Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / The EarthRoamer Journey: Past, Present, and Future with CEO Scot Allen

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The EarthRoamer Journey: Past, Present, and Future with CEO Scot Allen · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Matt Scott, and you get to hear me talk about
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: my favorite thing today. I get to pontificate about earth
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Romers with none other than the CEO of earth Romer,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Scott Allen for the next hour. So thanks so much
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: for coming on. We're up here at earthrom Er HQ
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: in Denver, and boy, we've had a pretty fun few days.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: No, I'm thrilled you were able to make it up here,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: more importantly that you were able to go and experience
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: the new LTx the new SX two point zero on
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: the trail and spend a couple of nights in them
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: to see what they're really all about.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Now, yeah, we'll get into that, but for now.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: After the podcast, head over to expeditionportal dot com and
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: watch our recent visit to the Great Smoky Mountain Bronco
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: Stampede with honkok Dina Pro tire Ford Bronco fans from
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: all over the country You met in Pigeonforde, Tennessee for
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: a great community building event. And thanks again to honkkok
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Dinapro for sponsoring this week's Overland Journal podcast.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about you so you came in twenty twenty
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: one to earth Roamer Correct, and boy, I mean you
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: have a pretty fascinating background. West Point graduate military helicopter pilot.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: You were in Mogadishu flying in the nineties and if
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: you know what that means, that's a pretty special thing.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: That was a bad day at work.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: That was a bad day at work. Yeah. I sometimes
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: think that I have bad days at work, and then
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: you told me that story, and well, you know, after that,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I don't think I have such a bad day.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: It keeps things in perspective. Yes, So no, I don't
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: have bad days at work here.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: So you have decades of experience in aerospace composits. You
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: ran manufacturing for Hatteras Yachts, which if you're not familiar with,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: is a very prestigious company. I mean, very much on
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the same realm of earth Roamer, but in that respective world.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: And you know, it's been interesting to see what you've
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: kind of done with the company. You know, you're brought
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one to be the co correct and
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: you know, for those of us that you know know
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the earth Roamer thing and a part of the earth
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Romer family, you know, we know Bill passed away in
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Way too soon, Yeah, way too soon.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: You know it's I guess maybe one of those lessons
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: in life, you know, you kind of mean. Bill always
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: had an adventurous life, and he always traveled.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: He definitely pushed things to the limit.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: He pushed things to the limit. But you know there's
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: always those stories of you know, waiting, Okay, this is
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: gonna be my time. I'm going to really get on
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the road. I'm really going to travel, and you know, unfortunately,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: you know, Bill left just like way too soon. He
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: was such a nice guy. Yeah, and I always think
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: of the people that he has enabled to explore. You know,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: there's four hundred earth roamers out there now.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Just over four fifty on the road today.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's crazy. And Dak was telling me, all but
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: four are still going.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Only four have ever been taken out of service. And
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: I'll do to car accidents if one of those was
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: actually bought on a salvage title, so we don't recognize it,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: but it's on the road.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Today, it's still there. Yeah, that's crazy. But yeah, yeah,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: four hundred people, they've all had, you know, most of
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: them had most multiple owners. There's a lot of guys
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: that buy have had multiple earth Roamers themselves, correct, And
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: that's a lot of adventures that man was able to
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: you know, enable these people to have in their own way.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: And then you know a lot of the folks that
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: have worked here at earth Roamer, you know, have gone
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: on to pursue their own passions in their own companies,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: some in the overlanding industry, some not in the overlanding industry.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: But you know there's a couple of companies out there
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: that really got their start because they what they learned
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: from Bill at earth Rummer.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean it's fascinating because earth Romer I was
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: a little too young for this, but I know earth
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Rummers started as a travel brand. You know, Bill was
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: writing much like I kind of you know, went on
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: to do, and that's when he built earth Romer. Y
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: two K was really I remember seeing that was in
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: like four Wheeler and some of the off road magazines
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: at the time.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: So you know, Bill made a little bit of money
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: in the stock market, so he was able to you know,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: retire early so to speak, while I was trying to
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: figure out what he wanted to do. His passion was
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: wildlife photography, so you know, he went about to create
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: a lifestyle brand where he could lead people on adventures
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: in Alaska and write stories for outdoor publications. And so
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: he built Er two K in his garage, took it
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: to Alaska, you know, at the end of ninety eight,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: and along his travels two years in Alaska, everybody stopped
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: and asked him, Hey, where do I get this vehicle?
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Will you build me one? And so that was really
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: the foundation of his idea of Okay, I'm going to
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: turn this into a full time career and make vehicles
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: for like minded travelers like myself. You know, Er two K,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: which you know we found about three years ago.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Which was so cool because it had floated around. You
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: would just see it on like the exhibition portal classifieds
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and I was like, oh man, how cool would that
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: be to own?
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: So we saw it on the classifieds. It was in Rino, Nevada,
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: and it was just too valuable of a symbol of
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: the company for us to pass up and not purchase it.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just like, I'm so glad that you
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: guys got that, because it's one of those vehicles that really,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: you know, if I was going to curate a Peterson
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Museum collection of a sort of expedition vehicles that were
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: you know, this overland thing has really blown up, but
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: there weren't that many people in this space when it started,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and there were these iconic vehicles. You know, Gary and
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Monica Westcott had the Turtle Expedition vehicle and then you know,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: obviously I guess they were really kind of the first
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I think that showed the kind of this North American
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: audience that a vehicle could do this. And then Bill
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: had his riff on it and E R y two
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: K to me is just you know, there's a couple
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: av vehicles that I look at and I'm like, that
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: would be in my collection. Is like Scott Brady's incredibly
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: overbuilt eight thousand pound Tacoma that would be in there.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: You know, there's a couple. But it's cool to see
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: that thing kind of you know, refurbished and.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Brought back and we take it on the road today,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: so I mean it's completely roadworthy, camper worthy. We take
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: it to the owner's rally, non adventures with us, and
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: it's still a great vehicle. I mean, it's not as
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: comfortable as the modern day earth romer. Yeah, and again,
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: you know it was his first attempt, and when he
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: came back from the last after two years, that's when
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: he realized it needs to be taller, needs to grow,
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: needs to have a full wet bath, needs to have
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: a better kitchen, needs to have some more amenities, and
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Well, it really does seem, you know, kind of using
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: that as as an example. You know, people that work
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: here actually use earth Romers like you guys have one
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: or two kind of staff trucks.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: So we own ER twenty seven okay, and R one
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: oh eight so came off the factory floor right after yours.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the twin to mine. I have ER one
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: oh seven for But.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: When it's not on adventures with owners of the company.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: H And again, we refer to our customers as owners
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: because we firmly believe they've got adventure vested interest in
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: you know, our company, in the future of our company.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Uh So we refer to our customers as owners. But
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: when your twenty seven or one o weight it's not
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: on an adventure with owners, it goes out to employees.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: And the only requirement is that you have one year
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: of tenure and here at earth Roamer. Otherwise I want
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: you to go out and enjoy the lifestyle, and everybody
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: comes back with a big smile on their face.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: And they probably come back with ideas too.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, so you have to give me a trip report
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: after your weekend out with adventures and saying this is
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: what I like, this is what I didn't like, and
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: these are the problems I ran into. And so that's
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: all part of our you know, constant improvement program and
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: our feedback loop that we have with our owners to
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: help us develop the next generation of vehicles.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really cool because mean, obviously these vehicles are not,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: you know, cheap. Not everyone is going to be able
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: to afford one. But it's so cool that you know
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the people that are building them day in and day out.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Can you know the craftsmen that are building them, yep,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: can really go and experience, Yeah, this thing, you know,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: it was so cool. A couple of days ago, Scott,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: you took me through the factory here and unfortunately when
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: I picked mine up. This is basically I'm calling it
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: my fifth anniversary trip of being an Earth Roamer owner,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: and it was right in the middle of COVID. You know,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: obvious reasons, like everybody's in their little bubbles and everybody
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: has masks. This was nobody knew you had a mustache,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah nobody. Yeah, well I grew a mustache during COVID
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: and it hasn't gone away, and it's has become part
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: of it. But I guess I finally got old enough
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: that the acne stopped going started appearing and the mustache
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: started appearing. But it was really cool to go through
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the factory with you. The thing that really just stuck
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: out to me is I will continue to use the
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: word craftsman on this stuff absolutely, because you know, the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: first department that you showed me was the woodworking department,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: cabnatry and all of this stuff, and that is we
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: talk about a lot. But there are so many things
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: that are like lost art in society, and it's so
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: cool to see these people, I mean, like thriving and
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: well paying, stable jobs with great benefits and they're blown
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: it out of the water like they're doing great. Like
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: the quality of like the woodwork is crazy and always
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: has been. On these things.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Very few manufacturers left us in this country. Unfortunately. It
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: really is, you know, coming from my experience at Hatteras Yachts.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: The reason why Hatteras was in started in high Point,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: North Carolina. Was because high Point was the furniture capital
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: of the country.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: And oh yeah, okay, that makes sense.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: So all the woodworkers at Hatteras came out of the
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: furniture industry. So we're very fortunate here. Our wood team
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: is our largest team. Twenty four master craftsmen work there.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Every piece of wood is hand rubbed at the end
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: of the day. You know, I wish there's a magic
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: one that says a computer or a robot could do it.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Craftsmanship is still just a lot of rubbing than a
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: lot of care.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, But I mean I think craftsmanship, when done properly,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: can almost look I mean, I don't want to say
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: it almost looks computerized, but the fit and finish of
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: like the LTx and THEESX that I was just in,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I mean it. I'm not saying it looks like it
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: was done by a machine.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Your eye can pick up variances and tolerances, yeah, better
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: than most digital.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Imaging systems can. So precise.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: So you know, if I was working at Jaco, I
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: could hang a drawer bank in ten minutes. Herrot Earth
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: roamer putting that drawer bank on match graining, you know,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: where the grain's all matched and all the reveals are
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: perfectly adjusted. That's about a four to six hour process. Yeah,
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: that's how long it takes. So again, it's a lot
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: of rubbing to achieve that level of detail and that
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: level of fit and finish.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's cool to you know, from my side
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: seeing the longevity of it. I mean, my Roamer is
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: fifteen years old next year.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Surreal number one is still on the road after twenty
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: four years.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: It's just crazy to me. You know, I caught some
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: flak when I bought mine, and mine wasn't the most expensive,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: you know, but it's crazy that it's basically worth what
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: I paid for it five years later.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: That's one of the that's one of the values of
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: our brand, so to speak.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I guess it's the same way with aircraft,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: like other large purchases, aircraft, marine, that kind of stuff.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: If you're buying, you know, the best of the best
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: of the best, like it, it holds its value, holds
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: its you know. So but you know, the other really
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: cool thing for me to see in the factory was
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: the actual like mold of the camper body. It's literally okay,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: here an earth roamer is born, and there's one curing
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: in the molds when I was there, and that is
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: just that is a process that I do not pretend
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: to understand. But luckily enough, you have a lot of
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: experience in composits, yep. So walk me through how it's
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: put together. Because it's carbon fiber, it has a I mean,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the foam you were showing me has all these kind
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: of like laser cut little creases and it's slightly porous
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: so the resin can get into it, and it's all
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: one big structure. But walk me through that, okay.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: So you know, throughout our history we were primarily fiberglass,
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: so LT and lts's were fiberglass shells. An LTS shell
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: laid in at about twenty four hundred pounds total. In
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, when we made the technology leaped the LTI
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: IE standing for innovation. That's when we migrated from the
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: traditional hand lay fiberglass to a vacuum in fusion carbon
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: fiber process. At the end of the day, we ripped
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: out about fifteen hundred pounds of weight. So it's crazy
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: you're at around nine hundred, nine hundred and fifty pounds
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: on your camera shell on an LTx today. You know,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: we've got about three quarters of a million dollars invested
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: in each set of tooling, you know, the SX being
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: slightly bigger, slightly more expensive, closer to about nine hundred
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars worth of tooling and investment in there. But basically,
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: you start off with a you know, three layers of
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: a what's called a triaxial weave of carbon fiber. So
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: a triaxial weave, it's got weaves on three directions. We
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: use three different layers of that and orient them differently,
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: so you've got nine directions of strength, so a very
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: balanced layup. We then have a foam core that's machined
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: by five axis C and Z to get the particular
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: shapes and the channels and the holes and the ramp
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: ups and everything like that. You know, one of the
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: things you don't want to see on a composite structure
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: are sharp corners. Those are all stress risers. So everything
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: needs to transition smoothly throughout the entire vehicle. You then
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: put down, you know, so the three layers of carbon fiber,
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: you put down your machine foam core, which is going
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: to be about three quarters an inch thick, tapering down
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: to about a half inch and less structural required areas,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: and then the other three layers. You then take a
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: literally a plastic bag. You know, first you lay some
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: racetracks down and some resin ports and some resin injector areas.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: You put a plastic bag over all that. You make
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: sure it's completely sealed, and then you suck about twenty
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: four inches of mercury, which is equivalent to about twelve
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: and a half psi of pressure because you know, so
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: there's no pressure under the bag, so we're relying on
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: is atmosphere to push down on the product. That really
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: does two things for the composites quality. Number one, it
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: debulks the fiber so you've got perfect compaction all around everything,
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: so there's no holes or stress pocket it's in there.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: And the second thing it does is when you finally
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: open the spickett of an epoxy resin that we utilize here,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: it sucks in the ideal amount of epoxy into your product.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: So with traditional hand lay methodologies that you know most
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: manufacturers use, you're going to get weight variances of ten
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: to twenty percent. That's all going to be extra resin
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: in the product and that's just waste. It's extra weight
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: that you don't need, that doesn't provide any structure. So
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: the vacuum in fusion process definitely more expensive to do
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: because there's a lot of consumables that just get thrown
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: in the trash. So a more expensive process, but it
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: creates the ideal structure free avoids and free of any
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: excess resin inside the product.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was so cool to just watch it, you know, happening,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: because this isn't something that you see. I mean, these
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: molds are massive as well. I mean it's the size
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: of a side. It's larger than an Earth romer, and
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: an Earth Romer is pretty big, especially the SX one.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: And yeah, that was I don't know, I really enjoyed
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: seeing that. And you know, it's interesting to see that
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: kind of that transition really from LTS, which is what
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: I'm used to. That's kind of you know, pre twenty
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: twenty earth roamers, and then you know this carbon thing
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: that came in with LTI like that was a really
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: big step forward in the evolution of earth roamer.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and so the other huge advantage of the way
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: we mold it now today. And you know, I appreciate
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: you not taking any pictures. We do consider that our
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: secret sauce here is you know, it's molded in one piece,
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: so it is a single structure with no seams, so
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: there's no potential for leak paths, very few stress risers,
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: so that as the vehicle ages, you're not going to
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: be concerned about the integrity of your camper before we
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: actually go through the layup process. During the engineering phase,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: we actually analyze the layup to a mill standard for
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: dropping military vehicles out of airplanes. So our camper shelves
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: are right into a four and a half g download.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: If you ever find yourself in that situation at four
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: and a half g's you're going to blow your tires.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: You're probably going to have to go to the dentist.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: But your camper shell is going to be just fine.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Oh man. Even on my older ones, some of the
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: g outs and things that I've hit with that, I'm like, like,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: I'm more worried about the chassis than i am the camper.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, your chassis won't survive, the camper will yeah.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And countertips, yeah, you know, the transition to carbon
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: fiber and losing all that weight and lithium, you know,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: has really allowed you guys to just go crazy on
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: the interiors. Yep. Because obviously there's a certain amount of weight.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: They can't weigh whatever you want them to weigh. You're
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: limited by the chassis and obviously the space of the
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: vehicle and everything. And I think that's what makes LTx
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: so like fascinating is with all of these advances that
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: you've learned on LTI, you've been able to take that
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: to LTx. You have this rear d net now, you know,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: and there's this cohesiveness between SX and LTx. Now you know,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: you're in a New Earth rummer and they're really nice.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: I mean they both have like TVs now and you're
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: saying that's kind of a marine component that you know
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: that you're familiar with. How crazy it is and now
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: sitting these things like last night, it's you know, thirty
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: degrees outside and I'm just watching top Gear. I don't know.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: I just think it's crazy how these vehicles have have
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: pushed forward, not only in performance because the driving characteristics
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: are improving, but then they're also they have more content
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: and they have more luxury.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, So I mean that was you know, the beauty
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: of Bill's original business plan. You know, you've heard us
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: talk about LT. Lts' is LTI. The LT stands for
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Luxury Terrain. So the beauty of Bill's business plan was that,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: you know, he knew folks wanted to go out into
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: the wild, go overlanding, go exploring, but then they wanted
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: also wanted the luxuries and the comfort of basically whatever
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: there was in their house. Yeah, you know, most overlanding
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: you think of guy and a rooftop tent and climbing
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: up and down a ladder and washing his hands in
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: a cold bucket of water and all that kind of
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: fun stuff. And that's just not the business model we're in.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: We want you to be as extreme, you know, just
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: as comfortable as you would be at a four seasons
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: hotel when you're out in the middle of mo Ab.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: So and that business model has withstood the test of
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: time and is still doing great for us.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, geez, how many two thousand and six
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: was the first?
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Two thousand and three is when serial number one, the
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: first lt LT, rolled off the factory floor.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: That's crazy, geez.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And then twenty eleven was the LTS your vehicle, Yeah,
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: you have the very first LTS. Yeah, and we kind
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: of ran them. We kind of ran them simultaneously for
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: a couple of years, but again the market dictated nobody
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: was buying an LT, so we discontinued the LT entirely
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: ran with the LTS until twenty nineteen, and that's when
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: we made what I would say is probably the most
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: revolutionary leap at earth roam or from a camper perspective.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: That was the carbon fiber, the lithium on the digital switching,
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: all that duff you.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Talk about LT so for people that don't really know
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: the difference, it's about two feet shorter than correct that
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: basically the length of a modern earth rummer. Basically everything
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: after mine LTS lt I lt X there's a little
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: bit more room. Yeah. Well, there's three of them that
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: are the extended cab LTS.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: There's actually one two door LT as well out there.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: We call that the super Stubby Man. So they have
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: a very tight turning radius because the wheelbase is you know,
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: I mean the axle length.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get like geeky here, but when you
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: dive into the earth rumer things, you know, the the
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: LTS lt I lt X size is honestly perfect for
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: a living in. But then you think, oh, I want
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: to go a little further. And then there's a couple
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: of these earth rummers that are out there that were made,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: you know, ten fifteen years ago that are on the
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: you know, I have four full doors. That's like your
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: crew cab, the extended cab if you imagine it has
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: like that little suicide door on the back, so the
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: wheel several feet shorter. They're incredibly maneuverable because they all
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: have this wide track axle up front. And that's something
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: I guess to touch on is people think, oh, these
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: things are so big, they're not maneuverable. You know, you
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: talk about, you know, your typical overlanding being rooftop tent
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: or whatever. We definitely do less like sport rock crawling.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: You're not rock crying in a vehicle like this, right,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: you're going down rugged terrain, but you're not like out there,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: you're not taking this vehicle in a sport four wheel
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: drive route. But we found that we're going to basically
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: the same places. We can get further than the vans
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: in an earth rower, and that's a huge benefit. These days.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: You can go and you can go ninety eight percent
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: of the places that it's a Coomacan. Yeah, and an
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: F two thrifty through F five to fifty are the exact
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: same cab size, And every four service road in the
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: United States is for fire service purposes is based around
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: an F two to fifty wheel track. So it's a
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: forest service road. I'm fitting down it.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: And that's a lot of overlanding in North America, And honestly,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: it's a great thing. I mean that's what we kind
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: of you know, we always think you take that thing
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: off road, and I'm like, yeah, we do a lot.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: It's a lot of forest service roads, I'll say that,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: and then it's a lot of i'll say, more technical
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: offshoots from those forest service roads, correct, So you know.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: So one of the value propositions that I absolutely love
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: about the vehicle is I can go to a crowded
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: camping area on July fourth and every piece of flat
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: ground has a fifth wheel or a Class C sitting
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: on it, or a bunch of tents, and I'll pull
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: up my guy on maps and I'll look for the
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: UTV trails and I'll say, yep, I can make that one,
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: and I'll drive down that and I'll be the only
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: guy at the edge of the lake because I'm the
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: only one that can get there, And so it makes
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: camping easy.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's I don't want to say everything is
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: pretty capable of these days, but vehicles are becoming more
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: and more capable. Actually, even the places that you see
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: fifth wheels in you know, National Forest BLM or stuff
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: in the West, you're like, how did he? How did
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: they get there?
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: Now?
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Don't you can go even further in this well?
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: And unfortunately for most our v owners, you know, yes,
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: you can get the vehicle there, but unfortunately half your
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: cabin trail. That's really the biggest problem. You can get
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: down the road, but I don't know if you're in
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: to go.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Out with my in laws. My wife's parents were really
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: close to them and they just have you know, they
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: have a nice trailer. And every time we get to camp,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: you know, it takes me five seconds to set up.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: All I do is I don't really have to do anything. Yeah,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: and then it's okay, crack a beer, go fix what's
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: messed up on Ron's trailer. Because something will rattle.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Something, something will bring you know, I call him sawdust creators.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Now you drive it off the lot and you start
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: making sawdust and a modern day RV because there's a standard.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: I believe that they're kind of built to They're really
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: only meant to be in a couple of weekends a year,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: and that is what their life cycle and price point
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: is designed around. Again kind of going back to the
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: factory and then experiencing the new vehicles, like, yes, they
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: are very expensive. I mean, jeez, the LTx I was
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: in is in the nine hundreds.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: About right around une hundred base price, So you know,
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: great problem to have. Yeah, we launched the LTx. We
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: first launched it just to our owners. You know, there
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: are benefits to being in the family.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: You said forty percent of LTx owners previously owned an
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: earth Roamer.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: Well, currently it's about overall throughout our history on the LTx,
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: the first forty ltx's are all excuse mean, the first
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: thirty ltx's are one hundred percent current owners.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: That's crazy. Yeah, and they jumped at it.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're sold out through twenty twenty six. Just happens.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: So twenty twenty seven base pricing is a twenty.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Forty great story for American manufacturing though, I mean, you're
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: in this niche. You're employing all of these crafts people.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: One hundred and sixteen employees today, one.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Hundred and sixteen. I mean, it is such a big
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: operation than I thought it would be. And to see
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: that many people signing up for this new vehicle, I
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: think is really cool. We're very blessed and it creates
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: a lot of opportunities for you know that that second
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: hand market, because that's really that's your more entry level
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Earth Roamer. It's going to be a three roomed thing.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: That's where I got into the brand.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: And we'll get you into a new one eventually.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Eventually, eventually, eventually, I just got to you got to
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: launch that new app.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: There you go. So but now you can do that
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: from your earthrom or thanks to Starlink.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, jeez, Starlink has been such a change, a game changer,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: like and you had kind of a bit to do
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: with Starlink early on. It's in its days, you were saying,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: you in some of the first ones yep, that were
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: you know, beta tested on Earth Roamers.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Correct. So my previous job was actually as a composite
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: supplier to SpaceX and do a couple of the other
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: major rocket companies and military companies, and so I knew
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: some of the engineers, and so we got some beta
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: test units to our owners while they were going through
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: the beta test, and then I stayed in contact and
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: we literally received unit serial number one from Wineguard Cool
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: and we went standard on Starlink in twenty twenty three
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: across the entire fleet.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I don't know how you couldn't have
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: it on. You know, it's interesting having had my roamer,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: I guess in the what was the router company, the
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: four G and five G routers. Anyways, it doesn't matter.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Prior to starlink, the best option worthies kind of high
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: powered cellular antennas. They had their own data plan. We
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: did that for a little bit and it was but
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: when you're in the middle of nowhere it works.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it works.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're you get a couple more miles of range
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: maybe right, and then starlink enters the chat and then
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I mean it's really you know,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: you talk about having the granite countertops, you talk about
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: having those conveniences of home, the little the mobile, four
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: seasons hotel room. Well, now it really is because your
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: connectivity is I mean, my starlink on my roamer of
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the high performance dish like all other roamers pretty much do. Yep,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: it's faster than my home internet.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. In fact, we have some owners that leave their
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: starlink on and they've cut the cord at their house
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: and they just piggyback off of their roamer. And the
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: fun thing about starlink is the further are you know,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: the further away from people you are, the better performance
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: you get because there's less people on the satellite. So
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: my worst performance is here at the factory thanks to Denver. Yeah,
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: my best performance is in the middle of the desert
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: because I'm the only user on that satellite.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: You know, because there's so many like I've noticed in
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: kind of the earth Romer family, there's so many small
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: business owners. There's a lot of self made people, independent spirits.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah they're independent. You know. It's interesting. There's always kind
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: of this Okay, who's actually buying these you know, Yes,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: they're expensive, Yes they're going to be people with you know,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: a higher net worth, but they're like the best rich people.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know how else to say it. I've made
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: so many friends in this community because everybody's stoked to
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: have it. This is the dream. You're interacting with people. Yes,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: some of them are you know, very you know, upper
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: level C suite guys. A lot of them are entrepreneurs.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: You know, there's definitely a lot of you know, well
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: to do you know, tech individuals in it. But well,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: maybe I wouldn't want to be around them at work.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: But one of my one of my favorite scenes, like
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: an owner's rally, is you know, I've got one customer
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: who's been the CEO of three Fortune five hundred companies
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: and he's on his third earth Thromer just picked up
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: his lt X and he's sitting next to the retired
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: lineman from the Glenwood Canyon Rural Electric co Op who
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: you know, got his pension and body used earth Roamer
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: and they're drinking out of the same bottle of whiskey, telling.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: The all gets it's like it all gets shed away, yep.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: And it's a common bond that people have.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: It really is a great group of owners.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I enjoy it certainly.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: But well, you hooked up with us on the way
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: up here.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was actually really cool. Obviously we're in Prescot, Arizona.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Earth Roamers, you know, in Dakono outside of Denver, and
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm just driving through, I get a text
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: from Zach who runs Earth Romer Adventures, which is a
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: really cool program. So if you want to take out
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: your earth Roamer and you want to see what it
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: can do and you want to push it a little bit,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Zach's the guy to talk to. There's the Adventures everywhere.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: They were doing Bear's Ears and they actually it was
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: cool because the two waves, you know, people are actually
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: doing that, and he really explained to me how that
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: was part of Bill's vision of wanting to get people out.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: And it's cool that has stuck because there's so many
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: times I think when a founder, you know, in Bill's case,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: unfortunately passes too early, or you know, they just leave
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: the business or whatever, it totally changes.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: But now, I mean Bill was absolutely brilliant, and I
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: was fortunate enough to get to work with him for
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: a year before he passed. And then you know, again
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: very fortunate. You know, we are still family owned by
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Bill's family. I was fortunate that they had enough trust
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: and confidence in me to make me the CEO for
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: the last three and a half years.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which I think I think has been great it's
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: you know, I was posting some stories on just my
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Instagram and a lot of the earth Roamer owners follow
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: each other, yep, and I I actually got a couple
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: of comments about you and you know owners saying that
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: things have just it's not that they've gotten better, that's
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: to say that they were bad before, but the level
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: of engagement with the owners is going up that you know,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: you get involved in things, and how great they think
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: you are for the future of this brand. So it's cool,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: I guess to have the confidence of that owners group
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: behind you.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: Critical, absolutely critical. I mean, you know, our owners are
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: our greatest resource.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: And in fact, you know, everyone raves about the design
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: of the LTx and thinks, you know, oh, you must
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: have brilliant engineers. Oh, Scott must have done a great job.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: Quite honestly, it was the easiest design job in the
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: world because all I did for four years was listen
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: to feedback from owners about what they wanted to see
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: in the next earth Romer, and I just piled list
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: after list, took it all down during the design phase.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Something from aerospace we call it a swap analysis size,
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: weight and power. At the end of the day, everything
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: boils down to size, weight, and power on the vehicle. Right,
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: airplanes are probably airplanes and spaceships are the greatest compromises
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: in the world. That's the reason there's no supersonic cargo aircraft.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: They just don't exist. Physics won't allow it. Earth roamers
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: or overlanding vehicles are very similar. Right, you're dealing with
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: X height. You know, our magic number here is has
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: to be under twelve feet tall because every structure west
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: the Mississippi is twelve feet or higher has to fit
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: on you know, an F two fifty withth wheel track
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: or F two fifty through five fifty, and then that
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: length is ideal. And really it's you know, we're limited
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: by the GVWR of nineteen to five for the vehicle
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: on the F five to fifty, and in the case
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: of the SX, it's a twenty three thousand pounds GVWR
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: on the sixty five hundred.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the things you were telling me that
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: you really listen to feedback on from owners was the
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: speed rating on the tires.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, Bill deserves all the credit for that. So when
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: I got here, you know, we had been on forty
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: one inch continentals for a long time.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: They're a fine tire, but they were the only option
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: for They're the only option over.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: A decade yep, so they definitely enjoyed a monopoly, which
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: shame on them for not innovating along the way. They
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: kind of milked it for too long. So to get
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: above that sixty eight mile per hour speed rating there,
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: the only thing available was really a forty three inch
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: tire at the time. It was a good year the
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: MSA two seventy five's. We worked with Jeff Kelderman at
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Kelderman air Ride. He designs our lift kits in our
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: air back suspension system obviously, and we had to raise
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: the height of the last year of production of LTI.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: We actually incorporated the forty threees on. Wasn't enough to
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: call it a new model, just it was a faster LTI.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: Our demos are actually our engineering test bed. So that's
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: something that I brought to the table, is that anything
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: that we're going to put into production next year, I
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: want to see on our demos and get field tested
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: on our demos before we actually made the decision to
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: going to production. So we ran the good years for
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: a year on LTI fifty two. That picture right there
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: before anybody else had. The Good Years did absolutely great,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: went into production, we announced it got some mortars. When
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: we were going into production, the war in Ukraine started.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: I had one hundred Good Year tires sitting on the
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: shelf that the army stole from me and sent to Ukraine.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know what you do about that one.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: So all of a sudden, I'm sitting here going so
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: forty three inch continentals. We substituted for a while with
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: an IOU to the first few customers that had the
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Good Years and then unfortunately the Good Years for them
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: to meet the demand. Because it is a military tire
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: and they were sending a ton of them over to
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: the Ukraine, they started running them in the mole too
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: fast and they got into out around conditions, and so
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: I only used Good Years for about a year. And
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: I'm actually in the process of replacing the ones that
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: are out there in the field with the new Michelins.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Oh God, and I can't wait.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: And then Michelin did something extremely smart. They recognized there
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: was a market for the forty ones as well, and
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: they came out the forty ones and we've tested the
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: forty ones on our two older vehicles that we own,
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: and they're fantastic. So that is the easiest upgrade you
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: can do to an old earth roamer and pick up
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: ten miles of speed rating.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I'm doing up here, is I'm getting
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: these new michelin X Force ZL tires in the three
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: thirty five.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: And it's a great combination. You know. The Continental I
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: think is still an outstanding off road tire. Not that
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: great on the highway.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Fair That's where people have problems with them is highway.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: They these trucks now will just go so fast. Yep.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: And we'll get into that a little later, because oh
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: my gosh, it's the new LTx just like it's speed demon.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: It's a speed demon compared to mine, and mine's not
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: even the slowest of them. But you know, a little
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: wider tread pattern, much greater load capacity. I'll pick up
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: like twelve hundred pounds of load capacity in my rear axle,
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: which is great for having some headroom. Correct, So not
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: that I'm adding more, it's just lower temperatures.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: So on the continentals they were speed rated sixty eight
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: and we were right at the weight limit. Yeah, so
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: if it was a hot day, you're doing sixty three
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: sixty two, and you're watching your TPMs system to make
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: sure your tire temperature standard about two hundred and twenty fahrenheit.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: We've been running the both the forty ones in the
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: forty threes at eighty eighty five miles an hour, and
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: the hottest temperature I've ever seen on like one hundred
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: degree day on Blacktop and Wyoming is about two ten yea.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: So it's yes, it has an official speed rating. We're
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: nowhere near it.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're saying for the older vehicles seventy five mile
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: an hour, but on LTx, I mean it just I
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: think the truck limits itself till eight.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: So it's a Class five truck, so it is required
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: to be speed rated to or speed limited to eighty six.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because I took that thing, well one we took
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: it on the Switzerland Trail kind of from Boulder to Netherland,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: and you know, to classify this isn't like a rock
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: crawling trail, but for an earth roamer, it is really
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: representative of you're not probably the pointy end of what
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: you're realistically going to be doing, and it was really tight.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: You're not taking a Subaru on that trail. No Tacomo
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: with a two inch lift can handle it.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, there was, but I couldn't believe with these
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: forty threes. And then also this new suspension you kind
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: of said it went from about two and a half
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: inches a lift on the truck to five correct and
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: then obviously forty one is to forty threes. You know,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: That's one of the other reasons I came here was
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: to test drive this to kind of, you know, communicate, Okay, well,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: what's it? Like? I thought it was going to suck,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: to be frank like good. There's very few situations in
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: which adding suspension, lift height and adding a larger tire
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: makes a vehicle that is already kind of a approaching
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: the maximum design capability of the chassis is going to
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: make it better. But this actually did you end up
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: with more suspension up travel on these roads. You don't
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: need down. Travel's great for going really fast. You're not
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: tires are not leaving the pavement or well hopefully not
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: the pavement. They're not leaving the ground in an earth
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: rum or off road. You know, I've picked up the
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: front tire occasion you're in a slow that's very calculated
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: So when you're using these things and you're getting your
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: campsite or you're going down this trail, you're worried about
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: those impacts. So now you have more up travel and
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: you have a larger tire to roll over it. And
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: that just became like so apparent. I didn't air down
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: for this trail. I'll be honest, I don't air down
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: much in mine. With the air suspension, it's.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: It absorbs most of the shock for you.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: It's pretty good. And there's a difference between airing up
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: a thirty three inch tire on a tacoma, you know.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: And you know I run ninety PSI in the back
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: of these trucks.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: And the vehicle you were on, we're probably at ninety
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: five on the rear, yeah, and probably fifty five on
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: the front.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: So to be able to take this thing down the
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: trail and to actually trust me to take it down
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: a trail that is not necessarily easy, like it just
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: walked up it. I mean, it was so comfortable for
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm not saying for the size of it,
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: like this is more comfortable than like a light truck
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: would have been Absolutely on this, absolutely and I did.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: And if I would have aired down, it would have
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: been better. But the Fox shocks also stuck, like really
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: stuck out to me that DSc valve offering the ability
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: to you know, isolate your low speed and high speed
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: compression settings.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: So we were King loyal for a long time.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I've got Kings on mind.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: And again, one of an ex er Rumer employee works
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: for Fox.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: Right, and he's had a great career with Fox and
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: he called me up every single right, yeah, Dylan, And
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: now he's in charge of I think he's in charge
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: of international sales for Fox or something like that. I mean,
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: great career path form and he you know m Zacher friends,
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: and he's always saying, hey, you gotta try Fox. As
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: a small business CEO, I'm very loyal to the other
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: small businesses I work with, which I consider King. Finally
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: I acquiesced and said, okay, Dylan, throw a set of
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Fox on there and let me see what it feels like.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: It was incredible to change. I actually went to King
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: and said will you do this? He said no, And
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: I said, okay, I'm sorry. We're going to have to
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: part ways because this is a game changer for us.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: So now we're entirely on Fox on both vehicles. Fox
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: also helped us with our steering stabilization shocks as well.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: So now you know an lt LTS I call it
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: two handed driving. You've got both hands on the wheel
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: to keep that truck under control when you're going down
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: the highway at sixty five miles.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: Now, definitely it's an active driving experience.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: That's a great way of putting it. Or it's a
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: very tiring driving experience. At the same time as well,
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: with the forty three inch tires, with the Fox steering stabilization,
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: all that geometry change and the weight distribution changes, particularly
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: on LTx that we made, You're now at a two
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: finger driving experience at eighty miles an hour, and I
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: think you got up that fast on them.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: I couldn't believe how well the truck did on the highway.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: I was really interested, you know, I kind of know
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: how it's going to perform off road. I mean, that
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: exceeded my expectations. But the on road, which is frankly,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: you know you're driving these vehicles generally a long distance somewhere.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: Typical mission profile. Right, I'm going from Denver to Moab
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: on the highway three hundred miles and I want to
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: get to Moab as fast as possible because I'm going
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: to spend the next six hours to go thirty forty
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: miles to my ultimate camping site. Yep, right, so my
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: highway driving has to feel great.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it was. I mean, I think some
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: of it is, you know, due to the newer Ford
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: chassis that I'm not used to the ten speed.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: The ten speed helps, but most of the handling is
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: associated with the tires and the suspension.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: It just feels so much more planned, right, I mean,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: you know that that low speed compression adjustability, and then
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: obviously it's the base valving that Fox did really made
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: a difference.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: I mean the other big difference with LTx, which rides
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: better than the LTI on forty threes is you know,
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: it was kind of an iconic symbol having.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: That spare tire up top.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's a three hundred pounds pendulum.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Above the body.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, body being translated to your pivot mount, so your
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: camper shell was rocking back and forth by you know,
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: we started with SX because we wanted the rear window
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: that you know, that's the million dollar view, having those
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: three windows, the two hundred and seventy degree view at
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: the rear di net. So we had to remove the
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: spare tire from the camper shell and get it onto
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: the bumper. And we noticed the difference just in the SX,
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: and so we wanted to carry that improvement over to
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: the LTx well.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: In in automotive testing, there's a thing called head toss,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: which is that kind of side to side movement. You know,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: you're you're it's uncomfortable, right. You get a lot of that,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: and the older trucks correct. There's just a lot of
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: weight higher up. There's to an extent with that design,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: there's not a lot you can do. Yes, you can
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: have great valving again, that low speed you know, DSc
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: stuff with the Foxes.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: All incremental improvements.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: It's part of it. But moving that weight down you
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: could feel it. Like on the trail we were on again,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: there wasn't It was very comfortable. It was easy, yeah,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: you know. And then I want to always spout.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: Out to X guard here okay.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: Because I would have turned my truck around and I'm like,
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: are you sure we're going to this is no? Scott says,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: We're going down this trail, keep going and I'm like, Okay,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: he's trying to prove a point with this X guard thing,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: and point proven because I didn't like that before. I was,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: you know, from the outside, I'm like, oh, it's bedliner.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: It's not really bedliner. No, it's not as aggressive. You know,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: you've refined that.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: That X guard took us two years in development with
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: Ultimate Codings.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: Ultimate Codings is a refinery that produces product for Line
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: X and some other brands out there, but we worked
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: directly with the refinery. Took us two years of trial
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: and air or to develop the chemistry and then also
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: just as importantly developed the application technique so that it
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: doesn't feel like eighty grit sandpaper.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because it's smooth. It doesn't really I would say,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: like I have probably what would have been like LINEX
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: on the bottom of my roamor bootstrape. Yeah, and it's
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: it's very porous, like when you go down like a
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: road with mad chloride or you know you're on one
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: hundred mile dirt road and it's muddy. It comes out,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: but you know it kind of gets in there. This
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: is easier to clean and like I sure washed off.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, like I said, like.
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: I heard one of the branches hit was about two
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: inches in diameter.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: I was working that truck. I was moving it around.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: But but the thing that's crazy is that the SX
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: was going everywhere that the LTx was going, so it
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: was that was breaking. He'd break the branches. I would
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: just catch them. But it you know, to an extent
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: with these trucks, like I get a lot of questions
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: on well, what's the real capability, and the honest answer
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: is if it fits, it gets absolutely and now well
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: it can kind of fit and you can push your
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: way through it, and it really I know all the
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: time in the desert, most of our trees are lower.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: It's more like kind of pin stripes in the side
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: of the vehicle. We don't have a lot of you know,
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: the pine trees we have, they're a little taller, and
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: you know, it's there's not as.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: Much growth lodge pulpines.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: But to go you know, to go out here, yeah,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: like there's a lot of trees. And then that makes
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: me realize, oh, well that's actually I have this desert perspective,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: but that's actually most of the country. So the X
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: guards and modification that again driven by standard now right,
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: it is so driven buyer owners. Yeah.
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: Animal Overland, yeah right, one of our most intrepid explorers.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Jason and Ruth, they're a great Animal Overland on
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Instagram follow them. They're taking an earth roamer down the
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Pan American Highway and he uses though, oh.
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: Boy does he use it well. There's also the video
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: of him at one of the Overland expos of him
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: doing the wrong crawling.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Photograph that truck. When was he must have just got
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: it or something. It was like ten years ago.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: So you know, if you ever have any doubts about
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: the capability of an earth roamer, just look at anything
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: he's doing and you can do that. But he was
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: the first one to do it, and he did it
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: with a buddy of his at his local garage, and
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: he's got tired of the pinch stripes. We then had
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: a customer about four years ago that said, I've got
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: to have this. I want to be unique. We did it.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: We weren't very happy with the job that we did,
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: and that's when we kicked off to your development cycle
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: on figuring out the best product. But what it really
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: takes away is you're worried because in a painted truck
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: when you go down the trail, and as soon as
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: you hear that branch, you know, you pucker a little
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: bit and your shoulders go up and you're like, oh,
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: I just got another scratch. Now you don't even.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: Think about it. You just say, yeah, it's a different pitch.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: I've scratched the heck out of mind. That's what I bought.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: It for gets as part of it. But it's that
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: high pitched nails on a chalkboard that just kind of
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: you don't worry it gets into your soul and now
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: it's just I don't.
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: Have to deal with it, and believe it or not. Acoustically,
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: it actually makes the camper a little bit quieter. The
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: other huge benefit we noticed is we don't get the
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: thermal transfer.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah that's what you're saying.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: So if you know, if you were an Arizona dweller,
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: I would tell you, oh, no, you need to buy
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: a white or a light colored truck to assist with
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: your air conditioner. With the X guard, it really has
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: a strong thermal barrier, so you don't get that huge
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: solar transfer going on. So if you're an Arizona, now
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: sure buy a black truck. Yeah, no problem. The air
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: conditioner will behave just as like you want to. Yeah,
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: so there's too many of advantages to it to pooh
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: or throw away. It's just you know, it's function meets
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: form well.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: And you know, maybe one of the critiques is, oh,
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: earth romers are so expensive, but they really come ready
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: out of the box. There's a lot of vehicles that well,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: there's not really a lot of vehicles like this, but
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: if you try to build something to match it, you know,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: you start realizing the cost of the components adds up.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's there's thousands of dollars of lights on
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: the truck if you again going back to factory, just
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: the like the ancore marine tin copper wire that's being
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: used is like insanely expensive. You know, it's the best.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: Mine's my truck's fifteen years old now and functionally it's
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: perfect right, Like it's gonna test make that test of time.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: So we do.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: You know, there's the RV Industry Association r VIA, and
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: they called me up every six months saying, we really
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: want you to join us, you know, because we have
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: quality standards. And my first response is no, you don't. Yeah,
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: we actually are. Wiring and electrical systems are all designed
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: around the marine manufacturing standards, so all of our componetry
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: is marine. So, like you said, it's a heavier gauge wire,
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: it's a stranded copper wire versus solid copper wire. The
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: advantage there is the constant vibration of driving off road.
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: Stranded copper will hold up. Solid wire. Copper wire will
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: actually end up breaking. So by incorporating those marine standards,
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: that's the reason why Serial number one is still on
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: the road today and still having a great time at
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: the end of the day. You know, the adage of
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: you get what you pay for will always be true.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was just it was so cool to
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: go through the factor. I actually got to see a
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: camper being joined to an earth Rummer, which was like
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: a bucket list thing for me, and then to be
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: able to take it out and actually live in it
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: was really cool. I like the new layout.
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: I was it's a great layout.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: I think that there's some benefits to the older one
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: to be able to be balanced. But you know, you
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: were kind of saying that the layout, the traditional layd
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: of earth Rumer was twenty five years old. You know,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: there needed to kind of be a change to it,
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: and you know, I spent last night in Anessex and
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: the night before in an LTx, and then I was
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: just working in my LTS and I got in my
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: LTS and I'm like, Okay, this is still nice, this
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: feels like home. But yeah, it felt a you know.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: One of the things I noticed was and the.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: Next owner is going to enjoy the heck out of
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: the vehicle too.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. One of the things I noticed is how much
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: the rear die net really opens things up. Yes, you
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: know you can, especially with a new outbound blinds and
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: the TV, you can still shut it shut the world down.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: But you walk in and there's more natural light. It
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: feels considerably bigger than it is.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: And so one of the biggest complaints of the lt
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: LTAI floor plan was it was very third person unfriendly.
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, you had a couple of smaller single
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: beds that you know, you had to crawl over the
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: person if you wanted to get to the bathroom. Yeah,
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: and so what you know, again, great vehicle for two people.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: And which is most of the use case.
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: Most of the use case with the LTS absolutely well,
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: the rear dynet allows you to do is really have
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: a separate sleeping area. Now for up to two adults.
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: You know, so if you want to bring your friends
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: on this trip, it doesn't feel super cramped. You can
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: actually exist.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you used the idea of the studio apartment versus
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: the one bedroom apartment, and that really does it really
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: does feel that way, like it would be uncomfortable to
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: have somebody stay with you in a studio apartment. That's
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: the LTS the LTx now is that one bedroom. There's
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: some separation between the space, you know, it's.
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: And honestly again it's that million dollar view. It's backing
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: up to the edge of the lake or the edge
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: of the cliff and sitting back there, you know, enjoying
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: breakfast with two hundred and seventy degrees of perfect view.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like I could take my dad on a champion
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: trip now and we could you know, before it's oh,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: I'm going to put you on kind of what was
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: maybe designed for a child or you know, how are
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: we yeah, how are we really going to do that?
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: You know? But then going into the SX, which was
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: LTx and stories. But you really see this kind of
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: brand DNA starting to be developed. Now that there's two
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: new products out, what's the difference one's bigger, and I
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: know that sounds it's simple.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: It's four feet longer. Yeah, it's four same with same height.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: The bathroom on the SX is so cool. You get
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: like a proper dry bath. Correct, that's is I mean
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: it has a rainfall shower and it has you know,
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: like a sprayer. I don't know how you could get
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: more luxurious in a in something that can you know,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: take a four and a half g you know impact
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: and go you know pretty much anywhere.
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: Like the wheelbase is thirty inches longer. So that's that's
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: your decrease of maneuverability from the LTx to the SX.
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The turn you know, so at turning radius. It's
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: not a dig on the SX. It's just bigger, right,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: you know. I mean to add size, you have to
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: add a larger you have to have a larger chassis
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: to hold it. It still drives like really nice. I
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: mean it still drives as good, if not slightly better
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: than my old LTS.
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: The power is great and once it goes it a
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: lot of momentum. There's a lot of momentum that Alison transmission.
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: I mean you're really starting to you know, you're flirting
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: with commercial truck, where the F five point fifty is
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: you know, kind of commercial. I mean it is, and
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: it's weight class, but it's a.
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: You get the lariat package and it's very nice and correct.
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: It's still oriented towards the owner operator, personal vehicle use.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: And the Chevy sixty five hundred, which is really an
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: international you know, Chevy when they exited the Kodiak business.
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: The forty five and sixty five hundred are actually produced
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: by Navistar, so that it's it's an international CV with
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: a bow tie on the bump on the front grail
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: as opposed to international badge. That's really geared to be.
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: It's a dump truck. It's a cherry picker. It's alignment struck. Yeah,
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: that's really.
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: You still outfit it nice to do. The catskin leather
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: seats the inside. The first the first thing we do
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: is got the interior conditioning and heaked and.
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: We actually buy Chevy Tahoe seats.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, that's how it is.
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: That's what you're sitting on our Chevy Tahoe seats with
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: catskin leather. And Catskin just came out with the degree system.
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: So it's the self contained ac unit, so we have
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: heated in cool seats. We were run Racaro's until they
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: went bankrupt and exited the automotive industry. So now Racaro's
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: the only thing they make are airplane seats, and I
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: think they still make a few seats for Porsia.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but otherwise it actually started as a Porsche bought Riccaro, Yes,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: because it was Reuter, Like I'm now a yeah, you know,
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: I'm an air cool Porsia guy. So it was Reuter
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: Carrio Seri. They were like a coach builder. Porscha bought
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: the coach building. The seat manufacturing was left over, and
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: now listeners of the Ovalannal podcast get a useless.
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: It's funny you call it a coach builder, you know.
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: I refer to us as a luxury coach maker. Yeah,
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: that's really what we are. You know, I'm never going
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: to develop a new truck, right. I can take an
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: existing truck and i can do some suspension modifications, but
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to be the company that develops a
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: new power plan for overlanding. We focus mostly on the
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: luxury end of things. In terms of the camper show.
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: Well SX drove good. It's almost more comfortable than lt.
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: X on the highway. If you're going straight on the highway,
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: it is like a.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: Train arm front end. So what that means to people
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: listening is it's more like your rear suspension on a
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: truck on the front. So those impacts are going into
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: the shock and into the spring rather than some of
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: them being the impact being translated into the frame where
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: a leading arm is literally your arms like pushed out
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: in front of you versus your arms behind you.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: So and again kudos to Fox and A Jeff Kelderman.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very comfortable, and it's not that much heavier.
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: You know, you're talking maybe a three thousand pound difference
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: between the two.
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thirty pound GVWR difference.
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: It doesn't. It's really no more intimidating to drive in
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: like a straight line. Like driving that thing through traffic
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: on I twenty five in a construction zone, it's really
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: the same.
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: Jersey barriers on both sides and the dump truck trying
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: to pass.
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and it was fine. It's very stable. I
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: thought again, like I thought the forty threes and the
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: extra lift was going to be a bad thing. I
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: thought the Essex was. I mean, I even till Dan
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: when we were out, like, I'm a little bit intimidated
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: to drive it, but within a couple of minutes I was, Yeah,
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: I was fine.
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: And honestly, on the highway on both LTx and ESSEX,
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: I use my thumbs to accelerate and decelerate with the
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: cruise control. You know, the f I fifty has an
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: engine break and the sixty five hundred actually has an
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: exhaust break. Okay, so I'll shoot veil pass going uphill
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: at you know, fifty sixty seventy miles an hour and
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: then going downhill. All I do is use the cruise control,
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: and that engine or that exhaust break on the sixty
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: five hundred controls that thing so well, it's not even funny,
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah it was.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: It's also you know, you try and figure out where
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: it's kind of positioned in the market. Probably for most
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: people LTx is maybe where they're going to go, but
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: there's also all of these I'm going to say customers
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: that are maybe coming from a Class A, they're coming
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: from a Super C or let's be like maybe more relevant,
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: there's all of these really large, usually yuermine expedition vehicles
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: out there. They're on man chassis, all cab overs. Yeah,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: there are Mercedes zetrosis.
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: Extremely uncomfortable and if you're doing forty eight on a highway,
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: you're lucky.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I've seen in my travels, I've seen these trucks
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: in North America and they are literally like a Class
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: A and these you know these some of these trucks
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: are old missile carriers or something. Right, They're not comfortable,
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: They're very slow.
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: Very loud in the cab.
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: This is basically just like an American version of that.
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: It's everything you need, Like there's a washing machine in it,
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: Like you get a bunch of storage. The kitchen's fantastic.
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: Just because you're overlanding doesn't mean you should be roughing it.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, right, man, My earth throne has made me
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: so soft. I mean I was not that I was
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: ever a hard one.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: I want my beans fresh ground in my espresso on demand. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I just think that this SX is
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: a really interesting alternative for that. I think that side
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: of the market will grow.
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: And that's what we've been seeing, right, so you know,
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: you know, here's the value proposition of an earth romer.
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: There are eleven point four million registered RVs in this country. Unfortunately,
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: there's one point four million campsites that have power poles,
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: giving you a fourteen percent chance of a crowded crappy
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: spot if you plan six months in advance. There are
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: five hundred and ninety five million acres of National Forest
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: and Bureau of Land Management land. Ninety nine percent of
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: that is west of the Mississippi. There's some place for
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: you to go campaign and earth Romer and what you know,
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: earthworm or traditionally you know, was very well known on
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: the overlanding community. And you know, you had the guy
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: with the rooftop tent who finally made it big in
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: the stock market or sold his company and you know,
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: finally was able to cash out and afford to get
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: into an earth romer. At best, overlanding is ten percent
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: of the RV marketplace. Yeah, so now you've got all
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: these people that rediscovered rving. Really they rediscovered nature and
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: how wonderful nature makes you feel during COVID. But they
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: don't want to be in a crowded campsite or not
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: or parked at the Walmart because they can't get a
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: reservation at a campsite.
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: So I can't get my head around the typical RV
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: usage anymore. My parents are looking at class as long story.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: I'm from Chicago, they live there. They want to spend
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: more time with me in Arizona, and RV is a
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: great way to do that. But my dad's experience, and
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: you know, the air quotes RV thing is seeing what
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: I do with the earth Roamer and then having to say, yeah,
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: but you're not taking a new mar there. No, you're
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: just not doing it. But THEESSEX allows you to have
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: I mean there's just a size difference. You know. The
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: SX is smaller than a typical class A right.
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's thirty three not forty three feet long.
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, So you know you're not talking multiple bathrooms,
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: you know, a closets and that kind of stuff. But
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: everything you need is in the SSEX, correct and done
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: to a very high standard. Like it's like that I
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: don't necessarily know the class of yacht that would be,
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: but it's that like kind of expedition feels more like
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: a yacht, right, Yes, I mean an LTx does too,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: but this is just again it's a land jo it's
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: a land yacht. This is for the people. I mean,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: we still did the same trails and anessex as we
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: did the LTx. I was really impressed. There's a lot
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: of what I would call reserve capability there. But I
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: would have to think that.
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: The I mean four low on both vehicles is absolutely incredible.
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: I mean you could I mean I don't recommend it,
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: but you could crawl at a forty five degree angle.
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: If Yeah, you know, but for the person that is
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: going to do the occasional trail to get to that
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: adela camp site that maybe also reality maybe in an
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: RV park they drive to Key West, Well that's what
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: you're going to do, yea. You know, there's a duality
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: to the ssex, you know, and.
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: So yeah, you know, if your mission is you know,
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be moving every day and I want
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: to go exploring a lot, LTx is the way to go. Yeah,
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: if your mission is, hey, I'm bringing my kids, bringing
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: another couple, and I'm going to find the most beautiful spot.
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: You know. One of my favorite spots is Flaming Gorge Reservoir.
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: Get to park right on the beach and not see
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: another person for the entire time, and I'm going to
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: stay there for four to five days, enjoy paddle boarding,
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: and everything like that. The SX is really a great experience.
• 59:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Hankook Diner pro Tire, welcome to you to visit
• 59:22
  Speaker 3: Expeditionportal dot com and enjoy a series of adventures from
• 59:26
  Speaker 3: the Jeep Beach Event in Florida, the Broncos Stampede and
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: Jeep Invasion in Tennessee, and the off Road Expo in California.
• 59:33
  Speaker 3: Thanks Hon Cook.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: I'm excited to see that range grow. I think you
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: know this, I think a lot of the overland space
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: is going to start blurring with I'm going to say
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: the RV space and earth Romer being this x V,
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: this Expedition vehicle, I think is in a great spot.
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: It's very similar to both the marine marketplace as well
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: as the automotive marketplace. Twenty years ago, somebody had a suburban.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: It was a noddity. Yeah, and now you've got suburbans,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: you've got built up F two fifties, you've got jacked
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: up tacomas. Thanks to David av you know, you can
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: buy an extremely capable off roading vehicle off the right,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: right from the dealer. EOG has done a good job
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: of doing conversions like that, you know, so there's definitely
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: a democratization of the chassis. Yeah, that are occurring. But
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: then you know you've got your super cross track yep,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: you know, which is kind of a fun card.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: My wife has one of those, and it's great.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: It's a fun car.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: The places that she's taken that. You know, some guy
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: will be like, oh I did, I'm like, yeah, I
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: go down the trail all the time. Ike there, Yeah,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: it just works.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: But yeah, So, I mean that's what you're starting to
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: see in you know, the overlanding industry. The one thing
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: I'm going to throw out to the audience is, you know,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: caveat in tempre buyer, beware. There is a lot of
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: I don't I put this politically correct, foreign influence coming
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: into overlanding, you know, low cost labor countries. Yeah, be careful.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: You get what you pay for. And there are a
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: lot of people that are taking an r V quality box,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: putting it on a four by four chassis and calling
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: it an adventure truck or an expedition vehicle and the
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: reality is it's not.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know that's in a fall apart. I
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: think it's I think it's cool to see this segment grow,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: you know, from from my perspective. I mean, yeah, I'm
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: an earth Romer guy, but it's it's it's fun to
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: see more of these vehicles out there, because that's gonna
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: that's gonna push everybody to kind of improve, you know,
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: the earth roamers keep. Yeah, earth Romer is at the
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: top of the pyramid, and it's kind of it's what
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: everything is.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: And that's that's what keeps me is how do I
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: stay on top of that?
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but you're getting a lot of people that are
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: doing price point versions of earth Romer, and I can't.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: You know, we're going to kind of transition into this
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: pre roamed thing, which is how I was able to
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: buy one. But when it's half the price and it's
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: promising the same functionality, look at how it's actually made correct.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: That's I think the best consumer advice is there's you know,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: there's a there's not a fifty percent profit margin in
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: an earth rom Or for you guys, right, it's not.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: I've seen more than I should, and I can tell
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: you like, it's not. It's not as profitable as software, right.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: Oh god, No, manufacturing is hard. It's hard, man, you know,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: I mean the margins are thin, right. If my margins
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: were super fat, there would be you know, competitors out
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: there that were kicking my butt. Yeah, and there's not.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: And that's because you know two reasons. One, we definitely
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: stay at the top of the mountain, so we do
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: command a price point. But two, there is no substitute
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: for experience.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: Right, Like some of the newer companies. You know, we've
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: shared some things of some of the trials and tribulations
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: that they're going through. I'd like to say we were
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: smarter and we avoided those reality as we experienced those
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: earlier in our history, and now we know we learned
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: from mistakes.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: There's good products out there.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a handful of mountains.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The ones that I worry about are the I
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: guess I would call it the Elkhart Lake ones. Yes,
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: you know they're they are a it's a JCO slap
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: to a five point fifty exactly. They throw mpt's on it. Oh,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: it's a quote unquote poor Man's earth romer. There's just
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: no way that it will hold up the construction of
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: the shell. You know, the whole camper body of the
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: earth roamer is part of it. But that's why this
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: pre roam thing exists. So you guys go through those.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: You know, they're wealth serviced before you get them. You know,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: the tires have to be at a certain standard, they
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: have to be below a certain amount of miles. That's
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: really you know where you're talking about these other vehicles
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: out there, some of these pre roam things are actually
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: that's the way in I think.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so if you know, people ask me, hey, weren't
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: you going to build an entry level earth roamer, and
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: the answer is we already have them. Yeah, pre ro
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: own web page and you can. You know, I think
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: the least expensive one you can buy right now in
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: our pre rown web page is about three fifty. And
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: there's a large piece of mind. You know, this is
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: just like a certified pre owned Lexus. There's a large
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: piece of mind of buying a used vehicle through me.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: After I've run through the certification process, re warranty, a
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: bunch of the stuff for you, for you to pick
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 2: up your vehicle at a very good price. Like you said,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: you know, your vehicle is approaching its fifteenth birthday and
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: everything still works.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, they are complex vehicles. It's
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: not like I haven't I've had sure things with them.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: But that's all of these vehicles, Like there are so
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: many different systems. You're trying to put a house in
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: one hundred square.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: Feet, Well you're trying to put a house and you're
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: using it in one hundred square feet that has to
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: survive a hurricane or earthquake simultaneously every time.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: And then it sits for months at a time. And
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: then that's a thing to do everything.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: And that's the worst thing can do to any machine.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: The more you use it, the less it breaks. Yeah,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: it's counter intuitive, but it's true.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: I had a you know, we go back to this
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: entry level earth romer. I've had people text me, Oh,
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: ask them when they're going to do it a three
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: hundred fifty thousand dollars earth romer or a four hundred
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars earth romer. And we chatted about that, and
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: I just don't know.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: I can't.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know how you do it because you have
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: if it's if it has the earth Roamer name on it,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: there's a quality assumption that it you know, a standard
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: that it has to hit, and then there's also like
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: a functionality that it has to hit, like it's going
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: to have to have heat has to have air condition
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: as apple power, has to be durable, it has to
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: be nice inside, has to be esthetically pleasing, it has
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: to be capable. I don't know how you do that.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: That's the like, Yeah, it's it would be a dream
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: thing if you could buy a brand new earth romer
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: for three hundred and fifty grand. But there's just no
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: way to do it. I mean, your costs are double that,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: more than double that. Yeah, I mean, you know, let's
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: go back, that's nearly just the chassis.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 2: Let's go bare bones, fully loaded prospector thirty five hundred. Yeah,
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: it's one hundred.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: K, one hundred call it one hundred and two. I
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: don't know what the if you're going off MSRP.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So okay, I get it for one hundred K.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: Name a good sliding camper manufacturer. That's going to be
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 2: about eighty k H. So you're one hundred and eighty
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: k just right there. And that's really to have a
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: camper that may or may not survive off road. And
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 2: then if you want any of the earth roam or
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 2: quality or earth room or luxury, that all gets pancaked
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: on top of that. And I just can't do that
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: and the other thing it would do to our owner.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 2: And again, one of the wonderful things about this company
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: is we take the long view. You know, I'm planning
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 2: out for what earth Romer is going to be like
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: twenty years from now. And one of the things we
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 2: protect the most at our company is our existing owners
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: of the vehicles. So the pre road marketplace is very
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 2: critical to me. We're actually we have we've delivered more
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: used vehicles this year than we have new vehicles. Okay,
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: don't make as much money on a used vehicle, but
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: protecting my used market keeping the depreciation very low. If
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: I came into the market with a three hundred and
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars new earth Roamer, that would have a
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: detrimental effect to existing owners that are going to trade
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 2: in their vehicle to buy my new earth Thrower.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 2: So, I you know, it's a physics problem, it's a
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: cost problem. I mean, there's lots of issues. Why I'm
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 2: not going to be coming out with a three hundred
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: fty thousand dollars Romer anytime soon.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, Well, and.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: Don't get me started on electric vehicles. That's a different conversation.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's the power of electric vehicle
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: and an earth row would be kind of fun, but
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: you'd need a small nuclear power plant to keep it.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: There'll be the semi truck of batteries behind the earthrower with.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: Exactly So well, it's been really cool to chat with
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: you on this. You know, I think earth Romer has
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: you know, it's really been the Kleenex of these type
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: of vehicles, right, it's always a DIY earth Romer or
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: the competition is Oh, it's like an earth rummer. It's
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: different than an earth Roamer in this way you've managed
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: to you you know, between obviously you know Bill founding
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: and growing this business and you taking the helm, that
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: trajectory is the same.
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: You know, it's we are very lucky. Yeah, we're very blessed.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: We have great owners, we have great employees, passionate people
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: that want to make a wonder.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: It has been so fun over the last couple of
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: days between you know, Zach and the guys on the
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: adventure side and hanging out with the guys in the service, the.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: Guys on the adventure you know, so Zach is the
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 2: only full.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: Time adventure Yeah, the rest of it.
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 2: That's the guy that and so you saw John the welder.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: You saw Paul the woodworker, and you saw Dean the
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: service tech out there, and you know this is their
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: additional duty. Hey you know you know if they have
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: a rooftop ten on their jeep. Great, are now part
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: of the Adventures team. Let's go.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, it's been cool to hang out with all
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: the people and see genuinely all of the passion in
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: this company that the people that work within it have.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: I have just enjoyed my time so much driving these
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: two new vehicles. You know, I have been spoiled by mine.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: But unfortunately now I know what I'm missing with the
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: new stuff, and I need to make more money.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: And the bad news it's just going to keep getting
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 2: better and better. Yeah, incremental improvement. You know again. LTx
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 2: was easy to design. All I did was listen to
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 2: the owners and got great feedback from all of them.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: You know, like the wider door, Yep, that was a
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: big complaint. No bug screen on the door.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: Oh I saw the little connections for that. Yeah, that
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: makes sense.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: So now you have a screen door on your earth Rumer.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: We actually tested all the RV quality ones. We actually
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 2: imported one from Germany from the people that make the door,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 2: and we did the dog test where the dog ran
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 2: through the door and destroyed it. And so that's why
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 2: we actually use snaps and magnets and you know that
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 2: way your dog can run through the door, he doesn't
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: destroy your screen.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: Door, it doesn't hurt the dog.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, because dogs are a big part of our
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: ownership group. Yeah, everyone's got one.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, again, just thank you so much for
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: having me up here. It was great.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: It was about time the.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: I have a very specific thing that I obsess about,
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: and that is earth rummers. I love mine. I have
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: spent over a year in it since I bought it
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: five years ago, so that's months a year. It has
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: changed my life. It has made me a real soft boy. Though.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 2: Just because you're overlanding doesn't mean you should be roughing it.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: But you know, just thanks for all that you're doing,
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: you know, in this space and you know, continuing Bill's
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: spirit and legacy and pushing forward on that. I know
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: that means a lot to a lot of people.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: He was a brilliant man and we hit it off.
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: He hired me, you know during COVID. You know, we
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: went from orders of twenty a year to over forty
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: a year, and so he needed somebody to basically grow
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: the factory footprint. So he hired a recruiter, and he
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: wanted somebody that had built private jets or luxury yachts.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 2: I happen to have done both. I got lucky. He
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: hired me and we worked great together. He hired me
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: as COO made me president three months later, and then
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: unfortunately he passed about, you know, months after that. And
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: like I said, I'm fortunate enough too that the family
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 2: has their I have their trust and confidence to have
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 2: the world's greatest job. Quite frankly, yeah, yeah, I really do.
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 2: I really do have the world's greatest job.
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: Well, thanks for coming on. We really appreciate your time
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: absolutely and everything and you know important. But this podcast
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: is dedicated to Bill. Thank you.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: That means a lot to us.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, all right, Well, thanks for listening to this
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: episode of the Overland Journal podcast with Scott Allen from
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: Earth Romer. We'll see you next time.