Speaker 1: Hullo and welcome to the Overlain Journal Podcast.
Speaker 2: I'm your host Matt Scott and we've got Dave Hareton
Speaker 2: on the podcast again today. Always good to have you.
Speaker 2: We're gonna be talking about the new AEV FXL, which
Speaker 2: is the next I guess, the next evolution of the
Speaker 2: aev's big heavy duty trucks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of the last in the trilogy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you guys obviously have RAM you started in
Speaker 2: like twenty thirteen on that you're saying, correct, personal favorite
Speaker 2: of mine had a couple you went into Chevy and GMC,
Speaker 2: so you can get those. I mean those are factory
Speaker 2: assembly line built trucks, which I think.
Speaker 1: Is really cool and notable.
Speaker 2: Like, I don't think there's really anybody else in the
Speaker 2: industry that has that level of integration on the OE side.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's quite a truck from the for an
Speaker 4: oeon offering, just to be offered through the factory, fully validated,
Speaker 4: fully crash tested, everything's done.
Speaker 2: That Chevy or the GMC is the most comfortable full
Speaker 2: sized truck that ever bought. With those d d SSV
Speaker 2: school valve shocks. The Multimatic stuff, I mean Multimatic's crazy.
Speaker 2: Like I always feel like people like geek out on
Speaker 2: Fox or Bilstein or whatever, but they don't understand like
Speaker 2: the level right of technical valving that these guys are
Speaker 2: doing for motorsport.
Speaker 4: Like, yeah, the DSSV shock is d just not understood.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't say misunderstood, is just not understood. Yeah, it's
Speaker 4: an amazing shock because the the flu is not going
Speaker 4: in and out of the shop. The flu's going around
Speaker 4: in a circle in the shock, so it's basically impossible
Speaker 4: to overheat. And it it always kind of hurts my
Speaker 4: soul a little bit when I see somebody take a
Speaker 4: PCE and take those off and put a you know,
Speaker 4: a standard shock on it.
Speaker 2: Well because they're basically just like a tube with you
Speaker 2: know some like a valve stack and a little hole
Speaker 2: or stething. Like it's it's.
Speaker 1: Really throwing a lot of stuff away.
Speaker 2: But when they're using like the multimatic stuff on like
Speaker 2: like before GT program uses it for a La Mont
Speaker 2: like it's since Yeah, and.
Speaker 3: They mostly do race cars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they built the four GT, they built the new
Speaker 2: what's the new Mustang, the crazy TD, the GTD they
Speaker 2: built that like.
Speaker 3: Which has multi nating chocks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 4: It's an amazing shot. Unfortunately, in our industry it's just
Speaker 4: not quite understood.
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Speaker 2: Thanks Niddo, but we're here to talk about the FXL,
Speaker 2: which is based on the Ford Super Duty. We're sitting
Speaker 2: in a Ford super Duty right now. I think, you know,
Speaker 2: one of the things you said to me, like early
Speaker 2: on when this program was about to be announced, is
Speaker 2: you know, you can make a RAM. You can make
Speaker 2: the world's coolest Ram, which I think he kind of did,
Speaker 2: and that's still never going to be enough to convince
Speaker 2: a Ford guy to buy a Dodge to buy a Ram.
Speaker 3: Yeah. In heavy duty pickups, brand loyalty is.
Speaker 1: Everything.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's really it's hard to or comprehend how strong
Speaker 4: the brand loyalty is and full size trucks, especially in
Speaker 4: the heavy duty world. And then also we noticed that
Speaker 4: it was very geocentric, so like, you know, this part
Speaker 4: of Canada is all round, and this part of you know,
Speaker 4: Texas is all for.
Speaker 3: Or maybe even say all Texas is for.
Speaker 4: But there was very, very very strong geocentric locations for
Speaker 4: heavy duty trucks. And we also had a lot of
Speaker 4: customers just asking us for and you know it was
Speaker 4: something we never had the time or the just never
Speaker 4: really had the time or the knowledge should do it.
Speaker 4: And then we kind of were wrapping up the GMC
Speaker 4: the next generation Chevy and GMC, and we had a
Speaker 4: little bit of time and we looked at it. And
Speaker 4: we've looked at it several times. I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: we've got probably CAD data going back to two thousand
Speaker 4: and nine. We've looked at it a couple of times.
Speaker 4: And anyway, this time we looked at it and we
Speaker 4: had the experience, we had the knowledge, and we felt
Speaker 4: like now was a good time to do that with
Speaker 4: Ford getting all the ads, yeah, and you know, the
Speaker 4: radars going in and it just it opened up some
Speaker 4: opportunities for us and we felt like we had the
Speaker 4: right amount of experience to jump in.
Speaker 2: I think that these heavy duty trucks, they're always kind
Speaker 2: of leap frogging each other, you know, Like I think
Speaker 2: a RAM was really hot for a while. Like I
Speaker 2: personally liked the Rams. You know, we were saying earlier
Speaker 2: they're kind of like a scaled up Wrangler chassis. You know,
Speaker 2: they're really technically capable off road. I think Ford has
Speaker 2: these insane drive lines, I mean five hundred horsepower twelve
Speaker 2: hundred pound feet of torque, and then they have this
Speaker 2: ten speed transmission that's in Jesus came out in twenty ten.
Speaker 2: It's pretty proven. Now, I mean that FXL which is
Speaker 2: on forties. I mean it hides them so well, but
Speaker 2: it's got to be a beast for telling.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I you know, honestly, I think they
Speaker 4: all all these trucks, now, they're all let's just call
Speaker 4: of one thousand plus pound fee to torque, Chevy slightly
Speaker 4: less Rams right there, board's a little higher. All of
Speaker 4: them have good transmissions. Now, the Ford and Chevy transmission.
Speaker 4: You know they were developed same time.
Speaker 2: Oh I didn't know that.
Speaker 3: You can't say that the same ten speed, but they're
Speaker 3: very very similar.
Speaker 2: Similar.
Speaker 4: The new Chrysler eight A P transmission is HD is
Speaker 4: high performance.
Speaker 3: Forget what AP is, but it's more built for towing.
Speaker 3: It's it's very similar.
Speaker 4: It's got a PTO and it's built for the it's
Speaker 4: an eight AP ten to fifty, so it's built for
Speaker 4: that torque. But you know, since the Ram got that
Speaker 4: transmission twenty five, I would say they're like every one
Speaker 4: of these trucks. People always ask me which one's the best,
Speaker 4: which one's your favorite.
Speaker 3: I don't think you go wrong.
Speaker 4: I think that honestly, pick the best dealer in your area.
Speaker 4: You know, if you're not brand loyal, just pick the
Speaker 4: best dealer in the area. And I think that's why
Speaker 4: the geocentric popularity has developed. I think, just good dealers
Speaker 4: in certain areas and they've developed a loyal.
Speaker 2: Follow I was notice, like when I'm going up to
Speaker 2: the Tetons or something, and I'm broughting through Idaho, It's
Speaker 2: like every vehicle is a GM product.
Speaker 1: Like every truck.
Speaker 2: Like you really do start to notice it in different areas,
Speaker 2: Like you know, I mean, living in Arizona, I don't
Speaker 2: see a lot of Chevyes, like I see a lot
Speaker 2: of Rams, you know, I see a lot of the Fords.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I think it's as good for people to have.
Speaker 3: Options it is.
Speaker 4: And you know, I know some people would like get
Speaker 4: disowned by their family if they bought.
Speaker 2: Isn't it funny? How like so much of it comes
Speaker 2: back to like you're like, like, for me, like if
Speaker 2: I drove a Chevy, like I just have this image
Speaker 2: of my dis like my my father disapproving me, and like,
Speaker 2: you know, his face is popping up in a cloud
Speaker 2: or something next to me. Like yeah, like I don't know,
Speaker 2: but I've actually been really like like Chevy has been
Speaker 2: doing so much, I think with with their product Chevy, GM, GMC.
Speaker 2: Sorry I kind of use them interchange, like they're so
Speaker 2: quiet inside. Like I drove the Baby Bison like that.
Speaker 2: It was the AT four x AEV Edition Canyon. I
Speaker 2: couldn't believe is how tight that car was, Like you know, That's.
Speaker 3: What I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Almost all that like there's not I mean, I don't
Speaker 4: think any of these cars have a fault.
Speaker 3: Like on the heavy duty trucks, they are.
Speaker 4: All so comfortable, so powerful, they're ready for anything in
Speaker 4: any weather.
Speaker 3: In my opinion, the heavy duty truck.
Speaker 4: If you don't live in an inner city, if you
Speaker 4: don't live in a very urban environment and you can,
Speaker 4: you can drive a heavy duty truck. I really can't
Speaker 4: think of anything more comfortable and regardless of the brand.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I just saw I'm on my
Speaker 2: third Prospector Excel now, which is I have horrible vehicle.
Speaker 2: Add I don't suggest that I should have just kept
Speaker 2: my first one, but I was in a Grenadier and
Speaker 2: I don't know why, Like I just kind of like
Speaker 2: had this idea that you know, the Prospector was gonna
Speaker 2: be so much harder to drive, even though, like I've
Speaker 2: had them, but it's like easier to drive than the Grenadier,
Speaker 2: Like they're not. I also think like when you when
Speaker 2: you lift these things and you put the big tires
Speaker 2: on them, there's something that kind of happens to them
Speaker 2: to almost make them more driveable, like they feel a
Speaker 2: little more light on their feet or something like I
Speaker 2: don't I can't put my finger on it. But they're
Speaker 2: just nice to drive, Like they're so comfortable. I think
Speaker 2: they're super luxurious.
Speaker 4: Yeah, once you're used to a thousand pound feod torque,
Speaker 4: it's hard to go back, really hard to you know,
Speaker 4: come up the hill here and yeah, you know it's
Speaker 4: down shifting or yeah, it does become kind of.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, and like it is bar none in the
Speaker 2: United States, maybe globally, the most competitive segment of automotive,
Speaker 2: Like you know, like there's there's probably there's a segment
Speaker 2: of like economy cars that's very you know competitive for price.
Speaker 2: But these trucks have budget, they have room and dollars
Speaker 2: for engineering, and they have like insane volume. So like
Speaker 2: there is you know, if the F one fifty or
Speaker 2: the Super Duty is bad, like it's such a large thing,
Speaker 2: like that's bad for America. Right, But these companies are
Speaker 2: always kind of pushing each other on and like I
Speaker 2: was saying, they leap frog right, Like I think Ford
Speaker 2: right now, you know new body. They're still on the
Speaker 2: aluminum body, but they've updated the body, new interiors because
Speaker 2: they were a little bit behind on the interiors. I think,
Speaker 2: like the twenty seventeen you know to twenty nineteen, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty trucks kind of aged, I think a little bit.
Speaker 2: But these new interiors are great. Yeah, the drive train
Speaker 2: is crazy awesome.
Speaker 3: The suspension's good.
Speaker 4: I really think we're in the heyday of the I mean,
Speaker 4: these trucks are so good.
Speaker 1: I mean, what's the next step for a lot of
Speaker 1: these things?
Speaker 2: Like it almost makes me think like electrification has to
Speaker 2: be the next step, Like how much can you get
Speaker 2: out of these these engines? You know, they seem to
Speaker 2: I don't know, for whatever reason, Like you know, the
Speaker 2: the GM products with their six point six leaders, both
Speaker 2: Ford and Ram are six seven's. Like it's just interesting,
Speaker 2: you know, once you kind of think, oh they can't
Speaker 2: really get any better, they just keep getting better.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's hard to say. I mean sometimes I can say,
Speaker 4: but I can't say.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, I'm not necessarily asking you.
Speaker 4: It's just like I think, right now, we have a
Speaker 4: really good selection trucks, and you know, the Ford is
Speaker 4: obviously the newest to me. It's I've only just started
Speaker 4: driving it recently with the with our package on it.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's just so impressive.
Speaker 4: We were out in l A doing riding drives with
Speaker 4: media earlier this week and we actually picked a canyon
Speaker 4: road instead of highway or off road to do that on,
Speaker 4: which doesn't seem really for a one ton truck on forty.
Speaker 1: They're kind of a hoo's a hustle home.
Speaker 4: Though.
Speaker 3: It was awesome going both up and down that canyon.
Speaker 4: Uh. You know, we had a couple of drivers, a
Speaker 4: couple of journalists that actually knew how to drive, and
Speaker 4: they were having fun with it, and yeah, it was
Speaker 4: really kind of cool to see a nine thousand dollars
Speaker 4: truck hustling through a canyon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're just you know, again not to reader,
Speaker 2: but they're just so comfortable inside. Like you're saying, like
Speaker 2: if you're not, like, it would suck. That truck would
Speaker 2: suck if you lived in New York City.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you knowpropriate.
Speaker 2: It's it's not it's not really what you're going for, right,
Speaker 2: but you know, for most people in rural America, oh
Speaker 2: my god, they're just I keep.
Speaker 3: Calling them Cadillacs, Like, yeah, you.
Speaker 2: Know, I look at I look at a lot of
Speaker 2: the guys that buy their range rovers and they buy this,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, I've got more power, I've got more, more, more,
Speaker 2: better on pretty much everything.
Speaker 4: So yeah, absolutely, I mean if I had to drive
Speaker 4: across country tomorrow, I would pick a one done truck
Speaker 4: or three quarter ton truck before any Mercedes sedan.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, for putting miles down, I just don't
Speaker 2: think there's anything more comfortable. But so let's start diving
Speaker 2: in on the FXL. So the FXL package, these components
Speaker 2: are going to be available separately from you know, buying
Speaker 2: the like the AEV VIN truck for like the AEV peeks.
Speaker 2: That's the big thing is you get the windshield banner,
Speaker 2: you know, which I'm sure people are copying and whatever
Speaker 2: now because it's kind of it's become a bit of
Speaker 2: a thing. Yeah, you know, and you get that, you
Speaker 2: get the VIN stamps. So there's gonna be dealers where
Speaker 2: you can buy fxls.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So we'll have I mean traditional, We'll have a AEV
Speaker 4: Ford dealer. Okay, you know that you can go in
Speaker 4: and buy a truck through them. It comes directly from
Speaker 4: Ford's assembly plant to us. We build the truck, ship
Speaker 4: it to the dealer, you pick it up, full factory warranty.
Speaker 4: Like you said, it gets all the AEV graphics badging,
Speaker 4: windshield banner, thin tag, but also little things like the
Speaker 4: tire placards are corrected.
Speaker 2: So yeah, when you go.
Speaker 4: Into a tire shop, they're not trying to fill your
Speaker 4: tires ninety PSI. It's all correct and they can put
Speaker 4: the right size tire on it. It actually says, you know,
Speaker 4: forty by thirteen, fifty and eighteen tires. There's a lot
Speaker 4: of little things that you get, including the warranty. Yes,
Speaker 4: you can also buy parts, so we'll make all the
Speaker 4: parts available. Those parts will start coming out here, I
Speaker 4: think at the end of the month, so early June.
Speaker 4: Bumpers wheels from upper rear bumper wheels, flares and then
Speaker 4: suspension will follow. Suspension just takes time because we work
Speaker 4: with our partner Builstein, and that you know, those shocks
Speaker 4: are unique AV eighty one hundred, so because AEV is
Speaker 4: not just a wheel company, not just the bumper company,
Speaker 4: not just a suspension company. We're able to tune all
Speaker 4: those things together. So our eighty one hundred is tuned
Speaker 4: specifically for that truck with our spring, with that tire
Speaker 4: at the pressure we specify, with our front bumper with
Speaker 4: the winch in there, so we're able to really fine
Speaker 4: tune that for the customer versus you know, trying to
Speaker 4: buy some shock and some spring and make it all work.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you always talk about kind of like
Speaker 2: the frequency of the springs and how that affects the
Speaker 2: shock tuning, And there's so many variables, like you know,
Speaker 2: there are. I mean, there's just a lot of shocks
Speaker 2: out there, right, And it's not to say that somebody
Speaker 2: can't go and you know, properly valve a shock, but
Speaker 2: there's a lot that goes into it. Like I always
Speaker 2: love seeing, you know, the pictures of like the prospect
Speaker 2: Or Excels getting like slid around, you know, in a
Speaker 2: slalomn course on the track and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you really are better off.
Speaker 4: Having our engineers do the shot tuning versus you trying
Speaker 4: to do it in a garage or guys just have
Speaker 4: a lot more time and experience doing that and they
Speaker 4: can tune it specifically for that truck, which is it.
Speaker 4: You can really feel like it just feels like a
Speaker 4: very well tuned cohesive package.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean spending some time with the FXL today
Speaker 2: we're at Overland Expo West. So if there's the occasional
Speaker 2: annoying squeal or something in the background, that's why. But
Speaker 2: it hides the forties so well, Like I think the
Speaker 2: thing that stands out to me. You know, the bumpers
Speaker 2: are great, we'll get into those later. But the design
Speaker 2: of the wheel arches is very unique, Like it's not
Speaker 2: you know that it's obviously just a different vehicle than
Speaker 2: the PXL RAM, and I like that it is completely different.
Speaker 2: Like there's been a lot of thought putting in the
Speaker 2: sculpting in how that was designed. I know you're kind
Speaker 2: of saying there's a little inspired by like obs.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you go back into the history of Ford. Well, yeah,
Speaker 4: So we did take a little bit of a beating
Speaker 4: online early on when we showed those Vender flares because
Speaker 4: people are like, oh, you know, why are you making
Speaker 4: it look like a Chevy with the squared off endor flares,
Speaker 4: and that wasn't the intent. In fact, the intent you
Speaker 4: know in the early I think early nineties for somebody
Speaker 4: at Ford Designed decreed that all Fords from now on
Speaker 4: we'll have round, circular, semi circular real openings and so
Speaker 4: and it's been a thing ever since. And that was
Speaker 4: really you know, start of the jelly bean styling with
Speaker 4: like in the in the automotive styling where we called
Speaker 4: the jelly bean error of Ford with.
Speaker 2: Like thee like the style side F one fifties and
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff for trucks like very rounded, so it's.
Speaker 3: Called the jelly bean error.
Speaker 4: And and so at that point, you know, even the
Speaker 4: F two fifty went to a more rounded style, and
Speaker 4: gradually over time that truck has shifted back to being
Speaker 4: mostly square, except but.
Speaker 2: The forwards are very angular, the.
Speaker 3: Very square, and they've got these round wheel openings.
Speaker 4: And so when we were looking at it, I asked
Speaker 4: the guys, I said, hey, you know, let's do this more.
Speaker 4: As a first of all, I think it's it's appropriate
Speaker 4: in the truck because it's gotten more square, but let's
Speaker 4: go back to the more of the old body style
Speaker 4: forward wheelopening. So like pre eighty six. The wheel opening
Speaker 4: is exactly what we have. So we took the pre
Speaker 4: eighty six wheel opening because you know, you're looking at
Speaker 4: Bear Jackson and you're seeing all these obs trucks phone
Speaker 4: for two hundred and three hundred thousand dollars, and that's
Speaker 4: what people are liking. So let's take the OBS as
Speaker 4: a nod. Or let's take that flare shape as an
Speaker 4: as a nod to the older trucks, and guess what.
Speaker 4: It looks more appropriate because the truck has gone back square.
Speaker 4: The rest of the truck square except the semi circular
Speaker 4: wheel opening.
Speaker 3: So let's do that.
Speaker 4: Let's square off this wheel opening, not like old GM,
Speaker 4: but let's you know, make it look.
Speaker 2: Like the old Ford you had mentioned. You know that
Speaker 2: people were giving me kinds of flack that it looked
Speaker 2: a little GM.
Speaker 4: But they were younger people turned out, and then when
Speaker 4: you explained it to them, they're like, oh, that's actually
Speaker 4: really cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because like the GMS, that's like they were very narrow,
Speaker 2: tall and very square, very seat, where this has the
Speaker 2: width added to it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's angular, it's actually angule, it's really not
Speaker 4: squared off. But yeah, in general it's not a semi circle.
Speaker 4: And yeah, once you explain it to people, they're kind
Speaker 4: of like, oh, I forgot about that. I forgot that
Speaker 4: pre eighty six trucks had this shape, and now I
Speaker 4: see it and now and now it does look Yeah.
Speaker 4: And and interestingly, as we were doing this, we're we're,
Speaker 4: you know, we're designing these players and we're you know,
Speaker 4: just about to go into production with them, and we
Speaker 4: noticed that the Ford Ranger Super Duty, so the little
Speaker 4: Ranger and Super Duty comes out, was squared off wheel wells,
Speaker 4: not like obs style, but it was just interesting.
Speaker 2: That Ford maybe they recognized that that was the you know,
Speaker 2: they had these round, real arches.
Speaker 4: I don't know why they did it, but I was
Speaker 4: just like, we were just talking about it in our
Speaker 4: one of our meetings and we're like, hey, have you
Speaker 4: seen this.
Speaker 2: And Ranger Super Duty is a very cool concept. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I haven't seen one in person or we've been around one,
Speaker 4: but it does seem like a pretty cool, pretty cool
Speaker 4: little truck. But anyway, so getting back to that, you know,
Speaker 4: once you explain it to the folks, then then it's like, oh, okay,
Speaker 4: we like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it looks good.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, like I think with most things
Speaker 2: av if you kinda when you look at it, it
Speaker 2: really does start to look oem. It's that cohesive package thing, right,
Speaker 2: you know, if anybody's out there, it's like, oh, man,
Speaker 2: I wish they made a super you know, a super
Speaker 2: Duty raptor. Well this is it, you know, Yeah, is
Speaker 2: that a super HD. Trucks are never going to be
Speaker 2: go fast trucks right.
Speaker 4: Well, in my opinion, go fast truck is never going
Speaker 4: to have a stock frame. Yeah, I'm never gonna have
Speaker 4: a vehicle frame. If you're really going to go fast,
Speaker 4: you're not gonna deal with a frame. So yeah, all
Speaker 4: the f one fifty, all the fifteen hundred trucks really
Speaker 4: don't interest me personally at all.
Speaker 2: It's kind of weird though, because when you guys have
Speaker 2: a fifteen hundred version of the GM and Chevy trucks,
Speaker 2: and it's if you kind of you know, if it
Speaker 2: was like a design by committee thing, you'd think, oh, well,
Speaker 2: this is the one that everybody's gonna want, Like this
Speaker 2: is the volume truck. You don't I'm not saying you
Speaker 2: don't see them, but you It's like enthusiasts tend to
Speaker 2: go for kind of that, you know, that light duty truck,
Speaker 2: the Colorado, the Ranger, the Tacoma, and then they make
Speaker 2: the big jump to it like an HD truck.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you're probably looking at that with a Western
Speaker 4: i'll call blinders on. You know, if you live back east,
Speaker 4: the half ton truck actually makes some sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it just it does, I like traditionally.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's more of a you know, it crosses that
Speaker 4: line that you can use it as everyday car kind
Speaker 4: of thing if you don't live out in the Western
Speaker 4: United States where the heavy duty makes more sense. So
Speaker 4: we always talk about that when we're designing things. Is
Speaker 4: like having your two hundred mile blinders on, like you know,
Speaker 4: what you do two hundred miles of where you live,
Speaker 4: And so we're always designing, you know, with that in mind,
Speaker 4: trying to design around.
Speaker 3: Those things for different folks.
Speaker 4: So anyway, that's kind of where that all came from,
Speaker 4: and that the wheel flares have a long story, but
Speaker 4: it's kind of an interesting story.
Speaker 2: But yeah, and there's a new real sense we're talking
Speaker 2: real flares. There's a new wheel that's beadlock capable, specifically
Speaker 2: for heavy duty.
Speaker 4: So we have our first dual sport beadlock wheel. And
Speaker 4: so for those of you don't know, we've been doing
Speaker 4: this in jeep for a long time. But it's a
Speaker 4: wheel that you can mount as a traditional wheel or
Speaker 4: you can mount.
Speaker 3: It as a badlock wheel.
Speaker 4: And the nice thing about that is, you know, there's
Speaker 4: several nice things from a consumer standpoint. One, If you
Speaker 4: you know, let's say you don't want beadlocks, you don't
Speaker 4: need badlocks, just mount as regular You always have that
Speaker 4: option to move to a badlock if you need to
Speaker 4: in the future. Ye, so you're not limited with you know,
Speaker 4: I have to buy another set of wheels. Conversely, if
Speaker 4: you're running a badlock and let's say you have a
Speaker 4: problem somewhere and you need to get a tire switched,
Speaker 4: and you make it to a tire shop and they're like,
Speaker 4: well we won't work on that. This way, they you
Speaker 4: can just say, hey, mount it as a traditional wheel,
Speaker 4: I'll drive home.
Speaker 3: I'll deal with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So it you know, it gives you that failure mode.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's actually smart.
Speaker 2: I never really thought of that. You've run into that
Speaker 2: where like I mean, okay, like with the earth Romer.
Speaker 2: You know, right now, there's a lot of places they
Speaker 2: see all the bolts and they're like, uh, yeah, no,
Speaker 2: we're just not doing that. You know. It's actually the
Speaker 2: same thing with my hutchinsense that I had on my
Speaker 2: first JK. It was like, and that's a proper three
Speaker 2: piece block with the you know that that inside. People
Speaker 2: wouldn't touch them. You know, it's really hard outside of
Speaker 2: a specialty.
Speaker 3: Shop, it can be a problem.
Speaker 4: So this just gives our customers an option, you know,
Speaker 4: if you're in the middle of Alaska or whatever.
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, it just gives you that option. Hey,
Speaker 3: just not at regular and I'll deal with it later.
Speaker 2: And are those going to be a is that just
Speaker 2: going to be for Ford applications because of the off
Speaker 2: set the wheel patterns, well, patterns the.
Speaker 3: Same it is, but yeah, the through hub.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of differences with the RAM and the
Speaker 4: Ford wheel, including offsets. But we will have a version
Speaker 4: for forward and RAM and two different colors and some
Speaker 4: different different rings. So you can get a block ring.
Speaker 4: You can also just get a protection ring. A lot
Speaker 4: of people are like, hey, I'm not going to run
Speaker 4: super low pressure, but I am going to go scratch
Speaker 4: my wheel up. I'm to use it so you can
Speaker 4: run this sacrificial beadlock or sorry, sacrificial protection ring in
Speaker 4: place of the beadlock if you want, just another nice option.
Speaker 4: So just because our customers a lot of options, and
Speaker 4: this is the first time we've done a heavy duty wheel,
Speaker 4: mostly because of the testing that was required for the
Speaker 4: higher loads. So that wheel is through testing, and you know,
Speaker 4: we tested it with forty two inch tires because that
Speaker 4: makes a big difference.
Speaker 1: If you're testing, yeah, more leverage, you're kind of explaining that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a lot more leverage, a lot more stress
Speaker 4: on the wheel. We had to actually go up the
Speaker 4: bigger bolts and just yeah, do a lot of testing.
Speaker 4: So it's our first heavy duty beadlock capable wheel.
Speaker 2: It's pretty significant on its own, to be honest.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're eighteens because we're you know, finally we have
Speaker 4: a BFG HD terrain tire.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there's the all Terrain forty now too that
Speaker 2: I'm super excited.
Speaker 4: They have an alterrain that uses the same carcass as
Speaker 4: the HD. It's just the the at pattern and yeah, gerrometer,
Speaker 4: which is nice because you know, we're seeing forty five
Speaker 4: thousand miles out of the HD train.
Speaker 3: The at will be a little bit less, but it
Speaker 3: is obviously better than.
Speaker 2: Snow and I and you get the snowflick rading, which
Speaker 2: is like you know, for a lot of Western states,
Speaker 2: if you're going to do a pass, it's chains or
Speaker 2: or you know, snowflick rating.
Speaker 4: So yeah, yeah, so nice, another nice tire option. And
Speaker 4: these are all f rated tires, which are actually the
Speaker 4: first tires that are really meant for nine ten thousand
Speaker 4: pound trucks with a thousand pound feet of torque. Yeah,
Speaker 4: because what was happening is you could put a different
Speaker 4: tire on there and it would have the load rating
Speaker 4: and everything would be okay, and you'd go and cook up,
Speaker 4: you know, a ten thousand pound trailer and you'd accelerate
Speaker 4: away like thinking nothing of it from the driver's seat,
Speaker 4: and those tires are just screaming literally getting you know,
Speaker 4: the rubber twisted off them in the rear, trying to
Speaker 4: accelerate twenty thousand pounds like it's nothing, which the engine
Speaker 4: will do, the powertrain will do, but the poor tires.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it just kind of kicked the problem down down
Speaker 1: on a chain.
Speaker 3: So now we actually have a tire that will withstand.
Speaker 2: That yeah, because that's the tire you're running on the
Speaker 2: truckhouse too.
Speaker 4: Truckhouse, yeah, Prospector Truckhouse and the new fpisode.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I think that that's inevitable for me to
Speaker 2: try and upgrade to those those eighteens, like I have
Speaker 2: the seventeens. I think there's kind of something cool about
Speaker 2: like the massive sidewall, but it's really only an inch.
Speaker 3: You know. Yeah, but.
Speaker 2: I I'd love to talk a little bit about the
Speaker 2: bumper because it, you know, the the new Fords are
Speaker 2: a little interesting. I mean, the headlights are massive on them,
Speaker 2: like it looks it looks right going down the road,
Speaker 2: and then you get up next to one and you
Speaker 2: realize these headlights seem like they're two feet tall. And
Speaker 2: that had to be like a pretty big challenge to
Speaker 2: just esthetically design that front bumper to make it look.
Speaker 3: The bumper was. Yeah, it was an amazing exercise and packaging.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like first and foremost, we have the eight s.
Speaker 4: So that's the automatic braking and it basically integrates a
Speaker 4: radar and that radar is taking pictures.
Speaker 1: And is that on the four Is that in the
Speaker 1: bumper on the Ford?
Speaker 3: It is on the it's in the bumpers, it's in
Speaker 3: the grill.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, okay, mine's in the windshield, and there's like.
Speaker 4: Mass well, there's a whole other set of visual cameras
Speaker 4: up in the windshield on both the ford and the RAM.
Speaker 4: And what they're doing is they're taking both a quote
Speaker 4: unquote picture do you think of it as a picture
Speaker 4: with the radar, and they're taking a picture with.
Speaker 3: The visual cameras. They're overlaying those pictures so that they
Speaker 3: can really identify things because some things are very visible
Speaker 3: with radar, some things are very visible with the photographic cameras.
Speaker 3: So they're overlaying that, meshing it all together to make decisions.
Speaker 2: Because this then has the blue crews I believe right
Speaker 2: on these.
Speaker 3: I don't know about that.
Speaker 2: I think that's an option on the on the on
Speaker 2: the super duties, which would be like, you know, absolutely
Speaker 2: crazy to have a.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure if that is on the super duty,
Speaker 4: but to be honest, I wouldn't need to check.
Speaker 2: I'm not there's so many options on the trucks.
Speaker 4: There's so many options, especially when you're looking at two
Speaker 4: fifty through five fifty and all the different levels. So
Speaker 4: I'm not a complete expert in every little package option currently,
Speaker 4: Like I do know the RAM pretty well, but you know,
Speaker 4: going back to the bumper, we start with the ad
Speaker 4: as and the radar. We start with all the ultrasonic
Speaker 4: park sensors, and then we start looking at okay, you know,
Speaker 4: here's our cooling requirements. We have a twenty that we
Speaker 4: want to do up to a twenty thousand pound winch
Speaker 4: because this is going up to five fifties. Yeah, We've
Speaker 4: got our nodular iron toe hooks, you know, so we
Speaker 4: had their you know, test those again for up to
Speaker 4: thirty two thousand pounds now, and.
Speaker 2: That is that because that's then the gross can bind
Speaker 2: vehicle weight that you're testing to, right.
Speaker 4: And then we're looking at that and we're looking at
Speaker 4: the you know, you can think of a cone with
Speaker 4: the radar with the radar seeds at the very very
Speaker 4: wide angle cone and then we're looking at the angles
Speaker 4: that we have to pull from and do all our
Speaker 4: tests for our poll. And then we have to look
Speaker 4: at the cones for the radar sensors and make sure
Speaker 4: the radars or I'm sorry, I have the radar, but
Speaker 4: the ultrasonic sensors aren't seeing let's say the toehooks, so
Speaker 4: we're not getting false positives with all that stuff. So
Speaker 4: trying to put all this stuff into place, and then
Speaker 4: the fog lamps and then trying to protect for the
Speaker 4: head lamps and trying to protect for the frame twists
Speaker 4: so that our bumper is not hitting the head lambs
Speaker 4: that full frame twist and all these different parameters, I
Speaker 4: mean just one other. And then we come in and
Speaker 4: we kind of connect the dots. We get a package
Speaker 4: that works. We have to move the winch, move this
Speaker 4: move that you know, and all these sensors have to
Speaker 4: be related to one another in certain areas. It becomes
Speaker 4: very very very complex, like calculus equation that we're trying
Speaker 4: to solve, you know, make this optimal solution.
Speaker 3: And we we we finally.
Speaker 4: Got it done, and then we kind of connect the
Speaker 4: dots and then we go through aesthetically and we have
Speaker 4: a very talented team of car designers that we go through,
Speaker 4: and I mean we really nitpick every single radius and
Speaker 4: bone line and trying to make everything line up with
Speaker 4: the truck to make it look like it's an OEM
Speaker 4: plus type truck. Yeah, and and you know, now we
Speaker 4: have to go through and go through the manufacturing like,
Speaker 4: can't we make that radius?
Speaker 3: You know? Can this stamping die?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: There's what we want to do is what you can do?
Speaker 3: Right? Do we have the tonnage to do that?
Speaker 4: This?
Speaker 3: That the other thing.
Speaker 4: One of the cool things about fort you'll notice some
Speaker 4: little skid plates out on the outer corners. That's a
Speaker 4: new thing that we'll be carrying through to all of
Speaker 4: our bumpers because we noticed that, like let's say a
Speaker 4: moab where somebody's recreational four wheeling, we were seeing those
Speaker 4: bottom corners getting scratched up quite a bit on the
Speaker 4: far outside. So we started putting these wear bars in.
Speaker 4: So it's ten millimeter thick steel and it has this wear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, get your little off camera, that's the first thing
Speaker 2: that's gonna touch.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And so this way it kind of protects the bumper,
Speaker 4: it strengthens the bumper, it's lightweight, and it's replaceable. And
Speaker 4: we started actually doing that on the Colorado mid size
Speaker 4: because we had side blind zone sensors that we had
Speaker 4: the package for and we just didn't have enough room
Speaker 4: for a true rock rail on the rear bumper, so
Speaker 4: we started just doing these flat plates.
Speaker 3: Yeah, with plastic covers in that one.
Speaker 4: Now I'm where you would take the plastic cover off
Speaker 4: if a wheeling put the plastic cover back on. On these
Speaker 4: heavy duty bumpers, it's just the steel.
Speaker 3: But it's it's nice.
Speaker 4: Because it's, yeah, it's going to take a lot of abuse.
Speaker 2: I'm always so impressed with AEV and that's why, you know,
Speaker 2: I vote with my own money, and that's why I
Speaker 2: buy this stuff. Is everything is just considered. Like I've
Speaker 2: been through so many trucks, Like my my wife is
Speaker 2: at the point where she's just like, just buy the AEV.
Speaker 2: I don't know why you're messing around, Like I'm tired of,
Speaker 2: like you trying to find a suspension a shock that
Speaker 2: works with this spring and then it rides like crap,
Speaker 2: and then you put a bumper on it and then
Speaker 2: it's not really set up for the eight ass or
Speaker 2: the parking sensors. And it's really like just having this
Speaker 2: package because a lot of people are doing.
Speaker 1: This stuff anyways. You know, I think it's cool.
Speaker 2: That you know you're gonna have these parts available independently
Speaker 2: of doing you know, as you have with the PXL
Speaker 2: and all your other stuff.
Speaker 1: Those guys that.
Speaker 2: Want to you know, as money allows kind of guys, girls,
Speaker 2: I want to upgrade. We would start with the bumper
Speaker 2: or start with the suspension and go from there. But
Speaker 2: it's nice that you can kind of stick to a
Speaker 2: cohesive system that's actually meant to work together.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, as you just identified a lot of
Speaker 4: our customers, it's not their first vehicle. By the third,
Speaker 4: they've tried to build two. Yeah, the third one they're like, you.
Speaker 3: Know what, I just want to build.
Speaker 4: Like like a lot of our heavy duty customers, they
Speaker 4: have a use in mind. So whether it's putting a
Speaker 4: camper in it, whether it's towing in this case, now
Speaker 4: we're getting into a lot of industrial commercial customers. Like
Speaker 4: even our new brush guard for the FXL has spots
Speaker 4: for emergency.
Speaker 1: So you are going to do a brush guard for this.
Speaker 4: We have a brush guard yep, and it's got it's
Speaker 4: like it said for our for more commercial customers, it's
Speaker 4: even got spots for industry or for emergency lighting.
Speaker 2: Oh that's kind of cool.
Speaker 4: So all that stuff's built in taken into consideration for
Speaker 4: like brush trucks and things like that. Yeah, But then
Speaker 4: you know, if we look at the overline market, a
Speaker 4: lot of people are like, you know, I'm put a
Speaker 4: camper in it, whether it's a small camper or a
Speaker 4: big camper.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they want to just kind of mess around with
Speaker 3: the back stuff and not.
Speaker 4: So much the hard vehicle engineering they want to play with,
Speaker 4: like Okay, I'm gonna put a diesel heater in it,
Speaker 4: and I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna put air
Speaker 4: conditioning in it or suit it up for their needs.
Speaker 3: Right, But it's less it seems like, even though this
Speaker 3: is a hobbyist kind of.
Speaker 4: Demographic, Yeah, they're they're switching more to like I want
Speaker 4: to build the back of the truck out the way
Speaker 4: I want it, not so much the rest of the truck.
Speaker 3: I just wanted that part to work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean a lot of this stuff, you know,
Speaker 2: sitting here and over on XPOS, it really has become
Speaker 2: about the campers, you know, the living the little home
Speaker 2: on wheels that people are trying to build a little sailboat.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's it's a lot more affordable to do
Speaker 4: than you know, looking at one of these the big,
Speaker 4: big expedition campers, like what we're sitting in there. You know,
Speaker 4: the guys we work with at truck house or you
Speaker 4: know bliss. I mean there's that stuff, and then there's
Speaker 4: a lot of stuff that's way more approachable for sure,
Speaker 4: and you can do it yourself.
Speaker 3: As a hobbyist and you know, really have some fun
Speaker 3: with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I feel there are a lot of people, how
Speaker 2: do you say it, They don't really maybe they just
Speaker 2: don't know how good their vehicle can be in the aftermarket,
Speaker 2: Like there's kind of this, Oh it's squeaking, that's fine,
Speaker 2: it's just this part. I get an extra half inch
Speaker 2: wheel travel from that upper control arm or whatever. Like
Speaker 2: you know. Again, it's one of the things I appreciate
Speaker 2: of AV Like it just works like it's stock, but
Speaker 2: it's better, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I'll be honest.
Speaker 4: You know, we've been doing this a long long time,
Speaker 4: but since we started working so closely with Chevy, yeah,
Speaker 4: that's really opened our eyes to you know, well, we
Speaker 4: always did OEM things, like we've done OEM stuff with
Speaker 4: Jeep and RAM and we know how all the cooling systems.
Speaker 1: You always approach it with like that mindset.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but when we really went through it with GM
Speaker 4: and we're really looking at you know, everything to go
Speaker 4: into the plant, like with ergonomics and you know, all
Speaker 4: the things that you never think of.
Speaker 2: That you're saying something like you have x amount of
Speaker 2: time to install a bumper, and then that has to
Speaker 2: factor into how it's designed, like oh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, or sequencing robots. You know, these bumpers go on sequencing.
Speaker 4: Robots and they all go out in the room of
Speaker 4: twenty thousand square feet and they all get in line.
Speaker 4: So the guy you know putting the bumpers on, he
Speaker 4: just turns around, grabs next bumper, puts it in the line,
Speaker 4: you know, red bumper, blue bumper, av bumper, crumbumb.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he just turns around, grabs it. He doesn't care.
Speaker 4: He's not picking one out, he's just putting it on. Right,
Speaker 4: it's all factored in with by computers. But just going
Speaker 4: through all that and the ergonomics and how you know,
Speaker 4: putting a bumper on in twenty six seconds, it's really
Speaker 4: helped us, you know, even move to even another level
Speaker 4: above yeah, because now we start to look at that
Speaker 4: with all of our.
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Speaker 1: Well, one of the things you mentioned a while ago
Speaker 1: is that there's.
Speaker 2: Like a a spec for how many square millimeters of
Speaker 2: cooling space that you couldn't change. Was like that was.
Speaker 3: Talking about that's actually on a wheel.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh that's in a wheel.
Speaker 3: Bumpers are the same.
Speaker 4: Way too, right, I mean you've got yeah, you might
Speaker 4: have you know, in frontal area, you'll have a certain
Speaker 4: spec on how many square millimeters of cooling, so.
Speaker 2: If you I'd never thought about that on wheels though, Sorry,
Speaker 2: I blow my mind like that. The bumper thing is
Speaker 2: self explanatory in a way. You're like, oh, it needs
Speaker 2: so much airflow. But wheel cooling you.
Speaker 3: Just yeah, yeah, wheel cooling breake cooling.
Speaker 4: Even even like I mean, we have pages of car
Speaker 4: wash standards on wheels, right, so that you know, and
Speaker 4: you've noticed our wheels don't look like they look more
Speaker 4: like an OEM wheel than an aftermarket wheel.
Speaker 3: A lot of that.
Speaker 4: So it's easy to clean. Car washings can clean it.
Speaker 4: You can get in there with your hands.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the car washing when it goes through the whatever.
Speaker 4: Yeah, coatings and the way coatings stick to wheels, I
Speaker 4: mean all that stuff. I mean, you just don't think
Speaker 4: of the market doesn't really consider it.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: I never thought about the wheel thing because you know,
Speaker 2: you see some of these you see some of these
Speaker 2: aftermarket wheels, you know, and they have Okay, I'm just saying,
Speaker 2: I hate these black rhino wheels.
Speaker 1: They look like the wheels on my Earth Rummer.
Speaker 2: But they're just like a series of you know, they're
Speaker 2: solid with a series of Chinese pot metal fake bolts
Speaker 2: on them. And you're like, well, when you when you
Speaker 2: think of it from that way, it's like, well, there's
Speaker 2: no cooling there. But most people wouldn't even my mouth shut, well,
Speaker 2: I could say, you don't have to. So you've also
Speaker 2: done a rear bumper for this, and it's kind of
Speaker 2: carrying that bent to be design with the molded end
Speaker 2: caps that are above it. It's definitely some some continuity there.
Speaker 3: It's funny.
Speaker 4: I mean, we worry about like the rear corner is
Speaker 4: probably the easiest place on a one ton truck to
Speaker 4: damage if you're actually gonna use it off road, but
Speaker 4: it also we have we think about things like, Okay,
Speaker 4: somebody's gonna jump in this. They're gonna forget their trailers attached,
Speaker 4: and they're gonna jackknife their hitch, their or their jack
Speaker 4: into the bumper.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it happens. Yeah right, I can't say it's ever
Speaker 3: happened to me, but it's happened.
Speaker 4: You see a lot of factory bumpers with a nice
Speaker 4: crease in them, So we try and think about that.
Speaker 4: We try and place the toe hooks there, integrate real
Speaker 4: toe hooks into these big trucks. I shouldn't say hooks,
Speaker 4: but recovery points their nodular iron just like the factory
Speaker 4: or just like our front ones. This on the Ford
Speaker 4: bumper ties into the hitch. It's a very very stout setup,
Speaker 4: and we try to make it modular so if you
Speaker 4: do run, you know, a excavator trailer into it, and
Speaker 4: we don't want it to bend the frame, we'd rather
Speaker 4: than the bumper. But we make it so you don't
Speaker 4: have to replace the whole thing and just replace one
Speaker 4: section of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because that's a good point, Like it's probably relatively
Speaker 2: easy to build something that's just you know, hell for stout,
Speaker 2: like not going to move, but then it's gonna been
Speaker 2: the next thing online, which is the frame of the frame.
Speaker 1: Don't want to mess up.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, we want to balance that protection so by
Speaker 4: tying it into the hedge. You know, if you get
Speaker 4: rear ended in Tijuana, it's not going to be a
Speaker 4: problem for you. Yeah, you know, So we want to
Speaker 4: balance the hat with protecting the corners and then you know,
Speaker 4: not destroying the trout if you yeah, you know, if
Speaker 4: you were unfortunate enough to check if your trailer into it.
Speaker 2: So what else in the content of the FXL packages.
Speaker 2: There is obviously the front, rear bumpers, the wheels.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we'll be working on some more suspension upgrades.
Speaker 4: Like I said, we're getting in the the five fifty,
Speaker 4: so four to fifty five fifty, which is actually a
Speaker 4: wider front flare.
Speaker 1: Oh interesting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll have our own super single because.
Speaker 2: Before, like on the on the rams, you had like
Speaker 2: your prospector flair and then you had like a little
Speaker 2: add flair.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it wasn't ideal, and so on RAM we'll be
Speaker 4: making a wider front flare. Also, there's enough demand picking
Speaker 4: up for these fifty five hundred.
Speaker 2: Trucks yeah, a lot of these expedition trucks and super
Speaker 2: single conversions and all of that kind of st Yeah.
Speaker 4: So we'll be doing a wider front flair. We do
Speaker 4: have the brush guard coming. We've got the super single wheels,
Speaker 4: which are twenty inch wheel.
Speaker 1: Oh you're gonna do a super single.
Speaker 4: We are doing a super single. It's kind of unique
Speaker 4: to the market. It's not a deadlock like what's on
Speaker 4: this truck, but it's it's just a you know, it's
Speaker 4: a super single wheel. It's a forged wheel and it's
Speaker 4: set up. One of the interesting things about it is
Speaker 4: in the commercial truck world, you know, you have beds
Speaker 4: and utility boxes and equipment that's either set up for
Speaker 4: single rear wheels or dual rear wheels, and this wheel
Speaker 4: will be you can run it in one of two
Speaker 4: different positions for like to match it up with a
Speaker 4: single rear wheel bed or box rear wheel better box.
Speaker 3: We can't wait to see that. So that'll be nice.
Speaker 4: Like I mentioned, the brush guard does have emergency lighting
Speaker 4: for those brush truck, ambulance.
Speaker 3: Toe truck type applications.
Speaker 4: And then we'll be doing you know, we have a
Speaker 4: bunch of products schedule but those are the ones that
Speaker 4: will be out for it.
Speaker 3: Snorkle, good question. So I would love to do a snorkel.
Speaker 4: We have not given up on a snorkel, and we've
Speaker 4: looked at it a lot. It's really hard to get
Speaker 4: the snorkel to package on the Ford. There's just no
Speaker 4: way through what we call the fees them, which is
Speaker 4: the front end structural module. It's a series of tubes
Speaker 4: that kind of support the fenders, headlamps, the grill, radiator,
Speaker 4: the battery. It's these tubes that come off the front
Speaker 4: of the truck and it's actually they're steel, unlike the
Speaker 4: rest of the try which is aluminum. And the problem is,
Speaker 4: you know, there are some aftermarket companies just cut a
Speaker 4: hole through it with the wholesale and they're done. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but when you have batteries at leigh seventy five pounds
Speaker 4: and you're bouncing down the road, you can't just go
Speaker 4: and do that.
Speaker 3: Especially you know, it's also.
Speaker 4: Your main crash structure, and so you're you know, we're
Speaker 4: talking crash with an aluminum body. To take out that
Speaker 4: steel structure, it's the only steel structure in the body.
Speaker 4: To take that out by putting a five or six
Speaker 4: inch hole through.
Speaker 2: It just is a really good idea.
Speaker 4: And then the way they've done all their wiring, it's
Speaker 4: very complex. So I'm not saying we're giving up. We're
Speaker 4: going to continue.
Speaker 1: Working, but it's going to be a challenge, and it's
Speaker 1: a challenge.
Speaker 4: We figured out a few ways to get through and
Speaker 4: then it's kind of it ends up being esthetically challenging.
Speaker 4: So we're working on it. I can't say that it
Speaker 4: will happen with one hundred because there's.
Speaker 2: So much going on with that Ford sixty seven. There's
Speaker 2: two cooline systems. Yeah, I mean you if you ever
Speaker 2: want to get stressed out for an inch to work on,
Speaker 2: look at the Ford, like, you know, maybe that's one area.
Speaker 2: I like the rams It's like, oh turbo, Yeah, there
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 1: I can see it.
Speaker 2: I could replace it, you know, if this is a
Speaker 2: vehicle you had for a long time. I mean the
Speaker 2: Ford stuff's great, like it's it's it's pretty really it's
Speaker 2: it's very real.
Speaker 4: I'll say it's highly optimized. Yeah, the best way I
Speaker 4: described the engine bay of the Ford. But it's challenging,
Speaker 4: especially from the snorkel standpoint. So we'll work on it.
Speaker 4: We may have some other options, but for now we
Speaker 4: don't have a snorkel.
Speaker 2: Well, how are people going to know him an over
Speaker 2: then or shucks?
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's those Matt track. Yeah.
Speaker 5: And a special thanks to Hankook Tire for supporting this
Speaker 5: week's podcast. With Summer Underway, head over to Expeditionportal dot
Speaker 5: com for Jeep Beach Vibe inspiration. Our team spent the
Speaker 5: weekend with Handcooke Dinapro Tire at this year's twenty twenty
Speaker 5: six Jeep Beachweak in Daytona, Florida and took a look
Speaker 5: at their Wrangler three ninety two. Look for Jeep Beach
Speaker 5: twenty twenty six when you go to Expedition Portal dot com.
Speaker 2: So what else is going on with this thing and
Speaker 2: anything any anything else you're trying to kind of develop
Speaker 2: to bring to market.
Speaker 4: On the forward platform, we'll have several different ways to
Speaker 4: carry a tire carrier or to carry the spare tire,
Speaker 4: so we'll probably have three different spare tire carriers for it.
Speaker 2: Okay, so well, but I know you've said before like
Speaker 2: they're really hard to engineer properly.
Speaker 4: It's one of the hardest things to do in this
Speaker 4: world of you know, it's a moving part. Anything moving
Speaker 4: is difficult, and then anything canily for and hanging off
Speaker 4: of that, you know, five feet five six feet bet
Speaker 4: on the rear wheels, which is your pivot point, is
Speaker 4: really challenging.
Speaker 2: I remember, like one of the things you kind of
Speaker 2: taught me or showed me over the years is like
Speaker 2: you just like just a little bit of light pressure
Speaker 2: on a lot of these things. You just keep doing it,
Speaker 2: and you keep doing it, and you keep doing it,
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, the trucks the truck's moving,
Speaker 2: and you got to think, that's it.
Speaker 1: If you're dealing with your finger, what's that happen?
Speaker 2: What's what's happening with all that weight going down the
Speaker 2: road and that steal fatigues the bearing, fatigues the bearing worth.
Speaker 1: You know, the bearing should probably be fine, but everything that's.
Speaker 4: Attached to Yeah, you'll find out going out to Death Valley,
Speaker 4: you know, on one of those forty mile washboards. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it doesn't really work that well. So we do have
Speaker 4: a good solution. It'll be a really really unique I
Speaker 4: think the overlanding community.
Speaker 3: Will love what we're doing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's gonna be a really nice system and
Speaker 4: we've got it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot of challenges.
Speaker 4: With that, like you know, snow and ice pack and
Speaker 4: you know, how is this How are your detense gonna work?
Speaker 4: And you know you've got a two hundred bound tire
Speaker 4: if you open it on a hill or you're gonna.
Speaker 3: Get crushed you know your wife, Yeah, get crushed.
Speaker 4: So we did some really cool things with controlling that
Speaker 4: tire motion, which is making.
Speaker 2: Sure that's something you don't really think of, like you see,
Speaker 2: like I'm looking at a forerunner right now that's got
Speaker 2: a rear bumper on it, and I'm looking at the
Speaker 2: arms like four or seven feet long, and if you're
Speaker 2: on a hill, like, oh yeah, that could catch any
Speaker 2: the off.
Speaker 4: Guard, right, And these tires are big and heavy and yeah,
Speaker 4: so we don't want you to you know, it can't
Speaker 4: be hard to open. You can't you know, can't be
Speaker 4: a runaway. You know, these things are massive. So yeah,
Speaker 4: we developed some really neat things that you know, aren't
Speaker 4: affected by altitude, aren't affected by mud and snow and
Speaker 4: ice and all the things that actually you know, like
Speaker 4: you see people try to put gas struts on these things,
Speaker 4: and you know, somehow control the motion with that you know,
Speaker 4: you go up to altitude and it doesn't work very well,
Speaker 4: or it fails you at the worst time, or it
Speaker 4: doesn't like mad chlora.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I never thought about that with altitude, with those
Speaker 2: gas threats, but yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they become less effective. Right, So anyway, we do.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've done a lot of cool things and that
Speaker 4: that's a new product. We do have like some new
Speaker 4: Rocker guards coming from RAM that will be pretty interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we have a lot of new products coming out. So
Speaker 4: if anybody you know it's looking for new stuff, we
Speaker 4: have some really cool Wrangler stuff coming.
Speaker 1: So you guys did the four inch dual sportlift for JL.
Speaker 4: We just did a foreign sit for for We do
Speaker 4: have some folks, you know, enough of our clientele is
Speaker 4: into you know, out West and into pretty heavy rock
Speaker 4: crowlling where they were looking for thirty nine. So we
Speaker 4: do have a four inch lift now. And we have
Speaker 4: some really cool interior storage stuff coming, which is something
Speaker 4: I've always shied away from because I think there's some
Speaker 4: pretty good solutions on the market.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but we came out or were.
Speaker 4: Coming out with a really cool new interior storage flat
Speaker 4: floor system.
Speaker 3: Cool, and I'll leave it at that. For now. It's
Speaker 3: a really unique system because.
Speaker 2: The pack, which is like the extended UH window, arches
Speaker 2: on the back storage.
Speaker 3: Storage on the side, but this is like a floor system.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love pair of nicely with that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh yeah, it'll be It's I've always shied away
Speaker 4: just because I thought there's a lot of people doing
Speaker 4: a decent enough job.
Speaker 3: But then we figured out something.
Speaker 4: Really to make it really convenient, to make your life
Speaker 4: really easy, yeah, and solve a lot of problems all
Speaker 4: with one thing. So we we've been working on that
Speaker 4: for six eight months now.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. Well, I always learn something every time you
Speaker 2: come on the podcast. I always have people that come
Speaker 2: up to me and say, I love the ones with Dave.
Speaker 2: I always learn stuff. So thanks for taking the time
Speaker 2: to you know, to do this and geek out and
Speaker 2: the stuff. So June, parts will be available for start
Speaker 2: tickling effl.
Speaker 3: They'll start trickling out and then.
Speaker 2: If somebody wants one of these right now, yeah, how
Speaker 2: do they get one?
Speaker 3: Right? We are taking pre orders.
Speaker 4: We're prioritizing customers, individual customers over dealers. So if you
Speaker 4: want one, contact our sales team, talk to them. They
Speaker 4: won't be delivered and probably until let's say September, October, okay,
Speaker 4: somewhere in there. But yeah, we're starting to trickle out
Speaker 4: parts now.
Speaker 2: Cool. Well, I'm super excited for it. I can't wait
Speaker 2: to spend more time with it. I think that the
Speaker 2: Ford guys will be really stoked. I know how much
Speaker 2: I like my prospect or excels. To see this on
Speaker 2: the forward is really great, So thanks, thank you very much.
Speaker 5: H