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. Today is a good ol'
weekend recap. A good ol' wrap. So I guess we
can start with Gavin. We all had kind of eventful
weekends, but not actually eventful weekends.
Yeah. Yeah. So this is my weekend working, so
anything that happened in the weekend following
up to this kind of counts for me. So with that
being said, the one thing that I think we did
do this weekend is... We, after work, I want
to say it was Sunday, we went out on a couple
of the trails around here on Prairie. I guess
we were just kind of bored and the kid was crying.
So we were like, yeah, that always puts him to
sleep. And I was being kind of nosy. They got
a controlled burn over there. And so. Oh, really?
Oh, yeah. That whole Prairie area was smoking.
Jesus. So we went out there and. And it kind
of started right where the power lines are, the
crossroad there in Prairie, where the cemetery
is. Yep. If you were to take a left down that
power line, that whole left side, they did an
underbrush burn. So it was just all that whole
left side is black. And it was just like a nice
line of smoke everywhere. It was kind of cool
driving through it. You could see little flames.
in the ground. They had watchers in that same
area, camped out over there, so you could see
a couple fires here and there in the woods. So
it was kind of cool just driving up and down,
seeing what was burning shit. I don't know how
much they plan on doing out of that, but then
they burned that whole right side, if you're
going down, opposed to the actual prairie itself.
So they did that whole right side, killed all
my little cactuses over there. Bastards. Yeah.
They'll be back, but they'll be back and better
than ever. But it was cool to see, you know,
all the smoke. It was like driving through like
a wildfire almost. I bet people don't even understand
Michigan has cactuses and they taste delicious.
Yeah. I have not eaten them, but I've definitely
saw them and did not take any home because that's
illegal. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. It's illegal.
I never did that. Is it really? Yeah. They're
protected. I didn't think the cactus were protected
because some people get rid of them out of their
yards and stuff. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah,
I thought they were protected when we looked
them up because I was like, I wonder if we can
eat these. Oh, Jesus. The prickly pear is totally
protected. It's an endangered species. Do I know
that? I never knew that. Mark's like, oops. This
species is protected in its sole western upper
peninsula locality. Oh. So it's not protected
here. Okay, I didn't read that far. So, yeah,
I picked some, and we were going to eat it. I
was going to eat it, and then you know what I
ended up doing is where it sat, it poked through
our grocery bag and into the cloth seats and
everything, and that was just a bitch. So I ended
up just throwing them out. Oh, my God. I was
like, this isn't even worth it. But I didn't
at that point when I was going down in Prairie.
This was probably a couple years ago. I was like,
I didn't even know they had cactuses in Michigan
until then. I'd never seen them. Our buddy John,
his entire farm is just coated in them. Yeah.
They do taste good, though. Yeah, prickly pears,
they're fantastic. So, yeah, other than that,
my last weekend I had off, I did make the purchase
on the Gerber Complete system. Just got that
in, and that is sick. got everything it's got
a nice big pot got a nice big pan they're heavy
too they're like they're like kitchen pans almost
like a lot of your camp pans that you use right
they feel light thin no these are these are heavy
i gotta i'll bring them over so you guys could
see them hell yeah and uh i also in that same
order i ordered some food grade tubing to extend
the reach of my water from my Dometic. That way
I could move it up to my table area on the back
of my door and do that stuff there. So that was
pretty nice. And then I found out I had a bunch
of rewards on REI that weekend. So we plan to
go today. And we went to REI and bought nine
dehydrated meals and a little rain jacket for
our boy. And I think it totaled out to be like
$145, but we had like $88 in rewards. And we
had a 15, I think it was a... Yeah, $15 off,
$100 spent, and then you get 10 % for buying
eight or more dehydrated meals at a time. So
we left the store only paying like $35 for everything.
That ain't bad. Yeah, that was really cool. We
got a lot of really good dehydrated meals. Sienna
got her creme brulee dessert that she likes,
dehydrated meal. It's like a little dessert.
Creme brulee is really good. She got some dehydrated
cookie bites that she, in air quotations, said,
oh, we got to get those for the kid, which we
all know better. She was getting them for herself.
I would have had them gone on the way home, I
ain't going to lie. Yeah, what I'm going to do
is if I do come down Friday for you guys' camp
out, I'm going to cook two or three of them.
We can all try them, and we'll do a review on
them. Hell yeah. And Gavin just walked us into
our wrap -up. Yep. So as has somehow became a
standard for us, we had a camping work weekend
yet again. Yeah. What is that, two or three weekends
in a row? Three weekends in a row. I find it
funny when we originally talked about this and
I was like, we won't camp for months and we're
going to go camping. We have done almost every
weekend leading up to third gen weekend. We've
gotten a lot done though. Yes, we have. So, yeah.
Originally we were going to do it like once a
month except for months that we were going to
be camping. We're on weekend three with our fourth
coming this weekend. Yeah. So that's a whole
month of camping out every weekend in the yard.
Yes. Hell yeah. Yeah. Yeah, maybe I'll just bring
my roof rack Friday or something. We can throw
that up too. Yeah. Yeah, I don't. I don't even
think my 4Runner moved Thursday through Tuesday.
No, not really. It just sat there. Yeah, I didn't
go anywhere. I didn't do nothing. I didn't even
work on it. Oh, that's a lie. I got my new tablet
mount, and I had to try three different balls.
I had to order three different balls before I
found the right one. But I have the right one,
and my tablet is so much more solid than it's
ever been. It's good to hear because I was going
to ask how that went down. Yeah, the mount's
really cool. It's a metal bracket mount with
rubber stoppers on either end, and it's not like
a quick -release one. You have to, like, screw
the tab, like the, you know, the bracket screws
tensions from the top, and it holds that tablet
nice and solid. I mean, it ain't going nowhere.
Yeah, I kind of wish I came across that bracket
before I bought the one I got because I would
have done that one instead. That is a very cute
rain jacket. Yeah, isn't it? I love him with
his little rain boots. Gavin just sent a picture
of his son in his new rain jacket and rain boots,
and he's adorable. He is. That's how he tells
you he wants to go anywhere. He'll go into the
kitchen. grab his rain boots, put them on, you
know, the wrong way. Right, right. And he's buck
-ass naked every other way, but he's got his
rain boots on. That's how you know he's like,
I want to go out and do something. That's funny.
All right, buddy. I just had to send that because
Sienna was out there with him earlier today.
Oh, man, he's cute as hell. And I got baby birds
on Saturday, so my whole weekend was pretty much
shot. Yes, it was. Clocking. When I clocked out
today, that was the end of that pay cycle, and
I had 73 hours on my clock out sheet. For this
week? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Are you hourly or salary?
Hourly. Ooh, that's good. I was worried you were
salary. I'm hourly without overpay because agriculture
doesn't pay overtime. Oh, that sucks. Yeah. Yeah,
so. That's called extortion. I mean, you know.
I have a free house. Yeah. You can't explain
too much. I guess that helps. That helps a lot.
Mm -hmm. But, yeah, so I did that, and I got
birds all settled, and they're doing well. I've
only lost 10 of them out of the entire, or all
9 ,000 that got delivered. So that's, like, that's
phenomenal, by the way. It is. Usually I lose
a bunch the first week because they do not settle
nice. Then we got started on Mark's little...
We started getting ready for Mark's bumper and
skid plate. Yeah. If you've seen the reel on
our Instagram, that's what that's all about is
Mark's new bumper and skid plate. Yeah. Maybe
it'll finish loading this week. Don't worry.
Yes, it'll finish loading this week. I was kind
of bummed that both of them technically didn't
show up Saturday. I'm like, all right, I guess
we'll hold it another week. Yeah, I bet that
sucks. You're just like, you know they're coming.
I'm such an impatient shopper. I won't order
anything if I know it's going to be more than
a week. I'll literally go and find something
else. Mark, how long did you wait on your bumper?
Like two months? Two months. Oh, God. I knew
it was a lead time. Yeah, I had a lead time.
Originally, I thought it was going to show up
in May, like maybe just before Leatherwood, so
I was quite happy to see it came early. Yeah,
when they said that there was like a two -week
lead on the Prinsu rack, I was like, I don't
know. I don't know, man, because I don't want
to wait that long. I get so obsessed with what
I buy. Like, I want it. Like, all I could do
is think about it when I buy it, so I can't stand
it when I have to wait, like, a while to get
it. Do you remember when I bought that turbo
housing for the Power Stroke, Mark? Yeah. And
it had a six -and -a -half -week lead time on
it? Oh, jeez. Oh, my God. We, like, had most
of the truck put together, engine in the truck,
and then the turbo showed up. And then I built
it on my kitchen counter. Yeah. Also, lead time
finally came in. I got my cam tabs. Yeah. Oh,
I forgot. That's it. That's the other thing.
Yeah, that was the other thing. Oh, man. Sorry,
guys. I dropped the drill bit. That's what you
heard. Yeah, I'm really excited about your cam
tabs. I am, too. It was static when they finally
shipped it. I'm like, all right, it's been almost
a month since the incident, but at least it shipped.
Oh, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. The truck feels
so much better. It doesn't wander as much. Yeah,
it's so much better. Yeah, I was just about to
ask maybe for the viewers that don't know what
are cam tabs used for? The cambering? The cam
poles. Yeah, the cam bolts that change the alignment
of where the tire tilts and rotates on the front
control arms. And why is that important? Like,
why does that even matter? So if you use a standard,
the actual Toyota cam bolt, it's rounded, and
if you hit a bump hard enough, there's a chance
that that's going to turn, and that'll throw
your alignment off and then eat up your tires.
It makes it not fun to drive. Oh, 100%. You remember
when we were out wheeling that one night, Gavin,
and I hit a rut, and then I was complaining about
my alignment being off, but I couldn't figure
out what was wrong with it? Oh, yeah, I remember.
That was my cam bolt. Yeah, I just figured it
might be, for some of the other guys, it might
be good to hear about it. Maybe it'll point them
towards, if they have that same issue, that maybe
it'll help point them towards that too. I think
it's mostly for independent front suspension.
Only for independent. I don't think solid axle
has to deal with it. Nope. No, solid axle does
not have that problem. They use a... drag link
well they're not all drag links most of them
use some kind of drag link to adjust camber or
adjust caster so even like uh i don't know like
a for instance like a 2021 jeep gladiator mojave
that would have you said more like a drag link
and because that's not independent that's all
solid axle right yeah all solid axles they wouldn't
have a camber bolt they'd have something else
But the majority of your vehicles all have cam
bolts for the most part. It's just the ones that
have solid axles that don't. Yep. So, I mean,
it's a good upgrade. It's not crazy expensive.
It's what, like $100 for the 200 total with the
reinforcement plate and the cam bolts? I'd like
to say yes. Individually, it went for a cost
of like $70. Yeah. So about 140 roughly. So it's
not a crazy expensive upgrade. No. You lose your,
you know, you can't just take it to an alignment
shop and have them align it anymore. Yeah. Because
you lose your minute adjustability. So you kind
of have to know what you're looking for. Marks,
we just turned both bolts out all the way. Yeah.
To give them as much clearance as possible. I
feel a lot firmer on the ground than how we had
it set last time. For sure. The only thing that
you need adjusted at a tire shop, and I'll still
deal with mine even though it's not too bad,
would be the tow. Yeah. That way you're not eating
up tires or walking around the road. Yeah. And
you could really, with the... The camber bolts,
you could really set them and then weld them
in place so they can never move again. In theory,
yeah. But I'd be scared to do that because it
would make putting lower control arms really
hard. Yes, that would be the only issue with
that. Did you guys do anything with the trailer
this last weekend? I looked at it. Yeah. He was
exaggerating a lot of projects that was barely
started over the weekend. I took the cut. Oh,
we did. We worked on the diff. Oh, yeah, yeah,
yeah. I forgot about the diff. Yep. So I wanted
to cut down the inner axles to make it so that
it just had the wheel bearings on the outside.
But it's a GM axle, so it's got retaining clips
that are inside the third member. So what we
ended up doing was dropping the diff cover off,
resealing it, and drilling a fill hole because
someone had welded the old fill hole closed.
Yeah. That way the diff doesn't just blow up
and lock up the tires while we're pulling it
because that would be a very not fun day. Yeah,
not a fun day at all. But yeah, so we got that
done. I have all the stuff. It all came in today,
and I'm kind of bummed we're recording instead
of me working on it. But I have all the stuff
to be able to plug it into my truck and run the
lights and stuff. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Like
the harness and all that. Yeah. And then our
hitch came on Monday? Tuesday. Was regularly
slated for Monday, at least one of the parts
of it, but they both came in Tuesday. So our
hitch came on Tuesday, and the hitch was about
an inch, half an inch wider than the adjustable
receiver that we had bought. So I ground half
an inch of material off either side of the hitch
to make it fit. Yep. Damn. But it's working,
right? And I will tell you, buying a shocker
pintle hitch with a shocker lunette ring is the
best thing you can do. Because... The pintle
hitch fits perfectly in the hole for the lunette
ring, so it doesn't have the banging and the
rocking that a normal pintle hitch does. Yeah.
It's beautiful. But we got anything else, guys?
I guess we should throw in some reminders. April
25, 26, and 27 is third gen weekend in Everett,
Michigan. We're meeting at Wesco at 4, and then
we'll be going out to the campsite. We plan on
doing, like, a potluck -style meal on Saturday
night, so bring something to share for that.
Yeah, I hope we get lots of people out there.
For anyone that shows up late, we'll be on Channel
18, so if you go out to the Ever Wilderness area
there, you'll be able to get a hold of us through
Channel 18. Yeah. Or... My Meshtastic note is
Alex Mobile. You can always message me on Meshtastic.
Yeah. Anyone got anything else? Anything we want
to plug? Yeah. Were you going to talk about weekend
plans coming up too or no? We haven't even done
that. Well, we did a little bit. A little bit.
Yeah, we're having another. Camping work weekend.
Mark will be finishing his bumper project. Yeah,
I'm sorry for that one. And I am going to clean
my car, and that'll be all I do. Yeah. We thought
about going down. There's an Easter event at
the farm. I think that's in what, Grand Rapids
area? Something like that? I don't remember.
Yeah, kind of. Belding? Yeah, you're right. We
thought about doing that, but... We also didn't
want to be monkeying around out there. We wanted
to do something else and kind of relax, and Sienna's
got to work Saturday, so we're going to come
and hang out Friday for a little bit and then
go back home that night probably so she can get
ready for work. And then, yeah, when she gets
out Saturday, maybe we'll stop back. And you're
doing, you say you're doing Saturday night, Alex?
Yeah, I plan. I'm camping Saturday night. Yeah,
we might do that. Sound like we need to get crazy
fancy or anything for Easter, so. No. That'll
be nice. Yeah, I'm not. I mean, I'd probably
go to church Sunday morning for Easter, but that'll
be about the max of my Easter plans. I think
I just got Easter dinner at home. sunday what's
about it yeah they do a little easter egg hunt
in the front yard uh with all the kids and stuff
so last year jasper wasn't able to really do
anything because he was too young this year he
can actually run around and pick eggs up so that's
gonna be a lot of fun watch him be able to run
around to the kids and because he's the youngest
he gets first he gets to get out there first
right right they they stagger the kids youngest
oldest And I think they usually have a pinata
too. I mean, they are. Kind of have to. Yeah.
They always have the pinata. I don't think he's
going to participate in that. Every time I cough,
I get scared that it's not going to unmute and
then I won't be able to talk anymore. Or the
server's just like shut down randomly. Oh, my
God, dude. That server outage sucked. I spent
like three hours on that today. Yeah. I've never
had this problem before. Yeah. On top of the
server being down, my service has been pretty
much off. Yeah. My AT &T service for my phone,
Sienna's will put her phone right next to mine,
and for some reason she'll have full bars 5G.
and I will have the little fucking circle with
a line through it with no service. Sounds like
you need a SIM card. Well, I don't know. So I've
been researching stuff, and I'm just going to
have to get in contact with AT &T because I've
done everything they've said, and nothing's really
changed it. Yeah, I've had issues similar to
that back when I was on Verizon, and I guess
when Kalen was on AT &T too. and usually it's
just the SIM card went bad and they swapped the
SIM card, and then boom, you're good to go. Yeah,
so I might have to do that. I'm going to have
to stop at the AT &T store this weekend or something
because Alex gave me a call earlier today to
get on a site or to see if that could work, and
I couldn't even do it. I had to go and find some
Wi -Fi nearby. It sucked. A reminder for all
service admins, make sure you check your domains
and make sure that none of them need renewed
because I totally forgot to renew ours this year.
Oh, that's why I had no kidding. Yeah. Yeah,
there wasn't anything wrong with the actual server.
Yeah, everything was working fine. I just didn't
pay for it. Yeah. My email was down, too, so
I missed an email from Derek. Yeah, not great.
Whoops. We're all back. Good to go now. And I
think that's a wrap on rap. I don't think I got
anything else to share. Yeah. So, cool. We will
catch you guys later. Later.