Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / SEMA 2023 Goes Overlanding With Brian McVickers

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SEMA 2023 Goes Overlanding With Brian McVickers · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I am
0:04
Speaker 1: your host, Scott Brady, and I am here in the
0:08
Speaker 1: middle of Kenya. I'm actually just about ten kilometers from
0:13
Speaker 1: the equator, having driven from Capagolis in the south to
0:18
Speaker 1: this point and Kenya. Had about a twelve hour day
0:21
Speaker 1: to day in the rain driving the Grenadier, but successfully
0:25
Speaker 1: made it to a place called Nanyuki. And it's something
0:30
Speaker 1: that we don't want to miss a podcast. And Brian
0:33
Speaker 1: mcvickers just attended Sema. This is the first SEMA in
0:38
Speaker 1: my memory that I haven't attended, so looking forward to
0:42
Speaker 1: having Brian on the podcast today and sharing some of
0:46
Speaker 1: his experiences from the show. Brian, thanks for being on
0:48
Speaker 1: the podcast.
0:50
Speaker 2: Thanks Scott, it's good to see it. Hey everybody. Yeah,
0:53
Speaker 2: it was a good SEMA. You know, I think we're
0:55
Speaker 2: going on, you know, geez, nearly eighteen years of em
1:00
Speaker 2: now and the show just continues to grow. If you
1:04
Speaker 2: have been to the show, you know, or if you
1:07
Speaker 2: haven't been in the show in a while, they've they've
1:09
Speaker 2: expanded it to a whole nother hall that they built
1:14
Speaker 2: it a few years ago. But it's finally it's really
1:17
Speaker 2: starting to fill up with vendors too. But it's the
1:20
Speaker 2: West Hall. Used to be a parking lot. I remember
1:22
Speaker 2: ten years ago we'd parked there for fifteen bucks.
1:26
Speaker 1: Yeah that's right now.
1:27
Speaker 2: You gotta now that whole area is a big, a
1:31
Speaker 2: big building, and parking across the streets fifty bucks. So
1:37
Speaker 2: it's all above a little bit.
1:39
Speaker 1: And a special thanks to Kuat Racks for their support
1:43
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1:48
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1:55
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1:59
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2:04
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2:07
Speaker 1: available in six different frame sizes to accommodate most truck models,
2:10
Speaker 1: and it's equipped with telescoping crossbars, numerous t channels, and
2:15
Speaker 1: a versatile full and half height configuration. Right out of
2:19
Speaker 1: the box. This is the Ibex from Kuwat. It is
2:22
Speaker 1: engineered for adventure. For more details, please visit kuat dot com.
2:28
Speaker 1: Kuat because you will absolutely love this bedrack.
2:33
Speaker 2: But it was a good it was a really good show.
2:36
Speaker 2: You know. I spent most of my time in I'd
2:39
Speaker 2: say the Central and West halls, which have a little
2:41
Speaker 2: bit more focus on on four wheel drive and kind
2:46
Speaker 2: of the overland space if some of the other halls
2:50
Speaker 2: are more uh, you know, kind of oriented towards tools
2:55
Speaker 2: and vehicle fabrication things like that. So we had a
2:59
Speaker 2: really good time walking to show I was going through
3:02
Speaker 2: my notes. I think I met with thirty two different
3:04
Speaker 2: companies over the course of two days, so we got
3:08
Speaker 2: a lot of information to digest.
3:10
Speaker 1: One of the things that I've noticed, Brian, over the
3:13
Speaker 1: last decade is not only a greater presence of overlanding
3:19
Speaker 1: within the hall, but now it's actually kind of what
3:22
Speaker 1: they're calling it is the overland space, and it's because
3:26
Speaker 1: it's really evolved, not only in the scope, in the
3:31
Speaker 1: breadth of the products that are being covered, but in
3:34
Speaker 1: the number of companies that used to only produce off
3:38
Speaker 1: road components that are now making accessories specifically for overland travel.
3:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good observation, Scott. One of the things
3:47
Speaker 2: that I've noticed is about ten years ago, maybe a
3:51
Speaker 2: little bit sooner than that, there was almost this conflict
3:54
Speaker 2: between you know, what's four wheel drive and what's overlanding,
3:57
Speaker 2: and they didn't quite know what to do now in
4:00
Speaker 2: in you know, from my view, it seems that there's
4:03
Speaker 2: there's plenty of space for you know, four wheel drive
4:06
Speaker 2: and uh and kind of you know, setting a vehicle
4:09
Speaker 2: up to be a four wheel drives as far as
4:13
Speaker 2: that activity is concerned, and then there's plenty of space
4:16
Speaker 2: for more of the travel oriented overland space. And they
4:19
Speaker 2: they've actually taken what what they call the Overland Experience
4:24
Speaker 2: at the show. It used to be inside of the
4:27
Speaker 2: of the West Hall, and they that actually has grown
4:31
Speaker 2: so large as a dedicated area that they've moved it outside.
4:36
Speaker 2: So they moved it outside into the parking lot just
4:39
Speaker 2: to the side of the West Hall. So inside the
4:42
Speaker 2: West Hall is a little bit more four wheel drive
4:44
Speaker 2: component oriented components and products. And then outside in the
4:49
Speaker 2: Overland Experience, you've got to see complete vehicle builds and
4:53
Speaker 2: a lot larger builds. So you're starting to see some
4:56
Speaker 2: of the some of the big trucks, some of the
4:58
Speaker 2: big vans u where they would be plenty of space
5:02
Speaker 2: to be outside and you can walk around and walk
5:04
Speaker 2: inside of them and really get a good look.
5:07
Speaker 1: Oh, that makes so much sense, especially since so many
5:10
Speaker 1: of the components that are sold at SEMA are assembled
5:14
Speaker 1: into those final expedition camper projects.
5:21
Speaker 2: Right, And they've tried doing it a few different ways.
5:24
Speaker 2: I remember several years ago kind of tucked way out
5:28
Speaker 2: in the corner. It was kind of a back parking lot.
5:30
Speaker 2: They had some of the big trucks like Earth Cruisers
5:33
Speaker 2: and Earth roamers and Global Expedition vehicles. They would all
5:36
Speaker 2: gather there. But now they've really they've formalized it into
5:40
Speaker 2: an organized space.
5:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember. I think the first time that I
5:44
Speaker 1: ever had a vehicle on display at SEMA was two
5:48
Speaker 1: thousand and.
5:49
Speaker 2: Five and there was a Tacoma Yeah it was.
5:53
Speaker 1: It was the White Expedition's West Tacoma and just next
5:57
Speaker 1: to me was this huge converted for WL Drive van,
6:01
Speaker 1: which was the you Joint off Road Vance. So it's
6:04
Speaker 1: just fun to see the number of companies that have
6:07
Speaker 1: been representing overlanding for a very long time, And of
6:11
Speaker 1: course ARB comes to mind. ARB, even well before I
6:16
Speaker 1: started doing anything at SEMA, was really representing vehicle based travel.
6:21
Speaker 1: And there's a couple other companies that come to mind too,
6:24
Speaker 1: but ARB was really one of the forefront organizations to
6:28
Speaker 1: represent overlanding at SEMA.
6:30
Speaker 2: And Arb was there in full force. I tell you,
6:34
Speaker 2: they had a fairly large booth this year, and one
6:38
Speaker 2: of the highlights of their both was the new Earth
6:42
Speaker 2: camper trailer.
6:45
Speaker 1: What did you think of seeing that in person?
6:47
Speaker 2: It was really neat. I actually spent I spent nearly
6:51
Speaker 2: hour in that booth crawling around taking a look at
6:56
Speaker 2: the trailer. So it's a hard sided trailer. It's kind
6:59
Speaker 2: of like this monocock construction, and it's got a it
7:04
Speaker 2: has an active high pressure system where it has some
7:09
Speaker 2: of these ducks with a with a filtration system that
7:12
Speaker 2: as you're towing it, it pushes air into the into
7:16
Speaker 2: the trailer and uh so then it kind of creates
7:20
Speaker 2: a high pressure zone inside the trailer to keep dust out.
7:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, and a lot of people don't know that on
7:25
Speaker 1: their own, on their own vehicle, they can actually do that.
7:29
Speaker 1: If if your vehicle has some kind of a HEPA filter,
7:32
Speaker 1: you can actually turn it off of recirculate and then
7:36
Speaker 1: turn up the fan speed to create some internal pressure
7:39
Speaker 1: inside your vehicle to keep a lot of dust out.
7:42
Speaker 1: So when I'm on dusty roads, I make sure I
7:44
Speaker 1: do that. Like the Grenadier, for example, has got a
7:47
Speaker 1: great HEPA filter. So I just cranked the fans speed
7:51
Speaker 1: up with the doors closed, and it keeps the dust out.
7:55
Speaker 2: Makes a big difference deal with bull dust and that
7:58
Speaker 2: totally so. So it's a nice trailer. It's very well
8:03
Speaker 2: thought out. It really has everything you need from the
8:09
Speaker 2: kitchen to the interior space with storage, and it very
8:14
Speaker 2: much feels like a little studio apartment. I mean, it's
8:16
Speaker 2: a you know, really well done. One of the things
8:20
Speaker 2: that I liked about it is that the the entire
8:25
Speaker 2: trailer is built onto a frame that is continuous from
8:29
Speaker 2: the trailer hitch all the way through the chassis of
8:33
Speaker 2: the trailer into the upper frame that goes up and
8:36
Speaker 2: around the fiber class shell is one one kind of
8:42
Speaker 2: structure of steel tubing, so it ties all the way in.
8:47
Speaker 2: So very well thought out in that regard great suspension system.
8:53
Speaker 2: It has two or three different kind of modes if
8:56
Speaker 2: you will, so you can you can do you know,
8:59
Speaker 2: full deployment where you kind of create this additional annex
9:04
Speaker 2: room off the back of it. But then they have
9:06
Speaker 2: a quick camp mode as well, so if you just
9:08
Speaker 2: wanted to, you know, stop for the day, open the
9:11
Speaker 2: door in the back and crawl into the bed you
9:14
Speaker 2: can do that without having to set everything.
9:16
Speaker 1: Up, or if you were in really cold conditions maybe.
9:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, the cold conditions that would certainly help. The annex
9:25
Speaker 2: room is a fabric room, So the back door here's
9:29
Speaker 2: the trailer. The back door kind of falls down and
9:32
Speaker 2: then the rest of it is a fabric enclosure.
9:37
Speaker 1: Cool. And it's one of the things that I like,
9:40
Speaker 1: I've seen with trailers recently. And I'm a big proponent
9:44
Speaker 1: of if you're going to tow a trailer, you better
9:46
Speaker 1: be able to sleep inside of it. I've never been
9:50
Speaker 1: a huge fan of like stick a roof ten on
9:52
Speaker 1: top of a trailer, because why not just put the
9:54
Speaker 1: roof ten on top of the car? Sure, but something
9:57
Speaker 1: like the ARB trailer, you you actually have, like you said,
10:01
Speaker 1: this little studio apartment that you get a retreat into.
10:05
Speaker 1: You can keep it set up ready to go with
10:08
Speaker 1: all of your gear, hook it up at the you know,
10:11
Speaker 1: on a Friday afternoon, and off you go to the weekend.
10:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, well we did. We did a fifteen minute detailed
10:18
Speaker 2: walk around with one of there, with one of the
10:20
Speaker 2: folks from AARB and they went into great detail on it.
10:24
Speaker 2: So we'll be able to publish that in the next
10:26
Speaker 2: couple of weeks for everybody to take a close look at.
10:28
Speaker 1: Oh that's awesome, thanks for doing that, Brian. What else
10:31
Speaker 1: did you see at AARB. I'm noticing that they're coming
10:34
Speaker 1: out with a lot of their travel equipment, So like
10:36
Speaker 1: the kit slide out kitchen, the trailer, they just keep
10:41
Speaker 1: releasing more and more camping lifestyle gear.
10:45
Speaker 2: They do, and I'm seeing that from quite a few
10:47
Speaker 2: different companies. But the ARB kitchen is quite clever. It
10:52
Speaker 2: slides out and then so it's one big slide out
10:57
Speaker 2: with a stainless steel surface, and then from within that
11:00
Speaker 2: you have an almost jackknife out into a into an
11:03
Speaker 2: L shaped kitchen, so you have an electric burner, so
11:08
Speaker 2: an inductive cooking top, and then a sink with with
11:12
Speaker 2: running water and then that's that kind of you know,
11:17
Speaker 2: slides out from the main part, so you still have
11:21
Speaker 2: a whole lot of stainless steel countertop space, and then
11:26
Speaker 2: the cooking and the sink area is separate from the
11:29
Speaker 2: countertop space, so you're not you're not you know, giving
11:32
Speaker 2: up any any real estate for that. They also have
11:37
Speaker 2: two new bumpers. They've got the Zenith bumper and I
11:41
Speaker 2: think it's called the Summit Bumper integrated lighting really nice,
11:46
Speaker 2: kind of a new design from what we've traditionally seen
11:50
Speaker 2: from ARB. And then they also have a whole new
11:53
Speaker 2: lighting lineup, so they've got new lighting. I think they
11:58
Speaker 2: just acquired another lighting company and they've they've folded that
12:02
Speaker 2: into their product lineup as well.
12:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, they just keep bringing more and more new products,
12:09
Speaker 1: which is so exciting.
12:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know a lot of it's that consolidation that
12:12
Speaker 2: we're seeing in the marketplace. A lot of companies are
12:16
Speaker 2: are kind of bringing in complimentary products, uh, so that
12:21
Speaker 2: they can have a complete offering to the consumer.
12:24
Speaker 1: Well, one of the things that you got to see
12:27
Speaker 1: that I so much wanted to see in person is
12:30
Speaker 1: Dave Harreton's new single cab gmc AH four X heavy
12:37
Speaker 1: duty with the with the trade bed.
12:39
Speaker 2: How was that That has got this presence to it
12:43
Speaker 2: that you know you it stops you in your tracks.
12:46
Speaker 2: I've seen it twice now. I saw it out in
12:48
Speaker 2: Montana when they when they first launched it to the
12:52
Speaker 2: public and then that was a bit of a limited
12:55
Speaker 2: viewing because the sun was setting as as we got
12:57
Speaker 2: to see it. But then to see it under the
13:00
Speaker 2: lights at SEMA really got to take a more detailed
13:04
Speaker 2: look at it, and it is, you know, it's one
13:06
Speaker 2: of those trucks that kind of it gives you everything
13:09
Speaker 2: that you would want in a truck. It's very utilitarian.
13:13
Speaker 2: That tray bed is brilliant, and then the way the
13:17
Speaker 2: entire thing is put together, it's got everything that you
13:19
Speaker 2: would want out of a truck. And one of the
13:21
Speaker 2: neat things that they launched at the at the show
13:26
Speaker 2: was the new tire. So AEV has spent the last
13:31
Speaker 2: probably two or three years developing a tire with BF
13:34
Speaker 2: Goodrich and this is a this is a forty inch
13:38
Speaker 2: tire that goes on to I believe a seventeen inch
13:40
Speaker 2: wheel and it's an f rated tire and it's a
13:45
Speaker 2: bit of a it's a bit of a hybrid. It
13:49
Speaker 2: it presents as a very aggressive alterrain tire, but this
13:54
Speaker 2: is and it's so it's tall and narrow within its
13:58
Speaker 2: own proportions. Right, So it's a forty and I think
14:01
Speaker 2: it's twelve and a half inches wide. I might be wrong.
14:04
Speaker 2: It might be thirteen inches wide, but you know, thirteen
14:07
Speaker 2: inches is still pretty wide. But when you put it
14:09
Speaker 2: onto a forty inch tire, it's pretty narrow, and so
14:14
Speaker 2: they made that tire specifically for the Prospector. And when
14:19
Speaker 2: we first got to see the GMC truck at in
14:24
Speaker 2: Montana at the Exoverland Ranch, it had a different set
14:29
Speaker 2: of wheels and tires on it. So now at SEEMA
14:32
Speaker 2: it had the proper set of wheels and tires. And
14:34
Speaker 2: I got to speak with Dave Harrington of AEV and
14:37
Speaker 2: he was really that was probably what he was most
14:40
Speaker 2: excited about out of everything that they were displaying at SEMA.
14:44
Speaker 1: Well, he has to be so proud of that, and
14:46
Speaker 1: it's one of the challenges that we have in the marketplaces.
14:50
Speaker 1: Oftentimes these tires are just too wide for modern vehicle
14:54
Speaker 1: platforms because these these wheel wells really require a very
14:58
Speaker 1: specific width track tread with in order to fit up
15:02
Speaker 1: inside of the wheel well. So I'm sure that that
15:05
Speaker 1: tire is going to be like hugely successful, not only
15:08
Speaker 1: with the GMC, but with their RAM based Prospector as well.
15:14
Speaker 2: Correct and it'll fit both platforms and it it really
15:17
Speaker 2: looks great. They had it on the GMC and then
15:20
Speaker 2: right next to the GMC they had a RAM platform
15:22
Speaker 2: or RAM Prospector, and they had it on there too,
15:26
Speaker 2: and it just awesome. It looks very good on the truck.
15:29
Speaker 1: Oh that's so cool. And I'm just such a fan
15:32
Speaker 1: of those regular cab trucks, and I've known about this
15:37
Speaker 1: flatbed forever, but I just couldn't tell anybody about it.
15:41
Speaker 1: So it was just so cool to see it coming
15:44
Speaker 1: to light. And you know, Dave Is and his team
15:47
Speaker 1: just does such incredible work and it's you know, it's
15:50
Speaker 1: just such an honor to know all of them and
15:52
Speaker 1: to see the products that they bring to market.
15:56
Speaker 2: They do. They put a tremendous amount of thought and
15:58
Speaker 2: know how an engineer behind everything that they bring to market.
16:02
Speaker 2: And you know, one of the things I like about
16:04
Speaker 2: AEV is they are constantly looking ahead. So they're working
16:08
Speaker 2: on six, seven years, eight years away because it takes
16:14
Speaker 2: that amount of time, especially when you start having such
16:17
Speaker 2: integration into the OEM side. They're definitely forward thinking and innovative.
16:24
Speaker 1: So cool. All right, So let's talk about what was
16:27
Speaker 1: the next thing that you saw that you were excited about.
16:31
Speaker 2: Well, let's see, you know, I'm trying to think I'm
16:35
Speaker 2: walking myself around the show right in uh kind of
16:39
Speaker 2: chronological order. One of the next things after after seeing uh,
16:45
Speaker 2: those was Winnebago. Uh So, Winnebago's got, you know, the
16:50
Speaker 2: next evolution of their Rebel van.
16:55
Speaker 1: Hugely popular.
16:57
Speaker 2: It's been great and it's it's getting better. In my opinion.
17:01
Speaker 2: The very early versions I think had too much stuff underneath,
17:06
Speaker 2: but they're really starting to, i would say, kind of
17:09
Speaker 2: clean up the the functionality of that vehicle to make
17:13
Speaker 2: it more capable. And then the really big news from
17:16
Speaker 2: Winnebago was that they have a new trailer. So that's
17:20
Speaker 2: their their big offering for the next year is they've
17:24
Speaker 2: got a new toe behind trailer.
17:29
Speaker 1: And what's the what's the length on it? What's the
17:33
Speaker 1: box length, not the overall length. Is it like a
17:36
Speaker 1: night Let's check it out.
17:38
Speaker 2: It is. The exterior length is fifteen feet eleven inches.
17:45
Speaker 2: Weight is third hitch weights four hundred and forty four pounds.
17:51
Speaker 1: It's a single then a single axle.
17:54
Speaker 2: It is called both hip. Yeah, it's called the Hike
17:57
Speaker 2: one hundred flex traus perfect.
18:01
Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan of that, of that form factor,
18:04
Speaker 1: like the X one four five that we have from Imperial.
18:09
Speaker 1: That one is it's just such an ideal size because
18:13
Speaker 1: you end up with a dry bath and then you
18:16
Speaker 1: end up with enough space for sleeping and everything else.
18:19
Speaker 1: What's the layout on the interior of this new Hike trailer.
18:24
Speaker 2: It's really efficient. So they've got two sofas that are
18:27
Speaker 2: about sixty four inches long, and then between the sofas,
18:32
Speaker 2: you've got a table, so you can drop the table down,
18:35
Speaker 2: put extra cushions down. And now you've got this really
18:39
Speaker 2: sixty four by sixty four sleeping area, which is a
18:43
Speaker 2: nice sized bed. Then you've got you've got a closet
18:47
Speaker 2: and a dresser. You've got a wet bath that has
18:51
Speaker 2: a standing shower and a separate toilet. Then you've got
18:55
Speaker 2: a yeah, well it's a wet bath.
19:00
Speaker 1: Uh so the toilet's inside the shower.
19:03
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, the toilet is inside the shower, but the
19:06
Speaker 2: shower man, the shower area is separate from the if
19:12
Speaker 2: that makes sense. So you're not sitting on it, you're not.
19:16
Speaker 2: It's not so small that you've got to sit on
19:18
Speaker 2: a toilet to take a shower. But that doesn't sound
19:23
Speaker 2: like the way it sounds. But yeah, then you've got
19:27
Speaker 2: a you've got a with a refrigerator and a pull
19:31
Speaker 2: out counter, so it's it's just big enough to have
19:36
Speaker 2: everything that you need, but it's still nice and compact
19:39
Speaker 2: so that you're not, you know, kind of towing a
19:42
Speaker 2: behemoth of a trailer.
19:46
Speaker 1: The lights keep shutting off in the back of the Grander.
19:50
Speaker 2: I see that.
19:52
Speaker 1: I noticed. I noticed that. I'm like this floating bald
19:58
Speaker 1: head in the scene. That's funny. This is our first
20:05
Speaker 1: attempt at using the using the starlink too to do
20:09
Speaker 1: a a podcast, and the fact that we could do
20:13
Speaker 1: it from the middle of Kenya is just unbelievable.
20:17
Speaker 2: The Grenadier as a studio.
20:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Grenadier is the studio, and yes, exactly, that's awesome.
20:26
Speaker 2: Giant Loop has a new water bag. Okay, I think
20:31
Speaker 2: it's called the I think it's called the Cactus bag. Okay,
20:36
Speaker 2: I think it's called the cactus bag.
20:39
Speaker 1: Oh, that's great because they have those. They have those
20:42
Speaker 1: well I don't think they call them a fuel well,
20:46
Speaker 1: they're they're they're in Africa. You can use them as
20:49
Speaker 1: a fuel bladder, and I do, and that's what I
20:52
Speaker 1: use actually in the Grenadier for extra fuel. I have
20:56
Speaker 1: two twenty liters Jerry cans. Then I have two eight
21:00
Speaker 1: teen and a half liter Giant Loop fuel bladders. I
21:04
Speaker 1: think that there's some challenge around using them in North
21:07
Speaker 1: America because or in the US because of v PA,
21:10
Speaker 1: But usually you need that kind of stuff in Baja
21:13
Speaker 1: or or here in Africa or something.
21:16
Speaker 2: So, yeah, you're talking about the So what you're using
21:19
Speaker 2: is called the Armadillo bag, and they call that an
21:23
Speaker 2: expedition ready liquid or something. They can't call it a
21:33
Speaker 2: fuel bag. But then the other one that you're thinking
21:35
Speaker 2: of is uh or that I was mentioning was is
21:39
Speaker 2: the It's called the Cactus canteen. Okay, So basically what
21:45
Speaker 2: happened is that they came out with the the Armadillo
21:48
Speaker 2: bag and people liked it so much they said, man,
21:51
Speaker 2: we could we could use this to carry water to
21:54
Speaker 2: and they were requesting the giant loop do I'll you know,
21:58
Speaker 2: basically a jerry can. So they use the same you
22:02
Speaker 2: know concept as the Armadilla bag, and they came out
22:05
Speaker 2: with the Cactus canteen, a little bit lighter weight kind
22:10
Speaker 2: of cordura fabric on the outside and then you know,
22:14
Speaker 2: a food grade liner that's the actual water bag on
22:18
Speaker 2: the inside. But they have it in I think one, two,
22:22
Speaker 2: three and five gallon bags and they've got daisy chains
22:26
Speaker 2: on the outside. So you can really strap them and
22:29
Speaker 2: secure them to wherever you might need.
22:31
Speaker 1: Those bags are awesome. I mean they really work so
22:36
Speaker 1: well because, for example, when I'm on this trip, when
22:40
Speaker 1: I need extra fuel, I strap them down to the
22:42
Speaker 1: roof rack. And you know, because it's petrol. If it
22:46
Speaker 1: was diesel, I wouldn't mind putting it inside the vehicle,
22:49
Speaker 1: but from a safety perspective, I strap them to the
22:52
Speaker 1: roof rack. But then when you're done with them, you
22:55
Speaker 1: just roll them up and you get all that space back.
22:58
Speaker 1: So with the water, it's the same way. And I've
23:00
Speaker 1: always used what's called a dromedary bag from MSR, but
23:04
Speaker 1: they they've always been too small, or they don't have
23:08
Speaker 1: the right kind of accessories, or they don't have the
23:11
Speaker 1: the the loops on it for lashing, so they just
23:14
Speaker 1: kind of slide around and they slide out from under. However,
23:17
Speaker 1: you've you've strapped it down. So this new bag sounds
23:21
Speaker 1: really cool.
23:23
Speaker 2: So and with that strapping of the outside, they've got
23:25
Speaker 2: another new product. The name escapes me, but it's basically
23:31
Speaker 2: it's a panel that straps to your spare tire. Okay,
23:36
Speaker 2: where that if your spare tire's rear mounted so it
23:39
Speaker 2: straps to a rear mounted spare tire, and it's got
23:44
Speaker 2: apartments and molly panel and velcrow and you know daisy
23:49
Speaker 2: chains all built into this one kind of you know
23:54
Speaker 2: piece that goes onto your tire and then with that
23:57
Speaker 2: you can take all these different fuel bladders and water
23:59
Speaker 2: black and other accessories like a medical kit or a
24:02
Speaker 2: tire repair kit and you can strap that on to
24:05
Speaker 2: that otherwise unused space on the back of your spare tire.
24:10
Speaker 1: Amazing. So yeah, Giant Loops always just kind of pushed
24:17
Speaker 1: it with innovation, which is really cool. Always great to see.
24:23
Speaker 2: One of the other ones was so iron Man four
24:26
Speaker 2: by four just seems to have more and more offerings
24:33
Speaker 2: into the space. It's when they came into the US. Well,
24:37
Speaker 2: they've come into the US a few times over the
24:39
Speaker 2: past say fifteen years, but when they came back into
24:44
Speaker 2: the US most recently, they came with a limited offering.
24:50
Speaker 2: You know, in Australia they've got you know, they've got
24:52
Speaker 2: the three inch catalog of just about everything you would want. Yeah,
24:56
Speaker 2: and it seems like they're bringing more and more product
24:58
Speaker 2: to the United States. So they had two display vehicles
25:03
Speaker 2: that were completely outfitted They had a four f one
25:05
Speaker 2: P fifty that had everything was was iron Man four
25:11
Speaker 2: by four from the lift kit, the front and rear bumpers,
25:15
Speaker 2: the side steps, the tunnel cover. Yeah, iron Man four
25:19
Speaker 2: by four, led lights, really like everything that you would want.
25:25
Speaker 2: They're very much kind of coming into that space of
25:31
Speaker 2: being competitive with ARB, if you will. Whereas ARB is
25:34
Speaker 2: one of those companies where you could you can go
25:37
Speaker 2: in and outfit your truck from bumper to bumper from ARB,
25:41
Speaker 2: you can now do something similar with iron Man four
25:44
Speaker 2: by four. One of the things they also had a
25:47
Speaker 2: Tundra on display with Again, everything was was there. And
25:52
Speaker 2: then what I was really impressed with is they had
25:55
Speaker 2: a they had a Toyota Rav four that was outfitted
26:01
Speaker 2: bumper to bumper for kind of what it made it
26:05
Speaker 2: look like an off road rally car if you will,
26:09
Speaker 2: but it was you know, it was a lift kit
26:11
Speaker 2: and front and rear bumpers and roof rack and lights
26:15
Speaker 2: and everything. But for a Toyota Round four, which is
26:18
Speaker 2: kind of one of those sleeper crossover opportunities, right.
26:21
Speaker 1: You know what though one of those with a lift
26:23
Speaker 1: it actually looks pretty good. And believe it or not, today,
26:27
Speaker 1: while I was driving through a tropical storm a lifted
26:30
Speaker 1: RAV four with Ironman suspension sticker on the back window.
26:34
Speaker 1: Tried to kill me like like this full this full
26:38
Speaker 1: of I mean like a typical Africa pass, which is
26:42
Speaker 1: there's trucks coming and there's motorcycles and there, and there's
26:46
Speaker 1: like locals walking in the road. And he's like, does
26:50
Speaker 1: this super dodgy pass? And then and then stops right
26:53
Speaker 1: in front of the huge speed bump. And I saw
26:56
Speaker 1: on his back window iron Man four by four. It
26:59
Speaker 1: was a lifted RAB four. He was an older model
27:03
Speaker 1: for One of the things that I really like about
27:05
Speaker 1: iron Man is that they sell a lot of spring
27:08
Speaker 1: sets for kind of more obscure vehicles like a RAB
27:12
Speaker 1: four or like some of the SUPERU products. And I
27:16
Speaker 1: believe Matt Frost is starting to work with him. Did
27:19
Speaker 1: you was Matt there at the show?
27:23
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if he was there, I don't remember.
27:26
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I think Matt Frost that used to
27:28
Speaker 1: work with airb is is now working at iron Man.
27:32
Speaker 1: And Matt is a legend in the industry. He's been
27:36
Speaker 1: at this for decades and I've traveled with him in Australia.
27:39
Speaker 1: He's super knowledgeable and and and really understands overlanding. He's
27:45
Speaker 1: much more of a vehicle based traveler, uh than yeah,
27:48
Speaker 1: than sometimes a lot of the other executives in Australia,
27:52
Speaker 1: So he really understood.
27:56
Speaker 2: I got to sit down with Fritz from Ironman four
27:59
Speaker 2: by four for a little bit and we kind of cool.
28:01
Speaker 2: We walked through all they do product offerings. Another one
28:04
Speaker 2: that they have is a it's a kitchen portable kitchen
28:08
Speaker 2: in a in a big Rota molded plastic box that
28:12
Speaker 2: has a lid. So it's a self contained kitchen with
28:15
Speaker 2: water and sink and a little bit of a I
28:18
Speaker 2: think it might even have a stovetop in there too.
28:21
Speaker 1: Nice.
28:22
Speaker 2: So it's one self contained kitchen box, which is not
28:26
Speaker 2: it's kind of popped the lid and there you go.
28:28
Speaker 2: Whereas some of the other kitchen box we see is
28:31
Speaker 2: you know, they're kind of a storage for everything that
28:33
Speaker 2: goes into the kitchen.
28:36
Speaker 1: The only product that I've worked with of theirs recently
28:40
Speaker 1: was a suspension. We installed an iron Man suspension on
28:45
Speaker 1: a Forerunner and it was it went in really easily,
28:51
Speaker 1: which means that they had good tolerances and they had
28:53
Speaker 1: you know, really taken their time to make sure the
28:56
Speaker 1: installation was easy. It was just a really it was
29:00
Speaker 1: really good quality and we also did one on the
29:02
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30:20
Speaker 2: The other place that I spent a lot of time
30:23
Speaker 2: at the show, was in the Toyota booth and the
30:26
Speaker 2: Toyota Lexus booth. You know, to the neat The neat
30:31
Speaker 2: part now is that they're one of the few remaining
30:35
Speaker 2: OEMs that go to SEMA UH and really take advantage
30:39
Speaker 2: of that opportunity to showcase kind of their thoughts and
30:43
Speaker 2: innovations during the SEMA Show. And you know, the I
30:48
Speaker 2: started over in the Lexus side. They've got a huge
30:52
Speaker 2: I don't know how big it is, it's got to
30:54
Speaker 2: be one of the largest booth footprints at the SEMA Show.
30:59
Speaker 2: But started on the on the Lexus side. They did
31:03
Speaker 2: a really neat thing for this year. They had three
31:07
Speaker 2: of their of their own vehicles, kind of conceptual inspirational builds.
31:15
Speaker 2: You know, they had a they had a twenty four
31:18
Speaker 2: g x five fifty, which we're all really excited about,
31:20
Speaker 2: and then they had twenty two g x four sixty
31:25
Speaker 2: and an lex six hundred and those were, you know,
31:29
Speaker 2: beautifully presented. They used a lot of different kind of
31:34
Speaker 2: partner brands. They brought in CBI, Yakama, Pelican, and even
31:38
Speaker 2: ARB and they did these really nice, thoughtful presentations of
31:43
Speaker 2: what they considered to be overland vehicles, and they really
31:46
Speaker 2: did a good job at it. They focus on functionality.
31:52
Speaker 2: The LX six hundred was beautiful if they had a
31:56
Speaker 2: really unique wrap on it, and one of the nice
32:01
Speaker 2: things about it is that they incorporated I think they
32:05
Speaker 2: had a CBI roof rack had a Yakama the Yakima
32:10
Speaker 2: tailgate kitchen on the back of it, so that was
32:15
Speaker 2: a nice ad. So they really tried to present each
32:19
Speaker 2: of these vehicles as kind of the more the use case, right,
32:24
Speaker 2: so not completely built out where everything's already installed in
32:29
Speaker 2: the vehicle. You know the GX four sixty, it had
32:32
Speaker 2: an ARB fridge and fridge slide on the inside. It
32:36
Speaker 2: had some Pelican cases on the top. And then you
32:40
Speaker 2: know the g X five point fifty that showcase that
32:43
Speaker 2: I think it's a CBI print sue roof rack with
32:48
Speaker 2: the with the molly panels that come down on the
32:52
Speaker 2: on the rear side windows.
32:54
Speaker 1: What do they call this the outland edition.
32:58
Speaker 2: It is, Yeah, it's the overtrad Edition.
33:00
Speaker 1: Overtrail, that's right. Yeah, with the names they know. The
33:09
Speaker 1: Lex six six hundred is interesting because it's actually the
33:14
Speaker 1: only genuine land cruiser that we get in America. So
33:19
Speaker 1: it's it's the same platform as the three hundred series
33:24
Speaker 1: land cruiser that like you would see all over Africa.
33:28
Speaker 1: But it's nice to see that we still at least
33:31
Speaker 1: get that platform in the Lexus variant.
33:36
Speaker 2: It seemed to be I don't know, I mean they're
33:40
Speaker 2: all luxury to me, I think any of their any
33:43
Speaker 2: of the Lexus platforms are are very luxurious. But I
33:47
Speaker 2: think that they did a good job kind of saying, Okay,
33:51
Speaker 2: this one's going to be a little bit more you know,
33:54
Speaker 2: the five fifties a little bit more rougher use case
33:56
Speaker 2: scenario than to the you know, the Force, and then
34:00
Speaker 2: that six hundred was a little bit more refined. They
34:03
Speaker 2: had it set up for what they were presenting. They
34:05
Speaker 2: had it set up as a little bit more of
34:07
Speaker 2: an adventurous tailgater, you know, like a nice weekend family
34:13
Speaker 2: camping rig, whereas the you know, the the GX five
34:17
Speaker 2: point fifty was like the full on overland offering.
34:20
Speaker 1: They're going to crush it with that GX. I mean, yeah,
34:24
Speaker 1: for somebody who wants to have a luxurious but capable vehicle,
34:31
Speaker 1: I mean they're going to crush it with that.
34:33
Speaker 2: Yeah. So then the neat part. So they had six
34:36
Speaker 2: vehicles on display. The other three vehicles were they were
34:41
Speaker 2: consumer bills. So they went out Lexus, went out into
34:46
Speaker 2: the into the Lexus community and found three representations of
34:53
Speaker 2: of what the everyday general Lexus consumer is building their
34:58
Speaker 2: vehicles into overland vehicles.
35:01
Speaker 1: Wow.
35:02
Speaker 2: And so they the neat part. They had these three vehicles.
35:06
Speaker 2: I can remember that two of them were. One was
35:10
Speaker 2: a two thousand and nine g X four seventy, the
35:13
Speaker 2: other was a two thousand and eight GX for seventy.
35:16
Speaker 2: And then there's a third one I can't remember what
35:18
Speaker 2: it was. But those first two that I mentioned, they
35:22
Speaker 2: had the owners there. So one was a guy named
35:28
Speaker 2: Chase Gardner. I think his instagram is two Track Nation,
35:33
Speaker 2: and he's you know, built it, you know, walked me
35:37
Speaker 2: around the truck and showed me everything that he had
35:40
Speaker 2: done to it. The other truck was the two thousand
35:43
Speaker 2: and eight. Was a very nice couple who used their
35:47
Speaker 2: truck for you know, overland travel, and they also use
35:53
Speaker 2: a trailer along with it. But the booth wasn't big
35:56
Speaker 2: enough to have the trailer and the truck in there,
35:58
Speaker 2: so they just got to display the truck. But very
36:01
Speaker 2: nice people, and it was really neat to hear everybody's
36:04
Speaker 2: story of why they picked that vehicle, what they started,
36:09
Speaker 2: how they modified it, and the thought process that went
36:12
Speaker 2: into it. And it was just really neat to see
36:14
Speaker 2: Lexus kind of embrace that consumer side of how people
36:17
Speaker 2: are using their vehicles.
36:19
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, the whole Lexus team has just been
36:22
Speaker 1: super They've been a real class act. They've really, i think,
36:26
Speaker 1: embraced the fact that people are using the Lexus platforms
36:30
Speaker 1: for overland travel and they now are offering models that
36:34
Speaker 1: are ready to be accessorized and driven around the world.
36:40
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I think they've taken a lot of cues
36:42
Speaker 2: from the consumer side of Okay, what are people doing
36:45
Speaker 2: with these trucks after the fact, and what can we do?
36:50
Speaker 2: You know, what can we do from the factory that
36:52
Speaker 2: addresses a lot of those changes that are already being done.
36:55
Speaker 1: Yeah. Nice, that's fantastic.
36:57
Speaker 2: Then so then we move over to the Toyota side,
37:00
Speaker 2: and again this is a big booth. They had nineteen
37:03
Speaker 2: vehicles on display. Wow. And so you had the Lexus
37:08
Speaker 2: section and then in the middle you had a little
37:10
Speaker 2: bit more of the of the street side, some of
37:14
Speaker 2: their some of their track cars, some of their uh,
37:17
Speaker 2: some of their race cars and kind of you know,
37:19
Speaker 2: street performance oriented vehicles, and their whole motto for the
37:24
Speaker 2: for the for the show was from track to Trail,
37:27
Speaker 2: So they had these more street performance vehicles up to
37:30
Speaker 2: the trail trucks. So then you got into the Tacomas
37:34
Speaker 2: and the Tundras, things that you know, we've all been
37:38
Speaker 2: very familiar with over the last six months, so now
37:42
Speaker 2: getting to see them again in person was was a
37:44
Speaker 2: real treat. They had a Tacoma that was really it
37:50
Speaker 2: was slammed to the ground with spoilers all over it,
37:54
Speaker 2: and they basically took a Toyota Tacoma and they you know,
37:57
Speaker 2: they basically made a tuner truck out of it. There's
38:00
Speaker 2: a lot more details involved than I'm that I'm talking
38:03
Speaker 2: about right now, but they they took it and made
38:06
Speaker 2: it more of a street oriented performance truck. And that
38:11
Speaker 2: was for you know, this group of people who they
38:14
Speaker 2: want to have a truck, they want to have the
38:16
Speaker 2: utilitarian you know truck bed for whatever it might be.
38:21
Speaker 2: You know, you know, truck beds are great for on
38:23
Speaker 2: the weekend and going to the hardware store and just
38:26
Speaker 2: you know, doing all the all the truck things, but
38:30
Speaker 2: they didn't want to They don't necessarily want a truck.
38:32
Speaker 2: They don't want to pick up truck. They want, uh,
38:35
Speaker 2: you know, more of a performance street vehicle. And so
38:39
Speaker 2: they took the two and they put them together and
38:41
Speaker 2: it actually looked pretty neat.
38:44
Speaker 1: That's great. And then they looked like they had a
38:47
Speaker 1: Tacoma there that had been accessorized too.
38:51
Speaker 2: They did yeah and tundra yeah, and it was nicely
38:58
Speaker 2: it was nicely done. I think that might have been
39:01
Speaker 2: one that I think Expedition Overland might have had some
39:08
Speaker 2: had some input on that that build out, kind of
39:11
Speaker 2: like they have in the last couple of years. But
39:15
Speaker 2: then what really stole the show. I mean they also
39:18
Speaker 2: had the you know, the new Land Cruiser on the
39:21
Speaker 2: Toyota side. And then you know what stole the show
39:25
Speaker 2: is they had this this FJ forty five resto mode
39:30
Speaker 2: that was just beautifully done. And then.
39:34
Speaker 1: But they built that fifteen years ago and I think
39:38
Speaker 1: they brought it back.
39:39
Speaker 2: They did, and it's kind of been I talked to
39:42
Speaker 2: a couple of guys and they're like, oh, yeah, we've
39:43
Speaker 2: had it for a few months. It's been living in
39:45
Speaker 2: a few different areas, but I think they I think
39:49
Speaker 2: they refreshed it a bit, so it had a brandy
39:52
Speaker 2: leather interior, everything very bespoke on it, and it's kind
39:55
Speaker 2: of this cool it's like a titanium color. It was
39:59
Speaker 2: a I think, a nice looking truck.
40:02
Speaker 1: It's awesome, it looks so cool.
40:05
Speaker 2: But then really the thing that really stole the show
40:10
Speaker 2: is that they called it the FJ Bruiser, And I
40:14
Speaker 2: don't know if you've seen pictures of it, but it
40:16
Speaker 2: was kind of it's this almost that old turquoise blue
40:21
Speaker 2: color and I think it's on forty four inch tires.
40:27
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a beast of a rock crawler rig
40:30
Speaker 2: and it's completely built up from scratch. They put a
40:34
Speaker 2: NASCAR engine into it.
40:39
Speaker 1: Because why not? Why not?
40:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, so it's got the NASCAR engine in it.
40:43
Speaker 2: It's got the radiators, you know, mounted in the in
40:46
Speaker 2: the bet of the truck with the blower fans and everything.
40:50
Speaker 1: But yeah, because I think Toyota has to make they
40:54
Speaker 1: have to build their own NASCAR engines because NASCAR has
40:58
Speaker 1: a specific like a SPECIALI vocation. So there there is
41:02
Speaker 1: like a Toyota V eight that's made for NASCAR that
41:05
Speaker 1: Toyota builds, hand builds.
41:07
Speaker 2: That's what they put in this truck.
41:11
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
41:12
Speaker 2: So and then it doesn't have a winch. Instead of
41:16
Speaker 2: a winch, it has a it has a big skid
41:21
Speaker 2: plate that looks kind of like almost like a teflon
41:25
Speaker 2: plastic material, and that skid plate goes straight into a
41:30
Speaker 2: tank tread. So they basically took two snowmobile tracks, okay,
41:36
Speaker 2: and they mounted They mounted the snowmobile track in the
41:40
Speaker 2: center underbody, and it's powered by an electric motor. So
41:44
Speaker 2: the idea is that a winch. But if you did
41:47
Speaker 2: get high centered, or if you got stuck, you can
41:51
Speaker 2: engage the tank treads to drive yourself off of whatever
41:55
Speaker 2: you're stuck on.
41:56
Speaker 1: That's clever. And speaking speaking of tanks, Toyota just did
42:00
Speaker 1: a demonstration of one of their new electric vehicles doing
42:04
Speaker 1: a tank turn. So it had you know, it was
42:08
Speaker 1: turning in its own you know length.
42:11
Speaker 2: It's pretty amazing.
42:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty amazing. It sounds like it sounds like
42:16
Speaker 1: Sima was a win I mean, what were like for
42:19
Speaker 1: you personally? What were the things that like, this is
42:21
Speaker 1: what I'd want to take home? Did you have like
42:23
Speaker 1: a top three. You know there was what okay, let's
42:28
Speaker 1: shrow with your favorite truck. What was your favorite truck.
42:31
Speaker 2: I think my favorite truck was at FJ Bruiser.
42:36
Speaker 1: Because tank tracks.
42:39
Speaker 2: Because of tank.
42:40
Speaker 3: Tracks and a NASCAR engine, and you know, it just
42:43
Speaker 3: seemed very It seemed like it could be very practical
42:46
Speaker 3: on a day to day.
42:51
Speaker 1: You are having a midlife crisis. Brian, that is totally
42:54
Speaker 1: Brian McVicar's midlife prices.
42:56
Speaker 2: Car just completely makes sense. So I need this truck.
43:03
Speaker 2: So I think I did like that because of I mean,
43:07
Speaker 2: it was just it's amazing everything, right, And then from
43:11
Speaker 2: there I did I did appreciate the A V. I'm
43:15
Speaker 2: sorry that a a RB. So everybody's got an acronym.
43:19
Speaker 2: The A ARB trailer looked like it would be very usable,
43:25
Speaker 2: right because it wasn't that big, but it really offered
43:27
Speaker 2: an awful lot. And then as far as other vehicles,
43:34
Speaker 2: I don't know, I wound up taking. I was taking
43:37
Speaker 2: pictures of a lot of sports cars and sending them,
43:41
Speaker 2: texting him to uh, to Max my son because yeah,
43:44
Speaker 2: I don't know, we're We're in the middle of the
43:46
Speaker 2: Fast and Furious franchise series, And I was like, look
43:51
Speaker 2: at this, you know, And I don't know anything about him,
43:53
Speaker 2: you know, but uh, I can.
43:55
Speaker 1: See I can see a red convertible in your future. Brian.
43:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, uh, but uh no, I did they had a
44:03
Speaker 2: grenadier there?
44:04
Speaker 1: They had I saw that e g R booth.
44:07
Speaker 2: It looked like yep, it was in the ear GR booth.
44:12
Speaker 1: Did they have an exhaustion? What was the modifications to
44:15
Speaker 1: the grenadier?
44:17
Speaker 2: I don't think they I didn't notice any modifications. I
44:20
Speaker 2: think they had some accessories that e g R makes
44:23
Speaker 2: for that vehicle.
44:25
Speaker 1: Cool what they launched.
44:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I do think not to keep coming
44:31
Speaker 2: back to the same companies. But I guess there's a
44:33
Speaker 2: reason that we talk about them because they have stuff
44:36
Speaker 2: that we really like. But I I got I lingered
44:39
Speaker 2: around the the the a v UH jeep Wrangler a
44:45
Speaker 2: little bit, and the UH and the Prospector. You know,
44:50
Speaker 2: I think that I've always liked the Prospector, the you know,
44:53
Speaker 2: the RAM twenty five hundred Prospectors perfect build out. I mean,
44:56
Speaker 2: it just seems like such a great solution to having
45:00
Speaker 2: a truck that can do just about anything you had
45:03
Speaker 2: wanted to do.
45:03
Speaker 1: So and now that they now that RAM has the
45:06
Speaker 1: Rebel platform. You can get the Prospector now with a
45:10
Speaker 1: rear locker, which has been absent for a few years.
45:14
Speaker 1: So I think the Rebel is just perfect build platform
45:18
Speaker 1: for the components.
45:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, but otherwise there was a lot of little things too.
45:24
Speaker 2: You know, Putco has has some new grill badges, so
45:30
Speaker 2: like on the Bronco, you know you've got the Bronco
45:33
Speaker 2: letters across the across the front grill, and you can
45:37
Speaker 2: actually replace him with these LED letters. So your Bronco
45:40
Speaker 2: now lights up. And they're doing that with Yeah, they're
45:46
Speaker 2: doing that with all the all the OEM Badgesverboard and
45:51
Speaker 2: a few others. It was really cool. They also had
45:55
Speaker 2: a bit of a it was a prototype a prototype prop,
46:00
Speaker 2: but it was a window film that you could project
46:04
Speaker 2: images onto. So they imagine being at a tailgate football
46:08
Speaker 2: game and and hanging out behind your truck and you
46:11
Speaker 2: look at the the the window behind the cab and
46:15
Speaker 2: you're playing the football game, right, So there's a film
46:20
Speaker 2: that that somehow you use a projector from the from
46:23
Speaker 2: the back and it and it puts a screen up there.
46:25
Speaker 2: So a little things like that, you know, use that.
46:29
Speaker 1: For I'm going to use that for the left lane bandits.
46:32
Speaker 1: I'm going to say the left lane is for passing only.
46:36
Speaker 1: You display little messages yes with a smiley face.
46:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then what else. I know, we only have
46:44
Speaker 2: a few more minutes. But you know, Supertramp Campers was
46:48
Speaker 2: there with Riggs. Yeah, they're What I like about the
46:55
Speaker 2: Supertramp stuff is when you get to talk to them,
46:58
Speaker 2: they're really well thought out. You know, they have the
47:02
Speaker 2: approach to what they're doing. They put a lot of
47:05
Speaker 2: thought behind it around the focus of quality, product output, not.
47:10
Speaker 1: Just and I used I used that camper in Colorado
47:15
Speaker 1: and I was I was shocked with how much interior
47:18
Speaker 1: space it feels like it has because they do a
47:22
Speaker 1: really good job of not adding unnecessary cabinetry to it.
47:26
Speaker 1: So it has this huge L shaped bench and there's
47:30
Speaker 1: just not locked up there.
47:32
Speaker 2: But what else we see We saw Expedition one. They
47:38
Speaker 2: have some really great accessories from roof racks to UH
47:42
Speaker 2: to front and rear bumpers. Incredibly well thought out. Got
47:46
Speaker 2: to talk with them a little bit about their manufacturing
47:49
Speaker 2: and design process where they you know, they laser scan
47:52
Speaker 2: the vehicles for three D modeling and then they're able
47:55
Speaker 2: to to create a fitment. That's that's you know, very
48:00
Speaker 2: well designed, and they're coming out with some you know,
48:03
Speaker 2: innovative ideas that are providing solutions to i think some
48:09
Speaker 2: of the typical problems that you find with roof racks
48:11
Speaker 2: and front rear bumpers. So it was good to see
48:14
Speaker 2: what they had going on there. Was Flated. They do
48:19
Speaker 2: they do those you know, inflatable truck toppers, and now
48:24
Speaker 2: they're doing like a it's like an inflatable ski box,
48:29
Speaker 2: like a rocket box rocket Yeah, rocket boxes Yakima's kind
48:34
Speaker 2: of branded name, but like you know, a rooftop box
48:37
Speaker 2: right for extra storage. So Flated now has an inflatable one.
48:44
Speaker 2: So they're taking that. Yeah, they're they're they're doing a
48:47
Speaker 2: great job of taking that you know, that dropstick drop
48:50
Speaker 2: stich technology that we see from the stand up pedal
48:53
Speaker 2: board industry and incorporating it into two vehicle products.
48:59
Speaker 1: You think that they and an entire camper that would
49:03
Speaker 1: you know work on the back.
49:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, that they could did making an entire inflatable camper.
49:09
Speaker 2: I bet so. And then another standout I'd say was Seasucker. Uh,
49:17
Speaker 2: Seasucker was there. They do a they do a suction
49:20
Speaker 2: mount that has a little purge valve on it, so
49:22
Speaker 2: it creates a really strong hold, so strong that they
49:26
Speaker 2: actually had a rooftop tent mounted to the top of
49:29
Speaker 2: a truck with with these suction cup mounts and they
49:35
Speaker 2: use it for everything from a rooftop tent to to
49:37
Speaker 2: bike racks and just a standard camera mount. So that
49:41
Speaker 2: was pretty neat to see how they're taking that type
49:44
Speaker 2: of technology and repurposing it into a vehicle mounted system.
49:48
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
49:48
Speaker 2: So that was that was neat to see Tuley was
49:52
Speaker 2: there again, a lot of roof racks, a lot of
49:55
Speaker 2: storage solutions.
49:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then to see did you get to see
50:01
Speaker 1: that kuat truck rack or truck bed rack sides? Did
50:07
Speaker 1: you get to see that?
50:09
Speaker 2: I did, Yeah, the ibex and that that was one
50:13
Speaker 2: of the things I missed in person, and that was
50:16
Speaker 2: I was unfortunate. That was one of the places where
50:20
Speaker 2: the SEMA Show in general, they're really trying hard to
50:24
Speaker 2: reorganize things into kind of like minded groups, but you'll
50:30
Speaker 2: still get these these you know, kind of like random
50:33
Speaker 2: outliers that for whatever reason they had, you know, like
50:37
Speaker 2: Tully was in the four wheel drive section, but then
50:40
Speaker 2: Kuwat I couldn't even find them, primarily because I don't
50:44
Speaker 2: think that they were in the two halls that I
50:46
Speaker 2: was in. And uh and but I have been talking
50:51
Speaker 2: with Kuat quite a bit about their new panel system
50:54
Speaker 2: for the IBEX and it's pretty clever. What it does
50:58
Speaker 2: is it it creates it's a fully secured topper by
51:04
Speaker 2: using the Ibex kind of you know, yeah, yeah.
51:09
Speaker 1: I think it looks It looks awesome. It looks awesome.
51:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's all modular, so you can use the
51:17
Speaker 2: base IBEX system with the molly panels on the side
51:20
Speaker 2: and the bike rack on the side, and then maybe
51:23
Speaker 2: you know, when winter comes around or if you need
51:26
Speaker 2: more secure storage, you can put that panel system on there.
51:29
Speaker 2: And it's really interchangeable, so you could have the entire
51:32
Speaker 2: setup and then just use it for whatever scenario you
51:35
Speaker 2: might need.
51:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, or if you've got a longer truck, then you
51:39
Speaker 1: set it up for sleeping inside of it. So it's
51:41
Speaker 1: just really clever. Yeah. I like that. That's awesome. Well,
51:45
Speaker 1: I'm glad you had a good time, Brian. I like
51:48
Speaker 1: my light keeps shutting off here in Africa. It's about
51:52
Speaker 1: what is it eight thirty here in Kenya.
51:55
Speaker 2: Eight thirty at night. That's just about ten thirty here,
51:58
Speaker 2: so really probably about ten hours difference.
52:01
Speaker 1: Awesome, Brian, Well, thank you so much for the update.
52:04
Speaker 1: We appreciate you going to the show and keeping us
52:07
Speaker 1: informed of all these great new products that keep coming
52:11
Speaker 1: into the market.
52:12
Speaker 2: You bet well. We're going to have Outdoor Retailer Winter
52:15
Speaker 2: Show next week, and uh we'll have even more from that.
52:19
Speaker 1: So yeah, we'll do a nice making the time while
52:21
Speaker 1: you're traveling. Yeah, of course, no. I love hearing the updates.
52:25
Speaker 1: Thank you, Brian, and we appreciate you all for listening,
52:28
Speaker 1: and we'll talk to you next time. You're still there. Brian,