The Real Difference Between All-Wheel Drive And 4x4! | Ep. 318

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Welcome to a special edition of TFL Talking Trucks Podcast.

And for this episode, we're trying something a little new because Tommy and I started an

off-road podcast over on the car side of our podcast.

We're going to do a very similar format today with Trucks, where we're going to talk about

this Honda Ridgeline and the GMC Canyon, which is arguably one of, if not the best

rock-crawling trucks on the market right now.

And as we talk about them, we're actually going to off-road them in real time.

So we have, well, two special versions of each truck, right?

So the brand new Honda Ridgeline Trail Sport Edition is basically more off-roading version,

the most off-road version you can get currently of the Ridgeline.

And the GMC Canyon is almost the top level.

This is not the AEV edition.

That's true.

It doesn't have the biggest tires and all the goodies, but those are also really expensive.

The 84X that we have still gives you pretty much 90% of the capability that you can get

in a Canyon and really in any mid-sized truck.

And the cool comparison here is going to be all-wheel drive versus four-wheel drive.

Exactly, because Honda arguably has one of the most sophisticated, pretty clever all-wheel drive systems.

Yeah, this IVTM four-wheel drive system does really well on our slip test.

It is, like you said, one of the better all-wheel drive systems off-road or in any conditions

that you can get.

So this is a good all-wheel drive vehicle to compare against a more traditional four-wheel drive,

like what we've got in the Canyon.

Exactly, because the Canyon does have, of course, four high, four low, low-range gearing.

It has automatic mode too.

Yeah.

Maybe we should try that, actually, all-wheel drive-ish mode, right?

Yeah, exactly.

So we can go through, test out a lot of the different modes and see how the two compare,

because ultimately, I don't think most people are going to be surprised to hear that a more

traditional four-wheel drive is better off-road than all-wheel drive, but we can demonstrate

exactly how much better and talk about the reasons why.

And both trucks actually have all-wheel drive modes, right?

Yeah.

So maybe we can also see how that works.

I want to look at the tires before we leave, right?

Yeah, obviously tires are super important, and it's one of the nice things about the

Trail Sport version of the Ridgeline is we get a set of general grabber all-terrain tires.

They are reasonably aggressive for a factory tire.

I think the biggest limitation with this Ridgeline, so some of Honda's Trail Sport

models, there's kind of a spectrum.

Yeah.

Some of the Trail Sports are starting to get reasonably capable, things that are capable

enough that you could go run some light trails and have fun.

The Ridgeline is on the milder end of the Trail Sport spectrum.

Well, because the Ridgeline, this edition of it, is also kind of a little bit longer in the tooth,

right, because they also have the new Passport Trail Sport, which is kind of redesigned.

And the Pilot was the first truly what I would call rugged Trail Sport model.

It's still a low-wheel drive, it doesn't have a low-range, it doesn't have lockers,

so there's a lot of things that it also doesn't have.

But the Pilot and the Passport Trail Sports are more aggressive than the Ridgeline.

The Ridgeline's got a good set of tires, but we're still pretty limited on approach angle.

We're limited on ground clearance, it's about 7.6 inches, which is kind of the biggest limiting

factor of this vehicle.

Yeah.

So, yeah, that's a big difference, because even though the traction may be really, really good,

the clearance is something that could stop you from going into different places.

So, what do you think? Should we just get in and start moving?

Yeah, I think we start out here in the Ridgeline, we set sort of a baseline for what this vehicle

is capable of, and then we see how the Canyon compares.

But, it's worth noting that in general, the Ridgeline is good at quite a few things.

Of course, today we're talking primarily about off-roading, but this vehicle's primary goal

is to be good as a daily driver, comfortable, and it does a great job at that.

Yeah, because it's really actually large on the inside, right?

Look, we have a lot of space between us.

It's actually one of the wider vehicles in the mid-size segment for pickup trucks.

And it's got fully independent suspension, it is a more street-focused suspension, it's

more sophisticated in some ways.

So, day-to-day, this is without a doubt a more comfortable vehicle than the Canyon.

Yeah.

Canyon's got a pretty stiff ride.

Yeah, a stiff ride and Canyon's backseat space may be a little bit more limited as well.

Yeah, but at the same time, because this is a more street-focused suspension,

it's not necessarily designed to have the most amount of travel.

So, even going down our logs here at our Onyx Off-Road, your pit course, Andre's Pit.

Roman called it Andre's Pit, yes.

The ridgeline doesn't necessarily feel like it's doing something it was designed to do.

Super happy, it's not super happy.

No, I'm trying to take it slow because it's bumpy.

There's not boatloads of travel here.

No, and also, so the log section of Andre's Pit, for those of you who are just listening

and not watching, is kind of a series of speed bumps, really, kind of stacked up against each other.

So, most vehicles are not super happy on the logs course.

But this also has several modes, right?

It does, and I'm looking around.

So, we've got this guy.

So, a few of our options, we've got normal, snow, mud, and sand.

So, notice, they don't have mud and ruts, they don't have rock crawl modes.

They don't have a rock crawl mode on purpose.

I'm going to go for the mud mode and see what that gives us as far as

allowing this all-wheel drive system to try and get us up the trenches.

This is not a vehicle, obviously, that has much in the way of articulation.

It's a fully independent suspension.

Like we said, more street focused.

So, we're definitely lifting tires quite a bit as we go up the trenches.

But to its credit, the all-wheel drive system, even as you're lifting tires,

does a great job of still grabbing brake sending power where it needs to go

and getting you up the hill so you can hear it working.

You can hear the traction control system and the brakes are working.

And you have to use some throttle to get up the trenches because we don't have a low range.

So, there's not a lot of gearing working to our advantage.

Yeah. And I was noticing, so you were just under 2000 RPM there.

Yeah.

So, I could hear the engine rev up a little bit.

You were asking for power and then the computer figured it out, right?

The computer decided, it said, okay, these tires are being lifted.

We don't have traction on this corner versus this corner.

And it kind of figured it out.

So, there's a little bit of drama, right?

There is, yeah, for sure.

It's not walking up it completely seamlessly.

There is tires, there are tires lifting.

There is some slip going on and the traction control system has to go in and intervene.

What do you think?

Should we try and go up Lava Lane?

I'm a little concerned because we don't have a lot of clearance.

It's true.

Do you want me to spot you a little bit?

Yeah. So, we'll check it out.

We'll see if we've got enough clearance up front here.

So, Lava Lane is kind of a V-notch where you kind of have to enter it

and a little bit diagonally as well.

Yeah, it is. It's like a soft dirt hill that comes up pretty steeply,

although it's always difficult to capture just how steep anything is.

Yeah. But as with any off-roading, it's good to be with another person,

maybe multiple vehicles.

Especially when you're dealing with seven and a bit inches of ground clearance.

Yeah, which is not a lot of.

Honda, I'm sure they're working on the next ridgeline right now.

Yeah.

They probably will give it a little bit more clearance.

More aggressive would be great because Honda knows how to build an off-roader.

Dude, we've had a Honda Talon side-by-side for a couple of years.

Honda dirt bikes, Honda ATVs.

They've got their hands in everything that you could think of on the market.

Also, they have a jet plane.

Yeah, the Honda jet.

We have a Honda pressure washer.

Yes.

If they want to build it, they could design it.

Now, I'm going to pull up, nose up to this feature to see if we can clear it with the front bumper.

Okay, slowly.

It's going to be tentative.

I'm not sure.

You're okay.

Yeah, okay.

That's very close.

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

So, even on a relatively mild hill, we start to run out of a project.

Can you do me a favor?

Can you actually back up and take it more diagonally?

Yeah, so again, if all you're trying to do is get to a trailhead to go hiking or mountain biking

or something outside or maybe you want to go camping with the family,

this ridgeline is going to give you plenty enough capability to be able to do that.

It'll get you to 99% of the places you want to go, but if your goal is to off-road for off-roading sake,

it's not controversial to say this is not going to be most people's first choice.

Okay, keep going another couple feet.

So, I've got a little angle now.

You're better.

Okay.

You're better, but okay, keep going.

But I had to give it a, because I've got some angle going, I'm hanging tires a little bit.

Okay, stop.

We'll get some slip.

How's the back end?

You're touching a tiny bit, but now you're fully committed.

Well, that means we're going for it.

So, yeah, not only approach angle, but everything.

Departure, just general ground clearance.

And this is a relatively steep hill, so it takes some throttle input.

Go!

But it does get up.

So, you can work this ridgeline through some features.

It just takes some effort.

This is, even though it's a trail sport model and it's meant to be an off-road trim,

it is definitely not super rugged.

No.

So, here's what happened.

On the passenger side in the front, you know, there's a little lip chin spoiler?

Right in front of the wheel.

Yeah.

So, that touched a tiny bit, but it's flexible.

Yeah.

So, we did not damage that.

And then in the back, on the driver's side, because you're going diagonally at this obstacle,

the bottom of the bumper touched a little bit, but once again, there is no bending or damage.

So, I think that was the limit.

Yeah.

That was the top limit of this vehicle.

So, look, ultimately, this ridgeline, as always, for the majority of people,

makes a lot of sense.

Any conditions that you're going to run into on the road through snow and ice,

this all-wheel drive is going to do a great job with that.

Day to day, it's going to be a better driver, but if you want specific off-road capability,

the capability to go hit a trail, you're going to be looking at something more like the canyon.

So, let's see how that performs.

Exactly.

And once again, I just want to point out that payload-wise, the ridgeline is really strong.

Yeah.

I believe this one has about 1,400 pounds of payload.

The towing number on this truck is not super high, 5,000 pounds.

Yeah.

The canyon, because it's an off-road version, that's rated at 6,000,

but the interior comfort, I think, is here.

You would agree, right?

This is a better daily driver truck, hands-on.

All right.

So, let's transfer into the canyon.

Well, before we take off in the GMC canyon here, let's look at the tires,

because we've got to compare them, right?

Absolutely.

And we've got a set of Goodyear Wranglers, which are more aggressive and larger diameter

than what you get on the ridgeline.

This is a good all-around tire.

We've tested it a lot.

Yeah, Territory MT.

So, Goodyear and the Wrangler line of tires, I mean, they have so many different options now.

Yeah.

I mean, even a couple years ago, they introduced the Territory lineup of tires,

and then there's ATs, there's MTs, there's different kinds and different weight ratings.

But this is a Territory MT tire.

Not the most aggressive, maybe.

Like a dirt truck would be a little bit more aggressive, right?

For a factory tire, it's really good.

It's about a 33.

If you step up to the AEV edition, which price-wise is a big step up.

That's like a 10 grand step, $10,000.

Yeah, and you're spending, at that point, a lot of money,

a lot, a lot of money on a mid-sized truck.

Actually, speaking of money, here, we're kind of in the $50,000 range, right?

Yeah.

The Ridgeline is in the lower $50,000 range, and this Canyon is about $57,000 right now.

It is, yeah.

So not too dissimilar on price, but if you go for an AEV, you do get big 35s,

which, as a rock-rolling mid-sized truck, you've got a higher ground clearance even.

It makes it really, really capable and super tall.

It's kind of a jump up into the AEV version of this truck,

but it's a massive jump up in price.

But even as it sits, this truck has about 10.6 inches or 10.7 inches of ground clearance.

So almost 3 inches, a little bit over the 3 inches greater ground clearance than the Honda.

So this is pretty substantial ground clearance.

And beyond that, we've also got a lot of underbody protection from the factory,

skid plating, rock sliders.

So if you run out of clearance, this Canyon is better off.

So more clearance to begin with, more tire, and more underbody protection.

Yeah, and the front is scalloped, right?

So the front bumper actually has a little bit more clearance for the tire,

so you can see a lot of the tire versus what you can see on the Honda Ridgeline, right?

Yeah, which is not going to help the Canyon as far as efficiency,

but it is going to help a lot with approach angle, as we'll see in a moment.

Actually, you and Roman just tested efficiency on this truck again, right?

So you could check it out if you want to go check out TFL Trucks channel.

Yeah, it is definitely not the most efficient thing out there.

We actually tested this against a Silverado 1500,

so a bigger truck that was using the same 2.7,

and the Canyon got worse efficiency because it's lifted from the factory,

because it's got bigger off-road tires.

So it's not super efficient.

And that Honda has still no turbochargers, you know, it's a V6, three and a half liters.

Yeah, 280 horsepower, 262 pound-feet torque, so it's a little old school in that sense.

But that's good, right?

I think so.

Being old school is actually not too bad.

That's an engine that's been around for a long time,

so there's no real question marks surrounding it.

We know a lot about that motor and how they perform over time.

The 2.7 in the Canyon at this point is getting to be a motor that's been around for a while.

Yeah, 310 horsepower, 430 pound-feet of torque, so it is a pretty torquey unit.

Yeah, but you mentioned about height, so I just want to show that really briefly.

Check it out.

So, like, I'm pretty tall, dude, but even I, like, I have to kind of make a big step, right?

Even on 33s, it's a little bit more of a challenge to get inside of this truck.

So if you get an AEV edition, it is tall enough that people will comment on it.

People that you offer rides to might complain to you that it's a jump up into your truck.

Let's say you're going out to that nice restaurant, right,

after you've been off-roading, and you go like this, and then your leg rubs off onto the, you know...

Rubbing the pants of your tux on your muddy rock sliders.

That's a problem that most of us have had before, right?

Yeah, almost weekly.

Yeah, but if people are complaining about jumping up into your off-road truck,

correct response is you can always offer to them that they can walk if they want.

Exactly, or they can buy a different truck.

Yeah, exactly, they can drive themselves.

So there's a point to this, right?

Because this truck is a little bit more focused for off-roading,

but it comes with a couple of caveats or trade-offs, right?

There are cons, yeah, absolutely.

All right, let's jump in and let's start to get going.

Yeah, because this is a podcast where we're talking about off-road capability,

we got to show the upsides of all the off-road features on this truck.

All right, so we are powering up.

This interior is colorful.

It is, in a lot of ways it's more modern.

The inside of the Canyon looks and feels more modern.

It is a more recently updated truck.

But look, the width is less.

You know, you and I are almost kind of elbow-to-elbow sitting in here.

Yeah, comfort isn't the first word that comes to mind in one of these canyons.

So that's one of the trade-offs.

For sure, on a long road trip and daily driving, the Ridgeline is going to be more comfy.

And also, so this has DSSV spool valve dampers, shocks.

And the whole deal with it, they're not adjustable, right?

They kind of have the same behavior no matter what you're doing.

And they work really well at high speeds.

Yes, so if you're going over desert terrain at higher speeds,

that's when they shine the most, in my opinion.

Absolutely, yeah.

But low speed or even going over speed bumps, it could be a little bit jarring sometimes.

This truck at times feels weirdly stiff.

Now, because we're just on our little off-road course here in the back of the ranch,

we're not air down, because we're not doing anything super significant.

You can pick up some extra comfort by airing down, but it's not the most refined ride in the world.

In fact, I think the Honda on this section was more comfortable, I would say.

Yeah, and maybe I was going a tiny bit slower over some of the bumps,

but even so, the kin is not riding significantly better.

So do you want to show this really quick case using the camera?

So we have our four-wheel drive selector, and I just pushed auto.

So because I kind of want to do the first section in auto and see how it behaves.

Yeah, so this would be basically the minimum amount that you would do to

put yourself in a position to get some extra traction and extra capability.

It's just four autos, so we're still in high range.

We're not even locked into four high.

And we're not using locking differentials, which we have two of them in this.

Exactly. So we could do one run up the trenches in its standard four-wheel drive auto setting

and see how it does. Already, obviously, we're going to have more clearance.

Clearance wasn't really an issue in the ridgeline on the trenches,

but we are going to have more articulation here.

Yes, we do have a solid rear axle.

We do have a little bit more travel overall with these wheels and tires.

So and also speaking.

So something similar, like I have to use a little bit more throttle for sure.

There's some slip and traction controls coming in,

but actually in the four auto setting, you can see the ridgeline did better.

So that all-wheel drive on the ridgeline is is genuinely pretty good.

Yeah.

So we're still getting up it.

Yeah, but I had to use a little bit of momentum, like I rolled back a foot and then I kind of

parred through it, but the Honda did it better, like you said.

Yeah. So in the four auto setting here on the Canyon, it's really not noticeably any better

than the ridgeline, maybe even worse.

But the big perk with this truck is that you have so many more tools at your disposal.

I also think it's worth mentioning too, because if we don't bring it up, everybody will.

Somebody will correct us.

This is a body on frame truck.

Yeah.

The ridgeline is unibody.

So structurally, there's a big difference between this truck and that.

So it's not just the independent suspension.

It's that as well.

We would like to do it again.

So we're talking to our producer and videographer, Cole, and he's running around Andre Spitt

and wondering what the heck we're doing.

Yeah. Naturally, we didn't warn him ahead of time what we were going to do.

Because we're using all-wheel drive and then we're going to use four low.

Yeah. So now we can just go ahead and pull out all the goodies, which is not necessary.

We could easily do this in four low without the lockers, but we have the lockers.

So I do need to go into neutral, obviously.

And then I just push the button again.

Yeah.

And this is my low range.

And you could see it's blinking, traction control off.

And so it just takes a second to get four low engaged and then should we kick on our lockers?

Yeah, might as well.

And I'm going to do both.

Yeah.

Let's just go extreme on this.

Exactly, because we can show the full spectrum.

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

And also, here's the thing, when you have a front locking differential,

you're going to lose turning radius because there is more grabbing,

crabbing, right?

For sure.

Both tires are trying to turn at the same speed and then they just...

Doesn't help you make a tight turn.

No.

So this truck becomes a kind of a ship.

So in general, you're only going to use both lockers when you need them.

But just to demonstrate how much added capability you get from it,

we'll go ahead and use them.

So the combination of low range gives you so much more gearing to play around with.

So right now the truck is essentially idling its way.

I'm under 1,000 rpm.

Yeah.

So no effort at all from the powertrain, from the transmission.

It's got tons of gearing, which means we can apply tons of torque if we need to.

And with the lockers, consistent traction, no wheel slip even though we're still articulating

pretty heavily and even picking up tires here and there.

So that amount of capability you just can't compete with.

No, you can't really produce it with a computer.

No.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, even like Land Rover has some of the cleverest, fastest,

all-wheel drive, four-wheel drive computers.

Yeah, some of the best torque vectoring through braking, traction control off-road.

Might be Land Rover.

Would you agree?

Oh, absolutely.

Well, you and Tommy own many different Land Rovers.

Yeah, we love Land Rovers.

This is a great system.

But ultimately, front and rear lockers is the way to go.

It's physics.

Yeah.

Right?

Because you're actually manipulating hardware.

You can't beat it.

But not all lockers are made equal either because, especially and from the factory,

the engagement of some versus others is a little bit different.

I love with this Canyon that you have a dedicated switch to kick on your lockers

versus something like a Ranger Raptor that puts those lockers in the screen.

Digital, yeah.

Yeah.

The other thing with this truck versus a Ranger Raptor, because some people might be

thinking, well, you're talking about the best rock crawling mid-sized trucks.

What about the Ranger Raptor?

That's got front and rear lockers.

Yeah.

It does, but it doesn't have as much clearance as this truck.

This truck sits up higher.

And then the Gladiator is also really good.

Exactly.

And also, there is no like AV addition of the Ranger Raptor.

Yeah.

You know, the Ranger Raptor is kind of, kind of, that's where it is.

That's it.

Yeah.

I think the Gladiator is also really good, but it's a longer wheelbase.

Yeah.

There's some trade-offs.

The wheelbase on the Gladiator is kind of, you got to get it on a bigger tire.

Yeah.

Because of the break over angle.

Modified, I think it can be better.

But our clearance on the front bumper in the Canyon as we go up that same hill,

Lava Lane, that we did in the ridge line.

Yeah, we might have just barely rubbed, but we've got significantly more room.

So this is not a truck where you need to spot it on a hill like that.

Yeah.

So there was less drama, just a lot more clearance, and I'm not using lockers anymore.

Yeah.

So even without selecting locking differentials, it was able to negotiate Lava Lane without any

issues, actually.

Yeah.

And again, a lot of that comes down to this

being a body on frame truck with a solid rear axle, better articulation.

The low range helps a lot, just making it effortless to climb up some of those steeper

pitches.

And then the lockers ultimately give you so much traction that you're just really not

struggling much at all.

This Canyon 84X has impressed us a lot off-road.

We've compared it to quite a few different trucks, even some modified trucks like our

buddy Ryan over at Driving Sports TV has a modified Tacoma that granted is modified

largely to be an overlander, but he's done work to the suspension, wheels, tires,

everything, and even this truck bone stock up against a modified Tacoma was not slipping

tires as much because Tacoma didn't have a front locker, and this does.

And that same thing is true.

If you were to look at a Tacoma trail hunter, no front locker.

Front locker on this makes a big difference.

Yeah.

And from the factory, a lot of clearance.

Exactly.

So if I was to purchase this Canyon, I know the company owns this one, right?

But me personally, I would just have no reservation about going anywhere, you know,

some of the trails that we normally go to, even some of the harder ones.

Yeah.

You know, I would like even the whole iron clad's loop I could do in this truck.

Yeah, this is such a solid performer.

We've been really impressed with this truck off-road.

So it's pretty good all around.

But it does have some cons, like we were saying, you know, it's not everything.

It's not the most comfortable, not the most refined or most efficient.

You do have to jump into it, you know, and jump out of it.

Yeah.

So it does have a couple of intricacies.

Well, what do you say?

Should we go to the studio and because we got, I want to hit some news.

Yeah.

And I want to discuss a couple of other points.

Let's check it out.

And just like that, welcome back to our studio.

We have a little bit of news to talk about in the truck world,

getting back to sort of our regular programming.

Where do you want to start?

Well, I call the segment rapid-fired news.

Yeah.

Because we're quick with this.

So I want to start actually with news that came out just a couple of days back, several days back,

where NADA, the National Dealer Association, had a meeting in Las Vegas.

And this is for all manufacturers, all dealerships.

But specifically, there was a couple of interesting nuggets that popped out,

one of them being that Ram Dakota was shown to the dealers.

Exactly.

And there are some quotes out there in the world from people that got to see,

people in the dealer network that got to see that Ram Dakota prototype in person.

And it sounds like for a lot of people that got to check it out, it's kind of a confidence boost

because they're saying it looks like a pretty rugged truck that might get some more mid-sized

shoppers into the dealer.

Well, or just more people in the dealer period, right?

You might be coming in to look at the new Dakota, but you might buy something else, right?

It's just good for everybody.

I have a story about this on TFLTruck.com.

And the image you're seeing is not from Ram, and it's not from any dealer.

It's an image I created using some of our AI tools.

Because I thought it would make sense because the new Dakota, like we talked about in previous

episodes, since it's going to be built in the same factory as the Gladiator,

that the two might share quite a few components, actually.

Yeah, for sure.

And it remains to be seen how far those similarities go.

I'm really interested to know if it's going to use independent front suspension or solid front axle.

But what we do know, for sure, is that they must have been showing some off-road trim of it,

because I definitely saw quotes from some of the people that saw this prototype that were saying

it looks pretty rugged.

Yeah, and I also saw a quote from somebody saying,

Toyota better watch out with their Tacoma.

And as we know, Tacoma is kind of a lifestyle off-roading truck as well.

That's what most of them are.

So I think Ram has something up their sleeve.

And I actually wrote down a couple of things in this story.

So, Cole, if you could scroll down just a little bit in this story.

I was trying to dream, I think, a little bit more here.

So I was trying to put my dreaming hat on and just kind of what can it be?

What should it be?

So, first of all, body and frame, of course, because Ram did say,

Tim Kuniscus did say to the CEO of Ram that this is going to be a real pickup truck,

so not some crossover turned into a pickup, right?

Yeah, and it did sound like also, to my disappointment, we have a quote from Tim Kuniscus

about a Hemi in the Dakota and that it's not necessary.

He wasn't very positive when was asked about the V8 Dakota.

Which we kind of figured.

It was fun to dream a little bit like maybe they could theoretically,

but it sounds like that's not going to happen.

Well, Tim is kind of Mr. V8, right?

That's one of his nicknames, Mr. Hellcat.

But you can't just, it's a business still.

This still has to make sense, right?

So you can't quite Hellcat everything in this world,

although we would like it to be everything Hellcat.

Yeah, so more likely, we're going to see a lower-cylinder count.

So you were proposing a couple potential options, Pentastar V6.

They kind of jam that and everything, so.

Well, the upcoming Ram Rev range extender has a Pentastar V6.

Gladiator's got.

Gladiator currently has one.

Ram 1500 has an e-torque version of that in the new one.

So why not just keep it going, right?

Very likely.

There's a base engine potentially.

Yeah.

How long are they going to run that same V6?

As long as people buy it, I guess.

Apparently.

But you were suggesting something that I think is a good call.

It's very likely that they might put their confusingly named

Hurricane 2-liter four-cylinder into it.

So not the big six-cylinder Hurricane that we see in the Ram 1500

and several Celentus SUVs, because that would be, I don't know,

that's probably more motor than they would be likely to put.

Well, because that motor is long.

Because you have to think about space inside of some of these chassis.

And as much as everybody loves a straight six, I think us included.

For sure.

It might be difficult to put a straight six inside of a mid-sized vehicle,

which is a little bit smaller.

So I was thinking they have a new Hurricane 4 with a special combustion

and special injection system, which is coming out in the Grand Cherokee.

Yeah, with 324 horsepower, 332 pound-feet of torque.

So it is a 2-liter.

It's a small displacement.

It's much smaller than GM's 2.7, smaller than Toyota's 2.4.

It would be displacement-wise on the small side,

but that's a pretty healthy output.

It is a little low on the torque figure.

So here's another idea I had.

What if, because manufacturers have done this before, including GM,

you have a base construction of an engine, like a 2-liter, sometimes you could just...

Twin-charge it.

No, you could increase the displacement.

Yeah, no, that's true.

You could either increase the stroke or maybe just bore it out a little bit.

That would be smart.

And just increase, maybe give it more torque.

You see what I'm saying?

Yeah, I think a bigger displacement, especially in a pickup truck,

something that's designed to tell that extra torque would be appreciated,

if not more or less necessary, given the vehicles that it would be competing against.

The other potential thing they could explore doing,

because it's not completely off the table,

even though a lot of brands are going away from electrification,

it's still an option that could be on the table.

So maybe they would have some hybrid system that they would pair up with the hurricane.

That being said, I think that would be a pretty difficult thing to market,

because their last 2-liter, 4-cylinder hybrid combination...

Just got discontinued.

For good reason.

Yeah, it was unreliable.

Unreliable.

Yeah, lots of recalls related to it, not a big seller,

nor did it have lots of people that were really sticking up for it,

and that liked that system.

Exactly.

So they walked away from putting that into the gladiator.

So how do you come back and just say, oh, never mind.

Here's a different one.

Yeah.

Here's a different one.

That's going to be a tough one.

I think it'll be a tough sell.

So they might hemi it then.

They might put a V8 in there.

Maybe it's a misdirect.

Are we still going to hold on to hope, just to have our hopes dashed?

Let's not.

Let's not build our hopes.

Year and a half.

Yeah, no, let's not do that.

So this should be coming.

They said the production might start at the middle of next year,

2027, with maybe vehicles rolling off for purchase,

maybe at the end of that year.

So we're still looking like a year and a half away, at least, maybe more.

So it's not going to happen tomorrow, unfortunately.

Yeah, so we're maybe about a year out, would you say,

of actually having confirmed details on the Dakota?

Or maybe seeing a debut a year from now.

That's probably possible.

That's what I'm thinking.

And then we'll have to wait to buy it, of course, because they do usually

debuts and then several months go by and then the vehicle finally comes out.

And typically we start driving vehicles once they're beginning to show up in dealerships,

because from the manufacturers, they want people to be able to watch a review

and then go to the dealer and pick up whatever vehicle it is that all this hype is kind of around.

Exactly.

And what's happening even more in the industry is that vehicles sometimes are already at dealers

and we're still waiting for a drive event.

So for example, you were saying that Grand Cherokee is with this two-liter, this new hurricane.

No, no, I was talking about the baby Cherokee, the regular Cherokee.

I saw them at dealers, but you go into an event to review it, right?

Next week.

Well, that's pretty close.

Yeah, so if you go in and do a test drive, you'll drive it before I do.

Please don't.

Please don't drive one before KS does.

You can drive it before I do.

I won't be mad.

Okay, so that was kind of a chunky news because I think we're hungry still for anything midsize

from Ram, from the hot segment.

Exactly.

Growing segment for everybody else.

Then Ford dropped some news, a little bit of news recently.

They showed more images.

And actually, even today, I saw a post from Jim Farley.

Maybe we could look up his Instagram page.

But basically, they're teasing their next upcoming EV midsize pickup truck,

which is supposed to be actually a baby Cybertruck.

Oh, don't say that.

Okay.

Yeah, take that back.

Okay, here's what I mean.

Wait, wait, wait, just don't freak out.

So some of the people who used to work at Tesla now are working on this project for Ford.

And this vehicle uses big castings.

Instead of building the vehicle from many different parts, different chassis parts,

it has big humongous castings.

Yes, I think.

Just because it's some of the same engineers doesn't mean those engineers are going to be

required to build a truck that looks like a doorstop.

No, no, no, it's not going to be a doorstop.

In fact, they just published this.

Hopefully, you could see this.

There's kind of like a wind tunnel simulation.

And the vehicle looks very curvaceous, I would say.

The vehicle looks kind of smooth, not very bulky like a pickup truck.

And then they're showing some parts inside of it as well.

You know, I wouldn't put it past Ford because they came out with a Maverick,

kind of establish that segment.

And very successfully too.

Very successfully.

They own that segment.

So maybe what they're coming out with here is going to be a hit.

But it is interesting so far.

They're showing aerodynamics of it.

And they're showing efficiency.

They're showing that it's electric.

Yes.

These are not things that I think most truck buyers,

maybe not in the top three priorities.

Yeah, but we don't know a lot of specs.

Yeah, we know nothing about it.

Well, basically, we know it will have a small electric battery

and it will be very efficient.

But how much payload will it have?

How much towing?

How much acceleration will it have?

We don't know a lot of those things.

And they were targeting under $30,000, what was...

Or just over.

They said $30,000.

To me, that means a base model might be $30,000,

and then it will be more than that.

But then I've got to wonder why would somebody pick that over a Maverick?

At that price.

That's a good question.

So Maverick is a hybrid or a turbo,

and maybe they're thinking this will be like a Maverick,

but maybe a little bit larger, but all-electric.

But there's a lot of friction from the comment section.

You know what I'm saying?

A lot of...

Just in general.

So I don't know if...

So I think Ford has an uphill battle

because they're putting quite a lot of resources into this,

and it gets me excited because it looks like their engineering is sound.

You know, they're thinking about the right things.

They're thinking about light weighting.

They're thinking about aerodynamics.

They're thinking about capability.

So I think that's what gets me excited about this.

Yeah, we'll see how it goes.

At this point, obviously, people know that a lot of manufacturers

are moving away from electrification based on the market.

And demand.

But at the same time, these are massive companies.

It takes years and years and hundreds of millions of dollars of development

to create all these vehicles.

So they can't pivot immediately.

That takes years, obviously, before that to actually happen.

So some of these products might be coming out of strategies

that are several years old, or they definitely are.

It'll be interesting to see what they ultimately come up with.

And then our friend Sam, I was talking to him at Detroit Auto Show,

and he mentioned that he talked to some people in the know,

and that this next Ford pickup will have a 48-volt system,

like the Cybertruck has.

That's kind of why I referenced that.

I'm not saying the new Ford truck will look the same as the Cybertruck

in any way possible, because I don't think it will, based on these images.

And that would just be a bad idea.

But some of the technology underneath it looks really interesting,

with the 48-volt system instead of a 12-volt system,

and also all the other components.

Yeah, whether or not it sells well is going to be a question

that'll be answered when it actually comes out.

But it will certainly be interesting to see what they come up with,

regardless of how much people are actually going out there trying to buy it.

And then it's going to be a platform that other vehicles will be built upon.

So it's not just one vehicle.

They show the image of maybe a small van, maybe an SUV,

based on the same platform.

Because it's a modular platform.

It's a modular platform, so that could be very exciting.

Next up, next segment I want to talk about is what's in your garage.

Actually, my garage.

Yes.

Because we heard about your garage last episode on car.

Yeah.

You talked to Tommy about it.

I got other stuff in my garage I have to talk about.

I got a truck.

Don't you have a Cummins in your garage still?

Yeah, we did my truck on the Truck Channel pretty recently.

We don't got to talk about any of my stuff.

Andre, how's your Buhanka?

Oh, yeah.

Well, that's why we have a little model of my Russian bread loaf van.

Well, you got a toy one, but you also got a real one.

Yes.

So, yeah, Kola's pulling up a video of my UAZ 452, affectionately labeled Buhanka,

which means a loaf of bread in Russian.

So, here's where I am.

The power train is mostly in this video that Kola's showing us.

I was talking to our friend Ruben, who's a transmission expert,

because I was having trouble.

My transmission is you're aware from your project.

My swap transmission was having major problems.

Automatics are so badly designed, all of them.

Yeah, especially when you're picking up a used unit.

And I will die on that hill.

Feel free to argue with me.

I don't care.

So, are you saying electric motor is better?

No, manual is better.

Automatics are so complicated.

But, yeah, you've gotten it working, which is pretty cool.

Yeah.

So, mechanically speaking, I have one issue.

My transfer case that was a used unit, NP205, which was like 50 years old,

David and I refreshed it from the outside.

But we didn't refresh it on the inside.

Sure.

And it's leaking fluid now.

So, transfer cases aren't supposed to leak oil?

Not necessarily.

I'm going to have to check that out.

So, then, I have no interior.

Much like this model case.

We got a cool shifter.

Oh, well, you got more of an interior than your toy one.

Because I stripped out the interior for the most part.

Because, remember, I had a mouse problem years ago.

Well, you got seats.

I got seats.

Didn't your insurance company see pictures of the interior of your

Buhanka and say, if you didn't class it up, they wouldn't insure it?

Yeah, I did get that email.

Which is crazy.

But now, I am insured.

And, but they haven't seen my interior update.

So, I stripped most of it out.

And now, I'm rewiring the thing.

Because I still don't have a fuel gauge.

None of my lights work.

My windshield wipers are not hooked up.

Right.

So, I have a lot of wiring.

And I actually want to do it over.

Like, I actually removed all the gauges that came with it originally.

So, I just bought a little wiring kit with a fuse box.

Nice.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, for sure.

So, because the old fuses in there are just kind of flaky.

I wouldn't imagine that one of the high points of your UAZ is wiring.

No, it was not.

Electronics.

It was not.

Even though it had almost no electronics.

Yeah.

Which is probably a good thing.

The electronics it did have was not very, very good.

You know, I actually, I went out to a dealership personally with Gavin.

One of our videographers.

You know Gavin, right?

And we actually were looking at, they have a Chevy Express van for sale.

Which is all new, brand new.

Not all new.

Body swap it?

No.

No, no.

And we Googled, what is the longest running unchanged vehicle on sale?

And the Chevy Express was one of them.

Was it early 2000s or late 90s?

96.

96, yeah.

So, it's celebrating 30 years of Chevy Express.

Yeah, pretty much unchanged.

Almost unchanged.

They changed the headlamps on it.

They changed like the grills on it a little bit.

But it's mostly unchanged.

The other thing they changed on that van is the engine.

So, right now it has a 6.6 gas V8 as an option in there.

And I also Googled, what's in the world?

Not in the country.

Because in the country, the Chevy Express was the longest running.

And also GMC Savannah.

In the world, it was the beloved Buhanka is still being built.

And it originated in 1965.

You can buy a 2026 Buhanka?

Yes.

No kidding.

Well, that's kind of, that's going to be kind of nice for parts.

I hope so.

Yeah, yeah.

At least the body parts, right?

The body parts are interchangeable.

They have Apple CarPlay now?

No.

Probably not.

What would be a Russian version of Apple CarPlay?

What would be a luxury and a like?

Like a Buhanka.

Mashed potatoes connection or something.

Exactly.

Yeah.

No, no, no CarPlay as far as I know.

So, so my, my garage, by the way, I haven't sold my tundra yet.

Yeah.

Because you got to find a replacement.

Yeah.

And I wasn't excited by anything available for the price point

because my price point was like under 40,000.

So we're up in the price point.

No, we're still not.

Dang.

We discussed this before.

You could get a nice third gen comments for that.

It's a good plan.

With the manual.

With the, oh yeah.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

So, so I'm still looking.

So it's still kind of a stalled, stalled project.

My Buhanka will have a new interior.

I'm hoping by the time, maybe Memorial Day rolls around in like three months.

Picturing a lot of suede and leather.

No, no.

I want to do like a cabin, like a cabin in the woods.

Wood.

Lots of wood.

But sometimes fake wood.

Cabin in the woods like the horror movie?

Kind of.

Well, hopefully, can you imagine?

Not too horrifying.

You know, they're selling this new wall material, which is like,

like a, I don't know, like a felt with like planks over it.

And it's for sound insulation, you know, for studios sometimes.

Okay.

So not, not for automotive.

No, no.

I was going to use that material that people put in their studios inside the van.

So first of all, sound insulation, right?

And then also it looks a little woodsy.

Has that, has that theme to it?

So I was wondering about that.

I honestly cannot picture what you're talking about, but sounds cool.

So it could be neat.

Anyway, I'll look while we're talking.

Yeah.

So big plans for the Buhanka.

There's still here.

And I want to drive it the summer.

And so, so stay tuned.

Yeah.

And we got to go do some trails with it.

Is it possible to get lockers for one of those?

Cause that'd be pretty cool.

Yeah.

Cause it doesn't have any lockers.

And actually the axles are original and they're still intact,

even though I do have a 4.8 liter Silverado V8 in it, as we discussed prior.

And people were worried about my axles, but they're still intact.

They're not falling apart.

Yeah.

So, so that's pretty nice.

Everybody, anytime you had 20 horsepower, everyone's like,

oh, you got to do one ton axles and they're going to explode.

Well, we haven't gone to the Rubicon trail yet.

Just don't neutral drop it.

And I, you'll probably be fine.

That's, that's what I'm wagering.

Strong, strong Soviet axles.

Strong like a bear, I would say.

Actually, those axles are really low geared.

That's why my top speed was always bad.

Five something?

Well, we thought it was either 454 to one,

but now we're thinking it's more like 510 to one.

Yeah.

Like something.

510 is high.

So these are, these are pretty geared, geared axles.

I'm just scrolling.

I wanted to show you, maybe Cole will pull it up.

Anyways, this, this wall arrangement.

Doesn't our, doesn't our deuce have like 583 gearing or something?

Something.

The Buhanka is not that aggressive.

Well, Buhanka is also not on 40s.

Cole, can you Google, um,

46s.

Acoustic fluted wall panel.

Oh, very fancy.

Yeah.

I've seen that before.

Sorry.

My description of it was horrendous.

Yeah.

They're like little wood slats.

Yeah.

Wood slats on this, spaced on some felt.

And you could put it in your bedroom.

It's very chic.

You could put it in your living room, apparently.

You could put it behind your television.

You could, but why not Buhanka?

Why, why not Buhanka?

It's extremely modern.

Right.

You're going to have like a minimalist, modern,

interior decor.

Scandinavian type.

Yes.

Right.

Exactly.

Cole likes it.

That'll be interesting.

So, but woodsy.

I don't want to like gray color.

I want it to look like wood.

So, so that could, that could be very interesting.

Well, and with David's help, you'd probably make it look pretty good.

Yeah.

David is an amazing carpenter.

Carpenter.

Yes.

But I don't know if he would like this fluted stuff.

I'm not sure.

He might just have to make them.

But what about my floor?

Should I do linoleum or tile?

Sure.

What will happen when it articulates?

What if it articulates?

I don't want to think about that.

Carpet, carpet would be nice.

Oh, shag.

Shag.

For sure.

That's very van-like.

I'm not sure that would go well with your fluted Scandinavian wood walls.

Scandinavian walls.

Wow.

Oh, you know what else I could do?

I could do like a electric fireplace.

You know?

How heavy are we going to make this?

Well, it's going to be eight.

Yeah.

He's going to have a wood-burning stove in there.

Oh, can you imagine if I cut a hole in the roof and just put it?

You should put an aga in there.

Those ovens that are like, they're like 3,000 pound ovens.

Can you look up what is it?

I think it's 1G.

1G.

AGA.

Oven.

Yeah.

What?

I think yeah.

I think an aga genuinely weighs maybe 2,000 pounds.

These are like from the 1900s or something like that.

No, no, no, no.

That's too much.

Oh my God, they're expensive.

How much?

That one's 40 grand.

$40,000?

That's as much as I spent on the entire van.

Total your car.

Anyways, so that's what is in my garage.

We still have the i3.

My wife drives that, so she loves, she refuses to sell it.

BMW i3.

This is a 2014 model.

And we still don't know what your next truck's going to be.

Not yet.

Yeah, sorry if I got everybody excited that I'm switching trucks

and now I apologize about that.

Yeah, it remains to be seen.

Whatever it is.

Well, it's real life.

It's like a real life.

Like I really wanted to switch up or switch into something else

and then kind of life got in the way.

You know, we were traveling.

Like we had a valuable tournament that we went to and yada, yada, yada.

And so that's how it happens.

Yeah, it makes sense.

But eventually there is going to be a new truck in Andre's food.

Yes.

Hopefully a Dakota.

But for that I will have to wait a long time.

Yeah, and then things for me are the same.

My truck is as it has been.

It's great.

You drove it recently.

We did a manual transmission video.

Yeah, yeah, I drove it on camera recently.

I still drive it, still use it.

I have a new motorcycle, but I'm not going to talk about that here.

Well, do we have a motorcycle podcast?

No, we don't.

We don't need one.

And we won't.

Fairly have enough time to make motorcycles videos at all.

Yeah, and we need more time.

Or more, more, we need to like.

We got too many podcasts.

We just turned down another podcast today.

So yeah, too many, too many podcasts.

Too much, but it's good to be busy.

You know, it's good to be having fun and being busy.

So plenty going on.

I know you also wanted to talk about some cool vintage trucks,

which is up my alley.

Yes.

So how about we wrap up on this?

So I wanted to ask your opinion on this.

I've been noticing this.

I'm going to call it a trend where classic trucks from the late 60s,

early 70s with four doors.

We're talking about factory four door crew cabs,

like F 250s.

There's also like international trucks.

There's also like Dutch power wagon, four door old school.

Old school.

They're selling for big money.

So here's a couple of examples.

1969 F 250 sold for $73,000 recently.

This is in February of 2026.

And it's a it's a cool truck, but it's well restored.

Four wheel drive, four door, which is, you know,

they're few and far between and in nice condition.

But $73,000, that's a lot.

Now let's keep going really quickly.

1970 F 250 custom crew cab also referred to as a high boy

because it does have a four wheel drive system

and a divorce transfer case.

This one sold for in November of 2025 for $120,000.

Yeah.

And I'm sure it's got a good amount of work into it.

Yes.

Next 1967 international harvester travel let pickup truck

four by four crew cab sold for $56,000,

which is also a big chunk of change.

And for the people that are listening,

all of these trucks are four door cabs.

Yes.

So there's something happening where people are,

well, do we have another example?

Yes.

Ooh, this is a little bit of a monster.

Yeah.

It's interesting modifications, but it's a 1968 power wagon.

A Hellcat powered 68 power wagon crew cab,

which is going to be a shocking combination of components,

but it's sold for $152,000.

A lot of these trucks are restomods.

And I get why this would be a popular choice for a restomod

because in this day and age, most people,

whether they like to admit it or not,

most people want a four door truck.

That's what sells the vast majority.

That's what I like.

90 something percent of trucks being sold now.

People still like vintage trucks,

but maybe still want that usability of a four door cab.

In the old school, four door cab pickup trucks

from the 60s or even 50s are pretty hard to come by.

Well, because they weren't very popular back then, right?

Yeah, they're few and far between.

Yeah.

So it's already a pretty rare truck.

And it ends up being a choice for a lot of people

that want a restomod.

And if you restomod something, pour a ton of money into it,

they're probably going to be asking for more money out of it.

Exactly.

And also we saw some of the not modded trucks

like the first 1969 would just restore it.

Yeah.

Right.

Mostly just.

And still expensive.

Still very expensive,

but brought back to its original kind of appearance and function.

So I'm seeing this more and more and more.

And I'm wondering,

and I've also been looking for one too.

Yeah.

Like a project.

That'd be cool.

But they're very hard to find.

Yeah.

That's the whole thing.

That's why they're expensive.

Yeah.

Definitely pretty rare.

And potentially a pretty useful classic,

if you could get into it.

But I still love the idea of a single cab truck.

I don't, yeah.

It's another hill that I'll die on that.

I like single cabs, long beds.

What's your favorite truck?

Maybe Cole can search her up just a second for a single,

for the looks, only looks.

Yeah.

Looks wise, it might be like a 72C10.

Chevy C10, 1972.

Which is just such a classic truck.

And I actually, I like the long beds more than the short beds,

which puts me in kind of the minority, but.

Well, long beds are probably easier to find.

They are.

And they typically actually go for a little less,

because a lot of people want the short beds.

They want to turn them into kind of hot rods, which is cool.

But it's just such a pretty truck.

It's got such simple, elegant lines to it.

Kind of timeless, I would say.

Looks classic.

And for me, some of the trucks before this era,

in the 50s especially, and even in the 60s,

looked very upright and almost.

Very tall.

To my eye, a little awkward.

This truck is a little more sleek.

I like the proportions of it a lot.

And it's just a beautiful shape to your tone.

I like if you just go next tab over 1967.

Just up the one international truck we used to look at.

This, this looks really attractive to me.

The international 1967 crew cab.

And it's a little awkward because maybe the bed and the cab

don't really kind of match up very closely together.

And maybe the hood is not fitting perfectly.

Well, I'm not as much of a step side guy as fleet side.

I prefer fleet side trucks.

I think Cole does too.

He's not a big fleet side guy.

But this international truck, especially in the crew cab,

because like these days,

over almost every pickup truck is a crew cab, right?

So to my eye, this crew cab is really handsome.

So maybe you guys who are listening and watching,

let us know what your favorite is.

Yeah.

What do you think is the most?

No matter what the age, no matter just attractive truck.

Yeah.

Most visually appealing pickup truck of all time.

Yeah.

Let us know in the comments below.

Yeah.

Well, thanks for joining us for this episode about off-roading,

off-road trucks.

And then a bunch of other random stuff.

And also vans.

Yeah.

And also Scandinavian decor.

Yeah.

We got it all.

Wow.

OK.

Thanks for joining us.

We'll see you next time next week.

The Real Difference Between All-Wheel Drive And 4x4! | Ep. 318

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