S3, E52 - 392 Road Trip Day 2, American Expedition Vehicles

Hold'em's got the keys in hand

Michigan trees turning red and tan

V8 Thunder under his feet

Wrangler 392, it's time to eat

Ribbons of asphalt calling his name

Grinch so wide he's winning the game

Broom Broom goes the heart of the beat

Rolling west where the sun won't see

Some man a jeep, a simple plan

Out on the road is where the healing begins

Each mile past makes him feel whole

They say road trips are good for the soul

California waits but he's on track

Freedom whispers you're so bad

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Alright everybody, good morning. It's my second day in Detroit and I'm off-roading on a rough

country road taking a shortcut up to AEV because I'm going to trade in this Mojito Rubicon X for

a beautiful red 392 and I can't wait to finally see it in person. I got some photos a couple days

ago from Matt at AEV and man, I'm stoked. It looks so good. So it should be a great day and then

the plan is to head out on the road tomorrow. So lots going on today, lots to do and hopefully

will bring you a little bit of content from AEV. So I just made the turnoff onto 12 mile road

in Wixom Michigan which is where AEV is located and I'm pulling up to AEV's big beautiful grade

building and I can't tell you how excited I am and like what this means to get to this point

where I get my Jeep again and I get back to normal and it's so awesome. So up and I see it. Oh man,

I see it. It is parked in the back along the back parking. I'm going to go see Matt but I'm going

to take a peek at it. Oh no, that's not it. Maybe it's inside. Oh man, alright well this is

exciting. There's a whole lot of anticipation and I guess I'm going to go inside and see Matt

and we'll get this day going. Alright, here I am standing for my brand new 392 AEV JL370.

I'm going to fire it up so you can hear it. Oh man, back to making an awesome V8 noise. This is the

maiden voyage. I literally haven't even sat in it yet. I don't have any of the buttons and settings

where I want it. I have 19 miles on it and I've got a lunch to go to with Jeep so I'm going to go

there and then come back to AEV this afternoon to finish up. Oh man, I'm so stoked on this. Alright,

I guess I should set up CarPlay. I literally haven't done anything. I'm going to head out the doors

here inside the AEV shop. Oh man, it rides so smooth. Alright, we're outside for the first time in my

break. More to come. Alright, as you guys know, I made the flight out to AEV to pick up my brand

new 2025 392 and I'm standing here. I don't know how many tens of thousands square feet is this

facility? Oh, I believe we are at about 120,000. So I've talked about this before. We're in the

basically, I guess you would call it the upfit center. Yeah, we call it our production facility.

And you could eat off the floor in this place. It's amazing. Every time I come here, I can't believe

how clean everything is and I'm looking around and there is row after row after row. You've got a

ram with no bed on it. It's going to be a truck house vehicle. You've got some Chevy's ready for

the AVs. You've got obviously ram prospector excels and you've got some Jeeps in here, some

Gladiators. So you kind of have a full house right now and I'm looking down and almost every lift is

full right now. Yeah, yeah, we've been fortunate. Like you said, we're cranking out the cab chassis

trucks for truck house and some of our other builders that we partnered with. Probably the

newest thing right now is the GM upfits. So we launched upfit programs for both AEV addition

slash ZR2 bison trucks as well as standard ZR2 and AT4X trucks. So you can buy the normal GM

version that has the AV addition or is the AV bison ZR2 at the dealer and that actually has,

it's not just branding, it's parts that come from here. You guys actually have done-inch carts that

take bumpers to the production line to get put on but you also have the ability for those people

to bring their vehicles in here as well or you can order one and have it taken to the AV standard

which is a little bit further. Yeah, so it's not too different than what we did with your Jeep.

Obviously the AEV addition and the bison trucks, they come loaded from the factory with a lot of

our stuff. Now the upfit package that we offer for those customers is essentially everything else

to round out the catalog. So we add the come up winch, we'll add the snorkel, we can add lights,

paint appearance package, 37-inch tires, you know all that. That's the big one right there.

That's the big one. Yeah, that's the big one. 37's no lift and it really just takes that truck

that's already super capable and you know takes it to the next level. And you guys,

do you do the tubular bed racks on the GM's yet? Yes, we offer a Kuat actually. Oh, they make some

great stuff. Yeah, so we're, for the GM vehicles and Gladiator, well and Ram also, we offer Kuat.

And then where we're standing right now, so you guys have a paint booth over there, you do all the

painting, whether it's the wheels, whether it's the vehicle. If you get an AEV version of a vehicle

from the factory, most of them, like a lot of pickup trucks have some paint work done, the two

tone, the pinstripe, all that's done right there in front of us. Correct. Yeah, it's all done in

house, whether it's something as small as, you know, a hood graphic all the way up to a complete

repaint. Some of these trucks we're standing in front of, you know, they get a full repaint. That's

an option that we offer. Like door jams and everything. Door jams and everything. And it's

essentially paint to sample. So, you know, it's not a set number of colors or anything. We'll

really do whatever the customer wants. And then behind us, we have your photo cove here. Yes,

got white walls and a big light box hanging above it. And so if you ever go to the AEV

Instagram page or Facebook, and sometimes you'll see whatever latest vehicle is rolling out of

here before it goes to a dealer or its new owner home, you'll stage it in here and get those photos

of the white background. And this is where that happens. Yeah, we, when we built this building,

we built ourselves our own photo booth to help us, especially, you know, winner here does not

lend well to taking pictures outside. So this gives us a way to standardize our photos. But

then also someone say someone really wants an AEV vehicle. And maybe they're not sure what color

they want, or they want it now. They can go on our website and view all the inventory that's

currently out on lots. And all those photos are taken here. So let's go walk down the line. And

then we'll just see what's in the shop. And you can walk me through it. So the first thing here

that I'm looking at is a ZR2. So this is a Chevy 2500 HD ZR2, but this is not an AEV edition. So

you're basically bringing it up. Now this one has AEV wheels on it, but it does not have the

bumpers. Yes. So we don't want to get into building bison clones or AEV edition clones. Honestly,

it's a better deal to just buy the truck from the factory than have us convert it. So we have a

little different package for the standard ZR2 and 84x customers, assuming that they may be a little

more weight conscious, and they may not necessarily want to do all the overlanding type things that

we designed the bison for. This gives them that AEV look, bigger tires, AEV wheels, we have our

paint appearance package. It's a really great daily driver. You still have all the towing and

all the payload because you're not loaded up with a lot of the do-dad. So somebody who, this is my

daily driver work truck and I'm not going on some great adventure, but I still want the look,

they can do it this way. Have a great truck, have the paint, have the look, but it isn't as far as

you could go. Right. And it differentiates them from all the other ZR2s out on the road. Which

going this route will give you a little more payload, just because there's less content on

the truck. Our trucks have a lower payload, but that's really because of all the additional

components we add. Well, we talk about that on the GMC Canyon in the Chevy Colorado. If you look

at like a AV edition from Chevy or GMC, you know, the payload is what, 9.50 a thousand pounds,

whereas you might look at Tacoma or something, it might be 1200 or 1300. People go, oh, why is

that? Well, they don't have 35 inch tires. Right. They don't have all the things that you put in.

So when you go to the aftermarket and put all those things on your Tacoma or on your Ranger,

yes, you'll also be in that same payload range. So it's interesting that that's something people

have brought up to me and they go, well, it only had to go, well, hold on, you have to, that's

apples to elephants. You kind of have to go apples to apples by comparing. If you had all that same

content on a competitor's truck, it would also be in about that same range. Yeah. Payload is not

a number that is once and done. Right. So that payload is as the truck rolls off the assembly

line. The more stuff you add to that truck, humans included, you know, that number comes down.

Yep. All right. So which way do you want to go? Right or left? Yeah, let's go down the, by the lifts

here. Okay. Here's a really nice prospector XL. So it's a mega cab. Yeah, which is kind of rare,

but mega cab looks right on 40s. It absolutely does. And they're not as rare as you would think.

A lot of our prospector XL customers, they love the mega. They love the mega. I mean,

it's not that much more money. It's not that much bigger, but a lot of people have families. Yeah.

I was just on a trip out at the Bison Stampede. We had a prospector XL customer show up in his mega

cab and that's where he slept. Yeah, perfectly fine. Yeah, because you fold that rear seat flat.

Yeah, curled up on the back seat. I know some big ring guys like that. So like,

if they're doing one thing, they have their semi, but some of them are like hot shots and

they tow big trailers. And if they take their mega cab, they just sleep in the back. Yeah,

for sure. And then we've got another one on the lift here. This is a standard PXL. Yep,

that is a crew cab, standard bed. And that's the Catlow wheel. Yes, that is our new 18 inch

Catlow wheel. Oh, this is an 18 inch. Which allows us to use the BFG tires. I was going to say,

these are the new BFG HD trains. So the nice thing about the 18 inches, you got more room for

the big brakes on the HDs. Yep, you got more room. It handles. It looks the same, but it's like,

the holes are just like, it's just, you look at it, you're like, I don't know. Yeah, it's just,

we were running around with these wheels on that blue truck that we have run around here for six

months. No one noticed because they look the same. Yeah. But yeah, these HD terrain tires are so

phenomenal. So this is a 40 on 18. Correct. They look absolutely perfect on the prospector XL.

Yeah. Yep. So this customer where I was getting this truck, they can tow, you know,

no worries about the load range. They have phenomenal tread life. We've been so happy with

this tire. It's really everything we've always wanted. There's not that many players in that

space and some have been better than others in terms of quality and roundness and, you know,

customers and things. And it sounds like the HD terrains have been a pretty successful product.

Yes, absolutely. So over on the left here, it looks like a 2500 GMC. I see the AEV diff cover

on the back. Yes, that is one of our outfits. That one started life as an AEV edition. So

it's basically getting all the bells and whistles. Okay. You see there in the bed that is getting

our vertical spare tire mount. Yep. Very similar to what comes standard on the Colorado and Canyon.

But this allows for a 37 inch tire to be mounted back there in the bed. Also has

this new snorkel that's available. Yes. This is a diesel as well, like a tailpipe. Yes,

it is. So you can do the you can now pair the snorkel with the Duramax. Yes. And get that

functionality as well. Gas as well. We have snorkels available for both. So yeah, everyone,

GMC, Chevy, gas, diesel, we got you covered. The snorkel is kind of cool because it's sort of big

and it's more square and it makes the mirrors look less dumb on these rocks because the mirrors

are so goofy. Right. I do love the new body style and grilles though. I think they nailed it,

especially on the new Chevy. Heavy to you. I think that's, I think it's beautiful. So I'll jump

in here. This black one, we're not going to say who the customer is, but obviously you can see

who the customer is. It's a very cool Silverado HD ZR2 Bison. And this is going to be a special

build. Everyone will know it when they see it down the road. But the neat thing with this truck

is this has our upcoming brush guard on it. Oh man, that thing looks freaking awesome. So giant

tubular grill guard wraps around the corners. That looks so mean. Yes. And we have these in the

works for both GMC and Chevrolet. This is the first Chevrolet one that we put together. The beauty

with this is it is Fedexable because it comes in three parts. Okay. Side one, side two, and then

the center. Yeah. Okay. See it. So if you can, you know, for your listeners, if they can picture

essentially a full face brush guard that can be separated into two halves. Yep. And it'll allow

this to be shipped by a Fedex, doesn't have to go ground, less risk of damage and much easier to

assemble. So when this truck comes out and you know what it is, just know it's, it's dark and

sinister looking. And with the 37s, the full front end guard and the giant snorkel on it,

it's just, man, this thing looks, it's probably one of the meanest looking 2500 HDs I've ever seen.

Yeah. Yeah. It's going to have a lot of goodies on it. But yeah, we're excited about this build.

It's for a special purpose. Yep. And stay tuned. Stay tuned. Yeah. Got a, another prospector

looks like a XL in the works. Yes. And that is a custom painted XL. That looks like a Stingray

or similar to that. I was going to say the battleship or whatever that color was.

Destroyer. Yes. Destroyer gray. I believe. And this has the reservoir, piggyback 8100. So

8100 is all four corners. So the big shock upgrade package, AV diff covers. So what is the,

the turnaround if somebody says, you know, cause how, I guess, what's the breakdown between how

many of these are customers coming to you and bringing their truck to you versus somebody

bought it from a dealership and is having this and then you'll deliver this to the dealership

where they'll finally take it home. I mean, I would say nine out of 10 or dealership vehicles.

I, I would say the Turner, you know, it's always subject to how many vehicles are on the lot,

right now, are a lot. Sure. But right now it's about a 30 day turnaround between once the car

carrier drops it off to the time the car carrier picks it up. Yeah. Okay. And, you know, and that's

even covering the vehicles with the, with the custom paint right now. It looks like another

chassis cab or a lot of crew cab long bed for sure. Yeah. And if you notice the pass through,

yeah, this is going to truck house. Yeah. We're the ones that, you know, we do the paint work here,

but then we also are the ones doing the cab pass through. So, yeah. So imagine a standard

from the C pillar for crew cab ram. Yep. But the whole window and back panel have been cut out to

form a hole and there's a bulkhead panel that has vents and then a removable center section

allows you to pass through the cab to the living quarters without leaving the truck.

And I love how Dave and the team designed this to retain as much of that, that close out. So this,

for your listeners, if you can picture the lower half of the sheet metal, like below where the rear

window used to be, is still intact minus the center, which is like a U shape. Think of it as

like a old walkthrough on a mini truck or something like that. Right. And then it's all bolted,

closed and weathertight until you put the truck house living quarters or house side of it and

then you would just take the center section out. Correct. Okay. Correct. That's almost for transit.

Yeah. Just to keep the elements out of the inside. Yep. It's neat if none of your viewers have ever

seen one of Ram's 3500 cab chassis trucks, as you can see, you know, normally the frame has a lot

of bends and it makes it challenging to bolt things too. If you look at the frame of a cab

chassis truck, the rails are just straight. It's flat. You couldn't find a better platform to

build off of than that. In fact, the founder of AEV, Dave Harrington, helped the truck house guys

develop a suspension system that the whole living quarters or habitat sits on top of. So when

everything flexes, they can flex individually and you can kind of see some of the brackets here.

Yes. That to me is one of the craziest things is you guys have gone out with them

and done crazy trails and you just got back from a trip. Was it Colorado or something like that?

Yes. And you guys are on trails that a motor home essentially has no business being on. And there

it is. Yeah. Flexing and axles and everything doing it. I just go to the Instagram page or

Facebook and there's some posts of a giant truck house out on the trail. Yeah. So cool to see in

sand dunes and everything. Oh yeah. We got another mega cab. Yep. Prospector. Oh, this is a 25. It's

got the new lights on it. Yes. This is a brand new. So you're able to, somebody's looking for a 25

with a new body style or the new freshening. You're able to do that now. Yeah. Without a doubt.

Not a whole lot has changed. One interesting thing that changed is on the calibration side of

the things. Of course, it's different than a 24. That was one thing we had to address and then

another is the addition of front radar. Yeah. Fortunately, we were able to check it out early

enough and we didn't have to make too many adjustments. One thing that we did have to make

specific for the 2025 is a new front camera relocation bracket. This truck did not get it yet,

but it essentially, oh yeah, it did. Oh, I see it right here in front. Yeah. Yep. It moves

the camera location from here to above the fairlead. Yes. Yeah. And one of the, and that,

you would think, oh, that sounds like a lot of room, but you also remember this thing's lifted

too. So it's actually putting it closer to what would have been stock. Right. And it's not tilted

as much. Right now, you know, in stock form, the camera sits higher up. Right. And weighted,

pointed. Yeah. Below the A, pointed down, where now it's right above the fairlead, pointing straight.

So the other thing that I think is worth a mention, and I've talked about on the show before, we've

probably talked about it before, is you're talking about radar and that's part of ADOS. Yes. ADOS is

coming in and that's the, you know, the active safety systems that, you know, it's happening

industry-wide. And pretty soon, those fab bumpers in your garage aren't going to work with the trucks

and the difference in what AEV does is not only do you have your bumpers rated for crash and airbag

and all that stuff, but you up to 2025, and obviously it's going to happen beyond, you're

completely compatible with ADOS, adaptive cruise control, pedestrian emergency braking. And in

fact, like on my 25 Wrangler, I was using adaptive cruise control when I took it for a test drive,

because everything works. And so that's not the case with all the bumpers and stuff that are out

there. The fact that AEV has the engineering ability to make sure that you get the aftermarket

functionality and looks without degrading any of the features that came on the truck is pretty

awesome. Yeah. And it's always been, I've been here long enough where I've seen the introduction

one by one of all these features. You know, I've seen blind spot monitoring. I've seen, you know,

adaptive radar. All these things come through and each time we've always made the incremental

changes to keep up. So now that you're into it, 10 years of different technologies being added,

we're already there. Yeah. You know, we're just tweaking minor things just to make sure an angle

is right. Yeah. Or once you start down that road, it's really easy to make changes to keep up to it.

It would be very difficult to start from scratch and try and comply with everything. So this has

four AEV series, 7000 series lights on it, which is available on the HD trucks. I have two on the

front of my Jeep. I love these lights. I love that they, it's a, it's basically what, seven

LEDs in one housing. Yes. And a couple of nice things about these lights are

they're waterproof, fully sealed, O-ring, all that. These are your lights, your design. And they're

also rubber mounted. So they're isolated from rattles or vibrations and rattles I guess also.

So when you're going down the trail, the lights don't shake in night. The lights are rock steady

because they're isolated from the rest of the movement of the vehicle. And that is huge because

you don't have the distraction of so many aftermarket lights on the bumper, they move with the bumper.

And the light pattern is all over the place and it's really hard to drive at night when they're

not steady. Yeah. And you and me, we've both been on some gnarly terrain at night. Oh yeah.

You know, and possibly going, you know, a little faster than maybe we should have, but you can,

but you never see that transferred to the lights. Yeah. And one of my favorite features, and I'll

go on record, I say it all the time, we have the nicest wiring harness in the industry. Yeah. It is,

it's always impressive every time I open up a kit. It is such a nice, heavy duty, high quality

harness. Really, if you've ever installed another set of aftermarket lights, you'll be shocked when

you see our harness. Yeah. Everything's quality. And then you guys also offer an amber kit if you

want to have amber lights to replace the lens. And you also, what I like is the hexagonal light

guards. I love the stone guards. I think this one doesn't have it, but I just love the look because

you know, exactly when you see it's AV, it's just, and they're, they're not plastic. It's

cast aluminum. Yeah. So I mean, it's, it's a super high quality light. I've used them on

all of my AV builds. And then I'm looking at the, the front of this and I'm remembering,

so you guys have the worn 16 five winch on here, which is a monster, or we have the 20,000 come

up. So those are our two options. We have a 16 five worn winch, and then we have a 20,000

pound come up. Well, and then that reminds me because on my Jeep, so we called up our friends

at Warren and I said, Hey, I'm doing this redemption, redemption build, if you will. And I said,

so I wanted to grab a new Zeon and, you know, Justin said, well, actually we have the new

H or XD and XP Zeons. And so I'll send you one of those. I'm like, well, I don't know if it's

going to fit. And he said the footprint's actually the same or smaller than our other Zeons. So I

think the HD that I have on my Wrangler is the first time you guys have put an XD in a factory

bumper or AV bumper here at the factory because you guys are still going through your stock of

the Zeons. Yeah. So I just want to say it fits. So anybody is wondering about the compatibility

of Warren's new winches, because we all know that, you know, there's a finite amount of real

estate in there. They do fit the AV Wrangler, the EX or the RX or Gladiator bumpers. And I'm

stoked to have that new Zeon on the front of mind. Yeah. And, you know, with with our bumpers,

we probably give less margin for error than most. You have some pretty tight tolerances and

with the Jeep bumpers, ironically, it's not so much room where it mounts. It's more where the

solenoid pack comes through the opening. Yeah. But yeah, I agree. It looks great on your Jeep.

And the other thing is, you know, the Wrangler 392 came with a Warren winch from the factory,

but that's not compatible. And it has half a drum with like 50 feet or something. Yeah. So

I don't know how that usually works with with, you know, I would be bummed if I didn't do the

AV stuff. Didn't know you get the upgrade Warren winch. It had the one from the factory and I was

100 feet away from somebody to yank him out. I'm like, where's the rest of it? But it's,

yeah. And I don't know why Jeep did it that way, but it's like half the size of a normal school.

It's just so anyway. So now I'm all back in order. I got the ability. I got a strong bumper. I've got

the, you know, the nodular iron pieces. I've got the, you know, the good winch with the long rope.

And I'm excited to hopefully never use it, but if I need to, I can. That's right.

And then walking across the way looks like, ooh, JK. Yeah, this is our vintage department.

And the, and a TJ brood. Is that? Yes. Oh man. I always wanted a brood and I missed the boat on,

on the original TJ brood. Oh, this is an Orvis edition. It looks like no.

Filson. Oh, Filson. I'm sorry. Filson edition. This is a Filson edition. I saw the, yes, the seats on

it. And, oh yeah. So this was a special thing you guys did for the Filson catalog, right? It was

a collaboration. And there's not that many of these, right? It's no, no, I would say

pardon me if I'm wrong, but I would say 2016, 2015 to 2016, maybe we did a collaboration

with Filson where we offered both a four-door Wrangler and a brute double cab. Brute double cab,

I believe, was the first one. Okay. That was the one, that year for Christmas, it was on the cover

of the Filson catalog. Yeah, I remember seeing that one. Yeah. And this has the cool Filson,

like brown and cordura seats on it. And it's got the, where it's chrome normally or the silver

paint on the inside. It's like a root beer brown to kind of tie all that into the black interior.

But I haven't seen one of these in person in a long time. It's the one here. Yeah. And that

material, that was actually Filson's leather. And I forget their fancy name for the other material.

But yeah, they were sending that to us basically in rolls. And then we were, we were passing along

that material to our seat company. Man, that is so cool. And this has a six four in it. So this

is the original 392. Yeah. Looks like this one's been a little modified. Oh, I got an LROC,

a high flow intake with long runners on it. This has the old IPF lights, which is what you guys

used to use way back then. It's kind of cool to see some of the vintage parts on it. I haven't

seen a ABJK with a V8 in a while. And it was a cool color. I forgot. Yeah, was this factory or was

this a full paint? No. This was painted Filson, right? Yeah. And they only came in this green.

Yeah, we called it Filson Green. Yeah. You know, we tried to match their

brand colors. That's so cool. Yeah.

And then as we walk a little further down, we start getting into the engineering side of the shop.

This GMC that's missing its front end, that's our test truck for the GMC brush guard.

So we've been going through some iterations on that, getting that to a point. We can sign off on

it and get that into production. Those brush guards, they should be out sometime around December,

so not too long. And there's another truck we won't talk about yet. Yeah, there's sitting here and

800 pound gorilla in the room. Yeah, it's exciting, but we'll move on so that I'm getting trouble.

Behind us there, that's another of our...

Can you hear your validation vehicles? Yes. Yeah, that's one of our vehicles. I assume that that

one is also in here for brush guard testing and fitment. And then this is the R&D garage back

here? Yeah. Yeah, so there's nothing in here at the moment, but... But if you have to sequester

something under lock and key, if you're doing an OE program, like when you guys were working on

the GM stuff before it was announced, all that was in the sequestered area. Yes,

you know, just quick not to go off on a tangent, but throughout that GM process,

every step of the way before one of those components got signed off on, the GM team would come in here

and basically have a review of it. So this was a perfect place to do that, because we would

essentially need to mock up these vehicles with all the components, make sure everyone's happy

with them. And that's very difficult to do, because if someone stops by, we want them to be able...

We want to take someone back here and all. Show them a tour. But at the time, the last thing we

wanted someone to see would be like a Silverado, you know, all done up. Or that other thing we just

walked by that we're not going to talk about. And this is like the scene, I'm looking at all the

pallet racks here and stuff. It's like the scene at the Indiana Jones, where they're moving the

arc in there. And it's just like, echo! You can just hear it go forever. Yeah. So all the inventory

that you see here, all these racks, this is all inventory to support our builds. This isn't the

same inventory that gets shipped out to someone if they order a recovery kit online. From online

stuff. We have another, you know, speaking of square footage, not to brag, but we do have,

we have another facility, our previous office, 80,000 square feet over in Commerce Township.

And that's where all the dealer orders come from, the individual retail orders.

Yeah. So if you were to go to Quadratec, for example, and buy a set of wheels,

they would get shipped out of there, or if they had a big order. Exactly. And then you've got a

Brute 6.4. This one's a white one. Yes. On pintler wheels, which is the five spoke. Let's see,

what else can I tell? This has the older JK bumper, but as you may or may not know, the newer version

is basically the JL's RX, EX can be fit on a JK as well. So if you like the look of the newer

bumper, that's available for JKs. Yes. And this one has high capacity springs. High capacity

springs with 35s. Okay. Yeah. This one, this one's made to move and do a little work too.

Looks like KM2s, maybe? KM2s, KM3s, they're like KM2s, I think. They're 2s. Yeah, KM2s,

like the lug pattern on the side. I'm pretty certain that if we still don't own this vehicle,

this was a vehicle owned by us. Yeah. I know that for certain because the

sticker, the V8 stickers are different. Those are your kind of internal ones. And then

this one is a famous AV Brute. This is the one that went all over Moab,

has the Rafiki Safari Lodge Costa Rica on the door. It's a kind of like Battleship Grey color.

It's on the original Svegres, not the Svegre 2s, which fit the JL that I have, although they will

fit a JK. This is probably one of the more famous Brutes just because it was in a lot of magazines,

and media coverage, went to a lot of events. Well, and at the time, I used to, Dave would task me

with driving this one out at Moab. So all those years that we were making the Brute Double Cab,

I would pilot this thing around and super fun Jeep. Supercharged 5.7 liter, so it has a

6-speed Getrag 236. Oh, yeah. And this also had kind of one of the very first versions of the tubular

rack that sticks out past the bed sides. But this one was modified because you basically had a flat

rack on top, which is different than how the production versions look. And I remember a lot

of people asked you, like, how can I get that? I don't think you ever offered this one to the

public, right? Well, we could never ship them. That's the problem. We have, you know, here to this

day, we have a rack full of the RAM bed racks, but we can't ship them. Yeah, so if you want one,

come here and pick it up. Yeah, come here. You're more than welcome to pick one up.

Truck Show discount code is. Now, this, so this Brute Double Cab went through a restoration,

frame off restoration, I'd say about a year ago. Okay. You know, as you know, this was Dave's.

It was the first one that we ever built or he ever built. So we wanted to kind of bring it back

to its former glory. It was ridden hard and put away wet for sure. So we wanted to, you know,

treat it right. And yeah, I mean, this is, this is every bit of part of the history, like the old

four door TJs that he did back in the day or, you know, the countless other AV, you know,

builds. And this one was kind of cool because it used the way the bumper was set up. If you think

about it, it had a long overhang the way a pickup truck does, but it was like a blended version of,

like if you think of the, you know, JK bumper extended out with the swing out. So the skirt

tires vertical behind the tailgate and the fuel caddy worked with it and all that kind of stuff,

which is cool. Oh, and then check this out. This is a prospector XL on the old 17 inch wheels.

Yes. And it's funny, you like, if you see them side by side, you can definitely tell a difference,

but man, the 18s look good. They just like the proportions are so good on the 18.

Now, because you saw that, doesn't that look a little small?

It looks small. Not the tire, just the wheel. That's so funny. Like you would just,

walking by, you'd never notice, but the second you like look at it, it's like, oh, okay. Well,

here's another prospector. This is a 3500. I see the California clean idle. So this is some sort of

fleet or commercial deal. This is got the straight frame rail. So it's like, it's a cab.

Yeah. Somebody's putting something on the back of this. Is it a tray bed or?

I tend to think that this one is probably going to a builder like adventure trailers.

Okay. Okay. That makes sense.

You know, maybe bliss, something, something of that nature. Yeah. Okay.

And I only say that because there's no

patch. Yeah. If we had to cut out, we could assume this would be a truck house version.

Right. But this has is an XL, a regular crew cab, not a mega. And this is a 3500. So a flat frame

rail. So you know, it's a medium duty commercial truck cab and chassis from the factory, not one

with a bed removed. And that's one of the neat things with our cab chassis program that a lot

of people don't realize is, you know, let's just use Mario, for example. Say you've been looking

at campers and you have your mindset on an AT Overland camper, but you don't have the truck

yet. And you don't really know how to spec it or how to build it. Our cab chassis program exists

for that person. You know, it's a turnkey solution that we build. We can help with the whole

transaction and specking it out. And then when we're done with it, we ship it to your builder.

They put the camper on and then you don't even have to deal with the truck until it's done,

which is awesome. And then right next to it, same wheelbase, but it's a regular cab. Yes. And

so there's way more frame rail on this one visible and kind of similar deals. Got the California

holographic clean air. So I'm guessing this is probably either another builder, another fleet

type customer. This one's a little bit different. The one on the first one we talked about.

I don't know if it's a Cummins or not. Oh yeah, they're both Cummins. They're both

diesel because they have DEF. And this one has the lobe tube light bar instead of the brush guard on

it, but also super, super cool. This one also has a snorkel. So you're doing the snorkel for gas and

diesel on the Rams as well. Yeah. And the regular cabs, you can't get them with the night package

that this one has. You see how that's all monochrome, like everything's all blacked out. Yep. That's

not an option on the standard cabs. This one has the chrome grille. Yep. And next to it, this one is

one of the ones that I'm actually kind of curious about. This is a Rebel HD rather than a power wagon.

Yes. And so it is, think of it as a power wagon light in the heavy duty. He doesn't have a front

winch and things like that. It has 20 inch wheels instead of the 17s, but it does have Bilstein

shock. So it does. And I believe it does have a rear locker. Rear locker. Yep. Yep. Instead of the

front and rear like a power wagon does. So it's kind of like that half step if, and you get it

with diesel, which you can on a power wagon. So it's really like if you want off-road capability,

but you still need to tow and haul, a Rebel HD makes a lot more sense than a power wagon,

just on specs alone, especially if you want to go diesel. So this person did that. And then they said,

let's plus it up and make it a PXL. And with, since the introduction of the HD Rebel,

that has been a very popular option for us. Is that probably one of the number one packages,

base vehicles that come now for the AC? Yeah. I would say non Laramie. That's probably number two.

Laramie is probably still our bread and butter. There's one over there too. That's also HD Rebel.

Looks like by the wheels maybe. Yeah. But this is a custom painted truck. Yeah. The destroyer looks

like that also. Real popular on Rams. Yeah. And then let's see. You got another PXL. I like this one.

So this is, I believe, steel blue with a bronze Salta XD wheel. Listen, you know me. I'm partial

to bronze wheels. I like having a little bit of flash to it. I have been pushing for bronze

for a long time. I love them. So here's the thing. You can order, if you send your vehicle through

the AV of fit process, you can get your wheels painted any color you want. Almost. Almost any

founder. And you had sent me some photos a few days ago to tease me. Like, you know, I did a photo

shoot. Here's some teaser shots of your Jeep. And I sent some pictures and Dave is notorious for

like liking a muted wheel. Yes. Right. And I, years and years ago, I told him, I'm going to paint

my, my Salta's and he gave me a little bit of pushback. I'm going, well, I'd be off of your

Christmas card list. Right. So I know, I know it's not his favorite. And so I sent him a picture

to go, Hey, Matt sent me some of these pictures. Check it out. He just writes bold. So I, I am a

fan of having a little, especially if you have a dark truck. I love the kind of pop from the

wheels and everything else is sort of muted. This one is good. It's that kind of denim blue color,

which is really pretty. And there's some, there's some colors I just that really go well with the

bronze red being one of them white, black, this blue. It's just a great way to, you know,

look different. And the bronze that you guys have is really cool because it's a matte finish,

but it's still metallic. So like in the sun, it still has depth and texture and it's kind of

dark in the low lights and, but still pops in the highlights because of the metallic. So it's not

like this, this boring bronze, it's actually has some depth to it's a really pretty, and it's almost

shame to put on your wheels where they're going to get brake dust on it and scratched up on the

trail, but they look, it looks really good. Yeah. And, and, you know, our goal was to match that

392 bronze. Yeah. So many of our Jeep builds now are 392s. It's like a shocking amount. Well,

I remember when I got the red 392, we talked about building it up and your whole point at that time

was we want to build up a 392 because people think it's the ultimate Jeep and they don't need us

anymore. And now all of a sudden people are coming to you going, Hey, I need my 392 to be even better.

So it actually is a little bit different than, you know, five years ago or four years ago when

they came out where you guys were kind of concerned, like Jeep did all this stuff. It comes on 35s.

Is that going to affect our outfit? But I've seen, there's a 392 right there. There's one in

the lobby. You have a red one that is going home with me. So there's every wrangle I've seen today,

I think other than the, that's a JL have all been 392s. Yeah. Yeah. Except for one four by E.

There's one four by E that was here earlier. Yep. So how, how popular? Cause I've seen a ton of the

four by E's too. Has that been fairly popular or is it mostly just from places like California

that require the hybrids? It, it definitely seems to be more popular in New England and California.

But also it kind of has come in waves depending on how Jeep has incentivized because they had some

smoking deals for a while. Right. For a while. You know, it's cooled off a little bit now, but

but you have the ability to basically do all the same things to it. Like, yeah,

the nice thing about the Jeep four by E, especially the Wrangler platform, is everything

downstream from the transfer case and transmission is all the same. Right. So all the engine

electronics are up in the chassis. So your lift kits still work and your bumper still work and

all the stuff that you, your wheels still work, all the stuff that you would want to do, AV,

you can do to just about any vehicle in the Wrangler JT lineup, Gladiator lineup. Yeah. I,

I'm pretty sure the only option you can't get on a four by E are high capacity springs.

And that's it. That's it. Well, thanks for walking us through the shop. I took the 392,

my 392 out for a little 50 mile test drive. And I can't believe it's funny. Mine was a 23,

this one's a 25. And in 24, they did the mid cycle refresh for the updated dash,

the bigger screen. But what they also did is the active noise canceling, more sound insulation,

thicker carpet patting. It's like way quieter out of the box than my old one was. Yeah. And I was

like, damn, this thing is, this thing's really nice. And so everybody just talked through what I

did is I've got the three inch lifts. It's basically the two and a half inch dual sport,

but I put high capacity springs on it. I have the high steer kit on it, which brings the geometry,

the steering more in line with everything else and also gets that tie rod and the steering

stabilizer center or higher from the axle tubes. You're not whacking it on stuff. And then for

now I've got the 5100s on it. And it's rides like phenomenal. And let's face it, Michigan

doesn't have the best roads. And I drove from here up to Auburn Hills and back and it is like,

this thing is awesome because I was worried, I don't have any weight in it yet. I haven't put

the other stuff on. I got to drive 2,200 miles home. This isn't a ride like a chassis cab.

Right. And it's not. It's awesome. No. Yeah. It's a really nice setup. And as you know,

it's letting you get better with the more weight. Yeah. It's going to be way better. And just so,

you know, there's, I guess I want to put out there to Jeep people. There's some products coming. So

I have the new lower adjustable control arms. So that's something that is coming soon or yes,

you know, and then I have the high steer, which you guys just announced. Yes. And there's a few

other goodies that are coming out that I think if you have an AV Jeep right now, you're going to want

it's additive to the package or it's something that you can get in the future. So I won't say

what those things are yet, but what's awesome about it is you guys haven't stopped, you know,

innovating on JL and you haven't stopped doing the product. Oh, and the shovel. I had to get the

shovel. Yes. Yes. I mean, it's a stupid shovel, but you guys have on your tire carrier a slot for

a shovel. And for the longest time when you guys built that, there was one shovel on the market

that got basically, they don't make it anymore. Right. And so then you couldn't buy that shovel.

So you go to Home Depot and there's like two shovels, like a temper pure or true, true temper

and something else that was almost right, but you had to cut like four inches off of it and

rewrap. Yeah. And then if it was too long, it would dent the panel. Yeah. So you guys finally said

we're making a shovel. What was the process of making an AV stamp shovel? Because now I'm a proud

owner of one and I know it's bougie to have a $62 shovel, but I don't care because it's like,

it's like the star on the Christmas tree, right? Like it's the last thing that rounds out the packages

I have an AV shovel. Yeah. Well, I know crew will tell you that for a $60, $70 shovel, it has caused

him more headaches than it was worth. But yeah, you know, just like everything, it's a process.

We partnered with a company in Indiana. I mean, that's what they do. They make shovels. Yeah,

it's a shovel company. We need you to spec out what are your shovels to fit in our entire carrier.

But yeah, you know, it's at the end of the day, it's specking the spade and, you know, the design

for that. And then the handle, handle material length, what all that good stuff. Well, I'm happy

to have, you know, would be one of the first people who have an AV stamp shovel. I think that's

super cool. All right. Well, thanks for walking me through and checking out some of the outfit stuff.

Obviously, av-conversions.com. If you want to go check out and you guys have a new website coming

out. And we do. And you also have a builder's tool where you can take any of the platforms that

you do outfits on. And it's just like an OE site where you can spec it out and the picture will

change based on the price, including colors, all that stuff. Yep. Yep. And you pick your package

and then you can basically submit it to us, especially if you don't know where to buy it,

who to buy it from. You can submit your build and one of our representatives will reach out to you,

you know, figure out where you live, who to put you in, you know, who to connect you with.

And yeah, try and make it as easy and painless as possible. All right. So that goes for all you

Jeep, Ram, Chevy and GMC owners. Go to the website, check it out. And I'm sure we'll be talking a

lot more about my ADV Jeep 2.0 on the podcast and you'll be hearing more about what I do to that.

So thanks for the time. Thanks for getting me back to, I guess, normal. And I'm happy to have a

red AV Jeep again, because it's been painful last six months with that one. And every time a Jeep

drives by, my daughter will tell you we're driving and I'm like, oh, she's a Jeep. So I think she's

going to be happy. I finally have one again. So thank you. Yeah, absolutely. And we're not going

to call it a comeback, but I am so happy that you're, you know, that you're still here. Thank you.

And happy to see you get back on the road. And yeah, it's good seeing you again. Well,

hopefully next time I see you will be on the trail. Yes. The Truck Show podcast is a production of

Truckfamous LLC. This podcast was created by Sean Holman and Jay Tillis, hosted by Sean Holman,

and uses production elements by DJ Omar Khan and Jay Tillis. If you like what you've heard,

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Some vehicles may have been harmed during the making of this podcast.

S3, E52 - 392 Road Trip Day 2, American Expedition Vehicles

About this episode

Jeep Rubicon X

Jeep 392

Chevrolet ZR2

Chevrolet 2500 HD ZR2

Brute Double Cab

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