Matter of Facts: Driving Preparedness

[00:00:06] Welcome back to the Matter of Facts podcast on the Prepper Broadcasting Network.

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[00:00:21] I'm your host Phil Ravillay, Andrew, Nick are on the other side of the mic and here's your show.

[00:00:30] So not only is Nick not in the intro but Andrew's not here. Andrew is currently dying from a migraine so

[00:00:37] forgive the title saying night vision nerd strike again. This is we're going to do a very quick

[00:00:41] pivot to a secondary topic and we'll have to save night vision nerds for when Andrew can come and

[00:00:46] join us because well that way at least two-thirds of us have night vision to talk about. Hey, I

[00:00:54] am one half hour away from meeting your wife and encouraging you to make horrible financial

[00:01:00] decisions. Yeah, I mean I'm getting close on the old fun fund but it's going to be a minute.

[00:01:07] I mean I see a lathe in the back that you probably could have sold for a nice set of nines. Oh,

[00:01:12] I will not sell this lathe. This lathe is a family heir of him at this point. I mean I've got

[00:01:17] thanks to sugar daddy trump I've got the night vision capable helmet

[00:01:21] but I'm missing the pic 15 and the pvs 14s but we'll get there eventually.

[00:01:27] Yeah well hopefully Andrew I can give you some things to think about when we get there because

[00:01:31] like you know there's within that whole realm of night vision like getting the night observation

[00:01:41] or getting your pvs 14 or your binos is just the first step down the rabbit hole

[00:01:47] of financial malfeasance because every everything even sideways related to night vision is a couple

[00:01:58] hundred bucks. Oh yeah, I mean it's freaking stupid. Hey you know what warhammer guns pcs

[00:02:07] all my hobbies are stupid expensive why not make shooting and night vision another one.

[00:02:13] So what I'm hearing is that the the old adage is true that men do not grow up they just get more

[00:02:18] expensive toys. Oh absolutely yes. I don't know why our wives put up with this I'm sure

[00:02:25] there's some reason that it's escaping me right this moment. Night vision's cool.

[00:02:30] Yeah I will say this much at the matter of fact camp and trip we did see a meteor flying across

[00:02:39] the sky and it wasn't visible to the naked eye you could only see it with night vision.

[00:02:45] It was like and you know normally when you see a shooting star it like it blasts through the

[00:02:50] atmosphere really fast it's like in and out in a couple of seconds this thing was the perfect

[00:02:55] angle that it was visible for about three minutes and it I mean it had to just like barely

[00:03:02] skipped across the top of the atmosphere because it left a tail like it left this long

[00:03:08] long long streaking tail as it went but the only reason I saw it was because I was so before we

[00:03:15] get to topic I was sitting there BS with Andrew we were on the back porch of the the cabin and I

[00:03:21] was checking out his night vision because he's got binaus and I have a pbs-14 and it's just

[00:03:25] it's a little different and I'm talking to him while he's looking you know I'm looking at him

[00:03:30] talking to him and over his shoulder I see it and I'm like holy Christ is that a meteor

[00:03:35] and he turns around says I don't see it so I grabbed his helmet off my head did this and shoved it on

[00:03:41] his head and turned around and grabbed mine and put mine back on and we're sitting there nerding

[00:03:46] out over this meteor and then I'm like my wife is a science nerd she will flip her freaking lid

[00:03:52] so I bolt into the cabin I'm like babe there's a meteor out here and she looks up she's like I

[00:03:57] don't see it and put the night vision on and then she can see it and I managed to get a

[00:04:01] picture of it because the iPhone the fourth I know the 15 pro because that's what this is

[00:04:09] and I think the 14 pros and maybe the standard 14s and 15s all have a long exposure mode on the

[00:04:15] camera oh sure yeah the night basically the night camera yeah well that managed to know

[00:04:22] that just managed to catch that meteor in the sky but you still couldn't see it with the

[00:04:28] unaided eye it was like the perfect it was the perfect way to cap off the camping trip and in

[00:04:34] my mind just buy a not healthy amount of money spent on an night vision unit yeah but I mean where

[00:04:41] else do you get to have that kind of fun for that kind of money hmm cocaine well I mean yeah

[00:04:48] but that's not a one-time investment no so I thought despite the title if everybody will forgive me

[00:04:57] I thought we would talk about preparedness around driving or driving preparedness so this is going to

[00:05:03] be a mix of this is going to be a mix of like over-the-road recovery pre-trip checks how to stay out of

[00:05:11] trouble and what to do in your vehicle if you get into trouble so I'm gonna pull from like

[00:05:17] you know some general preparedness knowledge like air up your tires and check your oil

[00:05:20] nonsense like that that everybody ought to know and I'm even gonna dig nice and deep

[00:05:25] about 20 years back into my history when I took combat convoy training which is basically

[00:05:30] teaching idiot soldiers how to use humvees like loaded weapons it's the exact opposite of defensive

[00:05:37] driving defensive driving is don't hit stuff with your vehicle and don't get hit by other vehicles

[00:05:42] and combat convoy training is you're sitting in a 5 000 pound weapon you might as well use so

[00:05:51] you might as well use or somebody else is going to do so let's start let's start with

[00:05:56] something that might be a touch difficult to watch it's on our instagram for those who saw

[00:06:01] me share the other day it was a road rage incident but it's like very indicative of one of the

[00:06:05] things I bring up when I talk about preparedness around your vehicle like you know it's the

[00:06:12] fact the matter is there's crazy people out there they do crazy things and you know

[00:06:18] like I know Nick that like down here in the New Orleans area carjackings went through the

[00:06:23] ceiling in the past 24 months property crimes are through the roof a lot of people are in their vehicles

[00:06:30] and like I don't know why it is we behave the way we do in our vehicles but we totally lose

[00:06:37] sight of the fact that we're sitting in a hardened shelter and that shelter is mobile

[00:06:42] well I think I think two big things about that most people do not want to run a person over with

[00:06:50] their car I think that's a big part of it is like you've been spending your entire adult history

[00:06:57] driving trying not to run over people animals random debris in the road hitting other cars

[00:07:04] I mean your natural impulse is to do the exact opposite of using your vehicle as a self-defense

[00:07:13] I might yeah I'll give you that one I'll chalk that up to kind of like conditioning yeah I was

[00:07:19] going to say social programming but the same thing but yeah it's just standard classical

[00:07:24] conditioning I mean if you look at even just the look look at what happens anytime you do anything

[00:07:30] involving an insurance claim on your house or your car what happens you get punished for it by

[00:07:35] higher insurance premiums and so what you do is you have a classic negative what is it no way

[00:07:42] technically that'd be a positive positive reinforcement strategy where you are punished

[00:07:47] every time you damage your vehicle and you're punished anytime you hit anything with your

[00:07:52] vehicle you might have been thinking negative feedback loop do something yeah consequences

[00:07:56] are negative yes negative it's a negative feedback loop trying to get you to avoid doing exactly

[00:08:02] what would probably be the easiest and most expedient solution which under normal circumstances I

[00:08:09] would say are fair until you get to this which is not normal not normal but common I don't think I

[00:08:17] I gotta grab the audio with this which is unfortunate but it almost doesn't matter like

[00:08:21] what you have here is there's a little bit of the audio yeah what you have here is somebody

[00:08:26] who is absolutely beating the crap out of a vehicle acting irrational and probably scaring

[00:08:32] the holy hell out of the driver in the process more than likely you know this this is very similar

[00:08:41] with one key difference to another one you guys you shared most recently and I wasn't sure which

[00:08:46] clip you were going to bring up there was a guy that gets out of a car with a pistol

[00:08:51] and starts angrily approaching another vehicle strikes the vehicle multiple times transitions

[00:08:56] the pistol from his dominant hand to his non-dominant hand and then pulls up his

[00:09:00] dominant hand to punch the window and he eats two in the dome we talked about it once on here already

[00:09:05] yep um situation could have ended the same way you know if you've got family in the car now granted

[00:09:14] this car had a clear roadway ahead of them why are you sitting there now granted there's some

[00:09:23] there are some people that fight flight or freeze they freeze and in some circumstances

[00:09:29] one is better than the other but you know I had almost this exact situation happened when I was 16

[00:09:36] and driving to high school on an icy morning I made a turn lost it a little bit on the turn got a

[00:09:43] little close to the vehicle in the other lane that driver instead of realizing that I had

[00:09:48] lost control of my vehicle a little bit I didn't hit them but I got close to them in their lane

[00:09:55] and they pulled a u-turn and started following me to school when I got to a stoplight I did not

[00:10:01] realize they were following me they pulled in front of me stopped just close enough that I couldn't

[00:10:07] move my car between the car behind me in the car and this now new car in front of me

[00:10:11] and started beating on the side of my Jeep Wrangler now I just waited until they hurt

[00:10:18] themselves enough or got cold enough that they laugh because thankfully this person wasn't strong

[00:10:22] enough to break through my side window but I mean really it's an icy road in the winter in Illinois

[00:10:33] people lose lose control of their cars a little bit all the time now first off why are you getting

[00:10:40] that enraged that you follow someone you don't know who that person is in the car it might be the

[00:10:46] guy that's in this video here who just sits there and lets you beat up their car

[00:10:50] but it might be the other guy in the other vehicle that decides okay this is a deadly threat

[00:10:57] and I'm going to assume they are trying to kill me and then fight back accordingly you know

[00:11:04] so I guess let's unpack like your situation and what was shown in this video like

[00:11:11] first and foremost before the altercation even begins and I'm gonna speak from a bit of personal

[00:11:17] experience because some of this is stuff like I was taught in defensive driving some of this stuff

[00:11:22] that I was taught by the army and it is all things I've talked to my wife about and to us to a lesser

[00:11:28] degree my daughter because she's not quite a driving agent but I'm trying to like I'm trying

[00:11:32] to stack the things in her brain pan that she's gonna need eventually get it started she's not far

[00:11:37] off yeah and the first thing I tell everybody is if you're driving I encourage everybody to

[00:11:43] have your windows up I mean that's not that much of an issue down here in south Louisiana

[00:11:46] where it's a hundred and f you outside most of the year and most people have their windows up in

[00:11:50] their aca on you know anyway but I encourage people have your have your windows up that gives

[00:11:56] you some shelter have your doors locked while you're in motion a lot of people some vehicles

[00:12:02] spoil people and like as soon as you put it into driver verse you know it locks all the doors

[00:12:06] some of us drive toyotas and Toyota doesn't believe in doing anything automatically for their

[00:12:11] you know drivers you have to do everything manually which I prefer honestly I like I like my truck

[00:12:16] stupid and me smart like it just makes me feel better but lock your doors roll up your windows

[00:12:22] you're now sitting in a three to five thousand pound hardened shelter that as you've already said

[00:12:30] is not easy to break into no so that's number one two is you know like most of us were taught

[00:12:39] when we first learned to drive like you know you're not supposed to just stare straight through

[00:12:43] the windshield you're supposed to like look down at your gauges which you should do for various

[00:12:47] reasons every so often you should check your mirrors you should maintain situational awareness

[00:12:52] of everything outside your vehicle that rear view mirror is there for a reason the side mirrors

[00:12:58] are there for reasons and if you see the same grill for a period of time that's something I pay

[00:13:05] attention to I've gone so far like if I if someone follows me through multiple turns

[00:13:11] you know again I've had some interesting life experiences growing up I'm gonna start reading

[00:13:16] license plate numbers no very simply I make three right turn I make three right turns

[00:13:22] there you go and if you follow me through three right turns the odds of you making three right

[00:13:27] turns and getting back out on the road going same direction are exactly not happening

[00:13:32] so if you make that series of right turns with me you are 100 following me

[00:13:37] and that is going to substantially alter the way I drive I deal with things I proceed along my path

[00:13:44] the first thing it's gonna do is is that I'm not going to allow myself to get boxed in

[00:13:48] to your point you stopped at it you stopped at a stop sign didn't realize he was following you

[00:13:53] he whipped around you and cut you off stoplight but yeah stoplight yeah same same principle applies

[00:13:59] yeah now sometimes you're not going to have an opportunity to kind of see that coming

[00:14:05] you're gonna get boxed in or someone's gonna follow you and you just can't help it I'm just

[00:14:09] giving people like tools and the toy box try to know absolutely I definitely made mistakes

[00:14:15] and I'll talk about them when we when you get through yours yeah but like I said watch your

[00:14:20] every mirror check if somebody's following you if you think someone is following you

[00:14:24] do what I just talked about make a couple of turns get right back go in same direction

[00:14:28] you are if they follow you through all that they are following you period in discussion

[00:14:32] at that point I'm not going if I'm heading home I'm not going home I'm not gonna leave

[00:14:38] that person that's following me back to my home um if I'm going to a friend's house

[00:14:44] not going to my friend's house anymore I'm not leading I'm not leading that person to

[00:14:48] a another person who's gonna have to deal with their crazy I am probably going to go to

[00:14:53] the nearest police station and you follow me into that park a lot of God wills it

[00:14:58] or I'm head to a very public place with lots of bystanders and that way I have witnesses for

[00:15:05] whatever's about to happen or but I'm not cameras yeah but I am not going to I'm going to alter my

[00:15:11] path and behavior because now something's obviously following me um and everything I tell my wife all

[00:15:16] the time is that if you are in if you were on a three lane road if you're on a two lane

[00:15:22] road I like to be on the right lane because I have a side road I have an emergency lane

[00:15:27] I have a curb I have somewhere to go yep to escape if I am in the left lane and someone pulls up next

[00:15:34] to me and boxes me in and my only options driving oncoming traffic to get away from violent encounter

[00:15:39] I haven't left myself a lot of good options I like the right lane if you're in a three lane road

[00:15:44] I like the far right lane if I'm in the center lane I'm going to I'm gonna eat that and be

[00:15:52] a little more vigilant of my surroundings because I don't have as many escape options

[00:15:57] the other thing and this is a really simple trick and it's it's good to prevent you from having an

[00:16:04] accident but it's even better for preventing someone from being able to box you in the absolute best

[00:16:09] thing you can do to guard yourself against getting boxed in by somebody is when you pull up on the

[00:16:15] vehicle in front of you you stop when that the highest point of your vehicle you can see

[00:16:21] which like the top of your hood the top of your grill when that touches the bottom of the tires in

[00:16:27] front of you that that one trick works on almost every vehicle I've ever been in and it leaves

[00:16:34] about a third of a car length between you and the vehicle in front of you that is enough

[00:16:38] room that's enough room to get out yeah that is enough room to cut your wheel hard right

[00:16:42] or hard left and get out from behind the vehicle without having to hit them

[00:16:46] it is enough room to gain momentum to push some another vehicle if you have to

[00:16:50] it is room to maneuver and it works across all vehicles trucks trucks are higher off the ground

[00:16:58] so you stop further back they have wider turn radiuses like this that is this simple trick

[00:17:02] works across the board but what it's designed to do is to make sure that if I have to cut my

[00:17:07] wheel hard right or hard left and I have to move I don't have to push the vehicle in front of me

[00:17:11] to do it yeah what else we talked about escape routes we've talked about leaving room we've talked

[00:17:20] about momentum oh speed is safety yeah the most the most dangerous time for you and a vehicle

[00:17:27] is when you are stopped that is when you are the most vulnerable it's when you have the

[00:17:31] least mass speed momentum it is when there is a greater likelihood that somebody on foot can

[00:17:36] approach your vehicle and attempt to pull you out of it speed is life if you are if you feel threatened

[00:17:44] even to the point where like if you're pulling up on a red light it's been red for a minute

[00:17:48] start slowing down prematurely and yeah you'll piss off you'll piss off the guy behind you he'll

[00:17:53] he'll get over himself but try to roll up on that stop light and time it so that you spend

[00:18:00] the least amount of time stopped as possible or potentially if you drag your ass just a little

[00:18:05] bit light might be green by the time you get there and then you don't have to stop at all

[00:18:10] just it's a lot of like really simple tricks to maintain your safety while you're in a vehicle

[00:18:17] and the most important thing to remember the thing that would have saved this driver a lot of

[00:18:23] pain and aggravation is if you have a clear lane in front of you and you have a violent

[00:18:29] person outside the vehicle there's this skinny pedal on the right side of the floor

[00:18:35] stomp it and leave stomp it and leave especially if they leave the door open take the door and

[00:18:40] keep going if they didn't leave the door open exactly sideswipe the side of the vehicle and

[00:18:44] keep going i would rather you like you know there's an old saying in the self-defense world

[00:18:48] i'd rather be judged by 12 and carried by six i would rather go stand in front of a judge

[00:18:54] and explain why i pinned this guy between my vehicle and his vehicle after he was beating the

[00:19:00] crap out of the side of my truck then have him potentially break a window and enter my vehicle

[00:19:07] and harm me or harm my wife and daughter i will go stand in front of the judge say hey

[00:19:12] especially if i got dash cam footage or i got witnesses oh yeah discussion over

[00:19:16] judge your honor with all respect he was beating on my window trying to get into my

[00:19:21] vehicle so i cut the wheel hard right and i hit him and you've stopped problems especially

[00:19:27] especially if you have a minor in the vehicle with you because now it's it is not your safety

[00:19:32] that is the priority it is the safety of the minor yep and and good luck finding a jury that's

[00:19:40] gonna that's gonna disagree with you especially if it happened to be instead of you driving

[00:19:45] the vehicle your wife who what jury is going is on the plan is going to throw the book at a

[00:19:51] mother protecting her child from a violent aggressor using the vehicle the thing that she

[00:19:58] the only thing she had nobody nobody's going to and odds are it wouldn't even get that far

[00:20:03] because the da is gonna look at it look at his conviction right and go yeah this is a loser

[00:20:08] free to go well and if if we live in a place with common sense the da is also going to look

[00:20:14] at that situation and say i don't want to be the one to put a mother up on trial for this

[00:20:19] oh exactly it just it just looks bad for them with any luck that that person who got hit

[00:20:24] that who got hit would get laughed at of every personal injury lawyer in the in in the area

[00:20:30] because they're gonna say okay you got out your vehicle you were kicking their door you were

[00:20:34] beating on their windows they hit you you want me to sue them because you had a case of

[00:20:40] road rage you couldn't control well like that that would still have a potential for winning

[00:20:45] in my state unfortunately yeah but again it would because all they have to prove is that they had

[00:20:50] is that so what is it um it takes away reasonable doubt when it's a civil case they they only have

[00:20:59] to prove that you had a hundred evidence i think it is yeah yeah you had there's a preponderance

[00:21:03] of evidence that you had another possible option of action so for instance if that lane was clear

[00:21:10] ahead of you and you chose to swerve and hit the person you could probably get sued and you're

[00:21:15] probably going to end up paying some money well your insurance company is probably going to end

[00:21:18] up paying a bunch of money if you're not criminally liable torques to your my alignment was off

[00:21:24] yeah my right front brake halber was hanging oops oops yeah i mean i'm sure i'm sure you

[00:21:30] could you could maybe squeeze your way out of it depending on your state and depending on the

[00:21:34] judge you got but i mean if there's a clear lane bam it's a car okay he did your car up yeah and

[00:21:42] understand for the audience like i'm not criticizing this driver this is this is this is a hundred

[00:21:49] like people freeze and it's involuntary yeah well i mean and and like i hate to say it this way

[00:21:54] but like we know this from the veteran community this is well known in the first responder community

[00:21:59] no one knows how they're going to react faced with violence until the day until the day comes

[00:22:05] and by then you know whatever is about to happen is about to happen you can do certain things though

[00:22:12] to build kind of like mental emotional shortcuts in your brain to try to circumvent that and that's

[00:22:20] why i that's why i'm monday morning quarterback these kinds of things exactly that's why i talk

[00:22:25] about these kinds of things on the show occasionally because what i want is i want people to understand

[00:22:31] that if you're faced with this you have an alternative you have a plan yeah and you can execute the plan

[00:22:38] without fear as a reaction the greatest example i use for this is that my daughter's 12

[00:22:45] she was taught i don't know like six seven eight years old fairly young those who i'm sure most

[00:22:50] people teach their kids or i hope they do if you hear the fire alarm go off you run to them

[00:22:56] you run to the mailbox mailbox is far enough away that you ought to be safe there and i told her if

[00:23:02] you get to the mailbox and you feel the heat of the fire on your face you go across street

[00:23:08] to the neighbor's house because that's twice the distance and if you can still feel the

[00:23:12] heat of the fire from the neighbor's house we have a whole different set of problems but

[00:23:16] you know like that's your plan and the thing she asked me was what about you mom and i said

[00:23:21] my responsibility is to get you out of the house my responsibility is to get mom out of the house

[00:23:25] my responsibility is to get me out of the house what i need you to do is to make my life simpler

[00:23:31] by knowing you you're not hiding under your bed you're not hiding in your closet you're at

[00:23:37] the mailbox so when i get to the mailbox and you're there we're golden and i don't have

[00:23:41] run back into the house to find you because i will but i'd rather not exactly well my uh

[00:23:48] my brother-in-law and my sister over hanging out with this one evening they were cooking in the

[00:23:53] kitchen i swear to god when somebody events a fire alarm that shuts up if you holler i'm just

[00:23:58] cooking there'll be a freaking billionaire but something got a little smoky and the fire

[00:24:03] alarm went off my daughter asked zero questions she didn't question anything she didn't stop

[00:24:08] she bolted through the house ran right behind my wife and my brother-in-law out the front door

[00:24:15] and didn't stop till she got to the mailbox perfect and left my wife left my wife standing there

[00:24:23] now my sister is a paramedic my brother-in-law is a sheriff's deputy as soon as the fire

[00:24:30] alarm went off and she bolted up the house they both knew what happened and they were like

[00:24:34] you taught that kid right like there was no there was no fear there was no panic she wasn't

[00:24:39] scared she just knew fire alarm went off go to the mailbox i'll ask questions when i get to the

[00:24:45] mailbox so that's why i talk about these kinds of things because the point is if the fire alarm

[00:24:51] goes off and you have to ask what the plan is that's when people freeze but if you have a

[00:24:56] plan if you know what your options are if you're thinking about this ahead of time

[00:25:00] then when the fire alarm goes off you run in the mailbox because that's what you've already kind of

[00:25:04] like predisposition your brain to do and you don't breeze hopefully exactly well that's that's

[00:25:11] that's why we do fire drills in schools and that's why maybe a thing you should consider if you

[00:25:19] are teaching someone to drive is a drill regarding an aggressive driver or a drill regarding a

[00:25:25] violent person getting out of their car or a car jack now you mentioned new orleans has a lot of

[00:25:30] car jackings right now chicago does too rockford another major city by me they do too if you guys

[00:25:37] follow the news around there a lot of the a lot of the shootings in chicago happen in around

[00:25:43] in near vehicles sometimes done via drive by sometimes done by people walking but i mean

[00:25:49] it's chicago there's always some traffic going by and the safest place you can be

[00:25:53] in a in a gang involved shooting when you're not at the target is moving as quickly as possible because

[00:25:59] less less time you're in the environment you know my mistake that i made i didn't realize

[00:26:06] the person was following me it was morning i was tired i was focused on getting to class

[00:26:11] i was a teenager that wasn't paying attention but you were also a teenager who was contending

[00:26:16] with ic road so your focus was on keep my focus was on keeping the actual yeah exactly

[00:26:23] you know i was i was doing the safe driver thing of trying to maintain control of the vehicle

[00:26:28] i was not paying attention to the person that was driving probably pretty aggressively behind me

[00:26:35] judging by the fact that they that they got in between me and a car in front of me at a

[00:26:41] stoplight in a turn lane so probably we're following pretty close should i have noticed it

[00:26:46] absolutely i stopped far enough back that i thought that i would have probably been able to get

[00:26:52] out had they not dove the car in between us but you know you can't you can't account for all

[00:26:59] variables you really can't and and and no i did the right thing and didn't uh didn't engage or agitate

[00:27:06] them further exactly yeah i mean it's one of the situations where it's like with the benefit

[00:27:12] of hindsight which is always 2020 now you can now you can look back at the situation and be like

[00:27:19] oh i have extra tools in the toolbox for next time exactly exactly but you still didn't make

[00:27:25] the situation worse which you very easily could have you know yeah dumb teenage boy who's into

[00:27:32] weightlifting i could have mouthed off i could open the car door i mean come on teenage boys do

[00:27:37] all kinds of stupid stuff i did all kinds of stupid stuff just not that morning thank christ

[00:27:42] that thank christ that cell phones didn't have cameras when you and i were younger

[00:27:46] oh they did though i had i had the note the the razor with the camera on it when it first came out

[00:27:53] my my first youtube video of me somewhere getting lit on fire when i was lighting off some thermite

[00:27:58] my first my first cell phone was the brick the note that the one piece no kia that will

[00:28:04] survive a nuclear blast i had one yeah those things those things were fantastic and they

[00:28:10] got better signal due to their longer antenna than a lot of modern phones i mean and you

[00:28:15] break them exactly but they're very difficult i'm gonna tell anybody that's a younger millennial

[00:28:21] or a zoomer that ever watches this that never had the joy of having one of those old school no kias

[00:28:27] i'm gonna tell you they could not be broken if if a nuclear war if a nuclear war ever ends

[00:28:33] the human race the only thing left will be like you know radioactive snow cockroaches and just

[00:28:43] a mountain of old no kias wherever they piled them all up when they they stopped selling them

[00:28:47] like they will survive anything can't say they were the most high tech things on earth but you know

[00:28:55] they would they would take a beating but they would they did they they worked phenomenally

[00:29:00] and their battery life was amazing but you know that kind of brings us me back around to think

[00:29:05] about a topic uh road recovery you know when i first started driving i did not have a cell

[00:29:11] i'm sure you didn't either when you first started driving i didn't get a cell phone

[00:29:15] i think until i was 17 but um i was you know i'm about to go on a road trip i was 19 when i

[00:29:21] got my first phone okay yeah so you know pretty pretty close you had a couple of years of driving

[00:29:26] under your belt where you didn't have an easy phone call to make um we're gonna be making i

[00:29:32] think it's like a 560 mile drive uh starting at four o'clock in the morning this Saturday

[00:29:39] so um now i'm gonna go into specifics on it it's a freeway drive most of the way we'll be

[00:29:45] towing the trailer okay uh on this we do my family does this trip every year uh have been for the

[00:29:53] last oh actually i want to save more than 40 years now um but twice now on the trip up to

[00:30:02] this location uh we've lost a wheel bearing on a trailer all right wheel bearing is a very time

[00:30:12] sensitive thing to have go wrong and i'm sure as a mechanic you're familiar with that basically your

[00:30:16] wheels can fall off if your wheel bearing goes bad enough long enough yeah so my dad has put

[00:30:22] together a toolkit for himself because 4 30 in the morning four o'clock in the morning there's

[00:30:28] not too many towing companies that are operating there's not too many garages open nap is not open

[00:30:33] and we're going on a saturday so you know later in the day everything's closed

[00:30:39] you can pull a wheel bearing on the roadside if you have a basic jack

[00:30:44] you can get the wheel off and you have a few basic bearing puller tools three job puller

[00:30:49] probably yeah three job puller i think on this one it's a three job puller and then a three job

[00:30:53] press so you can grab behind the hub and pull it back on yeah i mean you're talking about a

[00:31:01] probably not a problem i mean not probably not a solidly sprung axle on the trailer but a solid

[00:31:05] axle i mean yeah wheel bearings so the wheel bearing system is pretty basic super basic it's a boat

[00:31:12] trailer it's a hell of a lot nicer than anything on a vehicle these days or hell of easier to work

[00:31:17] you know it's it's basically two washers a non-press fit bearing and a bunch of grease

[00:31:25] so what we've gone to uh at least on this trip is in addition to our normal pre road trip checks

[00:31:31] which we'll talk about after this um my dad make sure in his toolkit he has everything he needs

[00:31:37] to rep to pull and repack those bearings two full sets of bearings the bearing i think the

[00:31:43] bearing races are pullable as well and the washers that go either side of those bearings

[00:31:49] because those why when when those bearings tend to go bad those washers tend to warp and

[00:31:53] then suddenly everything doesn't fit anymore yeah because it tends to get awful hot and smoky

[00:31:57] so now out of curiosity from i don't want to derail you what about a torque wrench or do you

[00:32:05] do the old school way where it's like keep tightening while rotating the wheel until

[00:32:10] it drags and then back it off a little bit you know we um since german torque it yeah it's kind of

[00:32:20] german torque you know just windage torque drive a couple miles check it and retorque it if it

[00:32:27] if it starts loosening up i mean you know it's it's one of those things that me and him have

[00:32:31] never really used torque wrenches we're tool makers we just kind of we just kind of windage

[00:32:35] and uh hope for this nick nick

[00:32:40] i got torque wrenches from my guns but i don't know torque i shouldn't be the one rubbing

[00:32:44] my temples at that statement because i was just the grease monkey you're the machinist oh i am

[00:32:51] but see the beautiful thing about that is is um most of the stuff i build does not have torque

[00:32:57] specs it really doesn't it doesn't have torque specs i mean when i'm working on a cnc machine

[00:33:02] doing repair work on that yeah we have to use torque specs and stuff like that but

[00:33:05] for a roadside repair to get you up and running and to get you the last 50 miles 75 miles 100

[00:33:12] miles so if you've got to stop two or three more times and check the tension on things

[00:33:17] it's not really that big of a deal at home in the toolkit absolutely there's torque wrenches

[00:33:23] but torque wrenches are one of those precision instruments that you're not supposed to let

[00:33:27] bang around in the back of a truck on a 600 mile road trip yeah yeah they don't take impact super great

[00:33:34] so i shouldn't use mine as an impact device i mean you can once well technically you can use

[00:33:40] this many times that way as you want it just may not be accurate afterwards right now if you

[00:33:44] want the torque spec to be maintained i mean in it single single solid axle trailers the torque

[00:33:52] spec is pretty wide on those it's basically just torque it down so that doesn't come loose

[00:33:57] i mean yes if you over torque it could you could you shear off those studs yes but you're probably

[00:34:05] not going to do it unless you're putting a cheater bar on i mean i've never managed to

[00:34:10] but i'm sure there's somebody that could i'm sure it what is the saying you've used before

[00:34:16] everything if you use anything wrong enough oh yeah yeah if you you can you can use anything

[00:34:22] wrong enough and start a fire or uh if you use it wrong enough yeah yeah most things work that way

[00:34:28] but like you know if you've changed a tire in your life you can probably with the help of a youtube

[00:34:36] video figure out how to pull a wheel bearing on a very simple trailer like that but for a lot

[00:34:41] of people on road trips they're not going to be towing a trailer or if they are it'll be like a camper

[00:34:46] trailer in which case yeah you're gonna need to pack a heavier duty jack you're probably going to

[00:34:51] need heavier duty um torque wrench tools like that and you'll have the space to do that but if

[00:34:57] you're not pulling a trailer what's your standard vehicle checks i'm not a mechanic i don't do most

[00:35:05] of my standard vehicle checks i have a trusted mechanic that before i do a road trip so like if

[00:35:12] i'm just going across the state okay i'm not too worried about it i'll do my normal check i'll do my

[00:35:16] normal tire pressure checks all the various fluid checks uh check my battery voltage make sure my

[00:35:23] spare is inflated stuff like that but if i'm going on a multi-state trip or a couple of

[00:35:29] four or five hundred mile trip i take my truck to the mechanic a week beforehand the guy that i've

[00:35:34] known and been doing business with the entire time i've been driving and i tell him hey i'm going on a

[00:35:39] road trip do a full once over in my vehicle if it needs a tire rotation if it needs an alignment

[00:35:44] if it needs wipers whatever i don't care do it most it's ever cost me like 500 bucks

[00:35:51] because two of my brake uh brake rotors need to be redone but then i didn't end up doing

[00:35:58] 70 miles an hour on the freeway with roached out brake rotors yeah so i mean would it have been

[00:36:06] a problem probably not but say you happen to be going down the highway in the winter and one of

[00:36:14] those semis gets across wind hitting it on an icy patch and now it's suddenly blown sideways

[00:36:19] across the highway and you're in the middle of what's starting to be a 50 carpila yeah

[00:36:26] having good brakes might suddenly become the most important thing in your life and and i

[00:36:31] guess from my perspective like what what you're really doing with the trusted mechanic or in my

[00:36:36] case i am the trusted mechanic exactly but what you're really doing is you're trying to sacrifice

[00:36:41] a little bit of time and or money to prevent a probable problem and i say problem not potential

[00:36:48] because you're right the brake rotors probably would have got you through the trip but probably

[00:36:54] but the problem is the average driver pays so little attention to their vehicle that if it

[00:36:59] doesn't screw you this trip it's going to screw you next trip so it's always the yeah so it's

[00:37:05] always the idea that like if you don't have that trusted mechanic or if you're the kind of

[00:37:10] person that likes that di-wise are a maintenance because like in the last year i've done a four

[00:37:17] wheel brake job on yfc grand Cherokee which by the way has the heaviest damned brakes i've ever

[00:37:23] felt in my life Cherokees are are overbuilt yeah um front brakes on my truck suspension upgrade

[00:37:32] on my truck that might have been it just for this year but anyway you know like i did the

[00:37:40] upgrade didn't you um haven't done the battery upgrade we ran wiring for like the power panel

[00:37:45] that's right that's right you ran you're all that way but i did a four wheel suspension job on the

[00:37:49] truck um like i do a lot of my own work you know i'm actually you have that knowledge and expertise

[00:37:54] yeah i'm probably going to be doing spark plugs in the very near future if i can ever get quit

[00:37:58] raining around here but you know like i do a lot of that but i have i have like my own little

[00:38:04] system of checks which really is just everything because again i do my own i do my own old changes

[00:38:10] i do my own maintenance so i'm usually pretty in tune with what needs to be done on either one of

[00:38:15] these vehicles before we put them on the road for extended period of time so a lot of what i'm doing

[00:38:19] is i'm checking everything that should be fine you know i'm saying like yeah absolutely like if

[00:38:26] i have a ball joint or a tie rod and loose nip on my truck i usually know about it because i

[00:38:30] drive the thing if yeah my wife you can feel something like that yeah my wife knows that if

[00:38:36] the jeep starts making a weird noise or something feels wrong like you need to let me know so i can

[00:38:39] go jump in and check it out or jack it up and check it out so i'm checking things like the oil level

[00:38:46] absolute absolute simplest thing you can ever do is find your oil dipstick pull it out wipe it

[00:38:51] on a towel shove it back in wait 30 seconds pull it out and check see where the level is if it

[00:38:56] ain't where it's supposed to be fix that right quick check all your fluids every one of those

[00:39:00] reservoirs either has a dipstick or it has a mark somewhere on the side of it where you should be able

[00:39:06] to very quickly wipe it off to read it potentially yeah but the point remains if nothing else pop the

[00:39:10] cap open make sure there's fluid in there because even if the fluid's old even if it needs to

[00:39:16] be flush even if it's wrong it's better than being dry so just check everything look under the

[00:39:24] hood and see if anything looks like it's out of place almost every engine has a belt running around

[00:39:32] either the side of it or the front of it that drives all your accessories if that belt looks

[00:39:37] frayed that's bad go get that dealt with if the vehicle is making weird antisocial i call them

[00:39:43] expensive noises like screeching grinding banging go get all that fixed check make sure

[00:39:50] your tires are the right pressure simp single greatest thing or then make sure all level is

[00:39:56] right that you can do to make sure you have a smooth hassle free trip get all your your tires

[00:40:02] of the right air pressure check your tires make sure they don't have any like bumps knobs or

[00:40:07] anything funny looking i mean it like dry rot yeah well and this is another thing like most

[00:40:12] people don't realize this so when i used to work as a tire guy when i was put my

[00:40:17] putting myself through college i used to have this argument all the time with i hate to make

[00:40:24] the generalization but i'm going to usually it was with older customers who would bring in

[00:40:29] like their link in their crown big their enormous land yacht on a pair of michelans that i know damn

[00:40:36] good well last 80 000 miles at 105 no no they would have like 10 000 miles on them

[00:40:45] because they don't drive they go they go from home to church or the grocery store at home that's

[00:40:49] it that's all they do they don't go on long trips they don't drive to work every day

[00:40:53] they don't drive a lot so i haven't explained to them why their tires need to be replaced when

[00:40:57] they only have 10 000 miles on an 80 000 mile warranty and the tread's still good the tread

[00:41:02] looks great except for all the cracks down between the blocks because most people realize but on one

[00:41:09] side of the tire or the other there's a stamped in code and that code is the first two digits is the week

[00:41:16] 152 that the the tire popped out of the mold the last two are the year the n h tsa says and when

[00:41:24] tires are five years old from the date of manufacture not the date of sale because you run into this

[00:41:30] sometimes if it's a tire that sat on the shelf for a year because it's a weird size or it's just

[00:41:35] not a commonly sold brand or maybe it's a secondary shop that bought somebody else's stock from the date

[00:41:41] of manufacture five years and n h tsa says replace those tires i'm gonna tell you that by the time a

[00:41:48] tire gets five years old of sitting in the sitting in the o zone and letting the sun eat it up i don't

[00:41:54] care how much tread that tire has left it needs to be yanked off the vehicle and replaced

[00:41:59] absolutely i've had that happen on my truck twice that's also why you see so many

[00:42:02] into that point again that's also why every spring you see so many boat trailers on the side of the road

[00:42:09] because the tires got those the tires got a lot of pressure leaking leaking away in some ice driveway

[00:42:15] and the tires are old because they don't they don't spin a lot they just sit there

[00:42:20] and then as soon as you get them out on the road get them nice and hot that pop

[00:42:25] yeah there's no quicker way to flip your vehicle than having a tire blow out at 70

[00:42:29] yeah well if you got a half ton truck dragon a decent size boat on a trailer like a tire blow out

[00:42:37] it shouldn't be a world any experience but it will be an exciting one especially if you're

[00:42:44] dealing with a person who doesn't spend a lot of time towing a load behind their vehicle

[00:42:48] there that the feeling of that trailer suddenly grabbing and yanking that vehicle will

[00:42:53] be eye-opening oh yeah absolutely especially if say you know you see a lot of this anymore

[00:43:00] nowadays is small and mid-sized SUVs towing 18 20 foot bass boats vehicles they have no right

[00:43:07] i mean yeah people that have no right by by the weight they can technically technically

[00:43:16] yeah the trouble is is by the mass of your car versus the mass of the boat the boat is

[00:43:24] suddenly directing traffic yeah i'm going to tell you that i had this conversation with my wife

[00:43:29] fairly recently because she noticed another grand Cherokee similar to hers that had a trailer

[00:43:34] a hitch receiver on the back of it absolutely well hers doesn't and she asked me why don't

[00:43:40] why didn't i get that and my response was because i looked up the max towing the max the max

[00:43:47] pull load of your Jeep and it's 3,500 pounds maximum and i was unwilling to put a would that be a class

[00:43:59] two hitch class three hitch i think it was only one and a half inch receiver but i was unwilling

[00:44:04] to put that i'm not familiar i was unwilling to put that behind your Jeep and then have

[00:44:08] your Jeep do the Carolina squad every time you put a load on the back of it

[00:44:12] because your rear suspension is sprung for having weight inside the inside the hatch

[00:44:18] not gimbling off the back of the Jeep as opposed to a pickup truck with a that can pull 6,500 pounds

[00:44:27] and now has enough rear spring to actually do it exactly yeah i mean it's not even just rear

[00:44:33] spring it is weight of your vehicle because the problem is what a lot of well yeah brakes too for

[00:44:40] sure but but the but the ratio of weight of trailer you are pulling to weight of your vehicle

[00:44:47] once you get to the point where you're one to one or greater than the weight of your vehicle

[00:44:52] now that trailer is going to be determining what your vehicle does instead of the other way around

[00:44:58] yeah you can get away with it with some of the heavier duty trucks and whatnot

[00:45:02] with trailer brakes but you can't with a light duty vehicle and what people forget to take into

[00:45:07] account is the weight of the shit they put in the boat because if you're towing a boat and you've

[00:45:14] got a covered trailer and basically is what it turns into because now you got the top around

[00:45:19] the boat to keep all the rain and bugs and debris out well would be sure nice to have

[00:45:24] a little more room in the back of the suv for the kids so they're a little less cramped

[00:45:28] so we put all the crap in the boat all right how much does a family of fives random

[00:45:34] vacation crap away guarantee you haven't waited so you don't know now you're over your towing limit

[00:45:44] yeah and on top of all that like i encourage anybody that is that makes that jump towards

[00:45:50] like pulling a trailer or pulling a boat god forbid jim ralz said that there was no

[00:45:58] notification when this when this went live i'm not shocked by that at all not a bit i put a post

[00:46:05] up on instagram the other day that okay so nick you're a little bit familiar with instagram right

[00:46:11] yeah i put up a post now you know normally when you put up a post depending on like the seo and

[00:46:17] everything like you'll get a certain percentage goes to your followers and certain percent of

[00:46:20] yeah to people that have searched similar things in the past it's every reason why have you

[00:46:25] ever seen 100 percent followers zero percent non-followers ever i've never made a post on instagram

[00:46:32] that i know that i remember i need to see if i actually saved that because i was absolutely

[00:46:40] shocked when i realized that shadow banning anymore that's just outright barring oh yeah

[00:46:48] here we go it's just all flared out oh there it goes oh wow that's impressive

[00:46:56] yeah that is yeah i'm on the show and i don't get notifications that we're going live

[00:47:01] that is that is meta giving me the great big old middle finger when it's fine they say i don't need

[00:47:07] them i don't either i just think it's hilarious so jim to your point i'm sorry you didn't get the

[00:47:12] notification it ain't just you nope but i'm hoping that if we keep doing this on thursdays at five

[00:47:18] p.m central and six p.m eastern like it'll become a habit and the fact that we're shadow

[00:47:22] ban hellingback won't matter as much i've been i've been banned before i have never been kicked off of

[00:47:31] meta i've never been kicked off facebook a bunch i've been kicked off facebook a bunch apparently

[00:47:38] sarcastically asking the president to drone bomb you harder is uh is is a bannable offense on facebook

[00:47:46] holy they were doing a bit of a bit of extra drone bombing oh nick and i well you know what are

[00:47:54] they gonna do the only drone bomb american citizens in foreign countries not in america so far so far

[00:48:00] that would be the president that got the nobel peace prize before he ever took office yeah

[00:48:06] anyway i won't read about that one on his wikipedia page but like i was gonna say before

[00:48:11] jim sidetracked me um you know the only thing i say about is if you're gonna be pulling a trailer

[00:48:17] pulling a boat like yes to nick's point please please pay attention to the glow to the uh your

[00:48:22] towing limit pay attention to the weight of load that's behind you and also keep in mind if you

[00:48:27] see your vehicle doing the carolina squad there's a couple of things happening first of all

[00:48:31] you don't know where spetch travel you're resting on the bump stops or the overload leaves

[00:48:35] the second thing is that your brakes your brake proportion in front to rear was built

[00:48:40] assuming your vehicle was at standard right height so when it's like this and all of the

[00:48:44] weight is on the back axle when you hit the brakes you don't have as much weight pushing

[00:48:48] down the front tires which that difference in weight distribution because you have so much of

[00:48:53] the you have yeah the because the vehicle is postured up like that completely screws up your

[00:48:58] front brake force which is going to make you take even longer to break than it would have

[00:49:03] otherwise were that big old trailer a boat not pushing you down the interstate because now

[00:49:07] you have x amount of brake and double the weight to stop so like this is just all me saying

[00:49:14] if you're if you put a load on the back of your vehicle make sure it's not too much of the vehicle

[00:49:19] consider something like a weight distribution hitch or something else to kind of like

[00:49:23] correct for that pay very freaking close attention to your tongue weight because

[00:49:29] a properly loaded trailer should not have a crap ton of weight on the front tongue it should

[00:49:35] be kind of even leaning a little bit forward so that if the if the if the trailer disconnects from

[00:49:41] the vehicle it doesn't do a back flip and then go through some ice windshield you want it to

[00:49:45] kind of like drop down onto the emergency chains like I am by no means an expert in towing stuff

[00:49:51] other than what the dod taught me and I've never never gone wrong following all that knowledge

[00:49:57] well you know I was I was trained old school with how to tow trailers I it's they started

[00:50:01] me off on a lawn tractor and then I was towing tractors towing trailers behind tractors down the

[00:50:08] road and then towing trailers behind trucks you know you want to have enough tongue weight

[00:50:15] that you see the the truck bed start to drop a little bit and then you're good I mean if you

[00:50:21] get to know your vehicle you'll you'll know when too much is too much and just adjust your load

[00:50:27] accordingly the sense everybody that owns a truck is overloaded at least once I mean you're gonna do

[00:50:33] it to find out where the limits are just don't do it on the 600 mile road trip you say this to the

[00:50:40] person that put a 700 pound TIG welder in the back of a 94 Toyota pickup it'll be fine oh it was

[00:50:47] fine but except for the fact that um you're you're you're you're familiar with those vehicles

[00:50:53] I'm assuming they're they're kind of small they're on the diminutive side well the TIG welder was a

[00:50:58] foot and a half taller than the cab of the truck was fantastic yeah that sounds like my kind of welder

[00:51:04] the fantastic part was like having to like really put the pedal down hard to get up to stay at 70

[00:51:12] miles an hour because I felt like the truck had a sail it's seriously I'd seriously felt like I

[00:51:18] was dragging a parachute the whole way back home like it was ridiculous yeah you know that's that's

[00:51:24] that's the thing that a lot of people don't consider is the aerodynamics of what you're

[00:51:28] towing or pulling and that can be huge yeah I mean it'll screw up your gas mileage for sure but it's

[00:51:34] also going to make your engine work harder it's going to make your cooling package work harder

[00:51:39] it's going to demand you pay a little bit more attention to the temperature gauge it's going

[00:51:42] to demand you make sure you're a trans cooler huh does your truck have a transmission radiator

[00:51:47] trans cool yeah yeah okay good yeah if you're gonna if you're gonna have a towing package that's

[00:51:53] that's it's not a must-have but it helps it helps a lot and if you're going to be doing a

[00:51:59] lot of towing and your vehicle doesn't have a separate trans cooler it almost certainly has

[00:52:05] like one of those goofy little loops in the front radiator at a minimum and it's not hard to

[00:52:09] like take those two hoses off and then mount somewhere in the front of the vehicle a little

[00:52:13] auxiliary they make an aftermarket one yeah that's easy to mount and if you're not comfortable doing it

[00:52:18] find a shop that will do it I mean it's they're not expensive and they're not difficult to put on

[00:52:24] but uh i'ma tell you that like I so my truck has like the factory trans core which is a radiator

[00:52:31] about yay big yeah not gigantic but certainly helps oh it does and I even I have given thought

[00:52:40] to upgrading that to an even larger cooler but mostly I've got a uh so I've got a little meter

[00:52:47] called scan gauge that plugs in the OB2 port and it lets me watch my water temps and my uh

[00:52:53] temps in a real time yeah I've got that native in my dash yeah no Toyota right

[00:53:01] Toyota sees those things as flippant luxuries to put on Lexus is not toyotas to be fair on my

[00:53:07] truck it is a flippant luxury I don't tow stuff very much when I do it's very heavy yeah I mean I

[00:53:12] I don't tow stuff ever like I had I I don't tow stuff I haven't gotten to that point all the

[00:53:18] weight you put in for camping um you had to put you had to upgrade your suspension yeah

[00:53:22] six seven hundred pounds okay six seven hundred pounds in a light duty pickup

[00:53:28] you had to upgrade the suspension so the truck wasn't squatting the trans is working harder

[00:53:33] it's going to be getting hotter oh yeah I can I can tell you definitively that

[00:53:39] like two years ago coming home from prepper camp I was there was a point at which I was

[00:53:46] watching those because we were going through like a hillier area which yeah might sound funny to

[00:53:50] y'all but like I live down here where there's no such thing as hills so hills are still a novelty

[00:53:54] to me but I was watching and my water temp would creep up like you know a hundred like

[00:54:01] 188 190 190 191 193 it gets about 195 going uphill and then as soon as we up press top the

[00:54:08] hill start coming down it start taking back down but the trans temp is doing this

[00:54:12] trans temp is doing the same thing and again I've got five six seven hundred pounds in the back of

[00:54:17] the truck plus two passengers so like you know it just it all bears in mind it's not inconsiderable

[00:54:24] yeah now I think that was right before I did a full coolant flush thermostat and trans flush on

[00:54:31] the truck okay which hasn't really changed much except it changed the operating temperature of

[00:54:37] the truck ever so slightly just because it was a brand new thermostat and they're all you know

[00:54:41] they all have like a rain yeah they're each different yeah I mean I'm not familiar that

[00:54:45] familiar with thermostats on on a truck but thermocouples in a 3d printer you have to

[00:54:52] calibrate your temperature readout to certain temperature resistivities across the thermocouple

[00:54:58] I'm sure our cars is the same way yeah well I mean everything has a manufacturer intolerance

[00:55:02] but the point is exactly the point isn't that the the truck stays two degrees hotter

[00:55:07] two degrees cooler with a new thermostat the point is I went through the whole cooling package

[00:55:12] and trans package on the truck and refreshed everything and you probably made it a little

[00:55:16] bit more efficient quite but quite possibly but for me it was it goes back to the whole thing of like

[00:55:22] did you have to get your brake rotors changed right then or not and the answer is no but

[00:55:26] sooner or later you were gonna have to and sooner or later the way I use the way I use my

[00:55:32] truck is that like yeah I do a bit of like around town and every now and then I commute to the office

[00:55:38] in it but like it's my daily driver sure but I'm going to tell you that 90% of the time when that

[00:55:43] truck comes out of the driveway is because I am loading it to the gills and we're going camping

[00:55:48] and it's going to be working its butt off the entire way there in the entire way home

[00:55:55] and potentially we might be like you know doing lots of really short trips around the campsite

[00:56:00] which by the way are horrible for vehicles is to like start it not let it run to operating

[00:56:04] temperature and then shut it back down but you wind up doing that because you're driving people

[00:56:08] to and from the bathroom that's too far away to walk well it's a lot of people's commutes honestly

[00:56:13] yeah so it really just comes down to like doing all that preemptively preventatively

[00:56:20] having that trusted mechanic doing all those pre-flight checks it is all about minimizing

[00:56:26] the number of things that can screw you over on the trip yeah exactly exactly if you take

[00:56:34] any of the possible problems out of the equation you just make your life easier and man I'm all

[00:56:41] about making life easier because you can be as prepared as you want but if but if you're

[00:56:49] if you're ignoring basic safety conditions like when we get to talking about basic homeowners

[00:56:56] preparedness fire extinguishers the number of people I know that own houses two and three

[00:57:04] times more expensive than mine that have not a single fire extinguisher is insane they cost

[00:57:11] less than a hundred dollars for a big one like there's one sitting in the show in the one

[00:57:18] of those drawers of the lathe behind me I can't get to the point where you can see it but you know

[00:57:24] what am I going to burn down my 200 thousand dollar house because of not having a 40

[00:57:29] dollar fire extinguisher that's ridiculously insane yeah but it's the same thing with

[00:57:36] not taking your car to a mechanic look we can all only be experts in so many things we only have

[00:57:42] so much space in our brain you've had the wonderful history of becoming a mechanic

[00:57:47] through the military and through your profession for a while I'm a machinist man I can I can take

[00:57:53] apart a bridge port I can take apart that lathe no problem whatever I know precious little about

[00:58:01] small engines and what little I do know is enough to keep my lawn mower functioning on most days

[00:58:06] but even then I know where my limits are I'm not going to push it past that limit I'm not

[00:58:13] going to let things get maintenance wise to the point where I can't handle it without calling in

[00:58:19] an expert because if I need to mow my lawn on a Thursday great the grass is going to get taller

[00:58:25] now it's got to go to a shop now it's going to be two weeks to get it fixed and get it back

[00:58:29] now I gotta either beg one of my neighbors to do it or hire somebody else to do it it's just

[00:58:33] more expensive the same thing with your car the longer you let problems go unattended the

[00:58:39] more expensive they get I mean how often have you seen a blowout on the side of the road

[00:58:45] Phil probably a couple times a year you see somebody stuck with a blowout on a road trip

[00:58:51] yeah pretty much every road trip you go on you see shreds of tire blown out along the road

[00:58:55] well guess what happens when a front tire blows up when you're doing 70 miles an hour

[00:58:59] it's probably gonna take out a quarter panel at the very least it's taken out the front

[00:59:03] quarter panel worst case it takes out something in your engine because a piece of that tire

[00:59:07] goes through that little plastic fender well covered and goes into your belt pops the belt off

[00:59:13] and now hopefully you don't have an interference engine because if you do now your valves are all

[00:59:17] smashed and that is the extent of my mechanics knowledge yeah well I mean to me interference

[00:59:24] engines with no belt is very bad extremely but I mean just kind of round this all out it really

[00:59:31] just comes down to like you know it it really is the age old is the age old idea of like

[00:59:37] an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure and especially if we're talking about

[00:59:41] being on like you're gonna be I'm assuming with your spouse no actually see stay home this is a

[00:59:46] guy's trip okay but you're gonna be going I'll be with my family my brother my dad unfortunately

[00:59:52] not my grandfather because of his hospitalization but two of my uncles and one of their sons

[00:59:58] but the point remains you would much rather spend your time with family hanging out

[01:00:02] spend on the side of the road cursing yourself for what you should have fixed in your driveway

[01:00:07] exactly and especially because what's the set of tires 1200 bucks yeah you know Pedro Garcia pointed out

[01:00:19] maybe it blows out your fender well maybe you flip your car now you've totaled what is probably

[01:00:23] a $40,000 vehicle with modern pricing yeah that you'll have to replace it like what would have

[01:00:32] to replace it what 7 to 12 interest yeah I think let's see we bought my wife a new car recently and

[01:00:40] I think they were saying the average interest rate not what we paid but the average interest rate was

[01:00:45] going to be something in the neighborhood of 8% they said just be prepared because the

[01:00:51] interest rates have gone up the average rates about 8% no no not at all and that's

[01:01:02] you and I mentioned it all the time personal finance is very important

[01:01:07] manage your personal finances manage your credit appropriately because then you can

[01:01:12] go away and find someone that will give you better yeah you know but you know it's the

[01:01:18] same thing with finding a good mechanic if you have if you keep your vehicle in good condition

[01:01:26] and you notice a problem beginning you have the time to go to that mechanic the mechanic down

[01:01:33] the road and the mechanic a little on bit on the other side of town to have three different people

[01:01:38] assess the problem give you your three opinions and your three costs aggregated together and figure

[01:01:43] out who's more than likely telling you the truth and which one of them is giving you the

[01:01:47] better price and the other thing and being being proactive gives you because I ran into

[01:01:51] this recently our dishwasher is misbehaving and it wasn't completely it's still not completely dead

[01:01:59] but we're choosing not to use it because I'm afraid of what's going to happen when it finally blows

[01:02:03] up water the image is expensive but my wife and I went ahead and like preemptively said it's

[01:02:09] not broken yet it hasn't flooded the kitchen let's go ahead and go get a replacement on order

[01:02:13] so we can get what we want we can get delivered we can get this problem dealt with

[01:02:17] and being proactive means you have the time ahead of the day you're supposed to leave on your trip

[01:02:23] to go shop multiple mechanics and get the work done and so on so forth exactly if

[01:02:29] it's an engineering saying if you if you do not if you do not engineer a fail a failure point

[01:02:35] the item will it will engineer it for you there's a maintenance saying that's very common

[01:02:40] with that as well if you don't make time for maintenance maintenance will make time for

[01:02:44] itself yes it will it will I mean 100 if you neglect anything long enough it will always

[01:02:52] misbehave and it will misbehave at the least opportune time humanly possible not that I

[01:02:59] would probably the most expensive way yeah more times than I would like to admit when I was

[01:03:03] younger and stupider I've been working on a vehicle on a weekend before I had to go out of

[01:03:08] town but I learned eventually you know what's a good a good one too

[01:03:16] the week before your road trip not the day before fill up with gas and make sure your fuel gauge is

[01:03:23] still working oh no oh yeah well see I had the help I had a slightly different problem

[01:03:30] I filled up the day I was going on a road trip and that happened to be what killed my fuel filter

[01:03:38] on a uh an early 90s Chevy s10 pickup guess where the fuel filter is located fill above the

[01:03:46] fuel tank on the uh frame rail uh huh oh guess how you change the fuel filter you either take the

[01:03:53] bed off or you lower the gas tank I borrowed a sawzall from another guy on the side of the

[01:04:08] right way to do the right way with hinges and everything no you just cut a hole oh god no

[01:04:13] no no I just cut a hole in it and then finished driving where I was going and fixed it on the

[01:04:18] back end by putting a bed liner over top of it I can't even be upset about that because like

[01:04:28] look I bought that pickup for a load of scrap that my grandpa traded to the guy and about

[01:04:33] about a grand and a half that pickup was fine with the inspection panel as it was

[01:04:40] sounds like an appropriate fix for a uh an appropriate first truck fix yes

[01:04:48] yeah but you know anything you can do ahead of time to assess the condition of your vehicle

[01:04:55] or assess the condition of a vehicle accessory heck check and make sure that you actually put

[01:05:01] your your wrench set back in the truck after last time you rotated your tires because

[01:05:07] you know I was going to a gun show with a buddy of mine about 10 or 12 years ago we were in his

[01:05:13] vehicle he got a flat no problem easy fix we swap out the flat for the spare go to the gun show

[01:05:22] come back home about two weeks later he calls me and says hey man do you know what happened

[01:05:26] to my lug wrench guess where that got left the bed of the truck either on the bed on the bumper or

[01:05:35] the side of the road we've never seen it again he had another flat going somewhere else I don't remember

[01:05:41] where but he didn't have his lug wrench or any of the other tools because one of us probably me

[01:05:49] knowing me I'm scatterbrained left that thing on the side of the road or the back of the truck

[01:05:54] and drove away also a pro gamer tip if buying a used vehicle or hell even a new vehicle

[01:06:03] make sure you have all of your tools because let's just say I might have seen more than one used vehicle

[01:06:10] in my life without the lug wrench listen I'm telling you especially at least the locking key

[01:06:15] especially those new those new things yeah especially especially used vehicles you

[01:06:20] have to check for that because I'm gonna tell you that the dealership almost certainly didn't

[01:06:24] when they bought it and the detailer sure didn't and if it got detailed at all and if you don't

[01:06:31] check either then so here's the thing is if you check and you know it's missing you're probably

[01:06:36] not going to get it you might be able to argue a couple of bucks off but you need to go fix that

[01:06:41] problem or you know what tell them hey throw it in it makes a sale they'll spend the 40

[01:06:48] dollars to buy the kit actually it'll probably be cheaper for them probably 20 bucks and they'll

[01:06:53] throw it in yeah I mean worse come to worst go to a junkyard find a vehicle just like yours I can

[01:06:58] almost promise you the spare tire tools are still in it they are still under the driver's seat or

[01:07:02] in or in the back yes 110 so the point remains like just make sure you have all those things and

[01:07:09] if you're driving a beat up old thing like I used to way back in the day and even for my current

[01:07:14] vehicle I have lots of water in the truck you know in case we get stuck and it can go in a radiator if

[01:07:21] it absolutely has to and I also have like you know a quart of oil and a little little thing

[01:07:27] a brake fluid and so on so forth like it just pays to have all that stuff on especially if you're

[01:07:32] going on a and on a five or six hundred mile road trip or a thousand mile road trip or yeah

[01:07:38] I haven't forbid you're going on a cross country road trip like you used to see in the movies

[01:07:42] everyone do I don't actually know anyone that's done that I plan to one day right you always hear

[01:07:49] that you know college kids oh it'd be cool to go do that like they see in the movies I don't know

[01:07:53] that I've never seen anyone do that if anybody has shoot us a message on the patreon chatter in

[01:07:59] the comments no my interesting to hear how that went for you my wife and I have talked about maybe

[01:08:03] when piper is a little bit older and it's just the two of us like go do a go do like about a

[01:08:09] two week tour through sure through the through the through the Midwest and like make a big old

[01:08:15] circuit through that area and then come back home and just camp you know book spots at campgrounds

[01:08:21] and oh for sure do that whole thing I mean you could do it with nothing but KOA's I mean

[01:08:25] my god those things are everywhere you know but we're 10 minutes over and I do need to wrap this

[01:08:32] up that's all right it was a good conversation I mean you know we started with we started with

[01:08:39] Phil's interesting military experience that I hope nobody ever has to fall back on and if you do

[01:08:43] then it's been a really bad day and I hope we've ended with like some good pre-flight checks you can

[01:08:50] do before a road trip because you know some of us are about to be going to salute in North Carolina

[01:08:56] in a couple of weeks and let's call it what it is everybody gets on the road sooner or later

[01:09:01] and when you do the last thing you want to do is be stuck on the side of the road between

[01:09:05] pigs knuckle and bumfuck in the middle of nowhere having to figure out how to deal with a problem

[01:09:10] you should have dealt with in your driveway exactly Murphy's always going to come knocking at the worst

[01:09:15] time god if you haven't met private Murphy yet consider your life you know I actually know

[01:09:24] a guy whose last name is Murphy he's in the air force remind me later I'll tell you about Murphy

[01:09:32] that dude has the worst luck of anybody I've ever met and the perfect name I mean the perfect name

[01:09:38] if you're an airman with bad luck oh yeah and he is all right let's go ahead and punt this one out

[01:09:46] the door so for those of you who are watching the stream we have a stream that we recorded earlier

[01:09:52] this week that's scheduled for next week it's pre-recorded it's not live you're welcome

[01:09:56] to leave us comments we're just not going to be able to respond to them because we're not

[01:09:59] going to actually be here but two weeks from today we will be back live and I wish I could tell you

[01:10:07] what we're going to talk about but I'm not there yet and prepper camp is coming up very quickly

[01:10:14] it's one two three weeks from today I'll be on the road and y'all may have to wait until late

[01:10:22] Friday morning to get your normal podcast episode because we're probably Andrew and I are probably

[01:10:27] going to record it at prepper camp in the middle of nowhere and then I'm going to test the cell phone

[01:10:31] towers and see if I get lucky enough to get an upload out last year behaved itself we put out a

[01:10:37] morning show Friday Saturday and Sunday that we could that weekend at prepper camp it was a ton

[01:10:41] of fun and hopefully we're going to be able to pull it off again should be great all right

[01:10:47] well matter of fact podcast heading out the door good night everybody keep the shiny side

[01:10:51] up keep the tires on the ground and watch out for Murphy you bye everybody later