Welcome to Botch's Off-Road. Join us as we talk about everything from
tr- ooo. 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 I've got Mr. Joe Yamber, Yoda disciple on Instagram for anyone who does
that whole thing. We're just kind of gonna run down on his Sequoia and his
Tundra and yeah it should be a pretty decent episode. Don't forget about my
other Instagram account. Oh I can't remember what her name is.
Donnie Tramp. Yeah yeah Donnie Tramp. That one is a that is a great time. So yeah.
Yeah. You know I've known you for a long time and all I know about the Sequoias
it's on 37s. So I started that when we went to Drummond in 23 with MST and we
took the Tundra, just my oldest son and I, and then we wanted to incorporate the
rest of the family and the Tundra being an access cab is a little too small for
that. So we went on the North Shore trip with the Sequoia. I went with stock. We
had a blast. My wife kind of got on board for beefing it up a little bit and
then in true Yamboor fashion I went overboard. So it's got Fox 2.5s in the
front, JVA upper control arms, Fox, I'm sorry,
Dobson's IMS in the rear and then the 2.5 inch lift springs, Method 305s and
Kenda 37s and then the Coastal Off-Road Bumper, Expo Lynch, Talons Garage, Full
Skids, 80% off-road sliders, Pro Speed Roof Rack and then the T&U Rooftop 10,
Cali Raise Light Bar, Aux Beam Pods, Midland 50 watt and then upgraded head
unit to run Onyx just in the heads-up display as opposed to running like a
tablet separate or anything, you know. Right. Oh it's got, my favorite
cheapest mods I've done with it was the H7 switchbacks behind my projector
lenses where I can just go from white to amber. They were like Amazon
specials for like 40, 50 bucks or whatever but they're sweet. Like it really
is a really useful mod for trails and snow and stuff like that. Yeah I've just
got those LEDs in the 4Runner and man do I wish I had them switchbacks. They're
cheap like I said especially if you have a projector like it's kind of a
no-brainer because you get all the benefits of white light and amber
for next to nothing. Right. Like the Aux Beam has a set of them that run you
know stupid expensive but those are Chinese chips anyway so I mean I just
got the Amazon ones. Do you still got your cracked rear bumper on that thing?
Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah good. Yeah I want to get...
Yeah thanks Derek. I want to get, he's gonna rip on me too for even mentioning
that it was his fault but I whatever. I want to get the victory one but like at
the same time I don't really drop in like $2,700 with the swing out too so
I'll probably just keep rocking it until it falls off and then we'll deal with
it later. That's kind of my style. Is the victory one the only option for an
upgrade on that thing? Oh no there's there's one more in the victory one
looks cheap compared to that. The tandem off-road who kind of pioneered second
gen Sequoia builds they they have an option and without a swing out like but
theirs is really cool I'll give them that like it has options for dual swing
outs, jerry cans, everything but that one starts at $3,800 without swing outs.
Yeah that's insane. So yeah well at the time they were the only one doing it so I
mean and they're a smaller shop they don't I get why it's expensive but I
can't no way. You could get a really shitty third gen for that price. You can
get you can get six XJ's for it. Right right. So that's the thing
too is why like I'm kind of pivoting off like wheeling the crap out of the
Sequoia because as fun as it is like it's limited with the independent rear
and it's expensive like the XJ I dude I have I bought two XJ's all in for
$1,750 in a shotgun because I traded their Jeep Derek some money a shotgun and
some MST merch for that XJ he had. It's been fun watching you wheel the XJ
because you almost wheel like me with just no care in the world now. Yeah like
I don't want to break it too bad where like it's gonna be a hassle to get it
back on the trailer but like at the same yeah I don't I don't care like you know
if I have I have a whole nother one sitting at home in well parts for a
whole nother one it's all taken apart now but I have axles I have alternators
starters engines you know I mean like it yeah if it happens it happens. That's I
love driving a shit box because when I break something it's like you know 50 60
bucks to fix it maybe up to 500 but usually it's under 100 bucks. Yeah dude
like a Toyota alternator when we fried mine on drummin was an AutoZone one was
almost $300 like you know the parts for Toyota stuff especially it is so
expensive like you can an OEM Toyota alternator is $450 that doesn't include
shipping like I'm sorry you can buy whole parts XJ for that. And now it's in
now with what's been going on with the OEM market at least for third gens I
don't know about up there OEM stuff almost doesn't matter anymore because
it's the same crap that everyone else has now. I mean typically I'll try to get
Denso stuff like coils or spark plugs stuff like that if I can. There's no
sense in you know spending an extra $30 on a coil that has Toyota stamped on it
when you can get a Denso one that's the exact same thing because they're the
OEM supplier but you know I try to buy stuff that's budget friendly but that's
also gonna last. Like even in the third gen world even our Rack and Pinion the
OEM Rack and Pinion is the same as the $200 one off Rock Auto. I'm not sure who
does that I just know about my Tundra and it's um and I bought one from Jojo
that the parts guy but it was stamped J-E-K-T. So yeah whoever that is I'm sure
you can get a lot I'm sure you get a lot cheaper from from just buying right from
the supplier without a Toyota sticker on it. Of course Jojo got pretty decent deals too.
Yeah I'm not I mean people have good experiences with them there's bad
experiences I've never had bad experience with them so we're actually
working on getting his merch set up through our our website. I'm not sure where
the progression on that is yet but it's stay tuned for it I guess. Yeah I gotta
get with you to get our merch over there too. Yeah that's fine.
Anyway we can talk about yeah that stuff MST's merch is booming. It's pretty
good we got a bunch of lady stuff coming up right now that they're putting on to
the website. We've got my stuff the DNR the the Yoda Disciple stuff but yeah
everything MST it all goes right back to the club it doesn't go to like you
know my mom you know she has to cover costs and everything but it's the only
financial way to support MST so if you can buy a hoodie buy t-shirt whatever you
know helps helps those guys have some funds to plan things you know whatever
even if it's just them going to buy a beer and talking about a trip you know
hey whatever they do a lot for us and we can do a little for them. So the your
Tundra build that's you've got what Kings all the way around on that or just
in the rear? No Kings in the front Foxes are in the rear and then that's yeah
that's it's just that's pretty mild too I mean I I do that that I did piece
together like where the Sequoia did all at one time the the Tundra was over it's
you know nothing's ever done but the Tundra you know I started off with a
little day start polyurethane leveling kit and then from there went to Toytex
from there went to Kings so it's you know I don't wheel it too much but it is
fun to wheel it you know I I got I got so much crap you know I it's just I
don't have any sort of plans dude it's just it all kind of happens and then I
spend more money and then yeah whatever. I mean isn't that why you get money is
to spend money? That's yeah that's what I tell my wife but then she doesn't think
that that's how it should go. My wife kind of gave up stopping me from
spending money at this point. Yeah I mean she saw some of my Black Friday
purchases on the Amazon thing and then saw the Jackery and the diesel heater
and like she said well I'm not gonna go camping in the cold anyway I don't know
what you need all that stuff for. Like all right well surprise nights where
you're you know it's nice and 60 degrees and drops to 40s in the middle of the
night you're gonna be happy that we have this stuff. What uh what diesel heater
did you get? You get one you're building or you get an all-in-one? I got a the VVOR
with the app control I think it's like a five five kilowatt or whatever it is.
Yep yeah so yeah I mean we put one of those in my buddy's van when he was
living out of it and it it would work really well and then randomly it would
just pump exhaust through the cab. Oh that's good. But I think it's because he
had his exhaust too close to the intake. Yeah I honestly it's still sitting in
the box. I am to the point now where I don't even open up boxes like I just
throw like I'm not even kidding dude I could show you I've got boxes that are
just I don't even know what's in them anymore and so I need it I don't even
open them. But there's no point really messing with it until the Jackery gets
here. I can't I can't Jack yet until after the new year it should be here
like January 5th or something. It's taken it so long for you to be able to
Jack. I just want to Jack like with myself and with other people and I can't
Jack. I mean everybody else is jacking without me. Hey I don't Jack without you
I don't bring no secondary power. Yeah um I know these guys are talking about
running different batteries and all that stuff I'm I'm lazy man like just give me
a give me a box to plug into a cigarette lighter and that's good like I don't have
my wiring hooked up to switch panels or anything I'm just like a king of butt
connectors. Even in that it's a coil which is like a nice like a nice build
from the outside well it was before Derek messed my bumper up. Like dude I
just I don't know I just get it working for now and like I say I'm gonna get to
it later and never do. Yeah I uh I switched to AGM when I put my battery in
the back when I did the relocation. Yeah yeah yeah just because when you're in
the AGM it doesn't vent whereas a normal battery vents and I don't want to be
breathing in battery stuff. Yeah I don't know I hasn't caused many problems but
maybe it's something to look at I don't know. Um if you did you boost your
voltage for it? I have not boosted my voltage yet. So from what I've read and
that you know I just read stupid crap on you know Facebook groups who these guys
maybe know what they're talking about or maybe don't but you're supposed to
boost your voltage with AGM batteries because they want to supposed to charge
over 14 volts. So there's a diode that you can get for GM cars and you shave
part of like the side of it off and then you just replace your um your alternator
15 amp fuse with this diode and it boosted a full volt and you can add a do
like an add a fuse situation where you have like your 15 amp and and the diode
and it's probably be a safer way to do it. I just stuck the diode in there and
it hasn't given me any issues yet although I am gonna replace my starter
for the second time in a year so maybe I think that has something to do with more
with uh mentioning mentioning you out of the south shore loop and then also
doing tank traps and stuff like that had four feet four feet of water when we got
in there. Yeah I uh I was pretty stuck that day I'm not gonna lie. Oh yeah dude
remember we like you pulled you out like your your horn was going off
non-stop the car was trying to start on its own with the remote start. That was
the dumbest thing I've ever done I'm not gonna lie I should have listened to you. Well when
we when you get um when we went back in June and we went through it and saw what
you fell in because it dropped it was fine on the one side and he dropped off
into the tank trap on the other side but the whole thing was submerged in water
there's no way to tell. Yeah. But I was getting up to about my headlight like
when I dropped that I'm like dude there's I'm not no I'm not trying to
hydro lock a vehicle that I have this kind of financial responsibility to pay
off on you know although insurance typically will cover that but. Is that
mine? I'm not trying to explain that to my agent. I was just driving down the
road and I hit a puddle. Well he's he's also like my buddy too so cuz my yeah my
wife's friend he started his own agency so I threw him some business to you know
help him get going or whatever shout out Alec Garza but anyway um so he sees
everything I do on Facebook and he I'm like had these conversations with him
like hey man like if I suck water in my engine like what's gonna happen do you
think and he's like well if it's water related damages we'll cover it and I'm
like all right he's like just maybe don't describe how it happened and have
a better way to say how it happened you know what I mean? Yeah I was I was on the
phone with State Farm like three weeks ago and I'm like so if I'm out on a
trail and I break something what how am I covered and they're like well we'll
get the vehicle to a repair center we'll cover all the towing and we generally
will give a pretty decent payout and I'm like all right I'm sold. Yeah I have
State Farm too um it's expensive like really expensive right now with having
three vehicles on full coverage but yeah whatever it's like 500 and we just got
the Rav4 so I haven't even seen what that's gonna gonna entail I think he
said it was more expensive but I've got just the 4Runner and my 442 which is in
storage and I'm sitting at like 313 or something like that
Jesus like it's expensive. You have full coverage on the third gen? Oh yeah I
haven't agreed I have agreed upon payout at 14 grand on the third gen. How do you
go about getting that? Well it started with my 442 is how I don't know exactly
what it was because my 442 blue books at like $600 but it's one of 204 because
you know according to the title it's just a Calais but because it's a quad
442 it got appraised and it appraised at like 23 grand so they gave me a
agreed-upon payout at 23 grand on that and then I did the same thing for the
4Runner when I bought it. So you just get them appraised and then pretty much yeah
you gotta give them appraised and there's some paperwork you got to fill out but
well I don't think mine I'm not sure how high mine would appraise after Derek
ruined my bumper but um yeah. With newer vehicles like the
Sequoia I don't know if they would do it I think they have to be over like 20
years old or something like that. Okay the Tundra might be worth looking at
doing that with then. I bet you the Tundra's cut would be fall into that
category. Yeah it's a 20 it's a it's a 2000 so anyway yeah maybe something to
look into. What um yeah what do you guys got going on you guys got any rides
coming up soon? I think me and Gavin are gonna go out here locally on Saturday and
just kind of see what's going on with snow and stuff. Yeah we're I don't want
to say we're taking the winter off but we're we're wheeling light this winter.
Yeah I have a couple things on the maintenance list to check off but I
want to at least get a few like last year we didn't have much snow and my
wife had to have surgeries like the one week that we actually had it so I didn't
really get any decent snowmobiling in besides Winterfest we had Winterfest but
that was you know I want to just go you know find some fresh snow and see what
those 37s will eat you know. Yeah we've got Mark's truck we've got some work we
got to do we got to fix his rear springs and stuff I think we're gonna try and get
some 35s on the third gen before we go to Leatherwood. Skinny skinny 35s man.
That's what I plan on doing is skinny 35 yeah yeah skinny 35s are the way to go.
And then probably a roof rack and stuff and just try to save money on wheeling
so we can do some building you know. Yeah for sure um and we've got that whole
tool trailer build going on so yeah I've got stuff I got the trailer
sitting at Derek's house I need to go grab but I have to replace the starter on
the Sequoia again I just did it about this time last year yeah I did it last
year but Toyota electronics don't like water and it saw more water than I
planned on it seeing this past wheeling season so I chalk it up to that so but
we were replaced man it's like it's like a three-hour job on your back dude and
it you know I probably will get it done sooner the quicker this time being my
second time doing it but it's I've been procrastinating it hardcore because I
absolutely am dreading it. If we were a video podcast this is where I'd place in
the reel of you going through the tank traps. Yeah I just watched it recently
explaining to some of the guys why I have to replace it after a year and like
I'd screen-shotted like how deep it actually was because it was over the
headlights it was up to the hood luckily it was just like that one drop-in
section I got out of it real quick and like if I if it would have been that
deep for like 20 30 yards or something it probably would have been a problem
yeah you know that was a really fun trip there was a lot more water than I
thought there would be yeah I'd never been up there in the spring before and
it was it was a surprise for sure but it was fun like like but that was kind of
the trip too that opened my eyes up to like hey like this kind of sucks having
to worry about wheeling the thing that you need to drive you know four and a
half hours home or longer if you're going other places what drumming for me
is four and a half hours but uh you know having to drive over the Mackinac
bridge on battery was pretty scary and uh kind of was what kind of nudged me
into the direction of doing the whole trailer ship box rig thing where that
you know I can break and load it up on the trailer and worry about it later not
having to change it art on alternator and an auto zone parking lot you know a
hundred miles away from where I it failed at yeah that was yeah I'm glad
you made it though because we were with you for what like 50 miles of that and
then we split off but yeah probably probably a little longer it's about oh
it's a two track it's a two lane so that it's about an hour from the bridge to
the ferry so yeah probably 60 70 miles or whatever yeah we were we were pretty
worried you weren't gonna make it it was it was pretty bad honestly like Mark um
Todd Todd charged me so much the night before I was hooked up for like five
hours while you guys were cooking your meal and tin foil that took four hours
to cook yeah that was that was the thing yeah yeah then um and then we just you
know we stopped when we could charge luckily the the guys in the ferry got us
close together so we could charge on the ferry and then we stopped at that rest
area for 30 minutes before the bridge and it was smooth sailing but it was
scary I remember we stuck we had everything hooked up ready to go in case
Todd had to tell me in the middle of the bridge we got a kinetic rope in a
shackle like on standby I we've all started adding the the little plugs the
Anderson connectors that Todd has on his truck yeah that was very convenient and
I'm for sure because of that trip we've all added them to our trucks now yeah I
haven't because I don't learn from my mistakes or anything like that but you
know I've got I've got two well technically three coming out of my
battery box one of them that actually hooks the battery to the truck one for
my air compressor and then a small one for hooking up whatever I want on top of
that yeah see you got you got so much stuff going on like as far as like
built-in two-year rig and it's commendable but I just don't have like
like the motivation to like wire all that crap up and like mounted I just do
just give me an air compressor and a Harbor Freight Apache Pelican case give
me a Jackery and a Harbor Freight box you know and then just figure it out my
I got a new air compressor not too long ago to replace that slow one I had and
it lasted all of like three trips before it blew one of the seals out so now I
got to rip the whole thing apart and repair it I had that that nappa one that
everybody raved about because it is fast don't get me wrong yeah well
apparently I mean maybe you're supposed to secure them and not let them bounce
around in the back hatch at Silver Lake like and do whatever else we do bomb
materials with Derek or whatever because uh I was pumping up after we're at st.
Helen and it started making these horrible noises like I might do the
sinks going down and I just like Mario was there I'm like doers let's just let
it die let's let it let's let it go out with the bang and it just yeah it's like
the piston was destroying itself and I kind of tore it apart a little bit and
add like a hole in it it was it was so bad do you happen to have it yeah I
could definitely use some parts off that to fix mine yeah that's fine I mean I'm
not gonna guarantee they're worth anything like I said it it it was not
making good noises I don't know what happened but it blew itself up but yeah
it was great and so instead I just went and got the Harbor Freight one with the
two-year warranty and you know that fails I'll just go get a different one I
actually had to because I found an open box one in the back and I you know if I
I don't know if you do this or not but I I'll go grab the manager and haggle with
them a little bit like they wanted like 90 bucks for it I think I paid 55 we've
got it'll say on the other oh yeah welder that they had it marked at 130 and
we haggle them down to like 85 bucks or something like that yeah cuz like it'll
say like the date on that blue tag or whatever and if it's been sitting there
a while they don't care they're just you know some of them are sticklers about it
I mean most the time though and they just want it off the shelves they don't
really care all right man it's been it's been a joy talking to you well I have to
get you on a little more plan than just the last minute hey man we need someone
to record with us well I'm not sure if I am anything else more to say that would
be planned you know I just oh I am planning a big marble head episode soon
and I want you there for that so well I could talk about that all day I got I
got a few minutes if you I mean I don't have to like leave until about 815 so I
got if you don't want to cut it short quite yet I got a couple more minutes
but oh yeah cool cool we can keep going a little bit the night 750 is kind of
like my you know starting to get out the door time said we're here but um yeah I
so marble head when I went up for the fall colors the XJ on 33 is when I have
afford amp inch lift on it but I was able to do and I was able to do the new line
with it I had to stack a little bit Casey great spotter he helped me up and
down and it's it's a shame what they did like I was I would listen to Derek's
episode and he kind of put it in really good words where he said it was there
was something for everybody there where you could start off on one thing and
kind of as you progress with yourself and your abilities and your rig you can
move on to different lines and they kind of took that away they took that away
from everybody like I know for a fact like some of the longer wheelbase that
ups are really gonna struggle with it now um and the Sequoia I don't think I'll
ever try it with the Sequoia I mean I do have a ton of ground clearance but it's
just the just the long wheelbase on is really gonna kill it right so but the XJ
with the welded rear it it did it and it was fine but yeah it's a shame that you
know to move some stupid boulders in front of a cliff they had to destroy you
know one-third of you know a historic piece of Michigan's wheeling history and
actually you know the whole Midwest even the country you know we only have two
badge of honors in Michigan that was one of them so it I think it is again I
think they gave it back yeah no yeah they did but still it's you know it's
it's just disgusting what what a gross just poor planning poor execution just
the whole thing is yep disgusting but so on there's a lot of those guys out
there who don't want to go back they say they're never gonna go back and in my
opinion if that's if that's what's gonna happen I mean that's just kind of opens
the door for them to keep making their enhancements quotation marks and going
unchecked you know what I mean like like that kind of woke a lot of people up in
in Michigan and in the Midwest as to what you know the DNR is doing just
without any sort of public input at all they claim they had input from you know
some off-road clubs blah blah blah but in 2015 yeah well if you dig deeper
into it too they they didn't actually have like somebody out there who was
like oh okay yeah to that no that that's not what that's not what actually
happened so I I think that people should keep going keep an eye on it show that
you know hey like we've got your eye on you and you better not do anything like
that ever again and honestly like if if there was a way I would I would like to
see you know whoever was actually pulling the trigger on that to be brought
you know brought up on charges or something I mean you can't they have a
fiduciary responsibility to maintain and preserve the land not destroy it and
doing all that destruction in the name of preservation is so hypocritical and
it's just yeah it's it's gross that's the only word I can say we see it from
the DNR not just in the off-road community but look what they do with I
don't know you don't ha I don't think but look what they do with hunting and
how they manage deer it's just it's it's gotten better but we went through a
really dark time for a while yeah I'm not much of a hunter um it's not I don't
have anything against it or anything I just I don't have the time you know I
all my time that I have available like for me I usually spend fixing the things
I broke wheeling or going wheeling and breaking more things so and then you
know being you know a father to work in you know just I don't have time to go
spend a week sit in the woods man yeah I didn't this year I didn't hunt for the
same reason just work I didn't really have a farmhand and I had to work all
day every day so yeah I am but anyway so back to the the Drummond Island thing I
think that people should continue to go you know show that we care about the
trails clean up after yourself you know those businesses on the island they're
not the ones that pulled the trigger on this you know the the nice lady the nice
lady at the gift shop she wasn't out there bulldozing you know marble head
you know stuff like that you can go spend your money you know and you know
they they they survive off tourism you know there's only you know I'm not I
can't say specifically numbers but you know 1,500 people that live on that
island you know so I I have nothing I don't know I you can't point your your
rage and take away your dollars from people who had nothing to do with it and
there's still moves I miss this Moses yeah well it should be called Joe's
nemesis but I I had a yeah that's a whole nother topic I when we went was
just the family in August I didn't have the rear of the XJ locked yet and I I
struggled again on it for a while and I was just by myself with my wife and kids
so I was like kind of getting on it a little bit spinning I was like really
worried about breaking an actual shaft and get stuck out there so I went on it
from a diagonal line like I did the main obstacle just from a like a sideways
diagonal line and I and I made it up but when I went with Casey and the fall
colors group I we just walked right up at that welded rear makes such a
difference yeah and I mean at the same time like obviously lockers are great
but I would the the Sequoia especially would really benefit from one but I
can't just go in there at the stick welder and figure it out with that you
know that needs a little bit more road manners and the XJ does I have not had
my locker since we got back from drumming so that's right didn't it
didn't it fail up there yeah it failed at drumming I think you um I think if I
if I had to guess anyway you probably fried the actuator when you were sitting
in all that water trying to engage it so the the actuator functions it just
doesn't engage the gear so I just need to take it apart and rebuild it like
yeah a hundred bucks I just haven't taken the time to do it honestly like
especially with something like that there's a lot of third-gen part outs and
everything you could probably just find a used one and you know like even a
whole rear used third member and just swap that and make your life easier the
for lockers even used ones around us have been going for like between eight
and thirteen hundred dollars for just that whole actual yeah I'm I'm I know
I've seen people score him on eBay because I used to have a third gen too
so I'm still in like all those Facebook groups like sometimes people on eBay
don't really know what they have they just you know there's part and something
out and they part things out for a living they don't know what it is I've
seen somebody get one for like 75 bucks one time for the whole third member but
I mean you're gonna pay probably you know 90 to 100 dollars to get it shipped
because it's kind of heavy but right yeah the the other thing with getting a
new third member is no matter what I'm gonna have to cut and weld a cover and I
just did that so I don't really want to do that oh yeah that's right I remember
you had to add a whole quart of gear oil that that morning in the spring on
German Island yeah yeah you weren't you weren't too prepared
you know and a whole quart of gear oil no spare tire the first day and then
what else happened although the body mounts on the the four-wire rotted out
too yeah that was a rough trip for you but I know one the frame solid
yeah you know you use those things and build them better after that you know
that's how it goes I still don't have a spare tire because I'm a cheap bastard
I I could get you dude my my buddy's got two third oh he sold one of them but
he's got another third jet and there's he's got probably three or four sets of
Toyota wheels well the Toyota wheels don't work because there's 16s I have to
have 17s because of my tundra swap I we have tundra wheels I have a set of
tundra wheels over there that would work yeah yeah FJ we have 17 FJ wheels over
there it's the places where Toyota's go to die I mean there's just crap
everywhere yeah I'll probably get with you then because I would love to throw a
spare up on my roof once I get my roof rack yeah even though I mean I don't
know what your plans are for your roof rack like if you want to throw a tent
up there whatever but those harbor freight baskets you know that are perfect
for throwing a spare tire up there I got one on my XJ and then I I had a spare
light bar sitting in there so I put that on the on the wind fairing and like the
the sheet metal on it is paper thin but I mean it's it's still on there I use I got
that's what I love about the XJ yeah is I don't give a shit about how things are
fashion or secured I use gorilla tape to tape the wires up to the through the
windshield and then on the roof like to I do I think I like I on the rear on the
rear I didn't even cut the I didn't even cut the the fender on the rear to clear
the tires I just took a sledgehammer and bashed it in like just zero cares about
that thing I can't say much I cut half my fender off to clear so um yeah the the
front was sawzall really really terribly and then you know I forgot I had an I
forgot I had an angle grinder I go could have done a lot better of a job but
whatever it's like it's it's I didn't I didn't like even smooth the edges out
like it's jagged is how it looks like a squiggly line like it's not professional
but whatever else you expect from you Amber yeah I mean I'm well so that's the
thing like with the Sequoia I try to be kind of clean about the way I do things
not my wiring but the tundra is in between and the XJ is just on a pole it
was actually so refreshing to build that like I did it in twelve and a half days
in my driveway but while working full-time and then doing baseball four
nights a week with the kids like it was a whole thing but um that was so
refreshing to kind of work on that and just not care like gorilla taping wires
to the roof using zip ties for everything like I just don't care and
you know what that thing will outweel both of my other rigs because of the
fact I don't care and I will do things with it that I won't do with the other
ones that and the short wheelbase solid axles and the welded rear I mean you
know it's very to party yeah it's I haven't seen last time I saw it I think
it was still overheating yeah oh yeah yeah that's another reason why you don't
do something like that in 12 days before a big trip well I had find out was wrong
what so what happened with that was you know I bought Jeep Derrick's with the
intention of it his was a crank no start couldn't get it figured out he just was
over it I bought it trying to um diet you know figure that out and then I was
gonna wheel it and then I he told me about this it was full disclosure
nothing against him I kind of started thinking about it more he showed me
there's some spots in the frame and I'm like man I mean I could get away with
it for a little bit but my body had three XJs sitting at his house and one
of them the one I have was hit on the side so it's a bent subframe so I went
over there just to get an ECU and a crank position sensor to see if that was
the culprit for the crank no start on Jeep Derrick's I end up buying the other
XJ when I was loading it on the trailer the lower radiator hose clamp broke and
it started pouring coolant all over the place so I gotten a new hose new clamps
and obviously drained all the coolant I flushed it because that was our even
best-sitting for five years so when I got done doing that I was burping the
system the way I thought I needed to and I had not gotten all the air out of the
system then the e-fan also wasn't working which apparently is a huge deal
on those so after Drummond I went and got the Harbor Freight pneumatic back
and fill kit for cooling systems and I did that took the e-fan out of the
par-tex J put it in wired and this you'll get a kick out of this I wired it
with a team you light bar harness that came with a team you kid a lights I have
you know it's got a it's got a relay to switch hooks the battery so it is on it
it is on its second it is on a second relay though it out well is it at least
like like six or eight gauge wire or is it like it's thick enough yeah no it's
not like it's it's for a light bar you know it's not for like some little
chintzy little pods or something like it's it's they're thick yeah I could
expect them giving you like 20 gauge wire with a light bar yeah I mean it's fine I
don't know so yeah I mean I just you know check those boxes that you know I
got the air out of the system I checked to make sure that the head didn't have
any exhaust gases leaking into the cooling system and I wired the e-fan up
to its own switch and I run it all the time and it never gets above I mean I
very rarely I'll get above 210 but as soon as and that's just when you're
sitting kind of lugging around on the trail and taking breaks well you know
wild bills in the back jiggling his wires on his Jeep together so um then
it'll get hot but you know if you turn it off when you're sitting and keep that
fan running and you know it's fine I know I mean actually it's kind of run
warm anyway they usually sit around to 210 yeah 210 right words supposed to be
I mean there's these you know haas haas and bar people on the XJ groups are my
runs at 180 your code system got something wrong with it but you know
whatever every to that shit up yeah like you can like a lot of guys some guy
will like vent the hoods or raise the rear of the hood you know it's all about
that engine and I you know not coming from Toyota where everything runs pretty
cool like 186.6 I mean is what my Tundra pretty much lives that the XJ was a
learning curve for sure it's an engine that needs a lot of air flow and you
know Toyota can more or less rely on its on its cooling system to do the job
efficiently where the XJ needs a little extra hot TJ the same way those things
are hot boxes yeah I I but you know the cool thing about the XJ it's got the
four-liter which is in you know regarded as probably one of jeeps if not the most
reliable Jeep engine ever made it also has a Toyota transmission that they
source from Toyota and their cheap as hell they're reliable and they are
diamond-dozen cheap so it's been fun I enjoy it I've been enjoying watching
Yoda disciple play with jeeps yeah a long time ago I made a real you know
the third Star Wars where Anakin is like getting burned alive and Obi-Wan Kenobi
is like like I loved you you were my brother so I made a real about that like
said something stupid like when your Toyota buddy buys a Jeep and then
little did I know I was gonna be that Toyota buddy buying a Jeep I mean at
least it's okay yeah no I don't for me like I like chiefs I'm more power to
everybody that builds them up that are brand new you know they buy these brand
new ones do the top of the line everything on them you know feed locks
and 40s you know I think they just go hard with them you know like they're
awesome don't get me wrong but for me I just wanted to beat on I don't want
anything nice that I care about ruining I want something that hey if you know
the exhaust well this happened exhaust falls off the military I'll stick it
back in there and don't worry about it you know like hey you fell off this
rock and you hit a tree on the door and it's caved in now great I well take the
door off like you know who cares that's you know it's it's there to party man
it's not there it's not there for a long time it's there for a good time I'll
have to dig through the pilot my dad's I think I've got turbo headers for that
4-0 yeah I have no intentions of touching the motor I have no intentions
of gearing it I'm just dude I'm gonna honestly I'm looking at side-by-side
tires like 37 by 10 and a half like stickies you know just skinny 37 I want
the most ground that's see that's a Achilles the Achilles heel with it
though is that front diff it's pretty low so that's I'm dipping out a lot so
I'm obviously looking yeah okay that's that's a conversation with Eric he loves
portals and trailers everybody buy a trailer and buy portals or a nerd anyway
what he did it oh yeah um yeah for me I just want more ground clearance with it
I wouldn't mind a rear bumper so I can stick my Harbor Freight cases on the
roof because having those unsecured in the back is proven to be problematic
when you go with the kids I dropped into a tank trap on fall colors and I had a
pallet Apache case with an air compressor come flying into the middle
row and hit my oldest in the back so yeah these are all things you got to
learn the hard way yeah and they're still not sick they're still not
secured but the packouts were expensive but it is nice knowing that they'll stay
right where I put them yeah it's weird you have packouts but you're a power guy
oh yeah I hate Milwaukee dude well don't they just don't they have their own
version of it yeah but it's garbage it has like boxes and it doesn't have near
the locking system that Milwaukee's does yeah actually my wife's looking to get
me something for Christmas and I don't know what I want said I just buy myself
whatever I want all year I don't have that maybe that would be a good thing
yeah I gotta get going I gotta get I gotta get I gotta get ready for work on
then but uh yeah all right we'll see you next time we'll see you on the trail
yep catch you later