Music City Trucks Featured Projects
Music City Trucks Builds
Want more content like this?
Join the PowerNation Email Newsletter
Video Transcript
[ Joel ] You're watching Powernation!
[ Eric ] Today on Music City Trucks we decide it's time to cut ourselves a break and have a little fun as we bring in a brand new project built just for that. [ Mike ] We've got a new flavor in the shop. So stay tuned for this u-t-v on MCT. [ Music ] [ Joel ] Nothing cooler than an old pickup am I right? [ Music ] [ Eric ] Underneath all this dirt there's probably a pretty good truck. We've worked on a ton of different trucks this season and we've decided that since we're getting close to the end we wanted to do something a little bit different. So a few months back I took Joel out to pick this thing up and cause some general mayhem on the best test drive I've ever been on. We've been working really hard this season and I figured it's about time we just have a little bit of fun. [ Joel ] I'd go for some R and R. [ Eric ] As you can see there's a lot of toys around here but there's only one we're taking home. It's this little guy right here. [ Joel ] Look at that! These old Generals are actually kinda cool. I don't know if I'd consider this a truck or not though. [ Eric ] Technically, it's got the bed on, four wheels, four wheel drive. It's technically a truck. I would say it's more of a truck than an El Camino. [ Joel ] Slightly used of course. [ Eric ] Yeah but it's already bought and paid for. Not much we can do now. [ Joel ] I've got to take you off the joint bank account. You gonna take it for a spin? [ Eric ] We kinda have to. [ Joel ] You've drove one of these right? [ Eric ] No actually. [ Joel ] Seatbelts! If you're gonna wreck us hit something hard. I don't want to limp away from this. [ Eric ] You've always gotta be a little more careful going down than you do coming up. So we'll just take this as an opportunity to figure this trail out a little bit. [ Joel ] Let's call it that. It's thick back here. This thing crawls pretty good I'll give it that. Reminds me of those old Chevrolet commercials with Bob Seger, Like a Rock! [ Eric ] Like a lot of rocks down here. [ Joel ] She smoothed out a bit. [ Eric ] It did for a second. [ Joel ] The sign up there, trespassers will be s-h-something. I can't read the rest of it. I think we better take this opportunity to turn around. [ Eric ] I don't think there's anywhere else to go from here. [ Joel ] I'm also starting to hear banjo music. [ Eric ] Yeah we gotta go. Tree! Goodbye tree. [ Joel ] I think that dude should have gave you a discount on the price on this thing for landscaping duties. [ Eric ] We're definitely re-clearing some parts of this trail for him. [ Joel ] You know they say nature's supposed to relax you but. [ Eric ] I'm very relaxed right now. Are you not? There we go! Just a nice, easy little trail ride. If you're not convinced yet I think you ought to take it for a ride this time. [ Joel ] Let daddy show you how it's done. [ Music ] Oh you chitty-c hitty-bang-bang, chitty-chitty-bang-bang we love you! And our chitty- chitty-bang-bang chitty-chitty-bang-bang loves us too. Chitty-chitty-bang-bang, chitty-bang-bang yeah! [ Eric ] Not bad for a rookie I'll give you that. [ Joel ] Chitty! Woo hoo! [ Music ] See Eric, you've gotta feed some speed to your ride once in a while. [ Eric ] Yeah! [ engine revving ] [ Eric ] On the road again! An unexpected performance from Mr. McMillan. [ Music ] [ Joel ] That my friends is how you do it. [ Music ] [ Eric ] A little bit more! Perfect, cool! [ Music ] [ Joel ] I don't think we needed the ramps if I'm being honest. [ Eric ] I think this might be the smallest thing that's ever been on this trailer, especially for us. [ Music ] [ ratchet clicking ] [ Music ]
[ Eric ] We're good back here. Crank it down as tight as you need to. [ Music ] [ Joel ] You good buddy? Let's go get something cold to drink. [ Music ] [ Eric ] Coming up, we filter out the noise and up the exhaust.
[ Eric ] Well we've got our u-t-v back in the shop, and as you guys just watched we've already realized that this thing is a great time but we've got a few upgrades in mind that are gonna crank that fun factor up to 11. Before we get to work we're gonna tell you what exactly this thing is. This 2019 Polaris General is designed to chew up the trail but we've got plans to up its rank. The bed's not king size but it can haul up to 600 pounds. It's also got tons of lighting, solid aluminum wheels, and fairly decent tires. It's got dual A-arm suspension with Fox Shocks and the interior will keep you comfy on most any terrain. But you know our motto, go big or go home. [ Mike ] A vehicle's exhaust system is another way for you to express your personality. Myself I've always loved the sound of Flowmaster mufflers. I've got them on my own vehicles, and when I saw Flowmaster made a muffler kit for this u-t-v I said that's the one we've got to have. So let's get this factory one off. We'll get the Flowmaster one on, provide better sound, and a more free flowing exhaust that's gonna provide us more power. Got a couple of springs that help dampen the muffler so it can actually move around. Get those springs off, a couple of bolts. We're gonna reuse those springs. So make sure if they go flying you go pick them up. [ drill humming ] [ Mike ] There's the old one. It's just got these rubber hangers on the bottom that sits on the bottom right here. Then we've got our flange up top. Hook the springs back up. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ] [ Mike ] Now the muffler is on. Only thing left is our fancy little heat shield so you don't burn yourself if you have to walk to the back side of the vehicle. Did I mention my dream I had last night? I didn't? I dreamed I was a muffler. Then I woke up exhausted. I know, I know. [ Eric ] We mentioned waiting to install the turbo kit until we could verify the health of this engine, and one of the best places to start with that is with your oil filter. If that is an o-e-m factory filter that's on there it is way overdue on a change. We can't say that for sure because we don't have maintenance history on this, but just to be safe we're gonna go ahead and check everything out and make sure we install a quality filter to replace it. That's where the guys from Wix come in at. We're gonna check one out and looking at it you've got quality steel construction for the actual casing, good quality rubber for both your seal and anti-drain back valve, good thick metal construction here on the connection point, but it's more than just what's on the outside of these things that counts. Mike's got our old filter and he's gonna be cutting it open so that we can see what it's been catching. [ Mike ] Like Eric was saying, if you're concerned or just curious on how the health of the inside of the engine looks an easy thing to do is cut the old filter apart and see what type of dirt and debris may be in there. So we've got our old filter. This is just a filter cutter. It's a little blade. It's gonna pivot, tighten that up, and gonna spin it around like a can opener. If you crank it down too much it just dents the exterior and makes it hard to get the element out. Just starts to cut on the inside right there. Pull the top back and as we look at this filter it has an anti-drain back valve as well. Pull the element out and obviously you're still gonna have some oil in it. We can look at this. You can see the pleats have started to deteriorate but first initial look I don't see any major particles. So that's good. Just pull these pleats apart. I don't see any major debris. That's good news for our engine. This filter looks like it's stood the test of time. So we want to continue that with a high quality Wix filter for the replacement on our u-t-v. We're ready to install our new Wix oil filter on our u-t-v. First thing we want to do is put a little bit of new oil on our seal. That way when you go to tighten it down it doesn't bind up, roll off, and leak. There's some debate about do you put oil in the filter when you go to install it. This one's pretty simple for us because the way it's mount like this if we put oil in the filter it's just gonna run out when we install it. So this one's going on dry. Alright filter's on. Now we're ready for some oil. Up next, we tackle a little bit of everything to get our u-t-v trail ready.
[ Eric ] We are moving right along on our u-t-v project and of course your brakes are one of the most important factors when it comes to safety. So we phoned up the fellas over at EBC and they sent us their SV centered copper alloy series brake pads and UTVX rotors. Now with the teardown pretty much finished already we're at the point where we can go ahead and replace our brake pads. First step to do that is we've got to get this plastic cover off of our caliper. The next step is gonna be to get our wheel hub assembly put back on. But before we can do that we've got to get the hub reattached to the actual steering knuckle. We're gonna take some 1,500 grit sandpaper and we're gonna get this cleaned up so that everything slides together nice and smooth. With that cleaned up I'm gonna grab a little bit of lube to spray on here to help it slide together easy and keep it protected. Clean up any overspray. Now before we put that on we're gonna grease our axle splines. It doesn't take much. You don't want to over do it. Just enough so you cover all the splines and this axle won't have a chance to get seized up on here. We're gonna start by getting our axle put in. Once you've got your bolt in you can just let that hang. Now we will be replacing these nuts because they are nylock, which means they are single use, but for right now we're gonna stick these on just to make sure there's no chance of these bolts coming out and dropping the control arm or the hub assembly. Bring our caliper over. Be sure you've got your pads spread all the way out. I guess I'm gonna get this buttoned up, put our axle nut back in, new cotter pins, get everything tightened down, and then we can move on to wheels and tires. With all of our brakes finished up and an easy lift kit installed it's time for us to move on with tires. We could have gone and got another set of u-t-v tires but we want to make sure that this thing's gonna be heavy duty and we don't have anything to worry about on all four corners. So we called up the crew over at General Tire to see what they had for options that would work for our build. We decided to go with the 32" by 10.5" General Grabber X-3s. Anytime you're selecting tires for something that's gonna go offroad at all tread is gonna be one of the most important things to look at. You could be a caveman about it and just get the most aggressive looking one but it's really important to understand how the tread works. When it comes to tread selection there's a lot more to it than just how deep is it and how big are the blocks. Your tire tread is made up of four main parts. You've got ribs, which are gonna be the main sections that are made up of your tread blocks, which is each individual raised piece of rubber. In between all of your tread blocks you've got what are known as grooves. The grooves are what's gonna eject rocks, dirt, water, whatever it is you're driving over. The last main part of your tire tread is what's known as sipes. That's all of these little squiggles you see inside the tread blocks. The purpose of siping is to increase the grip of your tire by adding more edges to the tread. What that does is helps you to increase your grip and traction in wet, snowy, and icy conditions. As your tread blocks get bigger there is less of a need for siping because another function of it is to help siphon water away from the center of the tire and reduce hydroplaning. [ drill humming ] [ Eric ] That is a huge improvement. I'm gonna grab the other three and get them put on. [ Mike ] Our battery is already showing signs of deterioration. So when we're out in b-f-e we don't want that thing to d-i-e. So we reached out and got this Duralast Gold battery from the Autozone Pro website so it doesn't leave us stranded. We're gonna go ahead and loosen up our negative because it's grounded. If we touch some other part of metal around the chassis it's not gonna ground out. Now we can take off our positive. Let's see if it'll let us break that loose. [ Music ]
In with the new one. Around our cables here, looks good. Hold down clamp. [ ratchet clicking ] [ Music ] [ Mike ] Got that tight. Now we'll connect our terminals and then we're ready to power up. [ Eric ] Our fluid levels are all looking good but the condition of our brake fluid has got me a little bit concerned. That's okay because we planned ahead for this just in case, and when we ordered the pads and rotors from our friends over at EBC we also had them send us some of their Dot-5 brake fluid. You might not think that dirty brake fluid is that big of a deal but it does raise some potential concerns that can cause a lot of issues. Dirty brake fluid can cause issues like clogged lines, diminished performance, and potentially causing your brake fluid to boil due to a lower boiling point. That's one of the biggest advantages to changing out your old Dot-3 fluid for a Dot-4, Dot-5, or Dot 5.1. That higher boiling temperature is gonna make sure you don't have to worry about that at all. Well I think with that we're just about ready for a pre-trip. Let's run this winch up first. [ winch humming ] [ Eric ] And good! [ Mike ] How about we check some of these lights out. I think those work. [ Eric ] Those ones are good. Yep we've got headlights. [ Mike ] One more on the front. And then the rear lights. [ Eric ] Again, trying to blind me. [ Mike ] How about the brake lights? Alright, I'm gonna go and get the truck and trailer, hook it up, and get ready to go. [ Eric ] I'm gonna run around and check all the fluids real quick and then I'll meet you out there. Coming up, we put our u-t-v upgrades to the test at the ultimate outdoor playground.
[ Eric ] Well we have got our Polaris General out here at Woolys Offroad Park in Lynnville, Tennessee because we've got to test out all these upgrades we've made and I can't think of a better place to do it. [ Mike ] As a drag racer acceleration is my bread and butter but we're not gonna have any of that today. It's gonna be about going slow and navigating those obstacles in front of us. So let's jump in and try it out. [ Eric ] Seatbelts. [ Mike ] Yeah I know who's driving. [ Eric ] I'm not that bad. Here we go! Off to a good start here. So we've got a little bit of rub. I guess that's to be expected because we did do the lift kit and the big tires but we didn't get the extended A-arms and all that. Still got some ruts that we're gonna have to straddle through. One thing I'm noticing for sure that we got over when we picked it up is a lot more ground clearance from that lift kit and the tires. I'm also noticing that the gears in this thing. We didn't add portals or anything like that and these gears don't seem to be a very big fan of these big ole tires. [ Mike ] The gears will definitely help the low end on that. But for what this is yeah we need something different to match that up. Oh excuse me. [ Eric ] Can't tell if it's last night's chili or the tire rubbing. So Mike you're a racing guy, right? You worked with NHRA and all that. You mentioned drag racing is really your thing. Have you done a whole lot of off-roading in your time? [ Mike ] Back when I was younger. The high school days we'd take our cars and trucks. That's before everybody had smart phones and stuff too. You could get away with stuff and people not really know about it. [ Eric ] No video evidence. That was back when all those memories had to just live in your head. [ Mike ] I've always loved the adventure aspect of it. Just getting out and not really having a plan. Just go riding and see where the trail takes you. [ Eric ] Not a bad day at the office I reckon. [ Mike ] Just let it rip. Today we brought the u-t-v out here. We really tested some of the components, the modifications, the upgrades. Whenever you do a build like that you've really gotta put it to the test to validate your progress. We found some good stuff, we found some areas of improvement, and we can change that down the road when we keep on working on this project back at the shop. [ Eric ] Mike you said it's been a while since you've done a whole lot of anything like this. What do you say you take a turn in the driver's seat? [ Mike ] Been waiting for you to say that, let's go! [ engine idling ] Well hold on! [ Eric ] Here we go! [ Mike ] Roads, where we're going we don't need roads. [ engine revving ] [ Eric ] At this point the tire rub is a safety feature. It's keeping us from going too fast. [ engine revving ]
[ Eric ] You're a natural! [ Mike ] My Gravedigger is coming out in me. [ Eric ] Nothing beats the feeling of the pedal hitting the floor. [ engine revving ] [ Mike ] Imagine this thing with a little bit more power, woo doggy! You're gonna see your lunch again. [ Eric ] I don't think that burger would taste too good the second time around. As far as today goes it went about as well as it could have. We got out here first thing this morning. We identified a few problem areas, some things we can improve on. I definitely think we're not done with this thing by any means. Honestly the best thing about getting this out here today was giving Mike his first opportunity to get out here to Woolys and have some fun on an offroad payoff. Put the hammer down and just have a really good time doing it. [ Mike ] Well we brought this thing out here. We enjoyed some of the modifications that we've done so far and we also found some limits. [ Eric ] There is still a ton of room for upward growth on this thing. Unfortunately we can't sit out here and play around all day. We've got to get this thing back to the shop. You remember the way out of here right? [ Mike ] Find the sun and hang a right! [ Eric ] Something like that. [ Mike ] There we go. Here we go, vroom! [ Eric ] I don't think you need to make the noises. I'm pretty sure the machine does it.
Show Full Transcript
[ Eric ] Today on Music City Trucks we decide it's time to cut ourselves a break and have a little fun as we bring in a brand new project built just for that. [ Mike ] We've got a new flavor in the shop. So stay tuned for this u-t-v on MCT. [ Music ] [ Joel ] Nothing cooler than an old pickup am I right? [ Music ] [ Eric ] Underneath all this dirt there's probably a pretty good truck. We've worked on a ton of different trucks this season and we've decided that since we're getting close to the end we wanted to do something a little bit different. So a few months back I took Joel out to pick this thing up and cause some general mayhem on the best test drive I've ever been on. We've been working really hard this season and I figured it's about time we just have a little bit of fun. [ Joel ] I'd go for some R and R. [ Eric ] As you can see there's a lot of toys around here but there's only one we're taking home. It's this little guy right here. [ Joel ] Look at that! These old Generals are actually kinda cool. I don't know if I'd consider this a truck or not though. [ Eric ] Technically, it's got the bed on, four wheels, four wheel drive. It's technically a truck. I would say it's more of a truck than an El Camino. [ Joel ] Slightly used of course. [ Eric ] Yeah but it's already bought and paid for. Not much we can do now. [ Joel ] I've got to take you off the joint bank account. You gonna take it for a spin? [ Eric ] We kinda have to. [ Joel ] You've drove one of these right? [ Eric ] No actually. [ Joel ] Seatbelts! If you're gonna wreck us hit something hard. I don't want to limp away from this. [ Eric ] You've always gotta be a little more careful going down than you do coming up. So we'll just take this as an opportunity to figure this trail out a little bit. [ Joel ] Let's call it that. It's thick back here. This thing crawls pretty good I'll give it that. Reminds me of those old Chevrolet commercials with Bob Seger, Like a Rock! [ Eric ] Like a lot of rocks down here. [ Joel ] She smoothed out a bit. [ Eric ] It did for a second. [ Joel ] The sign up there, trespassers will be s-h-something. I can't read the rest of it. I think we better take this opportunity to turn around. [ Eric ] I don't think there's anywhere else to go from here. [ Joel ] I'm also starting to hear banjo music. [ Eric ] Yeah we gotta go. Tree! Goodbye tree. [ Joel ] I think that dude should have gave you a discount on the price on this thing for landscaping duties. [ Eric ] We're definitely re-clearing some parts of this trail for him. [ Joel ] You know they say nature's supposed to relax you but. [ Eric ] I'm very relaxed right now. Are you not? There we go! Just a nice, easy little trail ride. If you're not convinced yet I think you ought to take it for a ride this time. [ Joel ] Let daddy show you how it's done. [ Music ] Oh you chitty-c hitty-bang-bang, chitty-chitty-bang-bang we love you! And our chitty- chitty-bang-bang chitty-chitty-bang-bang loves us too. Chitty-chitty-bang-bang, chitty-bang-bang yeah! [ Eric ] Not bad for a rookie I'll give you that. [ Joel ] Chitty! Woo hoo! [ Music ] See Eric, you've gotta feed some speed to your ride once in a while. [ Eric ] Yeah! [ engine revving ] [ Eric ] On the road again! An unexpected performance from Mr. McMillan. [ Music ] [ Joel ] That my friends is how you do it. [ Music ] [ Eric ] A little bit more! Perfect, cool! [ Music ] [ Joel ] I don't think we needed the ramps if I'm being honest. [ Eric ] I think this might be the smallest thing that's ever been on this trailer, especially for us. [ Music ] [ ratchet clicking ] [ Music ]
[ Eric ] We're good back here. Crank it down as tight as you need to. [ Music ] [ Joel ] You good buddy? Let's go get something cold to drink. [ Music ] [ Eric ] Coming up, we filter out the noise and up the exhaust.
[ Eric ] Well we've got our u-t-v back in the shop, and as you guys just watched we've already realized that this thing is a great time but we've got a few upgrades in mind that are gonna crank that fun factor up to 11. Before we get to work we're gonna tell you what exactly this thing is. This 2019 Polaris General is designed to chew up the trail but we've got plans to up its rank. The bed's not king size but it can haul up to 600 pounds. It's also got tons of lighting, solid aluminum wheels, and fairly decent tires. It's got dual A-arm suspension with Fox Shocks and the interior will keep you comfy on most any terrain. But you know our motto, go big or go home. [ Mike ] A vehicle's exhaust system is another way for you to express your personality. Myself I've always loved the sound of Flowmaster mufflers. I've got them on my own vehicles, and when I saw Flowmaster made a muffler kit for this u-t-v I said that's the one we've got to have. So let's get this factory one off. We'll get the Flowmaster one on, provide better sound, and a more free flowing exhaust that's gonna provide us more power. Got a couple of springs that help dampen the muffler so it can actually move around. Get those springs off, a couple of bolts. We're gonna reuse those springs. So make sure if they go flying you go pick them up. [ drill humming ] [ Mike ] There's the old one. It's just got these rubber hangers on the bottom that sits on the bottom right here. Then we've got our flange up top. Hook the springs back up. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ] [ Mike ] Now the muffler is on. Only thing left is our fancy little heat shield so you don't burn yourself if you have to walk to the back side of the vehicle. Did I mention my dream I had last night? I didn't? I dreamed I was a muffler. Then I woke up exhausted. I know, I know. [ Eric ] We mentioned waiting to install the turbo kit until we could verify the health of this engine, and one of the best places to start with that is with your oil filter. If that is an o-e-m factory filter that's on there it is way overdue on a change. We can't say that for sure because we don't have maintenance history on this, but just to be safe we're gonna go ahead and check everything out and make sure we install a quality filter to replace it. That's where the guys from Wix come in at. We're gonna check one out and looking at it you've got quality steel construction for the actual casing, good quality rubber for both your seal and anti-drain back valve, good thick metal construction here on the connection point, but it's more than just what's on the outside of these things that counts. Mike's got our old filter and he's gonna be cutting it open so that we can see what it's been catching. [ Mike ] Like Eric was saying, if you're concerned or just curious on how the health of the inside of the engine looks an easy thing to do is cut the old filter apart and see what type of dirt and debris may be in there. So we've got our old filter. This is just a filter cutter. It's a little blade. It's gonna pivot, tighten that up, and gonna spin it around like a can opener. If you crank it down too much it just dents the exterior and makes it hard to get the element out. Just starts to cut on the inside right there. Pull the top back and as we look at this filter it has an anti-drain back valve as well. Pull the element out and obviously you're still gonna have some oil in it. We can look at this. You can see the pleats have started to deteriorate but first initial look I don't see any major particles. So that's good. Just pull these pleats apart. I don't see any major debris. That's good news for our engine. This filter looks like it's stood the test of time. So we want to continue that with a high quality Wix filter for the replacement on our u-t-v. We're ready to install our new Wix oil filter on our u-t-v. First thing we want to do is put a little bit of new oil on our seal. That way when you go to tighten it down it doesn't bind up, roll off, and leak. There's some debate about do you put oil in the filter when you go to install it. This one's pretty simple for us because the way it's mount like this if we put oil in the filter it's just gonna run out when we install it. So this one's going on dry. Alright filter's on. Now we're ready for some oil. Up next, we tackle a little bit of everything to get our u-t-v trail ready.
[ Eric ] We are moving right along on our u-t-v project and of course your brakes are one of the most important factors when it comes to safety. So we phoned up the fellas over at EBC and they sent us their SV centered copper alloy series brake pads and UTVX rotors. Now with the teardown pretty much finished already we're at the point where we can go ahead and replace our brake pads. First step to do that is we've got to get this plastic cover off of our caliper. The next step is gonna be to get our wheel hub assembly put back on. But before we can do that we've got to get the hub reattached to the actual steering knuckle. We're gonna take some 1,500 grit sandpaper and we're gonna get this cleaned up so that everything slides together nice and smooth. With that cleaned up I'm gonna grab a little bit of lube to spray on here to help it slide together easy and keep it protected. Clean up any overspray. Now before we put that on we're gonna grease our axle splines. It doesn't take much. You don't want to over do it. Just enough so you cover all the splines and this axle won't have a chance to get seized up on here. We're gonna start by getting our axle put in. Once you've got your bolt in you can just let that hang. Now we will be replacing these nuts because they are nylock, which means they are single use, but for right now we're gonna stick these on just to make sure there's no chance of these bolts coming out and dropping the control arm or the hub assembly. Bring our caliper over. Be sure you've got your pads spread all the way out. I guess I'm gonna get this buttoned up, put our axle nut back in, new cotter pins, get everything tightened down, and then we can move on to wheels and tires. With all of our brakes finished up and an easy lift kit installed it's time for us to move on with tires. We could have gone and got another set of u-t-v tires but we want to make sure that this thing's gonna be heavy duty and we don't have anything to worry about on all four corners. So we called up the crew over at General Tire to see what they had for options that would work for our build. We decided to go with the 32" by 10.5" General Grabber X-3s. Anytime you're selecting tires for something that's gonna go offroad at all tread is gonna be one of the most important things to look at. You could be a caveman about it and just get the most aggressive looking one but it's really important to understand how the tread works. When it comes to tread selection there's a lot more to it than just how deep is it and how big are the blocks. Your tire tread is made up of four main parts. You've got ribs, which are gonna be the main sections that are made up of your tread blocks, which is each individual raised piece of rubber. In between all of your tread blocks you've got what are known as grooves. The grooves are what's gonna eject rocks, dirt, water, whatever it is you're driving over. The last main part of your tire tread is what's known as sipes. That's all of these little squiggles you see inside the tread blocks. The purpose of siping is to increase the grip of your tire by adding more edges to the tread. What that does is helps you to increase your grip and traction in wet, snowy, and icy conditions. As your tread blocks get bigger there is less of a need for siping because another function of it is to help siphon water away from the center of the tire and reduce hydroplaning. [ drill humming ] [ Eric ] That is a huge improvement. I'm gonna grab the other three and get them put on. [ Mike ] Our battery is already showing signs of deterioration. So when we're out in b-f-e we don't want that thing to d-i-e. So we reached out and got this Duralast Gold battery from the Autozone Pro website so it doesn't leave us stranded. We're gonna go ahead and loosen up our negative because it's grounded. If we touch some other part of metal around the chassis it's not gonna ground out. Now we can take off our positive. Let's see if it'll let us break that loose. [ Music ]
In with the new one. Around our cables here, looks good. Hold down clamp. [ ratchet clicking ] [ Music ] [ Mike ] Got that tight. Now we'll connect our terminals and then we're ready to power up. [ Eric ] Our fluid levels are all looking good but the condition of our brake fluid has got me a little bit concerned. That's okay because we planned ahead for this just in case, and when we ordered the pads and rotors from our friends over at EBC we also had them send us some of their Dot-5 brake fluid. You might not think that dirty brake fluid is that big of a deal but it does raise some potential concerns that can cause a lot of issues. Dirty brake fluid can cause issues like clogged lines, diminished performance, and potentially causing your brake fluid to boil due to a lower boiling point. That's one of the biggest advantages to changing out your old Dot-3 fluid for a Dot-4, Dot-5, or Dot 5.1. That higher boiling temperature is gonna make sure you don't have to worry about that at all. Well I think with that we're just about ready for a pre-trip. Let's run this winch up first. [ winch humming ] [ Eric ] And good! [ Mike ] How about we check some of these lights out. I think those work. [ Eric ] Those ones are good. Yep we've got headlights. [ Mike ] One more on the front. And then the rear lights. [ Eric ] Again, trying to blind me. [ Mike ] How about the brake lights? Alright, I'm gonna go and get the truck and trailer, hook it up, and get ready to go. [ Eric ] I'm gonna run around and check all the fluids real quick and then I'll meet you out there. Coming up, we put our u-t-v upgrades to the test at the ultimate outdoor playground.
[ Eric ] Well we have got our Polaris General out here at Woolys Offroad Park in Lynnville, Tennessee because we've got to test out all these upgrades we've made and I can't think of a better place to do it. [ Mike ] As a drag racer acceleration is my bread and butter but we're not gonna have any of that today. It's gonna be about going slow and navigating those obstacles in front of us. So let's jump in and try it out. [ Eric ] Seatbelts. [ Mike ] Yeah I know who's driving. [ Eric ] I'm not that bad. Here we go! Off to a good start here. So we've got a little bit of rub. I guess that's to be expected because we did do the lift kit and the big tires but we didn't get the extended A-arms and all that. Still got some ruts that we're gonna have to straddle through. One thing I'm noticing for sure that we got over when we picked it up is a lot more ground clearance from that lift kit and the tires. I'm also noticing that the gears in this thing. We didn't add portals or anything like that and these gears don't seem to be a very big fan of these big ole tires. [ Mike ] The gears will definitely help the low end on that. But for what this is yeah we need something different to match that up. Oh excuse me. [ Eric ] Can't tell if it's last night's chili or the tire rubbing. So Mike you're a racing guy, right? You worked with NHRA and all that. You mentioned drag racing is really your thing. Have you done a whole lot of off-roading in your time? [ Mike ] Back when I was younger. The high school days we'd take our cars and trucks. That's before everybody had smart phones and stuff too. You could get away with stuff and people not really know about it. [ Eric ] No video evidence. That was back when all those memories had to just live in your head. [ Mike ] I've always loved the adventure aspect of it. Just getting out and not really having a plan. Just go riding and see where the trail takes you. [ Eric ] Not a bad day at the office I reckon. [ Mike ] Just let it rip. Today we brought the u-t-v out here. We really tested some of the components, the modifications, the upgrades. Whenever you do a build like that you've really gotta put it to the test to validate your progress. We found some good stuff, we found some areas of improvement, and we can change that down the road when we keep on working on this project back at the shop. [ Eric ] Mike you said it's been a while since you've done a whole lot of anything like this. What do you say you take a turn in the driver's seat? [ Mike ] Been waiting for you to say that, let's go! [ engine idling ] Well hold on! [ Eric ] Here we go! [ Mike ] Roads, where we're going we don't need roads. [ engine revving ] [ Eric ] At this point the tire rub is a safety feature. It's keeping us from going too fast. [ engine revving ]
[ Eric ] You're a natural! [ Mike ] My Gravedigger is coming out in me. [ Eric ] Nothing beats the feeling of the pedal hitting the floor. [ engine revving ] [ Mike ] Imagine this thing with a little bit more power, woo doggy! You're gonna see your lunch again. [ Eric ] I don't think that burger would taste too good the second time around. As far as today goes it went about as well as it could have. We got out here first thing this morning. We identified a few problem areas, some things we can improve on. I definitely think we're not done with this thing by any means. Honestly the best thing about getting this out here today was giving Mike his first opportunity to get out here to Woolys and have some fun on an offroad payoff. Put the hammer down and just have a really good time doing it. [ Mike ] Well we brought this thing out here. We enjoyed some of the modifications that we've done so far and we also found some limits. [ Eric ] There is still a ton of room for upward growth on this thing. Unfortunately we can't sit out here and play around all day. We've got to get this thing back to the shop. You remember the way out of here right? [ Mike ] Find the sun and hang a right! [ Eric ] Something like that. [ Mike ] There we go. Here we go, vroom! [ Eric ] I don't think you need to make the noises. I'm pretty sure the machine does it.
