Ep. 304: The BEST (And WORST) Trucks At SEMA 2025!

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Welcome to TFL Talking Trucks Podcast. We have a special episode for you because Casey and I are in Las Vegas at the SEMA Show 2025.

Absolutely. There's tons to see here. So this might be a podcast that's worth watching in video form.

Yes.

But where we're starting out right now is someplace pretty special. We're in the Ford booth.

Yeah.

Which means some of the vehicles we're looking at here are things that you will actually be able to go out and buy yourself.

Exactly.

So as cool as some of the crazy customs are, this is potentially relevant to a lot more people.

And initially what we see looks like a maybe semi-standard Raptor R.

Yeah. I mean, you come up with this vehicle here in the booth. It's a Raptor R with some graphics.

You know it's a Raptor R because in the grill there's an orange R and there's, of course, the tow points that are painted.

So those are some telltale signs that this is a Supercharged V8.

But then you look a little deeper and you do see this Whipple Supercharger on top.

And Ford said, you know what, the 720 horsepower in the standard, and I'm using air quotes, standard Raptor R wasn't quite enough, right?

Sure. I guess that's what somebody over at Ford thought, because with this 3-liter Whipple Supercharger, they're claiming over 900 horsepower.

They're not saying any torque figures yet. It's still the same basic 5.2-liter V8, and a lot of the rest of the driveline is mostly unchanged.

But over 900 horsepower is the claim with this vehicle.

Yeah.

And theoretically, this will be a kit that you should be able to go out and buy.

That's hopefully 50 states of mission legal and covered under warranty.

Exactly, which I'm doing the mind exploding right now, right?

Because, I mean, the standard Raptor R is already a very special truck, which is of course pricey.

So we don't have pricing yet on this because it's coming out early in 2026, right?

But dude, it looks good and 900 plus horsepower and some carbon fiber, you know, accessories and touch points like these little vents and the hood.

Right there, bulge is in also carbon fiber.

Yeah, the particular truck that we're looking at has a few extra modifications.

There's some lights in front of the A-pillars.

There's a little bit of carbon fiber, like Andre said, on the hood and on the fender.

But for the most part, it does look like a pretty standard Raptor R.

It's under the hood where things are very special.

And like you said, there's probably not going to be an inexpensive truck, but you wouldn't expect it to be because arguably that is the apex of off-road pickup trucks.

Yes, but what if you wanted something smaller and also lower to the ground, little sporty vehicle for the street?

How about the Maverick?

There's the other exciting piece of news that is here in the Ford booth.

Yeah.

This, what we're looking at right now is the Maverick 300T.

It says so on a decal that lives up on the hood.

This truck from the exterior has bronze wheels and a few decals, lowered suspension, a couple little things that are neat.

But what makes it really interesting is it's got a turbo that's pulled from an EcoBoost Mustang.

Yeah.

A different intercooler setup, and they're claiming 300 horsepower on this Maverick, which is nice.

So instead of 250 horsepower, 300, because a lot of people, when the Lobo came around, complained that it didn't have extra power.

I think it was mostly Roman complaining, actually.

You know, I think Roman...

I think you and I also complained a little.

He was in good company.

There were a lot of people that wanted to see a Lobo with some extra power.

So this is not labeled the Lobo, by the way, right?

No, it's not.

And it doesn't have a Lobo grille.

But potentially, you would think that this kit could possibly work on one, because it's a two-liter EcoBoost.

So yeah, and of course, don't expect a lot of the...

Once again, no pricing yet available early 2026, and none of this is going to be super inexpensive.

But the fact that Ford stands behind it, they offer it as a package and then with some warranty,

and you can get it installed at a Ford dealership or a certified facility, I think that's very special.

Exactly.

Yeah, it's cool.

If you saw the Lobo initially and thought it's cool, but it needs more power, here's a Maverick with more power.

And you can upgrade your Lobo, too.

Yeah.

That's really cool.

This, however, so the Raptor R that we were looking at with the bigger supercharger, that one is not necessarily finalized yet.

The kit here on the Maverick, this is coming.

This is going to be available.

And I think this is kind of leading into a really exciting time, because a TRX is supposed to be coming back.

Right?

So I think Ford is, of course, understands that.

And Ram TRX is coming, supposedly supercharged V8, again, with more horsepower.

We don't know exactly what Ram is going to do yet, but that's going to be exciting.

Kase, how about we walk this way as we're walking through the show?

And once again, Kase and I are going to try to kind of describe to you and show you as much as humanly possible.

But there's like five gigantic halls here.

There's so much at the show, as always.

Yeah.

And again, these things are really exciting to actually look at and see.

So if you're able to watch the video version of this podcast, you probably get a little bit more out of it.

Because as much as we'll try to describe, like you said, the things that we're seeing, there's only so much that you can put into words.

Well, just walking through the show, this truck really caught our eye case, right?

And we found the owner, Tyler.

How you doing?

Thanks for stopping.

Nice to meet you.

I was jokingly calling it a small Chevy.

Yeah.

But this is probably one of the biggest Chevrolet trucks, pickup trucks.

I'm using quotes I've ever seen.

Yep.

It is a big truck built for going off-road and pulling big loads.

Okay.

So tell me how this project started.

I mean, obviously you picked up, is this a 6,500?

This is a 6,500, which is a partnership between International and GM.

They build them on the International assembly line.

Yeah.

GM cab, Durmax engine, Allison transmission.

And I was trying to build something unique.

Something a little standout for SEMA.

Yeah.

This is my family's personal camping rig.

So we go out camping.

We pull our trailers with jeeps and buggies and Broncos in them.

But we'll go 50 to 100 miles from a paved road and just go spend a week out there.

And that's what it was built for.

All right.

So it came as basically a chassis cab, right?

It came as a chassis cab.

And you picked the one with the greatest capacity, right?

So that's a combined 26,000 pounds, right?

26,000 pounds, yep.

For the truck itself.

But then you kind of went to town on it.

Tell me, all right, where should we start?

Well, you rhino lined.

I mean, you lined the truck, so it's a little bit more durable.

So this is a Patriot truck bed liners.

I had a guy up in Akron, Ohio, off the grid that sprayed it.

It's a very durable coating.

Color matched it.

This is actually a color match to the dirt on my driveway so it doesn't show dirt.

And then the black as an accent.

So this is so I can lean it against trees.

That's what the kicker bars are for.

I can lean it against trees and not rip all the paint off.

So then you built this exhaust cage you refer to.

So it ties into the bumper.

Ties into the buck stop bumper.

Okay, let's show that, yeah.

So this is a buck stop bumper to tie in.

Gives me all my lights with the rigid lights.

22,000 pound warrior winch.

I can get on stock when I need to.

There's a 25,000 pound winch on the back.

So again, just to be able to get off road and take some hits.

Or maybe pick somebody else out of the mud or something.

There's a lot of time winching other people out.

Jeeps and Broncos.

You got some antennas, communication.

You got a roof rack on this truck, which is way up high.

This truck is big.

It's a load to get a spare tire off, but if you need it, you can figure it out.

Then explain a couple more things to me before we look at the bed.

Sure.

The wheels and tires and also why are you in the liquid spring boot here?

So wheels and tires, American forested the wheels.

These are basically custom milled semi truck wheels.

Okay.

So these are 22 and a half inch tires, dump truck tires that are 45 inches tall.

But this way, if I break down anywhere in the world, if I'm in Mexico or if I go into South America,

I can get a tire all over the world for this without an issue.

Yeah.

So my friend, so I used to, I bought the Side Story.

An F-600 1976 pickup truck.

Actually a commercial truck that we want to turn into a pickup truck.

I sold it to my friend Dan.

He's a semi truck driver.

Yeah.

And he did something similar, except not quite as tall.

But once again, every truck stop around the country has tires for that.

It takes the stress away.

You know you're going to address something if you need to.

But then the suspension.

Then the suspension.

Yeah.

Factory, this is not very comfortable.

Factory, it is as stiff as can be.

I can feel a one inch rock on my driveway.

Yeah.

Let's look under the back.

You can see it.

Okay.

So liquid spring is cutting edge, top of the line suspension.

You can see these red struts up here.

Oh, you have some lights.

Yeah.

It's all hydraulic.

It's a compressible hydraulic load or suspension fluid.

Yeah.

You've got a reservoir with a pump and a computer here.

It measures real time, your acceleration, whether you're turning, it ties into the factory

ECM, it feels your acceleration, your braking, pitman arm angle, et cetera.

Yeah.

If I turn right, it's going to add spring rate to the right strut.

If the wind starts blowing me, I was getting blown through on Kansas coming out here.

It'll offset the suspension so that I stay pointed straight.

So it really helps.

It softens up the ride.

And I can use it to raise and lower the height, which helps a lot with loading.

Exactly.

And then that's pretty amazing.

Tell me a little bit about this bed because it's very big and very long.

So the bed is a custom bed designed with ProTech.

They do some really nice work.

They've got a whole huck bolt design.

So it's built for off-road.

It can twist without cracking like a lot of beds will.

Okay.

And then we do all the rigid lights down the side.

It's built for camping.

So we keep a lot of storage for tools and different things in all the boxes.

We build it out, put a fridge there for whatever kind of drinks you want.

Have a nice little outdoor stereo for when we're out camping.

We can have some fun.

So, yeah, just try to build it for off-road, build it to enjoy.

That's really amazing.

I mean, I like the fact that you have height adjustable suspension, really useful truck.

And do you put a camper back here as well?

Yep.

So I've got a Lance camper I'll put on the bed to go camping with the family.

And I've got some ramps.

I can drive a full-size Jeep, put a Jeep right on the bed, put a Bronco right on the bed.

Yeah, you have a winch up here too.

Got a 25,000-pound warrior winch so we can pull something if we break a Jeep off-road.

We can winch it right back onto the bed and take it.

We do a lot of Moab or Johnson Valley.

We'll be at King of Hammers this year.

So, yeah, just trying to be utilitarian and usable.

Very sweet.

Thanks for sharing your rig with us.

Appreciate you stopping.

I love it.

I love it, especially picking up a vehicle and actually carrying on top of the bed here.

Super sweet.

Yep.

Thank you very much.

All right, so walking just a few feet from the Chevrolet we saw, I met Carl.

You know, we've met, what, five years ago?

Five years ago.

Maybe six years ago or something like that?

Work truck show stuff, yeah.

Yeah, and I noticed this, dude.

There's a Toyota Land Cruiser pickup truck here, a 79 series, right?

Yes, sir.

And it has a really cool bow and bed on the back of it.

Yep.

But it also has your suspension on it too.

It is.

Tell me a little bit about it.

A new feature that we put together.

So we had our partners over there in Australia, EC and Ultimanoff Road.

Okay.

They have our product in Australia on the F trucks.

Okay.

F trucks, boards.

And they said, hey, we've got these Land Cruisers.

Can you put something together for us?

So they sent one over to us.

So we did our traditional, you know, let's tear it apart and put it together.

Okay.

So we got a liquid spring front struts, new radius arms underneath.

Yeah, can you show the radius arms that are kind of here underneath the driver door?

Radius arms.

Then our four corner control system.

So each corner has its own right height.

Then coming back towards the rear, we have what's called a traditional, this will be

a triangulated four-link system.

Okay.

So the lower control arm comes in straight.

The upper control arms are splayed from the corner of the frame to the center line of

the axle.

So they're triangulated.

That holds it side to side.

Okay.

And then our power modules in here.

This is kind of a very giant truck.

I mean, it's kind of mid-sized by comparison to what we are used to normally.

This will be like your 150.

Yeah.

So not that small.

Not that small, but size-wise it's not super big.

Correct.

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At Cox, that means big bonuses and even luxury getaways.

And since you're selling cutting-edge technology, every win feels even more rewarding.

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Visit cox.career-slash-sales to explore sales careers at Cox.

Again, that's cox.career-slash-sales.

That's interesting.

So the red components are kind of the new components that you've added.

So it has all the traditional stuff that we've had, which is load leveling.

Then we have true earth.

So it has the ability, if you put a rooftop tent, it'll actually level the vehicle.

On the rough terrain.

So again, kind of simulating the rocks in the front.

So it'll true earth level.

And then this has the newest technology, ride sync.

So it has the ability to give you the same ride quality, full or empty.

Okay.

So we're traditionally, you know, a pickup truck would always be very rigid or tough.

Okay.

Sorry.

Yep.

Rough, you know, riding when it's empty.

Well, now with ride sync, we give you the ability for the same ride quality, empty or full.

Are you kind of judging it by the height?

Or how, how do you, can you tell me a little bit more about that?

So what we've added, we've added nitrogen to our liquid spring compressible silicone.

Okay.

So we have a little small nitrogen portion.

And what we have, or very, very light, we use a little bit of the air compressibility.

And then after that, it transitions into the silicone oil.

Okay.

So it's a seamless transition as you go through that weight ratings.

Okay.

Or loadings.

And is that similar with your like heavier systems as well?

So right now it's on all the pickup trucks.

Okay.

And then we're going to transition that into the bigger trucks.

The bigger commercial type vehicles.

So that way a guy that has like a dry storage box, when he's empty, he'll get a good ride

quality as much as when he's full.

Awesome.

So that's where it's going to transition to.

Well, this Land Cruiser really caught our eye.

Thank you for sharing that.

Thank you very much.

And that's going to go into production, right?

It is.

That's the intent.

Yes.

That's great.

Probably January, February timeframe, we'll have it in full production.

And we'll start off in Australia, then maybe Central America or, and then the UAE.

Well, Toyota doesn't sell this here, unfortunately.

No.

So I'll tell you what, I'm just going to get out of here.

We'll go to the home screen.

So this is more of our traditional home screen.

Okay.

So your height on this thing.

So we have a high height.

Which height is it in now?

So we're probably in true earth.

It's an auto true earth.

So it's actually zeroed out on the rocks.

Okay.

So if I exit that, this will go back to our normal leveling mode.

The nose is coming up and then the tail will level back out.

So that'll be our normal leveling.

All right.

So let's take a wider view so we can kind of see it move.

Do you want to play around with some of those heights again?

Yeah.

So this position right now is our normal drive mode.

We drove it up onto a rock.

Now we're going to go and level it out.

Put it in our true earth.

In true earth, we'll actually get this truck to level out.

The nose will come down.

The tail will come up a little bit.

And we'll do a little twist.

Now we're ready for camping.

So if we had a roof top tent.

Really quickly.

Yes.

So a roof top tent on it.

We'd actually level this thing out.

Now it's flat.

So you could sleep.

Zero pitch, zero roll.

No problem.

That's correct.

All right.

Okay.

So that Land Cruiser was pretty special.

But what is this?

Yeah.

We are just strolling up to this.

A few of these vehicles we've seen before we started rolling.

And then some other stuff we want to check out as we're seeing it for the first time.

Yeah.

And this is one of those.

It's an absolutely massive single cab dually.

And it's labeled as F550.

Yeah.

On also.

And it's got Kelderman suspension.

Look at those.

Look at those components with air.

Also.

We know.

Holy.

Jebus.

Yeah.

This looks like something that took a few bucks and a couple hours to build.

There's a lot going on here.

It's got giant MPT tires, basically military tires and the rear suspension.

Dude, look at that.

It's almost like all remade.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

So the truck itself is pretty much all blacked out.

But the frame underneath is painted a kind of copper color.

It's got a pretty insane sport bar.

Look at this, dude.

I'm about 6'3".

And I barely can look over the bed.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, this truck is pretty big.

Oh, and they got a rim next to it.

A big dually.

Nice.

Well, this is kind of up your alley.

Yeah.

Very cool.

Also blacked out.

Pretty stealthy.

It's kind of neat.

Dude, this rear bumper with the recovery points, that's massive.

Yeah, absolutely.

Really massive stuff.

So a couple of pretty cool massive HD trucks that are out here.

So we're right now in the West Hall.

So there's West Hall, there's North, Central, there's South Hall, two floors.

And stuff outside, right?

I mean, there's so much going on here.

And also, right now in the West Hall, it's kind of a mixture of things, right?

There's some trucks and campers, but there's also accessories, earth roamers over here,

for example.

Yeah, so if we take a little detour through a few of these other vendors, we can see earth

roamer as well.

It's got, naturally, they're massive, massive campers.

This one that we're looking at right now is finished in kind of an eggplant color.

That seems to be popular these days.

Kind of like the purple color.

A lot of manufacturers, Toyota is doing it.

Yeah.

Stellantis Dodge.

And this is an LTX.

And this is number 17.

You know the number of their vehicles?

Because like a serial number?

Yeah, absolutely.

And it's quite popular.

Yeah, and it's just huge.

You can kind of see a peak in the interior.

Oh, you can see the wine in the wine cellar up there?

Yeah.

So not only is it big and rugged, but theoretically also pretty luxurious.

You've got some storage space underneath there.

Yeah, let's walk up the stairs and check it out.

Oh, man.

Look at the bathroom, Andre.

It's like a yacht.

Yeah, it's got like teak floors in the bathroom, which is pretty cool.

So it's all pretty self-contained.

Your shower and everything is in there.

It's still got to be relatively compact.

But you got a little living room, kitchen, counter, refrigerator.

Like you said, Andre, you've got the little wine cellar and a couch.

An L-shaped couch.

I mean, this space is not humongous, but it's really, I mean, appointed.

Of course, these are very expensive, right?

Oh, yeah.

There's like a million bucks.

Yeah, absolutely.

And then a pass-through into the interior, which is also pretty neat.

Yeah, dude, very high-end materials in here.

Yeah, absolutely.

And also a big staircase.

Yeah, yesterday was leg day, Andre, so staircase up and down isn't feeling that great.

But there's also a Chevy earth-roamer.

So it's not just a Ford platform that I do feel like they're a little more known for.

But you know, do you see this?

Do you recognize that mountain?

Oh, absolutely, yeah.

I mean, that's Boulder Valley, basically.

Earth-roamer is based not too far from where we're based in Colorado.

Yeah, in Colorado, yeah.

Yeah, so they've got a Chevy platform truck as well.

Let's walk around it this way really quickly.

Looks to be maybe a step larger than the Ford.

A little bit, because this is a more commercial chassis rather than that is still a 550,

but this is like a 6,500.

Very similar to that truck we saw in the liquid spring booth, right?

True.

But of course, this has a longer body and a gigantic camper section here.

Yeah, an absolutely massive camper.

Once again, some storage underneath.

So kind of the configuration of it is pretty similar in the way that it's laid out.

But it's insane to stand next to one of these because it is a building on wheels, 100%.

Well, look at me.

Just compare.

I mean, I know this podcast is visual, so we apologize.

There's no way around it.

I think it's twice as tall as I am, maybe more.

It's probably about 12 feet tall, don't you think?

Well, semi-trucks are limited to 13.5.

That's the maximum height on the interstate highway.

So this must be about 13, right?

Yeah, this earth-roamer is probably brushing up against that limit.

Absolutely.

There's some boxes for storage on the rear.

Look, what do you think of that bumper, Andre?

Pretty massive.

And of course, there is a winch built in here.

But we actually met a friend of the show Matt Scott from Overland Journal Podcast.

Yeah.

And he actually has a Ford chassis earth-roamer.

Right.

And I remember listening to his podcast, him talking about the weight of the vehicle,

right?

Because it's one thing to have all the luxury features, but it's a whole other thing to

actually, you know, off-road it.

And sometimes, you know, loose ground, you can sink in.

I don't want to sink in one of these.

No, there's more trails I wouldn't want to take this on than trails that I will.

No.

I'll say that much.

Alrighty, well, let's keep moving.

You may know this about me.

I love convertibles of any kind.

But what I love even more is combining uproading and convertibles as well.

And there's something new here at the show of SEMA 2025 from Bestop.

It's electrically powered tops for two-door Broncos, four-door Broncos, of course, as

before, and also Jeeps.

So let's check it out.

Okay, Rick.

How you doing, Andre?

Dude, good to see you.

Welcome to SEMA 2025.

Good to see you again.

Yeah.

And we have here a two-door Bronco.

Yes.

With a very cool top.

Yes.

This is the first power e-top convertible for the Bronco two-door.

Dude, because, you know, when you're going uproading and you have a hard top, right,

what do you do?

You have to unbolt it.

You have to, you know, have maybe a friend help you.

Right.

Take it off and off.

You've got those removable roof panels.

If you've got the factory hard top.

This eliminates all of that.

It gives you the freedom to be able to open and close the soft top with convenience of

a single button, all powered.

You can do it right from the driver's seat.

And can you show the button here on the console as well?

Yeah.

Integrated right here onto the console.

We have a nice single button.

It's tied in with the brakes, right?

So you don't operate it accidentally while you're driving.

And two manual latches, a button, full top down.

Yeah.

And kind of like factory integration almost.

Yeah.

You know, just a very smooth integration there.

Yes.

Bestop took the lessons that we learned with our four door e-top for Bronco, the one that

we worked with Ford to get integrated and developed and transferred that over here to

the two door.

Well, can we show it in action?

Yes.

I've got a friend.

He's going to operate that for us.

We haven't hooked up in the show this year so that we can do that right from the site

of the vehicle.

Let's do it.

Cool.

So there's two manual latches in the front, right?

Correct.

Just clip it on, but undo it and it operates like this.

Yeah.

Super simple.

Goes down just like that and allows you to experience the open air as any time you

want.

Sweet.

And that took what?

Like, I don't know, 10 seconds?

Yeah.

15 seconds?

Yeah.

I mean, it's not very long.

No, not long at all.

Yeah.

And you don't have to get out of the car to do it if you're actually operating it.

Yeah.

Something like that.

You can really do it.

Is this on sale already or is there something coming up?

This is going to be available in the spring next year, 2026.

Pricing is $49.95 for the black and new for this year.

We are going to be introducing four new colors for e-top as well.

Can we look at some other colors?

Yeah.

We have an example right over here on the Wrangler.

This is what we're talking about with a couple of new colors that are additional, right?

Yeah.

Also available in spring of 2026.

We're going to have four new colors in addition to the black.

There'll be a champagne, an admiral, a merlot and a smoke.

I like those names.

Yes.

Right?

Aren't they, they just sound exciting.

Well, they kind of also point to the mood or the color that's there, right?

Yeah.

Right.

I think that most of Jeep owners and Bronco owners, it's really about experiencing a lifestyle

and I think that these products allow them to kind of embrace that super convenient, easy to use

and really enables them to enjoy the outdoors the way that they want to.

And I really like this Jeep, this Wrangler JL here we're looking at

because the wheels and the body color tie in together.

That was a subtle detail that our team tried to put together for the show this year

and I am so happy that you really caught on to that.

Yeah, that's really sweet and the green and kind of, is this the champagne?

This is the champagne, that's right.

Oh, I got it right.

Yes.

I got it right.

Yes.

Maybe Prosecco or something.

No, no, that's something else.

That's a different sparkling wine.

Yes, yes.

But that's really cool.

And is this one of the manually operated ones as well?

No, this one is also fully electric.

Oh, yes.

With manual latches, but a fully electric top.

Yep.

E-top.

Yeah, that's very sweet.

We have the E-top for the JL body style and the four door and the two door.

And we have a four door JK that we are preparing to release and bring to market as well.

Yeah, so in the market, in general, if I look at like coupes and cars,

there's not a lot of convertibles anymore.

Right.

You know, if you look like 20 or 30, hey, it just opened up.

Yeah, how about that?

You missed it.

There's not a lot of convertibles, right?

There's some German manufacturers that make some cars.

But, and maybe a Mustang, right?

Mustang convertible.

But combining up floating with the Bronco and the Jeep like this, the Wrangler,

and also the ease of use.

Yeah.

Because in Colorado, you know this.

Oh, yeah.

It can rain, it can snow.

You have just really quickly changing weather conditions.

Yeah.

And the convenience of being able to open and close the top.

Here it is.

Without having to exit the vehicle while you're at a stop sign, stop light, parking lot,

top goes up or down, and you can fully enjoy what your vehicle was really supposed to be

helping you do.

All right.

Well, really nice to see you again.

Yeah.

Andre, always a good time.

All right.

Thanks for showing us some of the latest stuff.

Yeah.

You're always welcome.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Let me take the camera.

G-Wagon.

Yeah.

Oh, so Casey and I play this game often when we're driving around.

If you see a G-Wagon, you have to say G-Wagon.

It's like the punch buggy game, but without the violence, the violence on the side, I

guess, if you choose to include it.

Dude, this is something special.

This is an adrenaline industries built up G-Wagon pickup truck, which is fully custom

done, right?

Yeah.

And it looks extensive.

So since I said G-Wagon first after seeing it, I now have 10 points.

Okay.

And I have zero.

Andre is behind.

Game resets every day if you're interested in playing along at home.

Okay.

But this is insane.

I wonder what it is that they started with and how they created this because you've got

the front two thirds of a G-Wagon with a custom bed on the rear.

So I know adrenaline industries is based in Utah, and they do a lot of custom work.

They build big campers.

They build trucks like this.

So I think they extended the frame.

Like, I don't know.

I can't find my friend, but nonetheless, it looks like they extended the chassis.

They put these big tires on it.

It's 38 by 13 and a half.

Twin shocks, there's some pretty crazy sliders underneath the body as well.

Yeah.

And look at just the sheer amount of height.

I think this is on portals, Andre.

It is.

Oh, it is?

Yeah.

Well, why not, right?

Yeah, that is a G-Wagon thing, right?

So no reason not to.

So once again, there's tons of room underneath it, but it's also got especially wide fenders.

That means that you've got extra track width to go with the height.

Yeah.

So it's maybe not quite as tippy, which is nice.

Yeah, no, it's good, dude.

So it's basically a G-Wagon squared kind of.

Yeah, it's got the 4x4 squared style visor up on the front.

Yeah, this one.

Over top of the windshield.

So that's all pretty cool stuff.

Well, so far you're winning, dude.

10 points to 0.

Yes, 100%.

Also a massive gnarly steel bumper right up front as well.

So all of this is pretty cool.

Twin shocks.

All the way around.

Well, yeah.

This is a nuts G-Wagon.

I like it.

G-Wagon.

Well, yeah.

You got me there.

All right.

Is it 10-10?

It's 10-10, yeah.

So Andre's got 10 points for this G-Wagon.

That's got a rooftop tent on it.

Yes.

Okay, so it's technically not a pickup truck, but still nonetheless, it is a G-Wagon.

That's true.

So I almost feel like mine counts for a little bit more because this is a truck podcast.

But right next to it is a pickup truck.

There's a pickup truck next to it, but you know, you get 10 points, but mine's better.

Anyway, this is a cool G-Wagon as well.

It's got a lift, kind of bigger wheels than I would put on it, but man, it makes a statement.

Right next to it, there's an F-150 with a hell of a color scheme.

Whoa, Andre.

So this is a newer F-150 with a wood bed insert.

A wood bed insert.

I love that.

It's so classic.

Oh, look at this.

And it's cruise for a cause.

Called Retroliner.

Yes, bedwood.com.

This is not a sponsored video.

No, on a truck like this, that's pretty cool.

I wouldn't just put the wood in any F-150.

But a two-door, regular cab, short bed, I think it's appropriate.

It's very nice.

Yeah, it's kind of a cool color scheme.

So that's neat.

I didn't know anybody made a wood bed insert, but it's kind of cool.

Okay, so there is a ladder on this G-Wagon, but I think it's kind of a widow ladder.

It's a little narrow.

Yeah, I'd say that much.

I think for an older gentleman like me, I would have trouble climbing in here.

Yeah, especially without stepping on the nice paint on this.

But there is a rooftop tent, so a ladder of sorts is justifiable.

That's for sure.

Yeah, pretty cool.

Look at that fancy intake set up here on the G-Wagon.

This is going to be a rough podcast for people that are just trying to listen to it.

So imagine just a G-Wagon that's lifted up a little bit and in this matte green color and just really macho looking.

Macho.

But a small ladder, okay?

Dude, we just stumbled it in the Nissan booth.

Yeah, we weren't actually necessarily looking for it, but we found it.

And the thing that jumps out at you the most right off the bat is this frontier.

They've got no doors on it, they've got color matched kayaks, quite the serious lift.

Monster lift.

Yeah, so they went over the top.

Roman actually did some detailed videos about some of these Nissan's.

So I know we have some unique videos on alltfl.com, but you and I haven't seen this in person yet.

And it's very loud.

There's like a DJ here spinning records.

Yeah, the other thing I'm noticing is it looks like this truck has actually been used off-road a little bit because there's dirt on it, which is great.

You know, several years ago we also brought a Rem Rebel, Rem 1500 Rebel, with a lot of mud when we were displaying it here at the show.

And that's kind of unique, right?

You don't see a lot of vehicles with some dirt on them.

So that's really cool.

Most of them have been dipped in a pool of armor all.

This one looks more...

Dude, this patrol is something else.

It's basically Armada, which is a patrol overseas, right?

Yeah, exactly.

And it's got some pretty serious modifications.

Bilstein shocks.

Two of them that are massive.

Look at that!

That's crazy.

And a fair amount of articulation.

I'm not used to seeing an Nissan SUV with this kind of off-road capability and articulation, at least not recently.

It's been since the X-Terra, really, here, that we've gotten to see stuff like this.

So that's cool.

Maybe that means they would love to push more in that direction.

And I'd be happy to see that as well.

Yeah, so pretty neat stuff that's kicking around here in the Nissan.

We should see the front of this patrol really quick, because I think that's really cool.

Yeah, we gotta navigate.

Hey, dude!

What's up, man?

What up?

Yeah, good show. Good to see you.

I'll talk to you in a sec.

Dude, this is very crowded in here.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, there's a lot going on.

This is kind of what SEMA sometimes is like, right?

Yeah.

Wow, what do you think about this front bumper, dude?

That's super cool.

I like the big amber off-road lights that are integrated into it.

Yeah.

It's pretty nice.

So by the way, I wanted to say you mentioned the X-Terra, right?

Yeah.

The X-Terra is coming back.

That's true.

That's what they say.

It's going to be interesting to see what they do with it.

Hopefully, they base it enough on the Frontier to get some pretty decent running gear underneath it.

Yeah.

And naturally aspirated 3.8-liter V6, right?

Rear locker at least.

All of those things would be awesome to see in a new X-Terra.

So we'll find out when it actually launches.

Yeah, because it has a lot of competition, right?

The 4Runner, the Bronco, the Wrangler, and at least the 4Runner has a hybrid as well, right?

So that's a lot to compete against.

But I think it makes sense to bring the X-Terra back.

It's a very popular vehicle segment.

Nice.

All right, let's keep moving on.

Okay, so we appeared in the Toyota booth here, which is a large space, and it's quite loud in here.

But look at what Toyota is showing here.

Yeah, this is what they're calling a Scion SC01.

It's not what we're used to a Scion being.

No.

Because it's essentially a large side-by-side, and I say large because this is using a 2.4-liter hybrid.

Yeah, check it out.

Power train from...

A Tacoma.

From a Tacoma.

Basically, it's a hybrid powertrain.

They're saying at least 300 horsepower, and it's a large machine.

Think about like a four-seater Polaris Razor Pro R or a K&M Maverick R Max X.

Yeah, exactly.

Something along those lines, but a little more futuristic in its design because this is a concept.

This is not something slotted for production as of yet.

It's not impossible because Honda, for example, they make cars and they make power sports products.

Yes.

But this running on that hybrid powertrain would probably be on the heavy side for sure.

Yeah, so I spoke to Todd and the team, Toyota engineering team that actually worked on this project.

By the way, this is currently a one-off, so this is not like they're bringing...

They're entering the market, but they're teasing us, right?

So if you like it, maybe they will.

He told me this vehicle weighs upwards of 4,000 pounds right now.

Yeah.

So that's quite a heavy machine.

For a side-by-side, that is definitely pretty heavy.

Yeah, but it's on 35s.

Yeah, Max's 35-inch tires and, especially with, they say, 26 inches of travel, so quite a bit.

And all of the goodies that you would want on a vehicle like this, there's a winch up front, there's a lot of underbody protection.

So they really, they went to the extreme designing it and putting it together.

Yeah, so we have a separate video about this.

We actually walked all the way around this and showed it.

And the whole point of this machine is also parts like the knuckles, the hubs.

They're trying to reuse from other vehicles like the trucks that they have.

And of course, the chassis is unique for them.

There's also a few other cool things that they have.

Andre, before we head that way real quick, we'll just mention as a side note,

this is another vehicle that we have a full video on on the Classics channel.

But they've also got a 60-series Land Cruiser that, for the most part, looks pretty original, the body.

It's got a slight lift in 35s as well, but under the hood, they've got the 3.4-liter twin-turbo V6 from a Tundra.

Exactly. And a five-speed manual transmission.

Yeah, it runs the original manual transmission that this came with in the original transfer case.

But what they said is that maybe sometime in the future they could offer these as crate engines to swap in,

like what a lot of the other manufacturers do.

Yeah.

So that's also a really cool vehicle.

And that would be like an emissions-legal, fully, basically, warrantied engine from the manufacturer, right?

Exactly. So that could be something interesting, especially if you have an old Land Cruiser

and you want to keep it powered by a heart from Toyota that made the vehicle in the first place, which would be kind of cool.

And there's another, I would call it a controversial vehicle in the Toyota booth here that we did a video on.

And it's the Tacoma H2 Overlander.

This is very much a concept.

They use some existing powertrain parts, like the fuel cell from a Toyota Mirage.

So this is a hydrogen-powered Tacoma.

Yes.

And two electric motors that combine for 547 horsepower.

And I did the video, right? You and I did the video.

We published it on a tearful truck channel, and you guys didn't like this.

Yeah, people were upset.

Poking holes in the practicality of a hydrogen vehicle.

Now, we've actually tested the Toyota Mirage.

We've tested the Toyota semi-trucks that run on hydrogen.

Yeah, so we've actually personally tested hydrogen vehicles.

We know that there are impracticalities around it.

But at the same time, we think it's kind of cool just to see Toyota do something different,

because everybody out there has a gas-powered Tacoma with a supercharger and 37s.

This is the kind of thing that really only Toyota would be able to pull together.

Exactly, and it has crazy specs.

15 kilowatts of exportable power.

So I think the concept of the school, that's why we did the video, right?

It's not saying, like, there's no hydrogen stations anywhere across the country, right?

But in 10 years, there might be.

So this could be something else.

And the practicality of it at the moment is besides the point,

because it's not something that they're actually looking at building right now.

It's just a way to flex what they're capable of doing.

So I thought it was funny reading some of the comments,

because it doesn't seem like people are able to just see a cool thing and say,

hey, that's interesting, maybe not for me, but whatever.

No, everyone has got to be up in arms about it.

Yeah.

Either way, it is a pretty interesting vehicle.

So those are some of the highlights here at the Toyota booth.

In case you know me, I love myself a trophy truck, right?

Well, who doesn't Andre?

That's like saying you love breathing air.

It's like saying I love peanut butter and jelly or, I don't know, apple pie.

Well, we're in the Honda booth right now, and we've seen this before.

This is basically their custom-built HRC Honda Racing Baja Runner, right?

Yeah, this is obviously very extreme.

It says passport on the back of it.

But I don't think there's any passport-type parts almost in this.

No, it's pretty much.

But you know what is a passport?

That passport.

Yeah, that's true.

So they do have an actual passport that's more like something you could go out and buy

and potentially modify on your own.

So we have, right now, also an orange, Honda Passport Trail Sport at our office

as a long-term tester for the next couple months.

And we've already tested it off-road a little bit.

And the all-wheel drive system is really good.

The biggest limitation is clearance.

Yes, and look at this.

What they've done for this prototype here is they really increased the clearance.

I mean, there's several, maybe a couple more inches of it here.

And I think it just transforms what this car is.

Yeah, and then some forged Honda Racing HRC branded wheels as well,

much more aggressive Falcon Wild Peak RT tires,

a slight rock slider, a roof rack set up,

and then even seems like the rear bumper has been messed with a little bit yet.

It's going to swing out for full-size spare.

Yeah, that's very nice.

All super accessible, some recovery points.

And a spare tire, like you said, yeah.

Off-road lights, traction boards, everything.

So they've gone to town making this more rugged, which is pretty cool

because once again, it's a platform and an all-wheel drive system

that does a really good job on its own.

So if you could take it and then improve some of those areas like clearance and traction,

you could probably make this into a pretty decent,

it's not going to be a Wrangler competitor.

Yeah, but look at this cutout here.

You know, it's really kind of steep, so approach angle.

It's a pretty good one here.

Yeah, so modified front bumper as well, some very accessible recovery points,

and a winch up front looks like a Factor 55 winch,

Fairlead and UltraHook, which is cool.

I've been seeing a lot of Factor 55 stuff,

which makes me feel a little better because that's what I've got on my 4x4.

So I think, I mean, the current Passport, Shellsport is good.

Yeah.

It's got a really good all-wheel drive system,

but they need to put this to production, I think.

Exactly.

They need to get it higher in the air.

Yeah, this helps in a few of the other areas.

Of course, this is still a vehicle that doesn't have a low range,

and you're always going to have some limitations there,

as far as torque that you can deliver to the wheels.

So, you know, it's not, again, going to be a Wrangler competitor

or even a 4-runner competitor,

but it's still pretty neat,

and I bet you could do some gnarly trails on it,

reasonably gnarly for a Passport.

Okay, but it's not a pickup truck.

Let's head this way and let's go see some more.

I think we found Andre's favorite truck at the show.

Well, there are many choices and options,

but what I would like is I would like a classic body truck that's crew cab, right?

Yeah.

Because I have, you know, two kids and my lovely wife.

And a dog.

And a dog, so this is nice.

What do you think?

Oh my gosh, dude, it's got a modern interior?

I know, it's pretty cool.

So, they're calling this GT600.

600.

So, it's a big-bodied old Ford pickup truck.

Yeah.

With a beautiful front-end two-tone, so white and red,

which is arguably the right color combo.

It says Shelby across the hood.

Yeah.

And then on the top of the hood, we were looking yesterday.

It's got a little raptor.

It's going to be hard to see, but yeah, it says Raptor.

Yeah.

That's all pretty cool.

Oh, can you?

Yeah, I appreciate it.

Oh, is this yours?

Yeah.

Dude, it's a really nice, sorry, very nice truck.

We're recording.

How long did it take?

So, this one is actually one of our co-owners.

This is a personal vehicle.

So, anytime we had a customer order come in,

this one kind of went to the back burner.

So, we've been about three years on it.

Okay.

Typical turnaround would be a year or something like this.

So, this is a 2012 Shelby Raptor.

Okay.

So, this is a 2012 Raptor that we took down to Shelby,

had them do all their handy work on the Supercharger,

Whipple Supercharger on it.

And we told them what we were doing with it.

So, they actually gave us all the badging,

all the vintags, everything like that in a bag,

sent it with a separate so that we could actually

put it on ourselves later.

So,

And what about the body?

The body is a 65 Ford crew cap.

So, this is the first year that Ford started doing factory crew caps.

Okay.

So, all factory, all original,

they only made 400 of these from 65 to 66.

Mostly for railroads, military, forestry division.

And this is one of those 400.

We have 18 in our inventory for customer orders

to build on with these 65 crew caps.

And how do you source these?

I mean, it's just like,

Keep your eyes open.

They don't come from the sky.

You got to keep your eyes open.

So, we've been kind of piling them up over the years.

We have to keep them hidden away.

Everyone wants to buy them from us.

Every time they see them, they go,

Hey, will you just sell me the body?

So, we'll sell you the body if you put a build underneath it.

We're not just going to sell you the body.

This one, we actually did a firewall and floor swap on.

Can you show us inside a little?

We cut the floor.

Yeah, of course.

We cut the floor out of this 1965

and put the 2012 floor inside of it.

So, you have electric seats, heated cooled seats.

You have your infotainment in the center

with Bluetooth stereo backup camera.

It has the factory raptor gauges

that we custom 3D print a housing

to fit into the 1965 dash.

It's the perfect blend of the modern with the old.

I would agree.

He was just asking me what my favorite pickup truck

we've seen so far.

This was it.

This one's awesome.

How much is this?

A build like this would cost?

A build similar to this.

So, basing my numbers off base

without the Shelby work done to it,

without the paint done to it,

you're going to be in the ballpark of $200,000.

And of course, paint can add quite a bit.

Paint can add quite a bit

depending how far you want to take it.

This one, we wanted to be a daily driver,

so we kept it to that quality.

We stayed true to that.

We put miles on these things.

We have a 1966 crew cab similar to this

with a Roush supercharged F-150

that we've put over 170,000 miles on.

So, we've proven our concept out using it as a pickup.

We pull with it.

We haul with it.

We use it just like you would use

an F-150 pickup from 2013.

And even though this is a 2012

and that one as an example is a 2013,

we are staying up on it.

We're doing a 2024 Raptor R right now

that has the same body style on top of it.

So, there's a couple neat little details on this.

You know, where we hide stuff

so we don't have to dig into the body too much.

You still get your factory easy fill.

91 octane only, of course.

Gotta keep that supercharger fed.

Is most of the bed original as well?

I know you said the cab.

So, this box, we actually had done by Pro's Pick.

Because this is a Raptor,

it's seven inches wider than a typical pickup.

So, we had to have them widen the box

about 10 inches.

Oh, I see.

And that's the reason we go with the F600 front fenders,

hence the GT600.

Okay, I got you.

Eats up a little bit of that tire poke.

Gotcha.

Well, when I make some more money,

I'll give you a call, right?

Definitely.

Thank you very much.

You bet.

G-Wagon Andre.

Oh, no.

It's another pickup.

So, again, both of the G-Wagons I picked out had beds.

I can't believe this.

It's got 20 points.

And also, it's a 6x6.

It is, yeah.

So, this is legit.

This is the king of G-Wagons.

Wait, but I have a question case.

Does it have Bluetooth drive shafts?

No, it appears that this one has a real drive shaft,

which is good news because...

But what about the tag axle?

We have seen a couple Bluetooth drive shafts.

I think we still will see.

I want to change the name, though.

I want to start calling it AI drive shafts.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, that's always our semen joke.

No, that looks real.

Yeah, tag axle has got it as well.

So, this thing is legit.

Yeah, but how's it going?

Hey.

Yeah, the...

That's my favorite.

This is another 4x4 squared.

It is.

Yeah.

And the...

This is wide body.

But wait, are these portals?

It's not a 4x4 squared Andre.

Is it?

It's a 6x6.

Oh, I'm sorry.

6x6 squared?

Yeah, exactly.

So, that is pretty cool.

I've actually never seen one of these in person.

This is sweet.

It is.

Is this the one...

You remember, didn't somebody reach out to us because they were building one of those?

No, that was painted white.

Right.

That's from Colorado.

This is something else, I believe.

This one is white underneath, though.

Oh, maybe it's wrapped?

Yeah, I think it is.

So, this could be the one...

Yeah, somebody reached out to us.

Well, they had a G65, which is a V12.

Yeah, exactly.

And this says...

Oh.

G63.

So, let's see.

So, they're saying...

Oh, yeah.

So, this is something that somebody built themselves.

But I think we're looking for a V12 one from Colorado.

But not the one that we're thinking of.

Yes.

So, still.

But still.

I mean, this is pretty amazing.

And they started with an actual G-Wagon.

Yeah.

So, I still get the points.

Okay.

But...

I agree.

You're winning.

But, dude, let's finish up outside.

I think the crowds here are pretty heavy.

Oh, yeah.

But nonetheless, and also the bass is heavy out here.

It is, yeah.

The bass is booming and permeating.

Yeah.

The whole show.

Definitely.

As the day goes on, it gets more and more crowded.

So, yeah, we'll go ahead and wrap up the podcast.

But what do you think of the show this year?

So, I'm pretty happy to see that a lot of OEMs came out.

Not all of them because GM is not here, right?

Right.

GM is not here, but many of the others are here.

I was happy to see that.

They're showing some new stuff.

And also, look at the number of people here.

I know.

I've never seen it this busy.

Tons of people.

Tons of trucks right behind us right now is that Cummins that's got so many turbos

wrapped in the front end of it.

What, 16 turbos or something?

Yeah.

Which I think was one of Whistlin' Diesel's trucks at one point.

There's tons of absolutely massive lifted trucks.

Let me come up to one of these because now we're entering what I call Brodozer Boulevard.

Well, let's walk up to the biggest one that we see right now and look at how you compare Andre.

The tires on this one are almost as tall as I am.

Yeah, this is massive, dude.

And I don't know if this side step, this little step will help you get in.

You can't get your foot up there, Andre?

No, I'm not that limber.

Yeah, yeah, no.

I might not be either.

And it's a four-wheel steer package here.

Yeah.

And you can hear lots of V8 noises out here as well.

Yeah, there's absolutely tons going on around us.

I also see pretty kitted-out second gen behind us as well.

Ooh.

Yeah, with air suspension, also pretty massively lifted.

Oh, case.

Doesn't have, oh no, it has a Bluetooth drive shaft.

Oh, yeah.

Look down there.

It does appear to have a Bluetooth drive shaft.

No, it's closer to us.

You see that?

Yeah.

So, yeah, there is a bit of that going around.

It's epidemic, really.

But still, there's a lot of really cool trucks around.

There's so much here every single year that we really can't see at all.

There's tons of things that we end up missing.

Hey, this truck's got a 7.3.

Godzilla, and this is the F100 from the 70s.

People doing some other crepe motor swaps,

like what we've seen on some other vehicles that we looked at since getting here.

So, yeah, tons of really cool stuff at the show, as always.

And it's also a pretty exhausting day, but well worth it,

because you see a lot of really neat stuff.

You meet some really cool people.

We got to interact with some people that watch some of the videos that we do.

Show them that cloud.

Oh, yeah.

Somebody's doing a burnout.

Burnouts going on over by the Hoonigan tent,

which we won't get too close to,

because that wouldn't make for very good podcast audio.

Not that it's great right now.

No, when you're just describing what we're seeing,

I can't even hear what you're saying.

Yeah, and we're right next to each other.

So, with all of that in mind,

it's probably about time for us to wrap this thing up.

But, yeah, another great year here at SEMA.

Yes.

Always excited to come out.

And I think the success of the show has really had to do with people, right?

Oh, yeah.

But we saw probably more people than ever before.

Oh, yeah.

And I think that's a success.

Yeah, it's definitely not a show that's getting any smaller.

Maybe we can end it on this square body with a big supercharger.

So, I think we could finish here, right?

Yeah.

All really cool stuff.

Do you have a favorite?

I feel like it's the GT600.

I think the GT600 was my favorite.

What about you?

One of the G-Wagons, maybe?

I might have to agree with you, honestly.

That GT600 was really cool.

Oh, that GT600 was mint.

And it was jacked up trucks, I think, was the company name of.

Once again, not a sponsored video.

Yeah, not sponsored, but that was a really cool truck.

So, tons of really neat stuff around.

This was a good day.

I'm exhausted, and we didn't see 100% of the show.

So, thank you for joining us once again.

We'll see you next time.

Stay tuned to oldtfl.com for a lot more from the show.

Once again, thanks for watching.

Ep. 304: The BEST (And WORST) Trucks At SEMA 2025!

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