Welcome to Botches Off-Road.
Join us as we talk about everything from gear reviews to trail stories, tank camping to
rock landing, and all things to do with the outdoors.
Today we've got Jacob Biddle.
Jacob, what's your YouTube channel name?
YouTube channel is Eagles Pursuit.
Wrong one with everything else.
What is?
Yeah, Eagles Pursuit.
So, Jacob Biddle from Eagles Pursuit.
He's going to be talking to us about his tundra that I always want to call Tacoma even though
it's not.
Yes.
And all the goodies he's got on there.
He's got that thing pretty well decked out.
So, should be a pretty fun episode.
And I am sorry for everyone because I am very sick and I sound absolutely terrible.
Absolutely.
All right, Jacob, do you want to introduce yourself a little bit?
So my name's Jacob.
I'm with Eagles Pursuit.
And I've probably been on social media for about, I don't know, I think I'm going on
three years now in this space, whatever you want to call it, overland camping, whatever
you want to call it.
And yeah, that's, I'm 22, 23 next month.
Yeah.
Oh, I didn't realize you were so young.
I'm young.
I live a pretty boring life.
Yeah.
I don't, I watch your YouTube videos, so I know that's not quite true.
Behind the scenes, I work, sleep and eat or eat, sleep, work, one of those.
Somewhere in there, you got a poop.
Yeah.
Kind of the same.
Yeah, dude.
I really think I'm going to have to get with you on making something for a chainsaw holder.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's pretty slick.
Yeah, I got Benji up on that.
Yeah, I just watched that.
That's where I saw your vehicle at.
Was it the Colorado?
Was that the Colorado trip?
Well, my truck wasn't in that trip, but I was with them.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
I thought I saw you on here, but I realized that I was scrolling through my Insta feed
and saw your videos because I follow you.
So that's how I saw it.
Oh, man.
Okay, yeah, I'm starting to see things now.
I haven't watched your newest video.
Would you break?
Oh, gosh.
So I didn't film it, but last weekend, my opinion bearing in the front diff ceased.
Oh, I was in 4 high, probably going about 10 miles an hour on a four-service road.
And the truck just came to a complete stop on its own.
And yeah, couldn't go anywhere in 4WD, but I was still able to disengage the transfer
case and the front diff and be able to drive.
So as of yesterday, my truck is on jack stands.
Man.
Alex been there all year.
Hey.
I only had eight breaks this year.
You're doing better than me.
I've had knock on wood zero, but I haven't been really trying to kill it either.
We were going out every weekend doing trails and doing whatever we can find.
Honestly, we haven't really back out any trails.
We just didn't hit the mud brutes.
And my FJ has done pretty good so far.
I haven't had many issues with it yet except for shit that I caused myself.
Yeah.
A lot of my issues is just front end crap.
It's either that lower ball joint and it's not the ball joint that breaks.
It's the nut falling off.
Oh, is this the lower?
Is this on familiar mark?
Yeah.
So for yours are bolts that kept your ball joint for falling out.
Yeah.
I've had bolts stripping out on the spindle.
I've had spindles break.
I've had tie rods bend.
I was saying we've got the same front end.
So I feel your struggles there, dude.
So while I've, I'm sorry.
Go ahead, man.
I actually just, I just did wheel bearings on my front end like two months ago and my
driver side already went out.
Oh, yeah.
Well, I had mine regeared about the same amount of time and the opinion bearings just not
going out.
But the mechanic, I call him a mechanic.
The guy that did it said he would fix it for me for if I just brought him the diffs.
So that's what's going on.
Let's go.
So I think it's more of a, he can get to it quicker if I just bring him the diff instead
of the truck.
Yeah.
So I've been, I haven't seen a lot about how you, how you kind of camp and what the setup
is like.
Can you explain a little bit about how you, how you kind of camp and how you do the overlanding
scene, what your setup kind of looks like?
So I'm more of a weekender.
I try to get out every weekend.
And let's see, I've got, I'm just have to look at a picture of my truck just cause
there's so much on it.
Yeah, I get it.
Camping wise, I try to keep a lot of it simple and quick and easy to set up.
So I've got the rooftop tent, the wedge style.
I've got a freestanding awning on it.
What brand tent do you have?
So I've got the CVT Mount Hood, which is the, and I've got the largest one in that model.
Oh yeah.
That's the big boy.
And I've had it for, it'll be three years in January.
I like it.
I've threatened to sell it just to change things up, but I can't get rid of it.
Like no other tent has stood out to me.
So.
Yeah.
Don't, your dog sleeps up there with you guys too, right?
Or do you make her sleep in the truck?
So she used to.
And now that I've got an air mattress up there, I don't really like for her to be up there.
It's also pain to get a 95 pound dog up there.
So she sleeps in the truck or if I'm comfortable with the area I'm in, she'll stay leashed
up outside the truck.
Yeah.
That's always good.
How, how is that tent with you, your wife and the dog in there?
Oh, it's plenty of room.
I typically tell people it can sleep three comfortably, right?
Yeah.
Three average sized people comfortably.
Yeah.
Oh, just laughing.
So that's a two person for me.
That's for sure.
So one, one and a half or one and a half or apparently.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's why I'm looking at the, the Alto elite by four by four Colorado.
Okay.
It's just been really, really digging what they got out and from what I've seen about
it, just as large as this is.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm not going to do crazy amounts of off camber stuff to where that 270 pounds
is going to be the maker to break it.
I mean, it might be soon someday, but for now, for the next few years, I think.
You know what?
We don't got to worry about you.
I've hit, I've hit just about everything you hit, except the ones that I know will just
do damage for no reason, you know?
And then you hit them and they do damage for no reason.
And then I go, yeah, yeah.
Good decision.
Skitter Hill.
Okay.
Two weeks ago.
You lost, you lost Benji's mirror.
Already?
Yeah.
What?
Same one last time he hit it with at the same spot.
Going faster than you should on washboards, rip upper control on bushings.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
I got you.
Benji that he did.
Benji was like, what the hell?
Yeah.
I told him, I don't know why you didn't have that thing signed, man.
I even took the time to fold it in this time, hoping it wouldn't break off.
No, dude.
When you're damn near sideways going up the hill, don't really matter.
Well, the area where it was just a jet out.
So this is the most unusual jet out and he just can't avoid it because out of the red
sewer.
Yeah.
So another six months with no mirror now.
It's just at this point, you don't want to be better just throwing like a rear facing
camera or something like a little button camera over there having to play on his wolf box.
Huh.
All right.
It's a really good idea.
That's an excellent idea.
He says, maybe I need to get a new wolf box that allows that because that's a good idea.
Yeah.
No, I'm getting a wolf box here soon.
It's added to my list of things I don't really need, but would be really nice now that I
have so much stuff in the rear of the FJ.
I can't really see out of the back anyway.
I just kind of guess.
Yeah.
That's one of my biggest pet peeves is if I can't see out the rear of the truck or the
side windows, I don't like it.
Yeah.
When we're fully packed up, I can't see out the rear window, but I say when I'm empty,
the rear window is not big on the FJ anyway.
So I could see a little bit out of it, but if I'm backing up, I'm like, well, I'm going
to either going to hit the tree or my tires going to hit it.
My bumper is going to hit it.
So either way, I'll be all right.
Yeah.
So I don't really stress too much about it, but I'm trying to get like Tyler.
Yeah.
I talked to him a little bit about that and he's got the setup on that FJ.
He just, I guess I'm going to have to make mine a little different because I have a kid
with me.
It's going to have to be, going to have to be adjusted a little bit, but that's it, man.
You built pretty much everything on there because you're a metal fab.
Did you build your swing out too?
I built part of it.
Part of it.
So the kit, it was a kit from Coastal Off-Road, the main body of it.
And then that was probably like my first welding solo welding project I did.
And then this past year I decided I want the Jerry Canthalter portion.
So I fabbed that up.
Yeah.
Man, you got some real good pictures on your Instagram.
If anybody's, anybody's listening, go look at the Instagram at the same time.
It's kind of cool.
Yeah.
I'm looking at, I'm looking at right now.
He's got the ribs on the, on the, with the manifold up here under the hood.
Oh yeah.
Benji looks like, looks like ribs.
Oh, was that, was it?
Yeah.
I thought, man, that'd be, that's something.
Did you ever try that or was?
I did.
They were good.
Really?
They were so, they got warm, but they never got like hot.
Yeah.
So we tasted it by and then we put them in the oven and finished them all.
Yeah.
Okay.
Thank God actually, cause I saw it when I saw them, cause I think I've seen the video
of that.
They were like lighter.
Yeah.
I was like, yeah, I don't know, man.
I don't know about those.
No, that was, that's cool dude.
How's your, so you, how's your cooking setup look like?
Is it, you just kind of run the Coleman stove deal or you black stone it?
She strapped it to the manifold.
We just, I know.
The exhaust actually, you know.
I don't know if I posted any pictures of it, of a recent cooking setup, but I've got, I
don't know if you've heard of mountain house or as I think it's mountain, mountain hatch.
The dehydrated deals?
No.
One of the tailgate cover deals.
Oh yeah.
Okay.
I know what you're talking about.
So instead of that, I've got a piece of stainless that I cook off of on my tailgate.
And then I use a GSI stove now.
Okay.
You keep it pretty small then.
Yeah.
I don't do anything extreme.
Anything I can cook in a skillet pretty much on that stove.
So you do that little GSI and then like the, a little butane canisters, right?
Yeah.
I've got a five pound propane tank on the side of the truck that I'll run it to.
I'm thinking you're talking about like the, the hiking GSI, the little GSI.
No, no, no, no.
It's a, the pinnacle two or something like the pinnacle pro.
I don't remember any of it.
It looks like a laptop on the spool.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
I came from the Coleman stove, but I got this one for a good deal.
So I just went ahead and got it as quieter, especially for filming.
Right.
Do you, I mean, what's pros and cons for you other than that?
I mean, does it cook better?
A little bit more even?
If it's windy, it's a pain.
Okay.
Like this last trip I went on, it took forever to cook bacon.
Oh yeah.
Just cause we were, I mean, we were camping on a lake and the wind coming off the lake
was just like I was putting pans right next to it just to keep it, keep it shielded.
Oh, so it's kind of the same, kind of the same folding style.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
It's just more exposed.
Yeah.
The burners are more exposed.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's pretty nice.
The, what's your, what's your favorite meal?
What do you, what's your like go to when you're out alone as a like hot dogs?
No.
Typically tacos.
Yeah.
They're easy to make and then next would be steaks.
Yep.
And I don't get fancy either.
It's like sometimes when I do steaks, it's just a steak, no size.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
I think I cook for my wife, which my wife likes to, she likes more of the foodie aspect
of it too.
So she likes to have good decent food.
So other than the single dollar or a single digit steak set up by from Meyer, which when
we're out camping is good enough, man, just tear it apart.
Other than that, like I'll cook up some potatoes and stuff or I'll make some jambalaya.
I think, I think that's my, my wife's favorite is like jambalaya, spicy jambalaya and like
a cold night.
Yeah.
That's pretty good, man.
So I see that in all your Instagram posts, you say for communication, you've got Garmin
tag there.
What do you got that's Garmin?
I've got the Garmin in each mini.
So it's just a side.
Oh yeah.
Yep.
That's on my list.
If any of you like that.
It's good for what it is.
Oh, it's a month, but I mean, it has helped me in several situations.
Like when I broke down, I was able to reach out to a guy who brought me a spindle.
Just stop just using that.
I mean, that is, that's a saver right there.
No calling anything.
You just send a text and it takes forever to send a text and receive them.
But other than that, no, I'm hoping I can get rid of it soon with the new what Apple's
coming out with.
Not just Apple.
Now T-Mobile users are going to be able to beam from Starlink.
Oh yeah.
I haven't heard of that.
So if you've got T-Mobile, they're doing betas right now and you'll be able to get
cell phone service from Starlink anywhere in the world.
That might be an interesting switch.
I'd be interested in that.
I think I've run AT&T and I've thought about doing like the Starlink, what, touring or whatever,
Overland, Offroad.
And then running that.
But yeah, the subscription is like $60, $80 a month, something like that for the smallest
amount.
And that's like 120 or something like that for unlimited.
So it's definitely, it's definitely an investment.
And I don't think I'm going to go too crazy into it until I'm traveling more because I
don't, we're not made of money here.
Yeah, that's my biggest issue now is I can't get out of Arkansas.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
I think, yeah, I think it's just the job for me.
Like I just started a new job and it's like, man, be whatever I'm going to be able to get
out, it's going to be every other weekend.
Alex is even more stressed as far as schedule goes.
It's not really good for him either.
Yeah, that whole farming thing, man, I never get a day off.
So yeah, I mean, it does, it's kind of sucks for that.
Yeah, I'm working two fab shops and they always guilt trip me in staying and doing everybody
else's job.
It seems like.
Yeah.
Then the views out there though are gorgeous at Colorado, Arkansas.
Michigan is really cool.
I mean, I'd like to views in Michigan, but I think through until you get to the UP, you
don't see anything really different like for the upper peninsula.
Yeah.
A lot of the lower, a lot of the lower peninsula is the same.
You get to the upper peninsula.
You start seeing some rock cliff faces and stuff and it's a little better.
Are you dissing on our just straight pine forest?
That's all we have is pine woods and sand and clay and more pine trees.
For someone who's lived in it their whole life.
Yeah, pretty much.
Like I said, I don't, I'm not used to seeing rocks like that.
I sounded real dumb when I went our Labor Day trip last year because we're seeing cliff
faces.
I'm like, look, cliff face.
I look at two rocks.
Like I was, I was like, man, look at all these cool rocks.
That one's like the size of my truck and that means nothing compared to like other states.
But to me, it's like cool seeing granite out the side of the fucking hill, man.
I just can't wait to get out of the state.
Yeah.
I think I got the plan, man.
I talked to Sienna.
We're just going to rent a house in Marquette.
We're going to work there.
Save a couple, a couple of thousand dollars and then we're just going to move west.
Then we'll pit stop in Wisconsin or Minnesota or however far we could get to our next rental.
And we'll, we'll sit that for a little couple of years or maybe a year, however long it takes.
And then we're going to go west and we'll stop where we find the most beautiful spot
to actually set routes.
And that's the plan.
It's not going to go very well.
It's not going to be a good plan because I told her, I'm like, dude, I want to travel
and he's, my son's one.
Like I'm ready to go.
And she's like, uh, I kind of want to house some point.
And I'm like, yeah.
It's like, but then we have to pay $1,800 a month for the house.
I said, then we can't travel.
So I was like, pick one, pick one or the other because we don't make it enough money to do
both.
So your, uh, your roof rack there, you built the swings on that, right?
To make them swing up the goal wing on the better.
Yeah.
So one side of it's got access gates because I was trying to copy, not copy.
I should careful with my word choices.
Extrusion.
Inspired.
Yes.
Inspired.
Which actually, you know, I've had that going for a couple of months now.
And my support bracket finally broke.
So in my last video, you see me welding it back together.
Well, what, uh, what lights are you running in the front?
You have like three, are they floods?
So I run everything.
Oh, by a sense.
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
Ooh.
It's fancy.
So my, when I was building this truck, my, my, uh, thought process was build it before
I get married.
Yeah.
And before I move out of my parents house.
So that's, that's kind of how it came together.
Well, honestly, that's the best way though.
I mean, you just got married recently, didn't you?
It's past April.
Yeah.
That's what I thought.
Yeah.
It's the start of the end, man.
It's just downhill.
This truck's got some stories.
I don't know if you all knew that started as two wheeled down.
I didn't know it.
I did not.
I didn't.
Yeah.
I wish, I don't know.
I think it's on my Instagram.
There's a before picture of what it used to look like factory.
Uh, it's just a silver SR five, two wheeled down V six truck.
And then I hydro locked it, use insurance money to put a V eight in it.
And then this past January put full load in it.
And then last month, a manual transfer case in it.
Yeah.
That, that transfer case came out of the same truck.
My mirror came off of.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
When the truck stopped, I almost thought it was the transfer case.
I don't think so.
The front diff, I've got it out and I can't even spin the thing right now.
Jesus.
Yeah.
You, uh, have you looked at doing a twin stick on the transfer case?
I've not.
I've got a buddy, he probably known Chris Carroll, fast check over man.
He's got it in his truck.
And uh, yeah, he's been trying to get me to do, I just don't see the benefit really.
I don't have more ability to too low.
More sticks to play with man.
You got to like the sticks.
Not all of us are, not all of us are going after shafts like you.
It could be even better if you had a manual because then you got three wiggas sticks man.
I don't know.
I enjoy my automatic.
I don't know that I would have enough attention span for a manual while you overlanding it.
You completely forget about it.
I got one hand on my video camera.
The other hand's talking to you.
The other hand's steering and I'm out of hands.
Yeah.
There's a guy whose name Dalton, who's been going with me recently in the teal xj.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
He's a manual.
It's a manual as well.
And he hates it.
Yeah.
And of course he's new to all this too.
So he's still learning, but right now he's just like, man, I really wish I had an automatic.
He's just stalling out going on these.
No.
Yeah.
He just got to learn how to do it.
I drove a manual TJ rock climbing for a long time and then I had a manual J4000 that I
overland with and I would rather have the manual.
I think you're one of the very few that are like that anymore.
I think a lot of the people nowadays are just like, yeah, no.
Yeah.
That's because everyone else is wrong.
A lot of this computerized crap now.
Yeah.
I'm not like switches to crawl mode.
Well, that's the fun in that.
Yeah.
And then they can't even go.
They don't even do anything.
Yeah.
Allen.
Yeah.
Allen's truck.
Trailhawk.
I think anything pre driving modes like that is the way to go.
Yeah.
I haven't really had any luck with any of the times that I've tried to use any of them.
Yeah.
Well, I do like it.
I mean, Toyota's A-track has always been really popular though.
Yeah.
I wouldn't know anything about it.
Yeah.
I've never really done with it.
Yeah.
I think I've only had to actually engage once so far.
That was the hill climb up and ever.
Can yours even engage with the knock sensor?
I don't think it can.
Probably not anymore.
I know it used to like it.
That whole code disappeared for a while when we first started, but now it's just barely
there so I don't think it even engages anymore.
Yeah, Jacob.
We got to come up here, man.
We were doing a poker run.
That'd be perfect for you.
Yeah.
It's like a, it's a wheeling event.
You start out at one end and you hit the coordinates that are marked on that certain trail.
So they, they throw coordinates out.
It's a timed event and you have to drive to those coordinates.
You get out.
You grab one of the cards from the deck and you go to your next point and you got to do,
I think it's five of them timed and whoever's got the best hand at the end, you know, they
win a bunch of prizes and stuff.
So yeah, it's pretty cool, man.
We're going to go as a group and hopefully each one of us get a better, get a better,
better chance of winning.
I think my wife is a playing navigator, dude.
I had her all set up.
I pass on X, but I pads got on X.
It's all downloaded.
She's going to have that on there.
What's the trail difficulty like?
Oh, zero.
For you, green as green can be.
Yeah.
I mean, Michigan trails, you know, are easy.
I mean, the spot we're going, there's some stuff that I put more in like a more, more
moderate level.
Yeah.
There's some stuff that would probably be harder for you just based on size.
Yeah.
But there's not.
The more tampering area.
Yeah.
But there's really not like, yeah, no, it's all easy stuff.
Yeah.
It's just Michigan in general.
They might get stuck in a mud hole.
Yeah.
In Michigan, that's your, that's where you start getting hard is where you get into a
model on the trail.
Yeah.
Otherwise, as far as obstacles go, it lets you go up to like drumming where you have
like rock shelves and stuff like that.
It doesn't get any more.
No.
Drumming is like a green trail anywhere else.
Yeah.
I'm talking.
I ain't got to worry about mud holes here really.
I mean, if there is one, I haven't, I haven't been stuck in one.
I'll say that.
But they're mostly rock bottom.
Where I hang up is like this past weekend, of course, not having full wheel drive.
It was a really muddy slick uphill battle that I could not do.
And then back and down, I almost ran into my buddy.
That was pretty nerve wracking when the truck starts going sideways.
Yeah.
And you're on your brakes and the truck's not stopping.
And what do you do?
Yeah.
I think our MST group, they went, I think it was 10 cup and that.
There, if she was ice.
Yeah.
It had just snowed and everyone with mud trains was just sliding down the hills.
Yeah.
Well, that's the difference in Michigan.
It is a little different because of that.
Like if you go wheeling in the winter, the green trails, some of the moderate trails
that are maybe I would say moderate in the summer or a little harder in the winter.
So that is the fun part.
You know, you have the seasonal aspect of it.
You hit the same trail.
It's a whole different trail, different times of the year.
So spring where it's all wet and sloppy.
It's fucking it's way different than late summer versus winter.
Late summer is probably the easiest because it's real dry.
So that's when you that's when I hit everything.
That way I could say I did it.
Yeah.
Right now.
I don't know why reason for us.
Yeah, I don't know why you guys were struggling, man.
Hitted my almost stock FJ.
You talking about.
So what's your what's your favorite mod you've done to the tundra?
Shoot.
Probably for the full wheel drive for sure.
If you call out a mod.
Yeah.
Two will drive.
Right.
Just getting caught up with everyone else.
And then I have really enjoyed the 529 gears.
Yeah.
Makes sense.
I've got my power back.
I feel right.
Especially on 35s, which I'm debating going back down a size.
Yeah.
Back down to 33s.
Maybe in between.
I don't know.
I'm also thinking pizza cutter tires.
Pizza cutter tires.
They are the way.
When I go because I plan on going 37s and when I go 37s, I'm going to do as skinny as
I can.
Yeah.
My right now my issue I've got is one, two issues.
I'm rubbing on the frame at full launch.
Yeah.
I'm fine everywhere else.
And when I flex a certain way on a trail, I'll rub the fender, but it's nothing that
I'm worried about.
Right.
And then the other one is I'm just so paranoid about my front end suspension and the strain
that's on that.
I'm just, yeah.
Kind of wonder about that.
Did you guss at your knuckles at all?
One of them is.
The other spindle, the other spindle that has a gusset is the one where the bolts stripped
out.
That's funny you say that.
Alex, what's the pros and gods of only doing one?
Then you break the other one like immediately.
Yeah.
I've actually thought about ordering it right now, ordering the gussets for them.
I mean, I could make it on lazy.
And they're cheap.
And yeah.
And just.
Our gussets are on the 50 bucks apart.
Yeah.
I think Alex fixed his one was like, oh yeah, so, so great.
And then immediately when we went out.
Yeah.
I was like, we'll do this side this weekend and that side next weekend.
And then I broke the other side in between.
Yeah.
Sucked.
Yeah.
Benji was with me on one of those spindle failures.
That was horrible.
So there's, I'll see if I can find the link, but there's someone working on a way to fix
our lower ball joints so we don't have to worry about them bolts ripping out.
I've seen something from somebody.
Oh.
I can visualize it, but I can't figure out the name.
That's what I'm doing right now.
Oh man.
We asked.
I know they were really expensive.
Oh, shit.
I didn't see a price.
That might be true.
What I saw was $1,700 for a set.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
Sounds fun.
Yeah, I just, oh, total chaos is making them.
Yes.
Total chaos does a lot of fast.
It looks like, you see more.
$1,000.
Ouch.
Yeah.
It's high up there.
We're shipping too.
Is that with or with?
I'm not sure.
Wow.
Oh, hey, what are you?
Oh, sorry.
What are you running for?
Coms.
You're running Midland.
Yes.
So I run the Midland 40 watt and then I just got the new GXT 67, I think that was an impulsive
buy.
But now those are the two radios I use.
Holy crap.
Not even an NXT.
You've got the screen and everything.
It's fancy, man, fancy.
And then with the ball bar and Jenna.
Yeah.
That's what I was kind of looking at that made me think about that, which then brings me
into what winch are you running right now?
I run the Badlands Apex, 12,000 pound.
That's a favorite.
No complaints.
I mean, I've used it submerged.
I got video proof somewhere on the channel.
I mean, it hasn't failed me yet.
Knock on wood.
Yeah, man.
The bumper is I'll knock on wood for you.
Yeah.
Is that you?
Did you do that?
Was that like a bumper or what?
It is a backwards adventure mods front bumper off of a third gen Tacoma.
And I welded the hoops on Benton welded the hoops on it.
And then I had to come up with a custom winch tray for it to mount to and also shaved off
about how long it was, like three or four, maybe five inches off my frame off the front
end of the frame, just so I could get it tucked up closer to the truck.
Yep.
But I really love how it because nobody else has it.
No, that looks great.
I'm sitting and looking at the before and after, but before you did the hoops on it and even
the hoops, like bring it out to a whole different level.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
And then I see you pretty cool.
In the kitchen.
You'll it was pretty cool pulling up to Benji shop and seeing your truck with the tent up
and everything.
Oh, yeah, that was fun.
We were so asleep.
Yeah, you were.
You were.
Like, what's all that noise out there?
Oh, it's just a little third gen.
Very shitty third gen.
Very loud.
Yeah, Chris.
That's why something made it, man.
I'm not.
Well, I'm looking at it from the fact that every time I've been out with it, something
happens.
But I know it's not mean to it.
Yeah, but it's not that mean.
My problem with modern my truck is I wanted to work like factory to.
Yeah, I want to be able to cruise on the interstate at whatever speed I want, which I've been
able to do my happy spots about 85 miles an hour.
965 same.
I can't do it.
Couldn't do 65.
Yeah, I have got to say I have got to get up and go.
I don't have any get up and go.
I get started like a freight train.
But when I do go like I get up there.
8595.
Yeah, I mean, I drive a third gen.
So we have no get up and go from the gig from, you know, to come with or to start with.
And then my I've got bigger tires than stock and stock gearing and 430s just don't really
do it a whole lot of justice.
No, well, I can't in 39.
Oh my God, that.
Yeah.
I want from 39 to 529.
That's a big jump.
It's a big jump.
I don't want to go home, they say, I guess.
Yeah.
What are you using for a fridge?
You said you run a Dometic still.
I still run a Dometic.
I've got a set power in the garage, but it's so big.
Yeah.
But, you know, my Dometic I've had for I've had it for three years.
It's about five years old and I run it full time in the truck.
Oh yeah.
I got one of those.
I can't even think about it right now.
Eagle flow.
And that's been pretty good.
No real complaints of it.
I guess I at first I expected it to last a lot longer, but I guess in a 90 degree weather
and then being inside of the car on top of that, it's going to drain the drain the fridge
pretty quick, the battery in it.
Yeah.
Well, that's what I've got the solar set up for.
Right.
I am looking to do that.
I have a company, I think it's called Lensen that has a solar setup that goes on the hood.
And since that's unutilized space, that'll probably be what I use it for.
So your solar panel, is that a Harbor Freight one or did you buy it?
No, that is a Renegi 100 watt mounted on the roof.
Top 10.
I run all Renegi except for the battery.
So the Renegi charger and panel monitors all that.
The battery is just a cheap lithium battery off Amazon or not Amazon eBay.
I've got a Renegi sticker and holes from a Renegi charger if that counts.
It works great.
I just installed the same exact thing in the XJ that my buddy drives.
So a little extra easy setup.
Is the 100 watt do everything you need it to right now?
Does it keep the fridge charger or would you think maybe going up soon?
I think for what it is, it's great.
I mean, I haven't thought about upgrading anything.
I might really need to because while I'm driving to the make it's charged.
Sure, sure.
Like right now with the truck sitting, it's probably charging the truck battery at this
point.
Yeah.
So you got to remember is that a 100 watt there is more like a 40 watt here.
Right.
Yeah, we don't ever see sun.
So yeah.
So I was thinking maybe like 150 watt or something.
But I think the Lenson is a hundred and a hundred or 150 watt.
But honestly, it'd be better than nothing just to have something like that.
Yeah.
To help keep things charged.
You know, it's nice to use like this past weekend with my alternator going out.
I don't know if I mentioned that earlier, but no, no.
Yeah.
Freaking I was on the trail and so I run the switch pros to in the truck that's powering
all my lights.
There's a safety thing built into it to where when the battery that the lights are wired
to reaches a certain voltage, it shuts off.
So I had just finished a low water bridge crossing and battery light came on.
I didn't notice the battery light came on, but in my in my camera, right, I saw it come
on after that and then all of my light shut off.
I'm like, Oh no, what happened?
Yeah.
I made it to camp on eight volts.
Wow.
And then had to jump my truck off of my accessory battery because I've got the I've got a relay
installed.
So I'm able to join the two and I can jump it about two to three times before I can't
but when it to an O'Reilly's near the closest town to us, swap the alternator in a parking
lot and the pitch pouring rain.
The first time I did my alternator, it was in a hospital parking lot in the middle of
the winter and I had once the lower that lower bolt that was seized would not come out and
I spent probably three hours trying to get that out.
But the tools I had in the truck at the time, I think we got lucky on the alternator or
the store having one because I opted for the bigger alternator.
Put that 110 amps, I think.
Is that like an 07 Tacoma one or something like that or an 08 Tacoma Tundra?
I have no idea.
Because I had a bigger one too.
They had one in stock and it was the one that I was able to warrant your return.
So I got really lucky.
Perfect.
Yeah.
I did it and I was like, sweet, everything's cool.
It only took me like eight hours combined between running and finding an alternator.
And then we went to go get pizza afterwards because I'm like, I'm not cooking anything.
In the five minutes it took for me to get to the hospital parking lot to the pizza
place, my alternator fried again.
Oh my God.
It was a re-man.
And so I parked that, I parked it and we threw a brand new battery in it because I had bought
one thing and that was the issue anyway.
And I kind of limped it to the store, to my wife's auto zone store that she manages.
And we got a, I think it was an 07 or 08 Tacoma alternator because they put out more amperage
than my FJ ones do.
And we swapped that out the next day and it's been fine since, but man, I'm going to be
going to like rock auto or something and just buying cheap, cheap alternators to just throw
in the truck because I'm done with that.
Yeah.
I like the warranty return.
Of course, that's where all these gets you on the price, I think.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, that is cool.
The alternator I got for free in a way.
Yeah.
I'm going to put Alex with the YAR alternator at St. John's.
I should have replaced that.
Middle of winter, we were on our way home and all of a sudden my handheld or my GMRS radio
kept shutting off and I was getting really mad and then all of a sudden the truck just
died.
Nope.
So we were like, we were what, like two hours from home or something like that.
And then we were an hour from the nearest alternator.
So we had to abandon the truck on the side of the road, drive all the way to Lansing
to get an alternator and then drive back and put it in.
And like, I think it was like three or four degrees out.
Yeah.
Oh, it's crazy.
And then we had to get another part because my brother decided to overtark something.
Yeah.
That is a common thing.
The alternator mounting bracket snapped and they don't sell those.
They're not the bracket, but the little screw adjuster thing.
Yep.
They don't sell those.
So we found one, or I was just looking at parts that might work and I found a Camry
one that was similar and the guy, it was almost hard to get them to sell it to us because
it wasn't, we weren't buying it for a Camry.
But it worked.
It worked great.
Yeah.
I think I had the same thing happen where my bolt bent the adjuster on my Subaru Baja.
And Subaru is that that 06 I had just about every other Subaru is the same thing on the
inside under the hood.
So I went to the junkyard and robbed like two of them, grabbed a bunch of other engine
parts that, you know, I knew that I would need eventually stole some wood grain trim
from an LB in addition.
They got back and had a brand new Subaru on the inside, dude.
That was rocking.
Yeah.
I think here in the next few weeks, I'm going to rip my alternator out and replace it with
a Cadillac alternator.
Just I, when I'm rough, so we use my winch on Saturday to pull an XTERRA out of a mud
hole and with my lights on, when I turn the alternator on, my LEDs would shut off.
So I'm pretty sure that I'm going to need to do some work with that.
Are you sure your alternator is just not going out?
It better not be.
It's like brand new.
Well, you did sink it in the hole earlier this year and that that mud puddle.
So I'm thinking we all know how Toyota's do in muddy water with alternators.
Basically, if you get stuck in a muddy hole with an alternator as low as ours, you're
going to change it that year.
Well, my phone's low this year.
If you don't change it early next year.
At least as low as Joe's.
That's not on the bottom.
But yeah, I don't know.
It might be.
I mean, it charges at like 13.1 volts.
So I guess that's kind of low.
Yeah, that's low.
What is that?
Like 14.2, I think.
Yeah.
The alternator on the 3.4 only charges at like 13.4.
So the man's 14.4.
14 something.
Honestly, that little voltmeter that I got for like eight bucks off Amazon, those two
wires, dude, that was awesome.
I'm so glad I bought that.
That was so cheap, but it's I don't have any other way to really check it.
You know, I can I can look at the dash, but it doesn't tell me nothing really.
Your tundra started with a 3.4 then.
Yeah, yeah.
I knowing how how it feels in a forerunner, I couldn't imagine it in a tundra, dude.
Yeah, I don't know.
So we at least I just got it.
I don't remember the power it has or didn't have.
Although I am driving my dad's Tacoma, which has the same motor in it.
So it's first gen.
But it's so tiny.
Yeah, 2004.
It's so tiny.
It feels like you're you're able to get up and go in it though.
Yeah.
The I always joke because I came from a power stroke, OBS power stroke.
So I went from not being able to even get close to touching the other side of the car
to being able to grab the other side other handle without bending over.
It's quite a bit smaller.
Yeah.
The size of my truck compared to the newer Tacomas now it's like what?
So I definitely get why people call it a Tacoma.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, even the auto shop calls it a Tacoma.
And it just actually does.
Yeah.
Last year we first started that mistake or we mistaken our buddies tundra for a Tacoma
the first time we saw it.
Which one?
The Jambers.
Yeah, I thought it was too.
I was like, damn that Tacoma sounds like he's got a VA and like I feel Derek looked at
me like I was a dumb ass.
He's like, tundra and I'm like, sure.
I took all the badging off too.
Yeah.
With Joe's I looked at Mark and like since when did they did the Tacomas suicide doors?
Yeah.
It's a tundra.
I hate that feature.
Oh, yeah.
On the FJ sucks.
Sucks so bad.
Good luck if you want to put anything in your vehicle.
Well not only that it's when you're on the trail the cab's flexing a lot and it's squeaking
right there at that joint.
Oh, you get that.
I haven't really gotten that much but maybe that's because I'm not as long but.
I must say I think the newer Tacomas and for our FJs probably for how bulky the doors are
compared to the old doors.
It probably doesn't creak as bad.
Oh my God.
I hate that.
I wanted a four door FJ.
What if you just weld the rear suicide shut?
Me?
No.
I need access to that space.
But I mean that wouldn't that fix the flexing because does it mount kind of like a GM door
where there's no pillar in the middle?
Yeah.
Yeah, okay.
That's how mine is too.
The, yo and I've done a couple of times is I'll swing open the suicide door and I'll
choke my wife out because I forget sometimes that because the seat belt is actually mounted
to the suicide door.
So I'll open the passenger door and then open the suicide door and she's like, oh, oh,
oh.
Like as I'm trying to get like the saw out of the back seat or something and she's like,
God damn it, like, what's all right?
Yeah.
They get that separated on the thunder.
Yeah.
It's probably as it should be.
Yeah, that was a major design flaw.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah.
I don't know.
I always had extended cabs without access to the back.
So to me, I would probably just weld the door shut to fix the flex.
Yeah.
I mean, the biggest part of the room back there, it's, oh, there's more room than most
people think.
Yeah.
Like that.
I'd say it'd be a waste to do that.
I'm assuming you'd be able to use the seats, right?
Yes.
So I've got to have that on Instagram or not.
But yeah, I've got a custom overhead shelf in the back seat and then a platform, which
is where my power lives and my fridge and where my dog lays.
Where my dog lays?
Your dog is so cute, man.
I can't wait till my son gets boost for seat age so I can kick him out and delete my
seat.
Oh, yeah.
We almost need to come down just so I can see your dog again.
So I think I, she's, I thought she was in here for a second, but she usually lays right
there on the couch.
Both of mine abandoned me.
I don't know where they went.
I thought Wrangler was on the seat behind me, but I guess not.
Yeah.
She's a, she's quite the friendly little dog though.
She always wants attention.
So I guess, I guess a question I got too, by the way, is because you're a little bit
more well traveled than I am.
What's your favorite destination you've traveled to yet?
Favorite area?
Just throughout my years of life or in the space?
You know, I would say both.
I mean, in this space is one thing, but I guess if we're talking about just, I mean,
beauty as far as the country goes.
Yeah.
I mean, I, so I haven't been a whole lot of places.
I mean, I probably just offer one hand.
I've been to Yellowstone, the T-tons, and there's a Boy Scout Ranch in New Mexico called
Fillmont where I did a 14 day hiking trek.
That was nice.
And then Colorado, it's pretty much mountain wise is where I've been.
Right.
Favorite out of those?
Favorite?
Oh man.
I don't know, the T-tons almost beats where I went in Colorado.
Yeah.
Really?
Yeah.
I'd see you.
We're talking on number two.
Where'd you go in Colorado?
Oh gosh.
Leadville, South of Leadville, and their near independence pass.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
We were going to go to the San Juan's, but we were like, there might be a lot of people
at that time of year that we went.
Yeah.
So Tyler took us on a guided tour pretty much.
We started in, hold on.
I mean, I went to San Juan's, but I did that in winter time for snowboarding.
So.
Oh man.
Man, I'm watching you stuck in the middle of a river right now climbing up through.
That was my tour over that time.
Oh man.
We don't get any of that because the DNR is like, oh, water crossings hurts the trout.
Yeah.
Oh really?
Yeah, I'm trying to swim around it.
Yeah.
It'll just, it'll interfere with the salmon runs.
Well, on the upside, at least you could throw the winch line across far enough that you
didn't have to swim.
So the other guy I was with in that video, he's also two-wheel drive at that time.
No.
Oh man.
Well, at least you were with a buddy.
I mean, combined that's four-wheel drive.
Yeah, I wouldn't have crossed it if he wasn't with me, but he was like, man, I'm going to
do it.
I think I can make it.
And of course, I had never done that creek crossing before.
I had never seen that river before.
And we didn't know where the actual path was.
And when it was completely dry this past summer, I could see the bowlers that I was
hung up on.
Oh yeah.
Okay.
I don't know if you were hung up, but I figured you weren't, your vehicle wasn't off, but
I had water inside the cab.
Oh, I'm sure.
Yeah.
I haven't hit deep water like that yet.
I've hit mud about that deep.
There's another video on the channel.
It's called DJI Drone Film, first time in four-wheel drive.
Yeah.
It shows.
Hold on.
I'm going to it.
I can tell you a minute mark.
So I know how to access my YouTube channel.
I just posted the first YouTube video that I posted in probably 10 years.
And wow, is it different?
Uploading.
Yeah.
So it's called first trip in four-wheel drive a DJI Drone Film.
And.
Oh, yeah.
Let's see.
1.05.
As far as shooting, how do you like the DJI drones in general for just videos?
I mean, I don't have any complaints at all I've ever used.
No, I don't have high end ones.
Like I'm running.
Yeah.
I'm running a Navic Air 2.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Nothing special.
Yeah, I know.
Those are nice.
And I recently just bought the Action 5 Pro.
Okay.
So the last video I just posted was all filmed with that.
But I primarily shoot on a Sony a7 III.
I'm starting to see.
I'm starting to get into the Sonys a little bit because I was a Nica.
Don't.
No, because the audio jack will fail.
Oh, and they won't recall it.
Yeah, I've got a hundred dollars to fix it.
Oh, oh, I'm.
That's why I use DJI.
Shit, dude.
Yeah, that's that's confidently water above your hood.
Not not from just driving just depth wise above your hood.
That's nuts.
We don't get nothing like that.
Stay to the right.
It's not so bad.
We definitely have water that goes over your hood here.
Well, we do.
We just we wouldn't make it.
It's all silt.
It's all it's all like four eight foot muck just bottom.
Yeah, I would trees and stuff in there.
So let's pass weekend.
I went to that same area where that water was deep and it was deeper.
I did not cross it.
Yeah, I would not doubt that.
That's crazy.
I think the deepest I've I've done as an actual water crossing like river crossing is probably
like 10 inches, 12 inches.
Oh, yeah, there's I forgot.
I forgot you haven't been up to Connors Hole.
Yeah, I don't know who that is.
Yeah, up and dry.
I've never seen this.
Yeah, it's you go to my Instagram, Gavin.
There's a video clip.
Me crossing the water and you see Alex playing in the water.
Yeah, with my just had my hand out the window playing with the water.
What's what's trying to remember your name?
Silver Silver.
Yeah.
I'm following so many overlanders now.
It's crazy.
It was back in June.
Man, I that swing out was so nice though.
The fact that you bought it with the swing out.
Sweet.
Yeah, you're.
I really liked the DJI drones and what they can do, but I'm kind of nervous with Congress
talking about banning Chinese drones.
I got a story about that.
They kind of gone into effect already with it because anybody that's buying the newest
drones cannot get into the country right now.
Right.
So, like, Caleb Baker, Baker overland, he bought a new one and it's been rejected three
times by customs.
Yep.
And they're talking about there's a possibility that within the next six months, all DJI
drones will not be able to fly.
Yeah, which I've got backups.
What do you mean?
As far as backups go, I'm sure you're probably going to get into that, but that's been a
big topic.
Parts back up.
He means I do have older DJI drones that don't have any of the geo fencing and all that
software and so they can't do anything, but they use GoPro's.
So I'd be able to mount one of these to it.
And then I also have an auto electric star drone, which almost looks like the Phantom
Force from DJI and they have zero geo fencing and all that.
How did you like the Autels?
Because I had a chance to get one of those, but I had never heard of them prior, so it's
kind of...
The only complaint I have with it is the controller.
It's kind of finicky where you plug your phone into it, which I just planned on getting
on eBay and getting a replacement when the time comes.
And then their new Evo series, I'd say new.
I haven't really heard anything new from them recently.
It's what I primarily flew for a production company that I worked for.
And it was pretty nice.
It flew differently, but if I had to pick DJI, it would be the way to go.
Right.
Yeah.
Interested how that's going to turn out.
There's a lot of DJI users in general.
I think I'm going to build one is where I'm at.
I want to build my own FPV.
Yeah.
That's where I'm at.
I thought about doing the DJI FPV for a while just because of the price point of it was
even cheaper, but if they're going to ban them, it's going to be pointless.
Yeah.
So I think I'm going to...
I'll probably buy a frame and then start piecing one together slowly.
I don't know how I'm going to record on it yet.
It might just be GoPro or something, but that's where I'm at with it.
I don't want something that someone else can control because they might just shut it off
on me for no reason.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's valid.
I mean, at the end of the day, investing that type of money into something just for it to
be outlawed or however you would want to put it in the next year or six months is silly
at that point.
I mean, that's why we record on a weird service you've never heard of is because I don't want
to get shut down on us.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
I never heard of it either.
So...
I mean, it's hosted out of my basement.
So...
Yeah.
It's interesting.
All right, dude.
That's about an hour, so I really appreciate you coming on.
Yeah.
It's been a pretty good chat.
Mm-hmm.
That's right.
Yeah, it was good to learn all about this.
Like I said, I've seen some stuff from the start, but I never really got into detail
with it.
So it's a very cool build, man, going from two to four and changing out your gears.
Yeah.
It's been a cool story so far, looking forward to seeing what you got coming up soon.
Yeah, I've got a build video in the works that'll go in detail about everything.
Beautiful.
Oh, perfect.
All right, man.
Well, I appreciate you.
Thanks for coming.
Thank you.
We'll talk to you guys later.
That's cool.