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. We have absolutely no
topic once again, but we invited one of the other
botches on, and we've got Mr. Shane. Everyone
loves Shane. Shane's great. Back again. Oh, I
want to congratulate your boy on another well
-spent birthday. It's late, and it's going to
come out even later by the time we post this,
but we're recording it a different day. I thought
about giving him a shout -out on his birthday,
which we'd already recorded that week, so it
was too late. Yeah, but while he was rocking
his botches gear at school, he got his kid's
botches annual shirt. That's so awesome. He gave
it to him the night before, and he's like, I
can wear this to school, right? Go wild, kid.
Let me check the shirt over real quick. Make
sure. I'm glad that no one gave him shit. He's
standing in line with his friends like, this
one is my dad's truck. This is Mr. Duncan's truck.
This is Mr. Gavin. That's awesome. On the back,
I've got Mr. Alex and Mr. Mark. That's cool.
Can't wait until my son gets that age, man. Oh,
yeah. He was geeked about it. Yeah, I'm glad
the kid's shirts turned out okay. Yeah, they
came out good. Both of them fit like a glove.
William will probably grow six inches tonight,
and it'll be a belly shirt on him. It's all right.
Americans and crop tops have always been a thing,
too. Just 80 crop tops back out, yeah. Just cutting
sleeves. You might lose out on the sticker bomb,
but that's okay. There we go. That's our third
shirt. Crop tops. Oh, my God. I'm too fat for
that shit. I was going to say, people would pay
me not to wear them. We'll do a fake crop top
where it's got abs underneath. It's a full shirt,
but it's got abs underneath it. Yeah. This would
be sick. Okay. People will see this and they
won't affiliate us with botches. It'll be more
of like, this must be like a trailer park gang.
That's the YMCA quote. All right. Well, what's
everyone drinking tonight? Anyone got anything?
Wow. They decided to actually have one and be
going with Traverse City Bourbon. Nice. Nice.
Mark, what you got? I got water. I have a sore
throat this week. Me too. That's why I'm drinking
beer. Sorry about that. I have a big -ass jug
of water, too. That is a fancy water bottle.
I've got... Yeah, that's 20 bucks. I've got an
age -old botch's favorite, the Blake's Hard Cider
El Chavo, which... So these have been in my cooler
since Friday night. Friday night, yep. We put
some ice in there on Friday night. I forgot about
them, and when I was getting groceries today,
I opened the cooler to put groceries in there,
and there was beer in there. Now, I reached in
to grab a beer, and it was still cold, and there
was still ice in the cooler. Oh, that's good,
because I was making a face the whole time thinking
of skunk beer. That's promising signs for your
cooler. My cooler has been since it's Wednesday.
So, I mean, that's a long time for a cooler to
have ice. Oh, hey, speaking of coolers, I guess
I can talk about my fridge for a second because
we had a little issue with my fridge. Oh, no.
Yep. So, I brought my fridge in over the winter
with the battery, fully charged the battery and
set them aside pretty much. And when I went to
put my fridge back in my truck and put my battery
back in, use the truck to charge the battery,
I was noticing I wasn't getting like over 37
% battery. Oh, no. And so I took it out, took
it inside, started charging the battery off of
my USB -C because it's got a port for that. And
it was not charging over that 30%, 37%. So I
started looking it up. And EcoFlow has taken
those fridges off the market because of the battery
issue. Oh. And it's a known battery issue because
of the type of battery. This says in the manual.
Nobody was reading it, but it says in the manual
to keep the battery charged and to check it and
make sure that it stays at a certain percentage,
not to let it go absolutely dead, because if
you let it go dead for too long, it'll kill the
cell or something in it. And I didn't read that
part. I don't fucking ever read the manuals or
anything. So, you know, to be honest, half of
the blame was on me. The other half is with them
for not making it a wider known issue if those
batteries were that touchy, I guess. So they
obviously knew they had a problem. I got a hold
of EcoFlow, and within eight hours, they got
back with me and said, yes, that seems like you're
having an issue. We want to send you another
battery. They sent me a return label for my battery.
And then again, within another 24 hours, I explained
to them that I had shipped the battery. I'm going
to start doing my camping soon. My fridge is,
it's not useless because I could still hook my
fridge up to my truck and it'll still run just
fine. But when my truck is off, I want it to
be able to run off that battery overnight and
everything. So I told them that basically it
was useless without it and I would rather get
my battery sooner or later. They messaged back.
Typically they want... to get the old battery
in first before they sent anyone out. Yeah. And
that's what they said they would do originally.
After I sent that message, they said, yes, we'll
expedite ship you another battery and we'll ship
it to you now. That way you can have it. That's
sick. And so, you know, all things considered,
it was kind of a crappy situation with the battery.
Like I said, full disclosure, half of it was
my fault for not reading. and making sure my
battery was maintained correctly. But that's
good customer service. That was actually, yeah.
And you know what? I heard mixed reviews on EcoFlow's
part. But I'm really impressed, honestly, with
the issue. They took care of me. I have a new
battery on the way. It's getting shipped in through
California right now. And so, honestly, I'm pretty
happy with how that turned out overall. Um, no
skin off my back really right now because I haven't
even started camping. So as long as I get it
in within a couple of weeks, which it should
very well be in, uh, yeah, we're fine. So I like
to go ahead. I'm sorry. I thought you were done.
Oh, I know. Yeah. I just wanted to say this too,
is like, uh, you know, I don't want to try and
make everything sound hunky dory in the world.
And, uh, we've talked about doing reviews on
certain products and stuff before. And so I just
kind of wanted that to be known. Yeah, there
was a con with my fridge so far, you know, other
than the ice maker, which isn't a con. It just
is pointless to me because I don't want ice,
you know, if I already have a fridge that keeps
everything cold. Dude, we can make strawberry
daiquiris and shit on the trail. How would you?
We just have to get a blender that works with
an air compressor? Pinkies up, man. They have
those little Nutribullet, like battery -powered
Nutribullets. So your battery woes reminded me
of my Meshtastic node I put up on Sunday? Monday.
Oh, yeah, there you go. Monday. So I climbed
up my roof, which is a very scary climb, and
I stood up there and I installed my solar node,
and I came down, and it worked great yesterday.
Not a single problem. It was on all day yesterday.
I woke up this morning, and it was on this morning.
I came home for lunch, and it was off. And the
battery's dead. Ooh. So, now, when I built it,
we knew that it wasn't a fully tested idea yet.
My dad found a solar panel that had built -in
batteries, so we were going to see if we could
just use those instead of installing batteries
to go with the nodes. Oh, okay. Now we know we
have to install batteries with the nodes because
once those batteries died, dude, like today it
came on for I think an hour total. And today
was sunny. Yeah. What are the nicer days? Right,
right. So, yeah. And since we're on the product
reviews, a couple episodes ago, I made a mention
that I bought some cheap -ass Amazon tire pressure
monitor. gauges yeah i've been running them every
single day off of solar and the solar has been
fine the gauges seem somewhat accurate as far
as within the psi range that you would expect
from a cheap digital gauge hooked onto your tires
i found the downside downside being that depending
on where they're screwed in I was having issues
with tires leaking air from those. So I went
and turned my truck on the other day, turned
the pressure monitor on, says I was at 26%. Or
26%, 26 PSI. And I'm like, huh, okay. Honestly,
I kind of just looked at it. I was like, I'll
get it later. Drove home, came back. I only live
like five minutes from home or so, five to seven
minutes. So it wasn't a huge big deal to me.
Didn't feel like getting out there and taking
everything out. A couple days later, I look at
it again. It's at 16. I'm like, okay. So they
were fun while it lasted. They were a cheap little
experiment. But I ripped those suckers off today
and just threw a... Regular valve caps on them.
And then bought a spare set because for some
reason, every time I'm airing up or airing down,
I always lose a cap while I'm doing that. So
what you need are some nice Apex ones. Yeah,
yeah. With a lanyard. I do get a tether. Yeah.
Except my lanyard. I might get the. My lanyards
after like a year dry rotted and fell off and
I've had to replace them, but. Wah, wah. I might
get the. Attachable ones for now. Aren't those
like $65? To be honest, I don't know. Because
at that point, it's almost worth choking up the
extra $100 to put the real deal in there. Yeah.
Are they still... Yeah, they still have the threads
and everything on them. Yeah, they do, but they're
not as fast inflating or deflating. Oh, you mean
the thread -on ones? Yeah. I was talking about
the ones that you mount in. Oh, yeah. No, they
still have threads on them. Yeah. And... Yeah,
it might be a thing. If we're going to talk about
Apex, we got to talk about their brand new...
What is it? The Air ecosystem? Yeah. Oh, my God,
dude. That is sick. Yeah. They have come out
with a custom four -link inflation system. where
you can design exactly how long each line needs
to be, and you could easily run it where it has
drops at each fender so that you don't have to
run a four -link all the way around the truck.
It can just be built into the truck. Yep. And
it's honestly priced at a fairly affordable point.
I'm not going to say it's cheap, right? It's
not cheap. No. But it's affordable. Not at all.
It's a lot cheaper than I thought it was going
to be, in all honesty. Oh, yeah, for sure. I
thought it was going to be almost $50 just for
the panel mount for itself. But they kept it
fairly priced for what they got going on. Mm
-hmm. Apex is coming out with some cool stuff,
man. Yeah, they really are. Their hose reel is
sick. There's nothing else like that. No, I'm
a big Apex fan, and their tire inflator. Oh,
my God, dude. It is such a nicely just, it's
a beautifully milled assembly with a beautiful
gauge on it. Like, no one makes that level of
high -quality parts. Like, there's companies
that make good parts, right? I'm not saying that
they make bad inflation systems, but nobody makes
something that's that premium. Yeah. Like, they're
just, God, they're wild. They're beautiful. I
think for the amount that I do it, as far as
I would go into it right now, it's going to be
maybe the mounted deflators. But I love the hose
reel. I think that would be like the coolest
thing ever. But for the price point and for honestly
how much time difference and how much it's going
to save me, it's really not going to be that
much. Yeah. I love the hose reel because it's
so pretty, but I could not see myself putting
one in my truck. Yeah. Just for the same reason.
It's $195. That's a lot of freaking money. Yeah,
for a hose reel. Go opposite of last episode.
How do you really buy in on the Overland text?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fun, yeah. Value cab.
Oh, I got a cough. One second. Cough. Speaking
of cabs, Turbo's selling his cab. Yeah, I saw
that. And, like, too bad I have a 5 -foot and
not a 6 -foot. I'm going to give a shout -out.
We can fix that in a botch this weekend. I'm
going to give a shout -out to our good old friend
Andy. I'm really glad that he's out of the hospital
and doing better. Yeah. Really kind of worried
me when he was having them heart issues last
week. But I talked to him, I think, yesterday.
Uh -huh. And he said he was doing really good.
I told him that he's not allowed to croak on
us because I need him to entertain me. Wait,
who is this Andy person? Andy Hanna. Turbo's
Toy Box. He has the solid axle single cab Tacoma.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. You said
Andy Hanna. And I'm not going to lie. I thought
you were talking about like the. A crocodile
guy. Most people refer to him as Turbo because
that's his channel. Yeah, Turbo's toy box. I'm
like, damn, what happened to the crocodile guy?
If we're going to be on the Andy Hanna thing
for a little bit, I'm watching Alone right now,
the latest season of Alone, right? And one of
the contestants who's from Michigan. I swear
it's Andy Hanna. Like, it's not Andy, but they
look so similar. They have such a similar voice.
Their laugh is similar. Their personality is
similar. Like, it's wild. Yeah, I've seen, I
think I've seen that season of Alone. Have you
seen it all yet, or are you re -watching it,
or is this your first time? This is my first
time watching. I've watched the first season
of Alone. I watched parts of it, but never really
sat down and watched it. So this is the first
season I've actually sat through and watched
all of, and I'm a little over halfway through
it. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm not going to spoil it
then. I'm down to like four people. Oh, yeah.
There's another Survivor show that I was seeing
videos about. It was very similar to Alone. They
send people out, and basically whoever can last
the longest wins. Pretty much same setup, but
the difference is you have to keep the families.
inside like a hub zone so they have they're watching
everybody they can listen in on listen in on
each other is that the one where the family member
chooses like when to extract them yeah yeah so
there's a video of a guy who's doing fucking
great he's got basically a house he's doing like
superb he's obviously i'm and i mean obviously
gonna win it yeah from the get And his wife,
being such a freaking drama queen, obviously
not a woman like that, but she was being so self
-centered. She's like, I miss him. And they do
a thing where she's complaining that she wants
to write him a note, that they should be able
to write him notes. So they write notes, and
then they do this choosing thing where everyone
votes on whose note gets burnt and doesn't get
sent to the contestant. and she everybody knows
her husband's the strongest right then so hers
is the one that gets burnt and she flips out
and she's like he he needed that note he needed
it and so she freaking talks her brother her
brother's like I'm sorry, it's actually his brother.
He's out there. He doesn't understand how we're
suffering in here. Jesus. Dude's out in the middle
of the woods starving himself. Dude's just vibing.
And they're talking about how they're suffering.
He is. He was, too. He was in good mood, good
spirits. And so they freaking extract him because
they get to choose. And he gets a message on
his sat phone or whatever that says, you've been
extracted. He's like, why? Yeah. I'm doing fine.
Jesus. Look, everything's good. I'm thriving.
Yeah, literally. This is better than my own life.
Exactly. And she's like, well, he's going to
hate me. And I'm like, dude, I would hate my
wife if she saw that and was so self -centered.
Was the wife hot? No. God damn it. Dude was having
the time of his life. He was finally able to
escape all that crap and get some peace and quiet.
And she's like, no, no, we can't have that. So
she pulled him out. And when they met up together,
you could see it in his body language. He's pissed.
They got divorced. And the thing is, is they
didn't. And then, like, they did a follow -up
after that. And you could hear it in his voice.
He's like, yeah, you know, I had to do what's
right. Like, it sounded so scripted. And I was
like, man, I hope he leaves. And he brought the
whole wrong support center there. He should have
called any one of us and would have been like,
leave him. It was bad. He's fine. He's got a
broken leg. He's fine. He'll be all right. It's
not a horse. He'll be fine. He'll heal up. If
I ever get on one of those shows, do not call
me out. I will die out there. And that's the
thing about alone is people. People, their mental
strength sometimes is just stronger than their
body strength. There was a woman who got pulled
because her body fat percentage got so low that
it was putting her health in danger. And they're
like, we're going to have to pull you, dude.
You're not getting enough food to offset this.
And she's like, I'm good. Like, I'll starve it
out. They're like, no. Your essential functions
are going to start shutting down. This season
I'm watching right now, two people just quit
shitting, so they had to get pulled because they
couldn't shit. Like, I know that I would never
have that problem, but never. Only if there was,
like, unlimited dehydrated meals. Dude, even
when I was living off MREs. Even when I lived
off MREs, I never had that problem. Well, I think
those were designed to make you shit fast. No,
opposite shit good. They do not want you to shit.
They clog you up? Oh, yeah. Oh, well, then that's
the point, yeah. You got to think. Because that's
what I'm saying. Dehydrated meals, when I eat
those, I won't shit for days. Yeah. Oh, man,
that's perfect. I'll be gone by then. You got
to think. Usually when we're eating MREs, well.
Army and Marines, I don't know about Navy. I
don't know why you guys eat MREs. But Army and
Marines, when we MREs, we're out in the field.
They don't want us going shit. They want us on
patrol. I think the Navy eat it for fun. That's
how just badass they are, man. Hey, no. This
ain't even a problem. We just get fucking mid
-rats. It's like, I got a leftover burnt corn
dog, some moldy lettuce. Here's a piece of bread.
Go wild, kid. Shane, that sounds like the American
school lunch system. So when I was in school,
like AIT school, right, I was swing shift. So
all my meals were like that midday, like mid
meal. Oh, they were so gross, dude. And then
we got to go to the good defect one time for
like, we had an appointment or something. And
I was like, this is what everyone else is eating
while we eat PB &J and custard? Like, what the
hell? Oh, you know what? That brings me up to
something. I'd like to hear, what's everybody's...
Think about this like, this is your last meal,
you're on death row, but camping. What's your
perfect last meal? Hobo packet. Because it takes
so long to cook that I would be able to figure
out a way out of my situation. Yeah, there you
go. Yeah. Slow roasted beef Wellington with locally
sourced beef and mushrooms. My go -to like just
easy, lazy camp meal is do a Dutch oven and do
like a Philly cheesesteak macaroni skillet. so
yeah this is what you're making all it's essentially
like a churched up hamburger helper yeah but
just throw everything in that set it directly
in the fire pit so this is what you're making
for third gen weekend right yeah yeah okay oh
yeah i'm talking like i think i actually made
it last third gen weekend too oh shit yeah because
we're doing that potluck on saturday so you should
definitely make that Yeah, because right now
the plan is they come out, came Friday night,
we'll hang out through the day Saturday. Then
once the kids are about ready to pass out, pack
up, hit the road, because Joseph's got a 9 a
.m. football game on Sunday, and then went back
up at Riggs and Coffee. Yeah, buddy. We'll plan
on being done wheeling around like 5 .30 then.
That way we can do dinner and then you guys can
head out of there. Yeah. It would be sick. I
don't – third gen weekend to me is more of a
camping weekend than a wheeling weekend. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, that would be fun. Man, is that like
your – Is that, like, your go -to meal if you
had unlimited time, money, and everything? Like,
that's your favorite camp meal hands down? Or
is that just, like, your quick and easy get -or
-done? For me, I'll always throw a steak on.
But just for ease, good food sticks with you.
That's my absolute go -to. Yeah, I think the...
I think for mine it's a good steak for sure.
You get a good steak with morel mushroom, like
fried morel mushrooms, like gravy. Maybe you'd
make some roux with the leftovers of the steak
and some fried morel mushrooms, some local potatoes
and asparagus. And I'd be like the perfect meal
right there. Hell yeah. Be able to have that.
What about you, Mark? What's your favorite? What
do you dream of? I don't know. I really enjoyed
when I did street tackles last year. Those are
good. I'm not going to lie. I was surprised in
a good way. It came out a lot better than I thought
it was going to be, so I was genuinely surprised
by it, too. Yeah, you had those marinating, didn't
you? Yes. Yeah. And that's. Yeah, no, that turned
out really well. That's what we plan on doing
for third gen weekend too, right? I think we
were talking about walking tacos. Oh, yeah, we're
going to do walking tacos. Throwing them in a
bag, a Dorito bag or something. Yeah. That's
a good one. Yeah, so. Yeah. That. I'll have the
skillet. That. I'll bring, like, some kind of
cake or something because it's Joseph's, like,
this is what I want to do for my birthday. That's
awesome, dude. Oh, yeah. Maybe do, like, a Dutch
oven cake or something. Yeah. That would be so
cool. I can't wait. I hope my son's the same
way. He's showing it so far. He seems like he
is completely down for all of it. Oh, yeah. He's
going that way. Because Joseph and William, I
didn't start taking them wheeling until three
for both of them. Because I didn't really start
until Joseph was almost out of diapers and William
was just like, okay, you can... Hang your head
around when I was in the disco and that thing
bounced around like crazy. I'm like, I'm not
going to give you CTE. Right, right, right. Yeah,
because we started when he was like four or five
months, like camping and stuff. And then so the
first night we had him. I had rain sounds on
a tent playing in the hospital room on the TV.
And I trained him. I'm like, I'm going to train
him from an early age to be able to sleep like
a baby with rain sounds and tent sounds. So it's
like almost some crazy CIA mind game thing. So
now he sleeps like a baby, only when we're on
the trail, not on roads. Only when we're, like,
bumping around on trails. So we take Prairie
every couple nights or so to get them to go to
bed quicker. And so we do that little length
of trail, that 10 -minute trail there, he'll
be asleep within three minutes. It's nuts how
fast it works. Oh, yeah. And then on nights when
we can't do that, we play rain sounds on a tent,
and then we turn that all the way, you know,
we turn that as loud as we can. get it without
hurting him. And he just zonks right out, dude.
It's so good. He's doing great. Oh, yeah. He's
all about the rig, too. He loves sitting in the
front seat. We told him we were going to go on
a trail ride the other day, and he sat in the
passenger seat instead of getting in his car
seat. And he just sat down and looked out the
window, looked at me, and I'm like, dude, you
got to get in your car seat, man. And we started
putting him in there, and it was like. exercising
a demon. Oh, yeah. But once he hit that three
-year range, I took the boys out to Yankee a
while ago, and for two of the strips of trail,
just like, okay, you can sit in my lap and you
can steer because I can quick grab the wheel
if I need to, but it's Yankee. It's a glorified
dirt road for all but one section. I totally
cut you off, and I'm sorry. All good. When we
did the poker run, I let Jackson drive for a
little bit. Yep. And that part he enjoyed. The
rest of it he kept saying, are we driving home
now? Yeah, I remember that. No, I let my son
drive around the yard. Wait, out there at Everett.
Wait, Joseph did. uh our first third gen weekend
and that one hindsight i probably wouldn't have
had him do because i hadn't tackled that hill
because that one that had the gnarly rock right
at the end of it like oh yeah i'm glad he didn't
take my diff out was that the was that the same
one we did backwards at a poker run yeah yes
Oh, yeah, that's the only one I would have thought
about as far as killing your diff. Yeah, because
that smoked my front axle the first time because
I didn't align myself right. We tried going up,
because we went up at first, and we were like,
we started, and I'm like, I think I'm going to
miss it here, and then we hear, and the whole
truck stopped, and I'm like, seeing it, I was
like, you did not miss it. I'm like, no, I did
not. Not so much. Not so much. We didn't have
that much speed, thankfully, because I would
have smoked something. I got that nice new skid
plate so I can hit things fast and it just kind
of bounces off. Yeah. I can't wait for the new
skid. Dude, my skid plate. Oh, my God, that's
going to do. When I was putting my skid plate
on, that thing's like it's over 100 pounds for
just that one part that I've got mounted so far.
That's a lot of weight, man. Dude, it's so heavy.
With all the underbody and just rig protection
you're getting, I'm just waiting to see how reckless
you get. With my sliders, my skid plates. Your
raised sliders. Yeah, dude, they're so sick.
You're no passenger mirror. Since this episode
is going to be after the reveal this weekend,
I really hope the clear coat for the skin and
bumper will last a while. It is after the review,
so you can talk about it. Hell yes. No, dude,
I'm so hoping that that clear coat holds up.
Because that raw metal look, like I said, I've
never seen someone just clear coat raw metal
like that. Other than me, but. Yeah. What is
it on your bumper you're getting? Oh, it's here.
It's like half clear -coated already. The skid
plate is on the truck and clear -coated. Yep.
Skid plate's on. That was the thing in the video
was me grinding away the old crossmember. Oh,
okay. You can actually see the new crossmember
chilling on the ground there, too. Yeah. I've
yet to get any more skid plates or anything.
It's on my list, but I don't hard wheel enough
to make it a massive priority. If you just want
a mid -range one, I've got a pretty heavy aluminum
plating here. I also have heavy aluminum plating.
And it'd be an easy fab up. Yeah, I think I have
the stock one. It's like a real thin steel that
goes over, what is it, the oil and everything,
the oil pan. Just that one right now, but eventually
I'd like to get some more. Just not like a, like
I don't wheel hard like Alex does, so it's like
obviously you can't plan for everything. Like
obviously we could hit a mud puddle and there
could be a giant rock in there. spells my doom
but yeah i think aluminum plate would do you
well yeah because it won't be heavy yeah i don't
need any extra weight i i'm gonna have to when
i get the rooftop tent i'm gonna have to change
my springs out again i it's just a i have 200
pound constant load springs right now and i'm
probably already at 200 although i'll tell you
this once i loaded everything back in the truck
for the year my truck felt so much better i'm
sure Oh, God. I should have just kept everything
in it. Yeah, right now I've got unknown, I believe
they're Toyotex springs on the floor. Yeah, I
think they're Toyotex. And that was just because
they were free, so I thought it was worth trying.
But I've got a set of OMEs that I think are going
on this weekend. Yeah, that's what I have is
OME 200 -pound constant loads. Mine are the heaviest
ones they sell for the third gen. I think I'm
going to have to go to, like, Five? 500? If right
now I'm already rocking 200, you know, with the
rear bumper, with everything in the back, and
any gear in the truck, the tent itself is like
270 pounds. So I think like 500 -pound springs
or something are going to have to be in the works.
I'll have to look into it. I don't know what
Old Man Emu sells as far as how high they go.
Old Man Emu gets up there because I had Old Man
Emu heavy duties on the disco. And when it was
laden, they were great. Hey, you know, speaking
of the disco again, is it my understanding that
you met up with a guy that owned an old disco?
How'd that go? Cool dude. He's already like doing
all the things that I kept telling myself I was
going to do to it. It's like new bushings. They
just winch. But then I kept breaking shit on
it. And then my wall rebuilt the engine or new
bushings. Well, right. Which one do you do? Yeah,
exactly. He's like, Oh yeah. Like my mechanic
friend. Before I went to look at it, told me,
don't get it. They're pieces of junk. I'm like,
no, this one seems really nice. Come look at
it. He's like, dude, this engine's immaculate.
Buy it. I'm like, it should be. It's got less
than 5 ,000 miles since the rebuild. Since the
rebuild. It was really cool that the guy that
bought your... disco happened to find botches
off road on facebook yeah yeah because yeah what
a coincidence i was out at yankee doing trail
cleanup they and was shooting messages back and
forth with him and i'm like hey i'm gonna be
out here this day this time i'll shoot you my
coordinates come find me hey him and his wife
rolled up and i'm like so how the hell did you
find botches hey like Were you in Mitten State
Tours? And someone recommended like, oh, check
these guys out. They know their stuff. If you're
looking for like mechanically inclined, do -it
-yourself ideas. He's like, no, I found botches
first. And that's how I heard about Mitten State
Tours. Weird. And it's not like he listened.
It's not even like he listened to the podcast
either. He found the group. No, because I was
like, hey. That's crazy, because we had just
talked about the rig, and I figured, like, okay,
maybe he's like, that sounds a lot like my truck.
Is this it? I was going to say, I tagged you,
Shane, and I'm like, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, I
was on my social media hiatus, but I saw your
screenshots coming in, just like, that your truck?
I'm like, sure as hell is. That's so funny, dude.
I saw pictures of it, too. I'm like, that's Shane's
disco. Literally, I just got done editing the
episode, so I have your disco implanted in my
mind right now. I'm like, that's his disco. It
was funny because I ran into him on the trail,
and I was like, all right, I've probably spent
a good month of my life underneath this thing.
Do you mind if I take a look at it real quick?
He's like, yeah, go for it. Like, all right,
good. You patched through your frame. He's got
a new, he's got a new, a steel bumper, a wired
up with integrated LEDs, a sick setup, a new
15K winch, a all new body bushings, the new suspension
bushings, a new steering components. So it's
Jesus. That and just redid all the. rooftop lighting
so so like i'm excited to search up did he just
search up off road then and then found us how
did he even find our facebook i don't know how
he originally found us because he sounds like
he has a jeep a and a side by side and wanted
the disco for like specifically overlanding and
it can tow Because the thing tows 8 ,500. Right.
And he's like, I can haul a trailer, I can haul
the side -by -side around. If we want to go do
drumming, he's like, I'm planning to take it
up Marblehead. I'm like, yeah, it'll do Marblehead,
no problem. But doing Marblehead, no problem
now. Like, yeah, now Subaru Outback will do Marblehead.
But... ran into him made a cool scene the old
red followed it down a trail for a bit and i'm
like oh man that's what it looked like everyone
following behind me just 10 foot tall clearance
just bashing through the woods i only remember
it following me blinding you with those overheads
yeah well that's that's really cool man you like
And the thing is, is that you go back to, did
you have any sellers remorse when you saw it?
You were like, man, I miss that. Or were you
just like, hasta la vista, fucker. No, I definitely
miss it because like, you kind of touched on
this talking about your FJ. Like that was my
dream truck growing up. I'm like, everything
about it's cool. It's like the last of the real
off -road focused Land Rovers. And it's just
stupid capable. a solid front and rears a a strong
engine blows head gaskets like a son of a bitch
but strong engine asterisk yeah a big ass i have
a quad 442 i get it bored out buick engine from
the 60s and gets eight miles to the gallon once
you've got it lifted with heavy tires but god
damn that thing was fun And you know what? I've
never driven anything else in my life that had
a better one driving position and view. Right.
Land Rover, for all their faults on the electrical
side and their gas engine reliability. they've
got it down to a science like there i had zero
blind spots in that thing and it's a massive
rig yeah i mean it's beautiful i've always wanted
one too and only reason i haven't really executed
it is one because i got an fj2 i don't damn thing
about them and i thought they were like really
high price so i didn't even look at them when
it came down to that i have got it i've I picked
it up for seven and it's, it's kind of like the
perfect rig if you're mechanically inclined and
have the time to deal with it. But having a three
and a six year old and yeah, a care costs everything
else. I'm just like, when I started it, I'm like,
yeah, I've got time. I can do this, and then
I'm like, I don't have the fucking time for this.
Yeah. A little wheel bearing, so I might as well
do the axle shafts while I'm in here. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that $300 a week is a killer, and I'm sure
you pay more because you have two, but it's like,
man, that's a lot of money, man. Oh, yeah. Nothing
felt better than one Joseph. started kindergarten
and we're like oh my god we only have one daycare
payment now right now just the finish line is
in sight for getting william there yeah well
i tell you what man you got him uh you walked
so he could run yeah he's he's set up you know
you know you got it to a you got it to a spot
and he's kind of finishing it up oh yeah and
that's what i was telling him like well everything
major on it except for the frame repair that
you did on the rear quarter chassis i'm like
i already did all the like known issues for these
rigs so you're stuck for another 80 000 miles
yeah right yeah 80 000 uh no it's it was a cool
it was just a really cool thing to talk about
that real quick so i don't think we really talked
about it but no Just such a weird thing that
he found it and made a post about it and everything.
Because to be honest, our Facebook group is more
of just kind of a group with us. Yeah, it's more
a forum for us. And we're not super active. Yeah,
it's basically like a domain for when we're doing
events to be able to post events out there. The
whole reason I made it - It was really weird.
The whole reason I made it was when we make events,
we can make them as botches off -road, not individuals.
Yeah, right. So, I mean, for him to find it and
then post Shane's truck in there like, hey, you
just joined. Like, what? It was wild. We actually
have someone who joined the page? Like, what
the hell? And he's not a listener either? We
have 10 members. You know none of us. And you
have my old truck. We have 30 members. Just a
crazy group of members, guys. Oh, man, we're
up there. We're killing it. One of the highest
in the country. And it looks like most of them
are... There's actually quite a few that look
like listeners. Awesome. That's good. Because
there's Wreck -It Rob. Yeah. There's a guy named
Constantine Lawfer who joined two months ago.
And then we've got... Yeah, I should probably
get my... My priest on there, too. He should
probably join. Oh, my God. We got three new members
that joined after my episode with Benji on New
Found Overland. Yeah. Yeah, that was the second
one we'd done with him. We have Chibs in there?
Yeah, the first one was... I don't even know
if Chibs is on here. Yeah. Yeah, I think Mike
Bredenberger is, I'll have to tell him about
the invite. Get those guys out of the house.
Jesus. Out of the church. Our fake community
of Bath, Michigan. It's funny because I used
to live in Bath, Michigan. That's where my dad
used to live. So it's like, it's also a really
weird name for a town. Right. Almost perfect
for our fake community. I don't even. Yeah, because
we've got the Bath Community Gas Station, the
Bath News, the City of Bath. The church. The
church. There's already a meme police station
there. Those guys have been posting meme stuff
for years now that get millions of views. That's
hilarious. It was a perfect setup for it. And
it's even better now that Chibs' wife joined
Facebook. Did you see Marky's comment on that?
Yeah. Oh, Sweet Cheeks finally has Facebook.
And it's funny because I don't know how Joe got
her into that, but that is just hilarious. Yeah.
And she's still commenting in through in and
out too, so she's like an active. fake bath member
too let's just wait is that it was such a weird
is that actually his wife i thought it was just
joe yeah no he got her to make one so she's actually
oh my god i definitely should not have called
her sweet cheeks i thought it was just joe no
from what he said i thought he said on messenger
or something that he finally got her to to join
in on that i uh i don't have Thunderdome anymore,
so I miss all that fun stuff. Yeah, it's slowed
down quite a bit. I am excited for the events
coming up, though, as far as spring camping.
Camping with kids is always just a really fun
get -together. Yeah, the camp with kids is probably
one of the... It's so nice. ...I look forward
to for events. Oh, yeah. It is so nice, too,
because the kids all get together. And they just
hang out so you don't, you know, not saying you
don't have to watch your own kid. But, you know,
with them hanging out, they all kind of watch
each other. You can kind of keep an eye on them
as a whole campground or camp area. And it's
just kind of nice for them to get out and do
stuff with other kids out in the wild. Yeah,
like it's a blast. Like last year I couldn't
go because I was on orders. But when we did the
first kids camping weekend, it was either just.
All the kids used the disco as a jungle gym.
Or one of the guys out there, I forget his name
right now, and it's going to ruin my night, but
they had, like, a bed platform in the back of
his F -150, and they hopped back there with a
tablet and just watched Disney movies. And, like,
we could feel like actual adults hanging out
around the campfire. Oh, it was, yeah, it was
so great. Last year, they actually set up a sheet,
and see, now I'm forgetting his name. Corey.
The one with the gladiator. Corey, yeah. Corey
set up a projector, and they played a kid's movie.
Trail to the Void on YouTube. Yes, yep, Trail
to the Void. So he set up a projector, and they
played a kid's movie out by the campfire. So
the kids were all watching the movie. Derek or
someone else brought a little kids' archery target
and fun little games and stuff like that. And
I think they did candle making, so they made
some candles. It's just fun little projects.
It's for the kids, really. And then we even chose
to go out on a little night ride in the dunes
over there. came back and they were still watching
the movie so it was so you know the adults even
got to peel away for a little bit and with the
other adults that were you know fully set up
and couldn't just pack everything and go so they
they watched the kids for just a little bit and
and we went out there a couple of us and just
kind of bebopped around came back after 30 minutes
and it was nice man and I think Joe's kids are
older. Derek's kids are older, like six, six
around that area. And they just, they just went
out by the river and playing around by the river,
you know, doing kids stuff, building a fort.
And it's like, that's exactly what the kids nowadays,
now these days need. Oh yeah. I think I'm going
to try and do fall kids camping, but it's going
to be hard because we want to do botches yearly
in September. Yeah. It'd be great for the kid
if you're still having him hang around there.
It would be really cool for him to have other
kids that are doing the same thing, all natured
around the same thing. Those are my favorite
events just for the kids. What's really fun is
I now have him able to tell the difference between
a Jeep, a 4Runner, and a taco. There you go.
And whenever a taco goes by, I'll be like, Jackson,
what kind of car is that? And he'll go, he'll
smile and giggle and go, a taco? There you go.
You know, we should do, you know, most of us
have kids. We should do our own kids camp. Isn't
that botches yearly? Like a botches kids camp.
Well, that's just like a yearly trip for all
of us. I don't know if that would necessarily
be a kid's camp, but I'm fine with that. I was
just thinking maybe there would be one that we
know that Shane can get to with his kids and
you with yours. Oh, she wants nothing to do with
camping. I could borrow my dad's horse trailer.
It's an empty house with just her and the dog.
for a weekend and it's like perfect all of the
things that cause her headaches me and the boys
gone yeah that's also nice too getting that little
that little piece yeah cause it's a win win she
gets her wind down time and I get my one on one
time with the kids cause right yeah I have uh
I think right now with him his age, we talked
about me maybe going to Drummond. And I talked
to Sian about that today, by the way. And I talked
to her about maybe doing that. And she's like,
you're not going to Drummond without me. Yeah.
I was like, that's funny. Alex said that exact
same thing. He's like, she's not going to want
you to go. Well, we did Drummond last year and
stayed in a cabin because we were out there with
the in -laws. And it was when I still had the
disco. And I was like, we should take the disco
for this. Because you can't go anywhere on Drummond
without some type of off -roading. She's like,
we'll pay three times as much in gas, and if
we have to haul it back, it's going to be a pain
in the ass. I'm like, fair enough. It is a Land
Rover. It is over 200 miles. So if you're not
going to be gone until June, yeah, or Kia. Send
their diff lock. Torture test. So if you're not
going to be gone until June, what do you do in
May 16, 17, and 18? Not a clue. That's a month
of what? We're doing tentative plans to do a
guy's trip to Drummond that weekend. Okay. Yeah.
If it's not my drill weekend. Possibility. Triggering
my ADHD hard. Gotta look up what my... Drill
weekend is next month. Because we're wanting
to do a little bit of testing before Leatherwood.
Yeah. Do a shakedown. Yep. But all right, guys.
It would be fun, but. Oh, yeah. It's getting
close to that. We're at just about an hour. I
figure we should talk about music a little bit.
So I'm. I'm waiting to hear some, I mean, the
episode with music just came out yesterday, so
I'm waiting to hear some feedback on that. But
we do have a song that at least four people have
voted, well, four people have voted so far out
of six. So I think it's a fair point to call
that option one is the winner, which option one
is the song Getaway by Two Weeks in Nashville.
So if you hang out until the end of the episode,
we'll have that playing as our outro. It's a
banger. Did you vote on that, Shane? Yeah. Yeah,
okay. You're the other third vote for Getaway.
I had voted for the other one and then changed
my vote. It was a hard choice. The AI generated?
Yeah, yeah, that one. i don't know that it actually
is i listened to an interview from that artist
and i know he says he uses ai but i didn't think
it was all ai yeah probably just it's a good
song here help me clean this up yeah i mean it's
a good song either way yeah well yeah so and
these are what these are Local guys or like,
where are we hearing these from again? Value
for Value. So we're a Value for Value podcast.
You can boost into us. These guys put their music
out and wait for people to boost them if they
think that they have any value. So whatever song
we select, I send them 600 sats, throw it on
here, and then send a link to their song so the
listeners can boost if they feel the urge. Yep.
It's just a cool way that we can add music to
our podcast without stumbling on copyright stuff.
Yep. There you go. You heard it here first. Yeah,
the value for value world is pretty wild. There's
a lot of stuff going on over there right now.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, and I hear some people maybe
wanting to switch to it too, so maybe it's going
to be gaining in popularity soon. I'm hoping
because it's not a perfect system, but it's a
lot better than what we're using right now. Yeah.
Sweet. That pretty much wraps up our hour, guys.
Appreciate you, Shane, for popping in today.
Yeah, anytime. Always fun to have Shane on. Oh,
always. It was actually good to hear the Land
Rover story, so it helped fill our hour. So,
yeah, man, I appreciate you guys for listening
to our Botches podcast, and we'll see you next
time. And the boy is sad that we're leaving.
Yeah, he's always sad. All right, catch you guys
later. See you. Don't ask me why Don't hate me,
I'm not the enemy Just gotta get things off my
mind Numb my brain I gotta get away I need a
holiday Cause I'm not okay I'm going out for
a while I just need some space