Conversations with Big Rich
Hear conversations with the legacy stars of rockcrawling and off-road. Big Rich interviews the leaders in rock sports.
Conversations with Big Rich
Team Smiles Captain, Jeremy Hammer of Fly-N-Hi in Phoenix, Episode 26
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Team Smiles Captain, Jeremy Hammer – owner of Fly-N-Hi Total Performance Center joins us for Episode 26 – our ½ year anniversary. Jeremy talks football, growing up in Arizona, Garage Rehab and more. Join us to catch up on all the latest. No matter where you are, Jeremy and his team can help you out, reach out to. https://fly-n-hi.com/ for all your off-road needs, especially in Phoenix!
3:29 – Race night is on Thursdays!
5:18 – I could have been in the paint industry instead
9:23 – a 12-speed is not the same as a BMX bike
11:51 – Football wasn’t always easy
14:15 – The transition from being a kid who watches TV to a kid who plays football: how coaches mold you
18:35 – football is life
20:47 – The first four-wheel drive
27:04 – where I still want to go with the racecar
32:45 – 9 minutes and then the crane of shame
40:57 – The start of Fly-N-Hi
50:45 – the Garage Rehab experience
We want to thank our sponsors Maxxis Tires and 4Low Magazine.
Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
Big Rich Klein: Welcome to the Big Rich show. This podcast will focus on conversations with friends and acquaintances within the four wheel drive industry. Many of the people that I will be interviewing, you may know the name. You may know some of the history, but let's get in depth with these people and find out what truly makes them a four wheel drive enthusiast. So now's the time to sit back, grab a cold one and enjoy our conversation.
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Big Rich Klein: All right. We're here today with Conversations with Big Rich, with none other than Jeremy Hammer. Jeremy is the owner of Fly-N-Hi off road. We are in Phoenix, Arizona in his shop and office. And we're going to talk about Jeremy's beginnings of life and how he got into motor sports and especially into the rock sports. So Jeremy let's start at the very beginning. Where did you grow up
Jeremy Hammer: Well, hello. Yeah, I grew up in the area and Arizona here, went to school in Mesa.
Jeremy Hammer: we moved out here when I was two years old. So I'm originally from Michigan Dearborn. Actually, my grandfather worked for Chrysler for 41 years and when he retired, the family kind of came out to help him move. And my parents stopped in Phoenix and fell in love with the Valley. So we moved out here when I was two years old and I haven't been back to see any of those lovely, snow storms or anything like that. I'm a definitely an Arizona guy loved the rocks, loved the desert, and if it gets too cold, I grow feathers and start heading down South. So went to high school here in Mesa, and then ended up, at Scottsdale community college, playing football there, and then off to Arizona state where I played football in the early nineties. And once I was done with football and, and school and everything, I was working for a dealership selling cars and I met my wife. So the automotive industry has been good with me with, not only making a business and a life, but also building a family. So it's, brought me together with lot of great people
Jeremy Hammer: From the dealerships. I, ended up working for tire distributor here and then a body shop and, kind of ping ponged around a little bit, even sold computers, for a little bit. And, always kind of got toward back to the automotive and, and off-road industry. I, came to Fly-N-Hi as a customer and met my best friend. Who's, was working the counter and we hit it off right away. And we've been friends ever since. So Fly-N-Hi I was doing some work on a vehicle that I had ended up walking into their fab shop and seeing a trophy truck. They were building it for them. And I said, I want to get involved in this. They said, you know, we work on it Tuesday and Thursday nights is our race night. Do you want to come by and help us we'd love to have you from there.
Jeremy Hammer: I've met all the guys here at Fly-N-Hi and, met the original owner of Fly-N-Hi did a lot of desert racing with them, chasing their trophy truck and having fun and success with that kind of knew. That's what I wanted to do. I've always been into rock crawling. back when, my parents first moved out here, we, we, bought a 74 Ram charger and my dad take us four wheeling and camping and all that stuff. So I was in love with anything, four wheel drive round. That same time my uncle took me down the drag strip and his 74 challenger. And just pretty much anything with a, with a motor I was in love with. We went to boat races and motorcycle racing and that sort of stuff didn't participate a lot, mostly just, enthusiasts. But yeah, I always enjoyed working on cars while I was in high school.
Jeremy Hammer: another uncle owned an automotive shop. So I spent a lot of time wrenching down there, doing stuff for him, helping them out. And it's just, it's always been in the blood so fast forward, back to the Fly-N-Hi and getting to know the guys over here, the racing kind of ended for them. They weren't doing a lot of racing, but we were still doing a lot of rock crawling and building our rigs up the guys around here. I found out that he wanted to sell with that. I was kind of in kind of in the market to buy a business. I had some family members that wanted to go into business with me, believe it or not, the day that I found out that Fly-N-Hi was for sale. We were looking at a paint supply store. So, this whole story could have been different of me selling paints, but we ended up putting together a deal with the original owner and, we're a franchisee of Fly-N-Hi.
Jeremy Hammer: So we're, we're able to use the name and do what we want with it. You know, it's, it's been a, it's been a struggle just cause the industries, up and down the mostly down, right. We bought it right around 2006 and the economy was taking a dive with all the mortgage things. And we just kept on paying the rent and making, making all the ends meet about, 10 years ago. They just, the, my partners decided they wanted out. So, now it's just been me running the things and, and having fun with it. And my family loves it. We love the customers. We love the industry. We love going out to events. we love talking Jeep. We love talking truck tires, all that other fun stuff. My, both my daughters want Jeeps and, and all that stuff. So they can go out and, and four wheel.
Jeremy Hammer: And, they're getting age where the, I got to start putting together some Jeeps for them, but, it's been a good life and, and we've really enjoyed it. We got to do some racing and, you know, got to meet great people like Big Rich and Shelley and get out to events with them and help them out with their thing. And I just, I really enjoy, the, the, the people coming from the football background, everything was for a team. So I, I, I find that a lot with, the people I hang around with in this industry, everybody's working towards a common goal and that's getting the car across the finish line, whether it's a, the finish line is just getting out and wheeling and having a good day with friends out in the desert or getting across the finish line at the Baja 1000 we're we're, we're trying to do all that stuff and I'm always always into it.
Big Rich Klein: So let's go back and pick it apart. Did you, did you have a motorcycle when you were younger or go-cart or something like that, or did you all sudden just get, you know, what was your first car, you know, what, what was that background What, what was it that, besides your uncle and Ram charger and stuff, where were you So, unfortunately,
Jeremy Hammer: When I was around seven or eight, my parents got a divorce, so I didn't get it, all the cool stuff. you know, it didn't get the, I don't have the, the Robbie Gordon background where we're going motorcycle racing and doing all that stuff. my background was, just, I, I changed the oil for my mom. You know, she needed an oil change in her Oldsmobile, and I figured out how to do that, you know, just taking care of mom's car. And that actually got my uncle kind of involved in and started teaching me how to wrench and that sort of thing. So, you know, I, I liked the, the, like to go back and think about those those early days and trying to put something together. I always had a, I always had a car, never had a truck, you know, I, I lucked into getting my first car was a look this up, everybody it's a 79 Plymouth fire arrow.
Jeremy Hammer: And I it's gotta be a hard one to find they didn't build a lot of them, but that's what my uncle traded in that 74 challenger, when the, when the gas prices went nuts in 79, he traded in that beautiful 440 six pack for this, for this car. I thought it was the coolest car on the planet. Cause it was my first car. But look it up. It's a, they're, they're ugly as sin, but it got good gas mileage and it was five speeds. So I had a lot of fun with it. Rear wheel drive did a lot of drifting. in fact, I drifted too much one time, going to football practice and rolled the car over. So my uncle also taught me a little bit of bodywork and we cut the roof off and put a new roof. It, so that was a, I hate body work.
Jeremy Hammer: That's what I learned from that. But that's how I, that that's my first car. It's nothing cool. Nothing, no cool Jeeper commando or anything, anything awesome. I've got buddies that all had Broncos and, and that sort of thing. And I still have my car and that kind of goes back to my early days. you know, everybody, a lot of my friends had BMX bikes or, or, motorcycles or something, and lots of desert out here in Arizona. And my aunt gave me a 12 speed when I was 10 years old. And it was a nice bike if I wanted to go a hundred miles an hour and nobody could beat me in a race on the street, but it wasn't made for jumping. And my mom put a lot of money into rims and tires. Cause I would blast that thing all the time and try to do the jumps.
Jeremy Hammer: And I was always a bigger kid. So, I was, I was a little hard on, on parts neighborhood kids. We always built skateboard ramps and that sort of thing. And I, I was just, I was a little too big. I could teach the guys how to do it. Like I could figure out how to do the moves, but me doing it myself. I ended up breaking myself or breaking the ramp. And a couple of times to the, to the emergency room with some head trauma kinda, that explains a lot. There's, there's definitely been of trips there. I got a little dizzy, but we, I kinda knew early on that I wasn't going to be that, that guy on a motorcycle, just being as big as I was, there was a, there's a, a top heaviness on a motorcycle that I just, I, they scare me to death, but those guys, those kids that, that learn how to ride motorcycles early on, there were some of the best race car drivers and that sort of thing where we're watching one develop here with a good friend of mine, Ken Goodall son, who races Ultra4 and dirt riot and, and all that is he was a motorcycle rider.
Jeremy Hammer: And, he's now a great Ultra4 driver and he's up and coming. So it's cool to watch him develop and, and just one of those, another cool part of the sport is, seeing the kids grow up and also helping your friends, racing out there and, and that sort of thing.
Big Rich Klein: Okay. So let's talk about your football cause that I know is a, is a big, it molded you to who you really are and the team sports, all that kind of stuff you started before high school, did you play youth football Well, one thing, another problem with being big being
Jeremy Hammer: And being raised by a mother, we lived right behind Mesa high school and they had all the Pop Warner practices on the other side of our fence. And there wasn't a day that went by where there wasn't a ambulance taking a kid out of there. And my mom saw that early on and she would not let me play football. I got to play flag football and soccer, and I had a soccer coach. Tell me this is not your sport. Get it.
Big Rich Klein: Oh yeah.
Jeremy Hammer: All the running around. I was a big kid with, with, no stamina at that time. I couldn't, couldn't run for very long. I kicked the ball 10 miles, but I, you know, running and chasing and all that stuff. So soccer, wasn't my sport. I play a lot of basketball, a lot of baseball, but the football that I just wasn't, she wouldn't allow me to. And I don't, I don't take anything back. I wish I would've got a couple more years before high school. Cause I tell you what freshmen football, they rocked my world. I was, the biggest kid on the team and I'm going against kids that have been playing since they were five and six and you know, half my size. And they would just rock me cause I had no idea what I was doing out there.
Jeremy Hammer: I, it took me until about my senior year to finally figure out the game a little bit just based on my sheer size. I got scholarships to a community college here in Scottsdale. So I went over there and I just lucked out right at the time ASU had just changed their coaching staff. So we got the Def defensive line coach that was the defensive line coach at Arizona state. He also happened to be a girl that I tried to date in high school, his father. So he remembered me and we actually, I I've been good friends with, with him and that entire family for a long time. So, but he kind of molded me a little bit more and made me better. And then I got a chance to go to Arizona state someplace that I wanted to play football at. Since I was a kid, I had scholarship offers all over the country, but, you know, they kinda knew that I was an Arizona state kid.
Jeremy Hammer: My mom had season tickets from the day we moved out here, in 74. So, you know, I went to Arizona state had one of the best defensive line coaches out there. He's actually, been coaching in the NFL to this day. I don't know. I guess even, even when you're 19-20, I grew up in six months just, just having him as a coach, lots of discipline and anger, like, it put a helmet on me and there's this anger that comes out, not so much in a racing helmet because it costs too much money when you're racing out there. But unless it's a cone, I love hitting cones that, that you taught me that. But, we, put a helmet on me and I, I changed a little bit. It was definitely, coach Mark Marinelli was just a machine. it was an ex Vietnam vet and he, had it, he was wired different for sure.
Jeremy Hammer: Wired different. And he, he wired us all a little bit different. just to kind of answer that question, you know, what kind of molded me I mean, I could start back in high school. my first coach, I'm sorry, junior high. And my first coach there, you know, kind of said, Hey, if you want to be a kid that plays football or you want to be a kid that watches TV, you know, so I was in that transition of the kid watching TV all day to, to now running, you know, lifting weights and doing all that stuff. So grew up a little bit there. And then every coach from there, definitely molded me a lot and it kept me out of trouble too. Cause I was at that age where I was starting to get in trouble yet all your friends smoking and, and you know, thinking they were cool.
Jeremy Hammer: And then they were smoking stuff. They shouldn't be smoking. And, and I just, I kinda knew I wanted to play football. So I, I, I hung around with them, but I stayed away from it didn't touch any of that stuff. They had a scared to death back then that a you're going to get in trouble if you were smoking anything or do anything. So I didn't drink didn't smoke. And, just kind of kept my head straight. Cause I always had that goal where I wanted to go. Unfortunately, didn't get a chance to play in the NFL, still had some schooling left to do. And, and I had met my wife at the time and I could see my life going in a different direction and there's definitely no guarantees in football. I don't, I just, I look back at that and you're, you know, now I'm in my forties, late forties and, and thinking if I were a little put out a little bit more back then, would thing be things be a little different, but I don't know if, if my girl friend would've stuck around, you know, cause there's a lot of sacrifices you gotta do.
Jeremy Hammer: And we were just building our relationship at the time. So, you know, I chose that, you know, and and I don't know anything about, I've got two beautiful daughters now I'm a great life and, and that sort of thing. So yeah, you know, I laid down in bed every once in a while and the tear goes down my face, thinking about what could have been, you know, playing football, especially this time of year being September, the grass smells different mowing my lot and it, it it's weird. It just, it smells different. It smells like the first days of a football season and football practice and you start to reminiscing. And then there's a lot of, a lot of hype going on on TV and, and that one show, there's a show on TV on, on, HBO, the way they do the hard knocks.
Jeremy Hammer: And it's the story about these guys coming into training camps and stuff. And I watched that and it's it. That gets me going too. So I can see somewhere down the road, I going to get into coaching. I'm enjoying this life right now. but don't, don't hesitate you down the road. You might see this, this big old guy yelling at younger kids on a football field somewhere. So I will get back to it. It's just, I'm having fun doing this now. And, and, you can only race for so long before your body can't take it anymore.
Big Rich Klein: Exactly. I, I have to say the four or five years that I coached my son in youth sports, youth football were some of the coolest years that I had even more so than scouting or anything. I mean, I did a lot as a scout and the coaching being able to, to take kids in and teach him something and get them to do something that they don't want to do. And then when they, the light switch comes on and all of a sudden they become the aggressor and not afraid of being hurt, but wanting to put the hurt on the other kid. It, you know, I know that that those are the kinds of things that society now frowns upon, but you know, the hell with that. it's a good, it's a, it's a good sport to teach kids. Good ethics, I think. Yeah,
Jeremy Hammer: I think, you know, it, it definitely, it's the team building. a lot of the stuff I I've been in the corporate world, so just being able to work with other people, I think it teaches you a lot of that. It teaches you to rely on that guy next to you and also understand that that guy next to you is relying on you. So even, even in, in my everyday life with, with running Fly-N-Hi, it's cool to teach these young kids. We get young kids from the college UTI here that we, teach them how to, how to wrench. And, you know, they're learning the book side, but we're teaching them the, the actual working on the car side. You gotta rely on the guy that tore the truck down and the guy that was putting it back together, and whenever you're doing your work, get your stuff done correctly.
Jeremy Hammer: So it's lots of stuff transfers over. Lots of it transfers over in life, in relationships with women. It's a, you take away all the head blows and crash it into each other. But the once again, you you've gotta be there for them. You've got to produce. And, that's, that's kinda what I took out of football and, and, what kind of keeps me going in my daily life, you know, as the, as the world is crashing around us and all that stuff, I can, you can see the guys that, that maybe should of had a little more sports in their life out there that they might be changing their ways on what they're doing.
Big Rich Klein: Yeah, no kidding. So what let's go.
Jeremy Hammer: So let's go back to automotive side. What was your first car
Big Rich Klein: that's not the Arrow. Yeah. You had it
Jeremy Hammer: Arrow 79 Plymouth arrow. Yeah. Yeah. What was the first four wheel drive Oh, okay. So that, that was years back or years, years after. So I had the, I had the 79 arrow and then at ASU, one of the guys that got drafted in the NFL gave me his car, which was a 89 Plymouth Firebird, which was cool, had the T tops and everything, but only had a V six in it, but you know, it's another cool car. And, within a year or two, after football was over,both those cars were broke down and, and I was riding my wife's uncle's motorcycle that he brought down from Minnesota just to get to and from work and all that stuff. I didn't even have a motorcycle's license or anything like that. So, I think we've all done that, Oh yeah. I finally got the endorsement years and years later, but, yeah, back then I got pulled over a couple of times and got some nice tickets, but they, it was nice cause you could park the thing anywhere.
Jeremy Hammer: So we decided we needed to have something. My wife had a, a Honda CRX. that's she was my girlfriend at the time and that was a tiny little car. We had a fun in it. I mean, we went scuba diving, solo, loaded, a bunch of scuba gear in there and drove to California and learned how to scuba dive. We did, trips to grand Canyon. We we'd camp all over the place, that little tiny car and, and we'd overload it. It was funny. I didn't even have a backseat and we'd always put our nephews and stuff in the back totally different time back then kids. So don't do this at home anymore, but just had a blast in that car. And we, we, I always wanted a four wheel drive and, and we had the opportunity. we saved up some money and, and got a loan `and together we bought a 91 Ford Explorer and four-door black had a manual shifting transfer case.
Jeremy Hammer: So I didn't have to worry about all that electronic crap. And I knew when I saw it that this was my truck and my wife loved it. Cause it had a little sunroof together. We had the, kind of the truck of our dreams dreams, four wheel drive, and started to do a lot more off-roading. And the funny story about it, we were off with some friends that worked at the dealership with us and she looks at me and she says, we really should put a lift kit on this thing. And that's all she needed to say because they were expensive, you know, back then, and especially for, a, a Ford Explorer, cause they were a little, a little crazy. So I actually contacted this was before Fly-N-Hi before I knew anybody here. one of the, the dealership that we, that we worked at would use, older company that was older than Fly-N-Hi, that was here in the Valley called Four Wheeler supply.
Jeremy Hammer: And we knew, a person over there and she gave me a good deal on a super lift kit. So I bought all the pieces over time and had everything at the house and spent, two weekends putting that thing on. And now we're off doing even more four-wheeling and it's just, it's that never ending cycle of building your truck and building your truck. And we went from that to putting lockers in it, to change the gear ratios, to the bigger tires and, and all that stuff. And then they've got that twin traction I-beam that just was horrible, got tired of breaking things in that I had another opportunity to buy a Ford super duty that I still drive to this day. And I bought that. And then I was able to kind of take the Ford Explorer apart and we did a solid axle conversion.
Jeremy Hammer: And that's when I started hanging around the guys at Fly-N-Hi, they helped me put the solid axle conversion in it. We ended up doing an Atlas transfer case, change out the word Explorer. We did a lot. It wasn't even an Explorer anymore. It was a one ton axle full width on 39s and it drove over everything. It was huge. And we, we had a blast. All my buddies had Broncos and, and Jeeps and we would follow them everywhere. I just, we went to Rubicon and did, you know, the week long trip at Rubicon. And my truck was the one that held all the gear because if it rained or anything, I had plenty of room in there. And, we just squeezed that big, old thing into every, any place we could. And then it started to get some body damage.
Jeremy Hammer: Cause you know, we're doing harder and harder trails and it started to look like a raisin. It was black and it was all the windows were blown out and it was just, it was getting crinkled up and we did the, we will always do the Bronco stampede that they do out here. And, I know it's not a Bronco, but I called it the Bronco three, cause it the Bronco one in the Bronco two full sized Bronco. So I said the, this is the Bronco three and had a lot of Bronco S parts on there. So we were out doing that trip one time and, and just ripped the whole steering box off and, and, screwed up the Ram. And when I was backing up, I screwed up a leaf spring and had to get, you know, pretty much towed off the trail.
Jeremy Hammer: And at that time I said, I don't know if I want to build a buggy or something. This is just too much. So I had it sitting here at Fly-N-Hi, I owned Fly-N-Hi at this time. And we went out to the second time they ran King of the hammers. I heard about it. And I, it was like a Wednesday night and I'm like, well, let's go tomorrow. And we left Thursday after work drove all night, got there, woke up to the, to the motors running and everything. And I came home from that trip and I said, I'm going to gut this thing and let's build a race car. Let's go racing. So I talked to my good buddy, Sam Steinman, my best friend that I met here at Fly-N-Hi. Your enabler. Yeah, my enabler. He says yes, too much.
Jeremy Hammer: But he, I talked with him, I called him on the phone and I said, I really want to do this. What do you think And he, he had worked on the trophy truck, the Fly-N-Hi trophy truck with me and, you know, lots of hours in that. And we both knew what was going to be involved in, in building a, building a car from scratch. So the conversation went, something like, you know, you talked to your wife tonight, I'll talk to mine and I'll call you tomorrow and we'll see how it goes. So I think I called him at 5:00 AM the next morning and said, my wife said, yes, what'd your wife say And he says, she said, let's do it. And so we scheduled a meeting with all of our friends that had ever done any wrench in with us over at my house and I've fed them pizza and beer and all the wives got drunk on wine and we got everybody slathered up.
Jeremy Hammer: And then we explained to him, this is what we're going to do. And we had two months or three months to build the car. Wow. It started from a pile of tubing on the ground and yeah, we built it and, and it's, you know, we have it's, we call it our, our, our smiles it's, we get more miles per smile or smiles per mile than a lot of the teams out there because, it's, it's not, it probably was competitive in 2011, but nowadays it's the money that's involved in this sport. It's just, it's, it's crazy. I just, I I've got everything I got into it. I don't think we can go any deeper without, you know, a huge sponsor or something like that. But it's, we're having fun out there. Yeah. You know, we still, we still, as long as I finished in a better than we started, you know, we just did the race in Moab and, I started 34th or something like that and finished 17th.
Jeremy Hammer: So, you know, we're happy with that. Most of the guys that, that I passed where they were on, they were broken, but we did, we did pass the cars, the three cars that started in front of us on the first lap. So, you know, that, that's what it's all about. And that's what makes it fun. And you know, those little wins and stuff like that. And the, the pressure that these bigger teams have their, with the, they've got a win, they've got to show, they've got to be on, be everywhere where we just keep smiling and passing them or smiling and, and finishing. And that's, that's what my car can do. And it's junkyard parts and lots of sweat. And, and we, we have a good time with it. It's enabled us to do a lot of, a lot of racing that I wouldn't normally do.
Jeremy Hammer: We've raced in cool places. You know, the, the big house is the one that I want to do next, Crandon. And so I was trying to get to it with the Dirt Riot. So maybe cross our fingers. We'll have something out there again someday, but I got the race at Glen Helen. I've raced a, the same course to the Baja 1000. we did NORRA, I've done a bunch of racing in Mexico, cause we're really close to the border here in here in Phoenix. So there's lots of desert racing around us, then the mint in the car. So it's, it's a, it's an old battle ax and it's comfortable. It's, it's, that's why I haven't really changed anything with it because you know, we're, I'm in the unlimited class and it's really because of the shocks, the limiting factor in our racing is, is our budget. So I usually have enough to get the car put back together. I have some spare parts made and, and fill everything up with gas. So anything more than that, we kind of thank God we run a Ford engine cause we don't have to change it every, every three times a race, like some of the other guys, but, everything's built for durability and we're running the same chassis we built before. So it's not a super light chassis, by any means, but it holds up to the abuse we put them through.
Big Rich Klein: Excellent. So let's, let's talk about your, your first attempt at competitive rock crawling.
Jeremy Hammer: You would bring that up. Of course,
Big Rich Klein: Of course it was a, I remember putting on the, an event at Tucson on a manmade course that, that we had built. I got a call from one of the undertakers, which was, a club that you're you're involved with here in Arizona. It was Andrew McLaughlin who races as well, in Ultra4 or had, I'm not sure if he's still doing it, but he called me up and said, Hey, we're going to bring, you know, some club members down and we want to run the hard courses. We don't want to run, you know, the easy courses. And I said, well, you guys don't have competitive rock crawlers, but we are the, we are the extreme club in Arizona and we want to run the hard courses. And I said, okay, I made a deal with him. Then on Saturday, the first day you guys would run the C courses, which were the mod stocks and sportsmen courses.
Big Rich Klein: And then if you guys just totally kicked ass and wanted to jump on the big courses, we'd move you over to the A's, you know, no harm done on Saturday afternoon after the competition was over, I kind of walked through where you guys were all camped. And I said, okay, who wants to move up to the A courses And you guys all looked at me like I was freaking nuts. Of course, Andrew never showed up to rock crawl. He was the one I wanted to go. Yeah, you want to do this because I know you guys are big trails, you know, big waterfalls and all that. But competitive rock crawling is, is a completely different sport. It's like motorcycle riding in the desert and trials riding. For sure. And it is, it is, there's a technique to it, the cars, you know, you're forced into, into my line. You don't get a choice. You guys seem like you had a really good time. Yeah. So
Jeremy Hammer: Yeah, just, just kind of reminiscing on back on that time, we had a, we have an undertakers website that we all log into, similar to pirate, the old pirate. And there was the, I can remember when it came up, who wants to do this WE Rock down in Tucson and this was, right after King of the hammers, the very first King of hammers that we raced the car in. So I'm like, well, I built it for rock crawling and then doing a little desert racing. And now let's do some, some, let's, let's get back to where, where are you You know, where we came from Cause King of the hammers that first year was really rough on us. We learned a lot of things, right off the bat, when you break an axle right off 14 miles into the track, and then you spend the rest of the day stacking rocks to try to get that thing over there.
Jeremy Hammer: Cause we didn't bring any spare parts. So got the, got the new axle in there, got that all straightened out. And this WE Rock came up and there was big talk from, from the guys on the crew that we're gonna have 15 or 20 guys down there and let's go show these guys what's up. And I, I never, I went to a couple of rock crawls, Sam and I took our kids to one in Congress that they had here when, when Big Rich was just getting going in the WE Rock and I knew it was difficult. And I was kinda like, don't poke the bear guys. This is not. And he posted a couple things about, Andrew did about how he talked to big rich and, you know, we're, we were going to get to do the big courses and, and came back that we were going to run the, the sportsmen type courses on, on the first day.
Jeremy Hammer: I still actually have my trophies somewhere around here that, where they crossed out the Toyota, was it the, the formula Yeah, the F toy and, and put down a sportsman class. So we were, I was one of the first sportsman class competitors. I got a third place. And then my, my good buddy got a first place that, actually, Uriel used to work for me. And he, anyway, long story short, we get out there and, and nobody shows up it's Uriel and myself, the two undertakers out of the whole group. You know, we, we, we laid it out. We were camping and, hanging out next to, to Shannon Campbell who had his, brother. And, he was still, competing back then. So, you know, they're totally different rigs than, than what we had. And I knew it right off the bat that this was going to be a rough day.
Jeremy Hammer: And I was the very first guy out. The very first obstacle pulled up to the, to the deal, to set up, to try to go through the cones and drove up and pan the car out completely where none of the tires were touching the ground. I was going nowhere, Uriel couldn't. He was my spotter. He couldn't couldn't push the truck, couldn't do anything. And it's a manmade course. So there was no rocks to even grab to try to stack to get under a tire. So it's a 10 minute deal. And I sat there for nine minutes and 45 seconds spinning my tires and they finally called it and they had the crane of shame pick up my entire race car and carry it off the course. So I could, start driving again. But, it was a long, long weekend. Definitely learned that, I had to build, do things a couple different ways to try to compete in the rock crawling.
Jeremy Hammer: And we did it for every time they were in Arizona. We, we competed for a couple of years, before I kind of went crazy with the car and added the bypass shocks and all that stuff and, lengthened it. And it just, it just wasn't made to go in between cones, but that the rock crawling, I've always, we always go to the events and we have lots of friends and I still don't think Andrew has competed in one. So I don't want to call you out, buddy. I love you, but, you know, put your money where your mouth is now. We're, we're, we're, I'm in, I'm talking though. I, I, I, I haven't really talked to big about this a lot, and he's going to learn this now, but I hope to, when I, I'm going to build a, a buggy for myself, just, just to do some recreational rock crawling, cause the racing's fun and all that, but I really want to get back into doing more recreational rock crawling.
Jeremy Hammer: And I think there's something in the, in the, WE Rock for us, for the guys that have the wide, you know, full size axles with the forties and stuff like that. and just come up with a, with a, some sort of deal that it is a true recreational rock crawler, not, I mean, we got Justin Keilman, who's he wheels in his all the time. It's competitive in the, in the unlimited class, but it is narrowed. And you know, there's a lot of things that, that his, his car is got rear steer and all that, that, the guys that we go wheeling with, it just, they don't have. So we're going to, I will, we'll talk some more about this, as the off season goes, but even if it's just an Arizona, I'd like to put on in Bagdad, hopefully by next year, we'll have the true trail rig class where it's junkyard, axles, nothing, spider tracks or no fancy, anything. It's gotta be a junkyard axle. Forties are the only tire you can run, not worried about shock packages or anything like that. And it's got to look like something that had to start off with something. I got to see some frame, I got to see some, you know, so I think we'll, we'll have a Fly-N-Hi type thing. I, I talked over Shelley. She said, well, we'll talk about it later, but behind my back first. Absolutely. I know how it works.
Speaker 4: She, she here, you guys have learned that she did hit me with a lot of obstacles
Jeremy Hammer: That, that I, I totally understand. I don't know if it could be. I think because of that, there's no way you could do it all over the States, but for, for maybe just a, you know, something that we sponsor Fly-N-Hi does and, and, get Andrew out there and all my undertaker buddies and, and, there's a, there's a bunch of clubs in Arizona. They come out to the events and they, they enjoy them. and they, they love watching the rock crawling, but they always talk about, I do this, you know, you hear them talking in the stands. I could do this better. I could do that better. And I'm like, let's do it. Let's, let's set up a course. That is good for us. Good for something. Cause your, your width are a little, little narrow for our big cars. And, we still gotta be competitive, but more of just a let's get these guys through.
Jeremy Hammer: And, and I still don't, I still don't understand how you make the courses. I, we we've decided that you guys get on some pot or drink some, some weird formulas or something like that. And you just go out there and drop cones because I don't see how you come up with these, these courses in the Gates and all that. And, we volunteered a lot as, as spotters and also as judges, in course, you know, setting up the course and taking down the course and we like to help out a lot with that, but I just, I've never been there when you've actually set up the course. So we don't really know how you guys do it, but I know you did a lot of fun stuff back in the sixties. So I think, I think it comes out every once in a while.
Speaker 4: Oh, that could be it. Some people just think I'm evil.
Jeremy Hammer: Yeah, no, that's definitely when you're, when you're stuck in between two Gates and trying to figure out how to get to the next one. And you're like, how is any vehicle supposed to make this turn to make that happen And that's what makes it fun is trying to figure those things out. So from a guy that's been in the seat to a guy that's been spotting, it is a blast out there. The, the, the rock crawling and then the we rock is, is a lot of fun. And if you haven't been out to any, you guys got to come out to these things you don't have. If you got a buggy that you want to be competitive in, build it, you will enjoy your time out there and, you know, go with, you know, kind of the guys that, that use them on a, on a daily basis, like a Justin Keilman. And he's got a really, really competitive car that he, it started out. I remember one of the first wheeling trips I did in my Explorer, Justin's in that same car, that, that four steering monster that he drives. And it was, a CJ, a Willy, sorry, a Willys
Speaker 4: Jeep had an ugly,
Jeremy Hammer: The roll cage on it. He's only five eight or so. And I think the roll cage was built for somebody that was seven two. So it just stuck out. It was bright yellow, and he beat the piss out of that thing, just like he does now, but it's the same car that he just kept on building and building and building. And now it's got a turbo on it. I mean, it's just, it's nuts, but he, inbetween WE Rock's, he's out, wheeling, you know, almost every weekend in that. And there's no reason not to not to get out there and enjoy, here in Arizona, it's 30 minutes in any direction and you're wheeling. So, you know, get involved in that, get, get out and enjoy it. Another thing that, you know, we haven't talked about during this interview, but you got to get involved in keeping our trails open and keeping, you know, BLM it's our land guys.
Jeremy Hammer: So, you know, we need to be involved in their decision of land management. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. The other there's two BLMs now. So yeah, the Bureau of land management, those guys are, not as bad as the other one as we could see right now, but, they are, they're trying to take away our rights to get out there and enjoy our land. I do believe that the land needs to be policed better, but I don't think it needs to be shut down and they're trying to kill our trails and stuff like that. And Justin's one of those guys that, they, you can tell when, when, something's happened out there and they're cutting a trail or, or access to a trail and that sort of thing, that guys loses his mind because, that's what he does. That's this is, this is his escape from, you know, daily life and paying bills and stuff like that.
Jeremy Hammer: And, everybody needs that and you gotta get out there and enjoy it. Mine is just about anything in a motor, if there's a motor involved, that's, that's what I like to do. So it's cool to own a business that, that fixes cars and trucks and Jeeps and hell. We just had a trailer pulling here. So try to say no to, I try not to say no to anybody and, and fix what they got because, I was on the other side of the deal and I want to want to make everything better. And, and, I love doing projects and stuff coming out the way that the customer entailed it to be.
Big Rich Klein: Let's, let's talk a little bit about Fly-N-Hi. That was a good segue into it. The history, you know, they, they had a monster truck. They desert raced. You stepped in when a, it came up for sale, you and some family members. And now you're the sole owner, you and your, your wife. And I, I've spent a lot of time here in the shop. It's my go to place. When, when Arizona, we spent a lot of time in Arizona in the off season, but let's, let's talk about the business set. You know, what is it that you guys, is there something you specialize in or, you know, just, just give everybody an idea what you do
Jeremy Hammer: Fly-N-Hi opened in 1980, the original owner of Fly-N-Hi, his parents owned Dai carbonic, which is a, they sold carbonation systems to like the bars and restaurants and that sort of thing. Their father started selling oxygen to the only hospital that was in Arizona when, when they first came out here. So the family has been in business here in Arizona for a long time. So fast forward to the dye brothers, they Mark and Mike that graduated high school and college and everything, and they wanted to start their own business. And they were into the off-roading. And, in 1980 it was, it was huge. Everybody was lifting their trucks and putting stuff on there. lots of Chrome, lots of fun stuff. and they started Fly-N-Hi together and the especially back then was lifting them high and, and putting Chrome everywhere and stickers.
Jeremy Hammer: I mean, they just, the, the, the visors and all the, all the Chrome pieces and stuff, w was huge. And that's kinda what I saw as a kid growing up to, there was the Fly-N-Hi was, they had three locations and one was right by my house. And we, our family grocery store was on the way, there was a Fly-N-Hi on the way to the family grocery store. So we I'd always make my mom stop in. So I could look at the, the monster truck. So you never saw a kid happy to go to the grocery store with his mom, other than me. So I could go check out the monster truck. Cause that was kinda my treat for helping mom with the groceries. So that's kinda how I, I knew about Fly-N-Hi and when we had the opportunity to, it was like a dream come true.
Jeremy Hammer: It was like no way that I, something that I looked at back in the day, growing up was going to be my business and my livelihood. So yeah, it's, it's been a, been a crazy time. We, like I said, we did buy it at a weird time with the economy. And Mike, Mike Dye actually stepped away and was running the family business. And Mark was the sole owner for Fly-N-Hi. He had his, his fab shop where it's, that's where they built the trophy truck and that sort of thing. So he kept that part. And I just took the one location here on McDowell, the original one and brought everything from the other two locations here to keep our overhead down. it, the, the rents over at the other places were a little higher than I wanted to pay. And just having all that, all those employees and stuff during that time, we needed to kind of, you know, pay off some bills first and, and grow the company a little bit slower.
Jeremy Hammer: So yeah, that, that, those first few years of, of taking it over was you were hoping that the money was gonna come in. Like we saw with historicals on how it was going, but it just, it started dripping and dive in. And I think we, in, in one year we saw 11 other off-road shops here in the Valley closed down, and we just kept on paying the bills and pushing forward. And I, I was able to take a, my, my uncle always said, you gotta be able to take a penny and stretch it penny. And, and to, to the point where it's like a fine wire, almost just stretch that sucker out. So we were able to do that. And yeah, it was, it, it was difficult, but, it, it, it was just, it was weird when the economy was diving, we were doing the same dollar amount just about every month that there was no big month.
Jeremy Hammer: There was no bad month. It just even quo. And we paid the bills and, and, paid everything down as best we could. I, like I said before, my, my business partners were kind of looking at it as a, an investment in their retirement and it wasn't making any dividends for them. So, they just wanted to step away. And at that time, I, I said, well, you guys did it as retirement. I took my house and put it on the hoc to, to buy the place. So if I walk away, I walk away from all that money taken out of the house. So I said, I got to keep it going. Plus I'm enjoying what I'm doing. And it actually became more enjoyable without having the stress of trying to do something for somebody else. that, that made it a little rough and it strained our relationships with some family members and, and, it's getting better, but, I don't know.
Jeremy Hammer: I don't know how I could ever make it, make it back to way it was, but we just, from that point forward, my wife and I said, you know, we're going to do it our way. And, and we're going to have fun with this. And, tried it. We tried to do everything that we can, that makes it fun for not only us, but our, our kids. And then, our, our employees, we love taking them to races. We love taking them to off-roading events here in the, in the state. I've taken a couple down to Mexico. It's just the stuff that I got out of it and why I love the sport and why I love the business. I try to transform and give it to the guys that come around here. We have a couple of guys that don't even work here, work in the industry that come by, just want to hang around the shop and play race cars or work on their cars or whatever.
Jeremy Hammer: So that's what I grew up around. And that's what I like is helping, helping people out and also doing stuff that, that just, just like with football, everybody had a common goal and every vehicle has got a common goal. We got to get to a certain sport spot with everything. So that's, that's what, that's what I enjoy. And I think it's, it's spread. We've got lots of, lots of people around us now. So we have a good time there. The, especially that Fly-N-Hi, does you know, that was a question you asked. we try, like I said, we don't try to, not say no to anybody we don't have, I don't have 57 JKS out there. You know, we don't, we I've got three JKS in the shop right now, but it's not, I don't specialize in one thing. we see a lot of old trucks just because we are the oldest oldest off-road shop in Arizona right now.
Jeremy Hammer: The oldest was four Wheeler supply and they, unfortunately, they went away about six to eight months ago. And now we're the, we're the oldest and we're also celebrating our 40th year. So it's kind of a, kind of a cool thing. Unfortunately, with the, with the COVID thing, it's not really, I can do a lot with it, but we will be having some sort of party here before the year ends. I'm a celebration of 40 years of Fly-N-Hi. So with being the oldest shop in Arizona, we do get a lot of guys that, that was there in 1982. And you guys lifted this. And so we sell a lot of, t-shirts give away a lot of stickers and then we work on, on some older trucks. So, those are actually more enjoyable working on like a 72 blazer than, you know, working on a brand new Toyota Tacoma.
Jeremy Hammer: You know, there's just the, the, the, the newer trucks have so many different gidgets and gadgets that you gotta watch for. And, with the, the new systems in them, they are a little bit more difficult. We, we can handle every one of them, but it's just, the older trucks are still, there's still good money in it. They're still good times in it. A lot of those guys, it was a truck that they might've had since high school, or they found another one and they bought it back or bought a truck that is similar to the one they had. And they just want it to look like they, they, their high school days or college days or whatever. And we, we get them ready for them. And I believe we have everything in here from, we had a, a Bronco that was like a Stroppe Bronco or something, and was like one of three.
Jeremy Hammer: And the guy bought it at Barrett. Jackson brought it in here. And I couldn't believe you hear about the SEMA stuff that people do to get it to SEMA when they, what they do to trucks that go through through Barrett Jackson. they had the wrong doors on it for that year. I mean, there was just so many things that we had to change. And I think he probably had 60 grand in that Bronco that he bought from, from Barrett Jackson. And we put another 25 into it just to make it nice enough for him to cruise on the street every day. we built trailers. We had guys come in with trailers that were cut in half, and we've welded that we changed the flooring on the other wood floor on trailers. We don't say no to anything. We we've got a 2021 Chevy that we're doing a 14 inch lift on with, you know, monster tires and all that, this stuff, the weird stuff you see.
Jeremy Hammer: So to say, what we, we just do, off-road we just do, if you want it, if you want something different, we're gonna make it, you know, different stock sucks. Everybody hates stock. That's my big thing. Stock sucks. Well, we don't, we don't like to have stock trucks out there. So we changed the tires, changed the wheels. I mean, even just a newer truck with a small leveling kit and some different aftermarket tires and wheels, they just, it just looks cool. It's not stock anymore. It doesn't look like everything in the parking lot. And that's what we like to build. I, I, we, we started getting into, we did the garage rehab and we'll talk a little bit more of that, but, they did want to touch on that. Yeah, we'll talk about in a second, but from that, I learned to, you know, go out and see bigger companies and see if you can do their fleet.
Jeremy Hammer: And I've got a couple of fleet accounts and, you know, we'll get two or three trucks a week and just changing oil and putting pads on them and stuff like that. Simple work for my guys, it's different. So it's not the same old thing. And it keeps them on their toes and it's money. There's, we're, we're making money on it. So, you know, something that I kind of thought about doing, but didn't really think that people would come here and, and have that stuff done. But with the one stop shop that we can offer, we can one stop shop your fleet, too. We got guys that know how to do it, and they're good at it. And we get things in and out, and we understand that there's money sitting there. If that truck is in here, it's not making that guy any money. So they, they get a little priority and we have guys will stay late and get trucks done. And, and, we're always trying to please our customers. However, however we can,
Big Rich Klein: So let let's talk about Richard Rawlings or at least the show garage rehab. How did, how did that all come about Well, what do you,
Jeremy Hammer: When you buy a company that was built in 1980, things get a little old around here. The previous owner, he had a lot of things going, didn't put a lot of the money back into the company, the machinery and tooling, and just the building in general was under a lot of need for repair. We bought the place, I gutted it as best I could and painted and cleaned and did everything we could to try to make it new and nice, but owning it for, for almost 10 years at that time, it just, it was getting run down again. And, and, you know, looking back at the pictures of the shop before, and then looking at it now, I'm like, I don't know how, how anybody came in here. It was, it was just, it was pretty bad. we did this best we could and, and, and kept it as clean as possible, but it's hard to clean old.
Big Rich Klein: Yeah. It's hard to Polish old.
Jeremy Hammer: It is. It is. So, yeah, I learned that every day when I get out of the shower, how am I going to make this old guy young again, but they, I had a friend that, watched the first garage rehab episode on a discovery channel. And at the end of that episode, it said, if you're interested in doing a one, or if you've got a shop that you think might want one call this number. So he had gone onto their website and took the URL and he sent me a, sent me an email. I still have the email. It's, it's one, I keep up top. It says, this is how my friends are too, by the way, the, the, the, the title said, if you don't do this, you're fucking stupid. So I ha you had to open up the email and see what, what it was all about.
Jeremy Hammer: And I'm like garage rehab. And, I looked and was like that bar rescue type of thing. And I was like, I don't really want a guy to come in here and yell at me. You know, I I'm doing what I can, I don't need, I don't need anybody beating on me for, for what we got going on and a watch that episode. And they had a couple, I think they were on their second or third, so I kinda got hooked out and watching it, but I filled out the paperwork. I actually did it on my phone. And it turns out after so many words, it doesn't let you submit, it was like a 500 words or less. I didn't read that. Didn't see that. So I wrote the whole story of Fly-N-Hi. So almost a 40 year old company. you can imagine that what I wrote down and it wouldn't let me submit it.
Jeremy Hammer: And I kept on trying to submit it and it wouldn't go. So I cut and pasted it and saved it. And then I came to the shop and I sat at the computer and I just started typing it out again. And about midway through my story, it changed color. And I was like, Oh, the font change color. Well, I guess, what was that mean Well, it wouldn't let me submit it after that, because I was over the words. So I had to combine it and, and condense it down and make it smaller. Got it. To 500 words. But I left the last sentence. We are a 40 year old company. If you want to know about more about our story, you know, call me or, or, or email me and I'll send you, send you more. They called me 24 hours after submitting it.
Jeremy Hammer: And they said, we know who Fly-N-Hi is, you know, Richard Rawlings knows them from the past and, you know, we'd love to talk to you about it. So it was about six months of almost every day, doing Skype interviews and, and walking around the shop with my phone and recording, kinda what we did around here. It was, it was really weird, kind of cool, and, and all that stuff, but it just the hype building up of what could this be And then watching the other shows, you know, I was, I was mesmerized. I was, I thought that this was going to be the end all be all. And it was, I just overlooking the whole thing. It was definitely one of the cooler experiences that I've had in my life. Very, very awesome for the, for the shop. And I wouldn't take back any of, any of it for nothing.
Jeremy Hammer: I just, I had an absolute great time, but I can tell you this there's a lot of Hollywood on there. And a lot of stuff there was, they took out a lot of things that I wish they, they, they could've had a whole week show what they, what they filmed here. They didn't show my wife or kids, which I got a little upset about because, they were a huge part of it. There was some great scenes, with my wife, dealing with Richard and diff dealing with the other guys in the, in the group. Russell was, one of my, I love that guy. I, he, he's kind of a big Maloof too. So, we hit it off real well. And, and, just, just a great guy, Chris. the other, the other host is one of those guys that just likes everything.
Jeremy Hammer: He digs into this and that. And I actually had a, a storage unit here on the facility that had some of my stuff that I pulled out of my mom's house when she moved, old, UHaul boxes and stuff. And that got moved around. Cause I brought it here to the shop cause we had a storage facility and I forgot all about it. And it was just like old yearbooks and stuff like that. Stuff you have in your attic, he opens up a box and he any found something. And when I came here on, on Saturday, when we were filming, he had this watch on it, he kept on flashing it in front of me. And I'm like, what is that And he said, you don't recognize this watch. And I said, I I've seen it before. So he says, well, I found it in this box right here.
Jeremy Hammer: and I looked and they had pictures of me from high school with the mullet and all that other fun stuff. And I was like, and they were having a great time laughing at me. And I'm like, know, these are my personal things. Did you Jack asses But it was cool, but he was, he kept on going back to the watch and it was my grandpa's watch. He got it when he retired, it was some sort it's a Olympus or, Oh, no Omega something or other that James Bond would wore in his movies. And that's what made it very popular. it had some dials on there. He talked about, I mean, he, he went, he knew everything about the watch and he said, I've already had it appraised it's is about a $7,000 watch the way it sits. And I'm like, what, you know, just add it, sit in this thing and in the back of the shop and it could have walked off at any time.
Jeremy Hammer: And I would have never, I didn't know anything about them, but so that just, they filmed all that, that would have been cool to see. I just, I just know that, there's a lot more, there was a lot more to that show that they filmed here that would have showed a little bit more of our personality and stuff. But I understand, you know, you gotta show the show, the, the stars on there and, and show their, what they're doing and, and scared of going up in the flag pole and all that. I mean, it was, it was all fun and games and, it put out a good show, but I think they could, showed a little bit more about the family and the stuff we got in a pretty good argument, about how I do things and how, how I learned it.
Jeremy Hammer: Going back to the football thing is, you know, I tell, tell my guys, we're going to do one at a time. You're going to work on this truck. You're going to give it the best effort you can concentrate on it. You're not worried about lunch. You're not worried about the end of the day. You're not worried about the truck that's behind it. You take care of this one. And that was something I learned in college, one at a time. And we were going back and forth with it on the lifts because we only had one lift that worked well. We're going to knock out that one truck. And that's how I did it for the entire time, because we only had one lift that worked for 10 years here. And, we actually got a pretty good argument, but I think I won the argument and that's why they didn't show it.
Jeremy Hammer: You know, they, they, they had to show their, their, their stars, winning the argument or whatever. Cause I, I laid into him like this is, you know, you show me, you can do more than one thing at a time. Good. And, it's just human nature. You know, you can't be scatterbrained and, and think about other things and miss out on stuff. You gotta concentrate on what you got in front of you. And you're not worried about the next play. You're not worried about the next step, the next 10 minutes, get what you got going and get her done and do it the best you can and then move on. But the show, it changed Fly-N-Hi, just the original owner came by. He couldn't believe how nice and clean the shop was. we got floors that you can mop. We got walls that you can clean.
Jeremy Hammer: We got equipment, everything that works in here, the, it, it, it just turned, turned the corner for us, for sure. And I'm so grateful for them. So grateful that, to have the opportunity, it did give the company some press, but, you know, in my, like I said, when the, when it was all coming around, I was getting this buildup of, you know, we're going to be the next, you know, next greatest off-road shop on the planet. essentially what I got out of, it was a great new shop and a little bit of gray, a little bit of press. So, you know, I, I would never take anything away from that. I'm so grateful and we're just going to keep it. We're still doing what we did before. We just, we got a nice clean shop and clean showroom and, and, the customers really like it. And, you know, we'll just keep pushing on and doing what we do.
Speaker 4: Excellent. What do you see for the future Well,
Jeremy Hammer: As I'm getting older and in the years, we are, I'm sure we're going to probably tone away from me getting behind the race car and, maybe let the kids drive and, and that sort of thing. My daughters both want, want UTVs and getting them into UTVs or something like that. So, that's what you'll probably see around the race course, with Fly-N-Hi, but, I can see, me being out on the, on the trails a lot more with my buddies, kind of going back to where I started, rock crawling and enjoying the desert. You'll see me at the races. I'm gonna always be, involved. I love King of the hammers and, and the, anything to do with, four wheel drive trucks racing in the desert. but also, maybe a little bit more with some trophy trucks and, and, I got some friends that are racing those and, getting those across the line is a big challenge too.
Jeremy Hammer: So I really look forward to those kinds of things and then spending a lot more time down in Baja. That's where you'll find me when, when there's no more Fly-N-Hi, I'll be down there, cutting up those papayas or mangoes or whatever and getting overly sunburned. So I think that's kind of where I see, see my life going. my wife's kind of on board with that too. anything with the ocean she's happy with So, that's kind of where we're going as for the company, FLy-N-Hi. I think if we just keep on, you know, doing nice work and, and, and, the name keeps spreading and, you know, it was a big name and without any advertising, I, I can tell you the advertising that money I've spent has been, you know, maybe an entry fee for a race that was local.
Jeremy Hammer: A lot of the, a lot of stuff that comes out of the racing is, is based on what our sponsors can give us. So, you know, that doesn't really affect the day to day of Fly-N-Hi, but the, I see that with, we haven't really done a lot of advertising the internet, with social media, I'm reluctantly putting more efforts into that. we have a great gal. Kara Bernard is, doing our, our, our website and a lot of our website, but our social media, and she's just getting into it and starting, and I gave her something to do. I'm like, if you could just keep with one of our sponsors and one of our big, the big products that we sell here is Titan tanks. They're aftermarket tanks for your diesel trucks. And it doubles sometimes triples your, your miles mile range on your truck.
Jeremy Hammer: And I'm like, we need to do a lot of social media with them. that's what they're asking out of us. And she's been on the ball. I mean, she finds good articles. She takes good pictures here at the shop. her boyfriend works here, so that's really good when we have something in, he's able to take some pictures, send it to her, she can, you know, make a little, a little blog blog or whatever and send it out. And, she's got me at, I haven't done it, but I guess we're tweeting now and whatever, all that we're twat. And I don't know what
Speaker 5: Twitter and Twitter,
Jeremy Hammer: The gram, the gram. Yeah. So the Instagram she's pretty much taken away from me cause it's under Fly-N-HI. So I got to start my own Instagram and then I have always had the, the Facebook of separated of my own personal and then also the Fly-N-Hi. So she's, I've never really done a lot with the Fly-N-Hi, but kind of send some things over to them. So she's concentrating on those. And, you know, it's, it's one of those where I didn't put any money into it because I didn't have anybody that was really interested. But when he started, when, Gage started working here, she had approached me and I said, you know, this could be good. And I said, let's, let's use that Titan and whatever we sell and tighten that we pull off of there I'll pay a commission off of.
Jeremy Hammer: So just, just, I could say over the years, just finding out little things like that, you know, we, we, we, it's weird. We do, as you were here today, we do some, interlock installations and that sort of thing, which is the breathalyzers and cars. And it's just easy for people to come in and have us install them or, or, or do a, they always have to be updated and all that stuff. So just knocking those things out. So we just find weird little things to, to bring a little more money in and out a little bit more to the table. Arizona's a very, very competitive, state when it comes to the off-roading market. There's places all over the place. And we are in the middle of town. We'll, you'll find that the outskirts of town there's usually, that's where the newer shops go.
Jeremy Hammer: The land's a little bit easier to get, or the rents are a little bit easier. And, so we deal with having to ask customers to drive 20 or 30 minutes out of their way to come down here to fly in high, and we still get them to do it. I I've talked to a guy that, he lived right next to, an off-road shop and he drove 25 minutes to get here. So as long as I can keep that up, I think, flying, I still will be around and we'll still keep on doing our things. Yes. I would like to open up another, location or two, I hope within the next five to 10 years to have, at least two more locations here in the Valley, that's going to come with, I'm going to have to find a, I can just see probably going have to come, come up with some sort of business partner, somebody that's got a, got a little money to help us do that. And so we're open if you guys give us a call, talk to me, send me an email. I'm looking to expand and there's money to be made in this industry. For sure. Especially in Arizona. we've got a good name going and we'll just keep on doing what we do. Sounds great.
Big Rich Klein: Jeremy, I want to say thank you for, sitting down with conversations with big rich and sharing your life and your story with our listeners. I know that you just downloaded the podcast app, got mine downloaded, and I think the talent tank, so I'm Wyatt, I'm a little bit, he's listened yet a little behind, but that's okay. You know, all of us are, I mean, I just, I just started this thing. So anyway, thank you so much. And for not only your friendship, but you know, the race that you've done and just the, the family atmosphere, you know, it's great to hang out with you guys. So I want to say, thank you.
Jeremy Hammer: We're always here for you guys and, and, you know, I appreciate having you guys around too. It's good to have, friends that, that know a lot of people in the industry. Everybody talks highly of you and Shelly and, and, I'm glad that you guys kind of brought me in, that very first event. And I knew that there was a cool, cool group to hang around with. And, you, you guys take some of the goofy stuff that we say and you add a little wisdom to it and, and keep us heading in the straight narrow and, and, what you guys do throughout the country, to keep the sport alive. cause we all, we all can say that rock crawling was kind of dying and you guys brought it back to life and, I don't think you guys get enough credit for that.
Jeremy Hammer: cause it was definitely your hard work and your effort that brought it back to where it was. You know, I, I think, kind of helped start some of the bigger racing that's going on right now and, and getting guys involved that normally wouldn't, if you make it easy to participate, you will definitely get more people doing it because it's, it's really not that hard. you really don't need a million dollar budget. You can get out there with anything and a man, a foot race is a good race, but it's, it's always a lot more fun when you've got a motor zipping around around you. So, you know, I appreciate what you guys do and, and I hope to keep you guys do it a lot longer. I know we're, we're all getting a little long in the tooth, but you know, Hey, well, I'll go out in the sunset together.
Big Rich Klein: There you go. Alright, have a good one. Thank you. Thank you. If you enjoy these podcasts, please give us a rating. Share some feedback with us via Facebook or Instagram and share our link among your friends who might be likeminded. Well, that brings this episode to an end book. You enjoyed it. We'll catch you next week with conversations with big rich. Thank yo