Welcome to Botches 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. Ho
ho. This is our Christmas special. We're going to be doing a year wrap up as we can do our
best of doing this. So let's see how this goes. From memory. So I'm sure we don't remember
half of what we've done. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to think right now what I did when
I started it, but I guess I can, I could start off because I kind of know this is really
actually my first year with Jasper doing camping and kind of my first full year of, uh, you
know, off-roading over landing trail, you know, whatever you'd call this. So I think
we started out in January, February, March, April-ish. I think the end of April, just
as snow left, um, Jasper was only, I want to say about five months old or so. Uh, and
we were kind of just itchy wanting to do something and get out. And we went out and just did
a test camp in New Eagle County and took him out there and you, that five months old, we
were kind of like, we don't even know what we need right now. We just know he needs to
be warm and we know he needs milk. Um, and I didn't really have a whole lot stocked for
truck camping with a kid. Like I didn't really know what I needed. So it was kind of like
a spring shakedown. So we did that. Um, kind of learned what we needed, learned we needed
some more organization because everything was just thrown in the back. Um, went back
down a couple of weeks later, did it again. Where were you guys doing this at? Uh, we
did that. I want to say it's mystery Creek. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. But that was the first
one. Then we did a state campground the second time. Um, and then it's kind of when we started
trying to get into some of these events, once it got into like actual summer, we started,
uh, we started getting in kind of like a figuring out what was working. So we started doing
some events. Um, I only know we did a drive with botches. Um, we did a drive with, um,
Zach, he hosted a drive up there by Gaylord. Um, I did a drive with, um, Austin, which
was a fun one. We did that. And I think we did some power lines and stuff. And then we
did the Toyota takeover, um, which kind of transitioned to going to the Toyota takeover.
And then we met Ed, uh, with, uh, the botches crew one day. And so after, you know, meeting
Ed and kind of hung out with him at Toyota takeover, we, uh, went with him and went camping.
And that was our first, uh, like kid camp failure was that night. Like I ate something
bad earlier that night and my stomach was killing me. So I was out running back and
forth into the woods to go, you know, take a dump. And that's when I decided we needed
a toilet. But also, uh, that was our first time that we, like I said, we had our kid,
our kid fail. Um, we, uh, Jasper started teething and we started to realize that we did not
have any kind of Tylenol or anything to help ease his pain. And he was crying good into
like 11, 12 at night. And we decided to pack up and leave and throw, just throw everything
in the truck at that point and leave and at like 11 30 at night, which sucked. Uh, and
then drive the two and a half, three hours home so that we could get Jasper some Tylenol
and stuff and, and make him feel better. And so that was our first fail. I would say as
far as like camping went, we don't, we don't usually have anything like that happen. Even
with Jasper, he's usually pretty, you know, we get in a pretty good groove now, but it
was just not being prepared. You know, we, we were so prepared in some ways and not prepared
in others. And, um, I think that was this whole summer was, uh, was just shaking down
to know what I really needed and not needed. So, yeah, we did that. Um, God, we did the
labor day. We did, um, we did a, I don't even know, man, there's a lot. We did a, almost
every weekend we went out, we did. Okay. We did the one up in, um, ever we did ever with
the botches crew. Oh, for the, um, uh, we were doing the pre run to see if we, where
we want to go for a third and we can. Yeah. Um, was that what it was for the one where
it rained out? Yeah. A little earlier. Yeah. Cause the one where I was super sick. Yeah.
Yeah. I actually, that was the one time that I think, um, I was still a little bit newer
to wheeling and that stuff was a little, I wouldn't say trickier than what I've done,
but it was just a different, a different terrain than what I was used to. And I probably would
have done a lot more of it alone because I was really starting to dig the rain and stuff.
And I was like, dude, this is fucking sweet. But, um, if, if I really would have loved
to stay, that would have been really cool though. But it was, that was a lot of fun.
That was like, if you guys have ever seen like Jurassic park where it's in the middle
of that downpour and he's running out of that explore, trying to throw that fucking winch
on the tree minus the winching. It was, or yeah, you're right. Jeep. I thought it was,
I couldn't remember if it was that early Explorer, but I think that was the first movie. It was
the Jeep. It was a Wrangler. I think it was the only Jeep throughout the whole movie.
The rest was explorers. You're right. Well, except for with the T-Rex chase. Yeah. Nope.
You're right. But you know, that, that, that guy, it was that rain was just that bad out
there and it was, it was just like a whole other world water coming down, all the runoff.
It was, it was really cool. And, uh, I'd like to hit that ever motor, that my whole motor
area I'd like to do a camp over there and just do that whole area. The two things I
remember the most from that trip were one, I was super sick and felt like I was going
to pass out. And two, I broke, sorry, I broke Mark's bumper. Yeah. I think my, my, my, my
most memorables on that one, there are three things. One, that was the first time I've
done a rocky incline with larger rocks. There was that we had an, a hill that we did probably,
you know, I'd say you get camera, can't see it or, or, you know, you guys listen, can't
see, but like rocks like this about, you know, almost about a foot wide, you know, rocks,
just the bigger ones in the ground. Um, and then the, the hill that we went up when we
were pretty much Bushwack in, Oh, the Alex, Alex brought us up into like a, I dunno, how
many, how many degrees even that hill was, it was pretty damn steep. And then we stopped
in a line and had to back around in the woods and shimmy around just to get out of it. Cause
it was a dead end. And I scraped all the pain off of my passenger side. Yeah. Yeah. I got
some scratches. Um, so that was a lot of fun ever was really cool. And I would actually
would really, really like to go back up to there. That was my first and only time being
there. I think. Yeah. We'll definitely do that again. Cause that's one of my favorite
places to wheel. I'll say, um, I know, of course, like I said, I can't remember everything,
but I know we did the botches run later. Um, I did the cryptid hunt, uh, the botches one
was really fun. Uh, we redid Yuma Hills. That was the yearly trip that we did Yuma Hills.
I kind of redid that there was a lot of area that we had already hit. Then we kind of went
on some of the newer trails and we found some really fun trails that weren't marked. Um,
that was a lot of fun. And then Alex did his attempt at like baby skitter attempt. I completed
it. I attempted. Yeah. If we get some good footage of that though. So that was, that
was cool. Um, I think I get some good drive bys, uh, um, Mark and his Tacoma. So, and
we didn't have for me trying to think of failures this year because that pretty much is for
the trips other than labor day. And I would say my favorite trip of the year, we have
to do that too, but, uh, favorite trip of the year was labor day. I'm not gonna lie.
And it wasn't, it wasn't necessarily the trails because the trails kind of sucked. It was
the camp. Sorry, sorry, Derek, but it was, I mean, they were like, it was bumping like
a motherfucker. Uh, the trails in the, this deep, deep sand getting into that was really
cool because that deep, that sand was just like a foot deep. Everybody was just fucking
wrong getting through there. So that was really cool going through all that dune sand just
to get up to it. And it made you feel like it was a harder destination that normal vehicles
couldn't get there. Uh, no, they could, but it made you kind of feel like that. Right.
And then, and then it was just the area, dude, you're right on a lake shore, not giving super,
you know, not going to super into detail where we were, but you're on it because I don't
want, well, one, I don't want people to go there. Yeah. But you just described like
90% of Michigan. And if you say the lake that you were on, there's like 700 campsites along
that lake. That's what I'm saying. It's perfect. Nobody will be able to narrow it down. Well,
I'll narrow it down a little bit. It was Lake Superior. I'll narrow it down a little bit.
It's a big lake. That's really deep. It was like superior. It was the Northern shore of
Lake Superior somewhere around that area. And it was, I mean, absolutely beautiful.
We all pulled out and we were all legally camping as we were designated for any lawyers
or DNR listening because we know DNR is listening, but, uh, it was, it was really cool. We got
some really good photos. Um, my favorite part of that was we had, there was like a little
lazy river and we had our chairs popped up there and Jav was Jasper's first time comfortably
playing in like a water. There's only like three inches, four inches deep. So he could
just sit in there and just have a ball. And that was, that was a lot of fun. So we did
a few other trips later. Like we went up to Lee Lenna. We did a couple in Fife Lake area.
Uh, where's Lee Lenna? That's up north of Travers, that same kind of peninsula area.
Gotcha. Um, just, it's pretty much where you get to Travers and you have that peninsula
where Leland is Fishtown area and you just go as high as you can. There's actually, if
you guys want cool camp destinations, um, there's not really much off road stuff there
or, uh, you'd, you know, stay for us to camp, but Leland all state campground is probably
one of the coolest state campgrounds that I have seen that's in that area with some
really beautiful, like cedar trees and stuff in their campground. Like it's just gorgeous
area. So yeah, no, no real failures. I think my biggest failure this year vehicle wise
and I'll say mod wise too, because this would, I guess I would kind of fall into would be
my air compressor. That was my biggest thorn in my ass. This year was my air compressor.
I went through my, my one that I thought that was going to work great for us, uh, burned
out, but that was because I had it under the hood and I figured it would be waterproofed
being an off road compressor. It just was not. So that was an all top compressor. That
was kind of a pricey lose on my end. Um, and then I got some cheap Harbor freight compressors
with advice of the guys from mitten state, but for some reason, every single one of my
Harbor freight compressors burnt out on the first fucking air up. So it was kind of a
waste again. So I went through three Harbor freight compressors in three weeks, every
weekend that I went out, it burned out on the first day or up every weekend. So after
the third one, I went back, they went to try to give me a fourth one. I'm like, no, I just
want my fucking money back. And then I put that into a Thor's lightning and that system
has been great. Never had an issue since, um, uh, failures. We, I did, we never let
any failures happen. Alex helped me with the belts and my pulleys. I guess he helped me.
He helped me find some cheap ones. I did those while you guys were working on the black truck.
And other than that, yeah, no, I had, everything was good this year with me. I never had any
breaks or anything. So, yay. Add the clapping and cheering that Alex is great for, but yay.
No breaks, no failures. Next year might be different, but no, we were good. You know,
minor stuff like our electrical breaking or like the Anderson connector frying or something.
Now, awesome stuff that I fixed at camp with spares and had, had no issue ever since. So,
but uh, yeah, no failures. And, uh, I think it was a really good year. I gained a lot
of experience with off-roading in general with different terrains and different, um,
climates. Uh, I learned how to be a little bit more thoughtful on how I steer, uh, with
trying to overcome obstacles. I tackled an obstacle that I had hit earlier that year
with a lot less difficulty than I did later. So it was, um, that same hill that we hit
that you were like, this isn't bad at all. Now, given, given the hill wasn't itself,
wasn't as bad, but we also went down like for our yearly trip, me and Alex did some
trails while we were scouting and waiting for Mark and then we redid them when Mark
came and I could notice a difference already on how much more experience I had, not on
that trail, but just handling certain off-camber situations on how to best, you know, avoid
going too crazy and too tippy, whatever. So it was a really good year for me for that.
Um, really, really, really good camping year for us. Um, we're super stoked. We're saving
up and building up our fucking repertoire for next year. It's going to be bigger, bad
or better. And, uh, yeah. So I, other than that, yeah. So I guess my question for Alex
would be how many breaks did you have this year? Total? All any break counts. What's,
what did I start with Mark? Hmm. Yeah. What happened in January? I broke the frame in
March. Oh fuck. Yeah. Drummond. Do you guys went to Drummond, right? Yeah. Yeah. And
that's when you broke it. No, it was definitely March. I just looked it up on my phone. Oh
no, no, no, no. No, it was May March is when we went to Everett. Yeah. March was when I
got my truck. So I was about to say it's so March. My first break was in March. So frame.
That's such a big break to Jesus. Uh, I mean, it was all behind the rear axle. It didn't
actually support anything but the cab, you know? Yeah. Um, so I broke the frame in March
and completely rebuilt that March, completely made May, broken May. Um, and that took me
well into June, uh, cause I only have like 14 hours a week. I can work on it. At least
something that big. Um, so yeah, I did. I got that done in about June. Um, then we didn't
take mine to Drummond. No second time. Yep. That was a great trip though. Oh, that was
great. Uh, you keep the break tally. Well, like recap, we go over the year. Good. So
we're at one. Yep. Uh, we went with MST, the big MST trip. Yeah. But who did you go with?
Like did you, you didn't go with your truck. You said, Oh, I went with Mark. We roll or
drove the taco. Yeah. We go to taco. Our group was with Ed, Eric, and, um, I can't
think it was Ivan. Ivan. Ivan's great. Yeah. Ivan's great. Yeah. Great to camp with. I
forget who is, uh, who's Eric? Have I met? I don't think so. I don't think you have.
It's a white, a white surgeon Tacoma. Yep. Man, I don't think so. And he, the only trip
I've ever seen him go on was the MST trip, the MST Drummond trip. Oh yeah. I haven't
seen him since. Yeah. He said, nah. But he, uh, he was actually the group leader too.
Yep. Huh. Okay. Yeah. You'll, uh, if you ever hear jokes in like an MST chat or something
where they're like Alex's group's always the party or something, it's cause we were up
till three in the morning being loud as fuck. We were, especially the first night. Well,
we, uh, technically second night, if you want to count when we actually got there. Cause
while we, uh, the officers here now, so we were off in our own little space away from
everyone. So we were just being fucking rowdy, dude. It was so fun though. Even away from
our actual area where we're low camped because it was back in the woods a little bit. Yeah.
But I will admit we were rowdy. Uh, politics get us rowdy. How's that? You mix politics,
beer and a campfire man. We'll get rowdy. Yep. And here I am just like our botches
yearly. I'm like, all right guys, bedtime. Everybody's like, Oh, I guess we should be
quiet. See after that, trying to think of what my first trip after fixing the frame
was. Well, was it ever about say you're also not counting, um, other stuff you did at the
beginning of the year. What did I do at the beginning of the year? Roxanne Valley. You
know, I did get Brock the Valley. Did you just, did you go off roading after new year?
Or was that before new years when you guys went in that giant group? Cause I wasn't part
of that. I think that was before new years. Okay. That's why I thought, but I was trying
to remember. All right. So I'm going through frame repair pictures. Uh, oh yeah. And so
then right after I got done fixing the frame, we realized that my rear axle was leaking
really bad out of one of the sides. So the weekend after we were done with the frame,
we tore apart my rear axle and replaced the, um, uh, wheel bearing and axle seals. And
then at the same time we cut my diff cover off and welded a new one on. Cause it was
rotted out. If I thought you were leaking a while before I was, but not from that spot.
Okay. Okay. Yeah. So I'm into June. Okay. So in June is when we put the rear bumper
on and then was the barn fire, man, that was the same day we put, I put the rear bumper
on and the barn fire happened in the same day. Yeah, that was fun. Um, so then our first,
our first trip quote unquote after the frame repair was when we went to, uh, pine road
and we were just pulling each other out back to back to back. Oh yeah. I forgot about that
one. Like like my prairie. Oh, okay. Yeah. Pine street. Yeah. They got some very gnarly
mud holes. Yeah. If you hit that in the spring, yeah. Spring like early spring where the water
runoff starts to get real high in there. Oh yeah, dude. You'll sink your shit so easy.
Um, then we did the first trip we did with Gavin, which was when I had that, what was
supposed to be a camp out at my house before Toyota takeover. Oh yeah. So yeah, it was
the bot, the first botches trip for me. Yeah. So botches botches first trip. Um, and then
what we did was, uh, what was it? White cloud skitter Hill. Yep. Uh, and we ended up at
the top of skitter Hill. But by the time we, um, yeah, by the time that we pulled Alex
out of the first hole and, and then we got him, uh, and then we took the trails and then
took the long way, which was a lot of fun by the way, the night ride was one of my first
night rides. And then, what did you say? Oh no, I was just, and then you had tried to
attempt skitter Hill and I overheated my transmission and you overheated your transmission. That
would be number three. Oh, he didn't break. Nah, it stopped. I did break my mirror. That's
number four because I would count a overheated transmission. Absolutely. Because you were
having issues going forward. That sounds like a break. So, so we stopped up at the top of
the Hill, the little pull off over there. And by that time it was like, it was like
one o'clock, one 30 and Derek had been up there for a while already. And we were all
just like, uh, half of us were like, dude, we're just tired. We want to go to bed. So,
so we ended up just a half of us ended up breaking up camp and just sleeping there.
The other, what was it you say? I was going to say, it helps that you guys actually had
your camping gear anyways. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And that was, that was one good thing about
having it all in your vehicle all the time. But, and then was that the same, was this
the trip that connected to Toyota takeover? Yeah. And I, yeah, take over. Yep. So the
next, it was the next day we all left and then trail road up, well, not trail road,
but convoyed to Toyota takeover. And that was pretty much when that was the day I met
Ed and the day that I followed Ed, like a lost puppy, because like legitimately I'm
not even going to lie. Cause like, I had never been to dunes either. So, oh, I have never
been there. That was my first day too. So deep dunes like that, everyone's like, go
down to like 10 PSI. I'm like, I've never gone down that low. Like, and then, and then
as soon as we got up into the dunes, it was like deep ass sand and everybody, there was
like five cars already stuck. And I'm like, Oh, this is going to be bad. So then the trip
after that, the weekend after that, we did the, we started the New Igo County mapping
project. Yeah. It's very much so still ongoing. And that is also the weekend I decided to
redo my sticker bomb, which still looks the same, pretty much the same as when I did it.
So that's really nice to know. Yeah. And then the weekend side, not a break. Yeah. I just
saying on the upside, that's not a break. So, so then the weekend, the weekend after
that we went up to ever and did the little scouting trip where I was so sick. I couldn't
even remember most of it. Yeah. I do have some cool videos from that though. And pictures,
you know what? We forgot something before we were talking about that. We forgot somebody's
whole fucking bottom part of their, their Jeep, that trim guy yanked out when we were
going down that one trail. I mean, he just stuck it back on the skirting. Now he threw
it in the back. It's so good on. Yeah. So then that was funny. But you know, no, no,
no, I'm not letting you move past this. And there's a reason because technically you caused
a break on Mark's truck. Yeah. So that's number five because you slam that tail, the tailgate.
Oh yeah. Not the tailgate, the swing out. Yeah. So that's gotta count. Right, Mark.
I'll let you, I'll let you decide since it was your truck. Does that count as a trail
break? I wouldn't. I think it was having issues before that and it just was a final straw.
It was that day of it. Wow. What grace. Okay. We'll let it go. So then it comes third gen
weekend. I didn't even get to wheel on third gen weekend. I was like five miles from the
trail head and my upper control arm where the upper ball joint connects broken half
and I had to limp it to the trail head and then I limped it to the campsite with a hose
clamp holding my upper control or my upper ball joint on. Wow. Yeah. It was definitely
not a great time. In retrospect, so much fun. Oh yeah. In retrospect, that is what led me
to rebuilding the front end on the forerunner and it fixed all of my lift issues because
my old lift springs were shot. It fixed my control arm issues because I brand new control
arms. It fixed. There's no way it's going to break knock on desk and make sure everyone
hears this. I did brand new knuckles out of a Tundra and I gusseted them. So there's no
way that that's no way that's going to break again. And then we, man, we did a lot then
brand new CV axles, brand new inner and outer tie rods. It's like a whole new front end.
Oh yeah. Yeah. You guys spent a really good amount of time putting that new front end
in a new brake line or was that the black truck? New brake lines all around both sides.
I went to, I took the rubber brake lines out and did stainless steel brake lines because
I was thought my rubber ones were collapsing. Jokes on me. It was actually just my ABS pump
acting up. But that was, that's not a break. That's just, I don't have, I don't have ABS
sensors. So my ABS pump couldn't bleed properly. So I just ripped, I just ripped that motherfucker
out. Yeah. I don't think, I don't think any of that really, you know, once you did do
that first break, I don't think any of that counts because that's all repairs while, you
know, nothing was caused on trail or nothing. It was all repairs done to it. So, so then
my next, my next trip was I went out with, uh, an XJ that I met on the New ego County
trail riders group and we were just doing some light wheeling and we had not gusted
it. My passenger side yet. Everything we had done rebuild wise was only the driver's side
at this point. Yep. And we were going to do the passenger side the next weekend. And while
I was out with the XJ, I bet my lower control arm and was forced to do it, which I mean,
whatever everything was there to do it. So it wasn't the end of the world. Um, yeah,
that was, that was a crazy break. It made no sense on how that broke. Wow. Um, then
I had a bunch of issues with stocking and getting parts to get, you know, finish up
the front end rebuild. So I didn't wheel again until
yearly September. Yep. Yeah. September the yearly. Yep. Yeah. And if I recall, you only
had wait, was the, uh, was the last rigs and coffee after or before, before, because you
had your shocks blow out. I had my good shocks when we were onto the early trip. Okay. So
you did have the one shocks blow out on you. So that would count. I counted that in the
front end rebuild cause I put brand new, uh, three inch lift shocks and they lasted me
all of 30 miles. And then I ripped them off, sent them back and got better shocks. And
you're counting that as a, that's not even a break. Hey, well, so it kind of is because
they broke on the way to rigs and coffee and you could definitely tell. Yeah. And you were
very disappointed as we were all, we were, you just got it running back again. And then
already it was, you're like, man, this thing is driving like absolute dog shit. So which,
Hey man, it's good next year, way less breaks. And then I had no breaks on urgent weekend.
I just took my sway bar off. I just took my sway bar off because I wanted more flex, but
what was the hands for? What did I miss? I'm just thinking, I'm like, I don't know, man.
If you take, you cut it off, took them off. You just kind of cut them. I mean, I did cut
them off, but it wasn't cause they were broken. We had no, we had no breaks for you on that
weekend. No, I didn't break anything. Surgeon weekend. You're right. Oh yeah. Well, you're
right. We, we had something else, but we'll leave that. Yeah. Um, and then our, my next
trip shit was that Missouri was the next one. Uh, yeah. Oh yeah. The next one was the drive
to Missouri where I had my opinion seal started leaking on the way back and we replaced that
in a parking lot. So count that as a break. Yeah. Um, but yeah, other than that, I mean,
Missouri was fun. Uh, that, that is my favorite trip we did this year. It wasn't really a
wheeling trip, but it was a wheeling centered trip. If that makes sense. No, no, no. Yeah.
But it was definitely my favorite trip we did because as much as I love the people here
in Michigan, it was nice to get out and meet other people from somewhere else that does
the same kind of stuff we do. Oh yeah. Yeah. And I was really, I was dead sick and I really
wish I would have been able to attend, but it was pretty cool. And I mean, Benji's pretty
cool. So yeah, yeah. Yeah. That would have been really cool to go to. So what was your
next one you had while we had this last, we did a wheeling weekend this what weekend ago?
That would have been the most recent one. Then the last one that you had probably the
last one you've done, right? Yeah. And that get, that's the next one too, uh, was our
winter wheeling when I did skitter the second time and made it halfway up and could have
made it out, but I backed out because I'd already broken off my brand, not brand new,
but brand new to me, passenger side mirror. And I had, I really didn't want to drag the
passenger side of my car all the way up the hill. And that's what was going to happen
if I kept going. Oh yeah. Not worth it, man. I mean, the mirror, it was a casualty award,
but like to scrape the whole side of your truck up at the same time, like it's not,
it's not a dedicated off road or either. So it's like, it would, uh, I, I don't mean to,
I don't mean to say like it would affected your looks and you know, I know how that sounds,
but at the same time it's your daily. So, you know, I don't want it to look like straight
outside. Yeah, exactly. You know, it's not a buggy. It's your daily and you want it to
look decent. It's like, yeah, that would have fucked up your whole side. Could you have
done it? Yeah. Yeah. It probably would have, it probably would have fucked up my, um, windshield
a pillar because it would have got a snorkel and it probably would have ripped the snorkel
off and it, it just wasn't worth it. No, I mean, based off of the crawler was, it was
literally just on its right wheels. The left wheels are up in the air the entire time.
Oh, I didn't put that trip in there. No, you didn't. I was going to say something about
that. Dang it. Okay. And somewhere in there we took our friends. September 1st, we took
our friends crawler out and I did skitter in that and completed it. Yep. And then promptly
tore the crawler apart. Yeah. But that pretty much chalks up the year for you. It doesn't
look good. Yeah. How many breaks was that? Eight. Eight. Oh my God. Honestly, honestly
for a full year though, I don't know. I, I, for, for the year of your vehicle and for
it being, for what you did, I don't think it's all that bad. Eight breaks. I was mean
to it. Yeah. You were beating the shit out of it this year. So yeah, I mean, it's more
than obviously anybody would like, but it's not unwanted. You know, you, you had an old
vehicle that needed repairs anyway and you beat, you treated it like a fucking Jeep that
you didn't give a shit about. And it's kind of what happened, you know? Yeah. So yeah,
I mean, not a bad year. Uh, what about you, Mark? You did a lot of the same ones I think
Alex did, right? You haven't done any, uh, wheeling trips separate of Alex, have you?
Um, I have one, at least one separate excursion that was by myself. Yeah. It was very prompt
to, Oh, I'm going to go trailing in the middle of the night all by myself. Yeah. Didn't even
tell me. Oh, it was on the way back. It was on the way back from Alex's heading home.
Yeah. He's been like, Hey man, do you want to do some wheeling? And I'd been like, fuck
yeah. Sorry. You guys did that to me like four times this year. I guess I see like pictures
of you guys got like, like, Oh, we went wheeling. I'm like, Oh, what am I fucking chopped liver?
Oh yeah. Sorry. We forgot you. I'm like, yeah, no shit. Well, to be fair, that was before
you were a botches member. No, it wasn't. Oh, okay. Okay. Yes. No, that was, that was
definitely full on at that point. I get it. Like I w I'm not there all the time. So it's
like, hold up. I forgot a very important wheeling trip I did this weekend. Oh, I went to rescue
a boat rescue. Yeah. I mean the plan was so out in Houlton, Michigan, there's a boat that
someone dumped on the side of a trail and we got our friend's trailer. It's only a 14
footer, but from the pictures we saw, the boat didn't look very big. So we go out to
this trail and the plan was, you know, take the four runner down, get her hook up to the
boat with the tow strap, tug it across the snow because you know, snow and boats, they're
like sleds kind of, and then tug it back to where the truck was parked to pull it up on
the trailer. Um, when we got there, our friend John was turning the trailer around and a
lady pulled up and she's like, you know, she's really nice and she's like, good luck getting
the boat. And we're like, Oh, thank you. We just want to, you know, clean up the trail,
get the trash out of here. And then she drove on up to our house and we left John's truck
parked on the side of the road. We took the four runner back and this boat was fricking
huge. It's like 25 foot long and like 14 foot wide, like way bigger than the picture made
it look. So we didn't get the boat. We came back to the truck. I think we bullshitted
for like 10 minutes before we left and then got in the trucks, went to the gas station.
We were filling up and this there's the state boy, you know, and his little blue Explorer
just driving around the parking lot. And finally he pulls up to me and he goes, are you in
that white truck together? And I'm like, uh, yes, sir. And he's like, were you looking
for a boat? And we're like, uh, yes, sir. And, uh, he's like, all right, let me get
out of the car. I got to show you something. I'm like, all right. And, uh, so he gets
out and he's like, so I got a call about some guys trespassing on someone's driveway who
are out looking for a boat in the woods and the people are really sketched out. So they
got their pistol out and they're arming themselves to protect themselves. And I'm like, we were
never in there. We turned around in their driveway and he's like, that makes sense.
And I was like, we're on a public trail. And I showed him the trail number. I showed him
the coordinates for the boat. I told him that the boat had no numbers, so he couldn't call
it in to see if it was stolen, went through all that. And he's like, let me just, one
second. I want you to read this call because it makes no sense at all. And the call literally
said guys out in the woods looking for a boat. They think they're trying or the caller thinks
they're trying to steal a boat. So the caller has armed themselves with a pistol and is
sitting in her house. I, and I'm like, w you never would have thought that this lady was
going to call. She was cordial and nice and super polite. Yep. So it's always those chicks
fucking care. Yeah. The cop was like, I don't know if these people just think that that
whole road is a driveway or what, but you were definitely on a marked trail. Jesus.
Yeah. That was definitely a, a year ender to remember.
Are we going to be able to get out? Cops called. Oh damn. Are we going to be able to do one
right before January 1st? Or you don't think, uh, what do you think? Last one. You free
on Saturday? I don't work Saturday. I think it should be free Saturday. Cause we're going
January 1st, but we could definitely hit up Saturday and go do something. Yeah. Uh, what
day is January 1st? Uh, next Wednesday. I got that off. Oh, you can come up to Everett
and do the poker run. Oh fuck. I, I don't want to play poker. Dude, you're just wheeling
and then when you get to the spot, yeah. Okay. When you get to the spot, if you get the best
hand, you get prizes. Yeah. Okay. That sounds fun. Maybe I will. I'll try. I'll try to because
uh, that sounds like, that sounds like fun, but uh, I have to make sure that I have gas
in my budget for that. It's literally our cryptid hunt, but poker. Oh, see only gets
paid Friday. That could be your Christmas present to me because she hasn't gotten me
a Christmas present. Her broke ass. She's like me and Alex already talked about what
her Christmas present was, but because, because at the end of the day, she's too fucking broke
to get me anything. So maybe, maybe I'll have her give me like a couple of tanks of gas
for her. I mean, Hey dude, we don't have to be PG. You can share. I think head was her
Christmas present because she's too fucking broke to get me anything else. She just didn't
want to be put on the naughty list because Papa Santa here had already gotten her a fucking
bunch of presents. So, so no, that's all right. I, I, it just, it, all her money's going towards
bills. All my money's going towards literally just catching up the household. So yeah, it's
all good. The, uh, the, yeah, man, maybe we do the poker run because that would be a really,
really good year ender. Yeah. Well, your starter, your starter. And that would be a really good,
uh, really, really good episode. Yeah. For Wednesday night or next Monday. No, we'd be
back to recording on. Oh no. Yeah. We'd be back to recording on Wednesdays by that time.
Yeah. Well we'll see. Start season two. Yeah. Starting season two. Man, that's crazy. You
know, we did, when did we actually start botches? We started, and I mean, not the group, but
the podcast. July October, I think. Yeah. I think it was October 1st. Yeah. October
1st. You're right. Because I did. Wow. Yeah, dude. Like we have, I mean, no one listens
to us still, but you know, as a, as a group, we have grown a lot just from taking the time
to do this. October 14th was the very first. Oh no, that's the bonus episode. October 2nd
was the very first episode. Yeah. You know, I think, you know what? It's been, it's been
really good. I think we did a lot this year and I don't mean to say it to be hard to top
because it's, it won't be for our experiences, but we had a really good guest list this year.
We did a good one. Oh yeah. Yup. I mean, Benji being, I mean, amazing. We had the, the, yep,
Cindy Pope. We had the, well, shooting with cars. Yup. Shooting with cars, which is, I
mean, these are great people. We had Michigan's, overland influencer. Yup. Lexus overland influencer.
We had Eric, a disciple, Yota disciple. Yup. We should get gladiator Joseph on at some
point, talk about, talk about his rig and why he chose what he chose. Cause there he
has specific reasons. Right here. I have the contact card for who would be our biggest
interview yet. So I gotta, I gotta call him and get a time set up for that. I have to
bug one of our guys that I have talked to before, which would have been, I think maybe
our, it would be our biggest interview yet. If I get him, Tyler, with independence overland,
as far as YouTubers go, he, I mean, shooting with cars and him, he's, I think he's a little,
he's got more than shooting with cars, but overall, I think shooting cars has more videos.
So well, yeah, he releases every single day. Yeah. Yeah. So, so what's, what's that one?
Independence over? Oh yeah. Yeah. I believe so with Tyler. Oh, he's way below shooting
cars. Oh yeah. Like it's funny because it's funny because when you look at his cinematography
and his production quality, he should be up a lot higher than he is. Yeah. He's like 143,000
subscribers lower than Zach. Oh, okay. Well, not as much as I would think, but yeah, that
poor baby in the background. Yeah. No kidding. Not my baby. So kind of back on topic. We
have not talked about my breaks yet. Yeah. Well, and you know, I almost forgot you had
any because that's a coma. It's just so, so reliable. Well, I think the first one, and
it was a friend's, a friend's get together. It was an unexpected wheeling the day of doing
that. I blew out my rear brake solenoid. So that was actually the first ever repair was
a brake solenoid. Oh yeah. That one was replacing brake drum pads and everything. That was the
first one. I think I was good for a bit. I want to say either, but your brakes still
sucked. Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. That was a very temporary fix to get going that night
for a wheeling trip. So it was a very quick temporary fix and be mean to just fix it and
totally forgot about it. But Alex reminded me like, Oh yeah, I really should work on
those rears again. Actually worked them all the way around, not just replace one drum
with new shoes on both sides of one new solenoid. Yeah. When I hit the brakes and it just kept
going. Yeah. I think my rack and penny either got screwed when I went on my solo trip because
I got stuck in my solo trip. Right. I was stuck for like good 15 minutes. It took a
little water in the cab for how long I was there. And I think me just inching my way
out, turning the wheel back and forth might've started it. And maybe or maybe not drum and
aisle in the second time I had a really finished the rack opinion, but I didn't know it was
the rack opinion going bad. Cause it was around, I think after that is when I discovered my
power steering fluid was just going somewhere, but was not coming out. I was like, where
the frick did it go? Speaking of which you never brought that up to me until we were
on the yearly trip. No, I thought I told you about it. I had no idea your power steering
was just magically disappearing. But yeah, no, that was going on for a good couple of
months. I was just thinking it was a leak in my, um, like somewhere else and not actually
with it because I had a mysterious leak, but I pretty sure it was the rack opinion leaking.
I was thinking it was either from the, um, I think it was from the power steering pump
itself. It was leaking. I just couldn't figure out where at cause it's just getting flung
all over the place, but those coming out of the axles. But, and then I had breaks go out
again and are one of our ever outings. Actually the first ever outing with Gavin. Yeah. Yeah.
I think the water really, uh, to help lube up your situation a little bit, you know,
is you, we were going through some pretty deep puddles and I think just having the breaks
wet didn't help. No, really. But all I remember from that trip was climbing that big hill.
Oh yeah. I know we had some deeper puddles because there was already some rain and then
it started raining again. So some of those puddles got, I would say six to eight inches,
but nothing too crazy, but enough to wet the brakes good. Yep. Um, enough to, enough to
make some steam come out of your, you know, from your exhaust. Yeah. Yeah. And then those
brake pads were worn, worn, worn. They were pretty much gone. They were pretty much pancakes.
So I ended up temporarily just putting new pads on cause I did not have the budget for
new brakes all around and I had to replace calipers eventually too. So I drove around
with really worn out rotors and new pads. And then that same day we, my tailgate gave
it or my swing gate latch gave out. That's what you get for Amazon bumper, but it wasn't
my purchase. So I can't complain too much about that. Right. I guess you could count
the whole bumper as over the year was just breaking because we had to fix it so many
times we welded it. Don't just don't buy Amazon bumpers. Like that's just what it comes down
to. Yeah, no, definitely. If it wasn't, if it didn't have a swing out carrier, I would
probably have dropped that bumper or it would have been fine because it was just normal
bumper at that point. Right. But for what it is, I can't complain too much about it.
I'm sorry on it. I'll write it until it actually really has a major malfunction where it's
broke broke and I can't fix it anymore. But for right now that'll work for me. Our yearly
trip is when we actually discovered what was wrong with my rack opinion. But that boot
was blown up like a balloon. But before we even, we were thinking that what we had to
fix and then we discovered my CV axle on the other side, not the one that was blown up
like a balloon was ripped. So I ended up replacing CV axle on that trip. I think it's so good.
So technically it's not broken. It's just the boot got torn, but it's still considered
a break. I mean, once we reboot it, I think it'll be okay, but it's still a worn out CV
axle. Yeah. And the way it was ripped looks from it getting overextended, which I don't
understand because that first day. Oh yes. We did. We did do some off-camber stuff that
first day. Yeah, sure did. So that's probably when you ripped it. Could have been, could
have been one of that, like that we had like an eight or nine inch log that we went over.
That could have been it right there. Yup. I don't anymore. I guess you want to count
it when we replaced my rack opinion, the hose line deteriorated. Yeah, we just replaced
the rack opinion and like not even six days later, the hose was rotted out and falling
apart. Yeah. Yeah. Trying to think of anything else. I don't think you had much more. Oh,
there was one more. Technically it wasn't a break. It was more of a dent. We went over
to our local friend, off-road group. Hazard off-road is it right? Hazard road hazard garage
or something. Yeah. What do they call themselves on Instagram? Radical road hazards. That's
right. That was back in July, July or June. I think it was July because we're or no. Yeah.
Yeah. July. You literally just got done with your forerunner. Yep. Yeah. We went over there
to test this little park and I was following Alex and shouldn't have got a little too tight
of a spot and I crumpled my driver's side fender. We've brought you over there now too,
right? Gavin, you've seen that little tiny park? Yeah. He went over there. The one that
our buddy Mike Wilson's building. Oh yeah. Well, he's got me over there and that was
my first turtle. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The perfect amount of logs. The turtle. Yeah.
Kiss me off, man. He's like, all right, are you ready to start the little off-road park?
I'm like, yeah. They go over the bump. Okay. Alex goes over it easy enough. I'm like, okay,
me too. I've done logs before. I get over it and it's the exact perfect length to turtle
me right behind my wheel, right in front of the other one. And I'm like, oh my God. And
these are a bunch of Jeep guys too. So I'm like, this is fucking embarrassing. So Alex
had to come back and pull me out. As soon as he pulled me up and I got in traction,
I was good. But it was like, God damn it. I was just like, man, I want to go home. But
thankfully, thankfully we did the rest of it. And yeah, it was pretty cool. Dad and you,
you heard it that night. You fucked that up that night. No, it was the other night. No,
it was the other one. Yeah. This was before he actually started caving out that dirt hill
and stuff. Yeah. I almost went up that and I'm glad that I, cause I backed up right as
Alex was like, Hey, yeah, don't go up that. I was like, yeah, it looks a little soft.
I was kind of getting there like there's another spot, but I didn't see it. I must say, I don't
think he had logs at first. I knew when he went out there, Alex, he had a couple of logs,
not like he does now. Yeah. I'd say not like it is now though. And then he had the little
rock garden. Yep. Which I need to go see what they've added. Cause they came and got a whole
load, couple of loads of cement from the farm. Yep. So there's some new stuff out there that
I haven't even been on. Yeah. It's, it's really cool. Uh, listeners go check out radical road
hazards. They're building a really cool Cummins right now. Um, they've got a old CJ seven
and a LS swapped, uh, TJ. Yep. Yeah. And then I have to agree with you, Alex. I think our
Minnesota trip was my favorite trip for the year. Yeah. It just, it was such a fun trip,
dude. It was. I would say also, I guess to add onto my, you guys were talking about favorite
trip. I had a Lila on trip. It wasn't nothing special. See, and I had just a weekend off
together and we decided to go up to Lila and, uh, we stayed at the state campground. The
one day we stayed in five flake area, the next scouting for cryptid, but that trip that
was pretty much towards the end of the year, we had everything worked out. All the kinks
were flattened. Everything went smooth and you get a lot of, you get a lot of times where
something kind of goes wrong here. It kind of goes wrong there. You don't get a lot of
camp trips that just everything goes right. And it's just smooth sailing. And that was
just like a really cool one to just go up there. We were playing out, you know, we went
rockhounding looking for rocks. The kid was out on the beach, you know, it's just, everything
went good. You were the rockhound. Yeah. Oh, I should, I should have taken a picture. I
found a really cool rock at work the other day and I didn't take a picture of it and
I should have. Yeah. No, we, I mean, we started when Sienna's first time camping, we went
up to, I'm trying to remember, two hearted area and she found a bunch of rocks up there
and she wasn't really a rockhound before. And we're not really rock hounds, hounds,
but we, we just saw rocks that we liked and we took them. And ever since then we're like,
oh, we love to go other places and maybe find some agates or, you know, some jaspers and
stuff, something like that. So, yeah, it was pretty cool. So, so I think that, that'd be
my other favorite one, but yeah, I think that kind of, I kind of wraps up the year, doesn't
it? I mean, we have, we had me, we had you, we had Mark. Yeah. Mark only had a few breaks.
You had eight. I had, I don't know. I want to say that I could probably factor in something
in there, but not really anything that stopped me from going in there. Do you have an Anderson
connector on you? Yeah, but that didn't really stop anything. I know. I guess, but yes, I,
I did have an Anderson connector short, but the reason that that shorted was because when
Alex and I first started figuring out how to use these things and he was helping me do
that, we didn't push the pins in all the way. So it was our king. So after we learned that
we just pushed the pins in all the way on the second one and everything's been fine
since. So, and now they are the safest way to connect a battery to a power device. I
will say this. I am going to run another, probably a smaller cable with Anderson's to
the back seat area where I store my compressor because now having to take my compressor out,
but having a hose long enough to go all the way around the truck is kind of like, eh,
like it's nice to have that there when I need to take my compressor out to help air other
people up that don't have decent compressors. Just make them come to you. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty
much. Yeah. I think that wraps up for a year, guys. I mean, pretty good year, huh? Yeah.
Yeah. It was a good year. We want to thank you guys for listening into the botches off
road podcast on our first season, our first year, and we hope to see you on our next one.
There's only one more episode left this season. Yeah. I know. Let's get in there. I'm going
to release this one a little bit early, but yeah. Yeah. That'll be nice. All right. We'll
see you guys later. Later.