All right, listeners, I am about to give you
an intro. I asked ChatGPT what our intro was
just to see what they would say, and this is
their weird, twisted version of it, so I want
you to hear it. Welcome to Botches Off -Road.
Join us as we talk about everything from gear
revved up rigs and tent setups to shop talk and
trail shenanigans. So there you go. That's our
new intro. That's what ChatGPT believes. We say
at the beginning of every episode. I mean, it
does seem like that's actually what we talk about
most of the time anyways. Right. Sounds more
like an introduction to our podcast than an intro.
So this is a rap. It's kind of a weird rap because
it's... Kind of just me and Mark. Gavin set me
his rap. It's seven minutes long, so I'll play
that for you at the end. But first we'll start
out with me and Mark. Yeah. So Mark, I'd ask
you what you did this weekend, but I watched
you work in the sun all weekend, so I know that
you cleaned up my scrap pile. Yeah. We did replace
my thermostat that we mutilated. So there is
one thing. Was that Friday? Yes, that was Friday.
Oh, and me and your brother fixed his wheel that
wouldn't stay on. Oh, yeah, they got that too.
No? Yeah, we kind of took a laid back. We were
supposed to be way more laid back this weekend
originally because you said screw off for the
weekend. And then we were like, oh. Yeah, and
then I found out I actually needed help because
that scrap pile had to be gone. Yep. Yeah, that
was not what I would consider fun. Like quarter
of it's our own doings. Yeah. I mean, we got
a trailer left that we got to haul in Saturday
morning. Mm -hmm. I almost think your taco can
haul that trailer. Don't I need a drop itch?
I mean, yeah, we need a drop itch. But, I mean,
I think it can haul it. Yeah. I mean, I'm still
going to take the Duramax because I'd rather
not chance your taco pulling it. I still find
our discovery of axles, and we thought we were
idiots. Yeah, when we found two basically brand
-new -looking CV axles, and I'm like, why did
we throw these away? It was past us that dumb?
Yeah, the joints were all fine. I save them and
we get looking at them and all the threads are
gone. Every single one. Oh, that's why we threw
the perfectly fine jointed CV axles out. I wonder
how that happened. And it happened twice. I think
one of them is one where I had issues with my
hub. Oh, that's right, because you had the one
that, for whatever reason, the nut was cross
-threaded and it got drove on with the impact.
Yeah. Yeah. That's definitely one of them. I
don't know about the other one, though, because
it's definitely a 4Runner. Duncan's? Maybe? You
remember when we did Duncan's? Yeah, when we
did Duncan's lift, we had one that got stripped
out like that. He had to replace one CVXL. But
I swear that one looked like it'd been there
for a good bit besides then. I thought that one
was also broke. No, that one was fine. Oh. Because
it stripped out when I was putting it on. Hmm.
It might have been it. Seemed like it was there
longer than that. Well, anyways, my giant scrap
pile's gone. We took, like, 9 ,500 pounds of
scrap into the scrapyard. And then... I only
got $500 for it. So scrap is down, by the way.
Do not scrap stuff right now. Yeah. Yeah. Man,
this is crazy. The stuff that ChatGPT says about
us is really funny. Yeah. What else does it say?
I'm asking it what Mark drives. Oh. It would
be fun. Yeah. It's searching Reddit. Oh. It couldn't
find any public info on what vehicle Mark from
Botches Off -Road drives. Okay. I'm pretty sure
my Instagram says what it is, but of course it's
not Mark from Botches Off -Road, it's SilverToggle14.
It actually says the host haven't specifically
mentioned Mark's rig on any episode. Uh, yes
we have. Oh, man, that's funny. Well, what does
Alex drive? I was about to say, which is yours?
Probably the same thing. Same thing. Check his
handle. His handle appears to be Forerunner98.
Well, at least got that one right. Listen to
Meet the Host, episode season one, episode one.
Couldn't do it with me. You have your whole episode
to yourself. I know. I was just saying. Couldn't
just say Mark's episode? Yeah, same with Gavin.
Oh, that's funny. I was going to say, what does
it say, Gavin? We should put it in our show notes
so that next time that ChatGPT is looking, it
can figure it out. Let's see. Oh. And if any
listener doesn't know, Ace Hardware is having
an incredible packout deal. Yep. It's a buy more,
save more event. And I don't remember the exact
specifics. One second. But I know that we got
a hell of a deal. Oh, 100 % hell of a deal. So,
man, these deals are way harder to find than
you would expect. I mean, sponsor would be a
lot better deal. Yeah, pack out, sponsor us.
I'm not looking for sponsors, right? Yeah. But
if Milwaukee reached out and was like, hey, we'll
sponsor you, I would not tell them no. Yep. All
right, so this is the deal. If you spend $199,
you save $40, so you only spend $150. You spend
$299, you save $80. So you only spend $219. But
if you spend $499, you save $200. So you only
spend $300. Yeah. I would say, listeners, guess
which one we did, even though we don't have money,
but we bought $500 worth of packouts. Yeah. Actually,
$570. Did you add more? No, the total ended up
being 370. No, that's right. Yeah, we bought
some more packouts for tools on the trailer.
That way we can pull them out of our chest because
that was, although the tool trailer was like
the absolute goat of the trip, having to get
into that chest every time we needed a tool sucked.
Yeah, we kind of ran out of time for organization
slash needed more pack outs, and we just didn't
have time for it. So we bought two more of the
22 -inch modulars. Those are the ones that we
use for our individual sleep system setups. I
actually picked those up today from Nuego and
have already filled them. One of them has...
The ball joint press and brake kit and the tap
and die. Okay. Because generally, if we need
the brake kit, we need the tap and die because
for whatever reason, our stuff always gets destroyed.
Yeah. And the ball joint press just seemed to
make sense there. Do you have the brake line
bender in there too? Yep. Okay. And then the
other one, I put pretty much all our power tools
except for the impact because I put that in the
drawer so we can get to it easier. Yeah, that
one would definitely be a separate one because
that one we use way more often than all the other
ones. Exactly. But we also have two... Oh, I
guess that one wasn't just a 22 -inch packout.
Wait, did I accidentally buy... No, I didn't
buy the same things. Oh, I look at the wrong
thing. Maybe? What's going on here, Milwaukee?
I also bought what they call a medium toolbox.
That's half the size of the other one. I don't
know. I bought two of those, and I'm not 100
% sure what we're going to put in there. But
I'm thinking hammers, pry bars, stuff like that
in one of them. Yep. Because it's shorter, so
it's slim, but my theory on it is something that
we need, but we don't want to have to grab a
whole box, so some lighter stuff will go in those.
Oh, so we could have a grinder chest. That's
not a bad idea at our rate. No. And then I also
bought three of what Mark calls the ammo can
pack -out box. Yeah, well, it's about the same
size of a ammo can, so that's why I would refer
to it. Same size, same shape. And those are going
to be really interesting because we're going
to build me a second battery box so that I have
two pack -out battery. removable things and then
we're going to put one on mark's truck that way
if we have another situation with an alternator
dying we can just swap batteries quickly and
keep the truck moving yep and charge up the other
battery that we just pulled off exactly it also
gives us the ability i mean it doubles our truck's
battery capacity then yep so we will i mean i
don't know it's not like we run anything off
the trucks we're not we're not gavin guys we're
uh we're a little more slim line than that yeah
but that does save me the hassle of running lines
for my battery to well i mean we still gotta
run it to the other battery but i don't have
to run so much for the air compressor idea later
down the road yeah no we could actually so we're
gonna put two uh Anderson connectors off your
battery box in the back. Yep. So your air compressor,
you'd just be able to plug into the other Anderson
connector. Yep. So that'd be slick. Yeah, we're
not Gavin. We don't try to take our house with
us. We say that as we pull a trailer. As we pull
a garage. Our trucks are a little more utilitarian.
they're rough and they get beat on so we don't
really want to have expensive stuff getting knocked
around yep but yeah so we're gonna build a couple
uh battery boxes out of those so i now yeah with
this setup i am gonna have all four of my half
chests in my truck now yep so i'll have two battery
boxes which will sit on the bottom and then two
storage boxes Right now I have one battery box
and one storage box, and we use the storage box
for our clothes. So I don't know what I'm going
to put in the other one yet. But, yeah, it's
pretty sick. That deal, you can't beat the deal.
I mean, you're saving $200 on packouts. Packouts
are expensive. That's like three free packouts
if you get the right one. Yeah, kind of reminds
me of our Bauer deal we always take advantage
of. Buy a battery, get a tool. Yeah. Usually
the tool is worth more than the battery itself.
Like our $140 grease gun we got for $70? Mm -hmm.
Yeah, so definitely go check out your local Ace
or at least get on their website. And Leatherwood,
I was impressed, man. I saw more packouts at
Leatherwood than I expected to. Yeah. It's starting
to bleed into the off -road community a little
bit. Yeah. I'm sure if you listen, me and Mark
kind of tote packouts like they're Jesus, but
we don't hold them quite to that regard. Don't
take it as that. No. They are the off -road truck
messiah. Yeah, it's just very beneficial to have
something that's locked down. We don't have to
necessarily worry about strapping them down.
Yeah, you need something, you don't have to unstrap
it. You just grab the button and pull it out.
And then when you put it back in, it's just click,
and in it goes. Yep. And they're pretty capable.
I think the average weight capability is like
75 pounds a box. We definitely push that a lot.
I was about to say, Matt Offroad literally just
mounted the transmission onto a stack of packouts
on a roller cart. Did he really? Yes, for the
rollback that he's doing. Oh, that's freaking
awesome. Yeah, packout, they're really that good,
man. In the Overland space, right, because that's
where everyone goes is they buy their Overland
boxes. You've got, what, the Rome box? Yeah,
Rome's a known one. Patchy cases. Yeah, but those,
they don't lock it. Like, Rome has a locking
capability similar to Pac -Out. You want to be
specific without actually modifying it, then
yeah, Rome is your go -to for us. But, dude,
these are freaking expensive. What are they running
again? Like, the cheapest Rome is the 55 liter
one, and it's $274. Yeah. And then their locking
systems are $230 a piece. Which is pretty much
on par with Packout. Or more. No. Way more. Because
we can get a Packout mount for, like, $100. Oh,
true, true, true. Now, Rome has these lid organizers
that go in their boxes, and Pac -Out has nothing
even similar. But our lids aren't as big as theirs,
so it makes sense. I also think Rome's the one
that has their portable kitchen, too. If I remember
correctly. I can see that. It's like, so I feel
like it was Rome or someone else. Pretty much
like a rifle case that has all the kitchen necessities
and stuff, like a sink and a stove. And don't
get me wrong, I'm not shitting on Rome. No. Rome
makes some absolutely beautiful gear that isn't
red. Red is driving me nuts right now. But they
make some absolutely beautiful gear, and if I
could afford them, I'd probably be doing the
Rome route because they're so much nicer. Mm
-hmm. But I'm broke, and the next closest thing
is packout, so... Yeah. That's what I'll roll
with. Also, so remember, The other day we were
talking about chair mounts. Yes. So I had Chris
send me a link to that tent mount that he has.
It's called the Sleeper Keeper. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely
sick, by the way, for anyone looking for a way
to store their gazelle or something. I'll send
you a link, Mark, and we should probably link
it. in the show notes yes we can do that so what
the sleeper keeper is is it's basically just
it's flat on one side and a semi -circle on the
other with a little channel for your strap that
way you just throw your tenon strap it down boom
you're on the road but looking at its dimensions
i think that if you had a camp chair You could
just – oh, they have packouts in the bed of the
truck. I know. I was just like, oh, Alex, I see
packouts. But, yeah, you just – Well, I'm with
a fridge and a half cooler. Yeah. I think that
you could get away with slapping a chair in there
and strapping it down as well. So I'm kind of
– I'm looking for ways to mount camping chairs
because I spent some money on Timu and got those
cheap little folding chairs, that pack down really
small and like, that's fine and all, but I want
a nice comfy chair. Even though I don't like
sitting down, but you know, it's a whole different
thing. Yeah. So I think that might be an option
because I'm looking for stuff I can throw on
the roof rack next to the swag, you know? Oh
yeah. Um, we also found, uh, I sent those links
to you. We also found aftermarket waterproof
bags for chairs. which are absolutely sick. This
gives you the ability to... Oh, I sent you a
lot of them. This gives you the ability to actually
put your chair outside without it getting wet
and being all wet when you need to use it. So
that's just, I guess, some of the stuff we've
been looking at or doing this week. Right about
now... You guys will hear from Gavin. I haven't
listened to his rap at all, so I have no idea
what he's going to say. So I'm actually going
to let him lead us out, I think. So me and Mark
will sign off here, and then I'll just kind of
stitch Gavin in at the end. Yeah. Real quick,
since we were talking about Rome earlier, their
95 liter rugged case is $400 pretty much just
for that alone. Yeah. How big's the Milwaukee
one? The chess? Oh, that's a good question. I
don't remember. I don't think it says in liters,
though. No. I think the only ones that are labeled
liters are the coolers. Yeah. But either way,
ROM's really expensive. Packout, although all
the tool guys say that you're paying a premium
for them, they're kind of the cheapest way to
get into the lockable box market. Yep. So I highly
recommend them, and we'll turn you over to Gavin.
I'll catch you guys later. Later. All right,
guys. Thanks for the plug. I am recording this
earlier in the morning. because I won't be there
for recording it at night, so I figured I'd do
just a little plug to tell you what I'm up to,
what I got. I did some installs on the truck,
installed the cargo boxes, installed a couple
of little knick -knack little things, did some
more wire hiding, and then I hardwired the charging
cable to charge the fridge that had previously
just been hooked up to a cigarette lighter. I
actually connected some wires to that, ran it
out through the firewall, connected it to the
aux beam switch panel. So now all I have to do
is press the fridge button on the switch panel
and my fridge charges. So that was really nice.
I tried doing that on the Wii Boost and failed
miserably. So long story short on that. I was
looking to see which one was positive, which
one was negative, and I lost the guessing game,
and it actually kind of fried my WeBoost. So
WeBoost customer support, super, super nice.
100 % recommend on that. I told them that it
had burned up, and they just asked me for my
name, my address, and they sent me a replacement.
So that'll be here Thursday. Unfortunately, I'll
be gone. I won't have my Wii Boost. I was kind
of spoiled about that. And now without it, I
don't get as much service anywhere. So I didn't
really know what I had until it was gone. So
that's unfortunate. But I learned from my mistake,
and I'm just going to buy a hardwire kit for
it. It's only like $24. So that's the plan for
that. I did get some new gear, so I'll kind of
go over that real quick. First one was the Kelty
cargo box. It's basically a tote with three cloth
boxes in it. We're using that instead of our
bags because it's three small bags that'll pack
into the size of a duffel. It helps with organization.
All the kids' clothes stay in one bag, all mom's
clothes stay in her bag, and all my clothes stay
in that bag. And we still have enough space to
put all our other essentials in there. So it
could fit in about four to five days worth of
clothes, plus our, you know, cleaning up essentials
for ourselves, deodorant, this and that. And
for the kid, it'll fit all his diapers and wipes
in there that he'll need for the weekend. That's
pretty fun. It takes up about the same amount
of size, but with it being more of a rectangle
than round, you can kind of fit more stuff in
between. And I could pick up the whole thing,
throw it in the tent, and we don't have to shuffle
through clothes every time we're looking for
something. So something that I was kind of looking
at for a while, and we're really glad we got
it. Next would be... Coffee. So we went down
to Moondance. It's a local cafe in Fremont. Picked
up some whole coffee beans that were brewed,
or I'm sorry, brewed, that were roasted locally.
And we are going to bring those to camp, and
we're going to try out our new Brewtrek Overlander
French Coffee Press. I took that advice from
Alex and picked up one of those. And so far,
so good. It looks pretty cool. I haven't tried
it yet, but I'm going to try it. out at camp
um and then i even picked up a an electric grinder
because i was hand grinding multiple scoops of
coffee and it was taking longer than it was about
as effective as a um as a pepper grinder so that
was kind of annoying so i'm gonna do this electric
one i thought it was battery powered but they
just photoshopped all the cord out of it and
i didn't really read too much into it Turns out
it is corded, which is fine. I have a little
battery box I can hook it up to. It's just kind
of something I wanted, battery -powered. And
that is a Krups Silent Vortex coffee grinder.
I'll let you know how that goes. It looks pretty
sturdy. Looks like it's going to do the job.
Hopefully it is pretty quiet because I don't
want to be doing that early in the morning in
camp and have it be super loud. And then we,
because we knew it was going to be hot, we reordered
our ceiling fan light. It's battery powered,
charged by D batteries. You could set it on the
floor, tilt it. It's got a little light on it.
Or you could hang it from the ceiling of the
tent, which is what we're going to do. Just keep
some air moving. It's supposed to be really hot
this weekend during the day. So that's the plan
with that guy. We also picked up a collapsible
folding bucket, a little wash basin from Nature
Hike. That way we could pull water from the river
for dishes or pull water from the river for showering.
And you might ask, if you listen a lot, how would
I be showering? Well, we just picked up a portable
shower too. So after the last time we went camping,
Jasper had a little mishap, which... poop ended
up going all down his leg and instead of wasting
a bunch of wipeys and getting it kind of clean
we just figured we'd get a shower because number
one we're going to be out there a little bit
more and it would be really nice to be able to
take a shower so between that and between the
boy needing it every other day um you know just
washing his feet off washing his legs washing
our hair it would be really nice so we got a
flex tail gear this is a portable shower usbc
charged it should work pretty well i mean i tested
it out in the kitchen in a bucket of water and
it almost gave better flow than what my shower
does so seemed like it was pretty nice uh and
i will let you know how that goes i also picked
up a pop -up shower tent and this one's kind
of been on my brain for a while we've been doing
more group camps And ever since last year when
we grouped camps for botches yearly, I kind of
noticed that my setup with the awning on the
side, the portable shower toilet on the side
of my truck, was really nice when we went solo,
but kind of too close for us when we're camping
in groups. So I wanted to get something that
I could put a little farther away, I didn't have
to pack up every time we moved. And as much as
I love the side opening awning portal shower
thing, for group camping, this is going to be
a lot better for us. It's going to separate the
bathroom and stuff from everyone. People don't
have to hear us do our business because we're
camped close together. So that's going to end
up really nice that I don't have to sit there
and worry about it. So, yeah, that pretty much
wraps up my upgrades and kind of what I've been
doing. I will throw it back to the guys, and
I'll kind of give you guys a review and stuff
on that when I get back, let you know how it
went. So, back to you, dudes. I guess I should
have listened to Gavin's thing plug before we
recorded so I could know where he was going to
fit. Poor planning on our part, but this is the
actual end of the episode. Hope you guys enjoyed
listening to us. And stay tuned for Tuesday's
episode. We have a really fun one planned. Or
you get to listen to us planning a really fun
episode. You know, that's how it goes. So catch
you guys later.