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What is the best Overland Expedition Camper? · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: am your host, Scott Brady, and I'm here with my
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: illustrious co host Matt Scott.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Hello, I'm here.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: And you have had birthdays, and you have had travels,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and you have had rear engine car adventures.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, tell me.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: About this little drive you did on some great roads
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: in California.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: I also got engaged, which was cool. That is really cool.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: So congratulations. That was really fun. You know, engaged, Laura,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: We've been together for a period of time that required engagement.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Too busy, you are, you are too lucky, too busy?
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Said yes, too busy traveling? Yeah, well yes we were.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: I had no excuse during COVID. That's awesome. Yeah. I
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: did a trip with another kind of fellow automotive journalist,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Brian Door. You just bought a nine to eleven Turbo
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: nine nine to six. We've been saving up for that
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: for a while and a friend yusuf a GTR. And
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: when you did all the driving roads did PECLA, which
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: is the Porsche Experience Center LA, which was awesome. Like
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: they have this polished epoxied concrete skid pad that has
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: this hydraulic kickplate and you drive down this you know,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: this thing between fifteen and thirty mile an hour, you
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: don't know which way it's going to kick the car,
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: and the faster you go, the faster it simulates like
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: total loss of control. Sure, so it's kind of that
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: was really fun. And then yeah it was. It was
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: a really good trip. Hung out with basm Wassa, who's
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: another auto journal he took us on, and Jesus Chris.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: He's a great guy. He's that dude can drive I
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: mean nine to eleven Carrera s like fast car. And
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: he was in a I don't know, like an Acura,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Like I don't I don't know anything about Accuras, sorry
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: to Accura enthusiasts, but he was in an Accura. Yeah
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: four door. Yeah, smoked me, smoked all of us. Like
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: it helps that he's probably driven that road seven hundred times. Yeah,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: that helps to know the curves for sure. Yeah.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but no, that was great well and another kind
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: of adventure. I mean, we we can oftentimes get so
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: focused on the fact that we need to be on
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: these remote dirt roads, but some of the most enjoyable
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: moments that I've had in my travels have been on
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: paved roads.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: With incredible views. And Glendora Mountain Road is the best
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: road that I've driven, and it's like minutes from hell, right,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: but there's no one there. It's like obscure to me
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: because in Arizona, I've come to the realization we just
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: don't have that many roads. Not like that, Yeah, not
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: like that, you know, so, like there's a lot more
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: people there, but there's also disproportionately more roads for those people.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Where like in Prescott we have Highway eighty nine, which
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: is fun to drive, but also is there for an
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: actual purpose. Yeah, exactly. Glendora Mountain Road is like goes nowhere.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know where. It literally goes nowhere.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Like you don't really have a reason to be there,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: not if you want to get there in a hurry.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: So yeah, but that's awesome that those roads exist. This
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: episode is supported in part by red Ox Manufacturing. Since
• 2:45
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• 2:49
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• 2:52
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• 2:56
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• 3:00
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• 3:14
  Speaker 1: as tanks.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was really it was really cool. You know,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: it's it's been interesting not being able to travel in
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: the same capacity. I mean, you know, for me, overlanding
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: is more about international travel than it is domestic stuff.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't that's just my personal thing. I
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: like the culture and stuff. So I've kind of taken
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: this time, you know, all that money that isn't going
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: into experiences and stuff. I've just been kind of playing
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: around with cars and working like eighty hours a week.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: So it was to it was nice to actually kind
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: of like shut off and get away from.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: That, oh totally, and with just great people and yeah,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: and there's good restaurants and yeah, it's another form of travel.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Adventure is certainly and if you think about some of
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: those rallies that go from London to Singapore and a
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: lot of times they're driving these vintage sports cars.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, peaking to pairs, yeah'd be so cool. Yeah,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: it's just it's opened to this new concept to me
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: of taking the spirit of overlanding and the idea of
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: lesser explored roads. You know, dirt roads turn into lesser
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: explored roads, technical trails turn into technical paved roads that
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: are that are well known, applying the same kind of curiosity.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: I guess that you would in a four wheel drive.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: So yeah, and the vehicle continues to be this magic
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: carpet that transports us to wherever we're going in Those
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: magic carpets that you've been driving are just much faster.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: They're just they're just a lot, maybe not as fast
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: as the TRX, but that one's a little bit of
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: a freaking nature. So how fun though, right, that's awesome? Yeah, yeah,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: it was fun.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: But yeah, So guys, we're going to talk about expedition
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: vehicles today, specifically, like the integrated stuff. So we're not
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: talking about home builts. We're not talking about add on
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: campers and that kind of stuff. That'll be a different podcast.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: We're talking about earth cruisers, we're talking about earth roamers,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: We're talking about action mobiles. We're talking about all the
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: big st that makes your mouth water, that you want
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: so much.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that you want you can live out of
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: and and you buy it as a complete camper. And
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: there always been some options, but now there's more options
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: than ever. Yeah, and it feels like that almost on
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: a weekly basis, some new model has come, you know, available,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Like I think it would be good to talk about
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: some of the ones that have recently been announced. But
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Total Composite integrated campers now, they're starting to do more
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: and more volume, and they have a great reputation for
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: quality and value. So if you're looking for a camper
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: that's high quality and great people there, yeah, great people,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: good value as well, and a lot of customization options
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: with them. So Total composit's not new to the scene,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: but very much making integrated campers now. And then there's
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: this new one that was released just in the last
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: six months called truck House Camper.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: It is like, looks so awesome. It does look at
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: but it's on a Tacoma and I just like, let's
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: just exaggerate the Tacoma's capable load capability and say that
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: it's fifteen hundred pounds, right, it's still like the wrong truck. Yeah,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: most of those vehicles are one thousand to twelve hundred
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: pound capability looks really cool. How do you say, what
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: were those what were those old Toyota campers called that
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: were four wheel drive? Oh yeah, those were awesome.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there was the Dolphin Dolphin and then like's there's
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: a couple of them super awesome.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: You know, the modern day equivalent of that.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: But back then those were still high lucks and there
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: were you could buy a one ton, Yeah, four wheel drive.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: It had a duly rear axle. I don't know. I
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: would love to see one of these truck house things,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: because again, they look cool, But I'm just like, guys, why,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: I know that they've done bigger breaks and they've done
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: like diamond axles or something, but it doesn't mean I've
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: been on the trail with a Tacoma with an XP
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: camper with the driver that knew what they were doing.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: We were just getting on in a little bit in
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: like Monument Valley or something and it bent its frame. Yeah,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: so I don't know what the if you have to
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: modify a forty thousand dollar Tacoma with aftermarket axles. I
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: think they did long travel on the front breaks all
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: this stuff. It's like you could have just bought a
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: twenty five hundred Yeah, and it would have just done
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: everything better with more payload at the end of the
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: day and challenge.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: And I remember when I worked with earth Romer on
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: the xvgap. This was a long time ago. This was
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: two thousand and five. When I was working on that
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: project with them, the most difficult thing to overcome was
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: the recertification of the car to a higher gross vehicle
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: weight rating. So you can do these things like ad
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: brakes and add axles and all of that. Someone who
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: can afford a truckhouse camper is someone of means.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: And if you get in an accident with that vehicle
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: and it's not recertified for the higher gross vehicle or
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: weight rating, you hit a bus full of children, a.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Lawyer is going to have We don't know the exact implications,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: but we know that that would maybe leave the door open.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: It does.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: It leaves the door open, most importantly to the insurance
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: company saying you are driving a vehicle that's overweight.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: There are many in turn companies that have clauses specific
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: to modifications and most often related to gross vehicle weight ratings.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: So if you overload your car in this case intentionally
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: and you get into a really bad accident where you
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: would want your insurance company to protect you, there's a
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: good chance that you're not going to get protected. So
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: truckhouse Camper is going to have to find a way
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: to recertify.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: This or do it. I'm like, if budget is a thing,
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: do it on an F one fifty. You can get
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: enough one fifty with a three thousand pound capacity. Totally. Yeah,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: it's it's just interesting to me that they chose to
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: go that rootm I know that there's a lot of
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Tacoma people.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it looks great. I mean it literally looks
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: like a mini rad earth Roamer. Yeah, but it's such
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: a challenge when in that vehicle, a four door long bed,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: it has about an eleven hundred pound payload.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: It doesn't get out of its way. Yeah. I think
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: they supercharged it too, which is another shortcoming of that platformly,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: so now you're going to avoid your factory warranty, although
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: I know some of those superchargers will offer a warranty
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: with them. Sure, it just doesn't add up to me. Yeah,
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: it doesn't with full acknowledgement. The fact that it looks amazing,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: that the Craftsman ship looks great on it I'm stoked
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: that that somebody's doing that. But it would seem to
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: me that long travel on an expedition camper is a
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: bunch of unnecessary complexity. Yeah, unnecessary complexity. A new rear
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: axle is unnecessary cost. A supercharger is you know, great,
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: you've made more horsepower, but now you still have this
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: terrible transmission. Yeah, and then you have to regear it
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: because it's a tacoma and they can't get out of
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: their own way. And I mean, now you're talking, we
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: know what all that stuff costs, and we know that
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: we just we we could have just bought a you know,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: lariat all now, thirty five hundred RAM or something that
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: doesn't need power, doesn't need anything. It has a five
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: pound payload. You can stick thirty five hundreds.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you could stick the tacoma in the bed of the.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Of the RAM and still and still have some My
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: beef is you know, I'm lucky enough to have the
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: twenty five hundred for work and the Gladiator, which is
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: our show vehicle for mat tracks and adventure imports. But
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: that the RAM is six inches longer in length than
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: my Gladiator. Yeah, and that has a five foot bed,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: so when you take a six foot bed to Coma. Yeah,
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: I'm just curious. I bet you it's pretty close. I
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: don't know, it's just I would love to hear the
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: argument why Tacoma.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I suspect it's because of this legendary reliability.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: But when you modify something so heavily, you're going to
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: affect that liability.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: With Toyotas, like if they're going to Baja, they're driving
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: around the world or whatever, I'm like, the things that
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: are going to break are the non Toyota parts that
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: you've installed. That's right, all day long, like they're just
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: they're solid vehicles. But just to acknowledge over every other
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: American pickup truck they are like they're all good. They're
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: all really good. Now you know, they've all kind of
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: figured it out. So yeah, So that's one.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: This this truck house camper, and then there's this new
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Bond Camper Works that has a very earth roamer looking
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: camper conversion on the back.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: We don't know much about that. It's just been least
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: and able to get some more information rear doors on theirs.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: And I'm just pulling their their website up. The last
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: time I saw one of their campers. It was like
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: the rear doors opened up. Oh I thought that was
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: so cool because you could put a dirt biker. Oh yeah,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: I never in there. Make it a little mini toy hauler.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: And the quality in the crafts with ship looks looks
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: pretty interesting on these things. You know, they're saying that
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: they've had builds that were one hundred and they've had
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: builds and you know, up to half a million dollars
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: or something. So I think it's really like a custom
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: a custom option, you know, And I think that those
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: things are pretty interesting. But then you're still still building. Well,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: if you're somebody that wants specifically what they want, yeah,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: that can be it. That could definitely be an option
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: for sure.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: So most of what we're going to talk about today
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: is based on an article that we did in the
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Spring twenty twenty issue of Overland Journal where we compared
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: all of the currently available expedition campers at the time,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: or at least ones of significant volume, and we're going
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: to talk about most of those. We're not going to
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: talk about a couple of them, but and then we're
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: gonna supplant a little bit of the Earth Cruiser exp
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: with their new Terra Nova, and we'll talk about why
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: that's important. But I think it'd be great to talk
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: about the earth Roamer first, because they deserve to be
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: talked about first, only because they were pretty much then.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: We're all super familiar with one. I mean, you spent
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: a lot of time with those. I have an older one. Yeah,
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: they're like little yachts. I don't we call it land yachting.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: I don't know how to explain this thing. I mean,
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: I love mine. It does everything that I want I'm
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: not looking for. It has quite a bit of off
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: road capability, but honestly, on all of these trucks, the
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: size and the weight precludes them from a lot of
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: technical trails. Yeah, could you make it? Yeah? Should you?
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: When you realize that you have your house on the back? Yeah?
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: And everything that's rattling. I don't know. I think like
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Earth Roamer, earth Cruisers kind of like the Ford and
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: Chevy right now.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Ye, first vehicle world definitely doing all the volume, you know,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: the earth Roamer.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: I haven't seen anything in the US that is as
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: turnkey as the earth Romer. Mine's a twenty eleven. There's
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: ten years of small innovations that have happened since then,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: and even mine's just like ready to go. Yeah, aside
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: from that small little hiccup that I had with the
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: motor blowing up immediately after I bought it, but again
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: that's a Ford thing, totally unrelated to the camper. Yet.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I think that Bill Swales was in a unique position
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: where he saw overlanding is becoming a thing. He had
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: done well with some investments, and he had built a
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: camper for himself. I think it was a camper builder
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: out of out of Canada, if I remember, and he
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: had built it on a dodge and he ha's just
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and he started traveling in it. He was living out
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: of this thing and making notes on all the things
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: that he would do different. And then when he started
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: earth Roamer. Here you have a businessman with a lot
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: of engine He was an engineer as well or as
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: an engineer, and he had all of this experience and
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: he pulled it together in like, let's invest in making
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: a great company that builds campers that a lot of
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: people are going to want to buy. He's just somehow
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: found that perfect balance of desirability.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: I think it's two years right now. If you want
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: to hand them upwards of seven hundred grand. It's yeah,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: it's two years and maybe a little bit shorter now,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: but yeah, it could be.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: But they've been through a lot, and you know, they
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: had some real challenges during the economic downturn with the
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: housing crisis and everything else like that. But Bill has
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: just done a really good job of making a sustainable
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: company that's now been around for almost twenty years. And
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I just I congratulate Bill on that. I've known Bill
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: for a very long time and I don't have any
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: financial ties to earth Roamer in any way, but I
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: do just really appreciate what he's done, and I think
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: that that's the reason why his campers continue to be
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: so successful.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: And they're a well thought out design. Yeah, they're a
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: good package. And more importantly, like everything else that I
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: look at, I just when you've spent time in the
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: earth Roamer, you look at everything else and it's second best.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: I know that there are things that other companies specialize in.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Maybe they're a little bit more off road capable, maybe
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: they're better for international travel, but for domestic US travel,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: I have a FOD dealer on every corner I may
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: need it. Just the layout is so efficient, Like when
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: I take people into mind. There's a few things I
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: always show them. The first thing I do is I
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: go to the control panel and I show them the
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: quality of the wiring. Yah. I couldn't achieve this level
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: of perfection in a million years. Everything is perfect, everything
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: is loomed right, everything is just great. You pull that
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: control panel down, which is like the nerve center of
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: the vehicle. You know, for as far as use of space,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: you start to realize, like, oh, you have this big
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: cabinet that's like has the ceater lined a hanging drawer.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: The cabinet folds out, the drawer, the door, the door,
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: it's the door. The door comes out, and the door
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: of the bathroom comes out, and you actually double the
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: space of your bathroom, and all of your towels and
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: all of your toilet trees and everything are in that closet.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: All of a sudden doesn't feel cramped. And then they
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: have like heated air being pumped into the bathroom with
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: its own dedicated fans. So while it is a wet bath,
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: the difference between a wet bath and a dry bath
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: is one is a combination shower and one is a
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: separate shower. And sure in toilet but it dries within
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: like ten or fifteen minutes, So it's just great use
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: of space. You have like this whole cabinet and this
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: thing of actual clothing drawers.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: There's something to be said for decades of being in business,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: you learn a lot, and when you have a vehicle
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: where it's they haven't had to compromise a lot because
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: people have been willing to pay for it. They've just
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: really continued to evolve and make it a really high
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: quality unit. And I remember when I drove down to
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: the dairy and gap, I was driving an earth Roamer
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: jeep that I had purchased. Of course, that was a
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: very different kind of vehicle, and that vehicle was not
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: as successful as their big LT In fact, I think
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: they only made about thirteen of those. It was perfect
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: for my needs, but I was a very small customer
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: set like that wanted a really small vehicle, a highly
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: capable camper. We had with us an earth thrown relt
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: so we had and that vehicle went essentially everywhere that
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: we went. We did bring along a long section of
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: PVC pipe so that way, and we notched the end
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: of it. We put a little notch at the end
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: of the pipe, so that way we could push up
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: the wires and the phone lines and all that other stuff.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: We were constantly in Central America running into weird wiring
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: or low wires or low cables and things like that,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: so we were constantly having to lift that up or
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: even branches and things like that. But we we drove
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: it back into Mayan ruins, we drove it into the mud,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: We drove it across water crossings in Nicaragua. And I
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: think that when you look at an earth row, where
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: you don't say, oh, this looks really capable. I'm going
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: to take it four wheeling, I don't think that that's
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: the use case. I think the idea is I'm going
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: to take it traveling, and every once in a while
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: I'm going to run into a problems pass it exactly,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: so you're going to have this reserve capacity. You're not
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: going to like spin the barrel, you know, every day
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: with a three hundred thousand, seven hundred thousand dollars vehicle.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: You're going to like every once in a while, you
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: got to pull the trigger on this capability, and it's
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: probably going to work for you. I remember driving them
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: over a Mosquito pass, which isn't super technical, but to
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: take an RV to the top of it, that's fairly notable.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: I mean they basically weigh twenty thousand pounds. Yeah they do.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: And they're nine feet wide almost. So yeah, they're wide,
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: They're not as wide as they feel maybe or a look,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: I actually think that it's slightly narrower than a Duly.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: Oh it could be. That's a non scientific thing that
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: I've done. But I look very I notice that, you know,
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: the Duly sticks out about foot on each side and
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: the earth Roamer from the body the sure and this
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: maybe sticks out about six inches on each side from
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: that from the cab of the truck. But and that
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: would make sense because they use a Duly class single
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: single conversion with basically the vehicle Hutchinson wheels.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they are very capable, but it is it's important
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: to not look at it like I want to go
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: to the most remote places. I want to drive a
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: lot of unknown roads. I don't think that that's the
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: best vehicle for that.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: It's that you're no. I mean we look at it
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: as a I call it a forest service road cruiser. Yeah,
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: it has a lot of reserve capacity with like forty
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: one's are great when you put them in the concept
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: of a full sized truck or a jeep. That's a
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: lot of tire on something that's that heavy. It's not
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: a lot of tire. In fact, I would argue that
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: while those tires are great, they're equally bad. I think
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: that's the only thing you really hear about with earth
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: rummers is that tires only rated speed rated by Continental
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: to sixty seven mile an hour. That's right, So you
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: do hear on that. You know, there's a website earth
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: rummerforum dot com. It's not super popular, but there's not
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: that many of them. Yeah, you do hear a blowout
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: and stuff, and there are always guys doing eighty eighty
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: five in Texas.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: They are not designed for that melt. Those tires, they're
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: not I've changed one of those tires in Baja.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry. Yeah, that well, but it was in prey.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: That is. That is our strategy to the earth rummer tire.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: Hope and pray that you don't have to. We were
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: we were down in like Agua Verde. We are super remote.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: There's this climb out of this beautiful, like tranquil little
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: cove and it's narrow and the tire just kissed like
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: one of the rocks sticking out from exactly exactly and
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: it and it punctured the side. The driver didn't know
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: it right away and we fortunately we got into a
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: little bit of a flat area. But it took Cambrensinger
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: from Nemo, who can do like a thousand pull ups,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: and me, who can do well, not a thousand pull ups,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: but we're both pretty big guys, and it took like
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: we were sweating and like it was tough to get
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: that sucker swapped out on the side of the road.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Just getting it down was not such a big deal,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: but getting the tire back up into that spot was tough.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: That was difficult, even with the winch and everything else.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: These are heavy, heavy, I mean a couple hundred pounds.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Let's hope I don't have that problem tomorrow. Nah, you'll
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: be fine. I think it's it's literally just it can happen.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: But knowing that when it does, do you have a
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: plan to get that tire swapped out?
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Right? You gotta let Laura do it. Now. You know
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: she has a lot more fit than you are, so yeah,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: maybe she is the one. The thing with ours is
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: I actually think ours was the first LTS, so the
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: first stretch one. Oh nice, and it was prior to
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: them doing the swing away cases. So we either have
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: to remove our rear box, which is made of aluminum
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: and is doable, or my plan is to get the
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: tire off, stand in the box, get the tire off,
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: and just like throw it, just let it bounce. It
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: is going to bounce, It's going to go where it goes.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: If I'm on a cliff going into Agerverdi, that may
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: not be the idea. Look it to the winch or something. Yeah, yeah,
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: you know, the newer ones have electric winches in this system.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: I do have like a system, but I it's a
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: hand crank and I have to remove the case to
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: use it. So I don't know. That's as far as
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: I've gotten, but it's a challenge. It's actually the tires
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: on these things. Having I guess owned one for about
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: six months and doing a lot of research on the
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: expedition vehicle stuff. That's I think some of the advantages
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: about the other platforms is that they don't run They're
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: not dependent upon a tire. I can run exactly one
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: tire with my setup, and that is it. Now that
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: tire's pretty for a commercial tires easy to get its continental.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: They run them all over the world on armored vehicles
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: and wraps sure everything. Yeah, that's that's I think that's
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: one of the reasons why. You know, there's the tires,
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: there's the size, there's the weight, and the investment and
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: the investment. Like I'm not saying that I wouldn't drive
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: it around the world, but if I was buying a
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: vehicle specifically to drive around the world, I wouldn't buy
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: an Earth Roamer. Yeah it could, it could be done,
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: but it's not the best tool for that. I would not.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: I would not want to drive that vehicle in Asia.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't want to drive it in most cities. Kind
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: of first world cities are fine because they get deliveries,
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: they get an UPS. The thing for that you can
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: kind of learn is like can a UPS truck deliver there, Well,
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: then your Earth Roamer can get there. There's there's a way,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: there's a truck route or something. But as you're saying,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: you had that little PBC stick, Yeah it was tough,
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: whereas the Earth Cruiser you just park in a parking
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: a parking spot. Yeah, I think, yeah, we should.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Start talking about the Earth Cruiser because I think that
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: is the international option. Although even that, you know, things
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: are changing. So they had dialed in this camper to
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: be perfect to go around the world based upon the
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Azuzu Mitsubishi platforms. And this one's inn a Mitchubishi FG
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: that I drove in Australia, oral drive, factory diesel, no
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: particulate filter, no exhaust trap, nothing. Yeah, it was just
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: a bone stock diesel, the same one that you would
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: find in Africa. So these cab over Mitsubishi fgs, you know,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: they were the solution to drive around the world because
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: they were used around the world. It was actually used them,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: that's right, exactly so, and it was since it was
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: cab over, it was actually shorter than the Dodge you
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: twenty five hundred, So it was this very compact package
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: with a big camper on the back, the roof lowered
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: so it'd fit into container, so it'd fit in a
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: twenty foot container. And if you know this, when I
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: had the chance to use it in Australia, I this
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: thing is is a little bit of a suffer fest
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: on long highway drives, but most of where I want
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: to go in the world doesn't include you know, four
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: lane divided highway drives. If I was on a backcountry
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: road or if I was off road, it was awesome
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: and super capable, thirty seven inch tires, lockers front and rear,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: you know, good low range transfer case, fairly light when
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: you compare it to a lot of the other expedition campers.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: So I loved that earth Cruiser in Australia, and then
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: I had the chance last year to drive their new
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: exp which is earth Cruiser's answer to the fact that
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: you could no longer get the four drive or the
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: fool drive that you could get in recent years didn't
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: have low range. Very recently they were not able to
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: sell the diesel model because of the fact that it
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: didn't have.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: All of those requirements for diesel vehicles.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: So the one that I drove last year was a
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: gasoline V eight powered Dino track axles, hero transfer case,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: air lockers front and rear, very nicely tuned suspension. And
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: this thing was like driving a little Rubicon jeep, Rubicon
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: camper all over or again cool. We were in places
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: that were very challenging, like deep snow, mud and ruts
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: and rocks, and magically this thing it had no trouble.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: It was probably the only difficulty we would have run
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: into is if we didn't fit.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it was.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: It's on thirty sevens, so like most jeeps are running
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: around on thirty fives or thirty seven.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: I think they're super cool. You know. And Lance who
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: runs earth Cruiser, I mean the guy actually travels. He
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: like he like really travels, like I'm pretty sure he's
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: had his earth Cruiser in Borneo, Yeah, where you kind
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: of talk about Bill Swalees as the engineer. Lance is
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: the travelers, Yes, And I think that that's where you
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: see the earth Cruiser is first and foremost a travel vehicle.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: It's not a luxury vehicle. I mean, like I have
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: a wine wreck in my earth Roamer, Like that's cool.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: But like Earth Roamer people like that, I mean they do.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: I don't know, and there's nothing wrong with that.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think that's the key is it's so
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: easy to like virtue shame someone, which has become this
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: thing now where everybody has to be like my way
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: is the only way.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: And everybody has to be like so hardcore, right, which
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: is so silly. I catch myself in that too, Or
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: that's not overlanding and I'm like, yeah, okay, I need
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: to just let it go. I need to turn it
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: down a little bit. You know, there's different vehicles for
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: different people. Yeah.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the earth Cruisers are just so cool. And the
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: fact you can stick it in the container. I don't
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: think I could drive a delivery van, you know. I
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: like the heated and cool seats. Yeah, because why not? Yeah,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: I mean you know, they just doesn't take away from anything.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: But but for your purposes, you're like I'm going to
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: go to Baja for a week, or I'm going to
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: drive to Colorado and or I'm going to go up
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: to Alaska. And for that the earth Rummer is perfect.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: But if you do want to cross BORNEO might want
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: to take a different car.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: That cars is going to sink in the mind instantly,
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: like instantly. I mean, like you can get quite a
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: bit of contact patch out of those forty once. But
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: it's a heavy truck. It's heavy. I mean you're talking
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: the gross vehicle weight of at least my earth Rummer
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: is nineteen five hundred pounds. Sure I have never measured it.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: I probably should, but I know that they're under that.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: But that's heavy.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: That's really a lot of weight, and the Earth Cruiser
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: is right at about ten thousand pounds, so about half
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: of that weight. I think it has around a twelve
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: thousand pound grows vehicle weight rating. The Earth Cruiser is
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: much lighter, and it feels much lighter, and it is
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: the size of the delivery vans in all remote places
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: of the world. It's the same size of the delivery
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: trucks that are that are bringing the fantas.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: You know, it's the same vehicle.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: And because of that, they're really easy to take around
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: the world.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: So I guess kind of like moving on, we've talked
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: about the two Pinnacle ones, I think it would be
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: interesting to talk about some more some budget options, and
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: I'm going to throw this one in there, win a
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Bago Revel. Yeah, really similar size to the Earth Cruiser.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: You know. I have a buddy that has an Earth
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: Cruiser on order, Cullen, and I think he ordered his
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: a few months ago and he won't get it until February. Now,
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: the entire four wheel drive industry is melting down because
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: of all these port delays. I have four containers of
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: max trext just like.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Out in the oceans, loading a wave to them as
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: I as I sailed towards U two, don't make me
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: think about it anymore. You're seeing a lot of delays
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: just across the industry. King chocks are twenty twenty two.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: You can't get thirty five or thirty seven inch tires
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: right now, right that there's some weird things happening. So
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: I'm not necessarily saying that that delay is an Earth Cruiser,
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: but you know there's still these are still three to
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: four hundred thousand dollars vehicles where a revel you can
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: you know, you can get a used level for low
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: one hundreds. Not granted, I haven't looked at prices in
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: the last month or two because everything is crazy right
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: now during COVID, But I want to say there are
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: one hundred and seventy one hundred and fifty to one
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: hundred and seventy new is what you're actually get to
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: pay for them, and that's brand new vehicle that's totally
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: self contained. They've made a lot of upgrades, lithium batteries,
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: they moved the water tanks inside. You know, they're they're
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: not very large, No, they're easy to drive. Those sprinters
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: are really easy to be, easy to drive, you know,
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: they're not for some reason. I guess a lot of
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: people don't consider vans as expedition vehicles because they're vans,
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: but I don't care.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they can go around the world, and they do.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, sprinters are sold around the world. And Chris
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Cord has just bought a storyteller Storytellers the great option, yeah,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: and he uses his I'm already seeing him taking great
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: photos of it. And his instagram is four by four Touring,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: so make sure you check out.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: And Chris has worked.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: With both Matt and I and all close friends for
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: a very long time. So it's fun to see Chris
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: in the van that he's always wanted. And then there's
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: the fell Vans, which another Sprinter option, and there's.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: So many sprinter transit based based fans these days. Those
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: are great options. And you know, this is something that
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: we had kind of talked about, is the residual value
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: of these and we want to be careful. This isn't
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: financial advice. The market can change, the world can change.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: These are luxury toys and in an essence, right I
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: will likely not lose money on my Earth Romer because
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: there's such a demand for them. The earth cruisers are
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: essentially the same way. You know, it takes such a
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: long time time to get one that you have people
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: that are willing to pay, you know, real money for them.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: But let's maybe talk about like the revel they seem
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: to have. They seem to be holding their value quite well. Sure,
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: I know that again, the RV world is very strange
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: right now. Sometimes if you recognize, like I want this
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: vehicle for a short period of time, if this is
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: something you're going to keep, residual values don't necessarily matter.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: But if you're like I want to drive to Alaska,
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: I want to drive to Panama, I want to drive
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: I have a purpose. I think that these these vans
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: are very attractive. People don't mind them with miles on them.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: Think of the time that you can spend acquiring income
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: rather than building a vehicle. Sure, if you were to
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: build a ram with a four wheel camper, you know
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: you're talking realistically because you're not getting in a discount
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: on trucks right now. You're talking sixty to eighty for
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: a truck. You're talking, you know, vehicle conversion, suspension, flatbed,
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: thirty fifty for the camper with a year wait list,
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: Like there's a lot of time, energy, manpower and stuff
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: that go into building an exhbibion vehicle like that, where
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: now you can kind of just get a turnkey turnkey
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: and if you're just going to do US, Canada, Mexico,
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: you can finance these things, which is awesome I think
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: rather than paying essentially cash for a four wheel camper
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: and you know, maybe finance or however people financially do it.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: There are now you know, earth cruiser, You can finance
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: an earth cruiser. You can finance an earth roamer. Yeah,
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: what's the depreciation? What's the what is it worth when
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: you go to sell it versus what your you know,
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: your monthly payment or whatever that is.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: And you may find that with an earth roamer, and
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: this has been the case for many, many years. Some
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: people have sold their earth roamers for is exactly what
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: they paid for them or sometimes even a little bit
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: of a profit. So they drove the vehicle for however
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: many years, enjoyed it, actually made a little bit of
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: money on it.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Now we all know people that have done that. Again,
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: this isn't what do they think can change? A prior
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: performance does not indicate future returns. That is an interesting
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: thing to kind of consider that buying one of these
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: turnkey vehicles also comes with the fact that you know,
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: they've now built almost three hundred earth Rummers. They know
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: how to do it, whereas some of these smaller van
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: companies or some of these you know, I'm going to
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: have this four wheel drive shop do this, and this
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: four wheel drive shop do this, and this camper company
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: do this. You know, left hand's not maybe not talking
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: to the right hand.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: And it doesn't give the resale customer a lot of
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: confidence in the vehicles. So you'll see these custom campers
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: where they say three hundred thousand dollars invested and they
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: get one hundred and twenty thousand for it.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because it doesn't have there's so many values. I'm
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: not going to call them want to be earth Rummers.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: It's just that earth rummer inspired vehicles that I see
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: a people that I've talked to, and mine will end
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: up costing significantly less. Yeah, I guess the thing is
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: these are all finite resources, right, Like, eventually my earth
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: Roamer will get used up. You know, it's not going
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: to be around for one hundred years. It's not going
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: to be around for thirty years, right, I mean, maybe
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: I guess we still see those Toyota things running around. Yeah,
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: but it is something to consider.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, look at the resale value of the vehicle, so
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: you're actually only paying for the depreciation. And if these
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: vehicles aren't really depreciating, then you may pay a lot
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: less than you think. So the DIY thing has this
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: appeal of like the initial investment costs being potentially lower.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: But again, like you said, Matt, how much is your
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: time worth all of that energy put into.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: I know people that couples that will take multiple dozens
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: of people that I've interviewed over the years for over
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: and journal and stuff. They quit their jobs in June
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: and they don't end up getting on the road until
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: December because they've spent six months figuring this out, figuring
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: this out. Oh we had a problem with this, Oh
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: we had a problem with this. And I'm like, well,
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: everybody's financial situation is different, everybody's life is different. You know.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: I've sure, I've been the person that lived in a
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: land Cruiser and was like, oh I need fifty bucks
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: to survive this week. Yep, And now I'm I'm in
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: business and my time is significantly more valuable to me. Sure,
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: So depending on where you know. You guys as the
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: listeners all on that, I think it's an important thing
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: to consider.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, look at the entire investment, all of your time,
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: what the resale value going to be, And a lot
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: of times getting a well known, high quality turnkey solution
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: is actually a better investment.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: Or you can be like me and make that decision
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: and have thirty thousand dollars engine replacement the week later. Yeah,
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: you know, so, hey, those things happen too. That can
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: happen for sure. Global Expedition Vehicles are another great one.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: You know, they have the adventure truck side and then
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: they have the GXV side. The GXV side, in my opinion,
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: is more custom bespoke for sure, if you have specific
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: needs and you gxv's are in excessive. Earth Roamers in
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: my opinion, because they're customers are limited to you know,
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: you can choose fit and finish on an earth Roamer,
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: but that's that's kind of what you're choosing. You're not Oh,
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: I'd like this custom bathroom, or I'd like this washer
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: and dryer, I'd like this here. You know, you're buying
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: a series production vehicle where I think the really cool
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: thing with GXV is and the sky's the limit. I
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: think they are truthfully the closest that we get to
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: Action Mobile or Bliss or Bliss or somebody like that
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: in Unicast, this adventure truck thing. You know, they're in
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: the two hundred, so they're a little bit more affordable.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: They're not as luxurious as an Earth Rummer, but comparable
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: and concept I guess I would say, yeah. I like
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: that they're lighter, which means you have less problems with
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: the tires. You know, you're not running right at that
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: max load or the tire Lecumore and the Earth Rummer
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: on the rear axle.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: They're heavily inspired by the by Gary and Monica Westcott's Turtle.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: Well, they actually make a turtle. I don't know if
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: it's an adventure truck or if it's under the GXV brand,
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: but you can go and buy a turtle, which is
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: really cool.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: So it doesn't have cab over sleeping, so it's actually
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: very compact inside, and they build it on a single
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: cab ram with a lot of the AEV components, so
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: you end up with a much shorter overall vehicle, a
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: much more capable vehicle. I like the bright and light interior.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: I actually really like the layout of the inside, and
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: I think that for the price, you're getting something extremely
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: capable and also something that's very comfortable at the end
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: of the day. It's I think that that Adventure truck
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: on the single cab without the cab over sleeping, it's
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: one of my favorite visually trucks that you can get,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: and I think it's a really interesting option as well.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: I like the capability that comes from that. Thing to
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: know about Global Expedition Vehicles is that because they do
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: so much bespoke work, every vehicle is different, so you
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: will inherently have more difficulties with the truck. If you
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: productize something like an earth Roamer and they have a
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: engineered wiring loom that is exactly the same from vehicle
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: to vehicle and it's installed the same way, you're going
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: to have less trouble. So just know that when the
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: more bespoke your solution is, there is no way around it,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: you will have more problems with it.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: There'll be more or less at GXPO.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: It's just like it applies to every brand that does
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: bespoke work.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, they do also have an adventure truck. Now
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: that's built on a dual cab that I really like.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: That's kind of like I hate to say, just like
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: mini earth roamers. Yeah, like it looks like an Earth romer. Yeah,
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: and they're kind of the Kleenex right, like the they
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: were there first, So they weren't there first, but you
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to say first with any volume. Yeah, first
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: with volumes, So that does have a cab over a
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: little bit more expensive. Those are those are really fascinating,
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: but they're again then you're getting back up there in
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: the wait. I have to say that these these adventure
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: trucks single cab things. Single cab would never work for
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: me at the Greyhound, but I like it. I think
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: it's cool.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: I mean it's I've definitely penciled that out a few times.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: Like that possibility for sure. And I like the fact
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: that these things don't they're not as complicated as some
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: of the other things, like you're you know, you're running
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: steel suspension, you have AEV components which are going to
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: be flawless. Yeah, they're they're cool. Yeah. Yeah.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: You get away from some of the complexity, which I
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: think is an advantage.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: The nimble stuff which you've driven. I that's brand new
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: the XP campers, which was Nimble. Yes, I mean they're
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: the same. It looks the same they or it looks
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: very similar. So Nimble purchased the intellectual property of XP Camper.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: I don't know all of the details behind that transition,
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: and I don't think it's necessarily important to the conversation here,
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: but it used to be XP Camper. In fact, I
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: remember when.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: XP Camper wasn't even a company yet, and Mark, the
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: guy who started it, drove into our lot here at
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: the offices, with his Dodge Ram with the very first
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: XP Camper on it, and I remember he was trying
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: to lift the roof and there was some problem and
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: he was just trying to get started, and it was
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: just neat to see his enthusiasm and all of that.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: It was it was apparent to me that there was
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: a good idea there, And in hindsight I now know
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: that it's because it was designed by this guy by
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: the name of Steve Kasloff, who is the son of
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: the guy who designed the first earth romer. So that's
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: a very interesting tie in, And unfortunately XP Camper never
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: really acknowledged Steve's involvement properly. So Steve is yacht designer.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: He's a boat designer, gotch and so that's why I
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: even know that. Yeah, that's why an XP campers the
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: way that it does. Especially on the inside, it looks
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: like a shipwright. It looks like it was an interior
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: fiberglass mold of a sailboat, and it feels that way,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: and the whole construction feels that way. So I think
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: that Nimble has done a good job of not only
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: acknowledging Steve's work, but taking that to the next level
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: and also bringing in a lot of engineering that Mark
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: never had, and so these systems are a lot better now.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: So my experience with the Nimble was very positive in
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: the fact that, oh, this feels like a fully integrated
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: truck now. It feels like all of the systems have
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: been well thought out. Everything's working. It's very capable. It's
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: again in that ten to eleven thousand pound range, so
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: you've got standard tires. It's built on an F three fifty.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: It's a vehicle that is also more accessible in the
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: price range to lot of servicing.
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: Costs with the kind of the not medium duty components.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it does have. It does have a lowering roof,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: which is another advant advantage. It's kind of an interesting hybrid,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: so the whole back half of it is a lifting
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: roof that has solid sides, and then right over the
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: bed they have soft sides. So it would be interesting
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: if they could ever find a way to do like
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: the Alaska camper where they have these hard panels that
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: flip down that would help make it much more quiet
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: at night with wind.
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: And if they could figure something like that out, I
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: think an XP would be you know, really really attractive.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: It would be. And again, like I'm just talking about
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: my personal experience, Like there's definitely a lot of situations
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: we get into where the earth rummer is too big,
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: pretty tall, but like our jeep is too small for
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: the just for what we're trying to do on the
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: jeep's great. I'm sure there's people that are like, oh,
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: he just has to sleep in this fancy.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: Camper, But like, you know, you want to spend long
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: periods of time working from the road. You want to
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: be on your way to Alaska and working and living.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: It's hard to get two six feet six foot plus
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: people and an eighty pound greyhound. That's like the size
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: of another six foot human when he's like stretched out
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: sure into a five foot bed. Tough. It's tough, like
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: especially for long periods of time. My dog, my dog
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: runs my life. Regular listeners will know that, Like the
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: earth Roamer is Dax Car. Well, we kept running into
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: problems in Mexico and other places we travel just with
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: street dogs. Yeah, and we needed we weren't going because
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: it was like, oh, well, Deck's going to get a
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: fight and this dogs isn't getting fight with him. And
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: greyhounds like they don't have an undercoat too much information,
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: but they don't do well in a dog fight. They
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: don't do well in dog fights. So I think that
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: that the the Nimbles are really really cool. Yeah, I'm
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: looking forward to eventually getting in one of those and
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: taking one camping. It was very comfortable.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: It has a full, you know, wet head, and how
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: they make that work is pretty clever. It's got a
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: fairly bright, open interior. It feels capable off road. It
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: kept surprising me. Yeah, they when we did the trip,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: we kept intentionally putting it into harder and harder situations,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: and I was just waiting for the rear bumper to
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: scrape or for some and it never happened, and with
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: lockers front rear, it ended up being very very capable.
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: And what chassis, because I believe with Nimble you can
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: choose your own you can chassis. They're building them on
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: the seven three. Yeah, Ford's super duties, I believe right now.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: That's their current recommended platform is the quad cab seven
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: point three liter gas Ford F three point fifty with
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: the factory rear locker. They their logic behind the seven
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: three gas, which has a lot of merit, is that
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: we are still in this weird transition with Ultra Losol
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: for diesel. Yes, and the goal of John and the
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: team at Nimble is to build a global travel vehicle.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: Your best option right now is actually a gas engine,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: and that's seven three. It's normally aspirated, and it's designed
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: for fleet service.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: So and it's a brand new motor. Right. I think
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: it's pretty good. I think it's a winner. I mean,
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: I will say I have a six seven. I had
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: to replace a six to seven. Yeah, nineteen thousand miles
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: on it, that Sponda bearing. There's a lot of systems
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: on that vehicle that can fit Yeah, you know, I
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: had when I was with the new motor in that
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: I had to go through a lot of you know,
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: new EGR valve near this sensor, new that, new intercooler this,
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: and you're upgrading all these components. I mean now that
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: everything I did had a carb EO number. Yeah, kind
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: of become a stickler with air quality. It might not
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: be popular, but I love breathing clean air.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: I grew up in southern California, and it's like anybody
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: that I know that's even anti EPA, they all acknowledge
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: the fact that California is actually a lot nicer place
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: to live now that you can take a full breath.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: I remember most days when I was growing up, it
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: was some sig alert because the air quality was so
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: bad you could not go outside and play. And now
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: they don't. That doesn't happen really anymore. Yeah, which is
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: there's there's an advantage to like taking care of mother nature, right.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean, you know along the lines of
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: the the ultra lo sulf or diesel, like even Mexico's
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: not on it. Mexico's one of the last develop being
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: developed countries to to not have already switched. I mean,
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: anything that's near the border you can get.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: The ultralow sulf or diesel, and in a lot of
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: the bigger cities. Yeah, what'll happen is once the dignitaries
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: and the local politicians and the people of means they
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: want to buy their new Mercedes and their new Mercedes
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: is ultra little silver, that'll drive the change.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: So you're already seeing it even in Africa where you
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: go in if you go to Johannesburg, or if you
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: if you go into any of the big cities in
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: those countries, you can find ultra low sulfur diesel because
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: they want to drive the nice new cars, and so
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: that'll drive that change obviously, but for the moment, it's
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: still a weird transition. So the seven three is probably
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: the best solution for that. And I did I did
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: really like the nimble. It felt not to miss to
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: misuse the word, but it felt nimble. It felt more
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: if it is narrow.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: You're saying, like you were cruising on I didn't like
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: the Black Rock Desert.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we hit one hundred miles an hour on
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: that thing, so which you know, it was a it's
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: what they do land speed testing.
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I recently found out from my friend's son who
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: used to own My earth Rummer that my earth Rummer
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: has been airborne in about seventy on the player. Thanks Kevin. Yeah,
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: well now you know it can fly. No, I know
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: it can fly. It can fly.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, No, the Nimble was great. Challenge is
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: obviously getting more people aware of it and getting more
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: on the road and continuing to refine the product in
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: the ways that they have. I think that it's it's
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: a great option for people, and it's also much more
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: affordable than a lot of the other ones.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: But how cool is it versus where the industry was
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: ten fifteen years ago to see these companies thriving, to
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: see these companies innovating. There's so many options out and
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: I just think once the general RV that's a trend
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: that I've kind of seen is these earth roamer esque. Again,
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: I hate saying that, but that's just kind of the term.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: These earth roamer esque, you know, Elkhart Lake RV's, like
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: the ones that all come out of like Indiana. You
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: know they put them on a foil drive. Yeah, now
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: they're putting them on a floral drive and I'm wondering,
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: you know, it won't take too long, I think to
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: start seeing that side of the market go in, which
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying that it will result in higher quality things.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: But you have like the Winnebago Echo that's coming out,
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: and that one's interesting, built on a duly rear axle
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: for transit chassis with the three point five Eco boost
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: and a ten speed.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: Ye.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: Laura's parents actually have one of the first one of
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: those coming, although it's been delayed and delayed and delayed.
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: Is it the all will drive one? Yeah, so well,
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: first they bought the one that had the slide out,
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: and Ron bought like the first one of those, and
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: then they kind of like canceled it three months into
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: his order and they're like, oh, we can get to
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: the smaller one. It's it's it's been interesting, right, Like
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: I think that one was launched a little prematurely. Sure,
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: that one's cool because that's like the size of an
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: earth roamer functionally in the That's my basis for a
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: lot of things, right. You know, you can get them
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: with this kind of hybrid wet dry bath and they're
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: gonna be about one hundred and fifty, but that's a
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: four season you know, composite camper on a van, which
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: arguably a van kind of the way to go because
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: you don't have, like on my truck, I have X
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: amount of camper and then I have an equal amount
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: of truck in front of it. That's right, and the
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: semi cab.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Over a configuration of a van where you're kind of
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: sitting on the front tires or at least your feet
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: are on the front tires, you do save a lot
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: of interier space, so you end up with either a
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: shorter vehicle overall, or you end up with a lot
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: bigger camper on the inside of it, which is really
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: an advantage. And I think maybe for those that are listening,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: when you look at all these new campers coming out,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: there should be things that you're looking for. First of all,
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: the construction must be composite or aluminum or metal framed
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: so that it can flex and handle high frequency vibration.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: It is just not suitable to take a wooden framed
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: camper off road for any distance. They may tell you otherwise,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: but it is only because they're trying to sell you
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: a camper. If the camper must be made in a
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: way that it can endure high frequency vibration of corrugations
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: otherwise all of that glued wood and fasteners and screwhos
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: and nails and everything else like that, it will literally
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: come apart, will just turn into trail trash.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: It'll just exactly how many of those pickup campers have
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: you seen, like in the middle of nowhere down some
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: corrugated road and it like fell out and then they're
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: just like, I'm going to just keep driving.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they don't. They don't survive. They don't. They don't
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: endure that kind of abuse. So there is a reason
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: why an earth roamer is made out of composite. There's
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: a reason why Earth cruisers made out of composits. Now,
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: the next thing that you need to look for is
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: that on these long chassis, because these are again big campers,
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: you're dealing with a lot of chassis flex So if
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: you if you and this is another mistake that a
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: lot of these new to overland campers make, is that
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: they kind of bolt it down rigidly to the frame
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: in the same way that they do for an on
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: the road camper, and then that will literally rip apart
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: the camper in very short order, or it will do
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: damage to the frame. So you want to have some
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: variant exactly twist like this. That's how that works. Yeah,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: for those watching it on YouTube, you can see Matt's
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: demonstration of twisting and Overlin Journal magazine, which is.
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: Scientific and wonderful. Exactly.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: So you want to have some variation of allowable flex
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: within the attachment points. Now, companies like earth Roamer address
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: that with a three point system, so the frame can
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: flex and it just rotates on that single point in
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: the rear. There are others that use multipoint systems that
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: have large diameter and very strong springs and cones, so
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: that way it can come out and drop back in
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: under the return pressure of the spring. But there must
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: be some way to allow for chassis flex because all
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: of these things, especially a long wheelbased truck, they all flex.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: So look for that when you look at a camper.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: If it does not have that is not suitable for
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: remote overland travel. And that's the reason again why Matt
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: keeps coming back to the van. The van has structural
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: integrity because of the body, so there's a lot of
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: advantages to the van where you don't need to do
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: all of these complex adjustments.
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: Can you can make vans crazy too, like you can
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: send your revel to agile off road. Yeah, they do crazy.
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: So they have long range tanks, they have like bumpers,
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: they have suspension, they have like everything that you I mean,
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: I just think tomorrow, if I was driving the PanAm,
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: I'd I'd buy a Revel because it's just done. And
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: they've made like thousands of them. Yeah, you know that now.
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: The second generation, which I think was two thousand and twenty. Yeah,
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: I think so very recently recently with the lithium, so
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: they were able to add power, reduce weight, move the
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: water inside. And then there's also the Eagle Hout conversion,
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: so you can you can buy a tool drive sprinter,
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: send it to Europe. They'll basically slap a g wagon
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: up underneath it with lockers front and rear, g wagon
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: transfer case, thirty seven inch tall tires, long travel suspension,
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: and I've driven those off road and they're absolutely incredible. Yeah,
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: they are so impressive, especially on the one forty four
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: or wheelbase. So then you take delivery of your Eagle
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: Out converted sprinter in Europe, you drive it around Europe
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: for a while, and then you ship at home and
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: then you do whatever interior build out you want. Yeah,
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: and you end up with this thirty seven inch tired
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: dual locker sprinter. Yeah, with low range. So here's here's
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: here's something that we didn't really talk about. But you know,
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: I keep saying that the budget option is the revel
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: still one hundred and fifty expensive. What what what are
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: the other options? Like, I mean, I guess that's a
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: DIY van build or I will say, like trying to
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: DIY in expedition truck, I think is one thing, whereas
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: DIY in a van definitely makes way more sense because
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: you already have that structure and the area. All you
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: need to do is put a mattress in the back.
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: But yeah, the DIY option is buy a pickup and
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: then install a camper in the bed. That is definitely
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: the DIY option. I mean, that's kind of or that
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: not the DIY, but that's the less expensive option. That's
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: what I'm going to be doing. I guess we're going
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: to hear it here first. But I just got an
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: AT four GMC that is their off road version in
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: great It is a really nice looking truck. I just
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: put AEV true block wheels on it and thirty fives
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: and I've got some other modifications planned for it. It's
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: important to have full disclosure on this. I am working
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: with GMC on this project, so we were supported heavily
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: in the purchasing of the truck. So I just want
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: that to be out there and very clear. My plan
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: is to install a scout camper on the back, and
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: I'm buying this camper. I've got it on order, and
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: the goal is to install this camper that I really
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: feel is going to be my version of an expedition camper.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: It's going to be very simple, lightweight, and between the
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: truck and the camper, it'll be in that ninety thousand
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: dollars range including modification.
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: And if you think about it, what are the big
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: things that you actually why are you actually doing a
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: hard sided camper? Are you doing that for shelter and
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: you're getting the same kind of shelter that I'm getting
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: in an earth rummer at the arcmposite now lower, lower cost.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of advantages. I know this this segment
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: wasn't about campers, but there there are a lot of advantages.
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, as you can take them out
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: and use it as a regular pickup, use it as
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: a regular truck. As always, we like to advise people,
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: like spend the money on travel, Like, don't feel like
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: you have to have any of this stuff because the
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: reality is that you can buy a Toyota Prius and
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: drive that to Ushuaia and stay in hostels totally and
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: sleep in the back, Like get out and do it first.
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: Don't let stuff be prohibitive to the experience. It's it's
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: all too easy. Like I especially, you know, during COVID,
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: I'm kind of catching myself that well, we're all just
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: like kind of sitting at home, you know, like is
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: it right to go travel? Is it not right to
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: go travel? I mean, like it's a it's a prop
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: shoot on who you ask, So I'm not going to
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: get into that. But removing yourself from the stuff and
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: you know, and focusing on focusing on the travel is
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: just what this is all about. And I think that
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: that's the inspiration for me.
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: I've spent so many years sleeping in the back of
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: a land cruiser and I love that and it's something
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: that I want to continue to do in my life.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: The idea of me being able to build a truck
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: and a camper that I can work out of that
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: I can have the view of the Grand Canyon while
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: I have while I'm connected to my starlink and doing
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: business during the day and working hard, but then be
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: able to instead of doing the same hike every day
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: that I do in Prescott, I'm doing a new hike
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: every day, and I'm experiencing new places and I'm seeing
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: new things, and I'm able to work remotely. And that is,
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: I know, a motivation for a lot of people who
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: buy campers. They're justifying it is that this is going
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: to be my home and this is where I'm going
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: to work, and I'm going to make a living and
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: now I'm connected. And you know, the Starling Starlink thing
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: is still being sorted out, but we just heard a
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: few weeks ago that they plan to have it mobile
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: by the end of the year.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: Which is gonna I mean, yeah, that's going to change things.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: I just tested it and I got one hundred and
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: seventy megabits per second download. I mean that's you can
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: do work, real work all day long. That's faster than
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: our internet here. I know. It's super fast. So you
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: can do video conferencing. You can you know, if we
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: do a YouTube video production, I can upload it from
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: someplace remote. These are really significant changes that we're seeing happen,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: and people are like the idea of living remotely and
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: traveling and living out of their vehicle, and it's more
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: doable post COVID. We now live in this world where companies.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: Companies essentially had to develop the infrastructure for working remote
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: otherwise you couldn't work. So, you know, there's always been
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: a stigma against working remotely, but for certain jobs, I like,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: why not these days? Yeah, if you're a knowledge worker
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: or a creative person like Matt and I are, we
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: can work from most places, and we certainly need to
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: spend time with our team and that's all going to
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: be built into my strategy. But being able to work
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: from this scout camper from Alaska or from the Grand Careion,
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: that sounds really appealing. Yeah, we'll see how that all
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: turns out, and we'll have a future podcast on sliding
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: campers as well. We'll also talk more about my project
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: vehicle in a future episode as well. We do need
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: to quickly talk about the Terra Nova, which is Earth
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: Cruiser's new offering.
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the Terra Nova's awesome.
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's just been released and I know that
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: they've got many of them on pre order and they've
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: been very successful. There was a successful launch for them.
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: So it is a pop top Earth Cruiser one time, yeah,
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: one time Forward or Dodge you can put you can
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: pick your platform.
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: It looks great, It looks really good. It's very lightweight.
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: It has all of that simplicity that you would expect
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: from Earth Cruiser with a high degree of performance and
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: build quality. So this is a composite base and then
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: it has a pop top roof with soft sides, which
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: makes it, you know, a solid three season solution four
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: season with some care. These are really really cool new campers.
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: It's a new one on the market. Matt and I
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: have not had a chance to test it yet, but
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: we do know earth Cruiser well and we know the
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: quality of their products, and I suspect it's going to
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: be a real winner. So more details on the Taro
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: Nova once we get a chance to try it out
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: for to drive on the cool Those are all good ideas,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: Matt around, you know, like why do we what's the
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: real cost of buying these things and it's maybe lower
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: than we think, And what's the real advantages of being
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: able to sleep comfortably and live comfortably? Out of our
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: vehicle while we're working and playing. That's why these campers
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: have become so popular. Yeah, you know, kind of like
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: we said, you can do it on all all kinds
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: of levels. That can be a diy van, that can
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: be an earth rummer, that can be a you know,
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: a unit cat.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we didn't really talk. We can't really get those here,
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: not really. Yeah. Yeah, as long as it gets you out,
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: and that's what I'm so.
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: And if you've got further questions on expedition campers, you
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: can always reach out to Matt and myself. You can
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: find me on Instagram at Scott dot a dot Brady
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: and Matt I think has suspended?
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: Have you suspended your Instagram? You know, it's just becoming
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: a bit toxic for me. I don't know. I'm just
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: not doing Instagram for a while. I'm taking that time
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: that we all spend on social media, which is hours
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: a day, and I'm putting it into other aspects of
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: my life and spending the rest trying to get out
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: and travel.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: So yeah, good for you actually having those experiences instead
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: of taking photos.
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: And shure I do. I do occasionally log into Facebook
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: and I posted some like did some really cool stuff
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: last week forgot to take pictures for the internet, you know.
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: But I guess you can reach out, you know, through
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: through my company, through Adventure Imports. We're on Instagram and
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: there you go.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, go to adventure at Adventure Imports on Instagram and
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: you can somehow find your way to map from there. Yeah.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: Sounds good, And thank you all for listening and we
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: will talk to you next time.