Don’t Buy a Jeep Until You Watch This
Jeep Talk Show – Tire Tread Depth Reality Check + How to Properly Tow Your Jeep (XJ, JK, JL, JT & Gladiator)
Tony and Josh are back with another no-BS episode. We start by correcting the record on tire tread depth after some listener pushback, then dig deep into the right (and wrong) ways to tow a Jeep so you don’t melt your transfer case or destroy your drivetrain. After that Tony shows off a pile of new website tools he’s built for the community — Jeep of the Week, networked show timer, JTS Honor Badge generator, live chat, Best Of archive, Discord discount codes, and more.
Timestamps
Key Takeaways
- Legal minimum tread in most U.S. states (including Texas) is 2/32″. The widely recommended replacement point for everyday/wet driving is 4/32″. Many shops and safety groups push 5–6/32″ for trucks, SUVs, and wet/snow climates.
- Safest way to tow any Jeep (TJ/YJ/JK/JL/JT/Gladiator): all four wheels off the ground (flatbed or wheel-lift + front dolly).
- Minimum setup if you must two-wheel tow: transfer case in Neutral, automatic transmission in Park (or manual in gear), steering unlocked, parking brake off, lockers unlocked. For longer distances, remove driveshafts.
- Atlas transfer cases have distance limits when flat-towed — pull the shafts if you’re going far.
Calls to Action
Submit your ride for Jeep of the Week: jeeptalkshow.com (Listener Jeeps link in the top menu) Join the Discord & grab discount codes: jeeptalkshow.com/discord (type `/discount`) Best Of archive (top 50 episodes ranked by downloads): on the website Create your own JTS Honor Badge and drop it in the gallery Leave a 5-star rating & review on YouTube, Spotify, or your podcast app Questions or episode ideas? jeeptalkshow.com/contact
Support the show on Patreon for exclusive perks: jeeptalkshow.com/contact
Support the Show & Shop Jeep Gear
Thank you for watching and listening! If you enjoyed the conversation with Tony and Josh, consider checking out some of the great products and upgrades we discussed (and a few classics from past “But You Bought and What?” segments).
Tire Tread Depth Gauge (penny-test alternative)
View on Amazon
Heavy-Duty Tow Dolly / Car Carrier
View on Amazon
ARB Air Locker / Electric Locker related accessories
View on Amazon
Jeep Recovery Gear / Soft Shackles & Tree Savers
View on Amazon
Bane Mask (yes, that one)
View on Amazon
Every purchase through our links helps support the Jeep Talk Show at no extra cost to you. Browse the full list of products mentioned across episodes at jeeptalkshow.com/amazon.
XJTalk.com LLC and the Jeep Talk Show podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts, guests and contributors are their own and do not represent professional advice, endorsements or recommendations. We strongly advise consulting a licensed or certified mechanic or automotive professional for any repairs, modifications or maintenance to your vehicle. By listening to or using any information provided on this show, you assume full responsibility for your actions and any resulting consequences.
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00:15 – 00:01:02:12]
ho Jeepers. It’s Tony right here looking at you from the screen. Uh, we can see you. Oh, I’m not supposed to share that. Uh, put that down. That’s that’s not right. Just leave it alone. Pay attention to the show. What’s wrong with you? So this is Tony. Quit playing with that. And this is Josh. Oh, somebody just did a double take at the screen. I know they did. All right. So wait a minute. Who what they’re watching me. All right. So, so to start with, we’re going to go back and I started to say, make a correction, but as always we’re right, Josh. So, and, but I think you called, uh, not always right, but you were kind of concerned about this information when we talked about a tread depth on tires. What kind of tread depth should you have? Oh yeah. I’ve had a couple of people, maybe three bitch about four or 30 seconds being way too close to the bone, uh, that that was, uh, that’s not enough. That’s not enough tread. So, uh, I went back and double checked it. I mean, that was one of the things you were questioning, wasn’t it?
[00:01:04:23 – 00:01:52:03]
Yeah. I thought that that was a little bit too close for comfort in my book. And especially out here in the Pacific Northwest, where we deal with so much rain and wet roads so often. Uh, it just seems like that would open up the door for a potential safety issue. Now regionally, obviously, if you live in a, in a, in a much drier climate, uh, maybe it’s not as big of a concern, but, uh, wet weather traction, I think is definitely forward of mind out here in the Pacific Northwest. That was something I was, I was questioning about those numbers. So, um, I think, uh, actually before we started rolling, I think I told you that the legal limit was four or 30 seconds. I told you wrong. And you’re going to like this legal absolute mental is two 30 seconds.
[00:01:53:06 – 00:02:21:01]
Half of the fair. Shut the front door. No, no, no. It says is the legal minimum tread depth for most U S States, including Texas. Below this, uh, tire is considered bald and illegal for road use. Many places use the penny test. If Lincoln, Lincoln’s head is fully visible. You’re at or under two 30 seconds. What do you think, Josh?
[00:02:23:18 – 00:02:29:05]
Man, I think I’ve got business cards that are thicker than that. I mean, come on.
[00:02:31:08 – 00:03:24:02]
All right. So anyway, commies, uh, copy, uh, commons, sorry, Oregon related there, uh, common safety recommendations, uh, four 30 seconds of an inch, which is the most widely recommended replacement threshold for everyday driving, especially in wet conditions, this is at this depth, the water evacuates, uh, evacuation drops significantly and stopping distances increase a lot of tire shops and safety organizations push this number. Three 30 seconds is a middle ground. Five 30 seconds to six 30 seconds, uh, inch or higher is sometimes suggested for trucks, SUVs, off-road use, or areas with frequent rain, snow, because heavier vehicles and more aggressive driving, uh, put higher demands on the remaining tread. Can you live with this or is this, this way too low a number for you?
[00:03:24:02 – 00:04:28:09]
I mean, that’s still a little too close for comfort. I mean, two 30 seconds to me, you’ve got to be either at or below the tread bar at that point. And, and I think there’s just, there’s nothing left in the tire to, to really give you any degree of traction or stopping power. I mean, at that point, you’re almost a, you’re almost a slick. Your flotation on, on wet, wet, wet ground is going to be significant. So yeah, that’s, I mean, hydroplaning is going to become an issue. Yeah. You’re the water’s not going to evacuate out of the treads as easily. I mean, there’s just not going to be as much tread contact. Uh, the contact patch is going to look kind of weird. It’s just, I don’t know, man. It just to me and go get me wrong. Look, I’ve been in positions where I’ve had, I’ve had belts showing, okay. And still rock those tires. So it all, it really comes down to, we look, we’ve all been there before and, and, and budget is going to determine everything that and willpower. You you’ve got no money in the wallet and you’ve got a lot of willpower. Trust me. You’ve got, you’ve got plenty of life left in those tires.
[00:04:29:13 – 00:04:31:23]
But no, honestly, when it comes down to.
[00:04:32:24 – 00:04:43:12]
I think the technical term for two 30 seconds is a gnat eyelash. I cleaned that up for the family. Yeah. There you go.
[00:04:44:20 – 00:06:15:04]
Yeah. So it’s, it’s one of those things where I think that if, if you know your abilities, you know, your route, you know, your traffic, you know, your surroundings, you know, your vehicle really, really, really well, then yeah, you can get down to these three, four, even two 30 seconds tread depth range, but I think for most people, five or six is going to be, is going to be where we call the ball and, and where we start looking at, okay, what are we going to do to replace these? How much is it going to cost and how soon are we going to do it? Yep. So Josh, uh, switching gears here. I know that you have an XJ. It’s not currently a drivable, but you have an XJ. So that pretty much means that you’ve had it towed. You can’t have an XJ. How dare you? And it never had been towed. So, uh, I had, I think the first time I had mine towed was a bad water pump. I mean, really bad where it wobbled a lot and there was no way I was going to drive it 20 miles home like that. And the other time is whenever the, uh, wheel bearing assembly, uh, went out and now the wobble was in the, the, the 33. And that was also a tow home. Uh, but, uh, I made sure that I had it flat towed. I mean, you know, they sent out the wrecker had a flat area so that the whole Jeep was up in the air. Uh, he wouldn’t let me get in the, okay. Okay. In it and sit in it. Cause I thought it’d be fun. Be that that lifted high, that high in the air. I thought that’d be, yeah.
[00:06:16:05 – 00:06:16:28]
Right. Yeah.
[00:06:18:25 – 00:07:12:13]
So I saw a video on the guy was posting, uh, a Jeep being towed and the, the Jeep, it was a Wrangler, I think it was a J K. Uh, it was being towed. He was following behind it. Uh, and, uh, it was being towed. Like you would, you would tow a traditional car where you lift up the back and it rolls on the front wheels, front tires. And, uh, he was saying that he hoped the tow crump tow truck company had a money to pay for all the damage that was going to occur. And I thought about that. And there was a couple of people arguing with him that it was perfectly fine. And he was saying, no, it’s not. So I thought this is a great subject for this episode. Um, so if you were going to have your XJ towed, which you’ve had it done in the past, um, what, how, what is the minimum that you would go with for it for a tow?
[00:07:15:19 – 00:07:40:18]
You mean as far as what I would do to set the vehicle up or how much I would pay or, or what do you, what are we talking about? Well, I requested a flat, uh, tow of a truck, a record that has the flat platform in the back and they bring the whole thing up on the platform. Have you ever done, I mean, would you consider having to then just connect to the back and lift up the back and then off you go with the front wheels rolling?
[00:07:42:05 – 00:12:48:01]
So towing a Jeep, I always, those two words right there, always flash a story in the back of my mind that we covered years ago. And, and it was somebody who I believe was towing their Jeep with an RV or maybe they, it was something they had to have it, had to have it towed for service or, or something like that. And they had left it in four wheel drive and they had towed the vehicle and of course, you know, at freeway speeds to get it to the shop or whatever, that four wheel drive system was spinning at, you know, 30,000 RPM. I mean, cause ordinarily you don’t go over 25 miles per hour and four low, but, um, this got, uh, this got towed in four wheel drive. And by the time it made it to its destination, there was more molten metal under the Jeep than there were, was a drive train. Literally melt the transfer case. It was a mess. Yeah. Yeah. It, cause the engine was, was spinning so fast because of the drive trains gear ratio was kept clocked down because it was in four, four wheel drive and four low range, that’s the exact. And so, I mean, obviously there’s, there’s going to be a right way and a wrong way. And there’s going to be a big argument about how to do this and how to set it up. People go so far as to start removing drive lines and things like that. And I believe that you can get away from this by setting both the transfer case and the transmission into neutral. And at that point, essentially the, the, the, the axles are disconnected from the rest of the drive train. Essentially, there’s not going to be any components in the transmission or the transfer case at that point that are going to be spinning, um, that, that you’re going to have to worry about. Now, yes, the drive lines are still connected. Yes, there’s going to be some rotation, uh, of something going on from that point. But as far as the internal gears being connected to the rest of that, the output side of it, it’s, there’s going to be a disconnect there. And I believe that you can tow things safely, flat towing it, uh, what, you know, two wheel towing it, whatever, um, with that in mind now, outside of that. Um, you know, I’m not sure if, if people have preferences, how far they want to go. You know, all that sort of stuff, but yes, there is a right way and a wrong way to set up your Jeep for towing. And you can go the nth degree by removing drive lines and all that sort of stuff. But I don’t think that it’s necessary so long as you put both the transfer case and the transmission in neutral. Yeah, I was actually on my research, which I have an advantage for you guys that are listening to this episode. Uh, Josh is actually driving. He’s he’s at work and he has to go and do something. So while he’s driving, he joins in and we record an episode. So if you, uh, if you hear funny things and audio doesn’t sound as good, uh, as it always does from Josh, that’s why we’re, we’re making do, uh, so we can get a Josh here on the show and I think it’s worth it, but, uh, this, so you know, uh, the other thing as the other advantage I have over Josh is I can do research. And I just say, Hey, let’s record. So Josh doesn’t get the latest information in front of him. He’s just going by his, his knowledge. So, uh, I’m not in the studio, so I can’t look things up either. Yeah. He doesn’t have to trust me, which I love. Um, so I was actually looking up the various Jeeps and, uh, uh, when I got done with each Jeep, it was basically the same for each one, whether it’s a Wrangler or a, a gladiator, which is basically just a gladiator with a bed. So the, my research says best and safest method for any Jeep, uh, TJ YJ, TJ, JK, uh, JL or JT is to get all four tires, all four wheels off the road. So it goes back to that flat tow, or you could do a, uh, lift it up in the back. Like the tow truck drivers often do, but put a dolly on the front. So again, getting all four tires off the road. Now, um, if you can’t do that or their persnickety, they don’t, they don’t want to get a flat bed out there because those things cost more. I mean, they do, and it probably is going to cut into their profit. Uh, them having a flat bed come out there, especially if they’re already there with, uh, uh, with a traditional tow truck, I don’t care. They’re giving me a flat bed, uh, or they can get fucked. Uh, I’ll find somebody else to do it because my Jeep’s important to me. And if they don’t know how to tow a Jeep, they shouldn’t be doing it to start with. I shouldn’t be using them anyway. All right. So, um, what I found, yeah, what I found was that, uh, the transmission, or I’m sorry, the transfer case should be in neutral. Now, if you don’t have a four wheel drive, which I think some of the JKs were two wheel drive, uh, obviously you’re going to skip the transfer case part.
[00:12:49:16 – 00:12:58:18]
So don’t, don’t be looking or installing one to, so you can tow it. Uh, although I think it needs to be a four wheel drive. So anyway, the transfer case needs to be in neutral.
[00:13:00:00 – 00:13:13:00]
The transmission, uh, should be in park if it’s an auto or in here, if it’s a manual. Yeah. This is, this is a touchy point. You hear it back and forth neutral or park.
[00:13:17:01 – 00:14:32:28]
Yeah. I don’t see putting the transmission in park means that there is some, there’s a, there’s a pin in there. There’s, there’s some sort of a catch that is going to prevent things from spinning. Whereas if it was in neutral, there’s a complete disconnect. And to me, it just seems like I would want things disconnected versus attached or stopping from spinning. Because if something were to happen, whatever, you know, the, the, the, the gear shift, you know, slides into park, you know, or slides into gear, you know, where your stick shift bumps into gear, whatever, I don’t know. I know it’s a shot in a thousand that, you know, anything could happen, but it just seems like a moving vehicle put in park is not a good idea, regardless of how you set up the rest of the drive train. Yeah. So let me throw this at you and see if it makes sense. You put it in park because if it’s, if, uh, well, if it’s in neutral, you shouldn’t have a problem, but if it was in gear, it would spin the transmission and that means the, the, the fluid and all that stuff may not work like it’s supposed to if you’re towing it. So putting it in park keeps the transmission from spinning around. It is not going to allow those gears and plates and all that stuff to move.
[00:14:36:03 – 00:15:07:24]
But in neutral, they would is what I’m hearing. Well, I think neutral or park, uh, would probably be okay, but park is what my research showed. Um, okay. So this is, this is the one that kind of bugs me, but I mean, for with the new Jeeps, you don’t have a key that’s in the, uh, in the starter or in the, uh, the key thingy, um, but, uh, you should have your steering unlocked so that the, the front wheels can track with, you know, the, the turns and stuff that the, uh, the tow truck might make.
[00:15:09:01 – 00:15:15:06]
This one makes sense. Uh, it’s kind of a dub, but it’s definitely one you should check parking break off.
[00:15:16:28 – 00:15:18:12]
Oh yeah. Come on.
[00:15:20:07 – 00:15:26:12]
Um, uh, unlock lockers. If there, if you have lockers on your Jeep, which again, makes sense.
[00:15:27:17 – 00:15:36:23]
Um, you know, unless it was an ox locker or, uh, but I mean, if you got the key on and they’re electric lockers, I guess they could be on.
[00:15:40:01 – 00:15:59:21]
Yeah. True. You know, yeah. I mean, definitely some common sense things here that, yeah, it’s like you’re like, you know, when you’re going to like, you know, push, start the vehicle or something like that, and, and you know, your, your, your friend is in the dry and in the, in the seat and it’s like, is your foot on the break? Oh, you wanted me to have the foot off the break. No, let’s be honest. It’s your girlfriend or your wife that does that.
[00:16:00:22 – 00:16:10:26]
Yeah. I’m just trying to get some credit, but yeah. This thing, I didn’t know this thing was that heavy. Oh, should I have my foot off the break? God damn it. Yes.
[00:16:13:29 – 00:17:33:16]
Take me to the hospital. So many times. You get this Marnia fixed. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, yeah, parking break off and then unlock lockers if equipped. All right. So it’s basically the same for the JK, the JL JT, uh, all of these. And, um, now that you were talking about removing the drive shafts. They talk about if you’re going to be towing it very far, like more than, um, I don’t know, let’s say 10 miles. That removing the drive shafts is probably a pretty good idea. And something I found after getting the Atlas for the, uh, for the Cherokee. Uh, cause I was looking at using the gladiator to tow the Cherokees because to me, the Cherokee was going to be the off-road vehicle. I found out that you shouldn’t tow, uh, with an Atlas, which is a huge hunk, a beautiful metal. You shouldn’t, uh, flat tow an Atlas, um, more than about, uh, like a hundred miles or 70 miles or something like that because it can damage it. So if I wanted to take my, uh, take my XJ off road and use the gladiator to flat tow it, I would have to remove the drive shafts from the yokes on the, uh, the two axles and tie them up or something to make sure that my beautiful Atlas didn’t get fried.
[00:17:35:24 – 00:18:59:02]
Interesting. Interesting. I’ve never heard that about the Atlas before, but I mean, with a lot of it being aluminum and stuff, I could, I could sort of kind of see that I could understand to a certain extent that yeah, things could potentially get a little hot in there. If there’s some stuff spinning that you don’t want, especially for a long period of time. So yeah, uh, flat towing your, your Jeep, uh, you know, or, or, or towing it across country, you know, taking the Jeep to Moab or, or down to the Rubicon or something like that, um, yeah, might be best to, uh, to rent a trailer or rent some dollies or, you know, something along those lines. Now I have seen some, some hybrid towing options to where you’ve got the, you’ve got the car carrier, uh, it’s like, it’s like two wheels and a couple of ramps basically, and you can sort of drive the vehicle up on that two wheels to still pavement and two wheels are up on the, on the towing apparatus. At that point, you would only have to remove one drive line and you don’t have a huge trailer that you’ve got a store and all that other stuff, but, um, uh, yeah, it’s, I guess, you know, a hundred ways to skin a cat. Yeah. I would absolutely love to have a, just a flat trailer, uh, with, you know, the, the breaking system and everything on it so that you could break properly. Yeah. That’s the way to go. Do you know a modified XJ with all the crap that I’ve got on it? It probably would exceed the 7,600 pound towing capacity. If I added a trailer, you don’t think so.
[00:19:00:11 – 00:21:07:11]
Oh, well, it really would depend on, on the trailer. There are some tandem axle trailers that have tilt decks and things like that, um, that, that can start to get pretty heavy. Uh, and there, but there are, they make versions of those that, um, that have like aluminum decks or they have like the, uh, the expanded metal, um, grading on the decks instead of, you know, a bunch of wood, uh, a bunch of tongue and groove, you know, car decking, you know, that sort of stuff. Um, and, and significantly reducing the weight on those, obviously the lighter of a trailer that you get that is intended to carry a vehicle, the more expensive that trailer is going to get, you’re going to come out of pocket a lot more on the initial costs, but you could save a little bit on, on the fuel, because you don’t have an extra thousand pounds back there that you’re, that you’re lugging around either. So it’s, it’s one of those things to where, um, you know, it all comes down to what you can afford and what you have available, but I don’t think that the, the gladiator, uh, would have a hard time towing the Cherokee, um, even on a flat bed trailer, now you get into some mountain passes and stuff like that. Well, you may have to downshift a little bit. You want to make sure you’ve got a transmission cooler, uh, things like that. You’ve got the max tow package. So not as much of a concern there, but for other people, yeah, it might be. And then you got to worry about how much extra gear you’ve got on the trailer and how much you’re towing as well. You know, you’ve got three friends in the cab and all of their gear in the bed of the truck, plus recovery gear and chains and parts and the things like that. Well, obviously that trip can get quite heavy, quite quick. And so, yeah, you want to make sure that you’re well within your hauling and towing capacities. Yeah. I think it’d be a lot of fun. Like we’ve done the, uh, the Jeep talk show off-road event before. And you flew down for, uh, I think it was the first one. It’d been really cool if I could have shown up there with a gladiator and the XJ and, uh, I take off because you’ve already, you’ve already damaged the gladiator you, you, you did your one time, uh, how dare you? When you broke the steering stabilizer. Those, those scratches on the undercarriage were already there. I swear.
[00:21:08:28 – 00:21:19:04]
So you’d have to take the XJ, but I think it’d be a lot of fun, uh, with the, uh, doing the Atlas and all the rest of the stuff. Uh, just having two sticks that you can fondle while you’re, uh, while you’re driving the XJ is more than worth it.
[00:21:19:04 – 00:22:36:21]
All right, Josh. I got a little bragging to do. I’ve been sharing some of it with you. Uh, you know, you’re really busy over there working multiple jobs and stuff. And I don’t mean to, uh, put you out on sending these fun things that I’m doing, uh, for the Jeep talk show, but, uh, I shared with you, um, uh, the, the show timer, you know, we used a show timer. Uh, for years, you had a copy of it running on your, your PC. So, but you’d have to press the start button about the same time. I press start button on mine. I wanted to have it networked. So I’d start the thing and it would just, all the co-hosts could see the same thing. I have that now. Yeah, that’s cool. So it’s, it’s really cool. It works across the internet and not only can the co-host see the show timer, but guests like we’re for doing interviews. I don’t imagine anybody would do that, but some, somebody might be interested in it. So if you’re doing a, an interview or if you’re co-hosting with the Jeep talk show, uh, you will be able to see this, uh, this timer and the cool thing is you can send messages back and forth. Remember how I was talking about it’d be nice that, uh, we, we had a channel that we could communicate on like, uh, let’s take a break. I got to the bathroom. My eyeballs are floating, whatever it is that you saw. Anyway, that’s not so much for the behind the scenes off the mic. Yeah. So that’s not so much for the, the end user, but it’s fun.
[00:22:38:23 – 00:22:45:00]
Well, it is, it is fun, especially because now it looks way modern and, and way less windows 98. Yeah.
[00:22:46:09 – 00:26:38:03]
It’s wet based, which is kind of cool. Yeah. The pr the previous version was a totally functional, uh, very, very usable, a very utilitarian, but it was so very basic in its layout, which is fine because all it was is just a stopwatch. It’s just the timer. Uh, but this one looks a lot more modern and, uh, uh, I don’t know. Eye pleasing if you will. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s nice. That’s nice when you can do stuff like that. All right. So, uh, let me see, which one do I want to go over? Uh, we have, oh, I like this one. Uh, Jeep of the week. Uh, I think that we had talked about this years ago. I know that the Jeep talk show team was suggesting it. Uh, it’s kind of a thing that’s been done a lot everywhere. Uh, we’ve never done it because I didn’t have a way, a ready made way just to load it up onto the Jeep talk show.com website. Well, now we have one. So you can submit your Jeep, submit, um, some details about it. And if it’s picked for Jeep of the week, uh, you will see it on our discord server. You will see it on Facebook, uh, with, uh, with all that cool information and it will, uh, encourage other people to come submit their Jeep and maybe become Jeep of the week, we have no prizes or anything yet, but you never know what might happen. Um, so I don’t remember if you’re subscribed to the newsletter or not, Josh, but it will also appear in the Jeep talk show newsletter. So, uh, if you guys, uh, yes, really, really cool exposure for, for our listeners, uh, gives them an avenue of involvement and stuff like that. But it harks back to like the magazine days, you know, JP magazine and, and, and Peterson mag, you know, stuff like that, where, um, you know, you had like the reader’s ride, uh, type of thing. And, and you got to see a regular Joe blow just like yourself and his Jeep and how he had built it. Now this is obviously, you know, way before forums and social media and stuff like that to where all that stuff was accessible at a click of a mouse. Um, and that’s kind of why we’ve seen magazines sort of go the way of the VHS. Um, they’re just not as not around as much anymore. Their subscribership is way down. And if anything, they’re web based if they’re around at all anymore. Uh, and so this definitely brings me back to those days, has that nostalgic sort of feel, but it, it also helps combine our listener base with the rest of the people out there. And of course, with the rest of the hosts and the people behind the scenes at the Jeep talk show. I think this is something that we’ve needed for a long time. It just, we needed to have more than three or four listeners to actually make this work. So it’s, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s one of these things where it was only a matter of time. And now that we’ve got a few more listeners on board, um, we’ve got a bigger base, a lot, a lot more Jeeps, uh, bigger jeep, a pool of Jeeps to pull from now. So, uh, yeah, who knows? You might see your Jeep on, uh, on the Jeep of the week here on the Jeep talk show coming up, you just got to submit. And Tony, where would they go to submit their ride for a submission? Just go to a Jeep talk show.com. It’s right there on the top menu. Uh, I forget exactly what it’s called right now, but you look and you’ll see, uh, CG person along those lines. And then that’s going to be true for many of these things that I’m, uh, that I’m about to tell you. So anyway, we’ve got Jeep of the week and you probably will hear us talk about the Jeep of the week here on, uh, our flagship episode, uh, as we get those, we have one right now, but, uh, we’re not going to talk about it, uh, this episode, but next episode, if, uh, your Jeep is Jeep of the week, we’ll, uh, we’ll, we’ll tell you. And that kind of ties in to the other thing that we talk to people about. And that’s our video voicemail. So how cool would it be for you to have Jeep of the week? That’s going to be featured on the, the, the flagship here. And you call that a video voicemail talking about your Jeep.
[00:26:40:05 – 00:28:22:02]
So not only did we show the picture of your Jeep and talk about it, but you could talk about it. I mean, this show doesn’t have to be about us. Oh, no, it’s definitely, I said, we’re getting the listeners a lot more involved in the aspect of the show, sort of almost turning the production of the show over to them, uh, in the sense of, you know, how much we’re including, not just information from the Jeep universe out there, uh, but actual listener rides and, and how they built it. Some of the challenges that they had to overcome and stuff like that. Obviously you can show a picture of a Jeep list, the specs, you know, that sort of stuff in, and, and that’s all stuff that we’re, we’re used to, but to actually have the person in their own words, talk about their build, some of the things that they did, some of the choices that they made and why some of the challenges that they had to overcome and whatnot really brings that personal aspect of, of any Jeep build to the rest of the community and to be able to share that with everybody else, not only gives people, I think a point of pride, but it also, uh, really gives us a little bit of diversity in our content as well. And, and showing people out there just what you can do with Jeeps and, and some of the things that you may not have thought of when it comes to gear product selection or how you’re going to build it. Yeah. Well, you used to, you could do this on Jeep forums, but the Jeep forums, this really aren’t very popular anymore. So, uh, and then you have to keep asking the same question over and over again on social media, because there’s no database. So this kind of is a way of doing the Jeep forums again. And I think it’s just entertaining and fun. All right. So the next thing, Josh, do you remember, uh, you bought and what?
[00:28:24:03 – 00:29:36:29]
Oh yeah. No, that was a great segment we had on the show for years. That was a lot of fun. Our listeners, our listeners really got involved with that one because it was, it was through our affiliate program. For those who don’t know, um, we, we had an affiliate program with Amazon set up before they became, you know, very strict about their policies and stuff and whatnot. We had to change things up quite a bit, but nonetheless, um, it was, uh, it was through a link and we would post up that link. Our listeners would use that link to buy things. And we would talk about those things on the show and it was all, um, more or less a, a, a big comedic type of, it was all, it was all for fun and games. Oh, and some of the stuff we were buying. The listeners. Well, that’s just it. We would encourage the listeners to throw us a curve ball. You know, it wasn’t just a Jeep parts and, and, and, you know, accessories and things like that, the typical stuff that you would find showing up on a doorstep on an Amazon box. I mean, there was, there was some things in there that got really weird. I mean, bacon salt and, and personal lubricants and, and all sorts of, you know, crotchless panties, is what the bacon salt was for.
[00:29:38:24 – 00:31:24:02]
There was a bane mask in there, you know, it was just, and some of the things that were combined in one order. Oh no, totally anonymous. We had no idea who was ordering what, but it was fun to see the fact that our listeners were buying these things. And, and a lot of it was just to screw with us, of course. Uh, but that’s what made it so much fun. You know? And so, yeah, that was, that was a great, that was a great, a great segment we had back in the day. You know, I’m, I’m reliving that we may need to bring that back, but, uh, the thing that I’ve added to the site. Is, uh, an Amazon link. So basically you go to the site, Jeep, doc show.com up towards the top on the menu or the menu, wherever it is mobile. It’s in a different place. Uh, and you just click on Amazon and you can see what products we talked about on each episode. So, uh, if you, you know, you’re trying to write something down or you’re going back and listening or rewatching, you don’t have to do that. All you have to do is know the, the, the show title and then go over there and look, and it’s going to show you, uh, the image of the item and a button that says, go to Amazon. And that uses our affiliate link. So we’re still doing kind of the same thing with the affiliate link to Amazon. So we get a little, a little something. Every time you order, it doesn’t cost you anything more. I remember us talking, saying exactly those words, uh, before, but you know, Josh, I’m going to think about that. We should bring back the, uh, but you bought and what, I mean, I still got the audio. Yeah, that might be fun. I’m going to have to, I have to get in the studio for that segment though. For sure. And that’s just without, without question, it’d be a lot more fun with me, uh, having the multiple screens up in front of me in the, in the home court advantage and all that. Well, we just need to get the little money here for the show and get some multiple screens set up in your truck there.
[00:31:25:22 – 00:31:46:02]
Well, I can’t, I saw what I need here. This is more distraction in the company vehicle. It’s 2025, you know, fully wrapped rig, you know, nothing like having a bunch of distraction on the dash when you’re telling a trailer with, you know, 14,000 pounds behind you. And then Jackie Gleason would pull you over and go, what the hell is this piece of shit doing on my highway?
[00:31:48:19 – 00:33:00:20]
All right. So that’s a couple of things. Uh, another thing I’ll say we got the Jeep of the week. We’ve got Amazon’s and you can actually go over there and see what we’ve talked about on the show. Uh, and, uh, I guess this episode will have the Bain mask on it if they’re still selling it, uh, but, uh, um, let’s see what else do we have on there? Oh, this is brand new. I was just working on this before we recorded. I don’t know if it’s a good idea. I think it’s funny. So I created it. You know, we did that episode about the 250th, uh, celebration for the United States and they made a honor badge, a Jeep badge about it and how we were calling bullshit on the honor badges is, you know, an honor badge could be anything these days. Doesn’t have to be for a trail or anything like that. Well, now you can go to the Jeep talk show. It’s not live exactly yet. Probably by the time you listen to this, it will be I’ve tested it since you a picture on your phone, Josh. I don’t know if you saw it, but that honor honor, but I did see it, but I wasn’t sure what I was looking at exactly. Yeah. It looked kind of like an honor badge. So that generated what do we got that was generated from the Jeep talk show site. So you can literally go to the jeep talk show.com website and create your own honor badge.
[00:33:02:17 – 00:33:09:25]
What could possibly go wrong? Well, I don’t call it Jeep honor badge. I call it JTS honor badger.
[00:33:12:01 – 00:34:10:20]
So I think that’s going to take us out just a little bit. So you can actually draw the trail that you want to draw on there. And it’s really cool. I mean, it looks just like a Jeep honor badge. I can’t wait. I’m going to make one when I get home and it’s going to be, it’s going to be based on one of our newer segments that the people seem to like the trail is going to look like this, it’s going to look like a middle finger and guess what it’s going to say, it’s going to say, fuck you, you fucking fuck. Oh, that’s a great honor badge. Oh, and you can choose to put it in the gallery. So once you’ve created it, you can put it on the wall or whatever it’s called. So whenever people go to that page, they can see all the past honor badges that were created and then you can copy it and share it. Outstanding. Yeah. It’s, I’m just having a lot of fun creating this stuff. So I think that one’s going to be really funny. And, uh, I don’t think we’ll get a cease and desist, but we may, which would also be funny.
[00:34:12:22 – 00:35:00:06]
Well, you know, honestly, that would be a kind of a cool thing. Uh, but think about how much fun we’re going to have in the meantime until the season desist gets posted. So once it’s out there, it’s out there, man. So it’s kind of like the officer, I swear to God, she showed me she was 18. So, but there was lots of fun in between, pun not intended. So, uh, let’s see, I’m trying to think of something else. I have created a bunch of stuff on the website. Oh, of course. Now I know that there’s so many places that you can chat. So there’s a lot of chat stuff online, but a lot of those things are blocked while you’re at work because like discord, so on and so forth. So I created a Jeep talk show chat. So you can literally go to the Jeep talk show.
[00:35:01:21 – 00:35:13:10]
Chat right there. Even has a pop out. It’ll fit on your phone screen. So you can literally chat with other people, uh, from the Jeep talk show. And it’s really, really slick.
[00:35:14:15 – 00:36:40:01]
So, uh, that’s cool. I remember a feature like that back when we first started, uh, based on the XJ talk website, there was a, I think there was a chat room, uh, back on that website, uh, that was very, very active back in the day. Uh, but, uh, but yeah, no, that’s cool, Tony. That’s that’s, that’s going to bring a lot of people together. I think that’s going to be a lot of fun. Yeah. Well, I mean, you can chat a bunch of places, but this would be a great place, uh, to chat and especially get around any, uh, blocks that are going on by the, uh, uh, the corporation you work at. I’m not telling you to get fired or anything, but, uh, I did include a boss key so you can press the key that you set up and it will minimize the chat. Yeah. So, uh, but, uh, yeah, I think it’s going to be really cool. Nobody may use it, but it’s going to be there. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Um, it is not implemented yet, but my, uh, I’m going to put a gateway on it for our discord server. I’m going to put a gateway on it for, uh, zoom, the round table meeting so that whenever people chat on the, the, the round table meeting, it’ll actually show up in this chat and you’ll be able to see it. Uh, I’m not sure about the back and forth, but basically the idea is you go one place and then all the places that the Jeep talk show people will chat at, you can go to this one place, you can go to discord, you can go do the chat and zoom. That’s fine. Uh, but this might, might be more convenient place for you to go.
[00:36:41:28 – 00:38:18:19]
All righty. So, uh, any questions about any of that, Josh, did I explain it to good enough for you to, uh, to, to know? No, it’s, it’s, it’s all stuff that, that I’m looking forward to. And anybody who’s been a fan of the show for any length of time, I, I’m sure that you’re looking forward to some of these features, uh, becoming alive as well. Uh, it sounds like there’s going to be a lot of fun to be had a lot of creativity to be shared. Uh, so this is, this is going to be exciting. Uh, so it’s just another development in the, in the, uh, the growth of the Jeep talk show. Yeah, I think so. So I, I, I mentioned, um, uh, the listener jeeps, that’s what it’s called. Listener jeeps on the, on the website where you want to put in your, uh, your Jeep to be seen by other people. Uh, the, uh, the other thing that I’ve talked about before, I believe is the best of. So maybe I didn’t talk about this last week, but the best of takes the top 50. Jeep talk show episodes. These are all audio only, uh, the top 50. And it’s based on the number of downloads for each. So if you’re, if you’re new to the Jeep talk show, or you’ve been listening recently and you’ve wanted to go into the deep water and listen to the past episodes, but you’re not sure which ones to listen to, this helps you actually find ones that a lot of people have enjoyed so you can go, uh, to the best of. And, uh, it not only will it play from our website, you are, at least on the Android, you can turn the screen off and it continues to play still waiting on somebody with an iPhone to let me know if it works on iPhones. Um, and it remembers the episodes that you’ve listened to.
[00:38:19:24 – 00:39:06:05]
So you don’t have to keep, oh, really cool. Yeah. You didn’t have to keep anything up with you to see, oh, did I listen to that one? Or I have to listen to, you know, 10 minutes of it before you realize you already heard it, uh, cause that can be very frustrating and you can actually review each episode by picking the number of stars, just click on star one through five and, but wait, there’s more. You can actually, there’s more. You can actually type in the text over text review. And then everybody else that goes to that site will see this number of stars and they can read the text, you know, the typing reviews in there. So, uh, I’ve been having too much fun, Josh, this stuff is real easy to do. And all I have to do is use my imagination.
[00:39:08:08 – 00:40:19:03]
Yeah. A lot of creativity coming out in the Jeep talk show lately. Uh, it seems like, uh, we’re, we’re really hitting our stride as far as, uh, new developments and, and obviously, you know, getting me back in on things and, and whatnot, it just seems like, uh, there are a lot of growth happening here recently it’s a means a lot of cool things are, are going to be on the horizon. So make sure all of you out there are subscribed to the show. Make sure that you are telling your friends to get subscribed. They don’t miss a thing because there’s a lot of developments that are coming up. Obviously Tony’s working on some stuff behind the scenes, a lot of stuff about ready to go live as well. So, uh, make sure that you guys have your thumb on the pulse of the Jeep talk show. Make sure you’re subscribed and make sure that you’re telling your friends about it all. And, uh, and yeah, head over to the best of, and see what we got over there. Maybe your favorite episode is on there. Maybe not. Uh, so that gives you an opportunity to find out what you may have missed. I bet you’re on every one of those best of episodes, Josh, because I don’t think any of them, you’ve had some winners. You’ve had some winners up there. I mean, since I’ve been gone, there’s been some great interviews and stuff. So it’ll be interesting to see, uh, they’re not on there. I was really surprised.
[00:40:21:03 – 00:40:56:09]
I think that, I think it’s got a lot more difficult. A lot of entertainment out there, a lot of podcasts. Uh, and I think the most of these, the top 50 are from, uh, five, six years ago. It’s a great, like I said, it’s a great way to go into the deep water and look at the, uh, the, the, the way we used to do the show, they’re significantly different, I’m sure you remember, but it’s been so long. Uh, I mean, I really liked the ones where we started and, uh, had the Morse code or the, did it in the typing and you would do the radio voice. And there’s weak on the Jeep. This week, this weekend, yeah.
[00:40:58:25 – 00:43:12:17]
Oh yeah. And I would always have some sort of crazy headline that would, uh, that would go with it and they were all different and everything. Yeah, that’s right. Oh, we had, we had intro and outro production for every segment. And, and so, yeah, no, the show was definitely done a lot differently back in the day, a lot more production value and stuff went into the show. Uh, a lot of sound effects and things like that. And so we had a lot of fun with it. So yeah, definitely go back and listen to some of those best of episodes. Going to sound a little bit different than what you’re used to. If you were, if you’re a new listener to the show, so you can kind of see, uh, see how, how we’ve evolved and how the show has changed over the years and, and who knows, I mean, maybe you have a comment about how we used to do things versus how we do things now. And, and we’d love to hear that. So anytime you have a little bit of criticism for us, uh, constructive or otherwise, we’d love to hear it from you guys, and you can do that any number of ways, reaching out to the show. We’ve made it very easy for you. Head over to Jeep talk show.com slash contact and find out all the different ways that you can reach out and interact with Tony, myself, and the show in general. So I’m going to repeat some of that, Josh. Are you ready to join the Jeep talk show crew? Baby be part of the Jeep talk show community. Become a Patreon subscriber today at Jeep talk show.com slash contact and unlock exclusive perks while supporting the show. Damn it. I forgot another one that I did that I got to stop and tell you guys about. Discounts. So we’ve had Patreon discounts for a while. So whatever you go, whatever you go to a Patreon and become a member, you would have access to all the discounts. Well, I thought that’s not good enough. We need to say thank you to our discord people are people that are discord members. So now you can go join disc or discord, put in slash discount, and it will know one of the, what company you want the discount for, or you can just press enter and it will show you a list of the companies with a percentage discount. Wow. And then you’ll tell it which company you want, and it will send you a direct message with the discount code. So not anybody’s going to see it except for you.
[00:43:14:07 – 00:43:16:14]
And then so that that’s kind of like a thank you.
[00:43:17:24 – 00:45:03:22]
You’re not going to pay retail. Look at all of that. Look at all the things that we’re doing for you guys. Come on now. You got, you got, you got to spread the love a little bit. Yeah. And, and okay. So you’re saying, how do I get on the discord server? Real simple. We just told you, jeep, jeep, talk show.com slash contact. There’s a link right there. You can click. I’ll tell you, it’s really easy to remember jeep. Talk show.com slash discord doesn’t cost you a thing. You just type it in, go over there and you can ask somebody on the discord. Hey, how do I get those discounting things? And if you’re coming over there just to get the discount code, I don’t care. We hope that you’ll come into the store. Maybe you’ll buy something. And when I say buy something, maybe you’ll be part of the Jeep community. That’s fine. Come over there, get the code, leave. I will completely understand. And we’re going to be adding more businesses because businesses like customers, and if they can throw us a code, so that number’s going to grow. Yep. So come over to our discord server. All right. Anyway, I’m glad I remember to tell you guys that. All right. So keep the adventure rolling by leaving a five star rating and review on your favorite podcast platform, which includes a YouTube because we’re on YouTube and Spotify. So give us reviews over there. Make comments, ask questions. Uh, if you’re watching on YouTube, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share and comment. Stay in the loop by following us on social media and signing up for our newsletter for the latest Jeep news and must attend events. And of course the Jeep of the week you’ll see right there on our newsletter. Hey, you got a question or an idea for our next episode. What’s a Bane mask for, for example, send it our way at Jeep talk show.com slash contact. Thanks for riding along and let’s hit the trail for more epic adventures. Josh, as always, lots of fun. Thanks for being there.
[00:45:07:11 – 00:45:09:08]
You’re my friend, you’re my new friend.
[00:45:09:08 – 00:45:56:05]
XJTalk.com LLC and the Jeep Talk Show podcast is attended for entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts, guests and contributors are their own and do not represent professional advice, endorsements or recommendations. We strongly advise consulting a licensed or certified mechanic or automotive professional for any repairs, modifications or maintenance to your vehicle. By listening to or using any information provided on this show, you assume full responsibility for your actions and any resulting consequences, including potential risks to safety, property or legal compliance. The Jeep Talk Show and its affiliates disclaim all liability for any damages or losses arising from the application of this content.