Andy and Mercedes Lillianthal share their experience tackling the grueling Alcan 5000 rally in a Honda Passport TrailSport, highlighting the vehicle's surprising off-road capability, comfort, and tech features. They discuss Honda's push into rugged midsize SUVs, comparing the Passport to competitors like the Toyota 4Runner and Subaru Outback. The episode also covers rally challenges, vehicle prep, and future adventure plans. Host Sean Holman adds updates on his Jeep upgrades and gear, plus listener voicemails with automotive insights and community shoutouts.
Friends of the show, Andy and Mercedes Lilienthal, tackle the Alcan 5000 in a new Honda Passport Trailsport, discovering in the process if it has the chops for adventure and Holman brings you up to speed on a ton of new products. The Truck Show Podcast is produced in partnership with AMSOIL, Kershaw Knives, and OVR Mag. Don't forget to check out truckshowpodcast.com for special offers from our friends and sponsors.
"ugly mount on the outside doesn't announce I have Starlink, it doesn't whatever just sits there, plug it in, boom, it's on and as I'm driving or camping or whatever, it's going to be perfect."
Starlink is a special internet service that works through satellites in space, so you can get internet even in places without regular coverage, like when you're camping.
Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, providing high-speed internet access especially useful in remote areas such as while camping or traveling.
"I've got my mount situation handled with the 67 designs, 55 series mount. And by the way, 67 designs makes the most awesome products. And I'm so mad at them, because they basically stopped selling to consumers unless you were a previous customer, and they're only doing military first responders and fleet."
67 Designs makes strong and well-made mounts and gear for trucks and off-road vehicles, but now they mostly sell to military and emergency workers instead of regular customers.
67 Designs is a company known for producing high-quality mounts and accessories, often used in off-road and adventure vehicles. They have shifted focus to selling primarily to military, first responders, and fleet customers.
"I've added the Mopark grab handles, aluminum pedals, which if you ever want to do aluminum pedals on a Gladiator or JT, they're, they're awesome, but boil them in water first."
The Jeep Gladiator is a truck version of the Jeep Wrangler that can go off-road and carry cargo in the back, making it good for adventures and work.
The Jeep Gladiator is a midsize pickup truck based on the Jeep Wrangler platform, known for its off-road capability and rugged design. The JT is the internal model code for the Gladiator.
"I've added the Mopark grab handles, aluminum pedals, which if you ever want to do aluminum pedals on a Gladiator or JT, they're, they're awesome, but boil them in water first."
Aluminum pedals are special metal pedals you can put in your car or truck that look nicer and last longer than regular pedals.
Aluminum pedals are aftermarket or upgraded pedals made from aluminum, often for improved durability, aesthetics, and grip compared to standard rubber or plastic pedals.
"So it was developed with Altrade for the JL and JTs, it's 83 pieces. So Altrade is I think they're a Taiwanese company, and they make a lot of private label tools for people like Ingressal Rand and a bunch of others."
Altrade is a company from Taiwan that makes good quality tools that other companies sell under their own names.
Altrade is a Taiwanese company that manufactures private label tools for various brands, known for producing high-quality and robust hand tools.
"So it was developed with Altrade for the JL and JTs, it's 83 pieces. So Altrade is I think they're a Taiwanese company, and they make a lot of private label tools for people like Ingressal Rand and a bunch of others. And they're really, really good tools. So Jeep worked with them. And it's more than good enough quality for your trail tool set, but it's really robust, has a JPP branded canvas bag, keeps all the tools in their own pockets, keeps them secure and from rattling."
The Jeep Wrangler is a tough SUV that can go off-road and has doors and roofs you can take off for fun.
The Jeep Wrangler is a popular off-road SUV known for its rugged design and removable doors and roof. The JL is the generation code for the Wrangler produced from 2018 onward.
"has a JPP branded canvas bag, keeps all the tools in their own pockets, keeps them secure and from rattling. And inside it comes with some nice quality Jeep branded tools, including sockets, which are all in rails, wrenches, ratchets, pliers, screwdriver, and a whole bunch more."
JPP means Jeep Performance Parts, which are special parts made just for Jeep vehicles to improve or customize them.
JPP stands for Jeep Performance Parts, a division of Jeep that produces branded accessories and upgrade parts tailored specifically for Jeep vehicles.
"supplement it with is maybe a torque wrench and a T55 Torx. It does have an 18 millimeter impact."
A torque wrench is a tool that helps you tighten bolts just right, not too loose or too tight, so things stay safe and work well.
A torque wrench is a tool used to precisely apply a specific torque to a fastener such as a nut or bolt, ensuring proper tightness without over-tightening.
"supplement it with is maybe a torque wrench and a T55 Torx. It does have an 18 millimeter impact."
T55 Torx is a special kind of screwdriver bit shaped like a star, used to turn certain screws on cars and trucks.
T55 Torx refers to a specific size of Torx screwdriver or bit, which is a star-shaped tool used for screws and bolts with a matching Torx head, commonly found in automotive applications.
"do. And it's fairly water resistant, rolls up nicely, and it's pretty compact. So Mopar sent that out. And I'm super stoked on that."
Mopar is the company that makes original parts and accessories for Jeep, Dodge, and other related vehicles.
Mopar is the parts, service, and customer care division of Stellantis, primarily supporting Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram vehicles with OEM parts and accessories.
"include the Factor 55 Ultra Hook on the front. And I had gotten it before my crash in a limited edition bronze color and it survived the crash because I hadn't taken it out of the box."
Factor 55 makes special hooks and gear that help you safely pull or tow your vehicle if it gets stuck.
Factor 55 is a company specializing in recovery gear and accessories for off-road vehicles, including the Ultra Hook, which is a safer alternative to traditional tow hooks.
"include the Factor 55 Ultra Hook on the front. And I had gotten it before my crash in a limited edition bronze color and it survived the crash because I hadn't taken it out of the box."
The Ultra Hook is a special hook that helps you safely attach a rope or cable to pull your vehicle without it coming loose.
The Ultra Hook is a recovery hook designed by Factor 55 that provides a secure and safe attachment point for winching and towing, replacing traditional tow hooks to reduce the risk of accidental release.
"include the Factor 55 Ultra Hook on the front. And I had gotten it before my crash in a limited edition bronze color and it survived the crash because I hadn't taken it out of the box."
Limited edition means only a small number of that item was made, so it's special and not many people have it.
A limited edition product is produced in restricted quantities, often featuring unique colors or features that distinguish it from standard versions, making it more collectible or exclusive.
"I did the Desert Desert seat jackers with the MMP, the multi mount panel. So now mounts my new Baddest Casey flashlight and Leatherman."
A multi mount panel is a board or panel on your vehicle where you can attach different tools or lights easily.
A multi mount panel (MMP) is a mounting system that allows multiple accessories like flashlights or tools to be securely attached to a vehicle in a modular and organized way.
"I did the Desert Desert seat jackers with the MMP, the multi mount panel."
Seat jackers are tools that let you lift your vehicle up by the seat area so you can change tires or fix things.
Seat jackers are lifting devices designed to fit under vehicle seats to help raise the vehicle for tire changes or repairs, commonly used in off-road vehicles.
"I definitely want to talk to Casey because they're doing some stuff beyond just vehicle lighting. That's really cool in the space right now."
Casey makes special lights and other gear for vehicles, especially for off-road use.
Casey is a company specializing in vehicle lighting and related accessories, known for innovative products in the off-road and automotive lighting space.
"So now mounts my new Baddest Casey flashlight and Leatherman. I definitely want to talk to Casey because they're doing some stuff beyond just vehicle lighting."
Leatherman makes handy tools that have many functions in one, like knives and pliers, useful for fixing things on the go.
Leatherman is a well-known brand that produces multi-tools combining several tools like pliers, knives, and screwdrivers into a single compact device, popular for outdoor and automotive use.
"And because the 392 hood is so heavy, it's nice to have a hydraulic struts on it instead of the prop rod."
The Jeep 392 is a powerful Jeep with a big V8 engine that makes it strong for off-road driving and towing.
The Jeep 392 is a high-performance variant of Jeep models equipped with a 6.4-liter V8 engine (392 cubic inches), known for its power and off-road capability.
"It also was great for showing off my new Optima lithium orange top battery, which we installed for the Overland Expo SoCal show this past weekend."
A lithium battery is a type of car battery that is lighter and lasts longer than regular batteries.
Lithium batteries use lithium-ion technology to provide lighter weight, higher energy density, and longer life compared to traditional lead-acid automotive batteries.
"It also was great for showing off my new Optima lithium orange top battery, which we installed for the Overland Expo SoCal show this past weekend."
Optima makes strong car batteries that last long and work well, including special lightweight lithium ones.
Optima is a brand known for high-performance automotive batteries, including their lithium-ion models like the Optima lithium orange top battery, favored for durability and power delivery.
"which we installed for the Overland Expo SoCal show this past weekend. My Jeep was in Optima's booth."
Overland Expo is a big show where people who like off-road and adventure travel come together to see cool vehicles and gear.
Overland Expo is a popular event focused on overland and adventure travel, showcasing vehicles, gear, and technology for off-road and long-distance travel.
"I love the fact that it has a BMF that turns itself off at 35%. So all you do is turn it back on and you have room to start."
BMF is a smart feature in some batteries that helps keep the battery safe by turning it off when the charge is too low.
BMF stands for Battery Management Function, a feature in some batteries that helps protect the battery by turning itself off at a certain charge level to prevent damage.
"enough power left over to jumpstart yourself. I think that's huge for people who travel remote by themselves, overlanding excursions, things like that, because you don't have to have another vehicle to jumpstart you."
Jumpstarting means giving your car a boost to start it when its battery is dead, usually by connecting it to another battery or a special device.
Jumpstarting is the process of starting a vehicle by using an external power source, typically another vehicle's battery or a portable battery, to provide enough electrical current to start the engine when the vehicle's own battery is dead or weak.
"I think that's huge for people who travel remote by themselves, overlanding excursions, things like that, because you don't have to have another vehicle to jumpstart you."
Overlanding means going on long trips in your vehicle to faraway places, camping and exploring along the way.
Overlanding is a form of self-reliant adventure travel to remote destinations where the journey is the primary goal, often involving off-road vehicles equipped for camping and extended trips.
"They got a, my dad is getting close to retirement. And he had an old RDX. My mom's like, listen, it's got 130,000 miles, like you're still working, get a new car."
The Honda RDX is a type of SUV made by Honda. It's a bit fancy and comfortable, good for people who want a nice and reliable car that's not too big.
The Honda RDX is a compact luxury crossover SUV produced by Honda, known for its blend of performance, comfort, and technology features. It is popular among buyers looking for a reliable and practical vehicle with upscale touches.
"So yeah, no problem. So CRV comes to the house. I get in it. I hadn't been in a Honda in a while. Everything's exactly where I remember it always in every Honda, right?"
The Honda CR-V is a small SUV made by Honda. It's good for families and everyday driving because it's comfortable and uses gas efficiently.
The Honda CR-V is a compact crossover SUV that has been one of Honda's best-selling models worldwide. It is known for its practicality, fuel efficiency, and comfortable interior, making it a popular choice for families and daily drivers.
"Well, and to your point, I really think that the only real issue that I've seen is, again, just a little bit more ground clearance. It's at 8.3, 8.5 or so. If you were able to get 10 inches of ground clearance and a slightly bigger tire on there, obviously, they're already killing it."
Ground clearance means how high the bottom of the car is from the ground. The higher it is, the easier it is to drive over rocks or bumps without scraping.
Ground clearance is the distance between the lowest point of a vehicle's undercarriage and the ground. It is a critical factor for off-road capability, allowing a vehicle to clear obstacles without damage.
"A couple of the things that they put in here is redesigned lower front and rear bumpers to improve approach and departure angle, extended aluminum skid plate with additional underbody protection, including the center bearing"
Approach and departure angles tell you how steep a hill your car can go up or down without the front or back bumpers scraping the ground.
Approach and departure angles are measures of the steepest incline or decline a vehicle can climb or descend without the front or rear bumpers hitting the ground. These angles are important for off-road vehicles to navigate obstacles without damage.
"Yeah, totally. Now we know about the vehicle. Let's talk about the Alkan 5000 this year. Yeah. So this was the 2025 was a summer rally and they're actually doing back-to-back summer rally."
The Alcan 5000 is a big driving event where people drive a long way from Washington to Alaska, sometimes on rough roads. It's like a race but you have to be very accurate with your timing, not just fast.
The Alcan 5000 is a long-distance rally event that takes place in the summer, covering challenging routes from Washington state to Alaska and beyond. It combines elements of endurance driving and time-speed-distance competition over thousands of miles, including off-road sections.
"There's a road that it's the Alaska Highway that runs from just the Alaska border through, I'm trying to think how far down it goes, but it's really bad. But when you cross the border at on the Alaska Highway from Alaska into British Columbia or vice versa, that road is horrible."
The Alaska Highway is a long road that connects Alaska to Canada and is known for being rough and bumpy, making it hard to drive on.
The Alaska Highway is a historic and rugged road that runs from the Alaska border through parts of Canada, known for its challenging driving conditions including rough terrain and potholes.
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Glad to have you back for another episode of the Truck Show podcast.
I'm your host, Holman, and we are recording from our Podshed studio in lovely Huntington Beach,
California. On this episode, we welcome back our friends Andy and Mercedes Lillianthal to talk
about their latest adventure, this time the Alkin 5000. And in a vehicle that's raised a
lot of eyebrows in the industry. So we can't wait to share this one with you. And yeah,
it's been another busy week of getting things prepped for Easter Jeep Safari. That's coming up
soon. And I made a trip down to Bilstein for a killer shock upgrade on the Adventure Jeep.
So we'll cover that in a future episode as well as adding the Apex Designs air links,
pneumatic sway bar end links, just another batch of odds and ends trying to get this thing ready to
go. And I think I figured out the most awesome Starlink setup ever for a Jeep Wrangler JL,
especially for a hardtop. So with the hardtop being fiberglass, obviously doesn't block the
signal, right? Well, if you look on the back roll bar of a Wrangler, there's like two bungs
on either side, those are used for the soft top. And if you don't have a soft top, they're just
open holes sitting there. So it turns out it's the same size as a, I guess would be a 3816
NC thread. So I threaded that with a tap, and I bought a one and a half inch, I guess a size class
D ram ball that was threaded to a 3816, screwed it into the back. So that was perfect.
And then I got their swivel mount, there's like a medium arm that pivots in the middle,
and they're starting mini mount, which snaps into the dish. And I basically have that up out of the
way, it holds the dish right up against the ceiling, I left about an inch for air gap,
because it does get warm from either the ceiling or from being used. And it's perfect. It doesn't
rattle, doesn't move, doesn't make noise, it's not in the way of anything. And I'm like super
stoked because I made this really simple mount, it's totally hidden from the outside. The fastest
I've had in the city, which was pretty good, I'll test it later this week when I'm driving
across the desert, but in the city, I got 130 megabytes per second download speed. And I don't
know, it was like 15 or 16 up while driving. So that was super rad. And didn't have to have any
ugly mount on the outside doesn't announce I have Starlink, it doesn't whatever just sits there,
plug it in, boom, it's on and as I'm driving or camping or whatever, it's going to be perfect.
So super stoked on that don't have it up out in the air stream, it's it's hidden and whatever,
it's just it's going to be great. So was kind of proud of myself for for figuring that one out.
So let's see, since doing the exhaust sound deadening and expel, I've got my mount situation
handled with the 67 designs, 55 series mount. And by the way, 67 designs makes the most awesome
products. And I'm so mad at them, because they basically stopped selling to consumers unless
you were a previous customer, and they're only doing military first responders and fleet.
What a dumb idea. I'm so bummed about that. They were some of my favorite mounts, really well
designed, really high quality. And I think they're just selling through their stocked old customers
as long as they have it, which is quite the bummer. So anyway, I'm mad at 67 designs. On top of that,
I've added the Mopark grab handles, aluminum pedals, which if you ever want to do aluminum
pedals on a Gladiator or JT, they're, they're awesome, but boil them in water first. It'll
save you so much time, they just snap right over the old pedals and they contract when they cool
down and they're perfect. The 392 needs a little bit of bling. So I added that to the pedals,
and door sill plates, got this rad JPP toolkit also. So it was developed with Altrade for the
JL and JTs, it's 83 pieces. So Altrade is I think they're a Taiwanese company, and they make a lot
of private label tools for people like Ingressal Rand and a bunch of others. And they're really,
really good tools. So Jeep worked with them. And it's more than good enough quality for your
trail tool set, but it's really robust, has a JPP branded canvas bag, keeps all the tools in their
own pockets, keeps them secure and from rattling. And inside it comes with some nice quality Jeep
branded tools, including sockets, which are all in rails, wrenches, ratchets, pliers, screwdriver,
and a whole bunch more. And it's all tailored to the components on a Wrangler or Gladiator.
And so it's basically all the things you need and nothing that you don't. And I'm really looking
forward to having this nice piece of kit on board. It's super complete. I think all I would
supplement it with is maybe a torque wrench and a T55 Torx. It does have an 18 millimeter impact.
So you just maybe want an extension for your Milwaukee, if you bring that on the trail like I
do. And it's fairly water resistant, rolls up nicely, and it's pretty compact. So Mopar sent
that out. And I'm super stoked on that. And it's nice to have a bunch of tools that you know are
perfect for the vehicle. There's room to supplement with other stuff too. If you have other
equipment on there that are different sizes. So other than that, I've been doing upgrades that
include the Factor 55 Ultra Hook on the front. And I had gotten it before my crash in a limited
edition bronze color and it survived the crash because I hadn't taken it out of the box. I was
going to install it in Moab last year. So I went ahead and put it on the Jeep. So I got the little
bit of bling when you do the AV bumpers, things like the bronze tow hooks go away. So I've been
slowly adding some bronze accents back. So I love having the Factor 55 Ultra Hook there.
I did the Desert Desert seat jackers with the MMP, the multi mount panel. So now mounts my new
Baddest Casey flashlight and Leatherman. I definitely want to talk to Casey because they're
doing some stuff beyond just vehicle lighting. That's really cool in the space right now. So
we'll have to get them. And then I also put on the Redline hood straps. I had them on the old Jeep.
And because the 392 hood is so heavy, it's nice to have a hydraulic struts on it instead of the
prop rod. And it also was great for showing off my new Optima lithium orange top battery,
which we installed for the Overland Expo SoCal show this past weekend. My Jeep was in Optima's
booth. And we'll talk more about that new battery in a future episode. I'm doing a little data
acquisition for them. They traded me the battery for having my Jeep in the booth. But I'm actually
helping them with recording heat, temperature, how it works in the 392. It's really cool. So
we'll talk more in depth about that in a future episode. But I love the fact that it has an app.
I love the fact that it has a BMF that turns itself off at 35%. So all you do is turn it back
on and you have room to start. Or if you run it down in general, you still have a, I guess it's
the Optima CPR button where it basically partitions a part of the battery. So you have more than
enough power left over to jumpstart yourself. I think that's huge for people who travel remote
by themselves, overlanding excursions, things like that, because you don't have to have another
vehicle to jumpstart you. You can just do it within the battery. That is massive. And also the
cool thing, my old battery, my HGM factory one came out to 67 pounds or something like that.
And this new QH6 orange top is like 22 pounds. So also saving some weight there, which is,
which is also very cool. So anyway, I'm getting ready to head out to American Adventure Lab
tomorrow. We're going to finish out the install on the next week off to Easter Jeep Safari. So
it's going to be super busy the next couple of weeks. And I just want to say one more thing,
shout out to see a bunch of listeners at the OC Fairgrounds, the Overland Show,
like Frank and Marco. And for Marco, gotta give a little shout out to Benelos, New York Pizza
in San Pedro. And Marco, I promise I'm coming for those glass bottles of Dr. Pepper and lunch,
one of these days. Hopefully next month, when I get back from EJS, I'm putting on the calendar,
I'm getting down there and we'll have a little bit of fun. So I appreciate seeing everybody
there. Appreciate everybody who came up and said, hi, the ones who gave me hugs, because they
hadn't seen me in a while or since the accident. We're like, wow, dude, you look good. So it was
nice to see people, but appreciate all you guys. And it was a really great show this weekend. And
next up, AL and then off the Moab. And this will be my, my, my true redemption run, right?
Is I'm going to be driving out for Easter Jeep Safari. It'll be one year since, since the
accident. So all right, before I get too hungry thinking about Benelos Pizza and leave the studio
to grab a slice with Marco, we should probably get into the show. The Truck Show podcast is
proudly brought to you in partnership with Amsoil, the maker of the best synthetics and the same
ones that we I use in our rigs. Amsoil is more than just synthetic oil. They make some of the
finest lubes, greases, additives, filters, car care products. And they have some great merch,
including the Amsoil t-shirt I'm wearing today. We use Amsoil products to protect our rigs.
And you can do the same by heading to amsoil.com. And if you need a knife, then you want to head
over to kershaw.kaiusa.com and explore that company's line of exceptional pocket knives.
They have a huge selection of quality knives from EDCs, made in American knives. And yes,
even automatics, score one for yourself today. If you want to treat yourself to the latest
and adventure gear and upgrades for your vehicle, then go to ovrmag.com and use the code
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tab, you can see all the discounts we offer through a lot of our friends and guests, including
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All right.
5,000 with our friends Mercedes and Andy Lillian fall. Welcome to the truck show podcast. I've
got two of my friends on the horn. We got Andy and Mercedes Lillian fall some of our favorite
explorers. You guys probably remember the last time they came on because they were doing the Trans
America Trail in a Subaru because they're crazy. And this next version is we did the Alcan 5000
we've had you guys on before, but in a brand new Honda passport trail sport, but first we got to
do the jingle.
All right, welcome back to the show guys. Good to see both of you. Thanks for having us.
The Honda passport trail sport we've talked about a little bit on the show.
It's kind of a big deal because if you look at Honda, Honda is really good in off road,
except it's in UTVs and motorcycles and ATVs, but it's never really translated to the automotive
side. And so some American engineers really pushed on management said we want to do something special
with the next Honda passport. Give us a little leeway. We want to build something we understand
that it's a unibody. We understand that it doesn't have low range, but we think we can push this
next generation platform to be really close and at least competitive with the Toyota 4Runner.
And we're going to do it with technology. We're going to do it with our Honda engineering acumen.
And the sales numbers are in in the very first year. Trail sports outsold every other trim
was it eight to one? Yeah, it was something like that. I don't even know how to describe it. If
you're a product planner, there is zero chance that you've ever planned for one level of your
trim walk to go eight to one. I mean, they must just be ecstatic and going, oh, wait a minute,
we don't even have to build brand equity in this space. We already have it. We just had to provide
the product and you guys got a chance to drive it and live in it. And in some harsh conditions,
like I'm excited from your first person point of view, what you think, because the results are
in from the buying public, it's a great looking vehicle. People love it. And it's very capable.
The funny thing is, I don't think I've seen a non trail sport passport and flash.
Yeah, I actually attended the launch of it in Puerto Rico last year and was initially impressed
with it. But you know, you're on a curated off road track or driving it on road. So when we did
the Alcan 5000, which was over 5000 miles, we were doing exactly what the the passport trail
sport is good at, which is bad roads, dirt roads, that kind of stuff. We weren't rock crawling. We
weren't blasting over dunes, that kind of stuff. The summary of it is it did very well. We won our
class with it, largest class at the Alcan 5000. I was in a previous iteration of a trail sport
model, the pilot trail sport a couple of years ago in 2023, when I did the rebel rally. So that
was an older iteration. But that's when I became familiar with the trail watch camera system that
they had that was very expensive and super great at that time. It just has a button at the end of
the wiper stock that you just push and then it goes on and off and it's just I'm short in height.
So to being able to feel this this big hood even at that time was great. And I did about 1500 miles
over eight days. And that was pretty much off road. So you did more rock crawling, you were in
the same dunes and you were on a lot of surfaces that you weren't per se with the Alcan 5000.
It's basically your midsize SUV. It's like explorer sized, if you will. And it's pretty
wide for Honda. It's really roomy. It's sort of got that the newer Honda design, at least on the
interior design philosophy, it's very similar. So if you are a Honda customer now, the nice thing
about Honda is you kind of go from one Honda to another and everything's in the exact same spot,
right? There's no big learning curve. They're just great. It looks a lot more squared off and a lot
more, I don't know, just the stance. It looks more rugged than before. But looks are only part of the
story. Maybe talk about some of the things that TrailSport is specifically. And to your point,
Andy, I haven't seen any non-TrailSports either. Every time I see one, I go, oh, it's a TrailSport.
The TrailSport has legitimate skid plates. They're not just like plastic that with some, you know,
metal bolted to them. They're real skid plates. Real steel ones. Which real steel ones.
You can actually get factory rock sliders, which I was like, really like, okay. And the funny thing
about it is, whenever I talk about this kind of thing to people, they're like, like, why would
you need it? It's not even a big, you know, like big lift to truck. I'm like, that's exactly why you
need it. Exactly. Yeah. They're very, very slim. And they have a replaceable bash panel that is
actually aluminum. So if you do hit it and they get really mangled, you can actually replace them.
That's a fantastic idea. And you can barely see them. Yeah. They tucked up nice and tight. And I
mean, when we first got the vehicle and we were outfitting it for the rally, I had to look underneath
and go, are they really there? Are they installed? Yeah, sure enough, they were. And they just looked
great. Super sleek. The all-wheel drive system also was really, really good on bad roads. We
ran a very long Trail to Telegraph Creek, British Columbia. It was terrible weather. It was raining
and it was muddy. And I thought, well, you know, there's like, I'm going to see if I can at least
make this thing lose traction. And I mean, I really, really had to, I had to do dumb things if I was
going to make it lose traction. And we were not in an area you wanted to do dumb things. So the
traction was really good. The general all-terrain tires that come with it, which I believe were
co-designed. They were co-designed with Honda in general. Yeah. And those are the Grabber 80s
sports, I believe. They really, really did well. Now, again, we're not talking about
going to Moeben, you know, running trails or rock crawling. Although the engineering team did do
that. Yes, it's true. But the tire combination, the all-wheel drive, and it had plenty, it had
enough power for sure. It did really, really well. I just drove, actually I can't even talk about it,
just drove a 4x4 trim action. That's all I can tell you at this point. So, but it's a similar
category. Without telling us how that did, probably because there's some embargo or something,
does the Honda hold its own? It does. Yeah, the Honda holds its own for sure. The only thing I
would have liked to have seen was a little bit more ground clearance. I believe it has 8.3 inches
of ground clearance for member correctly. And it would have been nice to hit that nine inch at
least. Yeah, we did a little bit of off-roading with it in California before we went in outside
of Anaheim. There were a few times where it was like, okay, I could use just a little bit more
ground clearance if you were going to do that. But from a long distance, all-wheel drive, foul
weather vehicle, it was exemplary. And when we were doing that dirt trail down in California,
that was with our partner's rally innovations and also Baja Designs. We ran a prototype light bar
set up with them. And they, our rally innovations actually got so much great feedback. And they
took a look at what the bar did after we put it through its paces in mud, snow, or not snow,
but in rain and a lot of, a lot of dirt. And it looks like they're going to be going into production
with it. You know, if you were at SEMA and you went to the Honda booth, it's a little bit shocking
because there was a trail sport there that was covered in a bunch of prototype accessories
that you, that wouldn't be uncommon to see on a Jeep, on a Bronco. And it's like, okay,
they're looking at this seriously, like tire carrier. And I know they had an exhaust set up on
there. They had the rock rails, they had tow points, things like that. And it looked really good.
Yes, all that. Yeah. And, you know, back to 2023 when I ran Rebel, there were three of us
teams, two of the engineering teams that had modified passport and pilot. And then I had a
bone stock vehicle. So mine just had max of tires on it. And basically everything else is bone stock
because that's the category that they wanted me as a journalist, driver and media to run. But
everything else is customized with, you know, friends to bumpers and this and that. And then
roof racks and a lot of prototype equipment there too. Do you feel like there was any penalty?
And I'll couch this with this caveat. And that is that as journalists were used to,
as enthusiasts, we're used to degrading our vehicles for better performance in one area.
But do you feel like there was much of a penalty in terms of vibration, road noise, fuel economy
in the trail sport versus a standard passport? I don't think so at all. The general tires were,
it didn't provide access, no ways or anything like that. And I felt that it was a vehicle I could have,
I mean, I would have said driven to cross the country, we basically.
Yeah, just north.
Well, we drove it across North America. But, you know, we did have accessories that we ran
their brand new roof platform rack too, which, which people kind of freaked out when we posted it
online and talked about our partnership saying, Oh my God, I've never even seen one of you guys
running it. They wanted to know everything about it. So, you know, I made sure to take some videos
of it and whatnot. And we had that outfitted with some max track extreme recovery boards. We had
a will pack pro box from front runner on there. We had a five gallon fuel container on it.
I didn't notice much more as far as wind noise or any rattling. I mean, it really was a super solid
vehicle. And that's a lot to say, even I think it was a, wasn't it a late stage pre production?
It was, it was a pre production model, but it was, it was pretty solid. Yeah. And I keep telling
people, you know, if they can do, well, yeah, but it's not a full runner. I'm like, well, okay, look,
you know, you got to select the right tool for the job. If you need low range,
then the passport's not free. If you need low range, the passport is not what you want. But
if you are looking for something that doesn't have low range, it's a hundred percent worth looking
at. And I'm not, I don't, I don't have, I'm not being paid to say that. Like that is, it was truly a,
a, a very good to me. It feels like it's 90% of what you would get capability-wise
of a four runner, but you would have better fuel economy. You would have a little nicer ride,
all the handling benefits of a, of a unibody, and you're not hauling around the, you know,
two speed transfer case. And, you know, it's, it comes nicely equipped. So V six, it's Honda's
tried and shrewd 3.5 liter, right? And 285 horsepower, 10 speed automatic transmission. So
there's plenty of gearing in that, in that box. The nice thing about it though, is it has the
IVTM four torque vectoring all wheel drive, which I believe is the same one that is in,
was MDX. And is it also in the Ridgeline, I believe? I believe so. Yeah. So that's a really
good rear drive unit as well. So it gets 8.3 inches of ground clearance. And the 18 inch wheels
have 31 inch tires mounted on them, which a long time ago, like when we were kids,
31s were like, everything, oh, I got 31s on it, right? They don't sound that big today,
but it's definitely proportional to the vehicle. And the way I like to think about it, in fact,
I just had a friend call me last week and he said, four runner or password. So well, what's your
business or what's your use case? And he said, well, I'm moving to Idaho, and I'm going to mostly
be on, you know, snowy roads in, you know, winter, but we have some property that's a dirt road
that I can get down. So I just, I need all wheel drive. I'm not really taking off road. It's just
going to be my daily driver. If I need that little bit of extra capability, I'm like,
get the passport, you know, and, and he ended up picking up a red trail sport elite. And so that
adds the trail watch camera, the ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, and you get the,
the Bose 12 speaker system on it. And he's already texted me saying, this thing's awesome.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. This is what I want. But the way I look at it
for most enthusiasts is it's kind of like a plus step family car. And if you are honestly
there's plenty of vehicles out there, I would rather have the passport than some of the other
all wheel drive vehicles that have marketed themselves into the space. But I think if you
were visiting a national park, like let's say Joshua tree, or maybe even a death valley where
you wanted to go see some of the sites that are off road, but not necessarily a trail, you have
zero issues taking the, you know, taking the passport down that type or extending your adventure
a little bit further off the beaten path. Yeah. No, I agree. And I, and, you know, when I, again,
this is the older iteration with the pilot trail sport, but I was very pleasantly pleased with,
with everything that I did do. And I thought, Oh, this is going to be a problem. And then it
wasn't. And then, you know, and it ended up being that kind of a cadence where it just was that
much more capable than what I was thinking it was. And again, that was back in 2023. So of
course, we're a passport a few years now. Yeah. So all wheel drive on the passport transport works
really well. And you know, the forerunners are great vehicle too for what it is. Absolutely. Yeah.
I always think it's a bit of an odd comparison. I felt like you should really be carrying it,
comparing it more to like the Kia Tellurale or even Subaru Outback. I think it would be another
one like the new Outback. But the price is pretty amazing. I mean, you're looking at
low to mid 50s, nicely equipped. Exactly. Right. Exactly. Right. Some of the other
comparable vehicles, you're looking at upwards of mid 60s. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, you may get a
little you're probably going to get a little more power if you spend $65,000. But I thought
for what you get with the transport, it's good. You mentioned that whole thing with you get into
one Honda and you get into another. It's very similar. You know, Honda has long been known
for its ergonomics. Yeah. It's easy, you know, easy to use things are where you want them like
we've owned, you know, nine Hondas between the two of us. That's like,
you know, they're known for that mechanical or excuse me for engineering and for ergonomics and
they're an engineering company. It's a motor company. It's not Honda car company. And you know,
if you look at a lot of those little engineering tricks, whether it's the hidden trunk in the
floor of a ridgeline or getting the most out of a civic type R or whatever, like I've owned
four or five of them. We were Honda family growing up, learned how to drive on Hondas.
I always love the cars. It's just and even today, like, you know, get into my mom and dad just
funny. They got a, my dad is getting close to retirement. And he had an old RDX. My mom's like,
listen, it's got 130,000 miles, like you're still working, get a new car. I don't want to
want to scream on all that stuff. And so I called up Honda and I said, I think I talked to Carl.
I'm like, Hey, can I get a loaner? My parents are looking to get one. And I just want to
give them a chance to experience it before they pull the trigger. So yeah, no problem. So
CRV comes to the house. I get in it. I hadn't been in a Honda in a while. Everything's exactly where
I remember it always in every Honda, right? And even some of the, you know,
iconography was the same as like my old accord from the 80s or my civic SI, you know, the 2000s.
And I brought it over, they drove it and they ended up buying my dad a new one. And then my mom had
a 2016 CRV and she says, Hey, we're going to give this CRV to Marin. I bought myself a new CRV
today also. So they have a his and hers CRV because they liked them so much. You know, it just goes
to show like the loyalty with Honda, the way they think about their customers, the way that they
solve problems. And what I'm especially interested about, and we don't talk about Honda too much
on the show, but I love the Passport. There's a couple of things. One is the engineers and the
accessories side worked together and said, Listen, we know that this isn't going to be an
enthusiast vehicle without an accessory. So we're going to build that out and try and draw interest,
which is great. The other thing is because of the success that they've had, I've heard some
rumblings that they sort of have the green light to push a little further down the line. And I'm
sure that's some scuttle, but on the industry side, but it sounds like this experiment paid off
and Honda is going to push harder into this category. Yeah, I know that they make the
TrailSport version of the pilot. They make the TrailSport version of the Ridgeline. They even
make a CRV TrailSport. So I think they've definitely struck gold. And I think it also talks to a
larger trend within the industry of people wanting something from the factory that's got a little
bit more ground clearance, the factory all trains. Looks a little bit nicer. Yeah. And you know,
they can go down that dirt road that they always wanted to go down. They wanted to maybe go to
that mountain bike trail that they always wanted to see. Or, hey, you know, they're in Death Valley
and always kind of wonder, hey, wonder what's up in that hill and they can go do that. And I think
that that represents, for me, something that is, you know, having worked in the off-road industry
for nearly 20 years, I identify with that. I have been in, you know, my previous, when I have,
completely on-road car and went, hey, I'd really love to go down. Yeah, no, not in this car. Yeah.
So, you know, letting people get out there and see a little bit more, I think, is a neat thing.
Well, and especially building vehicles that have the capability, not just look like the things they
can. Well, and to your point, I really think that the only real issue that I've seen is, again,
just a little bit more ground clearance. It's at 8.3, 8.5 or so. If you were able to get 10 inches
of ground clearance and a slightly bigger tire on there, obviously, they're already killing it.
They sold 55,000 of them last year. I don't even know if it was a full year, but
they've got the attention of the buyer. I think that there's a little bit more that you could do
with that platform. That would be, you know, pretty awesome. Well, and especially if you're
looking at, you know, the wilderness series of Subaru, I mean, the embargo just dropped
for driving impressions on the Elfhack wilderness. I just went to that launch
in the Healdsburg area of California. They've got 9.3 or 9.5, actually. You know,
9.5 compared to 8.3, that's a market difference. That's a big difference.
The aftermarket is there, starting to show up too for the Passport-Trailsport,
and people are putting two inches of lift on them, and they're kind of hitting that 10-inch
ground clearance mark. Yeah. I was looking at the Honda Racing,
press release that they did around SEMA, just because I was trying to remember
everything that was done on the Trailsport HRC concept. And a couple of the things that
they put in here is redesigned lower front and rear bumpers to improve approach and departure
angle, extended aluminum skid plate with additional underbody protection, including the center bearing
on the prop shaft and rear drive unit. It had new front and rear dampers, a one-off exhaust system,
which I believe was a Borla system with a 60-millimeter suspension lift. So that's
basically 60 millimeters plus one inch in tire diameter, so a 32 versus a 31. By the way,
awesome. And then they did the spare tire mounted on the back in order to get it off
of the ground on the back. And I was sitting there thinking, wow, this thing really looks the part.
They also did upgraded fog lights. They did the ditch lights, chase lights in a zone control system
so that you can have all or just parts of them on and then the low-profile roof rack. And then
the concept also had an 8,000-pound winch and integrated air compressor. So tell me that they're
not serious about taking that further because to me, those are all the areas that you would
want to hit to like, okay, we open the door, how do we get more people to walk in or take
us seriously in this space? And I think for a lot of people, again, maybe you don't need the rear
locker, maybe you don't need the low-range, maybe it's a commuter car, so you still have to have
more efficiency. There's like a really sweet white spot in the market where there's not exactly an
apples-to-apples competitor where I think the Passport, TrailSport sort of fits this little
niche. And then it's also grabbing people on the edges who they're like, well, I don't need that,
but it looks so cool. That's the one I want. Right, for sure. For sure. I tell people, I'm sad
too, like, look, there are plenty of people that need their F-150 or their Silverado or
whatnot that is a real truck. But for a lot of people, like something like a Ridgeline, for
examples, as much truck as many truck owners really do need now, I can hear people going,
oh, that guy doesn't know what you're talking about. But look, I know plenty of people.
Andy does, just so you guys know, Andy does. But I know plenty of people that just buy a
pickup truck because they want to have a pickup truck. I feel like it's a little bit the same
with vehicles like the Passport, TrailSport, where how many forerunner owners are really
using the full capability at low range? I totally get it. I have three vehicles with
low-range transfer cases. I get it. And I have one without. But they're different use cases.
Yeah, totally. Now we know about the vehicle. Let's talk about the Alkan 5000 this year.
Yeah. So this was the 2025 was a summer rally and they're actually doing back-to-back summer
rally. So there'll be a summer rally this year as well. And then it started in Kirkland, Washington.
So just outside of the Seattle area. And then that year, 2025 went all the way up to Fairbanks,
Alaska. And we did also a little bit of an optional route to Eagle Plains, which is farther up the
Dempster Highway halfway to the town of the Novick in Northwest Territory. So that was an
actually we went farther than that. We went to the Arctic Circle. So we may have been the first
Passport, TrailSport at the Arctic Circle. But it's an incredible trip. You know, it usually
happens every two years. Summer winner, summer winner. And then every now and then they have to
space it out. They'll add a second iteration. Well, and it is part trip, but it also is competition.
So it's a TSD or a time-speed distance competition. So it's all based on accuracy, not like sliding
sideways as fast as you can go to get to a certain checkpoint like Sage Rally is. This rally was our
first, that was 11 days for the Alkan 5000 versus 10. And I believe it was about what, 5500 miles?
If you did all of the extreme option routes, which we always do, because of course we needed
tested on all the dirt and gravel. And it was about 1000 miles of dirt and gravel.
So about a fifth of it was all off base. Yeah. Over 11 days up in Alaska and in the
Yukon and in British Columbia. Just think about that for a second. Even the good pavement, which
is marginally okay, has a lot of potholes, a lot of cracks, a lot of, you know, it's frosty,
because we call them kind of whoops. It's funny. You learn a lot about things. You don't think
about it, but you're like on a trip like that, you're in so many different conditions. So
you learn about mundane things like, how did the defroster work? Or how did the mudflaps work? Or
by the end of it, you know, like, how's the structural rigidity and how's the suspension
with squeaks and rattles? And how's the windshield angle, right? I mean, all. And how many
pop marks do you have or cracks do you have from the windshield? Because, you know,
everybody has massively split windshields up there. That was our fourth Alkan last year. And
this was the first one we didn't break the windshield on it. We had a really good couple of
kids and one big one that I thought was going to go. There's a road that it's the Alaska Highway
that runs from just the Alaska border through, I'm trying to think how far down it goes,
but it's really bad. But when you cross the border at on the Alaska Highway from Alaska
into British Columbia or vice versa, that road is horrible. We call it the Frostheave Highway
and it is unbelievable. You want to test out your shocks if they're so good? That's a good place
to do it. You want to test out your stomach too? That's a good place. As a navigator. Yeah.
There's potholes besides the moon craters. It's just so it was a good place to really see how well
the vehicle performed. And it's nice. I will. I'm not going to lie. Like having the inter-independent
suspension was nice on my kidneys compared to like a solid axle vehicle. And there was one thing,
though, since this was a pre-production model that you were talking about that was a struggle
that I remember and that was the steering. Yeah. But you talked to Honda about that. I did. Yeah,
I found the steering really, really heavy. And in talking with Honda, they said that's a pre-production
thing. We sorted that out. So it's not as heavy as I had initially thought it was. Yeah. Well,
I've noticed with Japanese manufacturers that sometimes their engineering teams equate heaviness
with road feel and feedback. Nissan was like that on the Titan was really heavy. And that was one
of my complaints. It's like, it's just too heavy. And they're like, yeah, but we put in really good
road feedback. And I'm like, you can balance those two things a little bit better. Like it wasn't
bad, but it was noticeable. And I've noticed that in other Japanese cars where sometimes, and Honda
is known for having really light steering, yet really good feedback. Well, you have to realize
the Alkan 5000 Rally is a competition and it's a long distance endurance grueling competition.
You can go up to 750-ish miles in a day, a single day, ladder and repeat type of thing.
That could be 16 hours, by the way. Yeah, we've driven up to 16 hours. And in a lot of it,
we might have the competitive side of things at the time. The distance portion for an hour,
hour and a half in the morning, you might have one in the afternoon that you need to get to.
But then transit can be a couple to several hundred miles in between before you get to the
next motel. So we test these vehicles in a controlled manner, but a very heavy duty endurance
manner, if that makes sense. So, you know, Andy was like after the first, what, a couple days,
you're like, oh my God, my arms are so tired. Well, we realized it was a steering issue,
but like the steering wheel, and it was such heavy steering, it's not that Andy's just a
thank you for that. Yeah. Yeah, but he was interesting because the Passport Transport
drives more truck-like than I would have expected. You get more of the feedback that the suspension
feels more truck-like than a crossover. Like if you were driving, say the CR-V, which feels
very car-like, the Passport Transport definitely felt more like a traditional SUV.
I think some of that was suspension, wasn't it? Yeah, suspension. You know, you're running on
all terrain tires, which are going to have a stiffer sidewall, and you know, it does have
that big hood on it too, from just, I guess, an experiential kind of feel. Yeah, kind of design
standpoint, big flat hood. Well, and from a passenger standpoint as a navigator, you know,
my head is always down a good amount of the time because you've got a roadbook that has
directions of, okay, you need to go here and then turn here, and then during the competitive side,
you have, they're all based on odometer readings, and the competitive part of the TSC section,
you also need to tell the driver, Andy, the speed to continually go to. So my head's always down,
and so I have a tendency to notice different things because it's more of like a different
sensory unit than Andy physically driving it, but the vehicle itself was super spacious. It had
tons of places for snacks, which is always important to me, snacks and just, you know,
navigational supplies and full-size Nalgene bottles. Thank you, Honda. Like everywhere,
even indoors, which I use every bit of it, means you need to drink a ton up in the Arctic. It is
very dry up there, believe it or not. I mean, it was a comfortable car, even if my head was down
once at the time. How was it for sleeping? Because that's what I, on those trips, I don't care how
rough the road is, you get to a point, you're like, kind of, you know, even racing in Baja,
it's easy to kind of start getting yourself lulled into that kind of rhythm. Yeah, it was really
quite comfortable, very roomy, all that stuff. It was, and it would definitely be big enough to
sleep in, had you wanted to do such a thing. We had, we had motels along the way, no camping on
this one, but it was definitely, definitely comfortable. Was there any of the stages that
were particularly memorable or that you were like, are we doing this? Are we going to make it
through? Was there any way or was there weather or something along the way that just grabbed you,
where you kind of looked at each other like, all right, here we go. So there's one of the
earlier stages, I believe it's on the second day, it's called Blackwater. And Blackwater, we nailed
Blackwater in 2004, excuse me. And we ran it backward this time, we doubled the length of the
yeah, and yeah, and we did, we again did really, really well there. But I think there, I think that
one of the craziest was, was one of the last stages. And I'm using the paddle shifters on it,
right, to hold gears and all that. Oh, question about that. So you're using paddle shifters,
does it force an upshift or will it hold the, the gear? Because that's huge when you're off-roading.
Great question. It, great question. It will hold the gear. Awesome. I've been in there because
I don't, and during times of speed distance, when you need to maintain an average speed of say,
like 30 mile per hour, for 5.9 miles, which stuff. And it just like wants to back out of it.
Yeah. No, stay here because I'm, I'm setting the pace. Yeah. It will hold the gear. So yeah,
but we did this one stage and I cannot remember the name of it, but it was, it was 60 miles long.
And there was a section too, where the speed drops came around the corner and there were a lot,
it was livestock in the road, all over the place. That road. And then frail. And then water and it
was probably a foot and a half deep. But they had cones right there and it was all mud and the cows
were right in the middle there too by a farm. Cows didn't care about corn. And so I had by a mistake
forgotten the downshift. And so we ended up in this big mud hole and I'm like laying on the
accelerator where I'm like, go. And I'm like, I'm an idiot. I haven't like third gear. And I was like,
go, go, go. Cause it was during the competitive part. And I'm like, don't hit the cow. Go, go.
You know, as a navigator and as a driver, things can get a little tense sometimes.
A little bit. I can see. And as, and also as a married couple.
Yes. We have the windows down because it was warm. And like we, there's like all these cows and we
splashed with this big puddle of water and it was like, let's just put it this way. If there's
been cows standing in the water, it was not very good smelling. Well, and let's say another point
is my window was mostly rolled down to you. And as Andy tried to like the mud and be able to keep,
you know, keep going, I got a little wet. So that was a little bit of a thing.
It makes you feel better in, in Baja. I hit a cow once. That's story number one in wide open Baja.
We went across a poo soak stream, if you will, as one of our last things in the wide open Baja
cars, which have no windshield and no, and we were just soaked in whatever, you know, disgusting
things were living in there. But I was, I was chasing for Hummer one year and Nick Richards,
I don't know if you guys remember Nick from GM, but Nick was with me. And it was in the middle
of the night and we're getting, you know, chasing, getting to the next pit and a cow was in front of
us. And it was like, all I remember hearing was cow, cow, cow, cow. And I cranked the wheel,
corrected, got back over and we hit the tail of the cow with the driver's side mirror.
That's how close we were. And we still laugh about that to this day was like, hey, remember the
time you hit the cow's tail with the mirror of the truck? Yes. Did you guys have anybody? I mean,
you're all friendly with a lot of the people because you'll see the same teams up there and
some of the same competitors. Anybody who's like, oh, hold the passport, huh? And then you guys smoked
them. Yes, I see Andy's face. Yes. Tell me more. You know what, most people were just like,
most of the competitors were cool. The story I have about that was you start the rally in Washington
State and you finish the first stage and then you have to transit into Canada. And that means
going across the border. And we've gone across the border and Canada to a hundred times. So we've
got all the right paperwork. And so we pull up in the border guard say, you know, where you headed
and like, oh, we're doing the rally with all the other people. Okay. And you know, how long you
to be in Canada? Okay. Okay. He's like, so what do you do for living? I'm like, oh, he actually
likes ride about cars. And so we're testing this one. He's like, what's the best midsize pickup
truck? I'm like, well, I mean, that's a pretty first question loaded question has their thing. I
said, you know, I said, you know, I just got out of the Chevy Colorado. He's like, yeah, but you
can't get this. What do you say? You can't get a V six? Or maybe I can't remember which one was
and mind you, this is at the border. Yeah, bring little people behind you. And I'm like, oh, yeah,
well, I mean, if you don't like that, I mean, you know, you can get the Thomas Thomas nice draft.
He's like, yeah, but you know, Turbo four only. And it doesn't totally pass in like,
yeah, I mean, like, you know, I mean, okay, well, there's the Nissan frontier, you're going to be
six and that of course meet the navigator. It's like, time. Yeah, he's like, you know, I don't
know, man. He's like, you're really debating me about this. I'm like, are you gonna let me into
It's like, dude, it sounds like you already know your answer. I finally think I really like the
Chevy and I think it's the best one. And I'm like, okay, man, but you can't get a V six.
And also there's no headlight knob, which still bothers me to this day. The other thing,
two or three things about Colorado that drive me crazy, because it's a great truck.
But depending on the trim level you get and the tire size, you have issues because they all come
with a 33 42 gear. They don't have an optional gear and the bigger, you know, AV package with 35s,
for example, or even a zero two or 33s, 342s really give make the the throttle lag and the
in the turbo lag, you know, kind of latency from the pedal input feel even worse than it is
factory because if you're on a like a LT two wheel drive truck, they rock, but you get into the
bigger ones, bigger tires. So the other thing is no headlight knob, which is absolutely stupid.
And we drive me crazy. And then GM getting rid of carplay is absolutely stupid also.
And then the last thing is, and so funny. So we go in the Colorado drive,
and I'm sitting in the car and GM employee gets in the backseat. I think we're in Palm Springs.
So it was like 105 degrees outside or something. So I got the AC on. And we're talking, I can't
remember I was with another journalist and we're chatting back and forth. And the guy in the back
seat goes, Oh, what do you think so far? So what I think it's such a massive upgrade over the old
truck, especially on the interior. It's great. But whoever designed these center vents should
be fired. He goes, Why is that? I said, Because the way you have the screen, it pushed the center
vents. So they're not even with the outside vents. So my hand, if I'm resting it on the shifter is
either super hot or super cold. And the rest of me is a different temperature. He goes, Yeah,
I did that. Oops, sorry. I told the interior design guy that his vents from the wrong spot.
He did acquit himself by saying, Well, we had to do that to get the screen and do this. And I
said, I get it. Still bugs me. So those are my three things on Colorado. Otherwise, a really
phenomenal truck, so much better than the old one and definitely a contender in the midsize
market. It's a great truck. Now you guys had a podium finish at Alcain. What place did you come in?
We took first place in the two S class, which is the truck and SUV class.
A seat of pants for the seat of pants class, which means we're not running a computer in
like that. And then we took third place second second second and overall. Second second. And so
taking second place overall, especially in our class was was a pretty rare feat. It was pretty
incredible. I mean, we we sort of went into it being like, Can you imagine if we won our class
again? Yeah. Okay, stop talking like that. Like that's crazy, right? Fun. So our first win was
with the Ineos Vanityer automotive before the US or North America was really getting them. I think
the first units were just to ride with the very first dealerships when we got it. So I don't
think anybody ever really drove it even from, you know, the US to Canada. So things like,
is the computer system going to change the kilometer? Because we kind of need to know
the distance rally. It has to be changed. But anyway, so that was our first class win.
And that was the same class. Yeah. And that was a winter rally. Yeah. And so there's a big
difference between the summer and the winter. You know, the winter survive last. Yeah, please
with your negative 43 below windmills. Don't kill us. Summer one is you don't have to worry about
that as much. But you have bugs. There are bugs. The other thing too about the summer one is,
you know, it doesn't get dark for a long time. So your brain kind of plays tricks on you. Like,
oh, it's not that light. I'm like, oh, crap. It's actually like 730. We're still driving.
Yeah. You know, the biggest thing is like, like Francis with Telegraph Creek, I think that was
another 16 hour day, and it was really bad weather. So it was tons of rain. And, you know,
there's a lot of shale on that area. And it's so remote, so, so, so remote and a lot of it's
quick size. So you have to really be careful, even if it's dry, you know, dirt and gravel,
I mean, it's not gravel, it's all shale rock. So you can puncture tires and everything. And so,
you know, those, those Baja Designs lights that we ran and that, that, that rally innovations
light bar really came into play because there's a lot of really big wildlife up there. Oh, yeah.
So we didn't want to get in mood. I love Baja Designs lights. I have them on my Jeep. And yeah,
it makes a difference with a good set of lights. So what's next? Are you guys already making your
plans for LKN 5000 next year? Because that's coming up quick. If it's going to be a summer one,
right? It is. Yeah. Yeah. We are making plans. We haven't announced any plans yet,
but what we will, we're going to change, change things up a little bit this year. So it'll be,
we'll have some cool stuff to talk about. We are doing next weekend, not this coming weekend,
but next weekend. We're doing the Thunderbird Rally, which is in Canada and British Columbia.
Hopefully it will be a snow rally. Right. And last year, everybody told me that like,
it is a driver's rally. I'm like, okay. I don't know what that means. I like, I like to drive.
My game. And it's pretty much as close as you can get to stage rally without having a cage.
Oh, sounds fun. I mean, it is the rally master, Paul. Yeah, all that quick. He puts,
he puts the checkpoints at distinguished spots. So like they're always near a cattle guard, for
example. So you can see the, you can see the checkpoint coming up and we may or may not have
been sideways through a couple of those checkpoints, but it's a super good time. Great people.
Rally BC puts it on, but you get a lot of people from the US there as well.
We're near out of sports club folks and that'll be in our own personal Subaru. And then
yeah, we're working on our Suzuki Jimny, our 98 Suzuki Jimny. I got some parts coming from Japan
here tomorrow. I'm so excited about that. The brand new Colorado Adventure Rally,
car rally that's going to be in Colorado and that is in July. So stay tuned for what we're driving
there. But that'll be a multi-day, I think it's four days total, three or four days total.
Three total days. Yeah. And that's also time to be distance. So there's a lot of really cool things
coming up on the rally scene. And for us, you know, time to be distance rally, there's a challenge
of it, but man, you can marry so many cool things, travel, gear heads, meeting like-minded people,
the challenge of all, and getting up on the off road.
Vehicle journalism, you know, you have to push the limits of somebody else's car. It's always fun.
But it's also nerve-wracking, though, because every one of those vehicles are always different.
And so you get in there, you get the keys like maybe the night before and you're like,
all right, go and compete. You're like, and how does this react?
And then you have the guy who picks it up and he's got the damage waiver or the damage report.
You're like, you realize they gave this for me to like drive to the Arctic Circle. Oh yeah,
but I need you to explain these scratches in this pit in the winter. Like, seriously? That's the worst
part of a media load is like that one dude is paid like $15 an hour, shows up at your house with a
clipboard. He's like, oh, there's scratches on this. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're
going to let you know all the time. Like, I just want to let you know, like, first thing to tell
is probably to come back with a broken windshield. Give us the pre-production.
You'll want to scrap it. And it's going to get lots and lots and lots and lots of dirt. So
with the fleet guys that come up, you know, and pick the vehicle up, they're not necessarily
where what it is, whereas the manufacturer might be fully designed. Yeah, exactly. They're just
trying to see why you know, like here at the L like this is covered with mud and dirt and yucky
growth and everything. And, you know, it's meant to be that way, you know, Honda wants it back dirty
or super wants it back dirty or whoever whatever. Yeah, partner with, but we've been very careful.
And especially as you know, after the L can, whether it's summer or winter, and if it finishes up
in Alaska, many times we ship the vehicles back. So the shippers want you to clean the vehicles.
But if the manufacturers want them dirty, we have to kind of go through and the shippers,
like the last auto was used the last couple of times, they will take hundreds of photos,
or at least they do about hours, hours is dirty. They don't want to be in the hook for anything
like, Oh, it's windshield or something. And, you know, been there done that. Well, thanks for
coming on guys. Yeah, right. Yeah, thanks for having us very much. Well, it's always a pleasure
to have you on the truck show podcast. I I'm jealous because I haven't been on a good adventure
for a while and I'm itching to get back out there. My Jeep is slowly the new one is slowly
getting up to the level of the old one. So we're really close. I can't wait to get first dirt in
that thing. And for great, by the way, thank you. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's funny. I was driving
home from Michigan when I picked it up. And I had at least three people at gas stations,
wander up and be like, That thing is beautiful. I had one old lady who was just staring at my
Jeep. And I'm like, Okay, this is weird. And I think it's like a maverick or something. And
she's standing there staring at it. And I walked up and she looks me just this year's said, Yeah.
And she just slowly turns her head and looks at me goes, This is the most beautiful Jeep I've
ever seen. And I'm like, Can I hug you? So it's it's nice. It's nice to have people say they like
it. But yeah, we got a bunch of stuff. I still got some boxes and stuff. We're doing some cool
things with it. And soon, it'll be it'll be ready soon. I get back out in the world and
got cleared to go off roading. So that's been fun. I did a did a couple trips,
did a JV and got a ride with Vaughn, Vaughn getting Jr. in his RTR Bronco. And we're just
smashing whoops chasing Lauren. And Vaughn looks me goes, You get it? I'm like, Yep. So
thanks for taking me on my my first post everything off road trip. So that was fun.
Yeah, Vaughn trying to scare the crap out of me while chasing Lauren through Johnson Valley
whoops, it was fun. Always a pleasure. We'll we'll talk soon. I know Mercedes, we've got
another one coming up with you. A different story for a different event. And just keep it
coming. We love love having you on. Yes, can't wait to talk about it for sure. All right, we'll
talk to you soon. Thanks for having me. Always great to catch up with Andy and Mercedes. And
in fact Mercedes will be back on in a few episodes to talk about her recent trip to the Dakar
rally. So that should be a great one as well. But before we go, I think we have a couple of
voicemails on the five star hotline. Hey, Sean, my name's Nick. Hey, I just listened to the episode
about the fan protection film. And I believe the word you're looking for is surfactant.
Anyways, love the show. Keep up the great work. Love to hear any insight you might have on the
next gen GM HD trucks. So if you got a inside stoop, love to hear it. Thanks, man. Keep up the great
work. There you have it surfactant. That's how I was trying to pronounce that word surfactant
makes a lot more sense than surface second or whatever I was trying to say. So thank you, Nick.
Really appreciate that. Not a whole lot of info quite yet on GM HD trucks. It sounds like the
end of the year we'll see the light duty refreshes and usually heavy duties are about a year behind
that. And we do know that there's going to be a bigger displacement Duramax. We don't quite know
the size of it. And there might be a redo on the gas engine because I think the six six is
fairly underwhelming for what's out in the marketplace. And we'll see what happens. So
appreciate you checking in and also appreciate you spell checking me. I guess it's not a spell
check. It would be a pronunciation checking me on surfactant. Thank you. Five star hotline.
Oldman. Hey, it's Rich and Halster. Just calling to let you know that I love I just got to say
something about that conversation I have with Joe from the Slow Flow Customs. First off,
not seeing his photo just hearing his voice. That dude sounds like he's lived five lives.
And he he has useful energy in that conversation. I don't know. I don't know his personal life,
but that dude just sounds like a happy dude. He's been through a lot, but he's he's creating something
crazy. I think most of us are aware those apocalyptic six by six cheats and whatever.
There's a guy up here that has one and pretty goofy on on the hills up in Halster Hills,
but that seems pretty capable. But yeah, dude, awesome, awesome interview. And I can absolutely
attest, as well as Ted sitting here next to me, that your Jeep will definitely lift up one leg
or the other, depending on your acceleration and how you turn. That's a wild Jeep. To this day,
I don't think any of us have ever, Ted and I specifically, we, we've never been in something
like that before. So that was a crazy experience in that Jeep. Glad you're doing well. Brother,
you're in our prayers all the time. Love you tons. Keep it up. Keep monitoring those parameters
and being that and being your best self. Talk to you soon. Bye.
Thanks, Rich, for checking in. Always love to hear from your brother. And thank you for
thanking us for mastering our parameters. I don't think we've done that one in a while.
All right, that's going to do it for this episode of the Truck Show podcast. I know you guys,
you want to stay longer. You love the Truck Show podcast. I love the Truck Show podcast,
but we got to go. I got stuff to do. I'm a busy guy. That's it. That's it for this one. I got
more coming. Please send me your thoughts by emailing the show Truck Show podcast at gmail.com
and we'll read them on air. And don't forget to follow us on social, Facebook or Instagram
at Truck Show podcast or my personal page at Sean P. Holman. And if you want to hear your voice
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where you and 499 or so of your other like-minded podcast listeners like to hang out and talk
and trade info. It's great. All right, before we go, we got to thank the sponsors who make
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It's heavy. It's thick. We're not cheating you on content. We're not, you know, filling it with
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TruckShowPodcast at gmail.com. Alright, as always, I hope you enjoyed this episode.
And I look forward to doing it again real soon.
And weird little show.
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