Jeep Scrambler Coming in 2028? Tony and Josh React to the Halo Desert Truck
**Jeep Talk Show – New Jeep Scrambler Plans, Battery Trickle Charging Tips, Video Voicemails & More**
Welcome back to the Jeep Talk Show, the longest-running and best Jeep podcast out there! Tony and Josh (back in the mix) dig into Jeep’s upcoming Scrambler, why they think it’s going to happen around 2028, the design details that have them both excited and pissed off (IFS front *and* rear? Side steps? Modular rear seats that flip for tailgating? A K5 Blazer-style removable hatch?), and whether this “halo” desert-racer two-door pickup is actually for Jeep people or just another attempt to chase the side-by-side market.
They also cover:
– Real-world trickle charger problems (and a better, simpler solution)
– How to leave a proper video voicemail (and why the Camflare redirect is legit)
– A listener video voicemail from Nathan in Pittsburgh
– The new “Most Popular / Best Of” page on the website that remembers what you’ve already heard
– Bonus segment teaser: Hard shackles vs soft shackles (YouTube members & Patreon only)
This is pure Jeep Talk Show — honest opinions, zero corporate filter, and plenty of laughs.
### Timestamps
00:00 Intro and Call to Share
01:27 Scrambler Intro and Bonus Segment Tease
02:32 Scrambler Prospects and Voice Mail
03:27 Scrambler Concept and Naming Debate
04:58 Scrambler Timeline and Near‑Term Outlook
06:59 Scrambler Design and Utility Features
11:34 Scrambler Versatility, Halo Role, and Engines
13:05 Side‑Step Concerns and Design Critique
14:15 Mic Glitch and Quick Design Note
14:42 Editing Interlude and Halo Concept
15:27 Clarifying Halo Terminology
16:44 Engine Feasibility Discussion
18:10 Drivetrain Options and SRT Overview
19:21 Desert Racing Focus
20:13 IFS vs Solid Axle and Market Strategy
22:01 Front‑End Design and Styling Highlights
25:02 Cost Concerns and Trophy‑Truck Aspirations
26:17 Trophy‑Truck Speculation
27:29 Jeep Strategy vs Side‑by‑Side Market
30:46 Success Outlook and Listener Feedback
32:22 Listener Engagement Options
32:42 Interactive Listening Challenges
34:12 CamFlare App Explanation
38:51 CamFlare Installation and Submission Guidance
40:19 Personal Updates and Lockbox Mention
41:16 Trickle Charging Tips and New Charger
47:08 Bluetooth Load Tester Overview
48:16 Navigating Podcast Archive
50:07 Meta Discussion on Episode Length
53:26 Closing Remarks and Disclaimer
### Key Highlights
– Jeep is finally admitting past mistakes and aiming the Scrambler at the high-speed desert / side-by-side crowd instead of pure rock crawling.
– Expected powertrains include the 2.0 Hurricane, 3.6 Pentastar, and a possible 6.4 392 Hemi SRT version.
– Tony’s take: cool looking, interesting, but IFS (especially rear) means it’s not a real Jeep for him.
– Practical garage tip: many cheap trickle chargers draw power from the battery when “off.” A simple automatic maintainer + smart plug schedule fixes it.
– New website feature: jeeptalkshow.com/bestof (or “Most Popular” in the menu) ranks the top 50 episodes by downloads and remembers what you’ve already played.
**Share the show.** Seriously. Even if you only half-enjoy it, tell somebody. We’re not asking for much — just hit the share button.
Drop a comment with your thoughts on the Scrambler (love it, hate the IFS, want a solid-axle version, etc.).
Leave us a video voicemail at jeeptalkshow.com/voicemail (30 seconds, landscape mode).
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Help Support the show via Patreon: https://jeeptalkshow.com/patreon
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00:00 – 00:00:03:10]
(Music)
[00:00:03:10 – 00:00:31:28]
boys and girls, it’s time for another Jeep Talk Show interview. And if you’ve been here for very long, you know this face. This is Tom Zielinski. He is a lifelong off-roader, off-road event creator and operator, tread lightly board member, a former racer of many things, supporter of all things off-road. And Tom, I don’t want you, I think the statute of limitations probably has ended by now, but it wasn’t always legitimate off-road racing. I’m thinking.
[00:00:34:04 – 00:00:51:25]
Allegedly, there were perhaps a time or two where we might’ve been somewhere where we weren’t supposed to. And frankly, that’s been a great piece of the motivation to serve on the board of tread lightly and hopefully repent for- Don’t be like me.
[00:00:54:09 – 00:01:25:02]
Exactly. Yeah, you know, back in the 1800s when wheels were still made of wood and we were the formative years. And yeah, we may have been some places that we shouldn’t have been, but had some fun times in the process. You know, I’m a speed demon and it’s so funny. Just the traffic in Houston and going back and forth in traffic so much, I learned that when I got off-road in the gladiator or anything, I have a tendency to ride people’s
[00:01:25:02 – 00:01:27:14]
on the trail. Move your
[00:01:27:14 – 00:01:36:01]
Why are you going so slow? And I’m thinking of myself, it’s a trail ride. You’re not trying to get home, enjoy yourself, slow down, leave some room.
[00:01:37:08 – 00:01:40:26]
It’s so funny how we learn. Welcome to Detroit, man. We’re from Detroit.
[00:01:42:27 – 00:02:16:28]
You would think it is the Audubon and there are no speed limits. Technically, I see signs that provide a suggestion. Exactly. But nobody’s listening. It’s a recommendation. We have the Beltway 8 out here. Now we have a Beltway 99 as well, a highway 99. It’s a big loop around Houston. I think the 99 loop is like 170 miles around Houston. It’s huge. But anyway, Beltway 8, people get on the Instagram and whatnot and complain about how people drive on Beltway 8. And
[00:02:16:28 – 00:02:25:21]
it, it is the Houston Audubon and we pay to drive on the Beltway because it’s a toll road. That means we can drive whatever
[00:02:25:21 – 00:02:30:18]
speed we wanna go. (Laughing) Makes sense to me.
[00:02:31:27 – 00:03:09:26]
Detroit, for clarity, Detroit operates in a slightly different way and it is more of a not so much toll ways, but just, hey man, I’m from Detroit, get out of the way. This is the Motor City. Yeah, I’m a speed demon. I try to be, I try to get better. In fact, I tried getting better by getting out of cars and into trucks. And then I went from full-size trucks because you’re less likely to be tempted to race somebody. And I got out of trucks into Jeeps and Jeeps are wonderful. I still drive them too fast, but you know, it’s a Jeep.
[00:03:10:27 – 00:03:47:23]
Look, my recent past, meaning the last couple of weeks, I could give you a very compelling story about why trucks are not a cause to slow down. We just finished up the TRX launch at Red Bud Motocross. And the new TRX would give you every reason to not consider slowing down one bit. Yeah, I love horsepower. Good God, I love horsepower. I’d love to have a V8 Wrangler or better yet, a V8 Gladiator. And I’m fine with you sharing any information that you may have about that. Cause that was promised to us.
[00:03:49:18 – 00:03:50:25]
I don’t know what you’re talking about, man.
[00:03:52:06 – 00:04:07:11]
(Laughing) You know, you remember when you were on with Jim Morrison and gosh, it was several years ago and I tried to get Jim to commit to when you go, when are you gonna put a Hemi and a Gladiator? And he says, I wouldn’t have a job tomorrow if I told you. So it’s like, it was, so you’re saying it’s a possibility.
[00:04:09:13 – 00:04:13:04]
Look, I hear all the same rumors you do. Oh,
[00:04:13:04 – 00:04:15:07]
(Laughing)
[00:04:16:15 – 00:04:43:27]
You just don’t wanna say, I understand. All right, so let’s get off of this and just having fun. A couple of friends talking here on the podcast. Oh, and I’ll mention really quick, a lot of the people that I talk to on the interviews, I have never met personally. I’m down here in Southeast Texas. I don’t go to a lot of events and stuff, but I have gone to EJS, love to go again. And I’ve met Tom on the two times I’ve been there.
[00:04:45:01 – 00:04:58:24]
I mean, it was really nice. I think I even got to meet your daughter or one of your daughters the last time I went with my wife. I’m so glad she went with me. It’s an experience that needs to be shared with somebody you love.
[00:05:00:03 – 00:05:53:22]
And here’s what I would say for any of the listeners that have not been to Moab yet. Here’s what I would say. And I need to be far more grateful than I am sometimes about how often I get to be in Moab. And the great fortune I’ve had to be with a slew of different people on trail. And same thing for my kids to a degree as well. My daughter thinks Moab’s just a regular thing. Doesn’t everybody do that? And- Oh, she’s just used to it, okay. Yeah, just to her, it’s like, well, yeah, in Moab. Last week she was in Sonoma for the Ferrari challenge. And next week she’s in Monterey for Monterey car week. So to her, this whole car world is a different thing. That’s wonderful. She’s experienced this, and you want that for your children. It should be commonplace for them.
[00:05:56:09 – 00:05:58:05]
Yes, but back to Moab,
[00:05:59:24 – 00:06:20:19]
anybody that hasn’t gone needs to go. If you haven’t been to Easter Jeep Safari, that certainly is another level of Jeep engagement, I guess is a pleasant way to say that. Jeep overload. It is a little bit, if there is such a thing as Jeep overload, that is it. Oh, it’s a good thing. Yes.
[00:06:21:25 – 00:06:26:15]
And I had some new people, we guided some new folks
[00:06:27:28 – 00:06:39:24]
this year that had never been kind of an executive program. And I’m telling you, wide eyed, like, oh my goodness. Like a fighter pilot looking for bogeys.
[00:06:42:00 – 00:06:48:17]
And so those, like to me, those are super rewarding experiences. And maybe people that are new to the industry
[00:06:49:27 – 00:07:01:28]
that get out there for the first time, it’s so rewarding to see them. And maybe one of the most heartwarming moments was the folks from Detroit Forefest that won the grand prize.
[00:07:03:25 – 00:07:50:25]
Never been out there, had done most of their wheeling kind of locally around Michigan or whatever. And they said it was the most amazing thing they had ever done. You know, I’m kind of choked up about it going, wow, that’s quite a send off. But yeah, I’m glad we get to share that with a lot of people. Yeah, I say it all the time. It’s like being on another planet. It’s just so different and so beautiful. Oh, a quick question for you. A lot of people seem to think that going to EJS is a bad thing. They say it’s too crowded. I didn’t experience crowded at all. I mean, it may be different if you’re part of the, what is it, the Red Rock four wheelers, if you’re part of their group and going on those rides, it might be crowded. But if you’re doing it stuff by yourself or with a group of people, I didn’t think it was crowded at all.
[00:07:52:17 – 00:08:23:19]
Okay. Everybody has a little different take on this. There are certainly some curmudgeons out there that are like, oh, you know, back when I started, it was cool to do all that. And now there’s people and all of that. I don’t know. I don’t wanna say that they’re not a great part of the Jeep culture, but I’m not sure that that’s necessarily what needs to be promoted is I don’t wanna see any other humans. Right. I love being around all those folks. Yeah, are there moments where,
[00:08:24:27 – 00:09:36:25]
cause we guide some big groups or if you run into the Red Rock skies or whatever, where there’s a lot of people, yes, of course. Sometimes you can’t get into your favorite restaurant that evening, but what a great way to engage with the community and to, frankly, what a great opportunity to show all of those locals and whatever other tourists are there in town, how cool this off-road Jeep community is. And I think Rich Klein said that really, really well and kind of very publicly said, hey, you guys, if you don’t wanna be there, don’t go. Right. But the rest of us, we’ll all be there having fun, talking to each other, going to parties, and most importantly, doing great things in our Jeeps off-road. Well, I just mentioned, I got to meet you out there that I wouldn’t, I mean, I’ve talked to you here, so I know you were friends, but I’ve never actually met you. I haven’t met a lot of people, but going out to EJS, you get to meet the people that you’ve talked to, or for me, meet the people that you’ve talked to. I actually saw Matt’s off-road recovery. I don’t remember if it was, I think it was this last time I went in 2024
[00:09:37:25 – 00:09:47:26]
that he was there, and I guess I was nervous. I interviewed him. I guess I was nervous because I realized I didn’t introduce my name. My wife tells me I’m socially
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so that’s my excuse.
[00:09:51:03 – 00:09:55:08]
(Laughing) Okay, that’s fine. Introduce yourself, give them the
[00:09:55:08 – 00:09:55:29]
name.
[00:09:57:06 – 00:11:16:11]
I think it’s, well here, I’ll circle back to these guests that we had with us this year out there, and they got to meet all sorts of people from around the Jeep community, and went to all the cool industry parties and all that, and they were just floored by the idea that they got to go out off-roading with these people that have these giant YouTube channels and all these things. They’re like, this is the most amazing thing. I can’t believe we get to do this. So if that isn’t a great part of the Jeep community, I don’t know what is, and everybody’s so accessible, and there’s, I don’t know anybody with any attitudes, or I’m cooler than you are type stuff. Everybody’s out there having a great time. Yeah, exactly. All right, so anyway, let me jump over to this other deal. I have not seen it, but I’ve seen some of the stuff on social media where you were in a big time, recent interview, and I think you were talking about being an event coordinator. I don’t know the name of the show, and I say it’s a big time deal, because it wasn’t like Zoom. It wasn’t like you were in Michigan and I’m in Houston. It was like you were sitting across a table from somebody. Tell us about that. What was going on there, and how much did it cost you?
[00:11:16:11 – 00:11:38:27]
Welcome to the automotive advantage. What’s your background? How did you get to do how did you get to be the one of the leading automotive experience experts in the world? Well, I think it goes way back beyond just that because that’s the fun part, right? That’s the part that pays the bills and does all that. But as a kid, I was a Detroit kid and my I had cousins that loved cars
[00:11:38:27 – 00:11:52:09]
Okay, let’s get, great. Let’s clarify on that. I don’t wanna make that sound like it was such a big deal. But it had lights, right, and multiple cameras. I mean, this is a big time deal, man. They did.
[00:11:53:25 – 00:12:05:21]
And yes, it kind of is. Like, it’s still funny to me. So the name of that podcast is called Automotive Advancing
[00:12:06:27 – 00:12:47:10]
and it’s hosted by some just amazing folks. Dr. Jamie Meyer used to be the president of PRI and headed up General Motors Performance at one point, and is just a legend. And then of course, Justin Chesler from DriveLine Studios, who is arguably one of the great automotive photography artists around the space. And these guys also have this amazing podcast that talks about the business of automobiles and the auto business.
[00:12:48:10 – 00:14:39:01]
Particularly meaningful here in Detroit, of course. Oh, sure. But they’ve got, you know, whatever, a zillion listeners and all this stuff. And so yeah, we talked about event stuff and it’s been funny, the response that I got, and it’s a huge compliment to them because I said, you guys- You being on the show was a huge compliment to them. Is that what you’re telling me? Nope, not a bit. This is a huge compliment to them. The number of people that reached out to me that saw that and listened to it- Oh, that’s great. That are a pretty big deal around the auto business. And I kind of went, huh, they’ve got some really big names listening into what they’re talking about. And they deserve all the credit for that. And I just- It’s hard for them. They said, come on in and we talked about some stuff and mostly we told stories and laughed. But I’m honored to be on that stuff for sure. Oh yeah, that’s really cool. So when was the episode? Is there an episode number, episode name, or if people were looking for it? I’m sorry to spring this on you. I can just put it up on the screen. I’ll look it up myself. It’s automotive advantage. I don’t know the episode number, but it was a week or so ago. And those guys do just a great job. And I love working with them on all manner of other automotive projects as well. We’re working on some other things around our cars at the station event coming up and around Woodward Dream Cruise next week. And this weekend is- Oh, I remember that. Yeah, Chris has been to that. Leno showed up to the Woodward thing, didn’t he? Or does he? I think he does. Yeah, we had a great experience with Leno
[00:14:40:15 – 00:14:54:11]
working with another auto manufacturer a couple of years ago. And once again, I end up involved in these things. And literally I’m looking around going, huh, I don’t fit in here.
[00:14:56:03 – 00:15:34:12]
There’s a lot of really, wow. And so I’m grateful that I get to do some of this fun stuff. It’s really cool. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Well, it’s just like me. I mean, who am I? And I’m not in the area you’re in. Chris gets to do a lot of stuff because he lives up there. And it’s a great place to be. The show is doing a lot better because Chris lives where he lives. And Chris is a great guy. Sales, he can talk and talk and talk. And he’s a lot more presentable than I am. So we’re very lucky to have him. But it’s more than that. You can’t just be in the right place. You have to perform or at least be cordial enough where people don’t get
[00:15:34:12 – 00:15:41:06]
off. So, and this is good that we talked about this because I have never asked you this before. How the
[00:15:41:06 – 00:15:57:25]
do you accomplish this stuff? I have heard, and it may have been from Chris, no, I can’t remember. Anyway, I have heard. No, you told me, I think, that Jim said that you have more contacts and Jeep than he does. And.
[00:15:59:13 – 00:16:17:08]
I think something Jim would say, but I don’t know that. If we wanted to do something big and Jeep, it’d be better to talk to Tom than me, something along those lines. I don’t remember where I heard that. I don’t remember if it was on the interview or if it was after the interview or what, but I remember that. And I’m thinking to myself, who the hell
[00:16:17:08 – 00:17:04:21]
is this Tom guy? And by the way, it’s not, I’m not trying to minimize this stuff, but you guys came, or you came out and got Chris at the Toledo Jeep Fest. And that’s how we got to know you is because you saw Chris walking around in that whole red jumpsuit and Jeep talk show. And after finding out who you are and the contacts that you have, Chris and I are just amazed, frankly, with all the contacts and stuff that you have. So I know you’ve spent years doing this, but what’s the magic? I don’t want you to give away the magic, but I don’t think anybody could copy you at this point. What’s the magic? There is, seriously, there’s no magic to it. It’s being in the mix every day.
[00:17:05:23 – 00:17:34:03]
You know, I often joke, and I’ve said this to Chris as well, I often joke, I only work a half day, most days, six to six, seven to seven. And- 12 hours, I got you. Sometimes later, but that’s only a half a day. Right. Tonight, I’ll go on much later. We’ve got a dinner that follows this, but seriously, it’s a matter of being in the mix. And then I think you just described it well.
[00:17:36:10 – 00:18:25:23]
Don’t be an idiot and be cordial. And if you say you’re gonna do X, follow through, do X, do stuff, but be accessible and be in the mix and some opportunities come along. And yeah, for sure there’s times where you’re grinding away, going, what was I thinking? Why do I even do this? But the rewards come and you just gotta keep hanging in there and in that podcast that you reference, a lot of conversation about events. And some people wanna do events to be a cool guy, right? Right. Because they saw on Instagram or they saw on YouTube, they saw Cletus and they went, oh, Cletus does events, I’m gonna be cool like him or whatever it might be.
[00:18:27:10 – 00:18:36:11]
It’s kind of not the best move. And I suppose there’s a number of people that know who I am these days,
[00:18:37:12 – 00:19:49:18]
but I’m fine being the guy back behind the curtain. I’m just doing all the things to try and be good at it and then deliver when these clients, need something and Jeep being primary among them, although recently doing some more stuff with Ram and we just, we love working with all these folks. So that’s kind of how it ends up developing. And you say yes too often, Tony, when you say yes, they call you more. Well, that’s good. So I’m gonna go out on a limb here and I believe this is true based on our prior conversations and stuff. You’re not doing events to be the cool guy. You’re not doing events so that you, I mean, certainly you make income from it, but you’re doing the events because it gives you the ability to be involved in things that you love, that you really enjoy. And I think too, for me anyway, it would be I get to talk to people off the record and find out what’s going on about the subjects that I’m really interested in. Now I’m not telling you to give us any info. I’m just saying, I think you get to get some, a lot of good background information about what’s really going on in the industry.
[00:19:50:19 – 00:20:03:19]
There’s no doubt. And does that inform our business decisions as we work with various clients? Yes, of course it does. Does that give us insights into what consumers are thinking?
[00:20:05:05 – 00:21:23:19]
Like tip of the spear level of consumer insights? Absolutely it does. Cause we’re right there in the mix with them. I get to hear what they have to say. Chris would tell you at my own events, I walk around and try to talk, obviously when there’s thousands and thousands of people, I don’t talk to everybody, but I try to talk to a lot of people. And I think just as importantly, try to talk to every vendor, every partner, every sponsor that we have at these events and see what they’re thinking. And it seems to pay dividends and it means we get some calls and get to be involved in some great projects. But yeah, being a little bit lighthearted about this, I think sometimes these OEMs kind of use us because we have not just an off-road part and all of that, but because we do have insights into real data points. Not the stuff that they look at on a spreadsheet, not an Excel spreadsheet worth of this many clicks and all that stuff, but real consumer interactions. And I think our efforts to try to teach off-road 101 a good bet and bring new people in that are intimidated to get in
[00:21:25:05 – 00:21:52:02]
also is a great point of entry as well. Well, that’s a relationship that is, it solidifies the relationship between you and them. Anytime you can teach somebody something and they’re terrified and they come out of it thinking, that wasn’t that bad. That was fun. That was exciting. Pretty much everybody loves a roller coaster. I love a roller coaster that you can control a lot better because I don’t know how the roller coaster was engineered. Is it gonna come apart?
[00:21:53:19 – 00:22:30:21]
Fair point, like an airplane, right? Exactly. So at least if I’m in control of it, I have a feel for the machine. All right, so you mentioned events. Now we’re gonna talk about your events that you have coming up. And I know you have one coming up in September. Chris is gonna be there. So how did the events happen? How did it happen initially? Did somebody say, “Hey, I got a piece of land. “Let’s put on a show.” I mean, was it somebody, was it a corporation that said, “Let’s do this.” Or, you know, you got trainers. Let’s get people out here. I mean, how did you come up with your first event?
[00:22:32:07 – 00:22:58:18]
Well, that goes way, way, way, way back. I was, we had a couple of power sports dealerships and we sponsored events. Like so many dealerships, power sports or automotive, dealership sponsor events. And we came back from another event that was not good. And literally I kind of, I said to myself and to some of the team, I’m like,
[00:22:59:20 – 00:23:01:07]
we’re gonna do our own events.
[00:23:02:18 – 00:23:32:06]
And of course those around me looked at me like, “Wait, how do we do that?” And honestly, I didn’t know either. So it was born a little bit out of, you know, naive or cockiness or whatever, but we just started trying. And then along that path had some amazing mentors, had some failures. Of course. Yeah, but that’s how you learn, right? Exactly.
[00:23:34:01 – 00:23:44:05]
But had some great people that mentored me, a couple that attempted to give me sound advice that I didn’t listen to from time to time.
[00:23:46:01 – 00:23:48:28]
Of course. For those that may end up listening to this, they’ll know who they are.
[00:23:51:18 – 00:23:59:26]
And so it just kind of grew. And fortunately ended up being able to get involved in some really amazing things.
[00:24:00:27 – 00:24:24:22]
A great mentor of mine, Eric Perenard, ended up getting me involved in things like X Games and events with Red Bull that we ended up putting on and all these things. And in the absence of him and other people, I don’t know that I would have ever figured it out on my own, seriously. It’s, you know, I don’t know. And then, you know, the off-road park thing was kind of born from guilt.
[00:24:26:19 – 00:24:58:05]
Because, well, you brought it up when we started. As a kid, allegedly, we’re back to allegedly, Tony, I may have snuck into a few gravel pits to ride dirt bikes and other things. So when this off-road park thing was brought up to me, I’m like, I need to help out and do whatever I can with this and, you know, do my best to try and bring some cool events and do fun things for this opportunity. And so that’s where that was kind of born from.
[00:24:59:19 – 00:25:55:13]
Because I was that, you know, kind of dumb kid that would sneak in, rip around on my dirt bike until somebody chased me out and then find a different way in. And– That’s a spirit of adventure. Yes. And I don’t think that, I mean, I know legally and morally and all that stuff, but we need people that have that spirit of adventure. And if you have a park that you can go to, wonderful. Sometimes you just wanna be bad or you just wanna have it convenient. This is right here, I think I can get away with it. And I’m not saying that you should do it, you know, I have to do the liability thing. I’m not saying you should do it, but come on. That’s what young people do. They have that spirit of adventure. And it often, if you survive, it often makes the world a lot better place. Like what you’ve done.
[00:25:56:20 – 00:26:03:28]
Well, I would use as examples of that, number one, if you are in an off-road park,
[00:26:05:01 – 00:26:11:29]
which certainly doesn’t qualify as a controlled environment, but it’s an appropriate environment for some level of shenanigans. Yes.
[00:26:14:01 – 00:26:30:16]
That’s great. Where it all goes wrong is when we do so on public lands or in ways that affect other people in a very negative way or ruins whatever fun it is that they’re having and so on,
[00:26:32:00 – 00:26:43:23]
that’s not good. And worst of all, in this moment, because it’s especially evident today, is the idea of land trails getting shut down.
[00:26:44:27 – 00:26:54:21]
In some cases, because of a lack of funding, in some cases, there’s lots of reasons, but there’s no question that there are some negatives out there. Sometimes it’s the side-by-side community.
[00:26:56:10 – 00:27:06:12]
That doesn’t mean the Jeep community gets off scot-free in that because I’ve seen- No, no, they do. They’re cool. It’s the side-by-sides. I agree with you. And the Broncos, maybe a Prius here and there.
[00:27:07:19 – 00:27:09:23]
Prius. We don’t see that often.
[00:27:10:24 – 00:27:16:04]
They’re quick. They’re in and out very quick. Yeah, quietly too, I heard. Exactly. I don’t know.
[00:27:17:21 – 00:27:19:15]
But I will say that,
[00:27:20:20 – 00:27:25:26]
if you divided up 1000 incidents that led to,
[00:27:27:10 – 00:27:50:00]
let’s say law enforcement being involved or things like that, there would be a much higher percentage that involved side-by-sides. And I’m not blaming side-by-side owners. In many cases, it’s literally an element of education because look, I operated power sports dealerships for many, many years.
[00:27:51:09 – 00:28:09:20]
I know for sure I had salespeople on the floor that said, “Man, this thing will rip. It’s super fast. They’re great. You can go anywhere in it.” Well, if you go buy one, your salesperson just told you that. What are you gonna go do? Yeah.
[00:28:11:13 – 00:29:33:26]
Gonna go do that. And a lot of people in the side-by-side world are completely new to this off-road space. So I don’t wanna sound like I’m defending side-by-side owners, because we’re on Jeep Talk Show. But the fact of the matter is there’s an education element across all of it. And that’s maybe a place. I mean, what are you gonna do? Again, it’s that sense of adventure. Are you gonna go and ask somebody? And back whenever we were kids, there was no internet. There was nothing, nobody really to ask. There wasn’t a lot of off-road stuff. Or if there was, they were too cool to talk to me. So, I mean, how are you gonna learn? So right now, and this is one of the reasons why we try to say, for tread lightly, do it right. If you pack it in, pack it out, the Blue Ribbon Coalition, all that stuff, because we wanna keep the lands open. Because a lot of people, they’re not off-road people. They don’t even think people should be walking on stuff out there. It should be pristine. It’s not for the ugly people to be out there. Not even them. And they wanna shut it all down. So for that reason alone, we try to educate people, and we don’t do it often enough, about what to do and make sure that you don’t give them any ammunition to shut a trail down. Well, I think that nails it really effectively. Let’s not give those who are inclined to not want motorized recreation anywhere
[00:29:34:27 – 00:29:37:06]
ammunition to shoot us with. Right.
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That’s not a good thing. And there are great organizations out there. Obviously, I’m tread lightly biased, because I’m on the board, but there’s lots of great organizations out there trying to do the right thing and trying to preserve those opportunities. And some of it has to be done by way of education. There is probably a time and a place from in certain circumstances where legal action is necessary. It’s not what we do at tread lightly. It’s not how I wanna view the world, but there’s a time and place for everything. And I think that the moves being made also by SEMA
[00:30:24:24 – 00:30:29:11]
in parallel in partnership or now completely taking over ORBA,
[00:30:30:17 – 00:30:54:10]
also have lots of opportunities to engage at that level. And everybody’s gonna have a role in what happens out there. And I think that we’ve got some unique opportunities to be very engaged and do better, I guess is the best way to say it, to help preserve these public lands. And by the way, to your point, public lands.
[00:30:55:12 – 00:32:02:05]
That means all of us folks. Exactly. Not a very small vocal minority that don’t want this or don’t want that. That doesn’t mean we take over all of it either. But man, there’s a lot of ways that we can all enjoy all of our recreational pursuits and have a great time. So get off my soapbox now. Yeah, it should be for everybody. And if you don’t wanna go out there, is this like you were talking about going to EJS or just going to Moab when it’s not EJS. If you don’t want to be a part of it, don’t go. If you don’t wanna be off road, I mean, just hiking, don’t go. Bicycle, motorcycle, whatever, don’t go. But don’t make it, don’t take it away from everybody else that does wanna use the earth. And anyway, yeah, don’t get me started. So let’s talk about events. You have an event coming up next month, September. That’s the next event for you? Yeah, here, I’ll make this super funny for you. And my wife does not think it’s my most intelligent move, but we actually have back-to-back weekends of events.
[00:32:03:09 – 00:32:11:15]
We have a big event here in Detroit called cars at the station, down at the Michigan Central Station. About 20,000 people show up, it’s amazing.
[00:32:12:21 – 00:32:51:09]
Just a giant festival of car culture. And what better place than in Detroit, right? So we’ve got that one followed immediately by Detroit Forefest the following weekend. Near and dear to everybody’s heart, Detroit Forefest powered by Jeep is a big one for us and is a little bit more complex in many ways than our cars at the station event in the sense that we have rock racing competition. We have bands, yeah, NRA, National Rock Racing Association
[00:32:52:10 – 00:33:03:05]
is partnering with us this year. So we’ll have an NRRA event happening all throughout the mix of Detroit Forefest. So that’s a pretty exciting piece.
[00:33:04:12 – 00:33:34:27]
Plus all the things that Jeep does there and a hundred plus off-road vendors and music and food and all of the things it makes for an amazing day. Most important, nearest and dearest to my heart, the fact that everybody is out on trail and enjoying and trying to do really fun things out there with their Jeeps and so we just, I love it. After that weekend, anybody in my circle
[00:33:36:05 – 00:33:57:19]
will acknowledge we’ve got one corporate event the following week and then I’m going to disappear probably somewhere in Moab. Oh nice, good. So on the event thing, you mentioned the 101. Are you going to have 101 going on at the next Forefest event there at Holly Oaks? Absolutely, last year,
[00:33:59:00 – 00:34:55:24]
hope none of my team gets mad at me because I don’t remember the exact count. We did in excess of 200 off-road 101 courses. Wow. And kudos to my amazing team, the folks at Wicked Jeeps, it’s a Jeep club, are a gigantic help. I won’t call out any names that stand out because they’ll be embarrassed, but the whole team does a great job. We’ve got amazing instructors and the number of compliments that we get for doing that is, as I’ve said earlier, very, very heartwarming and we love welcoming new people in and we look at who becomes a Jeeper and we look at did they come back the next year? Did they become one of us? Are they continuing to participate and a surprisingly high percentage become one of us?
[00:34:57:06 – 00:35:10:13]
Yeah, so if people want to, is it too late to get set up to go to the event? I mean, do you still have openings and if they go over to fourfestevents.com? Yeah.
[00:35:11:22 – 00:35:29:06]
Is there other tickets? How do you, what do you do as far as not only going to the event, but getting signed up to do the 101 if that’s something that you might want to do? Yep, they can do both on the website, very straightforward, super easy to register. I will say this, register early.
[00:35:30:26 – 00:35:35:19]
As Chris may have told you at our Detroit Winterfest event this year,
[00:35:37:03 – 00:35:42:05]
we had to cut it off. We literally just, it’s a great thing.
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We could not have more people attend the event and so we’re conscious of the idea of
[00:35:52:10 – 00:36:13:00]
safe and effective and all that and we want a giant crowd of people and we can handle a lot, a lot of people, but there is a gigantic interest in being part of these off-road events and obviously the Jeep community, as you’re well aware, is a very strong community, particularly here in Southeast Michigan.
[00:36:14:11 – 00:36:27:14]
We have one of the strongest Jeep communities in the country and it helps being 20 minutes from Jeep headquarters as well, of course. Oh yeah, no. And the new Jeepers are born all the time. They get off their dead
[00:36:27:14 – 00:36:42:00]
ass and get that Jeep that they’ve always wanted. I think most everybody wants a Jeep at some point in their life and they don’t get it because it’s impractical, it’s a gas guzzler, people are gonna make fun of me because of midlife crisis or something. The
[00:36:42:00 – 00:37:06:16]
with them, get a Jeep, enjoy it, see what it’ll do. Yeah, we tend to approach that from a little different angle and we make fun of those people that don’t have a Jeep. So just for whatever– I was just gonna ask you on the 101, because I know you got people out there that aren’t in Jeeps. Do you have the trainers say, this would be a lot more fun with a Jeep. Here’s a card to help you out.
[00:37:07:18 – 00:37:10:27]
I’m not gonna dive into some of the things that may get said.
[00:37:12:05 – 00:37:30:10]
We did have a lady and I was witness to this. I tried to show up at the beginning of at least one of the classes because I just love engaging with these folks. We had a lady, we were just asking, how many of you are off-roaders? How many of you have been off-road?
[00:37:31:17 – 00:37:45:11]
How many of you have had your Jeep in four-wheel drive? Those kinds of questions. And I asked the group that was there and it had to be 25 or 30 people in this group. And I said, how many of you have used your lockers?
[00:37:46:17 – 00:37:52:03]
And we had a very enthusiastic lady step up and she said, I use mine every single day.
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And of course I immediately responded and went, wait, you what? And she said, yeah, even when my Jeep is in the garage, I hit the lockers when I pull it in there. Whenever I get to work, I hit the lockers.
[00:38:09:06 – 00:38:17:10]
And as you might guess, I went, thank God. Today we’re gonna learn about some other lockers as well. Yeah.
[00:38:18:25 – 00:38:24:03]
That’s why she has a nickname, Chirpy. (Laughing)
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It was a wonderful moment and she’s been back by the way. So she became one of us and I’m positive
[00:38:36:28 – 00:38:48:21]
that she will never ever hold up her key fob and tell everybody that she was using her lockers. There’s a scene on a house. House is just one, he’s such an arrogant, smart
[00:38:48:21 – 00:39:05:24]
love him. So there’s a scene on house where the inhaler that this lady was using, she was complaining because it wasn’t helping her. He goes, can you show me how you use the inhaler? And she goes, I know how to use an inhaler. He goes, humor me. And she was doing it like perfume. Shh, shh.
[00:39:07:06 – 00:39:08:03]
(Laughing)
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If you don’t know, you don’t know. It’s important to know how things work. I rest my case, there you go.
[00:39:18:23 – 00:40:07:25]
So anyway, it’s fun that we get to do this with people and that we get to engage them. Lots and lots and lots of females, lots of husbands that just step off to the side and say she wants to learn. This is amazing. So it’s great. Yeah, all right, so four Fest events coming up. What do you got after, what was the dates on that? September, is it 15th? September 18 and 19th. 18th and 19th. It’s at Holly Oaks. Tell me the magic about Holly Oaks. One of the reasons why it’s so popular is because it’s very close to a densely populated area. So people don’t have to drive a long ways to play with their jeeps. Well, that’s a great way to explain it. It is really the only suburban off-road park in America.
[00:40:09:08 – 00:40:25:20]
This park is literally located in a suburb of Detroit. And naturally Detroit, the Motor City, cars, all that stuff. But around the five county area or six county area, I think maybe we call it six counties now,
[00:40:26:25 – 00:40:38:12]
there’s something on the order of 4 million people. And it gives them a playground that even if you’re on the outskirts of that is perhaps 90 minutes away.
[00:40:40:17 – 00:41:09:10]
The great news for us is that that event has now built to something where we have people from, I’m not sure, 16, 17 states and in Canada as well. We love welcoming our Canadian friends. I don’t know if we’re as welcome there anymore, but we welcome them with open arms. So are there tariffs? Do you charge them tariffs when they come into the park? No Canadian, no tariffs, no anything, just open arms. If you’re one of us, you’re welcome here.
[00:41:10:23 – 00:41:16:07]
Often say, Jim Orson is a great guy. The only problem he has for me was he was Canadian.
[00:41:18:10 – 00:41:33:14]
Oh, he still is. Oh, is he? And we love to tease him a little bit about his Canadianism. I will say this in defense of my wonderful friend, Jim,
[00:41:35:04 – 00:41:36:18]
and we love him dearly.
[00:41:37:26 – 00:43:11:06]
He is not very Canadian in an awful lot of respects. And certainly is well adapted to loving all things America. Oh, of course. You know where he is stayed and remains. So I think that’s the strongest indicator I can give you as to his loyalties and his affinity to particularly Metro Detroit. Yeah, so I know you speak with Jim occasionally. I wish Jim was back at Jeep. Jim has done a lot of good stuff recently and getting rid of the European guy that was in charge and trying to make Jeep into a luxury vehicle. And they seem to be a lot more Jeepy, appreciative of Jeep people than what they were. But if they really want to do it right, they get Jim back in there because I trusted Jim. Jim did a really, he was a jeeper and I’ve said it before. I want the person that’s in charge of my Jeep being built and future Jeeps that I’ll buy to be somebody that understands the jeeper and understands why we like having Jeeps. So, and let him know we’d love to get him on the show here anytime in the future, anytime it’s- I will, I’m gonna talk with him here very soon and grateful that he and I still get to solve some of the problems of the world from time to time over lunch and so on. But in fairness, we won’t mention his name, but the individual, the former CEO,
[00:43:13:12 – 00:43:16:08]
I can’t think of anything great to say,
[00:43:17:20 – 00:43:22:25]
but the team that is assembled and is working now,
[00:43:24:13 – 00:44:17:01]
I’m very, very grateful for and impressed with the directions that they’re taking. And I feel as though things are in- It makes a, there’s a difference. You can tell. Yes. You can tell, even down here, you can tell. And prayers for Bob. I mean, Bob and his cancer diagnosis, that’s horrible. I hope he comes out of that with flying colors. All right, Tom, you’re a busy man and we need to let you get on to your next thing. So we mentioned forfest.com. I did wanna mention treadlightly.org. That’s a good organization to be a part of, to donate to. If you’re out at EJS, you can sign up to go out there and help the treadlightly do a trail cleanup and put up fences and all kinds of things that the Jeep Tox has been a part of for several trips out there. So- You’ve carried fence posts personally.
[00:44:18:05 – 00:44:38:16]
No, the guys give me a hard time saying, you were supposed to be helping. I said, I was smoozing with the goober smoochers. I was talking to people about this show and stuff. So I’m not gonna claim I did any work out there. Okay, well, next time I’m gonna hold you to a very high standard in that regard. But yeah, thank you for mentioning all those things.
[00:44:39:19 – 00:45:42:01]
We’re just grateful to be part of this amazing community and it’s wonderful to see all of those things. And keep in mind, treadlightly has events, has trail cleanups, has projects, building projects, all that stuff all over the country. In fact, I’m gonna go have dinner with James Boyd, the executive director here momentarily. And then we will be headed down to, plugging somebody else’s event here, but headed down to the Toledo Jeep Fest. Maris is gonna be there. This weekend. And Chris and I already talked about that and we will be plotting and conspiring the whole time we’re there and just love being part of all of it and love plugging anybody’s Jeep event because we love them all and wanna be in all of them. So I’ll give you a warning. He has a inflatable camper on his gladiator. Make sure the door stays open. That’s all I’m gonna say. If you go in there.
[00:45:43:14 – 00:46:21:05]
He headed out at Holly Oaks last week. The camper you made? Yeah, I was very suspect of what he had going on there. So I had one of the guys go flag him and say, hey, what are you up to? If the discall ball is on, you don’t wanna be in there. All right, Tom, I’m gonna let you run. Thanks so much, forfest.com, treadlightly.org. You got anything else that you need people to go to? No, let’s, yeah. Keep going out on the trail. Keep being part of the community and have a great time out off-roading. So many cool places to go. I haven’t seen them all, but I’m trying really hard. And until
[00:46:22:27 – 00:46:24:24]
You’re my friend, you’re my new friend.
[00:46:24:24 – 00:46:51:07]
I’m gonna let the video stabilize a little bit. I’ve noticed that when I first start, it’s a little choppy. So I’m gonna give it a second here. Usually I just dive right in. Nothing worse than an unstable video or an unstable guest. Great to date though. Unstable women are great to date, temporarily, short- For a minute. Yes. Just for a minute. Well, I don’t like to brag, but at least two minutes.
[00:46:51:07 – 00:47:37:07]
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