Ep 15 Jared McCauslin CEO of Vandoit

Alright, guys. Welcome back to the Vanasore podcast. We usually go live here. On Thursdays at 2 PM Eastern, and, Hero and Strange Palooza, and Vanasore podcast is all about exploring class B RVs Overlanding And Van Life, and joining me, this is, I think, probably the last official show for 2023. Joining me is Jared McCosland. Did I get that right? You nailed it, man. You got it. There you go. CEO. I think newly minted CEO of Van Duet, but not new to Van Duet. How are you doing, Jared?

Doing great today. How you doing, Hank? Awesome. Awesome. Thanks for being here. By the way, look at that. I am wearing Van Duick colors. I don't know if you noticed. That. No. I did it, man. I love the rep. Yeah. If I yeah. If I get more. Oh, thank you. I might get in trouble, but, whatever. I I'm a fan of Bandwidth. I'm even wearing look, like a yellow watch to to to coordinate. He's just going for it. He's gotta go for it. Absolutely. Hank so much for being here.

I've I've known Van Duet for a while. I Hank, actually, you guys deserve some of the credit for inspiring me to get into Van Life. I met some of your folks. I think it was 2018 at Sima Show, I met some reps for Van Duet and, just really started thinking about using a Van as as my office and getting around the country and all that kind of stuff. I haven't actually gotten into a van do it yet, but I still follow you guys, and I'm really a big fan of what you do. So, this is really cool.

This is, to me, gonna be a fun show. And I think we should start off here by telling the folks who you are and how you came to be working with Van Duet. K. So, Jared Macoslin, CEO of Van Duet, gosh, what was that been? Became CEO about 2 years ago, but previous, I guess, to that title, I was cofounder with my father-in-law, Brent Klein, Van Duet, which is a spin off of a 3 generational business.

And, basically to sum up probably how we've gotten to the point of where we're at is maybe the best way to put it. I, went to college. Left college went to the corporate world for about 2 years. And through a long history, and we can dive into that, later if you want, Hank, but the the biggest thing is is came back to Klein van, especially rent which was a daily rental operation, and come back to basically a staff of one person.

And whenever I joined, Brent and I, my father-in-law, we talked about, you know, there's gonna be something bigger that we do. There's gonna be something that we can really Hank our teeth into, but at the time, we didn't know. Moved back to the Kansas City area, and that would have been in 20 That would have been in 2016, moved back to the Kansas City area, and the first kind of endeavor we jumped into was a little bit of real estate that we've done forever.

And then with utilizing the daily van rental side, it always became that thing in the fall and going into the next Strange, what do we do with vehicles that we've been leasing or renting out throughout the summer, and what can we do with them? And kind of basically how's the funny story goes. I wanted to build a camper van for my father-in-law. To kinda get him out of my hair. He'd also had full career and basically became a thing where I wanted him to be able to travel. He's an avid cyclist.

I wanted my mother-in-law to be able to get out and go. And so through kind of the fall, we started talking about ideas for a van build and basically fast forward about 6 months later We start building a a handful of vans, with the idea and concept that this could actually turn into a business. And lo and behold, basically 6 years later is what you see Van Duod as today. You know, the early days of it is kinda like I think what most startups are.

You are a startup in the context of, you know, you're trying to work through all different types of you know, you know, napkin, pencil, you know, all those type things, and trying to kinda just kitchen table your ideas, and that's what Brent and I did for quite a while. And over time, we started acquiring basically more team members brought the business down to Kansas City, which is where we are now in in Blue Springs, Missouri, and kinda just every day starting 6 years ago.

Basically, it's what do we need to do for our customer base to build a product that lasts and build a product that people are going to enjoy and always be innovative, always be on the side of cutting edge, Always try to do the things that we know we need to do for our customers.

And that's where you see If you followed us, like you said, 2018, if you followed us, you're you just continually see changes in evolution in what we do, but we stay with same fundamental basis with modularity, versatility, and honestly value. We are just so value driven. We want our Van Duette owners to have these things forever, be able to modify and make sense where it need be. But basically really get the value, you know, basically pinch those pennies as far as they can go.

And that's that's kind of the that's that's the nutshell.

Yeah. I think, I think modularity is a big part of your story. You know, and for my memory, when you guys started out, Like like you said, right? Were they, like, off lease vans that were coming in and then you guys are building them, into van for folks and maybe saving people money. That way, make it more affordable to do this. And and now you're these are, like, new vans that that you're putting out there. Right?

Yeah. I mean, when we first started, everything was off the basis of what we considered off lease. So their their units. They're not necessarily personally owned units. They're they're fleet owned vehicles that typically add anywhere from 5000 to 25,000 miles on them. And it gave us the ability of taking that brand new unit shave the new cost off cutting 10, 15.

Nowadays, probably $20,000 off the cost of the chassis, and they'll be able to turn around and do an upfit to where you could still get when we first started, you got a fully built van from us, and you were in the realm of playing ball with you know, upper $50,000 with an upfit. Mhmm. And that was something that was drastically. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And and so, you know, for years, our bread and butter has been starting with a used chassis to get that price down from the get go.

But with, you know, that thing called COVID, you know, in 2020, you know, supply chain went away a lot of the struggles came about, and trying to get our hands on used good chassis to still do that for customers became extremely difficult Mhmm. And our hand was just forced to go basically new. And so since then, since about the summer of 2020, I do not believe we've built probably more than a dozen vans on used chassis.

Now we do we do offer a lot of programs where we still have used inventory Oh, that's cool. From prior owners, current owners, things like that. Mhmm. But since then, we've only built on brand new chassis, but our our hopes and dreams is to be able to bring back that budget friendly unit by starting with a used chassis also the idea is potentially building a unit that gets into a price point where you can build as you can afford. You know, kinda kind of a few models we've been working on.

Yeah. So as we're as we're going through this conversation here, if you guys have questions, shout out to everyone who's coming in, I see people starting to come in now. Let me know what your questions are. Also hit those thumbs ups. We'll definitely get to that. So, you know, I think a lot a lot of different things have happened. And Van Life has just, like, grown exponentially, I Hank, from my point of view, I'm I'm gonna say it's always been around.

When I when I speak to folks, it's been around since, like, what are we what are we looking at here? Sixties, seventies, you know, if you really Jack carpet? Yeah. If you talk to the old school guys. Even Lola and I, when our kids were younger. We had a conversion van, and we we drove around the country with that. But I think in the last 5 years, it's not just COVID. I think even before COVID, it was growing. And then COVID was just like, rocket fuel to it.

Prices and everything on vans have, really, really grown. And I think we've got 3 major, van brands that we get here in America, right, the Mercedes sprinter, the Ram Pro Master, and then the Ford Strange. One of the unique things about you guys is I think you deal only with the Ford Transit. Right? Yeah. So we are we are fully exclusive have always been fully exclusive with the Ford Strange.

We going back into the the generational business, with my father-in-law, Brent, we've just always had an amazing relationship with them. From the fleet days, we've had we had Sprinters, well, back then, it would Hank been Ram Ram Sprinters and Freight liners, you know, as the name kind of passed through, but we also have Ram Pro Masters Nissan in these. I mean, we've we've ran them all, the Chevy vans. We've ran them all. And when the new Ford Transit came to America in 2015.

We've we basically shifted our entire fleet over to Ford. We would still carry a few sprinters basically, to have that emblem on the parking lot, but because of reliability, because of all the reasons, we're exclusive with them with camper van. We would almost never send them out. I mean, we just we've become just so loyal to Ford, and they've just been so great to us. Yeah. I'm a big fan of Ford vans.

And I think, that's a part of the issue of what's happening now because there's such good vans You can go to a lot of places and get them, get them serviced and all that kind of stuff that I think Ford under estimated in America, the demand here. They've been building these vans, I think, sing something like the fifties or sixties as well, maybe, late fifties, early sixties. Something like that all over the world, including, in Europe, they were really big.

But here in America, I think they underestimated how much people would want them, especially all wheel drive. It's fantastic. You know, that leads me into asking you guys about the Strange Trail because That to me is really cool. You guys, Van Duet is the first place. I actually saw a transit trail with my own eyes.

Mhmm. And I did a video on this, which at, I think it was Overland East in Virginia, and you guys had the Strange trail there not built, which I thought was cool because I can actually look at the shell and see what, you know, how it comes before you do anything with it. But when Ford announced that and it's a big deal because Ford is getting into is, I think, the first of those companies to build vans to actually make a van specifically for the RV world.

You know, when it first came out, you guys like, you guys had the prototype, right, Van Duet was in all the marketing stuff that Ford did. If I could just get you to talk about that, like, How did that happen? And, you know, what did you guys think about that when that happened? So to go So to go timeline, I guess, is probably easiest. Mhmm. So this time last year, in kind of the second half of November December 2022.

That is when Ford spent their time gathering and getting all the marketing content for the Ford Transit Trail to be able to release there about, I think it was, like, the 1st part of January of 2023. Go back in time, go back to I think it was May of 2022. So last not this prior May, but the one prior to it, with our relationship with Ford, we've always done a lot of different things with Ford Marketing We share boot space at big events.

We put a lot of our camper vans in their bigger booths, like, Sima is a perfect example. And working with them, we just have such a great relationship. They, when they wanted to release the Ford Transit Trail. They wanted a brand that they could work with, in that process, I guess, I should say.

To be able to show not what you saw at Overland East, which in all essence, a transit trail when it comes from factory, we can talk about the features, but the biggest thing is is that it is a basically, it's a blank canvas for a DIY builder, a builder like us, people in the RV world to be able to do all the things that we wanna be able to do with it.

And what they wanted to do is they wanted a builder that they work closely with, and we were their call, and so working with the marketing team for Ford Ford Engineering starting in May of 2022. We started doing the blueprint and the plans for the first transit trail that you see in all the marketing. What's really cool about that is is we really got to work closely with the engineering team.

We got, close to work with the team that, did all of the prototyping for the lift for basically what the trail is. Mhmm. And it was cool for us because we also got to help get feedback, help, you know, really, I mean, basically just be a part of it. Mhmm. And in that, they actually ended up doing their photoshoots.

So all of the the driving you see, the photoshoots that's actually done right here, outside of Kansas City, we were on set, helping assist them in any, tight turn because as you as you mentioned, and I guess I can confirm that at the time. And when you saw it, that was the 1st and only transit trail that had been touched. And so It's a big deal. I'm sure some other companies out there It's a big deal.

That build on these vans were like, Oh, if I could get those guys. Yeah. When I saw it, I was happy because I was like, this is cool, man. Van Duet, it's you guys I know people know about you, because when I drive, when I'm traveling, especially, like, on the West Coast, I see Van Duette a lot. Right? So, yeah, I'm sure that that was did you guys get to did you get to go to that secret bunker under the mountain? That I've heard about?

No. No. We didn't we didn't get to do that one, but we actually still have that first Strange actually in our facility. Oh, cool. And and as, you know, with the trail, it was a cargo. So, really, van do it. So we have 2 things to kinda like, I guess I should say 3. You have the aspect that we start with off lease so we could drive our price way down whenever we could build our units for starting out. Secondly, we use passenger vans. So we only ever complimented what Ford did.

Ford Headliners see options. We simply just complemented everything that they had already spent time doing, all the r and d, all the testing, all the crash testing, we only complimented those things. We never removed them. And so we've always used passenger vans. We've never built on a cargo until we're presented the Strange trail, which is a cargo chassis.

So meaning we have to start with making the shell ourselves, making the foundation of the build ourselves, cutting windows in if we want windows, and We took that project on and if you go to our website, there's a huge write up about, basically, how we work together but it we as a team took on the project to build our first cargo concept we'd ever done to the level of the, functionality, modularity that you see in every van Duve built.

And so it really was a taxing on our team, but it was also very exciting for seeing what the next chapter could really look like. Having the do model, having the live model, stating there are units that still have massive functionality and and huge places in this world. We knew that we wanted to take on the challenge to work with Ford on the Strange Trail for the cargo aspect because we knew that was a missing piece of our portfolio.

Mhmm. And bringing that kind of build what most would say is your standard van life build out, you know, if you've mentioned, you know, you say, hey, I have a Strange. Well, that could sprinter means type of vehicle, in my opinion, doesn't mean brand of chassis. Right.

And so we really wanted to, in a lot of essence, spread our wings, we wanted to spread our portfolio out and we wanted to really with Ford, by our side, us by Ford's side, we really wanted to put focus towards what could this next chapter look like. So, I mean, we gave we gave Ford our all. And, you know, honestly, you see the product on the other side with the new, move package that we've released and have now shipped out successfully to some owners.

Yeah. Yeah. That's I I think, you know, we've got, like, about a minute and a half here before we take a break, but I think, yeah, that was great, man. That was a big win for you guys. Very of of you guys for that one. Quickly, in the minute that we have, what is gonna be the major details that people wanna know about the transit, and we might take some of this over to the next segment. So you said it's a cargo van, but what size is things like that? The transit. So it's bit yeah.

So the transit rail is built on the t 350 chassis. So that's base that's your standard transit that you're gonna see. They build it on the mid roof and high roof with an extended. At this time, they do not build it on a dually, so you cannot do a dually rear axle. All are the EcoBoost motor, also with all wheel drive, but the, I mean, the main features are the ones that you can see. So it's got the increased ride height. So you you get a little bit more there.

It also comes with an all terrain tire from factory. So in a lot of cases where most people are adding those tires afterwards, you're actually gonna get it from them, which is also gonna make sure that, you know, everything tried and true with the chassis. And so, but you are you're running on and Ford did a great job of making sure that all of the chassis that your standard builders,

including ourselves now. I'm sorry, Jay. We're gonna take a quick break as you guys might have already heard Lola and myself our brand ambassadors for Sunshine State RV. And as Vanasource, I wanna take this moment to encourage anyone who is in the market for Class B van to start their journey with SSRV. Sunshine State RVs specializes in selling clot B vans and B plus RVs. That is the reason why they are the number one dealer in all of the state of Florida. Number 3 in the whole United States.

SSRV will fly you right to their location in Gainesville, Florida. They'll give you a very detailed and thorough walk through of your van and they'll give you a 2 night stay at a local campground so you can get used to your van. If you don't like that, you can actually have hands free delivery anywhere in the United States of your RV. We bought our coachman Beyond from Sunshine State RV 2 years ago. And over the past 2 years, we've seen how they treat customers when it comes to warranty side.

Their service team is great. Whether you bought it from them or not, every person that comes in there gets the same service and care when it comes to warranty repairs. The same service, attention, and care, and their team does a great job getting you back on the road safely. So if you guys are in the market for a B or B plus van, consider Sunshine State RV. We've got a link in the description that you guys can use to see their current inventory and have someone get in touch with you. Alright.

We're back here. Sorry about that, Jared.

We were talking about details, and I think people, would be very interested in this. And for the Strange trail, you can buy one directly from Ford. Right? You don't have to necessarily get it from Van Duet or, you know, anywhere else. But you you will you should be able to. I I think there's a couple of, like, regular folks out there that have bought them so far. Yep. They they are, they're not exclusive to OEM builders.

Now with Van Duet in the position at which we are in, being QVM certified, we're an OVM upfit or 4 Ford. And on and just kinda what I've mentioned a couple times now, our relationship with them we do get a chance at, chassis, before others do. And I guess the Another way to say that is is we get the volume and others don't, mainly because of just our loyalty to them over the years.

And so a lot of times, if you do have a chassis on order with a a dealer, another upfit or things like that, a lot of times, because of our you because of our relationships, and everything that we do, a lot of times we are going to have something before others have it, and if we don't have it before others do, there's a more of a promise and a guarantee that we will have it in time.

You know, unlike how you've kinda seen the car business over the last couple of years, just across all brands, if they tell you it's gonna be 6 months, be careful making promises, and be careful making trips around that timeline. Yeah. And look out for that up, the that upcharge. I don't know if that's I don't know if there's a lot of that with vans. But they're they're definitely is that in the, in the car world.

So when, you know, let's say someone's out there looking at getting a transit Strange, and they're thinking, Hey, I could build this up myself. I think if you're very skilled, you absolutely could do it yourself, and that's the whole point of Ford. Getting into the space. However, if you don't have the time, you don't have the skills. I think a good way to go about this is to go to an up fitter sure.

Eventually, we're gonna see manufacturers, your bigger RV manufacturers out there putting out versions of a transit trail as well. But I think that a good place to go to for that is Van Duet because you guys are modular. You know, you can you can get this van. Take things out if you need to to get the space, put things back in, change it around. Right?

Yeah. I mean, So we we require all of our customers to come in house and do at least a full a single full day walk through of their vehicle. We do that because, well, for 1, a lot of sight unseen, but then 2, with the way we build with our modularity, we we want to spend the time with you to make sure that when you leave our facility, everything is the way you want it.

With with this with the style and everything that we do with moving kitchens around moving seating around beds, Most of your builders, most of your your standard class b's or any motor home for that fact, they are screwed together wood, and you're not gonna move stuff. They're they are what they are, and you get trained on the power system, and then you're good to go. Probably some black Hank, some sewers, some some of that, but we make everything to where it's just not set in stone.

So you might leave with the concept of say, hey. You might have 2 kids at home still that you need to take to school or practice or whatever the case might be. Mhmm. But let's say you have your van and they graduate, they move on, and you're not using it for necessarily hauling people anymore. That's great because you can remove the seats and our vans do go up to 8 passenger seating, remove the seats, put your galley kitchen in, and now you just have a full time RV at your hands.

And so unlike most brands, unlike most products, almost all products you see in the marketplace, It's we are a one size shoe who fits all. It's probably one way to put. Instead of having a whole closet of shoes, we are that one shoe for everything. And so it gives you that ability of changing the vehicle for the time of year you're in, time of life that you're in. Whatever the case might be, we can make it versatile.

We have people who do landscaping with their vans, and then they go camp 4 people. I mean, they'll take they'll literally take wheelbarrows and the tarp and just lay just like all of the what am I trying to say?

Like, Bark for their landscaping in the back of a van, and then within couple hours, they pull the tarp out, throw a bed back in, and go camping, you know, and so that versatility, you know, is is what really sets us in a different, I shouldn't say category, but we're kinda just all around different where the where the Swiss army knife is is who we are.

I'm rolling in pictures, by the way, while you're talking because your your team sent me some, pictures on Google Drive that I'm rolling in here for people, so just so they can get an idea, if you haven't seen, Van Duette Van before. This particular one trail. I've got some other stuff. That is, yeah, that is, yeah, what you have on the screen there. That is the very first concept build that we did for our all new move build. And I wanna disclaimer that build.

That was from a napkin to finished product in about 3 weeks. Oh, wow. That was let's just say that was trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, literally every day. A lot of late nights. It was a lot of late nights. Yeah. The trail's really good looking, by the way. Just a really good looking van. I like the, those, like, markers right there. It's kind of a hybrid of their of a, this grill, this, black grill that you see in Europe. But they've got the the marker lights on.

It's just really cool, man. Yeah. They go, a lot of a lot of our customers, even myself, I kinda call it the Raptor style. Pack, the raptor truck, and it's they went a little more that way to get the the bigger, the larger flares. Yeah. There's the black. The black rim, the all terrain tire. Yeah. And so you get a little bit wider stance and, you know, for for base most of us slash almost all of us. Mhmm. The look you know, so much of the of what you're looking for is is honestly that look.

And the trail the Strange absolutely adds that extra level, above what, you know, the standard, you know, the standard Strange has. Yeah. What do you see? Like, so far as people coming in and, making orders, do see them going for the, the 148 or the 148 extended wheelbase, which is the longer one. Well, okay. Go go off. Go off percentage. You typically see the 148 non extended.

That's that's typically what you see, because I think a lot of it is when you get that extra length, you start to worry about people start to worry about can I still park it in my standard parking bought at the grocery store? Whenever you're not extended, you're really still the size of just a normal vehicle. You know, but what's what's really cool I should say is is whenever you take that chassis you go extended. Yeah. You're bigger than a suburban, but you're not that much bigger.

My wife, she we almost always travel in the extended length dually, which is a little bit wider as longer, but she has no problems with it. And I think that's the biggest thing we notice with people is they get scared about the additional size. Mhmm. But the payoff of the additional size people will learn how to cope with the with its footprint. And I think that's what I see so often with people, is just the constant you know, oh my gosh, I'm I'm worried about, can I park it here?

Can I park it there?

You know, getting it out of the school lines, whatever the case might be, and then once they do it a few times, they're like, Oh, well, this is no big deal. It's like going from a car to a suburban, yeah, it's a difference, but it's a manageable difference. And the the thing that we see with what our vans do versus your typical RV pull behind things like that is we replace them alone, a car payment.

So instead of having a truck and a car in your driveway, and then you have an RV, We replace your car or your truck, and we actually see it very often that, peep couples will come in, families will come in, and a lot of times it might be the husband who's getting rid of his truck or his car, because maybe the wife is not so, you know, confident, I guess, I should say, in the size of driving it for their day to days.

And nine times out of 10, we see that script flipped we see with the 8 passenger seating. The ability of standing inside a vehicle and put a kid in a car seat that's why my wife won't travel in anything, but our vans. Safe your back. You can hop it. Yeah. You can stand up. And so mean, it really is a permanent standing. It's a better version of a minivan.

And so it's Mhmm. We just see people constantly realizing how affordable these are when they see the versatility and modularity actually benefiting them. Yeah. And I think so I think the same thing happened with Lola and myself. We traded in. We had a Ram Rebel. Both of us drove it, to get this van. Lola, when I give her a chance to drive this van, she loves it. It's actually easier to drive than that Ram Rebel.

It's probably maybe a little bit bigger than that, but, you know, it's very easy to drive. I think the issue comes in. Maybe if you're looking and ours is Dually, but if you're looking at going off road, the non dually is probably a better fit for you if you're gonna go off road, easier, you know, better for that to be lifted. And non dually just for, like, articulation and stuff. I don't know how much of that you're gonna get in a van, but Yeah. I mean, it's It's 601 Hank a dozen of another.

People do perfectly fine in a non dually. Mhmm. I personally these things are tall. So the biggest thing, like, with my sales team, and and when we talk to our clients is is we're not going to we're not gonna, you know, soften the blow for you. We're not gonna sugarcoat These things are tall. They're big. They can catch wind and side wind, especially when you go extended having that additional dually back there having that extra footprint on the ground. Yeah. It it dramatically helps.

And so, everything is a give and take. I Well, transit does not produce a passenger van that's not an extended dually. Okay. So to to be clear, they make a mid roof, low roof, high roof standard links. So the 148. Mhmm. And then their extended only comes in high roof and dually 4 passenger units. And I think, truthfully, I think a lot of that's not payload. That's not really what changes it. It's I think it's stability.

I think it's just knowing if you have a blowout, you got another tire there to save you. And I think on with your traditional manufacturers that are out there, building class b vans, especially for weight, they're building mostly on dually. It's probably a good idea. In my in my opinion, it's definitely easier to drive and all that kind of stuff. Yes. If you're going fast enough and you have enough wind, gonna move you around.

I think the tech inside of a Ford helps a lot, but you probably need to slow down and, and take it easy. Yeah. But, yes, Dually helps. Like, I've driven single wheel lifted and everything, on the highways and it's a little loosey goosey, a little squirrely. Mhmm. A little bit more squirly at times. I do you think that Ford's actually gonna do a version of transit trail and put dualies on it? I don't know. Okay. I I hope they do, because my favorite chat he is the extended dually Mhmm.

For all honestly, all the reasons we've talked about stability being the biggest one. I I hope they do I mean, we'll see. It it does make sense for them. I think the biggest thing just with supply chain, chassis, everything else. It's Mhmm. Which ones do we really need to make sure build first, and then we'll probably venture into kind of spanning it out. You know? So, I I I foresee it happening, when and what volume? Who who knows?

Yeah. I think Ford's had a some serious issues actually, like, building enough fans, in in 2023 for sure. Obviously, everyone had that in, in the in during COVID, but in 2023, some months I see when I look at the reports out there, like, Ford's building more. And then I talk to people and they're like, well, we're not getting more. And then I see the reports like, yeah, there's lots getting built. I don't know exactly what the issue is, but there's very high demand.

And I think there's just still some supply issues out there with all the different things going on in the world. Yep. So Supply issues. I mean, definitely, it's it definitely, you know, my background and just kind of being around long enough. What I what what we see is is that, you know, something like COVID hits, there's gonna be ripple effects, you know, you throw something throw something out there in the, in in the ocean or a pond, and and you're gonna get ripples.

It's how big a ripple do you make on what what you threw in the water. Mhmm. And COVID through was was massive and it threw serious ripples. And you know, I, talking with my father-in-law Brent, who's been an amazing mentor, for me. You know, we talk about it constantly, but back in 2021, we kind of figured we're gonna have 3 to 4 years of ripple effects from all of this. Mhmm. And the auto industry could have it longer.

Because if you if you look at just the sheer sheer volume that the auto industry is used to producing every year, and the world has been dependent upon that volume. You're not gonna uncover, you're not gonna get back on top in a year. You're not gonna get you're not gonna you know, re correct that in 2 years. And there's just been so many chain reaction components happen. Microprocessors chips, I guess, is what people call them. You know, and it to put it, but it's a lot more than that.

Yeah. Yep. It's that's so it's we still feel it. But because of our structure, because of our foundation, because of our backing is in a company, who we are you know, we are we are very fundamentally Strange, and we've never, we've never had to slow down. We definitely grew year over year. We had to halt growth, at times just because we didn't want to run ourselves into a position.

But we've never had to slow down, and that's been such a great feeling, knowing that we have supplies to continue to build. But it's it's let me just say it's, there's been times where we've gotten ourselves down to what are we gonna do in 3 or 4 weeks? But those days are past us, and it's it's really feeling great going into 2024. Okay. And, let me see. Many things I wanna get into here. I wanna get into the move. I've got some pictures of it.

Quickly, though, I wanna ask you, does Van do it build a dually. Right? So an extended wheelbase, dually, and then lift it. Have you guys done that? We have. Yep. We have. How's that work now? We have. It's actually worked out really well. We've worked with, Quigley, 4 by 4 on their Q lift platform. Spent a lot of time testing. And so for about 3 years, we've been doing lifts, through a third party vendor. Here locally to us.

We do full suspension, and just in time, we've just continually perfected and tweaked. So what you get in the trail, is also something that we have perfected in a different facet. And it's it's been amazing for our owners driveability, stability. We're doing suspension on the front and rear to where it really our owner's satisfaction and and drive comfort, let's call it, is just through the roof.

It's it's been awesome and As, you know, most of us care about, you know, the looks, the looks of these lifted units are just amazing. Yeah. I, yeah, I would love take a look at that. That's one thing I have not driven that I would love to drive and see how that is, but people ask me about it all the time. So tell us about the move. I'm gonna run-in some pictures. We've got about and a half minutes. So some of this will carry over. But so the move and the Strange connected. Right? They are.

Yes. Yep. We built the first move model concept because of our partnership with Ford and working with them on the first, trail concept, we we had to venture into the cargo And at the time, it was the cargo concept on the all new transit trail. And when we really saw what we had built, and accomplished, we realized it's gotta be a new part of our portfolio, and it became what we call now the move model.

And the move model is built on cargo chassis, which also we can do on an extended length cargo dually. Okay. It just says in the trail. Okay. And so, like, the photos you see there so that is actually a lifted cargo that is not a trail in that photo. Oh, this is not? Okay. That is not. That is a Ford Transit T 350 High roof cargo.

Okay. Built out with our 3rd party vendors here locally to us to get you that increased ride height to be able to get you that ground clearance, and that has full, what we classified as a stage 3 suspension. So it's got Billstein under the front, Fox, under the rear, But that is that is a move model. Okay. But that is not a transit trail chassis. That is strictly just a transit cargo chassis. Okay. Alright. So that just for folks who are watching this, we're we're making that definition.

Have you guys put out any Strange trail versions yet? We have we have 2 currently in production being built. Okay. To the the, like, the photos, the interior of those vans that you see. They're currently being built there on our production line now. We have shipped the move model that's in those photos, just not on the trail itself. So I think we've got, I think we've got 6 or 7 trails currently, going through production. Well, processes of production, I should say.

Mhmm. Okay. Awesome. Lola and I are now official brand ambassadors for Coachmen class b. So I wanted to take a moment to tell you guys why we, as Vanosaurus, like a says on our t shirt, are very excited about our partnership with Coachmen Class B.

First off, Coachmen RVs has been a leader to the great outdoors since 1964. So next is the fact that coachman really cares about you as an owner, whether you bought new or used after you buy your van, they really take care of you. With Coachmen Klosbee, you have all the options. Coachmen builds on all three van platforms. On the Mercedes Sprinter is the Coachmen Galleria. Before transit is a coachman Beyond and Ram Pro Master is a coachman Nova. Lastly, best value for money.

We've had our van for 2 years and coachman bills to the highest standards of quality and craftsmanship. You can't go wrong with a coachman class b. So if you're interested, check out the link in our description and find the coachman van that's best for you. Alright. We are back. So, okay, we were talking about the move. Mhmm. And you're saying you've got, several vans out there, various Strange. Of production of Vanessa Katie, just to get a comment in here.

For folks, if you guys have questions or comments, let me know. Just put them there in the chat and hit those thumbs up. She says I'm gonna purchase a van to travel and camp. It's fun for anyone who's thinking about it, regardless of what you get out there. It's a fun thing. I don't regret doing it. I feel like I'm gonna have a van for the rest of my life even if I don't have another vehicle. If Lola cuts me down to one vehicle, please don't do that anytime soon, Lola.

But if she cuts me down to 1, it's gonna be a van. Hands down. Yeah. It's just too useful. It's just the versatility, man. The 2 wait. There you go. Way too useful. It's all things in 1. Yeah. They're it's just all things. Yeah. So I'm gonna continue looking at the move, and I wanna talk about this. Obviously, there's choices that because I know what is it? You you have, like, before we got to the Strange Trail, in a regular Van Duet build, what is it you like, what is it? Do it?

I'm I'm I'm I'm sure I'm messing it up. We have the do model and the lube model. Yeah, we have model. Mhmm. Yep. And so, so in a live model, you get that kind of standardized queen bed. That does not have to be folded up out of the way. You can always have your bed ready to go. Still gives you the 8 passenger seating. Gives you still the modularity of kitchen, kitchen components, things like that. Gear slide that pulls out the back to put gear storage in your garage underneath your bed.

The biggest key component is a hydraulic bed lift. It gives you the ability of setting your bed at different heights. But when you step in it, it's still that that bed that doesn't go anywhere. It's it's right there fixed so you can easily crawl in after a long race. Whatever the case might be, it's always there. And then you step into, what we called way in the early days. We call it our rep van. So repping product, people who traveled basically live full time.

It was a vehicle that gave you the versatility of having basically an a frame, grid of extrusion to attach things everywhere throughout the vehicle. So really increase that versatility and modularity front to back from the back doors to the back of your driver seat. So, like, bicycle razors, dirt dirt bike, folks, all all that kind of stuff. Yep. Anyone and everyone who needed to haul, do whatever. You could clear it out toward the whole floor was just cargo space if you wanted.

Mhmm. But your beds were Murphy style. So they would fold off the off the wall. And actually, I don't know Yeah. Hold on. Let me let me go full screen on you here. K. Hold on a second. I'm gonna have to change the camera. K. I'll do that real quick. There we go. Boom. Because Jared is in the band, which is awesome. Yep. Yep. So this is a this is a do model.

So this is an EL basically trying to kinda look here, but, so that structure across there, the bed above, that is a platform that can go completely out of the way. And so, so, like, you've got hanging cabinets that can move, And so I'm basically just sitting up here, in the swivel seat in the front. Yeah. But what it is is is it style in and profiling. There there you go, man. I even got my haircut for you, by the way. I I stopped. I had to grab lunch. My wife and kids are gone. I have no home.

I have no food at home. So I'm like a college kid when I'm alone. So I Is that your wife I saw in the chat? I think I saw your wife in there earlier. She probably is. Who knows? Yep. That's her. So, she's checking you out, man. You know, when you get that new haircut, the wife, you always The wife always likes you for about a couple of days until that fades out. Yeah. Well, I'm actually growing hair again. So I went from a big fro. If you ever come tour.

I got a big old picture of me with a pro on the floor. Okay. Nice. A whole another story to that, but, now I'm actually not shaving my head completely. So, I don't know. I might go back to the front. But, but the model that I'm in is the due model. And that gives you that really Swiss army knife approach of literally, you know, so live model is live anywhere. Okay. The do model is do anything. So live anywhere. Do anything. Do anything.

So for the folks who, like myself, right, where you wanna be on the road, but you're also working. You need like an office or something. They would go with the do. I'm assuming. Most most people who want that versatility of Workspace go with a new model. It is a very big structure and a focus of ours on our all new move model. Because the move model really gives you that next, shouldn't say tier, that's wrong, because the the due in the live are bulletproof vehicles that have shown true.

With with tons of miles on them, and longevity, but the move model offers additional storage features I guess maybe that's the best way is is is this features that it offers with an with an upgraded power system and a few other things it gives you those abilities of kind of maximizing you working on the road. That's, I think that's a lot of what pushed That design was, what we launched at the beginning of 2023, which is our commercial department.

And really, again, expanding our portfolio, and giving those people who maybe are a little less on the passenger hauling. Because the move is built on a cargo. Okay. And so you do not have the rear passenger option. That's where our do and live really help assist you. Yeah. I get it. I see now. I okay. So the seat situation is also because I know, you guys tame the airbags and all that kind of stuff. So this is what makes a little bit of a difference here. Right?

Yes. Yep. Yeah. We retain everything. Mhmm. Yep. We when it comes to the do and live models, we start with a passenger unit and we only complement with Ford's done. So all your Ford safety all your passenger safety with curtain airbags, all of that stays intact. Okay. And so all all everything with what we do with the do and the lift stays within all guidelines, and we're still and we're fully backed by Ford, through their QVM program.

And so we have the ability of going to 8 passenger seating in the do and the live models. The move is currently a cargo version. We are working on and we have now produced a couple we It's a funny name, and my whole team who's watching or listening are gonna make fun of me or get mad. But we call the passenger version of the move, the move air the move airbag. And literally it's because we are keeping the airbags in the back of the van.

Hank, they'll also make fun of me too because I've probably said literally about forty times in this. Okay. And I know when I step out of this van, they're gonna meet me at the door and say you gotta stop saying literally so much. But, hey, it's that's part of working at Van. Do it. Yeah. Don't leave because your face will get plastered on the ground. Yeah. I was looking at I was looking at, I think, your Instagram or something. I followed you on your Instagram, by the way.

I don't know if you've won a bunch of followers over there. But, anyway, I followed it, and you said you you said your number one job is to annoy the people you work with, your team. That's me. I was like, oh, that's funny. That's yeah. That would be me too. That would be me too. My team is Mola, but, you know, I mean, I know her. Yeah. Yeah. Well, hey. It's it's, you gotta keep it lighthearted. You gotta fun. Business is serious. Things are serious.

We wanna make sure we do right by our customers. But, hey, at the end of the day, gotta keep a heart of a child. And, man, I I try to live that to my fullest. Yeah. And everyone I've ever met on your team is awesome, by the way. I always enjoy, like, meeting your folks out there. There's a lot of them. I always notice it's someone different, depending on where we are and all that, but they've always been really, really, really cool. So Yeah. Good. You need to come back out.

We need to get you in a van. Absolutely. I would love to I would love to actually, cause I do a series called, like, van swap where we borrow other companies' vans and things like that, or even other people if they if they volunteer them for us to actually go out there and live with that van for some period of time and then report back to folks like, what is it actually like to live in this van and go somewhere and drive it around and all that.

So, let's get back let's get back to the, you know, to the move. I can run-in pictures, or we could just talk about the the vans in general. What's the advantages or disadvantages of this?

So for example, you guys having that extrude extruded aluminum, frame inside, is that making the van stiffer? Is it lighter, heavier? Like, what's the, you know, how does all that support for people who, you know, who haven't seen this before? So so okay. So hit on the the key point of weight and structure. So we we do not use any wood. We do not use any of your typical We do not use any of your typical building products.

We do utilize in the context of marine grade, you know, we use your plastics, your polys, a lot of now what we're using are a lot of, composite panels. So different type of things that say, like, one of our components that we use is it's called ACM. So it's an aluminum composite material it's basically two faces of aluminum with a composite in between. Okay. Well, I'm saying all that to say we use materials that are much thinner and Strange, but they also are much heavier.

Having said that, as we calculate our builds and we use, like, the the aluminum foundation We use the lemon extrusion. Yes. It's heavy. There's there's no I'm not gonna argue with you any, that the materials we use are heavy. But because of how purposeful we are and how and where we use them, then always being very microscopic and cutting weight and things like that where we don't need it.

If you took our build and compared it to your standard, you know, like your standard MDF type board cabinets and things like that. I am going to say that anything that we've ever compared ourselves to actually physically on a scale, we have always come in underway. Mhmm. Because we only put the materials where they need to be, and we only use the thicknesses that we need. So instead of it being a half inch 3 quarter inch plywood. I mean, we're using a plastic panel that's an 8 inch 8 inch thick.

And so that is where Yes. Our outfit, is very industrial grade, strong materials. Which in most cases does correlate to heavier. Not always. We use some aluminum honeycombs, and we use plastic honeycomb to get that thickness. But it drops the weight out. Yeah. But in most context, what we use, it's heavy, it's strong, it's durable, but in the total build out, we come in typically far lighter than most. Yeah. I think I understand that. It's logical to me.

You know, obviously, it's gonna be a it's a more density. It's a metal, right, versus, let's say, a wood. But because of the strength, you don't need as much of it to get that strength or stiffness or whatever you need in the van as you would need if you're using wood. Right? In a lot of places, you're gonna need to use more wood and, and, you know, and just add more to it. So I think that makes sense to me. Obviously, building, if building something you're gonna live in is gonna add weight.

I think there's probably also a benefit, from durability, you know, or its ability to last over time, right, because aluminum is not going to hold mold, for example. Right. Yeah. You you know, especially with like are just our history with the live and do models, utilizing the headliners that Ford Hank. It's all plastic panels. The headliners are a foam foam with basically a fiberglass backing. So our concerns of moisture and mildew and mold are very minimal.

Extremely minimal, in fact, because almost all of our surfaces are cleanable, and, you know, not to be gross or disgusting about it, but, you know, whenever you first get a mattress, your mattress only weighs, you know, so much. But as you sleep on that mattress, you sweat your skin sale, all that. A used mattress gets heavier in time. Oh, yeah. Wood. Wood, composites, all They absorb. They absorb things. They absorb. You you got it. Humidity. All kinds stuff.

And they creature starts to live in there. Yep. Yep. Oh, yeah. You gotta burn those things. Yep. So musty, you know, they get musty. They they swell we don't have those issues with our vans. And so, you know, something what we've done in the new move model, that will kind of fall into our other models in time is an indoor shower. We've always Strange. I've always struggled with water inside a vehicle because of what it does moisture wise.

Not concerned with mold and things like that because of what we do, but it's when you start putting pounds of moisture in the air, you gotta be careful and cautious of what you're doing, because then you have to worry about how much longer it's gonna take to cool it down. It's gonna take, you know, if it's cold outside, what's that moisture do?

And so, we've always stayed realistic, I guess, in in most cases to where you're not gonna put your home in a van and be successful over moo numerous seasons. You know, we're based in Missouri. We truly get all four seasons here. It can get below 0 for a few weeks out of the year, and it gets above a 110 a few weeks out of the year. We have extremely humid times. We have very dry times. And so testing our units right here, we get all four seasons, and that's, you know, We build adventure vans.

We build camper vans. We want people to take them to all climates, and building a vehicle to go to all climates requires focusing on what things like mold and things like that do, and I think we've done a great job of it. Yeah. So you mentioned a shower, and I think one of the questions I get a lot when I when I do videos with you guys is the bathroom. So cassette, obviously, there's a cassette toilet. If you've been looking at the pictures, there's a cassette toilet in there.

You know, some people need a bathroom. I probably fall into that category because I've Hank, Crohn's disease for more than half of my life. Bathrooms really important, like an actual black tank, etcetera. Is that something you guys plan on doing in the future? Is it something you do now? You know, what's your perspective on that? Well, Hank to be very fair with you and tell you straight. We never say no to anything.

But dealing with waste and tanks under vehicles is one reason like, our owners love us because we keep the winterization and we keep the headaches away. And so it's never a no. It is always looking for that next best toilet option that maybe keeps us away from ever having to do a black tank. Currently, we do not do a black Hank, and we do not foresee in the future of doing a black take because of all of the good options out there, for cassette and other type style. So we use dry toilets.

There's there's so many good clean options. But like I said, there's never a no, but with technology, and the ability of of advancement, our hopes would be that there's advancements in ways where we can give you that full time bathroom without the hassle of that winterization, because that's the biggest thing. We try to really keep if you go to our website, one of the key things you'll see is just trying to keep the hassle away from the owner. That's that's such a big I think it's fair.

I think it's fair. And I think, you know, I I have a black Hank, and I figured out how to deal with it. I could deal with it pretty quickly and efficiently, but I have noticed when I go to certain parts of the country, it's really not that easy to even find a place to dump a black tank, especially let's say, like, California, etcetera. And then I know there's disadvantages to it. And I think I would agree with you that there's better and better technology out there.

Once you put that black tank in though, you're gonna lose a lot of modularity. Right? Cause you've got a set thing in a set position. So I understand it. You know, I think that's, that's a a fair answer to that. And the technology is getting better and better all the time. When I go to different shows, I see some really cool things out there. So then they're just expensive, but, yeah, so is a black tag. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. It it's, as, you know, give and take, man.

It's all about the give and take and what, you know, what matters most to you and maybe giving up a little modularity Mhmm. Is going to make sense for you. I mean, that's that's what we try to guide our customers to best. We try to do our best job of not selling, we counsel. We try to do our best job to find out what it is they need and try to match best to that need. We have, we built, handicap accessible vehicles, we've built, vehicles for the same.

Question to you, whether or not you can do handicapped because I know someone, I'm thinking about a particular person. Who likes Van Duet and, you know, he's handicapped. So Yep. He needs to be able to get a wheelchair in there. Okay. Mhmm. Yep. We have we've we've been fully successful with it. Definite learning curve. The, you know, individual that we've worked with on it. His name is Jeremy McGee. He's been amazing to work with. Mhmm. You know, it's you know, being very open about it.

It's you just you just never, you know, we all walk in our own ways of life. Mhmm. And that's probably the biggest thing I love about my job is just doing anything I can to help assist someone else in their walk of life. And, you know, and it could, you know, for Jeremy. It's how do we make everything accessible for him from wheelchair and, a lot of Strange. But it's it's honestly been exciting. I'm not gonna say necessarily fun.

It's it's been exciting to find ways to make him successful to where he can with, you know, with changes in his life, he can still do the things he's always loved to do.

Absolutely. Okay. So we're in the the final part here. We're gonna start wrapping this up relatively, soon here. I've got a question from Joy B. It says, I'm just joining this chat, and I'm not sure what the name of this company is as Van Duet. But are these vans cheaper than base vans, and do they finance the vans, or do you have to already have a van? So I understand she just came in. We touched on this.

A little bit, you know, in the earlier part of this video, but go ahead, Jared, and, cover that again if you don't mind. So, appreciate the question. So we have when it comes to pricing, I'm not sure what you mean by basic van. But we have We have options from pre owned units through used units all the way up to brand new state of the art. We range anywhere from about 55,000, dollars in, a build that you can get your hands on all the way up to.

We now, push a little bit about 240,000 on the high end. We probably actually can push a little bit past that, but, when it comes to financing financial options, we actually have a dealer, selling dealer that's actually tied to us, to where we actually work hand in hand with them to work options with you And so anything that you have, we can take trade ins. So anything you would typically see at a standard car dealership or RV dealership, we take trades. We do anything up to 15 year financing.

We do have other options that potentially can work for you as well. And when I mentioned trades, we take vehicles, other vehicles. We take a lot of RVs, bigger RVs, who want to downsize. We've actually bought quite a few half built DIY builds for both. Oh, really? Because they get they get too far in, and it's our job to help take them out of headache. Yeah. But even recently, we took land in on trade. We took a rental property. This is from the past.

This is not a van dooet thing, but we actually have traded for a horse. So we have been horse Strange before. So Nice. Nice. The way we look at it is we wanna present the most value we can to you So don't be scared to offer something to us and value to make that happen. Oh, cool. That's probably the easiest way to say is like, look, if you got something that you things valuable. I mean, we collect bikes. I mean, I don't know how many bikes we have in one of our barns. We got a lot of bikes.

Really? So, so being a family owned business Mhmm. We just make sense of it. And basically, like I mentioned earlier, Hank, there it's never it's just let us take a look. Yeah. Don't tell me stuff like this, man. I'll come up with all kinds of things, you know. I can find a cow. I live in cow country. Hey, dude. Bringing. Couple cows. Hey, I I I probably sold food to those cows when I work in Georgia. So Oh, okay.

Alright. Very nice I think that was a good question from Joy B because I think you covered some things that we didn't get to that it was good to get to. But what I wanna do here before we get out I really do wanna have a conversation with you about the future since we're, you know, at the end of 2023 here, not just the near future, you know, 24, but what what do you see for the future of van life, class b vans, this thing that we do?

Growth. I mean, I think if I had to use A word, it'd be growth. We mentioned technology. We mentioned everything that's coming with it.

We COVID did an amazing thing which was it it made people realize we have an amazing playground, with you know, the US, the world, but really for for, National Parks, it it's been, such an eye opener that you can still get out, get away from your computer screen, get away from your phones, and actually still enjoy country side, but class bs, look, we all, we run-in a crazy world.

We run with, you know, working probably way too many hours up, up way too early, up way too late, and the class B, economy, I guess you could probably call it, gives that functionality, gives that, it gives that ability to you, Hank, to be able to do this show on the road. Yes class a's other other, type bills do it. Tow behinds do it. But they don't do it in the way like I'll speak for Van Duet. Don't do it in a way that's versatile for you.

Class b is give you that flexibility to not have to take that extra loan out. Be able to replace a vehicle and go mobile with about anything. And for for Van Duet, it's just Looking forward, it's all about continually finding ways. If it's advancements in technology, if it's creativeness, ingenuity, whatever the case might be, it's being able to continually fit more square pigs and round holes.

And trying to find ways to be able to get you, your family, and other people, you know, to to gravitate in this direction and actually see that I, you know, if I'm a person, I can travel and I can do my job on the road. Yeah. And enjoy, and, you know, and it's plus plus plus plus plus plus. It's a very short story. But we have traveling nurses who own our vans. And it's amazing because they buy a van do it, they are traveling or so.

They find the next spot that makes sense for them, and they pick their next spot because when they go from one job to the next, They give themselves about 2 to 3 weeks of travel between the two areas, and they make sure that between the two areas, they have amazing travels along the way. Yeah. And, you know, now they get per diem. So they just park in the hospital parking lot. And people are starting to become so clever. They're starting to be so clever with how you can live in this crazy world.

With everything going on, but still get outside, still be able to enjoy, honestly, the fresh air, you know, enjoy all the things that we say, you know, our granddads, you know, did with us, you know, we did with our with our, what I would call my kids lovey Poppy. You know, be able to get out with them but you can actually still do that in a class B because it offers versatility. With Van Duet, it's a it's a Swiss army knife. You can take it anywhere.

You can do anything, and it's I see the future only growing in the class bs because they are more affordable than your $1,000,000, you know, big class a's. Right. But they also have enough room and space and honestly functionality to them to where you can do all those things I just mentioned. Yeah. And and and you do it and you do it with a level of success. I think it's probably another way to say Yeah. I think, class b or Van Life is here to stay.

I don't think that, you know, it's I think it's gonna grow and Strange, and Hank the vans are gonna adapt as we go forward. They may become hybrids, you know, they may become electric, whatever. That technology has to work itself out. Right? Between the government and then what's practical and what people can afford, that all has to work itself out. But I think they're here to stay.

Like you said, it's just it's just too convenient for way too many people and the technology that exists and all that. I'm doing this right now off of phones. I don't I live out in the country. I live out in the country. People literally this is like, when you drive around where I live, I'm at I live in Florida. When you drive in the country, nor, the Northern North Central part of Florida. When you drive around here, folks have on their trucks, you know, it's beef. It's what's for dinner.

So that's what you see around here. And, the internet's pretty terrible unless I do it off of phones, but here I am doing it. So yeah, I think that's here to stay. Let me just get one quick thing in for Joy B. She wanted to know, and I'm I'm assuming, that it she she wanted to know, like, whether or not you could bring the van. I think if you go back to the beginning of this, we definitely covered that and and and, we'll have answers for you there.

And I think the folks from Van Duet are in there as well. I would definitely recommend you guys reach out to Van Duet. Do you wanna let folks know if they have more questions? They wanna get those answered? How they can do it? Yeah, the, probably, the best way is, you might actually probably get a comment, so I don't botch it. But, probably, a good way would be to email, sales at vanduit.com. Also you can go online.

You can fill out a contact form, and, you know, go through, basically, our standard lead process. That's gonna get you in the hands of a salesperson, a guru. And so, and they'll help answer any questions. If you leave a message, anything like that on Instagram, any of our social media forms, we'll absolutely answer you there and get you in the right hands. Yeah. And check these guys out of the show.

I see them almost at every I Hank, Overlanding Show and there's a bunch of other shows that Van Duet goes to. So I would definitely say check them out there. Before we get out of here, I wanna you know, if I didn't wish you a Merry Christmas merry Christmas to everyone, happy holidays, happy new year to all the folks out there, I think I'm gonna do one more show here, but it's not gonna be a podcast because I need to do the top 5 coolest things that we saw in 2023.

And I think the fastest way for me to get that done is just go live and do it. So you guys can look forward to that. I also wanna thank Jared of Van Duet and all the other folks at the team that helped put this together and make it happen, you know, for I wanna thank you guys for doing that. And I will give you the last words, Jared. Yeah. Well, Hank, I mean, I appreciate you having me on. It's been awesome talking with you.

And, you know, the I would just say, you know, happy holidays to everybody. And as we kind of closed out, I mean, camper vans are a thing to hear to stay. I hope you check us out. You know, we, our whole goal as Van Duet is take care of you. Take care of the customer. Take care of you. Find ways to fit your budget. Find ways to fit, you know, what you're needing. You know, please let us help you find a way to make your dreams come true.

You know, you give us a chance, give us the opportunity, and you never know what's gonna happen. And so, you know, check us out. Follow us, like us, whatever whatever you, you know, you say, but, definitely appreciate, Hank. Appreciate the time, man. Welcome. And, you know, it's been a pleasure. Absolutely. You're welcome. Stay right there, Jared. We're gonna end it. We'll see you guys on the next one. We're out. Peace. Alright.