Season 2, Episode 44 - SEMA Show 2023 Part 1, Live From The EGR Booth

 

 

The following transcription of The Truck Show Podcast was generated using a speech recognition software, and will contain errors. Please review the timestamp and listen to the corresponding audio for accuracy. 

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1 (2s):

The Truck Show Podcast live from the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, presented by Nissan in association with Banks Power and Hellwig suspension.

2 (21s):

You very much.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (22s):

It’s The Truck. Show Podcast. My name is Lightning. He’s Holman. West Hall is where it’s at. You know what I’m saying? It’s where we’re at. It is,

Sean P. Holman (29s):

Hey, how’s your voice? ’cause mine is, I’ve got the, the SEMA crunchies going on. It’s about

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (33s):

As scratchy as it’s going to get I. Think this is, this is

Sean P. Holman (36s):

The first time I’ve heard you with, with bass in your voice in six years.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (39s):

How dare you.

Sean P. Holman (40s):

That definitely was no base there. So,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (42s):

Right. So I was, had a great dinner with some friends last night, as did you? What? What’d you have? I was at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Yeah. And we ate at something, Essex Beauty and Essex. Okay. That’s the hidden restaurant that is in the pawn shop on the third floor. Have you been there?

Sean P. Holman (1m 0s):

No. I heard there’s like a, is it a speakeasy or there’s a door or something that you gotta get through?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 4s):

All sorts of places inside the Cosmo are like that. All right. Yeah. So, You go in through what looks like a pawn shop with some jewelry. You go to the left, there’s just a big blue door with no one standing in front of you. Yeah. You walk in and then you’re greeted with this amazing architecture and it’s all, it’s, you feel like you’re in a beautiful pawn shop, but it’s the food that was, was off the hook. Alright.

Sean P. Holman (1m 22s):

But off the hook. But if you had meat delivered to you on Swords.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 26s):

No, that sounds like an adult

Sean P. Holman (1m 27s):

Film. No, no, no, no. This was Wood to Texas Day. Brazil And, they come, And, they just keep bringing you meat and you have this little chip and you turn, you’re like, red means I want no more. And then green is like, like, bring it on. Really just endless, endless meat. Every, every kinda meat that you can understand. It’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 43s):

Amazing. Okay, I’m gonna use that later as a

Sean P. Holman (1m 44s):

You Endless Me. Thank you. I I.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 46s):

Appreciate that. The name of Sean Holman’s new album title. So Endless Meat So

Sean P. Holman (1m 49s):

I had been there before and everybody’s like, is it good? I’m like, be careful because they don’t want you to eat the meat So. what they do is they provide you with these delicious Doughty balls and it’s like the best bread you’ve ever had. So, You have eight of those things. Then they come in And, they bring you the water or your drink and it just expands in your stomach. And, they got no room for for meat. And so I’m like, don’t eat, don’t eat the bread. So everybody on the table, it’s like, Nope,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 15s):

Nope. I always eat. You gotta gotta eat the bread. The bread.

Sean P. Holman (2m 17s):

So. You can’t do it. No, because the meat’s amazing. So.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 19s):

Oh my gosh. Okay, so we are in the EGR exhibit here at the SEMA Show in West Hall.

Sean P. Holman (2m 24s):

You mean our good friends EGR? Yes. That make awesome, great,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 28s):

Great friends. I, get to World Track I know how many of us have the roll track in our TRX, this guy right here. So yeah. We’re we’re over here. I, from what I understand, they’re gonna have beer. Lots of beer. Is that

Sean P. Holman (2m 40s):

True? I can beer right now in my, for my throat. Is there beer yet?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 43s):

Beer’s coming. Oh. Oh, look at that. Oh, just got the high sign. There’s gonna be beer in the air. EGR booth

Sean P. Holman (2m 47s):

Here. Pat just gave us the, the yes to a beer sign there.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 51s):

Now we’re not just here because they have beer. We’re here because Wait, wait. Just got beer, right? Oh my gosh. Wait, hold on. What? What’s up Ian? What? What’s up with you? Hold

Sean P. Holman (3m 1s):

On,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 1s):

Get on this back here. Hop on the mic over here.

Sean P. Holman (3m 2s):

What just happened here? Oh, just

5 (3m 3s):

A big surprise. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 4s):

Wow. Alright. Ian, put your headphones on over there. All

Sean P. Holman (3m 7s):

You got the headphones.

5 (3m 8s):

We gotta a, we gotta crack open at the same time though.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 11s):

Okay. We’re gonna crack some. We have

Sean P. Holman (3m 12s):

A listener in your booth that brought us beer. Oh, we,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 15s):

And we have more beer over here.

Sean P. Holman (3m 16s):

This is gonna be a great show.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 17s):

All right. We’re gonna crack three beers at the same time. Gentlemen. Right here.

Sean P. Holman (3m 20s):

Well hold on. We got is celebration of SEMA. Of course. Let’s do it.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 23s):

All right. In 1, 2, 3. Oh, it’s right in my eyes.

Sean P. Holman (3m 26s):

So good. So good. So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 28s):

Good. Here we go.

Sean P. Holman (3m 29s):

Cheers. Cheers guys. Cheers.

5 (3m 30s):

SEMA 2023. All

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 31s):

SEMA 2023. Here’s the EGR for having us out.

Sean P. Holman (3m 34s):

Is this your first SEMA? Is that what I understand?

5 (3m 36s):

It is. So

Sean P. Holman (3m 37s):

So You, you’re listening to the show. I was walking around and you’re like, Hey, Holman. and I was like, what? And then you’re here said no,

5 (3m 44s):

Tell the

Sean P. Holman (3m 44s):

Whole story. No you, I’ll let you do it. You be, hold

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 47s):

On. Is Holman filtering something out here? Oh

5 (3m 49s):

No. He’s a just a humble Bragg. Just a humble Bragg. So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 52s):

He’s good at humble bragged. Yeah,

5 (3m 54s):

Well he was just walking through and I heard him bragging about, oh, I just got two comps. Oh wait, a third company. Now

Sean P. Holman (4m 0s):

That’s not totally how that happened. I was with Matt Caldwell from Tread lightly and he introduced me to some four people in the Ford Performance booth. And she’s like, well what do you do? I go, well, I I kinda do a lot of things. and I’m like, I have I got, you know, a Magazine,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 13s):

A podcast

Sean P. Holman (4m 14s):

Consulting company. And then these guys walk behind me and in my ear they whisper and the best podcast. and I was like, whoa, what was that? And so they’re like, sorry, we just overheard you. And they’re like, can we get pictures? I’m like, yeah, of course. Thanks for making me look really good to tell

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 26s):

Guys, tell me, you tell me. You walked up to and said, are you lightning?

Sean P. Holman (4m 29s):

No. That only happens to you.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 30s):

That would’ve been great if they had mistaken you for me, that would’ve been awesome.

Sean P. Holman (4m 34s):

Yeah. Because then you could finally undo the first time

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 36s):

At what was done to me years ago. Yes. I was I don Dunno if you heard about that. I was in an elevator and they’re like, I love your podcast. Ah, you’re my favorite one. Holman. and I was like, no, no. I’m lightning Come on now.

5 (4m 46s):

I’m so shocked by your stunning good looks is,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 50s):

Well neither of us has that.

Sean P. Holman (4m 51s):

Alright, So. You first. SEMA.

5 (4m 54s):

Yes. First SEMA. It is. You guys remember your first time?

Sean P. Holman (4m 57s):

Oh yeah. Yeah. 22

5 (4m 59s):

Years ago. No, that’s not SEMA. Oh well

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 0s):

No, I don’t remember. that was

Sean P. Holman (5m 2s):

Easy. We’ll

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 3s):

Talk about that some other time. My first time was not good. This is a family

Sean P. Holman (5m 4s):

Show. Easy family show all We’ll,

5 (5m 6s):

Skip ahead. It’s, it’s better than that. Oh, let’s just say that.

Sean P. Holman (5m 9s):

2020.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 10s):

Wow. Better than that. Really? Is it overwhelming? It is

5 (5m 12s):

Overwhelming. You know, like when you, when you’re drinking coffee in the morning. In the morning Sure. And you see that little squirrel just running around and it sees this acorn and it sees that acorn and then runs up a tree and then loses all

Sean P. Holman (5m 22s):

What you say is a target rich environment here in the the West Hall. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 26s):

What have you seen, what builds have blown you away?

5 (5m 29s):

I mean, I, I. Think

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 30s):

Do you start behind you at the Ieo Grenadine

Sean P. Holman (5m 34s):

Ineos. You still can’t say it right?

5 (5m 36s):

I think it’s great. The color on that is immaculate. Dude,

Sean P. Holman (5m 41s):

It’s awesome. That’s of the first ones in the United States. So we’re gonna talk about that with our, with our EGR friends. ’cause they scored some deal where they got it in here and they’re making product for it. So it’s gonna be pretty cool. So this is the first time that that really, a lot of people have seen it in person. Yeah. so that, that’s pretty awesome.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 55s):

We’ll be talking about that. Like, so So, what else has caught your eye? Any truck builds I? I personally was in the Central Hall. There’s a Ken Digit C 10 That is unbelievable that it is. Absolutely. It’s a hundred. Is it called a hundred point build when it’s absolutely perfect. Everything about this C 10 is perfect. So it is in the, I dunno the north side of the Central Hall towards the front. And Ken Digit, we interviewed Ken Digit last year, didn’t we? Last year? Yep. Yeah. Or Kenig. Dave Kenig. Kenig. Yep. And so this, that was one. There is a, an F 600 that’s about two booths from the Ken Digit truck. It, this F 600 has a 24 valve Cummins that’s all flat, black Sara coat with a huge turbo.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 40s):

Everything’s been shaved. The bed, like everything’s modified, but it’s all so subtle. What I like about the builds here is that if you walk by with a quick clip, you’ll miss something. You go, oh, that’s just a modified whatever. And then you stop and go, oh my gosh, nothing is stock. Like every single

Sean P. Holman (6m 57s):

Fold. Every single I I feel like there’s a lot of vehicles this year that are subtly really good and not as much as the super in your face. Like crazy builds I feel like those kinds of things. They’re out there, but it’s not like the thing, I feel like the quality of these builds are up. and I also feel like there is a lot of like hidden little things. You gotta spend time walking around the vehicle. You gotta soak it in. It’s really cool.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 18s):

So, what, what did you find? I I I just sidetracked us.

5 (7m 21s):

Well, it’s like that squirrel, right? ’cause you could just walk down one aisle and get lost and go down another aisle. Yeah. And then get lost down there and find another aisle. I I. Think for me it’s been the, the car turned offroad builds, right?

Sean P. Holman (7m 37s):

Oh, oh, there’s a, there’s been a few of those here. Offroad builds.

5 (7m 39s):

Yeah. Because it’s something you don’t see every day. We’re out on the East coast. You definitely don’t see it out there. No one’s bumping around, no lifted Z or anything like that. Much like, you know how Nissan had their Fair Lady I or Fair Lady Z

Sean P. Holman (7m 52s):

Whatever. it is. Yeah. The the old race car that was sitting in there. Yeah. that was lifted up.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 55s):

Yeah. So tell me about the, the just the, the population in these buildings. Like tell me about navigating the people and, and like the experience.

5 (8m 4s):

I hate lines and there’s a lot of ’em. And I’ve, and I’ve sat in a couple of them and it’s been worth it. Right. Meeting with, let’s see, there’s the, there was fuss over at ah, I I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 15s):

Can’t remember exactly. Yeah. But Chip Fuss is, he’s and he’s so great. I’ve seen everywhere. His signs, he autographs everything. He shakes everyone’s hand. Yeah, he’s too super good. Yeah, he’s a good dude. Saw

Sean P. Holman (8m 22s):

Him with Buddy Mike Ola. President has SEMA last night. Oh yeah.

5 (8m 26s):

All right. Very cool. It’s just to see, it’s fun to see the down to earth perspective of these builders. Right. You know, you see ’em on tv, you see ’em on the, on the ads or Whatever, it may be on YouTube. It’s like, wow. You meet ’em in person. They’re like, oh they’re, they’re car guys. Yeah. Super. They’re easy to talk to you. You already have something in common right from the get go. So

Sean P. Holman (8m 42s):

How long have you been listening to the show?

5 (8m 44s):

So? I would say two years. And then I went down a rabbit hole of all the past shows. Oh no. Oh, I was trying to find out all the sounds.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 53s):

So have you heard them all?

5 (8m 54s):

Don? Don’t think So I haven’t heard.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 55s):

I definitely haven’t heard ’em all. Okay.

Sean P. Holman (8m 58s):

Have you heard enough to sing the intro with us? We can give it a shot. All right, let’s do it.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 2s):

All right.

6 (9m 3s):

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

1 (9m 35s):

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

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 40s):

We didn’t screw it up Too bad.

6 (9m 41s):

That was, that was

Sean P. Holman (9m 41s):

Great. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 43s):

Well

Sean P. Holman (9m 44s):

Ian, thank you for spending time with us. Thanks for listening to the show and

6 (9m 47s):

Absolutely. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (9m 48s):

I think we need to have James Horwell from EGR come up. I. See him in the back there.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 54s):

We will get him here. Do we need to thank our sponsors? Are we gonna do that?

Sean P. Holman (9m 57s):

Yeah, we should do that. We should do that. We should do that. Yeah, we Okay.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 60s):

Alright. So before we get James over here, we want to thank Nissan. If we’re interested in the, in a rugged full-size pickup truck, check out the Titan. Or if you need something a little smaller and just as rugged the Frontier. Both have the industry’s best warranty. Five year, 100,000 miles. Yes. Holman

Sean P. Holman (10m 15s):

On the Titan. Yeah,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (10m 16s):

On just on the Titan. So head on the, I always give the Frontier like the best warranty. Yeah. I know I can’t get that plug. Right.

Sean P. Holman (10m 20s):

Alright, head on down to your local Nissan dealer or to Nissan USA dot com. And we have to thank our friends over at Banks Power who makes amazing just everything for your truck. Right? Well

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (10m 29s):

For those that were here monsters, they saw the Supercharge C 20 pickup truck that was over,

Sean P. Holman (10m 34s):

That was running booth. that was running in the booth.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (10m 35s):

It wasn’t running. No. It may have had a, the little faux pa that prevented it from running. But it, it will someday. Yes. Okay. If you’re interested, we will talk about the Pedal Monster really quick. If you have a sluggish dead pedal and you wanna get a rid of it, check out the Pedal Monster. Type in your year, make and model at Banks power.com to find yours.

Sean P. Holman (10m 54s):

And last but not least, we’ve got Hellwig products and Hellwig will help you eliminate your saggy bottoms with Helper Springs.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (10m 60s):

I’ve seen a lot of, of saggy bottoms at this show. I I, I’m not gonna lie. Send

Sean P. Holman (11m 3s):

’em all over to the, the Hellwig Booth after they’re in the EGR USA booth. Like us though. Yes. So we, we have to invite James up because, well, he invited us here. So we should talk to

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 14s):

Now do I need to raise this a little bit? Hold

6 (11m 16s):

On a second. We should

Sean P. Holman (11m 17s):

Be All right, let’s work. Here we go. You are six foot seven. Yeah. Close.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 22s):

6, 6 8. Yep. Six. Thank you Ian. See you later. Wait, say goodbye to Ian. Bye

Sean P. Holman (11m 25s):

Ian. Thank you.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 25s):

Thank you Ian.

Sean P. Holman (11m 27s):

All. So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 28s):

Six, six

Sean P. Holman (11m 29s):

Lightning. You may not know this, but Mr. Horwell is a Australian rugby player.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 38s):

I I. Well, I I knew the Australian ’cause I could hear the accent from way over there. Yeah. From a ball away. But can playing against him in rugby?

Sean P. Holman (11m 45s):

No, hold on.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 45s):

I was get my ass destroyed.

Sean P. Holman (11m 47s):

He was the captain of his rugby

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 49s):

Team. I. Don’t doubt that.

Sean P. Holman (11m 51s):

So don’t mess up. I actually want to have you guys arm wrestle.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 55s):

No, why? He would snap my arm like a

Sean P. Holman (11m 57s):

Twig. It’s entertainment. It’d be great.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 59s):

No, you’d have to cart me out of here, put Alin on my arm and take me to the hospital. It’d be

Sean P. Holman (12m 3s):

Ridiculous. So how did you become a professional rugby player, beating up other guys and scoring rad points and now you’re the general manager of EGR. Yeah.

7 (12m 14s):

Well, I it’s crazy. Yeah, it is a little bit. I obviously played Rugby outta school and Rugby’s quite big in Oz and was lucky enough that my size as you guys talk about, sort of helps a little bit. When, when you’re playing rugby. So, You. Oh,

Sean P. Holman (12m 25s):

Do you feel really small right now?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (12m 26s):

I do, but I, I’m, I’m, the whole time I’m picturing myself in a business meeting and he’s trying to sell me something, I’m like, whatever you want. I might, yeah.

7 (12m 33s):

Usually seated. So it’s not as bad. I I mean

Sean P. Holman (12m 35s):

Lightning has his three inch heel lifts in right now. I don.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (12m 37s):

It’s even close. I’m not DeSantis You. know what I’m saying? I mean like, I would just be like, here’s the checkbook. Put in whatever numbers you want.

7 (12m 44s):

That’s good. Let’s do, let’s do more business. Right.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (12m 48s):

Take us through that transition. Were you playing rugby in in middle school or

7 (12m 51s):

High school? Yes, I played through through high school. Really? Okay. And then lucky enough to get picked up outta high school, went into like what we call an academy system or you know, in there So. I got into the professional system when I was 19. And then lucky enough to play 15 years of professional rugby. So in Australia, 15

Sean P. Holman (13m 9s):

Years. Wow. 15 years. That’s amazing. That’s a really great

7 (13m 11s):

Career. Yeah, it was longer than than expected when I first pulled on the boots. So now

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (13m 16s):

Does that pay like the NFL or NBA here? No, no. Just

Sean P. Holman (13m 20s):

In smiles and passion.

7 (13m 21s):

They earn smile and passion. They earn in about a, in a, in a week what we earn in a year. So that’s sort of, so we’re not, we’re not at that level. We get paid well, but

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (13m 29s):

Were you ever sponsored, did you have like Nike or Adidas or something?

7 (13m 32s):

Yeah, we, we, I was sponsored by ASIC during my career. Oh wow. So they, they big in the rugby boots and big down in Australia. So they were, they were lucky enough to be sponsored by them. And a couple of, you know, Lexus were a sponsor of ours for a little while there as well, which was nice. And got a free car. So that’s always helped. What

Sean P. Holman (13m 46s):

So? You at the SEMA Show. Because you’re anonymous here. Wait,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (13m 49s):

He got a free car. Wait, wait.

7 (13m 50s):

I gave it back though. Oh,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (13m 52s):

A bar. It

Sean P. Holman (13m 53s):

The same way I get a free car.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (13m 54s):

Exactly. That. That

7 (13m 55s):

Whole deal. You give it back at the end. So.

Sean P. Holman (13m 57s):

What, what’s it like here? I mean, I’m sure you walk around there and people know who you are and then you probably a little bit anonymous over on the US side. Is it nice having that break? Yeah, it’s

7 (14m 5s):

Nice. It’s nice coming here. I mean, coming to the US I come quite a bit now obviously with, with my, with my new role. So it’s Yeah. Us is the second or third time I’ve been in the US this year. So it’s, it’s always nice coming to the us. We like it. SEMA. This is about my third SEMA. Okay. That I’ve come to my first was back in 2007, So I came in a, in an off season. Okay. To come check out SEMA. That’s that’s awesome. And came in 2011 to have a look around and then, yeah, back here this year. So it’s my third. So it’s

Sean P. Holman (14m 32s):

So You. Don’t know this about me, but I love Australians. Okay. That’s good.

7 (14m 35s):

That’s

Sean P. Holman (14m 35s):

Good. They’re my kin people. I knew we

7 (14m 37s):

Could get along. I felt that. I felt that when we first met I,

Sean P. Holman (14m 39s):

When our eyes locked and it’s kinda like, be in the airport and you look across the way and you’re like, what would my life be with

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (14m 44s):

That person? The makeout session between you two would be a little awkward

7 (14m 47s):

Though. Yeah,

Sean P. Holman (14m 48s):

He is very tall. But I, I, the first time I ever drank with a Australians, I’m like, these are my people. Yeah. Like this, this is amazing. And then they proceeded to, you know, drink five times more than me. and I was, I was out And.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (14m 58s):

They had to carry you home back to the hotel

Sean P. Holman (14m 60s):

With the rugby team actually. Oh, was

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (15m 1s):

Really, so wait, wait. I feel like we skipped the part where you went from rugby right to EGR. How did that start? How’d you get an automotive?

7 (15m 7s):

EG is my family business. So the EG and R actually stands for Edward, Greg and Rod. So Edward is my grandfather. Ah, Greg is my uncle and Rod is my father. That’s awesome. So yeah, I’ve been in the automotive industry my whole life. You know, we’re 50, EGR are 50 this year. So I were, you know, I used to grow up driving forklifts in the, in the factory in the school holidays and packing. Packing boxes and packing shelves. And you know, that used to be sort of my holiday pay when, when you’re working. And then as rugby finished, I you know, did some study and then sort of moved back to Australia. ’cause I was originally, I was playing over in the UK for a little while and then moved back to Australia two years ago and sort of took on working in the business full time.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (15m 45s):

Now when you were just driving the forklift around doing that stuff were, you’re like, oh, I never want to be part of this. This is just a, I’m just slogging for the summer. Or did you, could you see working at EGR someday in the future? No,

7 (15m 57s):

We could always see it. I look, I mean I, that was the way for me to earn a bit of pocket money, you know, you know, to, had never wanted to make sure I gave anything out, gave anything out without someone working for it. So to get the pocket money out to go do the shift in the, you know, the day shift in, in the factory. So that was always part of it. But we’re always pretty exposed to the business, the other side of the business as you go, you know, on phone calls and as I said, came over here, went and when I could in and around my, you know, rugby schedule. So it was, it was always something that was, was there and you know, trying to help the family business because there are two families. My uncle is obviously with a couple of his, a couple of my cousins are involved in the other side of the business. We have a building product side, which is here in the US as well. But obviously not as relevant.

7 (16m 38s):

I’ve

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 38s):

Been there, it’s amazing in the, the Ontario facility. Yes, yes. Yeah. I went through a, with a, a tour with Adam. Okay, nice. Took me through. It was just a really impressive facility. You probably haven’t heard me talk about this before, but I love, there are some companies that just make products. Yeah. And, they do it just to get skews to market just Yep. There’s a new Jeep on the market, we’re gonna make something as quickly as we can to get it to market. Then there’s the other kind of companies that focus on engineering. Yeah. We are going to make the best one and we don’t care how long it takes. Yeah. And EGR falls under that category.

Sean P. Holman (17m 7s):

In fact, EGR is an OE supplier to a lot of the big companies because the quality is so good

7 (17m 12s):

Business. Yeah, that’s, that’s right. I mean that’s our, that’s our bread and butter. That’s our, we’re

Sean P. Holman (17m 15s):

Standing here the, you know, accessories and aftermarket. But the reality is you have a lot of business on,

7 (17m 18s):

We’re, we’re a traditionally an OE supplier, right? We’re a tier one supplier to the oe. We make products for them. And big part of our business is the quality aspect. You know, we wanna be the highest quality external accessories manufacturer in the world. And that’s what we strive to be. And you know, when you’re talking about engineering, about 25% of our workforce globally are in r and d product development, working in trying to develop the best possible product to the standards that the OE are now demanding. And you know, we do a lot of work and have for a long time with a number of the big oes globally. And not only here in North America, but you know, Australia and, and, and in through Europe as well.

Sean P. Holman (17m 53s):

So speaking of the oes in your booth right now, you’ve got a new Tundra, which is obviously a North American only truck. Yes. And then over on this side, I don’t know how you scored it, but this has to be one of the very first grenadiers that is in the United States.

7 (18m 7s):

Yeah. I think it is. I think it’s one of the, it’s one of their prototypes. So it’s actually not Roadworthy. Okay. So I think they’ve, they’ve been, you should have seen it when we got, when the guys got it in the Ontario facility, it was covered in mud. You couldn’t even see the paint. So we’ve, I think we’ve spent, it looks good now. I I think we spent about two days trying to do talent and there’s still dirt coming outta some of the holes. So they’ve been working it pretty hard. But yeah, we’ve been very lucky to work with Iios. We started with them in 2019. We started, you know, developing and designing product for them in their UK head office and then off also over in Germany. ’cause they’re getting Magna star that do a lot of development Sure. For car for them. So we’ve worked with them and now we’ve got about, I’m gonna say it’s 14 accessories on, on this vehicle. So a lot.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (18m 46s):

So these are, these are, forgive me, these are accessories that are baked in new or aftermarket,

7 (18m 50s):

Genuine accessories,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (18m 51s):

Genuine accessories.

7 (18m 52s):

So, You can, you can option them up when you, from the dealer. From the dealer. When you purchase the vehicle,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (18m 56s):

Do you have parts that are included on it? In it, in its stock form? Not optioned up.

7 (18m 60s):

Yeah. I believe the, the ladder rack now comes on, the back comes standard on every option. Okay. ’cause there’s, there’s about three different variants of the Grier. Yep. There’s sort of the Trail master, the field master, which is a little bit higher end where it’s got the leather seats and the, you know, the, the safari hatches on the roof and things like that. And then you’ve got the more basic, there’s a commercial version where it takes out the back seats, make it like a, like a commercial truck essentially. This is

Sean P. Holman (19m 22s):

The first time I’ve seen one in person. I’ve been following the whole process. I remember when they made the announcement. It’s Yeah. Basically a, a, I guess oil tycoon wanted a replacement. Yeah. A modern replacement for defender and Land Rover ugly did not build that.

7 (19m 36s):

Yeah, no. They wouldn’t I think he, he approach Land Rover and wanted to say, okay, well you’re no longer gonna buy it. I’ll buy the tooling and the designs off you and I’ll go manufacture it. ’cause I really like the car And they said no. So we said, well I’ve got enough money. I can go do it myself, I

Sean P. Holman (19m 49s):

Go my own car.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (19m 50s):

Do you, do you think that they’re embarrassed? Have you heard from them Holman? No. Do they think like, oh, someone won up us on our own design.

Sean P. Holman (19m 56s):

If you I think the, the hardcore enthusiast, the, the British off-Road fan is embarrassed for them. I think the company itself is a global corporation and they’re selling every defender that they make and they’re happy with it. Yeah. But the purists, they all wanted this to be it. Not, not essentially Minivan was swinging doors, which is how the current defender with a little bit of off-road capability. They wanted something truly that you could overland, that you go an expedition. And this is all the amazing touches. I’ve been following it. I remember when it came out I was like, oh, okay, just another guy who thinks he’s gonna make a car but make it cars really hard. Yes. And, and you look at all the manufacturers that have come and gone in the last 10 years who weren’t able to, to make a bankruptcy and, and supply chain and and manufacturing all of this stuff.

Sean P. Holman (20m 36s):

Yeah. Cars are global, you know, products that are built from global supply chains everywhere. And you look at this, the fit and finish is really good. The l track on the outside Yeah. On the rub strips where you can hook things to it. The grab handles the interior. It’s BMW engine. Yeah. It’s just a, it’s just an amazing vehicle. Where

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (20m 55s):

Is it assembled, do you know?

7 (20m 56s):

It’s in Mbba. So it’s on the French Nerman border. So it’s an ex Mercedes plant. So Mercedes moved out, I I, don’t know what vehicle they were making there, but they’ve moved out and basically Iios have moved in. And so they’ve got a readymade facility, got ’em to market a little bit quicker. ’cause obviously setting up a vehicle in the middle of Covid. Yeah. As you were touching on with the supply chains, like getting a vehicle started. Yep. In 2020. 2021. Well, it’s hard too. Load things, slow things down a little bit. If

Sean P. Holman (21m 19s):

You have a factory and it starts from scratch, you still have to be near a railroad, near a port near. So all the infrastructure from older Factor is already gonna be there, let alone redoing the factory itself.

7 (21m 27s):

And also skilled labor. You know, that’s a big challenge for guys making cars now. So obviously they had a, a ready made workforce there that would been, had that experience in making vehicles. So they’ve sort of picked up and run with that. and I think it’s got ’em to market a little bit quicker than they were hoping.

Sean P. Holman (21m 41s):

Well, lightning has a nickname for this vehicle. He calls it the Grenadine, well

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (21m 44s):

The Grenadine, you know, like the, the the step born Shirley Temple drink. Yes. I Don’t know. I couldn’t get the name right for the longest time.

Sean P. Holman (21m 50s):

And I I I told him it’s just the gr it’s Iios. And he’s like, in what? I I. It’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (21m 53s):

Just like, oh, It was like Come on Iio.

7 (21m 56s):

Yeah. So the, the Grenadines named after his favorite pub in Knightsbridge in the UK that, that Jim Ratcliffe drank at him and his buddies drank. That’s Rat came up

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (22m 3s):

With the

7 (22m 4s):

Idea. Oh. And so it’s called the Grenadier. It’s a Knight’s bridge just up opposite Harod. So that’s where the chemical officers were just above over from Herod’s. And so the pub they used to drink at, I love it. It’s called the Grenadier. And that’s why they came up with the, that’s why

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (22m 17s):

It’s called I’m gonna be So Rich, I’m gonna be in London. He

Sean P. Holman (22m 20s):

Didn’t just make a car, he named it after his pub.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (22m 23s):

I’m gonna be there around Thanksgiving. Yeah. and I will go there. And that will help me remember the freaking name once and for all I will go to

7 (22m 30s):

That bar. Yeah. Have a beer and that’ll be good. No, it’s, yes. So it’s a good story. Where

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (22m 34s):

Do you fall in the process of coming up with new products for EGR? Are you at the, are you the final stop? Like yes or no, you rubber stamp it? Or are you part of the inception if one of your engineers says, we wanna make this new X, y, Z thing?

Sean P. Holman (22m 47s):

Or your product planner or your marketing person?

7 (22m 49s):

Yeah. Well we, we drive that with our, you know, the guys in different regions. ’cause obviously different geographies have different demands. And that’s probably the big thing for us is that we’ve got, obviously we work in Australia and we’ve been quite well established. We’ve been there for 50 years. So it’s a bit more of our home market and we make a lot of products for the different trucks that they, particularly the pickups that they have down here compared to what we have in the US. And then we, but we’ve got a, a, a really good team, a new team that’s sort of come together the last 12, 24 months here in, in the US of our aftermarket team that are really coming up with a lot of ideas and I need to slow ’em down sometimes. Yeah. Because there’s almost too many ideas. But we’re really wanting to drive that, you know, the, the,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (23m 25s):

The innovation

7 (23m 26s):

And the skews and, and think of different things outside the box. So it’s, it’s a challenge. You gotta try and manage expectations while having, understanding that we’ve got that o OE capability. So we’re looking at some things internally that we might be able to do better. ’cause obviously we are an OE business and we do a lot of things for a lot of the big oe. so that takes a lot of resource. And then the aftermarket has always been the little baby brother. So we’re trying to change that a little bit and shift and yeah. And

Sean P. Holman (23m 49s):

Shift. It seems like there’s lot of opportunity in the aftermarket for you. Yes. Maybe even more than OE because OE always has the ebb and flow. Right, exactly. Very

7 (23m 55s):

Cyclical. It comes, it comes with, you know, new vehicle developments. Yeah. And if you don’t get the, the new vehicle, you know, you, some of ’em have a 10 year lifespan. So it’s a, it’s a long wait between the next one. So there’s a lot more upside in our aftermarket. We sort of only scratching the surface and we’re really, really happy with the team we’ve got going here and, and the growth that we feel that we can get in the US market. ’cause we’ve been, we’ve been in the US now for 25 years, just over 25 years. EGR USA in Ontario. So it’s yeah. Something we’re really excited about and we feel that that’s where the growth is gonna be. Talk

Sean P. Holman (24m 22s):

To us about the tundra behind us. Obviously it’s got a, a lot of products and this is, you know, an American vehicle. Yeah. So how is your approach to a, a vehicle in a region? And we’ll maybe use the Tundra as an example. You guys obviously have global platforms, but Yeah, here’s one that’s basically a one-off. Yeah, so we popular,

7 (24m 39s):

So we manage, so we’ve got manufacturing and, and product development here in the United States. So we’ve got an engineering team and a, and a product development team here. But we also, this is coming into Australia. So Toyota Australia are bringing this tundra down, down under later this year. Awesome. They’re, and also the other thing that’s in and a at the moment, the Ram, the Silverado and the F-150 are really popular. They’re, they’re growing and the American trucks are becoming bigger. So we, we develop, we try and develop as much as we can in the local geography because the guys here know more about it than we do. There’s no point in me telling them what they should be selling on a tundra from Brisbane, Australia when they’re living and breathing the market here. Right. So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (25m 14s):

Do you find that some of the other companies that are global have those issues where they’re trying to tell what the Americans what to do and the Americans like, we don’t want that, or we do want this and you’re not making it? Or

7 (25m 26s):

Well, yeah, I’m not sure about other coming, but for us it’s like, what’s the point in employing someone here that lives and breathes the market and not listening to them? Right. So they they they understand it. They, they know what, what, what’s working. They’re living it day to day. I, there’s no point in me coming in, you know, once a quarter, once every few months and going, we should be doing this. We should do it. I, we always come up with ideas and we want to keep developing ideas, but ultimately we need to listen to our team on the ground. And we’ve got a very good team here. and I had a lot, a lot of our team in the United States, we’ve been with us for a very long time. So it’s, you know, we’ve got a very good trust and working relationship with

Sean P. Holman (25m 56s):

Them. So You said something that was interesting is that the American trucks are big in Australia. Yes. And so the podcasts are third biggest markets Australia. Yes. Right. And so we have a lot of Australian listeners. Yeah. and I was reading, you know, like a t Rx. There’s a company that brings it in and then converts ’em to Right hand drive.

7 (26m 12s):

Drive.

Sean P. Holman (26m 13s):

Yeah. So are the manufacturers doing right hand drive from the factory? Do they have to go through a conversion process? And then what’s, why are they so popular?

7 (26m 20s):

Don? Don’t know. Look, they’ve gone through, they go through a conversion pro process. So there’s a, there’s a company that does a lot of them. They’re doing the Toyota, they do the ram, it’s called Walk Insure Automotive. They’re, they’ve actually got a race team as well. So they do, they were, they were developing high spec Holdens, which is the gm. And GM decided to shut down Holden in Australia. So they, they don’t have that brand anymore. So they were, you know, going down, what do we do? Yeah, what do we do? So they started doing conversions for different vehicles and they’ve obviously come through with this ram vehicle so that they don’t bring it in. So another company brings it in. They do the, the engineering conversion for the Ram. They’re doing it for the Tundra And. they do the Silverado. Wow. And. they, they convert it from a left hand drive to a right hand drive. They, I’ve bit in the factory form. They takes some, about 45 minutes to do, to do one car.

7 (27m 1s):

That’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (27m 2s):

It. That’s all

7 (27m 2s):

What Yeah. So, You go go from like on a stage gate. They just rip everything out, then it moves the next one. They put everything, you know, start put it back in all, even all the drive trains, the steering columns. Oh my gosh. And then anything that’s left over, they send back to Ram, say in, in Mexico, wherever they’re building it from. And then they reuse the parts as either spare parts or, or put it back into their vehicle. ’cause they then ship back the, the right hand drive stuff that they don’t need anymore.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (27m 26s):

Like the what about the hole for the steering column Does, is there one, are all the cars and trucks built with the potential for right

7 (27m 33s):

Hand drive? I’m sure but I I I didn’t actually look that closely. Or

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (27m 35s):

Is the guy with a saw all and a air hammer holds off?

Sean P. Holman (27m 40s):

Don’t fear the whole saw.

7 (27m 41s):

Possibly, but yeah, they, they’re, they’re super popular and I think, you know, they’re in a good price, like a high price point as well. Yeah. So I think the big thing compared to our trucks that we get home, the towing capacity’s much higher than what our, you know, the, the foot So. I I

Sean P. Holman (27m 53s):

Was gonna ask you about that ’cause you guys basically have your one ton truck could be a, a midsize truck. Yes. Yes. Right. But it may have the payload but not necessarily the towing capacity.

7 (28m 1s):

The towing capacity. Yeah. So the payload has probably been more important to the consumer in Australia than it has the towing capacity. And now particularly around Covid as here, the caravan market went through the roof. Right. Everyone couldn’t leave the country for whatever reason. So they wanted to tow and go holidays around there. So people want bigger cars to be able to tow these massive caravans, So I think that had something to do with it. And then it just has become like a, you know, they’re, they’re a nice truck. I drive a ram back home. So I’ve got one So I I’ve sort of bought into the American culture. Is it a

Sean P. Holman (28m 29s):

V eight

7 (28m 29s):

Hemi? Yes. Yeah. It’s, I got a limited, it’s V eight Hemi. It’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (28m 31s):

A nice drive.

7 (28m 32s):

It is a nice drive.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (28m 33s):

What is the perception of Australians that drive the big trucks now? Is it you’ve got money or you have like,

Sean P. Holman (28m 39s):

Is it a luxury vehicle? Is it a status symbol?

7 (28m 41s):

It it is a bit of a status. It’s, it is considered a bit of a luxury vehicle. It’s probably a lot of people don’t like, ’cause our roads aren’t as big as they are here. Right. The parking, the parking spaces,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (28m 50s):

Whatever. Just push ’em off the road. It is not, it’s not too big. They’re driving a small car. Screw

7 (28m 53s):

’em. So, You gotta get real tied in there. So I think a lot of people get a little bit frustrated with ’em that, you know, you’re trying to own the road too much. But they, they, they’re not going away. I mean Ford of are bringing them out themselves. So Ford they’ve got the F-150 Yeah. And the F two 50. Oh wow. As well as coming. So they’re bringing the super duties.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (29m 9s):

Are you gonna get the Diesel and gas variance as well?

7 (29m 11s):

They get Diesel land gas. you do? Okay. Down in, down in Australia. So, and also, yeah, as I said, Toyota has caught on. They’re bringing the tundra out. They, you know, we do a lot with Toyota, Australia, And. they were saying basically we didn’t expect it to be this popular. We wanna get part of it. ’cause you know, Toyota’s a big, big brand in Australia, so it’s a bit of a cult following the

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (29m 28s):

Toyota Doesn. Doesn’t Toyota always act that way? They go, we didn’t expect this to be popular. We’re, we can’t possibly supply the demand. It’s always, I think there’s someone going, we have, we know that there’s a million people who want ’em, so we’re gonna make 800,000. But they always make too few.

7 (29m 42s):

Yeah. They, they’re doing it. I think they’re bringing out about three to 500 to begin with and then sort of testing the market in the real world and then sort of seeing where they go from there. But it’s a, I think it’ll, I think this, you know, looking at this tundra here, if that, if that comes into us, I think it’ll, they’ll, they’ll knock the lights out.

Sean P. Holman (29m 55s):

They’ll sell all of them.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (29m 55s):

The lights out. Let’s talk about this tundra for a second. What do you have on this, this particular unit? So

7 (29m 59s):

We’ve got the electric roll cover. So the EGR roll track, which is on the back in our, in our ladder rack or our bed rack. So that’s

Sean P. Holman (30m 6s):

I, I have to say your bed rack. So obviously we touch a lot of products. Yeah. Yeah. And there’s a lot of sheet metal ones. Yeah. There’s a lot of like EI break press formed ones. Yeah. I was really impressed. That has to be one of the best ones on the market. Yeah. The forming, it looks like you’re using extrusions

7 (30m 23s):

On ’em. Yes. Yes. So it’s designed specifically to fit with the roll track. Yeah. So just because it’s, the weight capacity of our roll cover is higher than most on the market. And so we wanted to make sure you had a rack that fitted that you could put the loader. ’cause we understand that people putting roller covers on, they wanna be able to put stuff on top. Sure. ’cause you lose, you can lose a bit of bed space. So being able to stack stuff on top was really important in us. And when we were designing the, the roll cover, you know, five, six years ago, that was part of our development process. So yeah. That’s a, that’s gonna be a big seller for us here, I think. For sure.

Sean P. Holman (30m 51s):

Well, and I think part of it too is if you have, you know, cargo boxes or a rooftop tent Yes. You can drop the level down Yeah. And hide some of it behind the roof of the cab. Exactly. So, You don’t get the con of airflow being blocked. Right. Yes. It’s more aerodynamic. You suck it down and not take as much of a penalty as you would otherwise. Exactly.

7 (31m 7s):

It’s, it’s adjustable. It’s something that, you know, we, again, in Australia we use a, there’s a lot of racks like that. So, You can put it up high. We just, gentleman was here before wanted to put something so he could see out the back trailing cabinet. So it can be above that. Whereas you say you can drop it nice and low, so it sits underneath the roof height. So it’s not that aerodynamic pool that you Yeah. And that whistling you get when you going on the, the freeway.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (31m 26s):

Sure. How adjustable is that? Is it six, eight inches? That’ll go,

7 (31m 29s):

It’ll go have another, another eight inches I think from there. So It gets through about 24 inches in. Wow. Full height. So It gets really, It gets really high. Okay. And It gets on, on the, on the full size trucks as well. Which,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (31m 38s):

And it’s gusted, you have cross bracing so it looks really stout.

7 (31m 40s):

Yeah, it is. It’s strong. So it can take I think a static load of about 750 pounds. Oh wow. And dynamic is probably around a 3, 3 50. Wow.

Sean P. Holman (31m 48s):

That’s higher. I was thinking dynamic. Maybe 2 53. That’s amazing. That’s a really good load rating.

7 (31m 53s):

Yeah. Yeah. It’s a good, it’s a good, it’s a good development. As I said, it’s designed specifically to fit with our, with our roll cover.

Sean P. Holman (31m 59s):

Do you make that roll cover for Australian Yes. Vehicles as

7 (32m 2s):

Well? Yes. Yeah. So we, we’ve got pretty much the full gambit now of, of truck covers that we can get through. So we’ve got all the, the midsize, so the, the new Ford Ranger that’s obviously come, just come about to come out here in the US that we’ve had that for about two years in a, in Australia. And it’s, it’s a, it’s the number one selling car in Australia and that’s in Europe as well. So we’ve got all that sort of the hiluxes, the what we call the mid-size. And then we do it for the American trucks here. And then we’re, we’re just about to release all our six foot five options. So for the super duties and the longer bed options here. So they’re coming out January, they’ll start to come through through the next few months after that. So we’ll have the

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (32m 35s):

Full You’re gonna do really well with those. Yeah, really

7 (32m 37s):

Well. So we’re, we’re really excited. I mean, Mike and our team here have been banging on that. We needed them here. So we’ve been probably a bit slower than he would’ve liked.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (32m 43s):

I was asking about eight foot beds. He’s like, hold your horses just just one at a time. That’s

7 (32m 46s):

Step. We step one step, one step at a time. One step

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (32m 48s):

At a time. and I I will say it. This is I. Think I’ve said it 50 times on the show, but it is the best engineered tunnel cover. Yeah. I’ve ever not only just have owned but have seen, have touched with my own hands. Yeah. Everything.

Sean P. Holman (33m 2s):

He loves it actually. You see him late at night just standing by I and he just pushes the buttons. Just watch it open and close for hours.

7 (33m 8s):

That’s what we need. I like that topic.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (33m 10s):

It’s the double click on my key fob, your new key FOB activation. It’s, it’s brilliant that that was when you have it and you use it, go. Oh, that’s a no brainer. Yes. But I don’t know anyone else’s doing it. It Yeah, you’re tied into the can bus of my truck. Yes. It’s amazing. But the fit and finish the fact that it came with parts to measure and get it all square. Yeah. Like you don’t have to use a tape measure. You, you included the bracketry. That’s kind of like one use bracket tree. Yeah. But it’s perfect the first time you put it on. I didn’t have to go and adjust it and go, oh, it’s out of alignment six months later. Yeah. I haven’t done anything to it. And I’ve, I’m telling you it’s congratulations I gotta shake up.

7 (33m 47s):

Yeah. Thank you. No, shake

Sean P. Holman (33m 48s):

My hand well while he’s shaking your hand. I I, I need, we need to apologize to him. Why we should, we should play the I’m sorry. Or we apologize. Wait, why, why? I’ll, I’ll explain it in a moment.

8 (33m 57s):

We are deeply sorry. We are sorry. We’re sorry. Why

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (34m 4s):

Am I sorry.

Sean P. Holman (34m 5s):

Well, because I feel like we

8 (34m 6s):

Are, sorry.

Sean P. Holman (34m 6s):

There’s a massive trade in balance in what we gave Australia, what Australia gave us. And, and what I look at, look around the hall. A trade imbalance. No, no, no. Hold on. Hear me out. You look around SEMA and you see rooftop tents, right. You see overland rigs, you see rack, you see all this stuff that really South Africa and Australia, they were kind of doing that and then we sort of absconded with it and made it our own. And then everybody comes here and is like the hell have you guys done with our, with our, our hobbies all we gave them. And I’ve been to Australia and I Love Australia, but whenever I fly international, I’m like, I can’t wait to see what the, the local cuisine is and I get off the fricking plane and I’m like, Hey, that’s the Burger King logo. But it says Hungry Jackson.

Sean P. Holman (34m 46s):

There’s McDonald’s and there’s a Subway. Yeah. Hey there’s cave. I feel like all we did was give you crappy fast food and you gave us an entire industry Yeah. Of rooftop tents and overland So. I. Just the trade imbalance is real. Yeah. I just wanna apologize. It was an ugly American moment on our part. and I wanna make sure you know,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (35m 2s):

I’m sorry. Are you apologizing on behalf of America? I am.

Sean P. Holman (35m 4s):

I am But wow. All we did was be the purveyors of, of a horrible fast food. And Australia is based, I’ve been to Sydney Harbor and it’s literally San Diego’s gas lamp district. Yeah. And they’re all watching the Lakers wearing Dodger hats down. It’s

7 (35m 16s):

Hilarious. American culture is really, really big. I mean the, the sports, the NBA the NFL are huge. Yeah. In, in Australia it’s a big, big culture. We’re very similar to the Americans, but I mean, one thing I’m glad we haven’t taken is your coffee. The Australian coffee is really good. Yeah. American coffee is so,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (35m 30s):

So, so, so,

7 (35m 31s):

So, so depending on where you get it from.

Sean P. Holman (35m 33s):

So when you come here having, you know, lived in Australia and, and being in Australia, are you amazed at kind of how we have taken over some of the things that were like, no big you, you guys have tray beds. Yeah. Because you need them. You have rooftop tents because there’s, you know, venomous denizens of the desert and the outback that want to kill you and you have to be up on top. Right? Yeah. You, these were all function and then we have it and we’ve turned ’em into vanity projects. Yeah. Right. I mean, and I do you walk around and you’re like, what bizaro land am I in that these Americans have done this?

7 (36m 3s):

Well I think one thing about Americans, they just make everything bigger. Right. So we we take it on and we do it and do it at very small and sort of just enough for Australia. And Australia’s not a big place. We only 25 million people total. It’s a big place. Like

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (36m 14s):

We have four, we have 14 million in LA I know.

7 (36m 16s):

Los

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (36m 17s):

Angeles. 14 million

7 (36m 18s):

People. Exactly. So Australia, it’s all on the East coast. So the middle of the country, there’s, there’s not not many people there. So I. Think for us, when you come to Main, everything’s bigger. Yeah. Right. It’s just bigger. It’s on a, it’s you know, it’s on steroids. It’s Did

Sean P. Holman (36m 29s):

You see that awesome GMC trade bed that’s in the av Booth. Yes, I know. Alright, so when you see this, it’s a, it’s not only is it not a full size American truck, but it’s the heavy duty. Yeah. And then they’re like, we’re gonna put forties on it and then we’re gonna put a tray back. ’cause I happen to love that.

7 (36m 43s):

Don don’t know how you’re gonna get any of the tools out that trade back. Right. It’s that I’m six foot six. So like don don’t know how any, anyone, I feel

Sean P. Holman (36m 48s):

Like that truck was made for you. Maybe

7 (36m 50s):

I should take, see if they can lemme take it home. There

Sean P. Holman (36m 52s):

You go.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (36m 53s):

Well congratulations on all the success you’ve seen stateside. Yeah. And it was great meeting you. Lovely to meet you. Thank you for, for supporting.

Sean P. Holman (37m 1s):

You’re not gonna arm wrestle him.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (37m 3s):

The American market

Sean P. Holman (37m 4s):

I don. No,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (37m 4s):

I’m not going to. No. Do

Sean P. Holman (37m 5s):

You wanna play rugby with him?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (37m 6s):

Look at me. Look at me. Should I be arm wrestling This guy I don’t anymore. I can tell you that much. But he’s still fit as a fiddle. I’m telling you. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (37m 12s):

No, he’s, he, he,

7 (37m 14s):

No, thank you for the support. Appreciate it. Yeah, we, we love being here in the US and we’ve been here for a long time, so we’re keen on the growth we’re gonna see. So thank you very much for the support.

Sean P. Holman (37m 22s):

Very much, much appreciate it. Absolutely. And we appreciate the, the support of the podcast and supporting Lightning’s Tunnel cover habit. Yeah. Nice.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (37m 28s):

We use Habit. This is the last one I’m ever gonna need. Never Habit ends here. That’s the,

Sean P. Holman (37m 31s):

Not only did you get it, but you gotta upgrade it already.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (37m 33s):

I know. I went, I went to the, the was facility. I got the tour and, and And, they armed my, my key fob When

Sean P. Holman (37m 39s):

Was the last time that you bought a product for your truck bed where the manufacturer called you? Six months later he goes, we’re gonna make it better. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (37m 45s):

Never. Never. Well once, once. EGR,

Sean P. Holman (37m 48s):

Oh, there you go. Yep. Alright,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (37m 49s):

Perfect.

7 (37m 49s):

Awesome, awesome. Thanks very much guys. Thank

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (37m 51s):

You So. I. Appreciate

Sean P. Holman (37m 51s):

You having much. Alright. Appreciate it.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (37m 52s):

Thanks guys. Sorry about the crappy American food. That’s alright.

Sean P. Holman (37m 55s):

Thanks guys.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (37m 58s):

Alright. Holman, we are joined on the microphone by Kyle. I met him when I was in Central Hall and he rolled up and we’re, he was looking at, what

Sean P. Holman (38m 5s):

Did he roll up in one of those hover rounds? ’cause in Central Hall. Alright. You walked up, these dudes get like three hover rounds. Wide And, they block all the aisles. I’m like, what do you punch John and John like seriously you don do you need four hover

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (38m 14s):

Rounds? So I bumped into Kyle and I said sorry. And then I said, Hey, and, and he is like, love the truck. And we started talking and he is a member of the Maryland C 10 Club. So I figured, rewind the clock a little bit. Go back to C 10 era. So tell us about the Maryland scene. Alright,

9 (38m 30s):

So the Maryland scene is a little different than, than the East coast or the West Coast. Sorry. You know, everything on the east coast is, is big motor, high horsepower race car stuff. Like that’s what all the guys that come over from the west coast and come see the builds over there. Like

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (38m 45s):

Pro touring stuff.

9 (38m 45s):

Yeah. Like they,

Sean P. Holman (38m 46s):

Or like the drag racing stuff,

9 (38m 48s):

They call it like a, a NASCAR type theme. You know, like where everything over here is the low rider. Yeah. And that’s the impetus. But East coast, totally different, big horsepower, you know, a lot of guys riding around on wide tires, not the the 24 fifteens that you see like the Houston and LST stuff. Sure. But you know, 20 by twelves with a three 15 tire, that kind of stuff. So coming out here and seeing the different builds, you know, there’s a few east coast stuff over here. Predominantly, I think this is West coast and Texas and, but Arizona. But yeah, the C 10 scene is, is hot

Sean P. Holman (39m 22s):

By the way. Our, our friend Dana Estes who got the free trip to SEMA with TMI when we were at the worst, he won the, I think the best truck with his C 10. So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (39m 30s):

Where do you fall into this? Into this mix? Like where, what’s your cup of tea? Like do you like the wide tire, the big horsepower or are

9 (39m 37s):

You Yeah, that’s what I do. I try to have everything that I built, I, I’ve got, I think I’m up to eight trucks right now. So we’ve got every generation except to 67 to 72 from 55 up to oh seven.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (39m 48s):

Oh my gosh. Yeah.

9 (39m 49s):

So we’re starting to build a 59 Chevy Apache for my dad right now. Have a 66, like we were talking about the other day, I showed you the rendering for That one. Yep. Don’t have anything. 67 to 72 right now it’s the only generation. It’s a square body. I’ve got a 86, 2 86 s. One’s a crew cab just finished that off. It’s a one ton crew cab.

Sean P. Holman (40m 8s):

My uncle had a I, think it was an 86. It was a short shorty wide. Right. So regular cab, short bed and I think he had a I. Think he had a 3 0 5 in it. Okay. And it was fire engine red. And I’ll never forget when he brought that to my grandma’s house for the first time. And It was like, man, that’s a good looking truck. And he had that truck for, for a good while, but man, what, who wouldn’t want that truck back today? Right? Everyone, everyone. There’s probably

9 (40m 33s):

Somebody driving it right now. It last forever.

Sean P. Holman (40m 35s):

I’m sure there is, but It was like, It was like the brightest fire engine red that you could get from Chevy in that year. And it was just a, just a gorgeous truck. And you think, you walk around and see, you’re like, man, if I could find that truck again, it, it’d be worth money. You know

9 (40m 47s):

What an interesting fact about fire engine red is. So the red that SHI is Chevrolet’s offering right now. We actually repaint the trucks when we get ’em to Washington DC Fire department where I work. We repaint, the trucks are red, our fire engine red. Really? So we, yeah, we just had a new 20 23 1 ton with the 6.6 gas and we were looking at it the other day and the tops white and it’s red and we saw where they repainted our fire engine red over the factory from gm.

Sean P. Holman (41m 15s):

Oh, how interesting. Yeah. So they wanna have that exact red on it. Yeah.

9 (41m 17s):

So it matches the rest of our fleet.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (41m 19s):

What is the red, is it a Pantone color? What’s makes, what makes it that specific

9 (41m 22s):

Red I? Don’t know. I would have to find out. Is it

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (41m 24s):

A PPG color? Oh yeah. I’d be curious what

9 (41m 26s):

That is. I send the information

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (41m 27s):

When we all say fire engine red. I wonder if there actually is a fire engine

Sean P. Holman (41m 30s):

Red spec. Oh, there absolutely is. Spec. Spec there is.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (41m 32s):

Really? Yeah. Like is there a Forest Service Green like an actual Yes,

Sean P. Holman (41m 36s):

There actually is a Forest Service. Green. No kidding. A hundred percent there is. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (41m 39s):

Okay.

9 (41m 39s):

Huh. But yeah, our, the truck came in and we opened the door on it the other day and you could see where they resprayed and everything and we’re like, it’s a totally

Sean P. Holman (41m 45s):

Different red. So is that like the, the, the city yard is doing that or whatever or gm? Is it custom order And?

9 (41m 50s):

They, well it’s not GM because there’s tons of overspray. Oh,

Sean P. Holman (41m 52s):

Okay. So it’s going a shop,

9 (41m 53s):

Well it could be gm, it’s going to a shop somewhere and it’s getting sprayed. Interesting. Probably the Upfitter. Yeah. Yeah. That does all the radios and the lights so that they probably send it somewhere.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (41m 60s):

Now with your builds, are you trying to get like a hundred point builds or are you just at dailies? Where, where

9 (42m 6s):

Are you? No, at Daily and I drive ’em, like we go to LST every year. It’s 24 hour drive.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (42m 9s):

Lone Star throw Throwdown.

9 (42m 10s):

Yep. Lone Star Throwdown. Haven’t missed it in years. So I usually leave Maryland early on Thursday, drive through and pick up a couple buddies in at Atlanta area with Metal Direct. We do a lot with them. And then the next day we cruise in LST and it’s a lot of drive-in. It’s 1200 hundred

Sean P. Holman (42m 26s):

Miles. How many people usually go in a group? Ah,

9 (42m 28s):

Man. Usually we have five, 10 trucks, like full

Sean P. Holman (42m 31s):

Caravan

9 (42m 32s):

All together. Caravan. Yeah. That’s

Sean P. Holman (42m 33s):

Awesome. Yep. Do people think they’re in a time warp when they see you guys all go by?

9 (42m 38s):

You would think so. Yeah. It’s, it’s cool. Like, you know, usually there’s a lot of stuff that’s broken down the side of the road, where’re repairing. But I think the first year I built this Suburban, I did 18,000 miles. Oh my gosh. Just on trips, going to shows with it. Wow. You know, it’s got a, a six liter, 4 0 80, everything’s built in it. QA one suspension, So You. We do a lot.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (42m 58s):

What’s your, do you daily anything modern?

9 (43m 0s):

The only thing modern I have is the 16 Durmax that I was just talking about. Okay. And 90% of the time there’s a trailer hooked to it moving something of mine around. Right. So my Is it Bone

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (43m 9s):

Stock your 16 DM

9 (43m 10s):

Max? No, it’s got a a five inch lift bill Stein shocks, which is, I was eating lunch the other day out front. and there guys were there and I said, oh, oh, I’m gonna do a podcast with these guys. And They said, oh, Holman, we know him. Yeah. Yeah. And So I got the 51 60 on there, remote reservoirs and 22 by 12 three or 5 50 40 outros. So yeah.

Sean P. Holman (43m 28s):

It’s funny how many people will email us and be like, Hey, I I know, you know, you talked about, you know, bill Stein. Yeah. Are are they really that good? And it’s like, yeah, go get ’em. And we’ve probably had seven or eight emails from listeners who are like, my wife hated my truck. And now she’ll go with go on, you know, a ride with me or it transformed it or I didn’t even know how blown out my shocks were. I mean, they’re, they’re that transformative on, on a truck. Did

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (43m 50s):

You feel that that was the case on your truck?

9 (43m 52s):

Yeah. I mean, it helped tremendously. and I got 120,000 miles on right now and the guy’s like, Hey, you know, you’ve had ’em on there, six or seven Years’s time to replace It was like, well I’m glad I I sat down here eating lunch. You know, like bumped into you. Nice. So, I be new. Some shocks when I get back and hopefully bed cover eventually.

Sean P. Holman (44m 7s):

Yeah. The, yeah. So, what do you think about the EGR roll track, bed

9 (44m 10s):

Cover? Dude, these things are phenomenal. Yeah. Like, just listen to the, the Lightning tell about how easy it is to install. Hopefully there’s something available for my body style.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (44m 19s):

They’re getting there.

Sean P. Holman (44m 20s):

New, new applications.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (44m 21s):

Talked about the six and a half foot bed coming soon. That’s you? Yep.

9 (44m 24s):

That’ll be me.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (44m 25s):

I mean, that’s a huge market here. I mean, that’s most trucks, right? Yeah. They, they launched with the Gladiator originally and then they went to the short box like my TRX and I thought, oh that’s interesting. and I asked them when they came out with it. I go, why didn’t you start with a six and a half? You know? ’cause there’s more of ’em on the road. And they’re like, well, they’re not More of ’em in Australia. Makes, so that’s why makes sense. They started with the makes with the shorter boxes and Yeah, they’re coming with ’em and it’s, it’s I can’t say enough about ’em. They’re really, really nice.

Sean P. Holman (44m 48s):

So did you guys drive out or fly out?

9 (44m 51s):

Flew out. Okay. A couple of guys that I’m out here with, they, they flew out and Zach from OT Middle Drs actually Flying back tomorrow to go get his truck in Atlanta to drive out here next week for Dino’s. So.

Sean P. Holman (45m 2s):

Oh, that’s right. Dino’s get down’s coming up. Yep.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (45m 4s):

I wanted to have lock jaw for that and not so much. Yeah. We discussing there might still be some metal shavings in the fuel cell, which

Sean P. Holman (45m 11s):

Are, did you ever figure out what

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (45m 14s):

I have a new hunch, but Oh, you do? I I do, but I don’t want to implicate someone that I work with. Oh yeah. Wow. So it, it may not be, might the original theory about a third party doing it, it might be someone under our roof.

Sean P. Holman (45m 29s):

You should probably go apologize to him profusely

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (45m 32s):

To the third party. Yes. It could still be that person. It could,

Sean P. Holman (45m 37s):

He’s he’s listening right now. I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (45m 38s):

Know that. And I’m, I, we don’t know. I have theories and if I don’t, so listen, you know, I love the dude that did the work on Lockjaw. Like I’ve had a lot of beers with him and if it was them, so be it. We’re just moving on. Who are you looking at over here? Oh, hey, it’s Jordan from Daytona, Florida Truck. Me. Well, it’s going back to Daytona at some point. What’s going on, Jordan? Oh, not much guys. How y’all doing?

Sean P. Holman (46m 6s):

What’re good? What’s up buddy? Yeah,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (46m 7s):

We’re good. I I I Seen you over here. So. I had to come over and talk. Get outta my face with I seen

Sean P. Holman (46m 11s):

By, by the way, Jordan tagged Lightning in a post with vra. Said, I seen this today.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (46m 16s):

Yeah, I know. I had to write back and go, by the way, I seen a jackass comment on our truck.

Sean P. Holman (46m 21s):

So So I need to ask you ’cause you were in the the AM Oil booth. Yes. Did anyone hug Scott Birdsall?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (46m 27s):

Not that I saw. Oh, well you wouldn’t wanna hug the dude he’s built, he’d punch you. I told you no one’s going to hug him.

Sean P. Holman (46m 35s):

No. I’ve, I’ve been trolling him on social all week with a hashtag Hugs hug birds. And he writes back. No,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (46m 42s):

I’m telling you, look, I I was just at dinner last night with him. He’s rad. But he, he is going to, he will deck someone if they hug him. I’m telling you.

Sean P. Holman (46m 51s):

I just wanna know if that happened

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (46m 52s):

Or not. He’s a, he’s a, what do you call? A, a, not a fireball. A Spark plug. Spark plug. Thank you. All right, Ian, so sorry you, we subjected you to this, this show.

9 (47m 1s):

You know, I’m, this is awesome.

Sean P. Holman (47m 2s):

How long have you been listening for?

9 (47m 4s):

Probably three or four years now. All right. So usually what I do is on the way to work, I live 59 miles out outside the city and I’m driving in there at three in the morning. Usually

Sean P. Holman (47m 12s):

Our shows are the exact right length for you. They they are, they’re in home, right.

9 (47m 16s):

And, they usually drop Monday. Yeah. You know, midnight?

Sean P. Holman (47m 18s):

No, they always drop Monday. Yeah, it’s true. Maybe once they were on a

9 (47m 22s):

Tuesday. But it’s the perfect time because I get up and leave at three 30 in the morning. So as soon as, you know, day one listener as my buddy, LODB from LLP that I introduced you to the other day from the Mini Truck podcast out. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (47m 36s):

Yeah. We gotta have him on the show. Yeah, we gotta do that. You host the mini truck podcast. Yeah,

9 (47m 40s):

He actually was out here doing a lot of video and, and everything with Randy Frederick’s, two ballistic trucks. And, they booth, of

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (47m 45s):

Course. Dude, I saw Randy’s truck. It’s, it’s better in person than it is in print. So cool. Yeah,

9 (47m 50s):

It’s gonna be in print again. He’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (47m 53s):

Getting a lot of love. Dude. He came out with a crazy crew. Like he came out with his painter. His detailer. Yeah, his fabricators.

9 (47m 58s):

And they’re from Maryland.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (47m 59s):

Everyone

9 (47m 59s):

He’s in from Florida. He’s from Florida. Yeah. But the majority of the guys are in Maryland that built the truck with him. Charm City Upholstery. Who did all that was in Baltimore? Eric, the painter. He’s also, how do you pull that off? Negative Camber. Okay. Those guys are all,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (48m 13s):

Yeah, they’re all really tight. Yeah.

9 (48m 15s):

So that truck is awesome, but I guess, you know, NDA here January Street trucks issue, a mini truck will be on the cover

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (48m 25s):

Maybe? No. Or maybe not That one.

9 (48m 27s):

It it is, it is. Okay. I by, by the time this comes out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn’t sign an NDA so, but that, that is the cover truck. We can beep it. Yeah,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (48m 36s):

But we won’t. I didn’t. Everyone knows now look for

9 (48m 39s):

The cover, but I I don’t know how long it’s been. I have to ask Chris. But the last time that, you know, a mini truck was on the cover of Street Trucks. Magazine. It’s been a long time. That’s kind of a

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (48m 48s):

Co It’s interesting. It’s awesome. Yeah. Yeah. That, that truck is, it’s got legs. It’s getting a life of its own here. Yeah, I saw it. It’s in a kicker, right?

9 (48m 55s):

It is in the kicker. Okay,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (48m 56s):

So, so there’s no rivalry like the C 10 crew and Minis, like Toyotas and Nissans? No,

9 (49m 2s):

No. I actually bought a mini about a month ago in a scrap yard. It was actually another feature truck in Truck and Magazine back in 94.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (49m 11s):

In the scrap

9 (49m 12s):

Yard. It was in the scrap yard.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (49m 13s):

That’s a tragedy.

9 (49m 14s):

Did you just run across it on accident? Yeah, So I went there to, to look. I usually stop and look for motors and transmissions and all that stuff. ’cause you know, building C tens. Why not? and there was a 1987 hard body.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (49m 28s):

Oh

9 (49m 28s):

Yeah, I know you’d, you’d like that, right?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (49m 30s):

Those things are keep talking, keep talking,

9 (49m 32s):

Trying to find the photos and the videos of it. Here we go. and I sent it, took a picture of it. Here it is in the yard, getting ready to get,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (49m 41s):

Oh my gosh. Like a, like a teal. What is that? Sea foam, what would you call that? And

9 (49m 45s):

It’s just sitting, parked in the middle of the yard getting ready to get crushed.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (49m 47s):

No, yeah, it was gonna get crushed. It’s a scrap yard. What did you, what did you pay for it? 3,500?

9 (49m 52s):

No third of that.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (49m 54s):

Whoa. No.

9 (49m 55s):

Third of

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (49m 55s):

That was it? Did it have an engine? You have to say motored it. Yeah. Whoa.

9 (49m 58s):

It’s, it’s still has the ultra wheels on it. Yeah, the caps were in there. Okay. Oh,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 1s):

And it had the caps for the

9 (50m 2s):

Ultras. Yeah. Everything is here. All

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 4s):

Right. Is that a snug top or is that a Ferguson Super shell? What

9 (50m 7s):

Is it? No, I’m not sure. Okay. There wasn’t, the only thing on the back was Trick trucks of Maryland was the, the supplier I guess that installed it. But yeah, So I, I I sent a text to Jason ODB and I said, Hey man, check this out. And he said, can I share it to some mini truck groups? and I said, yeah, sure. Like at this point I wasn’t gonna buy it, but I just wanted, you know, somebody to save it. Right. Went viral on all the mini truck groups.

Sean P. Holman (50m 31s):

I bet they went crazy.

9 (50m 31s):

So yeah. So a guy in Chicago said, Hey, I wanna buy it. and I said, alright, well pay

Sean P. Holman (50m 35s):

20 grand,

9 (50m 36s):

You know, wire me the money or whatever, and I’ll go back the next day. I went and picked it up. He hasn’t come and got it yet. So. I. Oh, I mean, I got the money. I I So You have

Sean P. Holman (50m 44s):

The money in the truck, right? Yeah.

9 (50m 45s):

In the truck. So, you know, we’ll see what happens. Either he comes and gets it or I build it and I have a mini, what’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 51s):

The interior look

9 (50m 52s):

Like on it? It’s not, it’s not in bad shape. It’s all there. Is it a five speed? It is. So did they say how they V six Fuel injected, which

Sean P. Holman (50m 59s):

Oh, nice. Did they say how they came in possession of it? Yeah.

9 (51m 2s):

So I. Guess whoever had it at the time lost their storage space and it doesn’t run. So it

Sean P. Holman (51m 8s):

Was in a like public storage and, yeah. Backed into a, I guess, yeah.

9 (51m 10s):

And it needs a fuel pump. So we got it back to my shop, put a jump pack on it. It started spinning over.

Sean P. Holman (51m 16s):

No way. No way.

9 (51m 17s):

Yeah. A jam, a screwdriver’s ignition. And it And you paid like a

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (51m 20s):

Grand for it? For

9 (51m 21s):

A grand. Oh my gosh. The only thing is it needs a new front valance. Okay. And that’s whatever. That’s a xenon body kit. Yeah. and I actually, I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (51m 30s):

Haven’t heard that name in I

Sean P. Holman (51m 31s):

Know

9 (51m 31s):

Years. I reached out to ’em a couple weeks ago. They had Stilll. They’re, they’re still around. They’re still making body kits. They’ve

Sean P. Holman (51m 37s):

Gotta have one left on the show. They,

9 (51m 39s):

They don’t have the mold.

Sean P. Holman (51m 41s):

No way the mold’s

9 (51m 42s):

Gone. It mold is gone. Oh, that sucks. But I did get on Reddit on a hard body.

Sean P. Holman (51m 47s):

Somebody has to have it right.

9 (51m 48s):

There was a guy in a junkyard two months ago. He has a front bumper for it in SoCal. Nice. So I was trying to work out a way, dude,

Sean P. Holman (51m 56s):

That’s a universe’s way of telling you like it was meant to be. I was

9 (51m 58s):

Trying to work out a way to get it from SoCal to here, and I was gonna have Randy or somebody else take it back to the East Coast

Sean P. Holman (52m 3s):

For me. How rad would it be to grab a surviving time capsule, bring it to SEMA, all dusty and dirty and just plop it right in the vehicle’s feature vehicle spot. Yeah. That’s what people would be all about that.

9 (52m 13s):

So it, it would had all kicker and Bell Tech on it. That’s what is in it. Yeah. And you know, Randy said, Hey,

Sean P. Holman (52m 19s):

Is it pretty similar to how, I mean, did you go on eBay and find that Truckin Magazine? Oh yeah. We have it. And So You have it. So

9 (52m 24s):

We have a copy of it. I don’t have it, but Jason, how

Sean P. Holman (52m 26s):

Much has it changed?

9 (52m 27s):

It’s identical. Nothing’s changed. Time capsule. It is the, the stereo, the stereo’s not in it. That’s the only thing. Okay. So everything else, the, the wheels, everything’s there. That’s super cool. Yeah, So I mean. I think it would be really cool if the guy comes and gets it and fixes it up and get it out here next year. Whether, you know, it’s out front and Bell Techer kicker says, Hey, yeah, let’s

Sean P. Holman (52m 48s):

Put it out here. We went in our booth. Yeah. Yeah. Especially they do the blow up of like Magazine cover or something like that. Right? Yep. That’s rad, huh?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (52m 54s):

Thanks for stopping by and sharing some stories.

9 (52m 57s):

Yeah, this, this was awesome. I I know we, thanks for listening. Yeah. We wanna to get into last night the, the Sosa Metal works. We were talking about that off air. Do you wanna get into that or? Sure, yeah. Yeah. So there was, the Hemmings after party was at Sosa Metal Works last night and it was all decked out. Low riders 59 and Powell was on juice. Oh yeah. 64 Impala is on juice. Yeah. Like, and the amount of people there.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (53m 19s):

So this is something you see all the time in Maryland?

9 (53m 22s):

No, absolutely it did not. Now I did see a bunch of low riders in downtown DC about a month ago. There was some kind of east coast gathering of low riders and there was a ton of imp pals and

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (53m 36s):

Stuff on shoes. All, all on hi hydraulics.

9 (53m 37s):

Yeah. Yeah. I saw a Suzuki sidekick. I think it’s what, right? Yeah. One of those was three wheeling, you know, like, it was cool. We don’t see that on the east coast too much. You’ll see

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (53m 47s):

We we’re jaded out here a lot. I mean, you can on any Saturday you see those guys cruising down Whittier, Whittier Boulevard or something and we just, yeah, we don’t, we’re like, oh, that’s cool. And we just keep driving. I would imagine. Like, what is that?

9 (54m 0s):

Yeah, like I was at work was working overtime, we were on the boat out on the river and we actually pulled over and tied up the boat to go see the Lowrider show. Like it was awesome.

Sean P. Holman (54m 10s):

Sometimes you just have to do that I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (54m 12s):

I to tie off the boat and go see the low rider show

Sean P. Holman (54m 14s):

I know how many times you’ve been on a, on a road trip somewhere and you’re trying to make time, but then something catches your eye and you’re like, You know what this experience that’s happening right now is more important than me getting to where I’m going on time. Yeah. Because it’s just part, that’s part of it. Like whenever I do a road trip, I try and always have that extra time in there. So I can pull over and just take something in. So that’s,

9 (54m 31s):

That’s what I’m gonna try and get to Dino’s here. You know, it’s so close to SEMA that don don’t wanna travel two weeks back to back So I. Think next year we’re gonna try and get a group of us from the east coast to drive out. There’s a group every other year that drives out from the East coast. And this is an odd year. They do even years So I. Think next year will be the year that we hit up Dino’s. Okay.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (54m 53s):

It’s so cool. Have you been to Dino? Having been to Dino’s yet? No, I’m not. Dino’s is wild. I think he’s a refrigerator repair man or something like that.

9 (54m 60s):

Right? Yeah. He know was a Flies

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (55m 0s):

Factory or whatever. It’s Yeah. And and he just started with like 10 trucks or something really small in Hi. In the, in the front yard of his shop. Yep. And then I think one year was actually in its house or something. And then it went to a local parking lot and then it got bigger. Then it was in the, at a stadium. And now it just, now it takes up an entire mall complex. 5,000 trucks. It’s incredible. And it was just a dude who’s an enthusiast. That’s it. Yep. There was no one like production company. We’re gonna make the world’s largest C 10 show. It’s, it’s just a dude and his friends. Completely

9 (55m 31s):

Free. Yeah. Completely free. You roll up in there. you don’t have to pay anything. No trophies. That’s the best part. You can drive whatever you want and chill out with your friends and just look at cool

Sean P. Holman (55m 41s):

Trucks. And that’s the way it should be. Right? I mean? I. I. Feel like we’ve talked about it before. You know, most of the California style truck shows, you can’t drive around. You just park and you just sit there. Yep. You go to like Texas or other parts of the country and it’s a production. There’s people that are, you know, cruising and there’s people having fun, there’s people tailgating and it’s just that, that whole culture and everything, when you get into a good show, like that’s awesome.

9 (56m 2s):

So locked all LST

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (56m 3s):

24 24. Yeah, I could do that. I mean we

9 (56m 6s):

Got six, seven months Right.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (56m 7s):

That I could do I

9 (56m 9s):

I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (56m 9s):

If Gail will let me,

Sean P. Holman (56m 10s):

But we drive it out there.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (56m 13s):

I mean I would do it. It’s built for that.

9 (56m 15s):

Yeah. I I. It’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (56m 16s):

Built for that. I I

9 (56m 17s):

Drive. 1300 miles there you can too.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (56m 19s):

I I would love it. So I Amm the first one to jump in a road trip. Like

Sean P. Holman (56m 22s):

I’m all about the road trip I. Think he was, end the interview right there. He just challenged you. There’s no explanation. You just, you just have to go with it. Okay. Alright. Drove C Lt. He did 1300 miles. You couldn’t do See you dude. See you. Thank you

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (56m 35s):

Scott. Welcome to The. Truck Show. Podcast Booth. Inside the EGR exhibit at that. Did you just give us

Sean P. Holman (56m 40s):

A Booth that was amazing.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (56m 43s):

The Truck Show Podcast booth inside the EGR

Sean P. Holman (56m 46s):

Exhibit E. Booth. Well, it’s their Booth, but I didn’t know that. We,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (56m 48s):

We have a booth and a booth. Okay. So

Sean P. Holman (56m 50s):

We’re in EGR. Are we like Russian nesting dolls?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (56m 53s):

Yes. We are two fat Russian nesting dolls.

Sean P. Holman (56m 56s):

All well they, they, so we have things inside of us. We don’t nest together. Got it. Yes.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (56m 60s):

Scott, welcome to the show. So. You. Have a, is it a 19 Silverado out front of West Hall or is it central? It’s in front of the Central Hall. Central Hall, okay. And you worked with EGR to build, you’ve got their roll track system in it. Tell us about the Silverado.

10 (57m 15s):

So it’s a 19 Silverado, of course. We built it with EGR this year. We’re showcasing their new roll track power cover. We also have the sport bar on top. We did the vent visors and then a bug shield on it representing their new products that they released. So

Sean P. Holman (57m 30s):

Have you been working with EGR very long?

10 (57m 33s):

Yeah, that about a year. Okay.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (57m 35s):

Oh, so, so just relatively fresh I mean they’re a 50-year-old company.

10 (57m 39s):

It’s, it’s new to our store. So I met Pat, he came into my store and showed us new products and just blew me away with the new cover. I actually had my marketing guy do a video on it. And then that’s kind of how we got together on building a truck this year. They needed a spot and we had a truck. We also had some other great products on that truck. But after seeing the cover and then installing it, it’s really the next level cover.

Sean P. Holman (57m 60s):

No, we, we have that experience Lighting has one on his TRX and you know, we tell people we’re not just saying this co we’ve got no skin in that game and we, it’s that amazing.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (58m 9s):

We’re not on commission. Yeah. Like it’s just that good. Yeah. We need to tell people about it. We, we, we, yeah. Otherwise we’d be doing a disservice if we didn’t spread the news. Oh,

10 (58m 17s):

I agree completely. You know, I sell multiple different covers in my store. You know, we don’t just sell EGR. However, this cover, I mean, having ins now, it was different when we hadn’t sold one before. ’cause like I said, still relatively new to the EGR product and the cover, just the way it installs the, the extra seals just all around the features. Hooking up to the BCM, being able to open the cover with the, with the fobs. I mean, there’s just so many things that you’re not getting with any other cover.

Sean P. Holman (58m 43s):

Are you excited for the new skews coming out? Like the six and a half foot beds and all that? Oh

10 (58m 48s):

Absolutely. The more coverage we can get, the better I I, I’m excited about the gladiator cover.

Sean P. Holman (58m 51s):

Yeah, the gladiator cover’s awesome. Yes.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (58m 53s):

So tell us about Cam Customs. Where are you, what do you

10 (58m 56s):

Do? So we’re a truck accessory outfitter in Fort Smith, Arkansas. We started in 2010 and we actually started in the lower truck market. That’s where our name comes from. We lower Truck Wheels Cam and Cam. Right. We started out as a lifestyle brand. We hopefully

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (59m 10s):

Negative cam ’cause positive camera blows truth unless you have like a, a Volkswagen or something. Right, right.

10 (59m 15s):

Yeah, yeah. That’s that’s true. Back, back then, you know, bolt on body drops didn’t exist yet. so that wasn’t a thing. And that, that’s just, that’s where we got started. Our markets evolved into a lifted truck brand that’s, you know, we started out in import performance and mini trucks and here we are building, evolving,

Sean P. Holman (59m 31s):

Lifted trucks. So how long have you been coming to SEMA for?

10 (59m 35s):

This is 15, so this would be my eighth year, ninth year. Eighth

Sean P. Holman (59m 39s):

Or 19. Okay. Alright. How many vehicles have you built over the years?

10 (59m 42s):

Oh my,

Sean P. Holman (59m 43s):

That’s that big. Quite a

10 (59m 44s):

Few. Wow. Yeah, we have done several. We do several. We do a few a year here at

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (59m 49s):

The Sea Show. Are they, are they for customers or in-house cam customs like that you

10 (59m 52s):

Own? So both. Both. We get commissioned by, sometimes we’ve, we’ve had companies reach out to us that we’ve been commissioned to build to represent their brand outside of manufacturers. Like any just totally different industry. We built a, built a truck to represent a vape company. Once we’ve also, you know, a lot of the builds are just our in-house. We, we go out, we buy a truck. We want to do something to market our brand on local front. And then by doing that we also, you know, market the, the companies that we sell. We try to, to partner with companies that we also sell inside of our retail store. So it’s twofold for us. Right. We wanna represent on the largest stage. You know, it’s an honor to be at the SEMA Show and exhibit with these companies. But it also is great that, you know, they’re putting into us, we’re putting into them.