718: Linkswell Together Podcast Interviews SnailTrail4x4

Four-wheel underground is making some big changes. They really are. What's really cool about what they're doing right now is they're kind of changing the way the business is set in the sense that you get to now buy things all a cart. Absolutely. So if you want the upper frame bracket, you can just buy that. Yeah, if you want the lower link bracket because it has the integrated bump stop and it's super stout and it looks really good too, you can get just those. Before you would have to buy the whole kit. Now you're gonna be like, that's the bracket I want. He's also brought joints in-house. So now you can buy those, all a cart. From cartridge joints, rebuildable Johnny joints. Himes, offsets, all sorts of different ones. Do you know what else he brought in-house? Aluminum links. Aluminum links. That's pretty rad. He found a way to source aluminum links so that there's no extra charge on the suspension kits. They now all come standard with aluminum links. I know, I'm totally jealous. And thanks to the all a cart system, you can also order aluminum links if that's all you want. So if you want to move your Toyota from lease rings to a link suspension kit, check out Forwheel Underground. - Do we wanna check with you guys today about our next off road? - Definitely one of our favorite apps for off-roading. - Yeah, what's better is not only their software, but they also are doing a lot to be a part of the off-roading community here in the country. From the trail revival program, which I actually got to be a part of and used to do some maintenance on the Rubicon Trail too. They have an elite partnership. So if you are an on-x off-road user, you can go to any of their 40 plus partners on there and you get discounts with any of those partners. So from bringing the people to the brands, to the listeners, to everybody involved, it sounds like they really want to be a part of our community. So let's be a part of theirs. Go download on-x off-road from your favorite app store. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Welcome one, welcome all to the snail trail for that four podcast. If you like going off-roading in Toyota's, wrenching on Toyota's, camping in Toyota's, maybe poking a little bit of fun at Toyota's. And of course, hearing about Link's Well, John and Trail Hero X adventures, then this is the podcast for you. What up everybody, my name is Jimmy Jett. And today we have a little rearrange schedule, our normal broadcast plan kind of got interrupted because we got interviewed and, well, we got invited and interviewed on another podcast. And we thought, why not just share it. Let's cross-promoted. It was a fun interview. And so I would highly suggest you checking out everything else that John over at Link's Well has going on. But a little bit more about that in the future because I've got a little bit of housekeeping to chop on and give you guys some quick information. This will be fast because I will want you guys to get over to this interview because it was a lot of fun. All right, so how's keeping, first off, monthly giveaway. This month we are giving away an APL 20, freezer fridge from iceco. So big thank you to iceco for donating a fridge for us to be giving away. They had a wonderful interview or we all had a wonderful interview with them just a few Mondays ago. So go back, listen to the iceco episode. It seems super popular. There's been a lot of comments on the discord and on just Instagram. I've been getting tagged a lot with it. So that was really cool. But it was a fantastic episode. We learned a lot about the iceco brand where they came from, what the kind of work they do, how and why they are a top tier fridge freezer company. And we also got some small insights and some fun things to come. So go check out that episode, go follow iceco on everything that they have and go become a member of this nail squad so that you have a chance to win an iceco fridge. To go get yourself eligible for this giveaway, you could now go over to I rate four by four or you can join the discord and I'll sign up options are there on both of those locations. In regards to the discord, let's talk about tokens because we do have our tokens out in the wild. I've handed off some to Tyler for this last week and he went up to last and so he's hiding some more tokens up in last and right now. And I'm gonna be going out this weekend as well and I'm gonna be hiding some tokens myself too. So a lot of tokens being hidden and a lot of stuff going on and if you want a chance to win a master mechanics tool set, then you need to collect all 13 tokens that spells out snail trail four by four and then you can win a master mechanics tool set. Unless somebody else has already won it and Trevor's getting pretty close but that does not mean he's gonna be the winner. Once we get rid of that master mechanics tool set to the lucky winner, we'll find something else to be given away whether it's some sort of snail armor stuff or maybe it's a morph light stuff or who knows maybe we'll get some other companies involved as well. So the discord is the only place that you can go to get those tokens, the locations of those tokens and the sign up or the link to go to the discord is in the show notes. So go click on those. We also have an on ex elite membership giveaway going on for reviews on Apple podcast. I just looked, we're at 793. So there are a few more eligible signups over there. So go leave yourself a review, get yourself eligible to win because once we get to 800 reviews, we are giving away an on ex elite membership. When we get to 850 reviews, we're doing that again, another on ex elite membership. And when we get to 900 reviews, we are giving away $900 of morph light gear. So go over to Apple podcasts, leave yourself a review. And with that, my friends, I think that is all the updates. Hopefully I made that short and sweet. Always go and check out that iceco fridge giveaway that's going on. That's a big one for us. It's probably the biggest giveaway we're going to be doing this year on the snail trail 4x4 podcast. So without further ado, I think that's how you say that. Let's jump over to the interview that John did. So John is the owner, founder, creator of LinkSwell. LinkSwell is engineered industry leading technology solutions to create safer, more fulfilling driving experiences. And what that kind of comes down to is they make some bad ass head units for your vehicles so that you don't have to worry about what's going on. And it pretty much connects to your phone, Apple, or Android. And then you can control your car, control your radio, control everything right there on the head unit. And you don't have to be just a distracted driver. And we talked a little bit about that in the podcast. But mainly what's fun about this episode is that he's interviewing Tyler and I. And he's talking to Tyler and I about our trail hero, X experience. So I know we did a full length the episode on that as well. But some fun things come out. Some fun stories happen in here. And you kind of get another perspective of things because we're getting asked different questions. Then when Tyler and I were rambling along in a car. So with that, my friends, let's go grab our favorite drinks. I'm going to go get myself some whiskey because it's a Friday afternoon for me right now. And I am going to start relaxing after this. So I'm going to grab myself whiskey. I hope you guys grab yourself something good. And I hope you enjoy this interview with John from Lynxwell Technology. At 4 wheel underground, we have something for everyone's 79 to 04 Toyota vehicle, whether you've got a Chevy Dana 60, 05 and up super duty fabricated FJ 80 or many truck axles, we got you covered three link four link parallel and triangulated suspension kits. We've got you covered under bed coil over mouse through bed coil over mounts, trailing arms, cal levers, custom tuned coilovers and air bumps. We've got you covered frames, differenters sub frames, skid weights, shock towers and mardi comb. Make sure to use coupon code snail trail at 4 wheel underground dot com because we've got you covered. Welcome. Got guys. We are still talking trail hero X mainly because it engulfs so much of my life. And I made some amazing friends along the way. And so apart from getting the talks of the manufacturers that got us on the show, I get to talk to some of the teams. And we have that today. I get to introduce you guys to treat team snail trail four by four. What's up, guys? What's going on? Was that our name? I think we had like four names. I actually was like, I was trying to like, should I go back and force you like to be like, team more than always. Originally, originally we signed up as more snail. I watched your guys is drive cast cast drive drive home cast. Yeah. Your podcast when you guys were driving. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was actually in Seattle when you guys dropped it. So I had-- like all this downtime in my hotel. And I was like, - I'm gonna burn my head. - Yeah, I'm gonna speed all this into a three and a half hour on your episode. - That was great, man. I was like, these guys broke down the whole show. So you guys wanna check that episode out, 'cause they walked through the whole "Dag on Show". But, well, tell everybody, you know, my faithful folks, what you guys do, where you guys come from, what your team was all about, all the good stuff. - Well, you see, many, many years ago, my mom and my dad loved each other. And they had some fun one night, and that's where I came from. So, we're up in Northern California. We love rock crawling. We're up here next to some of these iconic, iconic rock crawling trails in the world, like the Rubicon Trail, four dice, Barrett Lake. We've got a doozy or a shum, you know, a nice, cool five hour jaunt south of us. It's just a really awesome terrain up here. And it seems to be like this, like, this mecca of some really cool rock crawling off-road companies up in the North Cal area. And it's, I don't know if it's the scene, quote unquote, as the kids would say, or like just the vibe up here, what? But Jimmy and I were kind of like these two kindred spirits that never found each other until a mutual friend was like, "Oh my God, you like old school toe-to-toes? "You gotta come meet my buddy over here. "He loves old school toe-toes." And once the mutual buddy introduced us, we kind of like pushed him out of the picture and started our own romance. - Love it. - Yeah. - We're pretty much attached to the hip ever side. - No, that's epic. So, you talk about old toe-to-toes, I remember. 'Cause during the first two days of the show was the actual like car show in the parking lot. And you guys came up right next to us and you're old, a four runner and older four runner. And you guys came over and you like did the whole jeep thing where you're parking on each other's tires and stuff. And I looked at my son and I was like, now those guys, they know what they're doing. (laughing) I don't know anything about these guys. I could just tell you that four runner should not have a straight axle underneath it. And it does. - Both of them. - The fact that it does, yeah, the fact that it does means that this thing is made to do some wild things. I said, so that's gonna be fun to watch. So, yeah, cool. So, kindred spirits. I would, so how long have you guys been kindred spirits? - God, that was, seven years ago. - To over seven years ago. 'Cause we started our podcast, the snail trail four by four podcast in May of 2019. And we were probably, and then we were on another podcast, the high sear four by four podcast for about six months prior to that. And then there's probably a series of months before that. So we're like, yeah, eight or nine years. - Definitely. - Do you know each other? - Very cool. So, how did you guys, okay, so like, I'm just gonna keep asking you all the personal questions. - That's fine. - For you. - So what got each of you guys into the whole off-roading scene? Like was it something like you grew up in or? - Yeah, well, I started when, as soon as I could get my license, really. My parents weren't really into off-roading, but we were way into camping. Back in the day, there wasn't a thing called overlanding. It was just called car camping. And we did a lot of car camping growing up 'cause we weren't, you know, we weren't rich, but we weren't poor. And car camping was a good way to explore the world. And so we did a lot of car camping. We actually had a Jeep Cherokee back in the day that we would run up around in. And then as soon as I got my driver's license, I ended up being able to drive that Jeep Cherokee. And then it broke down and had a lot of problems and did some Jeep things. And my parents actually turned the Cherokee into the government for the lemon law and got their money back on a bunch of stuff. And they ended up buying a Toyota pickup. And then I fell right in line with some friends that were all in off-roading all into, you know, going to do silly things with their trucks and going camping and just relaxing and having a good time. So it was, for me, it was like, as soon as I got my license, I was out learning how to drive on dirt roads. That's epic. Yeah, for me, I kind of grew up off-roading. My dad was really big into off-roading. He was good buddies with a Marlon Chikowski, founder and old owner of Marlon Crawler. So kind of growing up in the Fresno area and getting to go and wheel all the shaper lake trails, red mountain, bald mountain, doozy, swamp, all the-- everything up there, it's a really cool trail system that a Clovis independent four-wheelers and Sierra Forest, Sierra National Forest, have kind of put together for the OHV community up there. There was just really nice, quick, easy access as a lot of the off-roading is here in California. When you're especially in North Cal, you just zoot on up into the sear as one to two hours you have these iconic beautiful areas. And so I kind of grew up off-roading. And then as soon as I got my license, I was like, all right, let's get a fun vehicle. And then I learned that fun vehicles are very expensive to maintain and I do not know how to do that. And had to kind of get out of it for a little bit. And then once I finally got into a career and had adult money, that's when I got back into it. And my love of the outdoors really stemmed from my grandfather. He was a game warden in Calusa County and worked as a game warden in Yellowstone. And it was a huge outdoor environment advocate. So being able to hang out with him and grow up with him a lot and go out onto these really cool camping trips and hiking and backpacking trips with him, combined with the off-roading that I got into from my dad. It's just, I love to be outdoors. I don't want to be stuck inside a house. I don't want to be sitting on a couch. I got to be up and moving around doing something outside. So, no, that's cool. Yeah, California, I think North, South, and in the middle, there's just, there's so many different variables in terrain. Like it's just, it's pretty easy. Like it's like that down here too. Like we've got Anne's of Berega and then we've got like Big Bear area, all the stuff that goes back through into like Central Cally, all the stuff up down, way that, the 38 and all that stuff that shoots over there. It's like, it's all over. It's really hard to not fly. Like I, I mean, I'm super new to this. Like the only reason I got into off-roading for you so you're aware is because our company started to build things and I need to market them. And I was like, well, I should probably learn how to do this stuff. Yeah, that's the most. Not that I was ever like, anti anything. I think when I was in like junior high, right? My dream was to have a Jeep. I wanted an old CJ, right? Like that was what I wanted. Never got one. Good. Good for you. You know, I got one now. Oh, okay. (laughing) We're sorry. Yeah. What do you know? (laughing) Yeah, what are you gonna do, right? You know, you know, you know, you know. It is what it is, you know. Um, but yes, we ended up kind of in the, in the, just in it because work kind of brought me there. And it's just been a ton of fun. And the culture's super cool. You know, you find, that's like everything, right? You got the weirdos out there. And the guys that are like, you know, Drex. But it was super cool like getting to do this with my son 'cause he's 16, right? So like, you know, I, we've been, I've been playing around with the Jeep for a couple of years. And so he was coming into his life. I'm gonna get a car, right? Yeah. And of my four kids, he's the one that's the car guy. The rest of them are like, they're not car people, but they're like, whatever. You know, I got my two daughters, you were like, whatever, my other son got into cars when he could drive. It was never like a car guy. Okay. But this kid, like he was five years old and decided to write, you know, history reports on Audi. Like, yeah. It was awesome. I'm gonna write the, I'm gonna give you a history report of like Audi and Volkswagen and like all these companies. So he's always just kind of been the car guy. So as he got older, it was getting a little bit more fun. And so we actually were camping last summer at the beach. And with family friends. And my son's wanted a manual transmission. That's what he wanted. You know what the car is? He just wants a manual transmission. I got a boy. Yeah. And my son is also very, it's funny. We have this, we have this key term for him is intrusive thoughts. Okay. Intrusive thoughts guy. Meaning something pops up and he does something stupid. Like, you know, for example, we were at dinner one time and it was just him and my other son, his older brother. And we were at a Mexican joint eating chips and salsa or something. And I watched him. Like he was sitting next to his brother and I watched his eyes look down, see the lemon slice. And then do this. And then literally grab the lemon slice. And as my son was opening his mouth for a chip, just didn't his mouth, right? Like, I got to watch this whole thing, watch this out. And then he starts laughing. He's like, sorry, that was an intrusive thought. Like it was a thought, right? So all that to say, my wife was like, you're not getting a manual transmission son. They're the one child that will not get a manual transmission. But then we're camping and we were like at San Helio which is a big surfer beach. You're not surfers, but our friends are surfers. So we camped at the beach because we liked the beach. And you know, my buddy taught my kids how to surf. So we were hanging out there. And so there was a family with their in their tow vehicle was a little samurai. That was what their tow vehicle was. And so my wife looks back and she goes, now I would let you have one of those if it was an annual. And so my son looks at it and he goes, what is that? I'm like, that's a samurai son. That I said, it's actually a pretty fun car to have. Like, you know, you did, I don't know if you could find one. And so that was the man he was Googling right there. Like we were in the campsite and he's like trying to find one. So that's fun. So went the hunt. We ended up driving into Vegas to pick one up. And so now that's what he's got. So he the whole time we were out on these trails was like, "Dak, can we bring the samurai back?" And can we come back with the samurai? I was like, "Yeah, buddy, we'll come back with your samurai. He's got to get a run of dude." You got to come up and do a Zooka con up here in North Korea on the Rubicon. There's a run that Amber Slauson puts together because she's a big samurai advocate. She raised King of the Hammers in the samurai for three, four or five years. Yeah, she raised. And so she puts on Zooka con. That is Zooks come up and it's just 10 to 15 for a samurai. It's Zooki's samurai's going through this gnarly rock crawling trail. It's pretty hilarious to watch, but they have an amazing time for Dr. Holtz. I can imagine. I mean, it's a cool little car. Like for a first car, I'm super excited. We've already got like James from carbon. They were one of the teams. So he already sent him home with a winch. He's like, "Oh, yeah, that's cool." And so he's got a little carbon winch to put on it. And then like James is a Zooka too. Did you know that? He's got his own winch. Yeah. So that's why he wheels out and out there in Australia. Oh, okay. Is that a gym knee? No, it's an 88. Yeah, that's right. You show up as pictures and he's talking through. So my son was super excited because now he's got someone to ask. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the whole off road thinks new for us. And we're super just getting to enjoy it. And for us, like having you guys, you know, being one of the teams that just kind of like, like there were moments where you guys took a son of your wing like that last little bit of the hill. Like I was looking at it and he's like, "Dad, I don't know how to get you down from this." And then he's like, "Oh, crap. More flights here, dad." We're like, "Well, first off, we can move because I don't want to make them up to wait for my slow butt." And then you guys are like, "Well, we'll show you follow us and you guys would have had of us and like help us crawl down that night again." Like afterwards, it's like that really wasn't that big of a deal. Like it really wasn't that hard. But at the same time in the moment, you know, we were just kind of intimidating. I mean, that little spot we're on wasn't, I mean, we're in the middle of this kind of tight steep canyon. And I mean, if you made a wrong move, it was not going to end well for the day. It was kind of a high risk, a little spot as long as you stayed online, you were perfectly golden. And yeah, you did it great. And nobody like off-camper stuff. Yeah, no, you know, it was good. And that was my son. Like every time he would be like, "Dad, I thought you were going to flip a couple times." Now, in it, you kind of feel it. But at the same time, I know like, like I wasn't going to almost flip, dude. Like, you would know if I was almost going to flip. But it was that whole, like, you know, that learning experience. But just so I think someone like you guys, like when you guys showed up, we were like, that thing can do some stuff. Like these guys are the real deal. And for like, rookies like us to have, like that's that community that I was just talking about, you know, like the, everybody just wants. And I kept telling me, we had those conversation numerous times because like, Elevator, Explore Elevator would fly by us, right? And then you would catch up to them. And, you know, there was just like, this constant, everything going on. And we had all these conversations constantly about just like, everybody's kind of like, we were definitely the most green guys there for sure when it comes to, I don't know. I feel like when I think you guys did great, I think that, what was, make a whips, make a whips. He was a full sent, you're back, I'm full sent it every time. Yeah. Yeah. No, not them. There was somebody else there that they were, we, because on that, I was at the final day, we were trying to get out of camp and we got like lost getting out of camp. Yeah. And we were like, what, where the hell are we supposed to be going? Our map is showing us to go over this way. Like everybody else is going 180 opposite direction. Like they're coming in and passing us from the direction, we're like, well, we need to be going back that way. And finally, I think we talked to you and somebody else. And you guys had the actual map. Yeah, we had the cheater maps because we were novice. Yeah. And all those had a, all those. Yeah, I think it was right in front of us. But they had the map open on there. And they're like, we're not really sure where we're going. We're not even sure if we have this thing oriented the right way. I was like, you guys are funny. That was comedy. But that truck was really, yeah, he was, he was ton of fun, man. So, but it was just really nice to, to, to just see like, and we would talk about that all the time. Like everybody here just wants. Everybody else to enjoy it, right? Yeah. You know, like when I was, when we were doing the interviews and stuff with, with Rich and Brandy and, like he was asking, I think he was asking like skill, skill level. Like, hey, where do you think you're at? And now on this end of things, I definitely could have been intermediate when it came to where they chose it. Because my understanding was they were going to hand me a paper map and cord nook. And I had to figure it out with a paper map. I was like, yeah, I don't know if I could pull that off, man. I'm like, I'm a tech guy. That's what you, you know, but had I known I've been able to use on X, I could have, I could have put in the, the things no problem out. I feel cooler. I think if I would have got to go up there, we're like, intermediate, please. I was like, no, this, I'm novice, I'll take the other paper, cover that please. One thing I got, I was shocked about the event was that I thought we were going to be more spread out or we'd be way more separating. We would be really relying on ourselves more. But it seemed like a lot of the times we were always in a group or you're always with an at least another person nearby or you can see the dust, you know, just up front. On the way, yeah. Yeah, you know, and it's like we were on the expert level, but and we plotted some of the course and things. But most of the time we're like, oh, they're just over that way. Let's just keep going. Yeah, we were doing the same thing because a couple times you would hit some spots and we had to turn around because the, the car no maps were not good because they were so, like the line was so sick. Sometimes you couldn't tell when like things split, which way you needed to go. I had to go. So we did make a few, few wrong turns. Wolf Box, yeah, Wolf Box team Wolf Box saved us once because we almost went like on the whole other side of the trail. And I guess carbon ended up going that way and ended up like a water crossing and also coming back. And then at least come back. So we got saved there. But yeah, it's, I don't know. It was, it was great to see and be able to have like playing that game sometimes, you know, or you're like someone pulled over because they were, you know, doing a video or something and looking at something and you were passing this way. It was, it was a blast, man. I, I, I love that we talked about how everybody just wants everybody to have a good time. And that was rich. Just thing like I was like, look, I don't know how good I'm going to do. I really, really don't. And I said, and I'm also 45 and I think I'm 25. So there's a good chance I'm going to try and do a 25 year old thing and look like a fool. And the thing was like, we're not trying to make anyone look down. He's like genuinely, we want to show that just gets people excited and makes people want to go do it. And I was like, oh, okay. Well, I can get on board with that. That was kind of the speech we were given to. And so our plan going into the whole show was, we're going to sign up for the expert level. And we were told that the expert level, you would receive a few handful of GPS coordinates, but it was really up to us to kind of build our route for the day. And we're like, that's rad. We'll go and build our route so that we can like take a one hour detour over here and go check out this cool thing. And then like as we're going back, go take a two hour detour over this way and check this out. There's really cool thing that nobody else on the show is ever going to get to see. So they're following these routes. We tried that for the first two days and gotten trouble. And we were like, we're wasting way too much time here. We did dial back on this. We talked about that like, Rich is a madman to get those trails. Like I was like, there's no way I could pull like, I had to add like three or four hours to his time. And it was just, I was like, there's no way like I can't stop for anything. Like I can't shoot. I can't even like, I can't even go to the bathroom. And we just got to go. Yeah, right. You know, you race catheters that week. Yeah. It was a ton of fun though. But now looking back, what would you say was like your favorite part of the week? Oh man. That's a good one. I have two that stand out really as major high points for me. Hey, the Grand Canyon. So driving up to the camp spot at the Grand Canyon was phenomenal. I've never been to the Grand Canyon before. It's always been on my bucket list to go and see the Grand Canyon. So getting to do that on this trip was awesome. But getting, we pulled up kind of like right at the end of dusk as it's like the sun is setting where it's starting to get dark now and kind of walking. One of the things you don't realize coming in on that trail, you're literally like 10 feet driving right there. I know. I know. So we kind of we stopped and parked while because we wanted to put the drone up in the air and catch some footage coming down this trail along this peninsula. And I walked 15 feet off trail and I'm like, I'm looking down a 2000 foot wall right now. This is just wild. Yeah. It came out of nowhere, right? Yeah. That was our experience. I was just driving and I looked over and I was like, holy crap, that's the Grand Canyon. It's like right there. Like what we get here was super crazy. So yeah, I'm with you on that one. That one was wild. Yeah. So driving in at nighttime was kind of one experience because it just passed the trees just as dark now, right? And you can't really see the canyons. But you know, it's there. It's just trying to hold, right? And then going out the next morning where you could actually drive out and see the canyon that 10 feet away was both of those are really awesome. And then going to go and play and rip around in the dunes at St. Hollow was another one of our little play spots that we broke a vehicle in. created some drama for the production team for the week. - Let's just put it this way. - We didn't break the week. (laughing) - Our chase to our meetup guys did. - Yeah, I remember, I was, we, 'cause we got, like, that San Hollow Day was a, it was a, it was a weird day for everybody. - Yeah, it was, yeah. - Yeah, it was a weird day and it's weird 'cause it was the second day, right? And it was supposed to be the early day and all that stuff. But yeah, that was a lot of fun there. I learned there too because we, we were supposed to go in with Super Springs and explore elevated. We were gonna, like, the goal was to hit everybody's spot and head our way out, right? - Okay. - But the Jeep broke down like my battery switcher broke, so I kept losing power. So by the time I got going, I kept telling myself, just leave me guys, like, you know, just go away from me, like, no, no, no, we'll wait for you, we'll wait for you. So by the time we got in there, we were like, okay, we should all probably split up. And so we kinda did our own thing, but we were all supposed to hit Walmart afterwards 'cause they were telling us how cold the next camp was gonna be. And so, that's right. (laughing) So like, we kind of found our way through, but we were going and we're ripping through there and then we stopped at the top of a dune and we were gonna split up and then I couldn't get going again. - No, no, no. - I was like, "Oh, what the heck, man?" Like, it just kept stalling, right? 'Cause, man, no, it's ready. And then, you know, it was like, dude, are you in four low? I'm like, no, am I supposed to do it? - No, no. - It's like, yeah, I was like, "Oh, my bad." (laughing) There we go. - Cold. - Okay, we're good. - It's all we're good. (laughing) - And then we went. So anyways, yeah, that was super cool. San Hollow was super dope. - Yeah, that was a good spot. I would say mine pretty much, I have two, one sort of, yeah, everybody had this experience, but it was just getting to know everybody and the groups that we were with, the people that were there, the friendships that we've made, like with you, John and some of the other members and the other teams and stuff. It was, that was a lot of fun. That was, I don't know if that was more fun than the adventure, but it was, you know, right up there with it. But I don't know when this episode's getting air, so I'm gonna keep this one sort of vague, but in the last challenge, when Tyler's like, Jimmy's on this one thing and everybody in the group and you were on, you were there, right? Everybody's like, why? And he's like, 'cause he's really good at doing X, whatever that specific thing for that challenge. And everybody's like, yeah, okay. And then you ended up being my partner, that's the last challenge. - You ended up, yeah. - And you and I walked over to it and we talked about it and we were like, we got it and we brushed it in the child. So that was, that one was definitely by far. I mean, and you corrected me a few times when we were doing the work, so. - Yeah, I think it was a great scene. I really feel like we bonded, man. That was the moment, right? Yeah, that was a super good one. - And once in your son run. - Oh my god, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. (laughing) - Yeah, that was great. I was already, I was like, as soon as this thing pops up, we all kind of knew what it was, what was gonna happen. - We gotta run. - We gotta run. And I got two steps away and I turned around, he's like 50 feet away, I was like, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell? - Remember those intrusive thoughts? (laughing) - You had one thought, it was just air. - Regardless of what it was gonna happen to them. - Oh my god. - It was good there, so. Yeah, super fun. - Yeah. - Yeah, cool, very cool. Well, okay, so you're back to life now, right? Normal. And then those are your favorite things. So anybody who's watching, who's considering watching the episodes, what is like the one thing that you think? Like you can be vague if it has to be vague, that they don't wanna miss about the show. - For in regards to us or in regards to us. - In regards to general. - Just in general, like if you guys got to experience something and you're like, man, I really hope this ends up in the show. - Got it. - You know, like whatever you think is like the thing that like, I don't mind how it ends up on the screen. - Do you? I know mine is. - I just wanna, my, mine is, I'll go first. - You're like so confident over here. - Mine really is, I just wanna, and this is in pertaining to Tyler and I. Ours is like, we didn't go into this to try and win. We didn't go into it to try to be the best. We didn't go into it to try to be arrogant or showboat-y or anything. Our goal was to have fun. And that's the one thing I hope that one somebody's watching. They're going like, okay, that team snail trail people, they're having fun. - They're just there. - They're just there to have a good time. And I think we, I mean, we had a good time. And I think everybody else kind of around us was having a good time as well. And that's, that was our goal. And I think we won on that ass. - Nice. - Yeah. I would agree. I think, and mine kind of stems from that because we were just out there having fun, right? There was one of the days because we had a broken vehicle with our media guys. We kind of had to skip the next day sort of. Like, because we're building on route, we can just be like, well, we're just not gonna do the route today. And we'll, because we gotta deal with this broken vehicle and figure out how to get our media guys and Jimmy. Back here. And so we kind of skipped the whole day and figured out how to deal with everything. And then we just went straight to KiWay, straight to the next camp. And we got there really, really early in the day. Like, much earlier than I thought we were going to. And there was two things we did that I thought were so much fun. One, we found a swing set. And we just, we just stopped and we're like, look at this swing set. Let's go swinging. We got like two hours. Yeah. We used to be on the Wolf Fox and recorded us swinging. That's a therapeutic thing, man. Swinging so was. It was awesome. It was a good little relaxing moment after the stress of logistics that we had to deal with. Yeah, yeah. Broken vehicle. And so we were swinging and I was like, I'm gonna jump. I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump off the swing. You mid swing, you know, you get up to the top of the apex and jump off. He still thinks he's 24 or something. Exactly. That's what it was. I was just thinking that I'm like, that's a twit, it's a ankle. That's it. So I did it. And then Jimmy goes, all right, I'm gonna do one too. And he goes up and instead of jumping off, he does a back flip off of the swing. And we got it all on the Wolf Fox review, the 4K camera. And I was like, I really hope production puts it. That's gotta make it. If that doesn't make it, then that's gotta be something you guys put out there. Yeah. I wanna see it. So that was the first thing. The second thing was on that same day. We were, are we allowed to talk about the location? Yeah. We talked about location. Yeah. At the three peaks. That was that day when we camped up at the We Rocks area, three peaks. Jimmy and I completely made up a story about why the three peaks were there and what was the lore behind it. And we're just driving, we're there three, two, three hours early from when we were supposed to be there. So we just mosey it around the area in four low, like super slow pace, just relaxing and made up this entire story kind of on the spot. Like with someone made a snide comment about three peaks. Why is it named that? And the other one was like, well, there's three sisters from down in Cedar City. And then it just completely built off of that. And it's, it's a hilarious story that we, we recorded it all kind of on accident to start with. And then we decided to just go with it. Yeah. It's my really help production throws that in there. If not, it's not around everybody. So yes, yeah, I want to, I want to hear the story for sure. Yeah. It's a good one. Yeah, that's super cool. Yeah, that's fun. Yeah, I think for me, it was really the, the, the relationships. I think that's what I hope I hope we, we come across like just the realness. Like we, we definitely didn't go in there to win. Like we knew we weren't going to win. You know, like there was just, there wasn't, and it wasn't even like, I was in my son's very competitive. Like, it doesn't like to lose, you know, that's not his forte. And I don't necessarily like to lose either. But I think we didn't go in there with this like, we're taking home the trophy idea. It was more like, man, we're just going to, we really wanted to milk the experience for everything with the friendships and that and stuff. So, so, yeah. It was really, really fun, man. I, it was a weird feeling going, leaving, right? Like, yeah, that was just like, man, we just spent like, and it's weird because it was only five days. Like, it was five days, but only five days, right? Yeah. Like, it's that weird feeling. It felt like it was a really long time. Like, but then at the same time, it was only five days, you know, type of a thing. It's like, I got a weird feeling. And then yeah, we, we were driving out on Saturday afternoon after the closing thingy. And it was just like, this is so weird. Like, we're on the freeway. Like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're not going to see these folks again. It's not like, you know, that we're not like going to run into one of them in like an hour and a half. You know, we're not trying to plot our next, you know, when are we going to get water? Like, it was just, it was a weird drive home, man. Like, it was just kind of, it was like going to my boy and he's like, of course falling asleep, you know, in the passenger seat. But yeah, it was, it was weird to kind of transition back kind of into the, to the normal moving, grooving stuff. So, yeah. I think we stayed at the, we stayed that night at the casino. And so we left on Sunday. And it was, it was actually really nice to have that extra few hours after the end of the ceremony after everything, you know, and just sort of relax and decompress almost a little bit. Even though the next day, I mean, you know, from Mesquite Nevada to back to our, you know, Sacramento, our Sacramento. mental homes is a 12 hour drive. Yeah. You know, we still, you know, like we had to hit the, we had to wake up early, we had to hit the road. We, and it was Mother's Day, I believe. And so we had to get back to our wives, right? And I would home Saturday. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so I don't think it was until really Monday that I was like, what the hell did I just do? Yeah. What the hell did you do? I felt like a fever dream, right? I mean, kind of. Like it was just like, wait a minute, I'm not supposed to be comfortable right now. I'm supposed to be dirty. What is? Yeah. What's going on? Yeah. Super weird. And like I'm looking forward to seeing, like I'm sure you guys are going to end up at the Travel Hero Show in September, October, whatever. So getting to see everybody. I'm super bummed because it was overland expo like the weekend after. Yes. Like so many folks were there. And I was actually driving up to Seattle for a different show. So like everybody's like, here you come in. I'm like, no. No. Yeah, we, we actually didn't go to that either. But the media crew did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw them and James was walking around interviewing everybody. Yeah. I was like, dang, like everybody's there. Like Seattle. I know you drove a whole ride past us. You didn't even say no. And I'll tell you the show was awful. You know those shows you go like this. This was not worth any of what we did, right? We had to tow a trailer. So we're doing, you know, 65 the whole way, 55 the whole way. And so we're and we're in like, so cow, so cow, right? So we're an hour and a half to our south of L.V.A. Okay. We got to, man, where did we go to Seattle? Yeah, we started to love the first night. Yeah, and then drove into Seattle. And then the show was so bad. It was like the worst show ever, man. Like I think we talked about 12 people, right? Like it was like, we started pulling our stuff out of the booth and bringing it to our trailer two hours early. So it's like, I just know I'm getting on the road. Like this is, we ended up like getting into Ashland, Oregon, just above the border. And then we one shot at it from Ashland home. Wow. So yeah, I think that was like 16 hours. It took us to get far out. So yeah, you did, you messaged like, hey, stop it. I was like, oh, man. And by the time we got there, I was like, I get it. I was like, I was like doing like sunflower seeds to stay awake right? Because it's like trying to tell the stupid trailer. I get it. It's an easy sacrament. It was an easy place to pass through. It's not, it's the center of kind of the state in a way, but it's also like, you're by that point, you're like, I'm just gonna go. Yeah, I'm fully, fully, fully, and again, like I'm barely, because we like me, we got home what, you know, late Saturday night and then that Thursday morning or whatever I was driving up, you know, so like I'd had like, you know, not even a couple days worth it. And we're like moved or building like two weeks before we went to the TV show. And so the only part of my office that's actually together is this wall. That wall behind you. It looks fantastic. It's the only thing. Everything on the floor that you can't see, it's piled behind me. It's piled behind me. So you don't need to have home working in here yet. So that's how we're rolling. It works. So man, I do really appreciate you guys coming on here. I don't know if there's any last bits of the show you'd love to share or you know, pitch, you know, what, so is snail trail just a group? What is snail trail four by four? Like are you do something? What are you, what is your thing? Yeah. So snail trail four by four started as a YouTube channel. I was bored at my day job doing graphic design and I needed a creative output. And so I started a YouTube channel called snail trail four by four. And I was mainly working on Toyota pickups and showing people how to build things to go off-roading so they can enjoy the time outdoors. And that was the gist of it. Then we got introduced to Tyler. I got introduced to Tyler and I was trying to expand snail trail four by four. Then we joined the high Sierra four by four podcast. They pretty much stopped doing things and we were the podcast and we're like, hey, we're not, we came here to help you guys continue. We're not here to like take over. And so we were like, hey, well, why don't we start our own podcast? And we did. And we just like in May, we rolled over seven years of the podcast. And in that time, Tyler started more flate. I started a company called snail armor and I stopped doing the YouTube channel because podcasting is so much more fun and way easier than YouTube. And so snail trail four by four really today is just the podcast that is an advertising platform for off-roading people and companies and ways that we can, Tyler and I get to hang out and talk about what we've been up to and publish it to everybody. I love it. So, but in the meantime, you know, like I said, we've both started our own companies and we were sponsored by more flate and we were in the more flate to vehicle, even though our name was snail trail four by four. So, was bested everybody up. So, why don't you tell us a little bit about more flate? Yeah, I'm six foot four, I think is the main genesis from this. And I can't squat at tires. I just, to air down and air up tires, I squat down and tired. My knees don't work to get me back up, right? And so, it was 2014 or 15 when I was like, there's got to be a better way to do this than an easy deflated that pulls valve cores out or pull the valve crawl yourself and having a shoot into a snow bank or using your key or a stick to depress the valve stem. Whatever it was, it's like there's just these ways all suck. So, I found some DIY designs on the internet and I was like, they're using pretty crappy parts for all this stuff. There's parts that'll poke you, stick you, cut you, the hose's deteriorate over time and fall apart or they freeze and get stiff when they're frozen and cold. The air trucks, I've always been amazed at how terrible air trucks are in this world. And so, I was like, there's got to be better ways to do all this. And so, I've messed around with different parts and trying off the shelf parts and eventually created all my own parts for it all. And I was around 2019, 2018, I think is when I kind of had the final design, finally all figured out and people were like, the buddies and friends were, hey, can I get one of those? Like, sure, just pay for the parts. I'll make one for you whatever. At about that time, I was also early kind of in my career in a big boy job, making big boy money and I was like, but I need to be spending it on life and important stuff. So, I was like, I need an extra 500 bucks a month to pay for my off road vehicle that I keep breaking when I go out playing. And I was like, maybe more if I can do this or this hose thing can do this and made a name for it. I was teaching off-roading radio classes to people, installing radios, unlocking radios. And that came under the brand of my off-road radio, M-O-R-R. Okay. And so this hose idea, I was just like, I don't know if this is going to go anywhere. I'm just going to throw it under the radio company, do it on the side kind of thing because I just needed a channel to form collecting sales, right? A sales channel. And that was in 2019 when I officially launched it under my off-road radio as the more fleet. And then in 2020, the world shut down for COVID and kind of everything exploded and a ton of people started ordering this thing out of nowhere. And I was like, holy shit, this is doing way more than I was ever anticipating. Maybe I can quit my day job and try and push towards doing this. And eventually I was able to do that in August 2021, which was very much overdue. My wife didn't want me to quit my day job and do this more flight thing. And so got it all off the ground and did it and have been doing some really cool things and finding ways to implement technology from the radio side of me into something that's been so nerd. Hardly meant to say. The nerdy side of me. And it's something that's been so archaicly done forever, which is tired in person. So got into automated air systems now and we have some really cool stuff coming out a little bit later this year. So yeah, you were sharing a little bit of that stuff with me when I was asking you about the how well the compressors will hold up. So yeah, man, that's crazy. COVID was a wild time, wasn't it? Yeah, for sure. COVID for us too was when we probably, I think even still for us as a company COVID year, I think it's still the highest or one of the highest years we've had in sales. Like it was just crazy. People were like, we're not going to sit in the house. Like we have to do something like people just something couldn't do it, man. They tried to lock people up and they were like, nope, we're out. Nope, we're going out. Going outside. Yeah. And it really exploded. I think the overland off road like market exploded through COVID because there was just the guys like you, like the guy that's like, there's got to be a better way to do this. And people were just starting to make stuff and then you had so many people looking for, right? Like a guy like me who's got no idea what he's doing, right? Like I have no idea what I'm doing. And having a tool there, that's readily available to make what I'm trying to do better. You know, there's just that momentum just like was going. And I think those those two years that like 2020 to 2022, like those two years have just really like vamped up all of that stuff. So I can vouch for the more flaked stuff. Like we've got it crazy about the name. Like I actually I wondered because even how you spell it, like your more is all caps and inflated is. And so I was wondering like, how I'm gonna put the. Because there's always a reason, right? Like name something for a reason. It's always wondered. I was like, yeah, I wonder what the name was. Because you know, I was like, you know, more flaked. And then I realized there was two hours. And I was like, okay, well, that's purposeful, right? That's definitely something going on there. Yeah. So there you go. There's the origin story. I love to love to love to. Yeah, we actually, it's funny because there's Mattoff Road recovery, right? And so he labels a lot of stuff as M-O-R-R on all of this thing. So we get die hard, Matt fans that. I want to buy a stuff. Like pick fights with us. Like, honestly, try and fight our guys out of the events because we're stealing Matts name. And I was like, no, no, no, no. We had my off-road radio in 2017. Mattoff not start his YouTube channel. I think in '18 until '18 or '19. Yeah. So we were technically using the M-O-R-R first, but. It's just funny to me how much people look into that. And they're like, you're stealing Matts name. What are you doing? Like, two hours. Two hours. Those is that are neon yellow, right? Yeah. But it's all green, green, green, green. Yeah. So I love the stuff. I've had the more fleets. I've got a kit and my son-in-law's got a kit in his Ranger. And it was funny. We did some trying to start the vlogging video series. I think I might have talked to you guys a little bit a bit at the show where we just kind of go out with guys like you guys that, you know, let's go somewhere and let's go have an adventure. And so we did that with. I tried to get like four or five of our influencer guys that are local together and three of them. One of them has fought them out past away and two of them were like, "Oh, do you not thought that was next week?" So I just wanted to go out there. But my son-in-law was down. And so he was there. I was there. And then Adam, one of our influencers were there. And so like we're at the edge of the trailhead and everybody's got more fleets. Like. (laughing) As it should be. Yeah. (laughing) I thought it. I actually think Adam might have posted 'cause his compressor, you guys just took care of him on his compressor. I was like, "It was compressor. It was rough, man." Like when we aired back up at the end of it, it was loud. (laughing) And he was like, "Yeah, I got to get ahold of those guys." And then I think like a week or two later, he posted. He's like, "Chicken out guys, more fleet for the win." And they sent me a new one, no charge. He goes, "Guys, you're the best." And I was like, "Hey, I know those guys." (laughing) That's cool. It'll be. So. There's a little moments like that. And it always kind of like, I don't know, I'm not here for Famer Glory. I'm just here to kind of build some cool stuff and have fun in a really rad industry. But little stories like that and seeing people impacted like that is. It's hard for me to wrap my head around sometimes, as the kind of this monster that I've created. I had one of those moments, Memorial Day weekend out on the Rubicon. I was parked out on the slabs in Rubicon Springs with Fiona, the big neon green forerunner we had out of Traverse X. And this guy walks up to me, super Australian dude. Not quite as Australian as James, but. He's funny dude, he just walks up, he goes, "Oh, that's cool. I didn't know that. That is an actual more fleet vehicle." And I was like, "Yeah, yeah, it is. I'm the owner." And he goes, "Oh, cool. When did you come over from Australia?" And I was like, "I'm sorry. No, we're local here to Sacramento area." And he goes, "You guys are in the United States." I was like, "Yeah." And he goes, "I have your gear in Western Australia back at home." And I was like, "Really?" What do you. So he goes, "Yeah, I always thought you guys were an Australian company." It's like meeting this dude from halfway across the world over Morphlay and talking with him about his experience back in Western Australia with the gear and how that translates to him having more fun on the trails and everything too. It's one of those things that I'm just like, "That's really cool. That's the stuff that I'm here for." So. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, that's funny. I honestly, I thought you guys were Australian too. That's what I think. I learned before we ran into each other at the show, but yeah, I don't know why I would have connected those two. I don't know. It's just. I think Australia has a very long standing of creating really good gear for off-roaders. I agree. And they have this. There's an Australian standard for off-roading, overlanding equipment because not only is it just recreation for them, it's a lot of their way of life. It's how they get around Australia sometimes in some places, right? So their gear has to be high quality, well built. They have to be dependent on it. So I feel like a lot of times when we see stuff pop up in the states, that follows that mantra. It's kind of like, "No, Australian's definitely did that one." So. Yeah, they just kind of. It's like that whole German engineering for sports cars, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you think of the Germans when you think of the luxury sports car, the Germans, you don't think of Cadillac or whatever. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Because it's a lifestyle for them. Some of it's not even recreational, right? It's just, "I gotta get home." Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, you know, and Tyler's bashful about this, but one of the really great things about Moreflate is that they give a portion of sales and everything back to the off-road community. Is it an actual percentage or is it you just. It's not a percentage. We do it through community giveaways, raffles a lot of times. And direct memberships with the organizations donating a product to the organizations for them to raffle off, but one of the things that I've. I came across very early on in my off-roading career is that we're losing a lot of trails. And our trails are always being attacked and they're always trying to be shut down. And so I was like, "Okay, so what are things we can do about it? We can do like adopt a trail staff, trail maintenance projects. We can build signs, help educate." And then a couple of organizations started popping up that did like full-on heavy-duty lobbying and litigation. And my wife at the time was working in anti-tabacco legislation. And I learned through her work that the quickest and most efficient way to make lasting change is to implement it through law. And so I started looking into this idea of implementing law, stuff litigation, stuff for OHV access and found a company called Blue Ribbon Coalition, who I'm sure a lot of people have heard about there. And others out there that litigate and lobby for litigation. But once I started real seeing the things that they were working on and seeing the impact that they were having by working through litigation and how many trail systems that one piece of litigation impacts rather than having to run thousands of adoptive trail work parties to impact these trail systems. I was like, "We just need more money. We need more money into stuff that we can buy lawyers and pay lawyers to fight these litigations for us and impact law and impact a change on a large scale." And so once I realized that, I was like, "I want this company more flight, not only just create cool stuff, but I want to see the profits from it get funneled back into our trails and OHV access, country want." That's wild. I didn't know you guys attached to more flight until literally the TV show right and getting to connect you. I think even just in the month or so since that, you've done a few things like on the trail clean up and all of the fighting works you have to prevent all that stuff. So that's, I mean, if you're looking for a reason to support a company, you can't be bashful, man. You sell them Jimmy. Sell them? Yeah, I do. I do. I do. I do. I would be in the same shoe. I don't think I would ever want to talk about the things that I'm doing, right? Because you're not doing it for that, right? Yeah. Unless you're there to lobby for something, the chances of you talking about the fact that you're lobbying for something is probably, it just feels like it feels weird, right? It feels like it doesn't feel right. So good on you, Jimmy. Thanks for sharing it. Yeah, everybody. You like off-roading more flight is a brand that is not just making cool stuff, but is actually out there making sure that you can go use the cool stuff. Yeah, that's true. Continue to use it. Yeah, that's super. That's a really cool man. I've loved watching little bits of stuff that you've posted. You were cutting trees down the other day. You guys got to check their podcast because they tell a story about almost losing their chainsaw. I was like, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I heard it in what I ran it over. Yeah. We're going to win through this windshield. There was a couple of those roads were rough. There was a washboard. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, thank you guys so much for joining, man. I'm looking forward to hanging out again. I think it'd be cool if we could find a way to do like a watch party with some of the guys and the TV shows come out or something. But I'm definitely looking for a way to do it. for Ducini guys at Trail Hero and maybe some of the other shows we go to. But there you go guys, make sure you check out snail trail four by four. Jimmy, he actually posted, he's got some wild thing he's building on an old Toyota truck. - Imagine that, you know? - Yeah. - Super excited to see that stuff. Fiona is a beast, wildly intimidating when you look even just in the cab and all the shifters. Like I don't know, I was telling to somebody just here. I was like, I don't even know, man. I just know there was like four or five, he felt like a forklift. (laughing) - You could kind of get in there and be like, go in there. Yeah, I just know what they do. - I just know, I just know. - Yeah, I saw that. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Because it's super cool. I was like, I can drive it now. - Yeah. - What does it, yeah. Super cool. Check out more Flate, if you need any of that stuff, I'm super excited to see what drops here really soon for your new gear because all the gear, I love the gear. We've used it a bunch of times and good stuff, but I think you guys for coming on, thank everybody for watching. Make sure you hit subscribe, go check out more Flate, check out Snelt Show 4x4 as well. And we'll be back here next week. I believe with another guest from Chohirox, but that's it for us. Let me show it together podcast. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music) So the other day I replaced all my headlights with strobe lights. Now it looks like I'm the only one moving.