He Crashed His Lifted Subaru Into a Tree at 50 MPH & It Saved His Life

Transcript

Speaker: what is up welcome to this week's episode of the dirt subies podcast i'm so happy to be back i was gone for almost two weeks on a work trip for my regular job just got back we've got my episode with my friend tom all edited ready to go really enjoyed this one if you have an sk forester and you're curious about what the process of modifying it for off pavement use is like this one's for you lot of good information in this one very excited for it Before we jump into that, make sure you're checking out the Subie & You podcast if you want more Subaru related podcast content. and you can check out the Wave podcast. Really like that show. i was on it recently. and Those dudes are mechanics. They work on these cars. They know these cars very well.

Speaker: Also a huge shout out Anderson Design and Fabrication. and Melee Design Firm for both sponsoring the Dirt Subies podcast. If you want a discount on their websites, you can go to their website and at checkout, just use code DIRTSUBIES.

Speaker: 5% off on ADF and then 10% off on any Melee Design Firm stuff. So let's go ahead and get into it. We got Tom on the podcast today. Dude, can you introduce yourself? Let us know where everybody can find you and then tell us what kind of car you got right now. All right. I'm Tom. You can find me at 4BangingWagon.com.

Speaker: I got 2022 Subaru Forester right now. ah You know, you said you have a 2022, but in the past, he you had another car and right out of the gate. Let's hear the story on that because that thing looks like you put a lot of time, a lot of money, and yeah you don't have it anymore. So can we hear the background on that?

Speaker: Yeah, I had 2017 Outback. With a two inch lift. I had a body armor 4x4 2 inch spacer lift on it. With Kingspring overloads in the rear. I had it on some WRX factory 17 inch wheels. With some KO2s.

Speaker: And then the one day i was on my way to work. About a mile and a half from the house. And I was in a line of traffic. And the car just came directly in my lane.

Speaker: I slammed on the brakes, cut it, and I found a tree at probably close to 50. Okay, so I didn't know that part of the story. That's absolutely crazy. um Who all was in the car? I'm guessing just you? You weren't carpooling?

Speaker: Nope, by myself. Okay, so what kind of injuries did you have? I had one little bruise on my chest and that was it from the seatbelt. Dude, man. So when I first got into the cars, I remember thinking, uh, you know, they had really built a reputation for safety and that's just absolutely wild. You said 50.

Speaker: About yeah. Cause we were in a line traffic, Pennsylvania. The, the saying goes nine, you're fine. 10, you're mine.

Speaker: We ain't going 45. I was keeping up with traffic and we were doing probably close to 60 and I slammed on the brakes. And when I hit that grass, it didn't stop me at all. So I've never actually been in a car accident. Not, not ever, you know and I'm not a great driver.

Speaker: What's that? Oh yeah. not I got some, some laminate, right? um I'm a very defensive driver, but yeah, I've been very blessed to never have been involved in any kind of accidents other than flopping my jeep and subarus on their sides on the trails but uh what was kind of the experience like did the did the car roll or i so when i hit the brakes i was going right for a mini cow fence where they had the highland mini cows and i grew up on a farm

Speaker: I'm not going to hit a cow. I cut the wheel as hard as I could. I thought I could miss the tree, and i found the tree right on. Oh, right to the front? Right the front, yep.

Speaker: Oh, man. Did it ah passenger or driver's side? It was more like just to the side on the passenger side, like right on the side of the emblem.

Speaker: And it hit it right on. It lifted the back of the car up and slung me into the fence a little bit. But yeah, immediately when the airbags went off, I was like, the first thing i went through my mind was, oh my God, my car's totaled.

Speaker: Yeah, right. I was like, you gotta be kidding me. Oh man. Well, I'm sorry that happened, but I think, you know, it's one of those things where, um at least for me anyways, when I, like I said I've never been in a car accident, but I've had a lot of close calls with other things in life.

Speaker: And it's kind of a nice sobering reminder that, okay, every day I wake up good day, even though my body hurts, it is what it is. Exactly. I had eight people that stopped behind me cause he sideswiped.

Speaker: I forget if it was one or two cards behind me. He also sideswiped them and kept going. or Did they ever catch them or no? No. I took full responsibility for the entire wreck. I was 100% liable for everything. So honestly, my insurance company was great. Within three hours, I had a rental car.

Speaker: And within a month, everything was completely settled everywhere. That's so sick. who Can you shout out your insurance company? It's State Farm. Let's go.

Speaker: Yeah, I think that's a lot of times people will shop just based on the premium. you know once you once you have a claim that's when you really realize whether or not you got a good deal oh yeah like i didn't even i paid nothing out of my pocket for it everything came off of the out of what they were paying for it gap insurance covered their part i ended up i ended up walking away with 300 in my pocket That's so sick. I can't remember the acronym, but can you explain to people what gap insurance is? I know a lot of people will know, but some younger kids might have no idea.

Speaker: Gap insurance is guaranteed auto protection and it helps you throughout your, if you have an accident and your insurance will not cover the full price of your loan, they'll kick in and they'll pay for that difference. Yeah. So if somebody owes like 25 K on a car that the insurance company says, well, this car is only worth 18 gap insurance comes in and keeps you from being underwater on a car you no longer own after a crazy event.

Speaker: I'd love to just get a brief overview on the Outback in terms of like, how long did you own that car? And, um, when, when did this accident take place? You may have already said that, but No, I bought the car when I found out that my ex-girlfriend was pregnant with my son. That was in the summer of 23.

Speaker: So after that, then I was just driving around like nothing. And then I went to Boxer Fest. That's where I met Jim. That'll it. that I'm so glad you guys know each other. I'm so glad you reached out too. But yeah, sorry, didn't mean to interrupt.

Speaker: yeah you're good But yeah I met Jim and I was like, oh man, you can lift an outback? Because I had no idea. And then I got to talk to Angelo, that Weight Wagon 18. He's been awesome just to talk to and be a friend with as well.

Speaker: But between those two, they talked me in basically to getting a lift kit for it. And Angelo actually was the hookup because he had it laying around.

Speaker: So he hooked me up with that lift kit. Then me and Jim put the lift kit on at his house. Nice. So, like, it it was a whole going on, but, yeah, like, I bought the KO2s off Marketplace for $400, like, branded. Yes.

Speaker: yeah So I was into those 400. I paid 200 for the WRX wheel. So I was set, but yeah, I mean, I had that car for about two years and about three months.

Speaker: I put right at 30,000 miles or it Okay, okay. So this is kind of an a somewhat recent situation. Yeah, the accident was this previous September.

Speaker: Dude, I'm glad you're okay, man. That's ah yeah s gnarly. That's why we tried Subarus, though. gi Yeah, dude, 100%. I've heard stories of people being smashed in a car, and they're just like, okay, well, I guess we just got to get...

Speaker: you know, the medical examiner out here and we have to figure out a way to get the remains out. They, they uncrumple the car and there's a dude in there like, ah it's about time. Yeah. They like when everything happened, there was a guy that worked for the hospital that stopped right behind me.

Speaker: Like he was making sure I was all good and everything like that. And then I get into the, the ambulance and the guy's like, your blood pressure is like 170 over like 120. Are you hypertensive? And I was like, what does that mean?

Speaker: ah I'm like, I don't know. But he's like, okay, do you want to go to hospital? I'm like, I'm perfectly fine. No, I didn't hit my head on anything. Like I took the airbag to the chest because I just stood on the brakes. Like there was, there was no more I could do other than choose between a cow or a tree.

Speaker: Yeah, I'm glad no cows were harmed. Especially, ah you said it's it was one of those... Highland mini cows. Yeah, those things are sick. They got the long hair, right? Yeah. Yeah, they're so... But um there's one part of the story, and I have photo proof of it too.

Speaker: As I'm in the back of the ambulance, the one cop's there talking to me, and he goes, oh boy, the owner's out and she has a cattle prod. And I'm like, what do you mean? So I get out of the ambulance, I walk over,

Speaker: The owner is walking around in nothing but a robe and slippers with a cattle prod. I'm like, oh my God. Like, she's going to come after me. I'm like, oh no.

Speaker: But no, the one bull they have was so nasty, it started going after the firefighters and everything like that, trying to get my car away. Oh, fudge. Yeah. Oh, dude. Yeah, I'd call out sick on that. Yeah, if I was a firefighter on that call, I'd say, sorry, boss. I'm feeling real sick. All of a sudden, I gotta go. I ain't fighting no bull, dude. Yeah, I'm like, really? But there was not one panel on that Outback that did not have a dent on it after that. Like, there's a there's a video on my Instagram of just how bad it was.

Speaker: But every door opened and closed perfectly fine still. Like, it was really, really messed up. Yeah, that's impressive. Shout out to Subaru, man.

Speaker: I know safety standards in general are a little bit higher now than they were 20, 30, especially 40 years ago. yeah But dude, everything about the cars is on point. Dude, I love them.

Speaker: Hopefully we never get in accidents, but when we do, i want to walk away. Yeah, and like I didn't even know my glasses flew off. I just immediately grabbed my hat and climbed out the passenger side.

Speaker: But the worst part of it all, my dash cam died on my way to Boxer Fest a week before. No. Oh, dude, that sucks. So I mean i had no dash cam footage or anything now.

Speaker: Yeah, so no way to track down the hit and run. oh that sucks. yeah Yeah, I mean, it's going to ding your insurance a little bit, but at least, you know, sounds like you were made whole and you're okay.

Speaker: Yeah, that's all that matters at the end of the day. Yeah, exactly. I know you went to Boxer Fest and that seems to be kind of like what got you started on this whole thing. But was that out back your first Subaru or or No. So that was my third Subaru. Oh, dude, you got to fill me in now. All right. My first one I bought when I was 18. It was 2012 Legacy.

Speaker: Oh, sick. Okay. So I had that one. About a year into owning that, I ended up purchasing a wrecked 06 Impreza. Me and my dad completely rebuilt it, and i ended up selling it to my best friend, who's still driving it with 230,000 miles on it.

Speaker: Oh, that's... Well, let me ask... Sorry to interrupt, but rebuilding, did was it... How mangled was it, or was it did it just need like an engine rebuild? So, the whole front end was smashed up from hitting a deer.

Speaker: okay That car has seen, I believe, four front fenders, two hoods, and like three bumpers. I paid like $250 for it And I just sold it to my buddy after we fixed it up for a little bit extra.

Speaker: So it wasn't crazy. My dad actually did body work for like 50 years until he retired. So he has a little body shop right here in the garage. He's actually working on our 1939 Pontiac.

Speaker: coop what oh dude we're actually gonna look this up yeah look up 1939 pontiac special 25 oh that's sick but we're actually gonna be extending k5 blazer frame and making it four wheel drive oh dude that's so sick I grew up with my mom having a K5 Blazer on 35s. My dad drove a K10 on 33s. Best way to grow up.

Speaker: and That's so sick. Yeah, K5s, in my opinion, I've never owned one, probably never will, but that's like peak 4x4 to me, and it pisses me off yeah that Chevy's not in the 4x4 game in anything other than trucks right now. All their SUVs, all that stuff is garbage. They don't make any actual wheelers right now, which...

Speaker: Hurts my heart. It's like we got the Bronco. We got Wranglers. Where's Chevy at, man? We had so the Blazer used to actually be a Wheeler. Now it's a goofy little crossover. Oh, I know.

Speaker: Because we actually have three K5s here. We have my mom's original one, but the frame is completely gone. We have a plow truck. The frame is completely gone on. And we have one that we're going to be using the body and putting it on another blazer frame.

Speaker: That way we could still have one. but Okay. Oh, you guys are you guys are dialed in to do some good restoration work then since you got all the got all the different stuff to piece together. That's what's up.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. Yes, sir. I didn't mean to interrupt. I had to hear about the Buick, dude. But yeah, so you had ah ah you said you had one other Subaru after that Impreza.

Speaker: Then I had the Outback and now I have the Forester. OK, yeah. OK, there we go. Yeah. So it went Legacy, Impreza, Outback, Forester. So I've been modifying Subarus for off-road use roughly a decade at this point.

Speaker: And if you want to use the exact same lift kit and off-road parts that I'm using and that I have been using for about 10 years, Anderson Design and Fabrication is pretty much my go-to for anything off-road Subaru related.

Speaker: And they're a sponsor of the show. They've given us a discount code for you guys to use. It's 5% off pretty much site-wide for the most part. if you just go to awdadventure.com you can get lift skid plates ditch light brackets molly panels molly panels are one of my favorite things i've got them in my forester use code dirt subies at checkout that'll get you five percent off they're a small business they're based here in the united states they make all their own parts and their stuff is top tier yeah i've owned a ton of legacies what what kind of drew you to the idea of buying a subaru in the first place you just

Speaker: By chance or had you heard anything about like the all wheel drive or what was that process like? Growing up, this is coming from my uncle. He said when I was really young, I always said, I'm going own a Subaru. I'm going own a Subaru. That's a weird thing. Yeah.

Speaker: I always wanted a Subaru ever since I was little. Okay. Had you seen like WRXs or literally you just wanted any Subaru? Any Subaru.

Speaker: that's sick what do you have any memory of where that came from not one that's what that's so that's so crazy i've never heard a kid say you know what i want a grandma wagon when i grow up i love it man that's sick i i even said to my dad the one day i was like because he grew up with and novas and camara yeah stuff like that and i muscle your muscle yeah yeah i said did you ever think your son would be driving around in a lifted station wagon he's like no not at all he's like yeah i thought about disowning you for a minute but i'm just kidding pretty much yeah man they're ah they're quirky cars but dude after some of the stuff i've done in them

Speaker: Man, they're they're i'll I'll always own one, man. I love them. Yeah. Um, let me ask about, so you, you went ahead and bought a 22 Forester. I'd kind of like to pick your brain a little bit before we dive into some of the mods and stuff that you have on the car.

Speaker: What is kind of your, your opinion on the Outback versus Forester? Is there stuff about the Outback that you miss versus the Forester and vice versa? And, uh, what caused you to pick the one that you currently have?

Speaker: So when I originally went to buy a new car, which was the accident happened on a Wednesday on Saturday, I had a new car. I went to look at the 2016 Outback and I was going to completely. Yeah.

Speaker: Rebuild everything the same way I had it because I had all those parts left over. Like, okay, well I'm driving it and it must've been, I believe they said it was a transfer clutches inside of the transmission. Yeah.

Speaker: It was hopping going down. the Yes. I'm like, and the salesman's like, you can take it home today. I'm like, no, not at all. Not a chance, bro. Yeah. And then I said to him, cause I had all those other ones. I was like, do you have a forest or I can just drive?

Speaker: and he grabs it and he brings it out and it's the gray, which is one of my favorite colors. So I was like, all right, let's drive it. And getting inside and just seeing how sporty the inside looked, I was like, okay, I could handle this.

Speaker: And it just had a lot more pep than my Outback did. To compare it to my Outback, it's nothing similar at all. yeah like when i The way the Outback felt going on any type of trail or anything like that, it just felt a lot more sturdy.

Speaker: There's like, I don't have many videos up of it or anything like that, but I took it up to Connecticut with two buddies up there. Jamie the Subie, Sean. Oh, yeah. He was there and we were going through some stuff up in New England and I was like, oh my God, I can't believe this car can do it.

Speaker: And I'm sitting here, I'm like, i kind of want to do it with this car, but I don't know if it's going to do as well. Like, yeah it's just, i don't know. it did, right? i haven't taken this one anywhere but a local place okay and ran it.

Speaker: It did great, just stock with the all terrains on it. But, I mean, once I have the the skid plates and everything like that back on it, which just arrived today. Oh, what'd you get? TBW Performance. Okay.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. I got the car on September 27th, I believe. And as of now, I got it with 25,000 miles on it. and Right now, i'm about to roll 35,000 already.

Speaker: Nice. So in just that little span, I've had it in nine different states. so dude that's what's up are you are you traveling a lot for work or just is this just for fun like let's get the heck out and explore okay oh dude that's exactly what these cars are for man oh yeah i actually built a drawer for my outback and i was like okay i'll put it into the forester and it's about like three or four inches too too long

Speaker: So I can't use it. But I mean, i keep a lot of stuff in my car. Like I always keep one or two fishing poles. I keep my waders. I keep all that stuff.

Speaker: But then I also keep I have all the stuff for my son and everything like that in there. but I've yet to run out of room anywhere. Like, it's the perfect amount of space.

Speaker: I like that's a little taller. So, I mean, I'm only like five nine so I don't need headroom, but having that little bit of space above the head is a lot nicer. Yeah, you could always do overhead molly panels at some point if you really wanted to wanted to take advantage, but yeah. i was thinking about it, but...

Speaker: It's a lot of money. There's something in the works that's coming in about two to three weeks that I've been working with someone with. So we'll see oh let's what all comes. Can we get a preview? Cause I mean, this won't come out for almost two weeks. I can cut it out if we need to. Uh, Rago fabrications just released all their stuff for the Forester and they actually sponsored some Molly panels for the back windows.

Speaker: Oh, let's go. That's sick. Okay. So that's like the first real sponsorship I had. i have affiliate links and stuff like that, but this is like the first company that I've got a response. It's like, absolutely. We'll do a sponsorship with you.

Speaker: Let me ask about that because I think everybody wants to get sponsored or whatever and they're just always looking for free handouts for literally nothing. um If somebody really does want to find a company to help support their build, do you have any recommendations on how to kind of bring value to the table and also you know create like a mutually beneficial arrangement?

Speaker: So on Raggo's, they had an actual link to become a sponsor. Out of the blue, I was laying in bed one night and I was like, I'll give it a shot.

Speaker: The worst they can say is no, right? About three days later, I got a message and I was like, who's this guy? i was like, oh my God. So it was all just luck of the draw, I think. But yeah it's been awesome working with them. So everything should be here in about, this they said two to four week lead time because everything just came out.

Speaker: Okay. So I'll have those probably in like, I ordered them last week. So probably like three more weeks. Dude, that's rad. Congrats, dude. Thank you. That's super sick. Yeah. Rago fab. They initially were like a Toyota focus brand. Is that right?

Speaker: Correct. Okay. This is their first lineup of anything for Subaru. So I think that's how I got lucky. And with me still being like a more or less a plain Jane build still, I think it kind of helped a little.

Speaker: Yeah, that way you kind of see the transformation. Exactly. Yeah, that's rad. Heck yeah. So we talk about modifying Subarus a lot on this channel. That's pretty much what the whole channel's about. But one of the things that I think is most overlooked in the car modification scene is batteries. I've been using full throttle batteries in melee design firm mounts and tie downs for about five years now i will not drive a car out into the middle of nowhere without making sure that i've got a good battery in it i run a full throttle battery in my daily driver i've got a full throttle battery in my forester and then another one in my jeep and i got all of them from melee design firm.com They are a sponsor of the show and to show their support to you guys and as a thank you to the listener, if you go to meleedesignfirm.com, you can get a new battery, battery tie-down, strut tower braces, engine bay caps, all sorts of stuff. Use code DIRTSUBIES at checkout. That would get you 10% off. They're a small local business based here in Oregon. Absolutely love everything they're doing. Mitch is a good dude. If you want to support small local businesses, head over there.

Speaker: see what they got they got something for your car that you like just use that code and you'll get a little bit of a discount huge shout out to mitch over at melee those guys are absolutely crushing it i want to ask about your your tire setup on the on the forester you're running a tire that's a little bit what I would consider to be, um, that's late. I can't think of my vocabulary words today, but, um, non-traditional for what I see on Subaru builds.

Speaker: I think you're running some Aturos and I love Aturo tires, bro. Their stuff is so sick. I love them so much, dude. Yeah, the Trailblades. Trailblade ATS. Yes, I want to get a set of ah um their mud terrains for the Jeep when I wear these out. But yeah, dude, those things are sick. what What's your opinion on that tire? And is it the first time you've ever owned a set of those?

Speaker: I was looking at them for my Outback. So originally, the Outback, I had a goal. I wanted to be on thirty ones I don't know why. i just wanted to say I had a Subaru that sat on 31s.

Speaker: Everything happened. I didn't end up doing it. Well, then I saw, i think I paid like $115 a tire for these. I'm like, I'll give it a shot. and Yeah.

Speaker: I would take these tires over a KO2 any day. Road noise, nothing. The tread wear, like nothing. And I have almost 10,000 miles them. Like, like they're just excellent they're not heavy like the ko2s or anything like that have you put them through the same amount of like off-road abuse uh the ko2s the ko2s i had i did two trips down to the pine barrens and i did that trip up to connecticut that's the only time i was able to get out with those on like a true trail these i've had out one time at a local spot that wasn't

Speaker: very crazy or anything anything like that like you drove through a couple water crossings here or there that weren't deep but it wasn't anything sharp rock or anything like that was all smooth just mud trail that's it really okay and they still gripped oh yeah i've had no issue during winter I was at my girlfriend's house and we had probably close to about 15 or 16 inches. And then with the drifts, I just in X mode got out to the end.

Speaker: And then I had to stop in the hard pack from the plow because the truck was coming. So I stopped dead in that, gave it gas and it just plowed right through all that hard pack. Like it was nothing from a dead stop to out. Can you remind me which trail blades these are?

Speaker: ATS. Yeah. Dude, ah um ah let me look them up. Sorry, I'm just going to look this up on the spot. ATS. Is this like a hybrid type of, it or not hybrid, but like a CUV type tire? Or is it like, do you know if it's made to be no, this looks like a real all-terrain. This doesn't look like a. It's almost like a hybrid, but the way it's classified, it says all-terrain.

Speaker: It does have a semi-aggressive sidewall, which is nice. But, yeah, I mean, for how much I paid for a set of them, I can't complain at all. Yeah, what what size did you get? Did you get the 245-65s? I only went up one size. So the car came with 225-60. I went to two twenty five six five five Okay. Now, go for a 235 probably.

Speaker: yeah once these were out i'm goingnna go for two thirty five probably Okay. So just a little bit bigger, but nothing crazy. And your car should still fit the two 35s. No problem. Cause I think there's people running in two 45 65 with zero trimming on the same yeah car, but this is, I'm looking at the specs right now. I mean, it's an 1130 seconds tread depth on that specific version and they only weigh 28 pounds, dude. That's a, that's a nice tire.

Speaker: I'm looking at all the, um, all the i can't remember what they call these but all the bars in between the treads they eject like stone and mud it's got a big clean bunch of that yeah dude i like that it's a nice tire sorry i didn't mean to you you were saying something about after you wear these out so i'm a tire nerd bro so many times i'm like let me look them up like i've had buddies that had um the falcons they never impressed me with the way they even look i know that's gonna upset some people but i'm personally not a fan i don't i don't dislike them but i'm with you that they don't they don't drive me crazy yeah but when i saw these and i was like i never heard of tarot before i was like i looked them up and i was like oh they have like 40 000 followers on instagram that's it and i was like we'll see i'll try them out and i would recommend them to anyone

Speaker: Yeah. They, um, I, I learned about them cause you know, I, I know everybody's going to hate on me for this, but i do own a Jeep cause I just realized that Subas do have limitations. Um, so I, I bought a Jeep to add to the collection. And, uh, so I learned a lot about, about, um, you know, bunches of different, you know other options that are out there. And a Turo is one of those, uh,

Speaker: one of those tire brands that kept coming up and yeah, those trail, I think it's like the trail blade boss or something. i Got a buddy that had one of those. I'll had a set of those on like a He rebuilt like a Willys and put it on tons.

Speaker: Oh, wow. he was Yeah, he was running those tires. I was like, ah those look sick, and they're absolutely crushing it cause so we were in deep snow. But, yeah, I think you might be one of the first or the maybe one of two people that I've ever talked to in the Subaru community that's run a Turo. So glad to glad to chat about them a little bit more.

Speaker: Yeah. And then KO threes. Cause I mean, that's the current tire from, from BFG right now, but KO threes, I mean, you're, you'd be almost at 300 bucks a tire, I think.

Speaker: So we're in that ballpark, two 50 minimum. So it's like, Oh, let me pay less than half almost. exactly if you're trying to do something where you know high performance like oh I'm going to the track and I need a tire to perform exactly the way I need it to yeah sure spend the money but man we're beating these tires up putting rock chips in the sidewalls all that dude I'm not paying you know 300 bucks a tire get out of here exactly I mean for me like right now like basically just commuting I don't have any trail days coming up or anything like that but

Speaker: They're dead quiet on the highway doing 70, 80. It's nothing for it. Let me ask about the fitment. um I'm assuming, but I'd just like to ask you, any problems fitting that tire on? I think you're still on stock wheels, correct?

Speaker: I am on stock wheels, yes. Okay. Yeah, so no issues at all with that size. Perfect. So anybody listening to this with a... You got a 22. I can't remember the... 1924. nineteen to twenty four There we go. Thank you. yeah Anybody running that, you can fit this tire size literally no problem. And I think you could fit that tire even with no lift if somebody just was trying to get get out and go fishing in some secluded spots. But...

Speaker: um Yeah, I just put my lift kit on a week and a half ago, maybe. Oh, okay. so that's a new development. I love it. Yeah, that's new too. When you have other people, because you said Jim helped you put it on, right?

Speaker: ah He helped me with the Outback. Oh, that's right. I'm sorry. Okay, okay. How did this lift kit install go? This one went a lot easier. My girlfriend Thad has a lift in his garage.

Speaker: Oh, jealous to the max like doing the subframe spacer kit and everything like that it's just so easy yeah you just slowly drop the subframe down replace it one bolt at a time and nope no hassle man so easy and it's a relatively fresh car i mean i know you um you're located where just to double check uh Okay. So, i mean, you guys do get rust, but um was that enough time for you to have to fight a little bit of rust in there or no? Not at all.

Speaker: Oh, dude. That's so nice. Oh, yeah. I'm so spoiled where I grew up. um We have a lot of rain. yeah i grew up like in the Portland area. no Don't worry. I'm not a crazy Portlander. I promise. I obviously had to get out of there for, for, you know, reasons that are very apparent, but man, no rust ever. So then when I see people, you know, trying to fight 15 years of rust and corrosion to get stuff apart, like, man, I wouldn't even be a car enthusiast if I lived somewhere where they salted the roads like that. Oh, no. Well, instead of salting it now, now they have their brine.

Speaker: Yeah. So i' like it's everywhere, dude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cause it, um, can you tell me the difference between like, um, cause the, the brine, is it already mixed in with fluid or something?

Speaker: Yeah. And they just spray the roads with it and it stays wet. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and it just it makes its way up into everything, dude. It's so bad. It's like sand. It goes everywhere. Yeah, if it couldn't get any worse, man. oh it was This year was bad. This was one of the worst winters we had in about five years for cold weather and snow.

Speaker: like it was it was pretty good so me personally snow wheeling is my all-time favorite thing to do is that something you guys are able to do or is it is it something where when you guys get up on the trails it's just too deep and are you kind of like man i'm driving in snow every day i'm not trying to go snow wheeling so back when i had the outback the second time i ever went wheeling with anybody was down in the barrens with a snowstorm So I drove that's two hours away from me, two hours south. So I drove through the snow all the way down to driving more snow to come home to more snow.

Speaker: That's the only part about good snow wheeling, because, man, yeah, driving. the Forester or the Jeep on snowy roads just to snow wheeling. It's, you know, white knuckling because the Jeep doesn't have any driver aids whatsoever. And, you know, both my Subaru and the Jeep, they're both on mud terrains, which do good in deep snow, but on the road,

Speaker: Feels like hell, Oh, yeah. Like, I still remember my dad with his K-10. He had Dick Sapek Extreme Countries on it. He came to pick me up from the farm because I was getting done milking cows at the time. I didn't have a license yet, but he came down and you just see him looping out with these.

Speaker: And I was like, what are you doing? He's like, I have no traction with these things. Oh, fu I'll never forget it. Yeah, man. Snow is kind of a two edged sword. It's fun to play in, but I've always been pretty fortunate to where anywhere I've lived. The snow is there if I want it.

Speaker: If I want to go up in the hills, I can find it But it doesn't usually come down to where I'm at too often. And when it does, it's like, i don't even want to leave the house because, you know, some bozo out there rear wheel drive with, you know, summer tires. And it's you can drive as safe as you want. but You know, some other goofball is just going to clobber. I live three miles from a very large ski area.

Speaker: OK. And I'm right off of a turn to a straightaway. Oh, dude. So you can only imagine how blind it's blind turns to turn out of the driveway in the winter. Oh, yeah, it's green.

Speaker: No, thank you guys have a lot of accidents on that turn from people going somewhat too fast on the straightaway and then taking a turn and understeering. Like a month ago I was getting ready for work and I heard this smack. I look out the door and there's a Mustang wiped out in my neighbor's yard. I'm like, really, dude?

Speaker: course, it's a Mustang. It was searching for spectators, dude. Yeah, seriously. That's horrible. Oh, man. um Let me actually ask you, can you can you um tell us what what's involved in doing a spacer lift on a Subaru Forester?

Speaker: I mean, it was honestly straightforward. um I did the ready lift. So it was two inch in the front, one and a half in the rear. yeah um Really just having it on the lift, we took out the inner part of the lower control arm.

Speaker: yes let that hang the struts came right down now i did rally tech overload springs with the half inch lift and top of that as well put those on but i mean other than that we just put a transmission jack underneath of it lowered like you said a little bit at a time did one side did the other side back up everything went back together up to the front the two bolts off the strut The three up top, slide it out, put it on, pop them back in. It was just so simple.

Speaker: The lift made a world of difference to have it. Really? oh i mean, i I can imagine it would because you're not... yeah I mean, I've been spending... i'm i'm doing a long-arm kit on the Jeep and a bunch of other stupid stuff. I've been doing that whole thing on my back, you know, drilling holes through the frame on my back, all this stuff. I'd love to have a lift, but I think it maybe I... I underestimate how valuable it would be. I just have no room for one or money.

Speaker: yeah I lucked out because... Apparently, now I know I'm going to get roasted for this one. I put the top hats on wrong.

Speaker: Really? Now, on the ready lift, it has an arrow. So D with an arrow to driver's side. P with an arrow to passenger's side. Don't follow the arrow.

Speaker: Oh, no. Okay, okay. Yeah, let us know what where what direction is the arrow facing. So you have to be able to read the R in the top hat from the side you're standing on.

Speaker: Okay. I found out when it was on the alignment rack. Dude, that sucks. So did you have to drop everything back down and rotate it? I had to go home.

Speaker: take everything apart, put everything back together, readjust the toe back in because one tire straight and one tires like this. And it was that like negative 2.6 degree camber, like in both sides. Like it was, it was so bad.

Speaker: I finally go this coming week, this next Monday for another alignment at a completely different shop. ah That way they can't roast you when you show back up. Oh, no. I called to try and get back in. They're like, oh, we got swamped. We can't get you in until May 4th. I'm like, whoa, that sucks. That sucks. how How far are you from the current alignment shop that you're going to go to?

Speaker: 10 minutes. Oh, perfect. Okay. Yeah. yes you don't have to worry too much about nuking the tires on the way over. Yeah. I mean, I've been driving it like this last Mondays when I did the first alignment, because I did the lift kit on that Saturday beforehand.

Speaker: So I'm driving like maybe two weeks without it in line. I only drive 25 miles round trip to work four days a week. Okay. So it's nothing crazy, but.

Speaker: Yeah. Are there any specific tools that you found when you were doing the lift kit that you either wished you had or that when you had it, you were like, man, this is a lifesaver. For me, it's an impact gun. I love having an impact gun on hand. Was there anything like that? to laugh. We did not use one impact gun.

Speaker: Oh, nice. Hey, you don't need one. i just love them. It was right there. We used it to take the wheels off. But other than that, everything came off by hand. So that way there was no risk of stripping it or messing anything up. No, it's you you have the torque in your hand.

Speaker: Awesome. Yeah, that's the right way to do it for most stuff. Because, yeah, I think especially when I'm doing engine work, anytime I'm taking like a head off or something, i do all of it by hand. so I just I kind of want to feel Like, oh, is there any resistance to there that showed up suddenly? Or, oh, this one came out way too easy, you know, that type of stuff.

Speaker: But for everything else, yeah, I just ugga-dugga the heck out of it like a good old boy. Like, last week I went under right before the alignment, retorqued everything down. I'm going to go under it again tomorrow.

Speaker: retorque everything down make sure everything's still staying tight you know i mean because yeah i had two bolts in the front for the spacer because i'm a little bit of a frankenstein so oh me too unpaved p&w derek actually hooked me up with the lift kit and the spacer kit really yes oh that's what's up derek's a i love derek he is awesome Like he really was awesome with helping with everything, but he sent it to me.

Speaker: And when we put it on and everything like that, I messaged him. was like, oh thanks so much. And I told him about the alignment and I don't remember what he said, but it was more or less like, I'm just an idiot. I said, yeah.

Speaker: But so I have the Iron Man fourbyfour subframe and sway bar spacers. Okay. Ready lift spacer kit with Rally Tech springs.

Speaker: Nothing wrong so that. If it works, it works. Yeah. It's a little bit Frankenstein, but everything lined up perfectly. Once you have it on right. And um just to double check, the ReadyLift kits do not come with the subframe spacers, right?

Speaker: The ReadyLift, no. That is completely like separate. You'd have to find somewhere else, like ADF or something like that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, i just, I wasn't sure if they had added that into the kit recently or not.

Speaker: and And I think you can, I think one inches is kind of where most companies will cut off. And that's kind of been my only gripe with the ready lift stuff is, you know, people be like, Oh, going to save a bunch of money. And then they realize like, Oh, I need rear subframe spacers. And by the time they go and they buy them, Oh crap. I could have just bought the whole thing. Yeah. so I didn't run any on my outback.

Speaker: Okay. So it shifted my whole rear forward and everything on, but I mean, i don't have any of the, drivetrain shake like I did in the Outback with this one.

Speaker: Okay, good. It is, I get no shake or shimmy or anything like that. My Outback, if you turned and gave it gas, the whole steering wheel would shake.

Speaker: Really? Yes. Huh. You know, I've talked with Patrick patrick Anderson about this a little bit, and he said he doesn't know what causes the drivetrain shutter or, you know, like the driveline wobble or whatever you want to call it.

Speaker: He said there's some cars that come straight from Subaru that have slight driveline vibration. There's other cars that have been lifted without the proper stuff and those don't vibrate at all. It's like there's really no way to know if you're going to get it or not. Yeah, really. It it was weird.

Speaker: But I mean, like I did the ADF CVT bushing. Oh, put that in right away as well. But other than that, the only other thing I want to do just to tighten everything thing up is the.

Speaker: The carrier bearing. Oh yeah, dude. I want to do one of those and probably the carrier bearing spacers as well. I just bought another pitch stop mount from, from melee. Cause I've, you know, i drive, I've driven manuals pretty much my whole life and my daily is a manual. And then my Forester, I just bought another pitch stop mount for that. I don't a hundred percent need it, but it definitely helps kind of tightens everything up a little bit.

Speaker: And it looks cool. Yeah, I didn't even really know what it was until think it was Overtake had something on Instagram about it. like, what is that?

Speaker: was like, oh, that might be something to look into. Yeah, because the ones from Subaru, I mean, they do what they're supposed to do. But like I mean, I guess in in my opinion, in stock form, it's just fine. But if you start doing anything that's even remotely aftermarket, it's such a cheap and easy upgrade. It's like, why would I not do this? so yeah probably yeah Yeah. I i love ah pitch stop mounts. It's like the easiest way to kind of tighten things up without...

Speaker: you know doing a bunch of in-depth stuff it's like oh it's just right there in the engine bay like right on top all you got to do is pull the intake off and two bolts and you're good but yeah the stock ones those bushings wear out and they don't do hardly anything after a you know a few miles Yeah.

Speaker: Like, so I have a big plan trip coming up in August. My girlfriend and I are going to camp in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.

Speaker: Awesome, dude. so we're going to kill those in like seven days. We're going spend one or two days in Maine just because that's where we really want to be. But we're going to be camping in the rooftop tent every day itself. Right on.

Speaker: um Let me ask you about springs. um Some people need them. Some people don't. Some people think they need them when they don't need them. ah What initially caused you to put springs in your Subaru? I think you said you them in the Outback, correct? Yep.

Speaker: Yeah. what What kind of caused you to realize that was something that was going to help with your setup? I always wanted to have a rooftop tent. So I was like, okay.

Speaker: I read online. I forget where, but they said having the overload springs will help with carrying the extra weight of everything. And it yeah did. absolutely But those King Springs were absolutely way too stiff for me.

Speaker: Like I had people that own lifted Jeeps telling me that this thing rides worse than that. that saying rough yeah the the king springs in my opinion they're my favorite um aftermarket like lift spring for subarus but they are absolute kidney killers for sure they are oh yeah if yeah yeah they're they're very heavy duty and it may not be the right thing for everybody but um So what about like when you when you take it off road because on road it's like oh you know handles like a sports car basically you know with the stiffer spring rate. But when you go off road did you find yourself having to air down to sort of accommodate the extra spring rate.

Speaker: I never aired down one time. Really. Never. OK. Just throttle through. but Yeah, that's usually my advice for people that are running aftermarket springs because they really do. It starts to ah become like a massage chair.

Speaker: And that's yeah that's usually my advice for like, well, you know, if you want it to handle like a dream on the road, there's a trade-off. But yeah, drop a few PSI when you hit the trails. That might help. But yeah, everybody kind of has to make that decision for themselves. And then you're running a, you said rally tax on the current Forester? Yeah.

Speaker: Okay. Have you, did you install those at the same time you just did the lift? Yep. Okay. So I'm guessing you haven't really had them out too much on the trails yet.

Speaker: Not yet. Like I said, I just did the lift maybe like a week and a half ago. Yeah. So I haven't done much. I mean, I live on a hill that's all washed out.

Speaker: Okay. Other than that, that's all I do. do you feel like the car is little bit more planted with the aftermarket springs? it feels more planted i'm still in the take it easy mode with the lift on now oh that's right because you haven't had it aligned yeah so once once everything's settled i'll feel a little bit better with driving a little harder okay yeah it'll live it'll take a little time Yeah.

Speaker: let me ask you about, uh, like, let's just get a rundown so far of the stuff you've done to the car in terms of different mods. Okay. I did now site series X on the bumper now site series X as ditch lights.

Speaker: I have my knob site awning on the side to winch lift, the overload springs, all that stuff. Trying to think everything else. I got the TV W, um Skid plates going on.

Speaker: I got the Rago fabrication molly panels coming. I was on marketplace and it's not really a mod or anything like that, but I got EKR fitted leather seat covers.

Speaker: Oh, that's sick. I got them for $100. That's good. let's get Is that like a $500 set of covers? Like $250 or $300. But okay they fit so well. And they're a dark gray and black leather.

Speaker: So it changed the look of the interior so much. And then i did a Billetworks shifter with the CBT adapter. And that's really it for right now. I have my rooftop tent to go on once gas prices come down a little bit.

Speaker: It's so hard to pay that kind of money with all that wind resistance. It's like, oh, yeah oh what kind of rooftop tent do you have? I have a body armor four by four sky ridge, too.

Speaker: OK, and that's the one that came off the outback, right? I think I saw that on there. OK. What's your ah opinion? Like what's your ownership experience been like with it?

Speaker: I absolutely love it. It is so comfortable. I took it up to New York two weeks after I had the car. I quick put all terrains on it and took up to New York to go salmon fishing. And I slept in it for four nights.

Speaker: Oh, right on. So I love sleeping in that thing. Midday nap, go back up, just pop in there, take a nap. Yeah. Heck yeah. Do you have any, um, you know, like, uh, ownership tips or anything if you're going to be running that specific rooftop tent? Like, I don't know. there I feel like anytime I buy something, there's always these like weird little like tricks or tips or quirks that I find. Is there anything like that with, with the tent?

Speaker: The only thing I would say is make sure everything's tight. So like every six months, make sure all your hardware is tight because I camped out the night before Boxer Fest at a campsite. And as I'm laying there, half of it starts moving, half of it doesn't. And I'm there in the middle of the night trying not to move.

Speaker: Yeah, that'll do. Oh, yeah. oh What about what about install? What can you just ah mount that sucker straight to the factory rails or was there any work there that had to be done?

Speaker: So on the Outback, it was nice with the integrated rails that would slide over. It fit right on that real perfect. I just got some toolie rails that I'm going to be putting on now. I had Harbor Freight ones, but i don't have anywhere really to store my tent except outside.

Speaker: And on Thanksgiving, a tree fell and knocked it off of the stand and demolished my rails. Oh, that sucks, dude. So I had to pick it back up and put back on the stands.

Speaker: So then I just went out and got some Thule bars. So that'll be a little bit better anyways with the two people sleeping in it. Yeah, I love to meet people who actually use their rooftop tent because there's so many people that just buy because they're like, yeah, i might use this once in two years. But hearing people actually take it out and use them for what they're made for, it's so much more convenient than tent camping or car camping.

Speaker: Last year, because I bought it last June as a birthday gift to myself. Happy birthday. Thanks. um I think I slept in it seven or eight nights last year alone in like just on the outback and then a little bit on the forester. That's it. That's what's up. That's sick. And I mean, if you think about it in this, in this kind of a term of like, okay, if I was going to set up a tent every time, don't know, it's going to take at least probably 20 minutes to dig the tent out and then set it up.

Speaker: and you multiply that it's like okay so i just saved you know two and a half three hours of time that i could just be enjoying doing whatever i'm doing you know yeah the only thing that i don't like about having a rooftop tent once you're set up you cannot leave your site yeah that's that's a thing that i've definitely been told many times so you gotta like make sure like okay do i need anything before i set this up And I also learned the hard way with my tent on my Outback.

Speaker: Don't put the awning out until after you have your tent unzippered because I had everything set up under my awning. Had to take everything out, close the awning, then open my tent back up. Is that because you have to be able to get around to the other side to get it un to get it unhooked or unzipped? Okay. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, that that kind of sucks. Oh yeah, that was really fun. Other than that though, I cannot complain about it at all. It's been a blessing to have. Speaking of like fuel prices and that type of stuff, um I know you don't have the rooftop tent on it right now, but as the car sits with, you know, I think your tires are slightly, like you said, one size bigger than stock. What's kind of the fuel economy that you're seeing?

Speaker: Right now, I just checked it yesterday. I was at 26-2. Oh, dude, that's not bad. That's not bad at all. And your bumper's still intact. Okay.

Speaker: The bumper, I'm hoping to soon get a body armor 4x4 Highline. Hey, let's go, dude. I want one so bad because I want to put a winch in it. I don't know why, but I do. Hey, you know what? It's it's funny you say that because I was a lot of times I'll ask people like, hey, what mods are you planning to to do in the future? And I was going to ask you if you're ever going to put a winch on it.

Speaker: And to me, they're not necessary, but it's like, why wouldn't you? You know, like, why would you not? You know because people who hate on it, it's like, well, you've obviously never been stuck with you know, 20 minute drive from cell service and a three hour walk, you know, I'll install a winch all day.

Speaker: Luckily for me, I will not go out without someone else there. Good, good man. So I don't want to be that guy getting stuck somewhere, but yeah I mean, either I, like I said, I've gone out on the trails a total of four times already.

Speaker: And some of the stuff we went through is like, how is the Subaru doing this? yeah You don't want to do that solo. Well, I was going to ask you, because I always like to ask people since we, you know, inevitably there's going to be people listening to this that are new or wanting to get into this stuff.

Speaker: And one of my biggest tips for people just hands down when it comes to getting into off-roading is always go with other people. Um, but are there any other things like recovery tips or driving technique tips or anything, um, even different kind of equipment that you would recommend somebody who's wanting to get into this stuff starts, you know, keeping in mind?

Speaker: I mean, you always have the, uh, soft shackles. You always want to have soft shackles with you and stuff like that. but ah Absolutely. The driving skill and everything like that, like all I can say is if you're with a group of people, test it a little bit. Don't go full sends.

Speaker: Test your limit a little bit and see if you can do it. If you can't, okay. So be it. But don't be a show off. And then you're getting towed out. Yeah. Yeah. The when I was interviewing the homie Jim, he told me all about his hydro lock experience.

Speaker: And that's a very common thing that I see is, you know, because because that's the reality. You know, you get around other people and just get excited and you're like, yeah, let's do some gang stuff.

Speaker: I'm Travis Pastrana. Like what? You know, I'm about to smash through this water crossing and then you end up with a hydrolog motor and, you know, it just is what it is. But I think that's a really good tip. Don't freaking, don't be crazy. Yeah, you're right. Testing your limits a little bit is the way to go.

Speaker: Make sure you got a daily driver if you're going to really do some stupid, stupid things. Yeah. And I mean, I've always been one to say any car is a beater. I don't care if there's a dent. I don't care if there's a scratch in it.

Speaker: But as long as the engine and trans are good, I don't care. Yeah, absolutely. i'm I'm kind of the same way. I own nothing but ah old cars, dude. My newest car is 20 years old.

Speaker: like I want to be able to bang it into a curb and be like, oops, you know or smack it into a tree. Oh, well, you know who cares? like yeah I don't owe $35,000 on this. like I owe nothing. Hey, don't get me wrong. i owe a little on my car, but...

Speaker: I mean, cosmetic is one thing. Yeah. man Like engine and trans, that's a whole different world. Yeah. Because I know nothing about that stuff at all. Yeah, it's not fun. Anytime you got to track, especially transmission stuff, that's so far above my pay grade of trying to diagnose and and deal with a transmission issue.

Speaker: i mean, if it's a common thing, like, you know, center diff starting to go out, sure, I know how to figure that out, but... Yeah. Anytime you start telling me about valve bodies and stuff, here's money. You fix it. Exactly. ah Like I can do any type of suspension. I can do axles. I can do all that stuff.

Speaker: Yeah. Ask me, okay go do like, go change the head gasket. How? Oh, dude. No, how? To be fair, most people are in that same camp. And on the new stuff, I don't think I'd even attempt to do head gaskets. But I guess anything's possible with duct tape, WD-40, and a factory service manual. Pretty much. Yeah. Speaking of maintenance and that type of stuff, has there been anything that's come up over the years of you owning Subarus? I mean, obviously the one got wrecked, but aside from that, has there been any major maintenance things that have happened that you've kind of had to absorb?

Speaker: The only thing that happened on my legacy, it had 175,000 and the valve cover gasket was starting to leak a little. Oh, dude, that's a driveway job. Yeah. That's what's up.

Speaker: And the oil pressure sending unit started to leak a little bit too. But other than that, no, nothing. That's another easy one. Okay. Yeah. You know, these cars get such a bad rap.

Speaker: And I think, um you know, people will make fun of all these different things about Suburs, but they literally are one of the most reliable cars I've ever owned. You know?

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. And they do break. Yeah, they break down a lot because they last a long time. It's like, okay, yeah, but the thing's got 250,000 miles. Find me a Chevy Trax with 250,000 miles.

Speaker: Find me a a Buick, you know, current model Buick that is, you know, got 300,000 miles that hasn't had to have all kinds of work done on it. yeah Exactly. The only thing that worries me are the CVT.

Speaker: Yeah. But... As long as you change the fluid in it and regular maintenance like that, you're fine. I think for us, you know, those of us that are doing off-road stuff, you kind of have to know the limitations of the car. I mean, obviously they were never designed to go off-road anyways, in my opinion. They show yeah they show advertisements of them going off-road, but, ah you know, as far as longevity, I don't think they're really made to do that. But, man, if you start getting into stuff where it's – you know super steep you know hill climbs that's loose and you're having a hard time getting up it man no one to call it a day because you you are going to heat that fluid up pretty quick and start frying stuff but man aside from that you're right dude if you just do maintenance they're kind of like little tanks like when i went up to connecticut it was about four and a half hours one way

Speaker: So I left, met up with them. We hit some trails and then to get to our camping spot because we ended up camping on a riverbank next to the river. Was this in the snow?

Speaker: No, this was in last July up in Connecticut. Okay. Okay. what we had to go through to even get to our campsite i'm driving behind sean and i'm sitting there going i gotta follow his line or else i'm gonna like damage something i actually went to my buddy who works for subaru like three days later and i i was like can you check for any damage under here and she was good right oh yeah she was dialed yeah dude um you're oh you say well what's buddy's name

Speaker: the, the one with the Forester? Sean. Sean. Yeah. That's Jamie, the Subie, right? Correct. dude there's a lot of uh foresters of that gen that i'm a fan of but his front bumper cut and that tube bumper that he's got i think that is probably one of the best looking front ends on that gen of forester that i've ever seen i have to agree yeah the line is perfect i don't know if he fab that himself but i love that car that's awesome I'm pretty, don't quote me, but I think he did. i remember asking him.

Speaker: So, but I mean, even his rear bumper that he had made is so sick with the dual swing out. Okay. Let me look at his profile right now. I'm, I follow him on one of my accounts, but I'm so bad at social media, dude. i I sit in front of a computer all day. So I'm done with work. It's like the last thing I want to do is even think about,

Speaker: screens oh yeah let me see though oh dude that's dude that's just like such a good looking car man i love it oh is that a cvt oh no no that's a regear that's sick yeah that guy's a maniac oh that is a sick looking rear bumper that's what's up oh dude do you know i mean this is a silly question to ask you but do you know who did his rear bumper i do not okay

Speaker: Oh, Snail Works. Was it? Okay. yeah Oh, dude, that's rad. um Is that something you ever plan on exploring, is doing any kind of a rear bumper on the car? I would love to, but...

Speaker: I don't know if I could go with cutting stuff apart like that. i get it. I totally get it. with um With that body armor front bumper that you mentioned, that bumper, does that require any cutting or is it like a hidden?

Speaker: Okay. bill Like in the lower duct. That little line. Yeah, okay. okay Yeah, does that kind of give you the willies a little bit start cutting it? Not really, because I already drilled into it to put the bracket for the lights on.

Speaker: Perfect. So, if anything, I'll just have two extra holes somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I... i Like I said, I mean, I've owned one car that I bought brand new, but i've just i've I've always kind of been poor my whole life. And so my mindset's always been like, I just buy old cheap junk cars and I cut them up. Who gives a fudge? But when it comes to something nice, like actually owning something like what you have, I'd probably be super hesitant to be like, oh, yeah, let me just get the Dremel out. Let's start cutting.

Speaker: Yeah, like it doesn't bother me per se, but it's getting myself to hit it with the with the grinder, with the saw. Yeah, because that first cut kind of dictates whether or not the rest of that job is going to go smooth. Like, oh, that was a little too high. i guess we're going follow that line, you know. Well, just like when I did my hitch install. I put a hidden Curt Hitchin. I followed. Yeah, I follow their directions. Exactly.

Speaker: And now I have like a three inch gap above like where it is. I'm like, really? Oh, dude, that sucks. But, you know, it is what it is. Exactly. Hopefully it's, yeah. Oh, dude, it kind of hurts because you're like, man, with the new stuff, it's a little bit harder to source bumper covers, you know. Like, for me, I've got an SG Forester, so it's an 06. Like, I think those are a dime a dozen. Tons of people want to get rid of them because they're old as heck. Nobody cares. Like, oh, yeah, I'll part this thing out. It's like, here, here's 80 bucks. Can I take the rear bumper?

Speaker: but the new stuff it's like you really have to search and get lucky you know yeah or marketplace nerd yeah hard out marketplace dude i've do you buy a lot of stuff on there i'm on it about 15 times a day ah same dude i'm always on there like just looking my wife will be like What are you trying to buy? I'm like, nothing. Just seeing if there is something I would ever want to buy. Just seeing if it's there, you know. The worst is low-balling someone and they take the offer and you're driving like three hours the next day.

Speaker: ah Yeah, i'm I'm not good at low-balling people, but... ah The amount of money i've that's gone through my hands on account of Facebook Marketplace in the last five years is ungodly, dude. Oh, yeah. And I'm much worse at selling on there because people ask me a question. I forget. oh man, I needed a message that person back. So I spend way more than I make on there, but it is what it is.

Speaker: The tire come up that you had on there, dude, that's sick though. That's, that's the way to do it. You said you bought the BFGs on there. Yep. Yeah, dude, both my, actually every set of off-road wheels that I currently own all came off marketplace.

Speaker: You know, it's like, yeah I'm going to bang these into rocks anyways. Who gives a fudge? Let me get a cheap beat up set of wheels. Exactly. Exactly. You know, you look at, i think, methods like MR502s just in the 15x7s. Those are like $260 a pop if you buy them new. yeah It's like, bro, I'm looking at over a G for some wheels. i'm going to smack into a rock. they're not even They're not even big or wide. Like, this is this is crazy, but, you know, they're worth the money.

Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I would love to get a set of DX4s. those are sick dude i would love those is it the pocket yeah yeah dude that's a good looking wheel they're out of stock like everywhere though right now okay but eventually i'll have a different set of wheels on it but for now i just painted the factory ones with that bronze yeah dude i was gonna tell you that looks so good because Subaru, I don't know why they do the machined face thing on all their wheels, but I think it looks awful. The machine. It does.

Speaker: Wheels. It just looks so bad. And same with like BRZ wheels. And I'll see people just paint them. And I'm like, wait a second. That actually looks like an attractive wheel just because you got rid of the machined, you know, color contrast. Oh, yeah.

Speaker: And I don't think yours didn't have a machined face, right? Those. Yeah, it did. Oh, did it? Okay. Yeah. You've got the ones that, I hate to use the word like snowflake, but they have kind of like a snowflake pattern. is that Yeah.

Speaker: So okay I believe it was the 14 through 18 had theirs, which was a whole alloy. And then they like redesigned it basically to be the machine phase.

Speaker: Really? Oh, let me look and see if I can. Okay, yeah, that's the wheel I'm thinking of. But let me see. fucking Oh, they did do a machine face on those. What the fudge? Yep.

Speaker: It looks so bad when they do that. Same with, ah i think it was 19 or 20 when they did that with the STI wheels. They started machining the faces on those. I'm like, this looks like a Timu wheel. Why did you do this? You know? Yeah. I will say they looked terrible when I got them. Yeah. Yo, they look great now, dude. I i like that. and Yeah, oh absolutely. And you don't have to worry about having a really low offset wheel that's going to pull the tire straight into the fender weld.

Speaker: yeah know so Sometimes people will go a little bit overboard with the wheel spacers or with a super wide high offset or low offset wheel. I would love to have them out like an inch an inch further from where they are. but That's perfect. I'm not a person for spacers though. I had them on my legacy and that was just because I took the two Oh fives off and put two 25s on.

Speaker: You kind of have to run them at that point. Yeah. Cause my legacy, when I had that, I had the actual snowflake 16s from the original legacies. Oh, the legacy GT. Yes. Wheels. That's one of favorite wheels.

Speaker: Yes. I had that on my legacy for my 2012. I had them painted, uh, They had goldish bronze on the white paint. That's sick. Yeah. Funny you mention that because the first set of Subaru wheels I ever owned in my entire life were 16-inch Legacy GT Snowflakes.

Speaker: And I still think to this day it's one of the best-looking wheels that they've ever made aside from the BBS STI wheels. Such a tasteful wheel. It's not quite as aggressive as like a BBS LM, but still has that same traditional, like I don't know what you want to call it, like F1 type, you know, styling. Maybe not F1 is not the right designation, but like Dodge Vipers back in the day when they were doing like the Le Mans races and stuff, they had like BBS LMs on a lot of their races.

Speaker: cars if i remember right and it it reminds me of that and they just look so good yeah like when i got those i got them out of a junkyard i think i paid 80 bucks for the whole set oh you scored dude i brought them home painted them and everything so we were good you know and funny thing the most recent set of legacy gt snowflakes i owned i also painted them a duplicolor bronze yeah such Such a good color, man. And they're small. Like if you're going to do like a street build or you know something that's that's made a little bit more with street driving in mind, um they're a little bit small by today's standards. They may not fill in the wheel wells the way that you'd want on a modern car.

Speaker: But dude, anything like 05 and before and then with some of the models up to like, I think 2013, looks perfect, dude. Looks so good. oh yeah yeah my legacy actually i did the resonator delete and the nameless muffler delete oh that's cool it was just obnoxious all the way around ah i had five percent tint around it and everything like it was just obnoxious my My current daily driver is a Legacy, actually. It's a Legacy wagon. It's an 05.

Speaker: It's not fancy or anything. It's not even turbo. I just wanted something that I could drive, get good gas mileage in, and and kind of not care about. And same thing, dude. 5% tent. Let's get it, man. like i don't want anybody looking in my car.

Speaker: ah You know, just it's the same thing, though. It's got an equal length header with it has mufflers, but they're I wouldn't call them fart cans, but there is definitely loud, but it has like the classic Subaru Rumble. So it's not not quite like a fart can Honda, but pretty close. Oh, mine was so raspy. Like, I wish I would have put a resonator back on it.

Speaker: You know what's the worst ah exhaust mod on NA Subarus is no cats. It sounds so bad, dude. The cats help a lot with keeping them from sounding like a I don't even know. Like you said, a raspy, just like a raspy.

Speaker: It almost sounds like somebody has potatoes for mufflers or something. It just sounds like crap. but But I do, you know, I get it. Catalytic converters piss me off. I wish we didn't have to run them, but oh, well, it is what it is.

Speaker: They're on there. Might as well leave them. Right, yeah, until they start breaking up and get the rebar out and start punching holes in them. Off-road use only. We don't break EPA laws. Wink, wink. um Any plans to do like exhaust stuff on on this car, on the Forester?

Speaker: I would love to, but with having my son, I'd rather him keep his hearing because I am yeah partially deaf. Yeah. i get it so you gotta wear ear pro when you're when you're in anything that's got a wagon design that doesn't have a separate trunk dude it gets so gnarly man because it just my legacy had such a bad drone 65 miles an hour oh crap even like 45 it was obnoxious it gave you a headache

Speaker: Oh, dude. Yeah. I used to keep Earpro in the car um in a couple of my cars in the past, and I always keep it in the Jeep now because I'm i'm running straight ah downturn dump right out of the first cat or actually the only cat. It's so bad. i mean, I ripped the exhaust off on the trails, and so i was like, whatever, dude. I just had them welded down, turned to the cat. was like, we'll call that good.

Speaker: But it was not quiet. that's That's for sure. It was open header there for a minute. That was deadly. Big fat in line six. no um You got any trail stories, dude? Any any crazy stuff happen on the trails?

Speaker: um Or just even like recovery situations? When we were on our snow day... There was an outback that was behind me, and we had it go underneath of a fallen tree.

Speaker: okay. And he slid down into it. That's worst. So luckily, worst he had a winch so he we could pull him out. But I believe it's Jim on his Instagram. He has a video of all of us lifting the tree, getting the tree out of the way, and clearing the entire trail like on a dash cam or like his phone or something like that in time-lapse.

Speaker: And then when I was with this car, we were going down a trail and me and my other buddy, we thought it was a one-way trail. Okay. And we just get through a water, a little water crossing that goes underneath of the turnpike.

Speaker: And there's a Tacoma or a tundra that was coming down the other way. And we're like, uh-oh yeah, those can't stop dude. They're too heavy. Well, he had a backup probably a good quarter mile.

Speaker: Oh, man. And then pull off. But yeah, those are some big, fat, worthless trucks for yeah being off road. That's a tow rig. That's it well The worst part was I didn't know it.

Speaker: It was like one of the first days of hunting season. And this takes you through all the game lands and everything. So they were just hunters out there trying to get to their spot. I saw that a lot in the hills where I grew up.

Speaker: You know, I'd forget to be hunting season. And then you'd come across people just in like, you know, regular trucks with maybe some all season tires. lot of times they'd be getting stuck or, you know, they're like, I can't back up, dude. Like, oh man, you gotta be kidding Well, we were still like partially in the crick yet.

Speaker: So we couldn't go anywhere. He had a backup. But I mean, it's not like a crazy trailer or anything like that. Like it's not real tight or anything like that. Like down in the Barrens, we actually had to get out and use axes and saws to get through some of this brush that they took us down. And mean, my Outback had pinstripes everywhere.

Speaker: dude pinstripes bro that's that's the name of the game with subarus because they're so small that they will fit like almost anywhere but you're not coming out without without a little bit of uh you know swirl marks and some pinstripe age when we were up in connecticut with the outback i had an actual scratch through the clear from the down to the primer and the from the headlight all the way back to the taillight yeah i i like to think like when i take my rigs out that i don't give a fudge but anytime something like that happens i'm like oh man that's unnecessary and now i gotta deal with it because otherwise i'm have rust you know i gotta do something about this oh my wrx wheels on my outback you could see where they hit the rocks Because it was just, oh, right there's some silver, the rest of it's gray. Yep.

Speaker: Yeah, I actually owned a WRX that came with those same wheels that you had on the Outback. And I've never curbed a wheel in my life. I curbed the dog piss out of those wheels one time. i didn't realize there was a curb where I was at because I...

Speaker: couldn't it was just stupid i parked the car forgot there was a curb there i mean whatever i already planned to put aftermarket wheels on it but still i was like man when i go to sell this car that's gonna look bad my buddy and i went to the burger king that's local to us to get dinner one night i didn't see the curb at all with my outback i just clobbered the curb and he's like what are you doing Straight on or on the side? i Like the curb was here. I went like this. Boom.

Speaker: Oh, fudge. Oh, man. That happens, dude. Oh, yeah. I was surprised. Yeah. were you Were you present for ah Jim's Hydro Lock fiasco? I was not.

Speaker: Okay. Okay. Yeah, I can't remember. That would have been before you even had the Outback, correct? think I think so, yeah. is the Is it kind of normal in a lot of the areas where you're at for them to have... big, you know, ruts that get dug out by somebody on 40s and you got to be real careful.

Speaker: ah Down in the Barrens, like some of the trails, it's every 200 feet. Someone's getting out and checking to make sure we can get through with a stick. Okay.

Speaker: So like it depends on what trail you're on down there and everything like that. Like I haven't been there in two years, so I can't really talk for how it is right now. Okay. Like I'd like to get down there again, but trying to find time and everything. But even then, it wasn't too, too bad.

Speaker: going through this stuff the funniest part was when we were doing the snow day and all you hear is just all the ice crunching yes off of your skin plate yeah dude i've crunched a lot of ice in my day yeah what you mentioned about getting out there in depth checking dude that's such a lifesaver though i can't tell you how many times i've seen people just say it looks fine and it's not fine okay yeah just get a stick get a shovel man get something dude otherwise the two minutes it takes to check that saves you five hours of getting yeah getting a car unjammed the five hours and potentially a three to four five thousand dollar engine job if you hydro lock the thing man i'll dude i'll pass on that all day man when i was talking to jim he was talking about uh the off-road ruse group doing a bunch of uh like trail cleanup have you ever been on been part of that

Speaker: every Every time that they have it, I'm not around. Dude, that happens me. want to go to one so bad. That happens me all the time, dude. yeah like I want to get my little guy out there so way he can experience it and know like we're doing good. want to teach him, do good stuff. Yeah. i mean but Every time I'm literally like not even around my house. Yeah.

Speaker: That, but that happens to me all the time with different events. They're like, Oh, we're doing a trail run on this day. like, you gotta be kidding me. I'm going to be out of town for work that day. What the fudge, man. Postpone it, please.

Speaker: Yeah. How is your son, uh, right around three? He's two. two Okay. Dude, congrats. Is that your first child? Yeah. dude That's what's up, man. Congratulations.

Speaker: Thank you. What's, uh, what's it like being a dad? Oh, I love it. He's a spitting image of me, so I'm in for a rude awakening in his teen years. I was going to ask if he was a mini me, but.

Speaker: Oh, by far. Is he a pretty easy kid in most most regards or is he kind of got his own little attitude where he just wants to do what he wants to do? He's identical to me, so he has a little attitude. Yeah, um'm it's funny because I'm the second oldest in my family, and I was just a bad kid, and I've got five siblings. And so I've always thought, you know, it's a miracle that my parents didn't, one, throw me off a bridge, and two, decided to have four more kids after me. Like, man, if if I was my first kid, i'd be like, we're not having another one, and this one's going to the frigging foster home right now.

Speaker: No, he is so good though. Like yeah tonight I got, I picked him up. I got home from work and I was raking leaves cause I'm going to start up my smoker tomorrow. Oh, let's go. He's right there with me, helping me. And then he starts throwing dirt on me. So it's like, okay. ah You said he's in bed though, right?

Speaker: Yeah, he's sleeping. He went to bed at seven 30. Okay, good. I didn't want to keep you from, from family time. If you're good, whatever. Okay. Tell me about the smoker. what are you, what are you, what are you smoking? I got a two pound pork roast I'm going to put on tomorrow. I just found a smoker on the side of the road and cleaned it up.

Speaker: Dude. i That's so sick. That's rad. I found it Tuesday. I was out fishing on my way home and I was like, is that a smoker? Dude, that's awesome. turned around and went back.

Speaker: Yeah, it's a charcoal drum smoker that was out for free. Like never used. Dude, that's rad. my My uncle by marriage He did the did the catering for for my wedding in October.

Speaker: And that he's kind of like a man's man. You know, he's a welder by trade and a darn good fabricator. I think he was the foreman on a majority of the bridge bridge projects that took place in the state about 20 years ago.

Speaker: And, um, he's like, he loves drinking beer and smoking meat. Like that's his jam. And he took a big 55 gallon drum and like built a smoker out of it.

Speaker: And I, I think he took like, I think two 55 gallon drums and, and welded them together and built the smoker out of it. And it has to be transported via trailer. Like it just, it just lives on a trailer, but it's like, he can do an entire, you know, massive group of people.

Speaker: Bam. Like right there on the, on the spot. So sick, dude, smoke. that awesome It's so nice. Cause like, if you're going hunting or camping or whatever, smoke me is like the best thing you can have.

Speaker: Oh yeah. it stores nicely tastes good it's like oh this is better than anything i could eat at home in the kitchen like this is sick well i wanted one so i could smoke trout because my mom's allergic to fish oh really so we have another smoker that we make our own bacon with our own balonis and all stuff like that but you can't do your fish in there yeah because i don't want to get eight anyone sick so i was like oh this one's free i'll just use that one yeah uh you ever smoke salmon I haven't smoked salmon yet.

Speaker: um The salmon that I get up in New York is a king salmon, and it actually tastes more like trout than salmon itself. Really? Is it more of a whiter meat? Yes. Okay.

Speaker: Okay. Not as fatty, I'm guessing? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'm in Alaska pretty regularly. and Lucky. Dude, i'm I'm always there for work, so it's not fun. but i mean, it's fun, but it's not like, oh, I can just go do whatever I want. But man, when I go up there, I always try to stop it at least one sushi place because it's like they just pull it right out of the ocean and it's like the fattiest, like most buttery. Like when you eat it, it tastes like you're eating like really good butter because it just disintegrates in your mouth.

Speaker: I want to go to Alaska so bad. Never been? Like it is. No. Dude, if you can ever make it happen, it's absolutely worth it. And you should definitely go during the summer solstice, like hands down, because it's one thing to hear about, oh, it's light 24 hours a day, but it's another thing to be there and realize with your own eyeballs. Oh, that's true. This really is a thing.

Speaker: and uh it's 3 a.m m and it looks like it's the afternoon but but it's it's worth it dude you should absolutely try to make it happen someday it's hard to travel you know especially if you got a family but uh that's one place that i tell people if you can if you can get out there it's filled with good people and it's bigger than most countries it's a massive i want to get up there yeah but i also want to get to the desert Dude, you could do a road trip. I am a what?

Speaker: Do a road trip. I am a Wild West okay like nerd. Heck yeah. like My tattoo on my arm is an Old West gunfight. like Oh, sick. just I'm into it that much, so I want to get out there one day.

Speaker: We might be doing a trip in the next year or two out to Illinois. Okay. but I don't know when that's going to happen, but I know this summer I'll be down in North Carolina a couple of times. okay I'll be up in new, new England, travel and all that for an entire ah week.

Speaker: that's what so And every year I go up to New York for salmon fishing for a day or two. What, um, what are you doing in, uh, North Carolina? uh my girlfriend's family friends live down there so we just stay in one of their campers down there and just oh hang out for a couple days dude that's what's up is the um like topography and just uh every is it similar to where you live or is it significantly different I live, basically, you can get to the Appalachian Trail from my house in four minutes. What?

Speaker: So, yeah, like the Appalachian Trail literally is right behind me. No way. By like two miles. Dude, that's so sick. That's tight. I live in more like the hilly area, PA kind of. I'm okay a little bit south of the Poconos. I'm sure you've heard like Pocono Raceway and stuff like that. That's only 40 minutes away from me. kidding. Okay.

Speaker: So, like, I'm, like, in the middle of everything, so I was born in West Virginia. And so that, uh, the Appalachian trail and all that stuff, you know, I've, I've never been on it, but, uh, yeah, that I'd love to get out to that area someday and do a little exploring. Have you heard, cause dude, I, I love listening to like true crime podcasts and, um, you know, paranormal stuff. Have you ever heard of any like crazy lore out there? Cause everybody out here is all on the Bigfoot stuff. Um,

Speaker: but i hear a lot of crazy i mean who knows whether or not this stuff is true i don't know but i hear yeah crazy stuff from out there there are actually some like reports of stuff like that out here and stuff like that i'd never heard it the craziest thing i ever heard though and you're gonna laugh at me no no we were up in new york And it was about 2 a.m. I woke up because I thought my buddy got there late because he was coming in late.

Speaker: And all of a sudden, like 50 yards away from my tent, all I hear is some like old person going, help me. Help me. I'm like, what the hell? I rolled back over real quick, went back to sleep.

Speaker: Oh, dude. Do you think there was anybody actually out there? do You think it was like a... yes I know we're not supposed to say the word skinwalker, but... I have no idea. That's creepy, bro. What the fudge? It's 2 a.m. What are you doing? I'm trying to leave right now.

Speaker: I just turned back over went right back to bed. I was like, nope. Yeah, the fact that you went back to sleep, that I couldn't. I'd be like, no, we're packing up right now. going to make sure there's nobody out here dying, and then we're getting a fudge out of town right now.

Speaker: Well, my other buddies are right down next to my car in their ground tent. Oh, dude. And no one heard it. And they all called me crazy. They're like, there was nothing out there at all.

Speaker: I'm like, yes, there was. And they're like, no, there wasn't. Dude, that's wild. You know, a lot of people dismiss this stuff and and i would I would maybe say like, yeah, I don't believe in any of that. If I heard one person give an account, hundreds, and then there's thousands of people saying, no, no, no, i saw this. Sometimes it's, you know, police officers. They're like, no, no, no I encountered this.

Speaker: Kind of makes you think like, um I could discount one of these, but can I discount a thousand? Like, are they all lying? Or, you know, because you can't say that. That doesn't make any sense. Oh, I have stories of that. It's it's weird to think about. So yeah my mom's aunt passed away. Okay. And all of a sudden, anytime we put on any sort of pair of pants, there's either a nickel or a dime in it. Wait, what?

Speaker: Tell me that ain't weird. Was that like something that she did? Would she like give you guys... And it's happened ever since one part of my mom's family, when they passed, you would find random coins.

Speaker: And then another generation, you would find random coins. And now we're finding random coins. Dude, what the fudge? That's so, and I'm. I don't know. i don't know. Cause they would go through the washer and dryer. Yeah. You know, that's the falls out all the time.

Speaker: Well, and nobody really even carries coins anymore. Like who the, I mean, I don't remember the last time I paid cash for anything, dude, unless it's marketplace. Yeah, really? And there's no coins changing hands during a marketplace deal. It's like, here's your hundred bucks.

Speaker: Tell me this one. It was in my tackle bag. Wait, ah in just a random coin in it? There was one dime in it. Huh? That dude, that's kind of freaky.

Speaker: ah Now mind you, it was in, i have a, my first car I ever had was a 95 blazer. Oh, sick. I use it as storage because the transmission went and now it doesn't run right. And I don't know what's wrong with it, but I use it for my fishing storage.

Speaker: It was in there. And I'm guessing nobody goes in there. No one goes. Yeah. Dude, that's that's kind of freaky, man. Anybody in your family have any thoughts on it? like It's happening to a bunch of us. Dude, that's creepy. That's super creepy. Isn't it? Next time, make it $5 bills, though. like Come on. It's 2020. Come on now. Let's account for inflation here, man. what are you doing? Give me dimes and nickels. I'm trying to have a C note.

Speaker: Yeah, that is creepy, though, dude. But yeah, I 100% like, again, i don' I don't know what to attribute a lot of that type of stuff like paranormal stuff and then like cryptids. But I think it's so intriguing, like hearing people's accounts. i'm like, oh, this is sick. Like, glad it wasn't me. That's all I listen to at work. oh Wait, what's some your favorite podcasts?

Speaker: expanded perspectives kryptonite podcast monsters among us yeah dude that stuff okay yeah it's kind of a double-edged sword because i love listening to it but then i'll be out solo camping somewhere in the back of the rig doing some wheeling and then because i live so far from all the spots i like to wheel at so i'll just drive out on a friday night camp in the car overnight you know kind of you're out there by yourself like oh this is kind of freaky a little bit maybe i shouldn't listen to that podcast i'll the way out here yeah it messes with you sometimes yeah yeah okay sorry man i derailed us heavily from but it's kind of like half the fun man i just like meeting new people and having a conversation the same way we'd have a conversation like around a campfire whatever but let me ask you about I know you want to do the front bumper with a winch on the Subaru. Are there any other mods that you want to do on it, like a torque locker? or I know you said you want to do some wheels, but what are some other things that you thought, man, if I can manage it, this is something want to do?

Speaker: The number one thing is a lens solar panel for the hood. Oh, dude, let's go, man. I said that that was going to one of the first things I ever did do it. And I still have yet to order it. Yeah, dude. Well, how much, um i know solar has actually come way down in price since I started seeing it when I was a lot younger.

Speaker: What does it kind of look like in total to to do that? I think the whole entire kit goes on sale for like $370. Oh, dude, that's not bad with the fudge.

Speaker: That's not bad at all. good I could put it on a firm, but... No, no, no, no, don't cut yourself don't do that. Don't, please, I'm begging you not to do that. i mean you can do whatever you want but affirm is a killer bro they're right up there with credit card companies for me right now i just i hate seeing because they make it so easy it's like oh i just have to click these two buttons and this will be at my house like magic in a day and a half sign me up but then you're like oh i just paid 27 interest oh dude that's why i do the paying for's on paypal oh there you go that's is it uh what's the interest rate on interest free oh really

Speaker: yeah It's for equal payments. Dude, that's not that's bad. That's not bad at all. I guess if no if you need something and you and you need to finance it, that's the way to do it rather than do like credit cards. Bro, people have no idea how bad compound interest is, man. It's like it'll just eat your lunch.

Speaker: And then they have the burial. the variable rates and everything like that. It's like, oh, one day it's 15. Oh, the next day it's 70. Dude, that that stuff is satanic, bro. Yes, it is. Like, we have kids right now that are, I mean...

Speaker: Not even just kids, people that are older than I'm almost 40. And, you know, I got people my own age. They're never going to retire because they've been playing games with credit cards for 25 years. It's like, dude, you have no idea. Like, this is just eating you alive and you don't even have a problem with it. It's crazy.

Speaker: Exactly. Like, i have i have a couple cards that have a little bit on it, but nothing crazy. You know what i mean? Yeah. Yeah. it's it's a little different to use them sparingly, but I feel like a lot of people, it's like ah a regular part of their life. And again, like, I'm not, I'm not a financial advisor. I just, I just, I just like having money and putting money into my retirement.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly. Um, aside from that, uh, With the solar panel, if you were to do that, is would you need to run like an auxiliary battery or or would you use it? No. So it actually is basically a trickle charge. Okay.

Speaker: So it will basically charge your battery as you go. And it's more or less for if you have your, oh like a cooler in the back, like a rechargeable cooler or whatever. Doing anything like that, it's made to maintain longer.

Speaker: and everything like I will have to end up going to a different type of battery. Like an AG? Yeah. To get longevity out of it and everything. yeah yeah Because the first time out with this car camping, when I was up in New York, I never had a power liftgate before. Oh, yeah, yeah. My car stayed at the campsite for everybody.

Speaker: And everybody's just opening and shutting it, right? Because you had a rooftop tent, so why would you leave it? Or like why would you not just leave it? Exactly. Oh, dude. And I mean, a motor is going to take up a little more energy out of the battery than like a, you know, than just the dome light being on.

Speaker: That's correct. Oh, that sucks, man. So what happened? So two weeks, two weeks after owning it, luckily someone around had a jump, ah jump pack for me. Okay. Okay. Yeah. But I found out as I was about to leave.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. yeah oh man how did you get out of that somebody had a jump pack on on hand okay okay some some random guy at the parking spot like just down the way a little bit he's like oh yeah just go in the car and grab perfect he goes but watch the hot's always hot so make sure it touches plastic and not the black yeah like what yeah i learned the the battery lesson one time i was way up in the hills and i didn't realize the battery was going bad and i ended up i got real lucky i was able to get uh get some help but yeah then i started looking into like agm batteries and that's how i got connected with melee who

Speaker: after, after spending thousands of dollars with them on, on batteries for all the cars, uh, Mitch is just such a good dude over there. he he was like, Hey, let me sponsor the podcast. i was like, Oh, right, let's do it.

Speaker: That'd be sick. But, uh, yeah, he's, he's schooled me a lot on like battery technology and, Yeah, AGM, in my opinion, anybody that's taking their car off-road. Now, as soon as I get a car, boom, new battery immediately. AGM, I'm not playing games.

Speaker: But it's kind of a kind of a painful initial purchase. Oh, yeah. but But once you have it, you're good for how many years? Dude, my first AGM battery from Melee, I bought it 2020. 2020.

Speaker: twenty twenty actually so we're going on um six years with it and it's been discharged numerous times i've not been nice to it i've winched with it and it still runs no problem but all sorts of gang stuff but it's still still running man i'm i'm a fan does anybody out there run torque lockers do you have any plans or any curiosity about one of those Not really. For what I do, it would not be worthwhile. Okay. You guys don't have a lot of like um unequal, like crazy rocky terrain out where you're at?

Speaker: No, the most the most around me, like within two hours, is the Barrens and there. It's a sand pit, basically. Yeah. like But it's harder sand, I should say.

Speaker: little bit deal with. Other than that, though, like it's yeah it's just a little bit of slick rock here there. and Okay. It just goes right over it anyways. Okay, that makes sense. You already alluded to this a little bit, but i want to ask you, what kind of hobbies do you have that the Subaru has sort of um made easier, like having a lifted Subaru. I know you do fishing and that type of stuff, but what all do you like to do in the, you know, just in your free time?

Speaker: So I do a lot of fishing. I go all over yeah as much as I can to different places. And like I said, I grew up on a farm, which is right up across the street, basically. Rad. And like when I go up there, if I want to get photos or something like that, I can go through the creek. I can go out in the field. I can do whatever I want up there, really. you know what I mean?

Speaker: Just fishing, hunting, and just exploring stuff. Okay. Wow. um have you taken one your subarus out hunting before uh my outback i took up bear hunting and i had a rack on the back just in case i got one didn't get one okay okay okay have you ever gotten a bear no okay what do you guys have out there you black bear or yep just black bear Okay.

Speaker: Yeah. they're Black bears, we have them out here. They're not nearly as aggressive as aggressive as some of the other species, but I still would not want to tangle one you even on my best day. too yeah I've seen a few of them and they're massive. Even the black bears, dude. Like, yeah, it's crazy.

Speaker: ah We do a lot of deer hunting and stuff like that. And I'm not afraid just to throw a deer right in the back of the hatch. That doesn't bother me. Yeah. Yeah, they've they've got, and I mean, I'm guessing you guys field dress right there.

Speaker: It depends. sometimes like i we live on 15 and a half acres okay so i just hunt right behind my house oh dude that's what's up that's so sick yeah in that case it doesn't really matter what you do yeah i just i put them on a sled and i slide them down the hill and then i just do it in the garage right out by the chickens yeah you just tow it tow it down Uh, like you just sometimes where I can ride it down on the sled.

Speaker: Dude, man, my dad would, would kill to live on some property like that. Like, Oh, I can go hunting in my backyard. That is super sick.

Speaker: What's the, um, I'm, I'm guessing you've probably tagged a ton of deers at this point, right? Yeah, dude. That's what's up. I've, I've never been hunting. I just, my dad was into it and, um,

Speaker: I was in college and then trying to get a career going when, you know, when he was living out here doing that. So I just never got into it, but I love like all that stuff. I'm about that life too.

Speaker: I actually worked at a gun shop for right before my son was born. I worked there for the summer just as extra money. Yeah. Heck yeah. So I got good deals on stuff like that. That's such a dangerous thing. Getting getting deals on guns. It's like, uh-oh. No, the dangerous one is getting deals on suppressors. so Wait, are you... um what What's the paperwork process like for for having one out there?

Speaker: ah I believe it's the same everywhere. It's a $200 tax stamp on each one. you have to be fingerprinted. You have to go through a whole background check. Nowadays, they have what's called an E-form. When I did it, they didn't have that, so I had to wait like eight months for it.

Speaker: Really? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'm already fingerprinting all that stuff in general for yeah know concealed carry. I'm about that um i'm about that life, dude. i'm I like preserving my safety. Oh, me too.

Speaker: What's your go-to carry gun? I have a Kanik TP9 Oh, dude. what that Is that like an style No, it's, a I don't even know how to describe it. It's just like a subcompact that's a little bit bigger.

Speaker: I believe it can hold like 16 rounds. This is a double stack. how do you spell cannic How do you spell that? Is that C-A-N-I-K? Oh, dude, no I got to look this up.

Speaker: So it's a TP9? TP9SC. so Let me take a look. It's a striker fire, dude. It's awesome. Mine's the bronze and black with the red trigger. I'm looking at that right now. That's a good looking piece of equipment, dude.

Speaker: That's what's up. Yeah, dude, I'm off the record. I got a man. I mean, I'm not like a collector, but I just. Oh, I was a collector. I had over 200 at a time.

Speaker: I'm down to 40. Okay. That's so sick. Yeah, I just, it's so funny because, you know, i talk to people all the time that are out camping and all that. And it's like, man, when you're out in the woods, the law does not apply. Like, there's nobody coming to save you in the woods. If a two-legged predator shows up and wants to do something to you and your family, there's nobody stopping them. Not anybody. It's up to you. And if you're out there with your family and you do not have a way to protect them, you're fumbling your job as a as a parent or as a husband or whatever, you know, exactly what's wrong with you people, dude. Well, I'll, uh, let's go ahead and like land the plane. Cause I know it's way later where you're at. Um, you're good.

Speaker: Yeah, dude. ah Let me think here. Do you have any like affiliate deals or anything that could get you some money if people were to where to buy stuff using your links? Oh, dude. Let's get you some bread.

Speaker: In my Instagram bio, I have my three links. or All the codes are for Bang & Wagon. Okay. um I have Knob Sight. I have Vosh Auto Care. And then I actually... have an affiliate link with a random clothing company. I don't know how I got it.

Speaker: but it's fault Is it good clothes? Okay. Oh, dude, they're sick. They're like pirate-themed clothes. They're pretty cool. he I don't know. Did you did you like reach out to them? or I just got an email saying, here's the code and everything like that.

Speaker: And i got a shirt. yeah That's so sick. I might have to get all my Pirates of the Caribbean grind here soon. That's what's up.

Speaker: And then again, you are, it's for Bangin' Wagon, right? On Instagram? Perfect. Is there any underscores? No underscores. Any G in Bangin'? Yep, banging wagon.

Speaker: It's like a four banger. Yeah. No, no G at the end though. So no, just bang. There we go. Heck yeah. Yeah. I love that dude. Four bangers for life. Oh yeah. Well, it's pretty, it's pretty funny when someone asks, how did you come up with that name? We're banging wagon. I'm like, well, it's four banger. four banger. I had a wagon, but now it's an SUV, but it's still a wagon. It's, it has a hatch.

Speaker: I guess. Yeah. Well, dude, thanks for coming on and chatting, man. I've, I've really enjoyed talking to you because, you know, it's fun to talk about the cars and stuff, but also love just like talking to somebody the way I would talk to them out in the wild, do you know, like, Oh, what kind of guns you got? What kind of, you know, what, what about this?

Speaker: But yeah, thanks, Tom. I really appreciate you, man. This was a lot of fun. Thank you.