When Brent Nelson swapped his corporate badge for the wild call of entrepreneurship, little did he know that his family RV trip would spark the creation of Tentrax, a beacon for adventurers seeking the ultimate in compact, customizable camping trailers. His story, infused with the warmth of a community brought together by a love for the outdoors, unfolds in our latest episode. We trace his journey from structured office life to the helm of a company that's not just selling trailers, but facilitating memories and friendships in the great outdoors.
Our conversation navigates the intricate engineering behind Tentrax versatile campers, designed for vehicles of all sizes and the needs of diverse adventurers. Brent pulls back the curtain on the customization process, revealing how each trailer becomes a unique companion on the road, tailored to the clients' whims—from matching wheels and tires to outfitting for off-grid living. And just when you think campers are all about roughing it, we get a sneak peek at the 'Tailgater' model, blending the thrill of exploration with the joy of a mobile party hub.
As we circle the campfire of stories—gold prospectors, backyard campers, and annual events that transform strangers into a band of outdoor aficionados—we're reminded that Tentrax is more than a trailer company; it's a cornerstone of a community that thrives on shared adventures. Brent's embrace of the collaborative spirit of the Outdoor Business Alliance, and his tales of individuals shaping their lives around the call of the wild, leave us not just with a yearning to hit the trails, but also with a sense of belonging to a larger story—the ongoing saga of human connection and the outdoors.
Part of the Special Made x Mountains Collaboration Series
Mike Andress
Host, Exploration Local
828-551-9065
mike@explorationlocal.com
Podcast Website
Facebook
Instagram: explorationlocal
When Brent Nelson swapped his corporate badge for the wild call of entrepreneurship, little did he know that his family RV trip would spark the creation of Tentrax, a beacon for adventurers seeking the ultimate in compact, customizable camping trailers. His story, infused with the warmth of a community brought together by a love for the outdoors, unfolds in our latest episode. We trace his journey from structured office life to the helm of a company that's not just selling trailers, but facilitating memories and friendships in the great outdoors.
Our conversation navigates the intricate engineering behind Tentrax versatile campers, designed for vehicles of all sizes and the needs of diverse adventurers. Brent pulls back the curtain on the customization process, revealing how each trailer becomes a unique companion on the road, tailored to the clients' whims—from matching wheels and tires to outfitting for off-grid living. And just when you think campers are all about roughing it, we get a sneak peek at the 'Tailgater' model, blending the thrill of exploration with the joy of a mobile party hub.
As we circle the campfire of stories—gold prospectors, backyard campers, and annual events that transform strangers into a band of outdoor aficionados—we're reminded that Tentrax is more than a trailer company; it's a cornerstone of a community that thrives on shared adventures. Brent's embrace of the collaborative spirit of the Outdoor Business Alliance, and his tales of individuals shaping their lives around the call of the wild, leave us not just with a yearning to hit the trails, but also with a sense of belonging to a larger story—the ongoing saga of human connection and the outdoors.
Part of the Special Made x Mountains Collaboration Series
Mike Andress
Host, Exploration Local
828-551-9065
mike@explorationlocal.com
Podcast Website
Facebook
Instagram: explorationlocal
In this episode we explore the entrepreneurial journey of Brent Nelson, owner of TentTracks and the visionary behind these one-of-a-kind US-made adventure trailers that allow owners to explore. Simply Inspired by a family RV trip, brent and his wife's leap from a corporate career to entrepreneurship ignited a passion for redefining outdoor experiences. We delve into TentTracks' innovative lightweight trailers that truly have created a class all their own. But it's not all nuts and bolts. Brent shares tales from the community that TentTracks has cultivated, from gold miners to backyard campers. Each story is a thread in the vibrant tapestry of outdoor enthusiasts. We also spotlight TentTracks' involvement with the Outdoor Business Alliance and the joy of shaping a collective that champions the spirit of exploration. As Brent shares his insights, his passion for the open road is infectious, reminding us that the journey is as important as the destination and that the true essence of adventure lies in the camaraderie and memories we create along the way.
Speaker 1:I really think you're going to enjoy this episode. You're listening to Exploration Local, a podcast designed to explore and celebrate the people and places that make the Blue Ridge and Southern Appalachian Mountains special and unique. My name is Mike Andrus, the host of Exploration Local. Join us on our journey to explore these mountains and discover how they fuel a spirit of adventure. We encourage you to wander far, but explore local. Let's go Well. I am excited to be back for another episode and this is our first one of 2024. And I honestly can't think of a better guest to have. I have Brent Nelson he's the owner of TentTracks here in the studio with me. We've had a few OBA events that we have connected at and we've been trying to pull us together and we finally did Brent. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. It's good to be here.
Speaker 1:As someone who has slipped on the ground for many, many, many years. I kind of moved to the rooftop tent and then I realized, gosh, I'm not that person that just goes and just stays at one place for a very long time. And then, when I saw a trailer like yours especially I think the first time I saw your trailer was at the Get In Gear Fest this past year is the first time I saw it personally. We're going to talk about your trailer today. We're going to talk about what got you into this space. You own this company. You have owned it since I think 2019 is when you ended up buying the company, but really cool story that kind of sets this up in 2018. And I love to kind of start there as we kind of get into your background a little bit, brent, and let's talk about what got you into TentTracks. What got you into this space? Because you've been doing this for a very long time. You've been camping and you've been into the outdoor role for a long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. I grew up outdoors at a family that was always out. Most of my memories are with a pop-up camper and that kind of feeds in a little bit later because it was always the get to camp and it took about an hour to set everything up. So that kind of drove some of the design stuff we've done, but always, always outdoors, backpacking, camping. My parents spent a lot of time taking us on family vacations to national parks and I was fortunate to do a lot of that and kind of came back around the past several years to even do a lot more of it. I went to Clemson University, just down the road the.
Speaker 2:Tigers. There you go and got a mechanical engineering degree from Clemson and I spent about 12 years in the corporate world. So I was working for Caterpillar for a long time. So I was doing everything from design, engineering to manufacturing to some of the business side vehicle sales, working with our dealers, things like that. So it was a good. I mean, it really enjoyed it. Didn't enjoy the corporate side of it as much, but that kind of gave me a lot of skills to be able to kind of go off and do something on my own. So, yeah, you mentioned 2018. I've been living on the West Coast for a little while, living in Seattle, and just you know, my wife and I we had a little two-year-old daughter and a golden retriever and it was kind of just time to do something different. So we packed everything up, sold the house, bought an RV and took off.
Speaker 1:And your wife was totally cool with this.
Speaker 2:She was. You know, she's always been the kind of person who is ready to do all kind of crazy adventures that I come up with.
Speaker 1:Cool.
Speaker 2:She's kind of the voice of reason also.
Speaker 1:You did it.
Speaker 2:Which is pretty important, but no, it was.
Speaker 2:I mean that is a big deal when you have a two-year-old and going and living who knows where, sleeping who knows where, and we did plenty of that. But yeah, I mean, we're all crammed in the RV. I convinced her to even this was the harder part. I had a what is it? A 1993 Jeep, so a 25-year-old Jeep that we're going to pull behind and uses our primary vehicle Wow. Which that took a little more convincing, but for the most part that went okay. A couple you know, campground fixes here and there to keep it running, but everything was good Right. So we were about a year on the road and we I think it was about 30,000 miles, wow. So we were everywhere, from Baja Mexico all the way up to Nova Scotia.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And everywhere in between. And so that that was kind of the big, I don't know, I guess, pivotal year for us, kind of figuring out where we were going to do moving forward, Right. So yeah, kind of feeding into tent tracks I started looking for. You know, eventually you do have to make some money and get a real job. So looked at some options, looked at several businesses either to start or for sale, and I ran across tent tracks, which was located in Eugene Oregon at the time.
Speaker 1:Now, when you ran into tent tracks for the first time, was it in the field, like, did you see somebody camping in this, or did you just see that a business was posted for sale somewhere?
Speaker 2:Well, I had seen it back in the day, you know it started in 2001. And it was big in kind of that Jeep off-road world, because it was really the only kind of trailer that you could take anywhere you know off the pavement. So you'd see it in magazines every once in a while, here and there, and I'd never seen one in person before. So when I found it, kind of contacted the owner a little bit and talked about it, at least had some familiarity with it.
Speaker 1:Cool. So 2001,. And we think of where we are today, in 2024, and a lot of these types of rigs and you know just, you see trucks all just accessorized out in the whole nine yards. This is way before any of that became popular. This was really probably some of the founding equipment experiences and trailers of its kind in the day, I would imagine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, I mean it was. It was pretty novel back then, but even now it's unique just in the construction material. So it's, you know, it's a fiberglass body, keeps it nice and lightweight. It's still very compact and we've done a bunch of design changes since I purchased it to kind of modernize, you know, make things a little bit more reliable, durable. But yeah, I mean, back then it was it was nobody was doing the kinds of things people are doing now with camping or, you know, going off the grid van life.
Speaker 1:Any of that yeah?
Speaker 2:You know, that was still pretty pretty novel back then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you saw tent tracks you. This became available. It was an opportunity. How in the world did this conversation go with you and your wife when you were thinking about we're going from 2018, camping all around the country, out of the country, and then, all of a sudden, you are I'm going to buy a business and it's going to be more of the same in terms of outdoors, trailers, camping. That was just kind of the world that you found yourself in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's interesting that year for us. I mean, we got good at it. You know, you first start and you say, okay, I got to playing this campgrounds out, I want to be at this national park, I want to do all these things. But we quickly found that it's a lot more fun when you just kind of wing it.
Speaker 1:Cool.
Speaker 2:You know, you figure out what you know, tools are available, what apps are out there and we're? You know we're driving around finding places to stay the day of most of the time. You know, I don't think we spent. We spent very little money that second half of the year.
Speaker 1:Kind of figure things out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, on campgrounds because we were out in, you know, we were in BLM land and national forests and all these places Cool cool. Yeah, so she was. She was excited. I mean, she was excited to do it. You know it's it's it's what I do every day, all day. She also helps out. She does a lot of the, you know, communication and marketing and quotes and things like that. So she does the stuff that I'm not very good at. So that's, that's good. That's in her spare time she has.
Speaker 2:She has several jobs, right right, right no but I mean, that was a big part of it, because it really was going to be a, you know, a big change of life for for all of us, and our daughter was not yet in school, so we had to figure out the you know the logistics of all of that. But yeah, she was absolutely on board and I certainly wouldn't be able to do it without her support.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So you buy the company, and at that point, I guess, did you have this vision for where you wanted to take this, and or did you just say you know, I love this, I love the concept. Let's get one, put it to the test and then kind of figure out where our business plan goes from here.
Speaker 2:So kind of what I was looking for was something with good reputation and a, you know, a good, solid design base. So, you know, we talked to existing owners. We looked online everything we could find on web forums and Facebook and all these places just to see what people were saying about them, and in general, it had a very good reputation. People had owned these things for, you know, at that point, almost 20 years, and I know customers now that have owned them all the way from the beginning. There was a predecessor company in the nineties that kind of became Tint Tracks.
Speaker 2:I've met original customers. I know the guy that owns the serial number one. Wow, no way. Yeah, so it's pretty neat to be able to go back and see some of that history but also see that people use them. I mean, they use them all the time and they're still going, they're still strong. So having something like that with a good you know, good base design was critical and I knew there were a bunch of things I wanted to do to change it. You know we immediately changed all the, all the updated the branding, you know, logos, website, things like that and so it was. It was one of those where the previous owner had not done as much with it the few years before. But it's also when, you know, the overlanding world was exploding, you know, of course, after COVID, you know outdoor recreation in general is just, you know, gone crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it was a little scary to buy it, and then COVID popped right up pretty shortly after. But you know, since then we've, you know we've had a great time. We've really really done well and enjoyed being in Asheville as well.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's very cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's a good point, because when you first bought this company, you were living. You were not in North Carolina at the time, were you Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no', it was about one and oneinch for Georgia' kind of, you know, north Georgia, outside of Atlanta, okay, and we, you know, with a business like this, you're outdoors, you, we want people to come visit us and see the products. You know, convincing people to go to Atlanta it's hard enough.
Speaker 2:Nothing wrong but it's not. You know that there's there's not as much Outdoor draw at door activities, you know, right outside of the city, right? So you know I grew up in Georgia, my wife grew up in South Carolina. We've always visited Asheville, you know, we grew up coming to Asheville, so it's kind of a natural spot. It's close enough to both families but just far enough away. But no, and that's part of the reason that we that kind of left the West Coast too, because, you know, our daughter was two years old and we wanted to be closer to family and be able to see them. But, yeah, we.
Speaker 2:So our shop is over in Black Mountain. So, you know, 15 minutes east of Asheville and we're right in the valley there you look 360 degrees around and you can see the mountains. So it's, it's very easy to get people. We've had people visit from eight, ten, twelve hours away Just to come see the shop, no way, and they say, well, we're, yeah, we love Asheville, stay here for the weekend, we're gonna stop and see you guys. Perfect happens. I mean that happens regularly.
Speaker 2:It's a good draw helps out us, and you know I'm sure we'll talk about it later, but just getting involved in meeting other similar outdoor businesses has been really great when you Moved here, were you aware of the outdoor gear builders, the fact that this area is the you know, outdoor gear hub of the east?
Speaker 1:Did you know those things?
Speaker 2:that was that kind of part of the calculus and you all moving your business here so I I was somewhat aware, you know, I knew with some of the bigger companies and I had a couple contacts that ultimately led me to the OBA Okay. So yeah, I mean it's, it's definitely you can tell that there's a A lot of excitement in the outdoor industry and you know the outdoor manufacturing industry industry, so that was, that was definitely part of it.
Speaker 1:Let's pivot a little bit and actually talk about the product itself and we'll ultimately come back to kind of talking about some of the customer experiences with the product. But I had the great pleasure right before Christmas to visit you, to visit the shop, to see things in motion, to see, you know, everything kind of stripped down to the bear, looking at suspension, and it definitely is a one of a kind and I didn't learn until recently that you were Mechanical engineering background and technical sales and that makes perfect sense. As soon as I read that I'm like, oh yeah, I well, I can see, brent, we were inter shopping. We're talking about all the different suspensions and the different things that you did to kind of upgrade that. But let's talk about your Particular camper, let's talk about the setup of it, the composition of it, what makes it a little bit different, because I think people are going to be stoked to hear whether or not you have a 6,000 pound lane rover or Jeep or whatever to a little small car.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, you know, you touched on it there the the thing that really sets it apart is that it's small, compact and lightweight, but you still get a huge amount of storage space. So we're very popular with vehicles that can't tow a whole lot and they don't have a lot of holes. You know storage space, say you. You know you talk about people with Jeeps and small SUVs and Subarus not a lot of tow capacity. So most people wouldn't even consider buying a, you know, a big camping trailer because it just, you know, doesn't make sense right.
Speaker 2:Our trailer does great because it's way. 600 pounds the base model does. It's within pretty much the towing capacity of any vehicle. We have a I don't know the specs on it, but we have a customer that pulls one with a smart car, which is funny because they're about the same size. Yeah, I mean we, you know we before, before I bought it, there was a Model that was kind of more of an on-road based and we had customers with Volkswagen Beetles and all different models of Subarus and that's so crazy kinds of stuff and again, it it's 10 tracks is known for the off-road side, but what I tell people is that it's it's built for going off-road first and it's built strong enough to but all that does.
Speaker 2:If you're you know you can certainly take it in state parks and paved roads and everywhere you want to, but you get that that strong Engineering design and the durability and the reliability of something that's built well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's not like one of these tires. Like when you see, the tires on this thing is big and it's beefy. We're gonna have a link in our show notes to the actual product or, excuse me, to your website, but that alone. You know, you don't have to worry about if I'm doing 70, 75 miles down the interstate. We're not about this little tiny tire. Is this thing gonna pop? Is it gonna war? Is gonna?
Speaker 2:you know this is beefy and so I would say on about probably 75% of our trailers, we have customers request us to match their vehicle wheels and tires. Oh, no way so you know that might be a, might be a Jeep, it might be. You know, we had a customer with a Ford Maverick recently. You know, the small, compact pickup trucks Match the wheels and the tires and what that does for you is you already have a spare right.
Speaker 1:You've got a spare in the vehicle it.
Speaker 2:It'll bolt right up to the trailer, so you don't have to carry an extra spare for a trailer cool. It's also like you said you don't have on this tiny little trailer tires that you weren't about blowing going down the road. Yeah, I have a real Automotive tire, you know. So it just it's all in, just making it a little customizable, kind of cool looking for the customer. But it also makes it more reliable when you're actually out in the middle of nowhere cool.
Speaker 1:So walk me around the trailer, because I know I was in your shop and I got a chance to see it. But let's walk around sort of from the beginning, just kind of all the round, do a 360 on some of the features, and then the most Amazing part to me was just the storage piece. You've already spoken about that a little bit, but that that part really got my attention.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know, we start out with a strong tube steel frame, an independent suspension. It's made by a company called Timbran out of Canada you know a strong Suspension that performs really well, gives it a nice ride, so your stuff isn't bouncing around when you're going down the road. The body itself is fiberglass and basically if you're looking at it, if you see one closed, you'd be surprised that it opens up into a tent and bed like it does.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you, it opens up. It opens up in about two minutes. So you know, I mentioned before my dad Spending about an hour to get camp set up, just right, you know, with a pop up and everything and been there, done that. Yep, exactly, and I loved it. But you know, setting up quickly is it's worth a lot yeah so yeah it sets up in just a couple minutes. You know you get somewhere and it's raining. You don't want to be sitting messing around with stuff for 20 minutes so you can open it.
Speaker 2:It can be opened by one person, you know. You get inside and it's it's kind of in between a double and a queen-size bed. So it's, you know, padded foam. You have the. The tent itself is waterproof. Of course, we have a rain fly on top of it as well, and so you have. You're comfortable, you're not sitting on the ground, You're not sleeping on the ground and. I've spent lots of nights on the ground once you get off the ground, it's hard to go back, no doubt.
Speaker 1:No doubt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know you're up off the ground in a lot of areas. You know you're out in the desert somewhere. It's kind of nice to be up off the ground, away from you know, spiders and snakes and that's right, scorpions, all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:But yeah, and then once you're in, you actually have the ability to open up a hatch and get down to the storage space. So all that bed and everything doesn't take up much of the storage space. You still have about 45 cubic feet of Actual storage space in the body of the trailer. So what we do is we just keep it packed. You know it's ready to go, has all the camping gear in there, it's got the water loaded up, batteries are charged and we can just hook it up and go. Because I think I think the one thing that keeps people from going camping and getting outdoors is they don't do it enough, so they don't have everything ready. So it takes you know it takes half a day to get everything packed up and Find all your gear, find everything this way.
Speaker 2:It's there. You know your bed is good to go. You know you're gonna be dry. Yeah, so that that storage space is huge.
Speaker 1:So huge. That was a game changer for me, to be honest with you. I when because you could lift that up. You could, if it is raining, you know, when you were stuck inside, or bad weather, or whatever it may be. You can lift that up your feet, go down, you can set up. It's like it, almost like it creates space inside there for you, right, not just storing the stuff down there, or you mentioned to me is like hey, I forgot my jacket, I forgot something. Boom, it's in there. I just lift it up and I'll have to get out on the climb down the ladder. Of course it's not that big of a climb, but don't have to go to the truck.
Speaker 2:I, everything's right there, self-contained, yeah and and it also helps you keep it a little less cluttered. You know if you're, if you got your tent, your bed there and all your stuff is everywhere. You feel tight. You don't feel like you have a lot of room good point, so this way you get everything. You can put it down on that storage compartment. There's several different areas you can store stuff and, yeah, having that little little compartment there where you can sit like a little bench.
Speaker 2:Yeah it's great, you sit there and read a book. You can, you know, stomp. You can kind of stand up, change your clothes if you need to. And when you see it in person, you see the trailer. You don't expect there to be that much right usability and that much space inside. So that's kind of the magic right is that it? It's very usable and you don't have to look around something huge and heavy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's so cool. I mean, if you have a garage, it just fits right in your garage and you know it's. Yeah, and I love the concept about keeping that thing packed because for us in the pop-up days that was, you know, every trip we would learn something new. This is what we need to stock it with, this is what we need to Stock it with them. We finally got it. We finally got to that point where it's like, when we go camping, great, just put a couple clothes, a couple change of clothes though the boats on the top bikes, whatever, and we're gone. And yeah, keeping that thing stocked up is smart.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's you know. We have a roof rack on top of the trailer as well, so you can put bikes on there, you but kayaks. You can do whatever you want to. You got a hitch on the back that you can put a bike rack on, so it ends up. Not only do you have that inside storage space, you've got a lot of space on the outside racks and in different things we can strap down your gear. Yeah and you know it. I think it's sized so that you're not bringing too much also.
Speaker 2:You know you've been on those camping trips or you just bring everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, never touch it.
Speaker 2:It doesn't yeah, it doesn't really make it any easier. It just kind of makes it more to clean up when you get back home right. You know you go enough and you kind of figure out exactly what you need and not bring it too much. Yeah although I was out last weekend we were in Tennessee doing an event and it I think it was down on the 20s. So you tend to bring a little more gear when it's that cold.
Speaker 1:But yeah, yeah, all right, but this trailer, you have so much customization in this trailer, right? So, from refrigerators to solar panels for energy, and you know if you got batteries I mean hate to say it, I'm getting kind of older now and you know, throwing an electric blanket on, I'm not too proud to say I might do that with a little bit of a jackery or blue eddy or something like that. But yeah, let's talk about some of the customization, because that's the piece that, like I have real, real stoke for your trailer, just because of what you can do, and it doesn't seem like there's really many limitations to what you can do or will do.
Speaker 2:You're right, and I think that's what sets us apart too, is that we love doing customization. You know, you bring us an idea and even if it's something we haven't done before, we'll figure it out, we'll build it, we'll make it happen. You know we we've done a lot in the electrical space. So lithium batteries have gotten smaller, lighter and cheaper and that's allowed us to To put more power on board to do more things. You know it. We've had several customers who have come to us and said hey, you know, my, my spouse Will come camping. If you can hook up an electric coffee maker, or if you, if a hairdryer will work on this, that battery system, then we can. All you know, then we're all on board and it takes a lot of power to do that, but it's I mean, it's completely doable. One of the cooler things we've done is we've had a couple customers recently. They had CPAP machines.
Speaker 2:No right and you think about that Takes a good amount of power for sure. And so that kind of limits you to. All right, I got to be somewhere where I can plug into the wall. Well, we designed an electrical system for them that was able to run that CPAP machine, and so now the whole family goes, you know and they go out in the middle of nowhere you know off the grid, and they can.
Speaker 2:You can still run all that you know, and then you have the power to give lights and fans and charging your phone, things like that. Even have a laptop.
Speaker 1:So that's cool.
Speaker 2:That's been cool, but yeah the customization is a lot of fun for us too had a pretty neat setup. We had a customer who it was great he was we got to know him real well, jim. He came by our shop probably five or six times and we'd have design consultations and go over everything we were gonna do, and he wanted to Use the trailer to do multi-stage bike races. Okay, but he had some physical issues that he had. He was using an e-bike, so we designed electrical system to charge his e-bike batteries While he was away, while he was in between stages, while he was driving.
Speaker 2:Wow so the vehicle charged them, we had solar charging them, you know or you could just pull it into the wall. So cool, it's pretty neat. So we had them all set up, and so he would. He had the best setup of all his friends, for sure. Yeah, you know, with all that customization.
Speaker 1:Well, and with that customization, brent, this is not like we have tons of these on a showroom floor. Come check them out. This is more. You might go to an event, you might, people might see you out, but this is really a true customization. When you order it, I was I was on your website just kind of going through just the different models and you are just kind of selecting all the things that you want. But one of the things you just said and you've said it a couple times is that you really love that customization piece and that I don't know if that kind of reaches back to your, your, your past experiences in your you know your training in your degrees, but that you really, I won't say geek out on it, but that's the part that you really really love bringing to market for people, it seems.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is, you know, and I think it allows us to really get to know customers too, because we figure out what they want, how they're gonna use it, and then we stay in touch with them later. But yeah, it's, you know, we we've done, we've had stock, you know, kind of plain stock trailers and in stock before we've had dealers that have sold things like that. But ultimately we found that most people are drawn to our products because of what you can do with them. You know you can get them the same colors, your vehicle with matching wheels and tires, that's it and it's a. No matter what you're driving, it's pretty cool to have that.
Speaker 2:Yeah because it, because it just it looks cool together.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's.
Speaker 2:It's impossible to take one out. Stop at a gas station without having a conversation with somebody cool about it. But yeah, that that is. But still we're, you know we're only. Our lead times are about three months. So in an industry where you know 12 months is kind of more standard, it's we're able to. We're able to do a lot of that customization still pretty quickly.
Speaker 1:That's so cool. Yeah one of the things that really draws me to this product, to this, this camper, is that is can we call it a camper which?
Speaker 2:we call it was campers or camping trailer. Camping trailer, yeah, whatever I mean it's kind of. It kind of depends on how you're gonna use it yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, that's actually that's a great segue, because that's exactly what I was gonna say. It's so cool because if you can go on the most extreme Trip, an event, or you can, as you were saying, you could just go to the Davidson River campground or Find a plot of land, you know, whatever it may be. So it's not just this. You know, we're only the diehard overlanders can use this. It's like now, this is this is kind of for everybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah and you really open up the market to whomever wants to have this kind of really cool experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's that's what we've tried to do. And you know I mentioned before that a lot of the background was with this Jeep off-road world and we've we've taken them Ridiculous places you know, we took it through the Rubicon trail and we've had it all over Moab and you know all kinds of you know stuff and most of that is it'll definitely do it. We have customers that do it and it makes really cool marketing pictures but ultimately people aren't doing that every day.
Speaker 2:You know, they're not going on week long Expeditions or month-long expeditions every day right customers will do it and it's capable of it. But it also just works really great kind of in the day-to-day weekend type trips. You know, we'll set up a battery system that'll last somebody a whole weekend running a refrigerator, you know, and they've got a family of four we've got. We sell rooftop tents also tent tracks, branded rooftop tents and.
Speaker 2:You know there's more than one customer has bought a trailer and a rooftop tent. You know kids get to go sleep upstairs and the parents get in the trailer. Yeah but it's a yeah, it works really well for that.
Speaker 1:That's cool, yeah, anything about that. So talk a little bit about the different models that you have. It's not just one. You've got a few different models and maybe in buckets of who those particular models may be a good market for.
Speaker 2:Sure, so kind of the original model. We Renamed the ascend and so that is your, the trailer that I've been describing. That looks like a. You know, it's a fiberglass trail on the outside. You have the rack on top. It opens up into a bed in a tent. So again, that's. It's basically an evolution of what 10 tracks has been building for over 20 years.
Speaker 2:Okay we had customers that came to us that they already had an existing rooftop tent on their vehicle and they said, hey, can I put this on the trailer? So essentially what we did is we took the trailer body, we reinforced it on the inside and then so you can mount your rooftop tent on top.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So if you imagine, roofed up tents on top still functions like it normally would, but you can open the lid and have even more Storage inside. So then it becomes just you know, kind of an extension of the storage space, but also it allows you to have a base camp. So you know, you know, you've got the roof top ten on top of your land river. Yeah if you need to go to the store.
Speaker 2:Yeah or if you need to, you know, say you want to go, you know, drive to dinner or something like that. You've got to close up the tent and it's not the hardest thing in the world, but it's kind of a pain, it's still a process. Yeah, so what this does? It lets you have a base camp. You know, say, you're in a in the National Forest somewhere and you've got the perfect spot. It allows you to keep everything there. Yeah, take your vehicle and go, do what you need to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah the.
Speaker 2:The other model is really kind of the basic. It's the cargo, so it's just a, an open trailer and it's. I've been surprised. Recently We've had kind of a an increased interest in cargo trailers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean it's maybe people, maybe I mean I don't know why, but maybe they want to sleep on the ground. No, it's, you know, we actually have a customer. It's awesome, there's a blog on our web page that tells their story and they have had their tent tracks trailer for about six or seven years and they're almost 80 and then over 80 years old and they go every year and they drive across the whole country and they Hang out in Colorado and California and they love sleeping on the ground because they you know, they've done tons of backpacking, but they use the cargo trailer to carry everything cool, it's more and to kind of save their spot when they find a good one there.
Speaker 2:You know, when they're on it's, it's, it's cool to see that you know, or that that that is what allows them to actually do all of those adventures. We have a Not yet released model. We we kind of played with it a little bit right before COVID. A lot of times people will see the trailer and They'll they'll say something like oh, that looks like a big cooler. You know, will it float? And we actually have tested that and it does float. Yeah, it does. We've had people drive it through rivers too, but you know we get that comment a lot like oh.
Speaker 2:It looks like a big cooler, wouldn't that be cool? And so we actually made a model called the tailgater. Nice you search around on YouTube a little bit, you can find some pictures videos of that.
Speaker 2:Basically what we did is we built a kitchen set up on the front, so it had a slide out with a refrigerator and a grill and stove and everything and the the lid opened up and you had a TV with surround sound speakers. We had a section for beer and other beverages and, you know, you put ice in there and then we actually had taps on the back as well. Yeah, so the only unfortunate thing about that is we came out with it right before COVID, so that's something we're gonna bring back out.
Speaker 1:Okay, that'd be an awesome setup, right you?
Speaker 2:know, say, a brewery needs to go out and do an event.
Speaker 1:Ah good.
Speaker 2:You could just have everything hooked up, but the branding on the outside, things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a pretty cool idea. That is a really cool idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have to show you some videos of that later. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, let's stay in that stream of thought, though, talking about some of your customers. So you have that, that customer, but you've created like this little cohort of people that really are, are your customers and have been sort of probably customers for life, and I know you have some really really cool stories You'd love to share about some of those and I'd love to hear them, because the places that y'all have gone, we've named a few Rubicon Trail, big Bend National Park, baja Peninsula and, of course, all the Rocky trails right here in the Appalachia. But yeah, I mean, yeah, let's dive in and hear some of these really cool stories, brent.
Speaker 2:Sure yeah I. I always love talking about my friend Jeff you know, I call him gold miner Jeff.
Speaker 2:We actually met Jeff. We were in New Mexico and he kind of we were on the living in the RV and we were Camping at this Air Force Base kind of. They had a free camping area right outside the base. It was near White Sands National Park and National Monument. It's one of those and you know, jeff pulls up in his Subaru and rooftop tent and he was just wide-eyed I mean, he's just looking around and he came and talked to us and this was his first night on the road. He kind of had a similar experience where he said that's it, I'm, I'm leaving Buffalo, new York, and I am gonna go travel.
Speaker 2:And he bought a gold claim on eBay in California well, you know 2,500 bucks and Bought it, bought some gold mining equipment and prospecting equipment and hit the road. So we caught him on night one or two and he was just you know he's wild.
Speaker 2:So I stayed in touch with him, you know, the next six months or so. I bought the business and he came to me said all right, I want to do the trailer, I want to live in the trailer six months out of the year up in California, and mine for gold. So we built. It was actually the first overlook model, which is the, the one I mentioned to you that has the rooftop tent. Okay, and we've got some pictures on his on our webpage. His, his Instagram is gold gravel and travel gold gravel and he does it.
Speaker 2:So he spends six months out of the year living in a tent, tracks trailer Up in the mountains of California and he goes when the snow melts, all the way until the snow starts falling again, cool, which ends up only being about six months up there and he is just, you know, he's on the side of the mountains and he's on in the creeks, you know, moving boulders and jackhamers and everything finding gold off there. He has, oh yeah, he's, he's, you know, and he's found some pretty good-sized stuff, because it's all the area that was, you know, it was all industrially mined years ago. Okay, so there's a lot of small stuff left, wow, but and he could talk about that for days, but it's pretty cool to be able to point to something and say this guy lives in it in bear country.
Speaker 1:Six months out of the year.
Speaker 2:Wow, you know and he yeah, he's a. He's an awesome guy, he's a good friend. Lots of colorful stories from Goldmine or Jeff. You know we've. I had a pretty neat conversation with a customer recently that he's owned his tent tracks since before I own the business.
Speaker 2:Wow it's been about ten years, but he's bought a lot of stuff from us. So one thing that I try and do is, when we come out with a new Accessory or, you know, a new improvement on the trailer, I do my best to make sure that it's. It can be retrofitted.
Speaker 2:Okay onto older models. That take some work sometimes. But I mean there are hundreds of people out there with trailers that would love to make them more comfortable or more waterproof, be able to hold more accessories. So we, we have a new tent that we designed, we have new storage, electrical components, I mean all all kinds. We have rain flies and insulation inside and all these things are things We've done the past few years.
Speaker 2:So Mike had purchased pretty much everything that we made you know, We've got some existing customers like that that we come up with it and they'll just they'll buy it. And he, his wife, was sick and but they, you know, they both love their tent tracks and both love using it. So he set it up in their backyard, ransom power out there, and camped in it. When I talked to him it was 45 plus nights in a row. Wow, they just been camping in the backyard, in the back. Yeah, you know they couldn't go out, she couldn't leave the house as much, but they just they loved it so much, they love being outside and they love just that environment that they just they set up some lights and just camped in the backyard for that long.
Speaker 1:Right so it's.
Speaker 2:It's neat. We definitely draw some pretty awesome customers and I mean I've made friendships through the business. Just do the customers. That'll, you know, probably last a lifetime. We have an event that we do every year called tow, so it's a tent tracks owners weekend, so we Basically we'll go out. It's in the UR national forest.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna east of Charlotte and we have a big 50 acre piece of land there that we rent and you know I had some facilities and things like that and we bring people from all over. I mean, we've had people. I probably the farthest way away was Texas or Maine, all the way down to Florida. We haven't. We keep the West Coast customers keep wanting to do something out in Arizona or Utah or something. So that'll be next. Yeah, yeah, it's great because everybody gets together. We, you know, we Show them. We have big sale with all the new products we came out with in the past year and we'll install everything for free. We'll do, you know, kind of do some trail rides, we'll do some. We had Joe flowers from bushcraft global, so he's a cool guy to look up If you ever get a chance he would be great on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I think Joe lives up towards Virginia but he's in North Carolina. Cool, he did bushcraft training for us. So that's basically, you know, using what you have around you Kind of to camp to survive. He taught some knife skills. He taught us skills about using trash. You know picking up plastic bags on the ground and how you can turn that into Fishing line and supports for hammocks and I mean all kinds of different cool, it is fascinating. And then we have a Past couple years.
Speaker 2:You may I'm not sure if you've met Nate with trail to table. No, so Nate's an OVA member, okay, and he's here in Asheville and he's done our live fire cooking for us past couple years. I think the first year we did about 50 or 60 pounds of prime rib On the fire, you know, and he's sitting there cooking everything at tons of other food. Well, this past year we did a pig, so we did a pig roast and my guys and I designed up a Mechanic or an electrical pig spit, sat there and spun it and and and we were up at 3 am Getting that pig on there and it I think it cooked for about 16 hours.
Speaker 2:Oh, my I was just some of the best food you can imagine. Yes, anyway, all that design. We have a good time with our existing customers and it's really neat for us to be able to get together with them, you know, once a year, maybe a little bit more often here.
Speaker 1:Cool, come up soon. Yeah, now where can the general public other than contacting you and traveling over to Western North Carolina? Where else would you be? I know you'll be at the Gitting Gear Fest that's here in Asheville area. That'll be in the spring. But are there other places around the country that you all do some of these types of events besides the tow event and the Gitting Gear Fest?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have a few big ones that we do pretty much every year. There's a big Jeep invasion and pigeon forage that we do the Overland Expo series of events. We've done one of those every year, mostly in Virginia at the Overland Expo East, but we're planning on going out to the West event, which is in Flagstaff.
Speaker 2:Arizona as well, and then we kind of do you know medium-sized, smaller events here and there all around. We've done a good bit with Falcon Expeditions, matt and Elizabeth. They have a base camp and a cabin campground up in I guess it's towards the Smokies. It's about an hour west of Asheville and we've held some events there and had some you know kind of smaller little trail rides and camping events and things like that.
Speaker 2:So we're always doing something where you can come check us out. We have some people on the West Coast too, customers that have volunteered to say, hey, if you want to check out a trailer, come look at mine and they'll talk about it. So we've had some people take advantage of that. That's cool. So, yeah, we try to, you know, keep the website updated and kind of say which events we're going to be at. Very nice, I mean. It's amazing just the number of outdoor events there are to take advantage of. You can do something every weekend, I think, if you want to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So in the website, really simple, it's just tenttracks T-E-N-T-R-A-X dot com so tenttrackscom, and it's a great website, by the way. Thank you, you're welcome. Yeah, and it's really cool. There's some link to some really good articles that are on there. I know that you were you think you were a former Land Rover guy. You were telling me.
Speaker 2:I've always kind of well. You know I had you right. I did own a Land.
Speaker 1:Rover. Yeah, disco right, disco one or Disco two. Ah, range Rover Sport, range Rover Sport, there you go.
Speaker 2:I did love that. I'd buy another one of those.
Speaker 1:So whose Disco was it that was on in that article? And I think it was no Boundaries, or something like this Ah, the white one, the white one, yeah, yeah so that was a great story.
Speaker 2:It was my buddy Chad's and he joined us for our very first event right after I bought the company. I mean, we had our branding finished the day before and it was the Easter Jeep Safari, which is in Moab, and he drove out there with his Land Rover In that town. If you've ever been to Moab, I mean it's not a very big town but it was just crawling with Jeeps everywhere and they could kind of take over. But he shows up in his Land Rover and we took it out going off road. I've always been a Jeep guy but man, he showed up some Jeeps for sure out there and we're pulling the trailer around on trails that people just couldn't believe we were out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's yeah, we had a good time. We still got some pictures of his out there. It was really some of the first marketing pictures we took right after we bought the company.
Speaker 1:Very cool.
Speaker 2:So that was pretty neat.
Speaker 1:All right. So you have an amazing camper. You can customize it to no end. Really, there's probably, and there's probably things that you will manufacture that you don't even have in your brain right now. Just because you're so willing to customize, you have a great following, a loyal following, amazing stories.
Speaker 1:You live here now in Western North Carolina and you've moved here to the outdoor gear hub industry of the entire East. But and you didn't just stop there you are really getting involved in the outdoor scene here and you're involved with the outdoor business alliance, not just as a member, but you're now a board member for the outdoor business alliance and you just keep getting involved, man, I think every time I show up to one of the socials, you're, you're working the front desk, you're, you know, checking people in and all that kind of stuff. But let's talk a little bit about, if you can and if there are other things we definitely want to get, you know, completely away from tent tracks. But I'd love to kind of find out a little bit about your involvement with the OBA, what that means to you, what made by mountains means to you. You know all of that because it really is a really special ecosystem that we have here in Western North Carolina, and I'd just love for listeners to know more about what you're involved with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, so it's. You know, amy Allison and her husband, dusty Allison, were some of the first people that we met that were involved in the. It was the OGB back then, the outdoor gear builders, great name. I mean, we were an outdoor gear builder but it's since expanded to be more than just gear builders, and it's you know companies that are involved in the outdoor industry. There's lots of. You know there's camps and you know some companies and guides and I mean, yeah, plenty of others.
Speaker 2:So I think that change to the outdoor business alliance kind of reflects that, that it's a it's a pretty wide range of companies. So I was, I was pretty impressed, so we were, like I said, we were invited to come check it out. You know, we had some, some companies. We have a neighbor in our, in our shop in the complex there, pirani who was a member and you drinking out of a Pirani cup Right there, yeah.
Speaker 1:Representing outdoor what does it say Outdoor? This was the outdoor economy conference. Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a great one too.
Speaker 1:Best cup ever?
Speaker 2:Yep, it really is. And so they, they're just down the hall and they you know. Of course we got to know them and we're talking with them. We had Pirani cups everywhere with tent tracks, logos on them and everything. But we had the opportunity to host a social. They had already planned they had planned the social and we said, well, we could help out with it. So it was kind of neat. We had kind of people came to the front of our building, walked through our shop, checked out some things. We had some cool vehicles there, some old classic jeeps and some trailers and all this and Nate it trail to table, cooked up some fantastic food, and then they went down the hall and went to Pirani and kind of did the program. They did some custom engraving for people and that was.
Speaker 2:That was kind of the beginning of our real involvement with the OBA. And we ended up joining and taking part in the getting gear fest last year and it was. It was great. I mean we had a blast. Yeah, I mean it was. I want to say it's. It was about 60 companies over the outpost.
Speaker 1:It was amazing.
Speaker 2:And it really wasn't. I think what really impressed me was just the general energy and the excitement and the positivity from everybody we talked to. You know we're we're. We're used to all different kinds of events but you know, a lot of times we'll have people coming up and asking questions and pointing fingers and saying why is this like this?
Speaker 1:Why is?
Speaker 2:this, like and that's fun. But everybody here was just, they were just excited, they were pumped, they were happy to have something, you know, a business like ours, even even being in the area.
Speaker 1:Heck yeah.
Speaker 2:So we, we loved it. We really enjoyed that and it. Yeah, like you said, I volunteered to help out with the organization a bit With some of the events. Now I'm planning the 2024 getting gear fest, so the Matt the Matt rope in.
Speaker 1:that's very good at that. He's very good at that. I know I love Matt. Matt, if you're listening, we love you.
Speaker 2:We do. Yeah, it's a no, it's. It's fun though it's cool to be a part of that, because it really is some organization that just has a lot of just awesome people. You know they're, they're fun to be around they're they're all positive thinking. They're all thinking about ways to grow the business but they're all. They're also thinking about ways to grow the outdoor industry in Western North Carolina as a whole. And it's just, yeah, it's exciting, we really enjoy it, and that's how we met.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's exactly how we met. Yeah, yeah, and Amy you mentioned Amy and Dusty. Amy is the one that definitely connected us. And yeah, that whole made by mountains, I mean everyone there is just so wonderful and they are. I mean it's the. The stoke is high, the positivity is high, the embracing us, you know just, the outdoor community is next level. It's just. I mean we could go on and on talking about all of those cool relationships that come out of it. But you definitely got connected with the right people. Amy got you in, matt got you connected and here you are planning the whole. Are you playing? Are you like head of the whole, getting gear fast?
Speaker 2:Yes, if you're listening to this and you'd like to volunteer, give me a call. No, it's, it's exciting, and I think what's cool is that it's not hard to talk to. You know people that whose companies aren't members and to really give them the reasons why it works, because we had such an awesome experience this past year. So it's, you know, it's, it's just a yeah, like I said really good organization. It's going to be a cool event this year. I think it's going to be the best one yet.
Speaker 1:There you go, there you go, going back to the exact same place Asheville Outpost. What does it call? Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's the best of Carrier Park and it'll be May 4th and it's, you know, it's a one day event and we're going to have a bunch of vendors there. It's, you know, it's right by Greenways and the park bike trails so people can just ride their bikes up totally free. You can come check it out, check all the you know, check out all the local vendors. Some people will be selling stuff, have some specials and sales and things like that, but it's, it's going to be a really cool event.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good. I want to say kudos to you for taking on the heavy lift and the task of sort of organizing that whole thing and yeah, you have a volunteer here. If I can help you put it together in any way, I'd be happy to do whatever I can do. Last year was my very first one.
Speaker 2:Oh, was it yeah.
Speaker 1:And I just walked around just just wide eyed, you know, got some you know person on the street kind of interviews and just some some impromptu things. But, wow, talk about an amazing event that pulled. I mean, if you love the outdoors, what a great place to go and just connect. And you know, and it wasn't just the booths, it was all the people that just are here in the big community that just continues to grow Right, and just all people just kind of hanging out up and down. You know the aisles and not the aisles, but you know, out in front of the tents and all that sort of thing. It was really really a special event, like one of these things that like, if I'm as long as I live here, that becomes a priority on that weekend.
Speaker 2:It really does, I agree, and it it's surprising, I think, to a lot of people to for them to see how many businesses really are here.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know most of those are within an hour of Asheville. You know, it's you. Just I got. I heard a lot of comments like that, like I just I didn't know these people were here, I didn't know these companies were here Right. And it just builds that excitement and it, you know, people love to buy locally right, they love to support local companies, and so that I think it really helped in that, you know, helped do that as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, before we let you go, what are some things that are on the horizon for you and for tent tracks? Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So we've had some plans for a little while We've been. We're kind of getting ready to release some new designs, okay, just and again some of it's small stuff, but just, you know, increasing durability, reliability of the products. We were hoping to do that tailgater model this year, nice, so that should be fun. We're really excited to get out west because you know, the West Coast is where tent tracks started, it's where a lot of the customers are so excited to get out there and kind of get back to your roots, so to speak.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we're going to get to know some of those customers out there. Yeah, but we're I mean, we're still, we're growing and we're building more trailers every day. You know I mentioned a little bit we have rooftop tents as well. So in addition to just the trailers, we have a line of rooftop tents, hard and soft-shell rooftop tents. We've also done some vehicle work too. So somebody comes and a lot of times it's aligned with buying a rooftop tent or something like that. But you know we've done modifications to vehicles, electrical systems, things like that. We we're really looking to get into some additional kind of some industries that we haven't been in before as much. So really pushing to do some work with Subaru, subaru owners, even some side-by-side owners you know side-by-sides are the most popular thing out there, right?
Speaker 1:now and it's.
Speaker 2:It works for us because it's so lightweight and small that you can. You can pull it to the side-by-side and go out and go wherever you want to.
Speaker 1:So that's right. When I visited your shop, you actually had one in there that you were doing some work on Yep Some modifications, I think, for one of your customers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did some marketing with that and took some photos and things like that Cool. So yeah, that's pretty neat. Yeah, I just I like seeing people get outdoors and enjoying it and being able to get a little further out if they, you know, if they want to, and kind of see that, see how much there is around here or wherever they live. I mean there's all kinds of cool stuff out there to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, boy, you just said it best you know to be able to get out there, go further and stay longer. Yeah, those are the three things that really see, not the only three things. But do you really check all those boxes for everybody?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's the goal.
Speaker 1:Well, it's on my list and I will hopefully one day soon be an owner of one of these tent tracks trailers, because it's I've done the rooftop tent thing and it's great, it has its space.
Speaker 1:But, like you said, usually it's all of us going in one vehicle and then we're just there and we are. Sometimes we'll go, you know, especially if it's just a guys' trip, we'll kind of go out and we'll just kind of hang there and maybe one or two stops and we're just, you know, doing all the things. But when I'm with my family, I just there's so much, like you said, to explore here that I want to kind of get out and see as much as I possibly can. And this is I've been telling my dad about this camper ever since I met you, yeah, and ever since, and I'm like, yeah, you got to check this thing out and it just really, yeah, it just checks a lot of boxes. And I think that when you open up your market for your people that are just not your hardcore, but also the people that like are going to they're smart car or they're Subaru Crosstrek or whatever it may be, this gets you to those places.
Speaker 2:And I think you know, if I had to guess, I would say 50% of our customers have never touched a trailer, hooked up a trailer or towed a trailer anywhere.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:I mean we'll do training in the parking lot when they buy one.
Speaker 1:Cool.
Speaker 2:You know we had a guy drive all the way from California in like two and a half days. It was wild.
Speaker 1:I don't even know how that's possible.
Speaker 2:And he, you know, he got here and then did a little training in the parking lot, picked it back up and went back home and it's that's. That's cool. I love that, you know. I love seeing people trying something totally new. It's totally out of their comfort zone and that it really just, you know, you see them light up and you see them get excited. And it's just the beginning.
Speaker 1:It's just the beginning, isn't that true? Yeah, and then the cool thing about you and the way you do business is that it truly is the beginning of their journey, but I feel like you get to stay connected with a lot of those customers along the way too, because of the whole process, the whole customization to know them, understand what their needs and desires are, creating solutions for those, and then, yeah, you just have a customer and a friend for life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's the best part of it for me.
Speaker 1:so that's cool. Well, brent, I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed this, and I'm glad that we finally got a chance to put this together. The vibe that you bring, the stroke that you bring, just who you are, I think even also just lending your talents and your treasures to the OVA and really just trying to bring as many people into the outdoor experience as you can that says a lot about you, man. I just every time I see you, dude, you got a smile on your face and you're helping somebody do something, so Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:This has been a great experience for me too. I love the podcast and I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1:I swear I have the absolute greatest hobby of all time. I get to hear the back stories of how passion and purpose collides and how they propel people to do some pretty amazing things, like what Brent and his team are doing over at TentTracks Truly remarkable. Check out their website at tenttrackscom for more information and to check out picks of these really amazing rigs, and be sure to follow them on their socials and stay up to date with the 2024 Outdoor Gear Fest, where you can meet Brent and his team and see all of these trailers for yourself. Well, that's gonna do it for this episode. I really hope you enjoyed it. But before I sign off, I wanna give a shout out to a couple of people. First, chrom Carey, who sent me that awesome video of him laying under a house in below freezing temperatures, protecting all of the plumbing. I posted that video on Instagram. Chrom, you are the ultimate hype guy. I really love your energy, brother. Thanks for giving me a lift exactly when I needed it. Also, to Jared Lee, who I ran into at Cata Lucho Sunday night when I was hosting. It was an epic evening with great conditions and I was really stoked to get to meet Jared in person. Steven Reinhold with the Appalachian Adventure Company, says you're a legend in these parts, jared, and if Ramblin Reinhold says it, I believe it. Keep spreading the stoke and bringing people along on this journey, jared. Oh, and Steven, and I think you should come on the show. You would be a great guest.
Speaker 1:Lastly, all I had a great conversation today with Bryce Mahoney, with Yadkinville Valley Adventure located in Pilate Mountain. We're planning his episode and working on all the logistics, but I can't wait to share his story with you. We both hail from Tye Water, virginia, and grew up surfing in Virginia Beach in the Outer Bakes. Today, we swap stories of some amazing breaks and spots and days of driving up and down the coastline searching for more waves so cool. Anyway, we're gonna focus on what brought him here to the mountains of North Carolina in that episode and I think that you're gonna be really inspired by his journey and by his story.
Speaker 1:I'd like to give a special thanks to Made by Mountains for making this special collaboration series possible. To find out more about all of the amazing projects and things Made by Mountains is involved in, check out MadebyMountainscom or visit the link in the show notes. Join me on Facebook and Instagram and drop me a note at mike at explorationlocalcom, if you ever have a suggestion for a future episode. Until we meet again, I encourage you to wander far but explore local limitation.