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. Dude, I don't know what
it is with AI. It really wants us to do this
tank camping thing because it translated in the
transcript to tank camping again. Oh, it invades
engine. That's fucking funny. I thought you said
taint. No, I mean, that would be a good camping
trip too, I guess. I guess. But, yeah, it's a
good old wrap. We're not going to do an hour
-long episode this week. We've all had a pretty
busy week. I've got lots of forerunner stuff
to do between my truck and the crawler, so I've
been plugging away at that all week. I guess
for a wrap, Gavin, did you work last weekend?
No. What did you do? So Friday I got home, did
absolutely nothing. Saturday, tightened up some
of the bolts on the roof rack, just making sure
everything was tightened up all the way now that
I've kind of had some rattling and, you know,
just letting it kind of settle. Just a couple
of them. bolts that I just probably missed. Um,
went through the truck, cleaned it up, reorganized,
uh, you know, the backseat area where I have
my air hose and jumpers and stuff like that.
Nothing too crazy. Just cleaned it, vacuumed
it, washed it. Um, and then, uh, what was this?
Saturday, we went and picked up a toddler bed
for the boy. Um, ditched the old crib. He was
climbing out of the crib and getting right on
the changing table. So we were not wanting that
anymore. He is a fucking climber, dude. He is.
So we ditched that, put the toddler bed in. Now
he's been sleeping in that, and he likes it.
Then we took him to the park and had some fun
at the park, and we put him on the slide. He's
liking the slide. That's pretty much it, man.
Pretty relaxed weekend. Didn't do a whole lot
of truck stuff. Didn't have a whole ton of money
to do anything. Oh, I feel that. I was supposed
to go camping fully. We had some family stuff
come up, and we didn't know if we wanted to be
gone just in case an emergency popped up. So
we ended up just staying just in case. Thankfully
nothing happened. I mean, it was a good weekend.
It would have been great for camping, of course.
Yeah. I got paid on Friday and was out of money
by Friday night, and I didn't buy anything. I
just paid my bills. No, that sounds about right.
And when I say out of money, I don't mean like
when people say, like, I have no money. No, I
mean I had to borrow money to pay my bills. Like,
it was the worst week I've had in probably a
year. It's been rough, dude. Yeah. It's been
a little bit since he had a rough week like that.
And this upcoming week isn't looking much better.
Yeah. I'm going to pay off my affirm this weekend.
So I only have like 150 left or whatever on it.
So I'm just going to pay the rest of that off.
And finally. But I did. Sorry, Gavin. I didn't
mean to step on your toes like that. No, you
didn't. I'm done. Okay, cool, cool. I did Thursday
night. We got started on our weekend kind of
early because Mark was in a hurry to put his
bumper on. Yeah. And I was already halfway into
putting my lower control arm on when he decided
to show up. So I did change my driver's side
lower control arm because I'm pretty sure it
was the factory one and it was just time. And
I was hoping that it would solve my shake. Spoiler
alerts. It didn't. My shake is still here in
full force. Actually, not full force. It's better
than it was. And then I did today solve a little
bit more of the shake. I crawled underneath the
truck and happened to look at the wheels and
noticed that both wheels had like a pound of
mud caked to the tire itself. Oh, you didn't
even wash that to begin with? I did. It was on
the inside. Like, who sprays the inside of their
tires? Oh, that's been your shake the whole time,
dude. How long have we been getting our trucks
muddy? You know to spray the inside of the rims
by now. No, no. The inside of the rim was clear.
It was the tire. Oh. On the backside of the tire
on the inside. Oh, okay. I've never had mud cake
up right there. Okay. MTs, man. Never. So, I
mean, that helped a little bit, but I've still
got... The best way I can describe it is a death
wobble. Anything over like 50 miles an hour,
my steering wheel just starts shaking side to
side violently. I know you said you got the mud,
but that happened to me with mud. And the mud
was just, it was coated around the rim because
I drove and then it had dried. So it almost looked
like it was the rim. And then I started chipping
away at it. This was a New Year when we did the
New Year's run. Oh, yeah. I actually had to,
when we left, I had to pull into a parking lot
because it had frozen at that point. I had to
pull into a parking lot and grab a screwdriver
and chip it all off. But then my death wobble
went away. But that was my big one there. I've
got that going on. I think it's an imbalance
tire. I really do. But I've been dealing with
it for four or five weeks now, so I'm getting
a little concerned that it might be something
else. But I'm out of things to try because I
fixed everything. Yep. I did notice I've got
a rear shock bushing that needs replaced, so
I'm going to order that this weekend. So it'll
be here at some point this week. So maybe that'll
help, but that's not the problem. It's just an
issue. It's not the problem. Did you fix your
self -adjusting links? Yes, I fixed the self
-adjusting links. Is it happening to your front
end or rear end? Both. Well, I'm just wondering
because if you could put a jack on your axle.
and just watch the tires spin and see if there
is just an imbalance or something. Yeah, I haven't
been able to notice that. I did jack up the front
and shook fucking everything, and everything
feels tight and fresh. So I'm wondering if it's
my bad -from -the -factory rack opinion. Yeah.
So I thought about stealing the one off the crawler,
and then I took the tie rod off and wanted to
cry because it was the worst rack and pinion
I'd ever seen. Oh, jeez. Dude, like, we're talking
an inch of plate up and down on the rod that
runs side to side. Oh. That's bad. Yeah. So,
yeah, I got to figure that shake out. If I don't
figure that out by Leatherwood, I'm done. Like,
I ain't going to Leatherwood with that. Mm -hmm.
Sounds like someone needs to get like a Raptor
before they go to Leatherwood and then just take
the Raptor. Well, one, I don't know who's talking
about buying a Raptor. We haven't talked about
any Raptor on the podcast. I never said anything.
I'm just saying a Raptor would be freaking cool.
A Raptor would be freaking cool. Someone should
buy a Raptor, man. I don't know who, but someone
should. Maybe Mark. Maybe Mark should buy a Raptor.
If you don't name the Raptor blue. What's up?
Got to name the Raptor blue. Jurassic Park. Yeah.
Yeah, whoever buys it should do that. But, see,
I got to figure that out. I think I'm on the
right path. I think I've got it narrowed down
to a handful of things. I just got to verify
them. In other news, I've started taking the
long travel off the crawler. It is very homemade.
You couldn't tell? I don't know what else to
put it. But, I mean, it works. Everything's still
tight. God, what are they called? The heim joints
are still solid. All the bolts that were on it
are still good. Everything seems to be in good
shape, so I'm excited to get my truck ready for
that. which is also why I'm not super worried
about my front end because I'm going to rip all
of it off soon anyway. Yeah, everything all brand
new. Then he's going to put old crawler parts
on it. Then he's going to be like, I don't know
why it's breaking again, this piece of shit.
That's exactly how that trip's going to go. Mark
my words, Mark. But you know what? It's going
to look damn cool doing it. Damn cool on that
car hauler. That's exactly. No, I mean, are your
wheels, do they have like a hollow parts on the
inside of like the rim? Could it be mud caked
up? Do you know like some of them are like they
have like a concave and then like on the inside
you could have mud in that? I think it's just
I've been struggling getting these tires balanced
for the last two years, and I think that they
might be out around now. Maybe we should get
you a cheap set of new tires put on there and
see if that helps. I am stealing the tires off
the black truck for Leatherwood. Yep. Is the
black truck there? It's at my mom's right now,
but it's coming here next week. I was going to
say, you should just unbolt the wheels off of
that, bolt them onto yours, drive it, and see
if that fixes it. I think that's his plan. I
put Mark's front tires on mine, and it definitely
made the shake better but not fixed. So I'm wondering
if it's a front and rear combined thing, but
we didn't take the time to do that. No, we didn't
take the time to do that one. You said you just
had them rotated too, right? Yeah, I just rotated
them. So if they were already that fucked up
and they got rotated, that might be why you're
getting it on all ends now. Yeah, it's, and like
I said, I paid $500 for a brand new set of tires
two years ago. I've put, what, 40 ,000 miles
on a mark? Like, it's been a lot. It's been a
lot. I'm not saying that they haven't done you
well. I'm just saying that it's probably time.
I think I'm just at that point where it's just
time for new tires. And you can't properly rotate
like your all -terrains. Right. Well, not all
-terrains, just non -directional tires. Oh, true.
Non -directional. Let me restate that. So that
could be the issue there just because they're...
Yep. I mean, I've had... I've never had a set
of tires that had to be rebalanced as much as
these do. Probably like once or twice a month,
honestly. Yep. In your opinion, would you ever
buy them again knowing that, non -directional?
No. Nope. Definitely not. You want to know why?
The price went up $300. Oh. I was about to say.
Before tariffs. Yeah. So now that tariffs happened,
I bet you that's over almost a grand at least
to buy a set of those. i would say if you had
a dedicated trail toy it would be a different
story but i probably would never buy directional
mud trains again i i didn't notice they were
directional when i bought them yep so i probably
i had another one i was looking at that wasn't
directional and i chose these because they're
made by pirelli and they're a little higher quality
of a tire but they were still a 500 set of Okay,
they're technically 32s. They're 31 .9, but still.
500 for a set of four. Not bad. And then I think
I had $100 in balancing, so is that 600 bucks
for a brand new set of tires? Yeah, not bad.
Even if they only did me 40 ,000 miles, that's
still a hell of a deal. Yeah, I was stoked to
pay 800 for those fucking wild peaks, so. 600
is fucking nice. And that's all said and done.
That 800 was before bouncing and all that. So,
I mean, if they went back down to 500, I'd probably
buy them again if I didn't want to go up a size
in tires because I want to go up to 35s now.
Yeah, might as well. At the price, they're probably
the best tire you could buy. But now that they're
more expensive, because now they sit at like
760. No way I'd even touch them. Yep. Have you
looked at, like, Marketplace for some just cheap
35s to tide you over for a couple hundred bucks?
I have. I never have. Right now I don't have
a couple hundred bucks at any given time. Oh,
I feel you. His best option is the black truck.
Just use the tires off the black truck until
after Leatherwood. And then after Leatherwood,
I've got a set of tires in my eBay follows right
now. My watch list. I actually got a couple different
ones. Some of them are more cheap tires. Like,
I haven't learned my lesson, guys. Let's be honest
here. I mean, that's basically what I was asking
was, like, I mean, like, at that point in your
head, when you're thinking about all the trouble
you've gone through with them. Even if they were
down to still 500, I mean, is it even worth it
anymore? I would get them. Well, no, because
I want to go up to 35s. If it wasn't for that,
I'd probably get them again. So I've got a set
of Kanadi Mudhogs, five of them for $1 ,100.
They're 35 by 12 .5. I thought you were going
to all terrains. Yeah, no, like, that's the plan.
But, like, it's a good deal, so I might go Mud
Trains again. You could get all terrains for
$1 ,100. I've also got some Gladiator X -Cops.
I sent those to Mark. Yes, you did. But I did
not favorite them. So I learned something new.
So you can get a 35. Okay, I was looking specifically
at Gladiator XCOMs. Yeah. So if you get a 31570R17,
that works out to about 34 .4 inches by 12 .4.
That's $500 cheaper than a 35 of the same brand.
Hmm. So... You're paying $500 more for six -tenths
of an inch. To me, it's worth just buying the
34 .4. It's basically a 35 anyway. There's no
true 35s at this point. Right. And I can get
a set of those for like $800. I mean, that's
what we've got on my brother's truck, my sister's
Jeep. I bought some for the black truck, but
we ended up using something else. They're decent
tires. They do really well on snow and ice and
rain. Hmm. Which I haven't experienced in a mud
terrain, so. What's their load? These ones are
load range E. Okay. Which. At this point, I'm
just accepting that low -range E is kind of where
I'm going to end up. Elite. Yeah, they're good.
They're a good tire. I got nothing. Oh, they're
only speed rated up to 112, so I guess I got
to keep my car under 112 miles an hour. Oh, that
one went for me after getting rid of my old bumper.
Yeah, are the bumpers heavier than the other
ones? My old one was. The swing out was heavy.
Oh, so you're lighter? 152 is incorrect for Hookie's
website. My new bumper is 180, and they said
on their website for Hookie that the swing out
was 152. It took me and Gio to manhandle it all
the way to his trailer. I call bull crap on 152.
I got rid of my squat. Yeah, your truck looks
great with that new bumper. Yes. Both bumpers.
I haven't seen it in person yet, but. Both bumpers,
little B's, high clearance rear bumper, quite
the step to go to, especially if you're not one
that likes to chop their bodies. Yeah. We cut.
I mean, there's like a foot, a square foot on
either side of his bed that had to get cut off.
Yep. Oh. Yeah. So right now it's a dedicated
rock runner build. Let's see. Oh, and we added
a cheap $100 semi -spare tire holder. Yep. With
the intentions of using it for one trip and replacing
it. Yeah. And now I think. We're getting a second
one. It's going to be dedicated now. I don't
think I'm going to do a swing gate anymore. Considering
the swing gate was going to be $3 ,000 and my
option I just put in was like $70. I don't know.
It looks cool like that too. It does. But it's
going to be cooler after we get done with hopefully
how it's going to build out unless we change
the plans again. I mean, we can talk about it.
Since I refuse to get a spare tire carrier because
I'm a fucking heathen, we're going to put my
spare tire carrier in his bed so he'll have two
spares on either side. Not on the trailer? Well,
there's going to be one for the trailer, but
it's for the trailer itself. Trailer's going
to carry its own spare. We are eventually, the
Ingo is all of us running the same size tire
with the same rim, so it's going to be matchy
match. Yeah. Matchy match. So let me know when
you go and get rid of yours, Mark. I'll take
your wheels. Okay. Because those are the bronze
ones, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, the super beat
up bronze ones. Just bronze. I mean, they're
not bad, right? It's just the lip has major.
rash from rocks and stuff. Oh yeah. I don't really
care about that as much as long as they don't
leak and they're all not all bent up. Yeah. I've
got, uh, I started getting rock rash at third
gen weekend and we found it this weekend. So
that's sad. Yeah. Cause my wheels have looked
fresh this whole time and now they're looking
beat. Yep. Yeah. It's about time for me to throw
a fresh coat on mine. Get them show season ready.
Oh, my God. This goober. Are you going to part?
What's a good way to say this? Are you going
to redneck spray it? That's a good way to say
it. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I did last time.
It worked great. Oh, my God. I did it again before
the last rigs and coffee I went to. You didn't
even know, did you? I did it right before I left.
so I had time to dry out while I was driving.
Made the coat really nice and even. That's your
tire wet is just spray paint? Yeah, black spray
paint. It looked damn good last year when I did
it. You couldn't even tell. I did the whole tire
until where the tread met the pavement. Jesus
Christ. And it legitimately looked like fucking
tire wet. I was like, holy shit. I said, see,
look at this. And she's like, what did you do?
I was like, well, I didn't tire wet the damn
thing. I didn't tell you that. It takes too long.
It's getting to be that time of year where I'm
going to be tire wetting mine all the time. Keep
my rubber soft and fresh. Yeah, I just seal mine
with spray paint. Keeps them fresh, too. It's
not good for it. It gives it a nice coating.
The tire wet actually softens the rubber and
makes it last longer. I don't know, man. I wouldn't
put lotion on my hands to make them softer. Just
got wussy hands. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, so Mark's
truck's looking great. I think it performs better
since getting rid of that old bumper, too. Feels
better? Oh, it feels a lot better. I did notice,
too, after putting all that weight in the back
of my FJ, my truck feels a lot softer now. Those
200 -pound constant load springs needed that
weight still in there to actually work right,
I guess. Because when I took everything out for
the winter, it felt stiff. I'd go over a bump
or something, and it felt like it wasn't giving
much, if that makes sense. I wonder if my weird
ride correlates with when I took all the weight
out of the back of my truck. Oh, I didn't even
think about that. Because you pretty much threw
all of it on the trailer. Uh -huh. Yep. Hmm.
Maybe I should throw it back in there and see
if it makes any difference. You should. Probably
should. I know my truck just feels so much better.
I will say that I think one of my tires is leaking
a little bit. I went and washed it today, sold
like an old backpack that I had, and checked
my tire pressure. It was at like 20. I'm like,
yeah, that's why it looks like it's a little
saggy. Filled that up at the car wash and put
it... What are you guys running on yours right
now? Because I think I have mine at like 35.
I haven't checked mine a little bit. I should
probably check it. I do like 35 or 40. I'm somewhere
between 35 and 40. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. There was
definitely a lazy week where I had mine at like
20, 25, and I just didn't feel like filling them
up because it was winter, but... I could... My
tires are rated for like 90, but there's no way
in hell I would drive that truck on 90 PSI. I've
filled mine up to 90 % before. Could never get
them to 100%, but I got them to 99%. Pretty close.
Oh, man. You goober. I know. The safety officer
has to make these kind of jokes every once in
a while. We've seen too many videos of like...
Kid's going, I filled my bike tire to 99%. Dad's
like, what? Yeah, 99%. I'm going to go ride down
the street. He's like, don't you dare get on
that fucking bike. I saw a video of a kid just
talking on his bike and they were spraying it
down and all of a sudden the tire blew. The tire
was over pressurized. Yep, 99 % right there.
Well, the... Mark, have you done anything else
other than your bumpers, like any interior stuff
lately? No interior mods. You can count me laying
out wires I meant to do for a while. I actually
ran my CB antenna underneath the carpet this
time instead of just through the seats. Oh, GMRS.
Yep, GMRS. Let me see that. Yeah. When I did
my roof rack, I actually took the time and tucked
all my wiring in. Do you have two antennas on
your roof rack? Me? Yeah. I have the one for
the Wii Boost. I have the other one on my back
door. And then I think I have that one tiny one
that was my spare for... Yeah. I think that was
the old spare for the GMRS. But I had it tied
in. So I didn't rip it out because I didn't feel
like ripping everything. I had it taped in with
the other ones to try to keep all the wiring
together. Oh, that's great. You just didn't cut
it off then at that point? Yeah, just cut it
off. Wow, you can't even see it now. I was just
going to unwrap it and save it because I wanted
the backup just in case that antenna's cap has
been off of it for I don't know how long now.
So I'm just like. waiting for it to take a shit
and i wanted something oh your cap's missing
too yeah i thought we had the conversation i'm
missing for mine's been missing since the week
after i bought the antenna and it's been solid
yeah i'm waiting for a uh a cool plastic toy
that my son has that he doesn't want anymore
and then we cut the head off it and blew it on
there just get a duck Impaled ducks. I don't
know how ironic I want that to be. If I cut the
hat off of it, made it look like we decapitated
it, that might be kind of sick. Maybe do a little
sticker on the antenna that says death to ducks.
That'd be perfect. So real quick, what are plans
for this weekend? Work. Hmm. We doing anything
on your truck, Mark? Maybe lift the front back
up a little more. Heard it rubbing again when
I backed up Monday morning. Got to crank those
up a little more. Finish working on stripping
things off the crawler frame. Oh, oil change.
You got to do an oil change. Duncan has some
stuff, but he's not ready to lift his truck yet,
which is driving me nuts because I just want
to get it done so we don't have to worry about
it anymore. Yeah, he's getting close to the crunch.
Being capable for Leatherwood. I know. I'm like,
dude. And he's busy this weekend. He's busy next
week. And I'm like, dude, you've got like. A
week. You have like two weekends. Like. Yeah.
Have you. I would try and put some weight in
your truck too this week or the Friday or whatever.
And whenever you decide to do it. Probably do
that tomorrow. yeah i don't know i really just
think my tires are out around at this point because
i've got both lower control i mean the whole
front end is brand new now there's nothing left
that it's all been replaced since november yeah
yeah i definitely throw those other wheels on
it and drive it around and see what happens yep
so hopefully that solves it even if it just makes
it tolerable at 65 i'll call it a day but oh
yeah when i was leaving on new year's i was like
i'll deal with it it'll fall off hell no it did
not no uh we tried to go to 55 and i was like
dude i'm gonna break something just trying to
get it up to this speed it's funny because i
i remember before we left i was like gavin you
really should swing by the car wash and you were
like ah ah yeah i was tired i was like i'll do
it after which i did It just didn't help because
everything was frozen, so I didn't go underneath
the truck and do the inside of the wheel, which
really wants me to get, when I do get wheels,
to make sure they're fucking, get basically steelies
or something like that that are easy to clean.
No, just easy to clean. I don't want any that
have any concave hollows or something for mud
to stick and stay. Something simple. They have
those black rhino ones that are like solid on
the outside and inside. Those are impossible.
Those are impossible to clean. Thanks for ruining
my dream. The mud goes on the inside of them,
and then you have to take them off to wash the
inside. Oh, yeah. That was a concern. Those were
definitely the ones I've been looking at, though,
just based off of looks, though. Oh, yeah. They
look sick. They're great show truck wheels. Mm
-hmm. Yeah. I mean, I really don't mind mine
right now. Like I said, just keep spraying them,
and they look brand new every three months. We
talked about getting black rhinos for the trailer.
Yeah. That would be sick. That would be sick,
sick. Now we're going to do matching wheels and
tires across our two builds, the Jeep build,
and the trailer. That way you can just put them
on anything. Yep. If you all get Bajas. like
what Mark has, you would have a spare wheel for
everything. See, the problem with Baja's are
they're really expensive. Just afterpay it. It'll
be fine. Now, if we all did the Gladiator X -Comps,
which are also a great tire, I think they're
like half the cost of the... Alex just has to
be patient and after pay one Baja at a time.
Oh, my God. I'm telling you, just pay the 200
some. I think it's like, what, 310 for a Baja?
I don't remember. What are you running, Mark?
You're still running 33s, right? Okay. Are you
ready for this? They're technically 32s. Oh,
okay. So for a load range D, Baja boss set of
two, It is $814. Oh, yeah, that's after payable.
What size tire are we looking at doing again,
Alex? Well, those are 35, so we're looking at
like 34 point something. Fuck. Just say get whatever
Mark's got. That way you guys can interchange
all of them. Well, Mark's going to need new tires
soon, too. 315, 70, 17, and he wants to go to
35, so. So 315. 315, 70, 17. But I think that
the Baja Boss only sells in a 35. I think so.
They got an AT. Yeah. 315, 70, 17. 338. I'm seeing
the AT at 396. It's on eBay. I'm on eBay right
now. $792 for a set of two Baja Boss ATs. So,
literally half the cost to go with the Gladiators.
I mean, don't get me wrong. The Baja Boss is
a fantastic tire. It's held up pretty well, but
at the same time, wouldn't mind getting something
cheaper, especially if we're going with new rims
again. Yep. Now we get rims that last a good
bit. We don't have to worry about replacing them.
It would be a different story. I could really
keep running my wheels, but I want to go to the
matchy thing because it's going to save us a
lot in the long run. All right. Well, that's
like 33 minutes. Yep. So let's call her. Yep.
So we'll catch you guys later, and I'm sorry
that we're not doing an hour -long episode, but
meh, life gets busy, and this week is one of
those weeks. Yep, and we'll talk to you later.
Later.