Ep. 307: Truck Tech We're Thankful For And Stuff We HATE!

[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to TFL Talking Trucks podcast episode 307.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this episode is a bit of a holiday episode because we're heading right into Thanksgiving.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it's also producer Cole behind the camera's birthday, which is exciting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what we're going to be talking about in this episode is things with new trucks that we're thankful for.
[SPEAKER_00]: And also I'm going to throw a caveat in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also not thankful for.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, fair enough, because there are a few.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are a few things we're not liking at all, and a lot of things actually we are thankful for.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for truck technology, specifically.
[SPEAKER_01]: But before we get into that topic, yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna talk a little bit about some news, rapid fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's a little bit of news and also this is a live on patreon.com slash tfl car, which is our only patreon page so you could always For most of these shows, we do like last week, we didn't do a live show because we were at the ranch and the internet there is pretty challenging
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Internet's not one of the good things about the ranch, so it depends on the podcast a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: But as much as we can, we're filming here in the studio, we'd like to do these lives so that we can interact a little bit with some of our Patreon subscribers, they can ask questions, we can try and answer them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And thank you for your support as always.
[SPEAKER_00]: This podcast really is because of you, listening and viewing and watching.
[SPEAKER_00]: So thank you very much.
[SPEAKER_00]: So a bit of news that just came out late last week, well, last week was mostly about Los Angeles Outer Show.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that was pretty huge.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there was plenty that was going on there.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot to cover.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Tommy was out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Covering it for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He did go check out the slate truck in the pouring rain.
[SPEAKER_00]: yeah that was interesting kind of weird yeah there was a event where there was kind of a dinner event and they parked a slate truck because it was a slate event on the street side and but it was pouring rain so that they had the tent set up but it was not conducive to great video production.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, because if Tommy stood more than, like, a foot away from the side of the truck, he was just getting drenched.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we're just tough.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's also part of what we do here is we film in all weather conditions all times a day.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I've certainly seen some videos of you where it looks like you're a weatherman in the midst of weather events.
[SPEAKER_01]: Winstorm.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, about to get blown over.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we still got a film and do our stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not the end of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: We try it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, always.
[SPEAKER_00]: And including winter and winter is coming up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at that.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a river.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a river next to the truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: How a river.
[SPEAKER_01]: A water flowing past the curve.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, it was very, very rainy kind of surprising for California.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Tommy got to spend a little bit more time with this light truck, which is always interesting because it's something that we are definitely looking forward to testing.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there are some more news in the trope world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, essential is this usually not like a pickup truck show.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a lot of, you know, SUVs usually get unveiled there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some off-roaders as well in the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Jeep dropped a little bit of truck news, coinciding with the show, which was a Jeep Gladiator wheelies edition 41.
[SPEAKER_01]: And normally a trim added to a truck wouldn't necessarily be huge news because it's primarily style, it's still penistar powered, it's still the same gladiator that we know and have known for quite a while now because the vehicle's been around for a long time.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this one's kind of cool because this willous addition of the gladiator has at least pictured here a fabric top which I like,
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's also got the coolest, very military style olive-drab green wheels to match the olive-drab exterior.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Jeep knows how to pull it those trains, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the style and some of the features that they offer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And also these additions are not the highest-day-end top-of-the-line jeeps.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are a bit more affordable in their lineup.
[SPEAKER_00]: And
[SPEAKER_00]: That was kind of their, a little, there's sprinkling a little bit of new dust on to the glider, which is, like you said, have changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's made to be, like, to your point, made to be a little bit more basic, which makes sense for what they're styling it after, but just because it's more basic on features doesn't mean it's lacking in looks and style, this has that in droves.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a 32 inch tire that comes with this wheel tire package and definitely the wheels,
[SPEAKER_01]: The olive drive exterior is already pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got a hood with a vent in it that looks pretty beefy and a little addition to the bumper.
[SPEAKER_01]: So all of that's neat stuff, but the wheels have got to be the highlight.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's almost styled a little bit like a steel wheel.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a big solid, very, almost monoblock, but not quite.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very utilitarian looking wheel.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to buy the wheels.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeep, which just sell the wheels, put them, put them on what?
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't even have a Jeep?
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't get the wheels to look at.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, marble hunter.
[SPEAKER_00]: That could be cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I don't know if it's the same bolt pattern.
[SPEAKER_00]: I may have to adapt it, but you may have done it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, hey.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or body swapped the bohank onto a 392 Wrangler.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though it's front edge.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: that would be hard, that would be very difficult to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, very cool style.
[SPEAKER_00]: They also dropped a little bit other news this year, since it's kind of a holiday season, we're beginning looking into the holidays.
[SPEAKER_00]: They also canceled the 4 by E, power train that was supposed to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: and now is not around.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know if it's a good or bad thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know we didn't get a peek behind the curtain.
[SPEAKER_00]: So to speak, like, what are some of the reasons for them thinking about it and then kind of canceling it?
[SPEAKER_00]: But it could be good because simplification, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: To some degree I understand it, although
[SPEAKER_01]: if they're still waiting on updating the gladiator which to our knowledge we don't have any date for a not really a next gladiator that we're expecting for 2026 stays mostly the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it would be nice if they leveraged a lot of their existing power trains to give you more choice to make an older platform.
[SPEAKER_01]: Still be a little bit more relevant.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's something I think they could have done that would give them a little bit of an edge because
[SPEAKER_01]: Currently, here in the U.S. market, you can't just go out and buy a plug-in hybrid truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are hybrid trucks from Toyota, from Ford, but not a plug-in hybrid, not a plug-in hybrid.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, there was a rumor of them stuffing a V8 into a gladiator, which was a rumor we were really appreciating and really liking.
[SPEAKER_01]: And excited about, because one was the last time you saw a V8 in a mid-sized truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and there was an A3T as well, the Hummer.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been a long yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't I don't know actually technically what the last Mid-sized truck with a V8 on the market was but it's been a while it would and in the gladiator is mid-sized It's a little on the long side wheelbase
[SPEAKER_01]: but having that with a V8 would be really cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly, but once again, we don't have any confirmation of that, which is a little bit disappointing, I guess.
[SPEAKER_00]: But a Jeep did show what I monitor to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: The new Grand Cherokee with a new 2-liter, very densely high powered, very powered, dense engine.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the thing, I want to hear what you think before we move on into some of the other,
[SPEAKER_00]: For example, a Sprinter Mercedes-Benz Sprinter comes to mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's offered with a two-liter turbo diesel, but it's a large van which could be quite heavy loaded to full capacity and having small displacement.
[SPEAKER_00]: seemingly high-strong engines in big heavy vehicles doesn't seem like a super-great combination still.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think about putting a small engine into a big bit?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're you're kind of a transferring applying that to the new four-cylinder?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so the new four-cylinder is two liters, 320 forish horsepower and the grand Cherokee, and the grand Cherokee is not a small vehicle, no, either.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you, what do you think about that engine in the gladiator?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me just ask that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's a tough call because it's an engine that's just coming out, so it's hard to hard to say that it's definitively not going to work.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's certainly a lot of two liters is all on the small side.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a smaller side.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's certainly a lot of midsize trucks at this point in the majority that have moved in the direction of four cylinders, turbos.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's not unprecedented.
[SPEAKER_01]: Most of those four cylinders are larger displacement 2.4,
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, I get where you're coming from, I'm a high strong forecylinder for longevity is not necessarily the best thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think it's just too early to make a judgment call for this particular motor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I did read an article that had kind of a cool idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were to take that forecylinder that you're talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: This new forecylinder that we've seen in the deep Grand Cherokee.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if they were to engineer a V8 out of that basic design, then they could have a new generation V8 that could be very potent.
[SPEAKER_01]: really effective.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that would not be the first time far from the first time that a manufacturer is taken a forecylinder and used it as the basis for developing a V8.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's now you're talking and a lot of German manufacturers use four liter V8s, also turbocharged four liter V8s, which are amazing engines for many different applications.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and if you double up on that engine, then you're talking about you said what 320 Yeah, only 320.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's turbocharged, of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but about three kind of double that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what if they double that?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, don't be a but at least six hundred horse and be as thin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so I think that would be great because the five seven and the six four Hemmies have been around for a long time
[SPEAKER_00]: What if they called it the next generation, Hemi?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is not an original thought of mine.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's from an article that I was reading, from another outlet.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I do think they brought up a good point.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would be pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: So who knows?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who knows, who knows the future holds?
[SPEAKER_01]: I would still love to even if it's an old school, 64 Hemi, or even a five-step.
[SPEAKER_00]: 5-7.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would love to see something like that in the gladiator.
[SPEAKER_00]: simple.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think that's I think my theme recently, like why I know six four exists in the 392 Wrangler.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it might be easy to put it in a gladiator, but I don't want it to cost 90 grand either.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm sure you think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, keep it simpler.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I like that idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: One, the Wrangler Moab's
[SPEAKER_01]: that they've shown off, have a V8, and they're not $100,000 like, like, some other $32,000.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it could even be possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would be really nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: V8.
[SPEAKER_00]: All things we see.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be in a gladiator would be so cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, what, so what are some of the, do you want to start with your list?
[SPEAKER_01]: What are some of the things you're thankful for?
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, getting to the main topic of the podcast today, Andre and I had slightly different approaches for the things we highlighted as us being thankful for.
[SPEAKER_01]: We haven't talked about each other's lists.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's going to be kind of a surprise for the most part.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a chance that we picked some similar things, but it sounds like since we took kind of a different approach.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe not because I picked developments in the truck industry that have happened over time.
[SPEAKER_01]: that have resulted in things we're thankful for, that make trucks better than they used to be more capable, more drivable, that was my approach.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I looked at the last year, this is not a year and a review show, but I still looked at the last year, and I was like, what are some of the coolest,
[SPEAKER_00]: trucks that have come out and also relating to kind of like really cool stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe similar approach in the way the yards a little more broad, but I was focused on the last at least 11 months.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was looking more recently and some events that happened this year as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So is your list almost like your...
[SPEAKER_01]: because each of us picked five things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And is your list almost like your top five trucks that you tested in a way?
[SPEAKER_01]: Kind of, yes, yes, and events, including events where you went to test those trucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that'll actually be cool because I will let us cover a broader scope of things, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so what do you got?
[SPEAKER_01]: But you're one of the just things.
[SPEAKER_01]: So piggybacking a little bit off of what we've just been talking about, I love the diversity and powertrain options that you can find in trucks today, because it used to be back in the day that you would either find a larger truck with a naturally aspirated gas V8, or maybe a slightly smaller truck with a naturally aspirated gas V6, maybe an even smaller truck with a naturally aspirated
[SPEAKER_01]: But there wasn't a whole lot of diversity and powertrain options these days.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we said here in the States, there's not a good plug-in hybrid option.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some other markets there are, which is cool, and maybe still someday we'll get something like that here on our shores, but you can still find
[SPEAKER_01]: tons of diesel trucks, even a varying sizes, granted, were out of mid-sized diesel trucks.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's some out there out of diesel.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've worked on these oils.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, except for three in a row, max.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, except for GM.
[SPEAKER_01]: So not as many diesel options as maybe a couple of years ago, there was, because you used to be to be able to get an eco diesel in the Jeep.
[SPEAKER_01]: You could get the Colorado.
[SPEAKER_01]: with a smaller diesel, which were cool options.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those trucks are still out there, so you could buy them used if you wanna factor that in the things.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they're still quite a few really good diesel truck options.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're still some big V8s that you get from the factory.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can get a naturally aspirated V6.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can get all kinds of turbo power trains.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can get trucks that are electric.
[SPEAKER_01]: Soon enough, Rams even going to have
[SPEAKER_01]: a range extended electric truck and a little later on scout is going to have a similar kind of power train you can buy, which is really very broad scope, so you can pick out a truck that's going to fit your specific use case with a power train that's going to fit your use case.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's really cool because that didn't use to really be a thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, and I think what you're saying is that Dufftailing in kind of what we did last week for the podcast, which look at all the full-size trucks, and that we have for truck of the year, competition.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when we open those hoods on those trucks, we said, okay, this has this engine, but there's a variety of engines you could put in its place as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even a couple podcasts ago, we were talking about our favorite engines that you can buy now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you could check out that podcast if you want to see some of our favorites.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I just love the fact that over time, there's become more and more options for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're shopping for a truck, what kind of power train do you want?
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't just have to be so naturally aspirated gas engine.
[SPEAKER_01]: You could go diesel, you could go slightly like your five.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, hybrid engine or full electric, you could go turbo.
[SPEAKER_01]: or you could keep it old school naturally aspirated, V8 or V6, all those options are out there, which is really neat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I guess, let me do one, that kind of, let's see what's up for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that there's a couple more options this year, at least recently, for more efficient engines and trucks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Specifically, Cole, I'm talking about we in our long-term fleet this year, we had a Maverick old-wheel drive hybrid, which is crazy efficient.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was, as you started to bring up trucks that we own, I started thinking about some of the trucks, and I thought about our coyote powered F-150, our ducing a half, single digit, so.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have some trucks on the other side of the spectrum, but to your point, our Maverick was really good on the field economy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what kind of brought this point in home for me is for our testing this year for truck of the year full size halftone.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a net 150 hybrid, which is the bigger brother to the Ford Maverick.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, Cole, I recently just commuted in the F-150 hybrid, this is a 2025 model, and I sent you an image of my trip meter, so check out my trip computer.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I drove about 132 miles.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says 56.1 of those miles were an electricity, and granted this is not a lot of highway.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I do do some highway driving in my commute.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you could see it's spent about four hours driving about 132 miles.
[SPEAKER_00]: But,
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it?
[SPEAKER_00]: 40% ish of my driving was electric and this is not a plug-in hybrid.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is just a regular hybrid in the truck and it's saying 25.9 MPG.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so about 26 miles per gallon in an F-150 which is a pretty large vehicle.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very large and heavy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Definitely a sizeable truck that's a good number.
[SPEAKER_01]: So really impressive stuff and depends on what your priorities are, but yeah, like you're saying, there's really a lot of awesome power train options out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and also Zach and I recently did the trip from Detroit to here in the tool drive RAM within Hurricane 3L.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we got 25 MPG also.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know it was a tool drive track, which was a little bit lighter, plus it had an efficiency rear axle.
[SPEAKER_00]: But nonetheless, those tracks do exist.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you want a little bit better efficiency,
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's kind of dovetails with what you're saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I would be happy with numbers like those.
[SPEAKER_01]: Talking about fuel economy is maybe not the sexiest thing in the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it is definitely important, especially if you're using a truck as part of your business that directly affects your bottom line.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even just at a truck as a daily driver, think about the fuel costs added up over years and years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Stuff like that's important.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, can I do something that I'm not thankful for?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, let's hear one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't thankful this year for recalls.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was not.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think most of us can relate to this big recall here, but I was looking back into some of the stories we did over the last 10 or 11 months.
[SPEAKER_00]: And basically, every manufacturer you can think of had some sort of significant pickup truck related recall.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not talking about like bad stickers in the door, I'm talking about engine problems, transmission problems.
[SPEAKER_00]: Axel in those serious components where where things were actually going wrong in the very big way yeah GMs had the 6.2 V8 failures.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've had transmission Ellison branded 10 speeds yep in transmission issues Toyota recalled more engines.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're still dealing with the V6's yeah Ford famously across the whole brand had well over a hundred recalls.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, just tons of recalls in general.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, try and think.
[SPEAKER_01]: Was there any big news in?
[SPEAKER_00]: Ram didn't have a huge significant recalls on their recent trucks, but they were just coming off with a couple of years ago coming off, you know, some of the emissions scandals there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So,
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know they had some growing pains with the original electrical components, you know, on some of the hurricane engines, but it seems like they ironed out a lot of those issues recently.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, just, it's been a busy year for recalls for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I don't know, so basically most of those recalls did not affect us personally, you know, like you were mentioning, we do have a pretty extensive long-term fleet of used and also new pickup trucks.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we weren't affected personally speaking, otherwise we'll be speaking out more about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: But just looking in general and reading some of your comments and letters and emails, messages of all kinds, where you guys are reporting problems to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and we try to do our best to put that information out there so that people are informed if they're shopping with their own money to buy a truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also buy, as a company, several of these vehicles to try and test them out from all the different brands.
[SPEAKER_01]: And definitely if we have issues with the truck, we'll make videos about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We try to make videos about any big issues that are going on and being investigated because that's important things for buyers to know.
[SPEAKER_01]: A busy year, there's definitely been some pretty high profile issues.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, specifically, like this last few months, which is, okay, what's your next thing that you're thankful for?
[SPEAKER_01]: Also piggybacked off of the power train discussion, modern transmissions, now I know, and we just brought it up.
[SPEAKER_01]: There have been some transmissions issues, okay, okay, in specific vehicles, but if we take a broad look at things,
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about, you remember our good buddy, Brendan.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a 2500 Chevy suburban with an 8.1.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's rated tow, so it creates like 12,000 pounds.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the SUV.
[SPEAKER_01]: In an SUV, yes, which is awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a great vehicle, but it also has, if I remember right, a 4L 80.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was holding four fingers up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now as four speed.
[SPEAKER_01]: As mean as that 8.1 is, towing in the mountains, especially 10, 12,000 pounds, with a four-speed automatic?
[SPEAKER_01]: Not great.
[SPEAKER_01]: The spacing between those gears is probably quite far.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if it's got a downshift, it's going to feel like a downshift at all the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think if David was here, our friend David Moro, I was on this podcast, I think he would probably, uh, you think he was smack me?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if he would smack you, but he would definitely remind us that reliability on some of the older transmissions, not all of them, obviously, not most of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But somehow before I was 60, 40, 4080 was quite good.
[SPEAKER_00]: True.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, and yeah, and there's definitely older transmissions that have proved themselves
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, there was also that back in the day as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there are some new transmissions that are having some issues.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you could make an argument that transmissions aren't getting any better.
[SPEAKER_01]: But objectively, towing with an eight-speed or a 10-speed transmission, I say it all the time, but especially up here in the mountains, it makes a huge difference.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that has been a monumental upgrade for trucks, especially when you're towing heavy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and we've noticed this also, well, in our eye gauntlet testing, we've noticed this for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: We also've noticed it in something fun we do, which is drag racing and acceleration testing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because as soon as you give that engine a little bit more ratios, or we also do rolling start, like a passing maneuver test, where if the engine is in the right gear,
[SPEAKER_00]: it can explode up in its speed and really be really fun and also quite good and accelerating and also same thing on the deceleration.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have more gears, you could stop yourself a little bit more effectively.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because you can keep yourself in that of most effective window or range of RPM all the time and that makes your experience driving the vehicle, pulling a trailer,
[SPEAKER_01]: much better.
[SPEAKER_01]: So modern transmissions, especially modern automatics have come a long way.
[SPEAKER_01]: So she versus way back in the day, 70s, 80s, old slush boxes, three speeds, not great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah but what do you think?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know why most manuals went away from trucks, from pickup trucks, I understand it because if people are not buying them in great quantities, then it's difficult to sell them and produce them.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I would like to see some more future options with manual transmissions.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I miss it a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: It went away from the Cummins in 2018.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was your luck.
[SPEAKER_01]: I cried that year.
[SPEAKER_01]: We did, we didn't know each other, but separately.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yes, separately we did cry.
[SPEAKER_01]: At that point, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And was was the ram.
[SPEAKER_00]: Was that the last HD I think so yes, I think so because I think for the last holdout for did a way with those earlier GM gosh It was a while ago for GM to you're still I mean the big trucks Yeah, from when away from the big trucks, but like Tacoma still has one yeah as an awesome until recently gladiator had it
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, they are kind of going away.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a niche thing, especially in a diesel truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually think Rowan gears is a lot of fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those last, you know, 2017, 2018, G56, six-speed Cummins are a lot of fun to drive.
[SPEAKER_00]: it makes you feel a little bit like they're not going to win any drag races though, but I don't think that was the point.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it was just an ability to drive, be connected to your truck.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, you know, you know exactly what gear in your head.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's like a wondering.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every gear is in a different zip code.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's part of the reason that it takes a while to to move between them and you kind of come off of the boost between gears.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's great being able to manually select a gear, you know you're going to stay in that gear, it gives you a lot of control over the behavior of the truck and, especially on some of those later diesel manual trucks, when you use the exhaust brake and you're locked into a gear, that exhaust brake does a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I love driving in a later model G56 Cummins with the exhaust brake.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a combo.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's something like, uh, we were doing, I gauntlet testing last week, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We saw a couple of trucks semi-saving issues on the mountain with, uh, hot brakes or losing brakes.
[SPEAKER_00]: We actually saw some aftermath.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were struggling with brakes a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we were smoking our own brakes, uh, during a some of our truck of the year testing there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if, but imagine if we were in manually like six-speed vehicles and I know semis, I mean mostly went to automated manuals, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if the driver is connected, you know, involved in driving experience, those problems I think would be more far and between, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because because the driver would be more engaged and just in control of that vehicle, a little bit better.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's my impression.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, some of the automated transmissions in modern semi trucks are really impressive.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had the really cool opportunity to get to drive a western star.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I believe it was a Western show and that had a really intuitive and cool system for the transmission where if you wanted the truck to downshift and use its exhaust break to slow you down, you could adjust how aggressive it was using a column mounted or a stock mounted or a steering column.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you dropped it down a couple of rungs, it would more aggressively downshift an engine
[SPEAKER_01]: That technology is all really cool stuff, but I do like Rowan Gears.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it seems like the newer vehicles, all of them, including semi-tracks, like you were saying, have a computer that's trying to think for you more frequently, if the thinking for the driver instead of the driver, and when it works, it works beautifully.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there could be those little nuances, little cases where, you know, the computer may not be quite on top of it as you thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a question from, or a comment from Dylan Mays.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one of our cameras is right in the middle of it, so I can't read it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: Perfect.
[SPEAKER_00]: Other, why want a manufacturer come out with a plug in hybrid V8 truck, or at least a regular hybrid V8 truck.
[SPEAKER_00]: not like an e-torque.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dylan, you and I are thinking on the same page.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember what I said in our favorite engine podcast?
[SPEAKER_01]: Be like a Porsche 918.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I said that we talked about GM investing into next-generation V8 engines, yeah, remember, and I said why don't they use that new V8, the one where they're working on, but slap and look a little electric motor on the back of it, make it a hybrid.
[SPEAKER_00]: You saw what happened in the F-150 hybrid, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You have a little bit of electric coasting, recharging, power export features, efficiency, a lot of benefits, NFV8 noise?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: That would be that, be sweet.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that it would be really cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: You would just have to figure out the marketing of it to make it appeal to people that are looking for the maximum in performance.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's been proven before
[SPEAKER_01]: with a hybrid system and get a boatload of total system output and make a very high-performing capable vehicle that's been done a lot in especially exotic cars, imported cars,
[SPEAKER_01]: On the truck side of things, a lot of the people that are shopping around four V-8s are probably shopping around for it because it's a little bit more old school.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a little bit simpler.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe they don't want the complexity of turbos.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe they don't want the complexity of a hybrid system.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there may be some hurdles there in marketing that vehicle.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you could market it in a way to say, we got the V-8.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we got the cool factor and we got the hybrid.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's the best of everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: It might be doable, it'd be neat.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think to, I agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think one way in Dylan's comment, I don't think a plug and hybrid would work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that would be a hard thing to sell like to your point, because you're introducing large battery, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're introducing a lot of other components.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe a larger electric motor, or maybe multiple electric motors at that point, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're introducing a lot of components, those components also take away the way a lot, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So they take away from payload, they take away from a lot of other aspects of that truck, that pickup truck.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think, and I keep using for it, because what Toyota has done in their hybrid,
[SPEAKER_00]: to make power, but not effectively make more efficiency out of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was their focus for them, their focus was to provide more than V8 levels of power.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think what Ford did, they kind of gave you more power, but also gave you efficiency.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's what I want to see.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to see both of those.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's definitely a way to build it and make it function really well.
[SPEAKER_01]: it's I think a bigger question of getting people to accept it because you and I have actually talked to truck buyers who felt like even a system as mild as the e-torque system that's on the five seven hammy and also people hate turbos that felt like e-torque ruined the way that it drove.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it does not.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if the system is broken, yes, of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, of course it ruins it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But most part it does very little.
[SPEAKER_00]: It does very, very little it fills in maybe a little gap between the gear changes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: It, you know, it makes just auto stop start of the engine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe a little bit smoother, but to make it slower, it will never do.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, as, as Tommy says,
[SPEAKER_01]: In the most extreme of circumstances, having e-torque or not having it is not a night and day difference.
[SPEAKER_01]: What Tommy would say is it's a night and late evening difference?
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, okay, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about like, but that's five o'clock in Colorado at this time of year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: But at that point, why even include E-Torque?
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't understand?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know it helps them with average fuel efficiency for the manufacturer.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they can e-cout those small percentages and it kind of helps them in the holistic way.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if it's not providing a big benefit to the consumer, to the customer,
[SPEAKER_00]: I say don't do it, you know, and I'm so did probably a lot of people that would agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I think Dylan if that was the case and then and Dylan agrees with me
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't see any evidence of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, because of just, but it's sheer sheer fact that he commented this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why won't they make a hybrid V8 truck?
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, I think there's at least one customer, Dylan.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dylan would buy it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, there might need to be a few more, but I think I'm one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it could be cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll buy one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, right on there.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's two.
[SPEAKER_00]: niche market okay so let me see so we hit my efficiency point yes so I was really thankful that you and I got to go to David's dam because that was important that was what Ram Heavy duty trucks that we did earlier this year and it was kind of a bucket list item yeah there is the big trailer that we were
[SPEAKER_00]: That was kind of a bucket list item for me because David's damn grade, which is between Nevada and Arizona, is instrumental in how many factors rate their vehicles for towing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's part of the J-2007-S-A-S-A standard.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were not there in the hot months, well, maybe that's a good thing, but we actually saw
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was a cool experience, I thought.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was, and it was really cool to get to compare Davis Dam to the Ike that we're obviously so familiar with.
[SPEAKER_01]: And looking back at the video, I'd, by apparently Joseph where the title shirt I own, right, event.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you were showing off some of your, you know, a stature and my, my trailer.
[SPEAKER_01]: It takes a very tight shirt to do that, but very small.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is really cool to get the toe heavy trailers.
[SPEAKER_01]: What was the heaviest trailer that Ram had set up for us there?
[SPEAKER_00]: We were pulling that big tractor, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that was the heavier load.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they also had the fifth wheel camping trailer, which was larger profile, but was lighter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I thought this was
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was over 20, but I don't think it was 30.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it was 30.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wish it would have been 30, because it was within a harder test.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you have to keep in mind a lot of journalists, because this was a journalist event as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they don't have CDLs.
[SPEAKER_00]: You do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would have been the only person who had driving me from which would be cool, but that wasn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so fair enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you kind of have to be mindful of some of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was still a sizable trailer, which meant we got to test out these trucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Under some pretty challenging circumstances, again, it was hard for us not to make a lot of comparisons between Davis Dam and the I think the main thing as a test and as a challenge that Davis Dam has going for it is what you brought up, temperature, cooling systems.
[SPEAKER_01]: that is number one.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Ike is definitely more challenging in its grade because it's quite a bit steeper.
[SPEAKER_00]: And steeper maybe for longer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Davis Dam is actually overall a longer distance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it kind of levels out several times within within that distance.
[SPEAKER_00]: I gauntlet almost never levels down.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, once you're going down or up it, you're you're really on the
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the other challenge with the hike is elevation and air density, because by the time you get to the top, you're down how much from...
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's about a third of the oxygen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of the air density, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's hard to say how much oxygen is gone, because I'm not a scientist.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, oxygen is not...
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot more nitrogen in the air than oxygen, so.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think people know where it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: But let's say, one third of air density is gone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that makes it challenging as well, because which potentially means a third of your power potential is gone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Up depends if it's a naturally aspirated truck or not because anything that's forced induction is going to be a little bit better.
[SPEAKER_00]: Better.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there was a cool experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you loved it as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, it was really cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: And just to see, and I think it was like, what 75 degrees, maybe, when we were there, maybe 80, but temperatures there can get up to above.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think there's some, there's some, there's a pre-requisites, like it has to be at least 100 degrees, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: For them to actually do the J-287 SAE.
[SPEAKER_00]: run that's going to certify and they have to do maximum AC when they're pulling a trailer as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's several different things that must be met.
[SPEAKER_01]: Depending on the category of truck they have to maintain a certain minimum speed as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's definitely a challenging test and because it's something that we've heard about so much talking about tow ratings on trucks, that was a really cool thing that Andre and I got to go check out in person tow trailers on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: See it firsthand.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can kind of piggyback off of this as well talking about capability in modern drugs Something that we've discussed a little bit in the past.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love older trucks as much as anybody But the amount of one yeah exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got it 12 out of comments that was rated from the factory to tell about 12,000 pounds Oh, that's cute Watch yourself
[SPEAKER_01]: 12,000 is enough, it's actually a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: For me, what's your tundra rated to tell?
[SPEAKER_01]: $5,500, not even over 10 Andre?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no 12,000 is actually a lot for daily work.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all the towing capability.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need the heaviest things I need to haul around are my broken down project cars.
[SPEAKER_00]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's under 12.
[SPEAKER_01]: So unless I was pulling maybe several of them at the same time, which I'm not, because I don't have a trailer big enough to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: 12,000, not a bad number, but these days,
[SPEAKER_01]: in an F-250 or a 2500 you can reasonably expect to be closing in on 20,000 pounds of towing capability and then some of the most capable trucks that you could go out there by from the factory like that F-450 that you pulled a trailer with when we were in Michigan.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a video of this, yeah, it was a tool drive too door.
[SPEAKER_01]: 40,000 pounds.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holy cow.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the right.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the right thing to say.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you could say the same thing about payload.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can go to the dealership and buy trucks that have an unbelievable amount of payload.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the capability in modern trucks to do work is incredible and not only what they're rated to do but how they feel doing it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we discussed,
[SPEAKER_01]: The transmissions make a huge difference, but modern breaks, modern suspension and
[SPEAKER_01]: wheelbases and tires and steering and everything that they've added to trucks now, makes them not only be able to haul more and pull more, but they feel better doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was remembering, as I'm watching this video, my thoughts keep started like flooding.
[SPEAKER_00]: My memories started flooding in.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember when we just got going, I could feel the entire frame like trying to twist,
[SPEAKER_01]: and through the transmission, so much torque the chassis twisted.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah, it's like, you can see it on semi-truck sometimes when the semi-truck takes off from a line, and on times, down to retto's charger.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: He lives life a quarter mile at a time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and you pull this trailer much more than a quarter mile.
[SPEAKER_00]: to it was something else to be fair about what we're saying 40,000 pounds on this truck is a lot yeah and I could feel it coming down this little hill this was at Romeo proving grounds that Ford set up this event at right and you could see some of the grades it's hard to see on camera but it's actually a pretty sizable incline and decline so this is a bit extreme it's more than a bit
[SPEAKER_01]: But the fact that you could go to a dealership and buy a truck that theoretically can pull 40,000 pounds is, or even 35,000, or 30,000, or 25,000, or 25, all of these are massive numbers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those, those, that's big trailers for the average person.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure there's someone out there maybe Danach and send a listen and to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, he's laughing or he's a truck driver, laughing at 40,000 pounds, but he's also got up giant semi-truck that is heavier and longer wheelbase, you know, as soon as you make something smaller like a pickup truck, especially this Tudor, that was not a very long truck, you need that stability, you need that footprint.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is one of the challenges with a truck like this is,
[SPEAKER_01]: it is pretty compact and pretty lightweight.
[SPEAKER_01]: The trailer outweighs it several times.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so much that it's it's maybe never going to feel that great doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I could feel the difference between the trailer and the truck when we were heading down this little downgrade because you can feel the mass kind of pushing you along, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So you want to be very precise with your, you know, driving style.
[SPEAKER_01]: But other than for video, we try not to pull trailers that are at the maximum of what a truck is rated to toe anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are sometimes that we do that specifically in the icon
[SPEAKER_01]: when they're right at that limit, because it's important testing.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if we were going to be pulling a trailer for another reason, going cross-country doing something, we're ideally going to pick a truck that's rated to pull a lot more than what we're actually doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for example, we own a Chevy Silverado 2500 HD.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when we're pulling a trailer that could be 8 or 9,000 pounds, we could potentially use the F-150.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, but we don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, because we call for the bigger guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we're working.
[SPEAKER_00]: Especially in the mountains, definitely pick a try to pick a much bigger pickup truck for the job that you have at hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what's your next?
[SPEAKER_00]: Thankful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I was going to be, I'm thankful for a couple more things.
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, I'm thankful for Hellcat engines.
[SPEAKER_00]: We currently, in our, in our, we have a loan on loan from Dodge, a Durango Hellcat jailbreak right now, and we just took it to lunch.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just such a pleasing experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: Roman Roman was kind.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had come to the office on Friday with my least.
[SPEAKER_01]: nearly free little electric fiat broke your own.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you've been at least and Roman asks do you want to take the Durango Hellcat home for the weekend?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, please.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't have to think too long about so I got to drive that all throughout the weekend my fiance loved it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I loved it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I
[SPEAKER_01]: slammed through a tank of fuel on it, but you didn't try to slam through a tank of fuel.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, and I drove, I didn't even go that far.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't go anywhere over the weekend, just around town.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you can't stay out of the pedal, even if you're not flooring it at every light.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's fun to get into the pedal just enough so that you can hear the supercharger buzzing a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: it is so much fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: That engine's been around for a long time.
[SPEAKER_01]: They could make it for the next 30 years, and it would still be entertaining.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree with you, a hundred and ten percent, and the reason why I bring this up also is that it's still rumored.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we don't have complete, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know the TRX is coming back.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just don't know exactly when.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I mean.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we think and we know that it will have a version of this Hellcat engine in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The supercharged V8 engine.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't just don't know exactly what power levels it will be or what type it will be.
[SPEAKER_00]: But...
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm glad it's coming back, especially in the pickup truck of that caliber, just because you could hear the supercharger a little bit, it just involves you on many different levels, it's very quick and fun, it's also, you know, can haul a trailer if you really needed to, I mean, it won't pull 12,000, but it will pull, it's ready to tell what it was like, $8,200 pounds, so I'm really thankful for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: One, then we were just at Simo and we saw the Raptor R Ford hadn't brought to the show and put a three-liter Whipple Supercharger on that they're saying is going to have an over 900 horsepower.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can't imagine driving that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That would be something fun to look forward to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely.
[SPEAKER_00]: So next year we'll be talking about more, more thankful things.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, really it kind of dovetails into your item where engine choices, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's so many choices for daily work and also incredible fun as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's really cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we're talking about horsepower,
[SPEAKER_01]: Once again, it leads me right into my next topic.
[SPEAKER_01]: How did I know this?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's fantastic, and we didn't even plan this out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, I'll put these legends and exhaust brakes, something I'm very thankful for.
[SPEAKER_01]: As much as I love the Raptor R, the Super Charge V8, the TRX, and even how mind-numbingly fast some of the electric trucks you can go out there and buy R, I think all those things are cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: the trucks that get me the most excited still are the diesels that you could go out and buy the power stroke I output our Duramax.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a it sounds a little weird to say it but it's a I would describe it as a sporty engine.
[SPEAKER_01]: You tip into the throttle
[SPEAKER_01]: You give it three-quarter throttle, add or around maybe 15 miles per hour, lights up the rear tires like nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you were just talking about the Duramax V8, I remember, remember we had an Overland build truck.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Cole can look this up.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a camper on top of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was on 37s, that it was a GMC CR80 for X, a V edition.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was an overland build that was going to be auctioned for charity, and auctioned that for charity.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was going to be auctioned for the foundation, which does charitable work for overlanding.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was more recent than this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It had a little camper.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was an Alfred video.
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably was an Alfred video.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do a lot of videos.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of hard to search through all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wait, wait.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cole can find it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cole can find it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, that truck.
[SPEAKER_00]: We went, you and I went to the ranch.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember I turned and I put my foot down in this 10,000 pound truck.
[SPEAKER_00]: There it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, there it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Left.
[SPEAKER_00]: into action.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was, it was shocking to me because as heavy as it is, it does have slightly modified intake.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has a snorkel, AV snorkel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a slightly freed up exhaust system.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it wasn't a big boost in power.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just a little bit more freedom.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's funny because as far as torque figures go, this is actually the least torquey of all the HD engines
[SPEAKER_01]: The fact that the lease torquey of all of them can light up the rear tires when that's not at all your intention is unbelievable.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just effortless power in these trucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what I love so much is that you can get into any modern HD diesel truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: and you have so much power if you go from a Jeep or a full runner or something that's loaded up with equipment, maybe some kind of overlander and like what we're looking at on Andre's video.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got a camper on the back of it, it's got a little fridge, it's got steel bumpers, winch, off road lights, all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: They feel way down in any other vehicle to your point in an HD truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: You just don't notice.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's the same thing, even any modern diesel truck, you link up a trailer that's much below 10,000 pounds
[SPEAKER_00]: Especially like he could still win some drag races as much as like I like the five-liter coyote right putting a big giant trailer behind it which weighs like eight or nine thousand pounds of work and pulling and then you notice it right you notice it's it's much slower it works harder it's not as easy to stop a diesel truck like you're saying but the exhaust brake they stop confidently they go
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they're quite impressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they have all the emission systems on them, which are not power adders.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, and they still make loads of power.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to your point, the exhaust breaks from the factory just a fantastic thing in modern diesel trucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll bring up my 12F Cummins again.
[SPEAKER_01]: My old truck that I love.
[SPEAKER_01]: But in factory form, that truck had 175 horsepower.
[SPEAKER_01]: It topped out at like 75 miles now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this was only 30 years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: Trucks, dented with all this that we're saying in mine trucks are not about speed and acceleration necessarily, but if you linked up my truck in factory form to a trailer and you started pulling up a steep hill.
[SPEAKER_01]: It will notice it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was working very hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: So in a modern diesel truck, when you can face basically any grade and you can feel passing almost insensible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, it's unbelievable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, with a lot of these trucks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, here's one item on my list.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has to do with what Toyota has been doing recently.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what shocked me and what I was thankful for was that Toyota side by side and I know it's not a pickup truck And I know it's not on sale But you and I went to see my this year And we saw a Toyota cyan branded Yeah, that was another shocker cyan branded hybrid 300 horsepower plus
[SPEAKER_00]: and also very heavy and very beefy side-by-side.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which the Sion branding is also interesting to your point because there are a lot of most people remember the Sion brand.
[SPEAKER_01]: Call do you remember Sion?
[SPEAKER_01]: Call remember Sion.
[SPEAKER_01]: But people don't associate sion with off-road.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was not at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or trucks of any kind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not the brand at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is definitely a big departure.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can see the shock on my face, I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you see that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this was something that we were really not expecting to see whatsoever.
[SPEAKER_01]: If Toyota got into the side-by-side market, that could be really interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: They could shake things up very much.
[SPEAKER_01]: This particular side-by-side that they built for Seema is very different from what you would go out and buy on the market now because it would be significantly heavier or more bigger, more substantial.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how it looked in felt in person.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a substantial.
[SPEAKER_00]: And actually one of the members of the engineering team on this project because Toyota did it in the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they did not
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, given engine to, you know, a builder and say, hey, here come up with a side by side for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: They used their own engineers, their own design studio at Calty.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is a Toyota effort.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one of the engineers said this side by side could be weighing around 4,000 pounds, which would make it the heaviest side by side I've ever seen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, an absolute beast.
[SPEAKER_01]: This would not be an impossible or completely unprecedented thing though, because everyone knows Honda is huge in the power sports world.
[SPEAKER_01]: That being said, Honda is kind of unique because there's not a lot of companies out there that make cars, motorcycles, ATVs, motorcycles, lawnmowers, generators, Formula One car engines, private jets, jet planes, yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yamaha does instruments.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, coal brings up a good point.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Hanna makes a lot of different things.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they're a little unique in that Toyota stepping into the side by side world.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't say that it's it's impossible, but Toyota is generally pretty conservative.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't usually do stuff that's super out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I would be surprised if they do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think they have the resources to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if they make a decision to do it, they will do it for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just they're much, much bigger than basically any other side by side manufacturer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was going to bring one more truck in this at SEMA with Toyota.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what the only thing I'm hoping for if Toyota ever decides to sell the
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe a non-hybrid version, maybe a non-hybrid version, maybe a two-door version, it doesn't all have to be for door.
[SPEAKER_00]: What if I had a GR Corolla motor in it, that'd be cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we're getting somewhere, so also could be 300 horsepower, but done in a different way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: This had a Toyota Tacoma hybrid power train, basically a force cylinder turbo electric system.
[SPEAKER_01]: which is not a to your point.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not a slim.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's not a very slim one.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also not the most lightweight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but also there are controversial vehicle at SEMA, which was the Tacoma H2, which was a hybrid, uh, hydrogen powered, uh,
[SPEAKER_00]: Tacoma and I was kind of excited by this because I do that But a lot of other journalists and a lot of our viewers were quite negative about this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I have a lot of feelings about this because
[SPEAKER_01]: we we go to see malat just we see a lot of different vehicles there are tons of V8 swapped this in that will amazing things for the inch tires and solid axles and it's awesome but putting a hydrogen power train in it Tacoma and making it work and making it this well engineered and well executed
[SPEAKER_01]: is such a flex because that's something that really only a company like Toyota would have the engineering prowess to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you gave me enough time, like a lot of years and a lot of money and a lot of money, I could figure out putting a V8 and 40 inch tires on a Tacoma, especially if you give me a
[SPEAKER_01]: and your standards are really low, but, but the fact that Toyota design this hydrogen thing, I think a lot of people that watched our video about it were saying, well, this doesn't make sense, the hydrogen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where would you feel, yeah, how would you, if you were a hydrogen Tacoma?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's besides the point.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're not trying to bring this to market.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is just an example of what they're capable of, and I think that's bad ass.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: That made it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it has a lot of very cool specs.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at this suspension components.
[SPEAKER_00]: They went out and they just like,
[SPEAKER_00]: Flexed all over the place with a, you know, kind of a long travel suspension under it special skid plates, everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, also had a camper in the back.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: 547 horsepower.
[SPEAKER_01]: Only 547 horsepower.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I had a rear locker as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they lifted it.
[SPEAKER_01]: They did all kinds of really cool stuff to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: They had built it into kind of an overlander.
[SPEAKER_01]: So even the water by product.
[SPEAKER_01]: from the hydrogen power train was recovered in the truck and it could be used to watch dishes or for you to shower with.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they had done all these really neat things in the engineering of this vehicle.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think a lot of people overlooked it because they looked at this as something.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like it was by.
[SPEAKER_00]: If this was sold now, I agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: This would not be a good choice because there's only what 40 hundred fueling stations in California.
[SPEAKER_01]: but as a demonstration of what's possible and what Toyota's capable of, it's pretty badass.
[SPEAKER_00]: It had 15 kilowatt export powers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not 7.2, like the fourth system is or 10, something like the GM, you know, Sorato electric trucks.
[SPEAKER_00]: It had 15 kilowatt of export power.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: You could run maybe two homes off of this if you really wanted to.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's tons.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, so it's a mobile mobile power station.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mobile power station.
[SPEAKER_00]: All it needs is a tiny bit of hydrogen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Small amount of hydrogen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, but it's anyway, I thought it was a cool concept.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I thought it was really cool too.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like a lot of the people that were commenting on the video.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not something either of us would want to buy in this moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's amazing that Toyota was able to build it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I see, here's my bet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, and I think Roman, remember Roman and I were also betting against each other on this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: During one of our infamous meetings.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, staff meetings?
[SPEAKER_00]: Long meetings.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was saying something like, oh, this is just a one and done.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is just a flex that, like you said, that two-year-old wanted to show off a little bit, some of their engineering.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, you know what, I could see the next generation Tacoma, which should arrive.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what's six, let's say six years from now, in that generation, we could see this as a possible option.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's my bet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, given six years or seven years, if there's more hydrogen infrastructure around the country, or maybe certain areas, I think we could actually see a production version of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: They make a production hydrogen car now.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have the variety.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where they pull a lot of those hydrogen power train components from to build that Tacoma initially, although heavily modified that system.
[SPEAKER_01]: And sure, especially on a small scale,
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, maybe a couple thousand of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could see them maybe make the cross country.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if you live in the middle of South Dakota Maybe it's not an option for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you don't have a hydrogen station.
[SPEAKER_01]: And honestly if they did build that the people that are absolute Toyota nuts huge fans of the brand they would
[SPEAKER_01]: They would fight each other with fists to get on the list, to get their hands on this ultra rare to come up that they only made maybe a couple hundred of them or something.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, it could be cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's definitely not impossible.
[SPEAKER_01]: They make a hydrogen car now.
[SPEAKER_01]: They could make a hydrogen truck tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: They wanted to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That would also be another one that would maybe be harder to market.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they could do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: they definitely what's what's on your list.
[SPEAKER_01]: Last thing on my list is off road trims in trucks now because looking back not even that far you could go out and buy a Z71.
[SPEAKER_01]: You could get a G80 rear locker for.
[SPEAKER_01]: and that was pretty rugged.
[SPEAKER_01]: These days, the off road trucks that you can go buy with factory winches, skid plates, steel bumpers, long travel, live valve suspension, front rear lockers, full-time four-wheel drive systems, there's so many innovations off road features that you can get in a truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: From the factory, covered by warranty, it's crash certified and everything,
[SPEAKER_01]: It's spectacular.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's unbelievable.
[SPEAKER_01]: The off-road vehicles and the amount of capability you can get straight out of the box now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cole, can you bring up a RAM Warlock?
[SPEAKER_00]: Recently, we had a Warlock, the blue track.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as alone from RAM.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just one other example.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean this the warlock is not the most hardcore Afrodo that RAM is building right now, obviously, because there's the Aurecho, and there is the Rebel Lineups that they have and on the border side power wagon still which is also great
[SPEAKER_00]: But like you said, choice, you know, there used to be maybe one off-road version of some sorts.
[SPEAKER_00]: But now there's like three or four different types of suspensions and options.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this truck was a little bit more in the affordable side.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't remember it was like 50,000 or something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, look, I'm wearing my flat bill hat, you know, that's how cooler I felt in that particular right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and you think about it on the forward side of things like you said FX4, tremor, raptor, raptor R, there's so many different offroad trims, but those halo offroad trims offer some unbelievable pieces of hardware and also software, some really advanced
[SPEAKER_01]: All straight out of the factory, right off of the assembly line, some believable, you can get some fantastically capable trucks and take it from the deal a lot, straight to the trailhead, which we've done several times.
[SPEAKER_00]: And manufacturers like Ford and Ram, and...
[SPEAKER_00]: GM and Toyota, they prove out a lot of those parts in racing, so a GM, for example, ZR2, I've kind of chased them around a little bit in the desert, you know, the ZR2 and Bison type quality components are proven.
[SPEAKER_01]: They invited you there.
[SPEAKER_01]: They weren't running away from you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Correct.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I was allowed to chase them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Colin, I chased the Mint 400, the Coles favorite event at a motively, made for hundreds of iconic.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Mint 400, Coles really enjoyed it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was the first press trip I ever did was with Steven Elmer on the Mint 400.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yes, yes, you guys are watching.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: So these parts, these Afro components are proven in racing.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are perfected, you know, they're tested together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like you said, with warranty offered to the customers, do anybody?
[SPEAKER_01]: How awesome is that?
[SPEAKER_01]: I would argue that we're in the golden age of Afro trucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the same thing like wise with both trucks, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, SUVs as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's fantastic offroad trims you can get from the factory in SUVs.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's really offroad trucks especially in the golden age.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe soon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I brought up a video where we did a trip in the Colorado's year two, Vegas Torino offroad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, which was a heavy event for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of love, we were three days, three days of off-road driving.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because basically that entire trip was off-road.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we may also be heading into an upcoming golden era of some street trucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because they seem to be coming back.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we're interested in.
[SPEAKER_00]: 150-lobo, there are a lot of rumors about what Ram is doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: We saw the Ram dude in the Sima.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, had side pipes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: The F-150 Lobo is slightly lowered, has V8 power.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there could be a resurgence, like you said, in also street, worthy performance trucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you go to the factory and get a supercharged slap down to a coyote powered F-150 as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you feel like the Lobo is maybe a little too mild, which it could be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I would argue it probably is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Slap Supercharger on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's a lot of really cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought next year 2026 will be very interesting because we had maybe not a lot of like thorough, you know, new generation trucks this year in 2025.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But next year, because we're looking towards 2027 model year trucks, we already have seen lots of prototypes from GM on their full-sized trucks.
[SPEAKER_00]: We could see some updates on the
[SPEAKER_00]: So next year is looking like plus who knows what RAM is doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that might bring an SRT street truck back, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So of some kind.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd be happy that it's probably not going to have a V10 and input if it had side pipes, so it'd still be pretty happy.
[SPEAKER_00]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_00]: It could be the dude.
[SPEAKER_00]: It could be the dude.
[SPEAKER_00]: So wrapping up a little bit, I'm going to do one item.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not thankful for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it has to do with some things we already talked about.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm not thankful for really expensive trucks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because a lot of the excitement that you and I just talked about are for the capable trucks, really high output diesels, lots of engine options.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are all inadvertently creating this pricing
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I would like to see some affordable mid-sized tracks, which is not fancy ones, but affordable.
[SPEAKER_00]: We started this podcast with talking about slate, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So slate, that's a whole story behind that company.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if they'll be successful.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's still a startup.
[SPEAKER_00]: because it's a two-door little pickup, which is the only thing they offer, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, other than the CV body that you can put on top of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I can convert it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we need a little bit more.
[SPEAKER_00]: What happens to a, what happened to a, well, Toyota offers a two-door ish Tacoma SR, but many other manufacturers don't, Ford doesn't, GM doesn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why not have a little bit more affordable, simple, mid-sizeers?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's true, it's a tough balance because I get excited talking about some of the really cool trucks that are out now, stuff that you could go out there and buy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think sometimes, well, we see a lot of valid comments about the prices of trucks being out of control and that's why we've talked about it several times on this podcast and in videos.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think sometimes people will write off new trucks because they are so pricey and I can understand why I own a 30 year old truck for that reason.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the two aren't mutually exclusive.
[SPEAKER_01]: New trucks are great at a lot of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: they are also very pricey.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think where manufacturers maybe are the area that they're getting trapped into because basically all of them are publicly traded companies, they're interested in profits, revenue and profits, and to bring shareholder value and also obviously a lot of value.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're focused on creating these packages, you know, in order to buy a sunroof, you also have to buy this, or in order to buy this engine, $8,000 technology package.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, in order to get this engine, you also have to buy that.
[SPEAKER_00]: They figured out ways to really, you know, get us to channel us into buying something quite expensive, but like we talked about offering of different engines.
[SPEAKER_00]: don't have to sell a lot of them, but give us a slightly simpler track to go down, you know, something is something more affordable.
[SPEAKER_01]: And on the bright side, there seems to be more manufacturers now talking about the need for more affordable trucks than more so in the last couple months than in the
[SPEAKER_01]: But manufacturers are starting to notice that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I want to see more competitors to the Maverick.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we talked about previously in other podcasts.
[SPEAKER_00]: And also Ford has teased us.
[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't show anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they said that $30,000 for door little pickup is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's within two years.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that could be really interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I think I saw in the news that there's even a lot of high-ups at American auto manufacturers that are going to be meeting with government officials to talk about some of the regulations and things that require certain features and vehicles that are expensive to drive the prices up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who knows, maybe there will be some more affordable trucks on the market soon, that would be fantastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: I still like older vehicles.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, I haven't been shopping around for new trucks, but we're lucky I get to drive cool new trucks at work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's hard to, like, if you said, go, I'm good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to know if you're after?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I do, but will I buy one?
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably not.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's just, it's just outside of what kind of makes sense for my life right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why it's crisis concern.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's very cool that we get to test them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do always feel good when I get back in my 30-year-old ram though.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Going back through your house.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was driving one of the half-tons that we were testing for truck of the year, which those videos are starting to publish now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was driving one of those trucks for a couple days, and I was so happy to get back a mile truck.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's a good feeling.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it is good.
[SPEAKER_01]: But no, new trucks are great at a lot of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I tend to get spoiled a little bit more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just cuddle by the new trucks, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: When I hear, I'm not to, not to, I'm the bad thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not to bring an age thing into it, but Roman says at least he gets older, he likes more comfortable vehicles.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am also getting a little older.
[SPEAKER_01]: My RAM is not so comfortable.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, I mean, you know, jumping in the brand new truck with your podcast already playing and your heated seat already on.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's something about that that's really attractive, I think.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and you've got a family and dog and all kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, a single cab, second-gen probably wouldn't work.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not as well, probably.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyways, all right, well let us know what you think in the comments below.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully you're enjoying your family time.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're listening to us during the holidays, really appreciate you and thanks for the your Patreon support as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: And drop us a comment too.
[SPEAKER_01]: any truck features or any particular trucks or truck experiences that you're thankful for.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'd love to hear them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks very much.