Jeep Still Worth It With High Gas Prices
Tony and Chris catch up on the Jeep Talk Show about why people still want a Jeep even when gas prices and sales numbers make it tough, how the community and mods keep the love going, and real-world use of a Gladiator. They talk through fixing a vibration on a TJ with a cheap Amazon driveshaft, why a Jeep feels like a superpower in floods or tight spots, and the ongoing install of a Wolfbox G900 Pro tri-camera mirror on Tony’s Gladiator, including the front nose cam for trail visibility, sentry mode, and practical mounting notes. Chris also shares how the R/Thair Camper has worked out on his Gladiator for camping without the cost of a traditional setup.
Timestamps
Key Highlights
- Gas prices, hybrids like the 4xe, and why people still choose a Jeep over a pure commuter even when it costs more to run
- Tony’s wife’s TJ vibration fixed with a $130 Amazon driveshaft so she can enjoy the Wrangler again while the Gladiator is away
- Jeep as a practical tool for floods, curbs, and getting places other vehicles can’t—plus the community side of the “Jeep wave”
- Wolfbox G900 Pro tri-camera install: front nose cam for cresting obstacles, rear and dash recording, sentry mode, and the visor interference issue on wider mirrors
- R/Thair Camper on the Gladiator—lightweight inflatable shelter that sleeps well, packs down, and has already been used for multiple trips
If you liked this Jeep Talk Show conversation with Tony and Chris, hit the like button, drop a comment with your own Wolfbox experience or how many Jeeps you’ve owned at once, subscribe for more real talk, and visit jeeptalkshow.com for the full archive and contact info.
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WOLFBOX G900 PRO Mirror Dash Cam with Front 4K and Rear 2.5K
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Universal License Plate Camera Mount for Dash Cams
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Episode Transcript
[-00:00:02:10 – 00:00:04:22]
(Keyboard Clicking)
[00:00:17:14 – 00:00:54:16]
Speaker 1
Absolutely, just the ability to have a Jeep, especially with the cost, or how unsuccessful Jeep has been being with their sales. And I think a lot of that has to do with gas prices. We were chatting a little bit about electric vehicles prior. You were actually looking at maybe getting an electric vehicle through a suggestion by somebody else, not for your personal vehicle, but getting an electric vehicle. And I think that electric vehicles are still seen as, well, that’s nice. I like my electric vehicle when I go play golf.
[00:00:55:26 – 00:01:15:01]
Speaker 1
But driving hundreds of miles. But I think a lot more people are buying electric vehicles because of the cost of gas and diesel. And I think it’s gonna be a short-term thing. Maybe I’m drinking the Kool-Aid, but I see the price of gasoline dropping vigorously pretty soon.
[00:01:23:13 – 00:01:25:04]
Speaker 1
That’s the religion, yeah.
[00:01:25:04 – 00:02:09:26]
(Laughs) (Silence) (Laughs) (Silence)
[00:02:10:28 – 00:02:39:21]
Speaker 1
Well, you remember Travis had one. He always, and Matt, and you would almost, those guys would almost take offense if you said anything negative about the 4xe. And that means a lot. That means they really liked it. And getting into what we’ve reported to hear about how Jeep made this vehicle, and they did a very interesting way, I think, of creating a hybrid vehicle. You know how I feel about hybrids is that it’s two things to go wrong.
[00:02:40:27 – 00:02:41:13]
Speaker 1
I still
[00:02:42:20 – 00:02:52:08]
Speaker 1
remember my dad telling me, “Don’t get power windows.” This is back in the 70s. “Don’t get power windows. Don’t get power locks because that’s the more stuff that can go wrong that you have to fix.”
[00:02:53:18 – 00:03:04:21]
Speaker 1
But nowadays, it’s pretty well standard. I think that, I don’t think they sell Jeeps with a manual roll-down windows anymore. I think the last one was two, three years ago.
[00:03:38:19 – 00:03:39:06]
Speaker 1
Well, you
[00:03:40:21 – 00:03:42:18]
Speaker 1
work in the industry. You know what a pain in the
[00:03:42:18 – 00:03:58:28]
Speaker 1
it is with inventory. So if you can minimize inventory, you’re making it easier for the dealers as far as repairing things because they don’t have to learn nothing about them mechanical locks. It’s just to replace the module.
[00:03:58:28 – 00:04:21:28]
(Mouse Clicking)
[00:04:21:28 – 00:04:22:07]
Speaker 2
Right.
[00:04:22:07 – 00:04:36:18]
(Mouse Clicking)
[00:04:36:18 – 00:04:37:07]
Speaker 2
Oh yeah.
[00:04:40:13 – 00:05:02:19]
Speaker 1
Well, just the sun coming in. It could be 40 degrees outside, but just the sun coming in, it’s a little cooker from the solar radiation bouncing around inside. So getting back to the good news and the bad news type stuff, there’s always things that you can ruminate on how horrible things are. I don’t make enough money. I can’t afford to buy hamburger meat.
[00:05:04:19 – 00:05:10:25]
Speaker 1
I can’t have a steak anymore because it’s just too expensive even if I buy it and cook it myself. But
[00:05:10:25 – 00:05:18:12]
Speaker 1
it, you could still have a Jeep. I mean, if all those things are really important to you and you wanna
[00:05:19:19 – 00:05:52:08]
Speaker 1
spend as little as money as possible on the energy needed to move your vehicle, yeah, absolutely. You can buy an inexpensive vehicle. I mean, I remember Josh, he had the XJ and he would have to drive 40 miles, two and 40 miles back from work. And it was costing him $1,000 or something, taking his modified XJ. I think he was around 800 a month. So the economics of that was really simple. I’ll just get me a junker. Remember that one that got stolen every three weeks?
[00:05:54:09 – 00:05:59:02]
Speaker 1
Yeah, like six or seven times. One time while we were recording the show, he says, “I’ll be right back.”
[00:05:59:02 – 00:06:00:01]
(Laughs)
[00:06:00:01 – 00:06:12:23]
Speaker 1
He takes off. But anyway, that was that junker and it saved him so much money. And also too, just so if you guys don’t remember, he always got it back. The police would recover it.
[00:06:12:23 – 00:06:13:23]
(Laughs)
[00:06:13:23 – 00:06:15:21]
Speaker 1
And he always had more
[00:06:15:21 – 00:06:26:09]
Speaker 1
inside the vehicle than when it left. So they were leaving stuff in there. Anyway, it was hilarious. And it wasn’t anything we set up. It was this life in Oregon.
[00:06:28:03 – 00:06:29:20]
Speaker 1
So anyway,
[00:06:30:23 – 00:06:31:02]
Speaker 1
but…
[00:06:35:12 – 00:06:36:13]
Speaker 1
I don’t know who that is.
[00:06:36:13 – 00:06:40:03]
(Keyboard Clacking)
[00:06:43:00 – 00:06:44:20]
Speaker 1
Never seen it. Yeah, never seen it.
[00:06:50:09 – 00:07:04:10]
Speaker 1
Oh, I love how many references. It doesn’t matter. As long as I think it’s funny, you’re gonna hear it from me. So that’s a case of where Josh had to drive a long way to work. They weren’t paying him what he’s worth. My word’s not his.
[00:07:05:21 – 00:07:48:13]
Speaker 1
He was a CAD designer. And they were paying him next to nothing. And he was driving 40 miles, 80 miles round trip. And he had to buy a second vehicle. He didn’t sell his Cherokee and just get a commuter vehicle. He kept the Cherokee and bought a commuter vehicle because he still wanted his Cherokee because he loved his Jeep. And I think that that’s what a lot of people don’t understand. They see the community, the Jeep wave, the ducking of Jeeps, these special things that Jeep people are special. And I say, I mean, special in a good way.
[00:07:50:16 – 00:08:03:16]
Speaker 1
You’re part of this community, you’re part of the Jeep community. You can be part of the Jeep Talks show community. And it is a positive thing. It makes you feel good. When was the last time you
[00:08:04:20 – 00:08:32:16]
Speaker 1
got out of your blazer? I think they still make blazers. You got out of your Toyota and you’re walking into the grocery store and you turn around and look at your vehicle and think, oh, that’s just a beautiful vehicle. I’d love that vehicle. You can, I think maybe it can happen, but it’s more likely to happen on a Jeep and especially one that you modify. And I think that is the ultimate secret of the love for Jeeps, the modifications that you can make.
[00:08:34:08 – 00:08:45:11]
Speaker 1
Are
[00:08:49:00 – 00:08:54:13]
Speaker 1
people just walking up to you and asking you questions or telling you nice Jeep or something and they’re not Jeep people.
[00:08:56:11 – 00:08:58:16]
Speaker 1
And that’s why I think it goes back to,
[00:08:59:25 – 00:09:21:29]
Speaker 1
I think at some point in your life, you want a Jeep. It is something that I think most people go, I really would like to have a Jeep. I would hate to have been 80, 90 years old and go, you know, I never got a Jeep. I should have got a Jeep. It may have been the worst decision in my life, but I wish I had experienced it to know.
[00:09:25:19 – 00:09:31:26]
Speaker 1
jeep clicking) So was your first Jeep, was your JK, right? Or did, oh no, you had a YJ before that, right?
[00:10:31:26 – 00:10:49:29]
Speaker 2
Right.
[00:10:57:09 – 00:11:31:14]
Speaker 1
So my wife, my mother-in-law has had some medical issues and it’s not anything, it’s not severe, it’s not dementia. They were concerned that it might be dementia because she was having some cognitive issues, but it was more her medication and strangely it was a urinary tract infection that was causing the cognitive issues, which I’ve never heard of before, but thank God it wasn’t dementia. Anyway, the family, the brothers, the two sisters, one of them being my wife, have been
[00:11:33:14 – 00:11:53:28]
Speaker 1
staying with her since my father-in-law died a couple of years ago. She’s there by herself at the house. So my wife has been taken the gladiator and she’ll stay three and four days at, and we’re going to talk about the Wolfbox installation because it’s kind of hard to install a gladiator when it’s at the mother-in-law’s house. But anyway,
[00:11:55:00 – 00:12:17:13]
Speaker 1
so my wife loves, absolutely loves the gladiator, but she really loves her TJ. And I think, I don’t know if you remember or not, I had changed the U-joints in her rear driveshaft and there was a slight vibration in it. It scared her and I said, it’s fine. I mean, good Lord, the XJ,
[00:12:19:21 – 00:12:30:12]
Speaker 1
depending on what was going on, I would drive it daily and it’s just fine, but she would not drive the TJ. I finally found a $130 driveshaft on
[00:12:31:24 – 00:12:52:02]
Speaker 1
Amazon. Got it, looked at the reviews and stuff, got it, installed it smooth as butter, just like it was prior. And I figured that was a lot easier than trying to get another U-joint, putting it in there and then try it out and just have the same problem happening. Because that slight vibration, you know those driveshafts are about this long.
[00:12:53:04 – 00:13:31:09]
Speaker 1
They’re tiny short. Anyway, so I’ve been working on getting the TJ roadworthy because my wife loves her TJ, her Wrangler, and she wants to drive it again. So I’ve been driving it because the gladiator’s not here and it’s a lot of fun, but good Lord, the bucking, the, I mean, it’s a Jeep, man. It’s a Jeep. But boy, and you have a gladiator, you have a 2020 gladiator, you know how smooth that thing is. Did you notice much of a difference between how smooth it was between your JK and the gladiator?
[00:13:38:09 – 00:13:42:07]
Speaker 1
And I don’t think a Jeep has to be smooth. I’m sure that CJ wasn’t smooth,
[00:13:43:26 – 00:14:13:12]
Speaker 1
but it’s something that I really notice driving the TJ, but the TJ is a lot of fun to drive, especially parking. And you don’t have to turn that wheel much. Yeah, you don’t have to turn that steering wheel much for it to just, you know, like a snake. It’s just, it’s really cool. And we’re very lucky that we have multiple Jeeps here. So I mean, I hate to, I hate to wind everybody up about you need to get a Jeep. You need to experience that in your life like you’ve wanted to, but having multiple Jeeps is even more fun.
[00:14:49:02 – 00:14:50:22]
Speaker 1
True, two door convertible man.
[00:15:35:01 – 00:16:10:13]
Speaker 1
Yeah, and you don’t have to take it off road. I think you’re missing out. Uh, I actually, yeah, I actually mentioned it today in an interview I did with, uh, with Ruby that, uh, having a Jeep is like having a superpower because it could absolutely stop. You can go places that nobody else can go. Uh, the civilians driving their little four wheelers like they think whether, uh, we’ll refer to them as you have to have paved or nearly paved surfaces to go places. I mean, unless you’re doing a full send and you’re not planning on driving it out,
[00:16:12:10 – 00:17:07:15]
Speaker 1
but you get to go, you get to see. And, uh, in many cases you get to go there with other people that have the light mindset. Oh, speaking of mindset, I, I’m sure that us Jeepers are on a list someplace with Homeland security or, uh, whatever, uh, with, with these agencies that keep an eye on the public because G people are also self sufficient. It’s not a hundred percent, but I think that generally speaking, uh, G people are more self sufficient. I mean, just having the, the courage to buy a vehicle that is radically different than everybody else. What they buy is, is a warning sign for some governmental agencies. I believe because those are the potential troublemakers, the ones that aren’t going along. And I like not being one person that goes along with, with the majority.
[00:18:11:18 – 00:18:43:14]
Speaker 1
Were you at the Jeep talk show, Texas event one year when I think a guy from Houston with a YJ came out to tour of two of our events and one year there were 37 Jeepers all standing around his Jeep trying to try to fix it so that it would run. That was the first action. That was the first year because Josh was there as well. And it was so funny. He drove that thing three and a half hours, no top, uh, to, uh, hidden falls. And then he, he flips it.
[00:18:55:03 – 00:19:00:09]
Speaker 1
Oh, that’s right. You and Josh went back to the airport and spent several hours chatting while you were waiting for your flights.
[00:19:10:27 – 00:19:21:22]
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah.
[00:19:26:00 – 00:19:43:29]
Speaker 1
Yeah. And, and, and you guys got it back up. Uh, I don’t know if you guys, I don’t know if you were involved in that, but you guys got it back up. Uh, while I was trying to find where it was, I figured if nothing else, it’s a great photo opportunity. Uh, but it was, it, it was back up on its, on its feet, so to speak. And he drove the
[00:19:43:29 – 00:19:49:16]
Speaker 1
thing, but back home, the Houston three and a half hours after the, after the event was over. So
[00:19:55:28 – 00:20:07:05]
Speaker 1
yeah, I think so too. But, uh, that’s an example of an adventure in a Jeep, an old Jeep, because it was a YJ and it had problems.
[00:20:10:07 – 00:20:41:22]
Speaker 1
That’s right. It had its problems. He worked through it and it got him out there and it got him home. Uh, and if it hadn’t, it got, we hadn’t got it started and running. He would have just wrote a road with somebody else and then dealt with whatever needed to be fixed. Actually, I think that they actually did a run, uh, into marble falls for, for a part or something. Um, if I remember right. So, uh, I mean, that’s another reason why you don’t go alone and you need to go with somebody that has a capable off-road
[00:21:41:22 – 00:21:54:22]
(Blank Audio)
[00:21:54:22 – 00:22:02:01]
Speaker 1
So
[00:22:02:01 – 00:22:34:01]
Speaker 1
Hey, new to the Jeep Talk Show, we’ve been doing this for 16 years since December 2010, with 1,500 episodes available on YouTube and everywhere you can find great audio-only podcasts. Real Jeep Talk mods, trail stories, and the community that makes it worthwhile. Want to help keep it going? A Patreon membership starts cheaper than one Uber Eats order. Or if money’s tight, no problem, just hit the like, drop a comment, or tell a friend. It only takes a moment to support the show you love, the Jeep Talk Show.
[00:22:34:01 – 00:22:41:09]
Speaker 1
this is a bit negative, but I don’t wanna say, I don’t want people to think that
[00:22:42:12 – 00:22:45:01]
Speaker 1
jeepers are non-judgmental. They are.
[00:22:46:02 – 00:22:46:21]
Speaker 1
You’re talking about
[00:22:47:25 – 00:23:01:03]
Speaker 1
meeting up with other jeepers along the way, your single use friend analogy. If you don’t have your jeep configured properly, you will get judged by jeepers.
[00:23:02:17 – 00:23:17:26]
Speaker 1
22 inch rims on an off road jeep, for example. And that is an indication that either you’re a renegade, you’re a rebel and you know what’s going on. But more than likely, you don’t.
[00:23:17:26 – 00:23:18:21]
(Laugh)
[00:23:18:21 – 00:23:50:21]
Speaker 1
You don’t know how the jeep should be configured. And people may shake their heads, they may judge you because of it. You say you don’t give a crap, that’s fine. But you can actually hurt your ability to drive off road, depending on what you choose to put on there. And 22 inch rims or I think stock is 17 on the JL, the JT and I think they’re seven and a half by 17s. And I think 17 is a lot
[00:23:52:04 – 00:23:59:21]
Speaker 1
because the trick to going off road is rubber. And if it’s more wheel than rubber,
[00:24:00:24 – 00:24:14:26]
Speaker 1
it impedes your ability to drive off road as well as you can with more tire. I’m not going to go into why, but I’m just letting you know that if you’re if you’re thinking about getting the Jeep and you want to, you don’t care about going off road.
[00:24:16:13 – 00:24:52:07]
Speaker 1
This is another positive thing about having a Jeep, weather, earthquakes, hurricanes. I mean, the appropriate thing to do is to not be outside or get in from outside as quickly as possible. But what if your wife or children are in a situation where you need to be able to get them, a Jeep is going to help you get there again, superpowers. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to be okay. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to survive it. But as a parent or a child, like if your mother was someplace and you needed to get to her,
[00:24:53:10 – 00:25:08:26]
Speaker 1
the Jeep is going to help you do that. And it’s going to make you feel really good about going ahead and doing the Jeep thing, getting that Jeep that you’ve always wanted and having it available. And it doesn’t have to be your primary vehicle.
[00:25:10:04 – 00:25:26:02]
Speaker 1
So I don’t think I’ve ever seen, it floods a lot down here in Houston, especially on the underpasses. They dig the underpasses down 22, 30 feet and then seem to get surprised whenever the water is 22 or 30 feet deep.
[00:25:27:21 – 00:25:27:22]
(Laugh)
[00:25:27:22 – 00:25:27:26]
Speaker 1
And
[00:25:29:04 – 00:25:51:02]
Speaker 1
people still drive into them with their cars. I think that’s an insurance job. But I’ve seen a lot of flood events, tropical and otherwise down here in Houston on the news and sometimes in person. And I have yet to see a stock Wrangler or a modified Wrangler flooded out,
[00:25:52:06 – 00:25:55:29]
Speaker 1
stuck in the middle of something like that. Because
[00:25:55:29 – 00:26:05:13]
(Blank Audio)
[00:26:09:03 – 00:26:10:24]
Speaker 1
Yeah, it’s like get the
[00:26:10:24 – 00:26:12:20]
Speaker 1
out of the way, I got Jeep things to do.
[00:26:14:12 – 00:26:14:13]
(Laugh)
[00:26:14:13 – 00:26:28:15]
Speaker 1
Well, I mean, you don’t drive a Jeep into 30 feet deep water. I don’t want anybody to think that that’s what you do. But there is a median, there is usually an overpass. And even though it’s not strictly legal,
[00:26:29:16 – 00:26:33:09]
Speaker 1
you can hop that thing down in four wheel drive and drive your
[00:26:33:09 – 00:26:36:00]
Speaker 1
up the side and get up to high ground.
[00:26:37:27 – 00:27:22:16]
Speaker 1
So, and they’re very well maybe, I mean, just because you have a Jeep doesn’t mean you know how to use it. But I think most people in a panic situation will figure it out. And I remember several times really more for grins than anything else because it freaks my wife out. Maybe be in a parking lot, we’re trying to get to a restaurant or something. And that where I pulled in doesn’t have a through way to get to the other part of the parking lot where the restaurant is. Hey, we’re going over the curb. It’s like, my God, what are you doing? I said, hold on, baby, we’re doing Jeep stuff. And it’s not like it’s four wheel drive or anything. It’s just going up over the curb. And it’s having special powers and you can do stuff. You can get in trouble. I don’t want to mess up
[00:27:23:17 – 00:27:27:29]
Speaker 1
any grass or anything like that. But if it’s concrete, I ain’t going to mess it up.
[00:27:30:19 – 00:27:31:22]
Speaker 1
Right. Oh,
[00:27:32:26 – 00:27:34:01]
Speaker 1
and the other thing is,
[00:27:34:01 – 00:27:35:14]
Speaker 1
you speed bump.
[00:27:37:02 – 00:27:41:25]
Speaker 1
I’m driving the speed limit. And if you don’t like me driving the speed limit down your
[00:27:41:25 – 00:27:42:18]
Speaker 1
road,
[00:27:42:18 – 00:27:43:08]
Speaker 1
you.
[00:28:01:12 – 00:28:02:02]
Speaker 1
Interesting.
[00:28:25:02 – 00:28:25:14]
Speaker 2
Oh, yeah.
[00:28:28:00 – 00:28:37:15]
Speaker 1
Oh, you bottom out on some of those things that the cars low enough. All right. So speaking of good news, I talked about the Wolf box,
[00:28:38:21 – 00:29:03:10]
Speaker 1
try camera mirror. And I’ve had that for several weeks now. I don’t know if I mentioned a year or not, but I actually had a little cancer on my arm that got cut off. And even though it hasn’t really been painful, I didn’t want to do any damage by running my hand in and around things. So the Wolf box install along with my wife, having the gladiator over at the mother-in-law’s house,
[00:29:04:26 – 00:29:08:22]
Speaker 1
it’s been taking a while. So I got a, what
[00:29:09:29 – 00:29:13:27]
Speaker 1
was it? G 900 Wolf box pro
[00:29:15:00 – 00:29:19:22]
Speaker 1
try camera. That means three for you folks with cars. And
[00:29:20:23 – 00:32:15:25]
Speaker 1
it is pretty cool. And I was really surprised to find out that several of our Jeep talk show community people already have them. In fact, Steve O was talking about his that he has a, he bitches about it being the older version and the wifi. It doesn’t have wifi. So the one I have does have wifi. So you can connect to it with your phone and transfer files that you’ve recorded. So this mirror, if you’re not familiar with it, it it’s configurable by, you know, the touchscreen on the mirror. It’s not actually a mirror. It’s just a screen and the, and the form of a mirror. I do think it does have some reflective capabilities, but generally speaking in a modified Jeep, either because you’re high or because your spare tire is mounted on the back of your Jeep and it’s larger than the stock one. You can’t see out the back glass anyway. So this is the cool thing about the Wolf box mirror. It allows you to see behind you for backing up and various things. The, the one I got, um, it’ll do the, you can put these cameras wherever you want, but generally speaking, you put the one on the nose, uh, so that you can see the, the, the ground in front of you mainly for off road. And then you have the one in the rear, which we all, I think everybody has a rear camera that even older vehicles have the rear cameras as, as an ad on these days. And then it has a, a camera mounted in the mirror, uh, for the dash cam aspect of it. So if you, if you have a dash cam and you know how you can record that stuff, all the crazies, that craziness that goes on in front of you, uh, this has that too. Two things I found out. Um, one was like Steve was talking about, um, the, uh, he has, I think, I don’t think he has the real long or wide one and, uh, it doesn’t have wifi. So there’s a problem with the, the, the big mirror, um, uh, on the, the, the LJ and the JT, you can’t use your visors. You can’t put the visor down because it will strike the mirror as you’re bringing it down. I mean, you can move the mirror. It’s not like it has to be lined up for the back because it’s a, it’s a, as a monitor, so you can move it over a little bit, bring the visor down and do the same kind of back, but that’s one inconvenience, uh, that, uh, that I’ve found out about. Um, but you don’t have to get the 12 inch one, I believe it was 12. You don’t have to get the really wide one. They make them, uh, narrower. And, uh, Bill, you remember Bill, I think Bill was at the, uh, the event, uh, he, he has one and he got the, the, the 12 inch model. He didn’t like how much it was covering up his, his ability to see out of his Jeep. So he got the, the narrow one, the 10 inch, I think is what it was. So this is something to keep in mind whenever you’re looking at the wolf box and we’re going to have some videos and stuff up as soon as I can, uh, get the flight of the theater back and get my lazy
[00:32:15:25 – 00:32:26:06]
Speaker 1
out there to finish up the install. I have installed the front and the back camera. The only thing I need to do is run the wires, the zip tie them, uh, and then run them through the, uh, the firewall.
[00:32:32:14 – 00:32:34:03]
Speaker 1
Yes, that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be.
[00:32:39:11 – 00:32:42:00]
Speaker 1
Well, it’s a Rubicon only. It’s an option for the Rubicon.
[00:32:42:00 – 00:32:42:10]
Speaker 2
Yeah.
[00:32:42:10 – 00:33:01:00]
Speaker 1
Um, so, uh, I think that’s going to be really cool. And I thought, well, that’s kind of silly until I was out at hell’s revenge and going up and down those, uh, those fins. Uh, and then, you know, you know, there’s the other side, you know, it’s going to be there when you crest over, but you really don’t
[00:33:02:20 – 00:33:28:06]
Speaker 1
know it should be there. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be there, but you don’t. And if you have one of those nose trail cams, you can actually see, yeah, it’s, it’s right there. And, and also too, for a practical aspect, that’s the funny aspect, the practical aspect. What if somebody stopped? What if there’s a traffic jam and you’re coming over the top? I mean, you’re going slow, but I would still rather see that jeep or, uh, Bronco or whatever the
[00:33:28:06 – 00:34:01:01]
Speaker 1
it is. Cause I don’t know if you know this Chris, they let non jeeps in to mow. I think that’s wrong myself. It’s just a, it’s just a bad idea. Well, even, even at Easter Jeep safari, you see, uh, Broncos and, uh, full-size pickups and stuff. That’s, they just need to be turned around. You know, you just go over there and there’s a timeout for you for this week. You need to just go over there and
[00:34:02:29 – 00:34:03:19]
Speaker 2
yeah. Yeah.
[00:34:16:15 – 00:34:19:14]
Speaker 1
Those are nice backup cameras on the gladiator.
[00:34:49:14 – 00:34:49:20]
Speaker 1
Yeah.
[00:34:58:22 – 00:35:56:09]
Speaker 1
So, um, and just so everybody knows, I mean, I think, uh, people that have seen Tesla videos, uh, just expect that everything’s being recorded all the time. Cause you see these people damaging Teslas and, uh, and there’s nobody driving. They’re, they’re all by themselves. Uh, it has got sentry mode. Well, the, the wolf box has the sentry mode as well. And with the three, three camera system, you got the dash cam, you got the front cam and you got the rear cam. So it’s not watching the sides of the vehicle, but you’re, you’re getting quite a bit and it is on a century. I think it does all three cams on century mode, but I’ll have to find out more about that as I, as I use it. But the cool thing is, is it’s recording all three cameras. So you can see a problem, a problem child behind you, like on the freeway or something, maybe road rage incident. You get them from the rear and you get them for the front two ways on the front. And the, the,
[00:36:02:02 – 00:36:02:09]
Speaker 1
yep.
[00:36:02:09 – 00:36:05:25]
Speaker 2
Yeah.
[00:36:18:14 – 00:36:54:14]
Speaker 1
Well, actually he was parked, he was parked in a spot and he, he didn’t pull up. It was like he pulled in, uh, the, the wrong way to get into the spot. And as you know, especially with the gladiator, it’s hard to tell where the body is. So he was actually in his spot and the spot, uh, right behind him. Cause he pulled in, you know how you can pull into a spot and forward. Cause it’s that way you don’t actually have to back end, but it’s basically the same results. So it, it pissed me off. It’s a good spot. Why do I have to go pick another spot? Because you don’t know how to
[00:36:54:14 – 00:38:21:16]
Speaker 1
your truck. So, so I pulled up, uh, and tried to use as much of the space, my space as possible and come to find out later when the, uh, the police were questioning him, um, that, uh, yes, they did. And, uh, he has a, uh, a felony warrant out for him. Um, he, uh, he thought his rationale was, is that I hit his truck when I pulled in. Uh, I didn’t hit his truck, but that was his rationale. Well, the thing was, is he wanted to put the tailgate down and put his, uh, Sam’s groceries in the bed of the truck and he couldn’t put the tailgate down because the, I believe he could, but apparently that was not reasonable and, uh, doing, uh, over almost $3,000 worth of paint damage to my gladiator and it doesn’t take much folks you think it’s, you think it’s fun to key a vehicle and now you’re getting back at him. The, he, he will go to jail. He will be arrested and taken to a jet, taken to the jail until he can, uh, uh, I guess bond out or whatever with the judge. And, um, the thing that got me was, is that the older gentleman, I think he was a 67 at the time that this happened and a traveling nurse, this is a man that was taking care of sick people. And I guess if you, I guess if you pissed him off, you might get keyed while you’re passed out in the hospital bed.
[00:38:32:06 – 00:38:33:27]
Speaker 2
Yes.
[00:38:50:08 – 00:39:01:04]
Speaker 1
Oh yeah. Yeah. No, you can put it under the Jeep. If you, if there was a spot, you could put it on the left and right side. If you wanted to be able to see what the terrain was when you were off road. Uh, absolutely. Uh, I’m starting off.
[00:39:04:16 – 00:39:10:04]
Speaker 2
Oh,
[00:39:13:02 – 00:40:07:11]
Speaker 1
that would be cool. Wouldn’t it? Uh, but, uh, I’ve, uh, I’ve decided that on the harness, uh, for the rear camera, there’s a, uh, a pigtail or a wire that you tie into the backup lights. And then when that wire is connected, it will switch to the rear camera on your mirror so that you don’t have to manually pick which camera you’re looking at. Um, uh, full screen rear. So you can see I’ve got a really nice backup camera and a eight and a quarter or eight and a half inch display on the gladiator that backup cam works. Just fine. So I’m going to use it. I’m not going to hook up that wire. Uh, I have a backup camera. So this camera, uh, may, it may be put positioned differently in the future, but right now I’ve got it down low. And, uh, the, uh, the wolf box kit that I got, it comes with a license plate mount. So you basically, you can put the camera on the top of the license plate.
[00:40:08:13 – 00:40:46:26]
Speaker 1
And, uh, with the, uh, the motor built bumper that I have, it’s protected. I don’t have to worry about it, uh, getting, uh, scraped off or anything. I mean, somebody could think that, uh, that traveling nurse, he could rip off the camera if he was pissed off, I guess. Uh, but, uh, they’re not, they’re not super expensive cameras. Um, but, uh, so I’ve got that license plate melt on there and I was thinking about how am I going to put this on the front of the gladiator? And then I went, Oh, I’ll get another license plate melt. Now here’s a trick for you. The license plate melt, uh, from a wolf box is like 15, 20 bucks. It’s cheap. This is a piece of metal. It’s very convenient. I got it from Amazon for a 4 95.
[00:40:49:07 – 00:41:23:22]
Speaker 1
It’s the exact same thing. So I’m pretty sure I’m going to be changing that one, but I really need to get the mirror hooked up to see what, what it’s being shown on the camera. Uh, I, I suspect that, uh, I will be able to mount it to the worn which and kind of have it pointing down. Uh, and, uh, one of the cool things I noticed about the camp, uh, the, the mirror is you can scroll. So you may have a, you know, a full 16 by nine, uh, on the, on the camera, but you’re only seeing a slice of it. So that allows you to scroll up or scroll down. So
[00:41:25:29 – 00:41:29:18]
Speaker 1
no, it’s because the picture is bigger than what the mirror shows.
[00:41:30:19 – 00:42:04:26]
Speaker 1
If you think about it, cause now the mirror, you got a slice and you’re basically moving up and down. So it’s not the camera itself isn’t moving, just the, the digital, the pixels part of it on the, on the thing is saying, I’m, I’m sure you can set it where you like it and that’s where it is. But if you need to look at more detail, you won’t look further down or further up, you can do that. Uh, which will be handy if you need to do the license plate off of somebody, uh, on road rage, I will warn you people that, yeah, you got a, you got a dash cam, you got all these cameras you’re recording, uh, 24 seven. And
[00:42:04:26 – 00:42:10:20]
Speaker 1
it, you’re going to put these people in prison. Be careful. It’s recording what you do too.
[00:42:12:26 – 00:42:42:21]
Speaker 1
And I don’t even mean, I don’t even mean that you, something you did two days ago. I mean, at the time you could be doing stuff because you’re pissed off and you’re making a bad decision, uh, in the road rage thing. Uh, but this keep in mind. It is recording them, but it’s recording you not inside the vehicle. Although they do have a model where you could put the camera inside and it records you and the things going on around you, uh, but just how you’re doing things, the things, the
[00:42:45:14 – 00:42:47:14]
Speaker 1
cash cab, only fans. Yeah.
[00:42:53:06 – 00:42:55:13]
Speaker 1
It’s, it’s a profit share.
[00:43:01:29 – 00:43:17:19]
Speaker 1
That’s right. That’s right. So, uh, oh, speaking of that, I, uh, uh, I only have a few more months, July, uh, and the, uh, the gladiator will be paid for, will no longer have any payments, which obviously means it’s going to go to
[00:43:26:03 – 00:43:32:02]
Speaker 1
And with your, and with 34,000 of you becoming a Patreons subscriber, you could help make that dream come true.
[00:43:35:14 – 00:44:18:17]
Speaker 1
All right. So, uh, Chris, let’s talk about the, um, but another thing about good news, uh, the, um, um, the R camper, uh, you said something the other day that surprised me, uh, we were actually going to do a little walk around and stuff. And you, and you told me, uh, cause I wasn’t thinking about winter. Cause what do I care about winter? It didn’t get winter here. You said, you told me, he goes, you told me, well, the, the, the R campers put away. Put away for the season. And, uh, and I, we’ve done this year after year, not the camera, but we’ve camper, but we’ve done this year after year. You go to events, you do things being in the Detroit area. There’s a lot of stuff that goes on. That’s interesting to you and interesting to our audience. Um, it’s over
[00:44:19:26 – 00:44:32:08]
Speaker 1
because you can’t go out there and get frozen in place. And, uh, there’s, there’s no reason to the camp, although I think, uh, ice covered, uh, the R camper, uh, and you, uh, out there shivering your, uh, your
[00:44:32:08 – 00:44:38:22]
Speaker 1
off. And when you go pee, uh, the yellow ice cubes, uh, fall out off onto the ground. I think that’d make this a good video.
[00:44:49:11 – 00:45:35:12]
Speaker 1
Supposed to be, uh, they haven’t signed, uh, they haven’t completed that bill. Uh, so we’ll, we’ll see what happens with that. I think that’s going to be one of those things where people are going to go. That’s not as good as what I thought it would be. Uh, I think that the, the, the being really dark out, uh, during times, whenever it’s, uh, it’s not normally not that dark because of daylight savings time, but I do like the idea of it not changing. It’s, it’s a lot nicer now with all the computers that we have and everything. Um, I think the microwave, I have to change the time on the microwave and the coffee maker, but phones, uh, computers, all that stuff, it, it just changes automatically. Uh, which is nice. Um, so, uh, the R camper you’ve used it. What did you use about four or five times here over the last, uh, several months?
[00:45:49:28 – 00:46:01:10]
Speaker 1
And you got a picture, uh, that you saw on, I don’t even think you were tagged in it. You got a picture up on Facebook of you driving down the freeway, uh, with, uh, with the camper, uh, on your gladiator, which was pretty cool.
[00:46:10:23 – 00:46:14:28]
Speaker 1
It looks very strange on the gladiator since it’s a mid-size. Uh,
[00:46:17:04 – 00:47:08:00]
Speaker 1
but the, but the point of it is, is that it sleeps good. Uh, it’s, it’s, it’s a shelter and it’s light. I think it’s 180 pounds. Uh, so it’s good to have somebody help you with it because it’s kind of large. Uh, but it’s not anything that you couldn’t handle on your own. Uh, it’s inflatable if you don’t already know. Uh, and it’s, it’s been a really nice, uh, inflatable camper that was provided to us by a recent guest, uh, the R camper, uh, dot com. So that’s one of the reasons why we’re talking about it. Not only because it was something that was provided to us, but because it’s really cool and it’s very handy. You’ve been tent camping for a number of years and, and, and, uh, thanks to the Jeep talk show, you have been raised a level literally off the ground, uh, at a pyre, so it’s a, it’s really cool.
[00:47:18:14 – 00:47:20:15]
Speaker 1
And you got a lot of interaction for people too.
[00:47:37:11 – 00:47:37:28]
Speaker 1
Oh yeah.
[00:47:39:03 – 00:47:39:20]
Speaker 1
What the
[00:47:39:20 – 00:47:41:00]
Speaker 1
is that?
[00:47:51:12 – 00:47:51:22]
Speaker 2
Right.
[00:48:02:20 – 00:48:26:23]
Speaker 2
Yeah. You
[00:48:28:09 – 00:48:32:24]
Speaker 1
never know when you’ll need a need an emergency nap is the way I look at it.
[00:49:13:17 – 00:49:15:00]
Speaker 2
Well, the,
[00:49:15:00 – 00:50:32:18]
Speaker 1
the, yeah, the thar camper, uh, two trips to EJS and not having to spend $1,500 a week would pay for, pay for the thar camper. And you get it, you get a lot more cred whenever you’re, you’re actually camping out. And there’s some beautiful places to camp out. It is nice to have the shower, but that’s, uh, the overlanding thing. I can see where people like it. And the cool thing is you can deflate it. I think what you said that you were going to do at EJS is actually just take it off and leave it at camp and then come back. But you could literally, if you’re a worry wart like me, you can literally deflate it, uh, leave it in the, the, the, the tailgate of the gladiator, go wheeling, come back up, come back and air it back up for, for going, uh, to go into bed. Um, and it’s not like you got to carry a trailer with you. Roger has a really nice trailer, uh, that, uh, that he takes out there. And I think those things are really cool, but they’re so expensive. And this is a very inexpensive way and you don’t have to, uh, be, uh, uh, built out of, uh, $1,500 and the $1,500 plays I stayed at wasn’t the top, the top, uh, hotel to stay at.
[00:50:44:17 – 00:50:48:16]
Speaker 1
So, so don’t, uh, I just have it a bit of a day. That would be a
[00:50:51:20 – 00:50:53:12]
Speaker 1
don’t, don’t blow smoke up my
[00:50:53:12 – 00:50:55:03]
Speaker 1
but some warm water would be nice.
[00:50:57:24 – 00:51:00:12]
Speaker 1
All right. On that note, we’re going to wrap this thing up.
[00:51:00:12 – 00:51:30:16]
Speaker 1
it, Chris, it’s been an hour or getting really close to it. So a good, good conversation. Uh, did you want to say anything about, uh, uh, any of the other, uh, sponsors that you have for your Jeep? There are two row tires. We mentioned the, our camper, uh, there’s a G tops that I mentioned, uh, earlier today in an interview that we did, uh, we don’t do this for freebies, but some of the stuff is so nice. And whenever they, they, they demand, we will say, Oh, okay.
[00:51:32:20 – 00:51:34:22]
Speaker 1
It’s like, this is like the wolf box thing. Yeah.
[00:52:04:22 – 00:53:38:04]
Speaker 1
Yep. All right, guys, you know how it works. Go over to jeeptalkshow.com slash contact to find out all the ways that you can reach out to us. You can sign up for our newsletter. You can join us on our Tuesday evening round table that we do every week and be part of the Jeep Talk Show community. Our email address is, you’d like to be a guest. You’ll interface with Chris on being a guest here on the show. Unless you’re, we’ve had a few recent people reach straight to us without you having to go after them, which is always nice that people are actually, it’s not like a, well, okay. It’s like, hey, could I be on your show, which is neat. And again, you can find out all the information on that and links to things that we have available on the jeeptalkshow.com website. So again, jeeptalkshow.com slash contact and 16 years, almost 1,500 episodes. And many of the ones from the last two or three years are on YouTube. Actually, they’re all on YouTube, but there’s actually video for the last two or three years that you can watch. If you desire to watch us and see what we look like, and more than happy to do that, audio only, audio is gold and it’s a great thing that you can listen to, drive into EJS or mow in the grass or working out at the gym. So audio is great. Audio, it makes really a lot of sense, but yeah.
[00:53:41:25 – 00:53:44:02]
Speaker 1
All right, Chris, thanks a lot for being here.
[00:53:45:04 – 00:53:47:19]
Speaker 1
Great job. And you
[00:53:49:03 – 00:53:51:16]
Speaker 3
You’re my friend, you’re my new friend. Hehe.
[00:53:51:16 – 00:54:37:27]
Speaker 1
XJTalk.com LLC and the Jeep Talk Show podcast is attended for entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts, guests and contributors are their own and do not represent professional advice, endorsements or recommendations. We strongly advise consulting a licensed or certified mechanic or automotive professional for any repairs, modifications or maintenance to your vehicle. By listening to or using any information provided on this show, you assume full responsibility for your actions and any resulting consequences, including potential risks to safety, property or legal compliance. The Jeep Talk Show and its affiliates disclaim all liability for any damages or losses arising from the application of this content.
