The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car built for fast driving. People talk about it a lot because it has strong performance from the factory, and it can also be heavily modified for even more power. In this episode, it’s mentioned in connection with a big custom build.
They’re describing a custom engine swap where the new engine is also supercharged. A supercharger forces more air into the engine, usually making more power, but it can be harder on the rest of the car.
The pitman arm is a steering linkage part that helps turn the wheels when you turn the steering wheel. If it gets stripped (damaged), the steering can feel dead or not respond.
The Ford F-150 is a large pickup truck used for everyday driving and work. In the episode, the host is talking about how it drives, including how the steering feels. That’s useful if you’re trying to understand what it’s like to live with.
This is when the car is still driving (using power) while the suspension is moving a lot. That can stress the drivetrain parts more than normal and cause them to break.
A CV cup is part of the CV joint area where the axle end sits. If the suspension moves too far, the axle can pop out of that joint and get destroyed quickly.
The front diff is the gearbox that sends power to the two front wheels. Moving/centering it can change axle lengths and angles so the CV joints don’t get pulled apart.
A short side axle is the shorter axle on one side of the front drivetrain. If the lengths/angles aren’t right, the CV joints can be stressed and fail more easily.
Go Fast Campers is the company building the camper setup for this vehicle. They’re talking about making a custom, larger version of the camper than what they normally build.
A roof tent is a tent that sits on top of your vehicle. When you get to camp, it opens up so you can sleep up off the ground.
Car
Humvee
A “Humvee” is a big, boxy military-style vehicle people often customize for off-road and overlanding. Here, they’re talking about building a custom camper/roof tent on top of it, and even how you could sleep sideways because it’s so wide.
“GFC” is shorthand for the Go Fast Campers setup they’re talking about. They’re considering putting one on a limo and then adding more camper units on top.
They mention Bozeman, Montana because that’s where the company is based and where the camper parts are made. It’s just background on where the gear comes from.
A “pop top” is the part of a roof tent that lifts up when you set up camp. “Double pop top” means you’d have two lift-up sections, so you could sleep more people or get more space.
Blow-by is when gases that should stay in the cylinders leak down into the engine’s crankcase. It usually means the piston rings aren’t sealing well anymore.
“Seaco parts” is mentioned as the source of doors used on the Humvee build. This is relevant because sourcing used parts is common in custom fabrication projects, and door fitment/condition can affect how clean and functional the final build is.
Concept
Gambler
“Gambler” likely refers to the Gambler 500, a well-known off-road endurance-style event where teams drive and modify vehicles. The timing question suggests they’re trying to finish the custom build before the event.
Concept
desert racing one
The speakers connect the “super light” tent to a prior “desert racing” version, implying a product lineage optimized for desert use and likely for lighter weight and easier setup. That matters because roof-mounted gear needs to be light, stable, and quick to deploy.
An overland vehicle is meant for road trips into more remote places. It’s set up to handle rough conditions and carry gear so you can camp or travel farther without help.
Concept
rally track / pond situation
They’re talking about a place they’re working on for driving and filming, including a pond. Water and mud can be rough on vehicles, so it usually means extra attention to protection and maintenance.
A mini jet boat is a small boat that pushes itself using a jet system. It still needs maintenance on the moving parts, especially anything inside the drive area.
A bearing is a small part that helps moving parts spin smoothly. If it’s worn or damaged, the system can start vibrating or fail, so it often needs to be replaced and the surrounding parts checked.
LIVE
Welcome to the scent and bent podcast episode 73. Today we are talking about the future
of our Corvette supercharged swapped Humvee and I have an update to last week's podcast
where I said I got scammed on Alibaba. So let's just get right into that. Yeah, we all want
to hear about you getting scammed. Yeah, but, but maybe first I'm curious what you talked
about with the Humvee because it's the guy who won the last giveaway came up and they were geeking
over the Humvee, but it's in such bad states we couldn't even drive it. So yeah, so where the
Humvee's at right now is that it's got a few broken things, nothing extremely major. But the
reason we couldn't drive it is the when we had the when we had the winner of the side-by-side
giveaway come up in the fall, I was taking one of those guys around for a rip in it and I clipped
a tree with the passenger front tire, not at any particular speed, but enough to yank it and the
the pitman arm is stripped. So I took when that happened, I just took an impact out there and
tightened the crap out of that nut and it seemed to be fine, but then I went to drive it the other
week with the with the Raptor giveaway winner and the steering doesn't do anything. So that's the
main reason we can't drive it. It also needs a new front axle, but I'm not going to replace it until
we solve the issue of its geometry, which basically is too much up travel because it breaks these
axles all the time. Basically every time you do anything where you have suspension travel
under power, it just pulls the axle out of the CV cup or pulls the CV out of its cup and just blows
up. I mean, it's not like it's not physically shearing them or anything. It's just disassembling them
rapidly at high speed. So that's a relatively simple thing. I mean, I just need to change a few things
up front. I probably what I'll do is try to center the front diff so I can use the same length
axles. So the problem is the short side axle. Anyway, yesterday Graham, the owner of go fast
campers stopped by for a visit and we were talking about all sorts of things, but he and I've been
talking about doing something cool with the Humvee for a while now. And since he actually saw it in
person, we took some measurements. We're talking about doing a custom massive sized go fast camper
set up for it. That'd probably be like 50 percent bigger than their standard. I think it'd be more than
that. Like it probably be like a hundred percent bigger. So such a big roof tent. You could sleep
sideways in it. Like that literally sideways because the Humvee is seven feet wide. So even if you're
six foot tall, yeah, you could sleep fully stretched out across the roof tent. It'd be like a double
king, but it wouldn't be just building a roof tent. We'd be building a whole back for it. So like the whole
back would be enclosed and you wouldn't have a unlike the regular go fast campers that go on a normal
pickup with which has a back wall. Yeah. And then there's a front wall of the camper. There'd be none of
that. So it'd just be connected directly to the Humvee's, you know, front cab structure. So it looks
like a Humvee wagon version, which is the coolest looking version of the Humvee's. Well, except maybe
the slant backs, but that's why each one's always look good. Exactly. Yeah. So do that. But as a custom
go fast camper, so like the sides could open up and everything. Yeah. So yeah. Anyway, so we talked a lot
about that and he took some measurements and he's, he's stoked on the idea. So maybe later this summer
when they have a little more time, we can take the Humvee over to, over to Bozeman, Montana and get a
super cool custom roof tent thing made for it. But you know how there's the king size mattress and then
there's the California King. This would be like the Texas King. Yeah. The California and Texas King. The
North Idaho, why? Yeah. We got to get the Tesla going again too, because that roof tent on there that's
like smaller than the other ones next to the Humvee. That'd be kind of funny. Another thing I think that
that Graham could get pretty stoked on and that we talked about is sprucing up our limo a little bit and
putting like a regular GFC in the bed of it. And for people who don't know, go fast campers makes like a
combination truck bed camper slash roof tent setup. So it's a hard shell roof tent and you can also get just
the roof tent to go on top of like an SUV or whatever, but it's combined with like a truck bed camper shell
and you can access the roof tent through the inside of the camper shell bit. So that's their standard, what they
make and they're all super high quality made in Bozeman. Like they CNC machine all of their parts in house. Anyway,
that's what we're talking about. So we were looking at the limo and Graham was saying to be really funny to put a
regular GFC on the back and then put two more campers on the roof. Oh yeah. And I was like, you know, that didn't
be perfect because the roof's all rusted out. So we could just cut the roof out and then have a double pop top
amazing and a great promotional thing for GFC. Even if we don't use it very often, we could just loan it to GFC and
they can like take it to trade shows or whatever. We should just caravan down there, drive both down there. Yeah, that'd be
sick. We could even tow the Humvee with the limo. Yeah. And then we don't need to worry about our finalizing our
head gasket or whatever is wrong with it. Yeah. I mean, it's yeah, the blow by it's head gasket's fine. It's just either
the either one of the one or more of the valves is cooked or more likely the some of the rings are just very
not happy when you supercharge stock old Corvette engines you find out. Yeah. And then you run it pedal to the floor
in a 5,000 pound Humvee with 40 inch tires. Didn't that Corvette have like a hundred and thirty thousand miles? Right. Just over a
hundred, like a hundred and two. Drive it like you stole it. Exactly. That is how we drive it. You know, there's no better way to find the
limits of what something's capable of. Anyway, so yeah, it eventually needs a new engine or rebuild. But that's like it does
still run and drive just fine. It just has a lot of blow by and it still makes a lot of power actually. Oh, yeah. It just
smolders a lot because of all the blow by. But so yeah, that would be really cool. We can put the doors that we got from
Seaco parts and we put the doors on there and fix a few things and then get it. I'm just so stoked about the idea of a
custom roof. When it was up, it'd be like eight feet tall to this huge roof take like a tree house. You got to stand up in the
long side of it. Yeah. And actually we could design it so that like a larger section of the floor could just flip back. Yeah.
Just like the because it's not going to have unlike, you know, it doesn't have a roof. There's nothing there. It's empty. So we
design it so that the back section can like flip forward and you could actually just totally stand up in the back side of the
envy and have like a little kitchen in there or whatever. Yeah, like your van when you pop top up, you just can stand up and we
could do the same thing with the limo except with two of them. It'd be amazing. Wow. Is there any chance we do that before gambler?
I don't think so. Oh, I mean, maybe the limo one isn't the limo one doesn't require anything custom. That's just a GFC on the
bed and two. They're coming out with a new a new tent called the super light that's as the name suggests super light and it's just to say
this on the podcast. Yeah, it's okay. I mean, I'm sure they've made a super light before. So I don't think it's secret. They're just they're coming up with
a new version of it. Okay. That's that desert racing one that's in that one that he had on that. Yeah, it's a new version of that, but
that's I don't I don't remember. He didn't tell me any specifics that are like could be given away. I don't think anyway, but
um, but yeah, so and then he was thinking, you know, we could put two of those on the roof. So, you know, if they come out with those
soon anyway, the other thing is and this I was telling him how we've been doing, you know, more road trip stuff like the Nash road
trip and that kind of stuff. Yeah. So he was saying that this new roof tent is like it's so small and compactable that like if you take out the
rigid structure part of it, you could like put it in a checked bag and then you could just buy the parts you need to put it together at like
Home Depot or something for the rigid structure. So we could like bring a roof tent with us somewhere and then put it on a car in a
Home Depot parking lot and then have a roof tent since they're making a big one. Anyways, we should do one on the ambulance too.
Right. Like why not just make a double giant one for the we can already stand up in there, but I don't think the ambulance is it's so tall
already. Yeah, we don't really want to make it any taller than bridges. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Plus the ambulance already has that big interior space
and we can just put an air mattress, air mattress is in the back and sleep in it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, we need to work on that one of these
days. The ambulance. Yeah, we were just talking about that. Yeah, we're talking about your tires on side. Yeah, we'll fill you in.
But yeah, Graham was also I was telling him about our MTV's and stuff and the idea of building one is like a, you know, super beef,
maybe also for desert racing, but with a camper that's cab height overland vehicle. Yeah, an overland. Yeah, he was stoked on that too.
But it's pretty easy to get Graham stoked on things, but he's an extremely busy person because he runs a company and it's like constantly all over the place.
So getting him stoked on it's really easy. The follow through takes a while, you know, as you would expect. But anyway, yeah, that was that was my
excitement for the weekend aside from milling some lumber, working on the rally track slash pond situation and you know, finishing my bed made out of boulders.
Yeah, we really got to get the mini jet boat going again. I was just over there this morning flying the drone and I'm just imagining shots of like somebody in the mini jet boat in the new pond
and somebody in the puddle. Yeah, that'd be so sick. There's not much we have to do to the mini jet boat is no it's just like a day of work. I got to pull the engine which is a process
and then replace a bearing which may or may not be a big process. I haven't looked at how damaged the housing is where the bearing was. Yeah, and then put it all back together.
Basically this summer we do need to wakeboard behind it. We've still yet to do that. True. We were going to do that in the episode where we broke it. Remember we're going to take it up the river and then we're going to film another
scene. Did we even have a jet boat with us? I don't remember us having a wakeboard wakeboard. Well, no, we didn't have a wakeboard, but we were going to film that scene that day and then we're going to add to the end of the video.
But then it broke. But yeah, I still think that'd be super sick to try it out.
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About this episode
The crew updates the status of their supercharged LS-swapped Humvee, explaining why it’s currently undrivable after a tree strike stripped the pitman arm and left the steering dead. They also discuss recurring front-axle/CV failures caused by excessive suspension travel under power, with plans to fix the geometry (possibly centering the front diff). A major highlight is a visit from Go Fast Campers’ Graham, sparking ideas for a custom, oversized Humvee “wagon” camper with a massive roof tent, plus lighter, travel-friendly tent concepts and even GFC promo setups on their limo.
