John Brochu @ADV4X4 | Ep. 9

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Overland Weekly. We have reached episode number 9. We are your host. My name is Davy. This is my good friend and co-host, Mr. John Haley. Hello. How are you doing, John? Great. It's a lovely Sunday evening with another episode. That's right. I can still see sunlight out your window. That's new for us. Yes. Thank you, daylight saving stuff. John, a few weeks ago, I bought a new camp light. He didn't know I was going to bring this up, guys. John text me and he's like, It must be nice buying that expensive camp light. I just can't justify that. And then yesterday, he posted about 18 different stories reviewing his new $300 camp light. So I just wanted to put that out there for the record. Well, the math was I had 50 bucks in REI rewards. They had a 20% off coupon, and then I returned $180 flashlights. It was basically free. I bought the flash like three months ago, and it just sat in my drawer. So I was like, I figured I could get something that I actually use. Yeah. All right. I thought that was funny because it was literally twice as much as the one that I bought that he was giving me a hard time for. Four to five times as bright, too. Oh, I see. All right. John, let me ask you a question. Moving along. At any given time, how many unfinished projects do you feel like you have going in your garage? Oh, man. Well, I I have severe ADHD, so I can't even count how many I have. I have that problem to a large extent as well. I'm always really impressed with people that seem to just have a punch list of projects and just knock them out. Like, boom, boom, boom, boom. There's a few people that I follow on Instagram or I'm friends with that they always seem to be able to do We've got our friend Jeff, for example, that he'll be... Jeff at DOI Land Cruiser. This man will be rebuilding an engine at breakfast and then hanging sheetrock that afternoon, and by night, it's all done. I don't know how he does it? He's either in the process of or just finished re-plumming his entire house. The entire house, everything with. Yes, the same house that he went underneath with a bottle jack and fixed the- Leveled. Leveled the house, yes. But anyhow, so our guest tonight, he reminds me of somebody, and we're going to find out, but I think he's the guy that he makes a punch list. He says, I'm going to knock out these projects, and he starts doing it. So ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show from Adventure 4x4, Mr. John Brochu. How are you, John? Hey, everybody. How's it going? Good. How are you? Welcome, welcome. Good, man. So is that correct? Are Are you a guy that has to check things off the list and then move on to the next one? Well, yeah. I definitely relate to the fact of having multiple projects going on at the same time. But you actually finish them? Yeah. Sometimes it can take a little while. For today's example, I got a lot more done than I expected. I had some things I wanted to do, random things. I cleared some trees on the driveway, on the edge there and working on the camper. I don't know, it's endless in my I feel like there's always something I could be doing. You know what I mean? All right. Well, for folks that have not seen your YouTube channel or your Instagram, let me play this little two-minute clip before we dive into some different topics here just to set the stage and give you a taste of what John's channel is like. John is this wire runs to our switch, and then from our switch, we have another wire running, and then that wire is actually connected to our all the time power. This always has our battery as long as our circuit breaker is not tripped. What that does is that-That's for welding all this together. Obviously, as you know, welding aluminum is a different process than from welding steel. I'm brand new to this process. If you guys have never welded aluminum and you're watching this video, Please don't be discouraged because I'm also brand new to this process as well. Initially, right here by my factory fuse panel and really close to the battery, and I'll be able to have everything nice and tidy and neat. Some people may choose to just delete the EVAP canister altogether. I'm choosing to keep mine to avoid a check engine light, and because it's so simple, just to relocate it back here to the firewall. I thought I was just going to plasma cut these holes out real quick. Turns out that sound deadening was actually pretty flammable. I'd use a combination of the Angle Grinder, the sawzall, the wire brush, and actually also use the torch. With the torch, what I did was actually heat up the factory sound deadening. Then after you cook it in a way, you can take a screwdriver or something like that and just scrape it right off. That was the easiest way to remove it. Not bending on that connection right there. All right, guys, with these side walls all done, we're I'm going to start working on connecting them this way. Basically, I just got this one wall set up here, magnet to keep it flush for the edge, some clamps to hold it. You can see the level, it's 89. 8, 0. 9. It's pretty much 90 degrees. I mean, that's close enough for me. All I'm going to All we're going to do is just put a couple tacks all along this. We got our surface. This is the bed of the truck. This will be the overhang on the cab itself. The overhang is going to be a little longer than you traditionally see on these truck bed campers. It's going to be about 4 feet total. I did this because I want maximum standing room back here, even while the bed is fully deployed. I'm tired just watching the video. I'm inspired. It's funny seeing clips like that because I know I did those projects, but then I look back and it's like, Yeah, I did go through all that. You know what I mean? It's just like a whirlwind, man. I don't know. This thing started with with the Tacoma build. Is that correct? Is that where this channel got rolling? Yeah. Well, I obviously got into camp and I bought a Tacoma. Actually, a reason I got a Tacoma was originally it was going to tow a car, which I intended to do road racing and autocross and go to racetracks and tow it with the Tacoma. It was just a small Honda Civic, so it didn't weigh anything and the Tacoma would be perfect. Well, I built this car and I got the Tacoma and everything was going swimmingly. I went and did autocross, and then I just got into trucks. The scene, as far as, I guess, the overlanding scene and all that, really started to take off. I was like, Man, I got this Tacoma, and there's so much cool stuff you can do to it. And then so the car got sold, and I just went full-fledged into that. Yeah, we took a bit of a deep dive on your Instagram, and Honda's were your jam for quite a bit. Oh, yeah. Well, my first job, my dad actually, he ended up... He's owned a shop for 30 years, and I've worked there for 12 years. So I've been around cars my whole life. He used to actually road race a Dodge Omni back in the day at like Summit Point and to do all that autocross and all that. So that was where my inspiration to go do that was. But at the same time, I also grew up camping out of a '79 Toyota Land Cruiser. We'd always go down to the river and camp out of this thing. We didn't do long trips because it's a '79 Toyota Land Cruiser. But we'd be local and we'd be at the river every weekend camping out of that thing. So I always was into trucks and camping, and I've camped my whole life. So Getting the truck and getting back to it was really, really awesome for me. Actually, my now wife, I showed her a rooftop 10 on Instagram. I was like, look at this thing. This thing's pretty cool. And she's never really been camping. And she's like, wow, that's so cool. It's like a tree house. I was like, look, I'll buy one if I can get you to go camp with me because I want to get back into this again. So I bought one and here we are. That's awesome. I weirdly had a similar come up, I guess you could say. I started out in Miata's, and then bought a Lancourt's, and was like, Camping is way more fun and a lot cheaper. Oh, yeah. Quite a bit cheaper than racing. So it looks like we got a pick of the Tacoma when you got it. So give us a quick rundown of what the build is today with TACO. Let me show. Here it is now. Yeah, so I bought that in 2016. So I've had it quite a while now. I think I had 80 or 90,000 miles on it. It was one of my largest purchase that I'd ever done at the time. I had a loan previously for a vehicle. It was just a Honda CRV. But I sold the CRV to buy the Tacoma. That was always my plan. That was like the CRV was a stepping stone to get into a Tacoma. It's a 2011. I did the 12 to 15 front-end swap because I like the updated front-end, and it was cheaper than me buying a new truck. It's got 225,000 miles on it now, so just barely broke in. I I do all the maintenance on it. Like I said, I'm an auto mechanic full-time, so it's been overly maintained, and I feel like I've replaced just about everything, just at a maintenance and everything. That's the opposite of what you typically hear from a mechanic owned vehicle. Usually, they wait until it's broken to fix it, and the maintenance is, I know it'll be okay, so we'll just defer that. That's awesome that you're keeping it tip top. You have to for these excursions out into the middle of nowhere. Well, especially like that picture that was out top of the world trail in Utah. And obviously I'm Virginia. So it was just me and my wife. So it's all on me at that point. I Really trying to make sure everything's dialed in. Give us a rundown on these bumpers and the armor on there. Is this store bought? Did you fabricate this? What are we looking at? The front bumper is Bay Area It's a hybrid bumper. They have one of the best bumpers, I would say, at price point. Obviously, I paid full price for that bumper. I think they come in like under$900, which is unheard of. Yeah. Is Are they a symbol or a kid? Yeah, it's already welded, non-powder-coated, obviously. They do have the bracing. You can see in the picture there for the winch because you know how those studs on the front bumper mount on the Tacomas like to get pulled out from heavy winching. So they have the reinforcement brackets and all that really, really high quality stuff. He's really got that business dialed in over there, that's for sure. Rear bumpers, brute force fabrications. One of the best-looking Tacoma bumpers that was out there back when I bought it, and that was probably 2017 or so. So I've had it quite a while. Real solid stuff. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, Land Cruiser bumpers are not That's how much the weld it yourself gets cost. That's crazy. Yeah, exactly. That is crazy. So at some point along the way, you managed to pick up an iconic '80s series. Oh, yeah. I don't know what it looked like when you got it, but this is what I believe it looks like now. It was pretty much as it sits there in the picture, minus the wheels and tires. It already had the bumpers. I did add the roof rack, the Snorkel from Radius Fabrications, which is an Australian company. I really like that Australian style. I'm sure you guys watch Four Will Drive 24/7 as well. Awesome show. A lot of inspiration from them as far as the Land Cruiser and just Australian. I don't know. I love it. I was trying to keep that same vibe with that truck while at the same time making it as functional as possible and just real usable. It's How do you said the wheels and tires because we did have a question. A friend of the show, our friend Josh at Farrell Pig Rig, asked about the wheels. He said, Ask him why he chose the greatest wheels ever made. So he likes the wheels. Josh has 37s, too. Okay. So as it turns out, with those method wheels, I've seen plenty of pictures of them on the Internet. And I think when you see them in person, it's definitely a little different. I saw them in person and I was like... I was actually at Uari in my Tacoma. I saw a truck drive by with them and I was like, Those wheels are awesome. And it's one of those things I was like, maybe one day I'll get a set. And then I was looking for the Land Cruiser and the spec was just what I wanted because it's an off-road toy. I did want it wide. I didn't care if it's going to throw stuff up on the side of the truck or whatever. That's how I ended up with them. They were beat locks. I love them. I definitely don't regret that purchase at all. That's awesome. What about... This is always a hot topic, the power in the '80s series. Is this one... Has it been regeared, I'm assuming? Yeah, I did a 529 nitro gear set. I actually got Al Stock Automotive. They're up there, not Northern Virginia, but like Northwest of Virginia. He's a lane cruiser specialist. He works on Land Cruises all day, every day. It's one of those things I probably could have set the gear set up. I would have had to buy some tools. I had personally never regeared anything. Me, just knowing that Peter knew his stuff, he's done it countless times, and I got to support his small business. I mean, that was just a no-brainer for me. I took the differentials out and took it up to him, and he took care of it for me. I paid him for his time, and it couldn't have worked out any better. Are you content with how it drives now on the street and on the trail, or is What's your thoughts of changing what's under the hood? It doesn't drive bad at all. Honestly, I've taken it on three and a half hour road trips down the interstate. It does great for what it is on a lane cruiser on 37. The steering wheel is not shaken. I can let go the steering wheel, it just drive straight down the road. No complaints there. I will say you get in the mountains, obviously, you want some more power. The moment you start seeing a hill, you can I don't really notice it. It's good as long as you have momentum, but if you don't have momentum and you're just lugging up one of those hills, man, it's absolutely terrible. I've looked into swaps. You see people do the crazy, what is it, 4BT Cummins, I think they put in them. I personally am leaning towards LSWAP. I am a Toyota guy through and through, but an LS motor in a Toyota platform, I think that just makes sense. They're It's hard to argue with. Lots of power. Yeah, you can get them in. And nowadays, you can get motor amounts that are bolted, the Marks 4 wheel drive adapter for the transfer case to the Chevy Trans. You can get the harness. I mean, It's just, obviously, I've looked into this quite a bit. Davie hates Chevy, right? No, I had an LS1 swap. It's funny. With Toyotas, there are people that There are no problem with it. There are people that like it, and there's people that are adamant against it. Then there's people that make the argument. A lot of our friends down in Huntsville that put in the 47 UZ motor in there is a better alternative than the LS1. Yeah, it goes either way. It's whatever you want to do. I will say the LS1 will be a lot less work than doing the 4. 7, because that's going to be a lot of custom, not off-the-shelf Yeah. Yeah, LS motors are surprisingly small with the push- And they're everywhere. Yeah. Duel ever heard KMV8s are not tiny. No. Not at all. So getting the '80s series coming from wheeling the Tacoma, what's the difference feel like there? The '80s is a lot of fun. It's of those things you look at something and you feel like it's point and shoot. It's like, Oh, I'll drive over that. Tacoma, the wheelbase is a little longer and I guess more worried about, I don't want to totally violate a body panel on that.'80s series, obviously, I don't want to do that either. But at the same time, we took it to Potts Mountain in Virginia, and I put the driver fender up against the tree trying to go up this one spot. But it was already dented. So it was one of those things like I was just glad my mirror stayed. I was like, as long as I don't lose the mirror, because I don't want to have to buy one of those. Right. That's awesome. So what we saw in the intro was you building a few, maybe just one trailer in the beginning, but I think you built three different trailers, campers from scratch, too, which is big. So what inspired you to take on the trailer building? And was it something that you just wanted to do, or did you have the need for it from your overlanding adventures? Take us through that. It came out of necessity, I guess you could say. So basically, I bought a motorcycle, a dual sport, a Yamaha TW200. I would almost say it's very similar to an'80s series Land Cruiser in the fact that it's slow, reliable, big tires. It has a lot of soul to it. It's just an awesome machine. You know what I mean? I bought one of those, and I I had a hitch carrier on the back of my Tacoma, but I'd have to take my spare tire off. When I got to camp, I'd have to unload the bike to be able to get to my stuff. I was like, Why don't I just build a little Overland trailer to put my bike on? Just like a motorcycle trailer to haul it behind the Tacoma? I built that, and I was like, I already had the YouTube channel started. I was doing the normal videos that countless other people were doing, DIY stuff, camping videos. They were working, but I was looking for something that really resonated with an audience, I guess you could say. I built the trailer, and obviously that first build was a hit, even though it's pretty unconventional. I'm putting a motorcycle on a trailer with big tires. I haven't really ever seen anybody do that. But a lot of people liked it because the platform let them get creative and build something of their own off of the idea of the trailer. And then from there, I wanted to build a trailer that had a rooftop 10 on it. I don't know. I start seeing things and I just want to build one. I don't know. It's strange in that aspect. I built that. Actually, while I was building that, I had already known I was going to build a micro camper. That was already dead set in my mind. But in my mind, natural progression, start small and then go to something big. I knew by my third trailer, I would have learned a lot. It really made sense for me to wait and do the micro camper after two other trailer builds. Cleared that up. But yeah, so this is the famous trailer from The Raffle. Am I correct on that? Correct. That is sick. That is so clean. What was the thought process behind that? Obviously, it got a lot of engagement, but how did that all work out? As far as The Raffle goes? Yeah, as far as The Raffle. Yeah. I originally, when I built it, I knew I was going to get rid of the trailer after it was done. I had no intentions of actually keeping it. I built it for the channel, just because I just wanted to build one. I listed it for sale. Then I've done a cost breakdown video on how much I spent on the trailer. So by the time you factor in cost and your time, the price that you end up with is pretty unrealistic, if we're being honest. Especially when you're using the expensive parts like the timber and axelous suspension and stuff like that. I came to realize- Let's not talk about that as I'm diving into this camper build. Yeah. So I decided I wasn't going to sell it. And I was like, you know what? Maybe I can give it away. So I tried to look up, I don't know, the legalities of giveaways, and I think it turned out. So it turned out if I were to sell something and then just perchance, when you buy this, this item from me, then you get the opportunity to also possibly win something. That seemed to be the way to go. So it was the patches that were for sale, and that's how that ended up working out. Then again, I still don't know if that was legal. To be honest, if you do research and find maybe we shouldn't be talking about this on here, then I don't know. Allegedly, this is what happened. Allegedly. But it worked out. I came in just under. I basically broke even with the cost of building the trailer. I didn't make a ton of money on this build or anything like that. It had potential. I could have made money if a bunch of people bought it, but I wasn't trying to do that. I was just trying to get the trailer in somebody's hands for little to nothing. That's awesome. While reimbursing the money I put into it, at least. You know what I mean? So that ended up working out pretty good. A guy named Russell in Pennsylvania. He lives in Pennsylvania now. He ended up winning it. So, yeah. Heck, yeah, Russell in Pennsylvania. Let's go. Yeah, that's easier than if somebody in California wanted it from a logistic standpoint. Well, that was a stipulation. I think I had it on the website. I was like, if you win, I will travel up to, I think I said eight hours or something. I was like, but I can't drive this thing out to California. You know what I mean? I don't have the time, unfortunately. Is that eight hours round trip or eight hours one way? I think I would say one way because I would turn it into a some camping trip. Yeah. You know what I mean? Especially if they lived somewhere remotely close to somewhere I want to go. You're like, Oh, you wouldn't in your Moab. Bummer. Yeah. A little more than eight hours, but worth it. Let me pull this video up at the interior on your teardrop. It's the little things, John. The cup holder It is. It is. Yeah. That was a nice little touch. And I got to say, we use them all the time. We actually we even put our phones right there and stuff like that. I actually slept in that camper last night at a friend's house. So that's another big use for that. Somebody has a cookout or something like that. You just tow the camper on over to the house and you got somewhere safe to sleep and you wake up in the morning, you can go home. I have never thought about that, but I will keep that in mind. I will keep that in mind. Yeah, I have a similarly sized teardrop that I bought during COVID for surprisingly cheap. It's got a window AC unit and all that stuff. We love it. It's perfect. It'll fit down basically any trail. It weighs 700 pounds dry, which is insane. Yeah, that's like nothing. Yeah, it's aluminum frame and then all aluminum build. Okay. One thing I really liked about the intro video was when you were talking about the aluminum welding and you were saying, for those of you who have never done this before, don't worry, because I've never done it before either. Do you feel like the DIY trailers or campers are a little easier than one might expect? You look at it and you think, I could never do that, and then you've done it three times? I would say, absolutely. I think anybody who has any will to learn anything can do it. If you want it bad enough, you can go get it. That's really the end of the story when it comes to that stuff. You can learn, especially nowadays, YouTube, you can learn anything. I mean, or Google, you just look it up, man, and you could figure it out. Your sink doesn't work, your toilet's not flushing right, man. On that good old YouTube, and next thing you know, you're a plumber. I think that's really we live in a day and age where social media and stuff is very important in that aspect, where anybody can learn anything. I think it's awesome. People ask me a lot. They're like, Where did you learn all this car stuff? I just link them to Chris Fix's YouTube channel. And they're like, Wait, you didn't go to school for this? I'm like, No, I just went to YouTube University. Yeah, exactly. It's funny. I think the video on my personal YouTube channel with the most views is nothing about the truck. It's changing a heating element in my dryer at the house. Yeah, exactly. Then I just randomly was like, Let me just take 10 minutes to film this in case somebody else has the same issue, and it blew up. That's hilarious. I went all the way back to the very beginning of your YouTube channel, non-creepily. And one of your first big videos was DIY wheelbarrings on your Tacoma. You had 60 times as many views as your other videos around it. I was like, All right, let's go. That That's my other thing, being a mechanic. Obviously, I know how to do all these repairs. Obviously, we want people to come to the shop and pay us to do work. But at the same time, I want to be able to help empower somebody to feel like they can handle it on their own. Not everybody wants to pay somebody to do something because it's expensive. I think it's more important to learn to be very self-sufficient and self-sustained when it comes to stuff like that, especially in the hobby that we're in, off-road, camping. You got to know your vehicle. You got to know what's going on. You got to be able to troubleshoot and help yourself out because it might really matter one day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred %. Yeah. Well, John, shifting gears. You've got... So we talked about your YouTube, your Instagram. People have seen you there. But if you go to your website, you've got a couple of other things going on. One of which is tuning. Overland Taylor Tuning, which is not just you. That's, I believe in a fairly nationwide group of retailers. Is that correct? Yep. We're all through the United States, in Canada, and then even Puerto Rico, parts of Mexico, Alaska. It's pretty It's grown pretty exponentially since I started joining it in the past year or so. It's grown pretty... They got a good thing going on. John and Justin, the owners of Overland Taylor Tuning, they're awesome. We're retailers, so we're not employees, but they treat us... We're all friends. You know what I mean? Nice. Yeah, they're real good guys. The group chat pops off every now and then thing? Oh, yeah. We talk about tuning a lot, but at the same time, it's just like a group chat with your buddies. It's a lot of fun. Overland Taylor Tuning is specific for Toyotas, at least as of now. Sorry, Nissan guys, again. Not much to get there anyway. That's fired. Tuning can get... There's a lot of... You can go down a hole Rabbit Hole on YouTube. There's good, there's bad, there's horror stories. Tuning has become synonymous with everything from custom tuning and HP tuners, and then You throw a piggyback chip in there, and it all ends up in this same conversation. But with Overland Taylor Tuning specifically, what are you guys going after? Where is it on the torque curve? Is it something that people can come to you and have done and still be a reliable everyday driver vehicle? Yeah, absolutely. The tune is actually designed around drivability. As you guys know, well, specifically, we'll talk about the third-gen Tacoma just because that's the most popular one, and the transmission issues are really the whole reason this is around. So third-gen Tacomas are very known for gear hunting. Anytime they're under load or you put some big tires on it, you're going up a hill, it'll start swapping it between gears. Actually, fifth and sixth gear on the third gen Tacoma are both overdrive gears because you know how these new vehicles these days, I think they're putting more and more gears Every year they come out. The new Tundras, for example, are 10 speed. That's where the tuning came from was a necessity to actually fix the gear hunting issues on the Tacoma. At the same time, Toyota left some meat on the bone as far as horsepower and torque, they use that same engine platform and some other models that actually have a higher output. The Tacomas are actually detuned a little bit. Well, I'm not going to say detuned. The calibration they supply you with from the factory is lackluster compared to others. That gave OTT the opportunity to develop these tunes on the Dino and actually get a little more out of them, all while improving drivability very greatly, especially with the shift schedule. The shifting, I get guys come to me and they're like, Man, if this doesn't fix the shifting, I'm selling the truck. Then, of course, they get the tune and they're happy. They're awesome. They enjoy their truck again, which is I really enjoy that part because you get somebody coming here who's frustrated, and then when they leave, they're very excited and happy that their very expensive vehicle purchase doesn't make them upset anymore. That's awesome. I was excited to see the 5-7s on the list of supported vehicles. I don't know if you've done one there yet, but I was on the Overland Taylor site. Guys, if you're listening to this and you're like, Yeah, I've heard it all before, they've got the Dinos. You can go pull the charts for all of these on the site, and it's legit. With the Tundras and the Land Cruisers, looking at those dinos on there, the power comes down in the low end where you We're not talking about 5,000 RPM power. With a truck, you want low to mid-range power. That's another thing, I guess I forgot to touch base on the power curve. For third-gen Tacomas, they tend to behave almost like a car from the factory. All your power seems to be up high. It's gutless down low. Then, of course, after the tune, you got more low to mid-range torque and power. Driveability is through the roof compared to stock. If you guys have been on Facebook or looked around and seen customer reviews, you'll see. I mean, our customers, they say it all. We don't have to say anything to customers. They really do a good job of helping us promote it just because they got the product and they genuinely really enjoy it. That's all. Another question that folks ask, and I think it's funny, people always, when they're modifying anything, a lot of folks are concerned about, Can I return it back to stock? It's not just tuning. People are like, Well, I want the bolt on sliders so I can go back stock if I want to. That doesn't make sense to me. But for the point of this discussion with the tuning, I assume everything can be reverted back if they change their mind. Absolutely. Yeah, it can be put back to 100% stock. Same process, except for basically we're just going to be flashing the true stock file back on there. Yeah. Will the ECU flag that has been modified, do you know? So the CVN ID with the true stock file will return to 100 % factory. So they can check the CVN, and it'll be the same CVN as factory. That being said, I bet you could probably pull any Toyota tech you want out and ask them what a factory CVN is for this year. And they're going to say, I have no idea. Because you're not going to know unless you've done the research and and looked it up. That's awesome. Our 2002 100 on that list by chance? Unfortunately, no. And that's only because '05 and older as K-line protocol. And I don't even know if the Lancres are supported. Some of the first gen Tacomas are, and I think Some of the GX4'70s and stuff like that. We haven't really dabbled into that just yet. As you know, when you get into those older vehicles, unless it's really well maintained, you're looking 200,000 miles plus. And then it's just been The headaches that come along with that may not be worth it. Yeah. Too many variables to really solidify a tune. You don't have a fresh off the lot dealer vehicle where you can copy paste to others. Yeah. That makes sense. That's awesome. One day, maybe. Yeah. I'll just have to LS swap it to get anything. There you go, dude. Or you could just buy a 200, John. I could. Yes, I could. I'm waiting. I know you're waiting. Edit this. Why Why the shift? Well, I mean, you built the campers, you built the trailers, but now putting it in the truck, what's the thought process there? Obviously, with the trailer, as I talked about, it was a natural progression thing. Now that I was at the micro camper, I mean, I guess I didn't want to build another micro camper. At that point, it's the redundant. I did have thoughts of possibly building one that had a roof that came up. And then I was like, Man, if I'm going to go through all that, I I might as well just build it in the back of the Tacoma and get a truck bed camper going. So that's what led me there. And I had been same as the micro camper. I had been wanting to build this truck bed camper for probably two years. It's just all the other projects. I got the Land Cruiser, which pretty much took out my entire year last year working on that. Once I got the Land Cruiser to a good point, now I was like, All right, now I get to start my truck bed camper. It gave me a lot of time to stew on details and really think through what wanted out of it. So it turned out pretty good. So with that said, all of these builds, you've got, for the most part, DXF files or blueprints for sale on your website, which is an interesting approach. I don't see that with a lot of other YouTube channels. You do see that some in the woodworking community where they're selling those things. But what was the thought process behind that and how has it been received? It's been really well. The micro camper blueprints, I've had quite a few, I will say quite a few people have bought them, and even more than I expected have actually gone out there, built the trailer, and sent me pictures and videos. That's nice. And some of them are awesome. I've blown away. I've had a few guys send me some, and I'm like, Man, that trailer is better than mine. You killed it. You know what I mean? That's awesome. And I mean, in reality, anybody, I would say you can design it. But having an idea of where to start, especially with a trailer frame, I think that's probably people's big questions when it comes in the body. And then, I don't know, the DXX, the files just made sense to me. Really give somebody a baseline to work off. It's not step by step instructions, but it really lets you wrap your head around what you're about to do. You get measurements. It helps you figure out what, how much material you need, where you need to put your axel on the frame and all that good stuff. Some stuff that I took a while to research and figure out and make a decision for myself what was going to work best for me. That's awesome. I mean, everything that you just ran through is what would prevent me from diving in because I would have no idea how much material to purchase, no idea where to even start. And for a relatively small amount of money, I can get all of those questions answered for me. And then, like some of your followers have done either improve upon it or just, not necessarily improve, but learn from what you've done and put their own little flair on it. Yeah, I think there's a huge time factor there, right? I mean, you're asking a very, very fair price for these files compared to the hours and weeks and months that someone would spend trying to to put those same pieces to themselves. Then they have a video they can watch that tells them exactly how to put it together. So it works out. Yeah, it's the whole instructional. I mean, I probably have, I don't even know how many hours just making those blueprints for the files, just trying to make sure it's clear and the wording's good, and I'm not leaving anything out. I probably did leave a few things out still. So definitely a lot of time putting into them, but it's been well received, which has been awesome for me. So I really enjoy that other people are inspired enough to buy them and actually follow through and do it. That's great. That actually makes me question or wonder, did you start with the file or did you build from those files or did you build the camper and then create the files? Yep, the files were created after the camper was done. There's a app, free app on the iPad called Draft Paper. It's about the simplest grid paper app that you can get. And I built the whole camper off of some little scribbles on that, basically. That's so cool. Then I got into the other program, Shaper 3D on iPad. It's a paid program. That is one. It's 3D, much more easy to plan. You know what I mean? That allowed me to make those files from that. It was a learning curve just figuring that program out, too. But now that I know how it works, it helps me a lot on projects. That's interesting. Because you Because I've noticed in several of your videos, you're an iPad tablet go-to guy versus maybe firing up a PC and diving into a more complex program. I've learned over the years to keep things as simple as possible if you want to be efficient. And half the time, it works great, man. I edit all my videos on my iPad with an app called Lumifusion, That's a $20 one time fee. I added everything on that. I don't need anything. It lets me do everything I need. I can add titles. I can... Once you figure the app out, it's plenty powerful. That being said, I'm talking to you guys right now on a MacBook Pro that I could have like Premiere Pro on or any crazy editing software. But for me, the convenience of having an iPad that I can just throw up in front of me and touch screen and and do it real quick, because a lot of times I find myself editing in the morning before work. I'll edit 10, 15 minutes. I can edit some stuff at lunch, at work. I'll edit while I'm eating in lunch. I need that convenience factor, I guess you could say. Yeah. That goes back to what we started with. When people watch your videos, keep in mind, the videos you're seeing are not John's full-time job. He's turning wrenches all day long, putting in his time. And then any... I'm assuming, like you said, any breaks you can get during the day and before work, after work. That's when not only are you building the projects, but you're doing all the editing yourself on your iPad. You're not sourcing your editing out on Fiverr or somewhere and letting somebody else put it together. Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely very time consuming. I will say since I started the tuning, August of '22, my life got even busier. Now it's one of those things. Like I said at the beginning, I always have something I could be doing. But I do relax. I do watch Netflix with my wife and hang out with friends. Typically, when I go do stuff like that, I don't look at my phone, I don't look at anything. I'm just hanging out with them or camping, doing that. And that's why I don't do trip videos as much. They're not as well received on my channel because it's more DIY oriented. And also I don't want to have to worry about getting a video while I'm out trying to myself, if that makes sense. I'm the same way. I've had a couple of people ask me repeatedly to make trip videos or reels or whatever. I'm like, I'm on the trip, so I don't have to do these things. This is my escape. I don't want to think about the right camera angle, the right lighting, the this, the that, the other. Well, and there's a hundred thousand other people that are filming themselves, frying bacon at the campsite in the morning. I don't need to see that again. Catching on my If you're making those videos, this is just Davie speaking, I want to see you wheel. Let me see the wheeling. Let me see the obstacles. I can skip all the B roll of your breakfast making. Yeah. All right, last question before we get to the rapid fire. Your channel has grown pretty substantially. What's been the response and the feedback from some of your OG folks? And did the newer folks give you any sweet ideas that you never thought of, or is it just more numbers on the screen? I do have quite a few people that engage. I got one guy in particular I'd like to give a little shout out because he's awesome and he's been following me since the beginning, I feel like, and he always comments. His name is Mike Morgan. He actually lives in, I think, Vancouver up there. I mean, he sends me Christmas cards. The dude is awesome. I absolutely love him. He always gives me good feedback. And we just have some a good intelligent conversations about what I'm building and stuff like that. And I really love to hear from them. So thanks, Mike, by the way. Other than that, I haven't had too many, you know how it is a social media, a lot of negative feedback, typically. A lot less than I expected, I will say on YouTube. I really expected because you see other comment sections. I really expected a ton. And that being said, I don't entertain or respond any negative feedback ever. If I get it, I'll read the comment and it doesn't even get a like or it's not worth my time. You know what I mean? I just let it exist and I respond to people that are nice or actually asking questions. But if you got anything negative to say, then That's just for you, man. I don't need it. I need to take that lesson. You know, John Haley, I wasn't going to say anything, but yeah. All right. Rapid fire before we let you get off here. When you are hitting the trail, going camping, what's your favorite go-to snack to have in the truck with you when you're on the trail? It's got to be beef jerky. I feel Especially if we're doing a long day where we're going to be driving a lot, just having that protein. Also even just a little protein smoothie or something. I just throw that in the fridge. Just something that can get you through just from feeling that lack of energy. On the beef jerky, I've got a follow-up for this. On the beef jerky, is it a particular beef jerky, or are you a guy that you got to go in the gas station and browse the section and see which one speaks to you that day? I the second one. I look and I'd love to see. Some gas stations have some nice local beef jerky or something. I'll go somewhere and like, Amish beef jerky. I'm like, All right, cool. I'm going to get this. I got to try it out. And of course, I've gotten good beef jerky, and I've also gotten bad beef But at the end of the day, it's beef jerky, and it does its job. That's awesome. We may have just answered this question, but what's one piece of camping gear you will not leave without, and why is it a game changer? I would say my Garmin Inreach mini, and I've never actually had to use the SOS feature. But that being said, I don't go anywhere without it. I pay $15 a month to have the access to where I can send a text message no matter where I'm at, service or not, let people know I'm safe. And to me, paying $15 a month to potentially save somebody's life that I'm around, even if I don't use it for two years, the one time I get to use it, I don't care how much money I spend on this subscription, it's going to be worth it. I think that's just an important thing to have. Yeah, 100% agree. It's going to be very interesting in the next couple of years as the cell phones get basically where it takes the satellite and replicates the cell phone signal to your device and how this industry shifts with that. But speaking of technology, is there any other tech or a gadget, something electronic in the in the vehicle that you always have to have or has changed your set up? And it can't be your iPad because I know how much you like your iPad. No, not the iPad. I can name it just a couple of quick things. I would say a good Bluetooth speaker. That's just a comfort thing. Got to have some music. That being said, I have used the iPad to play music. The speaker on it's actually pretty decent. And then I would go back to a fridge. Obviously, you do not need a 12 volt fridge to go camping. But man, is it not nice? Not having wet food. In my opinion, it's just it's worth it. If you a lot of camping. I mean, it's even useful day to day stuff. You're out, get groceries, throw them in the fridge, you can still do whatever you need to do. You didn't have to pick up ice or anything like that. It's just that that's a good piece of technology that I will... I'll die on that hill as far as defending those. I agree with that. And you don't have to buy the$2,000 fridge either, folks. We can talk about that, but look at who makes that compressor because almost all of them come out of the same place. Yeah, the biggest The first thing for me when I got the fridge was I could put food back into my house fridge after getting home. And that was a foreign concept to me growing up on coolers. This is one of my favorite questions I've ever asked. Which team are you on, DeWalt or Milwaukee? Let's see here. I will say, though, I have a corded DeWalt angle grinder, and that thing, as I've built three trailers with it, I've put it through the Ringer, and that anglegrinder is awesome. When it comes to tools, I would say if it's corded, I'm not really particular on what brand it is. And then naturally, cordless, you're going to have the same brand because your batteries. It's just the best. Yeah, that too. Yeah, that helps. Yeah, I mean, I got a Ryobi Mitersaw. I got a cobalt table saw. I got a Black & Decker Hand, mouse. The corded stuff, I'm not worried about. But yeah, cordless, definitely Milwaukee. I will say, to give them credence, I think DeWalt is best for contractors, home builders, basically. But Milwaukee has made mechanics their focus audience for a bit, it seems. Yeah, DeWalt makes great stuff. Yeah, there's definitely nothing wrong with it. They do have surprisingly powerful tools, like their little cut off tool is insane for what it is. Yeah. All right. Last question. So just for the sake of discussion, you're daydreaming here, and you've got an unlimited budget, and you get to buy an upgrade for one of the rigs. Now, we're not talking about redoing the whole truck, but this is one high dollar piece. Maybe it's a blown LS, maybe it's portals. What's your one dream extravagant feature? I would say putting the Marlin Crawler RCLT kit on the Tacoma. That's nice. I think that would be awesome. I got a buddy who's got one on his third gen, and he's running. He's on 40s right now, but he's going to go down to 38s. But that thing is just... It's awesome. You see it and you're like, Man, I got to get that. Yeah. Just out walking the dog. I would say that's it. Yeah. Man. All right. Awesome. Well, again, John, thank you for taking the time, for bearing with us through some of our technical issues here. And folks, you can find him. It's ADV4by4 on Instagram and the YouTube. Anywhere else? Well, you've got your website, and that's adv4by4. What? Us.. Us. Yep. All right. Awesome. See all. All right.