Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Behind the Builds: Overland Journal's Latest Projects and Tech

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Behind the Builds: Overland Journal's Latest Projects and Tech · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I am
0:06
Speaker 1: your host, Scott Brady, and I'm here with my co
0:08
Speaker 1: host Matt Scott and today we're going to talk about
0:11
Speaker 1: project vehicle updates. We're going to do the deep dive
0:14
Speaker 1: into Matt's Gladiator. We've got a new project vehicle, Alexis
0:19
Speaker 1: GX four seventy. We're going to talk a little bit
0:22
Speaker 1: about our Mercedes G Class, Matt's Mercedes G Class. We're
0:27
Speaker 1: also going to do a little bit of a dive
0:29
Speaker 1: into some other possible projects for the future, including a
0:33
Speaker 1: full sized Dodge Ram. And I think it's a good
0:36
Speaker 1: conversation about some of the current technologies, some products that
0:40
Speaker 1: we have really found to be exceptional and we've decided
0:43
Speaker 1: to install into our own vehicles. And also, for a
0:46
Speaker 1: first for the Overland Journal podcast, we're going to be
0:49
Speaker 1: introducing some premium supporters of the podcast. So any endeavor
0:54
Speaker 1: like this does require support in order to be successful
0:57
Speaker 1: in the long term. And has chosen to be our
1:01
Speaker 1: first supporter for the Overland Journal podcast, and they're specifically
1:05
Speaker 1: supporting us in relationship to their new Overlander device and
1:11
Speaker 1: it allows you to roam the unknown with Overlander it's
1:13
Speaker 1: a rugged all terrain navigation device from Garmen. Overlander is
1:18
Speaker 1: a bright seven inch color touch screen with topography and
1:21
Speaker 1: spoken turn by turn directions for street maps so that
1:25
Speaker 1: you can easily navigate on and off road throughout North
1:29
Speaker 1: and South America. It comes pre loaded with I Overlander pois.
1:34
Speaker 1: That's something that I've used personally out in the field
1:36
Speaker 1: and found to be very helpful. And the ultimate public
1:40
Speaker 1: campgrounds as well, so you don't need cell coverage en
1:43
Speaker 1: route to find a campsite or your next destination. Overlander
1:47
Speaker 1: is a tough device. It's built to with stand dust, vibration,
1:51
Speaker 1: and extreme temperatures. So a big thanks again to Garman
1:55
Speaker 1: for the support of this podcast. And let's get right
1:58
Speaker 1: to it and we're gonna talk about something a little
2:00
Speaker 1: different today.
2:01
Speaker 2: I talk about trucks. We're going to talk about trucks.
2:03
Speaker 3: I guess SUVs because some of them aren't technically trucks.
2:08
Speaker 3: Some of them have a cab on the back based
2:10
Speaker 3: on trucks. But we're going to talk about that kind
2:13
Speaker 3: of stuff because we have some really cool projects going on,
2:15
Speaker 3: both Scott and I. You know, we get a lot
2:18
Speaker 3: of feedback, you know, through Instagram that you guys are
2:21
Speaker 3: really interested in.
2:21
Speaker 2: Things that we're doing.
2:22
Speaker 3: So I thought that, yeah, we would just have a
2:26
Speaker 3: trucky podcast because we're all stuck at home.
2:28
Speaker 2: We're running out of travel stuff to talk about.
2:30
Speaker 3: And yes, Scott's got this awesome GX project GX four sixty.
2:34
Speaker 2: What year is that?
2:35
Speaker 1: So it's a two thousand and seven, And I think
2:38
Speaker 1: it was because I just I had the g Wagon
2:41
Speaker 1: for so long. I just never wanted to get another car.
2:44
Speaker 1: But I realized it's my job to actually build trucks
2:47
Speaker 1: and talk about them and try out new products.
2:49
Speaker 2: So so I picked up this.
2:51
Speaker 1: This GX actually in twenty eighteen, and then it just
2:55
Speaker 1: sat there because I was traveling. Yeah, and now that
2:58
Speaker 1: I'm not traveling, it's it's getting modified.
3:01
Speaker 2: So I think they're cool.
3:02
Speaker 3: For those of you that don't know, you know the
3:06
Speaker 3: Lexus GX four sixty four seventy, Sorry there was a
3:09
Speaker 3: four sixty and a four seventy, but the four to
3:11
Speaker 3: seventy was based on the Proto one twenty, which was
3:14
Speaker 3: sold globally. So the cool thing is that this is
3:17
Speaker 3: a global platform. And some people may look at this
3:20
Speaker 3: as a as a negative, but I don't know why,
3:22
Speaker 3: but we got all the luxury stuff in it, so
3:24
Speaker 3: we got extra sound deadening, we got the you know,
3:27
Speaker 3: the whole Lexus leather treatment, we got some more body cladding.
3:31
Speaker 3: But at its core, it is the same vehicle, albeit
3:34
Speaker 3: with a V eight instead of an underpowered diesel engine
3:37
Speaker 3: that everybody else gets exactly.
3:39
Speaker 1: In fact, it was a trip that I did to
3:41
Speaker 1: Tasmania where I drove around the entire trip from the
3:45
Speaker 1: ferry crossing and doing the ball forward track and I
3:48
Speaker 1: mean really challenging terrain, very remote train in Tasmania.
3:52
Speaker 2: I did it all in this.
3:53
Speaker 1: Proto, and by the end of it, because so much
3:56
Speaker 1: of that proto is shared with the with the Lexus GX,
3:59
Speaker 1: I thought, that's the next car. Yeah, because it gives
4:01
Speaker 1: me this durable drive train, it gives me this level
4:04
Speaker 1: of reliability, and then it also gives me the four
4:07
Speaker 1: to seven V eight, which is one of the best
4:09
Speaker 1: motors that Toyota. Toyota has brought into the United States,
4:13
Speaker 1: and because the GX has become so popular as an
4:16
Speaker 1: overland platform, the aftermarket has responded in spades. So we've
4:21
Speaker 1: got so many options and.
4:23
Speaker 3: They share you know, the Forerunner from the same era
4:26
Speaker 3: is also essentially a product fjn.
4:28
Speaker 2: FJ Crews Cruiser.
4:29
Speaker 3: So as far as suspension, and I want to say
4:32
Speaker 3: you put the old Manimu AIRBBP fifty ones on.
4:36
Speaker 2: I did.
4:36
Speaker 1: And the main reason why I did that is that
4:38
Speaker 1: I have tested the product before on other vehicles, but
4:41
Speaker 1: I've not had it any length of time myself. There's
4:45
Speaker 1: so many good suspension companies out there. But what one
4:48
Speaker 1: of the things that I liked about the BP fifty
4:50
Speaker 1: ones is they used They use a lot more rubber
4:53
Speaker 1: bushings than HIM joints, so you end up with a
4:56
Speaker 1: lot less noise, a lot better long term durability. I
5:00
Speaker 1: like the fact that you can adjust the rebound and
5:02
Speaker 1: compression dampening in it. It is a little bit of
5:05
Speaker 1: a challenge to make that adjustment on the vehicle, so
5:08
Speaker 1: you got to use a special tool to do that.
5:10
Speaker 2: It's not a knob.
5:11
Speaker 1: It actually requires a special tool to make that adjustment.
5:15
Speaker 1: But so far, I just installed it just a couple
5:17
Speaker 1: of weeks ago. I was really impressed with the quality
5:20
Speaker 1: of the product. To finish on it. It looks like
5:22
Speaker 1: it's going to be durable, and of course it's made
5:24
Speaker 1: for Australian roads, so it should be pretty robust.
5:27
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think they've definitely done a good job with
5:29
Speaker 2: that suspension.
5:30
Speaker 3: I know, I know initially there were a few kind
5:32
Speaker 3: of complaints issues with it and they it's a RB
5:36
Speaker 3: they fixed all of that, they did, you know, I mean,
5:37
Speaker 3: this is their first you know, I don't want to
5:40
Speaker 3: call it a racing shock, but there's definitely some some
5:43
Speaker 3: pretty advanced, you know, valving technology. You know, there's very
5:47
Speaker 3: very few rebound and compression adjustable shocks. You know, most
5:53
Speaker 3: adjustable and I'm doing the air quotes shot, you know
5:56
Speaker 3: with my fingers.
5:57
Speaker 2: Their compression adjustable, which is which is which is.
6:01
Speaker 3: Probably the capability of most people to just turn an
6:05
Speaker 3: nob okay it feels better, it feels not better, you know.
6:09
Speaker 3: The rebound just I don't know it is. I like
6:13
Speaker 3: the rebound adjustment. So for those that are listening, one
6:16
Speaker 3: of the reasons why we do want to focus a
6:18
Speaker 3: lot on rebound is it helps us control how the
6:22
Speaker 3: vehicle reacts after an input. So you have an event
6:26
Speaker 3: and people tend to over overdo compression damping, which then
6:32
Speaker 3: slows the ability for the suspension to take the input
6:36
Speaker 3: from the event. But why you want rebound is after
6:38
Speaker 3: this big event has happened, you hit a g out
6:41
Speaker 3: or you have a big rock in the road or whatever.
6:44
Speaker 3: It's how the shock controls the weight of the vehicle
6:47
Speaker 3: and that mass in motion after the input, which is
6:50
Speaker 3: why rebound is so important. So I actually like to
6:53
Speaker 3: go relatively light on compression and heavier on rebound, which
6:58
Speaker 3: is why it's nice for me to be able to
6:59
Speaker 3: have that adjustability. And I do like the fact that
7:03
Speaker 3: I have additional fluid volume with it, so it has
7:06
Speaker 3: a remote reservoir, so I've got quite a bit of
7:08
Speaker 3: fluid capacity. So long distances of corrugated roads, the shock
7:13
Speaker 3: temperatures are going to stay really light. And then it
7:16
Speaker 3: also look they look super durable, really bomber.
7:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, they seem like a good product.
7:21
Speaker 3: And then you did av's new Toyota six log wheels.
7:26
Speaker 2: I want to say to the crestone, Yeah, that's it.
7:29
Speaker 1: So I've always been a huge fan of AV for
7:33
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons, mostly because of the quality of
7:36
Speaker 1: the products that they produce. But recently they made some
7:40
Speaker 1: of their wheels available for other bolt patterns, so you
7:43
Speaker 1: can if you've got a six on five and a half,
7:46
Speaker 1: which could be a Nissan, many of the Nissan products,
7:49
Speaker 1: most of the Toyota products. So for erunner ft Cruiser
7:54
Speaker 1: GX Tacoma, you can fit these new crestone wheels. And
7:59
Speaker 1: this is what makes them really unique is that it
8:02
Speaker 1: is a dot legal beadlock.
8:05
Speaker 2: So you can get either the faux beadlock.
8:08
Speaker 1: Ring just for esthetics, or you can actually put the
8:11
Speaker 1: bead outside of the inner wheel diameter and then capture
8:15
Speaker 1: it with a proper beadlock ring, which is.
8:18
Speaker 2: What I did.
8:19
Speaker 1: And you think, why would you need beadlocks on a GX.
8:23
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I've learned in my
8:26
Speaker 1: travels is the benefit of extremely low air pressures. So
8:30
Speaker 1: I like the fact that if I do get into
8:33
Speaker 1: deep snow. I've had times when I've been crossing over
8:36
Speaker 1: mountain ranges and ended up in feet deep snow. So
8:39
Speaker 1: I can go down to that one and a half
8:41
Speaker 1: psi two psi if I need to to get through
8:44
Speaker 1: that sum Sure, you're not in an Arctic truck here, Scott.
8:46
Speaker 1: I know, I know, but it feels like it right,
8:49
Speaker 1: So yeah, you can go really low pressures. And then
8:51
Speaker 1: the other thing that I like about a beadlock is
8:53
Speaker 1: you improve field serviceability, so you can remove the outer ring,
8:56
Speaker 1: of course, take the pressure out, remove the outer ring,
8:59
Speaker 1: you can pull the carcass back from the wheel and
9:01
Speaker 1: put in a put in a patch. You can access
9:04
Speaker 1: the inside of the of the wheel to be able
9:07
Speaker 1: to do some stitching, et cetera. So I do like
9:09
Speaker 1: the field service ability of it. Yeah, yeah, they're they're
9:12
Speaker 1: pretty cool. And again, DOT compliance on beadlocks is cool.
9:15
Speaker 1: I want to say Hutchinson's on the other one of
9:18
Speaker 1: the Yeah, sins are definitely like a true three piece beadlock. Correct,
9:22
Speaker 1: I've had them. You've had them on g Wagon. I
9:24
Speaker 1: think I had him on a JK while ago. Great wheels,
9:28
Speaker 1: very heavy, very super, very hard to balance, yep. But
9:33
Speaker 1: did you ever get yours balance on your JK?
9:36
Speaker 2: No?
9:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, that would But I was also like super broke
9:40
Speaker 3: at that point, and it probably couldn't afford to take
9:42
Speaker 3: it in for the one hundred dollars because I spent
9:44
Speaker 3: all of my money on wheels, as everybody does in
9:47
Speaker 3: their early twenties.
9:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know, But what else is going on
9:52
Speaker 2: with the GX. So I'm trying to keep the vehicle
9:56
Speaker 2: as light as possible.
9:57
Speaker 1: Another thing I like about the GX is because it'sven passenger,
10:00
Speaker 1: it actually has a proper payload, so it's fifteen hundred
10:03
Speaker 1: pound payload and air suspension. So one of the things
10:07
Speaker 1: that I wanted to do was try try to keep
10:10
Speaker 1: the air suspension. So Matt and I are actually working
10:12
Speaker 1: on some ideas around keeping the air suspension. Now it's
10:17
Speaker 1: the BP fifty one shocks, but in the rear there's air.
10:21
Speaker 1: Instead of coil springs, there's air springs. So I want
10:24
Speaker 1: to try to keep the air springs. And the thing
10:26
Speaker 1: I like about that is when I'm not traveling in
10:28
Speaker 1: the vehicles lightly loaded, I have good ride quality.
10:31
Speaker 2: If I'm loaded up for a trip, I still have
10:33
Speaker 2: a good ride quality.
10:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, I think that a lot of
10:38
Speaker 3: people have had bad experiences with airbags, and honestly that's
10:43
Speaker 3: all just because of land Rover. But you got to
10:46
Speaker 3: realize land Rovers at the forefront of this technology for
10:49
Speaker 3: you know, automotive passenger car use, you know, firestones. I'm
10:55
Speaker 3: making airbags for you know, semi trucks for forever ever.
10:59
Speaker 3: You know, those things are very, very durable, and I
11:03
Speaker 3: think as Americans start start to do more dual purpose
11:06
Speaker 3: vehicles where they're driving it to work, they have the kids,
11:09
Speaker 3: they want it to be a nice car. They're spending
11:11
Speaker 3: money on these things. It gives a certain amount of
11:14
Speaker 3: duality to the vehicle, and I think that I think
11:18
Speaker 3: that that's really nice.
11:19
Speaker 1: It significantly improves ride quality and when you're doing long
11:23
Speaker 1: distance driving.
11:24
Speaker 2: In my mind, that's worth it.
11:26
Speaker 1: And the fact that I can fully load it up
11:29
Speaker 1: or if I want to pull a sailboat or what,
11:32
Speaker 1: I can toe things with it and it'll auto level,
11:36
Speaker 1: which adds a lot to the safety. And then the
11:38
Speaker 1: nice thing is you can push a button. If you're
11:40
Speaker 1: high centered just slightly, you can push a button and
11:43
Speaker 1: raise the vehicle up another couple of inches and hopefully
11:46
Speaker 1: get off the obstacle.
11:47
Speaker 3: I like the idea air suspensially. It'll be interesting to
11:50
Speaker 3: kind of see where you go with that. Yeah, you know,
11:52
Speaker 3: are you going to do a bumper or anything on this.
11:55
Speaker 1: I'm doing an ARB front bumper and a warn winch,
11:59
Speaker 1: which is kind of my tip package that I do
12:01
Speaker 1: with that works.
12:01
Speaker 2: Yeah.
12:02
Speaker 1: Still trying to decide if I'm going to go with
12:03
Speaker 1: a roof rack. Possibly I'm going to put in the
12:06
Speaker 1: aarb link system, just because I want to do a
12:08
Speaker 1: little more testing with that.
12:09
Speaker 2: Never I've never had any experience with their.
12:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do like the fact that it consolidates everything
12:14
Speaker 1: down to the one screen. Then, of course you've consolidated
12:18
Speaker 1: everything down to one device, so if the device has
12:22
Speaker 1: a problem, how do you turn on your lights? How
12:24
Speaker 1: do you turn on your compressor? How do you activate
12:27
Speaker 1: how do you activate your air locker? And I'm not
12:29
Speaker 1: saying that there is issues with that, but that is
12:31
Speaker 1: something that comes to mind, is you've really put all
12:33
Speaker 1: your eggs in one basket. But that's also a huge
12:36
Speaker 1: advantage because now you don't have wires going everywhere in
12:38
Speaker 1: the interface.
12:39
Speaker 3: I always say the number one risk to an overland
12:41
Speaker 3: vehicles aftermarket wiring. Yeah, Like I have seen so many,
12:46
Speaker 3: specifically Jeeps for some reason I think is they have
12:48
Speaker 3: a very small engine compartment where wires are running over
12:51
Speaker 3: wires and it just just doesn't go anywhere.
12:53
Speaker 2: We've seen a lot of them burn down in recent years.
12:56
Speaker 2: You know.
12:56
Speaker 3: I think the cool thing with the GX project is
12:58
Speaker 3: that this is something I mean, you can you can
13:00
Speaker 3: find one of these for under ten thousand dollars right now, granted,
13:03
Speaker 3: I mean, Scott, you're you're doing premium stuff on it.
13:06
Speaker 3: But I think I think the cool thing is, you know,
13:09
Speaker 3: for twenty thousand dollars, you're gonna have you're gonna have
13:12
Speaker 3: a very premium vehicle. You're gonna have something that's really comfortable.
13:14
Speaker 3: You're gonna have you know, you're gonna have more power
13:17
Speaker 3: than well Man pretty much pretty much any new vehicle
13:24
Speaker 3: of consideration, more power than a Gladiator wrangler for Runner.
13:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, that motor was kind of a sweet spot.
13:32
Speaker 1: So it's and it's this is the newer variable valve
13:35
Speaker 1: timing model. So it's two hundred and seventy five horse
13:38
Speaker 1: power and you know, over three hundred foot pounds of
13:40
Speaker 1: torque and torque.
13:41
Speaker 2: That's that's nice.
13:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean a lot of these motors these days
13:45
Speaker 3: for fuel economy make their power quite high up in
13:48
Speaker 3: the range.
13:49
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it'll be interesting to follow along with that.
13:52
Speaker 2: I'm excited. It's good for me to try something new.
13:55
Speaker 1: I I totally got into a rut just driving my
13:58
Speaker 1: GW Wagon every day, and well, it's.
14:00
Speaker 2: It's easy to do that. Yeah, it's kind of like
14:02
Speaker 2: a really nice firm hand chick. It just were comfortable.
14:05
Speaker 2: It's just it were oddly comfortable.
14:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, So then what's what's going on with your Gladiator?
14:11
Speaker 3: You know, I guess I've done a bunch to the
14:13
Speaker 3: Gladiator since I've really really last talked about it. You know,
14:17
Speaker 3: I'm still kind of chasing suspension problems, not problems, i
14:21
Speaker 3: should say, but you know, it's not where you want it.
14:24
Speaker 3: I started, Yeah, it's not where I wanted it. And
14:27
Speaker 3: I started with the factory mopar lift kit because I
14:30
Speaker 3: had and I probably have, one of the first hundred
14:32
Speaker 3: vins of Gladiators. Mine was really really early and that's
14:35
Speaker 3: what all that was available, and you know, being also
14:38
Speaker 3: on the industry side, I knew that that's all that
14:40
Speaker 3: was going to be available for a while. So I
14:43
Speaker 3: put that kid in there. And I'm still running the springs.
14:45
Speaker 3: I still haven't found a suitable spring, like I definitely
14:49
Speaker 3: need a higher rate in the back. But I'm definitely
14:52
Speaker 3: starting to look at the idea of airbags because when
14:55
Speaker 3: I run around town in that car, it can be comfortable,
15:00
Speaker 3: a very comfortable vehicle. But when I'm loaded up and
15:03
Speaker 3: we're spending a month, you know, camping in the middle
15:05
Speaker 3: of nowhere, it it would be nice to be able
15:09
Speaker 3: to throw a few pounds of pressure in those airbags.
15:11
Speaker 1: So you think you might replace the coil completely or
15:14
Speaker 1: put an air bag inside the coil.
15:17
Speaker 2: I don't know yet.
15:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I think I think what I'm kind
15:20
Speaker 3: of leaning towards is I'm leaning towards just doing everything
15:24
Speaker 3: with Icon Because they have this variable rate spring, they
15:28
Speaker 3: can do all of the all of the castor correction.
15:32
Speaker 3: I think that's probably where I'm going to go. Yeah,
15:34
Speaker 3: they have some new cool stuff coming out, and.
15:37
Speaker 2: They've always done a nice job.
15:38
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, I've I've run their stuff before and it's
15:41
Speaker 3: worked pretty well. So so we'll check that out. And
15:44
Speaker 3: you know, right now, I have some kings on there
15:46
Speaker 3: and and they're fine. But I think it's just how
15:49
Speaker 3: that how the shock is tuned to those springs.
15:53
Speaker 2: I'm I'll be honesty.
15:54
Speaker 3: I know that I can pull those things apart and
15:56
Speaker 3: I can volve them and whatever, but that's really hard
15:59
Speaker 3: to do right now.
16:00
Speaker 2: Like we're in Prescott.
16:01
Speaker 3: That means getting the vehicle to somebody that knows how
16:05
Speaker 3: to valve overland trucks, not race trucks, sure, which is
16:08
Speaker 3: pretty fine where I can kind of sell all that
16:10
Speaker 3: kid and just buy the icon stuff and you know
16:13
Speaker 3: it's ready to go. It's ready to go, and it's
16:15
Speaker 3: and it's done.
16:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's so many there's so many elements that come
16:19
Speaker 1: into the tuning of compression, rebound, spring rate, and then
16:26
Speaker 1: the frequency rates, role center, all of that. And that's
16:30
Speaker 1: where the the OEMs, because they have access to all
16:34
Speaker 1: that data and they do all the testing, they tend
16:36
Speaker 1: to get those spring rates just right. But then once
16:39
Speaker 1: you load it up, then now you're outside of that. Yeah,
16:41
Speaker 1: you're your cards are off.
16:42
Speaker 2: I mean, this thing's been modified so much it's tough. Yeah.
16:46
Speaker 1: And that's another reason why I kind of like the
16:48
Speaker 1: air the airbags because yeah, I mean they're they're they're nice.
16:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I I guess where I have concerns
16:57
Speaker 3: is that vehicle was never met to have airbags, right,
17:02
Speaker 3: But I mean they've been doing these things forever, especially
17:05
Speaker 3: after market you know, kind of load bearing stuff. But yeah,
17:09
Speaker 3: you know, we'll wait and kind of see for some
17:11
Speaker 3: good kits to come out on that. I think initially
17:13
Speaker 3: I kind of kind of rushed into what was available
17:16
Speaker 3: and I bought the best that was available. And I
17:19
Speaker 3: do think because of that, you know, buying Kings, I'll
17:22
Speaker 3: be able to sell those shocks for nearly what I
17:25
Speaker 3: paid for them, because there's a you know at this point,
17:28
Speaker 3: I mean before COVID, there was you know, a two
17:31
Speaker 3: month wait for them. So I think that's the other
17:34
Speaker 3: benefit of buying really quality kid is if you're not
17:37
Speaker 3: happy with it for whatever reason, or you want to
17:40
Speaker 3: move to something different, you can always kind of sell.
17:41
Speaker 2: It, sell that.
17:42
Speaker 3: And that's I know people will kind of be like,
17:44
Speaker 3: oh man, this guy spends a lot of a lot
17:46
Speaker 3: of money on stuff, But I think that I just
17:48
Speaker 3: spend my money in the smart way. It's it's just
17:51
Speaker 3: never a total write off, I guess. So I think
17:54
Speaker 3: most of my modifications in the Gladiator have come from
17:56
Speaker 3: the you know, from the eighties summit that I have
17:59
Speaker 3: on the back. I'm going to convert the entire electrical
18:02
Speaker 3: system to all red Arc gear. I had some other
18:06
Speaker 3: stuff in there that I was testing. Actually actually the
18:08
Speaker 3: import I mean, it just didn't meet my standards, So
18:10
Speaker 3: we're not going to do that. I'm just going to
18:12
Speaker 3: go with the with Red Arc try and tried and true,
18:14
Speaker 3: and the stuff works. I have their manager system and
18:17
Speaker 3: I kind of working on wiring for that. You know
18:20
Speaker 3: right now, what I'm what I'm doing now is I'm
18:22
Speaker 3: I'm I'm redoing the wiring. I redid all the wiring
18:25
Speaker 3: and the camper made harnesses for this red Art kit.
18:28
Speaker 3: And then once I get back from Colorado, we're going
18:30
Speaker 3: to spend a few weeks up there. I'll get that in.
18:33
Speaker 1: And I think red Arc has become like the Apple
18:37
Speaker 1: of automotive electronics because if if you're looking for a
18:43
Speaker 1: bunch of disparate systems, and that's that's been my experience,
18:46
Speaker 1: my challenges. You bring in a solar charge controller and
18:50
Speaker 1: then you bring in uh maybe a solid state and charger,
18:54
Speaker 1: whereas all of this stuff it works together. It's all
18:59
Speaker 1: Having been in their facility, I was in their facility
19:02
Speaker 1: a few years ago and seeing the amount of attention
19:05
Speaker 1: that they put towards quality and they produce everything in
19:08
Speaker 1: Australia and rite in Adelaide. It's really impressive to see.
19:12
Speaker 1: And they've got solar panels all on the roof and
19:14
Speaker 1: the Tesla power walls and it's a really amazing facility.
19:19
Speaker 1: And it makes me recognize that when you're looking at
19:22
Speaker 1: integrating electronics in with your vehicle, you're probably better off
19:27
Speaker 1: going with something that where everything talks and everything is
19:30
Speaker 1: designed to work together, and you can end up with
19:32
Speaker 1: a fully integrated system.
19:34
Speaker 3: My next step beyond that. Currently this system is sitting
19:40
Speaker 3: somewhere and either customs are on a boat or somewhere
19:43
Speaker 3: between Australia and the United States. I should have the
19:45
Speaker 3: first red ARC red vision system that I'm pretty I'm
19:49
Speaker 3: pretty excited for that allows you to you know, it's
19:52
Speaker 3: it's so comprehensive. And again with red ARC, it's all
19:56
Speaker 3: meant for four wheel driving, it's all meant for overlanding.
20:00
Speaker 1: They pot all the electronics so that it can handle
20:02
Speaker 1: high frequency vibrations and high heat and even temporary water
20:07
Speaker 1: submersion stuff like that.
20:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, so this red ARC system is it will control everything.
20:15
Speaker 3: You know, We're going to add some I think I'm
20:17
Speaker 3: going to do these like rigid lights on the outside
20:20
Speaker 3: of the camper just you know, as you know, we're
20:23
Speaker 3: huge greyhound people. So when we're in the middle of nowhere,
20:25
Speaker 3: we want to take the dog out at night, it's
20:27
Speaker 3: just nice to Okay, let's just flood this scene in light.
20:30
Speaker 2: So it's late I want to go to bed.
20:33
Speaker 3: But this system is computerized and has all of these inputs.
20:36
Speaker 3: It's kind of like an s pod or a switch
20:38
Speaker 3: pro or the airb link system, but really meant for
20:42
Speaker 3: more of a camper installation. So you can control lights,
20:45
Speaker 3: you can see the temperature of your refrigerator, you can
20:48
Speaker 3: see how much solar is coming in, how much it's
20:52
Speaker 3: coming in from your DC DC charger, so cool. I
20:55
Speaker 3: can control fans, I can control everything, and it's all
20:58
Speaker 3: in one system. It'll really clean up all the wiring
21:02
Speaker 3: on the vehicle because right now, like most of us,
21:04
Speaker 3: I'm using like a blue Sea use block, which is fine,
21:08
Speaker 3: it works, that's great. I'm just curious to see what
21:12
Speaker 3: the where the industry is going. I think, if it's
21:17
Speaker 3: not us to test this stuff, it's about it.
21:19
Speaker 2: We got to test it. Yeah, So it'll be interesting
21:22
Speaker 2: interesting to check that stuff out. You know.
21:24
Speaker 3: I got the Manager Rhetoric Manager thirty, which is the
21:28
Speaker 3: DC d C voltage cutoff.
21:32
Speaker 2: AC mains charging.
21:34
Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's a lot of things all in one,
21:36
Speaker 3: and the quality seems really great.
21:37
Speaker 2: Now, that's a really impressive system.
21:39
Speaker 3: It's big, and that's probably the only downside is it's man,
21:42
Speaker 3: it's probably twenty inches long. Luckily I can mount it
21:46
Speaker 3: on the inside wall.
21:47
Speaker 2: Of the camper.
21:48
Speaker 3: But it's definitely something that like if I had a
21:51
Speaker 3: jeep or a four runner, it's definitely overkill. But for
21:53
Speaker 3: all of the DIY kind of building your own camper. Guys,
21:58
Speaker 3: you know, it's it's expensive, but I think it'll I
22:00
Speaker 3: think in the long run it'll save you money.
22:01
Speaker 1: It will, And it's if you think about all the
22:03
Speaker 1: systems that it includes. If you put all those different
22:06
Speaker 1: units together, it's the same size. It just happens happens
22:09
Speaker 1: to all be in one. And I used that system
22:12
Speaker 1: pretty extensively in Australia and I was impressed by it.
22:16
Speaker 1: One of the Hema Map patrol vehicles, it's a seventy
22:20
Speaker 1: nine pickup and it had it that installed with the
22:22
Speaker 1: lithium batteries, and I remember just driving across Australia. If
22:26
Speaker 1: you're in a campground, you can plug it in, if
22:28
Speaker 1: you're if you're out, and if it's a cloudy day
22:31
Speaker 1: you can plug it in. If it's a sunny day,
22:34
Speaker 1: which he usually is in Australia, you got plenty of
22:36
Speaker 1: solar power.
22:36
Speaker 3: So it's an impressive system for sure. I'm looking forward
22:40
Speaker 3: to it. I mean, we ended up putting in another
22:43
Speaker 3: solar panels.
22:43
Speaker 2: We have two.
22:44
Speaker 3: I think they're OVERLA solar one hundred and sixty watt,
22:47
Speaker 3: really low profile panels. Nice, so that charges the lithium
22:51
Speaker 3: battery like instantly.
22:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you showed me that lithium battery the other day.
22:58
Speaker 1: That thing is sweet. Yeah, it makes that. This one's
23:01
Speaker 1: just from Reenergy. Okay, you can get it on Amazon.
23:05
Speaker 1: You know, from my research, there's really not yet a
23:08
Speaker 1: market leader in these lithium things that batteries that are
23:12
Speaker 1: really doing anything else. So I went with the largest
23:16
Speaker 1: company I could find, sure, and it just so happened
23:19
Speaker 1: to be that under my drawer system, this thing's nearly
23:22
Speaker 1: a compression fit, so it was really easy to install,
23:25
Speaker 1: and I was able to get one hundred and seventy
23:27
Speaker 1: amp hours versus one hundred that I would have gotten
23:31
Speaker 1: with the other battery configurations and sizing. So, you know,
23:36
Speaker 1: a lot of different lithium stuff out there these days,
23:38
Speaker 1: and you just have to fit what do the research,
23:41
Speaker 1: you know, you know, figure out what works for you.
23:44
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's so nice.
23:45
Speaker 3: I turned a little heater on and that thing so sweet,
23:48
Speaker 3: so well insulated, like so sweet. Somebody can be talking
23:50
Speaker 3: outside of the camper and you can't even hear it, right,
23:53
Speaker 3: I love that thing.
23:54
Speaker 1: So yeah, I know that your whole, that whole system,
23:57
Speaker 1: that truck has come together very nicely.
23:59
Speaker 3: Almost well like you know those that kind of follow
24:03
Speaker 3: me know, I have a glutton of trucks right now.
24:07
Speaker 3: Some of them are kind of, you know, more for
24:09
Speaker 3: work with Max tracks and a Venture Imports as a
24:11
Speaker 3: show vehicle, which is kind of the Gladiator, and the
24:15
Speaker 3: was originally the eighty. But I think that we might
24:18
Speaker 3: we might start seeing some consolidation, but the Jeep will,
24:22
Speaker 3: no doubt, the Jeep is going to be our new
24:23
Speaker 3: global platform. I can service it anywhere. Yeah, I mean
24:27
Speaker 3: there's there's just and it's everywhere around the world. People
24:31
Speaker 3: want a Jeep Wrangler. Yeah, so you know, and parts
24:35
Speaker 3: are cheap enough to where, you know, if something fails
24:37
Speaker 3: on my land Cruiser that's thirty years old now and
24:40
Speaker 3: is the pinnacle of you know, simplicity for an overland vehicle,
24:44
Speaker 3: I think, well, I can't where where do I get
24:47
Speaker 3: the parts? Like you can't go to a Toyota dealer
24:49
Speaker 3: and just hey, I want this classic car part, you know,
24:53
Speaker 3: Toyota is pretty good and the part is still going
24:57
Speaker 3: to take a while.
24:58
Speaker 2: So expensive. I'm tired of paying for land Cruiser parts.
25:01
Speaker 3: Like, truthfully, the parts for my land Cruiser replacement OEM
25:05
Speaker 3: parts are more expensive than the OEM Mercedes parts for
25:08
Speaker 3: the g Wagon.
25:09
Speaker 2: Yeah. Like I'm a little bit tired of.
25:12
Speaker 1: That, yeah, or expense and for that vintage of vehicle,
25:16
Speaker 1: because so many of them are still on the road
25:18
Speaker 1: and they're still so desirable and they're expensive. So it
25:21
Speaker 1: means people have money to replace the steering wheel if
25:26
Speaker 1: they want to.
25:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it becomes very expensive scarcity.
25:29
Speaker 3: I mean, like I currently do not have a factory
25:32
Speaker 3: alternator in there, because the factory alternator is two thousand dollars.
25:40
Speaker 3: It's a lot of money, right for what was honestly
25:43
Speaker 3: when the car came out, probably outdated technology, and now
25:46
Speaker 3: it's thirty years later. I don't know, a little bit
25:50
Speaker 3: frustrated with that one. Don't be surprised if. I mean,
25:52
Speaker 3: it's a great vehicle if you're really enthusiastic about it.
25:56
Speaker 3: My motivation is travel and travel, travel, travel. Really am
26:00
Speaker 3: trying to refocus on that when when we're allowed to
26:02
Speaker 3: travel again, and yeah, so what does that what does
26:08
Speaker 3: that consolidation look like for you? If you want to
26:11
Speaker 3: share right now, I'm I'm kind of a few things.
26:16
Speaker 3: I think that the g Wagon, while I love it
26:20
Speaker 3: and it's kind of like the Scratch Scratches, it's the
26:25
Speaker 3: Overlander equivalent of a Louis handbag.
26:27
Speaker 2: It's kind of like it's just like it's really well made,
26:30
Speaker 2: and I really like it, and you love it.
26:33
Speaker 1: But I love the fact that I had mine before
26:35
Speaker 1: it was the Overland equivalent of a Louis handbag.
26:37
Speaker 3: I'm so grateful, you know. I've I've modified that thing
26:42
Speaker 3: very lightly. I think the cool thing with the g
26:44
Speaker 3: Wagon is that they don't.
26:45
Speaker 2: Need they don't need anything.
26:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I've really realized if I want to actually
26:49
Speaker 3: use that, it's going to need more extensive suspension upgrades.
26:53
Speaker 3: It's gonna it's gonna need a little bit of work,
26:55
Speaker 3: and I'm I'm just not really willing to continue throwing
26:58
Speaker 3: money towards something that I know that I'm never going
27:02
Speaker 3: to travel in.
27:03
Speaker 2: Yeah.
27:03
Speaker 1: So, I and if travel is your goal, then why
27:05
Speaker 1: put all that and even money aside?
27:08
Speaker 2: Why put the energy into it? Yeah?
27:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I think that I'm going to end up
27:12
Speaker 3: doing doing an AEV prospector you know they're they're not cheap.
27:17
Speaker 3: But after you've built a few vehicles and you're really
27:24
Speaker 3: you're really transforming these things. You know, seventeen thousand dollars
27:29
Speaker 3: or seventeen to five or something, AV converts twenty five
27:34
Speaker 3: hundred or thirty five hundred of your choice and it's done.
27:38
Speaker 3: It's on forty inch.
27:40
Speaker 1: Tires, fully fully engineered, fully integrated.
27:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's done.
27:44
Speaker 3: And you know that the trucks aren't super cheap, but
27:49
Speaker 3: you know you can get a you can get a
27:51
Speaker 3: brand new I'm looking at like the thirty five hundred.
27:55
Speaker 3: You know you can get one for fifty grand. I
27:58
Speaker 3: don't exactly know where my spend is going to land,
28:01
Speaker 3: but you know if you look at it, so you
28:03
Speaker 3: can get and I'm talking about a Diesel twenty five hundred.
28:07
Speaker 3: You can get one of those all day long for
28:09
Speaker 3: fifty thousand dollars or less. Right now, they're offering zero
28:13
Speaker 3: percent financing for seventy two months one.
28:17
Speaker 2: Thousand foot pounds of torque.
28:20
Speaker 3: Now that motor is more expensive, but yeah, a thousand
28:23
Speaker 3: foot pounds of torque available, and you know, so your
28:25
Speaker 3: truck will have more torque than all of my vehicles combined.
28:31
Speaker 2: The g Wagon already does that.
28:33
Speaker 3: Yah, yeah no, But you know, I guess I'm trying
28:40
Speaker 3: to justify this to everybody, and I really don't have to.
28:42
Speaker 3: But you know, for seventy five to eighty thousand dollars
28:47
Speaker 3: at the lower end of the depending on how you
28:49
Speaker 3: expect that truck, you have a really really well built,
28:53
Speaker 3: engineered vehicle that's going to retain its value.
28:56
Speaker 2: Yeah.
28:57
Speaker 3: I know dozens of people that have spent far more
29:03
Speaker 3: than that trying to put thirty five inch tires on
29:05
Speaker 3: their forerunner or to a coma because I think about that.
29:08
Speaker 3: You're talking fiberglass fenders and paint. You're talking long travel
29:12
Speaker 3: suspension to do it.
29:13
Speaker 2: Right, all the labor as, all the labor, all this
29:16
Speaker 2: stuff and all the time that goes into it.
29:18
Speaker 3: And I don't know, I think that the where I
29:23
Speaker 3: had never really considered a prospector before because I thought
29:26
Speaker 3: they were just so.
29:27
Speaker 2: Out of my realm.
29:29
Speaker 3: I guess what I didn't know is you can just
29:30
Speaker 3: you can just convert if five hundred you're by yourself. Yeah,
29:34
Speaker 3: So I think I think that's probably where I'll go
29:38
Speaker 3: and whether right now it's three months to get a truck,
29:42
Speaker 3: like I'm going to order it, and then it's about
29:45
Speaker 3: a month to have av do the work.
29:47
Speaker 2: So you know, well, and those vehicles work really well.
29:50
Speaker 1: I drove a bunch of the prospectors up to tuk
29:53
Speaker 1: tiuk Tuk in the winter time, up the ice roads
29:56
Speaker 1: and everything. And the thing that impressed me most about
29:59
Speaker 1: the prospector was I was driving a vehicle on forty
30:03
Speaker 1: inch tall tires. One of them actually had forty one
30:05
Speaker 1: inch tall tires on it. But you can have you
30:07
Speaker 1: can have like a completely relaxed conversation in the cab.
30:11
Speaker 1: You know, the steering wheel is heated, the seats are heated,
30:15
Speaker 1: the engines are are so drivable, and they have so
30:19
Speaker 1: much power when you need it. But then you can
30:21
Speaker 1: also just be idling down the freeway at eighteen hundred
30:24
Speaker 1: RPMs and getting much better gas knowledge than I get
30:28
Speaker 1: with my g Wagon or even with the GX.
30:31
Speaker 2: You get better gas knowledge.
30:32
Speaker 1: You know.
30:33
Speaker 2: And the trips that we're looking at doing. You know,
30:35
Speaker 2: we were supposed to.
30:36
Speaker 3: Be in Alaska now, you know, we were going to
30:39
Speaker 3: do Taktoya Talk, we were going to do Dead Horse.
30:43
Speaker 3: You know, we wanted to really spend a few months
30:46
Speaker 3: up there, and you know, I do have to say
30:49
Speaker 3: I haven't really made a choice, but you know, I'm
30:51
Speaker 3: looking at this Gladiator and I'm like, in what way
30:56
Speaker 3: is you know, does the Gladiator become that global vehicle
31:00
Speaker 3: for me or that's what makes it no seas to
31:04
Speaker 3: travel in and but we don't even know what that
31:06
Speaker 3: trip is yet. Does it actually make sense to just
31:08
Speaker 3: have one vehicle? And I think that's where the Prospector
31:12
Speaker 3: is so cool because a six and a half footbed
31:15
Speaker 3: crew cab, which is the most common configuration of all
31:20
Speaker 3: full slize trucks. I parked one next to my Gladiator
31:24
Speaker 3: at the at the dealer the other day and I'd
31:27
Speaker 3: lined up the rear axle and granted I kind of
31:30
Speaker 3: knew this going into it, but I lined up the
31:32
Speaker 3: center of the rear axle and it was, you know,
31:36
Speaker 3: dead on in the back as far as you know
31:38
Speaker 3: where the bumper was. Obviously, my departure angles better because
31:41
Speaker 3: I'm on thirty seven and lifted and stuff. But then
31:46
Speaker 3: I looked at the front end and it's maybe eight
31:48
Speaker 3: or ten inches shorter the Gladiator is. Now the Gladiator
31:52
Speaker 3: feels it's lighter, it drives easier. I mean, it weighs
31:55
Speaker 3: slightly narrower, slightly narrower, But once you put thirty evans
32:00
Speaker 3: on it and you space those tires out, I guess
32:02
Speaker 3: that's a wash because you're going to do the same prospector.
32:05
Speaker 3: But yeah, I have to say, like, maybe maybe I
32:07
Speaker 3: just go down to one vehicle and really just focus
32:09
Speaker 3: on travel.
32:10
Speaker 2: That sounds like a good plan. I really like it.
32:14
Speaker 3: Spend less, you know, everybody is very proud of built,
32:17
Speaker 3: not bought. Well bought not built allows me to spend
32:20
Speaker 3: more time on the trail and everybody gets. Some people
32:23
Speaker 3: enjoy building their vehicles.
32:24
Speaker 2: They do.
32:25
Speaker 3: I was just geeking out of my glad. Yeah some
32:27
Speaker 3: director set for adults. Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
32:31
Speaker 1: And then you you recently finished up a KTM nine fifty,
32:35
Speaker 1: which is I think one of the greatest adventure motorcycles
32:37
Speaker 1: of all time.
32:38
Speaker 2: I love it.
32:38
Speaker 3: I mean it was a it was a it was
32:40
Speaker 3: a machine that was built for Dakkar.
32:42
Speaker 2: I want to say Fabrizio Maoni.
32:45
Speaker 3: I'm likely butchering his name, but early two thousands, I mean,
32:49
Speaker 3: he was winning Dakar on this bike. The cool thing
32:52
Speaker 3: is that bike. Isn't that different than the production model? Yeah,
32:57
Speaker 3: same engine. You know, they obviously made their It's Dakar
33:00
Speaker 3: the world's best riders. The suspension that they want is
33:02
Speaker 3: not the suspension that Scott wants or I watch or
33:05
Speaker 3: you know, someone else wants.
33:07
Speaker 2: But I love the shape of these things.
33:09
Speaker 3: This was the motorcycle that I always looked at as
33:14
Speaker 3: a kid. Yeah, you know, And I'm like, oh, I
33:17
Speaker 3: think I was, you know, I'm young. I think I
33:20
Speaker 3: was thirteen when these things came out, sure, And I
33:24
Speaker 3: just I looked at the newer options, the eleven ninety
33:29
Speaker 3: or the twelve ninety KTM, the BMW stuff, and they
33:33
Speaker 3: had less suspension travel you know, they had more horsepower,
33:38
Speaker 3: not much more, but not much more.
33:41
Speaker 2: You can't use it all anyways on a bike, I.
33:43
Speaker 3: Mean not on the the off road modes on these
33:46
Speaker 3: new ktms are actually limiting them to less horsepower than
33:50
Speaker 3: than the nine point fifty has.
33:52
Speaker 2: I like that.
33:52
Speaker 3: It's really simple. I know how to rebuild carbs now
33:55
Speaker 3: because I've rebuilt my carbs. I you know, did everything
33:58
Speaker 3: but split the cases on this engine down to the
34:01
Speaker 3: frame and everywhere component, every seal, anything that is that
34:06
Speaker 3: is a known issue with these. I I'm going to say,
34:10
Speaker 3: restored it, and I really love riding it. It's it's
34:15
Speaker 3: like I was replacing bolts with factory KTM bolts just
34:18
Speaker 3: because they had some wear on them. But the cool
34:21
Speaker 3: thing is this was a project that was great for me,
34:23
Speaker 3: and it cost me way less than a roof tent
34:27
Speaker 3: to completely refurbish this this motorcycle. And now I actually
34:32
Speaker 3: know what I'm doing. You could fix it in the field, Yeah, exactly.
34:35
Speaker 3: So you know, I like it, and I paid thirty
34:41
Speaker 3: eight hundred dollars for this motorcycle.
34:43
Speaker 2: I have a similar love for the for that bike. Obviously.
34:46
Speaker 1: It was my first motorcycle, was a KTM nine fifty.
34:49
Speaker 1: I bought it in two thousand and nine and it's
34:54
Speaker 1: still parked here in the in the Overland International Headquarters.
34:58
Speaker 2: It a little bit worse for where, but I rode it.
35:00
Speaker 1: I rode it across the Trans America Trail and I
35:02
Speaker 1: somehow survived. So yeah, yeah, but I think that it's
35:05
Speaker 1: a really special motorcycle. So it was cool to see you.
35:08
Speaker 3: It's just as as a form factor, I just it
35:12
Speaker 3: feels like a big.
35:13
Speaker 2: Dirt bike to me.
35:13
Speaker 3: I can actually move my weight all the way forward
35:15
Speaker 3: in the seat, all the way back in the seat,
35:18
Speaker 3: like these new adventure bikes that have stepped seats. Well
35:23
Speaker 3: then you can't move around on the bike. And then
35:26
Speaker 3: people put these tank bags. And maybe I'm not a
35:29
Speaker 3: super technical rider, but I do compete in motorcycle trials
35:32
Speaker 3: at at at a beginner level, and I do do
35:35
Speaker 3: a few and Darrow races and stuff, So I just
35:38
Speaker 3: it feels natural to me that by sure I get
35:40
Speaker 3: on the new stuff and I feel very constricted.
35:44
Speaker 1: And again they've made them SUVs now though they SUV
35:48
Speaker 1: two will SUVs where they've got you know, NAV and heated,
35:52
Speaker 1: heated seats and they really do.
35:55
Speaker 2: Which is as a touring, overlanding travel bike. Yeah that's great.
35:59
Speaker 3: I I wanted like a I wanted like a Dakhar
36:02
Speaker 3: style bike that I can go, like really rip on
36:06
Speaker 3: or drive to Yushuaia.
36:07
Speaker 2: Yeah. You know you bought the g Wagon of motorcycles. Yeah.
36:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know I had the suspensionary done by
36:13
Speaker 3: Moto Lab. They really they really know the big bike
36:16
Speaker 3: stuff and they've done all my small bike stuff, so they,
36:20
Speaker 3: you know, Rob over there knew how I you know,
36:23
Speaker 3: knew my riding style. Knew my capabilities, which aren't. I'm
36:26
Speaker 3: not professing them to be anything crazy, but you know, it's.
36:30
Speaker 2: Just it's a neat bike. It's really fun.
36:33
Speaker 3: Like when I lived outside of tell your Iden Ridgeway,
36:37
Speaker 3: you know, some of the roads out there were just
36:38
Speaker 3: rally stages and it was you know, you're just like
36:41
Speaker 3: on the front end of that bike, the back ends
36:43
Speaker 3: coming out.
36:44
Speaker 2: It's magic. I love it totally and im and I'm
36:48
Speaker 2: it's not that expensive.
36:49
Speaker 3: No, like thirty into the into the bike initially, and
36:53
Speaker 3: then I'm going to exaggerate and say that I put
36:56
Speaker 3: five into it.
36:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, so find me.
36:59
Speaker 3: That's what a new r Yeah, just a little more,
37:03
Speaker 3: but not much more, you know. So I don't know,
37:06
Speaker 3: that's a cool project.
37:07
Speaker 2: I like it. Yeah, I like it.
37:09
Speaker 1: But and then my my other vehicles, I mean, the
37:12
Speaker 1: Defender one ten doesn't need anything and there's no reason,
37:15
Speaker 1: there's no reason to anything that I did to it
37:18
Speaker 1: would ruin it. It starts every single time. It leaks
37:21
Speaker 1: a little bit of oil, but it runs every single time. Yeah. Yeah,
37:26
Speaker 1: So what's going on with your g Wagon? Have you
37:28
Speaker 1: made any changes to that recently?
37:30
Speaker 2: Well?
37:30
Speaker 1: I put some continental all terrains on there just to
37:34
Speaker 1: be able to test the tires, and I ended up
37:36
Speaker 1: liking them so much that I kept them on the
37:38
Speaker 1: vehicle because.
37:40
Speaker 2: So they're the terrain contact. Okay, yeah, I've seen this.
37:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it's like a thirty four ten fifty on
37:47
Speaker 1: stock wheels and it just drives so great, and with
37:51
Speaker 1: a g wagon because they could take such a large tire,
37:55
Speaker 1: and the fact that as triple diff locks unless you're
37:58
Speaker 1: in mud country, like, unless you're in dealing with mud
38:01
Speaker 1: on a regular basis, you don't really need a super
38:04
Speaker 1: aggressive all terrain whereas this is still a light truck construction,
38:08
Speaker 1: so heavy duty sidewalls. But it drives great. Get better, guy,
38:12
Speaker 1: get better. Gasmology, it's all noticeable. I did put a
38:16
Speaker 1: roof tint on it recently because we're doing a hardshell
38:19
Speaker 1: roof tent test for Overland Journal, so I actually had
38:22
Speaker 1: a bunch of different roof tents on there, and right
38:24
Speaker 1: now I've got the Auto Home Airtop, which I forgot
38:28
Speaker 1: how much I like those tents. I mean really real,
38:31
Speaker 1: real nice, and those are your listening that if you
38:34
Speaker 1: were to check out Overland Journal, you'll see our recent
38:37
Speaker 1: roof tent test and the timing around this podcast we
38:40
Speaker 1: can kind of share, but the air top is in
38:44
Speaker 1: my mind, one of the best options out there right now.
38:46
Speaker 2: Yeah.
38:47
Speaker 3: Interesting, Yeah, I mean, I think the thing that I
38:50
Speaker 3: like about your g Wagon is that it's old enough to.
38:52
Speaker 2: Not be the handbag. Yeah. Yeah, it's twenty years old. Yeah.
38:58
Speaker 3: Well, it looks so purposeful, and it is purposeful because
39:03
Speaker 3: yours was brought in by Europa.
39:04
Speaker 2: It is like a gray market. It's a gray market.
39:07
Speaker 1: A bunch of the badging still is in Germany. And
39:11
Speaker 1: the cool thing about it is that it uses a
39:13
Speaker 1: lot of their global platform motors, So you can go
39:18
Speaker 1: to pretty much any Mercedes mechanic anywhere in the world
39:21
Speaker 1: and they're going to know that transmission, They're going to
39:23
Speaker 1: know that engine. You know, it doesn't have it has
39:26
Speaker 1: a single computer in the whole vehicle, which is for
39:28
Speaker 1: the ECU. So it's very mechanical, which which I like,
39:33
Speaker 1: and it's the reason why the vehicle has been so
39:35
Speaker 1: reliable for me.
39:36
Speaker 3: And you had that you kind of had that refurbished,
39:39
Speaker 3: so you had the transmission and every engine, I mean,
39:42
Speaker 3: new pistons and everything.
39:44
Speaker 1: I put in a brand new factory motor, so it
39:46
Speaker 1: had a Brobs long block that I managed to put
39:49
Speaker 1: the one of the piston pistons through the side of
39:53
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened. Something let loose on one
39:56
Speaker 1: of the connecting rods and it and because I was
39:58
Speaker 1: just going down the freeway, maybe thirty five hundred RPMs
40:01
Speaker 1: in it all that loose. But so it's maybe making
40:05
Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty horse power, which is not a
40:07
Speaker 1: lot in that car. It's very heavy, so it's slow,
40:10
Speaker 1: but I don't mind that. I think for me, a
40:12
Speaker 1: governor is a good idea.
40:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean mine, on the other hand has
40:16
Speaker 3: the four leader by Turbo and I've put the Rentech
40:21
Speaker 3: chip on it. So I think it's like five hundred
40:23
Speaker 3: and twenty five horse pots insane, eight twice the horse
40:26
Speaker 3: bar eight squillion foot pounds. And I think the cool
40:30
Speaker 3: thing with the g Wagon is that you can you
40:32
Speaker 3: can feel what that car is doing more than let's
40:36
Speaker 3: say a modern car because the chassis from the seventies.
40:39
Speaker 2: It is the body.
40:40
Speaker 3: A lot of the Stampions are the same stampions they've
40:43
Speaker 3: been using since the seventies. That's right when it was
40:45
Speaker 3: the four to six zero and then the four six one,
40:48
Speaker 3: and now we're on the four six three. I you know,
40:52
Speaker 3: I'm sure there's a g wagon out there that will
40:53
Speaker 3: correct me in this. But for the most part, all
40:55
Speaker 3: of those components are very to a degree, very interchangeable.
41:00
Speaker 2: But I can, like, I can feel it.
41:03
Speaker 3: Feels like a dragster when I take off, Like it's
41:05
Speaker 3: like thinking building boost, getting eight billion pounds of mass
41:10
Speaker 3: rolling and then it takes off, and I swear it's
41:13
Speaker 3: like a dragster. Those tires are like, those tires are
41:16
Speaker 3: like twisting.
41:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, the sidewalls, you can see them buckling. Yeah, yeah,
41:20
Speaker 2: it's actually mine doesn't do any of that stuff. Yeah.
41:24
Speaker 3: I actually remember in my land Rover one oh nine
41:27
Speaker 3: beating you, oh drag race, like ten years ago.
41:30
Speaker 2: That's right. And I think that's the cool thing is
41:32
Speaker 2: you had that car for so.
41:33
Speaker 1: Long, like, yeah, I've had it since two thousand and seven,
41:38
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight something.
41:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, really really cool machine. And I've completely redone it.
41:43
Speaker 3: That's the nice thing about a vehicle like that is
41:46
Speaker 3: it's it's a it's a modern classic. So you know,
41:49
Speaker 3: I had it fully repainted. I had all of the
41:52
Speaker 3: drive train redone, found all the little pieces of wood
41:56
Speaker 3: trim that I could replace. Yeah, and yeah, it's got
41:59
Speaker 3: a front runner drawers system.
42:02
Speaker 2: It's got some really nice fox shocks.
42:05
Speaker 1: It has a come up winch on the front on
42:07
Speaker 1: a G Wagon accessories mount. I went with a factory
42:11
Speaker 1: tope in front bumper.
42:13
Speaker 2: That's it.
42:13
Speaker 1: It literally has very few modifications because it just doesn't
42:17
Speaker 1: need it. I think, I think overdoing those vehicles completely
42:20
Speaker 1: ruins them.
42:21
Speaker 2: I think so too. I went to thirty three's on mine.
42:25
Speaker 3: The newer G wagons have a little bit more advanced,
42:28
Speaker 3: you know, abs traction control stability, so I didn't really
42:31
Speaker 3: want to mess with that. With this thirty three inch
42:35
Speaker 3: tire size, I was able to get a there was
42:37
Speaker 3: kind of a size pre loaded into the computer that
42:39
Speaker 3: was very similar, but much much higher than that. You
42:43
Speaker 3: really start looking at portals and kind of stuff on
42:45
Speaker 3: the new ones. But I can't do a bumper, Well,
42:48
Speaker 3: I guess yeah, I have the two intercoolers up front.
42:52
Speaker 3: I don't have the G sixty three ones that stick
42:55
Speaker 3: way down. It actually is the same bumper that like
42:58
Speaker 3: the G three point fifty D or the Diesel Professional
43:01
Speaker 3: gets because those do have intercoolers. But yeah, it's it's
43:07
Speaker 3: g wagons are so fascinating, like it's the older car,
43:09
Speaker 3: like you start to get into them. And it took
43:12
Speaker 3: me six months to really really totally figure out the
43:18
Speaker 3: level of craftsmanship with that car. You know, the body
43:21
Speaker 3: is I want to say, it's two coatings before it's
43:24
Speaker 3: painted for rust resistance. It's galvanized or ecoded or something.
43:27
Speaker 3: But the thing that blew my mind was seeing all
43:31
Speaker 3: of the all of the hardware is like galvanized or ecoated.
43:36
Speaker 3: But then they'll use like a copper based anti seas,
43:39
Speaker 3: Like almost every bolt on that thing has anti seas.
43:41
Speaker 2: Like, how German is that?
43:42
Speaker 3: But that means some dude, it was hand built in
43:45
Speaker 3: Austria by Magna Staire. Is actually like putting that on
43:49
Speaker 3: there and then getting that bolt in and then that's
43:50
Speaker 3: why they cost as much as Yeah, the body underneath
43:54
Speaker 3: is all hands sealed so you don't get noise, you
43:57
Speaker 3: don't get fumes that come up, you know. The it's
44:01
Speaker 3: it's just a fascinating car. They're really they're really unusual.
44:05
Speaker 1: And the fact that they've been that they have been
44:07
Speaker 1: used so much around the world by militaries and NGOs
44:10
Speaker 1: and everything else, and the fact that so many countries
44:13
Speaker 1: have Mercedes dealerships other than Toyota. Mercedes is the most prolific, Yeah,
44:18
Speaker 1: for dealerships. So if I wanted to always have this
44:22
Speaker 1: car ready to go, so tomorrow, if I needed to
44:25
Speaker 1: leave and start start driving to Chile, I know I
44:28
Speaker 1: could get the vehicle serviced along the way.
44:31
Speaker 2: You know it took me.
44:32
Speaker 3: I guess I've owned my g Wagon since September. I
44:35
Speaker 3: really just appreciate. I appreciate how it's made. Like I
44:39
Speaker 3: like things that will last a very long time, Like
44:43
Speaker 3: the g Wagon is very well made. It's it's exceptional.
44:47
Speaker 3: Like the moment you close the door on that thing,
44:50
Speaker 3: you know that it's that it's different. It's it's of
44:53
Speaker 3: a different caliber, and it's so cool that no matter
44:56
Speaker 3: if you know, vehicle one that's coming off the assembling
44:59
Speaker 3: line is going into Kim Kardashian, same assembly line two.
45:03
Speaker 2: You know, Vehicle two might be going to the.
45:04
Speaker 3: Canadian or Australian military, or three might be a six
45:08
Speaker 3: wheel drive brobus that's going to some in July.
45:12
Speaker 2: Yeah.
45:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, but the point being the chassis and a
45:15
Speaker 3: lot of the drive line and everything, like, you know,
45:18
Speaker 3: compared to let's say a range Rover. I think the
45:21
Speaker 3: range Rover and in almost every measurable way, is a
45:24
Speaker 3: better vehicle. It's quieter, it's more comfortable, arguably a quicker
45:30
Speaker 3: vehicle to drive. But they have a little bit more
45:33
Speaker 3: of a temporary feel to them, where the g Wagon
45:35
Speaker 3: just feels like it's like buying It's like buying a
45:39
Speaker 3: really really nice pair of hiking boots. Yeah, they're like
45:43
Speaker 3: Zamberland hiking boots, where you're going to buy them and
45:45
Speaker 3: have them for a really, really long time.
45:48
Speaker 2: I've had my Zambulance about as long as I've had
45:50
Speaker 2: my GaX exactly.
45:51
Speaker 3: So they're They're fascinating vehicles and I wish that people
45:55
Speaker 3: would see them for more than just Again, I'll call
46:00
Speaker 3: out my codpiece right because there are so many people
46:02
Speaker 3: that just buy them and I will frankly say suffer
46:05
Speaker 3: through them because what they say about you.
46:07
Speaker 2: You know, they're not really that comfortable.
46:10
Speaker 1: No, but it is like compared to a defender, it
46:13
Speaker 1: is more what either just a better defender.
46:16
Speaker 2: What I think I liked.
46:17
Speaker 1: About it was and of course when I got mine
46:20
Speaker 1: was before they were a celebrity choice, But for me,
46:24
Speaker 1: it was the as close to Toyota reliability as I
46:28
Speaker 1: could could get, but then it had the kind of
46:31
Speaker 1: the uniqueness, the funk factor of a Defender. So it
46:34
Speaker 1: was kind of that combination of Toyota and land Rover
46:38
Speaker 1: at Mercedes level of build quality. And for me, if
46:43
Speaker 1: I look back on that vehicle, I've never replaced it
46:47
Speaker 1: with another car, So I've for twelve years I've driven
46:50
Speaker 1: the same vehicle.
46:51
Speaker 2: Think about how much money I've saved. Yeah, I have saved.
46:54
Speaker 1: So much money by just buying the right vehicle for
46:58
Speaker 1: me the first time around round and so that that
47:02
Speaker 1: has made me very grateful for that car, because I've
47:04
Speaker 1: saved a lot of money. It's I've had wonderful experiences
47:07
Speaker 1: with it, driven it all the way down the length
47:09
Speaker 1: of Baja, and it's been all the way out to
47:11
Speaker 1: Saint John's and everything else. So it's a it's a
47:15
Speaker 1: vehicle that I've take taken great pleasure in drawing, in
47:18
Speaker 1: owning and driving every single day. And I've not I've
47:21
Speaker 1: not lost a lot of money. Yeah, I mean, that's
47:23
Speaker 1: the thing worth as much as I paid for it.
47:25
Speaker 3: So where I talk about getting a prospector, I'm not
47:28
Speaker 3: going to lose a cent on this g Wagon, I
47:30
Speaker 3: mean new they're like one hundred and twenty to one
47:34
Speaker 3: hundred and forty or more or more. I think that
47:39
Speaker 3: now the new one, the new new can get up
47:41
Speaker 3: over past two hundred with the G sixty three easily.
47:44
Speaker 3: But you know mine, I paid substantially less for that,
47:49
Speaker 3: uh less than that, And I don't know, like driving
47:52
Speaker 3: the car for a year will maybe cost me eight
47:54
Speaker 3: a thousand or something llion dollars and you know that's
47:57
Speaker 3: a that's a sizable amount of money. I mean that
48:00
Speaker 3: could support me on the road for you know, a
48:02
Speaker 3: month or two. But it was an interesting experience. Yeah,
48:06
Speaker 3: they're a different kind of vehicle, and they're not for everybody. Yeah,
48:09
Speaker 3: I mean basically again you hear me use this roof
48:11
Speaker 3: tent analogy a lot, Like, you know, owning a G
48:14
Speaker 3: Wagon for a year will cost me about a roof tent. Yeah,
48:17
Speaker 3: so now you're going to get a prospector yeah, maybe,
48:20
Speaker 3: I mean maybe possibly probably for the listeners that don't know,
48:23
Speaker 3: I have a very horrible case of vehicle add I
48:28
Speaker 3: guess I guess this is.
48:29
Speaker 2: Part of my job, Like, yeah, I drive all of.
48:32
Speaker 3: The latest stuff, and I see these new technologies and
48:35
Speaker 3: I'm really fascinating in it, and I've kind of, I guess,
48:38
Speaker 3: found a way to buy and sell at the right time.
48:41
Speaker 3: And maybe this is even something for another podcast as
48:43
Speaker 3: to like, Okay, well, why does Matt have three vehicles? Well,
48:46
Speaker 3: because for fifteen years I've been buying and selling cars
48:51
Speaker 3: in a in the right.
48:52
Speaker 2: Time, in a right way. And if you could time
48:54
Speaker 2: the stock market the same way.
48:56
Speaker 3: If I could time the stock market the right way,
48:57
Speaker 3: some people have talents with the stock markets.
49:00
Speaker 2: I just have a bunch of vehicle trucks.
49:03
Speaker 1: And I think for those that are listening, one of
49:06
Speaker 1: the things that Matt and I have both learned is
49:08
Speaker 1: that if you buy the right kind of vehicle, the desirable,
49:12
Speaker 1: desirable vehicle that has a good legacy and heritage behind
49:17
Speaker 1: it where it will be popular and desirable for a
49:19
Speaker 1: long time, you can really lower your overall cost of ownership.
49:23
Speaker 1: So it may seem like like, oh, buying a g
49:26
Speaker 1: wagon seems so expensive, but if you own it for
49:29
Speaker 1: twelve years and you've not bought any other vehicles, then
49:32
Speaker 1: it's super cheap.
49:33
Speaker 2: Actually. Yeah, at the end of the day, you know,
49:35
Speaker 2: and everybody can do this.
49:38
Speaker 3: You know, this can this is as applicable to somebody
49:41
Speaker 3: buying a two to three thousand dollars car that they
49:43
Speaker 3: can put a little bit of work into, Like I
49:45
Speaker 3: never buy the cleanest car, I never buy the most expensive.
49:49
Speaker 3: Like it's just a different way of looking at things.
49:51
Speaker 1: I think it is, and I think that these projects
49:55
Speaker 1: are great for Matt and I because they keep us
49:57
Speaker 1: exposed to all of the new products on the market.
49:59
Speaker 1: It allow us to share with our listeners our experiences,
50:03
Speaker 1: our positives and negatives that we've experienced with all of
50:06
Speaker 1: these various products. And that's why it's good to do
50:09
Speaker 1: these little updates every once in a while.
50:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so maybe this is something you know that
50:12
Speaker 3: we'll do a little bit more regularly. We want to
50:14
Speaker 3: make sure that we keep this podcast focused on overland
50:17
Speaker 3: travel because that is what it is about. But we're
50:20
Speaker 3: all we're all car people. The cars are also super fun. Yeah.
50:23
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Thank you all for listening and we will talk
50:26
Speaker 1: to you next time.
50:27
Speaker 2: Take care,