Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Built to Roam: A Conversation on Expedition Vehicles with Spencer Park of Bliss Mobil

Transcript

Built to Roam: A Conversation on Expedition Vehicles with Spencer Park of Bliss Mobil · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overlain Journal podcast. I'm your host,
0:07
Speaker 1: Matt Scott, and I'm here with a good buddy of mine,
0:10
Speaker 1: Spencer Park from Blissmobile, and today we're going to be
0:13
Speaker 1: talking about everything in the world of expedition vehicles, which
0:17
Speaker 1: is something that we both geek out on a lot.
0:21
Speaker 1: So Spencer has a storied background in exhibition vehicles. You
0:26
Speaker 1: worked for earth Romer for seven years, seven years and
0:30
Speaker 1: then went out in his own and then his business
0:32
Speaker 1: is the US importer for blissmo Bliss Mobile USA. And
0:37
Speaker 1: the really interesting thing with Spencer's he has a vast
0:40
Speaker 1: knowledge of different platforms, which is really cool. Where let's say,
0:45
Speaker 1: from like the earth Roamer days, you're just working on
0:47
Speaker 1: basically on the Ford F five to fifth with Bliss.
0:50
Speaker 1: The cool thing with Blissmobiles is that it's a module
0:54
Speaker 1: and it can be moved from chassis to chassis. Correct.
0:57
Speaker 1: So not only are you you know, there's always this
0:59
Speaker 1: concept of you can buy something like that and move it,
1:02
Speaker 1: but you're actually the one doing it, your hands on
1:05
Speaker 1: with it. You've installed these things on like how many
1:09
Speaker 1: different I don't know if I've ever seen you do
1:10
Speaker 1: it on two of the same vehicle everything from an
1:13
Speaker 1: AEV chassis, cab, prospect or, excel ugs, zet trusses, all
1:19
Speaker 1: of this easy crazy stuff. So we're going to talk
1:22
Speaker 1: about just a wide variety of exhibition vehicle things.
1:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, and a special thanks to Real Truck for their
1:30
Speaker 2: support of this week's podcast, Find Your Freedom and follow
1:35
Speaker 2: your Own trail in the fresh air of vast uncharted places,
1:40
Speaker 2: introducing the exclusive real Truck lineup of overlanding accessories designed
1:45
Speaker 2: to take adventurous explorers just like you into the furthest
1:49
Speaker 2: reaches with gear for camping, off roading, and more, including
1:54
Speaker 2: the all new Real Truck Go Rack, Go Tent and
1:57
Speaker 2: overland awning. And here's to those inspired, self actualized, brave
2:03
Speaker 2: souls that are ready to unplug and check in to
2:07
Speaker 2: pure wilderness. Bring your truck to life at real truck
2:11
Speaker 2: dot com. Thanks again, Real Truck.
2:14
Speaker 1: So coming from Earth Romer, like you said, we were
2:17
Speaker 1: working with primarily the five point fifty chassis, and I
2:22
Speaker 1: came out of that into this new world of not
2:25
Speaker 1: only working with different cultures with our factory being in
2:29
Speaker 1: the Netherlands, to a wider range of vehicles. So Bliss
2:33
Speaker 1: Mobile is we say vehicle independent, which means that we
2:37
Speaker 1: can put the expedition unit on multiple different chassis around
2:42
Speaker 1: the world, so it really caters to the customer and
2:45
Speaker 1: the territory that they're in. We can use our good
2:47
Speaker 1: buddy Cullin as an example. So Colin bought a man
2:52
Speaker 1: truck in the Netherlands with what like a fifteen fifteen
2:56
Speaker 1: foot stand fifteen foot blitz. Drove that all around Europe.
3:00
Speaker 1: Did he I think, did he do North Africa at all?
3:04
Speaker 1: We'd have to he may have. We have primarily. And
3:08
Speaker 1: then he shipped to Canada, drove it all over Canada,
3:12
Speaker 1: and then you drove up with a trailer, picked up
3:15
Speaker 1: the Bliss. You know, you're able to take this thing
3:17
Speaker 1: off in a storage unit, which is some You pick
3:19
Speaker 1: up the Bliss and now that same camper lives on
3:22
Speaker 1: an international HV four by four chassis correct, which is
3:26
Speaker 1: so cool. It's not a chassis that you see all
3:30
Speaker 1: that often, but it is. It should be a little
3:33
Speaker 1: bit more popular. It should. Yeah, you know that chassis
3:37
Speaker 1: you primarily see in like snowplows or brush fire trucks,
3:41
Speaker 1: but those conditions are expedition condition adverse environments. What we
3:47
Speaker 1: started doing is talking with International and putting together accessories
3:52
Speaker 1: for these trucks to better suit them for expedition use.
3:57
Speaker 1: And that's it's quite a wild story that you mentioned
4:00
Speaker 1: about bringing a Bliss back from Canada and transferring it
4:04
Speaker 1: to another truck. But that's a good point that you made,
4:06
Speaker 1: is not only do we build on other trucks, but
4:09
Speaker 1: you can switch your Bliss mobile unit to another truck
4:13
Speaker 1: if you're moving to a different territory or a newer
4:16
Speaker 1: truck comes out, so you're not married to the truck itself. Yeah,
4:20
Speaker 1: that is one of the things that's a challenge with
4:23
Speaker 1: my particular truck that we're sitting in right now is
4:26
Speaker 1: I have to be like really conscious of the miles
4:28
Speaker 1: that I put on it. Like obviously with the vehicle
4:30
Speaker 1: like that, you're not You can ease it for commuting,
4:33
Speaker 1: but there's almost a lifespan. It is a Ford truck
4:37
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, so you can just
4:39
Speaker 1: keep rebuilding. Parts are going to be available for ever.
4:43
Speaker 1: You can still go and get like a the most
4:45
Speaker 1: obscure part, like a nineteen fifty four Ford F series truck.
4:51
Speaker 1: They made literal millions of this style. But whatever is
4:55
Speaker 1: an important point. I just want to interject is on
4:58
Speaker 1: that same topic. You know, the four five fifty has
5:01
Speaker 1: had a six speed transmission for quite a while, and
5:04
Speaker 1: now they came out with this beautiful ten speed, So
5:06
Speaker 1: now you want to upgrade your truck. Yeah, so we
5:09
Speaker 1: have the capability to do that. When a manufacturer comes
5:12
Speaker 1: out with a better drive train, better engine, which improves
5:16
Speaker 1: your fuel economy, that directly translates into your travels, right. Yeah,
5:20
Speaker 1: so the benefit of not being if you could swap
5:23
Speaker 1: the ten speed in and people are kind of like,
5:26
Speaker 1: yeah a lot, is that really like viable? Yeah, now
5:29
Speaker 1: you're diving in the body control modules to get it
5:32
Speaker 1: to work properly, and that's just not going to It's
5:34
Speaker 1: pretty six speed is not bad in this but yeah,
5:38
Speaker 1: I feel like such an I haven't been using the
5:41
Speaker 1: toe hole mode and it totally changed the truck. Oh yeah,
5:45
Speaker 1: like the fankicks on earlier. It just drives so much better.
5:49
Speaker 1: Always listen to Spencer is what I've worned. Geez, where
5:52
Speaker 1: should we start in this conversation. Let's start where we
5:54
Speaker 1: always do traveling in these things. Yeah, so I think
5:58
Speaker 1: traveling in an exhission vehicle is fascinating. It's almost like
6:03
Speaker 1: you have a little catamaran or a little like sailboat.
6:05
Speaker 1: In a lot of ways, it's interesting how comfortable you
6:09
Speaker 1: can be. But it's also just different than the way
6:13
Speaker 1: that I would travel in like my Grenadier or a
6:16
Speaker 1: normal four wheel drive, or even like a pop up can.
6:18
Speaker 1: Like you guys, you live in your Bliss. Yeah, we've
6:22
Speaker 1: a year and a half now full time in are Bliss.
6:25
Speaker 1: And not only do I support the company by working
6:28
Speaker 1: for them, I'm an owner. I think that speaks a lot.
6:32
Speaker 1: If I didn't believe in the product, I want an
6:33
Speaker 1: own one. And we talked about this recently. Expedition travel
6:39
Speaker 1: and we get questions all the time how fast does
6:41
Speaker 1: the truck go? And it's not. And we were chatting
6:44
Speaker 1: about this recently. It's not about going fast to get there.
6:47
Speaker 1: It's a different type of travel. Yeah, it's slower. You're
6:50
Speaker 1: not rock crawling. You're getting off grid to these beautiful
6:54
Speaker 1: locations and you're bringing your home base with you. Yeah.
6:58
Speaker 1: I think that the way my style of travel has changed.
7:01
Speaker 1: When I had my Gladiator or my land Cruiser eighty,
7:06
Speaker 1: or when we were in Australia and we had our Troope,
7:09
Speaker 1: we could really seek out these like these kind of
7:12
Speaker 1: near recreational four wheel drive experience and that was fun
7:17
Speaker 1: for We did that for ten or fifteen years now
7:20
Speaker 1: with this, like you said, like you're really just trying
7:22
Speaker 1: to find these like these like beautiful off grade place
7:26
Speaker 1: and we're so lucky to live where we live on
7:28
Speaker 1: the West Coast of America because these vehicles are so
7:32
Speaker 1: well suited for it. I always say, these trucks are
7:35
Speaker 1: really like they're forest service road trucks. You're not going
7:41
Speaker 1: they have some reserve capability. If at the end of
7:45
Speaker 1: that forest service road to get to the campsite, oh
7:47
Speaker 1: there's a ledge or there's a small boulder rock or whatever, Yeah,
7:51
Speaker 1: you're going to be fine. But that's not necessarily You
7:54
Speaker 1: wouldn't set out to recreationally off road in a twenty
8:00
Speaker 1: thousand plus pound truck. Yeah, you're not going to a
8:03
Speaker 1: rock crawling facility to see what you can scale. Yeah,
8:07
Speaker 1: but it is important to have a capable vehicle to
8:11
Speaker 1: get you out further. Yeah, spots that you wouldn't typically
8:14
Speaker 1: experience in your normal RV and also getting away from
8:18
Speaker 1: the crowd, getting more desolate and living those spots. Yeah.
8:23
Speaker 1: I find that these trucks they allow me to get
8:28
Speaker 1: further than a sprinter and further than like a Maybe
8:33
Speaker 1: the hierarchy for these things is in Arizona, we see
8:36
Speaker 1: a lot of like fifth wheels, like toy haul or
8:39
Speaker 1: they have no problem going down a lot of these
8:41
Speaker 1: forest service roads and then they're like, but they'll be
8:44
Speaker 1: parked right off of the forest service So you have
8:46
Speaker 1: that level. Okay, that's usually pretty busy, especially if you
8:49
Speaker 1: go on the weekend in the summer in Arizona. I've
8:52
Speaker 1: always came out that's holidays. So then like a van
8:56
Speaker 1: can get you a little further than that like fifth
8:59
Speaker 1: wheel trailer kind of combination. But there's a lot of
9:02
Speaker 1: vans out there now, kind of vans like a huge community,
9:05
Speaker 1: and it's actually impressive what those vans can do. Yeah,
9:09
Speaker 1: I've seen vans out on some trails that I did
9:13
Speaker 1: not expect to see them, and granted fifth wheels as
9:15
Speaker 1: well that they published had been out there. But these
9:18
Speaker 1: expedition vehicles are built not only to do that, but
9:23
Speaker 1: to do it time and time again. Yeah, so built
9:26
Speaker 1: stronger to be more reliable in those off road situations
9:30
Speaker 1: because you take your your sprinter van for instance, and
9:33
Speaker 1: all those radio are built by a manufacturer for road use. Yeah,
9:38
Speaker 1: they don't take into account expedition vehicle use. They don't
9:41
Speaker 1: know what expedition vehicle use is. Part of building an
9:45
Speaker 1: expedition vehicle is not only thinking about the manufacturer requirements
9:50
Speaker 1: staying within those, but also adding the accessories and modifications
9:54
Speaker 1: for them to do it and do it many miles
9:58
Speaker 1: to come. Yeah, I think that they're generally built a
10:02
Speaker 1: little better and that's what allows them to time and
10:05
Speaker 1: time again go a little further than that veal. But
10:07
Speaker 1: you're not going to go as far as a cheap
10:09
Speaker 1: rubicon or a gladiator with a small camper or something
10:14
Speaker 1: in the fad. But then you're also not going to
10:16
Speaker 1: have a you're not going to have a very comfortable
10:18
Speaker 1: bed and air conditions and things right. Yeah, the extra capacities,
10:23
Speaker 1: food storage, a waste storage, being able to shower, having
10:27
Speaker 1: a hot shower is just huge when you're out on
10:30
Speaker 1: the trail, especially living full time being on an expedition.
10:34
Speaker 1: It's going out for a weekend is much different than
10:36
Speaker 1: being on an expedition. Yeah, for sure, And it's fascinating
10:40
Speaker 1: you guys, like living as a family of three with
10:42
Speaker 1: your wife and dog in that kind of small space
10:44
Speaker 1: because how big is your module, So we're in a
10:47
Speaker 1: fifteen foot as well. We're talking about Colin's unit. Ours
10:50
Speaker 1: is a different layout though, so Colin has a standard
10:52
Speaker 1: layout where we have the family layout with bunk beds
10:55
Speaker 1: for our daughter. Okay, and it's I won't lie. It's
10:59
Speaker 1: hard to start off full time and relearn different dynamics.
11:03
Speaker 1: We sold our house to do this, but it's been
11:07
Speaker 1: incredible at the same time, like living in a closer
11:12
Speaker 1: space brings you closer together as a family, which is
11:14
Speaker 1: pretty awesome. And we get the home schooler our daughter,
11:17
Speaker 1: which is a great experience. She absolutely loves it. So
11:21
Speaker 1: instead of learning about a national park in a classroom,
11:24
Speaker 1: she's at the national park learning about it. Yeah, that's
11:27
Speaker 1: really cool. So we're very fortunate to be able to
11:30
Speaker 1: provide her with that lifestyle and live it ourselves, to
11:34
Speaker 1: be honest. Yeah, So with your extensive background, it would
11:38
Speaker 1: be hard to think of somebody that has taken these
11:42
Speaker 1: kind of expedition vehicles more places than you have, because
11:45
Speaker 1: you're obviously doing a lot with earth Rumer before and
11:47
Speaker 1: how you're doing you're always out obviously or your personal truck,
11:51
Speaker 1: but you're leading trips and stuff with other Bliss owners.
11:54
Speaker 1: What are some of your favorite places, like some of
11:57
Speaker 1: your favorite areas to travel the West? So, Utah is
12:01
Speaker 1: a big one. Oh yeah, you can get so far
12:05
Speaker 1: off road and desolate. Then you could think in Utah.
12:09
Speaker 1: Utah is a great state. Colorado is super awesome. You're
12:13
Speaker 1: gonna run into tighter trails, busy I find. Yeah, there's
12:17
Speaker 1: a ton of great areas in Colorado. Yeah, Wyoming, Wyoming,
12:22
Speaker 1: hidden spots in Wyoming. Yeah. Have you ever done Gray's
12:25
Speaker 1: River Road? I haven't. That one's really cool. It goes
12:28
Speaker 1: from you can catch into it from Lebarge, Okay, I
12:31
Speaker 1: mean you actually end up driving on the old Oregon
12:34
Speaker 1: Trail route nice and then you go into this valley
12:37
Speaker 1: that I would describe it as it's one of the
12:39
Speaker 1: southern fingers of the Yellowstone ecosystem, and the Grays River
12:43
Speaker 1: actually runs north into it until you hit Alpine, Wyoming,
12:48
Speaker 1: and that area is so phenomenal Alpine, It's fantastic. It's
12:52
Speaker 1: one of my favorite area with these trucks. I obviously
12:55
Speaker 1: love the desert. Yeah, like I'm a desert right, I
12:58
Speaker 1: guess at this point very by the way, but there's
13:02
Speaker 1: no bugs, and until I got my new window roller blinds.
13:07
Speaker 1: We've heard so much about it. I will not shut
13:10
Speaker 1: up about my new roller blinds. I did. Oh my god.
13:13
Speaker 1: I had these that came with Demetic sites roller blinds
13:18
Speaker 1: and they just had like like quarter inch tall, two
13:21
Speaker 1: inch wide slots in them where like the bugs would
13:24
Speaker 1: fly through and then the mosquitoes would just get around everything.
13:27
Speaker 1: So I really like the desert where there's no bugs. Yeah, jeez,
13:31
Speaker 1: I guess I could finally head north places with water now. Yeah.
13:35
Speaker 1: So to answer your question about our favorite areas, we
13:38
Speaker 1: did a Canada trip last year nominal Where'd you go?
13:42
Speaker 1: So from Colorado we went up through Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park, Teton,
13:48
Speaker 1: did the western side of Montana, and then up to
13:51
Speaker 1: bamp Oh Sweet and that entire trip two weeks. There
13:56
Speaker 1: was one night that we didn't camp on water. Oh wow,
13:59
Speaker 1: that's really cool. So that was a little bit of
14:01
Speaker 1: a different trip for us because we're talking about desert travel,
14:04
Speaker 1: which is a lot of what we do, and that
14:07
Speaker 1: was a lot of forest to travel, tight switchbacks, being
14:10
Speaker 1: on rivers like every night, which is amazing. Yeah, and
14:14
Speaker 1: there's some desolate places along that route as well that
14:17
Speaker 1: we saw nobody what time of year did you do it?
14:20
Speaker 1: We did it in September October, so I got fall
14:24
Speaker 1: colors with it, which was fantastic. The other thing that's
14:27
Speaker 1: so great about these style of vehicles, expecially vehicles, is
14:31
Speaker 1: that they are so well insulated compared like what most
14:36
Speaker 1: people experience in a traditional RV, that you can go
14:41
Speaker 1: when the weather is for most people like suboptimal, but
14:45
Speaker 1: you have no idea, no like in the blisses I've
14:48
Speaker 1: been in and in our own earth rom are like
14:51
Speaker 1: it can be like negative degrees outside and blowing snow
14:56
Speaker 1: and I'm like having a sleepy time tea and fuzzy
14:59
Speaker 1: socks something in the absolute middle of nowhere with Senora Frog.
15:06
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. So it's it's just I
15:11
Speaker 1: just love traveling in these things. I often think that
15:14
Speaker 1: I would have a boat if I didn't get seasick.
15:16
Speaker 1: And this is thinking about's a lot of marine components
15:19
Speaker 1: that go into these things. We get that comment a
15:21
Speaker 1: lot when they come. People coming are bliss feels like
15:25
Speaker 1: a yacht? Yeah yeah yeah. And there's a planning aspect
15:29
Speaker 1: to that too that you know you're mentioning adverse weather
15:32
Speaker 1: with other setups. Like we were talking about earlier, is
15:35
Speaker 1: you got a plan around weather depending on what you're
15:38
Speaker 1: camping in, and you're mentioning that the insulation value of
15:42
Speaker 1: the rigs, you don't necessarily have to gauge your travel
15:44
Speaker 1: plants based on weather, which is that's part of the
15:48
Speaker 1: adventure now. Yeah, so you could do a snow expedition
15:52
Speaker 1: or fall colors or some totally you can go skiing
15:55
Speaker 1: in these things. Our mutual friend Culin did a similar
15:58
Speaker 1: trip that you did Rockies, but they did it like
16:01
Speaker 1: I think even maybe a month later, and that's he
16:04
Speaker 1: was actually on that trip with us. Oh he was okay, sweet. Yeah,
16:07
Speaker 1: so that was the same thing that he was talking
16:08
Speaker 1: about with me that we're like all the campgrounds were open,
16:11
Speaker 1: like you know these days, like there's more people doing
16:15
Speaker 1: this than ever and that is a really good thing.
16:18
Speaker 1: But it also means that in the times where people
16:23
Speaker 1: have the ability to travel, kids are out of school,
16:26
Speaker 1: summer weather, it can get busy, gets busy, even especially
16:32
Speaker 1: with when you're boon docking and you're just off grid.
16:36
Speaker 1: You can't reserve those spots. So part of the fun,
16:39
Speaker 1: part of the fun, but it's also part of the
16:41
Speaker 1: stress I think of planning these any overland trip is
16:44
Speaker 1: where you're sleeping, and it's not an exclusive problem to
16:48
Speaker 1: these vehicles. Yeah, being a working and traveling family, there
16:52
Speaker 1: is many nights that we land in camp at midnight. Yeah,
16:55
Speaker 1: if we have a project we're working on during the
16:58
Speaker 1: week and we want to get out and we're headed
16:59
Speaker 1: out Friday I at five pm to hit our favorite spot.
17:03
Speaker 1: And that's part of the beauty of having a vehicle
17:07
Speaker 1: like this is if you land at midnight, you have
17:09
Speaker 1: a nice comfortable spot to come back to, climate controlled,
17:13
Speaker 1: you could relax. And Yeah, it's a different dynamic travel. Yeah,
17:17
Speaker 1: So what I'd love to geek out on now are
17:20
Speaker 1: some of these different chassis that you have experience with.
17:23
Speaker 1: So now that I'm working with a worldwide company, Yeah,
17:28
Speaker 1: it's opened up my eyes. You asked me about travel
17:32
Speaker 1: within the US and chassis and everything. It's a completely
17:36
Speaker 1: different dynamic because now we're talking about Mercedes A Tros
17:40
Speaker 1: and Mercedes Actross m A N chassis. Yes, these trucks
17:44
Speaker 1: that we don't get in the US that are just
17:46
Speaker 1: like next level trucks, lockers, every axle ctis systems, and
17:53
Speaker 1: not only that, but these trucks are built to carry
17:56
Speaker 1: larger capacities. Yeah, so now we're we always talk about
18:00
Speaker 1: payload and weight in so significant. We look at the
18:04
Speaker 1: truck we're sitting and we're at the we're at the
18:06
Speaker 1: very maximum of that vehicle's payload as a nineteen to
18:09
Speaker 1: five gross vehicle. Wait, yep, and we're this vieweg der truck.
18:14
Speaker 1: I don't want to mine's a little older. I'm I
18:20
Speaker 1: took the cases off the back. I've made steps to
18:23
Speaker 1: make it a little yea, a little less trade offs. Yeah,
18:27
Speaker 1: and it's good that you think about that too, because
18:29
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't. They just add more and more.
18:32
Speaker 1: And not only do you have to d these trucks.
18:34
Speaker 1: Think of like the axles, wheel bearings are a are
18:37
Speaker 1: like a service component on a commercial vehicle. That's not
18:40
Speaker 1: something that people think about. And when they're used to
18:44
Speaker 1: driving an F one fifty to fifty, it looks like
18:47
Speaker 1: a F two fifty because it has the same bottom,
18:50
Speaker 1: the same motor, but it's not really the same. Whereas
18:54
Speaker 1: these internationals. The ze trust the actress, I'm saying that right, actress. Yes, man, trucks,
19:01
Speaker 1: you're so understressed with these things and that's where I'm
19:04
Speaker 1: learning to really appreciate that. And like the unamogus are
19:07
Speaker 1: obviously they're bigger trucks, but there's a reason for it. Yeah,
19:12
Speaker 1: working with bigger components. Now, working in this industry, in
19:16
Speaker 1: this type of vehicle, with that mindset, it's so nice
19:20
Speaker 1: to be working on a truck that has a thirty
19:22
Speaker 1: six thousand pound gross vehicle way for instance, and you
19:25
Speaker 1: go to fully load your truck and go weigh it
19:27
Speaker 1: and you're at like twenty four thousand. Yeah, it's just
19:30
Speaker 1: a much larger gap like you could put it. You
19:32
Speaker 1: could put another truck on there, like a full size
19:35
Speaker 1: of another blist. Yeah. But the things that that though,
19:39
Speaker 1: means your tires don't wear as fat, your chassis is
19:42
Speaker 1: just it's less stress. It's not stressed. And then when
19:46
Speaker 1: you start talking about taking these vehicles so internationally, it's
19:50
Speaker 1: almost like this truck drives the earth from where, in
19:53
Speaker 1: my opinion, drives very heavy, you know, where a lot
19:55
Speaker 1: of these more proper medium duty trucks they maybe the
20:02
Speaker 1: Ford cab is pretty comfortable, but these things are actually
20:05
Speaker 1: pretty easy to drop. They're not stressed. Yeah, what's your
20:08
Speaker 1: favorite Internet? If I could have anything. Oh, Zaytrus for sure. Yeah,
20:12
Speaker 1: let's talk about that truck. I'm not actually super familiar with.
20:15
Speaker 1: It's not a platform that we get in the US
20:18
Speaker 1: and frankly, not that many Americans have any experience with.
20:22
Speaker 1: Very few. And honestly, it's a pretty it's a pretty
20:25
Speaker 1: rare truck world orwide because it's mostly military use. The
20:29
Speaker 1: floor of the cab is actually bulletproof on all of them,
20:33
Speaker 1: which is impressive. Okay, But from my knowledge and my
20:38
Speaker 1: research is Mercedes essentially went to the UNIMOG Technology Center
20:44
Speaker 1: and said, we want to build a heavy duty truck
20:47
Speaker 1: that is as good and takes the heritage from a
20:50
Speaker 1: UNIMOG and that's how that project started. So the zay
20:53
Speaker 1: Trous is a conventional cab truck that you can get
20:57
Speaker 1: in either four by four or six by six. I
21:00
Speaker 1: think you might be able to get an eight by
21:02
Speaker 1: eight as well, with a dual steer axles. It's just
21:05
Speaker 1: it's crazy. Yeah, there's so many possibilities. And this is
21:08
Speaker 1: a truck that's used in military services, mining services, emergency vehicles.
21:14
Speaker 1: So same thing we were talking about earlier about the
21:16
Speaker 1: international but this truck was designed from the very beginning
21:21
Speaker 1: to be like top notch, so locking axles front, mid rear,
21:26
Speaker 1: and some have CTIS systems and not only that, but
21:31
Speaker 1: be comfortable. So that translates into a perfect package for
21:35
Speaker 1: an expedition vehicle. What kind of what drive line does
21:38
Speaker 1: that end up running? Starts like engine which Mercedes engine.
21:42
Speaker 1: They started out as a six cylinder diesel and now
21:45
Speaker 1: I think they're like a eight cylinder diesel, like four
21:49
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty horse power. Oh that's a lot. Yeah,
21:52
Speaker 1: And two configurations for transmission. You can go with the
21:55
Speaker 1: Allison transmission, which is worldwide another great aspect of serviceability,
22:00
Speaker 1: or manual transmission, which is oh interesting. Yeah. Yeah, So
22:04
Speaker 1: imagine a six by six fun. But I don't know
22:07
Speaker 1: if I would. I don't know if I would do that.
22:11
Speaker 1: It's a hard one because it would be fun, Like
22:13
Speaker 1: I want like a Miata in manual or like a
22:15
Speaker 1: nine to eleven Evanuel. I don't know if I want
22:17
Speaker 1: like a big truck and a man a big truck. Yeah. Yeah,
22:21
Speaker 1: And if you're looking at something that has simple serviceability, yeah,
22:26
Speaker 1: you would go with a manual transmission. Yeah. But also
22:29
Speaker 1: Allison transmissions are known for being roby pretty solid, really solid. Yeah.
22:33
Speaker 1: The miles that these trucks are getting put on them
22:35
Speaker 1: is nothing compared to what they're actually designed for. That's
22:38
Speaker 1: the other thing true. Like a lot of these more
22:40
Speaker 1: commercial vehicles are they're a million mile plus trucks. Yeah,
22:45
Speaker 1: I don't think a five fifty. Yeah, I'm sure it'd
22:48
Speaker 1: be fine. You took care of it. You could do
22:49
Speaker 1: a million mile Yeah, you might be on another motor
22:52
Speaker 1: I'm already on another mode.
22:55
Speaker 3: And a special thanks to ONYX for supporting this week's podcast.
23:00
Speaker 3: Are you tired of searching for a campsite only to find.
23:04
Speaker 1: It packed or off limits? With on X off.
23:08
Speaker 3: Roads new motorized Dispersed Camping layer, you can now see
23:12
Speaker 3: legal off grid camping spots in national forests.
23:16
Speaker 1: Right in the app.
23:17
Speaker 3: Plan ahead, avoid the crowds and camp confidently, knowing you're
23:22
Speaker 3: on public land where it's allowed. Download on X off
23:26
Speaker 3: Road today and find your own space. Thanks again, on X.
23:33
Speaker 1: What's really cool though, is like our customers with Bliss Mobile,
23:37
Speaker 1: they are really worldwide travelers. I have a customer that
23:41
Speaker 1: has put at least sixty thousand miles on his m
23:43
Speaker 1: an in three years, living full time, So they're serious Yeah,
23:48
Speaker 1: and that's how we build these platforms to be true
23:53
Speaker 1: worldwide travel and be serviceable worldwide as well. And I
23:57
Speaker 1: like working with different cultures and it really opens your
24:00
Speaker 1: eyes to expedit. Going back to expedition travel, which makes
24:04
Speaker 1: it super interesting is we talk about North America a lot,
24:07
Speaker 1: but what if we want to ship our truck to
24:10
Speaker 1: Europe or Iceland or South America. Like it's a you're
24:14
Speaker 1: thinking about a whole different area at that point. Yeah.
24:17
Speaker 1: One of the things that you came up in one
24:19
Speaker 1: of our conversations recently was and again maybe it was
24:24
Speaker 1: actually called like how are you going to charge this thing?
24:26
Speaker 1: And I never really thought about it. You're traveling slow,
24:29
Speaker 1: you're in Europe, Africa, whatever. I can't plug my truck
24:34
Speaker 1: in because all of my everything's based on one like
24:39
Speaker 1: a US like one ten like system. There's no charging capability.
24:44
Speaker 1: But like you're saying, a lot of the blisses like
24:47
Speaker 1: they have like a dual charging system, like yeah, multiple voltages.
24:51
Speaker 1: For the US market, we run two thirty volt, one
24:55
Speaker 1: twenty volt, twelve volt, and twenty four volt, and we
24:58
Speaker 1: have charging for both two thirty and one twenty So
25:03
Speaker 1: if you are within the us, you're charging on one
25:05
Speaker 1: twenty when you leave, you can switch that to charging
25:08
Speaker 1: on two thirty for different countries. That's cool, and we
25:12
Speaker 1: really we build the units to be self sustainable. But
25:17
Speaker 1: in the scenario that you want to stay in one spot,
25:20
Speaker 1: let's say you're in adverse conditions, it's snowing out and
25:23
Speaker 1: you want to ski. And you mentioned earlier that talking
25:26
Speaker 1: about a ski rig and how nice it is to
25:29
Speaker 1: have a climate controlled interior but be able to ski
25:32
Speaker 1: out of it. Yeah, foot of snow on your solar
25:34
Speaker 1: panels or you just you're in a shaded spot. Yeah. Yeah,
25:39
Speaker 1: So it has that capability to be plugged in worldwide. Yeah,
25:42
Speaker 1: that's really cool. That's really cool. That's something that you
25:46
Speaker 1: don't really think about it until you have to. Yeah,
25:49
Speaker 1: So that's what's working with a wide range of markets. Now.
25:53
Speaker 1: It's definitely opened my eyes with my history of travel,
25:57
Speaker 1: and now we're starting to think like when we're able
25:59
Speaker 1: to going to Central and South America and expanding our range.
26:04
Speaker 1: We had last year we had a customer expedition with
26:08
Speaker 1: around fifteen trucks six months in South America. Oh wow.
26:12
Speaker 1: And that's something else very cool about Bliss Mobile is
26:17
Speaker 1: they have these cuss onths long, six months long. Yeah,
26:20
Speaker 1: they have these guided customer expeditions and the sky's the
26:24
Speaker 1: limit South America, Africa. Colon's going to be in Africa
26:28
Speaker 1: here soon with his new eight foot Yeah, so it
26:30
Speaker 1: really opens your eyes to extended world travel on the capabilities.
26:34
Speaker 1: That little eight foot one with the raising super cool.
26:37
Speaker 1: We're super excited about it. You have one here on
26:40
Speaker 1: a seventy serie, Like, it's the first time I've actually
26:43
Speaker 1: seen like the new seventy series. Yeah, me too, And
26:46
Speaker 1: I thought it looked maybe a little cartoonish in photos,
26:52
Speaker 1: but it actually looks really good. It does look nice.
26:55
Speaker 1: It's interesting because it's like a twenty or thirty year
26:58
Speaker 1: old cab and then with a brand new interior and
27:01
Speaker 1: brand new mirrors and lights, led lights and smers, so
27:05
Speaker 1: it's not like new. It just has the new. It's
27:07
Speaker 1: brand new twenty twenty four. Oh no, sorry, I know
27:09
Speaker 1: what you're saying. Say. Yeah, there's just a lot of
27:11
Speaker 1: people that will buy an old one and they'll put
27:12
Speaker 1: the new stuff on. I thought that's what you're talking about.
27:14
Speaker 1: This one's brand new. We just have it here for
27:17
Speaker 1: travel use, essentially to showcase the new eight foot, but
27:21
Speaker 1: it's a platform that the eight foot is what we're
27:24
Speaker 1: excited about and thinking about putting that on av Ram
27:28
Speaker 1: thirty five hundred or Forward Products or GMC products. Yeah. Again,
27:33
Speaker 1: wide range of vehicles that you can produce that fast,
27:35
Speaker 1: and then that still has like a proper bathroom and everything.
27:37
Speaker 1: Proper bathroom, proper shower, sixty two gallon fresh water, and
27:42
Speaker 1: an eight foot unit. That's pretty insane that you would
27:45
Speaker 1: need no more than that. Yeah, yeah, that's pressive. I
27:48
Speaker 1: keep looking at the unimogues as like this. I know
27:52
Speaker 1: that there's elements of them that kind of suck to drive,
27:54
Speaker 1: like they're like tractor meets vehicle. Like I get the
27:58
Speaker 1: zet Trust that's where be so cool. But you've liked
28:01
Speaker 1: that maybe thirteen foot unit for kind of for the
28:04
Speaker 1: unimog thirteen foot for the Unimogus, But the whole unit
28:07
Speaker 1: then becomes like so the whole vehicle is so compact,
28:10
Speaker 1: like it's like twenty feet long, it would be able
28:13
Speaker 1: to do like anything that you would imagine. Again, it
28:18
Speaker 1: would be pretty understressed. It would just we just don't
28:21
Speaker 1: get the right unimogs for that here. Yeah, I wish
28:23
Speaker 1: we could. There's still good secondhand unimogs. Yeah. Right now
28:28
Speaker 1: we're coming into two thousand for import into the US,
28:32
Speaker 1: so we're starting to get into some of the newer
28:34
Speaker 1: technology Unimogus that we're coming out. Great vehicle if you
28:38
Speaker 1: want something that is high off road capable, that's a
28:43
Speaker 1: rig that you want to be in in a small package.
28:45
Speaker 1: They weren't really built for the highway, but with that
28:48
Speaker 1: being said, there's modifications with overdrives that you can add
28:51
Speaker 1: on to them to be better on the highway. Right
28:54
Speaker 1: after the show, I'm headed back to our shop and
28:56
Speaker 1: we're prepping UNAMG twenty four to fifty with a thirteen
28:59
Speaker 1: foot So what's the twenty four fifty that's the more
29:02
Speaker 1: square body, right, Yeah, yeah, so those are able to
29:06
Speaker 1: be important there. I guess they did sell the U
29:09
Speaker 1: five hundred as new as new in the U from
29:13
Speaker 1: what I understand, it was a two thousand and four
29:16
Speaker 1: model year, so still plenty of those capable. Totally different
29:21
Speaker 1: styling from the unimogue that people are typically no. But
29:25
Speaker 1: what's cool about those U five hundreds is some of
29:28
Speaker 1: them you can actually move the steers al side. Yeah,
29:30
Speaker 1: I've seen that it's crazy. So the dashboard is made
29:34
Speaker 1: on like a tubular system, so you can move the
29:36
Speaker 1: steering and the steps. It's all connected to the other side.
29:40
Speaker 1: Let's say if you're driving in the UK or Australia
29:43
Speaker 1: and now I'll some you have a right hand drive vehicle. Yeah,
29:46
Speaker 1: it's crazy. That's really cool. Yeah, I've seen that. I
29:50
Speaker 1: haven't physically seen it, but man, like the U five
29:53
Speaker 1: hundreds pop up and I just like I see them
29:57
Speaker 1: sometimes I'm like, oh, man, I got five hundred is
29:59
Speaker 1: pretty cool. They may a rare set of those in
30:01
Speaker 1: a six by six as well. Yeah, there's one for
30:05
Speaker 1: sale in Colorado right now. Yeah. Yeah, the race service
30:09
Speaker 1: guys bought one of those for some like Formula one thing. Yeah,
30:13
Speaker 1: that build was crazy. Yeah, that was really put a
30:16
Speaker 1: crane on it and you can lift your race car
30:17
Speaker 1: onto the flat deck. How cool is that? Yeah, that'd
30:21
Speaker 1: be a little next level, a little out of my budget,
30:23
Speaker 1: but super cool. Yeah. I guess going on to the
30:27
Speaker 1: things that are different about expedition vehicles, the recovery side
30:31
Speaker 1: and the risk management side of driving in expedition vehicles
30:35
Speaker 1: a little different, and as are the tires, Like the
30:38
Speaker 1: tires end up becoming such a big thing with these vehicles.
30:42
Speaker 1: There's speed ratings, you're really looking at load ratings rely,
30:46
Speaker 1: Like some of these chassis would be a dual rear wheel,
30:50
Speaker 1: so they they'd have four tires on the back axle,
30:53
Speaker 1: which is not good, which isn't good for off road,
30:55
Speaker 1: but it's great for going down the road because you
30:57
Speaker 1: can run a more normal tire where these trucks you're running.
31:01
Speaker 1: I guess you'd call them like a military style tire,
31:04
Speaker 1: like typically we call them OTR tires over the road tires,
31:09
Speaker 1: and a lot of military use, but a lot of
31:11
Speaker 1: mining use as well. Yeah, so we're talking about these
31:14
Speaker 1: European vehicles that are built for mining, like the Zaytrus
31:18
Speaker 1: for instance, or like a Mercedes Actress, are going to
31:20
Speaker 1: be coming with Continental hcs. So they're coming with a
31:23
Speaker 1: tire from the factory capable of overland use as well,
31:27
Speaker 1: which is nice coming from the manufacturer. So for the US,
31:31
Speaker 1: on like the International, we're upgrading that for our travel use.
31:35
Speaker 1: Is that what tire do you run? So I'm currently
31:38
Speaker 1: running a good year on my International, which I'm not
31:41
Speaker 1: exactly a huge fan of. I love the Continental HCS,
31:45
Speaker 1: great tire. Yeah. Yeah, And I just drove Colin's truck
31:50
Speaker 1: from Denver to here and it was so quiet. Yeah,
31:53
Speaker 1: fifty inch tire and I could hardly hear them from
31:56
Speaker 1: the kid. That's the thing is you also have to
31:58
Speaker 1: think about changing these things like I have. I have
32:00
Speaker 1: lowly forty ones that probably weigh about two hundred and
32:05
Speaker 1: fifteen pounds with the wheel, yeah, and those blocks with
32:08
Speaker 1: the fifties or probably around three hundred and fifty pounds. Cool.
32:12
Speaker 1: So when you're changing a spare tire, you got to
32:15
Speaker 1: think about your equipment. Yeah, to help you out to
32:19
Speaker 1: do this if you're doing it by yourself in a situation,
32:22
Speaker 1: most certainly, And there's techniques that you can do that.
32:25
Speaker 1: You're not physically lifting the tire onto the act to
32:28
Speaker 1: the axe, right, so you're manipulating the axle to lean
32:31
Speaker 1: the wheel against it to lift it on. So there's
32:35
Speaker 1: different tools and dynamics that you can use that if
32:38
Speaker 1: you can't lift three hundred and fifty pounds, which you
32:40
Speaker 1: shouldn't have to should your back says no, And I've
32:46
Speaker 1: done it. I had to do it by myself on
32:48
Speaker 1: my truck one time. Oh jeez, And I got it done.
32:51
Speaker 1: And what's cool is we have systems on our Bliss
32:55
Speaker 1: that the entire motor bike carrier lowers to the ground
32:58
Speaker 1: on the way and then the tire comes with it.
33:00
Speaker 1: A tire comes with it. Oh, that's really cool. And
33:02
Speaker 1: there's so many things you got to think about with
33:05
Speaker 1: any expedition vehicle of when you're traveling, what do you
33:10
Speaker 1: do if you get a flat tire? And how do
33:12
Speaker 1: you And the tires are not as easy to source
33:15
Speaker 1: as the other You can't really disc go to the disc.
33:18
Speaker 1: You're not going to disco a tire to get these
33:20
Speaker 1: things right now, you're going to heavy truck facilities for
33:24
Speaker 1: us from a service aspect, or just thinking ahead if
33:27
Speaker 1: you're ordering a new set of tires, where you're going
33:29
Speaker 1: to order them from a lot of people don't know,
33:32
Speaker 1: like in North America if you tap into the OTR market,
33:36
Speaker 1: there's a lot of the tires being stocked here in
33:39
Speaker 1: North America, but you have to find them. You're not
33:42
Speaker 1: just going to grab them off the shelf somewhere. Yeah. Yeah.
33:47
Speaker 1: Recovery is also a really interesting thing with these trucks,
33:50
Speaker 1: just because of the weight. Every time that I've had
33:53
Speaker 1: the roamer stuck it's like they sink really fast. You
34:00
Speaker 1: end up with a lot of what's called stiction literally
34:03
Speaker 1: just like the ground holding everything, the mud and the
34:07
Speaker 1: earth is literally like preventing the vehicle from moving. Yeah
34:11
Speaker 1: you know this all too well, right Yeah. Yeah, So
34:14
Speaker 1: that brought me into after listeners of the podcast will know, man,
34:18
Speaker 1: like a year or two, I got like proper stuck,
34:20
Speaker 1: like it was like sixteen like different like winch poles
34:24
Speaker 1: to get myself out, and this was like a muddy situation.
34:28
Speaker 1: Muddy situation. The road literally just like it just gave
34:31
Speaker 1: out on the trail, just like I instantly sunk to
34:36
Speaker 1: the act basically, which yeah, it wasn't fun, but I
34:40
Speaker 1: was just like when I was campaigning, like a National
34:43
Speaker 1: Forest campground wasn't didn't have a kind of campground that
34:46
Speaker 1: doesn't have spots. But it's like, okay, this is an
34:49
Speaker 1: areas in the White Mountains of Arizona, and I had rain,
34:52
Speaker 1: and frankly, like I'm not used to rain. I'm not
34:54
Speaker 1: used to rain, and I'm not used to like an
34:56
Speaker 1: area of Arizona that has mud. I didn't bring a
34:58
Speaker 1: snatch block, I didn't have my full recovery kit. I
35:02
Speaker 1: have some things that I just like always bring with
35:04
Speaker 1: me A large snatch strap, A dynamic recovery strap, really
35:09
Speaker 1: what I should call it. So I didn't have. I
35:13
Speaker 1: was literally up a creek without a paddle. But it
35:16
Speaker 1: made me really revisit, Okay, like what do I need
35:19
Speaker 1: to be carrying in all of these I think like
35:20
Speaker 1: a winch extension you were just talking about it, maybe
35:25
Speaker 1: that you have to get like a solid tree. Yeah,
35:29
Speaker 1: like the tree that your forerunner is gonna be able
35:31
Speaker 1: to winch off of, or even like a prospector or
35:34
Speaker 1: something is not the same tree that you can use.
35:38
Speaker 1: And also, so you're traveling, the vehicles that you may
35:41
Speaker 1: encounter probably can't pull you out either. So you got
35:43
Speaker 1: to be self sufficient in these situations. And I remember
35:47
Speaker 1: the photos you set me in in your particular situation
35:50
Speaker 1: that you were in. Sometimes you want to go backwards,
35:54
Speaker 1: not continue to go forwards. Yeah, yeah, now you're thinking
35:58
Speaker 1: rear winch because you have to get these vehicles turned
36:00
Speaker 1: around and they're large.
36:01
Speaker 4: Special thanks to Hankook Dina pro Tires for supporting this
36:04
Speaker 4: week's podcast. Visit expedition portal dot com to see our
36:08
Speaker 4: content series in partnership with Hankook, where you learn about
36:11
Speaker 4: this year's Geepeach event in Daytona, Florida, get tips on
36:16
Speaker 4: exploring the Ocala National Forest, and take a tour of
36:19
Speaker 4: the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America at the Daytona
36:22
Speaker 4: International Speedway. We also take a close look at how
36:25
Speaker 4: to choose a mudterrain, all terrain or hybrid rugged terrain
36:29
Speaker 4: tire using the Honkook Dina Pro tire lineup as examples.
36:33
Speaker 1: That was my first thing. My first thing was like, okay, like,
36:36
Speaker 1: I'll go backwards. I didn't have a snatch block and
36:40
Speaker 1: the winch actually failed on the rear. That's what I
36:44
Speaker 1: had thought, But what really had happened is that the fuse,
36:48
Speaker 1: the fuse going to the that provided the power to
36:52
Speaker 1: the winch in the back that actually popped. But that's
36:54
Speaker 1: not something that you're doing diagnostics with. Yeah, while you're
36:58
Speaker 1: like you, you're like, oh no, there's another rain cloud.
37:02
Speaker 1: But snatch block is like so essential you're talking about
37:07
Speaker 1: that that you just end up using it for everything. Yeah.
37:09
Speaker 1: We were talking earlier about straight line polls and being
37:13
Speaker 1: used to that, and I found when I started carrying
37:16
Speaker 1: a snatch block that I use it more often than not. Now,
37:19
Speaker 1: when you can redirect a poll or if you need
37:22
Speaker 1: to pull the front end to the side or a
37:25
Speaker 1: certain situation like that, or let's say you need to
37:28
Speaker 1: pull yourself out backwards and you don't have a rear
37:31
Speaker 1: winch yep, so you can redirect that way. And you
37:35
Speaker 1: also want to make sure that your recovery gear is
37:37
Speaker 1: suited for the weight of your vehicle. Yeah, yeah, and
37:41
Speaker 1: you're using like factor fifty five stuff. Yeah that when
37:44
Speaker 1: I mentioned that, that was for my AAV prospector. But
37:48
Speaker 1: for the larger stuff. Yeah, there's you showed me like
37:52
Speaker 1: a mining manufacturer that it does. ASR. Advanced Synthetic Rigging
37:57
Speaker 1: is a company that I have been using for this stuff.
38:00
Speaker 1: They have so many every product that they offer, they
38:03
Speaker 1: will offer in a huge range of weight capacity for
38:08
Speaker 1: vehicles considerably larger than these trucks even. And then there's
38:13
Speaker 1: stuff's all made in the US, which I like, there's
38:15
Speaker 1: a lot of there's a lot of recovery ropes, straps
38:20
Speaker 1: and still coming out of Asia that have limited testing,
38:22
Speaker 1: where this stuff is very clear what it's working load
38:27
Speaker 1: limits are, what it's minimum breaking strengths are. Those are
38:32
Speaker 1: all things that you just really have to pay attention
38:34
Speaker 1: to on these trucks exactly. It's got to be rated,
38:37
Speaker 1: not only rated for your vehicle, but safe to you. Yeah.
38:40
Speaker 1: So you made an important point of making sure they're
38:43
Speaker 1: certified equipment in the US and making sure it's qualified
38:48
Speaker 1: for the conditions that you're working in. It's very important. Yeah.
38:53
Speaker 1: And then I also think with these like toolkits are
38:55
Speaker 1: an important thing. There's just more to go wrong. Or
38:58
Speaker 1: you are bringing a small and driving it down the road,
39:02
Speaker 1: you have to be able to work on stuff. I
39:05
Speaker 1: think if you're buying something new, the odds are you're
39:08
Speaker 1: probably going to be fine. But if you're doing something
39:10
Speaker 1: like I did with a little bit of an older unit,
39:12
Speaker 1: I didn't do it like when I was out camping,
39:14
Speaker 1: but I just had to rebuild my diesel heater. Like,
39:16
Speaker 1: there is maintenance for these things. Sometimes a latch is
39:20
Speaker 1: gonna rattle loose. Then you have to think of your camper,
39:24
Speaker 1: but then also your chassis. Yeah. And even though you
39:27
Speaker 1: mentioned new, you got to be prepared for whatever is
39:30
Speaker 1: going to come up. And you can't just expect I'm
39:34
Speaker 1: going to travel the world in this new rig and
39:36
Speaker 1: not have anything happen, so I don't need to know
39:38
Speaker 1: what to do. You should learn push yourself to learn
39:42
Speaker 1: to be self sufficient. Things are going to happen. You
39:45
Speaker 1: might have a latch break, you might have a water
39:48
Speaker 1: system break that you need to fix on the trail.
39:51
Speaker 1: So having those skills and the tools to do it
39:54
Speaker 1: self sufficiently on your own is super important. I don't
39:58
Speaker 1: think that there's really a a training group that focuses
40:03
Speaker 1: on vehicles like this that I can think of. I'm
40:06
Speaker 1: trying to think, okay, like the listeners that are listeners
40:11
Speaker 1: of the podcast, and then people that may be interested
40:14
Speaker 1: in buying like an expression vehicle, like man like, where
40:17
Speaker 1: would I send them it out? I guess I don't
40:19
Speaker 1: really know. Yeah, I think for the big truck manufacturers,
40:23
Speaker 1: expedition vehicle manufacturers, sometimes they do it on their own.
40:27
Speaker 1: So Bliss Mobile does it on our own. I personally,
40:30
Speaker 1: when a buyer takes delivery of a Bliss in the US,
40:34
Speaker 1: I take them on a two to three day trip
40:37
Speaker 1: at delivery and show them the ropes. Yeah yeah, show
40:41
Speaker 1: them how to not only how they use the Bliss unit,
40:43
Speaker 1: but while we're camping. I feel like my customers learn
40:49
Speaker 1: a lot better when they're learning how to use it
40:51
Speaker 1: in the situation that they're going to use it instead
40:54
Speaker 1: of a shop setting. Yeah, that's pretty cool though. So
40:56
Speaker 1: that's something that I offer my customers here and we
40:59
Speaker 1: do that as well in another one. But going back
41:01
Speaker 1: to your question, typically the manufacturer of the product may
41:05
Speaker 1: offer some sort of customer expedition that you get training
41:09
Speaker 1: on the group trip. I know the earth Roamer does that,
41:12
Speaker 1: a Bliss Ma Bile does it, and I'm sure some
41:13
Speaker 1: of the other manufacturers do it. But it's important for
41:16
Speaker 1: your customers to know. They're complex machines. There's a lot
41:21
Speaker 1: going on, you get it, not only from the repair side,
41:24
Speaker 1: just the amount of systems that all have. They're all
41:29
Speaker 1: working together in concept. But then sometimes yeah, there's a
41:32
Speaker 1: lot happening behind the scenes. Yeah. Yeah, all the comforts
41:36
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier and it's easy to use, which
41:39
Speaker 1: is nice, but there's stuff happening behind the scenes as well.
41:42
Speaker 1: I'm always I get people It'll be like, Okay, can
41:45
Speaker 1: I borrow your earth Roamer, And it's like no, it's
41:48
Speaker 1: just the answer because like risk is just so Hotty
41:50
Speaker 1: just isn't used to driving a large truck in they
41:52
Speaker 1: just and they run into a tree whatever. The highway
41:56
Speaker 1: driving is almost, in my opinion, the largest risk or
42:01
Speaker 1: the thing that takes the most to get used to
42:04
Speaker 1: with these off road slow speed. I don't think like
42:08
Speaker 1: when you're on a trail at ten fifteen mile an hour.
42:12
Speaker 1: They don't drive that different. They have pretty big tires,
42:15
Speaker 1: use decent suspension, They're obviously they're heavy, so you're like,
42:18
Speaker 1: you're going to run through your travel a lot quicker
42:20
Speaker 1: and things like that. But it's always the thing that
42:23
Speaker 1: concerns me with these is that people almost don't know
42:26
Speaker 1: how to drive them on the road. They're particularly with
42:30
Speaker 1: the earth roamers. They look, they get in and then
42:35
Speaker 1: you're you're in a Ford super Duty. It's easy to drive,
42:39
Speaker 1: it's easy to drive, and you forciet about it, which
42:41
Speaker 1: can be easy to make mistake. And also the driving
42:44
Speaker 1: perspective of like your particular truck is you're in a
42:47
Speaker 1: cab over right, So your perception of where your eye
42:50
Speaker 1: level it is at in the cab, you got a
42:53
Speaker 1: lot going on above you. It's like what six feet above? Yeah,
42:57
Speaker 1: you know that. Sometimes you can forget about talking about
43:00
Speaker 1: this the other day. Yeah, you forget and you go
43:04
Speaker 1: through the fast for you drive through and hit on
43:07
Speaker 1: or something like that. Yeah, you have to just pay
43:10
Speaker 1: attention to the temperature or the vehicles a lot more
43:13
Speaker 1: with all of these trucks. Yeah, keep an eye on
43:15
Speaker 1: your gauges as you're doing. If you're driving I seventy
43:18
Speaker 1: up through the rockies, you got to pay attention to
43:21
Speaker 1: your temperatures and what's going on and just keep eye
43:23
Speaker 1: on yeah, exactly. You know, you know you can just
43:26
Speaker 1: people just put their foot down, Oh why isn't truck
43:28
Speaker 1: going faster? That just means your temperatures are going up high.
43:32
Speaker 1: You have to pay attention also to the speed rating
43:35
Speaker 1: of the tire. A lot of the a lot of
43:37
Speaker 1: the trucks that are in North America they run a
43:40
Speaker 1: continental MPT eighty one, which you're at like a sixty
43:43
Speaker 1: seven sixty eight mile an hour speed rating exactly. And
43:47
Speaker 1: when you're operating at the the higher end of that,
43:52
Speaker 1: tires load capacity. Load capacity of the tires directly related
43:56
Speaker 1: to its to its speed and temperature and temperature, so
44:00
Speaker 1: that the more load, generally, the lower the speed that
44:04
Speaker 1: you should be going and the higher the temps are
44:06
Speaker 1: going to be, and they blow up like I see
44:10
Speaker 1: it like I see it quite a bit, to be honest,
44:13
Speaker 1: But it's almost always in the highway and during summer
44:18
Speaker 1: hot pavement. I always train my customers just because it
44:21
Speaker 1: says sixty eight doesn't mean you should be going sixty
44:24
Speaker 1: eight in the middle of summer on an eight hour drive.
44:29
Speaker 1: Yet the core temp will get pretty hot, and then
44:33
Speaker 1: I actually noticed, I'm going to call it through the butt.
44:36
Speaker 1: I know, GI use some racing terms. As the tire
44:40
Speaker 1: gets hotter, it'll actually handle and feel a little different.
44:43
Speaker 1: Sometimes it'll feel a little more. You'll get a little
44:46
Speaker 1: more wobble or shake out of it, and the vehicle's
44:50
Speaker 1: telling you to slow down. But these are things that
44:51
Speaker 1: you just if you're coming from a form wheel camper
44:54
Speaker 1: or van, you're not thinking of it, and a lot
44:57
Speaker 1: of people don't really consider it definitely. But that's part
45:03
Speaker 1: of the training that I do myself as well. Is
45:05
Speaker 1: typically our customers could be coming from, like you said,
45:08
Speaker 1: a four wheel camp or on a pickup truck or
45:11
Speaker 1: a man and it's a different animal. There's different conditions
45:14
Speaker 1: you got to drive in and different equipment that you're
45:17
Speaker 1: working with. Yeah, so I'm gonna move on to gadgets. Sweet,
45:23
Speaker 1: that'll be the last thing we talk about. When you're
45:28
Speaker 1: in a regular overland truck, I'll just use like Grenadier
45:32
Speaker 1: for an example, because it's just an wagon station wagon
45:36
Speaker 1: kind of thing. You only have so much room. Yeah,
45:38
Speaker 1: in these trucks, you can bring some stuff with you.
45:40
Speaker 1: What are your favorite little gadgets, Like you can really
45:43
Speaker 1: geek out on the camp life stuff, like you know me,
45:45
Speaker 1: like I'm a snowpeak, Like a snowpeak.
45:47
Speaker 2: Ho.
45:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good question. Because now you've got all
45:53
Speaker 1: the space and stores to work with, you can really
45:56
Speaker 1: geek out on your tools and your camp flash lights.
46:01
Speaker 1: My wife always laughs at me when I start looking
46:04
Speaker 1: at flashlights or camp lights. She's like, no, you have enough.
46:08
Speaker 1: But I always tell her at night, Hey, all this
46:12
Speaker 1: lighting that you see, isn't it well worth it? Yeah,
46:15
Speaker 1: So we laugh about that quite a bit. So lighting
46:18
Speaker 1: is a huge factor for me. My favorite tool bag
46:22
Speaker 1: company is Adventure Tool Company. I'm sure you're familiar with them.
46:26
Speaker 1: Great bags made in the US, and they last forever. Yeah.
46:32
Speaker 1: I like good quality gadgets that last a long time. Yeah.
46:36
Speaker 1: And if you're in an expedition vehicle, it's not like
46:38
Speaker 1: you're going to be light duty use on your gadgets.
46:41
Speaker 1: You want items that can last a long time and
46:44
Speaker 1: treat you well. Love their adventure bags. I have a
46:47
Speaker 1: couple of Zarges cases on the roofrack of my room.
46:50
Speaker 1: Okay cool. Yeah, so that just more storage up there.
46:53
Speaker 1: They're really light when you're not using them as Yeah. Yeah,
46:55
Speaker 1: that's a good option on a roofrack. Something else people
46:58
Speaker 1: don't think about is weight at different levels of the
47:02
Speaker 1: center gravity gravity. One other gadgets to ep Factor shovel.
47:10
Speaker 1: Oh love that because it's got an integrated hammer into
47:13
Speaker 1: the handle. Oh cool. Much you never think about when
47:16
Speaker 1: you're off grid is a hammer? Yeah yeah, I just
47:20
Speaker 1: tent stakes or whatever for your owning. Yeah. I tend
47:23
Speaker 1: to geek out on like the camping furniture side of thing.
47:27
Speaker 1: I really like the Snowpeak stuff and we have like
47:30
Speaker 1: our little drinks table, like you roll up. Yeah, you
47:33
Speaker 1: have everything that you need inside, but you're you're outdoors.
47:37
Speaker 1: You're there to be outdoors. You're there to be outdoors,
47:40
Speaker 1: and you have the ability to make yourself a little
47:41
Speaker 1: bit more comfortable. Yeah. So I've got two Snowpeach chairs.
47:44
Speaker 1: They came like the low beach chair and those are
47:46
Speaker 1: really cool. I have like their little drinks, like their
47:49
Speaker 1: little small table that we'll put in them. That's what
47:51
Speaker 1: we use the most because we oftentimes we'll always eat inside.
47:56
Speaker 1: It's just like we're literally sitting at what is our
47:59
Speaker 1: dining as we record this podcast at over the next
48:02
Speaker 1: bo and that's just easy. I do have this larger table.
48:07
Speaker 1: But I geek out on lanterns like you're flashing. So
48:10
Speaker 1: I'm now geeking out on lanterns like I have like
48:12
Speaker 1: like old gas lantern I can fiddle with, and some
48:15
Speaker 1: utane lanterns, and then I have some USB rechargeable lanterns.
48:20
Speaker 1: I even have this little lantern stake that's kind of
48:22
Speaker 1: my signature, and it just holds a lantern out at
48:25
Speaker 1: about maybe four or five feet, but it's just this
48:29
Speaker 1: nice little It provides light to the steps outside of
48:33
Speaker 1: the camper. And I always joke with my flight if
48:34
Speaker 1: the lights on the margaritas are being made from lights off,
48:37
Speaker 1: please leave me alone. Perfect. Now, I know it's all
48:41
Speaker 1: about the experience, right yeah, And that's your experience. That's
48:45
Speaker 1: what you enjoy out of you. You're able to do
48:48
Speaker 1: a little more in these trucks and I think that's
48:50
Speaker 1: really cool. Yeah, definitely it is. This has been incredibly
48:55
Speaker 1: overdue to have you on that. We've been talking about that,
48:59
Speaker 1: we've been trying to We've been trying to figure it out.
49:01
Speaker 1: Spencer's a good buddy mine. We chat expedition trucks all
49:04
Speaker 1: the time. We have this great group text with Colin
49:06
Speaker 1: and I love that it's the only group text that's
49:08
Speaker 1: not muted on my phone. But yeah, we should go
49:11
Speaker 1: watch the F one race and finish this podcast up.
49:14
Speaker 1: So but I would love to get together again because
49:18
Speaker 1: we have exotic vehicle background and I'd love the chat
49:21
Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, and of course we've been talking about
49:24
Speaker 1: a trip together soon. Yeah, that's actually a cool thing.
49:27
Speaker 1: You worked on like real ferraris before you did this.
49:30
Speaker 1: I was a Ferrari technician for five years before the
49:33
Speaker 1: expedition vehicle environment. It's a that's that's as high as
49:37
Speaker 1: you can go in that and as a mechanic that
49:40
Speaker 1: is other than being on one team, which was honestly
49:45
Speaker 1: that's where I wanted to go before expedition vehicles. This
49:48
Speaker 1: has been like a side passion of mine. Yeah, and
49:51
Speaker 1: I still love know we're big fans of F one.
49:54
Speaker 1: We actually take Bliss Mobile customers to F one in Austin,
49:58
Speaker 1: which is talking about expedition vehicles. Let's talk about a
50:01
Speaker 1: different experience and go hang out on the infield of
50:04
Speaker 1: a F one track in your expedition vehicle. So it's
50:08
Speaker 1: a great time. All you can use these as RVs.
50:10
Speaker 1: I mean, at the end of the day, I guess
50:12
Speaker 1: they are an RV. They're just a lot more capable,
50:16
Speaker 1: self sufficient and fun. But that's why I love them.
50:20
Speaker 1: Hopefully you enjoyed this podcast diving more into exhibition vehicles,
50:25
Speaker 1: different types, different chassis, and some of those tips and
50:29
Speaker 1: tricks from honestly one of the most experienced guys type
50:33
Speaker 1: of vehicles. So thanks for listening to the Overlain Journal
50:35
Speaker 1: podcast and we'll catch you next time. Thanks Matt.