The Truck Show Podcast Season 2, Episode 86 - Save Your Cummins, Inside FTM Diesel

 

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Jay “Lightning” Tilles (0s):

I feel like this episode could be the episode of Destruction. What do you think Holman?

Sean P. Holman (4s):

Well, I mean it depends. If you had a piece of your engine break off and then go through the cylinder and shoot out through your turbo taking it with you, then yeah, I would say that could be accurate. Mm.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (15s):

Well, we’re gonna hear a story from, well, a call that I made to a customer and hopefully will be a listener here soon after this. Okay. But it didn’t go too well for her and her husband with their 2017 Ram Cummins. It’s may have cost them some serious money. Well, that

Sean P. Holman (32s):

Dovetails nicely into the show’s guest. She’s the owner of a diesel shop and she had the opposite issue. She caught it before destruction hit.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (42s):

Yeah, she caught her customers soon to explode engine

Sean P. Holman (47s):

Just in the nick of time. So, yeah. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (49s):

JC Cochrane is coming up on this episode of FTM Diesel. you know what that stands for?

Sean P. Holman (56s):

I can only imagine

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (58s):

The man looking

Sean P. Holman (59s):

Forward to talking to her. And the embargo’s finally lifted and we can give you some details on the Ram RHO.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 5s):

So no more

Sean P. Holman (1m 7s):

Embargo, well just on that particular vehicle. And then we can talk about what’s not in my driveway now. Making me Oh, so terribly sad. Oh, but

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 14s):

You spent some time, we won’t do it in this episode. But I. Do have to get a recap of you driving the hard body. Yeah, offroad.

Sean P. Holman (1m 20s):

Yeah, it was great. I had it for, for a week and took on a little adventure and you know, did a, did a mileage run, did some off-roading with it and You know what? I like it a lot.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 30s):

So, thumbs up. Except for the part where Lightning didn’t get a chance to get behind the Wheel.

Sean P. Holman (1m 37s):

Did you speak in third person there? That was super odd. Lightning, you’re in luck because your local Nissan dealer could put you behind the Wheel. Don’t

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 45s):

Tell me I have to go buy

Sean P. Holman (1m 46s):

One. Hey, of a brand new Nissan Frontier. Hard one. You had one here

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 49s):

For two weeks. So didn didn’t get a chance to even I mean I sat

Sean P. Holman (1m 53s):

In it. First word around. So what, what can I tell you?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 55s):

I was around for two episodes.

Sean P. Holman (1m 57s):

Listen, The truck, Show Podcast is presented by Nissan and every once in a while, Nissan has the, the, the kindness to be still upon us. A a, a cool new vehicle that’s in their lineup. And so I got spend some time with that. But if you wanna see what they have, you wanna experience it firsthand. Lightning, you can head on down to your local Nissan dealer where you can check out a Nissan Frontier and even the new hard body package for yourself.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 20s):

Can’t believe you did me dirty like that.

Sean P. Holman (2m 21s):

And you know, I’m sure they would let you take it around the block, which is more than what I would let you do. They

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 27s):

Probably would let

Sean P. Holman (2m 28s):

You know what else they have. It’s this thing called the internet. You can build and price your own Nissan truck right there on your computer. So if you’re looking for a mid-sized truck to add to your driveway, put Nissan at the top of your Test Drive list

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 40s):

And recently released from banks. Power is the new Ram air intake for the 2020 to 2024 Ford F two 50 and 3 56 0.7 liter diesels. If you’re looking for more power, more fuel efficiency, and best of all more miles between filter cleanings, look no further than the best engineered cold air intakes on the market. Head over to banks power dot com. Type in your year, make and model and find a Ram air intake for your new Ford. Hey Lightning, you know what I love about AMS oil? Do you love their aerosols? Do you love their synthetic motor oils? Do you like their gear lubricants? What? I’m a big fan of the breadth of their motor oils.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 20s):

They’ve got motor oils for gas engines, European spec, which by The way is a thing. So I have a case of European spec because that is what works in the T Rx and the Hellcats, right? No, no, no. Oh, you bought the wrong one. No, didn didn’t. Nope. What did I drive here today? Oh, you had it for the Mercedes? No, But I know Mercedes. when You were looking for the TRX, you were trying to match the spec for your engine, right? And I talked to Mark Olm, right? And he told you not to use the Euro spec, right? There’s another one. Now they have a premium that matches the spec for the Hellcats and the 3 92. That’s the one I have. So that’s zero W 40. Yep. Full synthetic Signature series. Signature series. That’s I have. So that’s the start. And that’s the same stuff that goes in my 3 92.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 0s):

That’s exactly right. So that’s why I take a case of it. I buy a case, And I, bring it over to Ed at Glendale Dodge, have him poured in and he pours it in And I blood plug because I don’t know what Mopars using All, right? So they also have the right motor oil for your high mileage engine. if you have a hybrid, if you have a, well, I don’t know if you’re going diesel racing, high zinc motor oil for old cars, diesel engine oil for your daily driver, natural gas two stroke, four stroke, two stroke power equipment. Four stroke power equipment. Have you seen their destruction tests when they’ll take like a Harley and run it to the point where it’s, it just explodes it? No, they don’t explode. But like they’re molten lava hot, just super red. And then they take ’em apart and they analyze all the engine components and look for wear. super cool All, right? Well AMS oil has been a pioneer in synthetic lubricants for more than 50 years.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 41s):

They deliver wear protection, engine cleanliness and fuel efficiency that conventional oil s cat match when it comes to lubrication. AMS oil is the leader in synthetics. You can find out more at ams oil dot com

2 (4m 52s):

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 and 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, The truck show. Oh,

3 (5m 23s):

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

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 29s):

That’s us

2 (5m 29s):

All. right? So this

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 31s):

Wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve told you guys about the grid heater bolt failure issue. You’re really like on a crusade about that. Oh. yeah. You, you are waving the flag. You’re all like on a horse on a hill. You’re Paul Revere running through the town. you know, the thing is woman, but in, in all seriousness, yeah, so I’m like marketing dude, right? And everyone’s like, ah, he is a she for banks. He’s just promoting. So here’s how it happened. I don’t have, I told this story before, probably Well I, you told it to me. To me, I I don’t have to again, but like, this is something that I saw 2018, somewhere on there it was a YouTuber, Marian something outta like Tennessee. And on his YouTube channel, it’s an old coot and he talks about Ram and Ram only, that’s all he cares about is Ram.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 15s):

I saw a video where he’s talking about beware of the grid heater in the 2007 current Ram trucks because there’s a bolt that’s upside down and it could fall off into your intake manifold and kill your engine And. I’m like, oh, interesting. I had never heard anything more about it for years. And one day I called one of our customers at banks and he was up in Western Canada and he says, Hey Jay, you know I, I want to pick up one of your, your monster Rams? Can I get a deal? ’cause my, you know, my truck’s on the lift and the engine’s out. I was like, sure, yeah, of course. What not. Not a problem. Like by The way, what’s what happened to your engine? He goes, ah, I got that grid heater bolt problem. you know, I I stuck the bolt down into the cylinder. So anyway, I, I, blah, blah, blah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 55s):

He started, he changed the topic. I’m like, Whoa, Whoa, time out. Chris, you actually are suffering from the grid heater bolt issue. I thought this was like a wives tale, it didn’t happen. And he goes, oh no. According to Brad, my mechanic at Protect Diesel up here in Kale’s Canada. This happens all the time. It’s just the mechanics don’t talk to each other. Like this is the whole thing. So then we shoot a video with Gail and, and Brad does a piece of the video and we post it and it like does kind of whatever, lukewarm. And some of the guys start, they take the video and they repost it in the Ram groups on Facebook. And of course haters come in like, nah, no, no, that’s one in a million trucks. That doesn’t happen. It’s never gonna happen to you.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 36s):

Don’t even worry about it. It’s just banks marketing hype. And one guy chimes in, he says, here’s the picture of my piston. This happened to me. Yep. And then it gets posted again. And another group and another guy’s like, oh, this is my brother’s truck. Look at his engine. This thing started in, in about June of 22, I wanna say we started getting this conversation going, And I have a folder on my computer of well over a hundred failures. And this is just the ones that I know about. So you, what you’re saying is you were at the tip of the spear. So then Steven we’re recording this on a Wednesday. So last week Steven said, Hey, have you seen this post on Facebook? And it was this woman who had posted in a group that says, this is real. My husband And I are out $20,000 because of this.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 19s):

So I asked Steven to reach out to her and he got her phone number and this is my call to her now it’s me on a speakerphone in my office and there’s background noise and some other stuff. But I recorded it because I was gonna transcribe it for the bank’s newsletter. But I thought this is too interesting. I want you guys to hear kind of the pain in her voice.

Candy (8m 41s):

Hello.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 42s):

Hey Candy, this is Jay from Banks Power out in Los Angeles. Sorry to call you so late on a Friday night. Oh my God, is my voice really that high and squeaky? Yep. Oh, this sucks. Hey, you’re okay. Hey I. I. Like

Sean P. Holman (8m 55s):

How you said, this sucks in a lower voice.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 59s):

It’s when I get spazzy that my voice goes up like 80 octaves.

Sean P. Holman (9m 2s):

You don’t need to tell me that.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 4s):

Damn. I feel like I owe our, our audience an apology every

Sean P. Holman (9m 9s):

Week.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 10s):

Saw a message. It looked like it was between one of our guys, Steven in the office. And Billy, I assume that Billy is connected to you somehow.

Candy (9m 18s):

He’s my brother-in-Law.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 19s):

So he had posted that someone in the family had succumbed to the grid heater bolt failure on a 2020 Ram. Does that sound right?

Candy (9m 30s):

Okay. It was our truck, but it’s not a 20, it’s a 17.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 34s):

17, got it. Okay. Can you tell me the story, what happened?

Candy (9m 38s):

So we use it to pull a race car trailer, our boys race. And we’re coming home from a race back in Fe first weekend in February. No coats on the dash, no nothing. And we’re cruising through Atlanta on cruise control and it kicks them out of cruise control all of a sudden and starts knocking like crazy. So of course we get off the interstate or whatever and call some friends and they’re like, sounds like an injector, you know, you don’t need to drive it home, blah blah. Anyway, long story. So we get it towed home to Birmingham and we get a,

Sean P. Holman (10m 12s):

That was some kind of an injector. It injected a bolt right through the pistons.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (10m 17s):

You’d be surprised how many people just think it’s a regular, some kind of a knock or something that they, they don’t realize that it’s something in the cylinder that

Sean P. Holman (10m 24s):

The diesel’s not supposed to sound. That’s not the knocking you’re looking for.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (10m 29s):

See what you

Sean P. Holman (10m 29s):

Did there? Yep.

Candy (10m 30s):

Panic to look at it. And the grid heater and this is it. It’s everything that’s on the internet. All the YouTube videos, I mean it is the same story that I’ve Googled and looked at something in it. Maybe something was arcing, overheating, the grid heater, does that sound right? And part of the bolt broke off and fell down into the engine and we had to completely replace the engine. We replaced the short block, then they had the machine part of something.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 3s):

Yeah, so probably the head and the cylinder wall. And did they have to replace the, the piston as well?

Candy (11m 10s):

I’m not sure if they had to replace the piston. I look, I know it was $20,000 and, and I mean in three months. And every time we went to get it back, something else was wrong. Something else was wrong. Had to replace the air condition. Condenser got something, some metal somewhere in it. I don’t even know if that’s connected or if that’s just ’cause all the stuff had to come off and now it needs a turbo. We got it back and it has to have a turbo on it. So we’re $20,000 into a 2017 truck. Oh my gosh. you know. So I reached out to Ram, actually reached out to a local Ram dealer when it happened. Like that happened on a Sunday. I called them, it was probably Monday night or Tuesday night before the mechanic got into it.

Candy (11m 52s):

Good. And figured out what had happened. So I I reached out, it was that same week a couple days later to their customer or, well the dealer referred me to their customer care line. So I called them and they’re like, yeah, you know, it’s not under warranty, no recall. So basically, you know, you have to pay for it yourself and then you can file for reimbursement. So I’m like, okay, so we go forward with getting everything fixed and got my receipts when it was done a couple weeks ago, And I, call ’em back, and then they just completely ghosted me. So I reached out to, I emailed the CEO of Solanis, he forwarded my email, you know, And I, I’ve been talking back and forth and basically they’re not gonna do anything because it’s not in warranty.

Candy (12m 36s):

And I was like, well duh, I wouldn’t be calling you if it was in warranty, you know? Yeah. They’re just not gonna do anything because they said it’s got 160,000 miles on The truck. But hey, on our new engine, we got the bank power, whatever that thing is. Oh,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (12m 48s):

You got the Mon, you got the monster Ram.

Candy (12m 51s):

We did, we did.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (12m 53s):

Well, it was great. I wish it weren’t after the fact. But I am happy to have it on there. I mean

Candy (12m 59s):

You know. And that’s what I told Ram. I was like, if you didn’t wanna do a full on recall, you know this is the problem. There is no way that you don’t, you could have at least sent a letter out, Hey, this is happening. You might want to check it. And I mean we had no idea. We had never even heard of it. And I, we bought this truck new, it was a 17 model, we bought it in 18, you know, haven’t had any trouble out of it. We service it, my husband does the service. I don’t trust, you know, a lot of these little places that change oil. So we, we do all the maintenance on it and didn’t know that’s something we should check. But I. Wish somebody had told us for sure. you know, I, I’ve talked to Ram several times. The CEO forwarded it off to somebody, of course he dumped it off on somebody else.

Candy (13m 44s):

And that lady You know, she’s like, well if we are able to help you with anything, you know, I can tell you it won’t be the full amount and blah blah blah. And then it comes down to, well, we can’t do anything because You know because of the miles on it. And I said, you’re telling me you only, you only back your trucks to warranty. I I said, do you know why people buy diesel trucks? Because they’re supposed to last forever. We could have bought a gas burner and not had to pay $5 a gallon for diesel the last three or four years. You know. And if we wanted one to only last 160,000 miles, I I, I’ve tried finding an attorney, I want to sue ’em. But honestly we’ve sunk so much money into getting it fixed. I don’t have the money to hire one. And so the,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (14m 24s):

And they know that talk, you know, that’s the unfortunate part is they do Dayton, they know that got me. Yeah,

Candy (14m 28s):

Yeah. They’ve got me. And so I reached out to an attorney just, you know, that pay you like a little fee. You pay a little fee to just get advice. And so they told me I can take them to small claims court And. I’m like, But, I wanna make a big, they need, people need to know about this. you know, I’ve commented on every Mopar, Ram, solanis I’ve tried blowing ’em up, getting their attention and, and it’s not But. I did reach out to Cummins this week and they, their CEO forwarded, you know, they don’t ever want to talk to you, but they forwarded to somebody else and she reached out and she says she’s trying. And she actually emailed me back today getting the VIN number. So I don’t know, You know what she’s coming up with.

Candy (15m 11s):

But I was like, you know, the more people you tell eventually I I feel like eventually they’ll have to be a class action or they’ll have to recall it.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (15m 20s):

I think your next move is to the National Highway Traffic Safety Board.

Candy (15m 24s):

I’ve done it, I’ve done it. I’ve put it on their two times. And I’ve told everybody, these attorneys are no better than Ram You know, unless you were, they’re like ambulance chasers. Like they want something that You know And I understand this is not gonna be an easy case. But, but people need to know about this. They need to recall it, you know, then my husband’s like, I’m gonna go trade it in. And we got it back this week and he was gonna go get a Ford. And I’m like, we’re so deep in it now. There’s no, there’s no point. It’s got a new motor.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (15m 52s):

Do you have or does your mechanic have any photos of the damage?

Candy (15m 57s):

Oh yes, I got photos, I’ve got the parts.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (15m 59s):

Oh my gosh, I’ve got everything. Okay. Oh. yeah,

Candy (16m 1s):

Yeah, yeah. I mean I was ready to go to court and I’m still ready to go to court. And I still may take them to small claims. But, I gotta go to Michigan to do it.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 8s):

What I’d like you to do is send me some photos, high res if po if possible. I’m gonna send you an email right now and then just respond to it over the weekend or whenever you can with some photos.

Candy (16m 18s):

Okay. Sounds good. Really

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 20s):

Appreciate it. Thank Have a great night

Candy (16m 22s):

Too. Thank you. Bye.

Sean P. Holman (16m 25s):

I know if I had to spend $20,000 on the engine, I would be screwed

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 29s):

At that point. Do you, do you hate The truck so much that you like

Sean P. Holman (16m 34s):

Just No, you don’t hate The truck, but

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 35s):

Jet, you jettison it. No You know. Or

Sean P. Holman (16m 37s):

At least I hate The truck thing. I think you just, maybe you

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 39s):

Feel dirty now. You’re not dirty I guess you, you feel burned. You

Sean P. Holman (16m 41s):

Maybe you love The truck. You like can’t quit it. So you put the money into it. I dunno. You think so? Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 46s):

So last week, Holman, FTM Diesel, which I had not heard of, tagged banks because they had a, a grid heater failure. I I saw this post, okay. From FTM Diesel, And, I thought FTM. That’s kind of interesting. Okay, so I got their number. And I called, I said, I need to get the story. So I call up and this woman answers And I said, Hey, what’s happening? It’s Jay from Banks Power. I’m interested in talking to you guys about this grid heater bold failure. She’s like, man, that’s crazy. Yeah. I pulled this And I And I realized as I’m talking to this woman, that she’s the tech. I’m like, this is awesome because there, let’s be honest, there aren’t that many female diesel techs and she’s so rad. So

Sean P. Holman (17m 24s):

I, you’re like, so normally I’d slid into your dms, but since I have you on the phone, you wanna come on my podcast?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (17m 30s):

No, no, no, no.

Sean P. Holman (17m 31s):

I’m big. I’m big time. I’m big time What. are you talking about No, that’s not happen.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (17m 34s):

I didn’t see you waiting that I was hitting on her.

Sean P. Holman (17m 36s):

No. What,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (17m 37s):

Are you What? are you saying

Sean P. Holman (17m 38s):

Wow, that would be rude. How dare you to assume that? That’s what I would say about you I I. Clearly, clearly you know that she is smart and knows diesels more than you. She does All. right? Let’s have her on the phone. All.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (17m 54s):

Right?

JC (17m 60s):

Hello

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (18m 1s):

Jc, it’s Lightning and Holman truck. Show Podcast. How you doing?

JC (18m 5s):

I’m good guys. How are you? We’re awesome.

Sean P. Holman (18m 7s):

We’re awesome. I was just talking to my man Lightning here and he is trying to explain in some really circuitous way about how he found you, talked to you and then somehow got you convinced that you should come on a podcast with us two idiots. And when he said you were a female diesel tech, I went, wow, she’s way smarter than us. Why would she ever come on this show?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (18m 28s):

I I. Just use my magical good looks.

Sean P. Holman (18m 31s):

Sure

JC (18m 31s):

This is true. He’s he’s a very convincing guy.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (18m 34s):

Exactly. We are excited to catch up with you jc, but we have an Intro. Everyone gets one. Don’t move. Hang tight. What does it take? What

7 (18m 44s):

Entrepreneur your job. And don’t let anyone tell you you can debt and don’t look back. Don’t worry. There will always be another

8 (18m 55s):

Crappy job. This is what it takes to be an

7 (18m 58s):

Entrepreneur.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (19m 0s):

Now I think that jingle does fit. This is what it takes to be an entrepreneur because JC is the owner and chief technician at F TM Diesel. But we were,

Sean P. Holman (19m 9s):

We were arguing whether she should get the what’s in the shop jingle because she’s a shop owner. We have that awesome jingle that I that could fit her situation. Yeah. But

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (19m 17s):

I feel like does, she’s an entrepreneur and that’s harder.

Sean P. Holman (19m 19s):

Right, but does she like really comes down to, does she like that goofy jingle or is she more into like barbershop quartet?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (19m 27s):

Are you asking

JC (19m 28s):

Ooh, barbershop Barber I mean barbershop Quartet sounds kind of fun. I’ll

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (19m 32s):

Do it. Do it. Oh geez. What’s

8 (19m 34s):

In the shop? What’s in the shop? In your shop? A segment where handsome guys, poor girls, crazy consumption.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (19m 56s):

Oh man, this is the way we’re gonna bring her on with these jingles.

Sean P. Holman (19m 59s):

Yeah. I just want her to know what she’s getting herself into. She does

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (20m 2s):

Now.

JC (20m 4s):

Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (20m 5s):

So JC where the hell is Point Arena, California? Because it’s not on a map. All, right? It’s gotta like

Sean P. Holman (20m 10s):

Two, two people. So, so we’re in California and, and, and we thought we knew every place, but apparently we, we don’t,

JC (20m 17s):

You guys just have to come way further north. So it’s like three hours up Highway one from San Francisco. It is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere stuck on the ocean.

Sean P. Holman (20m 30s):

I mean That sounds awesome actually. So I did

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (20m 31s):

Google Earth it. Yeah. And it’s gorgeous. Yeah, it’s got like the lighthouse out on the peninsula. How far

Sean P. Holman (20m 36s):

Is she from our friend Scott?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (20m 39s):

Like an hour.

Sean P. Holman (20m 40s):

Oh, you may, maybe that’s what we need to do when we go visit Bertz all. We’ll come visit JC too. We’ll make a a a truck. Show Podcast guest loop. You think so? Loop Then we just say hit everybody in the general area.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (20m 52s):

JC do you know Scott Birdsall? He owns Chuckles Chuckles Garage. Old Smokey F1.

JC (20m 57s):

So I don’t know him personally, but you can’t be that kind of guy and not have local people know of him. So yeah, I I definitely know Scott.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (21m 6s):

Okay, good.

Sean P. Holman (21m 6s):

He’s, he’s one of our good friends. We keep threatening to go up and visit him. But I feel like we need multiple reasons to go up there. ’cause it’s 8,000 miles away.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (21m 14s):

It’s not really that far. It’s still, it’s in our states. Although people don’t realize how large

Sean P. Holman (21m 18s):

Ca California is. Really long. Yeah,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (21m 19s):

Massive. So jc well

JC (21m 21s):

If you guys come all the way to Point Arena, like you’re looking at like two hours drive up Highway one, so maybe some Dramamine and get somebody else to drive you. Well,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (21m 30s):

People probably don’t know that Highway one is basic, basically like PCH Pacific West Highway and it’s along the coast and as you go more northern, it’s like

Sean P. Holman (21m 37s):

Becomes shelf road.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (21m 38s):

Yeah. Like it’s a cliff. Yeah. Down in Southern California, you’re driving along the beach. The, but as you go up, for whatever reason it’s Rocky Coast.

Sean P. Holman (21m 47s):

So how did you get started in, in being the number one diesel shop in Northern California?

JC (21m 54s):

Ooh, I like that. Thank you. Flower welcome. Gets you everywhere. I’m so,

Sean P. Holman (21m 58s):

I’m not as dumb as, as I Look, my

JC (21m 59s):

First job is my first job when I was a kid was working for some family friends that own a gravel company here in town. I went over to the shop one day to like deliver a message or something and the, the mechanic asked for another set of hands. I never went back to the office. I just absolutely loved it. That’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (22m 18s):

Awesome. What was it about it like you loved? Was it the tactile, physically like wrenches, bolts or was it the challenge of assembling something or

JC (22m 27s):

It was, it was at that point in my life, I was like 13. So it was like just being in the shop, everybody cussed, everybody told jokes. The work was super fun. That sounds

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (22m 37s):

Like the podcast studio, you

Sean P. Holman (22m 38s):

Know, it was just,

JC (22m 39s):

Yeah, it was just a cool environment.

Sean P. Holman (22m 42s):

Now was it ba I’m, I’m guessing it was back in time where you could tell jokes and not get in trouble and there weren’t really like HR departments in the shop like they’re today.

JC (22m 50s):

Exactly. Yeah, it was, it was a different time.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (22m 53s):

So then the next step is what, you’re 13 then you, you follow this path and you end up at biotech, correct?

JC (23m 2s):

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I went right after graduation. I headed out there and did the diesel and the business management programs.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (23m 9s):

So did you know at that point that you wanted to be an entrepreneur? You wanted to have your own shop or, ’cause business management is not typically directly associated with being a technician.

JC (23m 19s):

It is not. So at the time I had no desire whatsoever to ever be self-employed. I wanted to work at Peterbilt and then I knew if I did a business class, maybe like when I got old I could work my way up into management.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (23m 33s):

Peterbilt why you were, if we go back a few steps I think, or was it coming out of biotech? You went into like working on buses and stuff like that. But where does Peterbilt fall into the mix?

JC (23m 44s):

From my first job at Bedrock that they, those guys love Peterbilt. Like they’ve had quite a few trucks invited back to the shop for the, the big show that they have every year at the Peterbilt plant in Texas. So the deep love of Peterbilts was instilled.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (23m 60s):

Oh, so at that quarry or what was it? You’re just, they were moving rocks and, and sand and dirt set up there.

JC (24m 6s):

It’s, it’s a Truckin company. So they had a quarry at the time and then they truck rocks, cement plant. It’s, it’s like the local Truckin company. I mean pretty much if you need it moved or hauled or rocked, they’ve got you.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (24m 19s):

Okay. And that’s where you fall in love with Peterbilt and you decide I wanna work on these trucks. You go to w you come out and you end up doing what?

JC (24m 27s):

So I worked for a couple years for a log truck driver, a local log hauler here. And then I got the job at the school district, And I worked on school buses for the bulk of my career.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (24m 39s):

So

Sean P. Holman (24m 40s):

What were, what was the type of things that you’re doing the fleet? Like what were the problems of the big trucks and the school buses and how does that differ from today with like consumer grade trucks and axes and power strokes and things like that?

JC (24m 53s):

Oh, it’s so different. So I mean having your own fleet like that is always yours. I was the only mechanic if I did something half-assed, it always came back to me and it was always my problem. I never once had to clean a mouse nest out of an air box in the, in the public sector is happening all the time. Like nobody prepared me for that at all. But, you know, doing all the preventative maintenance in Fleet Life was, is so different from just stuff that rolls in And. I have no clue what the day is gonna bring. You know when a truck comes in.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (25m 27s):

So you’re saying when you’re doing buses you have a maintenance schedule. So every third Thursday you’re gonna work on this many Cummins powered whatever. And then Mondays you do this like it’s scheduled for the most part, right? I’m sure that there’s some zigs and zags in there, but yeah, wildly different than like you said, cleaning, you know, mouse droppings and stuff and out outta intake systems.

JC (25m 48s):

Yeah, I went from like something insanely structured to much less structured You know I mean like in Fleet life. Like I knew like if a problem was coming pipeline, I was doing preventative inspections often enough that I’d catch it before it became a big problem where like everything that rolls in in the public sector is a problem

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (26m 8s):

Now. How many, how large is this fleet that you’re working on at this time of Bus is and such?

JC (26m 13s):

I think we had eight buses. So it, it’s a pretty small school district. I mean, obviously I mean you guys Google Earth Point Arena. So yeah, we had eight buses, full length, 40 footers.

Sean P. Holman (26m 23s):

The town is actually so small that you can see the school buses on Google Earth driving down the street. Oh really? Yeah, yeah,

JC (26m 30s):

Yeah. Oh. yeah. So if you swipe a little bit south, you’ll find my shop on the south, end of town on Highway one.

Sean P. Holman (26m 36s):

So how long have you owned your shop? What did you jump out of Fleet Life and decide I’m gonna go do this on my own and And, I’m ready to take on the whole kitten caboodle

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (26m 45s):

And, and did, did whoever did your, I guess you’re married right now, right? Yes. Did, did your husband, was he into it did

Sean P. Holman (26m 50s):

Just say right now?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (26m 51s):

Well I was, she, I don’t know if she was married then. Right. So that’s where I’m going with. Okay, got it. She’s married now. As far as I know, I only know this ’cause I kind of pre-interviewed her and she’s like Oh. yeah, my husband turned me on so I kind of know some of the story. Do

Sean P. Holman (27m 3s):

Do you think something changed in the last week? No,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (27m 5s):

I’m, well maybe after, I don’t know. She’s like, I’m gonna be on the church. Show Podcast. He’s like, I’m out here, I’m out. This guy’s ra asshole.

Sean P. Holman (27m 10s):

Smart, smart move on his part. Right.

JC (27m 14s):

Alright. So yeah, in 2016 I was just super fed up with just working for the government. you know, the government, they suck in all aspects and so I was kind of just moping around and bitching about going to work every day and not really enjoying life. And my husband Kenton was like, screw it, I’ll build you a shop, open your own, you’ll have plenty of work. So I worked in a tiny little shed on my property for a couple years while we built the shop. And then in 2018 I got to move into the big building.

Sean P. Holman (27m 49s):

Ooh. And it’s,

JC (27m 50s):

Yeah, it was nice.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (27m 52s):

So then you’ve got a, that’s, so you went out and bought a two post, like a big vent pack or something bigger, right? A big mohawk lift or something?

JC (27m 59s):

Yeah, I got a nice bend pack in here. An 18,000 pounder. I only have the one lift and then, so I have one lift bay and one you must grovel on your knees on the concrete bay.

Sean P. Holman (28m 9s):

So does that have 1.5 x the hourly labor rate?

JC (28m 15s):

Yeah, that’s what I make my, my my shop helper, my, my employee has to work on, on that day.

Sean P. Holman (28m 21s):

Sorry Bob, you know the, the good lift’s taken. So this one’s gonna cost you some more money and it’s gonna take an extra week.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (28m 27s):

Does he have like he or she has that like those, the plumber knee pads and stuff because they’re always on the, on the ground. Oh.

JC (28m 32s):

Yeah. I I gift him a set that goes inside his Carhartts, like the little slip in knee pads. He loves ’em. There you

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (28m 38s):

Go. So then, yeah. What do you cut your teeth on when You open up this shop? Like where, because I know you kind of became the, the Ford person in

Sean P. Holman (28m 47s):

Town. What I should ask you, do you, did you have competition around there or did you realize like, wow the next diesel shop’s, two towns over. I could really kind of own this part of the

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (28m 55s):

State. I happen to know she’s won it on arson. She burnt two other guys down.

Sean P. Holman (28m 59s):

Oh really? Trying to, yeah. Tough crowd.

JC (29m 2s):

It’s a cut through of business boys cut.

Sean P. Holman (29m 4s):

You know I heard they, they they were sure it was her ’cause she started it with diesel fuel.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (29m 9s):

Oh, thank you. Wait, how does that even work?

Sean P. Holman (29m 11s):

No, she actually just backed up and let a regen process happen on the side of their building. Just torched the whole thing.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (29m 17s):

Parked right over the dry grass. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (29m 20s):

Wasn’t me, it was regen. Yeah.

JC (29m 22s):

Yeah, totally. It was a forced region for the planet guys.

Sean P. Holman (29m 25s):

For the planet.

JC (29m 26s):

No, it was kinda one of those things like there’s, there’s a couple of auto mechanics in town and so it was pretty much, it was a free market to get into the diesel biz. One of my first couple jobs were putting on like a couple lift kits and a couple leveling kits for some friends. And then my first real job from a real customer, someone I had never met before was a oil cooler on a six Oh and that was it that kind of got me in the door. So now I’m just swamped with stupid power strokes all the time.

Sean P. Holman (29m 57s):

So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (29m 58s):

Is that became your thing right away? You’re like, oh, JC iss the the power

Sean P. Holman (30m 1s):

Stroke girl? Yeah. Yeah, because she took off that bad oil cooler and she hung it on her wall like her first dollar bill that she ever made. And then everybody saw that it was like a beacon and it was like a, a a a light for Ford Mobs

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (30m 12s):

Ford mos pretty

Sean P. Holman (30m 13s):

Much, yeah. Ford Mobs

JC (30m 15s):

And they’re Moby Ford. Ford people are a different breed. Like, and just fair warning, anybody listening don’t get pinched. I own a power stroke myself so I can, you know, we’re a little different.

Sean P. Holman (30m 26s):

Alright, so which power stroke is your favorite

JC (30m 29s):

Favorite to work on?

Sean P. Holman (30m 29s):

Well, I was just gonna say which one’s your favorite and then which one’s your favorite to work on?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (30m 33s):

Well can, I guess she’s gotta say like, I’m gonna say her favorite is the seven three, but she ends up working on the six oh more, but she wants a seven. No, no

Sean P. Holman (30m 43s):

I I’m gonna say, I’m gonna say that she loves working on the six Oh. yeah, because they bring very high Oh, labor rates. Labor, yeah. And, and and parts list. But she loves a seven three di

JC (30m 56s):

Ooh, you guys, you guys are halfway there, both of you. So six Ohs are my favorite to work on. I’m pretty comfortable with them. If I were to buy a new power strip today, it would be like a 19 or 26, 7 I I. Do not, I’m not a fan of the seven threes. I just, they’re dinosaurs. They’re gutless.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (31m 18s):

Okay, true. Now wait, why wouldn’t you want the, the brand new 23 with the high output 1200 pound feet of torque right off the showroom floor.

JC (31m 27s):

So I’m a little bit nervous of brand new things. I like stuff that’s been around just a hair.

Sean P. Holman (31m 33s):

Plus she’s right on that cliff on the side of the ocean. She’s afraid if she pulls out of her driveway, highway one will be pushed into the ocean if she gives it too. Which throttle?

JC (31m 41s):

I did own a six four. And man, when that thing ran right, it ran right, but everything always didn’t go right. It went very wrong and it’s now got a 12 valve Cummins sitting in that chassis.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (31m 54s):

Whoa.

Sean P. Holman (31m 55s):

Thumb swap actually. Nice, nice. I like it. So that’s,

JC (31m 58s):

That’s the other little forte that I’m trying to get into is doing some cummin swaps. I have a 6.0 a 2006 in here that I’ve been working on for a couple years that’s also got a 12 valve in it. Compound turbos, big injectors. It’s, it’s gonna be fast.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (32m 14s):

Is there, dare I ask, is there any like legal issues with that or is that little tiny town do you not have? ’cause there are some, like up like Yosemite where gala has a house, you don’t have to have things smugged. So technically you’re not supposed to do that, but they’ll never catch you because you don’t have to have a smog check. How is it in your neck of the woods?

Sean P. Holman (32m 34s):

I’m gonna plead the fifth. Yeah, maybe we don’t ask that question. I’m gonna, she’s gonna

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (32m 37s):

Plead the

JC (32m 37s):

Fifth. I’m gonna plead the fifth guys. Okay.

Sean P. Holman (32m 39s):

Yeah, what you meant was your subsidiary satellite shop that’s in Utah is where that work happens. And All right. With the world. So moving right along. Okay.

JC (32m 49s):

Yes, yes. I’m calling from an undisclosed location in Mexico this evening.

Sean P. Holman (32m 53s):

Yes, absolutely.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (32m 54s):

So then what did you get known for with these six ohs? Like were

Sean P. Holman (32m 59s):

You fixing them? Well,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (33m 0s):

No bulletproofing them or just like maintaining them.

JC (33m 3s):

Bulletproofing was really where, where it kind of slid to I mean honestly. Like you fart too hard in a six oh and the head gasket’s gone. So, you

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (33m 11s):

Know,

JC (33m 11s):

Lifting the cab became a pretty normal occurrence. So yeah, I mean I like to think I’m, I’m very clean and I’m very meticulous, so my results are always very good with them.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (33m 21s):

What mods do you hate making to these things and which ones do you enjoy?

JC (33m 27s):

So I don’t really hate doing much of anything I mean as far as like modern diesels. I hate touching the deaf system that that is a hands down. I absolutely despise doing anything with deaf. So I’m cool on the six os And I really the thing I love to do is suspension work. I mean engine work is fun and it’s the glory stuff. But I like suspension stuff. I like building axles. I like swapping in axles. I like putting on lift kits.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (33m 56s):

Ah, I would did not expect that. Okay, because you think of like a diesel shop, right? They do everything but they’re known for the engines, coolant systems, all that swapping turbos and all those things. And you’re in your yeah, doing suspension. Are you actually out there welding up gussets and, and and bracketry and things

Sean P. Holman (34m 15s):

Like that? Fabbing brackets and

JC (34m 17s):

Yeah, so I I do some fabrication. I’ve done several solid axle swaps on, on Chevys. I do a lot of, most of my customers want just like, I want to buy a lift kit, install these coil springs, install these coil overs. So I mean that stuff’s pretty cut and dry. But fabbing is really fun. It’s one of the, the more enjoyable things.

Sean P. Holman (34m 38s):

Is there anything that a customer comes and says, oh, I was on the interwebs, And I need to do this to my truck. And you’re like, yeah, no, that’s, don’t do that thing. You should do this other thing. Like is there something that is like the red flag customer comes walking your door and that’s the dude that you know is you’re gonna be married to for the next 10 years. He says,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (34m 58s):

JC I wanna buy a rough country suspension system. And you’re like,

JC (35m 1s):

No. Oh god. My, my huge red flag is when somebody comes in with like a set of rough country shocks and they’re like, like they’re as good as yeah, they’re as good as kings. Kings are just overpriced. Yeah, that’s yeah. I don’t, I don’t think we’re gonna get along. Yeah,

Sean P. Holman (35m 19s):

That’s, that’s a, that’s a tough one to redirect on somebody.

JC (35m 23s):

It is, yeah. That and the people that roll in and tell me exactly how to do the job that they’re not capable of doing themselves. Right.

Sean P. Holman (35m 31s):

Otherwise why would they come to you?

JC (35m 33s):

Exactly.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (35m 34s):

So then going back to like deaf systems stuff that you, you despise, how do you handle a situation where a guy comes in with a new Ford, Chevy Ram, whatever, and he’s got these issues.

JC (35m 45s):

I suck it up. And, I, soldier on And I, just do it And I. Try not to complain to my customer about it. Like it’s just, it’s part of it. It’s the world we live in today. It’s one of those modern inconveniences that unfortunately we just have to deal with. So no, no point in like making the whole day sour over a 20 minute dirty job and washing all your tools when you’re done.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (36m 7s):

So that’s the biggest issue is the fact that it crystallizes and gets everything

Sean P. Holman (36m 11s):

Oh so bad. Everything.

JC (36m 13s):

Yeah. And then it burns through your gloves, then your hands get,

Sean P. Holman (36m 16s):

It gets in your eyes and if your nose itches you’re rubbing, you know, crystals of urea in your face and yeah, that’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (36m 22s):

Another, I’m gonna go see crystals of urea later tonight. They’re playing the Palladium. It is

Sean P. Holman (36m 25s):

A great band name, isn’t it? Yes, it’s Crystals it. Write that down. What was the other one that came up with money for meth? Was that meth money? Meth money, yeah. Meth

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (36m 32s):

Money. Yeah. Well they’re opening for,

Sean P. Holman (36m 34s):

For crystals of urea. Yes. Yeah, sounds like it.

JC (36m 37s):

That sounds like a bitch in concert I mean.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (36m 40s):

Well they’re, they’re playing Coachella after tonight’s game. Well

Sean P. Holman (36m 42s):

After rehab. The problem is is that they, they’re very unpredictable of when they go on stage. How

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (36m 47s):

Long has this, you, you moved into the shop, when did you finally erect it and, and get into the, the official shop? 18. In 2018. Okay. Yeah. So since then, are you, are you proud of what you’ve accomplished? Is it more than you thought you did you bite off more than you could chew?

JC (37m 3s):

So I’m insanely proud of what I’ve accomplished. I definitely bit off a little more than I thought I could chew, but I’m chewing it and I’m choking it down

Sean P. Holman (37m 13s):

One

JC (37m 13s):

Elephant and just kind of adapting as I go.

Sean P. Holman (37m 15s):

One, one bite at a time. Right? That’s how you eat the elephant, eat the entire elephant. Yep. That’s what I’m learning.

JC (37m 19s):

Exactly.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (37m 20s):

So then JC looking at the, the big three right now, gm, Ford, Ram, I know you’re the Ford girl, but like, is that The truck you would buy if you won the lottery? Like, okay, here’s 200 grand, you have to buy a truck with the money. Are you buying that? Because now with the money, it doesn’t matter if the brand new truck breaks. So let’s assume you’re gonna go buy a a 24. What is it and why?

JC (37m 43s):

So honestly, I would probably go buy a 24 Powerstroke just because they are the only trucks like the, like a 20, 20, 20, 20 19 and up power strokes are the only trucks I haven’t had to do a major repair on yet. And I have seen 2020 axes with some stuff going on that shouldn’t be going on. Dodges are a frigging electrical nightmare. So I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t buy one with somebody else’s money. So it, it would be a Ford I mean in a perfect world, I would buy all three and merge them together into the perfect truck. What

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (38m 20s):

You could, you

Sean P. Holman (38m 22s):

You Yeah. Trying

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (38m 24s):

Now wait,

Sean P. Holman (38m 24s):

I got two thirds of the way there.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (38m 26s):

I gotta know, you put my interest with this, with the Durmax. You like, you’ve had some bad experiences. Why Lightning

Sean P. Holman (38m 32s):

Paychecks are written off the Durmax. So he wants to know what they

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (38m 34s):

They’re well we, we made parts for all of them. But I am The durmax is a little closer to my heart, so it it, it pains me to hear you say that But I I am curious.

JC (38m 43s):

Okay, so just full disclosure, I do own two derm Xs. I have a 17 and my husband’s work truck is a 21. The 21 we bought brand new when we bought it outta state. So I had to smog it. The stupid thing would not pass smog. It was brand new, brand spanking new.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (39m 1s):

We have talked about that. Yeah, we have talked about that. Yeah.

JC (39m 5s):

It was just really disappointing. The, the head units in both have died so new stereos, not that that’s like a huge complaint, but for somebody else it might be the front ends are still a little wonky. GM’s still gotta work out some kinks with that. IFS even though they’ve been doing it since 1988, they have not mastered it yet. So, and I’m constantly nervous about the 10 speed in the 21. I’ve read a ton of horror stories. His has a little torque converter shutter that makes me incredibly nervous. So, you know, I just

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (39m 38s):

I I’m never giving you a ride in any of my vehicles because I just feel like you just, she’s gonna point out everything that’s Yeah, she would be like the unfun or the fun sponge Road Trip companion. She’s like fun sponge. You’d be driving down, you’re like, I love my truck. And she’s like, ah, there’s some, there’s some torque inverter shut. You feel that? Hey, what’s, what’s that day? How, how’s your ujo? When’s the last time you checked your ujo, the splines on your drive shaft? I feel like they need to be agreed. Shut up and drink your chocolate shake that I just bought you at Burger King. Stop it. She would, she would be the, the road trip companion that would bring a giant bag with her and you’d be like, it’s a one day trip. She’s like, these are my tools. Well

JC (40m 14s):

Have, have you been on vacation with me?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (40m 18s):

I was. I’m just, I’m sensing it through the, through the the of the universe. Yeah,

JC (40m 24s):

Yeah. No, that, that’s it. I packed more tools than underwear on vacation.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (40m 29s):

So then JC you’re, you’re on Instagram, that’s where I found you. You’re on Facebook. I would all over the place. And so as a business owner and just, it looks like personally, right? You, you read all this stuff just like a consumer does. You, you brought up the 10 speed, right? if you go on any of these groups, you go on Durmax self ips only or you go on tune LIP brotherhood or whatever it is, right? You’re gonna read all horror stories. But what you don’t see, and you know this better than anyone, what you’re not seeing is the good stories. The 95% of the people who just drive their truck daily and don’t have a bitch about it. And so they don’t post about it. They’re like, Hey look, I got new seat covers today. Like people just don’t normally do that. It’s kind of like, I look at it like Yelp.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (41m 8s):

Most people don’t go on Yelp and say I had the greatest burger today. It was cooked just great. And they used, you know, the actually they do the right bacon on top of, have you ever been on Yelp? That’s how you get like five stars. Now listen, I I know that, that that exists. You realize on this podcast that we constantly ask people for five star reviews and our reviews are only five stars for the most part. I, I hear you. But for whatever reason the, I would think that I get the feeling JC back me up on this, that most people go in these groups. Yes, there’s a lot of questions. How do I fix this? What do you think of this? you know, what window tin should I use? Hey, what oil should I use? What, what, what?

Sean P. Holman (41m 47s):

That’s a big one on those groups is what window tin I should use. That’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (41m 49s):

A stupid massive, massive I. Don’t know why. Massive even said I I I what?

Sean P. Holman (41m 52s):

Tire size? Yeah, it’s always definitely what higher, what tire size

JC (41m 55s):

Can I fit without Lyft?

Sean P. Holman (41m 57s):

Yeah. Oh my God, that’s,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (41m 58s):

Yeah. What, what fuel additive should I use? Like all it’s the same stuff over and over again. People don’t know how to use these search function in any of the Facebook groups. My point though is like even you, you’re like, do you really think there’s a a a 10 speed issue on these trucks? Or is it maybe just that everyone is fearful of them breaking and it hasn’t happened yet, but like I feel like if they’re really getting smoked, there would be maximum transmissions or the other trans

Sean P. Holman (42m 24s):

I I feel like she triggered you is what I feel. Maybe

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (42m 27s):

I feel

Sean P. Holman (42m 27s):

Like you’re out of your safe space.

JC (42m 30s):

Well, no, no, fair enough. And that is the double-edged sword of the internet is that everybody likes to complain. Very few like to praise and that is, that is just human nature I guess. But I mean, yes, I have garnered this information. And I did have the fear in the back of my head of the 10 speed from reading forums and pages and whatnot. There is exactly one other 20, 21 ax 10 speed truck in this area and his transmission failed at 15,000 miles. So it’s a, we’re running a 50 50 ratio here. So that also aided in my fear of the transmission.

Sean P. Holman (43m 12s):

That’s funny. When I talk about the fear, it’s something completely different. The fear.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (43m 18s):

Okay, so let’s shift gears before we hear about Holman’s fear. Did you really

Sean P. Holman (43m 21s):

Just say, let’s shift gears after transmission. Let’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (43m 24s):

See what I did there

Sean P. Holman (43m 26s):

Lighting, just diving into puns on this interview.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (43m 29s):

It’s very pun talk I. Wanna hear about your hatred of Ram. So you, you had, that’s how you And I first met on the phone is that I called you because you had a grid heater bolt failure issue and you’re like, wow, apparently this is not a myth, right? This is not over All, right? So, ’cause I found one

Sean P. Holman (43m 46s):

Hold that thought. Yep. if you go to FTM Diesel at FTM diesel on Instagram, her latest post right now is a grid heater bolt in her hand. And she says on a six seven Cummins that still has the factory grid heater, this could happen to you. This customer got really lucky and the nut didn’t finish breaking off while it was running. It did break during the intake plate removal and we had to fish it out of the head. This started with a grid heater code. We immediately checked the power wire and it was loose. The truck did not start again. That’s an immediate do not run condition. What was imminent was the braking while it was running and getting stuck in the intake valve. AKA catastrophic engine damage. So we set ’em up with a bank’s power monster Ram that completely solves the issue.

Sean P. Holman (44m 29s):

And this way it can never happen again. And that’s because the grid heater design is a plate and is completely different on the monster Ram versus what’s on the factory. And that’s, that’s how that problem solved. But what’s interesting is you were one of those techs who saw the interwebs and you had heard about this and thought maybe our man Lightning here and and banks was a little bit hysterical about these grid heater failures. And you’re thinking, well, I’m sure some have it, blah, blah blah. But then you saw it firsthand and went, oh crap.

JC (44m 59s):

Exactly. I was a true believer. So I mean I healed, I listened to to banks’s warnings, right? So every time I got a six, seven in for an oil change or a service, I was jiggling those wires. Right? And this is the first one I’ve seen. So it definitely, it puts a fear into me. ’cause I’d also heard like, oh, it’s a cold weather thing. Definitely not true. It is not cold here. So I mean it’s, it is a very prevalent issue. If I’m seeing one, I’m not seeing thousands of, of Rams every year. Like it’s not happening. My turnover’s not that high. The area’s not that big.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (45m 33s):

And what year was that? Ram and how many miles do you recall? Just roughly? It,

JC (45m 38s):

It was a two, 2014 with 118,000, which isn’t

Sean P. Holman (45m 42s):

That many miles for Cummins. No, it’s not at all. Yeah,

JC (45m 45s):

No, no, not at all. Yeah. And it’s just, just the local guy’s work truck. He has like a landscaping handyman business. So I mean it’s not

Sean P. Holman (45m 53s):

Work. So he couldn’t afford afford a $20,000 engine rebuild once that thing dropped into the intake.

JC (45m 58s):

No, it would’ve been absolutely devastating for poor guy

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (46m 1s):

I mean it was in the intake. She’s 50 That it out with a magnitude.

Sean P. Holman (46m 4s):

No, no.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (46m 5s):

If it grabbed, fell into the cylinder,

Sean P. Holman (46m 6s):

What I’m, yeah, what I’m saying is while it was running versus her valve, if that would’ve happened to him while running, that could have been his business for the year, right? Like that could have been it. Right? So I’m curious.

JC (46m 16s):

First he would’ve had to fold.

Sean P. Holman (46m 17s):

What’s the lowest mileage that you’ve heard of at banks for grid heater bolt failures?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (46m 23s):

34,000

Sean P. Holman (46m 24s):

On what year?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (46m 25s):

I think it was in 18. The guy only used it to pull his boat. He was on the east coast. I think he was in Florida.

Sean P. Holman (46m 32s):

So it’s almost like an age thing versus a mileage thing.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (46m 34s):

I think it is.

Sean P. Holman (46m 36s):

Have you guys figured out what causes it? Is it electrolysis? Is it like

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (46m 39s):

Literally we haven’t figured it out, huh? And you can fix the solenoid. So there’s two, there’s multiple things happening here. The solenoid in many cases will get stuck on and it keeps the grid heater heated, right? It keeps it on and it just gets red hot and stays that way. Whatever that, that screw that the stud and the nut are made out of that metal, it deforms and falls off. Like it gets lactite, it gets, but it gets hot cold, hot cold, hot cold and it just deforms and elongates.

Sean P. Holman (47m 10s):

Well you can see the photo of the bolt that fell off in her hand is very similar to the photos that you’ve shown on some of the bank stuff where the shape of the nut and the stud are the same.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (47m 21s):

What I think is happening,

Sean P. Holman (47m 22s):

Like the failure is the same on

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (47m 23s):

These, it’s the same on all of ’em. And I think what’s happening is between the threads, it’s elongating and then it starts arcing and the moment it starts arcing it’s like welding. Yeah. It gets, it gets ultra hot and then that’s when it peels off. Yeah. I think 34,000 is about the lowest I’ve seen for a hardly used truck. We’ve seen a couple over 200,000, but it seems like the sweet spots between 110 and 180. It’s, it’s, it’s a thing. And everyone keeps bitching saying the same thing about, well, why don’t, why isn’t there, isn’t there a class action lawsuit or a recall or this, and it’s just mums the word And. I don’t know who’s

JC (47m 57s):

Manu. Manufacturers never wanna admit fault ever.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (48m 1s):

Well, and this is a weird one too, because this is Cummins makes the engine and Ram sell, stellantis sells The truck. So like who’s, who’s pointing fingers at who? Right? Well it’s a

Sean P. Holman (48m 12s):

Suppliers no issue. Yeah, it’s a supplier issue. They, they, they would be culpable if something happened with it. But if there’s enough complaints with like nitsa of engine failure because of this and they open an investigation, I mean this is the, the problem is, is this is so wide ranging ’cause that that design has been out for what, a decade

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (48m 29s):

Since 2007. I didn’t finish my story here. You, you’ve got the solenoid that can latch on, and that’s the P 2 6 0 9 code that you get. So the solenoid’s busted and it, and it stays on for too long and it keeps that, that heater on in, in hot. But then we have guys who have replaced that solenoid and yet the heater still fails. So if the solenoid is not latching and electrifying the coil heater, how is that still failing? We, we, I don’t know. We haven’t solved it. It’s weird because of all the failures we’ve seen, we haven’t pinpointed it.

JC (49m 2s):

Super interesting.

Sean P. Holman (49m 4s):

It’s, that’s a weird deal. I, I feel bad for people because they have no, unless they’re in the know or, or reading forums or listening to a show like that, they have no idea. It’s just a quietly ticking time bomb that will someday be bad. Well,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (49m 19s):

When we first discovered it, the guy up in Canada, you know, Brad at ProTech Diesel on the, in Western Canada camloops. He’s like, Hey, it was the first one that I had found. And he goes, oh, I think this has been going on in his, a nice Canadian accent. I think this has been going on for, for years. Just no one’s documenting it. And diesel mechanics don’t really talk to each other. So people just replace the parts, fix the engine, and go on about their business. It’s, and he had theorized that it had happened to hundreds and hundreds of trucks, if not more. And it was just a, just a thing. but it was quiet and it looks like it’s, it’s not quiet anymore. People are now sharing it. And that’s, so here, here it is.

Sean P. Holman (49m 57s):

So I’m digging through, I guess stocking FTM diesel’s Instagram. Tell me about the Dakota on sixties that the Wheel is about to fly off. That’s only being held on by a caliper. That looked like a fun time.

JC (50m 14s):

Oh, that was, that was a good one. So the, the, the 60 up front was the least of that thing’s worries, right? Like that thing was just totally hashed. I you not, the transmission was held in with four ratchet straps,

Sean P. Holman (50m 29s):

No cross members. That’s awesome.

JC (50m 30s):

There was four ratchet straps.

Sean P. Holman (50m 33s):

Now were they at least like good ones? Like, like Max or something? Or was it the, you know, the Home Depot? Chinese was No Harbor. No Harbor Freight. Harbor Freight.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 41s):

The orange ones. Yeah.

JC (50m 42s):

I think they, they were like mismatched. They were like, you know, different buckle to a different class. Like there are definitely some like ace hardware. I dug these out of the back of my truck, kinda stuff like that. That was a very interesting day.

Sean P. Holman (50m 56s):

This thing is rad because it’s a solid axle swap. Dakota, which you never see, but the caption on the post is one ton. Dakota didn’t have any Wheel bearings left on the passenger side. The only thing holding that hub on was the caliber. Oh, what, what I mean? I, please tell me that that thing got towed to your shop and he didn’t like try driving it in. Like what, what was the deal with that?

JC (51m 20s):

Oh no, this, this guy drove it in. He, the little guy, he’s, he’s pretty rough on rigs. So that was his wheeler slash daily driver and he drove it in here and he is like, I don’t know, I think there’s something wrong with the front.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (51m 35s):

So yeah,

Sean P. Holman (51m 36s):

The front.

JC (51m 38s):

Awesome.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (51m 39s):

That’s

Sean P. Holman (51m 40s):

Awesome.

JC (51m 42s):

Yeah, so And I also it left here with ratchet strap still holding on the transmission. ’cause he, he could only afford to have me just make it where

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (51m 49s):

He didn’t trash

Sean P. Holman (51m 49s):

And die. Well, like I, like I said, you know, you only paid for the, the other stuff, you know, trans, that’s another

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (51m 54s):

Day now. So you live in a beautiful little town, but that doesn’t stop people from being really redneck.

Sean P. Holman (51m 59s):

Right?

JC (52m 1s):

This this is so true. It’s a very different part of California.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (52m 5s):

People think it’s all super libtard, you know, and SoCal and all that stuff. No, NorCal NorCal too. But as soon as you get out of the metros, it’s, it’s the heartland I’m telling you. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (52m 15s):

Oh no, it’s, it’s awesome. Central California, Northern California. Like up by Eureka and, and, and

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (52m 21s):

Dude, tomorrow I’m going two hours north to see a tractor pole and a, and a rodeo Two, just two hours north, like by my kid’s school. Damn. It’s just that this stuff happens everywhere. So you people that are thinking like painting all of California with this broad brush, it ain’t ain’t we’re

Sean P. Holman (52m 38s):

Diverse out here. What’s that? I said we’re, we’re diverse out here. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (52m 41s):

A little, little bit. Little bit. So what’s the, what’s the future of FTM Diesel and then I I wanna know that And I want some pointers for young entrepreneurs.

JC (52m 51s):

All right. The future is to, I just wanna, wanna maintain. I’m at a spot where I am happy with my workflow. I have a person who works with me now. So there’s, you know, two of us in working every day, we can really get a lot done. I would like ideally to like merge into like doing only custom stuff, like common swaps and things of that nature. But realistically, that’s not gonna pay the bills forever. So I mean, I, I’m happy with where I’m at, so I’d like my future to just kinda maintain maybe peak a little, but just stay about where it’s at. And tips for young entrepreneurs.

JC (53m 33s):

Don’t dive in too hard, shoot big, but know your limitations right out of the gate. Like, if you try to do too much too fast, it can bite you. But don’t be lazy either.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (53m 46s):

Holman is writing down the, your notes furiously here. I. I. Yeah. I I.

Sean P. Holman (53m 51s):

I’m writing, I’m writing this down. I feel like I failed on all of those things.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (53m 54s):

No, you’re okay. You’re okay. I mean you’re, you’re still, you’re not drowning.

Sean P. Holman (53m 57s):

Let’s, well I don’t know about that. I mean you,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (53m 60s):

We’ve gotta built you’re fine here. But like, what, what is the hardest part of being an entrepreneur and being, forgive me for asking this, but it like, for being a female mechanic entrepreneur, like What are the hurdles that you faced or has it all been cool? ’cause the guys have been accepting. So

JC (54m 20s):

I am incredibly fortunate that I have always been accepted and treated as an equal And I know that that is not the case for pretty much every other female tech out there. Like I know it’s not and I I wish that that wasn’t the case. But there is, I’ve been super lucky. I honestly think that the diesel industry is just a little bit more open-minded to people. Like if you can show up and you can do your job, it doesn’t matter who or what you are. And I think that’s been kind of my little saving grace in this. It hasn’t been the struggle that a lot of people think that it is now.

JC (55m 2s):

Not belittling anyone else’s struggles. ’cause I’m not stupid. I know that they exist for women in the industry like that, that’s a thing. But I’ve been incredibly lucky.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (55m 12s):

Do you feel JC that it’s different in like the high performance industry? Like if you were building go fast Mustangs, Corvettes in Texas or something? Or because you, you pointed out specifically that you think the diesel thing is more accepting. Do you think it’s not that way in other parts of automotive enthusiasm?

JC (55m 31s):

I I think that it is, and I’m only saying that because I’m, I’m member of like a couple of female mechanic groups on Facebook and it seems that like the diesel ladies are a little bit more like, oh, you know, everybody’s got one or two horse stories. But it’s not just this constant barrage of just that the other gals in like the auto industry have to deal with. And again, you know, everybody complains. Nobody praises. So I mean take that what you will, but I mean, and maybe location. California is definitely more open-minded in general. So I mean, you know, I’ve never had to work in, you know, Illinois or Texas or Arkansas or whatever, where maybe the attitudes are different.

JC (56m 14s):

Well,

Sean P. Holman (56m 14s):

Plus with your reputation for arson, nobody wants to mess with you who

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (56m 18s):

Could call back there full circle. You like that? Yeah. Thank

Sean P. Holman (56m 20s):

You. One, one thing I did wanna ask ’cause I was, I was rolling through your, your feed here and one topic that continually comes up is the correct filters for your diesel And I fi figure. This is probably oil

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (56m 37s):

Get of fuel Oh. yeah,

Sean P. Holman (56m 38s):

She talks I I. There’s some fuel filters and oil filters in here. But she talks about using the OE ones and Motorcraft and why she doesn’t, she has examples of cheap ones that fell apart ’cause they were put on too tight and then fell apart when she went to take ’em off and things like that. What, what do you

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (56m 52s):

Want, man? You’re gonna go down a rabbit hole

Sean P. Holman (56m 54s):

Here. Well, what do you want p as a mechanic, as a technician who sees a wide variety of, of filters and customer problems that come with it. you know, this is one of those topics I think can help everybody from your professional opinion, what is your advice when it comes to filtering your lubricants or fuel on a diesel vehicle?

JC (57m 16s):

Do not be cheap. Buy the factory stuff or upgrade like fuel system. Upgrade to a fast if you can. If you’re not driving a duramax, an L five P that won’t let you unless you delete. Just don’t be cheap. Stop buying Wang d, eBay, Amazon, Chinese junk. Like just buy the $40 fuel filter. It’s way cheaper than a whole fuel system.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (57m 40s):

Where do you stand on oiled filters versus dry filters on the intake side? Because there’s a great debate about so many people say, oh you don’t, you don’t want an oiled filter because it messes up your math sensor, which is downstream. I’ve got my own opinions. But, I want to hear yours.

JC (57m 56s):

I mean I’m kind of a dinosaur and dry filters aftermarket didn’t exist in my like heyday of getting into this. So oiled filters, I’ve never once had a problem with them gooping up my, my math sensor ever. I mean. But I’m also not like dousing them in a bucket of oil every time I’m putting them on

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (58m 16s):

People.

Sean P. Holman (58m 16s):

You spray it lightly or you apply, you don’t dip it in the bucket of oil that I mean. That’s how we have problems.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (58m 22s):

So, okay. I’m I’m actually really thrilled that you’re saying this because I would say 70% of our customers want dry because they have heard, they all think they, they feel that they, that they’ve seen it, but they haven’t, they’ve heard that oil gets wicked off of their filter and ends up sticking on their math sensor and it throws off air fuel ratio and all these other things. But as a result, but if that happened at some point in the past where And I don’t think it was k and n but some other manufacturer, cheap Chinese stuff, whatever, were way over oiling or the consumers were

Sean P. Holman (58m 57s):

Doing it. The, the consumers were doing that a

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (58m 59s):

Lot of big issue. They were getting their little KN recharge bottle of oil. They clean their filter and they reil it and spray, spray,

Sean P. Holman (59m 4s):

Spray and spray. They would do the, they would do the peaks and valleys and you only do a light coat on the peak and let it soak in over time. And you get people who are in a rush and they didn’t wanna wait for the oil to soak into the, the medium eight wicks across it. Yeah. Right. And so they over oil it so they can put it back in right away and then they would have a problem. A lot of times you have to let it sit for 30 minutes and just let it wick into the medium and or the media and then you ha can put in a nice lightly oiled and obviously oil works great for trapping dirt particles. Like it’s fantastic. And the way a A KN for example comes out of the box ready to go, it’s great. It’s always, when it comes to the maintenance portion, people are afraid of underdoing it. So they always way overdo it.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (59m 43s):

And so do you agree? Does, do you agree jc? I agree. That’s where got the bad. Completely agree. Okay.

JC (59m 48s):

Yeah, it’s consumer air. Now that all being said, dry filters are pretty awesome in the fact that it is not an all day endeavor to service your air filter

Sean P. Holman (59m 58s):

Trudat.

JC (59m 58s):

Where, you know, so I mean it’s You know six one way half a dozen the other, in my opinion, like if somebody said insisted that they wanted a dry filter or an oil filter, I would not push them one way or the other.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 0m 11s):

Now how many cat swaps are you doing? You I thought you

Sean P. Holman (1h 0m 15s):

Were gonna ask her how many cats she had. I’m like, what a rude question.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 0m 17s):

No, no, no. Caterpillar. So a, a big thing and, and and like I think all big three now guys will make billet adapters so you can go and change your oil filter to an oversized cat filter. I wanted to see how many of those you’ve done And I have some comments.

JC (1h 0m 33s):

I have done exactly zero. I think it’s kind of a needless I think it’s kind of a needless thing. And especially in the fuel filter area. Like I know a lot of Duramax people insist that that’s the way to go. I am a huge fan of aftermarket lift pumps. They’re the bee’s knees. Like makes everything in life easier.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 0m 53s):

So you’re a fast fan, not an Aird dog fan.

JC (1h 0m 57s):

I I lean towards fast because I have ran them in my own vehicles. I install both And I. If someone has an opinion, that’s another one of those things. If they say I want an Aird dog, good for you. That’s what you’re getting. if you want a fast good for you. If they want my opinion, I would probably push them towards a fast just purely from my track record of owning them and installing them and maintaining

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 1m 19s):

’em. Gotcha. I wanted to put a button on the, on the cat thing. ’cause for people are wondering why I brought it up, I can’t tell you why I know this, but through research

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

Cat, through

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 1m 31s):

Science Through science, yeah. Through some

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

Party research, through Sing I have determined she

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 1m 36s):

Jc blinded me with science. I had to do that. No you didn’t. The cat doesn’t filter as good as everyone thinks it does yet because it’s large and yellow and they like Caterpillar tractors and such. They assume that what’s inside that canister is amazing. And it’s not necessarily all that in a bag of chips. I’m just saying for

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

That application

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 2m 0s):

For Correct. For it may be a tractor or it’s, it, it doesn’t even mount the way that it should Right. The way it mounts. I’m not gonna, I’m gonna give, I can’t give away too much because it’s a video coming

Sean P. Holman (1h 2m 12s):

Soon. Some companies mount it in an orientation that doesn’t allow the filter to flow the way it’s supposed to to collect debris

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 2m 20s):

And not only collect it, it returns the debris into the right back into the, yeah. And people don’t know that. So little, little something something there for you. if you, if you’re thinking about putting a big old cat filter on your dmax,

Sean P. Holman (1h 2m 33s):

Stay tuned for the the banks video All. right. Stand

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 2m 35s):

Down my friend.

Sean P. Holman (1h 2m 36s):

As I am scrolling through, one of the things that I think you do really well is diesel carnage photos. And you’ve got a number of, of, of well gems in here. What went through the turbo or the two, at least the two turbos I found that show the leading edge of the turbo blades all laid back and one of your captions is what went through this turbo and I’m, I’m asking ’cause we have you on the phone. What the hell went through that turbo?

JC (1h 3m 4s):

So we don’t know. I took off the air cleaner ducting for some other service. And I found that that truck was not having a problem that required me to get in there. That was a happy accident.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 3m 16s):

Wow. Well wait a minute. So were, were, were all the components stock?

JC (1h 3m 19s):

Yes. It was a bone stock truck.

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

Yeah, that’s a, that is a picture. What,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 3m 24s):

What truck was it in?

Sean P. Holman (1h 3m 24s):

That looks like a hundred dollars bills to me. Many of them.

JC (1h 3m 30s):

Yeah. So I think that was a IDI seven three I believe.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 3m 35s):

Lemme see this photo. Oh, they are, those are bent. Yeah. That’s a bent compressor.

Sean P. Holman (1h 3m 40s):

Wheel. Yeah. Nothing like the over those fins are blades. Blades all laid back. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 3m 44s):

Huh.

JC (1h 3m 46s):

Yeah. So yeah, that was, that was a happy accident find. I was not in The truck for turbo stuff

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 3m 51s):

And it wasn’t making noise. It wasn’t whistling or scraping or making strange noises.

Sean P. Holman (1h 3m 55s):

You know how laid back those are?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 3m 57s):

Yeah. Tell me how laid back

Sean P. Holman (1h 3m 58s):

Are they? It that my mind was on my money and my money was on my mind. Yeah. Yeah. I got that.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 4m 3s):

I feel like you’re mixing songs there.

JC (1h 4m 5s):

Yeah. No, that, that truck was in here for I. Think like body mounts and

Sean P. Holman (1h 4m 9s):

See that’s a hard thing to be a, a independent shop and you have a rapport with the customer and he’s like, Hey, I just need some body pucks replaced. ’cause you know, my other ones are rotting out. You’re like, yeah, no problem. You’re like, Hey dude, full exhaust system and turbo. What?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 4m 24s):

Like why, why were you even jc? Why were you even looking at my turbo? Right.

Sean P. Holman (1h 4m 28s):

I I worked at many of a shop growing up. I worked at a fast lube at a Ford dealership. I worked at a Honda dealership. I worked at a independent BMW Porsche Mercedes shop. And it is shocking the amount of coincidental things happen when You work on a car that have nothing to do with the service. You either catch something or the customer comes back within a hundred miles and wants to blame you for something else that went wrong that was totally unrelated and untouched. but it would happen all the time. And it’s, it’s, I don’t know what it is about cars, but it’s one of those things that gives mechanics a bad reputation that is totally undeserved because the good ones out there

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 5m 6s):

Always undeserved

Sean P. Holman (1h 5m 7s):

I mean, I think. Yes. I think most mechanics are straight shooters. I think so. You think they

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 5m 11s):

They’re good. They’ve got a good eye. They can spot this stuff. No.

Sean P. Holman (1h 5m 14s):

What

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 5m 15s):

Got six sense?

Sean P. Holman (1h 5m 16s):

What I’m saying is that the majority of mechanics out there in the world are honest people making honest living. And a customer will come back and be like, whoa, this light came on after you touched it. And you’re like, yeah, I put air in your tires, dude. Like it’s not like we didn’t do anything to make your check engine light. Come on. That stuff happens way more than you want to admit. but it has nothing to do with the service and then they, it’s hard to build trust with somebody if they think you’ve try. You’re trying to do something to upsell. I think there are not honest mechanics, just like there are not honest everything else in every other profession. But I think most mechanics love problem solving and they love to be in business and have a good reputation and a good rapport for their customers. I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 5m 54s):

Happen to know what happened with that turbo Oh. yeah. It sucked in burning embers after she drove away from Oh, one

Sean P. Holman (1h 5m 60s):

Of those fires. Yeah. Burning

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 6m 1s):

The

Sean P. Holman (1h 6m 2s):

Competitors.

JC (1h 6m 3s):

It was a seven three. I’m, it’s an ID I. I Amm gonna take something much faster.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 6m 9s):

And if it was

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

A seven three ID I, there’s no regen on that either, so. Yeah, true.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 6m 13s):

Yeah. All. right. Well listen, JC, you’ve, you’ve been awesome for hanging out with us. We appreciate it.

Sean P. Holman (1h 6m 18s):

Yeah. if you guys want to find out more or check out some of the awesome photos of diesel carnage or what she’s working on Instagram at FTM Diesel or then if you are up by point Arena California ftm diesel dot com and go by the shop, say hi and, and tell her that You Heard about her on The truck Show Podcast

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 6m 36s):

E except,

Sean P. Holman (1h 6m 37s):

And she’ll give you a free oil change is what I’m hearing. No, no,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 6m 40s):

No, no. She doesn’t do that. It says right. It says right on her website buy appointment only. So don’t roll up on her. Oh okay.

Sean P. Holman (1h 6m 45s):

Call her and say You Heard about her from The truck. Show Podcast. Exactly. And she won’t give you anything except really good service.

JC (1h 6m 52s):

Aw, thank, thank you guys for having me. This was a blast.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 6m 55s):

All. right? Thank you jc you’re the best

JC (1h 6m 57s):

All right. Thanks guys.

Sean P. Holman (1h 6m 58s):

All right. Talk to you

JC (1h 6m 59s):

Soon. Bye.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 7m 2s):

This will be an interesting news segment as it’s only got one topic, the Ram RHO,

9 (1h 7m 8s):

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

3 (1h 7m 16s):

To know lifted, lowered and everything in between. What’s happening in the world of trucks.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 7m 23s):

Oh that was good. I like that. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Sean P. Holman (1h 7m 26s):

All. right, the all new 2025 Ram 1500 RHO has finally been uncovered and unveiled and revealed to all the masses. And it is exactly what you thought it was.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 7m 40s):

So it is the TRX with the new hurricane.

Sean P. Holman (1h 7m 43s):

It’s a TRX with new hurricane. So it’s one of those trucks where you look at it and it looks familiar. The front end looks fresh, but to be honest with you, I don’t really think it looks any better than the current T Rx. It even uses the current TXs wheels chassis body work except for the grill and stuff still has the same hood and they have made sure that the Ram air scoop is functional with the hurricane straight six. So that’s super cool. So now they’re positioning it as the most capable light duty pickup truck and it offers the best value with more horsepower per dollar than any other off-road truck. Which is oddly specific. What they’re saying is you get more out of this than you do with a V six Raptor.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 8m 24s):

Hmm, interesting.

Sean P. Holman (1h 8m 25s):

So it’s $129 and 60 cents per horsepower.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 8m 29s):

1 29 60 if

Sean P. Holman (1h 8m 31s):

You were, if you were wondering. And so basically it’s a, it’s a TRX. So the suspension’s been rev revolved, res sprung. Obviously you don’t have the big old V eight over the front end. It’s supposed to be a little bit more nimble, lighter, a little bit more balanced front to rear the all new three I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 8m 49s):

I. Wonder if they I know, you probably don’t have this ’cause it’s brand new info, but they probably pushed the engine forward. Do you think they left it back? Because in the T rx my engine it

Sean P. Holman (1h 8m 57s):

Says straight six so you

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 8m 59s):

Oh you can’t push it back. What am I thinking? So

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

The all new three liter hurricane, this is the high output version. So SST is what they’re calling it for straight six turbo. It is the most powerful six cylinder in the segment. It will come to the market in the RHO, which we think is rebel high output. But they didn’t really say really,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 9m 18s):

Really high

Sean P. Holman (1h 9m 19s):

Output maybe. Nah, no. The really high output’s coming 540 horsepower and 521 pound feet of torque. So So no slouch. Yeah, no slouch at all. And they even threw out the performance numbers because they knew people were gonna be asking about it according to Ram. So take this at, at whatever value you wanna take it at the new Ram, RHO will cover zero to 60. And what do you think lady?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 9m 44s):

Well it’s not gonna be as fast as the V eight, but it’s gonna be close. So it’s gonna be zero to 60 in 4 3 4

Sean P. Holman (1h 9m 52s):

0.6 seconds. Four

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 9m 54s):

Six. Okay.

Sean P. Holman (1h 9m 54s):

A hun zero to 111.7 seconds covering the quarter mile in a highly respectable 13.1 at 1 0 5. Okay. And it’ll have the same top speed of 118 miles per hour, which are tire limited, not vehicle limited.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 10m 7s):

So that means that when they release the really high output, we’re gonna see this thing in like the, maybe the high threes, right?

Sean P. Holman (1h 10m 15s):

I think that there is a vehicle coming, Tim Kki and team is known for not stopping and it was mentioned during the press conference or during the media unveiling. They didn’t come out and say TRX was coming. They just said, we know we have a hole in our lineup. We a hundred percent are aware that this is not a TRX, this is not meant to be our TRX replacement. This truck is a more affordable off-road truck with the technology that we have and stay tuned. And they were basically saying a real new TRX is coming without saying it in every which way possible. Mm. And like I said before, when he said it was shelved and not canceled, that tells me next year’s news is probably gonna be TRX if they can figure out You know cooling and all that kind of stuff.

Sean P. Holman (1h 10m 59s):

A lot of heat underhood with those twin turbos and you know, but we know that engine’s capable of more, we know that chassis’s capable of more. ’cause clearly it was 702 horsepower in the, in the Ram TRX. So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 11m 11s):

Man, I don’t know if you’re gonna have more hor hor more heat with twin turbos versus that supercharger ’cause superchargers get cooking.

Sean P. Holman (1h 11m 18s):

Well, we’ll we’ll see. So it’s gonna be interesting. I think this is a great Raptor competitor but not a Raptor R competitor for now. Raptor R is top of the hill by itself until the next T RX comes out. But I guarantee you there are people who are not sitting still at Stellantis and they’re not okay that they don’t have an answer for the Raptor R right now. Hmm. That’s, that’ll be, that’s my take on it anyway. So, so they’ll

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 11m 41s):

Be I I bet they’ll easily crack the 700 horsepower mark

Sean P. Holman (1h 11m 44s):

With they’ll, they’ll be above. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Imagine your truck just tune slightly differently and a little bit lighter.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 11m 50s):

Different response though with turbos as opposed to a super

Sean P. Holman (1h 11m 53s):

Charger. Well, well the other thing is this, this straight six, I’ve driven it in the Grand Wagoner. It doesn’t have any holes. It’s pretty, because it has a, a smaller turbos feeding three of the cylinders. Yeah. So they treat it as like a V six with cylinder banks, even though it’s a straight, they’ve spool up really fast so you don’t have a lot of lag. Okay. So each turbo only feeds three cylinders.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 12m 14s):

Oh, interesting. So, got it. We should check in with Weston Champlin. I, you’re gonna laugh here. But I forgot that I had his phone number. I met him at SEMA last year and he gave me a cell phone. So we should call Weston Champin. He just put twin turbos on a demon engine. So it’s still got the factory supercharger in his TRX. So twin charged two turbos and a supercharger. They’re not like fully those lame belly hung ones that some of the aftermarket guys are selling. This looks legit. He’s gonna break this truck. It’s gonna be ugly. But I think it’s gonna be, it’ll be fun. So I’m gonna get Weston on.

Sean P. Holman (1h 12m 46s):

So no fuel economy numbers yet, but here’s a couple more specs that you guys might be interested in. Because the chassis is lighter now because the engine capability bumps up on maximum towing capacity now 8,380 pounds, which is pretty darn good. And payload is 1,520 pounds. Water forwarding is 32 inches. So as part of this announcement, they didn’t just stop at the RHO, it was interesting, they, they brought back the power wagon, which doesn’t have anything new, but they think they wanted to reinforce their off-road lineup. And they also brought in the Ram rebel acts, which celebrates 10 years of the rebel as a, as a new package, which is kind of cool.

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

And also the Ram 1500 Warlock, which if you remember was sort of like a sport truck package that they’ve had for a while on the classics. Now they’re bringing the Warlock to the DT platform and it’s gonna be available with the straight six Turbo as well. Oh

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 13m 41s):

That’s kind of cool. Yeah, that’ll be the overland rig.

Sean P. Holman (1h 13m 46s):

I think the Rebel’s more of the over landing rig. I think so, yeah. The Warlock is more of a sport truck vibe. Oh. yeah. Oh really? They’re calling their rebel and the warlock like their sport truck and, and they’re loosely, it’s not sport truck like slammed, it’s just like sporty truck versus You know their working trucks and their luxury trucks. Okay. So it’ll be interesting to see. But the Ram 1500 by The way or the RHO will start at, do you do You know?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 14m 10s):

No, I don’t know. I’m gonna say it’s gonna start at to

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

58, 69 9 9 5.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 14m 17s):

It was not even close. 69 9 9 5.

Sean P. Holman (1h 14m 20s):

So that’s quite a bit less than your V eight.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 14m 22s):

Yes it is. And you said same suspension, right? Yep. SO’S got the

Sean P. Holman (1h 14m 26s):

Stein black hockey. Yep. Just retuned. Oh, and also the high flow air induction system. So going through

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 14m 33s):

That. Well I should have I can’t believe I just said 58. That was so low. Yeah, that’s insane.

Sean P. Holman (1h 14m 36s):

Dude, you, you can’t even get a mid-size fully loaded Colorado for

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 14m 40s):

That. Yeah, no, I’m gonna hand you back the crack I’m on apparently All, right?

Sean P. Holman (1h 14m 43s):

The high flow induction system by The way because you’re like, no, it doesn’t take air from there and dah, dah, dah, dah. All your stupid things that you said before it did,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 14m 50s):

Did very, very little.

Sean P. Holman (1h 14m 51s):

That’s not true.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 14m 52s):

Yes, it’s not true. It is must be. No,

Sean P. Holman (1h 14m 54s):

It’s not true. Yes. Why? Why? Why are you lying to the people?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 14m 57s):

So here’s the

Sean P. Holman (1h 14m 58s):

Thing, oh boy, here

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 14m 59s):

We go. when You are in your TRX or your Ram rebel or whatever you have and it’s just rained and you’re going down the street at 50 plus miles per hour, the raindrops on the hood don’t move. There’s a low pressure zone on the hood.

Sean P. Holman (1h 15m 14s):

It’s, this isn’t on the hood. This is the leading edge of the hood.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 15m 17s):

This is everything on up to the front.

Sean P. Holman (1h 15m 19s):

You are not, you are not the arrow engineer at Ram or the guys who working. I don’t ignore what Lightning’s saying because Lightning is talking out of lightning’s butt. Again, the air induction system similar to the TRX, they made sure it was a

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 15m 33s):

Functional, functional, yeah.

Sean P. Holman (1h 15m 34s):

And B, that it drains water and then filters out debris from reaching the engine. And that way the truck’s only breathing cool clean air. It has a high capacity radial air filter that’s housed in an open top box that allows you to easily pluck it out and clean it in the field if you need to. It’s a dry media. But they wanted to make sure that if you’re in sandy, dusty environments full throttle and sucking all that air in that it’s getting separated out, which I think was really cool. Even if Lightning’s gonna tell you that it doesn’t work and Ram will sue him.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 16m 4s):

Move on. I don’t wanna be sued.

Sean P. Holman (1h 16m 7s):

Oh, so the RHO gets Lightning

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 16m 9s):

Rescinds everything he said this episode. All of it. Yeah. Everything.

Sean P. Holman (1h 16m 13s):

And then of course RHO gets a new exhaust system that’s unique to it. So anyway, warlock, rubble X.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 16m 20s):

Should we end RHO? Should we end every episode where it goes? This episode has been redacted of Lightning.

Sean P. Holman (1h 16m 25s):

Yes. ple please redact all mention of anything that flowed out of Lightning. Just

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 16m 30s):

A bunch of beeps. Yeah. Okay.

Sean P. Holman (1h 16m 31s):

Anyway, there’ll be more coming from the Ram side and by The way, the one thing I wanted to close this segment out with is while they were going through, they said a new updated heavy duty is due later this year.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 16m 43s):

No kidding. With what type of

Sean P. Holman (1h 16m 45s):

Engine. Maybe not in those exact words.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 16m 46s):

Whose engine? Not Cummins. No, it’ll be Cummins. I’m kidding. I’m kidding. Cummins I

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

Know I. I know. Again, this is being redacted because lighting is speaking out of his butt. Ah,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 16m 56s):

It’s Cummins. So

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

Anyway, it’ll be pretty cool. So stay tuned. Heavy duty news later this year there’s gonna be a lot more Ram News coming up. The Ram is just like, I don’t know how they’re gonna figure out how to build 47 new variations of The truck. You’ve got the new DT platform, you’ve got the Warlock, you’ve got the RHO, you’ve got the Rebel X, and then you go, the heavy dudes got the Power Wagon, you got the the Rebel hd. Then you’ve got, that’s not even talking about the Ram Rev and the range extended. Oh, I mean God. I mean dude. The just Ram is like we’re build everything. Everything. And now You know why Ram has completely dominated this segments of news. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 17m 31s):

Did we miss

Sean P. Holman (1h 17m 32s):

Anything? Yes, I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 17m 33s):

Doubt it. Do you think Lightning should be retracted? Let us

Sean P. Holman (1h 17m 36s):

Go. Yes. Retracted or redacted? Both. Both.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 17m 38s):

Truck Show Podcast at gmail dot com.

Sean P. Holman (1h 17m 39s):

Like the retract truck

2 (1h 17m 41s):

Show. The truck show. The truck show. Whoa

Sean P. Holman (1h 17m 45s):

Whoa. Yeah. you know what that Whoa Whoa is? Yeah. That’s the voices of all of our listeners in unison. when You just say stuff.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 17m 51s):

No, that’s our attorneys going, oh

Sean P. Holman (1h 17m 53s):

No. Yeah, I don’t have an attorney so that’s why you should get more nervous.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 17m 58s):

I’m gonna make you need one.

Sean P. Holman (1h 17m 60s):

Yep. Alright, well listen, if, if you haven’t had enough yet, then you can follow us on the socials at LBC Lighting at s Sean P Holman at Truck Show Podcast. Please leave us a voicemail. We’d love to hear from you guys. 6 5 7 2 0 5 6 1 0 5 on the five star hotline. And course email us anytime you want. Truck Show Podcast at gmail dot com. Holman at truck Show Podcast dot com or Lightning at truck Show Podcast dot com. And let us know what you think, what’s on your mind. We’d love for you to be part of the show.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 18m 30s):

And we’ve got a bunch of events still coming up this year. You’ll find those on the events tab on truck Show Podcast dot com. Click on events and there’s probably one in your neck of the woods. Or if there’s one that we haven’t put up on our events page, please send it to me. Lightning at chart Show Podcast dot com. And I personally will add it. And I, I believe that we are actually getting underway with some T-shirts. I know we’ve been teasing for a long time, but we’re getting closer. And I think the plan now is to, we’re gonna take the orders and it’s gonna be like basically first come first serve. We’re gonna limit the amount, the number that we’re going to accept. Like, you know, we’ll say like, Hey,

Sean P. Holman (1h 19m 6s):

First a hundred, there’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 19m 7s):

A, there’s a hundred that we’re gonna print. And that’s it. That’s it. And so either get in on it or

Sean P. Holman (1h 19m 11s):

Don’t or wait for the next time that we do it. If it’s successful, we’ll we’ll see. That’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 19m 16s):

A plan All. right?

Sean P. Holman (1h 19m 17s):

Well, I think that’s a great way to end the show. If you’re looking for a new mid-size pickup truck, you should head on down to your local Nissan dealer. Check out the Nissan Frontier now available with the Super rad Retro Hard Body or the top of the line. Go off road and have some fun Pro four x, which is a favorite amongst the co-hosts of The truck. Show Podcast. So you should go do that Also last year for Nissan Titan or Nissan Titan xt. Still have the industry’s best five year, 100,000 mile warranty. I’m so sad. Your local dealer or Nissan usa dot com. Yep.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 19m 48s):

And if you’ve got a brand new Ford, well let’s say a 2020 to a 2020 Ford Ford F two 50 F three 50, and you’re looking for better air induction, look no further than banks power dot com. Type in your year make and model to find the Ram air intake that will help your truck perform better.

Sean P. Holman (1h 20m 6s):

And one last thank you for supporting The truck Show. Podcast. We must thank the leaders in synthetics and that’s AMS Oil. Who is the official oil and title sponsor of the Ultimate Call Out Challenge and the official oil of the National Association of Diesel Motorsports. Find out how AMS oil synthetic lubricants can save you money and time by helping your vehicles run better and last longer than with conventional oils at ams oil dot com. AMS oil supports The truck Show Podcast, as does banks and Nissan. Please support them back.

10 (1h 20m 32s):

Alright, you guys love you, meaning bye.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 20m 36s):

The truck Show Podcast is a production of truck famous LLC. This podcast was created by Sean Holman and j Tillis with production elements by DJ Omar Khan. 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

12 (1h 20m 58s):

Taste the biscuit. Taste the good of the biscuit. Taste the honey sauce. Taste the goodness of the biscuit with the honey sauce.