S3, E87 - Moab Jeep Concepts

Welcome back to the Truck Show podcast.

Once again, coming to you from the Pod Shed

in lovely Huntington Beach, California.

Hope everybody had a great Easter holiday and spring break

and I am back from Utah in my actual redemption run.

Can you believe it's been a year?

Since the accident, I guess if you went back

and listened to me about nine months ago,

I sounded a little bit different than I did today

and it's been just incredible.

The progress that I've made being in Moab,

seeing everybody, all the hugs, all the high fives,

the handshakes, the industry,

I just, man, just makes me feel alive

to have that experience and have so many people

care about Marin and I and it just, it was great.

And even better, the weather was beautiful.

The Jeep worked flawlessly.

I'm feeling good.

I'm keeping busy.

Things are continuing to improve.

And again, people have asked how I felt making the drive

and honestly, no ill effects or issues.

I drove right by that spot.

I'm like, not today.

Although I do want my air pod back

that's sitting over there at mile marker one.

I have 15 North in Utah, if anybody ever finds it.

Yeah, I mean, really the only thing that sucked

was I wish I had Marin with me on this one,

but he was at home and she didn't come,

but it was great.

It was, I needed it.

It was great to be out on the open road.

It was great to be in Moab.

Great to see everybody.

Great, great, great, great, great.

I can't use that adjective enough.

I just, I feel good and I'm just,

there's a lot of stuff going on right now

that I'm just super thankful for.

And for those of you asking about her,

we just posted a video on my social

and can go to at Sean P. Holman.

And she definitely wants to come back on the podcast soon.

So she says that she's going to make a post

on Podshed Insider, ask Marin anything

and then she'll come on and answer it.

So I think that's pretty cool.

But one of the cool things about being in Moab

is I finally took the Jeep off road

for the very first time.

First dirt, the new Bilstein 8100 DSA shocks

are flat out amazing.

So they were great driving out there.

But when I hit the dirt, you never know.

You never know if there's to be sharp edges

or if they're gonna be too soft and wallowy

or what these things are perfect.

Having the dual speed adjustments on the DSAs

allowed me to dial it in for the weight.

And I'm just like butter.

Things that I thought would hit the bumps,

not only didn't hit the bumps,

but were like buttery smooth

and then rebounded from there.

It was great.

Can't wait to get some more off road miles on them.

I've got plenty of on road miles, a couple of thousand

and they're fantastic,

but having that adjustability is huge.

So, Shane from Bilstein will be on the show

in a future episode to talk about the technology in them.

And we'll talk about my experiences with them down the line.

And I believe those are available.

The Tacoma versions are even better

because they have RCOs and JCOs,

the rebound cutoff and the jounce cutoff.

So essentially internal bump stops within the shock

on both the rebound and compression sides.

They're even better.

So if you're a Toyota guy,

that's a, it's just an amazing shock.

And on the Jeeps, I helped them prototype

the two-tube bypasses on the JKs.

And they were phenomenal.

One of the best sets of shocks I've ever had on a Jeep,

but these are even more flexible

because the Jeep has such limited up travel.

The last part of that bypass zone,

when you get into the hard compression,

you are into it too easily.

You don't have enough room

and there's a very short amount of travel or stroke

for them to dissipate the energy.

The DSAs that I have on the new jail,

not the two-tube bypasses, 8100s that were on my JK,

but on this one, they work throughout the entire stroke

and it's just, I think it's better

for the way the Jeep suspension cycles

and especially on the 392 with limited up travel.

They're just great.

So now that I'm back, I've been super busy.

I'm still finishing up that KC battery install

so I can get the American Adventure Lab drawers in.

I just got the powers hooked up to it.

So I plugged in the solar today.

Stay tuned, there'll be some social around that.

It is unbelievably awesome.

The AAL shelf with the KC batteries

is gonna be a game changer.

I think I mentioned it before,

but Brad at American Adventure Lab is trying to design it

so there's a retrofit kit to anybody

who has a current cargo shelf

who could use that 105 amp hour KC battery,

which is a monster.

I think with full sun doing like 150, 160 watts of input,

it still took like five hours to fill that sucker up,

but it's crazy how much power I have on board now.

So the next thing is to get the wiring bottles all buttoned up.

Solar's working, alternator charging from the Jeep is working.

And then I got to wire up all the outlets and lights

and accessories through the Total Vehicle Management System

Redox TVMS, but I've got the Alpha 50R,

which is their BCDC, which is the battery charger.

And then it also manages the solar input,

the alternator input, all that stuff.

And then I've got the Rogue TVMS,

which allows me to use an app to turn things on and off

and manage it.

And there's also a screen that American Adventure Lab

takes the red arc screen and they cut out their backing plate

and then it mounts to the back of that.

So that's super cool because the screen allows me to work

on from the back of the vehicle,

or I can do it in the front of the vehicle on the app.

So either way, it's got Bluetooth.

I was so excited, I fired it up.

No faults, no issues.

Everything ran the way it was supposed to.

Apparently got all the fuses from the wiring gauges right

and all that stuff.

So that's super excited.

I'm hoping to get this phase of the build wrapped up

so that we can debut it at Casey's Open House

right before Overland Expo West

in Flagstaff, Arizona, a few weeks.

So lots still to do before then,

but as soon as the power part's buttoned up,

then I get the fridge slide, the drawers

and all that stuff going into the Jeep as well

from American Adventure Lab.

And we're so close, we're so close.

And then I can start hitting the trails

and having fun again.

So it's been fun.

I love building things for the most part,

although it sucked a lot of free time.

Be happy when it's done.

But speaking of Easter Jeep Safari,

I had a great conversation with Jeep designer Chris Piscatelli.

So we'll have him on this episode.

We talked about all the Jeep concepts

that they unveiled this year.

And I'm excited to report that after meeting

with Jeep in Moab, the Jeep team that's currently together,

they are some of the old guard,

some of the people that were taught by the old guard,

people who were at other brands and came back to Jeep.

And it's the right mix of people.

They're protecting the brand

and coming out with some really awesome products.

And coming out with great stuff is a high priority,

the right people on play.

So I hope you'll enjoy this interview with Chris.

But before we get started on that,

some of you might have heard I have a new job with SEMA.

So more accurately, the Offroad Business Association,

or ORBA, which SEMA bought last year.

And I have been quietly helping them

on the marketing side since October.

That was just announced last month

that I am now the interim executive director

of the Offroad Business Association, ORBA.

So that's pretty much a full-time job.

But if you'll help me out,

if you have a business or a shop or a nonprofit or a club,

please give us a follow on social

at Offroad Business Association to keep up with what we're doing.

I'm trying to grow the social on that side.

And basically this is a great job for me, stable.

I'll still be doing the podcast.

It's gonna be a lot of work,

but it's also something that allows me to pivot a little bit

and use my skill set in a different way

and kind of give back to the industry

and help keep your lands open.

This is a nationwide deal.

I'm based in the Washington DC office

where the government affairs and legislative is.

We're gonna be doing a bunch of stuff in DC

and also in local capitals.

We've got a bunch of stuff here on the West Coast

in Nevada, Utah, California.

I just think it's gonna be great.

And we're gonna make ORBA this sort of the shining light

that brings all the fragmented groups together

in land use and things like that.

So don't be surprised if we have some more legislative updates

or land use stuff for my ORBA job.

So anyway, I feel like I've turned the corner.

It was kind of bleak for a little while there

with not a lot of work coming in

and things were pretty quiet

and trying to go through recovery

and get back on my two feet.

And I feel like 25 is gone in the review,

26 we're turning the corner

and feel so blessed for all of that

because it's been a long year.

So before we get started,

the Truck Show podcast has proudly brought to you

in partnership with Amsoil,

the maker of the best synthetics

and the same ones we use in our rigs.

Of course, Amsoil is more than just synthetic oil.

They make some of the finest lubricants,

greases, additives, filters, car care products.

And yes, even merch.

And did I tell you?

Amsoil signed on for another year.

So you're gonna hear a lot more about Amsoil.

And if you go to truckshowpodcast.com

to the featured products page,

you'll see that we have our own special Amsoil link.

So all I ask is if you do get Amsoil products,

that you please use our link

so that we get credit for those sales

and keeps Amsoil happy.

They've been such an amazing partner.

And I'm so stuck to have them for another year.

And of course, we use Amsoil products to protect our rigs

and you can do the same by heading to amsoil.com.

And as of today, I believe they have a brand new promotion.

You get a free USB charging cable

if you use the code charge426.

And that is on the Amsoil website.

Please use our link.

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Exclusions do apply if I don't know all the details.

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The Truck Show.

We're gonna show you what we know.

We're gonna answer what the truck,

cause truck rides with the ****.

The Truck Show.

We have the lifted, we have the lowered

and everything in between.

We'll talk about trucks that run on diesel,

electricity in our gasoline.

The Truck Show.

It's the Truck Show with your host, Holman.

And while we listen to the theme song Fading Out,

prepare yourself to hear from Jeep designer,

Chris Piscatelli, which we recorded last week

in Moab for Easter Jeep Safari.

And first, I think we need to hear a proper jingle.

It's the inside job, baby.

It's the inside job now.

It's the inside job, baby.

It's time for you to share what you do.

Welcome to the show, Chris Piscatelli.

All right, so I'm sitting in rainy Moab, Utah.

Normally we'd be driving all the concepts.

Most of them this year were open air

and it's basically been pouring rain on morning in Moab.

So forgive me that I'm sitting in the gladiator

with Chris Piscatelli and you guys have had beautiful weather

all week.

And then when it comes time for me to go drive

and see all the concepts, it's like,

You brought the rain, man.

Was that me?

Yeah, it was a, I don't even know.

So it's, it was funny.

So you guys always kind of do like the preview

of like, hey, media, here's all, all the concepts.

And then I'm involved in a lot of different like media groups,

like automotive media professionals on, you know,

Facebook and some of the other people like,

Oh, they only had six cons.

Oh, these guys.

Oh, they totally went light this year.

And then like, I've been around long enough.

I know there's always a, but wait, there's more.

And there's a couple of those here.

So I just wanted to grab you real quick

and talk through some of the concepts this year

because there's a couple of really awesome ones.

We're looking at the, with the Anvil 715 with that new front end,

but that thing is awesome.

And being in the overland space,

I appreciate the safari top, the windows,

just the overall like way it looks and the way it's built.

So let's, let's start there.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. So, I mean, that one, again, it was,

it was kind of about some of the,

some of the overlanding kind of attributes, right?

We wanted, you know, functional roof carrier, right?

So a different mounting system.

We wanted that high top, right?

So you got to get a little bit more.

And that's one of those ones that we'll continue to,

to kind of play with.

Like I've, I wanted to see what we could do as far as the inside

and in some of the past rigs we've done,

like kind of almost like bimini tops inside to throw things inside.

This one, we were going to do that.

And then we, because we perforated it and put some skylights in there,

we were like, well, instead of stacking all the sleeping bags

and stuff up there, let's, let's run 1.0 with,

with just kind of being able to see how much light there is.

Because when you sit in the back seat, especially,

you're like, wow, this is, this is monstrous.

So a Wrangler already, four size has a pretty tall roof light.

I mean, you can get a six foot five guy in here

and maybe he's going to complain as he hits his head on the back

of the, you know, the speakers or something.

Yeah, but, but overall, like you could wear a cowboy hat in here.

No problem.

So it's not the roof height.

It's just that it feels kind of squishy in here.

Like it's, it's the, usually it's not as bright and I'll be honest,

I kind of like it.

Like I have on my AV Jeep inside of the tops painted black.

And I like that.

Like I'm getting in, in my dark little cave and I'm looking out.

But then when you sit in like the, the Anvil 715 with the skylights

and it's full bright, you're kind of like, well,

this is a totally different experience.

It absolutely transforms me in a passenger in that thing.

Absolutely.

And it's even, even the color we went with, like again,

we considered black because again, it's like, oh, you know,

maybe it's a, it's kind of the whole vibe is militant and it's got

these greens and it's dark.

And then we're like, you know what, let's go orange.

Let's do something.

Let's do something weird.

You know, it looks like we like tumbled through an REI catalog.

But it's, it's, it's kind of a cool, it's an interesting play on,

you know, between the natural light and just the kind of emitting,

you know, color that, you know, reflective glow you get from that

with something, you know, that really kind of played off of

some of the other color and trim that we used in there.

Well, let's face it, Jeep is always about fun.

And when you get into a lot of these concepts,

you guys have been known for putting smiles on people's faces

with fun textures and colors and Easter eggs.

And you know, there's something that Mark Allen started a long time ago

and Mark's been on the show a bunch of times.

And, you know, he and I are good friends.

And when he told me that he was retiring, I was worried, you know,

and you and Vince and the rest of the guys have absolutely taken that torch

and there is, there's no momentum shift in what you come up with and the ideas

and to see a new group of guys that are younger, new ideas, fresh ideas,

looking at, you know, textures and colors, outdoor space,

still keeping the Easter egg thing alive.

All of that is so on brand and I'm glad that none of that changed,

but I'm happy to see that you all get to put your own little twist on it.

Sure.

Yeah, I mean, we learned from the best.

I mean, Mark was one of my personal mentors.

I came in in 2013 and almost immediately started, you know,

I was working on a production car and then he kind of brought me into the fold of the EJS rigs

and we have a very similar sense of humor.

So the two of us, you know, vibed really, really well together and as, you know,

Did he also threaten to punch you in the throat?

Always.

Okay.

He texted me and he says, when I see you at EJS, I'm going to give you a big hug.

You f*****g.

And then I'm going to punch you in the throat and I go, Hey, I got titanium there.

Don't hurt your hands, old man.

So he and I had a old fashioned together the other night and so it was good to catch up with him.

But it's always nice to be here and moab and get accosted by Mark.

Yeah, we went out wheeling the other day and it's always great, you know,

to catch up with him because this is kind of our meeting place.

You know, we get to hang out and, you know, he's doing retirement right.

You know, he's just enjoying life and so it's awesome to get to kind of, you know,

hang out with him because otherwise it's just us texting to each other all the time,

making fun of each other and whatnot.

Yeah.

So now it's, to your point, it's really cool to be able to carry that torch.

You know, my success I attribute to standing on the shoulders of giants, you know,

before me, you know, Scotty and him put this thing together years and years ago.

Years ago, yeah.

And, you know, to me, you know, starting as a designer doing this and kind of transitioning

into, you know, being the ringmaster of the Moab effort from a design standpoint,

it's an amazing, you know, opportunity and it was a learning curve to realize that most of the stuff

that I'm able to ask for forgiveness for instead of permission for is because of the way I learned

from him and because I think I've been able to kind of adapt to...

That was a philosophy of his.

Oh, yeah.

He's like, we're just going to do it and they're either going to like it or they're going to hate it.

And if they like it, they'll forgive us.

If they hate it, well, they don't really have a choice.

Because we already did it.

Yeah, for sure.

I mean, it's been a blast, you know, working on these things because they're, you know,

they're a passion project.

They are, you know, and there's tangible benefits to doing this.

You know, we get to gauge things.

They're a beta test.

We get to see how people like colors, how they like elements, you know, how they like design cues.

Well, I mean, if you go back in time at all the EJS stuff, you can point out several things that were the precursor to production.

I can think of, you know, there was the front end that ended up on the mid-cycle action for the Jeep Cherokee that was debuted at EJS.

There's certain colors.

Anvil was debuted, Earl was debuted at EJS, right?

And then there's other little things, whether they're Easter eggs, whether they're an idea of a feature,

whether it's just a little hint and nod, and maybe the production thing that comes out of it isn't quite the same.

But that's the genesis of where it started.

So people have been doing this a long time like me.

You can kind of walk around and go, hmm, I see what they're doing here.

And to your point, when you were sort of doing your speech to the crowd that's assembled here to see how this is like,

these aren't necessarily production intent, but these are questions that we're asking.

And everything that you guys do, whether it's production intent or not, is still done with an OE purpose in mind.

Like it could be production.

And so that's what's special about these is not only are they special and one-off and cool,

but they could be a volume thing and you drive all these things.

None of these are showroom queens.

You come out here, you use them.

There's concepts that are out here from 15, 20 years ago.

Still roaming the trails because it's fun to get people out in it.

Oh yeah, we were on lower 40 the other day, and that rig has got to be almost 20 years old.

Yeah, I remember when lower 40 came out.

I got a picture of Mark and I in one of the first 392.

It was a 6-4 JK covered in sand.

I've got, poor chop was because of my magazine build and Mark drove it with me.

And he goes, how much does this thing weigh?

And it was a first generation JK four door stick 38.

And it weighed like 6,200 pounds.

And so when Mark, the year after Mark says, that one's for you.

I go, why?

He goes, because I rode in Jeep, you built it was too damn heavy.

So we built poor chop.

And so there's all these like fun little through lines and stories that happen through the concepts

or how you guys come up with it.

Sometimes it's just a stupid interaction like that that inspires you to do, you know, next year.

And there's, somebody needs to write a book about where all these vehicles came from.

Because there's so much hidden in the details that probably will never be known because it's tough.

It's funny you mentioned that.

Like I was saying the other night what started, you know, the rewind concept last year started by me and Vince talking about like everybody.

Everybody says it.

It's one of those things we say everybody always thinks that including us when we say Jeep and we're always, you know,

the freedoms of this and the World War two machine.

And what Jeep meant to someone in that's my age and I'm 45 and Vince is the same age as me.

And so we're like, you know, it'd be kind of funny to build a new JS rig that was all about freedom.

But when you say freedom, it was more like, you know,

Mixed saves.

So, you know, we'll totally get that because I'm 48.

And so when rewind came out and it was, you know, rain, which is purple and it had, you know, was it the teal hot pink stripes on it?

You're like, I would never buy that, but it reminds me of like my jam shorts and, you know, back in the day.

And I'm like, I totally resonated with it.

I'm like, I 100% what they get what they're doing.

And when you look at some of the other manufacturers who might go and do something retro,

You guys clearly have the pedigree to do something retro.

But you totally did it in your own way, which is rad.

And rad is the exact right word for that thing.

And now that the 12 for 12 kind of got revealed here as that rewind is coming out as a limited edition package for this year.

How cool is that something that you guys built just to have fun is now going to be a package a customer can buy.

It's very cool.

It was super cool to see the reaction that we got from that.

And then even, you know, the reaction we got the other night when we showed that we're actually doing it.

It was like, all right, this is this is cool.

And yeah, it's not for everybody.

Definitely not for everybody.

But I get it.

Yeah.

And it puts a smile on your face.

You know, it's funny.

You can show something about it.

And I know Mark used to joke about it.

You guys have talked about it.

There's the Skittles collection, which is the bright colors.

And there's the vinyl sighting collection, which is like the military and functional colors.

And either works with the chiefs, but there's something about a purple, a pink, a yellow, a red Jeep.

When you drive by a five year old kid on the street, he stops and smiles.

And like if you have a car that you can just drive and do nothing else and make little kids smile, that's that's pretty special.

I agree.

There's not very many vehicles out there.

Like maybe a Ferrari or Lamborghini or something like that where they're like, oh, cool.

But Jeep is so unique in that space where they just, I can't tell you how many neighborhood kids when I drive by just stop and go, oh, you know.

Yeah.

I mean, for a mainstream product to be able to take the risks, like you said, that only other, you know, products are exotics.

Yeah.

You know, whether it's colors or to that point, these buzz models, which are, you know, just these ideas and they're fun.

But we, I don't know that many companies could get away with it because I don't know that many companies have the same sense of humor that we have and enjoy what we do and want to kind of pass that on, you know.

Well, let's face it, it's corporate, it's business, but there's a certain level of latitude that you guys are afforded because of who you are in the company and the history.

And that must make it so special to be at Jeep versus being at maybe even some of the sister brands but also, you know, the competition out there.

They're just not doing these types of things.

This is so unique to this brand and so different from what the rest of the industry does.

Yeah.

It's a passion and enthusiast driven brand.

I don't know that I could ever work for a brand that wasn't.

Yeah, that would be hard.

After being like here for 13 years and being able to experience and do what I've been able to do and just seeing the outward kind of the reactions that the product gives the consumer to go and, you know, you know, given the opportunity to work for a company that doesn't do that.

I don't think I could get with that, you know.

Yeah.

It would just be death.

God.

All right.

So Anvil or yeah, Anvil 715 came driving by and we talked about that a little bit.

It's based on the 392 AV rear bumper, but it's been painted.

It's a little, you know, plus up a little bit.

Super cool.

Dig it.

Take a special look at the gas tank too when you get a chance.

All right.

And then also the roof racks, super cool on top of the safari roof with the skylight windows.

The other thing out here that's kind of cool, that's different.

So when the wagon here came out, it was that four-wheeler magazine and we asked for the

off-road package and at that time you get a steel spring version with 18-inch wheels.

And we could not believe how well that thing offered because we were all like, I know it

says Jeep and it sort of shares with the Ram platform, but it's IRS.

How good could it be?

We wheeled that thing in our four-wheeler of the year.

I think actually won SUV of the year that year.

I mean, I think it might have been the last year we did it before the magazine was closed

down.

Maybe that's why I don't know.

But it wheeled so awesome and it was so good off-road.

I've always wondered like, you know, and you guys have teased a couple versions of it,

but this year seems like the best version of 34s or 35s.

35s.

Still IRS.

Still has all the wagon here, luxury.

But to me, it's the one that you have a vehicle.

You're in a national park.

You want to take the family on the back roads.

It's not necessarily like I'm going to go rock crawling in it, but it is going to be like,

let's go to Joshua Tree or let's go to, you know, what's another great part?

Maybe Yellowstone has some back road.

Death Valley.

Yeah.

You could totally take the family, have all the room for your gear and go exploring all

the back country.

No problem in that.

Yeah.

We were looking at it in the sense of, and again, that's why I mentioned it.

I didn't want to build a rock crusher out of it because the end of the day, that's not

what that is about, right?

Or that truck is about.

Yeah.

But it is like, you know, I want a little bit more capability.

I want to test that.

And honestly, my hope to gain out of that when we first talked to Rockcrawler about it was

to see when we got it back.

I was like, man, is this thing just going to be a rattle trap?

Yeah.

Is it going to feel tall and goofy and, you know?

S3, E87 - Moab Jeep Concepts

About this episode

Moab

Bilstein

rebound cutoff

jounce cutoff

travel or stroke

American Adventure Lab

solar

105 amp hour

alternator charging

Bluetooth

Overland Expo West

Jeep concepts

SEMA

Offroad Business Association

Amsoil

synthetics

synthetic oil

Chris Piscatelli

skylights

headroom

color and trim

Easter eggs

production car

World War two machine

limited edition package

enthusiast driven brand

roof racks

rock crawling

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