Welcome to Botch's Off -Road. Join us as we talk
about everything from gear reviews to trail stories,
tent camping to rock landing, and all things
to do with the outdoors. Alright. Mark, what'd
you do last weekend? I'm just gonna jump right
into it. I ain't gonna give him no dilly -dally,
no bullshit, nothing. Just right into it. I did
the same thing you did, so you might as well
explain it. Cat. So... Nah. He's right. Kind
of. So this weekend, or last weekend, I guess,
we didn't really have any truck things planned.
Oh, yeah. I don't think we had anything planned.
We were just going to bullshit. And I was looking
at the forerunner, and for whatever reason, this
was while Mark and Alan were on their way, by
the way. Like, it was really bad timing. I was
just looking at the forerunner, and I'm like,
you know what? I really hate my rocker panels.
Yeah. I mean, you hated them for a while, but.
Yeah, but like for whatever reason Friday night.
I really hated them so I started cutting out
rocker panels with a grinder which I Thought
it would take like 20 minutes No, that takes
like four and a half hours like it took a long
time to cut those rocker What was the last project
you thought was not gonna take that long and
took us almost four days? I don't even remember
I I don't know why I was thinking rocker panels
would just fall off, whatever. So Friday night,
we worked pretty late getting those cut out.
Well, the passenger side. We worked pretty late
getting the passenger side cut out. At some point,
we decided that it'd be better with a settling
torch, so we went and got our buddy's settling
torch. It was not better. It almost lit my car
on fire. Well, I guess it did light my car on
fire, but we put it out. after that was all cut
out and chopped off. Um, and I'll make sure Mark
puts pictures of this in chapter art because
I took, what would you say three or four inches
of height off my body? Yeah, roughly. Like, I
don't think you can see your frame originally,
but you can definitely see the frame once you
cut all that old rocker off. Like I, I probably
cut out four inches of body and then we I had
some sliders that were off the crawler. So we
cut those off the crawler and then slid them
up the frame till they were about half an inch
from touching the body of my forerunner, and
then welded them in. So now I have sliders that
are... Excuse me. Now I have sliders that are
kind of secret sliders. They're hidden from the
world. And they're... Four inches higher than
the average slider clearance. I guess I don't
know But the important thing is there's no more
rust on the body of the forerunner. No that I
found they have found. Yeah Yeah, so that took
that end up taking us two days two days I don't
think we weren't done till what like ten o 'clock
on Saturday. Yeah about ten o 'clock Saturday
So much for 40 minutes and grinding rocker panels
off in an hour of welding, huh? Yeah, I Think
all those two hours are more welding Crazy I
don't yeah, I'd be I could just feel it hurting
my back right now thinking about it. Oh Dude,
my back's killing me today. Like it's We've been
done for four days, and my back still hurts.
I was hurting before we even started the 400.
That was because of my work week. Yeah. Yeah,
I had a long week before that. Like, what was
wrong with me? God, you guys had a fun weekend.
I think my weekend ended on, you know, Sunday
I got into work. And as some of the, as the listeners
know, I have been trying to recover from whatever
mystery sickness I've had. And I came in Sunday
at about, you know, 839. Honestly, I was a little
groggy, but I was feeling okay, sick -wise. And
I was walking back up to the register, getting
ready to count tills and everything, put that
stuff in. And I could feel a little cough coming.
So I just, I was like, oh yeah, no big deal.
Little cough. And yeah, it turned into a big
cough. I coughed so hard, I popped a... popped
a rib, and then the excruciating pain that comes
after that, I could barely walk or move. Turns
out I tore or pulled like an intercostal. I think
it's intercostal, like a muscle between the ribs,
just from coughing so much. And so I've been
in some extreme pain since then. The spasms have
stopped. It's still sore, but I've been sleeping
in a chair for the last four days, so my back's
a little sore from that. And not going to work,
you prick. No, yeah, I've been out of work. My
whole left side I can't barely lift anything
with just because of the rib pain and stuff.
I mean, it's all the muscles surrounding the
rib, like lat muscles and everything for picking
things up. So. It's like and it I can't even
explain like explain how bad it hurt But I was
seeing I was seeing spots in my eyesight, you
know So yeah, it was a it's pretty rough. I know
I know Sunday when When I saw you you couldn't
even reach across the truck to get your phone
off the whole no Yeah, and that was after I took
a lot of pain meds that I were totally prescribed
so Completely legal. But, you know, it was a
lot of pain. And been a lot of nights since then
trying to get comfortable in a bed, but you slip,
you know, you can't sleep on your left side because
your ribs are in pain and they're popping in
and out. Can't sleep on your right side because
the weight, maybe just because I'm fat, but the
weight of the ribs pulling down, the gravity
is hurt, so it keeps me awake. The only way that
I can... actually, uh, you know, comfortably
sit as if I'm sitting in a chair, uh, you know,
almost a complete 90. So that was fun. Uh, but
you know, I did use Monday, um, had a little
bit extra money, decided to splurge and got a
Wolfbox. Um, and I used Monday for the install
of that. Uh, I got a Wolfbox G850 and So I spent
Monday trying to get that together, not reading
any of the directions or anything, and tried
tucking some of the wires so it's not super obvious.
And I'm pretty impressed with it so far, honestly.
I think it's pretty cool. I learned... I wish
that my windshield wasn't so small so I could
have one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was nice.
I mean, honestly, I got it more for the rear
view, the backup. Yeah. You know, I ran my wire
up along the A pillar, buying the visor to the
A pillar, and then up along the whole back through
my back door. Then I was originally going to
just set it kind of where my brake light was
at. But the way that the camera's orientated,
you have to have it upside down. For it to work.
So the way that I stuck it You can flip it, but
the way that I flip. Yeah the way that I had
it set There wasn't it wasn't giving me enough
angle to actually see So I had to unstick it
and then I moved it to the back rail of my roof
rack And now I could see now I could see all
so That was pretty nice took me. Did you get
your new roof rack installed? Oh, no. No, no,
no, it's it's just it's held on there via 3M
stickiness, so all hard mounted after. But yeah,
no, it was pretty cool. I went on the trail on
Prairie a little bit just to kind of try it out
and then realize that they have an app to access
your Wolfbox stuff and to see the video and all
that. So I went to go access my video and realized
when you turn it on, wireless mode you have to
be able to like hook up to wi -fi uh i was wi
-fi it was like i was hooking up to my carplay
on the fj via wi -fi and bluetooth so kind of
had an issue there i couldn't connect to both
which was kind of stupid so uh i went digging
in my box of random chords from upgrades that
i thought i didn't need stuff from and found
the actual CarPlay port that went in the back
of my radio that I was actually supposed to put
in originally, but I didn't know that that's
what that was for because I don't read directions.
I just saw a USB port and I'm like, I don't need
that. I got a whole fucking brick of them sitting
over here. So I never plugged it in. So I went
and plugged that in, plugged my phone into the
USB and boom. I got CarPlay via USB, so now I
can use my Wi -Fi. I'm like, ah, sweet. So I
figured all that out. That was fun. Life is just
so much more fun when you don't read directions,
man. I'll tell you about it. But shouldn't you
only have to hook up to the WolfBox when you
want to pull videos? Yeah, but because I have
to have the WolfBox on, so the vehicle has to
be running. OK. my car automatically connects
to the Wi -Fi, you know, CarPlay. And every time
I switch it off or disconnect it, it reconnects.
Did you put the app on your phone? Yeah. Did
you put the app on your phone or on your dash?
No, not on my dash. There's no point, you know.
So on your phone, all you'd have to do is disconnect
from the CarPlay Wi -Fi and connect to the Wolfbox
Wi -Fi. Well, obviously, that would be the easiest,
right? Except that... the CarPlay Wi -Fi auto
-reconnects and for some reason I couldn't get
them to stop connecting. I would turn off the
Wi -Fi to the radio on the tablet and it would
turn back on and reconnect back to my phone.
That was like my work truck does it all the time
I gotta make sure I don't have the Bluetooth
on when someone turns the truck on I was just
gonna automatically connect every time I go to
disconnect it does it again Yeah, so so yeah,
I mean theoretically. Yeah that all works well,
but it was not working for me But I figured out
a better alternative. Anyway, it hooks right
up to the card play and it charges my phone at
the same time so Honestly, it all worked out
so Um, clean that up. Um, and then these past
couple days when, um, and I'm counting this as
my weekend because my weekend hasn't ended yet.
I haven't had to go back to work. So, um, these
past couple days in recovery, I, um, I have been
organizing and kind of taking inventory of what
I have, what I want to take back out because
I haven't actually moved all my stuff back out
to my truck yet for the camping season. so I've
been kind of taking inventory of what I do have
what we've accumulated and Kind of going through
everything and going hey What do I actually need
out here now now that I've gone through the year
now that I know what we've used What I didn't
need Like I have two of those cheapest Like Walmart
camp cook sets and I'm like, yep, don't need
those those can get hung up and and forgotten
so it's like I think going through that kind
of stuff like, Hey, uh, you know, do I need this
coffee grinder? How many coffee, you know, how
many, uh, you know, uh, coffee mugs do we really
need? Um, and then kind of thinking about all
that, um, you know, like right now I'm in the
camp cookware hunt. I want to try and find more
collapsible, um, good quality camp cookware,
not like the crap that you can get from Walmart
that doesn't just distribute heat well, uh, that,
that doesn't have nice nonstick properties, but
that also is in five to 10 pounds of cast iron.
Cause obviously the easy answer is cast iron,
but. Yeah. Just get yourself one good cast iron
pan. Yeah. But if I get 12 inch skillet, 12 inch
skillet can't make me a big pot of jambalaya
though. Or. Okay. So. get, well, it can get one
like mine. I've got one of the chicken fryers.
What do you mean? It's about yay deep. Yeah.
Ish. And about yay big around, and it weighs
about five pounds. Yeah, that's the issue, though.
Then at that point, I'm not really getting rid
of any space. I'm just adding more bulk. So I'm
trying to cut down on those. You can put stuff
in a cast iron pan. Correct. But... I don't really
have anything that's gonna go in there. Am I
gonna throw all my eating utensils or coffee
mugs in there? It's not a bad idea. Theoretically,
I'm sure that would work, but I'm looking for
something that's more collapsible, something
that's gonna fit in a smaller space and isn't
as heavy. I carried around my Dutch oven last
year. It made jambalaya in that a couple times.
That was cool. Dutch ovens a little much. How
big is your Dutch oven? It was a small one. It
was like five quart. No, I say I've got a big
Dutch oven and I would hate carrying that. And
I carried that on the roof because I had the
extra space. But it was like between that, I
had a little cook pot and a pan. My biggest thing
is like I want to get something that collapses
into each other, the handles that could come
off of, but can still cook well. and that's light
so that I can actually kind of put it away. Last
year, my pots and pans were honestly just banging
around in the back, which is fine for some people,
but I'm kind of a gear guy anyway, so I kind
of wanted to... Let me know what you come up
with, because we also have that problem. Yeah,
I mean, I've been... I've been looking at, like,
the Gerber stuff. Gribber's got a really nice,
like, complete set, is what it's called. But
they're expensive. Is it the one they just released?
Yeah, it's just expensive. It's like $200 for
the full set. But it's all collapsible. Sea to
Summit has good stuff. They're like a hiking
company. They have a lot of, like, bowls that
are like half nylon, half metal. So they collapse
really well. And they're cookable. See they have
they have like pots that you can use to cook
with metal bottoms that collapse but But it's
finding something You know that's gonna fit in
each other. That is you know a decent price.
That's decent quality that isn't You know just
straight junk Yeah, because if you spend that
money, you know, you kind of want it to be worth
it Um, let me see how much my cost for the Gerber
stuff is. Cause I might be able to save you a
boatload of money. Cause that would be, I mean,
that would be my, uh, one of, one of the, uh,
ones I was thinking about. I don't, uh, do you,
oh, do you have like the veteran discount or
something? Big time. Nice. Yeah. I think we really
got to focus on our. Packout kids just aren't
on your kitchen too at the same time, Alex. Yeah,
GSI has a decent, it's called the Bugaboo Base
Camper. That's got a complete collapsible system.
It's got the frying pan. It's got the detachable
handles. It's got the pot, strainer, and the
lid. And that's about like 124. So that's not
bad. It's a little cheaper. Um, not that I distrust
GSI because they, for the price that they offer,
they have some decent stuff. Um, it's just, I
want to, I don't want to buy again, you know?
How does like $120 sound? That is much better
from like 200. Yeah. What am I looking at on
this? Yeah, I'm looking at 200, 199 .95. If it's
through veterans, Sienna could get it then. Yeah,
dude, so Gerber has a really great veteran program
It's like 40 % off everything and I think it
stacks with sales. Oh does it I Think so. Yeah,
so going more into this complete system then
Because a hundred dollars would make it worth
it for everything that you get They have it's
got the saute pan. It's got a stockpot four plates
four bowls a mixing bowl and like a Like a oven
pad or something and it all goes into one bag
and Yeah, I mean dude for that price That might
actually be where I go Because that'll take so
we have a bunch and I'll say this for like beginning
overlanders campers if you want like the cheapest
durable Camp utensils plates and stuff like that
the Walmart 85 cent plates and bowls You cannot
get any better than the plates, bowls, and cups.
They're 85 cents each. That's the one we use,
too. Yeah, and they collapse pretty well together.
I used that all last year. And I honestly, when
I was talking to my wife earlier, we were kind
of brainstorming this. She's just like, I don't
care. I just eat what you make. She's like, so
whatever keeps you making it. And I'm like, no,
I really want to hear from you as a team member
here. So she's like, yeah, you know. you know,
something more collapsible. And she made the
point, too, that they were just kind of jangling.
Every time we hit a bump, every time we went
off camera, our pots and stuff were shifting.
So to be able to have everything like this all
in one place, to have all of our, you know, that
would get rid of all of our extra plates, our
bowls. That would save me a lot of space right
there, because before I had a pan jangling in
the back, then I had... Plates and bowls taking
up almost two of the small drawers that I had
so That's a now that you say that I'm gonna I'm
gonna let sienna know about that and We're gonna
okay, so that on Gerber's website. It's actually
214 .99 After discount it comes out to 140. Yeah,
but free shipping. Yeah, I mean still it's That's
a that's a good deal for me and I trust Gerber.
I've had a lot of Gerber's stuff that's actually
been pretty decent. So that's... I just wish...
I just wish that they sold my MP 600 on the website
because I totally would have bought it from them
rather than someone on eBay. MP 600? What is
that? That's the military issue, Gerber. Oh,
yeah, okay. That's the one that I broke. cutting
a turkey's toe off last week. Oh, yeah. Actually,
Sienna, so I chipped the top of my knife on my
Leatherman. I have a Leatherman, I think it's
called a wingman or a sidekick. Let me just check
my pocket here. Sidekick. So maybe I screwed
up. The Gerber stakeout is freaking cool. Hey,
this is good hour topic. We're still on the half
hour. Yeah, it's too late. We already got into
all the cooking stuff. I went for my weekend
recap. We'll get into this. We'll get into this
on the hour episode for all the listeners. So
you'll hear more about it on Tuesday or Wednesday,
Tuesday. Yeah, Tuesday. So real quick. So to
wrap it all back to where we need to be for next
week. So Sunday, me and Gavin. Sunday me and
Gavin did some storm chasin. Oh, yeah forgot
about that. That's some early storm systems I
came through though. You guys seen the tree in
Gaylord? Dude the ice storm in Gaylord was wild.
And where? They're gonna be putting they're gonna
be putting that back together for a long time.
Yeah, they had like trees slowly falling down
and snapping up in Gaylord. Is that what you
guys call us, Gaylord? What do you call it? Gaylord?
Never heard of it as Gaylord. Gaylord. You said
Gaylord, like Gaylord. Dude, I change. It just
depends. I'm just curious. I'm not making it
funny. Sometimes I say Gaylord. I'm just saying
Gaylord. I don't know. I don't even know what
I said. Mark followed behind you. I just said
Gaylord. Sometimes I say it fast. Sometimes I
say it fast. Sometimes I say it slow. Shit. I'm
just saying Gaylord. I've never heard it's Gaylord
before. Oh yeah. I just, we call it Gaylord.
Like, so like, I was, when you said Gaylord,
I'm like, damn. Putting the emphasis on that
gay, the Gaylord part of it. I was like, okay.
Give me a minute Alex. Well, fuck. That's where
the gay lord lives. So, of course, we're gonna
call it gay lord. It's true. You know, you know,
oh, gosh, yeah, we gotta get to that hour here
now, because now I got other stuff I wanna talk
about with our cook stuff. So, I did some stuff.
Now you got me thinking. So, Monday, I sealed
up the holes in my truck so that I can go off
-roading again. because Sunday while we were
storm chasing, getting all back to this, Sunday
while we were storm chasing, he couldn't go off
road with me because he had holes in his truck
that his tires would just kick dirt all the way
up to the seat belts. Yeah, let's fix it. Someone
didn't think that was a crucial part until he
chopped it off. I stuffed some shop towels in
there and then filled it full of silicone. Oh
my gosh, and you get after me for my half -ass
jobs. Dude, I don't ever want to hear it again.
That's hilarious. I'm probably going to rip all
of that out and replace it with... Weld but I
needed something to seal it for the we should
have did some ramen and super glue and then sanded
it down That probably would have worked better
That's a good idea I was talking about stuff.
I just got idea for a shirt for next year, but
I won't say anything about over here Okay, yeah
save save it see now. We got a good hour for
it. Oh Let me let me finish this yeah, so oh
yeah, so so we met up for storm chasing Looking
for tornadoes because we got a tornado warning
for our for our county for our area or whatever
And we didn't see anything actually me and Alex
saw what we thought were spouts that like dissolved
on the other side of the field that we were we
were stationed at as because we're professionals
and Yeah, so we basically chatted in the field
looking for tornadoes, but turns out which I
don't know if you saw the picture, Alex, of the
confirmed tornado route that we did have in Grant.
It was less than half a mile from me. Very, very
close. There were actually two confirmed, uh,
EF zeros or whatever they call them in New Eggo
County. There's the one that went from Howard
city to, uh, Croton. And then about 30 minutes
after that one, this is according to my storm
chasing group. So it's not an official news source,
but, um, about a half hour after the confirmed
EF zero that the news has been reporting about,
there was a second one that went across the muck
fields. Yes. I think that's what we saw. So it
is. So that's what took out our power lines,
the two. Yep. So there was four. There was where
we worked the firm ones over Michigan in general.
There was like two down here south. I posted
a picture into our botches off -road groups,
and I marked basically where I live with red,
and then basically the path of the tornado. We'll
put that in the Alva Mart, but we're going to
block out all the street names. So we're not
telling everyone where Gavin is. Come find me.
Come find me. You'll get a big old hug. But it
doesn't mean the lakes, too. Oh, shit, Gavin.
I'm going to do the lakes, too. And if you think
about it, so we were right on that corner there.
So we were really close to where that tornado
started. Yeah, so we actually missed it though.
So by the time we got out, it was already done
and gone. Because it had already taken out the
two power towers. So I lost power. And then we
decided, hey, it's time to book it to a safer
spot. So the wife and dad and the kid went to
a safer spot. And as I was pulling out with my
truck, because I didn't want any trees to fall
on it, I was like, screw it, I'm going to go
look for a tornado. So I called Alex to make
sure he knew. And of course, he already did.
So we met up at the gas station and then came
out in this room. I was sitting here in my cockpit.
I got four monitors in front of me. One had the
news. One had the storm chasing group. One had
the radar. The other one had the radar the news
was showing, which was not accurate. Yeah, so
we met up and then drove to the corner, because
I was like, let's just go to the muck fields.
As far as you could see, we'd be able to see
a tornado come down. Lo and behold, now that
you look at this path, it started right on the
corner. So where that line starts, right past
where that road, I guess if they do leave the
names on there, 120th and Spruce, right where
that corner is, is where the church is. I don't
care. I don't care. This man don't give a hell.
Don't give a damn. Come find me. If it's for
something nefarious, you won't get far. If it's
for something nice, you'll get very far. So anywho,
you know, right on that corner is right where
we were looking for it. So we had just missed
it. And it went from that point to the other
point, and that's all there was. And then there
was nothing else the rest of the day. So it was
uneventful, other than the fact that I didn't
have power for two days. So I got it back like
last, was it yesterday night? Yesterday morning?
Or like really early yesterday morning? At like
1 a .m.? No, it was the day before. It was...
Because that was Sunday, right? So we didn't
have power from Sunday all of Monday And then
we got it Tuesday morning at like 1 a .m So and
it wasn't projected till 5 p .m. So we were very
happy I was I was laying in a 90 degree spot
on my bed Sitting chair style because against
the wall because I couldn't sleep because of
my pain as I mentioned earlier And all of a sudden
and I had fallen asleep and all of a sudden boom
my big LED light for my room just pops on and
I'm like I just fell asleep So I tried to use
my Wi -Fi to turn my light off and Nope, of course
Wi -Fi wasn't started up yet. So I had actually
had to get out of bed First world problems. Oh
The worst world problems. Well, it's painful
for me to move. So I was like, I don't want to
get up On that note, we haven't even told you
what we're doing this weekend, but the trailer
is getting some work done. That's where I'll
leave it. Things are changing. On that note,
we'll catch you guys later. See you.