Horsepower is a way to measure how powerful an engine is. It tells you how fast the engine can make the car go. It's often compared to torque, which is about how strong the engine is.
BFG KO2s are a type of tire made by BFGoodrich that are good for driving on rough terrains and off-road conditions. They help vehicles grip the ground better when driving on dirt or rocks.
Traction control is a system in cars that helps keep the wheels from spinning too much when it's slippery, like on snow or ice. It helps the car stay stable and not slide around.
Four high is a setting in some cars that lets all four wheels get power, helping the car drive better on slippery ground, like snow. It's good for going faster while still having traction.
The 'Cherokee break' is when a Jeep Cherokee gets too hot while driving, and you need to stop and let it cool down. Sometimes, you might even need to open the hood to check if everything is okay.
The Jeep Cherokee is a type of SUV that is built for both driving on regular roads and off-road adventures. It's known for being tough and able to handle rough terrain, which makes it popular among people who like outdoor activities. Sometimes, people talk about it getting too hot when driving, which is something to keep an eye on.
Wheeling is when people take their off-road vehicles onto rough paths or trails. It's a fun way to see how well the vehicle can handle tough conditions.
The Jeep YJ is a type of Jeep Wrangler made between 1987 and 1995. It's popular for off-roading and has a distinctive boxy look with square headlights.
The Jeep TJ is a newer version of the Jeep Wrangler made from 1997 to 2006. It has a more rounded shape and is designed to be better for off-roading and driving on regular roads.
The Jeep JK is the latest version of the Jeep Wrangler made from 2007 to 2018. It has more modern features and is built to handle tough off-road conditions.
Car
Jeep CJ7
The Jeep CJ7 is an older model of Jeep that people often use for off-roading. It's known for being tough and able to handle rough terrain.
The Jeep CJ is an older model of Jeep that was made from 1944 to 1986. It's known for being tough and great for off-roading, and it helped create the Jeep Wrangler we see today.
The Tesla Model Y is a modern electric car that looks like a small SUV. It can drive long distances without needing gas, which is good for the environment. People talk about it because it shows how cars are changing to be more eco-friendly and high-tech.
Small block Chevy engines are a type of V8 engine made by Chevrolet. They're often used in many cars and are popular for upgrading older vehicles because they're easy to find and modify.
A four-cylinder engine is a type of engine that has four cylinders. These engines are usually smaller and more fuel-efficient, making them common in many cars.
The LS is a type of V8 engine made by General Motors. It's popular because it's powerful and can be found in many cars, making it easier to find and cheaper to buy.
A V8 engine has eight cylinders arranged in a V shape, which helps it produce more power. It's commonly used in larger vehicles like trucks and performance cars.
Easter Jeep Safari is a fun gathering for Jeep lovers where they drive their vehicles on special trails in Utah. It's a chance to enjoy nature and show off their cool cars.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a bigger SUV that combines comfort and the ability to drive off-road. It has a lot of features that make it nice to drive, whether you're on the highway or exploring rough trails. People often mention it because it's a popular choice for families and adventure seekers alike.
The Ford Model T is a very old car that was made a long time ago, starting in 1908. It was important because it was one of the first cars that many people could afford, which changed how people traveled and lived. When people talk about it, they often remember how it changed the world of cars.
LIVE
SFJ 4x4 Studios presents
In my oversized four-wheel drive Jeep
A Jeep podcast starring industry experts
Cure monocity
What? Say that again!
With mad scientist Scott Brown
I use my drill press as a sort of lathe
Our host, Neil Simpson
If one light goes on they all go out
Phil Bruce and Annie
We are really professional with Jeeps
This is I-Speak Jeep
You
You
You
You
You
Good morning, afternoon, evening
Wherever, however, you are joining us
This is the I-Speak Jeep podcast
Presented by SFJ4x4.com
My name is Neil
It is 2026 people
And it is 2026
And to quote the savage
This is what growth feels like
Yeah, uncomfortable
Change, change is hard
Which actually will be fitting
For today's topic
Which is do Jeepers still Jeep together?
And as I said, my name is Neil
And I'm obviously with
Simpson Family Jeeps SFJ4x4.com
I'm sure of that
I'm sure of it
And I am joined in Grandma's couch studio
By the guy that won't leave
The mad scientist Scott Brown
And Jeff is out rushing children
Around to hospitals
Which actually is par for the course
For the Shira Montes
They should have a frequent flyer card
Especially for the middle one
So while we wish them the best with that
And so we are down the man
As Nathan was saying
And so we have some comments coming in
So I'm doing my best
He's doing all things
He's on Grandma's couch
So those of you who are listening
In your ear holes at a
At a ladder date
Or only ever join us through a streaming
You know, through your favorite streaming
Podcast platform
Jeffrey and I typically sit together
On Grandma's couch and he would do
The production value from the one side
Closest to the computer
And then our on-screen monitor
And we are making, you know
History today
Sorry, I had to think about what the word
Is because we have never done
A podcast, sans Jeff
We have done it without Neil before
And it crashed and burned
So we have, you know
We have low, low hanging fruit
To succeed over this
But this is a first that Jeff
Is actually not here, so
Yeah, so there are some
Comments, do I know how to read them?
Not really
Alright, that's good enough
Just take the mic out and just, you know
Pretend you're
Free
Phones are fall, I should be able to go
Between Jeff's mic
And my mic, so we've got
Nathan, he's first, saying good morning
He's also encouraging somebody
To wake Joe up, so he doesn't miss
The show, I think I saw Joe out
Wheeling this weekend
Doing some recovery
Also saw Rob Morgan out playing
So he says good morning
Billy Joe, good morning
It's another cold one, it sure is
Absolutely
Morning from Rob Seaman
Bill McWilliams was out getting
Recovered this weekend, I saw
I personally am under the impression that
Bill McWilliams made it about 15 feet
Onto the trailhead and then immediately
Had to get snatched out, but
That's just what the social media story was
Bill says good morning
Nathan, down a man this morning
Eric Elliott, good morning gentlemen
Bill McWilliams, we stretched
The YJ over the weekend
With a zombie rope
Did you stretch
The YJ
Or the rope?
Depending on the shape of the YJ
You could do both
Not thinking the YJ
The YJ might not be in the best
Of shape at this point
Joe, Brian, God help us
Neil trying to be the producer
Believe me Joe
I feel every bit of that concern
Yvonne, have a great morning
And Bill says true story
Absolutely
Not a confirm nor deny
The state of the YJ
On their wheeling experience
But I believe that they did
Only make it down
A few feet of it
That coverage you can find
On Daddy Jeep
Rob Morgan's social pages
I'm here for
The facilitation of the Jeep community
Which is in part
What we're going to be talking about
Ourselves
And sharing is caring
As far as
Blowing into clubs
Going out wheeling, different events
And those are the things we're going to be unpacking
For today's program
Now
As a value added
Experience
We're going to be doing our best to muddle through
Those of you who are listening
At the later date, you too can join us
And see in
Lifetime the chaos that
Is
Me attempting to sit in both seats
Figuratively and literally
And
Most Mondays at 10.19am
Now
Jeffrey was intending
To continue to sow the seed
Of he has a potential big announcement
I need everyone to know this was not it
This was authentically
His child got sick over the weekend
As I know a number of people did
But
The peculiarity of his
Conditions and symptoms
They need to just go to that next level of care
And they were able
In an expedited fashion
Yes, in an expedited fashion
And so Jeffrey ran out of here
To go provide care for his family
So best of luck to them
I am intending to do
A two-minute takeaway
I couldn't help myself
I want, you know, folks
To be conscientious of a couple things
For
A long time, if you
Friend me or follow me
On the social page
I am going to pay attention to you
I need you to know that, right?
I mean, it's fascinating
Yeah, it's fascinating how many people
Think that they just want to
You know, they think it's not reciprocal
Per se
Right, so
I'm going to know what's going on in your world
Likewise, I am in all of these different
Clubs and
Social pages for a myriad
Of peculiar topics
Recognizing most recently
When I was explaining to somebody
And I got long-winded
Go figure, regarding
Undercoding procedures
And the fact that I'm actually in a
Were you impassioned?
I am impassioned
I was in this impassioned conversation
I could see this individual's eyes glaze over
And I realized that
It's a weird feeling, isn't it?
Yeah, you know, that I was talking about
Kind of, you know, how you effectively
Use, you know, Woolwax or fluid film
Or NH oil or
You know, Crown or Croyol
Pick your poison, right?
Mm-hmm
So
With all of that said
I'm going to do my two-minute takeaway
This was part of it
I was recently in a page
Where, you know, there were some folks
Out there talking about
Winter wheeling
And this is
I'm going to say this with my whole chest
And
I need people to understand winter wheeling
And it tracks similarly
To wheeling in the muck
In the mire and whatnot
It is my belief
You should not be in for low
Mm-hmm
Likewise, you should not have your lockers on
If you find yourself
In an opportunity where you're going out to do
Well, unless you want the plant to jeep
Solidly wherever it is
Then low and lock her away
Because it will be there
It will just dig itself
To China
To China
And, you know
I watched this conversation transpire
And I just thought to myself
I wanted to engage
And I thought, no, it's just another
I'm just another guy with an opinion
On the internet, right? But I'm not
Because I've got decades of experience
And I understand how these
All these things tie together
And the problem is when you go to a
Facilitated wheeling event
Mm-hmm
They encourage you to go
In low range and turn on your
Attraction devices if you have them
Which is not right
And I understand the reason
You do that is because
Of exposure to risk
And liability
You're less likely to
Mar a trail if you're not
If you're spinning your tires and whatnot
They're either going to make it
Or they're stuck
It's pretty cut and dry
And in those situations, those events always
Have a crew of happy jeepers
Ready to go and
Recover anyone that might
Possibly be stuck
So honestly, it's a win-win in their situation
They get to recover
Stuck people and
They don't mar up the trail
And things kind of move along
Now when you're snow wheeling
And you maybe are off by yourselves
And help is not
In your back pocket
You don't want to get stuck immediately
Correct
Because it's cold
And now you've exposed yourself to some dangers
And
I can attest
We've been wheeling a long time
And we're not
The average dummy
And I have had my butt handed
To me by winter wheeling
More than once
So much so
Because I'm just a huge risk taker
I won't even do it anymore
It just totally is a new dynamic
It's a completely changed dynamic
Everything you thought you knew about wheeling
Wad it up and throw it out the window
It is a whole different experience
Your setup doesn't work like it used to
And I have been the guy
That's gone in the trail all happy
And then spent six to eight hours
To get out of that trail
Because, and we're not talking like
I went and had fun either
We got in, we slid down a hill
And now we work the rest of the day
To get back up the hill
At great expense
Of straps and time and effort
And gasoline and winching and breaking things
And then I've also
You know, slid backwards
Down a trail
May had to
Get out of the Jeep after that one
And clean out some shorts
So at this point
Somebody's like, hey, you want to go winter wheeling
Nah, man, I'm good
I'm just going to dry it back for the work
So, and I
Would be inclined to go still
But that's obviously the difference between us
And I'll end up barefoot
And my boots off and
Doing what I do with no heat
Or whatever, but
I saw this interaction online
And I need to break this down
In general, right? For people who are
Inspired to do this
When you are in low range
The mechanical advantage
Of the
The energy
Produced by your drive line
Is applied as
Torque
It's excited
Torque
I'm having a hard time
Going between the comments
I want to read the comments
Because I don't know who said this
But it's a fantastic statement
But I'm going to finish my
So, torque
Is
And I'm not going to get into like torque
And horsepower and all that kind of stuff
But realistically
When you are in
A mucky situation
Where you have like
A lot of lubricity
Of sorts
And say like a snotty
Muddy clay area
Or snow and ice
That just means
That your tires are going to break
Free faster
So torque equals
Tyres breaking free
Faster
That's why often times if you're a manual
You might actually find yourself if
Wheeling in low, you might find yourself
Starting in third gear
Or rowing the gears
In a different manner
Lockers and low is for
Low
Slow grippy situations
Because otherwise your tires are going to break free
So when you tell me that you got stuck
In low range and lockers on
I know that you're not actually
Experienced in wheeling
Nor do you know how the environment changes
That scenario
Likewise, you want to
And obviously if low and lockers are on
Your traction control is off
But if you're an individual
Who does not have these things
And why I actually read this interaction
And I started to see how it plays out
And obviously then we started just
Being a bunch of monkeys throwing poo
Because there was a bunch of accusations and stuff
I end up going out to one of my properties
Where it's like two, three feet
I'm in my wife's jeep
As much as I've told you guys
It's a mall crawler, it's on BFG
KO2s
They're honestly not my best BFG
KO2s, I've got betters
In my repertoire
But these were
Easier
This was easier, they were already mounted on wheels
I threw them on, they're about 60%
BFG KO2 tread life
I turned on my traction control
I was in four high
And I easily traversed through
At least two foot of snow
In these little grades
Up and down grades
And the thing is, you need to be able to
Clean out your tires
Because you need to be grabbing
The tread needs to be cleared out
And grab the next bit of
Traction gaining material
That it can
There are then some
Kind of minutia
Or idiosyncratic things that you should be doing
While wheeling in
These types of conditions
But I can assure you low range
And lockers is not it
That'll actually load up the tires
They won't be able to spin out
To clean out sufficiently
And so ultimately my encouragement
To people is
As you're enjoying the weather
You know, and the 4B4
Is that we drive
Four high for snow wheeling purposes
To the best of your ability
Traction control off
If you are a person who's not in a jeep
And you find yourself stuck
Turn your traction control off to get unstuck
And you should have your friends with jeeps on speed dial
100%
100%
There's my two minute takeaway
And I'd love to
You know, people who want to
Reach out to the program and email us
A contact at SFJ 4B4
Tell me about your winter experiences
And what your tips and tricks are
Or you can jump in the comments
I'm going to switch over to Jeff's here
Because
We've got
Billy Joe weighing in on Bill McWilliams
Saying we definitely got stuck
A lot
It was a blast, it was cold enough
That the fire didn't want to burn
We went back to Rob's to cook
That's why you got to cook things
On the manifold of your jeep
When you're winter wheeling
Tinfoil and you know, cans of beans
Tinfoil and mortar oil
What?
What are you talking about? I'm talking about cooking
Warming up food
Yeah, on the manifold, so it's right next to the leaky valve cover
That you have
If you've got enough tinfoil
It's not going to matter
Jock of jeepers, good morning
And
Bradford is on
Saying
Good sunshine
Morning, good morning to you Bradford
Nathan, when Neil says
Decades of experience
Why do I always picture an old man shouting at the clouds?
I mean
He's not wrong
At this point
And we're going to talk about that
As far as the social piece is concerned
Today
Is I think that
And I'll expand upon why I feel this way
But Nathan's not wrong
Rob Morgan, I was struggling and overheating in high range
The old
WJ was working too hard
Breaking trail for low was absolutely
Necessary
We'll give Rob a pass because
He knows what he's doing
And he's equipped to handle
What he gets himself into
And that's fair
There's always an exception to the rule
Always
And that's exactly right
There is a process
To it
My
Rub
Of sorts and of course I have no idea
What that Rob was doing
Because that's obvious
That we run into doing parades
What sounds absolutely ridiculous
I will introduce Rob to a new concept though
Called the Cherokee break
When the Cherokee is getting warm
You need to take a break
The Jeep is asking for a rest
You may or may not have to open your hood
If you'll see
Other Cherokees with their hoods open
It is time to go see them on the Cherokee break
And spread that Jeep love
God I remember taking Cherokee breaks
That was our primary
Wheeling
I love it
Geography Jeepers we did a recovery class this weekend
We all got stuck on purpose to show
Recovery techniques
That's very cool, I wonder where that was
Joe O'Brien, winner of Wheeling
Is a totally different animal, agreed
Ken Cusher, good morning, checking in
Bill Williams, I am that guy, no locker
33 inch
Tires, YJ running behind daddy Jeep
Breaking trail
Nathan says
Old man comment was
Meant with all due respect
No it wasn't
That's okay
I can both
Dish it and take it
I have a thick enough skin folks, I'm not worried
So
With that, the nature of the old man
Common, I've recently come to the realization
At least this is my
Generalized talking point that
In the grand scheme of the world
We are
Not exactly those old men
That
Oftentimes people see getting into business
In fact when I started
The company, people would show up
And they'd ask for my dad
Thinking that was
And we were young, we couldn't know
Anything
Really old souls
Unfortunately
What you see is what you get
But the big thing with
Us specifically
Is the fact that we haven't
Changed what we're interested in
And that's something that I've
We've doubled down
That there's a realization
That I've shared with people
As much as I fancy
The idea of
The side-by-side and ATV
Market, and you recently had a utility
One that was just kind of a fun
For you
And we ultimately talk about our six weeks
Of interest, right?
This is an air quotes fun distraction
To learn something that we all like
To continue to learn
And expand our
Our knowledge base
But then you have your main
What you come back to
Our main meat and potatoes, right?
Whereas what business has taught us
Is there's a lot of people
Who have
Known about jeeps, they thought jeeps were cool
But they never kind of fit in their lifestyle
So then they want to dip their toes in
And let's try the six weeks
And either they're going to do their six weeks
And be like, oh that was fun, deuces
Or we're going to double down
And we're going to reinvest
And they get really invested
Of sorts, and there are people
Who maybe will
Start an enterprise
And they'll run it for four or five
Years, and as you said
They're kind of double down in that
But then they get out of it entirely
And they move on to something else
I feel like I can reasonably
At liberty talk about this individual
We had
A customer acquaintance that I got to know
Pretty well
And at one point in life
He was really really into
Logging, like actual forestry
Logging, then he
Switched to
Dog training
And actually opened up a kennel
And a boarding and dog training facility
And he
Kind of shoved that off to the side
And he got really big into slot cars
Like
Really really big into slot cars
And that tracked for a couple years
And then he got really big into Harleys
And then back into dogs
And then into Jeeps
And so his interest base
And he gets really really heavily
Overly excitedly invested
For a period of time
And then he transitions
Whereas you and I
Just muddle through
Just continually
We're also those weird people
That kind of don't
Get enough of it
We literally eat, sleep, drink
And I find that so peculiar because again
I go home and I hang out on the same
Social pages of the stuff that I'm literally
Customer service talking to people
Of what I'm literally physically touching the Jeep on
We work on Jeeps all day
And go home and look at groups
Of people talking about Jeeps
And trucks and trailers
And videos of Jeeps
Yeah, you know
So to say that
Do Jeepers still Jeep together
The concept that we were sharing to elaborate upon today
Was yet again on another social page
There was some folks who were reminiscing
About what I might call the
Good old days
For them it was the good old days
Absolutely
And what this was
Was the
What I think we can call the JK boom
Okay
And
Specifically it was notable
That
This individual had addressed basically
2016 to 20
Or 21-ish, right? Somewhere in there
I don't remember where it trailed off
And I think it's important to note
That at 2016
We are roughly
10 or so years
Into the JK production
But by 2016 it started to get it stride
The ultimate came out in 15
We actually just went over that
With me and Davey this morning
Got to throw that tidbit in there
You had a lot of
The ultimate axle you're saying?
You had a lot of redevelopment
And doubling down with the companies
That were specific to JKs
You had the greatest lift kits made
All that kind of stuff
So you were in the thick of it
You could get any part you sort of desired
And for us
We've kind of
Rode this train
For a while so we've seen
The catalogs come and go
And the part availability
Come and go
We remember looking at
Catalogs and books when we were kids
That it was all CJ
And some YJ stuff
And then it doubled down on YJs
And then the TJ came out
And we heard all these people
Oh my, it's going to
Change the industry and it's going to
Change my experience and it did
But that became the norm
And then the JK came out
And it was the same thing like the TJ
When it came out, oh it's the new thing
I don't know what I feel about this
And then it changed the industry
So some people
Continue on
And just keep
Hopping from wave to wave and keep climbing
And some people
Decide to stay
In their wave that they're in
And they double down
And they will have a YJ for the rest of their life
And that is the best Jeep they ever made
And the crazy part is
It's always my job to come back
To the horse and buggy
I just want you to know, two fold
One, I threw up in my mouth
When you said that you would even remotely
The
Utter the words that the YJ was
The best Jeep that was ever made
Well, for two seconds it was
And then the TJ came out
And it was just blown off the floor
I think I have a crick in my neck now
All of a sudden, like a pain
Shoot through the back of my brain
And this is an individual whose own multiple YJs
Ah, glutton for punishment
Anyway, everyone feels
The era they're kind of born into
Sure
And we've had
Willis guys did this
Or Willis guys, whatever you want to be
CJ guys did this
There was a time when
A CJ7 was
The pretty Jeep and
You weren't a real Jeeper because now it's not
Stick and there's
Comforts and stuff like that
And now we're at the point where people are
You know, a fair amount of
CJ7 is a real Jeep
Why would you ever need
You know, a V8 and a CJ
Yes, that was a thing
Absolutely
And so
Times
Times change
And a little bit people
Kind of don't, you know what I mean
And I'm with you entirely
The other piece that I would add
Is that with the
Changing of the guard
If you are ingrained in a
Particular model
You have a hard time seeing the value
In the new
Generation, the new iteration
And you will have people
That will be a model year behind
Recently had a customer call in
And he has
Road the TJ train
As long and hard as he can
And being in our climate
The TJs are
Falling apart on them
And now he's starting to think about the JK
Starting
To think
We are 19 years removed from the first
JK production
Yes, so now he is
Flirting with the idea of replacing his
TJ with the JK
And I'm sure this had been
A long process for him
And part of me wanted to be
Like just jump over the JK
And buy a JL
But that's too
Too risky, yes
That's just crazy
We got to stick with what we know
We already have things about the JK
That are too different than the TJ
So it's a culture shock
And those small baby steps
Yes, and so
I think that it's valuable
To kind of paint this picture
And I like to approach it
In the sense that
Despite the infighting
Despite the commentary of
How you should wheel, how you should recover
Because there are always going to be
Exceptions and rules
There are always going to be a degree of
Give and take
That Jeepers come back together
And are unified
Across cultures
Across
Interests, across models
Under this
Singular
Cultural brand
Lifestyle and identity
Right, and I think that
That is really, really fascinating to me
And the piece that
I get really excited about
Which is
Realistically, a lot of people
Want to talk
We get back to the YJ
And things start to get a little fuzzy
Because people who saw relevancy
Between the CJ and the YJ
And the TJ
Have kind of largely shifted gears
And maybe left the community
There's fewer and fewer of those
But between the TJ
People who are hopelessly devoted to the TJ
And then the JK and now the JL
We really see this kind of
This
Whole investment
I am into my model
We've seen a transition
Where at one time everyone's daily
Was a TJ
And then you had the new kids on the block
With the JK and well I can't
Afford that payment or I can't justify
Paying that kind of money
And beating the crap out of it
But then you get to a point where the TJs
Are starting to get long in the tooth
Where they don't make sense
For a daily anymore
So now they're kind of shifting
Into toy status
On a major
Cultural
Shift
Where yes you're going to have
Some guys that are going to double down
A TJ
But for the majority of the
Experience
Where that is now your summer vehicle
That is your wheeler
We've seen CJs go that way
We see CJs go that way
I feel like we saw the XJ go that way
You've got either
Great awesome XJs
Or absolute clapped out
Trash boxes
The middle of the
Blowny sandwich is shrinking
Severely we have the bottom
Bun and the top bun
And the bottom is in the middle is a vacuum
Right
And TJs are sort of there as well
Where we have these people that are like
Hey I found this little mileage
Rolling nice one, I'm going to take care of it
I'm going to go get ice cream
And then you have the ones that are just built
Like as a weapon
As a purpose
And they're going to go out and wheel that thing
And they're going to use it
But again that may not be their go to for their daily
Kind of for example
Rob is a perfect example
His YJ, could he drive it every day
Yeah, Neil Wood
Oh yeah, and a heartbeat
But he has
His
Nolly escalating
That he doesn't have to
And that's how it helps that
Situation make sense
And so kind of
This ebb and flow, this natural progression
I think it's valuable to go back
And understand that
The earliest CJs
And I made that V8 reference
The earliest CJs were glorified tractors
The manner in which they were marketed
To U.S. domestic markets
Is that they were a utilitarian vehicle
To help you on the farm
Optionally had a top
Optionally had doors and
Optionally had a passenger seat
You were supposed to go out and
Furrow your field
And then you were close to go
And use it to drive your sawmill
Off your rear PTO
And then you were going to go find
Your seat that you misplaced in the barn
And stuff your wife and kids in it
And drive it to town and get your grain
Or bread or whatever you needed
For the farm
And then drive home
And do something else for me
With it
And this crosses over
A little bit into the hot rod world
Absolutely
By the 50s and the 60s
This kind of iconic era
Of course the Jeep had been
Out about a decade, maybe two
We had made everything
Really
Useful
And kind of
Kind of boring honestly
Everything had a purpose
It did it well
Easy to work on that kind of stuff
And the guys coming back
From World War II they wanted
They had been in airplanes, they had been in tanks
They had seen some stuff
And they wanted some excitement
So what do you do
You go find a big motor and you stuff it in
Sure
We started to see V8 swaps
All over the place
Kits available
Again I kind of cringe
But small box Chevy's and that kind of stuff
Were kind of what you started with
And we've seen
Tons of even
Dauntless swaps
Going into these earlier Jeeps
That were just four cylinders
And this was some for necessity
As the four cylinders were blowing up
And wearing out and that kind of stuff
And you look at and
Just like
The big LS queries where
LS's were cheap and everywhere
That's how it was for a small box Chevy back then
So I could spend
All this money on redoing my four cylinder
And have 60 horsepower
Or I could spend half
And put a V8 in it
And that's what happened
So the OEs take notice
Just like they do today
And they started saying
Well we should offer bigger motors
Which is what the Dauntless started as
And then we got into factory V8's
And really if we're honest
The six cylinders are
Amazing comparison
To what the four cylinders were
So again
An example of a big culture shock
If you were the old
You know
Farmer that everything was useful
And you didn't have anything flashy
Or that kind of stuff
And your 60 horsepower did just fine
The 120 horse
258
That's just ridiculous
You don't need all that
And of course I mean at that time
Is
People have transition
We don't have the technology distraction that we have
Both in the swaps that were happening
The interest in the vehicles
We also had a
Social
And fraternal
Society
People were joining
I mean they were already involved
In granges
They were already involved in their local
Social
Fraternity sorority-esque
Groups
And because you didn't have
Communication
Available as you do today
It was more in small communities
So you would have a grange in every little town
You would have
Which then slowly
Switch over to clubs
And like you were saying
Fraternal?
That word?
I want to know kind of what word
You were going to put together there
Fraticional
I might just start to use it as
Fraticional
But as you're saying
The clubs are growing
And that then extends
Into the car community
And so we see
Car clubs
And not just like
Travel America car clubs
Which was a thing
And tourist groups
And camping and what not
Which was a group that
Eventually, and of course this gives way
To Easter Jeep Safari
Which is basically a group of
Red Rock four-wheelers
That said we're going to get together
And we're going to do this
Trip, right?
And it's this beautiful conglomeration
Of Americana and vehicles
I got a two second sidebar
That you'll go why is this connected
And then you'll understand
So there was a drag net episode
And it was about hot rods
And they were talking
About the kids in the Jalapes
And they were using Riff
Raff and the cars were unsafe
And all this other stuff
And I can't for the life of me
Remember the guy's name
But he was a bigger hot rod
Or guy that was nationally known
And they literally had him
And one of the hot rods on the show
And they were talking about the NSR
Not the NSR
The
Hot rod
And drag racing
Clubs
And the
Basically the expense was
Like we are formulating a club
And we are going to then
Make the kids rise
To our level
They have to be safe
They have to meet this criteria
They have to not be
Causing Riff Raff
So we're basically putting some
Some constraints
In order to raise the bar
So that you're not
Looking at us as
Hooligans
And really
Jeep clubs are no different
You had people out
Tearing up a farmer's field
That doesn't benefit anybody
So you have clubs starting to form
And you have people then
Saying as a club
We're not going to go turf
A yard
And now you have a community
With an expectation
Of how you're going to utilize
Your vehicle
And it makes you
More legitimate
It makes you kind of connected
As a group
The biggest challenge I see with this
Is usually, and we've seen it
Two or three times now
You'll have a main leader
That will be passionate on a certain
Front
Maybe he's really impassioned about
Not grey wheeling
Or really impassioned about this
Certain type of wheeling
Or just a certain
Social event
And you'll have a group form
Kind of in that
Thorough fair that they enjoy that
And just like anything
Other than me and Neil
Most people are into stuff
For five to ten to fifteen years
And life happens
And you see a change
Of that club
Of the main president
Will step down or change
And by just
Natural effect
The club direction will slightly shift
And you'll see
People leaving the club
And other people joining the club
Because now it's not the club it once was
I think that's kind of what you were
Going for with this topic
Is not only is it about the models
And the jeeps and that kind of stuff
But it's a social event
And
As younger people
Or different people get into
The thing it changes
Where it's a constant flux
And because of that
It's not stagnant
It's not going to be what you remember it as
All the time
And that's as I was kind of
As we kind of build upon this
And I was painting the picture
Of the bigger engines
And the more technical stuff
You know we have
You know fortunately
For us
Where we're physically located
What I like to call the bread basket
Of
Of jeep and four by fouring
You know between Butler
And Toledo
But also we had a number of prolific
Clubs and organizations
That contributed positively
At very intense moments
Throughout the models
Lifetime to give
This deeply ingrained
Base of
People who are enthusiastic
And each town as
You know had a four by four club
Along with a hot rod club or a car club
And they might have had a small business
That popped up and that would have helped
Create like an epicenter of this
And one of the things
That I particularly like
From a current operating group
Oil Valley Jeeps
And they offer a
A ride
Unfortunate due to weather and what not
It was canceled this year
But they offer
A ride where they have
Reopened a piece of property
That once was a hot bed
In western Pennsylvania
For club activity
Because at that time as you had mentioned
They get very impassioned
Around a specific thing
Clubs
Like the western PA jeepers
Association or some name to that
With pappy fry
And tri-county four wheelers
Over here in Ohio
And Fred Motais was part of that
And then there was yet
Like another kind of a primary one
They would get together and they would race
Their vehicles. They did hill climbs
They did sand drags
They might have done a mud drag
And then obstacle course or a woods course
And we see this
Ebb and flow starting
As early as potentially the 60's
And 70's with some of these localized clubs
And quite frankly
The social media posts that I
Saw harkening back to the days
Of the heyday of the jeep
The 16 to 20
Or whatever
That pays no homage to
These folks who were
Doing incredible stuff with their
Dauntless v6's
In the 80's
Right?
And of course
And all of it
In my book is respectable
And I believe that it's
Relevant to there. It's a puzzle piece
It's a puzzle piece
And I talk about
Fred because I love him
Deerly in his contribution to the jeep
Community at this point
Fred's intense
Moment where he was
Involved with this race circuit
And building his jeep
And doing club activities
And being relevant
Despite the fact that
That's not really a large
Piece of the jeep of jl's
Or jk market right now
Is just as relevant
As the
Heyday of the jk model
In 16, 17, 18
Whatever. And something we've always
Talked about is jeep stories
And what got you interested
In jeeps
Everyone has a jeep story
And we've been talking about
Trying to record that forever
But you have to have
That
Grandpappy of the jeeps
For the young people
That grow up and see
And I remember mine
I was a young kid walking around
With my grandma and there was a bright red
Yj I'm pretty sure
Or it could have been a cj7
At that age I didn't care
I saw a topless jeep
It was bright red, it had bigger tires
And it was cool
And I remember telling my grandma
Grandma I'm gonna get one of those
And we're gonna go drive around someday
Here we are
So if that person
Wouldn't have drove that jeep
That day on that road
I wouldn't have seen it
And I wouldn't have been interested
In this direction
And that's important too
As you cultivate this
As you have to remember
When you're in that club and you're in that moment
You are the
The person people are looking up to
And are measuring their metric
And as those
Younger crowd gets involved
It's going to change
But
It's keeping it alive
And I think it's kind of cool
That as it evolves
And moves along
Yeah, and I think that
Evolution
Of that inter
Intra personal, like actually amongst people
As the advent
Of the internet dawned
We had forums
And we recognize
There is not a ton of people who find
The same major
Impact that forums once had
But
Forums from the west coast
As far as
There's a number of
There is actually one influencer
Specifically that
His whole identity
Was based on the fact that he became
The face of a forum
And then sold it off or so
But there was a
Largely prolific club
As far as I'm concerned
I think they did great stuff
Well, and I should mention
Before I get to these folks
There was the Heritage Region
Jeep Alliance
Which was a little pre-forum
But they had a forum
But they were a super well organized group
And club when forums became a thing
And that was a way to grow
Your club
Just like next to
That was a big
MJ and XJ only group
And at one time
Anybody that had an XJ
Didn't matter if it was a plow jeep
Or you were going out wheeling it
Was on there
What problems did you have
How did you fix it
What parts can you use
How do you lift it
What's this swap
What's that swap
And now at this point
They are almost infamous
That they have
There are some people like us
That have double down
That's the only difference
We kind of evolve
And get the jeeps
We keep moving with the brand
And we like the old jeeps
And we'll have those and some new ones too
Where these people have double down
They are XJ people
And they have made XJ juggies
And they are going out
And they were pushing the envelope
And because that naturally still exists
They just got together last weekend
So they actually have
A yearly gathering
Which just like the CJ Corral
Or the Scrambler Corral
The group of these people
Who are the core inside drivers
Right?
As you are talking about that double down piece
And the XJ just had their
Winter wheeling event
And our friends at Iron Rock Off-Road
Are a long time sponsor of that
Because like us
IRO hasn't
While they have attempted to evolve
With the brand
They also have stayed the course
Rusty's Off-Road
Rusty is
Arguably one of the manufacturers
Who has not changed
Right?
He was there in the 70's and 80's
And he is there today
In 2026
And
Recently I was in
I have no qualms to talk about people
TeraFlex is not the brand you think it is
At one time it was a good group
Spectacular
Right? At one time it was spectacular
But it's been ripped, stripped and dipped
And sold overseas
At this point
That it's so far removed from what it once was
That if you were to call them on a technical piece
As we have
They have no idea
The people who designed this product
And yes we still have some left over in inventory
But none of them work here anymore
And we actually don't know anything about it
At this point it's a shadow of the company it once was
And sadly
I will give it a couple more years
And it's not going to be relevant anymore
Because they have rode that name
As far as they can
The wheels have fallen off
We're grinding on the chassis
And we watched that happen to Rubicon Express
Procomp
This is part of that ebb and flow
And I do think like Poison Spider
Which recently was
The
Acquisition which has been in the works for a while
Was made public for ARB
Which has purchased Poison Spider
Poison Spider has equally
Been relevant
Then bankrupt
Then bankrupted and now ARB
Picked it up as part of this
It was a different change of guard as well
It was a change of the guard
And so as much as
What we're trying to share here
The thing is the human nature says
We want to feel like our moment was special
And while I
And it was
You affected the community
And the market
While you were there
What you have to understand is
Time marches on
And you either going
To change with the times and stay relevant
Or you're going to double down
And you're going to make it your niche
The hardest part is
You can't be
Double down and do your niche
And expect the small town experience
It actually exists
Because it's national
Anybody with a Cherokee
Can get on there and talk about the Cherokees
But they're
They're not the size they once were
On their forums
No, none of the forums are
And ultimately I was going to
I just feel the need to
Say it or share it but
Other notable great clubs
EREG people was built out of the forum
Forum craze
And while Lake County
Off-Road is not necessarily
Built out of the forum phase
They got into a lot of destination
Based travel and these are all clubs
Like near us
And we've seen specifically with EJP
That
As different presidents come in and out
And has things transition
And different groups, people get into it
And get out of it, it changes the club
It changes the direction
At one time they were a
Competitive off-road
Like
They did these competitions
When my sister got heavily involved
It wasn't like trail riding
It was more of these time trials
It was more like the old school stuff
And it was more like the old school stuff
That kind of transition from
The stuff that I was talking about Fred doing
And Tri-County still does
And that's where it's valuable
There are actual
As you mentioned, steadfast groups
Still doing what made them
Unique in the first place
Tri-County four-wheelers are still doing
Gravel drama
And their event
And I
Encourage people to
One of the things I think is our pieces
Our ability to be aware of all of this
I do agree
That the height of the JK
Was a lot of fun
But I also loved the height
Of four-wheel drive hardware
And I loved the height of
Truck Nationals
That traveled the different fairgrounds
And so I guess my encouragement
To people is that
We are our own limitation
We are our own obstacle of the good old days
Right here in this moment
It can be
As impactful
I had a conversation with a customer
Just recently
Who was really excited to get to Jeep Beach
Talking about how Jeep Beach is
You know, kind of the
The pinnacle
And I had to say
I appreciate your perspective
But actually
The internal is actually that Pigeon Forge
Great Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion
Is the pinnacle now
And he, this individual was not aware
They were like, oh, really
We didn't always operate on them
For the five-year delay
And I would agree
Five years ago, Jeep Beach
Was so much the pinnacle
It was!
The destination of destinations
And it will be for a while yet
Because of that delay
But we are seeing growth
In Great Smoky Mountain
And arguably
And this comes back to an early part of the program
I had mentioned Red Rock Four-Wheelers
And Easter Jeep Safari
And while I still think that
That is a mecca opportunity
Easter Jeep Safari
And Jeep Jamboree U.S.A.'s
Were the Kude Gra
And as time marches on
We then get into a different
Capacity
We then get into our show circuit
You know, I mean, these things happen
And then we have banned some Jeep Heritage Festival
Which was, well, first of all
I think we got to give homage to Heritage Region Jeep Alliance
And PA Allbreeds
Both events no longer
Withstanding
Were spectacular
Rooted in authenticity
To the Jeep industry
They were the ban before ban them
Before ban them
And then ban them
And it has its heyday
People traveled internationally
If you were a pseudo
Celebrity of the Jeep industry
You were at ban them
I remember them announcing over the PA system
How many countries were represented
At that specific year
I love the event
But we don't do that anymore
Yeah, and now we're seeing
Some relevancy in the market
Is not where it was
Some companies have chosen not to attend
Sure, but that's the same with Jeep Beach folks
And now
And that shift has happened with Smokey Mountain
Smokey Mountain is now that
Driving space
And likewise
I think that if you are a JLJT owner
Depending on your specific niche market
Social media commentary
Aside
Right, because I think that that's part
Of our human experience
Which was a lot of what today's program was about
We have to kind of separate the wheat from the chaff
We can still have those great
Awesome experiences, those club oriented events
I know that there are
Good clubs doing
Good works within their local
Communities
And if you are one of those people go
Oh, I miss blah blah blah
Or I wish it still was available for this
Then get involved
That you are the creator
Of your own destiny
If you are missing something
Then there's probably others missing it as well
They just need someone to kind of be a champion
And say hey, we're going to get together
And we're going to do this
And I
Agree entirely and I think that's a great place
To
Wine down on because
That's the point is that
You are the master of your destination
To be that epicenter
I mean and I
Lovingly
With Rob Morgan and possibly
He's made the coolest vehicle
Out of arguably one of the most uncoolest
Model platforms
That can be
Right, and I
I appreciate that so
Holy and of course I say that from a
Position of a
I am
I am an original
YJ owner, you know what I mean
I wish I could tell you that my first Jeep was a
CJ or
It was, it was
I had the model that was
The space and YJs
Were cool to us
Owners at that time
My first Jeep was an XJ
I thought it was cool at the time
And other people did too
We participated in the things
I was able to go to truck nationals
And be part of it
My sister drove a YJ, I drove a YJ
My dad drove a YJ
We loaded up as family members
And we drove up to the local ski resort in the summer
And we played putt-putt golf
And we had lunch and we did Jeep trips
Down to the
Gracious down to the Allegheny
River and forest and
And went adventuring
And that was awesome
That model helped us go there
You know what I mean
And again
It's kind of a parting thoughts
And we got to wind down on this
Something I tell my kids all the time
Is this summer
Will be the only summer
You are this age and this experience
And that is
So much true even with the Jeep community
Is this year
Is specifically special because of this year
And when you
Hit down on
You know life is hard
And times are hard
You have to stop and go okay I'm going to reflect
And go like I confirm my son
He's only going to be 12 for one season
And then he's 13
And it's different
So because of that
The Jeep events for this summer
Are only going to be the way they are
For this summer
So enjoy them and experience them
And next year
Will be different
But hopefully better
Or changing
Different and you have to feel that
And be willing to
Expand that
And create that opportunity experience
And that was the joke I was hoping
That it was land for Rob Morgan
And Daddy Jeep is the sense that
He can take this uncool vehicle
And make sure that other people
Regardless of model platform
Can have a great time
Under this unified experience
Of the Jeep brand
Do I say anything that you thought
You were talking about the DubJ?
Which is still not a cool vehicle
It was not coming off my lips
Because it's a DubJ
On that note folks
We are going
If you want to know about our weekend updates
Stay tuned through the outro
And we'll let you know
What things are going on
We will be back again next week
With us fumbling through
Jeff may or may not be
Joining us
Time will tell
But we wish him and his family the best
In this current experience
If there's something here that
Touched upon and you felt was relevant
Or you just want to tell us how we're doing
Reach out to us at contact
C-O-N-T-A-C-T
At S-F-J-4-X-4
Dot com
Or you can hit us up on our text only number
440-813-21
Nope, 855-2100
I knew something didn't sound right
I don't know, maybe I did that
Lock on lock source
Whatever
Weekend updates
So
For my weekend update
I
Traveled all over the area
I went both west and east
To get Model T parts
I went west
On Saturday after work
To get a grill shell
And pedals
And some taillights from
A cool friend that I actually
Met by selling him parts
Nice, that's the best
For his Model T
I'm robbing your moment to say that
I used to work in non-profit
People may or may not know that
I was actually even in youth ministry
So I was in some pretty heavy
Social spaces for about
A decade prior to opening up
S-F-J-4-X-4 full time
And I have, I will continue to say
I've met and made better
And deeper connections with people
Through this shared bond
As you're sharing now
That you met this guy because of buying and selling
You know, for car parts and whatnot
But man, that is such a cool
Thing to sit back and reflect upon
He followed along with the 36 build
He's on all my socials
He is, was excited
Of that build
He's excited about this build
And he wanted to help out
He's like, I have these parts
I'm not gonna use them
These are literally the parts you need
I'm not looking to make a profit
I just want my investment back
So investment for me
Was low
Allowed me to justify driving
You know, an hour
And he was driving
Yeah, but he was also driving
We have quite a big distance away
And
You know, met up in a parking lot
And swapped parts off a tailgate
And
That was just a good experience
And it's literally parts I need
And then Sunday we got up
And we drove to
Western PA
Western New York, I'm sorry
To the
Same difference
One has tolls, one doesn't
To
Hamburg, New York, to the
Snow Buster Swatmeat
And one of the cool things about that
Swatmeat is we've seen
I get talked about the old guard change
Swatmeats have also been evolving
And back in the day
Swatmeat was you took the crap out
Of your garage that you didn't use
On the build or my interest changed
And I was into this car
And now I'm into that car
And I just want to get it out of my way
And so 10 bucks, 20 bucks
Stuff was relatively cheap
And the goal is
I'm getting rid of stuff that I don't need
But I can go over here
And maybe my interests
Are actually on this other table
And I can get cheap parts
And you swap those around
The Swatmeat is still like that
Which is pretty cool
And it's put on by the Model A club
Of that area
Talk about clubs
And just
Marching on
And because of that we have an old guard
Of sorts there
And I got to talk to a very nice gentleman
He was in his mid 80s
Would never know what talking to him
But he has been into
Distributors
And
Changing the curves and doing
Carverators and fuel pumps
And all kinds of that
Was his specialty
Very nice gentleman
Wanted to share his contact info
And he was like if you have any questions
If you need any kind of stuff answered
Or any way I can help you
I'm more than happy to
And I was able to buy some parts from him
Very reasonably priced
Because again he's just wanting to assist
The next generation
To do this cool stuff
Sure
Because of that I was able to get a starter
For a reasonable price for the tea
I was able to get a timing set
For on it
I was able to get some parts
If you watched my Instagram update
I actually got some A pillars
From another customer
Now he does stuff a little bit more
The flipping game
He buys and cheap
Tries to make a profit
There's nothing wrong with that
But that's not
The originality
Of the SWAT mean
I was still able to get these parts
At a reasonable cost
And you needed them and he did
And it was fun
I'm never buying Model T parts again
There's just not good for flipping parts
It's fair
That's why I'm into it
It's like CJ Willy parts
The old CJ2A3
They're not good for flipping folks
No
In any regard I was able to
Do that
It was fun
Got some
Road miles on the Jeep
Filled the bed with some cool parts
Sounds like a great weekend
It's kind of literally
Serpenticity
However you say that word
Wow
Fratational ship
Fraternal ship
Serendipitous
Serendipity
I dig it
I was unable
To go with my wife
With our projected road trip
Should have been down in Pittsburgh this weekend
Unfortunately I too was dealing with a sick child
Maybe a little less sick than what Jeffery
Is dealing with
But it helped me
Kind of sharpen
My axe if you will
Which is a phrase we use internally regarding
Being able to
Do some forethoughts
Some paper trails
Some organizing
Some kind of
Thorough planning
For life
You need some reason to focus
And not run
And run and run
Absolutely
And that normally being
My and my family's MO
I was able to
Do another small business owner
We talked for over three hours
Kind of just game planning
Facilitating some
Filling up your cup
Exactly
As Scott has long time said
And often times people ask
What project I want to build
Or I want to work on next
Scott has often said
The company is my primary project
As much as I love the jeeps and wheelings
One of the reasons I love wheeling old pieces of junk
Is
As much as I would love to do a great big
Elaborate over the top vehicle
My time is consumed ensuring that opportunity
Exists for our customers
And then the business itself is the project
For me
So that was fulfilling
But then ultimately
Saturday night
I was here into the shop
Trying to work on some infrastructure stuff
Doing some
Tractoring and some jeeping
In the evening
Because my wife was returning home
My kid was checked out
And it was good for me
To be able to hunker into
Some stuff here
And
And furthermore into
Sunday
I am hoping to put
Rustington the third
Back onto the road for
Nothing else a short period of time
Which you know fills my cup
To be like
What type of derelict piece of junk jeep
Can I push into the shape of a jeep
And then drive
In a semi-legal and safe fashion
Right?
So much fun when you do that too
Because your expectations are different
They are, they just are
You got me to work today, good job
Yeah, you know what I mean
Man, I can't believe that thing fired up
And of course
You know, Rustington what I did with it
Which I'm kind of
Kind of quite looking forward to
And I dealt with over the weekend
Is I got rid of the top
And I just have a bikini top
And a windjammer
And surrounds
So it's not quite topless in the middle of
January, February
Way more topless than Scott wants
Yeah, so I was having a ball in that
And I look forward to trying to run around
You know run around
Run around town a little bit
Maybe hit the trail with it
In the near future
So it is something that I am trying
Trying to shove into the shape
Of fitting in my life
At this moment
Well, we're going to do this
And I don't know if there's going to be music
I don't know if there's going to be
Whatever
There was some
What?
It's good to have an obscure hobby
Parts are definitely cheaper
Lee, nothing that comes out to your mouth
Is about vehicle collections
Because Lee has the most
Abstract
Grouping of things
And he's constantly just
Lost derelict vehicles
Of a different nature
Keep following him home
There were some great comments in the comment thread
Thank you all of you who jumped in there
And shared
And communicated
And I just
I thought was really funny
Was Rob had affirmed us
And he said, you guys did a good job on your own
But then I
Cobbed up the transitional scene
And he goes, well
You were doing good
And as far as
Jock of Jeepers there
He's suggesting
Your little sound bite for the
Toot to Do being our new outro
So there should be music
And then I should be able to
End the live
But we didn't cover that part
So until next time
Jeep on
About this episode
The discussion revolves around the camaraderie among Jeep enthusiasts and whether they still engage in group outings. Neil and Scott share personal anecdotes and insights about winter wheeling, emphasizing the unique challenges it presents. They debate the effectiveness of using low range and lockers in snowy conditions, advocating for a more cautious approach. The episode also touches on the importance of community support during off-roading adventures and encourages listeners to share their own experiences. With a mix of humor and practical advice, the hosts navigate through the complexities of Jeep culture.
This episode is the first episode recorded in the history of the show in which our producer Jeff was not available!! Jeff had a family emergency that led to him running out minutes before the show went live leaving only a minimal 30 second crash course for Neil to learn the ropes. That's right, Neil and Scott squeaked out this podcast all by themselves!! But was it a train wreck, or can we applaud them for their efforts? You be the judge and let us know! For now listen to the guys reference old school Jeep culture vs todays culture and hear their opinions on what has or has not changed.
Thanks for listening, give us a review and check us out on YouTube -SFJ4x4 and visit our website to grab some great gear or products for your Jeep, SFJ4x4.com. Don't forget, you can email [email protected] for special content requests, blind react videos, suggestions, special guests, or general questions. Check out our Patreon patreon.com/ISpeakJeep