Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Episode 100 :: Don't Buy a Couch and Other Questions and Musings

Transcript

Episode 100 :: Don't Buy a Couch and Other Questions and Musings · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Lowen.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. We are here for
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: episode one hundred. I'm here with my my illustrious co
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: host Matt Scott, who is You can't see this in
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: the video on YouTube, but he's actually wearing socks with
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: his birkenstocks.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: And I am still and I am still bald. So yeah,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: since this is episode one hundred, I'm just going to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: get a little bit more comfortable and I'm going to
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: drink my cheap beer while wearing socks and stocks.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: We are feeling more comfortable, but somehow we forgot everything
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: that we were supposed to do with the podcast day.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: My microphone was over there and Paula says, Scott, are
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: you going to move your mind your phone?
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Well, I don't know. I think one of the things
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: that makes the podcast fun is that we don't take
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: it too serious. Oh.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Thank goodness and a special thanks to front Runner for
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: supporting this week's podcast, Looking for Adventure at a Moment's Notice,
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: introducing the new slim sport roof Wrap from front Runner,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: a low profile sleep alternative that's perfect for hauling sports
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: equipment one day and driving the streets the next. Whether
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: the day in the wild calls for camping, mountain bikes,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: sea gear, paddleboard, or just a few storage bags. A
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Slimsport makes it easier to get there. Here's some key
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Slimsport features. It's got a low profile design to minimize
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: drag noise and allow for easier access to low clearance garages.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: It has t slots in the high strength aluminum slats
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: that allow you to use most of front Runners top
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: mount accessories. Side mount accessories are accommodated through available rack
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: mounting brackets. Also got the ability to add any of
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: front Runners fifty five plus accessories to the slim Sport,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: so you can set up your rack for any adventure.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Choosing your next adventure has never been easier with a
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: new Slimsport. Refract Slimsport is available for select vehicle models.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Visit Frontrunner Outfitters dot com to learn more. We are
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: obviously very grateful for the people that help us pull
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: it off, So part of episode one hundred is to
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: celebrate making it to one hundred episode. There is a
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: graveyard of podcasts that have made it to episode seven
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: or sex or whatever, and for us to make it
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: to one hundred, and I would say that that success
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: has so much to do with Paula burr Our producer.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: She has been tirelessly sorry you have to cut that
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: swear out. She's up there for those people watch, she's
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: up top.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Thank you Paula for all that you have done for
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: this podcast, and also just very grateful for Ashley Giordano
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: who has taken the helm in the field and interviewed
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: a bunch of people in remote areas, including Saudi Arabia.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: And Ashley is great. Ye, she cares so much like
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: she's so detailed. Yeah, and I just I just have opinions.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: But you've got to have it all. You've got to
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: have the in and the yang, I know, in the yang.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: And then of course Matt Swartz has been a big
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: help as well, and we've done a bunch of great
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: episodes on the stuff that we test editorially in Overland Journal.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: And then of course the rest of the Overland Journal
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Overland International staff that makes everything possible. And then Matt
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: your team that allows you to come over maybe they
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: encourage you to come over here.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know they actually do. Yeah. Laura was like, oh,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: you're doing a podcast. That's great. Oh yeah, you should
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: totally go do that go do that thing.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Of course, you, as our listeners, we are. We're so
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: grateful that you have all given given us the time
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: to listen to the podcast and provide your feedback and
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: your questions. We're going to go through some of your
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: questions today, so please make sure that you reach out
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: to Matt and me on Instagram. You can reach Matt
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: at Matt Explore on Instagram. And you're what Scott dot
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: a dot Brady dot Brady on Instagram.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: I liked your old one more Global Overland like you
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: still have the handle I do. I think it was cooler,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: but that's probably what. But I'm not that cool of
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: a guy. So maybe I just went down downhill on
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: the cool scale. And then I've also been on I've
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: been on Twitter more, which is interesting. TikTok not really,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I mean I I do every once in a while
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: post on TikTok. Yeah. I imagine you posting on TikTok
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: would be like me posting on TikTok. It feels very uncomfortable.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I uncomfortable and we're probably doing something wrong. I think
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: I'm doing it all wrong. Yeah yeah, Caleb just just
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: kind of laughs at me when I refer to TikTok,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: he's like the marketing maven.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you got to have those guys for sure. But yeah,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: on Twitter, Scott underscore Brady been doing that a lot.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: But we're just grateful for all of your insights, all
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: of your feedback, and we're going to go into a
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: little bit of that. We also want to take a
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: moment in this podcast to honor Bill Swales of earth Romer,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: who passed away in the last few weeks. He was
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: one of the earliest influences for me in the overland space.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Very cool guy.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: I would consider him a great friend, great friend of
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: the industry as well. And many may not know this,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: but Bill Swales was actually one of the first people
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: to support Overland Journal starting as a magazine. He actually
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: gave us a check. We ultimately ended up buying his
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: interest back out again. But if it wasn't for Bill
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and his generosity and his support. He also provided us
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: with the email list for all those earth Roamer owners
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: who became many of our first subscribers. Bill Man, I
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: miss you. That's really yeah, it just breaks my heart.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I like to think that Bill had.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: A good life though, you know, I mean, he got
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: to do something that he really enjoyed and you could tell,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: you know, like every time I go in my earthrom
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: you can just tell how much thought and care was
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: put into these machines and how much he continued to
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: evolve them, which just shows like he enjoyed doing it,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: you know. Unfortunately, it just sucks that he passed away
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: too early. Yeah, it's just super sad.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: I know he was starting to be able to travel more,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: which is wonderful, and he just dedicated so much of
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: his life to building a great product, and he helped
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: a lot of people along the way. He wasn't really
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: public about that, but in my own life he made
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: a difference. And I'm just really really grateful for Bill
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: and sad that he is gone. Check out earth roamer
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: dot com. Check out some of his stories that are
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: still on there. They've got a bunch of information on
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Bill and course he has a wonderful team that's continuing
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: to make a great product. I wish them all the
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: best going forward without them. But let's uh, let's talk
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: a little bit about what you have been up to,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: because we need to have more podcasts just to keep up.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: With your I've been I've been Towerking, I've been working
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: a lot work. We're cranking a lot of really cool
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: things and Adventure imports, a new e commerce side of
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: things that we hope is really more targeted towards the
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: core overland guys, Like we're not trying to sell like
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: led light bars to come owners, trying to do real
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: overland accessories and for people that are actually taking adventures.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Kind of launching some of our own products, which has
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: been really fun. It's been a huge creative outlet for me.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Brought an actual degreed engineer on board to get some
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: of the things that are in my head out onto paper.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: I love it, which is which has been really really fun.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Three D printers, ripping lasers, all kinds of stuff. So
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: the goal is that we're trying to do everything in Prescott,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and that's where we live, That's where we've I've I've
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: made my home and I want to support our little
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: neck of the woods. Yeah, I've been working on that. Cars.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Have we spoken since I about the prospector XL. I
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: think we knew that you were getting it. I don't
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: know that we talked much about it. Let's do that
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: you got rid of the TRX. I got rid of
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: the TRX. It was. I mean still I have to
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: say one of the best grand touring cars ever. I
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: think the Raptor is a little better off road because
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: it's more of a modular system. You know that the
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: t Rex is very much super truck, and I think
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: where I maybe got bored with it was aside from
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: like being able to put wheels and stuff, which I
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: didn't do on do it. It's not a lot you
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: can modify. And I like, you know, outside of like
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: travel Matt, when I'm at home, I like to play
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: with cars. Tinker. Yeah, I liked the Tinker. So I
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: had an opportunity to get a prospect Or Excel that
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: was the exact Matt Speck. It was the limited Longhorn
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: and it has it's all black, totally blacked out forties
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: and all of the good things. AAV to send me
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the brush guard for it, and the brush guard looks
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: so all of it's awesome. I love it. I think
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: it makes a huge difference in the truck. Yeah, I
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: put I put a fifty two gallon tank in and
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I did the eighty one hundred AV Bilstein shock upgrade,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: which is like, you know, would you notice with that
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I haven't had it off road too much to really
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: like dive too much into and into my thoughts on it.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: But I mean definitely just on you know, bigger g
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: out speed bumps and that kind of stuff. You know,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: it's a little bit more comfortable around town. Sure, I've
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: just been working so much that it's like working in
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: planning adventures and stuff. And does it have more fluid
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: capacity too? It does have more fluid capacity. They're not
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: adjustable shocks, which I kind of dig totally. I know them,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: yeah when we you know, people set up to five
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: and five, seven or three is what they always set
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: them to, right. But actually the same guy who did
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: the factory tuning for the TRX did the tuning on
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: these shocks, so I have I have high high hopes
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: for them, as I do from all AEV products. But
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: about my first airhead, about my first airhead, about my
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: first air cooled car, in the same he did, in
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: the same Exek exact, I ended up selling some stuff
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: I ended up selling. I sold my Ferrari. I had
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: a beautiful four or five eight at a newer nine
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: to eleven sold that. You know, if anybody that does
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: follow cars, I bought this stuff pre pandemic you know,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: or pre pandemic craze of pricing, I should say, because
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: I did buy them during the pandemic. With what cars
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: have gone up, it was just like by Felicia, Yeah exactly, No,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: that was the right twit and you got to own
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: them and enjoy them. And yeah, I got to drive
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: a Ferrari for a year and literally get paid quite
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: a bit of money to do it. I mean, it's
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: crazy how much that car just skyrocketed. I guess people
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: just don't have anything else to spend their money on.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: It wasn't it the last of the last naturally aspirated car?
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: And it was. It was Ferrari certified, which was a
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: big thing, as one of the last four or five
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: eights that were certified eligible to have it. And it
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: was really cool, don't get me wrong. You know, it
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: was Roso car, so it had the traditional Basi interior.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: It was like you close your eyes and it was
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the Ferrari. But to be weird, I didn't it sounds y,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: but I didn't really miss it when it went away
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: like it was. It was cool. But I think some
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: of these supercars are just getting so crazy in performance
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: that you can't really enjoy them that much day to day. Yeah,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: so you know, it was fun when I took it
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: to the track and kind of stuff, but what you
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: replace it with you can enjoy every day. Yeah, it's
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: it's flat out. You're still like not criminals. Yeah, my
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: pickup trucks faster. But yeah, I bought a short wheelbase
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: nine to eleven that we're going to turn into kind
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: of a vintage Juring car. You know, right now we're
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: looking at the same people who put on the peris
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: to Pekeene rally also are launching one in twenty twenty
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: four in Southeast Asia, and Southeast Asia's Laura and my
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: favorite place on the planet. So it starts in put
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: you man Or Saigon, goes into Cambodia, then Thailand and
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Lao and then back into Vietnam, goes through Sapa and
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: then Hannoi and ends there. So I think we're going
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: to probably try and do that in that car. Oh yeah,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: in a little nine to eleven. Well, I have to
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: say that.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: I mean, you've owned a lot of cars, and you've
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: owned a lot of really beautiful cars, but this is
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: the most beautiful. It's really cool. It's the most beautiful
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: car I've ever seen you own. Yeah, and it's probably
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: one of the most beautiful cars like I've seen in person.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: You can go to a Barrett Jackson or whatever, and
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: you kind of get overwhelmed by the beautiful cars. You
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: don't really get a lot of amazing stuff. Yeah, you
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: don't get a chance to really kind of sit with it.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Whereas the quality of the restoration and that white paint,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: and the fact that it's so understated. It doesn't have
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: a big fin it doesn't it isn't a wide body.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: It's it's got these dainty elements to it, these like yeah,
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: it's very dainty in a lot of ways. And somehow
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: you and I fit in it, which is amazing.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Well, that's that's the cool thing is that it is
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: like a small vehicle, but it was made for tall people. Sure,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: made for Germans, made for Germans. Yeah, so I'm just
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: so enjoying that. You know. I learned, you know, kind
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: of some of my older friends, you know, Bruce and
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Steve taught me how to time the car. I knew
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: a little bit about carbureration, but I haven't had to
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: balance six carburetors at one time. Sure, you know, so
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: those are the skills that I can take with me,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: and it's faster than I thought it was going to be. Yeah,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: it's it's it only weighs about two thousand pounds. That's
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: it's had a lot of weight reduction done to it
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: in the right way. Is sure. I'm really really happy
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: with it. Oh and to me, it also it speaks
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: to travel still because people did travel in those cars.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: I mean that one's lowered a little bit. I think
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: you're going to correct that. But yeah, it's in the
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: process of being, you know, raised to stock height. Sure,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: some people think it's too high, but for how I'm
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: going to use it, I just I think it'll be perfect.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: I think it'll be totally perfect, and I think the
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: ride quality will improve a little bit better and it'll
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: help you with those potholes when you go through Cambodia.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: How exciting. Man, that's amazing. I've got to do some
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: kind of shakedown trip with it. Juanna Wato, Mexico. That
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: would be cool. It would be cool. I'm thinking I'm
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: thinking Carmel, Decabo or just getting getting in a few
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: kind of air cooled guys together and sounds fin Doing
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: that would be really cool. Kind of connect two amazing
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: places for sure, map I guess.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Speaking of interesting cars, I just did a press slanch
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: on the on the GMC at four X. I was
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: sharing the vehicle with Andrew Mannis, who had never met
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: before I knew of him, and he's the editor of
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: this new The Motoring Journal, which is just a beautiful
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: table style book, thick paper. And there's some folks in
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: there that we know of. So they have a senior
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: still frame hunter by the name of Sinwy Xavier, which
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: we all know from the podcast.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Senior Still Frame Hunter. They're trying a little bit with
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: that one, Sinwy slaying it yet again. But no. So
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: that's the most la job description or job title I
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: ever heard in my life. That's true. This is in
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: this magazine's pretty la, but it's it's also very really
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: beautifully done, some thoughtful editorial and a wide spectrum of
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: content as well. Yeah, check it out.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: I'm always one to help promote small independent publications because
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: we've been there.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: This is the book that you want. You may not
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: know that you want it yet, but you do. So.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: It's the definitive history of the Camel Trophy by Nick Dimbleby,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: who is if he wasn't there, he knows the guy
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: that was. It's crazy. So we've been all over the
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: world with Nick with land Rover Adventures. Right, one of
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: the most talented automotive photographers I know, no question. His
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: style is so clean and distinctive in how clear and
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: just technically perfect it is. And it's one of the
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: nicest guys. But this book is just you know, if
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: you're watching on YouTube, you're getting a little sneak peek,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: but just the images and the things that are in
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: this book are really cool. It's very thoughtful, it's very
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: well done. It's definitely an insider's perspective on a really
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: interesting part of automotive history and overland history and and
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: off road history or whatever you want to call it.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I think the Camel Trophy had an influence
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: on many of us huge.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: I know it did for me.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: I know I wanted to, you know, have a sand
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: glow discovery so bad. And when you go through the book,
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: just the level of like if you want to geek
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: out on like what the rack was and what the
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: cases were that they put on the rack, it actually
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: goes into all of that kind of detail. You know,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: if you're looking for letting your family, know, like the
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: gift that you want under the tree. None of this
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: stuff is sponsored. These are just things. These are just
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: things that we're we love and we're passionate about. So yeah,
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: the camel Trophy, the Definitive History, so check that out.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: It's a beautiful coffee table book that goes into really cool. So, yes,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: those are the props that we brought. Oh do we
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: bring the do we bring the open ill knife? We
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: just got some cool knives. Matt and I needed a knife.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: I need to eat a new cheese knife for the
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: earth thrower. So it basically is somebody keeping the wine cap.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: It's like a perfect camper knife. It's a cheese knife
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: and a wine bottle opener. You're gonna go get He's
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: gonna go get it. One of the things that I
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: like about it is that it's super inexpensive. So I
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: think it's thirty six dollars for this knife and it's.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Still nice quality, super nice. You know, it's made in France.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Just imagine all of the Amazon packages and cheese you
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: can cut with this. It even has a little a
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: little lock, which is which is quite nice. Yeah. Sure, yeah,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: I'm going to rant on knives for a second. I
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: don't carry a knife anymore because I'm always around overling
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: people and it's like, hey, does anybody have a knife.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: And it's like like like thousands of dollars of boutique
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: made knives just get like like switch bladed out instantly.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: So I'm gonna start carrying this. It has a wine
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: opener for my Rose habit yep or cheese yes or
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Amazon packages. Yeah, well we're both on those Lulu Lemon pants.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah that's right, not sponsored. Yeah, but just buy them.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't know what they are, but they're
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: like stretching replacements and they're stretchy and they're really durable.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: They dry really quickly. They're perfect for travel. Yeah.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: I talked about that with Brian Bass in the last
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: episode and uh yeah. They make a looks like a chambray,
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: like a nice button down shirt.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah you should. Super super quick drying, super comfortable. Yeah.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: I wear it on every trip now. I just bring
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: it along. Works great. I'm gonna fiddle with this knife
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: the entire podcast. It's like you're it's like you're what
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: did they call it? My fidget spenta. It's maybe I
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: shouldn't have given you a knife to fiddle with.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: That's that was cheers, cheese. Let's talk trips since we
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: started the podcast. What do you think has been the
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: trip that you've been on that it had the biggest
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: influence on you?
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: You know, I guess since we've spent since we've started
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: the podcast, I probably spent about, you know, a month
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: or two in Africa on two different trips, and that
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: play speaks to me. It just feels totally natural to
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: be there. I am who I am, and I like
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: I like shiny things as much as I like you know,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: camping in the dirt. And I think the cool thing
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: with Africa is you can have this juxtaposition of both.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: If you want to stay at you know, an amazing
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Safari lodge, you can. If you want a camp you can.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: I think it's just something for everyone. I know that
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: getting there is expensive, but once you're there, it's it's
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: not terribly It's not expensive at all. Yeah, I would
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: say I would say Africa for me has been you know, Namibia, Tanzania.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: I'd like to go back to South Africa maybe this winter.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: It's just cool because I think it adds depth to
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: your travels. You know, since starting adventure imports and doing
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the whole Max tracks thing. I've been limited on what
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: I can do. I'm not saying that I don't get out,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: and I'm not saying that I like have it rougher
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: or anything. I'm just saying that it's not like when
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: you were in Australia and you guys just took off. Yeah,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go off for six months or whatever.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: You know, I have responsibilities and employees. So Africa is
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: this nice thing where I can kind of still in touch,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: but then I can really get out of touch if
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I want to. Yeah, I would say Africa. I mean,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: for you, was it the boat thing? I would say,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: so the boat thing. This sailing experience was just totally
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: transformative for me. Yeah, you bought a boat and now
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: you're I mean you're you're you're on your boat quite
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: a bit. Yeah.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: It's like the lake house in Arizona, which is kind
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: of nice. So yeah, yeah, So I just I go
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: there for long weekends and read books and sale and
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: I needed a hobby and so now I've got one,
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: which has been yeah awesome.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: I think that it seems as if we're coming out
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: of the whole pandemic thing, and we're starting to plan
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: some trips. You know, I know everybody is, and I
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: think everybody kind of should be. You know, this industry
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: has overlanding has rapidly become about the stuff and not
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: the doing, which is fascinating. You know. I mean, I
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: get that I earned my living from, you know, selling stuff,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: but we always like to think that we encourage people,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: you know, if it's Max tracks or a trip, go
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: take the trip. Yeah, you know, I'm looking forward to
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: to tuch Uktuk. We leave in almost exactly thirty days.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: We're going to do a little stop over at the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Northwest Overlan Rally, which I think is the sixteenth to
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: the nineteenth in Plaine, Washington, So we'll be hanging out there.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: I really enjoy it and I think it'll be a
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: great place to start our trip. Well, so you've got
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: you've got Alaska coming, which will be amazing. So that's
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: that's really fun. So so excited. You know, if anybody
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: has any any spots they recommend. You know, we're going
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: to go up Cassie our Highway, then do beautiful South
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Cannel Road, which I think will be fun. I don't
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: know if we'll really do the North Cannel Road because
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: it's it is just an in and out. We have
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: to kind of pick and choose.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Where we're a way to connect from that South Canal
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: to another highway that brings you back around.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I think, so, I think you can not have to
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: come back out on that one. It's a North Cannel
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Highway that you have to go in and out on.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: The South Cannel Highway goes from the Alaska Highway. It's
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: kind of south and then it shoots you out by
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Ross River right exactly, which will take you to CarMax,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: which will take you to Dawson City, which then we'll
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: eventually get on. I think that's the way to go
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: because you don't have to be on the alcan That's nice.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: That's a good that's a good mind. Yeah, so you know,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: we're hoping to have a nice experience shut off a
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: little bit, and you know, it's just I feel like,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: like I said, I feel like we're just coming out
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: of this whole sure weird thing that we've all as
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: a species dealt with for the last two years, and
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: I'm really excited for twenty twenty three and the travel
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: potential that's there for that.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: I just flew on a plane without a mask on.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: It was just it felt so unusual. Yeah, And of course,
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: like if I was to sit down next to someone
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: who was masked, I would ask them if they wanted
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: me to be masked, because there are.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: People that have conditions, conditions that benefit from more caution.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: But I happened to not that happened to not be
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: the case, so I was able to fly from the
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: San Diego with no mask on. It was just the
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: weirdest feeling to even walk into an airport without a
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: mask on, you know, so weird. The next big thing
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: is that test that you have to take to come
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: back in the US within twenty four hours. Yeah. Testers. Yeah,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to get into the politics of it,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: but a lot of countries don't require that, and it
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: adds an element of risk, you know, with so many
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: people being asymptomatic or whatever. For sure they're giving us
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: is it last year or the year before? Is flu
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: shot now for COVID. Again, maybe that's a little too political,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: but you really don't have a way to protect yourself
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: other than exposure, and that only lasts for so long.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: So for the international stuff, like still the idea for
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: US of like these quick trips. Like we just said
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: a week in Switzerland and Italy, but we had COVID
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: in mid or end of January, so we knew that
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: we still had a few months of not getting it.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Now that's a totally different thing. You know, that was
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: April and now we're looking into May or I guess
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: that was March. I think you kind of get what
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to say, well totally, Like I remember when
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: we week trip can turn into a two week trip
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: or a three week trip.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember when we went to Italy coming back.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: It's like I went ahead and did it as soon
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: as I could give me the most window, and I
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: did the test where I was like third party because
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: if it came back, I could try to do the
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: test again, or I could try to find because it
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: would be very easy to get stuck.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: You obviously don't want to people flying with COVID and
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: and spreading it, Like I understand that, but it just
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: changes the risk of travels, the risk profile. Yeah, for sure,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: you could easily get stuck in a country for a
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks. Yeah, like if you know, if you
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: have stuff going on with work and whatnot, and yeah,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: a week is doable. But three yeah, it changes it. Yeah,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: definitely changes it. I don't know. Well, I'm hoping I
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: get to go to Africa later in the summer. Where
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: do you want to go?
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: The goal would be to go from Cape Town to Cairo.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: So that's it's all coming together. I just don't know
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: if it'll be in a motorcycle or in a cool drive.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: We'll have some things to announce here soon. So we're
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: getting some final pieces of the puzzle put together and
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: keeping an eye on some of the border conditions and
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: some of the visa requirements, particularly around Ethiopia, and that's changing.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Well, they have a little skirmish go down, and they do,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: they do, and there's a way around it. You just
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: you know, just go through Sudan. You come in through
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Uganda into South Sudan and then you are able to
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: go around Ethiopia. It's not ideal either, So yeah, well,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: you know, it's okay. I'll figure it out. We're on
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: our way back, you know. And I think that you know,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: as we were talking in your office, is starting to
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: highlight some of the travels that people are doing on
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the podcast, and yep, I think that'll be nice.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: So that's one of the things that we wanted to
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: talk about in the episode one hundred is we would
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: love to hear about your travels as well. So if
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: you've gotten back from a significant overland adventure, just send
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: us a little note where you were, maybe a photo
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: or something like that that we can share. We'd love
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: to just highlight where those that listen to the podcast
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: have been in the world, because all of you inspire
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: us as well, so we just really would love to
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: know where you've been, maybe a lesson that you learned
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: on the trip that we can share with the rest
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: of the audience. So please feel free to reach out
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: with us to us with your recent exploits. And a
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: special thanks to Moon Fabrications for supporting this week's podcast.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Moonshade by Moonfabrications is the portable vehicle awning you've been
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: waiting for. Moonshade is built to last, simple to set up,
• 24:07
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• 24:10
  Speaker 2: to most vehicle styles without a drill right out of
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: the box. With over sixty square feet of shade coverage
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: and multiple setup configurations, Moonshade is the ideal choice for
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: rigs of all sizes. Moonshade only weighs eight pounds and
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: shrinks down to the size of a yoga mass, so
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: you can pack more of what you need out on
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: the trail. Visit moonfab dot com. That's m n fab
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: dot com to place your order today for the worst
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: summer sun treat yourself to the best Moonshade as you covered.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Thanks Moonshade. It's been a weird world lately, it has,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: but hopefully it's getting back. Yeah, it certainly has, and
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: you know that, of course it's on many of our
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: hearts right now with the conflict in Europe. So obviously,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: you know, the whole Ukraine thing is bad, but for
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: people that were planning to do you know, Eastern Europe,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: that totally changes things, does you know, I kind of
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: you know, you're talking a few months ago. Hey, you know,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: let's just do like a quick round the World trip
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: or something to do Europe, go through Russia. I hadn't seen.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: I haven't been to Russia, you know, do the stands,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: do Mongolia. And it's as funny that whole Eastern Europe
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Silk Road or whatever you do, and it goes in
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: and out of Russia so much that does just like
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: what do you do, Like, I know, the Giordano's we're
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: talking about that, and it's like, well, you can't go
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: through Ukraine. You can't go you know, you're not gonna
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: go through it into the other disputed kind of territories, Georgia,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: It's it's amazing how many of them are affected. I mean,
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: I was just reading about Tajikistan, you know, and that
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: was one of my favorite countries that I traveled through
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: on the Silk Road, and it's shut down. I mean,
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Kazakhstan is having all kinds of trouble and that was
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: a model of democracy for a while. Fighting going on
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: in uzbekas Stan right now. So there's just there's very
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: real problems that would that would significantly complicate a Silk
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: Road trip right now, whereas five years ago it was
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: no big deal, and now it's a big deal.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: So people back in South America and yeah, don't wait.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: If you get an opportunity to go, for sure go. Yeah,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: that's true because you don't know how things are going
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: to change. So I think it's back to Africa. In
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: South America for most people, we're just you know, we're
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: hoping Southeast Asia, it really starts to open up. It's
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: it's getting there, but you know, it's just opening. It
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: seems countries will open and it'll close, and they'll open
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: yah close, and it's just a bit nerve racking as
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: far as you know, trying to plan.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: And sometimes it opens or closes right when you're there.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, I remember rolling up to the border of
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Kyrgyzstan and just like it was, the border was shut,
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: just completely shut, and there was no indication that was
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: going to happen, but little little skirmish kicked off at
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: the end of the Fragana Valley and borders shut. So yeah,
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: and you work around it, you figure it out. We're
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: going to talk more about vehicles again because that's kind
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: of fun. Let's talk about you've had at last count,
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: eight hundred and thirty seven.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Cars, thirty nine but yeah, okay, that's right. I missed
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: a couple of them that you've bought since we last
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: talk five minutes ago.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: What's the favorite your favorite car you've ever owned all time?
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: And it's not like the one that you want to
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: have back or whatever. It's not like bringing the ex
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: girl front back or whatever. Just what what was the
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: one that you just it just made you smile, just
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: your favorite.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Actually trying to put thought and effort into this. I
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: think I'm weird. I think that I romanticize cars and
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: I'm not terribly sentimental. I think of cars that I
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: had that I regret selling the most, the ones that
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I like look back and I'm like, Okay, I would
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: like to have another one of those. I love G wagons.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah you know, and I guess, well, I guess I
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: just bought another one. It's older, it's a three hundred GD.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: It's a for G people. It's a W four sixty three,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: but it has narrow axles, it doesn't have fender flares,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: it has a manual transmission, roll up windows. I think
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: the G wagons are really charming to me. I think
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of the new ones send the
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: wrong signal. I appreciate them and I think they're cool.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: Like I had a five point fifty twenty sixteen that
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: had to buy turbo engine, and there's a cool car.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: But I think I like this white one in different
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: ways more. I do regret selling that black G wagon.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I regret selling my Land River one O nine
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: that I had, Like ten years that one was amazing. Yeah,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: that the current oe are still checks in with me.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: And you know, I sold the exit. I didn't have
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: the money to service it and fix it and give
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: it the attention that it required. Maybe you'll get it back, Yeah, yeah, maybe.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Although I think that landovers are such a weird thing
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: for me because I have so many friends that I
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: you know, I would say like, I'm here because of
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: land Rover. That company has given me amazing opportunities, the
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: friends I've met through it and whatever, But I don't
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: know if I would honestly own another one, Like I
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: think the new Defender's cool, but I don't know if
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: I would ever own one after kind of yeah, what
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: would you What would you give up in order to
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: own that? What would you be saying no to? And
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I have to say, like I am trying to kind
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: of get trying to have fewer things but maybe more
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: significant things. Yeah, you know, there's there's always like a
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: place in my garage that I'm kind of flipping right
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: because I just enjoyed that and I found a way
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: to I mean, I'm not screwing people. I'm just buying
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: and selling at the right mark. The market's changing. Yeah. Yeah,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: And I like to hang out in my garage and
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: clean things up and detail stuff and you know, do
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: a lot of work myself. I don't know, it's the
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: seems very happy right now. You know, the earth Rummers.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: The earth Roamer is probably my favorite car that I have,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: you know of by way of if I was to
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: sell everything, I would keep that one. And you have
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: kept it for a long time. I mean longer than
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: most vehicles, longer than most you know. I still have
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: the Gladiator, you know, we did list it for sale.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: I don't know. That's just like I got throw a
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: lot of cars, right But I'm but I'm finding that
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: I like German stuff, and you know, the earth Rummer aside.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: I think that that would be kind of the killer
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: combo would be the air cooled nine to eleven. Yeah,
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: and the modern g Wagon that that works also as
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: an overland vehicle.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're dueling pistols. I think the earth Roamer is
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: really fascinating right now because that enables me to get out,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: you know, enables me to get out with dak our Greyhound,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: and it's comfortable for everyone. Yeah, you can work. We
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: don't We don't really do a lot of weekend trips.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: We kind of like to go out for a week
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: or two weeks at a time. You know, overnight ers
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: are historically unusual for us. And that's where, you know,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: that's why we don't use the Gladiator that much anymore
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: because for what we're doing, earth Roamer is just minty.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: It works. The earth Roamers like my boat. You know,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: it's like your boat, right is it? You know, I
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: got in the garage, you know, I crack a beer
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, Okay, I'm going to tackle this little
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: project on it today. And I really like that. The
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Prospector is great, Like I could really see myself having
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: the Prospector for a long time, or a prospector, you know,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: they're always there's like this weird thing where you either
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: have to commit to keeping someone for a long time
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: or you have to move them and true quickly. Yeah,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: it's kind of it's where people that get caught in
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: the middle are usually those that kind of lose out
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: on the values of the cars. True, nobody wants to
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: buy a car with eighty thousand miles and pay top dollar,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: you know for the modifications or whatever. But if that
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: vehicle has twenty to thirty thousand on. It still feels fresh,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: still feels fresh and new.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think for me, it's definitely the
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: one ten Defender or three hundred TDI five door. Yeah,
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: kind of that would be the like, if I could
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: only pick one car, it'd probably be that.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: I really like the one that's sitting behind us. Yeah,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: like that thing super simple, like the two door. It's
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: just that is like the most iconic, like one ten.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: It's it's very fit to purpose. It's kind of like
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: driving a motorcycle. Yeah, that's what you're doing, like because
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: you're in the elements in a lot of ways with
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the soft top and well and where we live in Prescott,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: like's perfect, the weather's great. Do you hit fifty five
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: on the way to work. The cruising speed in that
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: truck is fifty so yeah perfect. Yeah, So you know,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: it's it's a fun thing to have in Prescott.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: So then next rapid fire question, if you could only
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: pick one Defender Classic Defender one ten g Wagon or
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: six three four six one, take your pick seventy six
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: series land Cruiser or Nissan Patrol like.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: The gu so the well, the Nissan Patrol I drove
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: one of those for a little bit when I was
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: working at the magazine in Australia, and that was terrible
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: because it did it have the three leader that like
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: last version with that really small diesel. Yeah, it was
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: like it was not good. They're really capable off read.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: They have a very chassis like yeah, flights really well.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: It was just you know, like the four to two
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: patrol O Gus those were really cool. Yeah. That the
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: motor they put in the very last models was terrible.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: It was a really small This place seventy six never
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: did anything for me. I've spent quite a bit of
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: time in those. They're cool. I like when they do
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: the coil conversion in the rear because it kind of
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: you know that the seventies, the newer V eight seventies
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: have a wider front axle than rear axle and that
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: can exhibit some interesting characteristics off. Yeah, and the mud
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: driving one of those hilarious sling shots or something.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: It feels it always felt like, you know, when you're
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: pushing a shopping cart and like the wheel starts shaking
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: or you're just always never going it's never really going straight.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: Or rotates so much. You know, So if it was
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: a seventy eight if it was a Troopy, I think
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: that the Troopy is still or a non truck like
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: non pickup truck or a wagon non like van or something.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: I think the Troopy is still just perfect, you know,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: for an overland traveler always. So I guess my answer
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: would be that I'm gonna take the one that you
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: didn't mention it and say, Troopy, that's cool. Though you
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: can pick a Trooper, yeah, like I mean, because you
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: said seventy series earlier, Troopy's are cool, you know, I
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: just like them all. I'll take one of the above,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: except for the Nissan.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: I think that that's my answer is that I don't
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: know that it really matters because they're all wonderful.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: They really are.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, if you think about how charming it would
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: be to drive a one to ten around the world,
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: or how you know, reassuring it would be to drive
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: a g wagon around the world, or how unassuming it
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: would be to drive a seventy six around the world.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think they're If they were laid out
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: in front of me and I had to drive, I
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: had to pick one to leave on it to the
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: right is the all of the crappy need to drive
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: around the world. And on the left is your selection
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: of vehicles. Think it wouldn't be my favorite choice, but
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: I think of the ones you mentioned, probably the seventy six. Yeah,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: it's just gonna work and it's going to be unassuming.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: I love g wagons, but the problem with g wagons
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: is that they can send they can send the wrong
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: message in some parts of the world, and that's something
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: that concerns me a little bit. They're also not likely
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: to get stolen though. That's the challenge with the land Cruiser,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: is that. Uh yeah, yeah.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: I remember, well Cyril Michele, you know, Cyril Andosa, but
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: they I remember talking to him about why does he
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: drive a range Over Classic in Guatemala, And he just
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: looked at me and he says, Scott, they never want
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: to steal it from me. So like he ended up,
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: he ended up falling in love with a car and
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: he drove a range Rover Classic because he would never
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: get carjacked. There wasn't a market they were There wasn't
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: a market for the parts. It wasn't like that they
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: were going to take the car and you know, and
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: then pull the alternator out it and sell it. So
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: he says, I don't drive toyotas because I don't want
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: to get carjacked. So that's an interesting like it's all
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: got the in and the ang of all of it.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: It's just there's so many facets to the decision.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So, I mean, in the g wagon case, it
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be a vehicle that was desirable, but it may
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: give an impression that you have resources that they want
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: to maybe they want your watch or they want your wallet.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: It's a tough one. It is a tough one. I mean,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: if I was to drive around the world in anything
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: right now, it would just be my prospector it has
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: like a fifty two galland fuel tank or my gladiator
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: or something, you know, like it's you know, both of
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: those would be super cool. Yeah great, But it doesn't
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: really matter what you drive. I mean, I guess that's
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: the moral of the story is that's right, whatever is
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: convenient and whatever you need, whatever gets the job done,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: and whatever is paid for. And I think they all
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: grow on you.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: I think that your relationship with the vehicle oftentimes comes
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: from your experience with it, and I find that you
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: tend to hold onto the cars that you have, those
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: more meaningful experiences with so like the Earth Roamer is
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: a great example of that.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: You've done a bunch of great trips. Like you spend
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: time in the car, You've got memories and I hit
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: my own time invested in the cars. Yeah, you know,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: I've done a lot of work to that car, a
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: lot of little upgrades and things. You know, we just
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: had the all the wheel bearings are placed and tigh
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: ride ends and ball joints and that kind of stuff
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: that is just like incredibly boring but actually part of
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: maintaining like an expedition truck, you know, of that size.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: How do you think that we're at one hundred episodes now?
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: How has the podcast either changed you or changed your
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: view of Overland?
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Well, one, I think it's really cool all the people
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: that have reached out to me on Instagram. That always
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: helps you kind of keep going. Yeah, this isn't obviously
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: like what's paying for the bills and that kind of
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: stuff for us, you know, I like to think it is.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: It is a passion project. It's been a nice it's
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: been a nice creative thing to be able to do.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: You know. It allows me to get on my little
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: soapbox every once in a while. Totally. And you know,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: I know sometimes I have opinions that aren't don't change
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: rat Yeah, yeah, I have opinions, you know. I think.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: I think what it's done for me is it's allowed
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: me to kind of reconnect with that overland community after
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: just going so far down the rabbit hole of the
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: max tracks thing for so long. You know, I've dedicated
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: so much my life to that. This has allowed me
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: to kind of get back into create a bit of
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: a community that you want to be around, you know, overlanding.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: As we know, and I know that I'm always running
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: on about this, but it's just changed so much. I
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: got into overlanding when I was like sixteen and I
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: joined Exhibition Portal. I'm thirty two now. It's been more
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: than my entire adult life. But for me, it was
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: always a travel thing that was the goal. Historically, never
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: really had the cars and toys and stuff that I've
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: had Now, obviously they're like aspirational on the first thing,
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: when you have more money than time as you go
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: out and you buy stuff, I'd love to flip that again.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: I'd love to have more time get out and actually
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: do it. And I think interviewing some of these new
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: generation of travelers and new generation of overlanders. That's been
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: really cool. I enjoy doing. I mean, here's another hundred
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: of them, absolutely, so how about you, same question for me.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: It's just incredibly humbling to see these people's stories, to
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: hear their stories, and to be reminded of what's the
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: most important. When you get like a couple like the
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: Hourless Life on here with their son and just how
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: they're raising him around the world. Caspian was amazing on
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: the podcast, and we've been able to meet people that
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: really have been changed in their own way by travel
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: and to hear their stories and to learn about what's
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: important to them, and to have this consistent theme on
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: from nearly everyone who's been on the podcast that the
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: stuff doesn't matter. It's really about getting out there and
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: having your version of an adventure. That's just been so
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: rewarding for me to hear too, because it's what I
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: have felt, and to hear so many people mirror that
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: has just been really wonderful. It's just been super humbling
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: to be on the other side of the table from
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: all these incredible travelers, people that will be better travelers
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: than I'll ever be, but they just have have just
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: been so inspiration.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and a lot of these people have to break
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: out of the mold. Yeah. When I was twenty one
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: and interviewing people for experts and ploral or over in
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: journal or whatever, I was on the other side of
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: the fence because I didn't, like, I didn't understand what
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: it meant to be like a subtled adult and how
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: much dedication it takes to actually just break away and
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: to do something different. When you're young, like you have
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: all these choices, you can choose where paths are going
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: to go down. You know, I traveled a lot, but
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: everybody kind of gets funneled into this half of normalcy. Yeah,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: and to see jump it's a trap, but to see
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: some people jump off of that that train is just
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: like really inspiring to me now because it is. I
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: guess one thing that I would say, we talk about
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: stuff a lot. I guess we'll talk about something a
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: lot because I'm you know, it's relevant. People like stuff,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: and you do need certain pieces of equipment to do
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: certain things, and sometimes it's helpful to know which one's
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: the best, and or at least I'm totally aware that
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: I have way too much stuff, you know, and I've
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: been pretty fortunate, and I work really hard, and you
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: don't need it. You don't need full stop. You do
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: not need any of the crap that I have. Like
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: I will say that the stuff that I have sometimes
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: just not Sometimes the things I have prevent me from
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: traveling a lot. If I had just my earth Roamer
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: or a van or just my Gladiator or something, there's
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: no doubt in my mind I'd get out more. Yeah,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: but you get more, more stuff, you get more hobbies.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: It takes a lot of time. It takes time, you
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: know where I feel like when I was younger, it
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: was just I was so focused, and it's so cool
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: to meet these people that still share that focus and drive.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: I would agree.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: There's a there's a YouTube channel I've been watching called
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: Sailing Umam and it's this young couple. She's Haitian, he's
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: from Canada. They bought like the super cheap sailboat and
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: they fixed it all on their own. But their whole
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: thing is don't buy a couch. She actually did a
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: Ted talk on that, some version of it, and the
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: whole idea is like once you buy the couch, then
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: you buy the you know, the dynet and then you
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: buy the utensils in the silverware, and then you buy
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: the house to stick it in, and then you if
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: you just don't ever buy the couch by the couch,
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: don't ever buy the couch. And if you think about
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: most of us in life, it's like one of the
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: first things that we buy is a couch because you
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: can sleep on the couch, and you can see like,
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: if you just don't ever buy the couch, then think
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: about all of the money that goes towards filling a
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: home full of stuff, for filling a life full of stuff.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: And if you never even start with that one thing,
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: maybe it's a different path. It was pretty thoughtful insight well.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: And I think for young people that now they have
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: so many, so much opportunity for travel and remote work
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: and everything. You know Airbnb, you don't have to you know,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: you can work remotely, like all their employees are going
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: to be remotely remote, and you know that that trend
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: is continuing and is growing. That wasn't really the case,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: and that was lucky. I worked for you, so I
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: could go travel and I could go do things, and
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: that enabled that. But that wasn't necessarily normal. Then sure
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: we were in a web based thing. Yeah, you know,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: like wherever I was typing my keys didn't necessarily matter.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: I hope people, yeah, I hope more people don't buy
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: a couch. Right, So that's the theme of today, that's
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: episode one hundred. I'm thankful for the things I've been
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: able to do. But once you have the couch, then
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: you get the house and you get stuff, and then you.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: Have And it's not that it's not that buying a
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: couch is wrong, it's just I think maybe really thinking
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: about the decision, like is that really the direction that
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: I want for my life or is that the thing
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: that everyone else does? So I just feel compelled to
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: do it. And it's the same thing in overlanding. I mean,
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: you don't you don't have to buy a Tacoma and
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: stick a Go Fast on it and add thirty fives
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: and icons.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: You don't have to do that.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: You could just buy a Octacoma and stick a backpack
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: full of camping year in the backseat and go Yeah, like,
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: you don't have to do any of those things.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: You don't have to buy the couch, you don't have
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: to buy all the It's interesting because we have in
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: the Overlin world now we have a lot of people
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: that are traveling full time. Yeah, people are just they're traveling,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: just in different ways. And a lot of that is
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: I don't even know if that's due to the pandemic necessarily, but.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: Well travel travel is now an option, so yeah, and
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: I think that that's what has changed. So many people
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: realize that they can now through various means, including being
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: a professional and working and living on the road. They
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: now have the option for that, and that's why we've
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: seen so much growth in the overland space. The pandemic
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: just supercharged that. And now that you can have starlink
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: and you can work from anywhere.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: I guess what I'm getting at is like is it
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: traveling or is it alternative living? That a lot of
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: the overland thing has become you know, like could be
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: you know, I know that like what it's going with
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: Like the you know people that kind of move around.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: It's like, you know, they're in court Sight this time
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: of year, they're in northern Arizona this time of year,
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: then move to Colorado and then they kind of like
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: repeat this like cycle over and over and over again.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: And at a certain point, it's adventurous, it's cool, it's fun.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: That's a big part of where overlanding is growing. Like
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: it seems like those are the people that are like admired,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: so to speak, are the full timers, but they're not.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: It's like it went from international travelers to full timers.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: Well, and maybe in defense of those people, it's because
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: you haven't really been able to do that Internet.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for the last couple of years. I think
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: people I wonder if that will start to change.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: I guess is where I'm like kind of trying to think,
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: so conversation, I think so, I think people will start
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: to get out more now that they can. We're seeing
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: a lot more people go into Mexico again, and whereas
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: two years ago you didn't see.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: That at all.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: So I think now that people can get out more,
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: I think that they will as a percentage, I think
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: it'll continue to improve. But it is definitely different, and
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: that's that could be a positive thing. But it's also
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: just a reminder that we all have some responsibility in
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: keeping these wild places that we travel to as pristine
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: as we can, preserve them for future generations, for the
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: next generation of overlander that wants to go to that
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: beautiful spot, you know, pay attention to your trash and
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: your human waste and every.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the human what we were talking yesterday, the human waste
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: is if it's not already an issue, it's about to
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: become one. So many of these campsites are seeing people
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: every night. You know, if you are in a campsite
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: that is within twenty year thirty minutes drive of an
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: inner state. These days, it just seems like, you know,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: that's like the like the perpetual flow of van life
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: and you have to pack that stuff out, you really do.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: We've both been places where it's just overwhelming.
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: Well, let's go into some of the questions that our
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: audience have asked us through the last year. Here these
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: are this is a very small representation of that things
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: that we could fit into the end of a podcast.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: Here.
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: This is from Scott Hallenberg and he says, I was
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: looking at an article you wrote about Eagle Out world
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: drive conversions for the Sprinter. You hint it at comparison
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: to a converted E three fifty, so think like a
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: sportsomobile conversion. And he's kind of looking at a comparison
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: between the two platforms. The eagle Hout is unique because
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: you end up with a thirty seven inch high front
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: and rear locking differentials. A lot of g wagon compon
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: go into that conversion, and I would say that in
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: many ways that it is similar in performance to the Sportsmobile,
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: with the one exception is that the sportsmobile is a
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: solid front axle and they can upgrade those axles to
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: like a data sixty Dina track or whatever, So you
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: end up with a much more robust drive train for
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: a larger tire, and then you end up with a
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: lot more articulation. So the sportsmobiles are delivered with a
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: swaybar disconnect, so you end up with a much more
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: compliant ride off road, and you end up with a
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: much more robust drive train. But there is something to
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: be said for the sprinter vans. They drive a lot nicer,
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: They're a little bit more smaller compact, easier to park
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: than a full size E three fifty.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: So if you're.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: Looking for kind of the ultimate in capability, I think
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: that you're going to get there more quickly with the
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: E series. But I think if you're looking for the
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: best overall package at Eagle, hout is really compelling.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: Do you need that much? I guess is the question
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: says the guy who drives a truck on forty one's
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: do you need it? You know? That would be my question.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: The thing that I've found in the camper space is
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: that I don't know if thirty sevens on a sprinter
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: would actually be a good thing. You know, they're very
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: tall vehicles. Yeah, they're not necessarily made or modified. Now
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: the track with isn't getting increased significantly to compensate for
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: the increased center of gravity. I guess you know, My
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: question is do you need it? Because you can fit
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: a thirty three on a sprinter? You know, is your
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: tire cashing checks that your chassis can't keep.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: Up with Yeah, which is why so much of it
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: gets upgraded when they do that conversion.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: And not only that, like you're carrying your house with you,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: that's true, you know, like like it gets really annoying
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: having to repack plates and your food and all of
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: your stuff. That's going to be so I always think
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: people are trying to have this jack of all trades. Well,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: you could buy a sprinter and a jeep for what
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: one of those conversions.
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: Would That's true, It's an expensive conversion. Yeah, this is
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: how I look at it, which is maybe a little different. Yep,
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: I'm noticing because things are getting it's so popular. There's
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: so many people out there that if you have just
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: another like Revel sprinter, you're you're destined to the same
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: campsites that everybody else can get to, where if you've
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: got another ten or fifteen percent capability and maybe some
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: driving experience and some training, you can get that much
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: more remote. I just did a trip up to Moab
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: with the GMC and the Scout camper, and because I
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: was willing to drive a much more technical trail, I
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: got up to the top of this slick rock trail
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: on the top of this mountain and I'm looking down
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: over this valley and it is packed full of campers
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: and there's no one around me. And that's a good
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: and it's just I think it helps to overcome the
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: filter that just being the same kind of vehicle as
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: everyone else has. Having a little bit more capability as
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: a benefit. And then the more that we travel remote,
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: the more that we're going to run into that scenario
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: where we end up with a rainstorm, mud snowstorm. So
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: having a little bit more reserve capability I think is
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: a benefit to that. And again it's We're never suggesting
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: that people do that. It's just there. These are the upsides.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: You can get a little bit more remote, like your
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: Earthwormer is a great example. No other RV can get
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: where you can go, so you get you get to
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: have this really comfortable vehicle that much further away from
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: all of the other folks.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: But any four runner with that ground tech can go.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: That's right, you know. I think my advice, like I
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: would be, do you actually want you really need to,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: do you really need it? If you want it, go
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: for it. You know, that's always my thing is need
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: verse wants. The next question is from Marco Bretton, and
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: he is a long haul trucker and he has recently
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: purchased a Gladiator, and he is wondering what kind of
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: recommendations you would have for a lift that can also
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: do good as a for a tow vehicle using your
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: Gladiator for some towing. Oh, that's super easy. Give your
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: money to AAV because they do make a high capacity.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: I've had multiple lifts on my Gladiator. I've had factory
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: lift springs, I've had aftermarket lift springs. I now have
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: the AEV lift springs. The vehicle just rides and tracks better.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: You know you're out. You're correcting geometries up front rather
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: than just kind of masking them with additional flex from
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: joints or something on your control arms. That's this an
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: easy one. Get the av dual sport lift. Yeah. I
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: think that's the key is that they make springs with
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: They also have the high capacity springs inster option, which
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: I think is an important thing for those that are time.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: And then I really like the hellwig rear sway bar.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: I'm the gladiator yep that really has just locked that
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: vehicle down. Good advice, all right.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: Next one's from Justin Sometimes I don't get the whole
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: name from people on Instagram, but long time overland journal
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: expedition portal follower, and he likes what we talk about
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: with travel etiquettes. So this is more just a reminder
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: around being kind to the places that we visit.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: He says. I work in the Yukon Territory Parks and Service.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: It's rather remote areas. I've had, Oh I need to
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: talk to this guy. Yeah.
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: I've had some very serious run ins with travelers on
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: back roads and more than my fair share of close calls.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: And I think what he's talking about is speed and
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: people that are unfamiliar with those conditions, mostly people who
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: have never driven these roads and are traveling much too
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: fast or in a right hand drive rig with the
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: winding roads reduced forward visibility. It gives a really poor
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: image of overlanding and can leave more than just the
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: traveler in a serious situation where help is literally unreachable
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: or many hours away, even by air. So thank you
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: for that reminder, justin and it is important. As these
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: vehicles become more and more capable, just think of like
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: the UTV situation, you end up with something that basically
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: can win glasses of the Baja that you can buy
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: brand new off the shelf. We always have a responsibility
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: to drive addor near the speed limits. Most force roads
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: are twenty five miles an hour.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: As an industry, we need to get so much better
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: at this. Yeah. I get that you're trying to do
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: less style marketing, but you're filming that on public lands. Yeah,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: eventually there's not going to be people to buy your
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: stuff when they can't. That's what will happen public lands,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: That's what'll happen. So much easier things will get shut down.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: Yours to just close the gate.
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: Or like you and I have seen in Australia, they
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: will be parked on the side of the trail with
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: a speed gun. Yeah, and they're going to nail you
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: and it's going to be really, really bad when you're
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: doing sixty in a twenty five.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: And we're not trying to be the fun police at all.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: It's just there's a Yeah, there's a balance, and there's
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: a big difference between a closed course. Yeah. In Baja
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: where you see these guys doing that stuff, there's a
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: big difference between you're in the desert with mile like
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: truly off road with miles of visibility.
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: Yes, and there's people that are hiking, there's people on
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: their mountain bikes, there's people on a motorcycle. There's real
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: consequences when you when that leak and your talent reservoir
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: runs out, which it does, and we see it all
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: the time on YouTube when those talent runs out. So
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: I think it's it's not about being the fun police.
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: It's just if you don't have good visibility, please slow down.
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: The more remote you get, the more you should be
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: slowing down, because the consequences are even higher if it's
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: a heavily traveled area. Slow it way way way down
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: the industry, and you and your family are going to
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: be way better off in the long haul with that.
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: So thank you Justin for that reminder.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: And Justin, I'm going to reach out to you because
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be in your neck of the woods. Yeah,
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: I'm going to all forge you his Instagram handle. Next
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: one here is from the glanda fam. Okay, great question.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: So family of four and they've got a heavily modified
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: G wagon and they are thinking of buying a prospector.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm so qualified.
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: You are like one of the most qualified people on
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: the planet to answer that question. So for someone who
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: had a G Wagon and has a prospector, now, what
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: do you think about his thought about making the change?
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: Family of four? It comes down to a choice of size.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: Any perceived capability that the prospector is going to give
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: you with whether you go with the prospector on thirty
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: seven inch tires or a prospector Excel on forties is
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: going to be diminished by the fact that a prospector
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: is nearly twice the size of a G wagon. We
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: get this idea of G wagons being big, they're actually small.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: My g Wagon is about a foot shorter than my
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: wife's Subaru cross Track. Yeah, and designed in the late seventies. Yeah,
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: they're they're not big cars, depending on how big of
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: fender flares you have on them there. I mean, they're
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: still just narrow, narrow vehicles. I think they're also very
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: space efficient inside. Big box pickup trucks are a challenge.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: Like we run in this with our dog, not with
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: two kids, but he is basically the size of two kids.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: Is that where do you then put all of your
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: stuff in a pickup truck? When you have an suv
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: you have four or five seats and then you have
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: a cargo area behind you have a full length rough
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: frack that you can do.
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, everything's out of the dust. Yeah, fridge is inside
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: the HVAC so it's not working as hard exactly.
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: So first thing that he should consider what was the
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: going to say, he is the Golonda Fam. Oh he's
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: just Golonda Fam. Okay, well, Golanda Fam. What you should
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: consider size? You know, there's probably a reason that you
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: like the g Wagon. For me, I find that it's size.
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: The Prospector Excel is going to be more comfortable, it's
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: going to be easier to drive, and you're going to
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: be able to put a camper on the back, which
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: maybe that's the direction that you're going. You know, you
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: have your seats inside and then you have your living
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: space or camping stuff, you know, in the back of
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: the bed.
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: If that's where I see the hack with the full size,
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: is that you get to have a camper on the
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: back of it. Like, if you're not going to install
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: a camper on a full size, I'm really not so
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: sure what.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: The advantage is.
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and believe it or not, I think you're actually
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: right when you say that the prospector will be more comfortable,
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: which is a crazy thing to say that a prospector
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: will be more comfortable than a G wagon, But it
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: is amazing. It's amazing how comfortable your truck is, even
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: modern G wagons. Like I don't have a lot of
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: experience in the four six three A, which is like
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: twenty nineteen and above. But I've had, you know, the
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: last generation of G wagon and the first generation of
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: the four six three. I haven't owned a four sixty
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: or four six one. Yeah, if I'm driving across the
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: country even in that twenty sixteen that.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: I had, No, not super good. They're great city vehicles,
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: like that's why you see him in Bougie. Sorry, I
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: see somebody even Hollywood. Yeah, they're small, easy to drive,
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: great visibility. So yeah, for sure, there you go. That's
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: some good insights on that, for sure. So this is
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: from Vince Peterson, and this is a really thoughtful comment
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: that he made. With all the craziness in the world
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: right now, he says, I just wanted to be reminded
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: of the quote that we had on the podcast, which
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: is that people are generally good and that governments are
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: generally bad. And he says that we're you know, we're
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: all praying for peace, and he's talking about the conflict
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: in Ukraine right now. But that is an important reminder
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: is that there are in any country, even if it's
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: one that we may be concerned about because of conflicts
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: like this, there are still so many people that are
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: living there. You know.
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: I think about the people that I've used in Russia
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: to help me solve problems. Translator that I crossed the
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: country with that was just a wonderful person, the fixer
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: that helped me get the vehicles into a container in Vladivostok.
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: Another wonderful human being, Paulina. You know, it just makes
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: me remember that despite the fact that things can be
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: so tragic at the global scale or at the governmental scale,
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: that there are all these individuals that we interact with
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: as travelers, and that people are generally good. They want
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: the same things that we do. So I think that
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: that was an important reminder, and it is something we've
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: said a lot on the podcast, and I found it
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: to generally be true. I don't remember ever in my
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: travels running into just a group of people or a
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: society of people that were horrible.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: Maybe you've had a different experience, but I actually just
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: had generally positive experiences traveling.
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like people are generally good. Yeah, but thanks for that. Yeah,
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: thanks reminder, Vince, appreciate that. Last one that we've got
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: is from Brian Steuman. Have you reviewed any hitch mounted
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: tire carriers? He doesn't want to throw the tire on
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: his roof rack, And we have reviewed a lot of
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: those hitch entire used and they're generally terrible because they're
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: trying to reach a price point, so they make a
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: lot of noise.
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: And the rigged one is the best that I've come across.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: It has a pretty unique locking system in the hitch
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: to prevent sway, and it's got a good latch on it.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: If it's if it's something that you have to have,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: I would strongly encourage you to look at the rigs.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: It's like RIGD.
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they have some anti vibration tensioner in the hitch itself.
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: But it's important to remember that you're now putting a
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: lot of leverage on the vehicle very far back. You're
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: compromising your departure angle. It restricts you doing other things
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: like having a mountain bike or other things that you
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: can put in into the hitch and the vehicle really not.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: Design actually allows you to have a They have like
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: a separate itch for mountain bike stuff. Oh that's clever,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: it's kind of cool. They're all kind of inherently flawed
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: designs when you think of it.
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: It's a compromised solution to just mounting a tire someplace else.
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's all you can do to fit an oversized
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: tire because.
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: They don't really really popular. Unlike the prospect Or excels.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: If people do a camper, they have nowhere to put
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: their spare. Yeah, a lot of them just make they
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: make a lot of noise and vibrations, so it's just
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: good to find one that has an anti vibration mechanism
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: to it. Yeah, where at tensions into the receiver. Thank
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: you Brian for that.
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: Those that have other questions, please feel free to reach
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: out to Matter myself.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: We talked about how to get a hold of us.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: You can reach me at Scott dot a dot Brady
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: and I'm Matt Explorer.
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so let us know what you guys have additional
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: questions on. And we appreciate all of you for listening
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: to the podcast, for enduring both mine and Matt's rants
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: on occasion.
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: And it just because it's opinions.
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, well you really care about the industry, Matt,
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: and it comes across my life. Yeah, it comes across
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: We both feel that way. We're so grateful for all
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: of you listening. One of the main reasons why this
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: podcast is available is because of the Overland Journal print publication.
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: For those that have reached out and asked how else
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: they can support the podcast, just becoming a subscriber makes
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: a huge difference. Check out the magazine at Overland Journal
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: dot com. We appreciate that, and again, thank you Paula
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: Burr for being our producer and for making my job
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: so much easier and allowing us to get this content
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: out to those who listen. So we thank you all
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: for listening. We will talk to you next time.