Latest / Towing News Now / Revving Up with Tommy Luciano: Innovations and Insights from the Florida Tow Show

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Revving Up with Tommy Luciano: Innovations and Insights from the Florida Tow Show · Towing News Now

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the American Towing Recovery Institute podcast.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Remember this is your podcast to promote safety, education, positive public relations and networking within the professional and business-minded towing and recovery industry.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I'm your co-host, dj Harrington, better known as the Tow Doctor, and my other host is Wes Wilburn, over 40-year towing industry veteran, the founder of American Towing Recovery Institute of Fayetteville, north Carolina.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: He has produced and conducted training and certification programs for leading towing companies, equipment distributors, towing associations, dot, fire departments, rescue, as well as military installations across the United States.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Wes has been published over 100 times in major towing publications published over 100 times in major towing publications.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Wes has developed many courses, including the most recent awareness-level course for all responders that specialize in electric vehicles as well as hybrid, natural gas and hydrogen vehicles.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Wes has provided insight as the main speaker for over 30 years at more than 900 training classes and has been recognized as one of America's greatest towing trainers.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: He is well known for his straightforward but down-to-earth teaching style.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: No-transcript.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Without further ado, here's my dear friend and a great guy for our industry, wes Wilder.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: Thanks, DJ, I appreciate it.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Of course, I always appreciate the listeners.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: As promised, we've got a very special guest someone that I've worked with before look up to as a mentor.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Great guy almost needs no introduction but Tommy Luciano with Miller Industries.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Tommy hello and welcome back to the podcast.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: Wes DJ, thanks for having me on again, by all means, and I'm actually tickled to death that you're touching so many people, and both you guys have poured your whole life into this industry and God bless you.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Keep up the good work.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Hey, tommy, I agree with you.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I remember watching Luciano movies up in Baltimore and your group grew and grew, and so has Wes's group.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: It is a privilege to be his co-partner on this and having people like you you know, real icons of the industry periodically come on and just talk about what's on the mind right now.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: So that's why I'm pleased to do it.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: So, wes, I'll turn it over to you.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: So, Tommy, how are you doing?
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: I guess you're fresh back from the Florida show, aren't you?
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I sure am.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: You know, dj just said something about the American Toman show.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: I don't do seminars here because they don't ask me.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: You know, steve had always said that was a brainstorming with the pros, was one of the number one biggest hits every ever for like 30 years and um, all of a sudden they just don't ask me no more.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: So that's the only reason why I don't do it.
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: I have a lot of people come up and ask me why don't you, why don't you do the seminars like you used to?
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: And it's like well, I have to ask the American Tolman Don't ask me.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'm the same way.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I started writing for Toe Professional and Steve and his brother Doc said well, no more classes for DJs.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: And I understand.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, whatever it is, it is.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Yep, and the Florida show was fantastic.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: I was there.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: It was excellent, so Wes go ahead.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: I guess Wes' question is, now that you're back, how did you find the show?
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: No, I thought this year's show was the best it's been in at least three or four years.
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: You know, I think there's a couple things.
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: I think people are now finally getting it where really the show ends on Saturday, sunday, it isn't a press to get home and packed up and everything else and um, no, I'll, I'll.
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: I'll compliment them.
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: They did a good job.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Awesome.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: What was what was new and exciting at the show, tom, either from Miller Industries or something else you noticed while you were there?
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: No, I never in in the four days.
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: I never left the booth once.
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: I never went into anybody else's booth from eight o'clock in the morning until 10, 11 o'clock at night.
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: I never walked inside.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: I never got a chance.
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: We were really that busy and you know we try to do some setups and some demos and it's always a a push and pull.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: I'm I'm amazed.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: Uh, this year's show was more like it was four or five years ago, where people would actually come in and set in the tables, you know, in in the tenant areas, and and just sit there for three and four hours and just watch what you're doing, whether you were doing, you know, a natural hookup with forks or a tire lift or whatever we were doing.
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: It was just remind me of the way it used to be and for quite some years it wasn't that way.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: So I will say the people didn't leave and you know we kept a pretty large crowd there and I'm actually probably saying there's more people who want to get close up.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: Now, when I say that, I mean if you're doing different attachments or different hookups or whatever, I'm actually amazed at the amount of people that want to get a photo of it and see it close up and hear what you're talking about.
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: So that was good.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: You know, florida Show kind of rings our bell the most because you know we do like doing hands-on stuff and people think we strategize that months in advance and that's not the truth.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: We just get there, you know, two days ahead of time and say, hey, we got this much room, let's do this or that, what do we have available?
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: And then this year here we had put a garbage truck on a car and kind of was going after the incident management thing and kind of talked about the rigging.
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: You know it's kind of funny Very often and people forget, especially with a heavy wrecker where the two swivel heads on the end of the boom are side by side, not one over the other.
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: So if you go to pick with one and catch with the other, that especially if something's not loaded, it can spin on you.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: And that's where you really kind of need to decipher.
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: You pick with the two boom winch lines and you catch normally with a drag winch line, even though you run it to the end of the boom because it eliminates that, that pivoting.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: And that's the things that you try to go back to detail.
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: Some people get it, some people don't.
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: You know that's what does happen.
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: But talking about the show in general and maybe things that I like to talk to customers and I hope this podcast reaches people people because the industry is changing and it's not changing because us or any other manufacturers trying to change it.
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: It's changing because of technology.
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: It may be good, it may be bad.
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: So one of the things that totally amazes me people walked in the booth and said, okay, what's for sale?
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: This is what I want to buy, and in the in the last four or five years we may have one or two pieces for sale but we can't build stuff quick enough because the orders are so backed up.
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: And I mean that not from not from probably being slow on our end, but getting the product in.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: Chassis are the major holdup.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: You know chassis are scheduled to be in.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: They don't show up for seven months later and it just shows everything you know out of order.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: But the amount of people that used to come down and buy stuff at the show, that was a big thing for years and years and those days are gone and I'm amazed that people just don't get it.
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: Um, they just don't get it.
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: You know you look at even vendors that are accessory or you know oriented.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: They don't have you know a truckload of accessories there.
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: You know they have some of each and you take an order and you ship it to them.
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: But to walk away with with something in hand, I think that's a thing of the past.
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: So that's one thing that's changing.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: The other thing that's changing when I say technology-wise and I'm not trying to scare anybody on this podcast, but in just knowing what's coming down the road in the future.
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: You saw the hydraulic valving and hydraulics in general starting to go more by fly-by-wire and it's becoming harder and harder to get hydraulic valves that are manually operated.
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: So three or four of the major valve people who manufacture hydraulic valves have told us probably within five years nobody will make a manual valve.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: The only persons that want manual valves meaning you put your hand on a handle and control it with a handle is the towing industry and that window is getting shut down.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: So that's meaning from a light duty wrecker to a car carrier, to a heavy wrecker will no longer, probably in the window in the future, be able to be manufactured unless there's there's an awful appetite for those valves.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: And all of a sudden they've told us they're not going to manufacture them.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: They just don't have enough call for them.
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: So it's going to change manufacturing, not tomorrow.
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: I'm not pushing a panic button, but I'm saying I would say within the next eight to ten years, I think you're going to see all hydraulic wreckers go to a fly-by-wire electronic.
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: Now, good, bad.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: The bad part is anybody that lives in the north has calcium mag.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: You know, salt on the road, et cetera.
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: Electrical problems are always a connectivity problem.
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: You know you're not going to have that problem in Texas or Florida or Arizona, because they may have the salt water but they don't have.
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: As many of the things that are put on the road today make it really tough because they come back to life so many times.
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: So that's a little bit of what I would say is coming down the road in the end user user, um, the people that are out there, um, and I need to understand that because, uh, the other thing that's going to be happening is here that I think the custom fab that people want out of trucks now are starting to become very limited.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: It isn't like it was 10, 15 years.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: You know, if you wanted to switch moves you could get it.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: That isn't going to happen either, because I think Tommy, let me get you to hold that thought for one second.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: We need to take a quick break and come back and continue that thought right after the break, if you don't mind?
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: Thank you, we'll be right back.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: We'll be right back.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: The EV Clever app is an app created for all responders and emergency service personnel.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: The EV Clever app is the only app containing easy-to-navigate quick links to access manufacturer-suggested instructions for emergency situations dealing with electric and alternative fuel vehicles while on the side of the road.
• 13:09
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• 13:17
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• 13:20
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• 13:34
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• 13:39
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• 13:47
  Speaker 5: And that, my friend, is how you put all the information you need at your fingertips with the EV Clever app.
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: Go to ev-clevercom and download yours today.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Welcome back listeners.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: First, you're listening to the number one American Tone Recovery Institute podcast with Wes Wilburn, dj Harrington and our dear Tommy Luciano, which everybody knows.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: I want to remind all of you and thank you for giving us your like reviews, share everywhere, hit that like button so it helps us.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: If you'd like to hear another industry expert, like a Tommy Luciano, we have a hotline number right here in the podcast center 706-409-5603.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: The number, again 706-409-5603.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: And if you want to hear an industry expert, somebody that you look forward to listening to, like a Tommy Luciano, by all means just call that number and Wes Wilburn will do his very best.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: By all means, just call that number and Wes Wilburn will do his very best and if not him, somebody from American Towing and Recovery Institute in their office will help us out.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: So Wes, just before the break, tommy was talking about hydraulic switching over, so I'll pass it over to you.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, tommy, I'm very intrigued by that.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: So the manufacturers are not going to make manual valve bodies and there's going to be problems in the north more than the south with them working properly because of the chemicals.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: Why are they switching?
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: Is this going to be more efficient?
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: Is it going to cost less money?
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: Is there a reason why?
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: you know that's a great question.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: Um, you know, fly by wire is in every industry.
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: There is um you can take um.
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: You know a john deere who uses husco high dollar hydraulic and it's all been fly by wire or bobcat or a fighter jet or there's just everything hydraulically.
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: Now people love joysticks and you can't take a joystick and let a manual valve body work.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: It doesn't work.
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: And, by the way, there's two parts to hydraulics that people.
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: There's actually three parts to hydraulics that people don't understand, and that is number one.
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: The good thing about it is you no longer have to put a valve body in a strategic area, meaning if you wanted to put a valve body up and out of the weather or up and away from the rear tires, you can, because wires are now going to run the connections between the controller and the actual valve body itself.
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: So that's kind of a good thing in one way, because sometimes real estate, with all the hoses, you don't have the real estate in that body to put things in position where it needs to be.
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: So that's one thing.
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: The second part of that, what happens and this is again, it's nothing new, but it is kind of new in our industry but the normal remote control that people have had for years in the tone and recovery industry, with the exception of the rotators, are you engage a button, the remote, and it's either in or it's out.
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: It's either all in or all out.
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: Right, what people are really wanting are proportional controls.
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: And and what happens with that?
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: Um, as valve bodies evolve, you actually have currently you have a manual side of the valve body, which may be the upper side or the lower side, and then you have the electric solenoid that needs to pull that spool valve, which is on the bottom side or upper side, et cetera, and the real estate again, these valves are taking because of the hoses and everything else.
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: It's so much more efficient and cost savings for putting these electronic controls in versus the manual ones.
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: You don't have link linkage, you don't have handles.
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: You don't have any of that.
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: Now, most of us in the towing industry were born and brought up with handles and we like handles and I understand that.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: But the day is coming and I really think I'm starting to show my age and you are too Wes and say you know, dj, you're doing the same thing and John Doe is doing the same thing because we're of the older generation and the new generation likes fly-by-wire.
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's what all these remote games are, you know.
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: So you've got to look at the newer generation will probably like that.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: When you talk about the newer generation and changing things, you have to, because they're the ones dominating things.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: Now I don't know about you, but in training we've switched to a whole lot of videos.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: As much as I love a still picture and to talk about it, the attention span of our average attendee is getting much shorter.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: So we have to be realistic and deal with that.
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: That's a true statement.
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: I have, uh, you know I have more and more people, you know, asking me and say, hey, you don't.
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: You know you don't do as many videos as as you used to do or anything.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: And number one um, I really unfortunately don't have the time, with my wife being sick.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: And number two, all the military stuff that I'm involved with with the company and you know, mike Frazier has done picked up a lot of the ones that I haven't been doing.
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: But you know, people still want to see the videos and just it takes time to do them and it's just time I don't have right now.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: And if you know.
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: Same thing if people like the videos, it takes time to do them and it's just time I don't have right now.
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: Same thing if people like the videos.
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: I wish one thing I wish the videos that were out there, and you see everything on YouTube now, but there's so many bad videos too.
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: I wish there was some way In your classroom environment, wes, you do a great job and you edit out all the stuff that is bad.
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: That doesn't happen on youtube.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true, that's very true, and more and more people are turning.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: That is a number one information source yes, they are unfortunately it's uh, you know, it's bigger than than the telling industry yeah, yeah, I mean pretty much anything you want.
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: That's where, as an educator and I think I can talk for you too it's when somebody has a predetermined notion about doing something because they've seen it on YouTube and you want to say time out, let's dissect this and show you why it's not that good of a deal.
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: You know as a true educator.
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and people don't want to take the time anymore to think about things on anything other than a surface level.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: it seems like so true, so true, thank you.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: So, DJ, you had a question.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, my question, tommy.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: I was passing out the Clever apps for Wes at my booth and I had, you know, in the past we've had a lot of German, australian.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Those people were coming by all the time.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: The towers from South Africa go toers from South Africa.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: This time we had a lot of people from the UK, but a very, very large contingency came from the country of Spain and they had an interpreter with them.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: And what I wanted to ask is you know you stayed in your booth the whole time.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: I always want to tell people, I think Friday night, when Miller puts on their street party, nobody puts on a party like Miller.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Bill Miller makes it the best of all.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: So the street party this year was really great.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: But the women thing on Saturday, I mean you stayed in your booth.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: You probably heard people talk about it.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: I mean you stayed in your booth.
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: You probably heard people talk about it the I Am.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Woman presentation put on by the PWOF Women's Division.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Ruthie and the team did a phenomenal job.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: I heard that I did.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Yes, I did Better and better and somehow every year that women's meeting gets better and better.
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah it does.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: First to 20 bucks and it's what Miller does with the raffle and helping there raise money for education for the state of Florida.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I want to tip my hat to Miller and Miller Industries.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: And so you're from Miller, so we figured I'd say it.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: And so you're from Miller, so we figured I'd say it.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: But what I wanted to ask you did you run into a lot of the, because it is the largest international towing meeting of any year is always the Florida Toe Show.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: What do you do in a case like that?
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Did they bring their interpreter to listen to you?
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: You know, the good Lord has blessed me very much so because you know I've traveled the world and and done schools and demos around the world and and of course you see a lot of them same people that come over the florida show yeah, kind of funny this year.
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: Uh, there wasn't too many people from uk, there was a lot of people from japan, a huge amount from Japan and China, a different group from Australia Well, I knew them and we had some people in from South America too Obviously South Africa they were there.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: I will say this in each and every group that comes always has in at least one interpreter that can speak some English or dissect it and give it back to them of what we're trying to do.
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: That'll ask a question and I will say you know, the number one thing that you get asked is about how do you communicate with people.
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: You know the number one thing that you get asked is about how do you communicate with people.
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: You know the one good thing that happened anybody that's, say 40 years and younger, no matter what country, they've learned English.
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: So you know, the younger people have have English without a problem.
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: But yeah, we always run across somebody that's an interpreter that wants to have questions and ask, and they'll point to something and say you know, how do you do this or why did you do this, and.
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: But there was a great turnout.
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: A great turnout A photo show does turn out a lot of great different cultures that come over and it's always a great situation to, you know, have somebody come across and, you know, treat people the same way you want to be treated.
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: That's why I always like to treat them with you know, open arms and give them a hug or put your arm around them and say welcome.
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: You know, because you don't get that.
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: A lot of places and good Lord's put me in a place where I hopefully project a good image towards people and hopefully answer their questions, and I think the podcast does a great thing too.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: And Tommy, you're right.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: When we first started one weekend, I remember telling Wes and his wife April I said can you believe we're up to 112 people from outside the united states?
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Well, just before the florida toe show, we're at 388 people in the european countries alone.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: And all of a sudden you sit back and you go holy moly and then they come by the booth and say hi, I listened to your podcast and I'm like what?
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: And this is young, young Spanish kid from Spain that came over and a lot of people from Indonesia and so forth.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: They came by and they said they listened to the podcast.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: So Wes Wilburn doesn't realize how many countries he hits with this podcast.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: All right, you guys do a great job.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Like I said, keep it up.
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: That's all how many countries he hits with this podcast.
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: All right, you guys do a great job.
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: Like I said, keep it up, that's all, and anytime I can come on and help you, I'd be more than glad to you know that.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Well you're an icon in the industry, Wes.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: I'll turn it back over to you.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: I don't want to hog this up.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: I think the world of Tommy Luciano oh, yeah, absolutely.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: One more quick break, tommy, get you to hang around, want to talk about what you're doing overseas, and I also want to talk about the fishing that you do with the kids.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: So the time of year is coming up, so, listeners, we'll be right back.
• 26:47
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• 27:56
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• 27:58
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• 28:07
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• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Welcome back listeners.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: You know you're listening to.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the American tone recovery Institute podcast with Wes Wilburn, dj Harrington and the famous Tom Luciano.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: So, wes, I'll turn it back over.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: You know exactly what you want to ask, tommy.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: Oh, just I want to get our listeners up to date.
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: Uh, you talked about earlier how much busy you are with overseas travel.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: Give a brief overview of what you do now with the different armies and whatnot.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: As far as you know, so much has changed right now in the world with military.
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: You know so much has changed right now in the world with military.
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: And you say that you know the different militaries.
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: I think they as a whole, even though they're on the cutting edge of some things, most militaries around the world are behind, because you know they buy, whether it's a wheeled vehicle or a track vehicle vehicle or whatever, and then they don't think about the towing aspect, no different than probably used to be in america.
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: And, uh, at the end of the day, um, all of a sudden, it's like, oh, we can't tow this.
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: And probably the biggest thing that happens, and and I can tell you, um, most people in in our industry are aware of it, but I think in towing as a whole and that is as, as militaries have gotten bigger and bigger and bigger, in heavier and heavier military trucks, there's a, there's a two-part fold that happens, and I'll just put you into this You're going to be off-road, you're going to be on substandard roads, you're going to be, you know, basically in logging roads.
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: So what happens is now and it's becoming more and more apparent is you tow them.
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: A if you're going up the hill you lose traction because the vehicle you're towing are, as most cases are, as heavy or heavier than you, especially in older trucks.
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: The second thing is, uh, damage because, like a nato military is nato is worldwide and it's all militaries.
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: It doesn't matter whatever whether it's Spain or Romania or South Africa or United States or Canada, you know it doesn't matter.
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: What they have done over the last 20 years is they've gone to a standardized points in the front, points in the back, to hook up to all vehicles, and my hat's off for them doing that, because that has sure changed towability a lot.
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: However, you still have the problem where there's those off vehicles that you still have to have all the different attachments number one, number two.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: The other thing that's a bigger problem now is stopping, and stopping is huge.
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: You know you start going down to hell.
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: If you got a vehicle heavier than you, it's very quick to jackknife it Very, very quick.
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: And with such a high center of gravity some of these armored vehicles have that pitch and roll will jackknife in a hurry with a high center of gravity.
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: So each country wants something a little bit different and each country has a different idea.
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: Uh, maybe about braking, or about traction or about, and there's some countries that want something super small.
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: It can.
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: So post something big meaning small, meaning wheelbase wise, and it just doesn't add up.
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: So you know there's always.
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: You run into stuff that I could tell you that you wouldn't even talk about hydraulics.
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: Okay, one, I won't mention the country, but one country we had didn't want hydraulic cylinders, they wanted in an acne screw.
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: So an acne screw is like on a vice where you got not tapered threads or square threads and you see them on airplanes inside airplane wings.
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: They wanted to do an acne screw to run a wheel, lift in and out and boom in and out and you you know you try to reason with them say that amount of compression load will strip those gears in a hurry, you know.
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: But there's always those that want to reinvent the wheel again.
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: So you just do what you can and takes a lot of time sometimes well, you get to see a lot of different interesting things.
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: It sounds like yeah, I'll tell you what again I I feel very blessed.
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: I I know you even look at it and you and I have talked about it before.
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: But you know I really enjoy doing the ultra heavy recovery classes because I think I brought something to the table that nobody's ever thought about before and now that that's now that that's a case, you know, I can actually take and show something new.
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: It's kind of hard to be an instructor and show stuff that's new all the time, but you know you start to get to these megaweights.
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: It's fun, that's all I'll say.
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: It's fun.
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: The problem is you and I both have the same problem and that's the hands-on demonstrations.
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: You and I both have the same problem.
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: That's the hands-on demonstrations.
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: Having the vehicles there to do that is the hardest part of what we have to do.
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: It isn't doing the demo, it's having the right vehicles there, such as a bulldozer that weighs 120,000 pounds or a backhoe.
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: It's a running piece you can put down in a mud hole and pull it out.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: That's the impossible things that we have to do.
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: People do not realize how challenging that can be.
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and you and I keep on talking about what we are going to do at another school together here before we get too old.
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: We need to.
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: We really do.
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: I would greatly treasure that opportunity.
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: Speaking of schools, do you have anything coming up you want to tell our listeners about?
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: Um, I got a rotator class coming up in May in Chattanooga, another one in October in Chattanooga, got an ultra heavy that we're going to do up in Vermont in October and that's through one of our dealers, and we also have one in.
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: Just real quick.
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: I heard good things about the Vermont group last year that you did up there.
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they want to do the same thing.
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: I usually like to try to skip a year when we start to do that because it's a lot on the association.
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: But Alabama again this year it's the third year in a row and that's when we go the 14-hour days for a couple of those days and go into the night.
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: And I think I told you we've been trying to do that to make it kind of touch a realistic.
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: You know you don't have light yet you know night nights with if you don't have the lights you can't see, and if you can't see you can't do your job proficiently.
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: So you know we go through that whole nine yards of that.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: So it makes it it makes it it makes it kind of kind of interesting, you know good, good tell us what you do with with the kids and fishing well, I have to.
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: You know dj has always supported me and telling people.
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: You know, if you got junk cars and you find fishing boxes or rods or reels or anything we like to uh take and give them, fix them all up so they actually work, because a lot of stuff comes out, gets damaged or it's older.
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: But you know, we still do that with the young kids once a year and actually when COVID hit we couldn't actually do a tournament at a lake for kids and their parents and everything else it was you had to have, everybody had to wear a mask.
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: There was a lot of challenging laws that you had to do.
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: But there's another friend of mine in New Jersey that's a fisherman.
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: He's doing it in New Jersey too, Gogo Gomez.
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: And what we ended up doing is that one year, which was two years ago, I ended up having a garage shell.
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: That really wasn't a garage shell, it was with fishing tackle that I had gotten from people for kids and if the parents brought their kids over, you know you'd give them their rod and a reel, First one to go home with a rod and a reel, because we couldn't do it at a lake.
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: But normally we take a lake and we do that and it's kind of funny because as word gets out there, I see more and more young kids.
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: Of course I live up in upstate New York, but a lot of young kids riding their bike with a fishing rod going down to, either going down to the river or going to the one of the lakes around here and fishing offshore, which makes me smile.
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: So DJ has been very good about asking people whether it's salvage yards or people have junk cars and if you let us know you have it, we'll pay for the freight to get it here.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: Hey, wes, I got to tell our listeners, wes, I got to tell our listeners First time.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: He almost got me thrown out of my house.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: We have a four-car garage and two cars.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: Where Sheila parked, my wife parked, tommy goes, so what happened?
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: I said, well, now the Fisher Bulls are in her garage.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: They already took over my two garages, and so I brought him up to Baltimore and Tommy took the truck and carried the rest of it away and he took care of all of the rental.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, it was, you're a good man, tommy, you're a good man.
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: It was a lot of fun.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: And you're right, the salvage people had a great time sending them in.
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: So can folks still send these fishing rods to Miller?
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: I mean, who's saying they care?
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, as a matter of fact, if you're driving by Miller Industries, our delivery building, which is right out front, if you take that delivery building and you go in there and say, hey, I want to leave this for Tom, they'll put them up in the attic, the guys while they know what it's for.
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: And I'd be more than glad to take anybody that's driving by you know I-75 going by the plant to do that also.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: Are you going to be able to attend the Estro show this year?
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: I will.
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: I will be there on Saturday only.
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: Are you coming up?
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: Yes, oh yeah, oh, all right, we're sponsoring a big auction Friday night, are you really?
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: Then I'll come Friday night too.
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah absolutely, I'll tell you that we came last year and had a great time and excited about going back.
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: But any of our listeners that are attending, would it be all right if they brought your fishing gear to the show?
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: Absolutely no questions asked.
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great thing you do with the kids, simon, and I should do more to support it.
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: No, listen you guys do a great job, doing this alone by yourself, so I can't thank you enough for even saying that.
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: Well, again, it's the least we can do, and it's a great thing that you do Anything you'd like to share with us in parting.
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: No, I guess the only thing I'd like to say you and I have made a DJ.
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: A lot of us have made a great living, and I say this and I end this this way only because lately it's been kind of a stone in my shoe but I don't know that any one of us are going to die multimillionaires, but we got a million dollars worth of friends.
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: Any one of us are going to die multi-millionaires, but we got a million dollars worth of friends and it's for all those listeners and all those people that have supported.
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: You know, training or and we're not perfect, we make mistakes, but you know, thank you for all the million dollars worth of friends I have out there that are guys just like you and me, wes.
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely Well said too, Tommy.
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: Well said.
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: Definitely.
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: The friends in this industry are worth a million and more.
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: I want to thank you for taking time to come and talk to our listeners.
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: I want you to know that everyone's praying for you and your family.
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: We just can't thank you enough and stay strong and keep doing what you're doing out there for the good of everybody.
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: God bless you guys.
• 40:55
  Speaker 4: I'll see you in about a month then.
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: I'll look forward to that.
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, we'll definitely plan on breaking bread together, and I'm looking forward to that as well.
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: All right, good deal, good deal.
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: Thank you everyone and continue to tune in, you know, to two great guys here.
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: God bless, take care, all right.