Moab travel logs and product talk kick things off: a Moab trip, Moab-ready Jeep upgrades, and a deep dive into Brita American Adventure Lab’s “power pack rack” concept using a KC flat battery plus Redarc electronics and the Redarc Solid State BC/DC Alpha 50R. Then the main interview with Ben Palmer (406 Garage) covers the Scout revival after International Harvester’s name was revived by Scout Motors, EV-credit uncertainty, and how it impacts his IH/restoration business. Ben also shares his Montana-rooted branding redesign, favorite builds, and his “service truck” idea for barn-find rescues—plus the story-driven approach behind every restoration.
Friend of the show, original listener, early guest, and International guru Ben Palmer returns to the show to catch us up with his entrepreneurial journey of growing his business, 406 Garage. 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.
"...the one in mine is a concept for now it's 105 amp hours but it mounts under the shelf..."
“Amp hours” tells you how much energy the battery can store. More amp hours usually means you can run things for longer before it needs recharging.
“Amp hours” (Ah) is a battery capacity rating that indicates how much electrical energy the battery can store. Higher amp-hour numbers generally mean the battery can run accessories for longer, depending on load.
"...Brits plan is to make it backwards compatible to people who've already purchased the AAL cargo shelf..."
Backwards compatible means the new accessory will still work with gear you already bought. So you don’t have to replace everything to add the new power setup.
Backwards compatibility means a new product is designed to work with older versions of related gear. In this case, it’s about making the new power rack work with people’s existing AAL cargo shelves.
"the red vision and the red vision screen actually goes inside the tailgate table so when you drop the tailgate table down you can see the red vision screen"
A tailgate table is a fold-down surface at the back of the vehicle. Here it’s being used as a place to mount a screen so you can control your gear while you’re parked.
A tailgate table is a fold-out work surface integrated into the rear of a truck/Jeep. In this segment it’s also used as a mounting location for a screen, turning the tailgate into a functional “command center” for the electronics.
"it has an app so you can control all your electronics from your phone it allows for solar charging it allows for alternator charging"
Solar charging means your solar panels can recharge your extra battery while you’re parked. A controller helps make sure the battery is charged safely.
Solar charging refers to using solar panels to recharge your auxiliary battery system. In off-road setups, solar charging is typically managed by a charge controller or integrated power system to prevent overcharging and to optimize charging.
"the Jeep was at the Overland Show Overland Expo's Orange County show in the Optima booth and Optima gave me an orange top"
Optima is a battery company that makes car and accessory batteries. Here they’re talking about their newer lithium-ion batteries for off-road setups.
Optima is a well-known automotive battery brand, best known historically for its AGM batteries. In this segment, Optima is also promoting a new lithium-ion line, implying a shift toward lighter, more modern battery tech for overland/auxiliary use.
"Optima gave me an orange top and they said hey we want to display your Jeep or give you an orange top this is their new lithium-ion line and I've been really really impressed so far"
This means the battery is lithium-ion, not a traditional lead-acid battery. Lithium batteries are usually lighter and can be used more before they’re considered “empty.”
A lithium-ion battery line refers to a specific family of lithium-based auxiliary batteries. Compared with older lead-acid types, lithium packs often offer higher usable capacity, lower weight, and built-in electronics for protection and monitoring.
"it's got Bluetooth it's got battery protection it's got a BMS that shuts down at basically 35% so it always has energy left over to jumpstart yourself"
BMS is the battery’s safety brain. It watches the battery’s condition and can stop it from going too low so it stays protected.
BMS stands for Battery Management System. It monitors cell voltage and temperature and can shut the battery down to prevent unsafe conditions like over-discharge, which is why the speaker mentions it cutting off around a certain remaining percentage.
"can't wait to let you guys know a little bit more about the lithium battery and what it's like to live with because it's a little bit different than an AGM especially if you have a maintainer or a charger you have to have an algorithm on those things that are lithium specific"
They’re talking about a lithium battery instead of the more common lead-acid type. Lithium batteries can handle demanding use, but they need the right charging setup to stay healthy.
The speaker is discussing lithium batteries used in a vehicle, focusing on how they behave under real-world conditions. Lithium packs can be managed by battery electronics that monitor temperature and protect the cells, which matters for reliability in heat and off-road use.
"waiting for in a modified version of the new Recon EV with 34s on it which was
awesome"
“34s” means 34-inch tires. Bigger tires can help the vehicle handle rough trails better, but they can also make the ride and efficiency different.
“34s” refers to 34-inch tires, a common shorthand in off-road circles. Larger tires increase ground clearance and improve traction over rocks and ruts, but they also affect gearing, ride quality, and fuel economy.
"the truck show podcast is proudly brought to you in partnership with Amsoil the maker of the best synthetics and the same ones we use in our rigs... Amsoil is more than synthetic oil they also make some of the finest lubes greases additives filters car care products"
Amsoil is a company that makes synthetic oils and other fluids for vehicles. They also sell things like filters and car-care products, and the hosts use them in their trucks.
Amsoil is an aftermarket lubricant brand best known for synthetic engine oils and related fluids. In this segment, they’re positioned as the oil and additive supplier for the hosts’ rigs, plus they also sell filters, greases, and car-care products.
"...my favorite design queue that they incorporated is they did the front row bench yeah I love that too..."
A front-row bench is when the front seats are one long seat instead of two separate seats. It can fit more people and can feel more “truck-like” inside.
A “front row bench” means the truck’s front seating is a bench-style layout instead of two separate buckets. This is often used to maximize seating capacity and can change cabin ergonomics, visibility, and how the vehicle feels day-to-day.
"...there's a couple 1500s that might have a 40 20 40 split bench these days..."
A 40/20/40 split bench means the front bench is split into three parts. That middle section can move or fold differently, so you can adjust how the seats and space work.
A “40/20/40 split bench” is a bench seat divided into three sections: 40% on the left, 20% in the middle, and 40% on the right. This layout can fold or slide to create different seating and storage configurations.
Concept
EVs are heavy too
"well and EVs are heavy too so they have more wear and tear on the roads and things like that parking structures"
EVs usually weigh more because of the battery. That extra weight can mean more wear on roads and parking garages.
EVs often have higher curb weight due to battery packs, which can increase stress on infrastructure. The speaker connects that weight to faster wear on roads and added load on parking structures.
"because I think if you can make a case for EV you have solar panels on your roof you make your own electricity"
Solar panels can make electricity at home. If you charge your EV with that power, you may spend less on charging from the electric utility.
The speaker is describing a home energy setup where solar panels generate electricity that can be used to charge an EV. This can reduce reliance on grid electricity costs and improve the economics of EV ownership in some regions.
"like us it's big gas guzzling V8s because that's what makes us happy yeah [1031.5s] horse power and tire smoke that's right"
A V8 is a type of engine with eight cylinders. It’s known for strong performance and a great exhaust sound.
A V8 is an engine with eight cylinders arranged in a “V” shape. It’s often associated with strong power and a distinctive sound, which is why the hosts link it to their enjoyment.
"one of those people was our the late [1114.6s] Ken block I was friends with a lot of people that he worked with"
Ken Block was a well-known race driver and car content creator. People still associate him with wild, high-skill driving and big car culture.
Ken Block was a famous motorsports driver and media personality known for rally and gymkhana-style driving. The episode ties him to the design team behind liveries for his race cars and the Hoonigan brand.
"it is not a copy of the IH logo but there's enough pieces in that when you look at it that if you know anything it's like oh wow that looks like the IH logo yeah it's not so we can't get trademarked you know what I mean"
A trademark is legal protection for a company’s brand name or logo. They’re saying their design is close-looking, but not close enough to copy, so they can use it safely.
Trademarked refers to legal protection for brand identifiers like logos. The speaker is explaining that their logo is intentionally similar in spirit to IH, but different enough to avoid trademark infringement.
"so 406 is the area code for basically all of Montana right it is the only area cuz that's where my kids were born"
Area code 406 is the phone area code for Montana. They’re using it in the company name/logo to show their connection to the state.
Area code 406 is the telephone area code for Montana. The speaker uses it as a branding element to tie the company identity to Montana and personal history.
"...let's talk about your YouTube page for a moment if you go to the website 406 garage calm boom if you go to Instagram at 406 garage boom if you go to YouTube at 406 garage 3..."
“406 Garage” is the name of the page/channel being promoted. They’re talking about where to find it online and how they tried different handles.
“406 Garage” appears to be the host/guest’s brand identity across platforms (website, Instagram, YouTube). For listeners, it’s useful because it signals the specific channel they’re discussing and the marketing strategy behind it.
"...you will post trucks and you'll be like one owner two owner whatever special one this one's you know AC power breaks power steering blah blah blah and then you'll be like I drove by this for"
“One owner” means the vehicle has only had one main owner. People like it because it can suggest the truck was cared for and not passed around a lot.
“One owner” means the truck or car has been owned by a single person (or household) since it was new or since a specific point in its life. It’s often used as a quality signal because it can imply more consistent maintenance and fewer handoffs.
"[1643.3s] and so if I open myself up to a store and I had to stock all the inventory I [1650.5s] would fail miserably yeah we're setting up a Shopify with a third party that [1654.6s] will actually be on demand stuff"
Shopify is a website tool for running an online store. It helps you sell things like shirts and stickers without building everything from scratch.
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that lets creators set up an online store. In this context, it’s being used to sell merch without managing fulfillment directly.
"[1650.5s] would fail miserably yeah we're setting up a Shopify with a third party that [1654.6s] will actually be on demand stuff yeah yeah I've looked at that"
Instead of making a bunch of shirts first, they make them after someone orders. That way you don’t have boxes of unsold stuff sitting around.
“On demand” merchandising means items like shirts or stickers are produced only after a customer orders them. That avoids having to buy and store inventory upfront.
"[1936.1s] car factory but like the reality is we need to find you something that looks
[1940.3s] like that that's close to that and you know maybe it's red that needs to be a"
Sometimes you can’t find the exact truck someone wants. So the search shifts to finding one that’s close—especially in the parts that matter most visually or functionally.
The speaker explains the practical reality of sourcing: you may not find an exact match to every spec, so the goal becomes finding something “close” in appearance and key traits. This is a common tradeoff in classic vehicle buying when exact configurations are rare.
"that was an original kind of uh that green mica color and it had a roof rack and stuff on it it spent a lot of time in montana"
A roof rack is the bars/rails on top of the vehicle used to strap things down. It’s often used for camping gear or luggage.
A roof rack is an external mounting system for carrying gear on top of the vehicle. On classic SUVs like the Travelall, it’s often part of the “period-correct” look and can also indicate how the owner used the vehicle.
"they would go up in the summer and they would use it and had a CVT had a rooftop tent on it they would go camping with it they'd put the boat in and out of the water with it"
A rooftop tent is a camping tent that sits on top of the car and opens up when you park. It’s popular for road trips and camping.
A rooftop tent is a tent mounted on the vehicle roof that can be deployed for camping. It changes how the vehicle is used (and often how it’s equipped), which is why it comes up in a restoration story.
"and put a little bit of lift on it and shocks and interior and blah blah anyway"
Shocks (shock absorbers) control how the vehicle moves over bumps by damping suspension motion. When paired with a lift, new shocks can help maintain ride quality and stability rather than making the truck feel bouncy or floaty.
"[2078.4s] turnkey and it was ready to go and I called them and they paid their bill"
“Turnkey” basically means it’s ready to go. You don’t have to fix it up or do extra work before using it.
“Turnkey” means the vehicle was finished and ready to use with no additional work required. In enthusiast circles, it often implies the prior owner handled setup, maintenance, and any upgrades so the next buyer can enjoy it immediately.
"i'm like you know it'd be really cool because if we built a service truck just like a pay homage to the old service trucks that would go out to the farms and ranches from the dealership we stopped it full of uh tools"
A service truck is a mobile workshop vehicle stocked with tools and parts so technicians can perform repairs on-site. In this episode, the concept is to build a truck that can go to farms/ranches to get old vehicles running and film the process.
"international made a gazillion of these things their box trucks and their last mile delivery trucks"
A box truck is a delivery truck with a closed cargo area (the “box”) instead of an open bed. It’s built for hauling stuff around town.
Box trucks are medium-duty commercial trucks with a cargo “box” mounted on the chassis. They’re commonly used for local delivery and service routes because the enclosed cargo space protects goods and equipment.
"sure enough there's a lap belt so I had this black belt all the way over the top you know I'm like six seven eight years old"
A lap belt is a seatbelt that goes across your hips. In older cars, it was common to have only this kind of belt instead of a full shoulder-and-lap belt.
A lap belt is a seatbelt that secures the passenger at the hips rather than across the chest. Older vehicles often used lap belts (sometimes with no shoulder belt), which changes how well occupants are protected in crashes.
"I've always liked having um I've always liked having a vehicle when you go to you go to cars and coffee or you go hang out with your buddies or whatever"
“Cars and coffee” is a casual car meet format where enthusiasts gather in the morning to talk about vehicles. It’s a key part of modern car culture because it encourages sharing builds and seeing different cars in one place.
"people want to show up to the the Huntington Beach cars and coffee with all the big uh Lamborghini Huracans and Porsches"
Lamborghini is a famous exotic-car brand. A Huracán is one of their supercars, and it’s the kind of car people show off at big car meets.
Lamborghini is an Italian supercar brand, and the Huracán is one of its most popular modern models. Mentioning “Huracans” signals the kind of high-end, performance-focused cars that show up at the event.
"Well, he walks over to the corner where I have all my RC car stuff. All my little RC rock crawlers are like, yeah, people don't know that we did, you know, that was a big part of my life at one point."
An RC crawler is a small remote-control truck designed to crawl over rocks and obstacles slowly. It’s built for control and grip, not racing speed.
An RC crawler is a radio-controlled model built to move slowly and precisely over obstacles, mimicking real rock-crawling. “Crawler” setups often emphasize torque, traction, and scale details rather than speed.
Select text to request an explanation
Hey everybody welcome back to the Truck Show podcast and as you can hear from my
voice I'm probably not in the pod shed this week no I'm actually in a hotel
room in Moab Utah so yeah I made it out I made it safely in one piece and I
completed the trip to Moab that I started a year ago so I'm super excited
to be here I've already seen a ton of wonderful people in town and it's gonna
be a great week so got a lot of stuff going on here apologize that this isn't
gonna be as produced as our normal shows but I'm gonna do my best a little
harder when you have to record without the board as it is so leading up to this
week it's been insane I spent the last four days at the end of last week in
St. George with Brita American Adventure Lab and we were designing and building a
new product for the Wrangler and so we teased it online and the response has
been insane so Brits calling it the power pack rack which is which will most
likely use a KC flat battery the one in mine is a concept for now it's 105 amp
hours but it mounts under the shelf and uses otherwise unused space if you have
a cargo shelf in there and it's awesome the amount of flexibility that you get
from this setup is insane so right now Brits plan is to make it backwards
compatible to people who've already purchased the AAL cargo shelf for JL, JK
and Bronco could easily expand to pickups more to come on that because this
is gonna be a really cool product for a lot of people and just just trying to
get it going on but unfortunately I wasn't able to finish wiring it so if we
go back to last week after I got home I spent several hours every evening every
night routing wires hooking up all the red art components this is way more
complicated because you have to run the wires up to the rack where all the
componentry is hidden and then you have to find where to get the grounds and
move it's just it's a lot more complicated than my old Jeep because in
this one we stepped up to the Red Ark Solid State BC DC Alpha 50R which is
awesome because it doesn't need the individual fuses got the rogue the red
vision and the red vision screen actually goes inside the tailgate table so
when you drop the tailgate table down you can see the red vision screen and it
has an app so you can control all your electronics from your phone it allows for
solar charging it allows for alternator charging and allows you to turn off
different components individually run them off there see what the draw is it's
just it's an incredible system and I can't wait to do it but talking about
the tailgate table we actually took the old cutting board wood from my old Jeep
it survived the accident and we were able to take it out and Britt gave me the
new backing plate for the new table that had the Red Ark cut out in it and we
were able to rebuild that with the wood and the lower part and so I think it's
pretty cool that survived the crash I think it's pretty awesome to have
something organic in the new Jeep that bridges it back to the old one and I
can't wait to get Britt back on the show soon to walk us through all the cool
products that he's working on he's got a ton of truck stuff that's exploding
especially a Ranger Ranger Raptor in there there's just a lot going on and
the Jeep was at the Overland Show Overland Expo's Orange County show a
couple weeks ago in the Optima booth and Optima gave me an orange top and they
said hey we want to display your Jeep or give you an orange top this is their new
lithium-ion line and I've been really really impressed so far it's got the
same cold cranking amps as the old battery or maybe it's a little bit more
but it weighs 22 pounds versus 67 on the old AGM battery it's also got Bluetooth
it's got battery protection it's got a BMS that shuts down at basically 35% so
it always has energy left over to jumpstart yourself in a sense and it
also gives you the temperature of the battery and the circuit board so you can
keep an eye on that and so a 392 tight engine compartment big engine lots of
heat they said hey we want to give you this battery go do all the things you do
in your Jeep especially slow speed off-roading on the highway through the
desert and then let's report back because if it will stay cool enough and
yours it'll work in anything and so far it's been absolutely great so can't wait
to let you guys know a little bit more about the lithium battery and what it's
like to live with because it's a little bit different than an AGM especially if
you have a maintainer or a charger you have to have an algorithm on those
things that are lithium specific so anyway lots of lithium battery stuff
going on in the adventure Jeep so all right so I got to Moab yesterday the day
before I attended a the WiIMO rally for the Western Mojave it's actually an
anti WiIMO rally at the Jawbone store to support Corva and Cal 4 wheel my new
role I have for SEMA so maybe some of you saw the announcement last week but
none other than Sean P. Holman is now the new interim executive director of the
off-road business association and so I'll be helping SEMA revive Orba and as I
take the reins and help relaunch and rebuild Orba don't be surprised if your
listener and your own company that you get a call from me wearing my other hat
it's gonna be a pretty amazing addition to the industry really can't wait to take
it to the next level I've got some amazing backing from SEMA they've put
some team members in place that are fantastic and I would be more than happy
to talk to you guys more about Orba if any of you are interested email me
structure a podcast at gmail.com and if you want on the show I'll talk more
about it but that's sort of my other live in a different hat right now but
something else keep me busy so on a side note driving out here I average 16
miles per gallon in the adventure Jeep that was pretty good and the new
Bilsteins are amazing on the highway the Jeep can see first dirt this week and
can't wait to take it off-road and feel those shocks in the dirt it's gonna be
great let's see one last thing before we start the show I just got back from the
Jeep reveal last night and wow they are kicking off the 60th anniversary of
Easter Jeep Safari with a huge bang they had a invite-only deal you go to my
Instagram or truck show podcast Instagram and see all the vehicles they
gave a early preview of the next 12 for 12 drop which is the rewind it's a
purple Jeep with amazing 80s graphics on it it is absolutely awesome so cool if
you grew up as a kid of the 80s or 90s like I did it totally will resonate with
you they showed the new Cherokee as a trailhawk which we've all been kind of
waiting for in a modified version of the new Recon EV with 34s on it which was
awesome with the doors off and the windows out and all that I think that's
gonna be a pretty cool vehicle and then they also donated to the Red Rock
four-wheel drive club or Red Rock four-wheelers they've been here doing
Easter Jeep Safari their event for 60 years and it's amazing that we all get
to come and be a part of it but Jeep donated a brand new gladiator that they
built up through Mopar and Mopar accessories and affiliates and donated
that as the Red Rock Edition for them for all the trail use out here so that
was a really nice gesture of Jeep and also the guy or the family who owns
Walker Drugs the general store here in town Jeep's been in their parking lot
for over 20 years with their display and they gave him an internal award he's the
first person to ever get the be outside the company get it externally the Golden
Duck Award so it was cool to see Jeep giving back to the community while
teasing a whole bunch of concepts and I heard that that's not it there's there's
more to come so anyway that's a lot I want to know how is your week anything
like mine my last week and a half it's crazy I'm even getting these shows out
but here I am so on the show is our friend Ben Palmer you'll remember him
he's the scout guy 406 garage also used to work for AEV was one of our very
first guests and we'll get to him in just a minute but I just wanted to remind
you that the truck show podcast is proudly brought to you in partnership
with Amsoil the maker of the best synthetics and the same ones we use in
our rigs and Amsoil is more than synthetic oil they also make some of the finest
lubes greases additives filters car care products and yes even merch right now the
current promotion is free car shampoo if you spend $100 or more through April
7th so by any of those great products and you get yourself some of Amsoil's
awesome free foaming car shampoo it's great to foam cannon I absolutely love
it when I get back from Moab I'm gonna go ahead and do a little social post on
it so you can see how it works but I love it Amsoil makes great products when we
use Amsoil products protect our rigs you can do the same by heading to
amsoil.com do you need a knife then point your browser to kershaw.kaiusa.com
and explore their line of exceptional pocket knives they have a huge
selection of quality knives from EDCs and made in American knives and yes even
automatics score one for yourself today and if you want to treat yourself to the
latest in adventure gear and upgrades for your vehicle go to ovrmag.com and use
the code at truck show podcast for discount on print or one-year access to
our digital library for free please help me to keep the truck show podcast free
by supporting our sponsors we're leaving reviews on Apple or Spotify don't
forget to check truckshowpodcast.com for the latest deals
it's the truck show with your host Holman
all right this is the interview that I did at the end of last year I'm so sorry
Ben has taken so long to get it up just had had quite the backlog so finally
we're getting to our friend and scout guru Ben Palmer let's welcome him to the
show so with me today in the pod shed virtually is a good friend Ben Palmer who
is also one of our first listeners and one of our first guests of the truck
show podcast you may remember him from AV or coming in to talk about his business
406 garage or talking with a good friend Casey Liddell and so he's been a big
part of the podcast throughout its life and a guest a listener all that and we
just haven't talked to him for a while and I thought you know what there's a
lot of stuff going on at 406 garage let's get Ben back so Ben welcome welcome
to the pod shed yeah lots of change lots of things have happened lots of good
stuff I actually want to touch on the early listener thing yeah actually was
one of the first 10 or 15 guests on the podcast yeah way back when yeah we
had the San Ana studio with ants oh god yeah the ant farm back when there were
two of us doing the show oh yeah yeah it was a threesome at that point that's
right so but yeah you had worked at AV we brought you on early to talk about
AV stuff you brought us I think you brought us a recruit a 1500 Ram and I
came in studio and then when you went out on your own you started doing like
weird scout stuff and it was sort of ahead of the curve because everybody's
were like oh yeah there's there's Bronco people there's Jeep people and there's a
few weirdo scout people out there like oh scout and then Volkswagen buys a
trademark and decides to name an entire electric company electric vehicle
company scout and all of a sudden the resurgence in international products
scout all that has exploded and we should touch on what does that mean for
your business and obviously new branding new logo I mean you've got a lot going
on I don't even know where to start to be honest yeah this the scout motor thing
has been really fun to watch and it's been I think it's been great for all of
us there's there's a hand I say a handful because it's I feel like it's a
handful of us that you know buy sell restore whatever internationals across
country there there's more than a handful but there's six or eight guys I
know that do it on a pretty regular basis and it's been fun watching the scout
motors thing we were all a little a little you know taken back initially
like oh electric vehicle yeah whatever okay yeah you stole the scout name great
good job for you nice work way to way to backdoor your way into the to the
American market but you know once they established it as an actual standalone
company and they got together and they actually talked to all these guys that
have owned these couch scout restoration shops forever and they said we want to
incorporate the essence of the scout into this vehicle we truly want to be want
you guys to be a part of this too and once they started doing that everybody
is like okay these guys are like they're legit they're for real and you know I
don't know all the ins and outs of it but I know there's you know a lot of
people that came from Rivian and a few other companies that kind of circled
around with them and they got some really amazing people on their design and
engineering team and when they did finally launch that first product and
everybody got to see it is like you know what you guys really you guys really
listen yeah I was there I was amazed when they pulled off the the sheets and I
went okay it looks like we have something here and it does pay homage to I think the
legacy while being fully modern and it's a hard thing to do when you buy a
trademark and you buy tradition how can you partly that into something special
and modern and without you know bastardizing what what you got or or
cheapening it or ruining it you know and I feel like where they're at is pretty
cool I just wonder what'll happen with the you know the the EV credits going
away although they're a little bit special because they've got the range
extended harvester version and I think that's going to insulate them quite a
bit I think being able to use a gas station infrastructure to keep going is
you know huge in that market right now yeah I mean one of the one of the design
queues just because I can't miss out on this my favorite design queue that they
incorporated is they did the front row bench yeah I love that too like no
auto manufacturer was willing to even attempt that in the last I don't know
15 years basically a mid-sized truck you know where as the full-size trucks you
really gotta go to I think a heavy duty there's a couple 1500s that might have a
40 20 40 split bench these days but yeah it was it was cool and it works like you
look at and you're like yeah that's that's totally fine it doesn't look at a
place it's not weird and a lot of people at the review are like I actually want
the bench seat yeah yeah and then as far as the EV credits go I mean it's there's
a lot of rumors and there's a lot of information and stuff out there but I you
know my my take on that is they have a certain amount of EV stuff that they
have to satisfy because that was what they were granted to be able to build
these vehicles and in the States but I truly think that their ultimate you know
their end goal is like okay how do we incorporate a gas motor back into this
thing and how do we you know have the EV as the smaller segment of our business
and have the gasoline ice motors as a larger segment well you see that a little
bit with Delantis because a lot of their EV platforms that were only gonna be EV
are now coming out with ice variants and and Hemi's returning to Ram and I
think that's what they're doing well we'll see I had to guess I don't know if
that platform allows for it although it is body and frame so that's cool it'll
be interesting to see there I think there's a lot of product planners right
now you'll see a lot of these EVs that were promised being delayed a couple
years because they're pivoting and I don't think anybody really knows what
the true demand is because everything's been propped up with subsidies the end
of this month they go away in the last two months of EV sales have been off the
chart but the reality is is that's because everybody's trying to get those
cheap cars before they go away once they're cash yeah once they're $7,500
more expensive that's gonna change the market significantly yeah well and you
see states like Oregon Washington and California that are doing increases for
miles per driven for electric vehicles and they're increasing increasing the
road tax for electric vehicles and trying to grab more money from those
guys because they're realizing that all the ice vehicles that are contributing
to the tax money by buying fuel they're not getting that money from the EVs so
they're trying to find a place so they're making EVs more expensive well and
EVs are heavy too so they have more wear and tear on the roads and things like
that parking structures you know that were never designed to have that many
vehicles that are 20% heavier than what used to park there for example in
cities like you know looking at old parking structures going what happens
when you put 2,000 vehicles that are 20% heavier was this structure designed
for that much weight and electricity out west is not affordable either so it'll
be interesting because I think if you can make a case for EV you have solar
panels on your roof you make your own electricity you have the ability to use
that to power your car I think there's some definitely some good use cases
such as last mile delivery buses your around town car but for your daily
driver hybrid is probably the right choice for most people and for weirdos
like us it's big gas guzzling V8s because that's what makes us happy yeah
horse power and tire smoke that's right all right so talk about this redesign
and I saw you posted on your Instagram page and it was a old international
service truck kind of a silver color with this new logo on it was like well
that looks pretty rad what's that what's the story behind it so we've been doing
this business for this is year seven I know you kind of called it like the
hobby business but it was a hobby for a long time until I decided to leave my
corporate career and you know like go at it full tilt which was the end of 2018
and when I initially you know you got to have a sticker to put on cars you got
everybody's got a logo and stuff like that I dumbly wanted to have way too many
things on the sticker because I wanted to look cool so like I had my little
travel all on it and I wanted it to be like coming out of a barn and I wanted
it to be on the like I wanted the mountains in the background and the
Montana sunrise you know so the sticker was cool but like it was so busy and it
is 100% my fault that it was not great right so the last couple years I've been
thinking about doing a redesign and I have been very fortunate to be in a
circle of a lot of really cool people and one of those people was our the late
Ken block I was friends with a lot of people that he worked with I was
fortunate to meet Ken and go through a shop in Park City and get see all the
race cars and know some of the people that worked there and I just you know I
was very fortunate in that in right respect and I love Ken he was awesome
and I'm not going to name his name because he's a busy guy and kind of had
a profile but the guy that was Ken's right hand guy that was the designer for
all the liveries for Ken's race cars the Hoonigan brand the Ken block racing
the Ken block society everything that Ken has ever done this gentleman helped
him do the artwork and design for and he was gracious enough to talk to me and
say dude I would love to help you redesign this brand and come up with
something that's really gonna stick for you going forward a lot of people take
these older logos and modernize them you know and bring them to the future and
put their name into an old graphic design or whatever so we kind of started
with that idea and I was like hey man I you know we really do international
harvesters are is our core that's what we do a lot of scouts trucks travel
all service trucks semi trucks whatever we just you know we do tractors we do
live everything I said so I got to figure out some way to incorporate the
love of Montana for the business as well as incorporate to let people know
that we do IH and I gave that to him that basically that sentence and he
literally like two weeks later fires back this logo that you see right there
and it is not a copy of the IH logo but there's enough pieces in that when you
look at it that if you know anything it's like oh wow that looks like the IH
logo yeah it's not so we can't get trademarked you know what I mean so it
was awesome because it's he took this really complicated logo that I had and
he simplified it down so simple yet it tells everything that we needed to tell
so I just feel really fortunate that we got to work with him so 406 is the area
code for basically all of Montana right it is the only area cuz that's where my
kids were born so we live for 15 years it's where I will we can talk about that
too that's you're in Oregon here and I'm moving back okay I was wondering
about that because I was thinking well you're in Oregon in your time about
Montana and I'm like wait a second they realized oh 406 garage he'd always had
that love with Montana and that was in in the name of the company yeah from day
one it's always been there that's that's my heart that's my home I came back to
Oregon in 2012 to help take care of my parents who were elderly and basically
I'm an only child so if I didn't come help then there would be nobody and I was
just too far away then my two boys were their only grandkids they had and stuff
like that so it came down to alright I just got a pull plug on Montana for it
now I got to go back to Oregon help mom and dad everything like that it was good
timing subsequently just because the year we came back unfortunately my dad
actually passed away so then it was just my mom so we've been back here for
almost 15 years and mom's doing great and she's been able to participate in my
kids lives and sports and school and it's wonderful but Montana is home
Montana is my heart Montana is where I you know that's where I'm gonna spend
the rest of my life so my youngest son graduates in 2027 June and our plan is
to pack up everything and sell everything and go back to Montana when
he's done and then you're gonna have a imagine enough property for your shop
and all that kind of stuff when you get there yeah hopefully we'll have more
than we have now and build a new shop and continue you know where we live is
irrelevant to the business the business you know most of the stuff that we sell
goes to the east coast or goes overseas and so it just goes on a transport truck
so I just need to have the ability to have a transport truck be able to pick
up these rigs and take him to the customers when we're done so let's talk
about your YouTube page for a moment if you go to the website 406 garage calm
boom if you go to Instagram at 406 garage boom if you go to YouTube at 406
garage 3 the hell is going on with your marketing there man who got before me
but I tried it and then it's I tried then I said they suggested to we tried to
that didn't work went to three it's like oh three is available like why why not
official 406 garage official I know like why so I check on it periodically and I
have for several years no I'm still whoever has it reach out to me and I'll
give you a hundred bucks for it or something I don't know all right you
heard of here first whoever has the original 406 garage on YouTube I was
looking at it I was laughing the other day I got when 406 garage 3 it's like
it's like the team who site for 406 garage and the funniest thing though
really is if you type in just 406 garage on YouTube it comes right yeah yeah it
does yeah and we're the first we're the top of the list whatever so it's fine
but it is silly that there's one little asterisk yeah I agree so well you've
been friends with Casey Liddell for a long time in fact you guys came on the
show together at one point and I'm sure his YouTube success has probably helped
yours as well looks like you guys have kind of grown together a little bit yeah
he he's on different level yeah no he's the he's he moved up yeah skyscraper
love yeah I mean he so that guy actually has he does as many views as like
heavy D does like his his I think his monthly view count for his channel is
around 12 to 14 million yeah come on that's that's that you know yeah that's
like 40 years of the podcast right okay so us mere mortals are just hanging down
here in the slop while guys like that are up in the I don't know Mars or
something well Casey made Casey made a choice to make YouTube a business yeah
he's done a great job of it added oh yeah YouTube for us has always been we
want to tell the story of the trucks show the trucks and show what we do it is not
something that we are banking on the fact that that's gonna be a revenue source
for us you know so yeah no I love it because you will post trucks and you'll
be like one owner two owner whatever special one this one's you know AC power
breaks power steering blah blah blah and then you'll be like I drove by this for
20 years and the owner finally gave it up to me or we've got this one that's got
original paint that I've had my eye on or this one somebody passed away and they
didn't know what to do with it and they found me on the internet and asked if I
knew someone so I bought it and like every vehicle has a really cool story and
do a good job about walking through each of these vehicles that you get because
basically what you'll do is you buy a bunch of them you fix them up you sell
them and or find a client that wants it to be more bespoke and then you go do
exactly what that client wants and you've done a great job of you preserving
especially the original paint ones trying to keep the patina alive and I
hate painting them I know you do and still making them mechanically sound
everything underneath as good you go through the whole thing but it's still
it earned that age that's on it and you've been really good at keeping that
as part of the story for most of these vehicles yeah I appreciate that I feel
like the story of every rig is like the soul of the truck and if you don't get
the story it loses the soul and I you know I selfishly a long time ago when
we first started filming this and doing the YouTube but my thought was how cool
it would be if we get the story from the original guy or the daughter or the son
or whoever it is and we get that video we get that story on video and then 20 30
40 years from now somebody owns this truck and buys it somewhere yeah get on
YouTube and somehow they stumble on it and they find this video from 20 30 years
ago go oh my gosh that's my truck truck came from yeah this is the guy yeah like
that I hope someday that that's what happens you know so you also have a new
website coming out and I'm guessing that has to do with your logo and marketing
redesign and is it gonna be completely completely different yeah it will have a
lot of the same flavor but it's gonna it's gonna we're gonna incorporate
Shopify and all the merch and stuff we've had for years people asking hey I
want to buy a switcher to one of my hat one of my t-shirt one of my sticker
whatever I don't think most people realize that for the most part this whole
gig is a one-man show yeah hey I know the feeling yeah and and I struggle to
have the time to do all the things that everybody wants us to do to be able to
and so if I open myself up to a store and I had to stock all the inventory I
would fail miserably yeah we're setting up a Shopify with a third party that
will actually be on demand stuff yeah yeah I've looked at that I just don't
know if I have enough if there's you get the people like how do you have shirts
you have stickers and I'm afraid that I would go through all this work started
up and then they would basically disappear after all the early adopters
got theirs then I would just have a store with us I don't know I I I struggle
with that one because I'd love to do the merch I'd love to get some new shirts and
stuff out there but then it's like it's a lot of work so I think what that's
for that's the same for me so with the third party company doing it you can
set up all the logos and set everything up and put it on the website and they
just print as they sell yeah so you don't have to stock the inventory you
don't have any minimums and things like that and that really for me is the only
way that I can justify it I feel like we'll sell quite a bit of it but I'm
with you I think after the core people all get it it will kind of like yeah kind
of stair step down a little yeah so I think about that all the time and it's
like man we have a cool logo I I know we could sell some shirts I just don't know
if I could sell enough shirts to make it a business and you know a secondary
line item under the business it's just it's a lot it's a lot as you know yeah
yeah well I'm I'm doing it because the people on YouTube requested a lot I get
that email an awful lot I mean we do a sticker and a keychain and some little
stuff whenever we sell a vehicle for somebody and a lot of people just say
hey dude it'd be really cool if we get a hat and a t-shirt and you know hoodie or
whatever to go with our truck and so like I feel like I'm kind of let them down
by not yeah and I'm not gonna just print like 10 or 12 at a time right yeah
super expensive like okay so when I had my web guy redesign I said look we need
to build like an actual store on the page have it available so people can do
it and it's just automated so yeah maybe so that was the idea behind that we'll
see let me know how it works I mean I may bug you about how it's going because
that's that's what I thought about doing to you and it makes the product a little
bit more expensive but you're kind of going to a hardcore niche of fans anyway
and I feel like they would be willing to pay for it to get it otherwise it
doesn't exist right right well and for me it's like I won't sell a t-shirt or a
hoodie or hat unless it's quality because if you get no offense to this
company but if you just sell a bunch of gilded t-shirts yeah you wear not my
favorites they're all scratchy yeah throw them out like nobody's gonna want to
spend money and help support you if they get a product that they can't wear yeah
I'm gonna be very picky about what I actually sell and it probably will be a
little more expensive but at the same time it will be a quality product that
you can have for years yeah now I'm in the same boat all right so speaking of
quality products that you can have for years let's go back to the vehicles I'm
kind of curious what some of your favorite builds that have gone through the
shop recently are and then I'm also curious with the resurgent of
international and scout what are the big movers are there people coming to you
because they heard the word scout they googled and go oh a scout's like a
bronco jeep thing or you know blazer thing or are they saying I don't really
like the scout I was kind of curious but I saw this travel all I didn't know
there was something as like a suburban alternative like is there are there new
people is scout kind of the driver are the people falling in love with the trucks
and the SUVs and what are some of the cool builds coming through the shop
lately the majority of what I get believe it or not is people have a memory
people have an experience a life experience some point in their life
that a vehicle touched them and they want to relive that so they grew up with
their grandpa's travel wall they their family had a scout when they were kids
and it's long gone and now they have come full circle they have kids and they
want to take a travel wall or a scout or pick up like their grandpa had put it on
their farm or their ranch or their cabin and start making those memories that
they have when they were younger so it's usually I'd say 90% of the time it's
like hey my grandpa used to have my dad used to have my brother used to have
we had when we were growing up and I would like to get xyz whatever it is you
know so do they send you out on missions to find the particular vehicle
well that's so that's my funny rebuttal whenever people ask that I said well
I can call it the used car factory and see what we can find yeah and they're
like oh yeah well no I get it I mean that you know because sometimes they'll be
real specific like I need a 66 1200 single cab manual transmission 304 red
with 10 interiors like all right bro well you know I'll do my best at the used
car factory but like the reality is we need to find you something that looks
like that that's close to that and you know maybe it's red that needs to be a
t-shirt by the way yeah the 406 garage used car factory yeah exactly so that's
it's tough we do get that call I've tried really in the last couple years to
simplify things and what I've done is I go out and just try and find the nicest
cleanest original stuff I can come up with bring it back to the shop build it
finish it and then it's just put it out there for for sale yeah so we're not so
taking the customer build as we are just providing the inventory for people to
just pick from so it's not the same we won't do it but yeah but but that takes
a probably a little bit bigger of a deposit yeah and and unfortunately when
people do that you know god love them it's uh it's a long process because things
change throughout the build and instead of being a 30 day or 60 day turnaround it
ends up being a 12 month or 18 month thing yeah it's just you know yeah it's tough
it's a business owner it's tough so what are some of your favorite bills I've
gone through the shop lately uh we've done quite a few really cool scouts lately
um and we've done a couple we did a really cool travel all for uh we did a really
cool 71 travel all that was an original kind of uh that green mica color and it
had a roof rack and stuff on it it spent a lot of time in montana and the family
that had it had a cabin up at flathead lake and so as their kids grew up they
had the travel all just stayed at their cabinet never came back to their house
and in their other place in boseman and they would go up in the summer and they
would use it and had a CVT had a rooftop tent on it they would go camping with
it they'd put the boat in and out of the water with it and all these wonderful
memories and their kids all grew up well their kids grew up to the point where
they were like in their 30s and their kids had kids and the dad contacted us and
said you know I think I want to go through this travel all and make it
mechanically all you know back to normal back to daily driver use tire we want
you to do your tire and wheel package that you do on everything
and put a little bit of lift on it and shocks and interior and blah blah anyway
big bill so we did all that we made it all super awesome amazing and it was
turnkey and it was ready to go and I called them and they paid their bill
and we had a nice conversation and then they said
our kids just really aren't as interested in it as we thought they would be
how sad no no way and he said yeah I really thought we were gonna just
kind of pass this on to the next generation whatever and he said would
you be interested in in selling it for us and selling it to another family that
would that would be able to enjoy it yeah and so we did and it it turned out
that the family that we sold it to which ended up being
memory serving right I think it went to Minnesota okay but
they had to travel all and they were growing up they had to looking for
another one they wanted to get their kids into it they wanted to start and
they were young family and so it literally went to a family that wanted
to do with it exactly what this guy was planning to do with it and what they
had done with it its whole life so like it totally came full circle but it was
not at all the trajectory that I saw it going was the original owner a little
bit sad he was but he was super happy him and his
life that it was going to a family that was going to do exactly with it what
they were doing with it like they they couldn't be happy that must be hard to
put all that money into something just to flip it you know and and be like oh
this we're doing this with a purpose in mind our story in mind
oh well let's just see if anybody else likes what we what we did right
yeah likes our personalized you know setup yeah and thankfully they did I'm
sure they will still make it their own like everybody does but for the most
part all the stuff that we did to it they were very very excited about to be able
to use it so so while we're talking about things going through the shop
how about the work truck talking about that bad boy that thing is awesome
so that that idea has been been living in my head for many years and the idea
behind that was we get a lot of people that reach out to us on youtube or from
youtube and say hey we well first of all we get a lot of people from youtube that
reach out and say hey we've got an old international and we don't know what to
do with it would you guys be interested in and I love that because it's nothing
that's ever been on craigslist it's nothing that's ever been on facebook
marketplace nobody knows about it so it's like it's really cool that people
reach out to us and they know that if they sell it to us we're going to do the
right thing with it but we also get a lot of people that reach out to us and they
say hey we've got this really old scout it was my grandpa's da da da da we uh
we don't want to sell it but we really want to get it up and running and stuff
like that but we live in wherever and we don't have a way to get it to you or
this that or the other thing would you be willing to come to our place and just
get it running so we can kind of get the ball rolling so I've had enough of
those over the years I'm like you know it'd be really cool because if we built
a service truck just like a pay homage to the old service trucks that would go
out to the farms and ranches from the dealership we stopped it full of uh
tools and that's you know we're going to reach out to some tool companies and
some parts companies and things like that and maybe you know and maybe
Amsoil reach out to them for fluids but we want to pack everything on the truck
so we have it then the idea is go to their farm go to their ranch whatever
show up do what we can to get it running film it for youtube for the content
and then if we can't get it running we'll bring a trailer and we'll take it back
to the shop but hopefully we can just revive it right there in the farm
because that's the time that doesn't take a ton contrary to popular belief
it does not take a ton it's it's fuel it's fuel filters now batteries it's fluids
running and and streets safe are two different things though yeah if it can
if it can what I call a lot drive yeah that's a win and then they can take it
to the next level yeah if they want us to go through breaks and put you know
tires that aren't 25 years old on it and on stuff like that so repack wheel bearings
swap really I think we'll make for some really good you know I guess you would
call it will it run content or save from the barn content I don't know what
we're gonna call it yet but so that's the purpose of the truck the truck is
going to be the kind of the face of the youtube and that's what people will see
when we show up to either buy your rig or help you get your rig running so it
it's a medium want us to come out come reach out to us and it's a medium duty
international chassis basically and then what engine is in that thing
dt 466e so it's electronic and it's got eaten fuller six plus one
it started out as a it's an all-tech bed so it was a railroad repair service
truck in its early life and ironically and I think it had I don't know but I
think it had a boom or it had a man lift or it had a some kind of it looked like
there would be a cherry picker on it or something yeah it did because it has
most of those internationals are a 10,000 eight or 10,000 pound front axle and
like a 10 or 12,000 pound rear axle this had a has a 12,000 pound front axle and a 19
rear axle so it was in its air brake you know 33,000 gbw truck wow anyway the guy we
got it from actually him and his dad and his brother are subcontracted from bnsf and they
do railroad repair for bnsf as subcontractors so they were actually going out fixing railroad
stuff with this truck for the last 10 or 15 years what year is it it's a 2000 okay and it's
basically your typical I mean international made a gazillion of these things their box trucks and
their last mile delivery trucks and they're around town with steak beds on them I mean
there's just all sorts of stuff it's it's just what you did do it it's just really cool and I
think it'll serve its purpose really well especially as a youtube star yeah and the and the logo
I mean the logo on the door is our logo but what I mean is the graphic that's on the box
so that graphic if you look closely it says on site service yeah it has stripes with kind of a
jagged edge thing yeah so that is it almost an exact copy of a factory service truck meaning like a
dealership service truck that went out to farmer ranches from the 70s that's cool so my guy the
the guy that did the logo I gave that idea to him and he did a bunch of research found all
stuff put his twist on it and he designed all that so I could have my my logo people pernet
cut it and then apply it to the truck well it looks good I'm curious do you still have that
semi that you built a few years ago because you had built up a semi to go grab trucks from the
Pacific Northwest and bring them back oh okay so you're growing yeah I have the the 379 Longwood
Pete which pulls a five-car trailer so we can go out to Montana and the idea is you just take the
truck and trailer and we go out and we don't come home till the trailer's full and sometimes that's
at five locations sometimes that's one location yeah and I recently acquired a 85 freight liner
cabover so we have that now and it's just a single axle it's not a three or two axle truck
yeah single screwdriver so it's a little bit shorter wheelbase and it can pull the we have a
three-car trailer and it makes life a little easier for the in-town stuff because the Pete is
long nose Pete's a lot of length well it's almost 300 inch wheelbase yeah so that truck is like 31
feet long it's amazing to go a thousand miles on the highway in the peak yeah it is not amazing to
drive it around town well I would imagine a a cabover is pretty cool to drive because you basically
just look right over the edge oh the thing turns on a dime I love to send you a couple pictures
yeah I haven't seen that one it's super cool it's very recent so so why international for you
there's Chevy guys there's Ford guys there's Dodge guys and then there's international guys
so I there's two there's two sides to this so the the true reason is I grew up in my grandpa's
travel 71 travel and we used to go camping fishing hiking uh summer trips he had a
car top boat that went on top of it with a rack and we had a little 21 foot tandem axle
Shasta trailer aluminum like style trailer and we would pull that whole menagerie over the mountain
to the go camping and fishing in the summertime and I always remember sitting in the front because
it had the the bucket seats it kind of looks like a bench but basically the the center seat had a
flip down deal and right on the top in Boston vinyl it says no seat and so I sat on that as a
little kid because it made me go up higher so you can see over the dash so I sat on that and
sure enough there's a lap belt so I had this black belt all the way over the top you know I'm
like six seven eight years old I was a little easy and uh I just have a ton of amazing memories
in that rig and my grandpa passed away when I was pretty young and my mom and dad kept that rig
and we continued to do all the camping trips up until my teenage years and my teenage years was
the 80s uh similar to you and uh gas was not cheap and fixing vehicles that got
nine miles of the gallon was not cheap and when I got close to driving age my dad said to me he's
like do you want to drive this thing to high school I mean do you want it and I'm you know
being a teenager I'm like no I don't want that old thing it gets nine miles of the gallon it's
two wheel drive and it's a humongous wagon no chicks are going to want to ride you know
so he sold it sold the boat sold the trailer I would give anything to have it back I'm sure
it's soup cans in China by now you know in the wrecking yard but yeah um but I've always liked
having um I've always liked having a vehicle when you go to you go to cars and coffee or you go hang
out with your buddies or whatever I like having something that nobody else has totally and the
cool thing about car time having an international nobody else has one as you say the the coolest
thing about car culture is it doesn't matter if there's something weird it doesn't matter if you're
into it or not people want to know about it and they want to show up to the the Huntington Beach
cars and coffee with all the big uh Lamborghini Huracans and Porsches and you roll up in a 79
Pinot wagon with wood paneling on the side every one of those guys are going to talk to you yep
everything you have the weirdest truck or rig there you know same thing with the international
they have it you know so for me it's it's paying a lot of homage to my grandpa and my grandpa was
a truck driver that's the reason I have a Peterbill I've always I don't want to be a truck driver
yeah but I've always wanted to have a truck because my grandpa had a truck yeah and I've
always loved internationals because my grandpa drove an international so it's it's it's pretty
deep in my blood and my body and my soul of what we do you know I have a lot of passion for it
so let's transport ourselves back to the 60s and 70s when international was you know a
one of the big brands with the Fords and the Chevy's and the Dodges
nice yeah thank you now now we're back in time what was the value proposition of international
why would you choose that back then over one of the other big three brands and what made them special
I guess well uh I would say I learned most of my knowledge about this from talking to guys that
are significantly older than me because I don't think there's a tremendous amount of that history
that's actually written anywhere that you can find and what all the old guys that worked at these
dealerships always told me was international was trying to make sure that they captured their
customer for everything that they needed so when you came in and you got your tractor
and your wife needed a washing machine guess what they made washing machines they made uh
ovens they made refrigerators so not only could you get your tractor fixed you could keep your
wife happy and have a fridge or a stove or a freezer or a chest freezer whatever and the
natural progression was well when you need a new vehicle we want to be able to be the the company
to sell you a great vehicle and much like a lot of their companies they incorporated a lot of the
motors and drivetrain from their farm equipment their hay balers and stuff like that that's the
same motor that went into the trucks so it was like it was easy for them to transition and be like
all right well we'll just take the motor out of the hay baler and we can stick it in the scout
and you know I hate to be the guy but to point it out but the Bronco exists because of the scout
and anyone that argues that is is silly because you can look at a 61 scout and look at a 66 Bronco
and there is a rumor from a lot of the old guys that Ford actually bought a scout brought it back
to their engineering you know skunkworks place and said all right we gotta we gotta like we need
to copy this but not copy it and they went all the way around and it's basically within one
inch of all the same measurements of a scout yeah and uh yeah I've heard that rumor before
and I you know I think international should really be proud that a lot of these big companies were
like this little company in their eyes is doing some really cool stuff and we need we need to do that
and uh again back to like the square body Chevy everyone refers to the square body Chevy right
that's that's the quintessential name of the of the Chevy's of the 70s is the square body Chevy
well the square body international started in 1969 yeah the square body Chevy started 1973
so here we are again you know what I mean like I think that uh international's angle wasn't so
much that they were trying to make an angle it was the big three we're trying to figure out how
do we do what these guys are doing because they're doing a freaking awesome job at it you know yeah
and so I think their business model though always and and and all the old guys have said is is we
want to cater once we get our customer we want to keep our customer and we want to do everything we
can travel all pick up scout washer dryer chest freezer refrigerator tractor combine hay baler
we want to be their go-to thing for everything and a lot of the farmers I've talked to over the years
also will say because international would put a dealership in a tiny little town in the middle
of nowhere they had no bones about where they put it and a lot of those guys would go in to get their
tractor there and it was two three four five six hundred miles to the big city to get a Chevy
pickup and they could just buy a pickup right there so sometimes it was a convenience thing to where
they just didn't want to go however far it was to another town to buy a truck they just buy it
because it was there I also heard and I don't know if there's any uh you know way to this
rumor but I always heard that uh the scouts and the travel laws were built to a heavier duty spec
than your basic Ford's and Chevy's because they were made as basically rural and agricultural
implements by a company that knew about durability and so that they're built a little bit different
than their competitors of the same day yeah the frame rails are quite a bit thicker so fast forward
to you know 70s 80s 90s even you go talk to the guys that are building uh demo derby rigs or tractor
pull rigs they'll look for international truck and travel all frames because they were so much
thicker and stronger even in like a three-quarter ton versus a three-quarter ton Chevy quarter
dodge and they don't fold up as easily so yeah they were built to international harvester that the
joke is uh i h iron heavy yeah that's always been there that's always been kind of the quintessential
joke about it's like they are much heavier than everything else much thicker much unfortunately
they didn't do a great job at rust prevention so a lot of them rusted a lot more because they
didn't paint a lot of the inside of them stuff like that but I will say you know majority of the time
that we go get one of these rigs it doesn't matter how long it's sitting as long as it had fluid in
it and the carburetor was capped and the radiator cap is on I can make it run like they just they
don't hardly ever seize up so was international or did international have any first I know you
talk about some of these special customer vehicles that are ac and power brakes and power steering
and all that were there any features on the vehicles that are pretty cool for their time period
they were truly the first ones to build a crew cab pickup I mean that's cool 1957
I mean talk about being ahead of your time you know everybody thinks of uh
Ford with the half ton super crew in what 2001 being sort of a watershed moment but but not really
yeah yeah and they went you can actually look this up they partnered with Airstream when they
first came out and they took five of those original 57 crew cabs with service beds factory service
beds on a four-wheel drive hooked them to Airstreams and they took them to South Africa and did the
loop all around the southern tip of about the southern tip of South Africa with them and
crossed over all the bridges and there's a whole black and white video series of it back in the
50s and so they this is a truck they first came out with and they literally just put them on a
boat and shipped them to South Africa with Airstreams and toured them all over the place
awesome so there's a there's a guy in Colorado I think his name is Tim Smith if I remember right
kind of generic he's well known in the Jeeper community big Jeep builder guy and stuff like that
he acquired one of those original ones that went on that South Africa trip and then he got an Airstream
and he's slowly been putting it back together he's on Facebook and Instagram and stuff like that
anyway but yeah so first with the crew cab I think they were kind of the innovators of the
two-wheel drive four-wheel drive scenario meaning all their vehicles initially in the 60s and 70s
were two-wheel drive vehicles with a divorce transfer case if you went four-wheel drive
and they did leaf sprung on the front so you literally can just bolt a four-wheel drive axle
in the front put a t-case a front drive line and a shift linkage in and you have four-wheel drive
truck they kind of did us a favor going forward because you go look for old two-wheel drive
travel walls and pickups and they're usually in a lot better shape because it won't work this hard
oh yeah and then you can get something's got a really nice body and you can instantly make it
four-wheel drive so I thank them for that and then going down the assembly line it was easier for
them they only had to have one style transmission you know and it literally all the frames have the
holes drilled for four-wheel drive or two-wheel drive so anyway how hard are they to find these
days I mean I know you look at like the muscle core market and you go all right the Mustangs are
all gone Camaros are all gone Mopars are getting really expensive and then you go to the truck
market you know 6772 Chevy's are gone so then the bump size got popular they're gone so then
dodges of the same era kind of started getting popular then Dent side forwards and square
body Chevy's and those are getting to be pretty ridiculous in price is international still one
of those hidden gems or people catching on to it now I'd say in the last 10 years that I've been
really doing this a lot it is they've come up significantly in value not to the Ford Chevy
Dodge level and the Scouts you know the Scouts have actually taken off more than the than the
light line truck and travel all stuff has obviously probably you know because of scout motors a lot
a lot of other factors but a lot of people have discovered because they're like man I want to
buy an early Bronco that's all built and I want to put a Coyote motor and stuff like that okay that's
200 grand yeah oh and they still rattle right and it's like it's still it's still a parts been Falcon
well and you used to be able to go buy a scout that almost ran for 500 to 1500 bucks and you
fix it up and make it nice well that rig now is 15 or 20 grand so that rig that you know done is
100 or 150 so they're they're getting there already you look at Sean Barber who ran the uh
he just finished the Baja in the Scout Terra and he's got a shop called Anything Scout and New Legend
4x4 and they do modern you know they'll do a scout restoration with modern drivetrain they
have a full setup with LS platform and all stuff like that beautiful rigs those start at 285 start
so like you you know you want to talk about where they're getting to they're already there
so we'll see what happens on the truck and travel alls but they're they're definitely on the uptick
right now you the trucks will become unobtainium like a lot of other trucks have because I really
like them and I don't want them to get to that point yeah as I said the trucks are cool working
man's truck so the trucks are cool because they have their own look to them yeah you know they don't
they don't look like a forwarder Chevy their styling is unique into the internationals and when
you see one on the road out in the wild it looks different and you go yeah what was that if you
don't know yeah even in the the early years the the 40s and 50s the the a and b series trucks and
stuff like that you look at the the advanced design Chevy's the 47 to 54s and then you look at the
fords of that era and the dodges and they all do look pretty similar and then you look at the
international and they don't look anything like anybody else's truck yeah they really did have
their own design and in that carried through into the c series in the 60s and the d series so
so what's next for 406 garage between now and the move between now the rebrand and the move
man i told myself i was just gonna like you know not buy too much stuff and try and
pair down the inventory and everything else and i got two phone calls in the last 60 days
and uh this will be on youtube eventually but the first one was from a little elderly guy in his
80s he had a property in eastern oregon and a property in western oregon and he called up and
said loves your youtube channel i'm getting older i don't want to leave all this stuff to my wife
my kids that would you be interested in kind of looking at all my internationalism oh my gosh
what do you got what do you got i'm thinking like he's got four or five internationals and
probably has a tractor and he might have like a little garden cub cadet or something like that
he goes well i've got 18 internationals and i've got this and i've got that i've got a hay truck and
he's like and if you'd be interested in and he's like i've got two tucker snow cats you might be
interested in those you just come look at those and i've got some square body suburbans that are
they're really cool barn doors he's like you might be interested in those so anyway
18 internationals from him two square body suburbans and two tucker snow cats you ended up getting it
all i've already got it all my gosh filled most of it yeah we bought the whole thing
so that was that was 22 vehicles in one uh stint then i got another phone call from a gentleman
who i've known for about 10 years and i've been telling him that he's gonna need to get rid of
his stuff and he has told me he doesn't need to get rid of it and he finally called and said
you're right um finally listening i need you to come buy all my internationals and i knew that he
had 17 oh my gosh so i went and bought his 17 so in the course of about 60 days i bought 40
internationals and i don't mean i'm sure your banker is like you can hear it sucking all the
uh money coming out of your account yeah and you're pushing the button and it's just like uh no
no more no no no more no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no
no no no no no yeah so thankfully of the 40 that we bought we've actually sold 25 of them already
wow so they were all pretty good shape huh they were all very good lot of very good pieces and
then i also there was stuff that i knew what it was so i knew i had a customer for a lot of it and i
literally just made phone calls and said, Hey, I just bought this collection. Here's one of these
things. You've been asking me for this, this or this. I've got one. Are you interested? Here's
the price. I'll have it back this day. Come pick it up. And so a lot of them just went right off
the trailer, unloaded, customer showed up, put on their trailer and took them. We didn't do any
work. Yeah, that's good. It worked out really good. We were able to save all those vehicles,
re-home them all. And I think I have 12 or 15 of them still sitting here. Nice. It hasn't been
quite as crazy, but it was, it was a pretty crazy 60 days and I tried to remember to pick the
camera up every time. Yeah, it's hard to, right? Yeah. Yeah. Don't have a camera guy. So yeah,
well, it's just you. So it's hard. Two kids that helped out a lot, but yeah, but they're living
their life and they're like, dad, I got to go do fun kids stuff right now. Well, I know you watched
my younger son. He built that OBS Ford. I mean, he tore that thing all the way down to the frame
rails and put that all that together. He's been working on that for two years and finally got it
done and got to drive to school this year for the first time. And so he's super stoked, but
he was buried in that plus work, plus sports, plus girls, you know, my other son, same thing,
sports, girls, truck. So basically just like regular boys or teenagers, but they want to go
to Montana with me. So that'll be cool. And I've told them that they can, you know, if you guys
want this business, it's yours for the taking. If you at some point when I don't want to do it anymore.
So we'll see if they carry the torch or not. We'll see. Well, one of these days,
I got to get up and see you because I haven't been to Oregon. There's a few people up around you
that I know have moved up there. So I need to go do my Oregon tour of friends and I just want to
drive an old international. It could be a good ranch truck for me. I could get a three quarter ton
four by four and it would be perfect for me to move things around and screw the modern truck.
There's also one thing we've talked about for going on six years now. Yeah. I told you that if
you came here, I would show you how to drive along those peaks. I always want to do that. I'm like,
true. All you have to do is come here and we will do this. This is, now we have a little bump in
the road this year, but prior to that, it is 100% on you that you have not been here.
Well, it's like 800 miles from me or something like that. It's almost the same distance as Denver
and I don't know. This is no different than any drives you make to go four wheeling.
Except I got to go through the Bay Area or Northern California where all the weirdos live.
You could do the 101 coastal trip, bring Marion with you to go see the coast and then come up
through the redwoods and then you know. I'll go see Birds All in Santa Rosa on our way up and
I'll go see Mark Allen. I'd love to meet one of these days. Yeah. He's a good dude. Go see Mark
Allen when you go up there. Come see you. Drive along those peak. I also want to drive an old
international truck too. So you got to put that on my dance card. The door is always open for you,
my friend. You know that. You just have to make commitment and make time and come up there.
Well, if there's one thing I have, it's plenty of time. Yes.
You know what's funny is it's. Oh my god, you're the worst person I know. So bad.
I know I'm probably the worst person that you know because I keep promising to come up there,
but I really do mean it every time I say it's just impossibly hard because I just have so
much stuff going on, cool stuff and coaching softball and work stuff. And now all of a sudden
work is like way too busy and it's just it's everything. So I need to make a commitment
to to get out there and visit you because I really want to and it's just it's so crazy.
I want to drive up there. I don't want to fly. I want because I haven't more visceral experience.
Well, and it's just such a beautiful drive once you get past the wackadoos.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, talking about all that extra time, you know, I've had the privilege
this last week to meet a lot of your counterparts that used to work for the magazine with you,
you know, who all nobody works for the magazines anymore. Nobody else.
They've all found themselves with a whole bunch of time and it was fun talking to those guys here
when they were here just to, you know, kind of get their take on it and how they are
pivoting, you know, YouTube and to podcasting and all this other stuff. So I'm going to have
Christian and Trent come back on and do a recap of that because I always like supporting those
guys. I've been talking to to Vern. I need to get my flat fender out to Vern and get it out of the
garage and have him do a few things on it for me because I just don't. I just so hard to find the
time and then to get to help out a friend and give him some work. But yeah, it's just, there's just
so much going on all the time. I thought while I was laying in the hospital bed recovering,
I'm like, this is my chance to reset and not be so busy and figure that out. And I failed miserably
at it. I've found the only way you're going to be able to do it is to get on your calendar,
figure out when you can do it, put it on the calendar, lock it off and force yourself to do
it. Yeah, I know. Funny story about the Unreal Adventure. I'm going to touch on it for you because
we can because this will air after the Unreal Adventure actually happened. So those guys,
the they have, every year they have the trailer drop, which is where they put all their trucks
and trailers that they'd be at the, which is essentially it's the end of their route. And
so they this year are in the Pacific Northwest and they called me and said, because I know a lot
of them, obviously we all are all in the same circle. They're like, dude, would you be interested
in letting us be the trailer drop? Because we know you got like big property and shop and
gated fence and it's like safe and everything. I'm like, absolutely, let's do it. So my place
was the trailer drop this year. And, and then the funniest part about it was Christian and
Trent and I were having a conversation and they were asking me like, okay, hey, you know, that's
that's the finish line also for this trip. And at the finish of the trip, we usually go to a
restaurant or bar or brewery or like farm or ranch, whatever. And we have our awards assembly
and our party and our catered dinner and yada, yada, yada, where everybody comes together with
all the rigs and we do a bunch of pictures and video. And they said, do you have any ideas
of what to do? And I said, I'll throw you a curveball. Let's do it at my shop. And they both
were, we were on a call like this and they're like, dude, we've never done that. And I was like,
I know, why not? And he goes, I'm all in, let's do it. Everyone's going to love it. And they
don't tell the participants until they get to the final day. So all these guys don't know that even
though they dropped their trucks and trailers here, that this is where they're actually going to
finish. Yeah. So that's been fun. And, you know, having to keep it kind of a secret, which obviously
you and I are talking about it right now. But yeah, it's fun. And all those guys are great. They're
throughout the years. Yeah. It was kind of fun reminiscing with them and telling stories. Like,
oh, you remember this, remember that? You mentioned Vern. Vern and I had a hilarious conversation.
Hello, Vern. We knew that we knew each other throughout the circle for many reasons. And
we've actually met at different places and events, you know, Moab and San Holo and
this, that and the other thing. But Vern said on his drive up, or he said it was really bothering
him that he knew me, but not from four wheel drive stuff. He's like, how do I know this,
I know this guy, but I know him from something else. What is it that I know him from? So he gets
to my place. And, you know, everybody's walking around the shop checking out the trucks and,
you know, we're just all talking BS and whatever. Well, he walks over to the corner where I have
all my RC car stuff. All my little RC rock crawlers are like, yeah, people don't know that we did,
you know, that was a big part of my life at one point. And Vern, like he goes, light went on,
he goes, dude, RC crawler and scale four by four. And he's like, you and I used to nerd out on the
internet. And we were like, I sell parts to each other for these scale RC crawlers. He goes,
those fenders you have on your little Ford pickup right there, your tow rig is like,
I built those for you. You bought those from me. And he's like, holy crap, 25 years ago.
So yeah, we figured out that Vern and I knew each other in a former life as RC nerds.
That's awesome. I love it. I love it. Dude, it's so good to have you on and catch up if you are
interested in anything international, but you do other things as well. If you're looking for a good
shop and I don't know, you want something different than the Ford's and Chevy's and Dodge's that are
out there. Check out 406garage.com and the website is going to be getting a refresh. The new logo
is going to be coming out. You can buy merch. You also have 406garage on Instagram and of course,
on YouTube, 406garage three. We appreciate it. If any of you guys out there have
international, do you want to tell us a story? You want us to film a video about it? We would
love to just come or have 30 for sale because now you have space for inventory in the future.
All right, brother. Good talk to you. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. We'll see you soon.
Thank you, Ben. Sorry it took so long to get to this interview. This was another great conversation
and I'm happy to share it with all of our Truck Show podcast listeners. All right,
well, that's going to do it for this episode of the Truck Show podcast and I've got a lot to do
this week in Moab, including hitting the dirt. So please excuse me and because I'm doing this in
the hotel room, there's no outro with me talking over the bed. So send me your thoughts by emailing
the show, truckshowpodcast at gmail.com or following us on social at Truck Show podcast or at Sean
P. Holman. You can leave us a message on the five star hotline. I want to hear from you guys 657205,
and of course you can join the Facebook group, The Podshed Insiders. And of course,
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