Season 2, Episode 124 - Christian Hazel and Trent McGee talks about Unreal Adventure

 

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Jay “Lightning” Tilles (0s):

Holman, are you as tired as I am?

Sean P. Holman (3s):

Let’s see. We flew back from Superior Wisconsin, actually Minnesota, after a three hour drive from Wisconsin last night. And then realized I’m gone for a week and you’re going on vacation for two weeks. We went, we got a whole lot of work to do ahead of us.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16s):

Yes, So You guys, unless you followed. We didn’t see much about it, but no, Holman and I traveled to Superior Wisconsin to get a factory tour at AMSOIL.

Sean P. Holman (26s):

Total behind the scenes. Not, not even just a factory tour, like a full deep dive with chemists and engineers and product planners. We saw the bottling line we saw where the railroad tankers come in and drop off the, the base oils, all that, and it’s gonna be awesome. So we’re not going to be diving into that this episode because my man lightning’s got some, some show putting together to do. We

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (47s):

Recorded 80 freaking hours of, of content. It was a lot. And I, there’s no way you guys have the time to sit through that. So I’m trimming it down to the, just the gold and I I went to, took the first pass already and I love it.

Sean P. Holman (59s):

Would you say you’re just trimming it down to the Signature Series All? right. Well, before we get to the content, we have to thank our presenting sponsored Nissan. So The truck Show Podcast is presented by Nissan and you need a new truck. Let’s face it, your truck is beat down. It’s ugly. It’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 13s):

Broken unless they have a new Nissan, but they,

Sean P. Holman (1m 16s):

They need a second Nissan for their significant other. So the other truck they have is, is broken down and it’s unreliable and it, it just, it’s ugly. Be

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 26s):

Hold, you know this for sure, it’s

Sean P. Holman (1m 27s):

Ugly. A hundred percent. Okay. Behold, the, the Nissan Frontier, a fantastic looking mid-size pickup truck. It’s got everything you need. We love them. Head on over to Nissan usa dot com. We can build and price and Don don’t, I don’t know that they want me to tell you, but the 20 fives are on the way and they’re pretty awesome. So maybe

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 48s):

You shouldn’t, maybe they should get a deal on a 24. Go get

Sean P. Holman (1m 50s):

A deal on 24. And then in about a month, we’re gonna start talking all about the, the 25. So, so we’re

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 55s):

Gonna depress them. Yeah,

Sean P. Holman (1m 56s):

Head on, head on down to your local dealer and check out the frontier. Whether it’s the 24 25, you can’t go wrong. It’s one of our favorite midsize trucks and you should experience it for yourself.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 5s):

And if you happen to find yourself over at Banks Power dot com, you might click on the tab for the first. You’re like, wait a minute, what is this fluid cooling category I’ve never seen on their website? Oh my gosh. Wait a minute. If I have a 2017 to 2019 Duramax, I can get a cool runner oil pan that keeps my motor oil temps cooler than a factory or any of the competitors. Or wait a minute, they also have a patented Ram air transmission pan for Allison Transmissions oh one to 2019. And soon for the 2020 plus. You can buy them individually or you can couple it all with a diff cover for the ultimate fluid cooling bundle. Head over to Banks Power dot com to check out the brand new Cool Runner Oil Pan Ram Air Trans Pan, and couple it with your favorite Ram Air rear differential cover.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 53s):

It’s all at Banks Power dot com.

Sean P. Holman (2m 55s):

So when you were at AMS oil with me, what was your favorite little side nugget that you, you learned there? Ooh,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 0s):

That’s a tough one. Okay. I think the facility was the most impressive, but my takeaway is gonna be actually and seeing and holding many of the chemical additives in my hand. Like in little jars,

Sean P. Holman (3m 10s):

We say additives, but you never know what they are. We know and it’s gonna be on the next episode. I’ve seen

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 14s):

’em. Yeah. Like they actually, the real

Sean P. Holman (3m 15s):

Right. My favorite was finding out that Bobby Unser was sponsored by oil company other than AMS oil. And he used to take bags of AMS oil, they called it Brown bagging it. And all of his race cars ran AMS oil. That’s pretty rad. Is rad like, like you’re like, yeah, I’ll take your sponsorship oil company and then in the back door you’re like, Hey Al Amio, can you, can you send me some bottles? ’cause I don’t trust that stuff in my, my Ride.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 38s):

What’s crazy is that potentially the main sponsor knew, but they didn’t care because he was winning

Sean P. Holman (3m 44s):

And their name was on the car. Right. And just like the Unser family, find out how AMS oil synthetic lubricants can save you money and time by helping your vehicles run better and last longer. Then with conventional oils. Head over to AMS oil dot com. AMS oil is the first in synthetics.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 58s):

So Holman, you’ll recall that across from banks, our main parking lot, there’s a massive dirt project. Yes. So it’s always dusty.

Sean P. Holman (4m 5s):

I hate going there because even if I’m only there for an afternoon and my car’s completely covered in dust,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 8s):

Everything is, it’s, it’s awful. So it the mornings and at night it starts getting dewy and that dirt just gets in everything. What it doesn’t get into is the bed of my truck. Thanks to the EGR roll track, electric retractable bed cover. It’s as close as you can get to a trunk on a pickup truck. If you’re looking for a truly impressive retractable bed cover, head over to EGR USA dot com to find yours.

Intro (4m 32s):

The truck show. We’re gonna show you what we know. We’re gonna answer. What The truck. Because truck rides with The truck show. We have the lifted We have the lowered end. everything in between. We’ll talk about trucks that run on diesel and the ones that run on gasoline. The truck show. The truck show. The truck show. Whoa Whoa. It’s The truck show with your hosts Lightning and Holman. Holman.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 12s):

Is this the first time that we’ve had Christian Hazel in studio?

Sean P. Holman (5m 15s):

Definitely this studio. You never we

Christian Hazel (5m 17s):

Yeah. Podcast. I’ve been to your house, but not since

Sean P. Holman (5m 19s):

Studio

Christian Hazel (5m 20s):

Have.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 20s):

The studio was not here when you were at his house. Correct.

Sean P. Holman (5m 23s):

And I think we’ve had you on, but it was on the phone before from our old studio. Because you work remote.

Christian Hazel (5m 28s):

Yeah, I’ve been on the podcast a couple times. Yeah. But this is the first time here in person

Sean P. Holman (5m 33s):

In the pod shed.

Christian Hazel (5m 34s):

In the pod shed. So what

Sean P. Holman (5m 35s):

Do you think of the pod shed?

Christian Hazel (5m 36s):

I think it’s rad. The TV and the American flag and the,

Sean P. Holman (5m 39s):

Yeah, so the American Flag was a, a gift from Clinton Ciff, one of our listeners. And then that’s the shelf over there of listener gifts.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 48s):

Random assortment of gifts. Yeah.

Christian Hazel (5m 50s):

Is that growler full

Sean P. Holman (5m 51s):

Of the growler’s Empty. But we do have the ant farm and that was the throwback to our first studio at the old Santa Ana office where, which was full of ants all the time. So we would be doing a show and ants would be crawling on the microphone while you’re talking into it and you’re like, oh, an and I think people thought we were kidding, but that place was covered. And so a listener sent us a ant

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 11s):

Farm. There was an ant, an ant farm actually in his beard at one point. Like I have no, they would crawl off the mics and his beer. I’m like, Hey, that was gross. Yeah, yeah. And then we have the license plate over here, bro. Par that didn’t make my TRX. Okay. So that was a runner up prize. you don,

Sean P. Holman (6m 25s):

You don’t know that. But Jay thought this would be a funny TRX. And he is like, dude, I’m gonna totally get Bro par. I’m like, that’s so dumb. He goes, no dude,

Christian Hazel (6m 35s):

It’s

Intro (6m 35s):

Mopar. But like, bro,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 37s):

I’m like, but I’m making fun of guys like me who have brands. And

Sean P. Holman (6m 40s):

I’m like, that’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 40s):

Stupid. Don’t you think it’s funny to make? Yeah. Like it’s great to make fun of yourself. That’s what

Sean P. Holman (6m 44s):

I thought I gave, I gave him,

Christian Hazel (6m 45s):

I think it’s lost in translation.

Sean P. Holman (6m 46s):

Thank you. I gave him an alternate. I tell him the alternate I gave you that now is on your truck.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 51s):

Yummy gas.

Christian Hazel (6m 53s):

There you go.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 54s):

You like that one better?

Christian Hazel (6m 55s):

Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 56s):

Well it’s almost unanimous, so that’s why that plate is up there. And, and I lost and I’m running the plate that Holman came up with. Yep.

Sean P. Holman (7m 1s):

Yummy

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 2s):

Gas. And then behind you is the, what’s a It’s a cyber truck with a

Sean P. Holman (7m 6s):

Big wiener, with a crown. A

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 7s):

Little wiener in the back.

Sean P. Holman (7m 8s):

That was a gif from Listener Marshall. So

Christian Hazel (7m 11s):

I saw that, but I’m not gonna touch it. You

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 13s):

Don’t? No, don’t, no. If you notice, we

Sean P. Holman (7m 14s):

Don’t know where it’s been. No. Although if you notice one of the jewels of the crown has broken off ’cause it’s fallen off the shelf a few times.

Christian Hazel (7m 20s):

Oh sure. It, yeah. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (7m 22s):

Okay. Exactly.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 23s):

It’s not the only part of a cyber truck that falls apart from what I understand.

Sean P. Holman (7m 27s):

Ouch. Yep. Ouch. Well, good thing Tesla doesn’t, you know, care about anything we say.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 31s):

No, they don’t. Christian, what brings you to the pod shed? You’re talking about ua right? But it’s, it’s a different ua. It stands for something new now

Sean P. Holman (7m 39s):

It’s new ua.

Christian Hazel (7m 40s):

Yes. Unreal Adventure is the, the, the new old event that my partner TR McGee and I are doing this year. Since there’s no longer an ultimate adventure, we just could not in good conscience let it die. And so we’re continuing on. We’ve got a great group of sponsors. We’ve got the old band back together, you know, our, our, our trusted group of cronies who, who help facilitate the event. And yeah. So it’s going forward.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 9s):

Fantastic. Let’s get Trent on the phone if you don’t mind, and then we’ll play our Intro. Hold on a second. Holman. Just text me Trent’s number at which I’m going to dial.

Intro (8m 25s):

Hello

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 26s):

Is this one Mr. Trent McGee. Lightning Holman. And Mr. Christian Hazel on the phone. How you doing?

Intro (8m 31s):

Well hi guys, how are

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 32s):

You? Awesome. Before we can let you talk, we have to play an Intro, so don’t move.

Intro (8m 39s):

I’ve got four big tires and some bead lock wheels. I’ve got four big tires and some bead lock wheels. I’ve got four big tires and some bead lock wheels

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 54s):

Where it’s at the off-Road edition All. right. So that jingle could be like half its length, don’t you think?

Sean P. Holman (8m 60s):

Well, it is the same line over and over again.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 2s):

So I know it’s not very

Sean P. Holman (9m 3s):

Creative. So how long did you work at MotorTrend in whatever

Christian Hazel (9m 7s):

Various forms? Just a couple months under 25 years. So

Sean P. Holman (9m 10s):

I was there about two weeks, short of 20 years. And it’s funny, I, you know, obviously things happen. I moved on, you moved on and we’ve had a bunch of listeners who are like, Hey, do you ever hear from Vern or Hazel can get him on the show. And then one day, and I knew that, that this whole deal with Unreal Adventure was kind of cooking in the background and then it pops up in my feed and I’m like, alright. And then I had a bunch of listeners go, dude, get ’em on why we wanna hear about Unreal Adventure. So I’m glad you’re able to come out because we haven’t talked in a while. And it’s awesome to see all of my, all my friends who I spent a lot of time with in, in the throes of the MotorTrend machine, the word factory, to, to do go out and do cool things.

Sean P. Holman (9m 52s):

So, and

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 52s):

How did you and Trent hook up originally?

Christian Hazel (9m 55s):

Trent and I met, well

Sean P. Holman (9m 57s):

On a beach. Right. It was a long walk.

Christian Hazel (9m 58s):

It was with

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 60s):

Drinks, with umbrellas.

Christian Hazel (10m 1s):

I, I, I answered an ad in the paper.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (10m 4s):

Is it drummer wanted

Christian Hazel (10m 5s):

Something about Pina Coladas? Don Don’t remember. Gotcha. But no, so Trent, Trent used to be a, the technical editor of Four Wheel and Off Road back when I was a subscriber and a avid voracious reader. And so I used to read That’s

Trent McGee (10m 18s):

Right. I think I, I think I pre rated or predated both of you guys, if I’m not mistaken. You

Christian Hazel (10m 23s):

Sure did. You did. Yeah. So Trent was one of the OG crowd who worked for

Trent McGee (10m 28s):

OG

Christian Hazel (10m 29s):

Petersen. Yeah, yeah. Like

Sean P. Holman (10m 31s):

He actually had Petersen on his checks. I had my first go around, I had Prime Media and McMullen on mine.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (10m 37s):

I was gonna say like there was McMullen Argus and then you had like, what is the, take us through like the 20 companies that ended up being,

Sean P. Holman (10m 44s):

We called it Pepsi 10. That was the only way you can remember it. So, it was Petersen, eap, prime Media Source, interlink, then 10 the Enthusiast Network and then Discovery bought it and then you killed it. Well,

Christian Hazel (10m 55s):

I’m not then Time Warner.

Sean P. Holman (10m 57s):

Yeah.

Christian Hazel (10m 57s):

I went through all of them. Yeah, I got hired in Petersen and ended with where they are now. So,

Sean P. Holman (11m 2s):

You have to remember there were two different offices. There was the Los Angeles office, which was the Petersen magazines and then there’s the Orange County office to the south in the Anaheim. Is

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 12s):

That by Anaheim Stadium? Right.

Sean P. Holman (11m 13s):

Well that was one of the locations, but it was McMullen was down there. And so they were two competing entities that eventually got bought up by the same company and brought together. So there was always this this like la versus OC thing. Like if you think about, you know, Truckin Magazine and Mini Truckin and Off Road, those were all OC titles. And if you go to Four, Wheeler, Peterson’s, four Wheel and Off Road Jp, those were all LA titles. And I remember I was one of the few people that jumped the shark and went from OC to la then I felt like I went to the big league. Were

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 44s):

You gonna the Death Star?

Trent McGee (11m 45s):

Yeah. 64 20. 64 20 was the og. Yep, yep. Yeah,

Sean P. Holman (11m 49s):

I I worked on the

Trent McGee (11m 50s):

Seventh floor. Yeah. And I remember I worked on the 10th floor and, but remember a Four Wheeler was not part of that at the time.

Christian Hazel (11m 58s):

No. Four

Trent McGee (11m 58s):

Four Wheeler was General Media. That

Sean P. Holman (11m 60s):

Was General Media, which was Penthouse, right? Oh no,

Trent McGee (12m 3s):

That’s right. Yeah, that’s

Sean P. Holman (12m 4s):

Right. Yeah. Gucci. And so Penthouse and Four, Wheeler. So back in the day, day before even Four, Wheeler got sucked into the Petersen empire. Four, Wheeler and Penthouse were in the same building. And so there’s all these stories about the Four Wheeler guy sneaking onto the penthouse level during photo shoots and all that kinda stuff. And yeah. Did

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (12m 22s):

You guys used to run into like Guc or Bob Gucci Jr. ’cause he was on our radio show all the time. Super cool dude. And then just went sideways and disappeared. I know what ever happened to him

Christian Hazel (12m 31s):

Yet? Well, no, because for at least for Trent, myself, you know, we were Petersen so we, well, whatever company it was Prime Media, I think at the time bought Four Wheeler. And so those guys all came in there we never worked with with those. Yeah.

Trent McGee (12m 45s):

But it was funny. I think they were like a mile down the road. Yeah,

Christian Hazel (12m 48s):

Yeah, exactly. But we were, we were very much competitors. And so when they came up to our floor, not only our building, but they, they put us all on the same floor. It was, it was very funny city because Four Wheeler had the side that faced the Hollywood sign. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (13m 4s):

So my office was Hollywood Sign and the Griffith Observatory. That’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (13m 8s):

A cool

Sean P. Holman (13m 8s):

Pew. It was awesome. I hated being there though. ’cause my commute was two and a half hours. But,

Trent McGee (13m 12s):

Well, and I, I remember Ben Stewart, if you guys remember him from, he was a staffer on Four Wheeler Four Wheeler for a long time. I remember him telling me, we, we became pretty good friends and he said he used to like sneak into craft services when they were doing the, the various shoots for the, the other adult magazine or whatever. And, and get free lunches outta the thing.

Sean P. Holman (13m 35s):

Well, at least you get a

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (13m 36s):

Free lunch. Now wait a minute, is that like gonna the strip club and having a steak dinner? It’s like

Trent McGee (13m 40s):

I I I don’t know you’re steak.

Sean P. Holman (13m 42s):

I’m not sure. Paid for sure. Yeah. I, I, I, so when I went to, when I was in the Orange County offices, if you looked at the old McMullen Argus logo, he had a cougar on it. And so he had this fascination with big cats and he actually had two as a pet and they would roam the office that night. Who, who’s the he? Tom McMullen. Okay. And so his logo was the head of a cougar, and the big cats would walk around your office and they would pee in your cubicles at night and things like that. And then I’d go up to LA after hearing those stories and I’m hearing all the, and

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (14m 10s):

You mean other kind of cougars?

Sean P. Holman (14m 11s):

And it’s all sorts of stuff. I mean, back in, I mean, I came in, in the two thousands back in the eighties it was like lines of coke and photography.

Christian Hazel (14m 20s):

Oh, that was when they were up in Sunset Yeah. Boulevard. Yeah.

Trent McGee (14m 24s):

They’ve heard, I’ve heard Epic stories about 84, 90 sunset when

Sean P. Holman (14m 28s):

They were there. Yeah.

Trent McGee (14m 29s):

Take down the aisle midday on Friday, you

Sean P. Holman (14m 32s):

Know, that kind of thing.

Christian Hazel (14m 33s):

But those stories are always better in, in the rear view. Right. I mean, like when, when I was working there, you know, the stories we’d tell of when I started and stuff like, the new guys couldn’t believe it was going, you know, so it’s always, it’s always shinier in the

Sean P. Holman (14m 46s):

Yeah. In the rear view.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (14m 47s):

Rose colored glasses,

Sean P. Holman (14m 48s):

A, little bit of historical revisioning. Right. Because Don don’t you wanna tell a good story? Hold on The truth. Gonna a good story on,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (14m 54s):

I don’t think that a lot that stuff really did happen in the penthouse days. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Like in the eighties and nineties. Like that was real.

Christian Hazel (15m 2s):

Yeah. And, and the stories that Oh, yeah. That I had from a, as a, as a new staffer were pretty good too. you know, it’s just the, you get more and more constricted and you lose more and more freedoms. And so then, you know, and, and it’s, it’s death by a thousand cuts and you don’t realize it’s happening. And next thing you know, it’s like, oh yeah, we used to be able to actually go and

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (15m 21s):

Do stuff.

Trent McGee (15m 22s):

I I lived during the days when we couldn’t buy copy paper and pens because the office credit card was maxed out for that month or something like that.

Sean P. Holman (15m 30s):

Yeah. It

Trent McGee (15m 31s):

Was, it was pretty epic. Not, not, not same, not same at All. right. Those, those guys, I remember those guys having like six page a month responsibilities or whatever, which you, you and you guys all know is nothing. I think the lowest I ever had was like 12 or 13 or something like that. And it was just, they, they they, they were able to spend all kinds of time and everything on their stories. Yeah. And probably partied a lot and everything. So Yeah. It

Sean P. Holman (15m 57s):

Was crazy. Well, when I started, I started Truckin Magazine and that was one of the Orange County titles. But Truckin Magazine at that time had 13 issues. Our biggest issue was July of oh four or something like that. Was it

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 8s):

13th? The Buyer’s Guide,

Sean P. Holman (16m 8s):

Don don’t remember, but it was 435 pages or something like that. Oh my

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 14s):

God.

Sean P. Holman (16m 15s):

Wow. Yeah. And so we were literally making off ad sales over a million dollars an issue. And so just Truckin in a year was like, you know, 13, $14 million. Just

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 25s):

I remember that one. Those, those ads were like eight eight grand a page

Sean P. Holman (16m 28s):

And they had eight pages. Yeah. Or they had 10 pages, like a four Wheel parts had everything. So you’d get a new advertiser and then they’d be like, well I don’t know what product you’re like, well look at what four Wheel parts is doing. ’cause they know exactly what’s selling right now. Right. Yeah. But I remember we had expense accounts, 10, 12, $13,000 a month. I remember dudes coming back and they took their clients to like the strip club and paid on the corporate card and it was like nobody said anything. And I remember a few rental cars that had problems and just got covered and as long as you were just wrote a check for it. Yeah. As long as you were making my, there are a few of, you know, famously the, the Hummer H one that was rolled Rolled Yeah. On the Four Wheeler staff that cost the company $150,000

Christian Hazel (17m 11s):

Off. I remember I had, I had a, a office with a window that overlooked the other, the other side facing away from the Hollywood sign. Yeah. But I used to drive up from San Diego every day, and so I would get there early. Oh, that’s brutal. Yeah. He did what you, you had

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (17m 25s):

To do. For those of you that don’t know, that’s three hours.

Christian Hazel (17m 27s):

It’s the 126 miles door to door. Oh, that was my commute. An 85 gram charger with 37.

Sean P. Holman (17m 32s):

Mine was 33 miles from Huntington Beach to the west side, or 35 miles. And it took me two hours.

Christian Hazel (17m 37s):

But, but anyway, I’m, I’m sitting there drinking my coffee, I’m looking out the window and here comes a yellow H one Hummer. I’m like, oh, that’s the Four Wheeler Hummer. And as it’s pulling into the parking lot, you know, I’m on the 10th floor looking down, I’m like, wow, that roof is so wrinkled, man. The build quality of those

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (17m 53s):

Is crap.

Christian Hazel (17m 54s):

Come, come to find out they’d actually managed to roll a Yeah. The billiard table. How

Sean P. Holman (17m 59s):

Well we, yeah, we, I mean, I think of all the things that we got away with and, and the things that were, I, I mean back. Okay, so 20 years ago, 30 years ago, we were the original influencers. you know, you talk about influencers now, one of the biggest missteps I think in publishing is that our management was afraid to let us have our Twitter handles and our Facebook handles and our stories because they were afraid you were gonna build the audience to the magazine and then leave, and then you would go like, compete against them. So we didn’t, they didn’t allow it. So we allowed everybody else to have a, a handle and compete against us and eat our lunch. And So You, you know, if you remember back in the day, it was, oh that’s, you know, John Kappa Jp, or that’s Rick PayWay at four Wheel Pierce, four Wheel Offroad, or that’s David Fryberger at Hot Rod.

Sean P. Holman (18m 44s):

Or you always had a person who was associated with the magazine. Once they watered that down and no longer focused on the people, the magazines lost their personality because they started sharing writers between competing brands. And all of a sudden they kind of gentrified the whole lineup. And now all of a sudden, you know, not only was there not differentiation between the magazines, but now you, you don’t, the personalities didn’t stand out. And so people kind of walked away and got bored with it. And instead of letting us continue to be the influencers and building the audience to build credibility, they, they let the business collapse around us. And that’s kind of the slow death that I think the

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (19m 20s):

Same thing was happening in radio. Exactly. At the same time. And we’ve had, Holman and I have had this conversation several times, we’re not gonna talk about radio, but like, it was super weird. Every time he would tell me a story about publishing, I’d go, you are describing the business that I’m in. Like, I’m in radio and exactly the same thing is happening.

Christian Hazel (19m 34s):

I I think that’s just the indicative of, you know, anything that starts from a grassroots enthusiast level, whether it be radio or magazines or whatever. As you said Sean, you know, we were, you know, I I was a reader. I was, I was out there doing it, you know. Yep. I would, I was doing that on the weekends, whether they paid me to or not. Exactly. So, and when we were controlling those social media properties in the early days, you know, it was about, you know, us and the lifestyle and, but, but you can’t monetize that. Right? Right. Yeah. And so then the company goes, oh, that’s pretty good. We’ll take that. Thanks. Yeah. And then you cut you out and then all of a sudden it’s, you know, an ad for Comet floor cleaner. Well, and

Sean P. Holman (20m 13s):

I remember like, you know, when magazines were king, manufacturers would beat down our door to give us keys. I remember one time we flopped a jeep on Four Wheeler of the Year. It was a, it was a jk it was the first year of the four door So. it would’ve been a oh six for oh seven model year. It fell off of a rock flopped on its side, but it landed on the fender and then the top corner of the roof and then folded the mirror in no body damage. There’s A little bit of a crack on it. We, you know, rolled it back over. And I called Jeep and I said, Hey, I’m really sorry. They’re like, is it drivable? I’m like, yeah. They go, well, if it wins, we don’t care what you do to it. Bring some, bring it back to us on a pallet. you know. And I was like, oh, okay. And I’m thinking I’m gonna have like the conversation where they’re gonna come take our keys and

Christian Hazel (20m 56s):

Oh, they, when I was at four Wheel and Off Road, they used to Jeep used to build a vehicle. Yeah. Remember the tag? Yeah. So You

Sean P. Holman (21m 2s):

Would put up on a

Christian Hazel (21m 2s):

List. I got one of my garage wallet that says Build four WOR four by four of the year.

Sean P. Holman (21m 7s):

Yeah. So manufacturers, I think we talked about this with Johnny Lieberman, but manufacturers used to build cars specific for our tests. Wow. And they would be like, Hey, maybe these options aren’t quite available together, but we’re gonna

Christian Hazel (21m 17s):

Make it. We just said to make sure they weren’t ringers, that’s

Sean P. Holman (21m 19s):

All. I mean, we would jump trucks, we would, you know, rally trucks, we would race trucks, we would do, I mean all sorts of stuff. And back then it was like, do more, you know? Right. This is all the stuff we can’t do because our lawyers won’t let us. So Well,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (21m 32s):

Is it, is it weird to you guys having been through all that and seen it all and then there was a lull? ’cause you guys were not to compare to like a jackass, but when Jackass started was kind of revolutionary and then it went away, and then now you’ve got YouTube and you’ve got like Whistling Diesel and all these guys doing that kind of of thing. It’s the next generation, like the medium has changed, but it, people have found a way to do that again.

Christian Hazel (21m 55s):

Yeah, that’s true.

Sean P. Holman (21m 56s):

Yeah. But we didn’t do, we didn’t do it gratuitously to break stuff. That’s

Christian Hazel (21m 59s):

Exactly, it’s the difference. Yeah. We were, we were finding, legitimately finding the limitations of it. And the only way you find the limitation is to push it right up to, and sometimes well

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (22m 8s):

He, he’s breaking stuff and I’m not saying no,

Sean P. Holman (22m 10s):

But his, but his whole business model

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (22m 12s):

Sh stick.

Sean P. Holman (22m 12s):

Yeah. I’m going entertain you by destroying everything I touch. Sure,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (22m 16s):

Sure. But there’s a lot of other guys that actually do proper over landing, you know, how to, how to do this, how to do that, how to build this, how not to build this, how to do all these things. Like, you can find it all on the internet, but it, it, it moved from like this industry radio, TV, magazines got super watered down and corporatized and then it all moved to like independent people on YouTube. Well,

Sean P. Holman (22m 35s):

Yeah, but two things happen. One is, to your point, if the, the magazines got watered down, the second thing is self-publishing became a thing. If self-publishing had never entered the realm, this industry would be a lot different than it is today. But self-publishing came, so now all of a sudden your credibility came from how many views or how many followers you had versus whether you actually knew the subject matter you were talking about. And there’s gobs of people with giant audiences who got in at the right time or build an audience in the early days. And the algorithm was about building and not about monetization. Who people think are experts. And they’re out there giving horrible advice and they’re just like, oh yeah, this is what I would do. And you’re going, that’s wrong. But just because they have a big audience. Yeah. So we lost the, the, the authority and the credibility that existed in the magazine world that kind of set that standard.

Sean P. Holman (23m 20s):

And in a way the ethics of like how that should be Yeah. you know, presented all that went

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (23m 25s):

Away. But I also think it was self-publishing. Yeah. You did find some new some new blood too. Like we never would’ve found Tevar. We never would’ve found so many YouTubers that actually are incredibly talented and knowledgeable. So see what you want about this industry kind of getting killed by its, you know, like death by a thousand cuts, but this new one has spring up and there’s a lot of talent out there.

Christian Hazel (23m 44s):

Yeah. I I mean you, you can literally find anything out there now, good, bad or

Trent McGee (23m 48s):

Other. That’s my biggest thing with, with, with social media and everything is that, I mean, anybody, anybody with a, that can fog a mirror and has a Gmail account to start a YouTube channel, it’s very difficult. You, it takes time to, to kind of vet that stuff. And, and you’re, you’re a hundred percent right Sean. I mean the, the credibility, you know, where, where does the, where does the vetting come from and that, and even today, you know, everything you gotta do, everything you see on social media or YouTube or whatever is, is totally, you gotta take it with a grain of salt and you gotta, you gotta vet it. That’s unfortunate because you didn’t really have to do that at the magazines. Like we had standards, we had things, we had, we, we had standards we had to uphold.

Sean P. Holman (24m 28s):

We also self-police too. I mean, how many people came in and they’re only there for the scam train. They got run outta town pretty fast. And you look at the ones who had longevity, people just didn’t leave, you know, 12, 15, 20, 25 years. Because you truly knew, I think it was, was it Johnny Hankins who said it best? We have the best job in the world one day at a time. Yeah. Because we were always worried that people were like, are you worried about, you know, getting laid off or losing your job like every day for the past 20 years? Right. But we truly take that stress away. We truly had the best jobs. We had jobs that people would dream of, and you think even a bad day, you would sit there and be like, today sucked. And then you’d be like, but you know, how many people wished they had a sucky day like mine today? Yeah. Guys, guys did dig. I mean we, we did that for, you know, all of us for, you know, And.

Sean P. Holman (25m 10s):

we are still doing it in some ways for 20, 30 years. Like we’re so fortunate and blessed to have been part of that. And, you know, we self policed And. we, we knew the people within our ranks that shouldn’t have been there or gave bad advice or their stories were bad. We got, we chased them out. We made sure that only the enthusia and that was the other thing. We also were enthusiast centric. So I think the big difference of the magazine versus some of like the buff or like the like motor trend or car and driver, like the straight oe kind of buff books versus the enthusiast books like we had in our Where that mean Buff books in Gearhead. Okay. I mean that’s kind of what they, that’s what they call ’em. Oh, like a buff? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Car buff. Got it. Right. So I, I think those guys were a lot like engineers.

Sean P. Holman (25m 53s):

They’re kinda more analytical things like that were, our guys were more enthusiasts. Our guys were weren’t weren’t just doing the like nuts and bolts dot the i’s across the t procedure. We were fabricating or figuring out new ways or showing you something novel or finding a new product. And I felt like the enthusiast side that came out of our magazines is what was that was the Salt, right? Like that was the flavor of what we were doing versus some of the more straight, more boring stuff from like an engineering perspective, car driver more than Road and Track. Some of them were like engineers, like the, the editor engineers, they were more engineers. Well, I, Chu Chad back in this day wrote letters to the editor. Somebody wrote, I’d like to be a magazine. And he’s like, don’t even try it. You won’t get in.

Sean P. Holman (26m 33s):

You need to have an engineering degree. Meanwhile, I like went through the police academy and I just love cars. I’m like, Hey, I wanna go work for you. And they’re like, oh, come on down car guy here, please hire. So, I mean, it turned out okay for me.

Trent McGee (26m 43s):

I think think those guys like the, the, the, the road and tracks and, and, and those, those guys were very much, you know, interested in specifications and stuff like that. I feel like with them it was, you know, they, they, there were, don’t get me wrong, I I’m, I feel like I’m lumping all those, those editors into one category and I’m not, there were some very, very, very good editors Yes. Of those respective books. But, but there was an awful lot of, you know, doing car reviews based on a spec sheet. And you know, we could even be argued that some of the, the, the awards back in the day where maybe decided more around a conference table than, you know, during a attack.

Trent McGee (27m 25s):

I’m just telling, you know. No,

Sean P. Holman (27m 26s):

Hold on. I will say that never,

Trent McGee (27m 27s):

I don’t know. I wasn’t there, I wasn’t there. But

Sean P. Holman (27m 29s):

That never happened at Four. Wheeler I know, people wonder,

Trent McGee (27m 33s):

And it never happened at Four Wheel and Off Road either, but there are, that never, ever, ever

Sean P. Holman (27m 36s):

Happened. Sister Magazines that I would say that absolutely happened at. The other thing I’d say is yeah, some of those magazines were more about the spec sheet. And I think what we did was more about the experience, right? I think like we, we were like, how does it actually work? What’s it feel like? Yeah, maybe it didn’t win on paper, on the spec sheet. Maybe it didn’t have the, you know, the most travel up the RTI ramp or the most horsepower. But man, this thing just was awesome to use. And I think that we were kind of, yeah, being an enthusiast, we cared more about how it worked in the real world versus what the Spec Sheet said.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (28m 5s):

So does that stuff exist today? Can you go somewhere for an unbiased review that’s not being bought by one of the manufacturers? Like where would you

Sean P. Holman (28m 13s):

Absolutely. OVR magazine. We have no OE advertising, so rest assured my reviews in there are completely straight. Okay.

Trent McGee (28m 22s):

Well, well, and going back to what you were saying, you know, in terms of real world testing, I mean we, we broke a lot of stuff. We broke transfer cases, we broke axles, we broke, you know, diffs and, and dented fenders and, and all that stuff. But we were really testing the cars. I mean, and that’s, yeah, that’s really just a, a byproduct. And I, I think that, you know, I I can remember having several awkward conversations with OE after those various tests where it’s like, Hey man, you know, hey, I’m really sorry, but the, the center diff on this Land Cruiser blew up and we’re not sure why, but, and

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (28m 57s):

Well, you can send the tow truck to go pick it up.

Sean P. Holman (28m 59s):

Well, and we’ve done that. I do, I remember one year we rammed a Suzuki I know something into the back of an H three And. we left it in prim Nevada and told the company to where they could pick it up. Wait, what?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (29m 10s):

Why would you, why would you organize the, the flatbed or something? ’cause we’re, we’re testing

Sean P. Holman (29m 15s):

’cause we’re testing, we’re moving every

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (29m 16s):

Day of other vehicles. We’re

Trent McGee (29m 17s):

On a yeah, they’re on a deadline. On

Sean P. Holman (29m 19s):

A deadline I ever remember. you know, it was things like skid plate. So then we have, you know, they, they have factory bend into the door. Yeah. They would bend the pinch, weld or bend into the door, bend the rocker, and you’re going, wait, I would’ve been better off, I would’ve cleared that rock if I didn’t have the rock rails on it. Right. So, I mean, it’s all that kinda stuff. The, the vehicles you see today, like a, a Jail Rubicon or a Colorado Z two bison, or I mean a Power Wagon, those all are there because of what our magazines did with testing and how every manufacturer wanted to be able to sell something that would win our tests. Like that whole market exists because of the stuff that we did. Yeah.

Trent McGee (29m 58s):

I mean the Rubicon

Sean P. Holman (29m 59s):

Four runner,

Trent McGee (29m 60s):

Several other you said the, the t yeah, the TRD program on The truck side. Anyway, all that stuff, I mean, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s all born out of that. I mean, I remember, I don’t know if you guys remember Elvis, but that was the

Christian Hazel (30m 14s):

Yeah, the tj, the crime and

Trent McGee (30m 16s):

The Yeah, they did like, they did like a pre Rubicon build and it was totally, they were involved with the skunkworks and they got their hands on a four to one transfer case. Yeah. Jim,

Christian Hazel (30m 28s):

Rep y and those guys.

Trent McGee (30m 30s):

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, we had really close relationship or they had really close relationships with those guys. And by the way, the whole reason that Jeep was named Elvis is ’cause there was an Elvis CD stuck in the CD player. Yeah,

Sean P. Holman (30m 42s):

I remember that. Is that true? Yeah,

Trent McGee (30m 44s):

That’s a hundred percent true. Yep.

Sean P. Holman (30m 45s):

Let’s go to ua. Let’s change gears. The the new ua. The new ua. Yes.

Christian Hazel (30m 49s):

Well, we’ll we’ll start with, you know, the Old Ultimate Adventure, which the first one was held in 1999 and that’s actually where Trent and I first met in person. Yes. He was a marketing manager for Super Lift and I was an FNG, you know, brand new wide-eyed editor at four Wheel and Off Road came around my neck and couldn’t believe I had the luck of doing this for a living now. And yeah. Oh,

Trent McGee (31m 15s):

He was a wide-eyed, bushy tailed. It was so funny and I was so jaded and so over it. And, and I would like to back up for just a second. I would like to say that while my tenure at the magazines was relatively short, it was really more a matter of the money. It was not about, it was not about the, you know, what was going, you know, I I wasn’t on the scam train or anything like that, but yeah, I mean, I, I only spent about three years at the magazines. But, but, but to, but to give you an idea how well I left the magazines Cole Cornell, who was, and I’m sorry to step on you c Cole Cornell Hugh is, he was a staffer at Hot Rod Magazine.

Trent McGee (31m 57s):

And I’m not gonna say he came up with the concept of Hot Rod Power Tour, but like that, that staff collectively, that’s Fryberger and I think Rob Cannan was there and, and stuff like that. They came up with Hot Rod Power Tour and Cole transitioned from Hot Rod to becoming the editor of this brand new magazine called Four by Four Power, of which I was the first associate editor. And so when, you know, eventually transitioned into Four Wheel and Off Road, and it’s like, okay, well how, you know, how can I apply this power to a formula to Ultimate Adventure? And I believe that’s where the genesis of Ultimate Adventure was born.

Trent McGee (32m 37s):

you know, how do we make an offroad version of it? And I think he did a pretty darn good job.

Christian Hazel (32m 41s):

Yeah. And that, that first one, you know, we stayed in hotels. There had, there were guys on that first trip that had trailers and, you know, So, it wasn’t really true to how the event is today,

Trent McGee (32m 52s):

Myself included. Maybe allegedly, maybe, maybe

Christian Hazel (32m 55s):

You showed up with a trailer. But I remember you driving.

Trent McGee (32m 58s):

No, I left, I left my trailer in Las Cruces and I drove to Phoenix and then did the Wheeling in Phoenix and came sounds

Sean P. Holman (33m 6s):

Like a country song. I left my trailer in Las Cruces.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (33m 9s):

Well, we, we need, we need, we need to pause here for a second

Trent McGee (33m 11s):

Trailer the rest of the time.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (33m 12s):

We need to pause here for a second because we’re assuming that everyone knows what the hot Rod Power tours we, they don’t like, not everyone knows what that is. So we need to back up and say let’s, let’s zero base this. What is it? Like, what’s the concept?

Trent McGee (33m 24s):

Hot Rod Power Tour is basically a week long road trip with hot rods. And, and so basically it’s run what you wrong. And I think the first one they started in Los Angeles. I honestly don’t remember where they ended. They may have gone all the way to Michigan, although I don’t think so. But what they would do is it was just, Hey guys, we’re gonna meet at such and such a place at such and such a time, and then we are gonna road trip our way to whatever the destination was. And forgive me, I don’t remember exactly what the destination was, but it was a week long road trip essentially. And they had a, they had a loose route. There wasn’t any like official check, I think, I think you got kind of some bonus points or something like that.

Trent McGee (34m 10s):

There were some checkpoints that you could check in at or, or take a picture at or something like that. But it was a week long road trip event. And then there were stops every night. And then there would be, they would usually, the next day they would go to a drag strip and then they would go drag racing and then they would move on to the next one. But they, the whole key was you couldn’t bring a trailer, you had to drive your car. And then based on that, again my understanding Drag week came outta that. And drag week is actually much closer to Ultimate Adventure than Power Tour is. But you know, drag Week is a more hardcore version of that where these guys are running, you know, seven, eight second cars and they’re doing a thousand to 1400 miles in the course of a week.

Trent McGee (34m 60s):

They have checkpoints that they have to hit and that’s an actual competition. So they’ll start at one drag strip. I think the way it’s set up is you make as many passes as you want for your, you know, to, to get the best time that you can for your class. And then that’s what you turn in. You, you turn in your best two time slips and then you road trip to the next drag strip, you know, of course all kinds of hijinks and sue with breakage and, and all that other stuff. But the cool part is, is like at the end of it, they average all those time slips. So I think you have to turn in a minimum of two at each drag strip. And then they average all those times and then they base the winners off of those times.

Trent McGee (35m 45s):

And there have been some really, really cool epic stories of, you know, melting down motors on the side of the road. And, and that’s the other thing is they, I guess they can’t really change major things. So like the guy that’s in the lead by a second and a half, which in drag racing is huge, you know, melts down before the last drag strip. So he is done. You can’t, you can’t change the motor or whatever. And so, but they, but most other things you can’t. It’s, it’s a really cool, it’s a hardcore event for hardcore drag racers. And that’s, I think, like I said, I think UA and Drag Week are A little bit closer aligned even though, you know, of course Unreal Adventure is not a competition.

Trent McGee (36m 28s):

Whereas Drag week is,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (36m 30s):

I’d imagine back when this started, it was kind of a publicity thing for both like enthusiasts and companies that want to embark. Like before I got to Banks, Power I know that Gale Banks had done a couple hot rod power tours and for him it was publicity, right? It was going out and being badass and shown everyone what you, what you built and that it can do a couple thousand miles and still win races and such So, it feels like, and correct me if I’m wrong, it was publicity for the participants, unlike ua, which is, it doesn’t really have the publicity piece of the puzzle anymore.

Christian Hazel (37m 8s):

I wouldn’t I Don,

Sean P. Holman (37m 9s):

I don’t agree with that.

Christian Hazel (37m 11s):

I think, I think what it is is, you know, UA is there, there’s no faking that goes on in ua. There’s, you know, we are really doing a thousand to 1400 miles on road interspersed with like the hardest off-road trails. And so those

Sean P. Holman (37m 27s):

And no trailers,

Christian Hazel (37m 27s):

Yeah. And no, no trailers allowed. Not since the second one. Second one we omitted trailers, you know, tho those people who choose to participate on it, whether you’re a reader, a staffer, or an especially sponsor, your, your build, your parts, your temperament, everything is being put to the, the highest test of, of what it is we do out there. And not only, not only is it, you know, day, day to day, but it, it’s, you know, that whole week cumulatively the, the attrition just starts stacking up. And so, you know, if you have a, a component that that can make it through ua, it’ll no problem on your, your daily driver weekend warrior or your trail flying.

Christian Hazel (38m 16s):

you know,

Sean P. Holman (38m 17s):

And there’s a lot of novel stuff that you guys tested out on UA where a company came in and said, Hey, we’ve got this pro Cummins R 2.8, you guys put in a bunch of different

Christian Hazel (38m 27s):

Day back in the day. Yeah. Back in the day the crawler BFG Crawler BFG crawlers was, I think that was on the third ua. They came out with the BFG truck and gave, I remember guys grooving their own Yeah. Blocks, you know, how to kind of create their own kind of pseudo trip. How

Sean P. Holman (38m 44s):

About the F-150 Eco boost when it came out?

Christian Hazel (38m 46s):

Yep. That was to show

Sean P. Holman (38m 48s):

That that eco boost could put up with, you know, what, what UA was gonna throw at it. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (38m 52s):

So how much of the event is, again, sponsor versus just enthusiasts who are just going out there to have a good time and to, you know, put their own vehicle in themselves through the test?

Trent McGee (39m 3s):

Well, I mean it’s, it’s 50 50. I I would say, I mean there, there are sponsors that are there for the event. It’s itself and, and obviously, you know, to, to speak to the exposure element. Yeah. I mean that they’re, they’re there to promote their products or whatever, but they’re also there to, to show, hey, we don’t just talk the talk, we walk a walk, so to speak in the terms of the sponsor or in terms of the readers. We’ll do, we’ll invite anywhere from two to five readers per year. It just depends on the total vehicle count. So, and they’re, they’re very much a large part of it. And, and actually Christian and I are struggling with what do we, what do we call these guys? ’cause readers is not an appropriate I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (39m 41s):

Was gonna ask ’cause they’re not readers anymore, right? They’re viewers. They’re, they’re, or tourists, like what are they and how are they finding you consumers? Where is this content ending up?

Christian Hazel (39m 49s):

We’ll come up with something. We’ll come up with something, but Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s one of the, the, the fun element watch now.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (39m 55s):

Well, no, like literally like, so are you talking about this Advance learners workers? No, you don’t wanna call ’em workers. They’re trolls. Nom kidding. I’m kidding. Not insulting.

Trent McGee (40m 2s):

I’m kidding. I’m kidding, I’m kidding.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (40m 3s):

Where are they seeing the content pre, during and post or they, like what form does this take?

Trent McGee (40m 10s):

So originally it was, you know, you had to apply through the magazine and then later on it was a portal on the website and then later on that got really complicated and so Christian kind of created his own form or whatever. And that’s the way we did it. And, and nowadays if anybody wants to be a part of Unreal Adventure today, they need to just go to Unreal Adventure dot com. Again, that’s Unreal Adventure dot com and you can find out all about the event, the people behind it, and then how to apply And. we are currently keeping all of those submissions so we’re not just throwing ’em away.

Trent McGee (40m 55s):

And you gotta start over the next year at least time being. But you can, you can go there and if you’re, if you think you’ve got the stuff to be a part of ua, then then apply and there’s a form there. We highly encourage. There’s photos that that, that we photos. Of course we highly, highly, highly encourage doing like a two to five minute video walk around of your vehicle explaining what it is and you know, what’s cool about it and, and the modifications you’ve made and, and things like that. And then based on that we will, you know, we’ll take all those into consideration.

Sean P. Holman (41m 31s):

And there’s some familiar names still associated with it. It like Clifton Slay, Dave Chappelle or Dave Chappelle, not the other one. Fred Williams, Vern Simons, Tom Boyd, Chris Durham, and of course Hazel and Trent. So it’s, it’s, it’s the same people you know and love. It’s, and now you guys have, this year it’s all the same people. Yeah. And this year Skyjacker is the presenting sponsor for you guys.

Christian Hazel (41m 53s):

Skyjacker is our presenting sponsor. So it’s Unreal Adventure 2024, presented by Skyjacker Suspensions. And

Sean P. Holman (41m 59s):

Then who else is on

Christian Hazel (42m 0s):

Board? We have M Star Tires is the official tire. We have Quigley custom drive Shaft by the way,

Sean P. Holman (42m 7s):

Official custom watching a Quigley Chevy Van four Wheel Drive conversion. Oh, on UA is free. Tiger is like outta control on that thing. I

Christian Hazel (42m 15s):

I always, I’ve said this many times this year alone, but he is just a walking endorsement for the durability of the Quigley brand. Yeah, right. I mean it’s amazing.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (42m 25s):

What is this, what is it? Is this like an old Chevy van or this brand?

Sean P. Holman (42m 28s):

The Express 2010?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (42m 29s):

It’s a Chevy

Christian Hazel (42m 30s):

Express. Yeah, big one. A big one. Yeah. And man, he gets it.

Sean P. Holman (42m 34s):

Four four Wheel drive. Solid axle swap.

Christian Hazel (42m 36s):

He gets it. Oh that’s right. We have IH Parts America as the official IH truck and scout part. Those guys are awesome. Unreal Adventure. Yeah, Jeff Ismail is the best.

Sean P. Holman (42m 45s):

I stayed down the street from him in Moab a few years ago. And at that house I had, you know, so the last year I was in Moab for Easter Jeeps for not this past, but the last year right after I got laid off, MotorTrend didn’t know or nobody checked that I had already prepaid for an Airbnb.

Christian Hazel (43m 1s):

I was there by myself. Yeah. Because I was the last man standing in the company

Sean P. Holman (43m 4s):

And I’m like, I, I think I called Christian, I’m like, Hey, do you need a, are you gonna Moab? He goes, no, I can’t really afford it and they won’t let me get a hotel room. I’m like, I have a house

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (43m 12s):

That they paid

Sean P. Holman (43m 13s):

For. He’s like, what? I’m like, so if you come stay at my house, then I’m your guest ’cause you work for the company.

Christian Hazel (43m 20s):

Done. Done.

Sean P. Holman (43m 21s):

Yeah. Right. So that worked out pretty good.

Christian Hazel (43m 23s):

We still have a, a offer design is the official,

Sean P. Holman (43m 26s):

Our friend Steven Watson. Steven

Christian Hazel (43m 27s):

Oh Watson,

Sean P. Holman (43m 27s):

Yeah.

Christian Hazel (43m 28s):

Was

Sean P. Holman (43m 28s):

A show regular.

Christian Hazel (43m 29s):

Yes. Yes. So the official transfer case. So the vehicle I’m driving as all of our vehicles has a magnum under drive unit in it with an MP 2 0 5 made by Steven Watson. Reminds

Sean P. Holman (43m 41s):

Me of a joke, but we won’t tell it on the air here. Yes.

Christian Hazel (43m 43s):

The magnum joke yet.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (43m 46s):

Can you say what it costs the person? ’cause it’s not free, it’s not the, the tab is not picked up by

Christian Hazel (43m 50s):

Skyjacker. Well if you’re, if you’re a sponsor, it, it varies. But sponsorship’s one thing, if you’re interested in No, no in sponsoring, come, come see Trent or myself and we’ll, we’ll happily share deck. No, we gotta,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (43m 60s):

Listeners wanna be part of,

Christian Hazel (44m 2s):

Or if you’re invited reader, you just pay your own way. There’s no entry fee Yeah. To be, there’s no, there’s no entry fee

Sean P. Holman (44m 7s):

Whatsoever. Unreal. And if you’ve got that kind of money burning a hole in your pocket, go ahead and email us at The truck Show Podcast at gmail dot com. We’ll be sure to pass the sponsorship request onto to our friends at Unreal Adventure. Now

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (44m 16s):

Are you doing, are you stopping? ’cause it’s a kind of a rally ish type of thing. Are you stopping in hotels? Is this all camping like that part Don? Don’t know

Christian Hazel (44m 22s):

So. it is a mix. So, and, and it’s always been kind of a mix since, you know, the early days. But we camp several nights, often several nights in a row. So not only are we going, you know, doing this, this seven day hardcore trip, but you have to carry all your accoutrements with you often all the way down a, a killer hardcore trail.

8 (44m 43s):

The ACC ma that you will need a coutre ma

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (44m 45s):

Who’s the perfect participant for you. A who do you want? I mean you or your tx And then that,

Christian Hazel (44m 53s):

That’s actually an easier answer than you, you might think. So we’ve got a set list of vehicle requirements that, you know, you need to have built in your vehicle to be eligible for Unreal Adventure. And that’s all on our, on our website. What we’re looking for is personality, temperament, attitude, you know, it’s, it’s more, it’s as much if not more about the person slash driver as it is the vehicle.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (45m 22s):

So that’s why Trent saying you should put in, he wants video. So we want video So. You’re actually exposing who you are when you’re doing the walk outta your truck.

Christian Hazel (45m 29s):

That, that does kind of help. Yes. That helps us, you know, you know, kind of make, if there are two equal vehicles and one’s gotta walk around where, you know, the person seems pretty, pretty fun. Yeah. That, that might be the tipping point. But even, even after that, there’s another layer after we’ve kind of selected the vehicles, we like, we narrow them down to what we call the dirty dozen. So we narrow our, all the applications down to 12 and then I actually get on the phone and do interviews, calls, you know, just have a chat I guess you could say. And that’s, you know, kind of the, the one of the last one.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (46m 4s):

Pretty hardcore vetting.

Christian Hazel (46m 5s):

Yeah. Yeah. I mean it’s, it takes a long time, believe it or not, especially I found this year during an election cycle where, where the spamming is, is Oh yeah. It’s hard to get people to pick up the phone, let alone call you back. And then, you know, after I’ve kind of done that, Trent and I reconvene and then we, we make our final selections and this year we landed on, yeah, on five, five invited regions. Yeah. And one returning region from last year.

Trent McGee (46m 27s):

Basically what we’re looking for, I mean, your, your car gets you in the door for sure. you know, the more unique, the better, as we’ve said in the past, what we’re looking for varies. We’re, we’re looking for variety. And so the more unique, the better. If, if it’s a Jeep jail, that’s, that’s kind of a tough one. Unless you’re really, really, really, you know, it’s a really, really unique bill.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (46m 52s):

So tr what I’m hearing is if you have an El Camino, a lifted El Camino, you’re in No, not, we

Christian Hazel (46m 60s):

Would take a second look at it now if

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (47m 1s):

It was a Don or something. Oh, that’s funny. We

Trent McGee (47m 4s):

Would at least, we would at least take a second look, but, but, but there’s also, like we had among the dirty dozen this year was A-B-M-W-X five oh. And an A MC Eagle and an LX four 50 and, and F three 50. I mean, they, they’re, so we, we are, we’re always looking for variety. And, and so the other thing I’d like to say to anybody that’s interested in applying is if you don’t get selected this year or next year or whatever, keep applying. Because, because our, our criteria changes because we, we look at what the sponsors are bringing. I mean, obviously we don’t want, you know, 23 jails in a line that’s very boring in, in terms of video.

Trent McGee (47m 49s):

So we’re, we’re looking for as much variety as possible and to Christian’s, Christian had said, and one of our other deals that, you know, sometimes it could be as simple as we’ve got too many yellow cars. I mean, it could be that dumb, but, but if you, if you don’t get selected, please, please, please reapply. Or we’ll, we’ll, we’ll hang on to your selection and, and we’ll, we’ll consider you for next year because it really does change from year to year to year to year two. I will say having uniqueness is definitely kind of gets you towards the front of the line.

Christian Hazel (48m 24s):

But, but that said, in our Dirty dozen this year, we had a Yj Wrangler. you know, we had, so we, we are not just gonna automatically overstep a Jeep. No.

Trent McGee (48m 35s):

Yeah, no, no.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (48m 36s):

Over the last 10 years or so, what is the oddest vehicle that you let in and then outperformed your expectations?

Christian Hazel (48m 43s):

That’s a good question.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (48m 46s):

Good job. Lightning.

Christian Hazel (48m 48s):

You stumped me. I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (48m 49s):

Got one. I, yay.

Christian Hazel (48m 51s):

I gotta think about that. The oddest one we led in and exceeded our expectations.

Trent McGee (48m 55s):

I’m gonna say there was an S 10 blazer last year, I think it was last year. And he, he had applied seven times, you know, he finally got in and he, he brought it, I mean, he totally, totally brought it Oh

Christian Hazel (49m 13s):

Yeah. Helping out when other people needed it and just, just best attitude. What

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (49m 17s):

Did he do to that thing to make it survive? Like how do you make that truck rock roll?

Christian Hazel (49m 22s):

Oh mo most of these vehicles that are getting in have, have one ton axles under it. Ah, okay. And, you know, 37 40 inch tires. Yeah. Although 30 fives are all you need to meet the requirement. Most this year, most people entering were on forties.

Trent McGee (49m 38s):

I feel like that Derek’s car evolved as he applied. So like, it kept getting better, it kept getting better. It kept getting better.

Christian Hazel (49m 47s):

And, and not only that, he applied with more than one vehicle, which we don’t mind. He’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (49m 51s):

Interesting. That’s true.

Christian Hazel (49m 52s):

Derek had applied with, he has a, a truck, a truck thing I’ll call it. It’s a truckish, like a full size.

Trent McGee (49m 58s):

That’s the hydraulic thing. Yeah.

Christian Hazel (49m 60s):

Full, full size. I think it used to be a Chevy at some, some point in time. And then the, the S 10. And, and I actually, when I called him, I’m like, Hey, yeah, this is Christian, you know, I’m here,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 12s):

You’re in, but you have to bring, well not

Christian Hazel (50m 14s):

Him. He’s like, well, which, which one are we talking about? I’m like, the S 10. He’s like, okay. Okay.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 19s):

Well that’s cool. Yeah. So You could do the Mercedes. You could do your TRX. I don’t think your golf cart convertible SL would be a good offroad. They’re just saying you could, you could apply. They, none of them would make it though. The, no, the weirdest, not even a T RX would make

Trent McGee (50m 33s):

It. The weirdest one in weirdest one in memory in recent memory that I can think of right now is that BM WX five that made the dirty dozen year.

Christian Hazel (50m 41s):

That

Trent McGee (50m 41s):

Was, I mean, a BM WX five. Come on guys. Just ’cause

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 44s):

It’s two pedestrian or what, how is that an off

Christian Hazel (50m 46s):

Car? Oh, no, right. I mean, when, when was the last time you saw B BMW X five with solid axles under it, you know? Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 51s):

Was it on 30 sevens? Oh, what

Christian Hazel (50m 52s):

It it, it was on forties. I, oh my gosh.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 55s):

What

Christian Hazel (50m 56s):

With the 4 0 8 Q ls?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (50m 57s):

Where can I see this?

Christian Hazel (50m 59s):

It’s on our YouTube channel I think. Yeah, go go to our YouTube channel. Unreal Adventure YouTube channel.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (51m 6s):

Unreal Adventure. Yeah. Was an Unreal Adventure four by four. Right? Exactly. Yeah. Okay.

Trent McGee (51m 10s):

Yeah. Unreal Adventure four by four.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (51m 13s):

Was this a, a new X five or like a older general

Christian Hazel (51m 16s):

Oh six or 16 or a 10? Don? Don’t know. I don’t know X five because

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (51m 20s):

I’m just thinking I had an, oh, what year was my X five? Like oh 3, 4, 5, something like that, wasn’t it? Yeah, it was that first generation body style and I’m thinking was like a five series that was that would’ve Yeah, it had a little, had a, the, the,

Christian Hazel (51m 33s):

It’s, it’s in a dirty dozen video, so if you go watch the Dirty Dozen video So

Trent McGee (51m 39s):

It, it’s Chaptered So You can see it. Yeah. So You could just fast forward

Christian Hazel (51m 42s):

The engineering’s off the hook.

Trent McGee (51m 43s):

The thing is absolutely nuts. And it looks, it looks stock inside. It’s not like, it’s not like he body swapped it or anything like that. I mean, it is, it is a BM BMW X five that he appended one ton axles, forties, an LLS, the whole nine yards. And, and Magnum

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (52m 1s):

Or Atlas,

Trent McGee (52m 1s):

Like, he reached in during I think a doubler Yeah. 2 0 3 2. And like he reached during, he also had a really good walk around video and, and everybody, but like when he reached, when, when he was like, oh, I’m gonna pop the hood and show you guys under the hood. He reached, he opened the door, reached in, pulled the normal hood latch, and then walked around and opened the hood. And it’s like, okay, well that’s rad. Because it would’ve been way easier to just put hood pins in it, because I’m sure he had to cut the heck outta the radio. Oh, for sure. Or the radio support. Yeah. you know, to, to make that all fit. So that’s pretty darn cool. And that’s an attention to detail.

Trent McGee (52m 42s):

That’s, that, that’s pretty neat.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (52m 42s):

I’m surpris surprised that the guy who owns the Mini Cooper, it’s like an oh five Mini Cooper up on solid axles and and forties hasn’t applied. Whoever that guy is. You’ve, everyone’s seen that car. Like that would be the, I don’t

Christian Hazel (52m 55s):

Think I’ve seen that, but I remember when I was running Top Truck Challenge, when I was the editor of Four Wheeler, we had a guy with a, a little, a little car. It was like some British or, or something. Like, it wasn’t a mini, but it was super cool. And man, he, he just flogged that thing. It was awesome to watch.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (53m 13s):

Okay, so what, what are the, what are the dates and when do people need to submit by?

Christian Hazel (53m 17s):

Well, this year we’ve already made our, our selections. Oh boo. So you’re applying for 20, 25 folks there. So get get your stuff together, together and get us your best application this year. We’re gonna be holding the event at the end of September.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (53m 32s):

Okay. So. it is right around the corner. And when can we see the video content? When does it go up on your YouTube channel?

Christian Hazel (53m 38s):

Right. More than likely, right after Halloween, we’re gonna start rolling the, the videos out. And, we are greatly expanding the video coverage compared to how the event was treated when it was ultimately, well,

Sean P. Holman (53m 50s):

No, no, this is a brand new event. Yeah. But that other event that was owned by those other people whose lawyers haven’t applied to be a part of the new event, they only did like five to seven minute, like five videos.

Christian Hazel (54m 3s):

Yeah. So, so Unreal Adventure is seven day event and each each day is completely new

Sean P. Holman (54m 8s):

People, completely new, getting

Christian Hazel (54m 9s):

Two videos of, of, you know, 15 to 20 minute lengths. So we are, we are really, really taking our time and expanding the coverage to show, show this thing inside and out.

Trent McGee (54m 21s):

Yeah, I mean the, the, our biggest complaint that we ever got, and this is back in the MotorTrend days, was not so much the production quality, the quality was always pretty good. There was one exception one year where the, the, the crew that shot it was amazing. The crew that edited it was completely different. And, we, we won’t get into that, but the, the quality has always been there. And I can say that we have retained the services of the same production company that’s been doing it for several years. And Ryan and his crew are absolutely amazing. And we gr we, we are looking forward to, because honestly, so many things ended up on the cutting room floor because the time constraints, well, we don’t have those anymore.

Trent McGee (55m 9s):

So we’re really looking forward to that. And I think Ryan and his team are also really into it. They feel the same way. And so we feel like this year we’re actually really going to do this event justice.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (55m 24s):

Congrats for the perseverance all these years in keeping this thing alive guys

Sean P. Holman (55m 29s):

And grabbing the torch and running with it.

Christian Hazel (55m 30s):

Yeah. We couldn’t let it die. I mean it’s, it’s a labor

Sean P. Holman (55m 33s):

Too special.

Christian Hazel (55m 34s):

It’s been labor love and it’s, it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s just been something that it’s,

Sean P. Holman (55m 39s):

You know, it’s kind of weird is like, we have a lot of listeners who, obviously this podcast was started at MotorTrend And. we have a lot of listeners who know what my background is. And I, and I think they feel like I’m the conduit to you guys because we’ll get a lot of emails or I’ll get dms, Hey, what’s going on with Christian? What’s going on Vern, what’s going on with Trent? Hey, get those guys on the podcast. And to me it’s gratifying to see you going through the same thing I went through and coming out the other side and having a plan. ’cause I, you know, And, we talked about this when, when I left MotorTrend, so many magazine guys, their whole identity is wrapped up in that one brand. And the magazine dies. They leave, whatever, they just disappear into the ether because they don’t know how to be themselves without that title or that prestige, if you will.

Sean P. Holman (56m 28s):

That came with being a magazine guy. And whether that’s as true today as it used to be or not, is kinda beside the point. The point is for me, is I like to see my friends successful. I like to see guys like you guys who didn’t give up and quit because somebody moved your cheese. You said, you know what, we’re, we’re in this, we love this, we do this anyway. So anyway, it’s just good to see you guys out doing it and you’re doing it because it’s, you’re the real deal. And to be able to follow your success and, and help you guys get the word out, it’s, we appreciate that and appreciate you carving out the time to come, come visit us here on The truck. Show Podcast.

Christian Hazel (57m 5s):

Yeah. And thanks for giving us this platform to let your audience know about it. I really appreciate that.

Trent McGee (57m 9s):

Yeah, I mean, I, it, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s, for us, it’s definitely a labor of love. It’s not, it, it’s definitely not one of monetary gain. I can can guarantee that.

Sean P. Holman (57m 20s):

Nor is this show. Yeah, I’ve read that book.

Trent McGee (57m 24s):

You guys know what I’m talking about? Oh yeah. But it’s, it’s, it, it goes back to what you were initially saying, Sean, a while back with magazines and its passion and, and neither one of us were willing to let 25 years of history. This would’ve been the 25th year of ultimate adventure. Neither one of us were willing to let that die. And so we’re carrying on and we’re, and we’re eternally thankful for the sponsors that have come on board. Most of them are og longtime guys. And we literally could not do this without them because dirty little secret guys, the video productions, while, while they’re, you know, while they’re, they’re really, really cool.

Trent McGee (58m 10s):

They’re also very expensive. So

Sean P. Holman (58m 13s):

I remember at MotorTrend we always budgeted, it was like a thousand dollars a minute all in for video. Oh

Christian Hazel (58m 18s):

Yeah. It’s,

Sean P. Holman (58m 19s):

It’s not cheap

Christian Hazel (58m 20s):

Yeah. To do it. Right. We, we are doing it right. I mean

Trent McGee (58m 23s):

We, we are doing it right and maybe, you know, certainly probably to Christian and i’s own detriment, but that’s why we’re doing it. We, we, we love this event. We want it to continue. We want it to continue for another 25 years. And so, yeah. And thank you for, for giving us the time on your podcast to help spread the work

Sean P. Holman (58m 44s):

All. right. Well if you guys wanna find out more, especially if you’re old magazine readers, you wanna follow up and see where these guys ended up. You are of a fan or a follower of Ultimate Adventure and you’re down in the dumps because you thought it wasn’t coming back. Go to Unreal Adventure dot com. You go to the YouTube page, which is Unreal Adventure four by four and then Adventure Media for the podcast. Yes. All. right. Well go there and do those things. Support our friends All. right? You guys rule. Thank you. And

Trent McGee (59m 10s):

Then we also have, we also have Instagram is Unreal Adventure official I believe. And then on Facebook it’s Unreal Adventure. So

Sean P. Holman (59m 19s):

Yeah, go follow then Do it now.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (59m 21s):

Please. Awesome. Thank you guys. Thanks

Sean P. Holman (59m 24s):

Tr

9 (59m 25s):

Alright you guys. Love you man. Bye.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (59m 29s):

All, right Holman, if you’re feeling up to it, I wanna get to some email. Church. Show Podcast at gmail dot com is the main inbox. Or you’ve got Lightning at church Show Podcast dot com or Holman at church Show Podcast dot com. Let’s do it.

Intro (59m 41s):

You email? Yeah, I email Do it. We email. That’s right. Every email type it up. You email proofread. I email send it. We email, click it every email.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (59m 58s):

Now when I said proofread my voice cracked like a teenager going through 15-year-old

Intro (1h 0m 2s):

Boy. Yeah,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 0m 3s):

I’m a 50-year-old boy All. right. Let’s see here. Let me start with you. Cool. If I start with Dan Church,

Sean P. Holman (1h 0m 11s):

Go

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 0m 12s):

For it. Okay. Dan says, okay boys, get this on the show immediately. Make it happen. Two exclamation marks he gives us, I have zero commercial interest here. Just this, this is a solid plug for an American business. 150 bucks for two puddle lights that are absolutely amazing, great quality focus, sharpness, et cetera. And better customer service. Legitimately five minute upgrade and American made All. right? We got that part. So here’s a few pics of my installation on my 24 Raptor attached. Damn Dan with the little, you know the humble brag here with a Raptor

Sean P. Holman (1h 0m 48s):

I know. Well I got one coming talk about that more upcoming episode. Yeah. So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 0m 52s):

He’s got, yeah buddy, five stars and mounts and parameters. Now Dan, he attached a couple of photos and it is the Bronco Raptor logo in kind of a bright golden yellow right on the ground at his feet, which I assume are being projected from the bottoms of the mirrors. Usually

Sean P. Holman (1h 1m 9s):

That’s where they have ’em

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 1m 10s):

Like it. Well my Mercedes at the bottom of the doors. So a lot of the cars in my wife’s car. It’s also the bottom of the doors. They’ve got a projector light down there. So this is pretty cool because it’s big. It looks like based on his feet in sandals, it’s probably like four feet wide. It’s pretty good size logo on the ground. MVP auto supplies is where he found it. MVP auto supplies dot com looks like they’ve got quite a bit of stuff. So yeah, come out maybe we’ll reach out to ’em in the near future. Thanks for the heads up Dan.

Intro (1h 1m 37s):

Yeah buddy. Bye. Star review. Bye. Star motor monitor. Key engine parameters

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 1m 46s):

Said that trifecta right there.

Sean P. Holman (1h 1m 47s):

Got this one from Steve and he says interviews, let the guest talk.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 1m 53s):

We

Sean P. Holman (1h 1m 54s):

Can’t have

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 1m 55s):

A problem. We legitimately have a problem.

Sean P. Holman (1h 1m 57s):

Oh no, no you don’t. You don’t have to tell. He’s gonna tell you what our problems are right here. I drive four times a week back and forth from Elliot to Palm Springs. This podcast helps the ride. My complaint about is if the guest isn’t assertive, sometimes you guys walk all over them. Wait, what? I was trying to listen to the interview with Casey Bramer and he couldn’t get any time to get deep into his product. Lighting needs to keep his questions simple and stop rambling so much. He was two minutes into his question. Question then Holman started going on about, about bugs hit the side window of a Jeep and then the guest only had a couple of seconds to answer. What? I don’t remember that.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 2m 27s):

I don’t remember any actual answers. ’cause all we did is just talk

Sean P. Holman (1h 2m 31s):

After 10 minutes in the interview, I had to turn it off and look him up on YouTube to get some detailed ideas.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 2m 35s):

Oh no, that sucks. That’s not the goal. When

Sean P. Holman (1h 2m 37s):

Johnny was on, he was more assertive. Yes, it was a way better conversation. Please let the guest be the subject matter expert on whatever you brought him on to talk about. No drops. ’cause I can’t take 10 drops of Yeah buddy ever again. Crash. Thanks Steve. Steve,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 2m 51s):

That’s, those are legitimate complaints. We know we have a problem and one of the hardest things is to let there be silence.

Sean P. Holman (1h 3m 0s):

Hey, did you hear about that? See? Oh,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 3m 2s):

Oh, sorry. Like, just like that. So that’s the thing is that they’ll talk and then they’re wait, they’re, they’re pausing to say the next sentence. Like Holman is trying to jump in. I mean now And, we just have to get in. We can’t let silence happen.

Sean P. Holman (1h 3m 16s):

The other problem is that there’s latency between our board. And so Casey’s no excuse ’cause he was in in studio, but if somebody’s on the phone, he

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 3m 23s):

Was eight inches from his face.

Sean P. Holman (1h 3m 24s):

I know. But if somebody’s on the phone there’s latency. So we hear a delay when they talk and sometimes we think it’s dead air. So we jump in to fill the air and to bring the guests. And so it’s hard sometimes to balance that when they’re not sitting next to you. That’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 3m 35s):

True. But you and I never take a beat and let it soak in. What exactly

Sean P. Holman (1h 3m 41s):

All right. Got this one here from, from

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 3m 43s):

Who?

Sean P. Holman (1h 3m 47s):

Got this one here from Chad says, oh this is because you said your whole thing about Lincoln navigators. So Chad says Lincoln navigators, I’ll tell you who wants them. And he says Good evening. I recently heard Lighting’s comments about the customer base for the Lincoln Navigator. One hand he’s right. This isn’t the typical vehicle for those that are in the public eye, known as ballers. However, here’s what he’s missing. This is the vehicle that the old farmer on the corner in a good old small town EGR USA buys his wife for their 60th wedding anniversary in cash so she can use it to get the grandkids to and from school. This is the vehicle that the pipeliner gets his old lady after he comes home with his per diem and rig check after a six month stint in Alaska while she held down the fort for him while he was gone. And this is the vehicle for the UAW retiree who wants a luxury car to take his family on adventures.

Sean P. Holman (1h 4m 31s):

The navigators for the American worker who has made it in life but still wants to pay it back toward the other American workers in Kentucky. Putting these things together day in and day out. This is not a billionaire’s dream car. This is a vehicle for the blue collar folks celebrating some accomplishments. The blue collar ballers that wouldn’t be caught dead in a foreign vehicle. Foreign cars are more and more popular every day. But where I grew up, Fowler v Michigan, if it’s not from one of the big three, it’s not for me. Holman, please trap Lightning to his chair with your max traps and make him listen to Rolex on a redneck from Brantley Gilbert and Jason Aldean. Once he’s memorized it. Follow up with a few solid repetitions of Made in America by the late Toby Keith. Rest in peace Toby. This will be a solid dose to help treat the California pompousness he displayed in that episode.

Sean P. Holman (1h 5m 14s):

Also, since I know Lightning’s gonna try and call me an old man for this opinion. I’m 24. This is not the opinion of an old man. Oh wow.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 5m 20s):

PS he writes like a 75-year-old

Sean P. Holman (1h 5m 23s):

Ps I wrote this sarcastically. You’ll not offend me. If you have some fun with this email, if I didn’t expect you to poke some fun at it, I wouldn’t send it. Best of luck praying. I make the read LOL. Don’t forget everything matters Chad. No, we’re not gonna poke fun of you at all. I think you bring up some very solid points that two pompous, a-holes in Southern California would have never thought of.

10 (1h 5m 40s):

Thanks for watching and remember everything matters.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 5m 46s):

Appreciate the input.

Sean P. Holman (1h 5m 48s):

Wait, whose input do you like more? His or the previous letter? No, he is crash or Chad

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 5m 53s):

Equally. I appreciate them both. I appreciate anyone who takes the time to A listen and B right in. It’s a chunk of time outta your day And. we truly do appreciate it as much as you, if you’re putting up with us, stepping on guests, talking over each other, hey will

Sean P. Holman (1h 6m 7s):

You get on with the show?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 6m 9s):

This one is from Alden and he writes this to Lightning at church Show Podcast dot com. I’ve got a 2004 F three 50 and I’m looking to make an upgrade. I wanna upgrade the diff cover and Intercooler and possibly go to a six gun tuner. I guess this is banks related. I’ve got a 40 foot weekend warrior. Oh that’s the big one. That’s the big Bahama, the 40 foot weekend warrior. Yeah, it is

Sean P. Holman (1h 6m 29s):

Like

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 6m 30s):

That. I think that’s the one that could be one of the ones that they got sued over ’cause it was like way, way heavy. Like heavier than they advertised. So anyways, he’s got a 40 foot weekend warrior up and down the mountains here in Arizona. And a diff cover would be helpful also. You’re a good sport for taking all the teasing on the show. Yes I am. But we know you’re the reason we have such good, but you’re the reason we know we have such great audio tools. Listen. Oh

Sean P. Holman (1h 6m 53s):

Now I know why you read that email.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 6m 55s):

I mean, I didn’t know this is the first time I’m reading it. Thank you for the show and your time. Alden Ps I laugh every single time you go on the Seesaw tangent, knowing that my poor grammar brought this out years ago with my very first email that I sent in. Thank you very much.

Sean P. Holman (1h 7m 10s):

We remember signing that email.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 7m 12s):

I am it. It looks like you are fishing for some parts for your truck. And Alden, I’m going to email you back a discount code and we’re gonna make that happen for your oh 4 3 50. So thank you

Sean P. Holman (1h 7m 23s):

All. right everybody. Ryan Evans w writes in the subject line, Lincoln Light Wallet. I’m Rich. LOL

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 7m 31s):

Light Wallet. I’m

Sean P. Holman (1h 7m 32s):

Rich. That’s a good one. He says 116,000 is way cheaper than whatever GWA costs also can haul more people and tow not even in the same class.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 7m 40s):

Okay, those weren’t up for debate. I wasn’t saying that it didn’t have certain features, didn’t have tow capability, interior capacity. I didn’t say any of those things weren’t true. I said, who’s buying a Lincoln Navigator in 2024 when there are other

Sean P. Holman (1h 7m 57s):

Baller

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 7m 58s):

Rich guy stuff to buy? Like who? Like,

Sean P. Holman (1h 8m 0s):

And then everyone in the Midwest shook their head at you. Don.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 8m 3s):

Don’t think so. There are a lot of Chevy guys that would be like, I’m not touching it. A lot of guys that like German stuff, they wouldn’t touch it. Don don’t know. So here we are. We found out. We got, we got a couple that like it. Good, good on you Next.

Sean P. Holman (1h 8m 17s):

Well I’ll tell you what’s next. We have to thank Trent and Christian for coming on. And guys please, if you’re a fan of Ultimate Adventure, please check out Unreal Adventure. It’s literally the same guys, the same format, the same stuff you know and love just with the people who run it are now the owners of it. So go check it out. Support those guys. It’s, it’s kinda

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 8m 34s):

Like this podcast

Sean P. Holman (1h 8m 35s):

Kind of like, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, support this, this podcast too. Even if you don’t get any good information. ’cause we just like to talk too much. I’ll tell you something funny in a second.

Intro (1h 8m 50s):

The truck show. The truck show. The truck show.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 8m 55s):

Whoa Whoa. I was just letting the music breathe ’cause I’m just taking a pause, letting him soak it in. So

Sean P. Holman (1h 9m 1s):

I asked you at the beginning of the show, what was the thing from AMS oil that you took away? Yeah. Do you remember when they asked us like, how would you fill like a couple hours And? we laughed and then we laughed. And, we laughed some more. And I’m like, have you ever listened to us like we don’t know how to stop.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 9m 15s):

We have a problem

Sean P. Holman (1h 9m 18s):

And an outlet. Well wait, we,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 9m 19s):

We’ve talked about this before guys, but like when we started this show back almost seven years ago, we thought, oh my gosh, we’ll never be able to fill up 45 minutes. There’s no way we can do it. What are we gonna say for 45 minutes now? We can’t.

Sean P. Holman (1h 9m 31s):

We can do forward if

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 9m 33s):

We try, we can’t get it below three hours.

Sean P. Holman (1h 9m 36s):

Ah, we, we hope it’s the way that, you know, that’s one of the reasons that we endear ourselves to and you love us even though you

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 9m 42s):

Probably love to

Sean P. Holman (1h 9m 43s):

Hate us at the same time. But if you love us more than you hate us, then follow us on social at LBC Lighting, at Sean P Holman and at Truck Show Podcast. Or leave us a message 6 5 7 2 0 5 61 0 5. We want to hear from you And. we promise if you send us a voicemail, we promise to not talk over your voicemail. Probably.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 10m 3s):

Probably. And

Sean P. Holman (1h 10m 4s):

If you email us at truck Show Podcast at gmail dot com or Holman at truck Show Podcast dot com or Lightning at truck Show Podcast dot com, it is impossible for us to talk over your email. So that’s another way. So also smoke signals and when you’re on a ship semi force and Yeah. And, and you get the flashing semi force from across the ocean, those are also formats that we aren’t able to talk over. I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 10m 25s):

Prefer Carrier pigeon.

Sean P. Holman (1h 10m 27s):

Carrier pigeon. Okay. All, right? Yeah, All. right. So Truck Show Podcast expanding from podcasting to carrier pigeon is what I’m hearing.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 10m 35s):

We’re awful. We’re just awful.

Sean P. Holman (1h 10m 37s):

Does it feel good? It was, yeah. I mean we do it because we love it. We’re

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 10m 41s):

Like two pigs just rolling around and

Sean P. Holman (1h 10m 42s):

Slop. Listen, just it’s train wreck And. we know that’s why you listen. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 10m 46s):

You can hear it sucking Yeah. Lower than the

Sean P. Holman (1h 10m 49s):

Suckage we’ve tried.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 10m 50s):

We can’t. We can’t.

Sean P. Holman (1h 10m 52s):

Well fortunately we have really good sponsors that will put up with us just like you guys will. So we gotta thank Nissan for being the presenting sponsor of The truck. Show Podcast, and on down your local Nissan dealer. Check out the new Frontier, check out the even newer new Frontier and the new Armada coming within the next month or so. Or you can point your browser to Nissan usa dot com where you can build a price. Check out all the features, all the specs, and all the things that make Nissan awesome trucks.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 11m 15s):

Since when do you point a browser

Sean P. Holman (1h 11m 17s):

With the pointers that you have on your screen?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 11m 20s):

Don’t you know, you point and then you, you have to key something in. You’ve gotta type Nissan,

Sean P. Holman (1h 11m 23s):

But you start with pointing. You just admitted it. So that’s the beginning.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 11m 26s):

Okay, well if you’re pointing things point at the new ultimate Fluid cooling bundle over at Banks Power dot com. If you’ve got a 2001, a 2019 or 2020 plus Durmax pickup truck and you want your fluids cooler like, like your engine oil or your transmission fluid, we got you covered. The cool runner oil pan and the Ram Air trans pan are now available for durmax pickup trucks. Banks Power dot com to find yours.

Sean P. Holman (1h 11m 49s):

And in the theme of pointing, point yourself toward next week’s up. Stop.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 11m 53s):

Stop pointing. Where,

Sean P. Holman (1h 11m 54s):

Why is it rude? Yes. Okay.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 11m 57s):

I actually told someone that at work just the other day. Why? One of the guys, Steven, he was like, Hey, where’s that guy? Walked up to our fronter because you know, I’m not, we’re not in the main office, we’re across the street. The guy walks up and Steven did the points like with his, his index finger. Like it’s over there. I’m like, Steven, it’s like Disneyland. You don’t point, you have your entire arm extended all five, four fingers straight out and you like offer like this way, sir. God like this all walk with me. What is wrong with you? And I like, don’t point, it’s rude.

Sean P. Holman (1h 12m 24s):

You’re not his dad. I had to dad

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 12m 26s):

Up for a second. Jesus.

Sean P. Holman (1h 12m 28s):

Alright, well I’ll point. And

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 12m 30s):

Now he’s like a Disneyland, you know, like a not a chauffeur call

Sean P. Holman (1h 12m 33s):

With, okay, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna point. I’m gonna usher you toward next week’s episodes. Wherever we go And, we get the behind the scenes deep dive of how AMS oil is made. So if you want a high quality 100% synthetic product they do, then you wanna go to anzo dot com. You can find out about how Anzo will fight engine wear, how it maximizes horsepower, and how it has excellent all temperature performance. All of this and more at anzo dot com. ’cause Ansel is the first in synthetics.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 12m 58s):

And speaking of absolute top quality products, EGR USA dot com is where you go for the EGR roll T track, electric retractable bed cover. They also have them in manual operation. I prefer electric, but it’s up to you. Head over to EGR USA dot com to grab yours.

Sean P. Holman (1h 13m 13s):

And as a reminder, we’d love to get reviews from you either on Spotify or Apple And please,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 13m 16s):

But not of this episode.

Sean P. Holman (1h 13m 18s):

Not this one. Yeah. Ignore this one. Just just the other ones that were your favorite. Yeah. And then also go to truck Show Podcast dot com where we can download episodes. You can check out featured products with discounts and deals, and also find out where some events are happening toward you in our events calendar. So if you have an event, feel free to share it with us at truck Show Podcast at gmail dot com. And, we will add it to the calendar.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 13m 37s):

I feel like we owe our audience this

12 (1h 13m 39s):

T. Thank you. Thank you.

Sean P. Holman (1h 13m 47s):

That’s funny ’cause I was thinking we needed to apologize.

13 (1h 13m 51s):

We are deeply sorry. We are sorry. We’re sorry. We are sorry.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 14m 3s):

So we’re thanking them and we’re sorry.

Sean P. Holman (1h 14m 7s):

Yes. We’re thanking them for sticking with us and we’re sorry that they’re here.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 14m 11s):

Wait, no, that’s bad. We’re not sorry that they’re

Sean P. Holman (1h 14m 14s):

Here. We’re thanking them for joining us. And sorry, we chase them away, which of course if we chase them away, they’re not hearing this. No,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 14m 19s):

Just you and I talking to ourselves like normal. Well that’s,

Sean P. Holman (1h 14m 22s):

Isn’t that how it normally is? We’re just sitting in a box talking to each other and somehow thousands of people listen in to our conversation every week. It’s weird.

14 (1h 14m 30s):

What the hell is wrong with you?

Sean P. Holman (1h 14m 32s):

Everything. Everything.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1h 14m 34s):

The truck Show Podcast is a production of truck famous LLC. This podcast was created by Sean Holman and Jay Tillis with production elements by DJ Omar Khan. If you like what you’ve heard, please open your Apple podcast or Spotify app and give us a five star rating. And if you’re a fan, there’s no better way to show your support than by patronizing our sponsors. Some vehicles may have been harmed during the making of this podcast.