New Jeep Color

In this week’s JTS Chic Chat, Natalie and Janet discuss a new Jeep color, dive into the numbers between women and men Jeep owners, and chat about the upcoming Trail Hero event. As the only Jeep show with an all-women’s episode, JTS Chic Chat offers a fresh perspective, but don’t worry—men are welcome to watch and join the conversation too! Don’t miss this exciting episode!

New Jeep Color

In this week’s JTS Chic Chat, Natalie and Janet discuss a new Jeep color, dive into the numbers between women and men Jeep owners, and chat about the upcoming Trail Hero event. As the only Jeep show with an all-women’s episode, JTS Chic Chat offers a fresh perspective, but don’t worry—men are welcome to watch and join the conversation too! Don’t miss this exciting episode!

Mark Berman – Topbrella

Mark Berman has been wheeling since 2015, his first Jeep being a 2011 JK soft top and now a 2018 JLU soft top. Mark is a career marketing guy having worked for or with such companies as the PGA TOUR, Major League Baseball and the NFL and for the last 15 years has led his own marketing consulting company. It was by owning a Jeep soft top that he came across the need for a simple and quickly-applied rain solution and since no one else was inventing it, he set out do so…and the Topbrella was born. Mark launched Topbrella at Jeep Beach 2024 and has been at it ever since.

 

New Jeep CEO

In this Jeep Talk Show Flagship II episode, Natalie and Tony discuss Stellantis’ search for a new CEO, with changes expected by 2026. While no cats make an appearance, there’s plenty of fun conversation, including Natalie’s realization that size does matter—at least when it comes to Jeeps! Tune in for an entertaining and informative episode.

There’s a jeeper for everyone. I think that’s something that is so special about this community. I really learned that this week too, doing an event. There literally is a jeeper for everyone. Yep. Ducking. I mean, that’s another big thing. Yeah. That is uniquely Jeep. I mean, it’s been co-opted on several other platforms now.

 

But so, you know, I wonder if, I don’t know who it was that wasn’t friendly to Jim while he was at Jeep,

 

but I’m wondering if it’s this guy.

 

I wonder. Maybe not directly, but you know, like indirectly. Yeah. And I think it would be, I don’t think there’s any way in hell Jim would even take the job, but it’d be really cool if they said, you know, we screwed up. Numbers are really bad. We’d like to have you come back. They need an American running this thing, at least for the Jeeps and the Dodge Ram, because I don’t think the Europeans get it. I don’t think it is such an American icon. So I do believe you might be on to something there. I did meet, I got to meet Jim last year at Forefest and he was lovely. We chatted for about 60 seconds, which probably felt more like 60 years to him because he had to talk to me, but it was amazing. He was just such a great guy and you never know. You never know. So there’s a lot of time in between right now. And I think it’s kind of interesting. You know, contract expires in 2026. So you already know you’re gonna have your job. I think that’s kind of an interesting twist. And I don’t know. I guess they could let him out of the contract. You know, if he started looking around and he could find another company, he could make them lose 20% year over year. As our resident fake lawyer, yes, they can break the contract early. They don’t have to pay a little bit. I am not a real lawyer, but I play one on the Jeep Talk Show. I like that. I do. So, I mean, I don’t like to see bad things happen to anybody. Yeah. You know, absolutely not. And I don’t know that anybody would be able to do any better

 

with Jeep right now. With all the stuff that’s going on. You did see where they dropped the interest rate a half a percent, right? Right, half a percent. You know, a friend of mine just bought a Jeep, but fully loaded gladiator is used. It has about 45,000 miles on it, but it looks brand new. Oh my gosh, 12% interest right now. And I was just like, oh, Eric, like I’m so excited for you. It’s his first Jeep, but oh boy. It just, it shocked me. It shocked me. And he’s gonna wheel it actually next weekend for his stock. I didn’t think it was up to 8%. I didn’t think it was 12%. His is 12% right now. And so he’s hoping maybe in the year he can refi, which I hope so too for him, but he’s, you know what? The joy is there right now and he’s blinded by love. (Laughs) Right. Well, as long as he can afford it. And like you say, refi in a year and then it won’t be so bad.

 

So the automaker however, added there is still a possibility Tavares is staying on longer.

 

Maybe he just needed some on the job training. Maybe he just need his ass kicked. Yeah, there’s that too.

 

(Laughs) Oh man.

 

Nothing, I don’t mean to be hateful to you, Carlos. I’m sure you’re doing a fine job and it’s probably just not, it’s a,

 

well, I think it was when the dealerships, the owners of the dealership started complaining about the amount of inventory they had and kind of getting jerked around from Stellantis that this is what happened.

 

I don’t know what the answer is, other than make the Jeeps cheaper and stop pushing the EV stuff. Yes. Stop doing the hybrid stuff. I mean, you can have them, that’s fine. But just make a damn good Jeep. Oh, and the Ram pickups, Ram pickups are generally really good trucks. They are. Just make a good damn pickup. Yup, I agree with you 100%. I wonder if that EV’s in our top 10 list. No, I bet you it’s not.

 

(Laughs) I bet you it’s not. So I don’t know. I mean, we’re gonna have to see what happens here. I don’t like anybody being out of a job. I’m sure he’ll be just fine though.

 

And I would like to, I don’t know. I guess this is what you see whenever the inventory’s up and sales are down. People have to be sent along their way to bring somebody else in. And I think a lot of times it’s just a knee jerk reaction. It’s not necessarily doing anything. There’s nobody out there that has the magic bullet. There isn’t, not right now. Trying to make people feel like the shareholders and stuff feel like something’s going on. I agree with you. And I can’t help but think that having a company that’s publicly traded is not good for longterm. It’s not. Because you can’t make longterm plans because you may not be there.

 

No, exactly. And it’s almost like sports teams too. I mean, if you’re not doing well, like right now, NFL is kind of, I know for us, the Bengals, we’re struggling and everyone’s calling for who’s head, the head coach. So it does start at the top. And right now we’re all, it’s struggling. Jeep is just struggling. Yeah, I mean, everybody loves a winner and they don’t like a loser. No, definitely not. God, it’s just, it’s tough. I mean, I wanna see Jeep do good. I don’t wanna see Jeep go out of business.

 

And I’m not saying that’s what’s gonna happen here, but you can’t keep going forever losing money. Correct, you can’t. Because that forever really will end. So, and we need our Jeeps guys. Absolutely. The Lanas, get it together. And you know, and speaking of Jeeps and we need our Jeeps, whenever we did this story, I think it was on the last flagship episode, we did a story about the 2025 Jeep Wrangler, not having an automatic available,

 

if it was a 3.6 V6.

 

It made absolutely no sense to me unless they’re trying to keep people from buying Wranglers.

 

Not a lot of people out there know how to drive a standard. And of course we know that the Jeeps had a lot of problems with standards since they came out with the JL, with the flywheels blowing up. Oh. Yeah, it’s just, they have an issue with those things and they’re gonna, you know, the question is, are they fixing the clutch and the transmission on the 2025?

 

Otherwise, that’s gonna be a really short, short trip. Jose, what a waste.

 

What a waste, again.

 

But I mean, we don’t know, but I will say this, Jeep Talk Show team member Bill told us on Discord server today, Stellantis may be manipulating the early 2025 model year supply to a less popular configuration and colors, I was not aware of the colors, to drive new buyers into older inventory. And this makes sense based on what we were just talking about. Yeah. The older inventory has piled up on dealer lights and this will help clear out older inventory and help dealers with not having to discount as heavily on those older model years by pushing buyers in that direction. So it is a bit ingenious. It is. I mean, it’s not like companies don’t manipulate their customers, they do.

 

You know, sales,

 

you know, G, that dress doesn’t make your butt look big. Any of you do or say anything to make the customer happy. Exactly. And make the sale, so that’s part of sales. We only have one left, you know? Yes.

 

And so I can understand it, but it makes me kind of feel bad. If it makes me feel like Stellantis is screwing us.

 

It does. Yeah.

 

I mean, it’s not illegal, I’m sure. Yeah, definitely not. I mean, so anyway. We gotta get rid of it somehow. That older inventory’s gotta go at some point. Well, I like deep discounts.

 

I do too. I like the idea of deep discounts. I do, I have short pockets, deep discount, you know? So I’m sure we will see, and the information from Bill continues. It says that he’s sure you will see the return of V6 automatic option later in 2025 model year. So if you were planning on buying a Wrangler in 2025, you might wanna wait until the end of the year. If you don’t have to have a 2025, you may be able to get a really good buy on an older Jeep,

 

because they wanna get it off the lot.

 

Yeah, and I suspect that if they are coming out with a 2025 Wrangler with an automatic,

 

right at the time they do that, or right before they do that, that would be the best time to get the old inventory off the lot. Gosh, so here’s a girl question. I can’t wait to said that, but do you think an automaker would ever skip a year if they’re sitting on so much inventory? Oh my God. Like could you ever just skip a year instead of just trying to reinvent it? Like I think right now they’re trying to reinvent. So why not? What would that do to the UAW workers though? I know, that’s the other problem. Yeah, so you really can’t. You have to always keep going. What would they do? They could put a pause on all the plants. They do do that. Yeah.

 

Man, that would just be, it makes sense. I mean, sometimes it’s, I mean, I just feel like, what if, what do you do when you’re sitting on all this stuff? You have to think that that would really hurt stock prices though. Oh, it’d be horrible. It’s not a good idea. I’m just saying, what if? Yeah, no, no, no, but I mean, it’s one of those things where then they may even have thought about this and just said, now we can’t do that. That would be too much backlash from many, many things.

 

God, could you imagine all those workers just not having anything to do? That’d be awful. Yeah.

 

Don’t do it. Yeah, no, we’re not suggesting that. And if they do do that, I didn’t suggest it. Natalie did.

 

All right, so I got broad shoulders. I can throw you under the bus. Thanks.

 

Sorry, so no– It depends on how wide those bus tires are. So we’ll see.

 

Nice segue. All right, so I thought this was interesting. I did a little research today for some Jeep news and I saw right away, I saw 10 best Jeep models ever built. I went, son of a bitch. That is perfect for the flagship episode. Isn’t it?

 

I knew I was just thinking about that today, huh?

 

So this is according to CarBuzz. And so I don’t know that this is accurate, how they came up with these numbers, but you can go over there and read their article and maybe they tell you that. We’re just gonna go through the list of models here. So not surprisingly to me, because I am a Jeep Cherokee owner, I have it in the garage. One of these days I’m gonna back it out and drive it again. But the Jeep, number one– One of these days. Jeep Cherokee XJ. XJ. They built 2.7 million of them. Everybody says 3 million, but it was 2.7 million, at least according to the old internet, the old Google.

 

And that was number one. So number two, I was a little surprised about. Are you surprised at this one, Natalie?

 

I mean, yes, because of the price point, honestly. But– And it’s so new. It’s so new. And just so everybody’s wondering, what do you all think it is? Oh, it’s that beautiful Rubicon 392 Wrangler,

 

which I dream about every day. But I cannot believe that that’s number two in reality. Yeah, I mean, it’s a nice build. I’m fortunate enough to know, we talked about Jeep Talk Show, a team member built earlier. I’m fortunate enough to know somebody that has one. And he actually started it up for me one day. Oh.

 

(Engine Revving)

 

It’s the best.

 

Your EV will never sound like that unless it has a soundtrack.

 

There you go.

 

(Laughing) I was so glad you got the buttons right.

 

(Laughing) All right, so number three is the, and let’s switch these, going back and forth, Natalie. I didn’t think about that before. So I’ll do the odd ones, which makes sense. And then you’ll do the eager ones. All right, so the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. If I was gonna buy a Grand Cherokee, and the Grand Cherokees are absolutely beautiful. They are? I just don’t look at it as an off-road vehicle. And if I’m buying a Jeep, I’m buying an off-road Jeep. Yeah. But these things are screamers.

 

And it would be fun to kick ass on everything except Tesla. Exactly. With the Trackhawk. Oh my gosh.

 

(Laughing) And then next on the list, guys, we have the Jeep CJ2A. I mean, I can see it. Definitely in the top five. Yep, absolutely. And then the Jeep Wagoneer. Now, not the new one, but the one from like the late 60s, the early 70s, I believe, the SJ. It may have gone into the 80s, I don’t recall. It’s like Abercrombie loved using them in their ads. Oh, the cool looking vehicles. Absolutely. The cool kids. Yeah.

 

And what we got for number six? The Jeep Grand Wagoneer L. So that’s the new one? That is the new one. I’m not really a fan. Have you seen those things? Yeah, we rented one on one of our trips as like our get-around vehicle. And it was just okay. I hate to say it. My brother’s gonna Tahoe at that point. But I mean, they’re huge and they carry a lot of people. And Jeep has not had that. I mean, if you wanted to do something like that, you got a mini van, a full-size van, or a Suburban. I mean, I always thought, I was driving through Texas, Central Texas, small towns, and we drove by a Suburban on 44-inch tires. And this would have been back in the 80s.

 

It was the baddest ass Suburban you’ve ever seen. Come on, Grandma, we’re going my hops.

 

Lots of size jokes right now. You know what I mean? That’s right.

 

(Laughing) Well, some of us don’t laugh at those jokes. I’ll just let you know. It’s a bit of PTSD.

 

(Laughing)

 

Next on the list, Tony. Yes, the Jeep Gladiator. Now this is the original, I don’t think there was one before this, the Jeep Gladiator, the SJ. So also in that timeframe, 60, 70, 80s, I don’t know exactly what.

 

So those are really cool. And I think that Jeep should have put a Gladiator nose on the new generation gladiators. That would have been cool. Just so it would look different from the Wrangler. As I always say, you’re driving a Gladiator and you get a Jeep wave. You do. And then when they get alongside you, they go, oh, that’s a damn Gladiator. That’s not a Wrangler. That’s not a real Jeep. And you can’t retract that wave. You cannot bring it back.

 

Next on the list, we have the Jeep Gladiator Mojave X. Now what’s the X? Which one’s that?

 

Was this one of the original Mojave’s? I don’t know because on the TJs, the Wrangler TJX models was the low end model. And I can’t imagine that this one is the low end model. So I don’t know. I don’t know what that is. I wonder if that’s expert extreme. Maybe if someone could write in on the discord, let me know. Teach me something guys. And girls. Discord, go over to jeeptalkshow.com slash contact and find out a bunch of ways to contact us. All of them actually. Oh, there it is. There it is. Oh my, oh, it made the list, didn’t it? Jeep Wrangler 4xe. Oh boy. So it’s actually done very, very well. We have a Jeep Talk Show listener that’s routinely on the Discord server and on the Zoom meetings on our round table. He loves it. He loves his 4xe. Okay. Yeah.

 

And what gym is it?

 

That’s my local 4xe guy. It’s Matt. You remember the guy that came up and spoke with you that recognized your voice? Yes. Oh my God. Oh, yes. That’s Matt. That’s Matt’s, Matt’s Jeep. His wife’s Matt gets to drive it and work on it. Hi Mrs. Matt.

 

I would like the 4xe a lot better if the motor was a V6. Was the 3.6 liter, not that two liter thing.

 

And I understand they’re trying to do what they’re trying to do, but I’d like the idea where I have the battery option, but I can still drive it with the full power of the 3.6. Absolutely. But that’s not the way it worked. No, or a 392 power. Let’s just go there. You can run that generator and sound good at the same time. Right. And then last but not least in the top 10 is, drum roll please. Can you find a button? Maybe.

 

Sure. The Jeep Willys MV. Not to be confused with Michael Bailey.

 

Oh, that’s close to it. That’s close to it. There it is.

 

Yeah. So I believe this is the original Jeep. The one that won the war or helped win the war. I mean, the soldiers driving it were probably the more, more, more, doing more of the winning than the Jeep was, but I needed to get to the fight and get from point A to point B. So of course it’s got to make the list. I don’t know that it should be number 10 though.

 

You think it should have been more on the short list? I think yeah. I think it should have been up towards the top. It could have been number one. I mean, really like. Because of all it did. I mean, we’d be, I mean, I don’t know about you, but I can’t speak German. So I would not like being speaking German right now. No.

 

All right. So Overland Expo Mountain West, 2024. Off-road trends you need to know about. Colorado is a perfect backdrop for epic sights and sounds of Overland Expo Mountain West. Oh, you know, the group from the Jeep talk show recently went to Colorado, did a Colorado trip and beautiful, beautiful sights. And I mean, I’ve only driven through a part of Colorado, this little corner going to Moab and it was gorgeous. So peeling through row after row of this country’s best off-road camping and Overland adventure vendors shows what the love of the outdoors and the centennial state is stronger than ever. From brand new vehicle manufacturers in the industry, Stalwarts to the Star Wars, no, Stalwarts.

 

(Laughing) Hogwarts. My brain’s going all over the place. To the best gear for heading deep into the back country. Overland Expo Mountain West has something for every person who feels the pulse of nature deep in their soul.

 

Overland Expo provides a snapshot into the heart of the off-road industry, what’s new, what might be the next big thing and what will always draw a crowd of adventure seekers. Here’s what’s new in the world of outdoor adventures. You can see what’s new in the outdoor world of adventures by going to realtruck.com slash blog and look forward just to a search for Overland Expo Mountain West 2024.

 

And thank you realtruck.com for being a repeat sponsor here for the Jeep Talk Show. As a Jeep Talk Show listener, go to realtruck.com and check them out. Absolutely. For sure. They’re wonderful people, guys. Got to finally meet them in person. That’s right. At Smoky Mountain. It was so exciting. I fangirled. I really did. I was like, “Oh my God, realtruck.” You grabbed one, put them in a headlock and they were happy to speak with you.

 

Just in case you guys didn’t know, we are on YouTube as well and this is all being recorded. So definitely a lot of action going on on the camera. I can’t stop moving. Tony’s favorite. Oh, you have to watch the YouTube thing. I’m everywhere. So I just did a headlock. It’s great. And I’ve been drinking coffee this whole time with my Zion mug. That poor cat. I just can’t believe you put a headlock on your cat. I did. That’s the scroll. Definitely check us out on YouTube. That’s a PETA offense right there.

 

From the mind of Nikki G.

 

Hey, this is Nikki G and I just caught the episode, “The Cowboy in a Kill,”

 

which I still think sounds like a 70s cop show. And if the network picks it up, I would like to play the role of Huggy Bear, please.

 

Chuck, you talked about how you change your springs and the ride of your Jeep is not what it used to be.

 

I invite you to borrow this clap out XJ for a week. You drive it for a week,

 

then you’ll appreciate how smooth your Jeep really drives. Heck, you’ll appreciate how smooth your lawnmower handles at highway speeds after driving this thing for a week. That’s not why I’m calling.

 

Call him a test. That’s not why I’m calling. Damn it, I almost did it one take.

 

That’s not why I’m calling. I’m calling to ask, is butt cheeks spelled one word or do you have to spread it out?

 

Can’t go wrong with a potty joke. All right, boys and girls, I’m Chad Shulay. You have a good one, bye. (Upbeat Music) That’s the one you wanna tell when you’re in the public restroom and there’s people on either side of the stall, but between you. I wasn’t expecting that. Like it caught me off guard. Cause I was like, where’s he headed with this? Oh. Yeah, that’s the best joke. Where you can’t see it coming. Yeah.

 

You know it’s gonna go, it’s gonna be, oh, but you just don’t know how or why. It’s just gonna be one of those. It’s one of those. All right, so coming up on our next interview episode, Mark Berman with thetopbrilla.com. You gotta check this thing out. Go over there, the top brilla and have a look. And the idea here is, I didn’t get it at first until I did the interview.

 

I was, I didn’t understand how you can install this thing in three minutes and this covers the back of the Jeep. Well, the JL, the JLU, you can ride around with the windows, the back window, I mean the side windows and the back window off and then you still have the top. But it’s almost a guarantee you’re gonna run into a rainstorm. Yeah.

 

I just checked it out. This is really cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he says it only takes about three minutes to grab it and get that thing on there. And it’s gonna save you so much time cleaning afterwards from the water that’s gonna build up in your Jeep. So it’s not a complete cover for the Jeep. It’s just like for the back part where the windows and the back glass is. And it also means you don’t have to take that stuff with you and don’t have to worry about it getting stolen or blown out of the Jeep, so on and so forth. Yeah, oh, I’ve had that happen. Lost a window on the highway, didn’t know it.

 

They don’t recommend that everybody. Make sure your windows are on. Okay, so we threatened a nice talking point that you had that you wanted to share with our listeners.

 

And it’s like size matters. Size does matter. It doesn’t matter. I’m from Texas, so everything’s bigger in Texas. It is bigger in Texas. And it doesn’t matter how much you say.

 

It’s important. No, it’s not important. Okay, okay, that’s fine. Exactly, yeah, it’s fine, it’s fine. Oh my goodness. Yeah, so I almost feel like this is like, what does Natalie learn this week type of segment? I know we have newbie nuggets with Wendy. It says, what does Natalie learn this week? And this week I learned about the importance of the width that you get for either your all-terrain or your off-road tire. So in my case, I just did a new build, a rebuild on mine. And so I went up to 37s with what I thought was a 13.5 or a 13.50. So I get it, I’m all excited, we’re at Smokey, I’m having a great time and go to another event. I’m teaching a class and talking about tire size and start really looking and I was like, huh, that says 12.50 on that tire. But I thought nothing of it at first. Well, it really does make a difference. So I brought up to Mike and he was like, oh no, only time I’ve ever messed up right now. So we did actually– Only time somebody can prove it is what he’s saying.

 

Right away, we did another order and those big Maxis 37 Razors came in. I’m so excited, so they came in and the guy sent me some photos, well, with the Jeep on the rack and they were putting the new ones on. And I could not believe the difference when you put them side by side of really that inch really does matter.

 

Insert every joke, if you all are listening here, I get it. I see what you did there when you said insert the joke. I walked into that, oh my gosh. Well, it really is big then. So it’s like a speed bump. Oh, here we go. So you were teaching a class. Now, I don’t know, I mean, I think that the wider tires look better. They certainly are gonna be better in mud or sand because it’s wider, but how does a wider tire help you in general? Because I would think 12 and a half is just fine. Might look a little funny. Yeah, I mean, I ran a 12 and a half on my all-terrain, my 35 all-terrains for years and I felt fine. I was doing mostly everything that my big brothers were doing, but it’s gonna cover more surface area. The tread is wider as well.

 

So I am looking forward to feeling the difference. God, it’s getting worse.

 

But I mean, so just seeing them side by side really did show me the difference. We’re doing a shake down next week. We’re heading to Slade. So Slade Kentucky and Red River Gorge. So there’s gonna be lots of mud. We are getting the tropical storm remnants coming up here, see how it does in the mud. But we will have, I’m gonna send a picture of Tony, guys. You guys will see a picture of him side by side. I saw this interesting little deal that the width really does make a difference. And yes, it does look better. I think that wider, I got to take it last night for the first time. I can see that you’re gonna get more traction. I mean, I already mentioned, like if you’re in mud, it gives you more flotation, so you’re not getting down into the mud as far. Of course, it depends on how much skinny pedal you’re using. And the sand, I can imagine that would make a big difference, especially if you air down because then that 13 and a half just gives you that much more surface area. It does. And we all know that you have to air down when you’re going off road, especially in sand. Oh yeah. And I think that’s true. I think that’s right. That’s what you want to say. Yeah, you do. I’ll go down to about eight PSI. When we were in San Hollow, everybody was running around eight PSI because it was such a mix of the rock and the really deep sand. And there were always times like we’d be going up into these dunes and people would bury because they wouldn’t either keep momentum or they just weren’t aired down enough. So, airing down really is important. It’s so important to find that sweet spot. And I’ll just mention, I’ll remind people, the 22 inch wheels with the rubber band tires may look nice to you or you think they look cool and modern and everything, but you can’t air one of those things down enough to make a difference in your traction. So if you have a Jeep and you’re not running a tire and a wheel that has a lot of sidewall to it, people that go off road know that it’s not going to be a good vehicle for off road. It’s not meant to go off road. So no matter how much crap you hang off of it. You might get through one or two times. Yeah.

 

Or how many lights you put on it. Right, no, well you just gone too far there. Lights are cool.

 

So– I want more lights on mine. I just told Mike that today. I was like, we need more lights on it. So have you, you’ve driven it with the new tires, right? I have last night and today. Did you notice any difference in driving it on the street?

 

I don’t know if it was in my head. Like I felt bigger to be honest. I don’t know why. Maybe I think also it’s just, it has the 500 miles on it now. I’m almost at 600.

 

So it’s just getting more broken in too. So it is feeling good. So did you do the diff, the diff fluid change at 500? They did, yeah, it was great. So the guys did it and Tom, thank you, Tom, for doing that and did the tires yesterday. No wine from the gears, the new gears and the axles? Not really.

 

The only thing I know, the only thing I’ve noticed is shifting is a little bit different now because the new 513s, I’m not used to that.

 

I bet you it’s very snappy.

 

It can be, yeah, but then there’s times I feel like I’m just like stuck in third because I do a lot of highway, community from Kentucky up to Ohio. And so I’m on the highway a lot. So I’m going around 65, 70, and this thing is just not, she doesn’t want to. So Mike gave me a good tidbit today. He told me to start doing manual shifting and that really likes it. The JKs like that on the highway. Oh, I’m thinking about the eight speed automatic and the JL and the JT. So I was really surprised by that because I wouldn’t think you would have any kind of issues on the highway with 37s and 513s is what you said? I feel heavy, yeah, I feel heavy. But maybe, and that’s just me getting used to it. And I do have the MBRP exhaust and she’s loud. Oh my gosh, I’m sorry to my neighbors, especially early in the morning, I’m leaving for work, but everyone knows I’m coming.

 

It’s fun, but yeah, the tire width guys, it’s a great thing to really educate yourself and learn about and there really is a difference. There is a difference. And a customer called me out on it too. Actually John Sabo from There Goes Action Sports, we’ve talked about them before with their Bobbed Gladiator, Hilah Field, of course. And he was like, no, it’s just so weird. You did the 12 and a half and not a 13 and a half. And I was like, oh yeah, I mean, yeah, that’s what I wanted. Now these are Maxis tires, right? The 12 and a half are Maxis tires. Where the hell was Rosie? Checking to make sure you get the right tires. We were at Forefest freezing together. We didn’t even notice.

 

She’s Baja’ed right now. Very, very cool. Well, I mean, you got the right size tires on there. Oh, what are you gonna do with the set that was on there? I’m sure somebody would like to have those. I mean, they’ve got less than 500 miles on them, right? Oh yeah, they only had 425 and it was all highway. Like it’s like they were clean actually. And it was your grandmother that was driving the Jeep. It was.

 

They are available at Hilah Fafaro guys. Check it out.

 

Scratch and Dentsail. Oh, they even signed them for ya. How about that? Is it a scratch and dent, a potential scratch and dent sale there at the Hilah? Maybe. You never know. Mike’s always, Mike’s easy to talk to you guys. Wheeling and dealing. Wheeling and dealing.

 

Or if you’re enslaved on the fifth, we’ll be down there. You’ll see red down there. So come pay us a visit. So Natalie, are you a coffee drinker or a tea or? Duh. If you’re on YouTube, you can see it.

 

So I must have stuff for your Jeep. Yes, you need the ability to make coffee from your Jeep. Yes, absolutely. How many times have you been, you’re driving down the highway, you go, I need me some coffee and you look up and you see that Bucky sign, 795 miles to the next Bucky’s. Oh gosh.

 

They really do have some out there. I think the one I’ve seen far enough, the farthest one I’ve ever seen is like 80 miles or something. And I’m like, holy shit.

 

I think they do that because you go, well, I’m not gonna stop at that McDonald’s because I only have another 50 miles to go for Bucky’s. Yes, and I’ve done it. We have one here. It’s an hour and 45 minutes away from my house. And honestly, people still just go from here to go get the jerky, go get a coffee. Why not?

 

Pickled garlic, the actual garlic cloves, pickled. Oh boy. Try that sometimes. Okay, is that Bucky’s? Yes, absolutely. You guys are the birthplace of Bucky’s. So you would know. Oh yeah, we have one that’s about, well, I live in Cady. This is where Studio A is in Southeast Texas. And Cady got a Bucky’s about maybe three, four years ago. So there’s a very large Bucky’s about, I guess it’s about five miles from here. And sometimes I’ll go over there just to get a barbecue sandwich. It’s not the best barbecue, but it is good barbecue. Certainly good barbecue for a gas station. At the end of the day, it’s still a gas station. Yes, I mean, let’s be real. I don’t like that. How many pumps? Oh God. How many pumps does that one have? Oh God, I don’t know. The Gullenberg one was 126, I think. It might be that many. Oh my God. It’s very wide. And also too, you go in there and I’m like, what the hell? It’s not any kind of special day. It’s so busy. Why? Why is it so busy? It’s like Black Friday every day. So somebody sold their soul to the devil. I mean, buckies is neat. I like it. But it doesn’t seem to be that impressive. Anyway, so let’s say you don’t want to wait that 127 miles before getting to buckies. You have to have some coffee now. Well, Makita has a coffee maker that’s battery powered. No, it’s not 27 D size batteries. You actually take one of your Makita tool batteries, like a five amp hour battery. You slap it on this Makita coffee maker. And this is kind of the depressing thing. You can make three five ounce cups of coffee. It takes about five minutes for each cup off of a single five amp hour battery, LXT battery. And this does not come with the battery or the charger. But if you already have Makita tools, this is, you’d want to buy this. But you already have it. Yeah, yeah. You already got the batteries. So I just thought this would be so cool to have. Now there are other 12 volt coffee makers, but this one is kind of rugged. It is rugged. You know, set up and it’s not, some of the other ones kind of look like they ought to be on the kitchen counter, but they’re still 12 volt.

 

So there’s alternatives to this, but this has a cool aspect to it. Yeah, you weren’t aware of this before the seeing it in the show notes, right? I wasn’t. It looks like a ammo can, you know, like the metal. It looks like that. It’s cool. I don’t know what this motion really means, but that’s okay. It’s a tactical coffee maker. Tactical, yes. Thank you, there it is.

 

So it is a bit pricey. It’s $144 and that does not come with a battery. Batteries are not included. Let’s stress that, not included, no.

 

But hopefully you already have the Makita tools. And now I did look to see if there were any DeWalt coffee makers because that’s the tools that I go with. I mean, there’s no sense in buying a cornucopia of different manufacturers, all having their own separate batteries. So, but I did not see anything from DeWalt. And in fact, when I was looking at a YouTube. I’m surprised. Yeah, I was looking at a YouTube video for this Makita and they were like, you know, it’s a coffee maker for Makita. Why?

 

(Laughing) And I kind of agree. Like why? Yeah, but it is really cool. I can see somebody out on the job site going up. That’s what I was thinking, yeah. Going up and fixing a cup of coffee. Hey, when would you get that cup of coffee? Oh, I’m glad you asked that. Here you go, look at this.

 

And by the end of the day, it’s stolen. Do you think it comes with the mug that’s in the photo? I feel like it has to come with the mug, right? Well, let’s see. Brews five ounce cup of coffee in five minutes. It’s powered by an 18 volt LXT battery. Battery sold separately. Brews up to three five ounce cups of coffee on a single five amp battery. No paper filters needed. Permanent drip filter allows grounds to pour directly into the coffee maker. That’s nice. You say single serve packs or ground coffee. I like that too. So it does not say, but it’s certainly in the picture. I don’t think it does. Yeah, that would be horrible. I know, but I bet it doesn’t. Let’s be honest. That would be horrible. Now you could probably go to Bucky’s and get a cup that would fit this. They do have all sizes. It was all about the size this episode, wasn’t it? It always is. I know.

 

So we have the link to Amazon so you can buy one of these things. If you do buy one, we want to hear from you because I think this would be a cool item. If I had infinite funds, I’d definitely buy one. Yeah. And 27 batteries just so I could keep making coffee. Right, thank you. Appreciate it. Cheers everyone.

 

All right, well, it’s always a little sad when we hit the end of the trail. And real quick, I had a couple of people not initially complain, but make comment. Oh, the episode was a little shorter than usual. And I said, yeah, I told, it was an episode I recorded with Wendy. I think it was last Tuesday’s episode or this, yeah, last Tuesday’s episode. And I said, yeah, I told Wendy it might be a little short. We only had about, I think we only had the one news story. And I told her, don’t worry about it. We’ll just have fun. We’ll see how long it goes. And I think we did about 35 minutes or something. So this one’s a little short too, but it’s not 30 minutes. We’re looking at about 42 minutes right now. And that’s what you get here. Sometimes it goes over an hour. Sometimes it’s right at an hour. Sometimes it’s less than an hour. But there’s a lot of episodes that you gotta listen to. There is. Thank you guys, sir. Make sure you check out Chick Chat on Mondays,

 

our lady listeners and men in all our videos. Oh, you got a lot of men that are listening to that too. Really enjoying the new format and listening to you guys chat about stuff. Oh, I’m glad.

 

So as I was saying, it’s always a little sad when we hit the end of the show or the end of the trail, but there’s always another trail ride down the road, just like there’s another show down the road. Jeep Talk Show has five episodes a week. Monday through Friday, Chick Chat is on Mondays, every Monday, subscribe and never miss an episode. Hey, speaking of subscribing, consider keeping the Jeep Talk Show on the air by subscribing to the show via Patreon. The place to go for all the information on how to subscribe and how to contact us is at jeeptalkshow.com slash contact.

 

You were mentioning where you’re gonna be. Is there a place people can go and see you? Do you still have the Jeep Talk Show stickers? I think you only had two. I do. I do and I’ll be at Hollerwood Park on October the 5th, doing my shakedown run of Big Red. So come out and see us guys. We’ll be there starting around 9 a.m. hitting the trails. Is there a place they can go to get more information about that? Is it just your distilling? No, honestly guys, this is just us going. It’s myself and Matt Moss, our lead and my– Okay, so it’s not like an event. It is not. You guys welcome to show up. Let’s get Natalie back on the trail. It’s been almost a year, not in my own Jeep. So here we are. So it’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be a show. So come on out. It makes a big difference when it’s your Jeep, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s fun driving any Jeep, when it’s your Jeep, it makes a big difference. Absolutely, but I will say October the 12th, the following weekend we are back at Hollerwood for the Ohio River Four Wheelers Jeep Club and Kentucky Crawlers Jeep Club, cleanup ride and meet and greet preparation. The meet and greet’s coming up at the end of October, first of November, so here we are. We’ll talk about that coming up, but that is open to everyone. That one’s on a secret ride.

 

So– Not a secret anymore, is it? I just told everybody everything. So here we are. So– Where’s those NDAs? Is there anything going on with a high lift off road that you wanted to mention real quick? I mean, if not, that’s fine.

 

We’re just doing just those couple rides and then we have the meet and greet and then Mike and I are off to SEMA. So if you’re at SEMA, I’ll be seeing Julie Ann, really excited. That’s right, in November, in SEMA. Yeah. That’s right, I forgot about that. It’s coming. That’s soon, very soon. It is. And then Black Friday will be here before we know it and High Lift always has the best deals on Black Friday. So stay tuned for more information on that. highliftoffroad.com and you don’t have to have a Black Friday to check it out. Check it out now. You don’t.

 

You’re my friend, you’re my new friend.

 

 

Crawler to Overlander

In the latest Jeep Talk Show Round Table episode, Tony joins the Zoom audience for a lively discussion. Recorded every Tuesday at 7:30pm CT, you can be part of the fun by visiting jeeptalkshow.com/contact to join. Tony asks up to four questions to random Jeepers, starting with: “A Jeep crawler is going on a multi-day overlanding expedition—what should they take?” Tune in for engaging conversations and tips from fellow Jeep enthusiasts!

 

rely on a cooler to keep your stuff that like cold or cool for like food and drinks and stuff like that ice is I mean you’re constantly on the move sometimes if you’re off on the trail you’re going to be there for a day or two like that and got waterlogged food so you got to wrap it up and like it’s just it’s a pain so if you can get even one of the smaller and they’re making a lot of a lot of them more cost effective now you don’t just have the big boys like arb and the other ones there’s bodega there’s several of them out there but just getting a fridge that can run off of like one of the jacory or blue yeti or whatever battery packs man that’s that you will absolutely love that because you don’t have to constantly fight for ice that’s I mean I’m sure everybody’s got a bunch of recommendations but that would definitely be mine and when you get off camber all your ice water spills out of your cooler hey well you’re driving down the trail when it’s bound so you don’t hear it sloshing inside so does uh do you would you recommend like a separate battery uh for the for the uh for the the cooler or yeah there’s um uh gills got a great system and and it’s it’s definitely the one that I would recommend but he’s got like a there’s different brands all over the place right but there’s a gold zero there’s the blue yeti there’s the jacory there’s a bunch of different these battery packs that can have inverters but they also have dc power so you can actually connect them up to the cigarette lighter in your jeep and charge them while you’re driving and then once there’s no power to them depending on the size you can get you can go a couple of days powering that refrigerator uh without charging the battery so um they’re not that expensive and I would remind everybody that prime day is coming up on amazon and that’s when I bought my blue yeti that I have uh from prime day it was like 55 to 60 off and so I know jacory’s already injured they’re gonna have some big sales and and who yeti always has seen some pretty good sales going on on amazon so um they’re not that expensive and you can go completely off grids I always go when I go out but bring mine when we go long trips because I can put in the passenger seat charge phones I got my ipad up on on the uh mountain of the dash so I can plug that in my uh garment in reach is plugged into it um so I’ve always got a way to charge even without you know using the jeep do uh john do you do anything uh for uh jump starting the the main battery or batteries depending if you have a jk or a jl I know you have a jk but uh whatever you’re over landing like that and you maybe don’t do battery management properly um do you have any concerns about uh getting the jeep started again no I mean I got the one of those lithium ion you know jump starter packs there also fairly cheap again on about October 8th 9th is prime day and that’s when all these deals come it’s amazing what you can get on this kind of stuff I think I bought mine on on prime day I’ve actually bought one for each vehicle that I have for my daughter’s vehicles wife’s vehicle or whatever and they were normally like 160 a piece of thing I got them for 70 bucks pop so they were they were really discounted through prime day I think so I like prime yeah if I can interject a little there uh roger I see you have your hands raised go right ahead so with the blue eddy the one thing I would suggest to anybody that’s going to get one of those battery packs is make sure you get one that’s passive so like some of them um you can charge it or you can use it whereas like the blue eddy like john was talking about it’s a passive one so you can actually plug it in and charge it while you’re driving and plug your cooler into it well so it’ll run the cooler and charge the yeti at the same time so it doesn’t take away from the yeti as long plugged into the vehicle and as far as like jump starting a vehicle I have to I use the genesis I have the dual battery setup by genesis so once my voltage gets down to a certain point it disconnects the two batteries then if in the morning my battery was dead I just gotta hit the button and it jump starts itself very nice does that make your jeep run better backwards yep it worked great forward the other day all right let’s get over to tony mitten that also has his hand up tony what uh what can you uh tell this uh uh new new person the new

 

Hey, let’s set a base camp, unload here, then go do the crazy trail. And otherwise if you’re, you know, you’re, you’re not doing the crawling stuff anymore, right? Like, so if you’re going 20 miles to your next destination, you don’t have to be prepared to do a full, you know, you’re not doing pritch it, you know, for 20 miles, right? So you’ll, you’ll be okay. You know, you’ll fill up with what you need to do to do it.

 

So Chris, I don’t think you do a, do overlanding much or, well, he took his headset off, so he may not be able to hear me. How about you, Bob? If you Bob, what overlanding advice would you give a crawler?

 

So for crawler, minimalist, you don’t need a lot. So I go out of my TJ and I’ve started camping out of that again. I started pulling back out some of my old stuff I used to use for backpacking. Um, earlier this year, I just bought two, I got great deals on a couple of really nice backpacking tents. They’re five pounds and seven pounds. They’re the big one is probably seven, eight inches around by 14 inches long.

 

Uh, I got a, my old mummy bag I pulled out. Actually I’ve got a compact camping blanket, super warm.

 

Uh, but I started looking at supplementing, getting rid of my bigger tent, my, uh, gazelle, uh, I still have it, but for going with the TJ, that doesn’t work. So I got a backpacking tent. I got backpacking cookware, all this stuff and it’s small. It fits in with the recovery gear. So the only bulky item I still have is I have a really nice sleeping pad. Oh yeah. I think that’s really important. Something that makes it comfortable. If you’re laying on the ground or like, like me and the bed of the gladiator, you really need something that’s, uh, uh, doesn’t feel like the bed of the vehicle. At least I do. Some of you guys, it doesn’t bother, but I can sleep through pretty much anything. All right, Jacob, I see how to raise my hand on this damn thing. So I’ve just, you don’t get to, you don’t get to talk to, you figure it out. Chip, I want to, I want to talk to Jacob real quick and then I’ll come back to you. Chip Jacob, I see you got your hand raised. Uh, what do you, what, what advice can you give this crawler? Want to do multi-day overlanding event? So my wife and I started off with an expedition trailer. Um, we used to use it behind our H three and we’ve since moved on to a truck camper that we, we boondock with.

 

And the big one is no matter what you do, you, you got it, Bob mentioned, you got to, you really got to watch your weight and what you actually need and be realistic about what you’re, you’re going to use. Because no matter, I don’t know, it’s the Boy Scout or the jeeper, you’re always reaching for that next tool you think you might need and I can’t count how much extra weight I’ve been hauling around, especially in the truck camper, because I’m taking my tools and I’m taking, you know, oh, we might need this extra blanket or we might need this. And it didn’t matter if the, as the expo trailer of the camper, we’re, we’re always getting too much weight. And then, um, getting back to like the refrigerators, I’ve got three of those 12 volt refrigerators. I got a bougie RV and I got two Dometics and it doesn’t matter the size. And it seems to be like they all use about the same amount of power. And it’s not like, it’s not like, it’s not like, it’s not like, it’s not and I use roughly 600 watt hours per day per refrigerator. So, um, you need to have a solar panel, which adds more weight if you’re going to be out more than two or three days, because they a hundred amp hour. I got 200 amp hours on my, uh, my camper and without solar, without sun, without a generator, I’m only getting two to three days out of that 200 amp hours for those refrigerators.

 

you guys found a compact stove that’s not going to take up a lot of room, not add a lot of weight that could be used if you want to have more meals.

 

I use a back at backpacking stove. Oops. A jet boil works great. Jet boil flash for the jet bowl Genesis. Hembo Tusk.

 

Classic Coleman camping stove.

 

Really? Yeah, that’s the one we always we always use the Boy Scouts. But somebody had that that little suitcase looking thing. Well, they have a and one of those other companies from folding stove as well. That’s a two burner folding stove that’s the size of a large pot.

 

Yeah, that’s that. You’re talking about the Genesis jet boil.

 

I don’t know the name of it. I just know they had it. It’s orange and it folds in half. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s that’s that’s a Genesis jet boil or the jet boil Genesis. All right. I’m I’m going to skip in line here a little bit because I can. Greg, do you have any advice for I don’t know that you do any overlanding. I don’t know that you initially call it overlanding if you do do stuff like that. But we have a guy that used to crawling doing rock crawling and whatnot. But he’s going to be doing a multi land overland, a multi day overland trip. Do you have any suggestions of what he should take with him? Well, my first question would be, what is he driving? Did you ask for the orders because that’s the most important part. He did not provide the information. Yeah, that’s all the things you know. The Jeep.

 

Well, I know, but there’s lots of Jeeps. So if if he’s in a two door or if he’s in a YJ or if he’s in a speed day or if he’s in an XJ or if he’s in a JL, that all matters on. So I would go with the answer be similar for a JK and a JL. Right. A JK and a JL Wrangler, a two door or four door. I mean, a two door, four door room, but two door and four door to completely different animals. So, so that would be my first question is what are you driving? And how crawler is it? Because there’s crawlers that are. Bobbed in the front and Bobbed in the rear and dove tailed and, you know, our boat tailed and then there’s crawlers that are, they just have a slinky suspension, but it’s still a full body vehicle. So to answer the question, you really need to know, or to answer the question very well, you need to know the whole setup. Okay. I went back, I went back and looked at the message and quite often people, and you guys should know this, I don’t read the entire message.

 

So I get the gist of it and I quit reading because I don’t like reading. So in the request, he says, assume this person has a JLU or a gladiator is what he’s asking the question for. Okay. So JLU or gladiator, two completely different animals, but if you’ve got a JLU or a gladiator, the next is how crawler is it, right? Is it, is it a ramp champ? What does it do? Because that’s going to dictate the type of stuff you carry and where you put it. However, I’m going to say, um, you want your basics. If you’re over landing, you need somewhere to sleep. You need some form of some, some way to keep your food cold or have non perishable food with you. So, you know, you have to think of those two things first, um, sleeping and eating. Other than that, everything else is up to you. You can go as simplistic as humanly possible and bring a sleeping bag and sleep under the stars or, you know, a bed, cotton, sleep under the stars all the way to JLs and jail and gladiators. You know, you can do rooftop tents, you can do the other stuff. None of it is necessary, right? Over landing is just traveling a long distance while living off grid.

 

So you don’t need all the whiz bang stuff and you don’t need all the crazy

 

things to buy. Um, but if you choose to buy them, go for it. So prepare, if, if you think you’re going to go out for five days, prepare for eight,

 

you know, with your food and your water, if you, if you’re going to go out for a week, prepare for a week and a half, right? Always have a contingency plan. That’s good. And if you don’t have, if you don’t have enough material space to store a week and a half worth of food, well, you better be prepared, bring some fishing gear, bring some hunting gear, learn how to self survive. Because if you’re off grid for an extended period of time, you might not always be bringing the amount of supplies you need. So prepare for the worst, because if something bad happens, you might be stuck out there a little bit longer than you think. Yeah. I think being self sufficient like that is a great idea just for any situation that you might get in. There’s natural disasters all the time. Um, sometimes there’s government disasters and it’s a, it’s a good way to be able to take care of yourself and your family, being able to hunt and fish and set traps and so on and so forth. So. Yep. Um, also in today’s world, um, I would say it’s, it’s not very expensive to get a radio beacon, to get an emergency beacon that, you know, I mean, backpackers and hikers carry them. Why wouldn’t you throw one in your glove box? Right? And then if you pull that pin, emergency and rescue workers can locate you, whether it’s via satellite or via a helicopter or, you know, overlending to you, because even if you’re with a group, something bad happens. Those little emergency beacons could save your life or somebody else. It’s like a winch. Yeah. The, quite often you don’t use the winch for yourself. You use it for somebody else. So yeah, absolutely. It’s the same thing as the pistol I carry, right? I never want to use it, but I have it just in case. So, um, you know, just be prepared, right? Overlending is no different than rock crawling because when you’re overlending, you might find a pile of rocks you need to crawl over. You know, um, another one that I would say with, with true overlending is take it easy on your rig. Oh, that’s good. I fear. If you get to an obstacle that you know you can go over, but it’s a little challenging, take the bypass or stack some rocks and make it easier on your rig because snapping an axle shaft three day drive from the nearest road is an issue.

 

Um, bring some cash so that if somebody has to go to get parts for you, you can give them cash. An extra ball.

 

Yeah.

 

Um, we got to take it easier on your rig. When you’re overlending, don’t just do all the hard things because you know, you normally can do it, especially in a crawler, right? Guys in in purpose built crawlers tend to always take the gnarlier line. If you’re overlending, I would recommend that you don’t do that because you have a better chance of getting it back in the event of a problem. And that’s even if you have a group of people with you that can help winch you out or work on your rig, it may not be something you want to do. You may not have the right thing, but we, we, we could get into the off-road welders and all kinds of stuff that you could take. And then pretty soon you need a, a chase vehicle that’s carrying all of it. Um, and that’s, that’s me is that I always want to take too much stuff, uh, the go and do things. So, all right. So I see Chris has his hand up. Chris, what are you, what can you tell this, uh, would be overlander.

 

You’re muted, Chris.

 

All right. Let’s move on to Bill. I think Bill is still here. Bill, do you have, I mean, you’ve got quite a few things set up in your 392, uh, that I would say make it overland capable. Uh, do you, uh, you have any suggestions for, uh, for this gentleman, uh, Ed C as to what to carry for overlanding, overlanding instead of crawling?

 

Looks like Bill is not available.

 

Just a quick note, Tony. Sure. Just to, just to jump off of what, um, uh, Greg said is no matter what, do not delete your spare tire. You need a spare tire if you’re going to be anywhere away from civil duty. Yeah, I agree. Or what is it that you take, Greg? You have a bunch of plugs and stuff that you take with you. And yeah, I bring a bunch of cars and a power tank and some other goods. Um, I have literally used boot laces to stitch it higher back together. That’s what I was trying to remember. All right. Uh, let’s, uh, let’s see if Keith is there. Uh, Keith, do you have any, uh, any ideas for this crawler would be overlander?

 

Yeah. All I’ve ever learned was take a sandwich. That’s all you need. That’s right.

 

If you go in some place and you take a sandwich, then you’re overlanding. That’s right.

 

Pretty much what everybody’s been saying is, you know, take what you need. Try not to excess on it.

 

and he’s not one to really take it off road at that time. We’ve kind of turned him into an actual off-roader there a little bit. Bill and I have been working on it for a while with the guy. But anyway, it was really cool. And so I was like, I want to get one, but I need a four door. So I went up and custom ordered mine with a manual and all that. It’s a JK Rubicon.

 

Even got the window sticker with my name on it, right? When the custom order to come that way. So first time out didn’t even get off the park roads and all that. So I say a jeeper because that’s when I bought my first jeep. But I definitely I definitely took to it pretty quickly because it was it was just a lot of fun. And then, you know, a lot of it is not just about kind of hitting the big obstacles or whatever it is, but just the friends I’ve made along the way and the trips. Absolutely.

 

Yeah. We just got back from a trip to Colorado and it wasn’t even a big group. It was a small group, which is actually sometimes more more fun in that way. But Bob was there, Bill came. Dutch was there for a little while. So it was it was a blast. And then, you know, we’ve done Arizona to call her twice. We’ve got the events that it involves. And it’s just you meet a lot of people in the hell. We’re on a swim room now with like 20 freaking people. And all of that is because, you know, I custom ordered a jeep back in 2017. Technically, I ordered it in 16, but I didn’t get it. And you’re here every week unless there’s something major going on with your family, even when you’re on vacation to Florida, you’re here in the Zoom room with us. And I really appreciate that. And then you’re right. It’s it’s more than just a jeep. It’s the it’s the Jeep family.

 

Yeah, unless dance gets away, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you got to you got to dance. Yeah. When you got to dance, you got to dance. All right. So let’s see if let’s see if Tom P is is listening. I know he’s here in the on the Zoom room. Tom, how long have you been a jeeper?

 

Probably my first Jeep was a CJ five.

 

Back in a three.

 

And I currently unlike Chris, I currently have four Jeeps in my driver.

 

And the latest, the latest one’s a 23 gladiator that I’ve been kind of absorbed with. Nice. How do you like it? How does that compare to the other jeeps you’ve had in the past? Well, I mean, I like I like the ones we currently have. I’ve liked them all for different reasons.

 

But the gladiator, the more I drive it, the more I love it.

 

It’s a it’s a really, really nice Jeep. I’ve really enjoyed mine. I only the only thing I have to compare it to is the wife’s T.J. And our ex J. You notice I said I was going to say my but I corrected that really quick.

 

So I’ve been I’ve been very, very pleased with it so much so that the I haven’t driven the ex J. Since I brought the gladiator home, it was really cool finding out that I could do so many things off road with a gladiator with

 

just it was just really nice. I mean, I need to get back to the the ex J. And I will. But I got to clean up the damn garage first. All right. So let’s get over. I think I see. Is that Pat, is that you that I see right now? Pat, how about you? What do you how long you been a jeeper? Well, early on, I when I was just in my teens, I wanted to Jeep, but my my parents wouldn’t let me get one because that was back in the all they all roll over. Right. I and my dad was a 60 minutes guy. So right. Bastards. I didn’t get the option option there. And then as I kind of moved through things when I was in my late or my early 20s, I got in the car business and I I didn’t sell Jeep. So I didn’t have the option for it was really I had to drive what what was business oriented. Right. As I got deeper into it,

 

it I when I left the car business, finally, I bought my first F-150 because I thought I needed one of those because I always wanted one. Sure. I created it for my first JK and I and it had one hundred and five thousand miles on at the time. I drove it for quite a long time.

 

So if it’s just fine, it’s fun. It’s mixing it up with, with all the jeepers and not all of them are going to think the same way as you and that’s an opportunity to learn something.

 

So until next time, keep those Jeep running strong, hit those trails with confidence and remember, it’s not just a vehicle. It’s a way of life. And I think that one’s going to be a little bit bigger. So, um, so Tony actually, so this has been Tony hosting the Jeep talk show round table episode and we’ll catch you on the next round. Ron Cass Dixon’s 20 10.

 

I sent him with that and he’s going to go through

 

You’re my friend, you’re my new friend.

 

2025 Wrangler No Automatic!

In this Jeep Talk Show flagship episode, the team discusses the 2025 Wrangler’s move to manual transmission only. Wendy covers off-roading tips in Newbie Nuggets, and Larry talks about getting hands-on in Dirty Hands, Clean Money. With five episodes a week, there’s always something exciting for Jeep enthusiasts. Subscribe now and never miss an episode!

Interview Elaine Dobiesz

In this JTS Chic Chat episode, Wendy interviews Elaine about her inspiring journey from owning no Jeep to building a highly modified off-roading machine she now takes on adventures around Big Bear Lake, California. JTS Chic Chat offers a women-centric perspective on Jeeps and off-roading. Subscribe today and never miss an episode!

Are you ready? It’s the Jeep Dog Show Chick Chat with Wendy and Ivana

 

Well, Howdy, it’s Wendy and welcome back to another episode of Chick Chat. You know, this is the place where we celebrate the perfect fusion of style and adventure. The Jeeps have long been synonymous with ruggedness, freedom and the spirit of adventure. And who says women can’t embrace all of that more? You know what, I have a very special guest again. I’m so excited about Elaine Dobias. She’s from our Bear Valley 4×4 Club right here in Big Bear. And I just can’t wait to share her story with you guys. Welcome Elaine. Thank you for having me.

 

And so Elaine and I met, gosh, it’s been a number of years now, hasn’t Elaine? Yeah, it’s been a while, right?

 

I’m not sure what year it was, but it was through our Quilt Guild. And then we reconnected again through the Jeeping. Yeah, through Bear Valley 4×4 Club, which is a club here in Big Bear.

 

And I just remember you being very brand new to the whole Jeep thing. Of course, so was I at one point. So we all started off brand new, right? That’s what’s so cool about this. Yes. I thought it’d be a fun story to share how Elaine has started brand new and then give you a little tease of how she’s ventured into other things. So, all right. So tell us what you started with, Elaine. What was your first Jeep that brought you to the Jeep Club? Well, when I came to Big Bear in 2010 and I had a vehicle that was not four-wheel drive and after spending a few winters of putting chains on, I no longer wanted to do that. So I noticed that a lot of people here in Big Bear had Jeeps. So I decided I wanted to get one for myself. And so in 2013, I bought my first Jeep.

 

Very cool. And I think we, you officially probably joined the club around, was it 2017? I think we were trying to figure out our dates. Yes, I believe it was around 2017. Yeah. And so tell us about your Jeep. I know what her name is. You can share her name. Yes. So she’s a 2013 JK Wrangler Sport.

 

And when I first came up to Big Bear with her, a friend saw her and said, “Oh, Olive.” And I go, “Oh, I like that. I’m going to name her Olive.” And that’s part of her color, too. It’s a real pretty olive color, which is nice. She’s like an army green color. So she does look like Olive. Yeah. And she’s perfectly stock at this point. She was. And you were doing some off-roading on your own, though. You had… Yeah. Just the easy roads up here, the forest roads. But there’s so many of them. I mean, we have so many trails like that up here. It’s crazy. Yeah. And I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but I love it. So I was out on one of the forest roads and came across the Bear Valley 4×4 Club out on a run. And I stopped and spoke with them. And they told me about their meeting. So came to the meeting. And that’s where I saw you and Bill. And you guys were just getting into the club. Right. And then I met Shelby, who had the beast. You guys remember that. If you listen to the deep talk show, I talked about the beast, how much Shelby did with that. And then when it caught fire. So you check out that episode. I’ll have to get that number for our listeners. But yeah, so go ahead, Shelby. Yeah. I always said the beast was indestructible, but I didn’t think about fire. I know. And that was a sad day. But I had a lot of fun going out on the really difficult runs in the beast with him. And then I would just drive my Jeep when it was the easy runs with the club. Well, one of the stories I love about your starting is that one of your first runs that you went with this club. Yes, it was the very first run. And what happened? You get there, you’re talking to everybody and they’re doing what? And you’re like, huh? Yeah. Well, you know, as usual, we have a meeting place and they said, oh, well, we’re going to air down. And I’m looking around going, what is airing down? And then I start watching and everyone’s going over to their Jeeps and letting air out of their tires. Amazing. And now I’m like, I’m thinking I got to buy some equipment.

 

And here’s how it starts, by the way. Yes, it did start there.

 

But I had had a really fun day. Yeah. And and stayed with it. And over the years, I’ve had a lot of fun and I’ve learned a lot. Yes, you have. Yes, I remember, too. We were sort of instrumental in the very beginning of Bill and I were involved in the club. I think Bill was president at some point and we were looking to for people to actually host runs because that’s kind of what you do in a club as you go out and you run. And of course, a lot of our members had done all the trails on here and they really weren’t as interested. And I looked at Elaine, I said, why don’t you lead a run? And she’s looking at me like, no, I don’t even know what that means. And I don’t want to. And I said, sure, you lead it. You pick the trail. We’ll follow behind and we’ll help you. And she’s like, OK. Well, luckily you had been on a whole bunch of trails, some that I had never been on because they were just these beautiful, easy, simple with meadows and views. And oh, my gosh, I’ve had some of the best runs on your runs now. Yeah, a lot of scenic areas. Yeah. And there are members in the club that do want to do the easy runs. And so they enjoy those scenic runs and we stop and have a picnic by the creek.

 

Some of it has some history to it. So that makes it fun, too. But that’s part of the Jeep community. Wouldn’t you say that you kind of discovered by joining the club and doing this is that you have this ability to see places that you cannot see from a regular vehicle? Now, it might be a hiker or a bicyclist and you might be able to get to some of these places. But for the most part, you can’t get to these places. Right. They’re not going to go to the distance that we can go in the Jeep’s either. Yeah. And I know it’s just I’ve always enjoyed your run specifically because it tends to be something that I wasn’t as familiar with. And, you know, when you’re a regular jeeper, you tend to do the same kind of runs like, oh, we got Gold Mountain and John Bowl and some of these bigger trails that everybody knows about that Jeep badge of honor trails. But there are so many hidden jewels up in our area and Big Bear that I love that Elaine just opened that door for us. And I just anytime she’s got a run, I’m like, I want to go. Yes, it’s going to be more relaxing, you know. And I like getting out and exploring and finding new places, too. Yeah. And when I do, then I want to share it with others. Yeah. And it’s always great to do that. So so we so we kind of pushed you. Your first one was like you were a little bit nervous, I remember, but you were great.

 

Just reminding you of things like you have to do a driver’s meeting and you as the run leader, you need to go and introduce yourself to people. Because of course, once we have a run in our club, we invite others that maybe aren’t members. And so you want to get to meet people. You also as the trail leader have to figure out where are you stopping for lunch? You also have to go as fast as you can, but as slow as the group is, you know, you sort to know what you’re doing. So I feel like you really took to this so fast that you just jumped in there with both feet and you super enjoyed just one meeting people, but taking them to all these places that you’ve been to. Yes. And you’ve been good about pushing me out of my comfort zone and encouraging me to do things that I didn’t think I could do. And then I find that I can do it. I’m kind of sorry about that, but not really. No, I’m glad that you have pushed me because it’s pushed me to do more and and then makes me want to do even more. Well, I also think, too, I mean, we’re friends, of course, but being a mentor, not that I had this vast knowledge of experience, but being able to take someone like yourself and seeing the potential that you could do and have fun and sort of push a little bit with that guidance. You know, we didn’t just send you out there and say, go try it on your own. See what happens. You know, we tried to be there with you. We tried to support you so that it could be your run. But you had that backup. And I think just as mentors in the G4 world, we need to do more of that to get people out of that passenger seat into the driver’s seat. I mean, Elaine’s a perfect example of that. She absolutely loves it. I don’t think we could get you out of your driver’s seat now. And I get excited when I see other women out there driving Jeeps, too. Yeah. Well, we’re just as capable. I mean, our vehicles are the only limit. You know, if you’re trying to take a stock Jeep up to something like a John Bull, it’s not going to happen. But now you’ve done some improvements to all of in the last year or two. So yeah, a little bit about some of your, quote, upgrades. And I’m not going to say I’m sorry, because this is all how it happens, by the way.

 

Well, I did start out slow. And I put the new metal bumpers and fenders.

 

And then a little bit later, I added the rock slides.

 

And then I saw that I could do the rock slides that have the dropdown steps. Rock slide engineering. Yeah, that actually went down when you opened the doors. Because I have friends that struggle getting into my Jeep.

 

And so I turn those on for them when I’m picking them up and taking them places. I love it. And then later I did buy an RV.

 

And so I wanted to be able to tow my Jeep and added a towing package to it that I got from you and Bill. So now I tow my Jeep places and I can go with the 4×4 Club on RV off-roading trips, which last year we did Moab. And we’ve done Borrego Springs and Quartzsite.

 

And pretty soon we’re going to be doing Bishop. Well, and you just went on your own. You went up to Washington, Oregon and Washington and spent, what, almost a month? Well, I was gone for five weeks and actually went all the way up into Canada.

 

And so I had my Jeep so that we could have a base camp with the RV and then venture out and explore in the Jeep. Didn’t do any serious jeeping. But you don’t need to. You just start out doing things. And you’re taking your Jeep and being able to go see parts of this country that, by the way, if you’ve not been to Oregon or Washington, you all need to get there because it is a stunning piece of country. Oh, it is. Now, I like what you do with the motorhome. You’re actually staying in a place called Harvest Host, right? Yes. I learned about Harvest Host where you pay a membership fee that gets you onto their app.

 

And when you’re traveling, you can search for these places that you can stay overnight for free. They do encourage you to purchase things from, you know, it can be a winery, a brewery, a farm.

 

And so you try to support those people. But staying at each of those places, you end up with an incredible experience. Wow. So you may be on a farm where you’re parked with chickens next to you. They have goats and pigs and horses and cows. Or you’re at a winery where it’s very peaceful and you can do the wine tasting, purchase wine or be at a brewery and have lunch and their micro beers.

 

So it’s always a fun experience. So on that trip, we mostly did stay at these Harvest Hosts. I think that’s just amazing because now you’re not in a campground with, you know, lights out at 10 and they have to be quiet. I mean, you would still be quiet at these places, but you’re really by yourself, aren’t you? Yes. There might be one other rig there.

 

You do have to be self-contained because usually, you know, you’re not going to have electricity or water or hookups for sewer.

 

But you know, it’s usually for one night and it’s great when you’re traveling and you just need somewhere to park for the night. And now some of them are allowing you to stay more than one night. Love that. I just think it’s a neat way to see part of this country and the fact that you’re towing the Jeep up there with you wherever you’re going, you can just say, you know what, I’m going to go venture off into town or I want to go on this trail. Where’s this trail go? Let’s go check it out. Yes. So are you looking using like an app system to find these trails? Are you buying a map locally in town? How do you find some of these trails that you want to try when you’re other areas?

 

Usually you know, when say, for instance, we’re staying at a harvest host or we’re even staying in an RV park, they will give you information. Love it. Tell you what you can go and explore in that area, things to visit. You know, if you’re hiking, they’ll tell you about hiking. If you’re jeeping, they’ll tell you where a good place to go jeeping. Cool. So now tell us what else you’ve upgraded on your Jeep because this is not the end. Right. Well, I did do a two inch lift and then I added a winch. Just recently put front and rear lockers on. I haven’t been out to test them out yet. I don’t really need them as much as you think, but yes. But soon. Yeah.

 

And but this week I’m going to be adding a full skid plate package and then I’ll be ready to hit go mountain. Hit the big stuff. Yeah. I can’t wait to kick you out. It’s going to be fun. And then for traveling, I did add the front runner rack and I added a shade. Yeah. Because that’s going to be nice, especially when you’re doing areas that don’t have these beautiful trees that we have here in Big Bear. You are going to need space. I mean, we have a huge umbrella that we attach to the back of our hitch that comes apart. But you’re talking about one that’s attached that actually just opens up and you have the whole back completely shaded. I think that’s yes. Yes. Which is good. You know, when we go off the mountain down into the desert areas or like in Moab.

 

Yeah. Because there’s no trees there, right? Not much.

 

And then even, you know, when we travel out to Borrego Springs or to court site, there’s no shade.

 

So that’ll come in really handy. I think that’s going to be a great use of those upgrades.

 

So any other plans other than skid plates?

 

Because you’re on 35s now, right?

 

Yes. I’m yeah, I did change to the 35s. I had 33s before so upgraded to the 35s. And I think with that lift and getting the skid plates, you’ve got the good rock slide engineering. You’re going to be fine. I think so, too. The whole mountain is going to be easy for you.

 

So yeah, I’m looking forward to getting out there and challenging myself a little more.

 

Hang on, guys. Let’s hold for a second. I need some water.

 

Why this coffee?

 

OK, we’ll take a pause, give five seconds or so, and then we’ll start again.

 

All right. Well, I can’t wait to get you back out there and get you into Gold Mountain because I think that’s going to be such a fun experience because you’ve been on all these big trails in Shelby’s rig or in somebody else’s. You’ve been with us a couple of times. We’ve done Motino Wash. She’s done all the different trails around here.

 

So I think that’s going to be a really good

 

experience for you driving.

 

Yes. And, you know, the more I get out there, the more skilled I get.

 

And, you know, you’re always there helping me with the lines and Shelby and other people in the four by four club. So and that that’s one of the great things about being in a club. Is that everybody will pitch in and help you and they they will educate you and make you a skilled driver. Yep. There’s always going to be somebody out there that you’re thinking, I don’t really know that I want to learn from them. But you learn something anyway, right? And then everybody you’re like, I want to learn from them. So yes, I’m always learning. And it’s amazing how much I’ve learned over, you know, the past what, seven years. I know that I’ve been with the club and been out with you and Shelby. Even myself, because I started just like you brand new, didn’t even understand what the jeeps were doing off road. Had no idea when Bill got our Jeep. So I’m in the same boat you are. Sort of, you know, elevated and we’re having fun and we’re learning. So I think that’s a really good story from now. I do know that you have been ducked. It has been quite a few ducks that you have. Do you have a favorite one?

 

Well, I think I have about 13 ducks and it’s hard to choose a favorite one, but one that’s very special to me is it’s a hiker duck. Okay. Which which I do also hike. But up here in Big Bear, we have the Pacific Crest Trail that I think that there’s about 58 miles that go around and through Big Bear. And that trail start, they usually start from Mexico and go all the way to Canada.

 

And so I do what’s called a trail angel and I do things to help out the hikers. And last year I started hosting some at my house. And so the first group that I had after they left my house, after having a wonderful time and we were still in touch to this day, they went on and they were, I forget where they were, that they picked up this larger duck that has a backpack. Oh. And so that means a lot to me. Well, and there’s people you’re meeting from all over the world. Correct. Just local people walking through. You’re actually connecting with people in other countries, correct? Exactly. And so that first group that I hosted, one of the girls was from Australia.

 

Another girl was from Colorado and then a couple of guys from North or South Carolina. Wow.

 

I’ve stayed in touch with them. And then this year I’ve hosted more and became good friends with a few from the Detroit, Michigan area. Yeah. The hosting too, just for listeners, that’s where they’ve been on hiking. They’re just hiking from Mexico up to Canada. And so by her hosting, she’s bringing them into their house, giving them food, shower, a place to sleep, right? So they’re not on the dirt. Right. Do their laundry. Yeah. So it’s really a nice thing. And the trail angel, tell us what that is. Cause I know you’ve been involved in that for quite some time. Yeah. Well, you can do varying things. And I started out just giving them rides from the trail into Big Bear or from Big Bear back out onto the trail. Then later on, I started setting up a cooler with drinks and snacks in it. And I knew of people that brought them into their home and hosted them. And I just thought that that would be wonderful. And so last year I finally did, and it’s just been a wonderful experience. And, you know, I’ve met people from all around the world and all around the country and, you know, I become friends with some of them and stay connected with them on Facebook or Instagram.

 

And, um, actually on, on this RV trip this summer, I reconnected with some of them up in Bend, Oregon.

 

And, and on that trip, I also did a little bit of trail magic and, you know, gave some of them rides up in those areas also. Yeah. I think it’s amazing community that you’ve developed through that. And I, I, I have to believe that the Jeep has helped you to get to that community. Um, you know, yes, because I do drive out on some of the dirt roads to, to pick some of them up. Yeah. I think it’s amazing. Just a different way that you can use your Jeep, you know, and just to help with the community and connect with people. So, um, what would you like to say to somebody brand new who’s maybe thinking, ah, I just bought a Jeep or I should buy a Jeep or I don’t even know where to go. What would you tell somebody? Cause you’ve had that experience being brand new and now look at your experience level, so what would you say to somebody? Well, I would say look for a local four by four club because you’re going to connect with people who have that same interest and they’re going to be able to help you out and you’re going to learn a lot from those people. I would say that that that’s been the biggest thing for me and learning all that I now know. Yeah. Well, and even for our club, you, uh, you were in charge of leading, not leading the runs, but in charge of getting all the runs set up. Yes. I now coordinate them. Yeah. So you’re in charge of saying to like us, Hey, can you, you know, lead a run? So it’s not just starting and kind of getting involved. You’re actually now helping to get other people and I’m sure mentoring others coming in saying we got to get out and do some easy runs. Let’s go out and do some fun runs. Yeah. That’s the plan at least.

 

I hope I can inspire someone to get out there and enjoy this. Yeah. So what’s your plans on the horizon? You have another trip coming up with the Jeep. You’re going to take the motor home or what are you doing for the rest of the year? Uh, well, in, in a, about another week or two, I’m going to be hooking the Jeep up to the RV and going on a trip to Great Basin National Park because, um, that’s another love of mine is visiting our national parks and we’ll hit some other places along the way, some state park and hopefully on the way back, um, go through Death Valley National Park. That’ll be nice. And then soon after that, the four by four club is going up to Bishop. Okay. And so I’ll be doing that trip. And that’s a, that’s a camping trip with the club where they’re going to be there for what, three or four days and then they’ll do runs out of Bishop. Yeah. We’re actually going to be there longer. Um, there are some people that’ll be going from the 9th of October till the 18th. Okay. And I’ll be there for most of that. And there’s great trails up in that area also. And for you listeners, that’s about central California for us on the, on the Eastern side of the Sierras. Yes. Beautiful, beautiful region. Um, there’s the Alabama Hills that a lot of the Hollywood movies, the older Westerns things were made from out there. Yes. Beautiful museum and loam pine. I mean, these are just some of the areas around Bishop. So there is a lot of wheeling just in those areas too. So that’ll be a fun trip to hear how you guys are doing that. So. Yes. Uh, last year we went up and stayed in loam pine and did some really fun runs and one of them was to a mine. Um, I forget the name of it, but that was really, really nice. There were a lot of remains left for that mine. Well, there’s so many different minds even around Southern California, you know, if you get to see that you can go to and even right here in Big Bear in Big Bear, we do too. We have a lot of them. And then in death Valley, you’re going to, there’s Panama Valley, which is the Valley before you get to death Valley. And that defense mine, that’s huge. You can walk in that. There’s like, I don’t know, 15 stories tall. That thing is amazing. Okay. I’ll have to look into that one because I am not into that. So cool. Well, it’s been fun to share you starting as a newbie, a real newbie venturing into, oh wait, I forgot you have a second Jeep. You need to talk about your second Jeep. Oh yeah. Well, all of his always been my day to day transportation.

 

And when I was deciding that I wanted to do more rock crawling kind of stuff with her, I thought, well, I need something else for my day to day transportation. So a year ago I bought a Jeep Gladiator and the beautiful color. Oh my gosh. It’s my, oh, that beautiful blue. Sorry, Tony. It’s so popular right now.

 

And yeah, I, I named the, um, Gladiator. Gladiator. Its name is Roman. Roman and he is a beautiful, that beautiful, beautiful blue is just gorgeous. So yeah. And he’s a nice ride. Yeah. But he’s going to be great for traveling. He’s street only. You’ve done a little bit of, you know, trailering with him, right? You’ve done a little bit of, but he’s not, he’s not going on your trips with you. Right. It’s going to be all of going on your trips. Yeah. He’s not set up to be towed. Yeah. Um, so if, if I am not going to be RVing and I want to travel, then I go in, in Roman, yeah, the last year I drove him up to a Glacier National Park. Yeah. So just out exploring and look at you. I mean, you have to be proud of yourself where you, when you think about where you started now, you have a very ambitious spirit.

 

You’re my friend, you’re my new friend.

 

BG4x4Fest.com Interview Rachael

In this Jeep Talk Show episode, Tony interviews Rachael Thayer-London from BG4x4Fest.com to discuss the exciting first annual 4×4 Sled Pull Family Fun Event. Happening on Saturday, October 5, 2024, at the Wood County Fairgrounds, this event features a 4×4 sled pull, a convoy through downtown Bowling Green, a Park & Shine car show, vendor row, kids’ activities, and more. Partnered with Thayer Family Dealers, Wood County Fairgrounds, VisitBG, and the National Tractor Pulling Championships, the day-long event will raise scholarships in Agriculture and the Trades for Wood County residents.

Cowboy and the Kilt – AEV Overland Springs

In this episode of Cowboy and the Kilt, Chuck and Greg dive into a discussion about AEV Overland Springs, with Chuck sharing why he doesn’t think they’re the right fit for his 2023 Jeep Gladiator. As always, their conversation takes unexpected turns, making for a fun and insightful episode. Subscribe now so you never miss another great chat with these Jeep enthusiasts!

 

In fact most of the days that Iiolike that For a little but

 

bumper up at your place. So I was going to do a 14-day trip through South Dakota.

 

I actually went with a buddy of mine who is an engineer for Ford and has one of their newer Broncos.

 

He said, “Hey, take me Jeepin.” And I said, “Well, you can’t go Jeepin because you don’t have class. All you have is a Bronco, but we can go wheeling.” So I ran up to you knowing that I wanted to put the new 8274 Winch on, the new bumper. And the first thing you said was, “Geez, Chuck, you got a Carolina squat.” And I was like, “What the F are you talking about, man? It’s just a flat rig.” And then we took a tape measure out and sure as shit, I was damned running on my bump stops. Now this is a Mojave, right? So it’s got a smooth as silk ride. It is sexy right out of the factory. But I have a

 

racquet, large…

 

What the hell is the damn thing called in the bed of my thing? The big drawer system. It’s fully loaded. I was carrying 24 gallons extra of fuel, 20 gallons of water, and enough food for 14 days for three people.

 

And I went wheeling up there. We actually cut it short because the Bronco couldn’t just… It couldn’t make it, but it was just too much for a newer driver to go 14 days off-roading, not hitting asphalt at all. And I rode the bump stops on this thing the entire time. So I chatted with you while we were there. You said, “AEV.” And I had a huge decision to make. Do I go with just the AEV lift springs or do I go with the AEV heavy-duty overlanding springs?

 

And I had to gamble.

 

And I bought the overlanding springs.

 

I did not buy the kit. I just bought the springs themselves and then bought some bump stop stuff and realized that I had really nice bump stops in the front. And then realized that I had the guy that I bought it from had the AEV puck lift in it. And it took us a couple days. We threw up on the lift and just the three of us Cowboys got it, put all new stuff in, and I took her for a spin. And I don’t know that the gamble paid off, Greg.

 

The ride is so different.

 

And it now has a California rake so bad. I mean, my ass end is probably inch and a half to two inches taller than the back end.

 

And I don’t know that I carry enough overlanding gear to justify the HD spring to be honest with you.

Do you still have the the pucks in there or did you remove them?

No, I removed all the pucks because I had to go to the Jeep dealership. It’s about two hours away and we ordered the rubber parts that were for the stock springs. Remember I called you and I was like, “Dude, I don’t even have…” Because they were all gone, right? Because they had put the puck lift in so they threw away the stock ones. We had to order them. They were like 12 bucks or something. And that’s why it took us two days to do it. And it’s a flipping monster.

 

I did a three inch lift. I’m row three sevens. The tires look tiny. And because I don’t think I have enough weight in the back,

 

like I’m a big dude, right? I’m 265 pounds. I sit on the tailgate and it’s like sitting on the tailgate of one of my one tons. Like the Jeep doesn’t move. They get on it and it’s just like “TOOH!” And you’re like, “Good night!” So the handling down the road, it feels like…

 

it feels like I got into a one ton truck compared to the Mojave, dude. Like I don’t know if I need to call up AEV and say, “Hey, send me just the rear springs, the three inch rear springs that are not HD. You know, they’re not overlanding and put those in.” I don’t know. I’m thinking about doing that and getting rid of the the overland thing. Because the listener that that reached out to me a couple times, he’s got…

 

I think he’s got a Gladiator? I don’t know. But he was like, “Hey, you know, have you put these things in and what do you think? It’s his daily driver and I would strongly recommend do not put overland springs on your daily driver unless you have…

 

they have the…

 

like the… not the tunnel cover, but like a camper shell style camping setup on the back of these things. Like I think maybe that would do it. But I still have my tent on. I carry not 20 something gallons. I only carry six gallons of fuel, eight gallons of water, because we go back and forth to the cabin all the time and we ship the water that way.

 

And my drawer system is completely full of tools. I’ve got a… my shower system in there. I always have extra food. I have my ice chest that’s usually full of ice and beer because we we drink out of it every day and I’ve got my kitchen set up in it. So I’m not fully loaded, you know, like I would be on a 14 day trip or like the trip that we’re gonna take up north. So I might wait to see how that trip handles, but it…

 

and maybe Greg, I don’t know, you could probably chime in. I mean it going from the stock Mojave suspension to an HD suspension might have been just a giant jump. You know what I mean?

Well yeah, that’s… it’s a giant jump and I mean I’m not familiar with their overland springs, but I know their normal springs are already set up for more of a load and you had a two inch lift and you went to a three. Did you change the front?

 

Yeah, I changed everything. It was a whole new springs, all new springs. I did some sway bar disconnect. I did the extended sway bar disconnect stuff. Kept the shocks, just did the shock mount, you know, so that…

Yeah, the extension brackets.

The extension brackets and that’s it. I mean I did… one of the things that I did also at the same time is I did the fender split, right? So I took that… there was about two inches of plastic underneath the plastic, you know, color match bumper. Right. So that made it look taller, but I can tell you getting… well of course I was squatted before, right? So I was less than the two inch lift before to a more than a three inch lift back on the back now. I don’t know how tall I am, you know, six something and for me to get on to the tailgate I do a big jump, right? So I don’t know. It’s not…

Now did you do the geometry correction brackets or the steering correction or any of that?

Not yet.

Or did you just do the springs?

I just did the springs. I did the sway bar disconnect. I did the steer smarts that extend it,

 

but I can honestly say that I dislike California rakes, you know, where the back ends way jacked up and you’re kind of steering down into the road. Like I like a very level rig and I know that’s… unless I have like airbags or something I know that’s not gonna happen because if you’re loaded with the trailer or if you’re running stock you’re either gonna be one or the other, right?

Yeah but with all that weight you think you would assume and I would assume that it would sit level,

 

right?

But it’s not. It’s not. It’s fucking huge. So what I’m hoping is when you and I change the back end of this thing and put that spare tire out from underneath the bed to behind the tailgate and you know beef up that with some armor and stuff I can use the springs because we’re gonna add some weight to it, you know, and maybe level it out that way. I mean there’s all these things that are in the back of my head like…

 

I would suggest reaching out to AEV, talk to Mike Reckling or one of the guys there and maybe swap those out for non-overland springs and just go with their normal ones because if it’s jacking it up too much and if it’s stiffen the ride that much that’s an issue. I would also highly recommend because you are a three-inch lift going with their geometry correction brackets in the front that will aggressively change the ride. Really? Oh really?

 

Dude I can totally tell like the steering. You know like I feel like I’m steering into the ground. You know what I mean? Like a guy can totally tell like because I do a lot of towing you know and if I’ve got like I’m always overloaded you know with my gooseneks and if I don’t have my airbag set up and I’m pulling it up in the air yeah someone’s gonna say well that’s you know that’s fine. You get a little softie in your front end right where you’re steering and your tires are steering up. This Jeep I feel like I’m steering down into the asphalt and it’s harder to turn because I’m turning you know this way. It’s a trip dude it’s a total trip.

Yeah well the geometry correction brackets fix a lot and then they typically sell a high-steer kit with anything that’s three inches or above which changes the relationship where the drag link sits and changes the relationship where the track bar sits in the front and that will should lighten up the steering.

 

So you think a part of it is just I’m not done yet?

I think you’re not done yet. But if those springs are too right but if those springs are too stiff for you then they’re too stiff for you right if they make a normal duty spring you know that might be your avenue because from the factory you know and you can look at any Jeep you can go to the dealership and they’re supposed to be raked right so the rear end is supposed to be higher especially on a truck but that gives a weird feeling to the driver if that’s not what you like. So maybe just swapping to their normal springs because their normal springs you know not the overland ones but their normal AEV springs are already set up for more of a load than normal right so instead of the 800 pound load they’re set up for the 1200 pound load because of all the aftermarket goodies and maybe the overland ones are just too much.

Yeah all this aftermarket shit is just just need help. Absolutely love it I mean I grew up we always just called it camping you know and I didn’t actually get like corrected till I was hanging out with Chris at EJS was it this last year?

 

Yeah there was just this last year I had the 74 CJ5 he had you know Edla and we’re sitting there having a couple beers and I know that he’s the editor of the overland magazine and he’s a big overland guy and you know he’s actually four-wheeled across every continent which is pretty bitchin and I was like oh you know get fucked it’s just called camping and he’s like no it’s not called camping camping is you go in somewhere and you set up a camp and you don’t leave overlanding is you’re constantly moving every day and I was like well we used to do that through the Sierras he goes that’s different than camping I was like oh whatever well it’s

just because they called it a new name a few years ago right? Right. 15 years ago nobody knew what overlanding was right now that’s that’s the new rage for all of you skinny jean bun man bun having people which is what’s happening next so people don’t know but trucks growing his hair out and he’s gonna have a man bun next year

and I’ve got a huge ass I do I do yeah I mean I

are you gonna start drinking white claw too?

Dude my wife ordered a freaking white claw Friday night we went to Omaha Nebraska for a stupid concert and you know I didn’t even know the people is called crowded house I’m not a big if it ain’t country I don’t know it so she’s a big crowded house fan right so we went and I’m drinking PBR you know tall boy PBR and she goes up and she goes I’d like a white claw and I’d look at her and I looked at the bartender and I was like I don’t fucking know this lady you’re not drinking a white claw next to me there yeah I I mean growing up I was a I was a babbitt backpacker right so when I got my license and got a Jeep and I just took all my backpack and shit threw it in the back seat and then that’s how we would go and we’d go explore all of the Sierras you know and you’d go wheeling and camping and and all of that crap and I didn’t know what the hell it overlanding thingy was and

no I mean really it’s it’s a term that’s popped up in the last few years and maybe some people used it back in the day but for the grand scheme of things it’s a term that’s popped up in the last decade or ten years and it’s kind of funny because even SEMA you know you go to the off-road Hall at SEMA which is it used to be the Upper South Hall now it’s the West Hall they even have an overland section that is just for overlanding because it’s it’s such a boom and explosion in the in the off-road market in the last ten years

they have so much frickin technology in them trailers and in the gizmo gadgets like when I when I got this and I bought a shower you know back in the early 2000s when I did a lot of heat and air conditioning stuff why we just made our own shower system right that ran you know a heat exchanger into the engine yeah we had it in the engine bay and your coolant from your engine would run through you know your pipes and then your fresh water would run inside that and then you just made a heat exchanger you’d go to any Creek you know you throw your hose into the creek turn your Jeep on wait for your Jeep to get you know up to temperature and you had a little 12 volt pump and you would just pump your creek water through your heat exchanger right and just make a shower well hell now I mean I bought one there it’s all techno buttons and lights and lets you know when you’re at the right temperature because sometimes you’d burn the shit out of yourself you know up in the woods and drinking too much or whatever and my wife just laughs at me because all the neat crap you can buy you know it’s like a hundred dollars and you have this shower like hell yes this is bitching man and I got plenty of room to haul it I love it I think it’s neater in hell but I used to well here I’m gonna take you can you see me Greg so you got you know this little CJ 5 right mom and dad used to take myself my brother my brother is bigger than me and those two up to the woods for a week in that a single ice chest for food and we absolutely loved it and then when I got of age my son my sons and I so this is about

well that was camping now you’re glamping

amen amen so my sons and I built this Jeep 20 years ago Nathan’s turning 21 here in a little bit and this is by what people would call a rock crawler there’s that so all handmade fenders we did what’s called a boat side right so I cut the tub gave myself a lot of clearance and then I got weeds and stuff back here but and then I dovetail the rear end right can you see that great yep and put a trunk back there and we used to rock crawl with that thing because it’s all armored plate you know I cut the tub up and through three three sixteenths plate in where you know the tub all the tub parts were I used to bounce off of rocks all the time and shit you can’t see it right and I would still go camping in that thing throw all the gear in the back ice chest in the back and we’d go all through the Rubicon and like Barrett Lake Trail I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of that that’s a hell of a that’s a hell of a gnarly trail and you’re getting damage regardless of what you do or how good you are and yeah so

and because you did show and tell now I’ll do show and tell for fun just cuz I’m standing outside so so this 1975 Cherokee

 

one

 

Phen Staples

 

10

You know, and I had two kids, you know, in diapers. You know, I was still living back in California at the time. So I was getting taxed, you know, out of my ass on everything. They like taxed me because they took time to tax me, you know, and I think I bought those Springs for like a hundred bucks, you know? And I called a company down South that made all of the spring hangers and the axle perches and everything. And it was like another 150 to $200. They found out that like I was going into the military or whatever and they’re like, oh, here, you know, thank you. You know, blah, blah, blah. And they like sent it to me like almost for zero.

 

And you know, we had a little 110 welder.

 

I don’t even know if the damn axles are even like parallel to each other. You know, we just kind of did it in the garage. And that is a flexy little bastard. You know, after we fixed up, well, after we fixed the steering issues and we had, we had fixed the drive line angle and everything that little rock crawler is like, I’ve sent pictures to Tony and Josh where, you know, you’ve got one tire. I only run 33s on that because I can stuff one tire all the way up into the fender well. And the other tire is just dingle dangling down and it’s still on the ground, you know, at damn near six feet. You know, it’s just something retarded. You can’t drive it down the road at all. Like it’s 45 miles an hour max, you know, and you’re squirrely all over the damn road because it’s so soft, but it’s a neat ass rig. Like I love it.

 

Absolutely love it. We started trailer cleaning it when I did all that stuff. Like that was another thing that I didn’t, I was always in with stock Jeeps and shit, you know? And then when I started doing all this radical stuff, you know, my dad was, he almost disowned me, you know, when I bought my first 33 inch tire, you know, he was like, oh my God, I thought I taught you how to wheel better than that, you know? And when I started having to trailer, when I started having to trailer it, he was, it’s like the old Harley guys that, you know, that ride their shit to Sturgis versus the guys that trailer it. You know, my dad’s like the old guy that he’s like, I fucking drive my Jeep everywhere. You have to trailer it, you pussy. And I was like, dad, I’ll fucking kill myself. I can’t, I just think down the interstate.

You know, I went through the same thing. I started off with, you know, a basic Jeep on 29s and slowly worked my way up till I was at 37s and, you know, super long arm and super flexy, you know, I wanted to be a ramp champ and now

I’ve, Oh my God, yes.

Now I’ve reverted back and because I’ve learned that, you know, the driver skill way outweighs what the vehicle’s capable of. So.

I think that’s a natural gestation, right? I mean, I think that’s pretty common where the guy gets into it and then there’s like, dude, this is fucking cool. And then he starts doing all this ramp chance stuff, which I’ve never heard that before. That’s bitchin’. And then after a while, you know, he’s like, well, that’s stupid. I want to go back to just a pretty well-built Jeep that I don’t care if I’m, you know, clocking 100s or whatever it is on that stupid ramp thing. I just want to have a easy ride and make it fairly simple.

Yeah, and it’s, you know, like when I built that rock store, which was 2019,

 

you know, very simple, no lift, factory springs, factory shocks, and it flexes, right? I mean, it’ll flex three or four feet, but the same year, who was it, Jesse?

 

I forget his name. He’s a, you know, he’s a rock crawl champion, but he built a rock store and he competed at King of the Hammers in the Everyman Challenge, which is, you know, limited to 35-inch tires. And, you know, you can’t change the suspension too much and you can’t do certain things, but he brought a rock store on factory leaf springs with, you know, factory shocks and all this simple stuff. And he won Everyman Challenge against all these guys with their long arms and their craziness and their triple bypass this, you know, because sometimes it’s,

 

I don’t mind picking a tire when I’m off-road.

 

You know, I don’t have to always have all four tires touching the earth. That’s what lockers are for, right? Right. Yeah.

 

But yeah, so I’ve reverted back to the simple days. I don’t need a long arm. I won’t run a long arm on anything that I own.

 

I can get away with a mid arm.

 

You know, like a TJ or the older stuff had very short control arms. The JK and the JL have the perfect length. So I don’t need longer than that. Right. So I go a little simpler, but you know, it’s just, we learn, we learn over time. Like same thing. You go to Easter Jeep Safari and you look at all of these 150, $200,000 rigs, you know, gladiators and over limbs and these guys with their $20,000 suspension and all that. And then, you know, and they’re on 40s and 42s and 44s and giant tires. And then you watch a bone stock 1948 Willys drive around them.

And I just laugh.

I just laugh my ass off.

That’s what happened. Bill and I, Bill’s a listener. He’s a super cool guy, he’s a veteran. So like him and I, like, it’s like Forrest Gump and Jenny. Right? I mean, we get along extremely well. And he’s got like a 24 whatever the new two, there’s a single little two door Jeep. And I think he’s got like a puck lift on 35s or something. And that’s it, you know? And I think maybe he took like the back seat out so he can throw an ice chest in there or some lunch shit or whatever. And I had dad’s stock 74 CJ and him and I, I don’t know the name of the trail and I don’t really care, you know, but we had a damn blast.

 

And we come up behind these people that had like video cameras out and full width one tons and all this crazy shit. And you know, here am I in a damn clown car Jeep, just tearing up the trail, like didn’t skip a tire. Like everything was easy and fine, you know? And they were like, hey, you know, you guys could go around us. We’re like, oh, we’re good. And you just realize like we’re fucking up their shots because they’re making it all like extreme and hard. And here’s Bill and I like, doo doo doo doo doo.

 

We had a damn blast. I think like the cool factor of just going out there and doing it, like Bill’s an amazingly good driver. Like I’d go wheeling with Bill anywhere because he gets on the trail, he gets through it in a timely fashion. Yeah, we do have conversations from time to time, but you know, we’re just, we’re getting through the trail, right? And he does it totally fine. And I got to keep up with him with this thing and vice versa. Sometimes I would leave, I don’t even know where the hell I was going. And I was like, I’m just gonna follow the black mark, just go and there’s that cool factor where you don’t have to have all that shit. There’s nothing wrong with it. I mean, I think it’s me when you come up on these rigs and you’re like, God damn, that thing’s more than my damn house. But you don’t have to.

I own the old fat guy, you know, in a little bit. Yeah, my first really good experience with that was, and I was getting bigger and more involved and definitely more involved in the off-road industry. And I went wheeling. So the guys who mentored me when I first started off, are the Lunatic Fringe. And the Lunatic Fringe was a group within Chrysler that, you know, developed the Rubicon and developed, you know, a lot of the other cool stuff.

 

And we were in Moab and I wanna say it was like 2015 or 2016. And I was staying with them because I was sleeping on their couch. And, you know, I’ve got this, I was driving Frankenbrute, which is, you know, just everything thrown at a Jeep, you know, long wheelbase coilovers, blah, blah, blah. I had everything on it. And I went wheeling with them one day and we did a pretty hard trail. We actually went to Pritchett Canyon. And these guys, you know, they’re driving CJs and they’re driving YJs and, you know, a couple of them had JKs, but none of them were overly built. And Pritchett Canyon’s a pretty gnarly trail.

 

And we go there and the first thing in the morning, you know, everybody’s errant down, everybody’s getting ready to hit the trail.

 

And there’s always a quick driver’s meeting to make sure that everybody knows who’s the trail gunner and who’s, you know, in charge and blah, blah, blah. And these guys, they’re like, all right, you know, first person to squeak a tire buys lunch and first person to spin a tire does this.

 

And I’m like, what are you talking about? And they said, well, you know, they have a competition and their competition is to do harder and harder trails. And the person who makes it look effortless and never chirps a tire and never has to back up or never has to winch, the guy that just crawls over every obstacle at the end of the day, he gets free beer and free dinner and free food.

Oh, that’s my kind of story. Absolutely.

And I’m like, really? You know, cause I’m used to wheeling with all these influencers who they want to get a tire five feet in the air and they want to They want to make it look difficult. Right, they want to make it look difficult. And then I go out with all these guys who are in their seventies and driving this trail that I did the day before with influencers and everybody had problems and everybody struggled. And these guys, just like you said, they’re like, clown cars, they do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. And they drive up all these obstacles. They never chirp a tire. You know, if a guy hits us a little sand patch and slides a little bit, everybody’s like,

(Laughs)

you’re buying me a car. Right.

 

And I think that was the point for me when my driving style changed and my driving style got more progressive and cleaner because now I’m hyper focused on making everything look simple. It’s a chess game.

It’s a chess game, right? Yeah, so like when I’m wheeling, I’m wheeling like maybe 15 to 30 feet down the trail. And just what I’m going over is what I’ve memorized in my brain, right? So you’re just going and you’re like, my dad always told me your driver’s side front tire is the one you pay attention to. Everything else will just follow. So you always just guide yourself on your driver’s side front tire. Some of the people are going to say, oh, absolutely not. The Jeeps now are so much bigger and you have to do this, that and the other. Even with the Gladiator, everything for me as a front driver’s tire, that’s how I do it.

And– Yeah, and honestly, after 10 minutes, you know how wide it is. So you know what the passenger tire’s going to hit.

Right. It’s just spatial recognition, right? So, and it was like when I was– Other

than you’re driving a land yacht that’s like 92 feet long. So your turning radius.

It’s a school bus, right? So like I grew up with these guys– You should turn a yellow. I hate you right now.

 

(Laughing)

But these guys all had beautiful, beautiful Willy’s Jeeps. The other short Fender fives, one guy had, Rick Russell, he had a CJ six, you know, and they were just gorgeous. They weren’t scratched. They were spotless, man. And you go out and they made fun of people that hit rocks or they made fun of people that you’re off camber and maybe your roll cage, you know, scratched a tree. They were like, oh, you don’t know what you’re doing. And it was like, that’s who taught me how to wheel. And it was like at the end of the Rubicon, your rig should be just dusty and that’s it. Like it should be gorgeous. And when like when I built the Rock Crawler, you know, I had rolled the Jeep. I was up in Northern California somewhere and fell off a rock and kind of like, it was like a little cliff rock or whatever.

Yeah, and you took it from something that should go down a trail and be dusty at the end to something that you can use rocks to pivot on.

Right, right. And they disowned me, Greg. They fucking disowned me. They were like, you destroyed a beautiful Jeep. Cause it was Emerald green, you know, had nice chrome bumper, chrome wheels. And I was one of the guys that would show up with this gorgeous stock-ish, you know, CJ-5 to now I can do whatever the hell I want. And there’s videos of me driving over a car, you know. And they were like, oh no, you did that because you forgot how to drive. And I was like, well, no, I did this cause I rolled the bitch off of a three foot, four foot cliff and destroyed the tub. And I didn’t have the money to rebuild it. So I just cut it apart, used old scrap steel and armor plated it, you know. Right.

 

But it was what it was,

 

You’re my friend, you’re my new friend.