Mickey Thompson Tires Deep Dive: Off-Road Innovations and Jeep Builds with Ben Anderson
Dive into the world of off-road performance with this exclusive interview from the Jeep Talk Show! Host Tony chats with Ben Anderson, Senior Product Manager of Light Truck and Off-Road Tires at Mickey Thompson Tires, who shares his 19 years of expertise. From Mickey Thompson’s legendary history as an innovator in drag racing, land speed records, and off-road (including starting SCORE and winning the Baja 1000) to their current lineup of hybrid AT tires like the Baja Boss AT and Baja Legend EXP, premium mud terrains such as the Baja Boss MT and Baja Legend MTZ, and extreme options like the Baja Pro X and Baja Boss X. Ben breaks down key tire tech: PowerPly XD for puncture resistance, asymmetric patterns for quieter rides, sidebiters for extra traction, and how to choose the right tire-wheel combo for your Jeep (JK, JL, JT, TJ, and more). We cover wheel styles like the MT Canyon Pro and Classic III, tips for rock crawling, mudding, and daily driving, plus insights on EV tire wear, sizing (up to 44s!), and why Mickey Thompson tires excel in Moab trails and beyond. Ben also teases upcoming SEMA reveals and shares stories from his diverse vehicle collection, including his Galaxy 500 and future Jeep plans. This episode is brought to you by Tyree Off-Road – Lights for people that need to get s*** done. Visit TyreeOff-Road.com (T-Y-R-I Off-Road.com) and use code JTS15 for 15% off. Support the brands that support the Jeep Talk Show! Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro & Sponsor Shoutout 02:30 – Ben’s Background & Mickey Thompson History 10:45 – Tire Lineup: AT Hybrids, Mud Terrains & Extreme Options 20:15 – Tech Deep Dive: Elements, PowerPly & Sidebiters 30:00 – Wheels, Beadlocks & Recommendations for Jeeps 40:20 – Off-Road Stories, EV Tires & Future Products 50:00 – Q&A, Social Media & Closing Subscribe for more Jeep mods, interviews, and trail tips! Like if you’re a Mickey Thompson fan, comment your favorite tire below, and hit the bell for notifications. Check out MickeyThompsonTires.com for products, tech bulletins, and FAQs. Follow us on social: @JeepTalkShow on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. #MickeyThompsonTires #OffRoadTires #JeepTires #JeepMods #MudTerrains #AllTerrainTires #JeepTalkShow #OffRoadWheels #RockCrawling #BajaBoss #JeepJL #JeepJK #SEMA2025 #EVOffRoad Rev up your engines, Jeep lovers— the Jeep Talk Show is here to take you on a wild ride! For 15 years, we’ve been the ultimate pit stop for Jeep enthusiasts, delivering off-road thrills, insider tips, and a whole lotta Jeep passion. With a powerhouse crew of hosts and team members, we’re dropping five action-packed episodes every week to fuel your Jeep obsession! Buckle up for our fan-favorite Chic Chat, a women-centric, women hosted episode that’s all about empowering female Jeepers. It’s the perfect space for women to dive into the world of Jeeps and off-roading, hosted by fearless ladies who live for the trail. But that’s just the start—we’ve got over 1,200 episodes waiting to rev up your day, whether you’re tearing down the highway, mowing the lawn, or pumping iron at the gym. Watch us on video or listen audio-only—your call, your adventure! Join the Jeep Talk Show family and become part of the ultimate Jeep community! Jump into our Discord chat at jeeptalkshow.com/discord, support us on Patreon for ad-free episodes at www.patreon.com/jeeptalkshow, or catch our live Round Table every Tuesday at 7:30 PM CT via Zoom (https://jeeptalkshow.com/roundtable, password: jeep). Stay in the loop with our newsletter at https://jeeptalkshow.com/newsletter and follow the action on Instagram @jeeptalkshow (instagram.com/jeeptalkshow). Head to https://jeeptalkshow.com to explore our world of Jeep madness, subscribe, and let us make your day a little more rugged and a lot more fun. Ready to roll with us? Let’s hit the trails together!#JeepTalkShow #JeepLife #OffRoad
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Hi there boys and girls,
(Explosion)
out of the way. Mr. Anderson.(…) Right. Is your name actually Neo?(…) It is not Neo, no. That was my mom and dad’s second choice. You can tell me. You can trust me. I’m not Morpheus, but I’m a good friend. Right.(…) No, it is not Neo, it is, yes, Ben Anderson. That’s correct. Do you ever do that? It is Mr. Anderson. How often do you hear the Mr. Anderson thing? Mr. Anderson.(…) Pretty often, but not as often as,
(…)
so I go by within the industry and folks around the office, Benny instead of Ben. Oh, that’s good. And I hear, “Benny!” Like Benny in the Jets. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. That’s more frequent than the Mr. Anderson, but I do like the song, so it’s cool. It is a good song.
(…)
So yeah, I can imagine. I think the only name that would be worse(…) than Mr. Anderson would be Karen. I feel so bad for Karens. That could be a rough one. I know a few nice Karens though. Oh, of course. Yeah, and people. Of course, but I mean, just the association with Karen this, Karen that. I’m Karen, I think I’m a nice person. So anyway, Ben is a senior product manager of Light Truck and Off-Road Tires for Mickey Thompson and has been with the company for 19 years.
(…)
The first set of tires he ever purchased were Mickey Thompson Indy Profile tires for his Galaxy. Is that a Galaxy 500?(…) It is a Galaxy 500. I saw that and I went, “It must be a Galaxy 500.” Sadly, the Mickey Thompson Indy Profiles are long gone though. We’re getting pretty crusty. Well, you should have bought a bunch of them. You should have stored them. Actually, funny story really quick is when I first started with the company, we were discontinuing the Indy Profile and Indy Profile SS line. So I bought a set of them and I had them barrel stacked in front of my bedroom door for seven or eight years. And finally I had to sell them because I was just like, I know someday I’m gonna have something these are gonna go on, but by then they were getting older. I was like, “Let somebody else enjoy them.” Right, yeah. I’m gonna ask you about the old tires here because you’ll know about old tires, what the rule is on that stuff.(…) So for his Galaxy, so he has been with Mickey, a Mickey guy for quite some time. He enjoys wrenching and cruising in his Galaxy. His Fox Body 86 Capri. I just know Capri as being pants. So I’m gonna go look that up. His Lancer Evolution, don’t know that one either. His 88 GMC G2500, I think I know that one. And his Super Duty Pickup. Ben says, “It’s a diverse collection of shit boxes.” God bless the shit boxes. That’s right.(…) No Jeep yet, but eventually. So I got to call you on this, Ben. You’re lying about the Jeep. If you were gonna buy a Jeep, you would have already got one. You’re not planning on getting a Jeep. You just threw that in there because you’re gonna be on the Jeep show. I’m definitely gonna get a Jeep. So there was a point when Mickey Thompson, when we actually had Jeep bumpers, it was for the JKs. And it was a really cool modular setup. They were actually produced by Fab Four for us. And we didn’t have them too long. I don’t think we marketed them a whole lot. And to be honest, there’s so many different options out there. So many great established brands in the bumper market that it just didn’t really take off. But before our warehouse had completely depleted inventory.
(…)
They’re stacked up in front of your bedroom door. Well, yeah, exactly. That’s their bedroom door, yeah. But I got a rear bumper, front bumper. I think I’ve got every option for the end caps.
(…)
I got the tire carrier, I got all that stuff. So someday I gotta get a JK for all this stuff. Otherwise I’ve been tripping on parts and kicking them for the last seven, eight years for no reason. You know, I bet you could sell that Galaxy 500 and fund the JK, the used JK. Just don’t get a 58. I probably could. Just don’t get a 58.(…) Right. Right. I think I’d have to, I am a big engine sounds person. So I think I either have to do an LS or a Hemi swap. I think that’d be, yeah. Keep it going. Yeah, but be tireless. Yeah, keep it going. Yep, yep.
(…)
So that’s really cool. Oh, and before we get away from this, I think everybody knows where the website is. But anyway, mickeythompsontires.com. mickeythompsontires.com. We’ll be saying that a few more times during the interview if I’m doing my job right.
(…)
So let me ask you, well, actually,(…) I think everybody knows about Mickey Thompson and what you guys sell. Could you go over just generally what Mickey Thompson does and how long you guys have been around the whole nine yards? You’re not some fly by night corporation, I know that. Right, right. So yeah, just to, gosh, there’s so much to say about Mickey. There’s several great books. There’s movies out there about him. But Mickey Thompson originally, he was an LA hot rodder. Okay.
(…)
Mickey Thompson, you know, he started out with drag racing. He did land speed racing. He did indie racing. He did off-road racing. Mickey the man was a, he was a builder. He was a driver. He was a promoter. He was a great promoter and he was an innovator.(…) And that is, we try to carry on Mickey’s legacy with everything that we do, right? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Exactly. And it’s like, when you look at the stuff that I’m responsible for, the Baja Legend, Baja Boss and Baja Pro tires, you look at the tread compound construction of those. And there are, Mickey Thompson does kind of some quirky things with all of those elements of our tires,(…) not only to deliver the performance, it’s to deliver the performance that the tires need to do, but it also separates us from a lot of our competitors. So there’s some really, really cool stuff there. But so within the products that I’m responsible for, we have two all-terrain hybrids,(…) which we got into the AT Hybrid business back in 2005, back before hardly any of our competitors were doing that stuff. There was either traditional five-rib all-terrains, or there was mud terrains, and then more extreme stuff from there. And in 2005, we brought out the original Baja ATZ,
(…)
which basically took a tread element count. So approximately 40 elements around the circumference of the tire, which is pretty much what a lot of mud terrains have. And then four elements going across the face, which is what mud terrains traditionally have. But we use the tread to void ratio of a traditional five-rib all-terrain. And what that gave you was truly a hybrid between an all-terrain and a mud terrain to give you great handling on the road, a relatively quiet ride, some off-road capability. And virtually every tire company now has got a all-terrain hybrid or hybrid AT, or a rugged terrain or an RT or whatever they call it. It’s all the same. And honestly, I mean, I was just out at EJS, and while mud terrains still dominate, there’s more and more people running these AT hybrids. They are super, super capable. So we have the Legend EXP that’s catered a little bit more towards the more, what we call core enthusiast, and then the Boss AT’s catered a little bit more towards the more extreme enthusiast.
(…)
Maybe that’s looking for that next level of winter traction or sidewall durability, or extreme sizes, et cetera. So we’ve got the two AT hybrids.(…) We have two premium mud terrains, kind of a similar idea, Baja Legend MTZ, which is now in its third generation, which is a little more traditional Mickey mud, Baja Boss MT, which is a little more cutting edge, Mickey Thompson mud. And then we have four extreme tires that I’m responsible for, the Baja Boss XS, the Baja Boss X, which are radials, and then the Baja Pro XS and the Baja Pro X, which are bias-plyed. All four developed for a different type of consumer,
(…)
and then we have a lot of cool stuff there, but that’s basically like trucking off-road. We also have a winning– Let me back you up really quick before we get too far away from it. You said elements, like a cross and around and stuff. For the people that don’t know what that means, what are elements? Because to me, that’s an insider term that you guys use. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So a lot of people, so they will talk about, they’ll be like lugs, like the tread lugs. So picture when the tire is moving down the road. Picture if you drove your tire into some dirt or some powdery substance, and then the tire keeps moving, and then you see all the, basically the highlighted or the white points of the pattern. That’s basically the tread elements or the tread lugs. Yeah, that’s what I was getting from it, but I wanna be sure, yeah. Yeah, yeah. The fun parts is what I call it. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And it is, it’s cool stuff. And it’s one of those things back during that time, 05,
(…)
you had, there were tires that were kind of similar to that. They’re called commercial traction tires, and they’re very purpose built for just being super, super durable.(…) People,(…) really gravelly situations, mining, et cetera.(…) So really, I mean, that original ATZ was,(…) it was kind of like a commercial traction, but with an all-terrain compound. And it had basically like a mud terrain carcass and a mud terrain element count, but with an all-terrain tread-to-void ratio.
(…)
It’s just truly a hybrid of all kinds of products. And you even think of our competitors that offer tires in that category today, they’re tremendously popular because they really, they do a lot.
(…)
If you get to the level where you’re doing a lot of recreational rock crawling or mudding or your competition, your competitor,
(…)
then yeah, you’re probably gonna gravitate more towards a mud terrain, right? I mean, it is gonna give you that next level of traction. You’re not gonna care so much about the noise and the tread life, et cetera. It’s a Jeep, damn it. If you want silence and comfort, you’re gonna get a Cadillac or a Waco. Yeah, or a Wagoneer or something like that. Yeah, exactly.(…) So anyway, I derailed you on the next part of what you were gonna tell us about Mickey Thompson. We were talking about the various tires that you have. Oh yeah. Go ahead with that. Yeah, so I’ve got basically Light Trucking Off-Road(…) and then we have a wheel manager Blake who handles our wheel program. And for several years, we kind of focused more on the tire stuff. Pandemic was a rough time, I think, for a lot of different manufacturers. So we did a lot of focus on the tires, which we’re in a great place now with the tire stuff and we’re continuing to develop new stuff for the future. But Blake introduced, I think it’s five or six new wheel styles at SEMA last year. And he’s working on some awesome stuff, some break the internet stuff to show up at SEMA this year, which will be really cool. And even some stuff that might be more appealing to more extreme Jeepers in years to come. So a lot of cool stuff coming there on wheels. And then we also have our street and strip products too. So street tires, whether they’re for vintage muscle cars or street rods that are tubbed out, like pro street style, or like UHP tires for modern muscle cars. And then of course our drag racing products as well.(…) So would you say, I don’t know a lot about the history of Mickey Thompson, the person. He was mainly into fast stuff, right? It really wasn’t any off road. There was no off road fast. So he did a lot of fast car stuff. So drag racing, land speed, back and forth, and then in India as well. But he actually started score. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the score series
(…)
and arena off road racing, which had roots, that was Mickey. Mickey started that stuff when it came to trucks inside the arenas. It’s not that you have to be involved in off road to have somebody that works for you design and build tires, but it’s just, he’s getting away from, I’m thinking it’s getting away from the Mickey Thompson tradition to do into the off road stuff.(…) Yeah, yeah. And honestly, like Mickey, I mean, right up until his passing, I mean, he was heavily involved in off road. Danny Thompson, his son was, he had a, I think it was a Chevy S10. I know it’s a Jeep show, but that he ran.(…) We’re aware of other vehicles. I’ll tell you. Yeah, exactly.(…) I think it had a Jeep engine in it though. So it’s okay. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. Nice save. But yeah, yeah. But actually then it probably would have been an AMC engine during that era, but anyway. Right.
(…)
But no, Mickey, he started score and he was an off road competitor. And I believe it was 1982. He won the Baja 1000 with a co-driver.
(…)
So yeah, Mickey, that was kind of towards the later part of his career. He got involved in off road racing, but he was excellent and he was an innovator there. And speaking of that, in 1977, Mickey Thompson developed tread on the sidewall as we all know them today, sidebiters. Mickey developed that technology. So- That seems like a little brainer, but I imagine it’s hard to keep them on the tire, being there on the side, up against things. Right, right, right, exactly. Yeah, so it’s, so it’s, so yeah. So Mickey originally wasn’t so much off road, but towards the later part of his life and career, he was heavily- He did, yeah, he did. Which is so cool, yeah. Well, I mean, you can only go straight or curvy and fast so much before you want to try something else.
(…)
So I was gonna ask you about the,
(…)
well, actually one of our Jeep Talk Show team members was telling me, find out about if it’s a mud terrain, ATs or hybrids. And you’ve already mentioned the hybrid stuff. I’ll tell you, I’m a little disappointed with tire manufacturers. I haven’t had a lot of tires on my Jeeps, but I have noticed that I’ll just mention I had some KMs, mud terrains. And those things were mud terrains. A few little miles on it, a little bit of cupping. And now you had the classic, oh, here comes Tony sound. Yeah, they’re saying to you. And it was horrible when you had to stop.
(…)
It’s like flying a jet, instead of speeding up, it was slowing down because those things would slide if it was raining outside. So I can understand why you don’t want to do the full bore mud terrains, but mud terrains are cool. And they give you a lot of traction, even if it’s not mud. I mean, maximum traction was the other way that it was starting to be called.(…) So I’m a little disappointed with the mud terrains these days because they really resemble ATs more than they do MTs.(…) Yeah. What are you guys, are you guys following that trend? It kind of sounds like you are, but it sounds like you still have tires that are real aggressive tires. Yeah, so mud terrain, so this is what’s really interesting, right? So we’ve actually been working for several years on a next generation mud terrain that we’re still not gonna have for several more years. This stuff takes so much time to develop. But what’s interesting is when you read consumer reviews, that’s one of my favorite things to do, right? Hear what the consumers, when they buy our product, the competitor’s product, whatever, what are they talking about in the review, right? Whether they like this characteristic or they hate it, the fact that they’re talking about it, it means something to them. Right, and they don’t have to know what they’re talking about. They’re feeling that you wanna find out. Yeah, and what’s very interesting is to that core mud terrain consumer, which may not represent the majority of people that for instance are going to EJS or the Rubicon Trail or whatever, but the noise is the number one characteristic that they talk about in tires, right? And I have seen some tires that I know are not great performers on the road that wear quick, that are loud, that are whatever, do very well off-road. But if you’re a premium mud terrain manufacturer today where you win is not only delivering that tire that is durable off-road and provides the traction you need off-road, but can really win relative to the category in the ride, the noise, the tread life,
(…)
even to a degree in the snow traction, not necessarily trying to hit three peak balance snowflake certification. But so one way that we’ve done that is with the Baja Boss MT, right? So with our approach with that tire is we wanted to develop a mud terrain that was still world-class mud terrain, performed really, really well off-road. And there have been so many victories(…) on Baja Boss MTs throughout all different types of,(…) rock crawling competition, ultra-floor,(…) Jeremy Jones won King of the Hammers, 4800,(…) 2023 on Baja Boss MTs, no flats by a long shot. So the tire flat out works off-road, but what we did with the pattern on the Baja MT as well as the Baja MTs, they’re asymmetric patterns.
(…)
So if you look at the tread pattern of the Baja Boss MT, you’ll notice that on the outboard tread elements or lugs,
(…)
there’s actually, there’s approximately 44 or 48, depending on which size you’re looking at. But then when you move to the inboard intermediate strut, there’s actually twice as many elements in there, right? So what that’s engineered to do from an off-road perspective is give you some additional biting edges,(…) but on-road it is engineered to tune the tire to make it so it’s a little quieter and a little better. Well, I would think that whenever you’re fully aired up, you’re really on the center of the tire anyway. Yeah. And when you air down, now you can use those elements. I can use that term now. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, you can use those elements that are on the edge. That’s a good idea. I didn’t even really thought about that. So yeah, so that’s one of those things where it’s like, okay, well, this thing, when we were working on the Boss MT, we’re like, this thing has still gotta be a true blue. It’s gotta be a mud terrain, right? The thing cannot underperform relative competition and this, that, and the other thing. What are some quirky things that we could do to this thing that nobody else is, I shouldn’t say nobody else, but most folks aren’t doing to help quiet this thing down and provide a little more premium experience on road. I don’t mind the tires being quiet, but quiet generally means to me, not as good a performer. Right, right, yeah. So that’s one of those things there when we’re looking at our muds is, it’s almost table stakes now. If you’re gonna have a mud terrain tire, the thing better perform well off road and they don’t all do that. But that’s kind of one of our rules with Mickey Thompson. They don’t like to have to perform off road, but they gotta be puncture resistant as well. And that’s another one of those things that we do with our two mud terrains, the Baja Legend MTZ and the Baja Boss MT is,(…) okay, so you need this thing to be more durable, but you don’t necessarily wanna add a ton of body plies to it or a ton of rubber gauge or whatever, right? So what we have is we have power ply technology on the Baja Legend MTZ, the Baja Boss MT and even the Baja Boss AT light truck sizes. And what that is is instead of having two or three radial plies that start at the bead,(…) go up the sidewall over the tread, down the sidewall to next bead, taking the shortest path possible, you have two plies that do that. And then the third ply is actually laid on a bias angle. And what that’s engineered to do is if you take an impact to the sidewall with a standard radial construction,(…) the idea is that impact affects those plies in that path, they’re all laid radially. But when you lay a bias ply in there and it takes an impact, it’s engineered to spread those forces to a wider area, lessening the likelihood of a puncture. So the vehicle still ride nice on the road, but now you’ve got more puncture resistance. It’s a little more material in the tire, it’s a little more cost, but it yields some nice performance benefits. So that’s power ply. And I would assume a little more weight as well. Yeah, a little more weight as well, yeah. And that’s, speaking of weight, that’s one of the things that’s kind of interesting about our stuff is with the Baja Legend MTZ and the Baja Boss MT,(…) for all the manufacturers that publish their tire weights, we have this tool where we can kind of like index how different tire brands stack up in pricing and weight, and a few different other measurable items. And the Baja Legend MTZ is actually one of the more lightweight mud terrains that you can buy. So if you’re very weight conscious and you want a mud, Legend MTZ is a great choice. The Baja Boss MT, even with its massive side biters, power ply XD construction, big tread depths, everything else that’s got with it, you would expect it to be higher than it is, it actually kind of falls mid pack. So it’s not super, super heavy.
(…)
So weight is another one of those things that may not be, like one of the top five consumer benefits, things that people talk about, but it’s in the top 15 for sure. Sometimes they need something they’re not aware of. And the overall is, man, this was a great tire, I gotta buy this tire again. And they don’t know why, why it drives the way it does, why it goes off road the way it does. And that’s a win. They don’t have to understand the science. That’s what you guys have to do. Yeah, right. Or the engineers, I can say. Yeah, exactly.(…) So, well, you still have to understand it. You may not engineer it, but you still have to understand it so you could explain it. Absolutely.(…) And I apologize for mentioning other brand names, but I think it’s relevant. So we used to have a relationship with Nexon Tires. The gentleman that we dealt with has since left Nexon. But I got a set of Nexon Rodeon MTXs. And we talked a lot about them on the show. They flew me out to an event, a very small event, to try them out. I was blown away. It is how well they worked off road. And I have the mud terrains or the maximum tractions. 35s on my Gladiator, 33s on my XJ.(…) And they are, they perform very well. The biggest problem that everybody had, all the listeners had was, and it was people that weren’t even running bigger than 37s. They may have been running 35s. 37 inch was the tallest, the highest diameter, the widest diameter that they had available. So I’m assuming that’s not a problem with you guys. That you guys have a variety of sizes, 37 and greater.
(…)
Yeah, yeah. It’s, so for,(…) we actually, I think I wrote the business case to add the two 42s and the 44 to the Bob, Boss MT, like, I don’t know, five, six years ago or something like that. It just takes so long to get stuff through. Cause not only do you have to develop and engineer it, and you got to get your spot in line behind everything else that’s being worked on already or planned for, but you sometimes in cases like that, you have to make investments in the manufacturing facilities as well. Oh, you have to have the thing that’s that size. So, and they’re not cheap. They cost as much as a house for one of them. Millions, millions. Yeah, it’s a lot. Do you get excited whenever they go, yeah, we’ll make it. And you go, yeah.(…) (Laughs) Yeah, totally. Definitely.(…) But no, so it is actually interesting. Cause I remember, shoot, I remember it was, it was a big deal. Like when we put the, we added the 37 to the Baja Claw TTC line, the radio line. And it was like, ah, you know, 37 inch radio, cool. And then of course then the 40s. And then we finally brought to market the 42, 13, 50, 17, which was huge.
(…)
We showed it off at SEMA a year and a half before we had them available in the market. That was not planned. That’s just the way that the world works. And all the stars did not align and we thought we were going to have them way sooner. Yeah, well, seizures can be good sometimes. Yeah,(…) exactly. So it, I think it upset a lot of people, but when they were finally available, they were highly anticipated. So both 42s have done really well for us. And the 44 has been really surprising.
(…)
It was kind of one of those deals we put out there were like, yeah, some people probably do some custom, whatever, one off builds and. It’s a huge investment for the five people that are going to buy them, but that’s changed a lot in your 19 years, isn’t it? I mean, you were there in the TJ and the XJ days and a 33 inch tire was like, oh my God. And you had to do a lot of stuff, especially if you were locked front and rear to those Dana 30s and even a Danny 44 rear or the cross right in the corner on the XJ. So it was like no big deal. And then all these engineering’s jeeps started building things were a lot tougher, starting putting Dana axles on there that were tougher. And people say, well, you know, the 37 was nice. What did they say now? 40 is the new 37.(…) I just used that the other day. Yep.
(…)
So that has to drive you guys up the wall. I mean, I think it’s exciting to engineer and develop. But at the same time, the investment that you guys have to make. So that’s one of the reasons why I was asking about it. Cause that was Nexen’s problem was they were going to have to be putting a huge investment on anything greater than the 37.(…) Right. And that’s a lot of times what constrains you.
(…)
And, you know, it’s another one of those things too. Like when we’re writing the business case, it’s like, okay, well folks,(…) and I know of folks that have put the 42s on, you know, wranglers with stock axles and stuff, you know? And I think that they’re more doing it for the look. We try to fix it before it breaks for those folks. Right, right.(…) And they look awesome, but it was like, it was like we were making the assumptions like, okay, well how many people are either going to put, you know, super duty front axles or, you know, GM, you know, three quarter ton axles in the back or do some aftermarket stuff? You know, that’s a lot of money. That’s a big expense.(…) And even if you’re- Often more than the vehicle. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. Like even if you’re doing the junkyard stuff, it’s more than just buying the axles, you know? And a lot of folks want to pull those apart and put some good junk in them and everything. And it is a big expense.(…) And I just, when I was at EJS this year, I rolled up to a traffic light with our Gladiator on 42s, which by the way, I drove home from Moab to Northeast Ohio. That’s what I have is I have a 21 Gladiator, but mine’s on 35s because of the gearing. I can’t re-gear it right now. And then when I do, I want lockers in there. So, you know, the whole thing. So how was the ride? How long was the ride and how was the ride? It was a long ride. The ride was absolutely beautiful. It was awesome. The thing, when you’re driving, we actually have two Gladiators on 42s. One’s got the Moto-built stubby bed, and then the other one’s got the full length bed on them. I love Moto-built. Everything on my Jeep, all my Gladiators are on the built.
(…)
Awesome stuff. I even have the skin system on there too. That was another reason why I wanted to go back to EJS because I put that full skid on the bottom. Oh, it’s just so neat. Nobody sees it. And they don’t want to get on their hands and knees and they don’t want to look at it when I’m trying to show them.(…) I trust you. I trust you. Go ahead. But it just, you would think, you know, with tons on it and 42s on it, maybe a lot of people wouldn’t think this, but you would think that it’d be a chore driving it across the country. Exactly. That’s what I asked. I flew into LA, picked it up because it was at a Rockstar Performance Garage. They were doing some enhancements on it and then drove from there to Moab and then Moab to North Ohio. And just, you would drive in it. You would think you’re in a stock Jeep. There’s no reason for you to buy a Jeep. You would be so disappointed if you had a personal Jeep where you couldn’t just fly in, pick it up, all ready to go. Right. Oh yeah, exactly.(…) Yeah. Yeah, no, it’s a nice perk of the job for sure. Oh yeah. But no, I was just like, I was, you know, rolling through town there and Moab, I pull up to the light and I just see a,(…) was it a Gladiator? Was it just a Unlimited? I can’t remember, but it was on our 44s. And I just looked over and smiled. I’m like, there you go. That’s awesome.(…) They were running 44s and you were running 42s. Oh, yeah. And that was giving me another question was, you’re not on stock axles on those 42s. I think you said, you’re on tons. Yeah. Yes, yes. And, How does it steer? Do you have, is it, do you have the hydraulic assist, the PSC or whatever it is? Yes. And I’m trying to remember, we have a number of builds here. I’m trying to remember whose stuff we have on them.
(…)
It might come to me during the call, but yes, it does. Yeah, but it’s a hydraulic steering. It may not be a PSC. It is.(…) There are options out there now. And that helps. Good options out there. Yeah, I think it’s good. I once asked, I went to an event and I was going around. I was pretty new to the interview stuff. And I went over to the PSC booth and I asked the guy, Hey, I’m Tony. I do the Jeep talk show. I’d be interested if you guys would like to be on the show for an interview. And they said, we don’t, we don’t need to do any of that stuff. Kind of like we’re PSC. We don’t need to do interviews. I mean, free advertising. I mean, you know, it doesn’t matter if we had three listeners. That’s three more listeners that know about PSC steering. So I’ve always remembered that. Yeah, I’ve always remembered that. It hadn’t slowed me down on asking people though, because most people say yes.
(…)
Yeah. Oh yeah.(…) All right. So anyway, you were, you were in the gladiator. What color is that gladiator?
(…)
So that one, that one’s, it changes all the time. It’s black currently with yellow, yellow graphics on it. And it has our new. (Guitar Music)
(…)
That’s the wrong color. Oh, okay. The right color is red. It’s always red. Okay. Perfect. Maybe next time around it would be red. Yeah.
(…)
Yeah. But now it looks good. It looks good. It’s got, it’s got,(…) gosh, there’s, there’s so many different brands on the thing. I’m trying to remember who’s it’s, it’s almost got like a,(…) like a, like a truck cap on it, but it’s fabric and it was really nice. I’m trying to remember, but this thing is, it’s done up nice. And yeah, to your point, it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s kind of a perk to be able to fly out to LA, and then just hop in the thing.
(…)
Yeah. You don’t think anything of it, but I’m hearing that. And our listeners are hearing that go, that rat bastard, I’m just going to fly in, grabbing this heavily modified by the rock crawler people and go out and do it. Did you, did you bend anything? Did you do some stuff? Well, we did, we did, we did, we did an event with Mopar on Monday and then we did a,
(…)
gosh, I’m trying to remember. It was like a level four or level three trail on Tuesdays for that purpose. I didn’t want to destroy the thing. And then level four Tommy Knocker trail on Wednesday. And then I went to- I bet you handled it like a champ. Was that the one with the short bed?
(…)
Yeah. Well, no, this one’s got the long bed. The only thing with Tommy Knocker was it’s a new trail that they just, I think they just plays that trail last year. And it’s, I think it’s South of town.
(…)
And there’s, there’s a certain, none of it was like super challenging, but there was- No, not with 42s, you bastard. Well, it’s made with the tons on it. And then we have, we have, you know, wide tires on it with wheel spacers,
(…)
cause we’re waiting on some wheels that we’re working on right now, but there’s an obstacle where you’re driving up the side of this like mountain and you start out and it’s probably, I don’t know, like a story or two drop, you know, off the side and it’s a drop. And then as you’re cruising up this thing, it’s just, you’re higher and higher. And the track on this thing is so wide. Oh yeah.(…) I’m kind of like climbing the mountain on the one side and I can feel the right rear tire, like kind of like pushing(…) and I’m just like, oh man. It may be a quarter inch, but you’re feeling it. Cause you know, you’re like, well, you’re going to, you’re like, well, 19 years with Mickey Thompson was long. So that’s a good thing. Yeah, exactly. They’ve had enough.
(…)
So, but now it was a really cool trail. It was kind of like, it’s kind of like, like a Utah forest kind of like the trees were all kind of like lower and everything, but it was really cool trail. Yeah. That’s awesome. That sounds like, you got any of that stuff on YouTube on the Mickey Thompson YouTube channel?(…) Yeah, we do actually are Mickey Thompson. It’s Mickey Thompson tires on YouTube. And what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to put out some,
(…)
some product videos to get a little more technical.
(…)
Folks may get confused like, Hey, Mickey Thompson, why do you have her to,(…) you know, mud terrains, the Baja Legend MTZ and the Baja Boss MT. And we go into detail about each of those different products or why do we have two different altering hybrids or what’s the difference between our four more extreme off-road tires that we have or what’s a mud scoop or what’s power apply or what’s, why do you do asymmetric patterns? So we put a lot of stuff out there and hopefully you can kind of help educate folks, folks on that stuff. But we’re going to do a lot more with YouTube here. I mean, I just, I know me as a human being, I don’t watch TV anymore, I watch YouTube. Oh yeah. That’s, that’s pretty much all I watch anymore. It’s interesting how things have progressed through the years. I was in high school, I had a subscription to every car magazine you could think of. And then in college, I was on every forum that was applicable to me. And then it’s kind of like, you know, Facebook groups and stuff like that. And then now it’s YouTube. I mean, that’s a huge, and podcasts, you know? Yeah, well, I always give people a hard time whenever they’re upgrading their stereo system and their Jeep and they have like a thousand watts and the woofer and stuff, I say, we can save you money. You don’t need all that shit for a podcast. Just listen to the Jeep talk show.
(…)
Save money.(…) That’s right. Of course, you’ll spend money too, because we talk about fun things like Mickey Thompson tires that you have to invest in. But I’d rather invest in a tire than a stereo system, but each their own. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s a balance. It’s a balance. I still, I was just telling somebody the other day, I think I still have all this stuff I wasted my money on when I was younger, stereo stuff. It’s probably not good stuff anymore, but I still have a woofer in my truck. So you can’t let go completely. Sometimes it’s good to have the bass, especially when it doesn’t stink after it’s been in the trunk for a while. Right, right. So let me ask you this. I don’t wanna derail you on what you were talking about, but I’m interested in knowing about your wheels.
(…)
Before we did the interview, I was like, oh, I think they sell wheels too. And I went over there and had a look. I really liked the styling of the wheels because I think they are in line with off-road type things. Nothing fancy. It doesn’t have a pencil connectors because it may be fine. I’m sure it’s engineered just fine, but I always hate the little thin connections from the center hub to the wheel. I want something more beefy. And a lot of the ones that I saw are just have the standard like holes like I have on the XJ.(…) So the question I had for you guys was,
(…)
I would assume you guys don’t do 20s, 22s with…(…) Wheels, do you? Yeah, we stuck our toe in the water with the Sidebiter II. We did some 20 and 22 by 10s and 12s. And then we had a wheel called the classic big rig that was an interesting wheel. It was made to look like you bought like 19 fives and then have adapters to make them, whatever. It was truly an innovative deal. It just never really caught on. Well, you don’t just sell for off-road vehicles too. I just thought about that. It could be for cars. It could be for your Galaxy 500. You might want to put 22s on it. Yeah, so the wheel program that we have today. So we’ve had the classic three for a number of years and that replaced the classic two, which replaced the original classic. So it’s truly a, it’s a classic wheel. It’s eight holes, some people call them bolt holes, whatever, but it is a castle aluminum wheel, polished,
(…)
higher maintenance product. It’s not clear coated or, you know, chromed or anything like that, but great looking wheel.
(…)
And then we have our new empty classic pro, which resembles that same style, but it’s got a fake bead lock on it. So there’s one that’s polished. There’s one that’s bronze. There’s one that’s black.(…) And then we have the wheel, it’s called the empty Canyon, which is quickly becoming a very popular wheel in our lineup. And it’s kind of got that Mickey Thompson kind of kidney bean style. A lot of folks with not only Wranglers and Gladiators, but also the new Broncos too, that kind of want that classic look, maybe to pair with the raised white letter MTZs or EXPs.
(…)
Hard to beat the look of the MT Canyons with the raised white letter Mickey’s looks pretty awesome. And then we have a big, basically a fake bead lock version of that called the MT Canyon Pro, which is available in black, polished and bronze. And then we have our new open five wheel, which is a no nonsense, just kind of a plain Jane five spoke. I think you have to have those. Yeah, something simple.(…) Yep, yep. So we’ve got that.
(…)
I know Blake, our wheel manager, is working on some awesome stuff to show off at SEMA this year. And then we’re working on some stuff that’s a little more rock crawling competition stuff. And what Blake’s trying to do, just kind of like we do with the tires, is he’s really trying to understand what everybody’s pain points are, right? So you’re in competition and you got to change the tire really quick and you get your impact and your socket out. And there’s rocks and sand crammed in that hole where the lug nut goes. Maybe you better have something that’s a little more open or man, with my bead locks, I broke off a bolt in it. Now I got a HeLaCoil or a repair it or whatever. Just trying to think of all different kinds of things to make it.(…) When we do come out with something that’s a little more extreme, we’re blowing people’s minds. We’re like, finally, somebody came out with something, they actually listened to it. Well, it’s the difference between a one time, two time sale and a lifetime person that’s gonna buy it from now on. And of course you want those reoffenders.(…) Yeah, absolutely. So I know Blake’s had a lot of fun with the wheel stuff and I’m really excited to see what he comes up with. Wheels are short and important. I mean, that’s one of the biggest things you can do, really for any on road or off road vehicle, is putting them tires and then wheels on. It makes such a huge difference in the look of the vehicle. Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So yeah, so really excited to see what we kind of have to come. Right now, what we have in the lineup,(…) wheel widths, offset wise, it’s a little more, I don’t wanna say it’s a little more core enthusiast, right? So somebody that’s maybe gonna do a leveling kit or like a two inch lift on their Jeep, maybe they’ll just wheel it occasionally. They don’t necessarily need the bead locks or whatever. It’s great wheel for them, right? But there is a large percentage of our customer base who do do a lot of wheeling and they want bead locks and they wanna be able to air them way down. And today we don’t have a wheel product for them. So we’re working on that stuff. Really, I was gonna ask you about proper, like the real bead locks. Let me ask you something really quick about the fake bead locks. And I haven’t looked at Mickey Thompson’s, but thing I’ve noticed is that the faux or fake bead locks, they don’t have as many fake bolts on them as the real bead locks do. And if you’re in the know, you go, oh, that’s not real. And the downside to it is, and people are gonna facepalm, I’m a functional and performance and functional or making it look good at the same time. I want to be able to remove that ring so I can color match it to the vehicle. Because I think it just looks neat. I don’t care if it gets rubbed off off road, I’ll touch it up. But I would think that the fake bead locks, you can’t remove the ring.
(…)
There was a point that we had a wheel it was called the classic lock. And it was a Fobi lock, but it did have a removable ring on it. And there was folks that like you said, they would,(…) well, we offered the rings in a bunch of different color finishes, which was a inventory nightmare.(…) But folks would custom color them, or like you were saying, they would do some,(…) just recreational wheeling, they’d scuff them up and be like, okay, no big deal, I’ll put a new ring on it when I take it to the show or something like that. So it was kind of a cool deal. Not available anymore, I’m taking it. That’s correct, yeah, yeah, yeah. But like I said, I know that Blake’s working on some stuff. So hopefully some cool stuff here to come. I’d love to come back and let us know about it. So let me ask you this, do you guys have anything, and this might be standard, I’m not aware of it though.(…) When people are looking at tires, quite often they’re looking at wheels, especially if they’re going to like 42s and things are, they’re not 12 and a half by 42s, they’re generally wider. Correct me on that if I’m wrong.(…) And it’s important, especially if you’re gonna be airing down that the width of your wheel is somewhat close to the width of the internal inside diameter of the tire. Otherwise it’s gonna pop off that bead if it’s not beadlocks. So do you guys have any recommendations on the site where you say, if you’re gonna be running this tire, we recommend this width wheel? Yeah,(…) absolutely. So there’s a body for light truck tires and P-metric tires. It’s called the Tire and Rim Association. And every year they put out a new publication. I’ve actually got their new yearbook right here.(…) And what that body does is they govern, okay, if you’re a tire manufacturer and you’re gonna do an LT 285, 75, 16, then these are your approved rim widths. This is your measuring rim. So when you publish dimensions on your website or in your literature, you need to have it on this size rim.
(…)
And when you say that it’s got this section width and this diameter, yada, yada, yada. And then they also say, okay,(…) so again, approved rim widths. This is the range of ODs that you’re allowed to have, section widths that you’re allowed to have, et cetera. And there’s a number of different things that they do. So we base our standards for the legend, the boss tires on those standards and the tire rim association handbook. So as an example,(…) same thing with loads as well, right? So for instance, every manufacturer that goes off of standard, let’s just say 35, 12, 50, 20, okay. If it’s a load range F, it’s gonna be a 125 load tire, okay.
(…)
If it’s a load range E, it’s gonna be a 121 load tire. That 121 equals 3,195 pounds, for example, okay. So they basically lay out the standards. When we publish those approved rim widths, they’re based on tire rim association standards. Or if it’s a non light truck or non P metric,(…) such as the case of some of the Baja Boss AT sizes, that’s based off of ETRTO, which is a European standards manual and they dictate that stuff. So they’re based off of those. And we really truly do want people to run the rim widths that are approved for the tires. And there’s even cases where we’ve brought out tire sizes specifically because this is a little more switching to the truck crowd east of the Rockies, but super popular to run 20 by 12, 22 by 12. That’s one of the more popular sizes with negative 44 offset. And so many people are cramming 305s or 1250s on those things. They’re not approved for them. And some people may do it for the clearance or because they like that stretch look or whatever, but it’s not approved. So for that reason, we offer some 1350s or 325s that are approved.(…) And just because we want people to do the right thing and that’s the right thing to do is to run the tire sizes that are for the approved rim width. Well, it’s better to make something that’s going to be successful for the customer than something that they might like the way it looks. A lot of people don’t know, have any clue what they’re doing. Yeah, I think it’s easier these days with internet. Back whenever I was doing this stuff and there was no internet, we were 10, 15 years or longer away from the internet. It was magazines that you went through. And to that end, I think this will be good. I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but I bet you have an answer.
(…)
What do you, your opinion, what would be the best tire Mickey Thompson tire wheel combo for a weekend warrior for a Jeep, a JL, LJ? No, a JL, that’s right.(…) And a JK because there’s people out there with JKs. Maybe they’ve bought them used and they haven’t been modified and they want to know what’s a good tire combo, tire wheel combo to put on there. Do you have any recommendations for that? I know, and I know the answer is it depends, but I’m talking about your personal feeling on it. I’ll try to make it easy. So when you’re doing your wheeling, what are you doing? Are you going in? It’s going to be mainly rock.
(…)
Rock, okay. I mean, the Baja Boss AT is really,(…) unless you’re doing some really, really rocky stuff, or you think you’re going to be encountering some mud, the Baja Boss AT. Average wheeler, yeah, average wheeler is not going to do anything extreme. But I’ve seen those tires go through some pretty awesome off-road conditions and they are truly impressive. Unless you are going to be again, encountering, unless you’re like running like an endurance off-road event, like an ultra four race, or doing some serious rocky rock crawling frequently,
(…)
or you’re going to be in muddy situations, or you just love the look of a voidy tire, the Baja Boss AT is hard to beat. It’s going to be the last one. And there’s a lot more women get involved in these things and they do not have a clue. And the men that they’re surrounded by don’t have a clue either. So that’s one of the reasons why I’m going this direction is because they would really like to know, they don’t want to get the wrong thing. Because it’s a huge investment.(…) And you don’t want to buy the wrong thing. And that’s why you do not get anything bigger than what the stock wheel size is, in my opinion, for the JL and the JT. And I think even the JK it’s 17 inches. I’d rather it be 15, frankly, but you have to fit it around the brake calipers.
(…)
Yeah,(…) grind on your calipers. No, don’t do that. It’ll clear self clearance. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but really, I mean, for the JKs and the JLs, so what we do is we tell people, first of all, find a lift manufacturer that you want to work with. So for instance, AccuAir, a lot of their kids, their kids for the JLs and the JKs, they say you can do 37, 1250s, okay? So perfect example.(…) As long as you don’t mind it taking a flare off, you know, if you go straight, you can put a lot bigger size tire. I’m sorry, go ahead. Yeah, no, no, no, you’re good, you’re good. But like for the, especially the JLs and stuff, but like what I would do is find the lift manufacturer you want to go with, you know, BDS, AccuAir, Fabtech, you know, whoever you like, do your research and find a brand that you trust.
(…)
And then take a look at what lift kits they have available and most of the reputable lift manufacturers these days, they will publish right on the website, okay? You want to look at this two and a half inch lift kit for your JL, we suggest you run a 35, 1250 on a four and a half inch backspace wheel, perfect. So then once you have that information, you know which lift kit you’re going to go with, then you go tire shopping, right?(…) Baja Boss AT is going to get it done for most folks, okay? Again, unless you either love to avoid your appearance, you’re going to be in any kind of muddy conditions or anything like that, or you’re going to be in some heavy rock conditions or some high endurance stuff.(…) The Boss AT will do it, if not, I’d go to the Baja Boss MT. Both have the Power Play XD construction, so very, very, very, very durable sidewalls. They both have the big side biters on the Boss AT, Light Truck Sizes and the Baja Boss MT. So not only attractive visually, but that’s going to give you some extra traction when you are in some soft media, or if you’re going through some rocks and you need that sidewall to work for you, it’s going to give you some extra traction there as well.
(…)
Sounds like a great Moab tire. So if you’re thinking about, I’d really like to go to ETS, because that’s kind of the Jeep Mecca. Boss AT. This would get you, I mean, you can go out there in a stock Jeep and do everything you need to do. But of course, you want to have the look and it doesn’t hurt to have the performance. So yeah, this is perfect.
(…)
Yeah, that’s a tire. It’s got a 50,000 mile limited treader warranty on the Light Truck Sizes, hard metric sizes of 60,000 mile.
(…)
Sizes 1250 in there or a 315 in there, or a three peak mountain snowflake certified. So if you ever are in some wintery conditions, things are beast in the snow.
(…)
And kind of a- And this would be for JL or JK is what I’m hearing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And we, I mean, we even have a number of 15 and 16 sizes too for people that got TJs and YJs and CJs and stuff like that too, that want to run. They want to get maximum sidewall height for flex.
(…)
And we have some great sizes there too. And if you look at our wheel lineups, I mean, really like for the five on five, unless you’ve got tons or something like that. But if you’ve still got the stock JK, JL bolt pattern, gladiator bolt pattern, five on five,
(…)
17 by nines, four and a half inch back space, pretty much across the board.
(…)
We’ve got sizes in our different wheels. So at that point, it comes down to more aesthetics. What look do you want? We do have a number of options. I think you said you had some black ones, right?
(…)
That’s correct, yeah. Yeah, the, let’s see. But they’re all alloy. You don’t have any steel wheels.
(…)
Correct, yeah. There was a short period of time where we did have steel wheel too, and there was actually two designs and we brought them in, we released them. And I think we had them in the market maybe a month or two and we were very unhappy with the quality of the product. So we pulled them off the market and there was nothing technically wrong with them per se. It’s just they took a lot of weight to balance and we’re just like, if we’re gonna have our name on something, we can’t do this. Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah. So it just, it didn’t work out. Not to say we wouldn’t do it again, but probably not anytime soon. So I recommend the black ones because I think that you should be drawing the attention to the Jeep itself.(…) Especially if you’ve got a Jeep talk show sticker, you don’t want to detract them with shiny wheels. And also there’s a bit of an off-road cred. Even if you don’t go off-road, like I always tell people, sidesteps, that tells everybody that you’re not going off-road. And there’s a practical reason for not having them, even if you’re not planning on going off-road, there’s a practical reason for not having them hang down. There’s always an emergency situation and you gotta, something that could save your life or get you home and head them, everybody else, all the civilians I call them. But now you have sidesteps, so that telephone pole that you want to go over is, might hang you up. And there’s nothing more embarrassing than being a Jeep and being stuck.
(…)
Yeah, right. Or broke.(…) Unless you got the tools to fix it, then you’re in good shape. And I think some people honestly live for that. They’re like, yeah, I get to work on my Jeep on the trail. So you guys do wheels and tires. Anything else that Mickey Thompson,
(…)
Mickey Thompson Tires.com has on the site?
(…)
We do have some apparel.(…) And then we also have tubes. If you have a drag vehicle, you need tubes for your bias ply tires. We got those as well. But yeah, we are working on some other stuff. I was working on my tubes when I was working on my bicycle.(…) Oh yeah, for sure. I was in elementary, yeah.
(…)
For sure, yeah. You guys don’t do anything with internal beadlocks or anything, do you?
(…)
No, not at this time. But you can do that. If you wanted to have the beadlock look, you could get the fake beadlocks and put an internal beadlock that actually is better than beadlocks because it attaches or puts pressure on both beads, both internal and external. So it’s even more friction to keep that tire from spinning on the wheel.
(…)
Yeah,(…) in addition to the stuff we have for light trucks, SUVs, et cetera, we also have, so we have our Baja Pro X line, which was originally developed for kind of like the rock bouncer segment.(…) But we also have six sizes in that for side by sides as well. We have two 30s, two 32s and two 35s for 14 and 15 inch wheels.(…) And those things, they’re pretty nasty.(…) They’re kind of more for nasty situations. Or if you want to stand out from everybody else, it’s got a side by side out there, but they’re basically a baby rock bouncer tire. So they’re pretty cool. Neat, so you guys have quite a few things as we will expect from anything with Mickey Thompson tires, mickeythompsontires.com. I just realized I hadn’t said that very much, but I think everybody knows where you guys are to start with. Well, really, really cool. So where can people see you? Are you going to be at SEMA this year or are you going back out off road?
(…)
That’s the plan. I think we’re going to risk the job by bending one of the Mickey Thompson vehicles.
(…)
(Laughing) No, so this year,
(…)
we as a company are going to be at several events.(…) I know that we’re going to be going to,(…) was it Smokey Mountain?
(…)
Toledo Jeep Fest? We just interviewed Jerry Hubbard the other day for Toledo Jeep Fest. Nice, nice. Chris, I mentioned Chris earlier. Chris is probably going to be out there. He usually camps out under the bridge, which to me sounds very, very horrible. But according to– It’s quite adventurous. Yeah, according to Jerry and Chris, it’s nice. It’s a nice place to camp. It’s not like a troll situation.(…) Yeah, perfect.
(…)
So are you going to be there at Toledo Jeep Fest or is this Mickey Thompson?(…) So I think our assistant product manager is going to go check it out. I am going to be at two, I’m going to be at the four wheel jamboree in Bloomberg
(…)
in July, probably sweating like crazy. But it’s always a great event. It’s such a,
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gosh, you want to talk about a diverse collection of enthusiast owned trucks, Jeeps, et cetera. I mean, there’s anything you could want is out there. I mean, there’s people that have diesels with tons of power under the hood and custom wheels hanging way out. There’s Jeep clubs out there and everything in between. There’s classic trucks and honestly, people are great. Everybody’s having, it seems like they have a great time. So we’re going to be, I’m going to be there at that. And then there’s a Jeep four wheel jamboree in Danville as well. So we’ll be there at that one too. And then yeah, at SEMA and we got some awesome stuff to show off at SEMA Lord Willen. So, Matt, you can get back after SEMA and then you can tell us all about it. So I forgot to ask this EVs are coming. There’s quite a few EVs out there. Tesla’s starting to making a lot of EVs and a lot of people don’t understand. You guys may not have an EV product though. So if you don’t just say so, but a lot of people are learning that get EVs that the tire wear is different because of the weight. Are you guys doing anything with EV tires or do you have already have something that suffices for EVs?
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So we don’t have an EV specific product line, but for a lot of our tire sizes,
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I would say that the majority of our tire sizes,(…) if we have option CDEF,(…) we will go towards the higher load. So the load carrying capacity isn’t as much of an issue.(…) However, there are several sizes that are important to the core enthusiasts, 35, 12, 80, 17, 37, 12, 80, 17, 40, 13, 50, 17, 42, 44, et cetera, where we on purpose will offer a lower load because we know that the consumer is gonna be using those things.
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Their preference is a C or a D or they don’t need the tire necessarily overbuilt to pull a camper down the road. They’re gonna be doing some rock crawling, whatever. So from a load carrying capacity,
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I don’t wanna say we have it covered because every size is different, but that’s definitely something they’re gonna wanna pay attention to. With our tires, I mean, we do have 50,000 miles for the warranty on the Boss AT and Legend EXP. If there’s EV truck consumers out there using them, I don’t believe we’ve got a lot of, we’ve issued a lot of credits to them on wear.(…) To be honest with you, I have not heard a peep from an EV consumer that our tires are wearing too quick. Good.(…) That’s one of the great things too, just for anybody that’s following your program here is, we’re a pretty small company.
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Well, that’s interesting. I didn’t think that at all. Yeah, 60, 70 employees.
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And we have a tech line that it’s either Ben, Cassie, or Mark that you’ll get when you call in. And then we also have a Motorsports group as well. But if you ever have any questions on anything or you have any feedback for us,(…) please let them know and it’ll make its way to the product team. And that’s one of the reasons that,
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so we always wanna get feedback from people is what I’m saying. And one of the reasons why, for instance, our Baja Boss X and our Baja Pro X are available to anybody that wants to buy them. Unlike our competitors, some of our competitors, you can’t go buy their race spec tire. You have to have a relationship with them. The reason we do that is so that we can get feedback from all these people that are using them, right?
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For instance, the Baja Boss X, that tire is on its fourth generation since we introduced it in 2020. It’s changed four times.
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And the reason for those changes, it is based on feedback from anything from a recreational rock crawler that’s got a TJ with a little two-five in it and a ton of gear all the way up to a full-blown 4400 race car. And we wanna get everybody’s feedback on these things and make them the best they can be. So we’ve continued to just tweak and change compounds and constructions and add this and take this away or whatever to make it the best product it can be. So if anybody has any thoughts, comments on our products, sizes you’d like to see, things you’d like, hey, man, I love this tire, but it’s doing this, let us know. Send us an email.
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You can call in, like I said, we’ll talk to Ben, the other Ben, Ben Cassidy or Mark. Ben, the other Ben has to change his name. We’ll just say that right now. Can’t have more than one Ben.(…) Well, I’m known as Benny throughout the office, known as Ben.
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Well, that’s the question. So when Ben answers the phone, say, is this Ben or Benny? And then they’ll go, oh, this guy knows what they’re talking about. Yeah. So let me ask you this.
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And this is kind of off the wall question. This is actually comes from people that I’ve interviewed some side conversations I’ve had with people. And I don’t know that you’re the go-to person for this, that people would go to for this, but how bad is the influencer free stuff? Hey man, can you hook me up? I’m an influencer. I’ve got three followers on Instagram and I’m tearing it up.(…) What I would say is. I’m not saying how you get to, I’m just wondering how much you have to deal with that because everybody wants free stuff. Oh, good. I don’t deal with it all until we get to the point that, so we actually have a brand manager and all this stuff gets vetted by our brand manager.(…) And really, I mean, we get so many requests that she, I mean, she really has to take a look and everybody, just because you’re not on Instagram or YouTube or Facebook doesn’t mean you’re not influential, right? You just have to, you have to sell it. How are you influential, right? So usually once we get through that point that Janet says, yes, let’s work together, she will reach out to the product team and say, hey, take a look at this person. Let’s see,(…) let’s talk about something that can benefit them but then how they can benefit us as well, right? So I’m kind of part of, I don’t wanna say I’m part of the vetting process,
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but I kind of am, right? So we get, we develop a new product, okay? Let’s just call it the Baja Boss X2 or something like that, right? And I wanna get the word out there that we have this new product, right? So I’ll probably wanna partner with some recreational rock crawlers and maybe some people that do We Rock and some people that do Ultra Four, whatever,
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because it’s not,(…) car magazines aren’t necessarily the way that manufacturers are getting the word out anymore. Not to say that they still aren’t. I mean, I got a stack of magazines here behind me,
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but the world’s changing, so you gotta get the word out through podcasts, through YouTube,(…) through people that are going to every single race that maybe people look up to or shops that build vehicles, you know? So there’s a lot of that, but we do get a lot of people that ask for sure. Oh yeah, yeah, I can imagine. This is like, “Hey, how you doing? “Hey, can I have some free shit? “Oh, hang on, let me transfer this call.”(…) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There’s nothing at all wrong with asking. No, no, because you don’t know who it is. You have to qualify them. Is there a, and I don’t wanna make it bad for you guys, but is there a way? I mean, you said it doesn’t matter if they’re big YouTube or, I would assume though that if you’re providing product for promotion, that they need to be able to video or to show some stuff somewhere(…) to help advertise the product. Yeah, you need to be able to justify it for sure. And there are different tools that our brand manager uses to say, “Okay, is this person, “are they delivering on what we expected them to deliver on “or maybe over-delivering or whatever?” And she works with them and stuff like that, which is great. But yeah, I would just- Should I bleep her name out of the interview?(…) Right. Hey, yeah, hey Ben, can I talk to Janet?
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(Laughing) Yeah, I would just say as long as they, whoever’s applying, as long as they’re not just like, “Hey, I’m gonna be at SEMA, can I get some free tires?” No, sorry.(…) You need to be able to sell it, right? Oh yeah. What you’re gonna do, you know? And if you don’t know what you’re doing, I’m not saying don’t try. You have to start someplace. It’s a learning experience, but don’t be upset whenever you don’t, it doesn’t work out. Right. It’s not the last chance either. Go out there and sell yourself. All right, Ben, well, you know how the kids love the social media? They love looking at the pictures, and I’m one of them, I’m not a kid, but I love just looking at the pictures. Where can they find you guys on the social media?(…) Yeah, so mickeythompsontires.com is our website. Facebook would be mickeythompsontiresandwheels.(…) Instagram would be mickeythompsontires and then YouTube mickeythompsontires as well. And I would say for anybody that’s into the techy stuff, definitely follow our YouTube. I know that we’re gonna be putting more and more stuff out there that’s a little more techy.
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Also, if you go to our website, mickeythompsontires.com, we also have a frequently asked questions section, as well as the tech bulletin section. There are a lot of great stuff out there on our product. And then again, going back to Ben, Cassidy, and Mark, they’ve been with our company for a number of years. I think that says a lot about the company. I mean, I thought that was really cool that you had been there 19 years. Has the company ever been sold or is it still the mickeythompson?(…) Yeah, so the company was originally created by Gene McManus and Mickey Thompson. Mickey Thompson did the R&D and the testing and the promotion. Gene McManus was the engineer, okay? Gene McManus was the engineer for Goodyear, okay? And they actually partnered, they met when Mickey was doing his land speed racing stuff, right? So the two of them started the company in 1963.
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And throughout the years, the company was eventually owned by Gene’s son, Lee McManus, who sold the company to Cooper Tire, I believe in 2003.(…) So Mickey Thompson based right here in the States was then sold to Cooper Tire based out of Finley, Ohio.
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And then just in the last few years,
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Cooper was acquired by Goodyear also based out of– Oh, it’s then full circle.
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Yeah, exactly. So Gene McManus, Goodyear engineer today, Goodyear. And the cool thing is Goodyear has left Mickey Thompson. We’re a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. So we’re owned by Goodyear, but we’re still our own organization.
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And Goodyear, just like Cooper, Cooper was awesome to work with and he still are. There’s still a lot of good Cooper folks that now work for the Goodyear Cooper organization,(…) but there’s a ton of good folks at Goodyear as well. And it’s been awesome. All I can hear you is it wasn’t bought by some equity investment firm. And people start, critical people start to have, they start shedding critical people.(…) And since you’ve been there 19 years, I’m thinking that the company was still the original owner, but it changes. I know it can change like that, but it sounds like it’s been good changes. It’s been awesome. And I’ll tell you that there are, what’s really cool is there was some uncertainty when Cooper was bought by Goodyear, but there are, first of all, a lot of intelligent, just generally good people with that company, but a lot of enthusiasts as well. And they really, really dig the Mickey Thompson brand, which is cool.
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So that’s pretty awesome. And our manufacturing, so for the Baja Legend products, the Baja Boss products and the Baja Pro tires,
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our plants are in Pennsylvania, Arkansas,(…) Tennessee,(…) and Ohio.
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So that’s where the tires are made into types. A nice USA company,(…) manufactured in the US. That’s, I like that.(…) No tariff concerns at all.
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Unless we’re trying to sell tires out of the country. Oh, but those people don’t matter.
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It’s Americans, damn it. All right, yeah, I know. That’s my comment. It’s interesting. I was just in, actually Australia earlier this year. We actually have a big, big customer in Australia and it’s so interesting.
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In Australia, their regulations are totally different as far as what they can do to their vehicles, but that doesn’t stop them though. It is seriously, when I was leaving Brisbane there, when I first got into town,(…) it had to be one in every five vehicles,(…) had a snorkel coming out of the front fender, was lifted up an inch, two inches with aftermarket tires and wheels. And there are so many enthusiasts there, off-roaders and stuff. Now, like I said, it’s a very different conditions than here. You can’t just cruise around town on 44s and then go wheel on the weekends with the same rig. A lot of the rigs there are dedicated off-road and then that kind of limits,
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not everybody can have a dedicated off-road vehicle. But still, it’s cool to see the Mickey Love all over the world, but certainly there’s challenges, but it’s all good. So you probably know Dan Gregg. We had Dan Gregg recently, Dan Gregg on the episode recently. I think we’ve had him on five times and he’s from Australia and he may deny it, but I believe that he left Australia simply so he could have a modified Jeep to drive around in.
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I can’t tell you how many people said that though in Australia. They’ve heard great things about the wheeling here in the States and they all say the same thing. They’re just like, “Oh man, if I could have a whatever with a four inch lift, a six inch lift and 37s or 40s or what, they’re just like, “I mean, that’s so cool.” But they give us a prize over there too. We had a very active member on the show from New Zealand and getting to know Wayne, and Australia is very much the same. Of course they fight between New Zealand and Australia. But the thing that got me was getting to know Wayne and talking to him, basically he was an East Texas redneck with a funny accent.
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(Laughing) I mean, guns, Jeep, all kinds of stuff. This is just a great guy, you know? And he just has a funny accent. All right, Ben, thank you for putting up with me. It was a really fun conversation. We’ll have to have you back a lot sooner. If you guys are going back and looking for more Mickey Thompson information from this show, you can go back to episode 488, go all the way back to May of 2021.(…) So that was before we started doing standalone interviews.
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So you’ll have to skip ahead or listen to the entire episode. But yeah, our back catalog is huge. I mean, we’ve been doing this for 15 years now. And I think this is gonna be around 1320, episode 1320 for you. Awesome. Somewhere around that area. Ben, thank you so much. But I appreciate you making the time. Thank you, sir. Have a great weekend.
Broadcasting
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You’re my friend, you’re my new friend.