is fine. Right Again,
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: Companies spend a lot of time on us. They don't
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: want vehicles burning down. I literally press a button and
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: they entire You know that house system is isolated right
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: and doesn't have any any drain in the battery. It's easy.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: It's also a nice way to reset things. Yeah, just
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: spend time on wiring. Yeah, make sure it's really it's
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: really critical.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: And I think that it's probably the source of greatest
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: frustration for most Overlanders when it comes from modifications. I
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: see people fiddling with electronics all the time. Nine out
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: of ten times it's that there their GPS isn't getting power,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: or their iPhone can't charge, or you know, their their
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: auxiliary lights won't turn on. It's ninety percent of the
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: time it's something related to electronics. And that's usually because
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: twelve seems like a black art and people just kind
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: of throw it in their vehicle. Yeah, and it it
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: does take time in some.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: Thought, and they don't realize I mean they it's it's
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: actually really simple, right. You just want to you want
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: to wire the most amount of stuff with the most
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: with the fewest amount of appropriate connections, right, keep it simple.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: Go from there.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: So and then make sure you have a wiring schematic
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: that you prepare at the same time and keep it
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: in the vehicle. Take a picture of it with your phone,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: so you've also got a digital copy of it, so
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: that you know what color wire this is that goes
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: here and does this that way, if you need to
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: isolate that or you need to trace it back, you
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: can actually do that. So create a wiring schematic at
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: the same time. Get talk to a friend that's an
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: engineer or somebody who knows how to do that, and
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: they'll help you. But it's really important that you've got
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: that and that you keep a record of it with
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: you in the vehicle.
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and just one last thing that makes sure you
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: know your your fuse block is accessible. You know, that
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: was something I was really impressed. I when I was
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: doing the Gladiator camper had intended to just kind of
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: bury my fuse block somewhere back. And when I picked
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: up the truck at Overland had actually like built a
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: bracket and everything for my fuse block. And all I
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: have to do is pull off this panel with no tools,
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: and I can visually see every fuse, every wiring connection.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: It's so like it. It's really nice. But I don't
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: have any wiring issues, and if I do, it's very
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: easily fixed.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: It makes a huge difference. Okay, so we're onto everybody
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: loves tires.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: Tires.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: Tires, Yes, tires. We got number six on our list.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: Use high quality tires with an appropriate tread pattern.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: So let's just address the elephant in the room mud
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: terrain tires. I mean, they look great on a vehicle,
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: They really do.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: And I think that that's why people buy them ninety
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: nine percent of the time is because they look the part.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, make the argument like, oh well,
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: I'd rather have more traction and less traction. Some people
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: say it's like a race car. You want the stickiest
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: tire possible. And I don't know if I agree with that,
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: especially for travelers right.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Well, and a mud tire doesn't work better in moab
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: than an all terrain, and mud tire does not work
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: better than an all terrain in sand, It does not
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: work better. There's every terrain has a different requirement. And
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: mud tires are designed to work in mud. They're designed
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: to have a high void rate so that they can
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: evacuate the mud as the wheel spin, which means that
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: that high void rate means you have less rubber on
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: the terrain in moab, And you also have less rubber
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: on the terrain when you're on the asphalt when you're
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: trying to stop in wet conditions. Mud tires typically don't
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: have siping as well, so that affects ice performance in addition,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: so mud tires they really are like the glam solution.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: But most of the time you don't need them.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, if you live in you know, the
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: East Coast as a parent, you know, as compared to
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: where we live in in the Southwest, I get the
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: argument totally for a mud time.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, if you're if you live in a muddy environment,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: if you live in Alaska, you're gonna have mud tires
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: absolutely if you want to go anywhere.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: You need them, you know, for for people that are
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: traveling and for people that don't live in muddy areas.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: I don't. I mean I haven't known to set a
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: mud tires since I left miserable muddy places that's Illinois.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: But some of these new alterrain tires, Like I'm a
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: big fan of the Falcon wild Peaks, that's I guess
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: what what came on that gladiator stock. You know, they're
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: they're quiet, they're snowflake created. I think that's a big thing.
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: That's a big thing for me. You know, having recently
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: moved from Colorado, there's a lot of times where the
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: passes are restricted if you don't have you don't have
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: winter tires. Oregon, Oregon and Washington a lot of those places,
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: and you are not going to find a snowflake created
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: terrain tire. I mean they are super sketchy in the winter.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: I I remember remember that the trek Discovery Land River
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: Lentis for for quite a while. I remember having that
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: thing slightly off camber and you know, typical rain slush
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: base with snow on top, and man, you had like
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: see through on that tire, which I'm sure was great
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: for mud, but in the snow, oh my god, that
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: was Yeah. Just it's it's not a fun experience to
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: be and you know, you want durability, I think is
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: the biggest thing. I mean, I guess that that iconic
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: overland tire that you see on Defenders and and whatever
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: is the Michelin xz L right right behind us on
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: behind us on the Defender five ft from Matt right now.
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: Very durable tire, but a horrible tire. They are. They are.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, the first time I did a wet a
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: wet traction stop with those things, I saw my life
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: flashing before my eyes. They do not work in wet conditions.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: They do not work in ice. They barely work in snow.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: It needs to be powdery, loose snow. They work great
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: in mud, and they also hardly, ever, if ever, get punctures.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: And there's a lot of reasons for that. But I
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: run those tires on the on this vehicle because they're
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: the appropriate tire for that.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: Yet they look right. It's just it's just a where
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: you're not buying a Defender for driving dynamics. Now, you know,
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: the a little bit of noise you pick up from
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: the tire is thrown out the window.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's important to remember that a modern
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: all terrain is a very different tire from twenty years ago.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: They have so much more technology in them. They typically
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: have siphing, so they work much better in wet conditions.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: They also you can buy some alterrains with a higher
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: void rate. They call them oftentimes hybrid tires now. So
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: if you look at like a Dura Trac for example,
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: these are a hybrid mud tire all terrain. If you
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: need something with a little bit higher void rate because
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: you do tend to operate in wet or muddy conditions,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: you may want to consider one of those. But an
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: all terrain will always give you longer tread life. It
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: will also give you better performance on dry rock, it
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: will give you better performance in the sand. You're gonna
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: end up with much better stopping distances. It'll be a
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: lot safer tire overall for the traveler. So we tend
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: to recommend that people look at an alterrain, be a
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: good rich Ko three great tire. Cooper makes some great tires.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: Continental just came out with some really great all trains
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: that I'm running on the.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: Mercedes your train contact. Yeah, there's some really great tires.
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: Cool looking tire. Yeah, you know. I again, the all
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: train tires are gonna last longer too. If you you know,
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: if you're if you're driving parts unknown, how many times
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: do you really want to change your tires? And and
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: the thing on top of that is tire size is
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: super important for all these vehicles. You know, guess who
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: doesn't have thirty sevens in stock? Most of the world,
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: most of the world. Guess who doesn't have thirty fives
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: in stock? Yeah, most of the world. Guess who doesn't
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: have obscure tire sizes? You know that allowed you to
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: have the largest tire on your particular vehicle, maybe due
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: to break setup and needing to run a larger wheel.
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: Probably not in stock. Right, stick to a available tire
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: size because you're you can't predict that, right. I mean
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: we can sit here and say, I mean it's what.
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: I don't think either of us really have regular tire failures. No, No,
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: I mean I can't.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: I mean I had my first flat on a trip
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: just last year in Australia.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've had one flat and I took my mom
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: for a little drive in her Lexus GX when she
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: was visiting in Colorado where we used to live, and
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: got a flat tire on one of her michelins and
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: I had to change a tire like that was it.
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: But modern tires are really good. You can't rely on
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: that right because you could be in Guatemala and you're
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: driving through a roadblock or something where they just burned
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: a bunch of palates and you run over a few nails,
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: or you can't predict that. So you always want something
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: that's appropriate size, that can be replaced, appropriate tread pattern.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: If you're in Guadala and most.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: Of the world you're looking at a sixteen inch diameter wheel.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: All of Africa, all of Australia, Europe, you're going to
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: find sixteen inch wheels. It is starting to become more
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: common to find seventeens in various places, but they tend
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: to not be the larger diameter tires. So even in
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: the middle of Mexico you can find a two fifty
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: five sixty five teen tire, which is nearly a thirty
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: two inch tall tire. You can find those all over
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: the place because that's what a lot of the GM
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: vehicles came with stock, so just making sure that you're
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: not getting a super obscure wheel, super obscure tire, or
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: if you do, make sure you plan in advance and
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: have tires available for you in a country in the future.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: Don't don't get into Argentina and be like, you know,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: I should probably change my tires and expect something to
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: happen quickly. You may need to order those well in advance.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: All right, now, this is another elephant in the room
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: for sure. So this is number seven. Avoid roofloads. This
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: one gets the most reactions out of anything other than
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: the motor changes. And that's because people want to put
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: stuff on the top of their car. It's like this
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: giant canvas that invites or like a magnet that invites
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: fuel cans, max tracks, roof tents, any numerous, numerable.
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: Amount of things.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, all the why why is all the recovery
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: kit on the top of the top heaviest stuff the
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: worst play And that's because it seems like it's not
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: only a place to flash some cool gear, but it
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: also seems like a really convenient spot to stick things
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: that you don't typically use. That those heavy items do
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: not belong on the roof. Most vehicles have a roofload
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: maximum rating of around one hundred and twenty to one
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: hundred and forty pounds, which is literally just a roof
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: tent or just a rack and a couple minor accessories
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: like a like an awning, et cetera. It isn't until
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: you get into vehicles like the two hundred series that
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: you actually find a two hundred plus pound payload for
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: the roof. And then the new Defender as a three
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: hundred and.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: Sixty pace, I mean they designed that with a roof
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: ten in mind they did, which is really cool.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's that's the that's the highest roofload rating
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: I've ever seen for a standard suv. But think of
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: just basic physics. Once you start to add that that
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: stuff on a vehicle that's lifted already, and you add
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: two hundred pounds of the roof, you've significantly impacted center
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: of gravity. You've significantly impacted performance on the trail. If
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: you need to do an emergency lane change at speed,
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: all of those things it's going to come back to
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: bite you. And then it also affects fuel economy, It
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: affects wind noise. All of those things are going to
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: be impacted by that heavy roofload. So what I like
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: to recommend is put a rack up there. Absolutely, maybe
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: put a roof tent if you really like sleeping in
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: roof tents, But other than that, keep the roof empty.
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: I like a rack because you may need to move
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: equipment from another vehicle. You may have another vehicle in
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: your party that breaks down and you've got to move
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: some equipment of your own vehicle up top and from
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: there's up top in order to get people out, in
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: order to get the folks out. But for the most part,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: go with an empty roof rack. It'll do you a
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: good service.
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I have to think that that's great advice too.
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: I mean I I've gone through several iterations of this
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: where I put a lot of a lot of junk
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: on top, and I've just found, like, I mean, like
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: why people put highlift jacks on their roofracts. I have
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: no idea. You know, that's eighty pounds in the worst, absolute,
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: absolute place that you could put it. You know what
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: I use refracts for the most and why I completely
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: agree have an empty refract firewood. Yeah, like, like you
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: don't want to put firewood inside your vehicle. You're talking bugs,
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: you're talking grime, whatever you do, who cares? But I
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: don't know. When I'm when I'm camping in the middle
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: of nowhere, I often find that firewood doesn't come in,
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: you know, neatly cut, predetermined sized bundles. Sometimes you have
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: long stick, sometimes you have big logs. Whatever, throw it
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: up there, You're done, move on, yeat. Not a popular opinion.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: Also great for solar and awnings. I mean, that's all
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: I have in mind is solar and an awning. I think,
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: I think refracts they have their place. I like to
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: like to sleep up there every once in a while.
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: I mean, if it's a beautiful weather and I don't
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: want to set up a tent, I'll just sleep up
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: on top of the rack. I've definitely run roof tents
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: on vehicles that have the hayload capacity for it because
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: of convenience. Sometimes I do.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: I do use roof tents on occasion, but I always
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: make sure that I'm under that one hundred and forty
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty pounds total weight capacity because it really
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: does have an impact. Yeah, now that we've talked about
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: roof floats, basically just avoid them. I think long and
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: hard before you put anything on the top of the vehicle.
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and definitely stick to one of the new modern
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: roof racs, right, I mean front Runner easy on, Yeah,
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: Nomac like the way extreuted aluminum, very lightweight, very easy
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: to you know, to attach accessors to when you need them.
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: I always keep a few eyebolts on my Rhino rack
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: roofrac for example, so you can just tie up down. Yeah,
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: it's easy.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: So, and it's a good place to stick something like
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: max tracks where you want to be able to get
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: access to them, which brings us to number eight self recovery.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: So one of the things that is a reality of
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: keeping our vehicles near stock or more stock and less
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: modified is there's a chance we're going to get stuck
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: more often, which I actually think is a bonus. I
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: enjoy it when I get stuck. I actually it makes
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: for great stories. Hate it, but then I enjoy it. Yeah,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: and you learn something new. Every time you learn something
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: about the people you travel with, you end up with
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: some great memories to share decades later. And so self
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: recovery is something that we actually have to plan for
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: with our vehicle modifications. That could be a twelve volt
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: vehicle mounted winch. It could be a high lift with
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: a recovery kit. If you have a very unlikely event
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: of having to get a recovered, you know, you can
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: use a Tier first style winch, which is another hand
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: hand winch. But most for the most part, you want
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: to start off with do I have a good shovel,
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: do I have a good recovery strap? And then typically
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: I recommend traction boards at that point. And just in
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: full disclosure to the audience, Matt does import the Max
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: tracks and sells the Max Tracks. I happen to use them,
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: and I've used them for a lot longer than Matt's
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: been selling them, but it is important for us just
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: to disclose that. But traction boards, especially from a quality manufacturer,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: what you should be looking for because they perform a
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: lot of service when it comes to recovery. The vast
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: majority of my recoveries that I've completed in recent years
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: has been easily solved with a set of traction boards.
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, traction boards. They make everything easier.
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: And you know, I guess it's a bit of a
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: challenge because everybody thinks I'm going to be selling something,
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: but I Honestly, I haven't been in a situation whether
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: I'm winching using a snatch strap, whatever kind of you know,
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: extrication of vehicle where where max tracks haven't made that
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: a little bit easier, right, I mean it does what
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: all you're trying to do when you're getting a vehicle unstuck, right,
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: You're trying to free sticktion. You know, stiction is like
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: as a kid, when you put a glass underwater and
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: you filled up with water and turn it upside down
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: and try and get it out right. It doesn't want
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: to come out right. The same thing is happening to
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: your vehicle underneath. It's just mud or water or sand.
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: I have all these different surfaces that are kind of
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: keen together to prevent your vehicle from moving forward. And
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: you know, sometimes attraction reports are really simple. They just
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: they give you enough traction to lift your vehicle up,
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: which is the key thing that breaks that sticktion, and
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: then forward. And there's a couple of things I like
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: about them.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: I can I can remove them from the vehicle and
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: put them in a different vehicle. If I come across
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: a vehicle that's stuck and I don't want to drive
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: closer because I'm going to get stuck, I can take
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: the traction boards off and I can walk to that
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: stuck vehicle. I can help others, like if I'm feeling
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: a little sketched out about who's stuck, like maybe these
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: people are going to assume me if I try to
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: pull them out with my winch, I can be like, hey,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: I've got these things. You might want to use those, yeah,
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: And it kind of removes some of that liability as well.
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: I do find that they they provide a lot of
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: support even in very difficult stuck situations where it requires
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: a twelve winch that could be building a road underneath.
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: I remember being stuck for twelve hours in Australia in
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: the middle of the canning stock and we used twelve
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: traction boards to get out. We literally built a road
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: of Max tracks underneath the vehicles to get out. And
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: that's because we broke winch lines, we broke winches. We
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: were down to one functioning winch and twelve Max tracks
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: and that's how we actually eventually got all of the
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: vehicles out. But it's I think we have to start
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: with anything vehicle relate. Vehicle recovery related requires training. Now
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: training is not something you have to necessarily pay for.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: Find your local club, find another Overlander with a lot
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: of experience, somebody that you trust, and have them start
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: to teach you those skills. Vehicle recovery is very dangerous.
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of components to it that have high energy.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: It can be the nine thousand pounds of that winch
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: can pull, or it can be significantly more than that
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: if you're doing a vehicle to vehicle recovery using a
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: kinetic energy recovery strap so or a recovery rope. All
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: of those things have a lot of energy and dynamics
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: to them and they require training. So again we talked
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: about this in the beginning, but make sure that you
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: seek out a great trainer. International Forward Drive Trainers Association,
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: guys like Bill Burke, people like Overland experts.
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: Bob Bowlers is in southern California. He's great.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: Bob's another great one. Make sure that you get some
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: training with these devices before you go out in the field,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: because remember we're trying to make the vehicles light and simple,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: which means that they're not always going to have all
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: of the gadgets. That makes it less likely that you
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: get stuck. So if you have the stuff that you
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: need in order to get a recovery done properly, and
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: you have the training for it, that's usually all you need.
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And if you don't have the training for it,
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: just stop, honestly. I mean, if you're stuck in sand
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: or mud or whatever, what's the worst that can happen
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: if you just walk away? I always I always stress
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: that to people that that I talked to is let
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: your heart rate come down. People get very very stressed
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: in recovery scenarios and it leads to feel embarrassed or whatever.
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: You Yeah, whether it's yeah, ego or whatever, just like
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: chill out, like take a second to breathe, calm down,
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: and evaluate the situation, yeah, you know, and and use
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: common sense, come up with a plan, talk about the
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: plan with the people that you're with. Make sure that
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: the non essential personnel or outside of the recovery area
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: so they don't get injured. Yeah, And and and don't
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: put a don't put a snatch strap or a dynamic
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: strap on anything that isn't rated. If you don't, if
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: you don't know what's going on, don't do it, because
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: then then nothing worse can happen, right, I always stress people,
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: never ever, ever, ever put a a dynamic snatch strap
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: on a on a on a towball. I mean that
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: is a turns into a canniball. People die from that
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: every year. I always whenever we're talking about this stuff,
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: I always bring that up. It's something I feel pretty
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: personally strong on.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, a towball is used for towinging a trailer.
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: It's not used for anything else. Pull that drawbar out
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: of the two inch receiver. If that's all you've got,
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: pull that out, slide the strap in there, and then
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: put a crosspin in there for the recovery. That's still
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: not necessarily ideal, but it is a lot safer than
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: looping a strap over a toeball.
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: Over a cannonball and putting eight thousand pounds of forest
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: behind it. Yeah, not a good idea.
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: So securing the lever on number nine, securing the load.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: So this isn't really a modification, but it is something
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: that requires mindset. We often see this in the field,
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: is that people just especially after they've been traveling for
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: a while. Yeah, the back of their vehicle becomes an explosion.
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and it becomes and that explosion of stuff
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: that's not secured, that's just thrown in the back of
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: a vehicle, can become a projectile if you get into
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: an accident, and it can also lead to a lot
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: of frustration. It can lead to unnecessary damage to the vehicle,
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: to the interior of the vehicle. It can damage critical
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: pieces of equipment that you've brought along with you, like
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: your camera, for example, when that pelican case falls on
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: your camera and breaks, breaks the lens off, the lens mount,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: all of those things. Again, Matt and I have learned
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of these things the hard way. Making sure
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: that you secure your load properly, which means you have
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: to have rated lashing points within your vehicle. If they
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: don't have that, make sure you add them. Make sure
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: that you don't have stuff just loose once you get
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: into an accident. These are major projective.
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: I find that there's two there's two major you know,
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: violators of this. One is you just said cameras. I
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: mean I have literally had cameras fly into my windshield
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: that that would hurt if you all of a sudden,
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: we're doing seventy mile an hour and you know, stopped right.
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: And also people for some reason throw like these bow shackles,
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: d ring shackles, you know, and little stretchy pockets that
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: are in their back seat or you know somewhere that's
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: not that doesn't contain that. I mean that is that
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: becomes a missile. I I've seen photos and I've talked
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: people that have had that stuff go through windshields. Sure, right,
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: you want to make sure that even the smallest things
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: that you just have a plan, right, I mean, how
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: bad would you feel if you know you're you're just
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: trying to avoid somebody pulls out in front of you
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: and you're trying to avoid an accident, and you know
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: your drawer system becomes unhinged and traps a kid in
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: the back seat or something, right like you you have
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: to have thought with these modifications. Yeah.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: Again, as travelers, we have a responsibility. We have a
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: responsibility for the people that are with us. So if
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: you've got your loved one with you and they they
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: don't know how all this stuff necessarily works and you
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: haven't tied things down and they get injured, that's on us.
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: It's our responsibility to be mindful of that. And also
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: those things are that are loose, they can end up
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: trapped underneath the brake pedal, they can end up trapped
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: underneath the accelerator. They can destroy up the driver while
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: they're driving. So just keep this stuff secured properly, and
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: it'll also make for a more comfortable and relaxed trip
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: for everybody. And this leads us to number ten. It's
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: our last talking point.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I call it the buy once, cry once mentality.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: You know, so quality and design over quantity. Man, where
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: do you start with that one? It's something that I've
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: I've lived my entire life by right. I mean, I'm
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: not saying I just go out and automatically buy the
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: most expensive thing. It's a lot of cases where the
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: most expensive thing is not the best thing. Do your
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: research and figure out not only what works for you,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: but what's actually going to what's what's going to last? Right.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: I see this as a very dangerous thing in overlanding
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: right now. I feel overlanding five years ago had a
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: really strong sense of buy once, cry once. Right. You
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: you you had a group of people that using the
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: stuff and actually traveling, and they had they really saw
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: no other choice, Like they couldn't afford to buy something
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: two or three times. And I think these days you're man,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: I see it on Instagram all the time. And I'm
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: not trying to vilify Instagram or influence. I have a
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: lot of really dear friends that are you know, at
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: least I call them influencers. Scott, you're probably an influencer.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: I hope not. Oh oh god, so no. But what
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: I'm getting at is sometimes people do things is to
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: have the look, right, So I pay attention to like
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: these chinzy plastic Chinese recovery boards. Right they break the
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: first time you use them, or they fade, or they
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: bake in the UV. Why you put into that on there?
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: You know led light bars, right, yeah, you can get
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: them for twenty dollars from China. Now, I think they're
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: quite useful if you're stuck in the Sahara desert and
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: you're trying to use them to collect moisture in a
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: survival situation, because they're horrible. You know, they blind the
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: person that's sitting behind them more so than anything. You know,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: do your research and and if you're on a budget,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: the odds are you probably you don't need a lot
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: of this stuff to travel. You know, if somebody can
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: do it on a motorcycle without the refrigerator, without the roof, rock,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: without the tent, without all the stuff.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: You can do it in a car. I think about
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: Ted Simon traveled around the world for ten years off
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: of the same motorcycle he left with. Yeah, and most
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: of the bags and handiers he had you couldn't buy
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: them from Turretech at the time. He built them himself.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: So it's just it's just really important to acknowledge that
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: if we're going to buy something, it should be extremely
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: high quality, and we should be intentional about it. We
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: should only buy like one thing at a time, be
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: incremental in your purchases. Just going in with a credit
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: card into the local forward drive shop and saying, hey,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: build me an overland vehicle.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: That's probably the worst way you can do that. At
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: four Real Parts now and they're going to throw a
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: variety of stuff they've rebranded from from Ali Baba and
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to say that it's going to fail,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: but a lot of times those things do fail. They
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: result in disappointment. And if you think about a North
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: American overlander, we're lucky if we have two weeks off
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: a year. So if we're on our one two week
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: trip down to Baja and half of the stuff that
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: we bought that's cheap or that's not reliable or that's
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: not durable fails. It takes away from that experience and
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: they end up in the garbage bin. And maybe we
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: could have gone three weeks if we hadn't bought any
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: of it. So I think, I think to summarize, and
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: it really brings it all back to modify as minimal
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: as possible and be very intentional about the things that
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: you do. Change if you can do a bunch of
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: trips without doing any modifications at all, find out what
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: you actually need, which you really need. If you're worried
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: about getting stock or breaking down, go with others. Go
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: with other people and they can help you out if
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: you have trouble. But stock Tacoma could go around the
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: world three times without any modifications, throw a backpack into
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: the back seat, and off you go. And spend that
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: thirty or forty thousand dollars that people will spend on
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: their trucks to actually go see the world. You could
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: travel the world for forty grand You could, Yeah, you could.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: That would include all of your shipping. You could circumnavigate
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: the Northern hemisphere, including seeing all of Europe, making a
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: little side trip down to Morocco, going into Mongolia.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 2: You could do all of.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: That for forty thousand bucks and you'll have something that
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: will change your life.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: And I think that starting off by saying I'm not
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: going to modify my vehicle unless it's absolutely necessary is
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: the right place to start off with. And it doesn't
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: mean that modifications aren't useful.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: They can be.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: And you may also just say, Scott Matt, I really
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: just want this widget on my car.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: That's cool, go for it. We totally get that.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: But people that make the argument that they need it
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: instead of want it, that's where we find the fallacy.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: That's where we find the limitation in the argument. Start
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: off with things stock, keep it simple, buy the right
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: vehicle to begin with, and you're ready to go.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: Yep. It's it's not that hard, right, Just stop messing
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: with it. Yeah, sure, and that's difficult. It is difficult.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: Again, spend more money on the experiences than you do
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: on the truck and you're well on your way to
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: overlanding adventures.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it can contradict myself. If it makes your
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: experience better, by all means, go for it, you know,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: just don't make it too don't go too overboard. Yeah
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: that's right.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: And simplicity and reliability is the key to vehicle preparation
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: for long distance overland travel. Keep it reliable, keep it simple,
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: and go have fun out there. Thanks everybody for listening.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: Really appreciate it. See you guys, all right, see you