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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
About this episode
A lively discussion unfolds around a Craigslist ad for a dangerously sketchy home-built helicopter, sparking debates about ultralight aviation and the risks involved. The hosts share their thoughts on the absurdity of such DIY projects while transitioning into car-related topics, including a new Jeep purchase and the challenges of working on an older diesel truck. The episode also features product reviews, engine issues with new vehicles, and a deep dive into the evolving landscape of electric vehicles, highlighting the need for affordable options in the market.