On this episode of Roadkill
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00:00 On this episode of Roadkill, we got together with Rick Payway and Fred Williams of 4Wheel
00:05 and Offroad Magazine and joined up in their Cheap Truck Challenge.
00:08 This is a contest where each guy has to buy a truck for $2,000 and hop it up for another
00:13 $2,000 and then go head to head in a number of competitions that test the vehicle's ability,
00:18 reliability, and coolness factor.
00:20 [Music]
00:38 Our truck is a '79 Ford Bronco.
00:41 We overspent on it at $2,500, but our argument was it was ready to go as is.
00:46 It even already had a 6-inch lift and some 33-inch mud terrain tires.
00:50 It's got a 351 V8, beefy C6 trans, the best 205 gear-driven transfer case, a Ford 9-inch
00:57 in the back, and a Dana 44 in the front.
00:59 Rick opted for a 1980 Toyota pickup.
01:02 This thing's almost retro, it's so cool.
01:04 I think he really cheated on the price though, because he's got a brand new Marlin Crawler
01:08 low-range transfer case in it.
01:10 He put lockers at both ends.
01:12 He's got a lift kit on it.
01:14 Brand new Mickey Thompson 33-inch tires, so it's going to perform really well, even though
01:18 it's bogus.
01:19 Fred's truck is cool.
01:21 It's an '87 Suburban, and I really dig it because it's a stripper model with no air
01:25 conditioning.
01:26 It also has a four-speed, which is going to help a lot.
01:28 He threw an off-road design lift kit on it and some cool super swappers.
01:32 In the end, we all spent about the same on our trucks, right at $3,500 each.
01:37 We'll find out how they stack up in the competition.
01:39 We're here at Fred Williams' house in Atascadero, California.
01:53 He's the staffer at 4-Wheel and Off-Road who's setting this whole thing up.
01:56 We're only two and a half hours late.
01:57 Who's missing?
01:58 Rick Pewe, late as usual.
02:00 Guaranteed.
02:01 The sun will be down behind those bushes by the time Rick gets here.
02:03 Where's Fred with the beer?
02:04 Cheap Truck Challenge is the competition against the budget.
02:08 If you're a 17-year-old kid and you worked all summer long and you only made a few thousand
02:12 dollars, what would you buy?
02:14 How would you fix it up?
02:15 Each editor got a vehicle, did some upgrades to it, and they were going to go out, take
02:19 them four-wheeling, but they also have to still be reliable and something you could
02:23 drive to work or school every day.
02:25 Yeah, no, we're still here at the house.
02:33 Ah, Pewe's not here yet as usual.
02:48 This is total flashback.
02:50 Like everyone I knew in the 80s had one of these.
02:54 Right now, the last thing is to put the drive shaft on.
02:57 I took it off because of the transfer case is brand new.
02:59 I didn't want to take that chance of burning it out.
03:02 So I'll put it on.
03:03 Eight bolts, done.
03:04 I'm ready to go wheeling.
03:05 The worst thing about this challenge is I don't have a clue.
03:08 Fred said, "Be here on time," which for me I am, "and we're going to go wheeling."
03:12 I don't know where, I don't know what.
03:13 He says to bring a gallon of milk.
03:15 I have no idea what that means either.
03:17 So I'm up for it.
03:18 I got my drive shaft, I got my truck, I'm ready.
03:21 The thing I'd like to point out right now is that the Hot Rod team showed up having
03:25 driven our truck here completely ready to go.
03:29 We stood around for four hours waiting for Pewe and he's still working on it.
03:32 We're driving here with his luxurious Apollo motorhome.
03:37 Fail.
03:39 I'm going to go wheel it.
04:07 The first thing we're going to do is a ride and drive.
04:15 Everybody gets to drive each other's vehicles.
04:17 We'll check fuel economy.
04:18 It's all kind of an on-road test.
04:21 Works fine.
04:22 Oh, Toyota.
04:23 Where's the seatbelt in this piece of shit?
04:32 Make sure he loses the fuel economy test.
04:34 Let's drive it all the way there in first.
04:37 This thing has a real sucky clutch.
04:42 Every day we're shuffling.
04:44 Let's just go off-roading right now.
04:46 Right there.
04:47 Coming over.
04:48 Oh yeah, this is winning the drag race.
04:49 Really?
04:50 Yeah.
04:51 Oh yeah, you want some?
04:52 Yee-haw!
04:53 Oh, now he's wasting our gas.
04:54 That was a gallon right there.
04:55 Hello, officer.
04:56 This steering wheel is falling off.
05:10 Do you see that?
05:13 This is our special test facility, top secret ranch in the middle of nowhere.
05:17 We start with a drag race and an obstacle course.
05:20 We're going to be playing in the mud a little.
05:22 So we have a few different things we're going to try.
05:24 We also have some guests.
05:25 These are the Land Rover off-road training instructors.
05:28 These guys are used to really high-end vehicles, so they'll be perfect for testing and judging
05:33 our piles of garbage.
05:38 This is the drag race.
05:39 Now, unlike most drag races where you start on a flat surface, because our vehicles are
05:43 a little bit older and maybe need a little help because they're low buck, we're starting
05:47 on this hill.
05:48 The Land Rover guys here are going to show us how it's done.
05:51 Ready?
05:52 Go!
05:53 I was a little worried about the brakes on these vehicles once I saw the finish line
06:03 and the distance to the ditch, but really, that's not much of a ditch.
06:06 Bob hoped he'd clear that in a jump cart.
06:10 That looks close enough.
06:20 Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
06:26 I'm happy.
06:33 Nope.
06:36 Best two out of three.
06:47 Completely bogus.
06:52 It was sabotage.
07:08 The point system for first, second, and third, the DNFs get zero.
07:15 The DNFs get zero.
07:16 It was a photo finish.
07:17 Second one, I thought I could win.
07:19 David and Finnegan, DNF.
07:21 Toyota guys claiming a victory, I'm not buying it.
07:24 All right, all right, one more time.
07:26 One more time.
07:27 Who's the official?
07:28 Who's the official?
07:29 Suck it!
07:50 So you're not fired, what happened?
07:52 The key to the Ronco winning, neutral drops.
07:56 No way, that's not a long-term solution.
07:59 Nobody won the race.
08:01 Our competitiveness is not going to pay off at this point, I can tell.
08:05 As long as I win one event, that's all I care about.
08:07 The winner of the drag race by a mile was the Ronco.
08:11 What is the deal?
08:17 So Ronco, she's a little tired after drag racing and she really doesn't want to run
08:22 right now.
08:23 Crank.
08:24 Come on, baby.
08:30 Let's do the suck on the carburetor.
08:32 You rev up the engine, hold a rag over the intake, and what it does is it stops the air
08:37 flow and the engine vacuum sucks all the dirt and fuel through all the little venturis and
08:41 everything else and clears it out.
08:42 Makes it work.
08:43 Now it's ready to go.
08:44 It's mint.
08:45 Much better.
08:46 Yeah.
08:47 That's what happens when you fail to pop the hood open on a newly purchased automobile before
08:52 you try to go enter a cheap truck challenge.
08:59 So what's next is a crawl race.
09:01 This showcases the crawl ratio of the vehicles to see how slow they can go if you're creepy
09:05 crawling across some rocks.
09:07 So we'll actually start all the vehicles together, first gear, low range, and see which one is
09:12 the slowest moving down the course.
09:15 One, two, three, go.
09:30 Yeah.
09:42 I can steer, can't I?
09:43 I can pick it up, can't I?
09:45 Hey.
09:46 Hi.
09:47 You got help?
09:48 No, nobody's driving you.
09:49 You have to go in between the orange flags.
09:50 What?
09:51 So in theory, Rick won that deal because he was the last one there and we lost because
10:04 we were first, but dude, I got to ask the question, what 17-year-old kid wants his truck
10:08 to be slower?
10:10 So by the apparent inverted judging standards, I'm calling that a win.
10:15 Next.
10:16 In the crawling competition, clearly the winner was the Toyota.
10:27 This is the milk truck challenge where we have a milk jug taped to the hood of the vehicle
10:32 and as you go along, it starts squirting out and that shows you how well your suspension
10:36 is working.
10:37 This is as if you were a kid hanging out in the woods with your buddies and all of a sudden
10:41 you had to get in your vehicle really quick and race out of there.
10:44 So this will be a timed event to see who can get to the end of the course the fastest.
10:47 The guy with the most milk in the jug at the end of the race gets extra points.
10:52 Standby.
10:54 Go.
10:56 Go.
10:58 Go.
11:00 Go.
11:02 Go.
11:04 Once I got to the creek bed and make a left up to the hill, I figured I'm already losing
11:09 milk so I just nail it.
11:10 I started going in four high.
11:14 Then I really wanted to launch it over this hill, but with my Toyota I couldn't do it.
11:18 So I kept it in four low, second gear, and just went the rest of the course sliding,
11:22 sliding, and spurting, spurting.
11:24 It was like a volcano coming out both ends.
11:27 I get down to the bottom and I wanted to do a real tight 360, so I took it out of four
11:34 wheel drive, but it didn't come out of four wheel drive, so I had this super long curve.
11:39 That cost me a little bit of time.
11:45 Time wasn't bad, but I lost a lot of milk.
11:52 So, the flag dropped and I ran and got in the Suburban and my seatbelt jammed.
12:02 I'm sure I ate up a bunch of time just doing that.
12:07 Come on.
12:12 The Suburban just soaked up the bumps down through the riverbed.
12:15 I really wasn't too worried about the milk situation because there's tons of milk out
12:20 there.
12:21 I just needed a little bit more milk.
12:24 I knew I had wheelbase and power, so I figured I'd just throttle it down and see what happens.
12:35 I took it up through the hills and when I came down through the bushes and the trees,
12:39 I think I smacked one of those cameras on the side.
12:47 Luckily I was able to throttle it through the big donut at the end and come in strong.
12:53 I don't know how I did on time, but I think I did pretty good on not losing too much milk
12:58 out of the whole jug.
13:00 I'm pretty sure I'm going to win it.
13:03 I had this idea that I could go through my passenger door since I don't have a door,
13:07 which was going to save me time versus the other guys having to run around.
13:10 I think that really worked.
13:12 I didn't really get any air.
13:15 I was trying to modulate the throttle to keep the thing down, soak up the bumps, and stay
13:20 on the terrain and go fast.
13:26 I went all the way down the riverbed in two-wheel drive and jumped up out of the bed in two-wheel
13:30 drive.
13:31 When I had to go through that little nacho, I went to four high.
13:38 There was the point where you had to make the donut around the three flags and I had
13:40 kicked it into two-wheel drive and I thought I was just going to whip it around, but I
13:44 think that the transfer case stayed in four because it just pushed the front end really
13:48 bad.
13:49 When that happened, I killed it.
13:50 I thought, "Oh, I'm completely done now.
13:54 Oh!"
13:57 I got it fired back up and still made it through the gates way faster than those other guys.
14:01 I'm just going to win this thing on time because who cares if you spill milk?
14:06 I really don't think I won, but I think I did better than the Bronco.
14:09 I can't wait to find out.
14:11 Fryburger did pretty good in the Bronco, but I really expected it to come off the ground
14:15 a lot more than he had it.
14:16 I'm pretty sure I'm going to win it.
14:18 Oh, I totally owned those guys that time.
14:21 That was a big victory.
14:34 In its second victory so far, the Bronco.
14:36 This next one is a V-notch and a hill climb all in the same thing.
14:44 You're going to climb up, weave back and forth, get to the top, loop it around and come back
14:49 down.
14:50 It's going to be speed, but it's also going to be gracefulness.
14:51 We'll see what we can do.
14:52 Go!
14:53 Yeah!
15:07 Now hit the Toyota.
15:31 Holy shit.
15:58 Mark, set, go!
16:21 This Suburban gets it, in case you were wondering.
16:43 At the hill climb, Bronco wins again.
16:53 Everybody wanted to go through the mud hole and they somehow convinced me to go first.
16:57 And the first time I dumped it in there, whoosh!
17:01 Water all over the hood and it just kept on pulling.
17:04 Came right on out.
17:05 Eat it, bitches!
17:08 I'm pretty sure that I won the mud bog because I don't think anybody else is going to follow
17:12 me where I just went.
17:15 I moved my air cleaner up and around on the snorkel to the back and I skirted to the edge.
17:19 It was still all in the mud, but I only got half of it muddy, only half of it dirty and
17:23 I made it through.
17:24 So that was good.
17:25 I had a great line.
17:26 Camera bag.
17:27 Shoes.
17:28 I didn't know if I wanted to do the mud, but as soon as I saw Rick take the go around,
17:35 I knew I couldn't do that because I would have to not make fun of him for it.
17:39 So I went right through the middle, but not with quite the speed that Fred did.
17:44 Fry burger goes through in his big old Bronco.
17:47 Except he was wearing a dress too, so it doesn't count.
17:52 I didn't want to go.
17:53 In fact, I punked out and didn't get in this to go.
17:56 No doors, no way to keep me dry.
17:58 I'm not going.
17:59 Check.
18:00 Totally.
18:01 They were like, "Do it again, do it again!"
18:04 As they do.
18:06 And when you get through once, you think you're unstoppable.
18:08 So we went around again.
18:10 Water everywhere.
18:12 And then I realized submersion is not good for suburban.
18:18 And she shut down.
18:19 We got a bunch of water everywhere.
18:21 So we towed her over here, pulled all the plugs, cranked her over, shot some water out
18:25 of the cylinders.
18:26 Luckily, she cranked back up.
18:28 We're going to put a new air cleaner in it and go home.
18:31 In the mud pit, got to go with the suburban.
18:34 We are at the Pismo Dunes and today we're out playing in the sand.
18:40 We got to play in the mud and the hills.
18:47 Obstacle course yesterday.
19:05 Today we're kind of wrapping up Cheap Truck Challenge by coming out here and just whipping
19:08 around in the sand.
19:09 Maybe see if we can catch a little air off some dunes.
19:11 But Toyota loves the dunes.
19:12 I can even do it in first gear, high range.
19:13 I don't have to go in the low range, except some of those real tough places I need to
19:14 crawl out of.
19:15 But if you keep the R's up, keep the momentum going, it just floats.
19:16 It can go through the bulge, can crest some of the dunes.
19:17 It's really going to be fun when we finally get things jumping around here.
19:18 I came out here in the suburban and I drove around the dunes and I was really excited
19:19 about it.
19:20 I mean, I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
19:21 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
19:22 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
19:23 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
19:24 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
19:25 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
19:42 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:08 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:15 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:16 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:17 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:18 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:19 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:20 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:21 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:22 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:23 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:24 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:25 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:26 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:27 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:28 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
20:49 I've been driving around the dunes for a long time.
21:11 The jump was deceptive.
21:13 It was more like hitting a big speed bump, going a little faster than you intended.
21:18 And it just, boom, like that, and hucked the Ronco into the air.
21:23 Long enough that I could say "oh, s***" to myself three times.
21:26 I'm sore.
21:27 The landing was a little stiff.
21:28 I don't know, I didn't see Pei Wei and Williams hit it that hard.
21:31 So once again, I think we should have the trophy.
21:34 In the sand dunes, the Suburban was cool, but Hot Rod wins again.
21:40 In the end, do the math, man.
21:41 We came, we saw, we conquered.
21:43 I gotta say, though, if you were really gonna go rock crawling, Rick's Toyota would be the
21:47 best truck.
21:48 And if I had to own one to drive every single day, I'd take the Suburban.
21:52 But the ultimate all-around vehicle?
21:54 Proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt.
21:56 The Hot Rod Bronco.
21:57 We'll see you again on the next Roadkill, where we have outrageous fun for no apparent
22:02 reason.
22:03 Hey, baby.
22:04 I think he left his phone in here.
22:18 I'm gonna call his mom.
22:26 Hi.
22:27 Hi, Mom.
22:28 I miss you.
22:29 America!
22:30 Is that copyrighted?
22:31 Be sure and strap your stuff down when you're at the dunes, and...
22:37 Oh, yeah.
22:38 Oh, yeah.
22:39 Oh, yeah.
22:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]
22:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]