Outskirts Overland Podcast

Behind the Scenes: Juggling Family, Work, and Outdoor Passion

• Charlie Racinowski

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Charlie shares his anxieties about his truck being at the shop for gearing work and discusses vehicle tuning with Chris at Tidewater Tuning who now works with MCB Elite to support multiple vehicle platforms beyond just Toyotas.

• Current gear upgrade from 3.90 to 5.29 gears in preparation for future tire size increases
• The importance of proper tuning for gear changes and AGM batteries
• How Charlie supports small businesses owned by friends by paying full price
• Balancing family responsibilities like kids' soccer with camping plans
• Preparing for More Expo while managing logistics, merchandise, and time constraints
• Using a Subaru Wilderness as a temporary overlanding vehicle with 10 inches of clearance
• Updates on new NickWack products received for testing

Have topics you'd like covered? Use the text feature at the bottom of the podcast to suggest ideas for future episodes!


Speaker 1:

The hey guys. It's Charlie and this is Outskirts Overland. It's Thursday, yesterday. I took a day off. I just wanted a day off and I do take the weekends off, so I mean, it's not like the end of the world. I, yeah, I just took the day off from the podcast Today. I mean, obviously it's a nice day. I'm driving to work. I'm actually wearing something green. I still have my regular black T-shirt underneath. So for those of you that watch though, it looks like I wear the same thing every day.

Speaker 1:

I also moved my mic up, thinking maybe, just maybe, it'll sound a little better. I I don't know what. I'm not what I'm not learning about these mics. That's keeping them. They don't sound how I want to sound and I know they're good mics. So I don't know.

Speaker 1:

Know, if you hear my car beep too low on washer fluid, I'm going to go take care of that, literally, while I'm talking. Washer fluid, anyway, still don't know when my truck's going to be done. So that's nothing against the guy. Guy's working me in, guys. So I don't have a schedule for that. I know parts have been ordered. It's getting there. It's just a little.

Speaker 1:

I'm just not used to not having my truck. I do all my own work. I do all my work myself. I just don't do gear work. So differential work I guess for another example, but it's super weird there's been at least I don't know four times in the last couple weeks. I wanted to just go out and get it and I was like, oh, my truck's not here, like my truck's not even at the shop. My truck is like my shop, my truck's gone Away. It's been like sounds probably sounds crazy, but it's been a little bit of like. I've been pretty anxious about it. Actually, I don't know. I got a lot invested in that emotionally, not only just financially, but emotionally. It's just a lot. I do got my new.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I want to give a shout-out to my guy, chris, over at Tidewater Tidewater, I think it's Tidewater Tuning. He did give me my tune and, uh, he's always great. Like he got me my tune for my 529s, like he's always super responsive and it's not I mean I'm plugging him just because I use him like I pay for it, uh, but he's been super great, super great. He's helped tune my truck. I don't know this would be the third or fourth time, I don't know. He could tell you. We got the emails, but just from different updates coming out with tunes.

Speaker 1:

And now I got gears and I went to an AGM battery and the tune could kind of account for that slightly. You know, to help get you some more out of your alternator, because you can't change the diode in the newer ones like you could in the older ones you should be able to change the alternator diode to a gm diode and it would get you a little more so you could run an agm uh. So if you've got like an older, like a hundred series land cruiser or uh or uh earlier tacoma, you know, first, second gen, first gen Tundra, you can just change the diode and the alternator is really cheap. You can order it on Amazon or eBay. It's very cheap and you'll get that 14.3 out of the alternator. Help keep your AGM topped off, otherwise your AGM kind of never really gets above 80, 90%. So which sucks, it sucks, um anyways.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, chris, over there at Tidewater Customs he's done me solid. If you guys ever need anything, don't hesitate to reach out to me. I'll give you his info. Um, I don't know that he'd get you guys a deal, but if you let him know I sent you. He knows. I mean, he knows I have a podcast, like I mean, it's not I just I don't ask for handouts. You know people treat me good, I tend to like to pay. That's about where I'm at with it. As long as you treat me good, I'm happy to pay. You know, they always say you know, if your friends own a business and you're a real friend, you should pay full price. And you know, I kind of live by that.

Speaker 1:

I used to detail cars for a living and I have a friend of mine from high school that details cars too and at one point he was my competition. But I don't detail cars anymore. I take everything I own gets detailed by him. Hell, if I could take my lawnmower to get detailed, I would Just. So he has business, just supporting his business. You know, can I wash my own car and have a ton of detailing stuff? I do, but I can help him out, you know. So I am big on that. So I just want to make it clear, like Chris doesn't, I get no kickbacks, I'm gonna nothing.

Speaker 1:

And he actually has worked. This is something cool about him. Recently it used to be I don't know if it's Tacoma tuning or Toyota tuning was his business and he has switched. So those of you that have like different platforms, he works with mb elite, now um, as a tuning vendor and they do like a ton of platforms. So he used to do stuff that was just like you know, like ot, ott, like overlay and torque tune. I guess I'll just talk about tuning, I guess today, because that's what I that's what's on my mind right now, but anyways, he used to do that and that's really specific to only a few models. He's with M, is it? M is at gosh dang it. Here we go, here we go, here we go.

Speaker 1:

Chris LeBlanc is his name, son of a mother. I'm trying to find his email for you guys. I am sorry, I believe it's Tidewater Tuning. Anyways, he does Now he works with. I got 17 messages with him, so I've gotten tuned about a billion times.

Speaker 1:

Okay, it's MCB Elite, that's what I've gotten. Well, I, I don't have now, but that's what I have ready to put in. I have all the tuning software guys. So, like, this is not, like I have all the tuning software, so it's not, it's not new. Okay, so we're gonna let him. I'll leave it there.

Speaker 1:

It's mcb elite, but they do a lot of platforms, so I'm I don't know what all platforms he has. If you guys have interest in that, like, let me know. I don't know, but all he can do, but I know they do, like some they do a lot of stuff different platforms and, just like you know, fitter and forerunner, third gen tacoma, like some of the two toyota tuning stuff. Now he could do a lot of different stuff. I think he could do jeeps I think he can do. You know he could do a lot different, a lot more stuff. So I think that's why he switched from like yoda works and whatever katie max ott they were all just kind of like a few Toyota specific platforms. So I think it's good that he switched over for him and his business because he's really, he's really really great and uh anyway. So he said, nonetheless, so I can, when I get to my truck I can reflash it so that it's tuned for the 529 gears, because it does change some of the transmission control module too. So when you get a tune it's not just like engine parameters, you also get it, it also does the transmission control um, and that's gonna obviously need to be switched with.

Speaker 1:

I think it had 390s in it and I went to 529s, so, like that is a huge difference and I did not put bigger tires on the truck, it's still 33s. I went 529 because I kind of want to go not 35, true, 35s, but I kind of want to go with a 295. I have a 285, 70, 70, 17, and that's a 33. If I go with a 295, 70, 17, that's like 34 and some change, and I might want to do that, um, depending on price, depending on how truck runs. You know, real honestly, um, but I'll have the components in the truck to run that pretty easily and I like having that room where my tires wear out.

Speaker 1:

That is, I just got these tires last year, so they got 50,000 mile tires, but I'm sure anybody that knows you go off-roading, overlanding, whatever gravel, everything else. They wear out. I mean they wear out quicker. That's just all there is to it. But I don't have, but I don't know, 10,000 miles on a baby, maybe not even because the truck's on my daily. It just I mean it's not getting driven any less sitting at this guy's shop than it would have been at my house. I just can't go get my crap out of it.

Speaker 1:

Like, every once in a while I have stuff in my truck. That's like I use in the house sometimes, Like, not like it's not like my silverware's in the truck, guys, but like I have stuff in there that could be useful. You know, drills, different stuff. Like it's not, like, oh, that'd be perfect. Lighters, Maybe I need a lighter for something so I just go out there and grab it. Well, that's not an option right now. So the uh, those Subarus getting a little more equipped, because it needs, I need sometimes I need this stuff, so, but that's not anything to really talk about other than that.

Speaker 1:

Oh, today's National Siblings Day. I told you guys I could cover that it's National Siblings Day. So, hey, there you go, say something to your sibling or brother from another mother. You know National Siblings Day, I forgot all about that. Yeah, I don't really have much going on. I mean this weekend I haven't really even decided what I'm going to do. There's, you know, kids soccer is starting and that's a saturday deal and again, that's important. Um, I mean I, I was a soccer last weekend. I'm gonna be a sock well, last saturday, I'm gonna be a soccer this saturday. Um, I have weekends, I can camp.

Speaker 1:

Spring is tougher for me as a dad and I mean my girlfriend has kids too and they play sports too and kids are important. The kids are more important than camping and I do prioritize camping. We may still go Saturday night somewhere, I haven't decided yet, but with all the rain that we got last week it's tough. A lot of places I want to go would be flooded. I'm in the Subaru but not I mean guys got all terrains on it. I mean all terrains on it. I mean all terrains on it. I can air it down. It is the wilderness. Like it's got 10 inches of ground clearance to the bottom. It'll get around. Like it won't be crushing the game but it'll get around. So I may take it out to you. I just haven't decided. I'm going to kind of keep an eye. Today's thursday, I mean tomorrow's friday, I need to be decided by tomorrow, but I need to keep. I've been checking water levels because I don't. I definitely my truck has, like I don't know, 16 inches of ground clearance, probably 16, 17, maybe a lot um to the bottom and a snorkel. I'm comfortable going through more water with it than I will be otherwise.

Speaker 1:

Johnny, my friend Johnny just asked for those of you that can't see the stream. He said what's going on with the stream. Well, johnny, as I've started to stream daily, the algorithm is pushing me out to me, said what's going on with this stream? Well, johnny, as I've started to stream daily, the algorithm is pushing me out um, to people and I'm just getting trolls. They just talking crap in the chats. It's been pretty, it's been pretty normal thing for the last couple weeks. Everybody's like who is this guy? What's he talking about? Like if you were reading the chat right now, johnny, it's just, it's, it's irrelevant. I just let it go. Go. I can see it. Just wait for somebody like yourself to get on. That's relevant.

Speaker 1:

I do appreciate these people commenting, though. It helps me out. Thanks for trolling me with. Uh, it's just people. People just blowing up the chat, trolling trying to get me, uh, off topic, probably, or something like that. You know anything. Just who knows what works, uh, but anyways. So, yeah, the chat's kind of wild. If you guys get on to watch me stream, uh, you'll see that chat just popping off weird stuff just all over the place. I don't even know what. This, what, what even was on it yesterday, some or two days ago, was wild. That's crazy, it's funny. But uh, yeah, whatever.

Speaker 1:

So I, I really got nothing. I mean it's it's kind of that time of year where, like I'm busy getting stuff ready, more expos coming overland of america's coming, um, everybody's gonna have vacation time with my friend group, like I'm trying, I'm just trying to get stuff going, not not only that I ordered, you know, I'm ordering merch for the uh, for the events. I'm I'm getting you know, I'm getting making sure I got my time off work, where I'm going, where I'm staying, like just a lot of logistics going on. Right now I'm editing clips so I can put reels on Instagram, like these are all things that go into that, go into it. That I guess maybe I don't know, it takes up my time and I do. Still again, I still have three kids. I still like to have time to go camping. If I'm camping, I mean I'm not doing this and I still have a job, still have a full-time job.

Speaker 1:

So it just sometimes it's like I can't even keep up with other podcasts and blogs and to keep you guys with the most like what came out yesterday, cause, man, I'm trying to get my, I'm trying to be ready for more expo. Really, to be quite honest with you guys, I'm just trying to get ready for more expo, like and that's t-shirt proofs and sticker ideas and slogans and and you guys will find out about it all when it's done, but it's not done yet. So I'm just trying to get it all buttoned up so hopefully I can get back on track of, like, what's coming out, that's new, what's going on, that's new, new vehicles. You know. But right now, just like like right now, right now, like this week, I have just been making sure all my stuff is buttoned up because more expos in two weeks and easter's next weekend. So I got this weekend, next weekend and more and more is like I need to be ready to go by Tuesday, wednesday that week, you know. So really I've got I mean a week and a half and it's more. And I gotta make sure t-shirts are on track to get here on time. I gotta make sure stickers on track to get here on time. I got to make sure stickers on track to get here on time.

Speaker 1:

I got to make sure you know I still don't have my truck back, do I know? If I I don't need my truck to go to more, but it will be nice, it will be nice, and then, if I do get my truck back. I go get it. It's three hours away. I got to get it back. It's got new gears. I got to break in the gears. I mean I just got. There's just a lot going on. I mean I got parts out for it. I got stuff that needs done on it Once I get it back. Uh, what need is a in? The gears need broken correctly. I need to go through the appropriate breaking procedure for the gears. But I mean I other stuff sitting too that needs to get done.

Speaker 1:

I told you, guys, I was working on something I can't. I can't get it done if I don't have the truck. And again, nothing on the guy that has it. Like if it's not done by more, it's not done by more. Again, he's working me in because more expo is important to me, guys, and you're probably like, why are you doing that? More expo is important to me, but more as going, as a personality, as the podcast, than the truck. It's way more important to me that my truck is ready to roll in May. So it's there waiting to get done. So I have it by May. It doesn't need to be done by more At all. Like I'm not pushing this guy, like at all, like at all, like I'm not pushing this guy like at all, like at all. It needs, like I'd like to it to be done before more so I can get it, or after more so I can get it. Like, either way, I just don't want it to be done. I just, you know, and I want it to be done. I just don't want it to be sitting and him waiting for me to pay him over that weekend I guess, because I'll be at more. But yeah, I don't need it To be clear, like game on May, june, july, august, september, some more events, october, some more events.

Speaker 1:

But like it is, we've gotten some really bad weather this year here in the Midwest, like uncharacteristically terrible. So I mean, I'm really just trying to be like ready to roll. For you know, I've been going I'm winning April twice too, like that's once, once in April, once in April, um, and I've went every. I've went I don't know 10, 11 times this year already. So it's not a big deal to miss one or two, you know, in the truck, but I want that sucker back before I can get in, before the water's good to get into. I don't want to be missing prime June on the Buffalo, because my truck isn't around, you know, and everybody else is going or not going, and I want to go float or or whatever. That's when I want the truck, absolutely want the truck done, and so that's what I'm pushing for.

Speaker 1:

So, to be clear, sounds maybe sounded like I was complaining, like I would like to have it back, but like, hey, I need it back in may, may, because may it's on. So in june, johnny, are you still on here, johnny? Johnny was text me. Johnny, you were talking about taking some time off in June for something extended. I don't want to get too into it here. You got to text me that. I forgot about it and I need to put it down because I'm still not out on that. I just need to know what dates. That is, text me. Don't put it in the chat, just text me.

Speaker 1:

And again, guys, this is my podcast. I'm just a regular dude. So, yeah, I am conveying to my one singular friend about a trip he reminded me of two months ago. So I just do what I do. Okay, guys, hey, but before I hop off here, thank you guys. So much for the reviews. You guys have helped me so much. I think I've picked up. You know whether I go every day on here or not. I've probably picked up more listeners based on your guys' reviews, because now they know what's going on and you know, the number one thing I'm so happy to talk about on here, guys for those of you that left reviews is I really really appreciate how you all talked on how much you like not having commercials. I really really appreciate how you all talked on how much you like not having commercials. That was never something I had and I did not realize that it was that bad.

Speaker 1:

Like everywhere else, I just don't listen to other podcasts. Really, as far as Overlanding is concerned, I mean, I listen to your typical, like real popular ones where they got like 15 minutes of ads at the beginning, but I don't listen to like I don't know. You know I listen to Benji's podcast. I guess he has some ads. I guess that doesn't. That doesn't translate to me, though, because his ads are like his own business, it's his own shop. Benji, newfound overland and midwest adventure outfitters is the same guy. So it's like do they sponsor? Well, yeah, because they sponsor his life, like you know, like. So I guess maybe it just doesn't translate to me. But hey, I, I don't have anything going on.

Speaker 1:

Um, nickwack sent me all the Nickwack stuff. Like I told you guys they were gonna. That came in yesterday, I think, yeah, and I got the stuff for the clothes and the tent. So I'll do like, I'll probably do some like clips or reels or something and reference that stuff so you guys can see how that all works. But again, I need my truck to show you guys how to wash the tent because that's where my tent is. So need my truck to show you guys how to wash the tent because, uh, that's from attendance. So there's that. So, anyways, I don't really have much today.

Speaker 1:

You guys got any topics you want me to cover. Um, there is a text feature at the bottom on the podcast. You can text the podcast. I get it, I love it, I read it. I'll use your topic. Um, the last couple topics I've had have come from listeners. So, yeah, I mean, if you don't want to listen to another one like this, give me a topic and I will hit on it. And if you guys are looking for tuning, hit up my boy, chris at Tidewater Customs. He's a man. I'll catch you guys later. Have a happy Thursday, national Siblings Day, don't forget it. Talk to you guys later.