Chord 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Welcome to Botches
Off -Road. Join us as we talk about everything
from gear reviews to trail stories, tent camping
to rock landing, and all things to do with the
outdoors. Today is going to be more of a trail
stories kind of episode, I guess. Me and Mark
went up to Drummond Island for our buddy John's
bachelor party, which, if you don't have friends
that want to go wheeling for their bachelor party,
you've got the wrong friends. So, just let that
one simmer a little bit. So we loaded up the
trucks pretty much the week before. Got the swag
on the roof and the canopy and the bathroom.
Because I bought a bathroom, guys. It's great.
Yeah, so we had all that loaded up. Had all the
packouts in the back of the two trucks. We didn't
bring the trailer, which was a mistake. But we
didn't bring the trailer this time. No, it was
a mistake. No. One thing we should have packed,
we didn't pack. Where would we have put it? Put
it in my truck. You were pretty much out of space,
man. No, I wasn't. I had space in the back seat.
Your back seat was pretty full, too. Yeah, after
everyone threw dirty clothes and bought stuff
that wasn't meant to be bought. Your back seat
was pretty full. Going up, all I had was the
top of the kitchen and the half pack that had
our clothes in it. Well, either way, we should
have brought the trailer because it would have
freed up at least two more locations for stuff
to go. Pack out stuff. Like what? Whether Mark
agrees or not, we really should have brought
the trailer. We just needed the one item that
you said we didn't need. Okay, you're right.
We needed the one item, and the most efficient
way to haul the one item was the trailer. Mark
is wrong if he disagrees with me. The packout
goes and would have gone underneath the kitchen
and would have been sat in the backseat. I don't
think they would have fit. Welder. Oh, yeah,
okay. Well, why did you need a welder? We're
not there yet. Ooh. This is precursor. Whether
Mark agrees with me or not, he's wrong. We should
have brought the trailer. It would have been
less work on my truck. It would have freed up
open spots for packout stuff. And just overall.
Cost more to get across the bridge. By like $2.
It would probably cost more on the ferry. By
$2. It would have been worth it. It would have
been just extra maintenance and stuff just in
case something happened to that. Nothing would
have happened to that. I'm just fucking around
now. Yeah, no, he's wrong. Can we fit all the
pack outs? Eh, not really. But, and Mark's truck
was full, whether he agrees with me or not. I
should have taken a picture when they got here
because it looked like a flat table across the
back. Well, the back was, yeah, but I was saying
the back seat was. I'm talking about the back
seat. You had so much stuff shoved in there.
Always more room, man. Okay, if you count my
brother's pointless. dive equipment that he did
not need to bring i stand by what i said because
he was with you and that took up space i always
wish i carried my dive equipment and i never
remember to take it and so better to bring it
yeah so yeah so we brought the uh we got up there
got up there fine um i mean very uneventful the
bridge was beautiful uh when we went across it
the first time feels weird driving up there not
in the dark this time right no rain it wasn't
dark like it was just it was a beautiful drive
um got on the ferry got to camp we got it to
camp at like what like seven yeah and we had
all of camp set up and we were sitting by the
fire like the fire was started and then i looked
at my watch i'm like oh guys we got here only
45 minutes ago like it was flawless four tents
four tents a canopy and a bathroom And the truck's
unloaded in 45 minutes. Yep, that's good setup
time. So then we got drunk Friday night. We were
going to go wheeling to Marblehead and then started
drinking, so that kind of went out the window
pretty quick. We had soju. I don't know if anyone
knows what soju is. It's a Korean liquor that
has... literally no flavor so you can mix it
with anything you want whatever you mix it with
that's what it tastes like um we did uh hawaiian
fruit punch the green hawaiian fruit punch we
bought a gallon of that and we put almost a fifth
of um soju in a gallon of hawaiian fruit punch
like it was a lot of soju for what we had yeah
oh john put some in his peaches so soju peaches
are really good pears yeah pears you're right
soju pears are very good um so yeah we we got
pretty drunk on friday and then as we're getting
ready to go to bed some yahoos down the trail
started setting off fucking fireworks dude like
At random times of the night, too. Until like
three in the morning. Like, it was nonstop fireworks
going off. And one side of me wants to be mad
because that's not what I went out there to hear,
right? But at the same time, they were out in
the middle of nowhere. We were the only other
people around. Yeah. They did their due diligence
to get out and away from people to do, you know,
be rowdy. So I really can't be mad at them for
being rowdy. It just sucked for us. Yeah. So
then we, uh, yeah, we went to sleep at like three
in the morning. We got up pretty early. It was
like eight, um, made some breakfast. We went
to Marblehead first, right? Yes. So then we headed
out to Marblehead and let me tell you like the
trail itself, even with what the bulldozing and
exploding that they did to it. It's fine. You
know, it's not as challenging as it used to be,
but it's still fine. It's fun. The problem is
not there anymore at all. Pretty much. They are.
So you've got, I'm talking about going. Oh yeah.
Yeah. They're pretty much all destroyed. Yeah.
But all that's fine. You could forget about that.
The problem was the big piles of rubble on either
side of the trail all the way down. Yeah. Like
they did. No effort to make it look good. No
effort to take the rocks out. They just put big
piles of rubble everywhere. That ruins the look
of the Marblehead Trail. Yeah, nothing snaps
you out of that experience like seeing piles
of rubble from what they destroyed. Exactly.
Then you get out to the actual steps at Marblehead.
The whole right line, the middle line, if you
will, fucking gone. So your options are Prius
level hard, stock XJ level hard, and basically
impossible if you don't have 40s. Yeah. There's
no in between. No. And, of course, big piles
of rubble all the way around it. It looked, oh,
God, does it look terrible. Yes. And that's really
it. I don't care that they blew up the obstacles,
really. My issue is that they just piled the
rubble everywhere and made it look bad. Why not
take that and move it into some of the places
that tend to flood really often? I mean, if you
have high water areas that tend to swallow things
quite a bit, you have a lot of rock. Yeah, no.
They bought gravel for that and then graded it
all. Anywhere that's deep water, they're grading
it, draining it, and filling it with gravel.
They're ruining Drummond Island. That's all there
is to it. Oh, 100%. Yeah, so. What is there to
see other than the trails? I mean, is there any
other kind of tourist type thing? Oh, yeah. Drummond
Island is absolutely beautiful. you've got uh
fossil ledge you've got shale beach you've got
like it is a beautiful place so but they're basically
just trying to take the wheeling aspect of it
the hard wheeling aspect out of it and make it
a tourist like yeah yeah yeah pretty much yeah
um so yeah we we played around a marblehead for
a little while uh me and mark both made it up
I made it. Did you go down that line or no? Did
you just go up it? I just went up. Okay. I saw
a joke video about going up that, down that same
line. Yeah. So we, uh, we played on there a little
bit and then did we go back to, no, we went to
the store after that. We went to the store. Yep.
But we took Connor's whole route to the store.
Yes. No, we did Conner's Hole later when we were
headed out to go to Fossil Ledge. So we went
down to the little country store because we were
pretty much out of Mountain Dew. And I think
that was all we really needed. And we wanted
to get lunch there. Yeah. So we got some pasties
and we got some Coke and Sprite because that's
all they had. And they only had it in singles.
They didn't have 12 packs. The only 12 -pack
they had was diet and then diet caffeine -free.
Yeah. And then they had Dr. Pepper Blackberry
in a 12 -pack. Oh, I forgot about those. Yeah,
they had two of those. That shit is amazing.
Dr. Pepper Blackberry is so good. So good. I
was sick of cherry. Wait. Before you guys continue,
do you guys, how do you, you say pasties? Not
pasties? Pasties or pasties. Or not pasties.
They're not pasties. No? No, not pasties. Hmm.
Never heard them say pasties before. I've always
called them pasties. That's what my family's
always called them. No, they're pasties or pasties,
but not pasties. Have you, like, do you know,
like, the... Pasties sounds like a pastry. Well,
pasties are also what you put over your nipples.
That's why they're not pasties. Did you guys
hear the history about where they came from and
why they were such a thing? Yeah. I heard a little
bit about it when I went to the... What is that
one place up in the UP? Muldoon's. Muldoon's
is one of the famous pasty places. Yeah. And
they were talking about how like miners would
hold the rind part of it and eat everything up
to the rind and then throw the rind away to the
mine ghost and goblins. But it was also like
a safety thing to get like arsenic because they
were working in all that coal and shit like that.
So they had arsenic all over their hands. So
instead of ingesting it, they would throw away
that crust part that they would hold on to. I
thought that was really, really cool. My stepdad's
family were miners up there. So we've been eating
pasties since they got married, which is like
2008. Well, I had them before that, but like
after that, every family get together. That was
our dinner. They're really good. Yeah. And his
mom would like go on about all the history and
why it's such an important food to know about
and how that's what her mom always made for her
dad before he went into the mines. And that's
so cool. We had it with like beef gravy and dude.
Yeah. So. It's good with gravy, and it depends.
So if they use fresh rutabaga, it's better without
gravy. If they use frozen rutabaga, it's better
with gravy. I don't know what Muldoon's does.
That was the only place. It was just on the list.
We were like, we have to stop here. Everybody
says. And they had, like, chicken or beef gravy,
and we were like, definitely beef. And, yeah,
they were always beef before. Like, you know,
historically, they were always beef. But chicken
ones are good, too. Yeah. Oh, they're delicious.
Yeah, it's great food, dude. Actually, in Tucson,
there is a restaurant. It's like a little pop
-up restaurant, and it's pasties, and it's from
a couple that moved down there from Grand Rapids.
It was just so wild, dude. Middle of Tucson,
Arizona, and there's just this random pasty.
restaurant it had like a bar a pasty bar where
you went and sat at the bar and then they brought
you food to it and it was open air it was really
cool um one of those foods that when you go into
the up it's like you have to get it yeah it's
like that but here here we can go get a pasty
for like 10 bucks like jeans has them for like
six bucks always and they're fantastic i never
knew yeah no dude um but down there it was like
35 the pasty and they were smaller than what
we're used to here like they were profiting off
this shit sounds like we have a have a job to
do no it's like it's like one of the two top
like food items you get when you're in the up
one's like for sure and fudge yeah the other
one's no i don't like for me it's island fudge
but For me, it's the other way around. Pasties
and then Mackinac Island fudge. Okay, I'm sorry.
There's three main things that you're supposed
to get if you ever visit the UP. This is Mackinac
Island fudge. You're supposed to get it. Pasties
and then stop at one of the smoked fish places.
Oh, yes. For sure. Oh, God, dude. It's so good.
And if you're visiting either Detroit or Grand
Rapids, you get Coney dogs. Yeah, true. I haven't
had one of the Detroit -style pizzas, but I want
to try one. Dude, so actually, Domino's, back
in the day, they don't anymore. They did a Detroit
-style pizza with bacon -wrapped crust. Oh, my
God, dude. That was... Jets does that, too, the
Detroit -style. With bacon crust? Well, not with
bacon crust. I just know they do that, too. Yeah,
no, the one that Domino's used to have, dude,
it was absolutely fire. Does anybody remember...
pre -glow -up, like, Domino's. Like, do you remember
how their pizza tasted like absolute dog trash
cardboard? Like, before they changed everything?
I've always liked Domino's. Before they changed,
like, they changed everything. The whole brand,
the flavor, the crust went from being just this
dry, floury crust to, like, being fucking seasoned
with, like, little butter on there. It went from
a night and day, like, went from, like, one of
my worst pizza places to, like, one of my favorite
pizza, like, fast pizza places. Actually, Domino's
is a Detroit company originally. I don't know
if you knew that. No, I didn't. Oh, no, it's
Ypsilanti, but still. Yeah. But, yeah, so the
guy that started it, they used the exact same
recipe today that they used back then. Yeah.
The only difference is they make the crust thicker.
I look, I'm not the one to call bullshit, but
I remember this is like, this is what do they
call those? A net and Yahoo. 2012. Oh yeah. And
Yahoo. No, you mean Mandela. Yeah. So you're,
you're thinking about 2012 when they redid or
did the big rebranding. Yeah. Cause so yeah.
pretty garbage tasting to like buttery fucking
crust. So I always preferred the Domino's sandwiches,
right? Because of that. In 2012, they got a quote
unquote new recipe. Oh. Uh oh. We lost them?
Yeah, it could be the internet. We're actually,
right now, for anybody who's listening, we are
going through some thunderstorms. uh so his internet
probably went out hopefully his master's still
going but um but in you know in 2012 like you
was saying uh they didn't really change a whole
lot at dominoes no i swear to god i swear i remember
because my stepdad was a big dominoes guy and
we get it and i was like like i would never eat
the crust And then after, I swear, after they
rebranded, they started doing a butter garlic
crust instead. Dude, I was finishing off everybody
else's crust. I was like, dude, this is gourmet
pizza. It's crazy. Well, anyway, back off the
pizza. And because I did already do that episode
in the UP, I'm not going to go over any of the
other foods. So, okay, where did you stop? You
guys went to the store to get... sodas and stuff
yeah and then what we go back connor's hole after
you said yeah they're after yeah i was trying
to remember i feel like we went back to camp
for a little bit though oh well you guys had
i mean up till now you guys had no issues though
no overheating no nothing like that no no problems
at all okay so pretty much everything that everything
that happened down in kentucky you were good
with so far yes yeah okay my overheating got
fixed where was that was that the new radiator
or was that okay it was a radiator yeah and you
said the old one was plugged up though like yeah
it had a bunch of gunk and stuff well let's just
keep I guess. Yeah. Even though his master's
gone, so. Yeah. Let's see here. I feel like we
went back to camp for a little bit because I
think it was still raining. Yeah, we went back
to camp and we chilled out for like an hour or
so trying to wait for the rain to die down because
we wanted to go to the fossil ledge and swim.
So we're waiting for the rain to die down. That
died down. We went out. I think we did Connor's
Hole first. Yeah. Did you... Is Fossil Ledge
legitimately how it says? Like there's a bunch
of fossils in it? Or is it just kind of like
the name? It's kind of like... There is some
fossils. It's kind of... I wouldn't say, like,
potassi -style fossil, but, like, has, like,
shells and stuff in it. Yeah, like the Charlevoix
Stone. Yeah. Because, like, I'm, like, not a
big rock guy. Like, I'm not – I don't go on trips
just for the rocks. But if I'm there where there
are, like, fossils and rocks and stuff, I'm always
checking them out. Like, when last year when
we were up at, like, Two -Hearted, that whole
coast up there, that rocky coast up by, like,
Lake Superior. That's all, like, that's all,
like, agates and stuff like that up there. Hey,
welcome back, Alex. Yeah. We're still recording.
I was going to say, you could, yeah. Yeah. No.
I'm hearing the thunder crack, but. They have,
like. A lot of the fossils that coral in it,
I have a giant one I got to show you. Yeah. When
we swam there last year, I dove for it. It was
a big old rock of fossils in it. Yeah. I'd definitely
be bringing my swim gear for that. That's probably
the only reason, though, is to find that stuff.
Like I said, I like the rocks. When we go up
here tomorrow, which is Thursday for anybody
who's listening, whatever, Tuesday or whatever.
We're going to, we're going to, we're going to
do some rock hounding up there. I always bring
back a good, about a pound or so of rocks to,
to bring back. So we got a couple of vacations
worth here. Okay. Around sitting in water. I'm
officially back now. That sucks. I don't know
how I'm going to line all this up at all, but.
Dude, my whole, everything went down. My power
went out. Oh. It's all right. We'll match up.
We kept talking without you like nothing ever
happened. We were just going to do the rest of
the episode without you. Yeah, no, my power fucking
went out, dude. That was wild. I was kind of
concerned. It's quite dark. I was going to say,
Alex, we went back to camp for a little bit,
right? Yeah, we went back and took a nap. Yeah.
Because it was raining pretty good. Yeah, we
were waiting for the rain to die off. And how
long did that take? Because I know you guys have
bad luck with rain at Drummond. It just rained,
like, morning and then noon. Sometime after noon,
it finally died off. Like, around 1, I like to
say. Yeah, like, around 1 it died off. So we
went back to camp, took a nap, and then went
back out at, like, 435. Something like that.
Yeah. I think it was a little sooner than that.
Was it? I don't know. That was around 6, buddy.
I know it was around 6 because I looked at the
clock right as it happened and said, fuck, all
the places on the island are probably closed
now. So, yeah, so we went out. Back out, we went
through Connor's Hole and took that route out
towards Fossil Ledge. I really wanted to do Walker
Trail, so we did Walker Trail and then brought
that over to where Moose Nemesis is. They kind
of fucked up Moose Nemesis a little bit. They
dropped some boulders on the harder line and
basically... Go ahead. I don't know how much
of them doing it. I feel like someone moved a
rock with a whip. When I say them, I mean them
as in people other than us. Okay, I thought you
were referring to the DNR because I didn't know
the DNR touched it. Somebody fucked up Moose
Nemesis and dropped a couple boulders right in
the middle of the hard path. And it basically
made it impossible for anything with a longer
wheelbase than a two -door side -by -side, pretty
much. So, that sucked. I wonder if it was one
of the... the guys from the island because like
i've seen i've seen like residents and stuff
yeah uh you know not not like residents of drummond
but like in around but you know you go on a trails
enough you'll see people put fences on on state
land and i don't know i don't know if they would
have because they only blocked one of the three
lines but either way it was blocked uh not really
blocked you could still try it there just was
like no there was no line that would get it up
yeah there was not a good light anymore because
i think it blocked off the line i was trying
to do yes it did for sure that's why i told you
that line wasn't possible anymore um yeah so
i went up the second to hardest line um and then
was getting ready to go up the line that Mark
just Rambo'd into and Mark, Mark got turtled
hard, dude. Like could not move pretty bad. So
I tried to, I came back down, uh, Moose nemesis
down the bypass was going to pull up behind him.
And all I heard was snap and I couldn't turn
anymore. So I knew that it was my, uh, Oh, Hey,
I'm getting spot. I just got a message from Joe
Karen about my member spotlight for beyond the
mitten. That's kind of cool. So I, I, yeah, I
fucked, I broke my tie rod, my big beefy tie
rod. At least there's steel. Like we could weld
on it. We just didn't have a welder with us.
So we, Kind of tried to fuck with it a little
bit. I sent Mark and Alan back because we took
all the tools out. Like, we're within 15 minutes
of anywhere on the island. Why should we carry
our tools with us, really? So I sent them to
get the tools. And also help hunt down a welder.
Yeah, and hunt down a welder, which sadly they
did not find. Well, they kind of found a welder.
They didn't find, there was nobody on the island
with a welding shop open. Everybody was closed
because of what time it was. So we, the people
that were shooting off fireworks did have a welder.
So we got the tie rod off. We ran over to them,
asked them if they could weld it together. And
their welder was like a big 220 Miller, right?
That needs like a beefy generator. And they pull
out a 4k generator, a little Honda 4k generator.
and could not get it to hold a fucking arc or
burn hot enough so they welded it back together
and we were hoping just to get it off the trail
and maybe have my dad come up with the trailer
uh so we get it we're starting to put it in and
it just snaps off again so then we got You know,
we closed up the truck. We shut all the doors,
didn't lock it because my locks don't work. Took
the coolers. Yeah, took the coolers and I disconnected
my battery and took my key. That way someone
would really have to want to take it if they
were going to take it. Then we took the tie rod
and we're in the truck. And at this point, the
plan was that someone was going to drive all
the way back down to Grant, weld it together
and then drive all the way back at, you know,
middle of the night. Yeah. It's a five -hour
drive, so 10 hours round trip plus welding time.
Would have fucking sucked. So we, on our way
back, I'm like, you know what? Where's the nearest
harbor freight? Because we could just go buy
a welder, the same one we've got, weld it together
at the gas station or something, and then return
the welder next weekend when we're done with
it. So, the nearest Harbor Freight was in Sault
Ste. Marie, which was about 60 -ish miles away.
So, we got back to camp, got anything that me
and John would need out of the truck, and then
sent Mark and Alan to go get a welder. I wasn't
expecting them to weld it on the way back, but
they stopped it in O 'Reilly's, which was genius.
And O 'Reilly's let them use an outlet to get
it welded back together. And they reinforced
it and beefed it up a little bit. And then they
drove back. You guys got back. Oh, so then me
and John are sitting there. We've got most of
camp tore down. Like we left the shitter up.
We had one tent left and we had our chairs and
that was it. Right. And we're sitting there and
market texted us and said, he's on the way back.
And it'd been like five hours. And we're like,
not since then. It was like two hours after I
said that. Cause you sent that. Okay. Three hours.
Cause you sent that at 11. You got back at like
almost three. Yeah. So they, uh, yeah. So we're
like, man, where the fuck are these jokers? Like
this has taken way too fucking long. Um, and
then. As we're getting ready to start walking
to the road to hitchhike to the gas station where
we had service, they pull in with both trucks.
So they stopped and put the tie rod together
and grabbed my truck. So then we loaded up all
the stuff from camp and headed back. And we made
it. I did a quick alignment, of course. We made
it almost all the way to Big Rapids. Just about
to Big Rapids. Because I didn't have any... What
am I missing? We had to stop because we were
missing something. What were we missing? Your
nut. Oh, yeah, you're right. So before we got
off the island, I noticed that my truck felt
weird. So I pulled over and I figured out the
entire chain of events that started this whole
problem. So my passenger side, the tie rod nut
had backed off, which then allowed the rack and
pinion to oversteer, which caused the tie rod
to break as I was turning right there. So the
whole time my passenger side was missing the
nut that held the tie rod on. So then we limped
it, you know, I kind of forced the bolt back
in place and we drove it from just about our
campsite to Johnny's Barbecue. Did I get it right?
Everyone go to Johnny's Barbecue. The man and
his wife that run that place are absolute fucking
saints. So we get to Johnny's Barbecue and I'm
just like, hey, do you know anyone who's just
got like a bucket of bolts and nuts that I could
sort through? And he's like, here, let's go look
through mine. And we found the exact... nut that
i needed for my bolt and i was able to put my
tie rod back together we bought some barbecue
of course because they're saints and it was delicious
um i got brisket and mac or uh smoked mac and
cheese with brisket oh it was so good yeah that
so quesadilla is really good too yeah so then
we uh You know, we get going again. We get out
to the ferry. And this time, we made it almost
all the way to Big Rapids. We'd stop. I'd check
the front tie rods. We'd get back in. We'd go.
Everything was nice and tight in the front. Then
I heard that over. I didn't hear it here. I heard
it over your, yeah, thunder is a booming. So.
We get almost to Big Rapids and I start hearing
this funny sound and I'm like turning the radio
down to listen to it. And then Mark goes over
the radio. Hey, there's sparks coming from under
your truck. And I'm like, fuck, man. So I pull
over. I pull over and we get looking. And one
of my upper links, the bolts had backed out of
it. Mind you, none of the problems I had were
like actual truck breakage. They were all hardware
just backing off. The only truck breakage was
the tie rod on the trail, which was caused after
that. And the tie rod was caused by a bolt backing
off. Like I forgot about that. So we, uh, yeah,
God, it was such a mess. So we pull over and
I've got an upper link on my rear axle. That's
off. And it's like the Heim joint is missing
the spacers and everything. Like it's bad. Um,
and then I go to put it back in and the Heim
joint itself is all fucked up from hitting the
drive shaft. Actually, I don't think it was hitting
the driveshaft. I think it was hitting the old
gas tank. The gas tank skid plate rotted out,
so there was a strap hanging there, and that
was hitting the driveshaft, which was vibrating
against the link, which dented the heim joint
just enough that it couldn't rotate. Yeah. So...
The strap on the driveshaft is what was causing
the sparks. Yep. So then I... I got some smaller
bolts, not the right ones. Cause mind you, I'm
missing the right bolt at this point. And I just
kind of pieced my link together enough to do
the hour drive home. Um, I called my dad for
a trailer and then canceled it like immediately.
Uh, so yeah, I got all that piece back together
and then it was uneventful the rest of the way
home. But the moral of my story is make sure
all your bolts are tight. You know, And then
the next part of that story is don't reuse hardware.
I know it just seems so easy to just reuse hardware.
Every time that we reuse hardware, we get fucking
burnt at some point. So if you're doing a major
build. Torque hardware to spec. Oh, there's no
spec on these. No, there's no spec for this custom
stuff, no. Oh, yeah, it's all custom. So. Oh,
good doggo. So yeah, and it was uggadugged. All
of it was uggadugged and torqued to like 110
at the beginning, but obviously it loosened over
time. So the moral of the story is to get new
hardware and nylox are lifesavers. So use nylox.
That's it. I actually went and picked up all
new bolts and nylox and washers. So my whole
rear end this weekend, I'm going to go through
it and replace all the bolts with nylox or nuts
with nylox. reconnect everything. I've got new
Heim joints that were supposed to be here today,
but now look like they'll be here tomorrow. Um,
yeah, it, it's a mess, dude. Bolts need to stay
in. That's, that's all there is to it. Um, yeah.
Yeah. So my ass end after this weekend, my ass
end will all be done and fixed with nylox. And
then I'm going to, the front has some different
size bolts. The back is all the same size, but
the front has a couple of different sized ones.
So I'm going to pull those out and go get new
ones. My cousin's going to make me some new tie
rods. I'm hoping, I'd like to see them milled.
I'd rather have milled ones than welded. So we'll
see about that. But I don't necessarily want
to do billet because if I do billet, then I can't
weld it on the trail. Which comes to the next
thing that would have saved our ass is if we
had a carnage welder. Yeah. what can't you weld
with like a couple of cables on a battery and
and uh you'd have to have a stick and like you
can it's just not very efficient but if you pick
up a carnage welder carnage welders uh flux core
welder that you know it just runs wire right
through it it's got a battery on board it does
16 minutes of uh arc time um They're phenomenal.
I mean, they're $1 ,000, but they're phenomenal.
Yeah. And we've been tossing around getting one
for a while, and this trip just kind of solidified
we need to invest in a carnage welder. Yeah.
I'm going to reach out. Like flux core welders,
huh? I don't love flux core welders, but for
trailside, flux core is kind of the way to go.
I mean, they're cheaper, but. it there's less
that you got to think about but i think i'm gonna
reach out to i can't remember the guy's name
that owns carnage i'm gonna see if he can build
us one that's inside a pack out because then
it can just click into our stack um yeah that'd
be dope i think so too so can you hook it up
to like the battery or how do you how are you
gonna run it so they have a battery on board
yeah it's got one on board and then it's also
got If that battery dies and you need more time,
you can hook up two car batteries to it. And
you have two. Yeah, yeah. Well, I have one, but
I will have two. It also has, so there's a charger,
Anderson connector charger, where it just plugs
into the battery and charges while you're driving.
So in all honesty, your Carnage should always
be charged and ready to go. Yeah, I think it's
a bang solid thing to invest in. It sucks because
it's expensive, but in this situation, there's
been a few situations that would have saved our
ass. Yeah. And if we want to start pushing out
west and doing some harder shit, and if we're
going to be doing that, we really got to have
some kind of backup plan in case something goes
wrong. Yeah, we don't always want to have the
trailer with us either. Right. Right, that's
more of a base camp thing. Yep. This trip, the
trailer would have been fucking awesome to have
brought, but most situations, like let's say
we're doing the Overland thing and we're hitting
like 10 different spots in 10 days, right? We
don't want the fucking trailer for that. No.
It's only nice if you're going somewhere, you
can just drop it off. This weekend was supposed
to be just a quick run to drumming and come back.
So we really weren't planning on needing it,
but it's probably better for not planning on
needing something. You know what I mean? And
once we get a generator on there, it'll be even
more useful because then we'll be able to run
the welder off it. It just, what? It started
out as a generator, so I'm just laughing because
it's how ironic. You take the generator off it,
put a bunch of stuff on it, and then we need
a generator. You're right. The trailer was originally
a generator. Fuck. I'm just like, oh, dude, that's
just hilarious. I have no storage space. And
it wouldn't generate power, even though it was
a 15K generator. You're right, it is funny. It's
just funny, though. It's like ironic. Yeah, it
is. One of them little Honda ones to put on there,
huh? Well, no, because they can't run generators.
That's what the guys were trying to use to weld
it together the first time. Oh, welders, yeah.
So we'll get something figured out. Predator.
It probably will be a Predator. No, in all honesty,
it'll probably be a Predator just because they're
cheaper. Yeah, 100%. And you know what? Our generator
gets ran maybe twice a year. I also, I was watching
videos today and I learned how to clean beads
with a farm jack. So we could have done that
at Kentucky when them guys had a bunch of shit
in their beads. Oh, okay. What? Oh. I thought
you meant weld beads. I know. That's what I thought.
I was like, you're just going to smack it on
the weld. Like that seems technically you're
supposed to grind off all the access. Yeah. Like
that. Yeah. So Drummond was fun. I mean, before
bolt started backing out, the forerunner performed
phenomenal. Yeah. I actually, so we were running
down the main road there towards our camp empty.
And I hit like 40 and I'm like, man, and I was
like 50. I was like, man, I better not go faster.
I don't want to lose Mark. And I look in the
back and it's just a big cloud of dust. But I
easily, you know, judging by how it felt zooming
down that road, I easily could have been doing
65, 70 without a problem. The, the long travel
is a whole different world in comfort and suspension
and even on road, dude, it's so much more planted.
The truck doesn't walk around at all. I mean,
it's, it's a solid upgrade. Yeah. Definitely
better this year than last year at Drummond.
For sure. Oh yeah. Yeah. I was just looking at
upper control arms for mine. You know, just thinking.
Thinking about the future. Because eventually
those will need to be changed, too. Looking at...
I think Freedom Off -Road's got uniball ones
for, like, $530. They're uniballed, and I think
they said it's gusseted. Dude. That's for the
pair of them. Dude, you could do two -inch long
travel for, like, three grand. Ugh. Yeah, that's
a lot right now. But, yes. I mean, two -inch.
Isn't that, like... I want to go like three at
least, right? Mine's 3 .5. I feel like if I'm
going to do it, I might as well do like three
because I want to be able to clear. If I do long
travel, I feel like I need to be at least 35
to 40 on tires. I'd say 33 to 35. I was going
to say, I'm at 33 already. I think long travel
with 33s would be best just because then you
don't have to grind anything out. What long travel
gives you is more comfort than clearance. You
almost, I mean, I can clear 35s now, but I really
could before. So, I mean, it doesn't really benefit
me there a whole lot. Yeah, I mean, there are
people that are clearing 35s on just a couple
inch lift that they have on their FJs. Oh, lift
doesn't make you clear tires. Well, I don't,
it must be the offset. But I just meant more
like they're not doing long travel. They could
still clear it. So, yeah, long travel isn't going
to help you really clear it either. So lift doesn't
help you. I mean, it does, right? So if you lift
a truck, you can put a bigger tire on until you
go off -roading. Yeah, I know. And then it starts
rubbing and stuff. So the best route is to make
clearance and then set your bump stops properly
and do all the things. I'd like more ground clearance.
You know what I mean? What would you say? Axle
to ground clearance? I know taller tires can
help with that a little bit. It's really the
only way to fix that. Without going to portals.
Right. Those are like $10 ,000. I just broke
my thumb drive that I've been playing with for
many, many episodes. Yeah. Oh, oh, has everyone
been listening to me play with this thumb drive
for like weeks? Cause no, just now I could hear
it. Like you fumble around with it. We really
heard it when you broke it. Yeah. So, I mean,
I think doing long travel would be beneficial
for both of you just in the situation of, it
gives you more flex and it's more comfortable
to drive. That's it. Yeah, I'm going to have
to watch that Tinker's video. He does a video
on whether you should get rid of front sways
or rear sways. And he's got the whole engineering
aspect behind it. And he actually argues to get
rid of front sways. So I want to look at that
and see about that too. Because I think front
sway bars, that wouldn't be as bad. I feel like
that would keep you planted still with the rear.
or or hear me out remove both sway bars and then
put long travel on the front and then it feels
like you only have one taken off yeah yeah i
don't if it's a video i think it is there's a
small difference of leaving the rear sway bar
and not having them on so i mean it's just up
to you if you want the lean or not i mean i think
what i'm gonna end up doing just because um when
i finally get down to it is like a sway bar disconnect
yeah like and they have the really nice ones
with apex yeah i think they're like 800 though
so yeah i'll probably get upper control arms
before i do that so because upper control arms
are on my list for the next year I am starting
to rub on those a little bit, which I didn't
think I would be, but I guess with stock wheels
and tires. You got stock uppers? Yeah. Okay.
I see you doing a two -inch one like what I have
from the name now. No. KDS? Yeah. KPS? I think
it's KDS. I think it's KP, but I thought I just
saw them. But yeah, for... Let's see. What is
it? Total Chaos. Yeah. Freedom Off -Road has
uniball front uppers that are gusseted. Might
do those. I think Gavin can run my billet ones
I have if I remember correctly. Your KDSs? KSP!
KSP. Something like that. Yeah, so... Go ahead.
Oh, I was just saying, we were just talking about
seeing if the CVs that Alex has would fit on
mine. Oh, my old CVs? CVX, yeah. I doubt it.
I don't think we did, because me and Alex went
to... You and me should be sharing the same CVs,
though. Yeah, I don't know. We were just talking
about it earlier. I was curious if me and Mark's
CVs now match. Yeah. Now that I'm running longer
ones. Yeah. What year is your FJ again? 07. 07
to 12. Researching. Yeah, researching. But yeah,
so, I mean, to sum it all up, Drummond Island
was a lot of fun. It did end up becoming a long
time just because, you know, 4Runner breaky.
And not even, I can't even blame the 4Runner
or the work. It was just the freaking hardware,
dude. But I learned my lesson. Don't reuse hardware.
Yeah, that's what mine is too. I assume that's
what yours is too. I'm talking about the KSB.
I am too. Okay. I didn't think the black one.
The black truck, black foreigner. That one's
got, that one's got one to two. Mine is two to
four that we just took off. But yeah. Okay. Thanks
for listening along with us and hearing us kind
of drone on about truck parts. We will catch
you guys later.