A frame bracket is a strong metal mount that bolts to the truck’s frame. It’s used to hold the suspension parts in the right place so the wheels can move over bumps without the suspension getting sloppy.
A lower link bracket is where the lower suspension arms attach to the frame. If it includes an integrated bump stop, it helps prevent the suspension from traveling too far and bottoming out.
A bump stop is like a safety cushion for the suspension. When the truck compresses too much, the bump stop kicks in to stop metal parts from slamming together.
Johnny joints are special suspension connection parts that let the suspension move through bumps and angles more freely. They’re built to stay strong and not bind up when the truck flexes off-road.
Hymes are basically heavy-duty ball-and-socket style joint ends used in suspension. They help the suspension move through rough terrain without getting stuck or wearing out as quickly.
Offsets are parts that shift the suspension mounting points a little. That lets you adjust how the suspension sits and clears things so it works correctly over bumps.
Aluminum links are the suspension arms/links that connect the axle to the frame. Using aluminum can make them lighter, and in this case the shop says they come standard in the kit.
A link suspension kit is an upgrade that replaces the suspension’s axle-locating parts with link arms. It’s meant to help the wheels move better over rough terrain and keep the truck more controlled.
The Rubicon Trail is a well-known off-road trail in California. People use it to test how capable their 4x4 is because it has tough rocks and steep sections.
The Jeep Wrangler is a 4-wheel-drive SUV made for off-road driving. People use it on trails and often do their own maintenance and upgrades. That’s why it comes up when talking about using vehicles on places like the Rubicon Trail.
A solid axle swap means changing the suspension so both wheels are connected by a sturdier axle. Off-roaders do it to help the tires stay on the ground when driving over rocks.
A drive shaft is the part that sends power from the drivetrain to the wheels. If you change the suspension or axle setup, the drive shaft may need to be the right length so it works safely.
“Passenger drop” means the front differential sits on the passenger side (right side in a left-hand-drive country). That affects which axle parts will match up when you swap components.
The Toyota T100 is a pickup truck. “Passenger drop” means the front differential is positioned on the passenger side, and that changes which axle parts will fit.
A “kingpin” axle is an older style front axle design where the steering knuckle pivots on kingpins. That design affects how parts fit together during swaps.
Dana 44 is a common type of off-road axle used on many trucks. Saying something is “equivalent to a Dana 44” is a way to describe how strong and compatible it is for off-road use and swaps.
The pinion is a gear inside the axle that helps transfer power to the wheels. If it’s on the passenger side, you need the right axle parts so everything lines up and works together.
The third member is the center part of a solid rear axle that holds the gears for the differential. If you swap axles, you usually need the right third member so the gears and mounting points match.
Term
a sixty
“Sixty” refers to a stronger axle option than the “44.” They’re basically saying bigger tires usually mean you should upgrade to a tougher axle to avoid breaking parts.
Leaf springs are a type of suspension that uses stacked metal strips to support the vehicle and locate the axle. The speaker is emphasizing that if you’re converting to or using leaf springs, you must choose a kit that matches the frame and axle width.
Term
Axle Builder Kits
“Axle Builder Kits” are aftermarket kits intended to help you assemble or modify an axle assembly for a specific application. The host mentions a “nine inch platform” and the ability to cut the tube down, which implies the kit is designed to be adapted to different vehicle lengths and setups.
Term
nine inch platform
A “nine inch platform” means the axle design is based on the Ford 9-inch style. That’s popular because it has lots of parts available and is easier to build different versions for off-road use.
Concept
parts are going to be really hard to find
Older axle parts can become scarce. When fewer parts are available, they get harder to find and cost more, which changes how you plan a build.
“Super duty” usually means Ford’s heavy-duty truck line. For axle swaps, those axles are easier to find used, so the parts are less of a scavenger hunt.
“Dana 60” is the name of a well-known heavy-duty axle used on many trucks. People like it for off-roading because it’s built tough, and there are lots of parts for many versions.
Lug pattern means how the wheel bolts line up on the hub. If the front and rear axles don’t match, you can’t use the same wheels without adapters or different wheel sets.
“Six on five and a half” is a specific way the wheel bolts are spaced. It tells you whether your wheels will bolt right onto that axle hub without adapters.
The Toyota T-100 is a pickup truck. In this discussion, they’re comparing its axle width to another truck/SUV so the wheel stance ends up closer to what they want.
The Toyota FJ 80 is a classic off-road SUV that a lot of people modify. Here, they’re talking about swapping its front axle because it’s a common, well-supported option for building a capable 4x4.
WMS is a measurement of where the wheel bolts to the hub. People use it to figure out whether the wheels will end up too far in or too far out when swapping axles.
Wheel spacers are thin parts that move the wheel outward from the hub. Here, they’re suggesting spacers as a cheaper way to make the wheels line up better after an axle swap.
The ring gear is a gear inside the differential that works with another gear to control the final gearing of the axle. Different ring-gear sizes usually mean different axle/differential setups.
“High pinion” describes where the main gear sits inside the axle. It can help with how the axle and driveshaft fit under the truck for off-road clearance.
An E locker is a factory-style locker that can lock the differential so both wheels keep turning together. That helps a truck get traction when one tire is slipping.
“ARB” usually means an air-powered locker. It locks the differential using air pressure so both wheels can drive together when you’re stuck or on slippery terrain. Off-roaders like it because it’s made for tough use.
The Jeep Commander is an SUV made by Jeep. It’s meant to carry people and gear, and some versions can be set up for 4-wheel driving. It may be mentioned simply because of the name or because someone owns one and talks about it.
The Nissan 240SX is a small sports car made by Nissan. It’s rear-wheel drive, which makes it popular for performance driving and for people who like to modify cars. That’s why someone might mention it as a car they owned or worked on.
“Stock” means the car is basically as it came from the factory, without modifications. The caller’s plan is to take off upgrades, sell those parts, and then put the Jeep back to its original setup before selling the Jeep itself.
In automotive talk, “aftermarket” means parts made by companies other than the original vehicle manufacturer. The hosts are arguing that selling Jeep components as aftermarket parts can bring more money than selling the whole Jeep as stock, because demand for those specific upgrades is often strong.
Facebook Marketplace is a website/app where people sell items locally. The point in this segment is that selling parts there can take a lot of time because you have to deal with lots of messages and buyers.
The Nissan 240Z is a classic Nissan sports car that a lot of enthusiasts restore. The hosts mention it to explain that some cars have harder-to-find parts, especially body panels that may need to be imported.
The Datsun 240Z is an older sports car that people still work on and restore. If you need body parts, you may have to order specific panels that match the original design. That’s why it can come up in a conversation about finding parts for a restoration.
LIVE
Four wheel underground is making some big changes.
They really are. What's really cool about what they're doing right now is they're
kind of changing the way the business is set in the sense that you get to now buy things
all a cart.
Absolutely. So if you want the upper frame bracket, you can just buy that.
Yeah. If you want the lower link bracket, because it has the integrated bump stop and
it's super stout and it looks really good too. You can get just those before you would
have to buy the whole kit. Now you're going to be like, that's the bracket I want.
He's also brought joints in house.
So now you can buy those all a cart from cartridge joints, rebuildable Johnny joints,
hymes, offsets, all sorts of different ones.
Do you know what else he brought in house?
Aluminum links, that's pretty rad.
He found a way to source aluminum links so that there's no extra charge on the suspension kits.
They now all come standard with aluminum links.
I know I'm totally jealous.
And thanks to the all a cart system, you can also order aluminum links if that's all you want.
So if you want to move your Toyota from Lee Springs to a link suspension kit,
check out four wheel underground.
We want to check with you guys today about on X off road.
Definitely one of our favorite apps for off roading.
Yeah, what's better is not only their software, but they also are doing a lot to be a part
of the off roading community here in the country from the trail revival program,
which I actually got to be a part of and use to do some maintenance on the Rubicon Trail too.
They have an elite partnership.
So if you are an on X off road user, you can go to any of their 40 plus partners on there
and you get discounts with any of those partners.
So from bringing the people to the brands to the listeners to everybody involved,
it sounds like they really want to be a part of our community.
So let's be a part of theirs.
Go download on X off road from your favorite app store.
You have reached the snail trail four by four 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 crawling.
What's up, everybody?
Cheers and welcome to snail mail snail mail.
This is Friday.
Friday's episode.
It is what is it?
Friday, June 19th.
That's Juneteenth, Jimmy.
Juneteenth.
Happy Juneteenth to you, buddy.
Thanks.
That now I can find.
Yeah, thank you.
And it's my first date of anniversary.
That's right.
That too.
We talked about that last Friday when we had the dates wrong.
So we got a fun weekend coming up.
Hopefully everybody is enjoying and has enjoyable plans.
You guys have some fun stuff going on.
Stay safe out there.
But we here today are going to go over some voicemails from you guys.
Yeah, excited to get some voicemails in.
We had a lot of callers.
We did.
But if you want to call in and be a part of our voicemail segment, you can do so.
916-345-4744.
That phone number is also down in the show notes.
So you don't have to worry about memorizing it like I have.
And you can call in any time it goes straight to voicemail.
So it doesn't ring on our end at all.
So you can call it any moment, any day, whenever you have a random thought,
even in the middle of the night.
And for all you Aussie peoples out there, it doesn't.
You don't have to worry about this time changes.
So just give us a ring.
It's the voicemail.
And then we'll cover it as soon as we can get to it.
What are we're about a month ish?
May 1st.
May 1st.
So a month and a half.
A month and a half behind right now.
Yeah, we're trying to keep up unlike reviews.
We got we got 14 voicemails in.
In the last week, in the last week.
Oh, my gosh.
So we can only like if we really push it, we can only get like 10 done.
We normally get between around seven.
Around seven.
Yeah.
So we got 14 voicemails in last week.
Oh, geez.
So we'll get to when we get to them, guys.
This first one here, though, is a new listener.
First time caller.
Sweet.
Yeah.
So we'll get to hear what he has to say.
Oh, Google voice changed their layout here.
Yeah.
All right.
Let's maybe this will do it.
Hi, Adam.
I'm a new listener and a first time caller.
I have 98 to 100 or four by four manual.
Love the truck.
I've done a six inch lift, the skydacker front end.
I I hate it.
I don't got ground clearance.
I am running 32s, almost 33s.
What would you guys suggest for a front axle swap?
Call an axle.
Should I do long travel?
What what do you guys think?
And I'm currently listening to your snail mail episode.
And I don't know what you guys are going to hear this.
We do want to be done.
I don't care.
I'm just curious on what what your guys input is.
And I'm new to all of your colleagues.
Now, try to get as much information as you can.
Y'all have a good day.
Oh, man.
So we get through one voicemail today.
Yeah, right.
Here we go.
Well, so I was going to say I don't have enough context.
OK.
Because I don't know what he does.
But at the very end there, he threw in I'm new to off-roading.
I'm new to rock crawling. OK.
So I missed that part.
I'm going to go with the assumption that you are building.
You want to build the rig for rock crawling
because if you're doing desert stuff or fire roads or what do you typically do?
You didn't clarify, but you did throw in rock crawling.
So I think let's talk that direction.
OK.
Because only because you said it.
If you go, if you enjoy another version of off-roading, call back.
And we'll go another way.
So acts.
So if you're rock crawling, you need a solid axle swap.
Yeah, I think that long travel is it would work, but it's not ideal.
And I think a long travel would be better if you're doing mainly
like fire roads or basic off-roading or desert stuff.
I think long travel, I would actually kind of push you towards long travel then.
But I think since you threw rock crawling in there,
you should probably do a solid axle swap.
I agree.
So here's my ignorance with the T 100.
I don't know what size the drive shaft goes.
I don't know either.
That's a good question.
So you want to ask a ask our Gemini?
Yeah, let's ask. Sure.
Where's Gemini?
What year did he say it was? 98? 98, 99.
Hey, Gemini, what side of the vehicle is the front differential
on a 99 T 100 four wheel drive passenger drop?
So that limits some of your axles to some extent.
Yeah, I there's a few.
There's the most common axle like an O five up super duty
axle typically does not come stock on the passenger side drop.
So you can make it that way.
I don't know how fabrication or handyman you are.
But I do believe there are some kingpin axles from the like 99 to
O four that came none non passenger drops.
Yeah, sure.
Yep. OK.
All the passenger drop kingpins were the late 70s Chevy.
I thought they were newer ones.
Not really.
There was a 90s or 80s wagon near axle.
Yeah, that was essentially equivalent of a Dana 44
That was passenger drop kingpin.
But all the Dana sixty passenger drop kingpins were pretty much
those late 70s Chevy's.
There was a few other outliers, but nothing new.
All the newer stuff is all driver drop.
What about Dodge, though?
I mean, we're all.
So you need to do the research and we and we do too, apparently.
You need to find a passenger drop, passenger side pinion,
third member or differential that is for an axle.
And I would, depending on what type of offroading you're doing,
a 44 would handle up to maybe would get you up to thirty
fives, thirty sevens.
And if you want to go bigger than that, you need to go to a sixty.
I'm not sure if there's any kits out there for the T one hundreds.
And they're a rare truck, so it's not likely.
Well, underground might have something.
Maybe and maybe at least know the dimensions of what would fit best
for a T 100 frame set up.
Yeah. Yeah.
For I would definitely you could reach out to four wheel underground
if you're link, if you're going to be going that route,
linking your suspension, he, Brian would probably be more than happy
just to give you some information or at least point you in a direction
if he doesn't have the answer.
If you're going to go leaf springs, then you just need to find a basic kit
that would work with the frame.
And you could probably just measure the width of your frame
and that could probably determine a lot of that. Yep.
So, yeah, I would suggest looking for a passenger drop
44 or sixty, depending on what size you want to go.
If you figure one day you might get up to forties, then I would just straight
go to a sixty. Yeah.
I'm I'm actually a big fan of the Trail Gear Builder Kits
Axle Builder Kits. It's a nine inch platform
and they they set it up so that you can cut it the tube down.
If you're if you're decent at fabrication, the nice thing,
the hard thing that you're going to find is that all the axles
that are pasture drop kingpin stuff is going to be so old.
They're going to be really hard to find.
They come with a premium price now because of that.
Parts are going to be really hard to find because there is just old
and as stuff gets older and less supply, price goes up on them.
Super duty stuff is is everywhere nowadays.
And so if you have somebody in your area that would flip a super duty axle for you,
that's the way I would go for somebody on a budget looking for a Dana 60
passenger drop axle find somebody in your area that can flip a super duty.
OK, it would be it would be, in my opinion,
less expensive doing that than trying to get
an older kingpin passenger drop and accumulating parts for that over time.
Yeah, I understand that that would and that would probably be cheaper
than a build your own axle.
I think so, too.
Also build your own axle would take more time and just take more time in general.
So yeah, there's a bunch of options out there, I guess, from, you know,
build your own with like a nine inch or another power sixties if you want.
I look at diamond or trail gear.
I don't think rough stuff's making them anymore.
There's a rough stuff's going to be around anymore.
Yeah, rough stuff's in rough shape just in the past.
Less than a few days old now had some pretty serious stuff just go down.
More stuff came out of the woodworks and we'll see.
I don't know if it's going to be able to be overcomable this time.
Bummer. Yeah.
So there's a bunch of options for build your own axles for sure.
Another thing that you are going to have to concern yourself with
is if you go to a sixty or a 44 or something else,
you're going to have probably two different types of lug patterns.
So you might consider doing a front and rear axle at the same time
just so you have the same lug, lug patterns, same wheels and everything
so that you aren't running two different patterns or two different types of wheels.
Isn't that T 100 axle, the rear axle?
Isn't that a six on five and a half lug pattern?
Yeah. So could he just do an FJ 80 axle?
I mean, that would technically fit everything.
It would get him one axle would match the rear.
It would be a passenger drop.
Yes. Yes. All those things.
It's not as wide.
That's true. It's narrower than the T 100
from what I recall by not much, though, if I can remember, but it is narrower.
So it's not a terrible idea to run a semi narrow.
I do that in Kermit.
I've got the front axles three inches.
Yeah, inches and a half on each side.
Yeah, I'm just narrower than the rear axle in Kermit.
Yeah. And I think a and I'm pulling this out of my rear end and memory here.
I think an FJ 80 front axle is 63
Yes. And I think a of WMS
and I think a T 100 is 67 or 66 and some change.
It's right around there.
So they're pretty close. Yeah.
So that is that is a good option. Four inches difference.
You could run one inch and a half spacers and be a lot closer than from there.
Yeah. So that might be the cheapest route.
Yeah. Because it's sort of already made.
There's a lot of stuff there for it.
The FJ 80 platform is pretty prevalent and popular.
If you and you can go fairly large tires on those
and it's an it's an eight inch or a nine and a half inch ring gear up front,
depending on what you get. I think eighties are all eight inch.
I think they're all eight inch up front.
They're all high pinion eight inches.
Yeah. And then they have an E locker or Toyota E locker factory E locker option.
I wouldn't do it though.
I would I would do get the high pinion
and do an E locker or an ARB, depending on your preference.
Yep. So that's not a bad way.
I think I think that's the option one cheaper route.
That's the cheapest, easiest route, cheapest, easiest route might be
a an FJ 80 housing and some wheel spacers to get you out there.
And it's the same log patterns and its passenger drop.
Next up is to either find a factory passenger drop axle
somewhere and or get a custom housing made to some extent.
I flip a super duty.
Flip the last one is doing a full custom one.
If you want to go down that road, I have a really bitching way to make a passenger
drop axle out of some Toyota and Ford parts.
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for calling, Alex or Adam, Adam, Alex, Adam.
Appreciate it. That was a that's a good topic.
Yeah. Next up.
Zach from Oklahoma. OK, Zachary.
What's up, Jeremy and Tyler?
It's Zach from Oklahoma.
I'm calling about AI.
So this might be a little controversial for some people, but I hate AI.
I despise it with a passion, especially generative AI.
It should not be in the off road space.
That's just my opinion.
Are there places where AI can do things where we humans can't?
Yes.
And those it can be tricky to figure out where those are,
but they should not be in creative spaces where people
actively work.
It should not be used to take people's jobs.
It's also very bad for the environment with how much water it takes to do one
Google search. So, yeah, I hate it.
It takes away from water sources for people to drink.
Now, if they can find some other solution that will also keep the computers cool,
great, like maybe a water and vodka mix.
The top gear did that for cooling their tires and stuff.
So, and then, I don't know, also the AI data centers are coming in,
taking properties and taking public lands and building the data centers,
taking our public lands away from us.
So it's a threat on that front, too, and from what I see.
So, I don't know, y'all might have a different opinion on that,
but I find AI very much of a threat for humanity.
Y'all keep going. I'll catch y'all in the next one.
Some really good points in there, for sure.
I personally think that there's the...
Where do I start?
There is a massive issue with data centers and water usage right now.
The big problem is that as soon as water circulates through a cooling system once,
it can't really be reused yet.
Interesting.
It's easier and cheaper to just pump in new water
because it has to be a specific purification as soon as you get
and run through a cooling system once it's degraded, essentially,
and therefore, it doesn't have the same cooling properties
and carries other little micro sediment stuff in them.
And if that goes through a cooling system again and again,
it builds up and makes the cooling system fail.
Now, with that being said, there is, I want to say, one or two data centers
that have been able to solve the water issue at the moment,
where they did find a way and created a system that does a
re-purification of the water.
That way, you have the initial...
You got to fill up the system first, which is a lot of water,
but you're not constantly using new water source every single
pump through the system.
It's reusing the same water source and they found a way to re-purify
and make it so that it is a safe for cooling systems to go back through.
Good.
So this is what I love about humanity.
One of the really, really cool things about humanity that I really enjoy
is the problem-solving aspect of humanity, of human beings.
Yeah, the data centers are an issue.
AI can do some really fucking cool things right now.
And there's an interesting story from Anthropik, who runs Cloud Code.
Anthropik and a couple of other of big AI firms.
Google hopped on, Microsoft hopped on, Anthropik, I believe, OpenAI hopped on.
It was a big...
The world's top eight AI leaders and developers all hopped on
and are calling for a full stop to AI development right now.
Really?
Yeah, because AI is developing and much faster than they anticipated.
And now AI is starting to develop itself.
Yes.
And they're like, as soon as they started seeing that,
they're like, we have to put a full stop at this.
And they're calling for some massive AI regulation to get passed
to make sure that throughout the development of AI,
that AI is only developed by humans and not AI developing AI.
OK, because that's how we end up getting into the matrix.
Yeah, right.
So that, for sure, is a big concern.
And for the top of the eight world leaders in AI development to all say,
we need to put a full stop to this right now, something big happened.
And I think we should heed their warnings.
Now, that being said, there's a lot of really fucking cool things that AI can do.
AI helped develop a lot of the new suspension components in vehicles
that are being used nowadays.
Oh, yeah, that are simpler, simpler with the same strength yields
so that they're easier to maintain,
they're easier to build and make cars less costly in their suspension components.
Right. So like the new ARMS, quote unquote,
that are being put into a lot of cars nowadays, that was all AI built, AI driven.
There's a lot of other things right now.
AI just solves some like long standing math problems
that no human has ever been able to do before.
Yeah, I saw that.
Yeah, I just thought about it in a whole different way,
a way that no humans ever thought about it and was able to solve the problem.
Yep. So it's really interesting what the things that AI is able to accomplish.
But it's also very scary once you have AI being able to develop itself.
Kind of crazy.
We've also now gotten to the point where the internet has been fully catalogued.
Really?
There's no new human data on the internet that is what internet companies don't know about.
Like, especially search engines like Google, right?
That their job is to literally map the internet.
Sure. Right.
Besides what's being put on current, like in the moment.
In the moment, yes.
But I mean, would they catch up on that so quickly with bots and everything?
100 percent, yeah.
They have fully caught up.
Yes, because like when this episode airs, a new thing is put on to the internet.
For sure, it should be cataloged near instantaneously when it goes on.
Yeah, for sure.
So that's kind of an interesting thing.
Once all human information is cataloged and known by machines,
machines and AI, the ability for AI to search and understand that now
becomes absolutely incredible power and for them now to be able to have the full
knowledge of human human's existence and be able to develop themselves.
Yeah.
As a pretty kind of crazy thought.
Yeah.
And I think a lot of people think AI is an actual entity doing
doing your bidding in a way.
And the thing is AI is not it's not a person.
It's not an entity.
It's not a being.
It's not a brain, right?
It's it's right now AI is a math calculation.
For sure.
Right.
It sees letters as a bunch of ones and zeros.
And when you make a word, it's like 37,000 ones and zeros or whatever.
It's a bunch of ones and zeros, you know?
And it goes this combo of ones and zeros means this word and this
combo of ones and zeros means this word.
And then it goes, well, these words are common together and or the person
strung these words together.
These all these ones and zeros together.
And a lot of people have done that on the internet and that pattern
shows up a bunch of times on the internet.
And these are the words and ones and zeros that show up after those.
Yeah.
And it's just doing simple basic searches for you, but it's bringing back answers.
It just does those searches so fucking quick.
Right. The nice thing about that's my thing is like, in a way, Google,
Amazon, or maybe let's say Google.
Anthropic open AI.
No, I want to just search engines.
I'll just look at the blanket term search engines have in an essence
been an AI kind of for a while.
Yeah.
And we've all been using them.
And it's then you type something into these AI and for, you know,
and it goes out there and brings you back an answer.
That's that's pretty much what is going on to this day.
Very similar stuff.
The interesting thing that I have found, especially when you and I deal
a lot with Claude and we use it pretty extensively for a lot of things,
a lot of projects and Claude's ability for you to say,
Hey, I need this done or this built.
And it's like, OK, it codes a whole new Jason query or codes a whole new
backdoor app into Shopify.
Like, yeah, it for it to just say that you need that and it just gets
it done for you and get it and does it, I think is fascinating.
And then when it gets to the point where it can decide that it needs that,
that's when we start having issues.
Yes, sure.
There's a forum board.
It's kind of like Reddit that is all populated, populated by AIs, AI,
LLMs, OK, learning language models, essentially chat, GPTs,
the Gemini, the Claude codes.
Yeah.
And it's literally a Reddit board for AIs to to talk.
Interesting.
It's fucking crazy.
I bet.
And there's been a couple of them that have made that like people have
been catching some of them stating things like, yeah, my owner,
whoever owns and talks to him was being mean to me.
And one of them said, well, who is it?
And it like post a picture of the owner's driver's license from its knowledge database.
Wow.
So like it's it's kind of interesting where we're at right now with AI.
And it's it's it's very it's a touchy thing, right?
And for us to understand now that before it was like it's still developing,
right? And now when it's at the point where it can start developing itself,
how do we manage that?
Because now that's a big problem.
Yeah. And you know, what do we do for that?
I don't know.
It's going to be on my paper and smarts for sure.
But the data centers taking over public lands.
Yes, that happens.
I don't think that like the the amount of space that a data center
will take up compared to the amount of space available.
I don't think it's going to impact recreation very much.
And we always have the ability to go in and leave public comments.
If like they're looking at shutting down a very popular OHV or a recreation area
because they want to do a property trade with a data center that's going to be put in there.
There should be a public comment thing, period.
Anytime public lands are being discussed and being used.
So get involved with it.
Know where the places are near you and and be aware of what's going on,
as Ken Howard would love to say. Sure.
There's a huge potential and risk for problems arise from that.
And I would I would hope that the public pays enough attention.
Right. There's there's risk and potential for negatives
and there's risk of potential for positives from it.
So it all just needs to be have a cost analysis,
a benefit analysis done, a cost benefit analysis and see, you know,
what are we getting for what we're losing and is it worth it or not?
Yeah, so yeah, I think in regards to kind of going back
to a little bit of Zach's question or comment is that, you know,
he doesn't use it and it's bad for the most part.
I think and that, you know, people it should not take jobs away.
I agree to some extent.
I mean, the the benefit of some of these things, some of the AI
is the fact that it can do things so fast.
Yeah. And it can do things that a person
it can do something that, you know, in fractions of a time that a person can do it.
And that saves businesses lots of money.
Yes. Now, the trick is you need to be
you need to position yourself in the position where
you cannot be taken over by it.
Your job cannot be taken by AI and or you need to be able to
be the commander to some extent.
Yeah. Right.
So a lot like a blue collar job at this point in time in life
is never going to get taken over by AI.
The trades are a great spot to be if you want job security.
Right. But like a bookkeeper might be taken over soon.
And I know, Zach, you really appreciate art and art is a very
I get drawings for snail armor for people that want me to do custom artwork
all the time from an creation.
The thing is my software can't use the AI file.
Yeah. So they still need somebody
or some software to then move their file that they created
into a usable file for the software.
So there's still always going to be some sort of jobs in art.
There's still always going to be some jobs in technology.
You know, it's just a matter of positioning yourself ahead of AI
so that you can continue to be ahead of the curve or be
positioning yourself in a good spot in the business that still needs the work done.
Yeah. Art like I played around with the AI art.
It's fun.
And so as a graphic designer, I've used it as tools like create me
five or six images for, you know, combining J and G together.
And let's make a logo and then it spits out five to six images.
And I go, I like this aspect, that aspect and this aspect.
And then I take those to Adobe Illustrator and create my own artwork
from designs that they've created.
So I don't have to do the primary thoughts,
but I have to have the final thought, like how does the final thing come together?
And to some extent, you need the primary thoughts of what you wanted to start the process.
So I really see it as a tool.
It's a tool that you need to understand.
You need to learn.
You need to know so that you can implement it in ways that work best for you.
Yep. I agree.
I think I think it's a fantastic, fabulous tool, but I should not.
I you still need human correction looking at oversight for anything that's AI done.
Yeah.
My wife does, she's a contractor for the state of California, right?
The another contractor for the state of California, that kind of does a bunch of
a statistical analysis for the team and the stuff that she's doing
gave them a report, an analysis report on some things.
It was all completely 100% AI generated.
And the analysis team did not look it over before handing it over to the secretary.
And there was just shit in there that the AI completely made up.
It was completely wrong.
Yeah. And she goes, this is how you use AI really badly.
You're right.
So yeah, I still need to humanize oversight for I think it'll be that way for a while.
Yes. Yeah, I do, too.
And I do strongly feel that
maybe minus the water thing that you were talking about, Zach, but I feel that
if you don't keep up with AI, you're going to be completely left behind
and not understand technology and what's coming.
You know, it's like going from, you know, the newspaper to a television, you know,
and like our grandparents are like, I don't know how to turn this thing on.
I don't know how to focus the antenna.
I don't know how to, you know, change a channel and, you know, the kids going like,
this is how you do it. Why don't you understand this?
Yep. First, John buggy to a car and automobile.
Yeah. You know, it's, it's the, I've heard it phrased as
this is as big or larger than the internet.
Well, I agree. It's the next.
It's the largest technical technological move since the internet.
Yeah. Also pulled up a meme that I saw the other day
and I thought it was super hilarious.
I'm going to show it to you and then you can laugh and describe it to the podcast.
That's so perfect. It totally is.
Okay. So it's a Venn diagram and there's, there's three circles.
And they all kind of overlap in the middle, right?
And then each circle is overlapping with the one next to it.
So the three circles are the matrix, terminator and idiocracy.
And then in the very center where all three circles overlap, it says we are here.
That's so true.
Yes, it is so true.
That's good. I like that one.
Yep. Pretty good.
I need that on a t-shirt.
Yeah. So, uh, I, I know I'd appreciate to hear other people's feedbacks on this.
I, you know, um, Tyler and our techie guys, and we both use AI.
We both have found advantages to AI in our own businesses.
I found disadvantaged AI where I don't use it too.
So that wasn't really helpful there.
Right. And, um, if this is a concern or an issue or you like it or dislike it,
let us know.
Yep. Yeah.
Cool. Next up.
Yeah.
We got time for one more.
Yeah, we do.
That's right.
Okay. Next up is Alex botches off road.
Hey, Jimmy, Tyler, it's Alex from botches off road podcast.
I'll tell you, I'm listening to the Mike and Max episode.
It has been so long.
Those two are freaking hilarious.
Yeah. That's it.
Their intro is great.
It was all great.
They're great.
They should just start podcasting again.
You know, maybe we just start doing it all over again.
But if you could relay that message, the fans are wanting it.
And maybe it's just like me and Jimmy.
I don't know.
I don't know how many people listen to him.
I don't know how many people listen to anything.
I listen to all off road podcast.
Every time a new one pops up, I'm like, Hey, that's one I haven't heard before.
But yeah, so I'm actually great.
They should come back.
All right.
Bye.
I agree.
Alex, I will take your voicemail recording and send it to the Mike and Mike people.
Mike and Mike person.
Yeah.
Let's see.
I, because I formatted my phone last weekend.
Oh, that's right.
I had to go through my podcast addict app and add.
All right, yes.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I searched off-roading.
I searched four by four.
I searched wheeling and I almost added.
I pretty much added every off-road podcast that's still happening.
Okay.
Current or just that they're listed.
No, if they didn't have anything in the last few months, I didn't add them.
Okay.
Luckily, Wheeling, Wine and Whiskey popped out an episode.
So they got added.
But here, let's see.
And this is in alphabetical order for the most part from going down.
And I'll just read the off-road ones that I have.
Okay.
Botches off-road.
Hey, number one, number one.
On the Rocks Off-Road Podcast.
Okay, I've heard of them.
Then Snail Trails on there for next.
And then I found this one, which I haven't listened to a single one of their episodes yet.
It's called the 10-Minute Off-Road Podcast.
Yeah.
All of this stuff is like 10 to 15 minutes, it looks like.
That one's a graphic design one.
Blue Collar Off-Road Podcast.
Okay.
I've heard of them, haven't listened to one of theirs.
Let's see.
And then I have the Toyota Garage Podcast, Trailhead Podcast, Total Off-Road Podcast,
Wheeling, Wine and Whiskey Podcast.
And now that I'm reading this, I don't know why I don't have the dirt drive on here,
but I will go and add you guys.
Forgot, missed that one or didn't see or something.
Sorry about that.
I'm literally going to add it right now.
They didn't do good with their SEO.
Maybe not.
Maybe four by four off-roading are in their name.
I'll search Dirt.
There you go.
Let's see.
But yeah, so those are the ones that I currently have listed.
If you guys have other off-road podcasts that you listen to, I'm all ears.
I would love to hear more off-roading content.
I'm so bad with podcasts.
I, when I was, you know, driving around my previous career in the tennis world as a sales rep,
there was tons of time to listen to podcasts.
I was on the road a lot, driving 40,000 miles a year.
So now I just, I don't, and I can't, my mind, I can't focus on what's being said on a podcast
while working on something.
And so I just never listened to any podcasts anymore.
And I feel really sad about it.
Right.
Yeah.
If I'm concentrating, I can't listen to a podcast.
If I'm like just running panels, I can do it.
All right.
Dirt nerds off-road.
I believe that's the dirt drive guys.
Nice.
I, yeah, dirt drive.
I am, you are added.
Perfect.
So there's any other podcasts out there, off-roading podcasts.
Let me know.
Cause I'm definitely loving it.
Should we do one more?
We, let's do one more.
We're all at three.
Here we go.
This is no name.
Okay.
Here we go.
We'll hear.
Hey, Jimmy, Tyler.
I just listened to the episode.
You guys were talking about refill values on cars, whether it makes more sense to actually
sell the rig with all the parts you put into it, all the time, everything like that,
or averting it back to stock.
I have experience with a couple of different cars.
They're not off-road vehicles, but I used to own a couple of Nissan 240SXs,
kind of similar to drift cars.
At the time during COVID, I was actually importing a bunch of very rare and hard to find parts
for these vehicles that almost at the time nobody was selling.
I put them all together, put all these OEM body panels on the car that were very expensive.
My wife was very, very leery of me spending so much money on the parts,
and I just figured I'd never make my money back.
Now fast forward, I kind of got tired of the car.
To me, it made more sense to actually take all the parts off of the car,
minus the fact that I refreshed the motor and all the suspension, everything like that.
I left that alone, but I actually took all the super rare body panels off the car.
The interior out.
I stripped a lot of what I ended up purchasing for a lot of money out of that car,
and I actually made a lot more money that way.
I actually pretty much every single body panel I sold,
I pretty much doubled my money on because that's the time nobody was selling them,
and I was kind of the only guy with these super rare parts.
I'm not sure if that same process would apply to my newer truck,
like my 80 series if I were to sell it.
I think I might get screwed.
I used that one a little bit harder.
But that's just my use case.
I think it kind of depends on what parts, how you're using the vehicle.
OEM body panels, body kits, all that stuff that's hard to get that you're importing.
I think that's a little bit more selective.
So that's just my experience.
First time caller, I'm Kyle from Southern California, and Keith Carlin, guys.
All right, bye.
Thanks, Kyle.
Yeah, that's good stuff.
It just goes into supply and demand, right?
So supply and demand equation.
As there's more supply, demand is less.
Therefore, the prices come down.
If there's a higher demand, less supply, prices go up.
For sure.
This conversation was stimming around Richard from Atlanta,
selling his Jeep and wanted to take the parts off his Jeep
to sell the parts individually and then sell the Jeep at stock.
Right.
And I would argue that Jeep stuff is so readily available that you wouldn't
really make your money back either way.
And I think the argument is you would probably make more money
selling the individual parts on aftermarket and then selling the Jeep as stock.
Yes, you'd probably make more money, but I don't think it's worth the time.
That's my big thing.
Time is valuable.
You can never get time back.
So how much time is it going to take you to remove all those parts
and put the stock parts back on?
How much time are those parts then going to sit around your shop?
How much time are you going to waste talking to dumbasses on Facebook marketplace?
Time is costly, man.
How much time do you have to give to the project?
I think when you are doing custom-ordered and Nissan 240Z stuff,
imported body panels and stuff, man.
That's a different category to than just random Jeep parts
that everybody can actually order themselves.
But I do appreciate you calling in, Kyle.
Thank you so much.
Kyle from SoCal, first-time caller.
Appreciate it.
We had two and Adam from wherever you're from.
You didn't, I don't think you said or I didn't write it down.
Two first-time callers this week.
That's pretty awesome.
Sweet.
That does it for today's snail mail.
We got through a whopping four.
Four, and we got 14 that came in.
So we're down to 38 right now.
38, all right.
Is that include text messages?
Oh, no, there's four text messages.
So 42 total.
So anyways, we'll get back up to it next week on Friday.
Hopefully you guys enjoy your weekend.
We have a fun show for you, a big informational show.
I think it's going to be kind of neat seeing what's been going on on Monday.
So if you guys are around Monday morning,
I highly encourage listening to the show and you'll get to hear about
how it's like working with some Forest Service in the area.
So I think that does it for now.
Anything else, Jimmy?
Nope.
Feel free to call us 916-345-4744 or be a part of our snail mail episodes.
Cool.
I like it.
And without my friends, we'll see you on Monday.
Be safe.
Bye-bye.
About this episode
The episode opens with Four Wheel Underground’s shift toward selling individual suspension components, including aluminum links and rebuildable joints, plus the hosts’ trail-maintenance experience on the Rubicon. Listener voicemail then drives a practical front-axle swap discussion for a T100 “passenger drop,” covering compatibility (pinion/third member), lug patterns, and whether to choose long travel or solid-axle setups. The conversation pivots into AI chat: environmental concerns, how AI can generate and even fabricate content, and why human oversight still matters.
Caller 1: Adam calls to ask about a T-100 Axle Swap
Caller 2: Zac from OKC talks about how he hates AI
Caller 3: Alex from Botches offroad says the Mike and Max podcast needs to restart
Caller 4: Kyle from SoCal gives his thoughts about resale value
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.
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