In this episode of Drive Radio, John Rush and Larry Unger explore how drivers’ tastes in vehicles evolve over time. The question of the day asks listeners to reflect on how their preferences have changed—from early sports cars and station wagons to today’s comfortable SUVs and high-tech pickup trucks.
John shares how trucks have always been part of his lineup, largely because of the convenience they provide when hauling materials, towing trailers, or running a business. But modern trucks have come a long way since the 1980s. Today’s pickups offer advanced safety features, luxury interiors, self-driving technology, and dramatically improved
SPEAKER 09 :
We’re 106 miles to Chicago. We’ve got a full tank of gas. It’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.
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Hit it. Our lady of blessed acceleration, don’t fail me now.
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It’s time for Drive Radio, presented by Colorado’s select auto care centers.
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Whether you need help diagnosing a problem. I want to ask you a bunch of questions, and I want to have them answered immediately. Or just want to learn about all things automotive.
SPEAKER 12 :
Hey, how exactly does a positractor in on a Plymouth work?
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SPEAKER 08 :
And it is Drive Radio, KLZ 560. Thanks for listening to us. Larry Unger with me today for our program. Any questions you have, by all means, you can always call in, 303-477-5600. 303-477-5600. And as you heard me mentioning a moment ago for our promo, The extra mile today will be on direct injection engines, the proper maintenance of. How do you actually do that correctly? How do you save money? All of that is on today’s extra mile. So if you have any questions pertaining to that, you can even call in now and ask some questions. But I encourage you to listen in at 3 to 4 p.m. today for the extra mile. And you can actually hear all of what I talk about in regards to that. Lots of recalls out of late. We may get into a few of those things today as well. Don’t forget the text line. 307-200-8222, 307-200-8222. Now, I had a question of the day today that I think will work for today. I’m going to throw it out there anyways, and we’ll find out. So the question of the day today is, how has your taste in cars changed over the years? And some of that can change because of… Need, just desire, age, family needs. Sometimes it doesn’t change at all. You may be driving and liking the same thing today that you had when you were a teenager. But for a lot of folks, those tastes change. And they change because sometimes we want less performance and more comfort. Or sometimes you want less comfort and more performance. Or whatever the case may be. But the question of the day is, how has your taste in cars changed over the years? 303. That’s 477-5600. Now, for me personally, how has my taste changed? I mean, I was driving pickup trucks and sports cars, I guess you could say muscle cars, from the time I started driving, and I still do to this day. There’s been but just a few rare occasions in my entire driving career, so ownership, I guess you could say, whereby I didn’t have some sort of a truck. I mean, there were a few times where I maybe had a Jeep or something along those lines, but I’ve always had some sort of a four-wheel drive vehicle. And for the most part, I’ve always driven a truck. And some people would say, well, geez, are you hauling stuff all the time? It depends. Sometimes, yes. It’s very handy to have. Not always. But when you’re self-employed and also had the kind of businesses that I’ve had all of my life, really, since I was 22 years of age, you don’t always need a truck, but when you do, you need it. Exactly. And to not have it is a major pain. So I’ve always had a truck, mainly because of what I just said, because of the type of things I’ve done. There was a few times where I didn’t. And honestly, it was short lived because I soon realized that, oh, man, it never fails about the time I need to go do something. You know, now I’m trying to figure out, OK, well, I need to get a truck. And, you know, granted, typically I had one in the fleet of some kind, you know, some way. But it was always a pain to have to even go find that truck and get it and dink around and so on. And so I finally just learned that, you know what, it’s easier for me to just have some sort of a truck with a box on the back. whereby you can throw anything in there you want. And it varies a lot in my world. It could be something that you’re going to the Home Depot, the big box store, and grabbing, depending upon what that is. It could be a Costco run. It could be you’re just hauling different things around. It could be I hooked a trailer up and I’m moving things around that way. But I, for example, have always had a truck. Now, I will say this. Has my taste in trucks changed over the years? Yeah. The more luxurious they get, the more I want that truck. I’m to the point where, you know, there’s a big difference between driving. My first truck that I owned was a 1984 Chevy single cab, yeah, 3,500. So it was a one-ton, 3,500, single-wheel truck. I mean, they were tough. They rode like a meat wagon. I mean, yeah, they were great and all that in its day. But, you know, back then you got power windows, air conditioning, and a velour seat, and that was about the options that you got. There wasn’t much else you had optioned out. Now you can get one. My truck will self-drive. I mean, you can pretty much do anything you want to now in today’s world. So they have come a long way. And, yes, I am one where I’m spoiled. And I like the creature comforts that come on a lot of the new vehicles, trucks especially. They’re not the trucks of old, not by any stretch of the imagination. I mean, even my 2004 Dodge. My 5.9 Cummins, which at that time was a pretty fancy truck in its day, but even it’s not as fancy as the stuff that you can now buy that replace it. I mean, just every, not even decade, every four or five years, there’s just huge upgrades that happen. Chevy’s going to have a whole new truck in 2027, so another upgrade. year roughly there’s a whole new redesign coming and that is something those truck companies keep up on on a routine basis because they know that’s a huge portion of their market and of their their profits honestly if it wasn’t for the truck lineup some of the manufacturers that you know have lost money on the ev sides and so on if they didn’t have the truck side of things truck and suv sides of things to make up for that loss in money they put out on evs they wouldn’t be in business today
SPEAKER 12 :
No, trucks have been something that have been part of our culture forever. And, you know… uh i i’ve got i’ve had trucks since i was in 1976. okay but i did that because when i went on vacation i needed a truck to haul gear to go on vacation with right so that’s where i got started with it but i’ve i still got that same truck well my truck now is a 95 ford but i’ve had that since brand new 95 and i won’t get rid of it because like you said you don’t need it often but when you do need it it’s there
SPEAKER 08 :
Somebody texted in and also asked me, have I ever broke a clip, you know, a clip or a plastic clip or anything when I was working on cars? Yeah, I have. Cars only. Oh, yeah. In fact, in auto shops, even in my shop at home, I’ve got an assortment of. So if you go to work on something and something breaks, you can just go grab another clip and put it back in. I mean, the fasteners that hold a lot of different parts and pieces and things on, door panels and so on. Oh, yeah. It’s very, very common back in the day, even taking… you know, sensors and things like that off where you would, you know, because they get brittle. They just break. Sometimes you breathe on it and it breaks. It’s just plastic. It just happens. And yes, those are things that, yes, we have to have as a shop. And real quick, as a side note, this is a discussion I had with one of my clients the other day in a shop. And he had a particular customer that was complaining about the shop fees, you know, shop supplies. And I said, okay, well, do you really understand all of the different things that go into running a shop? And what I mean by that is this is a great example. The extra clips, all of the other things it takes inside of the shop, all of the chemicals, the rags, just all the different components that you have inside of the shop to actually make things function on a daily basis. Yes, shops have to be repaid for those things because you can’t itemize those things every single solid day. You need to be able to… How should I say this? You need to be able to collectively collect for those items. In a lot of cases, shops will do a shop fee to collect for those because there’s just too many things. I mean, I could come up with, just for grins the other day, I went into ChatGPT and typed in, what are standard shop supplies in an automotive shop? And I had like a three or four page list of things that even AI came up with as the things that shops use on a regular basis. And the list is many. And so, yeah, when a shop is charging you those shop supplies, in a lot of cases, it’s for the very things we’re talking about right now to where you breathe on that clip and it breaks. And it’s no fault of anybody. It’s just part of – if you were working on the car yourself at home, you’d have the same issue and you’d have to go get the same clip and do the same thing all over again. Those are the sorts of things that shops have to have on hand at all times because those things do come up. That’s just how it works. Okay. All right, we’re going to take a quick break. We’ll come back. We’ll get things rolling along here. Again, question of the day, how has your taste in vehicles changed throughout the years? That is the question of the day. We’ll be right back. Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
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SPEAKER 08 :
And we are back. Drive Radio, KLZ 560. Thanks for joining us today. Larry Unger with me. Charlie Grimes, of course, is our engineer answering phones as well since Larry’s in with me today. And I appreciate both of them. Lines are open, 303-477-5600. 303-477-5600. I talked about this a couple of weeks ago. But if you either, A, put snow tires on, they can come off. Or if you never got around to doing them for the year, which may be the case, you don’t need to put them on at this point either because we’re not going to have enough snow the rest of the year to where it’s a big deal. And, again, I will tell you, yes, if you want to swap things back around and put your summer tires back on, you are fine in doing so. There are some folks that may argue with me on that, but I can tell you right now that given how far we are into the year, if we get a really big – to actually have enough snow on the road to have it really be a factor. And no offense, if that does happen and you did change out, just hang out for about This time of the year, hang out for about, I don’t know, 6 to 12 hours.
SPEAKER 12 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 08 :
And guess what? You’ll be able to go wherever you want to.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 08 :
I mean, it is not going to be that big of a deal. The chances of us having any kind of a solid deep freeze, deep snow, you know, all of that, it ain’t going to happen. Now, could we get a lot of snow? Yeah, we could get, you know, an 8, 10-inch snowstorm. But keep in mind, on the pavement, there will be 2, 3 inches.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, I feel like we had two weeks ago.
SPEAKER 08 :
Same situation. It’s just not that big of a deal. So, yes, we are at a point now where if you feel like you want to change things, and again, folks, the reason I say that is you look at the weather pattern, even going into next weekend, it’s going to be 80 degrees. And our daylight is longer every single day. It has nothing to do with when the daylight comes. It’s just the daylight is getting longer now every day. You take 80 degrees and heat the pavement up and continue to do so, it takes a lot of snow to wreak havoc on, you know, freeways and pavement and so on. So at the end of the day, you’re just not going to have any issues along those lines. So do whatever you think you need to. But if it were me, I would be swapping back around for the summer months at this point, Mark and Windsor, you’re next or your first today, I should say. Oh, gee. Wow. Thanks.
SPEAKER 03 :
Um, see question of the day. Um, I’m 73, so now my taste in cars, I want to drive an SUV so it’s easy to get in and out.
SPEAKER 08 :
Can’t argue that one.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Can’t argue that.
SPEAKER 03 :
All the cars before were station wagons and minivans, but now the kids are gone and we’re going with the SUVs. Got a Grand Highlander hybrid right now. Great car, by the way. Yeah. Yeah, we’re loving it. At least I am. My wife doesn’t like all the electronics, but I’m loving it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Great car. Yeah, nothing wrong with that car at all. Fabulous car.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. So here’s my question. Is there a good diesel additive to clean a clogged or dirty catalytic converter? We were driving back from Florida from a camping trip on our fifth wheel. I’ve got a 2015 2500 HD diesel Silverado Silverado. 105,000 miles, and we were going up a hill in Kansas, and I was behind a truck, and I was going to pass the truck, but a little car that was hiding behind me that I didn’t see pulled out and cut me off, so I had to step on the brakes, had to slow down, and had to apply a lot of gas to get up the hill, and engine light came on, and it said reduced engine power. So I got to the top of the hill, drove down and there was a gas station at the bottom of the hill. Um, I could go about 50 miles an hour and, um, I stopped and turned it off, let it rest a little bit, uh, went inside, asked the guy if he had a, uh, code reader. He said, no, but up the road. So long story short, went up there, uh, to Ellsworth, Kansas, the guy put a code reader on it and, um, said that my turbo boost overheated because of buildup of carbon in my catalytic converter. Yeah, and the DPF, yeah. So it cooled down, and he was able to clear the code, and I had no problem driving home back to Windsor. Okay. So I guess my question, you know, he said I probably would need a catalytic converter – But I have a friend who’s a car mechanic, has a truck just like mine, but he doesn’t work on diesels. And he was suggesting maybe there’s an additive to put in the engine to kind of clean some of that out so I don’t have to buy a catalytic converter.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, you could try it. It’s sort of a crapshoot. But I will tell you, normally, those are supposed to be self-cleaning. They do a regen. It’s called on a diesel, and it’ll go into regen mode and actually burn all of that out. And typically, that’s what should be happening. If it’s not, then there might be other issues. But what I would do initially, and BG, which we’ve used their products for years and years and years, they make a BG emissions system cleaner, which does lots of things, including cleaning EGR valves, some of the coolers, the DPF, and so on, which is what we’re talking about. It’s part number P020. So P020. You may have that at some of the Napa stores. If not, you may have to have one of your Napa stores actually grab that. Or if your tech friend uses BG Products, he could order that in from his salesperson for you as well, and he could use it himself even for that matter. But that’s not a bad thing. You know, I wouldn’t use that on an every tank basis. If you use that, you know, two, three times a year, you wouldn’t need to do anything more than that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. Did you say B as in dog?
SPEAKER 08 :
B as in boy. B as in boy, G as in gear, I guess you could say. So it’s actually BG, bearings and gears. Think of it that way. Bearings and gears is what BG stands for. So BG, emissions system cleaner, and it’s P020. Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
And right now, the engine is in regen. Okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
So I know that that happens.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, good.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s happening more than I think it used to happen, but maybe before I wasn’t doing it.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, and if it senses that it needs to be cleaned, it will go into regen more often than needed, and to the point where in some cases those components have to be replaced. So try this cleaner first and see if it will help reduce that regen. Let’s see if we can get things cleaned up. Otherwise, there are some companies out there that – They claim, I’ve never done this in my fleet, but they claim they can clean those DPFs out. I’ve always, in my case, just gone and replaced whatever those components were, and it’s not cheap to do. What year is the truck, by the way?
SPEAKER 1 :
2015.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, so it’s outside of the warranty because you’re now 10-plus years old, so you’re way out of that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, yeah. So do you have a shop that you would recommend for me up near Windsor?
SPEAKER 08 :
As far as the diesel end of it goes, you could call Pat at Alltech Automotive, Pat Schneid at Alltech Automotive, and ask him. I don’t know if they do diesel work or not. I know they can get this product for you. If you can’t find anybody to get that additive, they definitely could get the additive for you, Mark, for sure. And again, work-wise, I wouldn’t worry about doing any work on it until you run a can. In fact, in your case, you could probably run a couple of cans through that and just see what happens and see if it’ll clean it out.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, great. Sweet. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Try that first and then see what happens. But Alltech Automotive up there can get it for you, if nothing else.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. All right, Mark.
SPEAKER 08 :
Appreciate you very much. And, yeah, Mark and Windsor, so they’re just west of you, so they can take care of that for you, Pat. At Patch Night, Alltech Automotive, they can do that for you. All right, we’re up against a break. We’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere. Lines are open, 303-477-5600, Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
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SPEAKER 08 :
And we are back. Drive Radio KLZ 560, thanks for tuning in. We appreciate it greatly. Myself, Larry Unger, and okay, Perry is next. Perry, you’re next. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay, I have a short story to tell you. I have a 94 Ford 350 crew cab, 460 engine, four-wheel drive. My transmission has always been strong. Oh, by the way, it’s got 140,000 miles on it. Okay. It’s been strong, always feel the power, no slippage. I loaned the truck last week to my son-in-law. He drove down to San Daniel from North Glen and had trouble putting it in gear. And so he was pulling on that shifter arm and broke an aluminum casting that’s in the steering column there.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 13 :
And that’s a common problem with these Fords, I guess. Anyway… He got underneath, somebody did, and they got it into gear, and he drove it. He was trying to drive home. And he almost got home. He was 10 miles away here. And it seemed like it slipped into neutral. He had no power. And so I went and towed him the last 10 miles. When we towed it, the engine was running. We thought it was in neutral because it quit driving. And we got it home. We fixed the steering column problem. And now we’ve got a transmission problem. Before, he said it drove with good power, no slippage before it quit on. And after we towed it and put it back together, now the transmission vibrates to accelerate. It slips a lot. It slips worse on every gear shift. And, of course, the power in the tranny is, like, really poor. It seems like towing was the critical time. What does towing do to that transmission under the circumstances that we did?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, this is true with any vehicle. Anytime you’re towing something with a vehicle, and it doesn’t matter the size, could be a 350, could be a small midsize pickup truck, or an even SUV, Perry, for that matter. Anytime we’re towing, we’re adding a lot more stress weight other things to the vehicle itself and unfortunately in your case especially on that older 94 the transmission was the weakest link in in that whole unit i hate to say that but it was they just were not super strong transmissions to begin with we We have come a long way on the transmission front since 94, and they’re much better today than they were then, although even some of the modern ones today have some issues at times. But as far as towing goes, yeah, you put a lot more added stress onto it by doing so than what you would be just driving it unloaded.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay. So towing is probably what messed this up.
SPEAKER 08 :
Could very well be. I mean, it’s hard to say. It could just be mileage. I guess the next question is how often have you serviced that transmission?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, you know, I used to go to Larry, and he was the transmission specialist, and if he was still there, I would take it to him. He did a total fluid replace on me, oh, I’m thinking 20,000 miles ago, because I put a ton of miles on it. But I did not remove the driveshaft, obviously. I thought 10 miles would probably get away with it. So what’s your recommendation?
SPEAKER 08 :
So what is it doing exactly right now? I don’t know that I’ve followed with. Other than the piece being broken in the steering column, what’s the actual truck doing as far as how it’s operating right now?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, when we go – I can drive it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 13 :
But I can tell the transmission’s got a big problem.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 13 :
It seems to slip. It doesn’t seem to have – in other words, when I used to step on it, she – she’d jump out and move with power. Now it seems like it’s slipping, and I get a heck of a vibration early on if I’m accelerating. So it vibrates to accelerate, and it slips more. It used to shift with a hard shift between first and second and have power immediately. Now it flips more when it shifts.
SPEAKER 08 :
Gotcha. I’m afraid. Now, you could have somebody, and you’re in North Glen, you could have, take it over to Accountable Automotive up there in Broomfield, have them drop the pan, look inside, see what our metal shavings looks like, and so on. My gut feeling is we’re at a point where you’re going to have to do a transmission.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, that’s what I’m thinking, too. Now, Larry used to be your transmission specialist. Do you have a shop?
SPEAKER 08 :
No, Jeff retired. Gosh, it’s been a while now. Larry, how long ago? Seven years ago he retired. So it seemed like yesterday, but it’s been seven years since we’ve had him. All the guys now, Perry, Countable included, If you needed a transmission, they would just order a Jasper remanufactured transmission. There’s upgrades to that transmission over what you even have right now, and it would just be a swap. And that’s the way the majority of shops are going to do it. Yeah, there are still a few rebuilders out there that will take yours, go through it, rebuild it. But the majority of shops now are going to take one transmission out and put another one back in. I see. It’s not, I mean, frankly, and this is nothing against the rebuilders, but keep in mind on a rebuild versus a remanufactured. What you’re getting at Jasper is they’re basically going through every single component in that there’s a few hard pieces, shafts, and so on that they may reuse, but otherwise every single other component in the transmission is being gone through. You go to a regular transmission shop and have them just go through the transmission. They’re literally taking it all apart, replacing what they see or feel at the time is needed, putting it back together. It’s not one and the same as what a remanufactured transmission is.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, and also, Jasper, they upgrade the transmission.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. They put all the new stuff in it. That’s right.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay. So the next question is, I do an awful lot of the work on my vehicles myself. Is that a transmission I can buy or do I need to go through the shop to get it?
SPEAKER 08 :
You can’t buy Jasper on a retail level. Now, there are other transmission manufacturers out there that would sell you a transmission. There’s tons of them out there. In fact, you can just do a quick Google search and they are literally all over the country. You’d have to just do some reviews as to which one of those is better than another. I don’t have any recommendations on that line because even as a fleet shop for us, If we have a transmission problem and we need to put a transmission in, we order up a Jasper and we do it that way because as a fleet shop, we can do that. You cannot buy retail with Jasper. They do that because of the installation and they want to make sure their warranty is good and so on. So they only do approved shops in that manner. But there are other companies out there, Perry, that will sell you a remanufactured transmission.
SPEAKER 13 :
Got it, but it sounds like Jasper’s the catch-me-all.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, it is for us as installers just because we deal with them. They’ve got a great warranty. They take care of the warranty. They’ll pay us labor if there’s a problem with that transmission. In other words, we can get our technicians covered if we have to do another swap, for example. And it does happen. I mean, nobody’s perfect. Occasionally, they’ll get an engine or a transmission that has an issue, and they go ahead and send you another unit, but you have to swap that in and out. They’ll pay you the labor to do so. Most companies won’t, by the way. So, yeah, I think the majority of shops out there, and even fleet shops like me, will use Jasper because of that. Okay.
SPEAKER 13 :
God, I understand exactly what you’re saying.
SPEAKER 08 :
Really also, Perry, meaning that they believe enough in their product to go ahead and put a warranty behind it that even pays labor, where a lot of these guys, there’s warranty, but you’re never going to get any labor out of it for swapping it back out. They may send you another transmission, and in some cases, you’re even going to be out the freight going back and forth.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah. OK. OK, well, I understand exactly what you’re saying. So I just need to check with the shop and get me a jester.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and you’re driving a truck that I was going to mention this. You’re driving a truck that’s vintage enough now that is worth fixing and keeping. I mean, if it was something else, I’d probably say, you know, you might even just look at doing a whole different truck when it’s all said and done. But you have a truck that’s going up in value, not down, meaning it’s worth fixing.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, well, I bought it in the year 2000, and I’ve always kept it in my shop, and so it doesn’t sit outside much.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, I’m serious, Perry. Those trucks, we call that a square body Ford. Those trucks are going up in value, and if you keep it really pristine, you’re not going to lose any money on the truck, and even putting a transmission in it will just increase its value. You’re not bothering anything by doing that.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay, well, it’s in great shape.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and if the engine and everything in it, yeah, it’s a very desirable truck for a lot of the vintage guys that are out there. Again, that truck’s not going down in value at all.
SPEAKER 12 :
No, and to go along with that, I’ve got a 95 F-250, same thing. Yeah. Yeah, I can get more money on it right now than I almost when I bought it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, Perry, in your case, you probably could sell it for more money than you paid even back then, today. I wouldn’t be surprised. So definitely a truck worth fixing and doing it correctly. Yep. Okay, I thank you for your help. You’re very welcome, Perry. Great phone call, by the way. Great question on how all that works. And yeah, for all of you that were getting into that time of the year, in fact, here in the next few weeks, I should probably do a show on towing. We do this every year just on what you need to do to tow. How do you tow properly? How do you hook the trailer up properly? How should safety chains be hooked up? What’s the proper height that the trailer should be at and proper tongue weight and, and, and. And we do that typically on an annual basis. In fact, you know what I really should do? Hang on. Now that I’m thinking about this, I just gave myself an idea because that’s such a deep topic. I will do an extra mile topic on that. That one, in fact, I could probably even do that this coming week. That’s enough of a topic that I could spend a full hour on that one very easily on all the different things that are there. I can even incorporate that into one of the upcoming shows and give opportunity for questions and so on. But just as a side note, yes, towing. With any vehicle, and especially, and nothing against the 94s, but they were used to tow and do all that back in the day, but we have come a long way in everything when it comes to towing on the tow vehicle from 94. I mean, that’s, what, 32 years ago. Mm-hmm. And things have improved greatly in 32 years when it comes to how we do things. And what I mean by that, folks, is everything from how we keep the transmission cool to the engine to the strength of the transmission itself to brakes to all sorts of things. Suspension unit. Thank you. Suspension, frame, everything. There’s so much more today on a modern truck than what we had then. And, of course, the capacity, how much they can tow, the GBWR, all of that has increased as well. Meaning that, yes, the modern truck, I would go as far as to say, and I know people may argue with me on this, but as far as what you can do with it and the towing capacity and so on, it’s twice what it was in 94. Twice. And I don’t think I’m exaggerating even on the GVWR. That truck there probably had around a… you know, I don’t know, 9,000 to 10,000-pound GVWR, where a modern truck you’re approaching in some cases, you can even get over 20,000 pounds depending upon the truck and how it’s equipped and so on. So I’m not exaggerating when I say double. It’s half at least, if not double, depending upon how that truck was equipped, you know, back in 94. So, all right, we’ve got another segment coming your way for this first hour. Lines are open, 303-477-5600. This is Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
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SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, we are back. Drive Radio, KLZ 560. Thanks for tuning in. Lines are open 303-477-5600. Mark, you’re next.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, this is a callback on… Sure, no, go ahead, Mark. You’re fine. Yeah, so I went on the BGU website and looked for the emissions system cleaner so I could see where to buy it. But what they have here is PNPD20, which… has to be installed by a tech not put into the tank. Is that what you were thinking?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, they’ve got actually, and as I look through more of that, they’ve got about three or four different products. Some you can just put in the tank and let it do its thing. That’s the BG Fuel System Performance Restoration. There’s the two-step process on the emissions cleaner and the systems rinse. And, yeah, those are going to have to be done. I’m sorry, I was reading after you hung up. Those are going to have to be done by a shop, which I think if you call Alltech, I’m sure they could do that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, so would you suggest the in-tank or go to the all-tech?
SPEAKER 08 :
I think in your case, I would go to all-tech and have them try to do that system clean because you’re in regen, and I don’t want to say constantly, but it sounds like quite often right now.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, probably about every 400 miles.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, that’s too much. Yeah, I would have them do that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. All right.
SPEAKER 08 :
Appreciate it. No, you’re on the right track, Mark. I’m glad you called back in. Appreciate that. I was reading that after he hung up, and then we got to talking to Perry. So good follow-up, Mark. No, I appreciate that very much. Thanks for the phone call. 303-477-5600 is our number. 303-477-5600. Don’t forget to the text line, which I have text messages coming in. 307. 200-8222, 307-200-8222. Somebody sent in that the Bandit Run 2027 is scheduled to return to its original route driving from Texarkana to Atlanta. That’s something I don’t know much about. So the Bandit Run for 2027, and if you want to know about that, you just go to thebanditrun.com. I don’t know much about that, so that’s not something I’ve ever followed before. So somebody says a moment ago, I remember seeing the big Airstream trailers towed by Vista Cruisers. Yeah, I mean, back in the day, we didn’t have the heavy trucks and so on. In fact, most campers and all that were towed by station wagons. Yeah. back in the day. That was very, very common. And until the bigger trucks came along with more capacity in the cab to actually be able to have people in it so you could actually go places, yeah, the majority of campers were… Of course, they were a lot smaller than some of the campers we’ve got today. I mean, good grief. Some of these… campers and toy haulers and things you see today i mean i see some of them driving down i-70 as i’m you know traveling around because i’m not far from there and oh my word it’s like traveling house yeah they are i mean these things are ginormous and they are way bigger than what was back in the you know 60s and 70s and even even early 80s when it came to you know station wagons doing really the majority of the towing work. Now, remember, the old wagons of the day, they were all, you know, they had a full frame underneath them. Depending upon how you bought that vehicle, if it was a Chevy or a Buick or a Cadillac, they had large engines. A lot of the Buicks and Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs had, you know, 455 cubic inch engines. And, you know, they were actually, you know, for the day, they were actually quite powerful and did a pretty good job of towing. And, of course, you put trailer brakes on them and everything you needed. But, you know, keep in mind, that vehicle, Those wagons probably weighed, I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say this, they weren’t four-wheel drive, but they were still heavy. They probably weighed what an F-150 or a Silverado or a Ram or whatever weighed today. I mean, they were probably 4,500 pounds or so back in the day, and they were fairly heavy, and the camper trailers weren’t near as big as they are today. So, yeah, it was not uncommon back in the day to see a station wagon hauling an RV around, hauling a camper around.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, they would be rated, if I remember correctly, they would be rated almost a three-quarter ton vehicle.
SPEAKER 08 :
Pretty much. And then you could put, you know, everybody put on the front fenders, the big old mirrors that would hang out in the side so you could see around the camper. And you guys are, you know, you’re picturing in your mind what they used to look like back in the day. That was very, very common. Somebody just asked me, too, and yes, I will do this. When you do your towing episode, could you also please speak briefly about trailer maintenance, inspection before a trip, tires, bearings, and so on? Yes. Yes, I will do that. In fact, as I make notes right now for the extra mile this week, I will add that to that to make sure that we’re also getting trailer maintenance and so on included in that. And I would be happy to do that. It’s hard for me to type and talk at the same time, but I just did. So there we go. Yes, I will actually include that in there as well and appreciate it. And for the extra mile, just as a side note. It’s turned out to be a really great hour, and every week I get somebody and sometimes multiple people asking, hey, would you do an episode on such and such? For example, today it’s on direct injection engines. Somebody asked, could I cover direct injection engines? What do they mean? How do they work? Why is it different for maintenance and so on? So today’s episode from 3 to 4 p.m., I really get into the details, the nitty-gritty of, You know, how do they work? Why do we have them? Why is there more maintenance needed? Why do they carbon up faster? Things like that. So I cover all of that today from three to four. So, yes, thank you, by the way, for adding that into what I’ve already thought of doing this next week with towing because we’re into that season as well. And then the other thing that I need to do with the extra mile, and I’ll work with my producer, Ann, who does the website and such, is in a lot of cases I can add notes and different things and even some pamphlets and so on with some of the topics that I cover, and I will get with her and try to figure out how we can put a little section together on the website for the extra mile and kind of start deciphering, putting some of that stuff out so as you go through a particular episode there might even be some notes and handouts and things to go along with that. That would be perfect. So I’ll do my best to make that happen. And again, that’s been sort of a morphing of things. I guess you could say the extra mile, that’s a program. And I should also say this, that those of you that would like to be involved with the extra mile, by all means. You know, let me know what you would like to do there. And if you’re a particular company and you’d like to promote something and you’d like to be involved in that, you don’t even have to be a regular sponsor on a weekly basis. There’s ways for me to work that around and figure out how we could still highlight you and a product and do that. I would like to have it, of course, be be a product for the automotive industry. So if you’ve got something that fits into that or a product that applies to what we do here, by all means, let me know. Now, we do have a button, a menu item on the website for the extra mile, and we do have all of our 2025 shows and a 2026, so a 2025 playlist and a 2026 playlist. So Producer Anne’s done a great job of… breaking those out where you don’t even have to go through the rest of Drive Radio to actually find the extra mile. What I need to do now is just start figuring out a way to write and put some different notes along with that onto the website itself, and either I or her will start working on that and kind of figure out what our best ways to do that is because I use AI to help me organize myself along those lines, and it really does ask me, would you like a printed sheet? of today’s notes. So for me to make that isn’t really that hard to do. I can actually get that done very quickly with AI and and I will start I’ll do my best start doing that again. That’s an hour that we’ve sort of morphed into things and I now need to start figuring out how we can monetize that and do a few things with that. So again, if you’re somebody that would like to be involved in the extra mile and be a part of that and even do some ads or some different things with that, by all means, reach out, let me know. We’ll put that together for you and make that very easy. And again, you can do that by going to the text line 307-200-8222, 307-200-8222. Or you can go right to the website, drive-radio.com. Drive-radio.com. And I got another text message in. That’s actually Dave from Roof Savers of Colorado. Didn’t they also, maybe more back in the 50s and 60s, have an additional tire for extra tongue weight and support underneath the hitch? Yes, they did, actually. Yeah, they had, in some cases, an extra tongue, an extra… How should I say this? There was a tire up on the tongue… To actually help with some extra weight. Now, once the advent of the equalizer hitches, we call it, or the… I don’t know what else you call those things, Larry. Basically, their torsion bar system that goes on the trailer… ball mechanism if you would the ball was different and you put torsion bars in there and you’d crank those up with the chains and you could level things out and once that came along the need for anything else along those lines really went away because you could you could use the equalizer hitches in in that regard and and that would take a lot of that strain and stress and essentially what those torsion bar systems do is make The frame of the tow vehicle won, if you would, with the frame of the trailer. It’s probably the best way for me to say that. And they work really well. A lot of the heavier trailers, even on standard pickup trucks, they’ll have that because you need that. And even if you don’t think you do, let me tell you what, they make a world of difference in how that trailer tows. Once you have that, you can put a sway control for a lot of the wind like we’ve just had of late. Oh, man, the sway controls help immensely. And that’s kind of one apparatus, if you would. And if you want to know more about that, you can actually send me a note and I can send you some ideas on how it works. that you’re buying a trailer from, for example, or that have sold a trailer and even a used one will have some of those things built into the trailer itself. And typically, the owner of the trailer will keep all of those mechanisms together with the trailer because it kind of goes hand in hand. Now, not always. A lot of times people will take those things out, sell those things off separate, depending upon who they’re selling the trailer to, trading it in, whatever. But in a lot of cases, you can buy that as one apparatus, if you would, when you buy the trailer itself. All right, hour one. is about over. We’ve got two more hours coming your way. Lines are open, 303-477-5600. And again, don’t forget the text line, 307-282-22. We’ll be back here in just one moment, though. Second hour of Drive Radio coming up next. Again, Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 02 :
Still haven’t had enough? Go to drive-radio.com, email your questions and comments, download previous programs, and find lots of useful information, including your nearest Colorado Select Auto Care Center. That’s drive-radio.com. Thanks for listening to Drive Radio, sponsored by the member shops of Colorado Select Auto Care Centers. On KLZ 560.
