Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Tanner Johnson on Building and Maintaining Expedition Vehicles

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Tanner Johnson on Building and Maintaining Expedition Vehicles · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: And a special thanks to on X for supporting this
0:07
Speaker 1: week's podcast. Are you tired of searching for a campsite
0:12
Speaker 1: only to find.
0:13
Speaker 2: It packed or off limits?
0:16
Speaker 1: With on X off Roads new motorized Dispersed Camping Layer,
0:20
Speaker 1: you can now see legal off grid camping spots in
0:23
Speaker 1: national forests right in the app. Plan ahead, avoid the
0:28
Speaker 1: crowds and camp confidently, knowing you're on public land where
0:32
Speaker 1: it's allowed. Download on X off Road today and find
0:37
Speaker 1: your own space. Thanks again, on X, Hey Tanner, thank
0:43
Speaker 1: you so much for being on the podcast. Man. I
0:45
Speaker 1: have wanted to have you on the Overland Journal podcast
0:48
Speaker 1: for years because you're doing some of the You got
0:52
Speaker 1: one of the coolest jobs in the industry. You really
0:54
Speaker 1: do to build expedition vehicles, and then you do lots
0:58
Speaker 1: of other things. You're a photographer and you're on the
1:00
Speaker 1: expeditions and you do all kinds of other really important roles.
1:04
Speaker 1: But the reason why we wanted to have you on
1:06
Speaker 1: the podcast today is to really talk about what has
1:09
Speaker 1: been years of learning around what makes an expedition vehicle effective,
1:16
Speaker 1: The systems that you have found that are reliable, the
1:18
Speaker 1: things that you would do different, the lessons that you've learned,
1:22
Speaker 1: So I'd really love to do the deep dive with
1:25
Speaker 1: you around how to prepare a vehicle for expedition travel.
1:30
Speaker 2: So thank you, thanks for having me. This is exciting totally.
1:33
Speaker 1: Just the last couple of times that I've seen you,
1:35
Speaker 1: you're inside of an ALU cab wiring up a vehicle
1:39
Speaker 1: worth of wiring to get a system able to run.
1:42
Speaker 1: Let's start with wiring because one of the things that
1:45
Speaker 1: we've talked about. We have an article out there of
1:47
Speaker 1: the things not to do in building an overland vehicle,
1:50
Speaker 1: and one of the things that we really focus on
1:52
Speaker 1: is the reliability of the wirings. It tends to be
1:56
Speaker 1: something that fails people most often. So what are some
2:00
Speaker 1: of your top tips or some of the things that
2:02
Speaker 1: you like about wiring or things that you pay attention
2:05
Speaker 1: to around wiring the vehicle.
2:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I started off. That was actually one of the
2:12
Speaker 2: very first things I did for Xoverland is when I
2:14
Speaker 2: was still working at the Camera Store. I came here
2:16
Speaker 2: and helped Clay wire a light bar, and oh my gosh,
2:19
Speaker 2: like the things that I have learned since then. Every
2:22
Speaker 2: single build, I'm improving the systems, figuring out what works,
2:26
Speaker 2: what doesn't. I think some of my best tips for
2:29
Speaker 2: wiring would be, for one, make a plan, make a
2:32
Speaker 2: plan as best as you can on what you're going
2:35
Speaker 2: to be putting on at where it's going to go.
2:37
Speaker 2: And then what I always do now, especially with shipping
2:40
Speaker 2: trucks internationally and needing to store them, is I like
2:43
Speaker 2: to lay a foundation of all my electrical stuff, and
2:47
Speaker 2: I put breakers in between bus bars that are going
2:50
Speaker 2: to the battery. So what I do is instead of
2:52
Speaker 2: just running a bunch of just a rat's nest of
2:56
Speaker 2: wires to a battery terminal for all your accessories, what
2:59
Speaker 2: I liked to do now is run a big power
3:02
Speaker 2: wire from the battery through a breaker into a bus bar,
3:07
Speaker 2: and then all my accessories go to that bus bar,
3:10
Speaker 2: which makes it really nice to be able to work
3:12
Speaker 2: on it, so you can isolate it and then you
3:14
Speaker 2: can do whatever you need to do with your accessories,
3:17
Speaker 2: put it all back together, add stuff, take away stuff,
3:20
Speaker 2: or for storing it, you disconnect it. It keeps all
3:23
Speaker 2: the OEM stuff in place, so you can start up
3:26
Speaker 2: a truck run it around, but then none of your
3:28
Speaker 2: accessories are there having vampire draws. So my number one
3:32
Speaker 2: thing and probably one of the first things I do
3:34
Speaker 2: when we get a new vehicle to build is I
3:36
Speaker 2: lay that foundation of the wiring, even if we don't
3:40
Speaker 2: have a big plan on putting a bunch of accessories
3:42
Speaker 2: in it, I like to just know that, okay, I
3:45
Speaker 2: need a hookup power and grounds of accessories under the hood.
3:49
Speaker 2: So in these new hybrid vehicles, the start batteries are
3:51
Speaker 2: no longer under the hood, and so that took us
3:53
Speaker 2: a second to get our heads wrapped around that. Then
3:56
Speaker 2: I was running basically a big power and ground to
3:59
Speaker 2: the hood and then making a bus bar location for accessories.
4:03
Speaker 2: And so it's extremely important in my opinion to just
4:06
Speaker 2: take that extra time and work to lay out a
4:10
Speaker 2: really good foundation for your wiring. And then when you
4:13
Speaker 2: do go to start to wire your light bars, your fridges,
4:16
Speaker 2: your other stuff, you already have those locations ready to
4:19
Speaker 2: go to hook.
4:20
Speaker 1: Them up or even expand into additional systems. And in
4:24
Speaker 1: my mind, one of the most important things is a
4:26
Speaker 1: very clear distinction between what is a vehicle electrical system
4:31
Speaker 1: and what is a house electrical system and the ability
4:34
Speaker 1: to isolate those two systems. That way, if you have
4:37
Speaker 1: a high amp draw or you've got a couple days
4:39
Speaker 1: of cloud cover and the solars not performing that the
4:42
Speaker 1: vehicle will always start because the starting battery has been
4:45
Speaker 1: isolated from the house systems. And another thing that's really nice,
4:49
Speaker 1: and I'd be curious kind of to see how you
4:51
Speaker 1: guys go about this. These are complex wiring looms and
4:55
Speaker 1: there's colors of wires that go in different directions. How
4:58
Speaker 1: do you document the wirings schematic and what tools do
5:01
Speaker 1: you use for that so that way when your team
5:04
Speaker 1: is out in the field they can troubleshoot and know
5:06
Speaker 1: where things go. Or do you use like a standardized process.
5:09
Speaker 2: Honestly, a label maker. That's a great way to do.
5:11
Speaker 2: It's probably one of my number one tools for anybody
5:14
Speaker 2: out there that has a rig. You can use it
5:17
Speaker 2: for everything. If you do not have a label maker,
5:20
Speaker 2: do yourself a favor and go buy a label make
5:23
Speaker 2: just label and on both ends of the wire. And
5:26
Speaker 2: so what we've been doing when we can is we
5:28
Speaker 2: actually found a clear heat shrink. Okay, so we'll put
5:31
Speaker 2: a label on the terminal or on the connector and
5:35
Speaker 2: then clear heat shrink it and it helps it stand
5:37
Speaker 2: up a lot longer. You can wrap the label the
5:39
Speaker 2: other way and make a little pigtail and the clear
5:41
Speaker 2: heat shrink is that next level of headiness and everything.
5:44
Speaker 1: And then recently you've been you've even upgraded your electrical
5:48
Speaker 1: tape to this like fabric electrical that you're pretty proud.
5:50
Speaker 2: Of that that stuff is that. I'm a believer. That
5:54
Speaker 2: was actually our guy out at dark Horse, a wiring
5:56
Speaker 2: guru out there that taught me that one. And I
5:59
Speaker 2: love it because it's just another layer of more of
6:01
Speaker 2: an OEM look than regular electrical tape, and it's great
6:05
Speaker 2: to work with and it just it's yeah, it's a
6:07
Speaker 2: bomber product.
6:08
Speaker 1: And when the person that's listening that's thinking about how
6:10
Speaker 1: do they set up their vehicle build take into consideration
6:14
Speaker 1: all of the things that you might want to put
6:16
Speaker 1: into the vehicle that are an electric draw That way,
6:19
Speaker 1: you can build out the harness just one time. So
6:22
Speaker 1: you've got extra wiring that's maybe going back to your
6:25
Speaker 1: drawer system. You've got extra wiring that goes up to
6:28
Speaker 1: the hood, especially if you're passing through the firewall. That
6:31
Speaker 1: all done on the first shot. That way, you're not,
6:34
Speaker 1: like you said, the wire's nest. I think back on
6:36
Speaker 1: some of my early builds, and they were an absolute
6:39
Speaker 1: nest of all been there. You have the chance of shorting,
6:42
Speaker 1: you have the chance of vehicle fire. It's very difficult
6:44
Speaker 1: to service it. But it's really important to think about
6:47
Speaker 1: how do I want to expand the electrical system and
6:49
Speaker 1: to build in the wiring at least to support that.
6:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, that just comes back to make that plan as
6:55
Speaker 2: best as you can, whatever works for you, sketching it
6:58
Speaker 2: on a napkin, may making a photoshop document. On our
7:01
Speaker 2: last build, I took a kind of a rendering and
7:04
Speaker 2: photoshop of the truck that I had made, and I
7:07
Speaker 2: just started drawing lines of like where the house batteries
7:10
Speaker 2: were going to go, where the start battery was, where
7:12
Speaker 2: I want my bus bar under the hood, and just
7:14
Speaker 2: started sketching it out and then making a list of
7:16
Speaker 2: what's going to be going to red arc, what needs
7:18
Speaker 2: to go to the start butter battery, bus bar versus
7:21
Speaker 2: the red ARC system, and then that way when I
7:24
Speaker 2: went to actually wire it, I was basically following my
7:27
Speaker 2: own instructions and not trying to remember off the top
7:29
Speaker 2: of my head or figure out ooh should that go there.
7:32
Speaker 2: I already had it all sketched out.
7:34
Speaker 1: And then you can share that with the team that's
7:35
Speaker 1: in the field. There are times of the teams off
7:38
Speaker 1: and running and you're back here in Montana. That was
7:42
Speaker 1: just kind of like a fun one to dig into
7:43
Speaker 1: right off the bat. So one of the things that
7:45
Speaker 1: we see frequently in the industry is vehicles that are
7:48
Speaker 1: just really overloaded. Now, your vehicles get heavy because you
7:52
Speaker 1: have lots of people, and you have lots of equipment,
7:54
Speaker 1: and you have some necessary modifications that you need to
7:58
Speaker 1: provide for vehicle self frie recovery, for safe storage and
8:02
Speaker 1: secure storage of equipment. But when a vehicle starts to
8:05
Speaker 1: get heavy, let's talk about the mid sized trucks for example. So,
8:09
Speaker 1: when a mid sized truck starts to get up towards
8:12
Speaker 1: gross vehicle weight, what are some of the things that
8:14
Speaker 1: you guys have found really helps to address it being
8:18
Speaker 1: in that heavier state. What do you do for suspension?
8:20
Speaker 1: Do you do for breaks? How do you handle shocks
8:23
Speaker 1: and jounces, damping load, maybe even sway bars? What do
8:27
Speaker 1: you do to help address that.
8:29
Speaker 2: All of the above from our shocks, we'll work with
8:32
Speaker 2: whichever company to make sure they have the proper valving
8:35
Speaker 2: installed in them. So you like a firmer valving, do you, Yeah,
8:39
Speaker 2: So what we'll do is we'll estimate the weight and
8:41
Speaker 2: then let the company know, hey, this is what it's
8:44
Speaker 2: going to be, and then they can actually go in
8:46
Speaker 2: and change out shims or add shims. However that works
8:48
Speaker 2: on a shock in and so they'll actually increase the valving.
8:52
Speaker 2: Or you can order shocks from some companies and just
8:55
Speaker 2: say yeah, it's going to be on a truck that's
8:58
Speaker 2: x amount of pounds overgrowth or dry weight or factory weight,
9:01
Speaker 2: so they can build that shock to help you better. There.
9:05
Speaker 2: Sway bars, we've added sway bars. What do you feel
9:07
Speaker 2: about those?
9:08
Speaker 1: How are those working for you in the field. There's
9:10
Speaker 1: some great companies out there like Hellwig and other that
9:13
Speaker 1: make really high quality, larger diameter sway bar. Do you
9:17
Speaker 1: tend to focus on the swaybar in the rear or
9:20
Speaker 1: do you tend to focus on the sway bar in
9:21
Speaker 1: the front.
9:22
Speaker 2: Well, our new builds we had to only do the
9:24
Speaker 2: rear because our front on the trail hunters anyways, they
9:27
Speaker 2: have a connected sway bars, right, so it's irreplaceable or unreplaceable.
9:33
Speaker 2: So we went with a rear Hellawig and both our
9:35
Speaker 2: trail hunters that are headed to Europe right now, and
9:38
Speaker 2: it made a big difference. It was noticeable. Both those
9:41
Speaker 2: trucks are pretty heavy, they're pretty built up for certain reasons.
9:45
Speaker 2: We couldn't do a ton with the suspension, so the
9:47
Speaker 2: sway bar definitely made a difference there.
9:49
Speaker 1: I would think so, and then you get your spring
9:51
Speaker 1: rates right change sway bars. This is what happens to
9:55
Speaker 1: the vehicle dynamics for those that are listening, If you
9:57
Speaker 1: buy a stock suv off the showroom floor, the vehicle
10:02
Speaker 1: is going to be favoring understeer. And that's where the
10:05
Speaker 1: manufacturers believe that the safest way for someone to lose
10:08
Speaker 1: control is to slide into something nose first. And the
10:12
Speaker 1: reason for that is all the crumple zones of the
10:14
Speaker 1: vehicle exist, the airbags are there. It's as safe as
10:18
Speaker 1: possible to actually run into a tree nose first. So
10:22
Speaker 1: manufacturers set up vehicles to understeer, so if someone loses
10:26
Speaker 1: control or jams on the brakes, or goes into a
10:29
Speaker 1: corner too hot, they want the vehicle to push through
10:31
Speaker 1: the corner understeer and hit whatever it's going to be.
10:35
Speaker 1: When we start to change sway bars. This is what
10:38
Speaker 1: happens if we make the front swaybar firmer get more understeer.
10:43
Speaker 1: If you make the swaybar looser, a smaller diameter, or
10:48
Speaker 1: change some of the physics involved with that, you actually
10:51
Speaker 1: shift it more towards oversteers. So the vehicle will actually
10:55
Speaker 1: turn through the corner more planted, it will have more
10:59
Speaker 1: steering track, and it'll go through the corner, but it
11:02
Speaker 1: tends to have the likelihood of doing more oversteers. So
11:06
Speaker 1: if one of the things that I like to do
11:08
Speaker 1: is make the vehicle handle a little more neutral than
11:11
Speaker 1: it would from the factory. So what I like to
11:14
Speaker 1: do is kind of like what you guys have done
11:16
Speaker 1: with the new tacomas. Is you keep the front anti
11:18
Speaker 1: swaybar the same, and then you start to beef up
11:22
Speaker 1: the rear, which starts to then make the vehicle handle
11:25
Speaker 1: more neutral and less likely to oversteer through the corner.
11:29
Speaker 1: And then talk about spring rate. So how do you
11:31
Speaker 1: guys determine spring length for lyft and spring rate for load.
11:37
Speaker 2: Honestly, it was a trial and air on this new setup.
11:39
Speaker 2: Because I can imagine that they are new trucks. We're
11:42
Speaker 2: always working with the newer vehicles that a lot of
11:44
Speaker 2: companies don't have a ton of options for. And almost
11:48
Speaker 2: all of our trucks, of the newer vehicles are actually
11:51
Speaker 2: using eighty series lankers or rear springs.
11:54
Speaker 1: And that surprised me when you said that, Like on
11:57
Speaker 1: the Tundra. On the Tundra that you just finish, it's
11:59
Speaker 1: got eighty spree eighty series like up armored.
12:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, their crews are. They're thirteen hundred pound rated and
12:06
Speaker 2: that's the first time we've gone that high and usually
12:09
Speaker 2: we go to the heavies with old man emu Ya
12:11
Speaker 2: hundred pounds. To go to the thirteen hundred pounds was
12:14
Speaker 2: a whole new game. But a large truck. It's a truck. Yeah,
12:18
Speaker 2: so we're HiT's funny because all of our builds are big,
12:23
Speaker 2: they're heavy, there's a ton of stuff in them, but
12:25
Speaker 2: we are always actively trying to keep them as simple
12:28
Speaker 2: and as light as possible. For some may kind of
12:31
Speaker 2: laugh at that, but we have a job to do.
12:32
Speaker 2: We have a team that needs to work out of them,
12:34
Speaker 2: live out of them. Everything in them is there to
12:37
Speaker 2: serve at least either one critical purpose or at least
12:41
Speaker 2: two or three multiple purposes throughout the expedition.
12:44
Speaker 1: And not only that, but one of the things that
12:46
Speaker 1: I like about how you guys run your trips is
12:48
Speaker 1: you guys do most of it is camping. So if
12:51
Speaker 1: everybody's camping every night in order to keep people fresh
12:54
Speaker 1: and rested and well fed and everything else, you're just gonna.
12:57
Speaker 2: Have a lot of gear with you. Oh, you can't
12:59
Speaker 2: get around it.
12:59
Speaker 1: That's for Whereas a lot of times all camp one
13:02
Speaker 1: night and then go stay in an airbnb or stay
13:05
Speaker 1: in a home, stay a little local pension or accommodation.
13:09
Speaker 1: So I tend to either sleep in the truck or
13:13
Speaker 1: find some local accommodation. But if you're every night you're
13:16
Speaker 1: trying to do backups and clean camera and give people
13:20
Speaker 1: some good rest, you end up with a pretty heavy
13:22
Speaker 1: and complex system.
13:23
Speaker 2: Even in transit to and from trips, even before or
13:27
Speaker 2: after we're done shooting, we'll still pull over on the
13:29
Speaker 2: side of the road, spend the night, get up, make coffee,
13:32
Speaker 2: keep going.
13:33
Speaker 1: And it saves you guys money and allows you guys
13:35
Speaker 1: to also fully be immersed in the experience your outdoors.
13:39
Speaker 1: You're in nature. If you're lucky, every week or so,
13:41
Speaker 1: you get a shower. Yeah, that's funny. You guys have
13:45
Speaker 1: done a lot of work around your wraps and your
13:49
Speaker 1: graphics packages and all that other stuff. They look really
13:51
Speaker 1: cool and they each take on it. Who names them
13:53
Speaker 1: Clay Clay? Okay, so Clay names the trucks. Even that's neat.
13:57
Speaker 1: Could you guys put the name underneath the wrap so
14:00
Speaker 1: it's like this, it's almost like this relief, like this
14:03
Speaker 1: little bit of a raised nameplate on the side of
14:06
Speaker 1: the trucks.
14:06
Speaker 2: That looks really cool.
14:08
Speaker 1: All right, So let's dig in after we've talked a
14:10
Speaker 1: little bit about suspension and how we address weight and everything.
14:13
Speaker 1: So how do you stop the thing? So you got it?
14:17
Speaker 1: Now a heavy vehicle? What are some things that you
14:19
Speaker 1: guys have done to improve breaking performance? Obviously the tires
14:23
Speaker 1: are a component of that. Talk about that in a minute,
14:25
Speaker 1: but let's talk about how you guys improve breaking.
14:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, in the past, no, we tried swapping out roaders
14:32
Speaker 2: with drilleden slotted roaders when to improve brake pads. But
14:36
Speaker 2: brake pads can help. It can definitely help. On the
14:38
Speaker 2: newer builds though we've gone completely over to the power
14:41
Speaker 2: break big break up grade kits and oh my, goodness,
14:45
Speaker 2: they're incredible. So it replaces the entire caliber, the pads,
14:49
Speaker 2: the road or everything. So basically even the it goes
14:52
Speaker 2: to the braided brake line up into the body, so
14:55
Speaker 2: it's a full break replacement and it's already saved. Adding
15:00
Speaker 2: Orange Tacoma in the Nordic Series, Clay and Cyrus if
15:04
Speaker 2: I remember right, we're driving into a city. They're going
15:07
Speaker 2: into a roundabout, and it was pretty heavy traffic, there
15:11
Speaker 2: was construction. It was just chaos and what you'd expect
15:14
Speaker 2: traffic to be, and the auto brake on the truck
15:17
Speaker 2: detected the truck in front of Clay. I think Clay
15:19
Speaker 2: might have been looking, checking his blind spot or something,
15:22
Speaker 2: and the truck directly in front of him slammed on
15:24
Speaker 2: his brakes. So the Tacoma's safety sense detected that and
15:28
Speaker 2: completely locked up the truck and stopped him and prevented
15:31
Speaker 2: him from rear ending the guy. And Clay was adamant
15:34
Speaker 2: that without those brakes, he would have been going into
15:37
Speaker 2: the back of that truck. And even on Orion and
15:40
Speaker 2: our new Tundra that are extremely heavy, they will shut down.
15:44
Speaker 2: It's incredible the stopping power those breaks.
15:47
Speaker 1: So you've got the sweep area, you have, the diameter
15:50
Speaker 1: of the rotors, which helps with cooling, and of course
15:53
Speaker 1: the overall clamping force. I'm sure that there's a lot
15:55
Speaker 1: of consideration that goes into the pad compounds and everything else.
15:59
Speaker 1: But does it work with all the abs, all the
16:01
Speaker 1: traction control, all that stuff works.
16:03
Speaker 2: Yeah. We've never had a single even minute problem or
16:08
Speaker 2: hiccup with them, and they've just been flawless breaks. That's
16:10
Speaker 2: really cool to hear.
16:11
Speaker 1: Now, are you able to continue to run a seventeen
16:14
Speaker 1: inch wheel or does it require you to go to
16:16
Speaker 1: a larger diameter wheel.
16:18
Speaker 2: On the third gend to Comas, you can run a seventeen,
16:21
Speaker 2: but on the third gen Tundras Sequoias you have to
16:25
Speaker 2: go to an eighteen.
16:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's maybe that's part of why you guys
16:29
Speaker 1: have decided to go with a larger diameter tier. That
16:31
Speaker 1: kind of takes us a entire conversation. One of the
16:34
Speaker 1: things that's interesting is big tires come at a cost,
16:38
Speaker 1: mostly to fuel economy, oftentimes stopping distance, which you guys
16:41
Speaker 1: are addressing. They can also affect your gross vehicle weight.
16:45
Speaker 1: There's lots of things that a large diameter tire are
16:49
Speaker 1: negative around. But once you leave the pavement, a larger
16:52
Speaker 1: diameter tire has so many benefits because you have a
16:57
Speaker 1: much longer contact area of much better floatation, you have
17:00
Speaker 1: more ground clearance, you have a larger lever arm to
17:03
Speaker 1: go over ledges, and everything else like that. Everything becomes
17:05
Speaker 1: easier for the vehicle and technical terrain. And of course
17:08
Speaker 1: that goes without saying that they look awesome.
17:10
Speaker 2: Let's all be real.
17:11
Speaker 1: Most ninety nine percent of people go with thirty fives
17:13
Speaker 1: because they look sweet, myself included. So I like a
17:16
Speaker 1: larger diameter tire. I tend to like as large a
17:19
Speaker 1: diameter tire as I can fit with only a couple
17:21
Speaker 1: inches of lift. But then I try to keep it
17:23
Speaker 1: at the stock width of the tire or maybe even
17:27
Speaker 1: a little narrower. And that's because the wheel wells are
17:29
Speaker 1: designed for a certain width of tire. So when the tire,
17:32
Speaker 1: when the suspension cycles and comes up into the wheel,
17:35
Speaker 1: you want that tire to fit into that space. So
17:39
Speaker 1: that's when wheel offset and tire width is so critical.
17:42
Speaker 1: Talk me through the reason why you guys decided to
17:45
Speaker 1: go from thirty threes to thirty fives and how has
17:48
Speaker 1: that experience been do you think it's overall positive? What
17:51
Speaker 1: are some things that you guys have learned about the
17:53
Speaker 1: shift to the big tires.
17:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is a double bladed sword. But we went
17:59
Speaker 2: to thirty five ives. Oh gosh, I think it was
18:02
Speaker 2: on the new Tacomas in twenty one built them for Alaska,
18:06
Speaker 2: and it was mostly because we're going to Alaska. We
18:08
Speaker 2: knew we were going to be in rougher terrain. We
18:09
Speaker 2: wanted something a little bit bigger to help roll over
18:12
Speaker 2: the bumps instead of fall into them. Thirty fives even
18:16
Speaker 2: have we've noticed a big help on just corrugated roads,
18:19
Speaker 2: you tend to go over the bumps and set it
18:21
Speaker 2: into the bumps. Yeah, when we regeared the Tacomas, you
18:25
Speaker 2: barely noticed that you were running a bigger tire. You
18:27
Speaker 2: could feel it in the steering and everything. But all
18:30
Speaker 2: in all, it was definitely an improvement, and for us
18:33
Speaker 2: we were going into Okay, if one truck's go into
18:36
Speaker 2: a thirty five with all of our vehicles on an expedition,
18:39
Speaker 2: we try to standardize the wheels and tires, so every
18:42
Speaker 2: vehicles carrying a spare for each other. Yeah, so when
18:45
Speaker 2: we have one vehicle with a thirty three one with
18:47
Speaker 2: a thirty five one with a seventeen or eighteen inch wheel.
18:50
Speaker 2: It's an issue first try to standardize them. In fact,
18:53
Speaker 2: on this latest expedition, they're all running the exact same wheel,
18:57
Speaker 2: exact same tire. Mostly we wanted to go to thirty
18:59
Speaker 2: five on the tacomas, so we're like, okay, we're gonna
19:02
Speaker 2: go to thirty fives on all the trucks. Just makes
19:04
Speaker 2: it easier for working with swapping tires later and requesting tires.
19:09
Speaker 2: We're not trying to find all these different sizes and
19:11
Speaker 2: which truck does that size go to? And a part
19:14
Speaker 2: of managing the fleet in a lot of ways that
19:16
Speaker 2: we just try to standardize whatever we can.
19:19
Speaker 1: And then you just decide what is the tread pattern
19:22
Speaker 1: that you want upon the terrain that you're traveling in.
19:25
Speaker 1: So if you're going to be in more of deserts
19:27
Speaker 1: or more highway driving, then you'll maybe have an all terrain.
19:30
Speaker 1: When does it make that shift to all right, we're
19:32
Speaker 1: going to put a mud terrain on there.
19:34
Speaker 2: Mud trains look very cool and aggressive, they do.
19:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, Yeah, we come back to the looks.
19:39
Speaker 2: It's all about the durability and yeah, this travel style.
19:43
Speaker 2: If it's going to be highways, deserts like sand, you're
19:46
Speaker 2: saying an all train is better than a mud train.
19:49
Speaker 2: But there have been times where we had to go
19:51
Speaker 2: into a sandy environment and a mud train. We've found
19:53
Speaker 2: that the X three mud trains, the general tires are
19:57
Speaker 2: just so tough and strong. So if it's going to
19:59
Speaker 2: be rocky, sharp, jagged train, then mud and then saying
20:04
Speaker 2: we just you can't really get one tire to be
20:08
Speaker 2: best of all the world, So we just try to
20:09
Speaker 2: get they know we'll keep us going and be less
20:13
Speaker 2: likely to give us a problem. That makes sense.
20:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, Now, have you guys experienced going from the thirty
20:18
Speaker 1: threes to the thirty fives? You experienced any axle breakage
20:23
Speaker 1: or any other things that you think are contributed to
20:25
Speaker 1: the thirty fives or they've been pretty reliable.
20:28
Speaker 2: No, just the rubbing.
20:29
Speaker 1: The rubbing, Yeah, sure, that's your backup alarm.
20:32
Speaker 2: It's self clearancing.
20:33
Speaker 1: It'll eventually the tire will wear out of it.
20:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true. Other than just the loss and drive
20:39
Speaker 2: train power and the fuel economy and the fuel economy,
20:42
Speaker 2: no mechanical problems at all.
20:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that tends to be like if you look
20:47
Speaker 1: at American Expedition Vehicles AEV, and what Dave Hareton does,
20:51
Speaker 1: he recognized a long time ago as an engineer, a
20:54
Speaker 1: genuine engineer as he is, that the bigger tire you fit,
20:57
Speaker 1: the better it's going to perform in most conditions. Like
21:00
Speaker 1: AV finds a way to fit a thirty seven on
21:03
Speaker 1: a Wrangler, and they find a way to fit a
21:04
Speaker 1: forty inch tire on a full size truck because they
21:07
Speaker 1: want to get the tire as big as it can
21:09
Speaker 1: be for flotation and performance and technical terrain. So I
21:13
Speaker 1: do think that we're all as an industry we're learning
21:16
Speaker 1: that Okay, maybe a bigger diameter tire is okay as
21:20
Speaker 1: long as we're not going too wide and as long
21:22
Speaker 1: as we're not going so tall that we start to
21:25
Speaker 1: compromise the center of gravity.
21:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally.
21:28
Speaker 1: And also the OEMs have really helped us. The wheelwells
21:31
Speaker 1: are bigger than they have been so that you can
21:33
Speaker 1: just fit bigger tires in there. The movement to nine
21:36
Speaker 1: and ten speed transmissions have given lower first gears, so
21:39
Speaker 1: you can handle the diameter change oftentimes without even changing
21:43
Speaker 1: the gearing. And the axles the differentials are more robust,
21:47
Speaker 1: and they're using better materials in the diffs and the axles,
21:50
Speaker 1: so we're just seeing less and less drivetrain failure from
21:53
Speaker 1: larger tires.
21:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was just thinking about that, as with our
21:57
Speaker 2: Tundra Sequoias, the new Tacomas, they all have eight to
22:01
Speaker 2: ten speed transmissions and they're actually, as far as I
22:04
Speaker 2: can tell, there's no gearing regear options yet for Noli.
22:07
Speaker 1: No.
22:08
Speaker 2: I think there's some masking of the engine working harder
22:11
Speaker 2: because you're lost in miles per gallon with them, But
22:15
Speaker 2: I think regearing it was sure definitely help it get
22:18
Speaker 2: back those miles per gallon, but you're not noticing it
22:21
Speaker 2: having to struggle or work harder higher RPMs on the
22:24
Speaker 2: interstate because of all the gears that it has now.
22:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, so one of your other roles is maintaining the
22:30
Speaker 1: fleet long term. The vehicles come in and out of
22:33
Speaker 1: international expeditions around the world or using them domestically for
22:37
Speaker 1: various adventures. How do you guys handle like, what's your
22:42
Speaker 1: weekly inspection look like? Do you have a favorite way
22:44
Speaker 1: to keep these vehicles in service? The reason why I
22:47
Speaker 1: ask because I'm thinking about the person that's listening. They've
22:50
Speaker 1: invested so much time and money in their vehicle. How
22:53
Speaker 1: do you help keep this fleet going where it's always
22:57
Speaker 1: ready to go. What are some of the things that
22:58
Speaker 1: you do to keep the trucks in service.
23:01
Speaker 2: On an expedition, it's a morning routine to get out
23:05
Speaker 2: a tour crend, check torque, your lug nuts, make sure
23:08
Speaker 2: get your hands on things you don't know. A bracket
23:11
Speaker 2: or a bolt or a nut's going to be loose
23:12
Speaker 2: if you don't touch it and poke at it and stuff.
23:15
Speaker 2: Always be looking at your vehicle, Always be getting under there,
23:18
Speaker 2: be looking for a problem. Definitely don't find them, but
23:21
Speaker 2: always have that in your mindset is there is a
23:23
Speaker 2: problem somewhere, I need to find it, and that'll help
23:25
Speaker 2: you find those issues before it becomes potentially a life
23:29
Speaker 2: threatening issue one they're here. I would probably say one
23:33
Speaker 2: of the best things we've done is install on board
23:36
Speaker 2: battery maintainers for the start batteries. The house batteries have
23:40
Speaker 2: their own systems you plug into the wall or use solar,
23:43
Speaker 2: but just having some sort of dedicated on board charger
23:47
Speaker 2: hooked up to your start battery, you can just plug in.
23:49
Speaker 2: If you store it for a long period of time,
23:51
Speaker 2: because some of these trucks, they'll get stored for a month. Yeah,
23:54
Speaker 2: and then chances are we have to jump start it
23:56
Speaker 2: if something was left on or if it wasn't put
23:59
Speaker 2: away properly, and then that wears down your start battery.
24:02
Speaker 1: Over to batteries are so expensive now, Yeah, the maintainer
24:06
Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense. Like one of the things
24:08
Speaker 1: that we do during trips, like I go back to
24:10
Speaker 1: Expedition seven or even my trip across Africa recently, is
24:15
Speaker 1: I do have a daily inspection routine, and it's so
24:17
Speaker 1: important to make sure it's you're trying to go, you're
24:21
Speaker 1: maybe you're running later or whatever, but take a minute
24:24
Speaker 1: look at those tires. Inspect the tires. We have to
24:26
Speaker 1: always remember that the most common failure mode of any
24:30
Speaker 1: vehicle is going to be a tire. You're going to
24:31
Speaker 1: get a puncture, You've maybe cut a sidewall, you got
24:34
Speaker 1: a slow leak from a valve core, there's something that's
24:37
Speaker 1: happened with a tire. That's the most common thing to
24:39
Speaker 1: fail in the field. And of course the most common
24:41
Speaker 1: tire to fail is the one that is the back
24:44
Speaker 1: passenger tire because it's the furthest from the driver. It's
24:46
Speaker 1: the most likely the driver has missed something, a rock
24:49
Speaker 1: or whatever and caused a problem. So look for tire damage. Really,
24:53
Speaker 1: like you said, get your hands on that rab the
24:55
Speaker 1: wheel and tire and see if when you shake it,
24:58
Speaker 1: does it feel solid or are you're hearing some clunking
25:00
Speaker 1: and shifting maybe in the bearings or in the suspension components.
25:05
Speaker 1: It's hard to do, but get down on a knee.
25:07
Speaker 1: Look underneath that car. Are there leaks that you weren't expecting?
25:11
Speaker 1: Of course, air conditioned condensation will leak, But if you're
25:14
Speaker 1: smelling gear oil, or if you're seeing coolant leaks and
25:18
Speaker 1: all those kind of things, look for those things. Look
25:20
Speaker 1: for the shock that's popped out of the bracket, or
25:22
Speaker 1: maybe the nut has backed off and all the stud left,
25:26
Speaker 1: and you've just saved yourself from a huge problem. So yeah,
25:29
Speaker 1: those daily inspections are key, and then I do like
25:31
Speaker 1: to do a deeper dive once a week, so we
25:33
Speaker 1: do weekly inspections. I try to tie that around when
25:37
Speaker 1: I'm staying at an accommodation like an airbnb or at
25:40
Speaker 1: a hotel, someone's house, because then if the vehicle goes
25:44
Speaker 1: down or you find a real problem. You at least
25:47
Speaker 1: have a place to stay, so then you can go
25:49
Speaker 1: get parts. You could maybe use an uber to go
25:51
Speaker 1: find things, and that's when you really want to put
25:54
Speaker 1: the wrenches on there, go through all the systems, pop
25:57
Speaker 1: the hood, check all the fluids, and sometimes with these
26:00
Speaker 1: modern vehicles you can't even check the oil. You got
26:02
Speaker 1: to do it through the dash or something. But at
26:04
Speaker 1: least make the effort to really go through all those things.
26:06
Speaker 1: So do those daily and weekly check sheets.
26:09
Speaker 2: And even another one that we've started doing recently is
26:11
Speaker 2: using a paint marker pen and just marking your fasteners
26:15
Speaker 2: your nuts so then you can visually see those two
26:18
Speaker 2: marks don't line up. There's something going on there because
26:20
Speaker 2: I didn't mess with it, so obviously something's loosening up.
26:23
Speaker 1: Okay, let's shift a little bit towards the house systems
26:28
Speaker 1: for the kinds of travel that you guys do, if
26:30
Speaker 1: you exclude your dip vehicle where you're really running a
26:33
Speaker 1: lot of recharging and stuff like that. About how many
26:35
Speaker 1: AMP hours do you find you like to have in
26:38
Speaker 1: the house system.
26:40
Speaker 2: It depends on the role our newest build Roman. Basically
26:45
Speaker 2: we are trying to shift all to electric cooking and
26:49
Speaker 2: production use and running a basically a diit computer for
26:53
Speaker 2: offloading footage. So it had a huge power demand. So
26:56
Speaker 2: we actually went to three one hundred and fifty amp
26:59
Speaker 2: hour ARC batteries, so four hundred and fifty amp hours
27:03
Speaker 2: total to run induction cooking on the galley side and
27:06
Speaker 2: then all of our production charging, which I mean we
27:09
Speaker 2: have a ton of production gear, which most folks are
27:12
Speaker 2: not going to have that level of need for power usage.
27:15
Speaker 2: So the nice thing about that though, is even with
27:17
Speaker 2: four hundred and fifty amp hours in there, we were
27:20
Speaker 2: seeing that it was not it was using it, but
27:24
Speaker 2: it wasn't like, oh no, we're at ten percent, we
27:27
Speaker 2: got to shut things off or anything. That level of
27:30
Speaker 2: overdoing it so much you don't even have to think
27:32
Speaker 2: about it or worry about it and you can just
27:33
Speaker 2: enjoy camp more. In our past builds, we've had maybe
27:37
Speaker 2: one or two hundred to one hundred and fifty amp
27:40
Speaker 2: hour battery or deep cycle batteries, depending on what the
27:44
Speaker 2: usage was. And again, most of the time we'd be
27:47
Speaker 2: cooking on gas, so then it would just be charging
27:49
Speaker 2: our camera gear and running maybe a heater at night
27:52
Speaker 2: if it was colder. Again, no, even with one hundred
27:55
Speaker 2: and fifty to two hundred amp hours, we were not
27:57
Speaker 2: really having any issues with run out at night because
28:01
Speaker 2: then during the day we're driving, it's charging and then
28:04
Speaker 2: solar is charging it up. So we always try to
28:07
Speaker 2: go overkill on solar and then overkill as much as
28:11
Speaker 2: we can on batteries and solar without being like ridiculously
28:15
Speaker 2: too much or too expensive. Yeah, too expensive, So.
28:20
Speaker 1: Trying to strike that balance. It's funny that you guys
28:22
Speaker 1: started using induction cooking, because I just made the shift
28:25
Speaker 1: myself in my Scout camper on the Quartermaster. I've got
28:29
Speaker 1: I probably have about two hundred amp hours now I
28:32
Speaker 1: think a little bit maybe a little bit more than that,
28:35
Speaker 1: and a three thousand watt inverter, and it's you're not
28:38
Speaker 1: running out of gas because you can charge the thing
28:42
Speaker 1: all the time. And then I've got my coffee maker,
28:44
Speaker 1: which is that's actually I should have made that first,
28:46
Speaker 1: because that's my first priority.
28:47
Speaker 2: I can totally go without food. Got it out of
28:51
Speaker 2: the coffee yeah, exactly.
28:52
Speaker 1: But I got a little an espresso machine in there,
28:54
Speaker 1: and that pulls about sixteen hundred watts. The induction cook
28:58
Speaker 1: top pulls fourteen hundred watts. And then I also even
29:01
Speaker 1: went because I live in the desert Southwest. If I
29:03
Speaker 1: lived in Montana, I would not do this strategy. But
29:06
Speaker 1: I live in the desert Southwest, so I actually have
29:08
Speaker 1: an air conditioner and heater pump heat heat pump. So
29:11
Speaker 1: the AC and the heat are both electric. Okay, so
29:16
Speaker 1: they and it You're able to do it after two
29:19
Speaker 1: hundred amps and it takes a big inverter. Fortunately, once
29:23
Speaker 1: the space gets warmed up, it's not running all the time,
29:27
Speaker 1: so I'm just maintaining the temperature and the camper. But yeah,
29:30
Speaker 1: you can run a heater without halving any pro paane.
29:33
Speaker 1: Nothing to leak, nothing to blow up. That's so nice,
29:36
Speaker 1: nothing to refill.
29:37
Speaker 2: Don't have to think about it or worry about That
29:39
Speaker 2: was our big thing, is we just we're gonna in
29:41
Speaker 2: this coming up trip, We're going to be in so
29:43
Speaker 2: many areas. We didn't want to have to worry about
29:45
Speaker 2: adapters for pro paine tanks refilling. Like we brought a
29:49
Speaker 2: few things like a scott ole that would take like
29:51
Speaker 2: the little green one ones, but we sure bring a
29:54
Speaker 2: bunch of those. But we just wanted to try to
29:56
Speaker 2: eliminate and simplify. It's okay, we're gonna have all this power,
30:00
Speaker 2: have all the inverter power in the world, and so
30:02
Speaker 2: let's make use of it and eliminate a gas source. Okay,
30:05
Speaker 2: so you've.
30:06
Speaker 1: Built a lot of trucks, excluding your own personal vehicles.
30:09
Speaker 1: Which one is your favorite? Which one's your favorite one
30:11
Speaker 1: that you have built? If you had to pick your favorite,
30:15
Speaker 1: they're not listening.
30:16
Speaker 2: I think the newest tundra Roman that we built is
30:19
Speaker 2: up there. That's the first one that came to mind.
30:21
Speaker 2: They all have a certain soft spot in my heart.
30:24
Speaker 2: I love how much of a ground up build it is.
30:28
Speaker 2: That Bowen custom Bowen's bed on it. What they did
30:31
Speaker 2: there that the.
30:32
Speaker 1: Fridge slides out of the national lunas slides out of
30:35
Speaker 1: the side, and it has an alue cab on the top.
30:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we worked straight with them and ali caab
30:41
Speaker 2: to get all the dimensions. So then they built that
30:44
Speaker 2: system to drop the alley cab onto it. And so
30:49
Speaker 2: it's two systems that were never They never knew each other,
30:52
Speaker 2: they're never We basically made them work. But it's amazing
30:56
Speaker 2: how functional it is.
30:57
Speaker 1: It's got a nice little table in there and they
31:00
Speaker 1: can sleep two or three, four maybe.
31:01
Speaker 2: Even Yeah, with the Alikab family camper on there, you
31:04
Speaker 2: could fit four up there. It'd be pretty snug. But
31:07
Speaker 2: for a family. Yeah, it's a four seater pickup long
31:10
Speaker 2: bed hybrid tundra, and so it's got all the check
31:15
Speaker 2: marks of a long global expedition vehicle.
31:19
Speaker 1: And sending these vehicles internationally. They do have larger fuel
31:23
Speaker 1: tanks on them. You guys have some custom fuel tanks
31:25
Speaker 1: that get your fuel capacity up to thirty gallons or so.
31:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, so each one we have a twenty five ish
31:32
Speaker 2: gallon auxiliary fuel tank. Awesome, that'll just pump right into
31:37
Speaker 2: the main tank.
31:37
Speaker 1: You guys are gonna need that for future destination if
31:40
Speaker 1: you were. Let's talk a little bit about your own
31:43
Speaker 1: personal bil Like maybe you can tell us, like how
31:46
Speaker 1: you prep your own personal vehicle. And if you could
31:48
Speaker 1: pick any vehicle in the world, what would be your
31:51
Speaker 1: checklist of Like how would Tanner like, what would be
31:54
Speaker 1: the Tanner Bill, the Tanner program?
31:57
Speaker 2: What would you pick? Those Quartermasters have definitely hot my eye.
32:00
Speaker 2: They're cool. I have a twenty fourteen fore Runner right now,
32:03
Speaker 2: so it's an set. Yeah, I love it. I've had
32:07
Speaker 2: it since twenty seventeen to put one hundred thousand miles
32:10
Speaker 2: on it. All I've done is just change oil, so
32:12
Speaker 2: extremely reliable. I liked that it had larger rear seats
32:16
Speaker 2: for a smaller suv for now that I got two
32:19
Speaker 2: boys lately. With what I like to do in the
32:22
Speaker 2: summertime with kayak fishing, having a truckbed function would be
32:26
Speaker 2: really nice because I've been loading and unloading my kayak
32:28
Speaker 2: on the roof of my fore Runner, so I've been
32:31
Speaker 2: looking at tundras. I am definitely a sucker for the
32:35
Speaker 2: Quartermaster Ineos Quartermasters though, just I love the the styling
32:40
Speaker 2: and just the funk that they have of ooh, that's cool.
32:44
Speaker 2: I wish other companies would do that. They have a
32:46
Speaker 2: cool factor about it.
32:47
Speaker 1: So it's hard to find a heavy duty mid size
32:49
Speaker 1: with solid axles and factory auxiliary battery system, factory winches
32:54
Speaker 1: and factory snorkels, all.
32:56
Speaker 2: The factory things. It's like usually we're the ones happen
32:58
Speaker 2: to figure out with these.
33:00
Speaker 1: That makes sense though. It totally makes sense because you
33:02
Speaker 1: spend all day working on truck, you probably don't want
33:05
Speaker 1: to work on your own truck that much.
33:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I'm very thankful and grateful where I'm
33:10
Speaker 2: at with my Forerunner, because I'm to the point where
33:12
Speaker 2: I'm like, I don't really know what else I'd want
33:15
Speaker 2: to do to it. There's always that one big thing
33:16
Speaker 2: I'm dreaming, who I can't wait till I can save
33:19
Speaker 2: up to get this or that. And it's like I'm
33:21
Speaker 2: to a point where I like, I haven't really done
33:23
Speaker 2: anything to it in a long time, just because it's
33:25
Speaker 2: just get to drive it. Yeah, I mean it's honestly
33:27
Speaker 2: the daily driver to and from work. I don't get
33:31
Speaker 2: out a whole lot into the mountains as I used to.
33:34
Speaker 2: It does exactly what I needed to do.
33:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, we talked a lot about the good, but it's
33:39
Speaker 1: on the Overland Journal podcast. We also talk about the bad.
33:42
Speaker 1: So let's pick maybe one, two, or three things that
33:45
Speaker 1: you guys tried that just didn't work. Things that you
33:48
Speaker 1: and we're not trying to disparage anybody's company. Sometimes things
33:51
Speaker 1: just don't work for your needs. So what are some
33:53
Speaker 1: things you felt fell short or didn't really work that way?
33:58
Speaker 2: Hmm, you wouldn't do again in Probably one thing that
34:02
Speaker 2: comes to mind is spend good money on the electronics.
34:07
Speaker 2: Do not try to get like cheap Chinese. I understand
34:11
Speaker 2: that there's a certain budget everybody has, but man, nine
34:15
Speaker 2: out of ten times if you cheap out on electronics,
34:19
Speaker 2: especially like even electrical fittings or wired connector or stuff
34:23
Speaker 2: like that, that you're like, oh, I'll just spend a
34:26
Speaker 2: little bit less and get this versus the good version
34:29
Speaker 2: or something. The last thing you want is to be
34:31
Speaker 2: out in the middle of nowhere and get left stranded
34:33
Speaker 2: because that part failed.
34:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really great example, and I think if
34:38
Speaker 1: people keep it in mind, if you're having to go
34:40
Speaker 1: with the lowest possible budget solution, you're probably better off
34:43
Speaker 1: not doing it at all. So don't do the three
34:46
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety nine dollars winch because when you really
34:48
Speaker 1: need it, because it's a safety it's a safety devitally,
34:51
Speaker 1: you're better off not having it at all because then
34:54
Speaker 1: you would be less likely to take as many risks
34:56
Speaker 1: and maybe you have some MAX tracks with you or whatever.
34:59
Speaker 1: For me, like, some examples that come to mind are
35:01
Speaker 1: like the portable power systems. There's definitely multiple classes of
35:06
Speaker 1: quality in those things, and you're really putting all your
35:09
Speaker 1: eggs in one basket, so it's got your solar charge controller,
35:12
Speaker 1: it's got your inverter, it's got your battery in there,
35:15
Speaker 1: and it's surprising, like some of them, they'll swell up,
35:18
Speaker 1: the whole case exploded. And so I think a lot
35:21
Speaker 1: of that's gotten better. Those are some examples of things
35:24
Speaker 1: where you know, using the appropriate tool for the job
35:28
Speaker 1: is you're always better off doing that. So those are
35:31
Speaker 1: some things that come to mind for me that I've
35:33
Speaker 1: had fail through the years.
35:35
Speaker 2: Especially those portable power banks. And you go to Amazon
35:38
Speaker 2: and it's there's every random company you've never heard of
35:42
Speaker 2: it make their own version. It's the pricing is very tempting,
35:45
Speaker 2: but man, it's like that's sketchy to think about how
35:48
Speaker 2: many options are out there that you don't have any
35:51
Speaker 2: idea that makes some or what is in it that's right.
35:55
Speaker 1: Like another one that comes to mind is we've only
35:57
Speaker 1: had one fail. But for example, we used a Lifesaver
36:00
Speaker 1: jerry can and it's split at the seam. And if
36:05
Speaker 1: you've got all your again, all your eggs in one basket.
36:07
Speaker 1: So I like to have water in multiple containers. I
36:10
Speaker 1: don't like to stick just have one water container because
36:14
Speaker 1: if the water becomes compromised it's no longer potable, or
36:18
Speaker 1: if it ends up with a leak or a crack
36:20
Speaker 1: and you lose all twenty gallons, then you're really without water.
36:23
Speaker 1: I learned after that it's like, hey, I want to
36:25
Speaker 1: have some of those MSR dromedary bags in the footwell
36:29
Speaker 1: and maybe I've got an extra lifesaver jerry can, or
36:32
Speaker 1: I use another type of jerry can. The nice thing
36:35
Speaker 1: about the life savers is they have the built in
36:37
Speaker 1: filter and they can build in some pressure. But it's
36:39
Speaker 1: interesting because we're always testing new stuff and journal we're
36:42
Speaker 1: constantly checking out new things, and it's surprising when you
36:46
Speaker 1: really start to beat on them. Oh wait, that didn't
36:48
Speaker 1: actually hold up. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah So that's
36:52
Speaker 1: that's good feedback. I really appreciate your thoughts around that.
36:54
Speaker 1: On all the electrical stuff.
36:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, honestly, we are, as me working with x Overland,
37:00
Speaker 2: We're very thankful to be working with the best of
37:02
Speaker 2: the best call of our company. So I unfortunately, unfortunately
37:07
Speaker 2: don't really have a lot of experience with the cheaper stuff.
37:11
Speaker 2: We work with red Arc for our house battery management systems,
37:15
Speaker 2: and we work with the pretty much the best that
37:19
Speaker 2: we see fit for our use in all of them,
37:22
Speaker 2: and in my personal area of expertise, I've definitely gone
37:26
Speaker 2: through my process of cheap light bars over the years
37:29
Speaker 2: of my brig and I finally was like, Okay, I
37:32
Speaker 2: just need to spend the money and get a good
37:34
Speaker 2: quality light bar. And that is another area where it's
37:37
Speaker 2: do not again. Now they're all they all look good,
37:41
Speaker 2: they all function for a cheaper price. But if you're
37:44
Speaker 2: looking at getting good lights on your vehicle that you're
37:46
Speaker 2: going to rely on and need to use for years,
37:48
Speaker 2: get into the good companies to go on the Amazon
37:51
Speaker 2: bandwagon on those light bars.
37:53
Speaker 1: Or just don't run it at all. Yeah, you're better
37:56
Speaker 1: off just not even putting it on the vehicle if
37:58
Speaker 1: it's going to end up failing your field.
37:59
Speaker 2: And a source of frustration.
38:02
Speaker 1: Tanner, tell me one of your favorite stories of you've
38:05
Speaker 1: done some cool adventures with X Overland and yourself personally.
38:08
Speaker 1: What's your favorite adventure story of your own experience that
38:11
Speaker 1: you'd like to share with the audience, your own little
38:14
Speaker 1: moment on the next overland trip that you'd like a
38:17
Speaker 1: story you'd like to tell.
38:18
Speaker 2: Boy, oh, putting me on the spot. There my last
38:23
Speaker 2: expedition I was on was Iceland, which was incredible. Oh gosh,
38:27
Speaker 2: that place is incredible. Honestly, favorite story probably would be
38:35
Speaker 2: the F road in Iceland that we took. I think
38:37
Speaker 2: it was the F two oh six, okay, that we
38:40
Speaker 2: took when Torfy was there. It was towards our beginning
38:43
Speaker 2: part of working our way up through the middle of Iceland. Yeah,
38:48
Speaker 2: just that whole road was probably the most spectacular landscapes
38:52
Speaker 2: I had ever seen in my life. Yeah, the whole
38:54
Speaker 2: trip in general was definitely a highlight for me, just
38:58
Speaker 2: learning about their culture and how much they respect the
39:01
Speaker 2: land there. If you can go to Iceland, rent an
39:04
Speaker 2: off road vehicle, rent a vehicle, travel around, learn the culture,
39:10
Speaker 2: learn how much they respect the land there, and yeah,
39:13
Speaker 2: it's amazing. No off road is literally no off the road,
39:17
Speaker 2: And it really opened my eyes to how remote and
39:20
Speaker 2: isolated you can still go explore there, even though it
39:23
Speaker 2: sounds like on paper you'd be very limited on where
39:25
Speaker 2: you can go. And it's amazing how isolated you can
39:29
Speaker 2: still get there, even on a little island.
39:31
Speaker 1: You still haven't even crossed the glaciers yet, which a tanner.
39:34
Speaker 1: It's been such a joy to have you on the podcast.
39:37
Speaker 1: I have such admiration for the work that you do.
39:40
Speaker 1: The quality of your work and your thoughtfulness around the
39:42
Speaker 1: builds continue to evolve. I've heard Clay seeing your praises
39:46
Speaker 1: about the quality of work that you do on the
39:49
Speaker 1: vehicles and a vehicle dependent expedition team, they really start
39:54
Speaker 1: off with the quality and the attention to detail of
39:57
Speaker 1: the person who built the trucks, and you're really the
40:00
Speaker 1: foundation of a great expedition. And for those that are
40:03
Speaker 1: listening and myself as a reminder, we need to be
40:06
Speaker 1: in that same mindset. We need to take the time
40:08
Speaker 1: to build the vehicle properly, make sure we're using quality components,
40:12
Speaker 1: that we're paying attention to the details, that we're inspecting
40:16
Speaker 1: the vehicle before we go. That way we can get
40:18
Speaker 1: back and have a great adventure. Tanner, thank you so
40:21
Speaker 1: much and I look forward to the next time we
40:23
Speaker 1: get to have you on the podcast. Appreciate you having me,
40:25
Speaker 1: and we thank you all for listening, and we'll talk
40:27
Speaker 1: to you next time.