Behind the Scenes at America’s Biggest Jeep Factory with Jerry Huber

🎙️ Jeep Talk Show Interview with Jerry Huber – Toledo Jeep Fest 2026! Join us for an awesome conversation with longtime friend of the show and former Toledo Jeep Plant Manager, Jerry Huber! Jerry shares incredible behind-the-scenes stories from his decades at Jeep/AMC/Chrysler, the birth of the Toledo Jeep Fest, and what makes this one of the most unique Jeep events in the country. From the history of the XJ Cherokee, CJ, SJ, YJ, and full-size Jeeps to solid axle vs. IFS debates, the new Bronco, death wobble, and why the XJ remains a legend — this episode is packed with Jeep knowledge and nostalgia. 🔥 Highlights: – How Toledo Jeep Fest started for the 75th anniversary – Shutting down 20+ blocks of downtown Toledo – The massive parade (1,000+ Jeeps!) – Rare vehicles on display: FC-150/170, FJ trucks, military prototypes & more – Grand Marshal Brad Calix (Trail Recon) – New 2026 events: Jeep-themed drone show, block party, strongman competition & more – Honor Badge for parade participants (new this year!) 📅 **Toledo Jeep Fest 2026** August 6th–9th | Downtown Toledo, Ohio Website: https://toledojeepfest.com Whether you’re a hardcore trail rat, XJ lover, or brand new to the Jeep community, this is an event you don’t want to miss! 👉 Drop a comment: What’s your favorite Jeep model and why? 👍 Like | 🔔 Subscribe | Share with your Jeep crew! #Jeep #ToledoJeepFest #JeepTalkShow #XJ #Wrangler #Gladiator #OffRoad #JeepLife #JerryHuber — ⏱️ Timestamps: 00:00 – Show Intro and Guest Preview 00:12 – Name Pronunciation Banter 00:29 – Jerry’s Jeep Background and Fest Origins 02:03 – Creation and Growth of Toledo Jeep Fest 03:56 – Downtown Fest Layout and Logistics 05:46 – Parking Strategy and Low‑Cost Registration 06:55 – Parade Highlights and International Broadcast 08:09 – Global Reach and Rapid Growth 09:07 – Jeep Production History and Cross‑Border Work 09:52 – Commuting to Canada and Model Timeline 12:45 – Comparing SJ and XJ Cherokee Designs 14:03 – XJ Engineering, Unibody Construction, Modifications 19:43 – Bronco vs Jeep Comparison and XJ Legacy 22:56 – XJ to TJ Evolution and LJ Rarity 24:24 – LJ Variants and Off‑Road Purpose 25:21 – Off‑Road Modifications and Diesel Performance 26:25 – Diesel Jeeps, Fuel Efficiency, Off‑Road Adventures 28:24 – Bronco Adventures and Rare Jeep Models 34:14 – Overview of Jeep FJ Trucks 34:58 – Greg Henderson’s Custom Jeep Project 35:35 – FC Concept and Jeep‑Van Hybrid Idea 36:38 – Rubicon Brush Truck Firefighter Conversion 37:34 – Future Wrangler IFS Rumors and Front Axle Debate 44:21 – Aftermarket Upgrades and Death Wobble Concerns 45:21 – Grand Marshal Announcement for Jeep Fest 47:05 – Jeep Corporate Involvement and Sponsorship Decisions 47:39 – Concept Vehicles and Demo Displays at Fest 49:17 – Event Schedule and Weekend Activities 49:52 – Family‑Friendly Activities and Attractions 54:23 – Metroparks Base Camp Partnership and Expansion 55:16 – Honor Badge Initiative and Festival Enhancements 56:48 – Gladiator vs Wrangler Experience and Towing 59:44 – Recap and Positive Closing Remarks 01:00:32 – Community Interaction and Enthusiast Sharing 01:01:01 – Final Goodbyes and New Friendship Thanks for watching! We’ll see you in Toledo! 🛻 Visit our website: https://jeeptalkshow.com/ Watch/Listen on Spotify https://jeeptalkshow.com/spotify Join our Discord Server: https://jeeptalkshow.com/discord Subscribe to our newsletter: https://jeeptalkshow.com/newsletter Help Support the show via Patreon: https://jeeptalkshow.com/patreon

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00:00 – 00:00:02:27]
(Music)

[00:00:02:27 – 00:00:21:08]
boys and girls is time for another interview with the Jeep talk show. We’re going to be talking with old friend of the show. And I’m not talking about your age. You’ve just been on the show quite a bit, Jerry. We’re going to be talking with Jerry Hubbard and did I get it right? I just asked you how to pronounce it. You didn’t get it right, but that’s okay.

[00:00:22:10 – 00:00:51:07]
Hubert. I don’t know why that’s so hard. It’s only like five letters and I can’t pronounce it. This is, this is my problem. This is my albatross around my neck, Jerry. So Jerry, yeah, Jerry, so give the folks that haven’t been here and haven’t seen one of your, God, I think you’ve been on the show four or five times now, which I’m not complaining. It’s always good to have you here. So tell people who you are, what’s your background and especially about the Toledo Jeep Fest.

[00:00:53:08 – 00:01:57:17]
Basically I’m a Jeep guy for a long, long time. I had the opportunity to work at and run the Jeep plant here at Toledo, the old plant and about almost 10 years there at, as plant manager. And then moved around a couple of other jobs at Chrysler Manufacturing and at Daimler Chrysler and, you know, as the continuation continues. I ended up in Canada at the Windsor plant for a couple of years. And then I retired in 2005 from the working style of the Jeep side, but I’ve been involved with, you know, off-roading a couple of Jeep clubs and, you know, a close knit group of my friends and buddies from the working days that still get together and wrench when we can. And, you know, this Jeep Fest has kind of filled a lot of time since 2016 when we actually got started.

[00:01:57:17 – 00:02:00:26]
(Music)

[00:02:00:26 – 00:02:13:12]
Toledo Jeep Fest is going on, you’re very busy moving doing things, but at least you get to stay involved with Jeep and more importantly, the Jeep people.

[00:02:14:20 – 00:04:40:12]
Yeah, it was, it was kind of a nice fit for me. 2016 was the 75th anniversary of Jeep and folks over at the Union Hall had gotten together and they wanted to do something to, you know, kind of commemorate, celebrate, and so forth. And we decided we had done car shows at the Jeep plant and at the Union Hall, had picnics and things like that over the years. But the collective mindset was that, hey, this is 75 years. We need to do something a little more significant than that. So we started talking with, you know, one of the county commissioners, Pete Gerken, the president of the local at that time, Bruce Bomhauer, and we decided we wanted to go, you know, up a notch, if you will, with the, with some type of an event and shortly after a couple of meetings, we, we got involved with the thread marketing group, Whitney Rothgar, and you, you and I have had, we’ve been on the show together and we put together what was basically a one day kind of a celebration in downtown Toledo. And we weren’t sure at that time whether it was going to be something that we would have every other, every other year, every year or whatever. But it turned out to be such a rip roaring success that we kind of, you know, decided it was going to be a yearly event until, you know, ideas changed otherwise. So each year it’s we’ve tweaked it a little bit each year and it’s grown right now. It’s three full days and we have a half day on Thursday. We do an off road. We don’t have a lot of off road access to downtown Toledo, but we have one of the dealers has an off road test track with about 18 obstacles. So they have a kind of a welcome party up there. And then the next day we move the move the show to downtown Toledo. And we’re at a point right now, Tony, where we’re we’re shutting down about 20 square blocks of downtown Toledo, including the major one of the major arteries that goes through the downtown right along the riverfront.

[00:04:41:13 – 00:05:56:10]
And it’s a it’s a unique kind of an arrangement. There’s Jeep events all around, you know, Jeep Beach, you know, both at Myrtle and Dada Daytona. You’ve got Butler, you know, the Bantam event. You’ve got the event down in Tennessee, Spooky Mountain. And what kind of different about our event is that we’re we’re in a downtown. Yeah, it’s you’re not going out in the middle of nowhere. It’s downtown. And it’s it there’s some some nice, nice things about that. You’ve got amenities that you’re not going to have out in the cornfield and, you know, in Western Pennsylvania, that’s for sure. But the the downside of that is if you want to park, you know, five, ten, fifty three foot trailers with awnings from our vendors and sponsors, it gets a little tricky on downtown streets. But we’ve been managing and, you know, we’re we’re on target this year to have another pretty interesting event. So I know this from the many years of interviewing you guys, you and Whitney, that the trick to get parking is to be in the parade and in the show and shine.

[00:05:57:15 – 00:06:00:04]
That certainly is an advantage.

[00:06:01:14 – 00:06:06:05]
So you have to pay, but you’re close, you know, close to everything.

[00:06:07:18 – 00:06:48:29]
Well, you know, basically, you know, the other thing I have to blow the horn of the group that has been operating this thing now for this many years, we have started from the beginning to try and keep it as as low cost or free event. Right. We can’t. And I mean, there’s no if I remember correctly, there’s no pay to go and see the show. It’s only if you’re going to the show and shine and in the parade that you that you pay. It’s a mental. Yeah, we have I caught a nominal registration fee for it to be in the parade or to have your vehicle in the show and shine or to be in the specialty vehicle show in the convention center.

[00:06:50:06 – 00:08:44:10]
But frankly, it’s kind of like a placeholder. So we know who’s coming. Yeah. And with that, you know, you get the, you know, the obvious advantage that you mentioned is this parking situation. And you’re close to the event, which is really cool. And you park in it right in the in the heart of the event. Right. And there’s, you know, we do we do a goodie bag and there’s a T-shirt involved and so forth. So, you know, well, and how cool is it to be in a Toledo Jeep Fest parade? I mean, you guys have over a thousand vehicles in the parade. I forget what the limit is, but you got you guys always go over it. But how cool you can say, yeah, I was in the parade in twenty twenty six. So I show up on Facebook or, you know, wherever you guys post that stuff. Yeah, it’s it’s really quite an event. You know, everybody that’s been in the parade, it seems to enjoy it. And, you know, the other thing I think is a little bit different about our event is that it’s broadcast TV broadcast. And we have we had a couple of sponsors that actually did a webcast or posted it on their network and they showed it internationally. We had some folks here two years ago calling from Romania saying, hey, this is a real cool parade. How do we have you’ve had people attend from around the world? Right. Yep. And we have we have a sister city in La Drina of Brazil and they have now started their own Jeep Fest and they’ll be in our they were at our event the last year. They’ll be here this year. And, you know, they’re asking for people to come down to their event in Brazil. So, you know, it’s it’s a unique what you’ve started here. And it also was going to mention earlier, it’s gotten a lot bigger than 2016. It really blew up quickly.

[00:08:46:00 – 00:09:32:16]
Well, I think, you know, the other the other thing that makes it unique is that, you know, Toledo, for all intents and purposes, you can have some arguments with folks about where the home of the Jeep is and where the Jeep was born. You know, I’ll concede right off the bat that Butler, Pennsylvania, it’s probably you know, where the Jeep idea was born. But I can also proudly attest to the fact that it’s been produced in Toledo since 1941 and it’s produced there today. And from the investment that Stellantis is making, it’s pretty likely it’s going to be produced here for the foreseeable future. Right. And 85 years this year. And thanks to our current political structure.

[00:09:33:27 – 00:10:39:26]
Let’s say that the federal government is encouraging the the Jeeps to continue being built in America and not not go into other countries. You mentioned earlier when you were talking about working for Jeep that you were working at the Canadian facility for a while. Did you did you travel back and forth or did you actually live in Canada at the time? No, I actually commuted. That’s what I thought. You know, kind of surprising if if you live in Toledo and you have a job at the Chrysler Tech Center up in Auburn Hills, it’s about a 90 90 mile drive around. So Windsor, which is where the the Pacific and the minivans are produced, it’s about a 45 minute drive. So it’s actually less of your day being consumed getting back and forth to work, working in Canada than it is working here in the States. My goodness. It’s probably a nice drive to you just have to dodge the mooses, the Mises, the mooses. No mooses on that route, believe it.

[00:10:42:25 – 00:11:18:01]
But it’s it was it’s not as inconvenient as it might sound. Right. So let me ask you this. During the time, those 10 years that you were working for Jeep at the plant, what were the the Jeeps that were being produced at that time? Would that be TJ’s and XJ’s and YJ’s? I got to tell you, I was, you know, the window of time that I was able to be there. I landed there in 1983. I had come I worked for Ford for 15 years, went to AMC at that time. Actually, you know, the American Motors, the real deal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:19:05 – 00:11:21:12]
And we were building the CJ.

[00:11:22:16 – 00:11:38:07]
We were building the the Grand Wagoneer and the SJ, and we were building the the J series trucks at that time. Yeah, the full size vehicles. Full size, full size Jeeps and then the,

[00:11:39:24 – 00:11:42:28]
you know, the CJ’s and then, you know, in 83,

[00:11:44:06 – 00:11:46:16]
we introduced the XJ Cherokee.

[00:12:14:02 – 00:12:09:10]
And then, you know, not too long after that, we built the MJ, full size trucks and there was a

[00:12:11:01 – 00:12:19:12]
would we built out the scrambler and the CJ eight’s and the and then ultimately the CJ seven,

[00:12:21:02 – 00:13:37:28]
which we moved to Canada to the Brampton plant as the YJ that was first produced over there for two years. And then very quickly, we were able to return the the YJ back to the Toledo plant in 1991 when we built the last of the Grand Wagoneers. If you can believe it, that vehicle has been out of production since 1991. Yeah, I’m surprised it was being still being made at that time, because really, I didn’t I wasn’t paying close attention to Jeeps until I got the XJ in 1998. And that’s really when I started learning about the lineage of Jeep. Let me ask you this. So you know, the SJ, how did what did you think about the XJ compared to the SJ? Because I would think there’s a lot of people that say, oh, you know, the SJ was the was the first Cherokee. That’s the real Cherokee. Yeah, the the senior Jeep, you know, did have the Cherokee model, the big the full size Jeep, if you will. And they did a they did a pretty spectacular version. It was called the wide track, and it had the exposed fender flares, which were actually extensions of the wheel housing. They weren’t, you know, an add on fender flare like they are on these vehicles today.

[00:13:39:10 – 00:14:13:19]
And it wide track axles and they were very, very capable. You know, you could get, you know, the V8 engines in them. They had all the data, you know, underpinnings and so forth. Pretty heavy duty stuff. So I was in the three quarter ton variety with those vehicles. And that was probably in my estimation, that was the first of the Cherokees. And then when you get to the XJ, you know, the small Cherokee, it was a pretty remarkable vehicle. The difference is that the

[00:14:15:24 – 00:14:29:20]
the full size Jeep was always a frame vehicle. Right. The Cherokee was a first of the unitized. So it was a different kind of, you know, a construction process altogether, different type of suspension.

[00:14:31:11 – 00:15:15:21]
You know, it was it was definitely a dramatic change. You know, whether you call it a Cherokee or an SJ, a full size, it changed it far more than just the nameplate. Oh, yeah. So that’s kind of my point. I mean, I know how I feel about the XJ and three million other people know how they feel about the XJ. But I’m thinking, you know, when the new Jeeps come out, we have a tendency to poo poo the new one. Oh, that’s not as good as this one. And this. So I was curious about what you felt about it. You’re not working for Jeep anymore. So so you can say, did you did you hate on the XJ when it first came out? Like what the hell are these people doing? No, no. In fact, I was pretty impressed with it because, you know, having worked at Ford for those 15 years,

[00:15:16:25 – 00:15:47:18]
I had already gone through a transition on the full size Ford where it was a body on frame construction when we started to go unitized with the Fox body. In fact, it was the Fairlains and Torino’s first and then the Mustang. And, you know, you start to appreciate the the construction and the rigidity of that body and that it’s quite a bit different. I mean, the whole concept is significantly different than a body on frame construction. Right. Well, you where you have the

[00:15:49:11 – 00:15:59:07]
the body actually sits on top of a separate frame and it’s isolated, hopefully, from a lot of the road vibration and so forth, whereas with a unitized vehicle,

[00:16:00:25 – 00:18:50:03]
they’re much between you and the road. So, you know, it’s a very, very solid vehicle. They have the tendency to not have a lot of flexibility. You know, you get you’ve seen the old pickup trucks full sized trucks with with a frame that they’ll get them into such an articulation situation where the the pickup box actually can hit the cab because of the individual articulation. Well, you’re not going to get that, you know, on a on a on a unitized body because they are really stiff. They are really stiff. I was just going to say, though, because that’s something similar that can happen with an XJ. You’ve got it all twisted off road and you make the mistake of opening the back hatch. You may not be getting getting it closed again. Well, the newer ones, you know, when we first the first couple of years with the with the XJ, you know, there was an emphasis, hey, we got to make sure this thing is stiff. And we did. And it was so stiff in some places that when it would get into a torsional situation and flex that you can actually get a split in the in the corners, the upper corners where the deck opening there would be to the roofline. And we made a couple of changes in that area with different types of steel and changing thickness and, you know, positioning of those corner patches and so forth to allow for more flex, which is kind of odd because, you know, that the tendency is, hey, you want to make these as stiff as possible. And then when we get into an off road situation, the contrary, you need to have some flexibility. Yeah, I noticed when I put some some stiffeners on the unibody, it’s not the it’s not the ones that that wrap around the unibody. It’s it goes to on the it goes along the side of the unibody. And then you do plug welds into it. But anyway, when I put those frame stiffeners on the on my XJ, oh, my God, I couldn’t believe about how much more solid the XJ was. And I think the deal is when you start modifying it and you start putting armor and things making it heavier, then the unibody is kind of struggling to maintain its stiffness because it’s, you know, it’s a thin pressed sheet metal. I’ve always liked frame on frame makes more sense. But the unibody would allow you to save weight and save gas mileage, which I’m sure is one of the reasons why they were doing it. Oh, yeah. And, you know, don’t forget the other things that they changed on the Cherokee is you started to see high strength steel as a as an upgrade to the to the sheet metal. Oh, that’s interesting. I didn’t know that. Yeah, I used I had high strength steel and a lot of the components. And then the other thing.

[00:18:52:10 – 00:19:10:12]
If you looked at the door opening, the door opening on like a lot of the vehicles was a series of pieces that were welded together. And when you get into the Cherokee, you you they we started to trend towards more of, you know, one piece stampings or

[00:19:11:17 – 00:19:26:05]
what they actually did in the front door opening was a welded blank where they would take and weld two different types of metal thicknesses and high strength versus, you know, more valuable into a single blank and then stamp it.

[00:19:27:11 – 00:20:27:02]
So there was a lot of technical, you know, Jeep has always done extraordinary engineering. I mean, especially when you start getting into the vehicles and making modifications or just looking at how it’s put together, they have done a fantastic job. Let me ask you this. I mean, I’m going to set you up. But I’m sure you’ve been asked this before, especially since you came from Ford. Now, you weren’t at Ford when the Bronco was being made. But what’s your estimation between the offerings from Jeep, the JL, JLU, the JT compared to the the Ford Bronco that everybody seems to love? And of course, I like seeing the social media where they’re talking about Bronco is beating Jeep. And and I’m like, well, yeah, if you’re not taking it off road and you don’t mind breaking a tie rod end when you do mild off roading, it’s a great vehicle. I mean, it’s a comfort vehicle and it’s wide, which those two things really just don’t go together as far as my concern is for his Jeeps. What’s your what’s your opinion of the new Bronco? Are you even aware of it? Did you or did you just blank it out?

[00:20:28:03 – 00:20:42:10]
When I when I was working at Ford, I started there at 69. And now those were good Broncos back then. I always leased the Bronco, you know, I had the and typically in 69,

[00:20:43:22 – 00:22:03:09]
you were starting to see more of the the F-150 based, you know, Broncos, which what I was driving. And I always liked that vehicle, you know, but the new Bronco compared to a JL, I think it’s a it’s a very comparable vehicle. I think it’s very well engineered. There’s there’s a lot of things that I think are, you know, obviously they did their homework from a design standpoint. I can’t imagine that they did tear down, you know, hundreds of Jeeps. Oh, that horse. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That’s the way that business works. But and there’s some nice features. There’s some really nice features. There certainly are. But if you need comfort, if you need comfort from an off road vehicle, then you do not do not need a Jeep. I’m not saying Jeeps aren’t comfortable, but that’s not the purpose of an off road vehicle. Well, yeah. And, you know, even whenever when I first came to Jeep, one of the things that there was a, you know, a study group that was always asking how many people really take these vehicles off road? Yeah, we talk about that here, too. We were always stressing that, you know, it’s the capability. And if you take it off road and, you know,

[00:22:04:09 – 00:22:06:24]
at that time for certain vehicles, I mean,

[00:22:08:04 – 00:22:34:02]
the YJ at the time when we started YJ was always taken, you know, had had a lot of exposure off road. The XJ very little. I mean, I sure. That’s a grocery gooder, man. It’s a station wagon. Yeah, the first number that I saw on the Cherokee were like 96 or 97 percent of them never got off payment, you know. And, you know, I think that’s interesting because

[00:22:35:18 – 00:23:23:18]
the Jeep engineering people, it’s in their in their system, in their blood to have that off road capability into the vehicle, whether you use it or not. Yeah. And that’s why today we all we all often laugh. I mean, the Cherokee been out of production since the XJ Cherokee has been out what since 2001, 2001, 2001, 2002 in that time frame. So, you know, they’re all every one of those that you see out on the trail now today is at least, you know, 20, 25. Oh, they’re they are quote unquote classic vehicles. Absolutely. Exactly. And the standing joke is because of with with some minor modifications, you know, some additional suspension travel, different kind of tires, usually a pretty healthy gear set.

[00:23:25:06 – 00:24:11:18]
You know, you can build a reasonably priced inexpensive, as in many cases Cherokee that will perform equally as well as, you know, some of these higher priced vehicles that we’re we’re driving on those trails today. Right. So I’ve always maintained that the XJ is basically the same thing as the TJ. It just has a longer wheel base because it’s basically the same drive train. I mean, the transmission is different. But what’s your thoughts on that? Am I wrong on that? Well, you know, you’re not wrong on the dimensional aspect of it. But don’t forget that TJ is still a frame vehicle. Oh, no, absolutely. It’s frame versus univided. But I look at that as a as a plus if you if you got a frame, it’s better than being frameless and shameless.

[00:24:12:22 – 00:25:11:00]
Yeah. I mean, I think if you lay the dimensions of a of a a long wheel base TJ next to a Cherokee, you’re going to find it darn near identical. Yeah. You know, and they just didn’t make many LJs. I mean, LJ is like the unicorn out of one. A lot of people are just stretching them. They get a T.J. and stretch it. When I call my my my LJ is on the hood and where it would say Rubicon, it says because they’re different, you know, and there weren’t many of them. Right. The weird looking Jeep, too. I mean, Jeeps are already weird looking. It’s like a Jeep is like only a mother could love type thing. But once you once you learn about what the Jeep can do, and especially when it takes you places that you have a hard time walking, you you learn to love the look of the Jeep. But the LJ is always look funny to me. They just looked out of out of proportion. Well, that’s like the first time you see a CJ six.

[00:25:12:20 – 00:25:38:21]
You know, it looks like it’s way out of proportion. And then you understand why it’s like that. And yeah, they’re doing it not for aesthetics. They’re doing it to make it good for off road. And I love that about Jeep. I mean, Jeep is making other vehicles that aren’t off road vehicles, although they seem to have the trail rated badge anyway. I think the trail rated badge means that you can be drug off road by a capable Jeep.

[00:25:40:00 – 00:26:00:14]
I’m not sure. Like the Liberty. I hate the damn Liberty. And they came up with Liberty when they got rid of the XJs. Bastards. I’ll tell you what, the I was on a on a Jeep Jamboree and there was a one of those CRD diesels in a.

[00:26:01:24 – 00:26:10:21]
And I’ll tell you what, it performed very, very well. I’m sure. You know, it was it was kind of a surprise because,

[00:26:11:23 – 00:26:46:04]
you know, they I think of the Jeeps that we’ve seen over the last 10 or 15 years. They were definitely the ugly ducklings, but they, if they’re equipped properly, you know, they’ll perform. Oh, no, you can you can rebuild anything. You can make it right. But from the factory, and I think everybody agrees with this. The Wrangler and the Gladiator is a off road vehicle straight off the factory floor. I mean, modifying it is fun, but you don’t got to do that to be able to go off road. You don’t have to do that. Yeah. I mean, you have to learn how to drive off road.

[00:26:47:15 – 00:26:50:04]
But that’s.

[00:26:51:20 – 00:27:00:08]
That’s one of the things that I think is interesting. If you look at if you take like a, you know, an 80 to 83 CJ,

[00:27:01:08 – 00:28:41:20]
you know, seven or even a CJH scrambler with a longer wheelbase, you know, the vehicle dimensionally is relatively narrow, is relatively high. You know, has a little higher center of gravity than these vehicles that we’re driving up. But you take Park one of those next to a JL or a JT and these new ones. And the Ford Bronco is the same thing. It’s a huge vehicle. Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I’ve got a Gladiator. I’ve got a 2021 Gladiator and it’s it’s it is huge, even though it’s a small truck, small for a truck is a really big vehicle and performs extraordinarily like an EJS. I mean, EJS isn’t isn’t generally hard anyway, because you’re wheeling on sandpaper, but going down the stair steps and stuff, especially with that ass hanging out there in the back end, that overhang is big site. Yeah. Yeah. What the hell was that? I hope I didn’t need that. Somebody looked on the radio. So you might see any parts back there. I’ve got a full skid system on it now. So an aftermarket bumper. So I’m not worried. I just need to get back to EJS. Oh, man, that is such a great thing. You’ve been to EJS or you’ve been to Moab before, right? I’ve been to Moab. I haven’t been there during the Easter Jeep Safari. But, you know, I think that Moab, as you say, you can have a lot of fun there. And you can even take a Bronco to Moab. It’s easy. I see. If you were if you were there during the warm weather, you saw those people on a bicycle, if you’re really adventurous, if not me, you had the first year I went, which was 2023, I believe I saw a stretch limo, a long stretch limo off road.

[00:28:43:04 – 00:29:51:21]
Well, I’m sure he had his limitations as to where he was. It was not going. He didn’t seem to care. Yeah. And there was a lot of cameras pointing towards him. So I know you’re I know you really like XJs because you you own one, at least one. But I heard a rumor that you got rid of it. Say it’s not true. I did have I sold it. I brought it out of room in the garage, Tony. Oh, that’s a good reason. That’s a good reason. Have you ever had an MJ? I’ve always wanted the MJ once I found out that that that that they were that they they it was basically a Cherokee truck. Oh, yeah. I just thought that they were so cool. And then I found out that you could take a what was the last year they made those things 94 or something like that, maybe 91 92. And but you could take a they redid the body style in 97 96 97 on the XJ, but you could pull out the dash, you could take the hood, the fenders and turn that MJ into a 97 plus MJ. You could upgrade an MJ, you know, significantly. And I see a couple of those on the market out there today.

[00:29:52:26 – 00:30:02:08]
You know, my favorite when I was working at the plant, we had a pilot vehicle that was it had the VM diesel, the Vittoromatori Italian diesel.

[00:30:03:15 – 00:30:09:11]
It was a five speed and I would use it on weekends.

[00:30:10:18 – 00:30:21:26]
My son was racing a go kart at the time, so it made it. Oh, God, that’s so dangerous. Yeah, right. Nice race vehicle. And with that VM diesel, it was a four solar diesel.

[00:30:22:29 – 00:30:55:12]
You could get, you know, people will slap me when they hear this, but you can get close to 40 miles a gallon once you got a rolling in fifth gear. Right. You know, it was not much on acceleration. Our government has done a disservice to the American people by making it so hard to have diesel powered vehicles because diesels have always been a very fuel efficient mode of transportation, especially if you were a Volkswagen, you defeated the checks for the emissions.

[00:30:59:00 – 00:31:31:12]
Anyway, but if you when you come to Jeep Fest or Chris comes down, he’s going to see just about every variation of the Jeep that’s been produced, you know, since 1941. Well, this is this is great because this is a great way for people that maybe are just in Jeep or maybe they only know the modern Jeeps to see the heritage to see the DNA where all this stuff came from. Yeah, you know, one of the guys that I work with, you know, Brett Cutsley, he used to work at the Jeep plant also, he was a tooling engineer there.

[00:31:32:24 – 00:32:00:24]
We go to a lot of car shows and we shake hands with a lot of these Jeep owners and we woo to bring the vehicles to the to the the exhibit in the convention center because we try to get vehicles in there that, you know, a lot of the Jeep community, even some of the real what they call the real enthusiasts have never seen. You know, and it’s it’s it’s quite an eye opener for a lot of folks when they see

[00:32:00:24 – 00:32:10:20]
Wow, check out that Jurassic Park Jeep. The detail is amazing, look at the spare tire. And this black one is no slouch, custom bumper. Yeah, perfect for trails, the mods are incredible.

[00:32:10:20 – 00:32:14:10]
surprised to see was what was it called the FC 100 and the 150?

[00:32:16:08 – 00:33:26:15]
Those things are crazy. FC for Ford cab folks. We had one last year, year before, a guy named Tom Shaw owns it. It’s he restored it. And it there’s two variations that the Jeep produced. It was an FC 150, very short wheelbase, and then it was an FC 170, which was longer, you know, longer wheelbase, almost like a full size eight foot bed on it. And the FC 170 is like like a CJ six. It’s very awkward when you look at it. It is what’s wrong with this vehicle too long for what it looked. So he had this 150. And if you look at a 150, they’re really pretty short. I mean, yeah, it’s weird. So weird. Is if you if you don’t have any load in the back and you really crank down on the brakes because you’re actually sitting over the front axle that you can do a rear wheelie, if you will, to get your wheels off. So he wanted to, you know, you wanted to rectify that situation. So he made some modifications and

[00:33:26:15 – 00:33:34:26]
Happy parade everyone! (Cheering) Thanks for coming out! We love it! Keep going!

[00:33:34:26 – 00:34:13:13]
on that kind of identified is in addition to having the cab over the front axle right behind that and the engine is literally right right next to you. I mean, it’s like the old vans were the engine. And then it’s got a spare tire. And most of them had a spare tire on one side. Well, Tom put a spare tire on each side just for the added balance and a little extra balance. That’s a good idea. Back here. Oh, he’s a really, really good engineering guy. But yeah, FC 170 and so forth. A lot of people have never seen those.

[00:34:14:17 – 00:34:31:12]
There’s also the FJ trucks. I don’t know if you’ve seen an FJ truck. I think, but go ahead with what you were going to say. So it looks like a, looks like an old mail truck or like a miniature. Is that the one where you, the mailman would stand

[00:34:31:12 – 00:34:33:26]
(Music)

[00:34:33:26 – 00:34:52:19]
drive as a regular delivery vehicle. But what’s unique about them is they are mounted on a CJ three frame and that’s how small they are.

[00:34:53:29 – 00:35:40:09]
Oh, it’s a tiny vehicle. It’s really tall, huge front windshield. I’m trying to remember, I think Greg Henderson, unofficial use only, was actually one of those. Yeah. He was actually building one for somebody that, uh, for a, uh, to put a motorcycle, carry a motorcycle in the back. And I thought that was really cool. Uh, and then there was, uh, I’m forgetting, um, um, forgetting the individual that was on the show. Uh, he’s a handicap. So it was perfect for him for one of those. So you could get his wheelchair in there and then, uh, drive. Dave Adams Adams. Yeah. I remembered Adams, but I could remember the first guy. That’s the guy that’s got that one. Yeah. Yeah. They were really, really cool vehicle. Oh, real quick on the, the FC. You remember the concept vehicle, uh, from

[00:35:40:09 – 00:35:43:15]
(Music)

[00:35:43:15 – 00:35:56:06]
FCS would be, I was just thinking that one of those FCS would be a great platform, uh, to put a barbecue pit on.

[00:35:57:28 – 00:36:26:08]
You could drive, drive out the EDS and cook barbecue. A great platform for a lot of things. There was a, there was also a prototype version of that. That was a, uh, like a van was fully enclosed with side. Yeah. I think I did see that. They did a military version of it. Uh, it’s called an M six 77, I believe. Uh, we had one of those at the, at the show, uh, last year. Yeah.

[00:36:27:23 – 00:36:36:15]
I think that if you take a Jeep and turn it into a van like that, you need to put a free 10 millimeter socket on the side so you can suck in the Jeepers.

[00:36:38:15 – 00:37:33:22]
Well, we’ll have all kinds of varieties of the Jeeps there. Uh, you know, uh, a couple of years ago, uh, we hooked up rugged Ridge with, uh, they had a, uh, they had a development program, uh, where they would donate some of their accessories and so forth to, uh, uh, fire departments, uh, or, uh, you know, first responder type operations. We have a, an outfit out in a Maritzi, uh, uh, Michigan that, uh, they have a, uh, really a sweet vehicle. It’s a Rubicon brush truck with, uh, you know, set up to, you know, fight small fires and stuff out in the field or the woods, uh, all four wheel drive and it’s got, uh, you know, a little pumper set up on similar to the old, uh, you know, fire trucks, the old Willys fire trucks that you used to see, uh, built on a Rubicon, a Rubicon chassis.

[00:37:35:18 – 00:38:59:21]
So before we get too far away from this and I forget about it again, let me ask you, so rumor has it, and if you know something more detailed to this than rumor, I’d like to know. But rumor has it by 2030, uh, the, the Wrangler, cause I don’t think the gladiator is going to be around by 2030. I think they’re going to get rid of it. Uh, much like they did with the MJ, the MJ only had a few years, uh, the, the, the last Jeep truck before the gladiator. Uh, but the rumor is, is that by 2030, all the Wranglers are going to be IFS, which to me is, I wouldn’t buy a Jeep unless it had a solid front axle. Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve seen that, uh, that, that story or rumor or whatever you want to call it. Okay. So you can’t talk about it. Okay. I got you. Well, you know, I think you’re going to see, I think you might see a variant of that, uh, before then, uh, before 30, uh, if they’re, they’re talking about doing a, uh, this new Scrambler version for, for desert racing or whatever. Right. And, uh, that may have an IFS. Cause that’s what everybody wants to do is desert race. I mean, if you talk about people not taking it off road, let’s see if they’re going to take it to the desert. Yeah. I think they’re looking for a reason to go IFS simply because of death wobble. They don’t like dealing with death wobble.

[00:39:01:05 – 00:39:01:19]
I don’t know.

[00:39:03:15 – 00:39:05:06]
You can pass. This is my opinion.

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All I can tell you is that again, this is, uh, you know, this is not telling tales out of school, but, uh, about 19.

[00:39:14:04 – 00:39:19:01]
How do I be 1986 or 80? You know, no, it was 90, 95.

[00:39:20:04 – 00:40:37:03]
Uh, there was some discussion about doing an IFS and Wrangler and we actually built a prototype. Sure. I can see that. You go at the plant, at Toledo plant, we had a, we had a very good working relationship with, uh, uh, you know, uh, the Jeep design people and, uh, they would, you know, work with us and we had the capability there at the plant because of the, uh, the stamping plant and so forth that we needed to have some individual looking front frame member or whatever. We could, we could do that as opposed to go onto, you know, uh, an outside engineering firm to do the design. So we built a, we built a couple of those and they did their evaluation of them. And, uh, the decision basically pretty quickly was, Hey, this, uh, solid front axles makes a lot of sense for the way we are using the vehicles today. Well, you can correct me if I’m wrong on this, but my opinion has always been that the solid front axle is the cheapest and strongest thing that you can do for an off-road vehicle. It’s not a desert racer. I don’t give a crap, a rat’s ass about racing anywhere in my Jeep. I want to go, uh, I want to be slow and curious. I want to take it off road and go over things because not everybody can do that.

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And I don’t, I mean, I’m not going to say that that’s the cheapest and the strongest, but it’s, it’s obviously, uh, you know, cost-effective, you know, we wouldn’t be doing it. And it’s, uh, it’s very strong or they can be built. I mean, you see, you talk to any of the guys from Dana and, uh, you know, they can build you an axle that will do just about anything you want to do. Oh, Dan, I have no doubt that IFS can be made very, very strong, but it’s going to cost you a lot of money. But I go back to my, uh, my days at Ford when, uh, one of the plants that I worked at built, uh, uh, full-size Ford, uh, you know, galaxies and so forth. And then we also had a truck plant, uh, attached to our facility that built the, uh, uh, the F they were F100s at that time, where they went to the 150 and they had the, uh, the twin I-beam, you know, front suspension, which is, you know, kind of an IFS derivative. That, uh, you know, got a lot of moving parts. And, uh, if you are ever wanting to do an engineering study on tire wear, uh, that’s the kind of vehicle you want to, you know, put in your, uh, in your regimen for testing. Because they’re, you know, just the articulation of how those front wheels move. Again, uh, there are some desert racer vehicles that have, uh, not a standard IFS, but, uh, a highly modified IFS with very, uh, centrally located pivot points and so forth. They’re really pretty amazing. And there’s, there’s very little movement other than straight up and down. Uh, when you look at those, you know, for desert racing, that kind of a vehicle kind of makes a lot of sense. And I have no problem with IFS. I have no problem with anybody that wants to do anything different like that. Build a great, a great thing. But to me, if I’m buying a Jeep, I want a solid front axle. I do not want IFS. Now, if I’m not taking it off road, it’s the ride’s going to be better. I’m not going to have to deal with, uh, with death wobble because it’s just not something that you get with IFS. At least that’s what I’ve been told. Um, but, um, I mean, the Jeep could just simply put heavier, uh, steering components. Uh, on the, on the front of the Jeep and it wouldn’t have death wobble. I mean, but I mean, I know steer smarts happy that they don’t because they sell stuff that you can put on there. That’s beefy as hell. I mean, the aftermarket obviously is, uh, you know, very happy with the opportunities that they have on a Jeep for whatever reasons, you know, uh, you know, Wait, there’s more. Yeah. So I hear less and less about death wobble, uh, then I have for years, you know, and, uh, I mean, once you’ve experienced it, uh, it’s, you’re not going to, not going to forget it. Yeah. We always tell people that the little shaky steering wheel thing that ain’t death wobble. That’s not, that’s exactly right. Death wobble is when you thought you were going to die. Uh, it was, uh, it was, it was registered as a 45 MB.

[00:43:55:03 – 00:44:17:13]
Uh, but it was, it had been rebodied and so forth, but the frame itself was a 44 or 45 Willys. And, uh, you know, uh, you got rolling too fast. Uh, you were putting yourself at serious risk, but you can’t say too fast and Willys because it Willys didn’t go fast. Well, Lester was a, you were going down a Hill.

[00:44:18:28 – 00:44:19:09]
Yeah.

[00:44:21:05 – 00:44:58:08]
Anyway, you know, there’s a, you know, there’s a, there’s a ton of opportunity. I think that’s one of the reasons that the chief is, uh, it’s such a popular vehicle because of the, uh, you know, the aftermarket and the interest. Oh my God. The aftermarket is huge. Just absolutely huge. Uh, you, you come to the deep fest, uh, parade and if we have a thousand Jeeps in that parade, Oh, it’s usually 1200. Cause you guys can’t, you guys don’t know how to count. I challenged you to see two of them that are the same in any way, you know, they might be the same color or the same year, but beyond that, I mean, it’s, uh,

[00:44:59:11 – 00:45:04:18]
it’s, it’s a vehicle that you can put your own personal touches on. I’ve got a lot of people do that.

[00:45:06:01 – 00:46:50:00]
You know, I guess, uh, and there’s, and you, and you don’t have to be a welder. I mean, I think going out of weld is a very good thing, but you can make so many modifications that are bolt on. I mean, you can literally do this in your garage or your driveway. Just take the proper precautions. All right. Before we wrap up, Jerry, uh, the, uh, who’s your, your, uh, grand marshal, uh, uh, to the, to the Jeep fest this year. Yeah. Well, we got to talk about the Jeep, Jeep fester a little bit more. Uh, Brad Calix is going to be our grand marshal. Brad, as you know, is a guy, I call him the king of the YouTube, uh, you know, uh, folks, uh, he, he’s, uh, I think he’s a very well respected, uh, guy in the Jeep community. He does a nice job, uh, uh, for all kinds of reasons. Uh, my personal interest is the guy has got a, uh, a good veteran background. Uh, and he, uh, participates in a lot of the events with his son. I think he, uh, embodies the, uh, you know, the family aspect of the, the Jeep thing. He’s always emphasizing the environmental aspect, uh, get out there and have fun, uh, and be safe. And, uh, to me, that’s what it’s about. I think he’s going to be a good, uh, a good representative for the, uh, uh, for the grand marshal position. And, uh, I think he’s going to have a lot of fun here at Toledo Jeep. Oh, you know, he’s going to have fun now. You didn’t say, but I just want to mention really quick. It’s Brad from trail recon. So tree rock, uh, uh, recon is the, is the channel, the YouTube channel. Uh, if you’re not already aware of it, you should check it out. Beautiful videos, a lot of off-road type stuff. Uh, as, uh, as Brad has gotten rich, uh, he’s, he’s using things that are other than Jeeps out there, like vans and things.

[00:46:51:01 – 00:56:14:11]
So, but there’s plenty of Jeep videos that he has here. So, uh, he’s going to be the grand marshal this year. Did you, is this your first year to have a grand marshal? Cause I don’t remember grand marshal. We’ve had a grand marshal just about every year for the parade portion of it. Uh, and, uh, it’s, you know, it, it, it varies. I mean, uh, uh, Bob Bernerdorf was, uh, the general manager for Jeep. The new guy who was here last, he was here last year. Oh, nice. And, uh, he, he came down and, uh, uh, he has such a good time that I think that’s one of the reasons that, uh, Jeep is one of our co-titled sponsors this year. Uh, they’re getting more involved with stuff. I mean, whenever Tavares was part of Jeep that they kind of pulled away from that. And I think that’s a, that was a huge, uh, a very bad decision on Jeep spark, but he’s gone and, uh, I think some more people that are more interested in Jeeps and the Jeepers and the individuals that actually buy Jeeps, uh, they’re getting more involved in things. Now, I think that you guys usually have a one or two of the Jeep concept vehicles that are shown at Eastern Jeep Safari. Yeah. Typically we’re, we’re getting as many as five and six of the Jeep concepts. So, uh, we’re, we’ve done this now and we have enough contact that, uh, you know, basically they give me, uh, you know, a list of what’s available and we kind of pick and choose where we can. And, uh, even one of the, the, the fellows that, uh, still has access to the old, uh, the vehicles that are in the, uh, in the Chrysler museum, uh, inventory. We’ve been able to, uh, you know, the last couple of years, we were able to get, uh, you know, one or two of those vehicles, uh, as well. I don’t know if you’re the Comanche eliminator. It was a red short wheelbase, uh, with, uh, unique fender flaring and so forth. Not all up in my head, but the folks we were talking about the MJ earlier, the Comanche is the MJ. Comanche is an MJ. So yeah, take a look. It’s a Comanche eliminator concept. You’ll, you’ll be impressed, but yeah, we’ve, uh, uh, we’ve been getting more of those vehicles, uh, each year they bring, and then, uh, uh, the Jeep brand group, uh, will bring a lot of their, uh, demo vehicles that they have at, uh, that runs the show circuit. Got to figure that the majority of the new car show circuit is over by the time Jeep Fest rolls around. Those vehicles are there. And that’s a good segue cause I forget what are the dates, uh, for the Toledo Jeep Fest again. Yeah. Yeah. August 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th. And the big days are, you know, the 7th it’s a, it’s a Friday evening. The 8th is the main day of activity, including the parade. And then, uh, on Sunday, uh, we were open till about one o’clock, uh, and we have the, uh, uh, the four mile race and one mile walk, uh, uh, that’s all Jeep themed, uh, for, for the, uh, outdoorsy folks. And, uh, they have, uh, they have one of the most remarkable, uh, finishing metals, uh, they’ve done a series of them that are, you know, have become quite collectible over the years. Uh, so, uh, there’s some things that are going on new this year. You know, Whitney and I have talked to you in the past, we always try to ramp it up a little bit. So one of the things that we’re doing this year is that, uh, uh, we have, uh, this glass city crawlers group that, uh, is one of the main, uh, cheap clubs in our area. Uh, they’ve got a block party. That’s in a, uh, uh, parking a lot down, down in the, in the, in the footprint of our event. It’s a, it’s about a, it holds about 300 vehicles during the week for folks that parked downtown. And we’ll have, uh, some car crushing, some balance beams, and some other activities where you can drive your Jeep. Uh, we have a, uh, uh, one of the things that we’ve, we found is we have a, uh, uh, a guy in our community who’s a fireman, who’s a professional, uh, bodybuilder and whatever he competes in the, uh, the Arnold Schwarzenegger competition each year. And a couple of years ago, he was the world’s strongest firefighter. That was his, his, his nomenclature or whatever. But he has, uh, he has Jeep themed his activity. So he’ll run a little competition, uh, I believe one Friday. And, uh, they’ve got a rig set up where, uh, in fact, at the, one of our hype events, he used my, uh, uh, LJ that, uh, it clamps underneath the rear axle. And the guy actually does, he did like seven squats, uh, raising by the entire ass end of that Jeep up off the ground. He’s also got a set of, uh, for guys that have put, put a, uh, changed a 37 inch tire out on the trail. And you have to put that flat back up on that tire carrier in the back. Uh, you get a sense of, uh, of how, how well this guy does, but he’s got a, uh, a simulated axle with 37s on and a couple of additional plates that he’ll be, uh, he’ll be benching, uh, and then there’ll be a small competition. I do along with that. And, uh, that’ll, that’ll be one of the Friday activities. And then our Thursday, Friday, uh, we have a concert downtown on the riverfront. And, uh, this year we’re going to have a drone show. It’s a Jeep themed drone show. Uh, you’re going to see, I think some, uh, you know, visual displays that, uh, uh, recognize 85 years of the Jeep production. Hopefully we’ll get some silhouettes and some different grills and so forth. Oh, that reminds me. I was supposed to send Whitney a vector of the Jeep talk show logo so that the, so you never know. So that the drones could do the Jeep talk show logo for everybody to say. Is a sweet act outside of just the, uh, you know, the Jeep stuff that’s going on is that, uh, you know, this minor league baseball team that we have in Toledo is one of the more famous ones across the United States. It’s called the Toledo mud heads. And one of the things that they’re able to do from a management standpoint is a couple of times a year and they’re restricted, they get to rebrand. So, uh, they’re going to be the Toledo mud sugars again, and they’ll have, uh, the Jeep themed, uh, uniforms. Uh, we had some tire, grills and so forth. And, uh, and then they sell the merchandise, obviously, it’s got to be some marketing in this, but, uh, it’s, it’s a fun event. Uh, there is a family event too. Absolutely. Yeah. Family events, stuff for the kids, all kinds of stuff. It’s a great event that you go to. Yeah. And a lot of events that somebody they’ll always say, oh, there’s something for everybody. Well, you know, we can say that and beat it. And, uh, in fact, uh, there’s a schedule out. If you go to our website at Toledo Jeep fest.com and look up schedules, there’s a, uh, there’s a schedule that has the activities and times listed and literally there are some things that you can attend, uh, both at the same time. There’s so much going on, uh, uh, you know, and there’s a couple of, uh, a couple of events that, uh, you know, you overlook or whatever, uh, we’ve partnered with the Toledo Metro parks and we have a, uh, a Jeep base camp. That is just outside of our footprint. It’s a, you know, what is it? Maybe a hundred yards from where we marshaled it staged a parade. Uh, it’s in one of the Metro parks and they’ve got some really sweet campsites that are set up there. Well, you know, Chris is going to be there. He’s going to be out there. Uh, and is he going to be at the camp that base camp this year? Thar camper. I don’t know if you’ve heard of thar camper. It’s an inflatable camper, but he’s going to, he’s going to be out there with a recent interview that we did with the thar camp there. Thar camper. I always have a hard time with that. It’s like the air camper without the E. So he’s going to be out there with that. If you get a chance to check it out, if you’re not, uh, not familiar with that. So Jerry, you guys, you talk about all these things that you do, you do things new, uh, you add on to the event every year. Damn it. I think it was three years ago when I had a wonderful Jeep talk show, a million dollar idea was having a Jeep honor badge. If you were in the parade and it hasn’t happened yet. I asked Whitney about this and she says, yeah, we’ve been talking to Jeep about it. I don’t, I don’t think you guys want to do it. If it’s a bad idea, just tell me and I’ll stop bringing it up. You guys need an honor badge. They did an honor badge. I think this is right. They did an honor badge for EJS this year. And you know, that’s just EJS. EJS is a big deal, but this Toledo Jeep Fest in the shadow of the Jeep plant, they need to put a honor badge for the Jeep parade, the Toledo Jeep face parade. I was, I mean, it’s great because you say I was in the parade. Never, not everybody gets those honor badges. I mean, you’ll probably be able to buy them on, uh, on eBay, but still. And that’s such a good idea that we’re going to actually do that this year.

[00:56:14:11 – 00:56:18:07]
(Music)

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rabbits in town, but it’s a, this is great. It’s a good idea. We’ll work it through. And yes, we’ve, uh, we’ve, we’ve gotten a buy in and a Jeep. Excellent. Oh, that’s wonderful. I really, so, so Chris is going to have to get one. That’s wonderful.

[00:56:41:24 – 00:58:21:20]
He’ll have to sign up. And I think, I think he’s going to be in the parade. I think he’s going to be driving his gladiator in the parade. Yeah. I had a chance to ride with him when we were down at Bully green and his gladiator. He really likes that vehicle. Yeah. He w I was talking to him yesterday. He’s been doing a lot of modifications to it, including that, uh, that camper I was telling you about. Uh, he just recently got the, the AV lift and a 35 inch tires and, uh, additional wheels on there. So he’s getting it, uh, getting in the air and looking a little more Jeepy. Uh, and, uh, so, uh, we were talking about it and he said, that the gladiators growing on him, he had a JK before. And when he was going to replace the JK, he actually thought about replacing it with another Wrangler. Uh, and he says the gladiators really growing on him. I love mine. I think it’s wonderful. Uh, and also to like having something that isn’t like every other jeeper. Uh, it’s kind of like the XJ. I mean, but whenever I got the XJ, the TJ was, uh, that was really the way to go. And then, uh, but we went with the XJ cause it’s a four door. Uh, and I mean, frankly, if the TJ had been a four door, we would have gotten a four door TJ for, you know, to carry the family, but that didn’t happen until the, uh, the JKs came out. Well, and I, I think that, you know, folks, you get into a gladiator, uh, you understand what it is and how it works. Uh, there’s a lot of advantages to that. And it, I think it’s, it’s, it’s caught on a little slower than I think some people would anticipate, but, uh, I haven’t talked to anybody that’s got one that doesn’t like it. Uh, and there are definitely some advantages. I mean, you can say, well, the bed’s not that big. You can’t do this. You can’t do that. And I said, well, but it has a bed on it. It’s bigger than the one on the Wrangler.

[00:58:22:25 – 01:00:20:00]
Exactly. And, you know, I see some, you know, we’re, we’re located here, you know, uh, just as you come into, uh, into Michigan from Ohio or come from the south, there’s where the intersection of, uh, you know, 80, 90 and, uh, and 75. So we see a lot of recreational type vehicles. Uh, and we see a lot of towing out here in our part of the country. I’m sure you do in Texas as well. Right. Everybody that I’ve talked to that has toed with a gladiator is impressed with how well it toes compared to a Wrangler. Jeep engineers do such a wonderful job and keep in mind, I drove my XJ for 23 years. I have a single owner XJ and I drove it every day for 23 years until I got the gladiator. And I don’t, I didn’t lose the experience of driving my XJ when I got the gladiator. The driving, the two are very similar. Uh, and, and, and to me, that is the only thing I miss really is the sound of the 4.0 that 3.6 sound is not anywhere like the 4.0. The 4.0 sound is so unique. Uh, but, uh, it’s still a Jeep. It’s absolutely a Jeep, uh, from, uh, from the XJ to the, the JT. All right. So we’ve talked about the Toledo Jeep Fest. We talked about a lot of interesting things have been doing with Jeeps and, uh, the background that you have on Jeeps. And I think I say this every time that we, we get on here and talk, Jerry, we need to get you on, uh, whenever we can just talk about Jeeps and all the stuff that you’ve been through, uh, with, uh, the Jeeps, uh, for over the years. Uh, but, uh, you can learn a lot of this for yourself by going to, uh, uh, the Toledo Jeep Fest, uh, coming up here in this, this August and make sure that if you see Jerry, he’s going to be in a golf cart, streaming by, wave him down, make him stop and say, Hey, I saw you on the Jeep talk show.

[01:00:22:14 – 01:01:52:02]
Well, hopefully we’ll be there and we’ll have, we’ll take time to chat with you. So, uh, you know, but, uh, seriously, you know, uh, I think you hit on a very positive note when you at an event like this, you see a cool Jeep stop and talk to the people that either own it. They’ll be close. They’ll be happy to tech tell you everything that you want to know and some stuff you never wanted to hear. And exactly some stuff you wouldn’t have found out otherwise. That’s right. We never have every Jeep is cool, but there’s cooler stories with each one of them. So, uh, Jeep people are not standoffish and they want to share the information about the Jeep that they have because they’re proud of it. Uh, and if you’ve always wanted to have a Jeep, but you never got one, this is a great way of going out and being a part of the Jeep community and learning about the Jeep community, uh, very friendly, uh, very helpful. And, uh, just be careful because you might buy a Jeep after going. Well, that’s also not a bad thing. No, it’s not a bad thing at all. But if they’re scared of doing it, all right, Jerry, thank you so much for being here with us. Fascinating as always. And, uh, I’m serious. We need to get you on here and just talk about Jeeps the entire, the entire time. Some of that background hidden stuff that nobody knows. One of these times, maybe I’ll be able to sign on to when you got one of your panel discussions as well. Yeah. Our round table. That would be, that would be wonderful. Cause that would give everybody an opportunity to ask you all the, all those questions. All right. All right, Jerry. Thank you. Thank you. And we’ll see you guys at

[01:01:53:28 – 01:01:55:25]
You’re my friend, you’re my new friend.