Outskirts Overland Podcast
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Outskirts Overland Podcast
4th of July Overlanding Special: Mobile Command Centers, Essential Trip Prep, and Tire Inflation Tips for Safe Celebrations
Ever wondered how to transform your overland truck into a mobile command center without sacrificing functionality or comfort? Join us on Outskirts Overland as we kick off our 4th of July special with some festive plans and introduce you to Marvin, my spirited co-host who's always ready for an adventure. We’ll share the joys and challenges of setting up your vehicle for an epic overlanding journey, from managing multiple devices like radios and navigation tools to ensuring everything is within reach and doesn’t obstruct your view.
Planning your next off-road camping trip but don’t know where to start? This episode is packed with practical tips on meticulous trip preparation—from organizing your to-do lists and using pickup services to avoid crowded stores, to ensuring all your gear, including freeze-dried meals and power bank adapters, is ready to go. I'll discuss the advantages of using an iPad for navigation and share my own experience of helping a newcomer understand the intricacies of vehicle maintenance and preparation, ensuring you're all set for a safe and enjoyable adventure.
Tired of slow tire inflation ruining your off-roading vibe? We tackle the frustrations and solutions related to air compressors and tire inflation gear, exploring upgrades like efficient compressors and self-regulating tire deflators. Plus, with the 4th of July celebrations on the horizon, we dive into staying safe while having fun—think designated drivers and responsible festivities. Tune in for an episode that promises to enhance your overlanding experience while keeping safety front and center.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Outskirts Overland. Thanks for being here. I appreciate you all for being here, listening, watching, uh, in whatever capacity in which you're taking this in. Um, this week is I'm single over 4th of July and, uh, I mean just summer in general. Uh, marvin's here. If you guys are watching, you can you might even hear him on the mic. Marvin's right here, just uh, he's like a he, he wants to be on tv. I think we watch enough youtube with dogs that he's like I want to be on, I want to be on dad. So, anyways, marvin's joining me today.
Speaker 1:Um, I'm gonna talk about the fourth of july, but before I do that, I want to let you guys know if you guys want to use on x off road. It's what I use primarily. They have offline maps. Trails are already there. You don't have to upload them, although you can track new trails and save them, color coordinate them and put waypoints for camp spots. You can color coordinate those as well, and you can get 20% off of OnX Off-Road with the code GLOBALOVERLAND236, all one word. And if you're a Toyota fan and you're in the Midwest, toyota Trucks of Arkansas is a great group. I would highly recommend joining it If you're a Toyota fan and you're in the Midwest. Toyota Trucks of Arkansas is a great group. I would highly recommend joining it if you're a Toyota enthusiast and anywhere even remotely close to the Ozarks. So that's all I got for housekeeping.
Speaker 1:So this this week I just want to talk about hey, it's the 4th of July. It's a holiday. For me that means a longer weekend. I don't know what that means for everyone, but since the 4th is a Thursday, that Friday is kind of what I would call a dead day. It's a good day to go camping, get some extra camping and you get an extra day of the weekend. If you're not a fireworks person, you get two extra days. You get a four-day weekend fireworks person, you have two extra days. You're gonna have four day weekend. Um, fortunately and unfortunately, I am a fireworks person and I have a plan with my family and we're gonna set off some fireworks and I don't know if we're doing a shrimp boil or crawfish boil, whatever one or the other. We're doing something. But yeah, whatever, make sure you guys are paying attention to fire bans and stuff if you're out in the woods and you're doing fireworks Because, obvious reasons, this is turning into.
Speaker 1:The whole podcast stream has turned into quite the international. I don't know what you call it international. I don't know what you call it international, I don't know. There's people all over the world that listen to this podcast. So I don't want to talk just too much about just Independence Day.
Speaker 1:I am a very, very, very patriotic human being. I do shoot off fireworks. I do love our country Obviously. I served our country in Iraq and Afghanistan, both so very patriotic. But there is a lot of people I take into account. There's other people from other places and they've got different holidays and I appreciate them being here too. So, with summer being here, it's hot, it's really humid where I'm at. So I've been trying to camp a lot by the water so I can kind of get in to cool off. That's been pretty necessary. No-transcript Right now, when you go on the roads and your tires get real hot, they end up having more air pressure in them. But anyways, this week what I'm really going to talk about, you know, happy 4th of July, america's great, love the place.
Speaker 1:Obviously, what I was going to talk today about is some things that I don't think I've particularly touched on, that I'm working on right now. And, uh, the first thing is setting up the interior. Setting up the interior of your truck. You know I've got a lot of stuff going on in my truck, so don't get me wrong, I'm not just mounting a phone, like that could be done. Um, when I bought my truck it had a rail like a rail system. But every time I'm off road because the phones come out from the rail system it's on a piece of trim and it like wiggles and it annoys me to no end. I've tried everything from putting foam behind it to double-sided tape and I've just come to the conclusion I'm going to have to to. I'm either going to have to find a way to get it fixed to where I can like unscrew it to pull the trim, or whatever.
Speaker 1:But I've got a radio, I've got the radio mic, I've got a Zolio, which is satellite communicator. I've got a phone and now I've got an iPad. I've got a scan gauge too as well on the other side. So I got a lot of stuff that I'm trying to fit and not not cover my radio completely, but not also cover my point of view completely. Not cover my radio completely, but not also cover my point of view completely my, you know my windshield, but I also need to be able to access it. It's a, it's a, it's a deal, man, and it is trial and error. This is just like everything else Like. This is not something. I have found a solution where it's just like oh, this is going to work, this works, that's going to work. Great, I have not had that be the case whatsoever here. I'm going to put the chat over top of us here so I can just, if anybody comments, I can see it.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, I am having a heck of a time getting my interior set up, and it's hard too, because you want to kind of like set it up. You don't want to just be drilling into stuff, like the example I use today when I was talking to my friend about it, because I've been just it's. You know, when you get on well, at least when I do when I start to like obsess about stuff. So I'm like I gotta figure this out, like yesterday, and I've been thinking about it all week and I'm like I just don't want to drill a bunch of holes. I don't want to be the guy that's like drilling holes to hang a picture to see if I like it. Next thing. You know my living room is just full of holes. Well, that could easily be the dash of my truck. So I don't want to do, I don't want to do that at all, not even close.
Speaker 1:And Andrew just said the bulletproof mounting system. I have something extremely similar to that actually right now, have something extremely similar to that actually right now. Um, so that's and it's, it's no longer. So, oh, I did take it off. There we go and it's no longer. And he said he runs it on his Ford expedition.
Speaker 1:And again, I'm not, I'm not talking poorly about any, but like I off road, like pretty uh, aggressively, for most on the street my mounting system's fine, but if I hit a big corrugated road and I'm going and maybe some of you guys don't understand this but when you're in a corrugated road you almost want to go a little faster so you can float on the top of the, you know, quote unquote if you're not familiar with corrugations, they're like whoops, like if you ever been on a gravel road and like somebody with a trailer's been on it and spun their tires a bunch. That's corrugations. So you want to like float on the top. So you're constantly doing this and that mount with the phones hanging out from it on that piece of trim, it just it just vibrates it and it squeaks. Actually I've covered the clips with like, like gorilla tape to try and quiet them. If it was the clips, I put foam behind it. I I've put sound deadening in it to maybe make you know, trying to just make it heavier so it doesn't rattle so bad.
Speaker 1:And I have something. I have the 67 designs one, but it's I mean 67 Designs, expedition Essentials, ram, mount, bullet Point, they're all the same thing for the Tacoma at least. They screw in that same spot on the dash and when you're putting stuff on it and you want it to be accessible to you, so I have it out just slightly. I mean, I have short arms but it just rattles wild. So and I don't like stuff being on my windshield particularly. Um, yeah, I'm just having that time with it. So that's just. I just got to figure that out. I wish it was as easy. Like Jeeps and Broncos Now they have like that cutout square like in front of the dash. That's for mounting stuff and that might be the. That might be the expedition too. I don't know. I'm my f-150. When I had an f-150 had that as well. The tacoma doesn't have that. That would be awesome.
Speaker 1:And ultimately I may end up just screwing into the dash, you know know, drilling some holes and uh, and doing it that way. But I don't, that's not, that's not my first choice, um, but it might. I mean it whatever works. I mean this truck's so cut up everywhere else. It's not. You know why not, um, but yeah, so the interior has been a real deal, like in this iPad I got. It's a 10, 10 inch, so it's rather large and I I think I'm gonna put it kind of down near the passenger seat and kind of like, like up here for me, like, but coming up from below, like on the side trim of the like that's the footwell closest to me of the passenger seat. I think I'm gonna mount that there.
Speaker 1:But now I got to worry about the iPad with my radio mount and again this seems ridiculous to you guys, but like I got to watch my temp scan gauge, I got to be able to communicate and send, you know, let people that are in town know I'm safe or if I need help. Zolio, cell phone, obvious, ipad navigation, it's all offline maps, radio communication with repeaters for a service or the people I'm with or other people around, like these aren't. Like I'm not. I'm not setting up multiple screens to play Halo here, like I'm or I dated myself with that cod play, play Call of Duty, modern warfare, whatever. So I'm, this all exists, but this truck is not that big and I'm just finding it to be.
Speaker 1:You know, you don't want anything in the way of your hands at all or you'll be smoking stuff going off road. It's just been a deal. You know, setting up an interior is a tough, tough, tough deal and this is a daily driven vehicle. So I also I'm like gosh, I don't know, like is that? You know? Yeah, boondock, haverlock, halo, ha, yeah, well, I mean, that's just what comes to mind. Multiplayer, you know in my head, um, but it's just like dude I, it's a, it's a deal. Like I've.
Speaker 1:I've pretty well got the, the truck, the truck, sorted. I have all the pieces. So I'm not like complaining per se. Having all this stuff and figuring out where I can put it is a good problem. I don't have any bad problems. Like nothing's broke, I have good problems. These are all good problems, but just I got to figure it out. So there'll probably be some follow on pictures of that on my Instagram once I do get it figured out. But as for now, I mean I'll be working on it after this podcast today. So I cause I got a. I mean I'm going camping again this weekend. That's always a thing too. I'm just going to switch directions here. That's always a thing too, like everybody's like, oh, I'm gonna work on my truck this weekend. Well, I'm camping on the weekend, so working on my truck again.
Speaker 1:I've said it in earlier podcasts, but I know everybody, as much as I'd like you guys to, hasn't listened to every podcast. And again, I encourage you to go back and listen, but it just turns into lost sleep. Like, I got to just get up earlier, do it late. So I'm, you know, if it's loud, I tend to do it late more than early. For some reason, I feel like people don't mind being kept up a little later as much as they like getting woken up real early. So and it depends on what it is too, you know, if it's loud or not, um, but really that's what I do and I live in the country, so there's no ordinances.
Speaker 1:I just don't want to, you know. I don't want my neighbors to hate me, um, so I'm not out there with, like a freaking grinder at five in the morning, four in the morning, but I might be out there with a grinder till nine, 10, which is is I think it's not ideal, but more reasonable, um, anyway. So I just I gotta do it during the week because I'm traveling. I'm in, I'm five hours from anywhere, like I'm driving somewhere you know, no matter where it is kentucky, tennessee, arkansas, colorado's 10 hours to colorado, to Colorado Springs, like 13. I mean 20 hours to New Mexico, great sand dunes, 18. You know I've never been to Galveston, but you can go. There's some overlanding down there Like it's all, it's all a drive.
Speaker 1:So I've got the week to get my truck ready and fix anything that I've that I've either found to be a problem or an addition I've added to make my life a little easier, which I'm getting to the nitty-gritty of that. I'm getting that figured out. So that's ultimately, all I will be doing during the week is fixing things, hopefully and something always happens, so that's a given, hopefully, um, and something always happens, so that's, that's a given. Um, I I just changed my all my brakes on my truck. I smoked my brakes like that's just a stuff happens like there's just wear parts and naturally you put a new part on and then another, like you're never gonna have it all done. It's not like laundry, where I can do the, the whole house's laundry. Just take a day and it's all done. Now you know, like everything's new, I can't before to do the whole house's laundry. Just take a day and it's all done. Now, you know, like everything's new. I can't afford to do that, don't have time to do that. So I'm constantly chasing a something, something, some type of gremlin exists, whether it's bolts backing out, you know tire issue, you know any number of things it could be. It's just a. It's just a real pain, man, honestly. And it and again, it's just part of the hobby and I love the hobby and I love working on the truck.
Speaker 1:But anyways, back to my point. I'm spending the whole week preparing to go on the weekend, so that's making sure I've got my list sorted out, my to-do list sorted out like and getting my pickup, like I always do, pickup. I don't like to socialize going shopping, so I avoid the opportunity. So I almost do everything pickup that I can. So, like, Bass Pro carries the freeze-dried meals I want, so I'll order three or four of those, pick them up. I'll get you know if I need some type of specific cord or something like I just got a new power bank, like a little one, um, cause I have a huge one like a bigger external power bank, and then obviously my dual battery. But I have a big one and I was like I want a little smaller one, but it's only USB-C but my lights in my tent are regular USB, so I had to get like just a little adapter. Like there's just stuff like that.
Speaker 1:You know, kind of all the time, where your new stuff and your old stuff don't merge either, even with some of it, and you gotta, you gotta overcome those obstacles as well, and so I'm always messing with that stuff during the week and then the weekend comes and you know you go through your checklist, well, I mean before the weekend comes. So Thursday this week, wednesday 4th of July, is when I'll sort my list, but ultimately I have to have it all done by tomorrow. Most things are closed on the 4th of July. Well, maybe not most things, but some things are going to be closed on 4th of July for the holiday and I'm gone for, like I'm, I think I'm leaving Thursday night. So in driving in the night and just I got some camp spots mapped and you know I could sleep in.
Speaker 1:I'm I'm camp and I'm not on a schedule. It's not like I don't got to be somewhere anytime so I might show up at two in the morning and just sleep in, but it's it's always figuring something out during the week to camp on the weekend and you don't have the time. But the time that I have the time I want to be out, so that's a constant. That is something you have to be very intentional with is making sure you're on top of your stuff so you're not on a trip Like I just did my breaks my breaks were needed changed.
Speaker 1:Trip Like I just did my breaks, my breaks were needed changed. I could probably have went on another trip with my breaks but it would have been way less than ideal Like I mean way less than ideal. They were done, they were real done and doing a lot of water crossings and stuff that's going to happen with the temperature fluctuations and stuff. They're just going to wear out faster. But you know I got to be on top of it to make sure that my I'm not only being on top of it just because it matters to me so much. I'm trying to be on top of it so that it doesn't, so I can enjoy this.
Speaker 1:Like I'm always trying to find the best way to enjoy the activity, like that's that's why I got, that's why I recently finally, I mean guys, realistically I should have had an iPad for navigating by now and had this interior sorted out, but I hung on as long as I could hang on using my phone. And for those of you that do navigation a lot, you know everybody's got CarPlay. Okay, when you're using offline maps, though, carplay isn't a whole lot of good for you. You can't zoom in and zoom out, at least on my truck, and it's relatively new, so like it's useless to me. Like CarPlay is not worth and I have Onyx on CarPlay, everybody has Onyx on CarPlay. It still has some functionality. But like just the fact that that I can do an offline map or I can even screenshot something off Google Earth and save it and blow it up and stuff like that's worth everything.
Speaker 1:Because more times than not Again, this is me, not you I'm not going to a campground, so I'm essentially finding a trail that's more or less not marked. Forest Service may have it marked, you know, with dotted gray lines. I'm going to see if that exists, first going down it, and then I'm essentially using the map system to look for openings in trees or trails so I can camp in those spots you know, off away from the trail, the road, whatever. And these are not like marked, like you can't Google the places, like I'm finding grids and waypointing them. They're not like uh, they don't have names, they don't have like they're not searchable unless you just search the grid and I'm like here's the 10 digit, like that's where I was and you can figure it out that way. But all I'm ever doing is trying to again be that's what I want to be.
Speaker 1:Spending my time doing on my trip is finding camp, enjoying camp, exploring, not worrying about things, fixing, worrying about what I didn't have, worrying about what I forgot, not realizing I forgot something, until it's ruined the trip. Um, so I spend a lot, that's a lot of time, and I was actually just I just sold my rooftop tent. Um, I just sold my rooftop tent to a guy who's just starting in overlanding. Naturally, I helped him put his tent on, he's got a rack, and that was great Him and his wife. I think I'm pretty sure it's his wife. If it's not his wife, I probably could say right now it's going to be his wife. They got Tacoma. They're starting to get into it. My dad was probably overwhelming.
Speaker 1:This guy Like he puts a lot of work into this. Like it's not like get a truck and go, like you gotta be checking things fluids, like I've got a checklist, like I've got a pre-chip trip checklist of stuff, whether that's making sure this is charged. And I have it Because the moment I take it out of the truck I got to write it down because it may not make it back in the truck. So that's extremely important. Again, everything I have is like orange or lime, green or yellow. So if it's in the house also it's harder to forget because it sticks out like a sore thumb. Like I'm not camping with camouflage stuff, because then I'm losing it Even in my house, like even if it's green and tan and black, like I have a lot of stuff in my house that's you could really lose it that way. When it's lime, green and orange and yellow, like it's harder. I mean even this carabiner right here like orange, like everything I have ridiculously bright, so I don't lose it. So that's a lot.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of what goes into my week leading up to going out. Is you know what I took out? Make sure it goes back in what I look at, thinking about what I need early, like I'm talking, if I'm going out on a Friday, thursday or Friday, I need to be thinking Wednesday what I need, and I am constantly doing pickup. You're talking Monday, tuesday and Wednesday, because I don't remember everything Monday, and then I remember that I forgot something Tuesday, and then by Wednesday I'm starting to pack the truck and I'm like, oh dang, I forgot. So, like it's a, it's a. It does take some dedication, like if you're doing this regularly and that also helps you weed out stuff too, though. So you got to think about that. Boondock Haverlock just said I never thought about a tablet.
Speaker 1:And yeah, the big thing with the tablet is you got to get one that has cellular and Wi-Fi, so that it has GPS, so that it'll stick with you on offline maps, if that makes sense. If you don't do that, it won't work. So you can't just get a Wi-Fi, you can't get one, like I had to get one. I have Verizon and I had to get one from Verizon. You could get one with wifi and cellular capability without service and, again, the service allows me to do a lot of things when I'm in service with it too, um, but when I'm out of service it has the GPS. You could get one without service and it would just be essentially you'd be using it for the GPS, um.
Speaker 1:So, but I I've been in that to me like, yeah, it does need the GPS, has to have the GPS again, if you're going somewhere, that's on, you know, if you're going to the back country, as I would call it, the actual, actual back country, you got no service. I don't have a bar, it's dot, dot, dot and SOS on the side. It's zero service. That's very, very common for me to be in a place where that's the case, which is also why Azolio exists, also why Azolio existed prior to the tablet, quite frankly, because the phone worked and it does work.
Speaker 1:It's just now that I'm going. I'm covering some distance. When I'm going now, like I'm not, and it's not all wheeling, but I'm I'm hitting some miles. So I need something bigger that I can blow up and zoom in, like blow up real big and zoom in real small, you know, with my hand to kind of project where I'm headed, because in these systems of forest service roads and trails it's real easy to take a turn and you missed the turn you wanted to be on. So you kind of got to go slow having something big. Yeah, you got to, you got to do it and and he said the best. Boondock Haverlock said the best part about the East is their cell coverage is very good and and and the East, quite frankly, I couldn't tell you the East is one of the places I've not been very often but I had.
Speaker 1:There was a lot of offline map. Like I came down off the mountain in Colorado, went somewhere, sat somewhere to eat, get coffee, and I mapped. That's what I did the whole time. Now again, had I had the iPad, then I could have mapped in my chair at camp and that that to me, at the more I think about it, like for the dollar amount, that is something that at this point in my overlanding, at this point my overlanding, I don't know, um hobby, that is something that I see a lot of benefit in, like being able to map at camp.
Speaker 1:Or even if I'm in a group, we can all kind of like, compare and share. You know, with Onyx that's something you can do, like you could. You could text me like, share a location to me and I can open it. You know what you're looking at. Like we can almost be looking at things simultaneously and sharing waypoints and stuff too. So, like there's four of us around the fire, we've been rerouted because spots were taken. We go, find a pavilion or a scenic lookout, we park, we all get out, put these suckers on the hood, we start figuring it out. Like it's not just for me when I'm in a group it's super beneficial, because then we're not like oh, we got to go to service, oh, we got to go somewhere else to map. You know your offline maps only going to get you so far.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's just a, that's just a piece that I that that I've been putting off and have put off for a long time, you know, and I have a spot for it in my tent. Even so, I could watch movies and stuff, and that's just something I haven't been exploring much of, like downloading shows or movies or anything. I mean pretty typically I will sit and stare at the fire or, if I just do my a lot of times, I just do my Devo's light and I'll just sit and read a book. Like sit and read a book. Sometimes I sit there, you know, sometimes I turn it all off and just sit in the dark and listen to the. You know the bugs and I enjoy that, you know.
Speaker 1:That's why I do this hobby, like I don't need to make it so much like I'm at a hotel, you know, but being able to navigate better. Um, now that I'm doing more exploring in my truck, it also helps to navigate when it's like a no-go, like you want to mark a no-go, like that's a, that's a no dog, like I. Like being able to mark that. Like dotted red line, waypoint, waypoint, waypoint, waypoint, no. Label them all, no. Like not doing that again, can't do it. Impassable. Bad decision Too, you know. Too narrow, too many trees down, you know, try again in a year maybe. Like stuff like that. You almost could take those notes digitally on the map. So that's worth every penny.
Speaker 1:Now I think I've pretty well handled like that's going on. I'm trying to figure out how to get it all in the day on the dash, you know, and accessible. So not while I'm going down the highway I'm screwing with it, but maybe when I'm on a gravel road that I know is a gravel road for a while and I'm going 20, I can kind of see what, see what I'm doing, you know. But the other thing that I've been that I've been frustrated with um is just airing up and airing down and again, I've been doing this a long time and there's actually, weirdly enough, there's a lot of innovation that's happened in the airing up and airing down space, like there's a lot of companies in it. They've been doing it a long time.
Speaker 1:I have an Indiflate four hose but like the OG one, like it's old, like it is old, like real old, and I'm struggling with it because the Indiflate and again, all of you that are listening, you probably been doing this less, not less, time, but you or you've upgraded this piece if you have. But I've got an ARB compressor mounted but it's extremely limited by this end deflate, just the way it works and it's coupled. So I just bought one that is a two tire instead of a four. But the benefit of the two versus the four is I can unclip and clip the hoses with the end of plate. It's all fixed Like the whole system's fixed, like crimped. So I got one where I can connect and disconnect, essentially the, the uh, either way the display and the essentially the, the uh, uh I keep wanting to say muffler, but that's not the right word anyways, but either way, the thing where the junction I'm gonna call it the air junction where the air comes out of my air compressor into it and then it routes the air out the hoses, I um, I like I think I'm going to like that better, because the one I have now, because it's all fixed and it's got the baffle, is what I'd call it in the middle that distributes the air and then the other hoses come off those hoses.
Speaker 1:I think it's taking me longer to air up with that system. Does it work? Yes, it works, it definitely works, but I think it's taking me less time and I'm definitely sick of dealing junction block. Yeah, I'm definitely sick of dealing with all the hoses and like wrapping two separate hoses into one reel. I really like that. I could just disconnect the hoses, wrap them both up and then put the junction block in the middle of them, zip up the box and go again. Another thing that like, is it completely necessary? No, but at this point in my, in my time doing this, I think it's going to be better. So it's just something I just upgraded. It's actually not like it's not expensive, it's not a huge deal, but it is something.
Speaker 1:I spent six, 700 bucks on this compressor and I feel like it's taken it too long to air up my tires. I can do a tire at a time and it like does some work, but going through the four, everybody's like, ah, it equalizes it, whatever, whatever. But anyways, what I do to air down. I also upgraded this too because just another thing that I'm I got the kit, like the arb one that you screw it in to pull out the valve stem and it's got like the slide and then you slide it in, check the pressure, slide it out, release the pressure, and you physically have to do each tire one at a time. I just finally bought the ones that you screw on and they you can unscrew them and screw them to set your pressure and it's got like a little valve you pull out. Um, I finally got ones that just screw on the tire so I can just go around and screw them on and they'll self-regulate when they're done. They're done. And uh, cause I was also just, that's just another, that's just another piece. Like what if I lose a valve stem? I do carry extra valve stems like whatever, but I just I'm not too hot on removing that valve stem all the time, so these just screw on and they're done.
Speaker 1:So I finally moved on to those you know and and things like that. Strawn, a company named Strawn, made those when I started, um, you know, getting into overlanding, airing up and airing down, but they were like a hundred dollars, maybe even more than that at that point. I think they still are and they're a great option. I believe they're fully brass, like the ones I got are aluminum and they're off Amazon and I think they were $30. Well, the options because the market is so much more competitive, the innovation and the options has increased greatly and I think that is in some of these little things I'm finding myself actually upgrading, because I've now deemed that you know useful where I was getting by with.
Speaker 1:You know a lot of stuff that wasn't necessarily made to be filling up larger tires, unique hose sizes and connectors. Like I didn't have a lot of like, it wasn't all like universal, like all my stuff now is quarter inch standard air chucks which could take any quarter inch implement blower. You know, tires, whatever Like it's, it's more standardized. So I can now I can go to AutoZone O'Reilly's, a gas station, like if they have anything quarter inch truck stop I mean not gas station truck stop If they have anything quarter inch I can kind of. I'm kind of, you know, if I broke something or lost something, I could kind of usually get my stuff back. Um, so I think that's great Now that I'm not going to be airing down, you know, screwing in each one, pulling the valve stem out, pulling the air out, like it's set.
Speaker 1:So I'm not continually putting it back in checking it, putting it back in checking it, it's just screw them on. When they're done, hissing, you're good and we're done. I took my tire pressure off the freaking dash, like off of my display Cause I'm like you know what, at the end of the day, if this one's 17 and that one's 20, I just don't care, like it's not, it's not hurting me, do I think they're probably the most accurate thing in the world? I doubt it. But also that doesn't matter that much If one's a little lower or higher. If I got 17 and one tire and 21 and another which I doubt they're off that far Cool, like that's fine, I'd rather they be lower than higher, that's fine. I'd rather they be lower than higher. But I also don't care. I have a digital checker. I'll probably get them figured out.
Speaker 1:But I got them on their lowest setting right now and I think that's the ones I bought. I think that's 15, 20, 15 or 20. And that's just where I ride around all the time. Anyways, I rarely go below that. If I got to air down below that, I'm stuck. And if I think I need to air down below that to go somewhere, I typically don't. I don't do that. The only time I'm doing that is if I'm already stuck.
Speaker 1:So I got the screw on deflators. Now again, there's all kinds of cool stuff out now Like and I didn't get this. But I got the Thor's lightning um, two tire. I did not get the more flight Um and and, and I might be wrong in this, but the reason I did that is because the more flight clips on the valve stem and Thor's lightning makes the option to get the ones that have like the little crimp on clamp, so they'll work for trailers and other things. So it's more multifaceted to me. So it doesn't just clip on the valve stem for only car valve stems. It'll work on my lawnmower, four-wheeler trailers, tractors it's just better for me and the Morphlate has the clip on one. And if I ever go to bead locks that also won't be ideal either because I'll have, essentially, the valve stem will be the same length but it'll be shorter access to get to it. So I got the Thor's lightning. Because of that it seemed to be the more the larger hose, the more high flow with the ends. I'm talking about like the clip on ends, which is what my end of plate also has and I do use it a lot. So I'm pretty psyched on that.
Speaker 1:So my friend Johnny is, uh, getting the hookup. He's getting the end of flight. I already told him I upgraded, it's yours. So I'll probably meet up with him at some point in the next week and he's got a four tire end of flight. Um, we went out last time. He doesn't have a compressor and he had to chase me down after I left to air up. So I told him this week I was sending him compressors, but he already he already addressed that.
Speaker 1:But compressors is another thing I was just about to get into. Like there's all these multi-tire air up systems you can get and they'll work with. They got some of them got Schrader valves, some of them got air chucks. They'll work with these. All these compressors you know, from Harbor Freight to Napa, to Veyer, to Morphlate. The one thing that Morphlate's doing, that is really really, really good.
Speaker 1:And I just again, I'm not a tire pressure like, I'm like whatever If they're, if they're off a little, I just I don't look at it Like if my like little too low lights not on when I air them up, it cool, they're cool. Like I rotate them enough, I look at them enough. My maintenance side of things is definitely on par enough to where I. It just it's. It's not something I'm going to ruin my day about, but they make now. They make a junction block where you can set a pressure, so like for me. I have an ARB, so that'd be good. But there's another situation where that's useless too, and that's their compressor, but it's not hard mounted, so.
Speaker 1:But Morphlate makes a valve block now where you could still stick the hoses in and take them out, just like the one I got, but you could set the pressure. So mine has my compressor has an auto shutoff, so it'll hit the pressure on the tires and it'll shut it off itself. So you'll know it's aired up. I do have to monitor mine. Even with the new one I got to make sure it's at the right pressure to shut it off. But that junction block is really cool. And then Morphlate's compressor. If you just get the compressor you can do the same thing with the compressor. You can set the compressor to a set PSI and it'll shut off too.
Speaker 1:So I'm, you know I got to pick and choose. I can't have all the freaking amazing gadgets. You know I'd love to If Morphlate sent me one of those junction blocks. I, that'd be sweet. Um, the compressors doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 1:I have an arb and again, like that's tried and true from everybody I've ever went with, that serious has an arb twin like period tankless. If you have a tanked one, you end up with water in them and there's no valve to blow them off. So they get water in them. Pretty bad. So I don't run a tank. Um, so I, yeah, I have an Airbnb twin and that's what I have. Um, again, it's one of those things. It's kind of like that's just the standard. Like you just got to have the Airbnb twin period. It's like with fridges. I believe you have to have a Dometic.
Speaker 1:I love all these other brands and I do, but there's just some things where the brand does matter. Period. My ARB twin 100% feel like ARB is the way to go. Vyre has good options All these places have good options but their whole entire marketing stream, marketing plan is to just be cheaper. Well, in order to be cheaper, you gotta think you can't be the cheapest and the bestest all the time. So, like my deck system, I tried cheaper stuff, like there's just certain things to me that are like okay, I've tried other stuff and some things are just worth the money. Arb compressor A hundred percent is one of them. Arb compressor a hundred percent is one of them. Midland radio a hundred percent one of them. Not a handheld in the car Midland radio must have with a ghost antenna or the longer flip antenna must have. Um, yeah, those are all things that I just feel like you got to get the good stuff Deck system, fridge, you know, like just brand stuff.
Speaker 1:I want the brand name stuff and I've seen Goose Gear stuff. It's amazing Like oh, it's so expensive. But like if you go look at it it's not like you're looking at something that's overpriced in junk, like it's overpriced and built over, like overbuilt, like it's overpriced and built over like overbuilt, like it's super good. Um, and all these fridge companies. Again, I have a Dometic, a big Dometic. It's a fridge freezer, and I looked at other fridge brands but at the end of the day, I just am not going to have warranty issues with Dometic. Like you know, I might have problems with the fridge. I'm using it, malfunctions happen, but Dometic is going to take care of me, quite frankly, and they have like certified guys like I could take it to an RV center and they can either fix it, diagnose it or replace it. And that's not necessarily ideal, but, like you're not going to do that with these other brands.
Speaker 1:Now, I do have a lot of friends. Fridges are a specific one. I'm not just going to be like don't get X brand. I have a lot of friends that are sponsored by fridge brands. A lot of friends are sponsored by fridge brands, different ones, I'm not naming any names on this podcast. I have a Dometic and I Charlie and Outskirts Overland thinks that is the best fridge. That's what I think. If you value my opinion, that is my opinion.
Speaker 1:Dometic period you know Midland there's other radio brands Midland period, hard mounted period. You know I have Baja designs lights. You know I have Baja Designs lights. I live close to Diode Dynamics. I love my Baja Designs lights. I think they are beyond amazing, not even just brightness and clarity, but like they've been underwater a billion times and they're not. They're not fogging. So anyways must have Either way.
Speaker 1:So I've upgraded some of my air up and air down equipment. Um, just, you know I'm not getting lazy, but I'm just getting tired of, like, making some of my older stuff work. Like I'm just getting tired of like I'm making it work, you know, and it's working, but it's just not. It's taken away from the experience a little bit. So, and as prices come down you know iPads aren't a thousand bucks.
Speaker 1:I think my iPad was, I don't know $400 and I got it at Verizon. So of course I didn't pay $400 for it. I paid $0 for it and I'll pay, you know, whatever, $10 a month or whatever. But but I mean, even so, it's still $400 versus what they were a long time ago. And that's the same thing I did with the deflators and the hoses. Like it's just time to upgrade. That's the industry. I feel like the industry with those things, due to competition, is going to new heights. You're seeing lots of new stuff because it is competitive and it's super nice.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, I went on way more than I thought I was going to go on this week, so I'm going to probably start wrapping it up. But, yeah, just just going over my woes with some of my equipment, figuring my equipment out, how I managed my week not really something I was going to talk about, but it kind of just led into that and, uh, I'm going this weekend, so I'm gonna get literally right off this and go start taking my dash apart and you know, figuring that out. However, probably ending up at Walmart late tonight or, if it's early enough, ace hardware so I can get screws and stuff, um. So, yeah, anyways, I really appreciate you guys. Boondock haverlock, I appreciate you. Um, obviously we talked quite a bit. I was real happy to see your instagram post. I do follow you guys, like everybody that watched, like if I know you watch this, I follow you, um, and look at it like I'm not like clout chasing, like I want to see what you're doing too. But anyways, boondock Haverlock, I appreciate you, cause you actually have a Tacoma and you took some of my advice, and I think that's going to pay off pretty solidly for you in your future endeavors. So I appreciate you and and that, that, that I'm truly humbled that you took that. You took that you, that you value my advice enough. So thank you for that. But anyways, guys, I will talk to you next week It'll be Wednesday.
Speaker 1:Have a happy fourth, have a safe fourth. Make sure that if you're partaking in any adult beverages, you get a ride. This is a vehicle-based hobby, and it would really suck if you couldn't drive your vehicle anymore. Make sure you're doing things safe and responsibly. Try not. You know you need your eyes and you need your driver's license, okay, so make sure you're being smart. Enjoy it, though, and get out if you can, and I will talk to you guys next week Later.