S&YE229 - Silver Roo Offroad

[00:00:10] Hey, my name is Chris Ingram and you can find me on Instagram under the handle Silver Roo underscore offroad and you're listening to the Subie & You podcast episode 229. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Subie & YOU! podcast. I had Chris Ingram on as you just heard. He goes by Silver Roo Offroad as you also just heard. But one of the things that I really like about this episode is I was able to record this episode in person which is always a

[00:00:39] lot of fun and it's always different. And with this one I didn't have any questions prepared or anything so we just kind of went with it and I kind of like that style. But we were this was on Sunday the last day of Overland Expo West 2026 in Flagstaff, Arizona. The event ends at 3 o'clock. He was a booth car. His car was in the booth and you have to keep

[00:01:06] it there until 3 o'clock. So 3 o'clock hit, we left, we went to where Camp Subaru was, where all the campers were and pretty much everybody cleared out but that gave us an opportunity to have some time away from everything and just record and hang out and it was a lot of fun. But in that intro you could kind of hear some hissing in the background and it was that was the wind. So it kind of adds to the

[00:01:32] experience. Maybe it'll make you feel like you were there with us. But it was really windy and the wind kept you know coming in and blowing but uh it was a lot of fun again like I said and just nice to be able to see him in person because I had met him at Overland Expo in Colorado last year so it was great to be able to see him again and when I found out he was going to be up here I said dude let's just set some time aside

[00:01:58] and record a full episode so we did that. But before we get into our conversation Chris was also on the Dirt Subies podcast previously and had a really good episode there so be sure to go check out the Dirt Subies podcast. That's my buddy Ben he's got a lot of good stuff going on with his podcast as well and getting some good episodes out there. You could also check out the Wave podcast and a couple of guys

[00:02:25] over there that are they are Subaru technicians and so it's really cool to hear their perspective and uh they're kind of funny they get into some funny conversations. So go check out the Wave podcast with Patrick and Dave and uh see you uh see what they have going on too. But thank you so much for tuning in and now we're going to hear from one of our sponsors. The Subie and You podcast is brought to you by Eccentric Designs. For those of you who don't know Eccentric Designs is a small

[00:02:53] community-driven business that offers custom fit vinyl overlays for most Subaru models. This includes various designs for the rear reflectors, taillights, and side taillights. I also offer fun decal designs like the popular fender stripes and stickers. To find designs for your Subie head on over to eccentricdesigns.com. There's always more projects in the works so be sure to follow at eccentric.designs on Instagram. Thank you Eccentric Designs for sponsoring the Subie and

[00:03:21] You podcast. If you are new here and you're looking for some good decals for your Subaru go check out eccentricdesigns.com. She also has an Etsy site so you can go check that out as well but be sure to follow her on Instagram and that's a great way to personalize your vehicle at a minimal cost especially if you're just starting out and you're not sure what you want to do just yet. That's what a lot of people end up doing. That's what I did and it's a great way to personalize it and make it your own.

[00:03:50] But thank you so much Eccentric Designs. When I was at Overland Expo West I recorded a lot of video content which I didn't do last year and so I got some I had I recorded a couple of segments up on the stage in the Subaru booth and then I recorded uh quite a few segments in the uh like at Camp Subaru

[00:04:13] where all the campers were so I uh I'm gonna oh and then I did a I recorded a bunch of content on Thursday when we headed out with all the campers to Edge of the World. So my goal and my thinking is to put out three separate YouTube videos so one for Thursday when we went out to Edge of the World and just all the content from that and then another one with content from at in like the Subaru booth

[00:04:41] space and then another video from all of the conversations and the video that I took at Camp Subaru because it was three separate spaces and I wanted to kind of separate those out. I know that some people end up putting together you know like chapters and everything but this is my first time recording this much video content and so I'm not 100% sure exactly how to approach it but if you have

[00:05:11] any thoughts if you if you've done YouTube videos before I mean because this is it's all from Overland Expo West 2026 so I could put it together all as one video and then just have it flow into the next thing and maybe do an intro and stuff but I'm not really sure I thought maybe three separate videos for the event could be kind of cool but if you have any feedback if you have any thoughts on that I would

[00:05:37] really appreciate it because again this is my first time recording this much video content and I'm not 100% sure the best way to approach it but again my initial thoughts are three separate videos so let me know if you have some thoughts please please you can email me at subindupodcast at gmail.com because if you message me through Instagram it's probably going to get buried somewhere because I get a lot of messages so please please email me if you have any thoughts.

[00:06:06] All right so of course there are more Overland Expo events coming up and then they we have we also have Wicked Big Meat, Boxer Fest and then the Subie Fest events which it seems like we just had those but they're coming around again so there's no better way than to show up in style at one of these events with some Subaru gear. You can go to subarugear.com use the code SUBINU2026 after you fill up your card

[00:06:31] of course and you will receive 20% off either a single item or your entire order. If your total is over $50 after the 20% discount you'll also get free shipping which I think is really great so be sure to fill up your card so you can get the free shipping. So thank you so much Subaru gear for sponsoring the SUBINU podcast and bringing this great offer. We really appreciate it and so go check out

[00:06:56] subarugear.com use the code get your gear and show up in style to all these events that are coming up. Another great brand that has really great products is meleedesignfirm.com. I have several of their products on my Subaru and my Crosstrek. I have the battery box, I have the front strut tower brace, I have the pitch stop and I have the engine bay caps which if anything the engine bay caps would be a really great way to dress up your engine. You can use the code SUBINU at checkout to get 10% off

[00:07:25] your purchase and you know when you pop open the hood you'll like it every single time. I promise it's such a great addition and it makes a nice little you know makes it aesthetically pleasing when you're in there doing engine work. So that's like one of the places that may possibly get ignored but don't ignore it anymore. Go get your engine bay caps or any of the other products that meleedesignfirm.com offers

[00:07:50] and it's good pretty much site-wide. So thank you so much melee design firm for sponsoring the SUBINU podcast. Really appreciate it. Love your products. Go check out his episode 2, his episode 40 where I talked to Mitch and it was a really great conversation. So with all that being said we will get into this episode now with Chris Ingram and hear about his Forester which is a Forester sport and just a great

[00:08:16] conversation. It was cool because we got to like walk around his rig. I got to see it in person as I'm recording the episode and I don't get a chance to do that very often so that was really cool. So thanks again Chris for chatting with me and being a guest on the episode. So here we go.

[00:08:44] All right welcome to the podcast man. Happy to be here. Yeah so it's great to see you again. I met you at Overland Expo Loveland Colorado last year so it's great to connect with you again. It was cool seeing your rig in the booth which I think it was like a super cool opportunity for you. Absolutely. Absolutely. So yeah and what's cool too is we're recording this here at what was base camp camp Subaru

[00:09:09] for the whole event. They're closing it all down. They're packing everything up but yeah I just thought while we're here we've talked about getting you on as a full episode and so I figured you know I'm not leaving until Monday. You're not leaving until Monday so let's take this opportunity to make it happen. Yeah it's a perfect setting. Granted we don't have all the decorations like there was before but you know we have plenty of awesome trees and oh yeah and a lot of wind.

[00:09:35] Yeah we're making do with that. The wind and the dust. Yeah so before we get into anything about your rig and in this whole like episode I have to ask you the most important question whether you prefer waffles or pancakes. So I know I'm gonna ruffle your feathers or some others out there but I have to go with waffles and yeah the main reasoning there is I love the little pockets of of juice that

[00:10:01] you get to accumulate with all the syrup and yeah nice crispy edges with a soft center and no I get that. I'm a waffle guy. I mean I like waffles of course but you know pancakes just do it a little bit more for me. I'll say this though I didn't eat any waffles for breakfast while the whole weekend so it's just pancakes and I have a smile on my face still. Oh good good. All right so it's great having you on here Chris great seeing you again you know so uh I guess like since we're here what was

[00:10:30] your well I kind of talked to you about that but we can do this on the on the podcast too but like what was your experience like with base camp as far as like camping because I know like over at the booth they had like the little owner lounge and this time they had it labeled as base camp and they didn't do that before so that's why I was kind of confused so you have camp Subaru which they also labeled base camp but uh it's where we did all the eating camping and everything and then you had the

[00:10:56] like booth quote-unquote booth space over there yeah so what was your impression of like this this whole thing yeah so obviously last year uh at Overland Expo Mountain West I always get that confused because they call this one yeah Expo West yeah uh so at Mountain West was my first experience you know coming out with Subaru and um getting to experience it we were at Boyd Lake last year yeah um which was

[00:11:20] awesome uh the setting is obviously uh you know objectively a lot nicer here with all the trees and uh specifically where we're at right now at the uh at the the Subaru base camp like camping area yeah they had everybody uh very nice here um they I I would say that they surpassed last year's and like the accommodations and the vibes in the camp I mean I heard I heard multiple times from other

[00:11:48] people that were not a part of Subaru or just out in the expo that they were like that word was getting around that this was here and yeah and that that this was going on and I think some people that were that were not associated with Subaru so you know they made their way over here and checked it out because the the vibes as some people would say were immaculate but yeah yeah they did a great job fantastic job and same with the booth the booth was uh it's impressive like what they can set up

[00:12:15] yeah what would you say I guess would be your favorite part about the camping setup and then your favorite part about the booth yeah so the camping setup um you know I I obviously my car was in the booth so I didn't get to to to camp here with everybody um but my favorite aspect I think was like you know they made it pretty obvious you you knew what you were coming into when you're pulling in you know they had the archway that said Subaru base camp on it they had multiple flat big flags

[00:12:44] um you know that said Subaru on it so right away you were kind of welcomed into this area and then it was like packed in here with people not in a bad way but like a good way there was people everywhere under the under the trees and and all their all the different setups going on and then they had a very obvious uh kind of uh group gathering area that was really well set up with plenty of chairs

[00:13:08] the howl campfires all the devos lights just everywhere um so camp was awesome and then the booth as well showcasing all the Subaru manufactured uh vehicles and then um the owner lounge they had the accessory uh uh I don't know what you would call them like stands so they had like actual gear that you would like go into a Subaru dealership and and look at but it was like out there in the outdoor

[00:13:36] setting so it was like kind of cool to see that uh like in its natural setting if you will yeah but uh yeah I'd say like the the settings like felt very similar um inviting being the biggest thing yeah so you think that's probably your favorite thing is that it's just so inviting yeah it's definitely very inviting I mean like again like uh hearing that some people in in other industries made their way over

[00:14:00] because they heard about it so much and then uh you know they welcome them right in they're like hey come on over and uh hang out yeah you can't come into our yeah you don't own a Subaru you've got some other shoe no no way well and hopefully you know hopefully some of these other you know like brands or whatever that are camping out here have you know people camping at their spaces will take note of what we're doing here and be like you know what let's incorporate some of that into our space and

[00:14:27] yeah because yeah if other people are coming to check it out and we're just getting around be like Subaru's doing it right yeah definitely I think you nailed it on the head and so like we're here at overland expo and that kind of invites uh in in my opinion uh a lot of different you know you have a lot of people that are off-roading um you have people that are I guess in the essence of the word I know it's a hot topic but true overlanders that are internationally traveling and staying place in culture but it all

[00:14:56] comes down to like you're outside in nature and for the most part you're kind of camping yeah and Subaru is doing just that they're inviting people to come out and camp and uh you know um they just I feel like they've really uh they've they've captured the essence of like what the overland expo is uh for that short weekend experience you know you're coming out here you can literally buy gear inside that expo

[00:15:20] and then you can come and test it out that that night yeah yeah it's pretty cool especially you know if you have room to like take stuff with you exactly yeah I know some people are like oh man I really want this because well it's really cool uh if you're listening and you've never been to an expo uh and one of the things that they do at the expo is they have a lot of these brands will have discounts so it's like basically like an expo discount yeah like you can only get it for this price

[00:15:48] at this event so I think that's a really good incentive for people to come out to these events like if there's something that you're looking for if it's close enough that you can get to an event you know if you have the room to take back whatever it may be you know you can save like you know a decent amount of money yeah totally yeah yeah go ahead uh the I'd say uh one of the approaches I come I've found that I come to the expo with is uh beforehand I'll come with like a

[00:16:16] little want list so I have a list of things that maybe I'm looking for so that way it keeps me kind of on track uh yeah I don't I try not to buy anything day one I always try to wait for my purchases either day two or even day three yeah or or the last day of the expo uh for a couple reasons I think at that point it shows that I truly want or or need whatever that item is yeah uh and then sometimes you'll find even better discounts because they're sitting there packing stuff up

[00:16:44] not quite as many people at the booths and you might get to have a little bit more of an interaction with the uh the owners or the the the employees up there and kind of get a better deal yeah exactly yeah uh before we go on anymore I want to you know we've mentioned this brand quite a few times but I want to give a huge shout out to Subaru for putting this together for the owners you know for people that love these cars and huge shout out to Joe from Subaru huge shout out to Dan and

[00:17:13] Sean from Rune Management huge shout out to Emily from Do Yoga Outside who was our camp host and I know there's a lot of other people who shoot huge shout out to Josh from uh Off-Road Roos who did the off-road excursion on Thursday and I know there were a lot of other people that were involved that I you know I can't you meet so many people it's hard to remember everybody's names but there was Fred

[00:17:38] and Grace over there at uh the Subaru booth and just like so many wonderful people that were involved in putting all of this together not not just from planning it but even the people putting in the physical labor to put all this stuff together like you even mentioned you wanted to maybe connect with Dan and see if you could come help set up earlier you know and and like be a part of that so yeah yeah it's just it's such a I know there's a lot to do there because like there's so much stuff they

[00:18:06] have to they have to build it and put it all together yeah I mean just the logistics alone I can't imagine there's so much stuff happening behind the scenes it's it's wild yeah a lot of hard work so now we'll go ahead and get into like your build and your Subaru journey and then like also this is kind of fun and interesting for me because usually prior to an episode I'll put together their questions you know and I kind of feel a little prepared but I know that you've been on

[00:18:32] the Dirt Subies podcast yeah he kind of does it like off the hip you know he doesn't come up with any questions and he just goes with it and it's kind of a flow and for me like being able to do it in person it's it seems a little bit more natural for me and I've been doing this long enough that I kind of know the questions I want to ask yeah but yeah so I know that from talking you to you before that this isn't your first Subaru so what was your first Subaru yeah so my first Subaru

[00:18:57] was a uh it was a 2004 WRX wagon and yeah I and very much like this one it was bone stock when I got it yeah but and this one's definitely not bone stock anymore yeah you know and uh because it was turbo it was a manual yeah I was in my early 20s uh danger it got yeah it got all the big stuff

[00:19:21] and uh um yeah I mean started upgrading that right away and uh modified it more of uh definitely more in the sports car uh kind of route uh at that time I wasn't doing a ton of off-roading quite yet I did eventually do get into off-roading with the wagon but that came a little bit after I started like doing a bunch of engine mods uh yeah you know I there's a whole list bigger turbo I did injectors

[00:19:48] full catalyst exhaust everywhere um it had cams in it so the thing was like idling like a hot rod it sounded super cool nice but yeah yeah the WRX wagon was my first uh that was my first vehicle yeah and nice and I loved it I mean I still miss it but I did blow the motor three times while we're sitting here being that we're outside uh you could probably these mics are probably picking up the wind blowing through the trees because it gets pretty hard at times yeah yeah uh so like where

[00:20:18] did your interest in Subaru come from in the first place very I can very vividly remember watching Colin McRae and all his uh rally racing endeavors as well as um the I I believe that there was a classic scene in uh he was in x x games uh the the where they call it rally cross I think at the time

[00:20:44] when he rolled it yeah and he was shifting it into first gear while he was still upside down yeah getting ready to land land on all four tires he was already thinking about what his next move was but it was seeing that that rally car hearing the boxer motor yeah that that subie rumble it just I'm a big big audio guy I love noises like lightning and thunder is like my favorite noise in the whole

[00:21:14] world yeah and wind plenty of wind on the mics so rally racing I think is what really kind of got me thinking about Subarus and and and the rumble and the sound that the Subarus and their unequal length headers make uh that just that drove me and um got me to start looking into them and then and then everything else came with it so yeah yeah so when you didn't end up having your WRX wagon anymore like

[00:21:42] was it because you blew that last engine or what what got you out of it and into something else yeah so um three yeah three motors that I blew uh the last time that it happened was uh I was coming uh I had been living in Colorado at the time probably only a year so I I can't really remember but I was going back to San Diego where I'm uh originally from with my brother on a road trip and um the the

[00:22:09] motor blew again when I was in San Diego oh man I spent the whole vacation that I would had planned to do all this stuff uh in my uh childhood home in the garage uh which is actually the first time a car ever been in our garage oh really believe it or not um it was to fix the Subaru so I I just spent the whole vacation um taking the fuel pump out changing spark plugs I did a compression check I was trying to diagnose the thing try to figure out what was going on but realizing it was the third

[00:22:36] time that I'd done it and not um and I say this with confidence it was not Subaru's fault I mean I was young and heavily modifying stuff and you know you run into that with just about anything and not driving it nice you know driving it spiritedly and yeah enjoying it enjoying it yeah yeah with a huge ear to ear grin every time I drove the thing um but it just came to a point where it was uh the

[00:23:01] third time that that had happened um we had actually taken it to a shop in Temecula that was uh I can't remember their name but they were a very well-known Subaru shop at the time they threw it on a dyno uh it got it got towed to that shop I'll I'll say uh and they were like hey you bent valves or something had catastrophically gone wrong and so the car was essentially dead in the water so I had

[00:23:26] some money saved aside from uh wildland firefighting at the time um and I was at that time getting more and more into off-roading and uh started to get my eyes set on a uh Tacoma so I ended up uh buying a Tacoma out there on that trip my first like newish vehicle to me yeah that's how I ended up in uh in a Tacoma so I got a third gen third gen tan Tacoma okay and then so I know that you started outfitting

[00:23:55] that to go like on you know exploration trips I guess we can call them trying to figure out ways to sleep in it camp yeah stuff like that so you know we don't we don't really need to get into that but like what led you from going from because you're after your Tacoma was your your uh Forrester sport right yep yep so what led you from going let me start that again what led you going from your

[00:24:20] Tacoma into the Forrester yeah so um had the Tacoma for about about five years um had a lot of fun with it uh ended up getting uh rear-ended and it ended up getting totaled um and the way that that all happened was uh someone rear-ended uh someone that was behind me um and essentially that they ensure and they and the person that caused the accident didn't have uh insurance so what little yeah what

[00:24:49] little insurance had to be divvied out between the other vehicles so uh long story short they didn't give me squat I couldn't replace the Tacoma essentially with with being in Colorado you know you pay kind of a Colorado tax if you will in Tacoma so they're they're up you know people are selling them for a lot so um that alone just kind of made me start to rethink about what I was doing at the time I was um working at a previous uh another fire department uh other than the one I'm

[00:25:17] currently at and I've been running a side business uh doing uh drone videography and photography and yeah you're telling me about that earlier and and we kind of got into that conversation just based on a previous conversation talking about like just doing content creation and yeah all this stuff so that's like really interesting yeah so I was doing that on my uh on my four days we like to call it in the uh the fire industry uh because I work two days on four days off every week

[00:25:43] all year long yeah and so plenty of time to start a side side business yeah and one that will take you all across the state and and into many other states so I was driving the Tacoma all over the place and I was still doing that when I got in the accident and so I was like you know what maybe I should get something more fuel efficient but something that I can still uh sleep in and something that I can still off-road in so that led me to start thinking man why don't I look at some kind of SUV

[00:26:11] I looked at rav4s for about 10 minutes on my phone and then thought no I think of forester is what I want yeah my girlfriend at the time had a Subaru my dad has a uh a WRX can't remember the year okay um it's a newer one um uh I remembered all the times that I have with my previous Subaru uh aside from the motor stuff that I did with it it was a very reliable vehicle in every other regard and so much fun

[00:26:38] so I thought you know what why don't I look and do a forester so was the forester like the first thing that came to mind or did you even consider the outback because the outback can you know it provides more space as far as like the volume in the back and sleeping and storage and all that kind of stuff or like what what attracted you specifically to the forester you know um my my gut tells me that the

[00:27:03] first thing was the looks yeah I really liked the um kind of the compact um look and the body styling of the forester and uh I found out that they still call it a wagon and because I had a WR wagon uh WRX wagon I was like you know what I kind of want to stick to the to the wagon body style if you will I don't I don't know if they in the industry still call it that but I know uh when I looked up on the

[00:27:28] chart the SK was considered a wagon so okay um yeah a lot of the looks was my driving force I think towards it and you'd had a Subaru before so like you mentioned earlier the reliability you know the fun that you had with it you already know the off-road capabilities and so what year is yours and did you buy it new yeah so this is a 2021 uh did not buy it new I bought it with um it was used it was a I was told

[00:27:56] it was a lease before I got it okay um it had 30 like 30,500 miles on it so let's just say 31,000 miles okay so when you bought it I mean obviously you were doing a lot of this stuff with the Tacoma so I'm sure you probably went into it with all these thoughts of like okay how can I outfit this to to fit me and then I'm guessing you probably had some of the things from the Tacoma that you could use

[00:28:25] and reuse for the foresters or like what were some of those things that you were able to reuse yeah so a lot of um you know a lot of the little uh supporting um items uh that I took from the Tacoma were like the rotopax the water port um the max tracks that I have um all the all the regular like camping equipment um was pretty much came right from the Tacoma uh some of the lights I had uh from

[00:28:53] the Tacoma before okay um and um a lot of the bedding material is all yeah you know stuff that I came from the Tacoma but yeah for the most part other than that it was um it was kind of like a fresh canvas yeah if you will which was actually like really fun and yeah I think it worked out it made it more enjoyable because it just kind of built over time yeah you could start fresh with it and then just be like kind of have this vision of where you wanted to go with it but like

[00:29:20] what was the first like actual modification that you did to oh man uh think about that one well I would say that the the first thing was tires okay I I learned that from the Tacoma what the the most uh bang for your buck uh thing in the off-road um side of things was having good tires yeah um in my personal uh experience I didn't start with very good tires

[00:29:47] I I did go to um on the Tacoma you mean uh no with the Forester yeah uh I wanted to put general grabbers on this um which is what I had on Tacoma before but they didn't have them in the size I was looking for okay um so um I got some uh a set of Falcon trails okay and I don't know if it's just the the I won't say it was so much the the tires were no good by any means um I just had more punctures

[00:30:14] with them than any other tire before wow and I don't know if um you know it could just be a fluke but I do not remember having that much uh that many issues with general grabbers or ko2s which both I had used previously on the on the Tacoma so the Falcons didn't last long I went right right to ko2s so so when you bought the Falcons did you put them on the OEM wheels yeah okay yep they were on the OEM

[00:30:40] wheels uh so those were also geez I can't remember actually I think they were 18 inch wheels OEM okay um I could be mistaken all right but don't quote me on that so when you got the ko2s did you put them on the OEM wheels also or did you upgrade the wheels at that time no so at the same time um I I managed to and I still call it one of the best market Facebook marketplace finds ever uh I found these LP1s

[00:31:05] uh actually in Denver and I'm pretty sure they were actually came from Robert Champion oh um I tried reaching out to him to see it say hey I think I bought your wheels yeah um that you're selling uh but yeah I found these on Facebook marketplace for a screaming deal nice so I ended up getting these wheels all five uh no all I got four um and then once later when I had had uh the swing out I was

[00:31:29] reached out to uh LP Adventure and they gave me a little bit of a deal um on that uh fifth wheel that's cool so naturally put a uh another ko2 on that so we have the full size spare in it at all times so do you um with your full-time spare or your full-size spare do you rotate it through when you get your tires rotated or you just leave it back there all the time yeah you know I know so right now currently before on the previous set because I'm now on my second set of ko2s uh since I got the

[00:31:59] uh car previously yes I would uh rotate it through but since the one that's on the spare now has a little bit of wear on it I'm gonna probably wait a little bit before I start rotating it in but yeah I do usually try to rotate it in so that way at least when a when I do get a flat um all the tread uh the depths are all the same yeah I did that with my first set of Toyos and then when I got my second set I kept like meaning to go do it but I think part of the problem with me is it's up on the roof

[00:32:28] and like it's kind of a pain to get off I have to like clear out the back to make sure I can put it in there because I don't want them to mess with doing it you know yeah I want them to be able to just grab it out of the back and do it and so I the first time I went to go get my tires rotated I didn't do it and I was thinking maybe I'll just do it on the next time because you know it they'll still have a decent amount of wear or a tread on them and then I just never did it so and now I have

[00:32:51] the um now I have the uh Milestar Patagonias but yeah I only bought four because I have I still have a full-size spare uh Toyo yeah up there and I'm like I'm just gonna keep that until I can go back and get another Patagonia and yeah up there you know nothing wrong with that because I was gonna try to see if I could get like a credit or something for that that Toyo yeah but it's past

[00:33:18] the like expiration date or whatever they have okay and so they're like we would just have to throw it away or recycle it or something so I might see if like somebody needs a full-size spare that already has a set of Toyos because I know it's a good way to go about it good tire it's not I think they say like if it's 10 years or older than you know you probably want to look at you know getting it replaced but it's only yeah dry it's only like three years old you know yeah so and somebody could like you

[00:33:46] know I'd of course look at it make sure it doesn't look too bad but yeah so like what were some of the next modifications you started doing after the you know getting wheels and tires on yeah so I think um I think after the wheels and tires it kind of came I think for a little while I started to put a lot more of the um organ started to approach a little bit of organizational stuff on the inside because right away I was sleeping on the inside of it and um even up until today uh and the rest of

[00:34:14] this trip from expo I'm still sleeping inside of it yeah it's all about to change soon yeah you're just in a few weeks um yeah so I kind of get got into the organizational side of it uh I picked up a roof basket uh at one point so then I could uh put an awning on top of it because I definitely appreciate the shade um yeah it's kind of hard to it's kind of hard to think back like where I started at

[00:34:36] well then you can go into like what you have now because uh I know one of the last year when I met you at Loveland one of the most recent upgrades that you had and I don't know how recent it was was the Sherpa rack yeah yeah the Sherpa rack is um very I'm very first of all very grateful to have that Sherpa rack on there um full disclaimer you know Sherpa gave me that rack uh shortly before that

[00:35:02] expo it was uh um like one of the first production forester racks out there um and uh I literally had a print to on there before I uninstalled that and swapped that out the day before the expo oh yeah I remember that correctly but um yeah I happened to live up the street from them yeah that's that's what's really cool is it's it's very convenient for you to be able to just go by the shop yeah you know talk to them and so convenience really worked out well for you yeah definitely so close yeah I'd been

[00:35:32] going there uh you know back when I had the Tacoma buying some little mounts and stuff from them then so I'd known them a little bit through that but uh really got to know them a lot more with the Subaru because at the time they were also launching their Subaru racks uh so it kind of worked out really well yeah so you know shout shout out to uh Alex and everybody else at the Sherpa team absolutely amazing people yeah and that was cool because uh you know I saw your rack and then I know that

[00:35:59] Milton and Kerry have their racks on their cars yep and then um so like they introduced me to Alex and I can't remember who else was out there at Loveland but got to talk to them had them on the mic a little bit for the you know bonus episode from that event and then eventually got them on the podcast uh after I think it was like right after they did the Subaru launch it was like perfect timing yeah yep but super great guys yeah and I went to their did you go there after party I didn't I

[00:36:27] didn't go yeah so their after party I get there and the first thing I see is I think it was Alex up on this scissor lift like way up in the air with a megaphone and I think there was somebody else up there with him too because Trevor yeah may have been yeah so like somebody was doing an announcement the other person was throwing out like t-shirts and stuff but they were doing giveaways and Kerry ended up winning a giveaway for a free rack so yeah that was like it was I walk up and I'm like

[00:36:53] this is just like the coolest thing ever like these guys have there was tons of people there yep they had like food truck vendors I'm like these guys are like just doing it up like they're just having fun you know I know they work really hard and they've you know they've had to move shops and everything but I'm like these guys are having fun doing what they're doing what they do you know yeah absolutely and uh and every year and uh it's usually like September August they have what's called the Sherpa

[00:37:19] Summit out in Taylor Taylor Park Colorado and it is almost identical to that experience uh I went out for my first time last year and um you don't have to have a Sherpa rack uh to go there you know yeah they're just inviting you know they do charge a ticket because they've got to lease the land out it's a huge plot of land but man they were slinging racks left and right out there they were they were giving away so much cool stuff so if you thought that was cool them throwing off yeah go to the

[00:37:48] Sherpa Summit they'll uh not literally throw the racks at you yeah catch this but they gave away a lot of free racks that that that uh at that event it was cool they're very very generous people very approachable very cool so since we're sitting here in front of your car it looks like you have some lights uh right here kind of nestled in the rack so talk about what those are yeah so I had some

[00:38:12] Baja design uh lights that are uh kind of uh cleverly integrated uh into the roof rails of their rack um and it's like kind of in the grab handle so they're not like protruding from the top of the rack they're kind of flushing out of the way and I use those for uh they're individually controlled right and left and I kind of use them as like scene lighting for camp and um uh just anytime I need

[00:38:36] to get a little bit of flood light on one side of the vehicle um and so yeah yeah I've got lights kind of not too many lights on this thing I try to keep it to the minimum and and keep it to pretty much exactly uh just like what I need and what I find that uh is useful and then you also have this water port on there too which is cool so uh how long have you had that on there yeah so the water port uh the water port's been on there ever since I got the uh window panels uh it used to be mounted on top of

[00:39:05] the rack but once I got the window panels that are also also made by Sherpa um it just seemed like a much more convenient place for the water port to be uh to kind of live full time when it's uh in the camping mode if you will yeah um and that becomes kind of my outdoor shower area and probably most most often I'm using that to uh wash dishes so I can pressurize it and then I uh you know some spray power yeah exactly get a little bit of pressurized water helps get all the food off

[00:39:33] all the stuff fill up bins real quick so is it I mean it's how many gallons is it um I think it's five I think it's five gallons okay and I mean does it last a pretty decent amount of time yeah I didn't even fill it up all the way uh before the expo and I still have water in it now nice um so what have you used it for here so here I've actually used it to wash my hands a lot because uh here at the

[00:39:58] expo we have port-a-potties and back in the my wildland days we used to call it the blue room flu yeah and uh super easy to get sick from people so I don't always trust that hand sanitizer that's uh in there so I've washed my hands a lot well and they have those hand washing stations and which is good but a lot of times you'll go over there and there's no water there's no soap exactly so I I'm the same way I try to wash my hands as often as I can so um blue water flu I'll have to remember that and

[00:40:25] I I think that you know maybe something that would be good for Subaru and I'm gonna I'm gonna talk to them about this but maybe at the next um expo maybe they provide a hand washing station to be like hey right yeah you're coming through you know you need to wash especially people that are working at the booth because you're walking around shaking hands and stuff that might be a good idea for them to have you know their own little area we can wash your hands definitely yeah back when I was doing wildland

[00:40:52] firefighting with the forest service when we get on really big campaign fires and they set up a whole camp set um camp area uh for you know hundreds and hundreds of different uh resources uh they'll bring inevitably bring port-a-potties and inevitably if once you're there you know after about two weeks uh there's a the flu and the sickness starts going around and it's a result of all that yeah also like

[00:41:16] you know we're walking around yeah you've got some ditch lights right here which uh I know you're a fan of these guys but let us know like what you've got here on the hood yeah so on the hood um uh for my ditch lights I'm running the Baja Designs uh squadrons um just been a big Baja Design fan since I was a kid honestly um because uh living in San Diego we were super close to the desert and I grew up riding dirt bikes

[00:41:43] and um seeing trophy trucks and inevitably uh you know hearing all about the Baja 1000 I just always saw the Baja Designs uh logo and uh cool so just went with uh Baja Designs uh honestly purely because of the logo yeah but they're they're very solid lights um using those as my ditch lights uh it is a cool logo on top of the on top of the roof rack I do have a uh a light bar it's made by Last Fit it's uh

[00:42:13] kind of like one of those companies off uh Amazon uh not super well known but I found that it actually has worked really well I don't use my light bar all that much um but I will say that uh for the price that I paid for it it works out really fantastic um the first one that I had did get condensation issues uh tried to try to fix it they they uh they were actually super they communicated super quick

[00:42:39] um oh that's told me that there was a little uh screw that you take out of it and then you run the light and it bakes the condensation I put the screw back in I tried that it didn't work told them about it uh three days later they had sent me a whole new light bar and I have not that that light bar has been on there ever since the last expo uh almost a year ago now yeah and it no issues you get a lot well do you get a lot of rain where you're at yeah in spurts in Colorado usually and if it is

[00:43:07] raining it's usually coming down hard yeah well I was just wondering because like in Houston we get a lot of rain too and I've always wanted a light bar for my car I don't necessarily need one however it would come in handy when we go to um cheeseburger loop yeah I've always wanted to drive cheeseburger loop at night but I don't have a lot of lighting I have my headlights which are led now so they do put out a lot more light I have uh fog lights with that are a combo and then I have ditch

[00:43:35] lights whether that are a combo and I've always wanted to drive through there just to like see how what I have already lights it up see how well it works yeah but I want to go with other people you know yeah definitely also it looks like you have some suspension parts in here yeah what do you have going on in here so we're running uh rally tech springs uh and their strut spacers as well as their

[00:44:00] subframe drop kit okay to kind of keep everything happy um up front is their sport spring and a two inch spacer in the rear we're using their overload spring for the forester and a 2.5 inch strut spacer oh so I put the overload in the rear because we're obviously running a lot of weight I've got the the swing out the spare tire uh and a full slide out in the back that stores a lot of equipment so

[00:44:25] there's yeah a lot of weight that their rear needs this support let's open up the back and we can talk about that yeah everybody will know this sound yeah so yeah here we're we're looking in the back end of the forester and um I have my uh my slide out that's made by wheels and feels um it it does like

[00:44:51] all the uh like most slide outs uh it slides out and you can kind of organize your gear and uh set all the equipment up all the way that you want but the really big selling point for this one over a lot of other things that I saw that solved like probably my number one issue that I had with this vehicle was accessing the spare tire storage yeah so obviously with my full size spare I don't I can't put it down there it doesn't fit yeah which in my case works out great because that just means more storage

[00:45:18] with this slide out I can just slide the top here oh and very easily access everything down there okay yeah I heard you talking about that earlier but I didn't really understand what you meant but yeah so this is it uh just as simple so we keep uh I keep my compressor down there my uh scissor jack I have recovery strap my stove my wash basin a couple floor mats I have a uh a camp fire uh propane fire

[00:45:45] torch down there so it's kind of get the camp vibes and um a little bag with some uh ratchet straps and stuff that I keep down there at all times very nice and then you've got some like storage back here on the on the back of your seats and then you've got this like so what tell me about this um ceiling rack here yeah so um up here on the ceiling I have the uh Anderson design fabrication uh moley panel

[00:46:11] which kind of takes up the rear passenger uh uh grab handles and so that thing just goes across and uh in it I store all my dry food uh so like my uh mountain houses if you will so like if I don't feel like cooking for whatever reason I grab those as well as I'll keep my camera up there a couple more lights and then I've got an electronics bag and a toiletry bag okay so toilet paper and hand washing

[00:46:35] stuff and then off of that going towards the back I kind of uh jerry-rigged a couple different uh pieces I have a little bit of netting that I bought off Amazon uh that I extended off the back of the rack and then I grabbed another canvas uh I don't know what you would call that like a kind of a canvas net also that I kind of extended off of that webbing oh yeah that then goes to hooks to the back of the

[00:46:59] hatch and then so up in that is where I keep all my bedding so my sleeping bag my blanket um a puffy jacket a rain jacket my pillow but just soft goods yeah kind of like for all the sleeping setup all right so also if you're listening to this uh you know we're describing all these things and obviously you can't see it uh it's not like a youtube video where we'd be going around showing all these things as we're talking about them but I am taking a lot of photos that I'm going to put

[00:47:28] together as a reel on my instagram page so if you go to subeandupodcast on instagram you can see photos of all the things that we're talking about so I think that's pretty cool this is another great opportunity to record in person because I can take pictures as we're talking about this stuff yeah probably makes it a lot easier yeah so as far as like you know you said you lived in san diego

[00:47:51] now you're in colorado right yeah so um what kind of things do you enjoy doing with your you know now that you have it outfitted for doing like long trips overnight trips you can sleep in it and everything you're obviously using the luno mattress but like what are the kinds of things that you enjoy doing with your forester yeah so you know when it comes down to it uh it's like I like

[00:48:18] to think of it as like my adventure vehicle so um I very much enjoy exploring new areas and um I I feel pretty strongly like to about that you know to get to know and really find out about an area and like really enjoy it you need to be there for a while you know and kind of get into it and that means either maybe bringing a bike with you or um bring in fly fishing equipment or whatever kind of fishing equipment like kind of explore the area dive into it so I like being able to bring all those activities

[00:48:48] with me um as well as I like knowing that the that the Subaru is you know the way that we've built it is uh it can kind of sustain me in those areas for several days so I can kind of very self-sufficient yeah very try to keep it as self-sufficient as possible so not not so you can just survive the trip but you can thrive yeah you know you can actually like really enjoy you can you have a place you can come back to and you have all the little creature comforts you know I've done my

[00:49:16] time of uh sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag back when I was doing wildland fire stuff uh I'm kind of over those days and you know uh sleeping inside of it's been great but I very much like to like I love picking up the BDRs and and exploring those and spending several days on a trail you know what is what is the BDR so the BDR is a backcountry discovery route okay um and they were kind of uh

[00:49:40] pioneered if you will by a bunch of uh adventure bike riders okay and they are routes that uh typically traverse uh a lot of the states uh north to south or south to north whichever way you want to go yeah um but they're very much uh primarily dirt roads and back county roads there there are some pavement sections that you kind of will go into some towns perfect resupply points but for the most

[00:50:05] part they're uh you know four-wheel drive or not sorry not four by four but there are uh they're like off-road uh trails and stuff that you'll that you'll connect so you're you're kind of away from uh towns primarily and you're kind of in the in the backcountry if you will and um uh I think those are an awesome very accessible thing most people they have them in most states so a lot of people can

[00:50:29] just look up on backcountrydiscovery uh routes.com I believe it is um and uh find the route in their state and then just start going and exploring and usually they take several days to complete so yeah uh so how many days do you usually go out for I mean I'm sure it probably varies but like what would you say is like the longest amount of time that you've been out the longest that I've been out is

[00:50:53] a little over a week uh if I can remember off the top of my head uh typically it's about you know two to three days if I'm being honest because you're four four days off two days on yeah yeah so with it's still a lot of time off but I still have to you know unless I want to get more time off I have to kind of trade a shift but the the the nice thing about it is that um you know those days off are very

[00:51:18] consistent they're they're every week so yeah I can put in a two or three day or um even just an overnighter in almost every week so um the frequency is is a lot but um we're we're pushing to do a lot more longer duration stuff as I get a little bit more ambitious with what I want to do with the vehicle so yeah so being that you know you have four days off that you have to kind of figure out

[00:51:46] okay where can I go within the amount of time like as far as like getting there being there and then coming back so like how do you go about mapping that out and and like what is the furthest distance that you will say that you would travel before you're like okay that's a little too far yeah I don't uh so right off the bat I I use Onyx Off-Road almost solely uh to find to find uh

[00:52:11] inspiration for uh areas that I want to go check out um and as well as using their route building feature is just super super cool so you can link you know they'll they'll show you all the trails in an area and then you can literally build and link your route so you could even make your own backcountry discovery route if you really wanted to yeah so I use that as uh kind of my primary uh inspiration of

[00:52:37] like kind of where to go and and when I get there where am I gonna you know explore a little bit um but as far as like how far I'll go uh nothing's really off the table it just comes down to uh you know if I can get the time um if I can bring the the girlfriend along with me and keep her happy she doesn't like uh she doesn't like as long of uh trail hours as I do so it's usually uh hey let's camp one night and then let's do an airbnb one night and uh that's how we can kind of stretch out

[00:53:07] the miles okay uh so whenever you're going out on these trips are you trying to find a new place every time to explore that you haven't been to before yeah ideally I love um I definitely love trying to find new spots and um you know uh I definitely have places that I will kind of come back to just because uh they're they're just insanely beautiful or maybe it's a very cool lake or

[00:53:33] the driving experience like the trail itself is super fun uh but I'd say more often than not I am trying to find new places uh trying to keep it fresh yeah and then are there places that you've been to that you're like this place is just so awesome I have to keep coming back yeah Walden Sand Dunes is actually a place that I've gone uh quite a few times and that's out in uh just outside of actually

[00:53:56] Walden Colorado okay um it's I'd say it's only about a three hour drive from my house but you can drive on the dunes and you can camp uh you can pretty much camp on the dunes too okay which uh there's it's the only place I can think of uh that's really close to me the Great Sand Dunes is near me the Great Sand Dunes National Park yeah but you can't camp uh or drive on the dunes yeah but out in Walden you can and uh I've gone out there a couple times and practiced actually some

[00:54:25] recovery stuff purposely getting stuck and yeah that's got to be fun though it was a lot of fun and I usually uh I usually go out with a co-worker and good buddy of mine uh and he's in a second gen Tacoma yeah crap now what am I gonna do I've put I've pulled him out of the snow out of there because uh uh in the winter obviously it snows out there and um uh he got stuck one time and got to pull him out in the Subaru and uh the funny thing is he returned the favor not too long after

[00:54:51] that pulling me out so yeah uh so like let's say you're you're mapping out a route that you want to go to and you know you you get out there once you're there like what kind of activities do you do yeah so I guess it kind of all depends on the trip uh I'll kind of look ahead of time and and you know figure out what whether it's hey you know this trip or let's do some mountain biking because there's plenty of mountain biking trails or hey we're we're really close to a river so maybe we'll do some uh

[00:55:20] we'll do some uh you know some fishing um I'd say more often than not uh the thing that I'm almost always interested in is uh photography so I will and and the the the geographic uh coolness of the area is what will almost always inspire me and so it's almost always going to be like I'm there and I want to like really experience the area and I want to photograph it and uh in the

[00:55:49] most beautiful settings as possible and so that means you know camping there you get to be there early in the morning and that nice morning light and then you also get to be there in the evening and the nice evening like kind of like right now with the sun starting to get low and these uh trees here in the in the forest in Arizona and it's starting to kind of filter its way through all the ponderosas and kind of light this whole area up in a nice little gold light yeah but it's those things that I

[00:56:15] uh the photography is a is a big one but usually it's uh other than that a lot of mountain biking yeah maybe some trail running do you have a photography page um or is it just all for you yeah it's pretty much uh I have a uh I have a personal page uh but honestly it's the uh um uh you know I I mostly just post uh all my stuff on the silveroo off-road page yeah that's cool yeah

[00:56:41] so it's just the the big one thing I really want to do and like start to dive more into is I just want to um help tell better stories of the of the trips and yeah kind of describe the areas to people and hopefully um like a lot of others in the industry do is try to inspire others to to get out there and kind of you know use their vehicles and find cool places yeah so if you had like let's say not like

[00:57:07] unlimited time but if you have like a lot of time where you could you didn't really have to worry about like going getting back to work like so you could just take you know a good amount of time off like what would be your epic trip of like some place like a um like a bucket list place that you would like to go to and be like I want to go explore this area for like you know a week or two weeks or

[00:57:30] whatever it might be yeah it's it's pretty hard to pick um I I am extremely attracted to the desert I I love the desert um I don't know why it resonates with me so much because it's a pretty uh pretty rough place to be um but I just I love every everywhere that um you know Utah um you know parts of Colorado

[00:57:54] sometimes feels like a desert uh you know Wyoming um so I tend to find myself you know gravitating towards the desert but if I had unlimited time a bucket list uh dream of mine is to do the trans American trail oh nice and I'm I'm hoping to do that here in the next few years so obviously uh we have uh Crankshaft Culture yeah they did that not too long ago yeah I mean I got to talk with them a

[00:58:19] little bit not as much as I would like because it's a busy weekend but um that's something that I have on my mind that I think about quite often I know I'm going to need a lot of time for that so I would uh I'd have to plan kind of far ahead even with the the amount of time I already get off yeah um but the Trans-American Trail is something that I've really set my my eyes on as something I want to hopefully do in the in the future um international travel with the with the Foresters

[00:58:46] not something I don't think I have uh on my list so much just due to the logistics and timing and the finances but the Trans-American Trail is something I foresee as uh pretty achievable given the time um so that's what I would have to pick if I had endless time and yeah just go uh go get that done yeah so uh I want to ask some other questions but I was you know I'm standing here looking at your

[00:59:10] rig so what is the wrap that you have on here who is it who did the wrap and then like what what are what's the topography of yeah so the the wrap that um I have on the side of it is uh made by wrap lander um and what it is it's kind of like a topo kit um you can you you know primarily mostly people it's set up to do topo lines um you know it comes in a big long sheet of a straight line so

[00:59:39] you could kind of do whatever you want with it but most people do topo lines um it's just kind of the easiest um so yeah uh put it on here um you know put all all the lines on myself uh but the way that I did it was I actually picked a couple of my favorite campsites on Onyx Off-Road and I used the uh the topographic lines uh as inspiration it's definitely not a picture perfect representation

[01:00:07] of the area but uh more so just inspiration okay um to start the lines and then I try to use uh the contour lines of the car itself to help you know make it flow a little bit better so yeah the driver's side is a uh is a spot near the Walden Sand Dunes actually okay uh the spot on the back of the uh the hatch is a place in Utah and then the uh spot on the right side is actually a place in Wyoming okay

[01:00:31] yeah kind of loosely based off of them as a starting point to start the lines okay but so as far as like all of your mods are concerned what would you say is your favorite mod and then what would you say is your most useful mod unless it's the same thing yeah so hands down it's got to be the slide out

[01:00:53] um the the slide out it because it's uh it's just it solved so many issues that I was having as far as the organization I would say the biggest thing uh doing all this in the Forester um and it's probably the same for a lot of the Subarus too is is the space yeah when you're trying to uh sleep in it and you're trying to set it up to be self-sufficient for as long as possible inevitably you're going to kind of run out of

[01:01:20] space pretty quick the slide out really helps solve that space uh issue namely in the spare tire compartment but the other thing is it's extremely functional it's really easy to grab the things that are in it too yeah so that in itself um kind of plays into a philosophy philosophy that I have and um and it's to reduce the friction of camping the easier it is to get to the things that you need

[01:01:46] uh the more likely it is that you're going to go out there and use it and inevitably the more fun you're going to have out there in the wild yeah so uh you may have mentioned it before but with this system is this designed specifically for your model Forester yeah yep this is a slide out meant for the SK Forester I believe they mark it as uh 2019 to 2024 okay um but they I know for a fact

[01:02:12] they do make these for cross tracks and outbacks and okay even some other vehicles out there like Toyos and Jeeps and 4Runners and whatnot so with your with the like organization in the drawer itself is that something that you can customize yeah so underneath the the sliding uh table you do have the ability to kind of uh move around the dividers a little bit they okay they do have um you know preset slots that you can put them in but there's nothing to say that you can't just come in there

[01:02:40] and I drum a lot of new notch if you just really need to make it even more customizable but um I from what I remember it's about four inches deep or a little over four inches deep that you have to work with so it's not super deep yeah so you are kind of limited on some things but naturally I found all the things that I need that that actually will fit in it yeah I I might look into this because you know I've I've thought about doing like a rooftop system for some of the things that I want to

[01:03:08] store in that and I think a lot of things that I would want to store are small enough that I could put in something like this without needing to get that to free up some space in the back but you know it's something I might look into it's I you know I don't do any off-roading or anything but there are there are things I mean like overlanding per se but there are things that I keep in my car that yeah I just like having like a big storage bin that takes up a lot of space and everything so it's that's

[01:03:34] pretty cool yeah because at the very least like I I obviously carry um a lot of tools with me too so if something were to break out on the trail I can kind of fix it but I find myself a lot of times even when I'm at home uh in the garage working on something some project that's completely unrelated I'm coming in here and I'm grabbing my tools or I'm using the slide out as a as a workbench um it becomes uh useful and not just the camping it's uh very useful day to day yeah yeah so as far as

[01:04:04] like when you're going out uh I mean it sounds like you do a lot of solo traveling you do some with your girlfriend but are there like other Subaru owners or just off-roaders overlanders that you go out with also um I have gone out a couple times with some other people like locally in Colorado um but I would say like it kind of I haven't successfully been able to find like a core

[01:04:30] group of people that I've been able to go out with um and uh and I don't know if it's because um it seems like a lot of times there's just timing just doesn't work out and uh yeah um I I don't think there's any shortage of people out there that are also doing it I would love to go out with people a lot a lot more but I find that um my time off is um it's so in can it's consistent to me yeah but it's inconsistent uh as in it it's usually the bulk of it is during the weekday and not a lot of people

[01:04:59] have the weekday off so I end up just yeah having to go out and kind of go out and uh solo trips um I I honestly go out mostly with my core worker in his Tacoma he he and I have gone out and done a lot of these trips together uh we have a lot more coming up actually this summer some some really fun uh adventures uh coming up but um yeah you know I just need to find some more people that uh

[01:05:24] that want to get out um because I I like it I I do realize uh I've done a lot of this stuff on my own but it's not the same with people uh the people really do make a difference and you know I'd be lying if I would didn't say that it gets a little lonely at times you know being out there so yeah yeah I mean there are benefits to being alone because then you can just like I know exactly what I want to go do and I don't have to worry about you know well do you want to do that too or

[01:05:49] I'm not really into that yeah so but it is good to go out with like for me you know being in Houston we don't really have a lot of off-road stuff and you know we don't have I mean we have cheeseburger loop and you know there are some other spaces but it's you know being able to come to an event like this and be around like so many people we're all out here you get to talk and you know do some trailing and off-roading in places that I never get to go to

[01:06:15] it's a lot of fun so yeah yeah but yeah for us it get you know sometimes it can get kind of lonely yeah I get it yeah it's it's definitely a lot I'd say the bulk at the time I do appreciate kind of that um solo stuff the freedom um and kind of uh it's a good uh space for me to kind of recharge but um it is also a lot of fun being with others too so yeah so start doing that a lot more soon is there uh is there anything else you want to share about your rig or your journey

[01:06:45] uh you know I I just think that um I can't help but think especially over this weekend that a lot of people will like kind of look at it and be like holy moly you got a lot of stuff and it is it's it's um it's kind of uh it's turned into that Subaru with all the stuff on it yeah right um you know in my head uh I justify it by hey everything has a purpose um all that's to say that you don't need this stuff to get out there and enjoy your Subaru off-roading like I yeah um I know a lot of

[01:07:14] the guests that have been on the podcast and a lot of people say that but it is so true just get out there and uh you know if you're if you're into camping and you just want to get outside or you're thinking about you know can I should I start off-roading or whatever just go out and do it go out and do it take notes of what your experience was like um and and be like hey you know I really noticed that I would like this thing or uh maybe my setup is uh I see I feel like there's a lot of friction here

[01:07:41] take those notes from that experience and then you can fix and work on that or maybe add that one little thing um when you get back you know this this did not happen overnight this is a culmination of yeah uh almost 10 years now that I've been kind of like off-roading and traveling and stuff a lot of the stuff comes from the Tacoma world and the things that I learned from all that and then with the Subaru itself these parts also did not show up overnight yes yeah little pieces at a time

[01:08:07] but this is my hobby this is what I love to do so um when I have that the the free funds um you know I'll start get the one little thing and then you know kind of developing that list and and kind of prioritizing that list you know you're getting the thing that is absolutely gonna give you the best bang for your buck right then and there yeah and then before you know you have a bunch of crap on your car yeah no but like you said you know everything has its place but you know everything is useful and you know you uh like you said go out there take notes and everything I'm sure as

[01:08:37] you've done it over time you're like wait I really need this you know or I really need this or maybe you took something with you and you're like I didn't even use it you know yeah that's that's the big one is when you start taking stuff out is when you know you're kind of getting in the right path it's like okay I did not need this stuff because everything you take out is you know it's shaving a little bit of weight yeah yeah absolutely and and just something that you just don't need yeah yeah so we'll get to and now we'll like talk a little bit more about you and uh get to

[01:09:06] know you a little bit more but like who is Chris like kind of describe yourself oh man uh that's uh that's a pretty broad question and yeah um you know uh I I I just like to I like to have fun and um I like to try to live life to its fullest um I've had a lot of experiences throughout my life

[01:09:30] that show that life is is extremely short um I lost my uh my youngest brother uh two weeks after I moved to Colorado oh man um so when I hugged him uh literally when I was climbing in my uh the WRX with my dad to move to Colorado that hug I gave him was the last hug I didn't know at the time that I last time I was gonna see him yeah so that hit me hard and um and I uh dealt with uh a lot of other

[01:09:58] ways of dealing with grief that were not uh healthy and that caused a lot of friction in my life and luckily kind of through uh learning all that it gave me just a a huge appreciation on on life and and um you know just told it just taught me to enjoy all the small moments treat people with kindness be nice to people I think it just plays well into um what I like to do for my profession you know as firefighting

[01:10:26] you know it's it's it's a super amazing job I get to literally when those lights go off at the station there I get to go out and and help someone no matter what it is uh they can have problems smoke detectors or it could be a car rolled off the side of the ditch and is on fire I mean it or a house on fire it doesn't matter I get to we get to go try and make someone's day better and I think overall I try to go through

[01:10:49] life doing the same yeah just have a positive impact on this philosophy yeah yeah and um you know make some friends along the way um yeah just try to try to have fun I have a I have a very I'm very blessed with the life that I've been given and very grateful I could uh I could die tomorrow and I would say that I'm a I've had a very good life and no that's good and I just want to keep that rolling as I want to

[01:11:15] die young as late as possible yeah I get that goal yeah yeah um so we know what you do for a living firefighter um but would you say that that is a dream job for you or do you like have a job that's like if I could do this like I would love that yeah and it's kind of funny because um I think firefighting kind of it came in by accident um so when I was in San Diego I uh I kind of got into

[01:11:41] aviation at a at a pretty young age um it started with uh flying RC uh airplanes when I was um geez I must have been like seven years old oh wow my dad bought me a RC airplane for Christmas one year uh that we started wouldn't do too well right now not now not now with all this wind yeah I know um yeah I got into RC uh airplanes with my dad and we uh my dad and I was just flying them a whole bunch

[01:12:06] and then uh he had a flight simulator on the computer that I was always playing on and uh those are cool one thing led to another and he's like hey why don't you uh go try and do the real thing so I got a job down at the local airport uh washing airplanes in exchange for flight time when I turned 16 I was able to solo for the first time oh that's so cool um so yeah I had a bunch of hours before I was 16 so I had to wait till I was old enough I ended up getting my uh solo solo sign off before I even had a driver's

[01:12:35] license so nice that was kind of cool and um yeah yeah I stayed in the aviation industry I asked uh at the same time find out I was colorblind uh because I think at that time I was my dream job was actually to be a bush pilot yeah um but finding out that I was uh colorblind kind of changed that for me but I I stayed in the aviation industry uh when I was old enough I jumped on a fuel truck uh at the same airport fueled for a couple years and then I moved into uh an avionics technician position at

[01:13:04] the same airport and did that for five years okay um and then that was about towards the end of that was when I uh started to feel like I was like I want something a little bit more I felt like I was I was like I want to do something a little bit more for other people um at the time I was wiring airplanes for like you know millionaires and stuff and it just seemed like there was something missing um and that's when I found out about wildland firefighting okay uh and then at the same time

[01:13:30] I was in a long term I was in a relationship that we kind of just slowly grew apart do you want to close it up so that you're getting dust in it at this point it's like after this whole weekend it's like this thing's a dust bowl yeah why add to it though yeah um but yeah so I found out about wildland firefighting and uh my aunt and uncle had lived out in Colorado and they'd always said hey

[01:13:54] uh we've got a uh spare room anytime you want to come out so I made to move out to Colorado and started working for the Forest Service um did wildland firefighting for about five five seasons in the summer and though in the winters I worked in the operating rooms at a local hospital kind of turning over uh yeah turning over surgery cases and uh cleaning up a lot of blood and you know doing all that stuff uh and then it just kind of got me interested in the medical side of field

[01:14:24] field and then um naturally I took an EMT class to get my EMT license and then that same community college offered a uh firefighting certifications too so okay I think the next year after that I got went and got my uh like structural firefighting certs if you will and then I started to start hearing about like what the structural side of firefighting was and their schedule and and and of course it pays a little bit more and yeah you know at the time uh uh you know you're pretty

[01:14:54] much gone all summer so you didn't really get to the the whole five years I first moved to Colorado I really didn't get to enjoy Colorado all that much I mean it was still fun I was traveling all across the country working on a lot of fires and having a lot of fun but moved into the structural side of things and I think it's over the last several years I realized that this is my dream job I kind of just

[01:15:17] slowly fell into it and just realized there's I work for a really fantastic department that really takes good care of us and um really uh make sure that we have long and healthy careers um and I just found the work is um is extremely rewarding and I honestly couldn't imagine doing anything else so that's awesome I think that's when you know you found your dream job yeah and uh my intentions are

[01:15:43] absolutely to retire uh in the fire service and specifically at my my current fire department so that's great man it's not everybody finds that so when you can find something like that that you're passionate about you know something that you really enjoy doing and like you said you could see yourself you're hiring doing that I mean that's amazing yeah so that's that's really cool yeah I you know yeah being the the dream of being a bush pilot I think that was the only time that I actually

[01:16:08] thought I had uh you know dreamt up what I wanted to do yeah um this just this just kind of like came through life in a weird way it just kind of kept following this path and and kind of ended up in it I didn't I definitely didn't grow up uh as a kid dreaming of being a firefighter yeah um it yeah it actually didn't even cross my mind once but uh it's just weird where life takes it sometimes oh yeah yeah so uh what is a favorite memory from childhood honestly uh getting that airplane yeah getting

[01:16:38] the it was a uh a super crappy yellow rc airplane that actually it didn't we couldn't even get it to fly oh man uh but getting that seeing that uh that yellow rc plane um I I just remember just like it was the coolest thing that I had ever gotten like we didn't always get like crazy big gifts and stuff said at the time it was three other brothers and yeah you know I'm sure you know a family uh

[01:17:06] living in San Diego is not cheap to raise four kids uh so getting that uh it's it's definitely like one of my most vivid memories and it's yeah it's kind of like when I look back at it it's kind of like the thing that launched my life's path in a way you know just each each and every little like uh kink in the road kind of like stemmed from that like one memory I feel like yeah so yeah that's

[01:17:30] cool uh what is something that makes you want to get out of bed every day coffee coffee coffee for sure coffee and uh the sounds of uh birds out the window awesome I'm a big uh I said it earlier before I'm a big uh sound guy yeah and I love hearing birds so I love a fresh cup of coffee hearing the birds hanging out with my girlfriend Nicole and our dog Lila out in the backyard oh man yeah that that gets me going yeah that's cool okay well what's something that would make

[01:17:59] you want to stay in bed oh man um there's not uh my my gut tells me that there's not really a whole lot because I feel like the only way to get through something that's kind of wanting to keep you into bed is to just kind of face it head on yeah um yes that might be like a cheesy canned answer I feel like it's uh no it makes sense I don't know things uh things could could always be worse and I

[01:18:25] try to you know I try to be optimistic about everything and um yeah it's just uh I don't know maybe if I'm feeling kind of sick you stay in bed a little longer yeah but at some point you got to move around a little bit yeah yeah but I mean yeah it's like if you're not feeling well it's like man I don't want to get up you know life's life's crazy there's a lot of things happening everybody you know everybody's got a different uh perspective on the world and everyone's uh view on the world is different and um you know you just gotta you gotta focus on

[01:18:54] on what your situation is and and um always improving it so then you can hopefully help others improve their situation I don't know absolutely yeah yeah uh what is something that really scares you um I think I don't know sometimes you know you you grapple you grapple with the unknown like what's the future like uh you know sometimes you it's easy to think about like where where are things going to

[01:19:23] be um going ahead and you kind of just wonder about that uncertainty and I think that naturally instills a little bit of fear a little bit kind of scares you a little bit and that's a very broad answer of course yeah no but it makes sense yeah and um and again it's just like I don't know you just kind of approach it in the now and try to try to find those moments uh to to get a little bit of joy each day you know yeah what would be your best bit of advice to give to somebody about anything like

[01:19:52] any topic or subject don't be too quick to judge people and situations yeah give give things time I've found I've found in you know years past I I may have uh come to conclusions too quick over uh initial reactions to uh you know situations or you know it's probably most applicable to people you

[01:20:15] know you I think a lot of us are can judge what you know people by uh by face value and I am almost 100% of the time wrong about my impression on on people yeah and um it's very good point you know whether it's good or bad um yeah you know so just be patient you know be patient hear people out um

[01:20:40] yeah because you have to sometimes get give time to maybe talk to that person exactly oh I had no idea yeah you know yeah absolutely good point yeah well I think that just about wraps it up man thank you so much yeah thank you raf it's uh it's pretty cool to be doing this as like a nice way to send off the weekend you know the expo was uh was amazing we met a lot of really cool people

[01:21:07] you know we both were we're probably pretty busy uh running around doing a lot of different things and you know now sitting here at the uh you know what used to be camp subaru is now kind of a ghost town and we're just surrounded by a lot of wind and some trees but yeah yeah no it's a great great point you know great way to send off the weekend and again it was great seeing you again great seeing people that I've seen other you know other places and expos last year and uh it's really cool just to

[01:21:34] uh just to be here and have this experience together yeah I look forward to many more of these yeah so thank you absolutely thank you you're welcome thank you for tuning in to another episode of the subinu podcast and thank you chris for taking the time out of your adventures at overland expo to record with me it was uh great to record in person again so uh thank you so much for that if you're not doing so already go give chris a follow it's silver rue and it's underscore

[01:22:03] offroad so silver rue underscore offroad give him a follow and uh again thanks for tuning in I hope you all have a wonderful week I will be putting out a bonus episode uh here as soon as I can for overland expo west I gotta pull all the audio together and uh I'm going to pull some audio from some of the videos that I recorded so that I can put those into the audio only version and uh and

[01:22:31] then I will get that put out but yeah so I've got some work to do but uh I've got some time to do it so just need to get working on it but anyway thanks again for tuning in hope you all have a wonderful week if you're going to be going to overland expo and pn or overland expo pnw at the end of june uh come say hi I'll be there and I look forward to seeing people again and then meeting some new

[01:22:56] people so take it easy have a great week much subie love raf the subie new podcast is hosted by rafael in a closet in houston produced by rafael in a room next to the closet in houston and edited by rafael on a computer in the room next to the closet in houston with music by luke ruiz in another room in houston you can find the subie new podcast wherever you listen to podcasts including apple

[01:23:21] podcast spotify and many more to support the podcast please head over to patreon.com slash subie new podcast once you join you will have access to the discord channel and discord chats with other patrons if you'd like to get in contact with the show you can find them on instagram at subie new podcast online at subie new podcast.com or by email subie new podcast at gmail.com that's all for this week