How To Build A 2017 Subaru Crosstrek For Offroad & Overlanding

Transcript

Speaker: If you have a first gen Crosstrek 2014 through 2017 and you want to take it off road, this episode is for you. We'll kind of go over some cool trail stories and then we go over the full mod list of everything she's done to this car. So it doesn't matter who you are, if you've got a first gen Crosstrek, there's good information in this episode. If you're not already following the Subie & You podcast on whatever platform you listen on, you're missing out.

Speaker: Raf has got some fantastic episodes over there. Also, the Wave podcast it is hosted by two guys that actually work on these cars, but some really good stuff over there. All right, let's get the frickin' heck into this.

Speaker: Heck yes. We got the homie on the podcast today. um Would you start out and just introduce yourself in whatever way you want tell us what kind of car you got? um So my name's Molly. I'm also known as Mars on Instagram, depending on who you ask.

Speaker: I drive a 2017 crash track named Falcor and my Instagram handle is TheNeverEndingSuvie. Sick. Okay. So I never actually watched that movie as a kid. Everybody's probably going to roast me for that. Give us the lowdown on that, dude. but but but um It's a movie based off a book, but Falcor himself is considered a love dragon.

Speaker: And he's kind of he kind of looks like the more stereotypical Chinese dragon, so he doesn't have wings or anything. um And he just brings you good luck. That's the whole purpose of him. You're more likely to get the journey done when you have Falcor.

Speaker: Does he fly? He does. How the fudge does... I guess ah if it's a dragon, I guess it's magic. so and Use your imagination, though. That's what's up. Dude, let's jump in and can we just talk about like your mod list on the car?

Speaker: Sure. Let's freaking go I originally started with the one inch spacer lift from ADF. I have since upgraded to a two inch premium primitive racing kit on OEM struts.

Speaker: Um, but I have Maxxis Razor all-drain tires. Um, my grill is from Garage Alpha, so it has the Subaru across the front. Um, I do have the engine skip plate from ADF. That's actually the very first thing I bought.

Speaker: Nice. Um, good call. Yeah. Uh, my spare tire carrier, my transmission cooling system, um, my bumper cut, like all that is fabricated by John over at Subaru Offroad Adventures. bless him. I love that dude. I really enjoyed talking to him.

Speaker: Listen, freaking love John so much, and I would not be anywhere at all that I am today without him. He really took me under his wing. Are you currently in the market for a lift kit for your Subaru?

Speaker: Or have you put crappy Amazon or eBay lift kit on it and realized maybe you shouldn't have done that? Well, if you're in the market for that or skid plates, ditch light brackets, molly panels, any kind of other off-road Subaru stuff, make sure that you check out today's sponsor, Anderson Design & Fabrication. They are offering you guys a 5% off deal. If you use code DIRTSUBIES at checkout, all you gotta do is go to their website, awdadventure.com, use that code DIRTSUBIES when you check out and you will get 5% off. And I can't speak highly enough of their stuff. You guys know that I've been running their products for over 10 years at this point and have just absolutely beat the crap out of them. I've got their lift kit on my Forester currently, and I will probably never use another lift kit brand ever their stuff is just solid so it means a lot to me the fact that patrick was willing to do me a favor and sponsor the podcast and giving you guys a way to make purchasing a quality lift kit more affordable so go over there get whatever you need use that code and make sure in the notes section you tell him thank you because he doesn't need to discount any of his products He's literally killing it. But again, it's just a favor that he's doing for us. And I really appreciate Patrick. But yeah, I have OEM like crossbars. I have a roof rack is actually just from Amazon. My roof basket is my Yakima Skinny Warrior.

Speaker: I have a lights and switch panel from a Tlingit's Prounce Nylite. I know you can get em all hey yeah on Amazon. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love those things. One of the best mods I ever did. Love them so much. I'm so thankful for them. I have an awning from Napa. it's like an 8x8.

Speaker: I have center console moly panels that are from Victory 4x4. I have the NASFABCO ladder. um I have my speedometer from Lifted Imports. Yo, let's go. Dude, it really ah becomes when you don't have, like when I drive a car now that doesn't have one, i'm like, wait, I got to look down at the dash. This sucks, dude. Same. And I actually have mine. I've moved it recently. So it was on the driver's side and I moved it over to the passenger side to have more space.

Speaker: But I'm able to see it a little better because I can always see it kind of out of my peripheral vision. So it works out a lot better for me. How, ah just by the way, how's that thing working out now? Is there anything that we need to fix on it?

Speaker: um It works really well. My only issue right now is it's starting to get exceptionally hot here. So I have to be careful about like having it up. And unfortunately, um the stand I had it on fell the other day, so I've got to put it back up.

Speaker: So I do, I'm getting back into the habit now that it is getting warmer of taking this pedometer down when it's going to be parked for a while. yeah i yeah' want to mess that thing up Yeah, I kind of worry sometimes because like, you know, on the product listing, ah it's kind of ambiguous. And I always worry that people are going to like, oh my gosh, i got you know, I'm going into work, I got to take it out.

Speaker: Like every time I go into work, but my thought process was more of like, if you're parking your car, and it's going to be like an airport parking lot. for a week and a half while you're on business trip and it's hot, yeah, take it out. But other than that. i also I also live in South Carolina. It gets it gets pretty hot here. Yeah. what ah What does it kind of look like in the summer as far as temps go? Do you guys get up triple digits pretty often?

Speaker: Well, you know what they say. It's not the heat that gets us. It's the humidity. Yeah, dude. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We don't hit triple digits very often, but we do get really heavy humidity.

Speaker: like the percentage is pretty high and if you're not careful it does feel a little bit like you're walking through soup um but i've lived here my whole life so don't know it's just it's just another just another summer i feel it dude i i'll have to send you um i found some magnet phone mounts that i started using i absolutely love them they're you can get them on amazon they're like 13 bucks or something easily my favorite mount i'll send you the link to it works please super well No, but thank you for all you've helped me with the speedometer. I will say your customer service is top tier. I just, the way I look at it is like, so don't know if I ever told you the story about how I, like why I started making them, but I actually, it's this one right here. I bought this one and it was so bad. It was so bad. was like, was like, wait second. did mention that a while back. Yeah. Man, the camera's not going to pick it up, but it looks like they took like a, their soldering iron and melted the access hole in the back.

Speaker: And it I ordered blue and they sent me like clear purple. I was like, bro, what in the AIDS? like know I just kind of thought like, bro, if if you're not going to like you know, go above and beyond for people. Why would you even accept people's money?

Speaker: i guess I've had mine about a year now. Okay. I think about it because, um, Annie Mothtrek and I bought them at the same time last March. Yeah. Oh, was it March bro? So it's been over. Okay.

Speaker: Yeah. I remember when those orders came through, i i think I had to reach out to you guys. I was like, is this fraud? It's like simultaneous. And we had used Brandon's like code for it.

Speaker: yeah We were literally sitting on the beach and I saw a pop up in his story. I'm like, I think that looks pretty cool. And she goes, should we get it? I'm like, you know what? Why not? Dude, I love Brandon so much. Have you met him yet?

Speaker: I have. I got the chance to meet him last August. Okay. That's when you were in the Pacific Northwest with your brother. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. went out to visit my brother for a few days. Dude, that's what's up. Well, how much traveling have you done to the Pacific Northwest? Is that your first time or?

Speaker: That's my first and only time I've been out. I went out for like a long weekend last August. We went out to Mount Rainier for a while and um I got to go to Mount Hood with some of the SUVs over there.

Speaker: Nice. Yeah. mount Mount Hood is the whole reason I got into Subarus. I did a bunch of snowboarding up there and was like, wait a second. Like everybody out here is driving Subarus. I need a Subaru. Yeah.

Speaker: And so it was all downhill from there, bro. Here I am now having spent probably six figures worth of like old. trooos ah Well, that's a um Brandon and then Jacob out there, Oregon Outback were like the first people I actually started interacting with online, like through Instagram and everything. So i was really excited to finally get to meet them.

Speaker: um i don't know wait who's jacob you said or what was his name or again outback bro let me follow him real quick did did you get to meet him i did yeah sick okay i got to meet him um and a couple other guys out there um unpaved p&w included i got to meet derrick derrick is sick okay i am following he does and derrick god bless him too let me drive his forester for minute oh that's very excited about that i remember seeing in that that's what's up Bro, this Outback is tight.

Speaker: Yeah, he's done lot of really cool work to it. With that stop sign skid plate. Frick yeah, dude. Yeah, make sure you ask him about how he's gotten stuck in the snow on the mountain for like three days.

Speaker: Oh, fudge. I might have to might have to ask you to tell him to get on here. That's what I'm talking about. I mean, I guess I could reach out, but... No, I love Jason Jacob. Him and his wife are two of the sweetest people I've ever met.

Speaker: I probably interrupted us partway through your, uh, your mod list. Well, that was pretty much the end of it. um Everything else is kind of just stuff I take on and off. Like I have, I recently got the, um the SoFly camping rainfly from Cross Dragon. I don't believe she's selling them anymore. So I went ahead snagged them while I can. i have like expo traction boards. I did recently get an outdoor crate for like the box to put on top of my car for when I travel.

Speaker: Nice. ah nice I have like the Rhino brand tie carriers. um All my decals are from rainstone visuals. It was also Annie. Dude. yeah that's very much a Her art is sick, man.

Speaker: I, she at this point just sends me stuff. I love it so much, but she designed my stickers and everything. She is incredibly talented. Yeah, I've got one of those stickers on the side of my Forester. I've started a little one. You do. One of the windows. One of the windows has now become my Subaru miniature car sticker. No, I love it. Yeah, same, same. Let me jump back to your lift kit. So, mean, obviously, everybody always wants to get a little bit of a lift, you know, bigger lift kit once they get their toes wet. But, yeah.

Speaker: I didn't know you had a primitive kit on there. Good. Very good choice by the way. Does your Subaru's engine bay look like crap? Mine definitely does or did. I recently, in the last couple of years, purchased a full set of engine bay caps for my daily driver. And then I purchased some other ones for my Forester from Mele Design Firm. They have full sets or you can buy just the oil cap if you want to just dress that up, but they're billet aluminum.

Speaker: They're small batch. So again, not every broccoli head with a WRX is going to have these. and they look pretty sick. I'm using the Wrinkle Red powder coat, but they have them in all sorts of other colors that you can choose from. And if you use code DIRTSUBIES at checkout, you'll get 10% off pretty much anything in the store.

Speaker: And that would really help us out to continue making these episodes for you. And it would help out a small business. Mele Design Firm is the epitome of a small business. Mitch over there is absolutely grinding and crushing it. And I can't say thank you enough for his willingness to sponsor what we're doing over here. So go check that out and let's get back into this freaking heater of an episode.

Speaker: What was kind of the whole... process of you deciding you wanted to go that route because the spring, you know, primitive, they incorporate springs in their lifts. And, um, I'm curious, you know, there's always like a lot of, uh, I don't know. It's just, it's not something that people talk about a lot and there's a lot of confusion surrounding like spring lifts.

Speaker: How did that whole situation go for you and what ultimately led you to get one of their kids? So I'm not going to lie to you. That's a little bit of background going into this. I knew nothing about cars. And most days I still feel like don't know. Hey, we all start somewhere. There's still a ton. I don't know. know, lot of stuff I don't want to touch.

Speaker: Exactly. And I'm learning a little bit more and more as we go along. um It's mostly when things come up. But I have been very, very fortunate that I have found a good group of people around that have offered really sound advice and a lot of good help.

Speaker: um and just be able to bounce ideas off of. And I'm super, super thankful for that. And I got my Lyft kit um lightly used from Glenn over at Brittany the Crosstrek. Oh, yeah, yeah. I love that guy. i love him so much. He's a really cool dude. um And he was switching some stuff out and he had gotten like an upgraded one. And so he was selling it for a majorly discounted price and it didn't have that many miles on it.

Speaker: And I liked the idea of getting a little bit more height with the springs and everything. And I just wanted something a little bit more. And I couldn't beat the price. And he offered to install it for me. And I'm like, you know what? Sure. Why not? You'd be crazy to say no to that deal, dude. I really would. And he's somebody, he's somebody that I trust to work on my car, but I also trust the products that he uses. Yes.

Speaker: Because I know he's put his trust, his cross check to the ringer. And yeah so being able to bounce that off of him, it was, ah it to me, it was a no brainer. What has been kind of because I usually tell people you don't really have to think about springs unless you're loading the car down with a lot of stuff. And there's always trade offs to everything.

Speaker: um have Have you noticed like one of the one of the biggest pieces of feedback I get with King Springs is that if you don't air the tires down, once you go into bumpy roads, it's like. ah but I have noticed that a little bit. And unfortunately for me, I, once again, I do live in South Carolina where I'm pretty sure we have more potholes than anything else.

Speaker: You can see the difference. If you're ever over in this side of the coast, you can see the difference crossing over the border to like Tennessee, um Georgia, and North Carolina. It is insane.

Speaker: um I do notice a big difference. I do notice a big difference though, when I'm actually off-roading it, the car feels lot sturdier. Awesome. Okay. And I mean, i think there, there is a point like having the, uh, the tire carrier, that's kind of like the first thing where I tell people like, Hey, if you got a rear tire carrier, just, just imagine how much the carrier weighs, how much the tire weighs. And then if you put anything in the back, it's not hard to get to the five, 600 pound mark you know, with extra weight. So it just absolutely gets rid of that crazy sagging. I i hate, hate sagging in the suspension, dude. It pisses me off.

Speaker: It did. It helped with that a lot too um Again, just having the full kit made me feel a little better. And I carry around my dogs and everything too. So I've always got a lot of weight in the back. I bet the thing handles like a freaking Porsche on the on the streets though. Gosh dang it.

Speaker: Listen, I love driving that car in every way, shape or form. Heck yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. I need to reach back out to Blake. I need to get him on the podcast, but he's like one of the first people to ever sponsor like any of the, um, Subaru content that I ever put out. So I got nothing but mad love for, for primitive. Like their skid plates are sick. Their lift kits are sick. I usually tell people like, um, primitive, actually, I i think I told one of their,

Speaker: marketing people i was like dude you need to you need to like create a whole campaign about like how primitive racing lift kits are lift kits for adults you know because they just you know what i mean like they don't go overboard you know usually it's like one and a quarter or one and a half and it retains a lot of the factory handling characteristics yeah um so yeah absolutely good i've had no complaints yeah yeah their stuff is absolutely sick that's i think i got it on there last july so it's been about a year now Okay. Do you remember what the lift height on it was?

Speaker: I think it might be closer to two inches. I'm not 100% sure. I do know that my car sat a significant amount higher afterwards. Bro. well How many miles does your car have on it?

Speaker: So I just hit 78,000 yesterday. Dang. Okay. So that's a low mile. That's a low mile car. That's what I bought it. I bought it with a little bit less than 29,000 and I bought it March 1st of 2024.

Speaker: Oh, dang. Dang, dude. That's what's up. did Do you feel like it was, mean, not going to ask what you paid for the car, but was it like a painful purchase? I mean, no one likes to make big questions. big z um Honestly, he's the car has been really good to me. I've had no complaints. There been no major issues. And he continually gets me from point A to point B. that's what i pay it again in heartbeat.

Speaker: Okay. Okay. Yeah. Cause I know out here buying, buying a first gen Crosstrek with mileage that low, even in, you know, 24, dude, you'd be hard pressed.

Speaker: You'd be hard pressed to find one. yeah I did buy them from a dealership. Okay. Oh, okay. Okay. l yeah yeah i mean they got to make their money they got keep the lights on i get it but you know it is what it is and it's actually the first car i've ever purchased myself so you know why not just rip the bandaid off all the way yeah heck yeah dude um i have other questions i want to ask you but is this your first subaru or yeah it is okay okay so you gotta you gotta fill me in on like you know what what made you even want to get like a lesbo wagon or whatever? like everybody I feel like people that aren't into Subarus, they look at these cars they're like, that's the goofiest thing i've ever seen. I get a lot of comments on it at work. So yeah, that's a very real thing. Dude, my Forester gets called like a granny wagon and a lesbo wagon, mainly by me. but like Yeah, I do have on the back of my um window, it says lesbian bottle boss on the back of

Speaker: Let's go, dude. That's sick. I'll back into work. so they help stay back that's tight yeah like what kind of did you see a subaru somewhere and you're like oh that actually looks sick or so i i've liked them for a long time i actually really wanted an outback that was the original thought process and i'd wanted one for a long time but i had a car that was doing me just fine and i couldn't justify it um i was driving a honda crv for a while Yo, those are sick. ain't got no hates for the CRV.

Speaker: I mean, again, he did me well until he didn't. And my transmission started going out. and he was very high mileage. And the reality was it probably wasn't going to be worth the fixin'. And i again, had never had the opportunity to actually pick out it and like purchase my own car. And i'm like, you know what? I got a few months. Let's figure it out.

Speaker: My little brother at the time was driving a 2020 Impreza and absolutely loved it. And I was already interested in the Subaru just because of their safety rating, if for no other reason. He let me drive his around a little bit and he was just the base model and I absolutely loved it. And I went searching for him. The Outbacks were unfortunately a little bit out of my price range. And if I'm being perfectly honest, the Crosstrek's weren't on my radar. I didn't really hear a lot about them.

Speaker: And I found one at a local dealership and went to drive it and just kind of fell in love with it. It was a good size for me. It has everything I needed. It was around the same size as the cars I've already been driving. I don't like huge vehicles, but I knew I did not want to be in a sedan.

Speaker: And it was the it just made sense. Yeah, that you know, it's funny because it's always the family members. Yeah. Well, really, you know what? What might have honestly gotten me was, I believe it was like January 9th at like 7 p.m. of 2024. He texted me and was like, hey, if you get a Subaru, I'll get a Subaru tattoo with you. And unfortunately for me, that is the only thing you have to say to convince me to do something. Yeah.

Speaker: Oh, man. that's So i don't have I don't have a single tattoo because it's like, I just know I wouldn't be able to stop. Yeah, that's a very real thing. um And so on March 1st of 2024, I texted them and I was like, hey, how's the idea story?

Speaker: So did it happen or no? It did. We have 100 super tattoos. That's so sick. What did you get? i have I'm going to stand up one moment. it All right. but don't Yeah, but I just have it on my arm.

Speaker: ah We'll have to blur it out so Subaru doesn't sue us. um It's bold and black and completely filled in because apparently I really wanted people to notice.

Speaker: That's so funny. Did he get the same thing in the same place? and hits It's the same place on the opposite arm. um His is more of an outline and it's got some like red accents to it. Sick. i should get Yeah, it looks pretty cool.

Speaker: Oh my God, you really should. Get an STI tramp stamp. That's a solid idea. And I really need you to do this. At least like i at least like i hit a Hannah tattoo. like Yeah, dude. all way through I just thought of that just now. Why have i not had this idea before? Okay, sorry about taking us on that that tangent, but... if You're all good. um How would you... i mean...

Speaker: for a lot. Well, what year was your crv

Speaker: If I'm remembering correctly, I believe it was a 2015. I drive us i grab a 17 Crosstrek, so it's a little bit newer. Yeah, those those twenty fifteen s that's still ah a solid car.

Speaker: are there yeah Actually, when I was working for Subaru, there were a lot of people comparing the CR-V and you know they were shopping, trying to decide which one they wanted. Were there any major things like the performance of the all-wheel drive system or anything when you got the...

Speaker: Mine wasn't an all-wheel drive. Like my CR-V wasn't. And to be honest, I didn't actually realize until fairly recently that they were. Because I mean, I'll be honest, once I got once i got the Subaru, all other vehicles left my radar completely. Yeah, yeah, i get it.

Speaker: um I will say the CR-V had more room to it, but other than that, I don't notice that big of a difference. Of course, I'm doing a lot more now with the Subaru than I ever was with the Honda. I had no idea. When I bought my Subaru, I had no idea people were doing the things that they do to them. I only found out like about a month and a half after I bought it, and I was like, oh, crap.

Speaker: Yeah, dude. It's it's a thing. yeah these these are another version of jeeps like yes yeah what was happening is people were personalizing them and just completely doing whatever they wanted to do to make their rig and it was just it was incredible and i had i had no idea i bought it because liked the car and i knew it was safe it's always been funny to me, like Subarus, they're just so quirky, you know, they're so quirky. And I feel like in the Subaru community, it's so much fun to like, just make them even worse. like let'

Speaker: I used to have a lot better gas mileage. Yeah. You know, doubt that was actually the other thing I was going to ask you. um So right out of the box, like obviously stock to stock, did did the CRV get better gas mileage? I mean, I know it was two wheel drive, but was it was it close? or It was pretty okay. um I definitely got a lot better gas mileage when Falkor was still stock. yeah I was, i mean, with him being stock, I was ranging anywhere between like 30 to 33. Yeah, I was getting really freaking, I don't know what was happening. how was getting really good TAS mileage, but my brother with the Impreza was even like, you're getting better than me. How does that make sense? I'm like, i I just work here. I don't know what's happening.

Speaker: Sir, this is a Wendy's. have like hot I'm doing that as well. um I now range about 25 and the CRV probably got between 25 and 28 on a good day, just depending. So it wasn't terrible.

Speaker: Well, if the CRV was stock and you're still kind of matching it with a built Crosstrek, that's pretty impressive. I like that. Yeah. I'm really happy with the way the – it could be worse. Most of my friends have a lot worse cat smile than me.

Speaker: My Jeep, I mean, my Jeep is, is shaped like a toaster oven. So, i mean, it's not, well you know you know, it's not even remotely aerodynamic. If I get like 13 miles to the gallon in that thing, I'm like, Oh, thank you, baby Jesus. My boyfriend drives an 06 Wrangler and he talks about how, yes, he loves it. He got it specifically because that was the last year they made those engines. Yeah. The 4.0 let's go. Yeah.

Speaker: And talks about how when he's driving around town, he gets like 10 miles to the gallon. But when he comes to visit me because he has to get on the interstate and whatnot, he can hit about 14. And that's what he does for him.

Speaker: Yeah. but does It does. It's you know it's got the was that the air dynamic a cow. Like it's better. Yeah, with Jeeps, one thing that has always kind of like ground my gears with them is they do ah like the front axles. They don't have locking hubs on them.

Speaker: And so there's a lot. I mean, you can buy kits to install locking hose. It was like two grand. I'm like, bro, I'm not spending two grand to make my make my hubs less less durable.

Speaker: the amount of like drag that the that the front end puts on the car it's like man if you guys have just given us locking hubs we you know i've heard of people getting like an extra five gallons like you know five or sorry five miles per gallon when doing like a you know swap to an actual that's got locking hub yeah yeah those 06 gjs are sick though i'd love to have one and's out less than 100 000 miles on it i'll give them credit where credit's due Dude, that's sick. Yeah, i'd I'd really like to build a Wrangler at some point, like a Leaf Sprung YJ or something, but I just spend too much money on car stuff as it is. So what's more? Right, exactly. exactly at this point, you've already dug your old.

Speaker: Yeah, I mean, my parking spots are all full now, but guess I could sell one or park one around the corner until the city gets pissed and move it for a day. Yeah, that would be fine. Hey, let me ask you about the ah so the fuel mileage. Was there, um and I know like a lot of times when we're modding cars, it's like we just throw the purse at it all at once, but was there yeah was there any one specific thing?

Speaker: that you saw like the biggest hit to the fuel economy? I will say the tires definitely did me in a little bit. The bigger tires hurt it some. um Honestly, that skid plate is heavy as all get out. It does the job, but it is freaking heavy.

Speaker: You got that 316 thick. Well, yeah, ADF only makes 316. yeah its I got that thing out of the box that went, geez. Yeah, I think mine, I put it on the scale. I think it weighed like,

Speaker: nine pounds or something. Maybe that's not right, but it's beefy. It was, it's pretty beefy. Um, that's it's probably, probably the tires did a lot, a lot, honestly to it. Um, and just little things over time. I did a lot very slowly and then I did a lot very back to back.

Speaker: Yeah. Um, that's it. I didn't start really doing anything to my car until about six or seven months after I had it. Okay. Okay. and And then like everything kind of started happening at once. Dude, that's how it always goes, Dan. It's like for me too. It's like you get into that consumer mindset. You're already primed. You're like, well, I just spent a thousand dollars on tires. So who gives an AF? let's do it.

Speaker: Well, I got really lucky in my first set of tires too, because I bought them used. um And I bought a set of five, so I bought the whole whole nine yards with it. And i actually bought them from John. No kidding. Yeah. No kidding. Were they the Wild Peak AT trails? or They were not. they were um i think it was Continental.

Speaker: Okay. Okay. Yeah. um he They had been ones that he had on, I believe, his older Forester. He's got two of them. Yeah. Okay. They switched them out and they didn't really have that much high mileage on it. But i met John and his wife Dawn at Alwo Dry Fest out here near URI in North Carolina. Sick. Okay.

Speaker: The only thing I had on my car was that skate plate. That place is rocky ah yes sir yeah I had no business doing it. I had no idea what I was doing. I hadn't been camping in like years. I had no business doing any of that. Well, how'd the car do? and You know what? He handled like a champ.

Speaker: Some may call it beginner's luck, but I came out the other side. Let's go, dude. That's what I'm talking about. But John and Dawn helped me through a lot of it. They gave me a lot of pointers before we started and everything. I had met them maybe 30 minutes prior.

Speaker: And at the end of the weekend, John was like, all right, we got to get you some better tires on it. And he started sending me stuff. And literally two weeks later, I drove down to his place, which they live about two, two and a half hours from me, picked up my tires. And a couple months later, he installed my first lift kit. And a couple months later, he did my bumper cut. And a couple months later, he makes he made my spare tire carry. And I just keep coming back. I'm going back Sunday. let's Sick. What's going on on Sunday?

Speaker: and So I had a leak in my transmission oil last night. Luckily, it was a fairly easy fix. It was just an absolute pain in the ass to get to because it was just an awkward angle. But one of the clamps on my hose came loose, and so it was just spraying everywhere. I don't know how much, like, the fluid I lost. um So he's to help me top it off and just clean up engine bay little bit in general. do you have a transmission cooler in that thing?

Speaker: I do now. okay okay, sick. Which is probably what cost it for me, probably. We just installed it like a week or two ago. Okay. Is that where the clamp came loose?

Speaker: Yep. Okay. Okay. Hey, it happens. It does. And I had watched it for a few days and it was fine. And then i literally popped the hood last night to show a friend of mine because we had put a lot of like green underneath my hood.

Speaker: ah I'm like, hey, look at this. And when I popped it open, I'm like, that that looks greasy and oily. That should not be there. yeah literally We literally, I had no tools with me. no I had nothing. And I was an hour away from home. And I'm like, great.

Speaker: but Love this. Yeah, how are we going to do this? I literally video chatted John in. God bless him. Who, by the way, is in New York. entirely Oh, fudge. God bless him. He's a real one.

Speaker: yeah that's the impression i got i really enjoyed chatting with him he seems like a solid dude it's he really is they have been very good to me yeah finding i've got a buddy his name mike mcallister he lives in vancouver washington and mike is like the uh southwest washington counterpart to john you know just like but yeah he's uh he's like an auto tech teacher it's been kind of wrenching on cars for a long time and yeah um ah There's been times where I've bounced questions off him.

Speaker: He's just like that kind of dude. Like, I'll bring it over. Like, let's let's take a look at it. You know, like those type of people, they make or break like your experience in the car world. Yeah. I could not have been lucky. I mean, but at the very base of it, he saved me tons of money just because he's fabricated everything.

Speaker: um But he's also given me a lot of knowledge. He continually is teaching me stuff along the way, and he's very patient with it, and I appreciate that. He he installed my first lift kit for free, and when I asked him how much I owed him, he's like, don't worry about it.

Speaker: um I just want to teach the next generation. That's tight. I love that. they He is incredible. His wife might actually be my spirit animal. um I love her so much. She also makes the world's best deviled eggs, and that is a hill I will die on. And she also makes them every single time. do love them so much. In fact, we went to, a lot of us went to Cape Lookout not too long ago, and unfortunately they were not able to make it. um But one of my lovely friends, Matt, he's operating the Outback,

Speaker: up in North Carolina, got his keys locked in his car on the beach. Yikes. Yeah, uh-huh. For the record, you have to, like, ferry onto the island. Like, there's there's no leaving unless you're on that ferry. Oh, dude.

Speaker: And locked it. It was after dark. It had to be, like, 8.30, 9 o'clock. And all of sudden, like, are you kidding me? They they ended up getting him out, obviously. And we're able to make it work. that Every man on that, like, but with our camping group was surrounding this car trying to figure it out.

Speaker: And afterwards he looked at me and went, you know, if John had been here, I wouldn't have even been worried. He would have gotten those things out like five minutes. I'm like, you're not wrong. Yeah, dude. I don't know anything about breaking into cars. Like.

Speaker: the AAA kits. That's so sick. there was It was a combination. um They tried to use the duct tape to pull the window down. They had an inflatable pillow that my boyfriend had brought with them that they tried to like sneak into the top of the um window when was pulled down little bit to see if that would work. They undid one of those like marshmallow roasters, and I think the final thing that they were able to use was our friend Martise, Eva Knox, has a um rooftop tent and he has one of the ones that pops open like a clamshell.

Speaker: okay And he's got like the little awning pieces of it that come with it keep the rain out and everything. So he's got those poles. They were able to use that to like push down to unlock the car door. It was an ordeal! Shout out to that rooftop tent company, bro. Honestly, God, because they had the same idea with the marshmallow roaster, but unfortunately, it was too flimsy. It was a mess. it putets They did it. I will give them credit for granted, too. And for the rest of the weekend, Matt's keys were on his awning because he was not allowed to put them back in his car.

Speaker: I've got this rule now where i I will not lock my front door unless I physically pocket check my keys. And I don don't lock my car door unless it's with the fob so that I know I have the keys in my hand. Because I'm that dude that like loses his wallet all the time.

Speaker: lose my phone. I lose my keys. I lose just about everything for no reason. yeah That's become I'm super thankful I can't lock my keys in my car because of the talk. Yeah, there we go. But also, like, anytime we're going camping, my hatch is always open anyway. So even if I do somehow finagle it, like, i can be just get into the back. But I always have a dog with me, so that way they can jump jump in and out.

Speaker: Yeah, there you go. ah Let's hear about the camping situation. a lot of people buy – I mean, I don't – maybe this is a sore subject, but – It's a hot mess. That's what it is.

Speaker: Okay, well, let me ask you this. What what are some of the key items that um make camping in the car easier? Because, a lot of Subaru owners, like, we're about that life. Like, just camping in the back of the rig, calling it good. Like, are there any specific accessories or anything that you found that make it easier?

Speaker: I got my Ludo mattress last year for my birthday. And that was a game changer. If for no other reason, the storage of it is just so much easier than... um I have that and i got this i'm really excited about the Sofly thing to have. Just that airflow is going to get so much easier.

Speaker: can you... Actually, before we move on from the SoFi thing, i actually just saw a post about those on Instagram. some It was somebody that sells them that was saying, hey, these are discontinued. If you want one, you got to get it now. Yep, that was great. Okay, okay. can you Can you actually tell me, ah and just people who don't know what they are, can you explain like what it is and what it does?

Speaker: It's almost like a miniature awning for your window. So it literally pops on the top of it and swings out. And so it allows that airflow, but bugs don't get in. rain if it's raining, you can still have your windows down and it's not going to get in. And just, so it allows for more breathability. Again, camp with dogs. It gets stuffy in there. Yeah, dude, i get it. But unfortunately they are discontinued right now. She's selling out the last of the ones she has, but it's Corey over at Cross Trek. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, she's an absolute sweetheart. and I got to meet her at Overland Expo East last year, so i was really excited about that. um But I really think I own one. Oh, man. Any idea why they're getting discontinued? or She doesn't have time for them right now. let's She started a new job recently. She moved. It's just a lot. I think the idea is that she hopes one day they'll come back, but right now it's just not...

Speaker: feasible i get it just like with my job and like doing the podcast and doing other like i have other like marketing business stuff that i do on side like bro it gets so overwhelming like stuff i can imagine so i mean i i have a relatively simple life and i get overwhelmed i couldn't imagine doing all the stuff y'all do dude it's so bad i just like went because i kind of like i need a dedicated work phone i don't want one but i probably should have one because like and you Bro, all my work stuff comes straight into the phone and I manage like all the like social media stuff and all the marketing for our company. So I get all these notifications anytime like a new website inquiry comes through. Boom, I get two notifications and it's like,

Speaker: I just can't even look at the phone. I was just going through my texts earlier today and I saw that I had a message from my buddy Dan over at Whiskey Row Auto that had shown up like eight days ago. And I was like, how did I not see this? Like, oh then I'm the worst person ever. I'm texting back. I'll like 36 hours if if I accidentally like swipe a notification away before I notice something. I couldn't imagine going eight days.

Speaker: Dude, it's so bad. I was like, I messaged him. I was like, dude, I don't know how the frick I didn't see this notification. like i'm sorry, I'm the worst. It just gets like, dude, I've just I don't know, man, like this time period is like we've got so much stuff coming at us all the time and you don't have like that dedicated me time anymore. It's like, yeah, no.

Speaker: we I turned a lot of my notifications on my phone off. Dude, that is' like that's like Instagram alone was especially I mean, I i worked 830 to five each day. Like I'm in a building if but and I can't like stay on my phone all the time. And yeah the notifications alone from Instagram were completely blowing up my phone. with i've I've got to have like a mental break from this. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's crazy. oh I'm not going to ask how old you are, but like I'm imagining we kind of grew up and saw some of the same stuff.

Speaker: And yeah, it's just wild, you know, just to think like, I remember a time when they're, you know, they made cell phones when I was a kid, but it was like, unless you drove a Ferrari, you didn't have one, you know? Yeah. And now it's like children have like thousand dollar iPhones. i'm like, bro, yeah what? Oh my God. I had, I got my first cell phone at 11 years old. And the only reason I had it, the only reason I had it was my mom was dropping me off at the barn during in the week. And she wanted me to make sure I had a way to contact her. Cause there was a, there was like a, like a landline there, but she wanted to make sure I had one with me at all times. And I only had it there for like the first six months to a year that I technically had the phone.

Speaker: Okay. Did you say she dropped you off at the barn? Yeah. Okay. You got it. You got to tell me about this. I am what some might call a certified horse girl. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. We got to talk about this. That's sick.

Speaker: I mean, it is what it is. My mom grew up riding horses and so she wanted to make sure I had the opportunity to as well. um So I've been riding off and on since I was five. Okay.

Speaker: So yeah, we've always, we've, my family's always had some kind of equine for as long as I can remember. Dude, I like that word. I mean, I know about equestrianism, but I never heard the word equine. That is sick. The reason I say that specifically is currently I do have my horse, um but my mom has two donkeys. Oh, what the fudge? What, what does she use them for?

Speaker: ah Because they're cute. like she um They're miniature donkeys, so she doesn't use them for anything. okay They were actually a Mother's Day gift from yours truly several years ago.

Speaker: You decided to buy your mom a couple asses for Mother's Day. literally did. I was like, hey, listen. In fact, my mom's name is Judy, and she has nicknamed her property um Judy's Little Ass Farm.

Speaker: Dude, that's the sickest thing I've ever heard. yeah She is going be so proud of me that I mentioned that. um But yeah, know she has she has two miniature dollies that are half sisters. Okay. Okay. Dude, that's tight.

Speaker: i'm I'm like, I'm a city slicker. You know, I grew up, you know, ah the Portland area. yeah I mean, now I live in an area where like you can't really look in any direction and not see some kind of field somewhere. But um yeah, I never grew up around any of that stuff. It's super sick. I i grew up in i grew up in a very small town here in the upstate of South Carolina. And in fact, I still live here. um i live about seven minutes on the dot from the house I grew up in, which my mom is still in. Nice. um Okay.

Speaker: Yeah. i But my family growing up had about 150 acres. um dang dude the fudge you get trusted any of that to be quite honest we had no reason for it um but they moved from like the major like city or i said major it might be excessive but to us it's the major city nearby my um they got married and found that they're having a kid they moved to the country for lack a better term yeah um Just to have more space and to have more of those values. And I've lived here my entire life, but my mom is still on that property. She still has that acreage. um

Speaker: She has a few smaller animals, but the only animals we currently have, or my family currently has, are two donkeys. But we had cows growing up. My mom started off with two horses back at home. So we've always had something.

Speaker: Dude, that's rad. And I can totally sympathize with like, you know, if you have a kid, like getting out of the city. Because it's, I don't know, man, like, Portland was cool when I was a kid, and then just started to get crazy.

Speaker: And my brother lives out there. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, you don't even realize just like how ridiculous it is to live it in a place until get out and i kind of knew like i knew like you know it sucks to deal with like people using substances you know right outside of a school i know i know that's wrong and stuff but like it wasn't until i moved away where i was like wait a second it's not normal to worry every single time you park your car that you might come back and the windows busted out or you know worry that somebody's gonna jump in and take it like that's crazy

Speaker: it i i again i still live in the same town but i live more on a populated street for lack of a term so i have like direct neighbors which i'm very lucky with and have pretty deep oh what's up that's cool um i have really deep really really good neighbors um but there are still some days and i'm for the record i'm 31 years old but there are still some days that it freaks it freaks me out a little bit having them because i grew up in an area where you could walk outside and no one's gonna see you like my mom lives up on a hill and there are enough trees around us we had like what is technically considered neighbors but they were all like the next hill

Speaker: Yeah, You walk there, but it would take you a split second. Yeah, you'd have to send up smoke signals or something. Like, you like it would echo between the hills and the house about it. But we didn't lock our cars at night. Like, we didn't worry about it. We were more worried about coyotes or a bobcat than we were about someone breaking into our house.

Speaker: Yeah. Dude, let me ask you actually about that with like so the area where I typically will go up into the woods. There's absolutely like mainly just black bears. We have mountain lions like cats scare the heck out of me like. mountain lions i i would be down to rumble with almost anything except a mountain lion cant stay blinded bro those they are they move like a absolute athlete they're quiet and they are just massive dude oh yeah are there any animals that uh you kind of have to worry about in that area when you're out camping

Speaker: Thankfully, not not where I live. um I haven't gone anywhere crazy as far as the camping goes. um We go up to URI. We go to Cape Lookout. I've been camping up the old 105 and then a brief area in Tennessee a while back.

Speaker: um We don't have a lot around here. it's we We have a lot of coyotes, and we have a lot of the bobcats and everything. okay i heard reports I've heard reports of a bear here and there, but it's more hearsay.

Speaker: And, you know, just kind of depends on who you ask. Thankfully, though, I have not in any of those areas yet. I'm sure something will come up at some point. i Okay, right on.

Speaker: Right on. Yeah, i even though we have that stuff out here, like most of the time, like if there's any, you know, scent or even like a hint of a human being, they're they're gone, you know? Well, and he Peace and love to my friends, whom I adore with everything that I have. We are a loud group. So I imagine nothing wants get too close to us. It's like a natural self-defense. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, all my, not a single one of my cars has stock exhaust. So anytime I go anywhere, it's like, know, my friend refers to it as the sound of our people. if it's not if it's not the cars themselves it's just us yeah heck yeah being about as stupid as we possibly can yeah i love it um i want to ask you about this photo that i saw oh god lake hauser this dang it the phone the camera's aren't gonna pick it up but this crazy hill

Speaker: Oh, dude. Yeah, i know what you're talking about. You got to tell me about that place. um What area is this in? Because that looks gangster. So it's in North Carolina. And if I'm being perfectly honest, I'm not sure the exact town. um It's a place that, again, Matt goes to a decent amount or used to go to a decent amount.

Speaker: And so he invited a lot of us up. So I think there was a group of like five of us that went. and Okay. Perfect size group. We went on. it Honestly, yes. i I love to involve my friends as much as I can, but anything bigger than that, it can just get hectic. Oh, absolutely. Five is the magic number.

Speaker: Especially if you're actually off-roading and not just camping. Camping, don't care. you're doing stuff, it's a problem. yeah um it It was so much fun. And one thing, where we went on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which was really nice because apparently it does get really crowded during the actual weekend.

Speaker: Um, but I am lucky enough to work in a bank. So I had federal holidays. Oh, that's what's up. I don't, don't know if I knew that. That's what's up. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We're going to bank. Um, and so we took the day and we just went up and,

Speaker: played around for a while but what i really liked about it was it has a lot of those kind of obstacles but it's also really wide which is really nice yes yeah i we have an off-roading park that's actually an hour from me which is super convenient but the only thing i don't like about it is that some of the trails for it are pretty tight yeah which you can do it's fine but like you get a little claustrophobic after a while and it doesn't give you any room It doesn't, and especially when you go with group, it doesn't give as much room to pick your lines. And if you go with a group, it's a bit more of a pain in the ass. So something like this, some of us were able to play on certain areas, and some of were able to play on others.

Speaker: um That hill was fun as all get out, though. It took me a minute because I couldn't quite get my like tires lined up correctly. So once I got there, I was able to zip on.

Speaker: ah Now, I feel like John posted a video of you doing something crazy. Yeah. Was it on that hill? It probably was because I'm telling you at this point, that for it's just John's other project car. Sick.

Speaker: So what the typical rule is that I just look at it. I'm like, I have to drive this home. Like, as long as you tell me it's fine. Okay. I'll try it. but Like I have to drive this thing. oh It is my daily. Yeah. Right. Dude. That's the thing, man. I'm very, very blessed that like,

Speaker: I mean, i have two Subarus and a Jeep. So if I literally roll one over and it catches on fire, burns to the ground, it's going to hurt my soul a little bit, but I'll spit on it, walk away. You better walk on some wood, dude. I don't give a fudge. Literally, I don't give a fudge.

Speaker: i When I say I don't care. I believe you. I don't relate, but I do believe you. jeff e yeah I am very emotionally attached to that car outside right now. So that's the thing. I sympathize and have a lot of respect for people that are taking their dailies and doing some of the stuff that I do to cars that cost me like three grand that I genuinely could care less if I burnt to the ground. I will say I'm pretty sure you're doing a bit crazier stuff than I am. get your fault. these days these days i'm pretty low-key in the subaru like because i did everything i wanted to do in it you know i took it on like true four by four trails and beat the absolute brakes off the thing and i was like okay cool now i know what it can do time to buy a jeep and use the subaru for like camping purposes but still i still get down there and you know cause a cause a scene Right? Yeah, it caused a ruckus. I used to call my cars the ruckus mobile. That's actually funny.

Speaker: That does not surprise me whatsoever. But yeah, no. of Houser is a lot of fun, and i really I really hope to go back at some point, too. It wasn't... don't think how far it was for me. Probably about two and a half, three hours. So not too far. I just went for the eyes went up for the day, so I left at like 5 o'clock in the morning. That's what's up.

Speaker: Yeah, I've been doing that a lot lately. I don't know what my thought process is, but...

Speaker: i get it i mean that's how i have to do it i yeah well you're doing a lot more than i am so again kudos to you for it but like last week untrue you're getting a lot more than i am so well i mean it depends on the day it goes in seasons like you do a lot of stuff back to back to back and then you don't do anything for months yes dude absolutely But I will, again, because he is my daily, I try to keep the true off-roading stuff to only a few times a year. Yes. not to push my luck.

Speaker: Yeah. Let me, um can I ask you, what what line did you take um in that on that hill? Because you can see there's a bypass.

Speaker: Like, if you're looking at it. Did you go down that yeah crazy crap in the middle? Because you're on the one you're on loan that was posted on February 15th, right? Yes.

Speaker: Yes. Okay, so I took the one on the... Not all the way the far left. That second one, like... That middle.

Speaker: It kind of looks like a wishbone over to the side. Yeah, dude. Yeah. i took I took that route. And in fact, I think somewhere... I think I have it.

Speaker: I have video of it at somewhere, but i was able to zip on up at some point. You went up that? Yeah. Dude, that's so sick. i Because a minute ago, I wasn't trying to ignore you. I was actually looking for that footage. No, you're good.

Speaker: I'd love to see that. I have it, think. Because I i just... I think edited it because the the first part of the video is just me going up and down, up and down, up and down. Okay. i Like my, my line for a minute there. And when I finally found it, I found i found it. um Heck yeah.

Speaker: I was kind of stupid. My traction was still on for part of that. And I didn't like think that through. And once I realized that I'm like, well, that's part of my problem. but Dude. God bless traction control. I'm sure it saved a lot of lives, but off road.

Speaker: Come on, dude. I know. and And I know better. That's the frustrating thing. That's the first thing to turn off. And for some god forsaken reason, it was still on. And I'm like, what am I doing? If I find this video, I'm going to send it to you. Please do. I'm going to put it in here.

Speaker: Yeah, I was admittedly pretty proud of that. um Hey, I was too. I saw it. I was like, yeah, dude. Can you actually tell me about the, because I mean, I've talked to like Brant Kaiser and John and some other people in the area. Dude, Brant is such a gangster. I love that dude.

Speaker: Literally. i bla He made me feel so stupid. yeah i was like this I was like, this guy is not even an engineer, but he talks like a physicist. Like, I'll just pack it in and you can take my job. Yeah.

Speaker: He's a geologist. Right? The most random thing ever. So i met I met him and John the same day. oh no kidding. Yeah, and they're the reason they're the reason I survived URE, which, again, I had no business doing, which I've gone back twice since then. i have I went back about a little less than a year later and then at Alwa Dry Fest the next time. But the next time I went out, which I think was last September,

Speaker: Again, at that point, I had the primitive racing kit on. i had big tires. I had the whole nine yards. And I'm still sitting there, like, clenching everything I have. I'm like, how in the world was I thinking?

Speaker: but Dude, you know what? I went, stop! I took my car. I had no business doing that. I'm telling you, people like Brant and John, like...

Speaker: They'll get you through anything. Yeah. My favorite yeah thing ever. like So Mike McAllister, that guy that I mentioned earlier, he kind organizes a lot of, either organizes or attends a lot of the off-road Subaru trail days that that happen in the Southwest Washington area. And I absolutely love going out on those trails. And I love seeing that one person that's there and kind of like,

Speaker: a stock ish Subaru. And I can tell they're like, what am I even doing here? That's the person I want to hang out with. And that's the person where I'm like, Hey, I'm on your team today and we're going to make sure you get through everything. And I love spotting. And by the end of the day, they're like, this is the sickest thing I've ever done. I'm I had the first time I went out to Yari again. um And Dawn was the first one to catch me to the side because there weren't that many women there. She knew I was nervous. I had said something already about it.

Speaker: And she just took me the side and kind of gave me the basic pointers about like, you know, just watching your line and everything and and asking for help. i Don't be afraid to ask for help. Even if something as simple as like when you're getting, either when you're spotting or getting spotted with the cases, instead of using like left or right, using driver's side versus passenger side. Yes. It's the simplest stuff that helps so much. But they just, they made me feel very comfortable, very safe and very capable.

Speaker: yeah which was a big deal to me. And I left there and I'm pretty sure I called everybody I could think of and was like, this is incredible. This is the best thing I ever did. And the only reason I went was because i'm near i live fairly close to Rue, Wickleanders.

Speaker: And it wasn't that far from us. And she's like, hey, I want to go to this. And I was like, you know what? All right, cool. Because I'm pretty sure that girl would talk in anything at this point. Sick.

Speaker: And I'm so glad we did. And again, we went back last year. We've gone to several other trips like that since. And i've I've met some incredible people, but I met John and Don specifically and Brant there too. Sick. And bank they got me out alive because the last the last piece of U.R.A., the first time I went, i remember I parked my car, turned it off, and went to go watch some other people get to the same line.

Speaker: um Came back to it and cranked it up. And my dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree. And I was oh no, this is going to be a problem. Because I still have to drive it home. Yeah. um And you got to drive it to work the next day.

Speaker: I've got to drive it to work the next day. I've got to get home. I don't have an extra car. i am like three hours from the house. I don't know what to do. um And Brent came over and like cleared the code and like talked to me through it a little bit for me. It turned out it was just a misfire and I didn't have any further issues. But Um, credit for Kenneth Sue. He's given me some really sound advice over the, about probably about year and a half that I've known him just for a little stuff. Um, as far as that goes. And that day I do succ distinctly remember messaging the group and saying, Hey, we made it home. Okay. because everyone was kind of doing that in their own time. And he specifically was like, did any more of your lights come on? I'm like, no, I'm good. Nice. We're good. She.

Speaker: Dude, they make it so difficult these days to like all the modern cars, anything post like 2006. two thousand six If you have one, even just like one minute, you know, fault code it Christmas trees and people are like, oh my gosh, I have to tow it right now It's like, no no, no. Your gas cap is just loose. You know, don't worry about it.

Speaker: That literally happened to me um probably about nine months ago. it i don't know what his problem was. I could not for the life of me figure out if it wasn't on tight enough.

Speaker: Like, are you kidding me? Really? I've freaking out for 24 hours for nothing? It's the literally the worst. And I think they they do it. I mean, i don't know, but I would imagine they started programming all the cars to do that so people would have the same reaction straight to the dealer. 100%. Oh, it looks like you need a new engine.

Speaker: like To me, it's a very similar concept as how all of our phones conveniently start breaking down after two years. I was just talking to my boss about that yesterday. He was like, man, I don't know what's wrong with my iPhone. It just suddenly, it just, it's not working. And he's like, i even updated it. I was like, that's why it sucks. Cause you updated it and they fricking fricked your phone. They did. They did fricking frick and fried your phone. I'm still looking for the same video. I'm going to find it.

Speaker: This is the hill I'm dying on. Did John post it or something maybe? So what we started doing, which was honestly one more of the one of the more ingenious ideas. Changing exchanging phones?

Speaker: No. Okay, okay. Shared Google Drive. Yes. Dude, i do the same thing. I'm about that life, dude. It is so much easier. and So that's that's what I've now, apparently since I can't find it in my own zone, I am now on the shared drive searching because I know it exists.

Speaker: It's somewhere out here. And I'm about to text John, who, by the way, has been sending me Lord knows what to buy now. Yeah. Well, I'm looking at a video on his page right now of you going down some crazy thing.

Speaker: I think it's so god right across from that photo, like on the upside Oh, it... Hold on, let me go. Dude, that mud looks satanic.

Speaker: yeah It was something. Oh, I got the... I'm watching it right now of you going up that hill. Thank you. Lord have mercy. yeah I thought I was going to lose my ever-loving mind. Bro, that is absolutely wild. because it's Listen, in John we trust. In John we trust. Well, it's one thing for me to watch the video of you doing it.

Speaker: It's another thing to be in the driver's seat looking down the hood and staring up that wall and being like, what the fudge? And I can see in the video now, there's a bunch of Jeeps at the top.

Speaker: was going to say they're all there in the corner watching me. They stood there the entire time. But I'll say when I pass by them, I don't think I've ever heard anyone cheer louder. That's so sick. I hear people will like, you know, I mean, you're always going to have haters everywhere. But like when I'm in the Subaru and I go do do like hood rat stuff in the woods, anytime I see somebody like in a Jeep or a straight axle Toyota, they're always like, oh, how'd you get out here? That's crazy. Like they're always pumped on it. because And I am I, yeah, i actually, as I was going home last night after fixing the lake, I was at like a construction site and was trying to turn her left. And one of the guys was like, yeah!

Speaker: That's sick. And I rolled down my window and I was like, thank you. I think it's never taken anymore. I was like, actually, yes. Absolutely. this is This is built to do things. It's not just for fun. Yeah, dude. Hey, let me, so since your boyfriend, you say he's got a TJ, an 06 TJ with the legendary 4-0. Have you gone on any trips where you've either driven or, you know, been passenger princess in the car on the trails?

Speaker: Not with him. um so he needs to get a new suspension. Oh, no. Okay, you got to tell me what's going on. He... Death wobble? Yeah, it can feel everything. Like, it's functional, but you can feel absolutely everything. But according to him, and I'm putting this out there, so he has to, you know, be held to it, that when he gets a new suspension, we can go balls to the wall with it. Let's go. Because he's got the big the big old tires on it. Yeah, He's got boy's lift on it. Like, he's got the nine yards. He owns a winch. It's not on the cheap yet. Yeah.

Speaker: But he he has insisted that when the suspension is fixed, whenever that may be, we can go somewhere together, which I really couldn't. Now, that being said, he has passenger princessed a few times. That's do you exactly clear Do you know what he's going to do to the suspension? Does he just need new shocks or does he need to do like a whole new front end?

Speaker: I think he needs a whole new front end, but I could be wrong. I could be very, very wrong. And I'm not lie to you. I haven't specifically asked. He just keeps talking about it And I'm just waiting for him to eventually pull the plug. Dude, it's time for that OTA track bar mount and freaking Bilstein 5100s. Let's go. Oh, i believe I believe my exact question what to him was after he gets it fixed. I'm like, can I get really obnoxious with this shit? He's like, you can do whatever you want. I'm like, stay like this.

Speaker: Dude, let's go. yeah i'm I just this morning was like I started cutting on my upper control arm mounts on my Jeep. Because I totally just did. oh man, it's like such a pain because I should have thought to cut them off before I installed everything. Because now I got all these long arm, you know, massive pieces of tubing running on either side. So it's hard to get a good angle with the grinder.

Speaker: But ah yeah, I just ended up installing like a long arm three link kit. bunch of front end stuff i'm like man this is worth more than my life and it's still blue books at like still blue books at 1500 bucks you know yeah and he is blessed his heart he is he's taken his jeep to a lot of different states he's never like truly off-roaded it but he's he's traveled around a lot with it so he needs to get it fixed up yeah he's um he's in the army so he's he's traveled across the country a couple times okay Well, what's kind of his impression anytime he shotguns it in the, in the track?

Speaker: Oh, he is, he is in awe of my capabilities. No, he has, he has a lot of fun. We haven't gotten to do a lot with it yet. Um, just cause he lives unfortunately four hours from me. Oh, dang. Okay.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Um, but he did come up to Cape lookout with a bunch of my friends and I, um, for four days camping on the beach. Nice. Last month. Yeah. Bless him for that. Let me tell you, he got in the car with me for nine hours um with three of my dogs, three of my dogs and 30 minutes to an hour into this trip. He makes a comment about how he's never taken a trip with dogs before. And I'm like, he's the same.

Speaker: But I mean, he had a blast. We had a lot of fun. He watched play in the water and the beach. I know I shouldn't, I know I shouldn't, but I cannot help but make the big splash when you go along the coast. Hey, there's nothing wrong with doing that.

Speaker: I promise I always rinse my car off really well. Okay. Okay. That's, that's my biggest piece of advice after beach driving is hit the undercarriage. but Yeah, pressure washer and everything. i spent I spent a good amount of time when I got home rinsing it off.

Speaker: um But no, he had an absolute blast. And he's like, I get this a little bit more now. and i'm like, right? Because he made a comment. And I think that's, we drove on the beach a lot and kind of messed around there for a bit before actually parking. And we just stayed parked for a few days.

Speaker: But the end of the first night, remember we went to go like, i'm actually lay down go to sleep. And he said, this has been so much fun. He thanked me for bringing him. He's like, I feel like I made a bunch of new friends. And I'm like, this this is what this community is.

Speaker: yeah We drive cars and we hang out. like it's It's great. like It's fantastic. but i don't think He's been hearing me talk about it for months and months and months. And I don't think until he was fully submerged in that kind of day with just people he really had never met. But he's like, oh, I i get this now.

Speaker: yeah I get what this community is. I mean, I've got i've got friends all over the U.S. that I've never met, but I would feel perfectly comfortable meeting them in the woods. Yeah, that's it's that's how it is for me Yeah, dude. Yeah. Yeah, it's incredible. Like when I when I made a comment last year about coming out to um pacific Pacific Northwest, I had people reach out to me and say like, Oh my god, do we get to meet you?

Speaker: like it's it's it's crazy to think that's even possible. Dude, I love it. Yeah. A lot of my favorite trail days have just been with people I've never met before. It's like, oh, I know one person. And then by the end of it, it's cool. Now I got five new friends, and new trash talk buddies. Like, let's go. Exactly. I met i met Annie um on the beach at Cape Lookout for the first time. about a year and a half ago, November 1st of 2024.

Speaker: And we had like chit-chat a little bit online beforehand and she had like made my fender stripes and everything, but we had never truly like had that kind of conversation. And we immediately hit it off. And actually I also met, um, likes to wander Ron out there at that same time. he God bless that man. And he has driven down now four times from Pennsylvania to hang out with a bunch of hoodlums on the beach. And we loved him so much. We love him so much. We keep thinking he's not going to come back and if he he does. And I'm like, this is incredible. But he made a comment to me that he didn't realize that Annie and I had never met before.

Speaker: we just we we clicked so well, but i I am very proud to call her one of my absolute best friends. In fact, I was on the phone with her right before I jumped on here. I love that girl so much. And i'm i wouldve I never would have met her if it weren't for these cars. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: Dude, that's um my buddy Kyle that passed away in October. That's how I met him. was like I mean, i I kind of knew him. I used to work in the skate and snowboard industry. And I initially met him like 15 years ago through that.

Speaker: But then later on, like we reconnected and we both drew yeah lifted Subarus. And bro, he was easily like my best friend. He was the kind of guy who... you know if you're stuck in the woods somewhere you call them and you're like i'm stuck bro and he's like i'm three hours away at a family get together but uh i'm leaving right now like that's him you know those yeah that was that was a rough one man i'm still not over it but yeah dude me yeah meeting people like that in the car community it's i don't know like the off-road community is like way different than you know tuner culture or whatever and god bless all the tuner kids but

Speaker: It's incredible, and I'm very thankful to Rue, again, who I think, from where the story goes, because she was really one of the first people that I got to meet up with, because she's close to Asheville. She's not too far from me. Okay. Yeah, so it's like two hours or less, and...

Speaker: She had reached out. She invited me to the first cake trip, which I unfortunately ended up not going get to go on. um But apparently she realized that I was another girl in the area that had a cross trek and was like, OK, this was mine now.

Speaker: but to Basically claimed me for like a better term. um And if it wasn't for her and it wasn't for getting to have that experience, because I'm very introverted.

Speaker: which a lot of people don't necessarily believe, but I recharge by myself. Yes. Yes. um I'm starting to get that with Yeah. But thanks to her and thanks to that whole part of that community, I've gotten more and more comfortable with it. And it's the people I've met are, it's just incredible. I was again, thankful enough to meet several of the PNW SUVs when I went out there and my brother,

Speaker: God bless him. He puts up with a lot, too. He actually has a Subaru now, too. fun back He got that Outback Wilderness that you posted photos of? Yes. Nice. He does. He loves that car so much. And I got to be with him on his personal, like, off-roading trip, which was super cool for me. Where'd you guys go? You remember?

Speaker: It was up near Mount Hood. um Okay. I can't remember the exact place on it. It wasn't anything too extreme, but it was his first, like, outing. So was super excited to be a part of that and everything. um And he started getting really tired. He's like, Hey, I think, you know, I think we need to call it, not call it a day, but I need to start winding down.

Speaker: And again, I've been friends with Jacob now for two years. And he was like, if I take her home, can she stay out to play longer? Let's go. and i got to hang out with those guys for a little bit longer. My brother went and recharged because he'd been dealing with me for that point for 48 hours.

Speaker: Which is a lot for him. Listen, we're very close, but we get on each other's nerves faster than anybody else. Oh, yeah, get But I had never met him before, and I was so excited to have that opportunity to meet him. And especially, again, since Jacob was one of the first people I really started interacting with, it really felt like a full circle moment. And I've had a lot of them set make a comment saying, like, let us know when you're coming out next. We'll go on a bigger trip. We'll do this.

Speaker: I want to bring my car out there at some point. Yes. Really, really badly. Heck yeah, dude. But it is. But until I'm able to, until and I'm able to make that trek one way or another, I'm very glad and very thankful for people that let me passenger princess and just get involved with that too.

Speaker: Yeah, that's rad. Yeah, it's great out here. I mean, um I moved pretty far east, so I'm about a good three hours away from all the stuff I used to used to hit. It's gorgeous. Oh, dude. And, you know, when I was growing up, I remember I didn't start getting into, like, the outdoors and and stuff until probably, like, 2011.

Speaker: Yeah. eleven And, um, I just remember all these people that I grew up with, like, I got to get the F out of here. Oh, I need to move on to bigger and better things. Or, Oh, I just went on vacation to Ireland. I'm like, bro, you went on, you paid money to leave here to go see things that are subpar compared to all the stuff I just saw in an afternoon. you dumb? It is absolutely gorgeous. It's, And you probably only got to scratch the surface. Like there's stuff out here that I've seen that like just is mind boggling. The only place I can think of that has stuff that's probably more awe inspiring is like some of the cenotes in Mexico or like

Speaker: um Iceland. like Iceland's got those crazy waterfalls. ice love to go there but Aside from that, dude like there's nothing... like but Anytime people post photos of like a vacation they went on, like, oh, that's cool. It's not even as exciting as what I just saw this past weekend, but God bless you. Hey, I want to ask you about, so yeah there's there's not like, you know, there's a lot of parts of the country where, where people are nowhere near sand, but it sounds like you're close to a place where you're able to go and access the beach. And I was curious if you have any pointers within driving distance. but wait it's That's a Cape. Cape is about seven and a half hours for me. Yeah. Sheesh.

Speaker: yeah sheesh

Speaker: Dang, you're committed. It's driving. It's driving distance. Listen, that some people have nothing on me. So just a ah quick little detour before I fully answer that question. yeah um Kate started with just Annie and Rue in the summer of 2024. Again, i was supposed to go on the trip. Unfortunately, I got really sick and i was unable to go. Holy fudge.

Speaker: But it was just bad timing. But um i I ended up going in the fall. And then since then, I've been twice in the fall and or twice in the spring. And we'll be going back in the fall. Let's go.

Speaker: Actually, now that I've said it out loud, I was supposed to call the fairy and book my time this morning. And I completely forgot to do that. So I'll call them in the morning. But that being said, it's we use it as an opportunity to meet up with a bunch of people that we normally wouldn't get to see.

Speaker: Yeah. um There's... There's me and maybe John and Dawn from South Carolina. There's a couple of them from North Carolina or few of them from North Carolina. um Cause it's the bottom of the Outer Banks. So it's up in, in Z. Yeah. And there's guy from Tennessee. Annie drives out from Missouri. That is a 16 to 17 hour drive. What the fudge?

Speaker: Yeah. that's but while That's like me driving to Arizona, bro. and listen the first So the second time she did it, the first time I met her, but the second time she actually did it um to come out to Kate specifically, she did the whole thing in one go.

Speaker: Dude, that's that's absolutely wild. Yeah, she's a little bit insane for it. But apparently the story went that um she had booked a camping spot. And when she got there, she didn't really feel like super comfortable with it and just ended up keep driving. she's like, I'll find somewhere else. I'll find somewhere else. And then at some point she's like, well, I'm already three hours away.

Speaker: Like, might as well just complete the drive. um Because exactly she's got family not too far from there. So she it as a trip to see us and to see family. um These days, she makes a bit of a detour and comes out and stays the night with me. So she crashes at my house. We get to hang out. And then she goes on up and sees her family. but We meet the rest of us up there, too, in a few days.

Speaker: um But we have her from Missouri. We have several people that come down from um Pennsylvania. We have Nina, another green outback. We have Ron likes to wander. um Kat, Xtrekkie, all come down from the Pennsylvania area. We actually had the other Falkor. So there's Falkor the Forester named James.

Speaker: What? Y'all are going to have to fight about it like We're going to duel Cape. There was discussion. yeah Hey, I've got an eight foot awning. I'd be, I went on that.

Speaker: Dude, we need to make that a thing. Subaru jousting, but you have to use an awning or a piece from a rooftop tent. We talked about it. We did talk about it, but he came down from New Jersey, but the, the, the piece of resistance, if you will, was Yagi Kathleen. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: She came out from Utah. Yeah. Just to hang out with us. That's so sick, though. I love it. we and it was incredible. But it's an opportunity. Like, we just use it to to all meet up and hang out. And we've started going to a particular breakfast place after we all leave that Monday morning.

Speaker: And they do remember us now. What weird Subaru people are here. They are aware. But it's really cool because every time we go, we're like, yeah, we're all from different states. Like, this is the only time we get to see each other.

Speaker: this is exactly where Subaru's Excel being able to drive across the country and then do like some yeah light off-roading to get wherever it is you want to go, you know, good fuel economy,

Speaker: you know, the all wheel drive is good enough to get through just about anything you'd ever need to get through and like hang out with friends or do whatever. And you know, the stupid thing's not going to break down like a Jeep or, you know, very reliable. Yeah. Yeah. No offense. Oh no, no, no. i Mine's been sitting in the garage for six months. So I already know what time it is. But yeah, what are some tips for driving in the sand and like things that, you know, people who've never done it before, what are some things they might want to you know keep in mind?

Speaker: definitely air down yes dude um wide turns be cut it too sharp you're going to dig in that sand ask me how i know um and honestly fully commit like once you but that's anything with off-roading like once once you line up and you're prepared to do something you have to pull thin otherwise you are going to get um hit or you're going to get um stuff you're something is going to happen you just have to pedal to the metal and just go you know i grew up skateboarding and snowboarding it was the same thing you know we were like skating stairs or whatever like oh i'm gonna kickflip these stairs it's like dude if you just commit to doing it it's gonna go better for you than landing straight on your heels or like dropping it on a on a quarter pipe like no you have to commit all the way you can't halfway do it otherwise you're gonna slam on your hips and cause you're gonna get hurt yeah dude because you are going to get hurt it's gonna have a problem you just you've

Speaker: You're going to either dig yourself in further or you're going to hurt something. like You just got to go. Yeah. Well, you mentioned the airing down. That's my biggest tip for yeah any – I think like a lot of people that are off-road in a Subaru, like this is their first off-road experiences in their Subaru. like They don't come from an off-roading background. Yeah.

Speaker: even me, like I didn't even know about airing down until like, i yeah, yeah. Like pretty far into my off-roading, know, excursions. Uh, I finally was, you know, saw people airing down and I was like, let me figure this thing out. Do you carry a compressor with you or?

Speaker: I do. Yeah, I do. Um, My mom's husband very thankfully got me one for Christmas last year. It has been an absolute game changer. And then normally when I go off-roading, I almost always go with someone like John, if not John specifically.

Speaker: And they have the little things from, I think it's All Top. that Yeah, School Mom. Yeah, and choose where you're airing down to it as Top Mont, and I just use those. Okay. It's so much easier than having an air down, check it, air down check it. Cause I don't have the digital in my, um, in my actual car. would have to use extra stuff.

Speaker: What do you typically air down to when you're going to do sand? Pretty low. Um, I think last time I went down to around 17 or 15 or something. I mean, if we it's, yeah, it's significantly low. i mean, it's not as low as I'm sure some people will go bidding on the tire.

Speaker: Oh yeah. Yeah. Your tire. For mine, it works perfectly. Okay. Yeah. Your, your tire and your vehicle weight and the load rating of the tire, that all comes into play with how low you need to go.

Speaker: Um, I do want to actually ask you about your tires. Cause tires are like the thing that everybody always asks about, like, Oh, what kind of tires you got? Like blah, blah, blah. Um, so you're running Maxis tires, you said?

Speaker: Yeah. Maxis Raiders. Okay. Sick. Sick. That's a good tire. Um, Do you remember, I can't remember the different models. Is it like, do you remember what it, ah the Maxxis Razor like AT or something like that? i can't remember what they call that tire.

Speaker: Yeah, it's the all terrains.

Speaker: You're right though, they are called something and I'm pretty sure ah might actually have a photo of I'm pretty sure i took a photo of them just the day. Now I'm gonna look them up. I know, right? like Oh, it is just the AT I think.

Speaker: I think you're right. Oh, that's a sick tire. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember talking about these when I was talking with John. Yeah, these are sick. That's what I got on. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we talked about this tire.

Speaker: Again, I had the Continentals, and I loved them a lot, and I thought about just getting those again. And honestly, these are a really good brand tire. The price is about the same.

Speaker: Maxis makes good stuff. They, I have, I've had those, i got them installed right at the end of last year. So in December of 2025, I've been really happy with them so far. I've been really, really happy with them so far. um The Continentals didn't last me as long as I would like have lived to, would have liked for them have done.

Speaker: Um, just because again, this is the first car that I feel like I really paid attention to everything. Yeah. And little things like, you know, making sure my alignment was good, rotating my tires out. Like I just, I didn't know as much as I do now. mean, and I'm still in the process of learning a lot of that, that stuff to help the longevity of things. And they were wearing really evenly.

Speaker: if your If your alignment's off, even for a week, it'll chew your tires up like so fast. Yes, 100%. 100%. friend of mine, um unfortunately, his alignment was completely amped up for a lack of better term. And it was the way the way everything was sitting on his car because the reality was his lift kit was too much to support what he actually had. Had too much positive camber.

Speaker: It was bad. It was real, real, real bad. And he took it in and they pointed it out to him. The inside of his tires were bald. Mm-hmm. yeah yep he had the numberber yeah brand spanking new tires he'd had them less than three months dude it seriously because think about it all the weight yeah all the weight of the vehicle is focused on that section of the tire so you got like what 32 i don't know how much subarus weigh but like you got all that weight stuffed on that one small section of the tire it's just gonna eat them alive you know but he and he drives an equinox that that that fish is heavy even more heavy oh no dude Oh, man. He was so bad. what ah Do you know what size you ended up putting on those or putting on the car? um the i have the Okay. um I think

Speaker: two twenty five sixty seventeen What? I can't. That's slightly bigger than stock, right? By just a small amount. Yeah, it's it's not much. um But with like the where my wheels sit and everything, it fits really well. OK, because I still have I still have my original like actual wheels themselves. Yeah. So it's still fits those and everything. But i do scrub a little bit when I turn. okay OK, that's right. But it's not bad.

Speaker: Yeah, it's not bad. Does it kind of touch that inner portion of the fender well, like on the inside, on the back? Okay, okay. Just the hair, it's not enough to cause problems. It's probably just touching plastic, you know, that's probably all it is. yeah Just let God sort it out, you know? totallyli but just Just grin and bear it. You'll be fine. Yeah, yeah. When you moved over to like an all-terrain tire, did you notice like a lot of, um i mean, obviously it's going to pull your fuel economy down. It's going to accelerate a little bit slower when you go bigger and more aggressive. But did you notice like a lot of road noise or anything moving over to that Maxxis?

Speaker: A little bit more at the Maxxis than I had with the Continentals. Okay. But not bad, honestly. Like, it really wasn't. And between, you know, me and you, my music is abnormally loud enough that don't hear any problems.

Speaker: Sick. And, you know, it's an aggressive tire. Like, as far as all terrains go, it is one of the more aggressive tread patterns, which makes it sick. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. I i will enjoy driving them both on pavement and off-roading. I haven't had really any issues. um I'm sure, again, there are the road noise is little bit there, but I've gotten used to it at this point, and it's just kind of background noise. Yep. Let me ask about the the rear bumper cut, dude. Did you do that, or did somebody help you with it?

Speaker: that was john oh sick so i i went i think it was like last february give or take um so february 2025 and i went down there he was working on an outfax exhaust system okay and he had picked up another wheel for me so this point i had five tires but i only had four wheels okay gotcha um And he had picked up a spare one. i think I so ah lost the ability to speak there for a minute. I like a local junkyard and was like, Hey, you want me to grab this for you? I'm like you know what? Yes, I do. Thank you very much. Absolutely. at Junkyard prices. Yes, please.

Speaker: Yeah, please. I mean, it it's the same thing. It just looks a little different. Yeah. Um, You can definitely tell which wheel I had. So I went down there to kind of watch him work on another car and to pick that up and just to hang out for a bit. And I i feel like I blinked and I had a rear and front bumper cut and then he cut off my exhaust.

Speaker: and So... Did you ask him to? don't know how I got him. No. So we we did, well, hold up. we I'm going to back up a little bit. okay We did talk about the bumper cut. It was something we had been in the plays with for a while, and I don't know how he got me to agree to it, but I'm like, you know what?

Speaker: Sure, why not? We're here. um The exhaust, however, I did not ask him to. I it is He had complained about my muffler when i had originally when i originally went down to pick up my tires, the very beginning of it all. um He had looked underneath my car to see what it was all about and everything. said, that muffler's huge. I'm like, eh, I don't see it. It's not a big deal to me. you know It's low metal than totem pole. There are other things I can work on before the muffler. He cut and touched it, didn't he?

Speaker: He cut and replaced it with one that he happened to have got. he He had picked it up in case he needed a backup for the Outback. And um so when we cut my bumper, he'd been complaining about this for now at this point, like four or five months. He he did not let it with my muffler. looked But again, it was out of sight, out of mind. You didn't see it.

Speaker: Yeah. It's not my problem. Well, we cut the back bumper. And by we, I do mean him. Give credit where guys do. And... You could just see it. And I'm like, oh, that does look bad. That does look bad like Now we have a problem. And I swear I turned around. And when I turned back around, that sucker was off. My God.

Speaker: Well, he did a really good job because it sits like even with a you got like a full half bumper cut and it. He tucked it right there, dude. It looks good. He did. He put a much smaller one on there and just fixed it all up for me. And I was like, thank you. if You know what? This works.

Speaker: Yeah, dude. This is fine. I love it. Again, I'm pretty sure Falcor is his other project car at this point. He just texts me and says, hey, you need to do this and this and this and get this, this and this. I'm like, all right, just work me up a price and we'll talk.

Speaker: Yeah, dude. Can you kind of explain what the benefit is of having either a bumper car? That's fine. I don't give a fudge.

Speaker: ah But why do people cut their bumpers? Like what's the, what's the benefit that you've noticed of having a bumper that comes up higher? It gave me more clearance and I'm able to get in and out of situations a lot easier.

Speaker: um There is, I'm pretty sure there's a Pretty sure it's on my Instagram somewhere, but there's an iffy video when I was going down something and I 100% got stuck because my bumper just didn't have the room to move. Yeah, dude. What I like about the crosschecks they have that shorter wheelbase, so we're able to get in and out of a lot of things that Outback's might struggle with a little bit more. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker: but the bumper did still get it. And so there's a there's a video somewhere of John just shoveling out the turret to get me out of there. And I think it was in that moment that he was like, we need to cut your bumper. And I was like, you know what? You've got a point.

Speaker: Some people, they cut their bumper preemptively or they they get out and rip their bumper halfway off like yours truly and then realize, all right, when I get home, we're getting out the cutting wheel. We got to chop this thing out. We're going take care of this going forward. Yeah, dude. what ah What part of the front bumper did you guys cut?

Speaker: um We didn't cut too far up. um We just mostly cut like a couple inches around the base. I have my like like my fog lights are still on there and everything. We didn't want to, I didn't do the full, the full cut, that full angle cut.

Speaker: um I like my fog lights and I didn't need to, like I wasn't doing anything crazy enough that I needed that much clearance. But honestly, what we cut off made such a huge difference. Okay.

Speaker: Yeah. Cause when I was looking it, I was like, wait, They didn't cut the front bumper, but yeah, now that I'm looking at it, it comes up yeah yeah There's maybe like an inch and a half but below the fog lights, like the fog light shroud they got cut. I think it looks good. you scroll down, thank you.

Speaker: He did a really good job. I'm really excited about it. And if you scroll if down far enough, you can see, of course, the original, like the way it all sat and everything. um It made a big difference. I mean, any even something as simple as like driving a Cape Lookout is a lot easier because it just doesn't it doesn't risk dragging as much.

Speaker: yeah Yeah. Approach and departure angles are very slept on. Oh, yeah. Okay. see it. I see it. Yeah. That's what's up. And the other thing too, is you're not interrupting like the factory aerodynamics of the car when you just trim a little bit off the front. Cause for me, that was one of the biggest fuel economy killers was the front bumper.

Speaker: yeah i can imagine it was it's so bad dude like what the fudge um i gotta ask you about the uh because like i i've been seeing you've been getting in there and like getting getting your hands dirty gotta ask about i'm trying dude the cv axle thing you gotta tell me about that

Speaker: That still kills me. I'm pretty sure I crashed out for about two hours after realizing what was happening. So took to preface this um last probably actually last May. So about a year ago, maybe the end of April.

Speaker: um I had gone to a friend's dad who works on their cars all the time. And he's he had helped me with a couple of things prior. In fact, he's the one one that taught me how to change my brakes and everything. Nice. But had gone over there because I kept hearing something, and I thought it was something else.

Speaker: I talked to bunch people about it. I kept hearing like a clicking noise. And it was as far as I was concerned, driving okay was... um But I kept hearing something, i'm like, okay, this is a problem, and I drive far. I need to get this fixed now. And I went over to their house, and we just kept messing around with stuff to try and find like what it was. um It turned out the noise I was hearing was my sway bar linked. That was a little honky.

Speaker: Yeah. So super, a super easy fix. Like it wasn't a big deal, but but while we were in there, we realized that the, um, boot to my CV axle was messed up.

Speaker: Yeah. So we went ahead and we went ahead and replaced it. I think I went to like auto zone and got one of those that has like the lifetime warranty or whatever. And replaced and called it a day. So back in February, um, I started noticing that my car was doing a weird shaky thing. Ooh, going straight or turning?

Speaker: And accelerating. Okay. And um it was driving perfectly fine. Other than that, it wasn't pulling. It wasn't, it didn't feel wrong. and like, I know my car pretty well at this point. I'm like, everything feels fine, but this is going on. So I was Googling a bunch this bunch of stuff. um A lot of the internet suggested one of my mounts was probably going bad. they have my engine now and it was just causing a shake. A lot of people were talking about just the Subaru engines in general. Again, just the way those engines are made. Sometimes they just have a little bit of that.

Speaker: um And when I first started noticing it, it was in the mountains. So I was like, maybe it's just struggling to like accelerate uphill. Like, I don't know what was happening. I drove this thing in the course of the next two months. Yeah.

Speaker: up to Asheville and back, which is about two, two and a half hours to me, down to Southern Georgia, about four hours from me there and back. um And then to Lugov, South Carolina, which is about two and a half hours from me there and And it was just like, and it wasn't happening all the time. And then some days it didn't feel as bad, some days it didn't. And i finally asked someone, like, do you think it's my CV axle? I kept hearing that you're going to hear that clunking noise. You're going to hear that noise if it's the CV axle. I'm like, I don't hear anything. It's perfectly quiet. Other than the fact that my car is doing this weird, like shaky vibrating thing. My dumb self to 100% call myself out on it. I am a little bit proud of myself in the fact that I was able to narrow it down to, you know, I beat the CV axle.

Speaker: But I only checked the passenger side. Because in my head, had replaced the driver's side.

Speaker: And it was whatever was happening was coming from like my my right side. like It wasn't coming from directly underneath me. I could feel that enough. So, like, surely it's not... it's tough driverside Well, the passenger one looks fine for the record. oh um So I drove it down the Johns and I was going with a friend of mine that was getting some of their car worked on as well.

Speaker: And I was there at this point, probably about 10 hours. I was just, I had just been hanging out, but it was just taking them a long time to get his rock cider situation figured out. And we had all day, who cares at that point? You're just hanging out with people. And we finally, I was like, I have to go home soon because I have to go home and take care of my dogs. I live alone and I have,

Speaker: four dogs because I'm crazy. That is crazy. Listen, it happens and it's fine. I took three of them to Cape Lookout this past trip. um And I definitely did not chase all three of them down the beach. um Of course not, never. Of course not, never. They didn't find a bird.

Speaker: oh it so I was like, I've got to leave soon. like I'm so sorry I'm not trying to rude, but I've got to go. And they're like, all right, let's let's pop your head. Let's see what's going on.

Speaker: So we popped the hood, we turned the car on, i accelerated a little bit, I just did park, and nothing was moving. We're like, okay, with it it's not the mouse, that narrows that down real quick. um And john we turned the car off, and John went and moved my car and went, oh, I found the problem.

Speaker: Immediately. it was under there 20 seconds. And he goes, come down here. And I split it in my car and I saw it immediately. I'm like, oh no.

Speaker: it was It was on the transmission side, which is why I was feeling it from that direction. It's also why it wasn't making a clunking noise. And I don't know how so much you looked at those photos. That thing was shredded. It was pretty bad. it was in the house.

Speaker: It looked like it had eaten some debris too. what we We found a piece of metal inside of it. So our guess is that it probably got a little punctured. that metal got in there and probably shredded it from the inside out. okay I've been driving on it for two months. i And who knows how long the boot was torn before that? was so bad.

Speaker: It was

Speaker: will own up to that. But i I messed up a little bit that faster. I got lucky. I got lucky that it didn't pause it and go further. It's such a common thing for people to miss though. Like people are yeah all the time having that issue.

Speaker: And I knew, knew it was a CVX. So I had in the back of my head, but I looked only on the passenger side because in in my brain that somehow made sense. And I will not make that mistake again. Let me tell you that. Um, luckily he's right down the road from the bottom. Sick. So me and Don, Warranty gang.

Speaker: ah and took it back and i brought it in and i was like help and they're like you look like you need a new one i'm like yeah and i left it on the counter they handed me a new one we popped back he popped that thing back in in like five minutes and i swear i swear to all that is good and holy i drove up home on a new car Dude, it's amazing like how such a small smallt like a stupid boot on a CB axle can cause all that havoc. You know what I mean? And that could have been so bad. i got so lucky with that. It could have been so bad. And I'm like, well, yeah I'll take this lesson over a one strand on the side of the road any day. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: Oh, dude. My bad. Well, let me ask you a couple things. um Yeah. What's been like, what what are kind of some of the most game changer mods that you've done to the car? Like, for example, if you had somebody who's like, hey, I got a stock Crosstrek exactly like yours. I want to go out on the trails with you. What are like a small handful of like the game changer mods that you did to the car that you would tell that person, go buy this stuff, install it, and and come out and do hood rat stuff with us?

Speaker: So the first, the first thing I bought was a skate plate. The very first thing I bought was a skate plate because I knew I couldn't afford to do everything all at once, but I'm like, I can at least protect that. yeah Um, now do I need more skate plates? Yes. And that is, that is in the works for me. I'm hoping to get them by the end of the summer.

Speaker: Um, But i I wanted to start from the ground up. So the first two things I did was I did the skid plates and I did the tires and that was a game changer of an experience. absolutely If you can get at least a spacer lift, I think it makes a big difference. Just having a little bit more clearance. But honestly, tires and skid plates, give yourself a little bit more room and protect your undercarriage.

Speaker: Absolutely. Yeah. Cause even without a lift, you can run a tire. I think even with your tire size, you can run that with no lift. and you're going have more grip of just a small amount of lift from the tires. And then the skid plates mean you're not going to brick your car out the middle of nowhere. it I mean, again, I was doing URI and URI is rocky as could be. i mean, it's bad out there. And I didn't even put dent in it. That thing is heavy and solid. but Yeah. Yeah. I've hammered mine. But that's the only thing I had. No, yeah. That's the only thing I had. And I was i don't i couldn't have done it if I didn't have that one.

Speaker: Yeah. yeah Yeah, I've got that same skid plate except for, you know, on my version of my car. But yeah, dude, that 316s, man, you can you can like literally slam your whole car down on ah on a rock and it's not going to taco. And i I have knocked it. I have knocked it on some gnarly stuff. um But honestly, I think.

Speaker: I think especially when people get into this kind of thing, you see all the the amazing rigs that people make. I mean, it's truly incredible the things people come up with. but And ah you might get overwhelmed, might get too excited, but I think starting with the basics is what you want to do.

Speaker: Absolutely. it yeah Protect it, and especially protect it as much as you can until you learn better. i mean, I had no idea what I was doing. And yeah there are a lot of days, again, I still don't, but I know my undercar is protected.

Speaker: Yeah, heck yeah. Mm-hmm. I kind of go back and forth on the things that I recommend to people like to do first. And typically a skid plate is like my first recommendation. Cause like you could do bigger tires, but depending on how big you want to go, you'd want to do a lift first and then, yep you know, and it's like, or you could run the skid plate first while you're, you know, kind of trying to plan out your, your modification list, you know?

Speaker: And again, you could argue that if you don't have good tires and one you know shreds, like, okay, that's not – mean it's an expense. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to discredit that. But fixing something underneath your car that could have been protected yes with a $300 piece of metal, more knows how much you're going to spend protecting that or if you can even get out of where you're at. Exactly.

Speaker: Like it's a piece – you cannot put a price on a peace of mind. Oh, exactly. and And if you puncture the oil pan or smash the oil pan enough to hit the pickup tube, like it only takes 30 seconds with oil starvation to wipe out all your rod bearings. Now your engine's seized, and now congratulations, you're now the new owner of a $6,000 engine install. Good work. And then you've to think about like if you're in the middle of something, how are you going to get out?

Speaker: Yeah, you're goingnna have to have somebody, somebody crazy enough to drive a tow pig in there and get it out either on flatbed or just drag the thing out and destroy the center diff. Like, nice. yeah I mean, if you if you go up to Cape Lookout, I think the tow fee alone is around $500. Sheesh, dude, I can't. Yeah, just because it's on an island.

Speaker: Yeah, dude. Now I got it. Yeah, exactly. So if you're in the middle of the woods like that, like that, I couldn't imagine. Yeah, it's not cheap. I think I've seen people pay like... a thousand bucks just to get pulled out of something, let alone have their rig drug all the way down the mountain. Like, no, I'm good. I'll, I'll pay the $320 for a skid plate. Like, like your yes again, it's going to be such a big peace of mind. You're going to save yourself so much grief. God forbid something happens. I mean,

Speaker: Have fun or protect what you're having fun with. Exactly. And even the way that like the first time I put a skid plate on a car, I remember it's kind of the same thing as having a gun on you and just feeling like, you know, like there's no need to like flaunt it or let anybody know. But like I go into the most, you know, sketchy part of town and you don't realize – like how bad it is to not have it until you have it and realize like, wait a second, oh this is what it's supposed to feel like to hit trails. I just charged down this and it literally doesn't matter what comes up and what I smack with the bottom of my car. Sick. Like, let's do it again. You know? Yeah.

Speaker: I was so thankful to have mine when I did. And to be honest, I'm not exactly sure when I bought the skid plate. Like I knew to protect my car, but I didn't have any idea what I would actually be doing.

Speaker: i just kind of got it on a whim. Cause it seemed like a good place to start a build. And yeah I'm so thankful I did. And again, I mean, this I've had it on there for about two years now. I love that thing. I love that thing so much. And with my bumper cut, I do get to show it off a little bit. Sick. Get that little lip with the ADF. The ADF plasma cut right there. Absolutely. I've, I've watched some of those get cut out on the table at his shop. So it's, it's always sick to see him out on the road. People hammering on like, yeah, dude, let's go. yeah ah um Okay. Let me ask you this. What are,

Speaker: if any, are there any new mods that you want to do to the car, either just for like aesthetic purposes or for capability purposes, anything you got in the works? I want to get a snorkel. Do I need a snorkel? Probably not. Do I want one really bad? Hey, clean air, man. clean Get some clean air in that intake, man.

Speaker: I mean, again, it's a little extra something just in case something comes up and I love the way they look. I really do. i think they're really cool. And I agree. Yeah. I'm not going to hate on that, dude. Like, why not?

Speaker: I just think it's cool. I want to get a rooftop tent at some point just because it would be more convenient. Oh, yeah. i sleep out of the back of my car, and I love that. But again, I camp with dogs. on I might camp with another person. It's...

Speaker: It gets tight real quick. Oh yeah. Yeah. um So being able to keep the car fairly packed up and still having somewhere to sleep would be a game changer because right now i'm having to completely unload my car because I can't even like start, I can't start, have it even partially put up unless I only bring one dog with me. um And just because I can't put that back seat down.

Speaker: Yeah. it's It's a fun time. No, I get it. I got to throw all my stuff on the roof when I post up in the back of the forest here. I get it. Yeah, I'm slowly and surely figuring out more organizational skills. Yeah, absolutely. It's been a hot mess. You become a UPS driver real fast organizing all these all these stupid things in the back of the car. It's either that or, hey, nobody look at this too closely when I pop the hatch. It's scummed in there.

Speaker: absolutely you know what they say good from afar but far from good don't look too close don't look too close that's what's up yeah yeah that's what's up um okay my last question for you ah the analytics on my channel it's maybe like two percent like so it's like 98 dudes that watch this channel um but i'm curious like there are a lot of ladies that want to whether it's a Subaru or whatever, they want to go off road.

Speaker: I think a lot of people are just intimidated. Even as a dude, I feel intimidated when I'm going off road with a new group of people like in the Jeep or the Subaru. And I'm like, Oh man, this is, these dudes are crazy. Like, do you have any tips? Like if there's, if there's ladies that like want to get into, you know, beating on their cars, working on their cars and going off road.

Speaker: If you can find one person you're comfortable around, you'll be fine. i I, got lucky enough that I met Rue immediately and who happened to be another woman. Um, and I love her dearly and she's very fun just to be around and she's very reassuring with stuff like that. heck yeah Um, but someone like John and Don who just take you under your wing, I don't, I don't worry about anything and I've never felt uncomfortable in any scenario, but about say with people I have not met anymore or like just friends with my car.

Speaker: it gave me a lot of confidence. And again, it makes me feel very capable. And it, it made me feel more like myself, like they provided a very good community in that. Um, and now I don't, I don't worry about who I am or who I'm not with.

Speaker: I can just have fun. I trust myself be able to set the boundaries of what I know my car is and is not capable of. Heck yeah. And I think the Subaru community is probably the the best place to start.

Speaker: Like they won honestly, and I could not, I could not, I could not agree more. And again, two of the first people I really started interacting with were Brandon and Jacob, two guys, quite frankly, who knew what they were doing out across the country, but they were very kind. They were very, very kind. They didn't make people stupid at all. They answered a lot of my questions up front, and that was a very good way to get involved. Heck yeah.

Speaker: It's a lot less intimidating, because it is. I mean, when you enter anything new, it's scary. Oh, dude. Story of my life. Like, I just started welding. I just started welding for fun recently. And it's like, even just trying to learn how to do that is scary. Cause like you go online and watch, your time i I just break enough car parts. And I finally was like, was like,

Speaker: I kind of got to this point where I was like, okay, anything else I want to do on the Jeep is going to require some metal work. Yeah. they're Like, why not? I'm just going to buy a welder and learn how to run flux core.

Speaker: Just quick and dirty. Make it happen, you know? And, dude, you'll go on you go on YouTube and watch like... you know instructional videos from like 20 year vets of the fab world and there's somebody in the comments that world looks like that's too cold oh you fucking should have drug that well you dumb motherfucker it's like dude this guy obviously knows what he's doing everybody has an opinion and that's another reason too honestly i really like love going down the johns just to continue to give him a shout out because god bless that man once again Heck yeah. um he lets me use He lets me use the fun tools. it gives me a good opportunity it gives me a good opportunity to get to try that because I've never had that before. Dude, heck yeah.

Speaker: I mean, not only that, but like you can see where he's progressed as well. So my spare tire carrier is welded to my rear bumper. So it comes up through through that um plastic in the back of my car.

Speaker: And he looked at it the other day was checking out something else. And he was like, wow, you can really see that was... I've been improved a lot in my well-being. This is like one of my first first jobs. Let's do it again. You can definitely tell I've improved a lot. I'm like, yeah you know what? It's still on there.

Speaker: but I got a buddy out here, my friend Jay. Dude, I love Jay. He's super cool. He's an ex-drug addict that just one day decided to quit doing drugs and turn his life around. And now he's like one of my favorite humans. Yeah, he he does a little bit of welding. And I hit him up. I was like, hey, I got a welder. Any chance I could like...

Speaker: get you to come over and show me how to do this. He's like, yeah, dude, I'll be right over there. And he's got this saying, he goes, a grinder and paint makes us the welder. We ain't. Yeah, bro. I don' love that. And you know, you're never too old to learn a new skill. You're never too old to get involved in something. And the reality is no matter, it no matter if you're with these people that have been doing it for 30, 40, 50 years, they were new at some point too. Yeah. And yeah,

Speaker: I really think one thing that I truly have learned about the superhero community in general is that there's a lot of grace offered there. And people are excited that other people are getting excited. They want to be involved with that. And it it creates a very safe and very happy and loving environment. Again, I don't, I still don't feel like I know Jack.

Speaker: but Same, same. i I've been getting, I've been getting more and more involved. I've been trying my best, but a lot of it does go so far over my head because I've never worked on anything like this.

Speaker: But there are so many good people in this community that offer the best advice without a blink of an eye. I mean, it's just, they're just kind. Like it's a really, really cool community and I'm so thankful to be a part of it.

Speaker: Yeah. I couldn't agree more. I'm glad you said that too about you're never too old to learn something. Cause I think we've let, I don't know who started this, but like, oh, you know, you just don't. It's harder to learn when you're older, blah, blah. Shut up, dude. That's not even remotely true. That's an excuse. Yeah, yeah. Like, because everybody uses the example of like, well, when you're a child, you're able to pick up languages like like nothing. Like, you learn English ah just from being around your... Duh, because you had a full-time language instructor around you, you idiot. When you're older... You actually know how to think and you know how to learn. Like, dude, so many people have fallen into that. Well, I'm just past my days of learning. So, dude, not even close. Get out there and go do something. You know what i mean? Like, yeah, the the first time I went to Cape Lookout, there were five of us and four of us were in like our 20s or early 30s. And then you have Ron and Ron's older than a lot of us. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: And again, i I still can't believe that man keeps coming around to us. We love him so much. Genuinely love him so much. Shout out Ron. Shout out Ron. Bless him. he He is so, he's just kind. And this is what he does full time. He travels around with his car stormy and it's just, it's incredible. what But I called my, I called my mom. We left the Island. I called my mom and my mom had me when she was older.

Speaker: And I called her, I was like i don't ever let you make another excuse again. Because this man is about your age and he is traveling around in his car all over the US. He is sleeping out of his car. He is doing these mods on his car.

Speaker: And he's doing all this and he's doing it because he loves it and because he's having fun. But i he does not let this age stop him. Dude, that's so sick. I admire that so much. Like we all want to be wrong when we grow up. Like his lifestyle is incredible. i I truly adore that man. He is so kind and just so much fun to be around, but he truly is. Dude, that's so sick. I love that.

Speaker: Yeah. I, I'm like, I've become the type of person like in my, you know, at this age where, you know I've been through a lot in life and I've gotten to this point where like,

Speaker: Anytime I hang out with somebody, like I want them to walk away feeling like they can do whatever thing it is they want to do. yeah I just want people to like get out there and, you know, take life by the horns and just kick it in the crack. You know what i mean? like Exactly. Let's get after it.

Speaker: I think one thing this community does really well, at least in my experience, is that it's not – don't sit there and I don't think about the experience I do or don't have. I don't think about my age in comparison to others. These are the people I happen to be hanging out with. Like everything else just kind of falls away, and it's truly just the people.

Speaker: And that's that's kind of incredible. I mean, again, I've got best friends that are significantly older and significantly younger than me. Same. And it doesn't – Again, different tax brackets across the US, different jobs, different lifestyles, like everything. And it doesn't matter.

Speaker: Yeah. Like it truly it really doesn't matter. All that falls away. And we're just, it you connect with people on a different level out here. Dude, I couldn't agree more because like, you know, when I...

Speaker: when I'm at like the Overland Expo, for example, like just this last year, like Overland Expo Northwest, ah you know, ah at the Subaru camp where everyone was hanging out, it's like we had one dude that was like an aircraft engineer. Got somebody over here that's an accountant by trade, and there's me doing like yeah marketing in the medical industry. And then we got somebody over here that works on cars professionally, and it's like – you know, eight ages ranging from like 22 years old up to like almost 60. And it's just like, oh, we're just all hanging out, acting a fool. And who cares? Yeah, exactly. I don't, and all that, again, all that just falls away and you're just, you're just people and you're enjoying the people you're around. And I'm so thankful for it.

Speaker: Yeah. I love it. Well, dude, I've been talking your ear off for like two hours so we can land the plane. I know it's later there than it is here. um it's about nine 40. Okay. Yeah. Sorry, but we, you're good um, let's see. Is there anything else that, uh, that I missed that you're just dying to talk about?

Speaker: Not, not that I can really think of again. I'm, I'm just happy to be here. Oh, dude. I really am. Yeah, I was going to say, I'm super thankful that you came on. I really appreciate it. I know it takes time out other days. No, thank you much for having Oh, dude, my pleasure.

Speaker: Before we pull into the pull into the garage and shut the door, can you remind people again where to find you on the good old Instagrams or anywhere else that you happen to have a presence online? Yes.

Speaker: oh um So I'm on all the regulars. I'm on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, all that jazz. um But my car Instagram handle is TheNeverEndingSuvie. It's The.NeverEnding.Suvie. Perfect. Which, for the record, if anyone has not caught it, Falkor is from The NeverEnding Story. Yes. Yeah. I literally never seen the movie. yeah You need to see it. Listen, it's definitely made in the 80s. I've never even seen Star Wars, bro. I'm a total loser.

Speaker: I've been Star Wars. What the world? Dude, I don't know. I was just busy going outside as a kid, I guess. Oh, wow. Okay. You know what? um So was I. Rude. I don't know.

Speaker: No, but that's not it's my Instagram handle as far as my car one goes. My personal one's linked to that as well. I think it's Neuralize Mars. Yeah. Right on. Thanks for clarifying the ah periods in between yeah words because a lot of people forget that. kind of forget about it a lot. yeah Yeah. It's like someone will just say like, oh, this is my Instagram that people, you you look at what it is without the underscores. You end up on some OF like models page. Like, wait, what? Like, I didn't know i was about to see cheeks. i I was looking at like a lifted Subaru or something. like that's

Speaker: It happens. If you search like Mars and Falkor, it typically pops up. Sick. Okay, good, good. Well, dude, thanks for doing this. Like, seriously, i genuinely appreciate it. It's an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much. It was fun.