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 Kurt from Busted
to Built, and I'll tell you, we have started
this recording like three times. Today is not
our day for podcasts. No. Apparently not. Just
hanging out with the boys. Yeah. Yeah, just hanging
out with the boys. So how you doing, Kurt? You've
got, uh... What is that thing? A Tahoe? No. Nope.
You're right. It is a Tahoe. Yep. 2004 Tahoe.
Yep. Yep. The weirdest off -road truck you'll
ever see. Yeah. I guess so far it seems like
it is. So when I was building it, I didn't think
it was that weird until you get it out in the
wild amongst everything else. And yeah, it's
kind of a, yeah, it sticks out a little bit.
Yeah. Just a little bit. It pokes up a little
bit. It's a little taller. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep.
It's kind of big. So, but, uh, yeah, I don't
know. I built that kind of based off of, I had
a truck before that, that was just a regular
cab pickup that I just kind of beat on it. I
took it to Holly Oaks and the mounds and stuff
like that. And, uh, I eventually kind of broke
that truck in half. And so that's kind of what
started the Tahoe. And you could say it being
kind of overbuilt is that I just never wanted
to end up back in that scenario. So it's, uh,
there's a lot of steel on it. Yeah. typical gm
things you broke it in half yeah yep it uh well
i'll go back to that truck a little bit the truck
i was beating on before it was a 92 chevy regular
cab uh long bed and i had solid axle swap that
with a 10 bolt chevy front axle Um, they're inherently
not strong, but I never had an issue with the
actual drive train part of it, but I actually,
I sent it off of a jump, not intentionally, but
my windshield was covered with mud and I just
didn't see what was coming up. So anyways, I
went airborne with it and broke the knuckle,
right? Well, the C right off the axle, like the
well broke the whole way around the tube and
the. see come off and just the axle itself was
what was holding kind of everything together
but like the whole knuckled flip forward and
we had to drag it onto a trailer and so that
was what broke on that truck but um anyways there
wasn't much left of it by the time that was done
so that was i had like a year where i didn't
have anything that i was wheeling with at all
um And so then I just wanted to build something
and that's how the Tahoe got started. And I just
kind of memories the whole while of the things
that I had snapped on truck one. And so it's
like, well, I'm going to try to beef this up
a little bit or beef this up a little bit. And
so that's kind of what happened with the Tahoe.
And it wasn't even supposed to be a Tahoe or
necessarily it wasn't going to be. I just had
the frame that I started on and the frame I got
from my brother for nothing. he just had it sitting
around for a project he was working on that he
took parts off of. And so I was like, well, that'd
be the bones I start with. And it was a Chevy
frame, Oh four Chevy, 2 ,500 HD. And it was a
six liter. So it just had the engine mounts for
a gas LS in it already. So that was already set
up. It's like, well, this is good bones. I'll
start with that. And, uh, from there just kind
of through, yeah, the kitchen sink at it. Yeah.
Uh, so that's, That's a 5 .3 though, right? You
didn't put a 6 .0 back in it? Nope, it's a 5
.3. The truck that, yeah, the frame come from
my brother. He was taking the motor and trans
for his project. So he's building a square body
Suburban right now, an 87. And so that'd be pretty
cool when it's done. But yeah, it's taking him
a little longer than it took me to do the Tahoe
if I figure I got the frame. And he had already
pulled the motor for his project. So he's a little
behind schedule, but it's, his is coming. It's
going to be a little cleaner than the Tahoe when
he's done too. So, um, different, different kind
of operation, but, uh, yeah, so I got that and,
uh, I had a half ton Chevy, a 99 that I bought
just for the engine and trans and everything.
Um, typical frame rot was broke right in half
between the cab and the box when I got it, but
ran like a cherry. And so that was what the motor
trans came out of for the Tahoe was what, uh,
was just that. So anyway, so it's got the, so
it's original motor for a Tahoe. So everybody
can make sense of that. So everybody asks me
right away. They're like, is that a five, three?
It's like, yeah, it's five, three. And so they
just assume it's the same motor that it came
with, but it's like four different trucks just
to make this thing what it is. So, yeah. And
how much, uh, cause you've got four. ford axles
right yep yep so what uh what leaf or what springs
did you use on that uh so the 2500 springs are
what i used on the rear of that um just the leaf
springs that would come on the frame and then
the front springs are actually six inch lift
springs for an xj um all i can say about it is
that would be the roughest riding xj if you put
those springs under it because it carries the
tahoe pretty good but um yeah yeah when i was
building it i had um a buddy that gave me a bunch
of goofy ford parts because his boss put a lift
on his brand new super duty so he got like the
old springs and crap so i kind of like mocked
everything up with these old super duty springs
or new super duty springs but they were just
stock so they were way too heavy and they wouldn't
i couldn't get enough extension out of them to
droop as much as i wanted and so i figured if
i went with a really like slinky like spring
So I got kind of like the longest spring I could
come up with for a stock application, which was,
you know, basically a six inch XJ spring. And
I'm sure you could find more or less, but that
was kind of what worked. And that gave me the
right amount of droop and compression and everything
for the space that I was in. So, and it seems
to ride okay, but it's not, it's nothing you
take the whoops at with speed. So, no. So a little
off -topic here, what is this white turbo truck
I've been seeing on your page? Oh, yeah, that's
kind of what started my YouTube thing. During
COVID, just spare time, everybody had a little
of that. So that was the project I started on,
and that started as an 01 2500 HD 6 -liter auto
truck. four -wheel drive and I went through and
redid all that and there's a bunch of videos
on my channel of it but that was when my editing
skills and my video skills were very very poor
so I can't even re -watch those videos so I wouldn't
advise anybody going and re -watching a lot of
them like you can go back a little ways and there's
a few videos that are probably okay but a lot
of them are like you know just poor editing and
poor video quality but anyway so it's uh the
proof's out there that i built it but anyways
it's um it ended up having then i got a different
truck that i took the body off of so it's an
o5 half ton two -wheel drive body on an o1 2500
hd chassis solid actually swapped um and then
yeah six liter sloppy stage two cam uh turbo
just ebay turbo kit where you get the log manifold
and the turbo and So I was just going to ask
who's turbo, but yeah, no eBay turbo, uh, Chinese
more than likely, but, uh, uh, what do they call
them? Wing bang blowers. Oh yeah. There's all
kinds of names, man. I think I saved a screenshot
of something like that with a meme with a bunch
of them that I was looking at now that you brought
that up. But, um, yeah, so, but anyway, I built
that truck and, um, I, I tune all my stuff myself
with HB tuners. And having the cam and the turbo
at the same time was just two huge variables
to try to tune it. And I got very discouraged
with the tuning. And I also put it together with
a five speed manual originally. So it was six
liter turbo with a five speed NV4500. And I did
not like that at all either because that was
really hard to tune that trying to shift and
do all that monkeying around with the laptop
and stuff. so i couldn't really get anywhere
fast so it went in the back burner um for yeah
two or three years and so in the meantime yeah
i broke that first mud truck and then i had also
built the tahoe since it's this turbo truck's
even really been driven uh over the winter i
put automatic transmission in it finally a 4l80
back in it um and that makes the drivability
like 100 better and so that's That's really funny
because most guys I know that tune say it's easier
to tune a manual than an auto. Yeah. And it may
be for a guy that actually knows what he's doing.
I'm just some guy dinking his backyard as far
as the tuning. I'm pretty good with cars and
repair, but the performance and stuff like that,
that is really like a whole nother level of understanding
that it takes to do that. So a lot of credit
to the people that do that because it's taken
me years to tune. the three or four trucks that
i've got a cam or a turbo on and you know it's
that's more work than putting the parts in the
parts takes 30 minutes to slap in there but to
tune it so where it goes down the highway every
time i mean that's a totally different story
so that's where the tahoe is awesome because
that one i don't care how it really runs when
it's like necessarily at idle or I'm just kind
of putzing along and stuff and it can get horrible
economy you know I can run a 10 to 1 on that
and I don't really care because I don't I'm not
keeping track of that or anything you know whatever
keeps the engine happy and so anyways yeah that
one's kind of funner because I've gotten kind
of ignorant with the tuning on that like I've
got a lot of timing in that and all kinds of
stuff where it should grenade you know if it
was a daily driver it would pop but that one's
a lot more fun because i don't really care about
it like it's all just used parts and if this
is really experimental the whole way through
and right yeah so if i have to eventually replace
the motor it's just going to get a six liter
anyways so i'm not i'm not super concerned about
that but um anyways yeah i don't know now i'm
rambling i told you guys that you're gonna have
a hard time opening me up and now i won't shut
up Dude, this is just what we needed. Okay, okay.
Good, good. Making a breakthrough then. Yeah,
I agree with that. I built a couple turbo truck,
well, a turbo truck and a turbo car. And the
tuning, man, and even the power stroke, like,
I couldn't have done that. I had to pay someone
for that. Yeah. There's just no way. I even had,
so I had the first generation HP tuner. Okay.
The one that had the big box on it. Yep. and
i messed around with it a little bit on my dodge
and i just i couldn't even make the thing run
like it was so bad yeah no it's it's an art for
sure so um kind of luckily for me and i'll give
my buddy here a shout out to ian he had a daily
driver that he turboed put a cam in 06 chevy
and so he went through all this kind of before
i did with a lot of it as far as running me through
you know at least this is the equipment you need
this is how you kind of use it and um and he's
actually an engine tester for gm um so he actually
does a lot of the calibration stuff for gm engines
so he's he's extremely knowledgeable and so i
learned quite a bit from him and that kind of
got me in the door and i popped a cam in my first
truck and then after that you know then i kind
of got a little more carried away as things went
on and um Trying to learn a little bit, but I
think I'm backing off of that a lot more because
everything's getting more and more complex with
the tuning and stuff. So I just like sticking
with the Gen 3 LS stuff and just learning that
and stick with it. That's the easier ones. I
never even tried to tune anything. I've tried
to adjust a carburetor. I fucked that up, so
I have to stay away from that. Yeah, it'll be...
I'm supercharging the 4Runner here soon. Oh,
yeah. And I'm probably going to end up having
to get that tuned because my wife doesn't want
me to put a 5 -speed in it. If I could put a
5 -speed in it, I have a 5 -speed CPU for it.
Okay. Or PCM. But I don't know. I'll just keep
working on it because I want the 5 -speed. yep
yep you're saying that's fun leather go ahead
leather leatherwood can uh really lock that in
that i wanted a five speed because that was awful
in an automatic no you didn't like that oh my
god it was so bad yeah you say i i really like
my auto at least off road um and i don't know
i mean i'm sure it's preference what you prefer
and what you're more comfortable with i'm definitely
at the point where i just like to slap that thing
in gear and i just foot on the brake and foot
on the gas and that everything else can take
care of itself but um you know everything in
michigan i agree with you but like what we were
doing down there and maybe if i had a heavier
rig it would have been different or one with
more power but Having that little tiny V6 in
there, I definitely needed a 5 -speed to get
out through a lot of that. Yep. Downhills were
awful. I'll just put it that way. Sure, sure.
Yeah, you definitely get a much lower first usually
in a manual, so for sure. but yeah that's part
of why i got rid of the manual in the turbo truck
because that nv4500 has got like a five or six
to one first gear so it's essentially a four
speed yeah i mean you don't even use first i
mean unless you're you know moving a trailer
around or something but otherwise like it's got
no business being in there so that's it was just
kind of like yeah i've already got a four speed
so i'm getting a four speed yeah whatever yeah
i uh I had a five -speed power stroke, and I
never touched first gear ever. It was always
second through fifth. Oh, yeah. I'm sure in a
power stroke, you could just fire that thing
off in third, and it'd take right off, too, anyway.
Oh, yeah. It'd have been perfectly happy with
third. Yeah. That one made a 400 -ish horsepower.
It wasn't anything crazy. But then my green automatic,
that one I made crazy, and I wish it had a five
-speed because I kept grenading the automatics.
Yeah. Also didn't help that we had a wrong torque
converter, was it? Yeah, but that van torque
converter isn't what ate up the transmission.
That was just, those junkyard transmissions I
was pulling just were not up to the task. I still
can't believe how chewed up that one flywheel
was. Oh yeah, when it cracked? Yeah, it was like
perfectly cut circle almost. Yep. you know that's
very common yep yeah so you do you do a lot of
stuff here in michigan mostly parks though right
you don't do a whole lot of wild wheeling uh
yeah we don't do a whole lot of like trail stuff
um and not because we're not interested i guess
but a lot of it you have i mean you really have
to be camping to enjoy a lot of it and it's not
really sensible to trailer to the trailhead to
do a lot of that stuff sometimes either when
if you go to the park you can kind of do a lot
of it in a day where um i don't know i don't
have a family other than my wife right now so
the camping experience and stuff we've kind of
lived out ourselves and like you know my dogs
don't care if they're in a tent or not you know
so yeah i mean we're we're not really into that
thing right now and nothing against the people
that are like i mean i i really appreciate that
you guys get out there and get to camp and and
do all that stuff too because i wish like when
i was a kid that i got to do stuff like that
that seems super cool so um but yeah right now
we just kind of do the off -road parks and um
the tahoe is not really fit for a lot of highway
stuff or you know even even on some of the trails
it feels kind of awkward when you're passing
like mostly dirt bikes and side by sides and
then i'm rolling by and it's like where'd that
guy come from you know oh we even with our smaller
rigs we understand that one it's just how it
is now yeah Yeah, 100%. So hopefully we're going
into a little depression here, and some of them
side -by -sides will go to the wayside. We'll
see about that. Yeah. Yeah, the scars on my 4Runner
would be happy to not get friends. I don't know
what it is about side -by -sides and being attracted
to my truck. Oh, you had a little trail damage,
have you? Oh, I've been. Three incidents in one
day. Yeah. And one day, well, three or four.
I think four. Well, it doesn't help it was a
holiday, so it was like everyone was out that
day. Yeah, but they all hit my truck, and we
had four trucks or three trucks out there. Two.
I think it was just the Jeep and yours. Alan's
trip. Oh, did you not have the taco yet? No.
That trip solidified me getting a rig. Oh. Either
way, yeah. It sucks. That's scary to think about,
you know, a rig that size that they're running
into you to think about, you know, how many dirt
bikes or ATVs are out there. It's like they're
never going to see a guy on a dirt bike if they're
hitting a full -size vehicle, you know, cruising
around. Well, the first one, he went to pass
me, and he didn't get over far enough and then
just scraped the side of my truck. Oh, Jesus.
The second one, he was coming at us, and he went
too high up on the side to go around us and then
tipped over on top of me. Wow. And then the third
one was coming at us, and I'm talking to the
guy. I'm like, just be careful going past me.
I don't want to get hit by another one of you
today. And as I said that, he goosed it, and
his back end swung out and hit my truck. Oh,
wow. Any of them stop to say anything or square
up with you in any way or not really? Just the
one that we had to push off my truck. The other
two kept going. The one that tipped over on me.
Yeah, I was going to say the first one zipped
away. He hit me and then just floored it. Hit
and run. Yeah, the one that tipped on me, he
stopped because if I moved, he would have rolled
over. You didn't have a choice. Man, that's nuts.
Yeah, I mean, I've had one. In the UP, it pushed
me kind of off the side of the road. He would
not move over. I was trying to make room and
go around him, give him a little bit of space.
And I slid down. It was like a sandy berm, basically.
Went down about three, four feet down the berm,
pretty much to the woods. It was pretty much
down into a ditch. And I'm just like, fuck. Mitch
was in front of me. He thought he was going to
have to winch me out. and i just kind of gave
it some beans and forward and reverse and got
it out and kind of like started driving up to
the guy a little bit and i was like yeah you
know i kind of got out of your way so you could
go by and he goes oh yeah like yeah and the whole
fucking time he just sat there the whole time
he was just standing there and i'm like so like
that it's like i almost fucked my rig up up in
the middle of nowhere just because He just didn't
want to get out of the fucking way. It was just
some old geezer on a side -by -side, but side
-by -side is side -by -side. It's really, at
this point, I don't discriminate. Or you do.
You discriminate against side -by -sides. Yes,
all of them. Doesn't matter what age, they all
get a bad rap in my eyes until they prove otherwise.
So, Kurt, do you have any future plans for that
Tahoe? Is that right? Yeah. I'm going to say
a few things. i would like to put a selectable
locker in the front right now it's just got a
lunchbox locker and it does the trick it's actually
extremely stout i've broken like multiple hubs
and shafts with that same locker and not hurt
it any so it's extremely strong but yeah just
you might as well have a welded front end at
that point because you're just i'm just unlocking
my hubs constantly because otherwise you can't
turn and all that crap so It'd be nice to have
a selectable locker up there. The rear right
now is just limited slip. And I'm working on
a E locker on that right now. Whether I get,
I've got a whole nother axle, but the axle is
way too new for me to just take the locker out
of. So I'm seeing if I can just put some gears
in it. It's out of a 19 F three 50. Okay. And
that one, I just happened to come across by happenstance.
So we'll see if I can make it work or not. But
so I got nothing into that, but if not, I want
to get just a 05 and up e -locker to put in it
or an 11 and up. I think it is e -locker, whatever
the year is there, but. and do that route for
the rear too so the limited slip does really
really good on it um most people would never
notice but like watching my videos or anything
that it doesn't have a locker in the rear but
when it really gets hung up where it's almost
lifting the one tire most of the time it'll always
start just spinning the one so that's you know
that's kind of just the you know ah man i wish
i had just a little more so that's where i'm
at right now um But otherwise, I really enjoy
it how it is. I don't think I want to put a whole
lot more into it. It seems like it's doing all
right, I guess. And I'll probably just keep breaking
stuff and having to fix it more than worry about
upgrading or doing a whole lot more to it, I
think. It's kind of crazy, just the tire difference.
My first truck only had 35s on it. It was the
biggest I ever put on it. And like I say, I never
broke anything with even that 10 bolt in it,
which is a 28 spline. So it's... like i say pretty
weak and i never broke anything doing wide open
poles and stupid stuff with that and so my same
mentality went into the tahoe like oh this is
a dana 60 and like i should be able to run 40s
wide open throttle no problem and like you just
the second you hit the throttle on that thing
doing something stupid like it's popping an axle
it seems like so um having to learn to be more
reserved driving it or go down in tire size one
or the other um is probably maybe even in the
future plans so well are you running uh stock
shafts in there are you running chromoly so i've
got uh chromoly outers and stock inners um i
keep having issues with the outers breaking um
not a big issue i only just put the chromolys
in and so far i've only broken one but i feel
like i'm gonna keep probably breaking them if
i just keep if i keep abusing it how i am so
right um but i'm not scared to beat on it either
just because i have the means to fix it like
i got my own shop and stuff so it's not like
a huge deal so i kind of live for that as far
as like the breaking it a little bit um some
people are a lot more reserved you know where
it's their daily or they got a payment on it
or their you know whatever And, uh, there's,
there's situations a lot different than mine
where I'm trailering everywhere. And like, I'm
almost not satisfied if I load it up, not broken
some days, like if it comes home in one case,
the next day I'm asking Megan, can we go here
tomorrow? And, you know, that's kind of where
I'm at. So I'm kind of an odd duck in that sense
that people, you know, a lot of people are like,
you're going to break it. Don't do that. It's
like, well, what did I come out here for? So.
Um, yeah. So hopefully, hopefully that's good
entertainment for a lot of people too, but. You're
a, you're not too that out of a duck though.
Cause me and Mark are the same way and we don't
trailers. I got payments. I, uh, I mean, I was
a little more reserved in Leatherwood just cause
I didn't want to call dad and be like, come pick
me up eight hours away. Right. Right. Yep. Yeah.
I hear you there. no i was kind of even kind
of reserved down there because you know once
we got down there it's like well i i am the biggest
thing down here so i've got to winch myself basically
100 feet at a time out of wherever i get stranded
if that's the worst case scenario um so i was
kind of kind of reserved but also ended up pushing
it pretty good just because yeah we ended up
doing some unseen you know recovery with buddy
that was having some issues and uh so yeah that
was kind of cool too just get being able to get
that content i guess and just see what it could
do because it would never get to do something
like that here in michigan you know that was
kind of for sure i don't want to say it once
in a lifetime but you know it's um anything could
happen so i'm glad we did it type of thing so
yeah i think it would be with skitter yeah i
i want him to get that thing on skitter we've
talked about it yeah Yep, I did research a couple
videos there after you had mentioned it, and
I'm going to say I think I need to get some flare
action out on the sides to keep me away from
some obstacles there, so I'll have to do a little
work. I feel like as tall as you are, you'd be
into the side of the... The ground is pretty.
Yeah. I'll make some whistling diesel 10 inch
wheel space. Yeah. I was about to say, we have
a good one with the crawler before it got stripped
apart. Did you guys see that picture I sent of
the crawler before it was destroyed? I saw that.
Oh my God. That thing was sick. That was sick.
I'll send it. I'll send it to Kurt real quick.
Yeah. Yeah. The, uh, if I can find it, where
the hell is it? botches the main chat the crawler
that we uh just tore apart that duncan had bought
we uh tore it apart cook all the good stuff off
and used it and this is a picture of it from
before yeah randomly the guy who built the crawler
liked pictures of the forerunner on my instagram
oh i think it's familiar oh i sent the wrong
picture whoops yeah enjoy the dick pic Oh, it's
not a dick pic. It's a conversation with Gavin.
That looks like a trawler. But yeah. So yeah,
and this is before it was long traveled in this
picture. But it was just out of the blue. I'm
like, who's this Chris Harvey guy? And then I'm
like, oh shit, I know that truck. Yeah, dig the
mirrors on it. Yeah. I'm glad it didn't have
those on it when I came here. Yours is one of
two anyway. I have bad experience with long mirrors
sticking off the side of my truck. I rip them
off all the time. Yeah. It happens. You got a
nice new one from Benji in Missouri. Yeah. Like
two weeks later. Got it brand new. He gave it
to him. Famous Benji. And then he ripped it off.
Yeah. Not even like two weeks later. Again. Yeah.
Same spot. Same rut. Skitter Hill's a bitch.
I'll just leave it at that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
There really isn't much challenging around here.
Yeah, no. I'd like him to see him go through
Pine after it's, like, full of water. Oh, Pine's
dry right now. Well, it wasn't the other day
after that thunderstorm. Holy shit. I took some
bypasses on that one. Yeah, I went out there.
That weekend Kaylin was in Nashville, I went
out there because I was bored. And I was like,
I just drove down the middle of Pine without
getting stuck. having any mud at all i didn't
even get my truck dirty yeah when it dries up
it's great uh but that thunderstorm lasted a
while and then i went out picked the kid up and
uh we drove around for a little bit just to let
him fall asleep because he falls asleep when
we hit the trail um so i was just trying to get
him to take a nap and yeah dude that thing was
soaked wasn't deep as it's ever been like you
know in the spring it's bad but right um But
it was deep enough that I backed out of it, and
I was like, yeah, I don't really feel like getting
out and trying to winch. So that was cool. I
mean, but that's really the most challenging
thing around here until you get to the skidder
area. Yeah. So I used to have that green trail
right around the corner. Well, we call it a green
trail, but I guess it's not green per se. It
is now. Around the corner there in Bridgeton,
that one that... They graded over. That used
to be a pretty hard one. Yeah, especially the
up and down that they logged off because of private
property. Yep. So, Kurt, do you have any plans
to do any snow wheeling? More than likely. I'm
not sure exactly what yet, I guess. But I enjoy
being out there in the winter a lot. I'm sure
we'll do something. No real plans for doing anything
in the winter yet, I guess. We'd like to do some.
We also snowmobile a lot in the winter. So if
there's substantial snow, we'll do that. But
trending lately, not a lot of snow. So anyways,
less and less snowmobiling every year. So we
like to get up to the UP for that. But it's just
such a drive to go and do that sort of thing,
I guess. You've really got to like snowmobiling.
And we just kind of do it. Cause for a hobby
and it's, we're not, we're not pounding miles
between bars. Like a lot of guys are, we're just,
Oh, we like the scenery and like this fresh snow
and that. So it's kind of a different thing for
that. But, um, yeah, I didn't know you guys had
sleds. What do you got? We both got already cats.
Um, Oh yeah. Megan's on an Oh nine. I'm on a
10. So they're a little older, but yeah. So I
think they're technically Argo now. I can just
start calling them Argos. I think that's who
bought them out. I just last year sold, I had
a 97 Ski -Doo triple. I mean, it was quick. It'd
do like 9 ,500 -ish. Oh, yeah. But. Nope, the
old triples got a rep for sure. Dude, I love
triples, man. Just the sound of it. Oh, yeah.
It's a totally different sound. So, yeah, I had
a buddy that had a. had a triple in high school
which he had no business having but um anyway
yeah he ended up with this sled and surprise
surprise yeah he totaled it like yeah the first
the first winner and um so yeah anyways but yeah
so we rode that around a little bit but um the
for our age it was not appropriate at all yeah
yeah i got a healthy healthy fierce sleds uh
i thought you know they're fun Fun to kind of
rip around a little bit. But long distance, I
don't know if I could do that. And like I said,
healthy fear. When I was younger, my dad was
ripping down. He had a skidoo, and I don't remember
what it was, but he was ripping down a field,
and there was a hole in the field, and it launched
him up into a tree. And they found him and the
sled in the tree, and he had a broken leg. I
think he had a bunch of broken ribs, a broken
arm. And, yeah, I think after that I was like,
yeah, I don't like him enough to want to test
it. Yeah, I did. I did here in Grant all the
way to Baldwin, wheeled for eight hours with
my father -in -law, or wheeled, snowmobiled for
eight hours with my father -in -law, and then
drove it back to Grant all in one day. Well,
day and a half. because it was like 26 hours
of writing that's a day in a row oh dude it was
so fun oh yeah no we don't do a whole lot of
riding anymore so i mean kind of now that we
got the Tahoe to looking to use that more and
more than anything else. And if it's the dogs,
so then we got the dogs with us and the heat
and all that other stuff. So it's a lot of creature
comforts compared to being on the snowmobile.
So that's way more enjoyable, I think in the,
in the long run for us, but it's also, yeah,
it's like, I keep building these trucks and then
every time I. build one then Megan's like I can't
get in this I can't get in this and now now it's
at the point where like at the end of a wheeling
day like I am so beat from just getting in and
out not even doing anything just driving the
stupid thing is like such a workout that's like
oh man this is just too much sometimes I feel
like but um you just need to put some rope ladder
yeah that's what she tells me all the time I
just need something just something but Do you
ever plan on just getting something smaller for
just some of the medium kind of stuff? Maybe
just getting a small Tahoe, small lift? GeoTracker.
Yeah, that would be perfect. Maybe something
with the family. Um, I'm actually going to do
a truck up for Megan. So she's just got her own,
her own thing. And then she can, um, kind of
go at her own pace and do whatever she wants
to do. Cause there's a lot of times where she's
even uncomfortable riding with me doing some
of the stuff I'm doing. So I think she'd rather
have her own rig, um, and then just do that.
Um, she kind of has made a lot of friends now.
I mean, your wife's one of them, um, not, you
know, and stuff. So she's meeting a lot of people
kind of on the scene and, um, She kind of wants
to get a little more into it, I think. So I've
got another truck, a 99 Chevy that I put together
a long time ago, like 10 years ago now. And then
when I met Megan, I just retired it because it
was just a regular cab, two wheel or four wheel
drive, but regular cab, short bed, just kind
of like a little get me around truck or whatever.
And it wasn't very practical. So I just parked
it next to the barn. But now I think we're going
to get that. uh back in action i'm build her
like a little truggy out of it um oh yeah follow
me around in or whatever and um do her own thing
at her own pace and and what have you and then
we'll have two rigs so that'd be a little nicer
if um something happens to one of them then can
recover one but hers i would like to keep more
street legal so it can just drive wherever it
needs to go because if i start talking about
trailer and two rigs everywhere that's like super
unpractical um it's like it's really like a blessing
that i even have the equipment i have now to
do what i do with the tahoe like because i never
thought i'd have like a the truck that i have
to be able to pull it around with or anything
like that That's all kind of just stars aligned.
And so now I can do that and get out and hit
the off -road parks and do all that stuff. And
it's a lot more peace of mind being able to do
it, like I say, with the trailer and everything.
And we'll say that's a 6 .0, but it is a really
nice 6 .0. Yeah. Yeah. It's the only nice 6 .0
that's out there, I think, because I've seen
a lot of them too. And yeah, I got it from my
buddy that he's a contractor and he got it just
locally from a dealership here and come from
Canada even. So it shouldn't look near as good
as it does. But yeah, it. must have been just
used to haul around a fifth wheel for some retiree
or something and then he got it and used it for
a couple years and he put on like a hundred thousand
miles while he owned it in a couple years so
i had done all the maintenance on it and all
the repairs and upgrades already so then i already
knew what i was buying when he put it up for
sale but nobody went wanted to buy it because
it was a six liter so no one even no one even
looked at it no one even showed up to look at
it or make him an offer or anything and so i
just ended up buying it from him for i mean what
i think is pennies on the dollar basically for
the amount of truck i got so um yeah super cool
there um yeah if that thing went down then i'd
probably be doing a lot less off -roading We'll
have to plan a trip where you come out and do
some trail riding with us. Yeah, for sure. Out
this way. Just because I want to see it do skidder.
So get what you got to get done. Yeah, I'll have
to get out of it for sure. For sure. Yeah, skidder's
height would actually be a disadvantage there.
But your clearance would be nice. So I guess
it's kind of a catch -22 there. Right, right.
yeah i definitely need some side protection of
some kind some kind of little bump outs or or
something so i uh holly oaks last year after
we got a bunch of rain and everything washes
out there uh really good all the time if you
get a big rain or anything um i was going up
this trail that no one else had been up clearly
since it washed out and had some huge ruts in
it And I didn't really think much of it, but
the way my truck dropped into it, I ended up
coming right over on the driver door and fender
into the, basically the dirt mound that was like
the trail was carved into the dirt. And so then
you got a mound that builds up type thing. So
that was kind of depressing when I did that,
but luckily it didn't take too much damage, but
it was one of those where it's like, oh, I have
to be more conscious of that next time that I
can't just do anything because I'm on 40s. I
actually tip over really easy. Yeah. Yeah, I
don't know. Yes. Tip it over. Go ahead, Gavin.
Yeah. I was just asking, do you know how much
ground clearance you have, really? To the belly
of the Tahoe is 24 inches with the 40s on it.
Everything's flush on the bottom until you get
to the rear leaf spring mounts. Those hang down
a little bit, but it's got quite a bit of ground
clearance on it as it is. wow yeah you know so
but uh it's weird because i didn't really build
it to be a crawler or like a i mean it's not
an overlander obviously but i hang with you guys
a little bit just kind of doing the off -road
stuff and um it was really just built to be the
next mud truck i mean i literally was building
it to just beat the living snot out of it and
then when we took it to holly oaks and just like
started doing some of the obstacles it's like
it kind of walks up a lot of this stuff compared
to some of these other guys like there's really
nothing to it and is just kind of so i just kind
of doing doing more of that now i guess and it's
obviously a lot less i shouldn't say less maintenance
for me but like The washing part, you know, staying
out of the mud is nice. But over here, like in
the thumb of Michigan, there's nothing to do
for off -road unless you hit an off -road park.
So like the trail isn't even an option unless
you drive a couple hours. So we just grew up
mud bogging around here. That's all you do if
you got a truck and there's fields everywhere.
I mean, that's all there is around here is farms.
um kind of everybody gets started at least with
the mud bogging i feel like over here otherwise
you've got no reason to have something off -roady
so um like uh it's probably comical to see some
of the jeeps that are outfitted driving by you
guys that don't ever do anything but like over
here it's like well i literally know you don't
do anything with that because there's nothing
to do and you know no one takes their stuff to
the mounds because that's just where you go to
ruin nice things basically that's it's hard to
say that's even an off -road park it's just kind
of a place where you can go beat your stuff to
death and uh they don't maintain it yeah around
here we've got we've got a lot of like uh very
beat cars that people take on trails we had a
pretty big mud bog scene for a while but now
they only do like one mud bog a year so Yeah,
we had, growing up, my family in Owasso, they
had a mud bog in their backyard in their property.
And they would host it probably every six months
or so. And that was big. People brought big trucks.
There'd be 30 trucks or so there. Big party,
basically. And so that was kind of what I knew.
I know my uncle had a truck that he, it was like
an old, I want to say it was like a, 86 chevy
or something like that uh 85 something like that
that he had completely gutted it cut the fenders
almost clear off um took every accent you could
off of it he called it squirrel and then put
the biggest tires that he could find on it and
that thing was just such a piece but it did do
a lot so So, I mean, he would crawl that up,
you know, stumps in our yard or try to crawl
it up an actual standing tree and he'd do every
mud hole he could find. And that thing was just
such a piece. It was cool though. You know, it's
kind of fun to have a beat up. Oh, a hundred
percent. Yeah. Something you just do not care
about is it's, it's a lot of fun. So, and that's,
yeah, that's kind of what the Tahoe is a little
bit. more and more i try to take care of it because
i kind of realize what it's capable of and like
if it had just gone out and been a turd right
off the bat like i would have been jumping it
and bombing it off or whatever but it seems like
it's gonna hold up pretty good so i'll probably
just take care of it and let it live in whatever
natural life it can have from this point on yeah
right yeah i mean i i should do a little bit
more to protect mine so that i can live a little
bit better of a life that's on my list but uh
yeah i really try not to sink mine if i can help
it to fuck it up at all uh because you know time
down for me i don't enjoy working on my vehicles
and alex knows this i've said that to alex and
mark before but it's just time down for me is
more time doing stuff that i don't want to do
which is work on it and money on it At least
in that way, right? Like, I don't want to spend
money on repairing it. I want to spend money
on either upgrading it or buying something I
want or using that money for a trip or, you know,
whatever. See, but if I don't break it, how do
I know what needs upgraded? If it's not broken,
why would I upgrade it? Things called maintenance.
You see, but that's how you find what needs upgraded.
That's also, yeah. That's also how you find out
how much money you're in debt to. You put yourself
in debt over upgrading the crap out of them.
I mean, it's great, and I do want to get, you
know, if I had Vuku money, I'd get a supercharger
and portals, but just to say I have them, really.
But for now, I mean, maybe I'll do 35s next year.
I know I am going to get some new upper control
arms. probably next spring and yeah we'll start
start working on that a little bit more of the
suspension the uh the armor on it i got stock
skids on it now just to help protect it a little
bit more so you know the more i do this stuff
the the more the more possibilities that it's
not gonna make it and the more experience i get
the more i push it so just i'll make sure that
When I do push myself over that, that comfort
zone that it doesn't get to leave me stranded.
Just make sure you beef up your knuckle. Yeah.
Yeah. Um, I'll have to talk to you guys about
that at some point. Cause it's like when I do
my uppers, I'll probably look at doing that.
It's like what? 60 bucks for the, uh, reinforcements.
Oh, that's mine. I don't know what yours are.
Yeah. Ours was just shy. That's what you were
talking about. Was that what you were talking
about, gusting? Yes. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. When Alec
welded up for you, we just got to get the material,
which is prefabbed. Yeah. Yeah, I'll have to
look into it for sure. You just got to make sure
your knuckles aren't already partially bent.
They shouldn't be. I know. It shouldn't be, but
you never know. I don't think I've tried to kill
it as much as maybe Alex has, but. I am really
nice to my truck. I don't know what you're talking
about. You spent three quarters of the summer
upgrading slash fixing things. As long as you
don't bump a tractor tire like I did. Yeah, that
was rough. Yeah. And bumping is kind of a misleading
term. I said I punted. Clearly it was flying.
Kurt, you go to the dunes a lot too, right? Yeah.
Yeah. We go to the dunes, uh, pretty frequently.
Um, just like it over there a lot. So, um, kind
of here more and more, it's not everybody's cup
of tea, but, um, again, that's kind of, I think
it's more of an East side thing. Cause we have
nothing to do over here. So we already have to
travel so far. And so I think a lot of people
here like the dunes a lot. In this area in particular,
it seems like everyone has a dune toy, which
is just some old restored whatever it is that
they trailer over there once a year to tool around
the dunes and show off. So there's like a big
dune culture in this area, even though we're
so far away. It's kind of weird like that. i
enjoy it over there a lot like i could run those
hills all day and not get bored um myself at
least like i just keep finding dumber and dumber
ways to go up them if i can make it like going
at speed then i just keep trying to climb it
slower if i can do this i'll just whatever and
just keep trying to get stuck or make it challenging
um yeah and i've been i've been over there with
a future trucks too i guess like i'm always experimenting
with dumb crap um i've got a 96 two -wheel drive
truck with a 5 -3 swap in it that i bought some
paddles for it and so they're uh they're razor
paddles but they're 30 inches tall um like an
8 or 10 paddle and i take that out there quite
a bit too and just toy around with that um and
that does pretty good but it's um it's kind of
frustrating trading to when it gets stuck because
then it's just like okay now i just have to go
flag someone down to pull me out i'm that idiot
in a two -wheel drive right but um yeah but anyway
yeah i don't know get back to your question we
go over there a lot um anyways um we used to
go with my family a lot and they don't really
go so much anymore we used to like have like
three or four family trips over there a year
and we all had um all had sand rails as far as
like my dad's got a rail Um, and my uncle's got
a couple of rails and cousins with rails. So
we'd always go over there and that was like always
a huge hoot. So maybe it's like just trying to
relive some of those times too. And, uh, but
I don't know, it brings back a lot of memories,
just driving through town there and going through
the roundabout, all that, just seeing all the
people. It's just fun over there. It's just kind
of a different world in, in years. Yeah, it was
weird. Uh, it was my first time going last year.
and i went for that toyota takeover and it was
just uh i was still pretty new i was very new
on sand like that like dune sand so airing down
and passing people that were stuck better than
me i was uh i was pretty nervous honestly you
know there was like an old like 85 with like
it had to have been like six inch lift big ass
tires and that thing was stuck like 20 feet in
There was, like, a Lexus stuck 4Runner. And I'm
like, dude. I was, like, getting sketched out
because I did not have the experience to feel,
you know, confident on it. So I'm just keeping
pace with Ed in front of me. And then we get
out there and we park. And I'm like, okay, you
know, I'm not sinking down much. This is cool.
But it's, like, chaos. It's just, like, no fucking
rules. We're driving. There are people, like,
driving right in front of us sideways. You know,
you got people like crossing in front of you
as you're trying to get down this area. And I'm
like, dude, fuck. And then finally to get out,
Ed's like, yeah, we got to go up this hill to
get out. I'm like, what? We got to go up a hill?
He's like, yeah, we're going up this one to get
out of here. And I'm like, here we go. And so,
you know, I put it in four again because I was
on two for a little bit. i had traction control
started being dumb so put it back in four and
just fucking booked it up the hill and kind of
launched it a little bit uh hit hit a whoopee
and threw everything in the back around but just
kept going because i was so fucking scared to
sink it halfway or something so but it was it
was fun it isn't my cup of tea um just for more
of like i hear a lot of people that are closer
to the It does havoc to your vehicle. So I really
don't want to have to deal with that much. And
when we were out there, we were cooking. So unless
we were down by the beach for most of the day,
it's just not our thing. We like trees and shit.
Oh, yeah, the sun out in the sand is killer.
Yeah, when it gets beaten out there. Yeah. yeah
my son was out there we were we were out for
probably an hour or so and he had a sun hat on
and he was still getting sunburned already and
i was like yeah time to go yeah all my all my
issue with the dunes are solely with silver lake
because like the dunes in yuma arizona fantastic
you've got like 40 miles there aren't hundreds
of people piled up but silver lake there's just
there's people everywhere oh yeah Yeah, it's
just one of those big off -road attractions that's
available in Michigan. Yeah, it's the biggest
party in Michigan every weekend, pretty much.
I mean, it's a happy place. Is that open in the
winter? No. I didn't think so. I was like, I've
never seen anybody's snow wheel out there in
the winter. Or snowmobile, really. They're open
April 1st to October 31st. And then from November
1st to beginning of December, you can ride your
horses out there. Yep. And then I think that's
it. I mean, otherwise, I'm sure you can bamboozle
your snowmobile across the lakeshore and get
over there. But, yeah, there's no, like, legal
riding there in the winter or anything. Right.
Yeah, I sent you pictures of the pre -runner
I built in Arizona, Kurt. That was my dune toy
that I built back in the day. It was a nine.
I want to so bad. But the thing is, if I build
another one, I don't know that I'd use it because
I hate all the people on Salt Lake. A lot of
them are, there's a large mix of side -by -side.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's just tons of carelessness.
And who knows, maybe that's how Yuma is now.
Yeah, I remember I was wheeling that in like
2017 when side -by -sides were way less popular.
Yeah. Yeah. Now everybody's got one. yeah yeah
the thing about the dunes is i mean you just
go wide open out there because there's no obstacles
until there is and then that's where everybody
gets in trouble but um you know that's too with
there being so much traffic out there it gets
rutted so easily and unless they've got a constant
wind to keep everything graded nicely like it
gets kind of miserable out there like when there's
no wind and it's just like the hottest of dry
days and like it's just there's nothing fun to
do out there but the side by side people i mean
there's no limit to their throttle and how fast
they can take it no matter how rough it is so
they live out there all the time but yeah i mean
it's sometimes it can be pretty miserable and
yeah it gets super rutted and um That's again
too, on the, on my bigger tires, it's, that's
a lot more noticeable going through that type
of stuff too, where before, like on a smaller
tire, like you get a lot of the, when you're
going through there and now that's kind of soaked
up a lot with the bigger tires. But like you
were saying, the dunes is super rough on something
that's not really set up for it. Just all that
shaking and jerking around all the time. I mean,
just beats the snot out of stuff, especially
here from Michigan. That's already kind of decrepit.
begin with i mean you take it out there in the
salt or not the salt but the sand and it it doesn't
do it any favors so yeah no no yeah i uh i went
out there back in high school in a little cj5
and it was a terrible experience i mean it was
just all rough it oh it was awful and then uh
we went for toyota takeover this year and it
having the long travel it was a whole different
world like i didn't feel any ruts it was just
smooth yeah so big difference it might have been
way to vehicle too because that cj5 was like
maybe 1200 pounds yeah and aren't leafs a little
worse yeah that kind of thing oh that cj washboard
that cj5 wasn't on leafs oh no no no that one
was i mean if it was stock it would have been
right now this one had a i want to say a dauntless
v6 in it i don't remember what was in that one
but yeah i mean it was quick it was loud it was
fast it just was so rough because it didn't weigh
anything yep But that is about our hour. It was
nice having you out, Kurt. I really appreciate
you asking me to come on. So, yeah, hopefully
we can do it again sometime and hook up and wheel
for sure. We'll get you on next time when you
get back from Leatherwood because I heard you
got another one of those coming up. Yeah, I'm
not the mastermind of that trip. That's the wife,
I think, is setting that up. But, yeah, we could
definitely do that. So I think coming up here
we'll have – I think August is going to be pretty
dull, but September, um, be doing, uh, Detroit
four fest is beginning of September. I think
everybody on the West side, there's going to
the dune night ride. Um, and I think there's
maybe some other event too, or something going
on, but so a bunch of things conflicting there,
but then after that, we're going to try to go
down to wind rock for the bleep and Jeep fan
ride. They're having. And so anyways, going to
go see what that's about. I thought that'd be
kind of a cool opportunity to go down there and
just meet them and do some wheeling. So we liked
Kentucky and wanted to try to do some more out
-of -state stuff. So anyways, we're going to
give that a shot too. Are you going to be free
for our... chords and calf coming up uh no i
think i was just looking at i think that's four
fest too that's are you on the sixth is that
the or the seventh or oh you know what yeah yeah
it is same weekend as yeah fest yep so that was
yeah no that was the other event then that i
was looking at so sorry i couldn't remember your
guys's event right away but oh that's all right
i don't even remember yeah yeah we We'll have
another one in October, so you can catch that
one. That should be good. So we should be maybe
good for October. Yeah, man, it's been cool having
you on. I guess I should plug Cords and Calf
a little bit. So we're doing Cords and Calf September
6th. I'll put the coordinates in the show notes
because I'm not just going to read them off to
you. That's kind of hard and long. Yeah, it's
a pretty cool spot. Cleaned it up recently, so
it should be a good time. Yep. So on that note,
we will catch you guys later. Later. Have a good
one.