Ep. 625 Matt’s Off-Road Recovery Interview | How the Yellow Banana XJ Became a Legend

**In this episode of the Jeep Talk Show, Tony sits down with Matt from Matt’s Off-Road Recovery for a fun, wide-ranging interview.**

Matt has been doing professional off-road recovery since 2009. He launched his YouTube channel in May 2019 and has grown it to well over a million subscribers by documenting real recoveries in southern Utah near Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon country — mostly with his legendary yellow Jeep Cherokee XJ (the “Yellow Banana”).

They cover:

– How persistence finally landed the interview
– The evolution of the Banana (Golan 4.6 stroker, Wagoneer 44 front axle, full-floater rear, frame stiffeners, interior roll cage, four-link, and more)
– Why kinetic ropes handle the vast majority of their jobs
– When and why they started adding winches
– The branding shift from Winter Towing to Matt’s Off-Road Recovery
– The custom Chevy Corvair station wagon built as a “big XJ”
– The crew of non-professionals who have become characters on the channel
– Overheating solutions that actually work in 117°F heat
– And much more

Matt’s Off-Road Recovery is a great example of authentic content, hard work, and punching above your weight with an XJ.

### Timestamps
00:00 – Show Introduction and Jeep Fest Teaser
00:37 – Hosts Introduce Interview with Matt
00:56 – Persistence and Sales Tactics for Securing Interviews
04:25 – Selling Time and Effort Behind Securing Interviews
06:42 – Discovering Matt’s Work and Interview Excitement
07:54 – Matt’s Jeep XJ Restoration and Evolution Overview
12:29 – Reinforcing the XJ: Frame Stiffeners and Roll Cage
13:55 – Personal History with the XJ and Its Limits
15:05 – YouTube Branding, Content Strategy, and Adding More XJs
17:33 – Building a Collaborative YouTube Crew and Community Interaction
19:28 – Beyond Wheeling: Problem Solving and Positive Messaging
20:51 – Brand Evolution: From Winter Towing to Matt’s Off Road Recovery
22:24 – Expanding Social Media Presence Across Platforms
23:09 – Managing Fan Interactions and On-Site Crowds
23:55 – Winch vs Kinetic Rope: Recovery Tool Choices
26:15 – Introducing the Corvair ‘Big XJ’ Project
27:47 – Team Roles, Crew Dynamics, and Growth
30:52 – Drone Filming, Licensing, and Showcasing Terrain
32:58 – Addressing XJ Overheating: Cooling Solutions
38:55 – Funding Gear Through Content and Expanding to TikTok
41:12 – Closing Remarks and Thank You to Matt
41:26 – Gratitude, Future Appearances, and Vehicle Outlook
42:37 – Call for Guest Ideas and Audience Engagement
42:55 – Father’s Day Greetings and Intro
43:11 – Teaching Manual Transmission and Lighthearted Closing

### Key Highlights
– Why an old XJ still punches way above its weight for real recovery work
– Practical cooling mods that keep the 4.0/4.6 happy even pulling trailers in 117° heat
– How kinetic ropes solve most “stuck a few feet off the dirt road” jobs faster and lighter than a winch
– Building a unique fleet (Banana + Corvair) instead of just buying bigger trucks
– Keeping content real: mistakes stay in, the crew are regular people, and collaboration over territorial gatekeeping

**Find Matt & the team**
YouTube: Matt’s Off Road Recovery
Website & merch (including the autographed die-cast Yellow Banana): [mattsoffroadrecovery.com](https://mattsoffroadrecovery.com)
Facebook & Instagram: Matt’s Off-Road Recovery
Also on TikTok

Got a guest idea or want to be on the show? Head to [jeeptalkshow.com/contact](https://jeeptalkshow.com/contact).

Subscribe, leave a comment, and share this episode with your Jeep friends. Thanks for listening and watching the world’s most downloaded Jeep podcast!

—

**Support the Show & Shop Jeep Gear**

Thank you for watching and listening! If you enjoyed the conversation with Matt from Matt’s Off-Road Recovery, check out some of the products and upgrades discussed:

– **Yankum Python 7/8″ Kinetic Recovery Rope** (Matt’s style of rope)
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=yankum+python+kinetic+recovery+rope

– **NTR 1-1/8″ x 30′ Kinetic Recovery Tow Rope Kit with Soft Shackles**

– **ALLOYWORKS 3-Row All Aluminum Radiator for 1991-2001 Jeep Cherokee XJ 4.0L**

– **BILLET4X4 U.S. MIL-Grade 1″ x 30′ Kinetic Recovery Rope**

– **Soft Shackle Recovery Kit / UHMWPE Soft Shackles**
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=uhmwpe+soft+shackle+recovery

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:02:01 – 00:00:06:00]
You’re listening to a 4×4, 4×4, Radio Network Podcast.

[00:00:07:20 – 00:01:31:23]
Toledo Jeep Fest, weekend of August 12th happening in Toledo, Ohio, the home of Jeep. Go to ToledoJeepFest.com for more information. Are you ready? It’s the Jeep Talk Show with Wendy! There will be body damage. Jeep Mama! Are you sure? Josh! See, I don’t think so. And Tony! I think that’s a huge deal. So sit back, strap in, and brace yourself. Hi I’m Chris and I’m really looking forward to hearing this interview. Oh, me too. No, I’ve already heard it. Never mind. Hi, I’m Tony and in this episode I interview Matt for Matt’s Off-Road Recovery. What a fun interview. Chris, it was a lot of fun talking to Matt and I learned a lot of interesting things that I had no idea. Now Chris, I don’t want you to give away your magic, but I’m curious. I think I reached out to Matt’s Off-Road Towing and I didn’t have a specific name or anything to reach out to like an email address or anything as I recall. So I kind of had to poke around and hit a couple of emails. But I never got a response until relatively recently, like maybe six months a year ago that I got a response. And they were telling me, oh yeah, here’s our media kit and we have some nice merchandise that you can buy.

[00:01:33:01 – 00:01:44:06]
So it was like, you know, somebody respond to this guy. He won’t leave us alone. Let’s, he’s obviously really interested in us. Maybe if he buys a tow rope from us, he’ll feel better.

[00:01:45:21 – 00:02:13:02]
Yeah, just persistence really. I was just fortunate to be a little persistent with phone calls and I believe sometimes it takes that much time. So obviously you’ve been reaching out. I started reaching out and just persistence. I don’t know what the phrase might be, but just persistence pays off. Well, your job is a salesperson, your daily job is a salesperson. So you were just using your salesman tactics. Is tactics the right way to say? Is that rude?

[00:02:14:06 – 00:03:32:10]
No, not at all. Not at all. It’s that you got to ask for the sale. That’s something many people in sales don’t do. And the sale in this case is time. And we were finally able to get Matt’s time and we weren’t asking him for money. It was time and you got to ask for the sale and that’s what we got to do. So if you don’t mind me asking, of course you can always say pass, but are you a natural salesperson or was this something that you had to, I mean, we all have to learn our jobs, but does the selling come natural to you? I would say no. People believe in the born salesman or salesperson, but it’s just learning. And it is, and then I learned many years ago through various sales trainings, it’s just getting that simple follow up. Many salespeople follow, “Hey, Tony, are you interested? You maybe get two, three minutes your time. Let me send you a brochure.” And they expect that you’re going to call them back and you got to be persistent, but not a pass. Persistent, but not a pass has been my… Where do you find that line though? Because that’s my problem is I figure if one call is being a pest, that’s the reason why. And it just blows my mind that you actually call these people up on the phone because I can just well imagine like, “Oh my God, what do you want? Why are you calling me?” We don’t do anything on phones anymore. We do it through email and through social media. Why are you calling me on the phone?

[00:03:33:21 – 00:04:38:27]
That’s true. A phone call is upsetting for many people, especially younger people, younger than myself, younger than 40ish. But you just ask. Again, it’s asking for that sale and I learned it’s the next… It’s always selling in that, “Hey, Tony, we have a conversation. When’s a good time to follow up with you? I’ll put it back on you. You might… I don’t know. I’m real busy. Okay. May I call you back in two weeks?” And you can gauge from the conversation, especially if it’s on the phone. Am I bothering you? Am I annoying you? Or are you maybe open to it and… Yeah, you’re interested, but you’re just too busy to deal with it right now. I would like to talk to you about it, but in a couple of weeks, do you find that sometimes people are just being polite and they’re not really interested? Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And usually by the second or third follow up phone call or email, you’re like, “All right, they’re just not interested.” And you drop it. You just… Okay. Okay. Okay. Well, anyway, we can get into Sales 101 later. I just find it fascinating that there is a way of doing this where people don’t hire a hit man.

[00:04:39:29 – 00:04:49:02]
Well, you can do that, but it gets a little messy and bloody. Yeah. Yeah. And there’s always the evidence traced back because you’ve got notes about who you were calling and how often.

[00:04:50:10 – 00:05:02:12]
That’s interesting. So on the phone numbers, do you just find those online? Do you find somebody and then they say, “Well, no, you got the wrong person.” You go, “Oh, do you have their number?”

[00:05:03:14 – 00:08:08:21]
And go that direction. Yes. I mean, for a lot of these companies and certainly Matt’s off-road, they do have a phone number you call. And in this case, I called and asked for Matt and had about a 10 second conversation with him. And once he realized what I was calling about, he got me over to one of his… Obviously, he’s got a staff I think he talks about in the interview and you go from there. But they’re just calling up. And the other thing, some people are afraid to ask for the person or ask for the boss. Yeah. Oftentimes you don’t get it, but if you’re just straight forward, this is the purpose of my call. This is what I’m asking for, be it time or a sale or money. And a lot of times you get it. Sometimes you get shut down for sure, but you’d be surprised. It’s just asking for that sale. This is my salesman one-on-one for today. Just ask for the sale. Well, I guess we’re all selling, aren’t we? We’re selling here on the show. We’re trying to sell the show to people to listen. Matt’s certainly trying to sell to people on YouTube and the products and stuff that he sells on his site and his services, which is probably the… I should have started with that one because the service of him getting people out of harm is probably the primary service, even though I know he’s putting a lot of time into all this other stuff. So, we’re all selling all the time. So, I guess maybe part of us are just kind of like, “Well, this guy’s just trying to sell like I try to sell. Let me give him five minutes.” And then you’re on. It’s showtime for you and it’s time for you to make your point as to why your product or services is important to that person or not. But yeah, so I guess I can see that. It’s not necessarily being polite. It’s just remembering how hard it is to get somebody’s time. And I didn’t know that you had spoken with Matt during this process. That’s pretty cool. Yeah, just briefly. Just really briefly. After, admittedly, I hadn’t been an avid viewer of his channel. He’s out there getting it done. I mean, he’s still not doing the recoveries. I mean, he’s got people that work for him and support him, but he’s on the road day and night and it was really cool that, hey, he happened to be there and I got to talk to him. Yeah, well, I mean, and I want to say he’s been given a gift. I don’t want… I mean, I don’t want to make it sound like he doesn’t deserve it or he didn’t work for it because he certainly did. But whenever you have the interest of a lot of people, I personally consider it a gift. I consider it a gift that people take the time to download these episodes because I’m just some knucklehead talking into a microphone. So, you know, who am I? And fortunately, I don’t have Matt’s magic, at least not yet, but I think we’re getting there and it’s just exhilarating. Talking to somebody that is doing it, is making money and entertaining people at the same time. From around the world or from your city and sometimes just down the street. Had a neighbor. It’s the Jeep Talk Show Interview.

[00:08:11:15 – 00:08:30:14]
All righty-ho, boys and girls, it’s time for another Jeep Talk Show Interview. And tonight we’re going to be talking with the one that you guys have asked about so much. You know, you need to get Matt on the show. You need to get Matt on the show. Well, Matt’s on the show. I mean, we may have a click here in a second, but so far we’re doing good. I’ve actually talked to him. He’s actually on the phone.

[00:08:32:08 – 00:08:58:03]
So, Matt is with Matt’s Off-Road Recovery. He has been in the off-road recovery business for most of his life and has been doing it professionally since 2009. He started his YouTube channel May of 2019 and now has over one million subscribers. My God. And you don’t, there’s no nakedness on this channel, right? I mean, it’s just you and your XJ, your yellow XJ towing vehicles. That’s pretty much it.

[00:08:59:05 – 00:09:06:14]
Can you imagine what would happen if you had some low-cut shirts or some high pants when you’re doing this, Matt?

[00:09:07:19 – 00:09:13:11]
Oh, yeah. I imagine we might get more clicks, but less views.

[00:09:15:13 – 00:11:05:09]
So I was just, right before we got connected up here, I was looking at one of your latest videos and there’s been some changes, at least some paint changes to the yellow banana. Yeah. It just recently, we’re just finishing up a complete restoration and upgrade. Now, does that restoration and upgrade do anything to the 4.0 that’s in there as the power plant? It’s actually got a Golan engine’s 4.6 stroker in it. So it’s based on the 4.0. It’s just got the stroker crank in it and a little bit of cam in it. Yeah, a little bit. It’s still the 4.0. I mean, I know what you’re saying, but it’s still the 4.0. And I think that is so cool. I mean, I think that there’s a lot of people out there, like when I would take my XJ to events and stuff, everybody, two or three at least would walk up and say, I used to have one of these. I used to have one of these. What do you got now? I got a Wrangler. I got this, that, and the other. Well, I don’t know why people thought they had to get rid of their XJs. And I just thought it was so cool. It was probably three, four years ago. I mean, maybe not four, but it was several years ago that I ran across your videos and I was like, this guy’s using an XJ to pull people out. Much bigger vehicles. Cool. Yeah. I get a lot of positive, like people react to it very positively. Even if they don’t start out positive by the time I’m done with the job, they’re like, what in the world just happened? This is amazing. Now, if I remember correctly and keep in mind, I haven’t seen this for a while, but you did a like a walk around on the XJ maybe a year ago or so. And you have a lot of custom drive train underneath there from the standpoint of, I think it had a GM axle. It was at the, in the rear, it has a GM axle.

[00:11:06:20 – 00:11:08:04]
Yeah. At the time it did.

[00:11:09:09 – 00:11:27:09]
I’ve since then I’ve switched to a full floater and I think it’s out of a Ford. When people ask me what it came out of, I say it came out of a field behind the guy’s house because that’s where I got it. It’s in the XJ. That’s where it is. Yeah. So what are you doing for the front axle?

[00:11:28:23 – 00:12:51:18]
The front axle is a Wagoneer 44. Oh, very nice. So if, if you divide your axles into wide and narrow, it’s still the narrow track, roughly 60, I don’t know, 62 inches wide from hub mount to hub mount, wheel mount to wheel mount. And is it still your engineering as far as getting those things connected to the XJ? Yes. Did you have to do any beefing? Yeah. And I came. Go ahead. Yeah. Well, I, I’ve been fixing the question was, have I done any beefing up to the, the, the unibody, the, the unibody. Cause I would think the unibody would be something that really would be a problem. So yeah, it depends on, on when you take a snapshot on how it is because the, the Jeep evolved that the XJ was evolving with the work that I was having to do and then as of the work picked more and more, and then I would upgrade the bigger axles and bigger tires and then bigger axles and bigger tires on this last rebuild we did. I finally added frame stiffeners and then an interior roll cage system that was more designed to stiffen the body than over. Right. I bet you that, I bet you really feels, I bet you really feels sturdy now that you don’t get that flex that you probably didn’t even realize was there before.

[00:12:52:19 – 00:14:05:19]
Yeah. Well, I knew it was there. Cause when you’re driving with the window down and get your finger between the door and the, and the rain gutter there, you can fill up flexing. And yeah, that that’s virtually gone now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s really happy with that. I put some frames stiffeners on mine. They go along the outside of the, of the unibody rails and their plug weld to it. And I noticed a huge difference. It just, it just feels more like it’s just, you know, it’s not, it’s not flexing as much. It’s really nice. And I imagine yours is even more, more sturdy with that, that cage. Yeah. And it’s got a couple of other cross members cause I’ve, I’ve got it four linked front and rear. And so I added cross members for those. So it’s, it’s tied together pretty good. Now, have you actually broken, broken it, using it out to tow people? I mean, I’ve seen you tow stuff up, climbs, stair steps, all kinds of stuff. And it just seems to go and go. It’s just as an XJ owner, that was an XJ was my first Jeep. We bought it new in 98. I still got it. So I have a lot of love for the XJ and I just love seeing a working XJ. Yeah. That’s kind of the big thing is like, I have a one owner XJ.

[00:14:07:09 – 00:15:36:10]
Nice. Nice. So I’ve, I’ve broke a couple of outer stub shafts on both of them on the left side on the front axle. But I’ve never, I’ve never really had a catastrophic failure that stopped me from completing a mission. So it’s just, it’s just taking it back in and looking at it like, Oh, this is cracking or, or I was really worried about the stock axles after, you know, when I went to 33 inch tires, I could just see signs that like the axle tubes were twisting inside the front housing. And I’m like, Oh, it’s time to upgrade. Yeah. I better do it before then too late. So it’s, it’s really, it’s a lot of fun to watch you pull and tow things up and out of the way, but you only go so far with, with the XJ, you know, it’s limitations and then you’ll bring in the big stuff or add, add more XJs to it. At least that’s what I’ve seen in the past where you had another XJ to the towing thing. Right. And the, and the YouTube is kind of an interesting window because it’s just a window into what you’re doing. You’re not seeing everything that’s going on. And so we post the videos that we feel will be the most interesting to the viewer. And the more we struggle, the more interested you guys are. So I might do a hundred jobs that are just like, just, we just go out, we have everything we need, everything goes smooth.

[00:15:37:15 – 00:16:27:20]
And then we’ll get one job where it really pushes the limits of the machine or our equipment or we, or we want prepared for something. And of course that one we’re going to upload and be like, oh, this was a real struggle. And so people think, well, why don’t you carry the equipment that you need to do this job? And the reason is, is we carry the equipment we need to do 99.9% of what we do. And then this one little bit and I’ve, you know, we’ve been YouTube and you know how the internet is, but I really want to get all the stuff that people have recommended to carry and put it in a pile and weigh it. And I would say probably about 3000 pounds of gear. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, it’s, it’s great being a YouTube expert, you know, it doesn’t require any knowledge or anything. It’s kind of like that YouTube certified mechanic patch that I want to get.

[00:16:29:28 – 00:16:53:05]
So yeah, I try to stay aware from the advice. It does work for what we’re doing. There’s a, there’s a reason we’ve been running this XJ and we’re going to keep running it because it just flat out works for what we’re doing. It gets on the tight trails. It gets in the small areas and it, it just punches above its weight. So well, that’s not going anywhere. It’s the underdog. I mean, you, people look at this, they call them

[00:16:53:05 – 00:17:40:20]
boxes. And then the scene one that does, does what you’ve got yours doing. And it’s also to the will of the driver is a lot of it and knowing the vehicle. So you’re, you know, you could tear that thing up in an instant if you wanted to, but you know how, what you’re doing and how to do it. So, uh, but it’s great that the machine can handle so much of that. And I didn’t mention at the start, I mean, I just figure everybody knows, but I know some of you don’t, uh, Matt’s off-road recovery, the YouTube channel, uh, over a million subscribers, 1.04, but who’s counting and, uh, how did that work for you? I mean, were you, I just, just seeing you on the video and stuff, you don’t look like a, Hey, let’s get this thing on YouTube. You know, let’s, my dad’s got a bar and let’s put it on a show. You just don’t come across that way. How did the YouTube thing come about?

[00:17:41:25 – 00:22:39:10]
Well, like, I think it’s the same way anybody arrives at anything. Like you have support from friends and family. They’re like, you should do this. You should do this. Um, of course, when, when somebody first says that it doesn’t mean anything, because you don’t know anything about, I didn’t know anything about it. And I mean, I’ve, I’ve watched YouTube, I, I mostly used YouTube for like, how to look, Oh, I’m going to be doing this project. Let me look at it. And it was, YouTube was valuable to me that way, but I didn’t really use YouTube as an entertainment source. So when the idea came up, Hey, you should put this up. People watch it for entertainment. I’m like, yeah, right. You know, whatever. But a couple of years of that. Um, and I was getting really good results from my Facebook. Um, cause I was promoting winter towing and I, I would post a picture of a tow truck with a, you know, with a car with a bad alternator and nobody liked it. But if I posted a picture of my little Jeep hooked up to a, you know, a diesel truck with a toy hauler buried up to the axles and sand or mud or whatever, I was getting a massive amount of views and shares and, and then just the comments and that kind of reinforced what some of my friends and family were telling me that people are interested in this stuff. Yeah. So I just kind of educated myself just barely enough to start a YouTube channel. And I had no idea that it was going to do what it did. Right. Well, it is interesting and it is put together well. So I mean, you can say that and there’s, there’s personalities involved in it too. It’s not just, uh, people that are, um, it’s just not the off-road, uh, towing type of videos. There’s, there’s you talking, there’s you interacting with other people. There’s funny things going on. So I think it’s, it’s, it’s very important that you actually have, uh, people involved in it and conversations involved in it. And I think it, it’s not just a wheeling video cause you, I mean, not that you’re wheeling, but it’s not, it’s not. Absolutely. Yeah. It’s not that you just keep going down the road or something. People like to see people coming together and solving problems and doing interesting things and also doing things like, cause one thing we’re doing things that a lot of people don’t do. Like they don’t, a lot of people don’t have access to what, what we’re doing. And for that, but then they’re also, you know, like the same as me. Um, I, when I tell other YouTubers how to make their channel better, I said, you need to be confident and not confident. Like, Hey, I’m, I’m smart enough to do this. I’m smart. I’m, you know, I know I know what I’m doing. I’m saying be confident enough to make a mistake and be able to post that. Not because that’s what real people do. Real people make mistakes and then they learn from them and then they, they do something different. And that’s, that’s something we’ve tried to keep in. Like let’s not edit out the mistakes. Let’s not edit out, um, when things go wrong and not even like disappointment or even anger a little bit. Like if something doesn’t go right, we’ll tell this story, but let’s keep our head cool. Let’s solve the problem and get through this. Yeah. And people just been responding to it. Yeah. And that’s a good message. That’s a good message for the kids even. So let me ask you, and let me know if this is something that you feel comfortable talking about. Um, so I noticed when I was looking at one of the new videos today that it says Matt’s off-road recovery on the Jeep. And when it used to say winter or winder, I don’t know how you pronounce it. Uh, what’s changed? Is it just a updated? Is it so, so this is, this is nothing more than just, um, show business. Okay. So, so winter towing was the name of my towing company. It’s a 40 year old. I’m the third owner. Um, when I started the YouTube channel, I didn’t, I wanted to make a channel, the name of the channel, what people would be seeing, which is off-road recovery. And winter towing doesn’t mean anything to people. And so I was double branded in the beginning really bad. And that it just is a headache. There’s all kinds of problems with being double branded. So I made a decision to make it less confusing to people. And um, so the, the YouTube company is Matt’s off-road recovery and all the vehicles are going to be branded that way. So we don’t get all those questions about what, how come it’s Matt’s off-road recovery and says winter towing, how come it’s winter towing and calling Matt’s off-road recovery. So it’s simply just a logistical marketing decision to make it less confusing. Oh yeah. It makes sense. But I thought that if it was a question in my mind, it’s going to be a question of somebody else’s and you’ve probably already been a barraged with questions on YouTube. Now, of course I know the, I know you and the folks that you work with from the YouTube channel, but you mentioned Facebook. So do you have a big Facebook presence?

[00:22:40:13 – 00:23:08:25]
Well, we do. Um, originally it was just winter towing’s Facebook. I, I set that up. I didn’t know anything and I was running it. Um, now there’s a Matt’s off-road recovery. We’re on Facebook, Instagram. Um, I think we’re even on Tik TOK now or if not, we’re going to be, I don’t know. But, but, um, yeah, we’re just trying to stay, stay in touch with, with the fans and our fans on all the platforms that they want to interact with us on.

[00:23:09:25 – 00:23:19:09]
Now do you, do you have a problem with, uh, I don’t want to say groupies, but people kind of trying to come out and hang out with you or wanting to be out there whenever you’re on a, on a call off-road?

[00:23:20:18 – 00:23:47:19]
Yeah, it can be a problem sometimes. Um, a population like if like Lake in there will get followed. It can be a problem because then people crowding around and a lot of the work we do, we do we need space and room to do it. Um, a lot more people recognize us now, like when we’re out. So I don’t know if I can say it’s like a problem.

[00:23:48:21 – 00:25:09:25]
It makes the job a little harder. I have to deal with them, be aware of. Yeah. So, uh, I got to ask you that. Yeah. And it can. Yeah. I’ve got to ask you the question you’ve probably been asked 10,000 times before or told this is what you need to do. Why do you not have a winch on the front of, uh, the, the, the big banana, the yellow banana? Oh, okay. That one’s easy and that, and it has definitely evolved. So almost every recovery that we do that’s that would be considered off-road is a rental car. And almost every single one of them is they’re just a few feet off of a dirt road. They’re in a ditch or they’re in the sand or they might be in some snow or some mud or whatever. Some of them will drive several miles down a sand road. They can’t get back up, but whatever the case was, the kinetic ropes just solved the problem. They were, they were just incredibly fast. And um, so that’s what I was doing when the, when the, now that we’re more in the public, like a lot more people know about us, we’re starting to get a lot more jobs that are more extreme and that’s where the winch is coming. So we’re using winches a lot more now.

[00:25:10:27 – 00:25:17:11]
So the banana does have a winch permanently mounted to it. Now the more bear does it’s got it’s, it’s winch.

[00:25:18:21 – 00:26:13:22]
So um, Rudy, he’s got the root icon that’s half done and he’s still got a removable winch, but he just leaves it on too. So what we’ve done is just taken weight out other places and replaced that weight with the winch. So we’re still, we’re still like super light, super like just, we just travel fast and light and that’s still working for us. Very good. Now we have the winch option. Very good. Very good. Yeah. I was just curious. I mean, I, I have no problem with I doing things the way you want to do them. I was just curious. Right. I mean, I still say 90% of our work is kinetic ropes, but we get, we’ll get these mountain jobs now where a winch is the only answer. Well, I mean, that’s good tips for people out there that are thinking about getting a winch and you might be able to do what you need to do by just getting a kinetic rope like what Matt does. I mean, my God, it works for him and he’s making money off of it.

[00:26:14:29 – 00:26:25:21]
So tell me about the other vehicle, the other wannabe banana that’s a yellow and black. I almost wanted to say it was a, an XJ at first, but that’s no XJ.

[00:26:26:25 – 00:27:33:06]
Yeah. It’s just a Chevrolet Corvair and I’ve been, I’ve been in the Corvair’s my whole life. I’ve been a car guy my whole life. And when I was looking, so the XJ is just working perfectly. It’s completely filling the niche that it’s working in. It’s not leaving me wanting anything and it’s filled, but then we get into the bigger vehicles and, and I liked the XJ so much. I’m like, well, what’s a big XJ? And there was just nothing like a bigger XJ. And then I’m looking at the Corvair station wagon and I’m like, wow, that’s a bigger XJ. It’s a unibody. It’s shaped the same. It’s a cool, really cool car. So all the knowledge that I had learned from building the XJ, I took all that and put into this vehicle. And of course we had to hand, hand build it, but, um, though the amount of, of hand fabrication and just the design and ideas and artistic stuff that went into that vehicle, we are very, we are welcomed with open arms in the community. Like, like I, that thing gets ducked all the time. So

[00:27:34:20 – 00:27:39:20]
Yeah, it kind of looks like the, uh, what was it? The SJ? Yeah, seriously.

[00:27:41:15 – 00:28:07:13]
Yeah. And people ask like, why the Corvair? And I said, because it’s a big XJ. That’s why. Yeah. They didn’t make one. They should have. I mean, I was kind of hoping that they will take the commander. I was kind of hoping that would be a big XJ, but that’s not the way it worked out. Yeah. So, so when you’re doing, so when you’re doing your YouTube videos, um, how much do you have a video staff or do you have people that are just working the camera that do, that do other things for you?

[00:28:08:16 – 00:30:59:08]
Yeah. So my crew, nobody is really doing anything they ever went to school for. Um, so, and that’s one thing that’s kind of unique about our YouTube channel is everybody is a character. So our cameramen are characters and you’ll see the different, you know, I mean, you’ll even see the kids that clean up, you know, clean the shop up and stuff. Um, my wife’s on there and we kind of have, you know, we allow other YouTubers to come on. Um, a lot of YouTubers are really territorial and it doesn’t make any sense to me because especially in the YouTube universe where people are, you know, if people are watching me and people are watching bleep and Jeep, why don’t we, why don’t we collaborate with bleep and Jeep and they, and they’ve been very open to it and, uh, and then benefit from it. So, so that’s one thing, like, I think we have a pretty relaxed, like our, our cast, like no, like nobody’s professionals that really anything that they’re doing, they just interested in it. We let them come into including our editors and our cameramen and all that. They’re just regular, regular people. And, and of course they’re trying to be better. They’re really good employees and they want to do their job better. And part of their job is capturing what we do. And that’s why you’ve kind of seen an evolution in the panel where we’re filming better and people are more comfortable on camera. You know, every once in a while you’ll get somebody that’s like, you know, you need to change back to the way you used to be when we first started. That’s when I liked you. But really it’s kind of insane to think of somebody doing something for years and not getting better at it. Yeah, I agree. You know, so, so we, we definitely like, you know, we want to keep it real, but, but YouTube makes some things that wouldn’t be available. Like go, we went and got Ed’s gold nugget out of the Sierra Nevada mountains. And that was a very expensive, time consuming, laborious thing to go do. And it would have been impossible just go do what YouTube makes it possible to go do. So that, so that’s a lot of fun. And it’s fun to take those opportunities and then show people and people are enjoying it. So it’s a product that they want and we’re able to do it. And it’s just a good dynamic. Yeah, that’s really cool. And it’s giving great, a lot of opportunities. My crew got 13, 13 employees, full time employees that are getting an opportunity to do something. They’re not like providing for themselves and their families, but they’re doing this really fun and you know, they’re, they’re having to stretch and grow. And I just, I like the whole thing. I really enjoy it. I like the whole process. So I’m sure you’re busy actually doing actual work, but do you ever get behind the stick for the drone so you can record some of the drone footage yourself?

[00:31:00:28 – 00:31:04:13]
I don’t have a drone. I do grab the camera from time to time.

[00:31:06:13 – 00:31:48:09]
So the job that there is that I know how to do, I’ll jump in and be done. I’ll do it. That’s why the drone. I’ll take a, take a. We have much more capable pilots and really doing it professionally like this. All our drone pilots have to be licensed certified. So there’s that when you get a little higher profile like this, you’ve got to make sure that that, you know, you got the licensing and the certifications that you need to do this kind of stuff. Yeah. Where you can film and where you can buy a drone. I thought about that after I asked the question and I thought, Oh gee, I’m going to get, get Matt in trouble. He can’t say yes to this. Yeah.

[00:31:49:11 – 00:32:31:03]
Well, if I could fly a drone, I’d have to get certified. Yeah. Right. Well, at least for it to be used commercially. Well, that is really cool. I really enjoy the drone footage because it’s great B roll to give people an idea or at least me an idea of what the surrounding terrain looks like. I’ve never been to that part of the country and it is, is absolutely gorgeous. And I’m sure that has a lot to do with the interest in the YouTube videos because you got wonderful background to look at almost all the time. Yeah. I’m very, I, I, I realize how fortunate I am to be doing this work in this part of the I mean, we’ve got Zion national park there. We’re in the grand canyon country.

[00:32:32:03 – 00:32:57:11]
We’ve got just, well, you’ve got the Mojave desert meets the Colorado plateau meets the Uinta basin literally right there in hurricane. And, and so the just the diversity of the terrain and the climates and then just all the different colors. It’s, it’s not lost on me for sure.

[00:32:58:12 – 00:33:50:20]
Oh, you mentioned climate and that reminded me to ask you a question. Several of the people on our discord server said, now, when you’re talking to Matt, you have to ask him how he keeps his XJ from overheating. My listeners to the show have been hearing me complain about my XJ overheating on the highway. If I drive it like 50 miles at 70 miles an hour and just I get this heat creep and it goes up and up and up and up. And then finally I have to pull over and it takes a long time for it to cool back down. Doesn’t seem like it ever wants to get back to normal. So I know that it’s a different type of weather environment, Southeast Texas, and they’re in Utah, but I would imagine you get some hot days. And that’s one of her, I have problems with mine as you know, when it’s a 90 and a hundred, I, I feel like I have tried everything. I’ve tried everything. They think I’m crazy.

[00:33:52:15 – 00:34:52:23]
So, um, uh, I’ve, I’ve had several different systems and the one that worked the best for me, I put the stock mechanical fan, kept, I, I got a, I don’t know what I was running a mission motor or I think it was a mission motor radiator. And then I was running the stock mechanical fan with no clutch and the stock electric fan, and then I ran, um, there’s a, there’s a circulation that comes straight off the head into the cold side of the pump. It’s about a dime sized hole. I plugged that thing off right behind the water pump. It’s super easy to do. And then I ran your, when the heaters off, it’s still circulating through, but it’s not rejecting any heat. So then I ran a little, another heater core after the heater and put an electric fan on it and I had the vents in the hood and I was pulling fresh air from on top of the hood.

[00:34:53:24 – 00:37:24:14]
I’m down through that. And I could, cause we get, you know, we get 117 degrees where we’re at. And so, um, pull on a trailer through the dunes. I can’t keep my air conditioning on without overheating. Yeah. So, and that was super frustrating. So in this particular build that I did, and this is it, it was huge job. Like a lot of people want to know like, what parts do you need to do this? Um, this is not like, if you’re asking what parts you need to do this, you’re probably not qualified to do this. Right. Um, it’s the tools you need, not the parts. Yeah. So I, I ended up moving the steering box to the outside of the frame. So I’m actually using a trail gear steering box. And then I, um, put, I’ve got a way bigger radiator in there now. And then I, I’m running, uh, Chevy Silverado fan clutch and fan off the water pump now. So I had to build an adapter for that. So for the thread on and I haven’t had it out very much, but I, it’s running cool as a cucumber. So we had a listener, uh, that swears up and down that he has solved the problem by putting baffles in a, I think it was a two core, uh, or maybe a three core aluminum radiator and, uh, separating it up. So it requires the, the, the coolant to run through the radiator. I think like three times it goes through the top and then back across the middle and then back across the bottom and then out to the, uh, to the engine or whichever way it goes. Yeah. And on mine, mine does that mine’s a double pass. Okay. Okay. So it, and I’d already ran it. That was what I ended up on the more of that, that Corvair station wagon. So I’m running the same radiator between the two, the same steering box, the same fan, the same clutch, the everything and the more of air will drive in 117 degrees, pulling the trailer through the dunes with the AC crank. So I have no reason to believe the XJ won’t now, but we’re going to find out this summer. Okay. Very nice. I’m a, I hope you got it solved and see people. I told you that the XJ had an issue. I have so many people that will say, Oh, mine runs 190 max all year long. Well, good for you. It doesn’t for me. Maybe in the Northern States or something, but when it gets a hundred, cause that’s what I noticed like somewhere around 104.

[00:37:25:17 – 00:37:29:09]
That’s when keeping the XJ cool is just a fight.

[00:37:30:11 – 00:37:40:22]
So I finally fixed my overheating problem. I bought a gladiator with the max tow package and now I got to need to trailer so I can tow my XJ to off-road parks.

[00:37:42:15 – 00:38:51:16]
Nice. So, and it, and I got to put an Atlas in it and I still haven’t been able to take it off road much, and I’ve got all these fun things to do with it. And so I haven’t changed the axles in it or anything like what you have. I mean, you’ve definitely done a lot more work on, on the, your XJ than I’ll be doing on mine, but I just want to take it off road. I’m not going to be towing things. Yeah, no, they’re great package. I, I still believe the XJ. I don’t think there’s anything else like it on the planet. You can go buy a used XJ disconnect this way bars, add a couple bucks and lift pucks and lift Springs, and you can keep up with almost anybody. Oh, it’s, it’s an amazing vehicle. I just got lucky. Just, I was going there to buy a Wrangler and we had two little girls and I went, look honey, it’s, it’s bright red. It’s our favorite color. It’s a four door. So the girls will be able to get in and out to spine. Of course, those, those back doors are about it. That’s about all that’s good for us kids. Cause the way they’re on there. And so we went with that and I’ve had it and the, we just got the, the gladiator in may, so it’s been my daily driver for 23, 24 years. Yeah. My wife wants a gladiator.

[00:38:52:17 – 00:39:00:15]
It’s really nice. It is really nice to go shopping. Well, you need to up do more YouTube videos so you can afford it. Yeah.

[00:39:02:05 – 00:40:53:23]
All right. So, uh, anyway, great conversation. And I think we’ve kind of already gone over, uh, the social media things, but let’s, uh, people are used to hearing at the end. So let’s go over that again. Work, where can people find you? I noticed you also have a website, Matt’s off-road recovery.com. And you got merch on there. Oh, I meant, I meant to mention this. You got a stinking little like Hotwheel Mattel, something or another, uh, yellow banana that you can buy off this site autograph banana Jeep. Yeah. Yeah. We, we do have those. Where did you get that? Is that something that you had specially made or somebody approached you? Or we made a phone call to Johnny lightning and, um, they have, they already had a little yellow XJ. So I just needed to change the artwork on it. So, but there, you know, some people are a little bit shocked at the price, but you got to realize I’m not Walmart. I’m not buying a million of these. I’m buying a couple thousand at a time. Oh, this, this is a, this is one of those things where you’re not buying a bunch of them, you’re getting one because you’re a fan of the channel, you’re a fan of Matt’s than everybody else that’s involved with it. And you’re getting this to have something on your wall. And if somebody walks in, especially your buddies, and this is an admit it, the majority of the modifications we put on our jeeps is to impress the buddies. So you can buy this autographed banana Jeep. And from, from Matt’s towing, it’s got Matt’s autograph on it. Yeah. And it really is my autograph. And they say. Down and signed every single one of those. And they say, is that from that, that YouTube channel? That it’s so cool. It’s worth the 50 bucks, but you guys got stickers, you’ve got logos, you know, you got all the good stuff. Hey, you even got recovery gear on there, which is a great idea. So check out Matt’s off-road recovery, Matt’s offroadrecovery.com. You know, if you add two or three more words in there, we make it even better.

[00:40:54:28 – 00:41:12:08]
This is for the link. And, uh, and you’re on the YouTube. Where else? That’s off-road recovery on YouTube and Matt’s off-road recovery on Facebook and Instagram, that was pretty, pretty easy across the board there. And don’t forget, you’re going to be on the tic-tac pretty soon. I think we are.

[00:41:13:22 – 00:41:22:21]
Lizzie’s been trying to teach me tic-tac dances. So, oh no, no, no, no, no. Think of the viewers. Hide your wives, hide your children.

[00:41:24:12 – 00:41:43:06]
Well, Matt, thank you very much. I’m glad we finally got you on here. We’ve been trying for a while and Chris, uh, over at sevenslats.com was able to, to make it happen between him and Jeff. And we certainly appreciate it. Uh, and, uh, we’d love to get you back on in the future. Well, I, I sure have enjoyed it. It’s been, been a good time. So.

[00:41:44:14 – 00:42:21:09]
Hey, thanks again to Matt for taking the time to talk about Matt’s off-road recovery. Matt and his team is a model of success in our social media world. Chris is just amazing to me how well they’re doing. And, and, you know, of course the, the XJ fan in me is just, uh, you know, a giddy little school girl because, uh, Matt was doing so much of this. And I think so much of his success was, uh, the, uh, the, the yellow banana, the, the, the Jeep Cherokee that he was doing all those modifications to it. Pulling so many people out of trouble. Absolutely. That’s a neat, neat vehicle. Need to watch. Yeah. And now he’s got a new banana.

[00:42:23:07 – 00:43:09:15]
So it’ll be interesting to see, uh, him using that, uh, that larger, heavier vehicle to do, uh, some of the other towing stuff. I don’t think that the XJ is going to go away. I think it’s still going to be used. It just will be used in conjunction with this other vehicle, but we’ll have to keep an eye on Matt’s YouTube, uh, channel and see what happens. Do you have an idea for a guest? Do you work in the off-road industry or know someone who does? Maybe you would like to be a guest in the Jeep talk show. Go to Jeep talk show.com slash contact now and share your idea for our next great guest with father’s day coming up this week. And Tony, I wanted to wish you and a happy father’s day and a happy father’s day to all the Jeep dads out there. And to those GPS that cannot drive a manual transmission, happy mother’s day. Fellas. I’m reading ahead.

[00:43:11:18 – 00:43:51:18]
My daughter is supposed to be teaching some guy at the Mercedes dealership, uh, how to drive a standard transmission. I think I talked about this out at the Jeep talk show, uh, off-road event. And, uh, I was like, the guy already bought the vehicle that he wanted to learn how to drive standard on and he drove it home and he may not have much clutch left, but he’s already gone through the first stages of learning how to drive a manual transmission. I mean, he, he, he was gone from point A to point B. So now it’s this practice. So anyway, uh, I told her, I said, I think he just probably likes you. That’s the reason why he wants you to teach him how to drive a standard. No, no, no, it’s not that dad.

[00:43:53:11 – 00:45:07:15]
Hey, coming up next week, Cody Cameron from bridge, com systems.com. Uh, GMRS, FRS ham radio. They have it all. And Chris keep getting these guests of last names. I can pronounce all like that. Uh, and in two weeks, speaking of pronouncing names, I, I, so for some strange reason, I can pronounce this name and watch, I probably won’t do it right. And in two weeks, Tony Pellegrino of gen right.com. And you know, uh, Jen Ryan has a lot of interesting and great products for, uh, for the Jeep and, but the thing that I talked to Tony most about was king of the hammers. Uh, and I think you guys know, I, I, I mean, I think king of hammers is just fine, but I don’t really get into the, uh, the off-road vehicle racing, but, uh, Tony and I got into a conversation about all of the redundant systems and things that he has to have on his king of the hammers vehicles. And, uh, I actually talked to Tony, I think it’s in the interview. Uh, I actually asked him about, uh, what’s the, what’s the odds that we could get, uh, maybe, uh, I could drive your, uh, uh, king of the hammers rig and we could get another king of the hammers rig for Josh to drive and we could have like a mini race and we could call it like a, uh, the red against black race.

[00:45:09:02 – 00:45:18:22]
So he just laughed. So I don’t know something about being a half million dollar vehicle or something and, uh, not having the proper insurance for me to drive it, but I could drive the

[00:45:18:22 – 00:46:02:20]
of it, I’m sure. It’s very easy to sign up for our newsletter. Just go to Jeep talk show.com slash contact. You’ll find a link to click and sign up and don’t worry. It’s as easy to unsubscribe as it is to subscribe. Well, that’s all the Jeep talk show we have for now, Jeepers, but until our next show, be sure and check out our tick tack. Well, it’s supposed to be called tick tock, but I call it tick tack. And as always, thank you for listening to the world’s most downloaded Jeep podcast. So Chris, I was telling my daughter the other day, something about that, uh, hurts when I pee Jeep thing. And I couldn’t remember exactly how it goes. I let’s see if I can remember it now. So I think I got that Jeep thing. Cause it burns when I pee. That’s right. Absolutely. It’s close enough.

 

https://mattsoffroadrecovery.com/

Links Mentioned in This Episode

Matt’s Off-Road Recovery https://www.youtube.com/c/MattsOffRoadRecovery
Winder Towing https://windertowing.com/about-us/