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. And I think I think this
is the last time you will ever hear that intro.
And it'll be the last time to hear my phone ring
today. I think I just put it in mute. So I said
last time we'll hear it ring today. We keep saying
that's the last time but we might as well stop
and use the a different intro by next year, right?
Well, no, I said that we're gonna rewrite it
I didn't say it was gonna be the last time last
time this yeah last time This is the last time
because this is the last episode of season 2
and the last episode of 2025 Congratulations
folks. You made it. Yes. This is episode Okay,
this is episode 99 Numerically, it's episode
102 get that figured out. Yeah It's okay. We
don't know either We do listen. I did a lot of
math Yeah, call me a random times of the night.
Hey Hey, I gotta make sure I don't figure this
up. Yeah, we got to figure it out So yeah Uh,
it's been a ride. Uh, today's gonna be a nice,
longer wrap while Mark tells us everything he's
done and me and Gavin catch you up on the end
of our season. Right? I guess it is. End of season
two. Um, and next week, you are gonna hear us
talk about our favorite parts of season two.
So, yeah, it'll be great. On that note, Mark,
what the hell have you been doing? Well, me and
Alex both had a rough last week or two weeks
now, is it? Not three weeks. I don't know. It's
been a rough winter. Yeah. So we don't check
my dates here. Don't worry about dates. Just
try and keep them in order. I'm trying to remember
how many weeks ago it was now. I say two weeks
ago. Yeah. yeah I think about like two weeks
ago now it would probably be three by the time
this get posted but anyways I went into work
Tuesday morning about probably like two miles
out of work like got off the highway turned on
the main drag heading towards our workplace also
my steering got really tough all of a sudden
like oh shit I think my belt went out So I went
the truck over try not overheating get up over
the hill felt sliding back down it And I parked
it and my belt was completely shredded and wrapped
around the fan Jesus yeah, so like well Oh also
to help that morning. I heard something chirping.
I'm like, ah, I guess it'd be a Weakened fix.
No, it was not a weakened fix. It ended up being
the weak fix Yikes so Went to work, came back,
tore down and figure out what was wrong, realized
the tensioner idler wheelie was seized on the
tensioner arm. So I'm like, huh. It's literally
the same wheel as all the other idler pulleys,
so I should in theory be able to break it off
and replace it. I went to go do that and it spun
out about halfway and stopped. So me and my brother
were fighting with it for a little bit, trying
to get it to break loose again. And all of a
sudden, snap! So it went from an $80 part change
went to $150 I think it was Out to almost three
days after our work getting a tear down to get
to us The first night we got the battery out
of out of the way and then the alternator and
then We were gearing to start with the AC compressor,
but my brother's Moaning about the cold and hungry
and tired. So all right. I guess we'll call it
a night You know, I want to get a little further
torn down than that So dad picked us up and took
us home Um Wednesday came back worked Oh Also,
we picked up the parts Tuesday night should say
we picked up the new tension arm since we needed
it Got that Came back Wednesday morning, did
the work, came back, and then we proceeded to
tear down a little more. Got two of the top bolts
for the AC compressor out, and then the one was
seized and didn't want to move. And we ended
up rounding the head off a little bit, so we
were like, all right, we gotta get some specialty
tools. We call it a night. And then Thursday,
we got tools that we needed. Went to work came
back Push or told it into the shop because it
was gonna be rainy that night because it was
our giant rainstorm that we had Yep, so we got
in the shop worked on it got it torn out. I ended
up breaking one of the bolts off luckily Titchener
Hold the stud that was broken off. So it was
just a matter of replacing it. So I know only
with three bolts on my AC condenser Which is
working fine. No issues that doesn't wobble nice
and firm. So we all right Don't need three bolts
apparently or four bark. Yeah Gavin did that
sound like denial to you? Yeah, that sounds like
the soon as we hit one of these water holes here
this weekend for this week Hey, hey, hey, don't
let me bring you down boy So got That put in
place And then we got the alternator in place
got the battery all that hooked back up batteries
been sitting in the truck for like three ish
days And then we went to go get food this is
like Almost 11 o 'clock when we finally got out
of the shop and was gearing to eat our dinner
and we started on our way back home and I had
to pull off this is about like probably four
-ish maybe five -ish miles away from the shop
pulled into rest stop and realized my battery
was dropping voltage so we sat charged it for
a little bit hoped it was good enough it was
not good enough we ended up almost another four
miles of 44th street had to pull off charge it
again Course around 196. So like there's you
know, there's long stretches where you don't
have you know pull -offs so we ended up Going
cross 44th Street to 131 Pulled off into the
gas station before we hit 131 because it was
four miles again charged it we got I Think we
got down to wealthy Street when we had to pull
off again Charged it back up for a little bit
Got up to The ballpark almost didn't make it
to the ballpark. I was a stretch I ended up literally
almost draining it dry that time You tell it
was bad when I had like no headlights and when
I turn my turn signal on it was like yeah Something's
wrong got a charge That was a little bit longer
because of how far I drained it got up to Belmont
it was safe it was almost it would have probably
lasted till rockford but i didn't want to chance
it got charged limped up to rockford got charged
again got off at the sparta greenville exit charged
it one more time took the back roads to cedar
that way if i had to pull off i didn't really
have to struggle on the highway got to literally
the i think the ghost gas station there on Cedar,
charged it one last time and drove it through
town. By the time we finally got back, it was
like three o 'clock in the morning. I was glad
that work caught off that day because of the
weather and all that, so I ended up being able
to sleep in a little bit because I was like,
ah, it's going to be a pain to wake up an hour
and go back to work. Took the alt there, took
the battery out, got it tested, and nothing was
wrong with either one of them. The only theory
I had is that the battery wasn't getting charged
enough and because it didn't reach where it needed
to be It was not keeping up with the alternator
couldn't keep up with the charge while driving
Which the alternator should be able to run the
truck regardless of battery state I know you
could have a failed battery and if your alternator
is running you're good to go The only other thing
I could think of was the wire that connects to
it the bolt and nut Yeah, the terminal on the
nut was very rusty. So I ended up replacing the
nut with a wing nut because I couldn't find the
right size nut. You know, literally, I tried
a 60 millimeter nut on the alternator, didn't
work, but a 60 millimeter wing nut worked. Different
thread type. This should be the same thread type.
Yeah. Well, botch is engineering, I tell you.
Yeah, so. Got a Titan tried it After it was charged
and everything and it ran has been running fine
since so I don't know what the frick was up with
the jump starts Well mark, you know what that
story just told me. Hmm. It's time to open my
beer I made me want to drink And I don't drink
what a ride dude, that's crazy. Yep. Oh That
was so you you just it was the wire was hooked
up weird on the alternator. I don't know I haven't
fully decided what was wrong with that But it's
good to go so we're good to go yeah, I Know is
that from I could tell it's the original alternator
has been on the truck since it was made So is
mine until I went out with the botches crew and
sunk that shit What are you talking about? I
mean we never even get our trucks wet. Yeah,
I'm just messing with you It was actually Pied
Street that took it We don't even we don't even
do mud dude, what are you talking about? Dude
two days. It's gonna be so bad I'm honestly I
I'm not even gonna lie to you guys. I'm not looking
forward to sinking my truck I'm not so don't
sink it. Yeah, but I how am I gonna get like
video of me doing it again, though? Everett's
been pretty dry this season, like all the way
around. I know it's just melted and stuff. And
rained for like three days straight. It's going
to be wet, Mark. It's going to be sucky. I'm
hoping it's just frozen. That's my dream. My
dream is that it all decided to freeze. It'll
get frozen all right. It'll freeze three inch
chunks of ice and then the first truck that breaks
through it. Is gonna fuck all that up. We'll
just make sure that that's Mark. He's got a nice
solid steel bumper. I say we get the busted to
build crew lead. He might make it worse though.
Yeah, dude. It's gonna be fun doing our B team
for that event. Poker run. Poker run. Yep. Yeah.
Yeah, I think I'm going to go somewhere in the
middle or second. That way by the time I go through
it, it's not completely fucked. That's just,
that's mine. That's my idea. I'm not as well
set up as Mark and, and Alex, and definitely
not as good as well set up as the busted to built
suburban, but you see the bus Tahoe Tahoe. Yeah.
The busted to built Tahoe is only good set up
because it's so fricking tall that it's the truck
itself doesn't get in the water. Yeah, we have
some Instagram reels. That thing is massive.
I remember when we were sitting there taking
our break and that thing pulled up. He wasn't
even a part of the group at that time, was he?
Mm -mm. Yeah, he ended up joining later. But
he pulled up and we were like, holy shit. And
we sat there and talked to him. And then the
hill that we were doing that we did backwards,
he like... just crawled up it like barely anything,
no issues. And we were like, yep, that's about
what we would expect of a monster like this compared
to our trucks. He was the biggest truck there.
I guess other than the, the only other thing
that might've been able to, yeah, the, the Ram,
but not in, not in clearance though. So what,
uh, what time, I know kind of off topic, what
time do we want to meet at my house on Thursday?
When does the event start again? Was it like
11 or something? Didn't it start at like... I'm
going, I'm going, I'm going. I just need to make
sure I give my brother the right time, because
he's gonna come with us for the first time ever.
Yeah, it starts at 11, so we probably want to
get there at 10 .30. Yeah, so leave here about
9 .30. Nine? Nine, sure. Well, gas. Yep, nine.
Any other issues? Get there, air down. I gotta,
gosh dude, I'm not ready. I gotta download the,
I gotta re -download the maps and I gotta get
some stuff set up in the truck. I gotta figure
out where I put my tablet. You don't forget,
don't forget Nav this time, man. I gotta figure
out where I put my tablet. Everybody's got comms,
right? We all should be good on that. Yeah. Yeah,
I'm gonna put... Do we have an extra antenna
somewhere? Like a magnet antenna To see if my
brother does I had one I don't know where it
went Might have thrown it away. I think we threw
years away. Yeah, cuz I don't know why you have
it up there I was like, yeah, I don't know either.
I've got that radio the extra MXC 275 I could
throw in Devin's truck for the trip Well, I had
a hand the handheld but I don't think it's programmed
for Jasper got to it. I don't know how he did
it, but he got it off of the typical like program.
It doesn't like weird. Yeah. You can't like hear
and see the people talking and stuff anymore.
He can't reply. So I don't know what he did.
It's just sitting around now. I don't even, I
think we left it outside one night too. So it
still works. It just, the charging port was all
filled with mud and shit. And I was like, eh,
haven't touched a sense. Yeah, I got a Other
than that. I think we'll all have radios Yeah,
my little brother's gonna bring his manual four
-cylinder Tacoma out wheeling for the first time
Yeah Almost literally his first time wheeling.
Yeah well it would give a good chance to air
down and Hopefully everything goes good. I I
did prep my winch line so We're good there. Yeah.
I pulled mine out and I put it back in because
I, what did I use it for recently? Cause I had
to use it again. Did we talk about that? Yeah.
We have a whole episode on the recovery. Yeah,
we did. I forgot. Cause we came right back and
talked about it. But I used it since then, but
I don't remember what I was doing. Oh, I pulled
a auger out of one of the feed lines. Oh, yep.
Probably should do mine tomorrow night. Yeah,
tomorrow night. We're meeting up. Yeah. Tomorrow's
Wednesday? Yeah. Yep. Yeah, it's coming quick.
We also gotta put my skit play back on. Yeah,
I'm not doing that. You're gonna get all that
water and stuff stuck back in there again, and
you're gonna have to take it right back off.
It's a lot of work. It's really water. This is
mostly dirt. Yeah, this is like two inches of
mud. We're not going to have mud. Yeah, no, it's
going to be a good time, man. I don't think I
have anything I'm worried about now. And Mark,
we turned on that one spring's preload. Yeah.
And the front end of my truck is a hole. It's
so soft now. It sits level. Maybe I just had
that one side turned up too high. Probably. I
got some stuff to worry about, but I'm just gonna
try not to think about it. Yeah, don't think
about it. It's something to come from. So we
have... There's Mark's rap. My rap's pretty small,
so then I'll be trying to get ready, but I've
had some issues that I've talked about here already
as far as, like, some weird sound that we can't
quite place. And I had the plan to take it to
the old botches bay and try and figure that out.
But then I just threw out a message to my uncle
who's got a heated bay. And he was like, yeah,
just so happened to have space tonight. So I
brought it over there. And plan on taking the
rear wheel off and disassembling the emergency
brake. That way you could stop rubbing, because
I'm pretty sure it was seizing. Didn't even get
to that. I started the front brakes. Pads are
pretty easy on those 07 FJs. You just take the
wheel off, take the pins out, and the little
cotter keys or whatever that are in the pins,
and slide the pads out. As long as you don't
have worn rotors, that's fine. If your rotors
are worn, you've got to take the whole caliper
off. Yeah, which I didn't. But left side, super
easy. I was like, god, I love this. This is why
I love these things. Get to the other side. The
other side is super hard. I am having terrible
trouble trying to get it open enough. I can't
get anything in there to compress the cylinders.
So I'm having a hard time with that. I start
trying to like jam a screwdriver in Somewhere
just to pry it open a little bit not work and
end up breaking like two screwdriver heads and
Finally I just start hammering into the pad itself
and Yeah, it was that bad and It wouldn't have
gone anywhere like so I finally hammered into
the pad itself. This is the old pad and it made
enough space for me to be able to pry the cylinders
in a little and I did that and pulled them out
after a little bit of struggling and figured
out my issue is the cylinders were pretty seized
and that was the issue. My inside cylinders were
seized almost completely. I think I moved them
a little bit. That tells me that you have cal
or a rotor wear Yeah, probably on the rear end
for sure are on the inside part of the rotary
yeah And then my outside was fine That compressed
and everything so took the pads out try to throw
new one in couldn't even get the new pad in on
the inside and It was a it was like 750 when
we found this out. So I was like, screw it. I'm
going to throw the old, an old pad back on there
with the thickest one I could fit in. And we
did that. Put that back on and like, screw it.
I will buy a new caliper. It's like 70 bucks.
I'll buy a new caliper. You're going to need
new rotors too or a new rotor. Yeah. Yeah. I
need new everything if I can afford it, but I
can't right now. So. funny because I just got
a birthday present which would seem otherwise
but this is a special money that she's been scrolling
away that she didn't tell me about so that was
very nice of her anyway got to the back of the
truck and I wanted to check my diff fluid because
I heard a sound and I don't think it was the
diff but I heard a random sound that night of
the recovery that kind of like scared me into
wanting to double check to change the diff. It
was just like a click, and I had never heard
it before, and after pulling a car with the help
of two other winches, but pulling a car back
onto the road in four low, I just didn't like
that sound. I don't know what it was, but I asked
Alex, he heard it, and I was like, oh, OK. So
it could have been just the like, Something engaging
when I was trying to get it back out. I don't
know so anyway, I went to go check the diff and
Thankfully everything opened up fine. I started
uh Open the top part of the diff out just do
you know the fill area? stuck my pinky in there
and I come out kind of gray like blackish silver
ish and then my heart sank and Yeah, kind of
just went a little downhill from there. I tried
it again. I'm like, I just probably got some
stuff on there. Nope, same thing. And I stuck
my phone camera up there to kind of look around
and like, yep, this is looking kind of gray silverish.
So then I went and got my borescope out of the
back of the truck, threw it in there. Yep, not
looking good at all. My uncle ended up having
a bunch of spare fluid. not quite the weight
I needed but good enough and We drained it all
out and It was bad. I wasn't it wasn't the worst
it could be it wasn't white milk it wasn't completely
silver with chunks, but there's definitely some
shavings in there and So I'm now on the hunt
for a rear end for that or an axle because you
can't just pop that diff open there's no diff
plate on the back of those so yeah you gotta
pull the third member yeah so i found a couple
axles around 800 bucks so i might just do that
and replace the whole axle um i will we'll see
it would probably be i've seen like a gx there's
like a GX axle that's geared 373, which I hear
is better, but I also hear that those tend to
grenade, so. Plus if you change your rear axle's
gearing, you have to change your front axle's
gearing to match. Yeah, and that's kind of why
I just want to go and get a whole axle off of
an FJ. I asked one guy and he said it was like
850 to pull the... Axle off of his FJ the one
he has for parts, so that's probably the cheapest
route I'd love to get a regear But for the price
I probably won't be able to afford it so This
will be a for now thing and if I ever move up
to like 35s or 40s or something like that or
more like 40s 37s to 40s I will regear What's
up, bud Yeah, and my son's joining me here Hi
in the background. Yeah Hi, yeah, we're recording.
Can you say hi? Okay, mama's gonna take you now.
Say bye. Bye. I Know we'll see you later. Sorry
about that. Yeah, but uh But yeah, so I don't
know the lifespan I have on that axle. I'm hoping
it doesn't grenade in the next couple days, weeks,
months. Well, just like mine and Mark's, you've
got anywhere between 1 and 350 ,000 miles. Yeah.
Well, I don't love that. I really don't. I really
don't. Well, what I'm getting at is... it's always
a gamble, man. You could have glitter in a diff
forever and never have a problem. You could have
a diff that's never had glitter grenade itself.
Yeah, and I have been really negligent on checking
my diff fluid and stuff, and I'm gonna be better
at it, but in the two years that I had that,
now it's like three, three and a half, but since
I've bought it, I've never checked the diff fluid.
To be fair, I didn't really... Haven't put a
crap ton of miles on it either like comparatively.
I bought it like 110 ,000 miles. There's a hundred
and like 57 now so Yeah, I mean, I don't think
I've put a ton of miles on it to need to check
it but once I started doing stuff with Water
and it started submerging the truck. It probably
would have started being a good idea and I have
not so Put a breather extension on that yet or
no for your not on the rear The front has the
higher breather extensions, but I saw where the
breather was located on the back, and I'm like,
yeah, we got to fix that, so. Well, onto a more
fun topic. How was everybody's Christmas since
we haven't even talked about Christmas because
we've been so busy. Oh, yeah. Not to down everybody,
but let's bring it back up a little bit. My Christmas
is good. We did a couple different things. I
think I ended up getting, I didn't really get
much for the truck. I got more for recording
and like more content. So I got some little mics,
some lavalier mics and we plan to, I plan to
take those to some of our like botches, cords
of calf and do some on the road kind of podcast
things. So we could do that, do some... Might
try to use them during poker run. There's gonna
be a lot going on And I have something else.
I just got for my birthday. So I just There's
gonna be a whole lot going on and I don't know
if I'm gonna have the time or attention span
to break everything out like I should but But
yeah, we're gonna try we're gonna start doing
some of those we might do some on the road interviews
Bring out the mics interview one of the guys
were hanging out with at the time See if they
want to talk a little bit and yeah, I got two
of them. So it'll go one for the host and one
for the Wonder for the guest and it would be
cool. It would be cool to get some outdoor Just
some campfire ones, you know around campfire
round tables or something to be cool. So that
I Got more camping gear than I did truck here
Actually, I don't think I got any truck here.
Yeah, I I got a Down quilt for the swag which
I'm really excited about I'm just sick and I
always just use blankets I get from Walmart because
I add blankets whenever I need them and Walmart's
usually the place that has them But that's kind
of a problem come wintertime because then your
moisture makes the cheap cotton blankets freeze
And then I also got some heated camp chairs,
which I'm freaking stoked about because I've
been I finally have enough room having added
the roof that I can carry real camp chairs. So
I got the like fancy ones that are comfy. Oh,
I'm pretty excited for those. And then. Other
than that, I got like heated pants, but that's
more a work thing. Oh, yeah, I guess I should
add, I did actually get some truck stuff. forgot
all about it seeing would probably kill me if
I didn't mention it but I got a new driver side
mirror for side mirror I think it's been shattered
for a while and she found one on Amazon and it
pops right in so got one of those I got a hardwire
kit well hey welcome back son man yeah I got
a hardwire kit for the He's getting pulled out
again. Rat featuring Jasper. Yeah. And then,
yeah, I got a hardware kit for the Wolf Box,
which I spent the other day wiring that in. And
I just wired that up to my voltage meter, same
one I use there, on my switch panel. So that
any time I turn on my... Because I always run
my voltage meter any time I start the truck.
just so I could keep an eye on that. So I felt
like that was a good place to run the Wolfbox
as well, instead of piggybacking it into a fuse,
which, honestly, I just didn't feel like doing.
Because then I'd have to take the switch panel
and pull that off. And I have all the wiring
real organized, but it's really hard to take
it all off. Right. Got it. Yeah, organized. Organized
rest. Yeah, it's organized for me. So yeah, I
got that. And I will be getting a hardware kit
for the WeBoost. WeBoost. Yep. So that's still
coming. But I will be getting that. I might try
and tie it into the same thing, honestly, because
it really, as long as I'll check, I'm going to
check the combined watt on that. and make sure
that I can without blowing a fuse. But honestly,
it's good to have the Wii Boost running at any
time any of the other ones are. So it's kind
of one of those things that you just, you turn
the truck on and you want it to go. So it makes
sense for me. See, I got that. She ordered me
some new LED interior lights. because mine have
been spazzing out. Alex saw that the other day.
They were flashing like a rave the one time.
He's like, what's going on with your fucking
lights? Like, yeah. Yeah, that shit was irritating.
Not gonna lie. Yeah. So I got some Ambers, and
I'm gonna try this out because I had bright LEDs
and that was cool, but I'm hoping for Amber to
help with bugs. Mm -hmm. And I want to see if
that helps with attracting bugs inside the vehicle.
Not attracting. Yes, not attracting. And it's
a warmer light, so it should be a little better
on the eyes, but still being able to light things
up. Remember like 10 years ago, everyone wanted
the brightest lights possible. They wanted them
to be as white as possible. And now we're all
going back to Ambers and warm lighting. Yeah,
well there's also like this and and I'm just
saying it's a conspiracy because I haven't looked
super far into it But like the LEDs and super
white light are like killing us Yeah, they have
a really bad adverse effect to us So a lot of
people are going back to warm lighting and then
all of their woes are stopping So yeah, but so
I just want to get some warmer warmer light there
is a Cool factor. I can't lie that I feel like
ambers look better anyway, so I would love to
run like red light Just because of how good it
is for your eyes, but I think that's too dark
And I would like to see a little bit so yeah
Because I dark depending what you're looking
at yeah, yeah, I mine was just a cheap Amazon
one I watched guy do YouTube video on it, and
it looked really bright looked really Decent
so and it comes in a pack so there's like a button
of them in there the other problem with the red
lighting is even though It might be just not
just as bright, but it might be bright enough.
It's harder for your brain to process it Yeah,
which is funny because it's harder for your brain
to process, but it's better for your eyes way
better for your eyes. Yeah, so Yeah, so I got
that and oh and I'll include this for Christmas
because my birthday is coming up here in a couple
days and so I figure and I'm getting it early
and we're using in a poker run but wife got me
a new action camera a little DJI action so I
could pair this action camera up wires wirelessly
or through the they have like an adapter mic
so I can actually set do video podcast we could
do some video ones with the mics attached and
then publish those. So if you guys are ever interested
in a campfire chat with video, or a walk -around,
something like that, we could do some actual
rig walk -arounds and stuff. Yeah, there's a
lot of possibilities here. It could be shot in
vertical and horizontal. Sick. Yeah. It'll be
good for all the Instagram content, too. So,
yeah, pretty excited. All right, Mr. Mark, what
was your Christmas all? Not a lot. I got some
ratcheting wrenches which was purchased, or my
dad got me, like, the day of fixing one of the
parts off the truck. Yeah. I mean, that's a sick
gift. I'm not going to lie. Yep. So that's the
start of my tool building out for this next year.
And those? I can't remember what brand are those?
I don't remember. It's from Tractor Supply. I
have them. Oh, they're gear wrench. Gear wrench,
yep. Yeah, gear wrench or traveler. It's a good
fuckin' tool. Gear wrenches are actually pretty
good tools. Gear wrench is actually one of my
favorite tool wrenches. Yeah, they're pretty
good actually. Our friends over at Snail Trail
talk up gear wrench pretty heavily, so. And then
my little brother got me a membership for REI.
Hell yeah. Oh yeah, that does... That is pretty
nice, actually. You get some pretty good deals
and you rack up some good points. I think we
spent an undisclosed amount there. And when we
finally got our points redeemed, we were able
to buy like eight MREs, which they're about 10
bucks a pop. So you can do the math on that.
And then anything over eight is buy one, get
one. 50 % off or something like that. Hell yeah.
So yeah, we ended up getting like 10 of them
and with the points and then we also got a jacket.
So we walked out of there with like 10 of the
freeze -dried meals and a small down jacket for
the kid, spent 30 bucks. Hell yeah. I mean, obviously
you spent a lot more to get there before, but
you know, it's like Wesco rewards, you know.
You know, you gotta spend some to get some. Listen,
I've been playing the Wesco game hard the last
few weeks. I know. I just paid for my first tank
of gas in like four weeks today. And I only did
that. I wouldn't have had to pay for a tank of
gas, but I sold my farm hand all of the gas.
OK, so Wesco has a system. This is our local
gas station, by the way. It's really good. Yeah.
So. you get points and you get more points based
on what you buy in the store. And then you can
get so much off 20 gallons of gas. They cap it
at 20. So I've been getting enough points to
get free gas from Westco. And then I just fill
an extra five gallon can because my car can only
hold 15 gallons. And then I just sold my farm
hand my extra four cans, which would be or my
extra three cans, which would be one tank of
gas. I sold it to him for like, I don't know,
I think it settled on like $2 .50 a gallon or
something like that. So, yeah, it's really good,
man. This feels really illegal. I feel super
wrong hearing it. I've been adding it up. I've
been pricing this out. So right now they have
a deal where you buy two Fantas and you get one
Fanta free plus 25 cents off per gallon. Now,
when you factor that out over 20 gallons, you're
getting the Fanta for free. Completely. I mean,
you are getting one for free already. If you
didn't buy the Fanta, you'd also get it. It's
very cool. I love it. It's too much for me to
even try to fuck around with. The thing is, I'm
going to buy pop anyway. So why not get free
gas for buying pop? Sure. I mean sure. I got
to drink Fanta. Oh Mellow Yellow is the other
one. I gotta drink Fanta and Mellow Yellow, but
So he - So the Brankas are trying to get it off
the shelves. Yeah, Barks is in it too, but I
can't drink Barks. Why? It's not A &W. Oh, I
think Barks is better. Oh, Barks tastes like
rotten walnut shells to me. Huh Yeah, all right
guys Send us a voicemail. Tell us your favorite
root beer My vote is barks Alex you're at A &W
What do you got mark barks using my gold too,
but A &W is a good site for me. Yeah, it's not
it's not bad definitely not bad, but I Don't
know. I like barks. I don't know I think it's
more mellow on the carbonation compared to A
&W and mugs Yeah. Oh, mugs. That's a good one,
actually. I like mugs, too. I would actually
put mugs as my second. You reminded me. There's
also a tractor supply sells it. I think it's
called frost top or frost seeds. They're like
they used to have like a big it was a big bottle
like for like a dollar. So I used to buy those
all the time. And those are really good, dude.
I like mine would be. A &W, Mugs, and then Fago
root beer. Oh. Damn, I didn't think Fago would
be anywhere in this list. Bro. Bro, Fago's my
fucking favorite. I like Fago for sure. Anybody
who's not from Michigan, Fago is like was like
originally made in Michigan, right? And it's
almost exclusive to the Michigan Midwest area.
Some people get it out now. It's not exclusive.
It used to be sold a lot more in other parts
of the country. But they have some of the best
sodas. Bro, Red Pop. Red Pop. Red Pop all the
way. It's probably the worst soda for you with
as much of the Red 40 in there. But, God. I used
to have... The only downside of Faygo is that
it gets flatter the quicker than the rest of
the pops. Yeah. I used to have people send me
Red Pop and Rock N' Rye when I was overseas.
Yeah, I never loved Rock N' Rye, but, like, I
did pop. Even the Cream Soda was pretty good.
Their Cream Soda was pretty good. Rock and Rye
is weird because I never loved Rock and Rye until
I was on the plane to Korea and one of the pop
options happened to be Rock and Rye and I tried
it in the air and it changed everything. Now
it's one of my favorites. Must have been the
plane. Dude, the only thing better than Rock
and Rye a mile up is Coke. Coke, when you're
flying, tastes amazing. Yeah, I bet. Fun facts.
When you're flying, everything tastes different
because of the altitude. Yeah. So literally,
when you're in the air, everything tastes slightly
different and Coke is so much better. Slightly
off topic. Speaking of altitude, I want to really
do Imogene Pass someday. It's super high up.
I'd love to go out and do it. It's gorgeous.
It's one of those things where like you look
on TV and you're like, this can't, no, this couldn't
be real. But like just the scenes being able
to see as far as you could see, just mountains.
And you have a cliff right on the outside edge
of your tires that just drops to death. It looks
beautiful. What is it? Is it a big bear that
has that like super? Yeah. I want to do the Black
Bear Pass. Yeah. It's beautiful. I'm honestly
super scared of heights, so I don't know how
bad I would be. I know when we did the railroad
bridge and the Western UP trip, I was actually
pretty... I was shaking a bit. And I usually
don't, but Mackinac Bridge doesn't bother me.
But that one... Just it looked like it was an
old rickety bridge. And you only had a couple
feet on either side. And then you could look
down like 300 some feet to a waterfall and the
river. I was like, oh, yeah, it kind of I can
feel my stomach at the bottom. And I was like,
yeah, I'm good. They asked me if I wanted to
go back over it. I wish I would have. But I said
no. I was like, I'm good. Just sit right here
in the truck and let my gentleman go down. Oh,
he's back. Okay, my back? Completely off topic
from that. I have an update from our recovery
episode. Yep. Okay, so Shannon, who was the tow
truck driver, he owns that company. Oh, sweet.
Yes. My dad's best friend, Tim, actually worked
for Shannon for a long time. That's almost better.
I think if I... I would recommend them. Probably
over anyone else just based off of his attitude
and character so then being the owner of that
company Yep, since we didn't share the company
name northern towing Phenomenal northern best
company in the area. Yeah, I haven't met a lot
of people especially tow drivers that were that
nice And it was really nice of him to do what
he did To to give that person a recovery for
free And that was not an easy one either. Like,
I don't know how he would have got it out of
there without damage, without us. I'm sure he
would have found a way, but still, it was rough.
He would have had to drag it across that tree.
I mean, that's just the way it happened. Yeah,
I couldn't imagine he, like, could you daisy
chain the two together? Do the flatbed across
the road and then just pull it up straight? Maybe.
I don't, I think his truck was too long. Yeah,
cuz I need to reposition her. Yeah. I mean it
was a hard one for a long truck like that Yep,
that was oh Yeah, it's a doozy But I have an
update too they uh on the on the the customer
side of it the daughter came and thanked think
both of us She kept asking me what I wanted for
for money and compensation and stuff and I said
no nothing I said, you know, it'd be one thing
if it was like If you had a ton of money and
you were just offering it and it's that thing,
but like someone making a post and saying, Hey,
you know, I couldn't afford a tow truck. Like,
no, we're not right before Christmas. We're not
going to go steal your money. What the hell?
Like, you know, we were more than happy to go
out there, but yeah. I mean, if you're on the
side of the road and you're like, Hey dude, you
know, thanks for pulling out my BMW. Here's 10
bucks. I'm like, yeah, okay. I'll take 10 bucks.
Sure. Usually I'll do it for free though. If
you make me a sob story, I'll do it for free
every time. Gavin is a softy. He'll fucking game.
I am. Yeah, I game 100%. Do we want to call this
episode here, get on over and talk about our
favorite parts of season two? Yeah, sure. Yep.
Awesome. Catch you guys later. Alright. Later.