0331 - Sketchy Hot Rods in the Sky adn Big Jeeps for Little People

All right. Now, the first orange cone of the podcast tonight that you're just going to have

to edit in because I just found this and I cannot not say something.

All right.

I just sent you all a link to a Craigslist ad.

This is for sale in my town and I am a professional in the helicopter industry.

This is not a secret on this show.

I have never seen a more egregious death trap than this home-built coaxial rotorcraft.

Well, then why did you build it?

I didn't build it.

Oh, my goodness.

I have seen some videos of a couple of these flying.

About half of those videos are of them crashing.

Okay.

We will include this in the show notes, but it looks like somebody took a roll cage

bar, strapped a seat to it, an engine on top.

Oh, no, no.

It's even better.

Those bars are probably aluminum.

They probably are.

Okay.

Somebody took airsoft roll bar cage.

Yeah.

Those bars are aluminum.

That is a two-stroke motor strapped directly to the rotor system.

I don't see anything wrong with this.

There's two big old pulleys that mount directly to the crank.

And so there's a two-stroke motor behind your head.

This is a hot-rodded helicopter right here.

Somebody in their garage built the thing they wanted.

This is a thrown-rod helicopter.

Yeah.

That's a good way to describe it.

It is a throne with an engine and a tail boom on it.

No, no, like throwing a rod out the case, which is what's going to happen to that

two-stroke motor immediately.

These are like in the aviation world, even in the experimental aviation world.

These are like 300-hour motors.

That's nothing for flight.

Well, I'm sure somebody on the budget that these kind of dictate you're in because you

are that crazy, they are like meticulous on maintenance, I'm sure.

No, not even close.

Actually, reading the edits being, yeah.

The guys who do it are probably good guys.

This one, quote, suffered a hard landing and will be a bit of work to rebuild.

So wait, wait, this is a little kit you can buy to do this?

Oh, these were kits you could buy originally.

This particular one, that image you see is apparently not the shape it's in.

It is a basket case.

That's awesome.

Okay.

Isn't that what we do?

No, no, wait, that's what we are.

Someone already crashed this.

No, I'm sorry.

It comes pre-crashed for your convenience.

The warning label is all over it.

So trade, yeah, this is what we do, but we do it with something that when something catastrophic

happens to the motor, you stop moving forward instead of you fall to the ground at terminal

velocity.

But, you know, I feel like that's what we do.

We take the obsessively absurd and we attempt at badly at it that, you know, this is the

first ever production ultralight coaxial helicopter.

This isn't even a kit.

This came from a factory.

Someone built this to fall in the ultralight rules.

So I ended up seeing an ultralight plane sitting in the corner of a hangar this past weekend

and I went, man, that thing is sketchy.

Ultralight planes are sketchy, but here's the thing.

When engines fail on a plane, you're still flying.

Yes.

Yeah.

You have some sort of aerodynamics.

The action of flight is not dependent on being powered, right?

The mechanism of flying works whether you're powered or not as long as you have some speed.

As long as you're moving forward at a particular rate, you will continue to fly.

And that means losing altitude, right?

Because you pitched down to keep your airspeed.

And no big deal.

It just means you're landing right now.

Now, in an ultralight, you're already operating at that minimum end, right?

You've already got something that flies way down to almost no speed.

So yeah, whatever, it happens.

It's still not, it's not a not event, but you know, you just deal with it.

You just, you just go in a rotorcraft in a helicopter of any kind.

Your mechanism of flight is dependent on your motor.

When the motor stops turning, the rotor stopped getting enough power to continue

to fly.

Yeah.

Your options are to auto rotate, which is to allow the airflow from your downward

motion to spin the rotor so that you have enough inertia in the system that when you

try to ask it for lift right by the ground, you don't go splat.

That sounds a lot like trying to jump at the bottom of an elevator.

Or to die.

Not jumping at the bottom of an elevator.

It is the concept of jumping at the bottom of the elevator.

It works.

I don't know if it works.

It doesn't work in an elevator, I guess, according to MythBusters.

I wouldn't know.

But it works in a helicopter because the rotors will produce lift.

You will, in fact, stop going down and start going up for a brief moment.

And then you, you fall the three or four feet to the ground, right?

You have arrested your downward momentum.

You no longer have acceleration down and you must begin accelerating

again from zero, which is falling from three feet instead of falling

from 300 feet.

Yeah.

Very survivable fall in three feet.

You're no longer moving at that terminal velocity that.

So the mechanism works like the mechanics of that work, you can do it.

But why in the world would you take that safety mechanism, that one chance

of surviving and strap it to something that's barely capable of flying

to begin with?

Because I want to fly and I only have 7500 bucks.

Yeah.

And this is the point where Obi-Wan Kenobi turns to you and says,

you need to go home and rethink your life.

It's, yeah, it's a thing, man.

I couldn't tell you it's it's sketchy.

It's so sketchy.

Yeah, I was going to say the the ultralight plane looks sketchy

and helicopters like fully built commercial helicopters are sketchy.

And it's just like the worst of both worlds.

Ultralights are just, you know, hang gliders with engines.

Like, and you go into them with the mindset that that an ultralight

is an extreme sport, right?

It's it's not any different than base jumping from like a risk perspective.

That that's what you're trying to do.

Like every time you take off in an ultralight, you are in a motocross event.

You know, you are doing, you know, extreme downhill mountain biking.

You're doing a downhill skiing, the double blacks, right?

Yep.

That that's what you're doing every time you take off in an ultralight.

And that's OK.

People get their rocks off on extreme sports.

That's fine.

But an ultralight is not a conventional airplane

that we're going to get in and go places with and do things like

there's, you know, I can get on an e-bike or a regular bicycle

and commute across town and get some groceries and come back.

And that's fine.

Now, my downhill mountain bike is not that bike, right?

It's it's shit for doing that.

It's designed to do a thing and pretty much that, you know,

you're rock crawling Jeep or whatever that that that old XJ

you bought and put on 37 inch tires with a Skyjacker lift

is not something you're going to run to the grocery store in.

It's not something you're going to go to the next city and visit your parents in.

Why not?

Well, let's try it.

Is it possible?

Sure, some people have even done it.

It's like taking a Humvee on the highway.

Not meant for that, right?

Yeah, not the task it's designed to do.

Well, yeah, same thing with ultralights, right?

They're designed to putter around the patch you take off from.

And that's it.

They're designed to fly barely, fly barely.

Yeah, it's the least exciting extreme sport you can think of.

As someone who, you know, greatly enjoys flying,

it's the least exciting extreme thing you can do.

And it will kill you faster than all of the other ones,

except maybe base jumping, which is also a flying sport.

So it counts on my side.

That's not flying.

That's falling with style.

Literally, it's scary.

That's exactly what that is.

I could not resist that line.

Sorry.

So anyways, I'm sorry.

I was just poking around and this guy came up and I couldn't.

I could not say something about it.

So you're not going to buy that?

I look.

I could probably talk myself into an experimental category

helicopter, something like a safari or like a road away

at 162 executive, like the nice one that's built like a helicopter

uses helicopter engines, has, you know, hundreds of examples

flying, does helicopter things?

I would count myself qualified enough.

I mean, a safari is just a Bell 47.

Like it uses many of the same parts.

You can buy Bell 47 parts.

The mash helicopter and put them on this experimental.

Like it's just a way to home build your own Bell 47.

They use.

Yeah.

And so great, right?

Awesome.

Uh, somebody will sell me parts that they say that they

certify are good to put into this thing that I can build

together and, and make a custom helicopter myself.

Okay.

I could be talked into that existing and being a reasonable thing.

Um, I don't know that I'd buy one and this is as an owner

of a kit built plane.

I don't know that I'd buy one someone else built helicopters

like factory built helicopters are sketchy enough.

I think this might be a case of you seeing how the sausage

is made in 100% 100, 1000% seeing how the sausage is made.

But you know, uh, as someone qualified to judge whether

or not a helicopter is air worthy, I wouldn't buy one that

was just built by some dude.

Even if he was a great some dude, you know, I've got video

of me flying it and it's first crash.

Oh wait, first crash, like there were multiples.

Anyways, so yeah, there we go.

We can continue on with the, uh, what we were doing.

The actual podcast.

I would agree that it would be the actual podcast.

Yes.

Excellent.

Episode 331.

B squad is at its core, a round table discussion of the

four of us who are admittedly rank amateurs in the car

world, trying to figure our way into hot rod.

Four states, three time zones, two sets of brothers, once a

week of a meat and bolts of hot rods for B squad hot rod.

This is lefty.

This is train.

This is Hollywood.

And this is woodchuck because a squad has a TV show.

Legal disclaimer.

If you try anything we talk about, that's your fault,

not ours.

The back to our regular schedule podcast.

Yeah.

Okay.

So from here, I'm going to roll into an episode and I will

edit that into the middle or immediately after the beginning

after you roll the music, just throw that in.

Have, have you heard of the, uh, line don't bury the lead?

Sure.

Okay.

Well, the, the premise is if you put a big headline on

something, don't wait until the fourth paragraph to talk

about it.

Yeah.

Much like if you have a car podcast, maybe we should talk

about cars before we get too far afield.

And this is why this segment came first and now we're

going to start talking about cars.

It's not out there or we're going to wait for train to

get back and then we'll start talking about cars.

Yeah.

Cue that beautiful bean footage, bean, bean footage.

Are you back train?

I am back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

Don't worry, don't worry about me.

It's, it's life is what it is.

Life gets in the way of good, of good car stuff.

It, it does, but the car stuff always calls.

Does it?

It does.

Okay.

Now we wish we had a sound board so you could put

like a ringing noise in here.

That's what post is for.

Of course, if cars always call, they would do so with

an engine ringtone.

I'll just gotten good at that.

I hear.

Probably.

All right.

Gentlemen, in the interest of getting back to being

car focused on this podcast, I have done things

with cars like multiples.

That's good.

All right.

Do you want the big story or do you want the

little story first?

Well, let's start with the little story.

No, don't bury the lead.

Oh, good job.

Shh.

We done passed that ultra light.

I got there a while ago.

That was funny.

All right.

Uh, so on the side note, do you gentlemen remember, uh, the

truck I lovingly refer to as my almost stock seven

three power stroke?

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, here's, here's the kicker.

It's a didn't even come stock from the dealership.

IDI seven three, which is the diesel engine that, uh, immediately

predated the power stroke.

Okay.

Yeah.

Not even the correct engine.

So they, uh, IDI stopped during the 94 production year and

the power stroke started in the 94 production year.

And of course I got a 94 and just immediately assumed

it was a power stroke.

Uh, not the case.

So, so you just found out your truck is a different engine.

Yeah.

Uh, and when I went to change the oil pump and the Ford guys

were laughing at me because the oil pump on a power stroke is

on the front of the crankshaft.

You take the fan off and the oil pump is there.

Uh, on the IDI, it's basically where everybody else knows

where oil pump is inside the oil pan.

Uh, so yeah, I was a little confused when I pulled the

fan off and went where the hell is this oil pump go that

I have in my hand that I just bought new.

Um, cause the old oil pump is not here.

Yeah.

Understandable.

So I, I called up Jim and I'm like, Jim, this isn't the

power stroke.

He's like, no, we talked about this.

It's an IDI and I'm like, we've talked around this, but

I never put this together.

He's like, yeah, no, it's the end of the IDI during 94.

So indirect injection is what that stands for.

Um, yeah.

And all the non-stock non-stock stuff was done when the

original owner bought the truck.

So these are like dealership, uh, modification dealership

modifications, not factory ones.

Yeah.

So it's got a flat bed on it.

Now that was the one thing that was actually done a

little bit later.

Uh, it did originally come with a truck bed, but it

was that truck came as a single rear wheel.

The dealer put on the, a Dooley kit.

Oh, nice fact.

And, and changed everything just a little bit.

So yeah, it is a, it is a almost came stock 7, 3

not power stroke.

Interesting.

Yep.

All right.

So I am trying to pick the engine up to replace

the oil pump.

Oh, what did you do?

Well, I found out actually in most cars, cause this

is the first one I've tried to replace an oil pump

that hasn't been on an engine stand that's been in

the vehicle.

Turns out the cross member usually goes underneath

the oil pan.

Usually.

Yeah.

Um, well, you know, I'm on B squad.

So I found this out the hard way.

So you got to lift the engine up so you can

get the oil pan out to either replace the seal

or the oil pump or whatever you need to get

into there for.

Um, I went, okay.

Well, I've already got this thing half torn

apart to get to the oil pump that wasn't on

the front of the engine.

So this shouldn't be too bad and turns out

the aftermarket banks turbo that's on this

not only is severely leaking, but is also in

the way that I cannot lift up the engine.

Otherwise it hits the cow.

So I have to take the turbo off so I can

lift up the engine so I can get the oil

pan out.

Well, it's leaking.

So you could fix that.

Why not to project creep here we come.

It's exactly what that is.

Don't you have a lift?

I have a lift.

Is this not one of those incidences where you

would just take the body and lift it?

Uh, you still have to lift the engine off

the cross member.

Oh, do you?

Okay.

Yeah.

And I got to take the turbo off anyway.

So I mean, I could, but that seems like

I mean, I just, that's just what a lot

of people do is, uh, you know, on diesel

trucks, every time I see someone working

on them, they just like lift the body

out of the way because everything shoehorned

into modern diesels.

You are, you are correct.

I have noticed that as well.

Um, but in this thing, that would not be

easier in this case.

I don't think it would be easier in this

case.

Bummer.

Yeah.

And I'm inclined to agree with train.

Um, so we'll, uh, we'll see how that goes.

I'm in the middle of that project right

now.

So the lead that was completely buried.

Mm hmm.

I bought a Jeep.

Yeah.

I remember bought the Jeep, your daughter

one that you're going to pay pink.

I, I bought a 1990 Jeep Wrangler.

Y J.

I believe they call them.

Turns out I'm not a Jeep guy.

You will be now.

I'm quickly becoming a Jeep guy.

It'll be those stupid, stupid fucking

ducks all over the place now.

Jeep.

No, that's a, that's like a JT thing.

That's like a modern Jeep thing.

Um, you know what Jeep stands for though, right?

They need it with an acronym.

Just empty every pocket.

That's a good one.

Just expect every problem.

Like as you, as you go through and start

reading the forums and things and, and see like,

Hey, what can I expect as issues in a 1990?

Everyone that comes up is what you need to

expect as the actual cause cause they'll

all be true every time.

That's, that's fair.

It has not disappointed yet.

So when we went, uh, we got it out of Salt Lake, uh, got

it from a, uh, real great guy.

Um, like went above and beyond for most, uh, online

car sales, right?

Um, but, uh, we, we were trying to start it up a

to, to, uh, you know, make sure the motor ran

and then be loaded onto the trailer.

So coach and I went down to, uh, to get this.

I had to bribe him with something.

I still don't know what that something is, but I,

I owe him.

Yeah.

He drove his trailer down there and, uh, wait,

it's probably going to end up being tequila, but,

um, turns out it was out of gas.

Uh, one of those things hadn't been starting

while it needed jumped, you know, the whole thing,

right?

Mm hmm.

Went to put gas in it.

Uh, some gas made it into the gas tank.

Some gas made it onto the ground.

Sounds about right.

Yeah.

Just started off great.

Uh, the optimum battery in it, um, is either smoked

or the Jeep is draining it, um, when it's off.

I don't know.

I need to look into that one, but you know,

so it's got a lot of problems.

Oh, and it's lifted like nine inches.

I have a hard time climbing into it.

My seven-year-old could not do it.

At least the first time.

Um, and it's a stick shift, which I think is awesome.

Yeah.

Uh, my seven-year-old picked out a pink, uh, uh, gear

handle stick shift knob.

Very nice for it.

The, the one on it didn't have the shift pattern

on it.

So I figured if she's going to learn how to drive

this car, that would probably help her, right?

Probably.

Um, so she got to pick that.

Uh, I came to the conclusion that the spare tire

cover is probably a good idea.

You know, so the spare tire doesn't get the sun

rot nearly as quickly.

Well, how big are these tires?

They are, they are 33-inch tires, I think.

Okay.

Or 35s.

So, and they're, they're like 14 inches wide

or something crazy.

I hate to break it to you.

You're gonna, the thing's going to drive like shit.

It is.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

No, so the, the vision is, it's coming back down

to stock heights.

It's going to get some stock, stockish tires on it.

I on purpose stayed away from the quite frankly

cheaper, uh, YJs of that year or year range

that had the Chevy 350 already in it.

Yeah.

Uh, you know, that one's been thrashed.

Well, not only that, but my youngest, she will go

as fast as the Jeep will let her.

Yeah.

Hi, that's why, that's why the Jeep was my first thing.

So I did not want to give her one with a V8.

The guy who sold it to me said, you know, this came

with the 4-2 engine.

It sucked.

I put the 4-0 head on it.

Apparently that's a thing and it's, it's got these

other modifications and the, and the things

with the thing, it's a Jeep thing and I don't

understand yet, but I will.

Um, I'm like, yeah, no, this, uh, this is good

for the purpose.

I've got it.

Honestly, the thing is a 4-liter or 4-2 Jeep makes

a really nice general off-road vehicle.

Like especially for the kind of off-road that

you have out there as an overland off-road vehicle,

it'll go pretty much anywhere you want it to.

Uh, if you're not actively mudding or actively

trying to get it stuck, then you're not likely

to get it stuck, just going places.

I mean, it's, they're nice trucks.

Trucks, they're not really trucks.

It's they're nice vehicles.

You know, it's, I, I stand by that decision.

Y'all can all get fucked otherwise.

No one said you were wrong.

A, and it's not going to do 120 down the highway.

No.

Um, and with that particular child, I am kind of

worried about that.

Well, I mean, she's going to find out how fast

it'll go on a dirt road then.

Yeah.

Where it will do scary speeds.

Ah, you're, you're not wrong.

I, uh, I guess we can't, you know,

she's just going to find creative ways to go fast.

Yep.

And don't get me wrong.

There will be other cars that she can go fast on

a road with, but I figured at least for her first

car, let's not set her loose in something that

that dad has hopped up and, you know, we'll

do stupid stuff on purpose.

So far all I hear is I'm being a responsible adult.

Hey, you sit down.

You hate horsepower.

That's right.

You should be applauding my decision, sir.

Whatever.

So we, uh, we took it out for a little ride

around the 10 acres up and down some small

hills, uh, dirt piles.

She got big smiles out of that one.

I of course was, uh, doing most of the driving

because it's a stick shift and she hasn't driven

one of those in any real form or fashion.

Uh, and quite frankly, Kent doesn't have the

strength or the reach to engage the clutch to reach

because I remember the throw on those things are

quite long.

Yeah.

Well, and the seat is bolted in right there.

There's no adjustment.

So yeah, she, she should do it, but she needs both

feet on it and her head comes up to the steering

wheel.

So yeah, there's, there's no way she's driving, driving

that quite yet, but, um, and then I came up with

a real good theory.

So, so it's running that and that was the other

big thing I wanted with this.

I wanted something that's running that she can

get in and take rides in all the time.

So my theory was let's just fix it a little bit

at a time because we've with this project, we've

got time, right?

It's for a seven year old for when she drives.

We've got like a decade.

Um, so we do a little project.

She gets to take it for another ride.

We do a little project.

She gets to take it for another ride.

So we, uh, we changed the, the filler tubes

on the gas tank so it no longer, uh, dumps gas

on the ground.

Good plan.

Uh, you know, fairly quick and easy to rubber

tubes, uh, uh, you know, four hose clamps, one

on either end of each tube away we go.

She spent most of the time playing in the dirt.

I made her get me a couple of tools.

You know, it's, it's a seven year old working

on cars, right?

So, uh, and then we went to take it for a ride

or let first check it and dump some gas in the

back and make sure it didn't come out, which

I have no reason to believe it would, but

you know, trying to teach her, Hey, let's fix

it, let's check it and then we can have some fun.

Um, it's got a lock and gas cap and she was inside

the Jeep playing around and lost the keys to

the Jeep inside the Jeep.

And people who have driven a Jeep Wrangler

go are going right now.

How is that possible?

Because there, there is four square feet

inside that cab.

There are gateways to Narnia inside of any car.

We apparently found one.

There is no upholstery in here.

No carpet.

No anything.

It's got the center console.

You can pick the center console up.

You still can't find the keys.

Cannot find the keys.

And like I said, there's like four square

feet inside that cab.

It's yeah.

I yeah.

So that she has, she has lost the keys to

her car for the first time.

Way to go.

I'm impressed.

So yeah, done a little bit automotive.

Um, I also have a product review for you guys.

Product review, product review.

Yeah.

Right.

It's, I, you could probably qualify it as a tool,

but it's, it's actually a glue.

So the Perman Tech's headliner, I don't know

if they call it a glue or adhesive adhesive.

Yeah.

Big orange spray can.

Yeah.

I fucking love that stuff.

It's contact cement.

Yeah.

So it, uh, it's really good contact cement.

I'm not going to say this.

Yeah.

I'm super 77 on the way myself.

So, you know,

Now I'm using that for a different project.

Um, that actually then I'm hanging some stuff

in the shop with it on the walls.

Um, installation actually, but, um, the reason

why I, I'm a big fan of this Perman Tech's, uh, contact cement

is I have access to my father-in-law's backhoe,

which has a insulation kit on it because we live in the

middle of, uh, the frozen North and it came off.

So the, the, uh, fake leather liner came off

and then inch and a half thick foam just fell off

of the ceiling.

Right.

I'm going, I, cause I, I'm looking at this can of, uh, super 77

and I'm going, this stuff ain't going to do it.

Right.

For what it was, what I was using it for, it was just

about perfect.

I'm going, this stuff ain't going to do it.

So I got this headliner stuff.

I sprayed it and I'm like, huh, this isn't a standard

spray.

It's kind of, kind of coming out stringy and stuff.

Hopefully that's a good sign, sprayed the back of the

foam and went to put it up on the roof of that backhoe.

I'm like, okay, I got to find something to prop this up

cause it's not going to hold the weight.

And I had just placed it up there.

I wasn't real careful about exactly where I put that

foam.

I let go and it didn't go anywhere.

Yeah.

It was, it was flip and stuck.

Um, it did have enough to where I could peel the foam

away carefully and not rip it to 14 pieces.

So I kind of moved it to where it needed to be,

but oh my God, that stuff worked good.

Uh, if, if you're paying attention and doing it right,

that, that's, that's my new favorite stuff.

Uh, cause I then put that over the foam with the,

the, um, fake leather and it's, it wasn't, you know,

bulky, like I had squeezed a bunch of glue in there

or anything.

It went on nice and smooth.

I was like, this, this stuff is amazing.

I was, I was super impressed.

So we, I will put a link to that in the show notes as well.

Uh, so you can see that if you're driving home or if

you're sitting at your computer right now listening to us.

Uh, but I was, I was super impressed for putting, especially

headliners.

It, that is the stuff you want.

I'm, I'm on board with that.

That's good.

I mean, everybody needs a good contact cement in their

supply.

Um, Hermitex, we are also selling out for, uh, sponsorships.

I am with all three of us have a project.

None of them have headliners in yet.

I don't even have to send products or money.

I've got a lot of projects that don't have headliners in it.

I don't even have the board.

My board doesn't even exist for the headliner anymore.

I just have the ribs.

Um, that's how old mine is, but I'm usually with lefty though.

I, I usually use 77, but I don't know, Hermitex.

I usually want to play with it a little bit.

That's why I use 77 because I have that option, right?

It's not going to tack down immediately.

I've heard that part of the Permitex stuff is like ripping ready

to go right away.

I'm sure they have other, other like adhesive compounds that

are not as tacky for right away.

What?

Yeah, I was, I was just super surprised that it held that

much weight.

No issue, spray it on, slap it on and you are, you

were done.

Um, and, and yeah, with the 77, um, that's why I was hesitant

to use it because, you know, even a week or two later, I

could peel that stuff right back off.

It's still stuck, but, um, I could peel it right off

without a whole lot of effort.

And I'm like, I, when I put this stuff on the roof, I, I

don't want to have to do this again at the end of the

summer.

I, I just want this to stick for years and, and that

Permitex did, did good.

So yeah, I'm not throwing shade on 77.

It's, it just seems like a different glue for a different,

different application.

Um, and to your point, Lefty, yet all of our tool and or

product reviews, we have not gotten any of this stuff.

We are not sponsored by any of these companies.

And if we are, we'll certainly let you know, but this

is just stuff we have found, uh, through usually a lot

of trial and a lot of error.

And, um, we'll let you know the good, bad and ugly bird.

And this has been tool reviews with Woodchuck.

Yep.

Well, you know, we, we got a car, a car podcast about

building cars.

So just trying to throw out that useful information for

everybody.

So again, the disclaimer at the front of the show, it's

been, it's been five years.

I think they know it's car podcast.

Actually, it's been closer to seven, I think, but

I'm not counting anymore.

I don't remember.

Has it been that long?

It was about the time my daughter was born.

Okay.

We, we are about to round eight.

Yeah.

Sounds right.

Cause she's about to start eight.

So fair enough.

Eight.

Yeah.

Yep.

Two years behind the order.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah.

Um, so yeah, I guess, and my other big piece of

advice is, uh, know which engine you're working

on because it, it might be important.

Yeah.

Um, all right.

Okay.

Can I, can I talk about engines here a little bit?

Are you going to talk about detuning them?

No, I'm not talking about detuning.

Okay.

Go ahead.

I'm talking about denganating.

Oh, free window ticket.

I love it.

Let's do it.

I have two, two of my, two of my friends, two of

my coworkers, one just bought the brand new Chevy

1500 with a six to it.

Okay.

Have you read it guys?

Read anything about these six tos?

No, no, they are granating.

The, the crankshaft is literally shearing into

two pieces in the engine.

Nice.

And blasting a hole inside the engine.

Right.

If you, as a factory option, as a factory option

that they are recalling like 700,000 of these

engines, ouch, right?

If you haven't read anything on these, you

should, I might be worth a quick gander.

Okay.

I, I will pull something off and put it in the

show notes for, for you guys out there.

And from what I understand at this point in

their, their ability to fix it, if it hasn't

granated yet, their options to a exam in

an oil change.

So when he took his end, he's got a visual

inspection.

They stuck the scope down there in the crankcase

and looked at the, tried to look at the

crankshaft, I guess.

And then they gave him an oil change.

That's what they did when he took it in for

the recall.

Okay.

Another coworker of ours has the 72 that has

granated.

He got a new engine.

So it, it boils down to like, I don't think

they know what they're going to do with these

engines.

So on top of the one that got the new engine,

did he have to replace his engine and then

he got a new engine on top of it?

No, no, no, no, no.

It, it granated on me, took it in and

they replaced it.

But from what I understand, they, I think they

replaced it with a 62.

Oh, that's not right.

Right.

So what are you going to do?

So we've been talking.

Another coworker of mine who, who he got, he

would drove an older GMC and he got t boned

and he got t boned enough that they told

us Chuck.

Okay.

So he had a, he had a diesel engine in

his, loved it.

They put a gas motor in?

Huh?

What'd they do?

Put a gas motor in?

No, they told, they told the truck.

So he's out buying a new, he's out buying a

new truck.

Well, I mean, you said he had a diesel engine and

he loved it.

Yeah.

We're talking about terrible things.

The dealership is done.

No, I know.

I know where we are, but.

No, they just put gasoline in it and saw

what happened.

He doesn't want the, the new, he doesn't

want the 62 obviously.

I think there might be a halt order on, on

them for selling for the dealers.

I, I would hope so.

Um, but he doesn't want a five three because

well, they have the, the lifter issues, right?

And he doesn't trust the new three liter

mini max engine because it has the internal,

internal belts that drives the oil pump.

Have you guys heard about that one?

That there is, I think the new vehicle, I

haven't heard because I don't care.

The first generation of the mini max, they

have a belt.

It's like a typing belt that's inside the

engine that drives the oil pump.

Well, just like the Toyota's that we had, the

22 re's and 22 ours, that belt has to be

changed every 440,000 miles.

Otherwise you starve the diesel engine of oil

and guess what happens?

Yeah, it dies.

And guess what?

How you change this oil pump belt out.

You have the whole front of the engine off.

You have to take the whole back of the engine

off the transmission, the rear main seal, the

rear crank, crank case plate.

You have to do all this.

So I'm like, look at him.

I'm like, okay, so why are you stuck?

If you're so worried about all this stuff, why are

you stuck on GM?

If you're so worried about it.

And I'm like, well, it's because he doesn't

like Ford's and he won't touch the thing.

Dodges.

That's exactly what went through my brain.

I'm like, so buy a Toyota, buy a Dodge.

Hell, go out and buy a Nissan like hell.

No, no, he's got, he's, he's wants GMC because

apparently the only other brand that exists is

Ford and he doesn't like them.

I know it's just like, come on people.

Like I get that there are lots of people out

there with brand loyalty, which I think is a

little dated and dumb in my opinion.

But there are things that he likes about it.

Like cool, whatever.

Fine.

Go buy the Lexus Dooley that they're making.

Have you seen that one?

No.

Yeah.

Lexus, I think it's, I hope it was a spoof

or a joke or whatever.

If you ask me if I've seen or heard of a thing

one more time though that you're trying to

tell us about, I'm going to reach through

a microphone and smack you.

Do it.

Anyway.

All right, we're turning our video on for this.

So they have a Lexus Dooley, a four door Dooley,

like dad's crew cab dodge.

Yeah.

I'm like, this thing can't get any more bling.

Like go buy that one.

You know, that's a hundred and eighty thousand

dollar Dooley.

Yeah.

Go buy.

Isn't a Lexus just a Toyota though?

Yeah, pretty much, but I didn't know Toyota

Toyota made Dooley's.

I don't think they do.

I don't know.

Well, they do now.

I mean, it's just an axle, right?

I know, right?

Well, so if he's a Chevy guy, he could get a H1.

Yeah, I don't know how he feels about all

electric vehicles.

I don't know.

He has a lot of strong opinions, a lot of strong

things, but anyway, I just thought it was funny.

Like, come on.

You know, you have, you're dealing with all

these known issues for this one brand.

Like, okay, yes, other brands have other

issues, right?

Ford has issues.

Toyota's have issues.

It could just be unlucky.

It could be just because honestly, you know,

knock on wood, but I've I've never owned a vehicle

that needed any of the like major factory

recalls for exploding engines and bullshit.

Right.

And not all the six twos are

granating.

They know why they're granating and it is a

very big flaw with the way the engine was designed.

Toyota had that issue a few years back too.

Right.

It's just, there was a major decline of

design flaw that was found later, basically.

Well, it's because nobody tests shit anymore.

I know.

Not to be a back on Monday, because that's

generally a bullshit statement to begin with,

but there really has been a trend away from

endurance and road testing of things into

this idea that it's better to get something out

there and we'll fix it later.

Mm hmm.

And it, you know, it comes from the electric car

world where they treat cars like beta test items

for programming.

Don't believe me.

Look at any early Tesla.

Right.

Where they're often different from car to car

how they're built, right?

Their changes were coming so quickly that

there are, you know, batches of early Teslas

that are only 100 cars deep.

They go, they only use that part on serial

number 101 through 207.

Yeah.

You know, and when you turn that kind of

general bullshittery into the most overvalued

car brand on the planet, everyone else

is going to set up and take notice.

Yeah, I mean, you're not wrong.

I mean, Tesla makes, you know, or it makes

money.

Tesla has a market share similar to the

big three and produces sub million vehicles

a year, right?

So yeah, if you can, if you can produce money

like that, because in the end, everything in

our fucking economy has turned into a private

equity venture, right?

Fuck having a good product.

The shitification of consumer goods is a real

thing, but if you can make money like

that, why wouldn't you?

Yeah.

I mean, I have strong opinions on this.

It's okay.

Opinions are good.

So where was I going with this?

What I am going to say is, I don't know where

you were going with it either.

It's interesting.

I was kind of getting along into what you

were going to say.

Like they don't test engines like they

used to anymore.

Like I love to see a new production engine

get tested Le Mans style, like go put

eight or 10 of them out on an endurance

race and see how they handle with, you

know, but they're not interested in making

an engine that lasts more than 10 years.

I know because it's not profitable.

Yes, exactly profitable.

So I'm, I don't want to see what

the theory could be the end of the

endurance just turned into crap.

The endurance testing they're doing is you

is the consumer.

They want to put an engine out that just

barely make warranty time.

They want an engine.

If they warranty it for 100,000 miles,

they want 110,000 mile engine.

Maybe 120 because some people are

going to run through them faster and

they want the car to last right about

that long and then the whole car

to fall apart.

They are engineering to fail like that

because it's cheaper to build the

product to that exact specification

to cut every corner down to there

and then sell you that product that

you also then are going to be

practically required to replace.

Right.

The cars that were overbuilt are gone.

You want an overbuilt car.

What you need to do is buy a heavier

duty vehicle and then treat it lighter

duty.

Yeah.

Right.

You need to detune your truck.

And I don't mean that literally.

I mean you need, if you feel like

you need an F-150 for F-150 jobs,

then you probably need an F-250

or an F-350 to if you're going to

buy one and keep it and to like work

with it because they're purposefully

building them down.

And that's not, I didn't mean to pick

on Ford there, everyone.

If you really want a truck that

can't do truck shit, go buy a

cyber truck.

Like here's a vehicle designed

from the get go to be bad at

truck things and everything else.

No, I don't get me started on the

stupid fucking like PS2 quality,

PS1 quality.

No, no, no.

Go off because I'm the only person

on the show that had ever advocate

for an electric vehicle.

And I can't even like look at that

one without fucking losing my shit.

There is no world in which body

panels flying off on the highway

was ever acceptable.

Ever.

There is no world in which gluing

primary body panels onto a vehicle

should have been good enough and

never for a hundred thousand dollar

luxury truck.

Like if that were the only thing

that had ever gone wrong with the

cyber truck, it should have failed

worse than the fucking Edsel.

Yep.

And it is far from the only thing

wrong.

Very, very far from the only thing

wrong.

So no, there is there is an electric

truck that I'm interested in.

And it's the new slate.

The slate.

Ah, yeah, I do the twenty

thousand dollar electric truck.

This is the exact truck I talked

about on the show six months ago.

Exactly.

That hadn't even been announced

then.

Right.

But it's just an electric drive

train.

It doesn't even have a fucking

radio.

Exactly.

You put that shit in yourself.

Bare bones.

It has rolled down.

It has manual windows.

Yes.

This is the exact electric

truck I want.

It is it is the small mini

truck size of the old Toyota

pickups, the old two wheel drive

Toyota pickups.

It has, you know, the full

six foot bed.

It's got, you know, not a full

it's not a long bed, right?

It's but it's got a the full

short bed, not the the fucking

in short and short bed you get

out in a fucking four door

F-150 with four feet of goddamn

bed.

Yes.

You have an actual short bed

that's big enough to push it in.

There's the little pass through

in the back that even opens up

some more in the cab.

Like it's just got basic

truck shit.

It doesn't even come in

colors.

Exactly.

It's gray.

It comes in gray and they

say, please feel free to wrap

it.

We'll even wrap it for you

at a dealership level, but

it doesn't come in any fucking

colors because it's cheaper

to do it all in one plastic.

And we're just going to pass

that price on to you so we can

use a better fucking plastic.

Pretty much like, you know,

I haven't seen one.

I would love to test drive a

slate.

If you're listening guys, if

anyone's listening to our tiny

little show, I will beat the

shit out of one for you, not

whistland diesel style.

I'll just take one and do

truck stuff for a while.

Yeah.

I got to go haul this the

thing around for, you know,

a couple of days.

Like I got plenty of truck shit

to do in a truck that size.

I own a truck that size.

I just did truck shit with a

yesterday.

I got a bunch of gravel.

I got a haul in like, let me

let me beat one up for you and

see how it runs because this

is exactly the kind of vehicle

that I think we need that

there's a segment of the market

that really needs, right?

It's never going to work for

Woodchuck.

That's not the truck for you.

Right.

You're nowhere.

You need a four-wheel drive

truck.

You're out in the middle of

nowhere, the closest, you

know, the closest real

population center.

I mean, you're in a little one,

right?

But you're in an actual town.

You're in a little bitty

village.

Yeah.

Population in about 500.

Right.

It is a term they use out

West, but, you know, out on

the East Coast, they'd call

that a village, right?

Yeah.

Population 500.

It's a tiny place.

You need to be able to get

to a big town and back

without stopping to recharge.

Right.

Yeah.

Right.

Well, it's never your,

it's not your use case though,

but most people driving

trucks don't have your use case

evidenced by the fact that

most people don't live

where you live.

Yes.

No, 100%.

You know, and our big towns

here in Wyoming are still

small towns, most everywhere

else.

It's 100 miles to our next

big town and that's got a

population of 25,000.

Your big city is a small

city.

Yes.

I mean, that's just,

that's Wyoming, right?

It's the least populous state

in the entire nation.

Yep.

So it just is.

That's okay.

That's Wyoming.

It's good for Wyoming.

And you have a different

truck need, right?

And that's fine.

But that truck,

that the, the truck that

you need out there is pretty

much what they sell the dream

of in the ads.

Like you do most of that

truck shit for reasonable,

reasonably often.

Yep.

Like a regular commute

for you might entail

four wheel drive.

Yes.

In the snow.

That's not an uncommon thing

for you because it's

where you live.

Yeah.

I drive off the pavement

every day.

Right.

So this is a normal,

you know, you need

that level of truck.

Great.

That level of truck

needs to exist.

Not debating that it doesn't

like at no point,

right?

Mm hmm.

I live in a small city

and I have a four wheel

drive vehicle that I take

into the woods,

but I don't need that

to be my truck either.

A Jeep is a great

size for what I need.

I like my Jeep.

I need a truck for

occasional truck stuff.

You know,

it just that's what I need.

You know, I haul lumber

from the local

the local lumber yards here

and hardware stores here.

Gravel.

Let's say gravel lumber.

I picked up a bunch of pallets

for the wife the other day

because she's making like

compost bins out of pallets.

Mm hmm.

That's what she wants.

So I would pick up a bunch

of broke pallets

need a truck for that.

The Jeep isn't going to work.

Right.

Uh, but you know,

I move a toolbox from

one job to another.

That kind of thing.

There's all kinds of reasons

I need to pick up

even if it's not my everyday

vehicle.

And the small pickup,

the small form factor pickup

works well for me.

I don't need the truck

bed to be five feet off

the ground.

That's about as useless

as a useful thing

can get to me.

Right.

I want that deck clearance

to be two feet.

I'll load shit in it

without lifting it

without doing a deadlift

over my head.

Yeah, exactly.

Right.

When I move a washing machine,

it's much easier to lift it

two feet than it is to lift

it four and a half,

which I'll be doing next week.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Right.

And just a lot of times

I'm just guy with truck.

Right.

Amongst friends,

I'm the guy with the truck.

So my truck gets lent out

and I go in.

Oftentimes I go with it.

Help people move

and do all of that regular stuff.

Well,

none of that requires me

to have a four wheel drive

lifted truck

or anything fancy.

I just need a truck

to be a utility vehicle.

Just hence the slate.

Yeah, I agree.

I completely agree

with where they want to go

with this truck.

And it's, you know,

and it won't be the truck

for everyone.

No,

but it will be the truck

for a lot of people

and I think that's good.

And with where

it also converts to SUV.

Yes, with where they want

the automotive entry

to go also

an electric vehicle starting

at $20,000

an affordable electric vehicle.

Yeah.

I mean, it's pretty slick.

Yeah.

That's where Tesla began.

It's it's idea

and I don't know

what Tesla's are.

No, they never did.

The initially he said

no, they were about $30,000

when they first came out.

That is 100% not true.

Oh, that was the model three

was the first vehicle

they released as an affordable

vehicle as anything

other than a luxury vehicle.

And that was the fourth model

or the third model

released.

Yeah.

Okay.

100% was not was not

what Tesla started.

There was a goal there

to make one affordable.

Elon says a lot of things

in his ketamine fueled haze.

I I'm leaving politics

out of this.

Okay.

At some point

there was an effort,

but I'm just calling him an idiot.

I he can come

what I buy our show

and I'll cry with his money.

Shut your.

What I'm saying is

there needs to be

that and needs to be

and a good affordable

electric vehicle.

You know, the actual

bearing of what the slate is

is yet to be out

since it's not out yet.

But it's premise is solid.

It's spare bones.

It's it's electric is

there's going to be very little

on it for it to

actually cause a problem

like what Tesla's have.

Right.

There's so much extra

shit on it that it all

breaks all the time

and these updates

all the time.

It needs all the time.

If you just strip it down

to what it's what it is.

Great.

You're going to have less issues.

So it's four million dollars

to buy the show.

Elon

will never post another one.

So

one million a piece

that would that do it for you,

Steve?

I you heard no argument here.

Right.

Okay.

Just make it sure.

Yeah.

And the other thing is

I think that's a

a form factor.

That's not the right word.

It's

it's a segment

that a lot of people want.

They want a bare bones car

to get from A to B

and they don't want to pay

forty thousand dollars for it.

Absolutely.

Look how many geometros

are still on the road.

No.

Yeah.

Right.

There there is a market

place

that there is a market niche

for

sorry about that.

There is a market niche for

those small

low

low cost of entry vehicles.

Mm hmm.

Exactly.

And

and completely independent of

whether it's gasoline or electric.

Right.

You know, and at this point

it's like broke college students

going I need to get to class.

I need to get home

and I need to get to work.

I need to be reliable

and I needed to work

every time I get in it.

Yeah.

So I don't mind dealing with

discomfort.

I just I don't have a lot of

money, but I do have

A to B needs.

Right.

Exactly.

And

any way you dice it.

The United States is not moving

away from a car centric culture.

You're right.

More public transportation would be

great.

More accessibility

for lots of things would be awesome.

And you know, I'm all about some of

those things.

I think they're I think they're good.

But that's not going to change the way

our infrastructure was designed

or how most of our nation is laid out.

So we're going to remain

a vehicle centric

culture

for

you know, the foreseeable future.

Yeah, three, three, four generations

that, you know,

even if you had a concentrated effort

to get away from it,

three or four generations

of vehicle centric culture.

Easy.

And I am not advocating

for going away from it.

I like cars.

I don't think

and I know this is an

unpopular opinion in the car world

because I voiced it

and I have gotten feedback.

I don't think all cars need to

be internal combustion engines.

The internal combustion engine

is not to be all and all

of the vehicle world.

Heretic.

I know, right?

The internal combustion engine,

however,

should not go away.

We need it

for the kind of work we do.

Like they're never going to make

at least not in my lifetime

or the next couple

an electric heavy lift helicopter.

Ain't going to fuck it happen.

That would be funny.

Right.

So

I'd be so far away from that thing.

Yeah, me too.

Well, and on time schedules,

even if one did exist,

which again,

it doesn't,

but then if it has to be down

for five hours to recharge,

that's that's a deal breaker

because we'd have a battery system

for it, man.

We'd be fucking

they'd be faster than M 18s

to get in and out

if we had work to do.

That's just, you know,

that's what we do.

Even if it were an involved

process,

we would fucking pair that

shit down to the bare minimum

and get it get it working

again.

Yes, because they're not pleasure

machines, right?

They're working tools.

Yeah, you can do that

as an industrial

company,

essentially, right?

Right.

Somebody at home

cannot remove

a 4,000 pound battery

and throw another one in

to get the last 200 miles

of their trip.

So it's not useful in that sense.

Right.

Long range.

I mean

DC the superfast

or the megawatt DC fast charging.

Is the thing that's happening now?

Toyota has a new

supercapacitance style battery

that's coming out in the very near future

that can do an 80 percent charge

in like five minutes.

Wow.

Yeah.

So with use,

the technology will evolve.

We live in a time where

20 years ago,

this was unheard of.

What we have now

was barely

you could barely conceive

of what we've got right now.

I mean,

smartphones didn't exist

20 years ago.

It would be another year

before the first iPhone came out.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

So,

I mean,

the pace at which

the technology is changing

is mind boggling,

right?

So as we continue

to use electric vehicles,

the more use case there is,

the faster the technology

will evolve and change

and turn into something

more useful.

The majority of people

using cars

probably need to be using a lot,

you know,

would probably be better served

by electric cars.

The number of cars

that travel more than 200 miles

on a single run

is pretty low.

Yeah.

I doubt it's even in

like,

and I'm talking about

consumer cars here, right?

Not commercial vehicles

of any kind.

Is probably sub

10 percent.

I agree with that.

So the number of people

that wouldn't be able

to charge a vehicle

is probably pretty low.

That said,

you know,

a measurable percentage,

including people like

Woodchuck could never make

do with an electric vehicle.

The all the all electric

ideal is so far

in the future that

it might as well not exist.

The the electric

the gas, electric hybrid,

the all electric drive

train,

gas generated cars

are probably in the future.

And all the ones

that I've seen

are really fucking cool.

Like go look at the

at the medium duty truck swaps

that Tesla Motors is doing

or Tesla Edison Motors

is doing up in Canada.

All right.

I'm not talking about

their semi-rigs.

They're doing pickups.

They're doing like

one and one and a half ton

pickups as conversions

with diesel generators

and electric drivetrains.

Yeah.

Well, they're all right

to repair, fix it yourself.

Like cool shit.

Those are in the pipeline.

It still isn't going to replace

sometimes just having a diesel truck

or a hot rod

or just something fucking cool.

Yeah.

Well, and that hybrid

that is a very proven model.

Right.

Almost all locomotives

all industrial equipment

are electric motors

powered by diesel generators.

Oh, yeah.

It's a system that works.

And honestly, it's a good system.

Yeah.

Using electric motors is torque.

Great.

Yeah.

And electric motors

are reasonably low maintenance

compared to an internal combustion engine.

And if you can run

an internal combustion engine

only at its ideal power range

and only need a fixed power.

Oh, yeah.

You know, at a fixed output,

the damn things run forever.

Like it's it's changing speeds

and turning motors on and off

that kills motors.

And even that,

we've gotten really fucking good at making.

So I mean,

there's potential here.

Like there's shit that

can be done and should be done.

Again, with the no politics,

I'm not going to get into,

you know, regulations and things like that.

I don't I don't agree with.

But as far as on the consumer end,

man, a lot more consumers

should be on board and excited

about some of the shit

that's just really cool.

They could just make better vehicles.

I know that there

we're worried about

what feature it has

versus how long it's going to fucking last.

There is a lot of truth to that.

Mm hmm.

Like,

well, and there's a large

there's a large segment of the population too.

That's just straight up.

You can't take what I've got.

Fuck you, you know,

that's resistant to change.

And that's your innovation

gets stuck between a rock and a hard place there.

You get people that are only interested in which bell

or whistle this thing has

and not how long it lasts.

I'm only going to do a two year lease on this.

And then you get the other segment that's like,

no, any change is bad change.

Yeah.

And, you know,

I see why the innovation is stifled, right?

And then you add fucking stupid regulations on top of it.

Like we all know

why the small truck is dead, right?

The government killed it.

It's not a conspiracy theory.

The cafe standards literally made it impossible to make a small truck.

So your Toyota Tacoma now

is bigger than an 80s F 250.

That's true.

Yep.

Anyways, I'm done.

I think we should all be done.

I think we had a lot of deep thoughts and well, yeah.

I have strong, loud opinions on some vehicle things.

I got I ate the the orange and the bright orange crayon today.

So I had some some bright ideas.

Leave it to the firefighters.

I love it.

All right.

Do not send us your pictures of your ultra light helicopters.

No, absolutely.

We'll talk about them.

We'll laugh at you.

Okay.

Hey, Mel goes to train.

Ultra light pictures goes to lefty and send your trailer queens

your barn finds your weekend racers to B squad.

This is what Chuck.

This is train.

And this is lefty for B squad hot rod.

As what happened goes, sorry, I cut out for B squad hot rod

because a squad has their tech shit engaged.

If you want to help us out, subscribe and review us on your

podcast app of choice.

Don't find us on social media.

We're on Facebook and Twitter at B squad hot rod.

Also emails go to host at B squad hot rod dot com.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

I went on a big long rant there, but also kind of not sorry

because it was not entirely off topic.

I don't think I'm true though.

Yeah, no, I started it.

I did.

I started it.

I'll take that, but I've never ever heard you be sorry for

going on a rant before once in a while.

It does happen.

I'm just confused.

That's all.

Yeah.

So anyway, there you go.

Oh, Nick, have you heard?

Yeah.

Next time I see you, I'm gonna slap you.

You won't even know it's coming.

Yeah.

0331 - Sketchy Hot Rods in the Sky adn Big Jeeps for Little People

Jeep Wrangler

Ford F150

Ford F350

Toyota Tacoma

About this episode

Original notes