Episode 1020 – Do You Jeep Meet?
Narrow Escape – Trapped by Hail, Flash Floods, and Landslides
This is a Bleeping Jeep video that you have likely seen since it has 2.2 million views. The coolest part of this story, to me, is that I didn’t watch this video because I was cruising YouTube, my wife was watching wheeling videos!
She started with the one where the red jeep plummets down in front of a jeep doing Black Bear Pass in Colorado, and she then found this Bleeping Jeep video. I gotta say Matt’s wife is funny with her comments and looks in the background as Matt is talking. Nice job.
Watching these videos raised questions in my mind. First off I don’t think that was hail. Maybe it’s because I’m a Texan but I believe that was sleet. A lot of it, but not hail, but that’s not the point… lol
My question is near the end of the video when Matt and his wife are trying to get down the mountain, specifically where there has been a slide of dirt and rocks, would this be a landslide, or is that like calling something hail?
That amount of rocks looks like it would be easily navigated by a stock jeep. Why would you wait 3 hours for the county to come make the trail back to a pristine trail? Don’t we do off-camber?
Jeeps can take us anywhere and if you haven’t had the experience, or been taught what you should and shouldn’t do, and why, how are you going to know what to do in these situations?
Jeep Meet, Events, Jams, etc…
The Jeep stuff is starting up again for 2024. We recently asked the question, are Jeep events worth going to? EJS can spoil you for not only the views but also the ability to have many levels of wheeling.
I have only been to a couple of Jeep events so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about. EJS is one of them.
Jeep Talk Show Gladiator Update
I recently interviewed David Ladd at Armorlite and he mentioned something I hadn’t thought about before. We do lots of off-road modifications to the outside of our Jeeps, but really not too much to the interior. I suspect that it’s counterintuitive that the inside of the Jeep would require modifications for off-road use, but of course, it would.
Must-Have Stuff for Your Jeep!
Armorlite Front & Rear Flooring for Jeep Gladiator – 2020-2023 JT $698.94
This episode of the Jeep Talk Show is brought to you by realtruck.com with over 1 million plus parts and accessories for your Jeep truck and life. Bill, I’m never going to get over that life thing. I think that is so cool. I mean, that’s really reaching out there.
More later on real trucks, latest off road trail repair at Easter Jeep Safari 2024. Hey, I’m Tony and welcome to the Jeep Talk Show where we put the fun and off road fun. So strap in, grab your favorite beverage and get ready to laugh, learn and have a damn good time. Hi, I’m Bill and I’m back, but not by popular demand. I think it’s popular. I think that people love, love hearing you on here. All right, Bill. So we chatted a little bit about this before we got rolling here, the recording part, the piece that everybody gets to see in here. And when I say see, I mean, you can see this by going to our YouTube channel and watching this episode. All right, so this is this is called Narrow Escaped or Escape Traveled. Getting it all wrong. I’m thinking about escaped. Why did I say escaped? Think about that. No, read the read the the show notes, Tony. Narrow escaped, trapped by hail, flash floods and landslides. Oh, my. I had to say it.
This is a bleeping Jeep video that you have likely seen since it was three years ago and has two point two million views. Bill, can I just interject that bastard? I mean, good lord, two point two million views. Can you imagine?
Yeah, crazy. So the coolest part of the story, at least to me, is that I didn’t watch this video because I was cruising the YouTube. My wife was looking at off-road videos and I thought that was so cool. I mean, she goes out there. She thinks she’s going to die on Shafer’s Switchbacks, which is not a big a big thing, but it was a big thing to her. And she’s she’s watching these videos. And what she was doing was she was watching the the the black. Is it Black Bear? Black Bear Pass? Is that what it’s called? Yeah. Yeah. So she was watching some of those. And I reminded her of the one that I was telling her about during the the Shafer Trail, about the the, I guess, Swiss lady that was talking to her husband. Oh, honey, good move over, move over. He’s like, but honey, if I move over anymore, the jeep’s going to be in the cliff. And she was on Black Bear Pass. So I thought it was I thought it was funny. She was watching those. And so now you’ve actually been to the Black Bear Pass. Was it 2022 that you most recently went?
I think so. Yeah. Well, yeah, maybe 2022. Maybe. Yeah, I think so. That’s the one we went out there with several of us from the listeners from the show. Yeah, it was it was a great time. Yeah. And it was one of those things is like because I’ve always wanted to wheel in Colorado. I just didn’t feel comfortable monetary wise going and doing that. But you guys had a great time. I think it was you, Larry.
Oh, and I think there was nothing nothing dance related going on. So I think John went with you guys, didn’t he? Correct. Yeah. John, my friend Kevin, John’s friend, John Garrett.
Let’s see. I know there were others out there. Always forget somebody.
But yeah, we had we had quite the quite the crew. And it was it was a blast. Josh, that’s another one, Josh. OK, so and this was cool, too. Side note, this is cool, too, because you guys actually used our discord server to set up this whole event and go out there and and you guys were sending us pictures and things back. Kind of like we did it. E.J.S. for for John. Some of you guys may not know, but a group of the Jeep talk show people went and got I think it was Steve O’s idea. They went and got some postcards from Moab to send to John because he wasn’t there, you know, because we’re friendly like that.
John, Andrew, I’m sure there were others. Oh, it’s a more full handful. He was dropping off at the post office. Yeah, it was a good time. It’s a it was a poke because you’re not here. We’re going to send you postcards. Full fault in the wound. Yeah, exactly.
All right. So anyway, my wife was watching these things. And once she got done with you, remember that one where the red Jeep comes plummeting down the side of the of Black Bear and it crashes in front of the Jeep that’s actually doing the video. She’s watching that one. And I’m explained to her that I think I told her what I remembered reporting on in the past. And it was just an unusual situation because she like she’s trying to show me how she could have died. Yeah. Why do women’s buying go there? My wife with the murder podcast and all the little things turns into like dying or some murder or something like that. So it’s like it goes from just wheeling and it’s a little sketchy to, you know, Jeep scrolling off the side of the list and your algorithm. But I think she was enjoying seeing the wheeling videos because it’s something she can identify with, even though it’s not any hardcore wheeling. It’s it’s something there’s aspects of it that remind her. I mean, the narrow roads and the drop offs and all that stuff. So, I mean, she she still says that, you know, we were too close to the side and blah, blah, blah, blah. But she had a good time. She really had a good time going out there.
All right. So watching this video of this bleeping Jeep video, Matt and his wife were doing a Black Bear pass and they really got in a hell of a situation. And it would have been very nerve wracking and concerning to me because I mean, I do not live in a mountainous environment, but I know when it starts raining, things start coming down the mountain that aren’t isn’t just water. Water moves things and sometimes big things. So, yeah, so I understand why you could see it in Matt’s face and voice. You could tell him tell he was concerned about this situation. And he was trying I think he was trying to maintain not only for himself, but for his wife, because that’s what we do.
It’s OK. I’m in control. We’re having no problem here.
So I did want to mention Matt’s wife hilarious. I mean, some of the faces and stuff that she would make whenever Matt was talking and she was in the background, just so funny. And it’s really a lot of fun. And I think that if you ever go wheeling with your with your significant other, you can relate to the situation. And that’s the that’s the fun thing about these videos is being able to relate to them and remember your own situation. But yeah, she did a really good job. I’ve seen enough of Matt.
So anyway, so watching these videos raised a concern in my in my mind, first off, I don’t think that that was Hale. Maybe maybe because I’m a Texan, but I believe that was sleek. But I actually looked it up and Hale can be pea sized up to, you know, however big you can get at baseball. Softball, the planetoid, whatever. So maybe technically it was. But that, you know, frozen water. Yeah, that’s sleet in Texas, Matt.
So anyway, the question is for me and what I want to talk about, you can talk about any part of this you want to, Bill, that I may have missed. But my question is near the end of the video where Matt and his wife are trying to get down the mountain specifically where there has been a slide of dirt and rocks. And I say that because I’m afraid that I don’t I don’t think that and I have no knowledge. Just me personally, I don’t think that’s considered a landslide.
The landslide to me is kind of like the sleet Hale type thing. I think the landslide would be a much bigger thing than a collection of rocks that are is three feet high and easily to me easily passable with a Jeep, even a nonmodified Jeep. No, that’s that’s definitely a landslide, right? And it’s one of those situations where, you know, it’s it’s unstable, right? You know, and you don’t want to get up there on your vehicle and if, you know, the stability there and just you can make things worse. Right. So I think as we were talking about before the show, I think when something like that happens, you kind of have to assess the situation and kind of decide, okay, do I want to go over this three foot pile of rocks or am I in a situation where it doesn’t make sense to go do that? I would say in this case, if you know the area and just the steepness of the terrain and the water when it’s coming down, there’s all these like invisible waterfalls that start to show up there above Telluride kind of Black Bear Pass and the surrounding mountains there. And it’s a very dangerous situation. So, you know, getting up on that pile and disrupting that that pile of rocks there probably could have, you know, caused the the landslide to go from a stop to starting up again. Right. So I think you just have to assess the situation and kind of look at where you’re at and decide does it make sense to do that? I mean, if you’re out in the middle of nowhere and, you know, being stuck out there is way more dangerous potentially than taking the chance of going over the pile of rocks, then maybe you do that. But here you are basically at the base of Telluride. Does help readily available. People are going to know pretty quickly, you know, that there’s a problem there and they’re going to come out there and address it. Right. Maybe you find out that, hey, you know, you have to leave your vehicle out here that helps not coming. Well, then maybe you make the decision to, you know, take that risk and, you know, try to drive up and over the pile of rocks. But I think Matt, in this case, did the right thing. And I’m certainly not questioning that. I’m just questioning the thing of we’re we all could be faced with this situation because of having a Jeep, being able to go anywhere and then you get to a situation and you may make the wrong choice because you don’t have the experience. I mean, I’ve been in southeast Texas all my life. We don’t have to worry about no rocks or pebbles or landslides or anything here. Mud, sure, but not not that. And so lack of experience and having a Jeep may indicate to me, why am I sitting here? Why am I waiting? And I have no idea of help is coming. And when I say help, I mean somebody to clear the road. And by the way, why do I need somebody to clear a road for me whenever I have a Jeep? So I think all these things can percolate up while you’re trying to decide what you’re going to do. And you’re right. You can just park the Jeep and walk if you know what the distance is. But there’s those situations that you just mentioned that you’re alone or maybe you’re with another jeeper or maybe you’re with a whole trail of jeepers and you’re stuck and there’s no place to get water. There’s no place to get food.
And I guess one of the things you have to make sure is that you need to plan for the unexpected and have water and food with you on situations like this. I mean, I’m sure they didn’t start out the day thinking there was going to be a flash flood on the on the pass. Yeah, I mean, anytime you’re willing in those areas, you need to be like when I’m in Colorado, even Moab when we were out there, you got to be keeping an eye on the weather. The weather, especially in the mountains, can change very quickly. So, you know, you got to have kind of a prep kit, like things that you keep in your vehicle, you know, blankets, water, some extra food, snacks, things like that. That if for some reason you were in a situation where you had to kind of hunker down somewhere, whether snowstorm rolled in or whatever it is, you know, you have some of those supplies there to survive. And so when I’m out there, I’m always looking at kind of the weather, you know, but like I said in Moab or in Colorado, just to kind of see what’s going on because, you know, in the mountains, like I said, you could run into a rainstorm to where you could have landslides and you know exactly what you see in this video here. In Moab, you can get floods. They had, you know, some really severe flooding out there, you know, I think a year and a half ago, something like that. And they start looking at, oh, I’m going to go do Onion Creek with all these water crossings or what. Well, those water crossings could basically, you know, the water starts coming down the mountains and they get too high to cross and you get stranded somewhere on the the trail where you can’t come back across. So you always kind of need to be thinking about what your exit strategy is or does it make sense to maybe do a different trail or do something different that day because the weather looks unpredictable, right? And maybe it’s not worth the risk. So you always need to be kind of just, you know, aware of kind of what’s going on and then being prepared in case something happens so that you know, you’re in a much better position to deal with it if something happens.
So one of the things I mentioned to my wife while we were watching this, because I was concerned about that that loose pile of rocks sliding if the Jeep went up and over it. And Bill, you can see the picture that I selected out of the video and you guys that are listening to the show or watching the show on YouTube will be able to see this.
It’s just, and you know, again, it’s a image from a video and the videos never show you the really the details that you get whenever you were there in person. But just looking at this, this doesn’t I mean, I’m thinking that John Lee wouldn’t have a problem with this off camber. It’s it’s not that off camber, but now I can’t see what’s on the other side if there’s a 60,000 foot drop on this thing and I’m driving over loose rocks. That might change my outlook on it, but there’s a set of trees there. So you really can’t see. Anyway, I was telling her I think what I would do is get a nice big stick and start poking at the rocks and seeing if how well packed it was. Now it’s just me poking and it’s just my weight, but that would give me an indication of how just how loose that rock was. And there’s always, and there’s always skinny pedal if it starts moving, right? Yeah, I mean being on incline like that, it’s unstable. It’s already starting shifting down the hill. It could very well start up again and with your vehicle on top of it where you go over, you go over the edge. I mean, I probably wouldn’t do it in this particular situation just given where they’re at and their help is like right there. I mean, I think it was like what, three hours that they had to wait for the, for all that to get cleared out. I mean, that’s, you know, open up a, make a sandwich and grab a drink and, you know, sit back and watch the show. Yeah. Charge up the, the GoPros in Matt’s case. So the, and this is one of the reasons why I’m bringing this up and I’m asking you, and I’m not questioning your, what you’re saying here, but how do you know this? What is your experience that tells you to do the same thing that Matt and his wife did?
Um, I mean, just all the various trips and things that I’ve been, I’ve gotten stuck up in Colorado, you know, when I was, I was 18, I, I lost a vehicle in a, a flood in Denver and my 18 year old brain was, well, how does, how do you have a flood when you’re a mile high up in the air? Yeah. It makes sense to me now, but it started out with hail that clogged the storm drains, which once the storm drains, you got flooding, right? So, you know, things can change very quickly, right? And living in Colorado, you know, I, I learned that, right? Most people, people live there. They, they know that the weather can say one thing and it changes pretty quickly, especially when you’re up in the mountain and how well we know that in Texas as well, but, not don’t really have to worry about landslides in, in Texas. Well, very good. And then this is one of the reasons why I’m bringing this up because I’m a Texan, I’m a Southeast Texan. I have not had any experience like this. And I bet you we have a lot of listeners out there that are in the same boat. And I think that what, uh, and I’m not, and I absolutely not questioning Matt, Matt’s decision about what he did here, uh, he survived. It worked out perfectly fine for him. And I am not trying to bash him at all. I’m just asking a legitimate question that I had watching this video. And I’m sure other people have had the same question that have not had the experience of being in an environment like this. So, uh, and I think you mentioned, I don’t know if you mentioned this while we were talking here while we were recording, but you, you had said, since you know, the area that they were very close to the, to the town, I would say it again. I never can say that right. Tellarude tell you, right. Telly ride. Um, and, uh, everybody knows, I can’t pronounce anything. So anyway, uh, they were very close to the, to the city. So that probably meant that there was going to be helped fairly quickly. And this isn’t the first time this happens. I’m sure. So they know, uh, though that if there’s a rain that need to check the trails and so on and so forth. And my God, the hikers, there was so many hikers, uh, in this video and in, you know, in the sleet and in the rain. And I can well imagine that, uh, is, is, uh, probably the main reason why they have people on alert, uh, because of the hikers. I mean, if you’ve got shelter in a Jeep, that’s, that’s not such a bad thing. Uh, and you got boulders coming down the Hills. You’ve seen the video. I mean, basketball size. Yeah. Yeah. You’re a hiker and you get hit with a rock like that. I mean, that’s your, you’re done for, right? So it’s, it’s not a good situation. So I think you just got to keep an eye on the weather and make that choice. When you get it to the top of black bear there, it’s two way coming from the URA side, but then it, the switch backs are one way. And so you kind of have to make that, that decision kind of at the top, you know, looking at the weather, maybe, maybe turn around, right? If it looks like it’s starting to come down or, or it’s looking really bad or the forecast is saying, Hey, it’s, it’s about the, you know, rain cats and dogs or whatever. It’s not a good situation. I mean, like I said, that whole area turns into waterfalls. Like the town, if you’re down in Telluride and it starts to rain, it’s kind of magical. You just start to see all these waterfalls coming down or whatever, but it’s really not a great situation to be up on the side of the mountain when that’s happening. Yeah. So I hope that I have, or Bill and I have educated you a little bit about situations like this, because you too may be in the same situation I’m in where you do not have the experience. And hopefully somebody that’s that you’re, you, that you’re going with, and you should always go with somebody and another vehicle to help you out in case you have a breakdown or a rollover, any of those things that, but maybe they have the experience. So yeah, so you might want to talk about that if you’re planning a trip anywhere and make sure somebody that’s in the group has, has been there before, or maybe do some, some Google searching about things that you should check. I mean, checking the weather just makes sense. So anyway, so again, Jeeps can take us anywhere. And if you haven’t had the experience or been taught what you should, should, and shouldn’t do, and why, how are you going to know to do these things in these situations? So we hope that the Jeep Talk Show has helped you out a little bit on this. And, and please don’t feel, don’t feel the fear of not going because you don’t know, just be smart about it. All right. On tonight’s episode new in our news stories, do you Jeep meet? Bill, do you go to Jeep meets? Have you been to multiple Jeep meets? I mean, we, we, we recently went to a Eastern Jeep Safari, but I mean the ones where you just stand around and look at people. No, not really. I’d rather go meet people and do wheeling, right? Versus around looking at each other’s car. Nobody’s going to look at your Jeep the same way you do. Like, you know, nobody cares other than just looking and talking about different things and mods and how’d you do this and do that. Now it’s not, it’s not really my thing. Yeah. Uh, in our gladiator up, Jeep gladiator update inside off-road modifications. Is that an oxymoron inside off-road modifications? Yeah. What is that? Well, you’ve done it. So you’ll know what I’m talking about and a must have for your Jeep armor light to replace your carpet. Oh yeah. Yeah. Are you ready? It’s time for the Jeep dog show with hosts, Tony, Josh, Wendy, and Chuck.
All righty. Well, Bill, uh, we first started, I mean, we were just talking about this, uh, about Jeep meets and now we’re going to talk a little bit more, you know, on a recent episode, I think it was a round table episode. Uh, we brought up the, uh, the question about going to Jeep meets. Is it worth going to Jeep meets? And you just mentioned a lot of the things, a lot of the things that I feel, but I was thinking about it. I really haven’t been to that many Jeep events like where you do not go wheeling. I think I’m kind of spoiled because I’ve gone to EGS two years now. And to, and really this, that’s really the only major event like great smoky mountain Jeep invasion, uh, the Toledo Ohio, uh, event. Uh, there’s several, and a lot of them on the beaches of Florida. Uh, a lot of those I’ve just not been to. And I’m, and maybe that’s why I’m thinking why. Yeah. Like meeting up at the local donut shop or something to see, you know, Hey, we parked all these cheeps in this parking lot. Yeah, not really, but some of the bigger ones, like if there’s a vendor show or you can see some of the products hand hands on, or you can ask questions or talk through or get a deal or get a great deal or get a great deal. Like to me, that’s, that’s interesting. Right. Cause sometimes like the armor light that we’re going to talk about is one of those things where I was like, yeah, that’s a lot of money, but seeing it at a show and then seeing it like the build quality. And it was like, Oh yeah. Okay. Absolutely. So, right. So, you know, I think it just depends on the type of meat. So donut shop, no bigger show with like a vendors and whatnot. Yeah. Okay. But not like an all day thing. Well, this is a perfect segue to, to talk about the Jeep talk show at the local Katie, uh, crossings monthly Jeep event, but they’ve got adult beverages so that that’s better than donuts, right?
There you go. But anyway, yeah, I mean, but that’s what we’re talking honestly here and what we feel and, and you can always feel different than we do. That’s absolutely your prerogative. Uh, and you do not have to be an off-roader to be a jeeper. Uh, I mean, I think Bill and I would think would say, why it’s so much fun that you’re missing out, but, but absolutely you don’t have to do that. If you’ve got a Jeep and you want to take it and, and, and show it to people. I mean, you got that brand new, brand new synthetic line on your winch and you want to show it off to everybody. You know, you want to go, you want to go and be seen. And also too, I think some people like to like that interaction, uh, with, uh, with other jeepers and they want to see those modifications. Maybe they haven’t, they don’t have a, a clear idea of what direction they want to go with their Jeep and they want to see what everybody else is doing and ask questions about it.
Yeah. I would think if, uh, you’re thinking about doing some vinyl graphics or something for your vehicle, you know, I’d go to the Katie show to go talk to Greg, right? Similar to the vendor shows that they kind of talk to him firsthand. He sees your Jeep. It’s a perfect opportunity probably to talk to him about that, but, uh, you know, and grab a beer, but yeah. Yeah. So, uh, I mean, I’m with you, but we recently talked about this on a, like I said, a round table episode and I did not want to give a, a negative impression of all of the, the Jeep meets out there. Uh, I mean, I think it would be fun to go, but I mean, I’m not with my Jeep. It’s in a parking lot. I’m walking around and believe you me, I love talking to the, uh, the people. I mean, the, the Jeep community, you have an instant, instant commonality where you can discuss things with people. And that’s, that’s just a great way. You don’t have to be fearful of whom, what am I going to talk to people about? You just, you just say the word Jeep and then the conversation goes. So, uh, and there, and there’s more to it than that. I mean, this, the business side of it, if you’re, if you’re in a business or you’ve started a, uh, a Jeep aftermarket type thing, this is a great people, not only to meet individuals, but other companies and see what they’re doing, uh, at Jeep meets, how they’re using it and make contacts for your business. So, uh, or even if you’re an influencer, this, these things are great to go to for an influencer, getting videos and, uh, maybe a mini interviews, uh, with people and vendors. Yeah. To me, it’s weird. You got a parking lot full of vehicles that people with lawn chairs sitting in front of their vehicles.
Yeah. What is it? Great, Smokey mountain Jeep invasion where the main road or one of the main roads out there is just a back and forth of Jeeps. I mean, it’s really cool. It remember, it reminds me of when I was younger and we did that with our hot rods, uh, going up and down a certain street, uh, in a small town and it was to be seen and interact with people.
Yeah. I mean, there’s some old stuff out there that’s really cool then, but yeah, but, you know, a parking lot full of JKs and JLs like, with all the bolt-ons on it, it’s like, it didn’t really move the dial for me. Do you think this would be something that would be more interesting to somebody that was a new to the jeeping, uh, thing, or maybe even not new, maybe they’ve had a Jeep for several years, but they haven’t been active in the off-road community or clubs or haven’t never gone to a Jeep meet and it might be something that’s interesting to go to. I think, you know, kids, you know, like young kids or whatever, I think for them it’s exciting, right? Kind of gets the, you know, seeing all the cool lifted vehicles, you know, it’s almost like life-size hot wheels or, oh yeah, up and right as a kid, but, you know, I don’t know, go out there, get your picture with your stack seats or, you know, whatever it is. And, you know, that’s maybe an hour and a half, two hours. Yeah, it would be tough to drive, uh, 20 hours slow. I think you did, you didn’t do 20, you did like 17, uh, to, to Moab, but that would be tough to drive that, that far for, uh, stand around and talk about it. I would think for me personally. Yeah, for sure. You know, so again, go out there, you got wheeling, EJS as well as things where you got a mix of everything. You got wheeling, you got the vendor show, you got hanging out with friends, dinners, like all the things kind of wrapped up together. It’s kind of, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s a lot of fun. It’s not sitting in a parking lot staring at each other’s vehicles, although depends on which run you’re going on. Some of the runs it felt like we were doing car shows on the trail. And it’s like, why are we stopped again? And it’s like, and people’s just staring at a rock going, Oh, how are we going to go tackle that? That piece for me was a little, a little frustrated. I’m probably going to put together a video of all the GoPro footage I have sitting park on the trail. Oh, that’s great. Yeah, that’s great. I think that, uh, I think that there’s, I don’t think you’re the only one that shares that I had even wheeled very much. I mean, I got the, the XJ built up where I could take it off road. And this is many years ago and we went to a Creek side, which is about an hour from me. And so I don’t, I didn’t, I mean, I had the overheating issue, but it wasn’t an issue even during the summer going to that. But anyway, I made it there. And we were, we were traveling through Creek side, which is basically, uh, woods and trees and, uh, mud and dirt, uh, and some water and not, not a very fascinating place to go to. But anyway, I’m traveling through there and then we go, I don’t know, 600 feet. And then we, we stop and I’m sitting there in the AC of my XJ and people are rolling their eyes at me. I know. Well, it doesn’t, it’s fine whenever it’s off road. It’s just the highway it overheats, but anyway, we don’t want to go to go down that road again. And then we go, I don’t know, anyway, I’m sitting there in the AC in the, in June trying to survive sitting in the XJ. And then, you know, the people up ahead of me are getting out again. And I’m going, what the hell? What are we looking at? It just drive over the damn thing, you know? And I figured it was because my inexperience. No, it was just, I want to look at this. I want to look at this before we go over it. That type thing. And it’s not a bad idea. It just seems strange to me that we were stopping so much and, and getting out and talking and, well, what do you think Bob? I don’t know. Let’s try it with a Jeep and see that type of thing. And I know you have to be careful and you need to plan your, your route, but it was just, it seemed to be more of a, if I can say a Jeep meet out there in the middle of woods every five freaking minutes. Anyway, but I digress. So let me, let me ask you about this. Toledo Jeep Fest. I’m assuming you’ve never been to the Toledo Jeep Fest. I have not. I’m thinking, I mean, again, I don’t know that I would want to travel, drive that many hours to go up there, but I think the Toledo Jeep Fest is one of those must do events. And the cool thing is again, it’s not off-road trails or anything, but you can get in on the Jeep parade. So you’re actually using your Jeep and driving with other Jeeps on the trail. The trail just has to be, just happens to be paved.
Yeah. Like I said, it’s not sitting at your local donut shop or whatever in the parking lot. There’s a lot of different things to do, a lot of activities. I think they have a vendor show there, you know, the parade, you know, and places to eat, you know, and socialize and whatnot. So a little different. Yeah. So there’s advantages. I mean, we did all this at, at DJS. I mean, we went to the Moab diner and we gathered there and talked and talked about the, what everybody was having a plan for the day. So it was, it was like a Jeep meet, but it had off-road, it had riding the trails. It had, you know, a bunch of really exciting things to do that didn’t include just walking around or sitting in your Jeep, or like you said, sitting in a chair out in front of your Jeep, which there’s nothing wrong with. But I mean, if you have the opportunity to go wheeling, why would you want to do that? Yeah. And it didn’t have a set schedule. So that’s the thing I loved about like the Colorado trip, or when we go to Moab, there’s really no set itinerary, right? You’re just out there kind of like day comes along, Hey, how about we go over here? And there’s a couple different groups and you go do what you want to go do. Right. And, you know, it’s, it’s fun, right? You just, you kind of play by ear, but also it kind of ties into kind of looking at the weather, right? Looking at, you know, for today, you know, let’s go tackle this trail. Oh, it doesn’t look like a good day to go do that. It’s going to be cold or there’s some weather coming in. Like you just, it’s very fluid. So it was a lot of fun. Fluid is like adventure and adventure is exciting. It can be the bad kind of exciting, but fortunately we didn’t have any of that this year. Well, I guess, I guess Rick kind of had some bad adventure, didn’t he? I’m breaking his axle shaft. Uh, but that was, that was even more of an adventure and it worked out just fine. Yeah. And he made it home in one piece and on time. Uh, yeah. And not trailer did he drove that, uh, that TJ, uh, from Arkansas and I’m, I’m gonna, now I can pick on him by saying little rock, because I’m not from little rock, dammit. I could tell him, tell him what he drove from little rock. But he didn’t, I don’t remember what town he said he was from. So cause I’m, I’m that kind of guy that remembers all the details of all the little things everybody else does. Uh, but anyway, he drove from, uh, from Arkansas to Arizona, then up to, uh, and they did wheeling for a week and then up to Moab and then drove it all the way back home and made it there just fine. And this is after doing a lot of modifications to it, uh, that we were all watching, uh, on the zoom meetings that we have for our round table. Uh, we could see what Rick was working on. Uh, and that, you know, I just want to mention this really quick. That’s really cool. Uh, in the zoom meetings that you, people are joining our zoom meetings, our round table recording, and they’re working on their jeeps in the background. Uh, I mean, uh, Greg Henderson, unofficial use only, I think he started it with all the builds that he’s done. His semi-bils, sema builds and stuff that we would watch in the background and ask him questions about. And then Rick’s done it, uh, rich, we have a running, uh, a bet about whether rich is going to have the, uh, XJ, uh, passenger front tire on or off. Uh, in the, when he joins the zoom meeting and, uh, I think Matt has actually done this. I think Matt did it while he was building his trailer a couple of years ago. So it’s, it’s really fun to see, uh, people joining in, uh, with the Jeep talk show, uh, while they’re working on stuff in the garage. Yeah. And the benefit of that when you’re doing your own mods versus paying someone else to go do that, um, when you’re doing your own mods, you know what tools it took to go do that, you know how it works. And so when it breaks on the trail, right? Maybe in the middle of nowhere, it could be the difference between you hitching a ride with someone and leaving your vehicle or being able to go in there and do some type of a trail repair on it to resolve it. And I think Rick had a couple issues on his, you know, in Arizona and, and, and Moab, but again, because he built that thing, he put those axles on there, he built those track bars and, you know, did all those, did all that work, you know, put that access panel in there for his, his fuel pump in the back there, which was a lifesaver for him, not having to drop the tank, but he had a, had to replace the fuel pump on there. Like he was in a situation to go and fix his vehicle and keep, you know, keep on with the, with the journey. Absolutely. Uh, and speaking of the journey, uh, I don’t know, I didn’t, I was surprised by this because, uh, I was looking at this, uh, article from realtruck.com real truck was actually out there, uh, at EJS this year. Uh, and I didn’t get to meet anybody from real truck, which is, which is a shame, but they were with tread lightly doing some tread lightly stuff. And, uh, Bill, you were there with me and, um, uh, many, if not all of the Jeep talk show, uh, team members and listeners, uh, at that, uh, that tread lightly event on the Monday morning, the first, I guess EJS starts before Monday, but to me, Monday is kind of like the starting day of EJS. And we went out there, uh, do you know, I, I’m so bad about knowing where we go. Do you know where we went or is it just, is it not just me? Uh, I think it was called determination towers, but yeah, tread lightly had multiple events going on that week for people to sign up for. I think we typically like to lean towards Monday. That’s the first day that kind of kicks off. Some people get there earlier, but you know, it’s a good start of the week that, Hey, let’s go give back. Let’s go do something with tread lightly, you know, and it’s always like a good, interesting ride out to whatever it is. Oh, it was a beautiful sight. Those towers you were just talking about, my God, that was beautiful. And they were just right there. Yeah. And we got to see a dinosaur, but you know, dinosaur bones. Well, Chuck did probably will Chuck didn’t, but yeah, we did. So during the 2024 Easter Jeep safari, real truck had a unique opportunity to join tread lightly team, uh, in the web, Utah and see firsthand how they maintain and protect some of the most beautiful spots in the Valley. Uh, and tread lightly based in North salt Lake, Utah, was initially launched by the United States forest service. I did not know this before, uh, this, this real, uh, real truck, uh, I had that we’re doing here, uh, in 1985 as a campaign to mitigate the impacts of off-road vehicles by 1990, it had evolved into a nonprofit entity supported by members and industry partners like real truck. So real truck was out there taking pictures and being part of the tread lightly event. And I was, I saw some of the same people. I saw Greg Henderson. I saw, uh, Charlene from ladies off-road network. I mean, Matt from a tread lightly obviously was there. So I saw some of the, some of the faces that you and I saw when we were there on Monday. So, yeah. And tread lightly has more than one event. I was a surprise that, uh, there was, I was looking around for me when I was looking at these pictures at on the realtruck.com slash blog. Well, they were, they were shooting video people that were working.
I was working. I was taking pictures. Working the crowd. You’re working the crowd. I was taking pictures and getting those towers and the, the, the Jeep talk show gladiator in the shot with those big towers. You gotta get way back for that. Those towers are huge. Yeah. I did come in you for photos. I did get to, I did get some video of you working one of those impact tools, uh, screwing the, the fence thing together. So I, you know, I’m, I’m helping out. Damn it. I’m, uh, I’m promoting tread lightly.
Hey, so, you know, along those lines, there’s a couple of ways you can, you can help out tread lightly. I mean, number one, you can volunteer. And the thing that we learned is, you know, there’s a 50, 50 match with the government. So they get, you know, for every volunteer hour that you put in, they get X amount of dollars for that. But then the government matches that as well. Oh, I was so happy to hear that. I didn’t, I didn’t work that day because they were getting paid. And then the other thing you can do is you can sign up for like a tread lightly membership on there and there’s benefits. There’s a lot of, you know, I think BF Goodridge, you know, last year had like a coupon for like, you know, a rebate on tires and there’s all sorts of like benefits and things like that. I think if you’re buying a Jeep, I was just going to say, I think there was a Jeep discount on there, like 10% or something, uh, something crazy. Yeah. I use that for the, when I was buying the two door on there, you know, get your little numbered certificate thing or whatever and, you know, give that to the dealer. And, uh, so yeah, I mean, there’s, there’s lots of benefits to that. I mean, you know, so that, that is ways that you can contribute, you know, if you’re in a place where there’s not trails or opportunities close by to volunteer, there’s other things you can do to help out. So, uh, yeah, join tread lightly, be a part of tread lightly anytime you can, because it helps keep the trails open. Uh, and, uh, it really gives, um, uh, the P the P the good, the good people, I’ll just say it that way, uh, ammunition to help keep the trails open for future generations. And, and our, and us now, I mean, they’ve closed 300 trails and in Utah that, uh, tread lightly and blue ribbon coalition is working hard to get reopened. So yeah, join tread lightly, be a part of that. And, uh, and if there’s a tread lightly event going on where you’re going, be a part of that too, because they get something out of it. Uh, even if, uh, even if all you do is show up and, uh, remember realtruck.com because they are big into helping support the off-road community. They’re not just about selling widgets. And you can see this, uh, this blog by going to realtruck.com slash blog and just do a search for the Eastern Jeep Safari thing. And I’ll, I’m sure you’ll find this, but specifically it’s 3d Hill project, Eastern Jeep Safari tread lightly. You can tell they’re doing some SEO on that, uh, that link. Yeah. And blue ribbon coalition is another, they’re more of kind of the legal arm of, uh, you know, trying to protect the trails. So you can also sign up, um, you know, sign up with them as well to kind of help. I think I have a monthly deduction that that comes out that goes to them to kind of help with those fights that they’re, they’re trying to fight or, you know, keeping trails open. Yep. I know they are actively working on the, uh, the legal side of, uh, they’re getting those 300 trails reopen.
All right. Uh, and you’re going to see what, uh, what I’m talking about, uh, the inside off-road modifications here, Bill, I think you’ve already got it. I recently interviewed David Ladd at armor light and he mentioned something I hadn’t thought of before. We do lots of off-road modifications to the outside of our jeeps, but really not too much to the interior. And I suspect this is a counterintuitive, uh, that the inside of the Jeep would require modifications for off-road use, but of course it does make sense that it would now, Bill, I know you’ve made, uh, several interior modifications. Did you think about them being off-road modifications when you did them? Well, they are. I mean, like off-road comms, uh, certainly the flooring on there, just because carpets aren’t going to hold up, you get water, mud, um, fire extinguishers, first aid kits, like all those things that, you know, well, and you could use it for day-to-day use, uh, as well, but a lot of those are geared towards just preparedness and, you know, being out on the trail. And if something happens, like Zabo took that spill or whatever, you got first aid equipment or things. First aid, very important deal with those situations. Fire extinguisher, uh, and I like the, uh, the, uh, element fire. Uh, I think that’s, that’s the proper name element. Yeah. Element fire, because now you get something that’s not a projectile. If you roll over, or I’m sorry, it’s a projectile, but it’s not a 20 pound projectile. Right. So yeah. So there are, I mean, but it, it, it, whenever, uh, whenever David said that, it was like, Oh, well, it makes sense. Yeah. Because you are doing stuff. And of course the armor light, which I know you have, did you get it for the 2024, uh, Jeep as well? I couldn’t remember if you’d already bought that or not. Yeah. So in the 2024, I have it from front to back, like the back cargo area, the wheel wells, like everything I pulled every single bit of carpet out of there and replaced it with the armor light. Yeah. That stuff is really neat. Now I’ve only seen, uh, seen it, I could have seen it in your Jeep. I wish I had thought about that while you were there. I could have looked at it in more detail. I’ve only seen it at last year’s, uh, EJS. And this is kind of your point about going to, uh, events where there’s vendors so you can see stuff. So I thought it, I thought the armor light stuff was a great idea. And I was more than happy to buy some for my, uh, my wife’s TJ whenever I can afford it. Cause I just think it makes good sense, not having that mildew smell, having something that’s a, that works a lot like the Jeep floor mats where it will drain to the plug and you just pull the plug and you don’t have to worry about pulling the carpet out, yada, yada, yada. But it’s really a good off-road modification. So when your tops are off or, uh, you go through, uh, a water that maybe it gets a little higher or splashes in, uh, and now you don’t have to worry about pulling that carpet out. It really is an off-road modification for the inside.
Yeah. And there’s also heat and sound, additional heat and sound installation it provides as well. I know on the three 90 to the floors would get noticeably warm and the floorboards on there. And after putting in the armor light, you don’t get that same heat, you know, soaking, soaking through the floor. Do you still notice the heat, especially in Texas, June, July weather?
Uh, not really. I mean, there’s a couple, there’s a couple spots, I think, like in the back seat sometimes if I put my like laptop bag in there and I go to pull it out, it’s warm. I’m like, Oh, I forgot to turn my laptop off. And you know, cause you put it in your bag and it gets hot and your bag gets hot, but it turns out like then I feel the floor and the floor is a little, a little warm back there. Yeah. And that’s where I don’t have the armor light in the back, back there. Yeah. It’s probably, um, Oh, you don’t have it in the back. You don’t have armor light in the back of the three 92 is what you’re saying. The cargo area. I don’t know. Um, so, uh, I’m glad we made that distinction cause, uh, from the way, uh, David was talking about it, that was one of the, the goals that they have. That’s what they heard from Jeepers was the heat, uh, the sound, uh, and also to the mildew smell. The mildew smell is what I’ve experienced directly. So I’m thinking anything you can put in there that doesn’t have that moldy smell and you got to pull it all out and have, you know, have it out in the sun for several days to kill all that mold, uh, it is, is well worth it. Um, so, uh, now you’ve done other modifications to the inside of the, I know the three 92, I don’t know if you’ve done it to, or if you’re planning on doing it to the, the 2024 jail you, um, but, uh, you’ve actually put in, uh, some of the diabolical stuff, uh, in your three 92, which I think also would, uh, the only reason why you did it is because is for off-road use. Correct me if I’m wrong on that. No, it’s a combination. So it basically, it’s an enclosure that encloses the cargo area of your, your vehicle and it’s modular. So you can kind of open it up if you need to go to Home Depot or something and you need more cargo space. You want to fold your seats down the panels, like on the four door actually come down and the top panels kind of they’re removable as well. If you want to just pull them out altogether, but, uh, for me, it’s secure storage. You know, I got my, my laptop, whether it’s for work, you know, for just day to day stuff and you got a secure area, you can lock stuff up in the back there, but also on the trail for me, it’s, you get a lot of cargo shifting around, especially, you know, you start getting on some of these crazy inclines out in Moab. I think I saw 41 degrees nose down on fins and things at one point there, everything gravity kicks in and everything in the back there just starts shifting forward. And so you have a secure area. You could put all your tools and things back there and they’re not going to come flying into the back of your, your driver’s seat or between the console or whatever. So, you know, not much, you know, in terms of being able to help you, if you got a big Labrador in the back seat, he’s coming through, but maybe you could throw them in the backpack or whatever. I don’t know if the diabolical, but no, that that’s what’s great about is you got secure storage underneath and then on top, you can use the top of that for storage as well. So, you know, I’ve done things over landing where I’ll put a Pelican tape case and I’ll strap it down to the top of that slipstream up there that opens up. So I have storage up that I can easily access on top of the slipstream. And then I have stuff that I can store underneath there, you know, coolers,
tools, things like that. Can you think of any other interior off-road modifications that you’ve done or you want to do to your, your Jeep that we may not have already mentioned? So in the corridor, I remove the back seats and put in a platform system in there. So when I’m going camping, I sleep in the back of my, my four door. And so it’s nice about doing a platform versus just folding down the seats. Does those seats take up a lot of space? When you put a platform in there, you can use the space underneath for storage. So all those tools and things that normally would be in the back, you know, maybe in the slipstream. Well, now you can hide all that stuff underneath the flooring there so that you have kind of a flat deck that you can, you know, pull out a little air mattress or whatever, blow it up and sleep on that and then deflate it, pack up and, you know, get back on your way the next day. And I know we have listeners like, Oh, camping inside the Jeep, that must be nice. You must be five foot nine. Tell the people how tall you are. Oh, I’m six too. So, but if you push the driver’s seat all the way forward, shove a sleeping bag or something in the space, but in front of the platform and behind the seat and you sleep diagonally, you can, you can do it. So it’s possible. When you said you could do it, it was almost like, eh, it’s, it’s not great. Do you sleep okay in there? Yeah, I sleep fine. I mean, I’m, yeah, I normally sleep on my side, right? So you can kind of like, you know, bring your legs up or, you know, kind of bend your knees a little bit or whatever. But if I want it to lay completely straight diagonally, I can, I could do that. I’m just touching on, on both ends. Right. So it can be done. And you can, and that’s, I think six two is well above average. So, uh, that, uh, that, that way you guys can save some money and also to, especially at Moab. And I know we keep talking about this, but it’s, it’s so fantastic. It’s a great, it’s really nice to be able to camp out the one night that I camped out. It was amazing. And it would have been fun to camp out more. I just get to get a better mattress for the, for the gladiator. Yeah. Well, another thing too, if you’re sleeping in your vehicle, you don’t have to carry a tent. I mean, for me, it was a lot of it was like weight reductions, right? The first time I went out there, it was like way too many tools, way too many camping gear, all this other stuff. And, you know, I’m doing the Carolina squat, you know, with all the gear that’s in the back there. So, you know, whatever I could do to kind of, it forces you to kind of, to kind of reduce and, and, you know, file things back on there to, you know, those things that you absolutely need. So it seems like every trip I would go out, I would try to remove things from the list and it just got smaller and smaller and you kind of get your, your kit and your, your tools and, and things that you need accessories for, for camping, you kind of dial it back, you know, but even then it’s kind of a pain in the butt. So like EJS this year, I just decided I didn’t want to drag any of that stuff out there and just rented a, rented a place out there for the week. And it’s like, I just don’t want to deal with setting up and tearing down camp. I just want to enjoy my time out there, you know, go and be able to pull up at the house, crawl into bed and go to sleep and get up and not have to go set up or tear down anything. Well, it gives you more time on the trail or with the group when you do it that way. Cause it’s like, it’s like being at home or you just drive and go and drive back and go to sleep. Yeah. I think last year it was like, oh, you do the stuff in town and you got a 30 minute drive out to the campsite and then you got another 30 minutes to kind of get everything set up. And then, you know, in the morning you got to pack everything up and you got Roger over there, you know, trying to, Hey, I got coffee. I got coffee, but you’re busy setting up, you know, you’re like, Oh, I can’t really, I don’t have time because we’re rolling out and, you know, it’s a full week or even longer for some people, but it’s, it’s not long enough that it go. The time goes by so fast. Right.
From the mind of Nicky G.
Hey, this is Nicky G and I didn’t have time to come up with a joke. I’ve been pretty busy this week. Somebody poured glue all over my rifle and no one’s fessing up to it, but I’m sticking to my guns. I’m calling to tell you that in the year 2024, I don’t plan on running any marathons. Yeah. I didn’t run any in 23. I didn’t run any in 22 and I didn’t run any in 21 either. Yeah. It’s a running joke.
What can I say? It has not been a productive week. Let’s try this one on for size. I walked into a bar the other day. There was a long line of people waiting to take a swing at me. Yeah. That’s the punch line. All right, boys and girls, that’s a stinker. I should apologize for it, but I’m not. I’m always a girl. A chattulator. You have a good one. Bye.
Nicky G is like my jokes. Uh, they may not be good, but at least they’re consistent.
Yeah. I thought that first one was pretty good. Yeah. No, it’s, some of them is like, when you don’t see it coming, it’s, it’s, uh, that’s the ones that really get me. Where’s this going? Where’s this? Oh, okay. All right. In this week’s must have stuff for your Jeep. We were talking about it in the, the gladiator segment, armor light front and rear flooring for your Jeep gladiator, a 2020 through 2023. I believe David told me in the interview that, uh, there’s nothing changed for the 2024, which is kind of nice because it seems like a lot of things changed for the 2024 Wrangler. Uh, I don’t know about the gladiator, but I know you saw some differences on the, uh, yeah. So yeah, it was everywhere. Why do they have to keep touching things? I mean, it’s little stuff too. It’s not even stuff that, uh, that, uh, I would think that I don’t remember you saying that it was like anything that like, Oh, this is a lot better because they did it this way. Uh, it was just like, it was just different and it made things did not fit that were, that would have fit normally if it was still one of the, uh, common jail, uh, past jail, uh, modifications or, uh, offerings from the, uh, from the factory. So, um, you know, this sounds like a big price, but for what you’re getting, I think it’s pretty, uh, really pretty cheap. This is $698 and 94 cents. And this is, uh, from Amazon. So you get the Amazon shipping and stuff. Of course you can just go to armor light, uh, go armor light, uh, dot com and order directly there. Is that the way you go, uh, Bill, you just go directly to the site? Yeah. I just went order directly from their site and, uh, you know, big giant box shows up with all your fun stuff. Uh, did you have to do anything to it to get it to, uh, play nice in the, in the Jeep, like lay it out in the sun or anything like that? Or did you just install it and it was just install and go?
Um, it’s a very well fit, like it fits very, it fits perfectly. So in order to do that, um, like the console, you have to remove, um, several of the panels, like kick panels and door seals and things like that. Cause it all goes up underneath like the console and all those plastics, right? So it’s just like your carpet does. Um, but it’s, it’s pretty stiff type stuff. So, you know, there’s kind of, I think I’ve learned, you know, get this side in first, cause it’s easier to get this other side in. I think the console side going in, getting the console and kind of the front up in the, the, by the footwell by your pedals is probably the, the easiest way to do it and then do the floor or the door seals and kick panels kind of second on there. But yeah, you’d got to play with it, but nothing with like heating up with the sun or whatever. It’s just, you get a trim tool on there to kind of help move some plastic pieces around. You don’t have to trim anything. You just use it to pry and, uh, and move it in so you can install it. Yeah. And getting the drain holes to line up on there so that you can do the, put the inserts in there. It fits off like an eighth of an inch or whatever. You’ll know like that plug won’t go in there easy. So you just kind of have to kind of work it and get everything to lined up. And then, you know, once you do that, it’s right. You should, uh, you should uninstall yours and do an installation video.
No.
Well, it’s always a little sad when we hit the end of the trail, but there’s always another trail ride just down the road. Jeep talk show has four episodes a week, Tuesday through Friday, subscribe and never miss an episode. And speaking of subscribing, consider keeping us on the air. I love saying that even though it makes no logical sense by subscribing to our Patreon, the place to go for all information on how to subscribe and contact us is Jeep talk show.com slash contact bill. Thanks a lot for being our guest host again this week. And we’ll see you again. I’m very, very sure. Yeah. I’d be interested to hear the comments. So call in when I’m the things that we’ve talked about, especially with the black bear past thing. I’m curious to hear what other people think. Really. I’m hoping to hear from people about that. Anyway, you guys have a great day and we’ll talk to you again. Broadcasting since 2010.
No pressure. You don’t have to wave. You’re my friend. You’re my new friend.