Lifted Subaru Ascent Build | Wheels, Tires & Off-Road Setup

Transcript

Speaker: If you own a Subaru Ascent or you're thinking about buying one and you want to figure out whether not it's realistic or reliable to build an Ascent for off pavement use or even to tow with an Ascent, I think you're going to like this episode. Now I did delay putting out this episode just a little bit because I was able to meet Joe in person at the Overland Expo this past weekend. But I wanted to kind of meet him in person, chat with him a little bit before I put this out. Before we jump into that, make sure that if you want more Subaru podcast content that you check out the Subi and U podcast and the Wave podcast. Speaking of the Subi and U podcast, I was able to hang out with my buddy Raf this past weekend.

Speaker: We spent three days together just hanging out, talking business, and walking around meeting new people and old faces that we haven't seen in about a year. If you've never been to the Overland Expo and there is one happening near you, you definitely should make the trip if you ever get the chance.

Speaker: It's a super good experience to meet with vendors and other Subaru owners and to just kind of have a good time. All right, let's freaking get into this.

Speaker: I'm stoked to be here with you, man. Yeah, me too. Can you tell everybody your name and what kind of car you drive and where they can find you online if you want them to? Yeah, I'm Joe. I drive a...

Speaker: this blue i think it is i can't remember it's a blue with the only blue uh 2021 subaru ascent touring so it's got all sorts of uh bells and whistles uh got that rich blood uh bought it used uh except it good doesn't have did like dark chocolatey brown interior i really wanted that but uh so i got black interior it's fine it works out um you know it's the one the one thing that i wanted And then online, ah but it's a on Instagram, it's 21.ascent.

Speaker: Dude, you got in early while there was still one there, dude. I love it. I threw it in there and was like, sweet, I got it. ah No, i um I can't remember that color code on that. that ah We called it, some i I was selling Subarus right around the time where they released that interior color. I can't remember what it was called, but that was, i i agree fully, one of the best looking interiors ever.

Speaker: I was going to ask you, because I usually like to ask people kind of like their entrance into like Subaru ownership, but it sounds like your parents were the but the culprits there. How did that go down? Kind of. um i I started in the Honda world back in in high school. Fast and Furious, baby. Tell me about it. I had that car for a long time and threw a lot of money at it. but Wait, what did you have? I'll sidetrack us just a little bit. I had a 98 Civic Hatchback. Oh, sick. an EK?

Speaker: Yeah. Dude, whoa. It was great. Loved it. what I'm not super familiar with Hondas, but had done like a B20 swap or what was kind of popular at the time? I was building a B16 Civic Cypher motor.

Speaker: um I just lost interest, got bored of it, sold it. The guy that I sold it to ended up grenading it, which is an interesting story. But yeah, he like... Blew it to pieces, literally. Oh,

Speaker: Yeah, you couldn't, there wasn't even a piston left. and Just put a straight skylight in the thing. Yeah. Oh, dude. i Long story short, he went from, he tried to go second to second to third at the top of second and went second to first. To first. oh how do you, oh, man. And like you could see the top of the connecting rod and that's it.

Speaker: um Oh, man. Yeah. So I did that and then did went the the single cam turbo route for just a brief bit. And then the transmission started going.

Speaker: And was at a point and I'm just like, I can't keep putting money in this. So I pulled the turbo off because didn't need to blow up that engine too. And limped limp the transmission for as long as I could and then and then sent it packing. But yeah, it was ah it went through different iterations of wheels and interior and suspension and all sorts of stuff. So that's kind of what got me in.

Speaker: And then i feel like this Subaru stuff was like, my roommate in college had a, a four door 2.5 RS in present. Um, and that thing, yes, yes, absolutely. Like that thing was fun. Uh, you know, he, we put cams in it and okay then he grenaded the transmission and then, uh, got it, got it rebuilt and it was, it was a fun, fun, fun, fun car. Like it was great. Um, and, but I just, you know, kept with the Honda and then fell out of a lot of stuff just,

Speaker: life-wise and just drove what i what I needed to get around, get to school get to work, um and and do all that stuff. And then had a legacy... What year like a twenty Like 2013 Legacy sedan for a little bit.

Speaker: um Switched that out to a 16 Forester. Those just you know stayed stock. They were my ex-wife's cars.

Speaker: I had my 86 Honda Civic Station wagon. So that was, you know, rip, rip, run and good. Oh, yeah. It was great. JVM classics. I loved it. Let's go That's what I grew up in a little.

Speaker: A little ah vintage Civic. That's what my parents had. it was either... No, actually, I'm wrong. It was an Accord. Sorry. But same. They all looked the same at the time. More glass than metal above the doors. Exactly. But I loved it. you know It went. It wasn't anything great. It didn't get me in trouble. And you know was it was a good good one. Second kid came around and I was like, well, I should probably get something with airbags. You know, safety features. um And bought...

Speaker: Shout out Ford for having the worst design and transmissions ever and bought a Focus and had it and had it in to replace the like silly automatic clutch pack once.

Speaker: Drove it for about a year, just enough to get outside the 12K, 12 month repair warranty. Starts slipping again. And the dealer's like, well, if it's this, we'll pay for it. If it's this, you pay for it. And I was like, how about you give my key? And I just get rid of this thing. Absolutely. So, yeah, you know, shout out Ford for just being awful um in that in that room.

Speaker: And then that moved me into 2011 3.6 Outback. And that thing, I liked that thing a lot. It was awesome. I, you know, took me a while and then ended up with a inch, uh, ADF spacer lift on it.

Speaker: And then okay that that drove that for, for a while, you know, took it around and had fun with it, but. kids, kids got bigger. Um, my want for towing got, uh, a little more hefty. And so, and that's, that's what brought me to the ascent. Um, but, uh, yeah, if I, if I didn't need, you didn't want to have a ah bigger tour rating and was okay with just have, with not having the three row, I'd still be driving out back.

Speaker: Okay. Okay. I look back and like with what I, what I owed on, I probably just kept it, but you know, whatever. It is what it is, man. But no, I'm in the, I love that outback. It was great.

Speaker: And now got the, the ascent and I'm, I'm real happy with it and got it at a, at a decent spot right now. And, you know, I liked the way it looks, like the way it drives, like the way it, you know, handles yeah the little bit of off-road that I've gotten to do so far.

Speaker: Yeah. So I'm you know, plenty happy with it. Heck yeah, man. I really want to talk about that Outback first before start picking your brain about the Ascent. You said it was a 2011. My wife's got a 2011 Outback six-speed manual. It's just the two-five. But man, great little cars. got tons of space in them for what they are. They're comfortable. They're somewhat modern.

Speaker: um But you said you put a one-inch lift on that? Yeah, they' just the like the the economy lift. Yeah, i think that's what that's what Patrick had it as, is the economy and the economy. Got it and threw it on there. And that plus the, um like the, I got some Rally Tech overload springs for the back. Okay.

Speaker: Because I was towing like a little tent trailer camper, a little pop-up guy. And so I wanted some more, a little more stability in the back. Yeah. But i it was awesome.

Speaker: That 3.6 has got some do some getup. Yeah. And it's all it's all motor. There's no turbo lag. um I think the EZ36, I think it's a good platform. I'm not real familiar with it.

Speaker: I've never owned one, but it's chain-driven, no belts, or at least behind the timing cover. ah Makes decent power, man. like Yeah. you know I like them. you put your foot You put your foot on it, and you'll get out of the way. Yeah, man. I think the worst thing that I...

Speaker: was approaching uh dealing with was the the spark plugs oh yeah you know the the two closest to the firewall like yeah a you put a four-cylinder and a six-cylinder in the same engine bay and you know you're gonna have to give up some space on some some things but i mean if that's if that's all it is it's whatever Yeah, every 60K, you pop the motor mounts loose, give it you know put some air underneath it, and yeah swap them out. I've heard people do them with skinny fingers and special tools. but but yeah And like seven wobble sockets and extensions. like you know It looks like a worm going down there, but it gets it out. so I mean, it's doable, but yeah not by me.

Speaker: I'd be half tempted to drill a hole through the unibody or something right at it. I mean, that's just me. but between Between that and replacing the headlight bulbs, that... Dude.

Speaker: either pull the bumper or you're up to here, you know up to frigging bicep in the wheel well, trying to get that. And you can't see anything. it's all you' all It's all done by feeling, and you're trying to visualize it as you're doing it. yep And they're the worst headlights because of the wire clip.

Speaker: Uh-huh. They're horrible. Yeah. Absolutely horrible. I'm so glad – The fact that you can sympathize with me on this makes me feel so much better because before me and my wife even got married, i was like, I'll just do a headlight for you because they're going to charge you like a hundred bucks. i was like, I'll do it. I was like, well, now I know why they're going charge you a hundred bucks. You're like, so a hundred bucks, huh? That's not too bad.

Speaker: As your arm is just like shredded because you're, you know, you got always right here. Yep. Take the fender liner out and pull it down and then just like base ventura up into the tempo dude you're just like oh my gosh i can't do this there's that one metal bracket that comes down further back close to where the headlight housing itself is and it always gets me on the forearm when i'm in there trying to like jimmy rig that stupid thing but i just put leds in it and called it good that's that's what i did like i read about it and saw that it was just like a nightmare and it's like pull the bumper or do this and i'm like don't want to pull the bumper

Speaker: looking back i should have pulled the bumper yeah right yeah it i made it i made it work it got in there you know it was good so heck yeah but yeah did you i love that car it was great okay now i know you had a lift on it you did some real basic towing did you take that car and take it off-road at all a little bit with like um like some, you know, fire roads and and gravel stuff like out towards like off 35. Yeah, dude. And just kind of up in there, like looking up. Yeah. Yeah. Upload. It's been up. It went up little past. Just looking for mostly looking for different areas to hang out and looking for campsites, you know, trying to, that's, that's one thing that I did with my kids and, you know, do with my, my did back then with the Outback with my girlfriend and now DSN is go out and just try to find

Speaker: try to find campsites, you know, rack up the lists, rack up the, yeah you know, the waypoints at Onyx and trying to find different, different stuff that, Oh, we could fit one car here. We could fit two cars here. You know, we could maybe turn the trailer around here, you know, just little, little you things here and there to try to get out and get away from, get away from people as much as you can and find it, find little areas to, to have fun and, you Yeah, that's um that's actually exactly how I got into it, man.

Speaker: I don't know if you've been up north at all from where you're at, but essentially like directly north of where you're at is kind of where I started getting into like off-trail hiking.

Speaker: And like all like the foothills of Mount St. Helens, more on the west side, down the Gifford Pinchot. yeah I've been up and down every single road that you can access without bolt cutters. And I'm not saying we would ever cut cut locks on gates but that's a illegal or but for real i've never done that but yeah same yeah but i love when other people do it for me i've just always worried like oh i know for sure somebody would catch me out here and i'd get a five thousand dollar fine or you go to leave and they found it and they block it up you lock it up like good luck well here we go for this one don't worry i'll cut it again now i'm just kidding But yeah, that was the same thing for me. And I feel like that's that's where these cars excel because you can just go onto these back roads for literally six hours at a time and not even think about fuel. yeah you know

Speaker: And they're comfortable. you know Independent suspension is... I mean, it's money for getting around at moderate speeds off the pavement. I mean, it's not good for rock crawling, but we're not rock crawling. If I wanted to do that, I would have you know bought an XJ. Yeah.

Speaker: wait yeah years and years and years ago or a forerunner but i haven't had the financial means to be doing that the worst financial decision oh yeah never going to financially recover from this you know what's funny my xj has a a vinyl die cut that i made of joe exotic with that quote on the fuel door of the xj

Speaker: Yes. And it's not even so much the gas. It's like, oh, you want to lift it Cool. that means now you need a slip yoke eliminator kit. That'll be $300. Or if you're going to do that, that means you need shims on the rear axle. That's another $40. Then you need a $350 custom driveshaft.

Speaker: And hey, while you're in there, you might as well... Trust the rear axle. And if you're going to trust the rear axle, might as well trust the front axle. You know, it's like, dude. Yeah, it's like, and then you you buy a set of tires and then start putting money away in a shoebox for when you need to buy a new set of tires because they're not going to be cheap. Dude, I'm running, I just run everything on 15s because it's so much cheaper on a 15 inch wheel instead of 17s.

Speaker: Dude, and even 15-inch tires, I'm just running 35s on it, which you know back when XJs were actually like still current, 35s were kind of like, that was like the jam. you know So it's way oversized for the car. But bro, it's like $1,500 to get a set of thirty fives on Yeah.

Speaker: dude, what? Then you'd go up to 42s on 17s. It's like $5,000. Yeah. that's yeah That's like i was looking at ah like gladiators when I was shopping for the Ascent. i'm like, well do i want a truck? Do I want a a gladiator? Do i want like a JTs are sick. And then um'm I'm looking at it and I'm like, if I got one, I couldn't go anything less than Then I started pricing out 37s and I'm like, so I'm not doing that.

Speaker: Are you currently in the market for lift kit for your Subaru? Or have you put a crappy Amazon or eBay lift kit on it and realized maybe you shouldn't have done that? Well, if you're in the market for that or skid plates, ditch light brackets, molly panels, any kind of other off-road Subaru stuff, make sure that you check out today's sponsor, Anderson Design and Fabrication. they are offering you guys a five percent off deal if you use code dirt subies at checkout all you got to do is go to their website awdadventure.com use that code dirt subies when you check out and you will get five percent off you guys know that i've been running their products for over 10 years at this point and have just absolutely beat the crap out of them i've got their lift kit on my forester currently and i will probably never use another lift kit brand ever. Their stuff is just solid. So it means a lot to me, the fact that Patrick was willing to do me a favor and sponsor the podcast. Go over there, get whatever you need, use that code and make sure in the notes section, you tell him thank you because he doesn't need to discount any of his products. He's literally killing it. But again, it's just a favor that he's doing for us. And I really appreciate Patrick. Dude, it sounds like you're

Speaker: you're pretty dialed in. Like you bought your ascent used, like you understand just the amount of craziness that our culture is in with $800 card payments. I'm like, how do you guys do this? I couldn't sleep at night. I can't do it. I mean, it's and obviously stepping up from a, you know, 2011 to a 21, obviously it was more money, but it was within, within reason and within management manageable area. Yeah. Let me actually ask you. So, so you're the first person that I've had on the show that has an ascent and thank you for coming on. I really appreciate it. And this was short notice, but, um, dude, your car looks sick. And I wanted to ask you specifically what you've put on the car.

Speaker: ah starting with those wheels, dude, those wheels are gangster. Well, I, I don't think I'm the only the first one. I'm the first one where it's the primary car. Cause Derek had one.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah. And then, is da have you had Fuzzy in the Wild, Richard, on here? Yeah, but that was right before he bought it. Before he got it. So I guess. Yeah, yeah. And Derek doesn't have it anymore, so I guess I can be de facto. I'll take it. Yeah. I will accept that badge. Gosh.

Speaker: the I consider Derek as a Forrester owner he's he's a Forrester owner and he doesn't really offer he didn't offer the ascents yeah not much he probably does about as much as I do now so yeah um let's see wheels ah they are what are they sport terrain tundras I think is what the model is okay um I think it's a I think it's tire rack wheel brand oh and they have like a few different like lines inside that sport um name but I just I wanted something i mean I like you know methods they look cool I think they look great but I you know you see you see them all the time and I you know no shame on them I think they look great but I just like I want something different and then yeah you know I being like an SUV in that world I wanted something a little more like

Speaker: little not really burly i am not firm but like kind of more like military-y looking i was just gonna say that yeah and like black rhino makes some but i it' was like okay i like these and then i saw these ones these and they have two different models in this the sport terrain like off-road and this one was a little more chunky um a little less kind of spoky-ish and And then it was just like, i was kind of going back and forth, going back and forth. And then like popped up, like the golds were, or the bronze, whatever the color they call them, were all like a closeout. And I was like, well, fixed if the stars would align, then the stars align. And I had, I had bronze wheels on my,

Speaker: Civic for a while and I was like you know blue the bronze and the world rally and the goal i think i think this is just what it needs dude it was like either the charcoal or the gold and I'm like I gotta just go with it and and so yeah I did those um and then talked our buddy Patrick and let's go we he's like yeah have you tried the the patagonia the at pros and i was like i have it but he's like he's like well if you're interested so let me know and you know i can i can get some and i'm like okay so look looked it up checked them out i' like cool cool i'm like well was like pat i need i need five and he's like yeah we can do that he's like what size and i you know i looked at it today and i'm like oh i'm gonna look at my tire size and i'm gonna remember it and then um you know when ben asked me i'm gonna tell him Are they 255, 60, 18?

Speaker: hundred I want to say they're 265, 60. Okay. Okay. i I tried looking on your photo to see if can use my eagle eyes, but those were a thing in the past. I don't. And I looked at, they're either 260 or 65.

Speaker: Okay. I don't remember. i yeah i Do you? They're there and they're big and they're head Okay. real quick, let me, and shout out to Patrick, dude. He's such a good guy. i Yeah. I love that guy. He's great. dude He's awesome.

Speaker: Even before I met him and we became friends, like I started using their stuff way back in the day and yeah, I was already sold on their stuff, but now knowing the dude behind the brand and kind of where he comes from, i'm like, Oh man, lifetime support right here. Yeah. Great, great human. I, I yeah told him and like went down to the shop and yeah We looked at the car and I, the only thing I can do is I wish they made, I wish he was able and had the time to make more as set parts because then I'd have yeah more ADF parts on my car. Right now, I just have transition bushing. But yeah, yeah I wish, i wish i I wish I could put more on there eventually, hopefully. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's it's the Ascent compared to all the other vehicles that Subaru has on the market. It's still technically like a ah niche car in the in the off-road scene. and I can't wait. um

Speaker: I'm hoping that by having you on and by more people that are already into the off-road thing, like like Rich you know buying an Ascent, I'm hoping that more people will start modifying them. and Yeah, there's just some you know there's there's some out there. There's ah ah a few that I've seen around.

Speaker: And, you know, you know got me on Instagram trying to follow all of that I can find. And, the you know, Facebook groups and stuff, which is a whole other world to go down. But they have a modified ascent group. And and there's a one guy that's done done some engine stuff and is is putting up power. And I'm just like, okay. Okay. All right.

Speaker: I know that, you know, the transmission, I think eventually is going to prove itself to be the weak link as far as sense making power. But I can't wait to see kind of how people adapt and, you know, show their ingenuity because I would love. So me personally right now, if I just if my house is paid off and.

Speaker: didn't have a mortgage i would go buy an ascent this is people are going to roast me for this but i would slam the crap out of it see how much power i could make out of it see if i could find somebody who could help me six speed swap like an sti transmission into it that'd be pretty sweet because you know it's the same a similar engine to what's in the current wrx like it's a yeah solid motor dude i'm I'm all about it.

Speaker: um I want to ask you real quick before I forget yeah on the on the tires and wheels. Your car came initially with 19-inch wheels, right? twentyies Oh, it came with, holy fudge, 20-inch blades full. Yep. that dubs on it so so your 20s are just like and yeah on our pole wall grind right now baby so don't no don't bring that nope don't bring that up i i got a story but we're not going into it wait not gonna hear it not gonna hear it oh my gosh so in i think it was in college um

Speaker: Yeah. In college, I'm flying to Alabama to my brother's graduating from helicopter pilot school. Oh, sick. Okay. And we're in Texas and going from Texas to Alabama on like a little like puddle jumper, you know, plane.

Speaker: And I'm in like sweats, hoodie, hat, you know, it's nighttime. Leave me alone. I'm just trying to go travel with my parents and my brother and go visit my brother someone think you were Paul Wall?

Speaker: Yeah. I had like had less beard at the time. and And yeah, like the you know, flight attendant was, he, he was like, yeah, totally like did the double take and and actually said it. And I was like, nope, nope, I'm not.

Speaker: Nothing against him. That's so funny. He's he's a wonderful he's a wonderful guy. but gal Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was that was a thing. so Paul, dude, that's so sick. That's so funny, too. um he you know He's been rapping for decades at this point.

Speaker: and ah really And so he's done a couple interviews recently, and it's like you know he's got gray hair and looks – He looked like an absolute you know white trash gangbanger back when I was listening to him.

Speaker: And it's cool to see people that are still kind of doing their thing but also kind of grown up like the rest of us. It's like, oh, good. Now don't feel so old. You're old too. Sick. Still got grills. Yes. He's definitely like –

Speaker: a lot more clean cut and stuff nowadays yeah no he's he seems like a ah really really um uh regardless of what you would think about his music like seems like a relatively like well-spoken maybe not well-spoken if you're considering slang to be not well-spoken but seems like a thoughtful person like somebody i'd actually hang out with you know yeah i like i can I can handle that. is Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. The first time or the only time, I met him way back in the day in Colorado, at a company event that I went to, was just like, just all thugged out, you know, that would have been about 20 years ago, almost at this point, but yeah. Okay. Sorry, man. I got us on that. I was right there with you. But yeah, uh, Yeah, factory the Ascent when I got it.

Speaker: good ascent when i got it and then scaled down to 18. Does your Subaru's engine bay look like crap? Mine definitely does or did. I recently, in the last couple of years, purchased a full set of engine bay caps for my daily driver and then I purchased some other ones for my Forester from Melee Design Firm. They have full sets or you can buy just the oil cap if you want to just dress that up. But they're billet aluminum.

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Speaker: Yeah. and you, you went the exact path that I tell people to go. Like if you can size down wheels, do it if you're going to be off pavement. Um, but I was just going to ask how, um, were there any clearance issues with the brake calipers putting the 18s on? Do you feel like it's a real close call or?

Speaker: No, it's, it's been perfectly fine. I mean, the only, close, you know, any clearance issues are the tires and the fender liners. Okay. Every once in a while, we get they get a little a little rubbage, and you can see where it is, and so I just, I need to just go in and, you know, heat gun them, heat them roll them, and deal with that, but no.

Speaker: the The Outback is what, because those three sixes have bigger brakes, and so 17s, I think there might be, don't, don't quote me, there might be some 16s that'll fit on it. Yeah.

Speaker: spider. um There might be some 16s that'll hit, but just went 17s and, well, I actually just kept the stock wheels and put different tires on them. Okay. so yeah But yeah, no. okay they Since the different trims come with 18s in the Ascents. Do they?

Speaker: Yeah. the I didn't even know that. ba The base and the premium, the limited might too, but yeah, the some of them come with 18s on them, and so I just I knew that that was a a good size and then would get me more sidewall.

Speaker: Okay. And and a little more little more cushion, you know, yes for when it's needed. But yeah. Man, now i I feel like a bozo. I totally thought they all came with 19s. That's something I should definitely know. but i'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure it's 18 is the smaller ones. Okay. i could I could be wrong. I know that mine were twentyies And I've never owned an Ascent, so I'm not i'm not the the world's leading expert on Ascent wheels. but neither i Neither am I, and I do own it. Yeah, no, right on. Thanks for answering that because that's that's probably the most common question that I see. Like if I'm on like the Facebook groups or you know even if I'm you know looking at like a Reddit thread, people are always asking like, oh –

Speaker: can I fit this wheel and tire? You know, am I going have room here? But, um, yeah, there's, there's some 17s they have, like, I've seen a list of, of 17 that'll fit on the ascent. And i mean, there's some, there's some good, good model wheels there, but I, I don't know. I saw these and I was like, that's what I want.

Speaker: Dude, they look sick, and I just looked on their website. It doesn't look like they make them anymore, which is cool because – or maybe they do. I just didn't see them on their site. But if they don't make them anymore, that's like a double-edged sword. It means nobody else can show up in copter style, but it also means that if one breaks, you got figure something out. But it's yeah if you're you're not going to be breaking wheels unless you're doing absolute bonkers type of stuff. And and and like, it you know, I still got to drive it home, so I'm going to be careful.

Speaker: But yeah, I've seen – there's been a couple other ones – um at Expo this past, last summer, they, the, the, suit the ascent in the booth, the Zubra booth, it had sport terrain of the other model.

Speaker: Okay. The, it had like the gray ones in there. um But I haven't, I've seen plenty with that model, but I haven't seen a whole lot Lion. i don't know if it's a good thing or just have more taste. but dinner either No, no, no. So you use the exact word that I was trying to think of when I was trying to think of how I would describe your wheels. It's very like, like you said, it's they're militaristic looking, you know, kind of like, um, black rhino. They have a ah wheel model that literally looks like off of the H one hummers that they developed back in the nineties or whatever.

Speaker: Dude, it's obviously it's not that same thing, but it gives you that same feeling of like, oh, these are, these things are ready to go out. Like, you know, win a world war or something. It's like the 1911 of, uh, of, Subaru wheels. Yeah. No, they they looked cool and they looked like that in that style. And so that was, you know, I just kept going back to them, kept going back to him them. And then one day went on and they were on closeout. was like, well, all right, time me up. Give me five.

Speaker: Dude, let's go. ha Now, what about the the so the tires? What's kind of your thoughts on the AT Pros? I really like them. I know Derek has had some issues with them chunking out, but I will say Derek beats a dog piss out of anything he owns.

Speaker: yeah love love him for it but yeah uh he he if there's anybody that like really puts a test to the stuff that he gets that he would be the the person between him absolutely Milton yeah like those two like they're crazy um I i mean I've had them for for a little while I have had you know they're a little loud but they're i mean they're they're chunky tires like they're they're not gonna be radial you know sounding yeah um uh i haven't gotten them as much off-road as i've wanted to um but when i have whether it's gravel dirt you know something like that they've handled things just fine i haven't i haven't had any issues with them um but with now it's uh

Speaker: a little more ground clearance and you know the full you know all the skids on there um can try to get a little more and i'm you know i want to i want to get out and do more know moderate trails and and try to do do a little more i just gotta find find stuff slash link up with with different folks and and find some friends to go have fun with Dude, I would absolutely love to get out on some trails with you. I'm about three hours from where you're at, so it'd be a little bit of a mission for me to get out there, but I think we'd get along really well. Yeah, I'm in. I'm totally in. think it'd be a ton of fun to try it. put in for the

Speaker: to try to do it i put in for the the camp Subaru yeah thing at expo, um, for this, this coming year. And it's a little different than it was last year. And so I'm hoping okay I get selected and I can, they can do that, but we'll just kind of see they're limiting it to 40, um, 40 vehicles total. And I think like 30 on the trail made it over there for just one day last year on Sunday.

Speaker: okay and it looked, it looked like a cool, a cool deal. So, That might be a little more you know into into it, but between now and then and after, i'm just i'm hoping to try to find and as many fun things to go test it out and have have some fun on.

Speaker: Heck yeah. Yeah. And it's nice too, to get out with other people. Cause when you're by yourself, it's like, uh, if I really clobber something to the point where this is undriveable, I'm kind of screwed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You to drive it home. You got to drive it home. Yeah.

Speaker: And then you got to drive it to work. thats Yeah. I mean, like i got I got a little bit more flexibility there, but in all of the things I got to drive it to work. Yeah. You work from home. Uh, I work from home two days a week. Nice. Okay. But I could probably beg, borrow, and plead to yeah for so for something to take for a little while. But if I yeah if i break if i break it at a certain time, then I can work from home. So I work in information services for oh school district.

Speaker: Oh, nice. Okay. So it's IT, but I don't touch other computers but my own. Okay. My title is... Information Systems Analyst.

Speaker: um Okay. I basically, I do a lot of data connections with outside companies and vendors um and do support and different stuff for our, like, student information system, so... Do a lot of data, move move data around and then support and manage a few different systems that we have in place. so Dude, it's it's good. That's sick.

Speaker: I've been doing it for since May of 2014. Okay, you're a veteran, bro. I guess, but I've got, I mean, I have, this is like 17 or 18 years in school district. People are going to start doing math and figuring out how old I am in this and and what's not up there. Wait, how how old are you? I mean, I can cut this out if you want me to. Oh, why don't I don't care. i'm How old are you?

Speaker: 41. Dude, you're only a couple of years older than me. Like we're same boat. So I feel you. Yeah. Yeah. But I i started out um working in special with special needs students at a high school oh right um and kind of worked through that. And then,

Speaker: saw some, you know, writing on the wall with, with that. And so i was like, um, I need to move it. And this job is full time year round eight hours a day. Okay. No summers off, no Christmas off, no spring off. So it's like a full paycheck, not only, yeah you know, 180 days of that. So yeah. And I, you know,

Speaker: It's the school district that I that i graduated from, so I didn't stray far. Okay. But it's been great. The people I work with are great, both close in and outside of it. Yeah. 17, 18 years rolling, I should probably hang out for a little longer and get some benefits out of it.

Speaker: Right. yeah Oh, absolutely. You got a, is it like a 20 year thing if you want to retire with school districts or most people talk like 30, um, in that, in that area, but a lot of that is age and then like the, the purrs, um, details and stuff. So, um, do you mind if I take us on a quick sidetrack here? Yeah. Um, ah as a professional, you know, cause there's jobs and then there's careers and, um,

Speaker: modifying cars and beating the dog piss out of cars requires money and a lot of it. And, uh, on, on the channel, the YouTube channel for the show, there's a lot of kids between the ages of like 20 to 27.

Speaker: Like that's a huge chunk of who listens. Um, if you were to give advice to yourself at that age, in terms of how to, how to determine ah maybe a good career path and then how to sort of get your foot in the door. Do you have any advice in that regard? Because we all want to make more money so we can buy more car parts.

Speaker: I was selling car parts at that age. Oh, sick. okay Yeah, I worked at AutoZone through most of my college years. Oh, sick. I worked for AutoZone for a brief period too, man. i Really? worked Yeah. I worked in the commercial department, dude. but So did I, I, I started off like just as a, you know, a red shirt, if you know, yeah dude you know, to speak. and then And then they wanted to move me up, but there was like other people. So I became like the, i don't even know if I like was like the assistant commercial manager or whatever it was, but like, I, yeah,

Speaker: if our commercial guy was out, like I ran the, ran that side and I ran it on the the weekends and I drove and ended that. So yeah, i I put in my, put in my shift, uh, down to Salem.

Speaker: Okay. Running, running auto zone. Yeah. Okay. It was fun. But advice, I don't know. Find something, man find something that you, you know, you can see yourself doing.

Speaker: And then what's helped me, in my now career is be curious and, then try to just learn, learn and learn and learn and learn. Cause I've, you know, I've had,

Speaker: This is my fourth different position in our department. And, okay you know, I'd, you know, be in a position, but I'd ask questions and I'd learn and I'd be curious about this. And it's like, Oh, we're doing this. Oh, what is, what, you know, what does that go to? And then put yourself in situations that challenge you, um but that you feel strong that you can, you can do it and you can complete it. Make sure you can eat and make sure you can, you know,

Speaker: pay the pay the water bill but uh balance it it's all it's you know everything's balanced whether it's you know life whether it's you know all that stuff just balance it out and then hopefully you get in you find something that you know kind of ticks the box and and you can stick in it and and be in it for a while Dude, I love what you said about um always being willing to learn, man. I always tell people, man, I'm ah i'm a lifetime student. you know it's the So what I do now never had any inclination that it would be something I'd ever do. Same. And I literally, the owner of the company I work for, I met him on on an airplane and he was like, hey, have you ever thought about working in the medical industry and would you be interested in doing marketing? And I was like,

Speaker: I've never done marketing, but I said, absolutely. I would be down to do that. And I learned on the job, dude. Like, Oh oh yeah. I've dev've learned tons on the job. Yeah. I also, what you said about making sure that it pays the bills, that's super important, like a super important thing to remember because a lot of people you say, Oh, what's your dream job? And what, what do you want to do? They're like, I want to be an influencer. I want to be an ice cream tester. And it's like, well, good luck on that. You know, I hope that works out for you, but I've found that you can find a lot of fulfillment and enjoyment in a job when it starts to pay you a boatload of money.

Speaker: Like as, as long as you don't feel like you're selling your soul, almost any job feels good when it gives you like you make $10,000 a month. Cool. Well, now you have an extra five grand to go do stuff you like doing.

Speaker: And there's no strings attached to it. Like, Oh, this isn't a job. I just get to go do this thing. Cause there's, you know, real estate job that I'm working or whatever it is, gives me all this money and I don't really particularly hate it. So I can do this forever. Yeah. it's like, you know, find something that you feel, you know, you can get up and go do. Yeah.

Speaker: yeah And not just like, and ah and a lot of it is the people you're around. Yes. If you go and you like the job is fine, but like, stand from ah you know in the next office over is like the most annoying person in the world and you can't like you don't find that like crew more or less at at yeah in your workplace like if you're if you're miserable don't don't do it yeah i mean yeah money money's great but yeah if you're miserable You can't even enjoy the money.

Speaker: Exactly. Yeah, there was a period of time where I actually dreaded my job. I've never experienced that before. was the only job I ever like just walked out on. And dude, no amount of money could have made me continue doing that.

Speaker: Same. you know Yeah, I've been there. yeah i've been there Well, thanks for humoring me. Cause like I said, you know, this show is supposed to be about cars, but I kind of, you know, it's like, we just talk about whatever. And there, you there's bunch of young kids that listen to this. It's like, man, if I had somebody when I was 22 or whatever, telling me to go, you know, put my nose to the grindstone and just find something that pays good that I don't hate, I'd probably be in a much better situation.

Speaker: Yeah. I mean, it's just, you know, listen Listen to what's around you. Listen to the right people. Surround yourself with the right people. And you'll start to see where the ah you know the people that aren't that great are just kind of, they drift away. you um Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. And then, well, did you did you end up going to school? Yeah. for Yeah. i have ah but I have a bachelor's in education. And I was going to be a PE teacher. And in 2008, when I was graduating from college, PE jobs were not plentiful. Um, and so i was like, well, you know, I want to work with kids. So I went and, you know, worked in a, in a school and I coached as well. And so then I quickly realized like, i don't think I really want to have my own classroom teach and do that. My position got cut at the school based on, you know, ah apparently based on need.

Speaker: and so being not, not having as much seniority, I was moved somewhere else and there was just like some jockeying back and forth and trying to figure out and I knew that was like the beginning of the end I needed to start finding finding a different plant and I've always had always liked computers and technology and learning and so I just found that found those you know opportunities and and shifted off Cause you know, the saying like, it's not what you know, it's who, you know, everybody says that all the time, which is partially true.

Speaker: yes You know, a big part of it is, um, you really have to, you have to be the person that the who, you know, person is even attracted to the moment that they cross paths with you. Cause like ye every billionaire comes in contact with hundreds of people a day that, you know, they may go and get a coffee and whatever, They don't think twice about most of these people, but the right person that is in their path, they're going get noticed, you know, but I was thinking about all this and if I had to go get a job tomorrow,

Speaker: I would make those who, you know, connections on purpose. I just, dude, I just start blasting LinkedIn. Hey, can I take you out to coffee and pick your brain about what you do? Like, I'm curious about getting into this industry. Like I'd be doing stupid stuff like that, you know?

Speaker: And yeah, stuff happened the the who, you know, is definitely, mean, cause you've got to get your foot in the door somehow. But you know, what you know is going to, is going to get you a further connected.

Speaker: Exactly. And, know, give you the the skills and the the know-how to to make it work. Because, if you know, you can know a bunch of people, but if you're dumb as a box of rocks, it's not going get you anywhere.

Speaker: Yeah. the The who you know might get you in the door and the what you know will keep you from getting fired in a couple months. gets you past the reception desk. Exactly. You know, in into you know bit past the waiting room. I'll get back to some car stuff now. Oh, good. I love it.

Speaker: um I want to ask you i know you got some you, know you got off-road tires, you got the wheels. um Is it lifted? It is now, yes. Perfect. As of like month ago, something like that. Oh, okay. So this is recent.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah. I bought the Lyft and then it was funny. I bought the Lyft and then got rear-ended like right after it. Wait, what? did you put You didn't post about that, did you? um i don't I don't know if I did. I'm i'm not good at social media. but don't Don't worry about it and don't get good at it. no It's a waste. I don't think it was the same day, but it was within days that I bought, I ordered the lift and then I was front car of a four car rear ending.

Speaker: Um, and so my damage was real minimal. Um, and so okay then I had to go, you know, go to the body shop and get fixed and stuff. And then my, um, my brother-in-law who lives, uh, up near hood river.

Speaker: Um, he, he's engineer, pilot, all that stuff. Like I trust him. with all this stuff and i trust him a lot to help me work on my car um so i just managing ah schedules and trying to figure out and then you know managing time with my kids and when i can you know balance and that whole stuff and just like it kind of sat for a while um and then finally i was like i gotta get this done and the weather's starting to get nicer and And I want to get out and try to do some stuff. And so I was like, hey, i was like does this work?

Speaker: And he, you know, up weekend, worked out for him. And so i went and went and did it. So, yeah, it's been sick and about a month. Did the um with Rally Tech two and a half inch space. Okay. It's a spacer spring lift for two and a half inch of lift. And yeah, it's, it drives so great, so much better than factory with the, with the springs and stuff. Like it's, I'm really, really happy with, with how everything is with it.

Speaker: Yeah, and that's perfect for, you know, you mentioned the towing thing and having having overload springs is, yep it's it's a non-negotiable if you're to pulling something. yeah I mean, unless it's a lawnmower. Yeah, my trailers, you know, it's got it's not, you know, it's about three...

Speaker: It's about 3,000, just as is. Okay. What? That's a beefy little trailer. It's not small, yeah. yeah but Yeah. But it was like, okay, I upgraded the car, and then I got upgrade the trailer because...

Speaker: the part of The tent trailer pop-up was just not cutting the cup in the mustard anymore. it was fun. Got into it it. was like, yes, this is something I want to do. And so that that kind of pushed me to to do that. But yeah, with the springs and the spacers,

Speaker: um it yeah it's it drives so much better. And just it's it's great. I'm really happy with it. Yeah. um I've seen this photo on your Instagram of your trailer, but the way that Instagram crops it on your on your home feed doesn't show the trailer.

Speaker: I just clicked on it. That is a full size big boy. mean, it's like I think it's like 19 feet, something like that.

Speaker: that's Yeah. That's like a full on like, uh, RV minus the, minus the cab on the RV. You know i mean? Like that's a big, it's dang bro.

Speaker: It's not, e it's not, i mean, obviously there's some that are well bigger than that. For sure. For sure. it It fit the weight that i wanted. It fit the, you know, how many sleeping areas there are for, for everybody. Um, and so, and it was, know,

Speaker: the right price was like yep dude that's rad um what uh what kind of trailer is that it's a jaco okay okay like a third baja series so it's got a little bit a little bit of ground clearance and it's got bunk beds and a you know bed a queen bed and then a dinette drops down because i've got i've got two kids Um, and then my, my girlfriend has a son. And so if we want to take the whole, the whole crew, we got to be able to sleep, sleep everybody. So, yeah, you got a little clan out there, dude. That's sick.

Speaker: Yeah, it's good. And, you know, people can bring friends and it's like, well, guess you got to sleep in a tent. There's no more room for one more. I'm sleeping inside. Yeah. go We'll be in. You can take that, take that nylon tent and have a good time. Yeah. But yeah, no, it's, it's, I've only had it out. but I think it might only have been once.

Speaker: Towing that thing drops me down to about 11 miles a gallon. Oh, thank you for saying that. That was one of questions. With the gas prices right now, i'm like, yeah, the only weird place that trailer's going is in the driveway where it is right now. I might, I i' probably, up you know, it'll it'll get out hopefully this summer, but not nearly as as much or as far as i really would want to.

Speaker: But it's just... The feasibility right now with the gas prices, it's not yeah um great. so Yeah. And do you got to run premium or can you run regular in that and have it still managed towing pretty decently?

Speaker: ah Regular has been fine. um I towed it. um the The time that we took it out when before the summer was out last year up to Chehalis, to the Chehalis area. Oh, dang.

Speaker: Yeah, and so it was just, you know shoot it by five, and that's not the the RV park isn't too far off from there, so we took it up there, and it was it was nice and easy. Yeah. Do you know who Lee Parsons is? The guy that owns the Groot Baru? That's what he calls It's like an old GL on 37s.

Speaker: No. hu Yeah. Yeah. He lives. i can't remember which town he lives in. Lives kind of on the way to Chehalis. Um, that whole area though, that's kind of like my old stomping grounds, dude. I love it out there. Like if you go up north, up by five, that direction and then cut in East, you got like Cougar, Washington, all that stuff. go up further and get into some other stuff, but just anything past woodland is all a lot of fun, man. I like it out there. Yeah. I want to go there and kind of go around oh St. Helens. I'm like the ape caves and stuff like that. Check out. Yeah.

Speaker: Check that Cause I haven't been up in that area for a long time. Yeah. Well, we'll um we'll absolutely have to get out in that general area at some point. I don't know if you've ever gone up into like Trout Lake.

Speaker: I've heard of it, but I haven't. I haven't. Okay. So you know how like there's Highway 14 across from Hood River. um You cross Highway 14 and then go up the 141 just north. Trout Lake's up in that area. There's a bunch of stuff that's very similar to the area that the Ape Caves is in.

Speaker: ah Just, dude, that whole area is like, it's my jam. it's Yeah. Yeah. my My brother-in-law and sister live in White Salmon. So I've been oh that far, but not too much past it.

Speaker: Even White Salmon, all bunch there's all kinds of stuff up in the hills in there too, man. that Yeah. if If I were to ever make a ton of money, I'd love to have a second house somewhere over there and then just...

Speaker: live there one week a month or something and rip around every night, you know? Yeah. Yeah. The the the main thing in there is a ton of money because that place is not cheap, dude. And it's funny because white salmon used to be like, if you were poor, you lived in white salmon. Like there's definitely some rough, ne rougher areas and stuff. but Yeah.

Speaker: dude you get You get to a point and they're just like, oh my goodness. Yeah. You're like, oh, it's half a million dollars for this little thing. Like what the fudge. But I was going to say, yeah, we'll have to get out and go do some, some trails at some point. There's a good, good group of people out of like Vancouver that kind of go up in there.

Speaker: pretty, pretty often. And, uh, you're definitely invited. so yeah, let me know. if I can make it work, I'm there. Yeah, man. Um, before I get too off track, let's see that. That's like my, uh,

Speaker: my mode of operation here is just talk about bunch of random stuff, but that sounds good. the So, um, real quick before I forget the towing, what does it take to get an ascent?

Speaker: And I mean, I guess the springs are optional. That's something I would absolutely recommend, but aside from the springs, what does it take to get an ascent ready to tow a trailer like what you've got?

Speaker: Well, i one of my non-negotiables was factory pitch in the, on the car, the place that they put it, you know, pull that little plate off and you've got, you've got the hitch there. Like that was a non-negotiable for me. Like it was either that or, um you know, work putting it in, you know, it's a deal.

Speaker: Like I wanted a factory one. I want there. um So that, I mean, lighter stuff you're you know get a get a thing stick it in there get hitch ball you're ready to rock um i with mine because it's bigger and it's got brakes um i got a um like brake controller that i mounted up underneath the um underneath the dash that and it's all it's dumb easy the it's like a pigtail that's right there okay order the right one for from the company and plug it in um mount the you know mount the controller however you want

Speaker: And then you can adjust the brakes from there. But outside of that, that's, I mean, that's all I did. just Okay. Controller was a big thing and make sure you tighten everything down and check all your tire pressures and yeah don't forget the safety chains and watch your turns and don't back up without spotter or a camera. Right now. Can you, um, so I've, I've literally never owned a trailer. I should own a trailer to trailer my rigs to the trails, but I just don't cause I'm stubborn.

Speaker: Um, I've never used a brake controller. Can you explain kind of how that works and how it makes it way safer to tow something the size that you're towing? Um, gosh, and I'm not as versed in it.

Speaker: Um, but you can, you know, basically you can, turn adjust the dial to how much you want the trailer brakes to work okay i'm pretty sure and then almost i think all if not almost all um they have like an override where you can push the override and it will put the trailer brakes on okay um and and give you that extra that extra stopping power so um that's and a lot of it's a balance of like how much you want it to do. And so you just, for me, it was, you know, I kind of drove it and okay, it's, it's pushing a little bit. So I dialed it up a little bit and it was going and then it felt, it felt a lot better, but I'm,

Speaker: With my Outback, I didn't have a brake controller because the Toyota didn't have brakes. And then with this one, with having brakes on it, I knew that was something I wanted to do because of the the extra weight and and you wanting to make sure that i took a little bit of ah you know the load off the car, but also had that safety thing there until I'm not getting in a hairy situation. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I mean, my, my guess is that I'm just in practical terms, a brake controller, just, um, I'm guessing it helps interface the brakes on the trailer with your activation in the vehicle of the brake pedal.

Speaker: Yeah. Perfect. that Yeah. That way it turned that the brake in the car, activates the brakes for a lot better term um but then the controller kind of tells it how much and then also you know has that override to to like if you're going down a hill you can press that and it will give you a little bit of thin obviously with any brakes you ride them hard enough and it's just gonna get hot and yeah start getting start getting ugly Yeah. Yeah. If you're, if you're going downhill and it's only, you know, the four brake rotors on your ascent slowing that whole load down, they're going to get hot. oh They're going to fail. Yeah. And I can do that. I've never had that happen to me, but I've heard people tell me of the sensation of being like, I can't stop this car and I'm screwed. Like, yeah.

Speaker: That sounds like a nightmare to me, man. Yeah. Same. Yeah. i You know, knock on wood, just you know, I've been, I've been safe so far and, you know, just, you know, keep speeds down. Don't be crazy. Think miles ahead and and just, you know, really use your mirrors as much you can. So you can see what's around you.

Speaker: I'm, I'm almost certain that the ascent comes with a, an external cooler for the CVT. Is that true? I think so. Okay.

Speaker: I'm not 100% sure, but i I want to say it maybe, but I don't i honestly not not sure exactly if it if it does. Okay. I should just look it up, but then I'd have to have Google tell me a bunch of different random stuff I'm not actually trying to learn. Yeah. And I'm guessing that even when you're towing that thing, you're not seeing ah you know any issues with the CBT. It doesn't feel goofy or anything like that.

Speaker: No, not really. ah Everything's, you know, for the most part seemed okay. I do. I have like a Bluetooth OBD2 connector and an app on my phone that I can watch.

Speaker: Perfect. Like the, you know, the CBD temperatures and the different, you know, whatever stuff that I've got set up on it. um and watch and watch that stuff but for the i mean there's been a couple times it's weird going to leavenworth both times it like going up to the hills it kind of like hesitated a little bit but that's the only time it's ever done that so i don't know what the it's just like the you know native the native The native spirits up there and yeah you know doing something to my car or what it what it is. But other than like those two times, you know, it's I've never I haven't had any any issues with it for the couple of years that I've owned it.

Speaker: Okay. i I gave in and I did check and it sounds like, uh, they do come on the cars on certain trim levels. Um, I don't think, yeah, the base, the base trim doesn't, but, uh,

Speaker: Yeah, premium, limited, and then touring, which you obviously got. Yeah, they come standard with a CBT cooler. So if somebody's got a base model, put a freaking cooler in it. Yeah, I don't even want to mess with that CBT at all. Dude, they yeah, that type of stuff scares me because, you know, you mess up the fluid levels a little bit.

Speaker: you're you know you're having a rough day and then there's that whole process like that procedure to go through if you're doing a change yeah get it up to a certain temp it's like nope i'll pay somebody yeah that's i mean most of the stuff i can handle you know spark plugs you know oil air filter now all that you know most of that stuff i'll you know take care but when it comes to cbt that's that's something that i'm Smart enough to go. Nope.

Speaker: Yep. I will, I will forego or i will forego, you know, my Dutch bros for a little while to yes you know, to not, to, to not ruin my transmission.

Speaker: Okay. Dutch bros order of choice. What are you getting? Okay. depends on the day man okay though though the new mist like drinks that they have they like energy drink things okay they're pretty good they're there i mean it's like you get whatever flavor you want but it's like they're they're pretty darn good normally and you know my girlfriend can attest because she knows it's Black coffee.

Speaker: Black cold brew. Black hot coffee. Black Americano. like Give me the most like boring thing in the world. People are like, oh, you want cream and sugar? i'm like, no. I was like, just give me the...

Speaker: blackest coffee dirtiest make sure it's strong i don't want anything in it i'm like caffeine yeah height extra grounds yeah can can you make it stronger now yeah yeah that's it's yeah either that or yeah the know a sucker for you know know sour energy drinks. Yes. I'm the same. Let me ask you this. With the lift kit, during the install, a lot of people are intimidated by it. If you're working on something a little newer, it's less difficult because you're not having to worry about extracting old rusty bolts. But in general, what what was that process like? um you know I know you had springs that you had to install that adds a whole level of complexity to it. But in general, what um let's just say...

Speaker: I guess maybe explain the spacer side of the install and then how the springs added a little bit of extra steps to the process. I mean, i think, and I've done, you know, I've lowered cars before. And so it's kind of, you know, a lot of the same, same stuff, but the, the springs are, you know, compressing the factory ones, taking the top hats off, compressing the new ones, putting the you know hats back on. It's, it adds a lot and you know, it's,

Speaker: It is dangerous. it it It is. It really is. under Those things are under a lot of tension, but, you know, that that wasn't the toughest part. that You know, the the top hats are pretty simple. I think the hardest part was probably...

Speaker: like putting, getting the strap back in there and then getting everything. It's like, cause we were like, you know, you don't want to take every single bolt out. And so like getting the strap back in there and then working with the, you know, the different joints and stuff. And how do you, what do you need to do? Do you, you know, use a jack to jack this up? And then how does i do how does it pivot when you're jacking it up to then get it to where it sits in the right spot? So yeah, we, you know, we had the, you know,

Speaker: kind of scratch our heads a little bit when we were putting it back together and and do it and like you know after doing the outback i'm like oh that shouldn't be too bad i was like i'm just worried about doing the the subframe drop because i'd never done that before the easiest freaking easy because all you gotta to do is one at a time yeah like you just loosen them and then you know that was like literally the easiest part it was the thing that i'd never done before yeah and i was like ah honestly that that really like that's so

Speaker: Yeah, not bad. yeah I think if anything, you know just take it one by one. don't try to you know Don't try to go crazy and just remember what you did on the the other side. and that you can you know stuff Stuff goes back together pretty easy. Mark your mark your camber bolts and you know so you can at least drive it home. yeah Yeah. Yeah. And it'll change a little bit because you've lifted the car, but you'll still be in the same neighborhood.

Speaker: Yeah. know, yeah. You know, you got to get it aligned or you're, you know, you're going just, just throwing money away on tires. But, uh, yeah, the, the springs that that's, it's a time thing really like we had air tools. So that helped because I've done, I've done spring compressors with ratchets and that's awful. It takes all day. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, just, you know,

Speaker: mark stuff remember where stuff went and you know take it take your time and you know stuff goes back together heck yeah I've gotten to the point where I just pull out my phone and and I start to record when I'm doing something that I've never done before I'm like well if I mess it up at least I know what I did and I could just reverse it put it back together and take it to a professional yeah yeah yeah

Speaker: We didn't, nothing went, nothing went too bad. So we were able to get everything put back together and some couple, a couple long days and, and sore soreness afterwards. But yeah, we got done.

Speaker: Yeah. You guys, did you guys have a lift or anything to work on? work on the ground. yeah jack Just jack stands and floor Story of my life. Yeah. And, you know, it wasn't too bad. At least it was inside in the garage. Perfect. So it was not outside and, you know, because, you know, we worked first night was, you know, going to like 2 a.m.

Speaker: Okay. Just trying to work on the doing the front. And so just took time and got through it. But, you know. they you I think they say six hours and I'm like maybe people that know what they're doing and I've done it before but you know I knew it was going to be more than that so that's why I planned out time to get through it and stuff so it just takes time and Just got to take it apart, put it back together and do it three more times. Exactly.

Speaker: Yeah, man. um As far as your mods, I don't know how much stuff you've done to the car, but is there one thing in particular that sticks out to you?

Speaker: Cause there's been things that I've done to my cars where i'm like, okay, that was cool. And yeah, I spent money and I felt good when the package showed up. And then I thought it was cool that I could got to took take a photo and put it on social media.

Speaker: But, you know, it is what it is. I could live with or without it. But then there's other mods, accessories, you know, tires, wheels, whatever, where I install it. I'm like, dude, that's the best bang for the buck I've ever experienced, even if it wasn't cheap, you know. yeah Is there anything like that with the Ascent that – because for me, i had an 18 WRX, and I put one of those little Parin – Um, it was like a shift, I can't, uh, shift lockout.

Speaker: It cost me like 60 bucks and completely smoothed out the the six speed shifter. I was like, dude, anybody that buys a six speed Subaru needs one of these.

Speaker: Yeah. Is there anything like that on the ascent that you think people should go and put money into? Um, I mean, I haven't done a ton. Um, but I would say.

Speaker: wheels and tires. Yeah. And it's like, you know, when I did mine, we, my kids and I dropped it off. and you know had him do the the mountain balance and stuff we went over and you know got got breakfast and walking back to the tire shop and seeing it there and like seeing the wheels and tires and seeing those like just meats on there dude yep yep and it you know changes the look changes the feel changes the whole everything about the the the car itself and that yeah the wheels and tires now with the lift it's like oh wow like that's That's a lot cooler. You know, it's it's great. So yeah, like I think the, but I don't know if it's because it was the first thing I did with the wheels and tires or or what it was, but just they, i mean, even without the lift, I was like, this thing looks way better.

Speaker: Yeah. And it was just like, it was cool. It was exciting. And I think that's another good point. You know, i didn't even really acknowledge this earlier, but you put these aggressive tires on the car before you even lifted it.

Speaker: And I think a lot of people, if you want to go overboard with tire size, yeah, sure. Lift it first, but dude, yeah. You, a lot of these tire sizes on Subarus, you can still run them in stock form as long as you're not doing anything too crazy where it's getting, where the tires are going to poke out and destroy your fenders. But dude, that's rad.

Speaker: Yeah. stayed, you know, didn't go too crazy right up and saw what people were doing and what they were, you know, how they were working it with, you know, different suspensions and, and decided that this would be the the right size and, you know, gave me some good, good stuff. it wasn't too, too big above, um, the stock overall.

Speaker: yeah Um, but it's, it is, it is a bit bigger. And then just the, the aggressiveness of the, of the tread and everything, dude every it was like yes like this yes this is the way and i got got him on there and i was just like walking down the sidewalk i'm like oh my gosh and my kids are like whoa you got gold tires and i'm like wheels child wheels you got gold tires that's right pulling pulling i think there's a few times that like pulled into a parking spot and like you could i could hear people like

Speaker: look at those. Look at that thing. Yeah. I get that all the time, but it's usually people like, man, look at that box. yeah Did you see what just fell off of that thing? No. Uh, but yeah, I just, I don't know those little things. And I'm just, I think it's neat. I, know, I like it.

Speaker: I take pride in it. And, uh, you know it's it's fun for me i really like your car i and that color i that's my legacy is that a similar color but from like 20 years ago ah so yeah yeah similar paint code yeah i couldn't it was trying to find you know a color that i really liked and i just like i saw the blue and i'm like yeah i'm like i can do blue blue subaru yep that works And it's not, and it's not an, I'm in high school and my dad paid for this car kind of a blue. It's like, I'm a grownup. I make my own money. and I also don't like black or white.

Speaker: So blue it is, you know, it's a good looking color. Yeah. My Outback was black. And so that was, I i knew like, I'm like, eh, we don't want to do that again. They show a lot of dust and dirt, bro. It scratches like crazy. yep Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. That's the, the greenish color.

Speaker: Like i was like in some light, I liked it in some light. I was like, no, I would never touch that with a million miles. Yeah. But the, the blue, yeah, I can, I can handle that. Yeah. Um, I think you mentioned this earlier. You got skid plates on the car, yeah?

Speaker: Yes. Perfect. What do you got? ah primitive, uh, primitive racing engine transmission and rear diff man. So you triple armor, baby. Yeah. yeah I love yeahmitive skid plates. They're awesome. Yeah. I got them secondhand. the rear diff hadn't ever been installed, so it's brand new shiny. Um, uh, yeah, I got, I got them,

Speaker: got them secondhand, but they're in great condition. Um, like the only thing that they, you know, the, the logo that is on that front lip area is gone. And then yeah ah you can barely see it. Um, and same on the transmission one. It's, it's just, a you know, a fake, a fake thing there. But I i did that. And, um the Fomoto valve at the same time, and the engine plate and the Fomoto valve at the same time, um, to, to make that whole process a lot easier.

Speaker: So the Fomoto valve, is that one of those mods where you're like, yeah, why didn't I do this sooner? i haven't changed oil yet since I got it. Okay. Since I put it in. So because i yeah so these are new. But putting it in knowing about it, you know understanding what it is, yeah, that it's going to be like.

Speaker: I'm not splashing oil around anymore and, you know, dropping a drain plug in the, in the oil pan. i'm like, yeah, fish it out. Crap like that. So, um, I know once I use it, it's probably going to be that switch. It's like, yeah, I did that on purpose. Um, uh, I just, yeah, I was happy with, with what it was and, and was like, no, with the skid plate on there, i got the little trap door thing and I put the hose on and make it work.

Speaker: Um, and I just, It was funny. I just happened to be at a conference at Washington Square at a hotel. because I called him like, hey, I found myself on this side of the town. Like, you have them? He's like, yeah, I got them. I'm like, see yeah, put you know put the shipping, put the order in and just put Will calling and you know we'll be here. Okay. That's tight.

Speaker: Yeah, that's how i picked up my first skid plate ever. I bought it from Primitive and just drove over there and picked it up. Yeah, tiny tiny little place, but yeah I just bounced over there and grabbed it and nos set took my way home.

Speaker: Yeah, that's sick. um Any future plans for the ascent? Like if if I just wrote you a $10,000 check that I absolutely do not have, what would be your next things? Gosh, I don't know. Like I wanted the i want to do it in exhaust um oh eventually.

Speaker: I want to do like the nameless exhaust on there. um that's That's something I'd like to do That's actually not a bad idea. Bro, you do muffler deletes.

Speaker: 500X. Yeah. that that i want I want to do the full cat-back just to get a little more. I go back and forth with like ah performance stuff, but i'm yes, I want to, but I don't want to.

Speaker: get myself in trouble or or put myself in in a, in a tough spot. So I don't know. 10,000 gas. Fill fill my tank.

Speaker: I don't know. i mean, i I like most of the, you know, the stuff and unfortunately, And I knew this going into it, like the aftermarket support isn't as widespread as like cross tracks and foresters and, you know, WRX and stuff like that. But I knew that going into it and I knew, but I, I had the idea of like, well, this is more of something that, you know, I need need slash want the size and the capability and the seating and and stuff like that. Cause like, you know, two weeks after I got it, I was towing ah my smaller trailer yeah camping and then meeting you know with friends and then filled the car and we went off and you know did some you know exploring with that so the seven seats came right and you know in handy straight away i don't know the exhaust is great i would like um i like the the name just slipped me what is it

Speaker: ah the the like rack. Oh, what's the guy? Princeu or Spider? No. No. um He's in Oregon. Crap, what's just what is it? Oh, ah Nash Fab? Yes. Yes. yes The Nash Fab racks. I like those. i like how they're more low profile because I i think a rooftop tent would be cool, but i dont you know I go back and forth. But like there those racks, they look really nice and like the...

Speaker: i like the the the aluminum extrusion because then you can kind of do you know slide stuff into the into the channels and do stuff like that so you can a little more a little more versatile yeah um so that that would be that would probably be one up there is like exhaust and the and the rack i think those are two two things that i would probably get soon give it to patrick for yeah You know, some of some take some of his time and and help him prototype some stuff out.

Speaker: Take this for a week and let me know what you come up with. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man. Would are you are you um because I think one of the most important things that people can do is kind of manage what their expectations are of the car.

Speaker: um A lot of people will buy a Subaru and just think, oh, the bigger tires that I put on it and the more lift I do, it's basically going to be the same as a lifted Jeep when it's it's just not. You don't have four low. You don't have solid access. You don't have any of that stuff. So I think you kind of have to you have to determine going in, like, what's what's the purpose of this car? um Is this something that you're trying to turn into, like, it you know, an off-road rig to so sort of do the type of stuff Derek and Milton are doing? Or is this something where you're like, man, I just want to go camping with my family and not rip out the transmission.

Speaker: Right in between that. Like I know like, so you know, with what it is and what I, what I need out of it at the end of the day, gotta be careful and I have to, you know, be wise with what I do, but like, I want to be able to,

Speaker: take it places and get to, you know, areas that are farther out than what, you know, Honda Civic and stuff that can do. Um, and so, know, that's, that's a big, that's, I think, yeah, to, to put it, the clearness is like, is right there in the middle, probably more leaning towards the, you know, just get a little out of the, you know, farther off the beaten path and do that. But I also, you know, want to be able to take it on some different stuff and, and feel good that I can, you know, have some fun and make things not too hairy, but you know, yeah a little bit like we, ah was it last week, weekend before? i don't remember. We went up to my girlfriend i went to high rock.

Speaker: um It's like in between Clackamas area. Estacada. It's like South of government camp. It's on the Clackamas river. Uh, yeah, it's off off of it a little bit. I know a bunch of kids that used to go out there and smoke weed and jump off the cliffs. I think that's, or am I thinking of something else? I think that's high rocks.

Speaker: Oh yeah. Something else But high rock, uh, Derek just went up there ah a little bit ago. And he like threw the the coordinates on out and i looked at it and i was like Oh yeah let's give it a try. And it's it paved the entire, like to this like pull off. And I'm like, really man. And I don't know if he took a different way, but it's paved like to this like pull off. But then like I looked at the pin and it's like a little farther from like the pull off. And so that took down, like it's, it was a little, you know, had a rut kind of running down it and it was, there was some rocks and some different stuff in there.

Speaker: And so I had to kind of navigate that stuff and straddle the rut and do that stuff and then get up and like this 90 degree, almost a little more than 90 to, to go up farther to where the like end of that little trail is. And so had to, you know, give it a little Subaru momentum to get it up, get it up and over. And so that, that was fun that I liked that and in that type of stuff. And, just getting off the beaten path. Like there was a couple of cars right at the pull-off. I was like, I want hang out you people. I'm going to go on this little trail to, to go see what, and like I got up there and there's, you know, some people had kind of designed some campsites up there and there some fire rings and someone built like a, almost like a little stove up there. Oh, like rocks and metal. Um, and it's a crazy view. Like the, the most recent posts that I have is from up there.

Speaker: Um, and oh that's what that is. Okay. Yeah. That's cool. And so it was, you know, we did part of it to go up and see that. And then we just like, before we went, I kind of looked around and was like, Oh, let's check out this spot and threw some pins on the map to find out and different, different camping areas up in there and see what we could find. yeah.

Speaker: I don't know where I was going with that. Um, but just as far as purpose, you know, we're going, we're going to this thing and my girlfriend's kind of like, um, what are we doing? I'm like, I didn't spend the money on it for it to sit there. Like, I want to use it. I want to get after it. Yeah. I got this. She's like, um, what if we can't make it? There's no way to turn around. I'm like, Oh, we'll be fine. We'll make it. I'm like, Derek made it up here. can make it up there. And so we just kept, kept pushing and, and you know, had a little bit of a up well, that, that didn't work. And then just had to, had to push it up there a little farther.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. It's impressive what these cars will do, even with just like minimal upgrades and mods. Like, dude, yeah you you can go to 90% of the places that you'd ever want to go.

Speaker: If you just have Subaru with a basic lift and, you know, off-road tires, like unless you're trying to go somewhere way up in a boulder field, know,

Speaker: You're good. Yep. Yep. You might have to hike into the actual spot that you're trying to go to, but it'll get you there, man. Yeah. um Man, I think I've asked you every question that I could think of. Is there anything I'm missing?

Speaker: I don't think so. Okay. um

Speaker: not that i can Not that I can think of. I can probably chat all freaking night, which is probably exhausting to most people. Yeah, no, I'm i'm all for it. And it's my, my AirPods just gave me the do do do. Oh no. But, uh, yeah, no, and I was like, oh, I should have brought some other, other sets, but no. That happens to me all the time. I'll work calls, bro. I'm like, oh, fudge, I got to change my headphones. Yeah, for sure. No, I don't, I mean, most of the thing, I mean, the the car's been great.

Speaker: You know, lift, wheels, tires, skids, the tire carrier in the back is pretty much the bulk. Yeah, tire carrier in the back? Yeah. Yeah, I got the, it's it's the like hitch drop from Wilco.

Speaker: What the heck? It's yeah It works. It makes sure i have a full-size spare. I really wanted to swing out, and I like met up with a guy from Craigslist, and it was a it wasn't it was the high-clearance one that Wilco makes, and so it wouldn't work.

Speaker: like I wasn't even going to try to open my hatch. Um, cause it and just, it would have hit it. Yeah. So I got the, the hitch drop one because it was like four something instead of like a thousand dollars. Okay. And so it's, it's a little bit of a a pain to, uh,

Speaker: get back up because it kind of drops down to the side. Yeah. It's kind of heavy. Yeah. We got a full tire and wheel on there. Yeah. It's not, it's not light, but I can, and I, now that it's got a little more height, I can get under it a little better. And so it's, it's good. I still, I like it. It's there. I need to relocate my rear, rear camera because,

Speaker: I can't, I, all I see is tires. Yeah. Um, uh, yeah, so it's, that's a little bit of a struggle, but okay it's the function is there and that's, that's why I got it.

Speaker: Yeah, because I just, I realized if I scrolled through this one post, there's a photo of it, but I had no idea you had a rear tire carrier on there. yeah you Yeah. I know you mentioned you bought five wheels and tires, but I should asked about that sooner. Yeah, yeah it it definitely rode on the flat third row quite few times, but yeah I need to do this. Yeah.

Speaker: If I don't have it, I'm going to need it. And that's, that's kind of the way I thought about was like, if I don't have this with me, then it's going to become a situation that might What's the point?

Speaker: And I don't want to run a donut at all. Never, dude. Yep. Yeah. Not good for the car. Yep.

Speaker: Dang. Yeah. I think I picked your brain. Um, I think I've, I think I've exhausted everything I could think to ask you. Um, dude, uh, thank you for doing this.

Speaker: Absolutely. Thanks for having me. I've been, I've had ton of fun. It's been great. Rad, rad. Yeah. I know I ramble a lot, but it's to me, this is just like, yeah, well, the the way I look at it, I kind of just wanted this to be like, if you and I were at Overland Expo sitting around the campfire, just bull crapping with each other, this is like the conversation I'd want to have, you know, yeah not just strictly like, okay, tell me your mods.

Speaker: Okay. Have a good night. you know Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. absolutely Yeah. getting Getting into all sorts of different, you know, rabbit trails and all over the place and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It shapes the whole thing.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Cause it's, it's interesting to me. There's, um, you know, even on social media, it's, it's not that we're trying to put up a front. It's just that we're only posting the stuff that's pertinent to, you know, what our Instagram is about. Yeah. And it's really intriguing to me to like,

Speaker: actually get to know, dude. Okay. So you work, you do like, you know, technical work at a school district, dude, that's sick. You know, like, cause I remember when I was a kid that, you know, I just started driving. i remember seeing dudes driving like, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah super expensive at the time and always wondering like man i wonder how these guys make money to afford this or you know like how did they afford fifty thousand dollars to put all these mods and do an iag block in it all this stuff and so exactly it's just kind of fun to get to know people that have a similar interest and figure out kind of where we all come from and what some of our absolutely stories are more more stories than know what to deal with right Yeah. Mr. Paul wall over here. That's that's so funny. Yeah. That one stuck with me. And it's, that was, it was a while ago, but yeah, yeah it was Hey man, Paul wall is not the worst person you could be.

Speaker: I would take that as a compliment. That's sick. Oh, I do. I definitely. Okay. sick Yeah. so It's a funny story, but I definitely, it's a, it's a positive, it's a positive story.

Speaker: Yeah. Heck yeah. um Well, i always like to ask people, I don't know if you have any like affiliate deals or links or anything where we can get you money. i got a Venmo. No. Okay, sick. I mean, if I, you know, I wouldn't turn down that the chance to, but at this point, no, I just, I, I do it because, you know, like I talked about, you know, it's fun and add some,

Speaker: add some expression and it gets me places that you know other other stuff couldn't go. Uh, but, uh, no, no, no deals, no, no discounts, no nothing. Okay. guess I always just ask because yeah I'm, I'm a huge fan of seeing people make money. I know some people cry and whine about it. Like, Oh, he's just selling that stuff. Cause he gets paid. Well, of course he's getting paid to do it, but he wouldn't be selling it if he didn't think it was good. And if he didn't already spend his own money on it, like exactly. so Cool, man. Well, dude, ah again, I appreciate the heck out of you, man. This was a lot of fun. and Yeah, for sure. I learned a few things about the Ascent, the good old seven row that replaced the Tribeca back in the day. so Yeah.