Ep. 8 The Best Jeep XJ Bumper Ever Made?

🎙️ XJ Talk Show – Interview with Mark of Detours USA | Jeep Cherokee (XJ) Bumpers & Fabrication In this classic episode of the XJ Talk Show, Tony sits down with Mark from Detours USA for an in-depth interview about his journey into metal fabrication, off-roading, and building high-quality parts for Jeep Cherokees (XJs). Mark shares his background: – Starting in high school metal shop – Air Force metal fabricating specialist – Transition from muscle cars to off-road – Moving from Connecticut to Kentucky and building his shop They dive deep into Detours USA products, including: – Slim Line front and rear bumpers – Tailbone rear bumper/tire carrier system – Backbone front winch bumper – Dropkicks – Front Shock Cheaters (FSCs) – Upcoming A-Pillar light mounts – Spring reinforcement plates – And more! Mark also talks about his design philosophy, the importance of real-world testing, family life in the shop with his son Owen, and why XJs remain one of the most versatile Jeeps ever built. A must-watch for anyone building an XJ, looking for quality bumpers, or interested in custom Jeep fabrication. **Links:** – Detours USA: https://detoursusa.com – XJ Talk Show website: https://xjtalk.com (or jeeptalkshow.com) – Join the community: XJ Talk Forum **Timestamps:** 00:00:00 Show Introduction and Listener Participation 00:03:05 Listener Calls and Lighthearted Banter 00:04:20 Launching the Recorded Interview with Mark 00:04:55 Interview Setup and Personal Background Discussion 00:06:08 College Life and Off‑Road Inspiration 00:06:27 From Metal Fabrication to Jeep Modifications and Dad’s Advice 00:07:26 Early Vehicle Projects and Muscle Car Experiences 00:07:56 Off‑Road Community Camaraderie 00:08:36 Off‑Road Culture and Custom Fabrication Techniques 00:09:26 Early Off‑Road Ventures and Jeep Fabrication Timeline 00:10:32 Professional Fabrication Background and Bumper Quality 00:12:48 Personal History and Relocation to Kentucky 00:14:14 Kentucky Life and Family Involvement in the Business 00:15:21 Generational Metalworking Influence 00:16:32 Family Legacy in Metal Fabrication 00:16:50 First Cherokee Projects and Early Products 00:17:36 Dropkicks Explained: Obstacle‑Clearing Devices 00:18:07 Jeep Rack Collaboration and Cherokee Lifts 00:19:27 XJ Versus Other Jeeps and Personal Experiences 00:20:41 XJ Roof Removal and Flexibility 00:21:13 Tailbone Design Evolution and Vendor Collaboration 00:22:44 Custom Fabrication Beyond Jeeps and Market Changes 00:23:26 Online Sales Model vs Walk‑In Traffic 00:24:12 Exploring Projects for Other Vehicles and Furniture Ideas 00:24:31 Bumpers as Decorative Furniture and Customer Showcase 00:25:21 Tailbone Shipping Strategies and Cost Efficiency 00:26:46 Packaging Experience and Excitement Over Shipping 00:27:16 Tailbone Development Timeline and Testing Standards 00:28:03 Owner Maintenance and Product Longevity 00:29:24 Highlighting Tailbone as a Key Product 00:29:44 Promoting Vendors and Website Exposure 00:30:53 Acknowledgment and Appreciation 00:31:37 General Banter and Upcoming Plans 00:33:29 Upcoming XJ Products and Tailbone Improvements 00:36:36 Flame Design on Tailbone and Decision to Remove 00:38:01 A‑Pillar Light Mount Concepts 00:40:10 Front Shock Cheaters Introduction and Redesign 00:42:02 Rear Spring Pack Reinforcement and Welding Constraints 00:43:09 Mark’s Contribution and Site Management Reflections 00:44:06 Gratitude for Interview and Show Format Reflection 00:45:06 Live Call with Mark and Confirmation 00:45:45 Listener Questions on Products and Pricing 00:47:08 Product Pricing Details and Website Troubleshooting 00:51:21 Silence in Chat and Maintaining Engagement 00:54:27 Audience Interaction and Poll Planning 00:56:04 Light Bar Joke and Bumper Fabrication Talk 00:56:56 Bumper Fabrication History and Closing Remarks 00:57:27 Final Goodnight and Closing Remarks 00:57:38 Interview Length Evaluation and Show Balance 00:58:58 Member Email, Forum Suggestions and Poll Implementation 01:03:35 Voicemail Playback and Social Media Promotion 01:05:08 Invitation for Listener Questions and Call to Action 01:05:36 Guest Invitation, Advertising Info and Sponsor Message 01:06:02 Detours Promo Tagline and Favorite Ad 01:06:23 Humorous Sign‑off and Closing If you’re building a Jeep Cherokee XJ, rock crawling, or just love quality fabrication, drop a comment below with your questions for future episodes! 👍 Like | 🔔 Subscribe | 💬 Comment your favorite XJ mod! #XJ #JeepCherokee #JeepXJ #OffRoad #DetoursUSA #JeepBumpers #XJTalkShow #JeepBuild “` Visit our website: https://jeeptalkshow.com/ Watch/Listen on Spotify https://jeeptalkshow.com/spotify Join our Discord Server: https://jeeptalkshow.com/discord Subscribe to our newsletter: https://jeeptalkshow.com/newsletter Help Support the show via Patreon: https://jeeptalkshow.com/patreon

Episode Transcript

[00:00:38:28 – 00:01:12:05]
Hey guys, thanks for joining us. XJ Talk Show. XJtalk.com is the website. It’s about Jeeps, the Jeep Cherokees. We have other Jeeps on there, but it’s mainly Jeep Cherokees. We’ve got a great interview tonight with Mark of Detours. Detours happens to be the company that built both front and rear bumpers for my Jeep and very happy with them. Easy for me to say.

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My name’s Tony, by the way.

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See, Mark has joined us on the chatroom. Welcome, Mark. He’s in there as Detours.

[00:01:21:26 – 00:01:35:12]
My name is Tony. It’s Mutteroy on XJtalk.com. I am one of the administrators on the site and the guy that sits in front of this microphone and plays with all these fun things.

[00:01:36:26 – 00:02:12:22]
So, hopefully, you’ll enjoy the interview as much as I enjoyed doing the interview. The interview is actually what we recorded, an interview we recorded last night, Mark and I. And actually, it’s a good thing because Mark isn’t feeling very well. The plan was to have the interview and then have some questions and answers after the interview. And we’ll have to see how Mark’s feeling and see if that’s what he wants to do. I think he is all drugged up and may be a little off more so than usual.

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So,

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let’s get a few things out of the way here and we’ll get to the interview.

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I did say drugged up.

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I’m just guessing, though.

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It’s where you go when you’re not off road. We look forward to hearing from you today.

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And that number is available now, guys. So, if for some reason you’d like to call, it’s not going to be played on this show, obviously. But that number is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And you can say whatever the hell you want to say. In fact, here’s a message that Jim, Big Jim 350 left.

[00:03:51:23 – 00:03:55:11]
I just wanted to say XJtalk is the best

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site in the

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world. And if you think you know a better

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site,

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you. By the way, this is Big Jim 350.

[00:04:04:25 – 00:04:05:09]
Bye.

[00:04:05:09 – 00:04:15:23]
And if you think you can beat Big Jim, I think you should try. Because I’m going to play that a lot until you get sick of it because I really enjoy it. I think that is some funny stuff.

[00:04:15:23 – 00:04:20:09]
If I had a beep, I would say funny something stuff. But I don’t, so I’m not going to.

[00:04:20:09 – 00:04:40:22]
So, as I was mentioning, we have an interview that Mark and I recorded last night that I’m going to start up here in a second. And hopefully it will answer all the questions that you’ve had about Mark. Well, perhaps not all of them, but answer a few and generate a few others. And,

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well, let’s just get to it. Like I said, it’s a really good interview. I think you’ll enjoy it.

[00:04:45:13 – 00:04:48:22]
Tonight we’ve got Mark with Detours USA.

[00:04:48:22 – 00:04:53:12]
And he’s agreed to do an interview with us tonight. Mark, thanks for being on the show.

[00:04:53:12 – 00:04:55:03]
Hey, Tony, it’s my pleasure.

[00:04:55:03 – 00:05:08:21]
Well, I know that we’ve spoke a little bit on how to conduct this interview. And we’ve shared some information back and forth. So why don’t we start with some of your personal background information. Let people know who you are and,

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you know, how you got to where you are today.

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It all pretty much started, you know, at the old metal shop in high school. And then from there went into the Air Force

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and

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actually enlisted as a metal fabricating specialist. So

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I waited about seven months for my career to come up and ended up going to school

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for that in the Air Force. And did my time there and then worked my way through after the fact and

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eventually started doing my own thing. How long were you in the Air Force doing the metal fabrication?

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Uh, enlisted.

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I was 18. Got out at a

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over 22, I believe.

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That had to have been rough. I know I wasn’t very mature at 18. I don’t know how well I would have taken orders, even if I was doing something I liked.

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Um,

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probably I would do it again in a heartbeat. Let me just say that.

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And, you know, sometimes you

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could use a little discipline. So, I mean, if I was the guy going to college, I would have been buying the keg every Tuesday night and majoring in student loans. Gotcha.

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Yeah, I played a lot of pinball in college, so. Yeah. Unfortunately.

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So, um,

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from, I guess, actually, when was the first time you got interested in off-road stuff? Is that something that was before or after the interest in metal fabricating?

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Uh, well, after. And it was after my divorce, actually.

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I was into the polished muscle cars and

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Corvettes. And I’ve had a lot, a lot, a lot of different vehicles. And, uh,

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they always sat in the garage after they were finished and

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just sat there.

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I guess a big change in your life. You take on different challenges. So instead of polish them, I decided I wanted to go dent them up.

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So, you mean, but you went out and drove them fast, right?

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Oh, lightly. They were more.

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You’d build one

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to create something of more value to build the next one

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and just continue increasing value and your first strings. Well, that’s interesting because that’s exactly what my dad told me to do whenever I got my first vehicle was,

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you know, fix it up, sell it and get you a better one and so on and so forth. I never did that, but that was exactly what he had recommended to me. Yeah, that’s interesting because I was going to say the muscle car thing, I was, I was doing that myself. I had a 72 Nova

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a

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and L 60s with traction bars and it was just a blast, but I certainly didn’t want to dent it. But boy, I just drove the hell out of the thing. And well, actually I broke the main on the 327 driving the hell out of the thing.

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Pretty hard. And that’s a whole different crowd. You know, you don’t have the same camaraderie.

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There’s, they’re small, but it’s a very small circle you travel in and you know, you’re doing the car shows on Sundays, wasting your whole day in a parking lot

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kind of.

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And it gets old after a while. Yeah, I guess so. Because like I was talking to somebody else on another show, the, the whole muscle car thing is you go out. It’s a competition. You go out and you raise somebody and it’s very, very, very aggressive thing. Whereas the off road scene is more of a partnership and Hey, look what I can do. And Oh, I got stuck and here, let me help you out. Here’s a part. Here’s an axles on and so forth. So exactly. There’s a camaraderie. Yeah. There’s a lot of nice things about off-roading. I mean, it’s not always the case. People are people, but for the majority of the time, I think that it’s exactly that way. At least that’s what I’ve seen. It’s very nice. It’s more friendly.

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I think you’ll continue to see that.

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So when did you, how did you get started fabricating

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parts for Jeeps or was that your first things, first automobiles?

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Was it off road stuff or was it, I guess the muscle cars you were fabricating, but I mean, as far as metal work goes.

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As far as the, the muscle cars and the customs, it was,

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I was chopping, which is when you lower your roof. I was Frenching,

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which is when you countersink lighting into the side of the body of the vehicle and all that kind of shave door handles, all that kind of stuff.

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Off-road stuff. Early on I had a Bronco too, but I really wasn’t, that was just kind of a pacifier way back when.

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And then when I really started getting in the off-road, I bought a 71 Bronco.

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Probably about four days after that purchase, I realized it was probably just too nice to take out wheeling.

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So I flipped that one as far as, you know, I

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did some things to it and got 4,000 more out of it than I paid for it. Oh, that’s sweet. So I flipped that and then I got into a YJ and then, you know, we started, I

[00:10:03:15 – 00:10:05:29]
get a Jeep and you start falling in with people.

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And the fabricating was always there, but it was never applied towards Jeeps prior.

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And that was, had to be at least 11

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years ago, 10 years ago. I don’t even know. And then it just kept snowballing. So really it’s been relatively, relatively recently that you’ve, you’ve done the fabrication on Jeeps.

[00:10:26:16 – 00:10:35:02]
Relatively, yeah. I mean, I know 10 years seems like a long time, but I actually thought you’d been doing it a lot longer. The quality of the workmanship that I see

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looks like something that you’ve been doing for, I mean, I know you’re not this old, but it looks like you’ve been doing it for 30 years.

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Let me do some quick math.

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It won’t be long.

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No. Well, it may be. The quality comes from doing architectural steel for,

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I

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can’t even tell you how long I did that. 11 years, probably 11. I had structural and architectural steel. I ran a shop in Brantford, Connecticut.

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I was actually a shop foreman.

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And

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yeah, that’s where all the polishing comes from is the architectural side of things because architects can be pretty nutty. Oh, I’m sure.

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They, they, they designed it on paper or on computer and it’s perfect. And what if they see it and see it in the real world, you know, they don’t understand. They don’t care. They want it perfect.

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I would imagine.

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And if it’s not perfect, you’re not working for them again. So

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it’s,

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you know, it’s just a time consuming thing and you do it. You just learn to do it. Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m not a welder, but whenever I received your

[00:11:42:15 – 00:12:01:11]
bumper, rear bumper, the slim line bumper, slim line, that’s what I was trying to say. Yeah. I got you the slim line, slim line bumper. And I was just amazed at even on the inside where nobody could see this beautiful welds. And again, I don’t know anything about welding, but I know what looks good to me.

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And thank you. That was one of the reasons why I wanted to try to talk you into making that front bumper, which, which wasn’t an easy process, but you finally gave in.

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It was fun.

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It’s hard to schedule that type of custom handmade work around a regular schedule.

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And if you, if you mess it up, you got to start over.

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Yeah. Well, it turned out well, everybody, everybody always asked me about the bumper or always says the bumper is beautiful. And I will tell them, you have the same guy that made this, made the rear bumper. Then we’ll go around the back and look at it. But they always noticed that front bumper. It’s a beautiful thing.

[00:12:37:28 – 00:12:48:02]
I’ve had a few emails on it. Well, I certainly, I certainly talk about it a lot. So that’s cool. Lots of publicity on it.

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So you mentioned Connecticut. Is that where you’re originally from?

[00:12:51:03 – 00:12:54:15]
Yep. Born and raised in Connecticut, little cow town,

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18 miles

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of Hartford, which is the capital.

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But yeah, the cows outnumbered the people and

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so on and so forth. You used to walk to school all the time every day.

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Doesn’t sound like a bad life. I mean, I’m sure it’s nice to be, it would be nice to be in a different environment since that’s what you’re used to. But the times were different back then. Yeah. The country life is, can be a very nice one. Of course, except when you’re a young man and looking for a girl to go out with.

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I didn’t never had any problems there.

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So you were in Connecticut until you went into the Air Force. And then when you got out of the Air Force, you were back in Connecticut up until what, just a couple of years ago, right?

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Yeah. Connecticut, then the Air Force, I spent a year down in Texas. And then I spent

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just about four years

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up in northern Maine, up near Caribou.

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And

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that was pretty cool. Once you learned how to enjoy winter,

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it’s pretty cool up there. And then came back to Connecticut and did my thing for years.

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then the little one came along and we saw the bubble being bursted.

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Didn’t know how bad it was going to be, but we saw it and we scouted this area here in Kentucky a year in advance.

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And decided to make the move out here, back out to the country. Well, from the pictures that I’ve seen, it’s a very beautiful country that you’re living in. And what a great place to

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raise a small child.

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It is. It’s got its challenges sometimes. I’m busy.

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I’m busy 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, if I want to be in it. If I’m not working, I confess I’m mentally working.

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But it can be tough when

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the wife doesn’t have a whole bunch to do and

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Junior’s looking for

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something to do himself. But I hope it all works out.

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Well, I

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know that’s where my bumper was born, the front bumper. So

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you’re in Kentucky now and you’re still in business. You actually have a shop that’s just right there by the house. Yep. We want to put everything on the same property. That way I wasn’t really an absentee dad. Well,

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oh, and our son is in his little years, you know, later he won’t want to

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hang around with dad, but we’ll see.

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Oh, I suspect he’ll be out there wanting to help you.

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I mean, actually being a help.

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I bet you he’ll be out there working the equipment before long. Another five years or so. He can actually work the iron worker because it’s pedal control. I don’t let him hold the steel, but he will apply the pressure to the pedal and

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punch the steel.

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And yeah, he likes goofing around with the big saw, but we all know what kind of damage that can do. Well, that’s I mean, that’s wonderful stuff. I mean, that’s things like that have always interested me. And my grandfather actually had a welding shop for 47 years, I think, in a little town just west of where I am now. And it was just a blast when I would go over there and spend time there in his shop. And

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he did a lot of welding, a lot of a lot of cutting of metal, and I would get to take the metal and go put it in the water to cool it off.

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Yeah, there you go. Yeah. My grandfather was actually a shop school teacher, a metal shop school

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Well, that’s interesting. I actually have his old drill press sitting over there on the corner that I use every day. Do you think that affected your decision to become a metal fabricator at all?

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Might have been in the blood.

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I don’t know. I don’t know. Metal shaders. Metal shaders, I don’t think. Yeah. Well, I thought maybe you hung out and, you know, found it interesting.

[00:16:41:00 – 00:16:44:29]
No, I know my dad did some metal work when he was in the army,

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but

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nothing really structural or anything like that. It was more ornate.

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So when was the first time you started working on Jeep Cherokees or fabricating things for Cherokees?

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Jeeps. Well, I started with YJs. My oldest products are the incline equalizer for the old 258 with the Weber carburetor swap.

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I knew there had to be a way of

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getting that carburetor to perform off camber. And

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I actually found it.

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And then from there, Dropkicks,

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that’s probably the second oldest product.

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It is the second oldest product. And that started with the YJ and then went on the

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TJs. I offered them for CJs for a while, but

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CJ frames are just too,

[00:17:32:07 – 00:17:46:07]
let’s just say they’ve been around too long. Yeah. So that’s why the Dropkicks are what? Are those sliders or what? Dropkicks are a slider type of item for the Wrangler bunch, but more or less designed to

[00:17:46:07 – 00:17:48:02]
kick you off an obstacle.

[00:17:49:23 – 00:17:54:01]
My original wheeling experience was in the Northeast where you have a lot of trees

[00:17:54:01 – 00:17:57:12]
and a lot of rocks, so the trails can become tight.

[00:17:57:12 – 00:18:06:19]
And as we all know, our rear ends don’t always want to follow the front ends. So they’re basically designed to push the vehicle off the obstacle.

[00:18:06:19 – 00:18:07:21]
And they work well.

[00:18:07:21 – 00:18:14:22]
So that was your first modifications or third party add-ons for the Jeep of the YJ? I actually,

[00:18:14:22 – 00:18:19:24]
lot of things I never even advertised. I was actually working with the

[00:18:19:24 – 00:18:24:27]
Thule, which they’re in the rack business.

[00:18:24:27 – 00:18:27:05]
Their competitor is Yakima.

[00:18:27:05 – 00:18:31:26]
And we were actually working together on a rack system for Jeeps.

[00:18:31:26 – 00:18:32:24]
And

[00:18:32:24 – 00:18:34:16]
that kind of fizzled

[00:18:34:16 – 00:18:36:15]
for no other reason than

[00:18:36:15 – 00:18:38:06]
dealing with the corporate world.

[00:18:38:06 – 00:18:42:15]
I did do a lot of store displays and things of that nature for that

[00:18:42:15 – 00:18:50:10]
corporation. But then eventually the Cherokee came around. My first Cherokee was bought from my brother-in-law

[00:18:50:10 – 00:18:54:01]
and sister-in-law. And that immediately got lifted,

[00:18:54:01 – 00:18:59:19]
so on and so forth. And I pulled up in their driveway one day and they’re like, “This is my Jeep.”

[00:19:01:01 – 00:19:03:07]
It makes a huge difference in the way it looks, doesn’t it?

[00:19:03:07 – 00:19:15:03]
It sure does. I mean, one looks like a grocery getter. The other one looks like a, gosh, I don’t know. They just look amazing whenever they’re lifted with large tires. That wasn’t the one you had in mothballs, was it?

[00:19:15:03 – 00:19:18:19]
No. The first one was a silver one. You can see it

[00:19:18:19 – 00:19:20:15]
in a number of pictures with the,

[00:19:20:15 – 00:19:22:08]
got a round tube

[00:19:22:08 – 00:19:26:21]
sectional bumper on the front, kind of Jeep speed kind of looking.

[00:19:27:25 – 00:19:31:01]
And that one dates back the furthest. And then there was

[00:19:31:01 – 00:19:32:23]
numerous in between

[00:19:32:23 – 00:19:35:15]
that one and the mothball one.

[00:19:35:15 – 00:19:40:27]
Most of those ended up getting cut up or resold or chopped and sold or

[00:19:40:27 – 00:19:42:01]
things of that nature.

[00:19:42:01 – 00:19:51:18]
So apparently you prefer the XJs over the YJs or the TJs. And I don’t believe you’re too

[00:19:51:18 – 00:19:57:18]
thrilled on the sheet metal that’s being used on the JKs.

[00:19:57:18 – 00:20:00:24]
JKs are going to be the next CJ5 if you ask me.

[00:20:00:24 – 00:20:03:07]
Or CJ7, however you want to look at it.

[00:20:03:07 – 00:20:08:16]
Yeah, I think they’re going to be pretty prone to rotting myself, but that’s just my opinion. Right.

[00:20:11:10 – 00:20:13:17]
Yeah, the XJ is very versatile. The extra wheelbase

[00:20:13:17 – 00:20:16:06]
is extremely beneficial

[00:20:16:06 – 00:20:22:00]
over a TJ. I like TJs. I think TJs were

[00:20:22:00 – 00:20:25:18]
the best Wrangler style Jeeps ever made myself.

[00:20:28:12 – 00:20:32:20]
But yeah, the Cherokee is very versatile. I’ve camped in mine. I’ve done

[00:20:32:20 – 00:20:36:26]
trails. I’ve done hill climbs. I’ve done things that other Jeeps

[00:20:36:26 – 00:20:41:02]
struggled or couldn’t do, and they paid a heck of a lot more money for them than I did.

[00:20:41:02 – 00:20:52:13]
Yeah, that’s the thing that really amazed me and my dumb luck in picking one because as I’ve told the story numerous times, that’s what the wife and I went to go buy was a TJ, a 1998 TJ.

[00:20:52:13 – 00:20:53:27]
TJs are fun.

[00:20:53:27 – 00:20:57:06]
Yep, we’ll get one too, and that’ll be hers.

[00:20:57:06 – 00:21:02:24]
No, I’ll probably end up with another one myself, or even a YJ, and do a coil conversion.

[00:21:02:24 – 00:21:13:15]
Yeah, they’re just fun. Yeah, I mean, you know, take the top off and put it back on and take it off and put it back on. I mean, you can take the top off an XJ, but it’s generally not something you take off and put back on.

[00:21:13:15 – 00:21:15:22]
Not unless your fabrication swears.

[00:21:15:22 – 00:21:21:29]
The other thing that pointed me towards the Cherokees was I had a Greyhound for a number of years,

[00:21:21:29 – 00:21:26:09]
and she was a large Greyhound, an ex-racetrack dog, and

[00:21:26:09 – 00:21:29:17]
you never could fit into a YJ, a TJ, or

[00:21:29:17 – 00:21:38:00]
any of those type of vehicles. Wow, she really must have been big. And actually, our daily drivers at the time were bought around the dog,

[00:21:39:21 – 00:21:41:05]
conversion vans and things of that nature.

[00:21:41:05 – 00:21:54:23]
So you mentioned Owen getting involved in the business, so to speak. This may be a little indirectly helping Dad out. I think your wife gets involved in the business as well, doesn’t she?

[00:21:54:23 – 00:21:57:11]
Erica, Erica’s a big help at times.

[00:21:58:20 – 00:22:08:10]
She used to be. Well, I remember as Owen, it kind of consumed time. Gotcha, okay. I thought that was a dig at the one. She used to be. You

[00:22:08:10 – 00:22:10:17]
wouldn’t believe what that girl used to do.

[00:22:10:17 – 00:22:16:02]
But, yeah, she does all the paperwork and the processing and things of that nature.

[00:22:16:02 – 00:22:20:20]
Now that Owen’s in school, I think she’s going to be coming out to the shop

[00:22:20:20 – 00:22:28:10]
doing some cutting for me and things of that nature, you know, the repetitious work. Wow, that’ll be great. I’m sure doing the paperwork and stuff is a

[00:22:28:10 – 00:22:34:02]
huge benefit. It lets you concentrate on the things that have to be made in the shop.

[00:22:34:02 – 00:22:35:12]
Yeah, the paperwork

[00:22:35:12 – 00:22:42:07]
can be cumbersome. I’m not a real good at the…I’m not a paperwork guy, put it that way. Very tedious.

[00:22:42:07 – 00:22:43:21]
Yeah. Lots of detail.

[00:22:43:21 – 00:23:08:20]
So, I know that you have the…you mentioned some of the stuff that you were making for the YJs and, of course, the products that you make for the XJs. I’m well aware of and I’m sure audiences too. Are there…do you make products for other things that you don’t have on the site, or is it…do you do custom work for other vehicles? I think I remember seeing some stuff, Chevrolet truck or

[00:23:08:20 – 00:23:15:22]
something in one of the customs you’ve done. Do people come to you for all sorts of things, or are you pretty much focusing just on Jeep stuff?

[00:23:15:22 – 00:23:18:14]
They do, not as much as they used to.

[00:23:19:16 – 00:23:24:03]
Walking in traffic in this kind of environment is almost counterproductive.

[00:23:24:03 – 00:23:32:18]
When you’re doing…when you’re promoting a product line and you’re trying to manufacture parts,

[00:23:33:25 – 00:23:38:28]
basically the business comes from the net or over the phone. Now, when you get walk-in traffic,

[00:23:38:28 – 00:23:42:15]
you know, everybody wants to shoot the bull and the…

[00:23:42:15 – 00:23:52:11]
Of course. You know, can you do this, can you do that? And then, you know, you spend time with them, you throw them a number, and, you know, they can turn around and walk away, then

[00:23:52:11 – 00:23:55:05]
it’s just the way it is. It’s the nature of the beast.

[00:23:55:05 – 00:24:01:11]
They don’t all walk away, don’t get me wrong, but you pretty much consume that hour and a half

[00:24:01:11 – 00:24:03:15]
that you could have applied to fabricating

[00:24:03:15 – 00:24:04:15]
your existing

[00:24:04:15 – 00:24:07:29]
clients, or you can apply it to

[00:24:07:29 – 00:24:09:08]
shooting the breeze with

[00:24:09:08 – 00:24:16:12]
somebody who might want something. Right. As far as other vehicles, yeah, but it’s all done on a custom basis.

[00:24:16:12 – 00:24:20:23]
Gotcha. So there’s no other products that you have really other than what you see on the site?

[00:24:20:23 – 00:24:22:21]
No, there is not.

[00:24:24:05 – 00:24:25:15]
Honestly, eventually,

[00:24:25:15 – 00:24:29:21]
someday, I really wouldn’t mind doing custom furniture.

[00:24:29:21 – 00:24:30:28]
Oh, that’s interesting.

[00:24:30:28 – 00:24:47:04]
Yeah, it’s just something to let the mind wander a little more than working in the jigs. Well, I’m remembering back whenever you were telling me how somebody was, some of your friends up in Connecticut, competitors or friends or whatever, was saying that you don’t make

[00:24:47:04 – 00:25:01:02]
bumpers, you make furniture that goes on vehicles, because it’s so well done. I’ve heard that. I can’t tell you where I heard that, but yes, that’s true. I’ve heard that. So when you said about making furniture, I remembered you telling me about that, and I thought that was pretty funny.

[00:25:01:02 – 00:25:09:05]
I had one guy who put a bumper, he said he put his bumper in his living room under his coffee table, because he just wanted to look at it. He had a glass top coffee table.

[00:25:10:28 – 00:25:21:03]
I’m like, okay. You know, some of that stuff, I mean, I don’t know how the wife would handle that stuff, but some of that stuff is very pretty. And if I made it myself, I think I may have to do the same thing, at least for a little while.

[00:25:21:03 – 00:25:31:00]
Well, you’re either going to maintain or increase the value of a vehicle, or you’re going to go the other way, and if I’m going to be in business, I’m not going to put people the other way. Sure.

[00:25:31:00 – 00:25:34:17]
So, you know, you have to put out your best effort.

[00:25:34:17 – 00:25:54:04]
So, I know that you’ve spent a little time working on the tailbone for the XJ, and I remember seeing some stuff on NAXJ, a picture of a test unit, and it seems like it was a year or longer before you actually came out with the tailbone.

[00:25:54:04 – 00:25:58:17]
Two years. Wow. And it’s been

[00:25:58:17 – 00:26:02:21]
two years since. Well, it was January 2009.

[00:26:02:21 – 00:26:04:20]
We introduced the tailbone,

[00:26:04:20 – 00:26:11:02]
and the initial prototypes are actually still on the trail today, and they’re not half

[00:26:11:02 – 00:26:13:12]
stout as what we’re producing now.

[00:26:13:12 – 00:26:34:24]
It was a wonderful idea, and it really is great from the standpoint of shipping, because I know personally how much it cost to pay to have a full bumper shipped, the first one from Connecticut, then the second one from Kentucky. Right. And although it wasn’t that expensive, it does –

[00:26:34:24 – 00:26:37:22]
I think it was like 10% the cost of the bumper,

[00:26:37:22 – 00:26:45:19]
and that’s substantial. Frankly, I was surprised that they ship things that big and that heavy, but you do and you learn.

[00:26:46:13 – 00:26:52:24]
Yeah, it’s a more secure package to ship. Every time I ship a full bumper,

[00:26:52:24 – 00:26:55:12]
had some bad experiences

[00:26:55:12 – 00:26:58:05]
one of the carriers in the past, and

[00:26:58:05 – 00:27:04:13]
it ended up costing me a lot of money. Well, I know you spend a lot of time wrapping those things and packing them,

[00:27:04:13 – 00:27:07:22]
because I spent a good 15, 20 minutes unwrapping it.

[00:27:07:22 – 00:27:09:08]
It’s fun, isn’t it, though?

[00:27:10:21 – 00:27:11:22]
I just wanted to see the

[00:27:11:22 – 00:27:15:24]
thing. Just sit there and you sing “Happy Birthday” to me.

[00:27:15:24 – 00:27:32:23]
So anyway, where I was going with this was you spent two years getting the tailbone into production, so to speak. What was – is that your longest duration for a product, and how much design and build and testing do you do on these things normally?

[00:27:33:25 – 00:27:37:09]
Anything that’s going to hang off a vehicle I’d like to see a year on,

[00:27:38:19 – 00:27:41:08]
on actually daily use and trail use.

[00:27:41:08 – 00:27:43:26]
The backbone, that

[00:27:43:26 – 00:27:46:10]
is the front winch mountain recovery.

[00:27:46:10 – 00:27:47:23]
That was pretty

[00:27:47:23 – 00:27:53:01]
stout right from the start, and I think we put like six months into that one.

[00:27:53:01 – 00:27:58:06]
But any of the rear items that involve a tire carrier or that can fall into traffic,

[00:27:59:09 – 00:28:01:02]
I like to see them used for a year.

[00:28:01:02 – 00:28:02:07]
Well, that makes sense.

[00:28:03:04 – 00:28:07:01]
And of course, there is the responsibility of the owner to maintain it and

[00:28:07:01 – 00:28:10:28]
make it part of their normal maintenance to look it over and

[00:28:10:28 – 00:28:12:01]
check things out.

[00:28:12:01 – 00:28:18:18]
While it’s going to last longer than the Cherokee, it is prone to vibration and

[00:28:18:18 – 00:28:20:19]
being hit and so on and so forth.

[00:28:20:19 – 00:28:28:23]
Well, I know that my slimline bumper is very stout, and that tire carrier that I got with it

[00:28:28:23 – 00:28:42:06]
has never moved from day one. Well, my wife didn’t latch it back one time and it moved, but – I remember that. When it was latched properly, it’s rock solid. I mean, and I haven’t done a lot off-roading, but what I’ve done,

[00:28:42:06 – 00:28:54:18]
it didn’t move. It’s – man, it is solid as rock. I’d love to do a secondary latch, but honestly, I think a lot of people, probably 85% of the crowd would

[00:28:54:18 – 00:28:57:26]
forget about the secondary latch and,

[00:28:57:26 – 00:29:00:16]
you know, because it’s just more cumbersome.

[00:29:00:16 – 00:29:03:03]
human nature to do the shortcut sometimes,

[00:29:03:03 – 00:29:14:17]
Right. So – So was this your longest design and build, or is that typical for your type of – No, it’s absolutely the very longest.

[00:29:16:08 – 00:29:19:04]
The whole thought process – I probably had

[00:29:19:04 – 00:29:21:08]
two months of thinking about it before I even

[00:29:21:08 – 00:29:24:18]
started to pick up a piece of steel, but

[00:29:24:18 – 00:29:28:01]
no, it’s

[00:29:28:01 – 00:29:29:13]
something. It really is something,

[00:29:29:13 – 00:29:34:29]
but it’s a lot of tolerance involved as far as assembling all the parts.

[00:29:34:29 – 00:29:43:24]
A lot of work with a number of different vendors. I think – well, now I’m up to six vendors on that item, six separate vendors to make that happen, the tailbone.

[00:29:44:14 – 00:29:48:18]
It’s a real nice product. And I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, if I was going to build another

[00:29:48:18 – 00:30:14:00]
XJ, I would go with the backbone and the tailbone. There’s something to be said for an XJ that has a stock look to it, but you still have the recovery points, and you still have the ability to carry a spare tire and have a winch on the front. Right. You know, there’s definitely a crowd out there that appreciates the factory appearance, and I actually do pair them up quite often and sell them

[00:30:14:00 – 00:30:19:21]
to an individual at the same time, front and rear. Of course, we give them a little break on that, but

[00:30:20:19 – 00:30:22:02]
we’re just happy that they

[00:30:22:02 – 00:30:23:21]
think that much of the product.

[00:30:23:21 – 00:30:30:03]
Yeah. Well, the quality – I’ve just been blown away by the quality. And whenever I find a

[00:30:30:03 – 00:30:54:12]
vendor that gives me a good product and also to a great customer service, I try to promote them with people that I talk to. And, of course, I have the benefit of having a surprisingly popular, in my mind, website. And I’m more than happy to promote those vendors on my site as I do your stuff. And I always tell people

[00:30:54:12 – 00:30:56:17]
where I got the bumper and

[00:30:56:17 – 00:30:59:11]
who to talk to and so on and so forth.

[00:30:59:11 – 00:31:02:22]
Well, it’s appreciated on our end. And I remember that day.

[00:31:02:22 – 00:31:06:26]
I think I was building your front bumper when you said you think you were going to start a

[00:31:06:26 – 00:31:07:24]
forum.

[00:31:09:04 – 00:31:24:17]
Right. And actually I was – And I think I said, “Huh?” Yeah. A Jeep forum? Are you sure? Are you sure? Did you actually know how many Jeep forums there are out there already? But there’s no talking to you, so – No, no. I do what I think’s best.

[00:31:24:17 – 00:31:34:14]
Mm-hmm. And I think that’s the way most successful or sometimes most losers wind up. They do what they think’s best.

[00:31:34:14 – 00:31:49:28]
Hey, it’s the Karma Challenge and you’re doing good with it, so hats off to you. Thank you. And that’s actually the other thing I was going to bring up is you’ve actually been an XJ Talk member since almost day one. I think that, you know, like you said, we were talking and I told you about it. And it was,

[00:31:49:28 – 00:31:52:23]
“Yeah, okay. I’ll come over there and see what you got.”

[00:31:53:14 – 00:31:57:08]
Actually, I used your family forum, if you remember, to

[00:31:57:08 – 00:32:05:26]
lay out the install instructions for the tailbone. Oh, that’s right. And then we took them from your family forum

[00:32:05:26 – 00:32:12:01]
and we started putting them on different websites. That’s right. I had forgotten all about that. See?

[00:32:12:01 – 00:32:19:22]
So you’re a helper in the community. Well, it’s good to not be a taker for all my life.

[00:32:20:12 – 00:32:28:06]
But just wanted to say I appreciate the eventual words of encouragement on the site.

[00:32:31:02 – 00:33:06:24]
At least you didn’t say, “Oh, this is a bunch of crap and I’m not going to be anywhere associated with this.” Maybe you just wanted to see the train wreck. I don’t know. Nah, I just come over, have a little fun and try to liven up the place now and then. Yeah, well, that certainly is the case. I think that the thread that you started, random picture thread, may not have been an original idea, but it certainly has been the most popular one on the site. I think we have certainly in the maybe 20,000 views of that, literally 27,000 views on that one thread or that one forum.

[00:33:06:24 – 00:33:11:23]
It wasn’t original, but I did that on another forum that was

[00:33:11:23 – 00:33:21:16]
trying to come around at one point, and it actually helped pick things up once people caught on to what was going on.

[00:33:21:16 – 00:33:28:06]
And then every now and then, other than the funny stuff, I’ll try to sneak in a little product now and then. Sure.

[00:33:28:06 – 00:33:29:15]
So what the heck?

[00:33:29:15 – 00:33:35:15]
So do you have anything that you might want to tell us about that you’re coming out with for the XJ?

[00:33:35:15 – 00:33:38:05]
Anything you maybe you’re just thinking about?

[00:33:38:05 – 00:33:44:06]
Well, there’s a lot of things being thought about, but

[00:33:44:06 – 00:33:49:00]
I’ve had a recent customer, again, a custom rear bumper,

[00:33:49:00 – 00:33:49:17]
who came back.

[00:33:49:17 – 00:33:53:06]
Shoot, I don’t even think it was a matter of days after he,

[00:33:53:06 – 00:33:59:11]
I don’t even think the bumper was finished yet. And somebody was producing a pillar,

[00:33:59:11 – 00:34:06:05]
which is your very front pillar, that retains your windshield light brackets. But they had gone out of production,

[00:34:06:05 – 00:34:09:25]
and no vendors were making them. And

[00:34:09:25 – 00:34:12:01]
I kind of shrugged it off at first,

[00:34:12:01 – 00:34:13:00]
and

[00:34:13:00 – 00:34:18:10]
started looking around on the forums, and it seems like a lot of people were wanting them, but nobody could get them.

[00:34:18:10 – 00:34:20:25]
A few guys out there were trying to make them, but

[00:34:20:25 – 00:34:24:15]
quite frankly, they weren’t really up to snuff. And

[00:34:24:15 – 00:34:30:20]
so I kind of got involved in that, and that’s very, very recent. Actually,

[00:34:30:20 – 00:34:32:22]
I’ve got pictures back from the install

[00:34:32:22 – 00:34:37:02]
this morning from the individual. I sent them off to him for a Christmas present,

[00:34:37:02 – 00:34:37:28]
because

[00:34:37:28 – 00:34:39:17]
it was his idea.

[00:34:40:14 – 00:34:42:06]
So I guess A-pillar lighting

[00:34:42:06 – 00:34:44:06]
brackets, similar to the TJ

[00:34:44:06 – 00:34:47:16]
look, are definitely in the works,

[00:34:47:16 – 00:34:50:12]
probably by the end of the month. I think that would be a big winner.

[00:34:50:12 – 00:34:53:07]
I did sneak a picture on the

[00:34:53:07 – 00:35:12:21]
random picture thread today. Yeah, I did see that. I was wondering, because you’ve done that before with the tire carrier that you were actually working on, one that clips on the back of the door of the X-J. We can talk about that, and that will relate right back to testing, and why we do it for, or I like to do it for a year. Right.

[00:35:13:25 – 00:35:44:27]
I know that you occasionally come out with, I mean, you’ll post little teasers, and you won’t say, “This is what I’m working on. This is what I’m thinking about.” It’s just like, “Here, you know that. Well, here you go.” I’m just looking for a public reaction at that point. And always the public reaction is, “Oh my God, where do I get that? Where did you get that? How do I get that?” So it’s actually, and I’m sure you built yourself quite a market with the tailbone, letting it hover out there with one or two random pictures, and people wanting to know, “Where the hell is this thing?” for two years.

[00:35:44:27 – 00:35:50:29]
Yeah, I was asked for two years, pretty solid. In all fairness, we did take, with the move,

[00:35:50:29 – 00:35:57:15]
and the house sale, and all that, and the shop, we did take about four months, five months off.

[00:35:57:15 – 00:36:04:10]
Because, you know, you have to prep for the move, and then you have to do the actual move, and then– Oh, moving is horrible. Move in, and then

[00:36:04:10 – 00:36:08:09]
you’re so tired from that that you take a week or three off. Mm-hmm.

[00:36:08:09 – 00:36:12:12]
then you sit around, and you say, “Oh, I’ve got to get a shop going again.”

[00:36:14:25 – 00:36:21:01]
Exactly. So we did have a small break in there. That was actually a good-sized break, I’d say. Why?

[00:36:21:01 – 00:36:32:26]
Yeah, I focused heavily once things were back up and running, and got that going. And it’s actually been refined since its first introduction,

[00:36:32:26 – 00:36:40:06]
and I think it’s about as good as it can be at this point. Now, the flames that are on the tailbone, they’ve been there since the beginning, right?

[00:36:40:06 – 00:36:50:19]
Flames are on there from the beginning. People could always do the delete option on them, and it got to the point where I was getting so many deletes that

[00:36:50:19 – 00:36:56:27]
I’m not doing flames any longer. Ah, okay. I didn’t know that. So, I mean, I haven’t altered anything on the website,

[00:36:56:27 – 00:36:59:21]
I can add flames if need be,

[00:36:59:21 – 00:37:03:28]
but really, nobody seems to be missing them. And in my original

[00:37:03:28 – 00:37:09:22]
twisted thinking of the design, it needed something to do something in that area, you know? But

[00:37:09:22 – 00:37:11:24]
visually, it looks

[00:37:11:24 – 00:37:14:01]
great. Maybe that’s the– I’m looking at

[00:37:14:01 – 00:37:25:24]
a set from here hanging on the wall. Maybe that’s that old muscle car style that you used to do. Oh, absolutely. And who doesn’t like flames? I mean, one out of 25 people. Right.

[00:37:26:25 – 00:37:33:02]
I thought it was a win-win, and a lot of guys did want them. Well, I’m sure it’s a lot easier not to have the flames on it, and a lot easier to make.

[00:37:33:02 – 00:37:46:04]
Um… Straight cut? Really, that was all laser cut, so my hands weren’t in that portion of it. That was one of my vendors. Gotcha. They’d be responsible for, you know, the programming and stuff.

[00:37:46:04 – 00:37:46:28]
So,

[00:37:46:28 – 00:37:49:11]
really, what it does is it offers

[00:37:49:11 – 00:37:56:10]
a much less sharper edge for rust to create, or chipping, you know, and

[00:37:56:10 – 00:37:57:28]
things of that nature. So,

[00:37:57:28 – 00:38:00:05]
I don’t really miss the flames that

[00:38:01:00 – 00:38:19:11]
You were talking about the A-pillar light mounts, and that’s something that I had been interested in a while back. But with my current mindset with the four lights, four six inch KCs I have on the front bumper, and I’m thinking of some overhead lights, I just think the A-pillar lights would be

[00:38:19:11 – 00:38:21:22]
just an amazing overkill of lights.

[00:38:23:24 – 00:38:33:13]
Yeah. I’m a big flashlight fan from when I was a little kid, and I think that’s also morphed into the off-road thing, because I just love lights. Lights and watches.

[00:38:33:13 – 00:38:59:00]
So, I probably can’t do that, but I was thinking, I don’t know if you saw the post that I put on there to yours whenever I saw the A-pillar lights. Yeah, you’ve got to submit that drawing, and I’ll take a look at it. Because I was kind of thinking that, you know, this would actually be perfect for what I was wanting, which was overhead lights, but kind of like the overhead lights that are on for the TJs and, you know, the Wrangler crowd.

[00:38:59:00 – 00:39:07:18]
Right. Where it’s not on the roof rack mount. It’s a bar and has a loop that goes around the lights.

[00:39:07:18 – 00:39:24:18]
And I thought, you know, a pair of those A-pillar mounts with either a bolt hole or where the tube could mount onto those might be perfect. Yeah, actually I was thinking about doing a drawing and shooting it over there, and letting you pick it apart like you did my drawing on the front bumper.

[00:39:24:18 – 00:39:34:11]
I actually, I mean, it doesn’t relate to XJs, but one of my original products that I was geared up to do, but never advertised or,

[00:39:34:11 – 00:39:38:09]
I don’t know, I never got my feet wet with it was an actual cowl

[00:39:38:09 – 00:39:40:07]
light bar for

[00:39:40:07 – 00:39:42:27]
YJs and TJs that would go

[00:39:42:27 – 00:39:48:15]
down. It’s not the same style that’s being advertised in some of the catalogs now,

[00:39:48:15 – 00:39:54:17]
but the lights would be in front of the driver and I actually had exterior gauges on the bar as well.

[00:39:54:17 – 00:39:59:14]
Visually, it was a perfect shot right in front of your eyes, but

[00:39:59:14 – 00:40:01:04]
I never really pursued that.

[00:40:01:04 – 00:40:09:05]
So you’re looking at the A-pillar mounts. Anything else that’s on the horizon that you care to share or just too far down the thought process right now?

[00:40:09:05 – 00:40:14:11]
FSCs, which stands for Front Shock Cheaters.

[00:40:14:11 – 00:40:18:23]
We just got on the website two nights ago, and

[00:40:18:23 – 00:40:29:11]
you can use those for, much like the STMs for the rear, but if you keep increasing your lift and you don’t want to go out and buy new shocks all the time,

[00:40:29:11 – 00:40:34:13]
you can use that item to cheat your shock, and you can also use it to tune your shock.

[00:40:34:13 – 00:40:42:21]
And by tuning, what I mean is if your wheel is stuffed into the wheel well and you look at your shock and there’s still

[00:40:42:21 – 00:40:46:05]
two, two and a half inches of shock shaft exposed,

[00:40:46:05 – 00:40:50:19]
you can use that going in the other direction. So it’s kind of a wasted shock

[00:40:50:19 – 00:40:53:28]
with that much shaft sticking up out of it. So

[00:40:53:28 – 00:40:59:07]
if you were to tune your shock to where your wheel is stuffed or up against your bump stop

[00:40:59:07 – 00:41:00:09]
and

[00:41:01:29 – 00:41:05:25]
take that dimension and let it work downward for you,

[00:41:05:25 – 00:41:10:19]
I think you’re ahead of the ballgame by doing that. And that’s where the

[00:41:10:19 – 00:41:13:03]
front shock cheaters or the

[00:41:13:03 – 00:41:16:17]
FSCs, I should say,

[00:41:16:17 – 00:41:17:27]
can play a role for you.

[00:41:17:27 – 00:41:31:01]
I am kind of rethinking the design a little bit. I know the design works, but I think I can do it as a bar pin eliminator as well. So I’m going to look into that as an alternative. Oh, I see what you mean. Putting it up top instead on the bottom.

[00:41:31:01 – 00:41:41:04]
No, it’ll still be in the bottom, but you won’t have the bar pin going through the shock. You’d use a 5-8-bowl. Oh, okay. I didn’t understand what the bar pin was. Yeah.

[00:41:41:04 – 00:41:45:14]
So I’m thinking of that as an alternative to the

[00:41:45:14 – 00:41:49:12]
current design because there’s machining involved with the current design,

[00:41:49:12 – 00:41:55:06]
which is a little bit time-consuming. But I think I can get the price down further if I do it bar pin eliminator

[00:41:55:06 – 00:41:55:24]
style.

[00:41:57:08 – 00:42:00:18]
So as time permits, I’ll be getting into that. Right.

[00:42:00:18 – 00:42:06:17]
Way, way back, I posted or snuck a picture in or two

[00:42:06:17 – 00:42:09:03]
of the

[00:42:09:03 – 00:42:12:11]
reinforcement for the front of the rear spring packs.

[00:42:12:11 – 00:42:16:08]
This would apply to the front portion of your leaf spring

[00:42:16:08 – 00:42:22:23]
on the XJ, which if you study it long enough, it’s not hard to figure out how weak that area can be.

[00:42:24:01 – 00:42:28:10]
That’s a product that’s ready to go. It’s just a matter of developing the web page for it.

[00:42:28:10 – 00:42:32:02]
Basically, it involves a bridge of sorts

[00:42:32:02 – 00:42:34:13]
that acts as a gusset and

[00:42:34:13 – 00:42:37:00]
another filler piece, which

[00:42:37:00 – 00:42:42:18]
can also be used to restore that area because it’s prone to rotting out on Cherokees.

[00:42:43:20 – 00:42:44:09]
So the

[00:42:44:09 – 00:42:47:22]
snow belt crowd could use it for

[00:42:47:22 – 00:42:50:08]
rebuilding

[00:42:50:08 – 00:42:53:09]
that area at the same time.

[00:42:53:09 – 00:42:55:28]
So it’s kind of a multi-functional piece.

[00:42:56:26 – 00:43:07:18]
And it’s the only downside of it. If there is a downside, it’s absolute welding. So that’s going to limit its marketability. True. There’s no getting around

[00:43:07:18 – 00:43:08:15]
the welding.

[00:43:09:20 – 00:43:16:28]
Okay, Mark. One of the things I like to do is ask people what they love or what they hate about XJTalk.com.

[00:43:16:28 – 00:43:20:27]
XJTalk, I don’t hate anything about it per se.

[00:43:20:27 – 00:43:24:10]
Got a couple of features. I really don’t

[00:43:24:10 – 00:43:31:04]
use that often. I’m not prone to using them in the chat. But it’s fun once in a while. I do jump in there every so often.

[00:43:31:04 – 00:43:35:02]
Just a good group of guys, really. No

[00:43:35:02 – 00:43:36:25]
picking on each other.

[00:43:38:14 – 00:43:39:26]
Straightforward answers when we can.

[00:43:39:26 – 00:43:41:05]
It’s fun.

[00:43:41:05 – 00:43:44:16]
Got a good mix there. Guys from all over the world, actually.

[00:43:45:27 – 00:43:46:29]
Just a good place to be.

[00:43:46:29 – 00:43:49:07]
Well, thank you very much. Yeah, you’re doing a good job,

[00:43:49:07 – 00:43:51:27]
I’m leaving it alone, mainly. I’m staying out of it.

[00:43:53:10 – 00:43:54:14]
You might be better off.

[00:43:55:14 – 00:44:06:02]
I try to keep my hands out of it. Just trying to put some features in and not tell people what to do. Unfortunately, me staying away from it has been a success.

[00:44:06:02 – 00:44:16:09]
So, Mark, I want to thank you very much for the interview. It was very interesting. I learned a few things that I didn’t know about you from our conversations on the phone over the years.

[00:44:16:09 – 00:44:19:26]
From the various projects that you’ve done for me.

[00:44:19:26 – 00:44:25:05]
And just very interesting and a lot of fun. Thank you very much.

[00:44:25:05 – 00:44:27:18]
Hey, it was my pleasure. I enjoyed it very much, Tony.

[00:44:32:24 – 00:45:05:23]
Well, there you have it, guys. That was our interview that we recorded last night. And I thought it went very well. Mark kept remarking after we had completed it. He goes, “That was so easy. That was like just two guys talking.” And I said, “Well, yeah. I mean, that’s kind of what I expected.” But I don’t know what Mark had in mind. I think he was a little concerned from past shows that I was just going to wing through it. And I probably would have if he hadn’t prompted me to actually get a little more active in it.

[00:45:05:23 – 00:45:08:03]
Hang on one second. That’s Mark calling now.

[00:45:08:03 – 00:45:10:23]
Okay, we pressed this button.

[00:45:10:23 – 00:45:11:26]
Hey, Mark, you there?

[00:45:11:26 – 00:45:13:29]
Mm-hmm. Hey, you feeling okay?

[00:45:13:29 – 00:45:15:18]
Yeah, I’m all right. Good.

[00:45:15:18 – 00:45:18:25]
I figured Owen got you sick because that’s what kids do.

[00:45:18:25 – 00:45:20:16]
Not this time.

[00:45:20:16 – 00:45:22:20]
I don’t know where I got it.

[00:45:22:20 – 00:45:26:27]
Could be all that rapidly changing weather they have there in Kentucky.

[00:45:28:04 – 00:45:28:20]
Yeah.

[00:45:28:20 – 00:45:30:16]
I’m still trying to listen to the show.

[00:45:30:16 – 00:45:32:21]
Oh, do you have it on?

[00:45:32:21 – 00:45:35:29]
Yeah. This is going to mess you up because there’s going to be like a long echo.

[00:45:35:29 – 00:45:38:11]
Oh, we’re talking right now.

[00:45:38:11 – 00:45:50:14]
Yep. So, hey, guys. All right, let me kill the signal. Yeah, do that. And I’ll just tell the guys, Mark’s here on the line. If you guys have any questions or comments that you’d like for him to address,

[00:45:50:14 – 00:45:57:27]
any of the products that we talked about, I think there was some questions about the A-pillar mounts or some Cheers.

[00:45:59:01 – 00:46:06:11]
I think that’s a great idea. There’s just not – nobody makes those things for the Cherokee. It’s all wrangler.

[00:46:06:11 – 00:46:09:12]
Brock Lizard was making them, and

[00:46:09:12 – 00:46:15:18]
stopped making them. I used to have communications with him. We haven’t spoken in probably a year and a half.

[00:46:15:18 – 00:46:20:13]
And typically, if he was still making them, I would not even

[00:46:20:13 – 00:46:24:17]
address the subject. I would just direct a customer to him. Right.

[00:46:24:17 – 00:46:26:23]
But

[00:46:26:23 – 00:46:28:20]
it seems he got out of it, so

[00:46:28:20 – 00:46:30:23]
no one else is making them. So

[00:46:30:23 – 00:46:35:14]
if that ballgame opens up, I’ll go ahead and step in. I don’t have a problem with that.

[00:46:35:14 – 00:46:45:28]
So I know that you’ve just made those, and they’re not necessarily available for prime time. Do you have any kind of price in mind? Because that seems to be the common question out there.

[00:46:45:28 – 00:46:49:03]
Between me and another guy

[00:46:49:03 – 00:46:51:28]
who was trying to develop them at the same time,

[00:46:51:28 – 00:46:56:13]
he was saying 45 – I’m going to say 46 shipped.

[00:46:56:13 – 00:47:02:04]
USPS rates just went up, and I can get them in a USPS box,

[00:47:02:04 – 00:47:05:15]
a flat rate box. So flat rate for the lower 48,

[00:47:05:15 – 00:47:08:01]
to say $46 shipped.

[00:47:08:01 – 00:47:11:03]
Okay. So there you go, guys. $46 shipped.

[00:47:11:03 – 00:47:18:18]
And I got something from Dalton here. Hey, Mark, will those FSCs work on a stock XJ

[00:47:18:18 – 00:47:20:29]
a lift is installed?

[00:47:20:29 – 00:47:25:05]
Basically, they’re cheaters, so on the front end,

[00:47:25:05 – 00:47:25:17]
if you’re

[00:47:25:17 – 00:47:30:01]
utilizing or adding to an existing lift,

[00:47:30:01 – 00:47:31:26]
that’s when you can use those

[00:47:31:26 – 00:47:37:06]
and cheat your shocks and not absolutely have to replace them

[00:47:37:06 – 00:47:39:18]
if you follow me. How much are those, Mark?

[00:47:39:18 – 00:47:43:26]
You know, I don’t have my website even up in front of me. I couldn’t even tell you right now.

[00:47:44:28 – 00:47:55:12]
Oh, look, I’ve got it. I was grabbing some pictures because I had the wrong pictures for the tailbone. I think I focused on the slimline because that’s what I have, and I started copying those off so I could show them.

[00:47:55:12 – 00:48:01:00]
It wasn’t until I pulled them up that – pulled the pictures up during the show that I realized that it wasn’t the right thing.

[00:48:01:00 – 00:48:08:02]
If I can get them, and I think I can with the right gusseting in the bar pin eliminator style,

[00:48:08:02 – 00:48:11:15]
I think I can get the price way down on those

[00:48:11:15 – 00:48:13:11]
that I have in the put parts

[00:48:13:11 – 00:48:16:18]
in the bridge port and machinum and stuff.

[00:48:16:18 – 00:48:25:06]
All these – by the way, guys, and everybody listening on the recorded show or watching the recorded show, all these products that we’ve talked about tonight

[00:48:25:06 – 00:48:33:12]
are available with prices on Mark’s site, detoursusa.com.

[00:48:33:12 – 00:48:59:12]
So it’s like detour, like you’re taking a detour with an S, detours, and then usa.com. And looking at his site, the front-shop cheaters, the – well, let’s see, I’m thinking I’m looking at the wrong thing. I thought I had pulled up the right stuff. The SMTs – I’m sorry, the STMs, for the shock relocators on the rear, are $44.50 plus shipping and handling.

[00:48:59:12 – 00:49:04:13]
Right. And you guys should have – if you’re not seeing it, you need to hit the refresh button

[00:49:04:13 – 00:49:06:13]
because it’s the new page on the site.

[00:49:06:13 – 00:49:12:05]
Yeah, it’s not coming up. When I select the FSCs, it’s showing me the STMs.

[00:49:12:05 – 00:49:21:20]
I’ll say what I’ll do. So, guys, what you need to do is just, you know, check back. I’m sure Mark will make a call to his

[00:49:21:20 – 00:49:26:21]
webmaster and find out why this isn’t set right. And you can probably find out on the site.

[00:49:26:21 – 00:49:31:25]
I got it right in perfect view, Tony. Well, I’m doing products and then

[00:49:31:25 – 00:49:33:13]
front-shop cheaters.

[00:49:33:13 – 00:49:38:13]
And refresh. Yeah, I did. And it shows me the STMs.

[00:49:38:13 – 00:49:40:26]
Right above the STMs on the site.

[00:49:40:26 – 00:49:43:12]
So, either way, it’s there.

[00:49:44:14 – 00:49:45:18]
Well, somebody said $55.

[00:49:45:18 – 00:49:50:12]
That sounds about right. Do the machining involved?

[00:49:50:12 – 00:49:51:16]
Yep, $55.

[00:49:51:16 – 00:49:56:27]
And I can flat-rate those as well for, I think, $6 in the lower $48.

[00:49:56:27 – 00:49:58:08]
$61?

[00:49:58:08 – 00:50:01:02]
Yeah, in that range. Yep.

[00:50:01:02 – 00:50:04:10]
And I just paid for my shocks. I think I paid,

[00:50:04:10 – 00:50:06:24]
and trust me, they’re nothing fancy.

[00:50:06:24 – 00:50:21:19]
I paid $78 a piece for them. Yeah, I paid 80-something for my rear shock. I mean, sorry, for my front shock. Yeah, that’s cheaper than a pair of shocks. And they are not as advertised as shocks I bought. I mean,

[00:50:21:19 – 00:50:23:23]
I had two inches of droop left.

[00:50:23:23 – 00:50:26:27]
Once you start getting the calculations, it’s like

[00:50:26:27 – 00:50:29:12]
I had all this updraft

[00:50:29:12 – 00:50:34:22]
and nothing for droop. So, what’s the point? Right.

[00:50:34:22 – 00:50:42:25]
It was getting a little silly, so it kind of forced me into pushing these a little further along. But like I said, if I can get it in a bar pin,

[00:50:42:25 – 00:50:49:09]
lemon air style, that’s worthy of fabrication and marketing, then

[00:50:49:09 – 00:50:52:11]
I think that price can come down quite a bit.

[00:50:52:11 – 00:51:01:08]
Well, and also too, the FSCs allow your front end to drop a little bit further. Your shock’s not going to be limiting

[00:51:01:08 – 00:51:04:29]
drop of the suspension as much.

[00:51:04:29 – 00:51:08:18]
That would be the aspect of the tuning side of it.

[00:51:08:18 – 00:51:14:01]
you’re stuffing your tire into the wheel well or up against the bump stop,

[00:51:14:01 – 00:51:16:00]
there’s still shaft exposed.

[00:51:16:00 – 00:51:20:29]
That’s just wasted shock. Get it going the other way. Exactly.

[00:51:20:29 – 00:51:25:16]
Do you guys have any other questions for Mark or comments or etc.?

[00:51:25:16 – 00:51:31:17]
The chat room has fallen silent. Oh, it always happens. You’ve got to give a call out to one guy,

[00:51:31:17 – 00:51:34:27]
a good friend of mine over in Afghanistan. His name’s Ben.

[00:51:34:27 – 00:51:37:10]
And if he’s actually up this early

[00:51:37:10 – 00:51:38:11]
and listening,

[00:51:38:11 – 00:51:41:09]
Ben, make up your mind and shut up.

[00:51:44:11 – 00:51:49:22]
You know, I was expecting some heartfelt thank you for your service, etc., etc., but no.

[00:51:50:29 – 00:51:53:05]
Ben’s a contractor. Ben

[00:51:53:05 – 00:51:56:09]
gets well paid for his duties, but thank you, Ben, for

[00:51:56:09 – 00:52:02:20]
your duties. Yeah, that’s still dangerous work, whether or not he’s being paid well or not. Exactly. Basically, he should be.

[00:52:02:20 – 00:52:07:29]
If no one has anything to talk about, I have something to talk about.

[00:52:07:29 – 00:52:13:21]
I’ll just mention this real quick. Punisher, that’s for a pair of the A-pillar mounts.

[00:52:13:21 – 00:52:15:00]
Everything’s a pair.

[00:52:18:16 – 00:52:18:14]
Okay, go ahead, Mark.

[00:52:18:14 – 00:52:27:00]
Up and coming build we’ve got going on. We’ve got it working with Hellwig Motorsports. Hellwig is a suspension company

[00:52:27:00 – 00:52:31:26]
out in Thecelia, California. They’ve been in business for

[00:52:31:26 – 00:52:33:16]
over 60 years,

[00:52:33:16 – 00:52:37:18]
and they’re just starting to reach into our four-wheel drive market.

[00:52:40:00 – 00:52:42:21]
They’re promoting product for the old Broncos,

[00:52:42:21 – 00:52:43:18]
is very cool.

[00:52:43:18 – 00:52:49:04]
TJs and XJs with long-arm systems.

[00:52:49:04 – 00:52:54:04]
They’re doing a sway bar system for these vehicles, which is going to be half the price

[00:52:54:04 – 00:52:56:06]
of what you’re seeing on the market now.

[00:52:56:06 – 00:52:59:12]
Everything’s chrome moly and heat-treated,

[00:52:59:12 – 00:53:00:26]
and

[00:53:00:26 – 00:53:05:11]
it’s going to be awesome stuff. I get to be one of the test vehicles for that

[00:53:05:11 – 00:53:08:21]
product when it comes out of the Forge.

[00:53:08:21 – 00:53:11:02]
We’re doing that, and in conjunction,

[00:53:11:02 – 00:53:15:16]
we are also passing along parts to them for their build for

[00:53:15:16 – 00:53:18:27]
the Moab Jeep Safari

[00:53:18:27 – 00:53:21:10]
build.

[00:53:21:10 – 00:53:22:07]
We’re doing

[00:53:22:07 – 00:53:29:26]
Backbone and Tailbone system for their vehicle. You’re also going to be able to see that at the 2011 Siena show,

[00:53:29:26 – 00:53:32:26]
so I’m really excited about that working with them.

[00:53:34:08 – 00:53:36:23]
David over there, he seems like a real great guy.

[00:53:38:20 – 00:53:40:26]
They seem to have their poop all in one pile.

[00:53:40:26 – 00:53:45:24]
If you’re thinking about sway bars, once you get into long arms and three lengths and

[00:53:45:24 – 00:53:51:12]
seven inches of lift, you’ve got to start rethinking sway bars, so that’s where I’m at right

[00:53:51:12 – 00:53:58:19]
Well, I’m hoping you’re going to share some of those pictures with us on XJTalk as well. I’m trying to pull the build over to the site.

[00:53:59:21 – 00:54:05:06]
I started on another site. I attempted today again to start bringing what I started over

[00:54:05:06 – 00:54:08:11]
to XJTalk, and

[00:54:08:11 – 00:54:10:07]
couldn’t muster it all over

[00:54:10:07 – 00:54:12:08]
an easy way. So

[00:54:12:08 – 00:54:15:24]
if I have to, I’ll take the time and break it all down over there as well.

[00:54:15:24 – 00:54:21:06]
Well, I mentioned I’d help you with that. I just haven’t got to it yet, but I’ll have a look and see what I can do.

[00:54:21:06 – 00:54:25:26]
Yeah, I know. That’s cool. Totally cool. Actually, guys are getting a kick out of it, so

[00:54:25:26 – 00:54:27:24]
got to keep it interesting.

[00:54:27:24 – 00:54:37:01]
Okay, guys, any questions, any more comments about how much something is or what’s available, what’s not available?

[00:54:37:01 – 00:54:40:23]
How much NyQuil I’ve had? Yeah, how much NyQuil Mark said.

[00:54:40:23 – 00:54:46:23]
I want some A-pillar mounts. Yeah, I don’t blame you. I want some too, but… You want some who?

[00:54:48:12 – 00:54:51:15]
Metallic, the 53 says I want some A-pillar mounts.

[00:54:51:15 – 00:54:57:00]
Okay, yeah. No, they’re coming out, and actually, Tony, when you have your next get-together,

[00:54:57:00 – 00:55:02:17]
I’m actually going to send some down to you so you can hand them out as a little raffle gag or something. Oh, great.

[00:55:04:07 – 00:55:10:19]
That ought to bring more than three people. It’s all die work and take welding. So, I mean,

[00:55:10:19 – 00:55:19:20]
it’s not a huge deal, and that’s kind of what I’m starting to lean towards. I’ve got so many fabrications that involve hours and hours and hours of work

[00:55:19:20 – 00:55:23:11]
that I’m starting to lean towards a little more, towards the easier stuff,

[00:55:23:11 – 00:55:27:17]
just as a break. And I squeeze it in between the larger projects, so

[00:55:27:17 – 00:55:29:26]
it works out well. But,

[00:55:29:26 – 00:55:33:19]
yeah, once you start getting your spring coming around and

[00:55:33:19 – 00:55:49:23]
get your roundups going again, then we’ll send some stuff down to you. Well, great. We’ll talk about it. Maybe we can do something. I don’t want to break the bank or anything over there on you, but maybe we can do something for the guys as a whole on the side as well.

[00:55:49:23 – 00:55:50:28]
Yeah, we can do that.

[00:55:50:28 – 00:55:52:11]
Hey, it’s your wallet.

[00:55:55:15 – 00:56:02:00]
Well, gosh, I guess if I hadn’t of…maybe I can edit this out and just deny that it was ever said, and I’ll just keep them from me.

[00:56:02:00 – 00:56:03:01]
Mm-hmm.

[00:56:05:03 – 00:56:08:29]
Next thing you know, there’s an alien light bar on the Texas freeway.

[00:56:08:29 – 00:56:13:14]
Okay, I don’t see any more questions or any other comments, so…

[00:56:13:14 – 00:56:32:18]
I think that’s it, Mark. I think you can rest a little bit now. I sure appreciate the interview once again. I think the interview went very well. And Mark and I have already discussed it. We’re going to have some more interviews because he has a lot more to share with us. We didn’t even touch on any of the stuff that he’s done to his own XJ.

[00:56:32:18 – 00:56:41:16]
And if you’ve seen any of those pictures, he has some very interesting pictures and even more interesting stories, I’m

[00:56:41:16 – 00:56:43:15]
That was a good time, Tony. I really enjoyed it.

[00:56:43:15 – 00:56:54:06]
And I look forward to further discussion. It still bothers me that you were surprised that it worked out as well as it did. I’m hurt and insulted.

[00:56:54:06 – 00:57:02:06]
Oh, you know how I feel about that. You and I, we’ve talked a lot in the past over bumper fabrication. Yep.

[00:57:03:09 – 00:57:07:00]
Quote-unquote, “You’re bumpers.” But

[00:57:07:00 – 00:57:09:05]
it’s just good, me, and you have a good

[00:57:09:05 – 00:57:14:17]
thing going between us as far as discussion goes. We know how to talk to each other, so

[00:57:14:17 – 00:57:17:08]
it made it really easy. I

[00:57:17:08 – 00:57:20:01]
encourage anybody else who wants to

[00:57:20:01 – 00:57:22:12]
participate in this program to

[00:57:22:12 – 00:57:23:18]
contact Tony.

[00:57:23:18 – 00:57:24:29]
Easy guy to talk to.

[00:57:24:29 – 00:57:27:21]
Thank you very much. Mark, go get some rest.

[00:57:27:21 – 00:57:34:24]
I’m gonna. Got another cold day ahead of me tomorrow. Yeah. I hope you get feeling better.

[00:57:34:24 – 00:57:37:27]
Thank you. Good night. Y’all have a great night.

[00:57:37:27 – 00:57:43:26]
Okay. Well, I think that that worked out really well. I sure appreciate Mark being in there,

[00:57:43:26 – 00:57:49:08]
coming into the chat room tonight and also being on the phone with us because

[00:57:49:08 – 00:57:56:11]
he had sent me a PM earlier telling me that he wasn’t feeling very good. And it was great that he got in there and

[00:57:56:11 – 00:58:03:28]
basically worked the new show format that I was telling you guys earlier that we were going to try to do, have the interview.

[00:58:03:28 – 00:58:06:24]
And by the way, I can tell you now,

[00:58:06:24 – 00:58:13:11]
the interview that we did actually went about 15, 20 minutes longer than what I had intended.

[00:58:13:11 – 00:58:20:02]
The idea I had is the first 30 minutes of the show will be an interview that I’ve recorded with somebody.

[00:58:20:02 – 00:58:33:12]
And then the final 30 minutes will be question and answer and any other things that we want to cover during the show. Other people’s questions that have been left on the voicemail or through email.

[00:58:33:12 – 00:58:34:07]
But

[00:58:34:07 – 00:58:48:06]
like I said, that interview I thought was so good and so interesting that I didn’t want to trim it back any more than what I did. So it did go a little long and we’re going a little long tonight. But

[00:58:48:06 – 00:58:51:18]
think that overall it’s

[00:58:51:18 – 00:58:58:15]
good, was a good balance for the entertainment value and the information value.

[00:58:58:15 – 00:59:04:27]
So real quick here, because we’re a little over, I did want to, there was a member that

[00:59:04:27 – 00:59:07:29]
sent a message, an email today.

[00:59:07:29 – 00:59:16:20]
And I wanted to cover that because he was kind enough to send the message. It was an email. And by the way, if I haven’t mentioned it already,

[00:59:16:20 – 00:59:20:19]
we have an email set up in case you do not want to call the

[00:59:20:19 – 00:59:31:27]
voicemail number and leave a voicemail message to be played on the show, you can send an email with your question or comment and it potentially could be on the show.

[00:59:31:27 – 00:59:35:05]
And that’s what the big dog did today.

[00:59:35:05 – 00:59:46:23]
His question in the email was, I was wondering if you make a section, I’m sure that means could make a section, in the forum for pics and videos of runs we have been on.

[00:59:46:23 – 00:59:54:19]
Well, big dog, we can certainly do that. However, I think we have some forums now that kind of fit that.

[00:59:55:22 – 01:00:01:01]
There’s a rig, let’s see your rig pictures.

[01:00:02:08 – 01:00:04:04]
There’s a random video thread.

[01:00:04:04 – 01:00:07:26]
And it’s open.

[01:00:09:00 – 01:00:16:15]
I don’t mind adding stuff if that’s what people want and it makes sense. But I think we have some forums now where

[01:00:16:15 – 01:00:22:28]
that already fits. And we don’t really want to duplicate things and make it confusing for people to find stuff.

[01:00:22:28 – 01:00:27:10]
There’s another section on various areas

[01:00:27:10 – 01:00:32:14]
of the country. Like, let’s see, what did I just put up there recently? I

[01:00:32:14 – 01:00:39:24]
think it was the northeast or southeast region, Midwest region.

[01:00:39:24 – 01:00:52:17]
And those might be good areas to do the same thing. If you want something that’s more localized, if you’re just trying to show off your stuff, there’s the rig pictures. Actually, let me just pull it up here real quick and I’ll, instead of me trying to remember,

[01:00:54:18 – 01:00:55:12]
I can hopefully

[01:00:55:12 – 01:00:58:01]
speak more intelligently about it. What

[01:00:58:01 – 01:01:03:00]
do we got here? Just looking at the forums, it says,

[01:01:03:00 – 01:01:16:10]
“member rigs,” there’s a section that says, “member rigs,” “my build,” “rig pictures,” “stuck pictures,” “singery pictures.” No videos there, but, you know, we could do videos. That might make sense to do.

[01:01:16:10 – 01:01:19:16]
And there is another section that I want to make you aware of.

[01:01:19:16 – 01:01:26:02]
At the very bottom of the forums, it says, “user suggestions slash assistance.”

[01:01:26:02 – 01:01:38:29]
And there’s a section there that says, “comment suggestions and help.” That’s a great place to put suggestions like the one you made in the email today.

[01:01:38:29 – 01:01:54:18]
There’s nothing wrong with the email, and I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t have sent the email. This, posting it there in the user suggestion assistance, will hopefully get it taken care of a little quicker. And the thing that we kind of do from time to time is have a poll

[01:01:54:18 – 01:01:56:05]
so we can see

[01:01:56:05 – 01:01:58:05]
what the interest is of the group.

[01:01:59:14 – 01:02:12:25]
I very much try to make sure that the site is something that people enjoy. It’s not there for my benefit, it’s there for the members’ benefit. So it doesn’t really matter what I think about it.

[01:02:14:03 – 01:02:21:28]
I mean, of course, ultimately, I can say “yea” or “nay,” but what I try to do is to say, “What do you guys want to do?” And if that’s what you want, that’s what we do.

[01:02:21:28 – 01:02:28:27]
So if it’s in the comments and suggestions, we can quickly add a poll to it and get some votes from people and then go from there.

[01:02:28:27 – 01:02:36:08]
Just looking here at the chat room, Rene or Argunard says, “How many peeps do you need to okay something?”

[01:02:37:11 – 01:02:38:27]
It really doesn’t have to be.

[01:02:38:27 – 01:02:46:26]
I mean, it’s really the people that want to vote in it. I like to keep it open for a long enough time for enough people to see it.

[01:02:48:00 – 01:02:59:07]
You don’t want to have a vote that lasts five minutes, and it’s because people weren’t there in that five-minute time frame. They didn’t get a chance to vote. So I don’t know, I think

[01:02:59:07 – 01:03:01:11]
a week or two weeks.

[01:03:02:13 – 01:03:08:19]
Again, I don’t know. That’s kind of up to you guys, too. How long should we wait to make sure something is,

[01:03:11:12 – 01:03:14:22]
you know, that people have had time to look at it? I don’t know.

[01:03:16:21 – 01:03:17:05]
So

[01:03:17:05 – 01:03:20:00]
or five,

[01:03:20:00 – 01:03:20:28]
six.

[01:03:23:11 – 01:03:24:05]
Okay, I don’t know.

[01:03:24:05 – 01:03:27:15]
Six people? I don’t know.

[01:03:30:24 – 01:03:38:12]
Certainly something we can discuss on the forums. And I did get a voicemail,

[01:03:38:12 – 01:03:42:23]
and let me see if I can pull that up here and play that real quick.

[01:03:42:23 – 01:03:45:12]
Got that kind of late tonight, but

[01:03:45:12 – 01:03:46:17]
let’s see.

[01:03:46:17 – 01:03:49:02]
That’s the wrong one. Here we go.

[01:03:49:02 – 01:03:52:19]
Let’s see if you guys can hear this. Maybe a little low.

[01:03:52:19 – 01:03:55:14]
Hey, this is Waldman.

[01:03:55:14 – 01:04:01:00]
My first name is Kurt. Anyway, my question is, does anybody know if

[01:04:01:00 – 01:04:08:02]
the U-joint front axles are compatible with the CV-joint axle shafts?

[01:04:08:02 – 01:04:11:11]
Because that would just make life a whole lot easier due to the fact that they’re, you know,

[01:04:11:11 – 01:04:12:04]
sealed,

[01:04:13:05 – 01:04:17:05]
and have a bit more flexibility, and you don’t get in cornering.

[01:04:17:05 – 01:04:22:12]
So that’s my question. Are you guys able to hear that at all? Because the audio on that does sound horrible to me.

[01:04:22:12 – 01:04:24:08]
Yeah, no, I didn’t think so.

[01:04:24:08 – 01:04:28:00]
I’ll have to process that, and we’ll have that on for the next show.

[01:04:29:19 – 01:04:34:02]
I’m very sorry, the gentleman that called in, if you need an answer

[01:04:34:02 – 01:04:41:25]
before the next show, please post that up on the site and we’ll help you out, having some technical difficulties with that.

[01:04:41:25 – 01:04:52:17]
me throw the couple of things up here, guys. I’ll remind you about what we have available here on the show and other items that we have available

[01:04:52:17 – 01:04:54:25]
on Facebook and Twitter.

[01:04:54:25 – 01:04:55:29]
And

[01:04:55:29 – 01:04:57:14]
then we’ll call it a night.

[01:04:57:14 – 01:05:04:20]
Did you know that xjtalk.com is on Facebook? Just go to facebook.com slash xjtalk and friend us.

[01:05:04:20 – 01:05:08:09]
We’re also on Twitter, twitter.com slash xjtalk.

[01:05:08:09 – 01:05:21:29]
Do you have questions or comments that you would like played on the air? We’ve set up voicemail just for that purpose. All you have to do is call 530-675-4102. Just leave your name,

[01:05:21:29 – 01:05:22:29]
your location,

[01:05:22:29 – 01:05:27:11]
and your question or comment. Chances are good it’ll get played on the air.

[01:05:27:11 – 01:05:36:13]
That number again is 530-675-4102. We look forward to hearing from you today.

[01:05:36:13 – 01:05:47:08]
Are you interested in being a guest on XJ Talk? Well, you can contact me via email, tonyatxjtalk.com. That’s tonyatxjtalk.com.

[01:05:47:08 – 01:05:52:26]
Hey, how would you like to advertise on XJ Talk Talk Show and reach a worldwide Jeep audience?

[01:05:52:26 – 01:05:58:12]
Just send an email to advertise at xjtalk.com for more information.

[01:05:58:12 – 01:06:16:05]
This segment brought to you by DetoursUSA.com. Ten years of innovating, not imitating XJ products. Check out www.detoursusa.com. And Detours wants to remind everyone to practice safe sex. No pig-borking till you wrap that rascal.

[01:06:19:06 – 01:06:19:06]
Yeah,

[01:06:19:06 – 01:06:24:04]
I still like that one the best. That’s funny.

[01:06:24:04 – 01:06:32:17]
Well, guys, just want to thank Mark again for the interview. We’re going to have more interviews. I’ve got two people lined up.

[01:06:33:27 – 01:06:36:03]
4.3 LXJ, Steve.

[01:06:38:04 – 01:06:42:01]
And we’re going to have, I believe, that one scheduled for next week.

[01:06:42:01 – 01:06:53:26]
And I may have some promos for that prior to next show. So keep an ear out for those. I’ll probably post them up on the site.

[01:06:53:26 – 01:07:02:15]
And then I have at least one other person scheduled for the following Wednesday.

[01:07:02:15 – 01:07:25:04]
And I’ve got a couple of people that I still need to contact about future shows. Mark is already committed to doing future shows. And Steve, 4.3 LXJ, also is one of those individuals that has done a lot of modifications to his XJ. So I’m sure he’s going to be a repeat customer or offender depending on how you look at it.

[01:07:25:04 – 01:07:45:11]
So I think that this is going to be very interesting. I’ve learned a lot. Even though I had spoken to Mark numerous times on the phone, I just having the ability to be in the position of asking questions allowed me to learn a lot more things than what I had known previously. So

[01:07:45:11 – 01:07:50:04]
hopefully the same is true for you guys that listened to it.

[01:07:50:29 – 01:08:05:04]
Hopefully answered all the questions that you had. And if not, don’t forget, you can email questions to the show. And it’s a real simple email address, show at xjtalk.com.

[01:08:05:04 – 01:08:10:04]
And of course you’ve got the voicemail line that I’ve plugged numerous times.

[01:08:11:05 – 01:08:11:20]
So

[01:08:11:20 – 01:08:21:21]
I want you involved in the show. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re in the chat room. But hey, be a guest. You got something to share. You got something to talk to people about.

[01:08:23:04 – 01:08:25:22]
Come on. Let’s talk about it.

[01:08:27:06 – 01:08:34:15]
Let people know what it is that you’re doing with your Jeep. I mean, that’s the idea behind all this is getting people involved.

[01:08:34:15 – 01:08:39:05]
Anyway, guys, thank you very much. Have a very good night and we’ll see you again next Wednesday.

[01:08:39:05 – 01:08:47:21]
(Music)

[01:08:54:14 – 01:08:55:02]
I just wanted to say XJ Talk is the best

[01:08:55:02 – 01:08:56:09]
sight in the

[01:08:56:09 – 01:08:59:00]
world. And if you think you know a better

[01:08:59:00 – 01:08:59:21]
sight,

[01:08:59:21 – 01:09:03:02]
you. By the way, this is Big M350.

[01:09:03:02 – 01:09:03:27]
Bye.

[01:09:03:27 – 01:09:03:27]