Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Great Scott! Random Show About Matt Getting Stuck, Goodwood, and More

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Great Scott! Random Show About Matt Getting Stuck, Goodwood, and More · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Scott Brady, and I'm joined today by my co host
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Matt Scott and we're kind of calling this the Fall
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Mashup or the Great Scott Episode. So we're going to
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: go through all the things that Matt's been up to
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: that I've been up to, some vehicle evaluations, including the
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: new aevat four x GMC. We're going to talk about
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Matt getting stuck in his Earth Romer, which is an
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: entertaining conversation. We're going to talk a little bit about
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: my trip in Africa. We're also just going to talk
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: about upcoming trips other things that are planned in the
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Overland Universe. So enjoy that conversation. And I want to
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: take a little bit more time. This just came in
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: a few minutes ago, and I just want to thank
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the land Cruiser Heritage Museum. We've talked about the land
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Cruiser Heritage Museum many times on this podcast, but it
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: is one of the most remarkable institutions for not only
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Toyota's but for overlanding in the world. My good friend
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Greg Miller has been instrumental in creating this place. For
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: so many of us to gather and celebrate that iconic
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: platform called the land Cruiser. But it also holds such
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: a special and dear place in my heart because many
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: of the vehicles that Greg and I used on the
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Expedition seven trip to go around the world are also
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: stored in the museum, including the High Lux that we
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: used to cross Antarctica going to the South Pole and
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: also used across the Greenland ice Sheet. But my surprise
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: today was actually an award that the land Cruiser Heritage
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Museum in the Toyota community just provided to us. This
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: is just a very special consideration for me to receive.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: It is called the Toyota Legends, and they've brought me
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: into that very rarefied air. I'm not so sure that
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I'm deserving of it when you consider the other people
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: that have been awarded this honor, like Kurt Williams and others.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Just a huge amount of gratitude for me to the
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: land Cruiser Heritage Museum, to the Toyota community for honoring
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: me in this way as a Toyota legend. I have
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: certainly trusted my life to Toyota's throughout the decades, and
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: this is a great honor for me, Thank you, Greg,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: thank you the lan Cruiser Heritage Museum, and thank you
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: to the other Toyota enthusiasts that provided me with this award.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: This content is brought to you by Overland Journal, our
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: premium quality print publication. The magazine was founded in two
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: thousand and six with the goal of providing independent equipment
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: and vehicle reviews, along with the most stunning adventures and photography.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: We care deeply about the countries and cultures we visit
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: and share our experiences freely with our readers. We also
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: have zero averatorial policy and do not accept any advertiser
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: compensation for our reviews. By subscribing to Overland Journal, you're
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: helping to support our employee owned and veteran owned publication.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Your support also provides resources and funding for content like
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: you are watching or listening to right now. You can
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: subscribe directly on our website at Overland Journal dot com. Well,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. Matt and I are finally back
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: at the podcast desk together on the same content. That's right,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: And we were going to call this the Random Show,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: but we also thought about maybe calling this Great Scott. Yeah,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: great Scott from the Back to the Future reference but
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: it turns out that Great Scott. Actually it's an interjection
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: of surprise, amazement, or dismay, which I think covers most
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: of our emotions during a podcast. It's a distinct but
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: inoffensive exclamation popular in the second half of the nineteenth
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: century in the early twentieth century, and it's now considered
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: dated me at least, but it originated as a minced
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: oath historically associated with two specifics, the Scotts, which I
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: think is very appropriate given us and the Scottish author
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Sir Walter Scott and later the US General Winfield Scott.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: So given that you're Matt Scott and I'm Scott Brady,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: we're the team of first names, maybe we call it
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Great Scott. So maybe the audience can chime in on
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: if our quarterly random shows should just be called Great Scott.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: I was thinking maybe our next one would be named
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: after janitorial products, because both Scott and Brady make the
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: little urinals.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: That's true, That's true. Yeah, That's That's how I know
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I've achieved greatness, is that my namesake has been has been,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: has been used in urinals around the world exactly. That's
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: what I've been hoping to achieve, Matt. So we're going
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: to talk through gadgets, trips, cars, maybe some deep thoughts,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: a couple audience questions, but I really would love to
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: start with some of the stuff that you've been up
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: to recently because I find it so cool.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Like Goodwood. Goodwood, let's talk about Goodwood was awesome. I mean,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: I guess the overaar change for this year for me
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: has been a return to racing.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: I grew up racing, started the day before my fifth
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: birthday and in a quarter midget, raced until late teens, yeah,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: and then got into this overlanding thing and now I'm returning.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Had an opportunity with with my good buddy Eli to kind.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Of come over to Goodwood with him.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: He was racing in the It was a series for
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: two lead short wheel based nine to eleven's and sounds sporty. Yeah,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: really cool. We both have him here. He bought one there.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Boy.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: It was just a crazy cool event to be able
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: to be able to experience that, you know, in the pits.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: And it's such a race that steeped in history. When
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: did the first.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: I want to say it was it was kind of
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: it started after World War Two, Okay, it's basically built
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: around this grass airfield Goodwood Aerodrome, and it's all right
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: hand turns aside from well, I guess one when you
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: come through the chicane onto the main straight, you know.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Low gripped track.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: It is a period correct track where they run vintage
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: race cars down to the tires.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Like and does it run rain or shine? It runs
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: rain or shine.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: So I mean there were there were very very valuable
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Ferraris out there running in the rain on Sunday, you know,
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: on this on this track like actually like getting at it.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: I think there's kind of this misconception with the racing
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: at Goodwood that it's more of a leisure cruise. These
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: guys aren't on a leisure cruise. They're they're wrecking cars.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, I mean once you put once you put
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: a bunch of a bunch of guys with a bunch
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: of money and a bunch of fast cars on a track,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: it's going to be a race.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, we were trying to figure out the value
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: of the cars that were that were actively racing. The
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: bread Van, which is a Ferrari two fifty gt O
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: that kind of almost looks like a little bit of
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: a station wagon. One of one is out there like
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: wheel to wheel and it's not they're sent if they
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: find if they find a little gap, they're going for it.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: And that car you could ask whatever you want for yeah,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: because it's one of one. Yeah, you know the billionaire
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: that already owns it. What what can you give them
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: other than that car?
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Sure?
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Karen Chandock, who's a Formula one racer, ex Formula one racer,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: he blew up another two fifty gto No big deal.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: That's what they're there for, their race cars. But you
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: know the thing that that good, what's really known for
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: is the period dress. I love it and you're in
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: this it just all the tweed and leather and canvas. Yeah,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: it's like it does it for me man. So so
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: the class that that Eli was in that you know
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: I was kind of hanging out with.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: There were sixties cars, so like I dressed sixties and
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: you can totally pull that.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: I had kind of the stash and everything. Yeah, it
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: was awesome.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: You know I had the right hat and Corroy suit
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: blue suit with actually.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: We have photos of this match. Yeah. But it was
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: so hot. It was you know, mid eighties that's hot.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Full sun.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: That's hot for the really really humid in the UK,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: and they don't have air conditioning really anywhere because it's
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: generally not that hot. Then sure, you know, so it
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: was it was a warm one, so I wasn't really
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: wearing when you were in the pits or kind of
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: the paddock, like you're meant to have like a like
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: a suit and tie on. And I think they really
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: kind of stopped enforcing that this year because it was
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: a bit a little toasty, a little toasty. So Goodwood
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: is so cool, you really end up the word daydream
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: gets thrown around, sure, because they actually have kind of
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: period actors going around, Like there was these to these
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: two women that Eli and I kept kind of running into,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: and they were these chatty nineteen fifties English women, all
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: in period, talking in period, you know.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Kind of in your face.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: But there was there were so many of these really
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: immersive experiences. Everybody was there for the love of the cars.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's an enthusiast event. It's not just like this
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: highbrow signaling event.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Never in my life did I think that I would
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: see mister Bean that much. Rowan Atkinson legitimate racer like
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: we were in I didn't know that. Yeah, so we
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: had at mister Bean getting after it. I love he's
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: a well known racer.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that. Yeah.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: We were in the Rolex Drivers Club Driver's Credentials and
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: the people that you would see in there, Like I
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: look around and it's like, you know, the the Duke
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: of Richmond talking to Jimmy Johnson, NASCAR champion, talking to
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Jensen Button. We were with Chris Harris from top Gear.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: He was Eli's co drivers who were hanging out with
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: him all weekend.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Amazing. All I can tell you is that genuine car guy.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: He never mentioned top Gear once the entire weekend, you know,
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: never note ego to this guy as somebody who grew
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: up watching top Gear and the kind of the Clarkson era.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: And then Chris Evans I guess took it over. Sure
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: who was there as well. It's it's in solid hands
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: now and it kind of feels good. Yeah, just a
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: genuine guy.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: So many cool people around. Boy, I want to go back,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: like I want to go back and race the Chichester Cup.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: So those are kind of I particularly like either prototypes
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: or open wheel cars, and that is basically the sub
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: eleven hundred cc Formula Junior cars that are from early sixties,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: and those things just you know they're the tires are
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: four or five inches wide and so gliding around, so
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: everything slides around in that track. Sure brings me back
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: to like sprint car days as a kid, except turning.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I'm not an ambi turner yet. Oh man.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: If you have a chance to go to Goodwood, go
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: I think it's about a one day event, to be honest,
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: I think two days, unless you're racing is maybe a
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: little much. But if you get the opportunity to hop over.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: I know that you know a lot of Americans that
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: listen to this podcast are familiar with a Goodwood revival.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: It is just it is a top notch event and
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: for you, and I know it would be for me.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: It's just such a like it feels like a bucket
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: list thing to do for an automotive enthusiast, for somebody
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: who loves cars, to be at that place where everybody's
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: taking it so serious yet not so serious like everybody's
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: in period. Everybody's there for the love of the vehicles,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: so taking it serious but not taking themselves too serious.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: In the class that Eli was racing.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: You had two Formula one guys, you know, a Jensen Button,
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: you had Mark Weber, you had Max Chilton, British touring car.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: You had all of these professional drivers mixed with the
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: owners of the cars. Sure they kind of had to
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: share seat time, so you had to do a pit
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: stop both in qualifying and in the race. And you know,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: you're just you're just in this environment and.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Where am I What a fun experience, Matt. And it's
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: just something that I have such respect for you for.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Is there are people in our industry that write about
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: vehicles that take the time to get the training necessary
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: to do so with authority, and to do so with perspective,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: with professional perspective, like Brian Door recently going through the
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: dirt Fish program, you know, the Rally program. That's someone
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: who takes testing vehicles seriously enough that he's going to
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: get the training necessary to actually be able to speak
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: with authority about an automobile. And unfortunately that's just not
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: the case for the vast majority. So I have a
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: lot of respect for you and the fact that you're
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: constantly pushing your love for vehicles while you're also advancing
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: your skills. Yeah. Yeah, because I've been doing.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: You know, I've been kind of involved with the Lucas
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: Oil Racing School this summer.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: And isn't your uncle involved somehow? Yeah? Yeah, my uncle's
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: one of my instructors. And doesn't that bring But that
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: doesn't that bring it full circle for you because you
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: worked with your uncle when you were five, Yeah, and
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: then now you're back working with your uncle. You know.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: The coolest thing is it was being at Seabreing and
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: I want to say this was in June to kind
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: of the first step of getting my licensing back and
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: getting into a car, because it is it is a
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: skill of you know, diminishing reward, like if you don't
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: use it, it goes away. And the last time that
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: all three of us were at Seabreing, I was like
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: in my dad's arms and the pits at Seabreing probably
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: at the twelve hour or something. And to be able
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: to recreate that environment and experience and then you know,
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: I spent a few days at mid Ohio and then
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: did a few a few races at mid Ohio. I'm
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: the old guy, which is weird because I'm thirty three
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: and I'm racing against these kids with just immense talent
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: that are, you know, trying to get into INDI in it.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: You know there's a way disadvantage and a massive skill
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: skill gap. But to see to see the dedication again
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: really kind of brings back that that passion and you know,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: to have my track dad back to be there the
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: entire time, it's cool.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: And oh, Matt, I mean we think about so many
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: people spend so much energy on things that don't draw
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: them closer to their family. And for you to be
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: intentional about I'm going to fly to I mean, that's
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: the only reason why you would fly to the middle
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: of the United States is to go race cars and
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: spend time with your family. And you're literally like, you're
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: not going to Lexington, Ohio for the food, No, but
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: you're spending days with your uncle and days with your
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: dad and that I mean you cannot put a price
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: tag on that. And the amount of energy that so
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I mean myself included, I think about the time, the
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: things that bring me the greatest joy are doing things
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: that I love, so experiences with people that I love
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: and all the rest of it is such bs. Yeah,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: and the fact that you get the chance to do
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: that with your uncle that taught you early on. He
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: had an incredible career as a driver, instructor and working
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: for all these premium brands. Yeah.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: So when you look at the people that are on
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: the IndyCar paddoct that he's coached, worked with, it's really impressive.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: So cool.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: So and then next year Radical Cup, So it's a
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: support series for IndyCar. That's the goal to try and
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: you know, buy next year, get my skills and see
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: time to the point where you know I'll be able
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: to jump into the lower levels of that series.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: And you have the race car. Now.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Bought a Radical going to run that next week for
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: the first time. I bought it a month or two ago.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: But I like to equate Arizona as a reverse winner
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: our tracks in the desert.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Can't you wouldn't dare?
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: You wouldn't dare run when it's one hundred and twenty
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: degrees No, no way, poor next week, first time on track,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: see where it goes. It'll be interesting to drive something
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: that has real downforce.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: So what an amazing experience. Man. That's so And I
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: think it's really smart for you to do that, as
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: opposed to some of these cars that you have that
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: are so special to expose them to the risks of racing.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Well, well, they're not race cars, right, I mean the
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: nine nine three turbo that I have. For those of
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: you who don't, it's the last air cooled turbo charge Porsche
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: that was made. I hate to say investment when when
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: it comes to cars, but you do have to consider that,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: you know, I don't have unlimited funds like some of
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: these guys do. That's the thing that you really realize
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: with racing is it is about cubic cash and you
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: have to put yourself into a place like I did
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Radical because I could do the servicing myself, like has
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Abusa motor kind of a spec engine and any any
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: series where there's a little bit more of an open
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: rule book means an open chetbook.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Talent doesn't always win. Yeah, sure, but.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you wouldn't want to. You wouldn't want to really
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: convert a nine nine three Turbo or like my Reelbase
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: into an actual race car. Yeah, yeah, even though I
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: might end up doing.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Base after Goodwood. Oh man, that's such a beautiful car.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Chevez man.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: But you know, I think it definitely like I'm I'm
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: a novice. I don't want to, you know, pretend or
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: say that I have some kind of crazy talent. But
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: you notice more things when you're reviewing a car and
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: when you hop into a seat that, yeah, I think
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: that most don't. Unfortunately. You know, it's cool that Brian's
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: taking the time to educate himself on on improving the
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: skills because there's so many there's so many writers out
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: there that when you're on the program with them, yeah,
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: we've been on the press launches with them, it's terrifying.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: You know, they can't get the thing into low range.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: And then they're you know, you read the story and
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: it's like they're you know, they all of a sudden
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: became Rod Hall.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: You know, they're just yeah, it's a bit craft a story. Yeah,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Which it's just an encouragement to like take the time
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: to get the training and understand that nobody he's nobody's perfect,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: nobody's Mario and ready, but you know, nobody's you know,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: I've been Stewart. It's just it's about the more skills
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: that you get, like Brian has done, where you then
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: have a better insight into how a vehicle performs. And
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: I have joeb a call to thank for that. I mean,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Joe was the off road test driver for Toyota for
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: over a decade, and if you spend months with that guy,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: you're going to learn some things that really helped translate
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: to good evaluation of vehicles. I think I think it
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: would be cool for us to do an off road race. Yeah,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: let's do it. I'm hooked, especially a vintage one. It
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: would be really fun. Yeah, like the Nora would be
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: really real. That'd be something I'd be totally into, you know,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: I think it's there's some cool things going on with
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: that event. Yeah, I really like it. Sinway's had some
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: great luck with it and enjoyed it.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: He's running, He'll go down there with the Myers Manx
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: and the Myers Manx guys do it. But he's mine
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: and such great people.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: So that'd be a fun thing to let's do it.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Let's just let's just make it happen. Let's just make
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: it a car. That's an awesome update. I mean, what
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: an incredible to go to it. Ties in people were thinking,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: maybe you like, how does relate to overlanding. It is
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: exactly what it relates to overlanding, which is you're in
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: a vehicle or you're celebrating vehicles while you're traveling internationally,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: you know, engaging with the culture of automobiles in the UK.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Certainly it's not like a roof tent on a dirt road,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: but it is all If we want.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: The roof tent with the dirt road, it makes me
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: appreciate it that much more, I think, you know, without
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: getting too personal, like we've both been doing this for
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: so long, you longer than me, but like literally my
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: entire adult life. Yeah, you know, I'm thirty three now.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: I joined the Expertion portal and built my first lander
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: over when I was sixteen.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's nice to kind of have a little break
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: and a little perspective. Maybe.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely noticed myself getting maybe a little jaded
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: on some things with the industry growing and going in
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: this different direction and just tunes the noise out and
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: everybody's literally on their own track and you just focus
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: on your line and you just move forward and you
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: don't really worry about.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: What everybody else is doing. It's the key to it,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: I think, is the comparative. Yeah, so don't compare your
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: travels to the next person.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: If your competitive overlanding thing like drives me crazy, and
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: I realize that, but I think it's the influencer culture.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: I think everybody's making an attempt to do the stake
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: in the ground to get some followers. But as we've
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: seen even in the last six months, there's been a
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: mass exodus of influencer behavior because they're just they're not
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: making any money and they never really did, so they
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: kind of maxed out the credit cards and you can't
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: you can't pay your mortgage with new with free gear.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: So I think we're just what we're seeing left, the
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: folks that are left, or the people who have been
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: in it long enough or have enough value to offer
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: that they've stuck around for it.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: You know, it's Camping is an inherently non competitive activity. Sure,
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: overlanding is a non competitive activity. Yeah, it does feel
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: like sometimes people think it's a race.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: It's not.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: It's not a race to see who can go to
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: the most places take the most things off off the box.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: It's a it's really about what's inside and what makes
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: you happy. And if you're not happy doing it and
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: it's not fulfilling you, yeah, and it doesn't bring you joy.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Just because it looks good on the internet on your
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: Instagram account doesn't mean you should be doing.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: It, and that's not real life. My Instagram account's not
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: real life. There's days that I have really hard days
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: when I'm traveling. Yeah, I missed my family, or I
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: had a hell of a border crossing or whatever, and
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: all of those things happened, Yeah, and I try to
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: include those in my posts, but it's it just you
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: don't end up including enough of the suffering. People also
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: don't really want to hear too much of the negative. Yeah.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: I think I probably went a little too negative on
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: my Alaska trip, but it was also just in the moment,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: like it sucked, yea, And it sucks to be in
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: a box for forty five days during you know, this
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: long heatwave and bugs and all this stuff. I mean,
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: it's part of the challenge and you kind of have
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: to forget the tough moments. But nobody wants to just
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: everybody wants to hear how great it is, and sometimes.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: The people are great. That's the thing that's been the
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: universal experience for me and my travels is that the
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: people are always incredible. And that's what made me not
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: want to leave Africa was just the incredible thoughtfulness, joy
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: openness of the people of Africa.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: I'm just stoked that you're slowing down. Oh yeah, I
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: think so much. This has always been work for you
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: and me. And it's like, you have a job to
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: do and you have a timeline and you have this opportunity.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: The opportunity that you have is you have this vehicle
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: for a year, and you're like actually taking advantage of that.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Like the Scottie I knew ten years ago would have
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: been in London.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Now, yeah, that's right, that's right, you know.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: And now it's like, oh yeah, I'm actually going to
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: turn around because that area was great and I'm going
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: to go back to it. And I think it's the
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: first time I've ever been able to do that. And
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: I remember, I actually remember the moment.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: It was. I was in Mozambique, in this beautiful place
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: on the beach and I'm sitting there. Joe wasn't feeling
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: well and I was just sitting out looking at the waves,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: and I'm thinking about the schedule and you know, should
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: we try to push right now to get to London?
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: And I just I asked myself, what is the rush?
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: What's the rush? So at that moment, I decided that
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: I'm going to take three times longer. Yeah, So I
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: dig it though, So yeah, it's just I'm very grateful
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: for that opportunity. It's I'm just in a place in
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: my life where i can do that. So I'm just
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: really grateful to be able to go at a different
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: pace now. And that's not for everybody. There's nothing wrong
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: with going fast if you need to. There's nothing wrong
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: with taking three years to do the same trip that's
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: going to take me one year. Everybody gets their own flavor,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: and you really careful.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: I think you learned time as such a luxury and
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: the ability to have the money to do something but
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: also the time to do it. Yeah, you know, I
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: think as I as I get older, I realized that
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: money doesn't equate to happiness. No, the years that I've
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: made that my financially, financially, the best years.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Probably personally were the worst years.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: There's like a sacrifice of yourself to get that, Like
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: there's there's always a risk to get the reward.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: I always go back to, like, I'm so envious of
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: people who haven't figured out enough that they can kind
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: of perpetually go. They're almost like they live life on
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: a different time scale. And that is like, so like
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: I'm still young, and I think that is like a
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: goal for me, is you know, at a certain point,
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: slow down and hop in the earth romer.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: When you come back. I don't know.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: I see a lot of these younger couples and like
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: the expedition vehicles and they're just they're just going. They're meandering.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: They're meandering. And that is the true definition of wealth.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: It's being able to do what you want to do
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: when you want to do it. Yeah, people attach numbers
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: to it, which there are many people that are rich
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: that are not wealthy, which means that they make a
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: lot of money, they have very little cash, and they're
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: completely committed to continuing to make a lot of money,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: and which means that they can't go where they want
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: to go, and they can't do what they want to
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: do when they want to do it. But you can
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: tell when someone has kind of the code, which means
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: that they've given up on the things that don't matter
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: and they're focusing on the things that they love the
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: most and they're able to do it when they want
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: to do it. And that, to me, that is the
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: definition of wealth. And it brings actually to mind a
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: book that I've been reading which is called four thousand weeks,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: and that's basically the number of weeks that we have
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: on an average lifespan. When you start to really it's
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: kind of an anti productivity book because there's so many
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: great productivity books that let you kind of hack to
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: get the maximum amount of things done. But if you
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: actually sit down, like I did in Mozambique, and ask myself,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: why am I trying to get everything done all at
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: one time, even the things that don't matter or don't
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: even move the ball forward, but just because I feel
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: obligated to do them, Then you start to recalibrate. In
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: my mind, I started to recalibrate what were the most
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: important things for me, and then I started to take
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: each week a little bit more precious.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I mean, it's so easy to just blow
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: through a week. Yeah, how many of us are.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Just and you only get so many of them. Today's
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Thursday when we're recording this.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, still in my mind, I'm like, I can't wait
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: for this day to be over because then tomorrow's Friday. Yeah,
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: And then I can't wait for Friday to be over
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: because then that's that's Saturday.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The future focus, which is common it's it's something
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: that I struggle with too, Matt. Yeah, and it's and
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: I think I'm always thinking about what's the next cool
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: thing that I'm going to do, and sometimes it takes
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: me away from the amazing opportunity that I have in
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: that moment. And so I'm trying to be a little
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: more present. Yeah, which is really hard for me. I
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: do want to put the caveat that. You know, So
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: there's this realities for people's lives.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: You know a lot of people just don't time is
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: that that's super big luxury. And you know, I don't
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: want to be conceded by saying like, oh well, just
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: just take off and travel. You know, that's not reality
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: for anybody. But I do think that it's doable. I
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: really do. You know, I think that when you're traveling.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, you've been doing a lot more international stuff
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: than I have. But you come across people and you know,
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: they're traveling on they're traveling on what the interest on
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: a modern car average carla for every day? Yeah, for sure,
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: they took the day medication. They knew what they wanted.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: They live very frugally, you know, they lived with their parents,
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: They lived in a studio whatever it is to be
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: able to do that. And I think when you get
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: out of the rat race, you get out of the US,
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: because the US has become really expensive. I mean US
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: and Europe now are like again, just being in London
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: a couple of days ago, it's it's.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: When you spend twenty two bucks on a G and T.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: It's expensive.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, But then you go to Mexico, or you
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: go to Africa, or you go to wherever, you know whatever,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: that first jumping off game is.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: No. I was in further I was in Malawi, looking
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: over the lake, eating fresh fish and vegetables that have
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: been locally grown, these carrots that were like this super
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: bright orange, amazing locally grown potatoes, and a G and
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: T and my bill was six dollars and fifty cents.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: So it's all a matter of perspective, and it's also
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: a matter of choice. And I think that if we
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: all take some personal responsibility about we could choose to
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: do something different. There may be big consequences to that choice,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: but it's about taking ownership of that. I can make
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: a choice. It's like the Japanese and Buddhist monk that
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: the bells came across in Africa. He travels with no money,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: and he's traveling around the world. He's gone around the
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: world with no money. He does not keep money on him.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: He uses it momentarily if it's given to him to
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: feed himself, and then he he travels around the world
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: with no money, you know. Or the Russian hitchhiker that
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: I came across in Central Asia and she left to
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: see all of Central all of the stands, yeah, with
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: five bucks. Yeah, and she teaches English. She stops and
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: works for a while. And so it's always a choice.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: And there's something really empowering about saying that I'm choosing
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: to not do that, but I could if I wanted to,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: And that kind of takes away some of that feeling
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: of being trapped.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: And it's interesting, you know that the first thing that
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: went into my head is I'm like, oh, yeah, but
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: you need a furrowin k and you need an ira,
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: and you need this, and you need that and all
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: these things for modern life. But then I started going
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: back and I'm like, Okay, when I was young and
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: I was like really traveling and the people that I
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: met that or putting it all out there to travel,
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: how many of them run their own companies now are
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: like wildly successful. Like you look at remember the taxi guys. Yeah,
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: one's the best selling author one. Two of them own
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: a successful tech startup companies. One of them is a
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: you know, commercial helicopter pilot that just left everything behind
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: a driver around the world in a grander again ryer.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: The world works itself out.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: It's almost like there's this education of travel and there's
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: this almost like risk intolerance level. Kind of go back
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: to what I said earlier is there's always risk to
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: have the reward, and you learn how to manage the risk,
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: and you get comfortable.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: With risk, and you just get more competent. Any because
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: you're dealing with new people all the time, new challenges
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: all the time, you just get more effective. Yeah, let's
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: talk about gadgets. Let's talk about gadget. Is there anything
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: new that you've been using that you're kind of digging
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: on you I'm thinking, gadget, it looks like you move.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: It looks like you move from the Apple watch to
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: the garment watch. I did the same a watch. Yeah,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: it didn't work for me. It was just too intrusive
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: in my life. Yeah, and you have to charge it constantly.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: I charge this thing like once a month, once in
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: a while, like I've got to dig it. Yeah, I've
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: got twenty two days left. Yeah.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So so I dig this, you know, I get
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: my step goals and all that kind of stuff, make
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: sure I'm moving.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: I like it for the sleep because of the travel.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: It really helps me calibrate, like if what time should
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: I be eating? Should I not have a drink a
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: little bit later in the evening. Because I find that
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: my life improves significantly when my sleep improves significantly, So
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: I use it primarily for sleep, you know.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: Okay, so it's a big gadget, and I'm gonna I'm
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: gonna lump it into the same way that a really
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: nice dishwasher or something.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, your life is. It's a tesla. It is a
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: big gadget, but it is totally a gadget. It's totally
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: a gadget. I bought a model why performance. I like
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: the model, why the best. I think it looks the
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: best form. My is the decision you kind of told me.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: It's the decision I made that freed up so many decisions.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: I don't have to unlock the car, I don't have
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: to find my keys in the morning. I don't have
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: to turn on the radio station. I don't have to
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: turn a climbate Like all of this stuff just happens.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Like you just get in the car and it's transport.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: I plug it in when I get home. It charges overnight,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: costs me about you know, a nowhere from a dollar
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: fifty to two fifty a day in electricity, so less
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: than a gallon of gas.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: It has its pet mode, dog mode, because it's all
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: about Dak. It's all about all about the great think.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: It's the Yeah, it's the Dak Mobile.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Please consider adopting our rescue in the ground. It has
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: this big screen. It actually comes up. You know, my
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: driver will be right back. It's sixty six degrees in here,
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: and the air conditioning is on, and it has a
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: little camera and it streams what's going on inside of
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: the car to my phone. And it's just such a general,
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: like genuinely useful thing.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: I really that was a tough transition from you going
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: from a Mercedes what was a sixty.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: Eight AMG sixty three s Estate or Wagon, which maybe
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: one of the best internal combustion daily driving practical fast
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: cars ever made. And it feels like it is a
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: horse and buggy compared to the Tesla. Like I'm just
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: being like really honest, because I see so much hate
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: about these things, and I realized that Tesla doesn't do
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: press programs, so true. Yeah, so you get all they
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: don't get your hate them. And and I know we've
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: talked about this before, but the reality of most automotive
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: writers that you're reading stuff, they're being flown business or
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: first class to Europe, picked up in a luxury car
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: to take them to their hotel where they can put whatever.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: They want in the room.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: You know, they're winds in the best places and beautiful locales,
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: and there's these people are on the road twenty four
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: to seven, living like this millionaire billionaire lifestyle and.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Everybody but Tesla does that.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: I kind of like I kept my wagon because I'm like, ah, like,
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: maybe this isn't going to be from me, but I
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: have like the I have the power walls and the
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: solar so I'm like closed loop for my energy now.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Because yeah, Arizona has a lot of sun.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: And the climate's doing funky things right now, which probably
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: should make some changes, especially with my lifestyle. Anyway, I
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: thought I was I thought it was going to be
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: bad because you just hear all these bad things. It's
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: it has fewer rattles than my new Energy Wagon did faster,
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: has nice materials inside, like everything that I love the interior, Yeah.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: Everything that people say about them. It's just honest.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: It's interesting to me because I keep thinking, I'm like, hmm,
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: and it's one of the best selling cars in the
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: world right now.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: I think it's the best selling sedan in the world.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Like they're just looking at all of the other
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: manufacturers evs, they're just way far behind. They don't have
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: the charging infrastructure. The Tesla has like a trunk in
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: the back and a trunk in the front, and it
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: has all this space. I didn't expect to like it
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: as much as I.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Did, and it's really handsome to That.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Just makes me question a lot of what I read now, Yeah,
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: because as you then think, like why is everybody saying
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: that this is so bad and why? And it just
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: makes you think that everybody else in the automotive industry,
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: like let's talk from like a manufacturer level, is so
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: insecure that at all of these events, they're downloading all
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: of this hate for this car company. That's one of
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: the most American made cars you can buy. You know,
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: it's it's one of the most innovative car companies in
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: the world and happens to be American in my case.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: It's powered by renewable energy. It's renewable the way to
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: say it, solar.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: I don't know. You have, Yeah, you take in the
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: sun and you convert it to mild oil and your
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: table oil well on my roof.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, chargers that you to start to think of all
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: these special interests that are their livelihood depends on this
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: type of vehicle not being successful.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: Sure, and you kind of start to and you're not
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: saving the world with an electric vehicle. I think that's
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: really important to note. But you are improving the quality
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: of your life significantly without really any more impact to
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: the planet than buying another new car that's internal combustion.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: You save time.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: There's so much misinformation, Like when I see journalists write
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: about it, and then I see them on you know,
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: Russia Times as the reporter, and then I see them
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: at you know, some you know VP event, I'm like, oh,
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: it's all starting to make sense, gotcha. So that was
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: an interesting eye opener and maybe a little a little
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: deep for gadgets.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: So let's talk about the polar opposite of my other
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: new car, which is the seven three Super Duty. So
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: came from Bruce Dorn, who's been in a podcast, a
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: good mutual friend of ours, original owner seven to three
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: f two fifty, such a great California and Arizona car,
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: been with him his entire life. And I'm doing this
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: period correct build on it. And I'm really excited by
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: it because this was when I was going to the
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: racetrack as a kid.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: This was the car that I was in. It was
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: an excursion.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: Same interior, like the front door has this little dip
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: for the mirror.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Sure, and I remember as a kid putting my feet
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: in that. I mean now like my knee wouldn't fit in.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: But it's just so like sentimental and it's it's kind
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: of you know, I guess it fits into that kind
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: of you know, in the collector car world. It would
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: be of the era of the young timer is what
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: they call them.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: It's legendary, legendary engine. It just works.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: So that will be an interesting project to kind of
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: see unfold. I'm putting twenty sixteen axles underneath it.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: I saw them out back in the crates.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: As factory as can be front coil suspension so it
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: won't turn like the Exxon Valdez. They're going to go
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: through some power upgrades. Banks makes a CARB compliant kit
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: that is about one hundred horsepower and two hundred pound
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: feet of torque, has all the EO numbers, which is
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: which is important to me.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: I like clean air. Yeah sure, I think it's cool
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: to breathe. It's just it's just like just being a
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: good human being.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: But yeah, take taking out all the you know, it
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: had some wiring funk going on with it. You know,
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: it's like two remote start systems. And Bobby at Redder
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: Dead Fabrication in Town has been really going through it
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: and kind of restoring this car because I'll tell you
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: I tried to buy a New f two fifty one.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: You can't like two. They're like one hundred thousand dollars
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: for like a well equipped lariat, like I'm not talking
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: King Ranch, Platinum or Limited that goes on top of that.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: And then you're doing that at eight nine percent on
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: car Loan. They can't make enough of them because you
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: can't you literally can't still buy one and I'm like,
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: you know what, no good choice. I'm just going to
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: buy a single lass and make it last.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: You needed to pick up and needed a pickup, I
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: don't want. I don't really want to drive a pickup
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: truck every day. Well, and not only that, but it's like,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: it's still going to be a pick up even if
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: you put a really nice interior in it.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's got Shieldman's in it from yes exactly.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: I put a new airb bumper on it. I was
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: able to buy all the trims and things and.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Awesome, No, it looks so good. It's just like a
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: legit yeah, overland vehicle. You can do whatever you want
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: with it. So that's the plan.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: Is just kind of take the principle of how somebody
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: would build a land cruiser like a seventy series and
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: recognize that this is this is our seventy series is
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: close as you go, have some fun with it and
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: take it on some cool trip.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: It'll run any diesel anywhere in the world. I think
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: it'll be a cool Baja truck. It'll race trailer.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: What about you gadgets, you've been You were in that
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: four by e for a while.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I really liked the four by E. I'm a
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: huge fan of that whole configuration for a lot of
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: reasons without getting too technical on it, but where we
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: live in Prescott, the vast majority of the driving that
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: I do can be accomplished in less than twenty miles
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: round trip. So the four by E is the perfect
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: kind of setup for me because I can go all
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: electric when I'm in town. But then if you want
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: to go to a road trip, or you want to
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: drive to Mexico or wherever, you can just add fuel
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: and you just keep rolling. So there's a lot that
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: I like about the four by E. I think it's
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: my favorite electrified vehicle. Now. I haven't spent time in
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: a Tesla yet, but I have a lot of respect
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: for it. I really like ruly a golf cart. I
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: really liked the Rivian a lot, but I found that,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: like in my personal use case, I cannot get from
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: my office to my little sailboat in the slip in
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Roosevelt and back on one charge, and there's not good
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: charging infrastructure along the way, so it just doesn't work
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: for me. Whereas a four ye I leave with a
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: full charge, I get twenty eight twenty nine miles of
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: the gallon if you leave the full charge, and I
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: can go anywhere I want to go. So for me,
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: it really works. I like the four YE. I also
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: spend some time in the GMC at four x AEV edition,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: which it's such a tidy half ton pickup like package.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: I would say it's the best half ton pickup package
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: out there period. With one caveat is that I think
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, the payload was one thousand and
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: thirty pounds or maybe one thousand and fifty pounds. So
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: when we use a pickup truck like so let's take example,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: like the two of us, So the two of us
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: together are we're pushing five hundred pounds between the two
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: of us, you know, call it four fifty whatever you
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: want to call it. And then you and I want
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: to take two motorcycles. We can't do that. We cannot
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: take two motorcycles and two buddies with the payload that's
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: available in that truck. So one of the things that
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: I would love to see is as these I call
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: them like an Ultra Overlander, where they're really mindful of
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: performance and accessories and packaging, they still have to be
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: mindful of the payload of the vehicle. So a half
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: ton truck needs to be able to have fourteen to
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: seventeen hundred pounds minimum of payloading there half ton, Yeah,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: one thousand pounds. I know, but that's no, it's true.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: It's just never been literal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's never
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: been literal.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: It is interesting because I think that's when we were
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: checking the door tag on that right, and then didn't
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: we go check the door tag on my AMG wagon
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: and it has the same it was wagon was slightly more,
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: it was within, it was within a little bit.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: It's very much. Is shocking. It's shocking. And so here's
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: another perfect example. They have really good toe ratings. These
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: half ton trucks can tow ten eleven, twelve thousand pounds
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: no problem. They tow that kind of weight really well.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: But the majority of these trailers that you're gonna use,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: especially like an overland trailer, they have three, four or
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: five six hundred pounds of tongue weight on them. They
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: say that they shouldn't have more than five hundred, but
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: once people load all their stuff in there, you end
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: up with about a five hundred pound tongue weight. So
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: if you put five hundred pounds on the trailer hitch.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: You've now taken five hundred pounds out of your payload.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: It doesn't go against gross combined vehicle weight rating. It
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: goes against payload because it is resting on the suspension
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: vehicle worst. Yeah, super a ton of leverage, really far back.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: So again like if you've got a family of four
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: and you want to tow a big trailer, you cannot
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: do that. So incredible vehicle. I'm super impressed by the
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: performance front and rear lockers. It's going to have the diesel.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: It's gonna because the one you tested when we had
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: here had the six leader.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: It did it.
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: Like I feel like we really quickly went from like yeah,
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: I want that old school V eight, so like wow,
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: that feels like somebody flip the switch and it just
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: feels kind of outdated. It does you drive that versus
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: let's say the Eco boost that's in the F one
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: fifty or Raptor and you realize, ooh, turbos torque and
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: that's what you really want on the.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: Street, or you just want the diesel and it has
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: a three liter turbo diesel available that's same one that
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: I have in the eighty four that I've got and
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: it's that motor is great and it's now going to
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: be available with the diesel. So I would just love
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: to see the manufacturers mindful of payload. It's just really
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: easy to get. Like even that even that Wrangler four
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: y E that I was driving, it had an eight
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty pound payload. So now that's a little
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: bit more appropriate in a wagon. But again, like if
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: you wanted to tow a small trailer, or if you
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: want to put a couple, you know, put your family
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: in there, you're going to be a payload. And without
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: any gear XL was sixteen hundred pounds. Yeah, which that's
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: you know, that's okay because it's got a ton accessories.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: I could have done the thirty five hundred and I
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: would have had eight squillion, yeah.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: Five. There's a bunch of options with the BIT, with
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: the full size trucks, like the heavy duty full size.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: So so that was but I really like it. It's
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: a great truck. With the diesel, it's going to be
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: a total winner. Yeah, driven a lot of other vehicles.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: I just spent some time in the North America spec Grenadier.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: I was really impressed to see it. Talk to two Yeah,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: two kill a watt inverter with outlets in the center
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: console and in the back, so there's a lot of
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: power available in it. It's a It's definitely a more
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: refined vehicle than the one that I've been driving, which
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: was early prototype production. So they're just they're paying attention.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: I have a lot of time in the Grenadier and
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: I don't want to I don't want to over emphasize
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: the model because I've grown affection towards it because I'm
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: traveling at it. So I have a like a strong
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: blond action, Yeah, strong bond with the vehicle now. But
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: it looks like that they're really paying attention to fit, finish, noise, vibration,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: hard harshness, wrestling things so that way when these vehicles
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: get to North America that they're ready to go. But
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: it was cool to see them continuing to put energy
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: towards making the vehicle grates constant improvement, you know, other gadgets.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: I am finding that I'm trying to like you did
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: with the Tesla. I'm trying to find things that in
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: one defit decision removes a thousand decisions or creates space
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: in my life. So I'm going to talk a little
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: bit about my phone. So those are you are on YouTube?
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: This is now my wallet, and my wallet not only
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: contains things like my driver's license and a couple credit cards,
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: but it also even has a phone in there. So
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: believe it or not, this is a phone. It's called
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: a light phone. They didn't send it to me. I
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: bought it. It is a dumb phone, so it like
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: works with my level of intellect. It's as simple as
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: it gets. But the cool thing about it is it's
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: an organic led screen. It basically makes phone calls and
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: it sends text messages with some degree of effort, so
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: you don't find yourself really trying to text or anything
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: like that. You can see it's just a very simple screen.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: There's no color. It will also play music. Kind of
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: looks like a like a Kindle screen. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: It's and and it is a little bit backlit, so
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: it works at night, but during the daytime when there's
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: no when there's a sufficient light, it's not backlit. It's
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: a phone. It's got an alarm, it's got a calculator.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: It's got a clever calendar function that I can pair
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: with my Google calendar, so it gives me push notifications,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: which is something that's fairly important. It works as a
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: hot spot. It also allows me to have podcasts on there,
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: do a couple notes, those kinds of things. So I
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: use this phone when I'm back in the United States,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: and I love it because it took me about a
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: week to get over the neurosis of like constantly checking
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: my phone. And I had already taken all social media
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: off my phone, but I found myself still like this
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: compulsion to like I don't check my bank balance or
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: like go on to CNN or what. I just found
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: a new I found a new verse vision of obsessing
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: over the stupid phone. So I decided that I was
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: going to take a break at digital Detox, and I'm
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: going to use this thing now. It's really important to
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: note this is not a solution for travel. It does
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: not work well internationally. I can't I can't have boarding
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: boarding passes on there. It does have a way to
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: do directions, but it won't work internationally. You can't have Gaya,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: you can't have like there's things that I can't do instant.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: The messaging through the garment in reach your bubbles went
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: from blue to green. Yes, that's right. Exactly while I'm
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: in the US. I'm going to keep using this thing,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: and I love it. It's kind of like a big
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: middle finger to all of the time that I've lost
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: with with tech devices.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: I think five ten years ago when he traveled, I
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: wonder how much of it, you know. The enjoyment for
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: me was actually the disconnection. Yeah, but now your phone
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: just works everywhere. It works everywhere, and you have Internet everywhere,
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: and you are constantly connected, like I find that with
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: the star Link. Now we were out and oh we
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: should talk about my big stuck in the earth rummer.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about the starlink stuff first, because I
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: have a little update on starlink too.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: But yeah, oh yeah, yeah. So we have the in
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: motion starlink and it works. Yeah, really great. We leave
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: it on when we go down the road. It's really
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: good with the RV plan. So if we want to,
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: we can turn it on and off by the month,
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: which is like handy keeps expenses down when you're traveling.
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: I hardwired everything in the dishes there. I don't you
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: don't know that there's starlink on the vehicle other than
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: you know, you can kind of see the dish at
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: the back and I have it on a nondescript switch,
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: and I've noticed that when I when I first got it,
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: it was always on and you never disconnect, Like we
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: found this lovely camps Oh, actually no, I can't talk
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: about that.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: It was a terrible camp site there.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: We were at this terrible camp site in this terrible place,
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: and I kind of had, you know, this, this this
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: epiphany where I'm like, oh, I don't have to use this,
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: and you're just you constantly make yourself available, and now
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: the starlink is making yourself available in places where you
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: shouldn't be available. So I'm like trying to leave it off.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: You know, Laura will be on the starlink and we've
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: now kind of have this this thing where we'll be like, Okay,
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: in the morning, you know, we have our coffee, we
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: do everything, we go for a walk, Okay, we're going
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: to turn the starlink on. We press the button five
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: or so minutes it's on, we leave it on for
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: a little bit and we give ourselves like thirty minute
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: blocks of it, and then we turn it off.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Smart and smart. You notice it's so funny.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: Mean, it's like it's kind of like, you know, just
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: having all the power with the button. But we go
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: from low stress, you know, like talking to each other,
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: looking at each other. The moment you press that button,
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: you're just back on your phone.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you're sending you and then you're sending
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: each other memes. Yeah, and while you're sitting in the
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: earth roop like you're you.
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: Know, it's great on memes for us, a million greenheart
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: means going back. But you have to make the time
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: you really disconnects. I think that's such a huge part
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: of why we all do this, is to be one
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: with nature.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: I buried the earth rummer to the frame. I was
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: trying to find this campsite in eastern Arizona, which is
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: an area that I had not been to, and my
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: mind was Arizona doesn't really rain that much. There's not
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: that much organic matter in the soil generally stable, like
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: they're very stable. I didn't air down, which was my
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: first mistake, but I learned a lot from this. Anyways,
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: driving book truck goes down, doesn't move. I had missed
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: a turn. I was trying to get to this. There
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: was like this dam that was put in like a
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: year or two ago to keep fish from going invasive
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: species from going further up. Found it on satellite, one
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: of those places like sure, we just spent these like
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: beautiful two three days in this idyllic campsite where there
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: was like there's a wild growing in our campsite in Arizona. Wow,
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: And tried to find this other campsite because we're just
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: so stoked on this area that no one goes to.
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: It's terrible, don't go. But it was the first time
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: that I had been really stuck in the earth Roamer.
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: I had been close, I had been, you know, in
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: situations where I had to throw a set of Max
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: tracks out in sand or something like that. But this
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: was you know, this was eighteen pounds of stuck, stuck,
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: eighteen thousand pounds of stuck. And it's interesting when you
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: when you have a winch and Max tracks and recovery
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: gear in a four wheel drive, you're you're recovering most
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: most overland trucks are between six thousand and ten thousand pounds.
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: But they also had the ability to gain that momentum
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: much quicker. They don't sink as much. It was stressful, Yeah,
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: it was because where we were, luckily, we had starlink
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: and communication and we would have been fine. But you know,
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: it starts ring. I mean, yeah, and it's muddy. I'm
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: not I don't have that much experience in mud. To
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: be honest, I've lived in Arizona my entire adult life.
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: We don't really have it, not really. And this was
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: a non improved road. Blew my rear winch. I you
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: know that some of the mistakes I recognized that I
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: made as I was just going on forest service roads.
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: I was going to a relatively establish campsite. I'm trying
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: to travel with less. I didn't take my recovery kit
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: with me.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: Oh exciting.
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: I always have eight Max tracks on the back. I
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: lost four of them. I didn't have a snatch block
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: to go backwards. It had an undersized winch on the back.
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: It was kind of retrofitted. I had a worn nine
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: to five, which is a great winch that demands several
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: bully blocks. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But you have to you
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: have to work with what you have. And the thing
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: that I realized with these big expedition trucks is you
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: can have all the recovery experience in the world.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: You can have.
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: What I believed to be good driving talent in myself.
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: I'm smart ish and that truck's gonna still it's going
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: to go where it's going to go. I kept finding
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: these like boulders underneath the surface, Like I mean, you're
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: literally you're sinking down a forty two inch tire and
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: there might be a big rock in front of you
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: and you're just not going to move. And it was stressful.
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: It was a big learning experience.
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: How did you get out? Going forward?
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: I had to go and my initial thing was I've
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: just driven down a road, you know, basically it was
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: kind of I'm going to call it gravel reinforced. And
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: then about one hundred feet after that, you know, I
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: had missed what was meant to be the turn that
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: they had kind of backfilled and you couldn't tell that
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: there was a turn there. So I'm like, okay, it's
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: it's uphill moving forward. I've already sunk. I need to
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: go backwards. What can I do? Like, I have a
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: have a have a tree strap and I've got this.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: Well, the truck.
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: Kind of moved over and that's where I ran into
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: that boulder in the back, so rear winch went. I
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: couldn't go anywhere, so I had to go forward, so
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: I kind of had to like you know, you almost
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: have to make these and it's damaging the environment. You
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: have to like almost make these tracks to free that
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: kind of sticktion so I could get forward. So i'd
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: winch forward with the vehicle just you know, kind of
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: first gear, not driving the winch, but trying to create
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: these like a little runway from my Yeah, sure, in essence,
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: and then I knew that I could get back, and
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: I was able to get forward, but then I had
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: to get the truck turned around. That is where things
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: got challenging because I had to I had to winch
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: the front of the truck over, you know, predictively get
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: it stuck right, Like I know that I'm going to
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: get stuck the moment I go off, I go off.
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: There's there was no place to turn the vehicle around. Sure,
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: you know, you have a what's the wheelbase on an
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: earth throw work? Eight thousand feet eight thousand feet, So
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: trying to get this kind of moved around. You're trying
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: to make it work, and you just have to realize
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: like okay, like I'm going to get stuck, but where
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: do I want to get stuck and move that front
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: end four feet this way and then do the same thing. Sure,
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: it was interesting, and it's my second big, big recovery
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: when we were traveling, and my second one where I
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: should have listened to Laura.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: I talked about the one in Australia.
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so again some lessons is that you have to
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: work as a team on these things. Just because that
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: person sitting right seat doesn't mean that they're actually probably
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: not the one that's paying more attention. You're trying to
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: drive this eighteen thousand pound vehicle off road or on
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: the road. You know you're only looking. You know your
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: eyes are looking most of the television. Sure you get tunnlevision.
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: You're only looking, you know, a couple hundred feet ahead
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: where maybe the person that's right seat is actually paying
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: attention to the environment more. First thing, you shouldn't go
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: through there. You shouldn't go through there. Don't do it.
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: Don't do it. And then I got it stuck. This
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: is my public apology and a wife and my record,
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: good man, my recommendation to listen to the person that's
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: in your right seat, especially someone as smart and as
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: experienced as a traveler. And when that when the when
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: the spidy senses start going off as a driver slowed
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: the vehicle down. That's what I should have done. I
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: knew that it was going to be challenging. But you
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: get in the roamer and you're like, I'm going to
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: pick up truck because that's what you that's what you
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: visually see, Sure, and you like, forget, No.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: It's a really heavy pickup. I'm not really in a pickup.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: It just kind of looks like one. Yeah. So yeah,
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: it was. It was.
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: It was fascinating, and we did our best to you know,
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: public land. You know, we did our best to kind
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: of you know, fill things back in. Sure sucks. You
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: know sometimes sometimes those things well you didn't do it
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: on Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't intentional. There are there's
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: four buried Max Tracks extremes that are you know, I'm
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: supposed to be that guy. I'm the Max Trast guy.
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: I'm supposed to be using the leashes and they were
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: just buried. You know, it was like the chocolate cake
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: mud totally.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: They were gone. Yeah.
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: So if anybody wants to go try and find a
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars with Max Track, I'll give you.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: I'll give you the pin and you.
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: Know glad that I was able to get out because
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: the first getting out of the first one felt like
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: a win. And then you know, it's five more of
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: these recoveries where you just got to drag that front
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: end over. Yeah, because the twice as much weight on
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: the rear as you do the front. Sure, in an
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: exhibition truck like that. Sure, So what a fun experience.
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: So now in hindsight, you learned some things. Yeah, yeah,
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: don't go down muddy roads and a really heavy truck
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: in an environment that you don't know.
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. I have some starlink news. So I
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: worked with the company Unique Componentry. They're actually long time
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: subscribers to the magazine followers of Expedition Portal. He's an
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: engineer and he figured out how to create a twelve
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: volt only one point one point nine inch tall starlink package.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: So I sent my star Link to him because I
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: plan on bringing it with me to Africa. Because I
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: really had some challenges. I don't have to work as
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: quite as much as I have to work when I'm
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: in Arizona, but I still have work that I have
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: to get done. It's what allows me to travel. So
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: it was impossible to do some of the things that
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: I needed to do with the internet connections that I
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: could get. So I'm going to bring the starlink with
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: me to do that kind of work. And it magnets
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: to the top of the Grenadier with these magnetic feet,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: it's super low profile. It won't be obvious even to
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: anybody that looks at the car that there's a satellite
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: antenna on there. The big advantages is it converts it
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: from one hundred and twenty volt to twelve, so it
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: drops the power usage by about thirty or forty percent.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: And then how does that work for your router though
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: it's all integrated. Oh, so it has its own little
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: WiFi router in Yes, take they take the router, and
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: they take the antenna and they make them into one,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: and they remove the post and they remove all of
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: the motor drive units that are in there, so it
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: actually makes it lighter. And they machine the back of
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: the antenna plastic panel off, and then they integrate the
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: router and then they pot and seal the entire and
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: the entire antenna so it's vibration resistant, weather resistant in
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: ways that it wasn't before. Yeah, and then it has
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: four integrated mounting points, mounting nuts integrated into the a
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: captive nut integrated into the potting, and then you can
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: run either a magnetic foot or a sticky foot, or
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: you can mount from the bottom up into it through it.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: And it comes with a cool little nylon case. So
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to carry it on the airplane. So
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty excited about that. It's something I'm super excited about.
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: The in motion Yeah, I mean basically that gives you
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: it does you know, I mean I know that you're
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: not meant to use them in motion, and sometimes they'll
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: work or whatever. But the ability to take it off
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: and reposition it. We've been in campsites where you know,
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: we always we don't choose our campsites based on starlink sure.
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: If it doesn't work, hey yeah, kind of have to
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: have that northern view. And if you can't get the
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: northern view. That's where I'm actually not really a fan
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: of the in motion and the full mounted sure solution.
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: Like if I would have had a different antenna and
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: I would have been able to set it, you know,
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: let's say twenty feet over here facing that way, you
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: could have actually gotten Internet.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: So this is a really interesting solution It's very clever too,
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: because you can actually it comes with a twelve olt
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: cigarette lighter socket, which is never the best connection anyways,
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: but it comes with that. But you can unscrew the
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: twelve olt cigarette lighter portion and it becomes one of
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: those like Dometic fridge I'd like to help or whatever. Well,
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: it's a little bit even more advanced than that. It's
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: a two pin that has a polarity orientation, and then
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: it's also got a screw on cap. So like if
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: you have a Dometic power supply, or there's other power
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: supplies that use that same connection, you can just take
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: your little Goal zero or Dometic or whatever and the
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: antenna and carry it out into a spot where you
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: have coverage. You just lay the antenna on the ground
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: pointing up and you're done. You can run it off
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: of that little power pack for mewhere. That conversion con
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: I think it's about a thousand bucks. Okay, it's not cheap,
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: but it's it's one of it's a low volume. I mean,
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: the guy's he's able, he's like pursuing his dreams. I'm
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: like super proud of them for having something like that.
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: That's that's still cheaper than it would cost to get
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: the hyperfet's correct, that's correct to install that, and you
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: end up with the smallest possible starlink set up, so
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: it's carry on sized that you can take anywhere in
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: the world.
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: You have to just get the global data plan. So yeah,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: because I mean, what is that draw? I think it.
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: I would be surprised if it's more than two amps. Wow.
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: So it's very It's a lot better than otherwise. You're
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: having to go through an inverter, which you have parasitic
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: loss and that conversion, and then there's also all the
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: motors and it reorienting and all those other things. So
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: the power consumption.
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: Now we figure anywhere between ten and twelve amps.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, four for the starlink, because I did some testing.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: I saw an average five point seven with my starlink
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: before I got it converted. You have a different unit
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: than I do. Yeah, so, but I saw five point
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: seven on average amps, and it should be down to
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: that too amp range because you're now going on at.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: Now you can actually run that on a typical overland
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: YEP truck totally. It was just before we converted the
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: earth romer to lithium. It was the InMotion was actually
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: kind of a strain on those, Like I've been thinking like, oh,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: well i'll leave it out overnight. You don't realize like
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: it actually it's a constant draw. It is a constant
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: draw and it really brings that voltage down.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: So yeah, so yeah, it's really really cool. So what's
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: the name of that again, It's called Unique Componentry okay,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: and it's a starlink conversion. Yeah, it's just a super
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: bright engineer that decided to make a cool product and
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: he like builds, He builds every single one of them
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: himself and dig that. Yeah, it's just it's a very cool,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: very thoughtful So there'll be a full review on that
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: coming out when we get a chance to really test it.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: Crossing Africa. So I think that covers everything that we
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: really wanted a random catchup podcast. Yes, that's right, and well, Matt,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: it's great to see you. I'm so glad that we
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: got a chance to sit down. I'm only around for
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: another couple of weeks before I head back to Africa.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: The Grenadier is currently being stored in Dar Salam in Tanzania,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: so for any of our listeners that are in Tanzaniago
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: check out CMC Automotive right there downtown in Dar Salam.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: It's in the showroom. It's like the display model of
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: Barack Obama Drive. It's very close to Barack Obama draw.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: Yes it is. It's actually very close to there. Yeah. Yeah,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: cool dealership, cool people. And they were just super gracious
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: to let me store the vehicle there for free and
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: in a safe place. And I really loved Tanzania, really
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: loved Malawi. Make sure those are traveling to Africa keep
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: that on your list. But I'm excited to go back. Yeah,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: so I'm excited for you. Got thanks man, Yeah, yeah, no,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: we need to talk about getting you over to Morocco
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: staying race cars. Well, and thanks Matt for being on
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: the podcast again today and chatting with us our great Scott,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: Great Scott episode, and we thank you all for listening
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: and we'll talk to you next time.