Outskirts Overland Podcast

Breaking Down Vehicle Care: The Importance of Regular Maintenance

• Charlie Racinowski

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Maintenance isn't just a recommendation—it's a survival strategy when you're miles from civilization with no backup plan. Today we dive deep into the often-overlooked but absolutely critical world of proper vehicle and equipment care for those who push their gear to the limits.

Approaching 100,000 miles on my 2020 Toyota Tacoma has me reflecting on what it takes to keep a vehicle running strong through extreme conditions. From winch maintenance rituals that prevent catastrophic failures during recovery operations to the religious checking of grade 8 hardware that holds critical components together—these aren't optional tasks for the serious off-roader.

You'll discover why I change oil every 5,000 miles instead of the manufacturer-recommended 10,000, and how I've learned (sometimes the hard way) that preventative maintenance is infinitely cheaper than trail repairs or replacements. For extreme users, manufacturer recommendations are just the starting point—not the gospel.

We also explore how aging affects adventure priorities, turning what seemed like luxury items—like a quality sleeping mattress—into necessities for maintaining the energy and physical wellbeing needed for challenging off-road adventures. What seemed unimportant in my younger years has become essential to enjoying extended trips without suffering the consequences.

Whether you're a weekend warrior or a seasoned overlander, these maintenance insights might just save your next adventure from becoming an expensive lesson. Use code OUTSKIRTS10 for 10% off tickets to Overland of America, and join our community of prepared adventurers who understand that proper maintenance isn't just about vehicle care—it's about adventure sustainability.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the World of Warcraft, episode 1 the Warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft. Good morning guys. This is Charlie, with Outskirts Overlay, and I'm back. It's the morning. I re-listened to my podcast from last night. I'm still having audio issues, so this morning I'm trying something different. Yet again, I tell you guys, all the time I don't learn anything except from failing. I'm at a point where I probably need to get some advice. I probably need to figure out. I don't know what's happened recently with my streaming software, but for whatever reason, even at home last night on the internet, on my computer, I was still cutting out. It's driving me nuts. Anyways, we'll see what this morning brings, and hopefully it's good. That's good Because I have spent a small fortune on mics at this point and watched enough YouTube to know that I do have good stuff, so that shouldn't be the problem. Maybe software, maybe software. We'll have to see. We'll just have to see. Anyways, back again, trying to fill in some of the gaps from yesterday, from when I cut out. Unfortunately it's killing me and uh, but anyways, today is National Biscuit Day, biscuit Day. So what did I do? Sat myself at the gas station, got me a sauce biscuit Because Biscuit Day, biscuit Day. So what did I do? Stopped myself at the gas station, got me a sauce biscuit Because it's Biscuit Day. Man, like, what are you going to do? Who are you to deny Biscuit Day a biscuit? You know? Uh-huh, what does that bowler, what's that famous bowler go? I know you are, I am, you know, like the bowler. You guys know, you don't know that I'm sounding like a just sound ridiculous. Anyways, I put out a podcast last night and, uh, I just went over my weekend and stuff. Back on in the morning today.

Speaker 1:

Um, I'm in the truck again, just driving the truck to make kind of I'm messing with a bunch of stuff just trying to give it a shakedown. You know it is so loud in here though, well, and it's sound deadened. So all I, you know, heck here, this thing's got sound deadening everywhere, whatever I've got to get. So I used my winch the other day and I noticed my winch fairly shackle whatever was loose on my truck yesterday and I was like huh. So I just grabbed my winch remote, I go to tighten it up and it just is sucking in and I'm like I got to reattach this winch so I got to get that thing out. I got up this morning, I thought about doing it last night, got up this morning and it's raining. I was hoping that it was something I could do tonight.

Speaker 1:

Because what you got to do to clean your winch rope is essentially you get a bucket with soap in it. You don't want to use anything too harshly drying, so like I try to not use, like it sounds weird, but't want to use anything too harshly drying, so like I try to not use like it sound weird, but I try to use like a lotion soap, like a soft soap or something, so it'll help it clean it, but it won't dry out the the fibers of the synthetic rope. Like a dawn uh do. Do I have any reason to believe dawn would mess it up Like actual, real, like statistical reasons. No, in my mind I'm like Dawn is dry stuff out, like good for that. Like you get poison ivy, wash it with Dawn, you get. You know like you're like dials, good for killing bacteria, but Dawn's another level, you know like I just think it dries stuff out.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, that's just rambling, but I've got to clean my winch. I've got to clean my winch rope, my synthetic rope, and I've got to retention this bad boy and get it wrapped around right. I think I was too far away when I pulled myself out. This will happen sometimes guys Like you'll be too far away but you don't want to like winch your car all the way up to the tree or the other vehicle or whatever. So I'm a good ways away and I'm winching and then it gets slack. So I put it back in, but it doesn't have enough tension back on the winch line to where, when I go to tension it with my fairlead up against the I guess my shackle up against the fairlead, the fairlead's, the thing attached to the bumper anyways I think I don't know, I'm messing up the nomenclature kind of. I feel like, anyways, the thing at the end of the winch line up against the plate that's on the bumper, it's going to put tension on it and if the rope's not tensioned appropriately, it's going to essentially take the most outer layer and like kind of suck it back in and that's how you get binds and how you break synthetic line, like how you break synthetic winch line, and that just goes back to walk around your vehicle.

Speaker 1:

I noticed it yesterday and I was like huh. So I went to do it, kind of already assumed what was going on. But I didn't want to flopping around and I you know famous last words I didn't plan on winching anything out yesterday. Luckily I didn't have anything to winch it up. But because it does happen in my regular everyday life when I have the truck, if somebody's you know somebody's in a bad way off the road, I will help. You know, I bought all this stuff. I have it like save somebody else money, get some experience, like it helps me learn, like I will help get people out quite a bit. I talk about it a lot. I use my winch a lot. I'm very familiar with the thing and I was even just checking. Anyways, I'm very familiar with it. Nonetheless, didn't need it yesterday.

Speaker 1:

I need to clean the synthetic winch line and retention the whole winch. So the way you clean it is you put soap in a bucket and you take like length by length of the winch line through the bucket and kind of shimmy down the line to clean it out and then you lay it out to dry, like have your winch line wrapped out in front of the truck on the ground somewhere to dry, whether you put it on towels or newspapers or just the regular ground to dry whatever. I have before taken my winch line and like attached it to something far away from the truck, so it's kind of like out to dry. Done that before too. So it's not on the ground at all because potentially you're introducing more dirt to the fibers. I've done all the different ways.

Speaker 1:

I think the fact that you're cleaning the line and your retention in your winch appropriately is really the thing to be gained. So I'll leave that. I'll just leave that at that. I mean, that's what I would do, but it's raining now. I don't know that. I'll do that today. I need to leave myself a note Because it needs done.

Speaker 1:

You guys will hear me too and I talk about all this stuff. Like I have a lot of gear, my truck's very built, but like none of it comes without maintenance. Like you've got to maintain all this stuff. Like it maintenance. Like you've got to maintain all this stuff. Like it's not just like set it forget it. Like last night. This has happened. I've seen this happen in videos before and again. Knock on wood, it has not happened to me.

Speaker 1:

But I get under my truck, you know to change my oil everybody. Well, you guys might not change your own oil, but I would recommend at least at that interval, like hey, I'm getting my oil changed, which, again, I have a Toyota and I do it every 5,000 miles, which, if you're anybody on a forum, that's controversial anyways, like everybody's like, ah, they say 10, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, okay, I do 5, whatever, it doesn't matter, I'm not arguing with anybody, that's what I do. I pay for the damn truck. So that's right, that's 5,000 miles. The oil is way less expensive than you know. Bearing failure or piston ring failure, ask me how I know. Anyways, just keep it stuff lubricated, keep it fresh stuff in there.

Speaker 1:

I consider the way I use the truck is extreme use as extreme use and so I do intervals as such. Well, every time I go up under the truck is what I'm getting at is I check the bolts on my winch. So my winch plate is I have all grade A hardware attaching my front steel bumper to the frame and as well as my winch plate, and I check my grade 8 hardware that's on the winch plate into the winch. I have known people to lose a bolt out of their, you know, from their winch plate to their winch. So they're rocking three bolts, sometimes two bolts. That is a very, very dangerous situation. That is a very, very dangerous situation. So I do make sure to check those, make sure all four are in the winch and tight. Everything's good to go, because that is a piece of equipment that can be.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I do not want that thing yanking out, like that would be so bad. Like, is it going to rip the bumper off? Absolutely not. But if it becomes loose it's going back into the radiator and that's bad. Like it's not good, it's one's not worse than the other, so it will like flop around back in the radiator. And I don't just carry, you know, six dollar a piece, grade eight bolts for that thing with me.

Speaker 1:

You know, now, saying that out loud, I'm thinking, man, maybe maybe I'm the dummy, maybe I should carry one or two. You know I have the same ones in my bumper as I have in my winch, but maybe I should carry them. You know I carry a lot of spares of different stuff. You know, maybe that's where I'm messing up, or that's a place I could do better Just talking about it. So, yeah, that's a place I could do better, just talking about it.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, that's just a thing yesterday, but make sure you guys pay attention to your gear, not only the gear itself, making sure you're going back, checking fuses, checking connections, clean yourself up, seeing if there's any reason to believe something's malfunctioning, going wrong. Why is it coming loose? How do I remedy that? Whether it's, you know, Teflon tape or Loctite or whatever, like you don't want stuff rattling loose. If you keep noticing stuff specific places, like if your tires are wearing real weird, go get an alignment, like stuff like that. Just paying attention, and again I'll make it seem like it's way more complicated than it needs to be, but I make it as complicated as I think it needs to be to make this truck last, because it was just even a conversation yesterday.

Speaker 1:

My dad has an El Camino. I've told you guys that before he got the windows tinted on yesterday. I have a buddy who has a detail shop that tints windows, Local to me here, and my dad got his. We've re uh, we've restored the uh GTO. I had a GTO, but anyways, we've restored the El Camino and he got the windows tinted and I mean it looks great, but I was driving to, but I was driving to um get that done and he was like man, your truck's about a hundred thousand miles and it is. It is about a hundred thousand miles. He's like man, that's getting there. He's like that, that kind of happened quick and my truck's a 2020. So I mean it's almost there. It's been five years in September, so it's getting there.

Speaker 1:

And I was like, yeah, I mean hopefully it lasts a long time, like cause, I did just put a bunch of money into. He's like I don't know, maybe you should start looking at at um. You know what is a new motor cost? Just to have like this is my thought process. And again, it's going to sound like I'm made of money. I'm not, but I have.

Speaker 1:

You know, I am a take care of the stuff you got type person. So I'm taking care of this truck, but naturally I'm aware like in the next four to five years it's going to have 200,000 miles and it's going to be 10 years old and I have no plan of getting rid of this thing, Unless it gets rid of me. So we were talking about it and I was like I bet I could probably. Now that it's not the new model, you know the 24s out, I was like I bet I can, I should see what just a new one from Toyota costs can't be more than three grand. And I was like, and then I'll just put it in the house like temperature control, if you know you don't want to throw rust or anything. Toyota costs can't be more than three grand. And I was like, and then I'll just put it in the house Like temperature control, if you know you don't want to throw rust or anything. And so that was a thought on my mind.

Speaker 1:

But what I'm getting at is I just take maintenance very, very, very seriously Because again, I'm an extreme user. Like I don't, I am not easy on stuff and I know that that are like I don't, I am not easy on stuff, and I know that. But again, I'm a firm believer that people make this stuff to be used and I just use it. So I just follow their maintenance. You know protocols, whatever that is, whether it's greasing, changing flushing, whatever. Like I am on top of my maintenance schedules and I mean that's brake fluid gets swapped out, that's transmission fluid flush drain and fill oil radiator like antifreeze cooling system flush. I've changed hoses. It's about time for my serpentine belt to need changed. Is it's about time for my serpentine belt to need changed.

Speaker 1:

I check all my you know pulleys and pulley bearings and just stuff that could go wrong, like checking all the fan blades on my fan making sure there's no chips or nicks in them. I have a it's a clutched fan, it's not an electric fan, just all that stuff I look at and I maintain, you know, to make sure that this thing does last for me. So I have a scan gauge too in the truck so I can monitor more temps and different things, so I can know what's going on with the truck. Do I need to be paying attention to something that I'm not? So maintenance is a big, big, big big thing with me, and that's that goes for.

Speaker 1:

I mean checking bumper bolts, because again you think, oh, I don't check my bumper bolts, whatever, whatever. But at the same time, like that's what you're going to be yanking recovery gear off of to get your truck out and last thing you want is a freaking steel rear bumper flying at your buddy's rig. So you got to pay attention, like it's not a big deal until it's a big deal, and you're like, oh man, that was rough, you know. Like I don't want to be in. Oh man, that was rough land.

Speaker 1:

So I do constantly check that stuff, make sure it's all good, like my skid plate's. Another thing Like I've had bolts in the skid plate rattle loose before I check that, like weekly I check it. I almost always check it before I get on a trail too, the skid plates, because I don't think anything negative would happen if my skid plates fell off at all. But like from them falling off off but not having that protection is not good. I don't know if you could get my gas tank skid plate off. If you wanted to be honest with you guys, I got that thing on. I mean I'm welded on but like my gas tank was showing some wear, so my gas tank skid plate is also showing some wear and I used a lot of means of things to keep those bolts from backing out on the plate and to the frame. So you guys might watch this later.

Speaker 1:

But my eyes say like, hey, sometimes you gotta, you know, risk it for the biscuit type thing, like if my fuel pump goes bad I'll deal with the repercussions of my actions or I'll just take the bed off to get to it. But I was like, do I want to hold in the gas tank, or I mean it's give and take, you can't have it all. So, yeah, lots of time is spent on maintenance of this. Like my Subaru is a new car, like nonetheless, I still change oil early on it, from what Subaru says too, because I don't know, that's just such a cheap thing to just. You know it used to be 3000 miles, now it's five, or then it was 5,000 miles, and everybody's like eight, 10, 15,000. And I'm like I do believe oil technology is good, I do.

Speaker 1:

But I also believe I want my stuff to last longer than everybody else's. Like a lot of people might be happy at 200,000 miles. These damn cars are expensive, man. I want my stuff to last longer than everybody else's. Like a lot of people might be happy at 200,000 miles. These damn cars are expensive, man. I want this thing to last. I mean I want the motor to last as long as the metal on the car lasts, like seriously, like when's it start rusting? I want it to still be running With good compression.

Speaker 1:

So, cause, these things are a lot of money. I have a lot of money invested and there's been times when I was younger where I was like you know, I didn't calculate it and I didn't know what I had invested and I didn't know it. But like I'm not young anymore and I do know, and it is a ton, and to repair it if something breaks is a lot of money, that's way more than and to repair it if something breaks is a lot of money, that's way more than. That's way more money than oil and freeze or just checking for cracks in radiator hoses, or you know, we're in the mud all the time. Mud dries stuff out. Checking that stuff matters Like seeing if it's all good. You know long tangent there. So yep.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, audio's been sucking bad lately for me, so I'm trying something else again this morning to see what it comes out to be. I just didn't want to record again tonight because that didn't work well. I'm just trying to find a way that this all works well so that I can even bear listening to my own stuff, and hopefully this is a whole different way of doing it too, and hopefully this is it, hopefully, but we will. We'll know soon, um. So yeah, gotta take care of my winch eventually. Don't know what that's gonna look like. So it's raining now, maybe not all day. I haven't checked the weather, hopefully not all day, tomorrow's already. Like again, it's not june yet. It'll be june on what sunday? But as far as work's concerned, it's june tomorrow's. J In my world, a couple days early.

Speaker 1:

I work in an industry where, like the work week, the work week month matters and the end of the working day month is tomorrow. Crazy dude June. It's almost, it's going to be 4th of fourth of july. Like tomorrow, it's summer. Guys.

Speaker 1:

I took the day off tuesday. I talked about doing mowing and stuff, but really the reason I took the day off is because my daughter's on summer. I mean, she's out of school. I mean both my, all three of my kids are out of school. But she specifically asked if I would stay home with her on Tuesday. This is like the first day of summer. I guess Monday really was, but it was Memorial Day, so everybody's off anyways. So I stayed home Tuesday with her. But man, it's summer already. Dude. Pictures of me and my daughter camping last memorial day were like popping up on my facebook, because you know how it does that. I'm like man, that's a year ago already. Getting old sucks, getting old sucks, um, majorly. So yeah, damn, I'm talking. Yeah. So, wow, I don't even. That's all I got to say about that, wow. So, anyways, guys, I will catch you guys tomorrow.

Speaker 1:

I have some more subjects, um, you know, just covering maintenance today a little bit, because it's what I've been doing. I I do maintenance like twice a year, you know, like it depends on how heavy I travel, but maybe like maintenance, big maintenance, twice a year, like making sure I'm paying, you know, paying special attention to the fuel system. I did just change my spark plugs on the truck, thank God. That's a huge pain on this truck, not huge pain, but enough of a pain that I got it early and I'm happy I did so. I got that done, which is awesome. I've got uh, got spark plugs done, making sure I'm taking care of fuel system, making sure I'm taking care of cooling system, checking all the bolts and stuff, making sure we're, you know, copacetic there and I do that probably like really extensively twice a year and I just got I just did it, you know, two days ago on the truck. You know everything like making sure phone mounts are in good, checking to see if I got any, you know, wire connections that are showing any like black spots from like arcing or something maybe needs, you know, just attended to, just checking stuff. You know, just normal, like before, I'm tracking down a problem, seeing if I can mitigate it happening and uh, so far, so good. I mean, I had a locker switch that fried homey, but I fixed it. I got another one. I had an extra extras. I had a locker switch that fried homey, but I fixed it. I got another one. I had an extra Extras, I had an extra. So it's good now.

Speaker 1:

But yep, that's what's going on and hopefully ready to get moving, you know, to the get moving, camping Waiting on my mattress to show up I talked about yesterday. I hope that really is like. I hope that really changes that for me, cause that has been I'll do a week or two week trip to some point this year and I was really questioning if I was looking for a new tent. You know, really I was like this is, I can't do two weeks in this tent because of the mattress, but the mattress is also so thin because the tent's so thin and with the tent being so thin I can't just throw a, you know, static, thicker mattress in there. A tent will close. So I was like man, and then I was not finding air mattresses. Anyways, long story short, I got one now but hopefully that all goes in the elysium of things, like exactly in the best case scenario it could go. I hope so that I can do those longer trips here in a little bit and not be miserable. You know, I'm getting.

Speaker 1:

I hate it, I'm just not young anymore where I'm like just I don't know if I sleep, like not right in this tent, like I'm down, like I'm down the next day, and that means like it's not pleasant to get out of the truck to recover or spot or just a lot of things. It's just such a God. Four years ago, if I'd have been like man the most important thing is going to be the mattress I'd have been like what a freaking wuss. But then here I am, like you don't know what, you don't know until you know Not good, and I think I've talked about before guys like I am not somebody without injury. I'm a disabled veteran. My back and hips are involved in that, so maybe I'm a little more susceptible to that being a thing. I don't know if I accept that reality really, but it's better. I hope it helps so much so that I can keep doing this for longer times, because that's what I really need mentally. If it's not, one mentally, and it's one thing, if it's not one thing, it's another. So, yep, that's where we're at and uh, okay, so I guess I'll go from there.

Speaker 1:

I've rambled a little bit gone over some stuff. Guys, just bear with me. Well, you don't have to bear with me, I'm listening to my own. I know how bad this audio has been the last two for sure, three, three, two, three, four for sure and hopefully this one doesn't sound anything like those last ones.

Speaker 1:

Um, I really thought, being at home yesterday on my home podcasting set up, I would have zero issues and I didn't even check back the audio file to even see if it had like dips. You know, if you guys don't know, like if you look at an equalizer of any type, you can kind of tell, like when volume cuts out or something. I didn't even look at it, I was so confident it'd be good, like yeah, I've never had a problem at home before, so, and I mean I can play xbox live at home. So the internet's good. I mean I'm for a fact. No, the internet's good, I don't know, I don't know. Hopefully this is better, hopefully this is good, hopefully this is good for you guys.

Speaker 1:

So, more than anything, this is a audio check versus making sure I have a podcast topic lined up. But I mean, it is Bizkit Day, so don't forget that and I guess, before I sign off, just make sure, if you guys are going to look at going to Overland of America, use code OUTSKIRTS10. Again, just saves you some money. So use the code OUTSKIRTS10. Save yourself 10%, 10% of 100, you know it's 20 bucks, 15, 20 bucks, based on what ticket prices are. I mean, that's some gas. It's worth it just for having my code. And I will catch you guys tomorrow, maybe at home, maybe in the truck, maybe, who knows, maybe somewhere completely different. If this audio stinks, I don't know well, guys, I will catch you later and have a freaking good day later.

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Charlie Racinowski

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