When Brent Nelson swapped his corporate badge for the wild call of entrepreneurship, little did he know that his family RV trip would spark the creation of Tentrax, a beacon for adventurers seeking the ultimate in compact, customizable camping trailers. His story, infused with the warmth of a community brought together by a love for the outdoors, unfolds in our latest episode. We trace his journey from structured office life to the helm of a company that's not just selling trailers, but facilitating memories and friendships in the great outdoors.
Our conversation navigates the intricate engineering behind Tentrax versatile campers, designed for vehicles of all sizes and the needs of diverse adventurers. Brent pulls back the curtain on the customization process, revealing how each trailer becomes a unique companion on the road, tailored to the clients' whims—from matching wheels and tires to outfitting for off-grid living. And just when you think campers are all about roughing it, we get a sneak peek at the 'Tailgater' model, blending the thrill of exploration with the joy of a mobile party hub.
As we circle the campfire of stories—gold prospectors, backyard campers, and annual events that transform strangers into a band of outdoor aficionados—we're reminded that Tentrax is more than a trailer company; it's a cornerstone of a community that thrives on shared adventures. Brent's embrace of the collaborative spirit of the Outdoor Business Alliance, and his tales of individuals shaping their lives around the call of the wild, leave us not just with a yearning to hit the trails, but also with a sense of belonging to a larger story—the ongoing saga of human connection and the outdoors.
Part of the Special Made x Mountains Collaboration Series
Our conversation navigates the intricate engineering behind Tentrax versatile campers, designed for vehicles of all sizes and the needs of diverse adventurers. Brent pulls back the curtain on the customization process, revealing how each trailer becomes a unique companion on the road, tailored to the clients' whims—from matching wheels and tires to outfitting for off-grid living. And just when you think campers are all about roughing it, we get a sneak peek at the 'Tailgater' model, blending the thrill of exploration with the joy of a mobile party hub.
As we circle the campfire of stories—gold prospectors, backyard campers, and annual events that transform strangers into a band of outdoor aficionados—we're reminded that Tentrax is more than a trailer company; it's a cornerstone of a community that thrives on shared adventures. Brent's embrace of the collaborative spirit of the Outdoor Business Alliance, and his tales of individuals shaping their lives around the call of the wild, leave us not just with a yearning to hit the trails, but also with a sense of belonging to a larger story—the ongoing saga of human connection and the outdoors.
Part of the Special Made x Mountains Collaboration Series
Mike Andress
Host, Exploration Local
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mike@explorationlocal.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In this episode we explore the entrepreneurial
journey of Brent Nelson, ownerof TentTracks and the visionary
behind these one-of-a-kindUS-made adventure trailers that
allow owners to explore.
Simply Inspired by a family RVtrip, brent and his wife's leap
from a corporate career toentrepreneurship ignited a
passion for redefining outdoorexperiences.
(00:20):
We delve into TentTracks'innovative lightweight trailers
that truly have created a classall their own.
But it's not all nuts and bolts.
Brent shares tales from thecommunity that TentTracks has
cultivated, from gold miners tobackyard campers.
Each story is a thread in thevibrant tapestry of outdoor
enthusiasts.
We also spotlight TentTracks'involvement with the Outdoor
(00:41):
Business Alliance and the joy ofshaping a collective that
champions the spirit ofexploration.
As Brent shares his insights,his passion for the open road is
infectious, reminding us thatthe journey is as important as
the destination and that thetrue essence of adventure lies
in the camaraderie and memorieswe create along the way.
(01:02):
I really think you're going toenjoy this episode.
You're listening to ExplorationLocal, a podcast designed to
explore and celebrate the peopleand places that make the Blue
Ridge and Southern AppalachianMountains special and unique.
My name is Mike Andrus, thehost of Exploration Local.
(01:24):
Join us on our journey toexplore these mountains and
discover how they fuel a spiritof adventure.
We encourage you to wander far,but explore local.
Let's go Well.
I am excited to be back foranother episode and this is our
first one of 2024.
And I honestly can't think of abetter guest to have.
(01:44):
I have Brent Nelson he's theowner of TentTracks here in the
studio with me.
We've had a few OBA events thatwe have connected at and we've
been trying to pull us togetherand we finally did Brent.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Thank you very much.
It's good to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
As someone who has slipped on the ground for many,
many, many years.
I kind of moved to the rooftoptent and then I realized, gosh,
I'm not that person that justgoes and just stays at one place
for a very long time.
And then, when I saw a trailerlike yours especially I think
the first time I saw yourtrailer was at the Get In Gear
Fest this past year is the firsttime I saw it personally.
We're going to talk about yourtrailer today.
(02:20):
We're going to talk about whatgot you into this space.
You own this company.
You have owned it since I think2019 is when you ended up
buying the company, but reallycool story that kind of sets
this up in 2018.
And I love to kind of startthere as we kind of get into
your background a little bit,brent, and let's talk about what
got you into TentTracks.
(02:41):
What got you into this space?
Because you've been doing thisfor a very long time.
You've been camping and you'vebeen into the outdoor role for a
long time.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, absolutely so.
I grew up outdoors at a familythat was always out.
Most of my memories are with apop-up camper and that kind of
feeds in a little bit laterbecause it was always the get to
camp and it took about an hourto set everything up.
So that kind of drove some ofthe design stuff we've done, but
(03:10):
always, always outdoors,backpacking, camping.
My parents spent a lot of timetaking us on family vacations to
national parks and I wasfortunate to do a lot of that
and kind of came back around thepast several years to even do a
lot more of it.
I went to Clemson University,just down the road the.
Tigers.
There you go and got amechanical engineering degree
(03:32):
from Clemson and I spent about12 years in the corporate world.
So I was working forCaterpillar for a long time.
So I was doing everything fromdesign, engineering to
manufacturing to some of thebusiness side vehicle sales,
working with our dealers, thingslike that.
So it was a good.
I mean, it really enjoyed it.
(03:52):
Didn't enjoy the corporate sideof it as much, but that kind of
gave me a lot of skills to beable to kind of go off and do
something on my own.
So, yeah, you mentioned 2018.
I've been living on the WestCoast for a little while, living
in Seattle, and just you know,my wife and I we had a little
(04:12):
two-year-old daughter and agolden retriever and it was kind
of just time to do somethingdifferent.
So we packed everything up,sold the house, bought an RV and
took off.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
And your wife was totally cool with this.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
She was.
You know, she's always been thekind of person who is ready to
do all kind of crazy adventuresthat I come up with.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
She's kind of the voice of reason also.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
You did it.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Which is pretty important, but no, it was.
I mean that is a big deal whenyou have a two-year-old and
going and living who knows where, sleeping who knows where, and
we did plenty of that.
But yeah, I mean, we're allcrammed in the RV.
I convinced her to even thiswas the harder part.
I had a what is it?
A 1993 Jeep, so a 25-year-oldJeep that we're going to pull
(04:58):
behind and uses our primaryvehicle Wow.
Which that took a little moreconvincing, but for the most
part that went okay.
A couple you know, campgroundfixes here and there to keep it
running, but everything was goodRight.
So we were about a year on theroad and we I think it was about
30,000 miles, wow.
So we were everywhere, fromBaja Mexico all the way up to
(05:22):
Nova Scotia.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
And everywhere in between.
And so that that was kind ofthe big, I don't know, I guess,
pivotal year for us, kind offiguring out where we were going
to do moving forward, Right.
So yeah, kind of feeding intotent tracks I started looking
for.
You know, eventually you dohave to make some money and get
a real job.
So looked at some options,looked at several businesses
(05:47):
either to start or for sale, andI ran across tent tracks, which
was located in Eugene Oregon atthe time.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Now, when you ran into tent tracks for the first
time, was it in the field, like,did you see somebody camping in
this, or did you just see thata business was posted for sale
somewhere?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Well, I had seen it back in the day, you know it
started in 2001.
And it was big in kind of thatJeep off-road world, because it
was really the only kind oftrailer that you could take
anywhere you know off thepavement.
So you'd see it in magazinesevery once in a while, here and
there, and I'd never seen one inperson before.
So when I found it, kind ofcontacted the owner a little bit
(06:28):
and talked about it, at leasthad some familiarity with it.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Cool.
So 2001,.
And we think of where we aretoday, in 2024, and a lot of
these types of rigs and you knowjust, you see trucks all just
accessorized out in the wholenine yards.
This is way before any of thatbecame popular.
This was really probably someof the founding equipment
(06:51):
experiences and trailers of itskind in the day, I would imagine
.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, definitely, I mean it was.
It was pretty novel back then,but even now it's unique just in
the construction material.
So it's, you know, it's afiberglass body, keeps it nice
and lightweight.
It's still very compact andwe've done a bunch of design
changes since I purchased it tokind of modernize, you know,
make things a little bit morereliable, durable.
(07:15):
But yeah, I mean, back then itwas it was nobody was doing the
kinds of things people are doingnow with camping or, you know,
going off the grid van life.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Any of that yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
You know, that was still pretty pretty novel back
then.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, so you saw tent tracks you.
This became available.
It was an opportunity.
How in the world did thisconversation go with you and
your wife when you were thinkingabout we're going from 2018,
camping all around the country,out of the country, and then,
all of a sudden, you are I'mgoing to buy a business and it's
going to be more of the same interms of outdoors, trailers,
(07:51):
camping.
That was just kind of the worldthat you found yourself in.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yeah, you know it's interesting that year for us.
I mean, we got good at it.
You know, you first start andyou say, okay, I got to playing
this campgrounds out, I want tobe at this national park, I want
to do all these things.
But we quickly found that it'sa lot more fun when you just
kind of wing it.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
You know, you figure out what you know, tools are
available, what apps are outthere and we're?
You know we're driving aroundfinding places to stay the day
of most of the time.
You know, I don't think wespent.
We spent very little money thatsecond half of the year.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Kind of figure things out.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, on campgrounds because we were out in, you know
, we were in BLM land andnational forests and all these
places Cool cool.
Yeah, so she was.
She was excited.
I mean, she was excited to doit.
You know it's it's it's what Ido every day, all day.
She also helps out.
She does a lot of the, you know, communication and marketing
and quotes and things like that.
So she does the stuff that I'mnot very good at.
(08:47):
So that's, that's good.
That's in her spare time shehas.
She has several jobs, rightright, right no but I mean, that
was a big part of it, becauseit really was going to be a, you
know, a big change of life forfor all of us, and our daughter
was not yet in school, so we hadto figure out the you know the
logistics of all of that.
But yeah, she was absolutely onboard and I certainly wouldn't
(09:08):
be able to do it without hersupport.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yeah, yeah.
So you buy the company, and atthat point, I guess, did you
have this vision for where youwanted to take this, and or did
you just say you know, I lovethis, I love the concept.
Let's get one, put it to thetest and then kind of figure out
where our business plan goesfrom here.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
So kind of what I was looking for was something with
good reputation and a, you know,a good, solid design base.
So, you know, we talked toexisting owners.
We looked online everything wecould find on web forums and
Facebook and all these placesjust to see what people were
saying about them, and ingeneral, it had a very good
(09:49):
reputation.
People had owned these thingsfor, you know, at that point,
almost 20 years, and I knowcustomers now that have owned
them all the way from thebeginning.
There was a predecessor companyin the nineties that kind of
became Tint Tracks.
I've met original customers.
I know the guy that owns theserial number one.
Wow, no way.
Yeah, so it's pretty neat to beable to go back and see some of
(10:11):
that history but also see thatpeople use them.
I mean, they use them all thetime and they're still going,
they're still strong.
So having something like thatwith a good you know, good base
design was critical and I knewthere were a bunch of things I
wanted to do to change it.
You know we immediately changedall the, all the updated the
branding, you know, logos,website, things like that and so
(10:32):
it was.
It was one of those where theprevious owner had not done as
much with it the few yearsbefore.
But it's also when, you know,the overlanding world was
exploding, you know, of course,after COVID, you know outdoor
recreation in general is just,you know, gone crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
So it was a little scary to buy it, and then COVID
popped right up pretty shortlyafter.
But you know, since then we've,you know we've had a great time
.
We've really really done welland enjoyed being in Asheville
as well.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Oh, that's very cool.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So that's a good point, because when you first
bought this company, you wereliving.
You were not in North Carolinaat the time, were you Right?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, no', it was about one and oneinch for
Georgia' kind of, you know,north Georgia, outside of
Atlanta, okay, and we, you know,with a business like this,
you're outdoors, you, we wantpeople to come visit us and see
the products.
You know, convincing people togo to Atlanta it's hard enough.
Nothing wrong but it's not.
You know that there's there'snot as much Outdoor draw at door
(11:36):
activities, you know, rightoutside of the city, right?
So you know I grew up inGeorgia, my wife grew up in
South Carolina.
We've always visited Asheville,you know, we grew up coming to
Asheville, so it's kind of anatural spot.
It's close enough to bothfamilies but just far enough
away.
But no, and that's part of thereason that we that kind of left
the West Coast too, because,you know, our daughter was two
years old and we wanted to becloser to family and be able to
(11:58):
see them.
But, yeah, we.
So our shop is over in BlackMountain.
So, you know, 15 minutes eastof Asheville and we're right in
the valley there you look 360degrees around and you can see
the mountains.
So it's, it's very easy to getpeople.
We've had people visit fromeight, ten, twelve hours away
Just to come see the shop, noway, and they say, well, we're,
(12:19):
yeah, we love Asheville, stayhere for the weekend, we're
gonna stop and see you guys.
Perfect happens.
I mean that happens regularly.
It's a good draw helps out us,and you know I'm sure we'll talk
about it later, but justgetting involved in meeting
other similar outdoor businesseshas been really great when you
Moved here, were you aware ofthe outdoor gear builders, the
(12:42):
fact that this area is the youknow, outdoor gear hub of the
east?
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Did you know those things?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
that was that kind of part of the calculus and you
all moving your business here soI I was somewhat aware, you
know, I knew with some of thebigger companies and I had a
couple contacts that ultimatelyled me to the OBA Okay.
So yeah, I mean it's, it'sdefinitely you can tell that
there's a A lot of excitement inthe outdoor industry and you
know the outdoor manufacturingindustry industry, so that was,
(13:11):
that was definitely part of it.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Let's pivot a little bit and actually talk about the
product itself and we'llultimately come back to kind of
talking about some of thecustomer experiences with the
product.
But I had the great pleasureright before Christmas to visit
you, to visit the shop, to seethings in motion, to see, you
know, everything kind ofstripped down to the bear,
looking at suspension, and itdefinitely is a one of a kind
(13:34):
and I didn't learn untilrecently that you were
Mechanical engineeringbackground and technical sales
and that makes perfect sense.
As soon as I read that I'm like, oh yeah, I well, I can see,
brent, we were inter shopping.
We're talking about all thedifferent suspensions and the
different things that you did tokind of upgrade that.
But let's talk about yourParticular camper, let's talk
about the setup of it, thecomposition of it, what makes it
(13:56):
a little bit different, becauseI think people are going to be
stoked to hear whether or notyou have a 6,000 pound lane
rover or Jeep or whatever to alittle small car.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, absolutely, you know, you touched on it there
the the thing that really setsit apart is that it's small,
compact and lightweight, but youstill get a huge amount of
storage space.
So we're very popular withvehicles that can't tow a whole
lot and they don't have a lot ofholes.
You know storage space, say you.
You know you talk about peoplewith Jeeps and small SUVs and
(14:28):
Subarus not a lot of towcapacity.
So most people wouldn't evenconsider buying a, you know, a
big camping trailer because itjust, you know, doesn't make
sense right.
Our trailer does great becauseit's way.
600 pounds the base model does.
It's within pretty much thetowing capacity of any vehicle.
We have a I don't know thespecs on it, but we have a
(14:49):
customer that pulls one with asmart car, which is funny
because they're about the samesize.
Yeah, I mean we, you know webefore, before I bought it,
there was a Model that was kindof more of an on-road based and
we had customers with VolkswagenBeetles and all different
models of Subarus and that's socrazy kinds of stuff and again,
(15:10):
it it's 10 tracks is known forthe off-road side, but what I
tell people is that it's it'sbuilt for going off-road first
and it's built strong enough tobut all that does.
If you're you know you cancertainly take it in state parks
and paved roads and everywhereyou want to, but you get that
that strong Engineering designand the durability and the
reliability of something that'sbuilt well.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yeah, and it's not like one of these tires.
Like when you see, the tires onthis thing is big and it's
beefy.
We're gonna have a link in ourshow notes to the actual product
or, excuse me, to your website,but that alone.
You know, you don't have toworry about if I'm doing 70, 75
miles down the interstate.
We're not about this littletiny tire.
Is this thing gonna pop?
Is it gonna war?
Is gonna?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
you know this is beefy and so I would say on
about probably 75% of ourtrailers, we have customers
request us to match theirvehicle wheels and tires.
Oh, no way so you know thatmight be a, might be a Jeep, it
might be.
You know, we had a customerwith a Ford Maverick recently.
You know, the small, compactpickup trucks Match the wheels
(16:09):
and the tires and what that doesfor you is you already have a
spare right.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
You've got a spare in the vehicle it.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
It'll bolt right up to the trailer, so you don't
have to carry an extra spare fora trailer cool.
It's also like you said youdon't have on this tiny little
trailer tires that you weren'tabout blowing going down the
road.
Yeah, I have a real Automotivetire, you know.
So it just it's all in, justmaking it a little customizable,
kind of cool looking for thecustomer.
But it also makes it morereliable when you're actually
out in the middle of nowherecool.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
So walk me around the trailer, because I know I was
in your shop and I got a chanceto see it.
But let's walk around sort offrom the beginning, just kind of
all the round, do a 360 on someof the features, and then the
most Amazing part to me was justthe storage piece.
You've already spoken aboutthat a little bit, but that that
part really got my attention.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah, so you know, we start out with a strong tube
steel frame, an independentsuspension.
It's made by a company calledTimbran out of Canada you know a
strong Suspension that performsreally well, gives it a nice
ride, so your stuff isn'tbouncing around when you're
going down the road.
The body itself is fiberglassand basically if you're looking
at it, if you see one closed,you'd be surprised that it opens
(17:16):
up into a tent and bed like itdoes.
Yeah, you, it opens up.
It opens up in about twominutes.
So you know, I mentioned beforemy dad Spending about an hour
to get camp set up, just right,you know, with a pop up and
everything and been there, donethat.
Yep, exactly, and I loved it.
But you know, setting upquickly is it's worth a lot yeah
(17:37):
so yeah it sets up in just acouple minutes.
You know you get somewhere andit's raining.
You don't want to be sittingmessing around with stuff for 20
minutes so you can open it.
It can be opened by one person,you know.
You get inside and it's it'skind of in between a double and
a queen-size bed.
So it's, you know, padded foam.
You have the.
The tent itself is waterproof.
Of course, we have a rain flyon top of it as well, and so you
(18:01):
have.
You're comfortable, you're notsitting on the ground, You're
not sleeping on the ground and.
I've spent lots of nights onthe ground once you get off the
ground, it's hard to go back, nodoubt.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
No doubt.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah, you know you're up off the ground in a lot of
areas.
You know you're out in thedesert somewhere.
It's kind of nice to be up offthe ground, away from you know,
spiders and snakes and that'sright, scorpions, all kinds of
stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
But yeah, and then once you're in, you actually
have the ability to open up ahatch and get down to the
storage space.
So all that bed and everythingdoesn't take up much of the
storage space.
You still have about 45 cubicfeet of Actual storage space in
the body of the trailer.
So what we do is we just keepit packed.
You know it's ready to go, hasall the camping gear in there,
(18:42):
it's got the water loaded up,batteries are charged and we can
just hook it up and go.
Because I think I think the onething that keeps people from
going camping and gettingoutdoors is they don't do it
enough, so they don't haveeverything ready.
So it takes you know it takeshalf a day to get everything
packed up and Find all your gear, find everything this way.
It's there.
You know your bed is good to go.
(19:02):
You know you're gonna be dry.
Yeah, so that that storagespace is huge.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
So huge.
That was a game changer for me,to be honest with you.
I when because you could liftthat up.
You could, if it is raining,you know, when you were stuck
inside, or bad weather, orwhatever it may be.
You can lift that up your feet,go down, you can set up.
It's like it, almost like itcreates space inside there for
you, right, not just storing thestuff down there, or you
mentioned to me is like hey, Iforgot my jacket, I forgot
(19:27):
something.
Boom, it's in there.
I just lift it up and I'll haveto get out on the climb down
the ladder.
Of course it's not that big ofa climb, but don't have to go to
the truck.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I, everything's right there, self-contained, yeah and
and it also helps you keep it alittle less cluttered.
You know if you're, if you gotyour tent, your bed there and
all your stuff is everywhere.
You feel tight.
You don't feel like you have alot of room good point, so this
way you get everything.
You can put it down on thatstorage compartment.
There's several different areasyou can store stuff and, yeah,
having that little littlecompartment there where you can
sit like a little bench.
Yeah it's great, you sit thereand read a book.
(19:54):
You can, you know, stomp.
You can kind of stand up,change your clothes if you need
to.
And when you see it in person,you see the trailer.
You don't expect there to bethat much right usability and
that much space inside.
So that's kind of the magicright is that it?
It's very usable and you don'thave to look around something
huge and heavy.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, yeah, that's so cool.
I mean, if you have a garage,it just fits right in your
garage and you know it's.
Yeah, and I love the conceptabout keeping that thing packed
because for us in the pop-updays that was, you know, every
trip we would learn somethingnew.
This is what we need to stockit with, this is what we need to
Stock it with them.
We finally got it.
We finally got to that pointwhere it's like, when we go
camping, great, just put acouple clothes, a couple change
(20:32):
of clothes though the boats onthe top bikes, whatever, and
we're gone.
And yeah, keeping that thingstocked up is smart.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yeah, and that's you know.
We have a roof rack on top ofthe trailer as well, so you can
put bikes on there, you butkayaks.
You can do whatever you want to.
You got a hitch on the backthat you can put a bike rack on,
so it ends up.
Not only do you have thatinside storage space, you've got
a lot of space on the outsideracks and in different things we
can strap down your gear.
Yeah and you know it.
I think it's sized so thatyou're not bringing too much
(21:00):
also.
You know you've been on thosecamping trips or you just bring
everything.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah, never touch it.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
It doesn't yeah, it doesn't really make it any
easier.
It just kind of makes it moreto clean up when you get back
home right.
You know you go enough and youkind of figure out exactly what
you need and not bring it toomuch.
Yeah although I was out lastweekend we were in Tennessee
doing an event and it I think itwas down on the 20s.
So you tend to bring a littlemore gear when it's that cold.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
But yeah, yeah, all right, but this trailer, you
have so much customization inthis trailer, right?
So, from refrigerators to solarpanels for energy, and you know
if you got batteries I meanhate to say it, I'm getting kind
of older now and you know,throwing an electric blanket on,
I'm not too proud to say Imight do that with a little bit
(21:45):
of a jackery or blue eddy orsomething like that.
But yeah, let's talk about someof the customization, because
that's the piece that, like Ihave real, real stoke for your
trailer, just because of whatyou can do, and it doesn't seem
like there's really manylimitations to what you can do
or will do.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
You're right, and I think that's what sets us apart
too, is that we love doingcustomization.
You know, you bring us an ideaand even if it's something we
haven't done before, we'llfigure it out, we'll build it,
we'll make it happen.
You know we we've done a lot inthe electrical space.
So lithium batteries havegotten smaller, lighter and
cheaper and that's allowed us toTo put more power on board to
(22:20):
do more things.
You know it.
We've had several customers whohave come to us and said hey,
you know, my, my spouse Willcome camping.
If you can hook up an electriccoffee maker, or if you, if a
hairdryer will work on this,that battery system, then we can
.
All you know, then we're all onboard and it takes a lot of
power to do that, but it's Imean, it's completely doable.
(22:42):
One of the cooler things we'vedone is we've had a couple
customers recently.
They had CPAP machines.
No right and you think aboutthat Takes a good amount of
power for sure.
And so that kind of limits youto.
All right, I got to besomewhere where I can plug into
the wall.
Well, we designed an electricalsystem for them that was able
to run that CPAP machine, and sonow the whole family goes, you
(23:03):
know and they go out in themiddle of nowhere you know off
the grid, and they can.
You can still run all that youknow, and then you have the
power to give lights and fansand charging your phone, things
like that.
Even have a laptop.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
So that's cool.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
That's been cool, but yeah the customization is a lot
of fun for us too had a prettyneat setup.
We had a customer who it wasgreat he was we got to know him
real well, jim.
He came by our shop probablyfive or six times and we'd have
design consultations and go overeverything we were gonna do,
and he wanted to Use the trailerto do multi-stage bike races.
Okay, but he had some physicalissues that he had.
(23:38):
He was using an e-bike, so wedesigned electrical system to
charge his e-bike batteriesWhile he was away, while he was
in between stages, while he wasdriving.
Wow so the vehicle charged them,we had solar charging them, you
know or you could just pull itinto the wall.
So cool, it's pretty neat.
So we had them all set up, andso he would.
He had the best setup of allhis friends, for sure.
(23:59):
Yeah, you know, with all thatcustomization.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Well, and with that customization, brent, this is
not like we have tons of theseon a showroom floor.
Come check them out.
This is more.
You might go to an event, youmight, people might see you out,
but this is really a truecustomization.
When you order it, I was I wason your website just kind of
going through just the differentmodels and you are just kind of
(24:25):
selecting all the things thatyou want.
But one of the things you justsaid and you've said it a couple
times is that you really lovethat customization piece and
that I don't know if that kindof reaches back to your, your,
your past experiences in youryou know your training in your
degrees, but that you really, Iwon't say geek out on it, but
that's the part that you reallyreally love bringing to market
for people, it seems.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah, it is, you know , and I think it allows us to
really get to know customers too, because we figure out what
they want, how they're gonna useit, and then we stay in touch
with them later.
But yeah, it's, you know, wewe've done, we've had stock, you
know, kind of plain stocktrailers and in stock before
we've had dealers that have soldthings like that.
But ultimately we found thatmost people are drawn to our
(25:05):
products because of what you cando with them.
You know you can get them thesame colors, your vehicle with
matching wheels and tires,that's it and it's a.
No matter what you're driving,it's pretty cool to have that.
Yeah because it, because it justit looks cool together.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Yeah it's.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
It's impossible to take one out.
Stop at a gas station withouthaving a conversation with
somebody cool about it.
But yeah, that that is.
But still we're, you know we'reonly.
Our lead times are about threemonths.
So in an industry where youknow 12 months is kind of more
standard, it's we're able to.
We're able to do a lot of thatcustomization still pretty
quickly.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
That's so cool.
Yeah one of the things thatreally draws me to this product,
to this, this camper, is thatis can we call it a camper which
?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
we call it was campers or camping trailer.
Camping trailer, yeah, whateverI mean it's kind of.
It kind of depends on howyou're gonna use it yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Well, that's actually that's a great segue, because
that's exactly what I was gonnasay.
It's so cool because if you cango on the most extreme Trip, an
event, or you can, as you weresaying, you could just go to the
Davidson River campground orFind a plot of land, you know,
whatever it may be.
So it's not just this.
You know, we're only thediehard overlanders can use this
(26:13):
.
It's like now, this is this iskind of for everybody.
Yeah and you really open up themarket to whomever wants to have
this kind of really coolexperience.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah, and that's that's what we've tried to do.
And you know I mentioned beforethat a lot of the background
was with this Jeep off-roadworld and we've we've taken them
Ridiculous places you know, wetook it through the Rubicon
trail and we've had it all overMoab and you know all kinds of
you know stuff and most of thatis it'll definitely do it.
We have customers that do itand it makes really cool
marketing pictures butultimately people aren't doing
(26:45):
that every day.
You know, they're not going onweek long Expeditions or
month-long expeditions every dayright customers will do it and
it's capable of it.
But it also just works reallygreat kind of in the day-to-day
weekend type trips.
You know, we'll set up abattery system that'll last
somebody a whole weekend runninga refrigerator, you know, and
they've got a family of fourwe've got.
(27:07):
We sell rooftop tents also tenttracks, branded rooftop tents
and.
You know there's more than onecustomer has bought a trailer
and a rooftop tent.
You know kids get to go sleepupstairs and the parents get in
the trailer.
Yeah but it's a yeah, it worksreally well for that.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
That's cool, yeah, anything about that.
So talk a little bit about thedifferent models that you have.
It's not just one.
You've got a few differentmodels and maybe in buckets of
who those particular models maybe a good market for.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Sure, so kind of the original model.
We Renamed the ascend and sothat is your, the trailer that
I've been describing.
That looks like a.
You know, it's a fiberglasstrail on the outside.
You have the rack on top.
It opens up into a bed in atent.
So again, that's.
It's basically an evolution ofwhat 10 tracks has been building
(27:58):
for over 20 years.
Okay we had customers that cameto us that they already had an
existing rooftop tent on theirvehicle and they said, hey, can
I put this on the trailer?
So essentially what we did iswe took the trailer body, we
reinforced it on the inside andthen so you can mount your
rooftop tent on top.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
So if you imagine, roofed up tents on top still
functions like it normally would, but you can open the lid and
have even more Storage inside.
So then it becomes just youknow, kind of an extension of
the storage space, but also itallows you to have a base camp.
So you know, you know, you'vegot the roof top ten on top of
your land river.
Yeah if you need to go to thestore.
(28:36):
Yeah or if you need to, you know, say you want to go, you know,
drive to dinner or somethinglike that.
You've got to close up the tentand it's not the hardest thing
in the world, but it's kind of apain, it's still a process.
Yeah, so what this does?
It lets you have a base camp.
You know, say, you're in a inthe National Forest somewhere
and you've got the perfect spot.
It allows you to keepeverything there.
(28:56):
Yeah, take your vehicle and go,do what you need to do.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah the.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
The other model is really kind of the basic.
It's the cargo, so it's just a,an open trailer and it's.
I've been surprised.
Recently We've had kind of a anincreased interest in cargo
trailers.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I mean it's maybe people, maybe I mean I don't
know why, but maybe they want tosleep on the ground.
No, it's, you know, we actuallyhave a customer.
It's awesome, there's a blog onour web page that tells their
story and they have had theirtent tracks trailer for about
six or seven years and they'realmost 80 and then over 80 years
(29:34):
old and they go every year andthey drive across the whole
country and they Hang out inColorado and California and they
love sleeping on the groundbecause they you know, they've
done tons of backpacking, butthey use the cargo trailer to
carry everything cool, it's moreand to kind of save their spot
when they find a good one there.
You know, when they're on it's,it's, it's cool to see that you
(29:55):
know, or that that that is whatallows them to actually do all
of those adventures.
We have a Not yet releasedmodel.
We we kind of played with it alittle bit right before COVID.
A lot of times people will seethe trailer and They'll they'll
say something like oh, thatlooks like a big cooler.
You know, will it float?
(30:16):
And we actually have testedthat and it does float.
Yeah, it does.
We've had people drive itthrough rivers too, but you know
we get that comment a lot likeoh.
It looks like a big cooler,wouldn't that be cool?
And so we actually made a modelcalled the tailgater.
Nice you search around onYouTube a little bit, you can
find some pictures videos ofthat.
Basically what we did is webuilt a kitchen set up on the
(30:37):
front, so it had a slide outwith a refrigerator and a grill
and stove and everything and thethe lid opened up and you had a
TV with surround sound speakers.
We had a section for beer andother beverages and, you know,
you put ice in there and then weactually had taps on the back
as well.
Yeah, so the only unfortunatething about that is we came out
(31:01):
with it right before COVID, sothat's something we're gonna
bring back out.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Okay, that'd be an awesome setup, right you?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
know, say, a brewery needs to go out and do an event.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Ah good.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
You could just have everything hooked up, but the
branding on the outside, thingslike that.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, it's a pretty cool idea.
That is a really cool idea.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yeah, I have to show you some videos of that later.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Well, let's stay in that stream of thought, though,
talking about some of yourcustomers.
So you have that, that customer, but you've created like this
little cohort of people thatreally are, are your customers
and have been sort of probablycustomers for life, and I know
you have some really really coolstories You'd love to share
about some of those and I'd loveto hear them, because the
places that y'all have gone,we've named a few Rubicon Trail,
(31:41):
big Bend National Park, bajaPeninsula and, of course, all
the Rocky trails right here inthe Appalachia.
But yeah, I mean, yeah, let'sdive in and hear some of these
really cool stories, brent.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Sure yeah I.
I always love talking about myfriend Jeff you know, I call him
gold miner Jeff.
We actually met Jeff.
We were in New Mexico and hekind of we were on the living in
the RV and we were Camping atthis Air Force Base kind of.
They had a free camping arearight outside the base.
It was near White SandsNational Park and National
(32:13):
Monument.
It's one of those and you know,jeff pulls up in his Subaru and
rooftop tent and he was justwide-eyed I mean, he's just
looking around and he came andtalked to us and this was his
first night on the road.
He kind of had a similarexperience where he said that's
it, I'm, I'm leaving Buffalo,new York, and I am gonna go
travel.
And he bought a gold claim oneBay in California well, you
(32:37):
know 2,500 bucks and Bought it,bought some gold mining
equipment and prospectingequipment and hit the road.
So we caught him on night oneor two and he was just you know
he's wild.
So I stayed in touch with him,you know, the next six months or
so.
I bought the business and hecame to me said all right, I
want to do the trailer, I wantto live in the trailer six
(32:59):
months out of the year up inCalifornia, and mine for gold.
So we built.
It was actually the firstoverlook model, which is the,
the one I mentioned to you thathas the rooftop tent.
Okay, and we've got somepictures on his on our webpage.
His, his Instagram is goldgravel and travel gold gravel
and he does it.
So he spends six months out ofthe year living in a tent,
(33:20):
tracks trailer Up in themountains of California and he
goes when the snow melts, allthe way until the snow starts
falling again, cool, which endsup only being about six months
up there and he is just, youknow, he's on the side of the
mountains and he's on in thecreeks, you know, moving
boulders and jackhamers andeverything finding gold off
there.
He has, oh yeah, he's, he's,you know, and he's found some
(33:44):
pretty good-sized stuff, becauseit's all the area that was, you
know, it was all industriallymined years ago.
Okay, so there's a lot of smallstuff left, wow, but and he
could talk about that for days,but it's pretty cool to be able
to point to something and saythis guy lives in it in bear
country.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Six months out of the year.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Wow, you know and he yeah, he's a.
He's an awesome guy, he's agood friend.
Lots of colorful stories fromGoldmine or Jeff.
You know we've.
I had a pretty neatconversation with a customer
recently that he's owned histent tracks since before I own
the business.
Wow it's been about ten years,but he's bought a lot of stuff
(34:20):
from us.
So one thing that I try and dois, when we come out with a new
Accessory or, you know, a newimprovement on the trailer, I do
my best to make sure that it's.
It can be retrofitted.
Okay onto older models.
That take some work sometimes.
But I mean there are hundredsof people out there with
trailers that would love to makethem more comfortable or more
(34:41):
waterproof, be able to hold moreaccessories.
So we, we have a new tent thatwe designed, we have new storage
, electrical components, I meanall all kinds.
We have rain flies andinsulation inside and all these
things are things We've done thepast few years.
So Mike had purchased prettymuch everything that we made you
(35:01):
know, We've got some existingcustomers like that that we come
up with it and they'll justthey'll buy it.
And he, his wife, was sick andbut they, you know, they both
love their tent tracks and bothlove using it.
So he set it up in theirbackyard, ransom power out there
, and camped in it.
When I talked to him it was 45plus nights in a row.
Wow, they just been camping inthe backyard, in the back.
(35:23):
Yeah, you know they couldn't goout, she couldn't leave the
house as much, but they justthey loved it so much, they love
being outside and they lovejust that environment that they
just they set up some lights andjust camped in the backyard for
that long.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Right so it's.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
It's neat.
We definitely draw some prettyawesome customers and I mean
I've made friendships throughthe business.
Just do the customers.
That'll, you know, probablylast a lifetime.
We have an event that we doevery year called tow, so it's a
tent tracks owners weekend, sowe Basically we'll go out.
(35:59):
It's in the UR national forest.
I'm gonna east of Charlotte andwe have a big 50 acre piece of
land there that we rent and youknow I had some facilities and
things like that and we bringpeople from all over.
I mean, we've had people.
I probably the farthest wayaway was Texas or Maine, all the
way down to Florida.
We haven't.
(36:19):
We keep the West Coastcustomers keep wanting to do
something out in Arizona or Utahor something.
So that'll be next.
Yeah, yeah, it's great becauseeverybody gets together.
We, you know, we Show them.
We have big sale with all thenew products we came out with in
the past year and we'll installeverything for free.
We'll do, you know, kind of dosome trail rides, we'll do some.
(36:39):
We had Joe flowers frombushcraft global, so he's a cool
guy to look up If you ever geta chance he would be great on
the podcast.
Honestly, I think Joe lives uptowards Virginia but he's in
North Carolina.
Cool, he did bushcraft trainingfor us.
So that's basically, you know,using what you have around you
Kind of to camp to survive.
(37:01):
He taught some knife skills.
He taught us skills about usingtrash.
You know picking up plasticbags on the ground and how you
can turn that into Fishing lineand supports for hammocks and I
mean all kinds of different cool, it is fascinating.
And then we have a Past coupleyears.
You may I'm not sure if you'vemet Nate with trail to table.
No, so Nate's an OVA member,okay, and he's here in Asheville
(37:25):
and he's done our live firecooking for us past couple years
.
I think the first year we didabout 50 or 60 pounds of prime
rib On the fire, you know, andhe's sitting there cooking
everything at tons of other food.
Well, this past year we did apig, so we did a pig roast and
my guys and I designed up aMechanic or an electrical pig
(37:49):
spit, sat there and spun it andand and we were up at 3 am
Getting that pig on there and itI think it cooked for about 16
hours.
Oh, my I was just some of thebest food you can imagine.
Yes, anyway, all that design.
We have a good time with ourexisting customers and it's
really neat for us to be able toget together with them, you
know, once a year, maybe alittle bit more often here.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Cool, come up soon.
Yeah, now where can the generalpublic other than contacting
you and traveling over toWestern North Carolina?
Where else would you be?
I know you'll be at the GittingGear Fest that's here in
Asheville area.
That'll be in the spring.
But are there other placesaround the country that you all
do some of these types of eventsbesides the tow event and the
Gitting Gear Fest?
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah, we have a few big ones that we do pretty much
every year.
There's a big Jeep invasion andpigeon forage that we do the
Overland Expo series of events.
We've done one of those everyyear, mostly in Virginia at the
Overland Expo East, but we'replanning on going out to the
West event, which is inFlagstaff.
Arizona as well, and then wekind of do you know medium-sized
(38:55):
, smaller events here and thereall around.
We've done a good bit withFalcon Expeditions, matt and
Elizabeth.
They have a base camp and acabin campground up in I guess
it's towards the Smokies.
It's about an hour west ofAsheville and we've held some
events there and had some youknow kind of smaller little
(39:15):
trail rides and camping eventsand things like that.
So we're always doing somethingwhere you can come check us out.
We have some people on the WestCoast too, customers that have
volunteered to say, hey, if youwant to check out a trailer,
come look at mine and they'lltalk about it.
So we've had some people takeadvantage of that.
That's cool.
So, yeah, we try to, you know,keep the website updated and
kind of say which events we'regoing to be at.
(39:36):
Very nice, I mean.
It's amazing just the number ofoutdoor events there are to
take advantage of.
You can do something everyweekend, I think, if you want to
.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
Yeah, yeah.
So in the website, reallysimple, it's just tenttracks
T-E-N-T-R-A-X dot com sotenttrackscom, and it's a great
website, by the way.
Thank you, you're welcome.
Yeah, and it's really cool.
There's some link to somereally good articles that are on
there.
I know that you were you thinkyou were a former Land Rover guy
.
You were telling me.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
I've always kind of well.
You know I had you right.
I did own a Land.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Rover.
Yeah, disco right, disco one orDisco two.
Ah, range Rover Sport, rangeRover Sport, there you go.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
I did love that.
I'd buy another one of those.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
So whose Disco was it that was on in that article?
And I think it was noBoundaries, or something like
this Ah, the white one, thewhite one, yeah, yeah so that
was a great story.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
It was my buddy Chad's and he joined us for our
very first event right after Ibought the company.
I mean, we had our brandingfinished the day before and it
was the Easter Jeep Safari,which is in Moab, and he drove
out there with his Land Rover Inthat town.
If you've ever been to Moab, Imean it's not a very big town
but it was just crawling withJeeps everywhere and they could
(40:48):
kind of take over.
But he shows up in his LandRover and we took it out going
off road.
I've always been a Jeep guy butman, he showed up some Jeeps
for sure out there and we'repulling the trailer around on
trails that people just couldn'tbelieve we were out there.
Yeah, so that's yeah, we had agood time.
We still got some pictures ofhis out there.
(41:08):
It was really some of the firstmarketing pictures we took
right after we bought thecompany.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
So that was pretty neat.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
All right.
So you have an amazing camper.
You can customize it to no end.
Really, there's probably, andthere's probably things that you
will manufacture that you don'teven have in your brain right
now.
Just because you're so willingto customize, you have a great
following, a loyal following,amazing stories.
You live here now in WesternNorth Carolina and you've moved
(41:35):
here to the outdoor gear hubindustry of the entire East.
But and you didn't just stopthere you are really getting
involved in the outdoor scenehere and you're involved with
the outdoor business alliance,not just as a member, but you're
now a board member for theoutdoor business alliance and
you just keep getting involved,man, I think every time I show
(41:56):
up to one of the socials, you're, you're working the front desk,
you're, you know, checkingpeople in and all that kind of
stuff.
But let's talk a little bitabout, if you can and if there
are other things we definitelywant to get, you know,
completely away from tent tracks.
But I'd love to kind of findout a little bit about your
involvement with the OBA, whatthat means to you, what made by
mountains means to you.
You know all of that because itreally is a really special
(42:19):
ecosystem that we have here inWestern North Carolina, and I'd
just love for listeners to knowmore about what you're involved
with.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Yeah, I appreciate that.
Yeah, so it's.
You know, amy Allison and herhusband, dusty Allison, were
some of the first people that wemet that were involved in the.
It was the OGB back then, theoutdoor gear builders, great
name.
I mean, we were an outdoor gearbuilder but it's since expanded
to be more than just gearbuilders, and it's you know
(42:48):
companies that are involved inthe outdoor industry.
There's lots of.
You know there's camps and youknow some companies and guides
and I mean, yeah, plenty ofothers.
So I think that change to theoutdoor business alliance kind
of reflects that, that it's ait's a pretty wide range of
companies.
So I was, I was prettyimpressed, so we were, like I
(43:09):
said, we were invited to comecheck it out.
You know, we had some, somecompanies.
We have a neighbor in our, inour shop in the complex there,
pirani who was a member and youdrinking out of a Pirani cup
Right there, yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Representing outdoor what does it say Outdoor?
This was the outdoor economyconference.
Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yeah, that was a great one too.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Best cup ever?
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Yep, it really is.
And so they, they're just downthe hall and they you know.
Of course we got to know themand we're talking with them.
We had Pirani cups everywherewith tent tracks, logos on them
and everything.
But we had the opportunity tohost a social.
They had already planned theyhad planned the social and we
said, well, we could help outwith it.
So it was kind of neat.
We had kind of people came tothe front of our building,
(43:51):
walked through our shop, checkedout some things.
We had some cool vehicles there, some old classic jeeps and
some trailers and all this andNate it trail to table, cooked
up some fantastic food, and thenthey went down the hall and
went to Pirani and kind of didthe program.
They did some custom engravingfor people and that was.
That was kind of the beginningof our real involvement with the
(44:13):
OBA.
And we ended up joining andtaking part in the getting gear
fest last year and it was.
It was great.
I mean we had a blast.
Yeah, I mean it was.
I want to say it's.
It was about 60 companies overthe outpost.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
And it really wasn't.
I think what really impressedme was just the general energy
and the excitement and thepositivity from everybody we
talked to.
You know we're we're.
We're used to all differentkinds of events but you know, a
lot of times we'll have peoplecoming up and asking questions
and pointing fingers and sayingwhy is this like this?
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Why is?
Speaker 2 (44:48):
this, like and that's fun.
But everybody here was just,they were just excited, they
were pumped, they were happy tohave something, you know, a
business like ours, even evenbeing in the area.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Heck yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
So we, we loved it.
We really enjoyed that and it.
Yeah, like you said, Ivolunteered to help out with the
organization a bit With some ofthe events.
Now I'm planning the 2024getting gear fest, so the Matt
the Matt rope in.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
that's very good at that.
He's very good at that.
I know I love Matt.
Matt, if you're listening, welove you.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
We do.
Yeah, it's a no, it's.
It's fun though it's cool to bea part of that, because it
really is some organization thatjust has a lot of just awesome
people.
You know they're, they're funto be around they're they're all
positive thinking.
They're all thinking about waysto grow the business but
they're all.
They're also thinking aboutways to grow the outdoor
industry in Western NorthCarolina as a whole.
(45:40):
And it's just, yeah, it'sexciting, we really enjoy it,
and that's how we met.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
That's right.
That's exactly how we met.
Yeah, yeah, and Amy youmentioned Amy and Dusty.
Amy is the one that definitelyconnected us.
And yeah, that whole made bymountains, I mean everyone there
is just so wonderful and theyare.
I mean it's the.
The stoke is high, thepositivity is high, the
embracing us, you know just, theoutdoor community is next level
.
It's just.
I mean we could go on and ontalking about all of those cool
(46:08):
relationships that come out ofit.
But you definitely gotconnected with the right people.
Amy got you in, matt got youconnected and here you are
planning the whole.
Are you playing?
Are you like head of the whole,getting gear fast?
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yes, if you're listening to this and you'd like
to volunteer, give me a call.
No, it's, it's exciting, and Ithink what's cool is that it's
not hard to talk to.
You know people that whosecompanies aren't members and to
really give them the reasons whyit works, because we had such
an awesome experience this pastyear.
(46:38):
So it's, you know, it's, it'sjust a yeah, like I said really
good organization.
It's going to be a cool eventthis year.
I think it's going to be thebest one yet.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
There you go, there you go, going back to the exact
same place Asheville Outpost.
What does it call?
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
It's the best of Carrier Park and it'll be May
4th and it's, you know, it's aone day event and we're going to
have a bunch of vendors there.
It's, you know, it's right byGreenways and the park bike
trails so people can just ridetheir bikes up totally free.
You can come check it out,check all the you know, check
out all the local vendors.
Some people will be sellingstuff, have some specials and
(47:18):
sales and things like that, butit's, it's going to be a really
cool event.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Yeah, that's good.
I want to say kudos to you fortaking on the heavy lift and the
task of sort of organizing thatwhole thing and yeah, you have
a volunteer here.
If I can help you put ittogether in any way, I'd be
happy to do whatever I can do.
Last year was my very first one.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Oh, was it yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
And I just walked around just just wide eyed, you
know, got some you know personon the street kind of interviews
and just some some impromptuthings.
But, wow, talk about an amazingevent that pulled.
I mean, if you love theoutdoors, what a great place to
go and just connect.
And you know, and it wasn'tjust the booths, it was all the
people that just are here in thebig community that just
continues to grow Right, andjust all people just kind of
(47:58):
hanging out up and down.
You know the aisles and not theaisles, but you know, out in
front of the tents and all thatsort of thing.
It was really really a specialevent, like one of these things
that like, if I'm as long as Ilive here, that becomes a
priority on that weekend.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
It really does, I agree, and it it's surprising, I
think, to a lot of people tofor them to see how many
businesses really are here.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
And you know most of those are within an hour of
Asheville.
You know, it's you.
Just I got.
I heard a lot of comments likethat, like I just I didn't know
these people were here, I didn'tknow these companies were here
Right.
And it just builds thatexcitement and it, you know,
people love to buy locally right, they love to support local
companies, and so that I thinkit really helped in that, you
know, helped do that as well.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Well, before we let you go,what are some things that are on
the horizon for you and fortent tracks?
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
So we've had some plans for a little while We've
been.
We're kind of getting ready torelease some new designs, okay,
just and again some of it'ssmall stuff, but just, you know,
increasing durability,reliability of the products.
We were hoping to do thattailgater model this year, nice,
so that should be fun.
We're really excited to get outwest because you know, the West
(49:10):
Coast is where tent tracksstarted, it's where a lot of the
customers are so excited to getout there and kind of get back
to your roots, so to speak.
Yeah, so we're going to get toknow some of those customers out
there.
Yeah, but we're I mean, we'restill, we're growing and we're
building more trailers every day.
You know I mentioned a littlebit we have rooftop tents as
well.
So in addition to just thetrailers, we have a line of
(49:31):
rooftop tents, hard andsoft-shell rooftop tents.
We've also done some vehiclework too.
So somebody comes and a lot oftimes it's aligned with buying a
rooftop tent or something likethat.
But you know we've donemodifications to vehicles,
electrical systems, things likethat.
We we're really looking to getinto some additional kind of
(49:52):
some industries that we haven'tbeen in before as much.
So really pushing to do somework with Subaru, subaru owners,
even some side-by-side ownersyou know side-by-sides are the
most popular thing out there,right?
Speaker 1 (50:04):
now and it's.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
It works for us because it's so lightweight and
small that you can.
You can pull it to theside-by-side and go out and go
wherever you want to.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
So that's right.
When I visited your shop, youactually had one in there that
you were doing some work on YepSome modifications, I think, for
one of your customers.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Yeah, we did some marketing with that and took
some photos and things like thatCool.
So yeah, that's pretty neat.
Yeah, I just I like seeingpeople get outdoors and enjoying
it and being able to get alittle further out if they, you
know, if they want to, and kindof see that, see how much there
is around here or wherever theylive.
I mean there's all kinds ofcool stuff out there to see.
Speaker 1 (50:39):
Yeah, boy, you just said it best you know to be able
to get out there, go furtherand stay longer.
Yeah, those are the threethings that really see, not the
only three things.
But do you really check allthose boxes for everybody?
Speaker 2 (50:51):
Yeah, yeah, that's the goal.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Well, it's on my list and I will hopefully one day
soon be an owner of one of thesetent tracks trailers, because
it's I've done the rooftop tentthing and it's great, it has its
space.
But, like you said, usually it'sall of us going in one vehicle
and then we're just there and weare.
Sometimes we'll go, you know,especially if it's just a guys'
trip, we'll kind of go out andwe'll just kind of hang there
(51:15):
and maybe one or two stops andwe're just, you know, doing all
the things.
But when I'm with my family, Ijust there's so much, like you
said, to explore here that Iwant to kind of get out and see
as much as I possibly can.
And this is I've been tellingmy dad about this camper ever
since I met you, yeah, and eversince, and I'm like, yeah, you
got to check this thing out andit just really, yeah, it just
(51:36):
checks a lot of boxes.
And I think that when you openup your market for your people
that are just not your hardcore,but also the people that like
are going to they're smart caror they're Subaru Crosstrek or
whatever it may be, this getsyou to those places.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
And I think you know, if I had to guess, I would say
50% of our customers have nevertouched a trailer, hooked up a
trailer or towed a traileranywhere.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (51:58):
I mean we'll do training in the parking lot when
they buy one.
Speaker 1 (52:01):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (52:02):
You know we had a guy drive all the way from
California in like two and ahalf days.
It was wild.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
I don't even know how that's possible.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
And he, you know, he got here and then did a little
training in the parking lot,picked it back up and went back
home and it's that's.
That's cool.
I love that, you know.
I love seeing people tryingsomething totally new.
It's totally out of theircomfort zone and that it really
just, you know, you see themlight up and you see them get
excited.
And it's just the beginning.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
It's just the beginning, isn't that true?
Yeah, and then the cool thingabout you and the way you do
business is that it truly is thebeginning of their journey, but
I feel like you get to stayconnected with a lot of those
customers along the way too,because of the whole process,
the whole customization to knowthem, understand what their
needs and desires are, creatingsolutions for those, and then,
yeah, you just have a customerand a friend for life.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, that's the best part ofit for me.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
so that's cool.
Well, brent, I cannot tell youhow much I have enjoyed this,
and I'm glad that we finally gota chance to put this together.
The vibe that you bring, thestroke that you bring, just who
you are, I think even also justlending your talents and your
treasures to the OVA and reallyjust trying to bring as many
people into the outdoorexperience as you can that says
a lot about you, man.
(53:09):
I just every time I see you,dude, you got a smile on your
face and you're helping somebodydo something, so Thank you very
much.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
This has been a great experience for me too.
I love the podcast and Iappreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
I swear I have the absolute greatest hobby of all
time.
I get to hear the back storiesof how passion and purpose
collides and how they propelpeople to do some pretty amazing
things, like what Brent and histeam are doing over at
TentTracks Truly remarkable.
Check out their website attenttrackscom for more
information and to check outpicks of these really amazing
rigs, and be sure to follow themon their socials and stay up to
(53:45):
date with the 2024 Outdoor GearFest, where you can meet Brent
and his team and see all ofthese trailers for yourself.
Well, that's gonna do it forthis episode.
I really hope you enjoyed it.
But before I sign off, I wannagive a shout out to a couple of
people.
First, chrom Carey, who sent methat awesome video of him
laying under a house in belowfreezing temperatures,
(54:05):
protecting all of the plumbing.
I posted that video onInstagram.
Chrom, you are the ultimatehype guy.
I really love your energy,brother.
Thanks for giving me a liftexactly when I needed it.
Also, to Jared Lee, who I raninto at Cata Lucho Sunday night
when I was hosting.
It was an epic evening withgreat conditions and I was
really stoked to get to meetJared in person.
(54:26):
Steven Reinhold with theAppalachian Adventure Company,
says you're a legend in theseparts, jared, and if Ramblin
Reinhold says it, I believe it.
Keep spreading the stoke andbringing people along on this
journey, jared.
Oh, and Steven, and I think youshould come on the show.
You would be a great guest.
Lastly, all I had a greatconversation today with Bryce
Mahoney, with Yadkinville ValleyAdventure located in Pilate
(54:50):
Mountain.
We're planning his episode andworking on all the logistics,
but I can't wait to share hisstory with you.
We both hail from Tye Water,virginia, and grew up surfing in
Virginia Beach in the OuterBakes.
Today, we swap stories of someamazing breaks and spots and
days of driving up and down thecoastline searching for more
waves so cool.
Anyway, we're gonna focus onwhat brought him here to the
(55:12):
mountains of North Carolina inthat episode and I think that
you're gonna be really inspiredby his journey and by his story.
I'd like to give a specialthanks to Made by Mountains for
making this specialcollaboration series possible.
To find out more about all ofthe amazing projects and things
Made by Mountains is involved in, check out MadebyMountainscom
or visit the link in the shownotes.
(55:33):
Join me on Facebook andInstagram and drop me a note at
mike at explorationlocalcom, ifyou ever have a suggestion for a
future episode.
Until we meet again, Iencourage you to wander far but
explore local limitation.
In this episode we explore the entrepreneurial
journey of Brent Nelson, ownerof TentTracks and the visionary
behind these one-of-a-kindUS-made adventure trailers that
allow owners to explore.
Simply Inspired by a family RVtrip, brent and his wife's leap
from a corporate career toentrepreneurship ignited a
passion for redefining outdoorexperiences.
(00:20):
We delve into TentTracks'innovative lightweight trailers
that truly have created a classall their own.
But it's not all nuts and bolts.
Brent shares tales from thecommunity that TentTracks has
cultivated, from gold miners tobackyard campers.
Each story is a thread in thevibrant tapestry of outdoor
enthusiasts.
We also spotlight TentTracks'involvement with the Outdoor
(00:41):
Business Alliance and the joy ofshaping a collective that
champions the spirit ofexploration.
As Brent shares his insights,his passion for the open road is
infectious, reminding us thatthe journey is as important as
the destination and that thetrue essence of adventure lies
in the camaraderie and memorieswe create along the way.
(01:02):
I really think you're going toenjoy this episode.
You're listening to ExplorationLocal, a podcast designed to
explore and celebrate the peopleand places that make the Blue
Ridge and Southern AppalachianMountains special and unique.
My name is Mike Andrus, thehost of Exploration Local.
(01:24):
Join us on our journey toexplore these mountains and
discover how they fuel a spiritof adventure.
We encourage you to wander far,but explore local.
Let's go Well.
I am excited to be back foranother episode and this is our
first one of 2024.
And I honestly can't think of abetter guest to have.
(01:44):
I have Brent Nelson he's theowner of TentTracks here in the
studio with me.
We've had a few OBA events thatwe have connected at and we've
been trying to pull us togetherand we finally did Brent.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Thank you very much.
It's good to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
As someone who has slipped on the ground for many,
many, many years.
I kind of moved to the rooftoptent and then I realized, gosh,
I'm not that person that justgoes and just stays at one place
for a very long time.
And then, when I saw a trailerlike yours especially I think
the first time I saw yourtrailer was at the Get In Gear
Fest this past year is the firsttime I saw it personally.
We're going to talk about yourtrailer today.
(02:20):
We're going to talk about whatgot you into this space.
You own this company.
You have owned it since I think2019 is when you ended up
buying the company, but reallycool story that kind of sets
this up in 2018.
And I love to kind of startthere as we kind of get into
your background a little bit,brent, and let's talk about what
got you into TentTracks.
(02:41):
What got you into this space?
Because you've been doing thisfor a very long time.
You've been camping and you'vebeen into the outdoor role for a
long time.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, absolutely so.
I grew up outdoors at a familythat was always out.
Most of my memories are with apop-up camper and that kind of
feeds in a little bit laterbecause it was always the get to
camp and it took about an hourto set everything up.
So that kind of drove some ofthe design stuff we've done, but
(03:10):
always, always outdoors,backpacking, camping.
My parents spent a lot of timetaking us on family vacations to
national parks and I wasfortunate to do a lot of that
and kind of came back around thepast several years to even do a
lot more of it.
I went to Clemson University,just down the road the.
Tigers.
There you go and got amechanical engineering degree
(03:32):
from Clemson and I spent about12 years in the corporate world.
So I was working forCaterpillar for a long time.
So I was doing everything fromdesign, engineering to
manufacturing to some of thebusiness side vehicle sales,
working with our dealers, thingslike that.
So it was a good.
I mean, it really enjoyed it.
(03:52):
Didn't enjoy the corporate sideof it as much, but that kind of
gave me a lot of skills to beable to kind of go off and do
something on my own.
So, yeah, you mentioned 2018.
I've been living on the WestCoast for a little while, living
in Seattle, and just you know,my wife and I we had a little
(04:12):
two-year-old daughter and agolden retriever and it was kind
of just time to do somethingdifferent.
So we packed everything up,sold the house, bought an RV and
took off.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
And your wife was totally cool with this.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
She was.
You know, she's always been thekind of person who is ready to
do all kind of crazy adventuresthat I come up with.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
She's kind of the voice of reason also.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
You did it.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Which is pretty important, but no, it was.
I mean that is a big deal whenyou have a two-year-old and
going and living who knows where, sleeping who knows where, and
we did plenty of that.
But yeah, I mean, we're allcrammed in the RV.
I convinced her to even thiswas the harder part.
I had a what is it?
A 1993 Jeep, so a 25-year-oldJeep that we're going to pull
(04:58):
behind and uses our primaryvehicle Wow.
Which that took a little moreconvincing, but for the most
part that went okay.
A couple you know, campgroundfixes here and there to keep it
running, but everything was goodRight.
So we were about a year on theroad and we I think it was about
30,000 miles, wow.
So we were everywhere, fromBaja Mexico all the way up to
(05:22):
Nova Scotia.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
And everywhere in between.
And so that that was kind ofthe big, I don't know, I guess,
pivotal year for us, kind offiguring out where we were going
to do moving forward, Right.
So yeah, kind of feeding intotent tracks I started looking
for.
You know, eventually you dohave to make some money and get
a real job.
So looked at some options,looked at several businesses
(05:47):
either to start or for sale, andI ran across tent tracks, which
was located in Eugene Oregon atthe time.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Now, when you ran into tent tracks for the first
time, was it in the field, like,did you see somebody camping in
this, or did you just see thata business was posted for sale
somewhere?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Well, I had seen it back in the day, you know it
started in 2001.
And it was big in kind of thatJeep off-road world, because it
was really the only kind oftrailer that you could take
anywhere you know off thepavement.
So you'd see it in magazinesevery once in a while, here and
there, and I'd never seen one inperson before.
So when I found it, kind ofcontacted the owner a little bit
(06:28):
and talked about it, at leasthad some familiarity with it.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Cool.
So 2001,.
And we think of where we aretoday, in 2024, and a lot of
these types of rigs and you knowjust, you see trucks all just
accessorized out in the wholenine yards.
This is way before any of thatbecame popular.
This was really probably someof the founding equipment
(06:51):
experiences and trailers of itskind in the day, I would imagine
.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, definitely, I mean it was.
It was pretty novel back then,but even now it's unique just in
the construction material.
So it's, you know, it's afiberglass body, keeps it nice
and lightweight.
It's still very compact andwe've done a bunch of design
changes since I purchased it tokind of modernize, you know,
make things a little bit morereliable, durable.
(07:15):
But yeah, I mean, back then itwas it was nobody was doing the
kinds of things people are doingnow with camping or, you know,
going off the grid van life.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Any of that yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
You know, that was still pretty pretty novel back
then.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, so you saw tent tracks you.
This became available.
It was an opportunity.
How in the world did thisconversation go with you and
your wife when you were thinkingabout we're going from 2018,
camping all around the country,out of the country, and then,
all of a sudden, you are I'mgoing to buy a business and it's
going to be more of the same interms of outdoors, trailers,
(07:51):
camping.
That was just kind of the worldthat you found yourself in.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yeah, you know it's interesting that year for us.
I mean, we got good at it.
You know, you first start andyou say, okay, I got to playing
this campgrounds out, I want tobe at this national park, I want
to do all these things.
But we quickly found that it'sa lot more fun when you just
kind of wing it.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
You know, you figure out what you know, tools are
available, what apps are outthere and we're?
You know we're driving aroundfinding places to stay the day
of most of the time.
You know, I don't think wespent.
We spent very little money thatsecond half of the year.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Kind of figure things out.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, on campgrounds because we were out in, you know
, we were in BLM land andnational forests and all these
places Cool cool.
Yeah, so she was.
She was excited.
I mean, she was excited to doit.
You know it's it's it's what Ido every day, all day.
She also helps out.
She does a lot of the, you know, communication and marketing
and quotes and things like that.
So she does the stuff that I'mnot very good at.
(08:47):
So that's, that's good.
That's in her spare time shehas.
She has several jobs, rightright, right no but I mean, that
was a big part of it, becauseit really was going to be a, you
know, a big change of life forfor all of us, and our daughter
was not yet in school, so we hadto figure out the you know the
logistics of all of that.
But yeah, she was absolutely onboard and I certainly wouldn't
(09:08):
be able to do it without hersupport.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yeah, yeah.
So you buy the company, and atthat point, I guess, did you
have this vision for where youwanted to take this, and or did
you just say you know, I lovethis, I love the concept.
Let's get one, put it to thetest and then kind of figure out
where our business plan goesfrom here.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
So kind of what I was looking for was something with
good reputation and a, you know,a good, solid design base.
So, you know, we talked toexisting owners.
We looked online everything wecould find on web forums and
Facebook and all these placesjust to see what people were
saying about them, and ingeneral, it had a very good
(09:49):
reputation.
People had owned these thingsfor, you know, at that point,
almost 20 years, and I knowcustomers now that have owned
them all the way from thebeginning.
There was a predecessor companyin the nineties that kind of
became Tint Tracks.
I've met original customers.
I know the guy that owns theserial number one.
Wow, no way.
Yeah, so it's pretty neat to beable to go back and see some of
(10:11):
that history but also see thatpeople use them.
I mean, they use them all thetime and they're still going,
they're still strong.
So having something like thatwith a good you know, good base
design was critical and I knewthere were a bunch of things I
wanted to do to change it.
You know we immediately changedall the, all the updated the
branding, you know, logos,website, things like that and so
(10:32):
it was.
It was one of those where theprevious owner had not done as
much with it the few yearsbefore.
But it's also when, you know,the overlanding world was
exploding, you know, of course,after COVID, you know outdoor
recreation in general is just,you know, gone crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
So it was a little scary to buy it, and then COVID
popped right up pretty shortlyafter.
But you know, since then we've,you know we've had a great time
.
We've really really done welland enjoyed being in Asheville
as well.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Oh, that's very cool.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So that's a good point, because when you first
bought this company, you wereliving.
You were not in North Carolinaat the time, were you Right?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, no', it was about one and oneinch for
Georgia' kind of, you know,north Georgia, outside of
Atlanta, okay, and we, you know,with a business like this,
you're outdoors, you, we wantpeople to come visit us and see
the products.
You know, convincing people togo to Atlanta it's hard enough.
Nothing wrong but it's not.
You know that there's there'snot as much Outdoor draw at door
(11:36):
activities, you know, rightoutside of the city, right?
So you know I grew up inGeorgia, my wife grew up in
South Carolina.
We've always visited Asheville,you know, we grew up coming to
Asheville, so it's kind of anatural spot.
It's close enough to bothfamilies but just far enough
away.
But no, and that's part of thereason that we that kind of left
the West Coast too, because,you know, our daughter was two
years old and we wanted to becloser to family and be able to
(11:58):
see them.
But, yeah, we.
So our shop is over in BlackMountain.
So, you know, 15 minutes eastof Asheville and we're right in
the valley there you look 360degrees around and you can see
the mountains.
So it's, it's very easy to getpeople.
We've had people visit fromeight, ten, twelve hours away
Just to come see the shop, noway, and they say, well, we're,
(12:19):
yeah, we love Asheville, stayhere for the weekend, we're
gonna stop and see you guys.
Perfect happens.
I mean that happens regularly.
It's a good draw helps out us,and you know I'm sure we'll talk
about it later, but justgetting involved in meeting
other similar outdoor businesseshas been really great when you
Moved here, were you aware ofthe outdoor gear builders, the
(12:42):
fact that this area is the youknow, outdoor gear hub of the
east?
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Did you know those things?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
that was that kind of part of the calculus and you
all moving your business here soI I was somewhat aware, you
know, I knew with some of thebigger companies and I had a
couple contacts that ultimatelyled me to the OBA Okay.
So yeah, I mean it's, it'sdefinitely you can tell that
there's a A lot of excitement inthe outdoor industry and you
know the outdoor manufacturingindustry industry, so that was,
(13:11):
that was definitely part of it.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Let's pivot a little bit and actually talk about the
product itself and we'llultimately come back to kind of
talking about some of thecustomer experiences with the
product.
But I had the great pleasureright before Christmas to visit
you, to visit the shop, to seethings in motion, to see, you
know, everything kind ofstripped down to the bear,
looking at suspension, and itdefinitely is a one of a kind
(13:34):
and I didn't learn untilrecently that you were
Mechanical engineeringbackground and technical sales
and that makes perfect sense.
As soon as I read that I'm like, oh yeah, I well, I can see,
brent, we were inter shopping.
We're talking about all thedifferent suspensions and the
different things that you did tokind of upgrade that.
But let's talk about yourParticular camper, let's talk
about the setup of it, thecomposition of it, what makes it
(13:56):
a little bit different, becauseI think people are going to be
stoked to hear whether or notyou have a 6,000 pound lane
rover or Jeep or whatever to alittle small car.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, absolutely, you know, you touched on it there
the the thing that really setsit apart is that it's small,
compact and lightweight, but youstill get a huge amount of
storage space.
So we're very popular withvehicles that can't tow a whole
lot and they don't have a lot ofholes.
You know storage space, say you.
You know you talk about peoplewith Jeeps and small SUVs and
(14:28):
Subarus not a lot of towcapacity.
So most people wouldn't evenconsider buying a, you know, a
big camping trailer because itjust, you know, doesn't make
sense right.
Our trailer does great becauseit's way.
600 pounds the base model does.
It's within pretty much thetowing capacity of any vehicle.
We have a I don't know thespecs on it, but we have a
(14:49):
customer that pulls one with asmart car, which is funny
because they're about the samesize.
Yeah, I mean we, you know webefore, before I bought it,
there was a Model that was kindof more of an on-road based and
we had customers with VolkswagenBeetles and all different
models of Subarus and that's socrazy kinds of stuff and again,
(15:10):
it it's 10 tracks is known forthe off-road side, but what I
tell people is that it's it'sbuilt for going off-road first
and it's built strong enough tobut all that does.
If you're you know you cancertainly take it in state parks
and paved roads and everywhereyou want to, but you get that
that strong Engineering designand the durability and the
reliability of something that'sbuilt well.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yeah, and it's not like one of these tires.
Like when you see, the tires onthis thing is big and it's
beefy.
We're gonna have a link in ourshow notes to the actual product
or, excuse me, to your website,but that alone.
You know, you don't have toworry about if I'm doing 70, 75
miles down the interstate.
We're not about this littletiny tire.
Is this thing gonna pop?
Is it gonna war?
Is gonna?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
you know this is beefy and so I would say on
about probably 75% of ourtrailers, we have customers
request us to match theirvehicle wheels and tires.
Oh, no way so you know thatmight be a, might be a Jeep, it
might be.
You know, we had a customerwith a Ford Maverick recently.
You know, the small, compactpickup trucks Match the wheels
(16:09):
and the tires and what that doesfor you is you already have a
spare right.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
You've got a spare in the vehicle it.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
It'll bolt right up to the trailer, so you don't
have to carry an extra spare fora trailer cool.
It's also like you said youdon't have on this tiny little
trailer tires that you weren'tabout blowing going down the
road.
Yeah, I have a real Automotivetire, you know.
So it just it's all in, justmaking it a little customizable,
kind of cool looking for thecustomer.
But it also makes it morereliable when you're actually
out in the middle of nowherecool.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
So walk me around the trailer, because I know I was
in your shop and I got a chanceto see it.
But let's walk around sort offrom the beginning, just kind of
all the round, do a 360 on someof the features, and then the
most Amazing part to me was justthe storage piece.
You've already spoken aboutthat a little bit, but that that
part really got my attention.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah, so you know, we start out with a strong tube
steel frame, an independentsuspension.
It's made by a company calledTimbran out of Canada you know a
strong Suspension that performsreally well, gives it a nice
ride, so your stuff isn'tbouncing around when you're
going down the road.
The body itself is fiberglassand basically if you're looking
at it, if you see one closed,you'd be surprised that it opens
(17:16):
up into a tent and bed like itdoes.
Yeah, you, it opens up.
It opens up in about twominutes.
So you know, I mentioned beforemy dad Spending about an hour
to get camp set up, just right,you know, with a pop up and
everything and been there, donethat.
Yep, exactly, and I loved it.
But you know, setting upquickly is it's worth a lot yeah
(17:37):
so yeah it sets up in just acouple minutes.
You know you get somewhere andit's raining.
You don't want to be sittingmessing around with stuff for 20
minutes so you can open it.
It can be opened by one person,you know.
You get inside and it's it'skind of in between a double and
a queen-size bed.
So it's, you know, padded foam.
You have the.
The tent itself is waterproof.
Of course, we have a rain flyon top of it as well, and so you
(18:01):
have.
You're comfortable, you're notsitting on the ground, You're
not sleeping on the ground and.
I've spent lots of nights onthe ground once you get off the
ground, it's hard to go back, nodoubt.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
No doubt.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah, you know you're up off the ground in a lot of
areas.
You know you're out in thedesert somewhere.
It's kind of nice to be up offthe ground, away from you know,
spiders and snakes and that'sright, scorpions, all kinds of
stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
But yeah, and then once you're in, you actually
have the ability to open up ahatch and get down to the
storage space.
So all that bed and everythingdoesn't take up much of the
storage space.
You still have about 45 cubicfeet of Actual storage space in
the body of the trailer.
So what we do is we just keepit packed.
You know it's ready to go, hasall the camping gear in there,
(18:42):
it's got the water loaded up,batteries are charged and we can
just hook it up and go.
Because I think I think the onething that keeps people from
going camping and gettingoutdoors is they don't do it
enough, so they don't haveeverything ready.
So it takes you know it takeshalf a day to get everything
packed up and Find all your gear, find everything this way.
It's there.
You know your bed is good to go.
(19:02):
You know you're gonna be dry.
Yeah, so that that storagespace is huge.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
So huge.
That was a game changer for me,to be honest with you.
I when because you could liftthat up.
You could, if it is raining,you know, when you were stuck
inside, or bad weather, orwhatever it may be.
You can lift that up your feet,go down, you can set up.
It's like it, almost like itcreates space inside there for
you, right, not just storing thestuff down there, or you
mentioned to me is like hey, Iforgot my jacket, I forgot
(19:27):
something.
Boom, it's in there.
I just lift it up and I'll haveto get out on the climb down
the ladder.
Of course it's not that big ofa climb, but don't have to go to
the truck.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I, everything's right there, self-contained, yeah and
and it also helps you keep it alittle less cluttered.
You know if you're, if you gotyour tent, your bed there and
all your stuff is everywhere.
You feel tight.
You don't feel like you have alot of room good point, so this
way you get everything.
You can put it down on thatstorage compartment.
There's several different areasyou can store stuff and, yeah,
having that little littlecompartment there where you can
sit like a little bench.
Yeah it's great, you sit thereand read a book.
(19:54):
You can, you know, stomp.
You can kind of stand up,change your clothes if you need
to.
And when you see it in person,you see the trailer.
You don't expect there to bethat much right usability and
that much space inside.
So that's kind of the magicright is that it?
It's very usable and you don'thave to look around something
huge and heavy.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, yeah, that's so cool.
I mean, if you have a garage,it just fits right in your
garage and you know it's.
Yeah, and I love the conceptabout keeping that thing packed
because for us in the pop-updays that was, you know, every
trip we would learn somethingnew.
This is what we need to stockit with, this is what we need to
Stock it with them.
We finally got it.
We finally got to that pointwhere it's like, when we go
camping, great, just put acouple clothes, a couple change
(20:32):
of clothes though the boats onthe top bikes, whatever, and
we're gone.
And yeah, keeping that thingstocked up is smart.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yeah, and that's you know.
We have a roof rack on top ofthe trailer as well, so you can
put bikes on there, you butkayaks.
You can do whatever you want to.
You got a hitch on the backthat you can put a bike rack on,
so it ends up.
Not only do you have thatinside storage space, you've got
a lot of space on the outsideracks and in different things we
can strap down your gear.
Yeah and you know it.
I think it's sized so thatyou're not bringing too much
(21:00):
also.
You know you've been on thosecamping trips or you just bring
everything.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah, never touch it.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
It doesn't yeah, it doesn't really make it any
easier.
It just kind of makes it moreto clean up when you get back
home right.
You know you go enough and youkind of figure out exactly what
you need and not bring it toomuch.
Yeah although I was out lastweekend we were in Tennessee
doing an event and it I think itwas down on the 20s.
So you tend to bring a littlemore gear when it's that cold.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
But yeah, yeah, all right, but this trailer, you
have so much customization inthis trailer, right?
So, from refrigerators to solarpanels for energy, and you know
if you got batteries I meanhate to say it, I'm getting kind
of older now and you know,throwing an electric blanket on,
I'm not too proud to say Imight do that with a little bit
(21:45):
of a jackery or blue eddy orsomething like that.
But yeah, let's talk about someof the customization, because
that's the piece that, like Ihave real, real stoke for your
trailer, just because of whatyou can do, and it doesn't seem
like there's really manylimitations to what you can do
or will do.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
You're right, and I think that's what sets us apart
too, is that we love doingcustomization.
You know, you bring us an ideaand even if it's something we
haven't done before, we'llfigure it out, we'll build it,
we'll make it happen.
You know we we've done a lot inthe electrical space.
So lithium batteries havegotten smaller, lighter and
cheaper and that's allowed us toTo put more power on board to
(22:20):
do more things.
You know it.
We've had several customers whohave come to us and said hey,
you know, my, my spouse Willcome camping.
If you can hook up an electriccoffee maker, or if you, if a
hairdryer will work on this,that battery system, then we can
.
All you know, then we're all onboard and it takes a lot of
power to do that, but it's Imean, it's completely doable.
(22:42):
One of the cooler things we'vedone is we've had a couple
customers recently.
They had CPAP machines.
No right and you think aboutthat Takes a good amount of
power for sure.
And so that kind of limits youto.
All right, I got to besomewhere where I can plug into
the wall.
Well, we designed an electricalsystem for them that was able
to run that CPAP machine, and sonow the whole family goes, you
(23:03):
know and they go out in themiddle of nowhere you know off
the grid, and they can.
You can still run all that youknow, and then you have the
power to give lights and fansand charging your phone, things
like that.
Even have a laptop.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
So that's cool.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
That's been cool, but yeah the customization is a lot
of fun for us too had a prettyneat setup.
We had a customer who it wasgreat he was we got to know him
real well, jim.
He came by our shop probablyfive or six times and we'd have
design consultations and go overeverything we were gonna do,
and he wanted to Use the trailerto do multi-stage bike races.
Okay, but he had some physicalissues that he had.
(23:38):
He was using an e-bike, so wedesigned electrical system to
charge his e-bike batteriesWhile he was away, while he was
in between stages, while he wasdriving.
Wow so the vehicle charged them,we had solar charging them, you
know or you could just pull itinto the wall.
So cool, it's pretty neat.
So we had them all set up, andso he would.
He had the best setup of allhis friends, for sure.
(23:59):
Yeah, you know, with all thatcustomization.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Well, and with that customization, brent, this is
not like we have tons of theseon a showroom floor.
Come check them out.
This is more.
You might go to an event, youmight, people might see you out,
but this is really a truecustomization.
When you order it, I was I wason your website just kind of
going through just the differentmodels and you are just kind of
(24:25):
selecting all the things thatyou want.
But one of the things you justsaid and you've said it a couple
times is that you really lovethat customization piece and
that I don't know if that kindof reaches back to your, your,
your past experiences in youryou know your training in your
degrees, but that you really, Iwon't say geek out on it, but
that's the part that you reallyreally love bringing to market
for people, it seems.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah, it is, you know , and I think it allows us to
really get to know customers too, because we figure out what
they want, how they're gonna useit, and then we stay in touch
with them later.
But yeah, it's, you know, wewe've done, we've had stock, you
know, kind of plain stocktrailers and in stock before
we've had dealers that have soldthings like that.
But ultimately we found thatmost people are drawn to our
(25:05):
products because of what you cando with them.
You know you can get them thesame colors, your vehicle with
matching wheels and tires,that's it and it's a.
No matter what you're driving,it's pretty cool to have that.
Yeah because it, because it justit looks cool together.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Yeah it's.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
It's impossible to take one out.
Stop at a gas station withouthaving a conversation with
somebody cool about it.
But yeah, that that is.
But still we're, you know we'reonly.
Our lead times are about threemonths.
So in an industry where youknow 12 months is kind of more
standard, it's we're able to.
We're able to do a lot of thatcustomization still pretty
quickly.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
That's so cool.
Yeah one of the things thatreally draws me to this product,
to this, this camper, is thatis can we call it a camper which
?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
we call it was campers or camping trailer.
Camping trailer, yeah, whateverI mean it's kind of.
It kind of depends on howyou're gonna use it yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Well, that's actually that's a great segue, because
that's exactly what I was gonnasay.
It's so cool because if you cango on the most extreme Trip, an
event, or you can, as you weresaying, you could just go to the
Davidson River campground orFind a plot of land, you know,
whatever it may be.
So it's not just this.
You know, we're only thediehard overlanders can use this
(26:13):
.
It's like now, this is this iskind of for everybody.
Yeah and you really open up themarket to whomever wants to have
this kind of really coolexperience.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah, and that's that's what we've tried to do.
And you know I mentioned beforethat a lot of the background
was with this Jeep off-roadworld and we've we've taken them
Ridiculous places you know, wetook it through the Rubicon
trail and we've had it all overMoab and you know all kinds of
you know stuff and most of thatis it'll definitely do it.
We have customers that do itand it makes really cool
marketing pictures butultimately people aren't doing
(26:45):
that every day.
You know, they're not going onweek long Expeditions or
month-long expeditions every dayright customers will do it and
it's capable of it.
But it also just works reallygreat kind of in the day-to-day
weekend type trips.
You know, we'll set up abattery system that'll last
somebody a whole weekend runninga refrigerator, you know, and
they've got a family of fourwe've got.
(27:07):
We sell rooftop tents also tenttracks, branded rooftop tents
and.
You know there's more than onecustomer has bought a trailer
and a rooftop tent.
You know kids get to go sleepupstairs and the parents get in
the trailer.
Yeah but it's a yeah, it worksreally well for that.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
That's cool, yeah, anything about that.
So talk a little bit about thedifferent models that you have.
It's not just one.
You've got a few differentmodels and maybe in buckets of
who those particular models maybe a good market for.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Sure, so kind of the original model.
We Renamed the ascend and sothat is your, the trailer that
I've been describing.
That looks like a.
You know, it's a fiberglasstrail on the outside.
You have the rack on top.
It opens up into a bed in atent.
So again, that's.
It's basically an evolution ofwhat 10 tracks has been building
(27:58):
for over 20 years.
Okay we had customers that cameto us that they already had an
existing rooftop tent on theirvehicle and they said, hey, can
I put this on the trailer?
So essentially what we did iswe took the trailer body, we
reinforced it on the inside andthen so you can mount your
rooftop tent on top.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
So if you imagine, roofed up tents on top still
functions like it normally would, but you can open the lid and
have even more Storage inside.
So then it becomes just youknow, kind of an extension of
the storage space, but also itallows you to have a base camp.
So you know, you know, you'vegot the roof top ten on top of
your land river.
Yeah if you need to go to thestore.
(28:36):
Yeah or if you need to, you know, say you want to go, you know,
drive to dinner or somethinglike that.
You've got to close up the tentand it's not the hardest thing
in the world, but it's kind of apain, it's still a process.
Yeah, so what this does?
It lets you have a base camp.
You know, say, you're in a inthe National Forest somewhere
and you've got the perfect spot.
It allows you to keepeverything there.
(28:56):
Yeah, take your vehicle and go,do what you need to do.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah the.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
The other model is really kind of the basic.
It's the cargo, so it's just a,an open trailer and it's.
I've been surprised.
Recently We've had kind of a anincreased interest in cargo
trailers.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I mean it's maybe people, maybe I mean I don't
know why, but maybe they want tosleep on the ground.
No, it's, you know, we actuallyhave a customer.
It's awesome, there's a blog onour web page that tells their
story and they have had theirtent tracks trailer for about
six or seven years and they'realmost 80 and then over 80 years
(29:34):
old and they go every year andthey drive across the whole
country and they Hang out inColorado and California and they
love sleeping on the groundbecause they you know, they've
done tons of backpacking, butthey use the cargo trailer to
carry everything cool, it's moreand to kind of save their spot
when they find a good one there.
You know, when they're on it's,it's, it's cool to see that you
(29:55):
know, or that that that is whatallows them to actually do all
of those adventures.
We have a Not yet releasedmodel.
We we kind of played with it alittle bit right before COVID.
A lot of times people will seethe trailer and They'll they'll
say something like oh, thatlooks like a big cooler.
You know, will it float?
(30:16):
And we actually have testedthat and it does float.
Yeah, it does.
We've had people drive itthrough rivers too, but you know
we get that comment a lot likeoh.
It looks like a big cooler,wouldn't that be cool?
And so we actually made a modelcalled the tailgater.
Nice you search around onYouTube a little bit, you can
find some pictures videos ofthat.
Basically what we did is webuilt a kitchen set up on the
(30:37):
front, so it had a slide outwith a refrigerator and a grill
and stove and everything and thethe lid opened up and you had a
TV with surround sound speakers.
We had a section for beer andother beverages and, you know,
you put ice in there and then weactually had taps on the back
as well.
Yeah, so the only unfortunatething about that is we came out
(31:01):
with it right before COVID, sothat's something we're gonna
bring back out.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Okay, that'd be an awesome setup, right you?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
know, say, a brewery needs to go out and do an event.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Ah good.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
You could just have everything hooked up, but the
branding on the outside, thingslike that.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, it's a pretty cool idea.
That is a really cool idea.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yeah, I have to show you some videos of that later.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Well, let's stay in that stream of thought, though,
talking about some of yourcustomers.
So you have that, that customer, but you've created like this
little cohort of people thatreally are, are your customers
and have been sort of probablycustomers for life, and I know
you have some really really coolstories You'd love to share
about some of those and I'd loveto hear them, because the
places that y'all have gone,we've named a few Rubicon Trail,
(31:41):
big Bend National Park, bajaPeninsula and, of course, all
the Rocky trails right here inthe Appalachia.
But yeah, I mean, yeah, let'sdive in and hear some of these
really cool stories, brent.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Sure yeah I.
I always love talking about myfriend Jeff you know, I call him
gold miner Jeff.
We actually met Jeff.
We were in New Mexico and hekind of we were on the living in
the RV and we were Camping atthis Air Force Base kind of.
They had a free camping arearight outside the base.
It was near White SandsNational Park and National
(32:13):
Monument.
It's one of those and you know,jeff pulls up in his Subaru and
rooftop tent and he was justwide-eyed I mean, he's just
looking around and he came andtalked to us and this was his
first night on the road.
He kind of had a similarexperience where he said that's
it, I'm, I'm leaving Buffalo,new York, and I am gonna go
travel.
And he bought a gold claim oneBay in California well, you
(32:37):
know 2,500 bucks and Bought it,bought some gold mining
equipment and prospectingequipment and hit the road.
So we caught him on night oneor two and he was just you know
he's wild.
So I stayed in touch with him,you know, the next six months or
so.
I bought the business and hecame to me said all right, I
want to do the trailer, I wantto live in the trailer six
(32:59):
months out of the year up inCalifornia, and mine for gold.
So we built.
It was actually the firstoverlook model, which is the,
the one I mentioned to you thathas the rooftop tent.
Okay, and we've got somepictures on his on our webpage.
His, his Instagram is goldgravel and travel gold gravel
and he does it.
So he spends six months out ofthe year living in a tent,
(33:20):
tracks trailer Up in themountains of California and he
goes when the snow melts, allthe way until the snow starts
falling again, cool, which endsup only being about six months
up there and he is just, youknow, he's on the side of the
mountains and he's on in thecreeks, you know, moving
boulders and jackhamers andeverything finding gold off
there.
He has, oh yeah, he's, he's,you know, and he's found some
(33:44):
pretty good-sized stuff, becauseit's all the area that was, you
know, it was all industriallymined years ago.
Okay, so there's a lot of smallstuff left, wow, but and he
could talk about that for days,but it's pretty cool to be able
to point to something and saythis guy lives in it in bear
country.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Six months out of the year.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Wow, you know and he yeah, he's a.
He's an awesome guy, he's agood friend.
Lots of colorful stories fromGoldmine or Jeff.
You know we've.
I had a pretty neatconversation with a customer
recently that he's owned histent tracks since before I own
the business.
Wow it's been about ten years,but he's bought a lot of stuff
(34:20):
from us.
So one thing that I try and dois, when we come out with a new
Accessory or, you know, a newimprovement on the trailer, I do
my best to make sure that it's.
It can be retrofitted.
Okay onto older models.
That take some work sometimes.
But I mean there are hundredsof people out there with
trailers that would love to makethem more comfortable or more
(34:41):
waterproof, be able to hold moreaccessories.
So we, we have a new tent thatwe designed, we have new storage
, electrical components, I meanall all kinds.
We have rain flies andinsulation inside and all these
things are things We've done thepast few years.
So Mike had purchased prettymuch everything that we made you
(35:01):
know, We've got some existingcustomers like that that we come
up with it and they'll justthey'll buy it.
And he, his wife, was sick andbut they, you know, they both
love their tent tracks and bothlove using it.
So he set it up in theirbackyard, ransom power out there
, and camped in it.
When I talked to him it was 45plus nights in a row.
Wow, they just been camping inthe backyard, in the back.
(35:23):
Yeah, you know they couldn't goout, she couldn't leave the
house as much, but they justthey loved it so much, they love
being outside and they lovejust that environment that they
just they set up some lights andjust camped in the backyard for
that long.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Right so it's.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
It's neat.
We definitely draw some prettyawesome customers and I mean
I've made friendships throughthe business.
Just do the customers.
That'll, you know, probablylast a lifetime.
We have an event that we doevery year called tow, so it's a
tent tracks owners weekend, sowe Basically we'll go out.
(35:59):
It's in the UR national forest.
I'm gonna east of Charlotte andwe have a big 50 acre piece of
land there that we rent and youknow I had some facilities and
things like that and we bringpeople from all over.
I mean, we've had people.
I probably the farthest wayaway was Texas or Maine, all the
way down to Florida.
We haven't.
(36:19):
We keep the West Coastcustomers keep wanting to do
something out in Arizona or Utahor something.
So that'll be next.
Yeah, yeah, it's great becauseeverybody gets together.
We, you know, we Show them.
We have big sale with all thenew products we came out with in
the past year and we'll installeverything for free.
We'll do, you know, kind of dosome trail rides, we'll do some.
(36:39):
We had Joe flowers frombushcraft global, so he's a cool
guy to look up If you ever geta chance he would be great on
the podcast.
Honestly, I think Joe lives uptowards Virginia but he's in
North Carolina.
Cool, he did bushcraft trainingfor us.
So that's basically, you know,using what you have around you
Kind of to camp to survive.
(37:01):
He taught some knife skills.
He taught us skills about usingtrash.
You know picking up plasticbags on the ground and how you
can turn that into Fishing lineand supports for hammocks and I
mean all kinds of different cool, it is fascinating.
And then we have a Past coupleyears.
You may I'm not sure if you'vemet Nate with trail to table.
No, so Nate's an OVA member,okay, and he's here in Asheville
(37:25):
and he's done our live firecooking for us past couple years
.
I think the first year we didabout 50 or 60 pounds of prime
rib On the fire, you know, andhe's sitting there cooking
everything at tons of other food.
Well, this past year we did apig, so we did a pig roast and
my guys and I designed up aMechanic or an electrical pig
(37:49):
spit, sat there and spun it andand and we were up at 3 am
Getting that pig on there and itI think it cooked for about 16
hours.
Oh, my I was just some of thebest food you can imagine.
Yes, anyway, all that design.
We have a good time with ourexisting customers and it's
really neat for us to be able toget together with them, you
know, once a year, maybe alittle bit more often here.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Cool, come up soon.
Yeah, now where can the generalpublic other than contacting
you and traveling over toWestern North Carolina?
Where else would you be?
I know you'll be at the GittingGear Fest that's here in
Asheville area.
That'll be in the spring.
But are there other placesaround the country that you all
do some of these types of eventsbesides the tow event and the
Gitting Gear Fest?
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah, we have a few big ones that we do pretty much
every year.
There's a big Jeep invasion andpigeon forage that we do the
Overland Expo series of events.
We've done one of those everyyear, mostly in Virginia at the
Overland Expo East, but we'replanning on going out to the
West event, which is inFlagstaff.
Arizona as well, and then wekind of do you know medium-sized
(38:55):
, smaller events here and thereall around.
We've done a good bit withFalcon Expeditions, matt and
Elizabeth.
They have a base camp and acabin campground up in I guess
it's towards the Smokies.
It's about an hour west ofAsheville and we've held some
events there and had some youknow kind of smaller little
(39:15):
trail rides and camping eventsand things like that.
So we're always doing somethingwhere you can come check us out.
We have some people on the WestCoast too, customers that have
volunteered to say, hey, if youwant to check out a trailer,
come look at mine and they'lltalk about it.
So we've had some people takeadvantage of that.
That's cool.
So, yeah, we try to, you know,keep the website updated and
kind of say which events we'regoing to be at.
(39:36):
Very nice, I mean.
It's amazing just the number ofoutdoor events there are to
take advantage of.
You can do something everyweekend, I think, if you want to
.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
Yeah, yeah.
So in the website, reallysimple, it's just tenttracks
T-E-N-T-R-A-X dot com sotenttrackscom, and it's a great
website, by the way.
Thank you, you're welcome.
Yeah, and it's really cool.
There's some link to somereally good articles that are on
there.
I know that you were you thinkyou were a former Land Rover guy
.
You were telling me.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
I've always kind of well.
You know I had you right.
I did own a Land.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Rover.
Yeah, disco right, disco one orDisco two.
Ah, range Rover Sport, rangeRover Sport, there you go.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
I did love that.
I'd buy another one of those.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
So whose Disco was it that was on in that article?
And I think it was noBoundaries, or something like
this Ah, the white one, thewhite one, yeah, yeah so that
was a great story.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
It was my buddy Chad's and he joined us for our
very first event right after Ibought the company.
I mean, we had our brandingfinished the day before and it
was the Easter Jeep Safari,which is in Moab, and he drove
out there with his Land Rover Inthat town.
If you've ever been to Moab, Imean it's not a very big town
but it was just crawling withJeeps everywhere and they could
(40:48):
kind of take over.
But he shows up in his LandRover and we took it out going
off road.
I've always been a Jeep guy butman, he showed up some Jeeps
for sure out there and we'repulling the trailer around on
trails that people just couldn'tbelieve we were out there.
Yeah, so that's yeah, we had agood time.
We still got some pictures ofhis out there.
(41:08):
It was really some of the firstmarketing pictures we took
right after we bought thecompany.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
So that was pretty neat.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
All right.
So you have an amazing camper.
You can customize it to no end.
Really, there's probably, andthere's probably things that you
will manufacture that you don'teven have in your brain right
now.
Just because you're so willingto customize, you have a great
following, a loyal following,amazing stories.
You live here now in WesternNorth Carolina and you've moved
(41:35):
here to the outdoor gear hubindustry of the entire East.
But and you didn't just stopthere you are really getting
involved in the outdoor scenehere and you're involved with
the outdoor business alliance,not just as a member, but you're
now a board member for theoutdoor business alliance and
you just keep getting involved,man, I think every time I show
(41:56):
up to one of the socials, you're, you're working the front desk,
you're, you know, checkingpeople in and all that kind of
stuff.
But let's talk a little bitabout, if you can and if there
are other things we definitelywant to get, you know,
completely away from tent tracks.
But I'd love to kind of findout a little bit about your
involvement with the OBA, whatthat means to you, what made by
mountains means to you.
You know all of that because itreally is a really special
(42:19):
ecosystem that we have here inWestern North Carolina, and I'd
just love for listeners to knowmore about what you're involved
with.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Yeah, I appreciate that.
Yeah, so it's.
You know, amy Allison and herhusband, dusty Allison, were
some of the first people that wemet that were involved in the.
It was the OGB back then, theoutdoor gear builders, great
name.
I mean, we were an outdoor gearbuilder but it's since expanded
to be more than just gearbuilders, and it's you know
(42:48):
companies that are involved inthe outdoor industry.
There's lots of.
You know there's camps and youknow some companies and guides
and I mean, yeah, plenty ofothers.
So I think that change to theoutdoor business alliance kind
of reflects that, that it's ait's a pretty wide range of
companies.
So I was, I was prettyimpressed, so we were, like I
(43:09):
said, we were invited to comecheck it out.
You know, we had some, somecompanies.
We have a neighbor in our, inour shop in the complex there,
pirani who was a member and youdrinking out of a Pirani cup
Right there, yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Representing outdoor what does it say Outdoor?
This was the outdoor economyconference.
Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yeah, that was a great one too.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Best cup ever?
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Yep, it really is.
And so they, they're just downthe hall and they you know.
Of course we got to know themand we're talking with them.
We had Pirani cups everywherewith tent tracks, logos on them
and everything.
But we had the opportunity tohost a social.
They had already planned theyhad planned the social and we
said, well, we could help outwith it.
So it was kind of neat.
We had kind of people came tothe front of our building,
(43:51):
walked through our shop, checkedout some things.
We had some cool vehicles there, some old classic jeeps and
some trailers and all this andNate it trail to table, cooked
up some fantastic food, and thenthey went down the hall and
went to Pirani and kind of didthe program.
They did some custom engravingfor people and that was.
That was kind of the beginningof our real involvement with the
(44:13):
OBA.
And we ended up joining andtaking part in the getting gear
fest last year and it was.
It was great.
I mean we had a blast.
Yeah, I mean it was.
I want to say it's.
It was about 60 companies overthe outpost.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
And it really wasn't.
I think what really impressedme was just the general energy
and the excitement and thepositivity from everybody we
talked to.
You know we're we're.
We're used to all differentkinds of events but you know, a
lot of times we'll have peoplecoming up and asking questions
and pointing fingers and sayingwhy is this like this?
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Why is?
Speaker 2 (44:48):
this, like and that's fun.
But everybody here was just,they were just excited, they
were pumped, they were happy tohave something, you know, a
business like ours, even evenbeing in the area.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Heck yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
So we, we loved it.
We really enjoyed that and it.
Yeah, like you said, Ivolunteered to help out with the
organization a bit With some ofthe events.
Now I'm planning the 2024getting gear fest, so the Matt
the Matt rope in.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
that's very good at that.
He's very good at that.
I know I love Matt.
Matt, if you're listening, welove you.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
We do.
Yeah, it's a no, it's.
It's fun though it's cool to bea part of that, because it
really is some organization thatjust has a lot of just awesome
people.
You know they're, they're funto be around they're they're all
positive thinking.
They're all thinking about waysto grow the business but
they're all.
They're also thinking aboutways to grow the outdoor
industry in Western NorthCarolina as a whole.
(45:40):
And it's just, yeah, it'sexciting, we really enjoy it,
and that's how we met.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
That's right.
That's exactly how we met.
Yeah, yeah, and Amy youmentioned Amy and Dusty.
Amy is the one that definitelyconnected us.
And yeah, that whole made bymountains, I mean everyone there
is just so wonderful and theyare.
I mean it's the.
The stoke is high, thepositivity is high, the
embracing us, you know just, theoutdoor community is next level
.
It's just.
I mean we could go on and ontalking about all of those cool
(46:08):
relationships that come out ofit.
But you definitely gotconnected with the right people.
Amy got you in, matt got youconnected and here you are
planning the whole.
Are you playing?
Are you like head of the whole,getting gear fast?
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yes, if you're listening to this and you'd like
to volunteer, give me a call.
No, it's, it's exciting, and Ithink what's cool is that it's
not hard to talk to.
You know people that whosecompanies aren't members and to
really give them the reasons whyit works, because we had such
an awesome experience this pastyear.
(46:38):
So it's, you know, it's, it'sjust a yeah, like I said really
good organization.
It's going to be a cool eventthis year.
I think it's going to be thebest one yet.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
There you go, there you go, going back to the exact
same place Asheville Outpost.
What does it call?
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
It's the best of Carrier Park and it'll be May
4th and it's, you know, it's aone day event and we're going to
have a bunch of vendors there.
It's, you know, it's right byGreenways and the park bike
trails so people can just ridetheir bikes up totally free.
You can come check it out,check all the you know, check
out all the local vendors.
Some people will be sellingstuff, have some specials and
(47:18):
sales and things like that, butit's, it's going to be a really
cool event.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Yeah, that's good.
I want to say kudos to you fortaking on the heavy lift and the
task of sort of organizing thatwhole thing and yeah, you have
a volunteer here.
If I can help you put ittogether in any way, I'd be
happy to do whatever I can do.
Last year was my very first one.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Oh, was it yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
And I just walked around just just wide eyed, you
know, got some you know personon the street kind of interviews
and just some some impromptuthings.
But, wow, talk about an amazingevent that pulled.
I mean, if you love theoutdoors, what a great place to
go and just connect.
And you know, and it wasn'tjust the booths, it was all the
people that just are here in thebig community that just
continues to grow Right, andjust all people just kind of
(47:58):
hanging out up and down.
You know the aisles and not theaisles, but you know, out in
front of the tents and all thatsort of thing.
It was really really a specialevent, like one of these things
that like, if I'm as long as Ilive here, that becomes a
priority on that weekend.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
It really does, I agree, and it it's surprising, I
think, to a lot of people tofor them to see how many
businesses really are here.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
And you know most of those are within an hour of
Asheville.
You know, it's you.
Just I got.
I heard a lot of comments likethat, like I just I didn't know
these people were here, I didn'tknow these companies were here
Right.
And it just builds thatexcitement and it, you know,
people love to buy locally right, they love to support local
companies, and so that I thinkit really helped in that, you
know, helped do that as well.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Well, before we let you go,what are some things that are on
the horizon for you and fortent tracks?
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
So we've had some plans for a little while We've
been.
We're kind of getting ready torelease some new designs, okay,
just and again some of it'ssmall stuff, but just, you know,
increasing durability,reliability of the products.
We were hoping to do thattailgater model this year, nice,
so that should be fun.
We're really excited to get outwest because you know, the West
(49:10):
Coast is where tent tracksstarted, it's where a lot of the
customers are so excited to getout there and kind of get back
to your roots, so to speak.
Yeah, so we're going to get toknow some of those customers out
there.
Yeah, but we're I mean, we'restill, we're growing and we're
building more trailers every day.
You know I mentioned a littlebit we have rooftop tents as
well.
So in addition to just thetrailers, we have a line of
(49:31):
rooftop tents, hard andsoft-shell rooftop tents.
We've also done some vehiclework too.
So somebody comes and a lot oftimes it's aligned with buying a
rooftop tent or something likethat.
But you know we've donemodifications to vehicles,
electrical systems, things likethat.
We we're really looking to getinto some additional kind of
(49:52):
some industries that we haven'tbeen in before as much.
So really pushing to do somework with Subaru, subaru owners,
even some side-by-side ownersyou know side-by-sides are the
most popular thing out there,right?
Speaker 1 (50:04):
now and it's.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
It works for us because it's so lightweight and
small that you can.
You can pull it to theside-by-side and go out and go
wherever you want to.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
So that's right.
When I visited your shop, youactually had one in there that
you were doing some work on YepSome modifications, I think, for
one of your customers.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Yeah, we did some marketing with that and took
some photos and things like thatCool.
So yeah, that's pretty neat.
Yeah, I just I like seeingpeople get outdoors and enjoying
it and being able to get alittle further out if they, you
know, if they want to, and kindof see that, see how much there
is around here or wherever theylive.
I mean there's all kinds ofcool stuff out there to see.
Speaker 1 (50:39):
Yeah, boy, you just said it best you know to be able
to get out there, go furtherand stay longer.
Yeah, those are the threethings that really see, not the
only three things.
But do you really check allthose boxes for everybody?
Speaker 2 (50:51):
Yeah, yeah, that's the goal.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Well, it's on my list and I will hopefully one day
soon be an owner of one of thesetent tracks trailers, because
it's I've done the rooftop tentthing and it's great, it has its
space.
But, like you said, usually it'sall of us going in one vehicle
and then we're just there and weare.
Sometimes we'll go, you know,especially if it's just a guys'
trip, we'll kind of go out andwe'll just kind of hang there
(51:15):
and maybe one or two stops andwe're just, you know, doing all
the things.
But when I'm with my family, Ijust there's so much, like you
said, to explore here that Iwant to kind of get out and see
as much as I possibly can.
And this is I've been tellingmy dad about this camper ever
since I met you, yeah, and eversince, and I'm like, yeah, you
got to check this thing out andit just really, yeah, it just
(51:36):
checks a lot of boxes.
And I think that when you openup your market for your people
that are just not your hardcore,but also the people that like
are going to they're smart caror they're Subaru Crosstrek or
whatever it may be, this getsyou to those places.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
And I think you know, if I had to guess, I would say
50% of our customers have nevertouched a trailer, hooked up a
trailer or towed a traileranywhere.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (51:58):
I mean we'll do training in the parking lot when
they buy one.
Speaker 1 (52:01):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (52:02):
You know we had a guy drive all the way from
California in like two and ahalf days.
It was wild.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
I don't even know how that's possible.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
And he, you know, he got here and then did a little
training in the parking lot,picked it back up and went back
home and it's that's.
That's cool.
I love that, you know.
I love seeing people tryingsomething totally new.
It's totally out of theircomfort zone and that it really
just, you know, you see themlight up and you see them get
excited.
And it's just the beginning.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
It's just the beginning, isn't that true?
Yeah, and then the cool thingabout you and the way you do
business is that it truly is thebeginning of their journey, but
I feel like you get to stayconnected with a lot of those
customers along the way too,because of the whole process,
the whole customization to knowthem, understand what their
needs and desires are, creatingsolutions for those, and then,
yeah, you just have a customerand a friend for life.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, that's the best part ofit for me.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
so that's cool.
Well, brent, I cannot tell youhow much I have enjoyed this,
and I'm glad that we finally gota chance to put this together.
The vibe that you bring, thestroke that you bring, just who
you are, I think even also justlending your talents and your
treasures to the OVA and reallyjust trying to bring as many
people into the outdoorexperience as you can that says
a lot about you, man.
(53:09):
I just every time I see you,dude, you got a smile on your
face and you're helping somebodydo something, so Thank you very
much.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
This has been a great experience for me too.
I love the podcast and Iappreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
I swear I have the absolute greatest hobby of all
time.
I get to hear the back storiesof how passion and purpose
collides and how they propelpeople to do some pretty amazing
things, like what Brent and histeam are doing over at
TentTracks Truly remarkable.
Check out their website attenttrackscom for more
information and to check outpicks of these really amazing
rigs, and be sure to follow themon their socials and stay up to
(53:45):
date with the 2024 Outdoor GearFest, where you can meet Brent
and his team and see all ofthese trailers for yourself.
Well, that's gonna do it forthis episode.
I really hope you enjoyed it.
But before I sign off, I wannagive a shout out to a couple of
people.
First, chrom Carey, who sent methat awesome video of him
laying under a house in belowfreezing temperatures,
(54:05):
protecting all of the plumbing.
I posted that video onInstagram.
Chrom, you are the ultimatehype guy.
I really love your energy,brother.
Thanks for giving me a liftexactly when I needed it.
Also, to Jared Lee, who I raninto at Cata Lucho Sunday night
when I was hosting.
It was an epic evening withgreat conditions and I was
really stoked to get to meetJared in person.
(54:26):
Steven Reinhold with theAppalachian Adventure Company,
says you're a legend in theseparts, jared, and if Ramblin
Reinhold says it, I believe it.
Keep spreading the stoke andbringing people along on this
journey, jared.
Oh, and Steven, and I think youshould come on the show.
You would be a great guest.
Lastly, all I had a greatconversation today with Bryce
Mahoney, with Yadkinville ValleyAdventure located in Pilate
(54:50):
Mountain.
We're planning his episode andworking on all the logistics,
but I can't wait to share hisstory with you.
We both hail from Tye Water,virginia, and grew up surfing in
Virginia Beach in the OuterBakes.
Today, we swap stories of someamazing breaks and spots and
days of driving up and down thecoastline searching for more
waves so cool.
Anyway, we're gonna focus onwhat brought him here to the
(55:12):
mountains of North Carolina inthat episode and I think that
you're gonna be really inspiredby his journey and by his story.
I'd like to give a specialthanks to Made by Mountains for
making this specialcollaboration series possible.
To find out more about all ofthe amazing projects and things
Made by Mountains is involved in, check out MadebyMountainscom
or visit the link in the shownotes.
(55:33):
Join me on Facebook andInstagram and drop me a note at
mike at explorationlocalcom, ifyou ever have a suggestion for a
future episode.
Until we meet again, Iencourage you to wander far but
explore local limitation.
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