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Overlanding SEMA 2022 · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I am
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: your host Scott Brady, and I am here with Brian
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: McVicker's which some of you may remember from the podcast
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: we did about crossing the Pacific in a sailboat. If
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: you haven't listened to that one, you may enjoy it,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: especially if you love all things sailing, because it was
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: quite an amazing experience that we had together. But Brian
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: has actually been with the business since the very beginning.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Brian was actually employee number one. There's no doubt that
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Overland Journal and Expedition Portal wouldn't exist today without all
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: of Brian's really hard work. So thank you for all
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: of that, Brian.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: It's been a wonderful pleasure. I think we're going on
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: eighteen to twenty years.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: That's right, that we've known each other exactly, right, Yeah,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: from I think you bought my grandpa's welder from me.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Was the first time.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: That we that we Lincoln Tombstowne.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: That's right, that box exactly, And that was a very
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: long time ago. You only had one kid at that point.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: They were they were in a car seat. Right now
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I have two near full adults. It's crazy, it's crazy.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: How well. They say that you haven't officially joined the
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: human race until you have kids. I remain an alien.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: So thanks for being on the podcast, Brian, And Brian
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: was with me for several days at the SEMA Show,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and that's what we're going to talk about today is
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: our impressions of the show, the things that we liked,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the new products that we encountered along the way that
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: we found to be impressive. We also spent quite a
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: bit of time with Toyota and their launches at the show,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: and a really oppressive launch this year. Yeah, also Lexus
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: as well. So these are really important developments for those
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: of us that love overland travel and for many of
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: our listeners they also love Toyotas. And there's some really
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: exciting news that's coming out and we're going to talk
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: about that today as well. But let's start off with Brian.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: What was your overall impression of the show.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: You know, it's funny, we were a couple of us
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: were counting it out. I think this is my eighteenth,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: seventeenth or eighteenth Sema show. Sure, you know, if you
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: go to the Sema Show the first couple of times,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: you're just completely overwhelmed, right, and now I think we're
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: all at the point, at least we're at the point
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: of you can be there for two or three days
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: and feel like you've really absorbed it. I think that
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: compared to last year, the vibe and the overall attitude
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: of the show and the attendees was much more positive.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: I would agree, Yeah, I think we've recovered from that,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: you know, a few years of not being able to
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: do that show and not being able to have those
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: types of events. Last year was very light.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of companies, especially the larger corporate companies,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: were very timid on how do we get back into
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: the SEMA program. Is it worthwhile for us to do?
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Should we be going to it? And I think that
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: they've realized that it's a worthwhile show for them to
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: go to if they do it the right way. What
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: I noticed more significantly as the activations were a little
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: bit different. Yea, the companies that did go to the
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: show and did show up, it seemed a little bit
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: more realistic in execution. Sure where in years past, you know,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: we all joke about the SEAMA vehicle, right, and they
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: were getting quite you know, kind of OBNOXI a little obnoxious. Yeah,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: it's a great word. There's still a lot of that
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: there is, but I felt that that there was less
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: for sure of that. You know, they used to be
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: obnoxious and unrealistic, and now I think that that companies
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: kind of said, Okay, well we're gonna we're gonna do this,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: but we're going to make it. We're gonna make it
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: attainable for consumer, and we're going to represent things that
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: the consumer would actually do on their own.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: And I've always been so confused why companies would put
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: these vehicles in their booths that are complete distraction from
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the brand. Like let's say that they sell a piece
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: of electronics and this vehicle is so over the top
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: you can't actually see or even begin to find the
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: product that they sell. You don't know what they're selling exactly.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: And it also, I believe oftentimes is incongruent with the
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: brand messaging as well. Whereas now you see you go
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: into ARB, which ARB has always done a good job,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: but you go into the ARB booth and you see
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: two vehicles, a Bronco and a Tacoma that we would
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: all love to do it, and.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: The ARB booth, to their compliment, they they were very
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: clean this year. Yeah, it was an incredibly clean booth.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: They had I think they had a locker display. They
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: had a few vehicles with product, you know, installed. But
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: beyond that, I mean there was walking space. You could
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: walk through the booth, you could you could look at
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: the vehicles without feeling crowded. That's another thing I noticed
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: about the event as a whole. It's it's still recovering,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: and so it has it has fewer vendors and it
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: has fewer attendees than it used to, say, four or
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: five years ago. No question, Okay, four or five years ago.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: As shoulder to shoulder you can't even move around, you
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: can't have a conversation. Now, it's just kind of it's
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: almost like a minimalist design apartment, right. I mean there's
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: space to be in the space.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Which I think is that it is a benefit. And
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: to talk about the things that we noticed that were absent,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: I think the one that is the most challenging is
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the absence of the tire brands. So the things that
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: benefit you and I being there is that we get
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: to interact with all of these companies in a very
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: efficient way. They're all right there. We can have quick conversations,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: we can set up meetings, find out about new products
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: that we can share with our audience. But when there's
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: essentially no tire manufacturers, none of the tire manufacturers that
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: we use were well represented. There were tire manufacturers there
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: that were notable, like max Maxis is a great brand
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: at all those other things, but in Cooper also another
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: great brand. But when you don't, there's no BF good Rich,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: there's no good Year, there's no you know. Those are
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: things that I think are are absent.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: It was very surprising. I found it to be a
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: bit disappointing as a category underrepresented. Cooper had Cooper Tires
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: had their booth. They kind of have this foundational keystone
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: booth that's there every event. It's in the same location, first.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: One you see when you walk down the stairs.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: They'll probably never give it up and they never should.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: They had their a very nice activation. They had a
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: they had a jeep Gladiator, and then they also got
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: a lot of attention for them. They had a Rivian
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: R one T with bigger tires, with bigger tires. They
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: were on I think they were maybe two two sixty
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: five seventy five of our twenties. Yeah, somewhere around that,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: so almost a thirty five. Yeah, yeah, and they had
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: it lifted all the way. You know, the neat thing
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: about that vehicle is the air suspension, so you know,
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: show mode, they had it in high rock crawl mode,
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: which is fifteen inches of ground clearance. Cooper was well represented.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Toyot Tires was also there. I think they had they
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: had an activation outside.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. Yeah, they had the kind of an
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: engagement with the attendees.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: They did, so you had to know that they were there.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: I think what happens with that show is you get
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: inside and then you have to make a real effort
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: to go outside of the building for the outdoor engagement.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: So Toyo was there. They also had an event, a
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: nighttime event, so they were there and represented. The only
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: other company that I think really had a footprint there
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: was Milestar Tires, so they had a fairly large booth,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: several display vehicles, several tires on display, and they had
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: a good sized staff there as well. Maxis. I also
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: found the Maxis booth, but I'm not quite sure what
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: they were doing in the sense that they had a
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: side by side and they had a couple of tires
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: on display, but other than that, it was just a
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: logo backdrop and they did have a big staff there
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: for the size of the booth, so it was well
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: attended and well paid attention to well.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: And I think the big news this year was the
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: prime spot in the central hall is normally occupied by
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: the Ford Motor Company gave that up and Ford was
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: not there, even though Ford makes more super appropriate overland
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: vehicles than they ever have in the past, So for us,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: that's a little bit of a disappointment to not have
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Ford there because they are doing it like their Rangers
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: got great payload, They've got the Bronco now, which is
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: a really fun wagon option for people that are looking
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: for high capability plus independent front suspension. So they didn't
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: they didn't have a booth, but Toyota took over the space,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: which is quite the coup. And Toyota is the world's
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: largest automotive manufacturer, so it's not surprising that they are
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: now in this key position within SEMA. For me, it
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: was so amazing to go to the press launch where
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: they pulled back the curtain on a new model lineup.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: It's basically a package lineup that they're going to have
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: for the Toyota brand, and they pull back the curtain
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: and it's this tundra that is lifted. It has it
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: has front recovery points, and it's got a winch tray,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: and it's got a rear bumper, and it's got a rack,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: and it's got a rooften on the top of it
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: and a custom livery as well. What was amazing for
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: me is you're listening to the vice president of marketing
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: for Toyota. I swear every fifth word she said was
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: the word overland.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: So we went to including that reveal. I think we
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: went to three or four press launches, yeah, or press
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: you know, presentations with sure I never heard the word
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: off road, yeah, exactly, and with their history of TRD
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: off road Yeah, and to completely remove that term from
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: their vocabulary. I never heard the word off road. I
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: repeatedly heard overland and vehicle based adventure, yeah, which is
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: how we define overlad. That's right, right. It was very
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: inspiring to see such a large and influential company to
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: make that shift, and it's also in those plan for
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: the future.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: It's no surprise to us because when we started the magazine,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: almost seventy percent of our readers had toyotas if it
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: was a land cruise or a forerunner, a Tacoma or
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: a Tundra or something like that.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: We've watched the Google metrics, yeah, over the years where
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: the term off road is declining and the term overlanding
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: is taking over.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: That's correct. Yeah, twenty sixteen, they you know, overlanding eclipsed
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: off road for search and results.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: So it can be well that some of it semantics,
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: but it's inspiring to see them using the terminology well.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: And it's really important for the world's largest automotive manufacturer
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: that does make arguably some of the best overland vehicles
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: ever produced, and they continue to make those for them
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: to fully embrace the thing that we all care about
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: so much. And what I thought was most exciting was
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: there were several hints that were not only given during
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: the press launch but later by the Toyota personnel whereas
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: they're not just providing this additional capability with the Trail
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Hunter package, but it's also going to address payload at
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: the same time. So that is the thing we have
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: been asking for from Toyota for a very long time,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: which is we need to be able to add the
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: additional capability components that we need, but then we also
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: have to have enough payload for water and food and people.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: And also it's common for overlanders to tow a trailer
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: and the tongue weight of the trailer goes against payload.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: If you have a tacoma with one thousand pounds payload
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: and you put in three adults, so now you're at
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: let's call it five to six hundred pounds of people,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: and then you add five hundred pounds or four hundred
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: pounds or even three hundred pounds of tongue weight, you
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: now have like enough payload left for a sandwich. Whereas
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: if they now come out with these packages that have
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: front winch tray and they've got a lift kit, larger tires,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: additional accessories, but then it retains the original payload, then
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: now you've got something really to work with.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: They're also taking ownership of the fact that people bring
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: stuff with them and they're encouraging it with their new
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: accessory program.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: So I can't remember all the brands that are involved.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: I know Arb is one of the brands involved.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Dometic is as well.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Dometic Toyota is now essentially going to be offering everything
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: from recovery boards to chairs and refrigerators and rooftop tents
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: and all of those items that campers and the overlanders
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: are going to add to their vehicle anyway. They realize
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: that they're going to be adding this to the vehicle anyhow,
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: so they're going to supply this at the dealership so
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: that the consumer can now roll those roll those expenses
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: into their monthly car payment if they choose to do so. Yeah,
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: and it'll be interesting to see how realistically attainable they
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: make that if the prices get increased above what you know,
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: your typical retail price would be. Because it's how the dealership,
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: which is always a concern, but seem to be pretty
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: genuine in the.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: En And I think that they are going with brands
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: though that already have good map pricing protection. So it
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: will allow Toyota to be competitive because there's enough retained
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: margin because of those brands and the map pricing.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: It'd be so easy for people to get into the activity.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: And here's the other key is that when you purchase
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: that through a Toyota dealership, then none of those accessories
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: void the vehicle's warranty. That's right. So the fact that
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: you can roll it into a payment, and that the
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: products have a Toyota part number, they've been vetted for
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: what Toyota refers to as QDE, which is their quality
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: expectations of a product. It means they've met a Toyota QTE.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: They've also they know that it works with the vehicle
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: and it won't do damage to the vehicle, so it
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: doesn't void the warranty. So you can literally drive out
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: of a Toyota dealership with a fully outfitted Trail Hunter
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: with all of the accessories you want, including your fridge,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: and you've got a single payment and it goes with
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: the warranty of the vehicle.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: And from what I understood for manufacturers that might be interested,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: it looks like they have a sign up for that program. Yeah,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: so they're still accepting product manufacturers and brands to submit
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: their product to be a part.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Of that program. And I saw the Toyota folks walking
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: around the hall, the West hall, talking to off road
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: accessory manufacturers to try to figure out what products would
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: be appropriate for the program. But it's going to launch
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: with one hundred products and they're going to just build
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: it from there. Again, it's just super important for those
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: listening that this is We're not being paid anything by
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Toyota to do this. This is not an advertisement for Toyota.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: We have no financial relationship with Toyota, but we really
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: are big believers in not only the company, but in
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: the direction that they're going.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Well, it's significant to see an OEM truly embrace the
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: overlanding space, and they've made it very clear that they're
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: doing that both on the Toyota side and into the
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Lexus side, you know, with the GX series and it's
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: a little bit you know, higher end, a little bit
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: more luxury. They have full intention of saying, hey, they've
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: realized that people are using the land cruisers, and you know,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: with not being able to get land cruisers too much anymore,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: they're starting to say, well, okay, you can look at
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: the Lexus side. It's a little bit more luxurious. But
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: they've they had two vehicles completely built out for overlanding,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: and they were very excited at how they built them out,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: and they were incredibly practical. Sometimes you see companies say hey,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: we're going to build a overlanding rig and it's just
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: like not realistic, yeah, or they get it wrong, they
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: get it yeah, But these two vehicles are really nicely done.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: The one had a great storage system in the back,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: and then the other was outfitted with everything hidden winch,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: you know, a little bit of a lift, bigger tires,
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: roof rack, and a rooftop ten as well.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: And I was having a conversation with one of the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Lexus executives and he looked to be right in the
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: eye and he said, Scott, you're you've not seen anything
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: yet from Lexus. Wait till you see what's coming specifically
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: set up for overland travelers. So I think there's two
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: things that are happening. Lexus recognizes that GX, the GX
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: model has huge penetrates into the overland market. They're extremely
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: popular with overland travelers. They have really good payload, they
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: drive well, they're super capable off road because they're based
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: upon the Proto chassis. The other thing is the land
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: cruiser is now absent from the Toyota lineup, so the
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: only version of a land cruiser we can get in
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: the United States today is an lex six hundred. Lexis
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: literally has that if you want a land cruiser now
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, you're going to have to buy
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Alexis and they're going to take advantage of that opportunity.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: I think they're going to have a lot of people
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: once they can get the chip stuff and everything all
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: sorted out. That they're really struggling with meeting demand because
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: it's such a popular vehicle. So that was very exciting
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: to continue to see Lexis also adopt this. So it's
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: clear that this is something from within the Toyota ecosystems.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: They're realizing that they already own overlanding in many ways,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: they want to maintain and grow that ownership within the space.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: And if you think about it, with companies like GM
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: GMC in particular building vehicles with AEV specifically for overland travel,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: they're realizing that other manufacturers are trying to take a
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: little bit of their market share, and so Toyota's fighting back,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: which is competition is great for the consumer, it's great
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: for you and me, it's great for everybody else, great
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: for everybody listening to this podcast.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: I think they've seen a lot of influence from Expedition Overland.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: So they hopped on board with Expedition Overland probably six
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: seven years ago. Sure they've seen that real world proof
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: of concept on how you could build these trucks up
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: what you can do with them. They had two of
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Expedition Overland's vehicles in the booth and from what I understand,
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: Expedition Overland gave them a bit of insight on the
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: new Trail Hunter.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they were heavily involved with the production of the vehicle.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: And I think one of the neat things about the
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Trail Hunter, which is the new concept that they revealed
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: and although it was on the platform, it's going to
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: be it's going to be a whole new truck.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: And in the booth with those X Overland vehicles on display,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: we were able to see the Orion Tundra, which is
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: the vehicle that they drove up to nord Cap and
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: drove through their their Nordic series and it included the
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Faroe Islands and Iceland. And of course that that whole
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: series of episodes is going to come out.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: As the tray back cap on the back right, that's.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Correct, Well, it has the It isn't a tray, it
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: is a It is an in bed camper made by
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Alue Cab. And the one thing I really like about
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: that Aaluecab model is it removes the factory tailgate. One
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: of The big challenges of all of these habitat style
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: toppers is that they retain the factory tailgate which is
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: not dust sealed, so you get into camp and your
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: camper is filled with dust, and people do all kinds
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: of things to try to limit that or remove that problem,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: but it stays a problem, a challenge, it's still a
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: real it's a genuine challenge, Whereas the Alue cab model
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: removes the tailgate and then it has a fully sealed door,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: so you end up with a lot less dust on
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: the inside. O Ryan is just a really thoughtfully prepared tundra.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: You know, it's got you know, there the typical CBI
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Prince U raq CBI bumpers, Prince U raq winch thirty
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: five inch tall tires on there as well. But the
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: one that was the most I thought it was the
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: most notable and kind of elegantly assembled vehicle in the
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: whole booth was the Sequoia. Was the Sequoia that x
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Overland put together. Simba is the name of that one,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: and it was just the I mean, the livery was
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: really elegant and clean and super clean, classy. You could
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: actually there was another another Sequoia next to it. That
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: someone I don't know who else prepared that one, but
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: somebody prepared that one. And you could see the difference
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: in experience between the two builds.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Well, you had the Simba was I think Simba is
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: much more family oriented, right, So they with xoverland, They've
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: got a couple of kids, and they realized, hey, we
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: can we can start. Let's make an overland vehicle where
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: we can bring everybody along. Yep, that's I've got a
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: family as well, And so I really appreciated that. Yeah,
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: so many, so many incredible overland rigs. It's like, okay,
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: tear out the back seat to put gear in it,
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: and now you take a five person vehicle that's only
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: appropriate for two people.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, surely.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: And so to see them create something that that is
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: appropriated for a family to still go, not just adventure,
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: I mean that was that's becoming an expedition view.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: And then the next the one next to it had
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: the jet ski on the back.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: No, that was a little bit further further down. That
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: was a little and that one was on thirty sevens. Yeah,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: that was which looked which looked really cool. Again, like
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: when we see these vehicles in the booth. It oftentimes
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: is a reflection of the experience of the assembler, and
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: we are we do see x Overland's vast experience reflected
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: now in their builds. So like, for example, the dual
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: swing out on the back of their Sequoia had minimal
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: weight on it. Yeah, whereas the one right next to it,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: it had like the like the air tank and it
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: had a bunch of extra roto pack. The vehicle will
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: drive terrible because of all that weight. I want to
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: leverage that.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Three It basically had fifteen gallons ideal. Jerry Kamps, I
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: know they're beautiful because they're all power cutter a different
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: kind and matched the Toyota strike.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: I know what we look for is we look for, Oh,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: this OEM is beginning to really understand the needs of
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: our audience, and Toyota, because of their association with x Overland,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: they're able to do things right from the beginning, which
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: is really cool.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: So OEMs in general are becoming more scarce. At that event. Yeah, really,
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: I think there was Toyota, Volkswagen and Nissan and Jeep.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: Jeep was there, that's right, Yeah, And there was Jeep
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: and then and then the Mopar as well. A large booth.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The Mopar booth is yeah, is where that you'll
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: find the Jeep Project vehicles. And Jeep always does a
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: good job at the event too. They always got some
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: kind of overlandy thing.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm surprised that that from the show layout. The
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: Jeep booth is down in the Tire Hall.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I wish it was a little bit different.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Spot really needs to be up in the West Hall.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: I think it would be great.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And they've been there, They've had the same location
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: for Jeep for forever.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: It seems like I think it's see.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Much more appropriate in a different location.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, especially since the West Hall is now it feels
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: like eighty seven miles from the rest of Sema far away,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: you know. Like the first day I was at Sema,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: I had over eleven thousand steps just at the event,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: and then the next day I had almost thirteen thousand steps,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: So like if you got to go back another four
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: thousand steps to get to another booth, you sometimes you
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: choose not to play well.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: On the truck displays were in the South Hall for
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: so long.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Again, second year in a row. Out of force of habit,
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: I initially went to the South Hall and if you're
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: familiar with the convention center, the South Hall and the
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: West Hall are probably a mile and a half apart
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: at least. Yeah, And so there you go. You think
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: you're in one place, and how you got to track
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: it and try to get get to your meeting on time.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that could be a challenge for sure. This content
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: is brought to you by Overland Journal, our premium quality
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: print publication. The magazine was founded in two thousand and
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: six with the goal of providing independent equipment and vehicle reviews,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: along with the most stunning adventures and photography. We care
• 23:22
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• 23:26
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  Speaker 1: watching or listening to right now. You can subscribe directly
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: on our website at Overland Journal dot com. All right, well,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: let's let's pivot a little bit to some products at
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: the event that you thought were standouts or that were interesting.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: The one that you talked about with that tire inflation
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: system sounds really clever.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I have. I think there's a special place in
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: my heart for these true innovative startup type companies, the
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: products that somebody jotted down in the back of a
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: napkin and then they turned into a reality.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: I have appreciation for the larger companies as well, but
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of these smaller kind of underdog
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: startups say tend to get they just don't get recognition.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: And so there were a couple of them that that
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: I wanted to call out specifically. And so there's there's
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: a company called air Flex and it's a central tire
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: inflation system that bolts onto your hub. And what I
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: think is neat about is how long have we always
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: wanted like a central tire inflation system. Sure that was
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: practical and easy to use, and I mean you think
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: of what was it they.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: The origin only a MD hummer. Yeah it had central
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: tire inflation.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's like and that always had its problems
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: and it's the only vehicle you could get it on.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: And then you've had a lot of experience with like
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Arctic trucks.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they run from the fender outside of the
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: vehicle down the big, big loop, which works fine when
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: you're just driving on glaciers or crossing Antarctica in the forest.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: It it just rips them off, yeah, exactly.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: So this system has kind of difficult to just explain.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: But if you imagine three metal discs kind of sandwich together,
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: and the inner metal disc bolts to your hub just
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: outside of the of the rotor using the stock studs,
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: and then you've got two more discs, and then the
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: wheel itself would bolt onto the outer disc, and so
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: you would have an onboard aer system. And the airline
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: would go into the center disc, and there's a seal
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: in there, a sealed bearing that allows air to pass
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: through and it's good for two hundred and fifty pounds
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: of air pressure. And the air goes into the central
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: disc and then it comes out of the outer disc.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: And from the outer disc you would run another airline
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: that goes into the straighter valve of your wheel, into
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: your tire. Then it has a control module. Right now,
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: it's a wired control module. In a few months they're
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: going to have an actual phone app that they can use,
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: and so you can air up, you can air down,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: you can have five different presets as you're driving. You
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: can change the air pressure on the fly, and the
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: system allows for air to be bled off and put
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: into the tire. Oh so you cat the same time.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Deflate on the go, down to down the trail pressure
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: on the go. And the one thing that's always been
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: so cool to me is like the safety feature of
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: that that people don't consider. Oftentimes, when we get a flat,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: it's just a puncture. It's just like a nail or something.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: It's like it's not just blowing air out. This system
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: would allow you to get to the next tire shop
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: without even having you know, if you just got a
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: slow leak.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you could actually you get actually just positive pressure.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: I could just keep pressurizing the tire until you get
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: to the tire shop to get it swapped out.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: And we talked about potential failures as well. Yeah, and
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: if it did fail, it would be like getting a
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: nail in your tire. Yeah, it would be a slow leak,
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: and then you could actually patch that. But let's say
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: the system failed altogether, which it's very robust, so I
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: don't really see that happening. But you can actually disconnect
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: the air hose from your strader sure valve and then
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: just pump your tire back up and put a tire
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: cap on it and you're good to go, and you
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: don't have the system connected anymore, but the tire itself
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: isn't completely reliant about the installation of the system.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really clever.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you can think about driving through the mountains
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: or the desert, especially the desert, right, you have really
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: deep sand, and then you might get into rock, and
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: then you might get into a little bit more hard pack,
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: and so you can change your tire pressure on the
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: go for each situation that you're coming up upon.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really that's really clever. And did they talk
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: about what applications they have currently designed?
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: So it's a universal mounting system.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, so to work on a tacoma and a wrangler.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: That's right. It's got several different holes.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Oh so it matches up with a bolt pattern. That's right,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: I got you.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And so it's not just one bolt pattern I
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: think they have. There are several series of holes on
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: that mounting plate. And he said you can basically adapt
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: it to just about anything.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: How cool is that?
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there was air Flax, which I think has a
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: lot of potential. There's another little one, little company called
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Glue Tread. They've been around for two years or so.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: It's a sidewall patch and it's just a rubber patch
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: with some fancy glue and there's an application process of
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: standing down the cut and everything.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Is it applied to the outside of the inside of the.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: Outside of the tire, And that's one of the questions
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: that we had for them. And you could apply it
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: to the inside, you'd have to take the tire wheel.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: That's always the challenge, right.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: And if if you don't have actually the knowledge of
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: how to do that and the tools. You need a
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: couple of special tools to do that in the field.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: But you can stick it on the outside of a tire,
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: and they said it's it's held. It's held for weeks
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: of off road use. So if you were just out
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: on the on the trail or you know, traversing a
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: certain section on during an overland trip and you have
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: a sidewall cut, you know, we remember, you know sidewalk cuts,
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: you'd you'd stitch them up with dental floss and then
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: stick off the wire and stick the bacon's in there.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: It look like you know Halloween mask, right, and so
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: now you could just you know, stand it up, put
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: the glue on the patch, Put the patch on there,
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: and it sticks and it'll last a couple of weeks.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Wow, so we'll at least get you back to the
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: road or the tire shop.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they make big patches of you know, small
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: one by one inch patches up to like a four
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: y six inch patch.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Interesting. I wonder if they have applications for motorcycles too.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: And then in the same area, you know, there was
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: Demost Shovels, which you know is a fan favorite. We've
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: known about them for years and they they continue to
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: push innovation with their with their tools and their mounting systems.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: So they had a nice display that was in fact,
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: they won an award this year. I think they won
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: an innovation award from SEMA.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Their new spade I thought was a really nice
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: development because it's much more universally practical for camping and
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: backcountry travel because you can use it as a camp shovel.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: And yeah, it's a small it's a smaller platform.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: So those were kind of the small companies that stood
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: out a little bit bigger company. We noticed was there's
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: a lot of battery companies now. One of the ones
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: that we've kind of noticed especially was anti gravity batteries
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: with that they're little, they're little motor I know, they
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: have a lot of different batteries, Like they have the
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: deep Cycle series that they're really proud of, and you know,
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: that's kind of their new product line. But they have
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: these motorcycle batteries that have a built in jumpstarter.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: And I just bought it. Was so funny because I
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: bought one a week and a half ago because the
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Motogoozy battery was smoked, and I'm looking at the different
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: batteries and I'm like, holy cow, this anti gravity thing
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: is amazing. So it has a built in jumpstarter, so
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: you just push a button and you can jumpstart your
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: own battery with this other little mini built in battery
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: kind of like a jumper pack.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's super cool. Well, and it's gonna save you.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: It's gonna save a ton of money, yeah, and time.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: With lithium batteries, you know, if you let them go,
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: which isn't that hard to do on a motorcycle if
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: you're not riding it regularly that you can really kill
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: a battery pretty easily, and the lithiums are hard to
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: bring back to life if you can't at all. So
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: with that jump starter, at least you've got a chance
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: of getting another couple of years out of this yeah.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Battery, Yeah, or just getting home if you leave the
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: lights on.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So that was a good one. ARC which is
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: an Australian company. They had a really cool new trailer
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: stabilizer we've seen the trailer stabilizers are just kind of
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: fold down and you can, you know, maybe move them
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: a few inches to kind of help level the trailer.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: They have as I think it's the only one on
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: the market now that'll do this. They have a handle
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: that'll go into it with a kind of a socket attachment.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: You can use that stabilizer as a jack and get
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: the trailer wheel completely up off the ground. So changing
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: a trailer tire just became a lot more easy.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: So you move it to another spot on the trailer
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: to do that.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: No, they're they're hard mounted to the aft corners of
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: the trailer I see. And so if you've got the tongue,
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: if you've got the tongue either on the on the
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: vehicle or the tongue wheel down. Then you can take
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: either corner and jack it up and so you can
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: get the tire up off the ground to change the
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: change out of a flat tire on a trailer or
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: if you're in camp.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Really level it nicely, even on really uneven terrain.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So they're the only company that I've seen that
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: has anything like that.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: That's clever.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: They're bringing it to the US right now. They have
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: it available in Australia.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: They have some really they have some really cool tongue
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: wheels as well. They do sifting wheels, a lot of
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: double wheels, so they with flotation on soft surfaces and
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: stuff like we encounter. Yeah, so there was a couple
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: of them for me that stood out to see an
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: arb roof tent. It makes so much sense that they
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: would do that. They've they've always had the kind of
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: soft shell clamshell style tents that were fairly common or
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: similar to other tents. But now they have their own
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: hardshell tent and it looks super attractive in this really
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: dark gray. Looks like there's plenty of room to have
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: some bedding in there. Look like it was called the
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Espirants I think is the name of it. It's a
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: really thoughtful tent, looks like it's going to be really
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: good quality as well. Which that's one of the things
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: that we're we're very mindful of in the rooftop tent
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: market is that there are too many companies that are
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: making tents that are too heavy or they're making them
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: too light duty and they won't hold up to long
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: term use. But there are there certainly are companies that
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: make really high quality tents like now ARB and I
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Camper and others.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Of course, well it really rounds out the offering for
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: AARB is I think so.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: And they had a really really handsome roof rack on
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: the back of this Tacoma or a bedrack excuse me really,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: but it was like a one piece extruded aluminum that
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: was just really impressive looking how how it was designed
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: and the radiuses on it and everything else. And then
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: out of the back they had their ARB drawer system,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: but it had a full kitchen set up inside the
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: drawer it rolled out of the back and it has
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: does it come with the kitchen setup, No, you can
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: get that as an option for the drawer, and it
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: had a sink and it had the stove in it,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: and it had I mean, it had all of all
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: of the gadgets that you would want in your in
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: your camp kitchen.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: So that and I've seen that they introduced it in
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: Australia a few years ago, but it wasn't available in
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: North America.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: Always made good drawer systems for vehicles.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: They have, and now they've got it's a built in
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: camp kitchen that occupies one of the drawers. So I
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: thought that was I thought that was very cool. And
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: then I've always been a fan of red Arc and
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: I think one of the reasons why I like Red
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: Arc products is that they are built to a very
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: high durability standard. One of the problems with most of
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: the RV industry, or even marine industry electronics is that
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: they are not built to like a military specification, so
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: they tend to have a fairly high failure rate, whereas
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: the red Arc products, they are potted and sealed and
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: they are tested on these vibration tables that are literally
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: shaking them apart like what we would experience at a car.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: So that is one of the reasons why I have
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: been a fan of red Arc products.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: But they actually have a Military division they do. I
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: think it's red arc defense and they specialize in supplying military.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: And you can see it in the product. But they
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: one of the they had this red vision system, and
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: one of the challenges with that system was the size
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: of the control, not the display, but the controller itself,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: the actual that had the solenoids and it had the
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: switching gear and the capacitors and all those other things
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: in it. It was quite large and it required you
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: to be able to access it to make changes and
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: to reset the breakers for example, Whereas they have a
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: new one called the tv MS Rogue and it has
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: intelligent smart relays inside it and smart reset of basically
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: the fusible links.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: Not the thin black one that's right, very low profile.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's probably a third of the size of
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: the one that was used before. So you can tuck
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: it into the right spots and then you don't have
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: to access it. You can reset the fusible link or
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: the mechanical link of the protection circuit. You can reset
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: it using the controller or the app.
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: And it's compatible with the larger one one as well,
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: so you can use it as an add on or
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: your additional circuits. That's right. You could build either direction, right,
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: if you already have the large one, you can add
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: on the smaller low profile or one of the things
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: they mentioned to me was that new thin profile one.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: It's a little bit lower price point. It is, so
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: it doesn't do as much as the big one, but
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: not everybody needs that much capability, so it's a nice
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: building block for the consumer totally.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: And really it's just what it doesn't do is the
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: amperage rating. So that's the one difference between the two.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: So the bigger one has thirty amp circuits, which you
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: would need for things like big compressors or really heavy
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: draw accessories like air conditioners and things like that. But
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: if you don't have the need for those, then the
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: ten or eight to ten, I can't remember exactly how
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: many ten amp circuits are going to be more than enough.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Well in that space is much smaller.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: The need for those big compressors is kind of going away.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: An interesting conversation with Milwaukee Tool Company, Yeah, and how
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: they've got their battery operated tools and how so many
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: you know, overlanders and people with vehicles are now carrying
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: their tools instead of the big air compressor with trying
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: to run air tools.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, that's so true. So those are some
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: of the things that really stood out to me, and
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I thought, you know, we could kind of end the
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: conversation with what we see for overlanding for the future.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: That is oftentimes a bit of a predictor that we
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: see at the SEMA Show. And I would say that,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: from my perspective, the most encouraging development, because there's a
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: lot of misunderstanding about how markets work, and you'll hear
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: someone say like, oh, we're getting close to peak overlanding,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: and that's just because they view it from the perspective
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: of how they've seen it grow so far. But that's
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: only the tip the tip of the iceberg. When an
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: industry really starts to grow is when there's adoption by
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: the OEMs. So we're us now at the beginning of
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: adoption of overlanding by the OEMs. So that means to
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: assume that we're close to peak overlanding is very naive
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: because once the OEMs get involved, that's when you're going
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: to really see it take off. Now, the downside to
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: that is then it increases. There's going to be a
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: lot more people on the trails, so there is some
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: there is some consideration around that. And then we're also
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: going to see where a lot of the products, a
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: lot of the OEM vehicle offerings that are overland specific,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: they may not align with what maybe people that are
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: hardcore overlanders, are global or international travelers may expect. So
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: what it means is a broadening of the market. There'll
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: be just as many, if not more genuine options for
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: around the world travel than we had before. Look at
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: the new Grenadier coming out, for example. But you're going
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: to see a lot more vehicles that are that will
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: help enable people to do overland travel, but they may
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: not be suitable for the most remote, or the most rugged,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: or the most international de destinations. But I believe that
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: we are at the very beginning of overlanding really taking
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: on a lot of momentum.
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: I think you're I think the manufacturers, the OEMs, they're
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: starting to address the evolution of overlanding. You've got that
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: core overlander, that core definition of overlanding, which is this
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: worldwide expedition travel. The reality is that most consumers don't
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: have the time or the resources to go do a
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: worldwide expedition.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Sure, but they're.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Still interested in overlanding as a principle, and a practice,
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: and they're really interested in all these comfortable products that
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: make the.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Experience comfortable and capable.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and so you start to look at how the
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: consumer is utilizing these products and how they're participating in
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: the activity, and a lot of times they're using these
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: overland practices and products to support their other ambitions. Sure,
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: whether they're fly fishermen or mountain bikers. It's all of
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: a sudden, the experience becomes more self sufficient and more comfortable.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: And so for the manufacturers to start to address the
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: fact that, hey, these are everyday people going out for
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: a weekend adventure or a week long vacation and they
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: can cater to that, and that's really the bulk of
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: the audience, which we've been We've been addressing that for
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: years through our content, making things more attainable for people
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: in the inspiring stories that we write and publish.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: And it's also totally legitimate overland travel. If you're doing
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: vehicle based adventuring, then you're overlanding. It's that's the definition
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: of it. You don't have to cross an international border,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: you don't even have to camp to go overlanding. I mean,
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: there's been countries that i've crossed, and I would much
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: rather stay in the little villages and interact with the
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: local experience. Of course, so it doesn't have to require
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: even going off road either. It's about vehicle based adventure
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: travel and that means that it is accessible to early everyone.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: For me, when I start to see the OEMs providing
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: vehicles from the factory that are really ready to go
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: and do that, more so than ever before, that's really exciting.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: We used to think that the heyday of overland vehicles
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: was in the nineties. But there's more.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: Capable, there's still more to come.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: There's so much to come, and again to hear Toyota
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: during their press launch at SEMA use overland more times
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: than any other word is pretty exciting.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: The other thing I'm noticing is I find that companies
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: are starting to provide complete solutions for people. Yeah, in
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: the past, they've kind of, you know, kind of dip
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: their toe in the in the overlanding waters by maybe
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: bringing one or two products to market that could be
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: you know, applied to a vehicle build where now they're
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: kind of saying, all right, how do we address the
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: entire vehicle, how do we address the entire overland experience?
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: That somebody is going to have sure and they're creating
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: these these very well thoughtful, thought out product solutions that
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: work well together.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah. No, we see it across the board and you
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: go buy a vehicle and it's got a built in
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: basically a switch pro right there in the dash. It's
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: got the trailer brake controller right there in the dash.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: It's got accessory points and twelve old outlets and one
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: hundred and twenty volt outlets and good tie downs in
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: the bed. And I just think it's such an exciting,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: exciting time.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: And from a business perspective, there's been a lot of consolidation. Yeah,
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of companies that are joining forces with
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: complementary products. Yeah, and that's allowing them to create more
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: seamless offering.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And I think it could not be a more
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: exciting time for overland travel. And it's to go to SEMA.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, I remember the first Sema that I went to,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: I think it was two thousand and four, and I
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: had my Tacoma with a roof tent and I was
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: the only roof tent there. And to now come to
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: SEEMA in twenty twenty two and you can't go ten
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: feet without bumping into a rough tent. It's very clear
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: that not only is overlanding a really important part of
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: the aftermarket and of the Sema show, but it is
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: a really healthy and growing market as well.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think it's I don't think it's going anywhere.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: I think someday it might. I don't know when we
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: all do lunar landers or something. But everything's got to change.
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: I think it's become a new it's solidified itself as
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: an activity.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: Right, it's not just something that you know, these guys
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: go do or the small group of people go do.
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: It's now like it's well established.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: It really is. It's really fun to fun to see. Well, Brian,
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: any other thoughts that you've got around around SEMA or
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: what you hope to see in future seemas no.
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: You know, I was very I was actually inspired by
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: the quality of offering this year. I saw that you
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: still see a lot of knockoff products, but I saw
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: I feel like there were there were fewer knockoffs and
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: more kind of representations of genuine ingenuity or good quality
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: product offerings. And I hope that that continues because the
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: consumers deserve it and So that's that's inspiring. You know,
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: I think next year's SEMA is you know, I could
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: spend all week at SEMA. I wish it wasn't in Vegas.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: Got like two three days and I'm done with Vegas.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: I know. The only the only upside for us is
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: a four hour drive.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it's nice and convenient.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: It is really convenient. Yeah.
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: No, I look forward to next year and I look
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: forward to seeing how what the company is represented at
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: this show is implemented into the marketplace.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: And and for those companies that are listening to this podcast,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: if you want, if you are a new business, if
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: you're coming new into the Overland space, these are things
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: that are really important to Brian and I that we
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: we support these new, new innovative companies, these mom and
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: pops that are trying to make it a go. Please
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: reach out to us. You can and you can send
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: a press release and reach out directly to Brian. You
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: can reach them Brian at Overland International dot com and
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: you can you can send them that you can send
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: them little updates on your vehicle builds. You can ask
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: them about how he how he moses lawn perfect can
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: get So please everybody that's listening. Send Brian an email.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: Well great, you know, you're just great, you know, put
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: out my phone number two. These little companies are what
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: built the industry. Yeah, and so we do have a
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: special appreciation for the ingenuity, and we have another big
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: appreciation for the larger companies addressing and identifying with the space.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: Oh totally. And we're we're we started as a small
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: business from scratch, Yeah, from scratch, and we self funded it.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: And you know, Brian, you've been here from the very beginning,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: which is really awesome. And seriously, if you are a
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: new a new company to the space and you'd like
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: to to interact with our team and let us know
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: what you're doing, please reach out because we would love
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: to feature. As long as it is appropriate for the
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: audience and it's appropriate quality and isn't a direct knockoff
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: of what someone else has put a lot of energy
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: in behind, we're going to give it the attention it deserves.
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: And we also have two decades of research that we
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: share quite openly with folks. We've looked into every segment
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: of the market and consumer usage, and so we have
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: really good ideas on how these can how these participants
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: engage with the activity and with the products.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Yes, and thanks Brian for being on the podcast again again.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: If you want to hear more about Brian as the adventurer,
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: he has spent years of his life living on and
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: sailing around the world, in addition to being a prolific
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: overland traveler as well. So take a listen to Brian
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: and MAI's discussion about our crossing of the Pacific Ocean
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: which is always ready for an adventure yeah, which is
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: on the podcast as well. But thanks Brian for being
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: on the podcast. Thanks yeah, and we thank you all
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: for listening and we'll talk to you next time.