Outskirts Overland Podcast

Off-Road Mastery: Tackling Tire Choice, Vehicle Mods, and the Bond of Overlanding Adventures with Tyson Connell

Charlie Racinowski Season 1 Episode 10

Ever find yourself second-guessing your off-road tire choices or pondering the intricacies of vehicle alignment after a beefy suspension upgrade? Well, buckle up, because Tyson and I are about to school you on everything from the muddy debate between mud terrains and all terrains to the nitty-gritty of selecting a trusty alignment shop. We're not just spinning tales from the Ozarks; we're packing this episode with Tyson's industry insights to ensure your next trail ride doesn't end with a call to AAA.

Tyson's not the only one bringing the goods; our campfire stories illuminate the unbreakable bonds formed while navigating the rugged outdoors with our motley crew of off-roaders. We're talking about the time Brad's Jeep conquered the rocks as effortlessly as our kids stole breakfast, all while sharing the essential gear that makes or breaks an overlanding excursion. And if you're itching to make your rig stand out or pondering the investment in a Viper cut — don't worry, we've hashed out the pros and cons.

Closing out, we don't shy away from the big questions: Is the DIY approach to vehicle maintenance becoming a lost art? Can you really trust your local mechanic with your beloved Toyota? Join us as we tackle these and more, and get ready for next week's special guest Jay from Toyota Trucks of Arkansas, who'll give us the dirt on their community efforts and upcoming events. So, if you're ready to ramp up your off-roading game and maybe share a few laughs along the way, this is one episode you can't afford to miss.

Speaker 1:

The power of the divine is in the presence of the the.

Speaker 2:

All right, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is Outskirts, overland. It is week 10. 10. It's a freaking 10. And today we're talking about suspension, tires, alignments, just maybe basic stuff to get some housekeeping stuff out. Go on over there. If you're anywhere in the Midwest and you drive a Toyota, go on over there. If you're anywhere in the Midwest and you drive a Toyota, go on over to Toyota Trucks of Arkansas TTOA on Facebook and join the group. Give them a follow. They're really cool guys over there. Also, if you work for Go Fast Campers and you ever listen to this, the boy wants to work with you. So again, I got a digital background here going on and it's a rooftop tent and it really should be a go-fast camper. So go ahead and hit up your boy if you ever hear this. And this week I've got Tyson with me. Tyson's a good friend of mine in Arkansas. He's on here with us today, so go ahead.

Speaker 3:

What's happening guys? Glad to be on with you, charlie.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3:

We've been hanging out for a while now. I'm super stoked about your podcast. Everything looks like it's going smooth. Been a long time watcher 10 weeks already, brother 10 weeks.

Speaker 2:

Forever right the decade. So I brought Tyson on. Today we're going to BS a little bit, just as we're friends, but Tyson also. We're talking. We're talking suspension and alignments and different things, and for a living tyson kind of works in that interest industry. So I'll let him talk a little bit about that before we. We kind of just get into discussing a little bit of everything yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 3:

I work for a local dealership here in in town. I've been in automotive since I was a kid heck, I was a neighborhood bike mechanic for the longest time growing up, so got into automotive naturally behind that and do tires every day at the dealership that I work at. And yeah, I like to talk about tires, alignment, suspension, all that good jazz tonight. So looking to have some pretty good topics, some good info to pass around so, so, so, yeah, so.

Speaker 2:

So for a living, tyson does tires, and I have a kind of a funny story about tires with me and tyson, um. So I have falcon wild peak at3w's on my truck now, 10 plies um, and tyson had recommended those to me probably two years ago, and I've put on about three different sets of tires that I didn't like before I finally put them on. So I had to listen to tyson. I probably saved three grand, so he's a decent resource. He himself is getting some new tires this week, though tell them about what you're getting yeah.

Speaker 3:

So we're gonna take off the the Falcon Wild Peak AT3s. I put them on at 8,000 miles on my 4Runner. I've got 66,000 now, still have 11 30-second 7-inch tread on the tires, so they're holding up great, but I fell into the ultimate sweet hookup on the tires, so we're going to switch over to the Toyo open country at3s comes with a 65,000 mile manufacturer warranty, so life expectancy is 10,000 more than the falcon, so I'm hoping that it's going to be a little bit longer lasting. Um, you know, get the same results that we did out of the falcons, but they have definitely a chunkier tread and I'm looking forward to seeing how that handles in the mud and things like that. Uh, the falcons definitely are not no slouch when it comes to off-roading. I mean, I think that I've never really had like an extreme traction issue, um, unless it was like, didn't matter what you ran, you were going to be stuck no matter what. So, um, I don't feel like the falcons are just not capable. It's just, uh, trying different things and you know that way.

Speaker 2:

There, my information span just widens the horizons so and and definitely like one thing I wanted to get into and we can talk about it and we can go back and forth. I know me and you agree on this, but, um, I had, I had mud terrain tires before and I know mud terrains versus all terrains is a big topic. Also, six ply versus 10 ply is also a big topic, because the 10 plies are a little heavier but they have a stronger sidewall but they weigh more, you know, and in some and in some of the bigger mud tires you can't even get them in a 10 ply. But me and you both run 10 ply and I see that as almost like insurance, in my opinion, to have the thicker tire. But it's definitely a conversation. So Tyson works in northwest Arkansas where off-roading is big, so he deals in tires all the time. What do you see? Do most people do the 10 ply or do you have that conversation a lot?

Speaker 3:

I mean we have the conversation quite a bit. I mean I think a lot of people out here they're used to driving on the dirt roads and things like that. So, like the shell rock, it's super easy to puncture a four ply tire. I mean it just cuts it through it Like it's a knife through hot butter. I mean. So if they're used to driving on dirt roads a lot, they come in asking for it.

Speaker 3:

You know, the other thing that we do is we qualify the customer.

Speaker 3:

I mean, are you going to be out off-roading every weekend or are you going to just be doing it once in a while?

Speaker 3:

You know, if you're doing it once in a while, 10 ply is not necessarily necessary, but I mean if you're like you know, charlie and myself we go out a lot I mean I think I've been out and at the end of the day, like you just don't want to be out there messing with having a big hole in the sidewall of your tire. I mean we went down to Frog Bayou Falls a little while ago with a buddy of mine and he went through two tires and all he had on was the factory four ply Nitto tear grapplers that came on the forerunner. So you know, nobody else that was running 10 plies had any other issues. So I definitely agree that it works. It just depends on the application. I mean, if you're not going to be out here doing like a day four in the Ozark national forest up on Morgan mountain you know it's it's really not necessary. But if it is something that you plan on trailing your rig, which a lot of us are, I mean you really need to consider putting a heavier duty tire on there.

Speaker 2:

Right, and I think the thing that I hear the most from people is they don't want to do a 10 ply. They're like it rides rougher, it's heavier, but at the same time I mean I don't want to be changing a tire on a trail or just ruining my tires. You know, I feel like the 10 ply is more of a protection of your financial investment.

Speaker 3:

Well, you know, I mean it's it just goes to everything else. I mean you're out there in the mud and the dirt and the sand. You know, if you, if you blow a bead, if you blow a sidewall, then you're trying to clean it all out to try to get it to stick with, like you know, like maybe you're trying to use a flat repair kit or something like that. I mean it's just not going to be an ideal situation. You know, if you're on the highway and you have a puncture, it's a whole lot different. I mean, I know it's scary to be on the side of the road changing the tire or whatnot, but it's way different experience than doing it on the trail.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean it's flat. It's usually flat ground at least. Yeah definitely.

Speaker 3:

Or you know you got to get to flat ground on a flat tire. Then you're worried about damaging the wheel and sensors and all that other crap that goes along with that.

Speaker 2:

Well, and also, quite honestly, when you're on the trail, getting a tow isn't an option. If you get a flat on the side of the highway, we're going to talk about this guys. So getting a tow is not an option. But if you get a flat on the side of the highway and you want to not do it on the side of highway, you can triple a it absolutely on the trail. I'll let tyson, I'll lean into tyson here.

Speaker 3:

He has a uh unique toe trail stuck situation, yeah so he was in so yeah, we went out to uh woolham and um, the way it took us was the back way from like the South side. So as we were going out there, you know the trail to that I was trying to access was closed. But looking at the Gaia and it had a trail all the way up to, um, the uh Buffalo river, the uh Buffalo river. And I was like, okay, well, we're just going to take that and see where it leads to. So it led us right to the Buffalo river. I was probably not even a mile away from where I was trying to be at and the forerunner got buried to the frame. I was by myself. It was a nightmare. I was stuck for 11 and a half hours. I finally got a hold of a tow company. We had to walk almost two miles just to get cell service, just to be able to call, and they came out and got me. But it definitely did not, was not cheap.

Speaker 2:

Let's talk about. So we're talking tires, okay. So I want to talk about this for a second. What did your just just offhand? What? What's? What's?

Speaker 3:

four new 10 ply tires cost, just just just for I mean you're gonna, you're gonna be looking at 18 to 2 grand for a quality tire how much was that one toe? 2400 bucks yeah, guys.

Speaker 2:

So I, I this is, this is just brings me into another point that I talked about earlier. Like make sure you've got some. I don't even know if in tyson's situation that recovery equipment would have helped him another rig with recovery equipment could have helped him. But just I only bring up what tires cost, because just what that one toe is like a new set of tires, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3:

it took three trucks and a tractor to get me right and the tractor had to build a road to get to where I was at. Just to be able to get the truck down there, that was winch, ready to get us out.

Speaker 2:

And I only bring this up because, unfortunately, out of our large group of guys that go um just due to unfortunate nature, tyson's the only one that's been in this situation. So so it and it. Quite frankly, he would tell you now and this is a, this is, you know, off topic of what we want to talk about today, but, like if it looks sketch, I think we all now have learned from Tyson's mistake get out and walk it always get out and walk it, Cause if you're you know, a hundred to 150 to 250-pound self is sinking.

Speaker 2:

You're 5,000-pound rigs sinking and I think after that happened, me and Tyson also used to just look at water crossings. If you guys are watching this, give it the old. I think I can see a rock down there. That's not too bad and we just send it. After this experience, I don't think we're. I think we're all walking stuff a hundred percent.

Speaker 3:

Yes, for sure. Unless I'm with the group, then it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2:

I mean, right it, it. But also, like we went last year, me and tyson went last year and we had we had a jeep cherokee regular jeep, cherookee Trailhawk with us Yep, and this was a new guy to our group and he came with us. He's he goes a lot. He's a part of another group of guys I go with that all have Wranglers, jeep Wranglers, and he came with us. But you've got to also take into account, like that dude, we, we did some water crossings in the Ozarks. He didn't have a snorkel and he's way lower so we had to take a little bit of clearance and I mean I mean just how tall that vehicle is into account because it was lifted, but it's like I mean it's like a size of a ford escape. I mean it's a liddler vehicle.

Speaker 3:

so and we them. We stacked them in between two capable rigs just in case anything did happen.

Speaker 2:

With winches.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, 100%. If we had to, we were going to yank them out. So, yeah, I mean knowing that kind of stuff. I mean, if you're not a real strong wheeler, like not being in the lead and not being in the back is like primo for you, if you're new to this and you're new to the off-roading, all I can suggest is is follow somebody that has done it before. And if you're out there doing it alone, like that's cool too, but just make sure that you have the things that you need to get out of said situations. I mean I had max tracks, I had, you know, ratchet straps. I mean I, I, I even ratchet strapped like four blocks of wood around my tires just to kind of dig itself out, and all it did. I mean it was just quicksand, everything that I did. It just made it sink even deeper.

Speaker 2:

Right, and this is where I hear people talk to like I get it all the time. I don't have any lockers myself, but Tyson has a rear locker in his vehicle and multi-terrain sleigh. There's just there's just certain situations where you're getting stuck, Like you're just like it's, it's happening, Like it don't matter what tires you got, Don't matter what locker you got, it don't matter Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah gears, You're getting stuck. So that's also something like. I hear that so much Like the more I get into this social media. They're like well, if you had this, and I'm like there's no unicorn piss, that's get lifting me out of this hole.

Speaker 3:

Like definitely not happening. Not unless you've got a magic wand and you can just like wave over it and you're out. You know what I mean. Like that's the only way. I mean I I've been on trails too. That I've done a hundred times and I'll you know, trail conditions change week to week and I've gotten stuck in areas that I've gone through a thousand times.

Speaker 2:

I mean we just did that last time, we just did that union school trail again and that's not the last time you've been out, but that's last time. That that's last time me and you went out wheeling not camping but wheeling and uh, and it was washed out quite a bit different than it was last time we went on it. I mean you almost can, almost can't even predict. I think that's also like we're going to get into so much stuff here that's off topic, but like you almost can't even predict a trail based off, if you look at Onyx or you look at Gaia and you look at I overlander and they're like, oh, six out of 10. Well, like this year in Arkansas was a lot wetter year than last year and I've already seen far more washout trees down like high wind year, high rain year trails. It might've been a four, they're now like a seven.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, in places like that Morgan mountain two weeks ago and Chris almost rolled his vehicle out there. I mean, the hole that he was in was a mile and a half long.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and Jay just said it and I'll have Jay on next week, my buddy Jay. But yeah, Jay said trail ratings change by the month and I I was like was not a good time yeah. I is Tyson's fiance. And yeah, and they do. Trail ratings change all the time, so like take some of that with a grain of salt. But then again back to the first point we made get out and walk, get out and walk, get out and walk.

Speaker 3:

And a lot of people think that you know if you have a mud tire it's going to be more capable than an all terrain. I mean, I can tell you right now in Charlie and I've talked about this, I mean the ride quality on a mud terrain versus an all terrain, just on normal highway driving, is night and day difference and I feel like that an all terrain at the right PSI, you know the right kind of vehicle, can be just as capable as any other mud tire.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I and and I had mud tires and my big thing with them is they were actually quite a bit stickier but like the wheeling continued to get like okay, I got them scrubbed in before they're scrubbed in that kind of sucked, but after I got them scrubbed in, and what scrubbed in means is you kind of get them cut up a little bit so they grip rocks and stuff better. For those of you that don't that'll listen later.

Speaker 3:

But once they're scrubbed in, were great, but kind of, as time went on, they got crappier and they do they start cupping and they start, you know, riding super rough, like I don't get me wrong like if you're in the mud 24 7 and you're on the highway, you know 10 miles, like a week, but everything else is in the mud, then a mud terrain is the way you need to go and quite frankly for like me and tyson, we both have rooftop tents we carry a lot in our rig like I don't think a mud terrain is even your best, best bet for a heavy rig.

Speaker 3:

I, I don't think so I mean I watched those guys with the dualies and and they were, you know, running, running to the oil rigs and stuff and they all wanted, you know, mud terrain tires and stuff like that and they just they always looked like crap, it was just all beat up. I mean, they they weren't wearing, even if it's your everyday rig dude, I'm telling you right now, a good all-terrain tire or even a rugged terrain like the cross between a mud terrain and an all-terrain, that would be the the way to go as well and I was just gonna say there's.

Speaker 2:

You know, we got this middle ground. Now the RT, which, for those of you that don't know what an RT is, an AT is like a more aggressive. It's like a more aggressive, longer lasting, more wide range of weather tire. So that's what an AT is. An RT is going to be a little more aggressive, but not quite a mud tire, so it's going to handle water a little better, as different siping for that and that's a relatively new subclass of tire. Now I think me and Tyson have both looked into RTs his new Toyos, there's an RT and they're freaking sick.

Speaker 2:

And I like my Falcons and they got an RT and they're really sick. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell anybody yay or nay on those tires. Honestly, I didn't spend my money there. Have you had any people get them and you get any reviews outside of what we could watch on YouTube on those?

Speaker 3:

Oh, absolutely. I had a guy just the other day got them for his Tundra. It was the Falcon Wildpeak RTs. Actually they come with a 50,000-mile manufacturer warranty. So I mean you still get a mileage warranty. So that means that they will hold up at least 50,000. So that's really cool that an aggressive tire like that even does have a mileage warranty. But they were super nice. He said that when he drove them home he wasn't like rattling his teeth out or anything like that. So you know, I mean to be expected we'll see how they last, you know, over time, but you know nothing that that I've seen that. You know somebody has had any like major issues with. Most of the time it's mud tires and they're complaining that they're chopped or they're vibrating and they don't know why. They've aligned it balanced. It doesn't matter what you do. Once you get that chopping in the tire, the only thing to do is to replace the tire yeah, you just be chasing, chasing it with balancing it.

Speaker 2:

The biggest, the biggest scare I had with my mud tires that, I think, ended it for me is you hydroplane like a mother. So if you drive I drive my truck every day so like, just like tyson said, but like if you're anywhere that gets any type of water, they're damn near dangerous driving on like the highway.

Speaker 3:

And that's the thing I mean they're not rated. I mean they're rated for the speed potential of your vehicle, but there's no way that it's going to hold up as bad, as good as like an all terrain or an RT. You know they're not made to be driving fast down the road, they're not made to primarily be on the highway, nothing like that.

Speaker 2:

So right, so we're going to get into other things. So I just uh, I just uh, unfortunately to my bank account. I just uh was underneath my truck and I kind of had to uh, my whole entire front suspension needed replaced in my truck. Um, I upgraded my suspension I guess probably, probably about a year and a half ago. I put toy tech um springs and struts on my truck and, uh, I still had stock control arms and I went under it. I just I just rotated my tires um couple of weeks ago and I was under there, my shock, one shock was shot. The bottom bushings on both shocks were shot, Both outer tie rod ends were shot and my upper ball joints were. There's not even shots, not even the word. They were like they left the chat.

Speaker 2:

So I I last week I got new shock, new struts, uh, new control arms and new tie rod ends as well on my truck. Um, I went, I was at two and a half inch lift, um, they were adjustable so I could have taken them up. I actually took my truck down a half inch, uh, trying to save the ball joints a little bit from the angle of the uh control of the excuse me, the CV shafts. But I went back to three inch. Um, it was it. It the truck rides a lot better. And uh, in in the meantime, while I was doing all this, my sway bar end links had also left the chat.

Speaker 3:

So, speaking of that, you took them all the way off.

Speaker 3:

So how is it running with no sway bar links, because I had a Jeep and there was times where we got off the trail and I never put the sway bars back in. And it was I'm not going to say it was sketchy, it's definitely a different feeling than driving with them in, but it was definitely doable. It's definitely a different feeling than driving with them in, but it was definitely doable. But I've heard a lot of people in the Toyota world that say that you know, don't ever take the sway bars off, blah, blah, blah. So just curious on how it's running.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, my truck for for context, because my truck isn't stock width either I do have two 85 tires and I do have inch and a quarter spacers, so I do have a three inch wider truck essentially and I do have inch and a quarter spacers. So I do have a three inch wider truck essentially and I also have wider tires. So I wouldn't say this would apply to everybody. But, yeah, I deleted the front sway bar. There is no rear sway bar. But while I did my struts and springs, this time I have a front steel bumper and a winch, I got heavy load struts and I also have constant heavy load leaf springs in the rear. I did not notice a difference in my trucks driving. I didn't Um, and I have. We have me and Tyson have a friend that has his, his sway bars removed and he it's uh, it's uh, it's a situation.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it gets. It gets kind of gnarly sometimes and then you know, like I don't know if it's like a sensor or what, but it was. You know, after we did the alignment it wasn't happening as frequent but like the ABS module was coming on and things like that. So you know, there's definitely some sensors, things that will probably interrupt with that in in highway speeds, but definitely not anything off-road. But I was just curious on if you've noticed anything like that abs kicking in, traction control kicking in.

Speaker 3:

I mean all these no, go ahead, all these, all these new cars, they just have so many different traction control. I mean, with my forRunner, if you don't have it in park and press and hold the traction button, it'll release traction control off the ABS, but it still has traction control in the transmission module. So you know you can never I mean you can get it off. You know you have to put it in park, you got to press and hold it, you know, and then it'll take everything off. But you know, just taking regular traction control off it doesn't necessarily stop the transmission control module from kicking in some kind of traction control.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I think a caveat here is Tyson drives a fifth gen TRD off-road 4Runner. Our friend Tristan, whose vehicle is a little sketch's, a lexus gx. So it's, it's fancier. So tyson's fancier than me, tristan's fancier than tyson. I'm in an sr5 tacoma. I do it's, it's, it's pretty well manual. Um so for me, I noticed it just rides a lot better over potholes because my tires can just do their own thing nice, nothing's connected so it's not doing the you know, it's actually just so did you ever consider the sway bar straps?

Speaker 2:

those are pretty popular so, yeah, I I dropped my sway bar, just sway bar, relocation on it, but I was actually just with it being lifted and off-roading as much. I was on my third set of sway bar, bushings dang, and I was like this is just ridiculous and and I'm I'm pretty active on the Tacoma forums and everybody's been telling me to just throw it in the trash. I didn't throw it in the trash, by the way, but I did just remove it to see what I thought about it. Um and I it it really like if it made any difference. I don't notice it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and you know what's crazy to me is like not to hype up Jeep, because I'm a Toyota boy and I love it. I had a Jeep. But Jeeps are just their sway bar access points are way easier than a Toyota. So in a Toyota you have to commit to either no sway bars or running sway bars because it's not in a convenient location where, like on the Jeep, I mean heck, everybody and their mother sells the sway bar disconnect like quick disconnects. I mean some of them come with electronic locking. You know that that kind of stuff the new sixth gen for 4runner is going to have, you know, electronic disconnecting sway bar links, which I think is a huge upgrade for toyota. But they're way behind times. I mean jeeps had that for hell 10 years, I don't even know how long they've had it for a while though it's been on the rubicon for a long time a long time.

Speaker 3:

So I mean, I feel like toyota's really starting to gear their vehicles into um, you know what, what we all want them to be. You know off-road capable and things like that out of the box. Um, you know the new uh trd pro tundra you can run 37s with no lift kit, factory suspension. It will not rub, you don't have to cut anything, they literally will slap on and roll out the bay. I mean that, that is, that is cool. I mean I don't know any other manufacturer that you can run 37s besides, maybe like a uh, what is that chevy? Uh, silverado, that's the big bad boy edition.

Speaker 3:

Um, oh yeah, the zr2 yeah, maybe those could run a 37 or a 35 from the factory bronco probably could run a 37 yeah, I think it's just on. The badlands edition comes with factory 35s, but broncos and I'm gonna.

Speaker 2:

I got to say it like people will listen to this later. But man, the only time I've been wheeling in a vehicle has broke. That vehicle was a new Ford Bronco. Every freaking time I've not had, you could say what there could be. All the hate here, I'm not hating on nothing, that's a fact. Never broke a Jeep, never broke a Toyota anything of any year Jeep. Never broke a Toyota anything of any year but that new Bronco. Two door, four door. It's a tie rod ends break. You'll just, we'll just gone freaking.

Speaker 2:

One guy recently just went through a water crossing, killed his alternator Cause it's down low Like it's ridiculous.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I, I wrote service for Ford and there was all kinds of recalls on them and there was all kinds of problems. I mean, I'm not a big fan, but teach your own. If that's your vehicle then you know, I'm sure you worked hard for it and you know not talking smack Just make sure that you have everything dialed in. You know have replacement parts in case you do break down.

Speaker 2:

Be aware of its very glaring shortcomings Like and shortcomings like and again, I don't hate ford. I've been out with raptors. They don't break no. I mean like it's a, it's a specific. Something is wrong. Something just didn't happen right with the new bronco.

Speaker 3:

I think it looks freaking sick they got to work out all their bugs, like any other auto manufacturer, I mean you never buy the first model of anything, the gen 6 4runner. I would stay away from that for right now and just see how it goes. Honestly, I mean I'm not a huge fan of the, the twin turbo and the hybrid. I mean water and electricity doesn't mix, water and turbos don't mix. I mean there's just a lot of things going on low rpms and turbos don't mix well.

Speaker 2:

You'll end up overboosting the turbo and you'll be wearing your turbo seals out. Anyways, I think you're going to be able to make the new ones faster than shit with tuning, though, I mean I bet you can make them fast.

Speaker 3:

Oh, I bet you can too and the fact that it's using a hybrid motor to assist for more horsepower, more torque. You know you're not wasting money and fuel economy that way. So that's kind of cool, because I mean, I don't know about y'all, but I get 13 miles to the gallon on my lifted forerunner and that's on a good day downhill with the wind in the back.

Speaker 3:

But you know, so I'm hoping that you know it's going to improve fuel economy, especially when you start doing stuff. But you also have to remember, like you know, if you buy a newer vehicle like 6th gen 4Runners ain't going to have lift kits readily available. They're not going to have front bumpers readily available. You're going to be the guinea pig for everything that comes out. I mean, the 5th gen 4Runner has been out for years and the 4Runner in general has been out forever. But I mean they haven't changed the fifth gen for what it's like 25 years or something crazy, you know. So I mean it's like it's been around forever and it needs an update. Don't get me wrong. But the problem is, with all the current restrictions on the EPA and this and that, like you're just getting into stuff that creates more problems in my opinion.

Speaker 2:

I mean, as it is, everything is electronically powered, and that's what I was going to say. I think they're making them far more electronic, but they're offering trim levels that we want. I think they're trying to wedge themselves in the middle of what the aftermarket would make up for with like the trail hunter version.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean absolutely honestly trd off-road. Um, I went with a fifth gen trd off-road because it has a manual shift in four-wheel drive like that is one less electronic component that I have to deal with. You know, it still has a actuator on the front diff, um, but at the end of the day it doesn't have two electronic actuators like you have in your truck, um, because those actuators they ain't cheap.

Speaker 2:

I've replaced one of mine already. Yeah, and I think and was that?

Speaker 3:

was that the cheaper or the more expensive one?

Speaker 2:

it was the cheaper one yeah, it was the it like $120. The more expensive one is actually you have to remove the diff you got to remove the whole transfer case.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you got to remove the transfer case. You got to separate it from the transmission. There is tricks and ways to do it, but it has to be aligned properly. I'm telling you, right now you can watch a YouTube video. They pop it right out, pop it back in, that's all fine and dandy. But just remember, all of that stuff has to be timed properly. So if you don't get it in proper, you're going to be redoing the job just because you can't get it into four-wheel drive, and that's why it is an expensive repair, because you do have to drop that and the actual actuator is expensive.

Speaker 2:

I mean out-of-pocket price is probably three 400 bucks at least, if not more, is probably three, four hundred bucks at least, if not, yeah, and my truck on. Unlike the forerunner, and I think both new ones are going to be more online with my third gen tacoma. It's like a turn knob, but you can't go from two to four low. I have to go two to four high to four low. It has to engage in four high to go to four low, and that is actually sometimes so.

Speaker 2:

This is what tyson, we always talk about. Tyson, he stays in two-wheel drive. And I'm never in two-wheel drive. That's because I, if I get stuck on an obstacle, like I can't just go in four low, like it doesn't, my truck literally that doesn't happen, like it can't, it can't do it well, that's part of like getting the challenge, like to see how capable your vehicle is, to my opinion, to run in two-wheel drive as far as you can.

Speaker 3:

If you don't know how far you can go in two-wheel drive, then how are you going to know the capabilities of the vehicle? And I'm not saying everybody has to do it, it's just what I choose to do. You know, everybody thinks it's crazy when I go up all these crazy hills and I'm in two-wheel drive and I'm like, yeah, I just did that two-wheel drive. They're like what?

Speaker 2:

I'm like, yeah, you know, you never know until you do it they all, they all, they all say stuff like that when we do these harder trails and uh, outside of that, though, like they also have to consider, like they're like oh man, you just did that. But, like, once we get off the trail, look at the damage on our vehicles too, like I and I'm not saying that our vehicles are tore up by any means, but like we also, we, like, we've also accepted that fate, to be to be honest with everybody. So, like again, if you're really more worried about like, like, if you're in two wheel, you're gonna slide your back end around more and it's more likely you might hit a tree or a rock 100%.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. And then that's the other thing too, like you know, within reason, you know if I'm around an obstacle that I know that I'm going to slide into wheel drive, I'll lock it into four wheel just so I don't have trail. Yeah, it's like we're not out there to blow this thing up. But at the end of the day, like if I don't have to run in four-wheel drive dude, that saves gas, that saves wear and tear on axles, that saves wear and tear on, you know, front differential transfer case and things like that, I mean it's just the less that you can do it, the better off. You are right and you know to.

Speaker 3:

To, uh, jay's point, you know four low is the better for the engine components in the drive terrain. But also, like when chris was out there and he was in four high, he got that transmission over temp code pop up, you know, because it's struggling in four high. You know that's higher RPM. So that's like if you're driving down the highway and things like that, for low is when you're doing 10 to 15 miles per hour max, you know. So I don't. I mean there's there's a lot of obstacles that require four wheel drive in the in the Ozarks.

Speaker 3:

But there's a lot of dirt road driving too, and if you're pounding, you know, 10 or 15 miles on a dirt road, the last thing you want to be in is either a four low going 10 miles an hour, or be in four high for no reason.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, getting your, getting your transmission super hot, your converter super hot smoking that fluid down there? Yeah, also I find that four high is, or four, four high excuse me, four lows just really most important when I'm going downhill on obstacles, because it's given that major reduction in gears and the engine braking absolutely versus versus your just using your brakes, yep, yep.

Speaker 3:

And that's the other thing too is like all of these auto manufacturers, they all have Tiptonic shifters where you can select your gear. Four low first gear you can climb mountains. Four low first gear, no lockers, I don't care what you got. Four low first gear, that thing will just crawl. And that's really what you want, especially, you know, in some of these. You know obstacles that you face and things like that. I mean don't get me wrong Like lockers are important, but are they required? No, I mean you don't have to have lockers. I mean you might have to take different approach angles. You might. You have to take into the consideration that this is my primary drive axle. I want to keep that one on the ground as much as possible, things like that. But for the most part, I mean you can still do it. You might just take a little bit longer to get over obstacles than somebody that has it.

Speaker 2:

And also, as we talk about suspension and lifts and tires, like there's very few obstacles. Again, we've been on some trails where you cannot get around a pretty gnarly obstacle, but I say it, better than 60% of the time there's a bypass.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and that's and that's. The other thing too is, like you know, some of the bypasses are gnarlier than the regular trail. You know people just didn't get out and walk it.

Speaker 2:

You know, um, exactly that's what I was about to say and that goes back to our point walk it. But that also goes back to tyson's point don't be a lead vehicle if you're not competent and and experienced on the trail. Because I mean, quite frankly, the lead vehicle is the guinea pig Period.

Speaker 3:

And it doesn't matter how many times you've been down that trail, because it could change day to day.

Speaker 2:

Correct and you just don't know. So don't, yeah, that's just a point that I always bring up. Don't be the lead vehicle if you have some type of potential shortcoming, because that's how you will get stuck. If the, if the lead vehicle is a little more built and you see that vehicle struck, just even struggle and you're like, yeah, that's when you, that's when you bypass right 100 and also, you know, you just gain confidence by doing it.

Speaker 3:

You know, like I, I remember chris and i's first experience in his tacoma and I was I was in between my jeep and forerunner, I had a camry at the time and uh, he was like, hey, let's go out to the ozarks. And he was like, all right, cool, you know, we get in his tacoma and he's, you know, got a little lift on it and some tires and man, we had a great time. But it was a total different experience because, you know, he didn't really off-road a whole lot, you know. So it was definitely new for him. He was like, hey, do you think I could do this? You know, we were out there by ourselves in two and a half hours away from home, no cell service, like no radios. This is like brand, brand new into the into all this out here in the Ozarks. And you know he, he was having a good time, I was having a good time, but it was stressful, you know. Then, as you do it more, you know he's, he's out there just trying to roll for runners.

Speaker 2:

Now, yeah Well, and that's another thing, like and I bring it up on this stream in this podcast a lot, but like Jay's comment, a bunch. Jay goes weekly. Tyson goes at least monthly. I go at least monthly. Johnny goes at least monthly. I go at least monthly. Johnny goes at least monthly. Like our whole friend group is going a lot.

Speaker 2:

Like so when we go out anymore, I mean it's, it's, it's changed but when we go out anymore, not only do we have more experience, we also built our stuff better. Like so we're, we're just, we're just doing it. But but sometimes we get up to other people and there's this real weird comparison that happens. So sometimes we'll stop at a major stopping point, whether it's a burger joint or a historical site, and there will be other people and I'm usually in the back, I'm usually last, and I'm usually in the back, I'm usually last and I will see some of those rigs, kind of see what our rigs look like, and then start following us and then they are no longer following us 100%. So, like just again, like, get your experience slowly as well. If you see, you know a Jeep Rubicon on 40s and you just think you got big balls, I mean I've seen them chicken out on stuff that I'm like dude, I'd do that in my foreigner you know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

Just you know kind of kind of read the room a little better. Don't just assume because a truck looks away, because really the experience of like understanding the balance and momentum is is way more important than the lift.

Speaker 3:

How many mall crawlers have you seen that never taken their vehicle off road?

Speaker 2:

Well, and you know mall crawlers that never taken them off road and and and there's a lot of stuff that that in concept looks cool but does not work well, yeah.

Speaker 3:

The functionality for sure.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like, and I think think again, we're all almost 40 like, and we've been doing this a long time like messing with stuff and and I think I said it last week, but like there's enough of us and I have a tacoma and chris had a tacoma and the rest of you guys have some version of a Toyota 4Runner. Really, jay's going to be offended by that, I'm sorry. Jay has a, we'll call it a Land Cruiser. Prado, he's got a GX460. Tristan has a GX470. But either way, they're all a similar independent front suspension.

Speaker 3:

I'm telling you right now, those Lexuses with the a-tracks and a lift kit. I mean they are capable, freaking vehicles. That new 550 is so much room compared to a forerunner, compared to a tacoma. I mean you have kids, I have kids car seats in the back of a Tacoma or a four runner. It's a nightmare, bro. Yeah, three of them. Yeah, so I mean it's you know. I mean it's all about like if money was no option, like Sequoia pro 90 grand. Sign me up you know what I mean.

Speaker 3:

But three inch lift, 37. Nobody's running a nine. Yeah, I'm not buying a vehicle for 90 K, I don't care what it is no, you know my bumper was zip ties.

Speaker 2:

At the moment, I'm not doing. I'm not doing that.

Speaker 3:

My neighbor in like 2005 bought a, bought a, a uh uh SRT Viper for $84,000, brand new, off the lot, you know, and I'm like. Looking at the sticker on the sequoia pro for 90 grand, I'm like what there's no way, and that's not even the expensive one.

Speaker 2:

They have the crazy zone with 22s going for like 100, 110 it's nuts man and they got that jeep's, got that big grand wagon here and they're trying and it's got the new Jeep straight six hurricane. I I don't really know a whole lot about it, but I I try to keep up because I do this with, like most overlanding platforms, you know, the Nissans, the Jeeps, the Toyotas.

Speaker 3:

I mean, chris had a Nissan Xterra Pro 4X great vehicle. It it was awesome. That thing had locking gifts, it had four low, four high, it had the lights on the top of the rack. It came factory with a roof rack. I mean, dude, how could you go wrong with that?

Speaker 2:

I don't think, I think that's one of the better. Not necessarily budget, because everything's expensive, but I do think that the Xterra is budget because everything's expensive, but I, I do think that the xterra is, you don't?

Speaker 3:

you're not paying that toyota tax, you're just missing that titan. Right now, just stop it, dude.

Speaker 2:

I loved, I had my titan was a pro 4x and it was uh, sweet, it was man, it was a, it was a comfortable the. The tacoma is more of a. It's more of like a homemade go-kart I mean the big v8, I mean come on dude, I knew you loved that truck.

Speaker 2:

I mean, don't get me wrong I did, but it had I couldn't, it just wouldn't do. I would have had. You know, I'd had. It would have been so bodied like it, it just wasn't, it's just too wide, it's too long. Yeah, it was too wide, it was too long. I mean, in some ways it just didn't have. I just felt like it didn't even have the same articulation, honestly, that my Toyota I mean my Toyota now has. I mean tons.

Speaker 3:

I can hardly get a jack with an 8 by eight to get it even tire off the ground anymore and that's, and that's what a lot of people don't understand is that you know, on your factory suspension it's only going to go down so far and it's only going to come up so far. You know, most of the time your upper control arm hits the um ring, you know the, the spring or the front strut before it ever gets to its full flex of the spring or the strut. So you know that's really where you have to start making decisions. You know, I mean I think that I'm kind of at that point right now where you know a suspension upgrade would definitely change the level of wheeling, the level of comfortability out there.

Speaker 3:

Um, you know, but is it totally necessary? I mean you've, you've been wheeling for a while. You know you had to replace some parts because they were worn out. You know that's where your pre-trip checkouts come into play. I mean you haven't really been wheeling that rough this year a whole lot anyways, you know, and you know that was all just from your last year's you know colorado and you know the ozarks and I mean, yeah, you were pounding some freaking pavement last year, dude, a lot so I did a lot of long trips last year but I was aware, I've been aware, my upper control arms were very, very close to done um I w.

Speaker 2:

I was very surprised by shocks were done honestly.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's pretty surprising Cause it's a Bilstein shock from the factory, but I mean that just also shows how much weight you put on it. That's what I was going to say.

Speaker 2:

I didn't have my steel bumper in my winch but when I put this, this lift, put this last lift on. The new one is heavier, is heavy load springs. They're bigger shocks with more fluid so they won't fade as well. They're different valving. I think that's going to. I do, and I'm not a huge suspension guy. But that's one thing. I would ask anybody from my experience calling any suspension shop that that carries suspension, I would make sure to let them know what you're driving, how you're driving it and how much it weighs or what your plans are, because I mean maybe you're not at a

Speaker 3:

stage where you have bumpers and rooftop tent and stuff like that. How many people have gone down that road where they upgrade the suspension and they got it dialed in and then they're like, man, you know what I really want a bumper, I run a rooftop tent. Then they start going down that rabbit hole and then, dude, next thing you know you're like maxed out on your spring loads and things like that.

Speaker 2:

And you're just like why does it feel you know? So, yeah, but I was exactly. That's exactly me. I didn't have steel bumpers. I was sleeping in the back of the rig. I have steel bumpers all the way around, steel sliders all the way. I have steel sliders.

Speaker 3:

Now I have a rooftop tent, I have a deck system, I mean, but I now have heavy load springs and shocks on all four corners and it makes a big difference if you're running a drawer system, a deck system, you're, you're fully loaded, ready to go, like I mean you have the refrigerator in there, you got your power banks, you got solar, I mean you're literally, if you jumped in your truck tonight, drove two hours away, you could set up camp and be ready. You know what I mean. Yeah, throw the food in the cooler. In the cooler, sometimes you even carry food in your, in your refrigerator. I know that. I mean so you're literally dialed in to do it at any time. So if you're carrying that weight driving down the road, there's a lot of things that you have to factor in. You know, do I need bigger brakes? Do I need better suspension? Do I need better tires? You know, if you're running a six-ply tire right now or a four-ply, charlie, if you had four-ply tires, they wouldn't even sustain the weight of the vehicle at this point?

Speaker 2:

I don't think so. No, and for those of you that'll listen, my rig weighs 5,700 pounds, with me in it and water and food.

Speaker 3:

Now, my girlfriend, that doesn't count yeah, that doesn't count the kids. Everything else yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yep, that doesn't count, ladina, the kids, that doesn't, you know.

Speaker 3:

And those are, you know, hundreds of pounds more, some price 6,000 pounds and if you're really thinking about it, you know if you're on a two-day trip, you don't pack as much food as you do with a five day or a six day or a seven day or water, I mean.

Speaker 3:

And then you know, or are you making stops to buy food, you know, during the trip, like that's cool too. I mean, if you're anything like us, we don't want to be in the city, we're going to pack everything we need, and if we don't have it, guess what? We ain't got it, you know, unless it's like a dire necessity to live, we're just without it. If you forgot it, oh well, we'll do it next time or whatever the case may be.

Speaker 3:

I mean, there's plenty of times where I've forgotten coffee and I'll borrow your coffee. Or you've forgotten monsters and I'll give you monsters, like whatever you know. That's, that's part about going with the group. You know you can. You can all build off of each other.

Speaker 2:

You know Absolutely and like, even when it comes to like silverware plates, whatever. But you brought something up. You brought up brakes. So brakes is something that I did. I did bigger brakes on my truck. I did power stop, a power stop, bigger brake kit but again, the Tacoma doesn't have four wheel discs like these fancy guys with their Lexuses and their forerunners. But I did do bigger brakes on it because my very first trip with my truck we were coming back down a mountain in Arkansas and I lost my brakes. My brakes went and I was downshifting, I was engine braking but the brakes just couldn't handle the truck at that point. So I did upgrade the brakes and it's night and day better now.

Speaker 3:

But I got carbon ceramics on my truck now, but the only way you learn that is by out there doing it correct yeah you can't just be sitting at home wondering what you need. You got to go out there and test it and then you find out well, that sucked. I'm not doing that, correct?

Speaker 2:

and that brings us. Me and tyson were talking earlier before we got on here, but that brings it. That brings up the thing we were talking about too, like let's get into how about don't go to all these expos and spend all this money to go shop for stuff that you don't even know you do or don't need and now you got and now you got mr youtube fully built truck and you go out and you're like this sucks well, you never even gave yourself a chance to find your own identity you don't even you just got whatever was cool.

Speaker 3:

Things that work for you, don't work for me.

Speaker 3:

Things that work for me don't work for you. I mean absolutely. You know Chris has a drawer system. I don't have a drawer system Would. I like a drawer system Absolutely, but what I want in a drawer system, nobody builds it that way. So now we're looking at a DIY project, you know, and maybe they don't build it that way because it would cost too much money to build it the way that I want it. But that gives me the fluidity to do the things that I want to do with it, because I've been out there, I've seen you guys with your struggles with your drawers and you know the the hardships and the positives. You know.

Speaker 2:

I've learned all of that just from watching you guys go through whatever it is that you go through, absolutely diy'd your drawer set and you ended up back with where you were at with the yeah, I ended up back at a deck. And one thing that you, you guys, and I don't know if jay does um, but I don't have, I don't carry a table. I don't carry, uh, like you guys carry, like a kind of like a camp, like a camp table, like a full-size table. Yep, I have a lifetime. I've like a full size table. I don't carry a lifetime.

Speaker 3:

I've got a lifetime table that I like to set up. But I do that because you have a built in table with the tailgate Correct, you have that access. I mean, like if you drive a Lexus or a Land Cruiser and it has the fold down, you know, rear hatch, then you can use that as a table too. You know, it's totally easy to do on a forerunner. I have a hatchback, you know you're you're only going to get so much space out of that and it's not like I can conveniently lay a table like a Jeep, where they have them on the back hatch there where it just folds down. So I mean, it's, it's, it's literally just a a you know, do you go and buy a $5,000 rear bumper to be able to put a table on it?

Speaker 2:

Right, absolutely. And Jay just said Jay's not into a table either. I'm like anti-table. I got my spare tire under the truck. I'm not really pro swing out. Honestly, I'm like I just don't know that. I want that much my truck to be that much longer.

Speaker 3:

I think having a swing out has its pros and its cons. Definite so what a swing out does for people with 4Runners and things like that. It opens up the ability to take your water cans, fuel cans, fuel cans, your trash-a-roo Put a table on it.

Speaker 3:

Put a table on it. You can put your max tracks up there. I mean it frees up a lot of interior space. That, um, otherwise you would have to have some other kind of solution sea suckers, you know, but it's a multi. I mean it's a multi thing, it's a multi-purpose thing, right, so you get the added protection of having a steel bumper, so you're not damaging the plastics. You can scrape that thing across some rocks. If it gets scraped up, you just spray it with whatever coating that it's on there, or black, make it whatever, and then you move on with life.

Speaker 3:

But right now I don't have replacement front and rear bumpers. I had to do a Viper cut on the front bumper because I was scraping everything. So that's an easy solution. But I was okay with cutting my truck at 10,000 miles. A lot of people are not okay with that, but at the end, if you end up doing a replacement bumper, they have to cut those pieces off anyways. So that's kind of where I drew the line and was like I'm going to do this because I'm tired of damaging the plastic and it freed up so much more space, yeah, for sure and and back to like equipment.

Speaker 2:

Like one thing that I would I will tell you right now is you guys could spend $300 on camp chairs to have the newest, fanciest lightweight camp chair and, uh, it's going to be cool and it's going to be cool and it's going to be small.

Speaker 3:

Chris, if you're watching, this ain't a dig, buddy, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2:

Oh, Chris, is Chris doing this?

Speaker 3:

Chris has gone through like five sets of camp chairs.

Speaker 2:

So I didn't even. This is not even a dig on Chris, this is just a struggle that I even have. Like I watch reviews on reviews on reviews and guys, the little chairs suck, they suck so bad.

Speaker 3:

I mean, you remember when we went to rendezvous Ladina was giving you the hardest time because you brought those little chairs and they just weren't comfortable, they're just but again it was comfortable for you guys in Colorado because you guys were moving, moving constantly going, so you weren't sitting you know, at rendezvous big iron, you know those are two, three, four, four day events and 90% of the time you're sitting waiting for the next thing to happen, the next class or you know, whatever You're even carrying your chair to somebody else's camp to sit with them.

Speaker 2:

Like again, just guys, I would tell every single person out there to go get the cheap Academy chairs. Do not spend any money on any other chair or the Napa chairs.

Speaker 3:

I mean Napa carries those backpack chairs for $20 a piece.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, don't get too invested.

Speaker 3:

And there ain't no different than these high dollar ones, you know.

Speaker 2:

No, I think I probably have. I mean, I definitely have some high-dollar things, but some of the high-dollar stuff I have could very easily be extremely cheap stuff. Oh, 1,000%, just fine.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely. I mean, don't get me wrong, we've got nine of those $5 Academy chairs. I mean, why not? Yeah, why not? If you got kids, dude, they tear crap up left and right Buy them a $5 Academy chair.

Speaker 2:

Chuck it out when it gets trashed.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and if you and mama want a nice chair, then y'all spend the money for the nice chair. You know what I mean. Like I got a GCI rocker. They're $50, $60.

Speaker 2:

Exactly and I would say right now the GCI rocker is the goat, like Tyson has a different GCI rocker than Tyson and his fiance have them. So before I met Tyson, I was rocking the GCI rocker. The GCI rocker was not new here, but that I'm going to be completely honest with you guys. I would highly recommend that chair and I have spent money on chairs, but that GCI rocker man.

Speaker 3:

I mean, I don't know if you've ever been on Gci's website, dude, they've got all the cool stuff.

Speaker 3:

I don't even know it's not the cheapest and it's not the most expensive. I mean you can spend millions of dollars with these companies, but gci really has some cool stuff. Like I got three, uh, stainless steel plates, that camping plates, and they were like five dollars a piece. I mean like these other places. I mean how walmart had a full set for like 60 and I'm like I'm not spending 60 on plates, I'll just carry paper plates at that point, you know, and what's cool about paper plates is you just throw them in the fire. When you're done, they burn up and you move on with life no trash. You know what I mean.

Speaker 3:

But you know, having the nice things, you know it's it, it just takes time I mean yeah, but I first did this, I didn't have all that crap like plastic, silverware and plastic, you know, plates and whatever we could find even you say that like who cares about a fancy plate? Really, as long as the food is good that's on the plate, I don't even care if I got a plate I'm eating out of the pan, so I was gonna say how many times have we been over there on the scottle or the just you know straight off.

Speaker 3:

You know right, we had to stop brad from eating the bacon when he was cooking it. That one day absolutely 100 you've had 900 pieces of bacon.

Speaker 2:

He's just over there using it like a vending machine.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah you know, hey, uh, you know, present Brad was taking care of future Brad.

Speaker 2:

I got to get Brett. I want to get. Brad on here so bad. My friend Brad's hilarious and me and Brad have went a bunch as well. He's a cheap guy, Um you know what sucks is.

Speaker 3:

I got to go with him one time and he stopped wheeling. You know what the heck? I know he'll be back. Give me all this and yeah brad, here we are.

Speaker 2:

we need brad on here just so you can, guys can get the uh, the banter of somebody that hates toyotas. This is, quite honestly. He's got a built, built Jeep, is a pretty built Jeep. It's new, it's like a 23. I think new, new, new. This one is he had a uh 22 before his 23. Yeah, yeah, he did, and he's just anyways he's. He's got a built, fully built Jeep.

Speaker 3:

Uh, and it's nothing. I mean, like when y'all two get together. He's over there yelling across the camp across the camp carls.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, me and brad are pretty funny guys, so sometime I'll have to get brad on here and see if I can get him to get him open up a little bit.

Speaker 3:

Yeah it'll be pretty fun, guys. But I mean you know you're good people too. I mean we met you at uh, at big iron, you know. Uh, I think we were surrounded by like 47 beer cans that night or something, but yeah, we had a good time. I mean it's what it was about my kids came over and robbed you of all your bacon and pancakes in the morning and whatever we were feeding you, too, and drinking, and everybody was having a good time I mean I just rolled up on jay at re.

Speaker 2:

I didn't know jay and I just rolled up.

Speaker 3:

I was like hey I'm here with the other guys I'm this other guy like hey, hey, what's up which? Number? Are you on here so I can save your name Because?

Speaker 2:

that's how it was for Rhonda. I know you're in the group chat, but I don't know who the hell you are.

Speaker 3:

But now we all know each other really well and we started a group chat. I mean hell, I think most days we have. If you don't read them, you have like 150 text messages between us on the daily.

Speaker 2:

Well, yeah, and. Blake is from Alabama.

Speaker 3:

Yep, yep, yep. We met Blake. That time we met Jay. That was the first time for you to hang out with Johnny.

Speaker 2:

That was not my first time to hang out with Johnny, and then Zion showed up.

Speaker 3:

Zion. That was my first time meeting him. Chris was there, or noris wasn't there. This time he was. He was out of town, that's right. But yeah, I mean, when we ended up taking that whole group and and we had like seven or eight people that weren't even with us that went on that trail run with us, I mean we had a great time yeah, and that's that's one thing that I don't know and and guys comment on on the youtube video or the podcast later.

Speaker 2:

But how many, tyson, how many times have we went wheeling outside of just us planning it Like when, when, when, me and you plan it? Well, hell, even the last couple of times, me and you planned it, we had new people.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, I mean every time that we've gone out, I mean I think that we're pretty open to somebody new people, always we always have somebody new. I I mean, look for this whole, for this whole polar bear camp club. We picked up cody, you know, and cody started going with us and he had.

Speaker 2:

What did he just do? What, cody?

Speaker 3:

just do, got him a four-door jl. Baby, he had a jeep, he had a rav4. Yep, he had a rav4 and a mitsubishi montero sport now he's got. He's got a rubicon old mint was a two wheel drive beast, though it made it through this big. I mean, you would have been impressed. I was pretty impressed so.

Speaker 2:

I mean he's in it now. I mean we all go enough that he doesn't have to be worried. Like, oh, I'm going to go, like once or twice. Like you could go, okay, so you could go every weekend with one of us and then Jay's going every Monday to Wednesday. Like you could literally go whenever. I think the only day none of us are wheeling is like Thursday most of the time, like most of the time nobody's wheeling Thursday.

Speaker 3:

Sunday evening that's our relax time. I mean, like we have a rule, we want to be home by like noon 1 o'clock at the on sunday, just so that we can chill and relax before we got to go to work the next day.

Speaker 2:

But I mean we all, we all really do enjoy it and get out a lot. So I mean it. It makes sense when we pick up somebody in our group like chris who just didn't. I mean he had he had the bushcraft side of things that he was liking doing. But then again but then again, you, you want to go. I mean, riding with somebody else just isn't that much fun.

Speaker 3:

No, I mean, you know, cody rode with us quite a few times just because they just didn't have an off-road capable vehicle, right? So even if you don't have an off-road capable vehicle, it doesn't mean that you can't go camp with your crew. You know, I mean.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, we've told people out.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you just have to be cognizant to you know, all right, this person wants to go camping with us. They don't want to do wheeling, so you know, you just plan your your wheeling trips around, coming back to that camp, and then you don't have anything to worry about. Or if you move camp, just make sure that it's accessible for a two-wheel drive or a low clearance vehicle or whatever the case may be, because there's plenty of that out there right now. I mean, you know, we're going down to carwash falls, we're going to do that. Uh, that campsite, that me, you, brad and ty oh, the one right by the water there yeah, that's going to be great and that's an easy trail to get to.

Speaker 3:

We're all meeting at different times so you know nobody has to wheel it to get there, anything crazy it's just that one crossing that's it. Oh, you don't even have to cross the water.

Speaker 2:

I mean you don't have around the back, that's right yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, so you know. So that's, that's one thing you know. I have the experience of that trail. You know, cody was like, hey, it's having me come from the north end, but you said you wanted to go through the south end.

Speaker 3:

I was like yes you got to come off the one lane bridge. If you're not on the one lane bridge, you're going the wrong way. And that's I mean, you know, just having that experience and and picking a spot, like we pick Willem Ford, whenever you come out because it's closer for you to drive down there, yep.

Speaker 2:

And we'll just hit the Ozarks from there.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and then we camp there for the night, and then we, we head out from there. You know, and that's that's how we're going to do for rendezvous too.

Speaker 2:

So so it's not. You know, it's not anything crazy, like you don't have to be crazy, like right and and we're all and we're getting a little long on time, but I still want to talk about this. But me and tyson were talking about this earlier as well, and, and jay is on here and jay agrees, jay 100 agrees with me and tyson, before we even get this out of our mouth. But, um, we, we, we have all done a little bit of the events. We've done it and I think we'd all agree that doing it is a great thing to do, do it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

At least once, some of the different ones once meet some cool people. But but ultimately, like every event weekend, like, for instance, a lot of people will go to more this weekend and you know, more might be something that I'm I'm pulled to do next year if this gets bigger, you know, for for that purpose, you know, to meet somebody or something whatever, meet some of you guys, but but Tyson's going wheeling this weekend, he is not going to more. Jay will go wheeling this weekend, not going to more. We're not. We're not like. The events to us now are kind of taken away from prime weekends. To go just do the thing, you know, and they're expensive, like just to get into more in camp, will cost more than my six hour that drive there and back in gas and then you're still expected to buy things when you're there.

Speaker 3:

You know, and I'm like dude if I'm spending two, three hundred dollars just to get there. Yeah, that's just taken away from the money that I could invest exactly buying the product off of their website.

Speaker 2:

Dude, like I mean it's, and it's not throwing any shade at any of it, but like definitely not.

Speaker 3:

I respect all of them that put it on.

Speaker 2:

And just exactly, I'm just not going to be that influencer. That's like the stuff, the stuff, the stuff, the stuff you want to meet Charlie.

Speaker 3:

Come out to Woolham Ford in the middle of the summer. Yeah right, I'll be there somewhere.

Speaker 2:

We'll be floating somewhere, we'll be doing something, know, you know, and and and that's cool, and I'm a real big fan of that and and I hope that all these people that go to these events can meet people like our group of friends, because we all not only do we all meet, but like there's not anybody in our group that doesn't go, like we didn't meet people that don't do it. Yeah, exactly like, quite literally. Like I didn't know tyson, I didn't know chris, I didn't know johnny, I didn't meet people that don't do it. Yeah, exactly Like, quite literally. Like I didn't know Tyson, I didn't know Chris, I didn't know Johnny, I didn't know Zion, I didn't know Jay. Every one of us met another one, and now we all go together.

Speaker 3:

Yep, yep, and we're Brad too.

Speaker 2:

You didn't know Brad, I didn't know Brad, and now I'm like and I've been out with brad's jeep group with his dad and his dad's friends and his brothers and dude and they all got fully built built jeeps bro like they were putting you through the ringer and you were barely

Speaker 3:

like you just got in your tacoma like that's when my truck probably got broke like let's be honest you know we were winching a lot.

Speaker 2:

There was a lot of winching going on.

Speaker 3:

You sent me that, that video and you were hitting like 9 000 rpm just sitting on the rocks, yeah, that was yeah, we're getting.

Speaker 2:

We're getting after it pretty hard, um, but I think we're all. We've all spent thousands of dollars fixing, going after it pretty hard at this point.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, I mean, I was just talking to benji benji, benji, just like benji with uh newfound overland.

Speaker 2:

He's a friend of mine and benji had had similar luck to me, but it was worse, um, and he had to replace his third member and his front diff. So he did a front diff, upper control arms, I think, spindles, wheel bearings, one CV, I mean he also wheels an older truck and he does not.

Speaker 2:

I mean, he is about it, he is about it, he's not about slouch when it comes to coming up to these obstacles, and I think we all go through that phase, and then we go through this phase and then we're like maybe we're done with that phase. Hey look, I'm already talking to you about hey, how would you feel about just camping a little bit more than the wheeling part? Yeah, exactly like the.

Speaker 3:

I mean the camping stuff doesn't cost anything compared to the fixing the truck no, and I mean unless you're going to like a pay to camp, which is perfectly fine, like, don't think that you can't go to campgrounds because you have an overland vehicle. Ain't nobody going to look at you any different.

Speaker 2:

You're out there doing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean, you're out there just doing it. You know, it doesn't matter what you're into. I mean we happen to be in the wheeling side of things, cause we all came from, you know, doing stuff like this, you know. So, uh, I know johnny has a huge itch to see everything that his you know forerunner can do and I'm, I'm right there with him. I'm like you know, let's go wheel, you know, and you're, you're a little more about the camping. Now chris is probably a little bit more. I mean, he still wheels hard like, don't get me wrong, but some of the luck that that boy's had and in some of these situations is.

Speaker 3:

It hasn't been very right he's not.

Speaker 2:

He's not had the best luck and and and jay just went out and jay's jay's been lucky enough to have good luck. But but galant, just he was just out of pocket. He had a cv and a brake caliper, I think, and then that other guy with the taco had two cvs well, like like we were talking about the four by four, 24, seven.

Speaker 3:

I mean we watched those guys, they, they are out in the middle of the deep Aussie tracks, you know, and and you know I mean they don't have the ability to just say, hey, there's a Napa down the road, let's go pick up a CV and throw it in the rig, Like Jay just sent out in our group message that he's buying a bunch of spare parts for his rig. I strongly feel like if you have a weak link somewhere, either have it with you or be prepared to replace it.

Speaker 2:

And when you replace it, seatbelt on in the backseat of somebody else's stuff, I am done. I'll find out what your forerunner can too. Yeah 100%, I am out on it now.

Speaker 3:

I have spent too much money. My thing is, when you go to do an upgrade, don't go back with the factory stuff. Find something that's going to be better, so you're not replacing it again and again.

Speaker 2:

For sure.

Speaker 3:

Too many people don't sleeve their axles in their Jeeps and they keep bending the rear axles. Just put a sleeve in, it's not that expensive.

Speaker 2:

It prevents that from ever happening again Put the one-ton stabilizers in it. Make sure you're upgrading, especially if the aftermarket supports it.

Speaker 3:

I don't want to do suspension yet because I'm looking at doing a long travel kit for my forerunner and it's like 15 grand ain't nobody got that just chilling in the bank to throw at it, especially when you got kids.

Speaker 2:

So I mean, until something breaks I'm just gonna keep waiting and as of right now you don't have nothing has broken, so like mechanically knock on wood, bro.

Speaker 3:

I'm going out this weekend. Don't be putting that bad juju on me now. Nothing has broken yet, but you are getting new tires.

Speaker 2:

I mean you're I'd say. I'd say I mean I was a big push for you getting new tires. I was like I think in my opinion and we're tire talk, whatever I think once your tires, if you wheel a bunch, I think once you get around that 10 to 12, 30 seconds, that's trash.

Speaker 3:

I mean it's time to come off. Does it have usable tread to drive down the highway? Absolutely, but is it going to hold up to the mud hole in the Ozarks? Probably not. It starts out at 18, 30 seconds of an inch of tread.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

You're missing a lot of the tire and really at 5, 30 seconds of an inch of tread the tread's really not that useful anymore. So you're kind of at that place already because you're not really going to zero. So you know 11 seems high when you're driving on the highway.

Speaker 2:

11 is not high when you're on your wheel when you're wheeling, yeah, I mean and the way the compound changes from you know new to like. As you get down to the compound, it hardens. And that's less effective off-road as well.

Speaker 3:

The only other thing that I wanted to bring up tonight was the fact that when you go to these off-road like we have four-wheel concepts they outsource all of their alignments. Four-wheel concepts, they outsource all of their alignments. So if you're going to get suspension put on at a shop, two questions Do they have a warranty and who does your alignments? Are they doing them in-house? Are you going to send my vehicle over to another shop to have it aligned? If I have an alignment problem? How do I handle that?

Speaker 3:

You know, a lot of people take them into the shops because the other they'll do all your suspension work. You don't even know, but they drove it 15 miles down the road to put an alignment on it, brought it back, tell you the vehicle's ready. You come back and it's pulling or something, with the alignments just not set right. You call that company and they're like oh yeah, take it over to so-and-so shop and they'll fix it. Well, dude, I did business with y'all Like, how, how are you sending me somewhere else? You know what I mean. So you know and I mean not to, not to pour salt in the wound, but we had a friend of ours that that went in and, uh, you know, had, uh, some work done. They promised it to him at a certain time. Five and a half hours later he got it back after a two and a half hour drive, and then it still wasn't 100%. It's about using reputable places for that kind of stuff too.

Speaker 2:

When it comes to alignments. I go to a shop that does a lot of lifted trucks, a lot of lifted trucks, and they're aware that after you, after you do suspension work, they have to reset the machine and they're going off non-factory specs. Because I want a little more camber myself.

Speaker 3:

every lift kit in the instruction manual comes with the preferred alignment specs for your vehicle. Yes, and that doesn't matter. If you do the 3-2 puck lift, or if you do I mean literally anything else, it'll come with those specs. And that's what you bring in to the shop. I want it set to these specs, and not only they.

Speaker 2:

When I say they reset the alignment machine, they're taking it away from the preconceived notion that my vehicle is stock. Another thing I asked my alignment shop the one I use, I go how often do you recalibrate it? And they recalibrate it every week. You'll find alignment shops that don't. They'll be like do what have, yeah what's a recalibration?

Speaker 3:

yeah, they might do. Let me call my hunter guy, you know they might.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, exactly exactly, and hunter, hunter does is is the company that owns most technology for alignments.

Speaker 3:

Pretty, they're they're like in the game. It's crazy. They're huge. Yeah, so, and they then. The other thing too is is how new is the alignment machine? You know like for sure a lot of people don't know that there is updates. Every year that a new vehicle is released, it updates, and if manufacturers change alignment specs from oem to an updated alignment spec, if they don't buy that new software every year, then it's not going to have the new data. So those are all questions that you can ask, and whether you get the truthful answer or not, I mean, that's, that's you know, between them and and whoever you know that's where I rely.

Speaker 2:

I go back in time hard and that's where I rely on forums like legit not facebook groups, where there's just trolling all over like forums yeah, and I mean I've I've had I mean I've worked in the in the service industry my entire life.

Speaker 3:

I've had customers call me and they'd be like who's your best alignment guy? That's who I want to do my alignment right Right.

Speaker 3:

Okay, cool, I'll set them up with an appointment. So I mean it's okay to be like who's your strongest technician, who's your strongest alignment guy? Who works on the most Toyotas? If you bring it into a Toyota dealership and you drive a Toyota, chances are they're going to have a certified tech to work on it. But if you drive a lexus and you bring it to a toyota, it's probably not going to be the same service. Even though the lexus and toyota are the same, they're not the same. I mean they all have different quirks and you know things like that. So I mean it. It doesn't have to go back to a dealership. It could be an aftermarket place, but just know that if you take it for sure you know an oem they're going to set it up.

Speaker 2:

And you guys also got to take into account, when you're dealing with shops of any capacity, you've got to take into account the audience of the shop. Like if you go to Toyota and something is broken, they're replacing parts. There's a difference between a dealership mechanic and a fix it mechanic. A dealership mechanic and a fix it mechanic there's there's a great difference between a career dealership mechanic and a career specialty Aftermarket specialty Right. For sure.

Speaker 3:

When I, when I took the ASC tests for you know, like the, the electrical, you know one of the questions that came up if an alternator is not putting out 14.5 volts, like what do you do? You know, if it's pulling out 12, I'm like you replace it. And no, it's actually you rebuild it. You know what I mean. But yep, who's rebuilding alternators? Now? You can buy a kit at O'Reilly's to do that, but nobody's do it. Like no right, okay, if you have a wheel cylinder that blows out, what happens? You replace the wheel. Did you know you could rebuild it, re-put seals in it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and that's true. And that's another thing. Me and you come with like I just got upper control arms. I got upper control arms that I can replace the ball joint in, but that's not all upper control arms, Nope, but they're serviceable, they have grease zircs so I can grease them.

Speaker 3:

So that part, you know, if that part wears out, it's my bad. I mean, you know, oem, toyotas, none of that stuff is greasable, no, no not anymore anyways the only two grease points on a toyota 4runner is on the drive shaft that's not even the case on mine, and that's on a slip yoke and in the drive shaft, where the the ujoints meet, where the slip yoke goes, and literally you're pumping grease into the slip yoke and that joint and that's it.

Speaker 3:

That's all you have. But if you drive a Chevy Tahoe, there's like 12 Zerk fittings underneath the Chevy Tahoe. So I mean it really depends on what manufacturer you're driving. I mean Toyota's really reliable and the reason why they make it reliable is because they put non-serviceable items in there. You know you can't service the ball joints, so does that mean that they're last forever? No, but if you're not putting, you know, grease in the Zerx fittings, then they're going to wear out. So Toyota did it, where all of them are sealed systems now. So I mean it just really depends on what vehicle you're going with. I strongly suggest getting something that is maintainable because you can keep it and make it last longer if you can maintain it.

Speaker 2:

And Jay just brought up a point. That's a great point. That again, our group of guys knows. But he's like also, when you're going to a specialty shop, make sure they've engaged in that specialty activity so they also have real world experience. You, you don't want to go to a specialty suspension shop that specializes in autocross for your, for your, for your gx460. That has, you know, extra you're not our shocks, you like like, make sure the shop you're going to, just because it's fully upgraded suspension. I've got this, I've got that. Can you guys handle doing this alignment? You know, and and honestly, if they ask you more questions about it, that's probably a real dude. And if they're like sure, I would say probably not.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that would be my yeah, like, like if they're not convincing you to come in the door, like don't even go check it guys Like again, because our group of guys like getting an alignment is rough these days guys like getting a good alignment and a good alignment guy my last really good alignment guy retired, so I'm working off his reference. Now I'll be completely honest Really good. Not as good as that guy was, though yeah, Really, and that's usually what ends up happening.

Speaker 3:

I mean, people move on, they retire that kind of stuff. It's inevitable. And the problem is being, in this industry there's not a whole lot of talent coming up from the minors. You know what I mean.

Speaker 3:

Unfortunately, we're not getting people that have been turning wrenches since they were, you know, in diapers. You know it's just you're not getting that breed of animal anymore. So unfortunately it kind of sucks because you're relying on the older guys and unfortunately, us older guys, we're going to end up retiring at some point, you know so, and hopefully you find somebody that's not too old and that's you know, set in there at their place and you might have to follow them.

Speaker 2:

I mean, and the real old guys that were replacing bearings and pressing bearings and doing some light fabrication, that just doesn't exist anymore.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, they were part of the same group that I was. If it's broke, we fix it, and if we can't fix it then we pay somebody that can fix it. I always take a stab at everything that breaks. Whether it's in the house, in the car, it don't matter, I go and take a stab at it breaks. Whether it's in the house, in the car, it don't matter, I go and take a stab at it.

Speaker 3:

I mean hell, youtube has saved my bacon so many times because you can just watch a video and be like, oh, that's not that bad, like this is pretty similar to what I'm dealing with. Let's just try it. You know you'd be surprised, and there's a lot of people out there. I mean to change in wiper blades, to changing a battery to you, to full engine overhauls. I mean you can learn a lot from YouTube watching somebody do it. If you're like me, I can watch somebody do it and I can go and do it. Some people don't learn that way. It's perfectly fine. Go in there, take a stab at it. It's literally a puzzle. Whatever comes off has to go back on. Whatever's broken has to be fixed. It comes off has to go back on. Whatever's broken has to be fixed. It comes off a certain way, goes on a certain way. There's some vehicles that require specialty tools. That's just something that you're going to learn, that you're going to need.

Speaker 2:

And don't think that you have to buy that specialty tool. In a lot of cases your local parts store has rentable tools like those specialty tools you can rent.

Speaker 3:

Yep, inner tie rod end pullers, all that. I just did it. I was like, yeah, one of these. It's. It's super cheap to rent, dude, it's like 30, 40 bucks for the day.

Speaker 2:

I mean and the way it works. I go to o'reilly's and the way o'reilly's works is I paid 94 to rent the inner tie rod end tool, the big socket tool, right, yep? And when I returned it I got my 94 dollars back, 100 that's how it goes. It was, so it was free essentially, so you're out no money zero dollars you're out 94 bucks and I have a tool deal.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean like they're just literally letting you rent it for the cost of whatever the tool costs them to replace exactly. And I mean, and if you bring it back, if, even if they gave you back 89 dollars ten dollars for the day to run it was worth every freaking penny because I'm telling you right now, 158 dollars an hour is like 90 percent of the flag rate labor hours right now in the state of Arkansas. I mean it's just insane.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but we're the same way. I'm in Missouri. It's 150 as well.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, the difference is in Missouri and this is a little fun fact for any of you that work or live in the Northwest Arkansas area, missouri's 15 minutes away. Missouri does not charge sales tax on labor. Arkansas charges sales tax on parts and labor. So you know that's. Those are little niches that you learn from going from state to state. I mean, I bought my forerunner in Fort Worth while I was living here in Northwest Arkansas because it was 10 grand less and I worked for a dadgum dealership. You know what I mean. Like taxes, tell me, yeah, like how does that make any sense?

Speaker 3:

So I mean it's just, it's, it's small things like that and you just learn it from, from doing it and you know being, you know just just paying attention. I mean just don't let anybody take advantage of you.

Speaker 2:

You know, if you want to confirm everything we're saying, you could probably. There's probably other people saying the same stuff all over YouTube, literally within the racing community, the off-roading community. Like, don't just assume everybody's giving you a good, correct alignment, Don't assume everybody is. You know, you get a new set of tires and they're like they'll fit. Well, what's they'll fit mean? Are they going to rub or do they fit in the wheel? Well, are they'll fit? Mean, are they going to rub or do they fit in the wheel? Well, are they going to hit my spindle? Are they going to hit my upper control? Like guys. Like just really try and vet people like you can ask real basic questions without knowing anything.

Speaker 3:

Yeah and I mean like what's that mean? Like exactly, and and my biggest thing is customers that just buy things and they don't even know what they're buying.

Speaker 3:

You know what I mean a lot of them it's crazy and I'm like you know well, what are you looking for in a tire? And they're like well, I want the biggest thing I can put on my truck. Well, that's the factory size 265, 70, 17 on your forerunner. Oh, you want bigger, you need a lift kit. Well, we, we install the 3-2 lift. Well, you know, so you can run a 33 or you know you want 35s. Now you're talking to probably a four or five inch lift or a lot of sawing or yeah, or a lot of sawing.

Speaker 3:

I mean, I had a guy that that crammed 35s or no 37s on his forerunner with a three, two level and he was doing the body, mount, chop, relocate and he ended up catching three, three of his main wiring harnesses on fire. There's not a fix for that. You know, what the fix is is to take the whole wiring harness out of the vehicle and put a new wiring harness in there, because I don't know if you've ever seen a wiring harness but inside a wiring harness there's like nine or 10 wires inside the loom going every which direction Yep, it's about 50 to 60 pounds of wire all over the place.

Speaker 3:

And it's insane, he fried three of them, all three main ones. I mean it was $9,000 worth of work because you got to take the whole cab off the vehicle, you got to rip out dashboards.

Speaker 2:

All to try. I mean it's. And again, did the tires fit on the wheel and in the wheel? Well, yeah, but you couldn't turn it, you couldn't turn it, yeah, turn it anywhere like what do you think?

Speaker 3:

guys come on and then if you're running, you know a five, a six inch lift which you can fit 37s. Well, now you're talking extended brake lines. You're talking extended steering shaft. You're talking, you know, extended sway bar links. If you're running sway bars or you're taking sway bars off, you're looking at, you know relocating differential drops and all this. I mean that is all mechanical stuff, that is going to be at different angles than what it was meant to design for.

Speaker 3:

So unless you're, unless you're changing you know everything I don't feel like a six inch lift is really going to be the bee's knees. Do I want one for my forerunner? Absolutely. But do I want to go through? I mean it's 15 grand for a six inch. You know Kings with the, with the total chaos, like I mean it, it it gets up there 15 grand, but that doesn't include any of the other stuff that you don't think about. I mean you have the extended tie rods because you're going to go wider on your suspension and then are you going to fit down the trail because you're so wide.

Speaker 2:

You have to build your own CVs with the long travel. You can't buy long travel CVs.

Speaker 3:

You got to take thev apart and put a longer shaft on yep or run an intermediate shaft, and that's just another weak spot for something to break. I mean, you know, if you're, if you're out in colorado and you're doing the rock gardens and this, and that you need a lot of flex, absolutely, if you're doing the ozark national forest, do you need a lot of flex?

Speaker 2:

probably not I, it's just a different animal, so it really depends on where your region is and where you're going to be wheeling. If we just said 10 words, you don't understand. You don't need that Like if we lit. Like for real.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, for real.

Speaker 2:

Yep, definitely. Come on guys, like, like just stop you, just stop, you know, but anyways, we could probably go forever, but we've been going long, long long.

Speaker 3:

So yes, sir, I appreciate the time.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. I appreciate Tyson. Next week I'm going to have Jay on with Toyota trucks of Arkansas. It's going to be a whole lot less of me jabbing. It's going to be a whole lot of him talking about Toyota trucks of Arkansas.

Speaker 3:

They got a lot going on there's a lot going on with Toyota Trucks of Arkansas. Man, he's got some cool stuff going on. Man, I talked to Jay. I'm super stoked for his group. Like.

Speaker 2:

I'm just I love it, and Toyota Trucks of Arkansas is going to be involved in pretty much most Toyota Land Cruiser Association events and Toyota events, so he'll be able to kind of again if anybody drives something different than a Toyota just haphazardly. That's what we all have. But he'll be talking a lot about that and what they're doing and things they're doing to clean up the trails and taking donations and what they're doing with those donations and any proceeds they're getting, like what they're doing with those proceeds. They're doing a lot of really, really cool stuff and I'm just touching on it basically because he'll get way, way into it and I'll have him on next week on Tuesday. So hopefully you guys liked having somebody else talk besides just me and uh, hopefully next week you guys uh get a kick out of Jay Cause he'll be talking about all this really really cool stuff that they're doing. So hope y'all have a good one and I will see you next week Later.