Welcome to Batch's Off-Road!
Join us as we talk about everything from gear reviews to trail stories, tent camping to
rock landing, and all things to do with the outdoors.
Today we're going to talk a little bit about our upcoming trip.
It's going to be a little 30 minute mini-sode.
I have Alex and Mark here.
And Batch's are going up north.
Yeah, well, kind of.
Not north, north.
Yeah.
Anything above Grand Rapids is north enough for us.
This is a big trip for us.
Yeah, if you want to get the Michigan way of north, it's anything north of where we
actually live from.
Pretty much.
So it counts.
Yeah, no, we're actually heading up to Cadillac area and I think we're doing Yuma trails.
And for Onyx, if you're looking at Onyx on this, it's rated as difficulty moderate, five
out of 10.
So there are very few trails actually in Michigan that are rated moderate or even difficult,
if any.
So Yuma is one of the few.
And then we're going to try to hit up a couple other ones that are south of Cadillac a little
bit or in this general vicinity.
I think there's Line Trail.
I think there's a couple of them down here.
NF, what is it, NFS 7515, NFS 5032, and then Line.
And then 37 Trail as well.
Oh, yep.
Yep.
Yeah.
So fine Line Trail of of FS 5775.
So that's our plan.
And I think we're doing that what we're doing Thursday through Sunday.
Thursday through, yeah, Thursday through Sunday.
I mean, I'm coming home Monday.
So yeah, same with me.
Yeah, I think most of our wheel is coming the weekend.
Yeah.
So yeah, I think we're this episode will actually come out on Sunday.
So it'll be just before we come home.
Yeah.
And we'll do a little mini episode after we come back about how it went, what happened,
hopefully nothing breaking, stuff like that.
But I know we're going to go up there, Alex and I Thursday and Mark and Alan, I think
are coming up a little bit later.
So Alex, Alex and I are going to secure a campsite, find something along the way that
kind of makes sense for us, maybe cut some firewood, get some stuff set up for, you know,
the far five days that we're going to be there.
And then we'll wait for you guys, cook some dinner, you know, go over all of our systems
real quick, make sure everything's tip top before we head out.
I'm assuming Friday.
Yeah, Friday.
I'm sure we'll hit most of the trails on Friday and then Saturday we'll figure out what we
want to do from there.
And I mean, even if we only wheel three, four hours a day, it's a nice relaxing weekend,
you know?
Yeah, I think I think maybe doing Yuma Hills one day, maybe doing a couple trails to get
to NFS 5032 and 7515 and the fine line trail, maybe Sunday or something.
Yep.
Just to polish it off because it is a little bit farther.
It's just past or just south of Harietta.
So I mean, it's not super long.
I do have some campsites around the area and I know Alex does too.
So we're probably going to scout those out while we're out.
I like to I like to have those documented for future when any other times you'd like
to go out.
I like to have pictures, any special notes, ratings on each campsite.
So I know what to expect.
So that's something I'm looking forward to is there's a few on Yuma trails that I don't
have any I don't have any confirmed campsites around Yuma with.
So that's kind of that's kind of my plan is while we're up there, I'm going to be kind
of multitasking doing that.
Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun.
We're going to see if I break the forerunner.
Please don't completely rebuilt front end.
Yeah, upper and lower control arms, new ball joints, new CV axles, new springs, new shocks,
while coil overs.
But I mean, it has no excuse to break this time.
None.
And now it will because you said that and and it's gusseted.
We got left the body and engine that might go bad.
Mark, stop.
Now you're getting the frame.
No, we did the frame.
We have had one frame collapse.
I am good.
Get the ratchet out, boys.
No, I we should be fine.
I don't I don't foresee anyone's vehicles having any kind of failures.
I did travel Yuma at one point.
I can't remember if I did the full thing because my phone died during the trail.
So I don't have my onyx doing the full trail.
I only have about half of it.
I think I did the full one, but it wasn't too bad.
It was definitely really fun.
It was more technical than we're used to around here.
So it'll be a lot of fun for us.
Mark, did you do anything upcoming to get ready for this?
Any upgrades the last week or two to prepare?
Well, the only thing I've done is remount my skid plate.
I had a old welded on nuts and breaking those off and turning it into riv nuts instead.
Then remounted that skid play up and then bought a tip for this weekend because we only
be Alex been sharing a tip the last couple of times now.
So we had to get another one from me and my brother.
The best hundred dollar tent money can buy.
There you go.
I think you might be forgetting a little thing called breaks.
Didn't you do those too?
Yes, I did do those too.
I'm trying to remember because I couldn't remember if that was like a month ago, but
I'm pretty sure that was recent.
And boy did you need those.
Yes.
You don't like it when the pedal goes straight to the floor?
I still got that partially, but at least it's better than having a death wobble while breaking.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
I mean having having leaves for brake pads was probably not the best thing.
Well that wasn't the best either, but for at the time I had no money to even get the
whole new calipers or anything because I had to replace calipers.
So I just bought pads and use the use rotors and it was doing a death wobble because how
uneven the rotors were.
I was going to say those are probably pretty damn warped.
Yes.
Yes, please Alex.
Because let it be known.
We have no money to fix our trucks.
Yeah, exactly.
Especially Alex because he just redid the whole front end.
And not only did he just redo the front end, it was just for a five out of 10 trail.
This is all in prepare for Yuma.
This is our big one for the end of the year.
I mean you got to remember I broke it driving down a dirt road.
Yes.
Not even the trail yet.
That's okay.
This last weekend I turtled on some logs.
So that was embarrassing.
Let it be known.
The FJ's wheelbase is exactly four logs wide.
Yeah, we won't tell you the measurements on that, but four logs wide and it's perfect.
It's just enough to get some skin on either side of the tire.
I just watched everybody else go over it and then I went to go over it and it just goes
thud and all wheels are spinning.
I'm like, okay, well, fine.
We'll have to line up.
I don't think your wheelbase is that much shorter than mine.
We have to be pretty close.
You two have to be close.
I think mine's a little bit smaller.
No, I can't.
I don't know.
You'll have to look that up.
For me.
All right.
Are you ready for this?
Yeah, you got like two inches.
The third gen 4Runner is 105.3 inches.
The FJ Cruiser is 105.9 inches.
That's all that matters.
You're actually wider than me.
Wider, yes.
You're longer.
You're longer by 0.6 inches.
That's all that I honestly, that's all that I needed.
That's all that 0.6 inches right there.
And the tires.
I'll give you that.
And the tires.
Yeah.
I have all terrains and he's got, I think, MTs because he's got some chunky bitches on
there.
Yeah.
Cheap old MTs.
Yeah.
But hey, you got that over me.
We have the same lift and everything too.
So that 0.6 inches, man.
Not to say.
I might have some height on you.
I might have some ground clearance on you.
I think you do.
I think you have ground clearance on me.
I'm loaded down a lot heavier than you are.
So first, not right now.
I might still be.
So I bet you got more ground clearance than I do right now.
I got that back so loaded, dude.
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
You got your whole fucking rear end is filled.
I think I even have my 10 in there just to take some take some stuff out of mine.
But I know I have a constant I have 200 pound constant load springs on there.
And those are pretty much I'm not saying they're done, but the bumper itself is like close
to 100 pounds if not steel bumper.
So I was I'm probably already over that.
I should went higher.
Now I got a 45 pound fridge in the back and you can tell when you air down that the right
side is obviously heavier.
So you just need 45 pounds of water weight on the other side to even it out.
Yeah, I got to figure out a water system that's you guys are carrying my water this time.
Because I didn't have enough money to figure out a decent water system.
I have a five gallon water container, but I literally have nowhere to put it.
So I think what I'm going to end up doing is doing the PVC water storage on the roof.
You have a five gallon water jug.
Yeah, which I have already mentioned that I had for some reason I didn't catch that.
You should bring that tomorrow before we leave.
That way I can leave it for the guys to bring up.
Yeah, because then we'll have 15 gallons with us, which should be more than enough.
Okay.
Yeah, I'll bring it tomorrow.
Just remind me.
So okay.
So yeah, Alex, you did your whole front end and preparing for Yuma.
Mark, you did you did your comms, not preparing for Yuma, but you did your comms.
You did your breaks.
And then I think you chased down some ground issues.
Yeah, I still haven't figured that one out yet.
I think it's just how it is at this point.
Yeah, because then I think I, I redid my idler pulleys.
I did both tops and the bottom and bell.
I did finally get rid of my squeal.
That thing has been so loud lately.
But it's it's done well.
It's done over like almost 3000 miles on those squeaky idler pulleys.
So now you could sneak up on a bear.
Oh yeah, dude.
Before it was like a dog whistle.
Like it was just loud.
It sounded like I had a supercharger just spooling all the time.
Just wait till you hear my AC kick on this weekend.
Oh yeah, that's gonna be rough.
So yeah, I did the yeah, I did the idler pulleys.
Max helped me rig up an Anderson jumper for one jumper cables.
But two, I have an Anderson connector now in the front of my truck flush mounted so
that I can hook up my compressor and do my air, which is really nice because I have limerizers
and I have to take the limerizers off every time that I have to pop my hood.
So that's kind of a save, save by the bell kind of thing that we did right before.
And then we use the alligator clamps that were part of the the compressor.
We use some of the leftover cable and we made jumpers that I now have.
So we used as much as we could out of that.
And then I rigged up finally or finally rigged up my chase lights in the back.
So now those turn on had Alex run and grab a switch very last second because I decided
I just was going to hook them up straight up to the battery and didn't even think about
it at that point.
No, no, no, I was just going to run them all the times.
Those are daytime running chasers at that point.
But no, he helped me help me think about that because at that point, my brain is fried and
I could not really think about how to rig the the wiring up.
So he helped me kind of narrow that down.
We hodgepodge some wiring together to make sure I had enough length to get that hooked
up.
We got that done.
And then yesterday, I'm sorry, actually earlier today in preparation, I moved my seat up,
I don't know, three inches, two or three inches.
I've been having issues with my all top fridge slide.
Like I have to like ram it in there to get it to actually lock in because the rear seats
in the FJ are at an angle and there's not actually enough room for the fridge to comfortably
sit in there.
So I kind of had to ram it in.
So I moved the seats up just a little bit and and now everything's in there.
I will not disclose this information for repetitive Tory safety concerns for children listening.
Let's just say it was done redneckedly.
And as safe as I could possibly make it for DOT standards in the state of Michigan.
Very much job.
It was a much job.
It's a piece of plywood with an engine, two mirrors and turn signals.
Yes, it's a two.
It was a two by six to help move it up forward a little bit.
And a two by six block.
And then I used wood screws to just send her home right into the family without looking
at whatever electrical I had.
I just sent it with like a three inch wood screw, two and a half inch deck screw and
a three and a half inch deck screw.
All pork bits, though.
So I don't have to worry about stripping my stripping those heads out till there's just
a little bit of rust on them.
Yeah, no, they're coated, man.
They're for the deck.
They're coated.
Nice tan colors stands out really well.
You know, the funniest part of that whole charade, and you probably almost could hear
me cussing from your house, was that for me to pull that seat back, which I can't get
in the back of my truck to do that.
So I'm sitting on the seat, pulling it back, trying to move the plywood and just yelling
because I'm like, dude, I can't lean the seat back and put the wood behind the seat at the
same time and then screw it down.
I ended up getting a ratchet strap and strapping the you know, where the head the head mount
is the little the little bar for the head mount.
I got one hook there, one hook in the the passenger seat there.
Oh, ratcheted it until it pulled the seat up enough to where the fridge would slide
nice.
Then I sent those screws home, man.
No electrical issues known yet.
I'll let you know that changes after our after a trip.
The plan.
I mean, eventually the plan once that once that we change baby seats is to do a full
delete on that anyway.
So baby's still safe, everybody.
It's wrong part of the seat.
So it's just it's just the safety.
You know, the seat isn't latched, but the baby is still safe.
He's in the safety, the safe area where it is latched.
So no big deal.
Anybody who knows that I have a kid worried about him flying or folding up like a lawn
chair next time I stop.
I mean, all right.
Let it be known.
Gavin is our safety officer.
I am.
Yes, I am.
I am the worrywart, too.
So if you know that I'm fucking shit up like this, then there's things there's some things
that go on, you know, behind the scenes.
I'm pretty sure I watched Alex wire not a ground once.
It was crazy.
I cannot confirm nor deny that there are wire nuts on my truck.
Yeah, I can't confirm.
Deny is we're way of wiring up my stuff, too.
Hey, I saved you on the one.
He was he was.
Are you sure?
Oh, fine.
I'll do it.
Are you happy now?
Help me a little bit as the safety officer.
I got I'm a little like church and guys.
I went to the school of hard knocks.
Yeah, you went to the you went to a blind electrician school because I mean, it works.
It works just fine.
He does it all by feel.
He just just don't look at it because the ground wire has a slightly slippery side on
it, whereas the positive wire, it's kind of grippy.
Huh?
Yeah, see, that's how I know he's doing it by blind because I didn't feel any grippy
or any slippy or I would have thought about that.
We've had some different conversations on grippy and slippy wire.
Hey, man, I love the slippy wire.
I like the grippy wire.
So I guess we're we're all just two peas of a pod.
That's the botches over the offer.
But so cool, man.
We got we got our updated updated build list right now.
All our upgrades for Yuma.
We got our can.
We built them for Yuma.
Just for you.
Yes, five out of 10 Yuma Hills.
So yeah, man, it's going to be it's going to be a lot of fun.
We'll we'll be sure to take pictures, update as we go.
And then we'll do a recap.
And after we get back and we'll talk about what happened, hopefully everything good,
how we like the trail.
For me, I think I've done part of it, but I really enjoyed it.
Alex has done some harder trails, so he might he might not like it as much.
But I think it's a good time.
It'll be a good one to check off the list, and I am very much like checking trails off
lists.
So I don't know, man.
I live in Michigan.
My expectations for trails is so low now.
Well, yeah.
You know, it's even lower now that we have the the marble head flattened.
So so at that point, that's like a two out of 10.
There's still Moose Nemesis and Moose Nemesis is pretty, pretty good.
Yeah.
So I'm going to do a trip up there at some point stealthily and and check some stuff
out.
And then, I mean, we've got Skitter Hill and I've conquered Skitter Hill now.
So I mean, I can check that off.
Does that count?
Yeah, I was going to say you almost blew your transmission out on on the time that you took
me out there.
So on the silver truck.
Yeah.
So I don't know that I count that and you can't count it if it's not your truck.
Well, it's dedicated.
Well, it's also half doors and a crawler and mud.
The crawler has been at my house for like three weeks now.
By law.
There's something there.
By common law.
Wasn't the housing law again?
Possession is three tenths of the law.
Squatters law, dude, you have to just live in it for seven years.
That's right.
I think you have to pay taxes on it, too.
Dude, we pay taxes on everything, dude.
I know.
Enough government.
Jesus Christ.
All right, y'all.
Thanks for joining up.
Thanks for giving us the updates and we will see you guys when we get back.
For sure.