Beyond the Windrock Trails: The Heart of GSMTR | Ep.26 - Overland Weekly

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back.
This is Overland Weekly,episode number 26.
If you're new here, my name isDavey and I am your host and I
am super excited for thisepisode.
If you have been listening topast episodes, probably for the
past year, you've heard me talkabout the Great Smoky Mountain
Trail Ride, or G Smitter, GSMTRas we affectionately refer to it

(00:40):
.
I don't know where that gotstarted.
That's a good bit of G Smitterhistory is where the nickname
came from.
But with that said, g Smittercame.
It was this year, a couple ofweeks ago, and we've all kind of
got recovered from it,physically and emotionally, and
maybe not our vehicles, butthat's another story.
And tonight I reached out toall of our trail leaders and

(01:06):
tail gunners which there was 29,I think, different individuals
that were either trail leadingor tail gunning as volunteers at
this event and we had at least10 guided rides offered each day
.
We ended up not having to runthat many every day, which was a
good thing.
It meant some smaller groupsgot to go out many every day,
which was a good thing.
It meant some smaller groupsgot to go out rather than having

(01:27):
15 or 20 in a pack, but we hadall those volunteers.
So I ask anybody that wanted tocome and join me today on this
episode, and we're just going totake a few minutes and kind of
let you get, as the listener,get some different perspectives
on the event and who comes andwhy they come and what they like

(01:48):
about it, maybe what they don'tlike about it, but we're going
to talk about all those things.
And so we had 10 or 12 of thetrail leaders that agreed to
come on and a couple more thatweren't able to come tonight,
but I was able to speak toearlier this week, so I'll kind
of patch it in tonight.
But I was able to speak toearlier this week, so I'll kind
of patch it in.
So if part of this episodeseems a little bit cut and paste

(02:08):
or chopped up, that's why it is, but I just want you to hear
everyone's story.
So, with that said, my firstgroup tonight is a group
affectionately known as TeamGeorge, led by the man himself,
george, along with Mackenzie andBrandy.

(02:31):
Welcome y'all, howdy.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Hello, hi, excited to be here.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
George, I think I know just we've never had this
conversation, but I think I knowjust we've never had never had
this conversation.
But I think I know, from thethree or four years that I've
known you now, what Team Georgeis about, which I would say is
100 percent the community, andanyway you can contribute to
making that community and makingthese events better.

(03:00):
But give me your official TeamGeorge motto.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Well, our official motto is safety.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
third, I've heard that too.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah.
And that boils down to you haveto have a plan, you have to
execute your plan, because ifyou don't have a plan, you're
not going to do anything anyway.
If you don't execute the plan,what the heck let's go out and
have something to drink, but ifyou execute the plan, you have
to do it safely.
So safety third, you all,safety third.
Now, having said that, thesetwo hooligans I don't know if

(03:35):
you're seeing them in this-picture or not.
Right here are the ones thatcame up with that with the Team
George thing I showed up at Ibelieve it was G Smitter a few
years ago and Mackenzie walkedup and said here's your.
Team.
George shirt, you're the leaderand that's how it became to be.
But what we do as a team is wetry to make sure that everybody

(04:01):
has a good time, first andforemost, and then we try to
pass on what little knowledgethat we gather, and we've
gathered over the years toanybody that doesn't beginners
and intermediates and peoplethat that that want to know more
about the, the sport ofoff-roading.
It's just we get together, we,we have a good time, you know,

(04:25):
meeting with it, jabbing andribbing each other and pulling
winch lines and getting peopleunstuck and, if you're a leader,
getting people stuck.
But the main thing is that wedon't leave anybody out on the
trail.
Everybody that goes out comesback.

(04:45):
Now Davey started a thing thisyear that he counts the people
because usually if you losesomebody.
You can pick up somebody and youhave the same number.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Now.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Davey's counting names.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Everybody was coded.
We were scanning in riders thisyear, so George couldn't cheat
me and bring back a rando.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, I was a little leery about taking the trail
lead out, but it still worked.
It was a good thing to do andother than that I'm going to let
the other two talk for a minuteand see if I missed anything.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Just a few.
You're up, girls.
Ladies, what do you want toknow?
What kind of you knowjuice-smitter secrets do you
want to know?
What kind of you know G Smittersecrets do you want to know?

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, well, first off , let's let's talk about this,
Because you guys are not in thesame, in the same town.
Where does everybody come from?

Speaker 4 (05:34):
We're not even in the same state.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, to make it to G Smitter yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, I'm, I'm myself .
I'm two hours up the road inEast Tennessee, in Jonesboro.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
I'm in the Florida Panhandle near Crestview Destin
area.

Speaker 4 (05:51):
And I am just outside of Atlanta Georgia.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, so Kenzie has a drive every year.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
Yes, she does.
I go up there a few times ayear.
I am her halfway point.
She's always welcome to staywith me.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah, and let's talk a little bit about vehicles.
George, you have an FJ Cruiserthat has become quite
recognizable.
It helps, when you bolt one ofthe first set of portals in the
country on it, to recognize thatred FJ Cruiser.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
It's a 2012 FJ Cruiser, the Trail Teams Edition
, which is red.
My wife actually named thevehicle Since it was an FJ.
She thought it would be nice tocall it Frederick James and we
shortened that to Fred.
So Fred is up on portals fromcan I mention the brand?

(06:49):
Absolutely yeah, up on portalsfrom 74, well down in California
, and on 37.
So he's got 16 inches of groundclearance under the rear diff,
although that won't keep you offsome rocks.
Nope, not at all.
You still have to pinch.
It won't keep you off some rocks, which is evident.
But yeah, it's pretty far offthe ground.

(07:11):
I've got some work to do on itstill yet.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
He's a sight for sure .
I won't put necks to himanymore.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah, we're a little jealous.
He makes us look like reallysmall.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Yeah yeah, 33s and 31s look kind of small sitting
next to it.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
I'm on 35s and I look small.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Mackenzie, give us the rundown on your rig.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
I have a 2016 Toyota 4Runner.
It's the Trail Premium Edition,which, if anybody's in the
4Runner world, it's basicallythe TRD Premium or, yeah,
premium Edition.
No, trd Pro under the Pro, Idon't know, I'm getting confused
.
Anyways, it came out in 2016.
That was last year they usedthat name.

(08:01):
It's just a step below the Pro.
I've been building it for fiveyears and I've been taking it up
to Windrock about three times ayear for the last five years
and adding more to it every timeI go up.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yes, it is quite well equipped, and what I'm going to
do for the people that arelistening to this, they'll have
to picture it, but if you'rewatching this on YouTube, I will
go in here after the fact andwe'll put some pictures up of
each of these trucks that we'retalking about.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
Perfect, just like put them all together.
I'll make sure.

Speaker 4 (08:38):
You can get Kenzie and I together, but George needs
to just be in the picture.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
All right, Brandy, give us your rundown.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
I'm running a 2010 FJ Cruiser.
That little baby has seen allfour corners of the US.
I bought it in Washington Statein 2015, and she had one owner
and I think the guy was akayaker.
And she had one owner and Ithink the guy was a kayaker.

(09:07):
She had never seen mountains.
She had never seen dirt.
So we remedied that very, veryquickly.
First mod I did was puttingbrush guard on it, because in
Washington state we have a lotof suicidal deer.
So, yeah, the winch wasn't soimportant then.
But I then moved to Connecticut, took her with me and she

(09:27):
started getting upgraded alittle bit more.
I started going out to RoushCreek.
Off-roading up there Obviouslyneeded a couple upgrades, which
I didn't do until I came toGeorgia in 2019.
Went up on Trail 2 in Windrockon street tires and OEM skid
plates and busted everything.

(09:49):
So that year I actually wonsome skid plates from Bud at Bud
Built there you go.
Happiest day of my life.
I still have the message fromBud when he called me to say
they were ready.
So now I'm full under armorbecause then george and I took
it out on what g6 that one timeand got stuck and I took out my

(10:11):
gas, um, my gas skid, so got anew, ordered that while I was up
on the mountain from bud, andso now it's fully armored
underneath all the way and uh,yeah, still a few more things to
do.
Um, when I bought it it had 16son it and 16 inch rims.
Um, running 32s, I bumped themup to 33s.

(10:32):
I'm at the biggest I can gowith those 16s.
So hopefully, right after atr,I'm going to be getting, uh, my
hopefully going up to 35s.
I'm bumping it up to 17-inchrims.
The tires are done.
My tires have been such goodtires since I switched over to
them, but definitely time forsome new ones.

(10:53):
So this end of year she's goingto be getting some love.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
There you go.
I like it.
So what is the history of thethree of you meeting?
Did you meet on the trail?

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Or I don't know this backstory.
It started with the one aboveme my very first time to
Windrock and very first timeeven putting a vehicle in
four-wheel drive.
George saved my hiney, I thinkmore like my brakes.
Yeah, I feel like I almost diedgoing down P1, not knowing how
to downshift and I hadapparently very used brakes on

(11:34):
my used 4Runner that hadn't hadvery long.
It was squealing and smokingand burning and George kept
going.
Someone's riding their brakestoo hard.
Yeah, come to find out theywere.
They were toast at the end ofp1 that day.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
That was my very first time out for those, for
those that don't know, p1 iskind of the main, uh kind of
half gravel, half dirt uh roadinto the the main part of uh
wind rock.
But it is quite steep andcoming back down it brakes can
get hot if you're not lettingthe transmission slow you down.

Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yeah, we actually had a working session with
Mackenzie's truck at mydaughter's house, putting brakes
on the front of it, yeah, andin between runs, yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:22):
There's a fun piece of trivia too, that George's
daughter is named allison andhis granddaughter is kanzi and
mccansey's daughter is namedallison.
So there was like this naturalkismet that these two needed to
come together oh this, yeah,that was a little spooky yeah,

(12:43):
it's confusing sometimes,especially when he's talking
about his granddaughter.
I'm sure that Brandy wants to goout to Moab with me again.
Yeah, yeah, that killed me outin Moab, but we made it back.
I think I changed my 13th CVaxle in your Airbnb parking lot,

(13:08):
getting really good at that.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
Well, you know, they make a lot of nice solid axle
kits for those FJ Cruisers now.
So you've got to stop changingCVs.
If you buy 13 CVs, you couldhave bought them.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
I probably could have gone straight axle by now, yes,
and probably should have myvehicle does not leave without
two spare.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
CVs in the back, although one's on it right now.
You have to replace the spare.
I know that game.
Yeah Well, all right, you guyswere talking.
So you've wheeled in differentparts of the country.
You've been to other events.
Talk about what it is about GSmitter.
That makes you say, okay, weare making sure this is on the

(14:03):
calendar again for next year.
We're not going to miss it.
Not everybody at once.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
Chief Smitter is one of the events where Davey,
working hard, working himself todeath, gets all the vendors out
there.
We have a tremendous,tremendous raffle.
Dave, what was it?

Speaker 1 (14:26):
$ one thousand dollars worth of raffle.
I think we were pushing on 55by the end of it, because we had
some vendors that that wereattending the event as well and
brought more stuff with them, uh, for the raffle that we didn't
even know was coming.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
So yeah, so that yeah that's one of the premier
things is is the, the rafflethat that you have brings a lot
of people in the camaraderiethat at the event, after the
trail ride, everybody's aroundthe pavilion having a good time.
If you don't know somebody bythe end of the afternoon, you're
going to know them.
You get to see different rigsfrom different parts of the

(15:02):
country that people haul in,drive in, drive in, haul home.
It's just a great experience.
People having a good time atthe event.
It's just a great event.
If you don't come, you need tocome.

Speaker 4 (15:23):
I like the organization too.
I was going to say that too.
I love going in in the morningand checking to see how many
people are on our ride list andthen checking to see how many
show up.
I think a lot of people makefriends up there and just you
know, just like we did, theyform a group of people and they
love to go out together.

(15:44):
I mean, it's fine, you go withus.
You get to hear a bunch ofstories from George, you get to
take at least one wrong turn ifnot two.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
I'm allowed two wrong turns per trip.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Well, it's one thing.
We were talking about that,brandy.
So this year was recordattendance from a registration
standpoint 301 registered trucks, and so, planning towards that,
we added more guided rides andgot more volunteers and had
everything lined up.

(16:19):
And then the rides were notfilling up like they were before
and, to your point, that's nota bad thing.
That meant people are makingfriends, growing their community
and going hey, we've kind ofdone this before, we're going to
take our group and go do thistoday, and that's, that's a good
thing.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, that's how we started,mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
It is yeah, yeah, actually, mackenzie.
Mackenzie led her first trail.
This year Did my first official.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
Oh, is this your first one?
Okay, this was my firstofficial trail yeah.
Trail lead, so she did a greatjob.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
Well, we had practice today.
Did you have to unofficially?

Speaker 6 (17:02):
lead one before.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
Well, just with our group, like at other events,
like I've I've led, but I havenever done an official one with
people I didn't know joining thegroup.
So I'm like, well, I better notscrew it up.
But and I was very nervousbecause these people didn't know
me, most of the group didn'tknow me, and I felt like
everyone was like looking at me,like oh, there's some you know,
you know, dumb blonde that'sgoing to lead our trip, some

(17:22):
girl, she doesn't know whatshe's doing, and I was like
super nervous.
But then at the end of it I hadmultiple people come up to me
because we ended at the statepenitentiary and they kept
coming up and saying you didsuch a good job.
Like you were clear over theradio when you were going, you
kept the pace, great.
Like I was like, oh, thank you.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
I wasn't really worried.
Now let me clarify somethingfor people listening that may
not be familiar with Windrockand Oliver Springs.
The state penitentiary is now atourist destination.
They did not just happen uponthe penitentiary.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
Yeah, no, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
It's the former Brushy Mountain State
Penitentiary that's now you cantour the prison and they've got
a restaurant and bar and allkind of stuff in there to check
out.
So we always have a few ridesthat make it over that direction
.
Speaking of making it overtowards the prison, so for folks

(18:18):
that have been doing this for along time or coming to G
Smitter for a long time, wealways have prison guided rides
on Saturday and they followedthe same course for several
years, which is through Windrock, and then there's a final
section, a couple of miles thatyou actually go on to the state
of Tennessee on the Frozen HeadState Park property before you

(18:41):
come back out on the highwaygoing to Windrock, and the state
does not maintain that sectionof trail, as everyone's starting
to find out, and so this usedto be what we call the green run
and easy run over to the prison, and so last year I think we
had decided to modify it into ablue run and then we had a

(19:04):
another alternative easy runthere, but you guys decided you
were going to just kind ofpre-run it, put tires on it just
to check it out, and and it'sbecome a black run in about a
one mile section.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
It was so bad Last mile.
It was so bad, obstacle afterobstacle, they did not stop.

Speaker 4 (19:28):
Are there winch lines that?

Speaker 2 (19:29):
used?
Yeah, all three of us, allthree of us in one trip.
None of us have used our winchlines, I don't think, since
we've been wheeling together.
Well, george and I have winchedtogether.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
Fine, it was the first time I used mine, but it
was the first time I used mine,but it was the first time all
three of us well, that wasgeorge's winch, though at that
time that was, that was before Igot mine.
So now that we all have them,we've all used them, and we all
used them in the same weekendthey all work yeah, they do work
so.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
So they got themselves into a little bit of
a pickle, but they gotthemselves out of out of the
pickle as well, and you, you ranin.
I don't think you planned it,but you ended up running into
Jamie Murphy in that section aswell, right?

Speaker 4 (20:10):
Oh yeah, he was great I forgot his dad on the trail
too, you forgot, mr Jimmy.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, jimmy, I'd ride with Jamie anywhere.

Speaker 4 (20:22):
We forgot Jimmy.
We forgot Robert Startup.
Yeah, we got going down thehighway.
It's like wait a minute,where's Jimmy?
Where's Robert?
Did somebody grab him?
We'll get to go back andthey're walking down the trail.
They were doing our photographsand, if you don't know, Jimmy
does amazing photographs.

(20:43):
So he does Very worth havinghim outside the vehicle on that
trail.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah, well, there are .
Yeah.
So there's plenty of photos ofthat section and I'll throw a
few of them up here for thefolks watching this, because
that was interesting.
I saw you guys that eveningwhen you got back and you were
like, let me tell you about thatone little section which it's

(21:09):
gotten progressively worse.
Chase and Joey had kind of runinto it last year and said, yeah
, it's definitely not a greenanymore, and now it's definitely
not a blue anymore.
So I just hope it'll stay open.
Hopefully the state doesn'tjust gate it up and we have to
go another way around.
But who knows how that's goingto happen, because apparently

(21:30):
they have made it clear that thestate is not going to maintain
their portion.
If anybody has a pull at thestate yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
They maintain the portion where it runs out on 116
because all that mud they haveto stand a skid steer out to get
the mud off of 116.
Well, that is true.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah, you can see where this portion of trail is.
If you're taking Highway 116over to the prison, you come
around the curve and thehighway's covered in mud where
it's been scraped off.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, that was us was us.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Well, that wasn't the last adventure on that trail.
There were some folks thatended up out there for a long
time, I believe later that samenight I heard like one in the
morning.
Yeah, I think we've got anothergroup that went on that rescue
mission.
That'll talk about that here alittle bit later.
So there's your tease.
Yeah, all right.
Well, team George, thank youall for taking the time to come
on here and share your thoughtson G Smitter and man.

(22:33):
We appreciate you guys.
You make it such a fun event toput together and organize,
knowing that we've gotvolunteers and trail leaders
that are always like yep, yep,just tell me what to do and I'll
be glad to do it.
So, thank you.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Big hand to you, Davey, for what you do out there
.
You've done a fantastic job onCheesemeter this year.
Hopefully you can keep it upfor next few years.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
We'll see.
I'm going to commit to one yearat a time.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
It's a great event.
You do such an awesome job,Thanks guys, no offense every
year.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
Thank you, davey, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
All right.
Well, let's see if George D isback with me.
Oh, george is here.
He is solo.
I'm looking at my schedule andZach is supposed to be here.
You heard anything from Zach,george?

Speaker 6 (23:31):
This feels just like what happened at G Smitter.
We're having a recourse here.
What happened during that week?
Yeah, I don't know.
I sent him a text.
Hopefully he get on soon, butwe'll see where that.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
All right.
Well, for folks that don't knowGeorge, he hails from
Huntsville, Alabama, part of theheart of the South cruisers
down there.
George, do you remember howmany years you've been coming to
G Smitter?

Speaker 6 (24:02):
Yeah, so I've been coming ever since 2019 was my
first year I started, so I'verelocated a lot across the
country I started off in Texasand then at the time I was
running with the Lone StarCruisers and Toyota Trail Riders
at the time.
And then I moved up to northeastin Connecticut and I was with I
would have some of the guyswith the Gotham City guys for

(24:23):
about a year and a half.
And then I moved here toHuntsville, alabama, for work
and got into the Rocket Citygroup out south of Cruisers and
it's been awesome ever since.
These guys are a reallytight-knit community and a lot
of the guys are saying you know,there's this event called
G-Smitter and I'd known about itfor years.
I just could never attendbecause I was always in Texas or
.
Connecticut for years.

(24:43):
I just could never attendbecause I was always, you know,
texas or Connecticut.
It was always a hole for workfor me to come out here.
So now that I was here, it'sjust a few hour drive.
So I started coming and, yeah,I fell in love with the event
and been coming ever since.
Then, eventually, as you guysstarted to get bigger and needed
more trail guides, I fell intothe into that trap and I've been
a trail lead for, I guess, thelast three years or so.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
I think it's been about three years because that's
when I really started buggingyou guys, Because we were short
about three years ago and Heartof the South really stepped up
and I think you guys representedabout half the trail leaders
that year, which was great.

Speaker 6 (25:21):
Yeah, we've got a real active group here, so it
was fun for us to join in and bepart of the event, so it's been
worth it.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
So you've experienced , bouncing around the country,
several different chapters andevents.
Then right yeah, you've beendoing this for a minute.

Speaker 6 (25:37):
Yeah, yeah, I've been doing this so I started back in
2005 going to.
You know all the events downsouth, even the ones in the
northeast, for a while.
So definitely G Smithers standsout.
It is by far the biggest Iwould say the best
well-organized event that I'vegone to on the East Coast.
For sure, it's just thecommunity of people that show up

(25:59):
.
I know it's an off-road eventand people show up to come and
do trails but honestly, for meit's an off-road event and
people show up to come and dotrails but honestly, for me it's
more about the people.
You know, when I get home I endup talking more about the
experiences I've had at theevent than you know the wheeling
or the wheeling or theadventure that we have on it,
even though there's plenty ofthem.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
Like for example there was.

Speaker 6 (26:21):
you guys will meet Lee later.
But there was one night we wereall at the night and Lee was
telling us a story and it wasthe craziest story I'd heard in
a long time that I broke into alaugh.
I'd never been in before.
I was in tears and I crumbledand, like that type of
experience is something I just,you know, I'll never forget.

(26:43):
And you know it was all becauseof just the community, the
people that we that come to thisevent that are they're looking
to just have a good time,whether you're out on the trail
or whether you just want to sitdown and just relax and take a
break from you know your yourdaily routine.
So things like that are reallywhat drive me to come back every
year.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
So it's, it's, it's a event.
I I always put my calendar to10.
That's good to hear, cause we Imean you'll hear us say that
like a broken record, that it'sabout the community, but it
really it really is.
And one thing you know we tryto get these rides started on
time every morning excuse me,depending on the day nine or 10
o'clock, so that we can get out.
Now things happen and sometimeswe don't get back when we want

(27:27):
to, but but the goal is to geteverybody back to camp by mid
afternoon, because that's whenthe real socializing starts.
I mean, riding trails togetheris fun and that's an experience,
but you don't, you don'tnecessarily get to know people
the same way that you do hangingout at dinner or hanging out at
the campsite.

Speaker 6 (27:44):
Correct.
It's going through theexperiences.
I mean, the trails are whatkick off the ability to kind of
break the ice.
You know, you help each otherout, get into the trail, you do
the small talks and that makeseveryone just be able to just
relax and break that thatstrangerness between everybody.
And by the time you get back tothe pavilion you're like, oh,

(28:05):
you drove that truck, you didthis, and then it starts that
conversation and then you know,it just evolves from there and
then you do that day after dayand then years after year with
the, with these same people, andit's just, it's just a show.
It becomes a family and thenyou guys just enjoy the event
for the few days that we're alltogether.
So, uh, it's always worth it.
There's it's never the sameevery year.
There's always new stories,there's always new adventures,
there's always something thatyou know that's almost the fear
of missing out.

(28:25):
You know you want to make sureyou're there.
Uh, one year I I literallybroke loading my truck on the
trailer head out there and I gotso much drag for that and yeah,
it's been one of the years I Ilive in infamy because I missed.
So, uh, from now on I've got acouple rigs to make sure I can
make it up to every time.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
You know it's funny You're talking about.
It's different every yearbecause one thing that we'll
hear from people is people willsay I ran those trails before, I
don't want to run those trailsagain.
Well, windrock, like manyplaces on the East Coast, what

(29:09):
you ran last week is not goingto be the same as it is this
week, and so you know it's.
Everything evolves, especiallythose, those trails and the the
group you're with the conditionsof the trail.
It makes it a unique experienceeach time.
I've never there's trails outthere that I've done 15 or 20
times but I never say I'm boredof running this trail.

Speaker 6 (29:30):
Exactly.
No, it changes almost daily.
So there was one year at GSmitter we were trying to get a
little smarter and we were goingto try to do these pre-runs and
we went up there like three orfour weeks before the actual G
Smitteriter event and we decidedto run the trails, get an idea
of what all the trails are goingto be like.
So when we'd actually lead themon G-Semiter we'd have a better
understanding and cancommunicate that to the rest of

(29:51):
the drivers what it's going tobe like out there.
And that weekend we went, itwas snow and ice and rainy and
it was just, you know, all thetrails were just beat to hell.
And so you know we ran themthinking and we were all jackets

(30:11):
and coats just running to thetrails because it was cold that
week.
And then we come to the g summerevent and it's 100 degrees
outside.
It is complete polar oppositeof what it was and it was dry
and it was hot, muggy and youknow everything.
We all that pre-running that wedid went out the window.
The trails were completelydifferent than what we expected.
So essentially we're tellingeverybody on each of the trails
you know, say hey, it's going tobe dry, it should be easier.
But this is kind of what we sawa few weeks ago, but don't

(30:32):
expect to be the same.
You know, some trails, somespots change daily, just because
the way they're they're right,or some of the rocks, the way
they move.
Uh, there's, there's a rock wecall refrigerator rock and it
moves time, you know it's neverthere at the same point.
It changes so much that everytime someone comes up, it moves
the rock and the line changes.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
That's on for those listening.
That's on Trail 35.
And that is a rock that Patchhas single-handedly moved a
couple of times, so yeah.

Speaker 6 (31:00):
Again.
But 35 is a hard trail, a blacktrail.
So we tell folks you knowthere's going to be a rock,
you've got to get around.
We don't know how you're goingto do it because it changes
where every time you move.
You just got to figure out yourway to get through it.
Whatever your way can do, justdo it.
But again, that's part of theadventure.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Even though you may run the trail you know a dozen
times were talking about.
Yes, 35 is a hard trail.
With that said, we've taken 100series open-open with A-Track
on 33s up that trail and gottenthem out with a handful, you
know, a few scratches.
So one thing that I always tryto instill in people is this
isn't if you're, if you're alittle nervous maybe you've been
, you know you've been runningeasier stuff or you hadn't been
wheeling with a group.
You're kind of new to this, youdidn't grow up in it.
This is a place to come kind ofsafely explore what you can do

(32:03):
and what your truck can do,Because the guys like yourself
that have been leading thesetrails and doing it for a long
time, there's nothing that makesus happier than helping
somebody learn how their truckworks, how to drive it, how to
get through the obstacle safely.

Speaker 6 (32:19):
Correct.
Especially in the Land Cruiserworld there's a lot of wagons
and these wagons are verycapable, more capable than
people realize, and so we'llfind people who've never been on
these trails that are blacktrails that want to go and then
they ask is this capable?
And the answer is yes, it candefinitely do it with the mild
updates that it requires.

(32:40):
But it's also the driver.
You've got to have the mindsetthat you're going to put your
truck on a hard trail.
There's going to be a lot ofuncomfortableness with, with
hitting, possibly body damage,getting off camber, you know if
that scares you and it's goingto freeze you up, you know then.
Then then you say, maybe try mymoderate uh.
For example, we had a guy whodid 35 uh at this event and he
had a fairly stocked.

(33:02):
He actually had a lift with arear locker and he did amazing.
He had super confidence.
He's like I've wheeled all overthe country this thing.
I know how to drive this thing.
I've done it on, I've donemultiple block trails.
It's a clean truck, clean body.
You know it is a wagon but ityou know he had the confidence
to push it and he did On thetrail.
He wasn't afraid to get thattruck in an uncomfortable
situation and get it throughwith a little bit of a help.

(33:24):
You know, maybe some type ofstack of rocks, maybe pull a
little winch, but you know theassistance he needed just to
make sure to keep him off therocks and then keep his truck
safe.
You know, he was all, he wasfine with that, as long as you
know he could get through it.
And you know just just that,having that mentality that you
know your truck can do it, youjust got to let the truck do the
work to get it through thetrail.
And having that confidence ishuge.
It makes a difference all thetime in some of these trail rigs

(33:46):
.
So, uh, it's definitely, youknow, and having the trail leads
out there, that we've got, orhave been, you know, done these
trails a dozen times.
They know what the hot spotsare and then the capabilities
and we try different ways to getthose wagons through these
trails.
So all that helps with theexperience of the trail leaders
to help those folks who haven'tdone it before.
So, so again, so again, it's agreat, it's a great event to
come through to bring your event, your rig that's got the
capability and really test it.

(34:07):
You know, and don't have thefear that there's going to be
people around you to guide youthrough it and you're going to
get through the trail and you'regoing to have a good time, so
it's all worth it.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, and the other thing I was thinking is you know
this is a, this is, and so youcan always kind of baby step
your way into it If you're notsure, if you want to sign up for
a difficult ride.
Because what we?
We do our best to describethese trails and we've got some

(34:35):
pretty generous descriptionsthat describe them as best they
can be.
But what somebody considers ablue and somebody else considers
a blue or can be two totallydifferent things.
And if you've wheeled in otherparts of the country where they
use a numbering system, thatkind of goes out the window over
here.
So you know you can come outThursday, friday, you know, get
on a green trail.

(34:55):
Then you know, go out on a blueon a moderate run, do 26, 27.
I think George normally leadsthat one each year and then if
you say, ok, I'm good with allthat, I'm willing to push it
another level, then Saturday byall means we'll get you on some
hard stuff.

Speaker 6 (35:11):
Yeah, yeah, it gives you that flexibility and a lot
of these trails to your point werun multiple times.
You may want to wait to comeback.
Instead of starting doing thehard trail on Thursday, wait
till the Friday trail to hearwhat the response is, the
feedback is from the trails thatwere done previously, the day
before, to get you more of anidea of what you're comfortable
doing and you get everybodyaware on the trail leader side

(35:33):
on what the trails look like, sowe can give you better you know
advice on what you're lookingforward to getting into if you
decide to do some of thesetrails that are there.
So again, every every day iskind of built upon the previous
and we're always scrambling,we're always changing it up.
I mean, as you can see, likeyou said earlier, a lot of these
people are coming back to youaround getting comfortable on

(35:54):
doing their own trails.
They're not having the need usto guide them and so they're
able to go do those trailswithout us.
And then the people that arejoining the trails are folks who
are new to the event or new toWindrock and just trying to get
a little more guidance so theycan get comfortable, go out and
do their own thing.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
So it really helps to just be a participant and then
you can.
Your vehicle came up in theconversation because he was like
there's this guy, it's like a40, but it's like a buggy and
I'm like oh.
I know Now, folks, there's arunning joke that grinds
George's gears on referring tohis truck as a buggy.

(36:43):
But I'll put a picture up herefor folks.

Speaker 3 (36:48):
If you got it, pull it up.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
I'll overlay it later , but give us a rundown on your
rig.

Speaker 6 (36:53):
Okay, so this is back in about 2019.
I've had an 80 Series sincebasically 2005,.
And that was always my trailrig and and I used the forever
as a daily driver and and it gotto the point where I just got
tired of beating on it.
I was trying to keep it.
It's a clean body truck.
It's got all cool stuff to it.
I won't go into my 80, but Iwas like I want something else,

(37:15):
so I was looking for 60.
Uh, I've always wanted a 60,and then I was buying a 60 that
can just be as a trail rig, andso when this 40 came up on, uh,
available, like it's a, it's agreat 40, it's a, it's a stock
40.
I say stock.
This is where this is where wewe we start the argument right
there.
So I what I mean by stock it?

(37:37):
It is a full body 40.
It's not cut up, hacked up,it's a full body 40.
It's got a stock drivetrain, soit's a 2F with a four speed and
a 40 transfer case.
So stock drivetrain, right,stock chassis, no tube anywhere
in the chassis.
Stock axles.
It's got a 40 series in thefront.
It's got a 60 series semifloater in the rear.

(38:00):
So even though it is a 60series, it's still a semi
floater.
People want rear.
So even though it is a 60series, it's still a
semi-floater.
You know, people want this, usea full floater.
So again, we're not talking bigaxles, big drivetrain, right,
but what it does have is a greatsuspension.
It's got four-linked front andrear.
It's got uh, oris uh, if you'renot familiar with those,
they're a nitrogen-based shock.
They mainly are used in highperformance trucks, so it is.

(38:22):
It does have full hydrosteering, so it's.
So again, it is it uh, it's also, it's also propane it is a
propane truck, but I don't lookat it as a plus.
It's because it is lower onpower.
It does help the carburetor.
I think it's just a feature.
I mean, there's okay.
There's plenty of cars aroundthe world that run on propane.

(38:43):
If you go to australia there's.
It's an alternative fuel.
It's not anything that'sperforming.
It's not an adder.
It's not like a supercharger orturbocharger where I've gained
a ton of boost out of this thing.
It's a high octane but I losehorsepower in the 2F, right.
So I just think it'salternative fuel.
It doesn't really add to thebugginess of it, right to the

(39:06):
bugginess of it, right.
So when I bought this truck,that's what I saw I saw a stock
40 with a cool suspension.
Now, I was looking for a truck,I wasn't looking for a buggy.
When I think of buggy, I'mthinking full exoskeleton, big
engine, big axles, big tires.
We're talking 40s.
My truck has 37s.
So when you say buggy, that'swhere my head goes into the

(39:27):
world of buggies.
When I, when you look at thistruck, I see a stock 40 with the
cool suspension on 37s, Inothing about this truck says
buggy other than that thesuspension is it is a
buggy-esque suspension?
yes, I'll give you that.
It is a very cool suspension,but the the word I've always

(39:48):
said it's an aftermarketsuspension.
Every truck out here, ag-smitter, has an aftermarket
suspension.
Does that mean it's a buggy?
No, but it's a 40 with a coolsuspension.
So in my mind that is not a bug, and so we've gone around with
folks on this.
It looks 10 feet away it lookslike a buggy, but when you see

(40:09):
what parts are on it it's astock 40 with a cool suspension.
And so in my mind in my worldthat's not a buggy.
So we've had to explain it andgone through battle with plenty
of folks over it.
We'll see At the top.
We'll hide the beholder in thissituation.
I'm not going to changeeveryone's perspective and say
that's a buggy Well, all right,that's your perspective, but for

(40:32):
me it's not a buggy.
If I was going to buy a buggyit would be way over the top
buggy, not a stock 40 with a twoafter I train on stock.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
It doesn't read buggy .
To me, when I first saw it,when I bought it, I was nowhere
near in my head that this was abuggy.
Now here's the cool thing.
George was talking about that80.
So if his 40 with a buggysuspension was to fail him, that
80 is one of the few 80s in thecountry that is.
2uz swapped correct.

Speaker 6 (41:04):
Correct.
It is a 2UZ swapped.
I pulled the drive frame out ofa 100 Series Land Cruiser.
I got it from Chicago.
It was a rusted out 100.
It was running, driving.
It was a soccer mom truck, butit was just all rusted to hell.
The frame was gone.
Anything metal on it was justcorroding away.

(41:27):
And so I got it for hella cheap, brought it back, I drove it
for about a month or two and Itook that drivetrain out and
swapped it.
Now, before, like I said, I'vehad my 80 since 2005.
And it had a 3FE.
If any of you in the LandCruiser world know what a 3FE is
, it's a boat anchor.
It just doesn't have any power.

(41:52):
But I loved it.
I had it forever and then oneyear we went to Colorado, we
went to a Solid Axle Summit andwhen you get up in the mountains
the truck's already gutless.
I'm running 37s with 48s, I'mgeared, I've got tires.
I mean it's a heavy truck withall your gear.
You know, when you're drivingcross country and it was just
gutless in the mountains, likeyou're, literally, you're
flowing it and you're justtrying to get 30 miles an hour
out of this thing coming up thehill.
You know, and my wife wasdriving it and she was like this

(42:15):
is ridiculous, like it'sdangerous, you know.
So it was a miserableexperience getting to there, but
the benefit was that my wifewas like we need to change the
engine, like I get it, like it'stime to swap it out.
So that led to the tuzi swap.
We brought it back home, uh,rock city cruises, which is a a
shop here.
Uh really helped me out a lotand and starting that, that swap

(42:38):
, and and finishing it up and uh, it's been an amazing
transition.
I highly recommend the tuziswap.
Uh on an 80 series.
Uh, and again, it just it's,it's, it's definitely my dream
drug.
It's been an amazing transition.
I highly recommend it to usethe swap uh on an 80 series.
Uh, and again, it just it's,it's, it's definitely my dream
drug.
It's got everything I've everwanted in my 80 and uh, all that
thing, whatever you're into.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yeah, folks have have heard me talk uh before on
different episodes where twouses come up and and those guys
from Huntsville are big fans ofthe two UZ swaps and George is
one of those guys, so he sharedsome insight there.
If you didn't pick up on that,you have to take this.

(43:12):
It becomes not a performancebut it's a safety issue that the
truck wasn't quick enough toget out of its own way and then
it became his wife's idea forhim to 2UZ swap the truck.

Speaker 6 (43:26):
It was a perfect situation that came out of that.
It was like, see, we have to doit now.
It was game on.
After that it's been an amazingswap.
The only thing I regret is Ididn't do it sooner.
It always been on my agenda todo it, I always wanted to do it
and I just, you know two easyswaps aren't common.
It's not like you find a ton ofliterature out there.

(43:48):
There's not a lot of, you know,plug and play parts that you do
an LS swap.
You know you really got toreally manufacture a lot of the
parts.
You got to do a lot of thewiring at the time by yourself
and work those little detailsthat just aren't completely
available.
And you know it really helpedwith, again, rocket team
cruisers.
There's Zach Johnson.
He, he did his, he did his twoeasy swap and I helped him out
with that and just watching himput it together, I all the all

(44:11):
the fear I had with doing theswap just went away.
Like he knocked it out in likea winter season and I'm like
what am I doing?
Like I need to get on it, likethat's, that's it.
It's doable if it's that easyto do.
It's not as complex as Iimagined it.
Let's just jump in and do it,and so that started the
exhibition to find a 2UZcandidate and it took me a

(44:33):
little longer but we got thereand I guess it's been worth it.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
I love, I love the 2UZ.
Well, the irony is, as we'retalking about 2UZs, is that Zach
was supposed to be on thissegment here with George and we
don't know where he's hiding.
But Zach is Sorry, broke, hebroke again.

Speaker 6 (44:54):
That 30-amp fuse took him out again.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
He's been on me for months, me for months.
He wants to record an episodespecifically about he would tell
you it's about reasons not toLS swap your cruiser, but it
really it's him being aproponent of the UZ swap.
So anyway, if he ever comes on,then maybe we can talk about it

(45:20):
.

Speaker 6 (45:22):
You should have Cruiser Matt on that.
I thought about that and lethim let him debate it.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
That'd be like a crossfire episode for folks.
I believe a lot of words now,cruiser Matt, out of Florida,
does a phenomenal job on on LS,all things LS swapping your,
your cruisers, and, and so, yeah, your, your cruisers, and uh,
and so, yeah, all right.
Well, uh, george, uh, thank you.

(45:48):
Thank you for uh, forvolunteering again.
Uh, you and, and all the folksfrom Heart of the South.
Uh always show up and supportthe event in multiple different
ways, including uh trail leading.
So, uh, we appreciate it and,uh, I can't, can't wait to do it
again next year.
Can't wait, should be fun.
All right, buddy, thanks, seeyou.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome up next Mr Aubrey

(46:17):
Swenson to the program.

Speaker 5 (46:19):
Aubrey, how are you doing?
Doing?

Speaker 1 (46:20):
well man Doing well, thanks for having me how you
doing, doing well, man Doingwell.
Thanks for having me.
So for those that don't know,this year at G Smitter Aubrey
kind of filled multiple roles.
He was a first-time participant, he was a trail leader and tail

(46:41):
gunner, yes, trail leader, Inever tail gunned.

Speaker 5 (46:44):
Okay, never needed to tail gun, uh and uh trailer.
I never tell you.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
Okay, never, never needed it to tip the trail uh
and also uh representing uhfirestone as a platinum sponsor
at the event.
So you were, you were busy uhthe entire week yes, but it was
fun.

Speaker 5 (46:59):
It's it's everybody's like.
You got to go to these eventslike it's the most fun I have
with my job.
It it's awesome, I love it.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
Yeah, there's.
There's a lot of people, Ithink, are jealous of these,
these perks, of your job.
I'm sure there's real work,that you have to do it at times,
but you know we, we don't seethat side of it.
We just see a dude that justgets to go out and wheel and
talk about tires.

Speaker 5 (47:23):
So yes, there is real work that has to be done.
So the couple of nights that Ikind of skirted away early, it
was to go back and have my datewith my laptop to go see what
orders had come in for customersand what fires had come up with
different customers.
But it's all good.
I mean, I've figured out how tobalance it after 15 years doing

(47:43):
this.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
Well, you know what's funny when Aubrey talks about
it.
He had to skirt away early.

Speaker 5 (47:47):
Aubrey booked this cabin and it was a literal cabin
.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
We were calling it the murder shack it had no power
, no water, no nothing.

Speaker 5 (47:58):
It was just this spooky-looking shed in the woods
, oh yeah, but this is preparedlike a boy scout my jackery and
then my little um, the usbrechargeable rope lights.
Like I had light, I had powerto to run what I needed to and
the bathhouse was 100 yards awayif I had to.

(48:20):
You know when I went to goshower or go do anything like
that.
So it wasn't bad.
I will not.
I probably won't rent it again.
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Yeah, did you leave a Yelp review?

Speaker 5 (48:38):
No, I told the folks that are the folks that Winrock
are out of this world.
Awesome, yes, samantha Collinsis is the marketing rep that we
work with, since we now sponsorthe park.
And when I told her I was like,hey, I booked this.
She's like, are you sure youwant that?
I'm like, yeah, it'd be fine.
It's, it's three nights, it'snot a huge deal.
So she messaged me and was likeso, so, how's, how is it?

(48:59):
And I said it is as close tobeing in a tent without being in
a tent as possible.
And I'm so glad that I got it,because every other time I've
come like when I've come toother events this year, I've
been in it.
I've either I've been in ahotel room in town because
everything's been booked up, andI'm glad that I had those,
because it would either be anice storm or a rainstorm or we

(49:19):
had some rain.
You know, one of the nightsthere at G Smitter, I just need
a dry roof over my head.
Man, I can be fine withsleeping bag on the bench thing
that's in there as a sleepingplatform and rock and roll.
It's not a huge deal, g.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Smitter works well for camping or primitive cabins.
When it's not one of the yearsthat it's 95 degrees, yeah, what
we see is when it's one of thethe 95 degrees degree years,
then the next year there's aspike in cabin rentals because
people are like I'm not doingthat again and then and then the

(49:56):
temperature is good and itcomes back down, so yeah, yeah,
well, and they're, they're doingso much with, like the yurts,
like a previous event, windrock,yeah yeah, previous event, one
of my colleagues.

Speaker 5 (50:07):
He got a yurt and he's like, man, it's 85, 90
degrees outside, but man, thisthing's, it's cool inside, it's
got everything.
I need no power, no water, butstill whatever.
And then the tiny houses.
That's what I've got for anevent coming up And'm I'm really
, really, really excited about,about trying those out, so yeah,

(50:27):
those are cool.
Gc was a was a fun event, uh,on a lot of levels.
The uh, the notorious murdershack was was part of it.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
So and then, uh, the, the lovely late night ride was
another yeah, there was, uh,there was a few, uh, a few late
night rides, but Aubrey took thekeys from our buddy Lee on one
ride, and that was an adventure.

Speaker 5 (50:54):
Yeah, that was a bad idea for everybody involved.
I'm sorry, Lee.
Every time I talk to him Iapologize, and I'll continue to
do so all the way through.
Crockies and Crozos on theRocks eternally.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
So, if you don't know , lee and Aubrey and I are
recording this during the weekand I think I'm going to record
a segment with Lee here later.
So we'll see how this all timesout when we edit it together.
But Lee put the blower, put thesupercharger on his 200.
And, being the nice guy that heis, he really wants everyone to

(51:32):
experience it from the driver'sseat.

Speaker 5 (51:35):
That thing is freaking awesome.
It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
So he's just kind of passing out his keys like candy
to anybody that will drive himaround in this thing during the
event, and Aubrey wasn't goingto turn it down.
So they had a little night runup 35.
And 30.
Oh and 30.
Okay, I didn't know.
You called both of them.
The word is that there was a uh, an awning uh, from, uh, from

(52:05):
the rack that that may have beenleft on on 35 inadvertently so
it was donated to the?

Speaker 5 (52:12):
uh, it was donated to the gods of the trail as a, as
a peace offering for allowing usto get underneath the tree that
was blocking the trail.
Um, and, and it was a learningopportunity for me, um, when,
when Lee says, hey, you got toput your foot in it from like,
from the start, you really gotto put your foot in it from the
start.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
Um, I was a little tentative and it cost us, so
yeah, oh, all good, uh, but thatwasn't the uh, that really
wasn't the holdup of uh of youguys getting back to camp.
That night Our buddy Zach inNever Fails Camo, camo, let him
down and a 30-amp fuse caused acouple hours for you guys

(52:58):
waiting to get off the trailthat night is my understanding.
It did my understanding it did.

Speaker 5 (53:03):
But.
But the conversation on thetrail while we're we're, while
we're standing at a, a safedistance from Zach, who was very
, very interested in getting histruck fixed fast, folks, you
know.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
Zach, you can, you can picture how this went.

Speaker 5 (53:23):
Yeah, oh yeah, it's all went.
Oh yeah, it's all good.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
Well, let me pull up.
I've got a few pictures I'veborrowed from your Instagram.
I believe these are all from GSmitter.
Yeah, probably when you weretrail leading here.
If folks haven't, you can gofind Rosa, the LC100.
That is Aubrey's Instagramaccount.
Check the rig out.

(53:50):
Here we are up on.

Speaker 5 (53:54):
Carrival.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
Flats.

Speaker 5 (53:55):
Yeah, caught an elk up at Carrival Flats, that's the
first time I've been up thereand been able to see one and
been able to see one reallyreally cool, Really really cool.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
How, how, how did your truck perform for the week?

Speaker 5 (54:17):
Oh great, I didn't.
I didn't really push her toomuch, yeah, when I did that.
So I did the the twenty seven,twenty six run with with Chase
Morrow on day one.
So, actually, no, I did, I didtell you.
So I did because I tell you forhim that day, and you know that

(54:37):
was a little there were acouple of questionable moments,
but it was really more with menot having sliders at the time.
It was just trying to keep itoff the doors more than anything
else.
So but, yeah, it's a fun ride.
Truck did great, I really.

(54:58):
If you see the pictures, it'sgot the frigging spare tire on
the roof.
I hate that because it makes ittoo tall and I feel like it
makes it too top heavy and so Iam uh, trying to trying to fix
that piece of the equation now,um, by moving it down.
And then, um, I mean the, thetires did what the tires do.
I love the destination MT2.

(55:19):
Uh, I think it is really reallythe best tire out there for
East Coast wheeling where we'vegot a good combination of rock
and mud.
Obviously, with some eventsthat I have coming up out West,
I have switched out to adifferent tire, more of a
traditional all-terrain, and I'mreally excited to see how well
that does out West, as well ashow it does on the drive across

(55:41):
the country to get there.
But yeah, the truck did great.
She's not leaking anymore.
She was leaking at a previousevent through the sunroof, and
so I've solved that problem, atleast on a temporary basis.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
Yeah, those sunroofs are a little notorious for water
intrusion.
Yeah, yes.
So all right, uh.
So yeah, like I was like westarted uh first time attendee,
trail leader, uh, sponsor you.
You saw the whole thing.
You go to a lot of these uhevents across the country.
So give us uh, give us, yourunbiased review on uh, on G

(56:20):
smitter as an event, as arepresentation of the Land
Cruiser and the off-roadcommunity at large and
specifically over here east ofthe Mississippi.

Speaker 5 (56:32):
Yeah, so, I love that .
It's a lovely balance of vendorfocus and community focus.
Like I I I'll probably get introuble for saying this from
firestone, but I don't know thatI spent more than 20 minutes a
day in my booth and but itwasn't that I was like not in

(56:54):
the booth, not havingconversations about tires, it's
just that I may be standing inline for breakfast like talking
with with Bud from Budville andthat turns into a tire
conversation which then spinsoff into three or four more tire
conversations and then on trailyou know we're having we're
talking about well, why is thistire doing this or why is this

(57:14):
doing that while we're goingaround the trail and it's, it's
a lot of fun.
And then back for dinners everynight.
It was a lot of just.
I feel like it's a really bigfamily and I love that there's
so many people that come to andI'm going to shamelessly plug a
couple of other events.
You know that come to Windrockfor uh, for Venture Unknowns
event, and then come to Shamrockand then come to G Smitter and

(57:36):
then come to ATR, um, and youknow, and come to CroR and come
to Cruisers on the Rocks.
It's fun to see that and I loveseeing the variety of builds,
even within the 100 Seriescommunity and the greater Land
Cruiser community.
You talk about Camo.
That thing is.
I called it Godzilla Because Imean it is.

(57:57):
What is it?
It's a 60 series frame with awith 80 series undercarriage and
100 series steering rack orsomething.
It's weird.
It's like all of well it is.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
It's yeah, and a four point seven liter to use the
under the hood.
Yeah and yeah.

Speaker 5 (58:17):
And the big differentiators yeah, but to me
that he's got all of that goingon and it works and and he
wheels the mess out of it.
And then seeing you know folksthat are doing you know stuff
like Patch with 37s, andeverybody knows Patch and he's
he's a wild man and all thatwith how he wheels his truck.
But then you look at, then youlook at Alex with at Lumberjack

(58:38):
Engineering, yeah, with a very,very looks like it's just a
daily driver, very I hate to sayvanilla, because it sounds like
I'm cursing the man, but I'mnot.
I promise it's the coolestcompliment ever is his.
It's a sleeper, his sleeper.
Triple locked LX.
That just it's like.
It's on Velcro, for God's sake.

(58:59):
It just no matter what, it justright up through every rock
garden you ever wanted it to gothrough.
It's awesome to watch all thedifferent vehicles do everything
.
I think the, you know, theorganization of trail signups is
really really I really like howyou do that, versus, you know,
having folks sign up ahead oftime and then potentially

(59:22):
they're not being enough roomfor folks or or they're not be.
You know, hey, somebody'svolunteered to lead this trail
and nobody shows up, kind ofthing, and they're kind of,
they're kind of sitting there ontheir thumbs, so to speak.
And then the raffle is theraffle was awesome.
The raffle is the raffle atevery event is always one of the
big highlights.
But just how you did it andhaving the kids raffle up front

(59:48):
where they, you know the kidsare getting the kids involved
because they're at some pointgoing to be the next kind of
generation of leading this.
So it's fun to see that, yeah,and then just the variety of
trails.
I mean you had folks that werehitting 15, which is I can't
walk up 15, much less drive upit.
You had people hitting that.
You have people hitting 30 and35 and hitting Panther Rock,
which very soon you will get tosee a lovely firestone sign at

(01:00:11):
Panther Rock.
And we're going to go throughand have a cleanup day some
point in the next few months togo through and clean that trail
up and make sure that it looksas good as it possibly can for
that.
Really really good picture,picturesque view for everybody.
So it's a.
It was a great event.
I loved.
It was my first time.
It was my first time beingtrail leader for any event.

(01:00:33):
Okay, so there was an extra setof nerves, like when I'm trying
to pick out my trails.
What I was going to do, like,all right, I don't want to do
something that's going to betrying to pick out my trails.
What I was going to do, like,all right, I don't want to do
something that's going to bestupid, stupid, I want to do
something fun.
So I chose to do the inside thepark route up to Kerryville and
90% of that trail.
I'm like, all right, this ispretty easy.
There were a couple of guyswith me that I feel like we

(01:00:57):
pushed their vehicles a littlefurther than they wanted to be
pushed, and so I felt personallyresponsible for some of that.
But nobody got hurt, nothinggot damaged.
It was just maybe a little bitmore than they were looking for,
but we made it out, had a greattime and we got a couple of
good pictures.
That's the one thing I think Ineed to probably figure out, and

(01:01:17):
either that's going to bebringing my 13-year-old with me,
who's going to do the photosand biography stuff, or I need
to figure out like a tripod or alittle, you know one of those
tentacle things with a camera soI can go through and get
pictures of my rig and getpictures of everybody else's.
So I feel like we didn't get aton of that stuff, except for
when we're stopped at a coupleof places.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
It's hard to remember everything and it is hard when
you don't have you're talkingabout pictures and video when
you don't have somebody else,when you don't have a co-driver
in the vehicle and you're tryingto lead a trail and take
pictures and spot people, andyeah, it's tough.
So, speaking of photos andforgetting things, I'll take the

(01:02:00):
blame here I had ordered thisreally cool red carpet looking
photo backdrop with the GSmitter logo and the Windrock
logo and also we could takepictures at the event, and it
never made it to the event.
Not only did it not make it, Ididn't think about it all week.

(01:02:22):
Now the rain kind of changed upwhat we were doing at night, so
it shifted things.
But Zach texted me after we gotback home and said whatever
happened to that photo backdropthing you bought and I said, oh,
you mean the one sitting in mygarage.
Yeah, it didn't make it there.
So next year, next year, wewill have a proper photo
backdrop for your photos, and Iwill be there, lord Willard, and

(01:02:46):
the Creek, don't rise.
All right.
Well, thank you, aubrey.
I know you're fixing to to headout west for Lee's event, for
Crockies out there.

Speaker 5 (01:02:58):
So safe.
Safe travels that's quicklyapproaching, I appreciate it.
So safe travels that's quicklyapproaching, I appreciate it.
Thanks for having me and lookforward to being involved in
however we can to help grow thegrowth, the segment, grow the
community and, obviously,ultimately grow the brand.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
Awesome.
Thank you, sir, but Chase, Isee you.
Yeah, man so so we're goinggonna buzz you right into this.
Yeah, glad I called in when Idid, yeah, and we're gonna send
out a text to see where the restof the guys are.
Chase, we've known each otherfor probably three or four years

(01:03:38):
now.
Uh, that's about right.
Yeah, I don't know if it was GSmitter or maybe the first
Cruisers on the Rocks where wemet, but do you remember how
long you've been coming to the GSmitter event?

Speaker 8 (01:03:50):
Yeah, the first G Smitter I came to was in 21.
I think that was one of the biganniversary years.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Yeah, the 30th anniversary.

Speaker 8 (01:04:04):
Yep, that was it.
I had been to several eventsbefore, but none done by STLCA.
I was always a forerunner guybefore did the TTORA takeovers.
Some of those were at Windrock,some of those were at Teleco.
Some of those were at Windrock,some of those were at Teleco,
some of those were out in theCove, but the first G-Smitter I

(01:04:31):
came to was in 21 and haven'tmissed one since.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
Yeah, so you make sure it's on the calendar each
year and you are now a 100series guy primarily.
You also added a 200 to thestable, but it's on the calendar
each year and you are now a uh,uh, a hundred series guy
Primarily.
You also added a 200 to thestable, but it's due in highway
duty.
I'm not allowed to touch thatone.
You can't even drive it at all,yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:04:50):
Yeah, only, only for chauffeur duties.
That's, that's it.

Speaker 5 (01:04:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:04:55):
Another, the.
Uh.
So that's how the 100originally started.
Um I.
So that's how the 100originally started.
I mentioned I was a 4Runner guy.
So we bought the 100 to makeway for all the kids we were
having and then got rid of the4Runner and I didn't have
anything to wheel there for awhile.
And then we bought my wife a GXand then the 100 became mine

(01:05:18):
right before that G-Smitter in21.
I had, when we got it I'dalready put the 33 ATs on it,
but right before G-Smitter Itook it to Maryville and had
that guy put sliders on it andthat was the first event it came
to.
And then now the 200 is thechauffeur.

(01:05:41):
But yeah, it's funny Like Isaid I uh chases.

Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
Is a uh uh 99 correct , 98 or 99 that's correct 99, no
no a track for me, no a track,but a factory locker but yes, I
do have that.
That's the, that's the give andtake.
Uh on the, the hundred series,uh, those 98 and 99 on the LCS,
not on the Lexus.
You got the rear locker but youdidn't get the a track, that's

(01:06:11):
right, that's right.

Speaker 8 (01:06:13):
Yeah, I am a fan.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
Lee, I see you down in the in the waiting room.
He has graciously made it a fewminutes late, but he's in there
?

Speaker 8 (01:06:22):
Did you have to text him to get him in here?

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
No, he showed up.
It looks like I can't tell.
Yeah, he's in the green room,folks.
So Chase took your slot.
So you're going to Chase's slot, Lee, All right.
Go back out, yeah All right, goback back out, so All right.
So your first time was comingin in twenty one and then, I

(01:06:59):
believe, in twenty two.
You text me and I don'tremember if you were trail
leading or you volunteered totail gun that first year, but
you raised your hand prettyquick to get in.

Speaker 8 (01:07:04):
Yeah, I had originally signed up to tail gun
, Kind of wanted to just getinvolved.
Yep Raised my hand to tail gunand for the life of me I can't
remember who was signed up asthe trail leader on that ride.
But he was a no-show, so Igraduated quickly.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Oh, that's how that happened, okay.

Speaker 8 (01:07:27):
That is how that happened.
Yeah, and that was where myeasy Saturday motto came from,
because I picked up that easyprison run Back when it was
still easy.
Back when it was still easy.
Yeah, when it was still easy.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
yeah, so we had this conversation earlier before you
were on with Team George,because they got over there on
that section of 43, and wetalked about how all that's
changed over there.

Speaker 8 (01:07:54):
But yeah, it was last year whenever that got gnarly.
So it was two years ago.
We still were able to takefolks that way.
But last year was the year thatme and Joey and I'll shoot,
remind me of his name againBishop Eric, bishop, bishop,
bishop Me, joey and Bishop ranit and came back with the good

(01:08:20):
news.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
Yeah, I was going to tell folks, chase, that you know
, if you because there may befolks listening to this that
have been coming to the eventfor a while and are wanting to
get plugged in and volunteer putyou to work in some form or
fashion, because at 300 truckswe had over 600 people and

(01:08:48):
feeding those people and kind ofall the logistics of it and
getting them checked in and allthat, it takes a lot of folks to
do it.
But if you're interested intrail leading and you're not
sure if that's really what youwant to do and and you really
want to commit to it, uh, thennormally I say jumping in as a,
as a tail gun, uh, for the forthe first year, is a good way to
kind of get your feet wet,unless it becomes like Chase's

(01:09:10):
situation and you immediatelyget promoted.
So yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:09:14):
The quickest promotion I've ever had.
Davey, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:22):
Yes, lee, we see you, he is.
He is holding up his, hisbeverage.
Yeah, uh, all right.
So, uh, but uh, chase, youtalked about um.
You talked about you got thehundred.
Uh, because your family wasgrowing.
Uh, you're a family guy.
Uh, you've had your dad at thisevent.
You've had the kids at theevent.
Uh, talk to us about the eventfrom a from a family guy.
You've had your dad at thisevent, you've had the kids at

(01:09:43):
the event.
Talk to us about the event froma family perspective, because,
while there's obviously a lot ofadulting that goes on, this,
100% at its core, will always bea family affair, and I want
folks to feel comfortable withthat when they come to G Smitter

(01:10:04):
.

Speaker 8 (01:10:04):
Yeah, yeah, sure thing.
So that first year that I cameI brought my let's see, he would
have been six brought mysix-year-old son with me.
My daughter would have been twoat the time.
She didn't make that trip, buthe came, he had a blast, made
friends immediately.
There are always every kid thatI've taken, there's always kids

(01:10:28):
around their age there andthey've always been able to make
friends.
And those first two years thatwe came, before I started doing
any kind of leading or gunning,that pretty much dictated what
rides we were going on the nextday.
It was just kind of the, the,whoever had the, the six, seven,
eight year olds, what have you,would kind of band together and

(01:10:50):
go on that ride and, uh, the,the kids got a little bit of the
, uh, of the say in what we didnext.
Sometimes, whenever trail 11gets a little long, they, uh,
they decide that we're not goinganywhere else and we'll head
back to camp.
But, um, yeah, man, it's alwaysbeen.
The kids have always had fun.
Uh, this was the, my, uh, mydaughter had come maybe two or

(01:11:11):
three years ago, um, and ran,the, ran the easy prison, run,
had a good time, uh, but it wasthis past year that she made her
first trip, came for the entiretime.
Uh had a good time.
Uh.
But it was this past year thatshe made her first trip, came
for the entire time.
Uh, had a blast.
Um, you even mentioned havinghaving george on earlier.
She was one of the one of thewinners of the team george rc

(01:11:32):
car and that was that.
That was really big braggingpoints on her end towards big
brother for the for the rest ofthe trip.
But, yeah, and you guys do agood job involving kids in the
pre-raffle festivities.
I can't remember how long y'allbeen doing that, but every year
that you have it's been great.

(01:11:52):
Yeah, for a minute, kids getinvolved and get excited.

Speaker 1 (01:11:55):
And this year we had to kind of be flexible on Friday
night because the rain kind ofpushed in on us so we had some
more kind of kids games andactivities planned for Friday
night.
That didn't work out.
And then we had a swimming poolrun planned for Saturday for
folks that if the kids weretired of being on the trail and

(01:12:19):
you just wanted to go into townand and hit the pool, normally
the weather would have beenperfect for that.
This year that didn't reallydidn't really work out, but we
may look at that on the agendaagain next year.
But you were talking abouttaking the trail and this is one
thing.

(01:13:02):
When we do these guided rides, Iwant folks to be comfortable in
that.
This is not.
We do have a time convoy isgoing to stop and we're all
going to wait and then we'regoing to leave again together.
You know if you're going in andit's not just for just the kids
.
I want to make that clear aboutall these guided rides is you
know, if you get to a sectionand the three trucks in front of
you have rolled through it andyou say I'm a little
uncomfortable, I need a spot,all you got to do is ask, and

(01:13:25):
we'll be right there to help youwith that.
So don't think that theseguided rides are a super
regimented thing in that you'regoing to be forced into things
that you don't want to do.

Speaker 8 (01:13:39):
Right, and that's what I experienced the first
year bringing the 100.
Never wheeled anything that bigbefore coming from small little
first and third gen 4Runnersthe 100.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
And George Dominguez was just talking about that,
about getting the wagons throughthere.
It's a challenge, but it'ssomething that a lot of our
trail leaders kind of take pridein is getting these big wagons
through these type trails.

Speaker 8 (01:14:07):
Oh, yeah, yeah, and that that those first two years,
whenever I I wasn't leading oranything like that, if I ever
felt uncomfortable I don't knowthat I even had to raise the
flag to stop it was always hey,I'm rolling through this, if you
need a hand radio in and it'sthat.
That's something that I'vetried to implement going forward

(01:14:30):
whenever for the ones that I'mout leading and it it tends to
work out great.

Speaker 1 (01:14:34):
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, if you're, if you'rethinking about it, if, if you've
looked at cause, you know, Iknow there's some folks that
they just you're nervous, you'renervous about coming to a big
event.
You think you're going to be Idon't know what the word is
judged or it's going to be anuncomfortable situation or hazed

(01:14:57):
, but I promise you any of thatat this event, uh is in good fun
.
I know those, those.
There's some of those thingsthat go on at other events, uh,
and people feel excluded, uh,from different things, and that
that will not be the case if you, uh, if you come to the great
smoky mountain trail, right, no,the only hazing we do is we

(01:15:19):
just thought first-timers in acabin would leave for one night,
right.
Or that murder shack, thatAubrey stayed in.

Speaker 8 (01:15:29):
I didn't get to see the murder shack.
Where was he staying?

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
I've got to insert his little interview in, so I'll
put a picture of the murdershack for folks.
It's a nice little primitivecabin at Windrock.
It just doesn't have power orwater or anything, it's just
four square walls.
But he had a picture of it andman, it sure looked like a
murder shack.

Speaker 8 (01:15:56):
He didn't take his lighting and set it up right.

Speaker 1 (01:15:59):
No, it wasn't an influencer shot.

Speaker 8 (01:16:03):
yeah, yeah yeah, no, I didn't get to see the murder
shack.
Uh, no, no for anybodylistening that.
That was heavy sarcasm on myend.
We won't lock you in a cabinwith lee.

Speaker 1 (01:16:15):
That's for second year, people, that's that's
first, yeah, yeah, yeah, that'sonce we get you back then you
get to hang out here, uh, yeahor or trail leaders that don't
show up yeah, right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:16:28):
If I remember that name, I'll let you know all
right, uh, well, thank you,chase.

Speaker 1 (01:16:34):
I appreciate you, uh, making time to get on here.
I know you had some thingsgoing and you hustled back to
join us, so we certainlyappreciate it.

Speaker 8 (01:16:43):
Sure thing, man Happy to help out.

Speaker 1 (01:16:46):
All right, brother, we'll talk to you later.
Yes, sir, have a good one, seeyou, see ya.
All right, folks?
Uh, well, I'm driving this, uh,this ship, solo here and trying
to watch the, the green room,uh, and wrangle these cats as,
uh, as we do this show, so I cancut down on the editing, uh and

(01:17:07):
uh, and next up, uh, oh, lookwhere he is.

Speaker 6 (01:17:14):
Hey, hey, hey can you hear me?

Speaker 11 (01:17:19):
uh, we can hear you yeah that email I got said 855
Liam Bush.
What happened?
Well, okay, we'll talk aboutthe email later, okay but yeah,
I'm in the cruiser, you are inthe cruiser yeah, I'm not

(01:17:39):
cruising, but.
I'm in the cruiser.
Now you are in the cruiser.
Yeah, that's right, I'm notcruising but I'm in the cruiser
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:17:44):
are you headed west or you're sitting in your
driveway?

Speaker 11 (01:17:47):
No, I'm sitting in the driveway.
I've got so many cats.
It's hard to do this type ofthing inside, so I come outside
and here I am.
Yeah, so it's my happy place.
Anyway, there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:18:03):
So she kicked you out of the house again.
Pretty much, yeah, that's aboutright.
Yeah, folks, if you don't know,lee Sumner, this is Mr Lee
Sumner, lee has.
We have tried to do a showtogether a couple of times.
One time we might have actuallyrecorded an entire show minus

(01:18:27):
any audio.
That was a dude impersonatingme, I think Well there was some
debate as to whether that wasactually you or your Dope-O-Gay
or Desco.
For folks that don't know, lee'sbeen very involved in this Land

(01:18:48):
Cruiser community for going onseveral years now five or six
years that I'm aware of anywayand puts on a couple of events
of his own Cruisers on the Rocksand now Cruisers on the Rockies
, which is one happens at WindRocks, same place as G Smitter.
The other happens out west andhe's headed out there.

(01:19:10):
Is it next week?

Speaker 11 (01:19:11):
That's right, I'm leaving Wednesday actually.
Yeah, Event starts officiallyMonday.
We have a Sunday nightovernight run before then.
But yeah, I'm leaving outWednesday.
It's kind of a haul.

Speaker 1 (01:19:28):
It is.
It lives a little haul and Ikeep telling him one of these
days I'm going to, I'm going tomake that haul with him, but
alas it's not.
Not this year again.
But Lee and I met at his firstevent that he did at Windrock,
going on five years ago now, andyou know I remember you talking

(01:19:50):
, lee, at that time, that youhad come, I believe the year
prior to G Smitter.
You'd been to some other events,you'd been to some events out
west prior to that, but then youcame to G Smitter at Windrock.
To G Smitter, you'd you'd beento some other events, you'd been
to some events out West priorto that, but then you came to G
Smitter at Windrock and EastCoast event and you kind of had
the epiphany of uh, of puttingtogether, uh, your event and uh,

(01:20:13):
you and I have talked severaltimes over the years and and
shared ideas and resources to togrow both of these events,
because a lot of people seeevents as competing and we've
never seen it that way.
Not only do you attend, but youvolunteer and dive in in a lot
of ways to assist with thisevent as well.

Speaker 11 (01:20:35):
Yeah, that's right.
I mean, you know and you'veheard me say it lately, davey,
over the last year or two youknow I try to put on a great
event, but I think G Smitter, atthis point, is probably the
best.
Well, I know, it's the bestevent Toyota event that I've

(01:20:56):
attended in the United Statesand I've attended quite a few,
and I really think that GSmitter has grown to be, in my
opinion, the premier, the numberone, the best all-around event
in the States, and that's what Iwanted my events to be.
But wow.

Speaker 1 (01:21:17):
But it's two different things and let me
clarify that for folks.
But it's two different thingsand let me clarify that for
folks.
What Lee does with Cruisers onthe Rocks, which is limited to
100s, 200s and 300s.
Now you can get mad about thatall you want and that's another
conversation.
But there's plenty of eventsacross the country that are

(01:21:45):
segmented by vehicle types andit makes a very niche, almost
boutique experience.
That's really cool when you'vegot 15 very similarly equipped
vehicles rolling down the trailtogether versus G Smitter, you
may have 100 on a stock 100, andyou may have George in his in
his right in front of you.

(01:22:06):
So two different events, twodifferent kind of atmospheres,
but both need to be attended.

Speaker 11 (01:22:13):
Exactly, you know, and I think it was ATR that was
that really showed me that wekind of if I wouldn't say needed
I mean it could definitely havea full-size IFS event like 200,
100, 300.
Because at ATR, you know, Iwent in my 200, and I think I

(01:22:36):
might have been on 33s at thetime.
But you know, I signed up for amoderately difficult run, or
dark blue, something like that.
And then I get on the run andI'm the only IFS truck on the
run Everybody else is running37s and 40s and find out that
the run is actually kind of darkblue for those guys, but it's

(01:23:00):
definitely a hard black for me.
And so by by having an eventlike mine where it's just IFS
wagons, um, everybody can youknow?
They, the trails, the runs,everything is designed for those
trucks.
Uh, they know, if they're, ifthey're on an easy run, it's
going to be easy.

(01:23:21):
If they're on a moderate run,it's going to be moderate.
If they're on a difficult run,the trucks can do it, but it's
going to test them as a driverand it's going to test their
trucks as well, but they shouldknow that they're never going to
be over their head.

Speaker 1 (01:23:36):
Yeah, absolutely Well .
So you came to G Smitter back Ithink it was 2020.
Then your event started in 21.
And, like we said, you've comeback to G Smitter since then and
you volunteered and raised yourhand to get in and lead these

(01:23:58):
trail rides and you've helped mein a lot of other ways as well.
This year, lee put on ourvolunteer dinner on Wednesday
night.
I don't know if he remembershosting it, but there were ribs
on the smoker.

Speaker 11 (01:24:17):
Right, right, I remember all of that, and it got
a little hairy later, though,when Aubrey took the wheel.
You know, when the dinner brokeup and Aubrey got behind the
wheel of my truck, yeah, butthere's definitely parts about
that that I remember.

Speaker 1 (01:24:38):
So I interviewed Aubrey earlier this week and're
going to that'll get spliced insomewhere before your interview
here and we talk about, we talkabout that.
I was telling the listeners howgenerous you had been in that
you've got this new blower onyour truck and you want people
to experience it from thedriver's seat as well, and so

(01:25:00):
maybe we strong-armed Aubrey alittle bit into taking the keys
and making that night run Wellhe's definitely better for it.

Speaker 11 (01:25:10):
You know, what doesn't kill you makes you
stronger, right For sure.

Speaker 1 (01:25:18):
Yeah, well, it didn't kill the truck anyway.
Right, right, it was allcosmetic for sure.

Speaker 11 (01:25:24):
Yeah, well, it didn't kill the truck anyway.
So, right Right, it was allcosmetic.
Well, the awning thepre-cleaner.
But yeah, you know, yeah, smallstuff, small stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:25:33):
Yeah, uh, uh, lee, you uh.
You have a reputation, uh, forbeing rather hard on your
vehicles.
Lee and I both wheel a 200series, but our style of

(01:25:55):
wheeling might be a little bitdifferent.
Right yeah, might be a littlebit different.
Right yeah, did you?
Aside from that cosmetic damage, did you leave with any broken
CVs or driveshafts this year?

Speaker 11 (01:26:12):
No, yeah the driver's side CV, which was
actually an OEM Tundra CV.
A lost sit-up there on thatnight ride when Aubrey was
driving, but you know it wasstill pulling.

(01:26:32):
It was just under a heavy load.
It would make some noises.
Under a heavy load, it wouldmake some noises.
I disassembled it when I gothome and found out that the
retaining ring you know thatholds the balls in place, holds
the inner cage had dislodged buteverything went on beyond that

(01:26:55):
yeah, I mean I could put it backtogether and I think it would
be fine.
I'm not going to because I'm notgoing to rebuild a oem tundra
joint that I can get salvagedfor, you know, 60, 70 dollars,
but uh, but, yeah, uh, you knowI'd say that's pretty awesome
that it withstood the.

Speaker 1 (01:27:16):
I mean you weren't there, aubrey was giving her
some help, he likes the revlimiter he said that the problem
was he didn't stay in it enough, that that he was nervous to
get in it.

Speaker 11 (01:27:29):
So well, yeah, I'm sure he was, but when he did he
did.
I think zach will tell you thatthat was like the first time
he's ever seen me say whoa, youknow?

Speaker 1 (01:27:44):
uh, because I've never done it quite like that
well, zach has has slid into theto the green room.
I see him down there with hislittle man uh in the corner.
Um, you know, speaking of uh,of people that like to to stay
on the rev limiter.
Another um memorable uh eventfrom this trip was a little

(01:28:08):
night run, another night run.
That happened when you wereriding shotgun uh with Mr Bush.
Uh, lee was riding co-pilot forjason bush up uh, up trail 15.
You want to give us a littlereplay of that ride?

Speaker 11 (01:28:24):
well, you know, that was actually eye-opening for me
.
Uh, I mean, I ride on trailswith bush and zach and george
and and these guys, um, but uh,I've never been out with them on
a truly difficult run Well,because my truck won't do that,
you know.
So this was the first time I'dactually been out on a truly

(01:28:50):
difficult run and, yeah, it waseye-opening.
I mean, it definitely shows me,you know, when I think I'm
giving my truck hell.
No, no, I mean that's anentirely different level.

Speaker 1 (01:29:07):
So there's video.
There's a reel on the OverlandWeekly Instagram channel of Bush
going up 15 on that night run,of Bush going up 15 on that
night run, and what you don'tsee is when he slams down on
that driver's side and takes theglass out.
Yeah, that's right, but theglass was down right.

(01:29:31):
The window was in beside thedoor.

Speaker 11 (01:29:35):
No, I think it was up, because I think Lolo was
over there and she got showeredwith the glass and the whole
rest of the run she kept sayingI got glass in my butt.
I got glass in my butt.
I'm pretty sure it was up.

(01:29:55):
It was wild stuff, man, and Inoticed, you know, looking at
that, that reel, that video, youknow one thing you don't hear
is me Right, Like I don't thinkyou had nothing to say.
You know why?
Because I'm just likespeechless the entire time.

(01:30:18):
Looked over at bush and hasbush been on tonight?

Speaker 1 (01:30:22):
no, we don't know where bush is okay, well, he'll,
he'll tell you.

Speaker 11 (01:30:26):
You know, at one point I looked over at him and I
was like man, is this, you knowthe?
Do you do this every time yougo out on these runs called?
It was just, it was justunbelievable that, uh, that
showed me a different side,because it's not a side that I'm
normally on, because my truckjust won't do that.
And that's not saying that youknow, 200s, 100s, 300s, ifs

(01:30:47):
trucks aren't good trucks, butthey're you know they will not
and they don't need to be doingthat.
They're big, they excel at alot of things, but not that.
That was crazy stuff, crazytime yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:31:07):
Lee, before I let you get off here, we were talking
about your reputation on thetrail.
You also have a reputation thatwe've discussed before in your
online persona as the TripleLocked Troll himself, and I have
had people say you know, Idon't know why you hang out, why

(01:31:32):
you go to that event with thatguy, he's a bully.
To that event with that guy,he's a bully, and you know.
I think I'd like to give youthe floor to explain to people
that not everything you readonline needs to be taken so
literal.

Speaker 11 (01:31:52):
Exactly, and you know all of that stuff to me
it's in jest, it's in fun.
You know I never attack anybodypersonally.
You know I'll talk about how acertain platform is a piece of
junk or maybe even a piece ofshit.
You know, I'll say that, youknow, but when I bring it up

(01:32:13):
it's probably the truth.
But when I bring it up it'sprobably the truth.
Certain limitations of certainplatforms, certain limitations
of certain suspensions or motorsor whatever.
I'm going to give you the facts, because I know that it's going
to get under your skin.
You know, because you'reclaiming this, you're claiming

(01:32:34):
that, but it's just not the wayit is.
Um, it's just, it's just fun.
And people that know me, that'smy personality, uh, I'm, I'm, I
guess a bit of a, uh, a smartass, I guess.
Smart Alec, is that how youknow?
Um, but I love everybody, Ilove every platform.

(01:32:55):
You know I'm, I'm really.
I think I got banned from a 100series Facebook group just
because I was giving them somuch heck.
You know, I think I did onepost, davey, where I posted like
this wet plumbed nitrousplumbed intake manifold, like a

(01:33:18):
picture of this, what would havebeen probably like a $6,000
system, and I was like, has anyof you guys with these two UZs
thought about trying to dosomething like this, maybe to be
able to keep up with the farsuperior three?
You are on the trail, you know.
Definitely anybody that seesthat should know that it's a
joke.
But some guys just see that andthey take it seriously.

(01:33:41):
But at my events, people thatcome to them, people that are
around me, they know that I loveeverybody and I just like
having a good time and I do.
I do haze people.
You know, if you hang around me, if you're one of my inner

(01:34:05):
circle, you're probably going tohave to have some thick skin,
but it's all a good time.
So yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:34:16):
So there you go, folks Straight from the horse's
mouth himself.
That's right, yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:34:24):
Yeah, sorry about the 8.55 thing, man, I don't
know what happened.

Speaker 1 (01:34:27):
No, we've been jumping around a little bit
trying to keep this train on thetracks here, but you know, with
our crew.

Speaker 11 (01:34:37):
You knew we were never all gonna show up at the
right time at the right placeyou know, I thought about like
checking in, like in the groupchat or something, uh, to see
what was going on.
But I've been so busy withthings that, uh, I was like,
well, davy sent that email, sothat's got to be it, right you
know me if I send the email.

Speaker 1 (01:34:57):
That's what we're doing.

Speaker 11 (01:35:01):
I have my Overland weekly koozie here.
I ran out of cold beer earlier.
My wife Joy wouldn't let me goto the store to get cold beer,
me go to the store to get coldbeer.
So I've got, I think, 20, 30boxes of bush light that I'm

(01:35:22):
taking out to Colorado in thetrailer now, and they're hot, so
I just had to get them and putthem on ice.
Um, so I was.
I was gonna drink a cold one inthe can, but they were warm and
I had to put them on ice.

Speaker 1 (01:35:38):
Are you pouring the beer on ice?
Yeah, have you never done that?
I can't say that I've watereddown beer that way.

Speaker 11 (01:35:48):
Well, there's worse things Like no beer Anyway.

Speaker 1 (01:35:56):
Well, all right, I wish you the best of luck with
uh, with your event, Uh nextweek should be, a good time.

Speaker 11 (01:36:04):
I know we're going to get you out there, uh, next
year it's going to happen, yeah.
It's a lot of fun.
You know we've got uh, so it'sthree days, like I guess G Smith
is three now, right?
Yep, um, we've got've got over60 runs that I'm dealing with in
those three days and you know,being 2,000 miles away, it's

(01:36:28):
definitely interesting, but Ireally I think you'd enjoy it.
You will enjoy it when youfinally make it out and we'll be
happy to have you.

Speaker 1 (01:36:38):
All right, my friend, all right.
Well, lee, uh, have fun in thein the driveway.
Uh, maybe she'll let you backin the house, uh, right before
the night's over, so, uh, butbelieve me, I understand her
position on it.
So, all right, brother, talk toyou later, all right.

(01:37:01):
So at this point I'm going togo ahead and roll in the
interview that did a little bitearlier this week with Mr
Patrick Perry and let you guyslisten to that.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the program,

(01:37:25):
mr Patrick Perry.
Patrick, it's been a year and ahalf since we did our episode
together, if you can believethat.

Speaker 6 (01:37:30):
It's hard to believe.
It feels like it was yesterday.

Speaker 1 (01:37:33):
It feels like it was yesterday, but there's a lot
that has happened for PerryParts in the last 18 months.
And we're really, really proudto watch this success unfold.

Speaker 6 (01:37:44):
Thank you very much.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, I think last time wetalked we had just gotten the
new manufacturing process up andrunning.
We've been doing a whole bunchof contract work lately, as well
as growing on to a lot of newvehicle platforms, and then the
next big push for us is going tobe releasing a new generation
of the product, so new productcategories, as well as Gen 3

(01:38:08):
coming out later this year.

Speaker 1 (01:38:10):
Awesome, Awesome.
Well, speaking of your product,I've noticed an abundance of
your product on the rigs at GSmitter uh this year and I'm
hoping that you, as a first timeattendee, a trail leader, uh,
and again also a platinumsponsor, noticed, uh, noticed

(01:38:31):
some of your product around aswell too.

Speaker 6 (01:38:33):
Yeah, um, I was actually really surprised at how
many were out there.
Um, I was walking around theparking lot with my camera just
getting photos of just content,and then I started to see, oh
yep, that looks familiar, thatlooks familiar.
And toward the end of it I wasseeing we must have had 20 or 30
vehicles there running ourparts, which was pretty awesome.

(01:38:56):
I got a whole bunch.
I started crawling around likegetting photos of them on
people's trucks.
Yes, I have.

Speaker 1 (01:39:01):
Let me see if I.
Yeah.
There's a bunch of picturesthat Patrick put in the photo
album that look like similar tothis.

Speaker 6 (01:39:13):
Yeah, I did just do a photo dump into the photo album
and then after the fact I waslike, oh shoot, like there's
just a bunch of photos of partson trucks out here and I'm sure
someone who didn't know likeeither didn't recognize my name
or didn't know what that waslike what is this dude doing?

Speaker 1 (01:39:28):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 6 (01:39:30):
So anyway All right?

Speaker 1 (01:39:35):
Well, you know, patrick, you have.
I'm going to go to yourscoreboard picture here with all
of your, your broken heartawards from from Patch, I know
at least one that you added toit on this one.

Speaker 6 (01:39:53):
Yeah, I'm running out of window space.
I'm running out of window space.
One, okay, I'm running out ofwindow space.
Uh, so edgy smitter is just onetaillight.
Um, okay, and I think what I'mgonna do is I'm gonna follow in
patch's footsteps where he juststarted doing tally marks,
because otherwise you run youjust you're gonna cover your
window.

Speaker 1 (01:40:12):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, let me roll this.
Roll this video for those thathadn't seen the reel.

Speaker 10 (01:40:32):
Oh, there's a taillight popped out, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:40:45):
That was a good one, that's Trail 30, if you don't
recognize that trail and thattree at Windrock, it's kind of
infamous and it seems like thoseGX taillights are molded with
just the right little lip tocatch those trees.

Speaker 6 (01:41:01):
A hundred percent, yeah.
And you notice the guys thathad the bumpers that stick out a
bit more.
They were nice and safe.
I definitely would love to addsome, either a little hoop or
just something poking out fromthe side of the bumper to get a
little bit more width out of itfor protection there, from the
side of the bumper to get alittle bit more width out of it
for protection there.
And yeah, so that passengerside rear taillight is.

(01:41:26):
I've broken that twice now, Ithink partially just because
it's so far from the driver.

Speaker 1 (01:41:28):
Yeah, you're like oh, don't worry about that.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 6 (01:41:31):
That day, though, everything it had rained, I
think two days at that point,everything it had rained, I
think two days at that point andit was slick.
Everyone was bouncing aroundhopping.
We had a pileup on Trail 22,.
Even which that obstacle whenit's dry is a cakewalk, but it
became a mess in the wet, so itmakes a big difference 22 has a

(01:41:55):
reputation for that, uh, for forchanging with the weather very
quickly.

Speaker 1 (01:42:00):
The uh uh, the boys from Birmingham, uh, will tell
you about that.
There was a group that spentthe night on trail 22,.
Uh, a couple of years ago just,it just changed that fast, so
yeah that's wild, you know.

Speaker 6 (01:42:14):
It's funny too, cause , um, one of my favorite trail
runs of the weekend was 35, withPatch, Alex and a couple other
guys I don't remember theirnames.
I just met them that day and wegot halfway up it.
We're just getting up to thereally challenging section where
it kind of opens up and there'sa bypass on the right and it

(01:42:34):
started pouring and it startedpouring, um, and, interestingly
enough, I actually think thatthat that one section of 22
might have been more difficultjust because it was so muddy and
slick, whereas 35, there was agood bit more rock and the rock
got washed, and so you couldstill hook up on it, right.

Speaker 1 (01:42:51):
So anyway, yeah, well , uh, so this what you'd been to
Windrock before because you'dbeen to to Cruisers on the Rocks
there before, but this was yourfirst G Smitter event and you
know the two events are aresimilar in that it's a lot of
the same faces and samecommunity, but because it's not

(01:43:13):
just hundreds and two hundreds,it's G-Smitter is a much larger
event.
So we've got everything from,you know, 40s, 60s, 80s,
hundreds, two hundreds, twofifties.
We had a mega cruiser this yearand then you always get a
handful of Tacomas and 4Runnersand other Toyota makes, but you

(01:43:36):
get a handful of Jeeps, ahandful of Fords, a handful of
this and that, friends offriends that come as well,
because registration is open toany manufacturer, make and model
.
So give me your thoughts onkind of seeing the diversity of
trucks and builds and what thatwas like 301 registered trucks

(01:43:57):
at the event this year.

Speaker 6 (01:43:59):
I think one of the things that stood out to me was
how incredibly capable all thesolid front axle stuff is.
You know, like you go toCruisers on the Rocks and it's
an awesome event and I'm alwayslooking up to the guys in the
200s because the 200s are morecapable and beefier than the GX.
I think the only thing the GXreally has on the 200 is weight.

(01:44:20):
Everything else beefiersuspension, I guess, maybe
breakover angle, but dependingon how you got everything set up
.
But the 80s and there was anFJ40 there on old pneumatic
suspension there was a bit of adebate going around about
whether it qualifies as a buggyor not, because it was, you know

(01:44:41):
, like was that?

Speaker 1 (01:44:43):
was that George in the?

Speaker 6 (01:44:45):
tan one.

Speaker 1 (01:44:46):
I think so, yeah, so he doesn't like to refer to it
as a buggy, but we but we liketo to to refer to it as that.
He'll tell you it's a, it's a40 with a lift kit.

Speaker 6 (01:44:55):
Yeah, Well, and, and his argument is sound because
it's still on the stock frame,but if you look at it from 20
feet away you're like there's noway it's on the stock frame,
right.
Anyways, it was really cool tosee some of those folks running
the red trails on seeing itafter the fact, right, Obviously
, the GX wouldn't have made itdown any of that, Actually it

(01:45:26):
might have made it down once,but it wouldn't have made it up
right.

Speaker 1 (01:45:28):
So, yeah, it was.
It was really neat, yeah, andof course let me pull these
pictures back up here.
You had your, you had your uh,you had your tent, uh set up uh,
and uh got to meet some newfolks and it looks like uh Manny
took over your tent here at onepoint.
I don't know what he's cooking,but I'm sure it's good.

Speaker 6 (01:45:48):
Yeah, he was cooking up pork, belly and, um, some
tacos.
He had like a um, uh bunch ofdifferent meats that he brought
with him and he's like I justhave to cook it all.
Just come hang out at the tentand eat with me.
Manny from Tampa Cruisers isactually one of my resellers
down in Florida.
Really awesome guy.
It was really one of the mostrewarding things about these

(01:46:09):
events and I experienced it atCruise on the Rocks.
I experienced it a lot more atG Smitter, just because the
number of folks that attend isgetting to put a face to the
name right.
You get to meet some of thesepeople and talk and, like you,
realize that you know these.
These conversations that youhave via email translate into
real life interactions right.

Speaker 1 (01:46:29):
I know that sounds surreal, but like yeah.
Yeah, and I noticed becauseit's so hard to miss is is
Blake's solid axle swap Tacomain the picture there behind you,
yeah, yeah.
All right, well, and you didsome.
You did some trail leading aswell.

(01:46:49):
Do you remember which ones youled?

Speaker 6 (01:46:53):
Sort of um, sort of um.
So the very first day, which Ithink is this photo, um, I did,

(01:47:21):
and I don't remember what weran- uh, well, well, following
following lee uh is always anadventure on on the trail you
get.

Speaker 1 (01:47:33):
You get several photos.
Uh, yeah, with him from behindthere.

Speaker 6 (01:47:36):
So I was actually surprised he didn't go up the
steps on the right on that runyeah.

Speaker 1 (01:47:44):
Yeah, those are some pretty famous steps.
Yeah, they will sneak up on you.
You look at it and you're like,oh, I can walk right up up this
, but they're spaced, just rightthat it'll start pulling you
and, yep, yeah um.

Speaker 6 (01:48:03):
And then the last day I was tail gunning for lee
again um up 30, if I rememberright.

Speaker 1 (01:48:08):
Okay, yep um, and you had a little, uh, a little tire
issue.
Is that correct?

Speaker 6 (01:48:15):
A couple times twice actually, and one on each side.
So, yeah, so this was up at thetop of 35 on that run that it
got super wet and everything wasgoing pretty well until we got
to the very top and there's apretty long off-camber section
with a really deep rut, and Ihad my tire planted in the rut

(01:48:36):
but in order to keep fromflopping we kind of turned into
it a bit, so that way we werewalking up on that wall and it
just popped the bead.
It was actually surprisinglyloud and that was the second
time that I db'd that same day.
So earlier that day I wascoming up at the very top of 22.

(01:48:57):
I was coming up at the very topof 22.
I was cooking and I got draggedslideways in the mud and the
height of the rut was literallyperfect.
It must have been like five orsix inches tall and it just
completely like you didn't evenhear the air come out of it, it
just lost the beat completely.
So I aired up to 20 psi, ran 35, got three quarters of the way

(01:49:21):
up it and then this happened.
Um, the fun part is so the mudis so slick and so dense that it
actually it was easy to seatthe bead because it worked
almost like uh, like rib, like alube, yeah, yeah so.
So it took a bead, just fine.

Speaker 1 (01:49:42):
That's good times.
Well, you know we've talkedabout this in the past, but I
think, if not bead locks, sometype of bead retention system
may be in your future.

Speaker 6 (01:49:53):
Yeah, I really agree.
So, yeah, I really agree.
In August or September thisyear, depending on where
shipping pans out, I'll beputting the truck on portals and
then probably 37s or maybe 40sTBD and with that I'm looking to
either do those icon, the boltstyle beadlocks where they come

(01:50:15):
in behind the bead, or true beadlocks.

Speaker 1 (01:50:18):
So one or the other.
So in case you missed Patrickcasually sliding that in there,
he's been on the list with ourfriends at Portal Pros to get
these GX portals when they comeout, which hopefully is soon.
I know you are anxious, myfriend.

Speaker 6 (01:50:38):
I'm very excited.
Yeah, I used to work with thoseguys.
I think some of the things thatthey're adding are going to be
super cool, particularly centraltire inflation it's huge.
And, and yeah, just a littlebit more ground clearance, you
know.
And actually they just got ridof state inspections in New
Hampshire, so now I can drive onthe road too, which is going to
be great.

Speaker 1 (01:50:58):
Oh, I didn't know, you still had inspections, well,
congratulations yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah, I found out about thatlike a couple of days ago.
It really made my week.
Well, speaking of drive, notonly did Patrick, like I said,
first time coming leading trails, sponsoring the event, but you
also took home the GlobetrotterAward.

(01:51:18):
I did For the farthest distancedriven to the event.
Do you remember the mileagefrom New Hampshire?
Just about 1,100.
1,100 miles.
So if you're listening to thisand you won a shot next year at
taking home some hardware, youneed to put in more than 1,100
miles to come to G-Smith.

Speaker 6 (01:51:40):
It was my first time doing the drive in one shot too.
Got up at four, hit the road,got in by about 9.30 or 10.
And honestly, if you're lookingto do a drive like that, just
do it in one, go, get it overwith, because if you get a hotel
, get breakfast breakfast.
It turns it into a two-daything.

Speaker 1 (01:51:58):
So well, hopefully next time you're uh, you're
making that drive, it'll be onportals.

Speaker 6 (01:52:03):
So there you go.
Yeah, I'll get even worse gasmileage all right, my friend.

Speaker 1 (01:52:09):
Well, thank you for taking a few minutes to uh to
share your thoughts with it.
It's always good to talk to you, my pleasure davey take care
all right, see you and so now Iwill have spliced in that
interview and uh, zach, you'redown, there are you.
Are you ready for prime time?

Speaker 10 (01:52:27):
uh you can hear me, I can hear you yeah, you got a a
pint size attendee as well.
Uh, I got daddy daycare for aminute, so I'll try to keep you
out of frame to keep the topicmeasured, but background noises.

Speaker 1 (01:52:47):
It's all good.
There he is, I'll just be onthe side of frame.
However you want to do it, Notan issue, Zach.
Your your name's come up acouple of times in this
recording tonight.
Talked to George earlier and wehad a lot to say about you, and

(01:53:12):
then Lee had some comments aswell, so I'll let you go back
and watch it later to get caughtup on all that.
Okay, All right.
So folks, Zach Johnson is onwith me.
Zach has been on the showbefore.
He co-hosted with me when wehad our friends from Portal Pros
on just a few months ago which,again, if you haven't been

(01:53:38):
following along, this is totallya side note, but I just kind of
squirreled for a minute becauseportal pros is finally about to
to start shipping out some ofthose first sets, so so good for
them.

Speaker 10 (01:53:49):
Excited to see that For the Danny guys or the rest
of us.
What's that For the Danny guysor the rest of us?

Speaker 1 (01:53:56):
Not, not for us, yeah All right.
Fair enough.
All right, zach.
What year G Smitter, is thisfor you?
Or was this, do you remember?

Speaker 10 (01:54:10):
I was trying to talk to somebody about it before.
I can't remember if it was the5th or the 6th.
I'd have to go back and startfiguring out the trucks, but
once the same trucks startedcoming here every year, they
Well, that's probably aboutright, because George Dominguez
said he came in 2019 for thefirst one so it might have been
around that time.
One's about the same frame.
Yeah, they were still doing theblind driver race around the

(01:54:31):
pond at that time, if that makessense.

Speaker 1 (01:54:33):
It was the last year for that.
Okay, yeah.
So the the blindfolded driver'srace is the tradition that if
you came to the event for sometime, some people really, really
miss it.
Some people don't as as much,but as of right now, you can
thank the insurance companiesfor killing off that that event

(01:54:55):
force.
So Always the fun, yeah forkilling off that event for us.

Speaker 4 (01:54:57):
So if anybody's wondering, Always the fun.

Speaker 1 (01:55:00):
Yeah, so all right.
First year that you came, doyou remember what rig you were
in?

Speaker 10 (01:55:09):
I was in my first 60 .
So it was at that time in it.
I guess it still is.
It's just a stock 60 on, Iguess, probably two inch lift
and 33s, like most people thatcome to the event.
Um, the long run was.
That's the only time I've everbeen up to carrival.
That was a long trip up g1banging around on on leaves and

(01:55:30):
way too stiff of shocks.
But it was a good trip.
Had a long run and had a goodtime flying some tires, so it it
was a good trip for that truckand I was cutting my teeth in
that park, so it was a good time.

Speaker 1 (01:55:44):
All right.
So you went up to Carrival.
Did you get in any of the moreprecarious runs early on in that
60?
Do you remember?

Speaker 10 (01:55:52):
No, so that truck only went once, and then the
next year is when my other 60got built.
But that first year I went Iwas only there for a day or two.
I had a buddy's wedding to goto, so I didn't get to enjoy the
full extent.
But the next year is when Camogot built and everything changed
.

Speaker 1 (01:56:12):
Zach was talking about going up to Carrival and
if you've never been to the park, carrival Flats needs be on on
your list.
It is a uh.
It is a moderate run.
It is a uh.
It's one of the easier uh,moderate runs, but it's just a
long.
It's a long run.
It's a long ways up to the top,but once you get up to the top

(01:56:34):
it's worth it.
But he was talking about goingall the way up P1 from the
general store and if you evervisit Carrival Flats just trust
us on this Just go start offHighway 116 on the other side of
the highway and follow thesigns from there, because P1
will just beat you up all theway.

(01:56:55):
It'll take an hour and a halfto get up it and there's no
enjoyment in it no, you need.

Speaker 10 (01:57:00):
You need a lot of good, good shocks and good
suspension if you're going to beable to keep up, because it's a
highway for the side by sidesand everybody else is 10 miles
an hour.
Just shake your coffee aroundyeah yeah uh, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:57:13):
So then, uh, zach, you, uh.
So then, zach, you're known foryou've got several vehicles in
the fleet, but I think mostpeople know you for your
camouflaged 60, wz Swap, knownaffectionately as Camo, which,
if you follow Overland Weekly onany of the socials, you've seen

(01:57:35):
some reels of some smoke showsbefore.
What was Camo's first year at GSmitter?
Do you remember?

Speaker 10 (01:57:44):
It had to be so.
I got it the first year ofCOVID and then they got built
the end of that year, so 21, 22.
So I must have missed a yearafter 19 if that was the first
year that I went.

Speaker 2 (01:57:58):
Oh, no I.

Speaker 5 (01:57:59):
I must have missed a year after 19 if that was the
first year that.

Speaker 10 (01:58:00):
I went, yeah, so I don't remember specifically.

Speaker 1 (01:58:03):
Well, I tell you what , Zach, we've had.
A lot of folks kind of sharetheir experiences and why they
choose to come to G Smitter yearafter year, and I want to talk
about that with you as well.
But, uh, why don't you give us,if you don't mind, the uh kind
of the, the short story on theevolution of of camo?

(01:58:25):
Uh from, because a lot ofpeople wouldn't believe uh,
where that truck originated andwhat condition it was in when
you got it?
Uh versus what they see nowyeah, I mean I I got.

Speaker 10 (01:58:36):
I got it as a.
It was a reasonably straightbody.
I mean it really wasn't thatbad of shape.
I mean it had been in a.
So it came out of Mont Eagle,tennessee two or three owners
before I got it.
That's when it had a.
Really the paint job used to beuniform and complete all the
way around it.
Over the years it's just faded,but at that point it was still

(01:58:59):
a 2f 35s.
I mean it was a normal springover, hadn't been done the best
in the world.
Um, it functioned but it wasn'tideal, um, and then I'd already
been planning a v8 swap for myother truck and it just kind of
it turned into okay, well, maybewe grow and there's like we'll
just throw the money out andjust have the truck that we can
go do what we want to do withOur little group.

(01:59:20):
There's three or four of us herein town that just kind of
happened to be a perfect stormat the time.
One dude bought a truck thatreally worked as it was.
George got into his and wasready to go.
Another guy was going to buildit.
It all worked into where wewere going to go out to run
Fordyce and the big stuff out inthe Sierras.
And it was a yeah, buddy,you're okay.

(01:59:41):
And it turned into where youhad to be able to run a
particular trail here locallywithout any problems to go run
Fordyce.
I had some money at the time,so built the truck and let it
rip and that was four years agonow, I guess working on it.
So yeah, but then as far as howG-Smitter plays in, that
truck's been all over.

(02:00:03):
Yeah, dude, you can get watereverywhere.
It's been to Colorado two times, Texas a couple times.
It goes everywhere.
I put 50,000 miles on it sincethe swap.

Speaker 1 (02:00:16):
It just goes where I want it to go and does a really
good job at it.
A lot of people think that thattruck always travels on a
trailer, but that's not alwaysthe case.
More often than not, you drivethat thing.

Speaker 10 (02:00:25):
It's only ridden a trailer twice and that was the
G-Smoother each time.
First time, for when this guywas still cooking and the fuse
was short, if he gets born, thenyou got to get home.
Yeah, we'll go home in a minute, buddy, we'll go upstairs.
And then that turned out great,no dramas.
And then this last time I gotanother one.

(02:00:46):
He's two months old.
Same situation, so I had to getback soon.
But otherwise yeah, that truckdrives, drives, goes up, runs
the redss and whatnot, and thenair it back up and drive home.
It's only given me fits onetime.

Speaker 3 (02:00:59):
Yeah, I know it, buddy Let me put you down.

Speaker 10 (02:01:04):
Okay, maybe not yeah , but it's a good little truck.
And then G-Spitter is nicebecause I can run it hard, but
then I can also go run witheverybody else.
Most of that crowd is theeveryman, and I think that's
what makes it so nice.
There's only 10 or 15 of usthat are Buddy it's okay, here
you go.
There's only 10 or 15 of us thatare really getting stupid and

(02:01:25):
everybody else is enjoying thetrip for the right way.
And so we have stupid guysSaturday, where everyone I'm not
trying to mess the show up, soSaturday gets big.
But then Tuesday through Fridaywe run with everybody else.
We try to help people, try toeducate people, get people out
of a pickle when they have to,Otherwise we have a good time.

Speaker 1 (02:01:47):
Yeah, that's.
That's one thing we've kind oftalked about and with each of
these is that we, we offer theseguided rides there.
There's easy rides, there's'seasy rides, there's moderate
rides, there's hard rides,there's stupid rides, uh, that
we classify these into and uh,because a lot of people, uh,
especially if they haven't beento wind rock before, they they

(02:02:08):
see the youtube, they even see,uh, they may see our reels, the
stlca reels, uh, which is oftenthe stupider stuff, and say I'm
not putting my truck in that.
But fact of the matter is, ifwe put the easy trails on the
reels, nobody click on them, sothat the algorithm doesn't pick
those up.
So so we got to get yourattention.

(02:02:31):
But to Zach's point, you can.
When I say that you can come uphere with a stock truck and
have a great weekend, I reallymean that yeah sorry, all good
and I think that's really thebest part, because we talk about
it to a lot of people.

Speaker 10 (02:02:52):
We travel a lot.
We talk to customers all acrossthe country.
Um, you know, I don't know,I've probably been to half the
TLCA calendar.
I prefer G Smitter over all therest of them.
Some of us kind of were biasedto it.
But the people is a good mixedbag.
It's not an all buggy thinglike some of the other events
are in Southeast.
It's not all 30, 31 gravelroads.

(02:03:15):
It's a good mix.
It's a good crowd of people.
It's a lot of good mentality.
Now I get it for the familyfriendly side.
I didn't really that wasn'tsaws all at two o'clock in the
morning, like it was four yearsago.
But you can still do that.
I mean, I think that's part ofthe thing, that now that we're
some of the family, people arecoming in and having the big

(02:03:35):
evenings and whatnot with dinner, and then they go into town or
wherever.
You can make it what you want.
Yeah, if you have questions orif you're curious, jump in, ask
questions.
There's a lot of guys that havebeen around for a long time.
There's ways you can do it atthe campground, even the Airbnbs
.
The area has a lot to offer.

Speaker 1 (02:03:53):
Yeah, absolutely.
I'm glad you touched on thatbecause that's one thing we
didn't talk about.
There's always primitivecamping included with the event
registration.
There's a big field there andit's first come, first serve to
set up, and there's a bathhouse,but it can get loud and it can
get warm.
But one of the benefits ofWindrock Windrock as a park has

(02:04:14):
added more and moreaccommodation options.
They've got everything fromyurts to the little tiny homes
to cabins, to hookups if you'rebringing your RV, and then
there's more and more Airbnbspopping up around the area as
well.
So however you want to handlethe family and the
accommodations, there's anoption.

Speaker 10 (02:04:37):
Yeah, and good ones.
Based off what everybody wassaying Yep exactly, all right.

Speaker 1 (02:04:44):
Well, zach, I appreciate it.
I will let you resume your yourdaddy daycare.
And I was telling the listenersearlier when, when George was
on and we were talking for aminute about two UZs, that
there's an episode that has beenprimed for some time on.
I don't know what the title isgoing to be, if it's 10 reasons

(02:05:05):
not to LS swap or if it's 10reasons to UZ swap your cruiser
coming up.
So George was trying to start arivalry and get get Matt
Balfair on to to debate you onit.

Speaker 10 (02:05:21):
So we'll see how that would be an interesting
conversation for sure.
I mean, we're both looking atit from both sides, but from a
technical perspective we're onthe same page, so it would
probably be a good conversation.

Speaker 1 (02:05:33):
All right, buddy.
Thank you.
Talk to you later.
Thanks for having me.
All right, buddy.
Thank you, Talk to you later.
Thanks for having me All rightand Chase.
I thought we were done talking,but then Bob popped in here.
Better late than never.

Speaker 7 (02:05:53):
It's all good.
Welcome to the program.
Yeah, thanks for waiting for me, Davey.
So I understand we want to talkabout the eventful trip down 11
.

Speaker 1 (02:06:02):
Yeah, so, chase, were you leading that ride?

Speaker 8 (02:06:08):
I was.
I was leading the group goingup 11, and Bob was leading the
group that took a wrong turnsomewhere and had other plans
and came down 11.

Speaker 1 (02:06:18):
Okay, because I didn't think that I had a
scheduled ride coming down.

Speaker 2 (02:06:23):
You did not, because you know I try to.

Speaker 1 (02:06:25):
I try to plan those things so that we're not running
into each other on the trail.

Speaker 7 (02:06:31):
Yeah, so so your trail leader, me, we were coming
back and we're like, okay,let's do 11.
So we had gone on 82, I think,and we had done the waterfall
and it was supposed to be a blueand there was nothing there,
there was no obstacle.
I think parking at thewaterfall was the obstacle.
And so we were coming back andwe're like, well, let's do 11.
Sure, Great idea.

(02:06:51):
Well, I turned one turn tooearly on 11.

Speaker 1 (02:06:54):
So we came down.
So 11 for folks that don't know, 11 is like a horseshoe shape
and you can hit it from eitherentrance, but one you're going
down and one you're coming up.

Speaker 7 (02:07:05):
Yeah, right, and so normally you would go up 11 and
the the rock garden obstacle isthe nice obstacle right, and so
we're we're coming down andchase's group is coming the
other direction and they're kindenough to wait on us.
We're like, yeah, we're justgoing to buzz down through here.
We hadn't really had anyproblems so leading off.
Of course I don't go far enoughleft and I end up kind of

(02:07:28):
turtling Right and so both myfront and rear passenger wheel
are off the ground spinning,can't go anywhere.

Speaker 1 (02:07:35):
And Bob's in a 200, by the way.

Speaker 7 (02:07:37):
I'm in a.
I'm in a trail wheel.

Speaker 8 (02:07:40):
What size tires were you running, Bob?

Speaker 7 (02:07:42):
They're 34s.
They're almost big enough.
I'm no Davey or Lee.
One day I'll graduate to 35sand 37s.

Speaker 1 (02:07:53):
My 37s are still sitting in the garage where they
were before the event.
One day I'll find time to cutthem up and get them on there.

Speaker 7 (02:08:01):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (02:08:02):
There you go.

Speaker 7 (02:08:03):
And so Chase was lucky enough to meet us on the
way down and told me not onlydid I have to winch, I had to be
winched downhill.

Speaker 8 (02:08:13):
Bob had to be winched downhill by another group.
Yeah, bob had to be wincheddownhill by another group.
So, davey, you had handed outthe winch pink sashes for trail
leaders to give out for whoeverhad to be winched in their group
.

Speaker 1 (02:08:28):
Which I will overlay that picture of right now for
folks that are watching this.

Speaker 8 (02:08:32):
Perfect, so I didn't have to give mine out to anybody
in my group, so Bob got it.

Speaker 5 (02:08:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (02:08:41):
It was wonderful.
It was a wonderful day.

Speaker 1 (02:08:43):
So if you're listening to this, we had these
pink sashes, like beauty pageantsashes that said Winch Me Baby
One More Time on them, winch mebaby, one more time on them.
And if you had to pull cableyou had to put the sash on and
you had to wear it until thenext person had to pull.

(02:09:06):
And if there wasn't a nextperson then you had to wear it
for the rest of the night.
So it worked well.

Speaker 7 (02:09:11):
Luckily, jake ended up having to pull cable, and so
that was their sash.

Speaker 1 (02:09:20):
I got to hand it off.
Yeah, all good, bob, you'vebeen coming to the event for
several years, right?

Speaker 7 (02:09:28):
Yeah, since 21,.
I think was my first one.

Speaker 1 (02:09:31):
There's been a lot of folks that 21 was their first
year.
That was mine too, Bob.

Speaker 7 (02:09:37):
That's when the date shifted, because it had been
Mother's Day.
Also, that weekend coincideswith my wife's birthday.
It was never an option.

Speaker 1 (02:09:50):
You've wheeled it in your 40 and in your 200.
Is that right?

Speaker 7 (02:09:56):
Yeah, I didn't bring the 40 this time because I
thought it was going to rain allweekend.
I kind of feel bad that Imissed that one, because the
weather was perfect, aside fromthe moments of rain that we had
in the evening.
They're different beastsWheeling the 200 versus wheeling
the 40, there's AC, heatedseats, music, all the creature

(02:10:21):
comfort.
Yeah, cooled seats, windows,windows are a big plus.

Speaker 1 (02:10:27):
Windows are a plus.
I don't know anything aboutthat music part because I bought
a replacement.
This is a side note.
I bought a replacementamplifier after my amplifier
fried and I put the replacementamp in and everything fired up
and I had music for about twominutes and then it started
blowing the 30-amp fuse for theamplifier in the fuse box and

(02:10:50):
it'll blow it immediately now.
So anyhow, I don't think it'sdestined for me to have audio in
the truck for the time being.
You just get radio chatter.
Yeah, just turn the GMRS on andlisten to it.

Speaker 7 (02:11:06):
Just don't start singing to yourself.

Speaker 1 (02:11:09):
Well, that's Lee, that's Lee we have to worry
about with that.

Speaker 8 (02:11:14):
Maybe Lee was one of the guys that we kept picking up
on GMRS.
While we were there, there weretwo guys chatting about their
uh, their upcoming bromance tripto uh, to Dollywood, the guy's
on the repeater, yeah.
Yeah, I had a lot of peopleasking if we could change
channels and not.
I was way too into the story atthat point.

(02:11:34):
I was too invested to to wantto give into that request.

Speaker 1 (02:11:39):
You will pick up a few repeaters uh up at windrock.
That's just part of the game,so yeah where are you?
Well, I'm over here in pigeonforge yeah, there's that and
there's some company there andthey're telling you you know,
the loading dock is clear, nowback up up, and that kind of
thing.

Speaker 7 (02:11:58):
The occasional Morse code beeping.

Speaker 1 (02:12:03):
Yes, that too, all right.
Well, bob, I'm glad that youmade it in and could join us
here.
You know I talked with Chase alittle bit earlier.
This event is.
It's a very diverse event asfar as the people, as far as the

(02:12:27):
vehicles, and it's a veryfamily oriented event as well.
So kind of give us your, yourperspective, if you will.
You've been to other events,other trail rides.
What makes you come back andsign up for G Smitter each year

(02:12:48):
and also now raise your hand tovolunteer and lead these rides?

Speaker 7 (02:12:58):
so I would say the other events that I've been to
have have primarily been atWindrock, also at Colmont, uh,
but this year, davey, I thinky'all did a bang up job it's.
It's probably been the bestorganized G smitter that I've
been to out of the the four.
Um, as far as family oriented,bradley has been coming with me.
He's my, he's my now 13 yearold son.
He has been to as many as Ihave, and so I've had to start

(02:13:20):
getting him t-shirts.
I actually start letting himdrive a little bit like doing
the connector trail and someother things that he's
comfortable with.

Speaker 8 (02:13:29):
I got all those questions from my 10-year-old
this time, bob.
He was mad that I didn't gethim a shirt this time and he's
been wanting to drive throughthe campground, yeah that never
happens.

Speaker 1 (02:13:40):
We never have any underage unlicensed drivers.

Speaker 8 (02:13:43):
Yeah, I told him no, yeah, I told him no, Of course
you did.

Speaker 1 (02:13:46):
yeah, yeah, I'm good.

Speaker 8 (02:13:48):
Dad.

Speaker 7 (02:13:51):
I told Bradley no too , this year, though, what he
really graduated to, he wantedhis own raffle tickets.
Oh, had to.
This year, though, what hereally graduated to, he wanted
his own raffle tickets.
So I had to buy some extraraffle tickets for Bradley.
I think that was the realbenefit.
And what was the other question, davey?

Speaker 1 (02:14:09):
Well, we were just comparing it to other events
around the country, the countryyou know.
One thing that we've talkedabout is the different types of
vehicles that you see.
There.
You're a prime example becauseyou bring your 41 year, you
bring your 200 the next year andyou're comfortable in either

(02:14:30):
rig and I mean comfortable onthe trails because you will go
on a ride that inevitablythere's a guy in a 200 and
there's a guy in a 40 on 31s andthere may be a guy in a mega
cruiser behind you.
We had a mega cruiser therethis year.
But that's what kind of makesit exciting, because some of

(02:14:52):
these obstacles let's take onjust kind of a moderate trail,
for example, right Like a 26 orsomething there's sections that,
depending on your wheelbase,depending on if you're IFS or
solid axle, something that isnot challenging for the guy in
front of you can be totallychallenging for the next vehicle
.

Speaker 7 (02:15:13):
Oh, absolutely.
I think 22 is another goodexample right, oh, absolutely I
think 22 is another good example.
Right 22 is a blue anddepending on whether or not it's
raining or what's happening, itcan get pretty crazy.
We got stuck.
We got in some pretty severetrail traffic.
I guess it was Saturday, wewent up 22 and we probably got

(02:15:36):
stuck for three hours.
I mean, it was long enough thatthere was lunch.

Speaker 1 (02:15:40):
Yeah, I heard about that.

Speaker 7 (02:15:41):
Yeah, let's eat lunch .
And then you had people walkingback up and they're like, oh
yeah, there's 15 trucks behindyou.
I'm like, well, there's atleast 15 trucks in front of us
too, and you know that canchange, because you saw you had
100s out there, you had 200s, Ithink I even saw a Sequoia out
there that was going up 22.
And so it's all skill levels,it's all types of trucks, and I

(02:16:04):
think that's what makes it fun.

Speaker 1 (02:16:14):
I mean, that's part of the fun of parking at the
pavilion in the evening andeverybody kind of walking around
looking at trucks, talkingabout what you did to your truck
, what you did to your truckthat day maybe.
But well, that's part of what,for me, makes it fun as a trail
leader is when, when you getyour group lined up and you look
and you've got all kinds ofdifferent uh different rigs
behind you, because if you'vegot any, any challenging spots,
it's it's going to be adifferent line potentially that
you got to set people up on eachtime absolutely, there was one.

Speaker 7 (02:16:36):
I think was it the group with you, chase?
That was the colorado, or wasthat the group ahead of us?
There was a like a chevycolorado out there.

Speaker 8 (02:16:43):
That was no, that was the group that would have been
ahead of you.
They, uh, they came uh.
No, sorry they were, they wereahead of me.
I think didn't you guys passthem, or were they?

Speaker 7 (02:16:54):
yeah, I think they came up in front of you guys and
then we came down but he waswas, I mean, he drove like a
little Chevy Colorado up throughthere, yeah, and was just
banging it all over the placeand you're like, okay, so it's
everything, and I think it wastaped up and I think it may have
even had tape on it that saidToyota.
He was at G-Smithers, right, hewas attending G-Smither, but I
think it had the Chevy emblemtaped up and I think it said

(02:17:17):
Toyota on it in Sharpie.

Speaker 1 (02:17:20):
Well, I'm glad you brought that up and I brought
this up on other episodes, butif you happen to be stumbling
across this at some point intime, listening to it, while
this is a Toyota event,registration has always been
open to all makes and models.
So while we have 300 plustrucks this year, 275 of those

(02:17:49):
were Toyotas and the other 25was a mixed bag Some people that
just came on their own, thatdidn't know anybody which was
cool, they made friends and alsopeople that brought their buddy
with them, that had a Jeep or aDodge or whatever.
So you don't have to own aToyota to attend the event.
You do have to own a Toyota tobe a STLCA club member, but you
don't to attend the event.

Speaker 7 (02:18:07):
And you know, davey, that's another great example.
So you said, they came and theymade friends.
That first year I came, theonly person I knew was Joel,
right, and I think I had mettone at that point.
Okay, and that was, that wasfour years ago.
And now you go, hey, how's itgoing?
You know, you see everybodythat you know, uh, both at g
smitter and other events, and soit's nice, right, it's a nice

(02:18:30):
community awesome.

Speaker 1 (02:18:33):
all right.
Well, bob, thank thank you forjumping in here and Chase, thank
you for coming back on forsegment two, for us to get this
recorded here, so when we getthis all edited we'll see how it
all flows together.

Speaker 7 (02:18:50):
Thanks guys, there are pictures of that.
If you need, in the Googlephotos there are pictures of
that and if you don't find findone, I can send you a picture to
go along with the segment, ifyou want to I've got those saved
, don't you worry about thathe's done his homework.
Yeah, yeah, oh wonderful, yeah,all right, okay all right,

(02:19:12):
folks.

Speaker 1 (02:19:13):
Uh, welcome back.
So if, uh, if my backgroundlooks a little bit different
than it did earlier, if you'rewatching this, I have changed
locations.
We fast forwarded a few days.
We recorded most folks over theweekend and our next guest had
a little bit of technicaltrouble, so he got a special
time slot during the week.

(02:19:33):
Jake, how are you buddy?

Speaker 9 (02:19:35):
I'm doing well.
Like I said earlier, have youever typed Gmail into the Google
search?
That's how technically savvy Iwas moments ago.

Speaker 1 (02:19:49):
Well, you look good.
You've got a nice backgroundset up there.
I mean, that is one of thecleanest 2UZ engine covers I've
seen in a long time.

Speaker 9 (02:20:00):
Yeah, actually this is a client's cover.
I was actually no joke cleaningit in the kitchen sink Well,
the bathtub and then let it dryover the kitchen sink, so that's
why it's in here.
But I just installed some DougThorley headers and they do
sound really good.

(02:20:21):
But he was actually a G Smitterparticipant, believe it or not.

Speaker 1 (02:20:27):
So folks, if you don't know, jake from Jake of
All Terrains, jake of AllTerrains is the name of his
business.

Speaker 9 (02:20:35):
It's also the name of his Instagram account, he is
easy to find my persona if youwill, it's his persona, but if
you are looking for a Toyotamechanic four-wheel drive
mechanic in East Tennessee thatwill take your parts into his

(02:20:56):
bathtub to clean them for you.
I think there's only one.
It's one of those, though youknow you're not the first to
have your cylinder head in mybathtub, so no, but yeah, it's a
pretty serious Toyota love overhere.

Speaker 1 (02:21:09):
Jake is showing his Toyota shift pattern tattoo.
If you're listening to this,this is one of those episodes.
We've had a lot of pictures andpeople on that.
If you're listening, it'sreally good.
Go back after you're done onyour podcast app and pull it up
on YouTube and see it in person.

Speaker 9 (02:21:30):
I honestly watch all your stuff on.

Speaker 1 (02:21:31):
YouTube.
Well, that's the best way, JakeYou're getting the full
experience.

Speaker 9 (02:21:36):
I'm paying for that premium.
I'm trying to give Google themoney from every angle.

Speaker 1 (02:21:47):
Jake, you've been coming to G Smitter for a few
years.
You've been wheeling for a longtime.
Do you remember maybe what yearyour first G Smitter was?

Speaker 9 (02:22:00):
My first G Smitter, I believe was 21, which would
have been.

Speaker 1 (02:22:07):
That's so interesting .
You say that that's like theyear that so many people started
coming.

Speaker 9 (02:22:13):
Well, I'll tell you what happened to me.

Speaker 1 (02:22:32):
Well, I'll tell you what happened to me, Davey.
I actually am a longtime musicfestival goer here in Tennessee.
There's another big old thingthat attracts hundreds upon
thousands of vehicles.

Speaker 9 (02:22:37):
You're kidding, jake.
You were a Bonnaroo guy, Iwould have never guessed.
Yes, my college friends and Iwe got a gig where we would work
the gates.
We're essentially like trafficcones they give us the shirts as
traffic and we would basicallyjust make sure everyone got all
their ducks in a row and stashtheir grass or whatever it was.

(02:22:57):
You know, throw out your glass,because they're not going to
let it come in the gate.
Sure, and then COVID happenedand Bonnaroo was just all kind
of weird, and so I took that asmy opportunity to start going to

(02:23:18):
G Smitter.
And so in 21, that's been theonly year that I actually came
in like a normie, got online andregistered for my then
girlfriend maybe fiance shewould have been fiance at that

(02:23:39):
time and got our tickets and weshowed up and, um, I'll never
forget, uh, my wife and I don'thave kids or anything, but it's
just I don't know.
I got into this as a kid likewe never had cool four-wheel
drives.
My dad liked the two-wheeldrive truck, like it was going
out of style, but uh, justseeing them and stuff.

(02:23:59):
And so seeing the, uh, seeingkids, um, you know, their eyes
light up at like, oh man, didthat guy just drive up that
thing?
So, uh, I guess I don't know ifhe was president then, but, uh,
bush, uh, his, his daughterswere there and I, you know.
Again, it was my first thingmeeting everybody, but it just

(02:24:20):
felt like a real familyatmosphere and somewhere in a
drawer I've still got it, but Ibelieve the girls worked on it
together.
They had some rubber bands andsome beads and I chatted with
them for a second and wastelling about, you know, toyota.
I don't know, I got a Toyotashirt on but it doesn't have

(02:24:42):
delivery.
But I was telling them aboutred, orange, yellow and all that
, and so they started makingbracelets for everybody, and so
I just remember that as a cooluh gift that I got.
It was well, I guess this is myToyota family now.

Speaker 1 (02:24:59):
Well, that's, that's interesting.
Yeah, You're.
You're talking about Lola andClaudia.
Yes, Girls, and yes, which they?
And you know which?
The oldest, just I'm sure Jasonwon't mind me saying just just
turned 15 this week andofficially has the learner's
permit.
Yeah, I believe I saw herdriving, so the pet trial is a

(02:25:20):
more skilled driver than mostmen that I know already on the
trail.

Speaker 9 (02:25:24):
Well, yeah, it's good , their truck, you can drive it
by the Braille method, which anygood off-roading vehicle.
You should always kind of havethat idea in your head that you
may bump into something, andthen that way you've kind of
already accepted it and it's notgoing to ruin your day when you

(02:25:46):
scuff a wheel or lose ataillight or something.

Speaker 1 (02:25:50):
Well, speaking of running trucks into things by
the Braille method, give us therundown to things by the Braille
method.
Give us the rundown Now.
You've got a driveway full andsome other properties full of
various Toyotas, but yourprimary G Smitter vehicle has
been Large Marge, the partybarge.
Yes, Tell us about Large.

Speaker 9 (02:26:12):
Marge Well, large Marge happened in 2018.
Uh, I was headed.
I used to have this, uh, toyotaCelica covered in hail damage
that I've referred to as thecellulite.
Uh, I gave 200 bucks to a guyin my local beer running group.

(02:26:32):
Uh, cause it, the motor hadblown up.
He ran it out of various fluids.
Because the motor had blown up,he ran it out of various fluids
and he was going to scrap it.
Like, ask me to haul it off.
And I was like, whoa bro, letme look up what scrap is.
And so I was like they're goingto give you $167.
I'll give you $200.
And he was like, okay, and Iloved it because it had it was

(02:26:55):
crank windows.
There used to be windows calledcrank windows, kid and manual
and all that stuff.
I put a pull apart engine in it.
I'll get to the point.
So I ended up.
I had left.
I used to be a manufacturingengineer for the pistons in
Camrys and Tacomas For a littlecompany called Ice and Sakey,

(02:27:19):
and in 2018, I left there andended up going on a big trip, a
road trip, in this car, and whenI stopped at my sister's place
out in Leapers Fork, tennessee,on the way getting off the
interstate, I drove past apasture and there was this Land
Cruiser sitting out there underthe tree.

(02:27:41):
And I got this car with themountain bike on the roof I look
like a freaking gypsy and youknow I'm like, pull in there.
And you, you never say LandCruiser.
And I said, hey, somebody wasthere, some boy cleaning his uh
Z71 truck?
And I said, hey, somebody, wasthere, some boy cleaning his Z71
truck?
And I said, hey, what's what'sgoing on with that Toyota under

(02:28:02):
the tree, you know?
And he's like that's my dad's.
You want me to go get him?
I said yes, please.
And so he comes out thesepeople actually follow me on
Instagram, believe it or not.
And so he's like, we talkedabout it, um, it ended up being

(02:28:24):
it was his parents, um, and uh,he told me a thousand bucks and
I said, okay, um, large marge,uh would become her name, uh,
but it's a 40th anniversary.
So that's like the Lexus of theland cruisers.
It's 1997, specific Um, and itsnumber is 615, which is the

(02:28:48):
area code in Nashville, whichwould add a whole slew of value
to it if I was intelligent, uh,and I could sell it as the music
city Cruiser to somebody thathad you know, money, but instead
I've had a bunch of adventuresin this truck.
I bought it.
I told the guy I'd be back inthree weeks because I went on
this 5,500 mile road trip.

(02:29:10):
I came back in my Tundra, whatI call my Toyota um, and the
guy's first response for a gooddude he was like nice truck,
which I took as, uh, hey man, Ireally thought it'd be like a
u-haul or something you know,but I had my own stuff.
He thought the car you know.

(02:29:30):
I was like nah, this is mybeater um.
So my group of friends prior tog smitter, uh, my college
buddies, they have one or twoeighties uh, each Um.
And so I ended up getting anengine from a guy um, and ended

(02:29:52):
up immediately after putting ittogether with an engine Um, it
at the time had no lockingdifferentials.
We went did an event called redclay rally, which I would
recommend.
It's a cool team event.
Uh, that's enduro timed um.
But at that point, uh, the gastank was leaking like a lot uh,

(02:30:12):
because I'd never put gas in itlike, I literally put gas in it
and then just left Uh, and sothere was no smoking near that
anyways.
So that was 2019.
So, flash forward, uh,throughout the years, I've just
found pieces and parts.
Uh, I put electronic lockers init.

(02:30:32):
Um, uh, this suspension, thatsuspension, this set of used
tires, that set of used tires,uh, found deals on like a winch
8274, you know, og, the goodstuff like down in Florida where
there's no trees, so there's novalue in having a winch, um,
but yeah, so that's a largeMarge.

(02:30:55):
Also, um, I put some tubing onit.
I've got a tube bender from JDSquared with different dyes, and
through having those friendsthat also had 80 series, I
learned that you've got toprotect the quarter panels on an
80 series.

(02:31:16):
Shout out, there's a kid Excuseme, kid, I'm 40.
So, uh, kid, there's a grownman who's younger than me.
Uh, hunter, hunter.
G matthews is his handle oninstagram and I would recommend
you go look at his high qualityphotos of the new body lines of

(02:31:41):
various people's Land Cruisers.
So, yeah, I put some tubing onmy quarter panels and so I still
got the same taillights thatcame in it and yeah, so shout
out to learning how to fabricateand buying a welder.

Speaker 1 (02:32:03):
Awesome, yeah, no, uh , and I'm going to put some
pictures up here of of largeMarge when I go back and overlay
it, so everybody can, can, uh,can, get a picture, uh,
especially with those fancy newwheels you got.

Speaker 9 (02:32:16):
Oh yeah, the wheels, and I spent innumerable hours
cutting the fenders to make thereal estate.
I had 37 1250s on FJ Steelyswith no spacers.
The tires would rub on theradius arms at full crank in the

(02:32:38):
front and then in the rear whenit would flex.
I mean you could hear thesidewall polishing the inner
fender like and the frame rail.
So these new wheels andeverything they stick way out Uh
, and so I've really been ableto get off camber.
Um, most recently I think yousaw that, saw that uh video up

(02:32:58):
at the sand mines.
I know you're one of your lastpodcasts.
Uh, what's their names?

Speaker 1 (02:33:03):
uh, jack from jack off road and uh, jack and robert
uh, were on, yeah, and they'dbeen to the sand mines and I was
telling them, yeah, you weretrying to get a trip together
and and you did, it was just youand stan, but, uh, but you guys
went up there and yeah, we putthe's some good footage.

Speaker 9 (02:33:23):
I did the old they call it the Toyota Wave where
there's a front tire in the air.

Speaker 1 (02:33:27):
Normally that's an IFS thing, but Jake's out there
doing it in the 80s.

Speaker 9 (02:33:30):
Well, yeah, we were off camber.
The video never does it justice.
They say, with these new offsetwheels.
It was really my first timegetting that off camber.
That additional security wasdefinitely there.

(02:33:52):
I think I let an expletive outin that shot for sure.

Speaker 1 (02:33:58):
But I think I let an expletive out in that shot.
For sure, jake, I think thelast couple of years you've
volunteered as a trail leader atG Smitter and I have to give
you credit.
You've led easy rides.
You've led some morechallenging, difficult rides,

(02:34:19):
but you always get rave reviews,my friend.
People come back that are newattendees to the event and
they're like I had so much funwith him today and I know you
pretty well and I'm not going tosay at times you don't make me
a little nervous, but youcontinue to get rave reviews on

(02:34:40):
your trail guiding.
So you know what is it aboutthat, that obviously you get a
big enjoyment out of takingpeople out and helping them
learn their vehicles.

Speaker 9 (02:34:54):
I don't think it's just the vehicles.
I mean some of it's that.
But uh sometimes you gotta getout of the truck Right and um, I
know from experience, uh,sometimes you get nervous.

(02:35:14):
I mean, uh, everyone getsnervous.

Speaker 2 (02:35:19):
And.

Speaker 9 (02:35:20):
I think that's the thing with this event is
realizing that we're all weirdin our own kind of cool way.
Or, you know, like this is theevent where it's cool if you can
rattle off a part numberassociated with some little

(02:35:40):
O-ring or something on thevehicle off the top of your head
.
This is the place you willshine.
You know, like this year, inreference, I guess, to the trail
leading, I had finished up mytruck and you know I literally
put it together that morning andhad not gone to bed and I

(02:36:05):
honestly signed up for theThursday trail ride to light a
fire under my butt to make surethat my junk was done, and there
were a lot of you know thingson the list that didn't.
You know it was like no, that'sif we got times.
Um, so, like you know, like Iwas peeling the tape off that

(02:36:28):
morning from the primer and youknow the Rust-Oleum paint job on
the edge, but so, so I signedup for a blue ride.
So I think the first two days Iled blue rides because this is
my first trip on these wheels.
I still managed to scuff themon all the days, but we did.

(02:36:54):
I believe it's 88.
There's a nice waterfall, andso I just decided mostly just
because it's probably justbecause I was loopy and I just
wanted to stand around and lookat the flowers, because I'm that
old now flowers um, there wasthis super cool waterfall and

(02:37:17):
the guy behind me ended up beinga photographer and had, you
know, uh, uh, creep yourneighbors out kind of lens, you
know yeah, mr chad king yeah,chad king photography right,
isn't that his handle?
uh, yes, but yeah, chad uh has avery nice tacoma, and so I was

(02:37:38):
watching him in the rear viewthe whole time.
Because I'm into this like,like the same thing with my
business.
People are nice, but I reallyjust like Toyotas, and so this
is an opportunity to see coolToyotas doing cool stuff, and
when you're in the front you cankind of coerce like this is the
line, the front.

(02:38:01):
You can kind of coerce likethis is the line.
Uh, I have a spoiler alert onthe back of marge, like a
sticker.
The joke is like spoiler alert,uh, you know.
So it says I drive over stuff.
So even on the blue trail, likeif there's a rock that's like
hip high or like below hip high,you know.
But you know, on an otherwiseflat trail, you could, you know,
traverse that and not doanything dumb, uh, but it's

(02:38:24):
gonna look cool.
So I ended up getting a supercool shot.
Throw that up, um, from chad.
It's like uh, check out thesweet pooper on marge.
And uh, but prior to that, whenwe came up to that waterfall, I
just got on the radio and waslike listen, uh, we're all gonna

(02:38:47):
take turns, uh, pulling infront of this waterfall, and
take as many pictures as youwant, and then let's move up out
of the way.
And that gave us an opportunityto get out and stretch our legs
a little bit, because we hadbeen on the trail for some time
that morning.
And then it also gave us a timeto chat with one another.

(02:39:09):
Um, and I'm real big, uh, as ayoung man, uh, like I've got
this lily white skin and it'ssensitive.
And as a young man I had a lotof poison Ivy run-ins and poison
Oak run-ins and Sumac beforesomebody was like hey, it looks
like this.
So I took it as an opportunityto teach these people that are

(02:39:30):
not from this area.
You know it's the great smokymountain trail ride, but it
doesn't mean you're fromAppalachia.
So there were people from youknow Florida that they don't
have poison ivy, it's not outthere.
So you know, teaching them, Iremember.
And blackberries, there wasblackberries.

(02:39:51):
So it's like here there wasthis little girl that wouldn't
eat blackberries but she waseating Sour Patch Kids.
Girl that wouldn't eatblackberries but she was eating
sour patch kids.
It was like no, these, theseare sour patch kid, what?
Oh?
So that was entertaining, Idon't know, um, I think it's the
like, I'll get out and spot um,and I made sure to let everyone

(02:40:14):
know that.
You know, you, winch, don't beafraid to use it.
That's why you got it.
Spotting one another,oftentimes a lot of people it
becomes the peanut gallery thisguy's yelling left, this guy's

(02:40:35):
yelling passenger guy's, uh,just yelling.
And so I said that we wouldmake an effort.
You know, we, there was someslip-ups, um, but make an effort
to not spot unless youspecifically request us to spot.
You know, and there'll be someareas where it'll speak for

(02:40:59):
itself that you're going to,we're all going to be spotting
one another.
Um, I think on that day we gota little bit of fender flare
damage on is that still 88 whenit comes to that wash, and
there's kind of some rockoutcropping on the right Like
you're going uphill.

Speaker 1 (02:41:20):
Yeah, I know that I don't those trails run together.
There's three or four.
It's real gravelly yeah.

Speaker 9 (02:41:26):
But we had one guy no real damage, superficial, just
a little, what'd I say?
Scratcharoo Right Like on hispassenger front fender flare.
And that was on that blue ride.
But then I also exploding fireextinguisher aside was the only
trail leader to lead Trail 30without anybody losing a

(02:41:50):
taillight or getting any bodydamage.

Speaker 1 (02:41:52):
Well, you know what?
That's a great point, Jake, andbecause earlier in this episode
, when people watch this, I willhave had Patrick Perry on and
during Patrick's segment weplayed that little reel where
we're like six taillights gotbusted.
That's a great clip, yeah, andand then, yeah, two days later,
Jake took his group through andeverybody cleared the tree.

(02:42:13):
Or Jake took his group throughand everybody cleared the tree.

Speaker 9 (02:42:18):
My wife did get a great shot of me smashing my
passenger rear beadlock like tothe point that it touched the
bolt.
You know, like the ring gotthat much carnage to avoid that
tree like going way high on theleft.
So no one else did that kind ofnonsense.

(02:42:38):
To avoid that tree like goingway high on the left.
So, um, no one else did thatkind of nonsense.
There was a guy in my group,though I guess it's back to why
is it uh?
To your earlier uh thing, whichthat's a great compliment.
I don't know if I said anything, uh, but I do want to say hey,
uh, new friends, thank you forthe uh you know, for the uh

(02:43:00):
reviews.
Yeah to say hey, new friends,thank you for the, you know, for
the compliment, the five-starreviews, yeah.
But on that spot, this verynice gentleman with a white 80
Series he was from Maryland,okay, and nice-looking truck,
outfitted had manual hubs on thefront, which 80 series don't

(02:43:22):
come with manual hubs.
So the thought process was likedang, that's a built truck,
manual hubs.
So he's coming up that spot,you know, near that tree, and I
say hey, is your front locker on?
And he says I don't have afront locker.
Which I replied oh, we probablyshould have talked about that

(02:43:45):
at the driver's meeting, butlike he hadn't had any issues at
all, like he's about to clearit, so whatever, bro, that was
good.

Speaker 1 (02:43:57):
Yeah, I heard that story.
No, it's all good, good stuff,jake.
Jake, you know I was thinking,before we wrap this, this whole
thing up, I want to, I want toget you to tell a story.
So Jake and I kind of crossedpaths in life, like literally,
because I live in Franklin,tennessee, now Jake lives in

(02:44:22):
Knoxville, tennessee, and wegrew up in the opposite of that
and where we both live is abouta mile from where the other one
grew up.
So like we literally kind ofcrossed about 20 years ago and
but so Jake grew up in inFranklin and the in the
Nashville area.

Speaker 9 (02:44:39):
You want my YMCA summer camp story, where I got
staff.
No, no, I want the time I founda human skull.

Speaker 1 (02:44:47):
No, I want the.
I want the possum story, I wantthe George Jones story for
those that don't know that, thatthe possum had a, had a Land
Cruiser, had an LX470 that hefamously, in George Jones
fashion, totaled out.
But shortly before thataccident, I believe Jake was one

(02:45:10):
of the last people to interactwith.

Speaker 9 (02:45:12):
Yeah, I've had some jobs before before I was
self-employed, um, when I was 16to 18 timeframe, it was not a
big deal to have a 90 day job,you know, sure, and then go on
to the next place, chuck ECheese definitely still one of
the favorite places I've everworked.
But to the George Jones story.

(02:45:45):
Uh, george Jones um, used tocome through the drive-thru
where I worked at arby's and to.
So I'm 16 years old at thispoint.
I had a miata, but we won't getinto that.
Yeah, um, which the first placeI ever took that off-roading was
where the Nissan North Americanheadquarters is, which is where
I would also take my firstToyota off-roading, anyways, so,
george, would come and getArby's five for $5.

(02:46:06):
You used to be able to get fiveroast beef sandwiches like with
all the meat on it not wherethere's less meat, the buns
smaller now for $5.
But, yes, george Jones, his 100, 100 series.
May he rest in peace, and the100 series as well.
He, uh, yard, sailed it, um offof a bridge on highway 96.

(02:46:30):
The neighborhood that he livedin, I believe, was called dallas
downs that's correct, is that?
right, yeah, uh, and it was.
You know, red brick, whitecolumn, veranda, you know kind
of place, um, but I guess he hada couple too many road sodas
one day and just off this bridge, um, but that was back when 96

(02:46:54):
was two lanes, I'm sure it'slike six now.
Yeah, because, yeah, betweenthere and Triune, but yeah,
right into a creek.

Speaker 1 (02:47:06):
Yes, so, yeah.
So George famously totaled thattruck.
I think there's an Arby's sackin the picture in the newspaper
article of that total truckwhere Jake had sold him some
sandwiches right before theaccident.
So there's your Nashvilletrivia.

(02:47:31):
If you don't know who GeorgeJones or the possum is, then and
you used to, I'm sorry, youused to be able.

Speaker 9 (02:47:39):
Do you ever go out on Old Natchez Trace?

Speaker 1 (02:47:41):
Yes, there used to be a rope swing out there.

Speaker 6 (02:47:44):
There is still In 2004,.

Speaker 9 (02:47:47):
I would sink my Tacoma about yea far from the
headliner in that river In theHarpeth.

Speaker 1 (02:47:55):
There you go, alright .

Speaker 9 (02:47:56):
Folks, we are going to wrap this whole show up River
and the Harpeth.

Speaker 1 (02:47:58):
There you go, and the rest is history.
Well, folks, we are going towrap this whole show up, with
Jake and I reliving childhoodstories here, I know this has
been a long episode and if youhave listened this far, I
appreciate it and I hope you'vereally enjoyed it.
If you've listened to this, mygoal for this was for you to get

(02:48:22):
several different perspectiveson the event and the people and
what makes it all work andhopefully, if you're into
Toyotas or into off-roading, say, hey, I want to go check that
out, I want to come hang outwith those people.

Speaker 9 (02:48:36):
Yeah, you can hang around with people that wear
cool Toyota shirts.

Speaker 1 (02:48:40):
Cool Toyota shirts or cool Overland Weekly shirts
that you can find onoverlandweeklycom.
So alright, thanks again, jake.
We are going to wrap this oneup.
See you, bye, bye, bye.

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Beyond the Windrock Trails: The Heart of GSMTR | Ep.26

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Beyond the Windrock Trails: The Heart of GSMTR | Ep.26