Transcript
Speaker: What the freaks up, Denny's? If you have a Subaru Outback and you've been wanting to lift it and take it off-road, this is the episode for you. i think you're going to really enjoy this one and probably learn a thing or two about how to go about the process of outfitting your car for off-road use. Got a quick note that you're going to want to hear. You guys know that ADF sponsors the podcast. For a limited time, they are actually bumping up the Dirt Subies discount to 10%, so it's just a limited time thing. If you watch this further in the future it is always good for five percent off so if you need lift kits skid plates all that type of stuff you can head over to the anderson design and fabrication website use code dirt subies at checkout to get five percent off or right now it is for a limited time ten percent off and then you definitely need to be checking out the subia new podcast if you want more subaru themed podcast content but this week we're interviewing my buddy ryan I absolutely love this guy. I would definitely go to war for this dude. Easily one of my favorite people to hang out with and talk to. Actually, we we met via Facebook. Some people were making fun of him for kind of no reason. So I jumped in and started cyberbullying the cyberbullies.
Speaker: My favorite thing to do. Anyways, this is an absolute heater of an episode. So let's go ahead and get into it. Well, dude, I'm super happy to have you on here. I know I've made content with you like on YouTube before, but this is your first time on the podcast and you are definitely one of my good homies. So this is an absolute pleasure. Thanks for coming on.
Speaker: I appreciate brother. it's ah It's great to actually be on the official Dirt Subies podcast, man. It's like I was telling you before we got started. i don't know how you have time to do everything you do on top of everything you do on top of everything you do. You make me feel lazy.
Speaker: I have no kids. That helps, but all my kids are grown, so they take care of themselves at this point. So it's just but you know the wife taking care of me as a big kid. Well, I'm like you, man. It's the coffee grind, bro. Right. All day. Sun up sun down.
Speaker: My wife tells me I need to chill out with the coffee. like, you shouldn't have introduced me to coffee. So you shouldn't have told me it could actually taste good because now it's a problem. Dude, I love it. Can you introduce yourself to everybody? Tell us who you are, where they can find you online, and then tell us what kind of car you got.
Speaker: Oh man, my name is Ryan Wolf. um I drive a 2019 Subaru Outback Touring. The Instagram is lifted underscore Mick. um Mick is the original name of the car. And then when I decided to lift it and make the Instagram, that's where lifted Mick came from.
Speaker: Heck yeah, dude. I love that name because I still remember the commercials from where that name came from. it had to be Mick. it had mi That's not a Jeep. That's not a treat. How's that sticker still on the car, bro? Oh, I have forgot about that. Heck yeah. Okay. You sent me that. Oh yeah. Yeah, it does. It's been a minute.
Speaker: Yeah, dude. Well, we, um, we initially did an article with, uh, with your car. ah gosh, this has been years ago now on the lifted imports website, but I know you've added a bunch of stuff and, um, updated some things, all that type of stuff. Can you let us know sort of what your, uh, main mods are on the car?
Speaker: Uh, the big one of the, the core is obviously the suspension, you know, the, uh, flat out GR plus. i was it Yeah. The flat out GR plus. was trying to remember which model was. cause I was looking at, div and I was looking at GR 40 the other day. I was like, Oh man, I don't know. I might have to step it up. So yeah, I got the, uh, the flat out GR plus. Um, I got the rally tech, um, subframe sp spaces in the rear to make that happen. And the half inch custom subframe spaces in the front and the, um,
Speaker: The Mishimoto transmission cooler was a ah must with the bigger tires and stuff. Um, I got the LP adventure skid plate. What else? The EBC brakes, man. I always forget the brakes. Oh yeah, dude. You brought it up with me the first time we talked. Yeah. Yeah. I'm about it.
Speaker: I didn't. People said going to need the brakes when you get the bigger wheels and tires. And the second I tried to stop after getting those wheels and tires, was like, yeah, I'm going to need brakes. I'm going to need major upgrade on those brakes. But then, um,
Speaker: trying to think of everything else that's on the car currently. um Right now I'm just sitting on a ton of parts. Well, fill us in on wheels and tires. Let us know what you did there. Oh, I've got the ah the Black Rhino Warlords 17x8 and the 245 70 R17s BFG KO2s. That's a big tire.
Speaker: Those wheels and tires, like when I saw those tires or those wheels, like I had to have those wheels. The only bad part about those wheels, I didn't have any options. You know, 17 or 18, I believe that was an option, but it was only eight inches wide. Like, you know, there was no width options. There was no offset options, you know? So... Hey, tell everybody the story about how almost nuked your tires because of that. Bro. Well, we know that and nine pounds is too little on those we on on that wheel-tile combo. um but But it's funny how much...
Speaker: A small difference makes, bro, because I've rode 12 many a times. I've dropped down to 12 and done numerous trail rides. I've never had an issue dropping down to nine. at What was probably what an hour, an hour and a half in all of a sudden it sounded like I was rolling on a flat tire. You know, and you were and I was. but But it's crazy that that didn't come off the beat.
Speaker: And the other crazy thing is we I was so stubborn that I had to let three tires do that before I said, fine. We're putting more air in the tires. That was my doing. I was like, nine PSI will be fine. yeah Because I've run nine PSI on a similar width tire all day on seven inches, like seven inch wheels. But that was my first time airing down a tire of that size on an eight inch wheel. yeah So I learned a lesson that day. We both did. We both did. you know But I mean, it also says a lot to like the durability of that sidewall.
Speaker: I was out there. ah You could hear the tire was flat and I'm rolling over rocks and boulders and yeah and it's just like something doesn't sound right. And the tire, like we didn't even have to put it back on the bead. It held the bead.
Speaker: You know, it might've went flat, but I kept rolling and and it still held the bead. Like we didn't have to do the old fill it up with bright cleaner and light a fire. Yeah, dude. It's, um, as long as, cause a lot of times they just open just enough for all the air to, to go away.
Speaker: and then if you can just get some air right back in it before you, you know, nuke the thing, you're good. But yeah, that was a learning experience for me. We had, we had a lot of fun that day. Dude, that was hella fun. Like we were out there a lot longer than I expected. Cause I honestly planned on bringing you back through, I think it was through, um,
Speaker: oak creek canyon like that's the real scenic route i was gonna bring you back but like it was dark when we got done yeah we got back out down into sedona it was it was dark but dude that was a blast man we got to have dinner and all that so it was a great time dude that's that's probably like i i do want to do a lot more exploring out there in sedona But that's one of my favorite, like just day trips, you know, it's an hour and a half away. So you can drive up there, do what you want to do, go to lunch, go to dinner and still come home and sleep in your bed, you know? so Exactly. And I mean, you saw the scenery. as I still don't remember what like the the way you reacted when we came around that bend. You're like, what is? what are we looking at? Yeah, dude. And that's, that's for me coming from like, you know, the Pacific Northwest where you can go to places that look like they're in some Disney movie or, you know, Tarzan or something like that. But yeah, that big helipad when you come around, that's what I call it. The big, right.
Speaker: It does. It looks like an alien. land I think like, yeah, I think it like we're like an alien ship's land, bro. for reals Have you heard about any of the crazy, like, uh, lore out there?
Speaker: oh dude there's tons of it bro that's what a lot of hippies go out there they've got all their little vortexes yeah yeah you go up there you go to little you know the tourist shops they'll have the little maps that show you where the vortexes are out on on the hiking trails and the um yeah trails and i mean it's nothing but crystal stores and hippie shops and psychic readings like it's it's a whole vibe in sedona yeah but it's i mean it's it's a it's a fun place to go it's off-roading out there is off off the chain man yeah dude yeah and if anybody's out there i mean you can even do those jeep tours you know if you fly in and don't have a rig doing the pink jeeps or whatever you can rent jeeps too like i've oh that's right there yeah i've rented a jeep and gone off-road and then i've i've uh i like to clown the pink jeeps when i go out there in my subaru because they
Speaker: They don't give me no respect, bro. They always stop me at the trail. You know what's up to? You're going to be able to make it. There's AAA. It's like, bro, I'm picking up the disrespect. I am AAA. Exactly. Don't make me pull you out of here. I will get it on video. I'll post it everywhere, dude. I love it. I didn't realize until we were on our way home, the radio had been off the entire day.
Speaker: Yeah, dude. Just having a good time with the homies, man. And those trail sodas. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I brought Capri Sun today. Ah, nice. so Just a little something, something.
Speaker: These things are basically like water. I only have them when I'm at the house, you know. right right right If you're in the market for a lift kit or skid plates, ditch light brackets, or any other off-road Subaru parts, ADF is a company that I've been buying parts from long before I ever started the podcast, and they are a sponsor of the Dirt Subies podcast, which I could not be more proud of. I'm running their lift kit, skid plates, and a bunch of other parts on both my Subarus.
Speaker: And if you'd like to get a discount on ADF parts right now, they have actually bumped up the dirt subies discount code percentage to 10 that's a limited time thing most of the time the rest of the year it's going to be five percent but if you're listening to this right now on the day that it comes out or during this month head over there use it to get a little bit of extra discount on whatever parts you need they know these cars and they know how to make parts for them correctly so if you want to get the right stuff for your car that's made well right here in the usa specifically in the pacific northwest adf is definitely where i would go
Speaker: but yours is pretty drastic. And I think that comes from you deciding to to come up above that two inch level. Can you kind of talk about um the whole process of you finding a shop that could do the install for you, how big you ended up lifting and just maybe what some of the challenges were?
Speaker: Well, I mean, first I had to get past everybody telling me you can't, you shouldn't, don't, you'll regret it, you know, and even, Even the Subiworks here in Tempe, Arizona, he told me everything I needed to do.
Speaker: ah How to, you know, subframe drop, this, that, how to line up all the geometry to get everything to work. But don't do it and don't bring it to my shop because I won't do it.
Speaker: like Like that was his, and I'm just like, bro, pile of money. I'd like to make yours. shade, by the way. No shade. No shade at the end. that' know they're They're great. They do great work, but they just wouldn't touch my car, bro. Of course, I had to spend a decent amount of money to go out of town, yeah stay in a hotel for a couple of days. That was great. We turned it into a vacation. No regrets. But like they could have done it.
Speaker: i mean Chris and SubiWorks in Murata, California, lifted my car in like three hours, bro. like Yeah. she So can you explain, um when when you go past the two-inch mark,
Speaker: The reason why most shops would tell you don't do that is because you run into a lot of issues, mainly with the with the axles, specifically the front axles. And there's a lot that has to be done to make the car drivable in any sort of meaningful fashion.
Speaker: can you kind of explain like what actually has to happen in the front end of the car? Cause the rear is easy. The rear, you just do the multi-link spacers. Those are sold widely. You can get those no problem, but in the front, what, what sort of had to take place in order for you to just get that extra one inch?
Speaker: I need to these things. Extra one inch is important, brother. um Initially when he lifted the car, he's like, I don't think we need to do the subframe drop in the front. He's like, I think you'll be fine. He's, he's okay. brought He brought me to the shop. He showed the angle of my axles rat. And I was just like, I'd rather we're here in another state. Yeah. that That's not a bad approach. Yeah. where We have the parts. It's already part of the budget.
Speaker: It's not going to hurt. You know what I mean? It's not going to hurt. So I was like, I would rather, Just go ahead and put the subframe spacers in where they need to go. Drop that subframe or half a a half an inch rather than be calling him in three months going, damn, bro, I'm going through axles. I'm going to have to come back after I put new axles in so you can do the subframe drop. you know um Oh, but when it when he came to drop in the subframe, I believe there was four points on the subframe where there's spacers and then there's a half inch spacer on all of the motor mounts.
Speaker: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Cause a lot of times I forget that there's, there's a spacer on the motor mounts to keep everything lined up. Cause initially, you know, in all of my ignorance, i only thinking about what you see done, the trucks, um, I called him up and I wanted a four to six inch lift, you know? Um, obviously, you know, that's stupid. little Yeah. That's not happening on a Subaru, but he was going to do it, bro. He called me back. He he had the suspension two inch blocks.
Speaker: So it was going to be, you know, the three plus the two, a five inch lift. yeah And and um we discussed dropping the engine, doing all the things that would need to make that happen. And I just decided against that was going too far, too much on a too new of a car, still under warranty, just risking way too many problems. And like we've discussed before, if I if i destroyed our car and I say, oh, mine and my wife's, She'd never let me do anything, have any fun with another one of our cars. yeah know what And I mean, I think you made the right decision because even if you'd have gone five, six inches, your car, um for all intents and purposes, would be equally as capable at that height as it as it is where it is right now. Minus, you might have just a tad a steeper degree of approach and departure angle. But aside from that, dude, your car is is, it's literally just as capable as it would have been.
Speaker: Well, and and when you say, you know, as capable, you know, I've learned since then, my car would probably be even more capable had I not done a lot of this stuff. apple well um So when you say that, what what are you thinking of? um Diff lock, good tires.
Speaker: Diff lock, good tires, man, will get you a lot of places. Throw in a two-inch spacer lift and you're solid. you know, like the suspension is for people that want to go fast. People that, you know, like, and I, part of the, my thoughts with the suspension is with all the research I did and everybody I saw and and their progress and how things went was you start with the pucks, you start with the spacers, and then eventually you end up upgrading to suspension. So I just kind of figured I'd start at the end, you know, we'll just start with the suspension. I know I like to drive fast. Like never done rally driving before but i know i like to drive faster i did i've done 100 make sure the police aren't listening right i did did 110 in my azusa rodeo on a dirt road girl i like to go fast okay that's hectic bro don't turn the wheel like you better keep it going straight a little understeer and a quick flip right exactly exactly you know But like was saying, and and I learned that from Matt, you know, just the tooling around with Matt in the garage when we're working on and stuff that he's told me and things that we've talked about. And it's just like really good tires and a locker on the diff. Oh, dude. what would Would make, i think, any other Subaru just as capable as mine. Especially, you know, if you you've got one of the wildernesses that have that low gear, you know, though the one thing I just can't stand about my, the only thing I like about it, bro. is that I don't have a problem with the CVT transmission. I have a problem with fact that I don't have a load gear.
Speaker: Yeah. And it's funny. I remember you actually mentioning that when we first, when we first connected years ago, you you talked about, you know, man, they, they literally within months of me buying my Outback and building it, the wilderness gets announced and,
Speaker: you know, it's kind of, it kind of sucks. Right. Well, cause I mean, you know, once you buy something like, Oh, am I going to go trade it back in and eat 10 grand to then go pay full price and full depreciation for a brand new wilderness. And it's just like, I'm looking at what I'm going to spend to do what I'm going to do to my car, what I'm going to lose plus what I'm going to spend extra for a trade in in a new car. And it's just like, F it. I'm to make my car, my car.
Speaker: And like, ah like I've mentioned before in my ignorance, I thought the, the 3.6 R I thought that V6 motor with the extra power, would make up the difference of the low gear. And and it it just, it never will, you know? And now I know that.
Speaker: It helps. but Oh, it does it does. You know, having a naturally aspirated motor, you know, because like I have an Ascent too now, yeah and that's my first experience with a turbo motor, you know? And when I was doing my research for that car, everything said everybody's biggest complaint with the Ascent was underpowered, gutless. So when I test drove it and I hit it, I was shocked, bro. Like it throws you back in your seat. it's yeah it's it's it picks up bro it's like i think it's got the same horsepower as the wilderness because it's got that 2.4 turbo and that's why i think it's putting out like 260 horsepower so it gets up and moves bro now keep in mind with the ascent if you throw six passengers in it that's a different story i think it's crazy because a lot of people who will share their opinion about a car that they've test driven or bought
Speaker: You know, they'll be like, well, I mean, I came from a suburban, like ah how does it not have the same power as my suburban? Well, your suburban also got eight miles to the gallon and had a massive V eight or whatever. And you're like, what'd you expect? This is literally a four cylinder powering a massive seven seater and still, still scoots, you know, bro. I, it, and it's the crazy thing too. the same thing with the Outback when I started driving it and then, you know, going up to the ascent, it's it,
Speaker: rides it feels it handles it drives like a sedan dude it's not like driving a van a minivan an suv like i feel like i could rip around the racetrack in this thing bro You know, i just interviewed somebody earlier ah this weekend, and we talked about that and about how people are so afraid to lift a Subaru because it's going to ruin the drivability. But even with a lift, Subarus are engineered in such a way that...
Speaker: Even when you put them at a disadvantage, they handle better than anything else I've ever driven. Bro, you know for reals. so good. I was telling that person, you know, i got spoiled, you know, driving, you know, because my first car was actually a Jeep XJ, a two-wheel drive XJ.
Speaker: And then I saved up money and bought a Legacy GT way back in the day, back when the second-gen Legacies were still newer. And that was kind of my introduction to driving a car was in an all wheel drive Subaru with a boxer motor that just handled like a dream with no upgrades. It's still handled better than 90% of what's on the road, you know? Right, right. So you're running the flat out suspension. I know you mentioned that you feel like it's good for people who want to go fast off road. And I would agree with you. Actually, i think that's where it really shines. um
Speaker: Have you... Having had it for, you know, installed in your car for this period of time, you have any tips for somebody who's maybe new to the Subaru thing who wants to do coilovers in the car?
Speaker: You know, it maybe you have some guidance for maybe it's not the right thing for what, um you know, what was just kind of your whole thought on that topic? The right tool for the right job, you know, like know what you're getting into and what you want to do with your car. You know, if you're just going to cruise dirt roads,
Speaker: you don't need it. You know, if, if you want to, if you're looking for increased articulation, you're not going to get much of it. It's for Lincoln's suspension. You know, if, if that's what you're looking for, then you want to look for specifically long travel suspension and everything that's going to have to have to happen to actually make it travel. Yes. Let's go. Cause you're not just going to put long travel suspension and all of a sudden longer travel suspension. You know, every time, ah every time my car's in the air over in Matt's house, I ask him, bro, what do we got to do to get that, uh, to drop a little more?
Speaker: Cause you know, like they go up a ways, but when you jack, when you jack the car up, bro, it's like loop, it's like two inches maybe before they come off the ground. And it's like, I'm pretty sure that they go further than that.
Speaker: What do I got to do? to let them go further than that you got to write tss fab about a ten thousand dollar check for full tube sub frames front and rear that's kind of what it comes down to and i've seen that and i'm like not a bad idea you know like but that's those those are for the guys that you know own their own shop you know like mitch yeah you know people who that do they have no shops they just they're in the garage all day ripping engines apart and transmissions like When you have that that knowledge base and the tools and the equipment and you can do stuff like that in a day and it really doesn't cost you much more than a trip to the junkyard and few hours of your time, like let's go, like that's the way to to do things. I'm not that guy. Same, I'm becoming not that guy. i I wish I was, man. Because it's like the CBT transmission in the low gear. Like I know I'm going to have to replace that transmission at some point. And I've actually talked to Mitch talking probably like a year ago when I saw that he did the swap on, on there on a couple of them. I'm like, bro, I got 3.6. Like, how do we do that? and he said, somebody was working on it. I haven't heard of it's actually been done yet, but I'm really, really hoping that that problem is solved before I need a new transmission because I as heavily invested as I am in this, like if I have to do an engine swap to get a transmission, that's more suitable
Speaker: Whoa. Yeah. So. that's So. you Are you talking about Milton or Mitch? o Silver Bullet? ners Yes.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. Okay. Milton. Milton. milton Okay. Sorry. so I was thrown off there for a second. I was like. oh i Dude, I'm so bad with names. i all do I am the absolute worst with names. I am the absolute worst with names. I kept calling Eric for like six months. Eric, bearded pixel was Brian. Every time I saw him or I went to call it. It's Brian. But it's like, and then I would stop. No, that's not Brian. That's not his name. Stupid. His name is Eric. I am the worst with names. So yeah. Hey, let me ask about the, so the coilovers, there is a lot more that goes into coilovers than just getting them in the mail and putting them on the car. There's a lot of setup. There's a lot of maintenance. You may run into weird noises and things like that down the road.
Speaker: You know, there's different adjustments that can be made on them. what are some things that somebody who's brand new to the whole coilover suspension, whether it's off road or street coilovers, what are some things that you ran into where you were like, Oh, I didn't realize this was something i was going to have to do.
Speaker: Um, getting an alignment after touching them and and making adjustments, dude, any small, any amount of height adjustment. I'll just play with these a little bit and I'll put it right back where I found it. And it all's well, no, all's not well.
Speaker: all is not even close to well, you pull out $120 and go get a freaking alignment. Now, dummy. Ask me how I know this. yeah yes and And that's why I only try to adjust my ah suspension one time.
Speaker: And then I took it to Matt and I'm like, all right, so let's do this. Let's, let's, let's make this a little softer. And then I went and paid for an alignment. Cause it's, you know, so if you're going to do something, just pay somebody who, you know, and who's how to do it. Right. You know, I mean, budget is fine, but I've,
Speaker: try to do things myself and then you end up having to pay somebody to fix your mistake and and do the work and it's just like i'm not i'm not above swallowing my pride and and asking the person who knows oh same same dude i fully agree i've made that mistake more times than i'd like to admit but it is what it is right right but but yeah getting back to the coilovers there's um i didn't do the assembly that's that's I've never dealt with coilovers, bro. Like I've pulled struts out. I've swapped struts. I've swapped suspension on a car before, but I've never dealt with coilovers. So to to take $2,500 suspension and say, I'm going to try to put these together myself. And then I'm going to try to put them in my car and I hope all goes well. Like I don't got money like that. So like, I'd rather spend a little more money to take it to a shop, have them assemble it, have them install it. And all's well. And I, are they filled with nitrogen? i don't even remember what they're filled with. I think so. Yeah. There's some kind of gas. Cause when I asked Matt about it, he's like, I can't take them fully apart. Cause I don't have the nitrogen to fill them. But yeah, there are a little more maintenance, you know? So you just have to plan on either you have the knowledge and to know how to do this stuff yourself in your garage, and you're going to be taking it apart and you're going to be doing it yourself. And then you can go pay somebody to do an alignment or you're going to spend on paying somebody every you know, depending on your setup and how you use it, like I'm trying to shoot around 20, 25,000 miles to where we pull it out and grease it all up and clean it and do all that. I haven't had to pull it a completely part yet. um Last time we last time we pulled it out and we cleaned it all up, we we noted that there might be one with a leak. Just keep an eye on it.
Speaker: I haven't noticed anything since. So, you know, next time it comes out, we'll see if maybe there is a leak. But not like I don't see any fluid or anything. I don't see any issues. I don't i don't hear anything outside of when it gets dirty.
Speaker: you You heard that. So so mentioning noises. oh that's right. That's right. yeah I forgot about that. Eric stopped me. He's like, bro, your axle's broken. was like, no, no, my suspension just has dried up mud all over it. Well, let us know about that because. I don't know what what that is, but it is.
Speaker: When the mud dries, because like my, I still have, after I went up north in the snow last week, I went and washed my car because I had to go to freaking dealership, but I didn't get all of the mud off the suspension. So right now you can hear it every time I hit a bump, you know, and it doesn't sound good. I don't like the way it sounds at all. When we go through mud, you don't hear anything. But when an hour later on that trail, when the mud dries, now you hear this awful sound.
Speaker: You go through the mud again and all that mud gets wet. The sound goes away. So I, it's, Something to do with the dry mud. I don't know exactly what it is or what the hell makes that sound, but I don't like the sound.
Speaker: Is it like a squeaking sound or is it like what kind sound is it? oh I want to say metal on metal, but it's it's almost like a creaking sound, okay oh you know, but it's like metal creaking, you know, but it's, so I don't want to make it sound like it's like a bad product at all. Cause it only happens when mud gets on it and the mud dries, you know, outside of that. there is no sound. so Yeah. Yeah. and And I think a lot of Subaru owners, I was just talking to about this to somebody, I feel like Subaru owners as a whole, they expect that no matter how many modifications they put on the car, that the car is going to sound exactly the same as it did from the factory. It's going to handle exactly the same and it's going to perform
Speaker: like a brand new comfortable car. Like, Oh, I just put 31 inch mud tires on my new Outback wilderness. Why is the car so loud? Well, cause you got 31 inch mud tires, dork. Well, cause like I noticed a change, you know, right away, of course, when you put the suspension on it and sound and feel, cause you could, don't know. It's like, don't even know how to describe it, but you could almost hear, you know, that suspension just flexing a little bit, you know, you can hear it's, because it's not a stock component, man. You know, you've yeah ripped out the suspension and you put something that wasn't meant to be there, there, you know? So now your your car's making different sounds. And especially when you change the geometry, because this is just me thinking here. I i don't know. you're good.
Speaker: Because, you you know, you can feel, i could feel, you know, a little difference when you when you stop and you go, you know? You can feel that little bit of give now. and um Because my suspension's three inches taller.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, I mean, I don't know. Is that is that it? like is that why I feel a little bit more give? because now I have three more inches on my suspension? That makes sense to me. could be totally wrong, but that sounds about right to me. Right.
Speaker: But outside that, I have no complaints, man. It's been great to me. The maintenance, it's probably because I just crossed 102. So yeah, probably in the next 5,000 miles, it's due to go back to Matt's house and pull it back out and grease back up again. you got to give Matt a shout out.
Speaker: Matt Slofoss Garage, man. You guys need to go see Matt. I drive an hour across town and I won't let anybody else touch my car. Yeah, dude. He works on my Ascent. He works on my Subaru or my Ascent and my Outback. And he's done the 60,000 miles service on the Ascent twice since since I got it. But well cause like, here's site side mission. um I bought the miles in twenty late
Speaker: i bought the ascent less than a year ago with 49,000 miles. The Outback has 102,000 miles. The Ascent now has 111,000 miles. sick. i put 60,000 miles on that car in less than a year. Zero zero problems, bro. Dude, I actually wanted to talk about this. So, ah I don't know if you want to tell people why you bought an additional Subaru or, you know, what that's all about, but I'd love to talk about the Ascent.
Speaker: Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. I, um, I do Uber full time. So I, um I, well, I, I didn't do it when I bought the ascent. You know, things weren't going well, man. And it's like something had to change. So I took the out back out and I'm like, I'm to see what kind of money I can make.
Speaker: i Surprise. You know, and surprise, bro. Surprise. You know, like I should have been doing this years ago. So once it was a feasible business plan,
Speaker: to go out and buy a car to make money with. I spent five weeks shopping. I spent the first three just basic research and getting in and out of the back. And what I would basically do is I would sit in the driver's seat. Then I would sit behind myself and then I would sit behind myself because I'm six foot one, 200 plus pounds. So I wanted to see how how dudes sitting behind each other in this thing would fit. And everything's pretty comparable, you know, but the Ascent had its pros, not a whole lot of cons. um But ultimately, Subaru is one of the most reliable, safest cars on the road right now. And going back to Matt, when you have a reliable Subaru mechanic that you trust, invaluable.
Speaker: Oh, dude. Like it's priceless. I can't tell you how priceless it is to know that I can take my car to him and he's not going to – he's just there to fix my car. you know He's not going to BS me.
Speaker: And Subarus are so much different because in my opinion, there are some shops out there that have a a good staff of multiple techs with decades of experience that really do understand a wide range of you know European cars, Japanese cars, American cars, even different niches within those categories. But man, as a whole, I almost would never recommend somebody taking their Subaru to a shop that doesn't specifically work on those. Right, right. And he'll work on anything, but he be has like 12 Subarus. I'm being dramatic for comedic effect, of course. But I mean, dude he's got he's got the Forester with the the long the long travel coilover. He's got the lift outback.
Speaker: um He's got the the like 86 Subaru wagon in his garage. nice He's got ah the little mini truck, the little mini Subaru truck. And he took me for riding that up to the dealership. Dude, was like, this thing is it's dope it's really cool it's really cool so yeah he knows this stuff you know so that that played in heavily to a Subaru you know like I can do I can do a lot of stuff myself but the as much as I drive this and those 60,000 mile services like he's doing those you know especially it's still under warranty for another month or two because I put so many miles on it so fast but until it's out of warranty like
Speaker: as far as fluid swaps outside of oil change, yeah. Transmission diffs like that, is a Subaru mechanic has to do that. I keep all the maintenance records because if anything happens, they're going to say, well, you didn't let Subaru touch your car. He was like, you damn right. I didn't. I let Matt touch my car and here's all the records. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Yeah. He's probably touched more Subarus than the Subaru dealership. Right. to Right. You know, and and it's just like, I, I trust him with my kids and my wife, man, you know, like, um,
Speaker: there's not a lot of shops that, that will help you, will teach you, will let you in the garage and work side by side, you know? And it's like, he'll show me how to do stuff and be like, Hey man, if you buy this tool, you don't even have to come pay me. Like, Oh, I love that dude. name it Like name a mechanic that will teach you how to put them out of work, you know? And it's like, yeah and that's just another reason why I want to support that small business, you know? Cause he doesn't have to do that. He doesn't have to allow me in his garage, while he works. He doesn't have to let me help. He doesn't have to let me learn anything.
Speaker: he's He's a friend. So he he treats me like that, but he treats everybody as a trustworthy mechanic should, you know, he's honest. He's not going to mess with you. He's not going to mess with your car. He's just going to fix your car and he's going to tell you what it costs and he's going to charge you what it costs. Right.
Speaker: Cause I remember you were telling me, you were like, Hey, I think I'm going to start side hustling over here, doing some Uber just to make some extra money to get us out of some different things and put some extra money in my pocket. After you did it, I was so shocked when you told me like how much money you were making. I was like, dang, if I lived in a big city, that's probably what I would do bro i would I mean, a lot of it's too, it's, are you a hustler?
Speaker: Yeah. Because there's a lot of people that they're cool with the minimum and I'm not throwing shade at anybody. Don't, Yeah. Okay. But there are certain people like this is how much I need to get through today.
Speaker: They'll go out, they'll make that whether it's in two hours, three hours, 10 hours, and they call it a day. If I go out and I make a record amount of money in three hours, I'm like, I got 12 more hours to just make money. Like my wife has to tell me the stops. And it's like, you need to take a day off. Or I'm just like, when you work for yourself,
Speaker: I don't get paid days off. I don't get sick days. I get vacation time, not working. It costs me money and I can't stand it. Or like I have to like forbid myself from opening the phone and looking at the app when I have decided to take a day off because it,
Speaker: it bothers me. I'll look it up like surge pricing. it's like, like I know I could go out and make some bank right now, but it's like, no, yeah sit sit down and have a day. You know? Well, dude, when you, so, I mean, I think a lot of people like look down on like gig work,
Speaker: But bro, just off the top my head, when we were initially talking about it, I mean, you make, I think the same, if not more than what I make with a college degree in a pretty hard to obtain obtain job. And I was like, bro, that's sick, man. Well, I mean, just like any business, you know, because that's the way you, if you, you have to look at it like a business and treat it like business because it has expenses like a business.
Speaker: It has expenses. You know what I mean? I write that fill up every day. I'm i'm in the LLC process right now. yes sir I'm starting an LLC because things are going to be different. you know like yeah Things have to be processed different. Taxes have to be paid different. Everything has to be different now when you're essentially a business owner and working for yourself.
Speaker: So i got, actually got to ask you something here in a second, but wanted to ask you like, how's the Subaru performed like as a car like that? Because I think some people might think, well, it's all wheel drive. It's not going to be that economical. Right.
Speaker: But how has the car performed in terms of like comfort? Do people complain about the comfort? Are they stoked about the comfort? Are you getting good fuel economy? Like what's, what's that experience like?
Speaker: As far as the fuel economy, it's pretty standard with all the third row SUVs. They're all getting, 20 to 26. That's not bad, dude. And during um the winter when I don't have the AC running, I'm i'm running like 23 and a half to 24 and a half.
Speaker: during During the summer when the AC is running, in that drops two to three miles a gallon. you know It's just the nature of the beast. As far as people loving it, people love it. People get in it and they're like, what is this? Bro, it's got captain's chairs. It's got heated leather in the back. like It's got It's got vents in the ceiling all the way to the third row. Like yeah they're, they're just like, this is a, this is a Subaru.
Speaker: and I'm like, yeah, but this is a Subaru Ascent. This is the biggest one that they make, man. It's, it's a nice car. They make nice cars. I said, it's got a, I swear I probably sold at least half a dozen Subarus. That's so sick. I said, dude, it's got the Harman garden stereo in it. It's got the same stereos they put in Mercedes Benz. was like, I said, and everything that goes wrong, it isn't going to cost you $7,000 like a Mercedes Benz.
Speaker: And the other thing that's cool is um what I think is usually an issue is when ah when a company puts out a a car that has no crossover with any other platform, it brings a lot of complication into the engineering of the car and into the servicing of the car, but I mean, you share the same engine as the VB chassis WRX.
Speaker: So, I mean, there's tons of people modifying those engines, building those engines, working on them, all the techs. I mean, when you have an engine that's across that many units per year being sold, all the techs are seeing tons of FA24 DITs, bro.
Speaker: Like, it's not like you got to take it to this very... specific, sub guru you know, like when you, if you got a Ferrari, it's like, okay, there's, there's two guys in the country. One of them's dead. There's only one guy can take this Ferrari engine to but with this man. You're right. Take it to any Japanese garage. They're going to know what time it is, bro.
Speaker: That's what's up. And yeah, with the the comfort man, people love it. I love it. It's super comfortable. Um, I, I looked at the ascent when I bought the outback, I looked at the cross track, the outback of the ascent, it just come out. Cause I was late 20, 20, 21.
Speaker: twenty one Yeah. I didn't go for the ascent when I, when I bought the outback because of the dogs, like it just wasn't conducive to what I was, what I was buying it for. Cause the lift and all that stuff wasn't even in my imagination yet, you know?
Speaker: um And, and then of course the first couple of years of the ascent, they had major transmission problems. So yeah first thing I was going to do with this was put a transmission cooler in it who nice why In 2022, they started coming with transmission coolers. Okay, good. yeah it's you know It's a very powerful engine and a decent transmission, but it's a new model with a much larger you know unibody on top of it. and so you know that Naturally, they're going to have to sort out some kinks. right well and and Honestly, like it it does put down the power. It's got that nice turbo motor, but from a i don't know a customer standpoint, like
Speaker: I don't know why they would not have put in, put in, put in, what, what language? I don't know why they, I don't know why they wouldn't have put the 3.6 R with the transmission that goes with it in that. It is your biggest, heaviest unit. Why would you want, not want that naturally aspirated engine with that bigger, better, beefier transmission that goes in it? Cause you got the bigger, beefier car. That's going to 12 to 1500 pounds of passengers put in it. We're even talking about towing. You just, you load it up with six adults. It's 1200 to 1500 pounds of of person, you know? So why would you not put the bigger beefier transmission and and that naturally aspirated motor where you don't need the turbo? Because the reality is, bro, the Outback with that 3.6R, it gets the same gas mileage, if not better than the Assange. Really? Yes.
Speaker: Oh, I don't think I knew that. That's pretty sick. Stock. in Stock. Keep in mind. Stock. Okay. Not with those big-ass tires on it. yeah Well, and there's no turbo lag either with a no naturally aspirated engine.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know. um It would be kind of fun to to pick a Subaru engineer's brain a little bit about it. Be like, hey, why'd you guys discontinue this? Because love the 3.6. Dude, I... like That's why I got the touring man. Cause it had the 3.6. Like that's, that's why I got that. I'll, I'll pay. If you give me the option, I'm going for the bigger naturally aspirated motor, you know? so it' it's, it's just one of those things. Like I know they did it to keep weight down. I know that engine and that transmission weighs less. So theory at theoretically, maybe that, that, you know, the 3.6 motor with the 3.6 transmission wouldn't have gotten better gas mileage in the ascent, but
Speaker: I don't know. I just think it would have been a better fit for the application. you know Yeah. And I mean, i guess I guess at the end of the day, they figured it out and all they needed to do was add a transmission cooler. like All right. If all we got, if we could put a lighter, smaller unit in this, get essentially the same performance and just put a transmission cooler in it. All right, let's go. Right. But there's a reason I didn't go to engineering school. I can hardly spell my name. The rate that I'm putting my, because it's actually kind of cool that I've got these two Subarus, two completely different applications, but it's, they're both kind of being pushed to the limits in their applications.
Speaker: Well, that's what I wanted to ask you because you really are out, what, between 10 to 16 hours a day just hustling, right? Bro, yeah yeah. Last week I think it was like 84 hours. ah Hey, so off the record, are are you have you broke s***? This is off the record, right? Yeah, yeah. I'll cut this out. I set a goal before the year started. okay I want to have a week where I make Bro, let's go. I did it twice. Let's go. Okay. Well, dude, congrats, man. I know a bunch of people are haters.
Speaker: like you know Most of the time, I won't tell people about money that I make because a lot of people, it's like, he's making more money than fuck that guy. know what I mean? right, But when I hear that, I'm like, dude, if everybody was more successful in making more money like yeah and hustling and actually getting fulfillment, because there's something about- finishing a day's work and being like, i made that money.
Speaker: I was productive. I put money in the mother frigging bank. I'm a G there's fulfillment that comes with that. think A lot of people never felt there's the opposite end of that spectrum. And like, that's where I was a few years ago, man. Like after this car accident, put me out of work and like being somebody who had never had a hard time making money, had never, who had never had a hard time being ah a husband and a father and a provider.
Speaker: You know, because the provider as a man, like that's a big thing being able to provide ah from 17, 18 years old, bro. Like I had a kid and a girl, she didn't work. Like I paid the bills I've taken. you I always took care of the family. I always took care of everything. So then all of a sudden to be like 40 years old and to be i like, my back just trashed. I'm like, I can't work. I can't make money. and I'm just doing, I'm doing the best I can, but ah it's, it's still, not enough. So it's like, it's super fulfilling when you're doing great.
Speaker: But when life is kicking you while you're down, it's, it's, it's, I tell you, that was probably the hardest time of my life when I was struggling to provide as a man and as a father, you know? yeah like i feel that there are haters, but they also, there's, there's there's both ends of that spectrum, man. Like it it ain't always, it ain't always good. It ain't always good. Like before good, there's a lot of bad life is a struggle. And, and before victory comes lots and lots of defeat, Dude, 100%. I lived in Asia for a little bit. That's so crazy. It was sick. It was so sick. When I was moving over there, I remember somebody saying, like oh, you're so lucky. And I was like, bitch, what? Lucky?
Speaker: i was like, i I put myself through school. uh, two times and worked full time while doing it and applied myself and had like a 3.9 GPA in university. it's crazy I don't think there's nothing to do about luck, man. I don't know what you're talking about. And then I'm the one who did the awkward phone interview with somebody in Asia and went through all the hoops of trying to figure out how to make it work.
Speaker: dude yeah there it's all those must be nice people i'm like yeah it was real nice eating top ramen for three years while i went to school like that's how it was with my wife and i bought our house bro we meal prepped for like two years i didn't didn't touch chicken for like a year and a half because for two years bro that's all you ate yeah because we would go we'd get like 10 pounds of chicken i'd portion it out i'd cook it all up on sundays And it was also part of my diet, but like, that's what it was, bro. Chicken and rice and just healthy stuff. And it was just meal prep. And no eating now, no good stuff. And it's like, and that's why when people say, any healthy is expensive. No, it's not. It's a pain in the ass. It's way easier and less expensive. It's way cheaper. It's way cheaper. It's just a pain in the ass. And it doesn't taste the way you like.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Oh, this doesn't taste like preservatives and McDonald's chemicals. I don't like it. It must not be food. That's what food tastes like. Yeah. A little salt, a little pepper, some maybe some garlic salt, some cayenne, you know,
Speaker: Ice it up a bit. Exactly. A little dude, some fresh garlic will transform pretty much any meal. You know what i mean? Dude, I used to do with it when I meal prepped my chicken, because when you eat chicken every day for a number of years, you've got to get creative oh yeah and I'm trying to keep it healthy. So like I couldn't just eat plain chicken. So I started making my own marinades and but you know, marinades aren't necessarily healthy, but I figured out a way to make a healthy marinade. Just I'd use lemon juice and lime juice and a bunch of different peppers and onions and stuff. and I'd marinate this stuff for like two or three days, bro.
Speaker: Chicken, for for at least the first three days of meal prep, chicken was phenomenal. It's like, ah it was all moist and delicious, you know? But like after like that fourth, and like once you get into that, it's like it's dry,
Speaker: old yeah dude well man yeah it takes money to uh to own cars to mod cars you know that type of thing it's dude it's not it's not cheap but dude it's been sick seeing you like mean because you and your wife own a a home now you guys hustled and you've done all sorts of stuff man it's been a journey it's been a journey and yeah it's it's not cheap bro like i'm I'm sitting on like, what I'm sitting about on 3K worth of parts right now waiting to go on the car.
Speaker: And it's just life keeps, I mean, a lot of, you know, where the dog passed and then I sprained, I hurt myself and just MRI, doctor's visits. And then, oh yeah you know, Bitcoin took a big old hit. So it, which only affected me to the point where instead of taking the money that I'm making to do what I want to do, I'm buying more Bitcoin. yeah So it's like, Because but I keep trying to tell people, you don't lose your money until you sell. When something goes down, buy more. That's what I told everybody in 2020 when the market took an absolute piss. Even smart people that I knew at that time. I'm talking like ah one person in particular is ah the president of a large small business. I'm talking probably 500 employees.
Speaker: This person cashed out their 401k at the bottom of the market. Cause Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. We're going to lose all our money. Yeah. You just, you didn't lose any money until you sold it. Yeah. And then some rich person came in and bought what you just sold and you made them a ton of money. That was me. I came in and bought it. That's what you do. That's what you do. Bro, I straight up, that was when, okay. So I got a late start in life. That's when I started my retirement.
Speaker: I started a retirement fund that year. And, um, I mean, it doubled within a couple couple years. Beautiful. I bought it literally in the toilet, and it immediately came back up pretty quick and then eventually grew up and then doubled.
Speaker: So I know you've got a bunch of stuff on the car. You've got the wheels. You've got the tires. You've got the lift. The lift was a whole thing. um I know you went ahead and installed aftermarket rack on the car because those don't come with the swing-out crossbars, right, on the touring trims?
Speaker: the Oh, talking about the roof rack? Yeah. It's not on there yet, but yeah, I have a... Bro, it's... Bro, it is... Yeah, you thought for sure, because anybody who knows me with is is thinking, how is it not?
Speaker: How is it not on the car yet? Okay, and it is the saga. i I'm going to write a book someday. like The Chronicles of the Prince of Roof Rack, because it's been like two years in the making. Okay, so...
Speaker: I've got a Jeep that's been sitting in the garage for a month and a half with very basic work that needs to be done. So I get it, dude. Well, I mean, I mean, because I mean, you know, like I bought the first rack on Facebook marketplace, right? Yeah. And it was the wrong one. right Yeah. So it's like, I guess we'll just go ahead and get go through the whole saga. So I bought the first one on Facebook marketplace.
Speaker: Fantastic deal. Right. Yeah. I'd save. Yeah. I saved money. Yeah. But I only wanted to drop the the headliner once. So I waited until i I got all my lighting and I got the insulation that I wanted to put on the roof. And actually, i waited until my Christmas. That was my Christmas present. So it was like almost a year before I bought all that stuff. Then I put the roof rack together and I realized it was the wrong one. bro so So it took me about another six months to sell that.
Speaker: And in the meantime, as soon as I sold that, I went ahead and ordered the other one. um I had the money to order the other one, but in good conscience. I could yeah i just i just couldn't do it. As soon as I got that sold, I i ordered the new one.
Speaker: um And the in the meantime, I also got the battery, right? I got the the full throttle battery. yeah And I got the ah the tie down. strut down the therut i got the tie down. I got the strut tower brace. And the first battery was the wrong battery.
Speaker: So I needed to order a second battery. So now this is why it's not on yet. Wait, what happened with the battery? I don't, it was, it was just the, yeah it was a, yeah the polarity. Polarity was wrong. Yeah. The polarity. okay And because it's so expensive, the ship of battery, I was like, look, I'm going to, I eventually was going to do this anyways. So I guess it's happening now. Duel it. Yeah. Like I was, I guess that was part of the plan. It just wasn't going to happen right now, you know, but I was like, well, since I have the battery, let's make it happen. So, you know, of course, Matt had to help me and basically just give me a list of everything I need to make that happen. So I ordered all those parts. And then the week that I was supposed to basically dedicate all my income to making that happen was the week that the dog passed away.
Speaker: So obviously, you know, yeah it comes with vet bills and all the other bills. and You need some time off, bro. You know, yeah. So and then lost income, whatever, whatever. um Fast forward now, more time has come.
Speaker: I've got the money to put to get it done. It's just bitcoin like i'm just putting all my money into bitcoin right now yeah end of it it's everything's bro it yeah it went way down like it went it's it's lower than it was last time i bought some it'll happen when it happens just be patient and be smart you know it's it's i have it yeah i have all the parts i have all the stuff that's like a secondary battery it's just it'll it'll happen I just, I want to go camping, man. I want to put stuff on there and I want to go camping. And you are busy hustling right now. and yeah that's that's Right now is my busy time. And I know, look out cat. I know in, is he about to come say hi?
Speaker: All right. Come here. Come here. I just, I just got a cat. What kind of cat you got? This is Sandy. She's a Siamese rescue. She got one eye, blow but she is super sweet, super cute.
Speaker: My little cat Dino is a, what is he, a Lynx Point Siamese. Oh, wow. Those are cool. Those are cool. Super blue eyes. Looks a lot like your cat. Right, right. Except for version and probably a few years younger. That's what's up, dude. Yep, he's a rescue. He's a rescue. Yeah, mine too.
Speaker: the ah One cat and the three dogs now. Because I remember we talked, because we were trying to figure out whether or not you could run like a battery tie-down thing. in your car, cause your car is a little bit of a a like an odd case because ah they made so few of them. It's different from the other ones. Uh, but what, what ultimately made you, cause I kind of had a bad experience one time, which opened my eyes to, oh I need a battery that I know is going to work. What, what caused you to, want to start changing your battery to something that's AGM?
Speaker: Oh, well, seeing your stories for one, Yeah. I mean, one of the first of all, I had gone through a couple of batteries in the Outback because my infotainment system had a parasitic draw.
Speaker: You know, so I ended up replacing the battery a couple of times and I always replaced it with interstate batteries because I always, oh, that's a better battery. You know, that's for for a normal application. Yeah. But then after hearing your stories and seeing a few of the videos, i was like, yeah, something that was always in the back of my mind.
Speaker: but I didn't want to spend the money, you know, but it's like, and then after seeing and hearing, it's like, yeah, spend the money. Don't spend the night in the woods. unwilling Yeah. Spend the money or spend the night, you know, make your poison. And it's just like, I know I'm going to have the the lights. I know I'm going to have the power.
Speaker: Just, just get the upgraded battery and go for it. And honestly, I think I've left the lights on twice since I got the battery in No problem. It's correct I've done the same thing. I had my daily driver on two occasions has been left in the garage for multiple days with the light on. Cause I don't drive that car every day. Right.
Speaker: And multiple days had the lights on and it completely just roached the battery. And in most cases that would be enough to kill the battery permanently. Right. Right. When out there was like, Oh, car didn't start. I have a problem. Right. Put it on the trickle charger, brought it back up, boom, car still running. That's been, that's happened twice. I think the first time was like two years ago.
Speaker: Most recent time was maybe six months ago. And that was like in the cold, cold weather. Right, right. Yeah. not before, because the with the problems with the infotainment system and the parasitic draw, like the battery would go dead while I was washing the car.
Speaker: Okay, mother heckers, it's getting to be that time of year where I know a bunch of you guys are like, oh, I got to get out and use my freaking rooftop tent for the one and only time I'm going to use it this year. And when you're headed out into the forest, it's a good idea to make sure that your battery is on point. And today's sponsor, Melee Design Firm, has...
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Speaker: engine bay caps, all types of stuff. So if you want to dress up your Subaru and make sure that it's powered up correctly and ready for the spring and summer camping, head over to Melee Design Firm, use code DIRTSUBIS at checkout. That'll get you 10% off pretty much anything in the site. They're a small business and I'm super happy to support them and I cannot thank them enough for supporting what we're doing over here. Let's get back into the episode. Cause the doors would be open and the tone lights would be on, dude. Like I'm not even kidding. Like in the time of me to wipe down the interior, cause I go to, I go to town when I'm washing my I'll be in there for an hour, you know, wipe down the interior doing all that. He goes to start the car, batteries did.
Speaker: Dude, that's so frustrating. like it's And I replaced a couple of batteries. And then of course, after finding out what the issue was, I wasn't, I was hoping Subaru would reimburse me for the batteries, but because I didn't replace them with Subaru batteries, Of course. Sorry about your look. so yeah This reminds me. So you've done a lot of stuff in terms of, uh, we, we talk, we've talked about this before you and I, and then we talked a little bit before we started recording. Um, but you used to weigh a lot more than what you weigh currently. You dropped a ton of weight and you're very active and you also have back injuries, correct?
Speaker: Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. yeah So I wanted to ask you, um because same boat, but I Is there um anything specific about kind of your, ah just like Subarus, how do they feel in that regard? Because a lot of the new Subaru stuff, when I had an 18 WRX, that's like the most comfortable ride I've ever had. My back felt great in that car.
Speaker: Entry and exit in and out of the vehicle was fine, even though it was a low car. what What does that feel like for you, especially when you're off-roading? I think they're one of the most comfortable cars I've sat in. I've seen the YouTube videos where some people pull out that lumbar support in the seat. Like I wish there was more of that. Like I love pressure on my leg. It just feels so good. I use my heated seats all the time, even during summer when it's 110 outside and I got the AC on just because my back hurts, you know, but they're a super comfortable off road. They're comfortable. They, they, they handle very well as far as ah absorbing, you know, impacts and,
Speaker: It's comfortable ride. you know like um What was it the last rental I had? It was a brand new Nissan. It's Sentra or an Alta. I don't know. Anyways, it was so uncomfortable, dude.
Speaker: It was so uncomfortable. made my back hurt. Everything about the seat was wrong. and And I've talked to several other people that don't have Subarus but have like rented them, and they've all said the same thing. It was one of the most comfortable, smoothest riding cars they've ever had.
Speaker: ever driven. Dude, well, And you got to think about it too. Like your, even your newest Subaru is older than whatever Nissan you rented, you know, and dude, that's, I rented.
Speaker: Cause it was, it was a 2024. It was 2024. Okay. so Well, I rented a, uh, a Jaguar last time I was out there and I got to hang out with you. And, um, oddly enough, that was like one of the most affordable things I could rent when I was there. But I don't know why, but I remember thinking like, man, this really isn't that much more comfortable than any Subaru.
Speaker: No, bro. I rented an Audi. I forget which version, but it was one of the Audi SUVs when my wife and I were on a honeymoon. Oh, like a Q5 or something? yes I forget which one it was. was one of the Audi SUVs, you know, with it with the Quattro 4 engines. It's only because our honeymoon is I wanted to rent something nice for them. Yeah, dude.
Speaker: But I almost turned around at the airport and took it back. And I mean, just as soon as we started driving away, I'm six foot one, you know, 200 plus, like it wasn't comfortable. Not headroom in any way, shape or form. It was not comfortable. I didn't fit in this car. And it's just like, you shouldn't even call this. Like I fit in my, my wife's Mazda three better and more comfortably. I fit in my Mitsubishi Lancer 2005 and I fit.
Speaker: more comfortably then i fit in that stupid what 60 80 000 audi suv like what are we even doing here like what are we what are we paying for because it should this seat should massage my tush while i sit in it yeah okay like for what these cars cost yeah exactly what these cars cost yeah it's so funny i think subarus are so overlooked like we were talking earlier about like Even the on-road handling of even a lifted Subaru is... it It kind of rivals even... You know what's funny? I talked to a dude on a chairlift about...
Speaker: 15, 20 years ago. I don't remember now. Um, yeah, this would have been about 15 years ago. I was at Timberline Lodge, uh, on the chairlift. You know, I was snowboarding that day and this old dude, probably 75 years old, 70, 75 old dude, just loves skiing. He was, uh, and he was a surgeon of some sort. He retired. He was a surgeon.
Speaker: And he's telling me, somehow we got to talking about cars. And he was like, you know what's crazy? He's like, I've owned Porsches. I've owned pretty much anything that you can buy that's under $100,000. he's like, an old Subaru Forester.
Speaker: and he's like i got an old subaru forester And it's the best handling car I've ever driven and it's comfortable. Right. Right. And I was, and you know, I just took it for granted at the time, but now I'm looking, I'm thinking, i'm like, that is kind of true, dude. Like for money, you can't beat them, dude. And like for, um, like with going back to like my back issues, the ride height is perfect.
Speaker: Super perfect. Getting in and out of like, like one of the things that was really aggravating my back was getting in and out of the Lancer, getting in and out of that. Yeah. Just, you're kind of getting off the ground almost. But especially the Outback, when I lifted it, it really put it at the perfect height because I basically step in and step out. it's like you There's no climb up or climb down or get out or it's just step in, step out.
Speaker: I remember one of the first articles I ever wrote for the Lifted Imports website. I was kind of like, you know, because lifting Subarus was a new idea at the time. For most people.
Speaker: And I remember riding like, hey, these are some of the reasons why you would lift a car. And, you know, some of them are for vanity purposes. If you just like the way it looks, you might be going off road. And then one of the things I put was honestly like ease of entry and exit in and out of the vehicle.
Speaker: just that two inches you would be shocked at how much easier it is to just you just turn around and you're already in the car you just turn around back up into the seat and you're good doesn't aggravate my knee it doesn't aggravate my back you know it's like i'm like i'm the guy that runs around with knee braces but mostly like the left knee because that's the knee i'm getting in and out of the car with you yeah they won you know i used to drive trucks and operate heavy equipment so my whole life i've been climbing in and out of trucks in and out of cranes and then out of forklifts like So it's no strange thing for me to get and out stuff. But now with my back injuries, stupid stuff like that bothers me. Like the last time I actually um operated a forklift on a regular basis, I have one of those like cushions where your tailbone section is cut Oh, yeah. Almost like a hemorrhoids donut. A hemorrhoid pillow. Yeah. But Yeah, for the B-hole. Yeah, exactly. So I had one of those and I literally I had it all duct taped to the forklift because – I don't know know this or not, but forklifts have no suspension. No suspension. Nothing. It's like riding on a steamroller. You can imagine hitting a bump on a forklift with blown out discs in your back, bro. So yeah, i had i had to I had to rectify that situation, you know? And and honestly, like I'm sitting on one of those right now because I'm sitting in in my my kitchen, but like I have one in the Ascent. I don't even use it because the seats are more comfortable. I had one in the Outback. I don't even use it because the seats are more comfortable. And speaking of the Outback and Ascent seats, the Ascent seats, the Ascent, don't know why i said it that way. The Ascent seats have this great um little pullout on the front. I don't know if it's just a year thing. I don't know if the newer Outback has it, but being a taller guy, I got longer legs. And the the Ascent helps with my back pain because there's a little pullout that pulls out little farther and it supports almost up to the back of my knees. no way whereas the the outback like a much more of my legs are hanging out the seat which puts more yeah pressure on my back you know yeah so yeah it's it's a little thing it really is you know like the engineers the way they've done things i mean from the positioning of the cup holders it just i mean everything about it i can't tell you how many people get in the car and they're just like dude this is awesome look at this couple they like they really did it's like Yeah, yeah, they did. they They make a good car. You should buy one. You know, when I was working for Subaru, uh, I was a salesperson for Subaru for a short period when I moved back to the States and during the portion of time when I worked there, uh,
Speaker: The ascent had just been announced and we were fielding phone calls all day. When's the ascent coming? Dude, like two years from now. Like it's just been announced. It's not here yet. Yeah. Don't worry about it.
Speaker: We have a concept of a plan. Exactly. But I do remember one of the biggest – like one of the big marketing things that they put out there was the number of cup holders. It's like 20 something cup holders in that car, which is so funny because 25 years ago, know, back in the day when I've cars that I was buying from Subaru, when I first got into them, they had two cup holders in them. That was it. There was, and it, and it was right above the stereo. You pushed a button and it was that spring-loaded thing. And it popped out and the bottom dropped out. It was like the most unsecure thing. Definitely going to get shit all over your radio if you hit a ball with a design I've ever seen in my life. Yes. Bro, you have no idea how many like Starbucks Americanos were soaked into the interior of my 98 Legacy GT, bro. So it's so funny though. And I have to give Subaru props for this because, you know, Japanese engineering is all about that. Like how do we fit the most stuff?
Speaker: into the smallest space and it's the opposite of american you know mindset and engineering of like let's have a 5 000 square foot house and put a bunch of shit in it you know they're like oh we have a 400 square foot apartment but we have a tennis tape like a like a table tennis that folds up into the wall our stove slides out from under the coat closet like yeah all this weird engineering but i have to give it to them and they've really done a good job of ah creating something that's, that that's appealing to like just our crazy consumerism. And I actually went and test drove a, a 2025 ascent a few weeks ago. Nice. um
Speaker: Bro,
Speaker: bro. Like I wasn't in the market for a new car because I have a new car, um but um Subaru sent me a letter saying, Hey, you can trade in your ascent that you paid this much for, for a brand new ascent. for this much it was 70 more a month bro and i'm like um the interest rate alone would pay the like so i started doing the girl math in my head i'm like okay like this might make sense so um that's the only reason i even considered it of course that wasn't even close to what the reality of that situation ended up being but dude that it was the um it was the onyx but to my understanding the onyx is they've gotten way nicer because the Onyx was a few steps down. Like it was the limited and then the touring. Okay. Okay.
Speaker: Before, to my understanding, the Onyx was just black trim, you know, like there wasn't really any features. It was just a black trim. Um, all your emblems were blacked out. Your grill was blacked out. It was, that was basically all it was. Um, this Onyx was like an Onyx limited touring, bro. It had all the features. It had the heated leather. It had,
Speaker: um all the the the plugins for the type C's, all the things in the back. It had the panoramic moon roof. It had a 360 cameras, which mine does not have.
Speaker: So it had the above cameras, so the cameras in the back cameras on the side camera in front of the bumper. Like I can't even remember all the features that it had, but not i'm looking at it right now, dude. That's a, that's a sick looking car. It four screen. It was four screen. It was,
Speaker: It was like, shit oh, bro, it it was nasty. yeah i wanted it so bad. i wanted it so bad. i love it, man. But it's just it's of those things where it doesn't make sense because of the way the route, the the rate that I put mileage on it.
Speaker: Like that brand new ascent would have the same mileage in a year and a half oof that my 2022 has, you know, so it's like just appreciating the piss out of it. Yeah. You know, and and so I already like that's why i one of the reasons why I picked a Subaru.
Speaker: is because I expect to get three or 400,000 miles out of the car. I have to get three or 400,000 miles out of this car. Yeah. In order for it to make sense. Yeah. In order for it to, to, I mean, it's, it's already paid for itself, but there's still several years of payments, you know? So the car, um for example, I think I stretched the, um, loan for five and a half years so I could get the payment where I wanted it. Okay. But I'm,
Speaker: pacing it to pay it off in three years, you know? Oh, nice. That's the way to do it, man. You know, so, because in, in my math, the car might be done in three years, you know, at the rate I'm putting mileage on it, it might be done in three years. So that's, that's my, it's like the car has to be paid off in three years because I might need a new one, you know? yeah And I don't even know if I'll be doing this in three years, you know, like yeah the the way I meet people and talk about different businesses and, you know, I, who knows what I'll be doing in three years. But for right now, this is the plan. This is what I'm doing.
Speaker: This is the business, yeah the moneymaker and the money taker. you know I love it. Well, dude, let me ask you about, um, I, there's something specific that I meant to ask Eric and dig into a little bit deeper. but for so for whatever reason it, it, uh, escaped my mind at the time, but dude, you live in a very specific place on earth that everybody knows.
Speaker: is what it is everybody knows it's hot as balls where you live um and you live in arizona uh we won't give any locations anything but like um it's funny to me that there are things in that that part of the world that would never cross anybody's mind in a majority of the rest of the country. Like what's it like to go off-roading in Arizona? Like, can you go all year, anytime a year? Can you go out and, and, and wheel or, um, does have to be limited to certain months? What are some of the issues that you've run into out there?
Speaker: You can go all year. It just, uh, during the summer, if you want to go, you just got to go about an hour and a half, two hours up North. where temperatures are a little cooler. Out to Flagstaff or something? Going up the hill to get there in the middle of summer can be a little sketchy.
Speaker: Last time I did it, it was about 112 115 out. Going up the hill to get out of Phoenix, um I started watching my water temperature because I got a scan case now thanks to Eric. Nice, nice. So I was watching my water temperature climb. And I was watching my transmission temperature climb right behind it, you know, and I'm just like, I'm sketching out AC is going off. Wife keeps asking me why you turning the AC off.
Speaker: It's just like, I i had to explain it to her like three times. like Stop asking me why the car is going to blow up. Yeah. yeah so So anyways, I made it to the top and I immediately pulled over because I i think the water temperature was getting around 240. Holy The transmission temperature was.
Speaker: getting into the two thirties dude that's crazy so and that's with the that's with the mishimoto transmission cooler bro so it's it's called sunset point those locally will know what i'm talking about but yeah as soon as i got there i pulled over just just parked for like 20 minutes and let things cool down and continued on my way but that's just when you combine those temperatures with oversized tires overweight big old fat ass tires and wheels like i'm i'm maximum stress. I might as well be pulling a trailer up the hill.
Speaker: Yeah. I might as well be pulling a trailer up the hill. Yeah. You know, and I, but I'm, I'm so glad that I have that scan gauge now because twice since I've had it, the last time I was up in Sedona, really pushing my car, I looked down, I was sitting at two 40 and I'm like, Oh, time to park the car and take a break. You know, it's like, Let those fans pull for a second. Yeah. You know, and it's like before, when I think about the times that I was wheeling before pushing my car, much like that, without that scan gauge, man, like.
Speaker: Cause you have no idea. Yeah. I had no, I had no idea. And I was probably pushing, like there was times where I probably should have stopped the car and taken a break. I made it through the obstacle, but now the car needs to cool down, you know? And yeah because I didn't have the scan gauge, I just kept on trucking.
Speaker: You know, so fortunately we are where we are. Transmission is good at this point, you know, so we just, we hope for the best. and We do our regular maintenance. we do our regular maintenance we we We do everything we can with the transmission cooler. And I've heard, I forget which person that was, you were talking to about the different ways to run your transmission cooler. oh yeah. Maximize that. Like I might go back at some point and and try to maximize that. And I know Matt and I believe John as well have a little sprayer.
Speaker: set up under their hood so they can push a little button. Yeah, dude. When it gets hot, it sprays. And at least it brings the temperature down a few degrees, you know? And sometimes it matters, man. Dude, it was so sick when I first talked to John because you kind of like told me, hey, you need to talk to this guy.
Speaker: And he and I really hit it off because he also used to own like a WJG. And It was real funny because at one point he was telling me, he's like, I've got this project that I'm working on. I'm trying to do like essentially the same thing as like an intercooler sprayer or like a windshield sprayer kit under the hood right over the radiator.
Speaker: And I was like, dude, I've never heard anybody else talk about this, but I've literally thought of the exact same thing because I'm running some crazy stuff on this Jeep and Jeeps love overheating. and I was like, you're the first person I've ever talked to that's done that. So I thought that was so sick. And I got to give, I got to give John, that one guy, a z I got to give him his credit. His bumper cut was what inspired me to say, i can do that.
Speaker: And it will look okay. Yes. Because i had seen I had seen a few of the Viper cuts, and i was just like I had kind of analyzed my skid plate and where it was, and I just i didn't see the point. Because the Viper cut, yeah, you got better approach angle from your wheel, but from the front, you still have no improved approach angle. I have to give him his shout-out for that, because if it wasn't for his bumper cut and seeing that, I don't think I would have ever, ever even attempted it.
Speaker: Dude, i I think yours turned out so good. Your car looks mean, bro. Thank you. His looks sick too, man, because I haven't met a lot of people that off-road in that, gosh, what is that, fourth or...
Speaker: can't keep all the Outback Jen straight. His is fourth. His is fourth. Yeah. Cause they, yeah, they stagger it with legacies and I always, I can, I can tell you what Jenna legacy is, but then they enter whatever. Well, he's so much further along, like in his build and experience and like, he's actually out there. Like I'm building mine to go camping and start doing that stuff. but truth be told, I'm not doing any of that yet. Like it's frustrating. He's out there doing it. Like, John, like you, he's the guy where you send a text message to and a month later you get a respond because he was in Australia. Not literally, but like he's he's in the outback. You ain't seeing him until he comes back and it might be a while. you know like And i know i know I know he works. like I know he comes home to work, but it's like as far as I know, he lives in the woods. is yeah
Speaker: Yeah, dude, he's he's crushing. I love John. It was so cool to meet him too. like and all these guys are so cool Like I've, I've, I think buying the Subaru was like the best thing for my like social life and making friends that I've ever done.
Speaker: you know it it, it forced me out of my comfort zone. Like I've always been kind of an introvert. Like really if if you don't come and talk to me, I'm not going to talk to you. Like I'm to stand in the corner mind my business, you know? Yeah. But when I started,
Speaker: getting into the Subaru community and going to the cars and coffees. It's like, I can just stand here next to my car, like a weirdo, like that weirdo and that weirdo, or I can force myself to go talk to that weirdo and we can stop being a couple of weirdos. yeah Well, it is a lot, a lot easier because like, you know, we're kind of the, the,
Speaker: the weird ugly ducklings of the Subaru and like car community, like lifted Subarus. What in the world is this? And I feel like I, everybody I've all ever talked to that's into this stuff.
Speaker: We all click so well, dude. Right. I love it, dude. I love your cat, bro. Dude, this is like the the sweetest cat I've ever found in my life. Like she would just roll around, let you hold her like a baby. I love that She's got one eye. She's got one eye. What happened to her eye? We don't know. She was like that when we got her. We we rescued her from it was one of the PetSmart things.
Speaker: don't okay sorry Don't start nudging the laptop. She's trying to rub her face on the laptop. Bro, she looks almost in super chill exactly like my cat. That's crazy. And he's super social too. Like he'll let me pick him up and treat him like a kid. Right, right. Usually I'll hold him like a football, like in my arm. He's like, all right, this is pretty cool. Yeah, she comes when you call her Like most cats don't even, they could care less. Oh, boy. That's pretty sick. she's she's ah She's a really cool cat. and she's we've We've been blessed with art with our animals, man. We've been exceedingly blessed, man. Heck yeah. I love it. got a French bulldog a few weeks ago. We rescued him. Oh, what? She's, she's been absolutely amazing. So she's my new best friend. Dude, they're so cool. i know they're kind of a handful because they're, they're, they're genetically. Yeah. They have skin issues. and And so like we have special foods like creams we got to put on our ear. Like we're kind of experimenting with foods right now and trying to figure out what works best, what doesn't, you know, but like she's, she's crazy. It's like,
Speaker: um We feel very blessed just to have gotten her, especially under the circumstances we got her. But um from what we're seeing of how much of a pain and and behaviorally they can be like, she's an angel. she yeah yeah She's just a little angel. I can take her outside. She just follows me around. Like i she don't run. She don't do nothing. She just chills. Like i had her under the car with me. um she She followed me out the other day. I didn't even realize i got out all of the car. She was just standing there looking at me.
Speaker: Like, hey, where are we going? Hey, what about, um I, cause I know a bunch of Subaru owners, they own dogs and usually lots of dogs. Um, do you take the dogs in either of the Subarus ever?
Speaker: I'd never take them in the Ascent because that's my work car. Um, I almost, I take them in the Outback all the time. Okay. How does, how does that car? That's what I bought it for. Okay. Perfect. How does it accommodate that? Any, like any tips for pet owners? Um, well, I mean, uh,
Speaker: depending on your vehicle and how you ride, like um John is actually the one who kind of brought it to my attention that I wasn't making the back of my car very comfortable for my dogs because I had, because I had, I had Dale, I had Dale and Brutus, the big dogs, you know, and it's got the, the touring has the plastic liner back there and all that. So, you know, so it was perfect. So just throw the dogs in the back, you know, like we throw them in the back of the truck, you know, but then it's different when you're out there on the trail for 10 hours to expect your dog to be back there bouncing around. And when he, when he is like, oh yeah, I guess I should probably make that very comfortable for my dog. So once he brought that to my attention, like I would put a dog bed in the back and i would I'd pull my, I'd pull my couch cushions off the couch and I would stuff them in the gaps between the back seat, you know, cause I dropped the back seat. They have the whole back to themselves. So I stuffed my couch cushions in the back seat so they couldn't trip at them or fall on them. If I'm solo, I take the passenger seat and I lay it all the way down. So the dogs can literally just come back and forth from the passenger seat to the back.
Speaker: Um, They love it it. It was big enough and accommodating for the dogs. I didn't have a super tall dog, you know, but I did have a 70 pound pit bull mix and a 65 pound boxer pit mix. So they loved it. They have plenty of room. The two big dogs and three little dogs, very accommodating. and And they sell things now for, you know, the back seat. So you can just leave the back seat up and it.
Speaker: Yeah. you just With the big dogs, like I like them to have plenty of room to like wander around and lay down. And especially with the bed back there, Like, they're just chill. They're just totally chill. The little dogs just sit in my lap. It's just just right there. What about um entry and exit for the for them out of the back? Is it pretty easy for them to get up in there even with it lifted?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah. the Okay, sick. Dale jumped because he wasn't fat. Brutus was a little fat. You know, he was he was long. Yeah, he was a long and low, like ah like a basset hound kind of.
Speaker: Okay. but But I think he was Pitbull Australian Shepherd. but he was, but he was built like a a tank version of a basset. yeah So like, like he could swim sort of like he didn't sink, but but he could kind of like a submarine. sort of just float He wasn't afraid of the water. Like he would run to the lake. And as soon as his belly touched the water, like he's cool, he'd chill and he'd walk around and play in it. But where his belly touches, um, he actually had a life vest. Like i bought him a life vest. Cause i like I take him, I rented a kayak and, just take him out of the lake and he'd swim around and the cool thing with the life vest is he he could float around he would i'd have to worry about him sinking it also had a handle on it like a harness so i could just pick him up obviously he's a heavy dog so it wasn't easy pick him up and i could put him back on put him back on the kayak without him yeah flipping me over i love it bro so there is another you know there is another big dog eventually you know it's uh yeah
Speaker: i We didn't want another dog right now. You've got give it some time. when i i That's exactly why. you know But when I saw this this puppy come up, you know i just I didn't want to end up in the wrong hands.
Speaker: So I just like called the wife and I was like, we we need to go get the dog. like And it was supposed to be a foster. Oh, really? By the next morning, she said, no, we're not fostering this dog. It's it's it's my baby. It's my she said it's my dog. It's like, okay, I guess I should know better than to bring a dog home and say, we're going foster it. I knew, I knew before we even got here.
Speaker: Dude, you guys are rad, man. You, uh, the both of you are are, some of the more caring people that I've ever met. I appreciate that, bro. I appreciate that. Oh, thank you. Absolutely, man. you're You're a good dude, man. Like I see what you do and everything that you're up to. And you know, you're, you're in, you got your hands in so many different things and you know, but you're always looking out for everybody. you know i try looking out for all the all the products that you've been using for years long before this podcast you've been you can you were selling this merch a long time ago yeah
Speaker: yeah i was i was so hesitant to do any kind of sponsorship thing like you know ever because i i hate just like the the thought that you know, somebody might be like, well, this, this dork is just selling this stuff to make a buck. Right. But you know, people who, who know me know like, no, no, no, no. I've been, I've spent thousands of dollars with these companies before i would ever tell you to buy it.
Speaker: But like, um, the way it works, I mean, I don't give a fudge. I'll be transparent. Like I hardly make, i I don't make any money doing this. Like it doesn't pay for itself. I have to pay for the software we're using right now. Right. Right. Right. And, um,
Speaker: like the way I structured it when, you know, Mitch was the first person and dude, shout out to Mitch, man. He just like always, yeah, he wants to support like, you know, anything I'm doing.
Speaker: And so he hit me up when, when, you know, my first episode had, you know, more than like a hundred views, like nobody had ever, it was a brand new thing. He's like, Hey, let me know how i can sponsor this. I was like, eh, it's still small. I don't even know if it's going to ever do anything. I don't know if anybody will ever listen to it.
Speaker: and he kept bugging me about it. And finally I was like, you know what? Yeah, let's, let's figure something out. And the way I decided to do it was like, how about you don't write me a check or anything because I don't want to feel obligated, you know, to hurt, to hit certain numbers or whatever for you.
Speaker: Just give me a discount code so that people can use your products and get like a you know, get a good deal. And, um, he was like, well, I could probably afford to, um, you know, cut a total of like 15%, know, out of a sale for, for the deal to do it that way.
Speaker: And, uh, he was like, do you want to do like 5% off and you get 10% or you won't? And I was like, no, no, no, give, give the people 10% off and I'll just take 5%. Man, it's like i love it. yeah Yeah. It's funny because like, you know, people would think like, Oh, you're sponsored. Like you must be raking in dough. and it's like, dude, even if you buy, like, yeah yeah, if you, if you, if you literally spend like a hundred bucks, I make a a small, tiny fra one you know, like it's, I mean, I'm not going to turn down money, but it was more of a thing to like help people out, but oh support. Like it's so supporting these small businesses. Yes. you Like it is.
Speaker: Small businesses are what these countries is based on, man. Like without small businesses, we got nothing. Without each other, we got nothing. You know, so it's like being a good business, being ah a good owner and taking care of your customers. Like that's all that matters at the end of the day. Like people are going to come back for your products are going to come back for your service.
Speaker: You know, I know I'll be coming back. I so i just ah it's not top priority for the budget right now, but I want those those those red those red caps underneath my underneath my hood. To go with my my strut tower brace and my my battery mount. Oh, we never even got back into the battery mount because I had to and and to make some modifications to make it fit.
Speaker: Well, we got, well, we're still, that's that giveaway still going on. I don't know when we're going to draw. I think it'll probably be within the next week and a half or so. Right. right But I mean, fingers crossed it is, gone it is going to be completely random. I'm not playing any stupid games as long as it's not a scammer from wherever. I don't care. It's going to be random. So I was asking you a little bit about the heat. Can you explain to people kind of what, this is going to be one of the biggest ADD conversations and it's all my fault. I just want to let everybody know. Ben's on his stuff.
Speaker: He keeps me on track because I go side mission central. Like I can't, I'll get so sidetracked. I forget what we were talking about. Like, so no, it's both of us, but yes, it is. It is oppressively hot yeah during the summer. It's oppressively hot, but you can off-road anywhere. two summers ago, this last summer was pretty mild. Like we barely hit 110. It was super mild summer. The okay summer even in Phoenix. Yeah. Yeah. and the The summer before that, it was either the summer before that was summer before that we had a a record breaking summer and it's not abnormal for us to break a record, but this was a crazy record because we were either 115 or 110 for a hundred plus days straight. Dude.
Speaker: Like science. Like if there's yeah street science that if you see, They look like the letters are melting because they were. They literally are. It's it's so funny, man. because So, I mean, you know this, but my parents live not far from you actually. And, um, yeah, I remember my mom being like, dude, we've had like 50 days of triple digits. And I was like, that's crazy.
Speaker: And then like another 50 days, she's like, man, we've had like a hundred days. was like, what the fuck? But I mean, it, it disintegrates everything. 102 was one hundred and two degrees okay That's so crazy. We had to pretend like it was cool and refreshing, you know?
Speaker: Well, I mean, I think it really, ah you know, most people have just never lived in an extreme climate. you know right right i mean unless you live in alaska certain parts of utah arizona you know it may be extreme hot maybe extreme cold but like most of us have only ever lived in places where it's like oh i mean it sometimes snows every once in a while and i mean it gets to 90 zero degrees yeah yeah dude yeah but like where you guys are at i mean literally stuff will melt you can cook on the road you i said because i used because i used to
Speaker: work in the construction industry, driving trucks into working outside doing hard work. Yeah. I've taken a thermometer and set it out in the sun before because, because it says it's 115 degrees. I know it's hotter than a hundred freaking degrees. Right. So I set it out on the ground in the rocks, not on the asphalt, because that's kind of setting it up to just yeah go through the roof. Yeah. I pulled it out of the rocks when it was over 140 degrees. Like it was still climbing. Like,
Speaker: People don't understand here. The sun is different because it's not just the heat. People will come here and it's like, oh it's 105. I'll go on a hike. I go on a 102 degree hikes where I'm from. It's different. The sun will cook you. It cooks you. When I go hiking during the summer, I will get up at two o'clock in the morning and I am yeah off the mountain by six. The sun starts coming up at 430. I'm off the mountain by six. We have people that die on these mountains every year to the point where they've started closing some of the trails at a certain temperature.
Speaker: Because, you know, there was a time of day where I played football during the summer. Like I did these things as a young man and I don't know how I survived, you know, like, but people go out and they hike these trails every summer and they die, man. It's it's yeah no joke. It's not to be taken, so you know, lightly at all. Like you hydrate and you just, you don't go out when it's that hot. It's much like when it's zero degrees and snowing, you don't go out. You stay inside in the heat. We stay inside in the AC, you know? yeah But what I tell people is I have options. I can go hang out in my pool with a cold drink in my hand. You're effed.
Speaker: Go fricking dig your shit out of the snow. That is true, man. Yeah. We haven't gotten any snow this year. had a light dusting one night, but then was melted by like 4 a.m.
Speaker: Bro, I, mild ear I, I'd sent you that video just a little bit ago, but that was, that was unplanned snow wheeling. Like, yeah, it doesn't even like qualify. Cause I wasn't driving through powder. It was just snow on a road. But, but I, I, I left, And I looked at the weather before I left and i Googled Prescott's weather because that was like kind of the closest place. It said 36 degrees winter weather advisory.
Speaker: So I left with the mindset. oh I hope I see get to see some snow. yeah When I got to the point of the road where there was no more tracks and I was now.
Speaker: Driving over a virgin snow. I was by myself. I was not dressed. I brought my recovery boards, but I was not dressed to recover, nor was I dressed to spend the night out there. So i swallowed my pride and I made the the adult work.
Speaker: correct decision and just turned around and, and call it, came home and called it a day. And it was a good day. It was a fun day, you know, but I didn't get stuck in the snow. much and Well, cause you know, you, you have experienced snow wailing. So, you know, cause it hasn't happened to me yet, but I seen it on video. You don't know where the side of the road is. Oh, I know this very well. You know, like you, you see the path laid out in front of you, but you don't know exactly where the side of the road is. You don't know if there's a big rut right there, you know, like,
Speaker: says society that Yeah, i wasn't good I wasn't spending the night out there, man. one of One of my favorite things to do, and this is a very bad decision. Do not recommend this. Don't ever do this. But my favorite thing to do when I'm out, like in the Subaru, I'm not going to do this. But if I'm in a 4x4 with four low and big tires, banging ditches, dude. Like just...
Speaker: hammering down on the throttle, throwing snow everywhere in the ditches. But I think three years ago, I was at a place called Trout Lake. We were out sort northwest of Trout Lake, Washington, and ran into a dude randomly that I had seen in one of the Jeep groups. I had seen a photo of his car, of his Jeep, and I recognized it because he had like the nicest garage I've ever seen. And I'm a little nerd from his garages. And i was like hey, this is going to be weird, but...
Speaker: are you in the, in the so-and-so Jeep group? He's like, yeah. i was like, you got the nice garage, right? He's like, yeah. I was like, your Jeep is sick. So we met up on the trail. It was the most random thing. I was like, I didn't even know you were in Washington. And he was with a dude.
Speaker: It was probably on like, I don't know, 40s. And dude in a Rubicon, I think a JK. So Dana 44s front and rear, probably roughly 40 inch tires. He was banging ditches just like what I like to do.
Speaker: Like you said, smacked a boulder and it popped it popped the axle tube off the like. enough to where it like broke the axle tube enough to where it shattered the, uh, the inboard snout of the axle. So he's like slowly driving it back down to town and every,
Speaker: like mile they'd have to jack the back of the car up and because for whatever reason it broke i'm pretty sure it was the rear axle if i remember right not the front i don't know how he managed to hit the rear and not the front but and then slide the wheel and axle back into position and keep going so it was like two hours for them to get back down into town and get it towed but yeah those are the uh risks yeah of uh snow wheeling Yeah, I'm dying to go snow wheeling, but I will definitely be going with backup. That's for sure. Because ah there's a camp spot I'm trying to get up to up there that I want to scout out that I'm trying to, I want to, you know, either me and the wife or, you know, some of the boys, whatever.
Speaker: But me and my cousin tried to hike there. It's called the Alagonquin Trail. um And we it's about a 10 mile hike, five up, five back. And at the end of it is that campsite.
Speaker: And we didn't, we didn't quite make it there. We had to, we had to turn around. We ended up hiking in the dark for about an hour and a half. Um, So ever since then, it's just been a, just a thorn in my side. Like I got to see, I got to see this campsite. So that was the only reason why I went up there and I didn't, obviously i didn't make it. So maybe in a few weeks, but like, yeah, it is it is, it is what it is, man. Like I'm just, I'm dying to go camping. The wife wants to go camping. Like we want the stuff on a car. yeah Obviously the stuff doesn't have to be on the car to go camping.
Speaker: It is what it is. You know, is what it is like I didn't buy all the stuff to just leave it sitting in a garage. That's for damn sure. Yeah. Well, the the thing that's real funny is, um you know, most people would not, unless they're familiar with where you live, they'd have no idea that just about an hour and a half, two hours away, you know, Prescott or, you know, Flagstaff. i mean, it'll be a nice sunny 75, 80 degree day in the, you know, late, late, late summer, early fall.
Speaker: But you go out up there and it's like, oh no, it's like we're hitting freezing temps at night and we had a dusting of snow. Right. Right. For the last two weeks, I've been showing people that video and like, where is that? Like they're tripping out because everybody I'm showing is from out of town. So when people come here, they desert. That's all the desert, cactus, trees, dirt. Like they don't they have no concept of what actually is in this state, like the diversity and the forest and the Grand Canyon. And Sedona with the red rocks, you know, a meteor crater. I've hiked a volcanic tunnel. Like we have a, we have a, it's like a mile, mile and a half long, but it's an old volcano tube in Flagstaff. And it's just the temperature in there is like right around, think 32 to 34 degrees year round, no matter what the outside temperature is because it's underground, obviously. But yeah, it's, it's an old lava tube because it's a volcanic area and you go into it and it's just the whole tube is hardened volcanic rock. It's so cool. But then when you get deep into it, like you can turn off the lights and you realize black, just black. have those out here. love them.
Speaker: I love lava tubes, bro. That's my jam. That's cool. That's so cool. It's so much more than just a desert and cactuses. You know, there's, there's, so much more to this state than just that lakes and rivers and you know it's there's so much untouched beauty and there's there's still a lot of wilderness left to explore for now yeah yeah we'll we'll see how long it lasts before they sell it off to somebody to turn into a data center i got one down the street tsmces or whatever yeah tsmc is being built you know like they got like 30 cranes on site it is oh bro insane insane
Speaker: So favorite place to off-roading like all time, like that, that you've had the Subaru. Probably Sedona, probably Sedona. Okay. So where do you go in and where do you come out? The, usually what we do is what what you and I did was the Schnellbe Hill road.
Speaker: You can, you can start at I-17 like we did, or you can start in Sedona either way. um I like starting in I-17 because then you come out in Sedona. But the the last trail I did up there was Broken Arrow trail.
Speaker: And that was, That was probably the gnarliest trailer I've had the Outback on. It was a four or five on the the Onyx off-road scale. Right as I approached it, one of the pink Jeeps stopped me and they often, know, that was hey man, that's a cool Jeep you know or cool Subaru, you know, but yeah like he stopped me to tell me, hey, this gets really precarious and the hairy later, you know, AAA doesn't, those were his words. AAA doesn't come out here.
Speaker: Son a bitch. That's so funny. I was like, yeah, I got it. I'll turn around if I need to. Yeah, I'll turn around if need to. Let me ask you real quick. What is the terrain like? I mean, I've seen it, but can you kind of paint a picture for people what type of stuff they might encounter on these trails?
Speaker: Well, i mean, it's there's so many theres here dirt, gravel, rock, the rock gardens. We have this we have this fine powdered dirt. I don't know what you would call it, but um it puts sand to shame. It's, it's the consistency of powdered sugar.
Speaker: Yes, dude. I mean, if you, built yeah, yeah. You put your hand in, it's like, boof it's like, it's it's a whole thing, yeah know? So we've got that, you know, we, we got, of course, up North worth, we got the cinders where there's a lot of volcanic rock and all that stuff all over the place. There's, there's just so much here, man. Like,
Speaker: it's really crazy when you think about all the places and in this country that I haven't seen, but I, I lived on the beach in Oregon for a year and a half and I came back, bro. Yeah. You know, it's just like, there's so much that I haven't seen. And it that's one of the reasons why this build is so like important because we can all see the shit from the highways.
Speaker: You know, I want to see all the stuff that people don't get to see, you know, all the back road stuff, all the, the, the, abandoned house that's nobody's seen in 60 years that's you know got nothing but graffiti and tags all in it and and snakes Dude, that's, I, so this is my famous quote. I wonder what's up that road. right Dude, I just can't help it, man. Every day, every day when I drive past one of those dirt roads. That's my favorite thing about um either going out in the Subaru with somebody else that's got a Jeep or a big Toyota or being in the Jeep and going out with people that have Subarus. Cause it's like now whoever's in the Subaru can
Speaker: really push their car to the limits and see what it'll actually do with no risk. Cause like, okay, cool. Now you're buried up to the doors. You can't go anywhere. you're gonna blow the transmission up. No problem. I'll pull you out. Right. Right. One thing we don't get a lot of is is mud. We don't get a lot of mud.
Speaker: Not a lot of water. John john seemed to fo find some mud that one time. He found a sharp rock, dude. That's no, that, yeah, that was that he found that in the mud, but there's, there's a picture of his day in the mud.
Speaker: it is yeah He spent a whole day one day. He had to get rescued. And I mean, he was doors deep, solo, solo out in the middle of nowhere. It's like, I caught John's day in the mud, man. Cause it was, uh, it's, it's our worst nightmare. You know what I mean? It's like, it's yeah all of our worst nightmares when you're out there by yourself. You're like, I can get through this mud. And then you don't.
Speaker: And it's like, when you can throw it in reverse and try again, that's great. But when you, you when you're just stuck, like, you're so It's the worst thing in the world.
Speaker: You got to tell me, so we got to go, got to take it way back. When you first bought this car, there was something that happened to you where you were like, okay, we have to lift this thing. yeah I got stuck in the mud, just a little tiny one, one little tire stuck in the mud. And basically it was just like a perfect scenario where I hadn't learned anything about the approach angle limitations of the vehicle. So yeah it was just a tiny little down leading into a tiny little up.
Speaker: Right here was a little spot of mud, which my tire only sunk about that far. i was i needed I didn't have off-road tires. I probably needed new tires at that point. Yeah. But the car only sank about that far, but it was enough to bottom out the car and put the front bumper in the dirt.
Speaker: And literally half the front bumper was hanging off. The wife was holding the bumper up off the ground while I'm like trying to to get the car to move. um Truth be told,
Speaker: I might have had the parking brake on the whole time. I've never heard this part of the story.
Speaker: yeah I've never, I never even told the wife that. i I hope she's in bed. she's That's why it's so quiet.
Speaker: that but yeah yeah um i went on a little adventure i found some people to come get me and try to pull me out um all it really took was a little push and i think that was because i turned the break off and that allowed the car to move so But hey, so I had, I didn't even know this dude, but that led you to be like, I got to lift this car. I got to lift this car. know, stupid break. Now got to lift this car. I love it. Anything you would do differently if you were to rewind four years or however long you've had the car. Absolutely.
Speaker: What is there anything? Cause one of my biggest things about doing this is to save people either mistakes or money, um, from save them for making the stupid mistakes I made or help them maybe make decisions that are more conducive to what they're trying to do with the car. What are some of those things that you would maybe go back and do a little different? Um, considering what we talked about ah earlier, as far as maximizing off-road capability, You know, you don't need ah a huge lift. You don't need the biggest tires you can fit. You need the best tires for the purpose that you're planning on using and a diff locker, you know? So if I could do things over the wheels that I picked, I picked mostly for aesthetics. You know, I didn't know. Which valid. You know, I didn't. I didn't know anything then, and I didn't have the options to to make any choices other with those wheels. But when I saw those wheels, it had to be those wheels.
Speaker: you know Hey, I think they look sick. And I can't argue with you, bro. I love those wheels. But now as I'm starting to put weight on the car, i those wheels are going to have to go. you know so I want to go a smaller, lighter wheel.
Speaker: because already went down to a 17. So what I want to do is it's, I don't know if it's even possible, but it's going to take some finagling and some work. I want to figure out the right spacer combo with the right offset. So I can go down to a 16, maybe even a 15 inch wheel and, and come down entire size possibly.
Speaker: And still get the same sidewall and still have that nice tall sidewall, have way less weight, you know, Um, you haven't handled my wheels and tires. They're heavy, bro. they are Oh, heavy Brian. I just called him Brian again.
Speaker: See, it was in my head. Eric is at my, e because Eric is at my house helping me one day. Great guy, man. He's become a good friend of mine. I love it. He was, he was at my house helping me one day and he he pulled the tire off the wall and went to roll it it to me. And he said, Jesus Christ, man, your transmission must hate you. Do you know what your, what your, uh,
Speaker: corner weight it like wheel and tire what do they weigh per corner don't know but it's heavy they're heavy it's i mean to the point where it's like my full size spare is going to go on my roof rack until i get the swing out tire carrier and i'm i'm concerned about putting it on and off my roof rack with my back like it's it's it's that heavy you know it's it's not pleasant you know but that's why i say like you know going back if i could do things over you know i would have picked a lighter car or excuse me a lighter wheel with a lighter to tire combo.
Speaker: um it's It's just hard though because when you're talking talking tires, like I love having that thick sidewall. I love knowing that I can drop my tire or excuse me, drop my tire pressure. i can scrape i can scrape on that rock. like i You should see some of the slices in my tire. and i still'm I'm comfortable doing 90 on the freeway. like i I don't feel like my tires are going to blow because I got a little slice in the side of my tire wall. There's like 12 other plies to go through. before Yeah. it Even does that. You know, I probably went a little further with the the lift than I needed to, but I I'm totally okay with that. You know? So if you don't want to spend that money, you don't need to. Transmission cooler was a must.
Speaker: Brakes were a must. I don't know, man. Cause I really love the suspension. And so the, the, the priority, when I did the initial build and initial budget and I had, you know, the options, like I could have gotten the bumper and the winch and not the suspension, you know, and I decided to go for off-road capability first, get the lift first. That's a cat.
Speaker: It's a cat. She just wants so much love and attention, um you know, but I just wanted to get it as lifted as possible and get as much what I believe to be capability initially, but it's, you don't really,
Speaker: You don't have to have it. It's a Subaru. It's not a big solid axle truck. It's not, it's one of those cases where size doesn't necessarily matter. You know, yeah like ah one learned that one inch, one inch of lift, three inches of lift. Like you get the diff locker, the right tires, like it'll get you wherever you want to go. Well, do you have plans to do ah to do a torque locker? I do.
Speaker: I do. And right right like right now I'm, I'm having that, that battle, you know, buy some Bitcoin, buy some more Bitcoin, buy that diff locker, buy some more Bitcoin. And it's just like, it's like, ah you already got the parts sitting there get some more parts, add to that pile. It's just like, it'll happen, you know, and and I know it's going to happen. Cause like when I did the 60,000 mile service recently, we didn't do the rear diff because I know I'm going to put a rear diff locker in there. So i was like, I'm going to do the diff reader. I'm going to do the diff locker and it's going to happen soon.
Speaker: It's just my first priority is this. And I've probably, I'll probably end up just buying it in the next month or so, you know, it's just, good it's just, and then I'll just set it aside. You know what I mean? Like, cause the, my logic is right now is my busy time, you know? So i dude the money is coming.
Speaker: So make payable anything yeah anything you want now is the time because the rest of the year you're going to be paying bills. Right now you get you get some fun money. Right now you get some fun money and that's why I'm working 80, 90 hours a week. I literally i realized the other day I have the money maker and the money taker. The Ascent is my money maker and the the Outback is my money taker, baby. It's just like, what are you going to do? i think that's why everybody needs two cars. Yes, or three. i mean, why not? and That day might come. you know because
Speaker: I wanted to rally race. That wasn't the initial purpose, but after I got the suspension and I, and I felt how it handled, I was like, this would be, I want to go put this thing on the track. But now that I have this much money invested into it, I can't wreck this car.
Speaker: You know, like the thought of just putting this car on its side or, or even hitting a berm and setting off an airbag, you know, totals your car, bro. So it's just, I I've,
Speaker: I think I might end up just go buying me an old WRX. You know, obviously I'm not there monetarily right now, but just go buy me an old $2,000 car, something that I can rally that I don't have to dump money into. And if it breaks, you park it until you have the money to fix it. You know? Yeah. It's like right now I can't do that with the Outback. its it's ah Yeah.
Speaker: Well, let me ask you this. Let's say somebody's got a similar car to yours. They got three grand. What are the mods? and And they just want to get out. They're not trying to like make the car look cool or whatever. They just want to get out and see some cool stuff. What are the first few mods with the first two or $3,000 that they should go out and and get?
Speaker: Good tires, puck lift, and a diff locker. I love it. All day that. I mean, that that will be... pull the most capability out of your vehicle. You know, I mean, tires, number one, of course, that, that little, that little extra two inches clearance that helps, you know, but that diff locker, man, I honestly, I can't wait to see the difference that it makes. I've never, I've never driven one. I've never been in one.
Speaker: Like I've offered Jeeps and stuff. And those are just a whole nother animal. You just put it, yeah put it in go and go, you know, yeah or you can get out of it and watch it crawl the hill itself. Like it will just do it, you know?
Speaker: Goes right to whip home. Exactly. You know, the, the, the outback will start, it'll take off. Like it'll speed up. Like it'll start doing 20 miles an hour. it's Uphill. Where, where would you put, so let's say they buy that stuff. Let's say they still a little bit of money left over. Where would you put skid plates on that?
Speaker: Oh and God, skid plates. I forgot. I totally forgot skid plates. Yeah. Skid plates are must. skid If you're going to off right. Yeah. Skid plates, absolute must get and transmission cooler. I guess ah I guess those aren't the only three things. But if you're going to go up in tires, you got to do a transmission cooler and then, you know, advisably brakes. But like those first three tires, lift, diff locker, transmission core. Yeah, I'd probably say that's probably transmission cooler and skid plate. Those are probably your next two most important things because you've got to protect your engine, your transmission. you got to protect that undercarriage and you got to keep your transmission cool. You know, the most expensive things.
Speaker: engine your drive train you gotta to protect your drive train you know you can suspension ain't cheap but you can go pull a piece of suspension out of a junkyard and yeah a couple hours of your time and you can be back on the road from almost any subaru too right right like right and i still have all my old stock parts for my thing i guess i need like i need another shed i need another shed just for like subaru park graveyard and they all just they all could just kind of sit there it's like maybe someday you'll that That car will never go back to stock. i can't yeah
Speaker: I can't imagine ever putting it back to stock. you know and i've I've seen a lot of people do it. you know They put it back to stock and they sell it. but like i just I don't know, man. I can't imagine all the time and all the money and all the effort. like That's my car.
Speaker: like I keep a car forever. That's what I do. and yeah like Even even if I get a Jeep, even if i whatever I end up getting in the next few years, I can't imagine that Subaru ever leaving the fleet.
Speaker: Yeah. did And it looks so much different because I've seen pictures of when you first got it. Oh, it's totally different. Unrecognizable. It's unrecognizable. And that's why I can't wait for that, you know, that next step, because I know when that roof rack goes on, bro, and the, the, the, the max tracks are up there and the light bar, you know, cause I got a, what is the 42 inch light, um, triple row curved.
Speaker: I got the, uh, two, six and a half inch side shooters. I have a 38 inch, uh, slim series chaser bar. I got the three inch amber ditch lights. um And I bought the, the Lamin X yellow film film that Eric recommended that he has on his. teeth So I'm going to put that on the light bar in the front and I'm going to put that on my headlights as well.
Speaker: So I'm going to have yellowed out headlights. I think that's going to look really cool, but I honestly, that's the only reason why I did it. Cause I didn't, again, these are the things you learn. um I didn't want yellow lights until somebody told me, yeah, in the snow and the dust, you can't see.
Speaker: with the white light. like yeah I like, Oh, well I guess in that case I'll get, I'll do the yellow, the yellow film. Hey, let me, let me ask you about the scan gauge, which scan gauge you have two or three.
Speaker: i don't know. Is it real small or is it a little bigger? It's like that. Try that. How hard is it to install that? Just so in case somebody's simple, super simple, Eric came over cause it was his, I traded him two of the, um,
Speaker: Rhino recovery boards that I'd bought for that. And so he came over to help me do it. It was super simple. Like you basically just plug it in, in your, your, your CPU port or whatever the hell you call that. o b d two And, and you're good to go and figure out where you want to mount it and put your display settings on what you want it to show.
Speaker: You know, I have mine on temperature or water temperature, transmission temperature, air intake and battery voltage. Like that's what mine shows. At all times. Of course, I can, you know, flip through it and see other things, but that's what I have mine displaying at all times. It's like we were talking about earlier, man.
Speaker: It's, I highly recommend one. Like I should have gotten one earlier. Just so you know, you know, if you, if you, especially if you don't have a transmission cooler, definitely, yeah definitely. get a transmission cooler first but well yeah i i wanted to ask you about that because i've i've asked or i've had multiple people mention them and i'm afraid that some people are going to be like oh that sounds like it would be real difficult to to install something that shares all that information but yeah it literally is one plug into the obd2 port and you're good you just have to put it up with double-sided tape or it took me it took me longer to you know
Speaker: pick which velcro which double-sided velcro i wanted to use and where i was going to put it you know yeah dude i love that thing's great and and like i said i traded because i initially bought the rhino recovery boards and i bought four of them and bro they're like four of them is like 11 inches tall They stack. And I was just like, like I looked at the sizes. I just, I didn't think it was going to be that tall, you know? So I ended up, I went and bought these like custom or not custom, but I had to go like a bolt store on the other end of town to find these eight inch bolts, you know, and I could have made it work, but it was just, it was going to sit up so high and be such a wind drag. And the way that there's actually a gap between each board to grab more wind. i was like, i I don't even want this up on top of the car.
Speaker: So i yeah I traded Eric for two of them and then I ended up selling the other two. And then I bought two Max Trax and then with this last whatever that one of the more recent holidays, they had a big sale. And for those that don't know what girl math you need to learn it because when the wife doesn't want you to spend money, you got girl math that and she can't argue with girl math because it's girl math.
Speaker: i yeah Like that's how I got the wheels and tires. Girl math. That's some Einstein stuff right there. The wheels and tires weren't part of the budget. But I girl math. They're on like, look, if I buy the smaller wheels, the tires are cheaper. Two or three cents a tire said the wheels are paid for.
Speaker: It's just like, honey me that makes sense. Yeah. so I mean, it's not wrong. No. And i mean and that's the thing. I ain't lying. Yeah. I'm not lying.
Speaker: Oh, well, man, let's pull the limo into the garage. um Is there anything I'm missing here? Anything should ask you about? I did want to mention, because I'm GetUpside.
Speaker: Oh, yes. I have bought a decent amount of parts through GetUpside, which is a cashback app you get for getting gas, but you can buy groceries. You can do all kinds of stuff with it.
Speaker: um I've earned nearly $1,500 in cashback. Let's go, dude. From GetUpside. obviously I fill up a lot, so I do it a lot more, but it's money you're spending. You're putting gas in your car, whether you use it or not. So if you don't have get upside, get it and use it.
Speaker: um I paid for my first, first time I used it, it paid for my full size spare wheel and tire. Heck yeah, dude. That was the first time I've used it, you know, and I've used it a few times since then to buy other car parts. So it's just, it's like one of those things, man, just,
Speaker: It's money that you're spending. If once a year you cash it out and buy a car part, buy your wife a gift, whatever, you know, like it's free money. It's free money. You get back for spending money you spend anyways.
Speaker: So use it. Like i I sent you the link. So like, if you want to throw it in the video, feel free. Yeah. Full disclosure. um I get one penny for every gallon. If you use it, you don't need to use my link to get upside. You can just download it. But if you use my link to get upside, i will get one penny. for every gallon of gas that you pump.
Speaker: And I appreciate it. You know what I'm saying? You got to get to homey some bread. Every penny matters, man. It's like, we could all help each other buy car parts. Well, it's so funny you mentioned that because I always hear ads for And I'm always like, man, what's up these ads, dude? An app that just gives away free money. Bro, I have sent referrals for this app numerous times to all my friends. And only mom and like one of my wife's friends have actually used it.
Speaker: And it's like, I'll periodically, I'll post a picture of like how much money I've saved. Have you really saved that? It's like, yes, dude. Like, first of all, you know how much I get gas once to twice a day. Like I'm filling out my tank. So like I'm getting gas all the time. But even if it's once a week at the end of the year, cash out your $300, whatever it is, it's free money, you know? And yeah it's when everybody else is going to Costco or going all here and there, like I'm still getting the best price of gas in town.
Speaker: i don't yeah I don't have to go anywhere else. Let's go. I love that, dude. Yeah, no, when you when you were talking to me about that, i was like, wait, I've heard all about this app, but i I had no idea it was actually good. Yeah, yeah. And like i use it.
Speaker: for cash, but like you can put it on gift cards. You can do all kinds of different stuff with the money, you whatever you want to do with it. I, I have it put in my bank and I use it for car parts. I mean, it makes sense to me. That's what I'd do with it. that's Right. i mean, that's the only logical thing to do with money. Right. I mean, what are we paying bills for? Just car parts. Well, dude, thanks for doing this, man. No, it's my pleasure. I'm sorry that it took so long. Like I kept pushing you off because I wanted the stuff on the car before we did this. And I wanted Matt, John, and and Eric to all get on before I got on again. um I'm still working on on John. got You got to get John and Matt on, man. Because John and Matt have been at this for so much longer.
Speaker: like I can talk about what I've done to my car. They can talk about what they've done with their car. you know They've really been out there on the trails. They've they've really done it. I remember it was last summer, but it wasn't too long ago.
Speaker: Matt just went on ah on ah an overlanding trip and first day, bro, there he shares a picture of him swapping an axle on the in the dirt, you know, in the dirt on a trail swapping an axle, you know, and like, yeah and that's what it's about. Like, I don't ever want to have to do that, bro, but I know that I i need to know how, because that's, you know, yeah I can, I can swap an axle in my garage, but when it comes to being on the trail, like he knows what tools to have. knows. He is a maximum minimalist minimalist, you know, where he has the absolute everything that he needs, but nothing more. yeah yeah i'd I'd love to get mad on dude. He's, you know, cause I've been following him for a long time. I think I've actually been following him even before I met you.
Speaker: Probably. It's crazy. It is such a small world because when I first initially started all this research and I was making phone calls, calling Lyft shops and this shop and that shop. um one of the off-road shops I called about getting a bumper made. And we've had the conversation about people won't take my money.
Speaker: Yes. He's like, oh, well, I know a guy, Slow Foss. And he gave me his Instagram information. And ironically enough, Matt was the first person that I ever met or not met in person, but talked to about this stuff on Instagram. And it was because I was inquiring as to a bumper. And and the one person I asked,
Speaker: gave me the information from the one person he knew that had had a bumper build and it was Matt, you know, and then whatever, six months, a year later, when I'm at one of the the coffee, cars and coffee and I'm chopping it up with Matt, i was bro, you're the guy. You're the guy. you You're that guy. It's just like, it yeah it's just such a small world, but there's a million of us driving Subarus, but it's like seven degrees of separation. At some point, we're all going to know somebody that knows somebody. I mean, that's not wrong, dude. It's funny. I've been in different parts of the country. I've even been in parts, other parts of the world and run into people that I know. right It's like, what in the fun? It's, it's insane how you can be 1200 miles from home and run into your next door neighbor.
Speaker: Dude, 100%. one hundred percent Especially nowadays, we're all connected with like you know social media. makes it even even more crazy. I'll be at the Overland Expo. I'm like, oh, I know that guy. Right, right, right, right. So he's sick. I know you got a busy schedule. Thanks for putting up with my ah ADDS because i know it's I know it's tough to keep me on track sometimes, bro. It's a, it meshes very well my ADN. I mean, I don't know if it's the, you know, the pot or the, you know, get my head stomped on. Like, I don't know, bro, but there's like traumatic brain injuries. Who knows? yeah I've got the ultimate HD of all time. The ADHD homie. I'm on that 80 level.
