Jeep Talk Show

A Show About Jeeps!

Ep. 862 Factory Warn Winch on 2024 Rubicon: Game Changer?

**Episode 862 – Jurassic Park Jeep?**

I’m Tony and welcome to the Jeep Talk Show, the premier show for Jeep enthusiasts and hardcore off-roaders. Whether you’re new to the Jeep world or a seasoned Jeeper, we’ve got you covered with the latest news, tips, and advice to help you get the most out of your Jeep.

On this episode Tony and Larry dig into Jeep’s limited-edition Jurassic Park appearance package for the Wrangler and Gladiator, the first factory Warn winch option on the 2024 Rubicon, body armor and paint protection options (including Meek/MEK Magnet and Motobilt-style rocker protection), a practical Gladiator/JL cabin air filter service update, and a must-have LED upgrade for the classic XJ Cherokee. Classic rabbit holes include Jurassic Park movies, Twilight Zone, Iron Man/Jarvis ideas, Bronco competition, Rivian, Cybertruck, and full self-driving thoughts, plus a Nicky G caller bit.

### Key Highlights
– Limited-edition Jurassic Park appearance package (decals + optional transfer-case knob insert) — only 100 numbered sets for 2018–2024 Wrangler / 4xe and 2020–2023 Gladiator
– 2024 Wrangler Rubicon factory Warn winch (8,000 lb, synthetic rope, Jeep-specific fairlead) — fitment, capacity concerns with lifts/tires/armor, and why aftermarket may still win for modifiers
– Body armor discussion: aluminum corner/rocker protection, Meek Magnet removable trail armor, Motobilt-style integrated rocker/slider systems, gas-tank and underbody skids
– Gladiator / JL cabin air filter service — location (behind glovebox), reasons to change (pollen, airflow, blower motor strain), disposable vs. washable options, and real-world intervals
– Must-have: full LED side-marker assemblies for 1997–2001 XJ Cherokee (brighter line of light vs. single-bulb swaps)
– Reminders for Chick Chat, Patreon goal, newsletter, Discord, and socials

### Timestamps
00:00:00 – Intro and Winch Option Discussion
00:00:32 – Show Overview and Host Introduction
00:01:34 – Larry’s Rock-Hitting Banter
00:01:51 – Patreon Reminder and Chick Chat Promo
00:04:46 – Jurassic Park Jeep Appearance Package Overview
00:07:12 – Twilight Zone and Movie Talk
00:08:46 – Jurassic Park Sticker Package Details
00:12:17 – Opinions on Jurassic Park Films
00:13:26 – Marvel-Inspired Jeep Concepts and AI
00:14:41 – Sticker Choices and Jeep Magnet Accessories
00:15:13 – Mystery of ‘Fish’ Labels on Trucks
00:17:08 – 2024 Wrangler Factory Winch and New Bumper
00:25:57 – Winch Design, Bronco Competition, Industry Reflections
00:28:10 – Rivian Off-Road Capabilities and Impressions
00:28:59 – Tesla Cybertruck and Full-Self-Driving Future
00:32:57 – Robotic Drivers and AI Humor
00:33:29 – Electric Jeep Developments and Battery Concerns
00:34:36 – Tesla FSD Camera Driving and Safety
00:36:00 – AI Emerging Threats and Public Reactions
00:36:32 – Jeep Body Armor Options and Installation
00:40:57 – Armor Choices, Magnet Protectors, Future Plans
00:48:32 – Gladiator Cabin Air Filter Update
00:55:36 – Cabin Air Filter Replacement Process
00:56:21 – Closing Remarks and Nikki G Segment
00:56:54 – Nikki G Introduction and Discussion
00:57:41 – Food Analogy: Potatoes vs Rocks
00:58:03 – XJ Cherokee LED Side Marker Upgrade
01:00:09 – Incandescent Bulb Ban Implications
01:01:08 – Final Patreon Call-to-Action and Wrap-Up

### Support the Show
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Every other Monday check out **Chick Chat** with Julianne (Wrangle Herrs) and Wendy (Trail 411).

### Support the Show & Shop Jeep Gear
Thank you for watching and listening! If you enjoyed the conversation with Tony and Larry, consider checking out some of the great products and upgrades we discussed.

– **PureFlow Cabin Air Filter** (PC99454X – fits 2018+ Wrangler JL / 2020+ Gladiator JT)
[https://www.amazon.com/Pureflow-PC99454X-2018-20-Wrangler-Gladiator/dp/B08B399B6G](https://www.amazon.com/Pureflow-PC99454X-2018-20-Wrangler-Gladiator/dp/B08B399B6G)

– **LED Front Side Marker Lights** (amber, smoked or clear lens options for 1997–2001 Jeep Cherokee XJ)
[https://www.amazon.com/s?k=1997-2001+Jeep+Cherokee+XJ+LED+side+marker](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=1997-2001+Jeep+Cherokee+XJ+LED+side+marker)

– **K&N or comparable washable cabin air filter** options for JL/JT (search VF2064 or equivalent)
[https://www.amazon.com/s?k=K%26N+cabin+air+filter+Jeep+Wrangler+JL+Gladiator](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=K%26N+cabin+air+filter+Jeep+Wrangler+JL+Gladiator)

When you shop through our Amazon links it helps support the show at no extra cost to you.
Find more recommended Jeep gear, tools, and parts at [jeeptalkshow.com/amazon](https://jeeptalkshow.com/amazon).

Thanks for rolling with us — we’ll see you on the next episode of the Jeep Talk Show!

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Jeep Reveals Limited Edition Jurassic Park Appearance Package for Wrangler and Gladiator

Since then fans of the film and Jeep have been building their own custom recreations of the Wranglers from Jurassic Park. You’re bound to see at least one pop-up at any major Jeep meet or in the parking lot of Universal Studios. Some folks will to go great lengths to make sure their Jeep is as screen accurate as possible. Now Jeep is providing an easy way to have your own Jurassic Park Wrangler that is also sure to come with some bragging rights.

June 2023 was the 30th anniversary of Jurassic Park hitting theaters, so to celebrate—or capitalize on—the occasion, Jeep has announced an exclusive limited edition Jurassic Park Appearance Package. Essentially the package is a set of Jurassic Park-themed decals that can be applied to any 2018-2024 Jeep Wrangler, 2021-2024 Jeep Wrangler 4xe, or 2020-2023 Jeep Gladiator for $550. Now it should be said that the appearance package isn’t a 100 percent screen-accurate recreation of the design seen in the film, but it does come with some of the most recognizable elements like the Jurassic Park logo for the doors and the “JP18” logo for the hood. A Jurassic Park-themed transfer case knob insert is available with the package as an option, for $650 total.

Only 100 packages will be sold and each one is numbered from 00 to 99.

Installing a Factory Winch on the 2024 Jeep Wrangler Wasn’t as Easy as You Think

Motortend reports….

The 2024 Jeep Wrangler received a handful of off-road goodies and tech upgrades for its midcycle face-lift, including one very prominent and desirable feature worshiped by 4×4 enthusiasts. No, you can’t have the new Wrangler with a factory snorkel, but for the first time in its production history, the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon can roll off the assembly line with its own unique Warn winch in the front bumper.

This 8,000-pound-capacity puller appears to be based on the Warn Zeon 8-S, but Jeep explained the new winch was built specifically for the Wrangler. This Warn winch features a smaller drum holding 90 feet of synthetic winch rope (compared to 100 feet of similar rope on the Warn Zeon 8-S), as well as a Jeep-specific fairlead that anchors the winch hook to the driver side. We were also told this winch uses an “automotive grade grease” within the winch casing.

Jeep Talk Show Gladiator Update

Cabin Air Filter

Why do I care?

Allergies!  If you don’t have them chances are someone that rides with you does.

Reduced heating and cooling efficiency, and when it’s 100+ degrees in SE Texas, you want cooling efficiency!

Wear and tear.  The fan will have a harder time pushing the air through a dirty filter.  The fan works harder, and the motor may get hotter and fail prematurely.

Every 20k miles

Pureflow Cabin Air Filter PC99454X | Fits 2023-20 Jeep Gladiator, 2023-18 Wrangler $19.86

K&N Premium Cabin Air Filter: High Performance, Washable, Clean Airflow to your Cabin: Designed for Select 2018-2019 JEEP Wrangler JL and 2020 JEEP Gladiator, VF2064 $63.99

Must-Have Stuff Pick-of-the-Week for your Jeep!

FetonAuto Amber LED Front Side Marker Lights for 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Jeep Cherokee XJ Chassis Front Bumper Side Corner Parking Marker Turn Signal Light $30.99

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00:17 – 00:00:08:28]
Yeah, because the Jeep gets 6,000 pounds pretty easy. Just saying. Yeah. Even without a big dog. Even without a big dog.

[00:00:10:24 – 00:00:29:29]
So I mean, what’s your feeling on this? If you were buying a new, say a new Rubicon and the winch option was available, would you go this direction? I don’t know. I think it would just depend on what the price is, right? So I mean, if it’s heavily marked up, I don’t want to be paying for that winch for the next, however many years you take the loan out.

[00:00:32:22 – 00:01:17:13]
I’m Tony and welcome to the Jeep Talk Show, the premier show for Jeep enthusiasts and hardcore off-roaders. Whether you’re new to the Jeep world or a seasoned Jeeper, we’ve got you covered with the latest news, tips, advice to help you get the most out of your Jeep. On tonight’s episode, we’re going to be talking about limited edition Jurassic Park Jeeps, and this is from Jeep, folks. And Larry talks about armor on your Jeep. And in our Gladiator update, cabin, air filter, and you know, bonus here, it’ll also apply to you Wrangler JLGLU owners. And in our must have stuff for your Jeep, XJ Cherokee LED side marker lights. Yes, we give the Jeep, the original Jeep Cherokee, they’re all screaming right now.

[00:01:18:26 – 00:01:19:24]
I hate the crowd, go wild.

[00:01:21:09 – 00:01:24:21]
Some upgrade modification love.

[00:01:25:25 – 00:01:42:29]
Are you ready? It’s time for the Jeep Talk Show with hosts Tony, Josh, Wendy, and Chuck. Hi, I’m Larry and do you like to hit your rocks? Crap. That’s all right. That’s what you say when you hit the rock, Larry. Yeah.

[00:01:44:05 – 00:01:49:26]
Do you like to hit your Jeep on rocks? Oh no, it’s just a coral reef. It’s okay.

[00:01:51:21 – 00:02:34:12]
So, but Romain, I want to remind you guys really quick, no, we’re not going to start with the Patreon spiel yet. I just want to remind you guys real quick about our ongoing new episodes of Chick Chat. Yep. Monday has an episode and it’s Chick Chat, or I should say Mondays. And so we had one earlier this week. Hope you enjoyed it. Every other Monday is when those will be coming out. And if you don’t already know, Chick Chat is a woman centric episode run by Julianne of Wrangle Herrs and Wendy of Trail 411 and of course the Jeep Talk Show. So it’s women talking to women and men about off-roading Jeeps, all kinds of things, but from a female point of view.

[00:02:35:26 – 00:02:38:05]
Now it’s time for me to poke you about Patreon.

[00:02:39:21 – 00:04:18:20]
So I want to remind you guys that we are trying to get 100 Patreon subscribers. We are currently, as of today, we are currently at 35. It has really, really slowed down in the number of subscriptions we’re getting, but we’re very grateful for everybody that has subscribed, especially when we first started this thing. We had a lot of people subscribe all of a sudden, so it was clear that people were really appreciative of the work that we were doing here. And if you don’t know this, maybe you’re new and you’re hearing about this Patreon stuff a lot, we do four episodes a week and every other week we have five episodes. And that may increase to every week. You just have to stay tuned to find out. But if you appreciate what we’re doing here and you want us to keep doing it, help us out. Go over to Patreon and subscribe to us. And it’s really, really simple. Just go to jeeptalkshow.com slash contact. You look there and you’ll find all kinds of ways that you can contact us and a place where you could subscribe to our Patreon. And it’s, you know, it’s just five bucks. That’s all it takes to get started and help us hit that 100 subscription goal that we have. And just a tidbit here, when we hit 100, it’ll change to 200. But you know that’s going to happen, right? I mean, that makes sense. All right, Larry? Oh, absolutely. And don’t forget about the discount codes. Oh yeah. And you get discount codes, you get ad free content and what else? You get exclusive content. And Larry, I know you are a Patreon subscriber to the Jeep Talk Show. Do you listen to any of the Tony and Josh episodes? And you can, you can tell the truth here. You don’t have to play that. I’ve listened to one or two.

[00:04:19:23 – 00:04:28:22]
Is it so far in the past that it’s not interesting or is it like, oh, this is just nuts. It’s just time and it’s just time of the day, actually.

[00:04:30:16 – 00:04:44:12]
Yeah. We had a lot of fun doing that, that Tony and Josh show. And that was a few years back, like 2016 or something. So some of those, I mean, the jokes and the nonsense are still relevant today. At least I think so.

[00:04:46:00 – 00:05:20:14]
All right, Larry, as teased in the opening, Jeep reveals limited edition Jurassic Park appearance package for Wrangler and Gladiator. So you can have a Jurassic Park Gladiator literally years before when the movie was made and years before the modern day Gladiator came out. It’s your big dinosaur on the side of that Gladiator. Well, I’m thinking that a nice 50 caliber, maybe twin 50 caliber gun on the bed of the gladiator. Could you imagine the T-Rex chase if you had a twin 50 cal in the back of the gladiator?

[00:05:23:05 – 00:05:25:28]
That would have been an interesting twist on the movie.

[00:05:27:06 – 00:05:37:09]
Yeah, definitely. It’s the picture in the show notes, definitely. It’s kind of got that flavor that goes back to some of the original Jurassic Park Jeeps.

[00:05:38:26 – 00:05:51:21]
Yes, it does. And interestingly enough, this thing is a limited, well, it says limited edition, but we’re talking about really limited as in 100. They’re only going to make 100 of these.

[00:05:52:27 – 00:06:01:00]
Yeah, I’m looking at that picture. It almost looks like it’s based off of the Rubicon, at least the fenders and everything, are Rubicon fenders.

[00:06:02:06 – 00:06:12:02]
Well, you would think so. You’d want to go something that’s hardcore off-road. I mean, if this was a Fantasy Allen limited edition, then it wouldn’t matter because everything was paved on Fantasy Allen.

[00:06:14:04 – 00:06:21:29]
But they need lights. They need a set of lights, roof rack lights like they had, and they need to be all misaligned.

[00:06:23:26 – 00:06:26:27]
That still bothers me when I see it. That one light was way off.

[00:06:30:01 – 00:07:48:10]
Well, you never know where the dinosaurs were at. You know, they did the same thing. I think it was a Toyota in the movie Myst. I think it was Myst. You remember that one where they were all in that grocery store and all this fog came and there was all these wild creatures. And then they went to leave and he left in his, the main character, they all left in his Toyota that was set up for off-road and had the lights. And with all that fog and mist and stuff, I thought it was cool. The lights looked cool, but the lights were misaligned. I guess it was like those creatures may have come and landed on it and bent it or something is what they did. Yeah, that one didn’t end too well. Oh, God, it really did. That was surprising, wasn’t it? I hate movies with bad endings like that. I think it’s one of the reasons why I was never a Twilight Zone fan. My wife is a big Twilight Zone fan. Plus she wears, she watches murder shows. So I don’t know. It gets a little terrifying around here sometimes. To which Twilight Zone, are we talking the original Twilight Zone? Original. Or the newer ones? No, the original. I mean, the newer one, do you know that there’s three versions of it? I guess I knew this and had forgotten. There’s actually a 2020 version out and I think it’s available on Paramount+.

[00:07:49:25 – 00:08:38:28]
Hmm, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. Yeah, that’s a newer one. I want to say Peel, something in Peel. A couple of guys that I think were from Mad TV days, they’re kind of doing something on their Jordan. Jordan and Peel, I think, is who they are. And they’re doing that new Twilight Zone thing. It was interesting. I watched an episode the other day. I don’t know how much TikTok-ing you do, but I’ve been getting sucked into watching some shows just because they’re showing clips on TikTok. And I saw this really interesting concept for a movie or a series or something. And I just had never seen it, never heard about it. And looked in the comments and it said Twilight Zone. I went, “Really?” And then I had to do a little digging and I found out it was the latest iteration of Twilight Zone.

[00:08:39:28 – 00:08:44:17]
So, wouldn’t that Rod Serling, the original host? Yes, it was. Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:08:46:13 – 00:09:01:09]
So, in getting back to the limited edition Jurassic Park appearance package, and I think it’s interesting that they say “appearance package.” So I wonder if that means that it’s just like stickers and decals and stuff and nothing

[00:09:02:12 – 00:09:51:08]
mechanically different between the two. I mean, I think it’d be kind of cool if it would come with a little bit of amber with a mosquito embedded in it, hanging from the rearview mirror. Just so you could get the whole thing started if you needed to. But in June of 2023, the 30th anniversary of Jurassic Park was hitting theaters. So to celebrate or capitalize on the occasion, Jeep has announced an exclusive limited edition Jurassic Park appearance package. Essentially, the package is a set of Jurassic Park themed decals, there we go, that can be applied to the 2018, 2024 Jeep Wrangler 2021 or 2024 Jeep Wrangler 4XE or 4 by E or the 2020 to 2023 Jeep Gladiator for $550.

[00:09:52:11 – 00:10:27:00]
Now it should be said that the appearance package isn’t a 100% screen accurate recreation of the design seen in the film. But it does come with some of the most recognizable elements like a Jurassic Park logo and the doors and the JP18 logo for the hood. A Jurassic Park themed transfer case knob is, insert is available with a package and is an option for $650 total. Well now we understand why it says appearance package because it is a limited edition set of stickers. Right.

[00:10:28:06 – 00:10:34:10]
Yeah, so one of your pieces of amber is in the transfer case shifter. That would be cool. That would really be cool.

[00:10:35:15 – 00:13:18:11]
Well, I mean, if you’re into the whole Jurassic Park theme, I mean, it’s, you know, everybody likes their theme on their Jeep and everybody puts stickers on it if that’s what they like to do. So, you know, eats your own. Well, the cool thing about this is I initially was thinking that they were actually selling Jurassic Park Jeeps from the factory. But the cool thing about this is, is that it’s, it’s not the, you know, 50, 60, $70,000. It’s just the price for the sticker package. They’re limited. But, you know, I don’t know, Larry, you play with a lot of stuff over there at your house. You’ve got all kinds of machines. Do you have the ability to print stickers as well? Well, I don’t hear, but I mean, you know, we all know people who do. Right. But I mean, if you went to a shop that printed stickers and stuff, they may not feel comfortable in the copyright aspect of this. But if you have your own, well, let them come after me. You know, I mean, unless you’re wearing your Mickey Mouse shirt that you made at home to Disney, chances are you’re not going to get hurt. So I wonder if you could get those, also at those shops who were actually licensed by Jeep to print, you know, use the Jeep fonts and logos for the like Rubicon and that kind of thing for your Jeep. I wonder if they would have that sticker package there later. Hey, you never can tell. It’d be worth checking. I mean, of course you can always, and you know what? I was just, I kind of got ahead of myself. I think that it probably would be less than the amount that Jeep is charging because they’re probably having to pay some sort of licensing fee to a Jurassic Park. Well, I’m sure. Everybody gets their cut of that pie. Yep. Yep. Just curious, not trying to beat up on the movies, but did you watch any of, did you watch the original Jurassic Park movie? Yeah, we watched most of them. Did you? What did you think is it? I mean, I’m a big, I forget the guy’s name, Chris, Guardian of the Galaxy, Chris Guy. Chris Pratt. Pratt, is it Pratt? I’m a fan of his, especially from his hunting and cleaning of and eating of animals that he’s hunted. And you know, the whole, the whole manly man thing that Chris does. And he’s just fun and things that he does. But I just never really got interested in iteration after iteration of the Jurassic Park. I thought the original one was very entertaining, but I think a lot of it had to do with the actors and their interaction. I just didn’t see the same thing in the later movies. Yeah. I’m more of a fan of the later movies than the beginning movies. Interesting. Yeah. And it’s, you know, it’s just one of those, I think more of the actors, like Chris Pratt and them that are in it.

[00:13:19:17 – 00:13:25:18]
I’m not going to say it’s a little more action, but yeah, I like the later ones. Yeah, I think there is a lot more action in it.

[00:13:26:27 – 00:13:56:12]
I mean, you know, that all came on the heels of all the Avengers stuff. So it had to have a little bit. You know, it’s interesting too, talking about the Marvel movies. I was just amazed with the first Iron Man movie. It was funny. It was exciting. And I thought about it later. I actually read something about Tony Stark in the movie being a middle-aged superhero. And I went, Oh, well now I understand why I like this one so much. He’s like, with the right suit, I could do the same thing.

[00:13:57:16 – 00:14:14:04]
But the follow-up movies now, I mean, I just didn’t care for the follow-ups as much. The Captain America movies were good. The Iron Man movies won. The one was good. But the whole one where they had 50,000 superheroes on the screen at the same time, not so much.

[00:14:15:09 – 00:14:30:28]
So here you go. What about an Iron Man Jeep? That would be pretty cool. That could be cool. And especially, oh, this is going to be cool too. Whenever AI gets really, really out there, your infotainment system could be Jarvis.

[00:14:32:07 – 00:14:32:26]
There you go.

[00:14:35:23 – 00:14:39:11]
Oh, a million dollar Jeep idea right there. Like nobody else has come up with that one.

[00:14:41:15 – 00:14:51:10]
So I’m going to put you down for a no on the Jurassic Park stickers for your Jeep. Well, I might need them before long if I keep getting scratches on mine from wheeling.

[00:14:52:17 – 00:14:54:22]
Did you ever look at the Meek magnet stuff?

[00:14:56:11 – 00:15:12:14]
Not yet. Not yet. But you know about it. Oh yeah, I know about it. Yeah, we’ve had a few interviews here with the lady who started it. It was Monica as well, right? Mm hmm. Yeah, I mean, I’m thinking 50 pictures of Duke just all around your Jeep.

[00:15:13:27 – 00:15:14:09]
Yeah.

[00:15:16:05 – 00:15:18:00]
Duke transportation vehicle.

[00:15:19:15 – 00:15:20:27]
Please do not block.

[00:15:22:14 – 00:15:48:08]
I don’t know if you ever. I don’t know if this is a nation, depending on where you are in the nation thing. But I’ve noticed down here in the southeast Texas area, every so often I would see a vehicle, some sort of delivery vehicle or a box truck type thing. And they would not have a it wasn’t a logo or anything. It was a very simple, probably 10 or 12 inch high letters that said fish.

[00:15:49:18 – 00:17:06:02]
And I never understood why it was. If they had a fish or a fish, then they would put fish on the outside of the, usually the back of these things. And I don’t know if it had to do with warning people that they may have to, you know, not, not to block them in because there’s, they’re carrying fish or what. And it was, I never found any information on it. Did you ever see anything that just says a very simple generic fish on the back of a delivery vehicle? No, never have. Now, was that with an F or a pH? No. It was, it was not, it was not social engineering. It wasn’t fishing. It was a fish with, you know, like the proper spelling, the proper word for letters and that’s, they, it’s ever seen that. Yeah. Maybe, maybe one of our listeners out there knows the, the, the, the reason for that. I mean, there’s all kinds of things that we can come up with, but the, the official reason, it wasn’t like the same vehicles and the, the vehicles were nondescript. It wasn’t like they were, had a brand name or anything like that on the side, like, you know, sticks on the side and fish on the back. It was just a plain panel van. I mean, I think the only way it could have been better if it said 10 millimeter instead of fish, then, then I’ve really been interested.

[00:17:07:08 – 00:17:51:00]
Yeah. Can’t say I’ve ever seen that one. Okay. Well, we got it out anyway. All right. So this one I picked up from a motor trend, which you guys can go over there and read more about it from a motor trend. Uh, so it appears, uh, two things I learned from this, uh, installing a factory winch on the 2024 Jeep Wrangler, uh, wasn’t as easy as you think. And you can actually get a 2024 Jeep Wrangler with a winch installed from the factory. Had you heard about this, Larry? I’ve heard, I’ve heard that they started putting the, the worn winches in them now. Right. Well, and it’s not just the worn winches. For Jeep, you know, cause you can’t just take something off the shelf. Right.

[00:17:52:16 – 00:18:24:04]
So, uh, the, uh, it is a, the, the winch that you can get. Oh, and I’m sure you knew this. You used to be able to get a snorkels, uh, factory snorkels when you ordered your Wrangler. Were you aware of this? No, I didn’t know you could buy those factory on the, on the JL JT models or earlier? Uh, I would think that it was the JL’s the prior to 2024, uh, based on this article, but I could be wrong. Uh, but apparently you could get the snorkels, uh, but no winch. And now you can get a winch, but not a snorkel.

[00:18:25:09 – 00:19:00:23]
Hmm. Yeah. I never knew he could snorkel. Yep. So, um, the 2024 Jeep Wrangler recently received a handful of off-road goodies, uh, and tech upgrades for the mid cycle facelift, including one very worshiped, five four by four enthusiasts. Uh, no, you can’t have the new Wrangler with a factory snorkel, but for the first time in production history, the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon can roll off the assembly line with its own unique worn winch in the front bumper.

[00:19:02:13 – 00:19:20:04]
Hmm. Yeah. You know, that’s always, that’s, that’s always been kind of the thing that most people struggle with when you put any kind of winch on the, on the front of jails, at least trying to get a winch in there and where the, the housing isn’t hitting the front grill. Right. Oh yeah. Very true.

[00:19:21:21 – 00:20:11:29]
So this 8,000 pound, uh, capacity, uh, winch appears to be based on the worn xenon eight S, but Jeep explained that the new winch was built specifically for the Wrangler. Uh, this worn winch features a smaller drum holding 90 feet of synthetic winch rope compared to 100, uh, similar rope on the worn xenon eight S as well as a Jeep specific fairlead with the anchor winch hook on, uh, to the driver’s side, we also were told this winch uses an automatic grade grease. I’m sorry, automotive grade grease, which kind of makes more sense, uh, within the winch, uh, casting. So, um, what do you think? I mean, it’s, it’s 10 feet less. It sounds like they may have made this thing a little smaller to fit in the bumper, uh, better.

[00:20:13:12 – 00:20:34:22]
Yeah. Well, rarely do you get all the winch line out in any way and you can always put a, put an extension on it if you have to. Yeah. You don’t want, you don’t want to winch out all the, uh, have all the cable or synthetic rope out anyway. Uh, but, uh, you know, I don’t know, a hundred feet sounds better than 90. I mean, cause you can go 80 and, uh, on the hundred and still be doing really well.

[00:20:36:05 – 00:22:36:19]
Yeah. It’s kind of interesting that Fairleads got that. It’s got that post in the, in the show notes, you actually clip the hook onto. And I know they’ve came out with other Fairleads like that, that where you can slip, uh, the end of a synthetic loop over it as well. So it looks like it’s kind of taken off on that a little bit. That looks like that would be a really simple thing to, to build and add to any, uh, uh, Fairlead that you had, even if it was a, uh, uh, a cable, uh, line. Um, so, um, I think it’s cool that it says Jeep. I mean, you kind of expect that if you’re getting it from the factory, it’s, it’s a nice, uh, factory option. Uh, I don’t know. Uh, I kind of like it, but I don’t like the idea that it’s an 8,000 pound winch. I mean, if it’s a factory Jeep, okay. But what happens when you start lift kit, bigger tires, bigger wheels, uh, skid plates, maybe a full skid system on it. Um, a replacement rear bumper, maybe, uh, I guess you’re not going to replace the front bumper and that kind of limits you there too, because you might want to have a, uh, a more robust and don’t get me wrong. The, the Rubicon bumpers, at least on the, uh, the, the later model, uh, uh, Wrangler is very, is a very nice bumper. I mean, the ones that are plastic, the steel, the steel ones like, come on the Rubicons, um, they are very nice bumpers for a factory bumper. Uh, but I don’t know that I would want to be limited to that. Uh, I don’t, I mean, this, the, the winch is limited because it’s not a standard worn winch. Uh, the, I suspect they haven’t changed anything with the bumper. Uh, that, uh, they probably is just a standard steel, uh, Rubicon style bumper with a winch plate in it, but, uh, I don’t know. It did to me. I think it’s cool. If, if all you’re going to do is buy something and you’re not going to be adding stuff to it, uh, it kind of makes sense. But if you want to modify it yourself and put what you want on there, maybe have a 10,000 pound capacity winch instead of a 8,000, uh, this is kind of limiting.

[00:22:37:22 – 00:22:46:02]
Yeah. Cause the Jeep gets 6,000 pounds pretty easy. Just, just saying. Yeah. Well, even without a big dog, even without a big dog.

[00:22:47:28 – 00:26:15:29]
So, I mean, what’s your, what’s your feeling on this? If you were buying a new, uh, say a new Rubicon and the, the, the winch option was available, would you, would you go this direction? I don’t know. I think it would just depend on what the price is. Right. So, I mean, if it’s heavily marked up, I don’t want to be paying for that winch for the next however many years you take the loan out and then, you know, that, and that’s because the minute you started upgrading, if you peel that bumper off there, you know, you know how upgrade snowball. Yes. While you’re in there. Yeah. Now you’re still paying for that winch and everything else on that loan. That, so I guess it would just depend on what, what kind of price the factory puts on that and, uh, you know, well, you know, a lot of people, uh, try to sell, uh, like Facebook marketplace or, or whatever, they try to sell the takeoffs and if it’s some sort of plastic bumper that came on your Jeep, you’re probably not going to have a very good time selling that, uh, you had the right person that they’ve had the right accident than maybe, uh, but I bet you this would have a high price tag as the, the steel factory bumpers do. If you try to buy a steel factory bumper, you quickly find out that those things are pretty pricey online because they’re coveted. So, uh, the, the first time ever you can get a Warren winch, uh, that is built into the Jeep bumper. I bet you this is fetch a pretty good, uh, pretty good paycheck off of a Facebook marketplace or, or Craigslist. If anybody still uses Craigslist. Well, yeah. I mean, we all build our Jeeps, unless you’re going to this one tons and just crazy with it, a lot of us build our Jeeps out of takeoffs. So, you know, then the steel bumpers, when I was looking, they were quite pricey. Yeah. I wouldn’t have to market just, just for that reason. Yeah. I liked, I liked the look of that steel bumper. When you take the end caps off and it’s the stubby bumper, that’s good looking bumper. I love it. One of her, the, uh, the engineers, well, and I say the engineers, but also to the company, uh, that the engineers work for allow it. Uh, I really like it. Whenever the engineers design something that is, is very useful, uh, for, uh, for Jeepers, you know, you buy a Jeep and you have those, those fancy things like that, uh, I mean, that’s kind of what a Jeep is, is the, the ability to take off a top, uh, to change the top from a hard top to a soft top or no top, uh, all those variations, uh, I mean, that had to be engineered to start with. And it’s neat when you see more engineering like this thing, you would, you just mentioned like taking the ends off of the bumper so you could make it a more of a stubby bumper and, uh, the, the ability to add a winch, uh, without having to replace the bumper, maybe just, I can’t remember if the, the, I don’t think that the steel factory bumpers come with a winch plate. Uh, so you probably just have to get a winch plate for it, but that’s, it’s a damn sight better than, uh, getting a whole new bumper. You know, what they noticed in the show notes here that that 20, 24, a bumper, it looks like it’s got to be, I’m gonna call it a snubber or whatever you want to call it on the very front of it that I don’t remember being there on, uh, on the 23 models. You mean that, that thing poking for really far out? Right. Yeah. Uh, that does look a little strange. It looks like it sticks out further. I wonder if that’s to help protect the, uh, the winch. I don’t know. Or they put it on there for impact or something like that, because you know, they’ve added a few other features to the Jeeps.

[00:26:17:00 – 00:26:31:24]
Um, if I remember right, if you go into wheel well, it’s down low in the wheel. Well, there’s an extra piece in there for rollover protection that they’ve added. So I wonder if, you know, pieces like that have showed up just for that reason.

[00:26:33:03 – 00:27:13:12]
Well, it’s very interesting and I like this and, uh, I didn’t, I don’t have it here in the show notes, but, uh, I did read in the article, I think they were alluding to, uh, the fact that, uh, Bronco, uh, Ford Bronco may be the reason why we’re seeing things like this. Uh, certainly I believe that the V8, uh, in the Wrangler is, uh, is directly due to the Bronco coming out. Uh, I don’t know that much about Broncos. I don’t really read up on much information, but I suspect based on what I saw in the, uh, the article that, uh, this is a, an option either currently for the Ford Broncos or maybe upcoming, uh, being able to have a winch from the factory. Oh yeah. I love it when a Bronco keeps coming out with more and more stuff.

[00:27:14:14 – 00:28:17:22]
I don’t plan on buying one, but it forces everybody else to raise the game a little bit. Exactly. Uh, and, and I don’t mean any hatred to any of the Apple people out there. Cause I know there’s a lot of Apple, uh, fanboys and fan girls out there. Uh, but I decided a long time ago, I wasn’t interested in Apple because Apple makes too many decisions for me. I want to be able to make my own decisions. It’s like, uh, having a standard transmission or, uh, an Atlas transfer case where you can decide how you’re going to do things and you may decide to do it wrong, but you may, uh, do it better than what the automatic stuff would do. So I never was interested in Apple, but Apple pushes the industry. They, they make things, they have made things better, uh, and all the other, for all the other manufacturers. Uh, and it’s wonderful. And I’m, I am really happy that, uh, Ford has done what they have done and, uh, continued success, at least enough success so we can keep getting good stuff with Jeep. Absolutely. I don’t think we have to worry about, uh, uh, the Bronco taking over, uh, the Jeep market anytime soon.

[00:28:20:09 – 00:28:23:25]
Now, if Tesla starts coming out with something, uh, we’ll have to wait and see.

[00:28:26:24 – 00:32:43:18]
Yeah. I don’t think we had to worry about that. Uh, well, you know, there’s Rivian, uh, the Rivian actually has done several things to, to enhance its off-road capability. Uh, it doesn’t look very off-roady, but then again, a lot of the, uh, Toyotas and Suparoos and stuff that are out there being taken off-road don’t look off off-roady either, but they, but they have a tendency to do just fine. That Rivian’s a nice, uh, that’s a nice rig. I’ve actually got the C1 and kind of walk around it a little bit and, uh, things actually put together fairly well. You can walk around some of the other, then around some of the other vehicles and you just look at it and know that this thing isn’t, isn’t going to last. But that Rivian was actually kind of surprising. So, uh, I know that we’re going on another rabbit hole here, but absolutely I was, uh, I saw the inside of a Rivian, uh, one night went to a, uh, an off-road meeting type thing and, uh, came out, uh, with, uh, the guy actually went over there to meet and there was somebody that was part of that group that had a Rivian and of course he had it decked out with, you know, the, the rack and all kinds of crap, uh, that were on there. And then there’s nothing wrong with that. I just don’t see that thing being used for off-road as much as what he put on there. But the same thing happens to gladiators where people just load it up with all kinds of crap and, uh, it looks great going back and forth to work every day. Um, so, uh, and, uh, they, he said he was going to go, go for a ride. Would I like to go on? I said, no, I’m fine. I’m actually going to head home. Uh, but I looked in there and the, the dash, and I’ve made this comment before. The dash looked like it was something from Star Trek. It looked like a shuttle, uh, dash, uh, but it did have a steering wheel. We’re, and I always hated that the shuttle should at least have a joystick. And it was really cool looking. And I know that the, the Cybertruck from, from Tesla has not been officially released. I mean, they do have a production model out, uh, in Austin. They, that was like two, three weeks ago. Um, but, uh, I’ve only seen very small snippets of the interior and the interior has pedals, it has a steering wheel and it has a screen and seats. So it’s very, a very Spartan layout. I mean, it’s fine. I mean, what do you, what more do you need? But if you can sit in a Rivian and go, wow, this is like the future, you know, did I time travel and then you sit in another one where it’s just, I mean, it’s a truck. So yeah, I mean, a truck only needs to do what it needs to do. And anything else on there, uh, now you’re starting to talk about, you know, modern day, $80,000, uh, forwards and, uh, Chevy’s and stuff. And it’s like, is this a truck or is this just a big vehicle to cruise around in? Uh, and usually this is the ladder. So, uh, the big thing for the, the Cybertruck is going to be, uh, you know, how much, how much range it has, uh, how, how it holds up and how trucky it is. Can, how can you use it, uh, for actually for a truck? Uh, I don’t see anything about, uh, like a air suspension system, which I believe is what the Rivian has that you can use to lower or raise it, uh, for like off-road capabilities. Now I have heard that there, there’s going to be two, uh, two motor to electric motor version, uh, versions and four electric motor versions. And I would think that the four electric motor version is definitely going to be more, uh, likely to be a good off-road vehicle. Uh, the interesting thing is, is that, uh, I don’t know if you’ve followed this at all, I’ve been following it cause I’m a Tesla stock owner, uh, full self-driving is being, uh, is coming out, not the beta, but the one that is full self-driving. So it’s, it does a lot of people, uh, but the, they’re, they’re shooting for 10 times safer than what people could drive the vehicle. Uh, and did you do remember the movie, I robot where will Smith takes over the control of the car that’s doing 300 miles an hour and he’s being chastised about he’s not, uh, that’s not something he should be doing. It’s stupid. I, that’s the future. That’s what’s going to be happening. The, the, the insurance company will only pay a certain amount. If it’s proven that you were in control of the vehicle, whenever a wreck occurred, Mark my words.

[00:32:44:21 – 00:32:46:05]
And you may even get a citation.

[00:32:47:10 – 00:33:29:06]
Well, it’s already happened that, uh, there’s been a few accidents with some of the beta versions of that and a driver is still sued because it was up to them to disengage it. Yeah. Well, it makes sense. Um, I mean, I was already can be Johnny cab. Oh, it’s so funny. There was, I saw one of those, uh, robots that, that, that they’re working on, not Tesla, but another company, and it really reminded me a lot of the, the driver, in total recall, the Johnny cab use reference. And I think that would be hilarious. I mean, we’re looking at very soon that being a possibility, I wouldn’t be surprised if, uh, if Elon didn’t build one of those things, because they put the FSD in it, it’s, it would be hilarious.

[00:33:30:12 – 00:35:43:28]
We all know that Jeep’s been playing with, uh, full electric versions of it. Yeah. Right. And there’s, there’s been a new version at each of the EJS. So it’s, it’s coming. Yeah. So it’s going to be a very interesting world. And, uh, now I haven’t, I did not, I am not old enough to remember the early, uh, vehicles, but I do remember a lot of vehicles, uh, that have come along. So it just amazes me that in my lifetime, uh, we’ve gone from, uh, vehicles, uh, America made vehicles that might get 60,000 miles before you need to start thinking about replacing it, uh, to vehicles that are especially the electric ones that should have a very long duration, simply because of the, uh, heat cycles and the complexity, uh, that isn’t there like it is on internal combustion. Uh, really the only thing being, uh, the batteries, how long will the batteries last, how many times can you charge them? Uh, to, to being full self-driving and not anything that requires radar or light, our, or, uh, it only works in a, uh, an area where you have detailed information, uh, the, the Tesla stuff, the full self-driving, if you guys don’t know the full self-driving stuff, they use cameras. In other words, they’re using like eyes like we do to drive. So, uh, and, and artificial intelligence for training so that they can do a bunch of training, uh, without having to drive the car around and making mistakes. So yeah, uh, full self-driving is going to be amazing and, and, and getting a, a Cybertruck that can drive, um, for you. I mean, uh, Larry, you have to go to Home Depot or our welding shop or something like that. What, how, how cool would it be that you place your order online? You tell your Cybertruck to go pick up the stuff and the people at the, the place where you’re going to pick up your stuff already know that they’re going to be placing the things in the, in your vehicle and waving at the camera or whatever, when it’s okay to go or maybe holding up a barcode or something saying you’re ready to go and then the truck drives back home, backs into your driveway and you just take the stuff out and move it into your garage. Yeah. Now, how cool would that be? Well, I’m going to sound like every old guy out there.

[00:35:45:02 – 00:36:16:08]
When I say no, thank you. Oh, I think you’re going to change your tune. I really don’t want me or my family on the road with a bunch of vehicles going whenever, which direction without, without some inner, I’ll say people interaction in that cab. It’s happening now full self-driving is coming out. I know. There’s, and I’ve, and I’ve, I’ve said this before, there’s going to be a lot of fun just picking on the AI because you’re going to be able to swerve at the, the car when you don’t see a driver and it’s going to stop and it’s going to pull over.

[00:36:17:17 – 00:36:25:24]
It’s going to be so wimpy. So people will be going out on Friday nights and messing with the AI is looking for AI vehicles and messing with them.

[00:36:26:24 – 00:36:31:13]
Yeah. That’s how a cyberdyne starts, right? Yes.

[00:36:32:28 – 00:37:14:00]
Oh, that’ll be good. So Tony, what do you think about Jeep armor? Well, what do you, what do you mean? You mean like skid plates, um, fender well type things or that, uh, meek magnet stuff where you actually put it on the body. Maybe it’s a, the answer to that is yes. Well, it’s a little bit of yes, but I’m kind of thinking more of, uh, the actual body armor that wraps around the body. Now I know there’s been quite a few manufacturers out there who’s came up with the aluminum, you know, new, uh, corner pieces and everything there, you know, to help protect the tub, your, your Jeep so that if you’re out wheeling and you hit it and or camouflage after you hit it. Yes.

[00:37:15:22 – 00:42:47:24]
It’s always great to not have to worry about painting it or, uh, getting that Dan out of there, just put something over it. Right. You know, quite a few were making those, uh, really nice bent up aluminum pieces that go over those, the, uh, the rear corners and then you can, you know, get in where it comes all along the, uh, the bottom of the tub where you, where you smacked it cause you didn’t have rock way rock rails on it yet or, you know, so I’ve been, I’ve been seeing quite a few of those out there and really nice aluminum and it’s, I’m going to say it’s around an eighth or a three, 16th thick bent up aluminum pieces that, you know, I’m really kind of looking at, looking at a little bit more woman Toledo for the Toledo Jeep Fest this weekend. To see, you know, some of the stuff that came out there. Cause I’ve noticed that quite a few of the people who are making like aluminum skid plates and everything for the under are making all that stuff for the body now. And I was wondering, yeah, if that’s anything you would ever be interested in or. I think the only thing that I was interested in, um, uh, I kind of was, I kind of jumped a little too quick. I think, uh, when I got the, the sliders for the gladiator, um, part of that was had had to do with price too, cause I think it was like 600 bucks, uh, maybe less for the sliders that I got. Uh, and, uh, I don’t think it was until I got them that I realized the sliders, uh, did not tie into the frame. It really just ties into the pinch weld, the pin seam, right? They’re very strong. I mean, and they will hold the weight of the vehicle. Uh, but, uh, I really, uh, I was not looking forward to, uh, breaking those bolts loose to hold the, uh, the cab to the frame. Uh, but that’s kind of the, the, the best way to go about it. At least I think, um, now I did see, I, I got those before I started investigating the motor built stuff. And once I got the front bump, once I got the front bumper for them, I, uh, I started looking at more of the other stuff that they had, and I was really liking those sliders that they had and those sliders, and I don’t know what it’s called, but it goes up on the side of the gladiator as well, or, you know, the, the Wrangler, if you get it from the Wrangler where it provides protection, um, like in front of the door, uh, down below the door and, you know, all the way back to the, but the back of the cab of the gladiator, uh, I thought that probably would have been a better thing to get now, I do believe that they make those alone where they, you don’t have to get them along with the sliders, but I kind of liked the idea of that protection, uh, being, being there, the doors are still available to be damaged, which is kind of like, uh, one of the reasons why the, the beak magnet stuff, uh, there’s no, uh, permanent, uh, rivets or screws or whatever that you’re having to do to those doors is just stick it on there and peel it off whenever you, uh, whenever you need to or want to. Yeah. And so the motor belt, wouldn’t you’re talking about though, you got a rivnut those on the, isn’t that right? Um, I’m not sure. I didn’t never went into detail as far as figuring all that stuff out. Um, there, um, yeah, I’m just sitting here looking at the motor belt site real quick to see if I could find it. It looks like those, uh, the, the, the support brackets, um, the, not support brackets, the, uh, rocker armor for the, the, the Jeep, both of those, they have pieces that come up to protect the sides, uh, front, middle, and behind the door. So that’s kind of what the rocker guards, but they’re, they’re all part of the steps and stuff as well. They’re gorgeous, but, uh, I think they’re, they’re a lot more expensive than what I bought. Yeah. Usually you got a rivnut those on. Probably. I guess it, yeah, I guess it just depends too on how, how bad you’re going to beat on it. So if you’re really hitting it on the rocks, you know, some of that would be nice, but the meek magnet stuff would come in really nice, especially if you’re running like through the Ozarks with all the brush and everything, because from that standpoint, you know, right after mine was repainted, because I had some of that corrosion issue, the jails had, it was the week after we were beating on it in, uh, the bad lands with chip and, uh, and Steve-O and all this nice fresh pen stripes on that nice fresh paint. Those meek magnets would have came in handy. Well, and that’s, you can still get them and cover that up. Yeah, absolutely. Same thing we were talking about. Yeah. Same thing we were talking about, but I know what you mean. I like the idea. Now the, the, those covers that, uh, meek magnets, uh, that you can put on your, uh, your Jeep and I bet you somebody else makes them, but meek magnets, the only one I know about, uh, the one I recommend, um, but those, um, it’s, uh, it’s better to have them on before you pen stripe, because then you can, I mean, if nothing else, it’s a great for resale value because you can pull those things off or you can sell it with the covers. Uh, and if they want to take them off, they have really a pristine, uh, door that, uh, even though it was taken off road, it’s, it’s still pristine. Not, well, probably not the whole thing, but at least the majority of it. Cause I don’t think the, the, the, the cover covers the entire door. I mean, there’s an eighth of an inch or something there that make it, uh, messed up, of course, you can always do touch up paint on that really easily. Yeah. I think, I think my next piece of armor is going to be, I need to get the gas tank skid because I haven’t, I’ve been looking at my factory gas tank skid. And, uh, it’s got all kinds of dents and the corners are beat in, beat in on it.

[00:42:49:00 – 00:42:51:18]
And, uh, you probably got the five gallons now.

[00:42:52:19 – 00:42:53:21]
It’s not quite that bad yet.

[00:42:55:09 – 00:44:32:26]
So I run on the underside. I run at quadratec the aluminum skid system and I’ve got the aluminum engine and transfer case set up. And I need to put that gas tank skid on there for the, it’s a little bit lighter. I’ve, I’ve beat the tarnations out of those skid plates and, uh, so far so good, there’s aluminum plates have, uh, have held up pretty good. I’m really, I’m really hoping, I know we’re not talking about underneath skids, but I’m really hoping, uh, before, uh, EGS 2024, which ever, all you guys are invited to come out there and, and join us. Uh, I think it’s just fun. Uh, it was just great being out there with so many Jeep talk show people and Jeep talk to our team members, uh, for my first time there. I’m very anxious to go back, but anyway, I’m going to try really hard to get the motor belt, uh, skid plate system, uh, for the gladiator. I just love the way that looks and with all the stuff that I, I drug and, and, and I didn’t drag that much, uh, with, uh, with the, the mopar lift, the two inch mopar lift and 35 inch tires, I just, I drug really occasionally, but it’s still, it still sounds scary. Doesn’t it, Larry? Oh yeah. Yeah. And I remember the first time is taking a Jeep across that. You hear that grinding, you know, you just cringe, but anymore it’s like, all right, it didn’t hit it. It didn’t hit it quite as hard. I thought I was going to. It was like, well, it sounded bad, but I’m still going. And that was five days ago. Everything seems to be fine. It’s an experience thing. Yeah. There’s nothing wet going on behind me there. So, hey, we’re good. Yeah. The seat might be a little wet, but that’s, that’s your own problem. Yeah.

[00:44:34:11 – 00:46:07:08]
Yeah. So, uh, really it’s just kind of a insurance thing. Cause I’m thinking that if I’m dragging something underneath and I’m not talking about the, the end, cause the, the gladiator back of the gladiator is going to, you’re always going to drag on that one, depending on how, uh, what kind of ankle you’re going up or down in. Uh, but, um, it, it, I’m not going to worry about this, the scraping noise as much as if I got that really nice skid system underneath the Jeep. So would you put a separate skid system all the way in the back there? Cause they make those for the gladiator. Oh, I did not know this. Yeah. I didn’t know this. Uh, I, my, I might, uh, but with the, the motor built bumper I have back there, I think that one of those little shovel two inch receiver things, uh, would probably be the, the, I probably would go that direction before doing any kind of skid system, I mean, I’m covered behind the bed. You know, that, uh, that little critical area of the bed right behind the tires that can get crushed, I’m protected there. Um, the, the bumper is, is very heavy duty. Uh, I don’t see an issue other than, uh, the perhaps getting some skids for the lower control arms, front and rear. Yeah. We use our trail vice for a rear skid. I know you do. It’s funny seeing that thing. I’m going, aren’t you worried about it? No, it’s a, I’m doing product testing. Doing product testing. We’ve grabbed a little bit of weld off the bottom of that, but that thing, it, it, it supported the weight of that Jeep multiple occasions. We drag it across the rocks, use it as a skid plate.

[00:46:08:11 – 00:46:41:17]
So if somebody made a, uh, aluminum, uh, body skid system, uh, and maybe that’s what you’re talking about that they do, and you have to rivet it, uh, rivet it on or riveted on, would you, would you drill holes in your doors and stuff to put that on there? Well, if you want it on, you have to. Right. And, and typically that, that is either you’ve hit it a few times or you’re getting dangerously close with where you’re at. But that’s always the problem with that stuff. I mean, you got to, that first rivnut’s gotta be difficult to put in.

[00:46:43:01 – 00:46:52:11]
I mean, you gotta be sitting there looking at that drill and looking at that panel thinking, do I, cause once you start, you’re committed. Measure 25 times drill once. Yeah.

[00:46:53:15 – 00:46:56:00]
Yeah. That first one, that’s just got to hurt. Yeah.

[00:46:57:07 – 00:46:57:13]
Yeah.

[00:46:59:15 – 00:47:57:07]
I don’t know. I don’t know if I get, I’ve looked, I keep looking at it, but I’m like, well, I don’t know, it’s one of those, it’ll probably happen after I’ve damaged it. Then it’s like, well. Yeah. What does it matter now? You know, yeah. Not to lose at this point. Yeah. It’s cheaper than buying a new door. Uh, that probably the color won’t match anyway. But what do you think you would do as far as a finish on the panels? Would you, would you go with a textured panel, uh, or would you go with a smooth one and then just not care about the paint matching because you know, the paint’s not going to match if nothing else, just the way it lays on the metal is not going to match the way it lays on the doors. I don’t know the doors. I don’t know. I know that I’ve seen the, the aluminum ones in the rear that usually that’s where I see it and those actually look pretty good, but just the raw finish, you know, if you just clear it or, or just throw some, you know, something on us with us and corrode too much, but utility area. And I think is what, uh, what that is. Or it’s, it’s there for utility. Yeah.

[00:47:58:21 – 00:48:10:05]
We’re not messing around here. We’re not trying to get any kind of awards for this Jeep where we’re using it as a Jeep. Damn it. I’ve also seen those with a rapid and, uh, doesn’t look too bad either.

[00:48:11:23 – 00:48:13:25]
Let’s get a big band day. You know how those things work.

[00:48:14:28 – 00:48:15:28]
And nothing to see here.

[00:48:17:24 – 00:48:19:10]
That’s what you need is a police type.

[00:48:20:21 – 00:48:24:17]
Move along. Get a big Duke wrap for the back of that section.

[00:48:26:06 – 00:50:17:08]
All right. Well, uh, yeah, we’ll have to find out in future episodes, what you do about your Jeep armor, um, well, let’s talk a little bit about, uh, the mic gladiator update. So Larry, you have a cabin air filter in your JLU, right? Yes. Have you ever changed it? Multiple times. Um, so, um, did you notice anything or was it just a maintenance side of thing that you just did at red, you know, the regular intervals? Well, the last time I pulled them out, they were red. You can guess where that came from. Uh, I’ve been thinking about changing mine because of that same thing. Now, um, there’s a couple of ways that you can go the air filter that’s in there. And by the way, it’s behind your, um, uh, glove box. So you actually have to take the glove box out of there. Then it’s relatively easy to take out and put back in. Um, but the, um, you know, I was like, why don’t I, what do I care? I mean, I’ve never had a vehicle that had an air filter in it other than the engine bay, uh, never had one that I would, you know, that had to be filtered air for me in the, in the cabin. Uh, so I did like a little, uh, a little research about why I would even care about changing the air filter. Uh, and the, the, probably the number one that I didn’t think of, cause I don’t have allergies is, uh, the, the, the, the problem with the pollen and stuff that comes in from, from outside. Uh, now if you don’t have them, have allergies chances are somebody that rides with you does, or somebody that will drive your Jeep beside you, uh, does have allergies or are you, do you have allergies Larry? Yeah, I have a few. Then we keep up with it. And for no other reason, if, if you’re on the road a lot, which I am, it does make the drive a little bit nicer. Yeah. You know, how do you notice it?

[00:50:18:28 – 00:50:38:20]
Well, I can tell typically when it’s, uh, when they’re plugging up, it doesn’t feel like I get much airflow through, through the, through the cabin itself. Right. Yeah. Do you notice any kind of a cooling or heating issue? I want to really start getting a plugged up. Yeah. The, usually it just, because the system just doesn’t blow very hard.

[00:50:39:23 – 00:52:05:23]
So, uh, that’s the other thing I had here on my list is reduce heating and cooling. Uh, and, uh, it’s always possible that, uh, you’re making that, uh, motor work harder, the, the blower motor work harder because it’s trying to push air through there and the longer you go without changing that, that, uh, filter that’s clogged up, uh, the more than more likely that the fan motor is going to get hot and stop working, I mean, anything you can do to make it easier on that fan motor, I think will be better. Uh, of course you could always remove the filter altogether. And then, uh, it’s really gonna let the fan motor go, but you’re not going to have the allergy protection that you would normally get. Uh, of course, if you’re out at Easter Jeep Safari, you still get that red dust all in the vehicle, but that’s because you get the windows down or the doors off. Right. Right. Oh, exactly. And the other part of it is these vehicles aren’t cheap. You know, we’re not buying $10,000 Jeeps anymore. So when you’re, when you’re buying a Jeep, you’re in it 50, $90,000 spending what you buy. Mm-hmm. So you might as well take care of it. So, uh, the, from what I looked up, I didn’t look up, look this up in the manual or anything, but apparently the recommended, uh, filter changes every 20,000 miles is that, is that what you know, Larry, or how many miles do you go? Yeah, usually it’s probably around 50 ish. I think I’ve changed it three times ish on my Jeep and I’ve got almost a little over 125 on it. Mm-hmm.

[00:52:06:23 – 00:52:56:20]
So. Do, uh, do you just use a, uh, I don’t want to say cloth, but like a fabric type, like a, you know, like, like the standard ones that are in the air filters under the hood, is that the kind of that you use? Yeah. So I typically buy the Wix, the Wix brand ones and throw them in there and, uh, you know, they’re not washable or anything like that. So I just pull them out, throw them away and put the new ones in. Cool. Uh, oh, and is washable anything like washing them? But all up into where you’re from. Yeah. So did you do any looks, uh, for the, the ones that you can, uh, wash and, uh, replace like I saw the, the K and N, uh, premium cabin air filter, uh, washable, clean air flow for your cabin designed, uh, for the Wrangler JL and a gladiator.

[00:52:57:28 – 00:54:55:19]
Yeah. I guess I’ve never really kind of went with the whole replacement filter thing at all, whether it’s under the hood or anywhere else. You know, it’s, everybody’s got their, uh, their thought on that. And I’ve never, I’ve never went that route. Not that it’s a bad thing. It’s just never did. I just don’t, if it’s every 20,000 miles or more, I have a hard time justifying the cost because I looked up and it, uh, the, the Amazon recommended is the pure flow, uh, cabin air filter, uh, for the, the Wrangler and the gladiator. It’s a, it’s $19 and 86 cents. Uh, and I mean, if you got to do that every 20,000 miles, I’ve got 17,000 miles on my 2021 gladiator. Now, I think that’s a bit unusual, but, um, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s, it’s 20 bucks every gosh, two or three years, probably. I mean, 20,000 miles, you would figure you go at least a year and a half, uh, for, for regular driving, I think normal driving is around 12 K a year, at least. That that’s what they think when you lease a vehicle. Uh, it’s not often necessarily true. Uh, but the K and N premium cabin air filter is $63 and 99 cents also on Amazon. Yeah. Now I will say this, um, I did go, uh, more expensive for air filters for the house. Uh, I think that the air filters that we have for up, upstairs and downstairs kind of have a little bit of a strange dimension and they’re kind of pricey. Uh, so I got ones that were just like metal wire that you can clean. And, uh, so you don’t have to keep buying air filters and replacing them. Now the air filters, uh, the fiberglass or whatever it’s in there, those are a lot easier to change because there’s no cleaning, there’s no, uh, the wife asking, what is this stuff on the ground outside? Oh, that’s, uh, that’s dead skin, dear.

[00:54:57:13 – 00:55:16:16]
Nice. Yeah. So, uh, there’s a little bit of work, but it’s, I think it’s a great cost savings. So I would say that it’s a good idea to go with the, the K and N because you can wash it and reuse it, but I don’t know how much money it would save you. Uh, but because these are other air filters, aren’t that expensive.

[00:55:17:23 – 00:55:41:21]
Yeah. Maybe if you’re doing it under the hood, where you’re going to do it more frequently, but yeah, I don’t know. I guess that typically what I’ll do is about 20, 25,000 miles ish. I’ll buy a set of those. I’ll buy a new, uh, filter for the engine. Just change it both out. And yeah, that’s a good idea. And it’s looked pretty simple removing that glove compartment and getting to the filter. Right.

[00:55:42:22 – 00:55:57:04]
Yeah. You can hold, you can do with one hand while you film with the other might’ve done it. Would you say a 15, 15 minute job is about the way what that is? Yeah. That’s if you were sleeping. Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s pretty easy. And it gets the heart.

[00:55:58:08 – 00:56:20:01]
Yeah. The hardest part of that is if your glove box is just jam packed full of, of just junk, that’s, that’s the biggest job of it right there. Yeah. Where are you going to put all that stuff and where are you going to find it to put it all back in there? Oh, and not only find it, to put it back in there, but actually get it positioned the same way it was so you could close the damn thing. Right. There’s where all the labor is at right there.

[00:56:21:02 – 00:56:48:04]
Well, that’s our gladiator update for this episode. Hopefully, uh, if you haven’t been thinking about your cabin air filter like me, uh, you’ll think about it now and find that it’s very easy to change and hopefully, uh, you’ll actually notice it. I’m going to change mine, uh, very soon since I did this, uh, the research for this and I’ll let you know, I’ll put posting some pictures up of, uh, the big red spot that I’m sure is there from, uh, EJS 2023.

[00:56:50:05 – 00:57:29:25]
From the mind of Nicky G. Hey, this is Nicky G. And you mentioned that Ford selling the, uh, F one 50 lightning at a 40% loss. And that gives me a great idea. If everybody goes out and buys an F one 50 lightning, it will drive forward into bankruptcy and then we can go buy F two fifties at the closeout sale. Well, that’s not why I’m calling. I’m calling to ask what the heck was the first guy who milked a cow trying to do when he discovered you can get milk from a cow?

[00:57:31:06 – 00:57:35:20]
All right, boys and girls, I’ll catch you later. Can you have a good one? Bye.

[00:57:38:07 – 00:57:39:16]
He’s got a battle point there.

[00:57:41:03 – 00:57:58:05]
I asked my wife sometimes when we were eating various things, especially vegetables, uh, and potatoes, potatoes grow on the ground. Who dug the thing out of the ground and went, Hmm, that looks tasty. Looks like a rock. Hey, Billy, come here.

[00:57:59:09 – 00:58:00:13]
Yeah, exactly.

[00:58:01:17 – 00:58:03:00]
Try this. Yeah.

[00:58:04:05 – 01:00:00:00]
So in the, this week’s must have stuff pick for your Jeep. Uh, gonna be talking about the Jeep Cherokee. No, not that one. The XJ, you know, the one that they made 3 million of and had the 4.0 4.0 liter engine. Yeah, I know there’s some of them had the 2.5, but we’re not going to talk about that. That’s like the bastard child. Um, so, uh, one of the things I did on my XJ a long time ago, when led prices really came down, I started replacing all the incandescents, uh, on my, uh, my Cherokee with LEDs. Uh, they were brighter. They were much less power consumption on them and, uh, they just, they just made it a more modern vehicle. Well, uh, I found recently that, uh, even though, uh, what I did was I bought one, a little led bulb to go in the same place that the incandescent one went in. Uh, they actually have full replacement side marker lights that are led. And it’s a strip, a line of LEDs. So not only do you get that one little point of bright light, and then the, the rest of it kind of shines into the rest of the, the not bezel, but the refractive light thing, this one will give you a nice bright line. And the more people that can see you, see you while you’re driving around at night or in a bad weather, rain, and so on and so forth, I think the better. These things, uh, amber led front side marker lights, it’s for the 97 through 2001 Jeep Cherokee XJ, uh, and it’s basically the front bumper side corner markers, uh, turn signal lights, uh, pair of them $30 and 99 cents. I mean, modernize your XJ and maybe you’ve done the same thing. You’ve put those little led bulbs, uh, and they’re replacing the incandescents. But this is like the next step. This is like, um, more modern day looking. I like them. I mean, I haven’t driven my XJ since I got my gladiator. I still want to buy these things.

[01:00:01:18 – 01:02:10:11]
I’m going to, how many people out there with an XJ can still get those lights in there, oh, just to be, just from being hit and beat on in the trail. Oh yeah. I see what you mean. But did you know that, uh, I’ve seen reports that incandescent bulbs are now illegal to buy in the United States. I can only guess where. They just don’t like it. Uh, I guess cause the energy type thing, but pretty soon all the gas stoves and, uh, uh, gas dryers and all the rest of that stuff. Wouldn’t that be funny? The bulbs aren’t carb compliant. Yeah. Wouldn’t that be funny if, uh, if it did the election irregularities or, uh, of not saying it was, but potentially fake, uh, um, uh, health concerns for the nation, all that stuff didn’t cause an uprising, but as soon as you ban incandescent bulbs, that’s, that’s the last straw that governments over time. That’s a tipping point. You went too far. Now, the only thing I can think of for me personally is if they banned watermelon. Oh man, there would be some hell to pay if they banned watermelon. I love me some watermelon. Absolutely. All right. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Jeep talk show. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform, I think Apple probably is the one we, we check the most. So go over to Apple and give us review. Uh, your feedback helps us, helps us improve the show and reach more Jeep enthusiasts like yourself. Oh, and don’t forget to follow us on social media. You know, we’re on the tick tack. We’re on the Instagram. Uh, help her on Facebook. I think we’re on all of them, but Pinterest, uh, just not Pinterest. It hadn’t been that joke in a while. Uh, and be sure and sign up for our email newsletter and stay up to date on our latest, uh, Jeep news and events and giveaways. Somebody recently said that they were, uh, they wanted to be on in the zoom meeting on a Tuesday night when we recorded for the, uh, uh, the round table episode that we publish every, every Wednesday. And they just keep forgetting about it. And I said, are you signed up to an email? I said, are you signed up to an our newsletter? There was a long pause and this is, this is on discord. It was a long pause. He goes, I am now.

[01:02:12:17 – 01:02:16:11]
What does that cost? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Yeah.

[01:02:21:06 – 01:03:11:25]
So, uh, yeah, this is, this is kind of cool. Uh, you only pay for the Jeep talk show if you want to. Uh, and we hope that you would consider doing that just because of the great entertainment and information that you get. And there’s so much entertainment that you get from the show so many days a week. And now it’s even more with chick chat. Uh, and the, the bonus is you don’t have to listen to me talk. It’s, it’s completely Julianne and Wendy talking. So we’ve got a women’s point of view, uh, definitely got men point of view during the week. And of course we have a Wendy’s point of view, uh, normally when she’s not, uh, in Vegas, uh, here on these episodes. So, uh, go over to the Jeep talk show.com slash contact. You can see how you can become a Patreon subscriber. You can see how you can join our discord, uh, and you can sign up for a newsletter and get a reminder every week so that you can be part of the round table in our zoom.

[01:03:12:25 – 01:03:17:00]
Hey, thanks again for listening and we’ll see you on the next episode of the Jeep talk show.

[01:03:20:04 – 01:03:28:17]
I just thought of something to do. If I remove the please for subscribing to our Patreon from the Patreon episodes, would you subscribe then?

[01:03:30:03 – 01:03:33:00]
Oh, before I forget, please subscribe to our Patreon.