Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Stay on the Road: Why Overland Industry Needs Real Travelers — with Basil Lynch

Transcript

Stay on the Road: Why Overland Industry Needs Real Travelers — with Basil Lynch · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: And welcome to the Overlain Journal podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Matt Scott, and I'm here with my co host Sinway
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Xavier Sinway Xavier here, I am, here you are, and
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: we're here with Basil Lynch. Basil like the herb, Basil
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: like the Herb. And what we're talking about today is
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the importance of continuing to travel while you're running a
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: business in this industry.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that's something that we touched on
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: the previous podcast, that the people that actually use the gear,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: they develop products, they build things that are considered, as
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: you like to say, and are actually useful to the
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: end consumer instead of just a lying item on a
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: spreadsheet to make money.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Stuff.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: It's not that we're anti stuff, We're just I think
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: considered is the word that I'd like to use.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Useful.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I think we're in this era where we're
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: at the end of stuff, stuff that isn't useful, stuff
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: that doesn't last.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: There's definitely this thing I think that is happening amongst
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: maybe the folks in this industry that are paying potential
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: little bit more, that these builds that are just excessive
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: for the point for the purpose of being excessive and
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I think that people that are sticking around they eventually
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: realized they don't.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Need all of this stuff.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: You have a pretty extensive travel history in North America,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: which is really cool. You're a surfer, you had a
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: camper Bruce that a lot of people knew, and unfortunately
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: you started off as an FJ Cruiser guy somehow.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: Funny story always is I bought the FJ Cruiser because
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: my mom saw it in a used car lot and
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: she thought it was cute. That's you know what I
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: was like, gay for mom? Yeah, go mom. Moms are
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: the most They're cute. Yeah.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, That's how I ended up with my first car,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: which was a nineteen seventy three Volkswagen band. My mom
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: said you should buy Mark's van. I had never considered
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: it as my first car, and it was epic.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, there you go. Moms are always right. Always.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: I want to thank all of you that are listening
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: for your support of the Overland Journal podcast. There are
• 2:17
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• 2:20
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• 2:24
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• 2:26
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• 2:31
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• 2:35
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• 2:38
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• 2:42
  Speaker 2: of the very best overland adventures that are occurring in
• 2:45
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• 2:49
  Speaker 2: equipment that's featured as field tested and also our famous
• 2:54
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• 3:00
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• 3:04
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• 3:06
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• 3:09
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• 3:14
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• 3:22
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• 3:26
  Speaker 2: of your support.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so your story starts with the FJ Cruiser right
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: around the same time that the industry starts growing. You
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: had a little bit of an Instagram following you tried
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: to be an influencer.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not fun.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: It's not fun. You didn't like it. No one likes it.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: Cool at times, but then I don't know, and cool
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: at times. Did you post a lot of selfies with
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: your shirt off? Negative? It was mostly cool truck photos. Okay, God,
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: I did like that. I interned for Chris Burgard for
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: a little while. Oh nice. Chris is a great friend.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: Almost took his style of photography where he always had
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: the person on the cliff edge with a big landscape,
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: and it was my fj on the cliff with a
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: big landscape and it was always that. I didn't really
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: ever have me in the photos, but it was fun.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: It's a good time. I tried a lot out of it,
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: so's yeah, yeah, Chris, Chris is great. He's such a
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: good guy. Yeah.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: So he went all over kind of North America in
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: that truck pretty much.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the FG what started it all. And really that
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: trip to Alaska is what started like the big kind
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: of push into more of this industry whatever this industry
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: is called now overlanding for a drive, traveling, whatever it is.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: But kind of let me fall in love with that
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: is going up there and doing two months out of
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: that thing with my brother. We slept in a rooftop
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: tent together for two months, slept over Alaska, and cruised
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: around and it was beautiful.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: That sounds terrible to someone like me that has no siblings.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it wasn't fun, but it was cool. I don't know. Yeah,
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: then Bruce enters the picture, correct, and that was the
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: full time rig.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so Bruce was a seven to three. Was it
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: an extended cab.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: It was an extended cab, short bed. So it was
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: a tidy little rig was Yeah, it was tall. It
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: was like eleven ten foot. It was big whatever it was.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: But it was a home built camper shell that the
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: previous owner had built. And it was on a stock
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: two thousand I think it's two and seven to three diesel.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: But it was cool and I think you turned the
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: vehicle into a character and he had great photos around it.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: And I always think that Basil's garage was built off
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the back of.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: Both of those rigs. Yeah, because they were. I don't
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: think I had anything done at shops on either of
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: those rigs. It was always home depot parking lots. I
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: went to see you Boulder for a year and was
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: like wrenching on it and the campus parking lots and
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: autozones and.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: I mean we we had a rereden gear blow up
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: on the rear differential the after cruiser on the way
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: to Alaska, and we replaced it in an AutoZone parking
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: lot on a Saturday night and got.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: Parts and figure it out. That's great. Kind of it
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: all started, was just wrenching on those trucks. Yeah, and
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: then that's what Then a snowballed into the shop. Now,
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: I guess in.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: A way, so your shop is now known for I
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: would I'm going to use my word consent like you
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: do very considered builds. You have a lot of surfing clients. Yes,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: you have a lot of I would say, like in
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: the know, over.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: The land clients.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, guys aren't guys and girls aren't necessarily coming to
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: you to be like bro, I want five thousand led lights.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah. We built practical, simple and reliable vehicles. Yes, something
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: that you can use and take home at the end
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: of the day and not going to fall apart. They're
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: just usable PSR. Practical, simple and reliable. That's it.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: That's the backbone of anything. It's an instant tell to
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: me when something's so overbuilt, like that person has attached
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: the catalog and it just becomes more work, it becomes maintenance.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: It becomes all these things. And that's what the first
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: thing I noticed when I saw your bilts for the
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: first time. He's like, oh, this guy gets it. It's simple,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: it's reliable. Can tell it's reliable.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: And it all comes back to the vehicles are for travel,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: but also you're advising these clients based on your real
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: world travels that you've done. And there's this stuff in
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: the past. But the cool thing and the very important
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: thing is that you continue to travel. Yes, And that's
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: what we're here to really talk about, is that to
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: really be effective in this space. And you said, if
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: you're not traveling, you're just like selling parts from a
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: spreadsheet or something like, you don't really know what's working.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: So i'd love to I'd love to talk about a
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: few of your favorite trips kind of Baja like you're but.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: My favorite actually isn't BA crazy as that sounds. Heck,
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: what is it? Newfoundland? Oh? Yeah, I remember that I
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: was in Bruce. Yeah, was when I was living at
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: full time. I just spent the summer around on the
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: East Coast at my family's place. So I grew up
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: and had some friends that I always traveled with, Robin,
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: Matt and they brought to the East coast with me
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: and we did good. They just got a dog two
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: days ago. Oh he's a cute little great lab so yeah,
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: he stoked. We did the trans labor door the fall
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: before it was paved. So that's a very last little
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: dirt section up there over to Newfoundland's Nova Scotia. So
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: you dropped into the north side, Yeah, Quebec across Ferry
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: to Newfoundlands. We did three weeks on Newfoundland. Did you
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: go to that Viking site? Yes? Awesome. What's that called?
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: I totally forget, but it's really cool. Oh it has on. Yeah,
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: it's like a French name. It's the first it's like
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: the low Yes, yeah, it's a spot. Yeah, but Newfoundland's
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: one of the best waves I've ever served. It's actually
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: in Newfoudlands. It's crazy as that sounds as much time
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: as I spent where in Newfoundland? Or can you not
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: somewhere on the island to go find it? Yeah, there's
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: Newfoundland Halifax. Yeah.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Normally people go from Nova Scotia from the Sidney Leaves,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: the Faery Leaves from Sydney Sidney and then it's like
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: an overnight thing, which you did on the way back. Yeah,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: that's what we did on E seven. But then we
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: shipped the trucks from right from Newfoundland.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: That was the only leg I did. We were in
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: around because that top section the translaborator sounded really cool
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: because it's like, I think it was a couple hundred
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: miles a dirt I forgot at this point, and I
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: remember fuel being like fourteen dollars a gallon or something
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: like that in the middle of it was ridiculous, but
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: very pretty beautiful. One of the most remote areas I've
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: been to.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Newfoundland is fascinating. It's a place I really want to
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: go back to you, but it is so far.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So there's Newfoundland.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you're there for two months on this whole trip,
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: right around there two months. Yeah, we had a hurricane
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: hit us in the beginning of it.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: That was cool. We were on the ferry and they
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: almost couldn't dock because it was getting blown off the beach,
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: which was sick. And yeah, it was beautiful. Yeah, waves
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: were great. People were really cool. There were like awesome
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: historical sites like the Viking landing, and the camping was
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: really rad. There weren't I mean, there were campgrounds, but
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: it was also just pull off on the side of
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: the road to the beach and park up, and then
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: the locals were like coming down and offering us to
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: shower at their house and feed us dinner. Stuff is
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: really low, that's really cool. What time of the year
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: were you there? September October, so it was right on
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: the tail of the summer. And that's also why the
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: waves were good is we've timed it with East Coast
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: hurricane season, so we're lucky enough to get a big
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: hurricane off the East coast that pushed a bunch of
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: south swell up and it worked sweet. But yeah, yeah,
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: a new film was Red. What's your next favorite trip?
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: Mexico Baja? Yeah, and that's the at this point is
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: the goat too for us. It's white almost why I
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: live in San Diego and I'm definitely not a BA
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: expert by any means, but I travel around there a
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: lot to go and find waves and all over the place.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: I keep going to San Ignacio as being my kind
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: of I really like it.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Then, yeah, yeah, signing like Nasio is one of those spots.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: My most recent trips to to Baja have been on
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: the Mexican one thousand and Yeah, signing Nasio is my
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: favorite little stop over and good food. It's chill the palm.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love I always doing night there and then
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I love going from Santagnaco to San Juanico.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: That drives so great it is. Yeah, it's the north
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: road end you can take or go through the mountains
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: on a couple of different routes and time.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: I've done it a few times and every time I
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: think I know where I'm going and I end up
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: taking a different road.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: And as long as you don't end up on the
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: and I somehow get there. Yeah. But yeah, so when
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: he goes cool, there's a wave there stuff on the
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: little town. It's a changing town. It's one of the
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: kind of quicker changing surf spots down there, but that's
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: one of hundreds of waves and there's a lot more
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: to it than just surf down there. There's went down
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: in January with the furl campers and Gavid ba Ave
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: and did a whole natural history tourch just rat So
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: it was going to see the mountains and the volcanoes
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: and all the other stuff.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: And it was a really cool trip because it's not
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: stuff that I'd usually do down there. I feel like,
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Baja is so big that people always try to fit
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: too much into their trips there and it ends up
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: just spening a lot of time in the are. I'm
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: guilty of doing that a couple of times. I think
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: my next trip to Baja. You know, there's this inevitable
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: driving portion, right, Yeah, but it's like drive and then
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: hang out.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: I guess I do that lot, because I'll drive and
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: park within a region of waves and then I'm just
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: jumping from point to point or from beach break to
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: beach breck, whatever it is, and you're only moving within
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: a couple hundred miles and then you bomb back home
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: and it takes you a week or two if he's around,
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: and it works out pretty well. Baja is very.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Specific in its terrain, and it's I know, there's mountains
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: and there's beaches, but that's what I mean. It's everything. Yeah,
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: And that's what I mean by specific in its terrain.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: If you're doing a true Baja trip, you're driving in sand,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: you're driving in rocks, You're it's so very sometimes snow
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: sometimes exactly, I've seen snow.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: I was camped in God, there's so many sands. San
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Felipe and then.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: The mountains behind it. Yeah, yeah, the mountains. I'm in
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: my ten thousand.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're huge, and I haven't been up there yet,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: but I want to. I'm in my gladiator camper and
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden I hear freezing rain hitting it.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: It's like a very distinctive sound, and I'm like.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: What what is going on here? Yeah? What? Especially with surf, Sorry,
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: it's a little far.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: Especially with surf, it's about getting to get into an
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: uncrowded spot pretty much. And is that a consideration when
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: you're building a truck. I want to get a little farther.
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's the something I tell customers all the
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: time is like the benefit of having a capable FORTL
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: drive vehicle is you go down there every time and
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: you go to a spot wherever, to serf spot, camp spot, whatever.
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: There's a fine line that you see the tool drive
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: stop at the hard pack ends and the soft sand starts,
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: or the loose dirt or whatever it is starts. And
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: it's nice to a full drive because you put it
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: in foil drive and just motor on past them, and
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: then you're the one that's able to park out on
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: the white sand beach and sea chairs out, hang out,
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: do whatever you want to do. But it definitely plays
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: into it a lot.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that there's something really to that. It's
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: being able to get past that initial gatekeeper of these
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: days because there's a lot of people. This is a
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: wonderful thing that there's a lot of people getting outside.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: But if you've been around long enough to remember when
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: camping wasn't cool or openlinding wasn't cool, it can get
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: a little claustrophobic sometimes, Right, you don't want to you
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: don't want to drive all that way and put all
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: that effort into getting somewhere and then there's ten people
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: camped there.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, even one person to put it, it's a bummer.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it can be a bummer when you Surfing with
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: friends can be fun. And I've got a lot of
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: really cool people down there by just yeah, ended up
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: being next to them. But I agree with you, it's
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: also nice to have spots to yourself. Yeah for sure, Yeah,
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: for sure. But that's the kind of like a lot
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: of the places you go to across the country and
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: down there across the world, you can go to ninety
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: five percent of the way there you will drive and
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: it's that last little chunk that kind of separates you
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: out to be able to go to where you really
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: want a camp. That's where a lot of the stuff
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: that our industry is involved with comes into play.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: And I think something about Baja that's really important to
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: touch on is having a simple build, a reliable build.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: There's no parts down there. I blew a spring in
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Laredo one time, and I thought, well, in Laredo, I'll
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: be able to find a spring.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: It took me another.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Five days to get exactly bring it in from the States.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: So having that reliable, simple vehicle is important. And I
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: think that's really impressive of your builds that you're not
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: trying to sell somebody this complicated system.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: You're like, hey, no, here's the deal.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: This works, use this. And it's like, what is the
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Basil build? How do you describe that? It's Basil? Yeah, Basil.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Now everybody's screwing me up and they're like, no, it's this, No,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: it's this, it's this. I've known them for ten frigging years, Like.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: You've always called me both though, but I just do it.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: It's not you're the only one.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: People call me Scott like it's yeah, this is the
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: only time that I'm going to get to call somebody
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: by the wrong name.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: I call you Scott Scott Scott. Yeah, So what is that?
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: I forgot the question? What is the basil build? Oh,
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: it really depends on the vehicle and what you want
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: to do. It's like, we don't I guess we have
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: some mild recipes that we use with customers, but it
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: kind of all plays back to that practical, simple, reliable vehicle.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: But we build trucks for people that don't care about
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: a tent on the roof, they don't care about a camper,
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: and they just want a comfortable vehicle to drive them
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: to the points. And we also build trucks for people
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: where they have a two thousand pound camper on the
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: back of it that's got a sink and a stove
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: and a bathroom and all this stuff. And it really varies,
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: but keeping it to where it's again reliable and easily
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: usable vehicles like practical simple. And that's like the recipe
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: in a sense.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: What's the one one thing that you talk people that
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: people ask for that you talk them out of.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: Most overhead lighting lights above the windshield unless you're a
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: race car with no one in front of you or
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: you're in perfectly clear conditions. It's useless in my at
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: least Yeah, one percent head light or grill level below dialed.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: But the stuff that's over the top, it just you
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: just see this moisture in the air or the dust
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: in the air. But again there's use cases for everything.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah one percent number lights. Yeah, I like clear lights.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: I'm not an amber cover.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: I'm a fan of amber lights because I'm in the
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: snow a lot and it really helps. But it is
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: it's I think, and it's having that conversation of like
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: how are you going to use this? Yeah you know, yeah, yeah,
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: I'm a big fan of Ford trucks and Carly's suspension
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: and for all campers that's a recipe of ours. But
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: again that suits what I do and what a bunch
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: of our customers do. But we work on anything. Whatever
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: comes to the door, we're happy to help out with.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: And it again plays back into just reliable vehicles.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: The Carly stuff's pretty good, like I've seen some I've
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: seen some people do some crazy with that, and it's.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: Very reliable that I've found. We have that black flatbed
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: super Duty that I go down in a lot. I
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: literally have installed the suspension and haven't touched sense and
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: it is gotten a couple thousand miles of me driving
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: way too fast with a heavy camper on the back
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: of it and zeroishes and it rides beautifully. We were
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: doing like sixty seventy mile an hour, like on dirt
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: roads and a flatbed camper truck down there and it
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: was really nice. That's amazing because it's the truck that
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: you have here. Yeah, well, the black one of the
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: loose and then I have another seven three now, which
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: is cool. Yeah, I've been seeing this. What's going on
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: with that? That is so the black truck me and
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: my dad share. He owns the truck, I own the camper.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: We've been mixing a mash with it a little bit
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: so that sometimes I take sometimes he takes it. The
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: white truck is going to be me and my family's
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: personal vehicle. Cool. I have attachment to the seventh three.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: I love Yeah, yeah, good motor trucks. It's fun. I've
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: tuned it and had fun with it a little bit too.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: So it's a little bit smart. But you can with
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: that like exactly, Yeah, is your data surfer as well? No,
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: he grew up kind of body surfing. And boodyboarding with me.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: But ye, fishes'll come down and perfect the fish and
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: hang out. So we have the seven threes my family. Holler.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: I like the idea of the simplicity of it, of
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: not having all the modern electronics in it could give
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: you more issues than a modern diesel, just because it's
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: an old diesel.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: But that's a really important thing To'll say. Yeah, there
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: is a point when vehicles become classic cars. Yeah, like
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: a seven to three that is a two thousand. It's
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: a two thousand, it's two and two. Yeah, oh it's
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: a last year they made him, right.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred and seventy five thousands. They might have
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: come three. I don't know, but it can give you issues,
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: but they're hopefully not going to be issues of the
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: leady stress. Could have known things right, Yeah, And I
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: like went through and boletroofed all and did a transmit,
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: turbone injectors and all the stuff you'd usually Yeah to
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: seven three people can work on them there or anywhere
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: because they've been around for whatever twenty plus require some
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: kind of like specialtyth yea yeah, but then at the
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: same time it's hard to tell the customer. Yeah, don't
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: go buy that new twenty three three fifty that's beautiful
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: with air conditions. For a lot of people, that's it's
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: not really in the consideration to get something that's older. Yeah,
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: And I'm lucky enough to be able to use both,
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: so I get to see both sides of it, which
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: is nice. Yeah, And I don't know. The family trips
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: will probably be in the very comfortable black Forward sometimes
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: and then sometimes they'll be in the uncomfortable older white Ford,
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: but they're both fun. You can make those trucks pretty comfortable, Yeah,
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: you can. I'm working on it, Yeah, getting some stuff
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: done to it soon, working on suspension and seats.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: And the thing that's interesting with the Ford trucks is
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: that they're not There were slight changes, but a lot
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: of things can be retrofitted.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: Just because I'm doing the five up, I have to
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: stop my press getting pick up that stuff. Yeah, I'm
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: doing that act swap. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: The Fords are similar plot forms across a lot of
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: the lines.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I want I want to shift it back
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: to travel. So you're building this truck and you know
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: you're gonna be a dad here soon, which is amazing
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: less than two months. Less than two months, Yeah, which
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: is so cool. It's like tunder shift, have the family
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: and go with my wife and I have the dog,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: but then now plus one.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it'll be fun.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Traveling when they're young can be intimidating, but it's so
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: easy because they can't go anywhere. Yeah, we've already got
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: a trip planned November to spend a month down south.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: But we're just gonna sit at one spot and turn
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: the phones off and hang out.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: That's great, so intentional. That was what I was going
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: to ask, because tell me about this trip. What's the
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: plan where you're going to go?
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: Just central Pacific coasts and find a nice spot to
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: sit up and hang out. It's a whole goal with it,
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: but we don't really know. We'll just load the truck
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: up with food and fuel and drive down and see
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: how long we can make it with the newborn baby.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: That's epic. Yeah.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: How do you balance because like my business, I I
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: have a starlink.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I can handle everything, yeah pretty easily.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: How do you balance that when you're on the road,
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: Because it feels being a builder, it's very hands on.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot of people to feel that they
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: just absolutely can't. So how do we enable those people?
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: Starlink helps, Yeah, and that's been a huge game changer
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: to be able to communicate with customers and communicate with
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: my employees and stuff. But I think the way to
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: do it is like awesome employees. I have a really
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: good team at the shop that's able to communicate how
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: I like to build trucks to my customers without me there,
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: and then execute that and install everything and get it
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: all correctly installed how I would like to do it,
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: and then I'm still available for consulting for customers. So
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: like on a trip like this, Jason, my main sales guy,
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: will talk with a customer and they get to a
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: certain point where he's like, hey, maybe you should be
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: talking a basil to at least get some base ground
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: stuff established of what vehicle to pick, what cambra to pick,
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: all we'll schedule a video call it, We'll do something
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: like that. And then Jason then goes in and kind
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: of fine tunes all right, you guys talked about the suspension.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: Now you're doing this camper and this weight, leaf springs
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: and kind of fine tunes.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: At all right, and you've got the background with the
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: whiteboard behind you with a scratch, you know, the things
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: you're not on a beach in Cabo.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: Sometimes I think I've had conversations with customers and I'm
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: like open, I'm like, hey, I'm sitting in Mexico right now. Yeah,
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: I love it because it shows them exactly. Yeah, I
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: think it's actually really cool. Yeah yeah, yeah.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Oh so you're trying to build a truck to drive
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: down the beach and behind surfing, okay, literally driving to
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: let me show you what that looks like.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right, Yeah. So it definitely a challenge to try
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: and balance that, and it takes a lot of trust
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: in your team to know they're going to do stuff right,
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: and it's just taken time to get it to that point.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I also hope that the customers in this space appreciate
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: and give some grace on that. Right, maybe the starlink
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: drops out or this or that and call problem, but
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: not everything is always like it has to be like
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: this purely transactional relationship.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it's being able to have the freedom
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: to not have those transactional relationships where I feel like
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: you're probably in a position where you could go maybe
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: I'm not the shop for you.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: Oh, we do it all the time. Yeah. Well, I
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: don't try and sell people stuff. Yeah, if you don't,
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: I'm not trying to up charge people on getting the
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: better suspension. If you don't need the better suspension and
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: you want to drive like a grandma and go really slow,
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: get the cheaper suspension. Save your money, save money.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: And even as like you said mentioned earlier lights, if
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: you're not driving sixty miles an hour at night down
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: a dirt road, you don't need lights the.
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: Bump or something like that, just some little light additions.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: You don't need to have all the lights. I just
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: never use lights. You're not supposed to drive it dark.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: A lot of the time, I just drink beer at night,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: especially in Baja, especially in Ba like Baha at night's scary.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: The only time I've ever had something like sketchy happening
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: in Baja was the one time I broke my rule.
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: And drink good night. I'll do it on dirt if
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: I know where I'm going. There's some of the spots
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: that I go into where I can leave our shop
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: in San Diego at five six am and I can
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: make it to where I want to camp and surf.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: That same night, but the last hour or two of
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: it crossing that dusk darkness border. I'm okay with it
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: because I know the roads so well that I know
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: where all the dips and corners and that kind of
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: stuff are. But you still got to watch out for
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: the cows. That's where the light it's kind of comeing
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: to play a little bit, but still, yeah.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: It's literally the black cow is the closest I've ever
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: come to death.
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: Is a black cow on a highway and bah. And
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: then you put a giant buckstop front bumper on the
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: front of the truck and you're still going to destroy
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: your truck, but you drive home. Maybe maybe, yeah, maybe
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: if those buckstop bumpers are actually like.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: If I'm Winna, if I'm going to hit something with
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: a bumper, Yeah, I think you're going to stop a bucket.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: That's what this is on the front of the front
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: of the roamer. Yeah. Yeah, fascinating. I don't know. I'm
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: just glad that you actually get out there and you
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: do it. Still, Yeah, it keeps the sparkle life.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Call it like it, because it's all too easy to
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: just say, Okay, I'm going to work.
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: I'm going to work. I'm going to work, and I'm
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: going to work.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you don't really get any benefit from
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: what you do.
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: That work and work, but it's work for sure, six
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: months and then you take a week or two off
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: to go and camp and surf and travel and reset
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: and then get back into it. But it's it's worth
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: it to get that week to shut the brain down
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: and sit on the beach for a little while, for sure. Yeah.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: What's the last thing that you came back from one
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: of your trips with that were like I need to
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: implement this idea into my build or my process or question.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: I don't know. The last couple of trips I've gone down,
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: I've had pretty dialed setups, usually small stuff like storage
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: or a little small things like that, just shifting how
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: I use my current trucks, But it hasn't been anything drastic.
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: When I got a proper suspension during the truck, that
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: was like I finally learned that first intendra I had
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: for a while. I finally got that suspension like dialed yeah,
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: and got the drive line to be to the point
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: where I wasn't worried about breaking it. Fuel tank size.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: That probably been the most recent big thing that I
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: preached every single one of my customers is if there
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: is an aftermarket fuel tank available for your vehicle that
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: increases the range, do it one thousand percent worth it
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: to not have that fuel range anxiety, especially going to
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: remote areas like that. Just just fuel up and then
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: like cool, let's go and check this spot in this
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: spot and just bounce all around.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: That's been a huge thing for me with my I've
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: been a land Rover owner since nineteen ninety five, and
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: I'm new to a Diesel Colorado.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I get a five hundred mile range. I'm like
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: what Yeah. Upon the other thing, it's not one hundred
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: and eighty. Yeah, it's not one hundred and eighty.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: And I don't need to worry about it.
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: Breaking are black super duty. If you're driving it appropriately,
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: going like it in fifty five to sixty like you
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: should in Mexico, it's almost an eight hundred mile range. Yeah,
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: sixty dolling fuel tank. Yeah, that's a really good point.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: I love fuel range.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: The truck that we're sitting in right now can almost
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: go one thousand miles, so large truck pretty conservatively where
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: I had earlier said, we're talking about driving at night
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: and I broke my rule. Here's the thing. The only
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: reason I broke my rules. I needed to get fuel
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: and we were I think it was Conception Bay. There's
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: that gas station there. The guy shut down for an
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: hour to eat dinner.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: It's like windy.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry, So I'm like, okay, cool, this gas station
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: is for sure going to be open. It's four o'clock
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: in the afternoon. And then I'm like, okay, like the
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: lights on. I already pushed it. I don't want to
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: push it much more because you think the drive from
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Conception Bay to no, man, it's not Conception Bay, Gonzagabae,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: the Gonzaga Bay one. You think that drive from Gonzaga
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Bay to San Felipe is like pretty short, it's not.
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: It's actually not always headwinds. It's always the north wind.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, okay, man, no, okay, Like, I got
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: to manage this. I gotta get the gas. And then
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: I put a longer an auxiliary like a long range
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: America tank in that gladiator and that was great. I'm
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: going to do one in the in my Granadyre for sure.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Unfortunately we're in California. H yeah. Fun the diesel
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: you can do. And why I love the forward gas
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: engines is if you do want a gas engine the
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: seven three Godzilla in a short bed, four door configuration.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: On the super d D trucks, you can do a
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: sixty gallon taken no way. I have a CARB approved
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: gas fuel tank available for those things. Yeah, and then
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: the diesel trucks have endless options. Yeah yeah, but that's
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: literally I think one of the only gas extended fuel
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: tanks that I'm aware of that's CARB approved. Who does
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: that Titan Titan excuse me? Transfer flow? Transfer flow? Yeah, yeah,
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: I did.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: A Titan in in one of my prospectors and it
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: was it was good.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: At the time. You couldn't adjust the distance to empty.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: So some trucks you can. Some truck yeah yeah you can.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah you can't. But now yeah, like the seventh three,
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: I can't. I just have to restart the tripodometer every
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: single time and then know what's going on. But I'm
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: an yeah like stuff. Yeah. So yeah.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Fuel range is a big thing because it doesn't really
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't add much weight when you don't
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: need it, but when you do need it, it's.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: A yeah thing. But even around town it's like pretty convenient.
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: Like I've been daily driving the seven three just because
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: I did a bunch of engine work to it, just
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: to make sure everything's happy. Yeah, I feel like once
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: every three weeks. I only drive thirty to forty miles
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: a day. But it's like insane how long you can go,
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: and then you can stretch and get a good station.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: And it's nice when you're traveling even stateside, not Baja.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: But yeah, not having to stop at a gas station.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: I'll be able to go home to say, yeah, go
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: and wait exactly and you can stop and you can
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: stop at other places to get good food instead of
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: gas station food or whatever it is.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the last time I filled this thing up was
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: in Cortes, Colorado, and I drove home.
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: And now I'm here and I didn't fill it up
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: all the way. Yeah, gets surprisingly good gas mileage. But yeah,
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: suspension is another big thing and getting properly like rated
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: engine fear load and doing it correctly. And that's been
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: huge is being able to build the trucks to be
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: able to carry the weight comfortably because you do.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: A lot of you do a lot of for real
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: campers that you know, with like flatbeds.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: I see a lot of flatbed it's coming out of
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: your shop. Yeah, we definitely were le camper dealers that
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: were starting to specialize more in ferrail campers. But it's
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: not just for all campers. We definitely have built a
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: little bit of a niche for ourselves of building trucks
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: that are ready to just carry campers in general, or
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: heavy loads in the back, like a GFC with a
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: full build out on Tacoma, or a RAM twenty five
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: hundred that they want to run with a GEFs whatever
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: it is. There's lots of differentiations of it, but like
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: weighted vehicles, and that's always a hard conversation to have
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: because everyone's what about the GVWR, and you're like, you
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: should just get a bigger truck if you're worried about that,
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: and then be within your GVWR, And then they don't
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: want to do that, so then you got to figure
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: out what to do.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's we're always really big advocates of staying within
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: the design envelope of a vehicle.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely the smart decision to make. Not
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: everyone does it, but not everyone can afford to can't
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: make the decision to upgrade to the next sized vehicle
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: doesn't want to.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: The thing is that you we I always use this
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: the Tacoma as an example of, right, if there is
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: one vehicle you're going to overload, Yeah, it's probably the Tacoma. Yeah,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: like they don't. Yeah really its yeah, I mean I
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: have an AMG Wagon that had more payload than my
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: wife's sport does.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's actually yeah.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've heard great things on the back of it.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: I think SI, your wife's Yeah, that was awesome. Yeah.
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: She holds like six sheet apply with home from by
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: the other day and sent me a photo. The Maverick's
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: actually really rad. Yeah, I love it.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's all wheel drive, right, hers is just front wheel,
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: but you can get like a Tremor Maverick that's lifted
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: on inch with a limited.
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah. We just got the hybrid mode for her. But yeah, but.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what's your take on that? How do you advise
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: a customer when they're yeah, there is no way to
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: upgrade that sticker on the door of your truck.
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: We're not Australia. You can't re engineer vehicle over here
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: to be able to hit those higher numbers and stuff.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: We can do the same stuff they can do in
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: a sense of breaks and suspension and driveland modifications and
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: sway bars and all that kind of stuff to help
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: make the vehicle carry that weight better. But it's still
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: a risk that it's up to the customer to decide
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: if they want to take or not. We're happy to help.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: Educate them on what a bag of a risk it is,
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: depending on how the camper is and what the vehicle
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: is and everything, and then how to best mitigate that
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: risk with upgrading components. But it's a risk for everyone
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: to take. We're luckily in America, we get to choose
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: what we get to do here, and it's up to
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: people to make that decision. I think if it was
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: up to me, everyone would drive a vehicle that was
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: rated to comfortably carry the weight they want to carry.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: But then half the industry is also upgrading vehicles to
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: help carry more, right, So that's a big part of
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: this whole thing. I don't know, it's it's a hard
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: conversation to have with customers all the time. It can
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: never give them a guaranteed answer. It's it's up to
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: you to make the decision. Yeah, it took me years
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: to actually understand what that meant and how every single
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: thing that I bolted on to a truck affected that
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: and it adds up quick.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: But it's so fast. Yeah, but the things you bolt
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: on can make it worse or better too. And I'm
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: sure you both them on and stuff too, And it's
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: like a lot of it is people want ties back
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: into the aesthetic stuff. If people want to just both
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: on stuff to both on stuff, those rigs get really
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: heavily heavy quickly. Versus if you're building more practical simple rigs,
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: you have more payload available for things you actually want
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: to s R. Yes, I'm gonna practice. You should.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, trademark, ps R, PBR, PBR. I certainly like PBR.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: I'm drinking right now, but I don't know. Yeah, it's
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: hard to decide what to do with that with customers. Yeah, yeah,
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: how are your Are they pretty receptive when you have that,
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah for sure, Just so you know, when we add this,
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: we're doing this.
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: And some of them will say, oh, I have the
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: wrong truck. Let me sell this truck and buy a
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: bigger truck. Awesome, thank you for making a decision. Yea
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: life and most people are cool with it, and I
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: understand it.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: I'm going to shift the topic a little bit more
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: to the camper side because you're doing a lot of
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: You're doing a lot of campers stuff. You said when
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: we were talking about what are you learning on these trips,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: you said, sell small stuff in the campers. And I
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: find that once the basics of the vehicle are fairly
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: well sorted, there's so much fun in figuring out the
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: little stuff inside.
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: The living space.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: I found like a little portal kettle for boiling water
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: that fits like perfectly in a drawer. Like how deep
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: do you get into that kind of stuff with advising
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: your clients of like this setup inside the middle.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not a very I don't know when I
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: pack my campers, I just pack them. I'm not the
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: kind of person that has like perfect nooks and crannies
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: for all.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a mix, right, Yeah, Yeah, I think everyone's
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: different with that. Yeah, it's a very personal thing, it is.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: But I like the gear and kind of tech side
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: of it. I travel with the rice machine when I travel,
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: like down to Mexico to surf a lot. What I
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: pretty much to eat chicken rice the whole time. Yeah,
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: but it's rad because I can put a rice in
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: the rice machine and push the button and have it
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: run on the inverter and the power system and everything,
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: and then it.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: Will litium batteries. You're just so crazy amazing. Yeah, like that.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Really has been the biggest game changer in this industry.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: That is, everybody's doing it, but it's very like underrated,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: I would.
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: Say, and it's evolving rapidly. How small the batteries are getting.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: Did you see that system I put in my grenadier.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: There's a very small space behind the doumatic drawer fridge
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: in the goose Gar system that I have, maybe there's
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: seven inches six inches of space dead space. Belind there
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: with a little hatch I can get I put one
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: hundred ampower lithium battery in. You gotta think, but that
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: is the so that the red arc alpha fifty I
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: think I did the wiring, the GP factor bracket. All
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: of this was twenty five pounds, so not that long
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: ago that would have been effectively that's I'm just going
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: to say two batteries, but realistically maybe it's three. That's
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: two big hundred amp hour batteries, right, because the depth
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: of discharge for lithiums one hundred percent usable versus fifty
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: fifty ish, So you're like that standard optimum battery that
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: you think of, that size is like the seventy to
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: eighty agm amp hoers, right, like one hundred amp hower
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: AGM battery is is considerable, and then you would need
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: two of those to equal this little system.
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: That would be like one hundred and fifty pounds batteries.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you're you're able to to integrate those that
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: innovation into some of these vehicles. I have maybe a
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: smaller gvw R and that's a cool and you can
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: have chicken rice on the beach. We use an instant
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: pot now, oh nice, that's cool. Like I used to
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: geek out on.
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: What's an instant pot.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: I'm familiar with the crock pot.
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: You don't know what an instant pot is. Actually, I've
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: heard of. Oh, you don't know what an instant potter.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: I have rice Shane and that's about it. It's just
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: like a it's an electric pressure cooker. Oh, okay cooker, yeah,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: instant like an electric one. Ninja makes them, and a
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: bunch of companies do. We've actually been Ninjas one of.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: Those crazy companies that I've never heard of. And then
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden, everybody has a ninja air fryer
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: and like thing.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: And yeah, yeah, it's really similar, right, I think instant
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: pot started it, but they make this small one. It's
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: actually sitting underneath.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: Where some way it's currently sitting there's an instant pot
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: pressure cooked. Yeah, you're in the pressure.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: But it doesn't use that much energy. Yeah, you have
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: to have the ambridge and the watage and everything for it,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: and the inverter.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: But boy, that's so's nice. Yeah, and the campers are
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: evolving rapidly to take advantage of the technology. I know,
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: for wal campers just is constantly chasing more lithium, bigger chargers,
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff because their customers are starting
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: to bring more electronics with them, start links, coffee machines,
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: all that stuff. It's cool that the manufacturers are starting
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: to do that. And then we also do like full
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: custom systems customers all the time.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've seen you douse some like crazy, like red
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: Arc Manager systems.
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's fun. I enjoy building it. That's like kind
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: of something that hurts most people's brains, and it's cool
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: to build it. I learned a lot of that from
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: my good friend Matt, who owns off grid four by
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: four in Colado. He used to build duel battery kits
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: for the Twitter trucks and I actually worked for him
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: for a while, and that's worth I remember that. Yeah,
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: that's actually what kind of sparked me working in a shop.
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: That was the first shot that I worked in a
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: professional setting, and I was like, this is cool. And
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: then eventually the shop opened up in San Diego and
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: every Yeah, but that's where I learned a lot of
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: the like electronics design from and how to build it
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: cleanly and everything. But it's impressive what you can do
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: with systems like trucks have air conditioning for the like cabins.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: Now it's crazy, Yeah, a little excessive, but it's cool.
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: It's nice in the desert. It can't be you tell
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: people to travel where it's not hot, Ye, just go
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: to the mountains. I don't know.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the cheapest way to do it with these
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: twelve volt air conditioning systems. Are they're basically taking components
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: from like electric vehicles, right yeah, probably, yeah, and deployd
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: They can be quite efficient, quite powerful. I'm going to
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: eventually upgrade fortify as I've seen, Yeah, will nuke your
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: twelve hundred ampower, lithium battery bank, and not that much time.
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: That's what you have. I saw on the screen, right, Yeah, yeah,
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: that's twelve hundred. I don't know, that's that's what. Yeah,
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: it's enough to cool the space down before you get
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: a bed.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: As we have shown, I'm not very good with math,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: right now, what's a.
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: Thousand times twenty four hours is? Yeah? Well, then you're
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: also running lights in your sterlink and your fan and
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: your fridge and your coffee machine and all that other stuff.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: TV, and it's probably a massaging bad I do.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: I do have an iPad to watch nineties sitcoms to
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: fall a slip.
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he he likes Frasier. Frasier is my jam.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, what's the last thing you'd like to
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: leave people with?
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: I don't know. Build vehicles to travel, don't build them
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: to look cool, don't build them to post online. Build
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: them to go, spend time with friends and family in
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: the woods, around the beach or wherever else you like
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: to go.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: Practical, simple, reliable.
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: Yep. Yeah, as we sit it over there, yes, surrounded
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: by crazy vehicles.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Look at you with your taglines being all creative over there.
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it. That's next. It's just it's simplified.
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: It's the ethos.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, how things should be website, Yeah, practical, simple, reliable,
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: basils grew up.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: We love it. Yeah.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: We're so glad that you not only run a great
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: shop in this industry, but you also still make the
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: time to get out and actually use these products, so
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: you know how to advise people. And I think that's
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: a really cool thing to highlight. It's been really cool
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: to see your journey over the last ten years from
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: being an FJ Cruiser dude to actually knowing what they're
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: talking about.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with being an FJ cruiser. Did they're
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: cute cars, Matt, They're cute and mom.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Advised Okay, yeah, because your mom said it was cool.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: Thanks for coming on and thanks for listening to the
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: Overlain Journal podcast. We'll catch you next time.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: Tune in next time, next week, same time, same channel,