Ep 13 Jason of Ham Radio 2.0

In this episode, Hank Strange and guest Jason delve into the world of ham radio, its intersection with RV culture, and its role in events like Burning Man. They discuss vehicle capabilities for off-road travel, the necessity for self-sufficiency during extended van trips, and where to source RV supplies. The duo also talks about balancing skills, time, and money in van builds, and promotes the upcoming More Expo in Springfield, Missouri.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Guys.
Welcome back to Strange Palooza.
This is the Vanasaur podcast, and here weexplore all things RVs, class bs, Overlanding,
and Van Life culture.
That's right.
That's what I said.
My guests joining me live today is Jason ofHank Radio 2.0.

(00:22):
What's up?
Hello.
How are you?
How's it going, man?
It's
been 2 months since we talked.
I know.
It has been, and it's all my fault.
A 100.
Oh, yeah.
A 100%.
A 100%.
Yeah.
I've been You know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know.
No excuses, I guess.
Right?
Hey, man.
You're staying busy.
That's a good thing.
Yes.
It's a good thing.
Absolutely.
Let's leave the gooses out of it.

(00:43):
I'm gonna pop this.
Let me see if I could do this here real quick.
I am gonna make sure that I pop up the thethumbnail that we're using for this here while
I do this.
Let's see.
It should come through.
Okay.
Hold on.
Hold on.
And, boom, there we go.
Alright.
So, yes, this is episode 13 of the Vanasorepodcast.

(01:07):
And, of course, my guess is Jason of Hank radio2.0.
Look at that.
Look at that beautiful mug right there.
I almost I almost, I almost green screened inor blue screened or photoshopped in, like, a
radio or some saying that
I was like.
Oh.
Well, that could have been that could have beena thing.

(01:28):
Yeah.
I thought, you know what?
That's just gonna be overkill.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So how's it going, man?
Man, I've been, I've been keeping busy justlike you Hank.
Kinda same thing over here.
So I actually I'm about to launch my ownpodcast.
Oh, really?
The first video just about 2 hours ago.
So
Okay.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.

(01:49):
Habit?
What's your podcast gonna be about?
It's gonna be well, I haven't I've kind ofannounced it it's not live yet.
So there's nothing up there yet.
But Mhmm.
It's gonna be it's gonna be called Riggs andRadio, and it's gonna talk about Overlanding
Okay.
And what radios we have installed.
And it's gonna be it it it's not it doesn'thave to be radio centric.

(02:11):
But but it's gonna be Overland rig morecentric, but we're gonna focus on radios if the
person also has ray.
And it doesn't have to be ham radio.
It could be GRS, CV, whatever we wanna do.
So we're gonna try to do a podcast that kindamarries those 2 worlds together.
Yeah.
And I think, yeah, those things do go totogether.
If you're Yeah.
Whatever kind of RV you're doing or travelingyou're doing, it's good to have backup

(02:33):
communications.
So let's let's start here, Jason, for the folkswho don't know who you are, what Hank radio 2.0
is.
I, I Hank, you know, let's just, start fromthere.
Okay.
Yeah.
Hank radio 2.0 is my YouTube channel.
Been doing that about 8 Mhmm.
8 and a half years, something like that.

(02:54):
It focuses on stuff that's new in ham radio,either equipment, radios, antennas, just all
kinds of electronic equipment, but also, alsosome classes and whatnot.
So it focuses on getting people licensed andupgraded so that they can enjoy the world of
ham radio just like I do.
So Mhmm.
That's the that's what it's focused on.

(03:15):
Yes.
And, that's how I got my license.
How long ago is that that I got my,
is it It was couple of years.
It was
February it was February of last year.
When you and Lola tested at OrlandoHammocation.
Was that only last year?
I thought it's been, like, at least 2 years nowor That's
almost this this February, it'll be 2 years.

(03:35):
So Oh.
Yeah.
The Orlando show is in is in February.
And, and So it was not not 2023, but 2022,February.
Mhmm.
And you are you are into RVA.
And Overlanding, as you said, I think weoriginally met at Overland East, didn't we?
Yes.
Correct.

(03:56):
That's right.
That's been some years.
Yeah.
That is 21, I think.
Yeah.
I didn't see you out there this year.
No.
No.
I sadly, so Vid Summit, which is the largestYouTube convention Mhmm.
In the nation.
It happened that same week, and it was righthere.
It was in Dallas this year.
It's usually in California.
Oh, cool.

(04:16):
That.
Okay.
I attended Vids Summit.
I was there for about 3 days, and that was thesame week as Overland East this year.
But Yeah.
Next year, they've got it They've they'vealready got the dates planned next year.
They don't co they don't coincide.
They're 2 weeks apart, so I am gonna do my bestto be at Overland Expo East in Virginia next
year.
Okay.
Cool.
Alright.
We'll probably see you out there then.
Yeah.
So Jason is into Hank radio communication stuffknows a lot about this.

(04:39):
Hank radio took 2.0 is the YouTube channel foryou guys to go to with that.
And of course, you, as you said, you're intoOverlanding.
I know you got a jeep.
I know you got a Strange.
We're gonna talk about your future plans ofstuff that you're gonna do here.
So, I would invite the folks out there to tellus what kind of traveling you all do.

(05:00):
So do you fly?
Do you hitch hike?
Do you do you drive out there, like, in somekinda Overland rig or an RV of some sort, you
know, 5th wheel trailer, class b, class a,whatever it is.
Let us know what you guys do, and we'll behappy to answer questions on any of those
things.

(05:21):
So, oh, I see call calls out there.
Yeah, says he'll be at East?
Yes.
So Kyle just put a down payment on a hikertrailer that he's gonna pick up in January.
Okay.
A hiker trailer.
What is that?
Hiker.
It's a Hiker's the brand.
They're out of Indiana.

(05:41):
I think.
Mhmm.
And it's like a it's like one of those small,very lightweight.
Just it's just the interior is just a bed andthe kitchen's on the side, you know, and you
can pull it with a smaller vehicle.
So Okay.
And it's spelled like hiker.
I'm trying to pull that up.
Yes.
Yes.
Hiker they had they had
a see it.
Yeah.
They had a really big presence at the more expolast April.

(06:04):
Okay.
And, so, yeah, they're
Oh, okay.
Hold on.
Let's see I can actually pull this up here.
Alright.
I will switch over to my phone here for asecond.
Boom.
Is it these kinds of
That's it.
Yes.
Mhmm.
Okay.
There you go.
Oh, so very cool.

(06:24):
Yeah.
These are kind of, like, off road, off gridkind of deals.
I don't know if that one exactly there is ahiker trailer, but this, yeah, Okay.
I'm familiar with these.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
These are pretty cool.
Get you get you, off road.
Yes.
Correct.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're they set up a little bit higher.

(06:45):
They got they got, a little bit higher, axlesand, and, and wheel sizes, and they, they come
with the all terrain tires Of course, there'sno drive behind them, but they're easier to
pull over.
You know, if you're going off off roadtrailing, they're a little bit easier to pull,
not gonna drag as badly as like a regulartrailer would, but Yeah.
They have good aerodynamic stuff like that.
Yes.

(07:05):
Yeah.
You know, and I've seen a lot of people gettinglike, making their own versions of those and
getting military surplus stuff and buildingthem up.
Lightweight is the big thing.
If going off road, I would say.
Correct.
Yes.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So one of the things that, oh, Lee Lee McCrisersays, teardrop.

(07:29):
I love it to see all the Hank radio call signscoming in here.
You told me to share the link man.
So I should make sure.
I'm happy.
Yes.
I'm happy to see all those all those folkscoming in here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
As well as the other folks, the Hank radio isstrong out there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's strong out there.
So let us know where you guys are.

(07:51):
What kinda, like, how you travel and all thatkind of stuff.
Yes.
I'm I'm right now looking.
I was at Cyma Show, maybe a week ago.
And Winnebago has something called the hike,and I did a video on that that's gonna be
coming out I know that's not exactly this kindof thing.

(08:11):
This was, like, really, really nice inside.
Let me see if I could show a picture of ithere, more expensive, but designed to go off
road.
So let's see if we can, pop that up here.
Just I could show people.
I have a video coming out on this sometimesoon.
So there you go.

(08:31):
That that's neat looking.
Yeah.
Okay.
So that's from Winnebago.
They do class b stuff as well, but, it wasinteresting to see this because this thing is
fully loaded when you guys get, a, you know,take a gander at that video.
Only thing that it's it's like $50 orsomething.

(08:52):
Hikers are very affordable.
Yes.
I mean, they yeah.
They, the the the brand hiker, they I thinkthey started, like, 16.
And then you can you can kind of modularizepick what you wanna add to it and that kind of
thing.
Of course, that makes the price go up.
But, you know, I think that they're I thinkthey're they're pretty they're pretty
economical to start off with.
Yeah.

(09:13):
So Lee Lee Mcsea says, is Kyle going off Road.
Is he going off road?
I'm I'm guessing.
If he's getting that, he's gotta be.
I don't know.
A little bit.
Yeah.
I know he's gotta he's gotta Toyota that he'sbuilding out.
And Mhmm.
We we camped together at the more expo lastyear, and we're planning to do so again next

(09:34):
year.
Mhmm.
And then we've got a couple of, we've got awe've got we've got some over landing trips
planned for 2024.
We're gonna have some, some we're gonna be bedoing some driving for ham radio and for other
stuff as well.
So
And it's common for the ham radio guys.
To go RV.
And and going off roading as well.

(09:56):
I know one of the things Lola wanted me to talkto you about is how you got into this.
But even when I met you guys at the like, well,I I met you at Overland East, but then when I
came to the the show that's here, the Hankradio show that's here, Florida.
There's a lot almost everyone was camping outthere.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a big camp show, too.

(10:16):
So Yeah.
Yeah.
There's actually a there's actually a Hankradio club called the RV Radio Network.
I went to their full rally just like, about amonth ago.
Mhmm.
And, they have their own call sign.
They're a ham radio club.
They get together and have nets and whatnot.
So it's it's they do.
But it's, it's more of your RV crowd and notreally an Overland crowd specifically, but I

(10:40):
find that when I go to these Overland shows, II seem to always meet at least 2 or 3 or 4 guys
there that are hammer operators that wanna talkabout.
So that I think that I think those 2 worldshave collided a lot more than people realize,
which is a good thing.
Mhmm.
And, it's, you know, I I kinda got into ithonestly, I I I first got into it because giga

(11:00):
parts started attending the show.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
And, you know, I chase it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So we, we went out there.
Mhmm.
We went out there together, and, we've done 2or 3 things together since that show.
And It's just been, it's been a real fun way tosee how those how those worlds intertwined
together.
Yeah.

(11:20):
I think the first time I actually saw yourStrange, was out at giga parts.
Right?
Yes.
Yes.
Mhmm.
Correct.
Yeah.
Cause I think that's when You did a video thatyou put on your I guess it's is it gonna be a
Overlanding channel now?
It's, it's, yeah, my second channel is calledUnplugged.

(11:43):
It was mainly I mainly started it to do, like,off grid gear reviews and whatnot, but It kinda
became a RV channel with the new RV stuff, butI've done some o overlanding videos for
Overland Trailers as well.
So it's kinda it's kinda both right now untilit grows and finds it's if it finds us 1 or the
other, then great.
But right now, it's kind of a a a group effort.

(12:05):
Yeah.
The Hank radio thing from my, you know, meekunderstandings, humble, maybe home
understandings.
It's this you have to get out there and dostuff.
Yeah.
You know?
And I know that when I'm out there as well, Isee people that either have Hank radio or gmrs
or, I guess I see CV stuff as well.

(12:26):
What do you see out there in the world in termsof communication?
The people.
What's the most popular?
You know, in the open land world, I'd say themost popular is gmrs.
You know, the everyone used to be CB's And,over the course of the last, say, I don't know,
maybe 5 year, 5 to 10 years, people havestarted to switch from CB, because if you go

(12:50):
buy a if you now, you can you can havemodifications done to these radios if you want
to.
But if you go buy a stock CB off the shelf, Andyou go it's gonna be like about 4 to 12 watts,
roughly.
And if you go buy a stock g m r s radio off theshelf, for your, a mobile GRS rated for your
vehicle.
I'm talking.
It's gonna be, like, 40 to 50 watts.
So you're gonna get out farther with a GRSradio than you would with the CV radio simply

(13:14):
because of the power output.
Also, G MRS is FM where CV is traditionally AM,although they have added FM see me recently,
but it's still limited to about 4 or 5 watts onon the FM side.
Okay.
So, so it's just it's a little bit and the thethe antennas are smaller on gmrs because the
frequency is higher.
So the higher you go in frequency, the smallerthe antenna to be.

(13:37):
Mhmm.
And it's just it's a little bit more compactand a little bit more, user friendly if you
would.
Yeah.
Easy easy entry.
Right?
Like, you don't have to do the test and allthat.
Right.
Yeah.
Well, of course, TVs are free.
Everybody can go buy a CB and start using it.
GMRS, you're supposed to have a license, whichyou just pay money for.
It's $35 for a 10 year license.

(13:58):
So you just sign up online, pay 35 bucks.
They give you a call sign.
You're done.
So it's it's very easy to get started in that.
And I I find that, you know, when I I have aseed bead, I I don't currently have one in the
truck.
But I have plans to put one in the truck.
I have a g m r s radio in the truck, and I'vegot, like, 3 ham radios in the truck.
So I personally like ham radio better, you'retalking about the Overland RV world, G MRS is

(14:20):
usually more prevalent just because it's, youknow, they just if you're going out in, like, a
caravan, whether you're driving from state tostate to go to a show or whether you're going
on Strange, you know, everybody can put it canget a GRS radio easily and put it in their
truck and stay in communications everyone inthis in the in the small group they're in.
Yeah.
I guess yeah.
That's probably what I see the most.

(14:41):
Even at Sima Show, I Hank, That's what I seemost of the folks out there have.
And I think if you pay that 35 bucks, it'severyone in your family can use it.
Correct.
Yes.
That's right.
That's right.
Mhmm.
Yeah.
So it's it's just real it's just real and easyto get into it, and it seems like the company's
are pushing that more commercially, or at leastwhat I'm seeing out there than these.

(15:05):
So when I go to Overlanding shows, I don't see,like, icons not typically out there, but I see
what's is it Midland that's big?
Midland.
Midland.
Midland's out there.
Rugged radios out there sometimes.
Those those guys are out there.
So, yeah, I'd like to see more of the radiocomms guys attend more of these over shows.

(15:26):
But right now, that's that's about all you see.
That's what giga parts is trying to do.
Yeah.
Because I think that these kinds of the hamradio stuff, there's just so much more you
could do.
The the barrier to entry there is you have toget licensed.
Hammer radio 2.0 and and other folks out therehave really good videos to help you.
Cause if I could do it and with me and Lolacould do it, pretty much anyone could do it.

(15:49):
But why the big question I wanna ask you hereis, like, why do you need this alternate
version of communication when we've got phones.
Why why, you know, what's the answer to that?
Someone will ask
us that.
Right.
I mean, it's it's a good question.
It's a good question, but I know a lot of Jeepguys that go out.

(16:09):
They'll go out on a Jeep hike over the weekend,and they'll you know, 4, 5, 6 of them will
drive out to somewhere together and they'lldrive up into, you know, off road back into the
Backwoods or up a mountain something, andthey'll go until they lose cell signal.
And that's where they'll camp, and they'll staythere for the weekend.
So I've talked to a lot of jeep clubs that dothat.
They're just like, we're just trying to get outaway from the cell So, you can do that.

(16:32):
So, with radio, you don't need a cell networkor repeater.
You can talk radio to radio and it's doesn'trequire an infrastructure.
It doesn't require satellites.
It doesn't require repeaters.
It doesn't require cell towers.
You can use ham radio with all of those things,but it's not required.
You can also use it radio to radio, which iswhat we call simplex.

(16:52):
Mhmm.
And all you need is a all you need is power, a12 volt 12 volt battery power or a little
handheld with with its own battery on it.
And you can communicate immediately with withthe group that you're in.
You can you, you can use repeaters, whichoftentimes are up on top of mountains to
communicate to a larger area.
And it's just, it's a way to communicate thatdoesn't rely on someone else having something

(17:17):
up for you to use, like a cell network or acell tower or something like that.
Mhmm.
Yeah.
It's very useful in emergencies and stuff likethat as well.
Obviously, if you have your phone, but ifyou're somewhere where phone's not gonna work.
Right.
In an emergency, if you got in touch withsomeone else, my understanding is you could, at
least, you can link out to that person and getto get help for you.

(17:38):
Right?
Correct.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And I've done several stories on my channelabout people doing just exactly that.
Yeah.
Using Hank radio to to call somebody say, Hey,are you near a are you near a phone?
Can you call the forest, the the the forest,Strange office at this forest where we're in,
where we're lost and stuck whatever and tellthem where we are, you know, give them these

(17:59):
GPS coordinates.
And they're using the radios to call outbecause their cell phone batteries either died
or more than likely, they're just out of cellrange.
Yeah.
I could imagine all those people that were outof Burning Man.
I wasn't there.
But I would Hank liked to have heard the radiochatter.
Oh, yeah.
Did you hear about this birdie man where theyall got stuck out there in the mud?

(18:20):
Because it
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because it rained.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yeah.
Any, any Hank radio people out there who are atBurning Man, let me know.
That's, That's typically what I do with theradios when we're out there is I'll put these
radios on if we're at a show or something likethat, and I'll just
Mhmm.
You could listen to the chatter.
Of what's going on with the people organizingit or other folks that are there.

(18:44):
And you can also hack these.
Like, this one is hacked so that it couldlisten to G MRS.
I just need to go pay the fee for it.
That one there will always listen to G MRS.
I think the hack you got will is where it'lltransmit on G MRS, which is Oh, okay.
So these always hear it.
You know, it's Right.
They always Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.

(19:04):
Yeah.
They, which, technically, you're not supposedto do.
I don't really think most anyone cares.
My my my theory's always been, you know, justdon't act like a jerk on the air.
Mhmm.
And, you know, just be polite and berespectful.
Nobody's gonna really care what radio you'reusing most of the time.
But, yeah, yeah, that you can monitor a lot ofa lot of times monitoring is all you need
because if you're in a big group of people,you're just trying to listen to see what's

(19:26):
going
on.
Yeah.
A lot of videos will monitor the g m r s and orCV radio frequency.
You know, a lot of people your channel 19 whenthey're on the interstate because you're gonna
hear about traffic accidents long before waysor Google tells you that there's military.
You're gonna hear about it on channel 19, but,many times.
Yeah.
And that's also a ham radio thing.
There's lots of folks who are not ham radiolicensed, but you can listen in and people do

(19:50):
listen in Florida here.
We have a pretty good, system set up here forcommunications.
If you have hurricanes, stuff like that.
Just don't interrupt it or be don't be an asshat.
Yeah.
Right.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Speaker speckful.
Absolutely.
We're gonna take a little break here.
We're gonna come back.
If you guys have questions, whatever you guyswanna talk about, we'll get into right after

(20:12):
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(21:21):
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Alright.
We are back And, from here, we'll probably talkabout, like I said, whatever you wanna talk
about, Jason, I see Kyle says they form Hankradio club the week of Burning Man with a

(21:46):
repeater and a Hank link station to send emailout.
Mhmm.
Cool.
And then you said, let's go next year.
Life
out loud.
Yeah.
I've always wanted to I've always wanted to goto Burning Man.
I've never been there, but I I hear it's Imean, it's like a the crowd is huge, and I
don't like really big crowds, usually.
So Yeah.
That's one reason I've never gone.
Yeah.
You know, it would be cool, though.

(22:07):
It would be cool to go up there and see.
Be cool
to go up there at least one time.
We just kinda see what it's like.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I heard there's celebrities out there, stufflike that because I think the of those
celebrities had to walk their way out of there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which is interesting.
So, yeah.
I mean, the the thought of what happens atBurning Man is probably usually, like,

(22:27):
debauchery or whatever, but I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I was just I've just been listening to ElonMusk biography, and he goes out there and a
whole bunch of people from Tesla, folks in hisfamily and stuff like that go out there as
well.
So it's it's interesting.
That's interesting.
Yeah.
Maybe maybe I'll be going out there at a a yearfrom now or something like that in my cyber

(22:49):
truck when I
Oh, there you go.
Is it are you gonna get the Tesla cyber truck?
Oh, yeah.
I'm on the list, man.
I'm waiting for Are you?
Alright.
Nice.
Yeah.
I'm waiting for the to, to call me up orwhatever it is is gonna happen.
Nice.
I'm not sure where I am in the list, but Ithink I'm pretty early because as soon as I saw
the video of the them throwing the thing at thewindow?

(23:10):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was like, I'm in.
Yeah.
Good.
You know, if you're willing to smash yourwindows Yeah.
Right.
In a thing, I'm all in.
And I heard you can get actually, so so it'scoming out, but it's not gonna have that
window, but you can get you can get a kind ofbulletproof window.
The only thing is your windows can't go up anddown if you get that because it's heavy.

(23:33):
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So I won't be getting that.
But I but the Cybertruck should be somewhatbulletproof because they allegedly shot, a
Tommy gun at it, which would be 45 they shot 9millimeter, stuff like that.
So I didn't see the Tommy gun 1.
Yeah.
So that'll be interesting.
Yeah.
That'll be interesting to see.
Vanessa Kitty says I used to visit the ARRL HQin Newington, often when I was younger.

(24:01):
So you would know exactly what that is.
I was there about a month and a half ago withKyle.
And Oh, okay.
We were doing a we were doing a a 9 StrangePoda road.
Mhmm.
Is basically you just go to different parks,state parks, and national parks, and set up
Hank radio, and talk to people.
Mhmm.
And, and we started in We flew into Hartford,Connecticut.

(24:23):
We drove around to 9 different states.
And when we went through Newington, we stoppedthere at the AWRL HQ.
So it's it's a it's still it's still there.
It's an it's a historic museum, and it's got alot of cool stuff there if you're in the radio
Yeah.
I'm sure I'm sure you're internationally knownand locally accepted at every single Yeah.

(24:43):
Ham radio thing.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
Do you feel like Elvis when you go to a Hankradio event?
I guess a little bit.
Yeah.
I guess, kinda.
But It's fun.
Right.
It's it's great.
It's crazy to be, like, you know, like, we havethese little worlds every Right.
Everyone might know you in that little world.
Right.

(25:03):
Yeah.
Would you
do anything else?
People like,
what the
hell is that guy?
Yeah.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Well, the the when I was at the ColoradoOverland Show, yes, last year, I was there was
a guy there was a couple of guys they through,and they had this score to people that come up
to them and shook their Hank.
And I'm like, okay.
That guy's gotta be a YouTuber.
So I didn't know where they were.
Yeah.
But, you know, but I I liked it because able towalk through that show and talk to my camera

(25:24):
and record stuff and not get stopped all thetime.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's it's it's good.
It's cool.
Whenever people recognize me, like, I don'tthink YouTubers are anywhere near famous.
So if there's like a Listers, B Listers, CListers, D Listers, YouTubers are like z
Listers.
Yeah.
Something like that.
Most people don't even know who Mister Beastis, and he's the biggest YouTube.

(25:46):
Know.
That's crazy that people don't know who he isstill.
But
yeah.
So, yeah, you're not famous if you're aYouTuber, but it's cool.
It feels cool when someone else out there like,actually takes their time and and looks or
consumes the content you create, and theyappreciate it and stuff.
It is awesome.
Right.
Right.
I love it.
Correct.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Agreed
Yeah.
Kyle says I'd like to go to Burning Man, but norain, no wind for sure.

(26:10):
Not sure that's possible.
Sand goes everywhere.
Yeah.
They they have some extra cleaning fee for allthe rental car companies out there that rent
cars to people who are going to Burning Man.
Oh, So That's a badger pride if your thing getsdirty to me.
I would.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When my
when my van is dirty to me, I'm I'm happy forthat.

(26:31):
I know you gotta clean it off if you want it tofunction properly,
but Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a cool thing.
So let's see, Lee McCe says cyber truck made inAustin.
I drive by the Gigafactory often.
Cool.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
I look at the videos.
This guy, His name is Joe Tagmeyer.
He makes these drone videos

(26:53):
Yeah.
That he flies over giga.
So how close are you to you're in are you inAustin?
I know you're in Texas.
Right?
No.
I'm I'm between Dallas and Fort Worth.
We're about 3, 3 a half hours Okay.
North north of Austin.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
So they let's see.
Vanessa Kitty says, nice, thirteen miles southof me.

(27:13):
She's probably talking about the theConnecticut thing, and I wanna go back to the
Arctic circle.
That's interesting.
That'd be fun.
Yeah.
Summertime now.
Right.
Yeah.
There's probably no sub this.
Is there summertime up there?
Yeah.
I don't know.
Good question.
I'm gonna have to do my research.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.

(27:34):
I personally don't like to be cold.
So listen, we were talking about some stuff inyour world in the in the ham radio world.
Yeah.
Now, obviously, I think you're in the RV world,and you you've probably done even more stuff
overlanding than I have.
What do you what is there something you wannaknow about the ends, let's say.
You know?
Actually, actually, yes.

(27:54):
So, so we can talk about this here.
Now I had, I had reached out to you a month orso ago, and I'm gonna start doing live streams
on my on my RV slash Overland channel.
Mhmm.
Fact, this Sunday, me and me and Steve, KMG,are gonna do the first ever live stream on that
channel.
And then I've I've got you scheduled for nextmonth.

(28:15):
Oh, so so this Sunday, okay, where and when areyou guys doing and what time?
This this Sunday, 8 PM central time, which is 9PM Eastern.
Okay.
And, it will be, on my unplugged channel.
If you need a link to that, I can send it
to you.
Yes.
Yes.
That we'll we'll put that up here in the videoso people could, go join in there and

(28:38):
everything.
I'll try I'll try to catch it if I can't.
And then you said I'm gonna be a guestsometime.
Next month.
Yeah.
I
I'd yeah.
Work that out?
I yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Me and Lola have gotten that, that in there.
So, I don't know if I can post can I post alink in there?
You can you should be if you're on the ifyou're on YouTube, you should be able to put it

(28:59):
there in the chat.
Okay.
If not, send it to Lola or something, maybe shecould put it in.
I put it I put it in the chat on YouTube, so II think Yeah.
I think it worked.
I think it worked.
Okay.
Alright.
Yeah.
No.
But, yeah, so we're doing our first live streamon there.
We're gonna talk about RV live because Steve'sa big, Steve's now a full time RVer, and then
we're gonna bring you on next month.
And talk about van life.

(29:20):
So we could talk about part of that right here.
Mhmm.
I and you and I spoke at this spoke about thison the phone a couple weeks ago.
What I what I want to do is build a aneconoline econoline.
If I talk.
I wanna build an econoline van, four wheeldrive conversion van with the with the roof

(29:40):
rack and a lot like that.
Yes.
Right.
A lot like that.
And I would've been
1 save it that one up for you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's at Sima Show.
Oh, that's cool.
I now wanted to ask you about Sima Show.
Every The reason I never Hank been to steam ashow is because it takes place the last few
days of October Mhmm.
Into that weekend, and that's open in weekendof deer hunting season in Texas, and that's

(30:02):
usually where I am weekend.
So Okay.
Alright.
Yes.
We don't wanna keep you from deer huntingseason.
No.
Although this last weekend when I was there,was really warm and that wasn't really worth
being there, but it's fun.
So it's really fun to be out there in thewoods.
Oh, I see tank and the sorry.
I see tank.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He was sending me discord messages.
I'm like, shut up on live, and I sent him thelink.
Yeah.

(30:24):
The the Hank radio people are awesome I lovethe Ham radio people.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mhmm.
Kyle says no, Kyle says no link came through,so I guess it blocked the link or something for
it.
I didn't see it, but if you send it to Lola orsomething like that, she should be able to put
it up.
We'll get it up there one way or the other.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's fine.
In a 2.

(30:45):
Yeah.
Okay.
And, yeah.
So you were saying that Cima show happens atthe beginning of deer hunting, so you can't get
through there.
What so what was it you wanted to ask me aboutCima show?
Well, I just kinda like I I mean, it I mightjust buy bullet and go next year.
What what's it about?
I mean, it looks like a it looks like a carshow.

(31:06):
Mhmm.
Because I thought it was like a four wheeldrive show, but then I last year, you did some
you did video on some like new, like, Ferrarilooking car.
Or maybe it was maybe it was an EV orsomething.
I don't remember.
But
Yeah.
Simo Show is an aftermarket.
It's an aftermarket show for vehicles.
So it's, you can have super cars.
You can have the big pickup trucks people do alot of stuff with It's all any kind of vehicle

(31:30):
out there.
So you'll see earth roamers out there.
You know, you'll see your old classic cars.
It's pretty much anything in that realm, allthe stuff that goes into it.
So aftermarket lights and stereos and,suspension systems, etcetera, etcetera.
And so I used to go to that before I got intothe class b world doing, camper van, stuff like

(31:53):
that.
I used to go out there to see the fancy cars.
Oh, I've always been into new cars, but
Yeah.
They do have a section that covers Overlanding.
They do have a lot of, trucks out there.
So they have, jeeps, and they've got, you know,your tundras, your Tacoma, your forerunners,
all those kinds of things.
Everything's there, really.

(32:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So but I mostly when I go nowadays, focus onthe overlanding stuff, either the vans or
vehicles, like, you know, what I just showedyou, that pictures of a sportsmobile, econoline
type of stuff.
I I think those are cool.
So, It's worth now that part of it is growing.

(32:34):
It's not as big as the other stuff.
I would say it's probably bigger for all thefancy car cars and classic cars and things like
that.
But this is the 2nd biggest show that happensin Las Vegas.
So the biggest would be CES, which is theConsumer Electronic Show.
Yeah.
Then the 2nd biggest one will be Sima, and Ithought that I think the 3rd biggest is is shot

(32:57):
show.
Shot show.
So seem is bigger than shot show.
Yes.
That that's cool.
Okay.
Yeah.
And it is a lot of people.
And now they have like a seema fest while thatgoing on, Seema Show.
I think goes it's like from, I think it startsTuesday.
It goes all the way to Friday.
It's at the convention center, which is huge.
It takes up the whole entire convention center.

(33:19):
Wow.
Okay.
You yeah.
They've got you've gotta get transportation andstuff to go around.
Nowadays, Tesla's out there.
Elon Musk also has the borrowing company that,you know, they drill these holes.
So they're drilling these tunnels all under LasVegas.
And they actually have cars there for anyevents, big events that are going on.
Tesla's out there moving people around on theground.

(33:41):
Interesting.
That's interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, that's, that's a big thing.
So, I, I hope that describes, like, becauseKyle was what seemed to show.
Yeah.
That's good.
That's good because yeah, so I I wanted to dothe van build thing.
Mhmm.
And then eventually end up in your your,sunshine RV, thing you showed there a minute go
was like, hey, man.

(34:01):
That's a couple of those.
I, you know, I've always been a Ford guy, butthat Dodge Pro Master van Mhmm.
Is an a neat looking setup.
When they when they do those things up for thevan life type experience, I really like that
Dodge Pro Master.
I think that's a neat looking van that's got aI like the way it's laid out and and everything
about how it just the doors on it andeverything, but, those are the ones I've kind

(34:24):
of been looking at.
So I can see myself perhaps building, like aneconoline type van eventually, and then and
then because I wanna do a series of videos onit, of course.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then eventually getting rid of it andgetting something more like the, the transit or
the or the pro master vans, something likethat.
But that's Mhmm.
That's kind of what I'm thinking about doingright now, but I'm, you know, I'm I'm just

(34:45):
getting my feet wet and all this stuff.
So I'm I'm trying to figure out what to do andwhere to go and all that kind of good stuff.
Yeah.
Van Life, I think it is growing I I wanted totalk with you later about, like, what's
actually happening in Van Life right now sincewe have a good opportunity, but Van Life, I
think, is growing because if you've got a bigtrailer, right, if you've got a big class a

(35:06):
diesel pusher, know, if you've got a 5th wheel,it's a lot of gas.
Very expensive.
I think that the the class b's tend to beprobably in the most expensive category because
a class b could take cost you somewhere from 75up to you just you just name the number that's
over a 150,000.

(35:27):
Right.
I I I put up a short of a van we saw at SimaShow that was over $700,000, and it was a
van.
Goodness.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
Not.
So, but vans are convenient because they're somuch smaller.
You can pretty much parked them anywhere.
They're more stealthy.

(35:47):
They don't always look.
I mean, let's be honest.
Like, a lot of them do look like RVs, but Yeah.
You can kind of get away.
Yeah.
You can get away with things you can in otherplaces.
And I think like David says here, he saysThat's awesome.
Is anyone making a full size 4 by four bandanymore?
And that's about the Econo line.
Yeah.

(36:08):
So that was my question when I first startedlooking into it, and I joined a Facebook group
that's called 4 by 4 vans.
Mhmm.
And a couple of the those guy and those guyswere really courteous and welcoming.
You know, I said, hey, guys.
I don't know what I I don't know what I'm doinghere.
I'm new.
Mhmm.
And they were polite and everything, but theysaid, no, those are all conversions.
So there's a company called ujoint.com, andthere may be more than more than just them, but

(36:30):
there's a company called ujoint.com I wanna saythey're out of Arizona, but they make they make
4 wheel drive
conversion kits for numerous vehicles.
Excursions, expedition, tahos, vans of allkinds
of style.
Hank ever made those vans 4 by 4.
I don't believe so.
So
I don't believe they ever made them 4 by 4.
I think all of those that you see yourconversion vans.

(36:52):
At least in those year the the year modelswhere they stopped making the the they stopped
making the 7.3 liter diesel in the 2002, Ibelieve it was.
Mhmm.
And that's the and that's a million mile motor.
And a lot of these guys, I've met I met a guyat the Overland Show, Colorado last year who
that's what they and his wife traveled in oneof those.
And he's like, yeah, man.
It's got 250,000 miles on it, but I'm 1 quarterof the way done with it.

(37:15):
Yeah.
I'm
like, well, that's really but that'll make thatengine anymore.
So that's the but the that's what people peopletry to get the vans and the trucks and the
other things with those engines because if youtake care of them, they'll last just forever.
So
Yeah.
I mean, they're apocalypse vehicles, you know,for lots of different reasons.
But Yeah.
I don't think Ford makes the Econa lineanymore.
So whatever you see now is actually built on achassis.

(37:39):
So built on the current chassis, and then theybasically Strange the body.
So that pic picture I showed you guys, that issportsmobile, and that's actually a conversion.
Let me see if I could pull it up again.
But that particular thing is a conversion thatsportsmobile does to make the body that
specific look.

(38:00):
And the other thing I would say about it isthat if you regardless so I know that that
Strange vans are 4 by 4.
Right?
Mhmm.
And if you wanna if you want a 4 by 4, youactually want to do the convert That's the
better 4 by 4, if that makes sense.
I and I believe if if I'm not mistaken Mhmm.
When we were in, more I think it was more lastyear.

(38:24):
Mhmm.
They were or that was this year, actually.
They were telling us that the sprinters aregoing to an all wheel all wheel drive instead
of a four wheel drive.
System?
Yeah.
They are all wheel drive now.
Yes.
Okay.
Okay.
So that's matching what, Ford is doing with theStrange.
So that's pretty much what you would get is,all wheel drive.
That's the closest you can get, like, from thefactor be right now.

(38:48):
Now Mercedes was doing on the Sprinter 4 wheeldrive before, but my opinion of that 4 wheel
drive, it's just really rear wheel drive, andthen you put this mode that kind of like it it
winds up being all wheel drive.
It's not really, like, what you would considera traditional 4 by 4 that you would get with
you Jeep.
You would get with a 4 runner, Tacoma, Tundra.

(39:09):
If you want that actual real, hardcore 4 by 4,you wanna do conversion anyway.
So Gotcha.
Yeah.
Whether you want it to look like an Econoline,if you want a Mercedes, if you a Strange, and
you want it to be a real 4 by 4.
There's a conversion out there.
There's a company called.
It's a German.
It's called Inglott Allrod.

(39:29):
And they build the stuff, and there's compthere's, companies here that will do that for
you.
You know, and then when the transit is the samekind of thing.
You probably just wanna get a rear wheel drivetransit and do the conversion and make it 4 by
4 believe that stuff is out there, and it'salso out there for the Pro Master.
I think it's How

(39:49):
many peep how many people actually do that,though?
Cause a lot of the van life stuff I watch onYouTube, they're these people aren't going off
road.
They're just traveling the country, really.
So, I mean, you wouldn't really want, andyou're gonna sacrifice a little bit of fuel
mileage as well if you go four wheel drive.
So how popular is it to do the the Strange andPro Master saw vans in a four wheel

(40:10):
I don't see it that often.
Yeah.
I'd yeah.
I wouldn't So I wouldn't think it'd be that.
Yeah.
Because Yeah.
Because the thing about an Econoline style vanand whether it's, you know, regardless of its
Ford or not, but that style of van is when theylook four wheel drive, they they look like an
overland vehicle.
You know, those guys put roof packs on them andMhmm.
And, fold out awnings and kitchens and every Imean, they look like, Hey, we're gonna go

(40:34):
somewhere.
We're gonna climb up a mountain and we're gonnacamp inside this thing.
But Right.
Right.
You don't see that a lot.
You don't see that as often from from thelittle bit I've experienced.
You don't see that as often in the Strange andPro masters.
That's those are more Hey.
Let's go out here and camp in the Strange parkor in this RV park or something.
So
I think the question is, I think you brought upa good point.
Like, when you say, you know, that they looklike you could just go off road climb a

(40:57):
mountain in them.
I think that that is something that we'llprobably disc we can us a little bit more in
the next segment.
Okay.
But, you know, not not everything can actuallygo off road.
That's a thing I try to remind people.
Not as Right.
As much as you think off road, the scales ofoff road.
Let's put it that way.
I think those vehicles are apocalypse vehiclesbecause you can go off the beaten path and get

(41:23):
out of traffic or go different ways if thingsgo wrong.
But really climate mountains, I'm not so sureWe'll talk about it here when we get back in a
second.
Lola and I are now official brand ambassadorsfor Coachmen Class B.
So I wanted to take a moment to tell you guyswhy we, as Vanosaurus, like a says on our t
shirt, are very excited about our partnershipwith Coachmen Class B.

(41:47):
First off, Coachmen RVs has been a leader tothe great outdoors since 1964.
So next is the fact that coachman really caresabout you as an owner, whether you bought new
or used after you buy your van, they reallytake care of you.
With coachman class b, you have all theoptions.
Coachman bills on all three van platforms.

(42:09):
On the Mercedes Sprinter is the coachmanGalleria.
A Ford Transit is Acushman Beyond and Ram ProMaster is Acushman Nova.
Lastly, best value for money.
We've had our van for 2 years and coachmanbills to the highest standards of quality and
craftsmanship.
You can't go wrong with a coachman class b.
So if you're interested, check out the link inour description and find the coachman van

(42:33):
that's best for you.
Alright.
We're back.
You know, one the one of the things I loveabout doing this podcast being able to talk to
my friend.
Time goes so fast.
Yeah.
That's true.
Yeah.
Me and Jason, we could talk hours.

(42:53):
This made Lola sick.
I know.
So you know what I was gonna say to you?
I've been planning this a video around this ofwhere can things really go because there's a
scale.
So if you imagine, like, flat earth, you know,down here and then up here, you know, this is,
the tippy top of a mountain somewhere.

(43:15):
Up here on top of the mountain is a goat.
The literal goat.
Right?
Goat.
Okay.
Below that goat would be, I would say, aperson.
And then down here at the bottom, it would bethese big massive, like earth roamers, your
excursion type of vehicles.
And everything is a scale in between that.

(43:36):
So people see these big excursion vehicles andgo, oh, man.
I could go anywhere with that.
When I see those things in the real world,they're typically down on background.
Okay.
So they are they are good.
Right?
They are good things.
They can go into, like, Burning Man, they cango into the desert and stuff like that.
But they really can't climb mountains.

(43:57):
If you imagine when you've gone up on amountain somewhere, there's typically not a
real road.
It's not a definitely not a two lane or 4 lanehighway going up that mountain.
It's a very thin road that one vehicle can goup at a time.
So those big vehicles going out on the edge, ifyou look at those you know, the guys that do
recovery.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You you always see these big vehicles fallingoff the side of a mountain.

(44:22):
They're not supposed to reply.
They're not supposed to be climbing up there.
You're supposed to have those vehicles.
You're really comfortable, kinda like a bighouse moving with you.
You can go into the desert, but you bring yourside by side.
Your motorcycles, bicycles, you bring thosekinds of things with you.
And then that becomes a base, and you travel upfrom there.

(44:42):
You might tow a jeep or something.
Right?
So now, like, jeeps, Tacoma, things like that,even even, a a van can go further than those
big massive vehicles.
Mhmm.
Right?
If you've got a decent enough road, you can geta van up there.
Yeah.
Yes.
But the bigger that van is, the less it's goingto be able to do as you go up high.

(45:05):
So now you wanna go from that van to a jeep.
Eventually, a jeep is only gonna get you so faras well.
Now you need to get on a a bicycle, an ebike,motorcycle, you know, dirt bikes, something
like that, go up higher, and eventually youjust wanna walk.
You know, climb your way up.
And ultimately, this places you can go as aperson, only a goat that's gonna be able to go.

(45:28):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, That's my pitch on that, and I think a lotof people don't, they don't take that seriously
because of marketing.
I think a lot of people make it look like, oh,You buy this vehicle that costs a $1,000,000
you could go wherever you want.
That's just
not true.
Not really.
Yeah.
No.
Makes sense.
There's tons of videos out there to show youthat.

(45:49):
So jeeps are very capable.
Right?
But you're you can only be so comfortable in ajeep or a, let's say a forerunner or Tacoma
Tundra or something like that.
And the and the, high that you make your centerof gravity, the more dangerous it is when
you're going up.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
Mhmm.
The same thing goes for those vans.

(46:10):
Like, if you look at that picture of the van,the, Econo line there, there's a, I think there
was a, a rack up there.
There was a rooftop tent, all that kind ofstuff.
Yeah.
You go a little bit off the edge.
That whole thing is tumbling down the mountain.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm not really interested in rock crawling.

(46:31):
You know, how these Jeep guys go out there andthey go rock crawling.
And that's and that looks like a lot of fun.
It does.
That's not really my thing.
My thing is is I wanna go out somewhere that isand and with a ham radio aspect to it, I'd like
to go out, you know, kind of tooling around ina national forest and find some place to
disperse camp that's just off the beaten pathand set up an antenna and activate the national

(46:52):
forest as a pota spot.
Yeah.
So that's basically the thing I wanna do.
So but I I also enjoy the whole idea behind,hey, let's Let's, let's build this.
I I've always enjoyed building things andespecially vehicles.
But, I was like, it might be fun to build outand do a whole video series on it.
So I'm looking at it from a YouTube perspectiveon that as well.

(47:14):
So kind of like a double or triple whammy.
Yeah.
Those Econo lines are really cool.
I'm not trying to talk down from it.
I want you to do it so that I can make somevideos on.
Okay.
Yeah.
I think the color lines are really cool.
I think Yeah.
With anything you do, you know, it's like whenyou're talking to folks about ham radio, people
think they buy this radio and they could doeverything.

(47:34):
Right.
Yeah.
No.
Yeah.
I I, yeah, I know for a fact it won't doeverything.
In fact, the the the transit vans and the theProMaster style vans are are much more roomy on
the inside than these are.
Mhmm.
In fact, that one, if you go if you go back andlook at that, uh-uh, that one you just showed,
that's a neat look at van.
Don't get me That's a neat looking van, but Idon't want one with windows all around the

(47:57):
sides of it.
Okay.
They make they make some that are they'recommonly called work vans that just have
windows in the doors and maybe in the side doorand no windows around except for maybe in the
back.
Sometimes they have windows in the back.
And then they have some that are like that arepassenger fans that have windows all the way
around.
Well, I don't want windows all the way aroundif I'm gonna build a camper van out of it.

(48:17):
I you don't want don't wanna be able to see innumber 1, and you're gonna put stuff up on the
side also, but, you know, then that's justeasier to break into Right.
For a walk walk through a window is easier thancutting into the side of a van.
So
Yeah.
I think that's a double edged sword as well.
Right?
So I understand what you're saying.
You want it be stealthier, but, at some point,you you gotta think about this.

(48:40):
You're gonna want windows.
Now, Why are you gonna want windows?
Because when it's hot, that's gonna become aproblem.
Even if you have an AC, you know, that's notnecessarily gonna fill all your needs in AC.
So if good to have windows in order to ventthat vehicle or some way to vent it.
Well, I would put a I would put a I would puta, one of those what's that popular fan?

(49:03):
The roof fan?
Yeah.
The max fans and stuff
like that.
Yeah.
The max air fans.
Yeah.
I would put something like that in it before.
Want to have windows on the side.
That's just kinda my opinion.
I mean, you I mean, there's probably reasons tohave windows, and that's fine.
But if you're gonna build out a van and you'regonna put up sides and cabinets and beds in a
kitchen over here and a bed and this kind ofthing, and you're gonna cover up those windows

(49:24):
from the inside anyway.
Then I'm just like, I mean, they're coming up.
You can't use them any yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I a lot of it
is A
lot of it is aesthetics, right, of how itlooks.
So, like, my van, there's a bathroom right nextto me here, but it looks like there's windows
there.
Those are really just fake windows for thelook, but the backdoor of that thing is a

(49:46):
window, and I can look out that look out thatwindow.
It doesn't open.
Now there's some windows towards the front thatdo open, and there's different ways that that
thing goes.
But when, you know, you've gotta think aboutthis.
If you have ACs or even the Max fan, all ofthat's power that that's drawing.
So if you're out somewhere, especially ifyou're in shade and the weather is good, why

(50:07):
run the fan or what a is gonna be terrible.
The fans are way better.
Yeah.
Totally.
But Totally.
Why run it if you could just open up thewindows and air everything out?
There's also if something happens to you andyou're in one of those vans that's completely
enclosed and you can't get to the front, howare you getting out of there?
So you wanna think about if there's doors, youcould go out the doors depending Yeah.

(50:29):
On, what happens.
Windows don't necessarily mean you could go outeither.
Right?
So
Right.
Right.
Everything is a balance of what you want aslong as you know what you're getting into.
The the one thing the windows do is that Ithink is a big negative is it's makes you more
of a hot box.
Right?
It's not insulated.
The sun's coming in, heating it up.

(50:51):
If you build up a van, you don't have windows.
You close it off.
You can have more insulation.
So
Yeah.
Yeah.
These are the things you gotta you kind of haveto, like, you know, fight it out But Right.
Yeah.
You
know?
And so you you see a lot of folks would doexactly what you're saying.
They put in the fans and an AC.

(51:11):
You know,
Mhmm.
Mhmm.
Mhmm.
I find that incredibly important.
Another thing I find that's import that to meis important, but not to everyone is a
bathroom.
See, I I wanna be able to I wanna be able to beself sufficient.
Mhmm.
For at least a couple 3 days, if I need to be,which to me means I at least want a bathroom

(51:31):
and a shower.
Right.
Even if they're a combo, even if it's acomposting toilet, I would want something like
too because I wanna be able to say I'm gonna goout here.
I'm gonna spend 2 nights or 3 nights orwhatever out here, have my solar set up.
Mhmm.
Maybe have a, maybe have a, a backup generatorfor something.
You have a generator built into your yourtransit van.
I do.
Yeah.

(51:52):
Yeah.
That you can run that and keep the airconditioner running or use it to charge your
battle born batteries, right, to
to do
that thing.
So, yeah, some
I do have a generator.
Like that.
Mhmm.
Yeah.
You could also another thing is, like, whatI've learned over time is that that generator
is a pain in the butt.
Really?
Okay.
Because it's another point failure.

(52:13):
So
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, what I think is easier and it's apoint of failure as well, but not as bad as a
generator.
A lot of people just put in a secondalternator.
So when you run your engine, the engine on itsown, the alter the the first alternator that's
in there is usually you wanna be careful withthat, right, that's powering stuff and you
don't wanna, pull too much power for a minute,especially if you have lithium batteries.

(52:37):
So you put in a second alternator.
And with that engine running, that actually canget you more juice.
Those 2 alternators can get you more juice.
Typically than generators, and then they'reeasier to fix and, replace the stuff like that
than a generator.
But once again, this is all preference stuff.
If I had it to do again, I would, instead ofthe generator, have, more batteries,

(53:04):
Yeah.
And put a second generator in there.
I would also try to get more solar panels onvans.
That's the big problem.
You to
yeah.
People think that, like, a couple of solarpanels on there is all you need, doesn't really
do much.
No.
No.
So, like, you need
200 watts is nothing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Agreed on that.
Yeah.
I've I'm I'm familiar with the solar panelstuff and and how to do that.

(53:28):
But, yeah, I I guess the problem the problem Iforesee with 2 generators is that then you have
to if you wanna get out of the vehicle and walkaway, you have to leave the whole vehicle
running.
Yeah.
And and then someone just breaks just throws arock through your front driver side window and
takes off with your stop.
You know?
Well, they could do that anyway.
Well, yeah, but it's gonna be a lot morechallenging to start a non running vehicle with

(53:51):
no keys in it.
If a generator sit in the back running, youknow.
Right.
I mean, it's just I mean, you know, if if thevehicle's right there running, they could just
pay.
Let's pop the lock and pop the window and getin and drive away.
It's already running.
Keys are in it.
So you'd have to have some sort of safe safetything to to to to prevent that, I would think.
I don't depends on where you live also.
Depends on the setup too.

(54:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think it depends on the setup.
Some vans won't do that.
So you could start you could have that enginerunning.
Right.
But that van will not shift, or or or actuallydrive in, you know, unless a key or some other
thing is present, but the engine will run.
Right?
And that depends on the setup of it.

(54:34):
But it's a good point.
See, you know, our brains kinda think alikewhen You gotta balance all these things.
And, really, the the maintenance on a generatoris you just, like, for me, it's a pain in the
butt, but I have one.
And it does come in handy for what you'resaying.
It's still sipping from gasoline or diesel orwhatever you have.
And nowadays, if people really wanna get thingsgoing, they can.

(54:57):
I think the really big thing if you could do itthat would help with a lot of the stuff is
solar panels.
But you need to get enough.
Like, you need to get as close to a 1000 wattsin order to do that.
A 1000 watts can replace what an AC uses everyhour when an AC is running.
Assuming you're in good sunlight?

(55:19):
Yes.
If you're in good sunlight.
Either you wanna have that separate solarpanels that you put in sunlight, connect it to
your van, or some some kind of system that's onyour roof, which is really difficult with the
If you've got other stuff up there, good luck,finding that kind of space.
So it's a balance.
This is the thing you have to remember with avan.

(55:39):
Very small, and you have to think about what'simportant.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's true.
You bringing a lot of stuff with you.
You know, is power imported?
Are your batteries big enough?
You know, there's a big difference in all thesekinds of things.
And then, yes, how are you how are you gonnarun that thing?
So

(55:59):
Right.
Right.
Right.
Totally.
There's there's lots of different ways.
So and now technology, like, there's a I have,I Hank, what's called a solar generator, and
mine is from, Jackery.
Yeah.
And, it's it's not the biggest.
I think mine is, like, a three thousand watt.
Okay.

(56:19):
We got a bunch of solar panels for it and stufflike that.
So you could always put that off separately inthe sun, get that charged up.
Someone could steal that thing.
They're ridiculously expensive.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Yep.
Jay Kyle says, I'm like, Jason, I wanna do afew nights off grid on a forest road.
No rock crawling.
But I need a hot shower every few days.

(56:42):
Mhmm.
Yes.
You can get that in a van if you're but youcan't have a long shower.
You gotta do, like, literally military 2 minuteshowers.
You know what?
I that what we do at the hunting lease becausethere's no there's no facilities at the hunting
lease at all.
We take our RVs out there and we fill up ourwater tanks before we get there.
Sometimes I'll get a 55 gallon barrel and fillit up at home and drive it out there and pump

(57:05):
it into the trailer.
Mhmm.
But the 2 to 3 minute military shower in theevening That's plenty.
I mean, between that and no shower, it makes ahuge difference.
So I don't wanna it is.
It's great.
That's a luxury.
I don't need to sit there in the shower for 10minutes and and rinse off and just kind of veg
veg.
If I can take a 2 minute military shower atnight, I sleep so much better.

(57:29):
It's just it it's totally it's totally worth itto be able to to do that, even if you have to
cut it real short.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And there's things you could do to stretch thatout.
There's lots of, there's some devices out therethat will help, like, I can't remember the name
of it now, but we have one.
It's like a little Hank.
And it fills up with water, and then it soapsup so that water is hot and you could soak

(57:52):
yourself up with that, but you're not using asmuch water.
And, you know, you can literally sit there,wash yourself off, and and everything with
that.
You could use it to wash dishes and stuff.
So that's one way.
And then there's, these things that they calltowels in a bag, and there's a bunch of
different versions of this, but it'sessentially a wet wipe in a bag.

(58:15):
You can microwave, some of them.
So it gets hot.
It warms up, and you can use that.
It's like a big towel.
You can you start off with your face, wash yourhair, like, you know, then go down your body
and clean yourself off.
So that's ways of stretching out the the waterconsumption.
And then, of course, yes, you can have that,especially if it's two people.

(58:37):
Like, if it's me and Lowe, if it's me on myown, on my tank, I could go definitely a couple
of days taking a shower, but I would I couldprobably go I could reasonably do, like, 4 or 5
days.
Mhmm.
But if it's me and Lola, then that's gonna comedown to a couple of days.
Right.
Right.
There's also I have an app called I Overlander.
You probably heard of it.
Mhmm.

(58:57):
And you can look up places.
You can look up places for all kinds of stuffon that app.
But one of the one of the categories they haveis free water fill
up Mhmm.
Or maybe pay maybe paid water fill up.
You know, if it's not too expensive, but youcan find places to fill your water tanks to you
know, especially if you're in a van that'seasier to get into places, a lot of gas pumps
have a water valve next to the gas pump.

(59:18):
Yep.
And you just sit there fill up with gas andfill up your water tank at the same time.
So, yeah, you could find play you if you'reresourceful, you can find places to fill up on
water.
Yeah.
And some parks have that depending on what partof the country you're in.
They have those things.
There's some folks that travel around withdevices that because could always dump your
gray water.

(59:38):
Mhmm.
Right?
Your black tank is the thing you wanna worryabout if you have a black tank.
You can't dump that wherever you want.
Right.
But the gray water, typically, that's, youknow, that can go back to the to the ground.
Mhmm.
Mhmm.
You know, but then you need to fill it back up.
Well, some people have devices.
You put it in a stream.
You pump and filter this water.
You put it back.
Oh, yeah.
You know, in your system.

(59:59):
Gotcha.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
Just look for the survivalist stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, check out REI in different placeslike that.
Mhmm.
What places do you go to for this kind ofstuff?
Is it just Amazon?
Mhmm.
No.
Well, some of yeah.
I mean, I do a lot on Amazon.
Yeah.
I mean, Amazon's convenient.
There is a there's a Overland store brick andmortar store here by me called CB Adventure

(01:00:24):
Supply.
Mhmm.
And, they're not too far from me.
And then the the one I like actually a littlebit better is, down they're down south they're
in Santa Fe, Texas, just north of, abouthalfway between Galveston, Houston.
Mhmm.
When I go to Galveston, I go down there, andand they're called Mid Guard Adventure Supply.
Okay.
And, and those guys are the ones who installedthe roof rack on my pickup.
Mhmm.
And, and I I'll call I got his phone number.

(01:00:45):
I call him sometimes and ask questions aboutthis, that, you know, that he's a he's a cool
guy.
He was at the more expo last year as well.
So Mhmm.
But there's a there's a couple of Overlandshops that are near me.
And, you know, if I wanna order something, I II might call one of those guys, or I might, you
know, a lot of times, I will get it on Amazon.
So Mhmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Amazon's not a bad place at all.
Yeah.
So Yeah.
The

(01:01:06):
final thing I wanna talk to you about, becausetime's fine here, and we'll carry this over a
little bit into the end.
It's what's going on in the van world in termsof finances and stuff like that.
So for a guy like you, for maybe folks outthere who haven't gotten a van yet, you know,
or planning looking to get a new van RV of somesort.
We're probably this is a buyer's market.

(01:01:26):
We're going into interest Strange are high.
For lots of the there's people getting laid offaround the country, stuff like that.
We're kind of like in a we're we're kind ofgoing in a down, direction in terms of the
economy now.
So good opportunities out there.
What do you think about that?
Is that something you're looking at?
Yeah.
Well, not at this yeah.

(01:01:49):
I think you're right.
I think you're right, which you just said.
I'm not looking at that right now.
I bought and I bought my RV a year and a halfago and, and you probably couldn't sell it for
what I paid for now just because it's, youknow, everybody was buying RVs during COVID and
going and living off grid and Mhmm.
You know, use in Starlink and all that kind ofstuff.
A lot of people are going back to work now,going back to the office, and RV market is

(01:02:11):
kinda flat right now.
So, there's just too many of them out there.
So with the van thing with me, I wanted to I II find it challenging and interesting to do the
build myself.
Okay.
So I, one of these days I might go ahead andpurchase something like that, but even even
with, like, the Pro Master series, like,there's a there's a couple of channels we watch

(01:02:33):
on YouTube where they bought a good, a GoodedPro Master and did the build out themselves.
You can find companies that that'll do a designlike a blueprint design
Mhmm.
For you and then you just build it yourself ormaybe they'll build it for you, something like
that.
So that's that that's what interests me morethan just going out and just buying a brand new
one or, that kind of thing.
You know, if I found a really good price on aused one, you know, one that was two, three,

(01:02:56):
four years old.
That was in good condition, and the guy wasjust wanting to dump it.
I might do that, but, but right now, I'm notreally looking at buying anything.
Yeah.
I think you have to balance what kind of timeand what kind of skills you have Yes.
Versus, you know, so so if you go buy a a builtman from a company out there.
It's gonna cost you, you know, like I said,you're looking at minimum 75, you know, 100,

(01:03:20):
150,000, and that can go up.
That could double triple quadruple
Yeah.
From there.
And I agree with what you're saying.
I think there's, in some cases, a lot ofbuilders, especially in the van space, a lot of
folks jumped on the class b vans because it'sreally the only, section that's still growing.
Right?
So everyone started doing And that's why yousee now there's some folks that are going out

(01:03:44):
of business.
There's a company that I did, some videos withcalled Regency.
They made really nice class b Class C vans.
They just recently went out of business, andthat's unfortunate.
Right?
You're gonna see more of that because noteveryone could do that.
But if you don't have the skills, that'ssometimes the best way for you to go.
Otherwise, you pretty much just burn throughyour money.

(01:04:05):
You know, you messed stuff up.
You wind up Yeah.
Spending just as much money, trying to get avan.
Now, if you have the skills like you do and theand it's gonna time as well.
Right?
Time Right.
And
you're still gonna spend money on things thatgo in there.
Yeah.
Like, if I were to do a four wheel driveconversion of an Econo line, I would get would
buy the van.

(01:04:26):
I would buy the kit, and I'd go have someoneelse install it.
I'm not installing that part myself.
But I would like to do kinda like but, like,once that's done, you're doing the build out
And I'd like to pick the roof rack and pick theawning and have someone else install those and
then do the build out.
I can be part of the build out myself andchoose my own batteries and choose where the
plug outlets are and that kind of So being ableto customize it like that, it's kinda wouldn't

(01:04:47):
interest me.
But, yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, they saytime is money, and that's the absolute truth of
it.
You can And it's it's easier said.
I'm not saying it's really easy to make money.
Sometimes it is.
Sometimes it's not, but you can make moneyeasier than you can make time, which is
depending on what your skills are.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But you can't make more time.
Once time is gone, it's gone.
So you can't, like, oh, I'm gonna add anotherhour to to to tomorrow and make it 25 hours

(01:05:10):
tomorrow instead of 24.
You can't do that.
Yeah.
So, like, we're we're doing an experiment rightnow on the Strange channel with, my friend
Walter, who bought a van, you know, that wasalready it's a it's an older van, 2005 Sprinter
van, And he bought that relatively inexpensive.
He's gunning it and stuff like that.
Walter has the skills, tools, all that kind ofstuff to do.

(01:05:32):
Time is the issue.
You know, he's got a job.
He's got his own company that he's actuallyseveral companies that he's running.
So it's gonna take him longer to get that builtout.
And, meanwhile, he doesn't necessarily havethat van to go out there and do things with.
So, you know, I would say what's thatexperience?
Like, regardless of how you do this, if you buyit Mhmm.

(01:05:53):
If you build it, regardless of, you know, somepeople spend a lot of time looking oh, is this
the best time?
You know, should I wait?
Guess what?
Get out in life if you want to do this.
Get
out and do it.
And have those experiences because, yes, timewill run out on you and you'll all of a sudden
find out you're too old or you're sick now or,you know, that you've missed that opportunity

(01:06:16):
for you to go out there and have an adventure.
And overall in your life, what is it worth tohave that adventure?
And you know, I've done some stuff in vans.
Like, Lola and I've been to some places andseen awesome things or I've seen these things
on my own, and they're just priceless to me.
So Mhmm.
Yeah.
Balance all of that.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Yeah.

(01:06:36):
Yeah.
That's, the way I I think to do it Yeah.
I see some more.
I oh, Steve is out there.
Yes.
Peter.
Yeah.
Shout out to everyone who's out there.
We're actually wrapping it up now because weburn through an hour really fast.
Yeah.
And I'm sure we didn't cover everything we youguys maybe wanted us to cover.
I will try to have Jason come back on Mhmm.

(01:06:57):
Because he's fun and easy to talk to.
I'm gonna be on his show.
And, I I for on my part, I'm gonna recommendeveryone check out channel.
We've got several things up from Seema Show.
I've got some shorts going up there.
A whole bunch of really good things going up,but, Jason, I want you to tell the folks how
can, communicate with you where they can seeyour videos and follow-up on your stuff that

(01:07:20):
you're gonna do in regards to Overlanding.
Sure.
Yeah.
I will, well, my main channel's ham radio 2.0on YouTube.
And I started the second channel a couple ofyears ago called unplugged.
And I'm not as active on there, but I'm gettingmore and more active.
That's the that's the channel that Hank and Iare gonna be on together, next month.

(01:07:40):
Steve Cam 9 g and myself will be on there thiscoming this coming Sunday.
Mhmm.
And, and we're gonna make a big push And thisis several months away.
We're gonna make a big push to get a big hamradio presence at the more expo next next April
in Springfield, Arizona.
I'm sorry.
Springfield, Missouri.
And, it's it's a good show.
There's a lot of Overland stuff there.

(01:08:01):
A lot of van life stuff there.
Overland trailers and and, you know, roof racksand that kind of thing.
But, Midland is there.
You were talking about radios earlier.
Mhmm.
But, but we 3 of us.
Kyle and another guy, Shane and I, we all wentout there last year, and we met some other hams
when we were out there.
And Mhmm.
We're gonna do some advertising on all of ourchannels for the show this year and try to get

(01:08:22):
and we're gonna all camp together out in theback.
Oh, sweet.
Yeah.
So it's
gonna be a fun show.
So we're we're really looking forward to that.
That's next April Strange, more dotcom is theirwebsite, Springfield, Missouri, and, that's
that's gonna be my next big overlanding, gettogether.
I think.
Unless I find something between now and then,but that's probably gonna be the first one of
2024.
Okay.

(01:08:43):
Cool.
Yeah.
Shout out to Steve.
What is this call sign again?
K.
M.
KM 9 g.
9 g.
Great guy.
He's he's living on the road.
Yes.
Temporary offline.
Right?
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
He he's living on the road out of it because Ispoke to him.
I think he was from Louisiana who's brokendown.
I was like, Do you remember that?

(01:09:03):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He he got everything fixed, but, yeah, man.
He's he's
doing it out there.
Yeah.
Maybe I'll have I'll have him on if he if hewants to while I have him on or I had to be
with him on.
Yeah.
Any of the the, Hank radio folks out theredoing this thing, I'd be happy to have you guys
The ham radio community is awesome.
And I would definitely, recommend to folks outthere if you wanna know about GMRS, Hank radio,

(01:09:28):
CB, any of this kind of, emergency or alternatecommunication stuff, reach out to these folks
Hank radio 2.0 Hank been very helpful.
He's got a lot of really good content outthere.
I promise you it's gonna help, set you in theright direction.
So with that being said, Ayewooq will this justwent too fast, man.

(01:09:49):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know.
I'm with went too fast, but we had too muchfun.
We will do this again.
Big thanks to everyone out there.
I'll I'll give you the last words.
Hey, man.
I I appreciate your time today.
Thanks.
I'm glad that we were able to reach connect afew weeks ago and look forward to having you on
my channel.
And, yeah, anytime, you need a guest to talkabout this stuff.
I I I'd love to come back.

(01:10:10):
So I appreciate your time.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Lisa Steve's RV channel is living for a living.
That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I'm glad I stopped ducking you
also.
Right.
No.
It was just so crazy.
Jason
It's been
busy, man.
Hey.
Better let me know if you're getting thesetexts right
now.
You're right.
Yeah.
Alright, man.

(01:10:30):
I love you.
Good to see you again.
Big thanks everyone out there for joining us.
We'll see you.
Stay right there, Jason.
I am gonna end this right now.
We're out of here.
Peace.
Later, guys.