When you tighten a bolt, it squeezes the parts together. That squeeze force is called preload, and it helps keep the joint from shifting under driving loads.
Fatigue failure is when a part breaks after lots of repeated stress, like bending back and forth over time. It’s common when a joint isn’t tight and keeps getting loaded.
A four-link buggy is an off-road suspension design that uses four metal arms to control how the wheels move. It helps the vehicle stay stable when the terrain is rough.
An upper front link is one of the suspension arms on the front axle in a four-link setup. If its bolt loosens, the link can develop play (“slop”), which changes suspension geometry and can lead to accelerated wear or failure.
Heim joints are metal joints used on off-road suspension links. They move freely, but because they don’t have rubber-like give, small looseness can create big stresses at the mounting points.
A Johnny joint is a suspension joint that’s designed to be a bit more forgiving than a fully metal joint. It can help smooth out bumps and reduce the harsh effects of small looseness.
A three-link suspension uses three arms/links to control how the axle moves. If those joints or mounts get loose, the suspension can hit with extra force and start wearing out the mounting points quickly.
Shock loading means the parts get hit with sudden heavy force. On rough terrain, looseness can turn normal movement into sharp impacts that stress the mounts and joints.
A locker is a device in the differential that helps both wheels on an axle drive together. They’re saying the problem wasn’t caused by that locking feature.
“Diff” is the differential gear set that lets the wheels turn at different speeds when you’re turning. They’re saying a failing bearing in the diff could contribute to the overall stress and damage.
Backlash is the small amount of “slop” or free movement between parts. In a suspension, that slop can turn into extra stress because the joints don’t take up the movement.
A bushing is a soft insert that helps joints move smoothly and absorb shocks. Without bushings, the suspension parts take the full impact and wear faster.
It means checking that the bolts and nuts on the truck are still tight. Off-roading shakes things loose, so this helps prevent small problems from becoming major breakdowns.
The pinion is a gear inside the differential, and bearings help it spin. If the bearing seizes, it can lock up and cause major damage in the drivetrain.
The upper link is a suspension arm that helps hold the axle in the right position. If it breaks, the truck’s handling and wheel alignment can go wrong fast.
“As-is” means you’re buying it with whatever problems it already has. If something breaks later, the seller usually won’t be obligated to fix it.
Company
stellar built
They’re talking about a shop that builds and sells off-road rigs. The point is that a shop’s reputation and marketing can raise the stakes compared with a private seller.
“Gazelle” here sounds like a quick-to-set-up camping tent/awning that you use on the ground near your vehicle. They’re comparing it to a rooftop tent setup.
Glamping means camping, but with more comfort—like having nicer or more convenient gear. They’re joking about what counts as glamping based on how comfortable their setup is.
They’re talking about selling a used off-road vehicle and figuring out a fair price. The caller mentions trying to come up with a number based on what they put into the truck.
The Land Cruiser is a Toyota 4x4 that’s famous for being tough and good off-road. Here, they’re talking about selling one, and that usually means people care a lot about its condition and history.
Concept
resale value vs. build cost
The hosts discuss how off-road modifications and hard use don’t always translate into resale value. They debate a “rule of thumb” that a vehicle might be worth about half of what was spent, then adjust up or down depending on condition and demand.
A Toyota RAV4 is a common everyday SUV. Here, it’s being used as the “normal commuter” car in a straight-up swap with a more off-road oriented vehicle.
“Blue Book” refers to vehicle pricing guides (most commonly Kelley Blue Book) that estimate a car’s market value based on factors like mileage, condition, and trim. The host uses it to estimate what the RAV4 might be worth in retail vs. private-party sales.
A “straight-up trade” means swapping vehicles without agreeing on a separate cash price for either side. Here, it’s used to avoid the uncertainty of assigning a precise dollar value to a heavily used off-road truck.
The Jeep Gladiator is a midsize pickup built on Jeep’s off-road DNA, combining truck utility with trail-capable hardware. The hosts bring it up as another vehicle they’ve spent money on for wheeling, highlighting how off-road builds can become expensive to quantify and sell.
The Toyota Tacoma is a midsize pickup known for strong aftermarket support and off-road capability. In this segment, it’s referenced as a wheeled truck that’s been rebuilt multiple times, illustrating how repeated off-road use and upgrades can drive costs up and complicate resale value.
In an off-road context, “accessories” usually means aftermarket add-ons—like wheels/tires, bumpers, lighting, suspension components, or other upgrades—that can affect both function and resale value. The speaker is specifically interested in how long these accessories last and how much they’re worth over time.
Term
Excel spreadsheet
Excel is a spreadsheet program people use to track numbers. They’re saying they don’t want to add up everything they’ve spent because it would feel overwhelming.
Retail value is basically the “what it could sell for” price. They’re using it to talk about whether their upgrades are worth enough money when selling.
“Jeep JK” is a Wrangler generation that a lot of off-road people modify. The hosts are talking about how people add big suspension upgrades to these Jeeps before selling them.
Long arms are a suspension upgrade that helps the wheels move more smoothly over bumps. It’s common on off-road trucks because it can improve traction on uneven ground.
A 1994 Toyota 4Runner is an older SUV that many people turn into off-road rigs. The hosts are saying it’s hard to sell one for a high price just because it has upgrades.
They’re talking about whether expensive upgrades actually make a car worth more when you sell it. Sometimes it’s smarter to sell the car stock and sell the parts separately.
Aftermarket parts are upgrades that aren’t made by the car’s original manufacturer. They’re talking about how much those upgraded parts might be worth to the next buyer.
Term
suspension and axles
Suspension and axles are big parts that affect how the vehicle rides and how it moves. Off-road upgrades here can be expensive, and that cost doesn’t always show up in the sale price.
Term
California legal 34 swap
A “swap” is an engine or drivetrain replacement, and “California legal” indicates the conversion was done to meet California emissions/inspection requirements. The “34 swap” is likely shorthand for a specific engine swap package, which matters because legality and emissions equipment can strongly affect cost and resale value.
Term
dual cases
“Dual cases” means the vehicle has two transfer cases. That’s an off-road drivetrain upgrade that helps you crawl slowly with lots of control.
“Smog ability” means whether the vehicle can pass emissions testing. With big modifications, that can be the key factor in whether it’s legal to drive on public roads.
An axle is the part that connects the wheels to the drivetrain. People talk about “Toyota axles” because Toyota 4x4 axles are common, tough, and have lots of upgrade parts available.
This is a Toyota engine part for an older style setup. The intake manifold routes air to the engine, and the carburetor is what mixes fuel with that air before it goes into the cylinders.
They’re talking about selling a used part online and whether they’ll ship it to the buyer.
Concept
wheel and tire swap for compatibility
They’re talking about buying/selling parts by making sure they fit the vehicle (like wheel bolt patterns). It also sounds like they negotiated a deal that wasn’t just cash.
“40-inch tires” are huge tires. They help the vehicle roll over obstacles, but they can also make the truck harder to drive and put more strain on parts.
LIVE
You have reached the snail trail 4x4 podcast voicemail.
If you want to leave some feedback about Toyotas, have questions about Toyotas, maybe poke some
fun at Toyotas, or let us know how your JL came with a Starbucks membership, then leave
it all on the line and we'll get to it on the podcast.
Keep calling.
Get bussing, everybody.
How's everyone doing out there?
Welcome to snail mail mail.
This is our Friday segment here on the snail trail 4x4 podcast, where we get to
listen to voicemails from you guys.
You guys get to call in, talk to us about anything you want to.
And we'll talk back at you with you to you.
Sure, we'll talk back in you through you through you.
Anyways, all right.
So we, I would like to do voicemails.
You guys give us a call at that phone number I gave earlier.
It's a Google voice number, so it doesn't ring.
Just go straight to voicemail and we play it.
You guys get our live reactions to your voicemails and then we air them on
Fridays for you guys.
Yeah.
And where are we this Friday?
I, we're back at the Casablanca where we will be.
Yeah, yeah, we'll be arriving back.
I'm not sure what time it is.
So we are leaving an undisclosed, unknown location and we're going to be
arriving back at the Casablanca resort in Mesquite, Nevada.
That's where we're at right now.
I hope you guys have enjoyed some of the podcasts that have been coming out.
And we will continue the fun.
Yep.
All right.
All right.
Let's start it off.
Starting it off with a text message, a text message.
All right.
That's a long one.
How long text message?
Holy shit.
You know how to read.
This is really long.
Um, that's Britt from Texas.
Oh, okay.
Text message from Texas says, hello, this is Britt from Texas.
I've been listening to your show for a while now.
I've got a decent amount of experience building crawlers and custom
buggies.
I own everything from an old Toyota Truggie on 40s with leaves to a two
buggy on 40 threes with an LS to a Jeep, a JL, the sound of WFO nine.
Yeah, I mainly wheel in super technical comp style, grippy granite
rocks in West Texas.
Anyway, Tyler, I'm reaching out to give my two cents on what I think
likely happened with the mule based on your what happened to the mule episode.
First off, anything custom built is by your own risk as is.
That's just the nature of custom fabrication.
A builder can't realistically be responsible for every possible field
failure.
The use cases are too complex for any one off build to be bulletproof or guaranteed.
When one component fails, it can trigger catastrophic chain of events.
That's why I think most people should build their own rigs or at least
understand them well enough to iterate and fix issues as they come up.
Custom builds are not for everyone.
That said, this is how you learn.
I've bought many, my fair share of rough builds and turned them into solid
rigs over time, but only with a shit ton of trial and error.
For my experience, failures like what you described are often tied to a loss
of preload on a fastener, leading to a joint slip, fretting, and eventually
fatigue failure.
In simple terms, the bolt stops acting like a clamp and starts acting like a pin
that creates a shock load scenario, parts move, accelerate, and then slam into each other.
At that point, loads become dynamic spikes instead of smooth, controlled forces.
And those spikes can be many times higher than the original design for loads
of the material. I agree.
Sure. Yeah. 100% with them so far on my four link buggy.
If a bolt loosens up, say on an upper front link, I can feel slop in the entire
rig. Most people probably would not notice it, but with enough seat time, it
stands out immediately and it can come from just a few thousandths of movement
at the joint. The geometry amplifies that movement into huge leverage at the
brackets and joints. It's even more pronounced with true Heim joints,
something like a hybrid Johnny joint is much more forgiving for a street driven
rig. I would be curious to know what joints you had on the mule in terms of
style. The joints on the mule were the metal cloak, flex, duro flex joints.
All of them. There was one, there was a TMR. There were, there was one TMR
lifetime joint on it. Yeah. But that was on the frame, frame side, uh, upper link
bracket. So, uh,
TMR style. My guess is you had some form of looseness in the upper link on the
three link that led to shock loading and fretting at the frame side bracket.
Then when something in the diff, like a bearing started to fail, it could not
handle the added stress. Once things bound up in your front end, I don't think
your locker had anything to do with what happened. Anyway, the big takeaway is
constantly check your link points for any play. Even a few thousands of backlash
play is a problem when you've got rigid joints with no bushing to absorb the
load. A three link setup is especially unforgiving, but really any linked system
can go south fast once something starts to loosen up. Anyway, that's my two cents.
I've pretzeled my share of parts and learned those lessons the hard way. Now
I try to check my links regularly, but at the end of the day, failures are just
part of the rock crawling game. Keep calling. That's a long one. It is. And
there's a lot of really good information there. There is. Yeah. Um, little,
what, what is this ultra for? That's exactly what I was going to put little,
little hammers turns into big hammers, little, little movements turn into big
levers very quickly. Yeah. And the more leverage you have on stuff, the,
the, the quicker it comes apart, right? Right. Um, so 100%
what he said, 1000% agree with. That's why a nut and bolt checks are so important on
rock calling vehicles, especially if they're street driven vehicles.
That is not what happened to the mule. No, we, we know what happened with the mule with,
with very strong certainty. It's sitting right in front of us. Well, he caught that part.
He caught the pinion and the bearing seizing up. Okay. He said, even if, you know,
something happens and something sees as like a bearing in your front diff,
yeah, which is what happened. Um, but what caused the upper link to give out
was not slop in a bolt or a fastener. Correct. Correct. So, um, yeah, if, if you want to know,
Brett, shoot me another text message or reach out to me on discord PM me DM me on discord.
I'll send you some pictures. There you go. So, uh, next up, uh, going back over to voicemails.
Okay. Yeah. Or unless, unless did you have more questions or comments on that topic?
You were looking at me like you did. I, I think I'll leave that alone. Okay.
It's a very, it's a sticky situation, right? Where it's a, it's an interesting thing where
there's the failure, like I, one of his first things he said, right, was, um,
if you're buying of a used rig, you're buying a used rig for the most part, you're buying
as is, right? Yeah. Yeah. Um, but also when you're a shop as large as stellar built,
you're your name and your name's literally on the side of the vehicle
in multiple spots on multiple spots and you're selling the vehicle as a $50,000
essentially race car ready to go. Then, you know, then there might be some liability that
should be on that side as well. So I don't, you know, I, and then if I was buying a private
party from Jimmy, I'd be like, bro, I get it. He's not a shop. Jimmy, Jimmy is a great guy.
He's going to do everything he can to make it good, but you know, stuff gets overlooked. And
this is what, and that's what I told Dimitri as well as that stuff gets overlooked. I don't
really care. Nobody was injured. Just do the right thing. Yeah. And so it's, yeah, it's an
interesting, and I, we just don't, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. Yeah. Um, and it's,
now it's a thing between Tyler and Dimitri that needs to get solved. Yeah. Um, whether it's
solved in every, all parties are happy or it's solved in neither one of them are happy or
whatever happens there is that's going to be between them. So I don't have any way to say it.
Yep. We'll see. Um, Brett, I don't know, reach out to me on discord DM me on Instagram, something
I'll, I'll, if you're really, really curious, and I think you would pick it up right away. I'll
just send you pictures and I'd even tell you what I think happened. And I'd be curious to see if
you pick it up because I've showed other people, um, who, who, who are, who know a lot about vehicles
and welding and fabrication. And I just showed them the pictures and they immediately picked up on it.
So we even had one listener who we didn't even show pictures. He went and found
a video from a long time ago and was like, is that what happened? I was like, yep. He goes,
Oh, okay. Yep. So anyways, uh, Brett, shoot me a DM. I'll let you know. Otherwise I'm not,
I'm, I'm not going to put him on blast. I'm still letting him do the right thing if he
wants to do the right thing. So, um, we'll see if he does the right thing. Yep. All right. Voice
message. Wreck it. Rob is next up. All right. Call her number one for the day. Okay. He starts off
with a great, great saying here. Here we go.
Hey, guys. Hello. Wreck it. Rob here. Um, you know, uh, I'm a player dead cat at the, um,
stamping versus blamping thing. Um, uh, I'm going to say that after listening to you guys's
Thursday episode and Tyler was going on and about why, um, I'm just thinking that you
guys went, um, I, uh, I've never tasted a wine that I like. I don't bring it with me and I wouldn't
like six cases of mine. I'm pretty sure that most of the people that like to live as soft gas
will agree, but I could be totally wrong. I think that if we bring wine with you to the
stamping is, um, uh, I think that's going to be my final. I'm not going to call about it again.
Okay. If you sleep in a tent, uh, car trailer, or you brought the plasma hall with you,
if you brought bottles of wine with you, you're done.
All right, guys. Uh, thanks for calling Rob. Um,
how do you got, do you got anything about that to say about that?
I think everybody's entitled to their own preference of booze if they want,
including simply alcoholic limonades.
It's sure. All right.
I mean, people, if, yeah. So if you are going to be upset at somebody drinking wine at camp
and you're going to call them a glamper, then somebody that like, is there a prejudice level
of like seltzers? Like if somebody, cause those like Toto, Toto, Chico's or whatever those things
are, those are expensive. So those guys, those are glampers. Those are glampers.
Those guys that are trulys and white claws or whatever, those are just, those are guys
are campers, right? So Toto, Chico. So like if somebody's like, so if we're doing,
drinking, um, high water campfire stouts,
I was just going to ask, what about PBR versus campfire stout?
Yeah. So are we glamping because now we're can versus a PBR or Coors Light.
Oh, you got the fancy beer. You're a glamper.
What if I brought a $6 Costco bottle of wine?
Right versus somebody's $15 six packs. Yeah.
I don't know. I'm kind of like, and what, what about it makes it glamping? Is it just that
it's a glass bottle or what is it? Just that it's. Yeah. What if I brought Franzia, right?
Right. There you go. What if I brought some Franzia that comes in a cardboard box and a
plastic bag and we play slap the back? Am I glamping?
I think Rob triggered us. I was going to go the other way. So if I'm like making old
fashions or like, what about if I'm going to express, so martinis, am I glamping?
What's a, what's a, I'm not, I'm not familiar with fancy expensive bottles of whiskey.
What's a fancy bottle, expensive bottle of whiskey?
Yeah. I wanted $200. What's an each? If somebody comes with a $100 to $200 bottle of whiskey,
are they glamping instead of camping? Yeah. I don't know.
I think Rob just doesn't like wine. Yeah. And so he's like, you guys are idiots.
You're glampers. I'll take that. I'm okay with that explanation. I'm okay with being an idiot. Yep.
But don't call me a glamp.
The only way you get worse than that is be called a Land Rover owner. Shots fire.
Okay. Rob called back to apologize. I think I don't think that's really what I think he's doing
right now. All right. Let me go. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I got this. I'm going to take,
I'm going to take an idea out of Jeff. I'm going to say that maybe this will shorten up the camping
versus glamping thing. If you bring wine with you, all your camping, you might be glamping. I'm out.
I thought he hung up already. Maybe that's a new segment we need to start. If you bring something
with you, you may be glamping. You bring X. You are glamping. What is X?
If you bring your wife with you, you're probably glamping. Yep. I like that one.
If you say that, if his wife comes, he's glamping. If he's going camping, if he's out by himself,
he's camping. If you bring nothing but slipper and crocs with you, you may be glamping.
If you only bring rechargeable headlamps, you're glamping. You need that battery power.
Shit. That's funny. All right. So we're calling in Rob. Rob, what is your X? Well, we are actually,
we know your X. Your X is wine. If you bring wine with you, you're glamping. I want to know what
other people's X's are. What makes glamping for you? Yeah. What would that be for me? What would I
say glamping? I got to say heated blanket. That's when you go. That's when I think I'm glamping,
is when I have a heated blanket. Yeah. Yeah. So you glamp all the time for the most part.
For the most part, yeah. Yeah. Anytime it's going to be a cold night or cool, like lower than 40,
maybe 35. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what mine. I mean, a heated blanket's a good one. The rooftop
10's up there. That's pretty fancy. Like, because like, I think the gazelle is fancy,
but I wouldn't put the gazelle or rooftop tent in. Yeah, but the gazelle you're on the ground.
See, I think that there is a level at which I think there's also a super fancy stand up in.
Like that's a big like, I don't know. If I can't stand up while I'm changing my clothes,
I am not glamping. I'm sorry. So maybe the gazelle is glamping. Maybe. Yeah. If you can
stand up when you change your clothes, you may be glamping. That could be like back.
That could be outdoors and no tent at all. You're just under the stars, right? Yeah,
that's true. If you can stand up inside of a shelter while you put your clothes on,
you may be glamping. Yeah. And I usually can't do that. Yeah.
You could use your toilet tent. Yeah. Set up the toilet tent as your changing room.
I've done that. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Done that before. I used it as the bathroom at King
the Hammers. That was great. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Maybe bring in your bathroom.
If you bring your bathroom with you, you may be glamping. Yeah.
A new segment. I'm excited for this one. You guys got to have a hillbilly
Hick draw to when you talk on your voicemail. Yeah. All right. Next up, or if you're from
the south, just talk like normal. Yeah. Speaking of hillbilly Hicks, Nick from Montana called
now Nick DeLuca. Oh, glad he's going to be upset about that one. All right. Here we go, Nick.
Hey, Jimmy and Tyler. It's Nick. Made man 925 gladiator on 22 driving the work. I'm listening
to the podcast you guys did about, you know, selling Kermit. What's Kermit worth? What are
his home for me? I'm currently selling the Land Cruiser and I'm selling it to a buddy. He's been
trying to buy it for probably four or five years. And he finally was like, Hey, I'm trying to buy it.
Come, come sell it to me. And, you know, it just worked out Lisa and I were trying to go through
our vehicles and deciding what was right for us. And we said, Yeah, okay, we'll sell it to you. And
then we had to go through the let's come up with a number. And I hated this. I let's come up with
a number thing because I added up the cost of that car. And just in like parts that I could remember
and write down an Excel and the cost of the vehicle, it was over $55,000. And I'm sure I'm
missing a ton of little things here and there. But, you know, just to see it on an Excel sheet,
you know, kind of was shocking that I had spent that much on this vehicle. Now it's a vehicle
I love. I've owned it six years now. And, you know, it's been a lot of fun. But just seeing the cost
is crazy. And then, of course, it's like, Well, what is it worth now that I've used it? And I've
abused some of these things. And I wheeled this truck a lot. And so it shows somewhere. What is
it worth? And neither him nor I could come up with a number. What he did have is he had a RAV4.
It's a 2020 with under 30,000 miles, all-wheel drive. It's the SSE. He said,
I'll trade you straight up for this. And I tell you, Blue Book, that car was around 32 retail,
you know, 30 private party. And I need a new commuter car. So we just decided to do a swap.
That way, I didn't really have to put a number on it. He didn't have to come up with a number.
We're just going to swap vehicles. And it made me feel a little better. But wow, you can really
put a lot of money into these rock crawlers. And it just kind of gets away from you. And I know I
have way more than that into my Gladiator and my Tacoma, but it's hard to see and hard to sell
when you have that much into these. So good luck with the fail of Kermit. And I'll see you guys
on the trail. Better see you on a trail. Yeah. I can't imagine how much he has in his Tacoma.
I mean, he's like rebuilt that thing like three or four times.
Right. And then so, but you can't count the things that you've purchased and then taken off.
Yep. You know, but man, if he had an Excel spreadsheet of everything he's spent,
probably could have bought a house. Probably. Yeah. But I think, you know,
I don't know if there is a right answer to figure out how much the vehicle's worth.
I don't either. I don't know. Because I think there's, to me, the easy answer is
it's half of whatever you've spent. I think that's a, that's a fair starting point.
Yeah. For sure. I think that's the, that's the start. That's what you need to figure out.
So if he had 55 into that, you know, he's looking at 27 ish
around there to as a possible starting selling point, and then it can go up and down from there,
depending on the quality or quantity or what's, what's it all, what's all there and how good
of shape it's in. But that, I don't think that's the correct answer. Yeah. Right.
I mean, I think that's the, what the market looks at, but I don't think that's exactly right.
Now I don't know, like I put a shit ton of money into Bobcat throughout the years,
but I've had Bobcat now for 20 years, but I don't think it's worth half of what I've
had into it. I think it's worth a quarter.
You know, so it's at least $40,000. If anybody wants to buy it,
try to curb it. Yeah. I do that.
But I, yeah, I don't know. I know that I should, we should have my buddy Logan on
because he's starting the Kelly blue book thing for, I forgot about that.
It's, he's starting with hot rods, but he's starting it for like what accessories have you
put on it and how do those accessories last and how do they last time, how much are they worth
over a certain duration of time and you know, how good's the paint and all, all those different
levels. It'd be interesting to pick his brain and kind of see how he does some of that stuff.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that'd be cool to see how he values everything. Yeah.
Cause like I, I was like with Kermit, I'm pretty sure I kind of totaling in my head
cause I never, I never keep, I don't want to say I don't keep receipts.
But I don't, I never put stuff down an Excel spreadsheet to figure out like
what I've been spending on vehicles. Cause it's just going to freak me out eventually.
So just like it did Nick exactly. But I would guess all in all Kermit has in retail value
of everything that's been done to him in the current setup, how he currently sits up. So
that's not including the old Toyota axles and the work I put into the old Toyota axles.
I would guess he has about $70,000 to $75,000 of work, of work, labor hours, parts, etc. I put
into him. And I'm like, but I can't, don't know. To me, it's not worth selling Kermit
for less than 40. I'd rather hold on to him and use him. Right? So like I was like, yeah,
40 is where it's going to be. I think, but like the current market is you're seeing people pick
up JKs with tons, coilovers, long arms, atlases for like 25 right now. So I'm like,
there's no way I'm going to sell a 1994 4Runner for $40,000. So I'd rather just hold on to him.
I like Kermit. I don't know how to do it against him. I mean, and if you can, that's,
that's great and power to you. I just, it's just an interest. Well, the one that's an
interesting market right now, but two, it's just an interesting discussion to say, like, okay,
you know, if you put X on to your vehicle, how much is that worth when you sell the vehicle?
And remember, we were talking about more or less the same thing, kind of a side subject to this
with Richard from Atlanta, when he was saying he has a Jeep to sell, but he wants to take some
of the parts off. And maybe if the thing is, maybe you do take it off, maybe bring it back
to stock, sell the vehicle stock and then sell all the parts after market-wise.
And maybe you do make more money that way. I don't know. Maybe I, yeah, I've got, you know,
the, when I did the, the suspension and axles and the front frame section,
all in all, that was about 35, $37,000. So like just those, those parts alone,
not including the dual cases, the welders, the battery, the California legal 34 swap,
the, the smog ability of it. So it can be a road driven vehicle and not get hassled by anybody.
I don't know. That's, there's, I don't know. I don't know how to value it. And I,
I don't think I'd rather just hold on to it. So yeah.
Well, and Kermit's been so heavily modified that it is hard. You can't bring it back to
stock necessarily. I mean, the front of the frame has been chopped off and a new frame has
been made. But like for a Jeep, yeah, true. Like for, if I were to sell my Tacoma,
would it be to my advantage to take off the Bilstein kit and the lift kit and just get some
factory upper control arms and put it back onto some stock wheels and sell the parts of vehicle
as is, like, and then sell the parts. I don't know what I would get for the parts, you know,
a few grand, maybe a few hundred bucks for the wheels. Maybe I could get maybe, you know,
let's just say 22,000, $2,500 more for those parts. Is that worth your time to do all that?
Well, or does it raise the value of the truck? $2,500 to have them on there.
Yeah. Right. Cause maybe it's, you know, if I can sell, let's just say I can sell the truck for
30 as is. And if it is stock, is it, would I be able to sell it for 27.5? Yeah. I don't know.
I don't know. I mean, question. Yeah. That would be it. I'm curious if anybody's
played that game before. Yeah. All right. Good stuff. That was from Nick. Yeah. Nick,
nobody ever makes money out of building a four by four. We're not in this to like make
money at the end. Nope. We're definitely not. Oh, here's a name we haven't seen pop up in a while.
Oh, who? Mr. Tom Rosa. Hey, Tommy. Where are you at? I was going to say,
he's been having some fun travels. Yeah. Let's see what he's got going on.
Hey, Jimmy and Tyler. How's it going? Tom Rosa here. The marketplace episode was pretty cool.
I've got three things that I do on a regular basis. One is they send that auto response that
hiatus available. 90% of those go nowhere. So I don't even respond to them and you get just tons
of those. Two, with negotiating the price when I'm trying to sell something say for $1,000 and
somebody drops in at 500, I say, I'm dropping the price. It's the first day, first 24 hours.
I'm not budging on the price in the first 24 hours. The ads up. And if you want a good price,
I drop the price $100 or $50 or $20 or whatever you want to set it up every week.
When I get to five weeks, the price will be where you want to sell it for.
Hit me up if it's available then. That way, it kind of just sets the tone that I'm willing
to negotiate but not on the first day, not on the first week. As for when I go buy something,
I carry different amounts of cash in my pocket. So like if I'm buying something,
if they have the ad for $1,000, I'll have $500 in one pocket, $200 in another pocket,
and $100 and $100. So that way, I can pull out the $500 and say, man, this is all I got,
you know, take it or leave it, hand it to them. And then if they don't and I still want the vehicle,
then I will, oh, that's right. I have this amount of money. So that way, it's just a
negotiation game. It's part of the game. So anyway, great episode, gentlemen,
talk to y'all soon and try to suck.
Oh, Tom, you're doing so well up until the very end.
Didn't he have Toyota Axles? Yeah, okay.
Yes. Yes, Toyota Axles under CJ.
Yeah. I don't know if I said this on air. Maybe I did, but it'll remind or some people
didn't hear it. Somebody When husband and I were going through the bins that
I have of a bunch of Toyota spare parts, we found a 20R intake with a carburetor.
Okay.
I'm like, one, I have no idea where this came from. I think it came out of Becky.
They came from Tom Rosa.
Probably came from Tom Rosa's Jeep. Two, I'm like, I don't need this.
And husband's like, throw it away then. I'm like, well,
I don't want to throw it away, but I don't, I'm not going to keep it.
Like I'm going to throw it on marketplace for very cheap because I just,
I can't throw a Toyota part away. Like somebody might need this, right?
And so I put it on marketplace and I put it for, I think I put it for 10 bucks.
Like I just don't want this in my life, right? Like just take it away from me.
Like just buy me a coffee.
Yeah. Bring a coffee to me and you can have it. I posted it in a bunch of,
like a, I posted it on Facebook marketplace and I posted it in a bunch of like four by four
Toyota sales channels that I'm a part of and somebody messaged me instantly.
Like I didn't get a lot of, I didn't get any action.
And then all of a sudden I had one guy reach out and it was like,
Hey, would you be willing to ship it?
Okay.
And I was kind of like, I don't know. And then nothing really happened.
And then like that afternoon I said, yeah, I'll ship it. I ship stuff often.
Like it won't be a problem. And then he's like, cool.
You know, tell me, I'll pay for the shipping and it, you know, and some time and whatever.
And just let me know. And so I got around to it, but after I told that guy, yeah,
I had like three or four people be like, when can I come and get it? I'll come and get it right now.
You know, and I was just like, damn it. I shouldn't have jumped at the first thing that came,
especially with shipping. I probably should do kind of what Tom said.
I'll be like, Hey, if nobody bites in like a week, I'll be happy to ship this.
But I'd rather just hand it off and not have to worry about it.
He did pay me, it was like 40 bucks for shipping. I had it up for $10.
And he gave me 10 more dollars on top of it. He ended up paying me like 60 bucks.
Okay.
So whatever.
You got double your money.
I got double my money.
Minus my own cardboard box and some bubble wrap and my fuel to drive to the gas station.
And time it took me to drive to the gas station, but I did get double my money.
Yeah. So I don't know. It was, that was just one of the things that
I failed at in Facebook this last week or a few weeks.
I'm really, really bad at Facebook marketplace.
If I try and buy stuff, I usually treat it like a game of how much can I like tease this person?
Cause usually like I'm not, I'm not in a hurry to buy used parts.
If I'm in a hurry to buy something, I'm going to go to a shop and buy it or a retail place.
If I'm looking at used stuff, I'm like, I'm not in a big hurry to get it.
So I'll usually be like, if they have something listed for a thousand bucks,
I'll be like, how far away from a thousand can I get without
pissing them off and feeling like they're low balling?
So I'll be like, Hey dude, would you take 660% of what you're asking price?
And then I found that around 60 to 70% is enough to keep them engaged.
And they might come back with a different counter offer, right?
I found like once you start reaching below 60% and 50, 40% especially of the asking price,
they just don't reply or they tell you to fuck off or something like that.
So it's kind of been a game to me of figuring out what percentage can I ask of the asking price
to get a majority of people to reply and stay in the conversation.
And then when I'm selling stuff, like I'm really bad.
I don't really care about the money of selling used parts.
I just want the space back.
Yeah, sure.
In my garage from the used parts.
So usually like I'm just put that switch pro up on marketplace.
I'm had a few people offer like 300 bucks for it.
I'm asking 500 for it.
And that was main like a starting.
If somebody said 400 bucks, I'd be like, okay.
But if I had some people say like 200 bucks, 300 bucks.
And so Brad said he was interested.
And I was like, hey, just cut me up some Molly panels and a more flight logo on your laser
and bring me a 12 pack of simply lemonade.
And it's yours.
He goes deal sweet.
See, I love stuff like that.
I'm like, yeah, what's really valuable to me right now that somebody has a skill set to provide
and you're more bartering and trading more than buying and selling.
Yeah.
So for the GoPro nine that I bought a little bit ago, right?
It was asking for 250.
And I was like, there's one an hour away for 200.
Yeah.
Right.
And that's what I was like.
Okay.
So how much roughly would it cost me to drive an hour away, gas, whatever, not including time.
And then I was like, okay, well, let me just see if I can get him be like, hey, man.
And so I wrote him and I was like, hey, man, you're selling the identical item as somebody down
in Lodi, you're selling yours for 250.
They're selling theirs for 200.
Would you take 200?
And the guy wrote back, he's like, how about 225?
And then I wrote back and I was going to respond with how about 210 and I'll buy you a six pack.
Okay.
Right.
And but I was like, how about 220?
Just a little barter.
And he's like, I'll accept 220.
Okay.
So when I went to go buy it and pay him 220, it was a kid.
It was a super young kid.
And so I'm so glad I didn't buy a six pack.
That's funny.
I was like, oh, I should look into those things a little bit more.
When I sold the Chevy wheels, I tried to do that.
The Chevy six lug wheels, they came on the tires, the 40 inch tires that we now put on the Unimog
or Lord Farquaad.
Yeah.
A guy messaged me asking him to get the wheels and he said, hey, would you do,
I was like 150 bucks cheaper.
I think I had them listed at 300 and he said a hundred bucks.
And I was like, tell you what, 150 and bring me a 12 pack of simply lemonade.
So he goes, I'm 20 years old.
I can't buy those.
I was like, okay, whatever.
Just double do it.
That's fine.
Yeah.
So that's funny.
I like making games and getting other things out of than just cash.
Well, and I've said the story before where I sold the Toyota front axle and the rear axle
of the 80 series, right?
So the rear axle is smaller.
It's undesirable.
And it's like, take the front axle for more money if you wanted a solo or both axles for cheaper.
It was like, I just don't want this rear axle.
Everybody wants the front axle, but nobody wants the rear axle.
I don't want the rear axles to take them both for cheaper than just buying the front axle.
That was a fun one.
Are you high, dude?
What are you talking about?
You're like, no, it's just more valuable to me to get rid of both of them.
Yeah.
So it's worth it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Totally.
All right.
Should we do, we're getting kind of long.
Yeah, I know.
We got that's four and a text message.
A text message.
Perfect.
Fun topics today.
Good to hear from you, Tom.
Thanks for calling in.
Yep.
Tom, call in and give us an update about where you are, man.
I'd love to hear, get some updates on where you are, what you've been up to.
So give us a call back, buddy.
He's messaged me a few times and every time he's messaged me, he's like,
I'm going to be here in a few days, send me some tokens.
And I'm like, yeah, okay.
And then I forget to send tokens.
And he's like, hey, how did you ever send those tokens?
I'm like, damn it, Tom.
I totally forgot.
I'm so sorry.
And so I'm on it now, Tom.
Next time you tell me some place to send tokens, I'm going to do it like that day.
Unless I'm out on this.
The trip.
The trip here.
But I'll send them out as soon as I can.
Next time you tell me.
Nice.
You go in some cool places.
All right.
Thanks everybody else for calling in.
Nick, Rob, Tom, everybody, Tom, Tom, Tom and Tom.
Hopefully you guys have a great weekend.
We're coming back in to Mesquite, Nevada.
And so we have a couple more episodes, fun ones for you guys.
Hopefully you guys have been enjoying those.
There's another one on Monday.
And then I think we'll be back in the studio after next week.
We're going to kind of take it a week to do R&R, but we banked a bunch of episodes
for you guys and we'll have content flow in the whole time.
So we'll be back with normal episodes.
What is that?
The next Monday soon, about a week away.
So we'll talk to you guys soon.
Have a great weekend.
Bye bye.
Almost forgot.
The number you have called has been disconnected.
About this episode
Voicemails and listener messages kick things off, including a detailed build-and-ownership rundown and a Toyota-focused prompt. The conversation then gets technical: small looseness at suspension link joints can snowball into shock loading, fretting, and fatigue failure, especially with rigid Heim setups. They also pivot to used-rig risk, “as-is” sales, and what drivetrain/suspension failures can look like. The rest of the episode turns into Facebook Marketplace pricing and negotiation tactics, plus glamping/camping banter and a few part-sourcing stories.
Text Message 1: Britt From TX Talks about Shock Loads
Caller 1/2: Wreck It Rob talks about how Tyler and Jimmy are Glamping
Caller 3: Nick Gladiator on 29s talks about selling a vehicle
Caller 4: Tom Rosa, give everyone his views on FB Marketplace
Join Our Discord: https://discord.gg/yFyFFkQbuy Come hang out with us on the SnailTrail4x4 Discord — it’s the easiest way to connect with Tyler and Jimmy directly, chat with fellow offroad enthusiasts, and get first access to Group Buys and Treasure Hunt token drops.
CALL US AND LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL!!!! We want to hear from you even more!!! You can call and say whatever you like! Ask a question, leave feedback, correct some information about welding, say how much you hate your Jeep, and wish you had a Toyota! We will air them all, live, on the podcast! +01-916-345-4744.
SnailTrail4x4 –SnailTrail15 for 15% off SnailTrail4x4 Merch MORRFlate – snailtraill4x4 to get 10% off MORRFlate Multi Tire Inflation Deflation™ Kits 4WheelUnderground – snailtrail 10% off Ironman 4×4 – snailtrail20 to get 20% off all Ironman 4×4 branded equipment! Sidetracked Offroad – snailtrail4x4 (lowercase) to get 15% off lights and recovery gear Spartan Rope – snailtrail4x4 to get 10% off sitewide Shock Surplus – SNAILTRAIL4x4 to get $25 off any order! Mob Armor – SNAILTRAIL4X4 for 15% off SummerShine Supply – ST4x4 for 10% Backpacker’s Pantry – Affiliate
