Max-Bilt’s Phil No-Modern-Mods Willys Adventures and Trails Off Road Stories! | Jeep Talk Show
Welcome to another thrilling episode of the Jeep Talk Show, where we dive deep into the heart of off-roading culture! In this episode, we sit down with Phil from Epic Willys Adventures to talk about their incredible journeys, from the iconic Moab trails to a transcontinental Canada-to-Mexico trip. No phones, no GPS, no interstates—just pure, old-school Jeep adventures in vintage Willys! 🛠️🌄 🔥 What’s in this episode? Epic stories from the road, including a Jeep in the kitchen and a wheel falling off mid-adventure! 😱 Insights into Epic Willys Adventures (EWA) and their hardcore, no-modern-mods approach to off-roading. Details on EWA 7, the upcoming 2026 event in middle America with bourbon, hills, and mountains! 🥃⛰️ Tips for keeping your Jeep battle-ready with Windshield Defense and G-Tops. A peek into Trails Off Road, the ultimate trail guide app built by passionate off-roaders. 🛡️ Protect Your Jeep with Windshield Defense Don’t let a cracked windshield stop your adventure! Windshield Defense by Racing Optics is a triple-layer, race-tested protector that’s like a screen protector for your Jeep’s windshield. Installs in under 30 minutes and lets you peel off chips or scratches for a fresh start. Made in the USA for over 25 years! 🇺🇸👉 Save 20% with code JTS20 at windshielddefense.com. Free shipping in the US! 🗺️ Discover Trails with Trails Off Road Find your next off-road adventure with Trails Off Road, the app built by enthusiasts for enthusiasts. With detailed trail guides, vehicle recommendations, obstacle photos, videos, advanced difficulty ratings, and camping locations, it’s your go-to for verified trails.👉 Subscribe now and use code JTS15 for 15% off at trailsoffroad.com. Support the companies that support the Jeep Talk Show! ☀️ Let the Light In with G-Tops Love the open-air Jeep vibe? G-Tops lets you enjoy the outdoors rain or shine with easy-to-install, light-filtering tops. Transform your Jeep experience for less than $1,000!👉 Get 25% off with code 25OFF at gtops.com. Contact them at 414-350-6006. 🛠️ About Epic Willys Adventures From a one-bedroom house to a premier axle and gear shop, Phil’s passion for Jeeps started in a kitchen and grew into Max Built Off Road. Hear how he turned his love for vintage Willys into epic cross-country adventures, tackling challenges like engine swaps and roadside fixes with no modern tech. Follow Epic Willys Adventures on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube for more Jeep action! 🚗💥 🔔 Subscribe to Jeep Talk Show for more off-road stories, tips, and gear reviews! Hit the bell icon so you never miss an episode.💬 Comment below: Have you taken your Jeep on an epic adventure? Share your stories!👍 Like & Share: Support the Jeep community by sharing this episode with your fellow Jeepers! #JeepTalkShow #EpicWillysAdventures #Off Welcome to Jeep Talk Show, the ultimate podcast for Jeep enthusiasts! Join Tony, and, the crew as we dive into off-road adventures, Jeep Wrangler 392 updates, Jeep Gladiator camping, and the Jeep Cherokee relaunch. From $130K Jeep resale trends to Gladiator tent reviews, we cover Jeep modifications, off-road gear, and events like Easter Jeep Safari and Great Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion. Get expert Jeep 4xe towing tips, lightweight truck camper insights, and off-road trail guides for Jeeps. Subscribe for weekly Jeep news, join our community at jeeptalkshow.com/discord, and hit the trail with us! 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! #Jeep Talk Show, #Jeep podcast, #off-road podcast, #Jeep community, #Jeep off-roading, #Jeep Wrangler, #Jeep Gladiator, #Jeep news, #Jeep modifications, #Jeep accessories, #off-road adventures, #Jeep events, #Jeep 4xe, #Wrangler 392, #Jeep camping, #Jeep trails, #Jeep Wrangler 392, #$130K Jeep resale, #Jeep infotainment bricking, #TuneOutdoor Gladiator tent, #RealTruck trail access 2025, #Jeep Gladiator camping, #lightweight truck camper, #$13K Jeep camper, #Jeep Cherokee relaunch 2025, #Great Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion, #Easter Jeep Safari 2025, #Jeep Badge of Honor app, #women off-road Jeep podcast, #Chic Chat Jeep podcast, #Jeep off-road gear reviews, #best Jeep accessories 2025, #Jeep 4xe towing tips, #off-road trail guides for Jeeps
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Hot ale, boys and girls, it’s time for another Jeep talk show interview. We’re gonna be talking
(Explosion)
off road in his kitchen back in 2007. Did the wife say anything to you about the Jeeps being in the kitchen and the kitchen? And I think that’s a good question. I think that’s a good question. Back in 2007, did the wife say anything to you about the Jeeps being in the kitchen and many, many things was that I can well imagine my mother in law and father in law were visiting when I had Atlas two speed on the kitchen, you know, that center thing in the kitchen. And it was brand new. So you know, it’s fine for it to be in the kitchen. I was just messing with it and putting the shifter and stuff on it, just enjoying looking at it, you know, and I had not told my wife how much I spent for that. And she didn’t ask. My mother in law said, how much was that?
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No, they all found out at the same time.
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That’s never good. Oh, I loved it. She didn’t know I’ve been saying about it. But you know, it’s like it’s a lot of money. I mean, certainly the mother in law thought it was a lot of money, but they knew how I was about my Jeep that actually went into a Cherokee that that I got tired of the chain stretching in the in the MP 242.(…) I think it was. I love that transfer case. It was so nice where you could drive around four wheel drive when it was raining and stuff out. But that damn chain after 80,000 miles, I think I put three chains in there. One day I said, the hell with it. I’m just I’m going no chain. So yeah, Atlas.(…) At any rate, back to the intro, not my story. Phil knew he needed a product to be able to travel to the big off-road shows like EJS and Moab. So he developed Max Belt Trail Tail LED trail lights, tail lights, trail lights sounded good to from his passion came a passion for old Willy’s Jeeps and a desire to give them a second shot at life. Epic Willy’s adventures was created a group of Jeep buddies and started a pilgrimage to Moab the first year, a transcontinental trip from Canada to Mexico, the next trip. And he had traversed the Oregon Trail and several other locations in the U.S. The rules, no phones, no GPS, no interstates. You were hiding from the wife. I know what you were doing coming off the run following a mitten of Michigan in June of 2025. EWA 7 is being planned for mid 2026. I do not know what EWA 7 is. Can you tell us what that is? So that is our Epic Willy’s adventure. That makes sense. Our seventh event.(…) And yeah, we’re in the planning stages right now.(…) I can say that it’ll be in middle America.(…) There’ll be bourbon involved and some some hills and mountains.(…) Really looking forward to it. But we haven’t got all the specifics kind of hammered out yet, but it’s gonna be a good one. Okay, so are roll bars for the Willis approved or not approved? How hardcore are you guys? So we’re pretty hardcore.(…) And the rules as far as like no modifications to the Jeeps are like, if you could prove that in the 40s or 50s, something like this was built or done, we’re all for it. We’re just trying to get away from fuel injection and you know, like the the major modifications that kind of happen. Part of the fun is having slightly unreliable vehicles and being put in predicaments to be able to figure it out. I mean, we don’t do a ton of wheeling. It’s not super technical.(…) But you get the same kind of effect that you could have on a 12 hour trail in Moab. That’s really difficult work. Now you’re at(…) instead of a new rock section that you have to try to get all technical about, you’re wondering, why don’t I have spark?(…) You know, are my valves misadjusted? Am I going to be? What am I going to what do I have around me to put the wheel? But you know, we had once we had a I was a Zorgon trail, it was me. So I can speak to it pretty openly. But I had a wheel fall off going down the road. And the lugs were all trashed.(…) And so it’s like, well, what are we going to do? We’ll add a drill, add a bolt kit. So I drilled through the hub and the drum. So on those, I mean, you’re taking off basically the whole spindle assembly. To be able to get the mounting surface, there was like one or two good lug nuts, we put those on that we drilled. That’s all you need.(…) And then and then yeah, I think if there was two, I would have let it rip. So there must have only been one. And we ended up drilling three holes in it and putting nuts and bolts, just bolted it right to the drum assembly. Yeah, yeah, it worked. And to be honest, that was one of those temporary fixes that I’ll repair when I get back. Well, that was Oregon Trail. We’ve done the Concord Cup, the moonshine round and the mitten race. Oh, you’re pressing your luck, man. They look good. There you go. Good work. Good work on the side of the road.(…) So you mentioned unreliable.(…) So I’m just kind of curious, did you consider Land Rovers at any point?
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The epic Land Rover adventure.(…) I mean, we’ve talked, we’ve talked all kinds of it. We’ve talked about doing a weekend lawnmower event. Oh, yeah, it’d be good. You know, but the the wheelies for us, you know, in 2016, when we were in my shop here in Eau Claire and working late on Adam’s wheelies with a couple other buddies, myself, Mark Strangfeld and Adam, and we’re just kind of like, Oh, we should take a trip. We should take a trip. We’ve been and it felt like every night we were working on it, we were saying that. So finally, I was like, God, we’re taking a trip. We’re going to drive these things from we’re going to drive them to EJS next year. And I think we did I think that was like three months away.(…) So we’re like, Okay, we called a few of our vendors that we use and kind of told them about it. And being in the industry being a manufacturer, you kind of know that there’s some brand partnerships and support that you can get from guys and say, Hey, we’re, we got a hair brand idea. It could be great. It could be terrible.
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It’s a win win either way for those guys. Yeah, exactly. Because like all press is good press. That’s right. And so we decided that was what we were going to do. We mapped out a route leaving the shop.
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Went down through Missouri, Southern Kansas, Colorado,(…) got did like Wolf Creek Pass and stopped it like oddities along the way saw the world’s largest electric shovel, the world’s largest hand dug well,(…) goofy stuff like that. So really, road trip theme. But I mean, we realized how crazy of a trip that it can be 75 miles in when Adam’s engine blew up. And we’re on the side of the highway going,(…) was this a good idea?(…) And of course not. Yeah, the adventure. Exactly. So somebody bumped into us at a gas station that knew a Jeep guy, they made a phone call.(…) Pretty soon. We had a new engine. By the next morning, we had a new engine being brought down from someone on a still water, Minnesota.(…) And somebody opened up their garage for us to be able to do an engine swap and they’re cooking food, big potluck, G clubs came around.
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That was what I was like. It’s a memory. It’s a wonderful, it’s rough at the time. But it’s just this wonderful memory of people coming together and just making it happen. And it’s really neat.(…) Yeah. And so we have stories like that, like I said, for all across the country.(…) Every event is just I mean, you could write a novel on each one, you could do a mini doc on each one.
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And it’s nonstop. And it’s wild how even like the littlest hiccup in the way that they’re running makes your brain go from like everything’s great to zero to 50. You’re really, really Yeah. Yeah. I know what you’re saying. What’s that noise? And then it’s the vehicle next to you. Right? Yeah. Yeah.(…) But by the end of it, you’re like, what’s that noise? Who cares?
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Yeah. Yeah. So do you guys and I get the feeling the answer to this is no, do you guys have any chase vehicles or parts vehicles or anything that follows along? So for the first three events, we did not have any sort of chase vehicles at all.(…) And then after our Oregon trail route,(…) it just the snowball kept growing bigger.(…) We had we never really
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allowed as the wrong word, but we’ll use it like outsiders to come into it because it was so rag tag invited. It sounds better invited. Yeah, we didn’t we didn’t invite much of the general public to because it looked great on social media.(…) But man, when you’re in it, it’s high stress people, you know, it’s a real life reality TV show. And so I didn’t want to subject people to that based on maybe what they felt they were seeing online. And I think it takes a special person to be able to know like, like, when when she hits the fan,(…) it’s it’s just you and the crew around you. It’s all hands on deck. It’s not Yeah, I’m not you can’t be sleepy, hungry, weepy, you needed to know bitchy, you need to get in there and help. Yeah, get it done. And so a lot of people don’t do that, because including me, we’re comfortable right here in the air conditioning.
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You get back to Cherokee. I mean, yeah, I get it. Yeah.(…) So it was. But after the third event, you know, the first one, again, was from Eau Claire to Moab. Very cool. Then the second one was Canada, Mexico along the continental divide.(…) So it was all mountain towns.(…) It was absolutely incredible.(…) The wildlife, everything. And then, you know,(…) St. Or Kansas City to Oregon City on the Oregon Trail route. Also, super epic, very, very historic.(…) And then on that one, we had our our first, we didn’t have a follow vehicle, but we did have a lead vehicle to get us through Wyoming. We we(…) we had Bob Leibenhagen from TNT Customs.(…) Who knows that that land, like the back of his hand,(…) kind of escorted us kind of like a like an old, you know, Native American guy. He was kind of our guide getting us through that and which was fantastic.(…) And then after that, we just kind of decided, well, let you know what, let’s make this a thing. So we opened it up to the public. We charge a fee.(…) Basically, it’s a it’s a vacation. You know, we’re we’re going to put together a really involved.(…) I mean, you get to just immerse yourself in the Willys culture and what we’ve been building over the years.(…) And so we modified some things a bit. We made it more of a race or a rally, if you will. So each day, there’s little competitions and there’s way to collect points. We allow the riders to have cell phones now, not to communicate, but to be able to document.(…) And so there’s a little bit of the honor system there. And people are pretty good about it, because they like the idea they want to unplug, they want to see if they can do it.
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And, you know, we go through a pretty take their son apart, they won’t have a choice. Right? Yeah, exactly.(…) And so it, you know, we there’s a screening process, if you will, it’s pretty it’s pretty low key. But at the same time, like I want to make sure that everybody’s going to be able to kind of jive. Oh, yeah. Well, you don’t want one guess, so to speak, making it difficult for everybody else. Exactly. And you have to spend a lot of time with that guest. And then ultimately, you have to bury him in the desert, which no exactly which nobody likes. Yeah, I know. We’ve only had to do that a few times.(…) But we shortened the total mileage so that we, you know, because two weeks. Oh, that’s a long time. That’s a long time. It’s a lot. It’s a lot of investment for people to take away from their lives, too. So which the trips are usually about 10 days.(…) And, you know, we have seven on the road, and then three days typically at some sort of event. Well, that’s a good amount of time to really get immersed into the adventure. It’s not like a weekend or a three day thing. No, it’s you’re putting miles on, you know, that first one that we did where people kind of came in. We started at in Butler, PA at the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival.
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And, you know, we had like our own encampment. So the showgoers could come check out our rigs and then we could last minute fixes before we get on the road. And then we would, you know, we do the big loop and then we ended back at in Butler and then we kind of took off. But for that event, we did two things differently. One was we hired a camp chef. So he would cook breakfast and dinners. Army travels on its stomach. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So we allowed them to have a gladiator because we wanted them to be able to, you know, we couldn’t wait for food. Yeah, we want the food to be good, not angry. Yeah, we don’t want angry food.(…) So we did that. And then we also had a truck and trailer that would follow around.(…) Again, people are making an investment. We don’t want them 700 miles away from the start without with no plan.(…) And so we first year, well, we did use it.
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And then the second one was our moonshine run. We started in Butler, same place, but we went south. And kind of through Appalachia.(…) And we had a truck trailer there. But then on our most recent one for the mitten race, which was the perimeter of the, well, we did go over the bridge, but basically we were staying under the bridge of the mitten. And we had a lot of friends and a lot of good people around there that kind of stationed that we knew that we could reach out to if there was an emergency.(…) So we decided to kind of pull back from having the truck and trailer this time, but still did the camp chef, which actually was me this year. Our typical camp chef was, he could not make it because of just, he had a lot going on and conflict in schedule. So well, this is a legitimate chef or to somebody that said they could cook. Oh no, like, no, for his is he’s, he’s as legit as it gets. Yeah. He’s phenomenal,(…) especially with camp meals. He’s a camp cookie. And he learned a lot from Bob Levenhagen, who is also, if you’re not familiar with, uh, for exploring, uh, Bob, Bob does some pretty awesome events where you can, he’ll take you to the ends of the earth and, and feed you real well while doing it. So I’ve been blessed to be able to be on a few of his trips as well, which is where I got some of my cooking prowess and I just like to cook food. So it worked out for me that I got to be the, the shoe in. So it sounds like it’s a really, really fun event, especially if there’s good eats, because you know, you can, you can put up with a lot if you know, there’s going to be a good meal coming up. Uh, you know what I’m saying? And then, uh, the thing I’m curious about is I know the Michigan event here in the intro says it was in June. Is this always happening in June? Is it, is it hot? Is it sunny whenever you do these things? It, it, well, it’s a lot of times it’s hot. It’s sunny. We, we were, the first one was in March. The second one, I think was in August on the continental divide because we wanted it warm,(…) but we were battling all kinds of weather on that one.(…) Um, Oregon was in the summer and it was brutally 120 degrees going across Nebraska. That was, that was nuts.(…) Um, do you have any covers on the, on the Willys on the Willis? So mine’s a truck. Mine’s a Willis truck. Um, a lot of the guys have, you’re making fun of me in the Cherokee. Uh, I just want to point that out. Oh, you can ride with me and you can tell me if they’re the same.(…) Uh,(…) but it, you know, a lot of the guys have flat fenders too that don’t have cabs. Some of the guys have flat fenders that have the half cabs. Um, everybody has a little bit, uh, a little bit of something. Uh, the, the cool thing about the event too is like, we’re not looking for fully restored, incredibly pristine rigs. Right. That’s great. I like that more. Yeah. It’s like more people can be involved that way. Well, it is affordable. We don’t care what kind of fix it is as long as you have a fix and you’re not just stuck on the side of the road going, somebody fix it for me. Now, granted, I get it. Sometimes you might be better at one thing than another. And that’s where a little bit of bartering and trading can happen. Um, but I like to see somebody take something that was forgotten about. It’s been under a tree forever. You know, now you give it a new lease on life that that old machine thought it was done for. And now you’re, now you’re doing, now it’s doing the coolest thing it’s ever done.(…) So great idea. Um, have you, uh, I would assume that you’ve never lost a Jeep where like it caught on fire or, uh, had to be abandoned or anything tragic like that. Yeah, we have. Oh, gee. So, uh, comment on the vibe trip. This is a funny story.(…) Uh, so we had them trailer it all the way out to, um, Montana and, uh, to Whitefish. And then the crew all met at my shop to the bus up to the train station. And then we took a train from, uh, St. Paul, Minnesota out to Whitefish, Montana. And that’s kind of how we started the trip. Everybody got to have some cocktails on the train and bond and, you know, have a good time.(…) Um, we get there.(…) Good night’s sleep. Get up the next morning. We’re going to go through Glacier National Park, hit the touch the Canadian border quick and then start heading south. And as we were going north, we drove by a family of, uh, grizzly bears and right by a campground, we said, man, I’m sure glad that we’re not staying by, uh, stay in this campground. Ha ha and we get up to the border, which was only 15 miles up there.(…) And one of the guys says, Hey, could you, uh,(…) could you listen to this?(…) And it happened as Jeep and listen to it. It was a three B high hood. So your motor stroke, that’s what that is. And it was a freshly rebuilt engine.(…) And so we drag it out until rope back down to the campground that we thought that we wouldn’t stay out with the bears circle the wagons do a little diag. At this point, it was shaked down for a lot of people. Some people were overheating. Some people had oil leaks to beat the band. Um, everybody was just kind of huddled around their own rigs. Uh, and, uh, and then they were, uh, we started to dig into that one motor and sure enough, we found pulled oil pan. Yeah. Uh, crank bearings were bad. Yeah. So, so, you know, got it, uh, kind of flopped back over into whitefish, found a guy left that person and his Jeep on that. He was, he lived in the guy owned a machine shop. Rob
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Thompson, I believe was his name. Rob, if I screwed that up, sorry. Uh, if I didn’t, thanks again. Um, but he owned a machine shop and it was a Jeep nut.(…) So we got the, we got the Jeep to shop.(…) Uh, I said, Cody, uh, this, they found some bearings. They were going to be a couple of days out and he’s like, I’ll just catch up. I was like, all right, bud. Well, best of luck to you. Um, I think that night, yeah, he went out for margarita Tuesday with Bob and ended up sleeping on his couch for a couple of days. They got it. And then we were in rangely, Colorado. We had made the trip
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further down.(…) Um,(…) and, uh,(…) all of a sudden we woke up one morning at six o’clock. We were, this is when we were responsible for our own meals. So people were stuffing their faces with whatever, but drinking lots of coffee. And, uh, all of a sudden this trucking trailer shows up. Well, Bob,(…) they, they put it back together. It still didn’t run perfect, but Bob didn’t feel comfortable(…) leaving Cody to his own devices. So he’s like, I’ll, I’ll haul you down to catch you up with your, with your crew, which was like a 12 hour drive. Right. And then to just turn around and go home
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and Cody unloads the Jeep and he’s ready for lineup at nine o’clock or whenever we take off. And, uh, we had it into meeker, Colorado and the stretch from rangely to meeker. I was probably 70 miles and I was in the lead. And then all of a sudden I hear, I hear something and I look over my shoulder and Cody is flying down, passing everybody. That thing was running like a rape date. But as he, as he passes my Jeep and he cuts back over in front of me, I look out his tailpipe at debris coming out of his tailpipe. And I was like, it looked like a spring. I had no idea, you know, we’re going whatever 35 miles an hour. Uh, and yep, he gets out of sight. You can hear it.
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Pulls over the side of the road. And by the time we all catch up to him, he’s just got his duffel bag out of it and he throws it in the back of Adam’s Jeep and sits on the back of Adam’s Jeep. And we leave it. We get into meeker to a gas station. He goes up to a guy with a truck and trailer and says, Hey,(…) what would it cost me to have you go pick up a Jeep? What do you mean?
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Well, it’s back there on the highway and the guy went and picked it up, brought it to his yard. And it sat in his yard for three months until we got done with the trip. Cody got home and was able to get a truck and trailer and go back out there. So yeah, we’ve, uh, we’ve had some catastrophic,
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uh, engine failures that resulted in abandonment. So I don’t know if, if how much detail you had on it, was the bearing not sized properly for the crank? Was the crank not turned? Or do you know why it just seems like a strange deal for a freshly rebuilt engine, uh, to have a main bearing issue if it was the main bearing. That’s the, that’s the way I heard it.
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Yeah.(…) I don’t remember. It’s not important. I’m just curious. I’m, uh, it just seems strange, especially the bottom end going like that. Well, it’s tough to breathe missing, you know, inside all the bearings and stuff. So the thing about these engines too, like we get a Magnaflux and there’s cracks and we’re pinning stuff.(…) Um, some of it, it’s just like this was before you could buy those brand new blocks. I was just going to ask you about that. If there was full replacements. No. So you’re just like, I don’t know. Like, Oh, let’s see what happens. Yeah. Yep. Are you block seal? We’ll try it. Yeah. Um, and
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I think that, I think we’ve had, we’ve had a few other, we call them code reds where, especially when we would have the trailer that, um, they just cannot go on, cannot be fixed, cannot be repaired. Well, Adam’s Jeep on that first trip. Um, we did that engine swap in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and with the new motor, we fired it up and there was a massive knock. Adam threw his hands up said, Nope, I’m jumping. I’m jumping in with Tyler. Well, what ended up happening on that one. And he didn’t find out until again, many weeks after goes down, he picks that back up and, um, he fired it back up again and had that same knock. And by the time he got to the end of the driveway is quieted right up. Well, the, the firing on the head gasket was not the right, not the right size was stamped wrong or something. And so the piston was hitting it. Well, the clearance itself. It did. Yeah. And I think that he ran that. He ran that for a hot minute, uh, with no issues.(…) So it likely would have been fine, but you don’t know in the moment. No, I don’t know that you’d want to risk it. I mean, if you’re really adventurous, sure.
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So, yeah. And then of course, that’s part of the thing here. If you have a good Lord, what an 80 year old Jeep, 60 year old Jeep, you never know what’s going to happen.(…) Yeah.(…) Yeah. I think you were right with the 80. Yeah. Could they, um, I can’t do math. They told me there’d be no math and doing podcasts.(…) So, uh, let me ask you this. So you, are you having another one or have you just had one? I mean, are you having another one this year?(…) So the one that we just got down in the mitten race, uh, that got done. That’s right. 2025. This is right. So we, so we did that a little bit differently too. Instead of starting at the, uh, Jeep heritage festival, we ended on her, which was kind of cool because then we were fresh off the road with tons of stories and able to share with lots of people.(…) Um, and, and so that was, that was exciting. Um, it was, it was a change up. And I think, like I said, next year, uh, we’ll be, we’ll be changing our, uh,(…) arrival and departure places a little bit. Um, just cause we’ve, we’ve kind of like, we’ve gone all the places we can go from, from Western PA.(…) So, um, but it was really cool. We were also able to tour the Jeep facility in Toledo. They opened it up to us. Yeah.(…) I know. Yeah. And that’s, they made that very, very clear that this is not a thing. Um, so we felt pretty honored to see the inner workings of everything. And, uh, Dana also, we got to tour the Dana plant. Um, I actually was helping a guy fix the Jeep. So I wasn’t able to do the Dana event, but the guys were really, really impressed with that. I bet you hated that. I thought the Dana is another great place. I mean, Dana has been in Jeep since the vehicles that you’re driving. So that’s just amazing.(…) Yeah.(…) So if, if people want to follow along or maybe they wouldn’t get involved in this with the, the Facebook, uh, group, I’m assuming it’s a group or a page, uh, Epic Willy’s adventure. Is that where they should go? Just do a search on Facebook for that. Yep. Yeah. You can, EWA Epic Willy’s adventure. Uh, it’s on Facebook. It’s on Instagram. We’ve got YouTube as well with a lot of, we’ve done some mini docs ourselves. I mean, they’re not perfect, but they’re pretty, they’re pretty darn good. Um, and, uh, you can really get a flavor for, uh, what, what we’re doing when we’re out, uh, making us racket all these old Jeeps. So what are the requirements? I mean, I’m assuming an old Jeep, but it’s not like, uh, like a seventies, a CJ or anything like that. So they will, as you know, Willis Overland, once those kinds of stopped, I think it was 63 was, is our cap. Um, you know, I say forties and fifties and it really can be, we’ve had FCs, we’ve had wagons, we’ve had trucks, we’ve had flattys. Um, you know, the, the parts are interchangeable. The, um, you know, kind of, that’s, that’s the era we’re looking for. Um, once you get beyond that, um, you know, we’re also trying to, it’s kind of like stock car thing. We’re trying to keep everybody, uh, going the same speeds, you know, but it is fun to kind of see the, the, the healthy competition between who’s Jeep with an overdrive can go faster than the top speed this year was 74 miles an hour. Oh my goodness.(…) Yeah. Time war for one of the army people from back then. Oh yeah. I, I can’t, I go 52 and I think I’ve had Amos up to almost 60. That’s the name of my truck.(…) Amos has his own Instagram page too. So you can look him up. Amos, is 52 fast enough to blow the hair back? Yeah.(…) Yeah. It actually grows and blows all the same time. That’s that, it’s that additional oxygen. Uh, well, really cool. I think, uh, have you had an FC go out there? Cause I think it would not like an FC one 50 or something going on the trip would be really cool. Yeah. We had one actually this year. Um, uh, Kaiser Willy sponsored, uh, Tom and he, he was from, uh, Massachusetts and beautiful FC. Uh,(…) it, well, I mean, you know, even ugly duckling. It’s a Jeep. No, come on.(…) All Jeeps are ugly. It’s like a mother’s love. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.(…) But, uh, and we also had one on our Oregon trail route, uh, Veronica. Um, she was a one 70, um, with a custom flatbed and that thing was destined for the crusher for sure. Uh, and got kind of built just good enough. That one, the, the, the driver didn’t have enough space in the foot box. He’s a big dude. I didn’t have space in the foot box for a gas pedal, a brake pedal and a clutch. So he got an old Evan Rude, uh, column throttle from an old boat and put that right on the trans tone. And that was, that was this throttle. Yeah. So that was Veronica. She was very unique.(…) Um, and then, uh, so Veronica was the name of the, of the vehicle. Is that, yeah, they all got names. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And if they don’t have one to start, they get one by the, oh, of course. Yeah. So that that’s fun too. And I think on our second one, we had a beautiful FC, Will Morgan’s FC, uh, which he made it to just by Yellowstone and had the bail. He had an issue too.(…) And then he lived at home to, to people are how many jeeps get involved in these things. I’m sure it varies, but about how many jeeps are involved in these, we, we will cap it at 15. Um, usually that’s a good, that’s a good size group. Yeah. Yeah. But typically 10, um, is kind of like the sweet spot that w that we settle into. Um, we’ll, we’ll open up, um, applications and we’ll admit 15, but we know that a few people usually drop out because I think I, I was cooking food for 24 people. Oh my goodness. Okay. But that’s 15 jeeps, but 24 people. That makes sense. Yeah. So you can break somebody with you if you want. Yeah. We encourage a co-driver, a navigator. Cause again, there’s, you don’t want to go. Right. It’s a, here’s your map. Here’s your start. Here’s your end. Get there.
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So, um, I would assume, and maybe this is wrong, but I would assume that most of this adventure is highway or road, not off road. With the possible exception of EJS, I’m sure at EJS, she had to take them off road. Oh yeah. We definitely did that. Um, and there’s been some off-roading, but for the most part it’s all two lane. Um, and then beyond that, like, yeah, there’s guys that find the two tracks through a county forest, um, and stuff like that. But the, and it’s, it’s funny too. Cause a lot of times, um, you know, spectators are like, Oh, you don’t do it’s cheap. So you don’t do any off-roading. Um, like even at Bantam. We’re just happy to be here. Yeah.(…) It is such a feat. And it is, again, if you’ve ever spent 12 hours on a trail out in Moab and when you’re done with it, like, all you want to do is put your feet up and have a few cold beers. It’s just, it’s just as exhausting to do this event and then get done with it. And you’re just, you’re, you’re, you’re overload on, on sensory stimulation. You just want to stare at tree and not talk to anybody for a little bit. And then maybe I’ll come around the fire and have those beers. Yeah. That’s really, really cool. Um, so do you, do you ever have like a videographer or somebody that this, that it stills, I mean, this, that, that’s their job. Cause I mean, this is gold. I mean, but it’s so difficult to do when you’re involved in the process. Yes. So we’ve had, uh, we’ve brought some production guys on in the past and that’s where you’ll see a lot of our footage on, on social media. We’ve always tried to have somebody dedicated to capture content. Um, this year it was a little bit more sparse on that. We still got a ton of content. Um, and we encouraged the, the teams, uh, with that co-driver having that, you know,(…) phenomenal capture device, um, to, you know, break down. And even if they seem a little frustrated, like still stick the camera in their face, like, let’s, let’s get the story. Let’s get what’s going on. And then we can kind of patch it together. Um, and that’s been, that’s fantastic. Really, really cool. All right. I’m sure we’re skipping a lot of stuff on these adventures, but I do want to talk to you about, uh, max built your business,(…) uh, and especially about how it got started in the kitchen. How do you start a, uh, and I think I’m correct here. You guys do have services where you work on all kinds of vehicles. How do you start in your kitchen?(…) All right. So that was a little bit of a hook. Uh, but so my, my house, it had currently, it had started in a one bedroom house. Wow. I guess to be completely honest, I was staying when, uh, when Heather was my girlfriend, I was living in the basement of her brother’s house with her and I was designing products in their kitchen. So I guess technically that’s how that started. So let me ask you really quick before you go, go further with this, staying in her brother’s basement. Was this a situation where your, your, her brother forced you to get married to her?
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No, it was just, uh, uh, I was an opportunist at the time.
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I ended up staying there, uh, more, more often than I did at my own place. Let’s just put it that way.
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And so when, when her and I did, uh, choose a place to live, it was, uh, a one bedroom home.(…) With the garage underneath the living space. And so she loved the property. I love the opportunity for a garage and something to, uh, be able to build something from. And so that’s where I was, I was going to school full time. Uh, so I was, and, and I had a incubation lab at the university where I could work on the manufacturing business. So I’d work there all day and then all night, I would work on whatever Jeeps were on my docket to kind of fix. And then we did,(…) we did general repair. I did anything I could to be able to put some cash in my pocket to kind of fund this Jeep dream.(…) And where did you get your customers from? Was it friends and or to mouth type thing? I also worked part time at Napa. So I was the night and weekend guy. So, uh, I would, you know, I would hustle a little bit of my, my side gig to people that I would meet through there, share it with different shops that, Hey, if you ever have this, this is kind of what I’m doing. Um, you know, so the idea was I had a great idea for a product. Our first product was actually, uh, a center console because the old Jeeps didn’t have a good spot to lock up your wares. Um, and
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what’s that? No cup holders. Exactly. Yeah. And CD players are always getting wrecked by rain. So we made a nice little, um, command center console. We called it with lighting and cup holders and a spot to charge your cell phone. Um, just some modern amenities. You can bolt it in and go. Well, that was because ultimately I wanted to do custom builds for people, but nobody was going to give a 19 year old their money to do whatever they want with. So if we could develop some products, get some notoriety on a national level, uh, by going to different events. Well, the gas money was paid by break jobs and fuel pump replacements on a lane.(…) Um, and so that, that was kind of the, the snowball effect. And then, uh, my,(…) uh, at that point, wife was pregnant with our son Jackson.
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She, uh, there was one, it was like three in the morning. I’m welding on stuff in the Jeep and wafted up through the floors. And she says, come to walk downstairs. She says, Nope, no more. You got to find a place to do this. So I was like, yeah, it’s about time. And so I rented a place just up the road. And then we converted that, that old garage into our kitchen, our living space. And so now the house looks complete transformation from, from how we started.(…) So it’s just kind of a, you can still have the memories of all the work that you did in the kitchen and stuff. That’s, that’s, yep. Yeah. I remember, you know, washing dishes at night or cooking food in there. It’s like, man, I remember setting up my King’s 44 scout 44 as we put into his scrambler right here, not knowing anything that I was doing.(…) And, you know, here now we’ve done now we’re the premier axle and gear, uh, shop in, you know, Western Wisconsin.(…) So, um, but I would imagine, I mean, I know it’s nice being in a place, uh, especially because it’s a, it’s a progression that, uh, a success, uh, benchmark, but being just right there at your house and being able to go back and forth, interact with the family and stuff, uh, has to be good. And think of all the four letter words your kid learns. Oh yeah. They’re working on the Jeep.(…) Yeah. They’re no stranger to that. That’s for sure.(…) Um, and you could teach him how to steal, your wife could teach him how to steal a 10 millimeter sockets. Um, so you were a one man operation until you, uh, did you rent it to place? Uh, I’m assuming you’re not still a one man operation. No, no, we, uh,(…) we moved to that shop just close to my house. Um, then I had, uh, I brought in a part time kid and, um, some, I think I brought in some college students to help out put consoles together. Um, and then that lasted a year and the, the shop owner that I was renting from was like, all right, you got to find your own place.(…) Uh, we’re a little bit rowdy bunch sometimes, and we’re working all hours and it’s a mess. And you know, my ADD brain just, just trying to do the next thing. What’s the next cool thing? What’s the next cool thing? And I love that chaos, but, um, not everybody does. So, uh, happened to find a spot, not too far, but 20 minute drive from the house, uh, where it was a great opportunity, um, to start the shop. And so, or I guess restart the shop with plenty of expansion opportunities.(…) And so, uh, bought that in 2012,(…) 2015, we put a 2,500 square foot addition up, um, to, cause we were expanding. Um, and then 2019 we remodeled our office space into(…) more offices to account for the more people.(…) Um, and then in 2022, we did a 7,500 square foot addition on the shop to, uh, be able to kind of do, have all revenue streams of ours kind of covered. So like, we still manufacture product, um, and ship that all over. We now do a lot more general repair, uh, in that first edition, uh, as well as, you know, our in and out Jeep stuff. And then our, our big shop is for our longterm builds. So our crazy custom stuff, uh, we’ve got, we’re up to 11 employees right now. Um, and oh no, we’re down a few, but we keep it around that, you know,(…) so now you do. So let me ask you this now, you started off by working on all the things yourself and there’s a, it’s, it’s definitely different when you’re interacting with the machine and you’re doing things to it and you’re doing it on your time or maybe the customer, uh, it needs a certain thing and you can, you can do all that stuff. When you start bringing in employees, it’s totally different. It’s all completely different dynamic for most people. How was it for you? It was so I’m, I’m really, I pride myself on building a culture. Um, and that, and that’s shown through in our, the clients that we have and the events that we went to, but I also wanted everybody that was here to be able to just enjoy what they’re doing and not necessarily feel like a job. So I basically looked at it as if I was, you know, cause for a long time it was 80, 90 hours a week. So if I peel what, what job description would I be able to peel off of myself and hand to somebody else? What do I need most of?(…) Um, and, you know, I, thankfully, you know, everybody here, uh, we’re all great friends. You know, Adam’s my best friend. He’s, uh, the, he runs the shop now. Uh, I brought him in and I think 2015, we never really remember because he was, he was, he was by my side in two, I was going to say there, there’s there all the time anyways. I, Hey, you should work here. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. And, um, which is great. Cause we, we also, uh, we have a great dynamic and we can leave things at work. Um, and then, you know, that’s important. Yeah. Yep. Um, but it took a long time. I think I struggled with that more than, um, why not? I mean, I don’t know everybody else’s struggle, but I do know that that was a big struggle for me to be able to leave things at work. Um, you’re worried about it all the time. You gotta make payroll. There’s people depending on you and your decisions that you make. So, uh, I think a lot of people think, Oh, I’m going to start my own business. This would be great. And they don’t really think about what happens when they’re there in the middle of it. Managing people can be very difficult.(…) Uh, and it’s not always the, it’s not always the manager’s fault. Right. Right. Well,(…) and, and sometimes, you know, we’re, we’re going through some tough times right now. Like, like the, the waxing and waning never stops. Right.(…) And, and so it’s, uh,(…) either, either it builds and it builds and it builds, um, or yeah, it goes like, how far can you take it? Right.(…) You know, and you never know when to spend money or I imagine doing the expansion was, it was a hard decision because that that’s going to be a huge cash outlay. It was, it was, yeah, it definitely changed the way everything is. And you know, we were slated, we had a lot of builds, um, and we just kept getting phone calls and kept getting phone calls. That’s wonderful to hear.(…) Well, and then, and then, yeah, it was almost like a hangover from COVID. A lot of those, those calls stopped.(…) So we don’t have to pivot and figure things out. And what’s the next step? It didn’t necessarily work into the plan exactly how we wanted, but that’s life. I mean, that’s, that’s the nature. It’s like going all these adventures that you go on, you go on them and then when there’s an issue, you work through it and then you continue on. It’s exact same thing. So it’s just another challenge. Yep. Yep. Absolutely.(…) All right, man. Like I warned you at the top of the, uh, before we started recording, I like to say the kids love the social media that, you know, they love looking at the pictures. I’m one of them. I like looking at pictures too. Uh, it’s back at the kindergarten for me. Uh, where can people find you, uh, Max built, et cetera, uh, the, uh, epic Willy’s adventure. Where can they find you online?(…) So we are Max built on Tik TOK, Instagram,(…) uh, Facebook, YouTube. Uh, we got a website Max built off road. You can Google it. You can get all those there. Um, now everything points to everything else. And then Epic will is adventure course as well as Facebook, uh, Instagram. Don’t believe we’ve got a Tik TOK. Oh, we do have a Tik TOK. Don’t push it as much. And then a YouTube as well. So you can spend plenty of time. Reach out to me anytime. Um, you can find me. I’m Mr. Max built on Instagram or Phil Norwell on Facebook. Uh, love to chat, but adventures, cheap stuff for, you know, anything. So small business questions. Yeah. I hear you. Very interesting. Alive. You’re leading there, uh, Phil, and we’ll have to have you back and talk more about the adventure. Uh, who knows? Maybe you’ll get a star link. So the next time you’re out on one of the adventures, we can do a live video feed for the show. I love it. I love it.
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All right, man. Thank you so much. And thank you very much for being with us. Take
Broadcasting Sense
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You’re my friend, you’re my new friend.