In this Jeep Talk Show interview, host Tony sits down with Kail from Aria to talk Armorlite flooring for Jeeps and other vehicles. Kail shares his lifelong obsession with cars, trucks, bikes, and fabrication work before joining the company to grow the aftermarket side and launch Aria Acoustics. They break down how the thick, textured Armorlite system replaces factory carpet with better heat and sound control, easier drying, and a secure fit from TJ through JL and JT models. You’ll also hear about colored plugs, drainage ideas, and why this upgrade makes sense early rather than late.
Timestamps
Key Highlights
- Kail’s path from hot-rod fabricator and off-road enthusiast to overseeing Armorlite and Aria Acoustics
- How the flooring’s texture, acoustic baffles, and heat barrier compare to stock Jeep carpet
- Installation details for TJ through JL/JT and why it stays put once fitted
- Tips for keeping the system dry, avoiding mold, and preventing rust underneath
- Where to buy at goarmorlight.com plus the Discord /discount code for 10% off
Smash the like button if you learned something new about Armorlite, drop a comment telling us what flooring is currently in your Jeep (or what you’d swap it for), hit subscribe for more interviews and Jeep talk, and swing by jeeptalkshow.com for show notes and community links.
Support the Show & Shop Jeep Gear Thank you for watching and listening! If you enjoyed the conversation with Kail from Aria and Armorlite, consider checking out some of the great products and upgrades we discussed.
Armorlite Flooring System
View on Amazon
Rhino Lining Style Textured Floor Coating Samples
View on Amazon
Jeep Interior Floor Mats and Protection
View on Amazon
Supporting the show helps us keep bringing you interviews like this one with Kail. Check out the curated Jeep gear and affiliate links at jeeptalkshow.com/amazon — every click helps the Jeep Talk Show community keep rolling.
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00:04 – 00:00:20:06]
Speaker 2
Aye, yo, boys and girls, it’s time for another Jeep Talk Show interview. We’re going to be talking with Kail and Kail is with… Now I was going to ask you about the name, how you say the parent name company. I mean, I’m familiar with Armor Light, but how do you say the other one? Aria. Aria, okay. So you’re actually with Aria, but Armor
[00:00:21:14 – 00:00:23:02]
Speaker 2
Light is part of Aria.
[00:00:24:23 – 00:00:24:27]
Speaker 2
All right,
[00:00:26:08 – 00:00:36:26]
Speaker 2
so Kail has been an obsessive car truck bike enthusiast since he could crawl. Did you have one of those little electric vehicles, like the little electric Jeeps or…
[00:00:43:06 – 00:00:44:10]
Speaker 2
I mean,
[00:00:46:11 – 00:00:55:15]
Speaker 2
when my kids were about that age, those things were 300 bucks, which nowadays isn’t too bad. But back then, that was a bunch of money. Yeah.
[00:00:58:24 – 00:01:00:03]
Speaker 2
Yeah, you wouldn’t even get a “We’ll see.”
[00:01:01:18 – 00:01:02:24]
Speaker 2
Let’s see what Santa brings you.
[00:01:04:17 – 00:01:06:05]
Speaker 2
And hopefully you’ve forgotten about it by then.
[00:01:09:05 – 00:01:54:06]
Speaker 2
All right, so he’s worked and played in many fields of aftermarket road racing, mini trucks, off-road trucks, hot rods, motors and knuckles, and of course, Jeeps. Was a fabricator in the hot rod restoration world. That sounds like that’d be a lot of fun, with the exception of the customers. Came on with Aria to help grow aftermarket and Armor Light by doing events and wheeling. Now overseeing the division, continuing to grow Armor Light and launching Aria Acoustics. Aria Acoustics. All right, so, oh, and also, you need to go over to goarmorlight.com. And I think I gave Dave a hard time about this. I guess armorlight.com wasn’t available, but goarmorlight.com. All right, so I’ve gotta ask you,
[00:01:55:20 – 00:02:12:23]
Speaker 2
with kids and everything, you know that you’re gonna either have this conversation or had this conversation with them. You were doing a lot of stuff that was, I would think at least from a parent perspective, isn’t making money. It’s you being an adult and playing off-road and doing things that
[00:02:13:24 – 00:02:22:01]
Speaker 2
they’re afraid that you’re not gonna be able to take care of yourself. At some point, did your mom say, Sonny, it’s time for you to start paying attention to doing things that make you money.
[00:02:22:01 – 00:03:06:06]
(Laughing) (Silence)
[00:03:06:06 – 00:03:12:18]
Speaker 2
So are you guys pretty far distance apart or is he able to dip into the things that you’re working on?
[00:03:15:16 – 00:03:16:16]
Speaker 2
Ah, great.
[00:03:16:16 – 00:03:32:14]
(Silence)
[00:03:32:14 – 00:03:35:15]
Speaker 2
So it sounds like you might be jealous of him.
[00:03:37:06 – 00:04:04:19]
(Laughing) (Silence)
[00:04:04:19 – 00:04:05:26]
Speaker 2
What does he fly?
[00:04:09:04 – 00:04:20:01]
(Laughing) (Silence)
[00:04:20:01 – 00:04:21:01]
Speaker 2
Really?
[00:04:25:29 – 00:04:26:08]
Speaker 1
Right.
[00:04:42:14 – 00:05:01:15]
Speaker 2
Yeah, the ones that I mean, I’ve never visited one, so I don’t know how nice they are, but the ones I’ve always thought would be cool is houses along the strip. And then you have a garage at your house that you pull your plane into, and then you can just pull the plane out and take off and come back and yeah. I thought that was true.
[00:05:08:18 – 00:05:35:08]
Speaker 2
Oh man, there’s not, I mean, if you’re into planes, even if you’re not flying them, if you’re into planes, how cool is it just a, you know, you can walk around. It’s better than watching that the neighbors working on their vehicle or not walking over there and asking them questions, not actually getting involved, but just looking and living vicariously like what you were saying. So I can well imagine it’d be a lot of fun to be a lot of different planes at an airport where it has the living facilities like that.
[00:06:05:10 – 00:06:05:18]
Speaker 2
Yeah,
[00:06:06:25 – 00:06:09:01]
Speaker 2
yeah, I bet you that is a very,
[00:06:10:06 – 00:06:16:20]
Speaker 2
varying emotional place. The emotions before you go up and the emotions when you come down.
[00:06:21:02 – 00:06:21:04]
(Laughs)
[00:06:25:01 – 00:06:25:27]
Speaker 2
Mommy, yeah.
[00:06:29:03 – 00:06:33:23]
Speaker 2
Well, that’s really, really cool. Okay, so how long have you actually been with Oria?
[00:07:05:09 – 00:07:18:23]
(Audio Cuts Out)
[00:07:18:23 – 00:07:23:28]
Speaker 2
So, I mean, it’s like anything, I’m sure, but you had to be a little nervous coming on
[00:07:25:03 – 00:07:35:15]
Speaker 2
with the big unknown, the big COVID unknown. I mean, you need customers, and if COVID takes out 3 quarters of the population, I guess it’s gonna kinda suck for sales.
[00:09:05:15 – 00:09:24:26]
(Audio Cuts Out)
[00:09:24:26 – 00:09:25:01]
Speaker 1
All right.
[00:09:25:01 – 00:09:50:00]
(Audio Cuts Out)
[00:09:50:00 – 00:09:50:17]
Speaker 1
All right.
[00:09:50:17 – 00:10:12:08]
(Audio Cuts Out)
[00:10:12:08 – 00:10:12:19]
Speaker 1
Right.
[00:10:42:19 – 00:11:08:20]
(Audio Cuts Out)
[00:11:12:19 – 00:11:12:25]
Speaker 2
Okay.
[00:11:15:16 – 00:11:53:03]
Speaker 2
Yeah, I’m glad you mentioned the liner thing, like the Rhino Linings thing, because it never really clicked before. That’s exactly what the Armor Light thing is. The top of it, it has texture, and it’s very similar to like a Rhino Line, but you have the acoustic baffle, you have the heat baffle, and you’re able to keep the, and if it does get wet for some reason, because we don’t always, all of us don’t always just go through enough water just to keep it inside the fitted mat. If it does get in there, you can take it out, and it’ll dry, and then you don’t have that nasty, moldy smell, smell whenever you’re, when you get it cleaned up.
[00:12:23:03 – 00:12:56:12]
(Audio Cuts Out)
[00:12:58:11 – 00:12:58:20]
Speaker 1
Yeah.
[00:13:00:12 – 00:13:26:18]
Speaker 2
The whole installation procedure, I believe, and you correct me on this, on the, I think it’s the TJ through the JLJT, is pretty involved. It’s not a pop it in, it’s not like putting the Mopar floor mats in. It’s something that you gotta unbolt a few things, and get it fitted in there, which is kind of a negative as far as taking time to install, but a positive as far as it being installed and fixed, where it’s not gonna move around on you.
[00:13:37:26 – 00:13:51:23]
Speaker 2
Oh, I’m glad you mentioned that, because that’s important. It’s like you take all the factory stuff out, all the carpet and all that stuff out, and this replaces all of it, front and back. You can buy just the front, just the back, or the whole, or hold the whole thing.
[00:15:22:09 – 00:15:41:17]
Speaker 2
Oh, good lord. You can get it real deep in a DJ. There’s a big lip there on the on that tub. Yeah Now
[00:15:47:07 – 00:15:59:10]
Speaker 2
I don’t know if you have these stats, but how does it compare to The the heat and sound deadening of the standard Jeep carpet You You
[00:16:27:11 – 00:16:37:18]
Speaker 2
You
[00:16:52:02 – 00:17:00:04]
Speaker 2
That’s gonna make a huge difference Like when you’re out on the Rubicon imagine it can get very hot especially going slow all the time
[00:17:18:21 – 00:17:23:08]
Speaker 2
But my Tushi was nice and cool yeah You
[00:17:24:22 – 00:17:27:01]
Speaker 1
Yeah You
[00:17:55:01 – 00:18:01:13]
Speaker 1
You
[00:18:16:01 – 00:18:18:10]
Speaker 1
Yeah You
[00:18:46:10 – 00:18:48:13]
Speaker 1
You
[00:18:51:26 – 00:18:54:10]
Speaker 1
Right You You
[00:19:22:10 – 00:19:23:29]
Speaker 2
You
[00:19:29:27 – 00:19:30:08]
Speaker 2
Now
[00:19:31:14 – 00:20:08:03]
Speaker 2
I Don’t know this I don’t remember ever speaking to your predecessor about this to me This sounds like some stuff that Jeep would like to have in the vehicle one over there rolling it out the door I understand they might not want to put it in all the wranglers and gladiators because only about 90% 95% of people actually I mean 5% actually take it off-road But I could certainly see like on the Rubicons or maybe the the special Rubicon packages that this ought to be one of the things That you can get I mean why not it is it okay good. That’s where I was going You You
[00:20:36:03 – 00:20:38:07]
Speaker 2
You You
[00:21:06:08 – 00:21:08:23]
Speaker 1
You
[00:21:21:15 – 00:21:21:25]
Speaker 1
Right
[00:21:24:22 – 00:21:28:05]
Speaker 1
Oh You
[00:21:38:20 – 00:21:42:01]
Speaker 2
She’s You You
[00:22:10:01 – 00:22:12:01]
Speaker 2
You
[00:22:40:01 – 00:22:42:01]
Speaker 2
You
[00:23:10:01 – 00:23:16:08]
Speaker 2
You
[00:23:31:09 – 00:23:31:16]
Speaker 2
Right
[00:23:37:00 – 00:23:39:08]
Speaker 2
Only makes sense if you don’t drink to excess
[00:23:39:08 – 00:23:44:19]
Speaker 3
Oh,
[00:23:48:11 – 00:23:58:14]
Speaker 2
I know I know the splatter factor yeah, did you close that lead before you flushed yeah, I got it You
[00:24:09:01 – 00:24:09:09]
Speaker 2
Yeah,
[00:24:10:12 – 00:24:16:28]
Speaker 2
yeah, this is the thought of it your buddy sure your wife your female companion probably not
[00:24:19:16 – 00:24:21:21]
Speaker 2
This is where I got you I got better aim than you
[00:24:31:05 – 00:24:38:04]
Speaker 2
Oh Yeah, that’s actually a really good idea that Frank probably would sell and you could make it where it popped right into that hole
[00:24:41:26 – 00:24:51:29]
Speaker 2
But well no you trying to make us it’s 19 hour drive for me between here and southeast Texas to Moab Utah so a drainage hole will be really really good.
[00:24:53:25 – 00:25:01:11]
Speaker 2
I can make it another mile Alright
[00:25:02:14 – 00:25:28:25]
Speaker 2
so we’ve talked about drainage holes you guys and I think this is a really good idea I mean, it’s it’s not as far as the importance level It’s like putting those colored hinges on the the door hinges on the outside of the Jeep There’s no real good reason for that But it’s it’s kind of cool because you can accent your Jeep Well, you can do the same thing with the floor plugs because you guys have them in various colors You You You You
[00:25:56:26 – 00:25:58:08]
Speaker 2
You
[00:26:06:01 – 00:26:06:13]
Speaker 2
Yeah
[00:26:16:28 – 00:26:17:21]
Speaker 2
Of course
[00:26:32:08 – 00:26:36:29]
Speaker 2
Oh I’m sure I’m sure there’s a Christmas one that looks like candy stripe. Yeah
[00:26:40:26 – 00:26:42:07]
Speaker 2
You Well,
[00:26:44:02 – 00:26:55:22]
Speaker 2
it’s flexible stuff so that would be I mean I you can get flexible paint But I think that’s this could be a nightmare before we get too far along for the people that are watching Can you hold that that sample that you just just had and show us the edge?
[00:26:57:13 – 00:27:09:01]
Speaker 2
Look how thick that stuff is. Look at how thick that is. That’s the thing that Really amazed me You
[00:27:30:11 – 00:27:34:04]
Speaker 2
Yeah You
[00:27:44:11 – 00:27:47:18]
Speaker 2
Sure You You You You You
[00:28:15:18 – 00:28:17:23]
Speaker 2
You You
[00:28:45:23 – 00:28:47:23]
Speaker 2
You
[00:29:15:23 – 00:29:21:00]
Speaker 2
You You
[00:29:24:23 – 00:29:29:00]
Speaker 2
You
[00:29:42:16 – 00:29:55:27]
Speaker 2
I’m glad you’re showing that because that gives people a better idea of how this stuff actually goes in You
[00:30:00:17 – 00:30:01:22]
Speaker 1
Mm-hmm
[00:30:09:23 – 00:30:10:09]
Speaker 1
Right
[00:30:12:27 – 00:30:22:01]
Speaker 2
Yeah, and I don’t think I’ve mentioned it mentioned it yet I would say that it’s easy to say that the Jeep talk show highly recommends the
[00:30:23:11 – 00:31:01:17]
Speaker 2
Armor light Flooring for your Jeep because I think it’s amazing Especially if you have an older Jeep My wife has a TJ and it’s been it’s gotten nasty a few times and it doesn’t require room any times before you say I Need something and this is something and correct me on this I think it’s something you never have to worry about again You put it in there and the only thing that you may have to do is dry underneath it If you get too much water in there and it goes over some areas But it but I think it’s very it would be very unusual. You’d have to be Floating your your Jeep in the water and submerging it to get the situation
[00:31:14:21 – 00:31:20:23]
Speaker 2
You Well, you want to get it you don’t want any rust getting started simply because you didn’t get it dried out You
[00:31:31:02 – 00:31:44:01]
Speaker 2
Oh nice You You
[00:31:58:00 – 00:32:11:19]
Speaker 2
So The people watching listening they’re sold they want to get some of this stuff What’s the best way to go about getting it was it just go to go armor light calm order it straight from there? You
[00:32:39:20 – 00:32:44:22]
Speaker 2
You You
[00:32:59:07 – 00:33:02:23]
Speaker 2
Oh, yeah, absolutely You You
[00:33:33:14 – 00:34:26:04]
Speaker 2
You Yeah, it’s really nice stuff Like I said, I told you before we got started and I’ve told our audience before I got to actually see it at at SEMA one year met Dave in person and saw the stuff and and You know, it’s like it’s like we talked about you can’t really get a feel for For the product it sounds really really nice But you’re not for sure and then when you can literally put your fingers on it turn it to the side like I had you do That was a thing that because I walked up to like a sample like that that there was up there at the at the display And oh my god, this is some major stuff. It’s tough it doesn’t feel thin It’s it’s substantial and it’s like what you want on your Jeep I mean, I don’t know nothing about nothing, but if I’m gonna put something in there, I want it to be tough I wanted to be I wanted to last and that’s exactly what you guys have you know
[00:34:27:13 – 00:34:43:04]
Speaker 2
We were talking about April Fool’s thing We often do Jeep talk show million dollar ideas here and this is actually partially your idea so what you need to do is you need to get that armor light stuff and make an armor light cover for the the butt of an AR-15 and then the
[00:34:45:16 – 00:34:54:19]
Speaker 2
Up there where the where the where the barrel is and you can have like the magpul stuff because this would be armor armor light that you could put on there armor armor
[00:34:55:27 – 00:34:56:11]
Speaker 2
Yeah
[00:35:00:02 – 00:35:04:16]
Speaker 2
And then the then then you have all these protests and you get this free advertising
[00:35:15:04 – 00:35:15:28]
Speaker 2
Mm-hmm
[00:35:25:14 – 00:35:25:24]
Speaker 2
Oh
[00:35:34:07 – 00:35:46:12]
Speaker 2
Well right before you put in your two weeks notice just sign this sign this through You
[00:35:48:14 – 00:36:00:14]
Speaker 2
know I’m glad you yeah I’m glad you brought up Mercedes and other vehicles because the the armor light stuff isn’t just for Jeeps You have it for for other vehicles as well You
[00:36:28:14 – 00:36:30:14]
Speaker 2
You
[00:36:58:14 – 00:37:00:14]
Speaker 2
You
[00:37:28:14 – 00:37:30:14]
Speaker 2
You
[00:38:01:07 – 00:38:01:09]
Speaker 2
You
[00:38:03:17 – 00:38:11:17]
Speaker 2
I would actually hazard to say you shouldn’t think of armor light flooring as something is the last thing that you do to your Jeep modification
[00:38:12:18 – 00:38:19:29]
Speaker 2
I Think that it’s a good idea does to have it there for the protection from the beginning protect your new Jeep You
[00:38:48:00 – 00:38:49:16]
Speaker 2
You
[00:39:01:17 – 00:39:17:18]
Speaker 2
And it’s not like we do things just to impress other people but I guarantee you Especially if they’re familiar with Jeeps if they get in your Jeep and they see that flooring it’s gonna hit them like what is this? They’re not gonna understand quietly quite sure what they’re looking at because it looks oh, yeah
[00:39:18:20 – 00:39:22:28]
Speaker 2
They’re gonna be asking questions. They’re gonna notice it You You
[00:39:55:00 – 00:40:03:26]
Speaker 2
You What do you’re paid to lie, I mean let’s be honest about it You don’t you don’t have an opinion you have what the company tells you to do exactly
[00:40:05:15 – 00:40:12:21]
Speaker 2
No, no, I agree, but that’s the way it’s gonna be viewed yeah You
[00:40:20:10 – 00:40:28:19]
Speaker 2
Of course or multiple credit cards you didn’t have a credit card, but you get a multiple credit cards, yeah You You You You
[00:40:57:27 – 00:40:59:19]
Speaker 2
Lay away, yes
[00:41:06:01 – 00:41:09:27]
Speaker 2
Did you did you go to the store and visit your your layaway ever so often
[00:41:21:10 – 00:41:21:25]
Speaker 2
You know I
[00:41:25:07 – 00:41:59:14]
Speaker 2
Yeah, I feel bad for the kids don’t they don’t get excited about things Especially about mechanical things that you can modify and make something yours You’re not building the thing from the ground up, but you’re making modifications You’re learning about what to do And that’s one of the things that we’re doing here with a Jeep talk show by talking to you guys is we’re trying to let The audience know about things that they might be interested in I find that fun When I can find something that’s really cool And then and then put all people on to it, especially whenever they had no idea it existed and it
[00:42:02:24 – 00:42:04:26]
Speaker 2
Yes You
[00:42:19:12 – 00:42:19:22]
Speaker 2
Oh, yeah,
[00:42:20:28 – 00:42:24:28]
Speaker 2
there’s just so much time you can spend in the bathroom Oh
[00:42:52:28 – 00:42:53:12]
Speaker 2
You
[00:43:03:22 – 00:43:22:10]
Speaker 2
That’s freedom man, that was just freedom get up go and be gone Oh, and I know it’s gonna get worse with the with the cyber cabs too because there really won’t be a reason It’ll actually be as cheap or cheaper to take a cab Everybody it’ll be like New York for everybody You You
[00:43:50:10 – 00:43:53:21]
Speaker 2
You
[00:43:56:20 – 00:43:59:17]
Speaker 2
Yeah You You
[00:44:31:12 – 00:44:32:03]
Speaker 2
You Exactly
[00:44:33:24 – 00:44:40:04]
Speaker 2
There’s some 40 year olds out there that are trying to burn down their jeeps by putting 15 amps under the under the dash
[00:44:42:13 – 00:45:17:29]
Speaker 2
Yeah, what is it that what is it that they say in politics it takes a community to to create a gearhead so sure share your amazement of Motors and vehicles and all kinds of things mechanical All right, so I can tell we need to I can tell we need to spend more time because we’ve just scratched the surface of your Background but we’re gonna gonna wrap that up and wrap this up and you know how the kids love the social media Where can they find you armor light the whole nine yards wherever you want to direct them to? You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You
[00:45:48:04 – 00:45:48:06]
Speaker 2
You
[00:45:53:19 – 00:46:28:29]
Speaker 2
Oh and you know, it’s been a while because I think Dave actually got me this discount code on our discord server You can go on the discord server and do a slash discount And it will show you all the companies that have we have discount codes with armor light is one of them I probably need to get the follow-up with you after this interview to make sure it’s still active But you right now until we prove otherwise you can go over to our discord do slash discounts and get the armor light Discount code for I think it’s I think it was 10% off. So
[00:46:39:16 – 00:47:18:04]
Speaker 2
That’s that’d be great, thank you for that I didn’t mean to put you in a corner but But the the cool thing about it is on our discord server it doesn’t blast out the code So I want to warn everybody if you go over there and do slash discount It’ll show you all the discounts that are available But it will not give you the code you actually have to request the company for the code and then it just sends it to you That’s how we get you. That’s how we we get you to sign up to discord You
[00:47:22:08 – 00:47:28:22]
Speaker 2
Mm-hmm You
[00:47:33:21 – 00:47:59:00]
Speaker 2
Now absolutely and the cool thing is is that it’s you get it you get a plus for being part of the Jeep talk show Community that’s the way we look at it is you’re part of the community. We want to share with you I don’t care if you come over there sign up get the code and go away At least you can’t be was the radio shack about and you remember the radio shack cards battery free battery cards The whole idea was just getting you in the store because you ain’t buying nothing unless you come in the store
[00:48:02:08 – 00:48:20:27]
Speaker 2
All right, kail, thank you so much for being here glad you’re here So I don’t think we mentioned it Dave who we’ve had on the show a couple times before he is retiring I think he’s part-time now and Kail is beaten up on him until he goes full retirement, so Glad you glad you were gonna make it here
[00:48:29:02 – 00:48:32:25]
Speaker 2
Oh No more meetings could you imagine actually getting shit done?
[00:48:34:13 – 00:48:43:20]
Speaker 2
But
[00:48:45:11 – 00:48:54:07]
Speaker 2
we’re glad you there because you guys have some really great products and thank you for that so But anyway hope to talk to you again and get some more information Especially on some of the fun things you’ve done
[00:48:56:07 – 00:48:58:20]
Speaker 4
You’re my friend, you’re my new friend. Hehe.
[00:48:58:20 – 00:49:45:01]
Speaker 2
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