Off Road Podcast 433 – Marketplace Madness: Fordyce

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This episode of the Off Road Podcast is Sponsored by WARN, Colby Valve, and 4Patriots.

Tonight, Aaron gets gas, Coy is stuck in gear, & Ben works on his inner lost boy

Welcome to the off-road podcast. A podcast about everything off-road. We cover the news, review products, and interview people in the off road industry.  Your hosts tonight are Aaron, Coy and my name is Ben.  Welcome to the show.

Coy – worked on the colorado rc park

Aaron – Made an off road recovery while at work, got gas for the Nissan 

Ben – nothing offroad just been helping my son prep for his play and built him a bow and arrow for his play

4 patriots ad

Write in to us with something that you would like on your off road Christmas list.  Our Christmas gift exchange episode is next week and we will be reading them on air and picking some at random to send you some gifts from our sponsors.

Patriotpatch.co 

We also want to thank our sponsor Patriot Patch. Head over to Patriotpatch.co and check out their selection of great patches, shirts, cleaning mats, signs , and stickers.  You can also join the patch of the month club for 15 bucks and receive a patch, matching sticker, and artist proof each month.

Our patches $13 shipped in the US for one and $10 for any additional.  Or $10 picked up from us in person.  Just send us a message through any of our channels and we can set you up with a Paypal link.

News brought to you by Colby Valve

• Jeep on hiking trail in Michigan
  • Someone sent us this story from reddit. Don’t do this. This is something that happens when people who don’t know better and drive places that they shouldn’t. Let’s use this as a chance to educate our fellow off roaders. This happened on a State Park hiking trail in Michigan.  It Looked like she was starting a 3 point turn but then she kept going. This isn’t treading lightly.

• This is what happens when a hiker orders grub hub 
• This is what happens when Jeep people refuse to walk  literally anywhere
• This is how you get a five star Uber ratings
• This is what happens when walking directions on her Google maps.
• This is what happens when they close trails in Moab, Jeep people take it from somewhere else.
• This is what happens when road hunters can’t fill their tag.

• Autoblog – 2025 Ram 1500 adds Hurricane I6 power — and ‘unlimited’ range Ramcharger EV
  • The range on the 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger is effectively unlimited. Thanks to its onboard generator (which is simply a 3.6-liter Pentastar V6), there’s no such thing as a dead drive battery unless you run out of gas. In the words of Ram brand CEO Tim Kuniskis: “Range anxiety, gone.”
  • Ram says the new electric truck will produce 663 horsepower and 615 lb.-ft of torque. 0 to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds — just 2/10ths slower than a Dodge Challenger Scat Pack.
  • Power comes from dual motors. The front unit produces 335 horsepower and the rear 320 hp. 
  • They’re fed by that Pentastar V6, which serves as a 130-kilowatt generator mated to the 92-kWh battery pack.
  • This is not a hybrid. It has both a gasoline engine and electric motors, but only the electric motors can drive the axles. The 3.6-liter Pentastar is exclusively used as a generator for the battery pack. This is a battery EV.
  • Max tow rating of 14,000 pounds (class V), which out-pulls the outgoing gasoline-powered Ram 1500.
  • Jumping over to the regular Ram 1500…
  • That the 5.7- and 6.4-liter Hemi V8s are being thrown out in favor of Ram’s new Hurricane inline-six engine. The rollout of the Hurricane I6 started with the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the upmarket Jeep Wagoneer. No V8 or diesel will be offered in the 1500 for 2025. That’s right; no V8, TRX included. For now, that sub-model is “shelved,” in Ram’s words.
  • 3.0-liter Hurricane engine is rated at 420hp and 469tq, while the High Output version is rated at 540hp and 521tq. Ram says the 2025 Ram 1500 maxes out at 11,580 pounds of towing capacity and a maximum payload of 2,300 pounds — both less than what you get from the Ramcharger, but still quite respectable. Ram offered no specs on the 3.6-liter Pentastar as an actual engine (as opposed to a generator), but it’s safe to assume it carries over its 305 hp and 269 lb-ft of torque. If not, it should at least be in the ballpark. All three engines will be offered exclusively with the company’s TorqueFlite eight-speed automatic. 
  • Ram says the 1500 is also getting a new rear axle for 2025. It’ll be offered in 3.21, 3.55 or 3.92:1 variants depending on your engine and towing selections; the electronic locking rear differential option also returns, which should go without saying.
  • new for 2025 is an ultra-premium trim dubbed “Tungsten,” which should help Ram nudge the 1500 into six-figure territory without help from the TRX’s supercharged 6.2-liter V8
  • From ram “Tungsten’s Indigo/Sea Salt interior includes new platinum patina/semi-bright dual-textured metal accents featuring diamond knurling, suede-wrapped headliner, A- and B-pillars and visors, and heated and ventilated premium quilted Natura Plus leather driver and front passenger seats with 24-way power, including memory settings and a massage function, power lumbar support and four-way powered headrests. Other features that give Tungsten a well-crafted, high-quality feel and appearance include a Tungsten badge on the center console featuring inlaid metal lettering and diamond knurling, which also proudly displays the vehicle identification number (or VIN), brushed platinum patina aluminum litho bezels, a unique crystal-effect shifter center cap, an ultra-premium Klipsch Reference Premiere audio system with 23 speakers, all-new class exclusive dual wireless chargers and a metal pedal kit.”
  • The 2025 Ram 1500 will go on sale starting next year, with the Ramcharger arriving in showrooms sometime in late Q3 or early Q4. Look for pricing and packaging details as we get closer to its on-sale date. Stay tuned.

Main Topic powered by WARN  

You’re not going to believe it but we all pooled together some of our lottery winnings from the last time we won and we won again!!!  This time we won $180,000 after taxes!!  So we decided to split it 3 ways again and use our earnings to buy us some rigs to get us to California and back to run the Rubicon and also, but more importantly…Fordyce.

We each got $50,000 to spend on a rig & gear.  The other 30k is going towards lodging, food, repair bills, towing for Ben at some point, & paying our bills while we are gone from work.

Fordyce Creek Trail starts off of Hwy 80 west of Truckee, and heads up into the Sierras following Fordyce Creek. The trail ends near Meadow Lake, a beautiful high-sierra lake that does not require 4×4 to get to. Fordyce is one of the premiere rock crawling trails of northern California, and is considered to be harder than the Rubicon Trail. It has six water crossings that’ll flood anything sporting less than 35” tires, multiple winch hills and is a trail that should be done with multiple rigs that are well equipped. 35″ tires should be considered a minimum, as should front and rear lockers. This trail starts off easy and gets progressively harder when heading in from HWY 80. It truly is a gradual, progressive increase in difficulty all the way to Meadow Lake, meaning that if you start off of Hwy 80 and encounter something too difficult, you can feel assured that it only gets tougher and that it is a good time to turn around.

Even though the trail has five “winch hills,” the hardest obstacle is the deep water. It’s normal to see a guy sitting in his Jeep, chest deep in water, motor dead, sleeping bag wet, and so on. The Fordyce Creek is not like most creeks. It doesn’t get smaller as the summer progresses. The water flow comes directly from the Fordyce Dam which is regulated by PG&E. Therefore, the hotter and dryer it gets in the Sacramento Valley, the more water they let out. Due to the late summer rush, many whitewater kayakers frequent the river, and the flow of the water during the summer is tracked on www.dreamflows.com. It’s a good idea to check the water flow before you hit the trail. On the weekend we went, the flow was at 375 cubic feet per second. Anything over 175 is pretty tough to cross.

Once every year, the California 4 Wheel Drive Association puts on the “Sierra Trek.” This trip follows the trail from start to finish in one day. They start at 6 a.m. and get to Meadow Lake at 6 p.m. During this weekend, they are able to have the Fordyce dam turned down to around 50 CFS. This makes the rivers easy to cross, and focuses the drivers on getting up the five winch hills.

Coy:

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1190583394964088/?ref=messenger_share

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1359274771689432/?ref=messenger_share

Aaron:

https://yakima.craigslist.org/cto/d/yakima-1941-wc14-military-power-wagon/7677885241.html

1941 Power Wagon.  Needs everything $4,000 (craigslist)

Fusion 60 with ARB lockers & 5.38s F&R $13,975 

Brakes $2500

Power steering setup $2,000

Rebuild Chevy 454  $4,500 (Craigslist)

Comes with transmission

Atlas Transfer case $3,500

Drive shafts $700

headers, exhaust $1,000

Cooling system $500

Holley Sniper EFI system $1,770

Fuel tank, pump, & lines $500

Suspension $2,200

Custom front & rear leaf pack 

Shocks $1,600

Tires & Wheels $5,780

Gladiator XComp MTs $544/ea

Raceline Ryno RT951 17” beadlock $407/ea

Custom snorkel $800

Use Warn winch from Nissan

Holley digital dash $1,300

Pair of 4 point harnesses $250

Misc. $???

$42,875

Ben:

2020 Tube chassis rock buggy, LS, 9″ pro mod rock crawler

$35,000

3 seat tube chassis rock crawler. Can easily made back to a 2 seater if 3 isn’t your style.

*Lm4 (aluminum 5.3). I bought another 5.3 as a spare, can be included in sale

*TH400 with reverse manual valve body and 32 spline output

*atlas 2 transfer case 32 spline outputs, 3.8 low range. 

*trail gear housings 5:13 gears, grizzley front, zip rear 4340 shafts (fronts cleared for 50 degrees) ctm u-joints. PSC 10×2.5 ram

* 2.5 radflo air shocks, 12” front, 14” rear

* aluminum bead locks, 39” BFG red label Krawlers 

* rear cutting brakes, twin pedal/master cylinders (Wilwood) 

*18 gallon goatbuilt tank, uses stock truck fuel pump 

*main structure is 1.75/.120 DOM, support stuff is 1.5 with a splash of 1.25 in some spots. Those Guys Rod and Customs chassis.  WERock Pro-Mod tech certified.

1995 GMC rollback tow truck

$11,500

1995 gmc kodiak 6000 rollback towtruck. Runs great everything works. 35k miles on gas 427 bigblock chevy engine. Allison automatic transmission. Recent new tune up and brand new tires. Ready to work now. Was a diesel with 5 speed, previous owner changed everything over from another kodiak 6000 truck to gas engine and automatic transmission. All hydraulics work. This truck is a beast and will get the job done. Clean title in my name. 

Anyone can drive this with a normal class c license. Its just like driving a bigger longer truck. Great to start a business with.

Jarden 18 foot steel bed, no wheel lift

Next Week:  Christmas Gift Guide

Closing Statements

Thanks everyone who listens to us weekly and also to those who watch us live on YouTube.  We really appreciate you.  Please share us with your friends and help us grow.  God bless America!

Don’t forget to visit Patriot Patch and join the Patch of the Month club. Check out our Gaia affiliate link for up to 40% off. Also, don’t forget to head over to Warn, Colby Valve, and 4Patriots to see all of their great products. We are a proud part of the Firearms Radio Network. Got a question or comment?  Send it to us through our Linktree account or by searching for Off Road Podcast.  Also, you can listen to us live at overlandradio.com Mondays at 7 pm Pacific.  When off-road please remember to have fun, tread lightly, and be safe and courteous. Thanks for listening.