Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Interview with Kurt Williams, Overlander and Land Cruiser Guru

Transcript

Interview with Kurt Williams, Overlander and Land Cruiser Guru · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I am
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: your host Scott Brady, and my co host Matt Scott
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: is not with me today because i am in beautiful
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Salt Lake City, Utah, and I'm going to be spending
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: some time with a longtime friend and fellow traveler Kurt Williams.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: He's often known as the cruiser Whisperer, but more importantly,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: he is a very accomplished traveler and overlander and shares
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: some of his thoughts on not only land cruisers, but
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: traveling around the globe. And I'm also grateful for today's sponsor,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: which is Scout Campers. This is a camper model that
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: I've been following for a few years now as they
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: have come to market. They have some very thoughtful innovations,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: including a minimalist and very simple design overall, which that
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: of course leads to it being the ultimate lightweight offbrid
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: truck camper. Unlike traditional RVs, Scout Campers were built with
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: simplicity and flexibility in mind, which has led to their minimalist,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: modular design. Amenities can be taken out and enjoyed outside
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: thanks to thoughtful options like the two hundred and seventy
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: degree bat wing, aning, exterior, slide out tabletop, and the
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: portable demetic bridge and freezer. The options for camper customization
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: are endless with the industry first add ons like the
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: pop up tent that's accessible from inside the camper and
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: it also has removable camper jacks, It has that real
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: flame propane fireplace, and more. These campers will last for
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: generations because of their four season construction, which features an
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: aluminum exoskeleton frame and no wood composite structural panels. To
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: top it all, off Scout Campers are eco friendly, energy efficient,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: and come standard with lots of off grid necessities like
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: solar power, of portable power station, and filtered water storage.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Scouting offers three models that fit a range of trucks
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: from half ton to full size, long and shortbox vehicles.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Explore the possibilities at Scout Campers dot com. Ert Thanks
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: so much for being on the podcast. Man, this is
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: it's really great to see you. I'm here in Salt
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Lake and this is hometown for you, right it is.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: This is home and thanks for having me. Absolutely forward
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: to it. And we're in your new facility. We are,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: and how long have you been in this building?
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Just over a year about eighteen months now, so just
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: still growing in and still getting everything dialed in. But
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: we're here and rolling and running.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, your whole story is fascinating, not only as
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: a traveler but as an expert on land cruisers and
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: then also the story of cruiser outfitters. And I mean,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: as long as I've been in the industry, you've been
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: doing this as I can, as long as I can
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: remember when did you first acquire a cruiser outfitters?
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: I took ownership January first of two thousand and two. Okay, yeah,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: I'd worked there a couple of years before, but yeah,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I officially was my problem as of January first, two
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: thousand and two.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: And how old were you when this all happened. I
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: was twenty one, I thought, yeah, I thought you young
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and dumb. Yeah, it's amazing the things that we get
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: away with right at that age, because then we could
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: just throw time and energy behind it and somehow make
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: it work exactly.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: It was an.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Existing business at the time, and so but it was
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: relatively small. You kind of bought it as a little
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: bit of a working entity, right, you got it?
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: It started in about ninety two here in Salt Lake,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: and really it was a full service land cruiser shop
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: that did restorations, paint, but even tune ups, engine swaps,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: but had zero Internet presence. In fact, didn't even have
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: a website. Of course, in that day, you know, early
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: nineties all the way into the late nineties, it wasn't
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: as prevalent to be on the line online, but definitely
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: didn't even have an email address. So the previous owner,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Daryl still a dear friend, he kind of had no
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: interest in taking it anywhere in that realm, and that's
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: kind of the direction I needed to take it. I
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: was still a full time student at the time, so
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: sure needed to be a part time business that could run,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: you know, all hours of the day.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: So how to go online?
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: And what is your educational background? Because I mean, you
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and I have traveled around the world together and that's
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: always been one of the things that's been most impressive
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: to be about you is you're a very smart guy,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: but you're also a very well studied individual. So what
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: was your background in education? Well, thank you for the
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: kind words. My background was mechanical engineering.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: So I graduated with a mechanical engineering decree from the
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: University Utah in two thousand and six. Cruiser Outfitters was
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: never meant to be a full gig for me. In fact,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: it was the get me through the end of school,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: have some cruiser money, play with land cruisers, and then
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: you know, go get a real job, right quote unquote,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: get a real job in the real world.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Talk to me about that. What was that point in
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: time or that transition where you realize that this little
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: lifestyle business that you had built to get you through
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: college was now going to be your career. Was there
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: some challenge around making that decision or just know that
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: it was right? No, definitely some challenge, And I didn't
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: even know it was right till the last minute. Two
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: thousand and six.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: I'm getting ready to graduate, starting to do exit interviews,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: starting to do career fair days there at the university
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: that were having companies from the industry come in, and
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: I was interviewing. I was looking at hey, where am
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: I going to land after school? And it was actually
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: an undergraduate professor of mine that I worked a lot
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: with that he knew what I was doing, and he
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: had been supportive and really interested in this little land
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: cruiser business I had, and he said, no, You've got
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: to keep doing what you're doing. Like, you didn't go
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: to school to be an engineer. You came to school
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: to be a problem solver. Use that and you've got
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: to run this business. You can always it doesn't work.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: After a year or two, you know it's come to
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: be an engineer, but you can't. You know you won't
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: ever pick that back up if you've got this little
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: business churn in away.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: One of the other things that I've I've noticed about
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: you and your business. Having been in the overland industry
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: for as long as I have, I've actually never once
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: heard someone say a negative word about you or your business.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: And that is very difficult to achieve, to have the
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: customer rapport, and it doesn't mean that you don't have problems,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: but I've never heard anybody complain about Cruiser Outfitters. What
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: do you think are some of the things that has
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: allowed you to accomplish that? What are the things about
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: your business or maybe even you as an individual, or
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: how you train your team that has allowed you for
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: you to go essentially almost two decades without having any
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: negative part of your reputation.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: That's a great question. And we don't always hit home runs.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, certainly we know, we're always learning, and we
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: sometimes experience the hard way that we didn't make every
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: transaction the way that we wanted to, and we do
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: everything we can to make it right. I think the
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: big part of it is that we're all Toyota guys,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: We're all automotive guys here, all my employees, pretty much
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: everybody here understands what it's like to order something and
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: get the wrong part or have it show up late.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: So we really just try to think of it like, hey,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: how do we want to be treated when we place
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: an order? How do we want to be treated when
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: we have service done on a vehicle? And it just
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: kind ofically look at it and you know, treat others
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: how we want to be treated as a consumer ourselves.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: So we've looked at that way.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Another big part of it is being part of the community,
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: being active in forums, being active in those Facebook groups.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: That's how you and I met Sure a couple decades
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: ago now is through kind of different forms, through the
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Expission Portal forum back in the day, and that's been
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: being part of those community. You really get a vibe
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: for what people are looking for product wise, but also
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: you can be out in front of any of those
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: issues before they pop up, say hey, let's get this
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: solved before it was ever a problem.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: I remember, this was early two thousands. I had purchased
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: a nineteen seventy seven FJ forty. It was this great
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: uncut truck, and I remember ordering the front axle rebuild
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: kit from you guys, And I don't even think that
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: we In fact, I'm almost certain we didn't know who
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: each other was. But I remember part of what made
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: that experience so positive is to be able to call
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: and have the person that am answers the call be
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: totally familiar with the vehicle, and it gave me a
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: lot of confidence in purchasing the rebuild kit, because to me,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: it seemed like this black art of how in the
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: world am I going to get this? I mean, I
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: knew it was just one bolt at a time, but
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: you want to make sure that you don't get your
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: daily driver torn down and then halfway through it you've
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: got the wrong part or the wrong bearing or whatever.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: So to be able to talk to somebody on the
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: phone that understood like oh yeah, like no, there was
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: no question in your voice, like oh, I think it'll work.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: And it may not even have been you that I
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: talked to. It probably was, but it's just I think
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: that was my memory. My first memory of interacting with
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: you was and your company was just this wealth of
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: knowledge around land cruisers. I think that that's probably part
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: of the success is that you guys have done a
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: good job of staying focused on the Toyota mark on
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: the even you guys do some parts for Lexus as well,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: but you guys have really stayed focused on those vehicles
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: that you know well and that you can service your
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: customers well.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: You see that as being one of the strengths, absolutely,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: and that's been a focus. We realize that with some
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: of the brands we rep and some of the parts
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: we carry, we could certainly branch out and start carrying
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: parts or selling those parts.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: For other vehicle platforms.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: But I'll be the first to say I don't know
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: enough about those to confidently sell those parts, and I
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: don't want to sell something that we can't provide customer
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: service for both when they call and ask, hey, will
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: it fit, but also after the fact when they maybe
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: when they're installing it, or perhaps if they do have
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: a problem with it, if we can't solve that, we
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: don't want to be the company that always puts that
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: back on the manufacturer and says, hey, we sold it
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: to you, but call them they made it. We like
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: to be able to solve those problems. And with like
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: the knuckle kit you mentioned, we've really focused on kits.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: They come with everything you need, be it a suspension
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: system or a knuckle rebuilt kit or a transmission kit.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: We've just worked with good manufacturers, good vetted parts. A
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: lot of them are OE components or manufacturers that make
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: them for OA components and then assemble those as a
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: full comprehensive kit. So you don't have to walk into
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: a part store and say I need you know, the
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: thirty seven different parts that make en up and rebuilt kit.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: We give those to you with one part number.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: And you buy a lot of this stuff direct from Japan,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: don't we do.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we import from quite a few different places, but
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: particularly Japan and Australia. We bring in a lot of components. Obviously,
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: land cruisers and toyotas are big in those markets, so
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: we can find good manufacturers there that you have the
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: parts we're looking for all of.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, the success you've had in business is so notable,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: but some of the stuff that really makes you interesting
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: is your passion for land cruisers and the amount of
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: traveling that you've done in recent years. And then also
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: your success as a driver is part of a racing
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: team as well. Which congratulations on your first place finish
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: in the Baja one thousand a couple days ago.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Right, two days ago. Yeah, I can't believe you're awake. Right,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: I got home less than twenty four hours ago.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: We did have a good run.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: I've always been and that's why I got in the business.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: It wasn't kind of an inverse. Sometimes you see companies
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: they see a market and they take advantage of that,
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: hop in and seize that opportunity. That's a great way
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: to do it if you see an opportunity. Mine was
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: from a different approach. I bought a land Cruiser when
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: I was fifteen years old, and my dad and I
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: started fixing that up as a high school vehicles a
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: nineteen sixty eight FJ forty, and I quickly fell in
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: love with land cruisers. And as anyone that's got a
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: unique vehicle, be it an older land drover, an older jeep,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: you understand that you don't go anywhere without like running
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: into somebody that used to have one of those, sure
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: as an endearing story about why they love that, And
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: I think I kind of gravitated to that. It was
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: it was just fun to get to know other Toyota,
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: you know, other Toyota owners, another land cruiser owners specifically,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: and that kind of grew into my love and fast
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: forward and ou it's kind of every part of my life.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: I work with land cruisers all day long, but my
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: weekends usually involve land cruisers of some whether it be
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: driving in some remote place or racing one, or just
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: working on one at my house.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: Sure so's yea.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: I guess I'm not burned out on them yet if
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: I've made it this far life, and I still like
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: get giddy when I see a land cruiser I've never
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: been in before, get a go drive something I haven't
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: had the opportunity to yet.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, And do you still have that original land cruiser?
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: You know, I don't. I know where it's at. It
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: belongs to a customer and a friend. You know that
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: you say you should never sell one, But I sold
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: it for a reason then, and I don't necessarily regret it.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: I've had the opportunity to buy it twice to buy
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: back twice, but I've got some others that kind of
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: fill that role, and maybe one day it'll end up
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: back around. But it's fun to see somebody else still
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: out using it and enjoying it, and he does so
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: I can.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: That's awesome. Yeah, it makes me happy to see it
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: still out getting used.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: So if you were to summarize now that you have
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: traveled so much around the world in land cruisers, in
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: addition to your early childhood and young adult years loving
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: land cruisers, what is it about land cruisers for you,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: if you were to kind of summarize why there's such
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: an important option for you when you purchase a vehicle.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for me, I'd say just the reliability they I've
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: taken me. And there's a lot of great platforms out there.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: You and I have talked about a lot of neat
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: opportunities and options there are on the market these days,
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: but I just fall back on it's the reliable choice
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: for me. It's not always the you know, the cutting edge,
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: it's not always got the most latest and greatest features,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: but I just know that it's always going to get
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: me home and and through that, I've met a lot
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: of fellow travelers and dear friends, the people that I
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: spent a lot of time with that also had that
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: like mentality. So it's easy for us to plan and
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: go do a trip all knowing that we kind of
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: don't worry about the vehicle. That's not even the big
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: part of our trip. It's just we all know, hey,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: he's got a vehicle that's going to get there and
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: get us home. So it's not a biggie to plan
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: a trip down to Baja. I don't worry about what
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: they're bringing. I know that they've got that dial their set.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: We can just go and experience, have a good time. Yeah,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: it's interesting.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: I mean some of the places that you and I
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: have been, whether it's the Road of Bones in Russia
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: or in the middle of the you know, South America,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: or in the middle of the Greenland ice sheet and
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: a toyota. I've never had a toyota leave me stranded.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Have you ever had a land cruise or leave you stranded?
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: No, nothing catastrophic, I mean, and anything that did was
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: usually something we did to it. Sure, you know, you
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: race the Baja one thousand, anything can happen. Oh, that's true,
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: but it's always it's always like an aftermarket something we've done,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: or just you know the nature of racing. But yeah,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: as far as like travel like that, No, nothing that's
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: been a catastrophphilure. They've always always got me home and
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: it's never been a worry. I'd say that's the bigger
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: component too, is it's never worried about your vehicle, because
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: it's stressful to go into a trip thinking like, hey,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: am I going to be the guy that holds up
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: an entire group? Am I going to be the guy
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: that is calling for help? It's nice just that's that's
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: not even in the picture. You just know it's a good,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: reliable vehicle. Certainly things can happen, they're not valluable, but
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: we've relied on them. I mean when we were in Greenland,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: did we ever worry about the Toyota making it. No,
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: we were worried about whether we had enough fuel. That's
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: on us. Greg did an amazing job of course with
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: the planning and that, so we always did. We were
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: worried about, hey, we're going to have enough food, but
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: we never worried about are these trucks going to get
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: us back?
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: Never a worry.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and even anything that we started working on it
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: was fair, although it was watching Torvy work on a
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Toyota was an impressive thing.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: But ice Ninja the ice, Yeah, it was.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: An incredible They all did get us across that ice
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: sheet and back again. So for you, then it sounds
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: like it's the trust that you have in the land
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: cruiser to allow you to have the adventure that you
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: want to have. And what are some of the other
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: things that you think make a land cruiser special.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: I think the community is a big part. It's it's
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: one of the like a lot of unique vehicles, you
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: can find a community around it, and that's that's interesting.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: It's neat, it's fun. It's great to get out with
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: like minded people in similar vehicles. Yeah, I don't that's
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: not an emphasis. I'm happy to go. I'll travel anywhere
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: with anybody. That's the point is the travel, not don't
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: get too vehicle centric. But it is fun to be
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: out with with a bunch of old f J forties out.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: On the trail.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: There's something special about bouncing down the road there. And
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: then I would say the ability to accessorize them and
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: build them the way you want. There's so many great options.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Being that their global platforms. Not all the solutions are
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: the easiest to find in the United States because the
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: land Cruiser is so big in other markets and less
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: so here. But we can find anything you want to
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: build them, and that's that is a more difficult thing
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: with some unique platforms or different options. But with toyotas,
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: you can usually get front and rear bumper, a variety
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: of different unique suspension options, different accessories to dial it in.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: For the need you have.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've definitely found that two hundred is a great
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: example of that. Is this is a vehicle that is
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: sold everywhere in the world. Essentially it may have a
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: different engine, but for the most part, the vehicle is
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: the same. So if you were to buy a new
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Heritage edition two hundred series land Cruiser and you needed
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: to get a lower control arm, somewhere in Uzbekistan, they're
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: going to have the ability to fix the two hundred
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: series land Cruiser there because they see those vehicles. They
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: sell them to their dignitaries, they sell them to the diplomats,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: they sell them to the local governance. A lot of
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the militaries use them. One of the first times I
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: saw a heavily modified two hundred series was twenty ten
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: and I was I think I was in Uzbekistan or
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: maybe in Georgia. I was in Georgia, the country of Georgia,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: and this black two hundred lifted everything rolls into this
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: gas station. I was like, well, look at that thing.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: And then all these guys step out with MP fives,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: you know, So it was it was the real deal.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: It was the real deal, and you could tell it
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: had been up armored and everything else like that. But
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, those vehicles they're not only so durable in
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: the civilian form, but because they're so strong, that's why
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: they're used as a military platform as well. And it's
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: just unfortunate that we don't see more of them sold
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: because the more new two hundred series land Cruisers are sold,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: the more opportunity there is for that second buyer to
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: really enjoy them and use them for decades of travel.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Because they are expensive new they are they really are.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're a premium vehicle that that comes with the
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: premium price, and that does make it more difficult to
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: look at them as a new car option, but certainly
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: we have customers that do, and a lot of travelers do.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: But yeah, most are looking at them on the second
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: hand option.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: You've had dozens of land cruisers. What is your most
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: favorite land cruiser of all the ones that you've owned, you.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Know, and I'm going to still aligned from our good
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: friend Greg Miller, and that's the one I'm driving currently.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: You know, that's my defacto answer, And he says it
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: so elcomely. It's true. But if I had to choose
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: one I love, I've got a little Japanese import BJ
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: seventy four. It's turbo diesel. It is its right hand drive.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: I had any problems driving around the US, and I've
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: had it all over the western US. Just a fun
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: little land cruiser to drive.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is that one. That one is really cool.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: I remember how excited you were when you got it.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, not the fastest, it's not the you know, it
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: certainly doesn't have the room inside of a two hundred series.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: It's not a pickup truck that I can throw things,
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: you know, throw a bunch of stuff in.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: The back of.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: But it's just a perfect little trail land cruiser. And
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: for the things I do most on a weekend here
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: in Utah heading up to the mountains, that I love.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: It's the perfect little land Cruiser just to hop in.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: And I there's never a time I'm driving it that
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: I don't have a smile on my face. Even if
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: I'm like a slow guy going up the canyons. You know,
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: cars are swerving swerving around me, and I've still got
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: a smile on my face. And nobody gets mad at
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: you when you're driving an old land Cruiser going slow.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: It doesn't seem like they kind of even get it.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Everybody get And we both have a mutual friend in
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Steve who imports those seventy.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Series land Cruisers land Cruisers direct. They do a great
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: job of bringing these cars in. Is that something that
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Steve is still doing? And he is, Yeah, definitely still doing.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: And that exact BJ seventy four came through Steve. Yeah,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: mine did as well.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, j fac you.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Had a really clean That seventy four of yours was
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: also clean. When they're just a good sized willbase, a
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: great truck. And he does find really good units out
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: of Japan that are good clean, known history, so you
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: kind of know what you're getting before it lands over here.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: And that BJ seventy four is certainly an example that's
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: been a perfect vehicle for me. It's never once left
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: me wanting or stranded.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was really impressed with not only you expect
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: the trail capability to be quite good, and it was.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: In fact, I've found that the leaf springs were more
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: capable than the coil sprung trucks, more articulation, but it was.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: It was surprisingly easy to drive on the road with
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: that five speed. It settles the diesel down nicely. That
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: turbo actually lets it do regular highway speeds. It's a
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: lot more quiet than like a forty or I would
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: say even than a sixty. I was really impressed with
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: how easy that car was to drive, and it's nice
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: to see that we can finally get them in because
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: there's such an They literally are the pinnacle land cruiser
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: for travel because they are so ubiquitous and they are
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: so simple, and they're so easy to modify in a
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: lot of interior space and stuff. And for me, the
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: first time I ever drove a seventy Series was when
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: I raced in the Outback Challenge. So it was a
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: PSYJ seventy three okay, yeah, a five cylinder and they
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: turbo charged it so it got some decent power out
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: of it. That was the first time I ever drove
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: a seventy Series back in two thousand and six, and
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about getting thrown into the deep end of
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: the pool with that thing. But that was why it
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: was so fun to get a seventy four, which is
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: the same wheelbase and exactly same base. You get that
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: car kind of back in my life for a little bit.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that would have been a neat experience to hop
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: right in a seventy Series to get a drive one
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: for the first time, but also drive one in a
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: race the first time.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: Right, that's quite.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: The trial by fire they are. If they're neat platforms,
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: it is. It is great great trail manners too. I
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: find it that wheelbases really well, but just a fun
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: truck to drive on the trail.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: It's kind of narrow.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: The narrow body on a seventy Series makes it pretty
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: easy to move around compared to a bigger chassis. And
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: I'd say it's like the most modern version of an
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: FJ forty. Everyone thinks of the FJ forty is a
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: perfect troll vehicle, and I wouldn't disagree. For many situations.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: It is a great answer seventy series, just a little longer,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: little more modern drive train, Like I said, little quite
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: a little quieter inside. You can certainly stomach a long
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: road trip in it's it's a nice vehicle.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: And they addressed a lot of the corrosion issues and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: the frames a little better, a little stronger, less flex
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: in the frame, and less likelihood of the the shackle
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: points failing. And they fixed a lot of the f
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: J forty issues with the seventy. And of course it's
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: still being made today, which is amazing. Another thing that
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: I thought would be fun to talk about for the
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: listener to really understand some of the benefits of competitive driving.
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: You and I have done.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, we crossed the Road of Bones together, we
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: drove across South America together, and we did a lot
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: of driving in Africa together. And one of the things
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: that I always noticed with you was your competence as
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: a driver. And it wasn't that you were driving fast
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: or being excessive, and it was just the general competency
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: of really all the drivers we had along Expedition seven,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: but it was that consistency. You were the one guy
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I never had to worry about when you were behind
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: the wheel, because, as we find with travel, the unexpected
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: can happen in a moment, and those close calls, even
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: if you're being very careful or if you're very competent,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: those close calls do come up. Sometimes you barely evade
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: them through that combination of experience and muscle memory. Have
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: you found that racing land Cruisers has also made you
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: a better driver for as an Overlander And in what
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: ways what have you learned by that process of being
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: a racer as well?
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: I'd absolutely say it's definitely put a different perspective of
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: a lot of different directions, both from the driving expect
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: but also the mechanical sympathy behind the wheel too. Knowing
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: what that vehicle can handle and how to treat that
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: and make it last as long as possible. That's a
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: big factor in the race car. You and I, it's
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: funny you mentioned that we had a conversation. I don't
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: know if you remember this. We're at Paul May's how
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: for a barbecue during one of the outdoor retailer shows
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: here in soul Lake, and we were talking about the
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Baja one thousand. It was one of our early ones,
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: so this would have been, you know, eight ten years
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: ago now, and you said, I remember you saying your
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: only job is to hand that car off to the
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: next guy a running vehicle. And we still look at
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: it to this day to that point like we can
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: go out there and drive as fast as we feel comfortable,
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: and that's okay, but as fast as you feel comfortable,
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: but also knowing my only job. My job's not to
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: finish the race right out of the start line, or
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: if I'm driving a middle leg, it's to hand off
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: a car that still works back to the next driver
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: that's going to hop in there. And I think you
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: can take that to your every day driving and certainly
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: overland trips, that if you push the vehicle too far,
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: that's on you, that's your fault. If you outdrive both
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: your own capabilities but the vehicle, that's when disasters happen.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: And we always said with Expedition seven that the most
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: dangerous thing we were going to do the whole time,
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: despite traveling through very remote and sometimes you know, the
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: media would tell you less than friendly or hostile places,
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: that ourn't only worry was ever driving, and a lot
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: of times it was the other driver. So I would
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: say having a healthy respect for both the capabilities but
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: also the vulnerabilities of any vehicle, it's an important part
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: to take into the planning of a trip and the
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: way you drive, And definitely with Exhibition seven, I always
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: just had the utmost respect for those vehicles. One it
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: didn't belong to me, and the other part was it
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: still had a long way to go, and not just
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: a long way, like we're talking multiple continents to go.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: So if we were to break something or heaven forbid,
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: have an accident when we were in Africa, South Africa
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: or doing the Namibia coast there, that may kind of
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: ruin a trip for other people and for the whole
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: duration of that event and the whole plan of Expedition seven,
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: that would have been heartbreaking. So I just always came
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: into it with a healthy respect for what the vehicle
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: could do, what my skills were, and didn't out drive
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: those look at it is, don't outrun what your skills
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: are behind the wheel.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: And oftentimes people will do that, They'll say, oh, I
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: only drive at one hundred percent occasionally just for fun,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: and that always worries me. It's like, I want to
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: hear eighty percent for fun, because if you don't have
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: anything left in the tank when one of those things,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: so you have a blowout at high speed, you still
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: have enough Does the vehicle still have enough control? You
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: still have enough experience as a driver to correct for
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: a blowout when you're pushing things to the limit. And
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: one of the things that we learned through Expedition seven
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: was it reinforced that idea of mechanical sympathy. That's our
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: job as a driver is to be mechanically sympathetic to
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: the vehicle that we're driving. It's really easy to get
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: caught up in an idea of a land cruiser being indestructible.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: A land cruiser is very durable, but everything has its
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: mechanical limits. And you and I were talking last night
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: about you going through the whoop section just recently on
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: the Baha one thousand, and you said, like, every once
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: in a while, you get it wrong and you plant
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: that front end really hard, and you realize this truck's
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: only got a few of those in it. That's a
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: two hundred series Lankers, which is one of the strongest
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: vehicles available on the market. But you realize, like they've
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: really those knuckles and all of those suspension connection points
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: and the shock, you've only got so many of those
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: hits in them before something's going to fail. And that's
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: where for those that are listening, when we drive our
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: vehicles and we're in challenging terrain, we always want to
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: give a significant buffer because we don't know who's coming
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: at us. We don't know the other vehicles that are
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: on the road. We don't know if there's going to
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: be a washout or a giant boulder in the middle
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: of the road. It's even more important on motorcycles, as
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: you've experienced as well, So that mechanical sympathy is really
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: critical because the goal is to preserve the asset. We
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: call it preserving the asset when we talk about vehicle
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: training and mobility training, but it really is preserving the
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: vehicle for future adventures or for the next driver. If
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: you're a race car driver like you do, and I
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: think that that is such an important thing to remind
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: ourselves of. Doesn't mean you can't have fun. It doesn't
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: mean that when the road straightens out and you've got
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: some good line of sight you can see what's happening,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: and maybe there's a couple turns in that road, doesn't
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: mean you don't have fun and drifted a little bit,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: or you know, even loft the vehicle on occasions or whatever.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: But it's about making sure that when you do that,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: you're not going to end your trip because you wad
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: the thing up so right, Yeah, always leave your yourself
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: and out. You always have a backup plan, even when
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: you're it's hard to get in that mentality when you're racing,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: but even if you're overlanding, you're bombing down a dirt road.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: But leave yourself and out. Where am I going to go?
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: If something goes sideways? Where am I going to go?
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: If I have a tire blowout?
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: You know? Always leave that out and leave yourself a
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: little bit of room. We like to say exactly that
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: eighty percent. If you're driving one hundred percent, you're driving
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: way too fast, way too fast. Can the car handle it? Probably,
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: but you can't if something pops up. You start writing
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: checks that you don't have the skills to cash.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: That's it.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: And plus you can't do it for that many hours
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and expect yourself to not make mistakes. You know, there
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: are drivers that are much better than me in the
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: world that probably don't make those mistakes. But I realize
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: that I'm human and that I am valuable as a driver,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: And even with the experience that I have. There are
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: scenarios that can come up that maybe I'm a little tired,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: or maybe I'm a little under nourished, or or I'm
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: not well hydrated, or I'm driving a left hand drive
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: vehicle in a right hand drive country, and there's all
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: of these variables that start to stack up and that
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: we talk about those cascades of events, and that's exactly
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: how that starts. Is you're a little tired, you got
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: a way a little later in the morning than you wanted,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: so you're in a rush. You didn't do it your
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: morning check on the vehicle to see if that you
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: didn't realize that that shock had come off the night before.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: So being very mindful of that as a driver is key.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: So another thing that came to mind kind of along
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: the same subject matter, but what are some of the
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: preparations that you've done for the two hundred series for
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: the Baja races that you think irrelate directly to the
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: overlander that's preparing a similar vehicle. What are some of
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: the things that you've learned in that environment that you thought, wow,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: that's really changed my perspective. Maybe something that you learned
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: that was new that came from racing and setting up
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: a car.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, a lot of takeaways we found, say that
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: you know, a thousand miles in a desert race on
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: that chassis is probably equivalent to perhaps one hundred thousand
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: miles even with fair and a moderate a lot of
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: off road use in a daily driver two hundred series,
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: say like my personal one. So things that fell or
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: start to get weak or wounded in a thousand miles
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: are kind of things we probably need to look at
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: addressing in one hundred thousand or one hundred and fifty
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: thousand miles on a normal vehicle. So it's kind of
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: been interesting to see what those items work. We run
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: in a stock class in the one thousand in desert racing,
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: so we're limited on the things that we can modify
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: and change, and ironically that helps us because we can't
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: modify some of those systems that perhaps would be better
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: as a short term fix, maybe make it handle or
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: have more power instead. That drive train in that lancerage
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: there's one hundred percent stock. It's a stock engine, stock trany,
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: stock tea case. We don't have problems with those. Those
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: are never the things we have problems, but the things
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: that the takeaways is say you kind of touched on
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: preventive maintenance and just inspection. I think a key to
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: our success and the number of races that car has finished. Traditionally,
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: desert racing's got about a fifty percent attrition rate. Now
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: half of the people that start a race will actually
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: finish that race. We do significantly better. One We're a
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: slower class, so that helps. Admittedly, we're not like guys
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: out front. It's it's a lot harder to pace yourself
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: when you're the guy in the front, so you're more
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: prone to have a significant failure, damage or accident. We're
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: a little slower, kind of towards the back of the
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: pack where we start in a stock life. But the
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: big thing I think is our prep, the time we
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: spend dismantling and inspecting everything. And I've found as you
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: carry that over to your personal vehicle. You mentioned the
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: vehicle walk around. That is a very important portion of
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: every day every morning on a trip, doing a equipment
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: vehicle walk around because the things we've experienced together on
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: our trips and the things we've all had in our
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: own days fell It's usually something that you might have
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: spotted the night before very likely what a hole in
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: the tire, a tied damaged sidewalk. You know, sure a
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: sidewalk can fail immediately if you hit something, but a
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: lot of times it's going to be a sidewall that
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: I already had damage, and then now you're going to
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: suffer that the next day and unfortunately perhaps speed, but
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: could be a broken shot, could be damage steering, something loose,
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: something bent. And if you do that walk around both
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: the morning of a trip or you know, each day
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: before you head out, but more importantly before you leave
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: on a big trip. Al too often you see people
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: finding something that's probably been worn out for months. So
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: if you're finding it on day two or day three
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: of the trip and now it's presenting a serious issue,
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: now you're running behind or scrambling to find parts in
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: often places that they're not available.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: I've been so grateful for those daily checks. I think
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: even I can think of several scenarios on E seven
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: where I noticed a bolt backing out of a lower
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: shock mount, and if I hadn't checked the car daily,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: the bolt would have been gone eventually, so to be
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: able to just throw a spanner on it and tighten
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: it up as opposed to now trying to find a
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: shouldered bolt like that in the middle of nowhere, you
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: know that's an appropriate fix. That's that can be a
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: lot more difficult. Those daily inspections and then those weekly
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: deeper dive inspections into the vehicle where you're checking all
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: of the fluids, you're double checking your electrical systems, putting
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: your hand on a lot of these components and testing
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: a lot of these components before you need them, plugging
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: in the winch on that weekly inspection, and cycling the
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: winch to make sure that it works. Because when you
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: get into that situation where there's the rising tide on
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: the coast and you've got to winch out, that is
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: really important to know that those systems work.
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: It's not the time to be troubleshooting. It's really not stressful.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: And I think that was one of the great joys
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: for me of E seven is we were able to
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: vet out well the things that people talk about is
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: best practice, which I've become a lot more careful of
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: using that term because I think that anything that we
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: say is best practice probably has a falsifiability to it.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: So if you talk about a daily inspection, how often
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: do you find something in a daily inspection it's probably
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: very rare, or would you have found it in a
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: weekly inspection, And is maybe the falsifiability of well, you've
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: taken all of this time every single day and you've
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: that's less time that you've spent traveling, or it leads
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: to maybe more issues with you coming into camp later
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: because you took that time in the morning. But one
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: of the things that I really liked about seven is
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: we were able to come into it with these fairly
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: well formed ideas around what would be the best practice
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: for us as a team on that trip, and we
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: were really able to validate what worked. And I think
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: that doing those daily inspections for me, it was very
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: reinforcing how important that is. Did you find the same thing?
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Absolutely.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: We always knew they were going to get us there,
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: the vehicles were going to get us where we were
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: heading each day. I think part of that is that
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: we were doing our due diligence and checking those things.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: Back to the racing, we do the same thing every
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: single pit that when we stop that car, we do
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: a driver change, we take fuel. We also inspect the
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: steering where the driver hops out and hands off the car.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: The next guy he sits there and wiggles the steering
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: wheel back and forth. I mean, that's a procedure. We've
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: got two eyeballs underneath the car looking at those components.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: We check every suspension bowl at every pit, not necessarily
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: putting a wrench on them, but like a paint mark,
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: and I think to carry that back over. I do
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: that on my personal vehicles. And you're right, you can
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: get over the top if you're doing that every day
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: and maybe over inspecting. But I think more people would
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: fall guilty of never inspecting those items, sure, and it
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: could prevent problems. And with the seven I think we
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: had a good system down that every morning we were
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: spending just five or ten minutes while you're still packing up.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be a big orchestraate affair, but
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: certainly before your trip you should be doing those things
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: before you leave home, and then the morning up, just
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: do a quick walk around and make sure everything looks right.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: Are their lug nuts missing? Are there? You're going to
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: see those big problems and a lot of times you
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: can stop a catastrophic failure by just a quick eyeball
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: on parts.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: I also found that for me was it was almost
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: like setting the intention of the day, because we would
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: we'd get up, we'd break camp, and then you'd take
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: that time to spend with the vehicle that you were
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: about to drive, and a lot of times we'd be
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: swapping drivers and swapping people from vehicle to vehicle, and
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: if you're now checking the next vehicle, it's another set
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: of eyeballs on that truck, and it reminds us of
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: the fact that we're not just hopping in for another
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: daily commute. We're about to cross the namb Desert, or
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: we're in the middle of the Road of Bones in Russia,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: or we're in the deepest part of Patagonia, and repairing
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: these problems is going to be a much it's going
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: to be a difficult challenge if we don't do that
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: in the beginning of the day. So I think that
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: that was really important, and then we would always have
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: kind of our daily driver meeting where I and I
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: look back on that and there was probably some things
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: that I would have done different that I realize now
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: that we did better, like on the Greenland crossing, where
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: we did more of a check in on us as individuals.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: We were keeping a better eye on how fatigued people were,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: what was their general you know, countenance, their mood, how
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: we're you know, we're people hydrating, where they eating well,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: you know. And having doctor John Solberg with us in Greenland,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: I think he did a really good job. In many
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: many cases we didn't know he was doing it, but
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: he was constantly checking in on how we were doing
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: as individuals because it was so so fatiguing.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: Absolutely something I definitely appreciated With Greenland, we were keeping
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: eye on that. Another is Clay clay Craft with Exbishon Ovland,
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: who I've been fortunate to travel about. Clay is really
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: good about that, like a daily check on, hey man,
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: where are you out on a one to ten, how
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: you felt, you know, and if that that number sliding
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: over time, we're getting you're pushing it further and further
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: each day running those long marathon runs, you know, and
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: getting getting into camp late, still getting up early and moving.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: That starts a cascade and stack up, and that's when
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: accents are going to happen. Sure problems are going to
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: take place, is you start getting fatigued behind the wheel.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: So I think that's a very importanting to recognize, and
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: it doesn't have to be a big trip to have
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: that conversation. Either, could be your weekend trip with buddies,
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: like just talking out a week are we overdriving? Somebody
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: pushing too hard, trying to get too many miles each day,
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: and that's when you know somebody's going to have a
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: bad trip, be it an accident or just not enjoy
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: the selves because they are going too fast. And I
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: think we kind of with Exhibition seven, maybe to some
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: part we didn't need to have that conversation too much
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: because we all knew everybody loved to drive, so we
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: kind of, you know, embraced that. But there were definitely
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: times we pushed late into the nights for many many
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: days in a row, and it was it was definitely
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: stacking up.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there was there was one story I remember we
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: were we were we hit we hit those frost heaves
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: on the road of Bones and Russia. In Russia, I
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: think there was somebody sleeping in the back of a
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: land cruiser when we jump. When we jumped got airborn.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: We jumped at about yeah, at about one hundred kilometers
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: an hour. We jumped a seventy series on a highway.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: Was some gnarly Frost team. That was insane. That was
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: a road you could just never let your guard down.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Be another drivers, the traffic, but just the road itself
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: was probably the most dangerous part was how rough that
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: road was in portions.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: I still remember coming up on that bridge and I
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: was in the lead vehicle. There was only two of
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: two vehicles on that particular trip, and I think it
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: was an Audi or a seven series BMW that was
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: passing me as this semi was I mean the other way,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: and how he I got as far over as I
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: could without going off the bridge, and how he threaded
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: that needle. I mean, they were nuts. They were literally,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: I mean wonderful people, but when they got drunk and
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: were driving, it was That's there's a reason why there's
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: so many compilation videos on YouTube of Russian drive because
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: that was what we experienced every day.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, when you you picked us up at the airport
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: and you said like, hey, buckle in, man, this is
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: pretty crazy driving over here, and we thought like, ah, sure,
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: sure it is. We've done a lot of other travel
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: together at that point, and I definitely put a little
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: more emphasis and how crazy it was going to be
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: just in the drive from the airport back to where
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: we were picking up.
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: Traffic was all over.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: Nobody was paying any attention to red lights and trains
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: coming through the middle of intersections.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: It was.
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: It was definitely every man for himself on those roads.
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: I do remember that.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember how you By the time we got
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: to the hotel, you guys were like, Okay, I think
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: I think we understand, we want.
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: To do this, but this is the real deal.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and you did at least you did five
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: if was it five or six of the of the
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: seven continents with the seven I did five of the
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: expedition seven comment.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: And then you've done several of the big trips with
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: clay which this is just a shout out to a
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: mutual friend of ours, Clay Croft with ex Overland. Make
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: sure you guys check them out on YouTube. I think
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: that they've got their series now also on Amazon right.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Wonderful human beings. Incredible organization and all of their work
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: is so inspirational. Some of their recent solo series is
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: really great. They're not a sponsor of this obviously, we
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: just love them as people, so make sure you check
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: them out. But you've done several big trips with the
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: X overland crew. You did Central America and South America,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: is all right?
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: Correct?
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually been part of all the seasons in
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: the last I think five years now. So we started
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: in Central America. It was just a mutual. We'd known Clay.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: Clay had done some Expedition seven trips with us. I
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: had just finished driving through Central America with Expedition seven.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: We'd made our way up through a shipped from South
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: America to Panama and finished the drive up to the
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: United States, and Clay was looking at heading down that direction.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: So you're just having a bunch of phone calls and hey, man,
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: where did you guys? What did you do when you're
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: in this country? What did you do at this border?
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: How was it?
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: And I just I was helping him at wherever I could,
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: and he finally just said like, hey, can you go?
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: Can you come with us? You've just you've come the
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: other direction and just done that trip. And of course
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: I never turned down those opportunities when they present themselves
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: whenever possible, and said yeah, let's do it. And I
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: really thought it was just going to be a Central
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: America trip, Go go do that with them and a
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: fantastic crew. It was a lot of fun to get
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: to know them all, and then that turned into South America.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: And since we've done you know, Mackenzie Trail up in Canada,
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: the Whipsaw Australia, we've been able to be really fortunate
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: to spend a lot of other time doing trips with
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: the team. And yeah, fantastic, fantastic humans.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: What are some of the key takeaways that you've had
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: from your trips with x Overland. You just mentioned how
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: good of a job Clay does checking in on you
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: guys every day. Is there anything else? A couple other
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: hacks or processes that they use that you really like,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: and you think people that are listening can benefit in
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: their own travels.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: I think simplicity. It's it's easy to get too caught
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: up and how those vehicles are built. And I think
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: in the earlier days of XO and myself, including my
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: own personal travel, we all it was all about how
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: much gear you could have on the vehicle. And Clay's
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: really taken emphasis these last few years and few trips.
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: Is you know, let's start leaving items behind. I mean
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: we left to donate it a set of jack stands
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: in Central America.
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: It's just like mine.
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: Why are we packing these things around? We can find
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: these if we ever needed them. And that's just a
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: one little micro example. But scaling back the amount of
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: gear we bring makes the trip that much more enjoyable.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: And we've certainly found that on the the exo trips that,
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: you know, being more mindful of what you bring and
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: it does it have a couple uses? Can we find
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: that stuff in country? Why are we Why bring a
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: whole ton of food if we're traveling down to Central
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: America where they have fantastic food, right, why take spare
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: parts that we can find at any autoport store along
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: the way. So don't get too you know, over to
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: the top. If you're going to be in remote areas,
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: obviously it makes sense. But I just say being mindful
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: of your packing, and then along with that, I'd say
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: be mindful of the components you choose. Choosing a high
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: quality component and it obviously has a little more sting
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: up front maybe when you purchase it because it is
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: a higher cost, but that higher cost comes at a
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: greater satisfaction when it lasts forever. Maybe it's a lifetime
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: piece of gear. It's a sleeping bag that you're going
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: to have for the rest of your life. Maybe it's
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: a part on your vehicle. It's easy to look at
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: a less expensive option and say, hey, it does the
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: exact same thing, but if it breaks halfway through your trip, man,
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: that's going to sting far more than the cost of
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: that better known component. And I think the gear that
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: EXO has chosen and obviously worked with is a good
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: example of that that we never fill those stings of equipment.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: Perhaps we overplan the equipment, but we never fill the
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: sting of that. When we're actually on the trips. You
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: never even think twice about what that cost or the
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: pains it took to get those.
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: You just enjoy it.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because oftentimes these are trips of a lifetime, and
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: to buy a less expensive winch, you're probably better off
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: just not having a winch at all, because they can
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: be sources of frustration. You're better off if you're going
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: to modify a stock vehicle, particularly a stock land cruiser,
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: if you're going to modify it in any way, you
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: better make sure that it is an excellent component, because
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: you're better off leaving it stock. In most cases better
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: you're better off just leaving the car stock. If you're
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: going to go with something less expensive. So if you're
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: going to change out suspension, make sure that you go
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: with a really high quality suspension. If you're gonna if
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: you're going to swap out something in the drive line,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: make sure make sure that you really need to do that,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: because otherwise those things can be and they're difficult. Like
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: imagine some of these race suspensions, for example, that people
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: put on their vehicles. If you need to just swap
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: back to a stock coil, oftentimes the buckets are modified,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: the lower mounting points are modified. There's or they've gone
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: with wider control arms. Try to replace a wider control
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: arm in the middle of South America, you can't. You're
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: going to be you're going to be shipping that part in,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: whereas if you just went just kept a stock there's
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: probably a two hundred series lower control arm somewhere in
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: South America that you can that you can get. So
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: I think minimizing those modifications absolutely, that's really key.
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So that's the takeaway, And I'd say the last
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: one is just working as a team plays down a
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: remarkable job with expishon Ovlan Greg. Obviously weg did it
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: with Expision seven choosing just the right people to be
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: in the right places, but were they there to be
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: a driver, there to do other functions capture it via
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: video and photography. Is you're choosing a good team. And
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: I think that goes even for your personal trips. It
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: doesn't have to be super over the top organized, but
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: just choose people that you want to spend time with
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: on your trips. You're going to find that you have
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: a far more enjoyable adventure.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're way better off bringing the person with less
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: experience but a better attitude than the person with more
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: experience and a little more toxicity. You'll just especially when
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: you're driving vehicles. Modern vehicles you just don't have that
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: many problems anymore, so you're going to be spend a
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: lot of hours in a car with somebody. I think
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: that reminds me of when we were on E seven.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: What was the total number of businesses that Jeremiah and
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: you devised on that trip?
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: Hundreds, probably into the hundreds. We came up with a
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: business that would provide a solution for about any problem
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: encountered it. Most those were pretty facetious problems. Importing beef
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: jerky to places we couldn't find KARAOKEI jerky. They weren't
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: always plausible businesses, but they were fun road conversations.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: Oh it was Yeah, we would have so much fun
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: and just the music you end up listening to, and yeah,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: the fun you end up having along the way if
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: you don't take travel too seriously. And that's where the
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: key is to we surround ourselves not only in life,
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: but even more importantly in our travels because you want
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: when things to go bad, you want someone to remain
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: calm and to be kind and mindful of the others
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: in the group. And it's really interesting someone who's very
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: anxious or someone who's very toxic, they degrade very quickly
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: in those settings, and it can be very destructive.
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, i'd say yeah.
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: To summarize, I absolutely agree that you're better to surround
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: yourself with people that have taken an emphasis on investing
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: in themselves through quality training and are competent in what
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: they're going to be doing in the travel, but less
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: so about like maybe how built their vehicle is. I mean,
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: if you're looking at that as an index of whether
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: they should join you on a trip or whether you
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: should invite them or plan a trip with them, that's
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: probably the wrong way to look at it. Choose somebody
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: that's invested in themselves of you know, just being a
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: good traveler, and somebody that you want to spend time
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: with both in the car but around the campfire every
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: night too.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, so a couple of rapid fire questions. What
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: is what was your favorite trip you've done today?
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: That's a tough one. I'd say it's hard to top Greenland.
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: That was a pretty amazing adventure. Definitely type two fun.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: I mean, while there were plenty of moments we were
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: having fun while we were doing the trip, I'd say
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: that the bulk of the fun is is you unpack
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: the memories from that trip when you got home and
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: you thought out like a stove catching fire, right, yes,
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: Scott putting out a stove fire in the tent, and
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: the number of vehicle breakdowns, and it got to the
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: point where any of the vehicle breakdowns were pretty much
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: just comical, like how fun?
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: Like, oh really we got to go to that?
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: It was it was all, you know, just things wearing
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: out from the severe and harsh conditions, the trailer hitches,
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: the you know, breaking a CV that cold weather and
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: such large tires and the demanding terrain. But it got
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: to the point where it's like, all right, let's go
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: fix this. You know, we're just had smiles on and
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: like what next?
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: Bring it on? Bring it on.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: It was incredible the number of things that happened. I mean,
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: and none of them were catastrophic, but you're right, they
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: were just like a coil spring would break and then
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: or a CV would break and replacing a CV axle
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: that minus thirty is a chore challenge is really I mean,
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: I was so impressed by everyone on that trip. You
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: know where they stepped up when they needed to step up,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: and I think that made such a huge difference. So
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: non type two fun, what was your type one fund? Like,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: what was the most fun trip you've been on?
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: Man, that's going to be a tough one to put
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: Australia our trip, the Expedition seven trip through Australia, there
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: was just never a moment I didn't have a smile
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: on my face. Of course, every you can't throw a
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: stick over there without seeing a cool land cruiser. So
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: I was just all day long spotting out land crusers
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: like oh wow, there's one, and you know what, I
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: could have spent a year there just looking at land cruisers,
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: so that that's an enjoyable one. In Australia is such
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: a friendly place to travel. There really is such legitimate travel,
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: so remote in those areas, but so plausible to go
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: do and achievable to plan a trip over there, hire
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: a vehicle. I've been over, been fortunate to go over
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: a handful of times now. My wife and I spent
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: a month there traveling with some dear friends, and nothing
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: about Australia turns me off. I mean like, I love
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: everything about it. In our trip there with Exhibition seven
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: being able to cross the canning Stock route, we had failures,
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: we had some rough nights there.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: The moment it was awesome.
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: We were always smiling about it. We were laughing and
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: smiling the whole time.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: I remember when we were when we got I think
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: it was a twelve hour stuck something like that, and
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: Kyle and you just there was something in the water
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: that was literally biting you. You couldn't see it.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: We call them assassin tadpoles, and I don't know what
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: they are to this day, but it was like little
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: fish nibbling on you. I don't know if it was
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: a bug of some sort of it was a wormhole
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: night because it seemed like we were driving. It was
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: like kind of late evening, we were starting to look
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: for a camp and then the next thing and it
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: was like two days later. I don't know how it
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: happened as a wormhole because we was kind of never
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: quit driving. We had some obligations to get to Kunaraji.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: We had some team members flying out, so we knew
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: we had to get there, and it just turned into
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: a push. But that's the that's the memory I have
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: of that is how fun that was, and.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: That was amazing.
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, being stuck in the water for twelve hours seems
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: about right.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's about what we were. Well, that
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: was one of my highlights from the trip. It was
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: just amazing to watch everybody work together and overcoming that
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: challenge of being really really stuck in a land cruiser.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we needed all the gear we had. Yeah,
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: I mean we were high lifting, we were winching, we
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: had I think we had twelve Max tracks out at
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: one point.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: That's right, one of them I think is still right.
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: One.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: We never found it. It wasn't for lack of effort.
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: We probed with a shovel. It just it's in the
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: mud somewhere. It's somewhere still in Australia. We've never left
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: anything behind like that, but we just couldn't find it,
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: could never find it. Yeah, who knows where it's at.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: So, speaking of gear, if someone's getting new into this
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: and they just bought a two hundred series land Cruiser
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: or they bought a hundred series land Cruiser, what do
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: you think are the first three component accessories or modifications
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: you see is the most important things that people do
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: to their vehicles to be to get them ready for travel.
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's it's going to be specific to
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: the way they typed it, plan to travel, and the
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: type of trips they have in mind. But it's three
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: that you can never go without or kind of always
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: make sense. Is for me a suspension upgrade. While stock
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: Toyota does phenomenal, they ride really well and it's a
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: really reliable system, it doesn't really accommodate the loads that
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: we start putting in the aftermarket loads because anytime you're
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: talking about travel, particularly long duration or remote travel, you've
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: got a lot of tools, spare parts, food, fuel, water,
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: and those weights come up in any stock vehicle system,
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: any manufacturer is going to start being compromised when you
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: add that additional weight. So choosing a good, well vetted,
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: a known good solution, high quality suspension is a big part.
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be tall. I'm not even saying
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: a suspension lift necessarily. Sometimes that could just be improved
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: chocks to handle that load. We're going to spend a
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: lot of time on washboard roads, and that's where you
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: know things are going to start failing as you overheat
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: stock components, stock shocks particularly, So I'd say suspension is
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: a big one, and maybe that is increasing the height
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: of the vehicle and primarily to accommodate a larger tire.
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: And that's number two for me, is choosing a good
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: quality tire will will entire combo and something that's going
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: to be good for off road use, but also the
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: amount of face to anywhere we go off roading, we're
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: still doing a lot of pavement to get there. So
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: the right answer isn't always just the fact of choosing
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: the most aggressive off road tire, and in some terrains,
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: even off road, that's not always the best case scenario,
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: like sand dunes. Sand dunes exactly, you don't always want
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: the tire that's just going to augur in and dig
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: a hole every time you push the gas. So be
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: mindful of where you're going to be traveling and choose
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: an appropriate tire, but a good durable tire. And if
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: that's a little bit larger size or a lot larger size,
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: no right or wrong answer there. Kind of keep that
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: in mind as you choose the suspension. So those two
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: really lay together as my top two. I can't think
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: of any vehicle that couldn't probably benefit. Can you go
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: do a trip with a vehicle with stock suspension and
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: the tires that comes from the dealer with absolutely, we'll
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: have driven around the world and that. But as you
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: start to load the vehicle up more, those those can
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: maybe become compromises. And manufacturers don't always include a tire
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: that's even on an off road vehicle that's necessarily suited
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: for all off road vehicle use. They're kind of mindful
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: that most owners of a new vehicle are can be
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: driving them on the road. Yeah, Fuel economy, fue economy
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: noise is a big issue in handling, so be mindful
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: of those that you Larger tires are going to have
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: an impact on your fuel economy, and that's important be
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: mindful of all those as you wrap it all together.
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: And i'd say my number three, I'm going to bounce
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: around between I'm going to kind of make it a
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: three point five or maybe I have called a fourth.
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: But additional fuel capacity. I'm a big fan of auxiliary
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: tanks or having a way to safely and comfortably store fuel.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: A lot of the trips we do, that's kind of
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: been a big issue in the planning is where you
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: can go based on how much fuel you have, and
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: with a lot of you know, choose al anchorage or
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: two hundred for example. It benefits really well from having
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: an auxiliary fuel tank. They're available factory in other markets,
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: not an option here in the US. But fortunately there
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: are some good aftermarket options you can have for additional fuel.
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be a built in tank. Maybe
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: it is just some quality fuel tanks that are rack
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: mounted or bumper mounted. There are some good solutions there,
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: just just to have that capacity to get out to
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: those places you like to travel. And if you're not
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: going to be traveling super long distances, then I would
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: scale that one back on importance, of course, and then
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: my next one would be just some mindful interior storage
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: mods to safely carry your gear. We all too often,
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: I think everybody myself included certainly when I started, Like
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: just you throw everything in the back of the vehicle,
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: you pop the hatch, you lay the tailgate down, you
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: to stack it to the roof, but you're not mindful
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: of how that gear moves and shifts as you travel.
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: But also in the event of an accident or a
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: rollover or even just a panic breaking scenario, where does
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: all that stuff go and how accessible is it? You know,
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: Like so just being mindful of you set up the
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: inside of the vehicle, plan that out. Where's your winch
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: controller when you need it? And buried in a drawer
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: in the back, where's your recovery gear, where's a first
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: aid kit or a fire extch. You're just thinking of
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: your interior build out. That doesn't mean go over the top.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: You don't have to have every gadget, every mount, every
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: cell phone camera holder all over inside. Sometimes less is more,
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: and just be mindful of what you bring.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: Otherwise it can be a real frustration to get to
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: that thing that you use every day if you don't
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: have that interior layout designed properly, yeah, absolutely, and using
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: good quality cases and lashing it all down properly. That's yeah,
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: that is so key.
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: So what are some of your This is something I
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: always like to ask, and it's a totally selfish question
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: because I end up buying these books later. But what's
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: some of your favorite books that you've read in the
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: last oh whenever? I am a total Utah as you know,
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: I love traveling in Utah. So been fortunate to travel
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: on a lot of neat adventures around the globe and
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: see some amazing places that I dear memories and would
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: love to go back. But some of my favorite trips
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: are just a few hours from Salt Lake here. So
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: I love anything Utah related. So when it comes to books,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: anything Utah history, I love Edward Abbey books Desert Solitaire
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: about early times down in Southeast Utah's aspiring to read.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: I don't often keep one in my glove box, just
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: a copy. I've read that book cover to cover a
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: dozen times, but still we'll just pick it up and
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: I won't even start from the front. I'll just choose
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: a random chapter kind of read through. So love that,
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: But mostly Utah history books, so I could definitely give
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: you some examples of my favorites, but my library of them.
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of a book nerd and have collected a lot,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: and it depends on where I'm going, but definitely some
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: of the Moab travel books and Canyonlands guides. I love
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: reading through what it was like to travel through there
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: before it was a national park, back some of the
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: old travel guides and yeah, so anything Utah history related. Yeah,
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: there's so much here, like one of the most amazing
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: states for overlanding in the country. So one of the
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: other things that I've started to ask in these interviews
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: is how do you think travel? I mean, you've been
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: around the world now a few times. How has travel
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: changed you.
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: As a person? Wonderful question.
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: I think about that a lot, both from a personal standpoint,
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: like personal growth and my desire to experience other cultures.
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: I've really embraced that. Traveled a bit before, got into
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: the kind of vehicle travel, done some family travel, and
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: been fortunate to make it down to Central America with
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: my brothers, my parents, But just really embracing the cultures
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: you're in and just living while you're there, eating what
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: they eat, visiting their restaurants, I mean we went to
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: a circus in Central America. I mean just just do
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: as the locals do and really embrace that. Say bringing
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: that back to you know, home, is just really looking
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: at the cultures of other people around us. Even here
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: in the United States, it's easy to find that there
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: are people that live and experience things differently than ourselves,
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: and you can really learn a lot from.
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: The way they live. And yeah, don't get too over
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: the top.
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: A lot of people are scared to go to Central
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: America as an example, we keep bouncing on just because
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: it is so close, or even Mexico just over the border.
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: And part of that, I think is the fear of
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: other cultures, other food. And that's really what makes travel
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: so fun to me is that it's not the vehicle
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: gets us there, and it's fun to plan your vehicle
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: and build your vehicle to go do a trip to
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: Baja or head up to Canada, or go do up
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: to Prude Obey, But really it's meeting people along the
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: way that have been the most memorable moments I have.
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: It's not necessarily like the vehicle or things we did
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: each day in the vehicle. It was the people you
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: meet along the way, the experiences you have, the chicken
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: you have in Nicaragua that you want to go back
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: and get again. Those are the memories to me and
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: I think about those every day. There's not a day
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: to go by that I don't have like a little
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: flashback of a memory of a trip. And then there's
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: a business perspective that too, that we've traveled a lot
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: of these countries. Expedition seven included, we had the opportunity
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: to visit different four by four shops. Maybe we were
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: there to get parts or get an oil changed down
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: on the vehicle, and it was fascinating to me to
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: see how businesses run in other countries. Australia is obviously
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: a major overlanding market and a four by four market,
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: so they have these grand, extravagant off road shops that
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: are just amazing. I mean, the ability to go into
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: an ARB facility over there and see just how well
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: stocked they are and the number of vehicles that are
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: getting built pretty fascinating and just seeing their system.
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: So it's fun.
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: With the build of the Shirpa truck, I was able
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: to go spend a week in Australia with a facility
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: they're building that truck at the AIRB facility and it
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: was just awesome to see just how they do it
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: differently than we do in the US. And then the
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: polar I saw that as we went to a Toyota
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: dealership in Magann. It was in like a basement of
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: an apartment building. It was, and they had probably more
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: parts than a lot of dealerships here in the US
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: in this thousand square foot basement apartment. I mean it
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: was packed wall the wall, but they had everything we
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: needed and everything we asked for they could get.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was amazing.
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: They were very resourceful. So it's been interesting to see
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: some business perspective that and some takeaways of kind how
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: it operates in different countries.
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: That's great. What a cool story that is for sure,
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: So thank you for spending the time. How do people
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: find more about you? Let us know your website to
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: your business here, and then how they find you on
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: social media? Yeah?
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. So the day to day is Cruiser Outfitters. We
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: are working, we're kind of right in the middle of
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: launching our new e commerce site and that is Cruiser Tech.
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: That's TEQ on the end, so Cruiser t EQ and
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: that eventually Cruiser outfer is a point to that. We're
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: just launching the new e commerce site, but it's live
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: and going and we've been really happy with the way
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: it's working out. And I'm on Facebook as Kurt Williams.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: I'm on Instagram as Cruiser Kurt, so pretty easy to
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: find on both of those if you want to follow
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: along the crazy things we're doing. Our race team is
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: King Girl Racing and we'd love to have you watch
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: us on Facebook or Instagram there we have follow along aways,
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: always something fun going on.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: Well, thanks for the time today, Kurt, and man, it
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: has just been an amazing over a decade of knowing
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: you and the places that we've had laughs around the
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: world with with using it onever the other's expense. But
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: just I mean that is the thing to take away
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: those are they that are listening, is that travel should
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: be a joy. We don't need to take any of
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: this stuff too seriously, you don't need to buy much
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: of anything. You heard it from Kurt. Put a good
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: set of shocks on there, maybe a little bit of
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: a lift and some high quality tires and then make
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: sure all your stuff is lashed down in the back
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: and go. And it doesn't mean that modifying vehicles more
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: is wrong. It just means that you don't have to.
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: The goal should be to go see the world. Spend
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: less on the equipment than you do on your travels,
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: and we will talk to you next time.