The Toyota Sequoia is a big SUV that’s built on a sturdy frame. The discussion here is about modifying it—making it shorter and more off-road focused—by cutting and rebuilding parts of the vehicle.
Body-on-frame means the car has a strong “truck-like” frame underneath, and the body sits on top. That kind of setup is easier to cut, lift, and rebuild for off-road projects.
“Chopping the frame” means cutting the vehicle’s underframe shorter and rebuilding it. It’s a big modification that can affect how the wheels and steering line up, so it has to be done carefully.
A drivetrain swap is when you move the “moving parts that make the car go” (engine and transmission and the stuff that sends power to the wheels) from one vehicle into a different one. People do it to get better reliability or better off-road compatibility.
“Subaru Uncharted” appears to be a special Subaru project or theme name. The podcast is using it to talk about doing something different and going somewhere new. It’s not necessarily a regular everyday model name.
The B-pillar is the strong metal post between the front and rear doors. When builders cut around it, they’re basically changing the body shape and how the cabin is supported.
The C-pillar is the post behind the rear door area. If you cut or combine it with the B-pillar, you’re removing the back part of the cabin and redesigning the body.
“Chopping” means cutting the body down and reshaping the cabin/roof to make the truck shorter. It’s a big fabrication job, not a simple bolt-on modification.
The Suzuki Samurai is a small older 4x4 that off-road people love to modify. It’s a popular starting point for drivetrain swaps to make it more capable.
The AMC Eagle is an older car that came with all-wheel drive. People like it because it’s a weird, off-road-friendly base that you don’t see every day.
The Toyota 4Runner is a rugged SUV that a lot of off-road people modify. Here they’re talking about different generations and a custom build where the top is cut off.
King of the Hammers is a well-known extreme off-road event. It’s the kind of race where people expect lots of rock and desert obstacles.
Concept
used off-road vehicle ratings
They’re discussing how to judge a used off-road truck or SUV before you buy it. The idea is to look for signs it was cared for and won’t be a headache later.
He means returning the truck to the factory setup instead of aftermarket modifications. That way you know what you’re getting and it’s less likely to have hidden problems.
Mechanical sympathy means treating the vehicle gently and thoughtfully. You drive and maintain it in a way that avoids stressing parts too hard, especially when something sounds or feels “off.”
That phrase means there are certain parts in the drivetrain that are more likely to break than others. Knowing which ones are the weak spots helps you drive and build more safely.
A “built rig” is a truck/SUV that’s been upgraded for off-roading. Instead of staying stock, it’s modified so it can handle trails and harder use.
Term
35
“35” is shorthand for tires that are about 35 inches tall. Bigger tires help off-road, but they can hit other parts unless the suspension is adjusted.
Term
air flex
“Air flex” sounds like a name for part of the lift setup that helps the vehicle sit higher. The exact meaning depends on the specific kit the dealer used.
Rubbing means the tire is hitting something it shouldn’t. If it’s the front sway bar, the suspension setup likely needs adjusting so the tire has clearance.
Wheel spacers are like thin plates that push the wheel farther out. They can help tires clear things, but they need to be set up correctly so everything stays safe.
The Ford F-150 Lightning is a pickup truck that runs on electricity instead of gasoline. The podcast is talking about it as a candidate for a custom or off-road-style build. That’s why it’s mentioned alongside other truck ideas.
A rock crawler is an off-road vehicle setup optimized for slow, controlled driving over rocks and obstacles. Compared to general off-road driving, rock crawling usually emphasizes traction, articulation (wheels moving up/down), and gearing that lets the driver maintain fine control at very low speeds.
The Wrangler is an off-road SUV made for driving on trails. The podcast is talking about how people use them for tough off-road routes like the Rubicon. It also mentions that some people later move on from their trail use.
The Rubicon is a well-known off-road trail famous for tough rocks and obstacles. If someone says they wheeled the Rubicon, it means they tested their vehicle on a serious trail.
A restomod is an older vehicle that’s been fixed up and then improved with modern upgrades. The goal is usually to keep the classic style but make it drive and work better.
Car
Jeep CJ8 Scrambler
The CJ8 Scrambler is a classic Jeep made for off-roading. It’s a special version of the CJ line that stands out because of its short-bed look.
The Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 is a famous older off-road SUV. People love them, but the hosts are saying they only get excited when one is really well built.
Rock crawling is off-roading where you drive slowly over rocks and rough ground. The hosts are debating whether it’s okay to modify a nice, original truck for that kind of abuse.
The BMW 2002 is a classic older BMW that enthusiasts love. In this segment, they’re saying they wouldn’t cut up the doors for extra speakers unless the car already had that modification.
“Six by nines” are a size of car speakers (about 6 inches by 9 inches). They’re talking about cutting the door panels to fit those speakers, which can ruin the original interior parts.
Door cards are the inside panels on your car doors. They’re saying cutting them up for speakers can be a problem because replacement pieces may be hard to find.
“Locked up” means the axle isn’t able to move like it should. That can stop the wheels from working properly on uneven ground, so you’d have to fix or replace parts to get it driving again.
Dana 80 axles are tough, heavy-duty axle parts. Rock crawlers use them because they can survive the kind of hard, slow driving that twists and stresses the drivetrain.
The Jeep Wrangler is an off-road SUV that many people modify for tougher trails. The podcast is describing upgrades like stronger axle parts and bigger tires. That’s why it comes up in conversations about building a capable trail truck.
Approach and departure angles describe how well a vehicle can go up and down steep obstacles without scraping. Better angles mean fewer “getting stuck on the bumper/underbody” moments on trails.
Ground clearance is how much space there is between the bottom of the truck and the ground. More clearance helps you avoid scraping the underbody on rocks and bumps.
The Ford Super Duty is Ford’s bigger, work-focused truck line. The speaker is basically saying it was expensive to finance, and they’re glad to be done with the monthly payments.
A trade-in is when you turn in your current car to the dealer to help pay for the next one. The dealer often offers a price for your current vehicle as part of the deal.
The Honda CR-V is a small SUV for regular driving, like commuting and errands. The podcast is pointing out that an older one can still be efficient on gas. That makes it a practical option if you want something that doesn’t cost a lot to run.
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Keep calling.
What's up? Welcome. One welcome. All this is snail mail Friday's episode where Jimmy
sits down with Tyler and we listen to you guys, your guys opportunity to talk even
though you talked like we're under a month now. Okay. So it's under a month. Oh, maybe
not. When this episode airs now, it'll be over month. Once this episode, anyways, a
month later, roughly we'll get to letting you guys talk, but we do like to listen to
you guys and interact with you guys and have a good time with you guys on air. So give
us call 9163454744 and we listen to the episode or listen to your voicemails and make an episode
about it and air those on Friday's. So you guys get to have a fun time before the weekend.
It's a lot of fun. Yeah. So today, Jimmy. Yeah, we have one text message. Okay. We're
not going to get to today. No, but 35 voicemails, 35. Yeah. All right. If you haven't
heard it back. So if you haven't caught on now, we've banked a few of these snail
males and we're slowly itching away or scratching away at these, uh, the ones we have here, but
probably next Friday, when we come back, we're going to be like 50 something deep.
Probably. Yep. Uh, so this one here, let's see. We're at April one. Oh, okay. And we're going
to kick it off here with Alex from South Carolina. Oh, nice. South SC Alex. SC Alex.
Yeah. I don't know what it's about. Let's go. Here we go.
What's up, fellas? Alex from South Carolina. I haven't called back in a long time,
just been busy with school and life, but I'm catching up on the episodes. I just listened
to the one a while back where I had called and told you all about you two a little bit.
Um, I don't necessarily have an intimate relationship with it, um,
but I'm just an aviation nerd. I was a drone mechanic in the army. And then now I'm going
to get my actual airframe power plant license, um, with the FAA so I can work on real planes.
Uh, and I'm sure to be starting my pilot license soon. Um, so that'll be fun.
But, uh, back to off-road, I've decided that, um, the Sequoia that I told you about that is a
flaming piece of shit. Uh, I'm just hoping that it gets me to school and then I'm going to buy an
actual, like daily driver that I can, you know, trust my life and my family's life with. And then
I'm thinking, I don't even know if it's possible, but I'm just thinking that I, uh, just take the
body off the frame, cut everything like, I want to make it like a two-door Sequoia. I know that
sounds absolutely stupid, but, um, like chop the frame, make it short, lift it, do all kinds of fun.
So just to make it an off-road dedicated vehicle. Uh, and I just hit the two minute mark. So maybe
that was it, but if not, uh, tell me your thoughts on that. Keep crawling.
You get three minutes, Alex. Yep. Not to, he was at a minute 40. So it's before he reached
when he said he was at two minutes. But it's, so does it take 20 seconds to ring in voicemail
intro and all that? My guess, I think the, the timer starts when the beep happens, right? And
you can start recording. So, um, two doors, Sequoia, two doors, I think it'd be fun,
be unique, be definitely unique. It sounds like a lot of work
for what you'd end up getting out of it. Um, I think you'd be better off
going and taking the Toyota drivetrain and putting it into like, uh, an old Bronco,
like Bronco two or something. Yeah. Like the OJ Bronco is that's not the Bronco two,
the Bronco, whatever that one is. It's just, yeah, 90s Bronco, 90s Bronco, whatever it is.
Um, I think you'd be better off taking that drivetrain and putting in the something like that.
Yeah. Cause I don't know, like if you're going to turn it into a two door Sequoia,
I would imagine you're going to have to destroy a lot of the creature amenities in it,
the creature comforts. Um, yeah, maybe, maybe I'm not, I'm trying to think you're such a glamper.
I am. I drink a lot of wine on the camping. Uh, so I don't know, I'd be unique for sure, but
it sounds like a lot of work to me when you could just sell it and get a different platform and
build that, like a, get the platform you want and then build it. Unless you're just like having
a unique off-road vehicle, like there's a lot of value to you. That's what I like. I mean,
that's what I think that's really cool. In my opinion, I think that, you know, you're doing
something, you're going in an uncharted territory, you're doing something unique. You're, you're
building your own build. You're not following sort of the standard of what everybody else does.
Um, it's definitely going to be a lot more work, but it could be pretty neat. I was
thinking about how, like, where would you cut it? You know, you probably cut it at behind the B
pillar and then would you cut it? Would you merge the C pillar and the B pillar so that you are
losing the back doors and the back seat and you're then putting like the trunk right in there? Or
are you going to figure out, maybe that's too short. Um, so I mean, I think there's a lot of
interesting steps that you're going to have to figure out to, uh, figure that to go down that
rabbit hole. That or you just start chopping it. Maybe you bob it and you cut the C pillar off
and cut the roof line at the B pillar and that's where it ends up. You know, you can,
there's a lot of ways to skin a cat and, um, break houses or whatever, but
I think it's a cool idea. Personally, I would, I would love to see how that turns out and see
how it ends up looking. I think it's, I like unique builds. I think that those are fun.
There was a guy, did you see the guy in the first gen Tundra driving around? He went to a
few of those Tacoma powered meetups. I think I know what you're talking about. Yeah. It's just,
you don't remember a very unique first gen Tundra. I don't remember.
You don't see first gen Tundra is built up. I don't know why. I mean, they seem like a great
platform. I agree. I think I think they're, you know, they're a medium. They're as big as a
third gen Tacoma. It seems like, and you know, they got some pretty beefy products on them
and parts on them and they come with a VA and, you know, so you have the power and everything.
And so you don't, but I, you don't see them very often. So there's one that I've seen sort of
driving around in our neighborhood is, I think it's rad because it's different. You don't see it.
Yeah. So I say go for it, Alex. Nice. Yeah. It's also not a bad idea. I mean,
taking the drive train and everything out, swapping it into something is,
is desirable. That could be, you know, put it in a samurai. That'd be fun.
Drop the Sequoia drive train into a samurai. Jesus. I don't know. If I'm going to go through
that much work, I would want something really unique. Like I think still think my favorite build,
whenever I see it out and about is the AMC Eagle. I'm like the 42s. Like do something like that.
Take a vehicle that was never met really for off-roading. I think the Eagle had a four by
four system in it. Yeah. But take something like that that you would never really see off-road
and put it onto an off-road chassis. Logan with his Audi on 40s.
That Audi was rad, dude. That was fun to look at. And I think, I mean, the thing is,
you don't know it until you see it, right? It's cool to see this unique build,
but have you ever seen a convertible Sequoia truck thing? Yeah, right.
I don't know, but I'm interested. A truckied Sequoia. Yeah.
Like essentially what Nick did with his second gen four runner. It's like Rover Don.
Yeah. Yeah, right. His first gen four runner. His first gen four runner.
Cut the top off of it and it doesn't have stock anything underneath it. No.
So maybe have rear axle housing. Maybe. Yeah.
I think it's a good idea, Alex. Do it. We'll support you no matter what you do, buddy.
Let's see. Next up, Austin Stanley. So Cal. Sweet. So Cal Austin. Here we go.
Google thinks his name is Dawson, by the way. Jimmy Tyler Dawson from Southern California down
here. Just calling. I'm sure we're at like message 41 now. So it's going to be kind of
way past the King of the Hammer time, but I just want to, I'm just really curious to know
if when you're down at King of the Hammers, does anybody know about the grandpa Bob radio station?
If you do, it's quite its own radio station, if you know what I mean. Well,
that's all I got. So I hope everybody's having a great day and call back soon. Thanks.
Do you know about grandpa Bob? I just learned about grandpa Bob this year. Yeah.
I never got to listen to it. Somebody told me about it and I was like, what are you talking about?
Yeah. This is the guy that Jason was playing a lot. Oh, is it? I don't, I'm asking. I don't know.
Jason was listening to one. Okay. Jason from Wheeling Wine Whiskey was listening to one for
like all the time. Okay. And it's just like an independent guy sending radio waves out on like
on the ham radio frequencies, which is illegal because he was doing music and stuff.
And he was acting as if it was a radio station and broadcasting only during King of the Hammers
time. Cause like the last day he said it, it just turned off. Like he just stopped it. Yeah.
And supposedly he was giving references of living up here in Sacramento area. Really? Yeah.
Interesting. And so, yeah. And I want to say Folsom specifically. He was saying some things
about Folsom and or people in our group knew references that he was saying and like got
them kind of pinned down to Folsom area. So some somebody out there has is escaping authorities
and doing some illegal activity over the radio waves. Yeah. But it was super fun. That's the
one that has these like crazy obscene commercials. I didn't listen to it a whole lot. It's pretty
unique and funny. The sparks that I caught. I'm pretty sure it's grandpa Bob. Okay. I don't know.
We'll have to ask Jason. I need to hear if we got the frequency. I wonder if Google would know.
I don't know. Maybe we'll ask Google and we're not recording and we don't have to
yeah incriminate anybody on air. But yeah, next year I'm sure more people are going to be listening
and the FCC or FAA or whatever is going to be out there triangulating them. I feel like the
FCC has so many more issues than trying to track down somebody in Johnson Valley. That's just
doing a rogue radio station for a week. Yeah. But also like if he's playing actual music on that
should be paying royalties for production production companies. Whatever the producers
companies may come after him or want retribution for it. Maybe. All right. Next up. Yeah. Thanks
Austin. I wish I listened to more of it when I was there. All right. Richard from Atlanta.
All right. Next to mine here. Here we go. Jimmy Tyler, Richard from Atlanta calling in to talk
about a trail just kidding. Talking about used car ratings, used off road vehicle things to look for.
That was a pretty good topic. First off, I'll say I think I'm just like an overly picky asshole
about things. I usually get affected by this whenever I'm shopping for a vehicle,
especially in the used market, but even in the new market. The one thing that I'm usually particular
about is I'll just use an example of trying to find a vehicle for my boys, which is a continued
effort or bucket for my wife, right? If something is used, I prefer for it not to have
many modifications, if any at all. Meaning, nor I don't want to pay for somebody else's
lack of being able to weld good here on the suspension component or on the axles or somebody
installed some janky ass lip kit, all this and that. I would prefer for something to be as stock
as possible for multiple reasons. And it's just that I want to be in control of the modifications
if possible that the vehicle is going to have or know what exactly was done prior to me getting it.
Not be worried about who was the person competent, did they abuse the vehicle, this and that.
I want something that I'm looking for something that doesn't have mud stains up the door jams,
the engine bay is in clean. I don't want anybody abusing something, even if that was the intent
for me to be able to do it. So it's kind of like I want to break the cherry on all that stuff.
That's how I look at it. Unless I know the person that has the vehicle or that has owned it and
what it's been through, I'm not going to buy like a rock crawler just off marketplace because
it's at 50% of cost, 40% of cost. I'm just not going to do it because I don't want to inherit
somebody else's problems. I mean, I think there's good parts you can get out there for something
like that. When somebody's changing their vehicle up, but I just don't have much interest in somebody
else's heartache or unknown reasons they're trying to sell something. Damn, I'm getting
hit a three minute mark again. Jimmy, keep keeping.
Well, that explains it. That explains it. That's why he wants to take off the lift kit and he wants
to put on bringing it back to stock to sell it because he doesn't want to buy an off-road rig
that has been modified. And so he assumes that people are that way as well. And he thinks,
yeah, that's interesting. My follow up to that is, well, now the vehicle has been modded twice.
Yeah, I didn't think about it that way. So you've got somebody modified it to bring it back
or to modify it to go off-roading and have the lift kit and some whatever other doodads it has,
but then somebody has modified it again to bring it back to stock to now sell it as a stock vehicle,
which it wasn't. And so now you're also in the level of like, okay, well, how good of a
mechanic is this person to bring it back to stock? And you're in the same ballpark as if they modded
it. That's an interesting argument there. Yeah. I don't know. I try and think too,
like when I'm buying an off-road vehicle, I think I would rather buy a quote unquote built
project. I don't want to buy a project. Right. But I wouldn't mind buying a built
vehicle. That was somebody's project, whether a shop did it or whether they did it.
But I would be, especially private part, I'd be very picky about looking over the vehicle,
you know, checking the welds in the key areas, checking the key structural components to make
sure that they're still structural, right? I've gone through that stuff, right?
I did that on Kermit when I bought Kermit. You kind of went and took a look at the vehicle
for me while I was in New York, which was a funny story. And then when I went and looked at it,
I kind of looked over kind of the key things. There was a couple of things that I was like,
it could be done a little bit better, but for the most part, it was all there.
And the things that could have been done better, that's like a design choice. That's
an engineering choice, right? Sure. So yeah, there's different strokes for different folks,
I guess. I would rather build something that's kind of quote unquote turnkey
than build it out myself nowadays, but mainly because I've kind of, I don't want to say built
two vehicles. The white forerunner was for the most part all done, but like you and I went through
everything on that vehicle together. So I knew that vehicle in and out. I think that the big
thing, the value you get out of building a vehicle is more that you understand everything
that's going on. You understand where the mechanical sympathy needs to be. You understand
where the fuses are in your drivetrain. You understand whatever little noise and clunk
is in the vehicle. And that's kind of like where I'm at with Kermit versus the Mule,
or Fiona still, is I know Kermit very, very well, very intimate with that vehicle. I'm still
learning about what makes Fiona tick, right? And whatever little noise and feeling is in it.
Right. Well, hopefully now that we're back from this trip, we have a better understanding of all
that for sure. No, I get that. I mean, that completely makes sense. And it's always,
we always joke about how it's just cheaper to buy a built rig than it is to actually build one up.
But I do think you can get a good deal on part or on partially built rigs as well. So
it's just a level of what you want to do, what you want to get yourself into. It sounds like
Richard wants, like he was saying, he wants to build the rig to the way he wants to build it.
And then he will understand the vehicle more when he does that. And that's just what Richard wants
to do. Yeah. I think that's definitely a good way to do it. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with it.
Yeah. You're not, what did he say at the beginning? That's a sympathetic asshole or something?
Picky asshole. I think he, I was saying something like that.
Yeah. It's just your preference. Yeah. Yeah.
All right. Next up is Richard calling back. Okay. Here we go.
Hey guys, I can't help it. I got to continue on that conversation.
But yeah, I mean, just, you know, like my wife would send me stuff on marketplace, like,
oh, go look at this, that. And again, it doesn't matter. Like if it's a,
you know, shit box for my boys to drive or it's when she was wanting to get a different G
or, you know, my daughter was wanting to get another car, like I will search and search and
search around. And very quickly, if I'm looking at something and I sense that there's something
being covered up or, you know, it looks like it's got shitty parts on it or it looks like it's been
abused in this and that, I will quickly turn around and walk away. I just, I don't tend to show
interest in things like that. So I know the whole point of that conversation was shopping for a used,
you know, vehicle, I guess you could wheel with or crawl with, but for one extreme,
but the other more street oriented stuff, I just prefer to get something that nobody's messed with.
After last Jeep, I think the dealer installed, you know, I put 35 on it and they had to put
like a little, I can actually tell where they had to do that. After they did that,
they had to put like a small lift kit on it. It came with like a air flex, you know,
inch and a half, maybe two inch kit or something on it, just kind of like a basic spring and,
you know, shop kit, it wasn't spacers and stuff like that. They had to do that because the tires
were rubbing on the front sway bar, but I know, you know, there's a range that dealers can modify,
use car dealers like a dealership and modify vehicles and it still has, you know, it's like
within there, not their warranty, but it's within their means of like, this is not an extreme after
market setup that we're putting on this just to sell it off the lot kind of thing. So, you know,
I was happy with that because I saw the parts were new. The vehicle was otherwise completely
stock. It was on stock wheels with 35. They had good synergy spacers on it to, you know,
push the wheels out. Of course, I immediately took those off once we have stock wheels, but
there's just stuff like that. With summary of all that, just to say again, I'm repeating myself,
I prefer for something, even if it's a race car or a car that you're going to, you know,
do something with on the street, a Jeep, a Toyota, whatever, as stock as possible,
or very minimal mods that were just truly like little small bolt-ons just so you don't run into
problems of everything else. Do it yourself. That way you know what you got and you're not
having to post up something back for sale because the problems you don't want to deal with.
Talk to you later. Keep going. Yep. Yeah. I think we summed it up in the last one too.
So I have a question for him. Okay. His wife sends him Facebook marketplace listings.
I guess. God bless that woman. What's your secret, Richard? How do we,
how does all the other listeners out there get their wives to send them Facebook marketplace
listings? Yeah. And if that's the case, I think you're really making a solid argument for a
Wreck-it-Rob one in your Ford Lightning. So if that's, if you're that picky, I think Wreck-it-Rob's
like convinced that he's going to buy that now. Yeah. Nice. So yeah, Wreck-it-Rob DM'd me on
Instagram saying, you need to get me in contact with Richard from Atlanta. And I said, you guys
are both on the Discord. Yeah. DM him. DM him. He's like, Oh yeah. That's funny.
Next up, Uncle Weirdo. Uncle Weirdo. Nice. Yeah. Here we go. Hey, you guys. What's going on? Uncle
Weirdo here. I was just listening to you. I've said that I think it was 694 where you guys were
talking about buying used roll drives or rock crawlers or whatever on Facebook marketplace or
wherever you may find them. That was a popular episode. I thought that was a pretty, pretty
interesting video. You guys hit a lot of good points. I know me and Wreck-it-Rob have definitely
been out and I feel like we know our way around buying used trucks, roll drive from,
we picked up things from derby cars, from monster trucks to whatever. But so a lot of
things you guys went over are good key points to go over regardless of your experience. So
thought that was really cool. I'm not going to give too much information on how I feel about
that because I feel like you're going to be bombarded by a shitload of voicemails like that.
But it did make me think of something and I wanted, and I think about the other day and this
brought it back to me. How do you guys feel about rock crawlers made out of like classic,
not to say cars or like vehicles, like a first gen Ford Bronco? Something that these days is pretty
not rare, but it's considered kind of like classic type deal or like a 70s. Like that 60,
70s like Ford Broncos, even Chevy and no matter what to make is like these classic cars, right?
I think they're freaking awesome. Some people, I know people have had them
before they were even considered classics or anything really cool and they wheeled the Rubicon,
a shitload in them. And they kind of half retired them because they're getting to that age where
they just, it'd be better to just kind of restore them, right? So I was kind of curious
what you guys think on old vehicles that would be considered classic or whatever,
being turned into rock crawlers where there's always that potential of them getting kind of
mangled or destroyed. Me personally, I think it's really cool to do like rest of them all
and things like that on these old vehicles, give them a new purpose. But at the same time,
as far as like the off-roading rock crawler field goes, I don't know man, if I was going to do it,
my dad's got a 73 Ford that he's kind of given me and that's kind of where this team
stand up for myself. But so I was like, oh, you should go rock crawler thing. I'm like,
absolutely not. But I will. It is for all drive. And I definitely want to, you know,
go hit some forest trails, basic things like that. But I think things like that are cool.
I definitely want to build them to use them. But yeah, here's one of your guys thoughts. See you
later. Bye. I love the first gen Broncos. Yeah. I think they're such a rad vehicle. I don't know
if I would ever own one, but I love, I think that might be one of my top favorite vehicles to see
like out on the Rubicon. Yeah, they're rad. Especially ones that are done up really nicely.
We have two in the Mad Hatters. Tom first gen Broncos. Tom weighs wise. Jason's friend.
Is he not in the Mad Hatters then? Okay. No. But you have, there's 21 is an orange one.
Really nice resto mod done to it. Essentially. And then the maroon one. Oh, there's that one too.
We have three. Yeah. Three really nice ones. There's an all black one. And then the maroon one.
Yeah. Yeah. All three of them are, they just, they're gorgeous. And for some reason, those motors,
the first gen motors in those Broncos, they just sound really good. Yeah, they do. Yeah.
They're throaty. They're really throaty and gurgly. Just like Tyler.
And so yeah, I love watching and seeing those first gen Broncos out on the trail. I love seeing
scouts. Yeah. Scout twos. Scout twos out on the trail. 800s. Those are pretty cool.
Scramblers. I really like seeing CJ eight scramblers. CJ fives and sevens. I don't really
care for too much. Jks. Of course, I don't care for classic. Those aren't classics. Yeah.
Let's see. What other, what could be FJ 40s? I'm not, I don't, I don't get all giddy when I
see a 40 on the trail. Not really. I do when they're like very well built, but when it's sort of
mild build, I'm like, yeah, okay. What about like a 45? Yeah. Because they're just rare to see.
And so that's it. That brings up the good example. So would, like I enjoy seeing it,
but do you think somebody should build a 45 to go rock crawling? That's I think what he's asking.
Yes, you do. I do. You do. Yeah. Okay. I think every car should be built like a rock. Yeah.
So my two cents is yes and no. I think if it's in like, if it's stock already,
then it shouldn't be built into a rock crawler. If it's been modified and like the body's dinged up
or like, you know, it's been tweaked in some way so that it's not really stock so much anymore,
maybe like only a little bit out, you know, then I say go for it. What about TK ones, blue
Toyota pickup, the mini little first gen pickup that was outside TK one when we were over there?
I mean, that one, I wouldn't do it. You wouldn't build that for rock crawling? No.
Okay. There's too many other ones that are in worse shape than that. That are pretty cheap.
Yeah. So this was a first gen pickup, two wheel drive, just pretty clean and it was his grandpa's.
And so I'm like, nah. And so that's my question to you is on your Ford Uncle Weirdo is like,
is it already beat up? Is it like a farm truck that's already been like abused?
Then I'd kind of say go for it. Yeah. If it's clean and it was like, you know, was it his dad's,
he said? So it was dad's. His dad, it was like he really meticulous about it. Then I say, no,
like make it a nice clean street vehicle or, you know, primarily a street side.
I've said it before that I really love the BMW 2002s. Like if I got a 2002 and it didn't have
six by nines already cut in the doors, I wouldn't cut the six by nines into the doors just because
it's like, I don't know when, if people can buy these door cards anymore, right? You know, it's
like I'm going to ruin a set of door cards. Now maybe I'll try and find a set of door cards that
already have six by nines at them, but then why ruin a set of door cards? Because some of those
things are already getting old. But so that's, I'm kind of lie on the side of like, if it's already
done, then continue to screw it up. It's already molested. Yeah. If it's already molested, continue
to molest it. We're talking about vehicles here. So I tell my wife every night, right?
But if it's clean, leave it. Like, you know, if it's a, you know, I would not, I wouldn't
say 40. Okay. And it's clean. Like really nice. I'm not going to build that into a rock crawler.
Okay. But if I bought one that's like rusted and how the axles are all locked up and like,
it's going to take a bunch of work to get it going again. And it's already got a bunch of
dings and dents and maybe got in an accident at one point, then yeah, I'm going to fuck that thing
up and build it up and throw some Dana 80 axles or whatever under it and 42s and stretch it two
feet and party. Okay. Fair. It's like, what about Danny Jones Willy's truck? Yeah. I mean,
I don't know where that one started, but I think it's rat. I like seeing the older eggs on the
trail. Okay. I love it. Like, and I said the next, probably one of the next vehicles I'm going to
build, I might build Becky after I build Samantha, but then after that, I'm buying something 74,
1974 or older. Okay. And I'm going to build that because then I can kind of do whatever I want
in a way. And I don't have to worry about engines or transmissions or axles or what
any of it. I get it registered and then I can molest it however I want. Perfect. And so I'm
going to do, I'm going to do an old one. Yeah. You know, and that's the direction I'm going to go.
I'm going to molest an old one. Okay. It's better than a young one.
Oh, that got off the rails. No, I agree. I think I, I don't know. I agree. And I don't agree.
Like I think that there's some vehicles that if they're in really good shape, they just look
awesome. They look great as a, as a rock crawler. Like the, the 45 FJ 45 truck that I was on at
SEMA, right? That thing looks so awesome as a rock crawler. There's a couple of,
what was the, the truck that somebody did from the East coast and they, uh, they, they, they,
not previewed it. Yeah. It was like a, I don't know. It was like a rat rod. Yeah. Ultra four car.
That was right. That was so cool. Yeah. So I don't know. I love, I just, I really like big tires. I
like aggressive looking tires. I like things with a lot of ground clearance and very little
approach and departure angles. I just love that look, that wide fat axles with the
tinier body. Right. So, um, yeah. Like if I ever got a stout,
yeah, if it's, if it was a, if I, I'm not looking to buy a nice stout, like I want one that's like
$1,500 beat up rusty kind of nasty because I'm not planning on making it pristine. Yeah. So I'm not
looking for the $5,000 one, $10,000 one. That's already clean and shiny and pretty. That's not
what I'm wanting to buy. I want to buy the cheap one that's already in bad shape because I'm not
going to make it into better shape. Fair. You're going to continue to molest it. Yeah. So that's,
that's uncle weirdo. That's how I, that's where I draw the line because if it's good, if it's in
good enough shape that you're happy about it, then it should stay in good shape. Yeah. If it's
pretty beat up and nasty, then, and you don't care about it, then make it into a rock crawler. Yeah.
So, and I like seeing the, I love seeing the unique builds. Yeah. I mean, we talked about
that in the last episode. So a last snail mail, I think it was. I like seeing a unique build.
Cool. And some, you don't ever really see these old vehicles as rock crawlers. Not too much
anymore. Yeah. And so it makes it fun to see out on the trail. Yeah. Sweet. Should we do,
let's do another one. Okay. So this one is Richard from Atlanta again. Okay. And he called
right back. So it's two-parter. So we'll just go through and play both parts. Okay. Sounds good.
Tyler, Jimmy, Richard from Atlanta again, just finished listening to the Friday episode snail
mail. 35 minutes. And these other episodes are like an afternoon. Y'all are doing it to me again.
These short workbooks. What's going on? Anyway, that aside, I always enjoy regardless of the length
of time of the episodes. A couple of things. I think Nick from Montana called in and was
about right down your passwords, things and such like that with wills and everything.
I've found that's been kind of a struggle with me personally, not as far as my walk
and I, but for my parents, you know, my dad's like down and has everything kind of organized.
I'm just kind of dragging her feet and stuff. And it's like, you know, I've had to have that
conversation. Like you don't have to be worried about stuff when something happens.
My mentor at work, you know, had everything planned away for his parents when they were
still alive, you know, a little folder put away. So all he had to do was go grab that,
you know, exactly what to do, you know, kind of be on autopilot mode because you're going through
so many emotions despite your good planning with things like that. So that just kind of triggered
some thoughts with that. And I'm just kind of going through some conversations and
get to kind of get that stuff taken care of. The second thing was, I guess there's a topic
about a truck or something. I know Jimmy's OBS and everything is going to be kind of a random one,
but I just got through finally being payment free for my super duty. I bought it brand new
or signed up for payments brand new would be the more accurate term, right? And man,
I just don't get how people do it. If you don't have a business to ride off or claim it under.
And these things are so freaking expensive. Like when I again, I bought it kind of coming
into COVID and everything, what smells kind of get the three minute thing and know it.
Okay. Anyway, I understand how people like have like rolling new rig making payments for like a
couple of years, maybe three years, and then like they end and they get something. Are they just
like constantly living in debt? Now, I was happy to get out from under that freaking payment.
Maybe I love my truck and it's got low mileage is just, you know, it's comforting knowing I don't
have that. I don't get how all these people are like constantly in something new. I can't imagine
like right now going and getting another new super duty just to have a new one. Here we are
at three minutes. I'll keep problem. All right. So he called right back. All right. Let's just
roll into it. And then we'll talk about these. Tyler, I'll apologize. This is just Richard's one
of our two of two messages. I'm going to, to make a pact. I'm going to try
and be better at not double leaving two voicemails for y'all. I know Tyler seems to get aggravated
with that. But anyway, just continuing to talk about the whole truck thing. I remember after I
got my truck, it was a couple years in and all of a sudden I was getting like these crazy offers,
you know, come trade in your vehicle, you know, I think at the time, I mean, I don't need to go
into financials, but, you know, it was, it was pretty expensive. I put a fair amount of cash
down on it, just to lessen the payments, you know, all the good things. But yeah, so they were
offering, you know, I bring it in, whatever. And that was like really the peak of what I could
have made off the truck. You know, of course, now it's like, you know, trade in value is probably
like half of what I paid for it, even though, I mean, the thing, I don't even think it has 30,000
miles on it. I just kind of use it to, you know, tow the Jeep around, tow the boat around, occasionally
work, you know, but I don't like drive it every day or anything. You know, I've got it like ceramic
coated and all that good shit. So I mean, it's like a pin clean truck, right? I'm proud of it,
proud of myself and all that. But again, just getting back to the point, I don't know how these
people are like, Oh, you know, I've got to, I've got to get into a new 2026, something or other.
And it's like, are you just like constantly in payments? Do y'all know of anybody like that?
Are you y'all like that? Well, Jimmy, I know, I mean, Jimmy, I know you're not, you got the freaking
OBS power stroke. So that's cool. But you know, I'm just kind of, I don't know, I just see people
and just kind of spawn thoughts like, man, it's just like somebody's rolling out the ton of debt,
or, you know, you own a really productive business, you're just writing that stuff off.
I guess that about wraps up my thoughts regarding vehicles. I'd like to add another
topic in there, but I'm just kind of kind of cut this one clean and cut it short and give y'all
another 45 seconds of your life back rather than me rambling on. So y'all keep crawling and
we'll see what my next thoughts are. I need to check my notepad here on
the top of the call in on, but I'll save that for another week. See y'all.
See you, Richard.
I don't get aggravated when people call in multiple times. I don't know. Do I come off
aggravated? I don't know. I guess not. Or I guess you do apparently, but
no, I think the, I mean, going to, I wrote down three things that we have to talk about with
this one. Do you got your notepad out? I got my notepad out. I have the notepad out for every
episode we do. Snail mail episodes. We just, if we're trying to record roughly about a half
an hour long episode, and if somebody calls in multiple times back to back, it just pretty
much takes over the episode because there's not, we don't get that. We get through maybe seven
callers in a snail mail episode. So if you call in three times, you're half of that episode.
And so we just want to give everybody a chance to get on to the show and we want to try to
roll through as many of these as we can. We're already behind. So if you can try and wrap it
up to one voicemail, that's ideal. If it has to carry over, then it has to carry over. Nick from
Montana DM'd me the other day and he said, sorry, man. And I said, what's up? And he's like,
I just left a three-peat on the snail mail. And I was like, so it happens, right?
So whatever. But if possible, try to keep it to one just because we want to try to get through
the voicemails because that's, we have a hard time keeping up. And we want to allow as many people
to share as possible. Wills and passwords and trusts or anything on that. Do you have any
comments? It's tough. End of life planning is extremely important. I went through a scare,
I guess, with my aunt. And I'm listed as a trustee. So I had to all of a sudden be know
everything that's going on with her trust, the estate, her will, the end of life planning,
what her DNR was, what her medical directive, who was her medical directive, all this other
stuff. So there's a lot that goes into it. And it's definitely something that everybody needs
to set up. And I don't think you need to set it up as an end of life planning, quote unquote.
I think as soon as you start having assets that can cause harm to your family because,
to your loved ones, because nobody knows what's supposed to be happening with them
after you, after you're no longer around. That's when you should be looking at setting that kind
of stuff up. Yeah. And that usually starts happening around when you kind of get your
first big person job out of college, you start gaining assets and you start buying things and
they become yours, your properties, right? So as soon as that starts happening,
my family got torn apart, my mom's side of the family got torn apart because things were not
clear. And my grandmother had a will and a trust. Yeah. And because things were not clear and it
wasn't done really, really well, that the family got in a massive fight and it tore the family apart.
Right. So the will and trust and everything is not for you. It's for your loved ones.
So as soon as you start getting stuff, do it and then take care of it. And especially with
nowadays, the 21st century, passwords, everything, everything is controlled by passwords and
two-factor authentication or multi-factor authentication. Make sure you have records
of your passwords somewhere. And like me, I'd be curious how many I have in here.
I'm just going to look really quick. Well, while you're looking that up, I'll just say that
my father and mother went into their CPA and what is that? What's the other note?
Attorney, not attorney, the taxes person, CPA. And maybe it was their attorney because I don't
know why the CPA would talk about it. They went in just to do some stuff, right? Just clean things
up, organize it, whatever. And my father was keeping a spreadsheet of things like finances and
whatever that's going between me and my brother and my parents and just has this spreadsheet going,
right? And really, the finance person was like, so if you pass first, is my mom going to take
over doing this spreadsheet? And the answer is, she's like, no. And then the lady is like, well,
then you need to figure out a way that this gets solved if you're not here, right? And so
another level to this is you need to figure out a simplistic route that's going to make it easy
for all parties, right? So now it's turned into, you know, we're just having my brother and I,
it was sort of this like checks and balancing, like how much money is going where and between
brother, me and my parents and all this. And now it's more or less whenever something happens,
we're writing a check to my parents, right? And so it's like, you know, this is balance instead of
like, you know, just plain favorites one way or another. Now it's just, no, we just need to give
them the money or whatever it worked out to be, you know? And so now my parents don't have to
keep the spreadsheet, you know, when, you know, the end of life happens that it's, okay, this is
how much I owe Tony, this is how much I owe Jimmy, you know, and this is how this ends. And it's,
it's not there anymore. It's, it's already paid in, you know, we're now paying into it. So,
yeah, so simplifying is what I'm coming down to. So how many passwords do you have?
I have 589 passwords. Holy shit.
I probably have like a hundred and something in this, but I have a lot memorized that I,
that are not in my password saved. I used to do that and I couldn't keep up with it anymore. There's
too many places like financial institutions, they make you change your password every six months.
Yeah. And you can't use previous passwords. You can't use
modifications to previous passwords. Everything has to be brand new, right? There's different
rules about everything. There's different rules about how long a password can be if it needs
uppercase, lowercase, symbols. So I use a thing called last pass, an application,
and I use one password. You So essentially what it does is I have one
password to get into the app and that all my passwords are 10 to 24 jumbled characters.
I have no clue what they are. Right. Yeah. But they're all listed in here and it's all encrypted.
So the only way people can get in is if they know that one password,
but I won't lose it. It syncs between all my devices. And the point being is that it's a
way to organize everything so that if something happens to me, it's simplified, but with how
the 21st century is and how everybody's interconnected with everything, passwords are just
they're very, very important to have strong passwords and to have unique passwords.
So does the secretary know the password to your last pass? I don't think she does, actually.
So if she ever needed to get into something, she would not know how to the password.
That's true. Yeah. So that's where I'm failing. Yes.
And so there just needs to be a document somewhere in the, then whatever the trust
or the will or whatever and be like, here's the password to my last pass. And this has all
the passwords in it. And you just need to document that and have it somewhere that only she knows
about. So, which is usually pretty easy to do. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So that does it for today.
What was the, that was Will. How about living under debt? We hadn't talked about that half
part of it. And the answer is, I think, yes, everybody for the most part is under a level
of debt. I'm still making payments on the Tacoma. So, you know, that's, yep, that's
still happening. And, you know, I think that most people do want to have the new and flashy thing.
And with the social media and everything these days, they feel like they need to have the
new and flashy thing and people don't aren't too concerned about debt and how much money
they have on a credit card. And they just want the new and fancy thing. I know that
the assistant has the CRV paid off and we've had it paid off for a few years now. And I'm like,
well, what do you think about getting yourself a nice hybrid or something? We're making okay money
and you drive more than any about any of us, you know, we're in okay situation. Do you want to
get a hybrid? And she's like, why? I'm not making car payments. Why make more car made payments?
This car is fine. It gets 30 miles per gallon and, you know, it's an old CRV and it's not going to
go up in price and it's not really going to go down in price anymore. I'm like, okay,
appreciate it. Sounds good. But let's not worry about 1200 dollar car payment
to get you a newer car. Even though they installed electric chargers at your school.
Yeah. I think that because I've heard people talk about, you know, not living in debt a lot,
right? And my dad kind of does this too, where like debt is a very bad thing.
And there are definitely instances where debt is a very bad thing. But there's also such thing as
good debt. So I don't want, you know, Richard, I don't want, I don't want you to just be afraid of
debt. There is such thing as making debt work for you. You can earn profits on your debt.
There's ways to do it. And it's just called investment, in my opinion. If you are in debt with
something, hopefully you're making that work for you somehow. So, you know, if you, but to answer
your question directly, I think that a lot of people do just live in debt. But I think that it's
more of people for, I want to say overall, the majority of society is smart about understanding
their cash flow and understanding their incomes, their income versus their expenses, and not
making their expenses exceed their income. And if they can have some of the nicer things in life
without having their expenses overtake their income, I think people, a lot of people are okay
with that. You know, as long as you never spend more than you make, you'll be just fine, in my
opinion. So, and then there's some people who's marginal propensity to save, which is a economic
term, is higher than other people's marginal propensity to spend. Sure. So it's, it's just
personality depends on what you value. And if you like seeing big numbers in your bank account,
cool, awesome. If you like seeing, like having more experiences and nice things,
cool, awesome. Just don't let your expenses overtake your income. So true said.
If you guys enjoy snail mail episodes, please call in 916-345-4744. Join us on a snail mail
episode. You just need to leave us a message and we will answer it eventually on the snail mail
podcast here. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you very much. Are you going to say anything else?
No, it was a good episode. I think that, you know, we love hearing from you guys. We love talking
with you guys. We love interacting with you guys as always. So I think next week we'll be back.
So on Monday, this coming up Monday, we'll be back from officially all trail hero. No,
I think Monday we have one more fun episode and then the following Thursdays when we're back,
right? Something like that. Next week, next week, sometime we're back. Yeah. And next week is also
and we'll be getting all the gift boxes out and some other fun stuff. So hopefully you guys
all have a great weekend and we'll be back next week and have lots of fun stories for you guys.
So stay tuned and keep your holes open. Bye bye. The number you have called has been disconnected.
About this episode
Voicemail call-ins kick things off, then the conversation swings into old-school rock-crawler builds—everything from chopping a Toyota Sequoia into a two-door to swapping a Toyota drivetrain into an older Bronco or even a Samurai. The hosts and callers debate what’s acceptable to modify on classic rigs, and how to shop used: prefer stock, inspect welds and structural areas, and walk away if something looks covered up or abused. The episode also detours into “grandpa Bob” ham-radio during King of the Hammers and wraps with estate/password and debt talk.
Caller 1: Alex from So Carolina wants to build a Sequoia Truggy
Caller 2: Austin Stanley talks about Grandpa Bob’s Radio down at KOH
Caller 3/4: Richard from Atlanta says he doesn’t want mods on his vehicles
Caller 5: Uncle Weirdo asks how Jimmy and Tyler feel about Rockcrawlers made out of old school vehicles
Caller 6: Richard from Atlanta talks about will and passwords, living in debt, and recording 3 episodes
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