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Matt's Off Road Recovery.

bgaidan said:
Could've likely been fixed in an afternoon....only questionable part being the no start issue. I have the exact same SAS kit on my xterra. Rear driveshaft would be stock so easy to find at a junkyard. Same for rear springs. Grab a junkyard pack and stack a couple of the old leaves if you need a little more height. Front shaft would likely be a bit harder if he was running the CM one. I use an XJ cv with a thunderbird flange so parts are more readily available and I usually carry enough spare parts to rebuild it on the trail.


I'd almost bet the no start was the MAF. Probably broke a motor mount in all the abuse, which lets the engine pivot under load and can be enough to rip the MAF out of the intake tube. Exact same thing happened to me.
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Agreed, I have an onboard welder and have welded main leafs back together with success. That negates the need for a boom.

I’ve also welded u joints to yokes with broken ears on it with success. The yoke is trash anyways so it’s gotta be replaced whether we weld to it or not.

That would have gotten it out under its own power if it would run.

There were certainly other ways to get it out.

I imagine fuel alone for 2 tow rigs from Utah is over 1k.
 
06h3 said:
I imagine fuel alone for 2 tow rigs from Utah is over 1k.
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pfft.

1720215787322.jpeg
 
Bogus One said:
Plus lodging, food, etc. for "how many people?"

EDIT Plus, where did they tow this POS to?
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Yep, probably a $1800 trip at minimum just to cover costs.

Truck was brought to the trailhead at loon lake. Owner had a u haul trailer to haul it out. I imagine that trailer was severely overloaded
 
06h3 said:
Agreed, I have an onboard welder and have welded main leafs back together with success. That negates the need for a boom.

I’ve also welded u joints to yokes with broken ears on it with success. The yoke is trash anyways so it’s gotta be replaced whether we weld to it or not.

That would have gotten it out under its own power if it would run.

There were certainly other ways to get it out.

I imagine fuel alone for 2 tow rigs from Utah is over 1k.
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Don’t need a welder.
IMG_1496.jpeg
 
06h3 said:
Yep, probably a $1800 trip at minimum just to cover costs.

Truck was brought to the trailhead at loon lake. Owner had a u haul trailer to haul it out. I imagine that trailer was severely overloaded
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Huh? That truck didn't weigh more than 4,500 lbs.
 
bgaidan said:
Huh? That truck didn't weigh more than 4,500 lbs.
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IMG_1372.png




Have you weighed yours? Curb weight is 3,186 to 4,352. Since that frontier is a crew cab 4wd I’ll venture to say it’s at the 4,352 curb weight. Cut off the ifs and add in a solid axle up front you are adding a ton of weight compared to what you lost by cutting off ifs. Add ARB bumper, rear bumper, sliders, winch, tires on it now compared to stock adds a few hundred lbs alone.

In the video they could barely even sit in the front seat he had crap piled up top to bottom front to back. The bed was full, I’m guessing it was 6k lbs rolling.
 
06h3 said:
IMG_1372.png




Have you weighed yours? Curb weight is 3,186 to 4,352. Since that frontier is a crew cab 4wd I’ll venture to say it’s at the 4,352 curb weight. Cut off the ifs and add in a solid axle up front you are adding a ton of weight compared to what you lost by cutting off ifs. Add ARB bumper, rear bumper, sliders, winch, tires on it now compared to stock adds a few hundred lbs alone.

In the video they could barely even sit in the front seat he had crap piled up top to bottom front to back. The bed was full, I’m guessing it was 6k lbs rolling.
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Had this debate many times. IFS to solid axle weight difference is negligible. There's a lot of shit that gets cut out. Yes, the bumpers and armor add some weight. My xterra weighs in a little under 5k with the same axle swap kit he had, bumpers and more under armor. I also have an extended cab frontier on links, 37's, cage and lots of armor and I think the last time I scaled it it was in the 5400 lb range.


Either way, the uhaul is rated for 5,300 and that's very conservative for how they're built and expected to be treated. So no, it wasn't "severely overloaded".
 
06h3 said:
Yep, probably a $1800 trip at minimum just to cover costs.

Truck was brought to the trailhead at loon lake. Owner had a u haul trailer to haul it out. I imagine that trailer was severely overloaded
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I thought the same of trail replace the spring packs and drive it out. Does seem like the owner wussed out. On the other hand, MORR got paid to go to Rubicon and run part of the trail. If if gets a million views, seems easy enough for them, there’s ~$1,200. Maybe he charges the owner $1,000, and he writes the rest off to production costs. My ASSuMPTION is his regular towing biz pays the bills and the YouTube $ is gravy. Normally I’d say he had a better day than I did, but I’ve been camping for 3 days now, so that isn’t possible…
 
cervelorod said:
I thought the same of trail replace the spring packs and drive it out. Does seem like the owner wussed out. On the other hand, MORR got paid to go to Rubicon and run part of the trail. If if gets a million views, seems easy enough for them, there’s ~$1,200. Maybe he charges the owner $1,000, and he writes the rest off to production costs. My ASSuMPTION is his regular towing biz pays the bills and the YouTube $ is gravy. Normally I’d say he had a better day than I did, but I’ve been camping for 3 days now, so that isn’t possible…
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You think he only makes $1200 for a million views?
 
the average YouTuber in the US earns ~$.01 to .03 per view. So one million views would be 10-30k. Its more if you run ads, but he doesnt.

Looking at his YT page, Matt's average video has 750k views. Even at .01 thats a $7500 check. Id bet he makes enough money off YT now that he doesnt have to charge for the recoveries at all. Could very well have a disclaimer where if you agree to be filmed its free.
 
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reptillikus said:
the average YouTuber in the US earns ~$.01 to .03 per view. So one million views would be 10-30k. Its more if you run ads, but he doesnt.

Looking at his YT page, Matt's average video has 750k views. Even at .01 thats a $7500 check. Id bet he makes enough money off YT now that he doesnt have to charge for the recoveries at all. Could very well have a disclaimer where if you agree to be filmed its free.
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This. he even gives the guy a shirt. I think his recoveries are free (and have been for awhile) he has his stuff not just on youtube, he has on all the different apps AND he has his own app where subscribers pay every month and he has a BUNCH of subscribers.

All his affiliate stuff is paying out, and he is looking at long term residuals... this trip was big fun for him (I'm sure) he had the kids do the work (and the loved it) and he is getting paid. The customer faced either the cost of the local company, or the potential hassle of local guys trying to get him out. If he hammered that truck that hard, he is more brawn than brains, so it would be a natural to call Matt or one of the other youtube guys and get minimally embarrassed and get his truck out for free.
 
cervelorod said:
My ASSuMPTION is his regular towing biz pays the bills and the YouTube $ is gravy. Normally I’d say he had a better day than I did, but I’ve been camping for 3 days now, so that isn’t possible…
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I thought I saw something about the regular towing side has been shut down.
 
bigun said:
I was told my mom's advertised weight 4,600 pound Explorer was to heavy and my brother 01 Ford 7.3 super duty wasn't a big enough truck by Uhaul corperate
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Weird… Every car I’ve ever towed was a Toyota Corolla and I never got any grief… my favorite Corollas were the ones that looked like an 80 series LandCruiser or the K5 Chevy… But they were definitely Corollas.
 
gladman said:
This. he even gives the guy a shirt. I think his recoveries are free (and have been for awhile) he has his stuff not just on youtube, he has on all the different apps AND he has his own app where subscribers pay every month and he has a BUNCH of subscribers.

All his affiliate stuff is paying out, and he is looking at long term residuals... this trip was big fun for him (I'm sure) he had the kids do the work (and the loved it) and he is getting paid. The customer faced either the cost of the local company, or the potential hassle of local guys trying to get him out. If he hammered that truck that hard, he is more brawn than brains, so it would be a natural to call Matt or one of the other youtube guys and get minimally embarrassed and get his truck out for free.
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And he sells a ton of t-shirts online....and sells recovery straps and accessories, and sells tool kits and rolls. Plus even if he's not directly saying the videos are sponsored, he's surely getting paid to plug stuff. That whole wrecker was probably built nearly free from "donated" items. Harbor freight gave him all the winches (and brought him out to SEMA), the tires were most likely free. I think even the trans/t-case were donated or heavily discounted. And he a recent deal with O'Reilly. He's probably pulling in $1-1.5m on youtube revenue annually too. But he's also got 5 or 6 people that appear to be employed full time to support him.


Not trashing him....fuck, I'm jealous. :laughing:

Chkn said:
Weird… Every car I’ve ever towed was a Toyota Corolla and I never got any grief… my favorite Corollas were the ones that looked like an 80 series LandCruiser or the K5 Chevy… But they were definitely Corollas.
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I've owned a ton of Honda civics....
 
bgaidan said:
That whole wrecker was probably built nearly free from "donated" items. Harbor freight gave him all the winches (and brought him out to SEMA), the tires were most likely free. I think even the trans/t-case were donated or heavily discounted. And he a recent deal with O'Reilly. He's probably pulling in $1-1.5m on youtube revenue annually too. But he's also got 5 or 6 people that appear to be employed full time to support him.
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Definitely. As Casey LaDelle once said, every brand that is explicitly shown or mentioned in a YouTube video is almost guaranteed to be sponsored.
In Matt's case, that's the likes of Barnes, ORD, ORI, ...

I don't really get the hate for the dude, he's building cool shit and doing cool shit with it, and is making a shitton of money doing it. At least we get to follow along and see all of the cool shit :smokin:
 
Chkn said:
Weird… Every car I’ve ever towed was a Toyota Corolla and I never got any grief… my favorite Corollas were the ones that looked like an 80 series LandCruiser or the K5 Chevy… But they were definitely Corollas.
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Sounds a lot like the 93 Honda Civic hatchbacks I used to tow with uhaul trailers. Many of them looked a lot like jeeps, but I made sure to let uhaul know they were definitely 1993 Honda Civic hatchbacks.
 
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elbekko said:
I don't really get the hate for the dude, he's building cool shit and doing cool shit with it, and is making a shitton of money doing it. At least we get to follow along and see all of the cool shit :smokin:
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That right there. Its better content than the usual YouTube crap, has decent production effort put I into it and my kids love to watch it. Even if his recoveries aren't perfect, I'd rather my boys be Matt fanboys than some teenager using big eyed cat emojis while he films himself playing Minecraft and talking smack.
 
Sandy Johnson said:
That right there. Its better content than the usual YouTube crap, has decent production effort put I into it and my kids love to watch it. Even if his recoveries aren't perfect, I'd rather my boys be Matt fanboys than some teenager using big eyed cat emojis while he films himself playing Minecraft and talking smack.
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😻
 
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