The OuterBelt's Podcast
The OuterBelt's Podcast
What Drives Hyfield's Fleet Decisions
Take a ride with us as we reunite at The Outer Belt after some globe-trotting adventures that left hosts navigating a 13-hour time difference. This episode weaves together personal journeys with industry insights in our signature conversational style that feels like catching up with friends at a truck stop.
We kick things off with Melissa sharing her coffee shop explorations and Maryland visit, while Zucchini Bread recounts a family gathering in Iowa. The conversation takes an unexpected turn when we dive into the world of soapbox derby racing, where seven-year-old competitors reach speeds of 18 mph in gravity-powered vehicles. This sparks nostalgic reminiscing about Pinewood Derby experiences, complete with insider tricks for creating winning cars that might have bent the rules a little.
Patrick and Eric transport us to Japan through vivid descriptions of their recent travels, from ancient temples and historic districts to an unexpected encounter with thousands of wild deer in Nara that left both hosts sporting bite marks! Their World's Fair adventures in Osaka reveal architectural marvels and cultural showcases from around the globe, with particular praise for the United Kingdom's espresso martinis and Saudi Arabia's immersive village design.
We shift gears to discuss Michael's acquisition of Joann's intellectual property following the fabric retailer's bankruptcy, analyzing what this means for craft enthusiasts and market dynamics. The episode culminates with "The Hyfield Chronicles" - an in-depth exploration of why the company exclusively uses Detroit diesel engines in their fleet, tracing their journey through different manufacturers and providing valuable insights into reliability, warranty coverage, and serviceability considerations.
Whether you're fascinated by international travel, nostalgic for childhood competitions, curious about retail industry changes, or interested in the technical aspects of fleet management, this conversation offers something for everyone. Join us for a journey that's as entertaining as it is informative.
Email us: theouterbeltpodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.hyfieldtrucking.com
Interested in joining our team? Email us at info.hysg@gmail.com we have open trucks! You must be part of a team. No solo drivers.
Call us at 1-833-493-4353 Option 1
Facebook: The Outer Belt Podcast
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So you thinking active or passive? I'm thinking active. Ooh yeah, hey everybody. Welcome back to the Outer Belt. I'm Patrick and you all know my friends Chili.
Speaker 3:Buttermilk.
Speaker 1:Eric.
Speaker 3:Zucchini bread.
Speaker 1:And Jerry, and what a week of events and excitement it's been. I'm so glad to be back here, so glad to be back on the Outer Belt. I've missed it. I have missed it too and I know you're at home going missed it.
Speaker 5:What do you mean?
Speaker 1:You were just here two weeks ago. Well, we did a little magic. Well, we did a little magic and over the past few weeks, eric and myself have been on the other side of the globe. 11 hours times difference. I thought it was 13. 13 hour time difference. I don't know math and I completely lost what I was saying. You were saying how you were across the grope the grope, yep, or the globe.
Speaker 3:And it was a 13-hour time difference.
Speaker 1:13-hour time difference yeah, and we had Jerry had to AI myself and Eric. We would call in the show, right, and then Jerry would AI us in for the past two episodes, and so we're just glad to be back, and in person again. It's much needed, yeah.
Speaker 6:Well, it's nice to have you back.
Speaker 5:Thank you.
Speaker 6:Thankfully, jerry was able to master those AI skills and put me here, because I'm not here today, I'm dialing in remotely as well. You are, yeah, you are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I said you know, can we do something about the hair and makeup, Right? And Jerry said no, it has to be exactly the way it would be if he was here. Yeah, so you know. I tried to help you out, but I appreciate it. Yeah, nowissa's here, not strange. It is strange that melissa's here. Yes, yeah, melissa, how you doing I'm good haven't seen you in a long time it's been a hot moment what's been going on?
Speaker 3:same thing different day, did a little exploring a few weekends. Uh, you know what we normally do get out.
Speaker 1:And about New coffee shops, visiting coffee shops that we've been to before to give them a second go-round, a lot of coffee.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, some new places we've traveled. Vince and I did take a jaunt out to Maryland over Memorial Day weekend. That was really neat. Got to spend some time with my older son there who had just moved. It just was neat. We did some exploring out there.
Speaker 1:That's right. Was it the last episode, or maybe the one before that? He was actually here in studio? Yes, he was On his way out there. He's moving out there for two years, for a couple years on a job, and then he'll be able to retire.
Speaker 3:Yeah, He'll be 38 when he retires. It's not necessarily a job. He's in the Navy, so it is a job.
Speaker 1:It's a the Navy, so it is a job. It's a job, and a commendable one at that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That's about it Other than that, answering the phones Monday through Friday.
Speaker 1:Nice, very nice.
Speaker 3:Been doing some video recording with Jerry. We went and had a little field day. That was a lot of fun. I thought it was fun. Yeah, we went and had a little field day. That was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:I thought it was fun, so, yeah, very cool. Well, zucchini Brett, I saw that you just got back into town.
Speaker 4:I did.
Speaker 1:Where have you been? I need a full report. The sponsor of the show said that you missed a couple days and that we need a report.
Speaker 4:A report that you missed a couple days and that we need a uh, a report, a report. So I got in my car and I drove 12 hours back to atlantic iowa, where my mother lives, and spent some time with her, since I haven't seen her since I moved out here in january nice well I mean not not the not seeing her, but the getting the opportunity to get an opportunity to go back um my, so my dad's sister turned 80.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 4:So we had a big celebration for her. So I also got to see a lot of my other family while I was back as well. So it's always nice to get together with the cousins and family and rehash what everybody's been doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, get the banjos out.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's actually more something that Jerry would do. You're from Appalachia, right?
Speaker 3:Yep, get the banjos out.
Speaker 1:Well, you were also just gone. You went up to Minneapolis, right.
Speaker 5:No, no, we went to Michigan, michigan.
Speaker 1:That was close yeah.
Speaker 5:This past weekend, don's youngest sister, her only child was in his first soapbox race.
Speaker 1:Okay, what is a soapbox race? I saw this on Facebook and I know y'all are probably sitting at home going like he's an idiot. He doesn't know what that is. I don't know what that is, I'm sorry. I saw it online on the Book of Faces, where you had mentioned. You were there and all I could see behind you was like cones set up or something. I don't really know what you were doing.
Speaker 5:So soapboxes like the, you know they're, I don't know how to explain them, but they're four wheels. They're usually very slender, they're just wide enough in the middle for usually a child to sit in and crouch down in to try to get aerodynamic. And they start you off at the top. You're usually on a hill, it's all gravity-fed, so you come off like a little ramp and then race to the bottom.
Speaker 4:So it's like Pinewood Derby, only with people in it.
Speaker 1:That's what I was just about to say. So we did that at school. It was Pinewood derby. Yeah, with humans, are there?
Speaker 4:any crashes, there were a few.
Speaker 5:They they start off with the older kids. Uh, they started the first and then they went down to the younger kids. Um, he is seven, eight, I think he's eight, uh, and this was the first time he had ever raced and and unfortunately he did not win. Oh yeah, he was pretty bummed, but I think he had fun overall. It was a lot of fun cheering him on and all that.
Speaker 3:Did he have a theme to his car?
Speaker 5:They had sponsorships and so there was like local businesses in the area and so they put like their logos all over the car and stuff like that.
Speaker 4:Nice, cool, what and so?
Speaker 1:they put like their logos all over the car and stuff like that Nice. What material do they make?
Speaker 6:them out of Ivory. It's actually the best. Yeah, 99.99% pure. Yeah.
Speaker 5:Honestly, I don't know. I know they have to make it even for everybody. They had to be there the day before. They had to get the cars ready, so what they do is they put the child in there, because every kid weighs differently. So then, to make it all even, they add like weights around the car and stuff, and they all had to weigh 200 pounds.
Speaker 4:Oh, wow.
Speaker 5:So they do that and get everything set up the day before.
Speaker 1:And then afterwards do you, you know, a little concrete in the front.
Speaker 4:And the kid wears extra stuff in there.
Speaker 6:They put on a diving weight belt.
Speaker 1:They show up like boxers going into a match just down in their skivvies sitting on the scale. They got the towels so people can't see them and they weigh in and they show up the next day like they're going into the Arctic.
Speaker 5:We told him to eat a big meal right before the race to give him a little extra weight.
Speaker 6:Eat a big meal and don't poop.
Speaker 1:Hold it in. Hold it in.
Speaker 5:He had his practice run and he won the practice run, but then the two actual race runs he didn't win Is this something he's going to career with continue on.
Speaker 1:I don't know, does he have race car, race driver, blood career with Continue?
Speaker 5:on. I don't know it was funny, because when you watch them coming down and then whenever they pass, it's almost like you're sitting there and you're just like I think the fastest one they clocked was like 18 miles an hour, that's pretty cool Speed McQueen right there.
Speaker 1:I tell you that's lightning in a soap bottle.
Speaker 5:It was fun.
Speaker 1:Did you then get to take it out after the race?
Speaker 5:No, no, no. Would you have? No, there ain't no way my big butt was fitting anywhere near that.
Speaker 1:I know you said 200 pounds is what they all have to weigh I'm like, so I guess I just take they put helium in my tires the tires are like steel almost, and they got like just a little strip of rubber around them, just enough for them to roll oh, no suspension no oh, that's got to be fun.
Speaker 5:What 18 miles, and then they they have to get down as low as they can to try to get aerodynamic and and then it's's steer by wire. They got like two little wires inside there that they're pulling to go left and right Like a bobsled Kind of yeah.
Speaker 2:No potholes.
Speaker 5:No, Okay good.
Speaker 1:I could see Did the.
Speaker 6:Jamaican team win.
Speaker 1:No, it was the Somalian actually. Oh okay, I could see the next year. You know some kids at home and his dad's playing the video back for him. He's like here you lifted your head Right exactly. Two centimeters which, if you look at the equation here, equated to six seconds of drag you did yourself.
Speaker 5:It was kind of upsetting because whenever he come down off the ramp and he got maybe a quarter of the way down the hill you can see he looks to the left because he was in the right lane. He looks to the left and realizes that he's already fallen behind and he just kind of gave up at that point. He wouldn't even try. Oh poor guy. So, what a quitter.
Speaker 2:I know right.
Speaker 3:Well, hopefully he tries again.
Speaker 5:I think he will.
Speaker 3:Do they have like a circuit?
Speaker 5:Yeah, whoever, we did not stick around to find out who the winner was, because there were 72 kids racing, wow. So once we realized he was out, we kind of because this all happened.
Speaker 1:They walked over there, pat him on the head. Better luck next time we're out.
Speaker 5:This all happened on Sunday, so I think we actually left there at like 4 or 5 o'clock in the evening and then it's four hours back here.
Speaker 1:I just thought it was rude what you told him as you were leaving and when you, you didn't tell the kid but you told Don loud enough he could hear. We drove all the way here for this, like that's just.
Speaker 5:His first race he was very depressed, like we actually got a photo of him coming around the corner and he's just mad and you could see it all over his face. It's like the best photo ever. But then the second race that he did, he was better. He was more of a sportsman about it.
Speaker 3:That's good, that's all.
Speaker 6:Yeah, At that age it's hard to Hide the disappointment.
Speaker 5:And that's what we tried telling him. You know, like 72, 73 kids racing and there's only two that will go to the finals. The finals are actually in Akron, ohio. Really, when I don't know Road trip, I know it's in Akron. Yeah, it would be fun.
Speaker 1:You could send pictures back to them. You could be here.
Speaker 2:This could be you, but we already planned to come.
Speaker 4:We thought you were going to win Exactly, so we got tickets.
Speaker 5:We tried explaining to him. You know, like, out of that many, like there's only two winners, like you want to have a lot of people that don't get through.
Speaker 1:You're going to have 70 upset kids and two.
Speaker 5:Exactly, and I think that played a part in it too, because some of the older ones who had been doing this for a while they had already tweaked out their rods and changed wheels up. He had a brand new one right out of the box, nothing done to it and we think that could have played a role.
Speaker 1:Did they put the graphite on the wheels? You've got to put the graphite on the wheels. You've got to put the graphite. So I did Pinewood derby as a kid, and oh. So you know I'm not lying.
Speaker 6:I know you're not lying but my grandfather used powdered graphite on my wheels and then when I made it, I got further on and I forget how far it's been. 40 freaking years, um, but the, the, the officials used a liquid graphite, so it gummed up the powder graphite and slowed my car down. Oh, yeah. My grandfather was not happy. I can imagine he was not happy. I didn't know any better.
Speaker 1:I raced mine. Most people, I think, race theirs in some kind of youth or kid club. Mine was.
Speaker 5:Boy Scouts, boy Scouts. Yeah, wee Blows Something like that, yeah.
Speaker 1:So mine was actually in the eighth grade. We did a science fair thing at the school and part of it was Pinewood Derby racing cars and I actually won. It felt pretty good First time. I wasn't a loser, so I just got lucky. I don't know what it was, I mean.
Speaker 4:I did put.
Speaker 1:So I just I got lucky. I don't know what it was. I mean I did put lead in it, but I got lucky and they didn't have scales. When I saw they didn't have scales, I'm like it's on. It looked a little funny with that.
Speaker 5:you know five-pound weight from the locker that I just set on top of it and taped it on.
Speaker 1:But you know whatever, yeah, there's no scale yeah.
Speaker 3:My boys did it in Awanas through the church and I believe David won for best paint job.
Speaker 1:Okay, Best paint job.
Speaker 3:Well, his dad was a professional car painter so these had DuPont paint on the car so he won with with prettiness, you know the shape of the car and then whatever color scheme he chose to do. But you know he walked away with a little trophy and yeah, you know, but it was all about where you put the weight. You know I remember them hollowing it out and then putting weight back in it. I don't remember if it was liquid or if the graphite was used.
Speaker 5:I remember him sanding the wheels.
Speaker 3:That was something I thought was really super fine sandpaper. But he sanded all those little plastic wheels just to take the whatever. I don't know what that did for anything.
Speaker 6:I think the wheels had a ridge around the middle from the mold where they were molded. So you had to sand those down and make them smooth, so you didn't have that ridge causing problem when I'm going right, exactly.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know, tracking nice and straight, yep, yep, that was fun times.
Speaker 1:I had my car. For a while. Mine looked like uh, so I mean like I was, this would have been 1997, 98, somewhere, 798? Somewhere around there. And when I did this, and back then the hot car, the hot car, the one to have was the Ferrari F40. I believe it. And so that was like what was pinned up on my wall, like that was the car to have. Everybody loved those cars, and so that's exactly how I designed my car. I did the short pointed nose, the little cab. Then it came down. Then I had a little fin on the back which I realize now did nothing for aerodynamics, and then I painted it red because I wanted it to like. Really, mine did not have the best paint job, mine had not even Rust-Oleum Like. If you ever go to Home Depot you can buy like the. It just says red spray paint 88 cents it was that one Like if you ever go to Home Depot you can buy like the, it just says red spray paint 88 cents.
Speaker 6:It was that one. It worked. It got you first place.
Speaker 1:It worked it got first place.
Speaker 6:It was all the lead and the paint that we that's exactly what it was. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I remember somebody's had a bathtub.
Speaker 1:Like they had carved it out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then they had like epoxy extra high layers and then they had like little clear balls in it to look like bubbles, like a bubble bath, and it was a pink bathtub that they Wow. It obviously did not win for aerodynamics at all.
Speaker 4:But I thought what a neat we had one kid. He would always do it up like an old-fashioned car, like with the pipes and like really fancy it up. Yeah, and he was going for the like best to show instead of the race.
Speaker 6:I couldn't tell you what mine looked like.
Speaker 3:I think it's a cool transformation from a block of wood.
Speaker 6:It is, it truly is.
Speaker 1:And for a lot of kids who get it like learning about aerodynamics, learning about shapes and whatever that actually make your car faster. I remember people doing like pickup trucks and think about it. Then, back in those days, a pickup truck was square, not round, and so the trucks were just like straight up over, up over and it's like, yeah, those all didn't do very well.
Speaker 6:Speaking of pickup trucks, I saw a Dodge pickup truck, a late model Dodge pickup truck, on the highway today they still make them, you know, I realize that. But the difference, the different thing here was that it was a standard cab. Oh yeah, it looked really weird to me. I'm like why?
Speaker 2:does it look?
Speaker 6:so oh, it doesn't have any extended cab on, it's a standard cab, it's a two-seater. Yeah, it was cool. It's sorry, pinewood derby so squirrel well
Speaker 1:I would have liked to have done the soapbox car. I love racing. You know you still can. Red Bull has a whole series of pinecone not Red Bull.
Speaker 6:Red Bull has a big adult thing where multiple folks can be in the car. I believe that's just called racing. No, it's their soapbox version. No, red Bull does all kinds of crazy stuff. Have you seen? Oh, I believe that's just called racing. No, it's their soapbox version. Oh, no, red Bull does all kinds of crazy stuff.
Speaker 3:Excuse me, they shove you off a hill.
Speaker 4:They do. It'd be fun, all right.
Speaker 1:I think the reason why soapbox racing wasn't a thing for me, eric, was it a thing for you? No, no. Not soapbox. I think in South Louisiana the problem is if we wanted a hill we'd have to push them off like an interstate ramp.
Speaker 5:Like there was no such thing.
Speaker 1:We had no hills growing up in Louisiana. It was flat, I mean like no hills. I remember having to go into Mississippi to find hills, so that wasn't really an option for us.
Speaker 5:I'm sure Lansing has hills yeah like they had the ramp that they launch them off of to give them a little extra, and then it was a downgrade right through the middle of town. But you know what I heard that they do here.
Speaker 1:Is they actually take them out to the Columbus?
Speaker 5:landfill.
Speaker 1:And launch them off the landfill. Launch them off the landfill.
Speaker 3:But they don't stop the trucks. Right. So they got to like weave, weave through the trucks.
Speaker 1:So it's Formula One meets Grand.
Speaker 3:Theft Auto. We found hills this last weekend when we were out. I thought that was in fact, we talked about it.
Speaker 6:Yeah, cool rolling hills, yeah I was like wow for.
Speaker 3:Ohio.
Speaker 1:this is pretty mountainous, I'm totally air quoting that, but yeah, well, it makes me think of Dayton. You think of Indianapolis to Columbus is fairly flat, but there's two places there is right in Dayton.
Speaker 3:There's a huge valley, you go through.
Speaker 1:And then when you go right at the Ohio-Indiana border or state crossing on I-70, there's that little movement around of hills and then it's back to flat again. So you get a couple minutes of this is nice, and then we're back to flat.
Speaker 3:I think we were in the Miami Valley this last week.
Speaker 1:We were, so that's why it was the rolling hills. I'd like to explore the Miami Valley some more, more towards the Cincinnati side.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because you know you go over it in the really tall bridge.
Speaker 6:Right, it's beautiful over that bridge, yeah.
Speaker 1:I want to try to like find parks or wherever.
Speaker 6:I think that'd be a great place to hop on the bikes and go for a ride.
Speaker 1:The Brad Rovers.
Speaker 6:No, the electric mud bikes, the motorcycles oh, the motorcycles.
Speaker 1:Okay, that would be. You're right, we need to research that. Well, it sounds like we all had a wonderful time. We were out. If you're watching on Facebook which I think a number of y'all do, because I see y'all comment Eric and I were, of course, in Japan, and that's where our 13-hour difference was, and that's where our 13 hour difference was, and we had a really good time. Got to go out there for the World's Fair, which was in Osaka it's Expo 2025 and Ours locals call it Osaka.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was weird. I've always called it Osaka you.
Speaker 3:I don't know Osaka.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, we had a number of people and we call it Asuka.
Speaker 1:Asuka.
Speaker 2:And them saying that in a Japanese accent. It's like a double take.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we started out in Tokyo, went to a couple little cities around Mount Fuji, then went across the entire island, got to see the Sea of Japan and go to Forgive me, I can't remember the name of the city and then got to go out to Kawanaza, which is the city that's famous. It's like little Kyoto, so it's like very old buildings. We got to walk through the Geisha District. We got to walk through the Samurai District buildings. We got to walk through the Geisha district. We got to walk through the samurai district and see all these really old, you know 100, 200, 300 year old buildings that were just beautiful. That side of Japan didn't get hit during World War II and they're famous for their gold, so everything's gold leafed. It was really cool and got to see just some really cool temples and places, and part of the trip is you see a lot of temples, kind of like when we went to Italy, remember how many cathedrals.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:There's a point where you're like I'm kind of cathedral-bound.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It was like that. We got to a point where it was like, oh my gosh, more temples. So we did end up going to Kyoto and seeing that, which is that's a really cool city. Part of what's really cool is it's such a touristy spot, the international presence like it's incredible. And then the second day we were in Kyoto, we went to Nara. Now, Nara is special. It's one of those places that we got really lucky to go. There are wild deer everywhere. Eric explain.
Speaker 2:They're not so wild, they're everywhere. I think they had as many deer as they did people. Yes.
Speaker 1:Not really exaggerating and there were thousands of people it's a very touristy area Everywhere and they gave us these little crackers to give out to the deer. The problem is, once the deer found out, you had the crackers.
Speaker 3:They wouldn't leave you alone.
Speaker 1:They wouldn't leave you alone. So I am proud to say that I have been bitten by a Nara deer, so have.
Speaker 2:I so has.
Speaker 3:Eric, wow Not fun.
Speaker 1:No, if you go back on our Facebook you'll see some pictures of the deer and such, but it was pretty. That was a personal Facebook page, as that is, but that was a lot of fun. And then we got to see finally go to another temple Again, we're just like another temple, all right, and inside of it is the one of the largest sculptures I've ever seen in my life and it's a Buddha and it is is massive, the right word, eric. Yeah, huge, huge, gargantuan, gargantuan. So he's sitting down Indian style like he does.
Speaker 1:Or crisscross applesauce I don't know what the proper word is, I apologize if I. And he's doing his little hands up and hand down thing. And he's huge, he's gigantic, they said. If he was standing up he's the same scale, same height as Lady Liberty Statue of Liberty, like that's how big he is. He's friggin' massive. He's got two little Buddhas next to him like standing guard and it was super impressive and it was one of those things where it's like. I am so glad I didn't say no Like because I have To the temple.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have temple fatigue, but this is like unbelievable.
Speaker 3:That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was very, very cool to see it and to get the chance to kind of explore that. And then we left there and go around the backside and there's guess what More deer.
Speaker 1:And they're so cute, the lady that was with us. She was talking about because she lived in Nara. She's talking about like she gets up in the morning and she'll find deer just eating her flowers out of her flower pot and all that annoying stuff or whatever, and I'm like, ooh, I can imagine that would be a bit much. But yeah, really cool experience, Very glad to have that. And then from there, where did we go? Hiroshima, yeah, I believe it was Hiroshima.
Speaker 1:I don't remember the order, yeah, which was unique. As an American, you know going there, I can imagine we did find out when we were there that it's one of the places that has the fewest number of American tourists, Like there's a lot of tourists that go but very few Americans will make the trip out there, so that was kind of like.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I think she also said the older crowd did not want to go there.
Speaker 1:Yes, they said it's mostly younger people that are coming out, that are. Americans that would make sense and I'm like I get that, but at the same time, you know, I think by now we've hopefully moved on.
Speaker 1:But it was a very interesting. You forget but it was a very interesting. You forget the implications of why it was bombed. Just seeing a city that was bombed and rebuilt and the things they've chosen to not renovate but leave as it was, and to see what the damage was, it's shocking. It's shocking To actually be in the middle of it and then be able to see all around of like this was all just gone and to see like that building is a survivor, that building's a survivor and that building's a survivor, and then everything else is gone. It's a wild, very wild feeling.
Speaker 1:It's also a very new city, obviously, but even more so than like the 50s, where everything was rebuilt. They're tearing down the 50s buildings and they're building brand new buildings today, so it's a lot of like very modern 2000s and newer architecture. It's a lot of very modern 2000s and newer architecture. It's a very clean city. It's, I think, one of the prettiest cities in Japan we were at. Very much enjoyed our time there. It felt very American, as weird as that is to say, Everybody has a car, they have a great public transit system, but it's not anywhere near as used as the rest of Japan. And yeah, it was a really cool experience.
Speaker 1:That city had a train, car or a trolley A trolley, yeah, an old-fashioned trolley, Kind of like New Orleans, but a little newer. We rode that too, didn't we? A couple times. And then from there we went out to Osaka, did a couple tours, food tours. We did a soul food tour in Osaka and I'm like soul food, oh, oh, A little different than what we have, but it was so good, so much fun. I knew it was going to be a good tour too. And she said our second stop is going to be a bar. And I was like I'm in.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, great time there. Then we spent the rest of our trip going to the World's Fair and just traveling country to country.
Speaker 3:What was your favorite booth? I don't know what they call them.
Speaker 1:Pavilion, the United Kingdom.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 1:Yes, one of the best. You'll never guess, one of the best espresso martinis.
Speaker 2:I've had the bar of bars.
Speaker 1:It really was UK for that reason. But Saudi Arabia, which is a weird thing to say had a really cool booth. The way they built it, the way they designed it, you felt like you were inside of a village, like a rural, local village.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 1:It was very tastefully done, very nice. That was the one that really stood out to me. But we went to a bunch. We went to Germany. Germany's was really cool, very educational. Germany had this weird thing I've never seen before. It was a little puppet and it had a. It's like a rubber ball.
Speaker 2:Like a rubber ball, but it was a character, yeah.
Speaker 1:And green and red, Yep, and you would touch the wall with it in certain spots and then it had a little built-in speaker that you could put up against your ear and it would tell you about what they're trying to get you to know, so that you could listen in your own language at your own pace. I've never seen that technology anywhere else before.
Speaker 3:It was very very cool, Eric.
Speaker 1:what did you think?
Speaker 2:My favorite was always Singapore.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Singapore was nice.
Speaker 2:Last time we went to a fair Singapore tapped in on their greenhouse, their plants. Of course I love gardening and stuff.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They did the opposite this year. They went completely white. Yep Like wedding white, everything, everything. Yep Like wedding white, everything, everything. And then there's one part of it where the top of it they have a green umbrella to represent one tree covering it was kind of weird Interesting.
Speaker 1:It was but to stay on brand at the very end.
Speaker 2:They did have a garden area.
Speaker 1:Was a garden area lounge that had a bar. I will say that was one thing that was very different than being in Dubai. Like Eric said, we did go to Dubai in 2021 for their expo. In Dubai obviously Muslim country very few places you can get anything to drink. They allowed it, but very few places. In Japan, at Japan, in Osaka, it was everywhere.
Speaker 3:In all the booths.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like everywhere, Like you could just pop in, grab a beer and just start walking down.
Speaker 3:But they bring in their stuff from their country, right? They did yes, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:So we had a beer from Thailand, which Thailand's booth was very cool too. Thailand's booth at the World's Fair last time was also very cool. But yeah, we had a really bitter beer from. It was good they call those IPAs. Kind of yeah. It was a little different than IPA but similar. And then, like Germany, had what's the one they're known for, paul Pilsner. And then, like Germany, had what's the one they're known for Paul Paul, paul, paul Paul.
Speaker 3:Paul Pilsner.
Speaker 1:No, Paul Mincher. I don't know what's his uncle. Someone's going to write in the comments like did you mean? Whatever it is.
Speaker 4:It's not Pilsner either, it's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that one.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Can't think of it. And then Obviously there one yeah. And then obviously there's Anheuser-Busch with Budweiser.
Speaker 2:There was they had a community area way in the back. It wasn't even a building, it was a large tent where they were advertising different sake and Japanese sweet wines.
Speaker 1:Oh, that was cool. That was like a one-time little fair they were doing.
Speaker 2:It wasn't even officially part of the expo. They just put it up for a little while and local breweries, wineries, whatever, would come and show off some of their stuff.
Speaker 1:And you couldn't buy anything. They were just giving out samples.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:That was pretty cool. We just stumbled upon that, didn't even we weren't planning on it.
Speaker 4:Polliner.
Speaker 1:Polliner, that's it. Yes, polliner, yeah, and so we just I don't know, it was a really great show. They had a really cool giant fountain thing like Bellagio-esque, bellagio-esque, and they did a huge silver frame and they would drop water like a curtain of water from the frame, from inside the frame, and so you have the curtain of water filling up the frame like a piece of glass, and then they would project onto it the cartoon characters and then do a show at night with those cartoon characters on that picture frame, with the fountains like the Bellagio going off. And then, at the very end of it, they did a drone show. Yeah, massive drone show.
Speaker 4:Oh fun.
Speaker 1:Which those drone shows man they are getting.
Speaker 3:I thought the one we saw at the baseball park in Cleveland was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was that technology's gone. I'm curious where it's going to go next, because it's definitely got interesting.
Speaker 2:And I've seen where they can even shoot fireworks off of the drones. Now Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Exciting. So that was it. We came back, I got sick and then spent a week feeling terrible, but I'm better now.
Speaker 3:I was going to ask are you feeling better?
Speaker 1:Much better. It was brutal for the past week, but it's all mostly gone and you'll all be sick in the morning.
Speaker 3:No, we're not.
Speaker 1:Well, melissa.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I saw that article, you know, and when I read it I just want you to know, they're not acquiring all of Joanne's products. So, yeah, we're going to talk about Michael's.
Speaker 1:Michael's.
Speaker 3:Michael's, the craft store, oh yes, acquires Joanne, because if you're watching the show or if you're not, joanne's fabric went out of business, fell bankruptcy. But Michael's acquires Joanne's brands and welcomes all of their customers. So the further I dug into it, they've acquired the brand label of joanne. Yes, so not not all fabrics, not whatever, but the brand name. Uh, most of it is going to be the rights to like Joanne's Big Twist yarn brand line. So most of it was like yarn, a little bit of fabrics and some sewing accoutrements, probably thread, needles, buttons, that kind of thing. But honestly, the more I read it, I didn't see a whole lot that said they were going to stock up their fabric, which, for me personally, that's why I went to Joanne's.
Speaker 1:I did see in there so I have a couple thoughts. I did see on there that they said that since Jo joanne went out of business, their um online fabric searches increased 77 percent yep, and that um they are now offering more than 10 000 fabric options online and they are increasing the amount of fabric they keep in stores because joanne's went out of business yeah so I don't think that had anything to do with buying joanne's.
Speaker 1:As much as they saw an opportunity, sure, they're jumping on that opportunity. I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, walmart or some of these other companies maybe increase their selection as well, hobby Lobby, for example. Sure, just to try to like.
Speaker 3:Hey, we see a little gap we can fill. Market. Yeah, I did see where, though if you were to Google Joann's to go shop on Joann's, because maybe you weren't in the know it redirects you to the Michaels website.
Speaker 6:Okay, yeah, Michaels did buy all of Joann's intellectual property. So things like the website and the name now are Michaels.
Speaker 1:Cool. I wonder if you're going to go inside a Michaels store and see their fabrics, have the Joann fabrics kind of thing. You know how sometimes they'll do that store within a store concept.
Speaker 5:Sure.
Speaker 1:That would be a pretty slick thing for branding. I do think it's interesting.
Speaker 1:You know, it wasn't that long ago a couple years ago that Michaels themselves were in trouble and having some financial issues and I don't remember if they did declare bankruptcy or if they were talking about it or what, but they were definitely in a bad spot not too terribly long ago and to see them go from that to now they're buying this intellectual property. I get they bought it pennies on the dollar, but still Joint Fabrics had a brand, so there was a there's name recognition there, absolutely, and there were other companies that probably were interested in having it too, so it wasn't free.
Speaker 6:No.
Speaker 1:And they also said that they're adding what was it? 280 more stores this year.
Speaker 3:I saw that.
Speaker 1:Which surprises me. I'm like that's a lot. I'm really surprised that Michaels has gone through the transformation they've gone through and are growing so much, which you know. To them they're probably like well, that was a huge competitor and getting rid of them opened up all this opportunity where maybe there wasn't enough demand for two stores but now there's plenty for one store.
Speaker 4:I was wondering if they're going to take over the old Joanne's places, but that'd be silly because they're like within blocks of those already.
Speaker 1:They are yes.
Speaker 4:They'll have to go to different puppy towns. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes, I agree it did say that they were going to continue to develop some of Joanne's Big Twist brand family, including Big Twist Value Plus Twinkle Posh and Baby Bear Yarns twinkle posh and baby bear yarns.
Speaker 4:So that was one thing I was going to ask is I have not heard of any of these big twist brands. I'm not a yard, whatever are they are.
Speaker 1:They like a big, a big deal, because I've seen it, not just this article that we all shared before the show, but like I've seen it pop up multiple times on my feed and I don't collect yarn or have anything to do with- it.
Speaker 3:There's a thicker yarn that I think they're doing a lot of finger knitting, finger whatever, yeah outside it's softer. It is softer.
Speaker 4:It doesn't scratch your fingers as much when she's doing her crocheting so she really likes it From what I saw in the stores. I'm not a crocheter or knitter either. That's kind of weird. I mean you can get different thicknesses. They do have the bigger ones and then like regular size yarn. And everything in between.
Speaker 1:But it's definitely a niche they have.
Speaker 3:Yes, those products will be available in Michael's stores and online later this year, so it's something they're all still developing. It's that line of fabric, the big twist yarn, yarn cool cool.
Speaker 1:Well, I know that'll be good for a lot of people that are still looking for more uh of those that fill that void that they lost. I am curious, too, if they're going to start carrying vinyl and if we're going to find out like in two months that.
Speaker 3:Well, and I was thinking the same thing with the tool, right? Because, um, you know, I just went and did my mad dash for the birthday tutu and I don't regret purchasing not knowing that michael's was uh, and especially if they do carry the tool, if I can only get it online. Online, you know, you just can't tell what you're buying. So I don't regret going to the five different Joann's the months leading up to their closing to get what I needed.
Speaker 4:When I was at home, mom was going through her material. She goes I have over 10 different colors of blue. This is just regular material for just blue.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And it's because, buying online, you can't see the shades next to each other, so you end up having to buy something it doesn't match. So you're like, okay, well, that matched this way, so let's see if this one will.
Speaker 3:It is yeah, and I didn't want to risk that with the tools this way. So let's see if this one will. It is yeah, and I didn't want to risk that with the tools.
Speaker 1:so again, I appreciated joanne's well 75 off if you, if you buy one of those um, is it patina? Who's the company?
Speaker 5:pantone if you buy a pantone uh, kit, you can get that perfect. It's only what? Twenty five thousand dollars for the homemaker kit.
Speaker 1:No, and it's not like we're not going to use the vinyl, so I'm not really worried about that.
Speaker 6:And we have a discount. Yeah, we already have used it.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we did use it, yeah.
Speaker 1:So well, that's interesting. Glad to see that at least some of these things that are in demand are going to live on. Yeah, I just saw that. You know speaking of stores that went out of business. I saw that Big Lots you know which is a. They're coming back which?
Speaker 1:is a Columbus what Big Lots which originally I mean they're a Columbus corporation that went out of business and they shut down all their stores. They're coming back. They got bought by another company that does similar closeout-type stuff and they're coming back. They've got a lot of stores listed. Columbus is not one of them, oddly enough, but I have a feeling it's only a matter of time before they do come back over here. Hmm, yep.
Speaker 3:Is it going to be called Big Lots it?
Speaker 1:is Same logo, everything they say the stores, will be laid out Next to Guitar Center.
Speaker 3:That building already still has the logos up it's inconvenient guitar center.
Speaker 1:That building already still has the logos up. It's inconvenient, right, just buy your old leases Probably get them dirt cheap because they're like oh yeah, we got no one else for them.
Speaker 4:I am from yourself.
Speaker 3:You know, the last time I was in Michael's, probably a year ago, I thought they were going out of business. Their store was so empty.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So it will be interesting to maybe go back to a Michael's see what they look like now. How full they were Again, I thought they were literally going out of business.
Speaker 1:Well, they were in, like I said, a couple years ago, they were in hot water. I know this past Christmas which I mean now we're talking seven months ago I had I bought something or had something or whatever, and I had to send it back to whatever company I bought it from. I don't remember the details, but they sent it to me via a UPS return label and I was under the gun. I had to get it back and I'm like how am I going to get this back.
Speaker 1:The UPS store had already closed or whatever. And I was looking online and it was like Michaels, you can return it back via Michaels. And I'm like that's the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. You can return it back via Michaels and I'm like that's the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. But I went there and sure enough, they were like here you go, here's your receipt. And I was like this is crazy. And Eric and I were there, so we walked around the store just to kind of look and see what they had, and I don't know what we were looking for. Oh, I knew it was little beads for a jar, but I remember walking through there then being like this is the only Christmas you have, right, like I would have thought you've had so much more Christmas stuff than this and it kind of surprised me then. But I don't know, sounds like they're doing well, well enough Good for them.
Speaker 1:Cool, Well, real quick. What I'm understanding is we have an ad from our sponsor today. Is that correct, Jerry?
Speaker 5:That is correct. Otr Services. That's the mattress people, right? No, that is the CARB testing for California. Oh, what is this? If you are doing business in California and you need to do an admissions test, which is the California Air Resource Board CARB, then you do need to do this at least twice a year at this current state and time, and OTR Services is doing that. You can reach out to us at otr-servicescom and schedule your test today, or you can give me a phone call at 380-222-6634. We'll be happy to get you scheduled.
Speaker 1:Now you say doing business, we have listeners from all over the country, so you know there's probably lots of people who have their business set up out of Tennessee or set up out of Illinois, and so they don't do business in California. They run freight there occasionally back and forth, but they don't do business there, right? So those people don't have to worry about it, do they?
Speaker 5:They do. Anybody that goes into the state of California in a vehicle that is diesel and over 26,000 pounds must have a carb test.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay. So it's not just if you're plated there. It's everybody, everybody, wow. Okay, it's everybody, everybody, wow.
Speaker 5:Okay. So if you're in the Columbus Ohio area, reach out to us at otr-servicescom or give me a call at 380-222-6634.
Speaker 1:How long does this test take to do?
Speaker 5:Five minutes Really.
Speaker 3:And if I'm on my 34 and can't move my truck, do you come to my area?
Speaker 5:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Cool, fantastic Are you going to test my french fries for their carbs too.
Speaker 1:That's a kid, I'm kidding. Now I'm going to be laid over for my 34-hour reset in Cincinnati, is that okay?
Speaker 5:No, that's not. You do have to be in the Columbus Ohio area.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool If I'm staying at a Walmart parking lot, for example. Absolutely All right, good deal it's very, very easy for us to come out to you. And what was that?
Speaker 5:website and phone number again otr-servicescom, and the phone number is 380-222-6634.
Speaker 1:Well, we certainly do appreciate OTR Services for their sponsorship of this episode. Lord knows, without it none of us would be here doing this now and we certainly appreciate the kickback they sent us right.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I just scheduled my carb test while Jerry was doing the ad.
Speaker 1:On the.
Speaker 6:Passat. On the Passat yep.
Speaker 1:Nice, it's a diesel, and with me in it.
Speaker 6:It weighs over 26,000 pounds.
Speaker 1:Jeez 26,000 grams right.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah.
Speaker 6:I don't know Whatever it is, yeah, Well that is awesome.
Speaker 1:Just you know, if you do make a call, if you do call and set up your service I did hear the person that answered the phone A little bit of a. So just you know, overlook that the people that come out and do your testing are supposed to be pretty cool. So very cool stuff coming out of Indianapolis. Vince was just sharing this with me and I'm pulling up. I'm on phone right now but, vince, go ahead and get us in there.
Speaker 6:Well, this year, during the Indianapolis 500 NASCAR race, they did the inaugural. Am I saying that right? Inaugural.
Speaker 2:I believe it was Inaugural, yes, inaugural.
Speaker 6:Wienermobile race A Wienermobile. We've all seen the Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles. Yes, it's a great big wiener. It says Oscar Mayer. On the side it's a hot dog.
Speaker 5:Right, it's a hot dog, it's a hot dog.
Speaker 6:yeah, yeah, so they actually did a race with all six of their. There's six of them. There's six of them.
Speaker 3:I thought there was just one. I only thought there was one too.
Speaker 4:I'm like who knew there were six Wienermobiles? I think there was only six, what I figured there'd be more, yeah.
Speaker 6:Do you think there are six of them?
Speaker 1:Do you think they're only ones in Indiana?
Speaker 6:Do you think?
Speaker 4:Fleetwood's just making wienermobiles like every day, like every state or something. No, they're regional. They're regional, there's only six regions in the.
Speaker 6:I've always for oscar meyer.
Speaker 1:They were only six regions. Yes, well, how many are there for um, uh, hebrew national?
Speaker 6:I don't know um, I really, yeah, I only thought there was one.
Speaker 3:If you ever saw the elusive Wienermobile, life was going to be pretty spectacular out over the road, but now there are six of them.
Speaker 1:When I was a little kid, the Oscar Wienermobile showed up at the Honda dealership. They were doing a come by the Honda dealership, yeah, and they were doing a like come by the Honda dealership and you know, see the Wienermobile and get a free hot dog and buy a Honda Accord. You know how they do Right, and you know $19,000 hot dog.
Speaker 5:Well, let's be honest Back then it was probably $14,000 hot dog.
Speaker 1:Probably yeah. And so I remember going there with my dad and I was so shy, I wouldn't like get close to the, I wouldn't talk to anyone, what I just saw it for a distance and I was like no, we're good. I don't need to get any closer, because I was just so intimidated by these people and this wonderful like, because up until the time you see one in real life, it's really just almost a figment of your imagination.
Speaker 5:It's like Santa.
Speaker 1:Claus, it doesn't really exist. And then when you actually see one, you're like, oh my God it really exists.
Speaker 6:I actually saw one when we were on the road. She was sleeping. I'm cruising along the highway I forget what highway it was on. I was in an interstate. Cruising along and I review a mirror. I'm like what the hell is that?
Speaker 4:And it turned out to be the Wiener. Rebuild your rearview mirror.
Speaker 6:Sideview mirror.
Speaker 4:Okay, I was just curious what you said you were driving. She just fucking hauls all over this story, right?
Speaker 6:It's all in my story. In my sideview mirror I see this thing oh yeah, because that's how fast I can go with 65.
Speaker 1:Correct, I'm not bitter, not bitter at all the Wienermobile you always bring it up every single time we're together.
Speaker 6:Passed me, passed me.
Speaker 3:The.
Speaker 6:Wienermobile was able to go faster than me and I'm doing 65.
Speaker 1:Again, not bitter, not bitter. You got passed by Oscar Meyers, oscar.
Speaker 6:Meyers, oscar Meyers.
Speaker 1:Oscar.
Speaker 2:Meyers, wiener passed me.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, and I didn't get any pictures because I was driving, of course. Hence free laws, no pictures. Yes, that was pretty dastardly. It was pretty cool to see.
Speaker 3:Great memory. It was pretty cool to see. So what's this on the highway In?
Speaker 6:Indianapolis, so they actually had a race. Yes, Of six Of six. So on the last day of qualifying, so they put them up on the top of the hill, let them roll down.
Speaker 1:That's how they got to 70, apparently it wasn't even the mobiles, it was actually just the hot dogs rolling down the hill.
Speaker 6:Yeah, so on what they call carb day at Indianapolis, 500, which is the last day Fitting.
Speaker 1:With our sponsors.
Speaker 6:It's the last day of practice before the actual race. They had all six of them out on the starting grid the drivers of the Wienermobils, their recent college graduates. They have to apply for this job. They were all dressed in race suits that represented their particular Wienermobile.
Speaker 4:Oh cool.
Speaker 6:And they had a race and yeah, it was kind of cool to-.
Speaker 3:How many laps did they do?
Speaker 6:I don't know.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm sorry, I don't know, we just caught the highlights.
Speaker 6:That's okay. First place, the 27-foot-long winning bus was represented by the Saucy South. It was represented by the Saucy South. It was driven by grill master Matthew Bailey of Madison, georgia, and Mustard Maddie Myers of Kirkwood, missouri. I love it. A quote from Mustard Maddie Myers after she said I must admit I will relish this moment forever.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it, mustard Maddie, it was really cool. The name of the Wiener Reveal was Slaw Dog. I love it. I love it. Mustard Maddie, it was really cool. The name of the Wiener Reveal was Slaw Dog. Slaw Dog, so they have six different dogs.
Speaker 6:They have New York Dogs from the east, slaw Dog from the southeast, chili Dog from the south, chi Dog from the southwest, seattle Dog from the Northwest and Sonoran Dog represents the Southwest.
Speaker 1:Is that Chi Dog like Chicago Chicago? Yeah, but what are they Chi Town, Chi Town yeah.
Speaker 6:Yeah, so that's from Chicago, so there's a link. This article is from USA Today. There was a link in the article to a Fox Sports rebroadcast or live broadcast of the race, and I watched it.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 6:Totally underwhelmed.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, well, you see the problem is when they go value. You're doing like this yeah, exactly, you're barely moving your head. They clocked it. They were going about what? 18?
Speaker 6:miles an hour, yeah, 18 miles an hour Fun fact.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:The Wienermobile, or the hot dog-shaped vehicle, has been around for almost 90 years, dating back to its creation in 1936.
Speaker 1:Isn't that crazy. I watched a thing on the Wienermobile back in the day and they used to be like back in the 70s and 80s. They were built on Oldsmobile cutlass chassis. Wow, if you ever wondered how heavy-duty your Oldsmobile cutlass from the 60s and 70s were, they could support a Wienermobile.
Speaker 3:It said, the original Wienermobile was a 13-foot metal hot dog on wheels, first cruising Chicago and promoting Oscar Mayer's German-style wiener.
Speaker 6:That's pre-air conditioning, that's one hot wiener Right Mobile Jeez.
Speaker 3:Open all the windows 90 years. Who knew, isn't?
Speaker 1:that crazy. I wonder if they're going to do something special in 10 years for the 100. I bet they will.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I bet they will. Oh yeah, let's be there. We should be there. You know what? These are 27-foot long. Currently they're 27-foot long Wienermobiles.
Speaker 3:That's almost doubled.
Speaker 1:I think they should do 100-foot long Wienermobile.
Speaker 6:They should. They should with articulation.
Speaker 1:Yes, and a tillerman in the back.
Speaker 3:And they should go through the. Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 6:That'd be sweet.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:What a fun article. Yes, that's very cool, Absolutely have you seen the Wienermobile out over the road?
Speaker 1:The what.
Speaker 3:Masking our viewers.
Speaker 1:No, what did you call it If?
Speaker 3:they've seen the Wienermobile out over the road.
Speaker 1:Let's go back to the tape. I believe it was pronounced.
Speaker 4:The Wienermobile the.
Speaker 3:Wienermobile. So where have you seen it?
Speaker 5:I've seen it out on the road, once when I was driving, and then also me and Don seen it in New York City.
Speaker 3:Did you see it in New York City?
Speaker 5:Yeah, did it pass you too. No, we were actually there on a trip and we were at Rockefeller Center and it was parked.
Speaker 6:No, I mean, when you saw it on the road, did it pass you?
Speaker 5:No, it was going the opposite direction, so it did pass you. It did pass you.
Speaker 1:Jeez. So it's time to get back to the Highfield Chronicles. As we teased out last episode, we've had a lot of people ask about the things we do, why we buy the trucks we buy, why we work with the manufacturers we work with, why we use the sleepers we use, etc. Etc. Etc. And today we're going to talk about why does Highfield demand Detroit? Why, I'm glad you asked, why do we?
Speaker 6:demand Detroit.
Speaker 1:Well, so as a kid I grew up knowing that the absolute best engines made as diesel engines are, of course, caterpillar. And you know something about that big yellow block like old school Peterbilts. Crank that hood. You don't want to see it, cummins.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:You don't want to see it. Detroit there's something about that yellow At the truck show. Remember that big yellow.
Speaker 1:Caterpillar engine. It's just cool, man. The Caterpillar's been around forever. They made some great, super high-powerful engines. And when Eric and I first got started in this business, we drove a truck with a Caterpillar C11. Bulletproof engine, I promise you. You could have undone the drain plug, let all the oil out. We could have ran 1,000 miles. That baby was bulletproof. It did not like freezing weather we did have a problem with that, but bulletproof, great engine Loved it. Good fuel economy, yada, yada, yada. So Eric and I did the sensible thing and we actually bought as our very first truck a Caterpillar-powered Kenworth, a Caterpillar-powered Kenworth. And that Caterpillar was the C-13 Acert.
Speaker 1:Now, for all of you out there at home, you know in 2008, the Caterpillar C-13 Acert was arguably the worst engine ever built of any manufacturer at any point in any time ever. And it wasn't the engine, it was the emissions control system attached to it. So the Caterpillar C-13 had what's called an ARD head Still gives me chills talking about it Hugged up to a DPF filter. And the ARD head would basically, they would take um diesel, fire it into this combustion tube, superheat the exhaust. Uh, they would fire it through the art head, superheat the exhaust to burn off a deep pf filter to like.
Speaker 1:So the dpf filter would clean the air as it's leaving, but eventually it would get dirty. So this art head would do this process and it would clean the DPF filter and burn all those contaminants up to just ash and it would just come out of your tailpipe and it would be fine, much safer than diesel particulates getting in the air. And this thing was just an absolute nightmare. You couldn't keep them running. They were constantly breaking down. We got to a point. These art heads are expensive. We got to a point where we were replacing the art heads every year. It was just maintenance, just replace it.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:It was crazy, and so we at that point swore off Caterpillar. But we didn't have to make the decision for ourselves because that engine combined with the C15 were so bad. Caterpillar said we're done, and they never made an engine for on-highway use after that.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:This engine was so bad. It put a company. They didn't put them out of business. Caterpillar is still a great company. It's huge. They just said we're not doing this anymore, we're leaving this market, you're leaving this market. So they quit selling those. So when we bought our next truck, we had to figure out what are we going to do? What are we going to buy? Right? So we ended we ended up with a Freightliner and it had a Mercedes-Benz diesel engine in it and I thought it was cool. Man, you prop the hood of that thing and on the side of it was Mercedes-Benz with that big triangle logo thing and it was like. I think of it more as like the Pizza Hut center cap. Sure, you know that keeps the cover box from crushing on the toppings, anyways. So we bought that cool engine, that thing not bulletproof, but really, really good, very reliable. Had some great success with that engine, did have an issue with the water pump once, but overall that engine ran great and very happy with it. But Mercedes-Benz did the same thing Caterpillar did In 2010,.
Speaker 4:I want to say.
Speaker 1:They said the emission systems have gotten out of control.
Speaker 1:We're not going to build engines for America anymore either. So it's like crap. What do we do? Well, the good thing is we didn't think. Mercedes-benz, who owned Freightliner at the time, they actually, several years prior, purchased detroit diesel from general motors. So if you're familiar with detroit diesel, it used to be a general motors company. As crazy as that is, they actually started this company when general motors founded electromotive, which was a company that built trains. General Motors back in the day they wanted to get into the train building business. They built this thing called Electromotive and they needed an engine manufacturer to build the engines for them. So they started Detroit Diesel for that purpose and they built train engines. And then, you know, you got World War II, you got lots of stuff. That happens over the years. General Motors ends up building their own Class 8 trucks. Used to be able to buy a Chevy or GMC big 18-wheeler you can't anymore, but you used to be able to and oddly enough, they ended up selling their division to Volvo trucks. So they ended up selling their division to Volvo trucks. They ended up becoming Volvos, but they kept Detroit Diesel.
Speaker 1:And back in the 90s I believe it was the 90s Freightliner or not Freightliner, but Mercedes-Benz bought Detroit Diesel and so when all the emission stuff and everything became such a big deal, what Mercedes-Benz did was they said, all right, for this American market, we're not going to give them a Mercedes engine, we're going to give them a Detroit diesel engine. So they made Detroit back then made a Series 60 engine, which is a great engine. If you've ever seen one or had one in your truck, they're awesome. Fitzgerald used to make the glider kits. They used to put almost exclusively Detroit diesel Series 60s in their trucks because they're so good. But they took that company that made that engine and they said, all right, you're going to make the new American engine for Freightliner trucks. And, by the way, here's a good starting block which spoiler alert was a Mercedes-Benz MBE 4000.
Speaker 1:So the engine that we already had is the engine that Mercedes-Benz gave Detroit Diesel and said all right, we're going to take this and we're going to modernize it to the American standards. And that became the DD13. They enlarged it a little bit. That became the DD15. Made it one size bigger. That became the DD16. And so all three of them shared the same emissions standard, just different block sizes. Detroit Diesel DD13 is a 13 liter, the 15 is a 15 liter, 16 is a 16 liter. So that's how they got started and that is why Detroit came up with the sizes they have and that's how they got the block.
Speaker 1:So all the people that are like we love all the engines Detroit made prior to 2009, 2010. They have nothing to do with the new engines. This is all German engineering. Mercedes-benz designed all this stuff for Detroit and so when that happened, detroit Diesel said all right, we got this really cool engine that's super reliable. If you're going to buy it, you're only going to get it in a Freightliner or a Western Star, because that's the company they owned. Mercedes-benz owned.
Speaker 6:Western Star and Freightliner.
Speaker 1:When Eric and I got ready to buy our next round of trucks, we were buying Freightliners, so we ended up with the DD13. And at that point there's only two other options. You could do an international engine Navistar. I have three other options. You can do an international Navistar engine. Maxforce engines those are garbage. If you've heard anything about a MaxForce, look it up. If you've heard anything about a max force, look it up. If you don't know what I'm talking about, they're just god-awful engines. Um, volvo had their uh d13 and their d15 d16, so it's very similar, but volvo's a european company, mercedes european company.
Speaker 1:You see them yeah they all kind of doing the same thing. And then you had um, cummins and cummins and Cummins had the ISX-15, and that was their big engine and over the years we saw what happened was that Detroit ended up being a more reliable product when you start talking to people about reliability and uptime. Cummins had issues. Again, international was a train wreck, volvo close competitor so much of a close competitor that we actually bought a Volvo and tried it and we had a lot of issues with it. So we ended up not going that direction. But we never tried the Cummins because there's enough information out there about their reliability and you can see it in their warranties. Like if you buy a truck with a Cummins engine and you can see it in their warranties. Like if you buy a truck with a Cummins engine because you can get a Freightliner with a Cummins engine, you can get a Peterbilt, anything with a Cummins. When you look at their warranties, they don't even stand up behind them as much as the other manufacturers do.
Speaker 1:So Freightliner will extend their warranty to 650,000 miles. Cummins will not. They're like that's too far. We don't trust our engines that much so to me that's very telling, right, sure? If you don't have enough faith in your product to stand behind it, why would I want to?
Speaker 6:right, long term, long term, yeah, and this is not a vehicle you're only going to drive 100,000 miles and sell. You want to run it for a million miles.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and so with extended warranties, you can extend a warranty for a Detroit diesel out to 750,000 miles. You can do a Volvo to 700,000. Okay, and then a Cummins caps off at half a million.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a big difference. That's a big difference. A Cummins caps off at half a million.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a big difference. That's a big difference. And International Max Force. So that engine was so bad. Talking about Caterpillar getting out of the business, that engine was so bad. International dumped it. You could only get a Cummins in their product for several years. And then Volkswagen Group actually bought international trucks. So if you buy an international truck today, it's built by Volkswagen.
Speaker 6:If you open the hood. It's got that round. Vw logo on the side.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but you have to, you know, put it in the back yeah.
Speaker 1:So when Volkswagen bought them, they brought their own engine to the market, another engine they had in Europe. They brought it to America. They designed the emission systems for it to meet American standards and so now you can buy an international with that international engine. Paccar, who owns Kenworth and Peterbilt, they've done the same thing. You can now buy a Kenworth or Peterbilt with the PAC car engine. That is actually built by them. But they cheated. So PAC car, if you buy a Kenworth or Peter built, you get a PAC car engine which is an MX 13 or an MX 11.
Speaker 1:Um, they actually have a Cummins emission system on it. Interesting, they just sent Cummins or engine and said clean it up. And then Cummins designed the clean it up and then come and design the emissions and put it in the truck. So a little bit of a cheat on their part. But you know, whatever it's still good. Um, but again, all those half a million mile limits. So when you look at that, um, reliability from a long, long-term perspective, the manufacturer standing behind their product uh, we've, I've really fallen in love with that. Detroit Diesel stands behind their product. We have actually had a cash traffic failure and had to get one replaced one time and they did it. Nobody out of our pocket got a brand new engine, not a remanufactured engine, a brand new engine.
Speaker 1:Really long service intervals. So we do ours at 50,000 miles. Our oil changes PMs. They can actually stretch a little longer than that. I won't say exactly how much because I don't want people doing it, that's in our fleet. But they do go a little bit longer than that. So really long service intervals Because, jerry, you're old enough to remember back in the day you were getting them every 25,000, 30,000 miles, 25,000. Yeah, jerry, you're old enough to remember back in the day you were getting them every 25,000, 30,000 miles 25,000.
Speaker 1:Yeah, our first truck was 30,000. That's a lot of old changes. Over the course of a year, 50,000 means you're doing one maybe to a year, which is really cool that you're able to stretch that PM service. As long as it is and it's reliable, that 50,000 miles is good for 750. You know we've had 750, 800, 000 mile trucks in our fleet with no problems. You know, leave.
Speaker 1:And then the other thing that I love about them is, um, they are, uh, lots of service centers. So with detroit diesel, every freightliner shop, every western star shop in the country is a Detroit diesel shop, right? So if you do break down lots of options for serviceability, uh, daimler Trucks, which owns those two companies, really, really impresses upon their dealership network of service and flipping trucks and some of y'all that are in our fleet. Listening this, you're like man, I don't believe that, because we were at a shop for two or three days and they didn't get us in. That, you know, whatever it took them that long, we've had ken, worse, a few of them now at this point and we've had volvos, and waiting in line for a week or more, yeah, was not uncommon right to get a truck before they even looked at the truck, yes, or they might look at it and go.
Speaker 1:This is the problem. We'll see you in six days. Yeah, like to go from that to most dealerships. Flip our trucks within one to three days. That's night and day difference, yeah. And then also beyond those two shops, you've got independent Detroit Diesel shops. So Detroit Diesel has been a company so long. They're actually a group of Detroit Diesel authorized dealers all over the country that are not Freightliner, they're not Western Star and they can actually operate on those or operate.
Speaker 3:How many of your mom-pop places-ish?
Speaker 1:Some are, but some are. Stevens Sons is huge. They're the ones. Stevens Sons are the ones that used to import the Unimogs. Do you remember the big, huge Mercedes-Benz Unimogs? Six Wheels, off-duty, mammoth Beast? Stevens Sons brought those in.
Speaker 1:It's a huge company, same with United Engines, same with there's a few of them, same with United Engines, same with there's a few of them that are huge dealership networks, but they are on the engine side, they're not on the truck side. So you have even more options for services, right? So Cummins kind of has the same thing. Most dealerships will work on Cummins and then Cummins also has a dealership network, so they would be like a close second. But when it comes to the, the proprietary brands of volvo international and pat car, which is kenworth, peterbilt, you are limited to those dealerships and even to the point we're on, uh, peterbilt and kenworth. If you have a kenworth and you go to a peterbilt shop to get your pat car worked on they, a lot of times they'll just flat out decline you, wow, like you got to go to a kenworth dealership we don't't want to look at, even though it's the same engine and we have the skill and the ability to fix it, we're not going to.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 1:So, when you factor all that in, it just made sense to stick with Detroit, and they have been such a reliable, long-lasting product. Yes, we have issues with sensors and we have issues with death pumps. They all do, every brand does but those are so minor in the scheme of things.
Speaker 4:Sure.
Speaker 1:Not like. I had a buddy of mine. I had a Cummins and had a problem inside the engine and they had to. The dealership went through. They removed the gasket cover, took a bunch of pictures, sent it to Cummins. A couple days later Cummins got back and said you need to take the head off and look at this. They took the head off, took the pictures, sent them the information. A couple days later Cummins sent them the okay, you need to remove the third and fourth cylinder. Do that. Okay.
Speaker 1:A couple days later, like it took them almost a month to get them to fix the engine because cummins warranty is very like we're going to go through all these steps to save cummins money because they don't really care about your uptime, whereas daimler trucks has built their freightliner, western star and detroit diesel platforms on getting you in and out and back on the road working fast and you see that so much with the way they treat us in our trucks, sure, and how quick our turns are at shops. Again, I know when you're in that situation. You're sitting at the shop and you're on day two or day three. It's like what's going on. But having been there with all these other brands, it is not like that.
Speaker 1:In most cases, those other companies are dragging it out for freaking ever because they don't care as much as Detroit does and as much as Freightliner and Western Star does. So that is the reason we demand Detroit. That is the reason we have those trucks. That's why you don't see Kenworth Centerfleet or Peterbilt's or Volvo's or International's, why you don't see Kenworth Centerfleet or Peterbilt or Volvos or Internationals. Does that mean that's all we're ever going to have? No, because we're always going to test out and see the latest gadget. And if we hear some really good words, like I will say this there's been some really great talks about the new engine, the S13, from International Of all places. I know you're like oh them, but what Volkswagen has done has been some really great things. There's some really great reviews out there from companies that have thousands of these trucks. They're giving us those information. Maybe that's something we try out at some point I don't know when. I don't have any orders in. We're not even talking to International, but they're on the horizon, we see them and we're paying attention.
Speaker 1:We're not stepping out anywhere yet, but at some point we might. For now we're a Detroit-only fleet. Every one of our trucks has a Detroit diesel engine in it DD13, 15, or 16, depending on the truck. I've just been really happy with them for the years. I mean, jerry, have you heard anything other than a Detroit?
Speaker 5:The Mercedes. I had the Stoops, the purple one that we had with the blades, and I had the Mercedes engine.
Speaker 1:Similar sound too, isn't it Like? When you fire them up, they just sound the same as a Detroit. That's one thing If you've ever been around a bunch of trucks. If you fire Cummins up or you fire Caterpillar up or you fire Detroit up, they all sound different. There's just something about the way they time them, or whatever. The DD13 and a MBE4000, they sound the same. It's weird.
Speaker 3:I never hear you mention Mac and I don't know why. I see that. What is that kind of engine? So, Mac, which is a truck? Right, it is a truck.
Speaker 1:They do Cummins, but Mac is owned by Volvo. Oh okay. So Mac has their own version of a Volvo engine.
Speaker 3:I see.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of cool because, Mac is mostly vocational. So what they've done is they've taken the Volvo engine the D13, and they call it M13 or something like that and they've changed some of the parameters on the Mac to give it maybe more low-end power or more power in a dump truck configuration, or something like that.
Speaker 1:So it's the same engine but it is tuned differently, so it does respond differently. But it's the same engine but it is tuned differently, so it does respond differently, but it's literally the exact same block. They come off the assembly line side by side. It's just which color paint does it get Right? And they are say have the same warranties, all that stuff. And they do. Actually, mack actually has a higher power version of that engine than what Volvo does. But again, mack, you see Mack doing heavy hauls and pulling giant things. They need a more powerful engine. So yeah.
Speaker 1:So Mack and Volvo are kind of the same umbrella. What about Hino? So Hino used to be. They've never made a class 8 truck in America. Right, they are owned by Toyota. So they're owned by a very reputable company, ud trucks. Have you ever seen UD? That's Nissan. If you've ever seen Mitsubishi trucks, that's Mitsubishi.
Speaker 6:That tracks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I know they actually quit making engines a couple years ago and they only use Cummins now.
Speaker 6:We'll see if we can get a couple of those and start a small Amazon delivery fleet. I could see that yeah.
Speaker 1:I could see that you might want to consider Isuzu as well. Isuzu is another company that has gone all Cummins, my buddy Joe used to work for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, joe Isuzu.
Speaker 6:He did their ads. Yeah, Joe Isuzu Cool. I went to high school with that guy.
Speaker 1:I tell you what's crazy we were in Japan. Every truck was Isuzu.
Speaker 2:Yeah or Hino.
Speaker 1:I believe it or Mitsubishi or UD that was it?
Speaker 2:It was like Four choices.
Speaker 1:And they were chromed up and they were Class 8. They were big heavy duty trucks we don't get here in America but they were chromed up. Eric, you remember some of those trucks were like Fancy, I mean like shocking.
Speaker 5:Because in.
Speaker 1:America Isuzu is kind of like a ho-hum delivery truck.
Speaker 1:It's reliable, but there's nothing fancy. They have these big giant chrome front ends. They have gorgeous trucks, but yeah, those companies, they've all discontinued because of the emissions laws. So yeah, on the medium-duty side, so we're talking class 7 and below. Cummins owns that market, everybody. Detroit still makes their DD5 and their DD8 for now, but they've been slotted for the execution block at some point. They're not going to make them anymore. But yeah, it's so expensive to develop an engine that meets the EPA standards the ones that were just slashed. So we'll see what happens. But everybody, just, it's cheaper just to buy a Cummins, and the 6.7 liter Cummins, the same one that's in a Dodge pickup truck, turns out it's good for Azusus and good for Hinas, anyways. So that's why we choose demand, our demand, detroit.
Speaker 1:What, uh, what engines do you like? A lot of y'all out there, you've driven lots of trucks over the years. Which engines have you been fans of? Maybe older ones that they don't make anymore? Maybe new stuff that you know? Maybe you're a volvo fan and I'm not, and maybe you're a pack car fan or something like. We'd love to hear it, love to see your comments.
Speaker 1:Um, cherry is there anything we're forgetting?
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Speaker 5:In the meantime, stay safe, make good decisions don't leave money on the table and keep those wills of turnham bye, thank you you.