Turn up the Decibels

SFJ 4x4 Studios presents, in my oversized four-wheel drive Jeep.

A Jeep podcast starring industry experts, curminosity, with mad scientists Scott Brown, use my drill

press as a sort of lathe.

Good morning, afternoon, evening, wherever, however, you are joining us.

This is the I Speak Jeep podcast, and after three or pushing four years, we still don't

know how to use the countdown clock in our studio.

I think the batteries might be dead in the remote.

There is always something.

It doesn't matter whether it's our producer, the Italian stallion, or it is the savage

Davey Thompson.

Neither of them know how to use the actual countdown timer in the clock or in the studio.

I don't know.

So here we are fighting with this.

Is he using the countdown timer when you guys do your YouTube video?

No, he just fights with it.

I mean, we've tried it.

Because I had it set to remember the time every week, and it hasn't been remembering,

OK, he saw an exit strategy.

He saw it.

He said, Jeff, I'm wondering if I had something to do with why, because I remember a while

ago he played with settings and it was doing alarms at us.

I think that's all I'm going off of is from a while ago.

My name is Neil with SFJ 4x4 Simpson Family Jeeps.

And I am in Grandma's Count studio where we can't figure out our clock to save

our life.

And I'm joined, obviously, as I've already mentioned, the Italians down the producer,

Jeff Chiaromonte.

Hello.

And I'm the Madness Mad Scientist, Scott Brown.

And I love that we've got our winter wheeling, tis the season to be wheeling.

Well, with that negative windshield we're supposed to be getting, that makes sense.

There's a cold snap coming across much of the US over the next week or so.

Did you get the emergency alert on Saturday?

I did.

I did not.

I was out of the area.

So because of my proximity, yeah, because I was out of the area, I actually

didn't qualify.

They didn't push it to my phone.

Isn't that interesting?

Yeah.

But if you want to hear about those weekend things and the craziness of everybody

getting these and why, because my wife has a bit of a Jeep experience

with her national weather advisory that happened on Saturday.

Stay tuned to the outro credits for us to talk about our weekend foyers.

For now, we're going to be talking today.

We're going to be talking about sound systems.

We're going to be locked in on gladiators, but much of the information

we'll be sharing with you is pertinent to Jeep production in the last 20 years.

And that's a big word to say 20 years.

That is huge.

Think about the fact that it is 2006.

And quite frankly, the JK, if we go back in our way, our way back time machine,

the production of the JK 20 years ago would be starting to roll down.

And certainly the the engineers paper trail line.

But the the factory line would be starting to produce JKs by, you know,

in the next few months, 20 years ago, you're trying to make make my feelings

be hurt here. Yeah, it's something, right?

I'm just going to read comments real quick, especially because

Nate was not first today.

He's not even in the comments yet.

Daddy Jeep is first.

He says, hey, guys, and then got Jag of Jeep are saying good morning.

Jeannie saying hello.

Everyone stay warm today.

Billy Joe saying good morning, everyone.

Jag of Jeep are saying I got stuck out in that squall on the way to

and over from Chardon Goodtimes and Charles saying good morning for my cold Texas.

And that is relative for so many of us.

I was going to say he says cold Texas, but I was literally talking

to my in-laws and Amarillo over the weekend and it was 60 degrees on Sunday.

So I had a great conversation.

I don't know what part of Texas he's in.

I know Texas is huge.

Robin Teresa in Florida, regular listeners and obviously good supporters

and bringing their Jeep to us and whatnot, talking with them last week.

I think it was 72 degrees.

And they were complaining of cold.

A cold, a breezy 72.

They're going to get jackets.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, you know, I love it.

Love it. And obviously, as this global podcast is,

really, nobody is as cold as Antarctica.

And somebody there should be listening to this podcast.

I will I will give Charles that it is 28 where he's out in Texas right now.

That's fair. That's actually pretty cold.

That's cold. Yeah, I feel that.

But what's it going to be at 2 p.m.

this afternoon? Let's be realistic.

It's probably going to heat up to 60 degrees.

I don't think we're going to hit 28 today.

No, no, be balmy in the in the Midwest.

We would have our shirts off and be barbecuing Midwest.

Well, I did tell Chris and we were actually going to get some Midwest winds

today and tomorrow with that negative 20 windshield,

because when we lived in Iowa, that was that negative 20 was a warm wind.

Nice.

It got cold out there.

Love it. Love it.

Well, as we mentioned, we are going to be talking about sound systems.

And I think there is a valuable enough transition here opportunity.

It is certainly as somebody who is a purveyor of old crappy jeeps

and obviously cut my teeth in old wind noise jeeps.

Objectively, when the top is off, having a good sound system is imperative, right?

And so your top is off, your windows are up,

you're huddling by the heater as you're driving through that that cold night chill.

Oh, he's talking about the the the snow.

You don't because you're authentically a hard top owner,

even when you have, you know, soft top equipped jeeps,

you know, turning and cranking that music up becomes a degree of therapy

and escapism to escape the misery of the cold.

There's warmth in the music because now you're belting out the song with it

and you're grooving to it.

So you're warming up a little bit.

100 percent. I'm with Scott doesn't know what we're talking about.

I have an idea, especially because all that Scott listens to is oldies

from the from the thirties to the fifties.

There's some good classics in there.

I'll give him that. But I do.

When Scott and I first met, he listened to like super heavy stuff

and alt rock music and I think your stereo says otherwise.

I love that a song from like Lincoln Park or Disturbed or any of these

heavy metal ones. And he's just like, those are pretty lyrics.

That was I think that was specifically over corn.

Corn. That's even better.

No, it wasn't over corn.

Correcting you guys, you have to keep your sublime.

No, no, no, it was it was the other folks who have.

Oh, it was the throat singers.

The.

La, la, la, la.

It was the throat singers.

It was the it was a Norse or whatever.

It was it was.

No, it wasn't. Yeah. Well, whatever.

I don't believe them till he tells us now.

All right. Anywho.

So we're going to be unpacking that.

And this was actually at a loose.

We were we were kind of throwing around a couple of ideas.

And we had a customer who was in and Jeff kind of off the cuff asked them

and and said, you know, why don't you talk about this kind of stuff?

And I literally said, hey, I hate to put you on the spot,

but we don't have a topic for our podcast on Monday.

What would you like us to talk about?

And he goes, oh, that is on the spot.

I don't know if I can come up with anything.

And then promptly, like, within seconds goes.

But I'd love to know more about sound systems.

He did without. I was like, all right.

Well, that's our topic. Missing a beat.

Also, Rob Morgan has told me the throat singers are the who.

Not the who of the previous.

No, not W. H.O.

Right. That H.U.

The H.U. is correct.

But that is not who has.

I said this is who's on first and what's on second now.

This is becoming incredibly confusing for any listeners at home.

And I for listeners are not confused.

Greg could would be able to just pop it off.

That's that's because he remembers that moment.

I find joy in it, but it was Slipknot.

I wanted to say they had masks on.

And yeah, I wanted to say they had masks on.

You were two years old when you compared the H.U.

Who with Slipknot?

I but I remember the throat singers first immediately came out.

Your wife was very enamored with them as well.

We do like them. Yeah. OK.

So when you are not listening to this music,

because every time I get into your Jeep, you're listening to soft oldies.

How do we go about?

How do we go about as a business and individuals evaluating

the sound systems produced in the last 20 years?

And I want to give credit where credit's due.

And I want to say that

the mothership has as I I'm biased.

I need everybody to know that I believe that the mothership does.

OK, first and foremost, I suppose I need to set the stage.

I believe that original equipment manufacturing OEM

is a an immovable boulder in a uphill battle.

OK, I mean, I think it makes me sad to say that we're going to talk

two seconds about vintage radios and it's J.K.'s we're talking about.

But something that a lot of people don't know.

And we literally had a phone call while you guys were in on the American Hustle.

So that's why I feel like this is pertinent.

For those that don't know, J.K.'s are vin locked on the radio.

Yes, yes. If you go and you know, your buddies upgraded

and got the stereo sitting on the shelf

because you didn't want to throw things away and you go and put in your Jeep.

The Jeep will say, no, you do not pass code to not collect $200.

You have to have a four pin code.

Yes, which back in the day, you had to go to the dealership and get

and you had to prove ownership and all this stuff.

And and you want to be like, hey, this radio isn't good enough for all this bullcrap.

I'm going to I'm going to go a step further back in the day.

Depending on the reputation of the shop,

the shop could also get that pin number depends.

Yeah, it didn't have to necessarily be.

Well, we used to get the pin number all the time.

Correct. That's just now.

Spade, spade.

Now it's a lock sealed under key.

Signed 20 different confidentiality agreements

and you might get a hint at what that number is.

And we're getting to the age where honestly,

they're not going to have that information nor care about the information.

Right. The Jeep sell well, though.

So and and J.K. Radio suck.

Terrible, the CD changes would break.

All kinds of stuff would happen.

I love that you went to CD changer.

And and I am one of those people that was weird.

And I like to upgrade my stereo and my Jeep to the best that model had.

Like when I had my LJ, I put the six disc

to the changer radio in the dash.

And of course, it was a TJ.

So it was like, cool, I work right on my J.K.

I went from the two knob radio.

It wasn't the base base radio, but it was like the next one up to the GPS.

Equipped radio had to, you know, pat my head, jump up and down.

It was the start of the you can access them.

Yeah. And it was terrible.

And then for them on my Jeep, as far as like serious

and all that was concerned was a different Jeep.

Yeah, the number they showed was different.

The year was different, which blows my mind that that was such a challenge.

Right. So because of that, I've actually looked into what would it

take to upgrade my JT radio and someone somewhere must is listening.

And if you go and you spend all the dollars

and you go to the dealership and you go, I want the best radio I can get.

So on my truck again, it's not the base base like Jeff has.

Right. But it would be you're looking to upgrade to the eight point four display.

If I wanted to go to eight point four and I bought that from the dealership,

I could pull it out of the box in the parking lot, take my dash apart,

plug it in and boom, it'll work.

Right. But then that new unit then remembers the Jeep from there on.

If I understand it correctly, might be wrong, might be right.

I don't know. I haven't actually done it because I'm cheap and that radio upgrade is not.

And that radio upgrade is not in that formal fashion.

And mine is terrible.

Right. So therefore, if I was in Jeff's shoes, I would have upgraded like 14 years ago.

Well, so and to piggyback and kind of go back to where my sentiment was with the OEM,

being a immovable boulder in an uphill battle,

I do think that they are responsive to the community

in continuing to improve sound systems every single model.

They do care about that, right?

And they do care.

And they as as we've always said, they test bed in other models.

So the Grand Cherokee always gets like a premium sound system.

And then eventually we see it roll out into our more utilitarian models.

So with with that said, we've seen over the years, this this dance.

It's kind of this romance.

Think about like a rom-com where there's a room of, you know, dancers.

And there's this kind of, I guess, is we're close enough to Valentine's Day.

There's this this love that you can't have.

And that's how I feel like Stellantis is with Alpine.

They like dance with Alpine and then like send them back off to the corner

and then dance with Alpine and send the next developer and send them off.

Are there any other women, though?

They don't want to actually say they're with Alpine.

Correct. Correct.

We don't want to spin. It's a masquerade ball.

You know what I mean?

They can only dance with them.

Like a mistress.

Right. Right.

With the mask on.

I just got to jump back to the comments real quick.

We had Red jump in.

So he said, what's up?

We had Leslie say, good morning.

Bill said he carried around his Alpine so it doesn't get stolen.

But not the faceplate, the whole thing.

That's right.

If you were around for the faceplate thing, you'll understand that.

And then you got Daddy Jeep saying, wait, you guys have radios?

Well, I understand that you may have disabled one this weekend.

So we'll have to talk about that.

Then it got Jaya Jeepers saying my J.K.

Radio is junk.

J.T. Radio is pretty nice.

No comparison at all.

Yep.

Diana said, happy Monday.

And then Tony said, you need the radio

to drown out all the concerning noises.

That's fair. Which PSA, we do not recommend you just turning up

the radio louder, but we do know that the vast majority

of average vehicle owners do repair their vehicle that way

by just turning that radio up.

Oh, and Charles put CarPlay in the 95.

OK.

That's that's an upgrade.

That's a big upgrade.

And I don't know that we're in exactly touch base on that.

But I do think that Apple CarPlay and Android Auto

is a big part of today's general consumer mindset.

It's a selling point on radios.

I mean, they literally big, bold marketing

comes with CarPlay, comes with Android Auto.

I do feel a little bit like a battered person, though,

because the JKU Connect was terrible compared to my wife's

just slightly newer Subaru at the time.

And now, again, she has a slightly newer Subaru

and she gets in and her phone and her radio are just friends

and you don't have to hook up any cords.

Yes.

And you can use Android Auto and see where you're going.

I'm going to go go ahead and now I have a newer phone

and my phone actually comes up and says, hey, I see you have Android Auto.

But I'm not actually going to talk to it without hooking up a cord.

And so here's the thing, I'm going to go back to Rob's statement

and be like, wait, you guys have radios?

Because I think that that part of that immovable object

is at its highest level.

Jeep is still not concerned with those kind of those

nuanced little attributes that that more luxury

auto manufacturer does concern them.

We're like the middle child.

We get all the hand downs from the grand.

The poor compass and, you know,

Patriot would be owners get the then the head me downs from the Wrangler.

Sure. But we're always behind at least 10 years.

But even but I think that there's an argument to be made to say

that the auto manufacturer themself, right, themself.

And when they tiptoe into luxury brand identity

and to the Wagoneer, they fall absolutely flat on their face.

Absolutely. I've been doing a bunch of research and homework

for an upcoming YouTube video regarding why buying vehicles right now

and not selling and so on and so forth.

And so I really think that this is a top down problem

from the brand itself, whereas we certainly know some import manufacturers,

certainly Asian markets who are highly tech integrated with high functionality.

And we as Stalantis have absolutely no Asian market influence.

And we also don't have the the upper end European influence per se, right?

Well, we're not lighting the world on fire with Fiat

and right now back in the day.

Right. So regardless,

the I do think in the grand scheme of single then and the double then

in the then and a half garbage that we had in the 90s, the 80s, the 90s.

If we if we stay away from that contextualization

that Scott and I love to get into that stuff was the worst.

Yes. And and other than the fact that it was easy to rip out

and put in your own car while driving down the road.

Your buddies change it out the head.

Greg tells that story all the time that I may have installed a stereo

in our college parking lot while waiting for my wife.

I've absolutely done it right on it.

You know, it's it's it was so easy back then.

Yeah, correct. Not anymore.

And and they're integrated now.

Correct. And yet at that time, it still sucked the the power through

the wires, the speakers themselves.

We really did have to approach the the the whole stereo system.

Now we can actually just get into the the head unit.

And we just do the head unit and create some vast improvements to

the inner system.

So what what are some of those things that we've been doing?

And I'm going to pull no punches and I'm going to say that we are a heavy

Alpine business. Yes.

I I just I just put that out not to say that Alpine is the only system

that works, but it works the best for integration in Jeep.

Because that's what they used originally, it just didn't tell you.

And that way they had sort of a backdoor information

and, you know, they're already used to seeing each other with the mask on.

So when the mask comes off and even if there is some dissenters out there

who are like, well, it's not exactly Alpine, blah, blah, blah, you know what?

There is a degree of relativity of at a certain level behind closed doors

of engineers who are shaking hands and sharing information.

Yes. And an Alpine plays that golf game.

That is correct. That is absolutely correct.

It's not Stinger. It's not insane audio. OK.

I don't there's just nothing you can tell me to to to that's

irrefutable conversation information.

Yeah. Now, does Stinger make a nicely integrated

stereo? It does.

Did insane audio come on strong under the JK namesake?

Absolutely. And they did have insider information.

I promise you that that's how they came and kind of blew up under the JK.

And in that same regard,

DS 18 is another one that has made a big name in Jeep.

Yeah, but they've had to do a little bit of reverse engineering.

Correct. And DS 18 does not have a head unit that integrates

in any capacity, like the three that I just mentioned. Correct.

Again, these are lines in sands that that cannot be crossed.

Correct. And the newer the Jeep, the more counseling the Jeep needs

when you go to change the head unit so that it feels good about it.

Right. It actually works.

DS 18 can and I'm sorry.

I just want to American base or American sound bar DS 18.

They can do stereo infrastructure.

Excuse me. There's a speaker infrastructure.

Correct. Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker amp pods, you know, all that kind of stuff.

That's awesome. We need them to do that because realistically,

Alpine cares a lot about their stereos and not a lot

and speaker quality, but not a lot about how you're going to fit it

into your vehicle. Right. That's that's the minutia. Right.

Yeah, they've got a little pod this and you can replace the speakers.

That I would like to put a sub in it.

Why? Right. Yeah.

I mean, and I love it.

It reminds me a lot of like Dana Spicer.

OK. Yes. Dana Spicer knows that they are the king of the hill.

And they have the equity and the the the building.

We've seen the torture tests.

We know what they do.

They have a hundred years worth of of of business model to pull upon.

Right. But sometimes they're like, well, why would you want to do that?

Correct. And we're thankful for, you know, our friend,

Zach, who's at, you know, the top end of of of his department over there going,

no, we need these beefy axels.

This is what the industry wants to hear.

This is what they want to do.

But there was a period of time 20 some years ago where they were a vacuum

from the market and Yukon was this no name, you know,

derivative of of Randy's ring opinion, who was able to become the gear

and axle gurus simply because Dana Spicer didn't, you know,

they did dirty their hands with the aftermarket of sorts.

And so enter the relationship Alpine,

Dana being of similar capacity at their heyday and and Yukon,

Randy's ring opinion and and say DS 18 at the heyday.

And that's the extent of where that comparison goes away.

Right. How you can tell on the businesses like that,

you go on their website and you go, how easy can I find information?

If they're kind of old and my way is away and and that like Dana up

until I'm going to say five years ago would give you a hand catalog.

Yes. Now, some old gurus are like, heck, yeah,

I love my paper catalog. That's great. Yes.

But every year you got to get a new catalog because stuff, you know,

yeah, you're using a catalog from 2014.

Yeah, I literally use the other times where they send you the new catalog,

but there's already data in it. That's wrong. We're outdated.

Yep. So it's just it doesn't work well in our fast paced world.

And someone is missing the boats saying, well, why in the world would you want

anything but a paper catalog? I feel that way a little bit with Alpine as well.

You go to their websites and be like, oh, this is a company.

This is how we do things. We're not telling you anything else.

You buy this restyle package, which is where, you know,

which is what they came to the table with.

They said, because we're so cumbersome to navigate,

hence the ultimate axle package with Dana.

Yeah, you're going to do this.

You're going to do it in the complete fashion in which we provide you that

information. Just like the ultimate Dana axle program with you again,

JK, our classic JKs, almost vintage at this point, folks.

You get your ultimate axle, you take it out of the box,

you're all excited and you go sweet and you go, what in the world is this

stabilized your bracket for? Yes. And why do I have it?

Well, it's no different with the Alpine. You take about, you get it,

you get out of the box and go, oh, well, I need this cord.

There's literally a packet of wires that every time I do an install on a JK

for an Alpine, I just grab this packet and throw it because it doesn't belong in the Jeep.

Yes. It's just there to make you wonder why it's there.

It's, well, it's there because there is other applications that you could use

for, but in a standard application, it's not required.

And it literally just needs to be tossed.

The brass tax of it is it just doesn't make it easy for Joe average

in his garage to do it anymore.

You can't sit in the parking lot of your local community college

and put your stereo in, grab the install kit and you're just changing out a wire

plug harness and teeing it in and you're done.

And as we kind of continue to contextualize the culture around these products

and we really do got to get back onto the product itself, it does.

It is reminiscent of my own experience and what kind of put SFJ on the map was

I looked at AutoZone specifically

and you could walk into AutoZone and you'd say, I have a 97 Wrangler

and I need a U-joint auto auto or stick.

Four cylinder, six cylinder.

Yeah. But besides that point,

they would relatively then produce a U-joint across the counter.

Yes. Eight times out of ten.

It's the correct part. Eight times out of ten.

Unless you have a 95. No doubt.

Right. But but but but they would they would produce this part.

You didn't really have to know the the specialized

information about that specific part.

Now, if you were at a drive line shop, you're going to go in,

you're going to say, hey, I have a 97 Jeep.

They're going to go, OK, where's the drive shaft?

Let me measure it with my, you know, do you have a 1310?

Do you have a 13? Right.

And so ultimately, objectively, our goal, my goal specifically was to break down

and make selling this technically heavy components or parts,

which were better, make it easier for the average consumer to consume it.

Right. And that's that's ultimately one of the things that put our business

on the map originally.

And I think that that's where DS18 and Stinger

and maybe a American soundbar excel in going, hey, we're going to make it easy for you.

And and and as you bring up the website conversation and the catalog conversation,

whereas there are brands that are like, well, we make the best possible

product and you might need to use it in these three finite situations.

Yeah. And so we need to now make it more convoluted to buy it from us.

Yes. Yes.

And so Alpine being one of them.

Now, we spent a lot of time on that.

I want to then also share that you connect and Chrysler fall into that category as well.

Oh, so much.

It's highly technical and specific to these outlying.

And there's a you connect module that if you're upgrading,

depending on what you're using, the upgrade, you may have to disconnect

that you connect module.

And if you don't, your phone won't pair like Scott experiences.

But that isn't why you are experiencing it.

Yeah, that's just that's one of those situations.

There's a lot of if this than that stuff that just doesn't make it easy

to judge and before you could literally just pop out the head unit,

put a new head unit in and everything works.

Now you have to program the head units.

You have to make them compatible with the vehicle.

You have to tell it, hey, does it have steering wheel controls?

Does it have volume buttons?

Does it have phone controls?

Yeah, it doesn't have a sub.

Do you do you want to change what these buttons do?

Do you want the buttons to do this instead of that?

Yes. And then do you have it?

Do you have an amp?

Do you have a powered sub?

Do you have any of these extra things?

There's a situation where if you have some of these,

you actually reverse the wires on the speakers.

Otherwise, it won't work.

Yeah.

And again, and I think it's always kind of been the case,

at least with the TJ and newer, if you have factory upgraded sound,

if you have like the best sound they thought they could give you in that

model year, it's harder for you to upgrade after market wise.

Less and less as you go older, older.

But like I know we dealt with a Gladiator had basically the top of the line

sound system had the eight four had a sub had an amp had the upgraded speakers

as far as they were concerned and try it was literally the concept of well,

why would you want to replace this?

And they made it harder to do that.

We're doing like your truck is probably easier because assess for

the head unit size because the truck just doesn't care as much.

So I would love to say that that's true, but it's not.

The truck still cares because it still has some of those modules and

everything and the integration.

It's just more to click the buttons when it has more.

Well, and I think that and mine does have all the steering wheel controls.

So all of that has to get programmed.

Yeah, and the thing is, you can't as part of that programming,

you're not programming it on the head unit.

There's a separate module that you need a computer with internet access.

So you can program all of this on there and it flashes that module.

Then you have to connect that module to the head unit and hope that those two

communicate well, then you plug it into the Jeep and hope that it communicates

well there. It's a multi step process.

I think it's important in the way that I recognize it is that the Jeeps,

our modern Jeeps, since, you know, since the middle of the JK have

a central nervous system that is capable of doing.

It's capable of going five miles per hour or it's capable of

going 100, 100 miles per hour and Jeffries Jeep, as an example,

having a base model interior package and sound package is running at five

five miles per hour.

However, with a few tweaks, it can run at 100 miles per hour.

Just the same because the central nervous system is the same.

It is shared.

They're not changing out those factors as the vehicle progresses

down the assembly line.

It literally has to do with a few added modules and the programming

of some blank software, meaning we back in the JK used to add

a rear windshield wiper to a non hard top equipped JK.

So if you if you bought a soft top JK from the factory,

you lacked a button in the center console at button and special switch

on the stock on the on the multifunction change those and you

literally got a wiring kit and you would they would say find this

plug, you know, take the lock out of it, insert this wire in

pin cavity, blah, and then you're basically patching the

harness so it's like a factory hard top Jeep.

Yep.

And then you had to have it flashed.

You had to go to the dealer and have them use the star

network and tell it that it had a rear wiper, otherwise it

would not park.

It would just keep keep wiping.

And so that central nervous system with the addition of a

multifunction switch, a hard toggle and a basically a single

wire. Now all of a sudden can be capable of a rear, rear

windshield wiper.

And that's actually a good example too of what we've

previously said.

They then updated that kit so that you didn't have to have

flash anymore.

But now it is a more standalone on its own stuff.

So basically now, instead of it integrating into the Jeep,

you're just adding an accessory.

It's more like you put a light on your your pillar and now

you have a separate switch, separate wiring and a separate

relay.

That's what they basically went to.

Correct.

You're bypassing that central nervous right?

Yes.

Now you don't have one of the things that we really

enjoyed as as a business is, and I've said this once,

I'll say it a hundred times.

The the thing that makes me the proudest is that if if after

we're done with the service, you didn't know that we were ever

in your vehicle, I couldn't be happier, right?

On otherwise disclosed.

It's so funny you say that because with the restyles,

especially on the JKs, we literally cut a section of your

dash out.

We remove thought we remove your dash, we cut a section

off, throw it away and put the restyle package in.

And as part of that, it looks factory 100% and that's a great

segue back into what we do do with gladiator and JL sound

systems of sorts and objectively why we choose.

And again, this is not sponsored by Alpine or isn't any

specific endorsement of their product line.

Our objective is this quality fit and finish.

So single then, double then, then and a half radios that we

could change in a college parking lot or as we rode down the

road, oftentimes to be a little loosey goosey or a screw would

protrude a little too far from this direction.

You guys have friends in high school that too have a head

unit sitting on the transmission tunnel sort of held up with

some bricks or blocks of wood.

And if you took a corner too fast, it ended up in the

pasture.

So I had friends that had that.

I remember they would, you know, or it was a it was a

double then or a din and a half and they just had like a like

a caddywampus bracket and then you had these cavernous holes

above and below it and you could just see into the dash.

Yeah.

And and as a as a teenager, it's whatever.

Right.

But there was absolutely the friends that literally cut out

the dash and it's just look a beaver chewed on it so that

there was enough room for that double then to fit.

Yes.

So, you know, by today's modern standards and what I

would say is that there was a population and I'm not saying

it was a majority, but there was a population and I would say

that it was a pretty healthy number.

I might even say it's 45% of people were like, Hey, you

know what?

It's an upgrade over the single then or double then that

stopped working GM's had a horrible experience where they're

just their radio stuff would just jank out because the

stereo sucks so bad.

And you were just like, Hey, you know what?

I'm happy I've got a stereo and now it's got a little

blinky LCD screens.

Yeah.

The dolphins diving black down or it was detachable and you

know, Bill McWilliams conversation.

Then the motorized ones that would come down for the CD.

Yeah, yeah.

So we were just happy to have something I would gather to

say it was 45% and if you had cavernous view into the

dash or it was sitting on a pile of bricks, you know,

you didn't care you had music.

That's not today's market as a whole.

I would say that the pendulum has shifted to say that 80% of

people want a degree of fit and finish out of their product.

Charles said it best.

Teens today don't know how to jerry-rig a stereo system, but

it's not just they can't they can't.

Well, see what happened.

The vehicles are not conducive of the jerry-rigging.

Right.

Well, that too.

And we grew up watching exhibit, you know, putting

PS2s and built into TVs and all that stuff.

And we're like, Hey, that's cool.

I wish I didn't have bricks holding my stereo up.

I want to do that better.

So now we're older, we're wiser, got a little bit of money to

do it with.

We don't want to do the bricks stuff no more.

We want it to look.

Correct.

Integrate.

We want our phones to be friends with our vehicles.

Right.

Tony, Tony in the comments.

I've definitely never sheet metal screwed a double

din into an S 10 in high school.

I'm sorry, that just hit real hard because I absolutely

say that done.

Sure, you done.

Asking for a friend.

So so we have this, this, this cultural experience and

I and the conversation is not just about the head

unit anymore that we've spent a swath of today's

talking points on the head units itself and the

high degree of integration that not only do we

desire as a cultural piece of auto enthusiasts, but that

the central nervous system of the vehicles require for a

degree of functionality.

There was a time and it started with the JK that if

it had the premium sound package, the sub package,

we would do a double din replacement.

We used a lot of DS 18 initially.

I have, you know, I love them as I do love them as

a audio supplier company and it flat out wouldn't

work. It wouldn't work because of the modules that

Jeffrey has mentioned and Scott and Jeffrey have

mentioned for the premium sound package for the amp.

Just no sound would come out of the speakers.

Yep. None bit.

We could have it hooked up 100 percent.

We would have to buy basically a converter.

It was a pack module.

Yep.

Put the pack module in line.

Now all of a sudden boom, we have sound basically.

Yeah.

So we had to tell it that it had this so that would

talk the language.

And we're still finding, even with the JKs with the

Alpine words, got the maestro module that you need

that if we're doing accessory amps and accessory speakers,

that sometimes we still need yet another pack module

to help tell the Jeep that it's OK.

It's very touch and go.

Right. And that is a degree of kind of helping

the Jeep understand a bit of a different language.

It's almost like having an interpreter in the Jeep itself.

This is again the functionality of the Jeep and nervous

system kind of remains unchanged model to model.

Right.

But the language it's speaking from those aftermarket

accessories to then how it plays through the Jeep.

Now, as we as we really kind of have to lock in

on the gladiator conversation of the JL.

And I think it's valuable to touch on the JK because

I know we have a number of our Jeep family who are

big 12 volt accessory fans.

The challenge with 12 volt accessories and modern

vehicles is the high electrical sensitivity of that

vehicle itself.

Right. And Charles, I think, hits on it pretty.

He's he doesn't know that he's hitting on it because

I know he's not into the modern, modern vehicles

like, you know, some of our other customers.

But he's he's mentioned listening to an alternator

through the speakers.

Yep.

The high electrical sensitivity of the JK through the

JLJT series makes it imperative that your hookups

don't disrupt the functioning properties of the

electrical load sensitivity of your vehicle.

And that's a big thing to say that your 12

volt accessories screw up how your Jeep works.

Yes.

And and and you have you can't just add stuff like we

used to with our crappy single day.

And she twists the wires together and put duct tape

on the bad news, bad news, bad news, we're finding

more and more of the sensitivity of that and

where we are soldering connections where we used

to use crimp connections and just because of the

sensitivity in the electronics and with the dual

battery systems of the JLJT platform, you're even

more sensitive to those currents and more involved

and fun PSA.

Don't lose your thoughts.

Don't even listen to me if you have to.

Fun PSA little battery is to retain electrical

sensitivity in the off state.

Big battery is to restart the vehicle each

and every time you either hit the key or the

vehicle releases at the stop start system.

And they work together as a team.

Yes.

So if you replace one, replace both.

And you can eliminate the little guy, but our

current recommendation is you don't.

I also, the NPSA, do you remember what you were

about to say?

Go.

So another thing that's important and relevant

in our topic is with JTs and JLs is trying to

get to your speakers.

There's a whole nother ball game.

If you thought, you know, back in the day, you

got your your TJ, you got your Phillips out, you

took your soul speaker grill off.

Oh, look, there's a speaker.

Hey, it has screws on it.

And yeah, we had some weird sizes and little

can and they were in and you had to get a

bracket and all that kind of stuff.

That was a walk in the park compared to that.

Now things are assembled and stages in a jigsaw puzzle.

And the speakers are like step two and trying to

get them out at step F is is interesting.

And I, you know, that that kind of I'm stuck

on this integration and the manner in which

you add sound system and you add 12 volt

accessories and what you have to do is you have

to circumvent.

You have to go around the jigsaw puzzle, both

the electronic jigsaw puzzle and the physical jigsaw

puzzle or utilizing a product that's been

engineered to integrate.

So if you're not using an expensive, typically

it's expensive integrated product, then you

have to go around it.

And I want to jump to the comments.

Jeanie said, I remember the days when the

converter was bigger than the radio.

I love that Jeanie is over here.

So she is making references of some of her vintage

world, you know, stuff from the historic, the

historic perspective.

And I don't know if Scott can read it, but it's

been great so far.

Oh, I've been loving it.

I haven't been able to read all the comments.

But I do want to point out that what's

interesting about that perspective is even

though with technology, things have gotten

smaller, they're making things more compact

because they're fitting more into the dashes

of the JLJTs, the integration modules

that are required of the JLJT because of how

advanced they are compared to what we're used to.

There's added modules and more of that jigsaw

puzzling. There's a whole new module in the

JLJT platform that wasn't in the JK platform

when you upgrade, especially with the Alpine.

Yes. So you've got your head unit, you've

got another metal box, you got another module

over here. And where do you have put it

all? You got to stuff it all in.

And not to mention the fact that the head

unit actually isn't in the center of the

dash where you think it is when you upgrade

on a JLJT, sometimes it gets moved over

below the steering wheel, which if you're

like my truck and you have an inverter

there, now you have a lot of stuff in a

very small package. The new technology,

the display screen is separate of itself.

That's its own little computer screen,

much like an old desktop computer where

you've got a monitor and a tower.

That is how the new radios work.

Right? It's just a display screen and

then the actual computer, if you will, is

elsewhere. Yeah. Yeah. And I think we got to

keep moving. We've been on the technical

and integration and the head unit side.

I think we do need to talk about stuffing,

you know, 10 pounds into a five pound sack

that is our Jeep model, especially if we

want to continue to use them off road.

We really haven't talked exactly about

that, but I think it's pertinent to

mention. Stop putting amps on the

floor of your Jeep.

You want to see me go on hands on a regular

basis? Stop.

If you go and you pay for a 12 volt company

to install a sound system, I don't care

if they're an off road shop and they put

your amp on the floor of your Jeep, get

your money back under the seat where

it gets wet all the time. All the time.

Do you know how many amps we remove

from the floor of customers Jeeps?

Because they're fried from being wet.

The only time I can think of that we've

actually done that was in the CJ five.

We just simply didn't have anywhere but

that to do that. And we literally had a

council session over it.

And then we brought in the customer and

were like, Listen, this is our option.

This is what we can do for you.

But now you have responsibility because

now it is where it's, it's in its

threatened danger zone.

It's in the danger zone and therefore

you have to not leave your Jeep out to

become an aquarium.

And he was okay, I'm here for it.

Other than that, that other than that,

it's not okay. Yeah, we have literally

built surrounds for amps to help protect

them better with the idea that they're

still in danger zones, but not on the

floor. There are a couple Marine

grade sealed units.

Are you going to get that awesome

no base pounding feel it in your

chest experience? Absolutely not.

And, and thankfully, you know, I

remember when, you know, you had a

cutting board size amp. And if you

needed to, then you have two cutting

boards in the back of the vehicle.

And now about the size of my fist

is a pretty hot amp. Yes, this is

crazy. So they've gotten a lot

smaller. That technology has improved

vastly. You can literally hide them

behind the dash. You can hide them

behind the seats. It's crazy.

You don't look the need to actually

put it on the floor is less and less

as that. Right. And I want to stay

away from some of that. The highly

technical stuff because we've already

done a lot of this this program

today's episode on it. But we've run

into amp functionality. And again,

that's not a beautiful scenario either

because we've had stereo systems

just flat out stop because we've

added amps to them. Yep. You know, JT

stereo systems, JL stereo systems.

We've had them reset themselves for

whatever reason. There's there's

again that load sensitivity is

imperative to consider when adding

12 volt and sound accessories to

your modern vehicle. Not to mention

that just because the amp says it

can go that high doesn't mean your

speakers can doesn't mean that your

head unit can. So you can overload

a circuit real fast by not setting

the parameters correctly by not

measuring the RMS and making sure

that that matches across the system.

There's a lot of extra factors in

it that most people don't

consider isn't going to Walmart

anymore. No, 1130 and deciding

this is a speaker they have. I'll

make it fit. Get not your 10 snips

shoving it in a hole. Right. And

the heck with the RMS and the

rating and that kind of stuff.

Not to mention Walmart's not open

1130 anymore. I know. Wow.

It's so different. So outside of the

marine grade componentry that I would

recommend if you are in a an off

road or a high risk environment to

second vent. Okay. Why does all marine

grade electronics have to be white?

Why? Why? Why? It does. I mean, it's

trying. It was the attempt to

differentiate from the

manufacturing standpoint that I

think it has more to do with the

boating folks than it does us.

Give me a logo. It says I'm marine

grade. Correct. Give me a little

emblem. I hate white speakers and

whitehead units back in the day.

I'd argue that that's not so much

the case anymore. But yes, I

understand. Right. You get the

trigger. The trigger. And because

you've mentioned Walmart closing

at 1130 or 11 now, it made me

also realize one of the other

things that was really big on

radios for vehicles was Circuit

City. I mean, really big and

screwing them up constantly.

Absolutely. That too. But you you

used to be able to walk into a

circuit city and just a wall of

stereo options. And you could

just like, Oh, I want that one.

Yeah. And here's the matching

kit for your vehicle to make that

one work. Yes. Yes. And I do

want to address. I mean, our

intention is not to dissuade

anybody from changing their sound

systems. But to understand that

is not the the simplistic

process that we once knew and

took for granted. It's very

rewarding when done correctly. It

is. You can have a really awesome

system. We have a JL. You are

that is just amazing. It's and

it's not just the volume but the

clarity. Yes. And that's

something that in house we care

a lot about. You can make any

system loud. Yes. But can you

make it clear? Yeah. And we had

the opportunity to jump on that.

We had the opportunity. We had

identical twins, basically. We

were we were asked to add the

stereo system to one. And then

the individual had the vehicle

that they're a distance

customer of ours. They took it

to a 12 volt shop.

Independently, they took the

other Jeep, both 2023

Gladiators and basically had

the identical components added

to the vehicle. We basically

built the build sheet. Yep,

ourselves. We did the work of

the one while it was here in our

possession. And that customer

took a similar build sheet, took

it to another 12 volt shop.

Because again, he was further

away and he asked them to do

the install. So we have these

identical twins with largely

identical parts. Yep. And

completely different style of

install, completely different

style of install. Spoiler alert,

we had to redo one. Yeah. Spoiler

alert, we got paid to do the

install over again. When that

went somewhere else. And yeah,

and then the clarity of the

sound output into to your, you

know, kind of credit of

statement was really, really

loud, but it was distorted

and speakers were popping. And

it's it was it's not a

sustainable sound quality or

function because eventually it

will blow amps and it made good

equipment sound bad. Yes. And in

today's world, you don't want to

be changing speakers all the

time. So because of that jigsaw

puzzle conversation, you need to

make sure that they are doing

what they're supposed to do and

last. Right. And as to

mention, we have multiple high

and new model vehicles under

our belt regarding these

improvements and kind of a

proven experience. We also,

since we only touch jeeps, see

lots and lots of vehicles that

have gone either DIYers have

done the service or they've

gone elsewhere for these

types of additions to their

vehicle. And so that's the

perspective we're speaking

from. If I can, if I can do

some kind of continued kind

of summation takeaways as we

we try to keep this train on

the tracks. By today's

standards, we have a lot more

plastic enclosures with

appropriately weather rated

speakers and function for those

enclosures. Yes. Gone are the

days of MDF and thin interior

carpet. Yeah. Okay. Gone are

the days that you should ever

allow somebody to put an amp on

the floor of a Jeep. That's

just a big no no. Gone are

the days of big cumbersome

boxes that are taking up

valuable interior space. And

gone are the days where you

would just rattle dishes off

walls because you thought that

was cool or the air blowing

in the face from the port. That

was cool. That was cool. I will

say you say gone are the

days. However, if you're in

a gladiator and you want a

good subsystem, it is a big

box going under the seat. It's

not an MDF box, but it's not

MDF. Right. Yeah. And that's

kind of and so that and it's

also and I don't know that

you exactly have this

perspective. I'm speaking from

the experience. Where you open

the trunk and it's the

entire box. Well, YJs. No, yes

and no. Yeah. I mean, that's

fair. But YJs. YJ specific

CJs and YJs. We used to have a

six by nine box that was a

shoebox basically a shoebox with

a little angle. It went on

the the fender wells in the

back. Yeah. And then the

little bit of space how much

money you had. If you were

poor, you went to Wal-Mart and

they had like a universal wedge

box. Yep. And you tech screwed

that through and then it fell

apart because it was MDF. Right.

If you had a little bit of coin,

you bought the ones that were

made to go in the front. Yes,

the car roll bar between the

roll bar and the wheel well.

Yeah. But I didn't have that

coin. So I had the MDF boxes

on the fender wells and then

the whole back, which would

have been this ideal usable

space for, I don't know,

anything. Yeah. I thought it was

most pertinent to put a plywood

box. Just didn't even work with

MDF in that regard. A plywood

box with two 10s behind the seat.

And so any usable interior

space was now toast. Right. Right.

I was going to the other kid

that was in woodworking class

and it was like, Hey, what make

me a custom box? I wanted to

make my own custom box. I want

to do everything the hard way.

Right. And then we had these

really cumbersome pods that

would go up at the kick panel.

They would take up your interior

foot well space.

Yeah. You push the speaker when

you push the clutch in. That's right.

That's right. That's what you were

supposed to do. Gone are those days.

Now, a big, beautiful box and a

big soundbar. Oh, I want to

talk. I want to touch on those.

But you want to. Yeah, I want to

jump in comments because we got

Jerry, who is saying you guys

are too young to remember that adding

the fifteen dollar JC Whitney

reverberator to a CJ AM

radio and thinking you were on

top of the world.

That's awesome.

So I know that.

I know that I know about

reverb units. I know.

I but I did live it.

Right. I wanted every little extra

is right. We were not

living it in the same real time

that he was there.

But then Jeanie said you guys

are young and you miss the days

of audio file and audio

mark for both vehicle and sound

systems.

And then you got Daddy

Jeep talk about bass tube on the

fenders. Yes.

You got Charles saying the wedge

box had a cup holder.

That was a super fancy

upgrade that I couldn't afford.

So yeah, I think there's

a lot of historic

things that we can all remember

and I love that that

nostalgia piece.

And unfortunately, every bit

of that creates the perspective

that we should be able to easily

modify our modern day vehicles

and we can't.

Right. And the problem is we think

we can. There's one of those

situations and then you can start

getting in there with a screwdriver

and fumbling stuff around.

And I will say just because we are

Jeep centric, we don't see

the lay of the land with

other models and other

makes. Right.

We're at least we do

have an easier way than, like

say, Subaru's

in the late 2000s.

The heater controls are literally

part of the head unit.

You get rid of the head unit.

Now you have no heater controls.

Yes. So while, yes, we can

go in and change our heaters with

the JLJT, there are

separate buttons and separate

abilities.

So we don't have it the worst.

Correct. I mean, I look at my

Mini Cooper and I can't do much

of anything about the head unit

system there because of its degree

of integration. Correct.

And so we are fortunate

with the aftermarket support.

And that's why I encourage people

to make good choices when

pursuing and choosing their

accessories and sound system

options. Now, I do want to

note that the whole JT

specifically, because the interior

gets so much smaller than

the JL and we have that JL you

are, it's got a in floor

sub and a whole bunch of things

in the in the back.

The JT, the sound bar,

American sound bar that we're

using is

if you are going to have

large kids or adults

in the back seat,

your headspace is gone.

You're referring more to the DS

18 sound bar.

The DSC teen sound bar is

the JT and the JT.

The American sound bar is a little

bit lower profile.

So you get a little little more

headspace, but it's still bulkier

than you. I was going to say,

it's still when I sat in the back

of one of those Jeeps, actually,

and I sat in both of the Jeeps,

the JT specifically that we're talking

about. That one's interesting

because we did use the DS 18

red sound bar in J5

in J5.

But we use the American sound bar

in blue. Correct.

Yeah, you have that slight

differential and you'll notice

that it's not good, but you're

looking at the box.

You're looking at the box,

regardless, regardless.

It's just, are you looking at

three inches of the box or are

you looking at an inch of the box?

And that is, but that is

what I want to share with the

humans, right?

Anybody who is listening, who

cares, headspace

is gone by

comparison to what was

originally engineered into that

vehicle. Additionally, going

back to the big box under

the seat, DS 18

and others make a nice

supplementary box.

We've primarily used the DS 18.

Any of the space underneath

the rear seats that

was good for recovery

gear or, you know,

your jack spacing and, you

know, for your jack and

accessories, that's all

gone as well.

Yes, you know, so prepare

to sacrifice

something for the

gain of

the stereo system.

Yeah.

And granted, we love our accessories.

We love our tech to cool boxes

and deck units and molly

panels on on racks

and caps for Jeeps.

Yep. And so anything can kind

of be, you know, a shell

game of move it from over here

to over here on the Jeep.

Just need to know that you're

going to lose that.

Correct. So you know what to do.

That's exactly correct.

You understand that this is not

the same seamless approach.

We have made some very custom

amp mounts that have placed

them vertically at the back

of the behind the seats.

You want to consider airflow

in in this conversation.

You want to consider wire routing.

And in that regard, not

all JTs are equal.

There are there the way

that we did it in J5 did

not work in the way that we

tried to do it with the other

one, despite the fact that they

were both twenty twenty three

gladiators there.

The way the trim is

behind the seats, depending on

what trim level of the vehicle

it is, affected how we could

install and mount those systems.

And if you have the little

speaker that you could take

away and put back, correct,

that changes it to.

And so all of this is to say

that kind of being fully

conscientious about your bill,

the other piece that I kind of

strongly encourage you as

a summation piece regarding

upgrading our latest and greatest

the JLs and JTs is

do it in a in a comprehensive

manner. Yeah, this is not

like the olden days where you

can do a little piece over

here and a little piece over

there because of the jigsaw

nature, because of the high

integration, the nervous system

conversation, you're going to

want to plan

out your stereo upgrade

and then proceed into it

in kind of one shot.

You you can do it in stages,

but you're going to pay labor

twice or three times or four

or it will be your labor

that you're doing this, right?

If you are going to be going

into it each time you take

stuff apart this plastic,

you're risking breaking things.

That's correct. Clips going

stripping out screws.

Yeah, there's a lot of manner

in which the the pieces

are held together again,

are not like we once had where

we had metal screws

of fixing metal pieces

with just kind of a plastic

facade. Oftentimes we're

plastic in the plastic

with a metal clip

or a coarse metal thread,

a screw that is going to

waller out that plastic

each and every time we put

it in and out.

Yep. Also, that has changed.

You know, talking about amps

and you got to have power for

those is our battery

connections are not what

they used to be with the

vehicles and the JLJT and

JKs are so battery

sensitive. You got to be careful

where you're stuffing your

powers in your grounds.

There's a reason why there's

tons of ground studs

under the vehicle hood of the

vehicle. It is always

your best choice to go to

the battery and make that

direct connection bad.

We've seen that a lot.

Right. And again, this

is all to say that it is

doable and yet we

want to encourage people

to kind of be mindful

of the modern technological

advances.

We're not trying to scare you

away from trying to do your

own radio. We're trying to

educate you so you understand

it's not as simple as it

used to be. It can still be

done.

But it's going to take you

longer. It's more involved.

And and arguably it's more

expensive parts.

It's very. Yes.

And it's better to know

that what challenges you have

the face than before you tore

your Jeep apart.

Now things aren't fitting

correctly. Suddenly the

check engine lights on.

It's upset.

All that is real stuff.

And and I would rather

know myself before

I've screwed up the vehicle

so I can properly

make it what I want to have.

Yes. The last piece and we

didn't touch at all on 24s

that have the absolute

massive game changer

completely interior

panel display panel

harder for anything.

Anything that's coming down

the pipe has these massive

basically tablets mounted

to the dash.

Your latest and greatest

you know full size pickup

trucks all have like a 10

or a 12 inch screen in them

on the higher end models.

Again in some new vehicle

research that I'm doing

most recently were

I mean we're talking just

within the last few months

the auto industry has changed

significantly with

geopolitical posturing

and consumer reporting.

I literally my parents

just had to buy a new vehicle

and the standing from behind

they open up the hatch and I'm

like oh we can watch

the football game on the

screen.

It's a large TV and you're

pretty much dash.

And one of the things that

has come out through a number

of consumer safety reporting

that is kind of seeding

into the automotive industry.

And granted I always

believe we're living in a

ripple effect.

So we're not going to see

any major changes for

probably another five to 10

years.

We're going to start to see

small changes happen

but that the touch screen

specific.

Not necessarily the display

nature but the touch screen

of these big screen TVs

that are being formed

into vehicles has actually

increased driver distraction

and decrease the safety

of the vehicle with occupancy.

I agree.

So long as we continue

to have human driven cars

the likelihood is we will go

back to smaller screens

based on current seeds

that are kind of getting

moving at some safety

and manufacturing levels.

I have another PSA is for

those that listen to us

and that can change things.

Please, please make it so

that you can be going down

the road.

And yes I can't type in

the address or what I want

to search.

Like I was looking for a home

improvement center.

That is not an option in there.

I have restaurants.

I have gas stations.

I have all this stuff

that I can press

and not be distracted.

So I said, please take me

to Lowe's.

And it said, I don't know

what you're trying to say.

From your talk, you are

your audible choice.

So I'm trying to do

the appropriate thing

and not be distracted,

not play with the screen.

And you literally have to pull

over, get your phone

that's cooked up to

with the cord.

Type in what I want to do

on Google,

which I don't understand.

It's supposed to be just

mirrored onto my head unit.

And then it was like, oh,

you want to go to Lowe's.

Yes.

Why is it so hard?

Well, and so one of the

challenges I hate to say,

it's got some of it is just

that you're a boomer.

That's true.

I was trying to avoid that.

But you said it for me.

Yeah, I'm going to say it.

One of the last piece

I was going to say,

and if this is your cup of tea

and it is what it is,

part of the issue,

not specific to our listening

audience, per se,

but a lot of this

center stack

multimedia entertainment systems.

Right.

So that's one of the terms with

this, you know,

with this TV in your dash.

And again, not the Stalantis

because as we go back to the

JKs, Stalantis 20 years ago

figured out how to start

to lock down these units

with their own proprietary

software.

Not Stalantis, but some of the

other ones are being able to be

jailbroken, much like when

fire sticks originally came out.

Yep.

And a degree of this jailbreak

is allowing people to do things

with their center stack

multimedia entertainment centers

that auto manufacturers never

intended to be able to do.

Correct.

And so I think we're going to

start to see an increased

regulatory expectation

out of auto manufacturers

and that head unit assembly.

Correct.

And so, you know, as I kind of

crest it into these major display

centers, we're only going to see

that more and more with the next

few years because we'll probably

start hitting the regulatory wall.

Something is going to happen or

yeah, I think there's going to

be something to happen because,

as you mentioned, that big screen

TV in front of your parents'

vehicle.

Oh, it's crazy.

Now, I don't know what they

can actually do with it,

but just the screen size itself.

I know the screen size

and the light pollution

while you're driving.

Correct.

Everything is integrated into that

on your parents' vehicle

because my wife's similar.

And I recognize that.

I'm just saying, like, I know that

the jailbreak that he's talking

about, you can literally watch

cable TV essentially

while driving down the road.

And I don't know that

that's the same level

because I know there is some

protections are ready to prevent

that from happening.

But what extent?

Yeah.

So as all of this is spoken

and like I said, that summation,

we're not trying to dissuade

anybody.

We're trying to kind of

A, I actually think that

the manufacturer has done great

forward progress in giving us

good sound systems

with topless vehicles

run it on the highway

or the trail in a capacity,

better capacity than we've ever had.

But we all grew up with

home improvements and no bigger is better.

I mean, really, the biggest thing

with this is you need to

have a plan for your builds

from start to finish.

You need to go in and purchase

the vehicle that you know

you can upgrade or can't upgrade

depending on what you want to do.

If you're completely fine like

me where you like the factory system,

well, then the big screen doesn't matter

because you're kind of happy

with what you have.

But then you want to make sure you have the sub

and the function

out of it from the get go.

If you want to upgrade,

then maybe get the cheaper model

and don't pay for that big fancy screen.

Get an older model that you can go in

and change stuff around.

So look at the market, see what's available.

Call a shop, get some expert advice

on what you want to do.

You just can't do it willy-nilly like

used to where I'm like, oh, I had to get oil

and look, this dolphin radio is really cool.

So I'm going to go put that in in the parking lot.

Yeah, you can't do that anymore.

And again, please have an appreciation

for the electrical sensitivity

that these new modern vehicles do have.

Yep. That's pretty much it.

That's until we're next time.

Jeep on. Jeep on.

So I kind of alluded to it,

but I was driving a lot in my truck this weekend.

Yeah, sounds like it.

Trying to find a dishwasher

because ours is as we are integrating electronics

into everything,

I've been having my appliances fall one at a time,

much to my wife's dismay.

First, it was the washing machine

that went down.

So we had to get a new one.

And as we're setting that up,

we had to come up and say, well, what is your Wi-Fi system?

And my wife's like, why does my washing machine

need a Wi-Fi?

I don't know.

Here we are.

So then the dishwasher started screwing up more and more.

And I'd already been in there and tried to repair things.

And you have to reset it and that kind of stuff.

So we were trying to procure a new one.

I had taken a couple of days off.

So we were trying to get that done while we were off

because once kids are back in school,

they were off for Martin Luther King's Day and that kind of stuff.

So we're trying to get that stuff done

because we know we're just we're just

treading water during the week when people are in and out

and got meals to make.

We're just average American households.

We want the dishwasher, the wash dishes,

when I'm doing something else.

And it is not doing that right now.

So I just wanted to go procure one,

put it in the cabinet and be done with it.

You can't do that.

It's really funny because of the way that you described it.

And then I shared with you this morning in our household,

we literally are using our dishwasher as a drying rack

right now because I don't want to deal

with buying a new dishwasher.

I don't have the additional funds or ability

to put on the debt right now.

The bandwidth of having to deal with it.

Correct.

I'm just making it happen.

So it's just it's a drying rack.

We're hand-washing dishes in our house at this point.

I already threatened my wife.

Do you want to hand-wash dishes?

She's like, well, we have children.

Do you want to deal with the whining that we will incur?

Our kids have a role of a set number of dishes

every day that they have to wash.

And if they incur extra dishes for whatever reason,

they will have extra to do.

And it has been working for the time being.

But I understand where you're coming from.

And there is sometimes a little bit of a fight.

Do I have to?

Yep, you do.

You made the dishes, you get the help.

It might help the cup situation at my house

because my son does not understand.

I wish that that helped.

It has not helped.

Oh, dear.

No, it doesn't help.

They just wash more dishes.

I don't care.

But other than driving and looking for a dishwasher,

I was able to kind of I nerd out on this stuff

because I'm expecting everybody else to get as excited as I am.

But putting the steering column in the Model T project,

the steering shaft usually has to change length

because you're taking something from one vehicle

and putting it in something else.

I'm going to ask you to pause.

Don't lose your thought here.

But I looked at your update this week and on your socials,

which I encourage everybody, if you

want to know what's going on in our lives.

Scott and I certainly are open to you

following along on our Instagram or Facebook pages.

But I looked at your update and I

thought that is just one of the most Scott Brown things that

just sums up the 20 years of our friendship in the sense

that I remember you obsessing over steering,

intermediate shaft, steering column construction,

and function on some of your earliest projects we used

to sit around and bench top build.

And now you are living in this moment

where you can do the most mundane, ridiculous,

relatively unnecessary, but so incredibly clean

and how it should be done.

And I looked in on a number of our customers

who have taken us up on the follow along conversation

and friends at this point.

And I thought I really hope that I

don't expect them to understand the technical nature

of what you just did.

I get it.

Over here.

That's me.

Jack.

I'm looking and going, holy crap.

Scott's going to be able to drive this in a few months.

Which is not.

I know he's not.

But not for you.

I'm saying that out to the world.

But I recognize from an outside perspective

and not having that technical minutiae,

just seeing how cool it is and how much progress he

is realistically making in such a short amount of time.

And yet, having the full appreciation

as an individual from my perspective

where I am closer to the problem of sorts.

So the average person looking in, it's in my opinion,

it's like a three or four out of 10.

Like my mom or my dad's going to be like,

that's a really cool thing that Scott did.

And I can read it.

And I can appreciate it.

And I can see a shiny part and a not shiny part.

And they can get that.

But from like my standpoint, that's

like an eight out of 10 cool factor.

Because I'm like, that is, it's going to look correct.

It's something that nobody else is

doing because they're not taking the time

to have that much pride in their workmanship.

Because they race through the finish line

because they just want to drive it in three or four months,

like you're saying.

They look in and they go, well, I just

need to hack it here and cut it here.

And weld it in this and that.

Absolutely.

All right.

Now go back.

And so I was dealt with this problem

that if I need to shorten this shaft,

but if you cut it in the middle and weld it,

you should sleeve it.

That's the best practice.

That also helps keep everything true.

But then you can't literally take the box apart,

the stirring box apart.

So later person that you know, hopefully it's you,

if you're the one that made this problem,

then you should be the one that have to deal with the problem.

The serviceability or lack of thereof.

You're cutting it off again to service it.

And I'm like, I'm not, I'm not doing that.

Will I ever need a service again?

Probably not.

I don't want, I will, that would be my luck.

I would have a bearing fail or something.

I need to cut it apart.

Regardless, that's just not who you are as a person, right?

You're trying to set up for success.

So I'm looking at this problem.

It actually took me about two days to figure out

how I wanted to do this.

And finally, I think in the most part,

Neil will really enjoy this.

I have a spare hook off the quick attach

off my tractor for the three point system

that is an inch, inch and a half thick.

And it causes a big hunk of steel.

I didn't throw it away.

I had it on my shop press

because you need big hunk of steels on your shop press.

Absolutely.

And I'm like, I bet you that hooks distance is about right.

And I had a gear.

I had to press off the shaft of the steering box.

I'm like, Holy crap, that fits perfect.

So I drilled and tapped two holes in it.

And I used my steering wheel puller with two long bolts

and was able to then press the shaft out of the gear,

which is almost impossible

because it is pressed on at least three inches

of interference fit.

So it is like on there.

Yes.

And so, and to the point,

it's almost impossible to get it back on.

Like once I got it off, I was like, cool.

Now how am I gonna get this back together?

But because I was able to do that,

I was able to put the shaft without the gear in the mill

and make a new keyway further up.

Then I was able to literally cut it off

so that now it's the shortness I need.

I did put in the lathe and true that up

and that kind of stuff.

I actually had to turn off about 2000s or so of shaft

so I could get the gear back on

because it was such an interference fit.

They must have back in the 40s or 30s when they put this on

must have heated it up and chilled it.

They did a thermodynamic process.

But I literally put this thing in my chuck.

So we again have an inch to two inches.

Actually, probably more than that.

Two to three inches of engagement with three jaws

and I could not get the gear back on

with just mechanical advantage.

And I had to laugh when I was looking at your update

and our intro to this particular program

is one of the things from years ago

before you had an actual lathe

and some of this equipment.

And you say you use your drill pass as a sort of mill.

And I looked at your absolutely completely caddywampus

sketch utilization of a steering wheel polar.

And I also, again, the picture doesn't do it justice

for the rest of the world to understand

that was not an ideal situation.

Well, you can't tell.

I actually made an adapter to go in the shaft

to make it more ideal.

But yes, it was not perfect.

Yes, and I thought they're good for you.

Still doing hillbilly jank stop.

Just a little nicer.

Love it. I love it.

That was a, I thought that was a great update

and I was hoping you would share with us.

Yep. Excellent.

My own experience, I was a very family

and a household-centric weekend.

Again, trying to just control the uncontrollables

and the chaotic, time-blind Simpson household

over and above everything we do conversation.

This Saturday was almost a holy

and entirely dedicated to my son

and his wrestling pursuits.

No, don't need to go into too much detail there,

but had a great, great day with that.

I did test drive a customer's Jeep in that capacity

and I have actually never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever

in my whole entire life had a death wobble situation

like that particular Jeep,

which I'll be unpacking for,

I don't know, a really long time.

So this one really tried to kill you.

This one is proving to be super extra.

Super extra, super special,

and yet probably the greatest frustration is that

everything under the Jeep is perfect.

Yeah.

Let's replace Stephen.

Yep.

So we gotta get back in the 80s

and get like triple quadruple shocks.

I am here for it at this point, right?

So outside of that,

so I spent a good bit of time

with some death wobble diagnostic over the weekend

in conjunction with this wrestling tournament.

Now in the same time,

my wife, who, you know, just,

she is such an interesting soul,

took it upon herself to get the weather forecast alert

Yep.

That impending doom was coming to Northeastern Ohio.

I don't recall ever getting this kind of alert

so the way that it came across and how many...

I don't either and it came up

when I was in the store and I was like,

is this where I want to die?

I was, this sounds bad.

I literally was like,

how bad is it gonna be that they're doing this

because this is not usual?

It's sunny outside.

There is nothing going on.

Yes.

And honestly, I feel like it was a big oversell myself.

I saw a little bit of...

Neal's hands up.

A little bit of wind, some snow and it was over.

I was like, we got this kind of notified.

So my wife is by herself, right?

My daughter is at dance practice.

My son is with me at a tournament.

My wife is by herself in this moment.

You could hunker down at your house.

You could feel like, hey, I'm glad that I'm toasty warm

in this X-L-Y-N-Z situation.

I have food, I have heat source.

If the power goes out, whatever.

Jen probably decided I need to go drive somewhere.

I am going to get in my big built Jeep, my 4B4

and I'm going to drive to the beach

so that the peak of the squall.

That's actually kind of fun.

Can hit me.

Yeah, yeah.

I have no objection.

I am going to the storm, to the...

I'm going to stare it in the face.

I'm going to stare at the squall.

I want to stare at the eye of the storm.

That's right.

That's what she did.

I think that's super fun.

And she went down there and she was by herself

as she watched this squall come across the lake.

And she got off, out of the Jeep, didn't she?

Oh, she put the window down

and she's taken pictures of the storm.

The storm was in the Jeep.

I got it.

Was in the Jeep.

She's like sharing them back to my family

and obviously me at that time.

And I think the urgency of the message

wasn't necessarily about how severe

and how long it would last,

but more about how fast it was coming in.

I did happen fast.

And it was literally, there was nothing.

We actually had a customer walk in the door

and it was sunny.

And he got from the front door to the front counter

and snow was blowing in under the door at us.

And I'm like, oh, that came in quick.

Yes.

And I think you hit the nail on the head

that it went from lights on to lights off

with white out snow conditions

and some blowing winds within seconds.

Right.

And I think that that was more

why it got so prioritized.

I don't think it was necessarily

about the exact severity,

but how fast it changed.

And it could have been worse.

It's hard to say with whether the way it can change so fast.

Right.

I just, I love, I mean,

and I know that we talk about a lot of our customers

and their therapeutic experiences with their Jeep

and kind of how that Jeep becomes

an extension of ourselves.

And my wife's emboldened nature with her.

I love it.

Her built Jeep.

I'm going down to the beach

and gonna face this storm and I die head on.

Oh dear.

What a funny, funny Jeep moment, if you will.

Yeah.

And just to leave people on a teaser,

there are big things happening in my life

that may or may not come to light.

There is a acquisition of sorts that may be happening.

And it is a business endeavor

that could drastically change my life

and how things operate here.

Cause it would change a lot.

I am not able to discuss those details right now.

If it goes through, I'll have a really big announcement.

If it doesn't go through, it'll be,

hey, nothing happens.

Life as usual.

So my weekend was spent very heavily vested in that,

but I still wanted to make sure

I prioritized family time.

And we did sit down and do a movie night with the kids

and we watched Bad Guys 2,

which was actually a pretty good movie.

I have to say I like that.

There's a lot of good, you know,

family oriented movies out there right now.

Yeah, so.

Well, we do have a lot of jeeps to get to

and we are officially over our time.

Until, oh, I should mention today is MLK Junior Day

and in the past I've gone on a big tirade

and we've actually had some geared conversation

towards it.

I think that the biggest thing by today's standards

is kind of understanding that there are things

out there greater than ourselves.

And I hope that you find that moment

to recognize that in your own life.

And I wish you an inspiring MLK Junior Day.

Until next time, jeep on.

Jeep on.

Turn up the Decibels

About this episode

Jeep TJ

JT radio

eight point four display

Jeep Grand Cherokee

Stellantis

Alpine

Apple CarPlay

Android Auto

Jeep Wrangler

Jeep Wagoneer

beefy axles

Yukon

Dana Spicer

restyle package

U-joint

drive shaft

Stinger

DS18

head unit

steering wheel controls

amp

Jeep Gladiator

sound system

central nervous system

Ford Model T

death wobble

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from I Speak Jeep