Season 2, Episode 29 - Brad Lovell, EV Truck News, Goodbye Reeves Callaway

 

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Jay “Lightning” Tilles (0s):

Holman. Have I already hung out with Brad Lovell? Or is that coming up? I don’t know when this episode is airing. Yes.

Sean P. Holman (4s):

You’ve already hung out with him. And it is in the past, even though Awesome.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8s):

Oh, Brad and I, as you record

Sean P. Holman (9s):

In

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9s):

The future, we were having so much fun at the Amsoil 50th anniversary. We were drinking beers, doing shots. that wasn. that wasn great. I think we were doing that right. What we

Sean P. Holman (16s):

I wasn’t there. Oh, I wasn’t invited to AM’s. Big shindig,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (20s):

I think. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (21s):

Is this where I enter the chat and go, Hey lighting, why don’t you bring me to everything that you do? Is that where that goes? Is that this part of the show? I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (28s):

Mean? You could say that, but, but yeah. No, I’m sorry. It’s for industry only,

Sean P. Holman (33s):

Right? ’cause I’m definitely not industry, I don’t represent,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (35s):

I’m sorry, it for Zo affiliates in influencers.

Sean P. Holman (38s):

I can’t call a banzo and get some oil. That’s true.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (40s):

No, and, and funny that I’m actually, I’m not either of those people. No. I’m going with Gale Banks, who is one of their

Sean P. Holman (46s):

As a plus one

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (47s):

Influencers one. Yeah. I’m a plus one weak sauce.

Sean P. Holman (50s):

Oh, well I, I think this is gonna be a great show. We’ve got our friend Brad Lovell coming on to, to talk all sorts of racing and raptors and all sorts of cool stuff like that. And we’ll get to your voicemails. Guess what? A lot more truck news.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 4s):

Lots of truck news. Oh wait, hey, can I borrow your bench mate for a second?

Sean P. Holman (1m 8s):

Sure. I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 8s):

Got this box. I know that’s becoming a thing where we start every show where I open some box of stuff. And this one is from

Sean P. Holman (1m 16s):

Oh, By. the way, while you’re opening that box, I should mention, do you remember Mother Steve Brown,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 21s):

Alpine Cario, Steve Brown? Yes. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (1m 22s):

So I had sent him a, a, a query.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 26s):

I’m the Steve Brown contact. You went around me six

Sean P. Holman (1m 29s):

Years ago. You were? Oh yeah. I did text you to ask if you still work there though. He’s still there. And so I, I sent him a note and I said, Hey, this is what I’m looking to do. I want to do this, this and that. Is this the right recommendation? And he said, yeah, that’d be great. That’ll work. Well, where do you want me to send the parts?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 43s):

And you’re like, parts.

Sean P. Holman (1m 45s):

And I was like,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 46s):

So what is he sending you?

Sean P. Holman (1m 47s):

I don’t know. So we’ll open the box when it comes. This said

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 49s):

For the 3 92, I, it’s for the

Sean P. Holman (1m 50s):

3 92. You

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 51s):

Already had upgraded speakers in there. So

Sean P. Holman (1m 53s):

I have, I have the upgraded speakers at the top of the dash. Yeah. With the terra acoustics, which are great. But the speakers in the soundbar are, are little tiny guys, like three and a half or something like that. Yeah. So there’s a, a company that makes a pod that drops the speaker down about an inch and it allows you to put a 6.5 round speaker in there and then has room for a external tweet or not a coaxial style. Right.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 15s):

You’re going from a single three and a half to separate.

Sean P. Holman (2m 17s):

So it’s two. Yeah. One handles high as one handles mid, no

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 20s):

I know, that’s what it’s called. Separates. Right. That’s when you have a six and a half of a tweeter. Right.

Sean P. Holman (2m 23s):

So, but so I’ve got those two, but I’m going to one 6.5. Yeah. With a separate tweeter next to it. That’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 29s):

What’s a separate system.

Sean P. Holman (2m 30s):

Right. That’s what I’m doing in

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 31s):

The car audio industry. Those are called separates.

Sean P. Holman (2m 33s):

Okay. So what I’m gonna do is I’m going to upgrade my sound, but I don’t wanna rip out my stereo, I don’t wanna mess with the alpine magic. I just want speakers that have a little bit more fullness and a and a little bit more

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 47s):

Mid base. You’re looking for mid base. Totally. Because what you lack in that thing. And And clarity.

Sean P. Holman (2m 50s):

Yeah. And clarity. ’cause when the top is off, it’s super loud and everything’s muddy. So I figure with those six point fives right next to my ears, above my head, I’ll be able to hear that. And there’s enough power for, from the factory system to power those speakers without doing a, an additional amp. And it’s all plug and play and it’ll gimme better sound quality. And the best part is it’s still matchy matchy with being all alpine stuff. So like the sub in the back is an alpine sub. And the speaker, you know, the stereo system is a quote unquote Alpine is the premium upgrade. And so I’ll still have Alpine in there, which is gonna be nice. So,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 20s):

But you don’t actually know what he’s sending you.

Sean P. Holman (3m 22s):

Well, so I know, I know. Yes. I know that he’s, so

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 25s):

We’re gonna have to do an unboxing here on the show. So he’s

Sean P. Holman (3m 26s):

Gonna send me something

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 27s):

Speakers. Yes. I asked

Sean P. Holman (3m 29s):

For one set and then we’ll see what shows up. Interesting. He asked me all these other questions. I’m like, well, it’s a mystery. I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 36s):

Don’t know.

Sean P. Holman (3m 36s):

I don’t know. What do you have in that box?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 38s):

So, as you recall,

Sean P. Holman (3m 40s):

I already see it,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 41s):

As you recall, when our friends from Bilstein came in Yeah. The last show I was wearing a bootleg that wasn A bootleg. Horrible. It actually was a bootleg Bill Stein Germany hoodie. Yeah. In Delo Orange, which is awful. And, but I felt like I needed to wear some bilstein, so I think they took pity on me and sent me some official Bill Stein gear. See? There you go. So I have a whole box of bilstein shirts. Ooh, these are bitching. See, these are nice All, right? That is, oh, I’ve got coozies.

Sean P. Holman (4m 10s):

And unlike your other one, one, they’re, it’s actually spelled right.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 13s):

What is this little, this is like a, is this a a diaper?

Sean P. Holman (4m 16s):

No, that’s a, it’s a cleaning cloth.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 18s):

It’s a cleaning That’s not a cleaning cloth. what is that? Yeah, sure. That’s a true this’s something you’d wipe up like spittle with No. On a baby.

Sean P. Holman (4m 23s):

No. You wipe your sunglasses with it. Is

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 25s):

That what

Sean P. Holman (4m 25s):

It’s for? Or your, your screen on your, on your fancy truck. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 28s):

Well I got stickers. There’s

Sean P. Holman (4m 30s):

More stuff.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 30s):

You keep pulling stuff out there. Well, there’s hats in here

Sean P. Holman (4m 33s):

Too. See? There you go.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 35s):

Look at this dude, I got loaded. Oh wait, there’s more. hold on

Sean P. Holman (4m 39s):

A second. This is like Christmas for Lightning. This is great.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 41s):

What is this? In this little box.

Sean P. Holman (4m 42s):

Oh, that’s the cool bypass key chain Oh

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 45s):

No Way. Look at

Sean P. Holman (4m 46s):

This key chain chain. This is,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 47s):

This is are cool. A full bypass shock

Sean P. Holman (4m 49s):

Look. It works too. Squeeze it

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 52s):

Sure does. Yep. Oh, that’s,

Sean P. Holman (4m 56s):

Are you done? Can we start the show? Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 58s):

It’s The Truck Show Podcast. The most listened to Truck Enthusiast podcast on the planet

Sean P. Holman (5m 2s):

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Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 21s):

Nope. You sure don’t.

Sean P. Holman (5m 23s):

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Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 37s):

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Sean P. Holman (5m 59s):

It’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 60s):

So funny the Pedal monster. But like,

Sean P. Holman (6m 1s):

Nothing to do with Diesel or anything. It’s a just a old straight

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 4s):

Six head. So I, I actually kind of do know, like, do you remember when Banks launched the side Winder? Yes. The, the Turbo System? Yes. Okay, well the, that system is gone. It doesn’t exist, but the headers

Sean P. Holman (6m 14s):

Are still there.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 14s):

But holy crap. Are the headers still there? Holy Mac. So you guys, everyone blows through those headers. If you want the best ones available for your Wrangler four oh Banks power.com and

Sean P. Holman (6m 25s):

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Sean P. Holman (7m 5s):

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2 (7m 21s):

The truck show. We’re gonna show you what we know. We’re gonna answer What? The truck, because truck rides with the truck show. We have the lifted, we have the lowered end. Everything in between. We’ll talk about trucks that run on Diesel and the ones that run on gasoline. The truck show. The truck show.

3 (7m 53s):

It’s the truck show with your hosts Lightning and Holman

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 1s):

All. right. Holman. On this next interview, I want you to promise me that you’re not gonna gush all over the guest.

Sean P. Holman (8m 6s):

Sure.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 8s):

Are you gonna be able to restrain? Yeah. You’ve been talking about Brad Lovell for I think six months now. Who’s, who’s

Sean P. Holman (8m 13s):

The guest?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 14s):

Brad Lovell. Brad love’s a guest. Oh my

Sean P. Holman (8m 16s):

God. It’s gonna be amazing. No, because he’s out doing cool stuff. I keep going. Hey, you gotta keep an eye on my racer friend. Brad. Lovell. ’cause he is like going down to Australia. He’s winning like Gul Ultra Ford and he is doing stuff with the Bronco people for Ford. And he says he the guy’s everywhere.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 31s):

I’m just saying you’re a little bit of a fan boy.

Sean P. Holman (8m 33s):

No, he is my friend and I like cool people that get to do cool stuff.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 38s):

Okay, good. Well it, I’m excited to meet him. I can I, can I call him?

Sean P. Holman (8m 41s):

You had a guy who literally did a newscast on ghost cars with headlights.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 47s):

Yeah, that was awesome. That’s

Sean P. Holman (8m 48s):

Okay. So now, now we’re gonna do something with a guy that’s actually doing something truck related

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 54s):

That was not truck related

Sean P. Holman (8m 55s):

At all. You’re right.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 56s):

Damn. You’re right. All right. You got me there. Okay. I’m going to dial Mr. Brad. Lovell.

Brad Lovell (9m 9s):

Hey Sean.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 10s):

Hey, it’s Lightning at home with Truck Show podcast. What’s up Brad? This Offroad Hall of Famer. Brad. Lovell.

Brad Lovell (9m 16s):

Yeah. How are you doing guys? No,

Sean P. Holman (9m 17s):

No, no. That would be Championship driver. Brad Lovell.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 21s):

I think Alfred Hall of Famer is better.

Sean P. Holman (9m 24s):

How about am oil athlete? Brad

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 25s):

Lovell. I think they’re all cool By the way

Sean P. Holman (9m 28s):

He’s gonna see you next week when you go to AMS

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 30s):

Oil. He’s already seen me because Oh really? This is after. This is after. So as we’re recording this, I haven’t been, but Brad and I were hanging out at the influencer dinner last Friday night. I don’t know if he knows that or not, but we were, he doesn’t know that. Oh, we were drinking, we were throwing back pilsners. Is that what

Sean P. Holman (9m 44s):

You guys doing? Yeah, I think

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 45s):

He, yeah, he’s, no, I’m sorry. He’s an i p A guy. Well he

Sean P. Holman (9m 47s):

And I were eating dust last week in Nevada. So Brad, you’re lucky. Can see both of us within the course of a couple weeks

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 53s):

Before we can let you talk. We gotta, we gotta interrupt you with a quick Intro. Don’t move.

3 (9m 57s):

Here we go. Truck. Famous hero star. V i p, ACE Bigwig. Hot shot truck. Famous big shot. Big deal. Big gun. Big cheese. Heavyweight superstar truck. Famous. That’s what you are.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (10m 13s):

Truck freaking famous right there.

Sean P. Holman (10m 15s):

How’s that for an Intro?

Brad Lovell (10m 18s):

I dig it. It’s pretty extreme

Sean P. Holman (10m 21s):

All, right? So, so last week or I guess a couple weeks, By, the time you guys hear this. I was out in Nevada and Ford as a lot of you know, have set up these off rodeos for Bronco owners around the country. Well they just set up their very first off rodeo for Bronco Raptor owners. And so we got to drive out and Brad was instrumental in setting up these courses. In fact on there was kind of the Baja course and the Ultra four course. And on the Baja course there’s like a staging area before and you know, there was instructors with each person from the media so you could kind of watch people go through and, and launch, you know, Bronco Raptors off this berm.

Sean P. Holman (11m 1s):

And I saw this one Bronco Raptor go flying like three car lengths and like a Bronco high off of it. I’m like, I don’t

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 8s):

Know

Sean P. Holman (11m 8s):

Who’s driving that, but that’s awesome. So I run to the end to see who it is ’cause I think it’s Gunderman. ’cause Gunman’s in the car. No, it’s Brad driving. I’m like, oh it’s, yeah, we expect that from you sir. No, no, no. The sat trump votes for Jason, but what’s that? Yeah, but we get the clapping for Brad.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 25s):

Oh, okay. All, right. Let’s see my friends. There

Brad Lovell (11m 28s):

We go. Ah, there you go.

Sean P. Holman (11m 30s):

So,

Brad Lovell (11m 31s):

Well I have had a couple laps around that track, so

Sean P. Holman (11m 34s):

Yeah, how many, that’s good stuff. How many, how many laps total do you think you put into that? Helping to build that course?

Brad Lovell (11m 39s):

Well, you know, we’ve been out there looking at different properties and, and setting stuff up. Lauren Healy and Vaughn Gitten, Bob Burns and myself. That’s

Sean P. Holman (11m 47s):

A good crew. By

Brad Lovell (11m 48s):

The way a core team. Yeah. It’s a very, very dynamic. A lot of different personalities there. Yeah. But we found that area and it’s, it’s this big old quarry and and old mine up above. And what a great place. There’s all these big rock hills. Remind me, you remember those commercials with the built Ford Tough Ford commercials towing a Chevy up the rock pile. Yeah. It

Sean P. Holman (12m 12s):

Had like a put another Chevy in the, in the bed. Yeah, exactly.

Brad Lovell (12m 15s):

Yep, yep. That’s, it’s exactly what that area reminds me of. I love it down there. So yeah, you know, we’ve, we’ve all worked together and I think we came up with a pretty cool course. There’s some jumps, there’s some whoops. Desert stuff, track stuff, some rock ultra force stuff. So a little bit of everything.

Sean P. Holman (12m 31s):

Well one of the cool things about that course is there is a all too short whoop section that has some pretty darn good sized whoops through it. And the Bronco Raptor soaks it up just perfectly at about 50 miles an hour. You hit it, it’s right on the top. It’s like as you go over it and right as you get up to speed and you’re just floating on top of the, the tabletops on the whoops, boom, you have to slam on the brakes. ’cause there’s a hard right turn at the end of it. And so Brad’s like, Hey, have you been on the Ultra four course yet? And I’m like, no, not yet. He goes, All. right. So here’s the deal. The, the whoops section is really good, but you’re gonna wanna break way earlier than you think. Yeah, that was definitely the case. Did you go over the edge? No. No, I’m not a horrible driver.

Brad Lovell (13m 14s):

Well, I’ll tell you, I’ve been, we, we’ve been crafting those, whoops. And it’s the most impressive thing to me about Bronco Raptor and, and just, you know, vehicles with suspension in general is getting on top of, whoops. Blows my mind. But yeah, that section’s just long enough to get you a taste and then you gotta shut it down.

Sean P. Holman (13m 30s):

Yeah, that, that course was amazing. I I think it’s, it’s great because there was everything, there was between the two courses, you had a whooped out section, you had rocks, you had silt, you had berms, you had jumps, you’ve had tight decreasing radius or hairpin turns that are all dug out from people going before you. So the, the course, there’s some really like sloppy loose kind of gravel that that’s definitely gonna change and de form as different drivers go through there. It’s like everything that you would wanna experience in the desert all in, in this couple acres of land. And I was really impressed How much the Bronco Raptor in that environment, in its in its proper setting. ’cause I think the Bronco Raptor for like the average overlander is probably overkill.

Sean P. Holman (14m 11s):

But if you wanna go chase Baja or you want to go on some gnarly trails and you wanna huck it, that thing is phenomenal for a vehicle that has a warranty on it.

Brad Lovell (14m 20s):

Yeah, I I hear you. It is, it is pretty fortunate. We ended up with all that, you know, different features out there. One thing we weren’t counting on is the silt. And the silt is getting pretty nasty out there. It it’s pretty rutted, but you know, everything we’re seeing out there is what Baja is all about. And I love being down in Baja. We’ve, I’ve been lucky enough to pre-run with my son down down there in a, in a Bronco Raptor. And we’ve put almost a thousand miles on one and, you know, no worries at all. We drove it down from the US did all that Offroad pre-running and no, we weren’t going easy on it. So yeah, you’re, you’re exactly right. That’s where it’s home and you know, incrementally you just keep putting on more miles because you can keep the pace up and, and you’re comfortable doing it.

Brad Lovell (15m 5s):

So whether you wanna push it hard or just kind of cruise along, it’s gonna be a better, more comfortable ride. And I, I’m really thankful that Ford’s willing to, to kind of push the ceiling and see How much content they can get in a vehicle.

Sean P. Holman (15m 17s):

Yeah, it’s, it’s amazing. I think, you know, in the tighter trails of like the East coast or Pacific Northwest, it would be too wide. ’cause I don’t think people realize the Bronco Raptor about the same width as a F one 50 Raptor. And so one of the hard things for me was getting in behind the driver’s seat was reorienting myself with where the corners of the vehicle were and where the tires were and the relationship to those. ’cause it is so wide and I felt like there were times I cut a corner on the trail to miss a rock and I’d still hit that damn rock and I’m like, ah, damn it, I did it again and

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (15m 45s):

I haven’t driven a while. What, what are the sight lines on the left and the right? Like, like wh where it dips off

Sean P. Holman (15m 50s):

The, well, the pro fenders, the, the thing about the Bronco Raptor is in the Raptor or the Bronco general is it has the trail sites on the leading edge of the fenders. And those are amazing for telling where the corner of the vehicle is. The problem is the Bronco Raptor is so much wider. Your tire is in, you know, behind that mark and way outside. And so it takes a little while for you to kind of calibrate where the tires are in relationship to the rest of the vehicle. And once you figure that out, it’s, it’s, it’s really playful, it’s really good, but you just gotta be careful not to clip things on the side that you are trying to avoid. So wait,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 22s):

Do you need a set of curb feelers from like a 1970s Cadillac?

Sean P. Holman (16m 26s):

I don’t think, I don’t think those are gonna help

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 27s):

You Well.

Brad Lovell (16m 28s):

We, we gonna need some really strong sidewalls, but yeah. Yeah, Bronco Raptor is 87 87 inches outside a tire, outside a tire where like a Sasquatch Bronco would be 80 inches I believe F one 50 Raptor is the same. And then, you know, a trophy truck or something might be pushing up around 92 inches. So it’s definitely getting wide

Sean P. Holman (16m 54s):

And I believe that, what is it, 12 inches or 13 inches of front travel and 14 inches of rear something like that, which is a freaking crazy numbers for production four by four, especially something that has 14 inches of travel that does not intrude into the passenger cavity or a cabin. And you don’t have to have like a cantilevered shock. Like there’s still a traditionally upright position shock, although the Bronco Raptor uses coil overs, but the fact that you’re able to get that much Wheel travel out of ’em is, is I mean it’s coming right off the showroom floor, was something that 10 or 15 years ago was a mid travel kit and 20 years ago was a long travel kit.

Brad Lovell (17m 32s):

Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s, it’s so interesting to me, you know, being part of the development process to see how OEMs react to the things that, you know, we’ve been doing forever to get travel like that and you know, let’s talk about rod ends for example. Oh yeah. Or spherical variants. You don’t call ’em spherical bearings, they call ’em cross access joints. But what they’ve done is, you know, kind of encapsulate a high quality rubber membrane around it so it, it keeps dust and dirt out and it’ll live for 150, 200 thou, 200,000 miles, but you still get the, you know, the performance that you need out of it for Offroad. So it, it, it’s always interesting to me to see how these things adapt into something that’ll last for that, you know, for the lifetime of the vehicle without needing maintenance.

Sean P. Holman (18m 18s):

Well, and you’ve left your fingerprints on even the base model Bronco, one of the things that you helped develop was the one pedal drive feature, which allows you, you know, especially good for a novice driver who doesn’t wanna work all the pedals and just wants to drive kinda like almost an EV in a sense, but, but in a gas powered vehicle. So you got a lot of

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (18m 37s):

Decel when

Sean P. Holman (18m 37s):

You, like a lot of decel and the brakes kinda do their thing and then you just have to steer and accelerate. And Brad was one of the people that helped develop the feel of that. I’ll tell you, it’s, it’s really a weird sensation for somebody like me who likes to work the pedal and likes vehicle dynamics, but I can completely see the value in somebody who is taking that vehicle into a place and they want to have full concentration on picking their line and the least amount of worry about what the vehicle’s doing. It’s a pretty phenomenal feature for somebody in that that use case Brad. How is

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (19m 10s):

That accomplished mechanically

Brad Lovell (19m 13s):

What it does is it, you know, the vehicle has an electronic brake booster, so now it’s not brake by wire, but it’s very close so it can fire the brakes independently of you putting input into the brake pedal. So it’s actually firing the brakes over the accelerator a little bit. So in low range kind of the concept there is when you’re cresting over a boulder with your front tire and, and you might not be oriented to where it is, a lot of times you kind of plot off the other side and you get suspension compression and you hit your rocker panel or underbelly or something. This it, it’s gonna catch you much faster when you let off the throttle instead of kind of freewheeling over the other side.

Brad Lovell (19m 55s):

It’s just gonna catch you with the brakes. So it’s simulating what, you know, a lot of us more proficient off-road drivers do, maybe with left foot braking where you’re overlapping those inputs. So, oh, that’s kind of the idea. And boy I that wasn years ago, I still have the email somewhere, but one of the engineers over there challenged me, said, Hey, Brad come up with three good ideas. So I had thought about it for a while and, and I gave them two and then kind of came up with the idea in one pedal. So it, it stuck. I don’t want remember what the other ones were. They must’ve been junk, but, but it’s, it’s, it’s kind of cool to, to have some influence in, in a, in a, in any product of this scale.

Brad Lovell (20m 35s):

But for me, especially Bronco, because we’ve always been Bronco people, we’ve always owned a Bronco, grew up in the backseat of a Bronco and I’m, I’m just so happy with what it is the way it’s come back.

Sean P. Holman (20m 46s):

So that wasn interesting because I was part of a industry panel that worked with Ford for the better part of five years to do the development and, and, and help shape the Bronco, but we never got to drive it. So the first time that I had a chance to actually drive the Bronco was with Brad in Austin, Texas in the hill country where they have a Bronco off rodeo and Vaughn was out there, Brad was out there taking media for these Offroad loops and kind of showing what the vehicle was capable of. And that wasn really weird to go from the setting where you’re in a room, you’re seeing designs, you’re helping features and content, you’re talking about the things the vehicle should do and then it’s real and then it’s real. And then somebody, you know, was the guy who helped implement like the, the actual feature in real life and we had only seen it on paper or in, you know, three D or whatever.

Sean P. Holman (21m 35s):

And so the time those two things came together that wasn pretty cool to have that experience and be like, wow, All right? People I know like Vaughn and Lauren and Brad were the guys that actually implemented the things that me and some of these other folks from the industry were like, it needs to happen.

Brad Lovell (21m 50s):

So, you know what’s so interesting, Sean is, I, I knew about that panel, I didn’t know who was on it that wasn kinda like, you know, the other half of the, the house I guess So myself and another guy, Jason Hutter who, who have helped do support for Ford in the desert, you know, we were, we were kind of the I guess the panel for some of the engineers that we dealt with and then there’s this whole other panel and it’s, nobody is talking to each other is completely separate. But yeah, I never knew, I always uncover who has been on that panel, so it’s interesting.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (22m 25s):

So I wanna, I wanna,

Brad Lovell (22m 25s):

But I mean what a, what a special thing to be part of. Huh? I mean, I mean, it’s, it’s pretty cool.

Sean P. Holman (22m 29s):

I mean the, the ability to even have, you know, my name come up and have the mask and, and be able to be a part of that type of stuff. You know, it’s, it’s really cool. I like to call it like the fox and the hound relationship where as a journalist, there’s not many opportunities where an OE trusts you to talk about products that are years in advance. And so here you are, you make a reputation, you don’t burn people, you have a good point of view, you’ve signed a lot of paperwork and they, they bring you in, you know, under the tent early and you get to help, you know right mold and, and, and develop and push in a certain direction these products that you think are gonna be better.

Sean P. Holman (23m 11s):

And I think Ford was smart because I think the product is better because of all the people that they had that weren’t within the company that provided all the insight to say this is what it needs to be.

Brad Lovell (23m 20s):

I, I totally agree. I I feel that they listened to the industry and didn’t settle on saying, no, we can’t do that.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (23m 27s):

Having input Sean and Brad having input in so much input and forward. I wanna rewind the clock a little bit. Your first, like, Offroad truck was a Ranger correct? Right outta college and I’m curious Yeah,

Sean P. Holman (23m 43s):

And so was mine.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (23m 44s):

So there’s right, there’s a little connective tissue there, but I, I wanna find out like you, what kind of engineer were you? Mechanical, electrical, I don’t know. Well, I wanna find out what he did to his structural architectural, right. I, and well, hold on, I wanna go in order All, right? First I wanna find out his, his college education and how he got led into off-roading and then how that turned into eventually he was a Ford geek and then he turned into like, so he’s, he’s giving now information to Ford that turns into vehicles. Like it’s all magical.

Brad Lovell (24m 9s):

So, so here’s the short story. When I was 16, I got a 1988 Ford Ranger, which I thought was so cool, but what did I really want was a Jeep. My dad wouldn’t allow me to have a Jeep because they, you know, they roll over, he wanted to be safe. So he got me a Ford Ranger. So I, I’d tinker with it and I did this and that. I went to college to get a mechanical engineering degree. I wanted to go work for Ford, I wanted to design gears and all this cool stuff. And I got to thermodynamics and I realized mechanical engineering is not for me and I don’t want to end up in Dearborn designing door handles or window cranks or something. So I, I switched over to structural engineering, kind of designing buildings and stuff like that.

Brad Lovell (24m 54s):

Right after I graduated college, I took this sojourn, I went to school in Wyoming. So I left from Wyoming, I took three weeks, I went down through Utah. I did it just by myself, camped out by myself, went to national parks along the way. I went to one of the old school rock crawling events, I think that wasn an ARCA event in Cedar City. And I saw what was going on and it’s like, it’s like we can do this I can, you know, we can beat these guys. And so I went home and I, I had a job as an engineer. I took $5,000 out of the bank and, you know, I was making pretty good money. I was living with my brother, tore down my my Ranger and made it into a, a competition.

Brad Lovell (25m 40s):

And, and Roger and I went out from there and, you know, six years in a row we were, we were dominant and won championships and you know, I can’t say enough about the grassroots motorsports and the ability, no, that’s what launched our motorsports team. It’s what launched my career and it’s really important to keep motorsports accessible. I think it’s something that ETVs are doing right now, but to me it’s really important to have areas to go and events to go to because it’s what gave me start in motorsports.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (26m 10s):

Go back to that, that Ranger that you were winning those events with, what was your advantage? The fact that you had a mechanical engineering background and the other guys were just a bunch of fabricators that didn’t really understand the, the geometry behind the, the cars or what,

Brad Lovell (26m 26s):

You know, I think the advantage was that there was a group of four of us, my brother myself or Buddy Dave and, and my cousin Mark. And we just go wheeling and we didn’t care about, you know, being big stars or getting in the middle of everything, but we cut our teeth in Colorado and we started going to Moab and, and we did a lot of tough trails and I think we, we kind of got good in a microcosm and, and yes, I think it, it’s a combination of driving and engineering, building the vehicle, knowing what works and what doesn’t. Plus having my brother there that, you know, he, he is my brother and we’d already been wheeling for 10 years before that.

Brad Lovell (27m 10s):

So we got along pretty well and we, you know, know how to communicate and know what each other’s seeing. So I think all those things culminated in our success. But I, I really do take pride. I mean now we’re, we help develop stuff and design stuff, but our, our Ranger here that is, geez, I think it’s 16 years old, it’s still capable of going out and winning the E M C race at King of the Hammers. So I, I take a lot of pride in, in the development of, of the vehicle and the actual fabrication and then obviously driving it. But here’s the flip side to that is that when you lose and you suck, then you have nobody else to blame but yourself.

Sean P. Holman (27m 52s):

I remember when I got one of my can can’t remember which Ranger, that wasn, I think that wasn my, my 94, I had a splash four by four, four liter a four LD trans. So I had the, the eight eight rear end and I had the sports seats in it and that wasn black and everyth think that wasn awesome. And I, I had had the goofy colored splash stripes removed, but I remember we used to go out to watch, you know, best in the desert and, and you know, we’d go hang out By the side of the race course and stuff. And I’ll never forget this one dude in a Ranger, you know, that wasn probably a seven s truck or something like that comes over a rise and his Wheel flew off Oh No. And it, my, the way my truck was parked that wasn straight into my truck and the Wheel went by one side and he stopped about five feet short of my truck on the side of the racetrack.

Sean P. Holman (28m 37s):

And I was like, don’t hit my truck, don’t hit my truck. Wow. Don’t hit I mean I was probably 17 years old or something like that at that time. Eventually I, I bought a 2002 Ranger FX four. So the first year of it before they called it the level two and made it all sorts of marketing mistakes on it. And that truck was a four liter stick and then we put a explorer express blower on it and it had a Dixon Brothers racing long travel kit. So that wasn 14 inches in the front, 17 inches in the rear with 91 hundreds. And we used to go down to Mexico and chase with that or, or we watched the race and chase down there with that. And that thing was freaking awesome. I remember the first time I took it to Glams, no cage in it except for a bed cage for the shocks.

Sean P. Holman (29m 18s):

And I did the sand drags at like, I don’t know, that wasn like 70 miles an hour in it and it just soaked them up so nice. And all these people were like, dude, what are you doing in that you have no cage? And I’m like, I don’t know that wasn great. I’m just an idiot. But the, the the flex of the frame and the body through the sand drags was so much that it were the cabin, the bed hitting each other? No, the cabin and the bed didn’t hit the, the pinon seal on the front differential basically got crushed or oblong By, the front drive shaft moving so much Oh, up

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (29m 50s):

And down that it

Sean P. Holman (29m 51s):

Started leaking out of the pinon seal after that trip. I’m like, Ooh, yeah, maybe it’s, maybe I shouldn’t do stupid stuff like that. Wow. But that wasn cool. I love that truck. So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (29m 58s):

You Brad you, you go into the Ford world through the Ranger, really, you wanted a Jeep, but you never really went back to a Jeep did you? Were kind of a, a Ford guy through and through at that point.

Brad Lovell (30m 9s):

Yeah, absolutely. You know, we, one thing it forced us to do was build our own parts because there was some stuff for rangers, but we wanted to go rock crawling and you know, I bought this super lift lift kit and that wasn All right. Put it on there. And I remember we went out to Moab one time and broke one of the radius arms and, and I put a come along on it and I pulled it all back together and I had to drive back to Wyoming, go to school for three weeks before I could go to Colorado to fix it. And you know, when, when you do stuff like that you find better ways to, to make stuff work. So I am thankful, you know, for that experience. ’cause I, you know, there’s so much available for a Jeep, I probably just would’ve would’ve bought stuff and not had to think about it so much.

Brad Lovell (30m 50s):

And what’s really cool for me is just over the 4th of July, my son Adam has a guess what a Ford Ranger and he has a 92, he put solid axles in it. Nice. And he and, and my other son buy ’em. And some friends, they took their first trip out to Moab and you know, they, they broke some stuff. They, they had me sweating a little bit when they told me they were gonna go do cliffhanger and all that. But, But long story short, they, they did have some problems with the Ranger, but they found another Ranger right at the bottom of, you know, there’s some houses at the bottom of Rim and found a Ranger in a guy’s field and ended up buying it for 500 bucks.

Brad Lovell (31m 32s):

Took parts off they needed, got one Ranger Home Trail, trailered the other one. So, you know, it’s, it’s good adventures. And that’s what I love the most about Offroad and, and doing these things is the Adventure, getting to see things and having challenges and overcoming ’em.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (31m 48s):

When did you become like a full-time racer and the follow-up is when was your official dealing with Ford and having input on one of the projects? Yeah,

Brad Lovell (31m 58s):

So the, the day I became a full-time professional racer was very memorable for me. that wasn also the day that my, my twin boys were born and I, at the time I was working as an engineer and I was racing and I figured I can’t do both of those things and be a father also. And my wife supported me quitting my job and it’s been the highest of highs and lowest lows since then. And that wasn about six years ago. Yeah, just about six years ago I was in the, the right place at the right time through a, a BF Goodrich event and was asked to take some Ford engineers through the Rubicon trail so that they could see what the Rubicon was about and what Offroad was about.

Brad Lovell (32m 43s):

So we, we did that. We, we rented, well I guess Pro probably cats out of the bag, but we rented some Jeeps Yes we did because we didn’t have any products at the time and, and, and went through the trail and, and it just kind of really developed some

Sean P. Holman (32m 60s):

Rapport and it showed up on the Instagram.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (33m 2s):

Oh, did it really? Oh yeah, yeah.

Sean P. Holman (33m 3s):

There are a lot of jeepers out there and they’re like, Hey, look at these guys out here on the Rubicon. They don’t belong. Well, how did they know that they were

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (33m 10s):

Ford engineers? Like how would you know? Well, can,

Sean P. Holman (33m 12s):

Can’t remember. Are they wearing

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (33m 13s):

Like Ford, like, like members only jackets? No, what I’m saying Yeah,

Sean P. Holman (33m 18s):

Short, short collared shirts with pencils in the pocket, right? Yeah, there’s a, there’s some later development drives that had camo vehicles and then the mix of camo vehicles with rental Jeeps and things like that. And I mean the locals know who goes up there. Yeah. So they’re not the first manufacturer to, to go test on

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (33m 35s):

The roof. Before you jump out of that story Brad, what were the engineers surprised by that trip? Tell me about, I know you, I don’t, don’t name any names, but tell me about that, that mix of guys, like they’re designing products that have to be beaten and I, I don’t know, I just would imagine you’re blowing Minds up there.

Brad Lovell (33m 53s):

I I don’t know that it, it blew anybody’s mind, but, you know, the Rubicon Trail, Johnson Valley Baja are all very different places than Michigan. So I think it validated a lot of the things that, that people were saying. Like, you Sean you know, it’s like, oh well you need rocker panel protection or you, you know, all those things. All of a sudden they could see why. And I believe that everybody that works for Ford is really, really smart. They just have to understand the context of the problem. So it, it gave me a chance to interact with these guys and I suppose my engineering background bought some credibility or allowed me to communicate on, on these folks level.

Brad Lovell (34m 34s):

And it’s, you know, that led into a whole lot of scouting, which I’ve learned is absolutely the best part of testing, scouting. Oh

Sean P. Holman (34m 44s):

Dude, for sure. Somebody pays your gas to go tell you to go find places to go real again. Yeah, I I, I have my new business. That’s one of the tenets of that business is like, you know, somebody pays me and goes, Hey, I want a trip for my group. Can you pre-run something and put something together? It’s like, yes,

Brad Lovell (35m 2s):

Professional scouting or one of my buddies, Eric Lar he told me back in the day, he quit racing. He is just gonna be a professional pre-runner, which I figured You know what, that’s probably the best job there is.

Sean P. Holman (35m 14s):

Heck yeah.

Brad Lovell (35m 15s):

But yeah, it, you know, it, it led into a lot of years testing the Bronco and fining it and, and working through things and getting it. So it’s a hundred percent best that it can be. And then You know what also led into, you know, some motor sports opportunities, which dovetail with our racing Bronco r down in Baja, who could forget that the, the first year is a little bittersweet. You know, we, we tried really hard, we threw everything at it and, and, and we didn’t make it to the finish. And what what bugs me is that I put 200 miles on that truck the day before the test. That was the year that delayed a day ’cause of rain.

Brad Lovell (35m 57s):

Oh yeah. And, and I thought that wasn ready. And, and I always remember that because you know, a lot of times when you think you got it just right, you can still get fooled. And and that one, that one got me. So what,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (36m 12s):

What happened? The desert, I don’t know the full story, what happened?

Sean P. Holman (36m 15s):

The desert is always the great equalizer.

Brad Lovell (36m 18s):

It is for sure. So really that wasn, that wasn death by a thousand needles. We had bad luck. So when I was in the, the truck, we had a skid plate come loose. It, it sounded like that wasn the back of the skid plate rattling against the ground again. This is my fault. It should have stopped. Well what that wasn is the front of the skate plate. So that wasn scooping down into the dirt and it, it grabbed into the dirt so hard it wound around the back up By the rear drive shaft and cut two transmission lines. Oh man, we, we were, we were, we were down and we were able to patch it together. But funny story, we, we didn’t have a funnel to fill up the transmission and the fill port on these is down right on the transmission.

Brad Lovell (37m 6s):

There’s no dipstick. So I’m trying to make a funnel out of duct tape and all this stuff and, and a Ford engineer was down there and he said, Hey Brad, use your catheter. So

Sean P. Holman (37m 18s):

Hey, great idea.

Brad Lovell (37m 21s):

That wasn, that wasn a little awkward, but I mean great

Sean P. Holman (37m 23s):

Idea. I’m sure you took I’m you took an offers, right?

Brad Lovell (37m 26s):

Yeah, yeah. But, but again, it’s like these guys are really smart, they just kinda understand the context of the problem. So yeah. So we, we, we had that and then I think there was some damage to an upright later on, but it, it just, you know, it’s, it just wears you down and once behind the Baja always behind and it’s, it’s a true test.

Sean P. Holman (37m 48s):

Yeah. Baja Baja iss a magical place for sure. And it’s the ultimate, you know, I don’t care what you’re doing elsewhere in the world, it’s the ultimate man and machine against Yeah. Nature I mean. It just, it’s just grueling and also amazing all at the same time. So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (38m 1s):

You go from, I wanna go back to the Rubicon trail. You, you go through with the Ford engineers and you give them some valuable insight. They go back and they hopefully incorporate some of those ideas into the, into the future trucks. What was the next big project that brought you even more deeply into Ford?

Brad Lovell (38m 21s):

Well, I think, you know, it’s, we, we kept going out and, and doing different scouting missions and checking stuff out to, to find, you know, really where we wanted to test the Bronco. So then there was the, the day when I guess I got to see my first Bronco as that wasn, which was, you know, heavily in camouflage. And that wasn about 35 degrees out and rainy. So it, that wasn maybe not maybe a little underwhelming. There’s camouflage inside. I didn’t even know what I was driving.

Sean P. Holman (38m 57s):

They’re like, here drive this rubber made trashcan with like, yeah. You know, trash bags over the, over the dash,

Brad Lovell (39m 4s):

You know, there’s a lot of testing and assessment with that. And then I guess, you know, the next thing that, the next program that evolved from that is the three 600 Broncos that we’ve raced in King of the Hammers now. So, you know, that project started pretty early on and there’s three of ’em built. There’s one that we race through level racing and I call ’em v but Vaughn and Lauren

Sean P. Holman (39m 31s):

Have one

Brad Lovell (39m 31s):

That they’re racing. And then

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (39m 34s):

Do they, do they know that you call them Varon?

Brad Lovell (39m 37s):

I think they probably do.

Sean P. Holman (39m 38s):

Yeah. I’m, I’m so disappointed that I just heard about this now because I was in Moab for Easter Jeep Safari, and I was in the Jeeps stand looking at the three 90, the new 24 updated 3 92. And Lauren walks up behind me and he’s like, oh, hey Sean. And then I’m like, oh, hey, what’s up dude? I look over and Vaughn’s on the other side of me. Oh, it would’ve been so great to go. Oh Lauren, it’s so good to see you. Well

Brad Lovell (39m 59s):

Yeah, you’ll have your chance. Oh,

Sean P. Holman (40m 3s):

I’m totally using that. Just so you know. So

Brad Lovell (40m 5s):

You know now, now with Ford Performance, I helped develop the, you know, the Bronco and the 4,600 Bronco and go out and validate it, test it, refine it. And then once we got the first one right, which is mine, which it, it takes some time, some time. Then they made two more carbon copies. And I, I was a little doubtful because you know, any, any truck that you’re using Offroad, any custom built thing, you have new truck blues and you have to work your way through all the little issues with it. But those two Broncos right out of the box were amazing.

Brad Lovell (40m 48s):

And, you know, again, I learned something. It’s, it’s like it really works well to, you know, build one development vehicle and then refine everything and take diligent notes and just keep building more after that.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (41m 3s):

You brought up Ultra four and I wanted to get to that place in your career because you have crushed it at Ultra four out in Johnson Valley and it is kind of a West coast thing. People travel from all over the country to go to Ultra four. Well

Sean P. Holman (41m 16s):

You’re talking about King of the Hammers. King, king of Ultra four is bigger than King of Hammer.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (41m 18s):

I’m sorry. You’re right. You’re right. You’re absolutely right. So let’s talk about King of the Hammers in Johnson Valley, California. What, what attracted, what are you moving there in the shop there? What, what kinda you doing? Construction. You building a truck. He’s

Sean P. Holman (41m 28s):

Actually building a race truck right now.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (41m 32s):

So what brought you to Johnson Valley and, and and give us your perception and how would you describe it to someone who’s, who lives on the East Coast and why they need to see it in person?

Brad Lovell (41m 44s):

Yeah, so what drew us there, Well, we could see, you know, rock crawling professional rock crawling was kinda tapering off x r a, we’ve done x r a rock racing, which is like rock drag racing. That was great, but you could see that maybe it had a shelf life or maybe it’s tapering off and here’s an event that’s combining rock crawling. Rock racing. But bigger than that, it’s like the Adventure of desert racing. And I’ve, I’ve done different types of racing, spent a lot of years doing short course racing and I love it. I love the the adrenaline. And real

Sean P. Holman (42m 24s):

Quick, I was gonna bring up short course racing. Yeah. ’cause we skipped over it. So 2010 or so you were actually racing pro lights and I think you were and and this, I’m not for this to be a big Ford commercial ’cause this is about Brad, although it sort of is a Ford commercial. ’cause there’s a lot of Ford. You were actually with Nissan at the time, right? No

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (42m 41s):

Way.

Brad Lovell (42m 42s):

Yeah, 20 20 11 and 2020. We won a Championship for Nissan in 2012. A great friend of mine, Ron Steenberg down there was instrumental in the program. And yeah, Nissan came out to our shop here in Colorado Springs and used it to race a leaf up Pike Peak and we raced our pro light up Pike Peak. So yeah. Yeah, I did did Race for a Nissan for a couple years. Unfortunately, you know, with OEMs things can take a different direction.

Sean P. Holman (43m 16s):

Yeah. It’s just a few people changing and, and things happen. I will say though, and, and correct me if I’m wrong, it has to be one of the best things as a driver to go race in inappropriate places, like taking the pro light at Pikes Peak or something like that. Taking your vehicle that you know is really good and the discipline that wasn made for and then go playing with it in some other form of racing has to be freaking awesome.

Brad Lovell (43m 41s):

So that to me is the whole ultra four mentality. And, and those are my people at the end of the day, it’s, you know, if you have a nascar, you’re only gonna go to your nascar. Well maybe you’ll do Lama every now and then, I don’t know, but sure. But you know, the whole idea of Ultra four is I have this cool vehicle, what can I do with it? You can Wheel on the weekend, you can go to King of the Hammers, you can do these different type events. And I I really respect that diehard attitude about Ultra four. Yeah. So, so King of the Hammers has kind of been part of our career for, for many, many years. But that wasn the, the sense of exploring a new area.

Brad Lovell (44m 23s):

We’d been out there to Cougar Buttes early, maybe 2004 I think for a rock crawl. And all I can remember is how hot that wasn.

Sean P. Holman (44m 33s):

Yeah.

Brad Lovell (44m 33s):

But, but to come back and see the challenge of King of Hammers, I, I, I don’t know, it’s impressive. And, and it’s changed a lot. We were, we were at the, you know, the second one, I guess not the OG 13 one, but the second one. And that year that wasn all clustered around the phone bush, which is still there. It’s still out in the middle of means Dry lake. You know, that wasn, that wasn small group. And every one of us thought we were gonna win that race. And well,

Sean P. Holman (45m 3s):

Of course you always do. Right. Otherwise you wouldn’t do it. And

Brad Lovell (45m 5s):

And that’s right When we did debuted the, the Ranger that we still have in the shop today, so that was 2000, gosh, I think oh seven. And, and we went out there and we were teammates with Rickman at the time through Fabtech and his, his brothers and family, Dan and Jeff and Kevin, they were all out helping out and they were gonna help us tune our shocks. So we say, okay, Brad, go through these, whoops here and you know, we’re gonna see what the truck does. So granted, this is my brand new rock crawler and I, I drive through the webs, Hey, try it again. Brad, I drive through the whoops, come back like, Brad, we’re just not going fast enough. So it’s like, well, I, I don’t know what to tell you.

Brad Lovell (45m 47s):

So Jeff Husman got in and I slid over to the right seat and he hit those, whoops. I thought that wasn gonna die.

Sean P. Holman (45m 55s):

So

Brad Lovell (45m 57s):

I that wasn like, I didn’t design my truck to do this. This is nuts. So right around time, how did you think

Sean P. Holman (46m 1s):

You joints fell? that wasn like

Brad Lovell (46m 4s):

Yeah. Oh, exactly. So that wasn like All, right? Why don’t you guys deal with Tune in my truck, I’m gonna go free run. So, so they did. And, and it’s, you know, we’re, we’re still working with ’em through Ford now, but great group guys.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (46m 18s):

Can you believe what that event has become? I, I’m our friend Rory is somehow affiliated with King of the Hammers and says claims that it’s the largest off. All I remember is that he said it trumped Burning Man. Hey, it’s big. How about that? It trumped Burning Man. It’s big

Sean P. Holman (46m 35s):

And it’s better than Burning Man.

Brad Lovell (46m 37s):

It, you know, it’s changed a lot. But the scale of it I mean to me now it feels like, you know, they put a fence around the, the main pit area there I guess. And ever since I started doing that, we’ve been pitted in town, but it really feels like medieval town walls. And you get people, you know, camping up against the town walls because it’s safer than, than camping away from it. And it’s like Mad Max out on means dry lake. Oh,

Sean P. Holman (47m 6s):

For sure.

Brad Lovell (47m 6s):

People driving everywhere and campers. I, I saw a, a water truck one time stuck in a mud hole out there. It’s like the one mud hole on means dry. It’s like, how, how does that happen? I, and I don’t know. But yeah, it’s absolutely phenomenal. And my, my favorite part of it is getting away from all that hustle and bustle out on the trails and pre-running, especially when it’s a beautiful morning. You know, you get out there and just when it’s starting to warm up and doing your homework and you know, a lot of times we hike trails or you know, we’ll we always make sure we run every bit of course.

Brad Lovell (47m 48s):

But if we have to go out again, maybe we hike them. And it’s just kind of, it’s a, it’s a real nice time. And then there’s the pressure of the race and we take it pretty seriously. We’ve, we’ve won the E M C overall three times and four class wins and 4,800. And my, my buddy’s V has now beaten us twice in the, in the stock class. In, in the Bronco. Well

Sean P. Holman (48m 17s):

He keeps driving off waterfalls. He doesn’t touch anything until it lands. And that was Lauren. Right. And then posted, posted on social I mean that was crazy that, that, that got to people that didn’t even know what that race was. That and the Mel Wade in his Jeep rolling over and then driving out of his roll up a hill are like my two favorite taking the hammer moments. Yep. You know that, that’s

Brad Lovell (48m 37s):

Crazy. I absolutely have no idea what, what Lauren was thinking. And when I asked him about it, he is like, oh yeah, that wasn a good, good line. You know, you just hopped down and

Sean P. Holman (48m 44s):

He pooped himself, you know, for sure there was poop in his, in his suit. Have you not done and there’s no listen, there’s no catheter for your butt. So if if you scare yourself off road, then you’re in it for the rest of the race. Okay. Just in case anyone out there doesn’t know about that. That’s, that’s the deal. Have you not done anything like that? Or is that, I, i, is that wasn Lawrence Riot run that, that extreme? He drove off a waterfall basically, but he made it like no big deal. that wasn like five feet. That’s crazy. So

Brad Lovell (49m 15s):

I, I’ve definitely done stuff like that. But Offroad racing is risk management and there was a lot of risk. Yeah. That was

Sean P. Holman (49m 23s):

On what he did. that wasn on the red, red zone of the gauge broke. Yeah.

Brad Lovell (49m 26s):

You know, he, he won that one. Whether he, you know, was top qualifier or not, he won. So,

Sean P. Holman (49m 33s):

Dude, I, that still blows my, like I said, those were my two ultra four moments where you think back in your, in your or king of Hammers moments where you think back, you’re like, I mean, you just are on such pure adrenaline with tunnel vision. Anybody who’s ever been, especially desert racing, when you’re in the car and you’re racing, you are completely focused on what’s around you. Situational awareness, what the car’s doing. He must have just had the, the most amazing tunnel, vision tunnel. And you’re, you’re probably, he probably did things with his hands and feet that he like was outside the body or something. ’cause I don’t know how you wouldn’t willingly drive over that because literally you’re looking at nothing. You’re just looking at the drops. Oh,

Brad Lovell (50m 11s):

Right.

Sean P. Holman (50m 12s):

And then when you go down, you have to accelerate. Right. Because otherwise you’ll nose over and you’ll end up on your lid. So I don’t, that’s, I, I watched these guys, when I went to King of the Hammers a couple years ago, that wasn the strangest thing that guys would come off a small waterfall and they’d go,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 27s):

They’d be vertical. So they’re looking directly at the ground. ’cause the wheels stick out in front of the car

Sean P. Holman (50m 32s):

And they would goose it,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 33s):

And then they goose it. Any normal person would hit the brakes. Well,

Sean P. Holman (50m 37s):

Well, that’s how they end up on their

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 38s):

Lid. I know that. But it’s, it’s, but it’s counterintuitive. It’s like any

Sean P. Holman (50m 42s):

Dude in Moab who goes down You know what one of the off and then gets to the bottom and puts on their brake. Like, no, no,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 49s):

No. But how do you, but how, how do you learn that

Brad Lovell (50m 51s):

You gotta drive out?

Sean P. Holman (50m 52s):

How,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 52s):

How do you learn that

Sean P. Holman (50m 53s):

By watching people or I guess. So, effing up

Brad Lovell (50m 55s):

I can get throttling out, but driving into that wall at speed without seeing it is, is something else. And having not hit it before, so, because

Sean P. Holman (51m 4s):

There’s no way’s the most, he saw what was on the other side of that, that wasn just desert in front of me. Right,

Brad Lovell (51m 9s):

Right.

Sean P. Holman (51m 10s):

I have thousands upon thousands of miles of prowling the desert now, you know? Yes. I’ve raced and I’ve been in race cars and things like that, but like, just driving, exploring, whatever, the desert is a crazy place because anything can happen at any time. And, and the train is always changing, and one storm or monsoon comes through and now everything, you know, is completely wrong. And I’m looking at that going, man, how many times have you gone on a trail or a road, you know, or whatever, and something’s washed out and you get up to, and you’re like, oh, something’s not right. And you look, there’s a five foot drop. You’re like, yeah, no. Yeah. And he’s at speed going, All, right. Let’s go.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (51m 48s):

There are places like that in, in the sand dunes down in, in Glams where I’ve, I you think, you know that it’s, it’s gonna just round off and smooth, you know, go down the other side and it’s smooth and then you realize it’s a cliff

Sean P. Holman (51m 60s):

Wamp W

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (52m 1s):

And, and you just Oh my God and you just pucker. You just pucker. Hey, so Brad, I have a question regarding other racing styles. So you become quite the thing and Offroad for, but have you done the sand dunes? Have you, would you do road racing?

Brad Lovell (52m 17s):

Wow. So that, that’s interesting. Sand definitely fascinates me. And it’s the area in Offroad where I feel least proficient. There was a class earlier this year that Darren Skelton put on as part of the Sonora rally that was the part of the world rally raid Championship this year. And my son and I went down to do the class. And a lot of it is in dunes, and there are some fantastic dunes in Mexico. You know, you can see some of the dunes that extend down from glam that that’s not even touching what they have down there. They’re just enormous students.

Brad Lovell (52m 59s):

And you know, that said, I haven’t spent a ton of time at Glamis. I’ve been through there a few times. But yeah, sand fascinates me because I can clearly see, you know, dangers or, or know what to do in the rocks. Like driving out from the hill sand is different. We’ve sat in glams and wondering where that slip face is gonna be, or that ledge, and there’s like a ground blizzard of sand and we were like five feet from it and could not see it. And that fascinates me. So I have a great appreciation for driving in sand and as well as the, you know, decar style rally raid driving where navigation is very intense.

Brad Lovell (53m 42s):

And I say that from being a driver or a navigator, it’s all, it’s all very intense and it takes a lot of cognitive load in the car to figure it all out. Road racing. I’ve done track days, a couple of track days, and that’s about it. So I consider myself like a road racing, road racing enthusiast and not a pro. And I, I like it because, you know, I can go out and, and get my, get my kicks pretty easy in that just, you know, I, I went, for example, I went for a ride with Von Gitten doing drifting, and I was giggling the whole time where we have a, a Mustang gt and just laying it out through some turns.

Brad Lovell (54m 25s):

I enjoy that. And I, you know, what’s been so fun for me in Offroad is, is the journey, like the discovery of finding out the next level of capability and the next thing you, you can do. So I don’t know that I’ll ever road race, but I I can certainly see myself, you know, doing fun things around, you know, road cars. But really I think my heart is in Offroad and exploring every corner of it.

Sean P. Holman (54m 52s):

So speaking of exploring every corner we talked about our, both of us have an affinity for the Ranger. I clearly had one where I built my own Ranger Raptor back in the day essentially. And Ford finally has announced that this year Ranger Raptor is coming to America. And you, my friend, had a chance to not only drive it, but you raced it down in one of my favorite places that I wish I I could spend more time Australia. And you entered it and raced in the, is it the Fink Desert race? Is that the right pronunciation?

Brad Lovell (55m 25s):

Yeah, that’s it. Yeah. That was really unique and and special deal for us that Ranger rocker, the one that we raised was built in Australia and they shipped over here to North America. The Husman brothers I was talking about earlier did some work to it. And

Sean P. Holman (55m 44s):

That wasn a righthand hand drive, right?

Brad Lovell (55m 47s):

Yeah. Oh yeah. So yeah, you want to talk about getting used to the, the width of a a Bronco Raptor. Yeah. Try putting yourself on the whole other side of the car. Yeah, we’ve raced that down in, at the Baja 1000 this last year. And, you know, looking back on, on Bronco R and the challenges we had there, I mean, this is where the payoffs were. And we had a, I can’t believe it, but we had a clean race. We didn’t have a flat tire. We had a amazing, biggest thing we had was a, a light bar tab broke off on the front bumper. So we, we took time and welded it up and not a single problem with the truck truck after that. So everything went super smooth.

Sean P. Holman (56m 27s):

Now you guys ended up winning the production four Wheel Drive class in that race, which has to be huge. But I think you also set a record for time as well, right?

Brad Lovell (56m 38s):

Well, you know, Baja, they don’t really keep records because the, you know, the course is ever changing. But, but certainly we had a a a great run there and then that culminated in an opportunity to take that truck back to Australia and race down in Fink. And Fink is very different. I I it’s, it’s everything in Australia, it’s like the Twilight Zone, it’s like the US or Europe, but the Twilight Zone, right?

Sean P. Holman (57m 6s):

It’s, it’s just a little bit different. It’s the Shelbyville Simpsons, it’s, everybody looks like the Simpsons, but they’re drawn slightly different. And when you hang out in Sydney Harbor and you walk around, it’s a mixture of LA and the San Diego gas lamp district, and they’re all walking around with Dodgers or Lakers caps and they’re all watching the basketball or baseball games from America. Wait, what are, are you seriously joking in said, yeah, no, in Sydney, Australia. Go walk around the waterfront. It’s freaking San Diego. It’s the gas lamp. It’s, it’s hilarious. So you’re saying I don’t need to go then. No, you should go, because there’s, like I said, it’s the Shelbyville Simpsons. Everything is slightly different. When I got off the airplane for the first time when I went to Australia and I get off in Sydney, right. I’m expecting to be just embraced with culture and what do I freaking see?

Sean P. Holman (57m 51s):

Subway, McDonald’s and K F C and I’m like, the Americans have ruined the world. Were the purveyors of food everywhere except for, I believe Burger King is called Hungry Jacks there. And so it’s the Burger King logo, but it says Hungry Jacks on it. It’s literally America. But different, God forbid they get, they bring it in and out down there. Yeah. Oh, there we go. So, but it’s, I don’t know, I love the magic of Australia, but you’re right, it’s, it’s everything you already are familiar with. You immediately feel okay, like you go to Sunset. I’ve been to Europe and Africa and there’s places you go where you feel, okay, I’m a tourist. There’s places you go where you go, I’m a complete outsider. You go to Australia, you’re like, ah, my people, you just look kind of funny.

Sean P. Holman (58m 31s):

Yeah. You know?

Brad Lovell (58m 32s):

Yeah. They, they talk a little bit different. They, they call McDonald’s Mackers over there. Their

Sean P. Holman (58m 38s):

Slang is awesome. Nobody has better

Brad Lovell (58m 40s):

Slang on the side of the sidewalk. Back to the Fink race, what what was really unique about that, it started in Alice Springs, goes down to an aboriginal community called Fink. You race 140 miles about, you race down to Fink the first day, then you turn around and on the second day you race back. So one thing I didn’t even know before the event, but you can go pre-run, but in Australia you can’t have the exotic half a million dollar pre runners that we have here. So you’re pretty much stuck to street vehicles. And

Sean P. Holman (59m 11s):

It’s a Toyota

Brad Lovell (59m 12s):

Ranger ror.

Sean P. Holman (59m 13s):

Oh, I was gonna say, was It like a solid axle FJ 70 pickup truck or something like that? Yep.

Brad Lovell (59m 18s):

There, there were, there were rental cars over there. Like one guy rented a, like a 70 series Toyota like that from six T and was pre-running in it. That’s awesome. So we, we were like, you know, the, the bad asses down there with Ranger Raptor just running by everybody during the, during the pre-run. But it’s, it’s a very, it’s so much faster than Baja Trophy trucks were averaging 82 miles an hour. Wow. Through there. Wow. And in, in Baja it might be 55 or something. Right. Really fast race and Yeah. So what you’re talking about records. We had a good day going down. We had a great day coming back and set a record coming back, which is, which is cool.

Brad Lovell (1h 0m 2s):

I, I think You know what everybody wanted to do is go down there and win. But my, my son Baum and I, he’s my navigator in in that truck. How cool was that? And we saw that chance to do a little better. that wasn. that wasn really awesome. You know, that’s, I appreciate the Adventure of Offroad and, and was very thankful forward to extend that opportunity to my son and shoot, we were just rebuilding some shocks out here an hour ago. And I think he might be smarter than me too. So

Sean P. Holman (1h 0m 32s):

How, how old is he?

Brad Lovell (1h 0m 34s):

I, well, twin boys, they just turned 17.

Sean P. Holman (1h 0m 38s):

That’s awesome.

Brad Lovell (1h 0m 38s):

So they’ve had a lot of cool opportunity through Offroad and my son buy’s working down at three d Offroad, one of the local fab shops here. And my other son Adam, is working for a, oh, like a, a heavy equipment outfit doing maintenance. So they’re both following their passion and spending every minute they can in the shop.

Sean P. Holman (1h 1m 1s):

So Lightning and I would both like to know what’s it like to be a cool dad? Well, what are you saying, Well? we we’re not cool. No, he’s way cooler than you and I aren’t our kids. Well, hold on. That’s okay. You, you’re right. You’re right. Well,

Brad Lovell (1h 1m 12s):

So here’s how it’s been explained to me. I don’t know that I’m cooler, but I have race trucks, so Okay. That, that means I get to hang out with ’em more than I would be otherwise.

Sean P. Holman (1h 1m 21s):

Yeah, that’s, that’s totally fair. All. right. So you said that the race course in Fink was, was faster and, you know, the, the top speeds were, or average speeds were better. When you’re comparing it to Baja, as we know Baja, it, it’s, it’s a massive, massive area that it covers. But what was the I mean? Is it more, i I I get that it’s a faster pace, but is it more relaxing in the sense that you’re not worrying about truck gobbler and g outs and whoops. Or were those still things part, was It mostly a two track? Was there trail, was It smooth most of the way? What, what’s that Australian racing like versus the Baja racing and, and California desert racing, for example?

Brad Lovell (1h 1m 57s):

Well, that’s, that’s a good question. ’cause I, I didn’t really know what to expect going over there. And a unique thing about it is you are almost, you’re basically within sight of a service road the whole time you’re on course. So there’s a maybe a big wide gravel road that parallels the race course all the way down to think and back. So if you do have a problem, you’re certainly not isolated. It’s not really a race that you can chase, so you can’t really have outside assistance. But it seems a little murky there. The terrain, it’s a mixture of like high speed, hard pan. There’s not really any rocks.

Brad Lovell (1h 2m 38s):

Oh, that’s nice. But a high-speed hard pan. And then you get into what I guess I’d call GLADiS. Whoops. Where they’re, they’re they’re kind, whoops, they’re not rutted. But the transition between those two can be very abrupt and, and the whoops can get pretty big. In fact, I saw the biggest whoop in the whole world down there, there there issues.

Sean P. Holman (1h 3m 0s):

I’m sure it wasn’t a hill.

Brad Lovell (1h 3m 2s):

I, I, I would’ve gotten stuck in it if I didn’t have four Wheel drive. Wow.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 3m 7s):

At what point did you have

Brad Lovell (1h 3m 9s):

Rises you go, did

Sean P. Holman (1h 3m 10s):

You have to put in low range to crawl up to the top of it and get down the other side?

Brad Lovell (1h 3m 14s):

Well, no, but I, but I did have to, you know, throttle through the bottom like, like Lauren had to do to get off that rock pile. Oh

Sean P. Holman (1h 3m 21s):

My

Brad Lovell (1h 3m 21s):

Gosh. that wasn big enough for that.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 3m 23s):

When, when does it transition from whoops to like hills? I mean you’re a whoop is up to what, like three, four feet, five feet at the most?

Brad Lovell (1h 3m 30s):

Yeah. And and that’s the hard thing about Fink is it’s, and you know, the whole interior of Australia is very, very much the same. It’s not as unique or diverse as the interior of the US let’s say. So we flew over the Simpson Desert and you can see lines of dunes going on, you know, from 30,000 feet as far as you can see. And they look perfectly straight. So if, if you look at how that might feel on a, on a race course, there’s not a lot of visual identifiers to distinguish when it’s gonna change. Whereas in Baja, I really like to, to pick out, you know, okay, I’m gonna get down there, the Sea of Cortez, we’re gonna run through San Felipe, then I’m gonna turn up this wash down that wash and I can divide it up in my head, think that’s very hard to do.

Brad Lovell (1h 4m 17s):

I I get caught unawares a couple times on those transition zones. So, you know, on a Ranger wrap here, you’re cooking right into ’em and next thing you know, you’re spending more time in the air than you’re in the ground. But it’s, it held together. Yeah. The,

Sean P. Holman (1h 4m 30s):

The, just for the sake of our audience, we talked about the, the Wheel travel on a Bronco Raptor, which is the same chassis is like 1314 or 1214, something like that on the Ranger Raptor it’s, it’s 10 13 or 10 12. So 10 front and 12 rear, which is still pretty good. But the Ranger doesn’t have as big of a Wheel Well and it doesn’t have as wide of a track. And so I think when Ford was developing the Bronco, they really wanted that do everything and you know, ultra four vibe with the Bronco Raptor versus the Ranger Raptor, which is like just a really good go fast mid-size truck. So when we’re talking about Wheel travel and so that he’s racing a stocked vehicle, those transitions can gobble up 10 inches of travel really fast.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 5m 13s):

And so are you hitting the bump stops or is it, does it want to kick the backend up

Sean P. Holman (1h 5m 17s):

And over? what is that like?

Brad Lovell (1h 5m 19s):

So that’s interesting ’cause we were pre-running with a guy from Australia over there that had done the race and he was asking the same thing. You know what, why aren’t you hitting the bump stops? Well it just Ranger of Raptor, they do such a great job with the amount of travel they have that the suspension, it just gets more progressive and you never really feel it bottom out or, or slap against a bump stop or upset the chassis. It just kind of ramps up to the point that you know, that you’re probably over driving the truck. They’ve done a great job of the amount of suspension travel that they have and then, you know, it’s narrower than a a Bronco Raptor or F one 50 Raptor. It’s kind of like a mixture between the wild track Bronco and a and a Raptor Bronco.

Brad Lovell (1h 6m 5s):

But it, but it’s narrower small, smaller tire lighter, that same big three liter engine. So it’ll boogie

Sean P. Holman (1h 6m 10s):

And it’s lighter weight too. So the powder weight ratio is gonna be bigger, is gonna be a lot better in the Ranger Raptor now having spent some time and pushing it through the limits. Do you have I mean, there’s a lot of people listening to the show right now who probably have money in their hands who are like sight unseen, I don’t care, I want a Ranger Raptor and they’re waiting to go throw that money at their local dealer. What advice or or insight can you give ’em about what you think that they’re about to get their hands on? Is it, are you as excited about it for the US market?

Brad Lovell (1h 6m 40s):

Well, I absolutely I mean, I I would certainly go buy it. I, to me it’s, it’s not quite at the same level as Bronco Raptor and F one 50 Raptor, but that, that’s okay. It’s a Ranger and the trade-offs are real nice ’cause it’s easier to park. You still have a ton of off-road capability. I hear that 35 inch tires might fit on there with only minor rubbing if you push it hard. I,

Sean P. Holman (1h 7m 8s):

I right. So in the beginning of the interview I basically said I drove the Bronco Raptor and I felt like that wasn at home here and it wouldn’t be my first choice for say overlanding. But I think that the Yeah, Ranger Raptor would be absolutely perfect for overlanding because the size is right, the payload’s right. The fact that it’s lighter than the Bronco. Yeah. I think it has a, a more fuel capacity and 30 threes from the factory. So 30 sevens, but 30 fives will fit. There’s not much you have to do to make a really comfortable desert runner to go explore in. And I, I think that is gonna be the, the, the jam for, for overlanding from what I recall, it had a pretty good load capacity as well. Yep.

Brad Lovell (1h 7m 46s):

Yeah. Towing capacity is good, but I mean, you have a good point. I mean to me it just feels a a little more controllable to park in your garage to deal with day to day and, you know, hey me, at the end of the day, I want as much capability as I can get. But I, I, I certainly have a special place in my heart for Ranger Raptor and, and it, to me it’s, you know, speaking by and large trucks from the eighties have have gotten pretty car-Like, so it’s really neat for me to see trucks again, you know, things that can actually go off road and, and do cool stuff. And you know, I, for me, you know, the tremor stuff falls in that category.

Brad Lovell (1h 8m 30s):

Obviously Ranger, Raptor a lot of products for it is coming out with an even Jeep,

Sean P. Holman (1h 8m 38s):

Even

Brad Lovell (1h 8m 38s):

Jeep. It’s it, yeah. Right. I I do have Jeeps. I am a Jeep guy. I’m just more of a Ford guy. So

Sean P. Holman (1h 8m 45s):

That, that’s fair. I’ve got a Ford G p w so I have the ultimate Ford Jeep and I also Wow. And I also have my 3 82. Yeah I’ve got a a 42 and the serial number is 9,600 I believe. So it’s in the first 10,000 ever built. This one was built in in Dallas and Wow. Came from my uncle’s ranch and I have a picture of my uncle and I working on it when I was about 12 years old on the ranch. And he, he gave it to me a few years ago. So Wow. Trying to get it back in driving order’s, got Buick odd fire in it and I want to go do a vintage Yeah. Over landing run. And I obviously have a bunch of friends with flat fender. I wanna do it.

Brad Lovell (1h 9m 20s):

Let’s do it. I I have a 43 Willie’s mb let’s

Sean P. Holman (1h 9m 24s):

Do it All. right. I’m

Brad Lovell (1h 9m 25s):

Down a hundred percent. Stop.

Sean P. Holman (1h 9m 27s):

So my, my goal, I won’t, I won’t say the name of the trail, but certain people like you,

Brad Lovell (1h 9m 32s):

I think you told me. Right?

Sean P. Holman (1h 9m 34s):

And, and I, I hope that when the time comes, you will join. So like, you know, it’ll be like fair enough, a a a Trent McGee, a Vern Simons, a Christian, Hazel, Rick PayWay, you know, that group of us magazine guys and a few of our industry friends who all have flat fenders. I want to do this flat fender run when, when it’s ready to go. ’cause I think it’ll be so much fun. How abusive is this trail you’re thinking of? Not abusive, but it’s, it’s long and there’s camping and the thing about a flat fender is it either runs perfectly for 200 miles or it doesn’t run at All. right. I mean there’s no, there’s no real in between either you e either you have some sort of, you know, like, like fueling issue, you know, because the engine is hot or you have some spark issue or you have a cooling issue.

Sean P. Holman (1h 10m 22s):

I mean everything wants to eat itself on those things. And it’s funny that, it’s amazing that we won wars with these things ’cause they were literally the, the first thing that replaced a horse. And I don’t know if the early ones were as reliable. And then you’ve got magicians like Rick PayWay who can fix a flat fender with a leatherman and some spare parts that he found rusting way in the desert in about five minutes. And he’ll all, you know, ailments. Although I think all of us suffer from vapor lock. So anyway, it’s, they’re magical vehicles and I love them. I love them so much. Yeah.

Brad Lovell (1h 10m 52s):

Mine has vapor locked more times on me than I can

Sean P. Holman (1h 10m 55s):

Remember

Brad Lovell (1h 10m 55s):

It. So we started in Moab years ago in, you know, 700 miles back to Colorado Springs all Offroad in, in my 43. Oh man. And we got to, we got just about to, you know where Porcupine Rim trail is? Yep. In the Sand Flats area there. Yep. And the starter gear stripped.

Sean P. Holman (1h 11m 15s):

Right, because why not now? We

Brad Lovell (1h 11m 17s):

Have no starter and, and sure we didn’t have vapor lock like that first day, but every other day we did. So Oh my gosh. What a long trip.

Sean P. Holman (1h 11m 25s):

Always an Adventure. Oh but there’s something special when you drive my, I had a a 51 CJ three A and that wasn actually built for a retired executive at Jeep and for retirement president from the guys that Jeep. And I had to sell it years ago. And it sucks ’cause that’s the one that got away. But I remember I would drive it on the freeway and it had an overdrive and it still had the flathead in it. And I would do everything I could to like lean forward downhill and, and I had a little g p s on the dash and I, I reached 61 miles an hour one day in that thing. Wow. With third gear overdrive me leaning forward that wasn like what?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 12m 0s):

That wasn just screaming

Sean P. Holman (1h 12m 1s):

And people, I’m in the slow lane going from one exit to the next. ’cause I’m like, oh, I’ll just take it on the freeway and just bop up a couple exits. No problem. Right. People are slamming on their brakes, honking at me, flipping me off. You know, trucks are up my butt. I mean the whole thing. Jeez. And I’m thinking they don’t know. And a Jeep just like, looks like a jeep to people. They don’t understand that this micro Jeep is 80 years old and it should be a national treasure going down the highway. No, right. They hate you and they want you to die at the hands of their driving. They

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 12m 28s):

Can’t see the sewing machine under the hood.

Sean P. Holman (1h 12m 30s):

No. They have no idea.

Brad Lovell (1h 12m 33s):

My record, I think is about 55 in that mb same thing. Head down going downhill. And boy how times have changed? Are

Sean P. Holman (1h 12m 42s):

You flapping your arms to you just to help the air get by? No, no, no. He

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 12m 44s):

Turns, he turns his hat backwards so the bill doesn’t catch any extra wind

Sean P. Holman (1h 12m 48s):

And then pops open the, the windshield just so it flows through the glass. There.

Brad Lovell (1h 12m 52s):

There you go.

Sean P. Holman (1h 12m 53s):

So one thing I I I forgot to ask you about is on your 4,600 Bronco race vehicle, you’re running Quinn at 74 welds portals on those, right?

Brad Lovell (1h 13m 2s):

Yeah, absolutely. So that, that kind of evolved out of this program. You know, we worked with Quinn to develop that. We were big proponents of portals and I I still am and I’m so stoked to see him, you know, broaden the, the line into all different i f s solutions because I really think that’s where it’s at for getting capability outta I f ss.

Sean P. Holman (1h 13m 27s):

It’s so, it’s so sick. I helped him put together that Tacoma that he debuted at Overland Expo West with the portals and 30 sevens on it with no lift. And everybody was like walking by jaw dropping and, and You know what he’s doing. The dude’s so cerebral. Yeah, we’ve had him on the show talking about portals and I think it’s just, it’s it’s so smart and it’s such a great, you know, application for, you know, Bronco and Tacoma and the amount of ground clearance you get. It’s just the, the whole thing is really cool. Well How much, did it help you

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 13m 58s):

In your racing endeavors? Like did it, what did that wasn the ground clearance more beneficial than the speed over the ground? Like what, what was the number one advantage?

Brad Lovell (1h 14m 7s):

It’s ground clearance and then maintaining good suspension geometry and steering geometry. And you know, I remember years ago Shannon Campbell built a I F SS rock crawler and there’s a highlight on YouTube somewhere saying, you know, of him saying, I F SS stands for it, effing sucks. And

Sean P. Holman (1h 14m 31s):

I remember

Brad Lovell (1h 14m 31s):

That that’s changed, right? You know, like, like the stay bar disconnect in Bronco all of a sudden now you can get it to, to articulate a little bit more and portals and, and these new solutions that are coming out. Look, I’m a solid axle guy, but I, there’s, you know, each has its own place. But yeah, it’s, you know, one thing about I F Ss is you have that variable ground clearance, hundred percent under the front where solid axle you don’t. So, you know, putting portals on anything to get more clearance under that point is important. Whether it’s Baja running in breaded, whoops, or king of the hammers running over rocks.

Brad Lovell (1h 15m 14s):

There’s a lot of stuff. And you can see UTVs doing at King of the Hammers, but just these massive boulders and they’re driving straight over ’em. ’cause they have U H N W skid plates and, and it’s just about inertia to get over that stuff without getting hung up.

Sean P. Holman (1h 15m 30s):

So what’s next for Brad Lovell? What, what are you focused on for the rest of the year now that you’ve already won races, broken records made an OEM super happy I mean, is there anything else left to do this year? Well,

Brad Lovell (1h 15m 43s):

There’s always something and I, I, I don’t, I don’t ever want to lift. I don’t think so. We’re just getting our, our anzo U t v ready for Vegas to Reno. My son Adam is gonna race it there, so I’ll Cooi drive with him and put that’s 550 miles. So we’ll probably throw his brother or cousin in there for a while too.

Sean P. Holman (1h 16m 4s):

But, and I love ass horse too. By the way

Brad Lovell (1h 16m 7s):

Indeed. Lot of silt. But we’ve been prepping that for the last three, three weeks and did, did shocks tonight, Dr. Drenched myself in oil. So we’re, we’re getting it back together and we’ll go do that and then hopefully we’ll be spending a little bit time of time down Baja too.

Sean P. Holman (1h 16m 26s):

That’s so funny. Lightning and I also drenched ourselves in oil, but that wasn from donuts and burritos.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 16m 32s):

Do you have to tell ’em about that I mean? I thought that was between you

Sean P. Holman (1h 16m 34s):

And I. Sorry, did I, did I go external with that? I’m a

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 16m 37s):

Little bit, yes, you heard that? Yeah. That was out loud.

Brad Lovell (1h 16m 40s):

Think it’s a little awkward. Yeah,

Sean P. Holman (1h 16m 42s):

Yeah. You know what we’re so used to you eating horrible food in our little shed that it’s,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 16m 46s):

Although I gotta be honest, I thought you were gonna go to like, we drench ourselves in oil and we laid out in the backyard sunning

Sean P. Holman (1h 16m 51s):

Ourselves. See that’s where your disgusting mind goes. I’m about food and then you’re just depraved. I was just

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 16m 55s):

Thinking about, I was like in GT strings laying out there, your wife’s coming out bringing the drinks and

Sean P. Holman (1h 16m 59s):

Stuff. Always stuff always takes it always takes it. Eight, eight feet too far. Oh dude. Brad, thanks for coming on. I know I, I had hit you up on messaging when you were still in Australia and, and you said, yeah, I’d love to come on when I get back. And then I saw you out at the Bronco thing. But I know you’re a busy guy and really appreciate you making time because I, I think this is a, a great interview for people to hear all the cool stuff you’re doing and some of the inside stuff that they can really appreciate.

Brad Lovell (1h 17m 24s):

Well I, I appreciate it Sean. It’s an honor to be on the show and I love seeing what you guys are doing. So a hundred percent keep it up.

Sean P. Holman (1h 17m 31s):

Appreciate awesome, appreciate Thank you. And and you can see Brad’s endeavors at Brad level 44 on the, the Gram Brad level 44. Well I’ll see you. Well I’ll see you. No, you’ve already seen him. I’ve already seen him. So that wasn great seeing you Brad. I appreciate it. I’m glad you liked the beer that I bought you or the whiskey or whatever, whatever you

Brad Lovell (1h 17m 52s):

Prefer. Thanks for the I P A at the AM oil.

Sean P. Holman (1h 17m 55s):

Oh yeah, there we go. Perfect. And I just wanted to say thank you for dowsing. Lightning and Oil that has nothing to do with food. So he looks like he works on stuff. I appreciate that. This is getting weird. I don’t here All, right? We’re not. We’ll talk to you later. Thanks Brad.

Brad Lovell (1h 18m 10s):

Alright, Sean, Jay. Thanks guys. All right? You got it. Take

Sean P. Holman (1h 18m 12s):

Care. Talk soon. Thanks. Bye Bye. I think Brad’s my new hero there buddy. Dude, I like that guy. He’s awesome. How about some news? You up for it? Let’s do it.

3 (1h 18m 22s):

What’s new in trucks? We need to know what’s new in trucks. We

Sean P. Holman (1h 18m 27s):

Need to know

3 (1h 18m 28s):

What’s new in trucks. We need to know lifted, lowered and everything in between. What’s happening in the world of trucks?

Sean P. Holman (1h 18m 37s):

Ah. Oh that was good. You totally hung me out to dry. Dammit. I was just, I just wanna see what you you’re gonna do. Dammit. hold on, lemme try. Ah, it’s not the same. We have to do it together. Are you really upset about that? Yes. All, right? 1, 2, 3. Ah, didn Didn’t see now. You. Didn. See I can’t trust you. Ah, All right? 1, 2, 3. Ah damnit. See stop it. I gave you the opportunity to do it with me and you me. Let’s try, I’m doing it again. Ready? 1, 2, 3. Ah yes. All. right. Are you happy now? Yes. Can we get on with the news? Yeah. All right Lighting did you hear? Oh, nope. So here’s a good one for you.

Sean P. Holman (1h 19m 18s):

And I read articles from analysts and things like this. So Ford who as you know, had a F one 50 Lightning start at a pretty low price. I think that wasn around 49,000 and O over the last, was that $20,000 ago? Yeah, something like that. ’cause there’s been several price increases since then. Well come to find out that before you tell me. Yeah. Is the increase commensurate to the Maverick price increase? Can you, let me finish the story. Go ahead. Lightning has been reduced in price from 6,000 to $10,000 depending on trim level. What? So kind of a kind of funny too, Elon Musk wrote in a post, the Ford lighting’s a good vehicle, just somewhat expensive, especially given the high interest rates these days for any kinda loan.

Sean P. Holman (1h 20m 2s):

But Ford claims that they’ve been working hard in the background to make the production more efficient and the buying of materials more efficient. And they said after they launched the F one 50 that materials costs were really high and so they had to pass that on to the consumer. Well now they’re saying, oh, it’s efficient. Well then some of these, you know, analysts are going, well the real story is all these manufacturers are creating way more electric vehicles than there are demand right now. And they’re too expensive. Wow. And there’s a lot of EVs apparently coming outta the factory. So anyway, the starting price is 49, 9 95 and goes up to 91 9 95 for the platinum version.

Sean P. Holman (1h 20m 42s):

So what is that do for the cyber truck? I don’t know. Maybe Will, will he undercut them? Will he be 35 or 40? I, I highly doubt that. But it’ll be interesting to see where they end up as a refresher of where everything lands right now. The previous M S R P was, and I’ll go pro and then X L T 12 A, which is the high feature 61 969 for the pro 74 69 for the X LT three 12 A, the new M S R P 51 990, which is a price change of $9,979. The new M M S R P of the top line model drops from 70 to 61 9 90.

Sean P. Holman (1h 21m 22s):

It’s a price change of $8,479. Again, I believe when it came out it started at, I think that wasn 49.995 or something like that. So still not as low as when it came out. But I, the first thing I thought about is, is what does that do to, to the residuals for everybody who bought during the price increases? They just lost their butts on the residual values of those. Absolutely. Yeah. Now if you go all the way up to a platinum extended range, which is the most expensive, that wasn at a hundred thousand $69, a hundred thousand $69. The new M S R P on the truck, 93 9 90, which is a drop of 6,000. So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 21m 59s):

Someone’s seen for Ford F one 50, even battery powered I mean come on

Sean P. Holman (1h 22m 2s):

All of it. The percentage of of change is definitely down with the pro work truck model. But dang that’s a lot of cheddar. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens with with demand with the newer pricing. Like I said, it’s not as attractive as that wasn when the Lightning launched and the Lightning I’ve driven it, it’s, it’s a really interesting great vehicle. I think Ford did a lot of things right on it, but man that pricing’s gotta hurt. Hey Lightning, did you hear?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 22m 26s):

No. Nope.

Sean P. Holman (1h 22m 28s):

So speaking of electric trucks, I think you saw the first production Tesla cyber truck was, was shown about the same time Ford dropped its starting price. I don’t know if that was a troll by Elon, but then it’s funny, did you see the internet responding to the Tesla cyber truck photo?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 22m 45s):

I, well yeah, there was the I guess that wasn a few articles that said here’s the cyber truck that Tesla doesn’t want you to see.

Sean P. Holman (1h 22m 52s):

Well basically they put a cyber truck in a sea of workers wearing high vis vests and hard hats and said this is the first one off the line. And then people started and all you can see is the triangular greenhouse section of it and a little bit of the belt line line, everything is else, is obscured by people standing around it. So the internet sleuth started to zoom in on everything and they picked out that the doors were misaligned and they’re not sure if the wheels turned, if it’s a yoke or an oval. And that wasn really funny to go down this rabbit hole of people pulling out every little detail to try and figure out what was there. And you know they’re, they’re talking about, I think somebody called the, you know they have the, the giga battery pack or whatever. It’s in Giga, Texas, right? Well it has that really long stupid wiper arm. That single one.

Sean P. Holman (1h 23m 32s):

Somebody’s like, look there’s the giga wiper arm. So the internet, as we all know, never loses. And that wasn funny to watch people pick apart this one photo of the cyber truck.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 23m 41s):

So I dug this outta my email from almost two years ago. I haven’t heard anything from Tesla, not a peep, but

Sean P. Holman (1h 23m 50s):

They still have your money.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 23m 51s):

I’m like, they still have my a hundred bucks. So sure enough I logged into Tesla, my password was still good and I printed this out for you to

Sean P. Holman (1h 24m 1s):

Read. It says Jay cyber truck order number, blah blah blah. Your cyber truck is reserved. You’ll be notified to complete your cyber truck configuration as production nears. Okay. It means nothing. Nothing.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 24m 13s):

Literally nothing. I’ve heard nothing. Do you know that this,

Sean P. Holman (1h 24m 16s):

Are you getting one?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 24m 17s):

So that’s the weird thing. You are No, no, no. I’m not saying that I am at all. Hmm. I I am curious if I got in on this and I was one of the first X number of thousands of people, could I flip it or it will this be like a Ferrari where they prevent that?

Sean P. Holman (1h 24m 36s):

I don’t think,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 24m 37s):

I think there’s

Sean P. Holman (1h 24m 37s):

Gonna be having a personal wealth to risk a flip.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 24m 40s):

I think I could, yeah, I I think I could flip. You

Sean P. Holman (1h 24m 42s):

Think you could

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 24m 43s):

Pull it off? Yeah, I do

Sean P. Holman (1h 24m 44s):

Not. If they don’t allow it, you’d be screwed and then you would have a truck.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 24m 48s):

That’s why I’m asking if you

Sean P. Holman (1h 24m 49s):

Well that’s what I’m saying is like can you absorb another a hundred thousand dollars vehicle sitting in front of your house for a year?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 24m 54s):

Absolutely not. That’s what

Sean P. Holman (1h 24m 55s):

I’m saying is I don’t think you have enough personal wealth to be able to absorb that if they shut it down. Well

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 24m 59s):

I think I would need to know before I Yeah, plunk down the deposit. Yeah,

Sean P. Holman (1h 25m 3s):

I don’t think I would but

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 25m 4s):

Count

Sean P. Holman (1h 25m 4s):

On that.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 25m 5s):

It is with real tires on it. Like the photo that they showed it looks weirder than I would’ve liked.

Sean P. Holman (1h 25m 13s):

And how about with the triangular mirrors?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 25m 16s):

Don’t like ’em.

Sean P. Holman (1h 25m 17s):

How about the

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 25m 18s):

I like it less in real life.

Sean P. Holman (1h 25m 20s):

Well yeah ’cause all the production stuff they had to put on there. Yeah, just it’s, it’s,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 25m 23s):

I dunno, it just looks weird with like the BFGs and not these big, that wasn weird. Like I

Sean P. Holman (1h 25m 27s):

Just, I think they’re wrangler

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 25m 28s):

Whatever they

Sean P. Holman (1h 25m 29s):

Are, territories are brains.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 25m 30s):

It just doesn’t look as fantastical anymore.

Sean P. Holman (1h 25m 34s):

Well and they were talking about it having some crazy range, but it sounds like it might debut according to rumors on the internet with only a 350 mile range. Which means that the Chevy Silverado EV will be tops in range for you know, quote unquote electric picket trucks with 450 miles. So I’m

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 25m 52s):

Just gonna be curious what the zero to 60 is.

Sean P. Holman (1h 25m 54s):

Oh, it’ll be fast. It’ll probably be 2.9 or something ridiculous like

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 25m 57s):

That. Right. So a full second faster than mine, right? Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (1h 25m 59s):

Oh yeah. It’ll be faster than yours. It has the plaid motors in it too. It’s, it’s speed is not gonna be the issue’s. And

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 26m 6s):

I ordered the, the trim motor so whatever the top dog was

Sean P. Holman (1h 26m 9s):

Yeah, you’re it’s, it’s, I don’t think that’s gonna be an issue. I think it’s a quad motor. The try is

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 26m 13s):

Whatever the, the top I think

Sean P. Holman (1h 26m 15s):

That wasn, no that wasn, it’s a quad come with a single rear Wheel drive a dual motor, all Wheel drive a tri motor, all Wheel drive and a quad motor all Wheel drive. But that’s what they said years ago. So who knows what the actual

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 26m 28s):

Thing. I think at the time that I plunked my cash down, that wasn a tri motor. That’s the most I could get.

Sean P. Holman (1h 26m 33s):

Well they announced 39 900 for the base rear Wheel drive and 49 900 for the dual motor back then. But

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 26m 39s):

There’s no way that that’s accurate. No, I gotta think that a tri motor, which I think is what I clicked, is gonna start at

Sean P. Holman (1h 26m 48s):

A hundred thousand dollars.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 26m 49s):

Yeah, like at the minimum somewhere in the eighties. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (1h 26m 52s):

At least like I said, you’re gonna end up having another a hundred thousand dollars vehicle sitting there. I think I’m

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 26m 56s):

Gonna pin this to the wall.

Sean P. Holman (1h 26m 57s):

Just be like I once ordered that and I was,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 26m 59s):

Because this is the closest I’m ever gonna get to Yeah. Owning a cyber truck right

Sean P. Holman (1h 27m 3s):

Here. I’m sure you have that three D printed one right there from our friend

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 27m 5s):

Marshall. Oh I forgot that. But By, the way that one, that Marshall’s three D printed one looks better than the one in that photo.

Sean P. Holman (1h 27m 10s):

It actually does look better. Yeah. So thanks for that Marshall. Hey lighting, did you hear? No.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 27m 15s):

Nope.

Sean P. Holman (1h 27m 16s):

So Ford files a patent on guess what Lightning? ’cause you love patents? Yeah,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 27m 21s):

I do. Is this so you can poke your head through the sunroof and control the vehicle from the outside

Sean P. Holman (1h 27m 27s):

The windshield header? Yes.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 27m 28s):

No. Okay. Is this something to do with air conditioning?

Sean P. Holman (1h 27m 34s):

No.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 27m 34s):

Is this something to do with the autonomous driving?

Sean P. Holman (1h 27m 38s):

No, but what it does have to do with is a portable charging trailer with integrated motors. So it’s a trailer with a battery pack that can power the EFI that’s towing it. What? I think we’re jumping the shark backwards here. Wait

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 27m 51s):

A minute. So

Sean P. Holman (1h 27m 52s):

Force filed this patent and the way they envision the future is that there’ll be a trailer that has an integrated battery pack in electric motors and then the, the user can steer the trailer around so you don’t have to back it in with a truck. And then it’ll also have backup power or provide power for the EV while it’s towing it.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 28m 11s):

So it’s just more battery. I

Sean P. Holman (1h 28m 13s):

I guess I are they and I’m, I’m trying to figure out like are they putting generators on the Wheel and trying to create a perpetual motion machine or something like

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 28m 21s):

What’s happening here?

Sean P. Holman (1h 28m 22s):

I just, yeah, I, okay sure.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 28m 26s):

This is as funny as the guy towing around the onto E 2000 generator.

Sean P. Holman (1h 28m 30s):

That would be like me taking the 3 92 and driving with a fuel trailer behind me. Yeah,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 28m 35s):

No that makes more sense. Well at

Sean P. Holman (1h 28m 37s):

Least that fuel gets lighter as I drive it.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 28m 38s):

Right? That makes more sense than the batteries never

Sean P. Holman (1h 28m 42s):

Get lighter. It’s just All, right? Hey lighting, did you hear? No.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 28m 46s):

Nope.

Sean P. Holman (1h 28m 47s):

The VW c e o called for immediate freeze on all spending. The Germans apparently are looking towards some tough times as they transition to EVs. So the C E O is Thomas Schafer and there’s a recent meeting of the company’s managers and he said apparently quote unquote the roof is on fire and quote unquote all is at stake as they transition.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 29m 12s):

Maybe they should not transition I mean maybe I

Sean P. Holman (1h 29m 14s):

Mean that, that’s my thought. The first thing I thought about was, well if it’s going to ruin companies to do this and ruin industry, is it really the right move to be forced into that play?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 29m 24s):

I mean you’re, when you say the word vw, right? Vol. It’s Volkswagen.

Sean P. Holman (1h 29m 28s):

Called Volkswagen. Yes.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 29m 29s):

Well I’m I’m thinking your Audi group, your Lamborghini group, all of them. Well it doesn’t

Sean P. Holman (1h 29m 34s):

Specify that just says VW and it says well what

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 29m 38s):

I’m saying is there have been, there’s been some scuttlebutt about those going electric. So the Well

Sean P. Holman (1h 29m 44s):

I think there scuttlebutt about every manufacturer going electric, but

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 29m 47s):

The, the enthusiasts still are, they want loud,

Sean P. Holman (1h 29m 50s):

Fast. Well the problem is is

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 29m 52s):

Machines is

Sean P. Holman (1h 29m 53s):

The, the common everyday vehicle can go almost as fast as those vehicles with no soul. Right. I mean you can get an electric hummer that is as fast as a Ferrari off the line. So what makes the Ferrari special? Well it’s lightweight and it handles and it has the sound of a internal combustion engine wailing behind it. That’s part of the magic. If you just make it all electric thing, then why not just get a Tesla? It’s you get a Tesla type SS plaid and be in some seriously competitive performance numbers. Right. So I dunno. Anyway, he, according to this article it says Schaeffer indicated to over 2000 managers that the next weeks and months will be tough. And then he asked them to make small wins.

Sean P. Holman (1h 30m 34s):

He said that there’s gonna be a bunch of new initiatives called performance programs. Then they have the goal of saving the company stop. If you’ve heard this before, corporate management comes in and says we need wins and we need to save in the next three years. Wanna guess the number?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 30m 49s):

Yeah, let me guess It’s 5 billion,

Sean P. Holman (1h 30m 52s):

$11.2 billion. Oh that’s when you start seeing the, the product getting cut down. Right. They can start, you know, shaving either quality or their or cheapening bits on it and and the experience is gonna go down. Yeah, it’s, it’s interesting. So that’s tragic.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 31m 7s):

My wife’s atlas is one of, or I don’t think she’s owned a car that she’s liked more. Really loves that damn atlas. They

Sean P. Holman (1h 31m 15s):

Look okay the interior’s typical VW boring but I like the outside. She’s got the coop version, right? Or the, what do they call that? The sport something?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 31m 22s):

No, no, no, just the full one. The four door one. Yeah. Full at,

Sean P. Holman (1h 31m 24s):

No, no, no. They’re both four doors. One has a swooper roof line on it. I thought your wife had the swooper roof line. So your wife is not a cross board? It’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 31m 30s):

A regular, no regular atlas. No she’s the atlas. Yeah the big one, the four-door regular S u v. But it’s it, it’s almost identical to an Audi and I like the Audi except

Sean P. Holman (1h 31m 39s):

The interior.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 31m 41s):

Yes. It doesn’t have the Audi interior. It doesn’t have the Audi interior. No that’s definitely for for sure. And the audio system is okay and the seats are okay but altogether for the price it’s a lot of car and it, I, I like it. And that was coming out of the that A M G debacle.

Sean P. Holman (1h 31m 54s):

Yeah. You’re not going to forget that one Anytime sooner nor no,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 31m 57s):

That was an awesome car that I had for a month.

Sean P. Holman (1h 31m 60s):

I don’t know if that wasn ever awesome though. was It. that

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 32m 2s):

Wasn awesome except for the clunk in the transmission. Oh

Sean P. Holman (1h 32m 5s):

And you have one of those right now? Yeah,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 32m 7s):

I do have one of those right now. I’m supposed to get it

Sean P. Holman (1h 32m 9s):

Fixed. What is it with you in vehicles with clunks?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 32m 12s):

I’m clunky.

Sean P. Holman (1h 32m 13s):

Hey lighting, did you hear? No,

8 (1h 32m 15s):

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 32m 17s):

Nope.

Sean P. Holman (1h 32m 18s):

If you go over to our friends@tfltruck.com, they just took the brand new 2024 Chevy Silverado HD Duramax and they put it on what they call their Denver 100 loop to see if it’s the new king of M P G. So as a refresher, not too long ago they did it with a 2023 Ford Super Duty F three 50 dually Detroit to Denver. And with the new six seven it returned 17.6 miles per gallon when running Unladen at highway speeds. So on their 111 mile m p g loop around Colorado, the new Chevy dually returned 17.7 miles per gallon, 0.1.

Sean P. Holman (1h 32m 58s):

Better than the Ford.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 32m 60s):

Which is a wow

Sean P. Holman (1h 33m 1s):

Statistical tie. It

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 33m 2s):

It is. Especially ’cause the climate could have been different. All of it.

Sean P. Holman (1h 33m 6s):

I mean it’s just, to me that’s just, they’re, it’s a tie but it’s also amazing that a, the dually

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 33m 11s):

Is getting that kind of mileage. Yeah, for sure.

Sean P. Holman (1h 33m 13s):

Although there’s, well there’s eight dudes with Cummins right now going Well my five nine pup does 30 miles per gallon uphill.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 33m 21s):

So you bus I’m doing it bused me on the accent to hear I

Sean P. Holman (1h 33m 24s):

Mean now I’m doing Yeah but that guy exists. He’s listening to the show and he is yelling at us right now. Yeah he’s going 17 b delete that thing and you’ll get a hundred and I have a fish carburetor on it and whatever, you know, mine runs on moonshine. Yeah, we know. But for the people who want a new truck, those are the numbers. I can’t, I can’t do anything with that. Hey lighting, did you hear?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 33m 43s):

No I did not. Nope.

Sean P. Holman (1h 33m 47s):

A article in the drive talks about how well AI is being used on traffic surveillance cameras to study your driving patterns and determine if you’re a criminal. So they’re taking existing cameras? No they’re running

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 34m 6s):

Your plate. No, no. They’re

Sean P. Holman (1h 34m 8s):

Matching it against other cameras in the bay.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 34m 10s):

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Sean P. Holman (1h 34m 13s):

To determine if the routes you frequent are high crime and if you might be a criminal just for driving around that

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 34m 19s):

Is some bullshit

Sean P. Holman (1h 34m 21s):

That is completely effed up. Anyway, I, I’m not gonna go into detail ’cause we don’t have enough time for a rant of that scale from Lightning, but if you go to the drive, look up AI traffic surveillance, it’s a really interesting article written by Nico Dia and that wasn published on July 18th. So take a look at that. that wasn, I just found it really interesting. Obviously you want there to be tools to find the bad guys but it should never infringe on you know, the freedoms of average citizens just going about their day. I think that’s completely bunk.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 34m 54s):

I hear ya.

Sean P. Holman (1h 34m 55s):

Hey lighting, did you hear?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 34m 56s):

No. Nope.

Sean P. Holman (1h 34m 58s):

For those of you who drive fleet vehicles or do deliveries, the 2024 Ford Transit has some new technology in it in Europe that is designed to improve how fast each delivery goes. They’re saying you could save up to like 20 seconds per delivery. So how I was, I was scrolling through and I was thinking well that’s kinda interesting if you have a hundred, you know, deliveries a day and each one’s 20 seconds faster.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 35m 21s):

Oh can I guess. Okay. Is it the way that the side door opens or something? No.

Sean P. Holman (1h 35m 26s):

So the van has some new hardware, has a software update and also it’s got some other things going forward. So Ford calls it their new delivery assist technology. It automates vehicle security functions. The system will activate the hazard lights stop the engine and locks the doors the driver’s not using to complete the delivery. So basically when the van goes into park, your sliding door will be open but the rest of ’em will be locked. So as you go out your sliding door to make the delivery, some dude’s not coming on the driver’s side, hopping in the seat and driving away with you.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 35m 56s):

How does that save time though? Just because you didn’t have to lock the doors

Sean P. Holman (1h 35m 59s):

’cause he didn’t have to do all that stuff. So when the driver returns to the van, all he has to do is press the brake pedal and that turns off the hazards and restarts the engine. Kinda interesting.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 36m 8s):

I mean that’s convenient. Sure, yeah.

Sean P. Holman (1h 36m 9s):

I mean it’s one of those. So they’re saying over a day of 150 deliveries it would save you almost an hour. Huh? So I’m, I think that’s kind of interesting right? I think there’s smart tech that can make, especially people who are delivering and doing repetitive things. If there’s something that makes, ’cause if you’ve done it before, it’s monotonous. I wonder who

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 36m 27s):

Supplied forward with that information. I mean was It like were they working with FedEx or something like that? Or Amazon.

Sean P. Holman (1h 36m 33s):

This is Europe so, oh it’s not coming to America yet or it hasn’t been announced but I just thought that wasn interesting tech that you know, if you’re involved in fleet deliveries you might go that’s cool or you might not care.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 36m 44s):

I don’t think you care.

Sean P. Holman (1h 36m 45s):

Alright. Lighting did you hear? No.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 36m 48s):

Nope. So

Sean P. Holman (1h 36m 49s):

The current Ford F five 50 has a 10,300 pound max payload. So there’s a company called Elevation Off Grid and they take these chassis cabs, put a bed on it so that you have enough payload to do those massive sliding campers.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 37m 6s):

Okay. So

Sean P. Holman (1h 37m 7s):

I reached out to them and I’m like we have to find out more. So hopefully they’ll hop on the show here in the near future. But for those of you who have one ton dooleys and it’s not enough machine for you, you might want to go to Elevation off-grid and and check up on their limitless pick up conversions. So again, these are cab and chassis, but if you go to elevation off-grid dot com, the truck weigh is 91 64, the payload’s 10,336. So all you have to do is head over to elevation off-grid dot com and you can check it out. Looks completely factory. It’s got the bed that matches the Wheel base. ’cause the chassis cabs are longer and they’re doing it on a high spec truck.

Sean P. Holman (1h 37m 47s):

So it’s a fully loaded Lariat trim. You get all the nice headlamps and grill and of course it’s the six seven liter four valve power stroke. Although

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 37m 55s):

Don’t they al always detune those a little bit? Yeah,

Sean P. Holman (1h 37m 57s):

So usually on the chassis cabs they are detuned but they come with a 40 gallon tank. So that’s pretty nice. Oh

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 38m 3s):

That’s kind of

Sean P. Holman (1h 38m 3s):

Cool. Yeah. And there’s a bunch of bill specs that you can do to, to make it even fancier. But I just thought when I read that, I’m like, well that’s pretty cool for people who love that sliding camera and they’re four Wheel drive. So even better.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 38m 15s):

I love the Fords. I love those big F five fifties, four fifties, five fifties

Sean P. Holman (1h 38m 19s):

I. mean check it out. It’s a

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 38m 19s):

Totally not practical around where I live, but yeah. Oh damn. That’s great.

Sean P. Holman (1h 38m 22s):

Look how

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 38m 23s):

Clean that, that’s a great looking truck.

Sean P. Holman (1h 38m 24s):

Here’s what it looks like from the side,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 38m 26s):

Although they need color matched. Why is the back color match the, the defenders in the rear color? No no’s. And

Sean P. Holman (1h 38m 32s):

The front aren’t. It’s the way the trucks are. Those are, because that’s a wide axle in the front, so it has the flares on it. The duallys are painted

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 38m 40s):

To match. I get it. I get it. They should paint. Match the fronts. Yeah. No, not an ad. It’s a chassy

Sean P. Holman (1h 38m 44s):

Cab. I don’t know if that doesn’t bother me though. It’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 38m 46s):

A bitching look. A chassis cab, but it needs color match. This is

Sean P. Holman (1h 38m 48s):

A chassis cab. This right here my friend, is a truck.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 38m 50s):

That’s a truck that is a pickup truck. Truck, but they need color matched front fender flares. Period. That’s it with it.

Sean P. Holman (1h 38m 55s):

I get it. Sometimes it’s fun to not have everything matchy match. No

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 38m 58s):

Agree. Do disagree

Sean P. Holman (1h 38m 59s):

Unless you have a alpine stereo and then you want speakers that match the thing. Hey Lightning, did you hear?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 39m 6s):

Nope.

Sean P. Holman (1h 39m 7s):

The Truck Show Podcast is sad to announce and sends our condolences to the Callaway family. Our friend of the show, Reeves Callaway passed away this past week at 75. If you remember. He was on the podcast talking trucks, I think just last year. And we, we built a little friendship up with him and super, super nice guy. Couldn’t have been more gracious. And we just wanted to let everybody know that, that that Reeves has passed on a consummate car guy though. And a post on the company’s Facebook page. So that he passed from injury sustained in a fall, which is, he is even sadder to to hear that because it, it seems like maybe it wasn’t his time.

Sean P. Holman (1h 39m 48s):

70 five’s not that old. And he was obviously a super sharp, super bright guy with a lot of great,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 39m 55s):

I was blown away By the stories he shared on that particular episode that wasn like in the one seventies or so. But if you go to churchill podcast.com, you’ll see that I have resurfaced that episode on the homepage truck show podcast.com, right on the homepage, scroll to the bottom, you’ll see the episode with Reeves and Holman and I are, well, we’re morons because he,

Sean P. Holman (1h 40m 16s):

Yeah, we never took him up on his,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 40m 18s):

He asked us to come down to Newport Beach to drive the new supercharged Callaway Silverado.

Sean P. Holman (1h 40m 24s):

And we got busy

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 40m 25s):

And we didn’t do it,

Sean P. Holman (1h 40m 26s):

So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 40m 26s):

We

Sean P. Holman (1h 40m 27s):

Suck. Just as a refresher, Callaway worked with all sorts of brands. B M W Alpha, land Rover, Fiat Mazda, and he’s probably best known for the Sledgehammer, which was a Callaway twin turbo Corvette that won the record for the world’s fastest car in the late eighties. Had a Handbuilt 5.7 liter VA with two turbochargers at that time. 880 horsepower, 772 pound VTA torque, which is massive for that era. A ZF six speed. And the sledgehammer would reach 254 miles an hour, 2 54 76, setting a new record for a production car. So he was definitely legit. And that record stood until 2010.

Sean P. Holman (1h 41m 7s):

So the Bugatti Veron SuperSport dethroned it hitting a 2 67 0.85. That’s amazing. It lasted years, 20 so many years, right? Yeah. And I think Gail held it before Reeves stole it from him. Yeah. I mean in that, in in the, the Red Firebird. He was definitely an OG of that era. Yeah. And if you remember, he also had a relationship with General Motors and did a bunch of stuff with the Camaro, the G M C pickup trucks, Cadillac Escalade. Anyway, go back and find that episode. It, it’s, if you do nothing to remember him other than listen to that show, I think you’ll be delighted to know a little bit more about the man. But we were happy to at least get to meet him a little bit.

Sean P. Holman (1h 41m 48s):

His son, Peter Reeves Callaway, said that his father’s passion for making beautifully designed and crafted machines can be seen in each and every project. And he added that he felt fortunate to have grown up working with him and the company. So rest in peace. Reeves Callaway, thank you for carving out the time to be on our silly little show. that wasn nice to be able to get your story out there too. Our, our audience All. right on that side note, why don’t we close out news and get to the happier notes of our listeners leaving us voicemails.

10 (1h 42m 18s):

Oh, come on. And part of the show, the five star hotline, 6 5 7 5 6 0 5. It’s the five star hotline. Five star hotline.

11 (1h 42m 35s):

Hey, Lightning Holman. Looks like the truck show listeners killed the O B R website. Looks like it’s back up today. But anyway, got my subscription. Looking forward to that. To tell you a story after listening to the Banana Ron episode about him going across the country and cha and then moving to Costa Rica and all that made me think about my great-grandparents, great-grandpa worked for the post office, started having some, some health issues later, later in life. And the doctor said, you need to change a, change a lifestyle. And so they, they sold all their, all their possessions. They bought a international travel wall and Airstream trailer and they traveled the lower 48 states for oh, probably another 10 or so years until he passed away.

11 (1h 43m 30s):

They would just live in national parks and other places for a while and he would work at the post office here and there. And when they started this trip, they dressed up in like western kind of cowboy clothes and they got, they cashed some of their money out into silver dollars. And so they were just traveling around paying for everything with silver dollars. That’s

Sean P. Holman (1h 43m 52s):

Cool. That’s

11 (1h 43m 52s):

Super. And just a awesome, awesome story that my family’s told. And yeah, you guys have a great one. Love the podcast. Keep it up. Bye.

Sean P. Holman (1h 44m 1s):

That’s awesome. Well, appreciate it. Appreciate you sharing the story. We love to hear things like that. So if you’ve got a similar story we wanna share about your family or some interesting tidbit, 6 5 7 2 0 5 61 0 5. And also thank you for supporting O V R Magazine. Really appreciate it.

11 (1h 44m 17s):

Hi guys. Chris Quill. What old trucks work on the gram, just listen to the podcast and Lightning, I gotta say stick with what works. Man works. I’ll tell the tell you the same thing that I tell all the 15 year olds in the scout troop. Just say no to the bro. Just say no to the bro. Yummy. Guess it’s good. Stick with what works. That’s all I had to say. Thanks guys. Bye.

Sean P. Holman (1h 44m 46s):

I believe that would be number what? 18 or 19 I guess call him. Say no to the bro. Whatever. That’s funny. Yeah, I’ll, I’ll say that’s great future, bro. Yeah.

11 (1h 44m 57s):

Lightning. Holman. Hey, it’s Rich and Hollister. I gotta toss on my 2 cents about Bro Par.

Sean P. Holman (1h 45m 3s):

Not another one.

11 (1h 45m 7s):

I really like yummy gas. I think all of us kind of like yummy gas. I’m anxious to hear how everybody else feels, but pro par. Yeah, I, I’m not a big fan actually. I think it would be better to, it’s, it’s a hot day. The green trash bins that we all have Here in California that we put our grass and crap in, right? Hot day you dump a bunch of that grass and it’s mixed with dog poop and everything else. You bought it and then it gets dumped on the following Wednesday and then you roll the green bin to your, the end of your driveway again or to put it away.

11 (1h 45m 52s):

If you open that up and you take what’s left inside there, the smell and the goo and you rub that on the license plate, I think that would be way cooler than bro par. Wow.

Sean P. Holman (1h 46m 5s):

Definitely be stinkier

11 (1h 46m 7s):

Down with the bro par up with the yummy gas because yummy gas was big pimping. Love you guys. Hope you’re doing awesome. Bye.

Sean P. Holman (1h 46m 17s):

Now can I, that’s a lot of freaking hate for can ICAR license plate I, can I remind people that that would never happen with you because you paid a service to come to your house and clean the inside of your trash cans. My wife did that once. Yeah, she did. I know. ’cause we have dogs and dog poop bags and stuff like that. Yeah. And then I mean why wouldn’t you? If you could, why wouldn’t you just put like dawn in and spray it with your hose and tip it over and let go drive and then you’re done? I don’t know. She told me she didn’t. I’m like, okay, How much is that. She’s like, it’s 30 bucks or something. I’m like, eh, it’s kind of a waste of 30 bucks, but

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 46m 49s):

Whatever. Like, ugh. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (1h 46m 51s):

Did it wash the bro power away?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 46m 52s):

I mean I didn’t. No, nothing’s gonna wash the bro power away. It’s here to stay. And speaking of which, I’m gonna put the frigging license plate right up there next to the steer horns.

Sean P. Holman (1h 46m 58s):

You should No, I will put it down.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 47m 0s):

I’m gonna put it somewhere in here. It’s gotta live on. It’s not gonna to live with my other 30 plates that I’ve got in the garage.

Sean P. Holman (1h 47m 5s):

Got a bunch of ’em too. That didn’t go like Mm. Had gas, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or used oil. Yeah, that’s a, that one hurt. Hey lady, why don’t you get something Lightning

11 (1h 47m 15s):

In I my homeboy. How you guys doing today? I’m doing great. Hey, I just listened to the most recent episode with Josh. You guys talked about a wide range of topics, everything from coffee to nuclear power. Well, just wanted to let you guys know, I, I watch your episodes every week. I look pretty forward to Monday mornings. Remember I get in the truck, if you guys remember me from calling in before I’m kicking off your podcast Monday morning at about 4:00 AM central standard time, daylight, savings time I guess right now. So it would be about

Sean P. Holman (1h 47m 50s):

Three hours after I put it up.

11 (1h 47m 51s):

Just wanna say, man, six stars on this one. This was a great conversation. It just flowed. Well, you guys hit your stride on this one. So congratulations, six stars. Keep mounting those parameters and you guys have a great one. Dude, just wanted to, to let you know when you guys do a great job. And I’ll call in and let you know when I think of the opposite too. Take care.

Sean P. Holman (1h 48m 17s):

Congratulations. You have earned five stars By the way I, I love how he says that we hit our stride and you know, just keep going and, and I’ll let you know when you guys do a great job and then realize almost 300 episodes in That was the only time he ever told us we did a good job

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 48m 37s):

By accident.

Sean P. Holman (1h 48m 38s):

It happens totally by accident. Blind squirrel gets the nut

11 (1h 48m 42s):

White beer and whole milk. You guys told me to call you if I was bored while Truckin. And so that’s what I’m doing currently sitting in line here at the biodiesel plant with a load of soybeans on. And I’m just looking at my gauges and alone with my own fox and got to thinking I should probably get Diesel fuel on my drive back home. And so I was listening to your guys’ podcast talking about how with the electric trucks and all that jazz and just how far away we are from electric semis, at least in my part of the world, which is Iowa I mean it might work for you guys on like the coast for like short trips and stuff. But like I drove 50 miles one direction in my 98 international.

11 (1h 49m 25s):

I’m gonna sit in line here at the plant for two hours, which I was not expecting. And then I’m gonna drive 50 miles back home. And granted, I’m only loaded but one direction, but just how difficult that would be in an electric semi because I can get back to the bin site, get another load of soybeans and be gone in 20 minutes. And on a good day, I can get three, four loads. But then like today, I’m sitting in line at the plant, I can’t shut the truck off ’cause I gotta move it ahead every five minutes it seems like. So it’s just how, just how many things have to change before that becomes like even remotely possible out here in the heartland I mean don’t even get me started on harvest season when you park your semis in the field and let ’em run for hours on end because it doesn’t make sense to shove ’em down while you’re getting the crops in and out of the field, which are most likely in the middle of bum fing nowhere where you really can’t, if a thing runs dead on you, how are you gonna get it charged?

11 (1h 50m 28s):

So I don’t know, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me to have those here. But I don’t know, maybe technology will change. Pickups on the other hand might make sense. I know for us we can take a lot of short trips, farm to farm. So I don’t know if we got two 20 hookups for welders that might track. I just know that the semis, yeah, I, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. But just wanted to rant, rave about that while I’m stuck here in line. So Oh, oh, and I sent you guys a DMM on the Instagram a while ago. If you want to talk die cast on the orange track Farmer hit me up. Yeah. So have a good day. Maybe I’ll still be sitting here. By the time the next podcast drops. Alright, love you.

11 (1h 51m 7s):

Bye.

Sean P. Holman (1h 51m 9s):

I love the Emmy callback reference at the end. Love you. Bye. That’s awesome. Thank you. He doesn’t say who he is, By the way. No he

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 51m 15s):

Didn’t. Thank you very much for calling By the way we do appreciate that. 6 5 7 2 0 5 61 0 5. That is the five star

Sean P. Holman (1h 51m 22s):

Hotline. And we, and we love hearing from you guys. And this is exactly the type of stuff. Tell us your story. Tell us how you’re feeling. Tell us what you think of the world in, in your neck of the woods. Because you know we have our ideas. California pompous. Yeah, but I mean I, I think we’re pretty, I travel a lot. You travel a lot. We go to different parts of the world and country. I think we have a pretty good idea of what life is like outside of here. And I, I think we try to respect that.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 51m 45s):

No we don’t.

Sean P. Holman (1h 51m 46s):

I mean half of us tries. Five star. Five

2 (1h 51m 50s):

Star, five star

Sean P. Holman (1h 51m 52s):

Hotline. We

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 51m 55s):

Do love hear from you guys. Truck show podcast@gmail.com. Lightning at truck show podcast.com or

Sean P. Holman (1h 52m 2s):

Holman at truck show podcast.com.

2 (1h 52m 5s):

The truck show. The truck show. The truck show. Whoa.

Sean P. Holman (1h 52m 11s):

And of course we wanna hear from you 6 5 7 2 0 5 61 0 5. Leave a message on the five star hotline or you follow us on our socials at Truck Show podcast at LZ Lighting or at Sean p Holman. And we wanna hear from you about local events. I know we’ve got a few events here in the last week so make sure that you email those to us and we can get up on our events calendar@truckshowpodcast.com and make sure that it is the go-to place for anyone in trucks who wants to see what’s going on from the event standpoint. And lastly, you guys have been really good about sending in some know your notes but we need more.

Sean P. Holman (1h 52m 52s):

So please challenge us with some odd engine sounds or whatnot and see if Lightning and I can guess what that engine is in a new segment of Know Your Note. It’s been a while so we’d like to bring it back.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 53m 2s):

I realize that I played the outro before we got to the events. I know

Sean P. Holman (1h 53m 6s):

That so I just roll with it. Should I? Now they know about it. No, let it go. Let it go. Let the bed go. Hey you already messed up.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 53m 13s):

What? Why don’t we can still

Sean P. Holman (1h 53m 14s):

Read

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 53m 14s):

Some events? No, that’s fine. Why don’t call up

Sean P. Holman (1h 53m 16s):

The events? No, no we do events at the beginning of the month. You

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 53m 19s):

Sure you don’t want to do like one or two as a teaser right here?

Sean P. Holman (1h 53m 21s):

No, we do it at the beginning of the month. You’re say these are all of ’em and then that’s it

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 53m 25s):

Really? Yeah. I feel like there might be some that they should know about it. No,

Sean P. Holman (1h 53m 29s):

’cause here’s the problem. What if we read events every show, they’ll think we have enough and they won’t send us any, if we only read events once a month, they’re like, oh, maybe they haven’t read it because they don’t have any events to talk about.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 53m 41s):

You think that psychology actually works?

Sean P. Holman (1h 53m 43s):

I’m just saying I mean Listen, I mean August 3rd. You could go to the Pure four by four base camp August 4th, the Carlisle Truck Nationals. August 5th, the C 10 slowdown. See

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 53m 52s):

You’re doing it. That’s see I got got you to read ’em. Yeah. Okay. You

Sean P. Holman (1h 53m 54s):

Have three in August. Okay, my point is I wanna have 10, 20, 50 a month. I want people to have be so overwhelmed with events that we cover the entire country and we blanket it with awesome truck stuff.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 54m 6s):

Listen, we know that you guys have cars and coffees, trucks and coffees Jeep off road vans

Sean P. Holman (1h 54m 11s):

And we know that some of you’re promoters for events. Send us your stuff. We will gladly put it on our platform so that we can give a bone back to the, you know, enthusiasts out there and be like, Hey, here’s the place we want The Truck Show Podcast dot com to be a gathering spot for event finding out.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 54m 26s):

And I’m not saying that we are cool and all, but we’re cool. The website actually is getting some traffic. Yeah, I’m just saying it’s like, I’m not sure why it’s

Sean P. Holman (1h 54m 34s):

Pages isn’t

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 54m 34s):

It? It might be, but it actually is getting some love. So truck show podcast.com. If you click on the events tab, you’ll see the events we there. It’s weird, it’s kind of spotty all around the country. I want like one in every state. That’s what I’m looking for. Truck Show podcast@gmall.com or hit me directly at Lightning at truck show podcast.com.

Sean P. Holman (1h 54m 51s):

Alright, it’s that point in the show where we thank Nissan for being our presenting sponsor. The Truck Show Podcast is proudly presented by our friends over at Nissan. If you’re looking for a new half ton or mid-size truck, you wanna head over to Nissan usa.com where you can build and price the exact Nissan that would be perfect for your lifestyle. You can also head down to your local Nissan dealer where you can test out in person. You can kick the tires, you can slam the door and you can listen to that Fender audio system.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 55m 15s):

And if you wanna get rid of those Wrangler four oh headers once and for all ’cause they’re falling apart, head over to Banks power.com, type in your year, make and model and swoop yourself up a beautiful set of stainless steel headers

Sean P. Holman (1h 55m 28s):

And before you head out on your next Adventure, be sure to visit OnX maps.com or download OnX Offroad from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. It’s the Offroad Map app that I rely on for all of my outdoor and Offroad adventures. And it’s great because I can share the trails with my friends and I can take ’em out on the road with me. And hey lighting, you wanna go off-roading? I’ll send you something to your Onyx account. I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 55m 50s):

Would love to but you’re totally pulling my leg. You’ll never invite me.

Sean P. Holman (1h 55m 53s):

I might. Do you think I’ll show up though? What if I sent you a trail and I was not at the beginning but I was at the end.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 55m 59s):

I would

Sean P. Holman (1h 55m 59s):

With a cold beer just to see if you would

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 56m 1s):

Do it. Well how long is the trail? Like five days? Yeah, but

Sean P. Holman (1h 56m 4s):

There’s cold beer at the end of it. Ah, I’ll have a sour ready for you.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 56m 8s):

I would do it

Sean P. Holman (1h 56m 10s):

If I had a sour and I just sent you a coordinates. You’d just start driving toward the sour

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 56m 13s):

I mean I I would rather kind a caravan with you.

Sean P. Holman (1h 56m 18s):

Yeah,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 56m 19s):

Of course you would. Course sure. I I will go. I’m dying to go on Adventure. I gotta be honest. Yeah,

Sean P. Holman (1h 56m 24s):

I’m I’m massively overdue myself. So anyway, would

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 56m 27s):

You go out right now with our heatwave? Yeah. Do you know that wasn 1 31 at Death Valley at the time, the day we’d recorded this? Yeah. 1 31 at Death Valley. That’s and

Sean P. Holman (1h 56m 35s):

Still not the record.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 56m 36s):

I I heard that wasn the record.

Sean P. Holman (1h 56m 37s):

No, the record was 1 34.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 56m 39s):

Wow. That’s so weird because on N P R this morning they had a Frenchman. Nope. On, on Mike saying Oh this is a once in a li Nope. With a stick accent that wasn a once in a lifetime opportunity. Nope, that

Sean P. Holman (1h 56m 49s):

Wasn July, 1913. And the other thing you gotta be aware of is the Furnace Creek visitor center, that’s where they were, was off by about four degrees Oh. From the actual official temperature. So they got up to 1 32 and everybody was taking pictures. But alas that wasn off a little bit and it wasn’t quite 1 32.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 57m 8s):

Can you imagine though? What’s the hottest you’ve been in

Sean P. Holman (1h 57m 11s):

1 28? So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 57m 12s):

I’ve been in 1 26 in Lake Havasu. It

Sean P. Holman (1h 57m 16s):

Yeah, Havasu was mine too. Yeah, you, you don’t, that wasn funny ’cause you’d hang all day out in the water until you just became a raisin and then you’d get out and you’d dry off in like two minutes and then you’d have to jump back in the water again. was

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 57m 26s):

It just brutal? It’s freaking brutal. I cannot imagine that Furnace Creek visitor center at 1 31. I can’t even

Sean P. Holman (1h 57m 33s):

I mean I don’t think it matters. Honestly. I think it gets once

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 57m 35s):

You’re above one 20 doesn’t matter. Yeah, it doesn’t

Sean P. Holman (1h 57m 37s):

Matter. I’m, I’m heading out to

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 57m 38s):

Our friends in Phoenix. Might beg to differ. I’m doing

Sean P. Holman (1h 57m 40s):

A a one day trip out to my uncle’s ranch on Friday and it’s supposed to be 101 out there, so

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 57m 45s):

101? Yeah, that’s no

Sean P. Holman (1h 57m 46s):

Big deal. It’s still 101. Yeah,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 57m 48s):

But that’s nothing. It’s

Sean P. Holman (1h 57m 49s):

75 here. It’s great.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 57m 50s):

I know, but but I mean it’s, that’s nothing a hundred and 120 are so

Sean P. Holman (1h 57m 55s):

Different. Yeah, but 130 I just eh, sit in my Jeep with an AC on going ha stuff

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 58m 1s):

At you. No. ’cause remember your AC will only cool below ambient a certain amount if, if ambient is one 30, bro.

Sean P. Holman (1h 58m 9s):

Nah, that’ll be fine. Nah, nah, not gonna be fun. No, because the Wrangler, when that wasn developed, that wasn developed with the Middle East in mind and it has one of the best AC systems out of all their vehicles. Really? And so the JK AC system sucked and the JL is like, it shoots ice cubes at you at a hundred degree weather. No problem. No kidding. It’s like,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 58m 28s):

Hey,

Sean P. Holman (1h 58m 28s):

Ice cube. Ice cube, ice cube. When I went to Palm Springs in our long-term T R X, that wasn one 14 I think. And that wasn really hard for the AC to keep up. Yeah. In my G no problem. The

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 58m 38s):

T R X No awful.

Sean P. Holman (1h 58m 40s):

But jl, I’m, I’m gonna go cruise around Death Valley with impunity until something breaks and then I’m gonna be really upset.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 58m 48s):

Well, thank you guys for tuning into another episode of the Truck Show podcast. We sincerely appreciate it. Alright,

12 (1h 58m 53s):

You guys love you mean it. Bye.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 58m 57s):

The Truck Show Podcast is a production of truck famous l L c. This podcast was created by Sean Holman and Jay Tillis with production elements by DJ Omar Kahn. If you like what you’ve heard, please open your Apple Podcast or Spotify app and give us a five star rating. And if you’re a fan, there’s no better way to show your support than by patronizing our sponsors. Some vehicles may have been harmed during the making of this podcast.